If you are the kind of person who looks up for places on Google just to check if it is going to be busy, Google will now update ‘Popular Times’ to reveal how busy a place is in real time. This will help users to decide when they want to go, and also to check if that particular time when they are searching is good enough to visit that place. #GoogleUpdate #SEO
Landing pages are very important tools in marketing your products or services or calling your prospects to take action. In fact, most landing pages ask a visitor to take some kind of action. It could be subscribing to a newsletter, reading a message, sharing a link or even going ahead and making a purchase. Landing pages gained popularity simply because they are akin to main websites but have a specific function – call to action. Thus, the importance of landing pages is only growing across the world. With their increasing importance, there also comes the need to design them in a better and more accessible manner. This involves building landing pages according to the changing needs of SEO. As we all know, SEO is something that continuously changes over a period of time. In this article, let us take a look at how you can optimize your landing pages for better SEO and ultimately, get more people to respond to your call to action. 1. Focus on your URL When it comes to landing pages, we often think it is not important to focus on the URL. The idea is, the URL of a landing page is unimportant because one just has to link it from an external website where no one will actually see the actual URL. They would either click on a banner, an image or some sort of textual matter. However, it is very important to have a unique URL for your landing page. It is important to have a custom tail end, which is not only descriptive but also specific. Of course, you need not be stuffing your landing page’s URL with keywords though it helps to keep it descriptive. If it is a Twitter campaign, you could have a /twitter-campaign as your custom tail end. If you have a number of such landing pages, it makes sense to organize all your landing pages with custom URLs so that you can identify your landing pages in a clearer way. It is important to install Google Analytics script on every landing page so that you can measure and track your progress as it happens. A number of people overlook the importance of custom URLs in landing pages but now it is quite clear that they are important. 2. Maintain brand uniformity There are a number of companies, which fail to realize the importance of brand uniformity. They have landing pages designed by someone else in a completely different manner because they fancied a new design. They are making a fatal error. A landing page is a subsidiary of the main page, even if it is able to stand on its own. Thus, you need to ensure that your landing page has the same design, color scheme, font and format as your main page or any other online property. In fact, you can use your landing page to get people to visit your main website. When your website looks completely different from your landing page, the visitor might find it jarring. Even psychologically, it creates a sense of disconnect, which you don’t want to let happen. A landing page needs to, thus, have your core message and core branding factors inscribed into it. Always ensure that you keep your landing page’s design in sync with your regular branding. This helps to keep your landing pages, your website, your blogs and just about anything else in a cohesive fashion, tying everything to the company you are eventually trying to promote. 3. Focus on your content Your copy need not be verbose and professorial. Nobody has the time to read through a lot of statistics and figures when they visit your landing page. Your landing page’s copy is either persuasive or it is not. If it is not, people will simply not spend more time on your landing page, leave alone responding to your call to action. The trick is to write copy that is simple, minimalist and effective. It need not be concise and you need to hire experienced copywriters in order to achieve the intended result. You need not ever stuff your content with keywords and you need not use complex jargons. In fact, we can say that your landing page copy need to be similar to your web copy, albeit much more minimalist and simpler. Do not copy and paste all your landing page content from some other page of yours. This will affect not only your visitor’s perception but also a search engine’s idea of how unique your website is. Write copy in a persuasive way, which answers the questions you probably had asked when a prospect had clicked on the link. Ensure that your landing page answers the questions for which the prospects arrived on the page to begin with. 4. Keep the design minimalist While it is true that your landing page needs to look similar to your main website, it need not also have the same amount of images, texts and other content, which might distract the visitor from the main purpose – call to action. It is very important to keep the landing page plain and simple. This helps to keep the attention of visitors focused. Your landing page need not end up becoming a platform for you to brag, boast or promote aspects of your company that is not related with the actual purpose of the landing page. The design needs to be similar to the main website but it needs to be a stripped down version of it. Also, make sure that you do not ask too many questions to the prospect. Just asking them to fill out their first name, last name and email address would be sufficient. If you ask for too many pieces of information, they will simply close the page and move on to the next website. It is very important to not distract the visitor and ensure that they respond to your call to action. For this, you will need to keep the design as minimalistic and simplistic
Companies which previously invested a lot of money in Search Engine Optimization have come to realize the importance of content marketing as an additional tool. This is because of the recent updates made to Google’s algorithms and the fact that content has become important not only for SEO but also for increasing conversion rates. With that in mind, a number of SEO professionals have begun to feel that if one is to desire increasing conversion rates, they would also have to focus on content marketing. Other than content marketing, there are a number of other ways with which one can increase conversion rates. This starts with fixing the website, making it load faster and also ensuring there are no error pages or confusing content that could leave your visitors distracted. In this article, we need to take a look at some of the ways in which SEO can be used to optimize conversion rates. Fix the website One of the most important functions of Search Engine Optimization is to fix websites. While you might believe this is the job of a web developer, SEO works in a different way. It helps a website to be found by search engine bots and convey information about the website to them. This helps search engines to index the websites correctly and help people to find your website when they enter search queries in Google, Yahoo! and Bing. If you wish to increase conversions, ensure that there are no broken links, 404 error pages, missing tags, missing meta data and other issues, which websites, usually, experience. When all these problems are fixed, a website naturally starts to get indexed more often and this results in more footfalls. That is very important to optimize conversion rates. Build better content Search engine optimization is all about building better content. Google made it clear that websites that have better content will be given priority over those with inferior level of content. This means, websites need to pay attention to grammar, semantics, meaning, context and profoundness of content. Writing great content is not just a matter of marketing but also search engine optimization. Invariably, great content impresses prospects and leads when they visit your website. This helps directly in boosting conversion rates. Well-written content not only helps improve your SEO but it will also fetch targeted traffic, which has a higher chance of converting. Use search engine marketing techniques SEO is not just about fixing broken links or concentrating on which keyword we need to focus on. It also involves marketing techniques that utilize PPC ads, CPC, CPL and other forms of online advertisements. These advertisements are crucial in bringing back important traffic. This traffic has the potential to convert and help you achieve sales. It is important to focus on online marketing from an SEO perspective because a lot of people still find websites with the help of banner ads and text ads that are powered by Google, Yahoo! and other search engines. This tendency is not going to change very soon. Investing money in Search Engine Marketing is a very good idea as that will help to convert more leads. Build your authority with backlinks Search engine optimization is not complete without mentioning backlinks. Backlinks help you to prove not only to search engines that you are important but also to regular visitors. If people find that an authoritative website has linked to you and if they come from that source, they are more likely to believe in your products and services because you were listed on that website. Backlinks need to be generated organically and using unethical means will never help you in any way. This brings the focus back to good content, PR skills, marketing and having a reliable product inventory. This will help you to achieve the kind of authority you deserve and the kind of authority that will help you to increase your conversion rates. Final thoughts It is important to integrate SEO with conversion increment plans because ultimately, both are inter-connected and they aid one another with SEO, usually, helping to increase conversions than the other way around. SEO is a great tool that will not only help you to have a good online presence and be found by search engines but is also an important tool in increasing conversions.
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as we all know it, is not the same anymore. It is continuously evolving and is becoming more entwined with content marketing, design and public relations. With that in mind, do you really want to hire just about anyone who calls himself or herself an SEO professional? You will need to give this issue a thought before jumping into making decisions. If an SEO professional does not understand the way mobile and content systems have taken over the Internet, you probably need not be dealing with that person anyway. There are several parameters you need to consider before hiring an SEO agency or professional. With so many of them around, making the right choice can become somewhat difficult. In this article, let us take a look at what is required of an SEO agency or professional and we shall also take a look at which kinds of SEO agencies you need to avoid & which questions you need to ask before hiring them. After all, if you know and understand the murky waters you are wading through, you will be able to reach the other side of the shore much more easily. 1. Do they follow outdated SEO practices? There are many outdated SEO practices, which simply do not have a place in today’s world. Two of them are purchasing backlinks and talking a lot about SEO copywriting. Backlinks, as a matter of fact, need not be purchased. You need to get those links from various websites because of your amazing content, services and products. Unless your SEO agency helps you to understand this, they probably do not know it themselves. A few years ago, it was perfectly OK to purchase backlinks in order to deceive search engines into thinking that a particular website is probably more worthy than it is supposed to be. Thankfully, Google has put an end to all that and has continued to launch new updates in order to weed out such malpractices. Another question you need to ask yourself is whether the SEO agency or professional is speaking a lot about SEO copywriting. What this basically means is they are discussing keyword stuffing, writing content specifically for search engines and trying to play hide & seek with search engine algorithms. You really need not be experimenting with SEO agencies and professionals who discuss these things. Instead, look for an agency that helps you to achieve your goals with the help of organically driven campaigns that will take you back to the basics of marketing and advertising. 2. Are they promising too much? A number of SEO agencies and professionals are known to use their bravado to attract clients. A lot of clients fall for this kind of charm and end up in situations they wish they were not in. One of such situations is falling for promises and fast results. SEO is not something that can turn your low traffic website into a multi-million visitor drawing website overnight. It takes a lot of time and effort to see improvements & expectations need to be realistic. If the SEO agency promises you something that makes you feel really good, stop for a minute and think. Just the fact that you are feeling really good shows that it might be something unrealistic that is being sold to you. Carefully analyze your own situation and how much success you expect from an SEO contract. Chances are, you already know what you can expect and have realistic goals. Any SEO agency worth its salt will tell you that you need to be realistic in order to actually achieve success. SEO would certainly help you to make your mark online and it is important to change the way you market yourself online as the Internet evolves. However, falling for big promises and bravado will only land you into trouble. 3. Do they have references or are they very new? Another question you need to ask yourself is how long they have been around in the business. There are some SEO professionals who are still looking for their first client. You probably wouldn’t want to be their first client and endure all the experiments they will subject you to in the name of building your SEO ranking. Try and choose an agency that has been around for a while and that which has a list of clients. When you see that list, make sure that you seek permission to speak to those clients or references. References are a great source of information not because of what they say about your SEO agency or professional but also because who they really are. A lot of time, we can use the quality of the references themselves in order to judge the vendor. This requires a little expertise in the form of assessing business needs, why the references say what they really say and also to assess if the references provided are legitimate enough. When you are armed with this kind of information, you will find it easier to choose an SEO agency that will help you to achieve success. 4. Do they speak as if things are very easy? When you interview an SEO agency or professional, you might feel that they offer very easy solutions. They might behave as if success is very easy and it is guaranteed. They might also provide you with packages, which actually is doublespeak for “one size fits all”. You need to be wary of these professionals. They might lack the enthusiasm and creativity to take on complex challenges & might offer packages that will eventually land in trouble. Each client is unique and comes with a different set of requirements. We need to remember that SEO is no longer just about fixing metatags and working around keywords but it is a completely different ball game. We need to remember that SEO entails content marketing, PR and advertising in order to achieve its goals. An SEO professional who is not aware
When we are talking about ROI from SEO, We assume you are a website owner, running a business through your website. You have hired a SEO agency or an internal team for your online business promotion. This article will help you to understand how good is your SEO with respect to the money you are investing on them, The truth about website traffic from SEO (you should know and can’t blame on the team) There is no magic formula to improve the traffic. Don’t expect it in the 1st month itself. The conversion rate from organic traffic can’t be compare with any other medium. Website content and design change suggestion will come from the agency but your involvement is highly necessary. 1st Step- For calculation of any type of ROI the base month’s statistics are highly needed. You need a benchmark to start with. So, keep every possible data from you analytics from the 1st month itself. Keep track of visits from non paid search. Keep track of no. of keywords except brand name that brings traffic to the site. Keep track of traffic from branded keywords from organic result from the 1st month. Keep track of goal completion in the 1st month (most important). 2nd Step- Calculate the average prices of your products/services, if direct payment option is not available on the site then calculate the conversion rate from your leads based on the previous history. 3rd Step- Create a filter for organic search, check if the conversion tracking is working accurately or not. CALCULATION 1 This method works best, where revenue from each sale can be quantified, generally in B2C scenario and where you have strong sales channel attribution process. Example: If the average product/service price is – $150 The conversion rate from organic leads is 2% (based on the previous history) It means out of 100 prospective/ form fill up you are getting 2 customers => $150*2=$300 To get 1 perspective /form fill up/ = $3 In this case if from the organic search you are getting 50 leads then it is worth of $150. So the Formula => Total Gain (Average price* leads*Conversion Rate) – Total Spend There are lots of factors, which may add inaccuracy in the calculation. As you take them into consideration, the simple looking calculation may become quite a complex formula. Some of these factors are (for example): A) How does SEO impact the decision of an existing client to buy the product from you via-a-vis your competitor? B) The rankings may have fallen, but the search volume has increased giving you the benefit of increased demand. The reverse, however, is also true! C) The rankings for the keyword for which Optimisation was done may not have contributed to the client acquisition. Therefore, this base calculation need to be refined and tweaked to fit the given requirement, sometimes with added complexity to track the improvement in organic traffic due to the campaign and keeping out the normal variances. In absence of the above scenario, the following method can be used: CALCULATION 2 Savings potential (Savings, when compared to SEM or Media buying for the same traffic) This is much more straightforward, and talks more in terms of savings in terms of cost of acquisition of traffic and not in terms of profit gained due to the campaign. So, let’s say the website gets an increase in organic traffic to the tune of t. Now, the keywords for which the traffic has been generated must be noted. Let’s say the keywords were k1, k2, k3, etc and the average market price of CPC of those keywords are p1, p2, p3, etc respectively. Further let’s assume that t= t1+t2+t3… each of them aligning to their respective keywords and prices. This translated to the total saving due to the campaign and the profit from the campaign can be calculated as: (p1.t1+.p2.t2+ p3.t3+ …) – C (campaign cost) Example: Google adwords charges $2 per click for key phrases 1 and $1.5 for key phrase 2 at your targeted locations. For those particular keywords you got 50 visits each from organic search. If you spend $100 for the SEO team then ($2*50 + 1.5*50) – $100 = $75 is your profit from the SEO campaign. ROI from SEO= number of organic visitors from targeted keywords * adwords bid of those keywords – cost of SEO campaign It is always complex to calculate ROI of SEO, and more so in a multi channel marketing environment. It is made further complex by the fact that different methods of Internet marketing support each other and therefore silently steps into each other’s territory. As a result, the calculation can never be precise. But, you can get an approximation from the above suggested methods.
While no SEO professional would deny the importance of social signals when it comes to optimizing websites for search engines, there is still certain confusion about the strategies that need to be followed. Social signals, or the metrics that help in assessing web user behaviour on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr and a host of others are inextricably linked to traffic and link building. Let us understand how social media optimization is inextricably linked to search engine optimization. The second part of the article shall provide you with the top 10 strategies that you should use to optimize search engine ranking. How Search Engines Assess Link Credibility Search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo try their best to provide users with the most relevant and credible search results based on the search keywords. Search engines just do not trust any website that may seem relevant, and they follow their own algorithms to assess the importance of a certain webpage. The more inbound links that point towards a web page, the more credible and trustworthy it seems to search engines. Link Building and Sharing on Social Networks Link building is increasingly dependent on social networks, as people tend to share what they link. These links that are shared on social networking sites not only drive traffic but end up becoming “references” themselves, as they are thence used on blogs, or even other news websites as sources. The importance of social media is such that, instead of robots and algorithms deciding what is credible and what is not, search engines have begun to realize that what is shared most often must be more important than what is not shared on social networks. An interesting article or a good piece of content always gets shared on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms in real time. Social Signals and Search Engine Optimization Google and other search engines have realized the importance of sharing of social media, and that when something goes viral on social networks, that link has to be important and credible. The data from social signals decide the importance of a website or webpage and understanding social influence and community impact is more relevant to search engines than mechanical link building and activities that may actually work against the credibility of a website. Thus, one can say that search engine optimization (SEO) and social signals are mutually inclusive, and shall remain so in the future. The Basics of Utilizing Social Signals If you plan to optimize a website, the first step is to explore social media and gain ground. The next step is to assess social metrics and social signals to learn where your inbound links are coming from, and who is sharing and talking about you the most. The third step is to engage the identified audience, and try to use the social platforms to get other people interested in your website as well. Engagement involves actively participating with your target audience and building social relationships online. Engagement of your audience is a continuous process, and building trust is equally important. Once trust is built and you are actively participating on social networking sites, you can begin to see more inbound links from several places, most of which would be referred by people on social media. Social promotion helps you to generate natural links, which are very important in search engine optimization. A large percentage of tweets contain a URL and the more number of times a YRL is retweeted, the better it seems to search engines. Similarly, on Facebook, the more number of ‘likes’ a link generates, the more important it seems to search engines. Thus, social promotion generates natural and organic links, which are very important in SEO. Driving traffic to a blog or any published content depends on how viral a link has gone in Twitter or Facebook. Sharing links and a little part of the text ultimately leaves your followers on Facebook and LinkedIn to click on the link and visit your website or blog. The most important goal of SEO is to generate targeted traffic, and it is only possible to do so on social networking sites. Such sharing leads to a steady stream of traffic that is well targeted. If you searched for your favourite company or product on Google, it is quite possible that along with their business website, their Facebook page, Twitter profile and LinkedIn page appear too. Curiously, these appear on the first page. Thus, social networking sites rank very high in search engines and increase a company’s online brad presence. Links shared by the company on their Facebook page or on Twitter appear in search results too, in a higher degree of preference. Key Strategies in Integrating Social Media with SEO Efforts Mashable writes that there are 5 key strategies in integrating social media with your SEO plans. Identify Audience: Like we mentioned earlier, the first step is to identify the audience and understand their quirks, behaviours, what they like and dislike and how they share content and who they share it with. There are software programs available to monitor social media, and help you to identify keywords, conversations and influencers. Define Objective: Once the audience is identified, it is important to define your objective. Social media can’t be about direct marketing. While sales and marketing are very important in SEO, in social media it takes a covert role. Presence on social media must be utilized for defining and achieving objectives. They may include marketing and sales, but has to be covert. Establishing a Gameplan: The author continues to state that a combined social media and SEO effort must focus on content building and interaction. Active promotion of objective content and sharing them on social networks is very important. Tactical Mix: Lee Odden defined this as doing homework to find where your desired audience spends time interacting and sharing content. You would need to invest time and build relationships in social networks where your target
The most difficult task in Search Engine Marketing is “writing an ad copy ” that works. This is because the Google ads have limited space and it is not easy to fit everything you want to convey about your business in just few words. Moreover the website visitors will just glance at the ads, so the ads should catch their attention at the very moment. The ad itself does not sell, it just grabs the attention of prospective customers, so they click on it and in turn are taken to the website where actual sales happen. So writing an effective ad copy that generates high CTR is the key to the success of the Search Engine Marketing campaign. Writing an ad copy involves thoughtful approach and careful observations. While Writing an Ad Copy, Consider the Following Questions: How to make a strong call to action that will impact ad performance Why to include the keyword in the title Does price inclusion in the ad text reduce unwanted click? The following tips will help you in writing an effective ad copy that stands out and generate result. Highlight the USP of Your Product/Service The USP differentiate you from others. So highlight what makes you different from others. Why customers should go for your product or services. Your proposition should be something which your competitor cannot and should not offer. You may be providing free shipping, For example the USP of FedEx is “When your packages absolutely, positively have to get there overnight.” Use Question to Arouse Curiosity or Interest If your ad can arise curiosity among the visitors they will definitely click on it. But make sure your landing page is equally effective else the conversion will be less. For example you can say “Want to make money working from home?” Include Price and Promotions If you are running any promotion for customers, make sure the message reaches to customers. So include any promotion or any special price in your ad text. For example you can add “Get 50% off when you buy now.” Tell About Benefits Before Features If you can show what will be the benefit of your product/service, then someone looking for it will be enticed to click on your ad. For example a person with obesity is more likely to click on ad that says “Loose 30lbs in 30 days.” Include Keyword in Your Ad Text The ad text must contain atleast one of your keyword. This is because the adwords ads are contextual and when people are searching for a keyword, they are more likely to notice your ad if it contains the keyword. Capitalize Every Keywords It has been seen that Capitalizing keywords have boost CTR by 80%. So make it a practice to capitalize every keyword, but do not capitalize words like in, an, of etc. Match Your ad to Landing Page Whatever products you are advertising on the ad should be present on the landing page else it will create confusion among customers and this will reduce the conversion rate. Create Trust Through Endorsement When you associate a testimonial of a celebrity or a renowned person to your product or get the review from a trusted brand, it will build trust among users. For example you can include phrase like “ranked #1 virus cleaner by PC World” Tell a story If you include a personal experience in your ad text that is more likely to bring attention. For example “How I made $6000 in a day” will surely make customers enthusiastic and they will want to know more. Use Dots in Description Text Using dots in the description creates an impression that there is more that can be seen upon clicking on the ad. Mindvalley Labs published a report that compares the CTR and Conversion rate of similar ads, but one with dots at the end and other without dots. Think Yourself as a Google Searcher There is nothing better than putting yourself in customers shoes. So if you can think like a visitor who is searching for the exact keyword you are advertising. If you are advertising “Stain remover”, you are willing to find, “how to remove stains”. So users might be interested in if he sees ad that says “How to remove stains quickly” or something similar. Try Using the Keyword Free “Free” is a magical keyword when it comes to online advertising. But this may not fit in all and every products and services being advertised. However if you have a product or website that has something free for every users, you must include it. Remove Common Words Common words like a, an, the, and, on etc. consumes word. So avoid them as much as possible because ad text has limitation in characters. Use Call to Action Phrases If it is an image ad, it is easy to add a call to action button and make it standout. But we can use the same approach in ad text by utilizing call to action phrases. Some of the phrases that can be used for this purpose are “Try Free”, “Download Now”, “Save 40%” etc. Components of Google Text Ads The Text Ads of Google Have Three Components as Mentioned Below: Headline: This is the first line of Google text ad. This is the main text of the ad that is noticed by customers. The main goal of any ad is to grab customer’s attention. So you need to make this as attention grabbing as possible. Also include keyword in the headline too. People are more likely to click on the ad if they find something similar to what they are looking for. The headline is limited to 25 characters only. Description: The ad description contains information about the products or services you are offering and how it meets the need of the users who is looking for something related. The description has a limit of 70 characters and it is spread into 2 lines. Each line can have a maximum
Forums are a great way to make sure that you are getting the links that you need the most. High quality links can actually come from forums both directly and indirectly. It is possible that forum members link your post and link back to your from a higher authority website they work for, or own. It is also possible that the high PR forum itself will link back to you. Though it sounds very attractive, it may actually be a bit difficult for novices. Here are 10 steps for successful forum link building. Step 1: Search for Relevant Forums It is important to make a list of forums that are related to your chosen or identified niche. It goes unsaid that you must not engage yourself in link building activities on forums that are not relevant. The easiest way to look for forums within your identified niche is to run a Google search. All that you would need to do is type in your identified niche + forums. For example: logo design forums, if your niche is logo design. Several forums will appear in the search results and it makes sense to visit each one of them and assess their relevance and also make sure that these forums are active. Step 2: Short-listing Forums to Target Once you have a list of forums derived from your search results, it is important to eliminate forums that may not be relevant, active or useful. This requires a little time and you will have to individually visit each forum and check for consistencies and relevance. You must make sure that the links are all from do-follow forums. You must remove any forum that may contain pornographic material. Also, if you suspect a forum is spamming, take it off your list as well. Forums with hateful, provocative and racist comments need to be avoided as well. Step 3: Register and Introduce Yourself Register on every forum that you have shortlisted and introduce yourself honestly. Tell the members who you are, what you do for a profession and why their forum interests you. Be as subtle and classy as possible, but try to be intelligent in your remarks. Initially, instead of typing in lengthy self-important forum posts, it makes sense to acknowledge other members’ posts and appreciate their posts with compliments and thanks yous. Step 4: Begin Slowly but Participate Effectively Do not start posting on the forums with a bang and do not leave links all over the place. It might get you banned or people might just ignore you. Instead, start slowly and engage fellow-members in conversations that are genuine. Actively and effectively participate in existing forum discussions and share your opinions and tips. Step 5: Be Resourceful and Helpful The next step is to actually provide members with tips, suggestions and valuable lessons in the niche area. You might want to share links that direct to neutral and third party websites before sharing your own links. Do not promote your website or blog hastily but take a slow and prudent approach. Step 6: Forum Signature Links Every forum allows its member to have a unique signature. This signature space can be used for promotional purposes but in a subtle way. Always have a link to your website or blog as a signature and that helps in building SERP. It is a well known fat that forum backlinks increase SERP. Moreover, it also helps in getting referral traffic. Step 7: Build Brand Awareness Once you have established yourself as an authoritative, genuine and knowledgeable member, begin to build your brand pretty much the same way as you would amongst a group of people in a real-life social situation. Share information, resource and also why your products or services need to be given attention to. Step 8: Targeting Anchor Text On forums, you may target any target text and engage in deep linking. The links would be ready with the post almost immediately. Sometimes, the links may need to be approved by a moderator but usually they don’t have to be. These links can be used to drive referral traffic. Step 9: Foot in the Door Theory Always give something for free, and present your promotional offer soon after. This psychological method of getting people to do what you want them to do derives from the belief that when you ask for something little and they oblige, they will also be obliged to do something bigger than those who weren’t asked to do the smaller favor. Thus, offer valuable resources, information or services for no cost at all. Once you build your subscriber list, present your promotional plans and offers. Step 10: Clarity and Relevance of Keywords Use your keywords and keyword phrases in as many posts as possible. However, do not overload your forum posts with keywords and keep them clear and relevant. Use them only when required but do build your personality on the forum around your niche keywords.
When you mark a webpage that you want to visit later, read later or simply share with your friends or acquaintances, it may be described as social bookmarking. There are several services that offer social bookmarking, beginning with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to specialized services like Instapaper, Digg, StumbleUpon, Sphinn, Delicious, YouTube, Flickr and many more. In fact, there must be more than 200 services out there that help you bookmark socially. Socially bookmarked links go viral or at least they receive more traffic than links that are not shared socially. Why Use Social Bookmarking Sites for SEO? As SEO professionals, our utmost priority is to drive traffic to the website and to increase the ranking of the page. This can only happen when there is a surge in the traffic and when the target audience click on links and arrive at the designated page. By making sure that the link is being shared on social networking sites, we can ensure a steady or even exponential traffic to the page. SEO professionals thus have to ensure that apart from traditional search engine optimization, they must take Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Pinterest and other social networking sites into account. Links that are shared from credible social media accounts add to the relevance and contextual importance of that link. Here are some important tips and tricks while using social bookmarking for SEO. Identifying Target Audience It is important for SEO professionals to identify a target audience and connect to them via social bookmarking sites. Since social media is a two-way communication, participating in communication and discussion may help in promoting your own bookmarked links. Using Tinyurl It may become necessary to shorten your URL before sharing, as it adds to the visual appeal and also makes sure that precious character-space is not wasted. A disadvantage is there is no way one can brand a tinyurl. However, spending money on customized URL shortening services may help. Temporally Optimized Sharing One must bookmark or share links only when followers are most likely to be online. There are several services like Buffer, SocialBro and HootSuite that help in addressing this issue. Automated Sharing You could use automated social bookmarking services but it may not be a very good idea. People recognize when social media accounts are automated and it doesn’t take too long for people to unfollows or unfriend you. Rather than using automated tools, hiring an employee on a part time basis to do your social bookmarking may be a better idea. Using Keywords and Keyword Phrases As an SEO strategy, even while sharing or bookmarking links on social media sites, it is important to utilize keywords in a non-intrusive manner. By doing so, readers will know what your link is all about without having to guess. Moreover, links that are tailed with descriptions with keywords have a higher chance of being ranked well. Choosing the Right Social Network Depending on the context of your content, you could choose the right social bookmarking service. If t is something personal or something that taps the goodwill of your reader, you may choose Facebook. For business and professional related posts, LinkedIn or Twitter can be more useful. Images can be bookmarked on Flickr or Pinterest while videos can be bookmarked on YouTube. Issues with Social Bookmarking for SEO For successful social bookmarking, one needs to be hard working and patient. It simply does not make sense to bookmark your own sites across all the social bookmarking sites as no one would be interested to click on such links. On the other hand, it may become impossible to create a social bookmarking account that is genuinely active and has thousands of relevant and worthy links that are updated regularly. Many people have tried to bookmark the same link from a hundreds of different accounts. However, if they all come from the same IP address, it may never help you drive traffic to the link you have shared and instead may get you banned from the social bookmarking site altogether. Another method is to collaborate with many people and begin social bookmarking on a team basis. However, this is very time consuming and may ultimately not be successful either. If you are a company or individual who would like to use social bookmarking sites for your benefit, you may approach SEO professionals who have the tools and software to bookmark sites and promote your links on social media.
Google+ is a social networking entity that was launched way back in June 2011. Initially, it was touted to be the Facebook killer that would change the world as we knew it. Within a few days, it gained a massive number of users who later seemed to dwindle down in terms of active usage. However, Google+ continues to be an important social networking entity that influences the way we engage in Search Engine Optimization. Being a product of Google, Google+ has a tremendous impact on search results and the plus button is the key to success in SEO. Let us take a look at how Google Plus is going to change the future of SEO. Search, Plus Your World A few months ago, Google integrated Google+ with its search engine function and called it ‘Search, Plus Your World’. Though initially criticized by many, Google+ integration into search results changes the way we look at SEO. The idea behind ‘Search, Plus Your World’ was that users rely more on their friends than a search engine, when it comes to search results. If a friend or acquaintance deems a link to be worthy, a user may click on that link more often than he would click on a link suggested by search engines. Google thus creates a map similar to Facebook’s Open Graph and helps connect people with their readers, content and websites. It helps people to evaluate how content and relationships with people are interlinked. Thus an author who has more connections on Google+ may be more reliable than someone who does not use Google+ actively. Contextual Information The most appealing factor of using Google+ is that search results become more contextual. With all Google products now housed under a single umbrella, all your account activity will influence your search results. Depending on the context of the search, the results would appear. Indirectly, we may assume that content producers who have an active audience on Google+ will have a better SERP, especially in niche areas. Thus, rel=”author” and rel=”publisher” tags become increasingly important. SEO professionals will then need to concentrate more on the context of a business in terms of its target audience than mere link building as was followed earlier. Importance of Social Signals After the advent of ‘Search Plus Your World’, everything that appears in search results is influenced by social signals. What is important to people who are relevant to you (friends, acquaintances, thought leaders you follow, etc) is important to you as well. Thus, your results are more relevant to your account activity than domain authority and links. This is not to say that domain authority is not relevant anymore. It just means that Google now considers your social signals when providing you with search results. SEO professionals will thus have to concentrate more on social media optimization of websites and blogs along with old school SEO. The Importance of +1 Button The +1 button needs to be implemented in every blog or website that you own, so that visitors click on that. It is similar to Facebook’s Like button, but only, Google uses this button to recommend content to your followers or contacts when they search for certain keywords. This is particularly useful in carving a niche for yourself in the area chosen. Moreover, a +1’d link has a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR). This means, it might be shared later on Twitter, Facebook or back again on Google+ increasing social signals and driving traffic. SEO professionals need to remember that a Google +1 button can indirectly lead to higher ranking of page. While traditional SEO practices can’t be ignored, it helps a lot to integrate Google Plus and the +1 button into social media optimization efforts. Thrust on Content Google has always reminded us that content is king. With Google Plus and the +1 button, we may take it for granted that if the content is not up to the mark, your website or blog will not be ranked high. The idea thus is to write great content within your niche, use social media to share what you have written and then do the basic groundwork of SEO like you always have. Personalized Search At the end of the day, it can be summarized that Google Plus and the +1 button will lead to more personalized search results. What matters to your contacts and friends are assumed to matter to you. What matters to you will thus be assumed to be important for those in your network. All that personal data will influence your search results. SEO professionals will then need to place more emphasis on active social media engagement, instead of link purchasing and submitting to directories alone. Google Plus, SEO and the Future Analysts and thought leaders who have been studying the effects of Google Plus on SEO have noted that email marketing will become more important in the future. SEO may be divided into two categories: personalized and non-personalized. For the personal SEO, social signals will need to be evaluated and optimized. For non-personal SEO, traditional SEO strategies will need to be employed as usual. Low quality linking and link purchases will no longer be relevant in niche areas unless SEO professionals are dealing with a very generic topic that has no audience. It will become important to seek the support of those who have social authority. Probably, having a higher Klout score or Author Ranking will become more important.
