Posts Tagged ‘small business’
How to Build Facebook Friends and Fans for Your Small Business
Written by Joel
Friday, 01 July 2011 08:00
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Friday, 01 July 2011 08:00
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[Slide Show] Though it's great to have tons of Facebook friends, those friends are worthless if they aren't engaged. Here are six ways to attract and retain Facebook friends who actually care about what your company is up to. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
Abomination! Facebook and Twitter Fail To Drive Traffic
Written by Joel
Wednesday, 11 May 2011 13:00
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Wednesday, 11 May 2011 13:00
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Here’s a story Facebook won’t “like”. A recent study by outbrain.com suggests that social media doesn’t drive website traffic as well as traditional mediums. The study, which looked at traffic patterns from 100 million sessions across more than 100 premium publishers revealed that on average, direct, in-site and unknown traffic sources account for the 67% of website traffic while social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can only account for 11%. Numbers like these are making senior executives curious and online media and marketing firms nervous.
Social media has long been lauded as the new darling of modern marketing and the growth rates of Facebook and Twitter continue to climb exponentially. The internet is awash with urban legends of tiny start ups who continue to make millions from their “likes” and “tweets” and the fever has turned into a modern day gold rush. Everyone it seems, is trying to stake their online claim. Unfortunately, many aren’t finding the golden nuggets once promised and more are wondering why their social media strategy isn’t working as advertised.
The problem is that people aren’t logging in to Facebook or Twitter to shop, they are logging in to check up on friends and family. Most enjoy the occasional posted pictures and others occasionally debate someone’s obnoxious post, but no one logs in to find an attorney, chiropractor or mortgage lender. Facebook and Twitter are supposed to be an escape from those things, not a doorway to more of them. Is anyone really surprised? For those consumers who actually click on Facebook banner ads, the results are horrible for those trying to sell.
The outbrain study shows that website traffic from social media sites are among the worst. On average the bounce rates is higher and the page views the lowest. Even if Facebook and Twitter is driving traffic to your door, statistically it’s not the kind of traffic you need. For many, there are better ways to spend that marketing budget.
A well designed website, with a great user experience, original content and keyword rich context still trumps referral traffic from Facebook and Twitter. Conversion rates are higher when someone is looking for your exact product or service, versus throwing products and services at people who aren’t looking for them.
Facebook and Twitter are great tools to drive awareness which is key to any marketing strategy, but it’s just one part of a well designed marketing plan. Awareness, interest, evaluation and commitment need to be well organized to drive the right kind of traffic. A combination of these elements is even better. When implemented correctly, a great online media and marketing plan increases sales and leads the way to a healthier bottom line. Now that’s something everyone will “like.”
*This article was picked up and published by Technorati.com
Can You Ever Have Too Much SEO?
Written by Joel
Thursday, 07 April 2011 22:17
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Thursday, 07 April 2011 22:17
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Too Much Of A Good Thing?
Is there such a thing as too much SEO? At first that question might seem a little silly. Many people think that you can’t get too much of a good thing. But, in reality you can. Even Christmas (or any other holiday you may celebrate) can get to be too much if you over do it.
This year I haven’t bothered to take down my Christmas decorations yet. I know its been months and I know that this makes me sound completely ridiculous, but this year I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. They got put up a little late and when Christmas was over I just wasn’t ready to see them go. After all, my house looks best in all of its Christmas glory. But, in the last couple of weeks I have realized that the good thing that is the beauty of my Christmas décor is starting to become a bad thing.
I had some friends come over last week and while they didn’t say anything, I could see those looks. Finally I brought it up. “I know the Christmas decorations need to come down, but I just really like them.” They kind of chuckled awkwardly but secretly I knew they were judging me inside.
Search engines are like my friends. They won’t tell you when your SEO is actually hurting you. It happens.
What Are These Mistakes?
Wouldn’t it be easy if there was a list of what you need to do great in SEO? I would love an SEO report card telling me what to improve, what to change and where I am lacking. Unfortunately Google has created an entire billion dollar company by keeping that little nugget of information a secret. What we can do is offer a few tips about critical SEO mistakes to avoid. These mistakes are the big ones that will hurt your site in the eyes of the search engines. Just like my spring time Christmas decorations in April make me look like a hillbilly, there is a underhanded way some companies try to circumvent the SEO rules. In our industry they are called “black hat” SEO techniques. Here are some examples.
Article Spinning- Write your own content. Don’t take others web content and then use spinning software to create text that looks unique. It is also a good idea to avoid spinning your own content to create hundreds of pieces of text from just one article. If it seems to easy to be true, it probably is.
Hiding Text- Some sites attempt to increase their SEO value by hiding text. This can be accomplished in many ways including having text that is the same color as the background color, having hidden pages that users will never find and using other similar methods.
Keyword Stuffing- Knowing your keywords and using them is important, but don’t get excessive. Try to use keywords as you would in normal speech rather than filling a paragraph with your keyword over and over again.
Link Farms- Linking to other sites can help boost your SEO, but you have to be careful how you do this. The search engines aren’t too fond of sites that are only looking to send out your link in exchange for a fee. Get your links out there naturally.
If you are the kind of person that likes to keep your Christmas decorations up for the summer and need help with your SEO shoot us an email. Perhaps we can tell you how to execute a good SEO strategy and you can encourage us to take the lights down.
*Jacqueline Rosser is a guest writer for MediaShark,LLC. She is a technical writer with specialization in SEO, Web Design and Optimization. She is based out of California.