In my previous post I reported on the fact that Google and Bing made it official that Social Media such as Twitter and Facebook influence SEO and Search Engine Rankings.

Today Matt Cutts addressed this fact in a video:

Some of the key points mentioned are:

1. Twitter and  Facebook links are used in ranking as links
2. Additional Google tries to find the reputation of the author or creator
3. Google previously stated that reputation wasn’t used as a ranking factor but now does use it as a signal
4. Up to now it has been used by Real Time Search
5. Broadening and testing this functionality to other forms of search (organic rankings for example)
6. Only public profiles that are crawlable will be used
7. It is not a very important signal right now but may change
8. Getting more followers in a spammy way just for the sake of getting the numbers won’t work
9. The reputation, industry and relevance of your followers and who you follow are taken into account

Having a great business website is not enough in the realm of Online Business. “Build it and they will come” is not an effective point of view or strategy when it comes to building your online empire. There is much to be done to get the best results from your business online.

Search Engine Marketing or SEM is divided into 3 major elements namely, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PPC (Pay per Click) or paid advertising and Social Media marketing.

Using these elements, either individually or in conjunction with one another, is crucial – especially for new businesses or existing businesses looking to expand into the online world.

As a new website, or a website that has not implemented any online marketing strategies, your products, services or solutions will not rank for any of the valuable industry keywords that your potential customers are searching for in the major Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc). This of course means that traffic to your site will be low and that ultimately you will achieve less conversions, sales and revenues without a proper online marketing strategy for your business.

PPC Advertising

Many consider PPC to be the easier strategy of the two. This may be true from an implementation point of view, but there is a lot to know in order to run an effective PPC campaign. Considerable research would need to be done, but with a little insight and savvy you will be able to find all the tools and knowledge you need from Google’s Adwords support system.

PPC is very effective in quickly attracting targeted traffic, depending on your budget.

Advantages of PPC

* Your PPC campaign can be up and running in minutes.

* No modifications to your website are necessary.

* You pay only when users click your ads.

* You can choose exactly how much you spend on the campaign.

* You control who sees your ads by use of keyword targeting.

* You can choose the language and geographic target that your ads are displayed in.

* Your campaign can be effectively tracked and monitored for optimum results.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO as a whole consists of a myriad of elements that will be used to analyse your business and business needs, create a strategy, and to implement and Optimize that strategy to maximize results.

The following Questions are the Answers to your perfect strategy:

1. What does your target market want? And where are they from? (Keyword research and Geo Targeting)

2. Who are your competitors, and what will it take to beat them? (Competitor Analysis)

3. Does your website facilitate competing with these competitors? (Web layout and structure)

4. What are the most suitable online strategies for your business?

5. How long will it take to implement the strategies, and what results are achievable?

6. How can we improve your strategy to improve your performance?

Improved SEO rankings take time. Although you may see improvements in both rankings and traffic within 3 months it generally takes between 3 and 6 months to see a noticeable increase in performance.

The reason for this delay is that Google and other search engines have to crawl millions of sites daily and this takes a little bit of time. Google has large scale updates where the number and quality of inbound links toward your site, as well as the quality of resources and information that appears on your site, is ‘weighed and measured’ and then will add or subtract from your online authority and credibility – this determines whether or not your rankings improve.

Social Media Marketing

Another online marketing strategy is Web2.0 and Social media. Social bookmarking, blogging and networking can facilitate an influx of traffic and links from other sites that will add to your online reputation and credibility. But we delve deeper into social media and viral marketing at a later stage.

So as you can see, there are quite a few things to consider when starting your Online Marketing campaign. To get the results you are after you will either have to learn the ins and outs of online marketing and the online world, or you’ll have to find the right people who know the right stuff about what your business requires.

Creating good SEO content for a website is not always easy. SEO Copywriters need to understand and acknowledge the changes in the way that Search Engines index websites and their content and the changes in the way that web users read and use information online.

All search engines have one main goal: to provide the user with the most accurate and useful information related to their search query. Long, long ago (internet years are a bit like dog years) it used to be that the more instances of your keyword or keyword phrase exists in the content of a page the better. Search engines’ semantic or language skills have evolved, and we need to adapt to these changes.

Web users don’t read content; they scan or browse information because of the fact that there is so much information available. Creating unique and compelling content is only half the battle won. Web content needs to be structured in such a way to be pleasing and easy to scan for the users.

The problem that we need to overcome is the fact that web users and Search Engines speak a different language. We need to strike a balance between content for search engines and content for users.

Let’s look at a few ways of creating good SEO content.

Accurate Information & Problem Solving

Every user that arrives at your site has some kind of a problem that they need to solve or need more information on and you are the expert on the topic, no matter what industry. Know your target audience and what their problems are, and then show them how to solve that problem.

First write good content for the users

Focus on the users and their needs when writing content. Create great content that will add value to the user’s experience. Keywords can very easily be added to your piece later.

Keyword Research

The SEO specialist is there to assist you with keyword targeting and selection. He or she should do the research and provide you with the best keywords. All of us don’t have the luxury of an SEO specialist at hand, learn the basics of effective keyword research and do it yourself.

Use Keyword and phrase variations

Search Engines’ language skills have evolved tremendously. With the use of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) you don’t need to stick the same old keyword everywhere in your content. Vary your keyword usage to include related terms and phrases.

Sacrifice

Sometimes keywords have to be sacrificed to ensure that your content doesn’t look unnatural or forced. In other instances those coveted keywords must be included and you will have to strike a balance between good writing and good keyword placement.

Formatting

Remember that virtually no one will read a page with 500 words in paragraph form. Structure your content with Headings, bullet points or numbers for easy scanning.

Internal Linking Structure

Inter link your posts to provide users with valuable resource suggestions or topics you may have touched on. Use keyword rich anchor text that describes what you are linking to effectively, this also helps with page rankings.

URL Structure and filenames

Use keywords in your filename or post title that will be used in the URL of the page, but keep it topical and relevant. There are definite SEO benefits in including your targeted keywords or phrases in your URL’s.

If you have any more advice or do not agree with these tips on good SEO content writing, let us know.

Google has very recently updated their SEO Starter Guide and is available for the public. For those of you just getting into SEO and you need some guidance and implementation best practices, this is the guide for you.

The guide covers just about all you need to know for building a Search Engine friendly website. Off course there really isn’t much on the subject of Link Building

If you want to be a successful online marketer there are certain skills that you need to acquire. Onsite SEO is a very good way of getting your online marketing campaign off to a good start, but this should not be the only element to master. Onsite SEO alone won’t get you very far at all.

But what if you work for an Online Marketing company and you have a designer, coder, copywriter, PPC expert and Social Media marketer on hand. Does this mean you should only limit yourself to one element of the online marketing process?

The truth is, in order to be a successful online marketer you can’t focus on one skill only, you need to develop and nurture all the necessary skills.

Web Design

All of us aren’t web designers, but you need to know what works on a website and what does not. What works for your product review site or blog and what works for your ecommerce site is definitely not the same thing. However, there are certain elements that need to be incorporated into every website design:

• Effective use of Conversion elements
• Ease of navigation
• Web Optimized Imagery
• Thoughtful and effective user interface
• Effective display of your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

Having the knowledge of what works in web design can go a long way in distinguishing your site from all the ‘noise’ out there.

Content Creation

All your online marketing efforts rely on content. SEO, PPC, Social Media etc. Just writing for the sake of adding more content to your site or blog is useless. Creativity and originality is the key when creating content for your site. No one wants to read the same old story just with a different angle or a little extra icing on top. In this day and age where the latest information and breaking news are available in real time as it happens, you need to be the first to get the attention of the world in a unique and engaging way. A good idea is to stay up-to-date with all current news, events and developments in your field or industry. Use social media, RSS Feeds and Google Alerts to do so.

PPC

Setting up a PPC campaign is probably one of the quickest and easiest things you can do, but just setting up your PPC campaign and writing a few one liner ads won’t necessarily bring you those clicks and more importantly the conversions.

• Keywords – In depth analysis and research must be done to ensure that you use the correct keywords. Remember that long tail keywords are used by searchers that have already done their research and are ready to buy.
• Product/Service Specific landing pages – Point your ads to the page where the browser can find exactly what you are advertising in you ads.
• Budget bids – If your bid is too high you might run out of money after only a few clicks. If your bid is too low, your ad won’t be displayed.
• Your site – you can spend all the money you have on your PPC campaign, but if your site does not instill a sense of quality and trust in the user, you won’t get anywhere
• Know when to stop – PPC is extremely effective in generating traffic and sales when your site is still new and does not yet have any organic rankings in the Search Engines.

SEO

A recent user poll done by TopRankBlog, shows that SEO is still seen by many as the most valuable online marketing strategy to be used. SEO in itself is a multi faceted strategy that includes Onsite SEO and Offsite SEO or link acquisition. Onsite SEO is quick and easy. It’s getting the votes in the form of links or references to your site that is the backbreaker.

It used to be that building some unnatural links from blog comments, forums, directories and other “free for all” link sources would do quite a bit in getting your search engine rankings up there. With Google’s update of their ranking algorithm named “Google Caffeine”, the value of link sources have been re-evaluated big time. The most valuable link sources are those that are moderated like news publications and high authority editorial sites or authoritative industry blogs.

Research shows that Google’s new algorithm definitely devalues certain types of links. Links from comments, blog rolls, links pages, and footer links just to name a few, mean very little for your site.

Using your brilliant content, industry tools and resources to create something that people want to link to (link bait) is the way to go.

Social media

Social Media can play a huge roll in your online marketing campaign if you use it right. Social Media is NOT quick and easy to get into. It involves a lot of research and work on your part. If utilized effectively, your social media campaign can boost your site traffic to incredible heights.

A recently launched viral video campaign by Old Spice, crippled YouTube with the amount of traffic it generated.  Be creative and unique with your Social Media campaigns and you will reap the rewards.

As you can see Online Marketing consists of many elements that need to be utilized and catered to your specific needs. Online marketing is not a quick fix that will generate huge amounts of traffic straight away; it takes time, effort and oodles of creativity.