Search Engine Marketing Diaries
RSS:
Publications
Comments

Social Bookmarking How To

Social bookmarking is something that you already do on a daily basis.  For search engine optimization and web benefit you may as well utilize social bookmarking to it’s full extent.  In order to produce a successful online business, you need to have high search engine rankings and top positions. You can have the hottest website, best products but if no one knows about you, your wasting your time and effort.  Just as a retail store needs to bring in traffic, so does an online website.  With a little bit of time and effort and a great organized road map, you can reap the benefits of an online business like no one else. Although there are many ways to do this, one of the most widely used and result oriented tactic is to leverage online social bookmarking sites. So how can your website and business begin benefitting from the use of social bookmarking sites? The process is actually quite simple and your probably already doing some of it as we speak. Social bookmarking sites can produce quality, one way backlinks to your site and increase the amount of direct and indirect targeted traffic visiting your site. This also gives search engine crawlers more access to your site as they crawl the web.  Once these visitors come to your website, all you need to do is convert them to sales.

By utilizing social bookmarking the right way you will be able to funnel large amounts of targeted traffic to your site or blog. Just make sure you have a well working site and fresh content or product.  People are usually intrigued when they see your vote or referral on social sites like Reddit or Digg. This will spark their interest in your site thus generating traffic that is targeted towards your site.  Now, if you have a great price or information that they like, you will get word of mouth referrals that can’t be quantified.  Actual referrals are the best method of any marketing.  Social bookmarking sites can be called as search engines of a different kind where people are looking around for targeted information or want something specific.  When your in a bookmarking site your basically in another community.  The major difference between Google or Bing and the social bookmarking sites is that these sites are driven by users and not controlled by the search engine bots or hired workers. An article, service or product is rated based on customer feedback, meaning people vote for articles they find useful, share it with others, and the new reader votes for it. In other words social sites are controlled by the community.

So if you’re going to utilize social bookmarking as a means of marketing your site, providing the proper information so that people find it interesting is crucial.  Remember, it’s all about the content and fresh content that people find interesting will bring them back for more. If you want visibility and you don’t have access for link building, social bookmarking must be part of your online marketing efforts.  If your goal is to be successful at bringing traffic in with social bookmarking, then you need to follow the proven guidelines that will make this happen for you. The first thing you need to do as you begin social bookmarking is to make sure the title you are using will attract the readers interest.  If the title or first line does not grab them, they won’t read it or click onto your article or post. Many quality articles go to waste and no one reads them because the title wasn’t enticing enough, which means this one factor can make or break your whole campaign.   This has been a popular topic amongst newspapers and publications since the early days of marketing. Once you have developed an eye-catching title, the next essential element is the article’s subject.

Along with your goal of directing traffic to your site, keeping visitor’s attention with informative content, will also be essential for a successful campaign. You want each article to have a summary, or intro, that is short and enticing as well. This will cause the reader to want to continue on to the main article. However, if a reader does continue on to the main article, it has to be just as appealing as the title and intro. Basically, create good content from the beginning to end.  If you don’t know how to you should consider hiring a content writer or freelance writer.  This is where your relevant content comes in, which should go with the title and has to flow well.  It is your content that makes people want to bookmark your page. If it’s something unique that they feel they can use later some time, they will definitely bookmark it. First and foremost, your bookmark’s title doesn’t need to match your article’s title.

There is more flexibility than that. In fact, you should try to keep it different and eye catching, unless you already have a good title on your website. It is your bookmarks title that will be the main reason people decide to click though or simply move on. You need your title to attract peoples attention enough that they decide to visit your site and read your article. Remember that being unique is the key to success here since you’re competing with thousands of sites that are also bookmarked. You also want to make sure that the description for your bookmark is good. The description is brief, but it should be used to enhance the hook, further engaging your target. You want to make sure that you don’t give away a whole summary here, but just some information that will seal the deal and convince the reader to click and read.

This strategy can work for driving traffic to not only articles but also to videos or blog posts. If you’re using social bookmarking for traffic on your blog, don’t make the mistake of using your blogs homepage as a bookmark, since it’s a common mistake. Don’t simply bookmark the main domain of your blog. By doing this, you are using up your one bookmark. It can also become very random. It is better that you bookmark the exact post you want people to read. Not only will users be more guided, but you will have a better understanding of which posts have attracted readers. Having this information at your disposal will allow you to tailor your content. Therefore, if you are using a blog post or video for your bookmark, remember to bookmark the exact URL, not the main domain. It is also important that you do more than market your site when you become a member of a social bookmarking site. You need to bookmark other peoples sites as well, if you want to get good results. It is crucial to vary your bookmarks. Become a relevant part of the social community and share good sites that people will find interesting or else you’ll end up looking like a spammer, which you don’t want to happen. Prevent becoming a spammer by looking for articles that are interesting and informative for you and others, give them back to the community, bookmark them, and let others share your find.

Related Blogs

GD Star Rating
loading...
GD Star Rating
loading...
  • Share/Bookmark

Social Marketing SEO

Social Marketing SEOSocial marketing is a big part of social networking and web marketing.  Besides creating a great website and loading it up with content you also have to keep social marketing in your mind.  Integrating your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with Social Marketing is easier than you might think.   As time goes by we all understand that social networking is becoming more and more relevant.  Facebook alone has 600 billion unique visitors per month.  That’s the most traffic any single site in whole gets from internet users and is by far the biggest draw online.  Facebook itself may as well be it’s own country in virtual sort of way.   If Social Marketing is a term that sounds complicated and intimidating, it can be greatly simplified and more easily understood if you consider that it is the oldest form of marketing around that has been given a new name.  It’s nothing new, just a form of marketing with a technology twist.

Simply put, Social Marketing is word-of-mouth-advertising accelerated and made much more accessible by technology through the use of blogs, forums, articles, inbound and outbound links, and social networking sites such as LinkedIn, MySpace, Digg, Flickr, Facebook, and others. All these social marketing methods create unique communities of people with common interests and give them the opportunity to interact, socialize, ask questions, share ideas, share pictures and videos, offer criticism, and get feedback from their friends and peers.

Here are some ideas that you can employ to integrate search engine optimization with Social Marketing strategies so your website gains the maximum benefit from these very dynamic marketing strategies:

Create a Community – Consider setting up forums on your website where your target audience can ask questions and get answers from other members or an expert from your company.  This is a great way to create user generated content (UGC) and allow people to search, create and interact with other members.  Communities and information shared in a referral manner can be the strongest lead generator with the lowest marketing expense to implement.  Make sure to moderate this forum.

Start a Blog – If you are an expert in your field or someone that is knowledgeable in your area of interest start a blog on your site with relevant, well-written posts providing topical information about your goods and services as well as links to related blogs and websites. Remember, content is king!  This gives your readers the information they’re looking for and provides great opportunities for quality inbound links as well.

Fresh Content – Keep your online community growing and engaged with fresh, dynamic content that always gives your readers something new to read and discuss.  Also remember that the major search engines will index the content of your site more often if you update it regularly.

Use Targeted Keywords and Phrases in your Titles and Content – Use the optimized keywords and phrases that you targeted in your initial strategy in the titles and content of your blog and forum posts. You don’t have to overdo it, just let them occur naturally by well written content and posts.

Provide Links to Popular Social Networking Sites – Search popular social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Digg, and others for fresh, relevant content to link to. Remember that these links don’t always have to be all about business. You can balance the serious links with lighter, funny content as well.

Subscribe to RSS Feeds – With your own research and recommendations from your Internet marketing consultant, find relevant RSS feeds to feature on your site which provide fresh content and give your viewers another reason to check your site often.

The most important part of integrating search engine optimization with Social Marketing is getting started and developing a plan but once these strategies are in place, you’ll be amazed by the new volume of traffic to your site.

Social marketing isn’t all that complicated.  If you network your business or service in person when you meet people, now start networking with your social networks in mind and create a site that allows users to see your work, read your content and an environment that educates and gets users to want to come back for.  Social marketing is one piece of the SEO puzzle and creating a great site that networks within your circle is a great step towards a successful social marketing SEO plan.

Related Blogs

GD Star Rating
loading...
GD Star Rating
loading...
  • Share/Bookmark

Top 5 Reasons Your Search Engine Positions May Drop!

As a test for the previous article I just wrote “5 Reasons Your Search Engine Rankings Can Drop!” ,  I am performing the one thing that I just instructed my users to stay away from!!!  Don’t change your permalink.  In efforts to test out this SEO theory I did just that, I changed my SEO URL title from:

“http://www.danielkogan.com/2010/05/27/5-reasons-your-search-engine-rankings-can-drop/ ”

To:

“http://www.danielkogan.com/5-reasons-your-search-engine-rankings-can-drop/”.

I personally believe that your URL should be as short as possible.  Since this website is fairly new I want to follow the same advise I am preaching to my SEO fans.  So if your starting your site off make sure that you use my second example if you can.  If not, I don’t think you have to worry about it or lose any sleep.  For me this is also somewhat of an SEO test.  Let’s see what happens.  About 1 hour after posting the original article I received a Google Alert that this article has been picked up by Google.  I was suprised how fast Google indexed it.  Now that it indexed the wrong URL I may lose out on the points it may have gotten me.  What I’m doing is making this article have the same link structure as the previous one so maybe I can save some of that juice.

An SEO can never rest and testing these SEO theories is part of the job.  If you’re looking for the original article click here: “5 Reasons Your Search Engine Rankings Can Drop!

Related Blogs

GD Star Rating
loading...
GD Star Rating
loading...
  • Share/Bookmark

5 Reasons Your Search Engine Rankings Can Drop!

1. You lose the fresh content bonus with search engines.

  • When you first write or post an original piece of content Google and other search engines give you a bonus towards your SEO score.  After a few weeks that point system drops out of your SEO ranking score.  To keep the score high you need to have links coming into your article from other sources that are relevant.

2. Your internal link structure changes in your website or blog.

  • Don’t change your links wants you post up your articles or pages.  Many bloggers often save their posts only to later come back and change their permalink structure.  Try and analyze the link structure you want before starting your website and once you create a link name keep it.  Don’t throw curve balls at search engines.  Keep it clean and keep your URL’s consistent.  Good SEO is consistent and clear SEO.

3. The link structure on sites that are linking to you changes.

  • Let’s say you get 5 links from 5 other bloggers around the web and your article or website is advertised on the other sites.  Search engines crawl those sites and give you points for relevant referrals from the link exchange.  The problem becomes when the following month or even days later those blogs change their front pages and your listing is now deeper in their site or gone?  The next time the search engines crawl those sites your points scale is lowered and the value is not what it was when you started.  A good way to confront this is to always work on getting more links coming into your articles and website.  Never stop, a good SEO expert never sleeps.

4. Duplicate [i.e., borrowed or stolen] content.

  • First off if you start stealing other peoples content search engines can frown upon this act and lower your ranking.  If you take someone else’s content you must reference that website.  This will not help or hurt your site.  If someone is stealing your content and doing a better job promoting their website then your doing promoting your own website search engines like Google make think that your the website that’s actually doing the stealing and consider your site as spam.  This can heavily lower your search engine rankings.  It’s hard to be a legit SEO!  If this happens document everything, screen shot everything and keep the original content with the dates created.  Try and content the offending site, send a seize and desist letter and contact Google or other search engine legal and spam departments.  Be ready for a battle.

5. Your site becomes stale.

  • How often are you adding content?  New products?  Reviews?  If you start slipping but your competition doesn’t then you have a problem.  Search engines like Google give you points on momentum, fresh content, links and change.  If you don’t change, you won’t add new added links.  It’s simple to be relevant and its even easier to become obsolete in the search engine world.  The only way to stay relevant is by constantly updating your content.

Find out other areas to avoid in search engine optimization by visiting us online. New SEO articles and posts regarding web marketing are updated daily.

Related Blogs

GD Star Rating
loading...
GD Star Rating
loading...
  • Share/Bookmark

Social Bookmarking

Social BookmarkingSocial Bookmarking is one of the many tools that should be used in your arsenal when practicing search engine optimization.  As you may have already realized, there are many pieces that go into search engine optimization and one SEO tactic can not be used alone.  Social bookmarking started in the mid 1990′s.  Basically social bookmarking is as it sounds, bookmarking a website or web page that you like in order for you to remember it for a later time.  One of the major benefits of social bookmarking online is sharing.  Once you bookmark your favorite site, page, article or topic you can add your comments or notes and share it with others searching for similar information.

What differs social bookmarking from search engines?  Social bookmarking is fully created by users, people, human beings…. people that are alive.  Search engines use algorithms.  The great thing about social bookmarking is that you get real people that have reviewed the content or website to stand for it’s validity.  It makes is almost as if it is a referral.  The concept of social bookmarking started as a great helper for those trying to cut out the bad results in their searches.  Once someone tags your site in a social bookmark, others see the bookmark and so do search engines.  This gives you another way of getting internal links.

Getting internal links via social bookmarking is another way to get inbound links to your website.  This is why social bookmarking is so popular.  Remember, the more inbound links crawlers see the more likely you’ll get top positions against your competitors.  The problem with social bookmarking is that so many SEO’s and search engine marketing experts started to abuse the system that it hurt the social bookmarking industry.  By creating many bookmarks, often twice and three times to the same site search engine experts and webmasters started to abuse social bookmarking websites.  Many social bookmarking sites are nothing more then spam because of search engine optimization abuse.   Many software companies created automated social bookmarking tools to automate the bookmarking process.  Letting users use automated social bookmarking software can be a bad idea.  Many “wanna be internet marketers” have no idea in the effects of just running SEO software.  Automated tools such as link submitters and social bookmarking software need to be handled by people that are professionals or at least by people that know what their doing.  You can’t just run a program and submit to hundreds of thousands of sites in one day and think your done.  In fact, by doing so you just hurt your own SEO efforts.  These days many of the social bookmarking websites online have moderators monitoring spam, automated tools and seo’s bookmarking self promotion.  Many of the best social bookmarking sites are well aware of the black hat tactics SEO’s and users try.

Check out what Wikipedia says about social bookmarking.

————————–

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren’t shared, merely bookmarks that reference them.

Descriptions may be added to these bookmarks in the form of metadata, so that other users may understand the content of the resource without first needing to download it for themselves. Such descriptions may be free text comments, votes in favor of or against its quality, or tags that collectively or collaboratively become a folksonomy. Folksonomy is also called social tagging, “the process by which many users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content”.[1]

In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine.

Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their bookmarks with informal tags instead of the traditional browser-based system of folders, although some services feature categories/folders or a combination of folders and tags. They also enable viewing bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of users who have bookmarked them. Some social bookmarking services also draw inferences from the relationship of tags to create clusters of tags or bookmarks.

Many social bookmarking services provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users.

As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation, and groups or other social network features.[2]

—————–  Click here to read more about social bookmarking from Wikipedia ————–

That makes sense right?  Basically what I said.  But here is a part that can’t be missed and must be understood otherwise you stand a chance of hurting your own search engine optimization efforts.

———-

Spam and corruption

Social bookmarking can also be susceptible to corruption and collusion.[19] Due to its popularity, some users have started considering it as a tool to use along with search engine optimization to make their website more visible. The more often a web page is submitted and tagged, the better chance it has of being found. Spammers have started bookmarking the same web page multiple times and/or tagging each page of their web site using a lot of popular tags, obliging developers to constantly adjust their security system to overcome abuses.[20]

——————

Social Bookmarking Instructions & Help Tips

If your about to utilize social bookmarking into your web marketing efforts make sure you understand what social bookmarking means.  If after reading this and getting yourself familiar with this method of search engine optimization and your still willing to handle this yourself here is what I suggest:

  • Submit to no more then 5 social bookmarking sites per day.
  • Never submit the same website twice.
  • Never submit the same content twice.
  • Never submit the same page twice.
  • Create a monthly schedule for your submissions.
  • Don’t create spam.  You will get flagged.
  • Watch the amounts of links you place in your post or article.
  • Watch out for self promotion.

Social bookmarking is for bookmarking items you think are cool, websites that others would want to check out.  It’s not a way for self promotion or sales so balance your work.  Much of social bookmarking is in original content.  If your site has a constant flow of original content in a form of articles or blog material, submit that manually.  Do not use automated tools to submit to social bookmarking sites.  Start slow.  Make sure to tag your website in Google’s alert system and watch your links grow.  This is a slow and tedious process but if done right, your website will benefit from social bookmarking as part of your overall search engine optimization efforts.

Related Blogs

GD Star Rating
loading...
GD Star Rating
loading...
  • Share/Bookmark

Search engine optimization sucks !

To test a theory I have with search engine optimization I have to sometimes experiment with posts. After I examine my theory and my results I will further discuss why I made a statement “search engine optimization sucks” and why seo may suck.

I don’t really think search engine optimization sucks or that its bad in anyway but curiosity is part of seo and exploring how Google and Bing filter results will be interesting. Assuming my test will work lets see how the search engines pick up this post.

In a way this is also a marketing experiment within the WordPress system for the many seo tools developed to help users. I’m interested in seeing the optimized results that come up after going through a few various search engine optimization tools.

In a few weeks we will further analyze this test and I will further discuss the purpose.







Related Blogs

    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    • Share/Bookmark

    Web Marketing Strategy

    Web Marketing Strategy | Philadelphia Web Marketing

    Building a successful website is step one of your online journey. One of the more important steps of marketing is building a web marketing strategy. Your online web marketing strategy can make or break you. A successful web marketing strategy includes SEO, SEM, PPC, Social Bookmarking, Social Media and more. But before you can tackle on all these different challenges you need to build a web strategy and online marketing plan.

    Building Your Online Web Marketing Strategy Road Map

    Anytime I tackle on a new SEO project I like to build myself a road map that clearly identifies what I’m targeting. Then I break the road map down into pieces. We can not start a web marketing strategy doing everything and more at the same time. Most likely your building your marketing plans from scratch and on your own. You’re probably the one that will also execute this online strategy after you set it in motion. Sorry to say but that means you have a ton of work ahead of you.

    The first step is to focus on what you want to achieve. The web marketing road map you build is a high level view of your tasks and future plans. I’m not talking about keyword selection or website structure. I’m talking about something that outlines your scope of work towards actual marketing efforts. Focus on your steps in a high level. Since I’ve created this website I can use it as an example and show you what my online web marketing road map would look like. Take a look at this diagram:
    Web Marketing Strategy

    The above road map represents the steps that I will take in my marketing path. Each step is numbered and I will follow each in sequential order. This road map will help me focus on the important marketing steps. Without it I may drive off course and be easily distracted by tons of other web marketing opportunities. Time frames may vary for each step but usually results are what drive me to move on towards the next steps. Success doesn’t happen overnight with SEO and web marketing. If anything, SEO and web marketing efforts can take months to show the fruits of your hard work. Positions are earned and top results take hard work and time.

    One of my first steps will be to create content so that when users come to my site, there is something there for them to read. This content will also serve as a great tool to attract search engines and their spiders. Remember, content is king and I have a whole section dedicated towards web content. After I create content and make the website usable, I will then start promoting to the local directories. Local directories are usually free and since I have a small budget I don’t want to over spend from the beginning. I would rather slowly start my web marketing and search engine optimization efforts rather then go crazy not knowing what I’m doing.

    Monitoring Your Online Marketing Progress

    After my local submissions I would then start ranking my progress and see whether or not my efforts have landed me any positions or entry into the major search engines. There are many free ranking tools that can be found online or contact me and I will run you one at no cost. Recently I found that I was listed in the #5 position in Google for the term “Philadelphia SEO expert”. I have a ranking report with about 10 other positions I have already achieved in the major search engines that I will share this week. I believe this was achieved by two simple steps, content and local submissions. After the local engines I would then target the national directories such as Yahoo and DMOZ. I will get more into that in another article.

    The steps go on and on. Imagine trying to implement all your web marketing strategy steps at once? You can’t and if you try you will most likely fail. Building a successful road map will help you in your web marketing efforts and your overall search engine optimization and online marketing. Without a clear focus you can drive off the path and your website will be the one that loses the benefit.

    Whether your building your web marketing skills towards self implementation or you need help with your web marketing strategy, use this SEO Blog for free web marketing ideas, tools, search engine optimization tips and advice.

    If all this is too much for you and you rather someone else handle the project for you, please contact me for further assistance. I’m helping customers with their online marketing and SEO services across the globe and in the local Philadelphia area.


    Related Blogs

    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    • Share/Bookmark

    Are You Looking For SEM Services?

    SEM Services | Philadelphia SEM
    SEM or “Search Engine Marketing” is another name that is known in the industry that fits under Web Marketing. SEM is part of the web marketing puzzle and can not be tackled alone. Are you looking for SEM services? There is often confusion between SEM and SEO. Are these the same? Depending on who you ask you may get a different answer. Search engine marketing and search engine optimization is essentially the same in my book. However, some experts consider SEM a form of paid marketing including pay per click (PPC), paid placement and paid inclusion.

    SEM is essentially a form of search engine optimization with the ultimate goal of increasing visibility in the search engine results page or commonly referenced as (SERPs). There’s a great definition of SEM and examples of search engine marketing in Wikipedia.

    Did you find this website by searching google for “SEM services” or if your local did you use a phrase like “Philadelphia SEM” ? Whether your looking for SEM or SEO services, essentially they are the same. Your basically looking to add visibility to your website and increase your overall traffic. If your looking for SEM services that include paid inclusion or pay per click then you came to the right place. I created a separate article on pay per click that you can read. Before getting into paid inclusions you should figure out what phase your in with your project. I can only refer customers to use PPC services when fully ready.

    Related Blogs

    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    • Share/Bookmark

    Free SEO Ranking Report

    Get a free SEO ranking report. Where does your website rank on the major search engines? Fill out the form below and a search engine marketing expert will conduct a website analysis for your website, and provide you with a complimentary report that shows you the visibility of your site. How do you rank?

    Important notice about SEO ranking reports: Ranking reports don’t mean nearly as much as they used to because of the importance and effects of local search and the personalization of search engines. What I see from my IP address may be significantly different from what you see. There is much more to search engine optimization than simple ranking reports but ranking reports can still give you a great overall general view of your search engine positions.

    Related Blogs

    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    • Share/Bookmark

    SEO Progress & Results

    SEO Progress & Results

    SEO Progress & Results

    Today a new section was added in order to keep track of the search engine optimization progress that is achieved through the SEO challenge. We just started this project April 19th 2010 so the initial screen shots are examples of our beginning. There is a long road ahead but one that we will document. Search engine optimization takes time and no effort is done overnight when it comes to web marketing. The days of the old when keyword stuffing was enough to get top SEO results are long behind us. SEO now means many things and is part of a formula within web marketing as a whole.

    Follow this SEO blog and get ready to learn, get advice and receive direction towards your search engine optimization efforts. Every few weeks I will post up the results in the SEO progress area of this website. Watch and see how each step gets us closer to our web marketing goal.

    Related Blogs

    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    • Share/Bookmark