In the ever-evolving landscape of search engine optimization, it is crucial to stay on top ofmarketing trends. For example, social media is more and more becoming an integral part of effective SEO strategies. Those in the world of online marketing who don’t integrate their SEOwith social media activity run a very real risk of being left out in the cold.
Here are just a couple of statistics fromeMarketer and Search Engine Land that illuminate the growing influence of social media as far as marketing is concerned:
There is a 94% click-thru rate (CTR) when social media and Internet searches are combined.
74% of consumers follow brands via Facebook brand pages.
And with print-media revenue down across the board, it’s no wonder marketers are focusing almost exclusively on gaining that online edge -- a sentiment echoed by Chris Copeland, CEO of GroupM:
“Once, it was a newspaper. It arrived neatly on your doorstep to satisfy information needs. Now, it is a web of information on the Internet but with much deeper insights as to why we make the brand and buying decisions we do. Marketers are going to want these insights.”
Bearing in mind that all signs point to a future where SEO and social media are fully integrated, here are some ways to get the ball rolling in the present.
Social Media and Link Development
One of the main reasons social media is as important to modern SEO as it is has to do with social signals. When someone surfing the Internet likes, shares or views a page, search engines then register this information in their algorithms. Not only that, but with Google+ and Bing further integrating search and social, one can draw a direct line from what’s happening on their favorite social media sites to the results they see when they perform an Internet search.
This is where link development comes in. And because of Google’s Panda and Penguin updates, no longer will sub-par link-development practices make the cut. That means blog commenting, free directory submissions and generic article sites no longer play a role in successful SEO.
What does work to develop successful links is to market quality content via social media. For many businesses, useful and authoritative content marketed on popular sites such asFacebook and Twitter is proving to be a most effective marketing vehicle.
Blogging with SEO and Social in Mind
There is no better way to build links and authority in the world of online marketing than with high quality blog posts. Those who focus postings within their industry often find that they attract more links. And of course high quality content geared towards specific circles are often keyword focused, which allows for higher ranks.
What’s most crucial – and what many businesses overlook – is the importance of linking from blog content back to the primary website of the organization. There are few better opportunities to create relevant internal links than via blog posts. Businesses need to take advantage of this as often as possible.
Working With A Team
Those businesses that have blogging teams in place should focus on training them in SEO best practices. That means providing them with targeted keywords as well as the ideal landing pages for those keywords on the main website. This will have the direct effect of creating well-optimized content that contains internal links perfectly suited to the overall SEO goals. And this has the direct effect of making it easier for the customer base to find relevant content on the main website of the business.
These are just a few things to keep in mind when crafting a marketing strategy that integrates SEO and social media. It’s also recommended to participate in guest blogging, which is a practice that can build relationships as well as produce link opportunities. And when combining all of the above practices, businesses can count on more visibility for their content.
Dan Ripoll is the co-founder and CEO of GuestBlogGenius, a link building service and content marketing platform for SEOs and eCommerce site owners.
Despite claims from alleged industry experts that SEO is dead or is about to become extinct, it still seems to play an important role in establishing the online presence of a company. Without search engine optimisation, your website will be buried beneath the hundreds of millions of others. Many of these sites will be your direct rivals and are enjoying sales while you rot. SEO still has the ability to make or break an online business which is why some unscrupulous webmasters are intent on using black-hat SEO strategies in an attempt to get ahead. Below we will look at some good, bad and downright ugly SEO strategies.
GOOD
Viral Content & Infographics
Instead of searching for links yourself, get users to give them to you. If you do this properly, you could be rewarded with a huge amount of links. However, creating high quality infographics is not easy and requires the services of an expert graphic designer. If you go down this route, it is essential to get it out on the web nice and fast. The best places to begin the process of seeding your content are Facebook and Pinterest. Ensure that the infographics link back to your site.
Directory Submission
The purpose of directories is to help search engines like Google to decide where a website should be ranked. When you submit to directories, you’re likely to increase the crawl rate of your site which in turn improves its SEO power. It’s a safe and legal link building method. However, it’s important to perform some research because many directories of this kind are fairly low in quality. Bad directories can actually damage your ranking.
Social Media Sharing
This is an obvious SEO strategy and one which is being utilised more often by online businesses. Your site should have social media share icons from sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Pinterest as this is an easy method of improving SEO ranking. Oddly, Google has claimed that social shares have little effect on a site’s page ranking despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. Even if there is little merit to it, having your website seen by potentially millions of people on social media networks is hardly a bad thing is it?
Guest Posting
Most people are aware that constantly updated blogs are an excellent way to drive traffic to a website. Another excellent method that is seldom used is guest posting on someone else’s blog. This enables you to get your views across to a whole new audience. If they like what you have to say, they will begin to visit your site. Most bloggers would be thrilled to get someone else to write on their site as it saves them some work!
Images
Photos and videos play a major role in the success of websites and online companies. YouTube has several billion daily views. Imagine if you created a video and it went viral! Even placing images on your website will help attract more traffic, especially if you add keyword orientated tags and descriptions. Images also make a website look more attractive so when visitors arrive at your site, they are more likely to stay than if they were met with blocks of text only.
BAD
Links Without Content
If you create links without a block of content around them, they will look like paid adverts. Most Internet users associate such links with spam and this will hurt your SEO even if the links are real. Don’t have random links to your website from another webpage. Always strive to have at least a little bit of content around all links.
Fast Links
Search engines are expert when it comes to finding unnatural looking SEO activity. Building dozens of links in a single day followed by no activity looks suspicious. Links must always be created at a steadily improving rate. Build your links too fast and expect search engines to clamp down on you hard.
Spam Comments
Some webmasters try and fool search engines by adding dozens of fake comments to various sites. There are a number of automated tools that specialise in posting spammy comments to different blogs with a link to your site contained within. As you might expect, Google and others can quickly spot this activity and they will penalise you when you’re caught.
UGLY
Link Networks
This is a sophisticated method of trying to get linking building to work for you. Link networks appear to be a good idea in theory but in practice, it is very difficult to pull it off without being caught and punished. All Google needs to do is look at referring IP addresses to see which sites are using link networks. All sites involved in the network will be permanently banned when they are caught.
Doorway Pages
This is the practice of redirecting users off your site. A 301 redirect is a much better idea as it is legal and good for SEO. Doorway pages are sneaky and catch visitors by surprise. As a result, you will be banned if caught using this black hat SEO tactic.
The above are only some of the many SEO tactics that can be used to great effect along with others that should never be attempted. Black hat tactics may appear to work for a short time but eventually, you will be caught and your website will be punished.
