Social media and SEO have taken another step closer toward being inseparable. With last week's major announcements from both Google and Bing (Microsoft), search engine rankings will now depend more heavily on updates from Facebook and Twitter. Both Google and Bing plan to include Twitter status updates as a part of their real-time search capabilities in an effort to improve usability. "We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make ...

There is no room for second place when it comes to search engine optimization. With 62% of all users clicking on results found on the first page of a search engine result page (SERP) making sure you appear on the first page is critical in terms of boosting qualified traffic to your website. Let's take a look at some interesting data regarding click thru rates and SERP rankings: As you can see there is a huge decrease in CTR when you jump from the first to second ranking. There is also a large decrease in CTR in positions lower than fourth. This data confirms that users simply are ...

Google has begun to add links to web page snippets on search result pages. Now people can not only click on the top link to go to the main page, they can also click on a link within the snippets to go to a specific section within a page. Here is an example of a listing that includes the additional links: Because these added links act as additional calls to action for your visitors, it is important that you take the appropriate steps to help ensure these new links appear. According to Google's Raj Krishnan, "There are a few things you can do to increase the chances that they might ...

With approx 80% of your Web site traffic being dependent on search engines, SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) is a very cost effective method of increasing the amount of qualified visitors reaching your site. Here are four tips to help you find a team of trustworthy SEO professionals that can get you the results you need. 1. Do they set realistic expectations? The best SEO professionals are very upfront and honest when discussing your Web site's SEO potential.  They will partner with you to set realistic goals and chart out a game plan to achieve those goals, all with the mindset that ...

Remember those Klondike commercials with the catchy slogan "what would you do for a Klondike bar?" Well here's a new song to sing. "What would you do to increase Google traffic to your site by 733%?" Not as catchy, I know. But seriously what would you do for a gold mine of qualified traffic like that? How about give your left leg? Your first born child? You could but that is not really necessary. Instead you could just utilize some proven Search Engine Marketing techniques. Ready for an example? Let's look at Stoett, a retractable screen client we've been working with. When we ...

Are you looking for an easy way to drive additional traffic to your site and help with your search engines rankings? Try beefing up your company's Google Local Listing. There are several bits of information you can update and customize and best of all, it's free. To get started, first type your company's name along with the city and state where you are located into a Google search field. Most likely your company and basic contact info will be listed along with your location on the map. Don't worry if you didn't personally create the listing, Google scans other directories like the Yellow ...

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) are two key ways to drive qualified traffic to your Web site. Because 80% of a Web site's traffic comes from search engines I would suggest using both techniques (depending on the product or service) to boost traffic to your site. Each method is very valuable but is entirely different from one another. SEO and PPC differ in the following ways: Process SEO works by optimizing the structure and content of a Web page for a set of determined keywords so that it is viewed as reputable and valuable by the search engines. SEO also relies on ...

SEO Made Simple Series: Part 6 As search marketing and SEO continues to grow as an important part of an organization's overall marketing effort, more and more smart tools are being developed to make finding and interpreting search data easier. Here are some of the best tools that I've found. Keyword Research: Tools like Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions can help you start choosing the right keywords to optimize your site for based on the content of your site and/or descriptive words you enter. Back Links: To see who is linking back to your site type "link:sitename" in a Google search. A ...

SEO Made Simple: Part 4 While crafting a successful SEO campaign isn't as complicating as fixing our economy, it certainly takes time, talent, and resources. When making the decision to do your SEO in-house or to hire a professional, take the following things into consideration. Time: Optimizing a site and building a successful SEO campaign takes time-lots of time.  Because SEO is an ever-changing strategy, time must be invested throughout the campaign for it to pay off.  If you choose to do SEO in-house, you are pulling one of your team members away from another task that may be vital ...

SEO Made Simple, Part 3 Now that you've wrapped your mind around the concept of SEO and how your organization can benefit from it, let's move on to the four core components of SEO. keywords First you need to decide on a manageable number of keywords to target. I'd start with between 10 and 20, which you will eventually need to widdle down to between 4 and 8. Put yourself in your customers shoes. What keywords do you think they would be searching for in order to find your company or service. Be aware of that fact that the way your company and your employees refer to your product or ...