Search Engine Optimization: Sure Fire SEO Strategies That Will Get You Ahead PEPPERGANG Digital Media With Spice
Table of Contents Executive Summary......3 Earn Links Naturally............4. Badge Program................4 How It s Done...... 5 Guest Posting...........6 Social Media.......7 SEO Pitfalls You Must Avoid.........8 Conclusion......10 Resources......11 2
In today s online world, visibility and reach are of the utmost importance; however, many companies don t take into consideration search engine optimization efforts as part of their plan to gain visibility online. According to research: 71% of business purchase decisions are started with a search engine 1 Over 70% of the links search users click are organic 2 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results 3 Search is the #1 driver of traffic to content sites, beating social media by 300% 4 Leads from Search have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound marketing effort leads have a 1.7% close rate 4 Considering these statistics, the cost of companies not optimizing their search results means fewer leads, lost sales, and a significant negative impact on their bottom line. Turning it around can be as easy as including search engine optimization strategies into your online efforts. Now you may be wondering what strategies you should consider when looking at your site's SEO. Well look no further. We ll walk you step by step through some of the best strategies that you need to use for better search rankings. What we ll cover: Earning Links Badge Programs Guest Posting Social Media PR Blogging 3
EARN LINKS NATURALLY Earning links naturally is much easier said than done in the SEO world. It really depends on your content, your audience and industry. The best way to tackle earning links is to build solid, quality, unique content based on topics and subjects that your target audience needs. Below we ll outline a few simple strategies that will certainly get you attention and hopefully earn some quality links back to your website or blog. BADGE PROGRAMS What is a badge program you ask? A badge program is a program that you build around creating a community or following regarding a particular subject or cause. Badge programs are great because they re easy to share. People love to be part of a community. (image) TWEET THIS: The best way to tackle earning links is to build solid, quality, unique content. #getvisi 4
HOW IT S DONE Badge programs can be as simple as having a designated page on your blog that outlines what your cause or community is about. Be sure to explain why you re doing it and why you think people should be involved. Think about your target audience and your industry and be sure it's something valuable that they will want to be a part of. For example, if you re a pet supply company and you have a passion for assisting pets in need during disasters, start a community online. Figure out what needs you have in your own community and ask people from your community to get involved. You could create a badge around the program and have other leading pet companies and the general pet lovers participate. It could be as simple as sharing resources about the subject, or as far as using the badge program as a meeting place to actually go out in the community and help. How detailed you make it is up to you. The great thing about it is that it could be used for everything from an online meeting, weekly blog post, an online interest group, or to mark a specific achievement. Online badge programs help you gain recognition, but you re doing something that you care about, and the potential online reach for your business is huge. 5
GUEST POSTING Haven t heard of guest posting? Well, if you spend any amount of time writing for yourself or in your blog, you know that it takes effort to produce high quality content. Why not gain additional exposure by becoming a guest blogger or writing a guest post on a complementary blog? Guest posting is great for complimentary industries when you have knowledge and expertise in a certain area that this blog could use. Many times, its as easy as contacting the blog owner and sharing with them the idea of content that you have that might fit well with their blog and readers. There Are Benefits For Both Sides They get quality content for their readers, with a new point of view, new level of expertise or experience they don t have to write. You gain additional exposure for your knowledge and expertise to their blog readers. Many times the blog owner will also allow you to put a brief bio and description with your article and most likely a link back to your website. 6
SOCIAL MEDIA Social media should be a part of your SEO strategy. Search engines now take clues from social media sites as they relate to your search engine optimization. They re looking for social validation. The interactions that you or your company have on social channels, how many people are talking about you, and what topics and clues they can gather from those conversations all have a play in SEO. So if you re not actively on social media, you should be. Social channels are also a great way to syndicate your SEO content and blog posts. Are you part of a group about a partic-ular subject, and you have content or information that would answer their questions? Share it. Not only are you getting more exposure for your content also, you re providing value and information. It s important to look beyond your immediate tactics to find other out of the box strategies and opportunities for SEO. Search engine optimization goes beyond just optimizing your content. You can really dig in deep when you re providing value for your audience. (image) TWEET THIS: Social channels are a great way to syndicate your SEO content and blog. #getvisi 7
SEO PITFALLS YOU MUST AVOID This past year was a year of many changes when it comes to search engine optimization. With Google s many updates and information, it s hard to really know what to do with your SEO efforts. Let us point out, that there are some things you clearly should not be doing. Don t let yourself or your company fall victim to bad SEO. (image) Black hat techniques come in all shapes and sizes, but to give you an idea of what might be considered black hat, lets dive in. 1. Building bad quality links anything that is not quality could be considered black hat. For example, if you re getting links to your site from websites that are completely unrelated to what you do, or have bad spelling, low quality sites, but they re helping your page ranking they might be black hat. 2. Buy links to pass page rank anything that you do that is unnatural, for example, if your SEO company s telling you to purchase or pay for links they re most certainly black hat. 3. Excessive link exchanges be wary of too many I ll link to you, if you link to me exchanges. If the search engines see a pattern of links that is too many, too fast and low quality clearly that s unnatural and it might be considered black hat. 4. Forum comments with optimized links Many SEO companies used this technique a while back because it was easy. They would go out to any forum or blog on the Internet, no matter what quality, type, or topic and post spammy comments, with an optimized link back to your site. Really? You think Google won t be able to tell that a link from a gaming forum to a health food store website wasn t spam? Definitely black hat. 8
5. Just trying to get rankings this one s a little tricky, but any activities that are unnatural, that you have to go out and find people to participate in, just for the sake of trying to increase your rankings, could put you in danger of being banned or penalized from the search engines. Real search engine optimization should be natural. It should be focused on providing quality content, quality communications and information to your target audience. Trying to rush the system will never work. And don t forget that social media plays an important role in social validation, not only for your audience, but for the search engines as well. TWEET THIS: Real search engine optimization should be natural. #AskPG 9
CONCLUSION In today s business world, organizations can t afford to not have top visibility in search engine results. To this end, companies need to consider search engine optimization as part of their online marketing strategy. Invest the time and effort Make it a priority Commit to search engine optimization for long-term Connecting with people right when they are searching for your products or services online enables your company to connect with people who have a higher interest in what you have to offer, which in turn assists with your bottom line. 10
Resources 1. Brafton December 2011 (http://www.brafton.com/news/search-marketing-alert-61-perc ent-of-business-purchase-decisions-start-with-search) See more at: http://blog.autorevo.com/2013/08/10-seo-stats/#st hash.qvtkgv1s.dpuf 2. Search Engine Journal April 2012 (http://www.searchenginejour nal.com/24-eye-popping-seo-statistics/42665/) See more at: http://blog.autorevo.com/2013/08/10-seo-stats/#st hash.qvtkgv1s.dpuf 3. (http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-awesome-marketing-stats-charts-graphs-data.aspx) See more at: http://blog.autorevo.com/2013/08/10-seo-stats/#sthash.qvtkgv1s.dpuf 4. Search Engine Journal http://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eyepopping-seo-statistics/42665/ 11
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