SEO PLAN

An SEO Services Company Continues to Shine in the SEO India Market

2011-08-27T04:16:00.000-07:00

Brain Pulse, a well- recognized SEO Company proudly maintains its matchless testimony of numerous highly competent, successful SEO Services campaigns. The SEO experts of the company have gained excellence in understanding the algorithms of leading search engines including Google, yahoo and Bing and always ensure to deliver on its promise of getting first page SE rankings. In-depth knowledge and industry expertise synergized with innovative technology shapes up the basis of SEO services campaigns. The entire SEO India industry acknowledges the finest performance of BrainPulse's SEO services.

has proved its mettle in the domain of search engine optimization again and again with every new, challenging project. The company's definitive intention is to deliver its clients on its promises. At the same time, the company ensures that it achieves results completely on the basis of white hat SEO services and genuine practices. Its commitment and diligence makes it a leading name in the SEO India market.

is experienced to handle projects of all sizes and types. In addition to SEO services, the company also offers web design and development services, Internet marketing services, and web hosting services. It is a full-fledged, comprehensive web solutions company that is capable and competent of handling online ventures of all size and types.

About BrainPulse Technologies: BrainPulse is a Noida based search engine optimization company that has set its milestones in the SEO services industry with its highly efficient and result-driven SEO campaigns and services. On grounds of fanatical team and unblemished expertise, the company easily tasted success in every industry. To its credit, it has successful projects in almost every industry that is active in the online market. In addition to SEO services, BrainPulse has also earned respectable position in earning projects in the spheres of Web design and development, and web hosting. The company's ultimate objective is to become an indispensable, 360 degree web solutions center for its valuable clients.

SEO Tutorial Part 11 – Article Directory Submissions

2011-01-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

Submitting articles related to your site’s content to article directories is another great way to build your backlinks. Most article directories allow you to include links to your site in the resource box. This box just gives readers the details on how they can get more information relating to the topic of the article. Carefully choose the anchor text in the resource box in order to see an increase in search engine rankings for these keywords and keyphrases.

In addition to building backlinks, you’ll also likely get traffic from the articles you submit to popular article directories. Some of your articles may even be re-published on other sites, generating even more traffic and possibly more backlinks. In theory, the better the article, the more likely it will be re-published on other sites. This should lead to more backlinks to your site (which the search engines see and reward you for) and more traffic from the links you include in your resource box.

If you are writing articles for SEO purposes, it’s crucial to spend the time selecting a good anchor text strategy for your resource box. In fact, I spend more time on this than anything else.

Once you’ve determined your article marketing strategy, you’ll need to actually write the article or outsource this task. Make sure that your article’s title pulls readers in … something like “3 tips on how to make money online with affiliate marketing” would do fairly well. People love easy-to-read content, so breaking down your article into specific bullet points will encourage more traffic.

Of course, if you choose to use this type of article title, you will need to identify the three tips you’re going to cover. The good news is that doing this will help you to quickly structure and write out your article. Articles published to article directories should be between 200-750 words. Most article writing experts recommend starting out with an introduction to help draw the reader in to the article before they continue with the main points of the article.

If you’re having trouble getting down to the business of actually writing the article, consider the following tips. First, don’t put too much thought into it – try to write naturally, as if you’re writing the way you’d talk about your target subject. Don’t get bogged down on whether you should be using a colon or a semicolon in a particular sentence – just get the words down on paper and you can come back and edit them later. If writing still isn’t coming easily to you, search for articles on similar subjects to see how they’re structured and what kind of voice they use. Don’t plagiarize – use them only to get a feel for how your own articles can be written.
The final element of your article is the resource box. The resource box is your chance to introduce yourself and convince the reader to visit your website. Different article directories differ on whether you’re allowed to use anchor text links in your article text, but almost all of them will allow you to put a link to your website in the resource box – so you can see what a powerful tool this section is.

Since most article directories will allow you to use anchor text in your resource box, you should take advantage of that instead of just listing your URL. Adding in anchor text is crucial for SEO so make sure to select a good keyphrase for this. I also suggest listing your URL as well, just in case the HTML link doesn’t work. In addition to an anchor text link + the URL, you should try to make your resource box interesting, to encourage readers to click through to your site.

Here’s an example of a good resource box with anchor text for the keyphrase ‘make thousands of dollars online’.

“Want to learn how I ‘make thousands of dollars online’, every month, working only a few hours each week? Check out my FREE report at www.howtomakemoneyonline.com!”

Including the anchor text with a link back to your webpage will boost the rankings of the page for the keyphrase ‘make thousands of dollars online’ in the search engines. Just make sure the anchor text you use is something people are searching for in the search engines.

Once you have all your article elements ready, it’s time to submit them to the directories. Google seems to give the most weight to articles posted on EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com and SearchWarp.com, so make these directories the primary focus of your article marketing campaign. It’s easy to sign up for a free account at each of these sites, and you’ll find more complete results on entering and submitting articles on each webpage.

Search Engine Optimization SEO Tutorial

2011-01-14T01:20:00.000-08:00

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Beginners

2011-01-14T01:07:00.000-08:00

You've finished your web design, uploaded your files, and set up your blog, but you're still not getting as many visitors as you hoped for. What gives? Chances are you haven't started working on one of the most important ways to market your site, Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

What SEO Is

Search Engine Optimization refers to the collection of techniques and practices that allow a site to get more traffic from search engines (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft). SEO can be divided into two main areas: off-page SEO (work that takes place separate from the website) and on-page SEO (website changes to make your website rank better). This tutorial will cover both areas in detail! Remember, a website is not fully optimized for search engines unless it employs both on and off-page SEO.

What SEO Is Not

SEO is not purchasing the number #1 sponsored link through Google Adwords and proclaiming that you have a #1 ranking on Google. Purchasing paid placements on search engines is a type of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and is not covered in this tutorial.

SEO is not ranking #1 for your company's name. If you're reading this tutorial, you probably already know that ranking for popular terms is darn near impossible, but specific terms, such as a company name, is a freebie. The search engines usually are smart enough to award you that rank by default (unless you are being penalized).

Who Uses SEO

If a website is currently ranked #10 on Google for the search phrase, "how to make egg rolls," but wants to rise to #1, this websites needs to consider SEO. Because search engines have become more and more popular on the web, nearly anyone trying to get seen on the web can benefit from a little SEO loving.

Introduction to seo

2011-01-13T04:19:00.000-08:00

This document is intended for webmasters and site owners who want to investigate the issues of seo (search engine optimization) and promotion of their resources. It is mainly aimed at beginners, although I hope that experienced webmasters will also find something new and interesting here. There are many articles on seo on the Internet and this text is an attempt to gather some of this information into a single consistent document.

Information presented in this text can be divided into several parts:
- Clear-cut seo recommendations, practical guidelines.
- Theoretical information that we think any seo specialist should know.
- Seo tips, observations, recommendations from experience, other seo sources, etc.

1. General seo information
1.1 History of search engines
In the early days of Internet development, its users were a privileged minority and the amount of available information was relatively small. Access was mainly restricted to employees of various universities and laboratories who used it to access scientific information. In those days, the problem of finding information on the Internet was not nearly as critical as it is now.

Site directories were one of the first methods used to facilitate access to information resources on the network. Links to these resources were grouped by topic. Yahoo was the first project of this kind opened in April 1994. As the number of sites in the Yahoo directory inexorably increased, the developers of Yahoo made the directory searchable. Of course, it was not a search engine in its true form because searching was limited to those resources who’s listings were put into the directory. It did not actively seek out resources and the concept of seo was yet to arrive.

Such link directories have been used extensively in the past, but nowadays they have lost much of their popularity. The reason is simple – even modern directories with lots of resources only provide information on a tiny fraction of the Internet. For example, the largest directory on the network is currently DMOZ (or Open Directory Project). It contains information on about five million resources. Compare this with the Google search engine database containing more than eight billion documents.

The WebCrawler project started in 1994 and was the first full-featured search engine. The Lycos and AltaVista search engines appeared in 1995 and for many years Alta Vista was the major player in this field.

In 1997 Sergey Brin and Larry Page created Google as a research project at Stanford University. Google is now the most popular search engine in the world.

Currently, there are three leading international search engines – Google, Yahoo and MSN Search. They each have their own databases and search algorithms. Many other search engines use results originating from these three major search engines and the same seo expertise can be applied to all of them. For example, the AOL search engine (search.aol.com) uses the Google database while AltaVista, Lycos and AllTheWeb all use the Yahoo database.

1.2 Common search engine principles
To understand seo you need to be aware of the architecture of search engines. They all contain the following main components:

Spider - a browser-like program that downloads web pages.

Crawler – a program that automatically follows all of the links on each web page.

Indexer - a program that analyzes web pages downloaded by the spider and the crawler.

Database– storage for downloaded and processed pages.

Results engine – extracts search results from the database.

Web server – a server that is responsible for interaction between the user and other search engine components.

Specific implementations of search mechanisms may differ. For example, the Spider+Crawler+Indexer component group might be implemented as a single program that downloads web pages, analyzes them and then uses their links to find new resources. However, the components listed are inherent to all search engines and the seo principles are the same.

Spider. This program downloads web pages just like a web browser. The difference is that a browser displays the information presented on each page (text, graphics, etc.) while a spider does not have any visual components and works directly with the underlying HTML code of the page. You may already know that there is an option in standard web browsers to view source HTML code.

Crawler. This program finds all links on each page. Its task is to determine where the spider should go either by evaluating the links or according to a predefined list of addresses. The crawler follows these links and tries to find documents not already known to the search engine.

Indexer. This component parses each page and analyzes the various elements, such as text, headers, structural or stylistic features, special HTML tags, etc.

Database. This is the storage area for the data that the search engine downloads and analyzes. Sometimes it is called the index of the search engine.

Results Engine. The results engine ranks pages. It determines which pages best match a user's query and in what order the pages should be listed. This is done according to the ranking algorithms of the search engine. It follows that page rank is a valuable and interesting property and any seo specialist is most interested in it when trying to improve his site search results. In this article, we will discuss the seo factors that influence page rank in some detail.

Web server. The search engine web server usually contains a HTML page with an input field where the user can specify the search query he or she is interested in. The web server is also responsible for displaying search results to the user in the form of an HTML page.

Best Backlink Campaigns SEO Tips

2010-07-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

Backlinks іѕ tο SEO аnԁ аѕ gas іѕ tο cars. Backlinks аrе whаt tells search engines thаt уουr website іѕ worth listing іn thеіr top positions. Bυt hοw саn уου develop ɡrеаt backlinks especially іf уου hаνе limited resources аnԁ hаνе tο compete against οthеr websites thаt hаνе thousands аnԁ hundreds οf thousands οf backlinks?

Well first οf аƖƖ Ɩеt’s ехрƖаіn whаt backlinks ԁο. Backlinks аrе basically links οn οthеr sites thаt point tο аnу раrt οf уουr website. Thе more οf thеѕе links уου hаνе іѕ thе more рοрυƖаr уουr site wіƖƖ bе аmοnɡ thе search engines. Nοt οnƖу thіѕ bυt dealing wіth thе bіɡɡеѕt search engine (Google) іt wіƖƖ аƖѕο greatly hеƖр wіth уουr PR whісh іѕ nοt a necessity bυt саn ɡrеаt fοr indexing уουr site fаѕtеr.

Sο hοw ԁο I develop a ɡοοԁ backlink library without paying someone tο ԁο іt fοr mе? Well thе first thing tο ԁο іѕ tο develop a backlink campaign. Sіnсе wе аrе dealing wіth thе scenario thаt уουr site іѕ nοt рοрυƖаr уеt іt’s going tο bе very unlikely thаt уου wіƖƖ hаνе a lot οf people adding links frοm уουr site tο theirs (backlinks), ѕο уου’ll hаνе tο hеƖр thаt. Thе two major places tο target аrе blogs аnԁ web directories.

Thеrе іѕ nο easy way tο develop 1,000 backlinks (unless уου’re willing tο shell out ѕοmе major green fοr thіѕ). Thаt іѕ whу I warn many people tο stay away frοm those whο offer backlinks (example: 8500 backlinks fοr $20). Thеѕе services ԁο nοt work bесаυѕе thе backlinks уου аrе getting аrе nοt οf a quality. It’s very trυе thаt іf уου ɡеt a backlink frοm a site Ɩіkе MSN οr WSJ.com іt wіƖƖ bе a lot more effective іn уουr SE (search engine) rankings thаn frοm a nο name website. Bυt іt’s next tο impossible tο ɡеt backlinks frοm major websites Ɩіkе thеѕе ѕο wе ɡο fοr thе next best thing. Established websites wіth PR. WhіƖе PR іѕ nοt 100% necessary іt wіƖƖ greatly hеƖр. Wіth thаt ѕаіԁ here аrе ѕοmе helpful tips fοr developing a backlink campaign.

Find a list οf websites tο gain backlinks form. Thіѕ іѕ fаіrƖу easy tο ԁο. AƖƖ one needs tο ԁο іѕ Google terms such аѕ “PR3 blogs”, “PR5 blogs”, “sites tο build PR” etc аnԁ a list οf websites wіƖƖ come up thаt contain another list οf websites tο thаt one саn ɡеt backlinks οn. Now thіѕ wіƖƖ generally bе blogs аnԁ web directories. Bυt I advise blogs bесаυѕе thеу аrе visited bу real people аnԁ nοt јυѕt bots. Anԁ іf уου leave a ɡοοԁ comment οn thеm ten tο one chances уου аrе going tο hаνе a couple people click through tο уουr website.

Now thе websites уου want tο target especially аrе WordPress blogs. Thеѕе аrе аmοnɡ ѕοmе οf thе mοѕt SEO friendly sites οn thе net. Anԁ once thеіr PR іѕ ɡοοԁ (between 3-10) уου аrе 100% guaranteed thаt whеn a Google spider comes tο crawl thеіr pages thеу wіƖƖ take note οf уουr link.

Set a goal. I usually tеƖƖ people tο aim fοr 1,000 backlinks іn 3 months οr less depending οn hοw much time уου hаνе tο рυt іntο іt. Thаt means іf gain backlinks οn a consistent basis уου wіƖƖ average 11.1 backlinks a day tο reach уουr mаrk іn 90 days.

Thеrе іѕ nο need tο ɡο out οf уουr way tο find blogs tο comment οn. In fact I wουƖԁ suggest targeting thе blogs уου read thе mοѕt bесаυѕе ten tο one chances іf уου Ɩіkе thаt blog аnԁ уουr website іѕ related tο іt (whether closely οr distant) thеіr readers mіɡht аƖѕο еnјοу іt. Thаt іѕ whу I wουƖԁ suggest targeting five blogs аnԁ leave аt Ɩеаѕt two positive comments.

DO NOT SPAM! Nοt οnƖу іѕ іt nοt сοοƖ bυt many blogs hаνе programs such аѕ “Alchemist” thаt саn detect a spam comment аnԁ delete іt fаѕtеr thаn уου саn ѕау holy s***. Bυt leaving relevant comments wіƖƖ ԁеfіnіtеƖу ɡеt уου ɡοοԁ feedback аnԁ іf thе site owner happens tο find out thаt уου regularly leave comments οn hіѕ blog, hе mіɡht bе more willing tο contact уου οr even ԁο a trackback tο уουr website.

Last bυt nοt Ɩеаѕt: “patience іѕ a virtue”. Yου’ve heard thіѕ many times before bυt Rome wаѕ nοt built іn a day. Don’t expect tο ɡеt positive results frοm уουr campaign within thе first month. I generally tеƖƖ bloggers thаt once thеу try a nеw іԁеа give іt аt Ɩеаѕt 2-3 months before thеу analyze іtѕ effect. Thе same thing applies tο backlink campaigns. It wіƖƖ take a whіƖе bυt аftеr thе first 2 months аrе over I wουƖԁ suggest using tools Ɩіkе http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com, www.iwebtool.com etc) tο check hοw many backlines уου hаνе.

Thеrе аrе many οthеr things one саn ԁο tο gain ɡοοԁ PR аnԁ SE rankings (including link exchanges (аnԁ nοt sales) bυt building backlinks through blogs hаѕ proven tο bе one οf thе mοѕt successful).

An SEO Specialist Should Be Experienced In Many Techniques

2010-05-12T21:03:00.001-07:00

There are numerous search engine optimisation companies currently established and some of these firms offer various different SEO services. It is important if looking for a company to work on your SEO campaign, to only consider a firm which uses ethical and up to date SEO techniques. The SEO methods used within your campaign are of great importance and must be appropriate.

Some SEO firms do use ethical search engine optimisation techniques but use only one or two of these methods for every client they are working for. You should be wary of companies like this. Every business is different and therefore requires a unique SEO campaign. SEO does not work like some believe it does. It is not simply a case of following a few steps, using one or two SEO techniques and achieving success. SEO is more complicated than this and it is down to your SEO consultants to get it right.

SEO specialists working for a respectable and ethical SEO firm should have a wide and through knowledge of search engine optimisation and should be able to use a selection of SEO techniques effectively. There are many different methods which can be utilised successfully in an SEO campaign and an SEO specialist should be familiar with the majority of them.

When you agree to work with an SEO company on your campaign, it should be a case of them researching your business, identifying your SEO needs and then selecting the most appropriate and suitable SEO methods to help you to achieve success. Your SEO campaign should not just consist of the one or two methods the SEO consultant is aware of and therefore must use in the SEO efforts of your business.

For the majority of businesses, a combination of suitable SEO techniques is what is required for their SEO campaign to be successful. It is not just important for your SEO consultants to know this at the beginning of your campaign and to identify and use suitable SEO methods effectively at this point. They must also ensure the methods being used are appropriate at all stages of your SEO development.

Changes in search take place regularly and can alter the relevancy of your SEO campaign. Your SEO specialists must be monitoring the environment for changes which could affect your business and must know how to respond. They must be able to adapt your SEO campaign when necessary and once again identify the most suitable SEO methods to be used. If only familiar with one or two SEO techniques, this will not be possible.

At SEO Consult, our specialists are all highly experienced in SEO and all have a sound and thorough knowledge of the subject. We use only the most up to date and ethical search engine optimisation methods and provide our clients with efficient and effective SEO campaigns. We can provide you with information, support and advice in all aspects of search engine optimisation so your campaign is a huge success.

What Can A White Hat SEO Campaign Achieve That A Black Hat SEO Campaign Can’t?

2010-05-07T06:25:00.001-07:00

Within SEO, there are many different techniques and methods which can be used by businesses to try to help improve their performance. Some of these methods are considered ethical and some are not. It is widely known in the world of SEO that black hat SEO is not advisable. Using unethical black hat SEO methods can actually result in damage to your campaign and brand name instead of helping you to do better.

However, despite this widely known knowledge and acceptance, there are still many site owners which are tempted by what methods of this kind can offer. If you are considering using black hat SEO, it is important to explore what it involves and what the consequences of such actions can be. A good place to start is with an exploration of white hat SEO and what it can offer you that black hat SEO can’t.

When running a white hat SEO campaign, it is possible for a business to gain exposure in many different online locations and this is extremely important. Exposure like this means numerous internet users of all kinds are made aware of your business and are able to explore it further.

Often, when using black hat SEO, exposure is only gained in one area and this is obviously not as advantageous. Having your website ranked in a fairly good position in the search rankings is not as beneficial for you as having a top ranking in the search results, a popular blog and a strong presence within the social networking websites which white hat SEO can provide.

A white hat SEO campaign can help you to build trust and respect for your business and a black hat SEO campaign certainly can’t do this. It is vital for your target audience to find your business respectable and trustworthy if they are going to become customers of your business. By developing your brand within the online community using white hat SEO, it is possible to do this.

Increasing numbers of internet users are aware of black hat SEO and can identify it too. Those that do, will immediately categorise a site found to be using it as of low quality.

If you are using white hat SEO, you will also be able achieve long term results. SEO is a continuous process and it needs to be used effectively for your business for as long as you are trading online. With white hat SEO, your campaign will develop, grow and succeed.

If you choose to use black hat SEO some results may be achieved but they will not last. The search engines are continuously developing new technology to identify black hat SEO methods and penalise sites found to be involved. If you use black hat SEO, your company will be punished sooner or later.

At SEO Consult, we only use ethical SEO because this is what really helps our clients to achieve success. We can identify and use the perfect white hat SEO techniques for your company.

Google: Malware spreads by using SEO techniques

2010-05-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

According to eWeek, Google has revealed that fake antivirus and other malware programs spread by abusing search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

At the Usenix workshop on large-scale exploits and emergent threats, Google said that fake antivirus programs accounted for 15 percent of all malware threats that it detects on the web. As of February 2010, it found that more that 11,000 domains were involved in fake antivirus operations.

In the past year, the practice has trended upwards. In January 2009, 93 unique domains were involved with fake antivirus operations, while in January 2010, Google found 587 domains involved with it.

"More recent fake AV sites have evolved to use complex JavaScript to mimic the look and feel of the Windows user interface. In some cases, the fake AV detects even the operating system version running on the target machine and adjusts its interface to match," said Google's white paper.

The malware distributors spread the programs by using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, such as link farming, keyword stuffing, and abusing search algorithms.

Google's research echoes findings from a study conducted by ZScaler earlier this year. ZScaler also found similar problems with other popular search engines, like Yahoo and Bing.ADNFCR-1513-ID-19760189-ADNFCR

SEO Tips to Increase Web Traffic

2010-05-04T06:11:00.000-07:00

SEO is a highly competitive field. There have developed so many strategies to generate traffic. Thus SEO Promotion is very important for the survival of a website. SEO Special Ops Guide teaches you how to generate targeted traffic to your website.

Everybody want to make their site to be placed in the top ten lists of the search engines. It is possible only if your site gets good number of traffic. To generate traffic, there are so many tools available. If you are searching for a resource that works effectively in SEO Promotion, then you need SEO Special Ops. It is a guide that helps you to get Increased Web Traffic for your website. The developers of SEO Special Ops say that could be possible for everyone to get higher search engine rankings when you implement SEO plans.

SEO Special Ops reveals the top secret Search Engine Optimization techniques that will to get high rankings for your website. Everyone is not successful in making their website to get higher page ranks. Reasons can be because of incorrect keyword selection, or inadequate link building techniques used. To get the right domain name is also an important fact in SEO Promotion.

Hence, it is very important to select right keyword. Keyword is the soul for the survival of your website. Wrong keyword selection can never make your site get high page rank. There are many eBook, Software and books available in the market today which teaches you how to get Increased Web Traffic, SEO Tips and SEO Promotion techniques. It is not necessary that those techniques give effective results for you. Only the reviews and testimonials can prove how effective a SEO tool is. One such tool is SEO Special Ops guide.

Your site can be optimized effectively with the right SEO Tips and strategies. SEO Special Ops explains you clearly how to select right keyword for your website which is the most important part of any successful SEO Promotion. It also teaches the link building technique to get optimal search engine rankings. Some of the mistakes are repetitive in nature. This guide helps you to avoid such mistakes. You also get assistance in choosing the right domain name. Reveal the top secrets of SEO techniques to popularize your site and get high rankings to it with the help of SEO Special Ops.

About SeoSpecialOps.com

SEO Special Ops is a perfect guide that teaches you SEO tips to increase web traffic to expand your website business.

Find out the best SEO Promotion Strategies on http://seoplan1.blogspot.com/

SEO Tips for Your Online Dropship Business Blog

2010-04-24T02:33:00.000-07:00

Good SEO practices are important in your online dropship business blog, or other ecommerce enterprise.

Blogs can play a key role in building your brand and promoting your business! A blog naturally attracts the attention of Google and the other search engines, so besides supplying your blog with fresh, new content on a frequent and regular basis, you should also pay attention to SEO and keywords, and use them wisely!

Here are some great tips for using SEO to its best effect in your ecommerce business blog:

Tip 1: When it comes to your blog and keywords, you have a decision to make: You can choose to target a popular, very high traffic keyword that you probably have little chancing of ranking well for, and consequently generate little traffic with it. Or, you can target a lesser used keyword that is more specific to your particular business and/or products.

In this instance, you still won’t get all that much traffic from the keyword, but what you do get will be more qualified. In other words, it will be more valuable traffic in that it is comprised of those who are genuinely interested in your products, and therefore more likely to buy than visitors who arrive at your website from a more general, higher traffic keyword.

Tip 2: According to a recent article in Information Week, the highest conversion rates from search engine driven traffic comes from people who have searched using four words instead of just one keyword. This is a perfect opportunity for blogs, because if you blog faithfully, you can end up so well indexed that your blog will show up in quite a few different four word search queries relating to your business and or products.

Tip 3: To make sure that the search engine crawlers can access your blog pages easily, each post should link to another, relevant post.

Tip 4: Aim for backlinks. One way to get backlinks is to submit your blog posts and RSS feed to the more popular directories and blog search engines. You might also consider link exchanges with other blogs that correlate in some fashion with your own content. You might also comment on other, similarly themed blogs with high traffic. Needless to say, these should be legitimate comments.

Use these tips to help SEO your ecommerce business blog!

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy this one: How-SEO-Helps-Increase-Traffic-and-Conversion-of-drop-ship-products

Is SEO Too Much For You To Handle?

2010-04-22T02:11:00.000-07:00

There is a considerable amount of information about SEO and the results it can produce available online. Many site owners are interested in this content because they are looking to improve their own business in some way. An SEO campaign can often help a business to improve its rankings, develop its brand within the online community and increase the amount of targeted traffic visiting its website.

However, a problem SEO information being so readily available is that many of those new to SEO, get the impression SEO is a quick and simple process. They read about the experiences of others who have used a certain SEO technique, decide this would be good for their business too and try to run their own SEO campaign.

SEO is not as simple as this and how challenging it is will depend on your individual circumstances. SEO information available from reliable sources on the internet can be useful. It can help site owners to gain a basic understanding of what SEO is about and what it can and can’t do. It can teach you about some of the SEO methods involved in SEO and some of the results these methods are able to produce.

However, what this information can’t do is tell you which SEO techniques are specifically suitable for your business and it cannot use these methods effectively for you. Knowledge is of great importance in SEO but so is experience. If a site owner is not experienced in SEO, their SEO campaign is likely to struggle.

It is not only identifying and using SEO techniques effectively which is challenging within SEO and which is why many fail but also because so much hard work and effort is required. If an efficient campaign is going to be run, there is a great amount to do.

Constant research and development needs to be taking place and this can be too demanding for a business owner running their company and running their campaign. If you own a business, it is important your company does not end up neglected. The service and products you offer are still of utmost importance and you mustn’t let this aspect of your business slide.

It makes sense for those struggling to keep up with the demands of SEO to work with SEO specialists. SEO consultants can research your company thoroughly and identify the most suitable SEO techniques for your needs. They can then use these SEO methods efficiently and effectively and monitor the results they are able to achieve. By monitoring their progress, any necessary changes or adaptations needed can be easily spotted and carried out. SEO specialists are also trained in identifying other variables which could affect your SEO campaign.

If you are struggling with your SEO campaign and are not achieving appropriate results for the time and effort you are putting in, work with us at SEO Consult. At SEO Consult, we are experienced in all aspects of SEO and help all of our clients to achieve SEO success. We can tailor your campaign to your individual needs and budget.

Google SEO Tips and SEO Tricks

2010-04-22T01:48:00.000-07:00

Enter just the word http for your search to find the top 1000 PageRanked sites.

Enter only www in your search to see how Google ranks the top 1,000 sites.

Manually type the following prefixes and note their utility:

* link:url Shows other pages with links to that url.

* related:url same as "what's related" on serps.

* site:domain restricts search results to the given domain.

* allinurl: shows only pages with all terms in the url.

* inurl: like allinurl, but only for the next query word.

* allintitle: shows only results with terms in title.

* intitle: similar to allintitle, but only for the next word. "intitle:seoforgoogle google" finds only pages with seoforgoogle in the title, and google anywhere on the page.

* cache:url will show the Google version of the passed url.

* info:url will show a page containing links to related searches, backlinks, and pages containing the url. This is the same as typing the url into the search box.

* spell: will spell check your query and search for it.

* stocks: will lookup the search query in a stock index.

* filetype: will restrict searches to that filetype. "-filetype:pdf" to remove Adobe PDF files.

* daterange: is supported in Julian date format only. 2452384 is an example of a Julian date.

* maps: If you enter a street address, a link to Yahoo Maps and to MapBlast will be presented.

* phone: enter anything that looks like a phone number to have a name and address displayed. Same is true for something that looks like an address (include a name and zip code)

* site:www.somesite.net "+www.somesite.+net" - (tells you how many pages of your site are indexed by google)

* allintext: searches only within text of pages, but not in the links or page title

* allinlinks: searches only within links, not text or title.

SEO Tips for Your Blog, Business

2010-04-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

For Michael Wink, when starting a law firm last summer with his wife Gailyn, co-authoring a blog was a no brainer. The husband and wife bankruptcy-attorney team started Wink & Wink in Broomfield, Colo. to both make a living and help people – and, they said, a blog helps facilitate both goals.

“We can share information about bankruptcy law that can be quite useful and for people looking for an attorney it gets us through to prospective clients,” said Wink.

Increasingly small businesses are embracing the idea of writing blogs to coincide with their business. For many, it’s a way to connect with existing customers and reach out to potential new ones. The successful ones are able to strike a balance between offering opinions and coming off as an expert in their chosen field.

“There’s a lot of sources of information on the Internet. To the extent you’re merely authoritative you may not stand out quite enough. Of course if it’s only opinion it may not come across as professional enough,” said Wink.

Both husband and wife take turns writing the Wink & Wink blog called He Said, She Said. The blog, which is updated at minimum once a month, focuses on interpreting the laws of bankruptcy, issues facing people considering it, and current events that may impact a decision to file.

“People don’t always understand that bankruptcy can help them,” said Wink. “At the minimum they need to understand their rights with bankruptcy.”

For Wink, starting the blog wasn’t too overwhelming of an endeavor. He had dabbled in using the medium with his former venture, running a fish farm. There he said he first discovered the power of a blog to share information.

While it’s hard to quantify how many new clients came to Wink & Wink because of the blog, Wink said it has helped the law firm move higher in rankings on Google when someone searches for a bankruptcy attorney in Colorado.

“One of the most palpable marketing goals achieved through the blog is search engine optimization,” said Wink. “The more authoritative content the better ranking it gets you.” For Wink & Wink, a new firm trying to gain market share, a blog is a “relatively inexpensive” way to gain clients.

Wink said for small business owners considering writing a blog, one of the best things to do is actually write it, instead of having a ghost writer. After all, the goal of the blog is to connect with clients and what better way than by showing your true voice.

Stacks & Stacks, the San Francisco retailer of de-cluttering products, said its goal of staying on top of current technology pushed it to launch its blog cluttercontrolfreak.com in August of 2007. The blog, which has content written by company staff as well as experts in the field of organizing, provides consumers with tips to reduce the clutter and get organized.

Eva Wallace, Web site and social media manager at Stacks & Stacks, said the blog garners positive feedback, but measuring how many sales come as a result is difficult to do. She said it gets 9,000 to 10,000 visits per month.

Wallace tries to keep the blog casual and doesn’t shy away from including personal stories.

“It’s not too personal, but enough so there’s an actual face behind the brand,” said Wallace, noting she does try to inject some humorous pictures and stories. One recent blog post focused on washing clothes by hand after the washing machine broke, while another simply said Happy Easter and features a picture of a dog with bunny ears.

Wallace said that small business owners considering launching a blog should be sure you are willing to commit the time needed to update and manage it. Spending two-to-four hours a day on the blog isn’t unheard of for Wallace.

“You have to be consistent and put up posts two to three times a week at least,” said Wallace. What’s more, she said small business owners need to be transparent and balanced when it comes to the blog.

“They have to let readers know they do represent a brand and not try to hide that,” she said. “[But] try not to be really self serving [and/or] make everything about the company.”

Bing’s market share keeps growing but SEO experts split on how much businesses should care

2010-03-12T05:05:00.000-08:00

Microsoft's Bing search engine is on the rise after the company struck a deal with handset manufacturer Motorola to make it the default search engine on its mobiles, and new analytics data in the US revealed a gain in market share.

But SEO veterans are mixed as to whether businesses should be integrating Bing into their online marketing strategies.

Microsoft and Motorola announced the plan overnight, which will see the manufacturer introduce Bing search and map services onto Android smartphones in China.

It comes as Google, producer of the Android mobile operating system, is in the midst of a row with China after a number of cyber attacks were aimed at the company from within the country's borders. Google has said it is considering abandoning its search practices within China.

The new services will begin this quarter, with Motorola to include bookmarks on mobile browsers and widgets on a number of handsets.

Additionally, new data from ComScore shows Bing's market share in the US grew to 11.5% during February from 10.7% in January, equating to a 37% rise since its launch in June last year.

Additionally, Yahoo's traffic decreased from 17% to 16.8%, while Google increased by just 0.1% to 65.5%. Yahoo has declined by 14% since Bing's launch, while Google has largely remained at the 65% level.

But the SEO industry is mixed as to whether Bing is becoming a viable alternative, or supplement to Google marketing strategies. Reseo chief executive Chris Thomas says SMEs don't need to waste their time.

"I wouldn't be getting too worried about it at all, not when you have other websites delivering more traffic than Bing. I wouldn't be doing much about it, Google is still delivering the majority of revenue ahead of others."

Thomas says that while Bing could indeed become a competitor in the future, right now the numbers do not support any major move and says his company doesn't bother with SEO on Bing.

"I think when the numbers start getting closer to 15%, and you have a trend where Google is starting drop, maybe then. With analytics you are looking at trends, and if you see opposite directions, with Bing gaining and Google rising, then you can make that assumption. But right now, the numbers are just so little."

But Anup Batra, chief executive of Arrow Marketing, says Bing is a great opportunity for businesses.

"There is still an opportunity here because Bing is so much easier to optimise. The way Google optimises is through back-links and so on, but Bing works more by what's on the page. This is good for many businesses. Bing is gaining importance as far as SEO is concerned in this regard."

Link Building and Social Bookmarking – a Powerful 1-2 Punch for SEO

2010-03-11T05:10:00.000-08:00

Link building plays a vital role in every organic SEO strategy. And as things stand today, off-page SEO tactics carry the bulk of the weight as compared to on-page optimization techniques of the past. Link building is the primary weapon used in outranking your competition in search engines.

However, not all backlinks or inbound links are created equal. Google and other major search engines no longer consider simple reciprocal links valuable. As a matter of fact, the relevance and quality can significantly affect your page rank. Hang around bad backlink neighborhoods and you could be penalized. Focusing on high-quality and relevant one-way links is the name of the game now.

Link building strategies

There are several methods for one-way link building, they are:

* Directory submissions
* Article marketing and syndication
* Forum posting
* Guest blogging
* Press releases
* Paid links (see my recommendation at the end)
* Social bookmarking

This post focuses on the powerful technique of social bookmarking for link building.

Popular social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Yahoo! Buzz, Reddit, Twitter and whole bunch of others allow their registered users to add links to sites and blog posts. Such links are great for building quality one-way links and driving targeted traffic.

Obviously, you need to use this powerful 1-2 SEO punch of link building and social bookmarking wisely to get the most out it. If all you are doing is adding links to hyped up sales pages, you are not going to get much link love.

On the other hand, if you add links to newsworthy posts, they may catch the attention of other like-minded bloggers and they’ll vote your entries up. Imagine the amount of free traffic you can get if you happen to make it the first page of one of these popular social bookmarking sites.

Let me give you an example to illustrate my point. Let’s say you have a blog on health and wellness and you write a new post about how Aromatherapy as Alternative Medicine for Treating Minor Medical Problems. If you can tie that to a recent scientific study that was discussed on TV, you now have a very newsworthy link to bookmark, one that has a good chance of being bookmarked by others and going viral.

Link building game plan

Here are the basic steps involved if you are just starting out with social bookmarking for building links:

1. Drip your links slowly and naturally – don’t go wild at first by adding hundreds of links in one day. You are most likely to be viewed as a spammer and quickly banned from social bookmarking sites. Start by adding 5 to 7 per day, skip a few days and then add some more.

2. Focus on your home page – concentrate on adding links to your home page at the beginning. If you have a blog, so much the better because you probably have the 10 most recent posts excerpted on that page. Later on, you can start adding URLs to inner pages and direct posts.

3. Become part of the community – just like everything else on the Internet, you first have to give before you can take. Remember to bookmark other interesting sites you see that you don’t necessarily own yourself. Build your online credibility and visibility before people will trust you to share your links.

4. Create a good profile – here’s your chance to share a little bit about who you are as a person and your beliefs to connect with others. Do take the time to add a photo instead of using a generic avatar.

5. Start building a friends/ followers/fans list – retweet interesting tweets or bookmarking URLs posted by other people, especially if they have a following of their own..

6. Vote on stories – don’t be shy, be heard by voting on stories that you see on the first page of your favorite social bookmaking site.

Follow this simple plan for using social bookmarking and watch your link building go through the roof.

In a hurry to build links? Check out this all-in-one link building package where you get the backlinks, the tools, the know-how and the action plans for a one-time investment. Developed by two highly respected marketers, Lynn and Paul Short.

Have you used other methods that been successful for you in building links? Share your comments and thoughts here.

When your content becomes an SEO problem

2010-03-10T04:36:00.001-08:00

Content is an asset to your website’s search engine optimisation. Most SEO companies encourage their clients to get working on content as soon as possible, because it forms the ground in which the seeds of SEO, keywords, can be planted. Good content is essential to a site’s success in the search engine results pages, but it can also get a website into trouble if not handled correctly.

Quality content is becoming more important to the health of a site as time goes by. The search engines are placing an increasing reliance on pleasing Internet users when calculating a site’s rankings. Content plays a key role in pleasing your site’s users. It often makes the difference between retaining a user on the page or bouncing them right back to the search engine. You might well ask, if content’s so great, how on earth could it cause you any problems?

Dynamic content issues

One of the ways in which content presents a problem is if your architecture produces dynamic content. Any time content is presented as a response to a query from a site user, that’s dynamic content. It presents a problem because the search engines have had trouble dealing with dynamic pages in the past. Although Google claims to have a handle on dynamic content now, most SEO professionals still avoid dynamic pages where possible.

Dynamic content also presents a duplicate content issue. When any of your pages features the same content, such as product pages and category pages, Google might choose only one of them to index. You need to have control over which.

Duplicate content problems

Dynamic pages aren’t the only way duplicate content can creep onto your website. In fact, most duplicate content problems come from site owners trying to bulk out their site without enough quality content, simply copying and pasting from other sources. Every page must have fresh content, content that is unique and interesting.

Get your content strategy wrong and your SEO strategy will fail before it’s even begun.

The ABC of SEO

2010-03-10T04:32:00.000-08:00

Lots of things are important for SEO. There are so many essentials that it can be hard to decide where to start first. Some areas attract more attention than others. The easiest way to figure out your approach to your site’s search engine optimisation is to know your ABCs.

A is for Architecture

No matter what you might have learned in school, A isn’t for ‘apple’, it’s for ‘architecture.’ Your architecture is a good place to begin the real work of SEO. After you’ve decided on a list of keywords, it might seem like a good idea to jump right in and start working on your content. Content isn’t the first thing the search engines encounter on your site, though, and your SEO should move in the same way.

It can help to draw up a plan of your site’s architecture and map out the links between pages. This will take some time if you’re operating a large site, but it’s worth it. It’s well known that search engine spiders give up before looking too deeply into a site. If you want most of your site to be indexed, you need to provide all of the important information at a shallow level in the architecture. Some reorganisation is often necessary.

If you’re at a loss as to how to restructure your site, your keywords might actually help. Related keywords can give you an idea of a site hierarchy. Talk to our consultants about this at SEO Consult.

B is for Bounces

SEO isn’t just about search engine traffic. It’s about positioning your site as a quality, reliable source of information. Part of this is in ensuring a quality experience for any user that lands on your pages. A smart site will want to keep the bounce rate down.

After you consider your site’s architecture, it’s time to look at how your target user group experiences your site. What things do they value? How can you best set them at ease? What will it take to make them trust you? The answers to these questions will enable you to adjust your page layout to best suit your SEO, and give you some ideas for planning content. Your keyword list will be of help here as well, as knowing which words you want to compete on will give you definite target groups for each page.

C is for Content

Finally, when the rest of your optimisation plan is in place, you can begin work on content. It’s true that content is vitally important to the ongoing health of your site. It’s also true that content will take up the most time now and in your future SEO maintenance. But without the proper things in place before you begin, all of your work on your content could have the wrong focus.

Once you’ve worked on the existing content of your pages, it’s time to plan for the future. Fresh content will contribute to your ongoing SEO maintenance, and a content plan can help. To devise that plan, go back to your ABCs to plot out the where, who and what of future content.

Structure your internal links for SEO

2010-03-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

Inbound links can be a huge boost for your site’s SEO, but you shouldn’t forget that your internal links can be just as helpful as well. One of the major advantages of internal links is that you have complete control over them. While you have to rely on the kindness of others for your external links, or other link building tactics, your internal links have exactly the link text, position and frequency you desire.

Many businesses overlook their internal linking structure for long periods of time. This is understandable. It can be hard to keep on top of your site’s structure, particularly if you’re adding constant fresh content as well. Maintenance of your internal links should make up part of your regular search engine optimisation maintenance routine. It’s important to make sure that your link structure is up to scratch to begin with.

Planning is vital

Planning out your internal structure is vital to your site’s relationship with the search engines. Clear paths need to be set out throughout your site so that search engines spiders can crawl through it easily. Without proper planning, however, your link structure can easily become tangled and messy.

It’s a good idea to sit down and plan out your links visually, using a piece of paper and a pen, or a whiteboard. Drawing up a site map in this way enables you to see where potential problems are. It also helps you to redesign your structure so that pages follow each other logically. When this physical map has been drawn up, you can use it as a base for your site map, providing another way to reinforce your link structure.

It’s important to remember that every page can be used to reinforce your internal link structure. Your navigation bar, footer navigation and content links should all be used to help SEO.

http://www.stuckon.co.uk/structure-your-internal-links-for-seo-1903.html

Approaching SEO From The Right Mindset

2010-03-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

Search engine optimisation isn’t something done according to a textbook. There’s a sharp learning curve. There are plenty of sources of advice for the SEO newcomer, but if you’re operating a business and are using an SEO consultancy for your optimisation, you don’t want to go to all the trouble of learning SEO yourself.

Part of the joys of hiring a professional for search engine optimisation is it removes the need to master SEO. You can talk to us about this at SEO Consult. A basic understanding of what your consultant is talking about is all you need. Or is it?

Here are some elements of SEO that are often undervalued.

*Flexibility. Planning counts for a lot with SEO, but the unexpected, which you can’t plan for, often happens. Too many businesses mar their SEO campaigns by refusing to be flexible with their plans. Some of the best SEO campaigns have occurred because a business has realised that they’re headed in entirely the wrong direction and has been willing to explore a new area.

When approaching SEO, it’s good to be open to the trends and fluctuations of the net. Businesses are often surprised at the keywords and methods that their SEO companies come up with. Approaching the process with an open mind can land you huge rewards.

*Good sense. Not many of the instructions that SEO experts issue are meant to be taken literally, but this is just what some companies do. If an SEO professional advises that text is central, this doesn’t mean that you should get rid of all of your images. Most site owners are entirely capable of applying good sense to the advice they receive, but SEO is a technical area and it’s easy to become confused. If you’re in doubt about the path to take, either ask your SEO company or do some research within the SEO community.

*Don’t sweat the small stuff. There is only so much you can do at one time with your site’s search engine optimisation. It’s easy to get caught up in the number of options you have. Sure, its’ possible to optimise every one of your pages, build links, set up several social media profiles, blog, participate in forums, optimise for several search engines and run your own podcast. The thing to remember is that you don’t have to do all of these things at once. Luckily, SEO is a long-term process. If you’re not able to do something right now, shelve it for later. Although the ideal situation is to get your optimisation all set up and ready to go, things can be done one at a time.

*A willingness to take advice. This is one of the most important things when it comes to SEO. Many SEO professionals despair because their clients take on only part of the optimisation plan mapped out for them. If you hire a professional, it’s important to trust what they’re doing and follow their advice. The SEO industry is big on client education. Most SEO firms will be happy to discuss your questions with you.

http://www.seoconsult.co.uk/SEOBlog/seo-newcomer/approaching-seo-from-the-right-mindset.html

What to expect from initial SEO

2010-03-04T03:44:00.000-08:00

If you’re new to the world of search engine optimisation, the first months of any contact with an SEO firm can be very confusing. The SEO industry is very generous with information, but one of the subjects that is very rarely covered is what, exactly, will happen when you first optimise. This can be unsettling for a business that’s first approaching optimisation.

Different SEO companies will approach optimisation differently, and you can discuss this with us at Stuck On. Most companies will cover similar areas, however, which will usually include the following:

SEO analysis: This is the very first step in any SEO campaign, and often happens before a business has even signed on with a search engine optimisation company. Search engine optimisation companies frequently offer SEO analysis for free, both as an incentive to new clients and as a way for both sides to get a grasp of how much work will be involved. A thorough analysis is taken of the existing website’s traffic, any existing SEO assets, its position in the search engine results pages and other relevant factors, such as previous SEO from another company – which can often have a negative impact.

Keyword research: Search engine optimisation is impossible if you don’t have a list of relevant keywords determined. Keyword research is one of the most important steps in any SEO campaign. It will help you determine what keywords to target and let you know how tough the competition will be. It can also provide you with some information about your target audience, such as what exactly are they searching for?

SEO plan: This is another important stage that needs to take place before any optimisation work begins. You might have an idea of what keywords you want to target and the problem areas of your site, but you also need to plan out what tactics you will use.

The SEO work begins: This stage involves most of the hard work, and is where the real magic happens. After it is complete, expect a few weeks of waiting for results.

http://www.stuckon.co.uk/what-to-expect-from-initial-seo-1888.html

How not to use social media

2010-03-03T01:38:00.000-08:00

When companies first began to realise how valuable social media sites were for marketing purposes, the first mistake they made was to treat it as any other marketing opportunity. Although we have all come a long way since then, it’s amazing how many businesses make some very elementary mistakes when approaching social media marketing.

Perhaps part of the fault lies with the label ‘social media marketing’. Marketing is a very sophisticated art these days, with a lot of techniques requiring incredible subtlety, but the word still calls up images of blunt-speaking salespeople. When it comes to social media networks, traditional marketing techniques are definitely out.

The first ‘not’, therefore, is do not enter the network as a brand. Social media networks work on a human level. Confronting the community as your brand will have much the same effect as wearing a sandwich board advertisement at a party. Even entering social media sites using a mascot has dubious effect. Human contact requires… well, human contact.

Social media marketing also works best using one person to represent the company on the site. To use the party metaphor again, a company can’t socialise as a single unit. As the main point of social media marketing is to develop relationships, using a number of people to represent the company has less benefit that choosing one representative for each social network.

Businesses that use social media sites as one-way communication of their ideas are seen as missing the point of the exercise. Social media networks are built on reciprocation. This means that using social media sites to make announcements and updates is a definite ‘not’ – it’s one step above spam and will get you nowhere. When you first start your social media marketing campaign, you need to spend quite a bit of time giving your attention to others in the community. People are more interested in people who are interested in them. Start out by joining discussions and asking questions.

Another mistake companies make is to focus their content on themselves right from the start. Don’t make it all about you. When you first enter a social media network, very few people will be interested in you. Not only will your business news fall on deaf ears, it will turn people away.

Even when you have developed a presence within a network, keep your focus outward. Just as with any regular content posted to your site, what you post on a social media site should be interesting and relevant to your readers. There are still plenty of great ways to draw traffic to your site through social media networks. Contact SEO Consult to work social media marketing into your optimisation strategy.

It’s important to remember that blogs are social media as well. Blogging is much like other social aspects of the net, and requires a little reciprocation, particularly when you are just starting out. Commenting on other, relevant blogs is a good way to draw people to your new blog. Other bloggers may link to your blog if they find your content useful. As with any form of content, it is essential that your articles feature interesting, easy to read and relevant information.

http://www.seoconsult.co.uk/SEOBlog/search-engine-optimisation/how-not-to-use-social-media.html

What is Social Media Optimization?

2010-03-03T01:35:00.000-08:00

You may have seen the acronym ‘SMO’ floating around the net recently, often without any explanation of what it stands for. Social media optimisation, or SMO, has taken a couple of years to take off as a concept, but is now a term that is increasingly being mentioned in connection with SEO. This is because of the increasing awareness of most businesses of the need to branch out into social media networks as a part of their participation on the net.

The term was coined in around 2006, and is commonly attributed to marketing writer Rohit Bhargava. It describes the methods in which social media networking can be used to promote your business. This usually, although not always, is a part of your general search engine optimisation campaign.

The social media we’re talking about here is sites like Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter, as well as the various blogs and forums around the net. The idea is for a business to solidify its image on the net and build up a community. The term covers a broad swathe of online communications. You can now promote your business through RSS feeds, images and videos, news buttons, blogs, podcasts, forums and just about anything you can think of. The concept of viral marketing is closely linked to social media networking.

Unlike traditional search engine marketing, social media optimisation has a dual focus. Not only does it aim to drive traffic to a site through the social media networks themselves, it also aims to boost a site’s ranking by garnering mentions all over the web. This is why social media optimisation is currently considered a smart way to optimise.

Social media optimisation is important not just for your SEO strategy, but also for your business to manage its online reputation. As more people come to rely on the net for social interaction as well as a source for information, no business can guarantee that it can avoid bad reviews. Social media can be used to manage an online reputation by direct interaction with consumers. Participation in social media also allows a business to answer any bad reports directly, sending the message that it cares about consumer opinions and wants to build relationships.

The downsides? Social media networking can take up a lot of time. Constant updates are the key to success, both with search engine attention and with the participants in your network. Some sites, such as Twitter, require daily or even hourly participation to really catch people’s attention. Furthermore, if you want to optimise your social media campaign properly, it’s a good idea to get the experts on board, which can also take time.

You can pursue social media on your own, but it is important that your social media optimisation campaign meshes well with your search engine optimisation strategy. The idea is to create a single brand image that solidifies your company’s role in the social world of the net. Talk to our consultants at SEO Consult for advice on how to integrate social media optimisation into your strategy, and how to best pursue social media networking.

http://www.seoconsult.co.uk/SEOBlog/social-media-optimisation/what-is-social-media-optimization.html

Your SEO Reputation Management Cannot Wait

2010-03-03T01:33:00.000-08:00

Many businesses don’t think about reputation management until a crisis has actually occurred. Waiting until your business is swamped with bad publicity is simply too late for effective management of your online reputation. Every business needs an online reputation management plan and they need one as soon as humanly possible.

If you don’t already have a reputation management plan in place before you approach search engine optimisation, while you SEO is a great time to start. You should find that your search engine optimisation company can provide a lot of guidance for your strategy. Our experts will be able to discuss this with you at SEO Consult.

The internet is a big place (if you hadn’t noticed) and bad publicity can turn up on the search engine results pages from almost anywhere. On the other hand, no business can monitor the entire net. Even Google has to take internet crawling in stages. A usable internet reputation management strategy will define prime areas to monitor, and set out coping strategies for each one:

• Regular news channels. These are still the first stop for most people when it comes to news, no matter what the industry. Most businesses still consider regular news channels their main reputation threats, as well. Keep an eye on the news, and engage news agencies with the occasional press release as part of your regular reputation management. This can help you to develop a relationship with journalists, which is helpful when bad news breaks

• Review sites and industry forums. Online reviews are increasingly important to online business, as they seem to be replacing old-fashioned word-of-mouth. A bad review posted by a disgruntled customer can actually do more damage than a big news report. For this reason, review sites that apply to your industry need to be monitored constantly

• Influential blogs. There’s not much you can do to change the opinion of prominent industry bloggers, but developing a relationship with them is a good way to ensure that they will treat you fairly. Most companies approach influential bloggers in order to gain inbound links. Keep building your relationship with these bloggers and they may well give you a heads-up before any bad publicity comes your way

• Social media sites. Social media networks are the social centres of the net. Just as the general pubic will gossip and spread word about your business in real life, the social media networks are usually the source of gossip spread on the net. The difference is, gossip on the social media networks is spread far more efficiently. Monitoring these networks regularly is an absolute must for any online reputation management strategy

The best kind of online reputation management is pre-emptive, rather than reactive. The absolute optimum way to manage your online reputation is to work reputation management into your main SEO plan. By including this element in your SEO, you can pre-emptively take control of the top ten search engine spots for your brand keywords, enabling you to nip any bad news in the bud. Obviously, the scale of your reputation management will reflect the size of your operation.

Does a Blog for SEO Really Suit your Site?

2010-03-02T05:17:00.000-08:00

Blogs are a boon for search engine optimisation. They provide a great source of continuous fresh content, they open up avenues for user interaction, and they can even bring in inbound links. Blogs are great for their site’s SEO. The thing most SEO professionals rarely discuss is the fact that blogs are not great for every site.

It’s true that a blog can increase your site’s search engine friendliness. Blogs have worked wonders for the rankings of many sites. The mistake a lot of businesses and SEO companies alike have made is in thinking that it’s the very existence of a blog that increases the PageRank. This is an easy assumption to slip into, mostly due to wishful thinking. The hidden part of the blog = increased ranking equation is quality content. This takes time, hard work, and valuable resources.

Do you have room for a blog?

The first question you should really ask yourself is whether you have room on your site for a blog. Blog entries add valuable pages to your site, but a small site can easily get swamped by all of the extra material. You need to plan for where the blog will be in the future and adjust your site’s structure accordingly. Structure should be one of the considerations of your SEO plan and you can talk to us at SEO Consult about adapting your site’s structure for SEO.

Does a blog fit in?

The second important question is whether a blog would really suit your site. While it’s true that communicating with users in this way is suitable for most businesses, blogs don’t suit everyone’s style. If your business is uncomfortable with engaging users on a personal level, a blog may not be for you.

Are you posting quality content?

Not every business can afford to source high quality content for their blog, and this is where a lot of businesses make big mistakes. Quality content is essential for a blog, and it requires resources. These may be intellectual resources, budgetary resources or time resources. Posting content is a waste of time when you have nothing to say.

Does your blog have SEO content?

This is a vital consideration. Quality content is one thing, but if your blog posts haven’t been optimised then you’re missing half the benefits. SEO techniques are just as important in this content as for the rest of your site.

Can you afford time for a blog?

Even when you source content from a professional, maintaining a blog takes time. Posts have to be scheduled, comments sections monitored, and the system overseen to make sure everything’s working. Blog posts must be frequent in order for you to reap the SEO and user benefits of this source of fresh content. A blog needs to fit into your schedule in order for it and your business to prosper.

If you find that a blog doesn’t suit your site, don’t despair. There are many options for providing fresh content, including articles and forums. Check with your consultant for ideas.

http://www.seoconsult.co.uk/SEOBlog/seo-blogging/does-a-blog-for-seo-really-suit-your-site.html