In this day and age having a website to represent your business online is integral to the success of your business and having that site appear at the top of the search engines is even more important.
The big question is which keywords should you focus on when performing search engine optimisation?
Below we have provided a step by step guide on how to choose the correct keywords for your business.
Step 1 –
This is Google’s keyword tool and is ideal for keyword research for your website as it will provide historical data on the number of people searching
Step 2 –
Type your keywords in the top left box, for example:
Electric Cigarette
Step 3 –
Type in the security words and click on the search button.
Step 4 –
On the left side of the page you will see an area for ‘Match Types’.
Make sure that the only box ticked in this section is [Exact].
The page will now automatically refresh and you will see a large list suggested relevant keywords on the right hand side.
The important information to take from this list is firstly the suggested keyword itself, then the global and local monthly searches.
Global Monthly Searches is an approximate 12 month average for searches run on the keywords.
Local Monthly Searches is an approximate 12 month average for searches run on the keywords within a country specified by you. This should automatically be set to United Kingdom.
Step 5 –
Above the list of keywords you will see a small box with ‘Download’ written in it.
Click on this and then click on the word ‘All’ which will open up a download box in the centre of the screen.
Click ‘Download’ and open the file in Microsoft Excel.
From here you will be able to sort the columns by the various headings.
Step 6 –
Sort the spread sheet data by local monthly searches and begin deleting any keywords that are not relevant to your business and what you are trying to achieve.
Step 7 –
From the remaining keywords you should type each keyword into the search engines to check the amount of competition.
By downloading something like the SEO Book toolbar you will also be able to see how many backlinks your competitors have and where they are from.
Once you have all of the information you will be in a much better position choose the keywords that will be not only achievable but also those that will make a positive difference to your business.
In a move that boosts the profile of Google+ even further, it’s been announced today that all three of the UK’s major party leaders, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and of course Prime Minister David Cameron have signed up for personal accounts, joining the 25 million or so existing members who’ve been quick to test out the new phenomenon for themselves.
Google+ has been a hot topic with bloggers since its launch in June, even though it still currently exists in its beta state and the registering system is strictly invite-only. The network faced criticism early on for its refusal to allow businesses or celebrities to create brand-focused pages yet insists that the political figureheads’ profiles are entirely personal and not intended as a means of publicity.
Cameron has been quick to post his reasons for joining the site, informing users that he is ‘proud to see British politicians leading the way when it comes to embracing new methods of engaging people online, from e-petitions to the latest developments in social media’. Clegg and Miliband quickly followed suit, explaining the importance of connecting with voters and embracing new technology, with the Labour leader citing that he was ‘determined for Labour to look outwards, not inwards’.
Google has faced criticism in the past for its alleged political stance. The corporation has been criticised in the past for showing an uncomfortable number of links to the Conservative party. Eric Schmidt, the company’s CEO, also works as a prominent economic adviser for Cameron.
The politicians have joined the hype-written Google+ as interest remains high, but many are concerned that over time their interest in the network will wane. Google’s UK managing director, Matt Brittin, is pleased to see the party leaders ‘embracing new innovations’ and praises their efforts to lead the political world when it comes to ‘new innovations in citizen engagement’.
Building online presence is extremely necessary in a world where everything is shifting to the virtual side. Earlier, with the advent of the internet, some companies started thinking that investing in a website was an exercise that would help them extend their presence online. Most businesses, start ups and companies online began with five page websites which were based on fixed templates. These templates presented fixed designs, color schemes and features.
With the onset of time, flash based sites came into existence and these had better looking graphics and gave the users some scope for interactivity. With the emergence of Social Media and hand-held devices, there are a host of possibilities which allow for integrated solutions for online presence. With applications such as Facebook connect and Twitters‘ open API, enabling website for social media presence has become lot simpler.
Why Invest in Building Online Presence?
The internet has become a credible source of readily available information for most users. Consumers today feel the need to conduct research before they make their purchase decisions. With the fast changing scape of the market and emergence of newer models of products and brands, the user requires a deeper level of education and research before making his purchase decision.
For instance, a user who is new to the world of cell phones and 3G technologies will not have all the knowhow required to make a purchase decision. He will do this based on what he reads online, the comments he receives via status updates or tweets and also by visiting technology forums online. The relevant information is accessed by the user not just by reading online.
He also views videos, reads blogs, looks at pictures of a product online and has a greater level of interactivity and understanding of a product before he buys it.
A Few Tips for Building Online Presence
In an era where consumers are accessing content rich websites, reading interactive and relevant blogs, and watching videos which are going viral, it is time for your business to go beyond the basic four tab website.
There is scope for brand building online and ensuring better brand recall, thanks to the multifarious options available online. Your business needs more than just a simple web presence; it needs a digital portfolio which has widgets, video blogs, images, videos, user engagement and more.
Don’t Just Stop There, Go Beyond!
Your pursuit should be to make your brand an online experience, not just a presence that asserts itself. You can do this by:
- Ensuring that the landing pages are not just catchy, they are relevant and informative to your target audience.
- Making your website simple to navigate. Consumers should not have a problem when going from one section to another. Navigation should be a joy on your website and not a task.
- Including an internal search option on your website. This option is especially helpful when your business publishes blogs and white papers extensively. An integrated search option will help your target audience quickly access information without typing their query out by visiting a search engine again.
- Making additional features such as shopping carts on your website smooth instead of collecting unnecessary details.
These steps can effectively help in providing the visitors what they exactly expect and want, and can subsequently help you in formidably building online presence.
Author: Khadim is co-founder of SearchEnabler SEO Platform. SearchEnabler is affordable on-demand SEO software for start-ups, small business and individuals seeking to improve online visibility.
Facebook – it is no longer that silly website that had your child foaming at the mouth while staring at their computer screen or mobile for hours. This social network has come a long way since its launch and is no longer just a place for you to try and find old school friends and previous partners. Of course, a lot of people still use the site to interact and share things with their friends, but the business potential for companies has become incredible – so much so, that it is almost essential for you to include your business on this site. Companies are able to connect with their consumers on a personal level, get their honest feedback and, of course, market products to a specific targeted group – which ensures better returns.
If you are relatively new to the whole concept, you may need some assistance in getting started. For this reason, I have listed some helpful tips for beginners.
Create your Facebook page:
This is not a profile or a group, but a page specifically designed for businesses. Signing up is similar to creating a profile, so be sure to have a company logo and some interesting things to fill up the empty page. Once you have uploaded some pictures, brochures and information, you should be ready to start attracting fans.
Start the promotion:
The easiest way to get things rolling is to ask your friends and employees to “like” your fan page. In turn, your posts will show up on their wall, allowing their friends to see your products. You should also link your website to your fan page so that visitors to your website can follow your fan page on Facebook.
Increase awareness:
Once you have a fairly decent amount of fans, it’s time to kick things into the next gear. A promotion is always a good option but remember that you want to attract people that are interested in your product. It’s all good having 20 000 fans, but if more than half have liked your page just because of a competition, then it is pointless. Also, be sure to interact with customers, encourage them to give reviews and eventually your product will market itself.
Now that you understand the basics, join Facebook and create a page for your business today. Once you get to know your way around, you can then expand onto Facebook advertising where you can specifically target people who would be interested in your services/product.
Jason Acar has a passion for online marketing and social media. He also writes articles for a corporate team building in Johannesburg company that specialize in hot air ballooning.
If you feel that you could be doing more to enhance your current online marketing campaign, you should consider the reach of your social media platforms. Setting up a Facebook page is a great way to boost your reputation on the web. However, you need to make sure that you’re offering your target audience the right kind of information, or you may find that your efforts go completely unnoticed.
Creating the page itself is simple. Once you’ve made it to the ‘create a page’ template, choose your appropriate category and sub-category. Think carefully about which group you’re going to choose – your selection will eventually determine the information you’re allowed to display.
Once you reached the next page, you’ll be prompted to add an image to your profile. This image works in the same way as a profile picture, but of course you can utilise it to your advantage. Although your image is limited to a specific pixel size, you can customise it to include an existing logo, product photo, slogan or even your contact details. Although it may seem a fine detail compared to the work you may have to carry out on the rest of the page, tailoring your image to showcase your company will make a world of difference. Because the thumbnail of your image is used throughout the site to identify your page, you should aim to make it as appealing and eye-catching as possible. Make the most of every inch of space you have available on the page and advertise with your photo!
But what’s a Fan Page without fans?! If you’ve been active on Facebook for a while and have built up a strong list of contacts, you can easily invite your existing friends to join your Fan Page. Many argue that doing so won’t make a huge difference to your exposure, as many of your friends simply won’t be interested in your brand, but there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of shameless plugging every now and then. Plus, once you’ve gained around 25 ‘likes’, you’ll be given the option to create a customised URL for your page (ie www.facebook.com/mybrand). This helps to identify your page even more and will make it instantly recognisable to your users.
Once you’ve experimented with your image and spent some time racking up a solid-looking fan list, you’ll then be given the option to write in some basic information about your company or brand. Obviously the aim of setting up a Facebook page is to inform a wider audience of your company, so take this opportunity to include a live URL, a detailed description of your business, practical information such as contact details and a clear geographical location. Enhance your page by adding in your mission statement, a short history of your company, maybe even a small number of testimonials; anything that will prove your reputation and standing within your industry.
It’s important to work to the ethos that Facebook is designed to increase the reach of your brand. Although you’re unlikely to generate direct business as a result of the page, you need to make it easy for your potential customers to get in touch, so be sure to include clear contact info. Being mindful of relevant key terms and inserting them cleverly into your descriptions will also help prospects find you via the search tool.
Feel that your page lacks that certain special something? Thankfully, Facebook have made it possible for page owners to customise their own tabs. You can use standard codes such as HTML, CSS and Javascript or take advantage of the many apps available, such as the Static HTML: iframe tabs option, which will allow you to insert a tab onto your page that can be modified using standard HTML. By doing so, you can upload images, videos and banners that are proven to impress users a lot more than a standard FB template. Customising your page shows initiative and originality, two qualities that entice the standard Facebook trawler. If you’d like to provide users with another incentive to ‘like’ your page, you can also create tabs that is only visible to fans, that could be used to offer exclusive content or competitions to those who have expressed interest in your business.
The problem is simple – you have to use social media in your online marketing plan, but how can you tell if social media is working for you? Essentially, each marketer will have difference needs for their social media plans and the various tools or sites within it; however there are several key performance indicators that can help determine if social media is working for you – or if it is a waste of time.
KPIs of Social Media
There are 3 metrics of social media which are main indicators of the success of your campaign:
• Your Following – the number of followers you have is always a strong sign of success. Some say ‘quality is better than quantity’, but remember that there will be more quality followers within a group of 100,000 than there will be in a group of 100.
• Website Traffic – even using the most basic website tracking software, you can tell if your social media is driving visitors to your website. Each plan will vary in its referral traffic goals, but regardless, if your social media isn’t driving any traffic you know you’re in trouble.
• Content Success – an underrated performance metric for social media is how the content you provide to other websites is performing. Is it drawing comments? Is it drawing links? How many times has it been shared? Further, one needs to assess how their content is doing on the web in general, asking many of the same questions mentioned above, plus – where is my content ranking for the keywords within it? If your content is performing well that is a positive sign for your social media plan.
How to put it All Together
When measuring the KPIs of social media, it is important to remember that many of the best tools available are free, or offer a free basic package that is more than adequate. In regards to measuring how much traffic is pushed to your site through social media, Google Analytics presents a powerful tool, as does PostRank. For measuring content performance, PostRank also very effective, as are the reporting functions of Hootsuite.
As you can see there are key areas of measurable performance for your social media plans, and it would be wise to set goals for these metrics. Without a direction and target to reach, your social media plan will simply be misguided waste of time.
This article was written by Marco, the Marketing Director of AcuityAds Inc., the leaders in real time bidding technology.
Analysing the search results before you jump in is something that can save you months of pain down the road. I found this out with my first seo project where I decided to rank for the phrase “web hosting” using my new adsense supported review blog. I had no concept of competition or the fact that some niches can take years to conquer. So is it really possible to work out how much competition there is in a market before getting involved? Well its not an exact science but it is possible to get an idea whether you should dive in or not.
Putting a number on the links
Numbers are always a nice place to start since it gives you a solid target to beat. Even though the type of links your competition has is very important (as I will talk about next) its still vital to count volume. So the mistake many webmasters make is just looking at the overall backlink count using the link: command in yahoo or google. Google only shows a fraction of the links and yahoo counts more than on link from the same domain, for instance if you get a site wide link on a blog with a 1000 pages yahoo would say that’s a 1000 links. We know that a 1000 links from one site is not the same as 1 link from a 1000 sites so we cant use this data. Instead we want to know the number of unique domains (sites) that are linking to our competitor, a good place to do this is open site explorer by seomoz, you just plugin your main competitor and it throws you back a nice number under “linking root domains”. I believe that the total number of linking domains is a key factor so if this number looks unrealistic you may need to think again.
Quality or questionable links?
Its important to get an idea of what type of links your competition has because quality seems to become a bigger issue with every google update. What I look for is an overview of the type of links they are getting and if they are all coming from the same neighbourhood, for example are they all from footer links in WordPress themes? Or maybe most of their links are from forum profiles? These kind of links are easy to spot in either open site explorer or even yahoo and to me is a real sign of a short term link building strategy, but more importantly I know its a profile I can beat with just a few quality links. As mentioned what your really trying to do is get an overview and not trying to analyse every link in detail. You could get lost for days trying to give a value to each link, plus remember that only Google knows the true weight of any backlink.
Authority domain or specialist site?
I like to put every site I find in the results into one of two categories. The first is a big authority domain with maybe a single page on the subject like eBay or Amazon and the other is a smaller niche site which may have hundreds of pages dedicated to the niche. So many marketers see the bigger authority sites and give up straight away but I’m usually thinking the opposite. When your dealing with a niche keyword often these authority sites will have only a single content thin page on the subject, most of the data may even be copied from the manufacturers specs. When I see this I know its one area I can definitely improve on as I can easily create 40 – 50 quality pages on the subject, it just takes time. You see many of these bigger sites often appear as a default option, they may have little content but google knows they wont be spam. Its important to look at the links to these pages too (often very low) but in my experience if your prepared to create some quality content with a few good links you instantly become a more attractive prospect to google than these default listings.
Connecting all the pieces
At the end of all this analysis you have to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together to give a simple yes or no, do I go for the keyword or not? Its important to remember that throughout the whole process you are only looking for an overview of the main factors. Its easy to get lost inspecting every link and piece or content your competition has but unless you work for Google that’s pointless. Also bear in mind that difficultly is a very subjective thing, as some marketers can rank for things you cant and vice-versa. Ultimately its a personal decision, just make sure you can swim before you jump in!
This is a guest post by Paul over at earn money online which is a new webmaster blog covering the basics of profiting from the web.
There are so many things that businesses can (and do) do wrong when it comes to using social media.
Perhaps the biggest offense and the most common one is to believe that your customers don’t realize what you’re doing when you promote a product or a service or a business affiliate on your company Twitter account or Facebook page.
Believe me – it’s obvious. As a business, don’t get so involved in your own social media world that you forget that Twitter and Facebook have been around for a long time – heck, they made a movie about Facebook, and Zuckerburg was on the cover of Time Magazine. Don’t think people are stupid when it comes to understanding the ways in which businesses use social media. Especially if your target audience is in their twenties. Talk to them, and they could probably tell you better than you think what you can and should be doing with social media.
In fact, many of them could tell you what works – and the ins and outs and etiquette – of Facebook and Twitter better than the “social media expert” that you’ve hired that tells you that you need more Facebook advertisements. It’s not a hard and fast number, but Facebook ads don’t usually result in more than a 1% return – it’s white noise and people ignore it.
The point of social media is not to push your new product to death – to be that obnoxious commercial you see on TV that you have to switch the channel for – social media is about, well, being…social. If that isn’t a concept you can understand, then maybe you should hold off on participating in Facebook and Twitter. It’s networking with customers, getting to know them, asking questions and engaging – seeing what their honest opinion is on your product or service or company and proactively doing something about it.
If you do decide to run promotions or sales or some sort of special on your Facebook or Twitter account, be transparent about it. As I’ve mentioned – you’ll offend and turn more customers away if you treat them like they can’t understand what you’re doing, like you assume that because you’re a business on Facebook you can utilize and understand the platform so much better than everyone else. Don’t alienate your own customers. That’s bad idea number one.
And if all you do is run promotions, people will start drifting away from your social media presence – treating you like just another advertisement, and shoving you into a corner of your minds where they ignore you and your “message.” Your social media campaign just becomes white noise to a disheartened public.
To really work with social media in your company, you need to have a social media team – not just an intern that doesn’t really understand your company mission but is “good with Twitter.” You need people monitoring conversations, communicate with each other and you and make sure you have a strong, integrated front to present to the world. You need to get involved, get your hands dirty and not be afraid of losing face.
One of the most stunning examples of this is from Morton’s Steakhouse. A loyal customer (who also happened to be big CEO and have 10K or so followers on Twitter) tweeted from the airport that he wouldn’t have time to eat after he landed in his destination, and would Morton’s please get him a steak and drop it off at his arrival airport?
And you know what? They did. Even though the tweet was a joke, and not something the tweeter seriously considered would happen, it did. This is the kind of thing, as a business, you want to do with social media. Impress people. Go above and beyond, and do it consistently. Listen. Improve. Ask questions, and offer rewards.
Jade Evans is a freelance writer who works with everyone from banks in clifton park ny to Christmas wholesalers – her day is always interesting!
Speaking to others within the search engine optimization (SEO) industry, it’s surprising how often the subject of ethics arises. It’s a subject that’s discussed on an incredibly frequent basis.
The reason for this is the way in which the search engines look upon the subject of SEO. If you listen to employees from Google and the other leading search engines, then you’ll hear them talking about how it’s wrong to manipulate the search engine rankings. The problem is that SEO companies are paid to do exactly this.
Clients aren’t paying monthly fees because they like to be kind. They want to see results and that means improvements in positioning.
Black hat versus white hat
Naturally, this almost always leads to a discussion about the merits of black hat SEO. There’s general agreement within the community that black hat techniques are those that are seriously frowned upon by the search engines. But this doesn’t mean that these techniques are necessarily avoided as a result.
Indeed, it’s fair to say that some competitive industries see widespread use of black hat techniques, including cloaking and the use of paid links.
But there’s also a clear argument that says that such an approach is simply not sustainable. It’s only a matter of time, so the argument goes, until the search engines take a closer look at your approach and start to apply penalties. As a result, it’s generally agreed that white hat techniques should be used by companies wishing to gain positioning and then maintain that positioning for the long-term.
Accepted techniques
So what techniques can be used in order to build links in an ethical manner? How can you produce a sustainable way of doing small business SEO? One approach that can certainly work is building content that others will want to link to. This is, of course, easier said than done!
You might look to create a resource that’s simply too good to miss. Short guides are often attractive as pages too. But there’s nothing quite like building a reputation as an expert within your field. People love to hear what experts have to say. They love to reference their work too.
As a result, building your profile so that you are seen as one of the experts within your chosen area is a great way of gaining plenty of good quality inbound links.
Spreading the word
How can you go about building this profile of expertise? You’ll need to think carefully about your strategy.
Guest blogging is one tactic that can work particularly well. In effect, you are offering content in exchange for a link back to your website. For starters, this allows you to gain valuable inbound links to your site. But it has far more value than this.
The process of guest blogging gives you a platform. How you use that stage is up to you, although it seems clear that you’ll derive the greatest benefit if you provide highly informative, interesting pieces.
Doing so will probably encourage website owners to approach you to provide more content in the future. Creating a positive picture of your work and knowledge will also mean that you’ll be building your online profile and presence. In short, this method will help to establish you as a recognised expert.
Final thoughts
There isn’t one, single successful way of carrying out SEO. There are numerous approaches that can work. As suggested above, it is possible to carry out link building in an ethical, sustainable manner. It just needs a little more work!
Keith Barrett provides search engine optimisation services to companies of all sizes in the UK. He has been working in this industry for more than a decade.
Regardless of what kind of entertainment or media is involved – be it movies, music, television, books or newspapers – fresh stories will always be vital in helping it grow and succeed. So, if you have a website, then you have to make sure that you focus on your search engine ranking. After all, if your website doesn’t have original and new content, then it won’t be able to survive in today’s competitive online world.
Have you ever thought about how search engines find content that respond to people’s search requests? Well, these search engines send out robots that crawl the World Wide Web 24/7 searching it for fresh and new content. Since one of their main goals is to provide great search results, they will usually respond to updated and fresh content.
Due to this need for updated and new material, you will usually see blogs with properly configured SEO content rank the highest on web rankings. And, since a lot of websites use proper blog hosts, they are already naturally configured in ways that search engines will approve of. Of course, their updated comments, feedbacks and article posts will help, as well. In a nutshell, websites without updated content or visitor activities will quickly dry out and become outdated.
Aside from freshness, another vital factor to take into consideration would be your content’s overall SEO performance. The best SEO websites usually use the right kinds of keywords in their content. So, if you wish to get high rankings on search engines with a certain keyword, you need to ensure that you use that phrase in your content several times, so that the keyword will be associated with your site.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you can overuse it, though. if you overuse a keyword on purpose, then search engines will automatically penalize your website and give it a lower score on the search rankings. In other words, taking too much advantage of keywords won’t get you anywhere.
Lastly, it would be vital to provide nothing but unique content on your website. If there are several duplicates of your content on the World Wide Web, then search engines will notice this and give you lower ranking values than you would have gotten from unique content.
So, in general, there are two reasons why you need to have great content. First of all, you have to make sure your visitors stay interested in your content and come back for more.
And, second of all, you want search engines to take notice of your website and give it higher search engine rankings. Remember, though: there is a difference between making your visitors happy and making search engines happy, so try your best to make both of them happy by providing unique content at all times.
About the author: Derrick Webb is an experienced writer and a blogger that is generally focused on SEO and relational database development. He is also a writer for Toledo web design, a firm that provides SEO services and web design for small businesses.
