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Using Newspapers for Local SEO

May 1st, 2013
by Adam Donkus.
2 comments
Dutch newspapers at a bookstore in Nijmegen

Dutch newspapers at a bookstore in Nijmegen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Newspapers may be a dying breed, but many of the old “rags” are embracing the Internet with open arms. Many of them (not all) have created social media and are utilizing on a daily or at least on a somewhat regular basis. I believe that these sites are frequently still considered to be strong authorities in their given locations.  Using that authority for your own online authority building is the idea.
In this article, I will give you some tips for using your local newspapers for your local SEO.

Finding Newspapers

A resource I just found which I love is  US Newspaper List site Usnpl, which is much more than a list of newspapers.
At the home page, start by selecting your state, then find your town or nearby towns and the newspapers for each. Next to each newspaper you will find a link to the newspaper website, a link to the newspaper contact info(phone address etc), county info, Facebook fanpage,Twitter, and local weather.There are Google ads and banner adds on the site, but they are pretty clearly defined.

Another resource for finding Newspaper is allyoucanread.com . Allyoucanread has lists of newspapers from all over the world and you can drill down to find newspapers by town as well.
At the home page click into your state, and you get a page that lists the top ten newspapers of the state. To the right, there is a list of many college newspapers. Below the top ten is a list of all the towns in the state. Click on a town, and you will find a list of the newspapers for the town to include church papers, school papers and genral papers. Below that is a list of newspapers from neighboring cities and towns. In addition to newspapers, you can also find local magazines. A word of warning, Allyoucanread is peppered with Google Adsense adds, so be careful what you are clicking on.
Of the two Newspaper lists, I like USPNl.com because it gives you the social media profile links of the papers. However, Uspnl.com did not have my local paper listed, but AllYoucanread.com did.

Three Local SEO Uses of Newspapers

  1. Go through each list and check out all of the papers for your target geography. For each newspaper, navigate to their Fanpage and like it as your Fanpage and then leave a comment on one of their posts again as your Fanpage.
  2. Check out each Newspapers website and locate any blogs or articles which accept comments. Many that take comments will require you to login with a Social Media profile. If possible leave your comment as your Fanpage. The best would be if they allow you to leave a comment that lets you put in your name, email and url(Yeah! you get a link to your site yeah!) Please be sure to not spam them with crappy comments. Read the article and leave a valuable contributing comment.
    • Some Newspapers don’t let you leave comments with any sort of link. I don’t bother leaving comments on these, unless of course the article is something I am personally interested in. But it gives your website nothing unless you are able to mention your company in the comment.
  3. An additional purpose of newspaper is well the news. If you are looking for a something to share for your blog or your Fanpage, visit newspapers to find local articles to share. Be sure to include the name of the town in the Title of the post. Mentioning the town name in your title is helping the search engines to associate your site/Fanpage with that town and is essentially making you a resource for that town. Many newspaper sites are now using social bookmarks to make it easy to share their content.

Of course there are a lot of newspaper websites that hold to the old ways of thinking and  hide their content behind passwords so only subscribers can view it. I guess it is a method of getting revenue, but are people really willing to pay for an online subscription of news that is probably already online.

Well these are just a few of my suggestions for using Newspapers for your Local Online marketing.

Newspapers are just one source for your local seo. Be sure to check out our other Local SEO posts to get more local seo tips.

 Got any local seo tips to share?

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Posted in: Local SEO, Uncategorized.
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Local Optimization with Google +/+Local, Places & Map Maker

Apr 11th, 2013
by ScottPreavy.
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You’re not the only one who is confused about Google’s local optimization policies. We get it; Google’s algorithms are continuously moving toward more locally driven commerce, but with so many options now available to edit your business listings, it can be tough to discern the relationship between all of these different services.  The goal of this post is to help give you a baseline on what purpose each serves.

Should I Make A Google+ Page?

Google Plus
Google+ is great way to enhance professional networking and build your business brand. However, if you are planning to get your G+ business page combined with your +Local page, it’s important to remember that you need to set your page’s category to “Local Business or Place” when first creating it.  If your business has multiple locations, I’d recommend setting one “Product or Brand” category page up as an umbrella, and then a separate local page for each physical branch.  You can view official distinguishing features between the two types here.

When Would I Choose Google+ Local?

Google Plus Local
Any major changes to your business’ information should now be made using Google+ Local, as it seems that this is the service Google is currently placing the most local optimization emphasis on right now. Overall, Local+ offers a much more rich experience to visitors than Places, including the ability to add text anchored links back to your site, receive and moderate customer reviews, and, especially advantageous for restaurants, Zagat review integration.

Can I Still Use Places?

Google Places
Places is still a viable option, and any verifications you do of Google+ Local pages technically still occur through this service.  Make sure that your profile is 100% filled out, but as for any major changes to profile information, use +Local from here on out.  Google did just give the Places interface an update (it only took 8 years), although you won’t see the facelift until you claim your Google+ Local page, and even then probably not for a bit. You can preview the new format here.

Eventually, all Places for Business profiles are going to get this treatment, but you might as well get the jump by claiming your +Local listing now.

But What About Map Maker?

Map Maker
Map Maker is a great platform that Google has developed for peer editing of local information. The ideal time to use this service for your own business listing is when you are looking to change a small detail. Manage larger issues through +Local, but for changes such as your working hours or business categories, edits are reviewed faster through Map Maker.

This service is also great for tweaking the physical location of your business’ pin on Google Maps. You may have noticed that it’s not uncommon for businesses to be listed, say, in the middle of a busy highway, but with Map Maker you can easily pick up and move the pin to a more accurate location. I definitely recommend using Map Maker not just to edit your own information, but to submit more accurate details about community businesses you may have noticed were off as well.

Thanks to Scott Preavy from Got2Web Internet Services for this guest post. You can find articles on website design, seo and more on the Got2Web blog. 

Posted in: Local SEO, SEO.
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Building A List Using Social Media

Apr 5th, 2013
by JasonSmith.
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If you are into building a marketing list using Social Media, you must bear in mind the principles that apply to successful list building through websites. You must not ask for too much information – name and email are quite enough; you must offer something of value for free so that people want to opt in and, more importantly, stay subscribed; you must keep in touch with your contacts without spamming them and continue to provide value with out trying to sell to them.

With that in mind, let us take a look at a few site specific strategies that you could use to successfully build a list using social media.

Pinterest

You can now officially use Pinterest for business. You can take advantage of this and use the feature that lets you put a price tag at a corner of your pins. You could mention in the pin description that for a short period of time you are giving a ten percent discount only through this link. The link obviously leads to your opt in page.

You can try the same strategy using special ‘Discount Boards’ where you will be posting pins regularly to announce new offers. Of course, you must calculate how much you can afford to ‘pay’ for the list you will be building, but the strategy is sound.

Facebook

You can hold contests for essay writing, videos or photos, or you could prefer a sweepstake. Make sure you choose a third party app that supports mobile browsers to tap into the 500 million plus users that access Facebook from mobile devices. Set your goals carefully to avoid wasting time and money, and organize a contest with a prize that will further highlight your business. This could mean giving away your products to one lucky winner every day for a certain period of time.

Especially if you want to build a list in a short period of time, you might want to add a referral feature to the contest. Insert a clause that a contestant with 10 or 20 votes from other entrants will be eligible to enter the final phase. This will prompt entry from really close people of the contestants, friends or family who would be happy to see them win. What this means for you is not just a few more emails, but connecting with a group of people who trust each other. In future, when you convince one, you stand a fair chance to convince all or most of the others.

Apart from contests or games, there are third party apps that can add a subscriber form to your Facebook Page. This is very useful since people can subscribe without ever leaving Facebook.

However, your subscription option will display on your Page as a little box along with ‘photos’ and other info about you right under the ‘Like’ button. To draw attention to it,use an image that catches the eye. The image could even be a graphic text that will give a call to action visible clearly in thumbnail view.

Linkedin and Twitter

The options here may be limited, but if you are otherwise active, you can make use of a link in your profile section on Twitter to connect to your website opt-in page. You can use the same link while filling in your ‘Website’ on Linkedin.

Now you will need to make twits or updates that draw attention to these links. Don’t go around peddling your ware continuously, but teasers about upcoming giveaways (again, with the link in them) do help when they are supplementing your regular social interactions. This is especially true for Linkedin where your Website link will normally be hidden under the contact info tab.

In conclusion, it is important to point out that when you want to build a list using social media, you must have a social presence first. You could, of course, use Facebook ads to get the word out when you are new, but once you have your subscribers or fans, you must learn to keep them. Regular contact, a follow up after each contest expressing your appreciation for their participation, a twit to thank everyone that opted in to a certain offer, a pin that expressly thanks people who visited your site to attend an event – all these go a long way to building a loyal subscriber base. Remember the keyword ‘social’, combine it with strategies appropriate to particular social networks, and you should have no problem building a list using social media.

Posted in: Social Media.
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Doing Keyword Research For International Market

Apr 5th, 2013
by JasonSmith.
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When you are trying to get a slice of the international market and establish yourself as a household name, you must take the time to hatch a long-term plan, one that starts with finding the right keywords for you to focus on, a process referred to as keyword research. Implementing the proper words into your content can end up yielding you significant search engine optimization benefits, not to mention that it will be of great help when it comes to getting your business on its feet. And so, to help you out with the process, here are a few certain elements you need to take into account when doing keyword research for the international market.

Look up Niche Keywords

The keyword research process should start with you isolating the keywords that pertain to the niche you are trying to make it in. In other words, you will need to find keywords that are aimed specifically at your target audience (people who are actually looking to buy what you are offering). These niche keywords are necessary in order to help the search engines and your visitors identify what your website is all about.

It is recommended that you refrain from using complex words as your keywords, sticking to simple terms that the average Joe is going to use when searching for what you are providing. You can (and probably should) use a keyword research tool, such as Google Analytics for instance, in order to find the most rewarding niche keywords in your industry.

Accommodate your Keywords to International Demands

As someone who is trying to get into the international market, you are probably looking to attract people from many different countries to your business, and while it is true that in general people are similar, it cannot be ignored that those coming from different cultures have different behaviors and beliefs. Long story short, markets are different in every country, whether it’s in term of customer behavior, their interests, their attitude towards the concept of purchasing things, or their needs as human beings. In other words, the keywords used need to be adapted to what the people living in your targeted country are searching for and their consumer behavior. If you don’t take the time to do this, you will end up missing out on a ton of opportunities and maybe even fail to penetrate the markets you had your eyes set on.

Pay Attention to Spelling Variations

One of the many criteria search engines use in order to determine a website’s ranking in a country is the spelling used for the keywords and whether or not it is up to par with the standards. Most languages, English included, are spoken in different places around the world, leading to the development of different dialects and methods of spelling; if you want your site to rank at the top of a country’s rankings, the spelling needs to be in accordance with the country’s variation of the language.

To give you a very simple example in order to illustrate this point, let us imagine that you have a shovel-selling company named Everest. You are based in the United States, and as such, you use their spelling variations. At some point, a potential customer from Great Britain, having heard of your company, launches a search through Google: “green colour Everest shovel”. Your website is only going to be amongst the top results if you used the British spelling (colour) rather than the U.S. one (color). While it may seem benign, one letter can truly make a difference in how search engines are going to perceive your site, at least on the international market.

Use a Reliable Translation Service

Seeing as how you are going for the international market, you’ll want your site to be available in multiple languages. The good news is that there are plenty of freelancing translators (as well as cheap applications, although they should only be used as a last resort) who are ready to do the job for you at a very affordable cost. Needless to say, once your site becomes available in more than language, the amount of people who can visit it increases exponentially.

All things considered, keyword research may very well be one of the most important steps when it comes to determining an online business’ success. In order for this process to pay dividend though it is important to understand what your target audience is searching for and why. You can start your own research, but don’t forget the tips listed above, as not following them will be the equivalent of trying to build a house of granite on a base made of nothing but hollow sand.

Posted in: SEO.
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Paid Advertising Methods on Linkedin Which You May Not Have Known About

Feb 22nd, 2013
by Kday.
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Thanks to the makers of the smart and busy website called LinkedIn, entrepreneurs, corporate owners and ambitious executives can now share the same platform for building new contacts which can further fetch them business and help in gaining a competitive advantage for their respective business activities. Corporates and businessmen have found that this is also turning into and cool place for advertising your business activities as well. However, not many people are actually aware of this happening around them and this is why they are not taking it seriously enough. Here is a look at the best and little-known advertising methods for LinkedIn members.

Image representing LinkedIn as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

Small Budget Advertising

For those, who are new to the whole field of advertising on LinkedIn, it could be better to start with small-budget advertising. This means that you may start with a small budget for advertising like around $10 to $15. The benefit of such a modest beginning is that you can save yourself from the usual risks which take place in such a situation. Also, it will teach you how to do the best of advertising at a low cost. Therefore, unless your campaign is being managed by a ppc agency, small budget decisions at the start will prove to be very effective and will have lasting impact for a long time in the future.

Short Time Campaign

Other than small budget campaigns, it would also be highly advisable to use campaigns of a shorter duration. This is because if you simply opt for paid advertising methods for a week’s period, it can turn out to be actually quite profitable. It would be better to use a number of shorter campaigns instead of choosing a single heavy duration advertising campaign. So, it is better to keep switching and rotating different advertising campaigns that will produce better results from time to time. So, the short time ad campaigns prove to be really profitable in the long-run.

Targeted Market Research and SEO

It is very important that you do some targeted market research about the audience of customers. One should ideally conduct the target market research when they are about to launch new products and services. One should also conduct SEO which will help to optimize and modify the content of the websites. Your website should be constantly updated with the latest data updates and product offers that will make it way more attractive for your customers and buyers. So, target marketing and SEO are very important.

Giveaways and Freebies

It is important that you advertise your business with giveaways and freebies. These are quite important as the freebies will bring in even more customers. You should do this from time to time. From time to time, you should make sure you provide your customers with some free gifts and giveaways. If you do so, you will be able to grab a lot more customers than possible. Therefore, you should do your best to win the customer attention with such a valuable advertising strategy up your sleeves which again can all be done via LinkedIn.

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Several Resources for Local SEO Improvement

Feb 16th, 2013
by Adam Donkus.
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Depending upon your target keyword phrases, SEO Improvement might be as easy as improving your local SEO rankings. By local SEO I mean the optimization of your online marketing for  phrases that you target geographically.

If your site is an eCommerce site that does not have a physical location, you probably won’t focus on location based SEO unless of course you are trying to add some variation into your campaign.

So if you want to show up for a certain location, you need to improve your sites performance on sites like Google+ Places for business in addition to the organic listings . Do this in several ways.

  1.  Increase your citations. Citations are mentions of your business that include your official company name(not a keyword title), your address, and your phone number. Additionally, many citations also include links to your website. Some examples of citations could come from Yellowpages.com, superpages, Yelp, and many others.

    GetListed.org for Local Citations

    One cool website I think every business that wants to improve their SEO performance locally should use is GetListed.org which was just acquired by SEOmoz.org.

    I like using this site when I am looking for Local SEO clients. When I am out cold

    Image representing GetListed.org as depicted i...

    calling(I rarely cold call though) I will put potential clients business names and zip codes into the tool, to see how well their online presence is doing.  After a short time, a percentage of “local optimization” is given, along with a list of sites that they are both lsited in and not in or in but need to be edited or claimed.  Give it a try, its a pretty cool little site.

  2. Create and add content to your site(s) for both your keywords and the geographic area.  My friend Tracy over at Suchaneatfreak.com, wants to rank for home staging+ several towns. She just did a home staging job in Collegeville Pa. So we did multiple things to get her to rank for this phrase. (At the time of this post she has several listings on page one for the keyword phrase)
SuchaNeatFreak Logo

Given more time, my friend could do a few more things to dominate the 1st page of Google for the phrase such as:

  1. Do at least 1 Youtube video about the project and use the keywords in the title and tags.
  2. Do a guest post on another home improvement/interior design related blog that links to the post. Perhaps she could talk about her methods for staging a home that sells within a week after listing on the market.
  3. Get some backlinks to the post.

 

 

Local SEO Sales Tip

Often times I will email this site to new business’s and let them know that they can get their businesses listed for free, but it does take a considerable bit of time(what many business’s don’t have). I then ask them if they would like we offer a local optimization service for new business’s that adds them to most of the sites listed in the Getlisted.org results.

 

In an upcoming post, I will review a new premium resource for finding citations, so be sure to sign up to get updates via email or feed.

RSS to Email

 Got any Local SEO Tips or Resources to Share?

 

 

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Facebook’s Conversion Tracking and its Effect

Feb 1st, 2013
by LewisS.
1 comment

Facebook introduced a new conversion measurement tool at the beginning of the year, allowing users to make the most of their Facebook adverts through optimisation and measurement. The tool can show the number of website conversions produced via adverts and at the most fundamental level is a wonderful tool to showcase Return on Investment form an advert campaign.

The new measurement allows users to see how the Facebook ads drive checkouts and other leads such as purchases and key page views. The wonderful thing about these metrics is that they do not only show the success rate on a Facebook page but also on an external website too.

This in turn means that the ads can then be optimised with conversion tracking and so are then seen by the people that are most likely to click through to a conversion. This is of course is a significant benefit to brands and  businesses who utilize Facebook for their marketing.

How to Use the Conversion Tracking

If you wish to use the feature then you will need to insert a piece of code generated by the tool to the site that you wish to track the conversions on.

This piece of code is linked to the Facebook page and so each and every time a person clicks through to the website from Facebook, the code will then show that a conversion has been made.

This conversion is then compared against the people or set of people who have clicked through and made the conversion. The advert manager then records the specific action, which in turn creates the metric and showcases the performance of the ad via your Facebook metrics. We’ve really benefitted from this at Pinpoint Designs, having found it a great way to measure once vague data.

Benefits

The benefits are obvious. Instead of having to look through external tools to see where the results are and the impact that the advert had for the brand, it is now all in one Facebook management tool. This makes it easier to optimise adverts based on who will be inclined to convert using OPCM.

The metric will show brands information on things like the number of fans who converted on the site after liking the page through a Facebook advert. Using this in tangent with OPCM means that the e-retailer has a whole host of information, such as the cost of a new customer. One of the most interesting conversion measurements is that we can see if a user views and advert on one device but converts on another.

For businesses, this is just another improvement in the Facebook metrics and the ability for them to measure a tangible ROI from Facebook advertising – something that’s been hard to do in the past but essential for the sites success and business’s interest.

This may be a bit of an advanced marketing technique that may require a professional with technical skills such as a ppc agency or other online marketing professionals.

This post was written by Lewis Sellers who is the Co-founder of Pinpoint Designs. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Posted in: Facebook, SEM, Social Media.
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Monitor Performance and Improve ROI with Analytics

Jan 30th, 2013
by GeradH.
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When it comes to analyzing the performance of your marketing and sales force, there is no better way to probe through massive amounts of data and find out the net effect of your efforts than through the use of business analytics.

The task of extrapolating useful information from large amounts of complex data is one of the biggest bottlenecks that organizations face. However, a successful evaluation of each channel of operations using analytics can help top management identify deficiencies, make adjustments, and exploit strengths.

Improve ROI with AnalyticsWhen most leaders hear the word ‘analytics’, they jump to the conclusion that we are speaking of technical performance in regards to page views per visit, time on site, and page load times. While web analytics can be highly useful for improving Internet presence, the bulk of ROI comes from marketing efforts.

In addition to web analytics – bounce rate, unique visitors, traffic, etc. – there are a number of metrics, namely marketing analytics, which CEOs can use to improve their bottom line in even the most volatile of environments.

Most CEOs recognize the invaluableness of analytics but do not fully understand what the data is telling them. From a top leadership perspective, the most important thing that we are concerned with is the overall story. What can we do with the given metrics? What will we do with the data? Is it good or is it bad?

The metrics that truly matter are database growth, conversion rates, qualified lead volumes, pipeline growth, and marketing attributed revenue. With this information, you can better understand how your database is evolving over time as well as the effectiveness of your marketing efforts in stimulating consumer interest. These metrics also analyze how successful your marketing team is at sustaining engagement and interest.

As a CEO, we are concerned with taking a look at the big picture. With the ability to measure revenue contributed by each product or service and trace the strength of marketing qualified leads, we can gain a better understanding of revenue drivers as well as activities that support sales.

Three Factors that Make Marketing Analytics Invaluable to Your Organization

The true power of marketing analytics lies in its ability to integrate the performance of multiple channels (e.g. email marketing, social media, SEO, blogging, etc.). Making direct relationships across marketing channels allows CEOs to measure the impact of individual efforts in conjunction with other marketing initiatives.

For example, say you sent an email to a particular segment of your leads. With marketing analytics you can trace pipeline growth as customers travel from the email to your website and measure the number of consumers that converted into business leads. This information can then be compared with the number of leads generated by your social presence or recent blog activity.

Marketing analytics also presents people-centric data about the customer lifecycle. This information highlights the interaction of leads and prospects among various initiatives. People-centric data is crucial because it guides CEOs in prioritizing leads and implementing efficient lead management processes.

One of the most attractive functions of marketing analytics is present closed-loop data. Closed loop data essentially ties sales to marketing activities. With these analytics, you can accurately identify the amount that individual marketing efforts contribute to the bottom line.

Both web based and marketing analytics are invaluable to understanding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that your organization faces. Effectively learning, measuring and analyzing this information is essential to understanding the big picture and increasing your return on income.

About the Author: Gerad is an Internet Marketing Director as well as a consultant working with high speed internet provider Satellite Informant – Check out their site here

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Posted in: SEO.
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PPC vs. SEO Explored

Jan 28th, 2013
by tylerw.
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No matter if you’re an E-Commerce business, an affiliate publisher, or just a nonprofit blogger; success on the internet comes down to one thing: traffic. As a website manager it’s essential to consistently be driving traffic – new and unique traffic – to your site every day. There are many ways this can happen outside the web, like word of mouth, print advertising, billboards, etc. However, growing traffic online most often involves two basic and very different strategies. These two strategies, which we’ll explore and compare today, are PPC and SEO.

PPC

PPC stands for “Pay Per Click” – a traffic strategy where advertisements, in the form of links, are placed across the internet by websites, or “publishers.” These advertisement links can take the form of text, images, videos or any other linkable form available. These links are tracked using a variety of platforms, and clicks through the links to the targeted websites are recorded. Usually based on a predetermined price, the purchaser of the link advertisement, or “Advertiser” is then charged a per click fee for the amount of traffic the publisher’s ad drove to their website. Hence the term “Pay Per Click.” “Google AdWords” is one of the most common, and successful advertising platforms for text based PPC ads – these are the search results you see in the beige colored box at the very top of your screen when you perform a search in google. Some main characteristics and benefits of PPC are:

  • You can get results quickly, as a PPC campaign is quick to launch if you’re willing to pay right away
  • Prices and budgets are within the realm of your control – you can even create a spending cap on a per day, or per week basis
  • If you want to make sure your advertising investment has the best success, you can employ a PPC Agency to manage your PPC efforts for you
  • A/B tests of different ads are quick to show results, as all trackable traffic elements are within your control

SEO

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” – a traffic strategy where a website owner or webmaster tweaks and “optimizes” their own onsite web content, as well as attempts to influence the web content of other sites, in order to appear more frequently, and visibly in higher ranking positions within internet search engine results. Because search engine results are powered by the “keywords” that searchers type into the search bar, certain keywords are targeted by SEO strategists as goals – with the ultimate objective as their website returning in the search engines as the number one or “top” search result for that given keyword query. SEO only applies to the “natural” search results, or the search results under the beige advertisement box at the top of the search results screen. SEO can take the shape of many different smaller strategies such as, link building, onsite content creation, offsite content creation, HTML optimization, etc. Some main characteristics and benefits of SEO are:

  • If done personally, SEO is “free” to implement (only the time it takes you)
  • Niches of less competitive keywords can return top results for your website with less competition than Google PPC can for example
  • Usually does take some “ramp up” time for efforts to get noticed by search engines
  • Testing and value attribution can be challenging, with several different efforts contributing to traffic success
  • If expert advice or employed services are desired, once can pay an SEO Agency to work on SEO for their website

Main Differences 

While both PPC and SEO can drive traffic to your site when done successfully, and can even be run at the same time – they have some key differences that will affect their success depending on your unique situation:

  • SEO it ideal for someone low on capital and high on time. If you are sitting in your mother’s basement looking to launch a website with no money – SEO is going to be your number one strategy to get traffic. With PPC, there’s simply no way to avoid spending money to get results.
  • PPC can generate results quickly. If you setup a website in one day, you could launch a PPC campaign and have traffic that same evening. You’re never going to get this kind of speed with SEO – it simply takes weeks or months for the changes that happen both on your site, as well as other’s sites to be seen by the search engines; and then get you natural search traffic.
  • Uniquely targeted website pages that are geared toward their sources are known as “Landing Pages.” These pages will differ greatly between PPC and SEO. While it’s completely appropriate for a PPC landing page to appear as an ad with a sales based message – the same landing page isn’t likely to rank well for SEO (unless the search keywords were something like “shopping coupons and offers”.)

When executed properly, both of these strategies can send you excellent amounts of traffic. Optimized even more, they can send you the best traffic that’s most likely to take the actions you want them to most once they get to your site. On the other hand, if executed poorly – SEO can be a huge waste of your time, and PPC can be a huge waste of money AND time… The important thing is to do some more research of the detailed methods that will help ensure your success once you launch into one of these strategies. Beyond that, you’ll see that both PPC and SEO can be essential to your internet success!

Author: Tyler Watkins is a Marketing Manager at PrintingforLess.com, America’s leader in Postcard Printing.

Posted in: SEM, SEO, Uncategorized.
Tagged: · · ·

Uncover the Power of Infographics in SEO

Jan 28th, 2013
by FrankC.
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A picture is worth a thousand words and an infographic may be worth even more than that. While web content is quickly becoming one of the things people read most, it is also notoriously challenging to capture the attention of those readers and keep them engaged. That’s where the infographic comes in. A visually appealing compilation of facts and data designed to keep the reader engaged, infographics are like eye-candy for web readers who love to browse, skim and glean information rather than actually read and digest it.

The Advantages of Using Infographics for Link building

Link building is the foundation of SEO. Infographics lend themselves to being a super-tool for creating in-bound links to a website. Being a single image makes them easy to embed in other sites. Being visually interesting makes them very likely to go viral. Well-designed infographics are easy to remember and often have a long life span. This makes them stand out from other link building tools like articles and blogs.

Infographics take advantage of who we are. By nature, humans are both lazy and attracted by looks. If we can get our information neatly packaged in an easy to consume, pretty package, people are much more likely to take it than to slog through text, spreadsheets or bar charts. They are also much more likely to share something that is visually stimulating than something that is not.

Helping An Infographic Succeed

While infographics can be gold for website rankings, not just any infographic will do. Knowing the right components to include and the things you can add to help your infographic succeed is critical. Make sure that the information you use in your graphic is legitimate and interesting. Look for a unique spin on the information you are presenting. Pay as much attention to the graphic design as you do the actual content. A boring infographic is sure to fail, despite the quality of the content.

Make your infographic easily shareable. Provide an embed code under the image to make it easy for others to copy it to their site. Share it in as many places as you can and through as many social networks as possible. Add social sharing buttons on the page with your infographic to encourage others to share. In order to get the best SEO benefits possible, you should also include web content on the same page as your graphic that summarizes the content in it.

SEO Strategists Embrace Infographics

Infographics deliver the kind of results SEO strategists are looking for. While there still needs to be promotion following the creation of the infographic, the site that creates these powerful tools will find that once the initial efforts are made, infographics spread organically. Web users love infographics and your well-crafted ones are likely to be picked up and reposted again and again. This is what every SEO strategist dreams of.

Infographics are one of the best link building tools to hit the Internet. They provide the links that search engines love while appealing to actual people. Quality infographics provide the stimulus for natural linking that pays off big time in search engine results. Get the quantity and quality of links of various types that search engines love, and watch your site’s page rank go through the roof by making infographics a part of your SEO strategy.

Take a look at this infographic by iSatelliteTV. It is both visually appealing, timely and the data is interesting.

Super Bowl Ad Infographic

 

Author Bio: Frank is an SEO strategist for satellite internet companies and wireless internet providers.

Posted in: SEO, Social Media, Uncategorized.
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