In this age of dominant social media, does it matter whether or not your websites are properly optimized for search? Believe it or not, yes. If your main site functions as your prime source for e-commerce and a point of contact for your business, it is important that customers can find it via search if they do not patronize your social channels. While it is good to have a strong marketing strategy with Twitter and Facebook, you should not neglect your main site, or rely upon them to drive your traffic. Organic SEO still holds value in this changing world of online commerce and marketing.

Why maintain good organic SEO practices for your website? It seems easier to tweet out new content and upload videos to YouTube, doesn’t it? While the Internet gives us the advantage of obtaining information practically at the speed of light, the transfer of news and viral curiosities happens at such an abbreviated pace. Our attention spans appear truncated as we dish out and receive news in 140 character bites. Eventually, though, if you sell a product or service potential customers will want thorough details. Therefore, it is important that your main website is prepared to accommodate visitors.

You must continue good SEO practices – proper tagging of photos, meta data, and links – to give your company the edge over your competitors:

• Outbound linking to relevant information can boost your authority. Naturally you will have links to your social profiles prominent, but don’t forget inbound link that takes visitors deep into your site. Robots continue to crawl the Web as well, so keep your code clean for them.
• Tag photos accordingly for added search mojo, and make sure your content is sufficiently peppered with your keywords.
• Structure pages so that content is easily to find, and that your site is easily navigable. Remember what was said about short attention spans: if you don’t have the offer up front people are not likely to search creation for it.

One thing to bear in mind when optimizing your site for good search results is that the more attention you give it, the more likely the major engines will pay attention to your activities, in a good way. If you have a blog attached to your site that is updated regularly, all the better. The influx of fresh content helps keep your site relevant and gives people a reason to return.

Organic SEO remains a factor in your online success. Take the time to evaluate improvements to your main site.

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When you obtain your account, your first inclination is probably to take a handle close to your brand or company name. This makes sense, especially if you have a well-known brand that people search. Your customers would expect your Twitter handle to feature your business name prominently. Let’s say, though, you are not as well-known as the Disneys and Nikes of the world. This could give you some leeway in choosing a name depending on the factors that define your business.

Let’s consider the following:

Regional Market

Does your business serve a specific area rather than the national market? Including your region, city or state as part of your Twitter name can enforce notice of your service areas. Customers in your sales zones typically search for services, and there is a good chance such a handle could show in the results.

Showcase Your Product

Does your business focus on just one product? Potential customers may be more inclined to find you on Twitter based upon the name of your product rather than a company name that doesn’t necessarily reveal the nature of your business. Incorporating your product into your handle can help people find you, people looking for you.

Spacing

Should you include underscores in your name or run all the letters together? Typing dashes and underscore marks can prove cumbersome in time, and if customers are trying to address you by memory instinct may tell them to type your name sans marks. You may think it silly to give consideration to such minor details, but this can make all the difference in social media, especially when somebody is trying to contact you.

Take into account the size and popularity of your business, your geographic reach, and the products you sell when you prepare to promote via Twitter. Good Twitter handles are memorable, and once you have one set you can create memorable content to attract followers.

Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on Virginia SEO services,  social media writing and Twitter marketing.

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Used to be you’d see a billboard advertising a product or service with a phone number underneath the company logo. Then the phone number became a website address, then a Facebook user name alongside the unmistakable blue square with rounded corners. Today, you are more likely to find advertisements that display none of these things as they are replaced by a hashtag and a simple word.

Take for example, recent advertisements for the HBO series, “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” A title card displays the show’s name along with #curb. The show doesn’t necessarily want you to like a Facebook page or check out a preview on YouTube, but they want you to create conversation. The #curb tag in Twitter or other social networks gets you into an exclusive club of Curb fans – you can search now and see what people are saying, and generate your own buzz among your friends and followers. It’s a smart move by HBO and Curb to market the show in this manner, because who can better promote a TV series, book, music act, anything, than an active group of fans?

It’s one thing to have a Twitter account with thousands of followers, and another to have thousands of Twitter users actually talking about your products and services. At the end of the day, which do you think is more valuable: a thousand people reading your posts and possibly patronizing your business, or a thousand people each tweeting about your business to their followers, and potentially increasing your visibility? This is not to say you should stop trying to bring in new followers, but this is a great time to shift some focus in your Twitter marketing to encourage positive chatter.

The Hashtag VS. the @Mention

Even if you are new to Twitter, you know the difference between using # and @ in conversation. The @ mention often directly addresses another Twitter user, while the # addresses a specific topic in Twitter that is popular, or “trending,” or part of a pertinent discussion. Conference planners often set up hashtags for conferees to follow for information, and fans of TV shows and movies may add a tag to their tweets to generate attention. Fans of “True Blood” converse during the show – just look for #trueblood in Twitter to see the activity.

As you formulate a marketing strategy that involves Twitter, you will want to focus on a unique hashtag people can use when referring to your company. While an @ mention may alert you more easily, not all of these tweets may be visible to everybody, depending on the Twitter client used. Use of the hashtag is better to promote your brand to as many Twitter account holders as possible.

Selecting a Tag

In selecting a hashtag that will identify with your company, you want to be mindful of the following:

1) Make sure it’s not already being used. Play around a bit on Twitter and test potential hashtags you would use for your company identity. Your company name or a derivative of it may work, but have an alternative if you find it’s being used.

2) Keep it short. People should discuss your company with as much free space as possible. You have 140 characters per tweet, so try to keep the hashtag less than 10% of that.

3) Make sure people know to use it. Let people know the hashtag, and use it often in your own tweets. As followers go by your example they may soon converse on their own about you, and the hashtag allows for easy monitoring.

Having customers talk to you via Twitter is good. When they follow you, it’s great. When they talk positively about you on Twitter or anywhere else, you strike gold.

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So, Google Plus is supposed to be the big threat to Facebook, just as Google Buzz was to have been…something. In the frenzy to become early adopters of the latest social media trend, webmasters are coding the little +1 buttons on their sites, which turn blue when a user clicks them to give the content a boost. The trick to achieving success with this, of course, is making sure there are other Plus users out there to click the button.

Users of Google Plus may also adjust their accounts to cross-post to other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, yet there doesn’t seem to be a way to do the opposite. You can push Facebook notifications to Twitter and vice versa, but Google either does not or doesn’t plan to accommodate receiving notices. You can, however, upload photos and videos to your Plus activity stream and sort people you follow into different and unlimited groups, or “circles.”

Seems the notions of circles works more cleanly than Facebook’s grouping system, which requires users to sift through a drop down menu to find the stream of friends they wish to read. Plus chat functionality is also available as a carryover from GMail. What’s not to love?

More importantly, thinking as social media marketer, what’s the fuss? Is Google Plus worth an aggressive push now or is there the risk of waning interest like with Buzz? If you have established presences with Facebook and Twitter under your business name, you may think the addition of Plus can boost your brand. It is entirely possible, too. However, nurturing your Plus profile and connections will take time from your current social media strategy. If there is the chance Plus will fizzle out after the initial novelty wears off, how much of your energy was spent that should have been somewhere else marketing your business?

Then again, Plus could take off and give Facebook a run for the money.

As you approach a new social media outlet for potential marketing success, it is good to note specifically how others are using it. If you find within your circles people have not updated their activity streams in weeks, it could mean your circles of influence are experiencing social media overload, or find the structure is not to their liking. Addition of +1 buttons to promote your content can provide a good idea of whether or not people find your content worthy of sharing – remember to have other social buttons available as well. A gradual entry into Plus may yield good results for your company’s visibility in the long run.

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What can a business do on Twitter to improve their social media clout and click-through rating? As somebody who works in social media, I’m asked this often. Where Facebook and YouTube appear to offer businesses a clear understanding of how they work and how they benefit others, Twitter remains an enigma. Business marketers know they should at least have their brand established in a profile, with the proper links in their bios, but beyond that… what? Do you fear Twitter is useless in business for the noise it creates and the saturation of users trying to market to you? If you believe this, perhaps it’s time to step back and approach your use of Twitter differently.

If you have dabbled in promotional tweeting to tout your products and services, you may have noticed other businesses follow the same path. Tweeting turns into repetitive sales pitches that get lost in the ether. Of the people you follow, the majority of re-tweeted messages come from comedians or companies taking advantage of paid tweeting, and only they know the effectiveness of such campaigns. To succeed in using Twitter as part of your online marketing, you need to focus not on how many people will get the message, but how many people will do something about it.

In other words, rather than blast out sales and codes ad nauseum, take a personal approaching to using Twitter and reaching people individually. Convert to sales one Twitter user at a time.

Okay, so how do you achieve this? First thing you want to do is set up a feed that tracks specific key phrases relevant to your business. Whether you are searching for people looking for hotel rooms, shoes, books, car rentals… eventually somebody is bound to ask the Twitterverse where he can find something. Check the feed regularly and weed out possible leads, then approach the user with a friendly greeting and an offer to help.

Now, as you use Twitter you want to have a client in place that alerts you immediately when you receive replies and direct messages. This allows you to remain timely in your one-on-one marketing. If you respond to Twitter users and disappear for eight hours, you aren’t much of a help. What if a reply goes unanswered and a competitor picks up the ball? For heavy-duty Twitter use, somebody on the team needs to watch the account.

When you are not directly approaching people on your account, use Twitter to humanize your business. Talk about what you are doing, what the weather is like outside the office… keep the narrative light-hearted, and even include an occasional third-party link to something interesting. Retweet followers where applicable, and always respond to mentions, regardless of whether they are friendly or harsh. People need to know there’s a person behind your social presence, and putting a genial attitude in your social media works to establish trust.

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Eleven days ago I invested a little of my affiliate earnings
in a new product that was being launched.

The Dowser Professional is a keyword research tool on
steroids, and has allowed me to improve the returns from the
few existing niche websites I already have, and find a
number of new niches very quickly.

I was so impressed with The Dowser Professional that I
decided it was a key product I wanted to promote as an
affiliate, even to the extent of developing a product
specific niche website.

I am very much a believer in Ken Evoy’s technique of
“pre-selling”. If you provide a customer with proof that a
product works, and what they could do with the product, you
can maximise your sales potential.

So I set out to prove that The Dowser Professional was an
insanely powerful tool, and that anyone could easily use it
to improve their website(s) and find rich new niches.

I set myself what I believe is the ultimate challenge, to
target SEO experts on their own turf.

I picked an initial keyword to research, “keyword”.

Within a few minutes I had a good list of related keywords,
and within 20 minutes had completed my keyword research. Yes
the whole process was that fast.

I then setup a Blogger.com blog based around the keywords I
selected.

[http://keyword-report.blogspot.com]

The primary keywords for the site are “keyword position
report” (KEI approx 6K) and “keyword ranking report” (KEI
approx 3K).
It is amazing that such large holes can be found in a very
competitive niche with only a few minutes work, but that is
the power of The Dowser.

I set myself a very strict rule. No seeking links until the
site was indexed and had achieved ranking based purely on
keywords.

Today (July 28th 2005) the site was picked up by Yahoo. It
ranks 1st and 5th for it’s primary keywords, and has already
received traffic from both Yahoo and Technorati.

The site is not yet listed in MSN and Google. I expect it to
rank well on MSN and poorly on Google until it has some
incoming links.

The site contains maybe 30% original content, and any
articles used were carefully “wrapped” with specific
keyword heavy text both before and after.

Andy Beard has worked in Sales, Marketing and Localization for the last 15 years, primarily in the computer games industry. His blog Exploring Niche Websites gives insights into creating profitable websites on the internet.

Additional related information including screenshots of example Yahoo ranking are available on his Niche Website Blog

Reporting on the success or failure of Keyword Position Report [http://keyword-report.blogspot.com] will appear in future articles.

Author: Andy Beard
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Humorous photo captions

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Eleven days ago I invested a little of my affiliate earnings
in a new product that was being launched.

The Dowser Professional is a keyword research tool on
steroids, and has allowed me to improve the returns from the
few existing niche websites I already have, and find a
number of new niches very quickly.

I was so impressed with The Dowser Professional that I
decided it was a key product I wanted to promote as an
affiliate, even to the extent of developing a product
specific niche website.

I am very much a believer in Ken Evoy’s technique of
“pre-selling”. If you provide a customer with proof that a
product works, and what they could do with the product, you
can maximise your sales potential.

So I set out to prove that The Dowser Professional was an
insanely powerful tool, and that anyone could easily use it
to improve their website(s) and find rich new niches.

I set myself what I believe is the ultimate challenge, to
target SEO experts on their own turf.

I picked an initial keyword to research, “keyword”.

Within a few minutes I had a good list of related keywords,
and within 20 minutes had completed my keyword research. Yes
the whole process was that fast.

I then setup a Blogger.com blog based around the keywords I
selected.

[http://keyword-report.blogspot.com]

The primary keywords for the site are “keyword position
report” (KEI approx 6K) and “keyword ranking report” (KEI
approx 3K).
It is amazing that such large holes can be found in a very
competitive niche with only a few minutes work, but that is
the power of The Dowser.

I set myself a very strict rule. No seeking links until the
site was indexed and had achieved ranking based purely on
keywords.

Today (July 28th 2005) the site was picked up by Yahoo. It
ranks 1st and 5th for it’s primary keywords, and has already
received traffic from both Yahoo and Technorati.

The site is not yet listed in MSN and Google. I expect it to
rank well on MSN and poorly on Google until it has some
incoming links.

The site contains maybe 30% original content, and any
articles used were carefully “wrapped” with specific
keyword heavy text both before and after.

Andy Beard has worked in Sales, Marketing and Localization for the last 15 years, primarily in the computer games industry. His blog Exploring Niche Websites gives insights into creating profitable websites on the internet.

Additional related information including screenshots of example Yahoo ranking are available on his Niche Website Blog

Reporting on the success or failure of Keyword Position Report [http://keyword-report.blogspot.com] will appear in future articles.

Author: Andy Beard
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Humorous photo captions

ShareThis

Eleven days ago I invested a little of my affiliate earnings
in a new product that was being launched.

The Dowser Professional is a keyword research tool on
steroids, and has allowed me to improve the returns from the
few existing niche websites I already have, and find a
number of new niches very quickly.

I was so impressed with The Dowser Professional that I
decided it was a key product I wanted to promote as an
affiliate, even to the extent of developing a product
specific niche website.

I am very much a believer in Ken Evoy’s technique of
“pre-selling”. If you provide a customer with proof that a
product works, and what they could do with the product, you
can maximise your sales potential.

So I set out to prove that The Dowser Professional was an
insanely powerful tool, and that anyone could easily use it
to improve their website(s) and find rich new niches.

I set myself what I believe is the ultimate challenge, to
target SEO experts on their own turf.

I picked an initial keyword to research, “keyword”.

Within a few minutes I had a good list of related keywords,
and within 20 minutes had completed my keyword research. Yes
the whole process was that fast.

I then setup a Blogger.com blog based around the keywords I
selected.

[http://keyword-report.blogspot.com]

The primary keywords for the site are “keyword position
report” (KEI approx 6K) and “keyword ranking report” (KEI
approx 3K).
It is amazing that such large holes can be found in a very
competitive niche with only a few minutes work, but that is
the power of The Dowser.

I set myself a very strict rule. No seeking links until the
site was indexed and had achieved ranking based purely on
keywords.

Today (July 28th 2005) the site was picked up by Yahoo. It
ranks 1st and 5th for it’s primary keywords, and has already
received traffic from both Yahoo and Technorati.

The site is not yet listed in MSN and Google. I expect it to
rank well on MSN and poorly on Google until it has some
incoming links.

The site contains maybe 30% original content, and any
articles used were carefully “wrapped” with specific
keyword heavy text both before and after.

Andy Beard has worked in Sales, Marketing and Localization for the last 15 years, primarily in the computer games industry. His blog Exploring Niche Websites gives insights into creating profitable websites on the internet.

Additional related information including screenshots of example Yahoo ranking are available on his Niche Website Blog

Reporting on the success or failure of Keyword Position Report [http://keyword-report.blogspot.com] will appear in future articles.

Author: Andy Beard
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Healing food: natural way to cure cancer

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Eleven days ago I invested a little of my affiliate earnings
in a new product that was being launched.

The Dowser Professional is a keyword research tool on
steroids, and has allowed me to improve the returns from the
few existing niche websites I already have, and find a
number of new niches very quickly.

I was so impressed with The Dowser Professional that I
decided it was a key product I wanted to promote as an
affiliate, even to the extent of developing a product
specific niche website.

I am very much a believer in Ken Evoy’s technique of
“pre-selling”. If you provide a customer with proof that a
product works, and what they could do with the product, you
can maximise your sales potential.

So I set out to prove that The Dowser Professional was an
insanely powerful tool, and that anyone could easily use it
to improve their website(s) and find rich new niches.

I set myself what I believe is the ultimate challenge, to
target SEO experts on their own turf.

I picked an initial keyword to research, “keyword”.

Within a few minutes I had a good list of related keywords,
and within 20 minutes had completed my keyword research. Yes
the whole process was that fast.

I then setup a Blogger.com blog based around the keywords I
selected.

[http://keyword-report.blogspot.com]

The primary keywords for the site are “keyword position
report” (KEI approx 6K) and “keyword ranking report” (KEI
approx 3K).
It is amazing that such large holes can be found in a very
competitive niche with only a few minutes work, but that is
the power of The Dowser.

I set myself a very strict rule. No seeking links until the
site was indexed and had achieved ranking based purely on
keywords.

Today (July 28th 2005) the site was picked up by Yahoo. It
ranks 1st and 5th for it’s primary keywords, and has already
received traffic from both Yahoo and Technorati.

The site is not yet listed in MSN and Google. I expect it to
rank well on MSN and poorly on Google until it has some
incoming links.

The site contains maybe 30% original content, and any
articles used were carefully “wrapped” with specific
keyword heavy text both before and after.

Andy Beard has worked in Sales, Marketing and Localization for the last 15 years, primarily in the computer games industry. His blog Exploring Niche Websites gives insights into creating profitable websites on the internet.

Additional related information including screenshots of example Yahoo ranking are available on his Niche Website Blog

Reporting on the success or failure of Keyword Position Report [http://keyword-report.blogspot.com] will appear in future articles.

Author: Andy Beard
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Buy electrical pressure cooker

ShareThis

Eleven days ago I invested a little of my affiliate earnings
in a new product that was being launched.

The Dowser Professional is a keyword research tool on
steroids, and has allowed me to improve the returns from the
few existing niche websites I already have, and find a
number of new niches very quickly.

I was so impressed with The Dowser Professional that I
decided it was a key product I wanted to promote as an
affiliate, even to the extent of developing a product
specific niche website.

I am very much a believer in Ken Evoy’s technique of
“pre-selling”. If you provide a customer with proof that a
product works, and what they could do with the product, you
can maximise your sales potential.

So I set out to prove that The Dowser Professional was an
insanely powerful tool, and that anyone could easily use it
to improve their website(s) and find rich new niches.

I set myself what I believe is the ultimate challenge, to
target SEO experts on their own turf.

I picked an initial keyword to research, “keyword”.

Within a few minutes I had a good list of related keywords,
and within 20 minutes had completed my keyword research. Yes
the whole process was that fast.

I then setup a Blogger.com blog based around the keywords I
selected.

[http://keyword-report.blogspot.com]

The primary keywords for the site are “keyword position
report” (KEI approx 6K) and “keyword ranking report” (KEI
approx 3K).
It is amazing that such large holes can be found in a very
competitive niche with only a few minutes work, but that is
the power of The Dowser.

I set myself a very strict rule. No seeking links until the
site was indexed and had achieved ranking based purely on
keywords.

Today (July 28th 2005) the site was picked up by Yahoo. It
ranks 1st and 5th for it’s primary keywords, and has already
received traffic from both Yahoo and Technorati.

The site is not yet listed in MSN and Google. I expect it to
rank well on MSN and poorly on Google until it has some
incoming links.

The site contains maybe 30% original content, and any
articles used were carefully “wrapped” with specific
keyword heavy text both before and after.

Andy Beard has worked in Sales, Marketing and Localization for the last 15 years, primarily in the computer games industry. His blog Exploring Niche Websites gives insights into creating profitable websites on the internet.

Additional related information including screenshots of example Yahoo ranking are available on his Niche Website Blog

Reporting on the success or failure of Keyword Position Report [http://keyword-report.blogspot.com] will appear in future articles.

Author: Andy Beard
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Electrical Pressure Cooker Online

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