Posts tagged campaign
16 Things Experts Say About Social Media Optimization (SMO)
Jan 28th
Within the past year alone, there have been a considerable number of resource materials that sound like the social media subject equivalents of self-help books.
What remains to be one of the most comprehensive and effective lists, however, was created back in 2006. As to be expected, within the next four years the game has been changing dynamically — but the fundamentals have proven to be the same. The 16 Rules for Social Media Optimization as penned by five of digital marketing’s go-to professionals are an excellent springboard for review and innovation of strategies.
Rohit Bhargava, who has been credited for terming Social Media Optimization or SMO, outlined the bulk of the list with:
- Increase Your Linkability. The key performance indicator of any social media campaign revolves around link building. The simple commitment to maintaining a blog for one, can do wonders for increasing linkability.
- Make Tagging and Bookmarking Easy. Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon are names to be recited by online marketers as sacred. The easier it is to share your content, the likelier it is to be spread.
- Reward Inbound Links. Positive reinforcement works in most cases, but in building your credibility, also bear in mind that not all inbound links ought to be automatically reciprocated.
- Help Your Content Travel. Through RSS feeds, newsletters, social media updates, and downloadable files, content that can conveniently be communicated expands your reach.
- Encourage The Mashup. The fact is, your content will be available for most of the world to see. Encouraging your followers to add their own take on the matter will make for an entirely productive interaction.
Enumerating two important points, Jeremiah Owyang, emphasizes the need to:
- Be a User Resource, Even if it Doesn’t Help You. Well, doesn’t help “directly” — it will return in the form of recognition as the go-to authority for information on your field of expertise.
- Reward Helpful and Valuable Users. Following the Pareto Principle of 80-20, forming relationships with your influential VIPs are a valuable investment.
Four things that Cameron Olthuis shares never to underestimate are the value of:
- Participation. Being involved, belonging to a community to which you significantly contribute to — that is what social media is all about.
- Knowing How to Target Your Audience. To ignore this piece of advice would be folly.
- Create Content. Real content is different from space-fillers in being relevant, informative, and reliable.
- Being Real. Sooner or later the truth will prevail. Fakers, scammers, hypocritical identities will backfire no matter the short-term advantages.
Creating a difference is simplified by keeping in mind the two things contributed by Loren Baker:
- Don’t Forget Your Roots, Be Humble. Do not forget the people who have one way or another brought you where you are today.
- Don’t Be Afraid to Try New Things, Stay Fresh. Be critical, yet open-minded about opportunities to constantly improve.
Lee Odden completes the list by focusing on Social Media Optimization with the easy to understand advice to:
- Develop an SMO Strategy
- Choose your SMO Tactics Wisely
- Make SMO part of your process and best practices
BING: Reverberating an SEO Revolution
Jan 1st
Netizens were decidedly intrigued with the beta launch of Microsoft’s Bing.com – branded as a much-needed innovation by serving as a pioneer Decision Engine. For several years people have been grappling with information overload online, finding it difficult to move from what-they-found-on-the-web to what-they-can-DO with what-they-found-on-the-web. And that’s if they found what they were meant to look for in the first place (more often than not, several re-queries have to be made to get it right).
Bing.com differentiates itself in this aspect.
- Credibility on Domain Age With Microsoft as Bing’s backer, everyone involved in the SEO industry is keen on investing time on this tool as well. One of the most immediate things that becomes evident is how this new site pays a lot of credibility on domain age. Therefore acquiring key domains that have been registered for a long time are valuable purchases.
- Titles could very well make or break the page rank on Bing.com. Pages with titles and main headings that contain key words are more likely to get picked up for search queries. Everyone knows text-heavy sites are more favored in searching, this is all the more true with this new alternative to Google. Might as well throw in meta keywords as well for good measure.
- DEO (Decision Engine Optimization) One thing to also consider in what is being touted as DEO (decision engine optimization) is the linking out. As opposed to the main search engine competitor’s perception of linking out, Bing takes this as a plus point for any site.
- “linkfromdomain” Feature How else does Bing empower linkbuilding? What anyone involved in SEO will be especially gleeful about is the site’s ability to help in pinpointing excellent linkbuilding targets. Or, if there is already a reputable website one is eyeing, Bing helps one find possible avenues to get links from them. This is made possible by the new player’s unique “linkfromdomain” feature. Simply put, it enumerates the pages that are linked-to from the specified domain by entering “linkfromdomain:”. Think of it as finding just the perfect crowd to run around with.
Although its measurable impact has yet to be seen, the changes it brings to the game of link-building and web search optimization are something to keep an eye out for. As a press release on Microsoft explains, Bing’s initial priorities are on helping making choices related to trip planning, local business searches, health information, and e-commerce’s foundation of purchase decisions. This is a red flag for online marketers in these industries and a virtual neon sign for those from other fields to get a head start as early as they can.
Finding the Correct Categories for Directory Submission
Oct 20th
The link building process is greatly enhanced when leveraged by web directories that can help acquire quality links for your website’s improved link popularity and increased user traffic. Needless to say, submitting your URL to web directories – free or paid-for – is a link building means that you must seriously consider.
Directory submissions to quality directories generate several benefits, particularly in relation to your link building efforts. When used appropriately and carefully, submitting your website for listing to web directories can provide visibility of your site in search engines, increase your site’s Page Rank (PR), improve your site’s link popularity, and generate inflow of traffic to your web site. In considering cost-benefit concerns, submissions to quality directories are an excellent investment that promises pay offs in terms of improved rankings and link popularity for several years. You can submit URL for directory listings on your own, or when time is something you don’t have, you can hire a good link building company to take care of it for you.
Why is correct category finding important in a link building campaign?
Before you can expect to fare well in link popularity or search engine rankings when using web directories for link building, it is crucial to understand how web directories actually work and how they operate. In simple terms, web directories serve as catalogs of web sites sorted by categories and subcategories. Unlike search engines that allow you to locate pages with relevant information, web directories allow you to locate websites according to category.
Directory submissions are one of the easiest ways to acquiring links to boost your website’s link popularity, but among the most confusing steps in suggesting a site for inclusion is the first step: selecting the right category to suggest your site to. Finding the right category is important for possible inclusion to a web directory because it increases your chances of getting your suggestions acted upon by editors more promptly. Sites that are suggested under incorrect categories delays the submission process. Hence, choosing the correct category is important if you are serious about improving your site’s link popularity.
How do I find correct categories for submission?
Emphasis on link building using web directories is on the most popular directories, namely Google Web Directory and Yahoo! Web Directory. Here is a preview of how each of them organizes categories so you can find the most suitable category to submit your URL to.
Google Web Directory
Google stands out among other web directories for some enhanced features such as importance ranking, which is a plus factor for link building campaigners. Google Web Directory has a corps of Open Directory volunteer editors that selects websites and categorizes them. Using Google’s patented PageRank mechanism, the web directory is able to display a ranking of sites based on importance. This notable feature makes the highest quality pages appear at the uppermost in any directory category.
Other web directories list sites within each category alphabetically, but Google uses PageRank to sort sites according to their importance. The highest-rated sites receive a green ratings bar to indicate their popularity in terms of PageRank. This helps users effectively launch a link building campaign by enabling them to determine which sites under any category are worth browsing.
When choosing the correct category for directory submission, submit your URL only under the most related categories to your site. Keep in mind that search engine rankings and link popularity emphasize on relevancy. Google directory narrows your search from a broad range of topics or category. It displays topics in a given category and can recommend terms that will help you conduct a narrowed search. Further, it lets you search subcategories once you narrow your topic of interest within a specific subsection.
To help you locate the most popular subcategories within a broad category, the largest subcategories are displayed in boldface. Google’s World Category features directory content using descriptions in non-English languages. To illustrate, in World/Francais, content and descriptions are written, not merely translated, entirely in French so that a whole section of the Web is displayed completely in that language.
Yahoo! Directory
The Yahoo! Directory features 14 main categories to browse on. Each main category is composed of several sub-categories that organize general information to specific information. The Yahoo! directory can list sites either in alphabetical order or by popularity. The popularity listing allows pages to be sorted by relevance based on Yahoo! Search Technology, helping your link building efforts focus on sites that are worth checking out.
When submitting for a URL to Yahoo! Directory with improving your site’s link popularity in mind, to choose the most suitable category for your website. Here are a few tips:
- Be specific. If you want to suggest your site for inclusion to Yahoo! Directory to help you improve link popularity, be meticulously specific. You can search Yahoo! Directory for words related to your site, and from there, view “Related Categories” that are displayed in the results.
- Indicate whether your site is commercial or non-commercial. If your website is entrepreneurial in nature, it belongs to the Business and Economy section. Commercial sites require paid-for listings which cost $299/year.
- Specify the region when applicable. If your site is of particular relevance to a region, you must suggest your URL to a regional category. For example, a museum in California should be suggested under Regional > U.S. States > California > Arts and Humanities > Museums, Galleries and Centers.
- Personal. Suggest your personal web pages under the category Society and Culture > People > Personal Homepages.
Uncertain? If you think you have found the right category to submit to, check out what sites are already listed under it. If you find that they are unrelated, think twice before submitting. View the “Description” of this category or go to the “See also” heading and look at a list of related categories to help you find a better location.
To use directories effectively and establish your site’s link popularity, always ensure that you submit your URL to the relevant directories and to the correct categories and subcategories within these web directories. The task may be time-consuming, but with a little patience, you will see inflow of links to your site.
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An Overview in Link Building
Oct 12th
Businesses have engaged in advertising wars in order to tap a bigger share in the Internet consumer market. Considering the exponential growth of information and networks online, the opportunities for business growth are tremendous. In businesses’ attempts to launch effective marketing or advertising campaigns to reach out to potential consumers, competition to corner online traffic is fierce. Fortunately, there are diverse methods to achieve this goal. Some use paid advertising on major business portals hoping that the traffic generated by these pages will somehow trickle down into their company website. Others utilize the pay-per-click (PPC) system which is cheaper because one only pays for the user traffic generated.
Another method that has proven to be truly effective in delivering increase in user traffic is link building. An off-page optimization strategy within the SEO framework, link building is the process through which one website is advertised in another website similar in content and/or field of interest. It is one of the best optimization tools available used to increase a site’s popularity, ergo, a business’ online image.
This is precisely why link building is considered one of the most vital factors in the SEO campaign. The idea is for your site to achieve higher page rankings with the search engines, more specifically, by building link popularity.
Link popularity is the quality and number of incoming links that point to your site. When other sites link to yours, this implies that your site is regarded as important; in turn, the search engine considers your site important as well. Therefore, link building as a sales strategy can make or break the business. It is also tedious and time-consuming, and requires a degree of experience and expertise. Nonetheless, the potential benefits of link building have made it a prerequisite among modern businesses who want to maximize their sales and profits. While some businesses may choose to handle their own link building campaigns, others can choose to contract a link building service to assist them.
Link building contributes to the business in five ways:
- Acquiring quality traffic from relevant web sites;
- Obtaining a favorable image as a valuable resource through high quality links;
- Generates visibility, awareness, and credibility of your site;
- Allows the site to gain a wider search engine exposure; and
- Helps the site get indexed by search engines.
Link building could be inbound, outbound, or reciprocal. Each method has its own pros and cons.
Inbound linking. These are the links that point to your website. Inbound linking has a vast potential of generating user traffic. Whenever a site has a link to yours, some of its traffic will visit your site and increase your link popularity. Indeed, the user traffic that a single link generates is small, but as you build more links, you can see an increase in the number of visitors. Moreover inbound links increase search engine awareness for your site. The more links major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) detect that point to your site, the more relevant it considers your website as. Here are some of the most recommended methods of acquiring links to improve your site’s traffic.
- Website directories. Registering a site on web directories may be a boring and painstaking process, but pays off in terms of user traffic. There are free web directories and some that require a fee. Other directories offer enhancements that will add exposure and additional ad space for your site.
- Article directories. One viable way of getting more exposure is to submit content to online article directories. While a monotonous undertaking, it is worth the effort altogether. Submit content or articles that are relevant and newsworthy. Make sure that the website publisher sees valuable content or you will end up wasting time and effort. When you write an article for the article directories, you want to make sure that it is informative and newsworthy. Sales pitches are usually rejected.
- RSS Feeds and Blogs. Aside from article directories, creating an RSS feed will help improve your site’s visibility. An RSS feed delivers your content to RSS subscribers. In essence, you are bringing your product to users, giving them a reason to visit your site, thereby increasing traffic. Moreover, once the feed is listed in distribution sites, the latter rescans your feed and updates their database information, saving you the effort of resubmitting each time you add new content.
- Press Releases. This is among the most recommended methods of generating traffic. Press releases may be free to create and release and has the potentiality of generating tons of traffic the instant a media outlet picks up your releases.
Outbound linking. Outbound linking is the placement of links on your site which directs the browser away from your site to another website. Placing a link on your site suggests to your users that there is value to it. Conversely, linking to a site that has similar content with yours generates value to that site from the viewpoint of the search engine. Essentially, you are helping another site gain traffic while increasing the relevance of your own site, provided that the site you are linking truly complements your site.
Reciprocal linking. Reciprocal linking or link exchanges refers to the process where two webmasters agree to show the other’s link on their respective sites. A reciprocal link is generally a banner link and/or text to a site that has also created a text and/or banner link to your site. The message of reciprocal links to search engines is that you consider the site valuable to your visitors and are willing to let them leave your site to access the other site. To ensure that you use reciprocal linking effectively, you need to ensure the other site’s credibility and the initial placement of your site. Check on whether you link has been moved or deleted and the functionality of the link and avoid splashing your site with mismatched reciprocal links.
Link building is an arduous process but remains one of the most effective and most recommended optimization tools to ensure online marketing and advertising gains. To maximize the tool’s benefits, link building campaigns must ensure relevant, congruent, and complementary links within your field or industry.