Understanding how search engines like Google "think" will help you to make your website, blog and social media channels such as facebook, twitter and myspace
more SEO friendly and in turn help them become more visible and accessible to potential customers and fans/followers. Here is a back to basics overview, SEO made easy.
Key words are individual words or phases users type into a search engines search bar.
For example ahead of a night out if I need a new outfit I might go to google and type in "dresses".
Google will come back with websites which have told it (by the content on it's pages) that they sell dresses.
Now, here's where you come in.
1) Think of each of your social media channels or pages as a website. Google can only read text, so all the
fancy pictures you include are great eye candy for your fans and blog followers but not so great when it comes to google's "eyes". That is unless you
have been SEO wise in renaming your image. Instead of a stunning picture google reads your image as the file name so always remember to rename images
to let google know what it's a picture of. Think of it as subtitles for a deaf google (if images were... sound?).
2) Put in it's most basic form google ranks websites on points system. The website with the most points for a key word search will be top of the list which
shown to the user.
3) How do you tot up those points? By featuring the key words the user is searching for! Easy right? Well, almost. The problems you face are that there are many
different ways people search for the same thing using many different keywords. Then there are many, many different people offering the same thing and in Google's eyes
they may be a lot more "popular" and important than you! So if you're a new small fashion boutique you'll find it hard to rank (appear high up on search results
page) for a generic term like "dresses". If however you sell something unique or hard to come by, lets say monkey fur dresses, anyone searching for that is likey to end
up on your site/brand providing you have included those specific key words in your blog post/facebook profile/twitter bio etc.
Another thing to bear in mind is that as well as actually including specfic key words where you use them is also important. If your site/page includes the words
"monkey fur dresses" in your blog post but another site which is similar to yours in terms of "popularity" features those same key words in the title" Google will
trump that site over yours because it sees that is has more importance in the other blog's site/article. Therefore it is important to include key words in your
titles and throughout the page.
4) Say the same thing in different ways to cover as many keywords as possible without spamming! Goolgle and the likes are not stupid, so putting dresses every other
line will not help you. In fact it will make you untrustworthy in Google's eyes and lower your ranking/score.
Bearing the above four points won't garantee you'll rank top for all your relevant key words but it will give you a much better shot. Remember to apply SEO pointers to your social media channels as well as your blogs and web pages
Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Saturday, 15 January 2011
10 Social Media Rules to Maximise Your Social Media Channels
Here are 10 relatively quick and easy ways to make the most of your Facebook, Twitter, blog, YouTube (and any other social media channels you may be running).
1. Make sharing your blog content as easy as possible. Work on the premise that your audience is either lazy or very pressed for time. Install share, like and tweet buttons wherever possible
2. Cross promote your channels. If you have content on more than one social media site, give your users the option to interact with you in their preferred way. Adding a link to your Twitter page on Facebook or a link to your YouTube channel on your blog is a quick and easy way to let people know where else to find you or your brand
3. Monitor what is being said about your brand. The use of tools such as Google Alerts is essential to keep an eye on what is being said about your brand, positive or negative. Enter the name or phrases you'd like to track and how frequently you'd like to be notified
4. Be honest, transparent and human. Trying to cover things up or avoiding issues will only backfire. Address issues or negative comments head on and you're more likely to change a negative into a positive
5. Experiment, test, record and learn. Don't be afraid to try new things. Some will work others will fail but if you have done a stock check of your fans, followers, view etc before and after the trail, you'll be armed with the tools you need to learn and improve
6. Establish a strategy for each of your social media channels. Once you have goals, however small they may be, you have something to work towards and a benchmark to assess yourself by. How do you compare to your competitiors? And how would you like to compare to them?
7. Know your audiences. Approach each social platform separately. Just because those who like your Facebook page love regular offers and promotion updates doesn't mean your Twitter audience will feel the same way
8. Plan for the worst. Don't wait for something to go wrong before you figure out how to tackle it. Who should respond to that negative comment? How should you reply? A simple Social Media Triage/Flowchart can easily clear this up. Start simple and review and amend this over time.
9. Don't try to run before you can walk. It's tempting to rush in and create accounts for every social media community there is going, but if you're unable to manage them this can work against your favor. Work out where your target audience will be, who they'll engage with, where and how, then you'll know which social networks are for you and the type of content you need to provide them
10. Avoid brand hijacking and brand identity theft. Register any potential future usernames with as many social media channels as you can. They may never be used but should you decide to move into this area at a later date they'll be set up ready for you. More importantly this will prevent anyone presenting themselves as you. You can always change the settings on such pages to private to prevent people finding them by accident and set them up with a link to your active pages or main website.
1. Make sharing your blog content as easy as possible. Work on the premise that your audience is either lazy or very pressed for time. Install share, like and tweet buttons wherever possible
2. Cross promote your channels. If you have content on more than one social media site, give your users the option to interact with you in their preferred way. Adding a link to your Twitter page on Facebook or a link to your YouTube channel on your blog is a quick and easy way to let people know where else to find you or your brand
3. Monitor what is being said about your brand. The use of tools such as Google Alerts is essential to keep an eye on what is being said about your brand, positive or negative. Enter the name or phrases you'd like to track and how frequently you'd like to be notified
4. Be honest, transparent and human. Trying to cover things up or avoiding issues will only backfire. Address issues or negative comments head on and you're more likely to change a negative into a positive
5. Experiment, test, record and learn. Don't be afraid to try new things. Some will work others will fail but if you have done a stock check of your fans, followers, view etc before and after the trail, you'll be armed with the tools you need to learn and improve
6. Establish a strategy for each of your social media channels. Once you have goals, however small they may be, you have something to work towards and a benchmark to assess yourself by. How do you compare to your competitiors? And how would you like to compare to them?
7. Know your audiences. Approach each social platform separately. Just because those who like your Facebook page love regular offers and promotion updates doesn't mean your Twitter audience will feel the same way
8. Plan for the worst. Don't wait for something to go wrong before you figure out how to tackle it. Who should respond to that negative comment? How should you reply? A simple Social Media Triage/Flowchart can easily clear this up. Start simple and review and amend this over time.
9. Don't try to run before you can walk. It's tempting to rush in and create accounts for every social media community there is going, but if you're unable to manage them this can work against your favor. Work out where your target audience will be, who they'll engage with, where and how, then you'll know which social networks are for you and the type of content you need to provide them
10. Avoid brand hijacking and brand identity theft. Register any potential future usernames with as many social media channels as you can. They may never be used but should you decide to move into this area at a later date they'll be set up ready for you. More importantly this will prevent anyone presenting themselves as you. You can always change the settings on such pages to private to prevent people finding them by accident and set them up with a link to your active pages or main website.
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