SEO Tips Post-Panda Update

Right after the Panda update, many companies investing and dealing with SEO became anxious. They were at a loss as to what the Update will do. They were right, within a couple of weeks, content websites such as EzineArticles.com and WiseGeek.com were significantly hit. Sistrix reported at sites were hit upwards of 90%. 

SocialMediaExaminer.com

Ouch!

Not quite. The rules still remain the same. Google still attempts to keep the the quality of its search at the top by weeding out high volume, low quality websites. If you are a small business owner and you were concerned about the above update, then don't be. Remember, Google updates the algorithm so as to keep its competitors such as Facebook and Bing away.

Here are the tips on what you can do to still stay on top of the game -

Focus on the User 

Always remember, whatever you do it must be for the user's good. Aim for high quality content that will make the user share it across the web. If your website doesn't offer the quality content, Google will push you down.

Focus on Quality 

It is better to have few high quality pages that to have a lot of average or low-quality pages. Earlier, the more the pages were indexed in Google, the higher was the chance of a website to land higher on the rankings. But not any more. Now, one needs to focus on quality. If you feel you have made a mistake by publishing too many low quality web pages, it is better to have those pages removed immediately.

Link Building

This holds true like nothing else. Make sure that more and more links point to your website. This is where you can really make a difference. Bring your marketing team on board and make sure to place the right links in the press releases and make good use of the social bookmarking websites.

Social Media 

The fastest way you can spread your links across the web is by making a good use of the social media. Based on the number of users who make good use of the website and recommend it their friends, a website's rankings will vary. Pretty neat!

Follow Google Guidelines 

Many website don't insert the proper meta elements in their pages. If you insert meta tags which are completely opposite to the content of the page, then you can be rest assured, Google will push your website all the way down.

Over-Advertising. Not Good! 

Yes! You want to make money! No! You wouldn't want to turn your visitor off! Make sure to create a balance between ads and content. Advertisements shouldn't come in way of readers reaching your content.

Keep these points in mind and you will be able to create a good reputation in the market. What else do you think should a person do to ensure a good traffic? Share it below!

SEO has Long Term Benefits

Many companies who haven't yet optimized their website on the basis of Search Engine guidelines know the damage they have already done. There are many companies who are already carrying out SEO of their website. However, many are impatient. They need the results within a month or so.

Fact – “SEO is a long term investment.”

Image Courtesy - SeoBlogging.net

Many argue that plainly carrying out Social Media Marketing or SMM is enough and must do the job for their website. They spend a hell lot of money by spreading the word across the web, on Twitter and Facebook and yet don't see a significant growth in traffic. What's wrong?

Well, SMM is inherently dependent on the SEO. The right design, the right links, the proper website structure will help you sustain the traffic. SMM does what it is meant to do – marketing. It's like attracting people to your business, a restaurant or a hotel. But remember, it will be ultimately the service (SEO) that will decide the future of your business (website).

Look within to Look out

Keyword Research

One of the foundations of SEO is keyword research. Make sure to work on the right set of keywords. Businesses make a mistake here by not putting themselves in the shoes of their customers. Think how a customer will search out your service. Make sure to put in the place of your business as well. But when there is competition, you may find it increasingly difficult to get a huge traffic. In such situations, target key phrases that are not that “popular”. The extra traffic generated from these keywords will ensure to get you more readers and of course, audience.

Topic Research

Take the full advantage of Google Analytics by knowing the keywords that receive the highest amount of traffic. As your SEO plan matures, you will get to see a pyramid structure of keywords. Ensure to cover these topics. Start first with the phrases that receive a moderate amount of traffic but do write up a post or two on the main key phrase once in a while.

Do Not Delay

There are many who delay their SEO plan to take off. This may really backfire on the other hand and may not help you achieve the target. Above all, be patient. If you aren't patient enough, you may soon lose interest and this may severely dent your SEO ambitions. Spread your links around the globe. Make good use of social bookmarking sites. You will see your SEO traffic rise significantly over the next few months for sure.

If you like this blog, be sure to subscribe for more information on SEO and SMM related information.

Cheers!  

Understanding Social Media: Infographic

Social media usage can help companies streamline their marketing campaigns. Here below, I found out this nice little infographic from the wonderful folks at KISSmetrics which will surely help you in that regards. Check it out!

Promoted Tweets

Everyone's talking about Twitter's new revenue model called Promoted Tweets. What is it? In plain english, Promoted Tweets are just paid search. A brand buys some keywords from twitter, when the user searches for said keyword in twitter's search function, the paid search Brand tweets will rise to the top of the search queue and populate first, over the community's conversation that may incorporate the same keywords.

Someone like Justin Bieber probably won't need Promoted Tweets. However, this could have been very handy for Motrin, back in the day when the Motrin Moms debacle erupted. Or for Southwest Air when Kevin Smith shook up the tweetstream with his outrage. In instances like that, when thousands of people are chiming in and creating a tweetstorm, Promoted Tweets would help a Brand elevate their POV to high ground rather than drown in the tweet tsunami.

Am I wowed by Promoted Tweets? Not so much. Not yet, anyway. I've got my eye on the next gen of Promoted Tweets, that's gonna be the game changer.

The next gen of this model will change how tweets appear in your personal tweet stream. I have a feeling that's going to rock a lot of boats, which is why that's the next gen feature. Twitter is going to have to do a lot of testing before they roll that out. It sounds pretty invasive and in fact, may be outright disruptive.

According to the NY Times, "In the next phase of Twitter’s revenue plan, it will show promoted posts in a user’s Twitter stream, even if a user did not perform a search and does not follow the advertiser...For example, if someone has been following people who write about travel, they could see a promoted post from Virgin America on holiday fare discounts."

That's going to be tricky for Twitter to implement. Twitter users tend to be finicky curators of their "streams." A lot of people I know approach their tweet stream like a Bonsai project, ever so carefully pruning and cultivating to ensure they don't have spammers in there or people who are "too noisy" or too focused on a specific topic they aren't interested in or if they're like me, cultivating a stream that is the almost-perfect balance of lifestreamers who happen to work in fields related to mine or live in the Philly-area. Tweet streams are serious business for much of this dedicated community, so effecting the individual's curation of it may be a landmine for twitter.

That said, as an advertiser, if I could join a conversation about a topic related to my field or product and share information related to it, that does sound mighty appealing. For me, it's really going to boil down to the integration of the second generation of this product. Am I butting into someone's stream, or am I a blade of grass gently shooting up alongside the stream? Can't wait for the little blue bird to let us know.

New Assignment: Optimizing a News Release for Search Engines

I'm teaching our PR survey class this semester and instead of reusing the traditional news release assignment for the writing part of the course, I thought I'd try something a little different this year: I'm having students optimize their news release for search engines. Students will still write a traditional news release, but once that has been graded, they will then take their release, make the necessary corrections and optimize it. The assignment is described below. It's very much inspired by a position paper on search engine visibility published by Steve Rubel on behalf of Edelman. I'd love to hear from anyone who's done this in their class already - anything I'm missing?

The Assignment: Optimized News Release

As we have seen, news releases and the messages they contain increasingly end up on the Internet where they get indexed by search engines. Since these messages have become searchable, it is important to include words and phrases Internet users would use intuitively when searching for content related to that message. Having read Edelman’s position paper on the issue and having discussed search engine and message optimization in class, it is now your turn to take your SEU news release and optimize it. For this assignment, you will need to identify a set of keywords/keyword phrases for use in your optimized news release. Use free tools such as Wordtracker, Google Insights, Google Adwords, or Microsoft’s AdCenter Labs to do so. You may also want to check Twitter Search or Facebook Lexicon to get a sense for the natural words and phrases people use to talk about your type of topic.

1. Accurately reflect how people talk & search (natural language)
2. Face little competition from other keywords

Once you’ve decided on your keywords, strategically incorporate them into your news release (see the Edelman position paper for tips on how to do so).

Deliverables:

1. Your revised & optimized news release with the keywords highlighted in bold print
2. A short paper listing the keywords/keyword phrases you decided on and explaining why you chose them and how they fit the 2 keyword requirements outlined above. Include screenshots of the visuals generated by tools such as Google Insights to back up your argument.
3. A Twitter pitch for your news release of no more than 140 characters. Use a separate page for this pitch. Your pitch should incorporate at least one of your keywords. Since this is not an official SEU news release, do not send it out over Twitter. For tips on writing effective Twitter copy, check out this example.

Grading Criteria:

Your optimized news release will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

1. Quality of the writing (10 pts.)
2. Properly optimized
1. Keywords incorporated into headline (10 pts.)
2. Keywords incorporated into body (10 pts.)
3. Keywords bolded (only bolded words will be considered) (10 pts.)
3. Quality of the paper
1. Lists keywords (10 pts.)
2. Provides rationale for choice of keywords (10 pts.)
3. Explains how keywords fit reqs (natural language & competition) (10 pts.)
4. Provides screenshots to back up rationale (10 pts.)
4. Twitter pitch
1. Within the 140 character limit (10 pts.)
2. Incorporates keyword(s) (10 pts.)