It can be tempting as a business to create a Facebook page and never visit again, but this ignores the true power of Facebook to market your business and connect with your customers. A recent article on Web.com discusses the importance of engagement with fans in order to build followers and influence. Fans of a business on Facebook are probably some of the most loyal it has, and engaging them will cement this brand loyalty and a positive perception of the business.
So how does one go about engaging fans? Remaining active is the most important thing you can do. Updating regularly is critical, even if these updates are pulled from your Twitter or blog feeds. Be careful the conversation is not one-sided, however. It’s very important to monitor the activity on your page and respond promptly to comments, questions, and complaints. No one likes talking to a brick wall, and that’s exactly what your company will appear to be if you do not respond to viewers. Of course it never hurts to offer incentives for engagement, either, such as contests, free gifts, or discounts for your Facebook followers.
Follow these tips and you’ll no doubt see a marked increase in loyal customers generated from the company Facebook account.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Focus on the Positive to Improve Conversion
Last week we posted about how design influences conversion rates, but the question remains: Where do you start the process? You may have taken an honest look at yours or your client’s site and discovered an overwhelming number of things that need fixing. One way to get started is to do as blogger Robert Brady suggests and focus on the positive.
It may seem counter-intuitive at first; after all, you want to fix what’s wrong not pat yourself on the back for the good stuff. Although it’s important you learn from mistakes, don’t forget you can learn from successes as well! Brady suggests reviewing your analytics tracking to find out which keywords, referrers, or other traffic sources are working best, then comparing them to what isn’t working. Once you discover what the differences are, you can mold your other content against a working template. After making the first changes, you can again observe which rise above the others and make improvements based on the new information in an iterative process.
This is only a starting point. Eventually you will reach a ceiling, at which point you will need to look outside your site for further possible improvements. However, looking at what already works is an excellent way to begin your conversion improvements.
It may seem counter-intuitive at first; after all, you want to fix what’s wrong not pat yourself on the back for the good stuff. Although it’s important you learn from mistakes, don’t forget you can learn from successes as well! Brady suggests reviewing your analytics tracking to find out which keywords, referrers, or other traffic sources are working best, then comparing them to what isn’t working. Once you discover what the differences are, you can mold your other content against a working template. After making the first changes, you can again observe which rise above the others and make improvements based on the new information in an iterative process.
This is only a starting point. Eventually you will reach a ceiling, at which point you will need to look outside your site for further possible improvements. However, looking at what already works is an excellent way to begin your conversion improvements.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Guest Blogging Tips
There is no denying guest blogging as a great way to get your ideas before a wider audience, especially if your own blog is not yet widely known. It’s also a way to put your name and your brand in front of your target community and build lasting relationships. Finally, it gives you a chance to link back to your site, which is great for SEO. Recently, a few folks around the industry have shared their thoughts about guest blogging, including The Blog Herald, Richworks and DKS Systems.
When considering guest posting, first give some thought to your own site. Does it have a lot of entries already, or are you still building up your content base? If the latter, you should probably use every article you write as content on your own site. Assuming your site is solidly packed with content and you do decide to guest post, is it ready for the influx of visitors? You can be assured you will see an increase in traffic to your site as people seek more information about the topic or the person behind the article. Be sure your contact information is up to date, your content has been recently updated, and your design is user-friendly.
As with any form of promotion, you will see results based on the amount of effort you expend. Research your niche for blogs that best suit your target audience base, then spend some time on those blogs getting to know their style and the community which follows each. Leave meaningful, well articulated comments regularly and the editors may recognize you when you make your guest post request. In addition, the community might also recognize you when they see your name or brand in the byline.
Guest posting is a powerful promotion tool when used effectively. Consider spreading your content before a wider audience, but don’t forget the simple tips above.
When considering guest posting, first give some thought to your own site. Does it have a lot of entries already, or are you still building up your content base? If the latter, you should probably use every article you write as content on your own site. Assuming your site is solidly packed with content and you do decide to guest post, is it ready for the influx of visitors? You can be assured you will see an increase in traffic to your site as people seek more information about the topic or the person behind the article. Be sure your contact information is up to date, your content has been recently updated, and your design is user-friendly.
As with any form of promotion, you will see results based on the amount of effort you expend. Research your niche for blogs that best suit your target audience base, then spend some time on those blogs getting to know their style and the community which follows each. Leave meaningful, well articulated comments regularly and the editors may recognize you when you make your guest post request. In addition, the community might also recognize you when they see your name or brand in the byline.
Guest posting is a powerful promotion tool when used effectively. Consider spreading your content before a wider audience, but don’t forget the simple tips above.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
A Quick Look at Optimizing for YouTube
Do you have videos on YouTube or another video hosting channel? Videos are a great way to engage viewers and build fans, as well as provide links back to your company. However, with millions of videos already posted, how can you make sure yours gets found? SEOptimize has published a great guide for optimizing your YouTube videos. Their checklist of ten steps can help ensure your video gets the best possible exposure.
Writing descriptive titles and relevant tags is perhaps the most basic step in video SEO. As with blog posts and site titles, careful crafting and keyword inclusion is a must. Internal linking, important in any campaign, can be achieved on YouTube through video responses and playlists. Link out to your main Web site through the video description, and don't forget to build external links as you would in any campaign. Comments and ratings are another important factor, so consider adding an annotation reminding users to leave their feedback. Finally, perhaps the most frequently forgotten step when posting a video is to remember YouTube isn't the only online video hosting service; don't forget to post to various places like Google and MySpace.
Be sure and check out the original article for more in-depth information about each of these steps, and remember to treat your YouTube channel with as much care as any other site in your SEO campaign.
Writing descriptive titles and relevant tags is perhaps the most basic step in video SEO. As with blog posts and site titles, careful crafting and keyword inclusion is a must. Internal linking, important in any campaign, can be achieved on YouTube through video responses and playlists. Link out to your main Web site through the video description, and don't forget to build external links as you would in any campaign. Comments and ratings are another important factor, so consider adding an annotation reminding users to leave their feedback. Finally, perhaps the most frequently forgotten step when posting a video is to remember YouTube isn't the only online video hosting service; don't forget to post to various places like Google and MySpace.
Be sure and check out the original article for more in-depth information about each of these steps, and remember to treat your YouTube channel with as much care as any other site in your SEO campaign.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Optimizing for the Long Tail - A Brief Overview
While it can be tempting for the SEO to focus on a few primary or “trophy” keywords, this ignores a significant chunk of all keyword referrals known as the long tail. The long tail is made up of those key phrases that are only searched a few times, but collectively make up a significant portion of searches.
Those trailing keywords, which can be thousands or tens of thousands strong, are actually responsible for far more traffic than the head keywords because of their sheer numbers. Bill Tancer of Hitwise concluded they make up nearly 90 percent of search traffic.
Clearly, the long tail should not be ignored in optimization. Should an SEO attempt to focus on thousands of individual keywords? Returns diminish quickly when optimizing for too many keywords. Even a thousand is too many to effectively cover, but according to Tancer’s research, even the top 10,000 keywords only bring in 18.5 percent of searches. So what is an SEO to do?
The key is to focus on keyword groups. By targeting one primary keyword and its variants per page, that page can be optimized for thousands of related tail keywords all at once.
Start by carefully planning the site with keyword grouping in mind. Mark Nunny of Wordtracker suggests categories as a great way to build around primary keywords. Each category then targets a specific primary and secondary keyword. Write a long article (1,000+ words is suggested) focusing on each of these keywords and their variants, and the tail keywords will appear naturally in the copy. Be sure to put the primary and secondary keywords in prominent locations such as the page title, headlines, and links.
By targeting the long tail, you probably won’t rank first for any trophy keywords. You will, however, gain access to considerably more potential customers through a broader variety of searches.
Those trailing keywords, which can be thousands or tens of thousands strong, are actually responsible for far more traffic than the head keywords because of their sheer numbers. Bill Tancer of Hitwise concluded they make up nearly 90 percent of search traffic.
Clearly, the long tail should not be ignored in optimization. Should an SEO attempt to focus on thousands of individual keywords? Returns diminish quickly when optimizing for too many keywords. Even a thousand is too many to effectively cover, but according to Tancer’s research, even the top 10,000 keywords only bring in 18.5 percent of searches. So what is an SEO to do?
The key is to focus on keyword groups. By targeting one primary keyword and its variants per page, that page can be optimized for thousands of related tail keywords all at once.
Start by carefully planning the site with keyword grouping in mind. Mark Nunny of Wordtracker suggests categories as a great way to build around primary keywords. Each category then targets a specific primary and secondary keyword. Write a long article (1,000+ words is suggested) focusing on each of these keywords and their variants, and the tail keywords will appear naturally in the copy. Be sure to put the primary and secondary keywords in prominent locations such as the page title, headlines, and links.
By targeting the long tail, you probably won’t rank first for any trophy keywords. You will, however, gain access to considerably more potential customers through a broader variety of searches.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Marketing and SEO with Google Squared
Nearly nine months ago, Google Labs released Google Squared. Rather than displaying a list of correlating websites in the usual fashion, Google Squared combs the Web and attempts to display relevant information in tabular form, organizing that information according to item, image, description, and a number of item-specific headings. For example, a search for “roller coasters” returns the following square, with capacity, height, and speed as the additional fields:
Google Squared has particular value for product comparison searches - just search “iPod” or “digital camera” to see what I mean. Prices, capacity, and video playback values are all displayed side by side from across the Web. Due to this exceptional potential for product comparison, product websites should pay special attention to further developments in Google Squared.
Optimizing for Google Squared should be much like optimizing for regular Google queries. Attention to semantic layout would appear to be of paramount importance so Squared can easily discern the relevant information and categories to include for a user query. Content, as always, is king and should be treated with particular care. It is unclear as yet if or how inclusion in Google Base, Google’s structured online database, will impact ranking on Google Squared, though it certainly can’t hurt. Rich Snippets, a type of microformatting technology introduced by Google last May, could also play a role.
Google Squared is by no means perfect, reflecting its status as a Labs project. Included columns and rows are not always relevant, nor are they always populated. The displayed data itself is only as accurate as the source from which it is pulled. Sometimes, the results themselves are downright strange. Searching for “Persian cat” seemed to include intelligent data about every feline breed except Persians -- although “Persian kittens” was included some distance down the page, with descriptive data not about the breed, but about breeders and distributors of Persian kittens.
One important feature of Google Squared is its ability to accept and adapt instantly to user feedback. Rows or columns can be added and deleted dynamically, and a completed square can be saved for future viewing. The “Persian cat” query resulted in only one additional column, “eye color,” besides the three default, so I imagined that I had been searching for a comparative display of cat breeds and added “fur type” and “temperament.” Squared found relevant possible values for the majority of breeds it listed, though it required me to select the best choice for each before displaying it in my square. Despite requiring this further user interaction, Squared provided me with a way to compare cat breed data much more quickly than if I had compiled it myself.
Google is not terribly clear on exactly how Google Squared functions. Still, it is safe to say that Google still reads pages based on their semantics and SEO-friendly content. When adding my columns to the cat search, the values I was presented to choose from were essentially highly specified keyword search results, as though I had typed in something along the lines of “Burmese cat temperament” into a normal Google search. In fact, selecting “search for more values” opens a normal search results page with “Burmese Temperament” as the query.
Google is legendary for its long beta times, but the smart SEO will keep an eye on Google Squared long before it leaves the Labs. While its specialized, comparative nature makes it unlikely to replace traditional search even once perfected, Google Squared provides another window into the increasingly complex, ever growing Web.
Monday, January 18, 2010
An Opinion on Personalized Search
Google announced Personalized Searches for everyone on their official blog on the 4th of December. What does this mean for web searching? At first it sounds pretty awesome for all your searching needs, but will it actually be awesome when it’s fully implemented? This reminds me of the suggested search function from Amazon when you’re looking for items on the site. Unfortunately more often than not it will come up with items that are not what I’m looking for or worse yet, items I’ve been warned against for being inferior or bad products. Now if that doesn’t work for Amazon, how will this work for web searching? I can’t honestly see it working well because it will start filtering things I might be looking for but can’t find the perfect search words.
On the other hand this could come in handy for SEO sites like FindYourSearch, because if I’m looking for say, “New York Style Pizza” and Google already knows that I look for businesses in the San Diego area they might just show me results in my area. This sounds cool as less keywords are needed to find what I’m looking for but “New York style pizza in San Diego” isn’t that much longer. This sounds more like a tool that will benefit the lazy more than really save the average user much time.
All Google needs according to their help page on Personalized Search: Basics is the use of an anonymous cookie that will keep your search history information up to 180 days. Now that sounds pretty easy to deal with because most people don’t clear out their cookies on a regular basis. Don’t forget with multiple people using the same computer your results will get skewed by other people’s searches.
At the end of the day I feel that this can be a good or bad thing depending on how you’re looking at it. On the SEO company side it can make things a lot easier as less keywords will be needed to return the desired search results. At the same time that can also make it harder as less keywords being needed means more sites will be fighting for the first page with the same keywords which means there will be need for changes in the way sites come up. On the user side this means they will be less likely to explore other sites meaning less diversity on their end which can get very annoying, for example; when you’re looking for different prices for the same object or similar objects. For things like recipes, tutorials, how-to guides, etc this could be really nice as typically I myself prefer to use the same sites for that because they typically are written in the same fashion when from one site but for other searches I can see this being more annoying than helpful.
On the other hand this could come in handy for SEO sites like FindYourSearch, because if I’m looking for say, “New York Style Pizza” and Google already knows that I look for businesses in the San Diego area they might just show me results in my area. This sounds cool as less keywords are needed to find what I’m looking for but “New York style pizza in San Diego” isn’t that much longer. This sounds more like a tool that will benefit the lazy more than really save the average user much time.
All Google needs according to their help page on Personalized Search: Basics is the use of an anonymous cookie that will keep your search history information up to 180 days. Now that sounds pretty easy to deal with because most people don’t clear out their cookies on a regular basis. Don’t forget with multiple people using the same computer your results will get skewed by other people’s searches.
At the end of the day I feel that this can be a good or bad thing depending on how you’re looking at it. On the SEO company side it can make things a lot easier as less keywords will be needed to return the desired search results. At the same time that can also make it harder as less keywords being needed means more sites will be fighting for the first page with the same keywords which means there will be need for changes in the way sites come up. On the user side this means they will be less likely to explore other sites meaning less diversity on their end which can get very annoying, for example; when you’re looking for different prices for the same object or similar objects. For things like recipes, tutorials, how-to guides, etc this could be really nice as typically I myself prefer to use the same sites for that because they typically are written in the same fashion when from one site but for other searches I can see this being more annoying than helpful.
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