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What Small Businesses Can Learn From Big Companies on Facebook

January 31st, 2012 ::

Learning from big companies on Facebook

Just because you’re a small business doesn’t mean you can’t have a huge impact on Facebook.  The social network has enabled small businesses to stand side-by-side with large companies to grab customers’ attention and interact with them online.

Even if your marketing department is small, or even if you’re a company of one, you can still learn a lot from the big business approach to Facebook.  Try these four ideas for running Facebook campaigns get big results, regardless of your company’s size.

Plan for success       

One of the major reasons big companies succeed on Facebook is that they plan.  Don’t make the mistake many small businesses do and launch a Facebook page just because everyone else has one.  Do as the big companies do, and set goals and strategies for your efforts online.

Think about what you’d like to get from your Facebook activities.  Do you want to drive more traffic to your online store?  Are you hoping to build your newsletter list?  Or, maybe you want to encourage repeat business and brand loyalty?  Whatever your goals are, state them clearly, and create a strategy that will get you there.

Interact with your fans

Often, the most successful Facebook pages are those teeming with interaction.  This is where big companies have a major advantage, simply because they’re staffed to keep the community active.

To compete with larger businesses, you need to go beyond static content (bio, a couple of pictures, and links to your website), and fill your page with content that engages the community.  Creating a custom tab enables you to offer fun stuff on Facebook, such as contests and virtual gifts.

But don’t think you have to employ a pricey designer or know how to code to get the same eye-catching and interactive custom tabs big companies have.  A custom tab app, like the one offered by ShortStack, can help you create tabs with the same functionality for an affordable price.

Be there for your fans

Big businesses know that social media provides a direct connection with their individual customers, so they hire community managers to communicate with customers on a full-time basis.

Even if you can’t hire someone to tend to Facebook full-time, you still need to check in more than sporadically to build a community.  Try working social media interaction into your routine, being sure to respond to questions or comments on your page at least every day.  You can tag-team Facebook page management among several staff members to be sure you’re covered, and you can hire responsible interns to help with social media management.  Just be sure not to neglect your customers online – if you don’t answer their questions, someone else will!

Take advantage of your smaller size

Being a small company means you’re nimbler and more flexible than your larger competitors.  For example, smaller businesses have the advantage of moving quickly to gather information from their community.  If you want to know what customers think of your newest product, you can create a Facebook poll or simply ask them to post suggestions to your wall – and you can do this without the bureaucratic hierarchy that slows bigger companies down.

Or, maybe you want to scan Facebook for general feedback, responding to customer complaints and compliments.  Because you’re the owner, you can make decisions like this and reply in real time.

Another example of leveraging your smaller size is offering deals to your community when you need to.  If you need to clear inventory quickly, or you want to be sure your venue is filled tonight, you can offer great deals to your Facebook fans right now.  Being a small business means you can avoid the lethargic corporate decision-making process and do what’s right for your business in a flexible way.

Have you noticed other big-business Facebook tactics that can be scaled to fit a smaller company?  Talk to us in the comments section below!

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Who Were the Major Social Media Players of 2011?

January 26th, 2012 ::

Major Social Media Players

From social media IPO activity to the entrance of several upstarts, the U.S. social networking market is strong – and exciting.  comScore recently released its report, “It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where It’s Headed,” an in-depth look at the global social networking market.  Here are some highlights from the U.S. market:

Facebook on top

It’s no surprise that Facebook is still the top U.S. social networking site, boasting 166 million unique visitors in November.  And, how much time are we really spending on Facebook?  The average user spent 6.6 hours in November, up 37 percent in the past year.

We’re number two!

LinkedIn and Twitter have been vying for the number two spot in audience size for a while now.  Twitter took second place in November with 35.4 million unique visitors, only slightly ahead of LinkedIn with 35 million unique visitors.

MySpace still alive and kicking

Even though we don’t hear much about MySpace these days, the network is still holding its own.  MySpace is currently in fourth place with 25 million unique visitors; however, its audience has declined steadily over the past two years.

Upstarts worth mentioning

Three newish social networks are gaining prominence – and audience members – while introducing fresh engagement tactics.  Tumblr has increased its U.S. visits by 131 percent since November 2010, to 15.9 million.  Tumblr is also winning points for engagement and is second only to Facebook, as its average user spends 2.4 hours on the site each month.

Google+ has gotten plenty of attention this year, and it got plenty of traffic, too.  In November, the site received 15.2 million unique visits, just behind Tumblr.  What’s really exciting about Google+ is its future:  its integration with other Google products make it an important one to watch in 2012.

Finally, Pinterest, which I recently wrote about, deserves kudos for its quick rise in the social networking ranks.  Since May 2011, Pinterest has soared from 418,000 unique visitors to nearly 4.9 million in November.  Its engagement rates are impressive, too, with the average visitor spending nearly an hour and a half on the site each month.  Add to that the fact that users spend more than 15 minutes on Pinterest per visit, making the site third in consumer engagement.

Even though Facebook currently remains the clear leader in the U.S. social networking market, there is plenty of room for other players to shake up the industry with new innovations.  2012 looks to be equally exciting on the social media front, so be sure to watch for emerging trends.

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

5 Sure-Fire Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

January 24th, 2012 ::

5 social media tips

If you’re struggling with your small business’s social media strategy, turn to these tried-and-true tips for taking your strategy from stalled to stellar in no time at all.  Here are five tips that put your social media activities to work:

1.  Just Be Yourself

Plenty of marketers post multiple updates per day on places like Facebook, offering their followers links to their recent blog posts and tips for succeeding in business.  How can you stand out from the crowd?

Being yourself and allowing your personality to shine through your social media communications can help you get the attention and interaction that will boost marketing success.  Let your followers and fans know there’s a real, live person behind your posts by sprinkling in personal touches.

For example, posting pictures of your latest culinary masterpiece, or other creative endeavors, adds a fun element to an otherwise “just business” profile.  If you’re heading out to cheer on your favorite sports team, or you heard something hilarious (but PG-rated) on the subway that your followers might enjoy as well, share them with your online community.   These personal touches keep things fresh and are excellent conversation starters, so be sure to use them in addition to your regular wall posts.

2.  Find Your Place Online

As a small business, you know you have to prioritize your resources carefully, including which social networks you devote time and energy to.  Having your business on multiple social media profiles, but only giving them partial effort, won’t cut it.  You need to determine where your customers are, and then devote all your effort to that network.

Use Follower Wonk or Facebook’s advertising platform to find out where your target audience is most concentrated.  Then, invest all your resources building a loyal following there, and engage your community by giving it the attention it deserves.  Your good work here will help you build a case for expanding your reach (and the necessary resources) on additional sites as you grow.

3.  Generate Leads With Facebook

Once you’ve begun engaging your Facebook community, why not leverage your page to generate leads?  Facebook offers small businesses new ways of building their lists of qualified leads.  For example, you can offer an opt-in strategy directly on your page by using iFrames to create a custom welcome tab.  This tab should include a two-step process called a “reveal tab.”

Step 1:  Create a call to action to encourage new visitors to Like your page.

Step 2:  After visitors Like your page, offer them a giveaway for providing their name and email.

Following this simple two-step model will help you increase both your fan base and lead list–now, that’s efficient!

4.  Make the Most of Video

Using video is a creative and interactive way to get your small business to the top of search results, and social media can help.  Google and other search engines use video to decide which pages should be displayed first, but you must tag, title and publish your videos correctly to get their full SEO benefits.

One way to add video marketing to your social media strategy is by creating a custom channel on YouTube.  This is super easy to do.  Think about what problem your business solves for its customers, and create a series of short instructional videos related to this problem.  Use the videos to show how your business can help customers, and try adding testimonials from current customers as well.  For the best videos, use humor and graphics to communicate your messages, and keep it under three minutes.

5.  Do The Hard Work

To stand out in a sea of content, sometimes you have to get down and dirty.  What information do your customers really want to know?  If you’re willing to solve your customers’ hardest problems and answer their toughest questions, your content will be linked to and shared.  This activity will get you higher search rankings and more followers/fans on Twitter and Facebook.

Think about the most difficult and interesting customer questions, and create a list.  Every time you sit down to write, use one of these questions as a starting point.  Be honest, do the extra research required, and strive to help customers with their challenges.  Then, publish your content and promote it on all your social media platforms.  Doing this consistently will earn you significant results.

If you follow these five tips, you should start to see the payoff of your efforts rather quickly.  Do you have additional tips that have taken your small business social media strategy from mediocre to outstanding?  Share them with us by leaving a comment below.

Image courtesy of creative design firm Arrae

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Will Google+ Become a Social Media Powerhouse?

January 19th, 2012 ::

Google+ vs Facebook

Since the launch of Google+ last year, Google’s answer to Facebook has gotten its share of buzz.  According to Google+ for Dummies author Jesse Stay, Google+  is positioned well to do everything it has promised to do, and more – to become a true social media powerhouse.  Here’s why:

Total Google Integration

The +1 button has penetrated the web, and we are just seeing the tip of the integration iceberg.  Google is working to integrate its social network across all its products, even going so far as to kill off products that aren’t Google+ friendly.  Those products that are capable of cross-integration are getting tweaked to perform well with the social media platform.  Even Google’s flagship product, its search engine, has joined Team Google+.  Now, you can even see what your friends have +1′d in your Google search results.

Sharp Focus on the Product

According to Stay, the entire Google team is sharply focused on developing and improving Google+, including its integration into existing Google products, as I mentioned above.  Google is releasing new features every week, each one adding up to the summation of a social media game changer.  As more time and resources are invested into Google+, it’s clear that the company is putting lots of eggs into this basket.  This focus and investment bodes well for the future of Google+.

Fueled by Facebook Competition

Once Google+ was fully launched and steadily growing its user base, Facebook must have looked back and caught a glimpse of the new kid on the block gaining ground–and threatening its market share.  Needless to say, the two have been in fierce competition ever since.  This competition is benefiting the consumer, as each network tries to one-up the other, making rapid improvements to both products.  Google+ is benefitting from this early-stage competition, as it gets the opportunity to work out any kinks as soon as possible.

Tighter Niche Marketing Capabilities

With the addition of Google+ Pages, marketers have new opportunities for communicating with customers on social media.  They can separate audiences into circles and target messages to specific circles only, creating unparalleled custom communications in social media.  Google+ is offering marketers what has often alluded Facebook–increased privacy and personalization for their social media marketing campaigns.

Primed for Mobile

Google+’s position as a major player in mobile might be the most convincing reason the social network is here to stay.  Google owns Android, which will create powerful synergy between Google+ and mobile capabilities.  According to Stay, soon Google+ will likely be integrated into the operating system of all Androids, making it a native feature of any Android-powered device.  Users will have access to enormous sharing capabilities by default.

For example, when you take a photo with your phone, you could very easily share it on Google+.  Also, you could organize your contact list into circles, and all Google+’s location-sharing features will be native to your device.  Simply put, Google’s relationship with Android guarantees that wherever you go, Google+ will help you share your life with everyone in your circles.

Are you using Google+ for business?  What advantages do you find that make the network worth investing in for a long-term social media strategy?

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Census Reveals 5 Trends That Matter to Your Business in 2012

January 18th, 2012 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

The 2010 Census data, released in 2011, was a gold mine of information for business owners. But what information will be the most important to your business going forward? The Brookings Institution picked out its top five trends rom the 2010 Census, and I thought I’d share them here.

  1. Slowing population growth: The 2000s saw the slowest growth in the United States in 70 years–just 9.7 percent, or 27.3 million people, were added from 2000 to 2010. The decline is a result of aging baby boomers, slower U.S. economic growth and declining immigration. However, the U.S. is still one of the fastest-growing industrialized nations. Growth was highest in the South and Midwest and lowest in the North and East; suburbs grew faster than cities. Despite the housing crash disproportionately affecting the Sunbelt, these areas are still fast-growing.
  2. Staying put: In the boom years of the 1950s, nearly 20 percent of Americans moved every year; in 2011, just 11.6 percent did. Aging boomers and higher homeownership rates are part of the reason for the slowdown, along with recession, dwindling home prices and tighter credit restrictions. For businesses, this means areas that relied on immigration for their work force may find it harder to get employees; on the plus side, cities that suffered from “brain drain” may find more of their best and brightest staying put.
  3. Minority becoming majority: Not quite, but 50 percent of U.S. infants are now non-white, and non-whites (primarily Hispanics and Asians) accounted for 92 percent of U.S. population growth in the 2000s. Foreign-born people account for almost 13 percent of the population. These minority and immigrant populations are also moving into the suburbs in greater numbers as segregation declines.
  4. Aging boomers: Baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are now fully middle-aged or older. America’s 45-and-over population grew over 18 times faster than the under-45 population in the 2000s. The aging of the boomers, and the fact that younger age groups are waiting longer to get married and have children, means just 20 percent of U.S. households consist of married couples with children under 18 (compared to 40 percent in 1970). Large cities are increasingly defined by whether their number of young people is growing or declining, and many areas find themselves in a culture clash—for instance, Arizona’s senior population is more than 80 percent white, while its children are more than 60 percent minority.
  5. Poverty grows: The 2000s was the first census decade on record in which real median household income declined. Some 15.3 percent of Americans were in poverty. Nearly all of the 100 largest metro areas had lower incomes in 2010 than in 2000. But the recession wasn’t all to blame: The Sunbelt, manufacturing cities and the Southeast had all seen dramatic increases in poverty even before 2008. In addition, poverty is hitting the suburbs; the number of suburban residents in poverty rose 53 percent over the decade.

How will these trends affect your business going forward? You can access much more data from the Census at American FactFinder to see specific trends for your region of the country, state and city.

Image by Flickr user comedy_nose (Creative Commons)

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Posted in Marketing, Small Business, small business | 1 Comment »

5 Marketing Metrics Mistakes to Avoid

January 17th, 2012 ::

Frustrated marketer

We often read about what to do for a successful marketing metrics strategy, but sometimes it’s just as helpful to study what not to do.

Trying to decipher which metrics to track from the hundreds of marketing metrics out there can be overwhelming.  Whether you’re just starting to measure your marketing efforts, or you’re fine-tuning an existing strategy, here are five mistakes you’ll want to avoid:

1. Focusing on activity instead of results

It’s easy to see marketing activity, such as the time and resources invested into a social media campaign.  It can be much harder to see marketing results, especially if they often create more tangible results in other departments (sales, for example).  You can’t measure what you can’t see, so be careful not to overlook marketing activities that are driving results throughout the business.

2. Using vanity metrics

Marketers are often tempted to use vanity metrics that sound good and impress managers rather than those that will improve profitability.  Don’t focus solely on press release impressions, email sign-up lists, and Facebook “Likes” just because they look good on paper.  Find the metrics that lead to performance, and track those instead.

3. Focusing on quantity instead of quality

Marketers who focus on lead generation often get caught up in the number of leads they bring in, while ignoring the quality of those leads.  This skewed focus can cloud decision making when programs that look good initially end up falling short on delivery.  Be sure to include a metric for tracking quality in your plan.

4. Being efficient, but not effective

This point is similar to the one above.  Too often, focus is given to the number of Twitter followers, or the number of attendees at a conference.  But what if those followers and attendees aren’t the people who will help your business succeed?  Marketers should strive for doing the things that have impact rather than simply getting the job done.

5. Measuring what’s easy

It can be difficult to pin down metrics for revenue and profit, even though these metrics are what executives are most interested in.  The problem comes when marketers use stand-in metrics for those other numbers, forcing the marketer to prove a relationship and jeopardizing credibility.  Give colleagues what they really want by measuring bottom-line metrics.

***

Have you made marketing metrics mistakes not listed above?  Help your fellow marketers avoid them by sharing in the comments section below.

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Posted in Marketing | 4 Comments »

How to Use Pinterest for Marketing

January 12th, 2012 ::

Pinterest

You may have heard of Pinterest, a social bookmarking site where you “pin” and share interesting images on the Web – but what does it have to do with marketing?

While Pinterest has mostly been the domain of brides-to-be, crafters and fashionistas, smart marketers are harnessing this fun social network to generate buzz for their products.

If you’re not yet convinced that Pinterest has marketing value, let me make my case:

A Hub of Influencers

Pinterest users pin images they love, browse what other users have deemed pin-worthy, and follow those with a knack for finding the coolest (or hottest) items.  Basically, the network is a community of curators, and those curators with the greatest influence, or following, are exactly the people marketers want to connect with.

Staying on Top of Trends

Once you’ve spent some time on Pinterest, you’ll begin to notice which products and styles are trending in real-time.  Better yet, you’ll be able to take cues from the big influencers to find out what will be trending next.

SEO Strategies

There are two benefits that Pinterest can bring to your SEO campaign.  The first is local link building–you can embed a link to your store’s location in your Pinterest descriptions and comments.  Secondly, Pinterest automatically links to an image’s originating site, so you can quickly amass a collection of visual links.

Marketing on Pinterest

Getting started on Pinterest is pretty straightforward, but you’ll need an invite to join.  You can easily request one on the site, and then you’re ready to begin:

1. Check to see if any of your products have already been pinned

This simple first step will give you a baseline for your future Pinterest marketing efforts, as well as help you start making connections on the site.

2. Start pinning things you like, but be sure not to strictly self promote

In other words, pin other people’s products as well as your own.  The idea is to build credibility and join the existing community.  It’s also a good idea to think strategically when creating boards (collections of images you pin).  For example, a sports company could create boards relating to sports as well as the location of their store.

3. Use the search function to dig deeper into the site

At first glance, Pinterest may seem overwhelmed by home decorating and art-related images.  However, searching for specific areas of interest to you will reveal other niches within the site.  You can also use the search function to identify opportunities for your own category creation–what is missing that you could provide?

4. Pin and be pinned

You will have to invest time into pinning things in order to get the most out of the site.  You can add the Pinterest bookmarklet to your browser to quickly add things you find on the web.  You may also want to add the Pin this button to your website, which functions similarly to a Facebook Like button, to encourage pinning.

5. Grow your following

Invite people from Facebook and your email list, especially your customers, to Pinterest.  You can also grow your following the old-fashioned way by participating and pinning so others can see what you’re all about.

6. Focus on engagement

After all, Pinterest is a social network, so you want to apply the same engagement principles you use with other forms of social media.  Make comments on other people’s pinned objects, reply to people’s comments on your pins, and otherwise be social on this fun and addictive site.

***

Have you used Pinterest for marketing yet?  What strategies do you find most effective for promoting products and generating buzz on Pinterest?

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments »

How To Be a Pro at SEO: Part 2

January 5th, 2012 ::
This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series How to Be a Pro at SEO

SEO Part 2

In the first article of this series, I provided an overview of SEO and discussed on-page SEO tactics.  This article will cover off-page SEO as well as some tips on avoiding bad SEO practices.

Off-Page SEO

While you can control the content on your page, and therefore, your on-page SEO efforts, your off-page SEO can be a bit more challenging.  Building this type of SEO requires nurturing relationships by creating content people want to link to.

Search engines look not only at the number of links to your site, but also at the quality of the links.  For example, one link from The New York Times will mean much more than a hundred from smaller blogs.  The search engines will also look at the anchor text surrounding links to your site, to determine the relevancy of the content.

Here are some tactics for getting relevant links to your website:

  • Use social media to spread your content throughout the web.  Search engines use the content shared on social media when determining website rank because simply put, if it has been shared, it must be influential and attention-worthy.  Make your website content easy to share by installing social network buttons throughout your site.  You can also share your content on your own social media pages and profiles, encouraging your community to pass it on.  If your content is useful, people will link to you in their blogs and on their websites.
  • Use email to spread your content, too.  Make your email content easy to share by adding share buttons to your messages.  These buttons can help readers tweet the content to their followers or forward it on to a friend.
  • Blogs are the best way to create a stream of fresh content that your customers will find useful.  Write engaging articles about your industry, offer tips to help your customers and clients, and provide interesting news, and people will share and link to you.  There’s no better way to build links than to create amazing content that everyone wants to talk about and share.

Often, being good at something requires knowing what not to do.  To that end, here are five things you should never do if you want to excel at SEO:

1.  Using “Black Hat” SEO to try to boost your ranking  is discouraged by search engines and may even hurt your business.  Black Hat techniques are designed to bend the rules of SEO, and they include:

  • Keyword Stuffing:  cramming keywords onto a web page to create “content” with no regard to usefulness or even legibility
  • Doorway Pages:  pages filled with keywords that redirect users to another site
  • Invisible Text:  using white text on a white background so a search engine can see it, but a user cannot

2.  Shady linking schemes have no place in a top-notch SEO campaign.  Quick-fix link building will be recognized and punished by the search engines.  Emailing tons of webmasters to ask for a link, offering to trade links with anyone who will link to you, and purchasing links will raise red flags.  Building high-quality inbound links takes time and will happen naturally if your site contains useful, relevant content.

3.  If you focus too much on metadata, you will miss other fruitful tactics for creating a site the search engines love.  There was a time when cramming keywords into the HTML of your site was enough to rank high, but that time is over.  Some search engines still use meta tags to index websites, so you should still include them, but don’t go overboard.  Focus your efforts on the on-page tactics discussed earlier instead.

4.  Creating irrelevant content just to get people to your website won’t lead to much more than increased bounce rates.  When you don’t take the time to create content that flows naturally, your website visitors will become frustrated and will likely see through your efforts.  Stuffing your content with keywords, to the point that it becomes illegible, is bad SEO practice.

5.  Focusing on driving large amounts of traffic rather than qualified leads will leave you with an SEO campaign without much ROI.  If you drive tons of traffic to your site, but your visitors never become customers, you should refine your keyword strategy.  Aim to generate content that will have your website visitors saying, “Now, this is exactly what I was looking for.”  So, if your traffic is increasing, but the bounce rates are also sky-high, reassess your keywords.         

Hopefully, now you are well-versed in the strategies of SEO.  Have you tried any of these tactics before?  Let us know how it worked out by leaving a comment below.

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Posted in Marketing, Search Marketing | 2 Comments »

How To Be a Pro at SEO: Part 1

January 3rd, 2012 ::
This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series How to Be a Pro at SEO

SEO Part 1

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, as a concept is pretty simple:  Write content using a proven structure filled with targeted keywords, and people will be able to find you online.  Actually putting your SEO plan into action is another story; the process can be tricky and rife with costly trial and error.

This two-part series will help you master the techniques SEO pros use to draw targeted online traffic to their sites like a magnet.  The first article will provide a refresher on SEO as well as the tactics for mastering on-page SEO.  The second article will cover tactics for creating off-page SEO plus reveal tips for recognizing poor SEO.  Practice these methods yourself, and you can become a pro, too.

The Nuts and Bolts of a Solid SEO Strategy

SEO Review

When you use SEO, you are literally making your website more visible to potential customers and clients.  As search engines consider which pages to display, and in what order, they use two criteria: relevance of the content on your website and who’s linking to you.  These criteria help the search engines understand what your site is all about and who will find it useful, as well as how many other people out there have already found it useful and relevant enough to link to.

To rank high in search results, build your content around long-tail keywords.  This concept refers to steering clear of generic terms many people will be searching and competing on, and instead focusing on specific search terms that will produce qualified leads.

For example, when someone types “winery packages” into a search engine, they are likely to be bombarded with results, and your website will be lost in the mess if you used those broad keywords.  But if they type “holiday winery getaway packages in Northern Virginia,” their results will be much more targeted.  So, if those long-tail keywords are yours, the user will find you easily–and probably be more inclined to become a customer since you have exactly what they’re searching for.

Keywords Count

Before I get into the elements of on-page SEO, let’s discuss keywords.  As I mentioned, you want to be thinking about the long-tail keywords that are likely to drive specific traffic to your site, while not having to compete with too many other websites.

Don’t just think of keywords that use the language of your industry.  What you call “SEO,” your customers might call “getting a higher Google rank.”  Think of how your customers would search for you, including the phrases they would use.

To get the most keyword bang for your keyword buck, try to come up with a set of related keywords that will cover the variations users are likely to search with.  The real challenge is using your keywords in variations so they sound natural.  For example, if your keywords are “first novel,” “publish book,” and “write a book,” you can wrangle all these keywords into a naturally flowing title:  “Your first novel:  How to write and publish your book.”

Sometimes it helps to write the first draft of your web copy without worrying too much about SEO.  Then, as you edit, bring in variations of your keywords to get the page SEO-worthy.  This method can help you write more naturally while still utilizing good SEO techniques.

Types of SEO

Basically, there are two types of SEO: on-page SEO and off-page SEO.  Both are important for a thorough SEO strategy.

On-page SEO refers to the elements of your SEO strategy that are employed directly on your website.  These elements are completely within your control, so you should do everything you can to optimize them.  There are six areas to optimize for on-page SEO to be sure you have all your bases covered.

  • Content:  Creating engaging and relevant content is a must, but you should also consider the way you format your web pages so the search engine crawlers can digest your content.  Give each web page a thought-provoking headline that grabs the reader’s attention and includes the keywords the page covers.  Bolding certain keywords is another way to emphasize the phrases your page is optimized for.
  • URL:  The structuring of your URL affects the search engine’s ability to index and rank your website.  Aim for an organized URL structure by editing it to include the title of your web page rather than settling for the random string of letters and numbers most web creation software generates.
  • Images:  To help search bots see the photos on your website, use their file names to describe the image.  Consider adding Alt tags to your images as well, to tag each photo on your site for easier indexing.
  • Tags:  Tags are little text snippets that provide information to the search engines.  I already mentioned Alt tags, but you also need to use title tags, meta tags and headline tags to let the search engine’s crawlers know exactly what your web pages are all about.
    • Title tags appear in the upper left corner of your browser and appear as a blue link on a search engine results page.  You are limited to about 75 characters here, so choose your words carefully.
    • Meta tags come in two forms.  Meta description tags literally describe your web page to viewers on a search results page, and you’re limited to about 150 characters here.  Though not used as much as they once were, it’s still a good idea to include variations of your keywords as meta keywords within your HTML code.
    • Headline tags show search engine crawlers the outline of information covered on your web pages, so you should put important keywords within these tags.
    • Links:  Internal linking is a useful way to reference other pages within your website.  Use anchor text around these links to help the search engines know what type of content you are linking to.

Now, you should have a good start in building a successful SEO strategy.  In the next article, I’ll cover ways to implement your off-page SEO strategy, and I’ll give you some pointers on how to spot bad SEO.

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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