Are Theme Based Websites the Future of SEO?

What’s Your SEO Theme?

If you haven’t looked into it before, it might be time to consider theme-based SEO. Refined and officially launched in 2010, the general concept has been around for far longer and acts as a natural extension to how sites are organized when good design practices are implemented. To make this easier to follow, I’ll break into bite-sized sections.

What Is It?

Theme-based SEO allows you to focus your SEO efforts on an overall topic or “theme”. You can cover a lot more ground and have the optimization appear as truly organic and natural. This is helpful in your onsite SEO efforts and Meta tags but absolutely game-changing when it comes to offsite SEO – including link building.

How Does It Work?

Instead of targeting a list of very specific keywords, and risking serious backlash for what Google calls “over-optimization”, you target keyword topics or themes. This is made even simpler by the fact that this is how most sites are already organized. Take a plumbing site for example. The home page probably talks about everything, but most interior pages will place a major focus of one or two topics like “plumbers”, “plumbing repair/services”, “drain cleaning”, etc.

What are Its Main Advantages?

Aside from appearing far more natural, theme-based SEO provides a lot more bang for your buck because a typical theme package costs about as much as a common 10-keyword SEO package but usually provides 40, 50, or more useful keywords. Just keep your expectations realistic. All 50 keywords are not going to be block-busters. In general, however, most people find that theme-based SEO provides 1.5 to 3 times the return on investment over traditional keyword-based packages.

How Do You Begin?

First you will want to research your products and/or services to select your keyword themes. If you have a Google AdWords account (even one with no funds) you can use the freely provided Google Keyword Planner tool at https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

If this is not an option, just Google “SEO keyword suggestions” and you will get plenty of options to help you find the best opportunities available. Worst case; stick to the biggest “core keywords” you already know and go from there.

What are Core Keywords?

A core keyword can be thought of as the lowest common denominator keyword grouping. Let’s say you are optimizing a site for a plumber in Indianapolis, Indiana. Your core keywords might include: plumbers Indianapolis (590), Indianapolis plumbers (320), plumber Indianapolis (320), Indianapolis plumber (170), plumbers Indianapolis IN (40), plumber Indianapolis IN (30) – and a few more.

What Kind of Search Volume can I Expect?

Before we go any further, let’s look at the numbers within the parentheses following each core keyword. This is the number of exact match searches performed on Google, per month, on average (total yearly search volume divided by 12). If you add these up, it’s 1,470 EXACT Match searches performed per month on average. That’s huge and it’s only 6 keywords!

What does “Exact Match” Mean and Why is This Important?

“Exact match” means that the person typing in the search query typed only those exact characters with nothing before, after, or in-between.

Do Long-Tail Keywords Count?

Absolutely! One example might be “plumbers in Indianapolis” (just adding the word “in” to the middle). That’s what we call a long-tail or “focused keyword” (using traditional theme-based SEO terminology). I’ll grab a dozen common ones and get a search volume count…

plumbers in Indianapolis (90), emergency plumber Indianapolis (50), 24 hour plumber Indianapolis (30), best plumbers in Indianapolis (30), plumber in Indianapolis (30), plumbers Indianapolis Indiana, (30), Indianapolis IN plumber (20), plumber Indianapolis Indiana (20), plumbers in Indianapolis IN (20), Indianapolis IN plumbers (10), plumber in Indianapolis IN (10), plumbers in Indianapolis Indiana (10)

How Does This Impact My Potential Target Market?

That’s another 350 exact match searches, which brings your potential up to 1,820. That’s at least 1,820 searches per month being done for your exact service in your exact location. And with another ten minutes of research you can easily find 30 additional focused keywords adding up to another 550. I just did it. That’s 2,370 potential searches per month (28,440 per year!) – in a single SEO theme.

You probably would not spend the money for a traditional SEO company’s 50 keyword pack to get all of these, but since you can get all of these as potential keywords in a single SEO theme – why not? The cost or time and effort investment is about the same as that original 10 pack traditional SEO package and the focus and rankings will fluctuate organically, which is what it’s all about.

Let’s do This! What’s Step 2?

Once you have your SEO themes figured out, it’s time to start optimizing. The trick here is to consider using multiple variations of your core and long-tail keywords as organically as possible. In other words; be natural. Just place the words in your text naturally, and don’t worry about using exact keyword phrases. In fact, say you have 500 words of text on the page – you will do better by having just a few mentions of “plumber”/ “plumbers” and a single mention of “repair”, “service”, “emergency”, “affordable” or any other focused keyword descriptor.

What’s Next?

Once your text is written, refine it a bit to make sure you have not included any keywords too often. Most of all; make sure the text reads naturally and is meant for human readers. And keep in mind that humans want quick answers so put the main ideas toward the beginning of the page. I might start with:

“Need a reliable, affordable plumber in Indianapolis? Trust Jack’s Mechanical for all of your plumbing needs; both residential and commercial. Proudly serving Central Indiana since 1999, we…”

That’s less than 30 words; all carefully placed to answer the question the visitor has top of mind – and best of all it’s totally natural sounding and will pass Google’s natural text algorithm test with flying colors.

H Tags

Next you should carefully consider what you want as your H1 tag (main heading). While it’s tempting to use something obvious like “Plumbers Indianapolis, IN”, it’s not very natural sounding. You can actually get more from an even simpler tag such as “Your Indianapolis Plumbers Since 1999″. It’s short and sweet and looks like a tagline you might find on a business card or letterhead. It’s natural sounding as a tagline.

Meta Tags

On the back-end we have the Title and Description to think about (Don’t bother with the “keywords” tag). These should also appear natural – but don’t waste space with empty characters! Google has reduced its recommended character count in the title tag from 64 down to a maximum of 56 (including spaces) in order to better accommodate tablet devices and smart-phones.

Title Tag

For your page Title, keep it simple by separating topics with pipes (|) or dashes (-). Make sure you get the business name in as well as the main geography. Here’s an example:

Indianapolis Plumbers | Jacks Mechanical Plumbing Repair

By removing the apostrophe in Jack’s and adding “Plumbing Repair” to the company name, we stayed within 56 characters and included: 2 themes and the main geography. But this is just one possibility. It might have been more like this:

Jacks Mechanical – Plumbers Indianapolis, IN – Plumbing

You might even try using a more common name for the company. If you are locally known as “ack’s Plumbing”, use that…

Jacks Plumbing Indianapolis, IN | Emergency Plumbers

Spend some time deciding what aspects of the theme are most important to you (repair, emergency, cheap, fast, etc.) and work around that. The title is a very important aspect of your on-site SEO.

Description Tag

Ready for a shortcut? We already did this; well – mostly. Feel free to use the first 160 characters of your page text. That’s what Google will grab if you don’t have a title anyway. I would, however, suggest you make slight changes to get the most you can. For example:

“Need a reliable, affordable plumber in Indianapolis, IN? Trust Jack’s Mechanical for all your plumbing needs. From leaky pipes to drain cleaning, we do it all.”

You will see subtle changes in the first part and an entirely different second part. Bottom line… It’s all totally organic and naturally flowing text that Google LOVES.

Link Building

Unfortunately, a “how to” on link building is an article (or book) in itself. What I can tell you here is that the anchor text (clickable words) used in theme-based SEO can be far less obvious than in traditional keyword-based SEO.

For example: Instead of the traditional “plumbers Indianapolis” we are used to seeing; theme-based SEO gets great results for multiple keywords at once, with something like “fast and affordable Indianapolis plumbers”.

That’s just one example. And, of course, the first example is almost always a paid link (and Google knows it) while the second is much more likely organic because people link like they speak.

Good luck!

http://www.advancedfreeweb.com/blog/are-theme-based-websites-the-future-of-seo/

The Best Ways to Beat your Competition at Organic SEO

SEO is dynamic, more than a tad bit complicated, and highly competitive. Depending on your industry, staying at the top of rankings can range from mildly challenging to completely cutthroat. In order to stay ahead of the curve, you need to be committed to following trends, being efficiently reactive, and staying willing to examine the small and big pictures thoroughly.

The good news: SEO is not rocket science. It’s decipherable, and those that stay educated can absolutely succeed. If you’re ready to dive in and beat your competitors at their own game, follow the five tips below and enjoy your definitive edge.

Step 1: Study Your Top Competitors’ On-Site SEO

In order to beat your top competition, you need to know the tactics they employ. The aspects you need to study include:

1. Title tag / meta data structure and content


2. Keyword usage, especially in headers


3. Overall SEO activity – use a tool like Site Comparison for on-page analysis

Watch closely; if one of your competitors makes major changes to their strategy, that’s a key indicator. It usually means they were either dinged by a search engine and needed to change course, or discovered a new trend worth adopting. If you see their rankings improve as a result, you know what to do.

Step 2: Monitor All Backlinks

On your own side, it’s a good idea to keep a constant log of your company’s backlinks; this will help you identify any impending negative SEO attacks, and ensure all links pointing to your site are from relevant, reputable sources.

On your competitor’s side, watching their link strategy can unearth new link partners in your space, as well as expose tactics that are helping them stay ahead. Use a tool like Majestic SEO for assistance.

Step 3: Show-Stopping Content, and Lots of It

This might be step three in your approach, but it’s undoubtedly the most important. Your number one strategy in staying ahead of the curve is to have a consistent flow of epically relevant and appealing content. From blogs to white papers, videos to podcasts, slideshows to infographics, content is the best way to elevate your SEO rankings and your overall brand awareness.

Fresh content ensures the search engines are regularly taking notice. Automated indexing systems are looking for new content, and if your site becomes stagnant, that’s a surefire way to give your competitors an edge. Well-crafted content is also your best bet for going viral. It only takes a couple of highly shareable releases to really start getting your company on the map. If you do nothing else to propel your organic SEO strategy to the next level, let it revolve around consistent content creation.

Step 4: Smart Keyword Selection and Execution

While it is no longer necessary to focus on things like keyword density, your keyword selection is still an integral part of a successful SEO plan.

One of the biggest mistakes companies make lies around top-ranking keywords. If you find a combo that lands you in the top spot, don’t assume that’s helping your brand unequivocally. Being number one for a given set of keywords should not be the goal; your bottom line is. If you’ve targeted keywords and have successfully landed high rankings, but you see little to no overall traffic or revenue improvements, you’re simply targeting the wrong keywords.

Search queries that yield the highest traffic increases are all you should focus on. Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor different keyword combinations, and their related traffic correlations. Do the same for your competitors because that can help reveal strengths and weaknesses in your own strategy. Tools like Open Site Explorer can help you remain in-the-know.

Step 5: Stay SEO Savvy

If you’re reading this article, you’re likely already aware that organic SEO is an ever-changing landscape. To stay competitive, it’s essential that you stay current. It’s astounding how many folks are still employing tactics from five years ago, while experiencing intense frustration that their businesses are not advancing.

If you’re staying on the cutting edge, have the courage to try new trends as they emerge. These are obviously not guaranteed to work, but if you find a magic potion before any of your competitors do, that’s a genius way to leap ahead.

Stay current. Keep on point for organic SEO, video SEO, and any specific discipline that is relevant to your company or industry. Being aware of rising trends and tactics that have fallen away can be the difference between leading the pack and scrambling to stay in the fray.

There’s really no option in organic SEO to commit part way. It’s truly an all-or-nothing game. Without a steadfast commitment to all the steps listed above, it’s highly unlikely you will see anything but lackluster results.

Creating an ironclad SEO strategy requires a consistent commitment to content, competitor research, on-site metrics, and current news. The result is a powerful combination of real-world results and future trends that can help you reach a rankings level your competitors only dream of.

What are some other key methods you have for staying competitive in organic SEO? Do you stay on top of what other companies in your space are up to, or just focus on your own results?

http://www.advancedfreeweb.com/blog/the-best-ways-to-beat-your-competition-at-organic-seo/

Ways to freshen up your Old website without a Complete Rebuild

It’s been more than 18 months since you changed anything on your website, and your analytics are starting to reveal some problems related to this fact. Each month, your number of new visitors has declined. Fewer people are downloading your free PDF brochure. Plus, you aren’t getting as many online requests from prospects. You know it’s time for a change, but you hesitate to take the plunge in terms of a total website overhaul.

The good news is that you might be able to avoid completely redesigning your site. Instead, making some smaller changes could refresh the site enough to make a positive impact on your business’s bottom line. These changes can best be described as aesthetic, functional and content-related.

Aesthetic Refreshes for Your Site

Take a look at your site from an objective perspective – you may even want to gather together a focus group of individuals who will be brutally honest. Is your website dated-looking? Are the colors unappealing? Have you been relying on stock photos that seem uninspired or contain pictures of people who are wearing clothing of the early 2000s or before?

These are indications that part of your issue could be that you need to approach your website redo from an appearance perspective. Some of the changes other sites have made that work well for this purpose include:

• Choosing a new color palette. As long as the palette doesn’t clash with your current logo, it may just make all your pages seem new again. There are sites out there to help you figure out which shades “match” one another.


• Having a professional photographer take pictures of your workspace, clients, staff, etc. These images will be entirely your own and obviously not stock elements that you’ve paid to put on your site. Make sure you optimize the images for an extra SEO “punch”! If you don’t want to go the professional photographer route you could find yourself…


• Buying new stock images. At least they will be more up-to-date than the ones you have now!


• Altering the font you are using. Many websites try to get too “creative” with font typefaces. Most places recommend a sans serif font like Arial or Georgia because it’s easy to read; if you’re really creative, though, you may want to check out some really cool new ones that have just been developed. The bottom line is that if you have a site that’s filled with a variety of fonts, it’s going to look cluttered.

Functional Refreshes for Your Site

Maybe your site is okay from a visual perspective, but it’s just not working functionally. There can be plenty of reasons for this: maybe you have too many videos that are taking forever to download; your site doesn’t look great on mobile devices; the navigation is wonky. Fortunately, you can usually make adjustments that will fix these functionality issues like:

• Fixing any broken links. Go through your site page-by-page and fix any links that are broken or lead to 404 errors.


• Taking out any graphics or videos that are taking forever to download. This will speed up your site’s loading time, which will be good for everyone and encourage visitors to stick around.


• Modifying your website so it’s mobile-friendly. You may even want to create a special free downloadable app if your product or service lends itself to this purpose, as in the case of a financial institution offering an app for real-time CD rates.


• Streamlining the page navigation. Navigating should be simple and logical. If you have pages that lead to pages in an illogical fashion, fix the flow.

Content-Related Refreshes for Your Site

While one person may think a piece of content is terrific, while another person finds it lacking, there are still some characteristics of good website writing that all websites should have. These include having strong calls-to-action, being optimized for specific keywords or key phrases, and being easy-to-read.

To freshen up your website from a content perspective, why not try one or more of the following proven techniques?

• Make sure every page has some call-to-action. This can be to pick up the phone for a consultation, email for an appointment, download a white paper, join an email list, set up an account, add items to a wish list, etc. Think about what you want to get from every visitor to your site.


• Rewrite the content on all the webpages. Just as the appearance of a site can become dated, so can the readability. You don’t have to majorly rewrite all the content; even minor tweaks can alter the way a piece reads.


• Make certain you are following updated SEO guidelines. Google’s algorithms have changed rapidly over the past couple of years. If your optimization hasn’t kept up with those changes, you may find yourself with a site that isn’t ranking as high as it should be.


• Delete pages that no longer apply to your company. Has your business changed its direction? Do you have pages that make zero sense to keep? Remove them or risk confusing your guests.


• Add pages for new products or services. Just as you deleted some pages, you may want to add others for the same reasons.

Remember: Refreshing a Site Takes Time… and That’s Okay!

It can be tough for many marketers and executives to consider all the refreshing possibilities at once. That’s why it’s important to bite off little pieces of this process a bit at a time. Don’t try to make all the alterations at once; it will only make you crazy! Rather, you should start with the most pressing ones and work your way down your list.

Of course, it should be noted that if you cannot make any or most of the changes above because of a clunky, outdated CMS, you may be on your way to needing a site redesign. Try not to fret too much if that’s the case. If your CMS is that antiquated, having a new site developed on a modern CMS system will provide you with a decent return on your investment.

http://advancedfreeweb.com/blog/ways-to-freshen-up-your-old-website-without-a-complete-rebuild/

Viral Marketing, The Secret to Creating ads that spread like Wild Fire!

The elusive quest to create a truly viral ad campaign is always top of mind for marketers. If an ad or marketing campaign really resonates with the masses, a brand can go from zero to hero in as little as a week. There’s a highly honed craft to creating a viral ad campaign, not the least of which includes insane creativity and total marketing expertise.

There are, however, some tried and true viral tricks of the trade that, if practiced with intention and finesse, can help improve your viral odds. For assistance in compiling this list of expert tips, I consulted Alexander Debelov, the CEO of Virool.com.

Step 1: Learn from Past Successes

The most savvy way to decipher how to make a video splash is to first study what has worked for other brands. Below is a list of the most popular ads of the past two years. Studying these meticulously will help you understand what resonates with the web.

• Evian’s Baby & Me – 90 million views


• Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches – 63 million views


• Dollar Shave Club’s Our Blades are F**cking Great – 14 million views


• Turkish Airlines Kobe vs. Messi – 137 million views

Step 2: Enhance Viewer Engagement

Debelov, the marketing guru behind the viral success of Kobe vs Messi (which is the single most viral brand video of 2013), reminds marketers to heavily study viewer engagement with their ads. “Show the video to a smaller sample of viewers,” states the Virool CEO, “and optimize it using analytic tools such as a heat map of mouse movements and clicks” .

Relying on your own instincts regarding how your audience will react can result in a totally missed opportunity. Commit to taking the time to test your content, and tweak according to feedback, and you have a much higher likelihood to hitting a slam dunk at launch.

Step 3: Time Your Release

Choosing when to release your ad is as critical as it is for movie execs plotting the release of a film. There are two main rules around choosing the right launch time:

1. Study the latest YouTube stats and choose a day and time to release your ad that requires the least amount of views to hit the top of the leaderboards.


2. Discover when competitors in your industry are releasing new ad campaigns (via press releases and other media), and ensure you aren’t overlapping.

Step 4: Seed Your Initial Views

Debelov also recommends that you have a plan in place to get the first round of views amassed for your video straight out of the gate. “Before a video can be shared, a core group needs to see it first. Use a platform like Virool.com — or reach out to others on your mailing list — to get these initial views.”

This is a huge mistake that many marketers make with video campaigns; they send the release out to their list before there are any seed views. Often folks will see low viewing numbers and assume the content isn’t worthy, without making note of the new release. This can automatically turn off new viewers without ever getting a chance to win them over with your clever content.

Step 5: Accelerate the First 24 Hours

By far the most critical time period for your media release, if viralness is indeed your goal, lies in the first 24 hours. Once you have your seed views, it’s time to alert the masses that your ad is waiting. The responsibility is now on the marketing team to go all-out in order to ensure a strong initial showing.

You’ll want to create as many marketing spikes as possible in this first day of release. This doesn’t just include views, but also likes and comments too. React to your viewers’ comments in real-time. Spread the video across all your social channels and web sites. Do everything possible to get eyeballs and engagement totally in action around your video release, and as fast as humanly possible. Gaining momentum on day 1 is truly the most important factor to an overall viral campaign.

Step 6: Keep up the Momentum

Once your initial marketing spikes wear off, it’s essential to keep fanning your viral flames. How? Debelov suggests that “when you see the pace of video views starting to slow, use more paid ad views and reach out to your biggest fans with new incentives for social sharing.” The key here is incentivizing sharing – by offering your loyal viewers rewards for assistance in making the ad viral, you are essentially expanding your marketing team exponentially.

The underlining theme for viral ads is twofold:

1. Careful planning and research prior to launch


2. Persistence in marketing strategies post-launch

It goes without saying that your video must be appealing to your audience, and have that certain je ne sais quoi that makes viewers click “share”. Whether you choose a heart-string tugging route or go all-out on humor, quality cannot be over-emphasized. Once you have that gem of an ad, the marketing team must carefully assemble an iron clad release plan in order to have any hope at viral success.

http://advancedfreeweb.com/blog/viral-marketing-the-secret-to-creating-ads-that-spread-like-wild-fire/

Is Facebook actually Manipulation your News Feeds?

Remember when your Facebook news feed just contained your friends’ status updates? Those were such innocent days. Then came ads dispersed here and there. And over time, those ads have looked more and more like actual status updates, luring you into thinking they’re from a trusted source. Now, however, we have Facebook itself on the loose.

It’s true advertisers have worked hard to create news feed ads that contain truly valuable content and information. Some folks even enjoy the occasional ad in their feeds, as they are extremely well targeted in many cases.

Facebook, however, just doesn’t know when to quit.

Recently, much ado has been triggered over an academic study co-released by the social media giant in conjunction with Cornell University and U-Cal San Francisco. Facebook hired these researchers in 2012 to conduct a targeted study around how people reacted to posts with either positive or negative connotations. In other words, they were emotionally manipulating people via their news feeds for the sake of “research”. Sound moral or ethical? That’s a definite gray area.

Details on the Facebook Academic Research

Facebook’s mission: To find out how, if, and why users responded to positive and negative streams of commentary placed within their news feeds. Over roughly a week’s time in 2012, the researchers purposefully manipulated 700,000 news feeds, without any warning to those being tested. How can they get away with unsolicited research? It’s in Facebook’s terms and conditions; we all agree that user data can be utilized for research purposes, just by using the site. Now you know.

Here’s how it worked: Researchers reduced posts in each news feed, either focusing primarily on positive or negative posts. Then extensive metrics were amassed to see whether those users’ status updates and related posts reflected the tone they had experienced within their feed.

In other words, did photos of kittens and babies with inspirational quotes inspire users to post similar content? How affected are we by the content of posts in our feeds?

The Results of the Research

If you assumed negativity breeds negativity, and positivity more of the same, the researchers would staunchly disagree. To quote the related press release, “People who had positive content experimentally reduced on their Facebook news feed, for one week, used more negative words in their status updates. When news feed negativity was reduced, the opposite pattern occurred: Significantly more positive words were used in peoples’ status updates.”

At least in the land of Facebook, it seems like human nature responds in the reverse of what is being emphasized before them. So now you know why that friend you inundated with negative political posts has resorted to quoting Deepak Chopra and Oprah-isms on their news feeds.

The How’s and Why’s of the Backlash

Although the experiment may sound innocent enough, emotional manipulation on any level rides a very iffy ethical line. Adam Kramer, one of the key researchers hired to carry out the experiment, even admitted the entire thing was a bit “creepy.” He strongly defended the goal of the study, however, but there’s no denying the whole thing feels icky.

Now, there’s a suggestion that Facebook’s company policies have shifted since the study, which many theorize is supposed to lessen the blow by making it seem as though Facebook won’t do it again. Yet few, if any, trust that hypothesis.

The problem is simple: Facebook gains almost all of its revenues from advertising. Data manipulation like this, therefore, is a goldmine, and they’re not likely to shy from it again in the future. After all, although there’s a bit of a backlash now, it’s highly unlikely any of this will affect Facebook’s bottom line. Especially not in any negative fashion. Perhaps the media’s negative exposure of Facebook’s policies breed more positive revenues. They might be on to something.

The Trend Continues

To further pound the nail in the coffin for Facebook’s trustworthiness, let’s not forget that last year thousands of small business owners cried foul, for similar reasons. The accusation then was that Facebook diminished their news feed reach significantly, and without warning. This meant that your favorite businesses – i.e. the ones you actually followed, and therefore invited into your feed – had a much harder time actually reaching your news feed. Why? Because Facebook wanted to charge them to reach you. It’s crystal clear.

As a result, any businesses you followed were greatly handicapped in reaching your news feed, but businesses that paid to do so, whether or not you invited them in, were all over your homepage. So as you can see, Facebook is no stranger to data manipulation for profit.

The big problem here is not a single instance of these infractions by Facebook; it’s the bigger picture. If the company is willing to change your feeds to suit its research and/or revenue needs, there’s little to no trust factor left. If a witness lies on the stand once, they cannot be seen as honest. Facebook has changed the game and shifted things to their benefit so many times now, we would be fools to think they wouldn’t do it again – or even more to the point, aren’t doing it right now.

http://advancedfreeweb.com/blog/is-facebook-actually-manipulation-your-news-feeds/

Best ways to Optimize your Website’s Content for Social Media and Search Engines

Website owners used to focus on every technique solely for increasing their search engine ranking. Optimization was all about cramming an ungodly amount of high dollar keywords and phrases into every inch of every web page. Today the focus has changed. Keyword stuffing is gone with the wind and a new standard of search AND social optimization is in.

If you have no social presence, you simply cannot gain rank as quickly or solidly in the SERPs as you can if you have a strong presence. So, how do you optimize for social and SEO? The first step is getting into the right mindset.

The Differences between Social and SEO

According to the Content Marketing Institute, there is a distinct difference between social and search engine optimization. While the goal of both is to up rankings, each is approached differently. When it comes to social, you need to think engagement and sharing. Social media marketing focuses on:

• Brand, messaging and calendar managed topics


• Short form content, such as status updates, image tiles and blog posts


• Increasing organic reach via paid options


• Real-time content opportunities via social monitoring


• Engagement – and view – based performance

When it comes to SEO, you need to think strategy and tactics. The Content Marketing Institute points out that it’s the condiment, not the sandwich: “If a… content marketing program is the sandwich, then SEO is the mayonnaise. It touches… everything and enhances the… flavor of the sandwich, but on its own, it’s not very appetizing.” Search optimization focuses on:

• Tactics, such as more quality content generating more search presence


• Topics emanating from actual search demand


• Behind-the-scenes technical optimization, including meta details


• Content and social promotion


• Link building


• Performance that is tied to keyword-managed content and focuses on search KPIs and conversions

4 Search and Social Media Tactics

Optimization is an intimidating word. It doesn’t have to be, though. Kick starting your social SEO and search optimization doesn’t have to be rocket science. In fact, I promise you don’t need to be a math or science major to do it and do it well. Just apply these four simple tactics:

Tactic 1: Know Your Business Model Backwards and Forwards

Our first method comes from one of the most credible optimization sources on the net: Search Engine Watch. If any company knows the importance of this tactic, it’s SEW. Knowing your business model sounds like a no-brainer, but too many businesses make this rookie mistake. They fail to sit down and focus on their main goals. Your goals will influence every aspect of optimization. So take a minute and answer these questions honestly:

• What are your goals?


• What are your assets and liabilities?


• How do you define a conversion?


• Are you selling impressions or the things people click on?

Tactic 2: Optimize for Search and Share

Balance is everything. Yes, it is important to optimize your web pages and media. TopRankBlog.com says you need to optimize your topics and specific keywords based on what customers are actually searching for, but you also need to make social sharing compelling and simple. How? Let’s take a look:

• Master the art of crafting catchy titles, headings and subheadings


• Include search phrases; for example, “8 Indispensable [keyword/phrase] Tips For [keyword/phrase]“


• Your content should always include social sharing widgets so that it can be seamlessly shared with a single click

Tactic 3: Nail the Things Search Engines Want

Search engines are tasked with supplying users with the most relevant and high quality websites and content that meets their search criteria. According to Search Engine Watch, engines determine which sites meet quality and relevancy requirements by weighing four primary criteria:

1. Authority: Authority is built; you won’t have it right out of the gate. You can build it through exceptional content. Your goal is to craft the kind of content others want to link to as a reference or a citation.


2. Content: It must be relevant to your theme, fresh and engaging. Good grammar, spelling and natural use of keywords are musts.


3. Performance: How fast is your site? Is it full of broken links or does it work properly?


4. User Experience: Is your site attractive and easy to navigate?

Tactic 4: Focus on your Meta

Your website content should have built-in title tags and Meta descriptions. Yes, we’re talking about a little coding, but it’s far from complex. All you need is:

• Unique title tags: Think of these as 4 to 8 word ads. The goal is to pique interest and make people want to click.


• Unique Meta descriptions: Avoid duplicate descriptions. They should be as unique as your titles, and they should speak to the specific page they describe.

Nowadays, social and search optimization go hand-in-hand. The key to success is balance and persistence. With just a little effort, you can achieve a lot.

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