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Posts Tagged ‘Natural Search’

You may be hearing a lot about blogging in business circles today, and for good reason. Blogging is very important if you want to create a strong online presence, improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and generate leads.

Every business wants to come up in page 1 of Google results. If you are blogging consistently, and the RIGHT way, which means knowing what your keywords are and using them in the right places, you can help yourself do just that.

Take a look at these top 5 tips on how to effectively blog for your business:

1.  Blogging Improves Natural Search. If you want to start coming up in Google search, the biggest bang for your buck is to blog every day! To blog the right way, be sure to put your keywords, or, (your customer “pain points”) in the title of your article and hyperlink them in the 1st few sentences of your article back to the most relevant page of your web site
2.  Links from Other Web Sites. Help Google find your articles by asking other bloggers to link to them. Plus, you should link to your own content from your Facebook business page, LinkedIn and Twitter. Blogging is MORE than just a “field of dreams”, you should build it, and they might come, (over time) but, help them get there faster by getting other sites online pointing to your content.
3.  Feature Others. A great way to get people pointing to a blog article on your site is to talk about them! If you did business with them, write a review. If you use their product, tell how you liked it. Include photos or videos (this is what people love to see and click on the most) and tell the person you’ve blogged about them so they will visit the article (drives traffic) and tell their connections about it too (drives more traffic). Plus, encourage them to leave a comment.
4.  Add the Blog to Your Domain. One of the biggest mistakes I see in blogging is when a business sets up the “free” blog and does not host the blog on their own domain (URL). Google loves to see a website change their content. If you’ve had the same old website for years and never edited it with new copy or images, chances are Google is not visiting you much. A Blog remedies that because each new “post” is a change to your web site and also adds a new page. Each new page is another opportunity to optimize for keywords, improving your SEO.
5. Call to Action. Once you’ve made this investment of time creating great content, don’t miss the chance to capture a web site visitor. Include a strong “Call to Action” on your website, such as “Order now and get Free Shipping with this code”, “Sign up for our Free E-Newsletter”, or “Get our Free report”. Social media is very effective at getting people into your sales funnel. From there, continue with your traditional marketing efforts to convert them to a sale.

So, get out there and start blogging! You can generate leads and improve SEO, which all leads to improving your bottom line. Fairytale Brownies is a GREAT example of a successful business blog who was able to cancel their Pay Per Click marketing spend due to fantastic natural search results. Check out their blog!

Sure you’ve heard about social media marketing. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are in the press daily. Companies are blogging about their products and services but you’re wondering if it’s the right thing for your business. Here’s 5 reasons why you should add social media to your marketing mix:

1. Branding
   Social media can help you build your brand. Every time you tweet, write a blog or post a status update, you are keeping your company top of mind to your followers, fans and subscribers.
2. Get New Customers
   When you use keywords in your copy on all your social media platforms, you are improving your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and have a better likelihood of coming up in natural search.
3. Find Business Leads
   Wondering how to build your business? You can find people in Twitter that are in your business niche and connect with them about joint venture partnerships.
4. Find Others to Promote You
   Writers and bloggers are all over the internet. Conduct a Google Blog Search to find top sites with great page rank and a mass of followers and ask them if they will write about your product or service (and link back to you on your keywords.)
5. It’s Free to Do!
   And, the best thing about social media marketing is that it’s FREE! Writing blogs, creating and managing Twitter accounts and Facebook Fan pages for your business costs nothing but your time. But, the business impact can be incredible!

So, get online and build a social marketing presence for your business. Just a few focused, strategic minutes a day will get you hooked. You’ll be glad you did. And, if you start a blog, Twitter or Facebook account for your business and then say to yourself, “now what?” I can help.

This is the first in a series of blogs I’m calling, “Search Engine Marketing 101” or How To Get Your Business Found Online. Today, my specific topic regarding getting yourself found online is about Keywords and their power to help you come up in natural search results. Think of you own activity. When you want to find something, you Google it, right? And, that word, or series of words, you are type into the search box is called “Keywords”.

If you don’t know what keywords your customer is using to find you, you are in trouble. Keywords are of the utmost importance in all your marketing efforts. They need to be everywhere, including the following places:

• Your Web Site for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Tagged in Images on Your Web Site
• Your Blog
• The Titles of your Blogs
• Your Social Media Posts in Facebook
• Your Tweets in Twitter
• Your Headlines on Your YouTube Videos
• Your Summary Section on LinkedIn
• Your Online Press Releases

Keywords can be just one word, or a series of two to even eight words. When they get that long we call that the “long tail”. Think about how you search for something…. When you want to buy shoes, what do you type into the search box? “Running shoes”, “Supreme comfort jogging shoes”, “Nike cross training shoes”, “Brand name athletic shoes at a discount”… and the list can go on and on.

You need to conduct research and know exactly what keywords your customers are using to find you, and in a variety of short and long tailed combinations. Once you have this, it is imperative that you use them in all your online marketing efforts. Knowing what your keywords are and using them often and everywhere will improve your natural search results.

Hello and welcome to social media marketing. This is where marketing is at right now. The future is here, today! No longer will the old way of marketing work anymore. Print ads and yellow pages are a thing of the past because most people are getting their information online. And, if that’s where your customer is, you need to be there too. Sure, you have a Web site, but, in today’s online world, a static Web site isn’t enough. You need a blog that is updated frequently with relevant content about your product or service. This blog also serves as a way to get an open dialogue going with your customer. They post comments (good or bad) and you reply in turn. Google spyders love it when people comment on your blog, you get better page rank and come up easier in natural search results. And, that’s the reason to have a blog, the ability to come up in natural search. And, blogs are FREE, by the way. All they take is your time. If you don’t have time, I can help. I provide businesses that dedicated social media marketing resource they need for their business. (Oh, and Twitter and Facebook fit into the puzzle too….. I’ll write a post about that later, so, come back and visit us again).