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Archive for the ‘Search Engine Optimization’ Category
Keyword Phrases: What They Are And How They Can Help You Make Money
In the wonderful web world, keyword phrases are just that, key words (2+ words) that influence how search engines rank your Web site. Assuming you have strategically chosen your keyword phrases, they should be the main focus of each blog post or Web site page(s). To find those phrases, you can use Google Analytics or other programs like Market Samurai. These online software programs give you the capability to find the words that are most popular for your industry products or services. Keep in mind that industry jargon is not necessarily what the general population uses to describe your products or services. The trick to finding the best keyword phrases is to dig deep enough to discover those phrases that are underutilized (relatively speaking) and construct your content using those keyword phrases. For instance, if you sell flowers, you may not want to optimize for the single word ‘flower’ but rather another more definitive term like ‘Mothers Day flowers.’ Now I am just making this up as an example but you get the idea.
The programs mentioned above can be helpful in finding keyword phrases; however, it’s just as important to think thoroughly through other possibilities on your own. It can also help to research the competition.
So now to the more important question, how can keyword phrases help you make money?
Quite simply if you have a well-optimized site with keywords that are pertinent to your products or services, then you’ll be able to get more hits (also known as traffic) to your Web site. By merely playing the numbers, someone will contact you. With a single contact, it is up to you and your team to convert the call into a meeting and then eventually into a sale.
Keep in mind that optimizing your Web site is not just a one-time deal. It’s important to keep writing content with those keywords to increase your chances of showing up on the first page of Google. But don’t just write content for the sake of writing content. Write information that others will want to know about you, your company, your products/services, your staff…you get the picture.
Ultimate post message: Be relevant and have fun!
Facebook Benefits & Disadvantages
Below are 3 benefits of using Facebook and 3 disadvantages of this social media platform. There are many points that can be made for each side of the discussion but we are all busy…I like to keep things short.
3 Benefits of Facebook
Easy To Get Started & Connect
Essentially, you fill out a few easy blanks and within a few minutes, you are among the masses of people on Facebook. Since so many users are already on this platform, you will likely find several of your friends, associates, old high school buddies, college alumni and many others that you have not been in touch with for many months, even years. The stats that Facebook touts are:
- More than 750 million active users
- 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- Average user has 130 friends
- People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
According to the online stats group, Marketing Charts, ”The number of US women over age 55 using Facebook grew by 175.3% since September 2008, making mature females one of the fastest growing demographic groups on the social network.”
Search Engine Benefits
Many SEO experts are claiming that the number of ‘likes’ on your account can improve your SEO value. Whether it does or not, having a Facebook account gives you more credibility, drives direct traffic to your Web site and helps to create a company brand. (See more about that in my next point.)
Viral Marketing (something you want to catch)
If you post something of interest or if you have a business that catches “on fire”, you can make huge strides. The most recent Facebook success is a new group of Texas ladies on Facebook called the Crock Pot Girls. Their Facebook page was started on August 19, 2011; by September 1, 2011, they had over 1,000,000 fans. In fact, they had to upgrade their Web site because of all the hits they were getting. Why is this remarkable? I checked out a few major companies like Charmin. As of this writing they have over 97,000 fans. Tide detergent has over 1.8 million fans. I am sure it has taken them years to get to those numbers! I promise you, there isn’t a major company out there that would like the kind of attention Crock Pot Girls have gotten in under 3 weeks. Marketing 101 – find a need and fill it.
3 Disadvantages of Facebook
Lack of Privacy
Your life is an open book. Yes there are protective features you can implement to keep people from seeing certain parts of your Facebook account (i.e. pictures). But that doesn’t prevent people from tagging you in a picture from their account.
It has been my experience that many people lurk on Facebook as opposed to actively participating. This is not a bad thing; it is what it is. Just like in the real world, some people will actively engage with everyone while others prefer to stand quietly on the periphery.
Think Twice About Posts
As in the real world, our digital conversations must also be guarded. The biggest disadvantage to any online post/conversation is that no one can hear your inflection. And unless your readers know you well, they may not completely understand the intent behind your words. Choose wisely you will Padawan.
Inundation of Messages
If you really begin to get involved and stay up with all the messages, it can become overwhelming. Facebook, like any other medium requires work and commitment. Don’t think of this platform as a project but rather an ongoing process that requires thought and creativity.
Most of all, have fun. Facebook shouldn’t feel like a chore but rather a social party.
Coming In For A Landing (Page)
Simply put, a landing page is any web page you find when searching for a particular subject matter in a search engine (i.e. Google or Yahoo!). A good landing page can be a specially designed page that looks different from the company’s Web site but maintains the brand integrity.
A little something-something about search engine optimization
Often companies create landing pages to drive targeted traffic to a specific service or product. One commonly used form of advertising is pay-per-click – paid advertising that will show up at the very top or on the right side of a searched page result. Every time someone clicks on the ad, the advertising company pays an agreed upon fee. There are many controls that can be put in place to stay within budgetary constraints. However, the ad must be valued a certain way (by the search engine) in order to get the best place, but that’s another blog post.
Other ways landing pages show up is through organic results. Often organically positioned landing pages (or Web sites) provide greater credibility. Optimal organic placement is when a web page is positioned on the first page in the top spots (i.e. spot 1, 2 or 3) of a particular search phrase.
Bottom-line benefits
One of the greatest benefits of landing pages for the consumer is they do not have to sort through an entire Web site to find what they are looking for. Plus they have an opportunity to make immediate contact via phone or usually through a contact form.
For the company, a landing page proves beneficial through higher conversion rates. The trick is not to inundate with too much information or images but rather keep the page short and to the point while still getting your message across. Depending on the budget and time allotted for the campaign will affect just how you develop your strategy. There is no simple answer. The strategy is shaped by considerations such as the product, competition, market demands and location of target.
How to Leverage Search Engine Optimization
Recently, I was asked to provide a quote for a company that sells online specialty gifts…I mean, we are talking some cool stuff. This small company is able to produce sales but not where they could be if they implemented a smart search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Based on some preliminary keyword phrases I looked up, they have some strong opportunities.
So what do I mean by strong opportunities?
Well, if this company focused their search engine optimization management efforts on the word “gifts,” they wouldn’t get far. Let’s look at the details for the keyword ‘gifts’
- According to Google, it is looked up 11,100,000 a month <– GOOD
- Maximum number of hits the #1 spot would yield is 229,216 a day <– GOOD
- According to two sources, this word has very high competition <– NOT GOOD
Given this information, using just the one word would not be a good tactic because the competition has deep marketing pockets and can afford to pay millions to stay on the front page of Google. This means the competition has strong content and Web pages with tentacles that go far and wide on the Internet.
What’s the alternative?
Rather than using a single word, another option is to use keyword phrases. A keyword phrase is simply a group of words that are not as competitively used and could yield some hefty Web site traffic. I have seen keyword phrases propel a small business to the first page – even the #1 spot – against much larger companies.
It is estimated that 90% of all people that are searching only stay on the first page – seeing only the first 10 results - never venturing to page two or beyond. With that type of statistic, you can see how important it is to use keyword phrases with your SEO strategies.
Resource http://www.seo.com/blog/pet-keywords-trouble
Best Reasons for Internal Web Site Linking
When you construct a Web site many issues have to be taken into account – one of which is internal linking.
By definition, internal linking is providing a connection from an anchor tag to another page on your Web site. For instance, if you click on the anchor tag “social media post” you go to another place on my Web site (my blog). The phrase ‘social media post’ is internally linked and allows the viewer to get more information about that word or term.
Internal Web site linking has a couple of valuable benefits:
User value.
It will help your audience find what they want easily within your Web site. Remember, in our gotta-have-it-now-society users want to get where they need to be quickly. Don’t give them an excuse to find another site that gives them what they want.
Search engine value.
The technical value is that the search engines, like Google and Yahoo, will ensure your site gets properly spidered and found. This will also help the page rank of the internal page. And finally, it will build the relevancy of that page to the keyword phrase.
Essentially, search engines like to promote Web sites that are well-designed and are relevant to what users want. If your site has good internal links, everyone wins.
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