Posts Tagged ‘Niche’

SEO Goals for 2011

While a lot of folks are talking about which SEO trends to look for in 2011, I thought it would be helpful to share my top SEO goals for 2011 instead.

I think most of us already know we should continue to focus on mobile, social media marketing and local search engine optimization in 2011.

Beyond those top 3 SEO trends, here’s my personal list of SEO goals for this website and blog this year.

1. Get Off My Butt and Do Some Offline Networking
At first you might be thinking “what does this have to do with SEO”? And sure, it doesn’t seem directly related. However, if you’re serious about building a long-term, sustainable online business; you’ll likely need to step up your offline efforts at some point. Take a look at any industry, they all have conferences where you’ll find representatives from all of the top brands. Search engine marketing isn’t any different. Become a speaker or a sponsor, and you’re sure to earn an authoritative link in your niche. Talk to some like minded individuals, cultivate those relationships, and you’ll probably earn a few editorial links too. You can check out SMX and SES for search marketing conferences, or get your feet wet with a local Meetup or Biznik event.

2. Differentiate Myself from the Pack
Again, this might not seem directly related. However, there are literally thousands of SEO blogs, most of which talk about the same stuff, often times just repeated. That’s great, a lot of that information is important to know and thus it should be written about on each resource. But, I also want to be different. I want to earn your subscription and links. Offer you something the other guys don’t. So, one of my goals is figuring out what SEO information is lacking and filling in those gaps. If you’re struggling to stand out in your niche, you might want to take a step back and ask yourself how you can be different too.

3. Take Social Media Seriously
I’m just as terrible networking online as I am in person. I get into these wicked zones and all I focus on is creating content, and reading and testing out new tools. I forget to interact with others. It’s not healthy for me or my business. I can’t tell you which social media tool is best for your business, but I can say the little bit of real social networking I have done has earned me a few editorial links and number of great contacts within in my niche. I don’t recommend approaching social media as way to promote your products, but more about cultivating relationships. When done right, those relationships should turn into more sales in the long-run than any short-term pitch. And, with Google and Bing admitting they use social signals to help rank websites, i’ve been given another great reason to start taking social media more seriously.

The common theme here is that I want to “earn” more links this year. Without networking, it’s really tough to get even the best content linked too. Some people get lucky, while others go broke creating great content that never get’s found or linked to. Most of the time it’s hard to have one without the other, and eventually manual link submissions will run their course. Figuring out how to entice others to continuously link to you is the best way to increase and maintain your rankings long-term.

Well, I could go on forever with my extensive list of SEO goals, but I want to know what your goals are? Please take a moment to share your top three with the rest of us in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you. And, I know the rest of the folks reading this would too. To your success in 2011 and beyond!!

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Social Media Optimization

The importance Of Social Media Optimization On SEO Ranking

Social Media Optimization (SMO) has become an important part of your SEO and SEM campaigns. Once social networking sites were not much more than an oddity. But today, many have received enormous ranking authority from the top search engines. If you are not leveraging these sites to improve your exposure and communicate with your niche consumer, your search engine positions are vulnerable to your competitors.

Search marketing has always been about exposure in the search engines to drive targeted traffic to your website. For years getting the basic SEO development of your site right and generating links pointing to your site did this for you. Both are still important today. Times have changed, social media optimization added a third element to search marketing.
Google once maintained several disparate search platforms for blogs, videos, news, and similar types of “social” content. Each functioned as a separate search engine with its own set of organic listings.
Then Google blended the listings from each platform into a system called Universal Search. Bing and Yahoo have since incorporated similar systems. Universal Search is now used as the primary index. That means blogs, videos, and news have been incorporated into the natural listings, pushing many sites off the first page. This is one of the reasons social media optimization has become critical to search.
Another factor that has influenced search ranking is the increased ranking authority given to Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and similar sites. These too, have quickly gained control of a significant amount of search spots.
Social media optimization preserves your current natural listings while helping you to gain even more search exposure. By using blogs, videos, and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, you can capture a greater number of organic positions.
Your Social Media Optimization Campaign: Rules of Engagement
Top Positions in the Web’s Largest Article Directory

Encourage your audience to link to your site. Integrating a blog is valuable because your content can be updated over time, attracting loyal readers. Encourage readers to bookmark, tag and “Tweet” your blog posts by installing a button plug-in.

Link liberally to resources your visitors will need to or want to use. Social media optimization is all about assisting others achieve what they are trying to do. Once you engage your audience, help them find the resources they need by linking to them. Eventually, your site will become regarded as a resource hub, which will help you attract inbound links. Inbound links are a vital component of SEO.

Identify your market. Social media optimization relies upon the connections you establish within niche communities. You need to properly target them in order to engage them and generate content. This is true whether you’re engaging them through YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, or your blog.

Integrate tracking tools to measure and monitor the success of your social media optimization campaign. Track mentions of your site and company. Watch your site’s progress in the natural listings for your main keywords. Generate linking reports showing inbound links pointing to your domain and specific pages. Tracking your metrics is crucial in order to determine whether your SMO campaign is effective.

Each of the elements of a social media optimization campaign fit in with your SEO. The ongoing content creation, tagging and bookmarking, attracting inbound links by being a resource for your audience – these are essential for pushing your website higher in the search engines’ listings. SEO social media optimization leverages a new set of tools to accomplish the same goal as SEO: more exposure for your site on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The challenge is knowing how to use those tools effectively.
If you want to boost your exposure in the search engines’ listings, consider social media optimization a priority.