Pimp My Keywords

SEO Is Much More Than Rankings: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 234

There is so much more to search engine optimization (SEO) than checking your rankings. Too much focus continues to be on rankings and nothing else. Heck, some SEO firms get paid based on ranking performance and nothing else. There are many ways to get ranked high in search engines on keywords. However, the problem is how many potential customers are really searching for you on these "targeted" keywords?

Digging deep takes a lot of work, but you'll soon discover that you'll be able to make better, actionable plans by looks at the data.

Therefore, start utilizing other resources besides putting all your eggs into the rankings basket.

Consider these online and subscription tools to help improve your website:

• Screaming Frog
• Alchemy
• SEM Rush
• Raven
• SEOmoz
• GoRank
• Schema.org
• Google Analytics, of course
• Search engine webmaster tools...just to name a few.

These research tools will crank out a ton of useful data for your website. You'll quickly find areas needing improvement and where you should be spending most of your time for traffic and conversion improvement (and, yes, rankings).

Always look for opportunities for improvement: keywords, content, Headers, images, link building, etc. Work on your weaknesses and spend time making constant improvements.

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SEO & Hosting: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 232

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Creating Social Triggers: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 233

Here are a few pretty cool tricks I learned at Blue Glass (an SEO conference in Tampa, Florida) when it comes to creating social triggers and online conversations.

First, spend less time creating content and spend more time promoting content. This is especially true for firms that crank out the content ever day. It's like content puke. However, none of the content properly shared and readers don't have enough time to digest the information and engage in a conversation before drowning in another piece of content by the same firm. Find that middle ground of creating and promoting content.

Second, create a controversy and allow people to argue about dumb things. This is easy. State your point of view on something and let it ride. Those commenting on your thoughts will start battling it out with each other on your Facebook page, blog, forum, etc.

Third, find two audiences and pit them against each other. For example, create a conversation about two sports teams; politics; food; exercise; healthcare, etc.

Fourth, draft behind topics or ideas. If a news item or topic is hot, join in on the conversation and write a blog post about how it effects your business or your industry.

None of the above strategies will work until you start creating content. Don't go overboard and create too much. Unfortunately, we see a lot of businesses that don't create enough content (or usually none at all).

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Starting Facebook With Zero Fans: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 229

SEO & Hosting: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 232

Believe it or not, there's always good news and bad news when switching website host providers.

Typically, businesses may choose to change hosts when:

•     Updating their site becomes increasingly difficult.
•     Business owners feel they don't have full control over their site.
•     Website down times increase.
•     Delivering and receiving e-mail becomes a problem.

Hosting should be easy. However, too many web design firms feel they "own" the website design and code (remember when someone paid you to do the work?). Other design firms don't want "too many cooks in the kitchen" in fear an inexperienced business owner will cause havoc if they change content (i.e., changing content is too difficult, etc.).

However, when choosing to change hosting and content platforms, always consider a potential search engine optimization disaster. Services and SEO options you had with the previous host may no longer be available. On the flip side, you may find yourself on the receiving end of better opportunities. Let's hope so!

Recently, one of our clients switched web hosts. In the short-term, it was an SEO disaster and we had to clean up a little bit of a mess (no biggie) in order to bring things up to par. However, the new host is all WordPress which now creates easier opportunities for our client to create new web pages and write more content. Of course, as you may know, the WordPress platform is extremely search engine friendly. Some additional SEO plug-ins will help as well!

One word of caution: Before switching hosts, make sure you have a "local" copy of your entire website, including your site's XML sitemap, downloaded and saved on a hard drive or local server. A complete directory and file inventory is required. Then, when the switch takes place to your new host, check to make sure all files have been properly moved and uploaded (in the proper folder structure) on your new host.

Have you experienced an SEO disaster after switching website hosting services?

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Review SEO Data, Technical Elements: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 228

YouTube Is A Gold Mine: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 231

YouTube presents endless opportunities for search engine optimization, social media and traffic for business owners.

Think about it: YouTube is the second largest search engine (behind Google). There are billions of views conducted each day for YouTube videos. Therefore, by "optimizing" your videos you will create potential higher position in YouTube and search engines.

Unfortunately, many businesses make video production the stumbling block. You don't need to hire a video company to record, edit and post your videos. You can simply create your own video production with an inexpensive video camera (we use a Flip camera here in our office), mobile phone or tablet. Actually, the "raw" video - without the glitz - is more real to viewers. They're not that interested in splashy introductions and loud music; just give them the information!

Once your video has been recorded and uploaded to YouTube, follow these optimization tips:

• Write a strong title for your video. Make sure you use a targeted keyword in your title.
• Write a detailed description of the video (again, using your targeted keywords). Also include your website's URL in the description tag.
• Complete all other tags in YouTube.
• Once your video is published, copy the video's URL and publish it to your website's blog and all social media channel. Invite people to come view and comment on your video.

Be social on YouTube by subscribing to other video channels. Make relevant comments and remarks to videos in your industry. This will automatically generate a backlink back to your YouTube Channel.

If you're camera shy, start slow and try to record and publish one video per month and work your way up to two videos per month and so on. Include other staff members in your videos or interview customers and talk with them about how your products and services helped them solve a problem.

Ready to give videos a try?

Easy Tactics You're Missing: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 230

Yes, search engine optimization is hard work and takes time. Social media might be considered "fun" (sometimes). Link building takes patience and your website needs to stay in line with Google's updates and rules.

The bottom line, of course, is to position your business to be in front of as many eyeballs as possible; to get them to find you and buy your products and services.

However, many times, we overlook the obvious and focus too much on the negatives (hard work; time; expense; etc.).

This time, let's make it easier by considering some easy tactics that can really help make the difference. Here are some online marketing strategies you might be overlooking:

• Make sure you're placing your social media badges on your website (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.). At the very least, these should be on your Home page and on your Contact Us page. Consider putting them on every page. Give equal consideration to putting them in both the header and footer of every page. Make sure they are visible to your site visitors. 
• Get more comments in your blog by closing a blog post with a question.
• If no one is posting comments in your blog, then you should post your own comments and try to start a conversation.
• Your website should have a call to action on every conversion page. Yes, you want people to buy from you, but other "converting" opportunities can include visitors completing a form for more information; downloading a white paper; "Liking" your Facebook page, etc.
• Use your e-mail signature block as a conversion opportunity. If you're hosting an upcoming webinar, place a little note and a link to the webinar sign-up page in your e-mail's signature line. You should always include your social media badges in your signature line.
• Include your "Tweets" from your Twitter account on the Home page of your website (using Twitter's RSS feed). This let's visitors see what you're currently talking about on Twitter. We include a feed of this blog "Pimp My Keywords" and our Twitter feed on our Purple Trout, LLC website's home page.
• You need to include Google+ in your social media strategy. It's starting to become a game-changer.
• Start giving some consideration to Pinterest.
• Fix broken links. Fix 404 Page Not Found errors on your website.
• Build links by earning them.
• Become a guest blogger.
• Invite others to be a guest blogger on your blog.

Wow! That's a good list! How many of the above items are you ignoring?

 

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Starting Facebook With Zero Fans: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 229

Some businesses continue to resist the urge (or need) to start a company Facebook Page.

Why?

• Fear of communicating with their clients or customers?
• Putting off having to create and implement a social media strategy.
• Lack of time (always an excuse).
• Pre-determining that their customers aren't really on Facebook so there's no reason for their business to be on Facebook either.

Sigh.

What would you do if you had to create a Facebook page today with no strategy and no Fans?

Let's pretend and let's get started.

Here are some tips to begin building your audience from scratch:

• Figure you who is your audience. Customers? Prospects?
• What is important to them?
• How do you currently talk to them?

It also always helps to view other business' Facebook page in your niche. If you are a plumber in Cleveland, you can certainly get some ideas from a plumber in Birmingham.

Talk to your current customers. Ask them what they'd like to see on your Facebook Page that would keep them interesting.

Unfortunately, most businesses make their Facebook Page all about them. They tell you how fantastic they are; how long they've been in business and all the fabulous features of hiring their firm (or buying their products).

Needless-to-say, this is a horrible Facebook strategy.

Instead of it being about the company, it needs to be about the customer. Things they might find important include:

• How you can help them.
• Coupons, sales, etc.
• Entertaining posts
• Interesting posts and information about what's going on in the community.
• A contest.
• Pictures (not of your products).
• Videos (not of your products).
• Free stuff (people love anything that's free).

Think of things that will help your customers engage with you.

Need more help? Drop us a comment here!

Review SEO Data, Technical Elements: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 228

No one said search engine optimization (SEO) is easy. It’s hard work. It’s technical and it takes time to see positive results (provided you’re doing everything correctly).

There are many technical elements that need to be addressed and, if necessary, fixed in order to improve rankings. Here’s a brief roadmap to help you get started:

• Review your website’s architecture and correct any broken internal and external links.
• Check any onsite search filters and sorts to make sure they are working properly.
• Review your website’s robot.txt file.
• Review all http headers.
• Review all html headers
• Read, review and apply html improvement suggestions from Google Webmaster Tools.
• Update your website’s XML Sitemap. You should do this every time you add new pages; remove pages; rename page; add or remove categories; add or remove products, etc.
• Use 301 redirects for site and page changes (good for both people and SEO).
• Master the SEO basics.

And we’re just getting started here!

Once you’ve covered the basics (aforementioned list), then it’s time to get down and dirty by making better decisions through research and reviewing data. Note: You’ll find some cool information here, but you’ll need to invest time in order to read and study the data.

Start by downloading and using Screaming Frog, an SEO spider tool, which returns a ton of data based on the crawled URL. Here, you will find internal and external links; response codes; meta tag codes; header tags and more.  You can also use Screaming Frog to investigate competitor’s websites.

Once you have collected your Screaming Frog data, consider cross-checking it with data from SEMRush (it offers both free and paid versions). Find out how your website’s categories are ranking. Look for weaknesses and opportunities. Also check your data in MajesticSEO, Google Analytics, GoRank, Raven Tools and Schema.org.

Don’t settle on search engine rankings in Google in determining your SEO expertise. Consider all other factors, especially quality traffic, conversions, sales, leads, etc.

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Sharing More Content: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 227

It's true: the more you share online, the more opportunities you are creating for potential customers to find you.

Think about it. If your website is your only online marketing tool, you have limited the number of opportunities for people to find you.

Now think about the endless list of opportunities you can create and share:

• Your company blog. Write and publish at least one blog post per week (around 500 words). Work your way up to two, or more, blogs per week.
• Articles. Write and publish at least one article on your website per month (around 1,000-1,500 words).
• White papers. Write and publish at least one white paper to your website per quarter (minimum 2,500 words).
• With all blog posts, articles and white papers, make sure you publish social media badges and other social network sharing icons, such as Reddit, Delicious, etc.
• Don't limit yourself to writing only for your company's website. Consider guest blogging; writing articles for online trade publications and other websites in your industry. 
• Get involved and be active in primary social media networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. The frequency of posting isn't as important (to start) as is the content you are willing to share.
• Create a company SlideShare account and share your presentations online. All of them.
• Start looking at Pinterest as it is creating some interesting inbound marketing opportunities.
• Take company photographs. Lots of them. Share them through your social media channels and on your website.
• Create videos on a regular basis; at least 1-2 videos per month. These don't need to be spectacular videos. Just give your audience the basics about your company; services; new products; a how-to-video; an interview, etc.
• Publish your videos to YouTube and Vimeo. Pull your YouTube video feed into your blog. Share your videos through your social media channels.
• Write, publish and share press releases. At a minimum, publish your news on your website (and keep it fresh). For more important news, consider using online press release publishing services such as PRWeb.

Although we've just scratched the tip of the sharing iceberg, it's important to know that the more content you can create, the more sharing opportunities you will have.

Time to get started!

 

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Online Strategies For 2013: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 221

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Not All Links Are Created Equal: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 226

Although you may still see flashing banners and receive e-mails selling you thousands of inbound links (i.e. spam), the mysteries and myths of link building are forever gone.

• The more links the merrier is no longer true.
• Directory submissions no longer matter.
• Articles directories are no longer valid.
• Buying links is a no-no.
• Trading links has never really worked.
• Blog commenting and forum participation usually are never published (or they have a “no follow” tag, so the link never matters).

Over the last few months, there are more new services offering to clean up bad links than there are SEO firms promising you the top ranking in Google (which is another myth we’ll save for a different day).

The easiest way to earn a quality link to your website is to write and publish great content on your website. This includes blog posts; articles; white papers; videos, etc. Great content always earns comments and social media shares.

If no one is commenting on your blogs and comments, then you should start the conversation. A good idea is to end your blog post with a question. Encourage your readers to leave a comment. Publish comments; respond to them and start a conversation within your blog.

Ask readers to share your blog posts through their social media channels.

Here are some other effective methods to learning quality links to your website:

• Be a guest blogger. This only works if you can write amazing content.
• Make sure you have a great bio when conducting webinars, conferences, seminars, etc., that includes a link back to your website or blog.
• Write a series of articles. These can be especially effective if they are good articles with solid information for the reader.
• Create informative videos and publish them on YouTube. Pull the YouTube feed into your website or within your blog.
• Promote a company event and support it with a press release. We do monthly webinars with a press release each month (i.e., news about our company; news about an event; quality information; social media opportunities; sharing opportunities, and links pointing back to our website, etc.).

What techniques are you currently using to earn quality inbound links and traffic to your website?

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Content Marketing For Small Businesses: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 225

Small businesses – and we’re talking “true” small business here – need to utilize and embrace the whole idea behind content marketing.

As a review, “content” includes everything from writing blogs, articles and white papers to creating and publishing videos, photographs and more.

“Content marketing” is the process by which you are able to publish your content on other websites (online trade journals, blogs, video websites, etc.), which gets the word out about your business; which in turn generates traffic to your website and creates social media sharing opportunities.

While large businesses with bigger budgets and full-time marketing teams can crank out tons of content, small businesses can be as equally as effective in their local market and niche. The more fresh content a small business can produce and publish, the more opportunities they will create to appear in search engine results.

Here are some ideas small businesses can use to develop content:

• Write about newsworthy items about what’s going on with your business, including new services, new products, new staff, etc.
  
  
• Create a blog post or an article with the Top 10 questions your customers ask you the most frequently. Answer those questions in a blog post (or multiple blog posts).
  
  
• Take pictures of your business and publish them on your website; Google Local+, Facebook, and in other social media websites.
  
  
• Videos are extremely popular. You should plan to create and publish one video per month (i.e., YouTube, your blog, etc.).
  
  
• Create a content strategy 30-, 60-, and 90-days in advance. Blog around topic “pillars” each month.
  
  
• If you don’t have time to create fresh content, consider hiring a local freelance writer to help.
  
  
• Create a call for action or ask a question at the end of each blog post, such as “How would you solve this problem?” or “Please feel free to leave your comments here about this topic.”

In a local small business market, creating content on a regular basis will increase your visibility; your brand and traffic to your website. Local competitors may not be willing to invest in content marketing which leaves open opportunities to surge ahead.

Are you ready to implement your local content marketing strategy?

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