There are so many tools for SEO online and websites that offer these tools to run reports and analyse websites for SEO purposes. But which tools and websites do you choose? Here is a list of the top 5 online tools that you can use to analyse your website using your browser.

1 Adwords Keyword tool

This is a great tool for keyword research showing search volume, trends and competition. This tool is made for PPC but the keywords have a lot of crossover and the search volume and trends will be the same for SEO as they are for PPC. The competition stat will be a good indicator of market competition for SEO results. This tool also suggests new keywords that you may not have thought of. This tool uses keywords you enter to generate keywords and stats or it can pull them from a websites URL. This tool is a must for anybody that participates in SEO.

2 Backlinkwatch

Backlinkwatch is a tool that shows all websites linking to a URL that you enter. This is a great tool for analysis of your websites link portfolio. It gives anchor text for the links, out bound link numbers for the pages you have links on and also informs you if the links are no followed. This tool is also great for competitor research as you can analyse your competitions link portfolio and see where they are getting most of their links and assess if it is worth competing in that area.

3 Header check

this tool checks web pages and gives the header status that they return. This is a good tool to use if you want to check your search friendly redirects or to check if a page is giving a 404 error. If your headers are temporary then the links for the original page will stay pointing to that page but if you change your redirect to a search friendly redirect or a 301 status then all the value from the original page will be passed on to the new page along with the links.

4 Spider simulator

This tool shows you how search engines see your website. This can be used to see if your keywords are showing and also if search engines can follow your links. This tool also shows your meta description which has a big influence on your click through rates from the search results pages. If you have a description meta tag and it does not show here then there is probably a problem with your source code.

5 Webpagetest

This is a new tool to me, but with Google stating that page load speed is going to be a factor for rankings in 2010 this tool seems like a good tool to mention. This tool breaks down each part of your pages and shows how long this part takes to load. This tool helps identify areas of code that are slowing down your load speed. You can then work on decreasing the time that it takes to load that part of your page code.

If you can think of any tools that I have not included and think that they should be included please mention them in the comments.

Optimizing your blog for the search engines is crucial and very important! There are so many different blogs out there on the net that you’ll quickly sink to the bottom if you don’t optimize. Follow these seven tips below and you’ll be well on your way to high rankings.

#1 – Create the Right Permalink Structure

The permalinks WordPress uses by default are not search engine friendly. You can make this simple change by inserting %postname% instead of the default that is already there. This will successfully create URL’s that include your post name which should include your targeted keywords.

#2 – Install All in One SEO Plugin

This is a must-have plugin which allows you to specify a title, description, and the keywords for the search engines. It can really help you boost up and reach the top of the listings, whereas the standard WP installation can fall short.

#3 – Install Related Posts Plugin

Search engines love it when they get content pages that are interlinked. It also works very well for the search engines. It will automatically include links to other posts that are similar. Very convenient!

#4 – Research your Keywords

When people search, they search by keyword. It is vital that you know what these keywords are if you want to rank at the top of the search engines. Your posts should be centered around these keywords.

#5 – Include Your Keywords in the Title

In the title of your blog you need to include your main keyword. Also, include your main keyword and select others in the titles of your posts and sprinkle throughout your pages.

#6 – Make Your Blog Easy to Navigate

Easy navigation is essential for your guests and the search engines as it makes it easier for the guests. That means including your blog’s categories, recent posts (to make sure they get indexed) and pages. Easy navigation is also part of choosing a good design.

#7 – Expand the Ping List

When you make a new blog post WordPress will “ping” the blog search engines. This alerts them that content on your site has changed and ready for guests to view. This can help you get indexed fast so you can start making money even faster. Do a Google search to find an expanded ping list you can include in your wp-admin so you make sure you get as many of these sites to update you as possible.

Using these seven plugins will make your job of ranking highly in the search engines easier than ever. If you’re new to blogging with WordPress then these terms may seem incredibly strange to you right now. As you study them and go over them a couple times, put them into action and it will start to feel like second nature!

About the Author

www.turnblogstocash.com

Are you constantly blogging but the numbers you see in your traffic logs are embarrassingly low? It can be maddening to check your stats and realize that no one is actually stopping by. Don’t give up yet, because there are four great ways you can get traffic fast.

Traffic Tip #1: Do Your Keyword Research

Many bloggers make the mistake of thinking they can just throw some posts up there and expect to get traffic. There is a lot more to it than that! You need to make sure you are looking at the keyword data to find terms that are getting a lot of searches. Ideally, you want these terms to have low competition so it’s easier for you to rank. Once you start basing your posts around these kinds of keywords you should find that you’re getting a lot more traffic.

Traffic Tip #2: Write Enticing Articles Off-Site

Submitting to article directories isn’t just a good way to get backlinks to your site, it’s also a great way to get readers! Sites like EzineArticles.com have their own readership of people who are looking for the exact topic you’re blogging about. If you write a compelling article that leads into your resource box, people will be enticed to visit your blog.

Traffic Tip #3: Give People a Reason to Come Back

Getting traffic in the first place is one thing, but what you want to do as a blogger is have them coming back over and over again. The best way to do this is to create special offers or exciting events. For example, you can give away a prize each week to the new people who subscribed to your list or your feed. You can also run a contest for people who leave answers as comments on your blog posts. Make your blog a happening place to be and people will want to visit often and tell their friends.

Traffic Tip #4: Create Linkbait

Linkbait is when you write a blog post that is so exciting or controversial it gets people to come to your blog, comment, and link to the post. You may share some shocking news or offer an opinion you know is bound to stir people’s emotions. You do need to have thick skin when you write linkbait! Don’t expect everyone to agree with your opinion.

An example of linkbait is going the opposite way everyone else goes. For instance, imagine you have an electronics blog and you decide to review the iPhone. After reviewing the product you decide you don’t like it. You then write to tell your readers why. Since this was a product everyone was gaga over when it first came out the chances are good you would have gotten a strong reaction right off the bat.

There you have it! These are four solid ways you can start to increase the traffic on your blog as soon as possible. When you put these methods to work you’ll realize that the secrets to getting great traffic were in front of you the whole time.

About the Author
www.turnblogstocash.com

By following this process you can make your website an attractive place where people come and find goods and services offered by you. Nowadays the need for these services has developed into an entire industry of individuals and companies offering website owners services they claim will get them higher search engine ranking. You will find many of these come with quite a hefty price tag. Many website owners really cannot afford to pay this price tag.

First gain an understanding:

It is really important that you gain a basic understanding of what SEO really is so you will be able to understand it fully before you decide to pay for an online training course. It will be very difficult to understand SEO without basic understanding of all the working intricacies. First you need to understand why it is necessary to learn search engine optimization and to gain knowledge about the history of the techniques and how they have evolved. It is very important to understand that what search engine page ranking is and why it is so important when conducting online commerce in today’s market.

Once you gained basic understanding, you’ll have a good foundation stone when enrolling in an online search engine optimization training course.

Selection of the correct keywords:

The fundamental and most important aspect is selection of keywords while using search engine positioning techniques. It is advisable that you select the correct keywords that will attract viewers to your website. A good SEO training program will familiarize user with a variety of methods that will help selecting the best and most effective keywords.

Learning to select the correct keywords includes understanding all the functions that a search engine conducts.

Understand the importance of the content:

Content writing is a separate area where you need to become familiar to succeed using SEO techniques. However, it is matter of interest as this is subject matter that can be included in an entirely separate course. Although for effectively using SEO techniques understanding the importance of quality content is very important, all you need to know is that it is important aspect involved.

Draw traffic towards your website:

This is the primary goal for any employment of SEO techniques. As an owner of the website you believe that you have marketable products and services but all you need is someone to promote it. You should understand how links will provide you necessary traffic to help you become successful.

Copyright©2010

SPINX is a leading Website Design Los Angeles Company offering services like Website Marketing Los Angeles, Website Design Bay Area, Website Design Beverly Hills & also across the globe.

There are a number of SEO marketing strategies. Organic SEO is one of the most popular and reliable methods which is used to enable any website to rank in the Search Engine. In fact Search Engine Optimization methods can be classified into two phrases- Off page optimization and on-page optimization. With organic SEO tactics websites can be optimized. It helps the sites to gain better position in the Search Engine, thus increasing your chances of alluring more and more customers. So make sure your website seo package focuses on organic seo.

Now let us discuss in detail seo packages and what are the components that should consist of. On-page Optimization actually deals with the SEO strategies (organic) that are employed on the web pages to optimize it. Many companies are using these strategies to get success in their business and you need to select an affordable seo company to do this work for you. They understand the benefits of organic SEO. It is not as straightforward as the other strands of internet marketing; nonetheless it is the perfect starting point for any kind of business.

Organic Search engine optimization or Organic Search engine Optimization requires a multi level approach and so you need to select the best los angeles seo company to do this work for you. Such companies need to know both on page and off page optimization tactics to optimize the site. Off-page optimization deals with the tactics that are employed off the website page to optimize it. Keep in mind a basic fact -Search engine optimization organizations falls in one of two groups- White Hat search engine companies and Black Hat search engine companies. A White Hat SEO organization will abide by the terms of services of the main search engines and will use content-based approach. On the other hand, Black Hat SEO organizations violate the terms of service and use technology driven approach.

To be more pragmatic Google needs its search results and it ensures that these results are relevant to its users. Thus content based white hat approach or an organic seo approach will help the website in the long run. So make sure that your Los Angeles seo company does not employ any black hat techniques. Some of the reputed search engines, like Yahoo, Google and MSN follow their own set of regulations. It is called as search engine compliancy. They use it to determine the relevancy of websites.

In organic Search Engine Optimization, simple, small changes can have a great impact on your traffic. Organic Search engine optimization can really prove to be advantageous. Another great benefit of organic Search Engine is that is not hampered by ad business. To make your website stand in a better position in the search engine, you need to apply these website seo strategies. So make sure that your partner with an expert – the best la seo company.

The author of this article has expertise in affordable seo. The articles on seo packages reveals the author’s knowledge on the same. The author has written many articles on los angeles seo as well.

Social media and conversation marketing have the potential for transforming brands like no other communication methodology ever employed. The reason? It transforms the fundamental nature of the traditional brand/customer relationship. Historically, companies have used traditional media to advertise in a uni-directional way. It used to be all about broadcasting a message – with feedback loops tied chiefly to the ultimate purchase of a company’s product – or worse, no purchase at all.

Thanks in part to the transformative impact of online social media, that brand/customer relationship is experiencing a sea-change.. As increasingly informed and savvy consumers begin to demand more transparency and honesty from businesses they support, companies are no longer able to hide behind an ability to fully control the message. Steadily, businesses are now leveraging social media as both an offensive and defensive means to forge new and solidify existing relationships while building trust through transparency. The most successful of these organizations are now doing much more than simply monitoring the consumer pulse… they are engaging and interacting on a real-time basis with existing and potential customers, throughout the entire buying cycle.

In some respects, today’s businesses face the same challenges that early marketers experienced with emerging print and electronic advertising mediums, the most important of which is building meaningful and lasting relationships with new and existing customers. The key difference this time around is that successful marketing efforts increasingly hinge on the ability to reciprocate, in authentic ways and real-time ways, with a growing and increasingly sophisticated online consumer audience.

That’s why, planning for consumer engagement through social media is an increasingly central consideration for today’s business owners!

However, the pitfalls of a poorly or ill-conceived plan are myriad, and social media and conversation marketing by themselves are only a part of an integrated marketing solution. Although it’s important to stress the value of building relationships through social media, it’s incredibly difficult to achieve success when you’re developing those relationships in an unstructured fashion.

Thus, social media is not to be performed in a haphazard way. Rather, it works best when applied in a logical sequence using a more structured approach. The mistake that most often leads to frustration and ultimately, abandonment, is not having a plan of attack!

Instead of thinking of social media as a freestanding tactic, first consider how you can add social media components into your existing marketing plan. Before you begin any social media campaign, you should think about incorporating these three elements specific to these marketing channels:

1. Know what you don’t know. 2. Determine how much time you have to commit to a social media campaign 3. Understand your audience objectives within each social network 4. Dovetailing social media objectives with where your customers “live”

Know What You Don’t Know

Social media and conversation marketing are not ends unto themselves… like traditional marketing, they are simply tools, albeit transformative tools, to building brand, market affinity and sales. And while it may be too much to expect even the wisest “old dogs” to learn to master all the nuances of these “new tricks”, true wisdom stems from surrounding yourself with people who get it. Don’t let fear control, instead become intellectually engaged in ways that leverages your knowledge of your core business, customer and products and work with teams who can help convert your vision into the social media and conversion marketing space.

Social Media Time Commitment

It’s essential to understand how much time you have to devote to social media. The online world is a vastly different place than the traditional advertising space largely due to the lightning fast and highly reciprocal communications the web presents. In terms of product marketing, people now have the ability to share experiences, provide recommendations and promote products and services with speeds unmatched in other forms of media. Positive experiences, as well as bad ones, are shared easily and can make their way through the online landscape with an immediacy never before experienced.

As a result, dipping a tentative toe in social media waters without knowing how to swim (or at least tread water) is a prescription for looking at the sky from the bottom of a pool. Nor is it right to spend time developing valuable online relationships, only to appear and disappear like a social media ninja. The best results are often achieved with steady participation, constant communication and engaging interaction with your audience. People will want to hear what you have to say as long as it provides real value to the community.

But note, online communities can spot an online poacher from a mile away! Savvy users of social media know what this term means but for those of you who don’t, online poachers are only there for one thing: to use social media merely as a platform to broadcast their marketing messages in much the same manner as they would with traditional media. Don’t fall into this trap. Make sure that you are prepared to get involved in more than a one way communication.

Ultimately, the only way to succeed is to make time and commit to an on-going online relationship campaign. Know that once you decide to engage your customers in the virtual world, there should be no turning back.

Understanding Audience Objectives Within Each Social Network:

What is the audience objective within each social network? The great thing about social networks is the ability to pinpoint with precision special interest groups that dovetail nicely with your company’s mission. But beware the trap of hitting the “right” audience with the “wrong” message.

For example, professional networks like LinkedIn are not really the best place to deliver your sales pitch as they often fall on deaf ears. For instance, if your company sells women’s high fashion clothing, you’ll likely miss your mark with a buy now sales pitch on the 1,550+ entertainment groups found on LinkedIn. Here, you’ll be better served offering helpful content relating more to industry news, trends, jobs and advice. On the flip side, Facebook’s 100,000+ entertainment groups offer a tremendous opportunity to find and interact with audiences that may already be talking about your products. This may sound like marketing 101 stuff but no social media plan should be undertaken without understanding network- specific audience objectives.

Dovetailing Social Media Objectives with Where Your Customers “Live”

This said, where do you go online to find that audience? Social networks, much like traditional marketing channels, do tend to cater to specific audiences. However, unlike offline marketing mediums, social networks require companies to engage with consumers on their own terms. Therefore, it’s important to do some research to find out which social networks are right for your business’ message.

At a high level, social networks like LinkedIn focus more on professionals while Faceook and MySpace are more informal and cater to X and Y gen audiences alike. But the real value (and opportunity) with sites like LinkedIn and Facebook rests in the ability to get involved with a variety of mini networks such as Groups, Pages and Causes.

Here, businesses can find and interact with consumers in a highly relevant setting. Say your company sells high performance mountain bikes. There are currently an amazing number of Facebook Groups (3,600) devoted to mountain biking and over 35 on LinkedIn! Your company’s target audience is here and might already be talking about your products so why not join in the conversation?

Facebook allows companies to create a free Fan Page where your product evangelists can “Become a Fan” and get breaking news, tips and even special Fan discount offers. In addition, Fan Pages can be marketed to other Facebook users much like the way Google’s AdWords paid search service works. If your company doesn’t already have a Facebook Fan Page, it is highly recommended to start one now.

The internet marketing era may have only come about in the decade or so but the rate of evolution is, to put it mildly, a revolution. We haven’t yet reached the pinnacle nor can anyone say for sure where social media will be or what role it will play in business communications in the coming years but one thing is certain, having the right plan and committing to its proper execution will place your company at the forefront of the new age of digital communications.

Jim Gibson is the Publisher of Online Media Today, the business owners magazine for online marketing. Jim is also a principal at GibSEM Group, a boutique internet marketing firm located in Los Angeles, CA.

Find us online:

http://www.youtube.com/Onlinemediatoday
http://www.facebook.com/Onlinemediatoday

Before you can put any of these rules to use, you may want to understand a little more about the differences between social media marketing and social media optimization.

SMM = Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is strategically using the big social sites to spread your brand name or drive traffic back to your web presence.

SMO = Social Media Optimization

Social Media Optimization is adding key elements to your websites or content that make them easy to spread across the big social sites.

Rohit Bhargava Developed Social Media Optimization Rules 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

1. Increase your linkability

Linkability is the willingness of other websites or articles to link back to your site. One way to increase your natural Google listing is to increase how many authority sites link to you, so to increase your linkability with social media optimization is to make your site more informative and useful to others. You can do this in many ways; blog, white papers, press releases, keyword targeted articles, RSS feeds, etc. This is the most important step in Social Media Optimization and should be your first priority.

2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy

The act of tagging is to bookmark the website to social bookmarking websites. For example, if you like the content or services provided at a website you tag it. This will show others that you approve of this site and they will check it out, making viral traffic. To include social media optimization tagging on your site, you can add tagging links such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Technorati, etc. Also, add the tagging links to other pages in your site (not just the homepage) and when visitors click the tag button make sure that there is a suggestion box to help your visitor list a relevant tag and notes.

3. Reward inbound links

As I mentioned before one way to increase your natural listing with Google using social media optimization is to get more back links. You can do this by rewarding people/websites that link to you (inbound links). Inbound links are links that send people to your site from somewhere else. One way to reward people for linking to your site is to have a “Recently Linked” that lists all of the websites that have linked to you.

4. Help your content travel

Social media optimization focuses on providing useful content to your market. When you publish content such as an article, video, or audio file you must help it reach as many people on the web as possible. You can do this by submitting to relevant high traffic websites. When the word gets out about your great content (no matter what format) you’ll receive backlinks to your site.

5. Encourage the mashup

To mash up is to use two websites content and mash them together. For example, Youtube makes it easy to mash their content (videos) onto your site. In addition, because it is so easy you have added a video to your site that has a Youtube logo on the video as well as a link back to you tube. So to encourage a mashup with social media optimization is to make it easy for other websites to use your content and reference it to drive traffic back to your site.

Jeremiah Owyang Developed Social Media Optimization Rules 6 and 7

6. Be a User Resource, even if it doesn’t help you.

One thing all visitors appreciate is honesty. With social media optimization you should include links to other websites that will help your visitor reach their goal or find the information they want. Do this, even when it doesn’t benefit you. By linking to competitors or information not created by you, you reap the benefits of having the all inclusive information on a particular topic. In the end, more people will link to you because you have lumped all information (or links) on a topic on one location.

7. Reward helpful and valuable users

Valuable users are your best friends. A valuable user can be determined in many ways; they may send traffic to your site, add valuable content to your site, or assist visitors at your site. No matter what their doing, if it benefits you, your site, or your service you need to reward them. This could be by sending a personal message thanking them for their dedication. Other ways to reward your valuable users is to create reward systems, advertise for them or promote their efforts on your homepage.

Cameron Olthuis Developed Social Media Optimization Rules 8, 9, 10, and 11

8. Participate

With Social Media Optimization you can participate by joining on the conversation about your topic (or targeted keyword). Simply posting articles and sharing content isn’t going to keep the buzz going. You should continue to share information on other websites. This participation will share your knowledge with more people. One way to do this is to find people that are blogging on your topic and to give input on the conversation. Also, participate in forums or other social groups that are discussing your topic. Read comments on your articles, videos, and audios and respond to them.

9. Know how to target your audience

Social media marketing is about sharing content/information. Not everyone is interested in your topic, so be sure to do your marketing research and post your information and knowledge where it will be understood and appreciated.

10. Create content

Content is considered to be any form on information that benefits a visitor. Content can be a white paper, article, video, audio, widget, the list goes on. Your job is to find a piece of content that will spark interest in visitors. No matter what market you enter there is always a form of content that they will share with others. Find out what it is and give it to them. This will in turn have them coming back for more useful content. If this happens, then you know that your social media optimization is successful.

11. Be real

Internet users are searching the web for specific content. If you are providing content that links back to a website, be sure that the website is relevant. You will not be rewarded for coaxing a visitor to a site that has nothing to do with the content they just read (or watched depending on the type of content you provided).

Loren Baker developed Social Media Optimization Rules 12 and 13

12. Don’t forget your roots, be humble

It’s easy to let popularity get to your head. When you become the shining star in your market be sure to recognize those that helped you get to the front of the pack. (this ties into #7 a little)

13. Don’t be afraid to try new things, stay fresh.

Any one on the internet knows how quickly things change. Keep up with new media content, new types of websites, and new interests in your market. By staying on top of new information you can maintain top rankings.

Lee Odden developed Social Media Optimization Rules 14, 15 and 16

14. Develop a Social Media Optimization strategy

Social Media serves multiple purposes. You need to identify what your purpose is and then publish content that will promote that purpose. Some purposes for Social Media Optimization include: branding, reputation, charity, increase traffic, build reputation, increase sales, credibility, etc. Make sure that as you develop content that you are publishing and creating with that purpose in mind.

15. Choose your SMO tactics wisely.

Of all the content available on the web only about 10% of people on the web are content creators. The other 90% are consumers and are willing to share your content. Make your content easy to consume and spread. Also be sure to create content that will have the most impact on your original purpose (which could be any of the following: branding, reputation, charity, increase traffic, build reputation, increase sales, credibility, etc).

16. Make Social Media Optimization – SMO part of your process and best practices.

We all know that there are specific Search engine optimization tactics that every website should include. Just as you include keywords in your title tags and keywords in your H1 tag, you should find ways to include social media optimization aspects into the building of your website. This can be small details like including social bookmark tags on your site or encouraging incoming links with the “recently Linked” list I covered in #3.

17. Don’t be afraid to let go of a message or idea and let others own it.

Finally, when you create a movement, spark and idea, or develop a new topic don’t be afraid to let others run with it. Collaboration is key. Others can improve upon your original idea and give you credit for the start. Be sure to give credit where it’s due.

Justin Brooke started with just a $2/day marketing budget and grew his business past 6 figures in just 1 year. At just 25 years old he has been Vice President of a multi-million dollar company and nominated “Best Marketer of 2007″ by the American Business Awards. Justin’s award winning social media optimization company wants to handle your social media marketing needs.

Introduction

This article is intended to be a very straightforward guide to Social Media and everything that Social Media encompasses including blogs, social networks and forums etc. It is intended to introduce both newcomers and perhaps even some more experienced people to the world of social media.

So, what is Social Media?

So, what is this social media that has the Internet buzzing with excitement? Well, Wikipedia (an interesting form of social media in itself) describes it as:

“information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies that is intended to facilitate communications, influence and interaction with peers and with public audiences, typically via the Internet and mobile communications networks.”

This can encompass not just text and information based services like blogs etc, it can also contain image and video based services such as Flickr and YouTube for example.

Social media instigates a sense of community, making users feel connected with each other through participation and communication via many forms of media. Technorati, a blog submission service, has over 133 million blogs indexed, displaying the staggering rise in popularity of people wanting to be heard and connect to each other.

Social Media and your Business

Social media can benefit any type of business and if approached correctly, can help build relationships with consumers and other companies through networking and raised awareness of your service.

With social media you can easily speak directly to your customers, using Twitter to gather feedback on customer satisfaction, raising awareness of a recently launched product through Digg or using YouTube to promote your move into a new office location for example.

An example of a company using social media in a great way is Starbucks. Starbucks created a whole new website and blog centred around customer suggestions for their service. A user would go onto the website and suggest a way Starbucks could improve, everyone registered on the website would then vote their favorite ideas and then Starbucks would post on their blog regarding which ideas they liked and how they would be actually implemented into the Starbucks service.

Companies are always thinking of better ways to run there service, social media gave Starbucks a way to connect with millions of existing customers and gave those customers an opportunity to build on the Starbucks service in a way only they could know how.

Burger King launched a Facebook application which encouraged users to ‘sacrifice’ 10 of their facebook friends in return for a free Whopper burger. It was taken down by Facebook not long after launch citing privacy concerns, however in the relatively short space of time the application was live, it gathered over 20,000 users and consequently over 200,000 friends were sacrificed in the name of free burgers. This social media example was well built, was easy to share and gave the user the incentive to network with friends which made it very popular in the short space of time it was available.

These are only two examples of successful social media solutions by companies on the Internet, companies like Sun, Ford, Dell and IBM are all currently reaping the benefits of using blogs, twitter accounts, Facebook pages and other social media tools to connect with customers and make there companies more transparent to consumers. Social media, blogs especially, aren’t going to disappear overnight. They now act as invaluable customer service methods with the ability to conduct informal discussion with your customers and let them get to know more about you and your company in an inexpensive way.

Establishing a social media presence for your company gives you the ability to reach potentially millions of new customers through Facebook, Twitter, Digg etc, many of which may have been unreachable without a presence on these networks. Having profiles on the various social networks gives you the maximum potential to raise awareness of your brand, gain more visitors to your website and the capacity to convert those targeted visitors to customers.

Social Media in Numbers

2,000,000,000

searches through the Google search engine every day

1,360,652,987

tweets on Twitter as of March 2009

700,000,000

photos added to Facebook every month

900,000

blog posts every 24 hours

38,040

diggs the most popular bookmark on Digg has received in the last 12 months

412.3

years it would take to watch all of YouTube’s content as of March 2008

13

hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute

Social Media Forms

Although social media can come in many forms, it has its main ones:

Blogs

The most well known of ‘obvious’ social media forms. Blogs act as a frequently updated hub of contextual information where users can get involved and give their input through comments.

Forums

The oldest form of social media, in use before the term ‘social media’ was made popular. Internet forums act as areas for online discussion, usually centered around certain topics.

Content Communities

Content communities differ from usual forms of social media in that they allow people to share and use particular kinds of content that blogs and forums don’t fully concentrate upon such as images (see Flickr), interesting bookmarks (see Digg and del.icio.us) and of course video (see YouTube).

Micro-blogging

A relevant newcomer in the social media world. Micro-blogging combines blogging and social networking in that it allows people to update small amounts of content online through web-based, desktop and also mobile clients (see Twitter).

Social Networks

Social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo etc allow the easy creation of personalised web page accounts that facilitates communication between users.

The Distribution of Social Media

People only have a certain amount of time to check their favorite websites, this mightn’t even include blogs or social networks. Couple this with the fact that people seem to be working longer hours than ever these days and also using blackberrys and iPhones to work away from the office, and you’re faced with a daunting task of attracting people to your blog or website.

One remedy to this has been the introduction of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. RSS feeds allow a user to effectively ‘subscribe’ to a website or blog, meaning they are notified through a newsreader when new content is available.

RSS saves people a lot of time when reading blogs and website updates, meaning communities can grow and become more valuable to both the user and author saving both parties time and money.

Social Networks

Joining a social network usually involves creating your own web page with information about yourself, be it personal, professional or otherwise and you then connect with other people on that network.

Although most of these networks are relatively young in their age, a selection of them are very popular and have changed the shape of the Internet for the near future at the very least.

MySpace

After launching in August 2003, MySpace became the most popular social networking website in the United States in mid 2006, attracting well over 100million account holders.

MySpace has largely built it’s popularity based upon its comprehensive music service where bands can upload tracks directly to their profile for fans to listen to, even launching it’s own record label to release music from MySpace upon.

Bebo

Bebo is a popular social networking tool with more emphasis on the younger user than its competitors. It is also geared towards colleges, schools and other educational institutes which is where Bebo has found it’s niche. It was purchased by AOL in early 2008 for over £400million.

Facebook

First available to University students, facebook was opened up to the public (people over the age of 13) in 2006 and it’s userbase has skyrocketed ever since.

The service allows you to join networks and groups of organisations, sports teams, location specific groups etc and also offers developers the chance to write applications for the service at no charge

Facbook currently has over 235million account users.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has it’s own niche in the social networking world in that it is targeted solely toward the working professional.

LinkedIn allows you to create your own career profile and network with past and present workmates and is mainly used for career-orientated networking and job / project searches.

LinkedIn has approximately 40million users.

Friends Reunited

Friends reunited is a social network based upon the theme of reuniting and connecting with former (and current) classmates. It is identified as the first social network to achieve prominence in Britain, surviving the dotcom bust.

Blogs

A blog (standing for web-log) is a type of website maintained by an individual or company that is commonly updated with news on latest events, opinions, reviews and any other material the author deems worth of publishing.

With recent developments in blog hosting technology, it’s possible for anyone with a basic knowledge of the internet to create and run their own blog using platforms such as WordPress and blogger.

Topics

The reason blogs are so popular on the Internet is because they act as a hub of information for any given topic. This can include website design articles (see a list apart), celebrity news (see TMZ), politics (see Huffington Post) and technology news (see techcrunch).

Although some blogs contain posts around a number of topics, the most popular ones have a defined theme and user base.

Comments

Almost all blogs have a comments structure in place allowing readers to submit their views on that blog or article. Comments act as a networking tool in itself, with many people growing the reader-base of their own blog or website through the clicks they receive from commenting on other peoples blogs.

Forums

The Internet forum is the relative grandparent of the social media family, evolving from the bulletin board style of networking which was popular in the early years of the Internet.

Like blogs, forums can be about any number of topics and attract people mainly looking for information and discussion around a particular theme or subject. Where the two mediums differ are that whereas blogs are usually the views / news from one individual or company, forums act as a discussion venue where many discussions are ongoing at once in different locations called ‘threads’. Also, a blog has a clear owner, again that may be an individual or company depending on the blog itself but a forum is effectively ran by its members.

Many forums have been running from the early days of the Internet and have thus gathered a huge amount of members, Gaia Online has over 16million registered members and is one of the most popular on the Internet.

Content Communities

Content communities don’t particularly adhere to typical social network frameworks, as they aren’t particularly intended for networking between people using the usual means. Two examples of this are Flickr and YouTube.

Flickr

Flickr is an image and video hosting website where people can create a personal account and upload photos they have taken. It’s also used by bloggers and webmasters as an online photo storage system, where they can host all of their images in a searchable database. As of late 2008, it is claimed that Flickr holds more than 3billion images.

The social aspect of Flickr comes into play through the creation of various subject-orientated groups where users can comment on relevant images that have been uploaded.

YouTube

Youtube is the largest video hosting website on the Internet with well over 120million videos currently hosted through its service. Youtube members can upload their own footage, create channels / playlists of their favourite videos and share them with friends.

Youtube has quickly become one of the largest websites in the history of the Internet with more than 6billion videos viewed on the service in January 2009 alone. Before the public launch of YouTube in 2005, there were very few methods of video-orientated social networking available via the Internet, YouTube changed this with the ability for its users to dictate its content through the uploading of personal video.

Microblogging

Microblogging is the latest in the way of social networking, combining blogging, instant messaging and the popular status updates of the Facebook service into one neat package.

Popular microblogging services such as Twitter allow a small (in Twitters case, no more than140 characters) text based ‘update’ to be published on your twitter page and to those who are ‘following’ you.

Although it is a web based format, over 90% of ‘tweet’s published via twitter are by mobile, desktop or instant messaging applications. Twitter is largely used by the web industry as a way of passing useful links to one another, as well as a very quick and easy networking tool between account followers.

It has recently began to attract a lot of press attention due to the amount of well known people using the service. President Obama used Twitter in the run up to the election to keep voters informed of his campaign, connecting to a completely new audience to previous candidates.

Conclusion

Although Social Media is a relatively new factor on the Internet, the advances we have seen in a short space of time have been staggering. Two to three years ago MySpace was the service everyone was using to connect with each other, who would have predicted that within 24 months there would have been a service in Facebook that overtook it as the Internets leading social networking tool.

The future of social media is an exciting one, and we could see some interesting developments even in the short term such as the adoption of the mobile social network. Although a lot of people are using Social Media on mobile phones already, this number is expected to increase significantly in the near future with the development of more and more clients for social networks on mobile phones.

Social media is expected to evolve and grow into exciting new services and shows no signs of dissapearing any time soon. The potential for growth and monetary gain for businesses is too great for them to ignore social media, helping spread news of services and offers to hundreds, if not thousands, of friends in an instant. Some companies aim for that kind of promotion and never reach it, some pay millions to get it, with social media, it is in everyones grasp.

A company that neglects both social media and the benefits of search engine optimisation is shielding its services away from millions of potential customers.

Opening your company up to social media services allows you to connect instantly with new people, couple this with a comprehensive search engine optimisation plan and you are in a perfect position to attract new customers and network inexpensively.

Well that’s it for our guide to Social Media, grab yourself a cup of tea (or coffee if you’re that way inclined) and relax.

web design newcastle

What is PPC?

Pay Per Click (PPC) is an advertising system offered by Search Engines in which an advertiser pays for each click on their advert. PPC adverts can be displayed on Search Engine results pages (search targeted) and content websites (content targeted).

• Search targeted refers to search engine results pages (SERPs), where a user has searched for a specific keyword e.g. “car” and is delivered a page listing relevant PPC adverts that sit alongside the Organic Search results

• Content targeting refers to PPC adverts being displayed on content pages e.g. “car for sale” adverts being displayed on a website that contains content about cars

PPC adverts are most often displayed at the top, bottom and right-hand side of the SERPs. The position of the advert on the page is determined by a bidding system.

Bidding Wars

Although bidding higher amounts of money will generally result in a higher position, some Search Engines consider several factors in the ranking of adverts. Google, for example uses a “Quality Score” which considers the click-through rate (CTR) of your advert as well as the relevance of your ad text to both the keywords and your website’s landing page. The “Quality Score” also helps Google determine your cost per click (CPC). The less relevant your advert and landing page are, the more you will have to pay to display that advert in a high position.

The bidding price for the keyword is also highly variable. General keywords like “car rental” are more expensive and will generate more impressions than a specific keyword phrase like “cheap rental car in cape town”. As more and more companies adopt PPC marketing, keyword bidding prices are increasing and advert positioning is becoming more competitive. Therefore it is important to focus your budget on attracting the right type of people to your site by outlining a clear PPC strategy.

PPC Strategy – Phase 1: Initial Planning

In order to decide how you are going to run your PPC campaign, you need to consider the following:

The Traditional Stuff Applies!

Like every other online marketing exercise, you need a full online and an offline analysis of the business, customer demographics, the industry and competitors. You need a brand, an identity and of course a clear unique selling point.

Define Your Goal

The PPC golden rule: What do you want to achieve with your PPC campaign? Would you like to increase awareness of your site, or are you looking to attract more traffic? In most cases PPC adverts are focused on delivering conversions in the form of filling in an enquiry form or purchasing a product.

If you are looking to make money from PPC (isn’t everyone?); do you want best return on investment (ROI) or do you want more net profit (more conversions can be achieved with a lower ROI which will still result in an overall net profit increase)?

It is important to make sure you have one very clearly defined goal from PPC. It is not possible to always be seen in the top position for the important keywords (branding) and to achieve a good ROI at the same time.

How Does PPC Fit Into The Rest Of Your Online Strategy?

There are many different views on how PPC and SEO can work together and there are definite benefits in using the lessons learnt in one for the other.

PPC Strategy – Phase 2: Running the Campaign

Once you have addressed the above, you can choose how to run your PPC campaign considering all of the following elements:

• Campaign structure, which ensures your budget and stats are correctly focused (i.e. according to different products & brands or maybe according to different geographic markets)

• Keyword selection, which should contain the right balance of cost and relevance and should be considered alongside your SEO keyword selection

• Ad wording, which needs to communicate to the right market and contain as much detail about what you are offering in as few characters as possible

• Landing pages, which leave the customer with no doubt in their mind that they have found what they were looking for

• Tracking, which involves deciding what customer behaviour is important to you. This obviously includes the campaign goal (which defines the campaign profitability), but what else can you track to give you interesting insight into your customer? You’ve paid for the click – even if the person exits your site without converting, you can get value out of knowing why.

PPC Strategy – Phase 3: Testing and Optimising

Once you have set up your campaign and tracking, your PPC strategy moves into the vital testing and optimising phase.

Keyword Management

Identify your priority keywords (the ones that convert best) as the ones to spend budget & time on. Take a second look at the keywords that don’t convert – there could be a simple reason why – perhaps you haven’t explained yourself properly in the advert or the landing page or maybe you need to ensure your advert is only showing for relevant searches through keyword matching.

Advert Management

Make sure you test your adverts. Test tone, wording, structure, offer details and display URLS. It is important to test both click-through rate and conversion rate as they both affect your campaign performance and it is a good way to see if you are meeting the customer expectations created by the advert.

Landing Page Management

The smallest change in a landing page can make a big difference to the profitability of your campaign. There are many important rules about landing page design (which is another topic in itself) including these important points:

• Build a landing page specifically designed to what the person has searched for

• Make sure you cover all the information a customer might ask for – speak to the sales team for this kind of information

• Use SEO – add some relevant content etc. This especially benefits you in Google

• Keep testing changes – use split tests if you have enough traffic

This can keep going right down to the font and colors you choose to use but the most important bit of advice would be (a traditional marketing tip) look through your customers eyes. If you can’t shake yourself from the technicalities of brilliant design ask a very honest person (similar to your customer in demographics) to look at the landing page for you.

Campaign Management

PPC keyword research can offer great insight in finding new ways to package or market your product. For example, if you run a guest house in Cape Town, you should see through your keyword research that many people are looking for honeymoons in Cape Town and so could put a nice romantic honeymoon package together for them and thus expending your product.

Advantages of PPC over Other Mediums?

1. You Only Pay For What You Get

It’s called Pay Per Click because you only pay when someone clicks on your advert. Chances are that if those people are clicking on your advert, they are interested in what you are advertising. Therefore you don’t waste advertising budget marketing to people that aren’t interested in your product as you so often do in other advertising mediums.

2. You Only Spend What You Can Afford

PPC is cheap to set up and the budget is set by you. You decide how much you want to pay and can make immediate changes if you decide it is going well and want to invest more or vice versa.

3. Accurate Targeting

You don’t just put your advert out there for everyone to see. In fact, it’s more like customers come looking for you! Your potential customer types “Durban Hotel” into the search bar because they are looking for a hotel in Durban. PPC marketing can also be targeted more specifically to certain countries, regions within countries, languages and even times of day.

4. Nobody Is Too Small or Too “Niche”

There are no limits on budgets so PPC marketing is available to even the smallest of businesses. Due to the fact that you can target specific locations and keywords, even the most niche-targeted businesses can find potential customers.

5. Fast Set Up and Immediate Results

While SEO can take months before it starts showing results, PPC can be set up and delivering measurable sales statistics within a day! This makes it particularly ideal for short-term or seasonal promotions.

6. Accurate Trackability

PPC marketing can be tracked accurately and with very little lag time. You can measure which keywords are the most cost effective and which keywords bring in the most conversions. You can also track exactly how much money each keyword brought in and accurately work out your ROI. Using these statistics you can focus your strategy and optimize your campaign to bring in the highest ROI possible.

So there you have it! It all sounds quite simple and logical – it is for this reason that many individuals consider doing it themselves. So why get a professional? “Consider hiring an expert. This work is tedious, and requires constant monitoring. Submitting to the pay search engines is a process not an event. It is a chess game, and you need to manage every detail. A true professional will not cost you money; they will make you money.” The quote says it all.

The services offered by Quirk eMarketing include everything from the conceptualization of a comprehensive online marketing strategy, through to the implementation of the various tactics like Pay Per Click