Social Media Optimization (SMO) - new marketing channels

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What is social media? 

Before launching into the world of social media optimisation it is worth stopping to discuss what is understood by social media.

Wikipedia describes social media as:-

“online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. Popular social mediums include blogs, message boards, podcasts and wikis.”

SMO and SEO – natural partners

SMO sits very well with search engine optimisation (SEO) as the two processes aim to get the same results – increased web traffic and visibility.

While they have the same goal they use two different channels – SEO concentrates on search engines and social media optimisation uses the platforms listed above.

The synergy doesn’t stop there… SMO is seen as an integral part of an online reputation management or search engine reputation management for companies, brands or individuals who care about their online presence.

Social media all the buzz

There are no hiding places from social media. It is everywhere and Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other leading brands are fully ingrained into our everyday personal and work lives. We all “google it” and social media brands will themselves soon become new additions to our daily language.

Social media – share don’t sell

Of importance however is a word that will always appear with or certainly very near to social media… share.

Social media takes a very different approach to traditional processes in that it is driven by the theme of sharing and engaging. Gone are the hard sale marketing techniques, social media is much more omnidirectional and replaces one way marketing. Wikipedia’s definition encapsulates the mentality behind social media in that users “share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other”.

As a marketing channel, social media is an excellent arena but due care is needed, hard marketing is gone and engagement is a must.

What to do?

For any website, brand or company, social media engagement is almost certainly a must. Naturally there are going to be sectors or products that will not be suitable for social media optimisation and social media marketing, you wouldn’t really want to be tweeted on discount funerals or the like.

However for the majority, SMO has to be added to their action plan for now

Next big thing? First, master the last big thing

Some may argue that it is hard to master the next big thing while still trying to master the last big thing.

This is where the WebMarketing Group has a unique perspective. We are already experts at SEO and are now quickly building our social media optimisation skills. As mentioned above there is a clear synergy between the two and we can run an effective campaign that combines all SEO and SMO aspects and works to the same collective goal – increased web presence and visibility.

Doing nothing is not an option – don’t get scared by the scale of the job

Launching into social media is a daunting prospect. The blogosphere is now so huge and there are so many communities that it is hard to know what approach to take.

How to Get Ahead with SEO: 8 Hints for Beginners

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For beginners the process of getting a business up and running on the Internet can be challenging enough without worrying about website optimisation. However, in today’s competitive market, no business can afford to ignore the importance of having your site listed on search engine results pages. For this reason, it would seem like folly to ignore all free search engine optimisation Analysis available. Be aware that SEO is an ongoing process and that however good the help you get from SEO Services is, you’ll need to know how SEO works and maintain your site regularly with it in mind. Here are ten hints that should help you on the path to success.

Watch Your Speed
Google and other search engines send spider programs that take note of the time it takes for pages on your site to load. It’s important to make sure that your pages load quickly and to that end, make sure you’re using a good quality server. Remember users also appreciate pages that load quickly.

Link Only to Good Quality Sites
Who you link to is more important than who links to you in the eyes of search engines. Avoid any Links on your site that lead to spamming or link-farm sites, as users will follow them and decide it reflects badly on you, and search engines will decide the same and penalise you. As with all areas of SEO, you need to see maintenance as something to think about on a daily basis. Make sure your links are always up to date, working and good, and introduce new ones as often as possible.

Stick to the Name you’ve Chosen for Your Site
Think very carefully about the name you choose for your site, because changing it after time can be disastrous. From the beginning you’re scoring points and earning a reputation with search engines, all of which is instantly lost when the name of the site is changed.

New Domain vs. Old Domain
Think very carefully before purchasing a new domain. There are cases where you have to, of course, and if this is the case then so be it, but doing so can mean a very long delay in getting listed. Recent figures suggest that users with new domain names should expect to have to wait between 9 and 12 months before appearing in the top 20 results for any keyword. You might decide that it’s much more beneficial to purchase an old or expired domain and work from there.

Be Innovative When It Comes to Keywords
Realistically, the most popular keywords are unlikely to help you straight away. When we type the word ‘music’ into a search box, for example, we will get a long list of well-stabled sites. It’s a good idea to add words to the keywords you choose to feature. Instead of just ‘music’ for example, feature ‘alternative country music’ or ‘music for relaxation’. Many high positions on results pages for less popular keyword phrases is much better than just a few top 200 rankings for something extremely popular.

Follow the Advice of SEO Experts and Make Your Site ‘Spider-Friendly’
Ways of doing this include providing an HTML only version of your site that spiders can explore more easily. Avoid flash, java and frames to give spiders the best chance of reading your site effectively. Make sure spiders receive any special instructions through the special text file intender for their benefit.

Promote Backlinks
Any Free SEO Analysis will highlight possibilities for improvement by taking greater advantage of backlinks for offpage optimisation. They’re links to your website from others in the Internet, and they’re valuable because search engines take special notice of the quantity and quality of links that exist to your site. Links you pay for tend not to be very useful in these terms, as search engines are savvy and know what to look for. Links from educational websites are very beneficial. Content management systems can help you to get the most out of backlinks.

Last But Not Least, Never Attempt to Over Optimise
You might wonder how it could be possible, but too many people get carried away with optimisation and realise only too late that their site’s ruined. Remember that as a rule search engines want to see a site that’s user friendly, and that by pleasing the real people who visit your site you’ll be pleasing them and getting results too.

Beware Of Over Optimisation When Using SEO

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Many business owners become extremely excited about SEO when they hear about what it can do. They quickly want to begin running an SEO Campaign and jump in with two feet and little SEO knowledge. There is problem with this approach to SEO. Learning the basics of SEO can be useful and a great base upon which to develop your SEO knowledge and experience. However, it can often lead you down the path to over optimisation.

Company owners new to SEO read about a particular technique which has produced positive results for other businesses and begin using this method within their own SEO campaign. Often, they are unaware of how it needs to be used to make a significant difference and this is when problems start.

Keywords are often one of the first things of importance noticed by those exploring SEO because keywords can make a big difference to how a web page is ranked in the search results. With this in mind, Content is then often produced by business owners featuring numerous keywords related to their business. Whilst this may seem logical, this method can actually have the opposite result to the desired effect.

Keywords are important in SEO but only when used appropriately. Keyword stuffing is viewed as an attempt at manipulating the search engines and is easily noticeable with the technology used today. You may think you are running an effective SEO campaign, but in fact you are over optimising and the result will be low Rankings and a damaged reputation.

Keywords need to be researched and carefully selected. Only include keywords when relevant and appropriate.

Links are also hugely important in SEO and once again, many learn this fact and then begin building links to their website in any way they can. They believe the more the better and use schemes and Link Building techniques to establish as many links to their sites as possible.

This is once again an example of over optimisation which has a bad result. It is the quality of links to your website which is of importance and not the quantity. If you use link building schemes you will have links to your site from low quality and spam websites and this will not reflect positively on your business.

You must build genuine and relevant links from high quality websites to your own if you want links to contribute effectively to your SEO campaign.

It is understandable that site owners are excited about the prospect of SEO and so begin using SEO techniques aggressively as soon as they can. However, this attitude and lack of SEO knowledge and experience often leads to over optimisation of some kind and this is not beneficial. SEO campaigns are fragile and over optimisation can create a great deal of damage.

We at SEO Consult can show you how to use SEO techniques effectively within your SEO campaign. We only use ethical and proven SEO methods and can use these techniques effectively and efficiently for you.

How Can Social Networking Help Your Blog?

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Social networking and blogging are two highly effective Search Engine Optimisationtechniques. Both can produce impressive SEO results in their own right but they can also work together productively. It is possible to use social networking to help blogging to work more effectively as part of your search engine optimisation campaign.

For a blog to be successful, you must regularly update it with relevant and well-written Content. This will ensure visitors to your blog continuously have fresh information to read and will also help it to get the attention of the search engines. The search engine web crawlers look for new website content and for high quality and relevant material. However, another way to direct relevant traffic to your blog is by providing links to your blog in your social networking pages.

Twitter, Facebook and other websites like this can offer businesses a lot. They can help them to develop their brands within the online community and help them to achieve top Rankings in the search results. They can also be used to direct those interested in your business to web pages with more detailed information about your company.

You are often limited with the amount of information you are able to provide when using social networking websites. Posts cannot go on and on and with Twitter you are limited even further. If you can provide your followers with content which attracts their attention and interest, they may want to learn more about your business. A link to your blog can be the perfect solution.

A blog can be a lot more detailed and can feature a great deal of information about your business and also about the industry you are in. Blogs are updated regularly so will feature fresh and useful information and can help others to gain a better knowledge and understanding of what you are able to offer.

If spending time and effort on creating and updating a blog as part of your search engine optimisation campaign, you have to drive as much traffic to your blog as possible. The more readers you have, the greater the potential for visitor numbers to your site to increase and the greater your potential for a sales growth too.

You should be using any effective methods you can to direct those interested in your company to your web pages and doing so through your social networking pages can be highly productive. Don’t continuously direct readers of your posts within the social networking communities to your blog or website but when appropriate, include a link they may find useful if wanting to know more on the subject.

Blogging and social networking can work well separately but can also work well together.

At SEO Consult, we can provide you with a number of useful tips and methods which can be used to improve your chances of SEO success. Let us develop an SEO Campaign suitable for your individual needs and let us help you improve the performance of your business.