Now that you know how to get a ton of traffic from social media, you need to prepare to make the most of it, if and when it happens. Visitors that reach you this way behave differently from people who were directed to your site via search engine, or from a link on another related site. These are a fickle bunch, and you have to adapt to their behavior. Her are just a few ideas:
CPM Ads
One thing I’ve noticed is that StumbleUpon traffic generates poor CTR. They just don’t like clicking on Adsense. This may be because they are more Internet-savvy than the average surfer, or maybe the Stumble toolbar button just makes it so convenient to hop from one site to the next. You have about 5-10 seconds to grab their attention, or they move on to the next. A good way to monetize this traffic is to look for banner advertisers that pay per impression, so that all those pageviews count.
Feed Subscriptions
Having a deluge of targeted visitors is a great opportunity to increase your subscriber base. If you got them interested on your post, they’ll look around for more. It’s important that you maintain a high level of quality for your site. A portion of that initial traffic will eventually come back to check out your new posts, and if they see that it’s consistent, they’ll sign up for updates. Your feed icon should be prominently displayed near the top for maximum effect. Then, it’s all up to you to keep them there.
Readership
Don’t stumble all the content you have, just the better ones. If your blog or site is fairly new, chances are these Stumblers or Diggers will be mostly fresh pairs of eyes. First impression is key. If they like what you have, they’ll come back and even tell others about it. Some people posted links to my site on different forums and in their own blogs. This exposure and word-of-mouth effect will give you an even broader readership.
Sometimes, you can actually have a cake and eat it, too. Here are a few free SEO resources for the earnest beginner, and those that just want to brush up their skills.
SEO Guides
Search Engine Dictionary – A lexicon of search engine terms, and a useful reference while you wade through the sea of SEO gobbledygook.
SEOmoz Beginner’s Guide – This guide provides a complete overview of many of the processes, techniques and strategies used by professional search engine optimization specialists.
SEO Tools
SEO Quake – A Firefox toolbar that gives you the PR of every page you browse and other info. It also integrates with Google search results, giving vital data on each.
GoogSpy – If you are interested in finding out what search terms your competition is ranked for or is adverting on, then this site will be a great tool for you.
SEOmoz Tools – A comprehensive set of tools for everything you could possibly need.
SEO Book Tools – Another compilation of tools, with free video tutorials.
SEO Blogs
SEOmoz Blog – SEOmoz provides companies around the world with consulting, Internet marketing and search engine optimization services.
Google Webmaster Blog – News and updates from the world’s most popular search engine.
Matt Cutts – One of the better known Google engineers talks about technology and search engine optimization.
SEO by the Sea – Maintained by Bill Slawski, Director of Search Marketing at Key Relevance.
SEO Forums
Webdigity – Webdigity is a discussion board for webmasters. You can discuss here anything relative to your website, from coding to promotion, seo and affiliate programs.
SEOchat Forum – Professional SEO and webmaster discussions forum. The forum is categorized into four different sections. Search Engines, directories, web design and development, and general chat.
High Rankings Forum – Search engine optimization forum by Jill Whalen. Great forum to ask her and different search engine marketing experts.
Cre8asite Forums – Cre8asiteForums.com covers Usability, User Interface, Website Design, Search Engine Optimization & Marketing, Internet Law, Blogs and more.
Podcasting makes sense. By adding premium audio content on your blog, you become more than just another site on your niche. Since blogging has exploded like crazy, you need all the edge you could get. However, because podcasts are usually audio content, search engine spiders can’t crawl them as easily as they do blogs. Is it even possible to make your podcasts search engine friendly?
Fortunately, the answer is yes, and here’s how: 1. Name that tune – Think of a good keyword-rich title for your show.
2. Future-proof today – MP3 files have ID3 tags which you can embed with relevant keywords. These include title, artist/author, comments and URL fields. Only a few search engines can read the ID3 tags now, but in the future, this will likely be a standard search parameter.
3. Summarize – Write a synopsis of each podcast show and blog about it. As with basic SEO practice, important keywords should be as high up in the blog post as possible.
4. Transcribe – While we wait for the ideal future when search engines can understand audio, right now the work has to be done manually. Find a good transcription service provider. Divide the transcript up into sections, and give each of them related keyword-rich titles. If it’s a long interview, you can put each section on a separate page.
5. Directories – Submit your podcast site to specialized podcast directories and search engines such as audio.weblogs.com.
6. Publicize – Be sure to let people know that you have a podcast. Not everybody has one, which makes you especially linkworthy than a run-of-the-mill blog.
7. Reach outdownload e rotic 1999 mambo no sex – You may love hearing your voice, but it’s always best to give your show some variety. From time to time, it wouldn’t hurt to do an interview, particularly if you can convince people who already some street cred in your niche. Don’t worry, though, they would usually jump at the opportunity to be featured. It’s mutually beneficial.
Try these out. Once you get going, I’m sure you’ll come up with your own creative strategies.
This is part 2 of our series on “How to Sell SEO to the Web Challenged”.
3) Expect comparisons with traditional advertising
“So why should we avail of SEO services when we have ______ advertising? What would this increase in traffic do to us?” Now here is where it gets tricky. When we asked you earlier to dispel the wrong notions about SEO, it’s because SEO isn’t really an exact science. No SEO expert can really predict the increase in sales being on the top of search engines bring. So how is SEO different from the traditional advertising? With traditional advertising, the potential for generating revenue lasts only as long as the advertising does. In SEO, the effect on revenues goes on and on.
4) Know your audience
Your audience may not be knowledgeable about SEO, but they may be an expert on another field. The key here is to understand that SEO may be filled with jargons and terms, but at its core, it relies on tried and tested principles, the same principles used by traditional marketing. So research and find out what language they use. Try to find out how you can explain SEO using their language and before long, you’d be seeing them bobbing their heads, understanding the things you are talking about. And once they do understand what you are talking about, you are now ready to start talking about the services that you offer.
5) Provide Additional Resources
Create an SEO 101 primer that you’ll give out to new clients. It could be an ebook, video, or printed pamphlet. Make sure to include the following: what the clients should expect, a simplified overview of the working process, as well as additional services you provide. It also helps to provide the client with progress reports throughout the course of the SEO work as this lets them know how far the project has come. When presenting information, try to use easy-to-understand visuals rather than numbers. If you can, present case studies of previous work so that the client has a better idea of what to expect.
So, you’ve decided you’re knowledgeable enough now and would like to start selling SEO services. That’s great. Now if you are starting to sell your services to people who have ideas what SEO is, then usually a deal will be sealed and done without too much snags.
But what if your client has no inkling on what SEO is all about? How do you then sell SEO services? Usually, you have to do a crash course before you start rattling off the pricing for your services, making sure they understand what they are getting into. So better polish those layman terms and get ready to explain exactly what SEO is about.
1) Dispel the wrong notions of SEO outright.
Believe it or not, there are still those who believe that SEO “will generate sure sales of their products” as soon as you get the site back up and running. Now the problem here is that when they don’t get an increase in sales immediately, the least they can do is to call you a thief or something to that effect. So dispel them right away.
2) Tell your clients what they are buying…. Slowly.
Tell them what SEO is and what it is not. Don’t spew out jargon while explaining. Remember, these are people who don’t know SEO. So don’t go all out and start talking about Result Pages, redirects, keyword density. The idea here is to get the client understand what you are offering him by slowly getting into the details one by one.
a. Explain the Search Engine – So you start with search engines. Don’t even try to attempt to explain what algorithms are, as you would probably met with dazed looks. The best way to go about explaining search engines is by making it clear what they really are and how they arrive with such results, including the ranking. Once you’ve gotten past that hurdle, then it’s time to explain that each search engine is different from one another and that they return different search results.
b. Moving on to Links – “Aren’t these the ones you click on to get to another page?” Well, yeah, but when it comes to SEO, you also have to explain that these links are a factor when it comes to ranking your site on search engines. Now since you will be doing all the SEO work, you don’t have to go through all the topics regarding links. Once you have briefly explained in simple terms why links are important, then you can move on to the next topic which is…
c. Keywords – Quite a simple topic to discuss. Just explain the rudimentary principles behind keywords and how they work hand in hand with search engines. Also, put in the importance of keyword research just to give them an idea about another part of your job if ever they avail of your services.
Like what they always say, not everyday is Christmas day, even if you are dealing with SEO. And if you are one of those who feel that they haven’t been getting enough successes in their SEO campaigns, here are some of the points you have to check out to see if you are indeed doing enough SEO for your site:
Keywords, keywords and keywords – Yes, that’s right. Doing keyword research once for your entire campaign is never enough. Why, you may ask. Because the internet is constantly in flux, changing trends rather quickly. And because of this, here are some points you have to consider when dealing with keyword researching
Are there new keywords you are unaware of? These keywords are what you can consider as fresh, which could easily help your site gain that coveted traffic. Be aware of new keywords by researching regularly.
Research on popularity trends. Yes, even old popular keyword trends can be mighty useful in your campaign. Check out the subtopics of past trends and try to find out if any of them will resurface in popularity any time soon. You can also keep watch for emerging, newsworthy trends that you can piggy-back on.
Prioritize your strengths. Do you have a strong keyword which has the most success in ranking? Then work on it! A common mistake is to focus on your weaknesses, leaving the strong keyword untouched. Capitalize on the keyword that you have had the most ranking success with, and find others that perform equally well.
Check out the competition. When you started out, you might have done competitive research. Well, do one again. Did the arena change? Are they still the same competitors from before? Or is there a new one emerging? If you see a new competitor emerging, then find out what makes his site rank well.
Tune-up for search engines. When we said that the internet is constantly in flux, this includes search engines as well. Or to be more precise, search engine algorithms. Google is one prime example who changes algorithms somewhat constantly. Usually these changes can have drastic effects in your ranking. So if you rely mostly on Google for traffic, then you better watch out for these updates and fix your site accordingly. Also, you might have taken note of the volume of traffic you are getting from other search engines as well. Time to check them out once more. Did the volume change? If so, did it decrease or increase? If it increased, then that’s so much the better. On the other hand, if it decreased, then it’s time to do some tracking. However, don’t forget that you shouldn’t focus all your attention to these weaknesses but instead, you should capitalize on your strengths.
Just as there are some things that can bolster the life of your SEO campaign, there are also sure-fire ways on that you could hurt them. Ranging from poor research to misinterpretations, here are 4 things that will surely cause the downfall of your campaign.
1) Have the mentality that SEO is “get-it-running-and-forget-about-it.” No matter how GREAT your SEO campaign is when you started, if you can’t keep up with the trends or competition in your niche, your SEO campaign will crumble eventually. Be alert on what’s currently hot, what keeps the experts talking, and what people are searching for. Remember, what’s great today is history by tomorrow -so be on your toes always.
2) Keywords schmeewords! My first picks are the best! Sure, it may be the best back then. But have you tried doing a key word search nowadays? You may be missing out on great keyword opportunities, or worse, you could be seriously crippling your campaign by leaving your keywords as is.
3) I love images, Flash movies and other multimedia and I’m peppering my site with lots of them! Sure, they look great, but have you given thought about search engines? Spiders sent by search engines can’t crawl graphics, Flash movies, and multimedia. And what spiders can’t read, they can’t index. Think about this when designing your site and make sure you have the right balance.
4) My site is all about everything! No, SEO is not about who has the most number of pages or products in their site, nor is it about who covers more ground. You must find your target niche and work on it. It will save you all the trouble of stuffing your site with almost anything you can get your hands on – relevant or not.
Every blog has it share of old and dusty posts in some deep, dusty attic. While some will say that it is only prudent to purge them (saves you precious space) to allow for new posts, some states that there is wisdom in editing and reviving them. Not only do you keep old contents alive and kicking, but you also send a signal to Google (via their PageRank algorithm) that these posts are still out there and that you care for these posts of yours. And Google does have ways of rewarding those who care for their posts, such as an increase in your PageRank. Now wouldn’t that be great?
So how do we go about reviving these old posts? It depends upon how old the information is and how much have changed. Here are a few ways on how you could perk up those old posts of yours:
Be up to date with changes with your search engines. Algorithms. It’s what gives search engines the ability to rank websites. It’s only normal then to be aware of changes that occurs within each search engine. New algorithm? New restrictions? Be aware because what works before may not be working anymore.
Check if you are still hitting your targets. Regardless of what your post is about, you must have had a target search term when you wrote. Search for that term and see if your post still comes up. If not, then it’s time to start polishing that article.
Select new targets. As time moves on, so does the trend in keywords. It is important that you know which terms are hot and which are not. Keyword research is the key here. If you are able to find a new keyword term for your old blog post, the chances of bringing life into it just went a whole lot higher.
Rewrite your old articles. Change is a constant thing, and the same holds true with your articles. What you wrote about last year may have changed after a few months. So review your old articles, find out what has changed and revamp it. If your posts deal with information, find out if they are still updated.
Rewrite it with a different twist. Sometimes, you create an article based on a given perspective. But as you write more and more, you are exposed to more styles ways of writing. So if you want to revitalize and old post, then take one out and fire up your creativity. What you get is a totally repackaged article ready to be served again.
If you find yourself writing on a single topic, compile. If you find yourself dealing with the same topic over and over again, chances are you have created quite a number of articles dealing with the stuff. What you can do to put fire back to your old posts is to create a compilation of sorts. Link your articles together and present them as a compilation on a given topic. In that way, even if the pieces are old posts, as a whole you have created something new.
Everybody has their favorites, even in their blog posts. This is one of the common ways blogs polish their old posts. They create a top 10 or 20 or sometimes even 50 favorite blog posts. The result? 10 or 20 or even 50 of your old blog posts have once again emerged into the spotlight.
And there you have it. Just remember that old blog posts don’t always mean dead posts or expendable posts. Even if they are old, a little bit of polishing, dusting and creativity can get them to shine once more. And when they do, that ranking of yours will shine with them, and your SEO endeavors will not be in vain.
If you’ve just completed the first steps of your SEO campaign, you’re probably sitting there thinking “There’s no way my SEO campaign can fail!”
Really? Then again, how does one measure success with SEO? Do you have to be #1 in search results for ALL the keywords you want? But that sounds impossible! How then do you measure if your campaign is successful?
Much hype has surrounded the first ever human powered search engine. A search engine the creator claimed that could take on the search engine giant Google. However, it proved to be quite a letdown.
Search Wikia, a search engine developed by Wikia Inc., was launched in the alpha state last January 7. The uniqueness of the search engine stems from the fact that it is open source. Users are free to modify and adapt the software, search results, and other content compiled by the search engine. It allows users to vote upon individual results using 1 to 5 stars, and to flag results that the user finds inappropriate or irrelevant to the query, streamlining the search results even further. Also, it incorporates a social networking system alongside the search engine. It ties information about users and his friends along side search results.
Now let’s look at the itty gritty facts.
Looking at the “human powered” search engine, Search Wikia is quite a disappointment right now. A simple search such as “Arachnophobia” yielded only 212 results. You actually need to go down to 9 places before you get a result from a trustworthy site. The results from Search Wikia pales in comparison with Google’s 546,000 search results. With something more complex, Search Wikia fails to return any result at all. A search for “Oneirophrenia” returned zero results in Search Wikia, despite the fact that a website named www.oneirophrenia.com is available. Clearly, the search engine needs a lot of work right now.
Then there is the issue of the search engine being open source. Due to the transparency that they are offering, the ranking algorithms are visible to anyone who wishes to see it. The threat of spammers and hackers breaking the code and gaming the system is in the air. Not good if you are aiming to topple down Google in my opinion.
As for the social networking system, it’s just like every other social networking site out there. It asks for your profile, your interests and so on and so forth. Think of a really watered down social networking site crossed with a search engine, and you have Search Wikia.
All in all, it was an ambitious project. But the question remains, will it live up to the expectations that the hype created? Perhaps, but it’s certainly not today. Right now, when you need to search on something, Search Wikia would be at the bottom of your list. And you wouldn’t really use it right now for social networking. It needs a lot of work, especially in the indexing department, before anyone would even attempt to search something using it. They need to provide something new to the users before they adapt Search Wikia.
