Posts Tagged ‘online marketing’

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Google Instant and Its Affects on SEO

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Technology is constantly moving forward and many users are searching for a new way to find what they want on the internet faster. Google Instant is designed to show results as you type. Google is pushing the limits of current technology to gain realistic and rational search results for users. One of the main results of Google Instant is the fact that a user, like you, can get the search results at a much faster pace. In some instances, a user does not even have to finish typing in the key phrase or term and press the search button. This concept helps users formulate better search phrases and terms while they are typing.

Google Instant Search, Hotels

With Google Instant becoming more popular, users now have the option to adapt their search while typing until they gain the results that match exactly what they have been seeking. Gaining faster search results can help any user even if they do not know exactly what they are searching for. In the past, users had to keep typing in different search phrases and terms to find exactly what they were looking for. It was a hit and miss adventure. With Google Instant, the search prediction is shown in grey text within the search box, so the user will be able to stop typing as soon as he or she sees what they want. Now everyone is happy and searching has just gotten better.

Should SEO’s Be Worried?

The answer is NO! SEO’s should not be concerned or worried about Google Instant. In fact, this can only help. SEO will continue to evolve and grow as technology changes. This is just another stage in evolution that will help SEO users gain more traffic to their websites. Think about this concept for a moment and realize that this has made searching for everyone a lot less stressful. There is no algorithm change to worry about and it is user friendly with similarities to Facebook Typeahead Search.

As long as users are using search engines to look up information online, content on websites will need to be optimized. Therefore, the use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will always be around. Having well written and developed content will actually benefit a user of SEO for Google Instant. Having good SEOs that adapt to any changes in searcher behavior will only benefit you with Google Instant. Therefore, there is no need to be concerned about the way Google Instant has changed the way users search for information over the internet. Those who adapt will flourish and those who do not will fall behind. Learning more about Google Instant can only help.

Chase and Sanborn Instant Coffee

Probable Impacts

What are the probable impacts that will come into play with this new way of searching? SEOs will continue the way they always have with great content that has been developed with the user in mind. Google may influence traffic as the behavior of searching changes by users. The time it takes to search for information will reduce. As users become more focused on evaluating results as they type, Google Instant may make ranking above the fold more important. Targeted pay-per-click ads will continue to show as they normally do. There will more than likely be more locally targeted ads for a user’s geographical area, and ads will continuously change as users continue their search for what they are looking for. For now, SEOs are moving forward and strong as technology continues to advance and move forward towards the future.

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Affordable SEO Firm: Discovering the Reality Between Quality and Cost

Friday, August 21st, 2009

money-balancing-scales

Here’s an unsurprising news flash: top-shelf online marketing consultation can cost a bundle.

Many small business owners are often startled when they’re looking for an affordable SEO firm and find that services can run into five figures.

Can SEO firms really justify charging $10,000 for a Web site consultation?

Like many things in life, you get what you pay for with online marketing. Sure, you can start a pay-per-click campaign with Google Adwords with just a couple hundred dollars, but you won’t be able to afford many competitive keywords for very long.

You absolutely can hire an SEO consultant for $499 and receive some tips about how to improve your ranking – but will that $499 really improve your business exposure?

As a small business owner, what you’re really looking for is the most bang for your buck – the best return on your advertising investment.

maximum-seo-roi

Your first step is deciding which type of online marketing you wish to do. You can choose to do it yourself, or find a professional online marketer to do the work for you.

SEOmoz did a great article a while back that broke down average cost ranges for a variety of services. A small business owner might be stunned to see a 1-day SEO training seminar run upwards of $12,000.

Meanwhile, even low end website design, development and marketing can cost $5,000, the SEOmoz article says.

So how do you strike the balance? How do you find a mixture of quality online marketing work and something that fits within your budget?

At USASEOPros we offer a number of different sized SEO packages with services starting as low as $125 an hour. Our keyword packages range from large to small, with something to fit every business owner’s budget.

And quality? Well we work hard to put our clients on the first page of organic search results across many search engines, including Google, Bing and Yahoo (which now shares Bing’s search results). As you can see below, we are quite successful.

Affordable and Effective SEO Firm

You can compare the cost of advertising across a number of mediums. But you won’t find the results and the return on your investment like you’ll see with search engine optimization.

I’m reminded of the story about a plumber who charged a customer $500 for simply tightening a bolt. When the customer asked why it was so expensive to simply use a wrench to turn a bolt, the plumber replied the cost was knowing which bolt to turn.

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Finding Education for SEO and Online Marketing

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

degree-and-tassle

The rising cost of higher education coupled with an incredibly competitive job market means knowledge and experience is more important than ever.

But in the internet world – the world of search engine algorithms, trending topics and the blogosphere – things change very, very quickly.

Trying to get an education in online marketing or search engine optimization (at least in the traditional, college or university sense) is nearly pointless. By the time you’ve finished your degree, everything will have changed.

studying-hard

Heck, by the time you finish up a semester, everything you thought you knew about meta-keywords and dynamic link generation can have changed.

The idea for this blog post came from a great article posted back in May 2008. Titled “Top 5 College Majors for Internet Marketers”, author Gyutae Park talks about the lack of university support for internet marketing degrees – largely due to the fast changing nature of the industry.

Park picks five college degrees someone could look into if they’re interested in online marketing, and he’s spot on.

- Computer Science/Programming
- Business/Marketing
- Engineering/Math
- Writing
- Design

That set of degrees is really a highlight of what is needed to do solid SEO and online marketing – but who’s going to get all 5 degrees? SEO needs as much an eye for aesthetics and design as it does for proper canonicalization.

pagerank

I think many SEOs have felt their way through the emerging industry without any sort of formal education (with the exception of Matt Cutts’ videos, and events like SES and SMX).

The landscape may be changing though, as more and more universities are creating courses that target online marketing.

marketing-strategy

For example, Harvard now offers a course called Internet Marketing Strategies (MGMT E-6620) that focuses on “role of internet marketing in the overall marketing strategy of the organization as well as the need for careful integration between strategies executed in cyberspace and in the physical world.”

Similarly, the University of Southern California offers a couple of courses (MKT 425 and MKT 556) which target online marketing specifically.

And in our own backyard, the University of Nevada Las Vegas offers JOUR 333 – Interactive Media Design, and JOUR 450 – Media Technologies and Society. The latter focuses on the evolution of and “impact of computer technology and prospects for the future of mass communication technology”.

So we’re starting to see higher education chasing down emerging technologies and industry, but I think it will always be a catch-up game.

My advice to someone interested in search engine optimization and/or online marketing would be to get a degree in computer science and a minor in marketing. Writing is a must-have skill, and that will need to be picked up along the way, but I would argue it’s easier to learn on the fly than complex Web site programming.

Not all colleges and universities are going to offer all programs, and USC might not have the equivalent of UNLV’s JOUR 450. But you can make up for it with regular visits to industry leading events like the Search Marketing Expo (coming up in October in New York City).

**Update: After writing this post I came across this great list of case studies of social media in the classroom. Although not exactly SEO or online marketing, it’s good to see SM infiltrating education!

By: Zack S.

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Online Marketing: Carving Out Your Corner of the Internet

Monday, July 20th, 2009

chainsaw-wood-carving

The internet is a giant place these days. It hasn’t always been so big, but it is now estimated that there are some 232 million websites in the world.

To be successful at online marketing and business building, you need to spend some time outfitting your corner of the internet. Start by defining the general area or industry you want to be in, and it’s time to get down to detail.

sand-scupting

I’ll use USASEOPros as an example. We’re in the SEO and online marketing industry, and so our general corner of the internet is related to marketing.

But to further define our business, we’ve added a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a StumbleUpon account, a Sphinn account, and many others.

Pictured: The Internet

Pictured: The Internet

Above photo credit: Sebastian Prooth.

We use these tools to participate in our corner of the internet as a whole. While on Sphinn, I try to read any and all articles that other people share that I find interesting. The same is true on Twitter – we pay attention to the people we’re following and what they’re saying.

By the same token, we use our blog and the social media sites to share our own thoughts and ideas about the industry. This is the paying attention to detail part.

A blog is an excellent place to start. We try to use our blog as the main landing place for people stumbling across our company, so when we set up social networking accounts, we use the blog URL.

Your blog lets you give your visitors an idea of what the company is about and your own thoughts on the industry you inhabit. Even though a mission statement is a great way to explicitly state the corporate culture, a blog can feel a lot less formal.

It’s with your social media accounts that you can further flesh out your online presence and add some more detail to your corporate identity online.

We focus a lot on Twitter, Facebook and Sphinn, but it really depends on what you feel comfortable with and what industry you’re in. For example, Kaboodle is a social shopping network where the community makes recommendations. Do with that what you will!

Most importantly, as with any online marketing and social media dabbling, remember you’re representing your company as a whole. In fact, you’re painting your own company portrait out there on the internet! You’re in charge of the brush strokes, so when you’re trying to carve out your corner of the web, think about how you’re representing your company.

painting-a-self-portrait

After all, you don’t want this sort of snafu to become a part of your corner of the internet!

By: Zack S.

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6 Ways Online Marketing is Like Marriage

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Relationship Marketing

Keeping a marriage going, or any long term emotional relationship, can be a major undertaking, full of trial and error. In that sense, a marriage isn’t unlike an online marketing approach.

While you probably don’t do “market research” on your spouse before getting married, you do hopefully spend some time getting to know them and getting a feel for what they’re about.

It’s kind of like testing the waters for a marketing push. After doing some research on the various platforms you’d like to use and the messages you want to send out, you take the plunge (tie the knot).

Taking the Plunge

But there’s plenty more that goes into a marriage that can be likened to your online marketing.

Step 1: Have completely open and fair communication.

Communicate

Just like you would with a spouse, to make an online marketing campaign flourish, you’ll need to not just be broadcasting your point of view (message), but also spend a lot of time listening and responding.

Ask yourself what people are saying about your industry and your company. What are they saying about your competitors?

Always keep your communication with your audience professional, but make it personable too.

You wouldn’t give your husband or wife a textbook answer about how your day went, and you shouldn’t with someone interested in your company.

Remember: communication isn’t a one-way street. Listen more than you preach, and you’ll do just fine.

Step 2: Build trust.

Build Trust

Trust usually starts with step number one – communication. If you say you’ll do something for client or a consumer or your spouse, stick to your word.

Relationships will not work if one party doesn’t trust the other, so handle your marketing with care. Don’t over-promise and under-deliver, or you’ll never see that consumer again.

Trust and communication go hand in hand, so with every message you publish and every response you make, be sure you’re being completely forthcoming.

Step 3: Keep it fresh.

Keep it fresh

Relationships will go stale if efforts aren’t made to inject fresh ideas and activities now and then.

The same is very true for online marketing and SEO. We know content is king, but FRESH content is even more important.

Whether you use just a website, have a blog, or use Twitter and StumbleUpon – keep your content and your online marketing fresh.

That’s wonderful that you wrote a powerful blog post, or posted a funny Tweet that got retweeted multiple times. Just like that trip you took for your honeymoon was a great experience, right?

But you don’t want years and years to pass by before you and your spouse get away together again, and you shouldn’t let weeks and weeks pass by before you freshen up your website, blog or Twitter account.

Step 4: Have patience.

Have patience

Whether you’re married or not, you probably realize that patience is a *must* to make any relationship last.

Inevitably your spouse will do something that will drive you up the wall, but if you have patience, you can bite your tongue and wait for them to stop.

Patience is important with online marketing as well. Search engine optimization experts always caution against expecting results too quickly on the SERPs because these things simply take time.

Unless you opt to pay for your Twitter followers or you’re already famous, it will take some time to build up a following. Have patience, engage the people you follow and who follow you, and the people will come.

Step 5: Acceptance from friends and family.

Acceptance

This might be a stretch, but inbound links to your site/blog are similar to your friends and family accepting your spouse.

Marriages run a lot more smoothly if your spouse has positive relationships with the other people in your life.

By the same token, getting inbound links to your content (message) is a way the community will pass judgment and recommend what you’re saying.

Links to your site are incredibly important for SEO, but they can also give you an idea of what messages you have are being digested by your audience. If list-based blog posts are what tend to get the most recognition, then perhaps that is what you should focus on!

Step 6: Common interests.

Common interests

Blah blah blah…opposites attract, right? Well I don’t think you’ll find a couple that has been married for 50 years that doesn’t have some similar interests.

There *must* be something that you mutually agree on and enjoy doing for the relationship to go any further.

For an online marketing campaign, that simply means framing your messages so that your intended audience will be receptive.

If you’re in the flower business, don’t tweet a link about how to get 1000s of followers every week and expect to boost business.

In a client/business relationship, the mutual interest should be getting your client the exposure/links/media mentions/business they’re paying you for.

Relationships, like online marketing, can be a fickle thing. One moment everything is perfect, and the next you forgot the oranges and have an upset spouse on your hands.

The same is true for online marketing. One day you’re riding high on the first page of Google for your targeted keywords, and the next Google changes their algorithms and how they calculate page rank.

Just remember to have patience, and continue to keep it fresh!

By: Zack S.

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Things NOT To Do on Twitter: Or Why I Won’t Follow You Back

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Let me preface by saying I don’t think my Twitter account is better than yours. There are some powerful, influential individuals on the micro blogging site who share a lot of great information, and there are some small-scale individuals who tweet some great stuff too.

Over at @realusaseopros, we try to share information about online marketing, SEO, public relations, advertising etc that we find interesting and hope our followers will as well.

Sure, we tweet when we post a new blog, or if there’s a press release done about us – what company doesn’t?

But there’s a line to be drawn with the way some people use Twitter. Step over the line and you risk losing Twitter followers.

We’re thankful for each and every single person/company/bot that chooses to follow us. Every follower is a chance for us to communicate, share ideas and potentially learn from that person.

There are a few caveats though, and they go as follows:

1) I won’t follow you back if you have a terribly written or non-existent biography on your Twitter profile. If you can’t spell “internet”, you’re not going to get my attention.

Similarly, if you don’t have anything written in your bio, I won’t follow you. Trying to guess what you do from a profile picture will get me nowhere and it’s simply not a good branding practice.

Even if you’re simply an at-home marketer trying to make a dollar, write as much. You don’t have to be Guy Kawasaki to be interesting. I look at every single person who starts following the @realusaseopros account. I hover over everyone’s name a read their bio description before deciding (quickly) whether they merit a further look.

2) Along the same line – if you don’t have a profile picture and are simply using the default image, I won’t follow you.

It doesn’t take much to put up an image of you/your company logo/a block of cheese onto Twitter, so do it! It makes you and your Twitter account at least appear more legitimate and legitimacy is what it’s all about!

3) If after I visit your actual profile page I see that you have 3,972 following and 3,899 followers, but only four updates, I’m not going to follow you.

Sorry if that seems harsh, but unless you’re a celebrity or politician, that many followers/following screams spam. I know you can buy entire chunks of people to follow who will auto-follow back, and I’m not interested in helping you pump up your numbers.

If you have interesting things in your Twitter stream, then great! But I’m guessing those four measly updates weren’t so earth-shaking to merit almost 4,000 followers.

4) If you are following me, but what you tweet about isn’t at all related to marketing, SEO, advertising, public relations, branding…then I won’t follow you. It’s nothing personal - I may even like your band’s music! - but we try to keep this account a business one.

5) This last one I’ve written about before, but it fits this article too: having only self-promotion in your Twitter stream.

Maybe you’ve got a great bio description and a good picture, but if when I arrive at your page and every single tweet you have is about your own content, I’m probably not going to follow you.

Of course that’s not the case if you’re CNN, Mashable and others who are centers of information for many of the rest of us. But if you’re a home marketer and you only ever tweet about your own “miracle panacea for online link building”, I won’t follow you back.

Share information that you find interesting across the internet. Let me know how watching your neighbor mowing the lawn gave you an idea about how to market yourself online. It’s your account, and they’re your messages, but if you want to retain audience attention, make it interesting!

We try to use Twitter as a tool to listen, communicate and participate in a large, open community. There are a lot of users on Twitter, and although growth has slowed somewhat on the site, that means there are an ever-growing number of voices to listen to. We appreciate everyone who takes the time to follow our stream and listen to what we have to say. But users who trend to the above list will probably not get our follow.

That being said, we’re always interested in learning from new and interesting people – you!

By: Zack S.

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The Future of Public Relations and Marketing

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Last week we came across an interesting article on Web 2.0 Journal calling for the end of PR.

The argument was that some 70 percent of current PR firms won’t survive the future “avalanche” of social media.

Furthermore, according to the article’s author Fuat Kircaali, 90 percent of today’s firms are only in business because of SEC rules that dictate publicly traded companies must communicate by press release.

I disagree with this theory.

While the future of the public relations landscape may not look like it currently does now, I don’t think PR is at risk of extinction.

So what will the future of public relations and marketing look like?

Big PR firms will maybe shrink in number a bit – call it consolidation. Major accounts like Nike, Microsoft and Apple aren’t going anywhere, but I suspect smaller companies will start looking internally for their PR efforts.

In-house writers and bloggers will work to create engaging content and media across a variety of online sites. Most companies already have a blog, but the rising influence of social media will probably place a greater emphasis on maintaining and updating the blog.

Companies will be looking to send prospective clients and customers to their Website via sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, and a blog can make for an informative and engaging landing site.

In-house “PR” isn’t of course limited to the written word. Videos can be created and uploaded to sites like YouTube and Vimeo. Images can be posted on sites like Flickr. These aren’t sites to be used for spamming, but for sharing of real content that will interest viewers.

Of course this will place a premium on creativity – something usually outsourced to a large PR firm – but having someone with a digital art and communications degree on salary can give smaller companies a more cost-effective option.

Social media accounts have boomed in recent years, led in a large part by LiveJournal and MySpace. Sites like Facebook, Digg and Twitter have followed, along with innumerous others. Some, like Facebook have grown to far surpass LiveJournal and MySpace.

While it’s important for companies to have these online profiles and identities and to keep them active, it makes little fiscal sense to have social media sent to a PR firm. Your company’s Twitter profile can and SHOULD be managed by someone, or multiple someones, within the company itself.

Keeping your image online personable and “real” is what really counts on these social media sites. Consumers can see right through blatant brand marketing most of the time, so you should approach a site like Twitter with the idea that it’s a place to communicate and share with the community at large.

The future of public relations and marketing also lies in online branding and reputation management.

Any Joe Plumber with a blog and a bit of spare time can pick apart your business if they choose to. Knowing how to monitor online buzz and how to respond is already a valuable part of PR.

But is this something that must be sent to a big firm?

Again, I don’t think so. Sites like Splitweet already exist to help the in-house public relations specialist to monitor what’s going on and being said about the company and industry. Techrigy is another great option for monitoring online buzz.

With so many available sites to create profiles, share content and participate in the community, there are equal numbers of places to brand your company, build your image and increase word of mouth advertising.

The future of public relations and marketing will also include HTML5.0 applications like the forthcoming Google Wave.

While we won’t know the full potential of such applications until they go live, as you can see from the video, the potential for a media-rich online collaborative public relations campaign is there.

So while we may see some of the bigger public relations firms consolidate over the course of the next 5-10 years, I don’t believe PR will go extinct. Press releases are only one of many tools when it comes to properly managing public relations.

We’re simply seeing the evolution of the industry.

By: Zack S.

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Twitter and Spam: How to Lose Tweeps and Ostracize Yourself

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

solo-light-fixture

Just how powerful has Twitter become?

Well, for a week or two in April, even the front page of CNN.com kept updated headlines about the race to 1 million followers. Ashton Kutcher won the race, and now has a site-leading 2 million+ followers.

But when does communication become shouting? When does sharing your thoughts become stifling the communication of others?

Basically – when does Twittering stop being a free flow of communication and start being spam?

The idea for this blog was driven this home over the Memorial Day weekend. USASEOPros has our business Twitter account, but some of us in the office also use it personally.

Living in Las Vegas and being in the SEO and online marketing industry, I follow a number of people in the same local industry.

It helps me keep an eye on what others are doing and saying. I also occasionally bounce marketing ideas off other minds.

Twitter is a great tool for exactly this: communicating.

In the office, USASEOPros uses Twitter to talk about interesting industry related blogs, articles and ideas. Sure, we will tweet about our own blogs, but the re-tweets and sharing of other authors’ stuff definitely outweighs our own self-promotion.

This weekend however, I had one person I was following that seemed to be on auto-pilot. There was a steady flow of tweets, each about an individual blog post that they had written.

It wasn’t exactly every 5 minutes – but it was close to it. I’m not sure if this user was using an auto-bot or not, but if they weren’t, they’re very dedicated to steady tweeting!

That isn’t the right way to use Twitter. When you’re tweeting that frequently, and all you’re “saying” is promoting your own content and your own services, people will stop listening.

Okay, maybe Guy Kawasaki can get away with it. But I don’t follow him. I no longer follow the user from Memorial Day weekend.

Businesses will probably continue to use Twitter as a soapbox, but unless they also share ideas and insights into the industry, special offers for their Twitter followers or provide USEFUL information, people will stop listening.

So if you’re using an auto-bot, STOP! Twitter should be used by someone in your company who knows the ins and outs of the business and can actively engage and converse with the community.

Don’t use an automated system to find followers and don’t simply auto-follow everyone who adds you. If you’re a business, then follow people in your industry. If someone interesting follows you, by all means return the favor.

But Twitter isn’t simply about numbers. Being at the top of the heap for followers doesn’t mean you are engaging in worthwhile conversations or converting web traffic to your site. Use Twitter as an individual that represents your company, and you’ll see real results.

So how to start…

First and foremost: learn how to use the @ function. You can use this function to communicate directly to one person on Twitter, and you can monitor who is trying to communicate with you.

There are also a number of great programs and websites that will help you use Twitter. Tweetdeck is perfect for managing your friends and followers from Facebook and Twitter.

Splitweet is great managing multiple Twitter accounts and for brand management. You can very easily see who is talking about you and respond quickly to questions or complaints.

Above all, remember that you are part of a community on Twitter. If you want people to listen to what you have to say, or visit your blog, give them something worth their time.

Don’t preach from the pulpit, but engage in conversations and discussions down on the street. You’ll find Twitter to be a much useful tool for online marketing and public relations if you take this approach!

By: Zack S.

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The 8 Sites You Must Target for Online Marketing Success

Monday, May 18th, 2009

It’s hard to argue with raw numbers. We spent some time scouring Alexa for Web site statistics, and have come up with a ranking of sorts for social media sites.

Everyone knows that Twitter is the big up and comer. If your business isn’t already utilizing this powerful real-time site, you need to be!

twitter-fail-whale

But did you know that as a business, you should focus more on Twitter than you should on Digg? Or that Buzznet is likely your best bet for promoting your band? How about that more German internet users use Twitter than Indian users, but India trumps Germany on StumbleUpon?

So without further ado, and it absolute order, here are the 8 sites you MUST target for online marketing success.

1. YouTube.

youtube_logo

We’ve all visited the site. There are well over 100 million videos on the site – perhaps closer to 200 million. The top videos on the site have attracted over 100 million views.

While it’s a safe assumption that your latest marketing video about the incredible health effects of acai berries won’t reach that number, if you’re creative with it, you very well may go viral.

YouTube pulls in some 18.06 percent of global internet users. That’s behind only Google and Yahoo, according to Alexa. YouTube also has 489,059 sites linking into it. Thanks to the embed feature found on most YouTube videos, that will only grow.

So what can you do to target your audience on YouTube?

Well the most obvious place to start is to join as a member and create a user name – ideally your business name. Make some constructive comments on other videos that interest you, and that have to do with your industry.

As much as you enjoy the latest Mariah Carey music video, your business account shouldn’t be used for simply saying “That’s awesome!”

Your next step is to upload some content of your own. If your business is the sales, installation and maintenance of pools, then adding some video of an actual installation might generate some interest in the niche community.

Or how about creating a video with you sharing your professional insights and tips for pool maintenance and chemicals? Sure, you’re giving away some free advice – but you’re also establishing yourself as a trusted authority on the subject.

Google is also very fond of YouTube videos, and they will rank very well if you take some time and consideration before you name and describe your videos. A title of “Personal Pool Maintenance Tips and Tricks” would probably rank very well on the search engines.

2. Twitter.

twitter-logo

It seems we can’t go anywhere these days without hearing about Twitter. Celebrities are talking about it. Talk shows are talking about it. Even the White House is on Twitter!

But how can you make it work for your business?

Again – the first step is to get on there! If you aren’t already, you better hope your business name isn’t already taken. In fact, it wouldn’t hurt to head over to NameChk and see what sites still have your business name available. Then get to signing up!

Twitter will work best if you pair it with a blog (see #3 on this list). That way you can write content on the blog and share it on Twitter.

Assuming you can provide some engaging content, others will re-tweet your information, and your name and blog can be spread around the community.

I would also suggest using Twitter to form some relationships with others in your industry or related industries. Look for people who may have similar business interests.

Maybe someone who offers pool cleaning services would serve as a solid “tweep” on Twitter. You can share with your followers their latest sales offer, and they can recommend you to people who are looking to invest in a pool.

Twitter also serves as a great way to monitor what people are saying about your company and industry. While you probably won’t see exposure and discussion on the same level as you will about Southwest Airlines, you might run across a tweet or two about the cost estimates on a new pool or what the best chemical brands are to use.

There’s your chance to jump into the discussion and offer people some professional, valuable insight!

3. Blogger.

blogger_logo

You can actually use any blogging service site like WordPress, or have one built into your home page, but we chose Blogger due to its rank and global exposure.

Blogger pulls in 8.29 percent of global internet users and has over 430,000 sites linking to it. Compare that to WordPress at 4.76 percent and 135,535 sites linking in. Either one will serve its purpose, but more internet users are familiar with Blogger than WordPress.

A blog is your company’s chance to engage in discussion with your audience. It serves as an excellent way to reach out to your potential customers and provide them with news, information, offers and upcoming events.

When USASEOPros wanted to have an online sale, we first announced it on our SEO blog and then our Twitter account.

A lot of companies use a blog as a means for the CEO to communicate with the community. A blog gives the company a more personal feel to it, and makes it seem friendlier.

Not everyone wants to do business with “Joe’s Pools”, but if they can see a picture of Joe and read his thoughts and insights into the industry, they may find him and his company more approachable.

Any time you are writing online, I would suggest keeping in mind some simple search engine optimization techniques. You are of course writing for your audience, but don’t forget that search engines will find your blog too.

Use some key words that pertain to your industry and that will rank well on search engines like Google. Maybe title one of your blog entries like “Insight and Hints for Maintaining your Pool from Joe’s Pools”.

If people comment on your blog posts, respond to them! You can gain some great feedback from blog comments, and if you are able to answer their questions, you may just earn yourself another client!

4. Wikipedia.

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This one is a little tough. Wikipedia cracks down on promoting for promotion’s sake. You can’t simply add an entry about Joe’s Pools and say how great it is and expect the entry to last.

But if you can offer up a valid, informative Wikipedia.org entry, it very well may last. You can use the entry to link to your website, your blog, and include industry information.

Best of all, Wikipedia.org ranks very well on sites like Google and Yahoo. A Wikipedia entry about your company could quickly come to dominate the search results for key words in your industry.

If you’re successful, you’ll enjoy the fact that visitors come to Wikipedia a whopping 14.57 percent from Google. This means that nearly 15 percent of people first do a search on Google, and then head to Wikipedia to learn more.

Wouldn’t it be nice if they were heading to YOUR Wiki entry to learn more about YOUR company?

5. LinkedIn.

linkedin_logo

This is a networking site of over 25 million users who are billed as experienced professionals. Over 150 industries are represented, and users are connected through jobs, education, and friendships.

The site is an excellent place to find a professional in your industry, in your neighborhood. As a business owner, you can connect to colleagues, clients and partners. With a profile, you’re also increasing you business exposure and visibility in a professional networking environment.

LinkedIn can also help you target direct sales for your company.

While LinkedIn may not be the greatest solution for our fictitious “Joe’s Pools”, it might work wonders for an office supply company or a human resources company.

If you would like to learn more about the incredible power of LinkedIn, here’s a great article about effective LinkedIn marketing. It’s a little old (2007), but much of the information is still relevant.

6. Digg.

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Digg is a social news site that is essentially a central hub of information. Users can “digg” information they deem interesting, and the most “dugg” articles will find their way to the top of the site.

Start by creating a user profile with your company, and then get to reading and posting. We have an article about this called Spinning, Digging, Stumbling and Beyond: Profit for Free Online if you would like some more thoughts on this topic.

Digg has become one of the go-to sites for the latest and greatest internet news, photos, videos and articles. Users link the original content to Digg’s site, and then you can start digging from there.

Again, this is a site that will really benefit if you are able to offer your own content. Publish your videos on YouTube and then put them on Digg. Write a blog post, and then head over to Digg.

Users head to Digg as a news/entertainment aggregate – make sure they’re finding your company there!

The United States and India are the two biggest users of Digg. Over 43 percent of Digg’s traffic comes from the U.S., while India contributes over 13 percent. It’s important to keep in mind your potential target audience with each of these sites as not every site it big in every country.

If you happen to own a company that does exporting to India – or you’ve been considering making a move overseas, Digg might be one of your best bets for attracting interest there. Our number 8, StumbleUpon, gets 16 percent of its traffic from the country too, while Indian users make up over 14 percent on LinkedIn.

7. Facebook.

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With the raging popularity of Facebook these days, you might be a little surprised to see this one so far down the list.

It’s not because of Facebook’s lack of reach. Nearly 17 percent of global internet users visit Facebook, and the average time on the site tops out over 25 minutes a day.

But Facebook is not LinkedIn. It CAN serve as a professional profile, but the largest portion of users fall within the 18-24 age range.

Jello shots and keg stands may make for a fun picture, but they probably won’t help you sell your office supplies.

Creating a fan page can work for Coca Cola, but will it work for “Joe’s Pools”? Probably not.

That being said, it is probably a good idea for Joe to have a profile page, complete with information about his company, what he offers and how to get in touch with Joe for a beautiful new pool.

Facebook is a wonderful resource for targeting specific age groups, but it’s more valuable to small businesses as an advertising site than a networking site.

The site can be a gold mine for companies that offer consumable products (think Red Bull, the Whopper, and the aforementioned Coca Cola), but unless you’re hawking the hottest new energy drink or a brand new line of clothing, you’re probably better off focusing most of your social network efforts elsewhere.

8. StumbleUpon.

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StumbleUpon is another social news site, similar to Digg, which works as an internet aggregate. It pulls in content that is “stumbled” by its users, and promotes the content on its site.

Although smaller in size than Digg, StumbleUpon still has a very respectable 118,000 sites linking into it.

Again, you’re going to want to create a user profile with your company name and then use the site to become part of the community: comment and “stumble” interesting blogs and articles while sharing your own content.

There are a number of other sites similar to StumbleUpon and Digg. Mixx is one that seems to be growing in numbers, but it’s still much smaller than these two.

It’s better to focus your efforts on a few of these sites instead of trying to spread your efforts and energy thin. You’ll get a much better response if you can spend some real time on StumbleUpon and Digg than if you scatter your content about.

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So there you have it. Our 8 sites you must target for online marketing success.

You’ll notice that many of these sites work well together. That’s the idea. You should have a network of sites that promote your business and build an online identity of your company.

There are some interesting statistics that link many of these sites together as well.

For YouTube, Facebook was the third most popular upstream link and the second most popular downstream link.

Over 9 percent of LinkedIn visitors came to the site after first visiting Facebook. Twitter is the fifth most visited site after visitors stop by Digg – they’re probably heading off to tweet about an article they found!

Through it all, Google reigns supreme though. Amongst all 8 sites, every single number one upstream AND downstream site was Google.

That means that users are first searching for content on Google, finding a profile or content on one of these 8 sites, and then heading there.

It also means that after reading or watching the content on those 8 sites, Internet users are heading back to Google to learn more. Clearly you want to get your business name on the top of Google!

With our sites, we started from the top, and worked our way on down. First and foremost is the content. From YouTube videos to Tweeting to a blog, you MUST give your audience something to digest.

You cannot promote your company on sites like Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Digg, Facebook and StumbleUpon with giving them something to talk about.

Bonnie Rait had it right all along apparently.

By: Zack S.

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Posted in Blog Posts | 4 Comments »

Having a Website without SEO is Like…

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

…owning a brand new car but not having any tires. It might look great, but you aren’t going to go anywhere.

Search engine optimization leapt out of obscurity several years ago and it has raced to the forefront on the online marketing industry. Acronyms like PPC, PPA, and SEO are tossed around like rice at a wedding, but what does it all mean to the average business owner and their website?

Well what good is having a Web site if no one is seeing it? Just putting your business name on a Web site is no longer good enough to generate the kind of traffic you need to be successful.

You need to focus some attention on various online advertising methods, and this means acronyms: SEO, PPA and PPC.

In case you aren’t already aware of what they stand for, those are “search engine optimization”, “pay per action” and “pay per click”. Each represents a different approach to online marketing, although PPA and PPC are quite similar.

Any great marketing campaign should include a number of facets, and I’m certainly not discrediting PPA and PPC. You can run into problems with any type of advertising though, as you can read about cases of PPC fraud here if you’d like.

With that said, I turn my attention to SEO. Why? Well USA SEO Pros is a professional search engine optimization company, based in Las Vegas. I use SEO techniques on almost a daily basis, from my own personal blog at home to my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts. It’s remarkable how some choice key words and geographical targeting can boost my Twitter followers! Don’t believe me? Check out my Gmail trash. I’ve blurred out my information since it is my personal email, but every time I make an SEO post, I get another 5 or so followers…

So business owners, how can you make this work for you? Well, you can make a concerted effort to learn everything there is to know about search engine optimization. It takes a fair amount of time, and because the rules are constantly changing, it means you really have to keep up on it.

You can also opt to have your “web guy” do it. But I think you’ll quickly find that’s not the best result. Collyn Floyd has some choice words for that on the blog post titled 9 Common SEO Myths.

That leaves hiring a professional SEO company. Any form of advertising should be viewed as an investment in your business. Just imagine what a huge increase in traffic to your site can yield…more visitors…more sales!

Proper search engine optimization goes far beyond just a keyword or two on your site. You need to provide your visitors with quality content that engages the reader. Ideally you should maintain a blog and keep rotating content through your site throughout the year. Static sites are a thing of the past. Google, Yahoo and MSN respond much more favorably to Web sites that offer visitors a forum to discuss topics or a blog to respond to.

Research should be done into the right key words to be used on a site. For every industry, certain key words rank differently on various search engines. Some key words are exceedingly difficult to rank well due to the sheer number of sites that use it. Go to Google.com and type in “free money”. Last I checked there were 189 million sites listed.

The point is that you shouldn’t approach online marketing with a half-hearted effort. Consider how you would like your business to succeed and the web traffic you’ll need to get there. You wouldn’t try to drive without wheels on your car. Please don’t try to run a website without giving consideration to solid SEO techniques!

By: Zack S.

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Posted in Blog Posts | 2 Comments »

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