Social bookmarking sites are plentiful and are a good way of applying SEO to your website without doing very much.  By submitting your articles to sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon and Deli.icio.us on a daily basis, you may see an increase in website traffic.  Sure, submitting every blog article or page of content to all of the social bookmarking sites can be very time consuming, although this process can be done in thirty minutes a day once you have created your accounts.

In addition to social bookmarking, RSS feeds are also popular.  Unfortunately, many businesses fail to realize their potential and how they can utilize them in terms of marketing their business.  Essentially, an RSS feed will notify subscribers each time you post something new to your site, making it the perfect way of keeping people up to date with what is happening within your business or on your website without having to check back every day wondering if new content has been published.

So what is the point to all this?  Both social bookmarking sites and RSS feeds increase exposure to your content as well as creating more venues for new users to stumble upon your content.  By simply integrating a standard social bookmarking set of icons, you can invite your readers to spread the word for you.

Link building used to be an easy process.  Many websites offered to “exchange links” with you, by which you would enter their web address on your site someplace and they would do likewise.  It was quite common to visit a website and see a page titled “Links” which would list any number of other websites for you to click on and visit.  Typically, websites were exchanging links with anyone who asked, whether or not their site was related to their own.  The effectiveness of this did really rely on you being able to exchange links with higher ranking sites.

Today, things are done differently.  “Links” pages are no longer viewed in a positive light by search engines.  Link building has become a weapon of mass marketing in Internet terms, leading to many SEO firms offering to take on a link building strategy for you and propel your site in search rankings.

Unfortunately, while there are many good SEO firms out there that will carry this out in an SEO legal manner, known as “white hat” techniques; there are also many more that will engage in so called “black hat” (the firms that I mentioned above) techniques when it comes to link building.  It’s not just me, many business owners are finding numerous emails landing in their inboxes each day from sites offering thousands of links for just a few dollars and the guarantee that their website will be top ranking in a matter of weeks (or days in some cases).  The old saying “if it sounds too good to be true…” comes to mind, purely because link building takes time, it takes good research and it requires a targeted plan.  Also, remember no one other than the executives of Google knows Google’s search algorithm.  Beware of any company that guarantees rankings.

Why is link building so vital to SEO? Search engines love links! It makes them think your website is uber popular and as a result they will place you higher in the rankings – think of it as a popularity competition!  Unlike what most so-called SEO professionals will tell you (the “black hats” I mentioned a couple of times above), quantity IS NOT everything.  It’s important; however, the quality and relevance of links needs to be your first consideration.  If the search engine deems for your links to be non-relevant to your business, the links will be rejected and your site can even be removed from the search engine!

Black hat link building however, is simply another form of spamming, posting links to your website on pages that bear no relation to your site or business.  Unfortunately, it is your site that will get penalized not the company that posted the links in the first place.  Hence why you should be careful when selecting a link building partner – “black hat” link building may appear to be a great value but they will not only fall short on their promises but will increase your business’s potential for getting caught and banned from the search engines.  After all, you get what you pay for.

So when it comes to keywords what should you be focusing on? Well, there was a time when single keywords would probably get the job done for you and in the early days site builders would literally stuff pages with keywords to propel them up the page rankings.  Today, it is not that simple.  Google in particular has developed various algorithms and software programs to wheedle out those sites that still employ such tactics, allowing only quality content to filter through into the rankings.

Single keywords are important, but it is long tail phrases which can really make the difference.  Here’s why: long tail keywords of three or four words will be more target specific, whereas single words will be more general.  For example, let’s say that you manage a website that sells greeting cards.  While [cards] may have a lot of search traffic, how many of those web surfers are actually looking for greeting cards?  Targeted a very broad keyword in this case won’t result in many visitors or sales.  Why? Because [cards] could mean “business cards”, “birthday cards”, “credit cards”, etc.  The term is too broad to deliver viable customers to your website.  By targeting longer-tail phrases like [birthday greeting cards], [cards for mom], [wedding anniversary cards], you will see an increase in “quality visitors” – those that are specifically looking for your product.

Think about it this way – in the real world you would not try to promote your greeting cards via advertisements in a bicycle magazine!  Reaching your target audience is the key to success in any business and in any type of marketing campaign. So you need to identify what your targets are looking for and how they are doing it.

It sounds simple enough, but so many people still don’t get it when it comes to developing keyword campaigns. Essentially you need to be clever and proactive when it comes to keywords.  Don’t be seduced by the large numbers of visitors a single keyword will attract each month – you will not receive the same numbers and instead, you may be wasting your efforts by developing a lack of “quality visitors”.  Adopt long tail keywords and apply them to the content on your website to target certain areas of your business and bring in visitors who are specifically looking for what you have to offer.

Think about it, you have your brand, you have your products or services, you have set up a great looking website, but now you’re missing the customers!  In terms of Internet marketing, social networks are worth their weight in gold, providing a cost effective (if not free) means of reaching out and telling people you are there.  But before you rush off and open accounts on every site you find, you need to take a moment to consider what you want to achieve and how social networks can help you do it.  A look at your target audience should help you to determine which social networks are the most viable, for instance Facebook are generally used, although not exclusively, by a younger demographic, students, young parents etc.   On the other hand, Twitter has become popular with many businesses, politicians, celebrities and various agencies, in addition to the same market that Facebook serves.

Not every social site will be of benefit to you and a quick tour around them will help you to determine which ones are right for your particular business.  While all of the popular social networking sites have millions of users, finding potential customers among them can be difficult if you do not use the features and tools of the site effectively.  For instance, Flickr offers a means of sharing photographs, ideal if you manufacture products, but not so well for service industries that would probably find Facebook or Twitter a better choice.  Before embracing social media, know your audience. For example, companies whose target market is the federal government may want to research which social media applications the government allows its employees to use. If employees aren’t able to use the technologies at work, is there a point to launching that particular social media application?

Social networks offer additional methods of improving your web presence and elevating your business in the search engine rankings.  Creating profiles on various social networking sites will give potential customers plenty of scope to find out more about you and ultimately be directed to your website.   But you need to maintain these sites, ensure all links are active, profiles are up to date and information is current and accurate.   This has created a need for staff to be able to use various social networking sites and know how to update them as necessary, and this in itself can be a crucial factor in your choice of site.

Social networking websites have become the way forward for increasing web presence and when combined with other Internet marketing techniques they can be very powerful tools in increasing business and attracting customers.   In essence there has never been an easier way of spreading the word so quickly and on a global scale.

During our analysis of the website, we noticed that there was limited content on the site and all of the search traffic was coming from brand name keywords, not a single local targeted or service specific keyword.   Unless the prospective customer knew “Spilled Milk Catering”, the DC catering company was invisible.  To address these concerns, we:

• Improved the site structure.   Geographic pages were added to speak to each of Spilled Milk’s target markets (Maryland, DC, and Virginia).  Additionally, specific service pages were added to maximize the search engine exposure of each of their individual service offerings.
• Researched and analyzed keywords.  Keywords were researched and analyzed to capitalize on the high local search volume and catering-specific keywords.
• Optimized the web content.  Using the keywords identified, keyword density was improved to build credibility and relevance in the eyes of the search engines.

In a short ten week span following our efforts, we’ve accomplished quite a bit.

• Improved total website traffic by 163%
• Improved the number of unique visitors by 207%
• Improved traffic coming from referral sites by 234%
• Improved the number of landing pages in which users entered the site by 120%
• Improved the number of page views by 146%
• Placed 24 keywords on the search engines radar that were not previously ranking
• Improved the ranking of the #1 desired keyword by 94 places in Google

It’s been a pleasure working with the guys over at Spilled Milk.  Since SEO is an on-going process, we haven’t completed the job yet but the results are headed in the right direction.  Lastly, if you have an event coming up, give them a shout.  Tell them I sent you and try the Three-Cheese Puff Canapes – you won’t regret it.  Yummmmm………

How do you build links? That is not an easy question to answer, as there are multitudes of ways links can be built for a website. Some popular methods include:

• Directories: Directories are websites that list and categorize other websites, in order to organize the Internet’s information. They were popularly used by people in the past to navigate the web, and can even be considered the first search engines. Now, they are used by search engines themselves as they crawl directories to help them organize information. As with any site, some directories are considered to be of higher quality than others by search engines.
• Press Releases: When press releases are distributed online, they are frequently picked up and posted on other websites thus increasing the number of backlinks.
• Articles/Content Syndication: By writing and publishing quality articles, guides, and other content to content hosting hubs, valuable back-links are developed.
• Existing Link Modifications: To increase the relevance of back-links, website owners can be asked to change which page of ones website they are pointing to, and what keywords are associated with the link to ensure targeted keywords are being used.
• Text Link Advertisements: A valuable way to build high quality, relevant links to a website, is to research relevant sites and inquire about web advertisements.

Many of these methods do carry an expensive price tag.  For example, PRWeb has four pricing tiers ranging from $80 – $360 for each press release!

Before embarking on any link building, consult a SEO professional (or Reef Light Interactive).  Be careful though, please read our blog on deciphering the SEO experts from the self-proclaimed “SEO experts”.

There are certain rules to follow with each of these methods and best practices that will maximize the effectiveness of the link building campaign while keeping the costs reasonable.  After all, who wants to spend $360 for a press release that generates no buzz because no keywords (or the wrong keywords) were targeted?

For any questions or to discuss your website in detail, get in touch with us.  We’d love to hear from you!

When search engines originated in the mid 90’s, simply incorporating keywords into your website’s page elements was enough to have it rank well.  Spammers quickly understood that they could stuff hundreds of keywords in a page’s code, including keywords that were not relevant to the content, to have it rank well and generate a rush of search engine traffic.  To combat spam, search engines needed another signal that would indicate whether they could trust a page enough to rank it well.  The solution was to use elements outside the control of a webmaster, so they could not be abused.  That solution turned out to be links — specifically, the quantity, quality, and relevance of links pointing to a page.

• Quantity — Think of Links as “Votes”:  Search engines use links as votes of confidence for what they are pointing to.  If a page has two links pointing to it from two unique websites, it can be viewed as two votes for that page.  If another page about the same content has one link pointing to it, the search engine will trust the page with two inbound links more, and will rank it higher in natural search results.
• Quality — All Links/Votes are NOT Equal: All inbound links are not created equal.  A link from a website that itself has a high number of quality links pointing to it carries more weight than a link from a page that is not well linked to.  For example, if we continue the “votes” analogy for a political candidate, an endorsement from The Washington Post carries more weight than an endorsement from a neighborhood newsletter.
• Relevance — Relevant Links are Better: Links from relevant websites are weighed more heavily than links from irrelevant sites.  For example, if a NYC restaurant’s website wants to build links in order to rank better for keywords related to [New York City Restaurants], it should seek links from food blogs, restaurant review websites, and New York travel guide sites, as opposed to a website about the skiing in Denver, which is irrelevant.

Stay tuned for the last part of this three part series, to publish tomorrow, when we discuss link building tactics.

Truth is, a lot of businesses talk search engine optimization (SEO) by using popular buzzwords like “keywords”, “meta tags”, etc.  To explain SEO to many of our clients, I use the analogy of building a house.  Before you can start building, you’ve got to lay a sturdy foundation.  In the case of SEO, the “foundation” refers to a table-less and compliant web coding, researched and analyzed keywords, etc.  Like a house, a sturdy foundation is vital; a prerequisite for any future optimization efforts.  However, an effective SEO strategy must encompass much, much more than a simple foundation.

It’s true that a website can rank well by simply having a great foundation, but “well” is relative.  Ideally, a website will rank for competitive, broad, generalized phrases and keywords.  A solid foundation may increase search volume, but the volume will be based on less searched and less competitive terms.  For example, let’s look at two phrases [red velvet wedding cake designer New York City] vs. [cake designer].  The latter phrase yields nearly 10,000 searches a month while the former yields just a few.  As a business owner, would you like to try and rank in the top 10 of a 10,000 person/month search phrase, or rank in the top 10 of the more popular search?  Naturally, you’d want to rank in the top 10 of the more popular search.  Why?  Because 95% of SEO traffic comes from Page 1 of the search results, so it’s imperative that you rank well.

As more and more people use search engines to find what they’re looking for online, it is more important than ever for you to ensure that your product/website has visibility.  Visibility — there’s another relative word.  According to a recent eMarketer study, it’s not enough to have some visibility — but rather a site needs to be visible on Page 1 of Google.

With all the emphasis on being ranked on Page 1 of Google search results, you’re probably wondering, “how in the world do I do that?”  There are a number of ways, but the single most effective tactic to get a website to rank for a targeted keyword is by building inbound links.  Inbound links are links from other websites that point to yours.  Link building is a difficult, on-going SEO strategy.  Stay tuned for part two, to publish tomorrow, when we go through link building’s history and overview.

Who knows if they’ll continue down this path of putting more information directly in the SERP’s as opposed to clicking through to supplier sites, i.e. flight availability, hotel availability, etc.  Something to keep an eye on.  More evidence Google is trying to keep people on their site then directing traffic elsewhere.  Maybe they should revise their “do no evil” slogan.

PSN wanted to make their website more user-friendly showcasing each of their three unique services: jobs for nurses, staffing solutions, and healthcare consulting. In addition to the top level navigation, links were added on the left and in the body. To maximize the staffing company angle, we suggested that three featured positions be displayed on the homepage for easy access.  Below is a before and after snapshot…

PSN is ecstatic about the new website and is looking towards the future. Feel free to browse around and tell us what you think!

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Reef Light Interactive, a Washington DC web design company, makes brands shine! We had a pleasure working with PSN; feel free to contact us to learn more about our web design and/or SEO services.