Social Media and SEO

SEO experts have spent the last decade preaching a gospel of optimized page-level elements and inbound links. Those things are still important today,but getting real SEO results these days requires not only a technically optimized website and relevant inbound links but also a strong, vibrant Web presence that supports your overall brand. Which is where social media comes in.

Promote your content at sites like Facebook and Twitter. Search engines use shares and tweets as a factor when ranking content—so be sure to publish your most recent how-to articles and blog posts where readers can express their approval.
Interact with your fans and followers. You can't just dump content in social networks and expect it to go anywhere. If you don't have many engaged followers on these social media sites,there won't be anyone to help promote your content via shares and re-tweets.
He also suggests driving engagement with tactics like these:
Use keyword research to drive content development. The keywords that visitors use to find your site provide a good indication of the content they want to read. "Look for areas of high search volume, and develop content around those subjects,"
Use historical keyword data to exploit seasonal trends. For example a client's traffic spiked on the term "motorcycle safety" in May. After discovering May was Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, we prepared content ahead of time so it would rank well during that period.

The Po!nt: Socialize to optimize. Social media matters to search engines—and that means it matters to you.

Improve your sales online with SEO

Search engine optimisation is something that a lot of small, medium and large businesses will already be familiar with. The idea behind the discipline is to tailor business marketing strategies to the online world and this is a positive move for a number of different reasons.

Clearly there must be some clear motivation for the worldwide increase in internet marketing. The simplest explanation for the rise is that businesses are working hard to keep in step with the attitudes and behaviour of their customers. The internet has become more and more of a domestic resource in the last few years and thanks to social media, email and internet search, the general public now has a plethora of reasons to get online.

Businesses that ignore these trends are likely to miss out on a huge amount of potential traffic. However, it is important to note that having an online presence is not all it takes in order to profit from public fondness for the internet.

Without an effective search engine optimisation strategy, businesses often find that they don’t get the results they expect from their websites. This is particularly the case for enterprises that are just starting out, but it is also relevant for established businesses, because other companies that are especially adept at SEO have every chance of getting ahead of the competition.

The clear business value of using an SEO company is they constantly keep a track on the trends and changes in the search market to help maximise ROI. An example of the scale of these changes known as the “the Google Dance” can be seen by Google announcing it plans to make around 500 tweaks to the algorithm that it uses to rank web sites in 2011. Some of these may be small with little affect but others can dramatically change your web sites rankings.

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It is possible to put a certain level of SEO into practice without professional help, but if you want to muscle in on the major players in your area, then it makes sense to involve SEO experts in your campaign. Professionals can lend their own expertise to your company website in order to snare more traffic and secure greater prominence on globally recognised search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!.
Obtaining a higher ranking from these search facilities is an excellent way of making sure you reach a wider audience – especially in the mobile age where prospective customers have uninterrupted access to the internet.

Guaranted Google Rankings

Many SEO companies entice new potential clients with the allure of guaranteed Google rankings. This type of guarantee seems attractive to the client because it appears to decrease the client’s risk. However, we believe guaranteed rankings are actually a very risky bet

 3 reasons why guaranteed SEO services are a red flag:

1) Worthless Rankings
Most of the time when an SEO company guarantees rankings, they’ll rank the client’s website for random keywords nobody is searching with any frequency. That means there’s no real competition for the rankings, so it’s pretty easy to gain exposure. But the reality is that, because very few people are searching these keywords, these types of rankings are virtually worthless for the client
The "worthless rankings" scheme is the most common SEO scam. The unsuspecting business owner is proud to have gained some rankings in Google, but isn’t attracting any new customers as a result. Instead, the client is only lining the pockets of the SEO company.

2) Promises They Can’t Keep
It’s unethical for SEO companies to promise that they can rank a particular website #1 in Google.
He explains, At the end of the day, SEO firms don’t decide – Google decides who is going to be on top. Of course at Scream Media we’re usually able to secure very profitable rankings for our clients. But we can’t predict or guarantee that Google will rank our client’s website on top

In fact in our experience, no serious SEO professional would guarantee rankings. "If you’re speaking with a SEO consultant who is offering guaranteed rankings, there’s a good chance that person doesn’t really understand how search engine optimization works. The fact is that there are no guarantees when it comes to Google’s current or future search engine ranking algorithms"

3) A Sign of Desperation
The third reason clients should avoid "guaranteed SEO" is because this offer may be a sign of desperation on the part of the SEO company.
"Whenever we see an SEO company offering ’guaranteed rankings,’ we assume it’s because they’re simply desperate to take on new clients. I imagine they’re doing whatever it takes to sign up a new client – and that would be a big red flag for me, if I were a prospective client"

Are All SEO Guarantees A Bad Idea?
There are certain guarantees an SEO company can make to its clients without being deceptive or creating conflicts of interest.

Scream Media provides the following guarantees to its SEO clients.

1. Timely. "We’ll get the work done on time and according to the specifications in our proposal"
2. Transparent. "We’ll be up-front and transparent with you about what we’re doing to help improve your website’s ranking in the search engines"
3. Accountable. "We’ll provide detailed reporting to show you what progress we’re making and to keep us accountable"
4. Reachable. "We’ll make ourselves personally available for a conference call every month to discuss your SEO campaign and answer any questions you have"

 "We believe this approach to ‘guaranteed SEO’ is professional, ethical, and much more effective for reducing risk for the client guaranteeing specific search engine rankings"

Twitter versus Facebook

Twitter Aggressively Expands Strategy, Should Facebook Be Worried?

Let me preface this by saying that in the end, this is not just about Facebook and Twitter. Both companies provide services and features that overlap with plenty of other players out there - companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and others. We tend to think about Facebook and Twitter, however, as the frontrunners when it comes to social networking.

Can Twitter give Facebook a run for its money? Tell us what you think.

It would appear that Twitter is getting more serious about competing with Facebook. Obviously there has been a lot of overlap between the two social networks (though neither actually likes to be called "social network"), but Twitter is getting a lot more aggressive in its strategy.

Facebook has certainly become a lot more Twitter-like over the years, particularly with its news feed feature, but Twitter has done little to become more Facebook-like. However, this week alone, Twitter has launched the new "follow" button which can already be seen right alongside the Facebook "like" button on many sites. It has also announced a new photo upload feature and search revamp to make results more relevant - both things Facebook offers.



There are way more people using Facebook than Twitter, but Twitter use is growing. A new report from Pew Internet finds that 13% of adult Internet users have used Twitter (up from 8% in November 2010), and that Twitter use is spreading to a wider range of ages. Those between the ages of 25 and 44 have experienced notable adoption growth since late 2010, though the younger the generation, it appears, the greater the adoption.
Facebook and Twitter both serve as online IDs, providing log-in integration on numerous web properties, and ID is really what it's all about. Google wants to be the ID too, and former CEO Eric Schmidt has been talking about the company's shortcomings in this department this week.

Watch to see how the online ID and mobile payments elements of our lives merge in the future (an area where Google is making bold moves with Google Wallet). This is another potential area where Facebook and Twitter could clash down the line (again, putting aside the rest of the players for a minute). Facebook already has its Facebook Credits. But Twitter for payments? Well, there's already TwitPay (which Eric Schmidt has reportedly invested in). And let's not forget that the recently returned co-founder Jack Dorsey does also run Square (which recently unveiled a very interesting way of paying with its card case). Things are moving much quicker and more aggressively at Twitter since his return. They've already got the ID part. It doesn't sound out of the realm of possibility for Twitter to get into payments does it?

Facebook wants to be considered more of a journalist tool and resource for news in general. It certainly can be both, but the mainstream news media is sure all over Twitter (and Twitter is all over the mainstream media). Twitter, and its more public nature simply seems to attract more of the breaking news - not only from actual journalists, but from citizens. This is nothing new, but it's one area where Twitter has an edge over Facebook.

Twitter is also making more moves in the monetization area. In fact, just this week, the company acquired two thirds of the AdGrok team to add to its revenue engineering team. Ironically, the other third went to Facebook.

Alt Tag Those Images...

Ever wonder how much meaningful traffic or links could come your way if you search-optimized your images? The answer might be, More than you'd expect.



Thanks to Google's universal search results, images can help you show up on the first page—or, in some cases, even at the top—of results lists. In the process, you can increase click-throughs, ad views, and AdSense impressions. Best of all, optimizing images could help you complete more leads.







Here are five ways to get your images to rank like a star:

Filenames. Use "jpg" or "gif" files, and include keywords in the image file names.

ALT Text. Use ALT Text for its intended purpose; but wherever appropriate, also incorporate keywords as signals for the search engines.

Headings and Bold Text. Optimize important images by using boldface or a heading tag with your targeted keyword, in the text immediately preceding the image.

Image Captions. When possible, place the search term at the front of the caption.

Image Size. For best results, use images that are larger than 100 x 100 and smaller than 1200 x 1200. Linking to a larger picture with thumbnails can also be helpful.


The Po!nt: Don't overlook image optimization. By applying a few SEO tactics, you can actually make a picture worth a thousand words!

XML Sitemaps

A sitemap (or site map) is a tool to help search engines crawl and index pages on a website more effectively. That can mean search engines will index more of the pages on your site, more quickly than without a sitemap. That in turn makes it easier for people to find your website.

Google and other search engines will spend only a limited amount of time crawling your site. A complete XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap can direct search engines to your most important pages, increasing the likelihood that these pages will be indexed and then discovered by the people you want to attract. This is called "crawl efficiency," and an XML sitemap can improve yours.
Most websites need only a simple HTML sitemap, which has the benefit of helping people, as well as search engines, find individual web pages. If a site is large or complex, or if you want to add more information to a web page listing, Google recommends having both an HTML sitemap and an XML sitemap following the sitemap protocol that major search engines adhere to.

Google Places - Free Ads if done right!

Google Places - Every business should take the opportunity to register for this free advert. But like every search based service offered on the internet, there are certain factors that decide how each of the local listings rank. In short, you can optimise your Google Places entry to maximise its impact.

There are a lot of people talking about just which of these factors have the most impact? What we have decided to do is to create a simple set of tips so that people can get the biggest bang-for-their-buck without diving into the technicalities.

One point to keep in mind is that you don’t actually need a website to rank in local listings – some industry watchers seem to be of the opinion that site-based changes have only limited effect on local listings. Though making changes to your site to increase its relevance to your operating area is a positive move irrespective of its eventual effect on local listings.

Some of you may be thinking: “I’m not sure all of these techniques apply to me”, well you know your business better than anyone. I would just suggest that you do as much as you can!

So let’s dive in…

Age Of Listing

OK, it may seem strange to start with something that you can’t actually optimise, but think of it as something to spur you into action if you don’t currently have a Google Places listing. It seems the longer the listing has been in place the more weight it carries. So register your Places listing today!

Categories

This is a big one. You can select up to 5 categories for your listing and its worth spending a little time thinking about the best choices for this section. You may have a mobile car washing firm that keeps your customers’ cars looking sparkling, but putting your listing as ‘sparkling cars’ is probably not a great choice! What do you expect your customers to type? That is a good place to start.

For people who already have an SEO campaign it is also worth looking at the keywords for which you are currently optimising.

Claimed Listing

So what is a claimed listing? A claimed listing are listings that have been verified by the company themselves (which can be done by phone / SMS / mail). Greater weight is placed on listings that have been authenticated, so be sure to claim your listing.

Citations

Citations are basically references to your company being located in a particular area. These can be achieved by submitting your site to directories (especially local ones) and by setting your location to the specified area.

Distance to Centroid

This is the distance of your address to what Google sees as the centre of the specified location: e.g. if someone searches for ‘London Bakery’ and your address is in outer London then this will hurt your rankings. Obviously this a little difficult to optimise. Some people have talked about setting up a post box in a central location, however I’m a bit wary of this. Especially as…

Match your Contact page address with Google Places address

Simply keep your address standard across where you use it. This strengthens your claim to be located in that area.

Include References to Region in Page Title + Description

This is a fairly easy on-page change that anyone can make to their site, just include references to your particular location in the meta title and meta description tags for the pages on your site. I know that sometimes it feels like there is a lot of information to pack into these restricted spaces, but with some clever writing it is almost always possible. This is one site-based change I would recommend performing.

Photos

Yes, actually getting some decent pictures taken of your business. If you aren’t a shop location then still get some decent pictures of the van or transport you use. This not only adds more weight to your Places listing but serves to reassure potential customers that you are a legitimate business.

Videos

Similar to Photos, upload a video to YouTube to advertise your business. Not sure what your video should be of? It can be anything, an interview with yourself or others in the company, shots of people working, maybe even a little humour if applicable.

Coupons

Your Google Places listing has the facility to offer coupons for prospective customers to redeem at your store. This is good for attracting customers but there seems to be a spread of opinion whether this actually increases the strength of your Places Listing.

Local Phone Number

This may seem a little obscure, but if you are offering a localised service then using a phone number with a local area code can be an advantage. After all, a rival with a 0800 number could be anywhere, a local number ties you to that area.

HCard

HCards are basically a way of including contact information in existing files such as HTML pages. Google has been looking at this data for a while now: for example they made reference to these ‘microformats’ when they introduced their Rich Snippets for some search results.

Customer Reviews

Positive customer reviews are your friend here, and although generating these is not always the easiest thing in the world. Their existence can not only help your word-of-mouth traffic and Google Places listing but can even help with your online advertising. Finding ways to incentivise happy customers to write online reviews is definitely time well spent.

Negative Google Places Ranking Factors

Using Keywords Name + Description

I’ve mentioned this negative factor as it seems like something of a contentious issue. For many it’s a great way to boost the relevance of your listing for a particular keyphrase, for others it’s a good way to get your listing penalised.

Some suggest just adding words to the business title if they seem applicable – e.g. ‘Mc Millans’ might enter ‘Mc Millans Bakery’ – but Google’s guidelines specifically rule this tactic out.

“Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business into the business name.”

This is not a complete list of factors but an amalgam of the cacophony of opinions available on the web. Keep an eye on the Google Places guidelines to make sure you aren’t being pulled astray, but know that time spent making the most of your Places listing is a great free way to boost your Google Profile.

Too much info? Contact Scream Media today and let us do the hard work.