Getting the Most Out Of SEO

There you are, finally ready to launch your online business. You went through weeks of planning with a web designer and got everything worked out and tested.

Then, finally, your website goes live. And you wait. And wait.

Where are the customers? Where's the traffic? That's when you'll hear the word SEO for the first time. It's a word you should make your new best friend!

Search Engine Optimization is what can put your site at the top of search page rankings. But how can you get those high rankings? Fortunately, there are many wonderful resources available online to help you beef up your SEO. The goal is to choose the right SEO services and make sure that you get the value for your marketing money.

Here's what a good SEO company should be providing:

Knowledge and tools to research strong keywords. Everything starts with the keywords. This is what the typical customer will use to type into the search engines. Finding the right combination of keywords is, well, key. Keywords or phrases should be based on your understanding of your customers’ buying cycle. A comprehensive keyword search includes keyword popularity, competitive research and product-related searches. There are some keywords that appear to rank high but might make no sense in terms of being added to content. Your SEO expert needs to decipher the difference.

Ability to create engaging copy. Once you've got the keywords locked down you then have to fold them into your content. This is what will be picked up by the search engines. Working them into headlines is easy but it's the copy that really matters. Search engines are becoming extremely sophisticated - they can sniff out "spam copy" and penalize you for it. Don't depend on an IT guy crunching algorithms or a web designer to be able to entice your customers with the written word.

Up-to-date information. Google is still the reigning champ of search engines but it is getting plenty of competition from rivals Bing, Yahoo and a whole range of other players. Your SEO expert needs to be on top of all of the search engine parameters because they are constantly being upgraded. You want someone who will be staying far ahead of the technology curve. Ask them when the latest update to a search engine was and have them explain to you how it can affect your website. 

As you look for an SEO expert don't hesitate to shop around to find one that best suits your needs. Obviously, you should start with the ones that have the highest rankings themselves. You know they're doing something right.

How content can help with Social Media ROI

Social media marketing is maturing quickly – it used to be that you measured the effectiveness of a campaign through the number of followers that you signed up. Now, social media metrics have become complex and there is an expectation that every campaign must have a clear ROI. And like any marketing campaign, success is determined by how much it affects sales revenue.

As with any online marketing campaign, one of the most important components in driving ROI is the amount of high quality content that you create for your target audience. By mixing content with social media, you have the perfect recipe for building brand and be recognized as a thought leader.

 Why content marketing can work with social media

With more choices in accessing media and related content, your target audience are more selective on what content they consume and how they view it. They are seeking out information, and asking their friends for referrals. They are also less trusting of information coming directly from the brands themselves. 

With this in mind, more and more companies are creating content as part of their inbound marketing strategy to attract the attention of their clients, avoiding the use of interruption marketing and advertising. By putting content as central to their marketing strategy, they are creating a funnel that pulls prospects in.

Content is more effective online when you add social media and online marketing. You get a powerful combination which:

·         Can be used to provide content for all your social media channels and drive interaction.

·         Can be used for the soft sell – grabbing the readers’ attention without using a sales pitch because what you provide is relevant and meets their information needs.

·         Allows for closed-loop tracking, where you can draw people into your website from social media channels and determine whether your ROI has improved. A good way to lure your customers is through great content that they want to view.

As you are well aware, social media sites and networks have access to an incredible amount of data on the type of content and interests that people like to share with their friends – in real-time. With about billions of pieces of content being shared on Facebook and Twitter, it’s no wonder that search engines are starting to take notice.  Google has started tracking, in their Panda update, the amount of shares that people do for a particular web page or content.

 They’ve also added Twitter feeds and Google+ feeds in search results.  Metrics such as retweets, shares, likes and others are being tracked in determining whether a piece of content is quality or not worth sharing.  As people are expecting more from Google, Bing and Yahoo to provide quality results, these search engines are taking advantage of the real-time data from social media to provide relevant results.

The end result? Marketing managers and business owners have to create content that their customers will love and share.