Hire a Firm Providing SEO Services at Right Time.

There will come a point where all your efforts in optimizing the site and promoting it online seem to be not working. This can be frustrating especially if you have infused a lot of money and effort into these ventures. If you are on this stage, and you don't want to take this sitting down then what you need to keep in mind is that there is still a way out of the misery. You can still make your fledgling website relevant, one thing that you can do is to get the services of an SEO services provider. The services of the professional will come for a fee, but the fee that you will shell out will be for nothing if you compare this to the overall benefits that you can get. But before you can hire one that can extend SEO services for your needs, it is right that you conduct some initial assessment first. For example, you must ask the right questions so that you can get the best SEO practitioner for your needs. Here are some things to consider, as suggested by Google on how you can find the best SEO practitioner for your needs.  

The background and the quality of the past work of the provider. The kind of services and the success rate of the firm will serve as a good barometer for you when evaluating multiple providers. 

The commitment of the provider of SEO services in sticking with the Google Webmaster Guidelines. This is a set of guidelines drafted by Google that should be followed by webmasters and publishers. Consider this as the listing of the best practices online. If the provider of services can follow what are indicated on the Google Webmaster Guidelines, then this should tell you that the provider is serious in delivering quality and ethical SEO practices. 

The availability of online marketing services that will complement organic search.  

The experience of the firm in the industry. Everyone is not working on the same industry; some businesses target sporting goods and some are in educational services. So if you are into the sporting goods, then the firm should have a substantial amount of experience in this industry called sporting goods. 

The experience of the firm in your home country or city. And the experience of the firm in handling international websites. Some of the best SEO practitioners are based in the United States and Europe, but what about the users that are from other countries? The firm that understands the culture of as many countries as possible will serve as the most ideal candidate. 

It is also important to raise the question of SEO techniques that are regularly used by the firm. By checking these techniques, you can get a good idea if they are working on an ethical SEO or not. 

The overall experience in years of the firm should be checked. The longer the firm has been operating in SEO, the better. 

And finally, it's best that you ask the mode of communication that will be used when tweaking the website. 
These are the common concerns that should be raised when selecting a provider of SEO services. These concerns are recommended by Google, so it's wise to get these concerns into play.

Latest SEO Tips for Google Updates

Google left the door wide open and people took advantage. This led to great rankings, traffic and, more importantly, money in the bank. People started to rely on the majority, if not all traffic coming from Google and then the rug was pulled from under their feet. This kicked off an almighty struggle with the King of Search, but I’m here to tell you today that it doesn’t have to be a fight. There is another way.

Stop Building Dirty Links

If you’re going to get back into Google’s good books, you need to cease using dodgy link building tactics full stop.
This isn’t one of those situations where you can be half in, half out – you need to move away from dodgy links completely. Stop Now.

And a word to the wise: dodgy links with generic anchors can only work for so long. Eventually Google will catch you (if they haven’t already). Then, say goodbye to Google sending you any traffic.

Get Rid of Legacy Links that Don’t Fit with Google’s Guidelines

If you have been building nasty links in the past, you need to get rid of them, or at least try to.
It’s a fact: you can’t get rid of them all, but the consequences of not doing this could lead to an algorithmic penalty or even a manual penalty.

You’ll know about a manual penalty in your Google Webmaster Tools account. You will usually see an unnatural links warning message.

If you’ve got an algorithmic penalty, you’ll only notice this when you check your analytics and see your traffic drop through the floor.

You can get a manual penalty (or manual spam action) revoked by showing Google the lengths you have gone to in order to try and remove the links. You’ll usually get a message back from Google within 1-2 weeks.

If you have an algorithmic penalty, you can go through your links, highlight the nasty domains that are linking to you and disavow them, but ultimately you may have to wait until the next Penguin refresh to see whether your rankings come back.

Dance to the Beat of Google’s Drum

Google has a set of quality guidelines that they recommend to webmasters and, when you think about it, it’s all really straightforward stuff. It includes avoiding nasty things like cloaking, hidden text, doorway pages and all that blackhat stuff.

It also involves making your pages for users, adding value and creating unique content.

This isn’t groundbreaking, or even rocket science, and remember that these guidelines are updated as Google continues to evolve along with their search algorithm.

Most importantly, though, when these guidelines are updated, don’t jump to conclusions and don’t make assumptions. This goes for algorithm updates, too.

A lot of people within the industry are being too quick to make up their minds without looking at the data, and these assumptions can often cause more problems than they solve.

Think about the Future and the Big Picture

One of the big mistakes that a lot of people are making is that what works now will carry on working forever.

Before Google’s Penguin update in April 2012, a lot of people thought that blasting nasty links at websites was going to continue working.

Those that looked at the bigger picture, however, could see that those practices were at best a calculated risk, and that Google would eventually bring the boom down and take action on manipulative link building tactics.

Content is what it’s all about, as it has been for a while (that and user experience). While there are a lot of people that struggle to get traction, there are tactics you can use that will get you results.

Don’t Put All of Your Eggs in One Basket

You can understand the temptation, knowing that some websites are getting 100,000′s of visitors a month from Google. While I don’t think you should give up working towards those insane levels of traffic, you can’t just rely on one tactic.

In business, you always need a contingency plan for anything that could go wrong, so you need to be sure to focus on other ways of generating traffic.

Just look at some of the top business blogs. Sure, they may be getting a lot of traffic from organic search, but there are a lot more things you can try:

• Social media
• Contributing to other blogs
• Doing interviews
• Link building (the white hat way)

I’ve found that the best way to figure this ‘traffic generation’ thing out is to not just look for a list of tactics, but look at how people are using them in case studies.

Summary :-

I understand that there may be some of you reading this post who don’t have any love for Google generally, and don’t like following anything Google says.

I understand why – Google does have a lot of power (too much), and its algorithm updates have the power to shake entire economies.

The truth about the ‘user experience’ thing is that, while Google’s ultimate aim (at a guess) is to stop users from going over to Bing and so protect its advertising revenue… Google is actually on to something.
Where are all those sites that didn’t give a damn about the user experience now?
Nowhere to be seen.

Where are all those sites that thought about user experience and building a community before anything else?
They’re still here and a lot of them are leaders in their field.

So, whether you like it or not, it’s time to get on board with the ‘user experience’ thing.
What’s your take on the current state of search?

Google Analytics for Business Website Owners

If you are not familiar with Google Analytics, this article will give you a basic understanding of what it is and why you should be taking advantage of this free and useful tool.

About Google Analytics:

Google Analytics is a feature offered by the search engine giant Google which compiles website statistics, such as traffic sources and keyword statistics, which in term helps with company marketing. There is a basic free service and an advanced service that comes with a fee. The tools provided allow a marketing person to see the keywords someone searched that brought them to the company’s page, the number of views for each specific web page, and even see where people are located when they are on the site.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that marketers can use to identify where customers are and what keywords they are looking for. This, in turn, will allow them to identify ways in which to market to these specific customers. They can identify which keywords need to be put into their website’s pages in order to have better SEO results and figure out where their customers may be located, something that is notoriously difficult to do with an online company. While the service can be used by anyone, it is really designed for marketing professionals who know how to take this data and pull out the meaningful results behind it.

Use of Google Analytics:

Google Analytics is an incredibly useful tool if a business/company has the people in place to effectively analyze the data. The tools can break down the information is a number of ways that can help lead directly to better sales results and finding more customers.

The segments feature allows a company to see what different kinds of users are coming to their site. It can separate out visits that lead to conversions or which visits were paid traffic. Google Analytics’ filters allow a company to easily sort out traffic they don’t need to see on any given report so they can focus on what’s important. For instance, it is possible to eliminate traffic from within your own company or focus on a certain type of customer based on a number of different metrics. Analytics also allows a company to see which browsers were used to view their page, and can give information specific to users who used an app, all with an eye towards helping companies design better site layouts for their customers.

Another useful set of tools is the event tracking and flow visualization functions. Event tracking lets a company see whenever someone interacts with a feature on the web site. For instance, if a company wants to know if that video they put up explaining their process was worth the time and money, they can see how many times customers played the video. There are many events Google Analytics can track, such as downloads, gadgets, and ad clicks. The flow visualization tools show the path a customer takes through the site. By analyzing what site a customer landed on, where they went from there, and where they eventually left the site, a marketer can help design a better flow that brings customers to the pages that will help drive business. They can also see if something just isn’t working well and a page is causing customers to lose interest and leave.

One very important tool, especially for beginners, is the landing pages analysis. This report allows a company to see which page a new visitor landed on. It also tells what the bounce rate is for the page, the percentage of people who left the site from there. If the bounce rate is very high on one of the landing pages, especially one linked to a pay per click type ad campaign, then the marketer can tell that the page is not designed to meet the needs of the customers landing there. The tool can help keep a company from wasting its advertising money.

How to Install Google Analytics

Installing Google Analytics can be a bit intimidating, especially if the webmaster that designed the website does not work for the company. In reality, it is a fairly easy process and doesn’t require a professional programmer. There are a few simple steps to set up the basic tracking, and more advanced features can be better configured over time.

The first thing needed is access to the website’s code. If a third party set the website up, someone in the company will need to get access. Alternatively, Google provides a link to email the necessary code to a web developer after it has been generated. The next step is simple. Google Analytics asks whether or not it is being used for a single domain, a single domain with multiple subdomains, or a site with multiple domains. There are convenient radio buttons to make the selection. There are also check boxes for AdWords campaigns and DoubleClick data. When the proper selections have been made, Analytics generates the code that then needs to be inserted into the website, generally before the "head" tag within the HTML.

"Not Provided" Keyword Data Causing an Uproar in the SEO Community

One controversy surrounding Google Analytics is the (not provided) keyword. While Google Analytics tracks keywords, anyone searching from a secure Google page will not have their keywords recorded. In this case the result that goes to the company is (not provided). This has many marketing people and SEO specialists very upset, as this is valuable customer data that is being lost. Using a Google AdWords campaign will allow a company to still have full access to all keyword data.
As more web users are coming to websites through secure Google searches, options like AdWords may become more attractive to ensure companies are getting all relevant user data.

Gain Unique Visitors for Your Business Website with SEM Services

One of the chief concerns we have as business website owners is how to gain unique visitors to our business websites. Without knowing how to get more traffic, how else will we get more leads, make more sales and continue to make money online?

There are a number of ways to get more traffic, so I’ve collected this list of my favorite traffic-generation techniques. I’ve tried to organize them into the following categories:

• Content & Article Marketing
• SEO & Search Engine Marketing
• Video Marketing & Podcasting
• Email Marketing & Syndication
• Advertising & PPC
• Public Relations & Spreading the Word
• Social Media & Bookmarking

Content & Article Marketing

1. Start a blog or add a blog to your website. Use WordPress. Tip: Don’t go with the free WordPress hosting offered by WordPress.com. It’s a watered-down version of WordPress you cannot optimize!

2. Research your article keywords using the Google keyword tool. Target your blog posts and articles using these keywords. (Read How to Add Keywords to Your Website.) This will help your posts rank higher in the search results.

3. Update your website or blog frequently. Three times each week is great. Daily is better.

4. Write better headlines. Writing compelling headlines that convert into views is an art. Make sure you research your keywords and work them into your headline. Keep your headline congruent with the webpage it describes.

5. Stay away from duplicating other posts and articles. Duplicate content is one of the big no-no’s according to Google and your site can be penalized or banned if you are engaging in this practice. Tip: If you’re hiring out your content writing, ensure the contractor knows their work needs to pass a plagiarism-detection tool like Copyscape.

6. When considering content for your website or blog, there are two approaches to consider: timely hot topics or evergreen. Hot topics—like world events, emerging technology or celebrities—will offer you a chance to speak to something that is on everyone’s minds, however those topics often cool off and fade from relevance over time. Evergreen content—as the name suggests—is content that provides timeless value, based on principles that aren’t as likely to change with the public’s mood. A good piece of evergreen content can bring traffic steadily, year after year, and makes for a real asset to your website.

7. Convert your blog articles to Adobe PDFs and offer them on Scribd.com.

8. Offer to guest post at other highly-ranked websites. Include your URL in your resource box (your brief description about you and how to reach you for more information.)

9. Comment on other blogs in your industry or niche. Make your comments thoughtful, courteous and use a keyword or two. Include the link back to your site.

10. Similar to blog commenting, offer helpful solutions on Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers and Quora. Place the brief synopsis of your solution in answer to the question you’re addressing and post the link to the full article (already posted on your website) if they want to learn more.

11. Join niche-related forums and offer advice, ask questions, etc. Include links to your websites in your forum signature.

12. Offer a whitepaper that answers a common challenge for your audience. Collect email sign-ups in exchange. Deliver your whitepaper automatically using your confirmation autoresponder.

13. Write an ebook. Include links to resources and to your own URL. Offer the ebook on your website.

14. Place your new ebook into ebook directories for free or low-cost download.

15. Convert your ebook into a PowerPoint presentation and post on SlideShare.

16. Repackage your ebook for delivery on the Kindle, Nook and other tablet platforms. Then offer it for sale through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.

17. Add your blog posts to BlogCarnival.com. Host a blog carnival to bring exposure to others within your niche while building the value in your own site.

18. Form a blog promotion network. Agree to retweet, mention, link or otherwise promote one member each week. (This requires 100% dedication from all members to make it work. If a member begins falling down on their commitment, they’re out.)

19. Article marketing. Submit your pithy articles to sites like the following and remember to include keyword links leading back to your website. (Read Marketing Mastery Series: 5 Steps to Powerful Article Marketing.)
1. Ezinearticles.com
2. Ehow.com
3. Hubpages.com
4. Articlesbase.com
5. Buzzle.com
6. Associatedcontent.com (now Yahoo Voices)
7. Suite101.com

20. Build a quiz or self-test that shows people something about themselves. Entertaining, informative or both, bring value through self-discovery. Though I am certainly biased, here is an example I especially like: Branding 101: Discover Your Brand Archetype Quiz

21. Create a Squidoo lens. This is a collection of original articles that link back to your site from your Squidoo page.

22. Add a forum or discussion group software to your website. (Be warned: It takes time, dedication and love to grow a thriving community, but it can be well worth it.)

23. Offer regular webinars and communicate the schedule and topics through your website and mailing lists. Tip: Record the seminars and add them to a members area on your website, or make them available 24/7, thereby bringing even more value to your site.

24. Offer a free tool, template or software. When Hotmail was first introduced, each message carried a little signature at the bottom of each email that said “Get your free email at Hotmail”. The email system went viral, spreading naturally from inbox to inbox.

25. Need help getting posts out regularly? Hire a ghost-writer through an outsourcing service like iWriter, oDesk, Elance, etc.

26. Create a compelling infographic. When done well, infographics make even the driest material visually interesting, effectively grabbing and holding the reader’s attention long enough to deliver the message—and your URL.

SEO & Search Engine Marketing

27. Use keyword-centric tags with your WordPress posts.

28. In WordPress, make sure to leave trackbacks turned on. When you link to other site owners, an email will notify the blog owners of the new link and they will likely visit your site. They may even link back!

29. Install the Google Sitemap XML plugin for WordPress. It automatically sends updates to Google and other search engines when you make a new post, helping your material get indexed more quickly. Don’t have a WordPress site? Use Ping-O-Matic to accomplish the same thing.

30. Can’t use the Google Sitemap XML plugin for WordPress* to create your sitemap.xml or robots.txt files (used by Google and other search engines?) Use a sitemap generator like XML-Sitemaps.com.

31. Two words: Google Authorship. Set it up and get your face to appear next to your posts in the Google search results. (Read Google Authorship: How to Get Your Picture into Google Search Results.)

32. Install Google Analytics on your site and actually look at it once in a while. It doesn't even have to be Google Analytics, but you should be able to see how much traffic you’re receiving on a weekly basis and where your visitors are coming in from? How can you intelligently drive more traffic to your site if you don’t know what’s already working for you?

33. Submit your website to search engines and search directories. Seems obvious, but most folks don’t know where to start. Here is a list of some of the top search sites:
1. Google
2. Bing
3. Yahoo! Search
4. AltaVista
5. Excite
6. Go.com
7. HotBot
8. Galaxy
9. Lycos
10. Gigablast
11. Alexa Internet

34. Use the linkdomain command in Google (ex. linkdomain:allseosolutions.com). While this only shows a subset of the links that lead into a domain, it can give you an idea about how your competitors are getting their rankings.

35. Research popular misspellings of your company’s name and those of your competitors. Buy those domain names and forward them to your website.

36. Find expired domain names in your niche that are still receiving traffic and buy them, directing them toward your site. For this, I recommend Expired Domains.

37. Use a custom 404 page to help people find the information they are seeking from your website in the event it moves or otherwise becomes unavailable.

38. Reciprocal linking campaigns with mid- to high-PR sites can offer a boost to your rankings and traffic. The best backlink is a one-way, dofollow link from a high PR site. Also, if you’re just getting started with your website and you have low PR, you had better have some great content, otherwise your opt-in rate with a reciprocal campaign is likely to be low.

39. Join a web ring like WebRing. Advantage: Niche-related linking. Disadvantage: Uglies up your site. (Not as much of a disadvantage if you already have an ugly site. If that’s the case, jump in!)

40. Pay a freelancer or company to generate obscene amounts of traffic for you. Just beware of the very real chance it could be a scam (Read How NOT to Drive Traffic Using Fiverr.)

Video Marketing & Podcasting

41. Read or speak to your ebook contents in an audio post or series of audio posts and place on BlogTalkRadio or iTunes.

42. Why only create audio posts of your ebook, blog post or web content? Create a video demonstrating the same information and post to YouTube and Vimeo. Include links back to your site in your video description and in video captions. Tip: you can do this either by presenting the material yourself, hiring someone to present it, or by creating a video with something like Animoto.

Email Marketing & Syndication

43. Link your blog with your Aweber email marketing account. Take signups for your newsletter, ebook or other promotional/informational offers. This will grow your emailing list.

44. Establish an RSS feed for your site. Add it to FeedBurner.com. (Well.. what was Feed-burner. Google gobbled them up.)

45. Connect your RSS feed broadcasts to your Aweber email marketing service. This will deliver your blog posts in an e-newsletter format to your mailing list. Set the mailing list to weekly or whatever is appropriate for your posting frequency.

46. Email your current and past clients regularly. Ask them about their interest in new products and services (segment your list accordingly.) Send letters of appreciation, short polls, tips, client spotlights and other relevant correspondence to stay at the front of their minds.

47. In your enewsletter, don’t embed complete articles. Instead, display hook paragraphs with links back to the full articles on your own site. This also allows you to gauge what topics are most important to your readers.

48. Don’t stop with only offering your whitepaper from your newsletter signup confirmation page. Include your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ profiles and links to other websites you own that complement.

49. Syndicate your blog with Technorati.

50. Include your website URL in your email signature. (It’s a good place to offer some of your social media URLs as well.)

51. Run a solo ad, whereby you pay someone to market your offer to their list. Research your list owners carefully here; all is not as it may seem. (Proceed with caution. Read Solo Ads Advertising: Why Solo Ad Scams Suck.)

52. Conduct an ad swap. You have a mailing list. Another marketer has their mailing list. Your offers align with each others’ mailing lists. The other marketer sends your offer to their list and you send their offer to yours. All things being equal, you both should see your opt-in lists expand. (Get started at Safe-Swaps.com.)

53. Join venture with another marketer. Similar to a solo ad, you run your ad to their list, with the difference being they get a cut of the sales instead of taking a flat fee.

Advertising & PPC

54. Run pay-per-click (PPC) ads using Facebook ads, Google Adwords or Bing Ads. Tip: Watch your ad performance carefully at first. You can lose a lot of money quickly if you don’t pay attention!

55. Pay for banner ads on other websites. Target websites in your niche, preferably. This is a quick way to begin receiving qualified traffic.

56. Banner exchange. Similar to reciprocal links, you agree to trade banner ads with other website owners. Aim for the same or complementary niches.

57. Post free or paid ads on classified ad sites like Craigslist, ClassifiedAds.com, and Backpage.

58. Begin an affiliate marketing program and spread the wealth! Pay others to promote you to their website visitors and mailing lists by giving them a cut. Make sure you can track referred traffic correctly before rolling this out.

Public Relations & Spreading the Word

59. Offer to start an advice column for local media outlets. Have some example column posts and know your pitch well before approaching publishers. Finally, make sure the publisher’s audience matches your own.

60. Along the same lines as an advice column, offer to write an editorial. This is akin to guest posting on someone else’s blog. By offering thoughtful insight into a common challenge or current event, you bring value to the publication and a spotlight to your own efforts.

61. Write a compelling press release and post to free press release sites and local media outlets. Here is a short list of free and paid press release sites:
1. Free-Press-Release.com
2. Free-Press-Release-Center.info
3. 24-7PressRelease.com
4. 1888PressRelease.com
5. PRBuzz.com
6. PRCompass.com
7. PRUrgent.com
8. Express-Press-Release.net
9. ClickPress.com
10. PR9.net
11. EcommWire.com
12. PressMethod.com
13. PRLog.org
14. I-Newswire.com
15. PressAbout.com
16. NewswireToday.com
17. PRLeap.com
18. PR.com
19. TheOpenPress.com

62. Are your offline marketing materials supporting your online marketing efforts? You should have your URL on your business cards, flyers, brochures, letterhead; any and all stationary.

63. Pay a high school or college student to place flyers with your offer and URL around town. Include college campuses, malls, grocery stores, houses, etc., so long as business proprietors are asked and so long as the location is congruent (or neutral) with your offer. These locations should be places where your target audience frequents. Tip: Not sure those flyers won’t end up in the trash? In today’s age of smart phones, pay for each image of the flyers as they’re placed.

64. Drive your URL all around town. Brand your URL onto your license plate cover, bumper sticker, or have it added professionally to your vehicle’s rear window, tailgate, side, etc. Better if your car is unique in some way (and I’m not talking about that rust spot shaped like Elvis or the Virgin Mary.) Want to take this over the top? Invest in an eye-catching vehicle wrap.

65. Buy a pair of sandals or boots and carve your URL into the bottom of them. Then go walk on wet sand or snow and give those who follow in your footsteps something to think about.

66. Hold a contest. Winner gets a rave review on your site, a fun toy or gadget, cash.. whatever. The more compelling and niche-appropriate the prizes, the better. Announce the contest winners on your site.

67. Join a local business group or association. Members often benefit from being listed in the member directory, complete with their website’s URL.

68. Your business card should have your link on it, of course. Better, use the back of your business card to state a special offer, coupon code, promotion or other thrilling reason for them to visit your site. Now those networking mixers may actually bring some visits to your site instead of seeding your business cards at the bottom of trash bins all over town.

69. Sponsor a league team. This might be softball, darts, roller derby, bowling—even chess. Consider the audience (the players and their families and fans) and your own interests when choosing your sponsorship opportunity.

70. Get seen on television. This technique worked well for Dave Mayer of CleanBottle.com. Dressed in a gigantic bottle costume—complete with URL—Dave was first caught on video running along Tour de France bicyclists. The video went viral and CleanBottle’s orders exploded. He has since made this technique a cornerstone in his marketing strategy, though he’s occasionally roughed up by drunken cycling fans.

71. Give a live talk, presentation, seminar or workshop. At the end of that event, you should be collecting a short survey to see how to improve the next event. Request email addresses from those who confirm they would like to opt into your mailing list.

72. When folks were registering for that event, did they fill out a registration form? It better not have been printed! Any flyers or advertising for the event should point to your website where they’ll find more event details and the registration form.

73. Give an interview. Regardless of the format, a recorded interview can offer you great exposure to your market and places you in the expert seat. As the interviewer for a list of questions ahead of time, or offer your own. Practice being at ease and ask for a copy of the interview for use in your own marketing efforts.

74. Interview others. With every interview you conduct, the easier it will become for you to interview larger names in your industry. The larger the names, the larger the draw. Tip: Have your recorded interviews transcribed and offer them on your website. It’s a great way to generate fresh content!

75. Offer to give a product review (whether positive or negative) or testimonial in exchange for a back-link.

76. Send your product (for free) to other site owners for an online product review.

77. Hand out promotional items with your URL on them. Don’t skimp here. Nice metal pens and USB drives tend to tend to stay with me for a very long time, even if they have a logo and URL emblazoned on them.

78. Hold an online treasure hunt. Contestants compete to answer riddles and collect clues to win mind-boggling prizes. Of course, one of the clues (or maybe the treasure!?) will be on your website.

79. Printed banners, billboards and skywriting. Enough said there. Better: Save yourself the printing costs. To retaliate against political sign thieves, Michigan digital marketing agency, Oneupweb projected a 30-foot video loop of a dancing Senator Obama onto the side of their building. The stunt made the evening news all over the country.

80. Produce viral content. How? One idea is to make a legend come true. Athletic shoe manufacturer Hi-Tec, made a series of “reality” videos showing their new line of running shoes were so water-resistant, people were attempting to run on water—and they were succeeding.

81. Tattoo (temporary or otherwise) your URL onto your body. Anything that important is sure to get looked up.

82. Ask a celebrity to wear a t-shirt or dress with your URL printed on it.

83. When attending a trade show, you and your team wear the same shirts, visibly labeled with your URL. Buttons and hats are another version of this.

84. Create an award program. Establish the guidelines, the award graphics, press release templates, etc. Be discerning about how you select your candidates and make your announcement. Encourage the winner(s) to place the new badge on their website. Of course, it’s a link to the award summary on your own site.

85. Promote a sale, introductory pricing, free trial or other enticing promotion to lead deal-conscious buyers to your website.

Social Media & Bookmarking

86. Facebook. Share interesting or relevant posts, images and videos on your Facebook ‘fan page’. Every now and again, include a link to your own website.

87. Facebook. Install the NetworkedBlogs Facebook app and connect your blog to Facebook. When you post to your blog, your post automatically shows in Facebook.

88. Facebook. Link your Facebook account with your Twitter account so a post in Facebook automatically posts in Twitter. This lightens your need to log into both accounts and adds diversity to your Twitter posts, especially if you’re smart enough to automate some of them using…

89. MarketMeSuite. Manage your social media streams and accounts from one place. Best: Create, schedule and upload your social media broadcasts a week, month, quarter or year at a time. Greatly reduces the social media marketing burden.

90. Twitter. Display your Twitter feed on your website or blog. If you’re using your Facebook or Twitter account regularly, your tweets will display and serve to freshen your website. This encourages repeat visits and updates your website, keeping you fresh in Google’s search results.

91. Twitter. Include your website’s link in your Twitter bio.

92. Twitter. Tweet about your product, service or articles. Include links to your onsite material. Use has tags (#) to add your tweets to relevant topic streams.

93. LinkedIn. Connect your WordPress blog with your LinkedIn account so your blog posts appear on your profile.

94. LinkedIn. Include your URL in your profile.

95. LinkedIn. Start a LinkedIn group. Best: Target your niche and mention your geographical location in the group’s description to build a more focused group.

96. LinkedIn. Too busy to start your own LinkedIn group? Join other groups and add value to those communications. Often, those posts can be expanded to become full articles on your own website. Then offer the link to the group.

97. Pinterest. Add interesting, non-copyrighted graphics to your web pages and blog posts then pin them to your Pinterest account.

98. Create a profile in any of these popular social bookmarking sites. Include your URL in your profile.
1. Digg.com
2. StumbleUpon.com
3. Delicious.com
4. Fark.com
5. Slashdot.org
6. Newsvine.com
7. DZone.com
8. Diigo.com
9. Tumblr.com
10. Pinterest.com
11. Reddit.com

99. Using these popular social bookmarking sites, bookmark links of value, related to your niche. Your own website should be one of these bookmarks.

100. Ask others to bookmark your site. Or bribe them. Either way.

101. Make a “100 Ways to” list post and ask people to share if they found it helpful. Not quite that ambitious? Make the list “10 Ways to”, “3 Ways to”, “50 Ways to”—you get the idea.

Business Blog Updating Tips to get Unique Visitors

Most businesses are beginning to see the value in having a company blog, but it can be difficult to decide what to do with it once you make one.

A good business blog doesn’t focus so much on selling, but instead on providing information and making your customers want to do business with you. If you do it right, your blog can help you become a leader in your industry; you should post relevant, up-and-coming information that shows customers your knowledge, while also giving them ideas.

Content should be fresh, original and exciting. If your customers take the time to read your blog, they want to walk away feeling like they gained something – not like they were suckered into buying.

Here’s a list of ideas to help inform, excite and engage your readers:

Information:

1. Write how-to articles. These types of posts will give your readers instructions – and you can even include screenshots or images – on how to do something related to your business. After reading articles like this, customers will view you as a knowledgeable, authoritative source.

2. Create “tips and tricks” lists. You could offer lists with benefits for doing something or lists of things to avoid. These can help readers understand your industry better.

3. Write an FAQ post. If you take the time to answer the questions all of your customers are asking, it shows you acknowledge them and want to find solutions. It will also help save customers’ time.

4. Pay attention to the news. You want your blog to feel up-to-date, so incorporating current events is beneficial. You could talk about how relevant events are affecting your customers and/or your business.

5. Talk about common myths. If you can come up with a list of common myths about a product or an aspect of your business, shed light on them and demystify them, readers might become more understanding and more likely to do business with you in the future.

6. Be practical. Readers will like it if your posts directly relate to them. Write posts related to the seasons, time of year or specific holidays. This will make your company more relatable to your customers’ everyday lives.

7. Partake in a friendly debate. You could do a “Point/Counterpoint” post with someone in your field who disagrees with you. Readers will see that you are knowledgeable, passionate and willing to show them all sides of an issue.

Excite

8. Record an interview. Any form of multimedia can make your blog more exciting for readers. You could turn an interview with an expert in your field into a podcast, or you could even record yourself giving useful tips.

9. Make a step-by-step tutorial. Whether you make a video or a stream of images, readers will be excited if you show them how to do something. Everyone likes learning new things, and it’s always easier with multimedia.

10. Be creative. Don’t be afraid to use humor in your blog, because customers enjoy when a business is down-to-earth and genuine. Try making a music video for your company or some sort of funny mashup with your employees. It’ll show your enthusiasm for your industry and your company!

11. Make a slideshow of pictures. You can use platforms like Flickr to post slideshows with pictures from recent company events. Images always liven up a blog, and if customers find themselves in a picture, they’ll be even more excited.

12. Write “sneak peek” posts. Give your readers inside glances at what you’re planning for the coming year, whether it’s a new location or product. You can use any form of multimedia to do this, but it’ll help you generate interest.

13. Create infographics. Any post filled with graphics and facts will be a hit on social networks and get a lot of shares. This is a great way to get exposure on different sites.

Engage

14. Create polls. If you develop surveys and polls to give your audience, it shows you value their opinion and want them to be a part of your company. Make sure you publish the results of the polls in a blog post or infographic!

15. Interview your customers. If you write an interview post or create a video with your most loyal customers sharing testimonials and success stories, readers will feel more connected with your business.

16. Start fun contests. Make sure you occasionally reward your customers for reading your blog. You could create contests that get them more involved, such as sending in funny pictures that relate to your business and then picking the winner.

17. Make staff profiles. By including images and descriptions for each of your employees, readers can feel more connected to you and your staff.

18. Talk about your charity work. If your business volunteers in the community, write a blog post about your recent experiences – and include pictures and videos of the event. Show that you’re engaged with the community around you.

19. Share customer feedback. Regardless of if you have comment cards, surveys or email forms, create a post with highlights from the suggestions you received from customers. This shows you’re listening and being open with them.

20. Offer readers something. Give your blog subscribers and readers something to thank them for their commitment to you. It could be a giveaway that you only post on the blog, or a sneak peak at a new product or service.

Using a variety of informative, exciting and engaging posts will help you keep readers interested in your business blog. With so many ways to create original content, neither you or your readers should get bored with your blog!

Have additional ideas for spicing up a blog? Share them with your fellow bloggers in the Comments section.

Blogging Inspiration, Top Blogging Ideas for Business Blogs

Even if you have the best intentions in the world, coming up with a constant stream of new ideas for blog posts can be pretty intimidating. All too soon, the corporate blog lies empty because the company has run out of ideas. Don’t let that happen to you! From company brainstorms to new ways of planning copy, we are going to provide you with some great tips on how to generate ideas for blog content.

WARNING: This is a long post, but we think it’s worth the read (and hopefully you’ll agree). If you really don’t have time then there’s a list of our top tips at the end!

Use your Colleagues

Brainstorms can be a brilliant way to come up with interesting blog ideas. Don’t limit yourself to asking only the PR or SEO teams though, invite people from across your business to contribute to a brainstorming session. They might not have the skills needed to write good content, but they may have insights and opinions that will help you generate great ideas.

Speak to your partners, colleagues, and employees, and listen to them to decide what would best suit the needs of your company. Then, come up with something you can write about which takes this on board.

You might even want to talk to some of your regular and trusted customers, to find out what they’re interested in, as there’s a good chance other potential customers will share those same interests.

Remember why you’re blogging. In the case of a corporate blog it’s usually to generate business – so put your audience first and write for them, not for your own interests. You might be delighted to finally have a platform to rave about your travels, but your corporate clients won’t care.

One key consideration is to make sure everything you write is both useful and interesting. That’s the best way to maintain a high standard for your blog.

Become a Serial Killer

Serializing your blog posts can be a great way of producing killer copy over the medium term, rather than putting all of your eggs in one basket. By producing a series of posts on the same topic, you increase the apparent relevance of your site for that subject – and give your readers some other pages to click onto.

Serial articles can help keep people interested in your blog and encourage them to return for more useful content on a relevant subject. You could consider writing a series of how-to articles, or reviews of products, industry publications, or even Twitter accounts from within your sector.

At its best, this approach can encourage readers to come back for the next instalment, creating a steady flow of visits. So, if you’re relying on serial posts to get people back to your site, you might want to stick to a regular schedule for maximum effect.

One caveat – don’t flog a subject to death. There is nothing worse than reading a series of posts which do nothing but re-iterate the same ideas over and over again. If you have nothing new to say on a topic then it’s time to find something new to write about.

Please Read.......

Simple enough to be summed up in a single word, ‘read’ is one of the best pieces of advice that can be given to any writer. The more you read other people’s blogs – even if they’re not relevant to your industry – the more you’ll understand what makes for engaging content.

You also need to read people’s blog comments and take on board what they’re saying, both on your blog and other people’s. This will help you to understand which sort of posts are good and which aren’t.

Once you’ve gained this understanding, as well as gathering some new ideas, the trick is to turn them into something that is not only engaging and entertaining, but which also meets your marketing or lead-generation needs.

Remember, it’s not just new ideas that you can pick up by reading other blogs – you might also improve your grammar and style along the way.

Invite Guest Bloggers

Consider asking an industry influencer if they’d like to contribute to your corporate blog. They are likely to be flattered, so it could be good for networking, and they will publicize it to all their Twitter followers and online circle, which can lead to some new traffic for your blog.

Just one word of warning: agree how you’ll edit their copy in advance. People can be very protective of their work and may not be happy if you’ve gone through it with a red pen. Edit their work lightly and send it back to them for approval before publishing.

Break the Rules.......

Finally, a fallback option is to go out and break all the known rules about corporate blogging. But, if you take this option, on your own head be it! Every so often you will find a corporate blog that has almost nothing to do with the company that publishes it, but focuses on something like environmental sustainability or charity work instead.

You might also see ‘corporate’ blogs that are purely for entertainment purposes, filled with jokes, or comic strips, or pictures of cats. When you’re this far outside of the box, there are very few hard and fast rules left to break, but get it right and you could give your brand a huge boost in positive perception as a result.

The only caveat to this is that it’s always wise to have plenty of plain text along with any images, info-graphics, videos, and so on. If you can get some relevant language into it then so much the better, even if it’s just ‘After a hard day working on our new landlords’ insurance document, we’ve been relaxing with some polecats. Enjoy!’

That way, even if you’re giving your visitors something fun to look at, you’re still delivering the search-visible text content that will help to get you into the search engine results.

However, I wouldn’t recommend this as a good way to write a corporate blog. Nine times out of 10 it’s not a clever quirky marketing strategy, it’s down to ego, and it brings little benefit to the business.

Five golden rules.......

Ultimately, there are just five things you need to consider when writing corporate blogs.

Your posts need to be:

-- Relevant -- Timely -- Frequent -- Personable -- Useful

These are the golden rules for great blog content so never publish anything without considering those first.

Top Blogging Tips......

If you’re still struggling for blog ideas, try some of these top tips:

1. Look at current trends, extrapolate them, and make a prediction for the future of your industry.
2. Do an introduction to 10 of the best up-and-coming bloggers in your field.
3. Find a current topic of debate and express your own, new, different view on the issue.
4. Make a list of common myths and misconceptions about your industry and then debunk them.
5. Satirise a well-known personality – it can be someone inside or outside your industry.
6. Look at a big brand, and analyse both their good and bad points – show where they’re using best practise techniques and where they’re making mistakes.
7. Find a recent piece from a high-level personality in your industry, disagree with it, and prove them and their opinions wrong.
8. Do a case study of something that went wrong in your business. Analyse the mistakes and explain how you fixed them.
9. Break some news about your company, e.g. revealing a new product.
10. Write a list of the vital web tools and software people in your industry can’t do without.
11. Compare the old and new ways of conducting your business.
12. Write an allegory about your idol doing your business e.g. “How Steve Jobs Would’ve Done SEO” or “The Bruce Lee Approach to Marketing”.
13. Go to a trade fair or industry event and report on it.
14. Do a comparison of your national market to markets abroad.
15. Review a book which deals with your industry – particularly if it contains some interesting outside the box thinking.
16. Find out about something new for your industry – a tool, a website, a method etc. – and write about it.
17. Identify industry leaders in your area and ask them to do a guest post.
18. Write a code of business ethics for your industry.
19. Conduct an interview with a prominent or rising industry figure and write it up.
20. Check Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, and Quora to find out what’s most popular right now, and what questions people are seeking answers to. Then provide the information they want on your blog.

Link Building Tips for Quality SEO of Business Websites

When you begin the task of acquiring quality and relevant backlinks to your website there are many factors that can increase or decrease your search engine rankings. This article outlines the difference between good and bad backlinks.

A quality backlink pointing to your site should be in the same category and relevant in content to your website. The page where your link is located should be indexed by Google and the page should also have a Google page rank. The webpage where your link is located should also contain no more than 30 other out-going links to other websites. Link pages with more than 30 out-going links are less relevant to the search engines. Having your link posted on this type of webpage can affect your search engine rankings in a negative way. Other excellent techniques of acquiring backlinks are directory submissions, posting articles, blogs and forums.

For directory submissions select the proper directory category and take a look at how many other websites are contained in the category where your link would be posted, if you can manage to get on the first or second page of the listings, this is a quality backlink. Also look at the Google page rank of the landing page for your link. If the page has a Google page rank this is also a quality backlink.

Stay within your category, relevant content is very important to the search engines. Write an article preferably relevant in content to your website and submit the article to high quality article directories. Blogs are an excellent way to get quality one-way backlinks, Blog sites also receive tons of traffic, which in turn give your site more exposure. Posting your link on forum pages is also an efficient method of acquiring backlinks instantly.

Backlinks to avoid would be a zero page ranked webpage, especially if the home page has a zero page rank. Links posted within framed webpages which will also steal your traffic. Especially avoid link farms, webpages which contain more than 100 unrelated outgoing links, This type of link page is frowned upon by many major search engines. Avoid Webpages with mirror sites containing the exact same content with a different URL, also pages that utilize redirects and URL cloaking. Never post your link on a webpage that contains a "no follow" or "no index" robots meta tag within the source code. Dynamic websites with question marks in the URL should be avoided because they are not always indexed by the search engines.

Avoid posting your link on a page that opens very slow or contains mostly ads and flash banners. Try not to acquire or purchase great numbers of backlinks in a short period of time, backlinks should be accumulated gradually. Also avoid webpages and directories that list their results in alphabetical order, as their database increases your link could be moved to a less relevant page with less pagerank. Quality backlinks are one of the most important factors involved in the process of achieving high search engine ranking.

Website Promotion Tips with Search Engine Friendly Techniques

SEO or search engine optimization of websites is the buzzword of the Internet. You can’t survive online without promoting your website. Understanding its concepts is easy but practicing for to your business growth is little difficult and need patience.

The success of your website online largely depends on the level of visibility it enjoys. This will only happen with a robust and effective website search engine optimization program. There are many ways to accomplish this end objective.

Keywords

Keywords are those magic words which attract your site to search engines. These also guarantee good page rankings. Since these are an important component of website search engine optimization you need to ensure each page of your site has a good array of strategic keywords evenly spread out. Many experts conduct intensive keyword research programs which help to analyze which keywords are the most popular and can fetch you greater visibility online.

Copywriting

The content on your website not only needs to be interesting and related to the site theme, it also needs to be search engine friendly. Website search engine optimization relies on effective and search engine friendly copywriting to attract better page ranking online. Your website copy needs to exude professionalism while also ensuring that keywords are generously sprinkled in the articles.

Meta Tags and Title

The title of your web pages is what will attract search engines to your site. That’s why it’s important that not only is the title interesting and catchy, but it also has relevant keywords in it. That way the search engine robots that crawl sites get to access your site instantly. Website search engine optimization is all about being accessible to search engines. Even your site Meta tags need to have these keywords well placed.

Knowing your Competition

Many website search engine optimization service providers will do an in-depth competitive analysis. This is because in order to stay ahead in the competition you need to know where you stand. That’s why it helps to find out which keywords are currently being used by your immediate competition. It will also enable you to learn from their mistakes and fine tune your site optimization efforts better.

Manual Submission for Link Building

Many providers will also manually submit your site to search engines online. Through this they are able to effectively and actively propagate your website to the web. Website search engine optimization methods involve fine tuning of content, building more links as well as involving tools like PPC etc. to drive more traffic.

Link Density

The page rank and popularity of your site will depend on the number of links as well as the kind and quality of links on your site. In fact most of the popular search engines of today distinguish successful and not so successful sites by the density of links on their sites. Therefore as part of your website search engine optimization program you need to ensure active procurement of associated links to your site. By improving the link density you get to improve the relative placement of your site in search engine results.

Collecting High Quality Links

It isn’t just sufficient to have a large volume of links to your site. It’s also equally important in website search engine optimization to have good quality links from reliable partners. Therefore, it is essential to test the strength and effectiveness of each link before incorporating it into your site.