Facebook has more than 800 million active users, with over 50% of these users logging on at least once a day. This is a database of potential customers that your business could tap into if you utilised these sites.

Many people simply log on to see what their friends have been up to or to update everyone on what they had for breakfast, but the average user is said to spend approximately 11 minutes on the site each time they log on. Those 11 minutes could be spent looking at the services your business offer if you grab the opportunities at your fingertips.
So how can social media actually help your business?

Spreading The Word

By simply having an online account on a social networking site, you will help to increase your brand image. It’s a simple and yet effective form of advertising and because you can do it from the comfort of your own home you needn’t spend hours in the cold handing out leaflets to promote your new sale.

You are able to instantly connect with your target audience, similar to email marketing, so you can let them know of sales or special offers and start building your online presence.

What Do They Say?

Unlike older methods of gaining feedback such as questionnaires, social networking sites are unobtrusive and can allow participants to be more honest in their responses. Once you have built your presence online and have a steady flow of following customers, you can begin to ask them what they think about your business, and what’s important is to let them know you have recognised this feedback.

In a similar category, you can also use social networking sites to answer questions from your customers. This gives you an opportunity for your business to provide a completely personal service to your customers.

Loyalty

By creating your own Facebook page or Twitter account you will start to create an online community for your business. This will help to increase your brand loyalty and you can continue to keep these customers on board by offering them special online discounts or offers.

Unfortunately there will be times when people want to complain, whether it’s about one of your products or services or they are just generally unhappy. Social Media gives you control to instantly respond to complaints, a simple Tweet to a customer that’s not happy can help to maintain your businesses reputation and will put a smile back on your customer’s face.

By having your brand name on numerous websites, it allows links back to your own site that will in turn help with your position on search engine sites so, what are you waiting for? Start utilising social media to help improve and grow your business.

Don’t let your business get left behind!

A tenuous link perhaps, but in these chilly conditions the warmth and comfort provided by our winter coats is firmly on the minds of many. If you are currently still trying to pass off that light jacket as appropriate winter wear, give it up; you’re fooling nobody as we see you shivering in the corner. When looking for a perfectly cosy winter coat, the criterion most of us use is not dissimilar to that of the standards we look for in a good SEO campaign; let me explain.

The Fastenings

Whether you prefer buttons, zips or the ultimate combination of an initial zip covered over with that flap of material and statement toggles, the fact of the matter is that you need fastenings to hold the coat together.

When looking at online marketing on the whole, it is important you decide what keeps a campaign together even in the toughest of commercial climates, from link building to a social media campaign. Once you have decided on how important each facet of your campaign is, you can begin to assess budget proportions to ensure the fundamental parts continue to work for you.

Colour and Style

As much as we all love to think we put practicality ahead of fashion, most of us don’t (if I could bypass fashion I would arrive at work every day in a sleeping bag with holes cut out for my hands and feet). Both colour and style are important and before we even hit the shops we will have an idea of whether it is a duffle, parka or belted beauty we really want.

The importance placed on aesthetics should not be forgotten when it comes to online marketing and this is really the crux of the matter; if your website is dull and old fashioned, it doesn’t matter how well you link build or add content, nobody is going to want to stick around long enough to know what your do, meaning your bounce rate will higher than your company really deserves.

Padding

To truly brace the harsh winter elements, we need a certain amount of padding in our coats to keep us cosy and warm; whilst I’m not suggesting that some kind of 90’s bomber jacket is what’s called for (I had one complete with archetypal orange lining, not my finest purchase) we will undoubtedly be looking for that extra insulation.

Think of your homepage as the woman you see tottering down the high street on a Saturday night in November wearing simply a dress and heels, sure she looks great but you know she needs an extra layer. Regularly added content is the padding to your website; a nice warm layer that ensures you are seen as more than just a pretty face. Make sure the content is both appropriate and protects your business through accurate articles that enhance awareness of all you can offer; put simply your blog is your website’s winter coat.

When you are trudging round the shops at the weekend in search of the perfect winter coat, take a moment to think about the features you place importance on and apply these to your SEO campaign this winter.

Recently you may have read many articles about the end of traditional link building and how Google is changing its algorithm in favour of social media signals. However the situation seems orientated towards mutual efforts, where it is still vital to build links but it is just as important to establish conversations around your products, brands and sites.

The first step in starting the execution of building links is to identify online stakeholders that are interested in your brand/product. The following are some examples of groups who have proved successful when collaborating with.

Mums

Mums are great targets for your link building campaigns. Many Mums write their own blog, tweet and share updates on Facebook. They are interested in social media, children’s stuff, work/life balance and humanitarian causes. They can be easily reachable through Twitter hashtags (in UK #cybermummy, a conference for mummy bloggers, #mummybloggers etc.) and through blogs networks such as momblogmagazine.com.

Zombie Fans

Fans of everything zombie related are represented enough to get involved in your related products but can be difficult to find. They are interested in horror movies, metal bands, some videogames, costumes and many other products. They aren’t as established as mums nor do they possess the strong web relationships mum bloggers do. I have found many through Twitter, #zombie. Another great way to reach them is through Google and Open Site Explorer, checking the back links of popular zombie blogs.

Techy People

There are many Techy People online and can be engaged easily. In fact they use internet massively and they are always looking for great content to host and whenever they are collaborating with you, you can benefit from their great networking skills.

Locals

If you are looking to identify local bloggers and sites, Followerwonk will help you, through its search bios feature you can check the influencers in your area, type the area and keywords such as “blogger” or “local” or “news” to reach them. You will also notice a small but quality niche of hyper local bloggers that can be useful for your local results.

Charities

These are interesting stakeholders to build links through giveaways, they always are looking for donations and are able to organise charity competitions with the links you prefer.

Food lovers

You’d better contact them if you want to rank well for any food related business, they usually posts recipes, restaurant and products reviews. They are a consistent group that want to be independent in their online writing, they are very proud of their work and will often love to be interviewed, this can be a good chance to get them linking to your site.

Interact with niche bloggers and you could establish a whole new relationship with an active and vocal group stretching far and wide.

This guest post was written by SEO account executive Carlo Pandian.

It doesn’t matter how compelling your copy is, if the usability of your website is poor you will lose potential clients along the way.

Imagine for a moment you visit a website which enables you to order a settee that is custom made to meet all your requirements – size, shape, colour, material, everything. After browsing the site and seeing page after page of gorgeous images and powerful copy, you excitedly click on the order page only to find a page which asks you to describe exactly what you want in detail.

So what happens? Your mind goes blank. And it is not surprising. Here is a page asking you to say precisely what you want.

Now ask any consumer and not one of them will be able to tell you what they want. Isn’t that why after all they have come to your website? To get their creative juices flowing and more importantly be persuaded into buying your product? Thrown in the deep, they will more than likely click away and lose you a conversion.

It is important when creating a website that you don’t rely solely on your copy and imagery to sell. Of course they are important, but you need to take your audience’s needs into consideration – where have they linked to your site from? What do they want to know? Essentially how will they use your website?

How can I test the usability of my website?

One of the best ways to improve the usability of your website is to ask outsiders to take a tour.

Get them to start off at different beginning points i.e. your home page, another website, from Google search and get them to treat your website as if they are a customer. Get them to write notes about your website: what they don’t understand, what they would change, which pages they visited, where the copy needs improving.

Alternatively you can give them a list of specific tasks you want them to perform. For instance, how easy is it for them to register into the members only area or how straight forward is it to order.

Once you have done that make a flowchart of your website and review how the copy on each of your pages might affect the others surrounding them. You’ll soon be able to spot your weak copy spots and make amends.

Does it work?

It is incredible what a difference a little testing and research can make to the usability of your website. So don’t let your site suffer. Get outsiders to test your website today to ensure you are getting maximum conversions.

Soula Ltd is a digital marketing agency based in Nottingham. They not specialise in making great looking websites; but also focus on all aspects of online marketing and conversion rate optimisation.

When applying for a vacancy as a content writer, thoughts passed through my head of writing lots of articles and general content for websites. Little did I know that I was about to be thrust headfirst into the enthralling world of SEO.

If you’d have asked me a month ago what SEO meant and what it entailed, you would have received a blank expression showing little signs of any knowledge. Although I don’t profess to be an expert in it now, I have however grasped the basics and can start to see how a good quality SEO campaign can really make a difference for an online business.

I have grown up with computers and unfortunately spend much of my free time surfing the internet looking at the latest celeb gossip or having a nose at what my friends have been doing on Facebook. However I never really thought about the process of what goes on behind a website.

Keywords

Much like SEO, keywords were another foreign phrase to me a month ago. They have however become part of my everyday vocabulary now. These are the nuts and bolts that can help a business get to page 1 of Google.

Deciding on what keywords a company should optimise for isn’t about picking the obvious; I’ve learnt that you need to step into the shoes of your customer. When they are sitting at their computer searching for the latest trends in dancewear what words are they going to type into Google to find relevant companies. The obvious words like “dance”, “clothes” and “dancewear” are always going to be winners. However it’s always worth broadening your horizons and thinking about the not so obvious words, the specialist and niche words that people will search, like “tutu” or “ballet slippers”. This will increase traffic to a website because you will be opening it up to a bigger customer base by optimising for more keywords.

Content

Having dreamt of being a writer for many years, dabbling in the idea of writing a novel a few times only to start a chapter then leave it a few years before returning, it was certainly a nice feeling getting that call to say my application had been successful for the vacancy of a content writer. I’ve had the chance to finally use my creativity, to write fresh and unique content for a variety of different businesses in a wide selection of industries.

Some companies are definitely easier to write for than others, but that’s all part of the fun of using creative writing and thinking outside of the box. It’s definitely opened my eyes to a new world and it’s interesting to learn how content can help an SEO campaign with the use of things like keywords.

Now I’ve completed the first stage in my journey I’m keen to learn more in the hope that one day I’ll be a shining whizz-kid in the world of SEO.

Part of any advanced SEO campaign will include fresh, regularly updated content to keep continually singing the praises of all your client has to offer. Whilst this is a great way of adding a creative element to a campaign, inspiration can quickly run dry especially if the company you are writing for provides a niche service or product.

As a content writer, I have provided content to businesses across industry sectors and whilst some are easier to get my teeth into than others, there are a few things that greatly aid me when it comes to writing those trickier articles; read on as I divulge a few industry secrets:

Tip One: Delegate!

This is not an excuse to shun the workload, but if you have a client that receives articles on a weekly basis, inspiration will quickly run dry if you try to take on the content single-handedly. If you are part of a team, work out a schedule whereby you take it in turns to write for those higher paying clients and preserve your creative juices!

Tip Two: Contact Your Client

As writers working in the modern day, I’m afraid to say we have quickly developed a phobia of the good old fashioned telephone and instead choose to communicate through emails as much as is humanly possible. If you are struggling to come up with a gripping article for the client, it’s time to face your fears and pick up the phone.

Talking directly with a client means you can ask them questions about their business such as further information on any special offers or competitions they are running. Not only will this provide you with a possible new angle to take, it also shows your client just how involved in their campaign you really are; a bonus all round really.

Tip Three: Conduct Your Own Research

It is all too easy to simply skim through the existing content on a client’s website and re-work elements of it to post on their blog but let’s face it, it’s boring and it’s lazy. A good content writer should be thinking outside the box (or should I say site) and conducting their own research into what is going on within their industry sector. Use Google News to find current stories and check out the latest from competitors to make sure your articles help your client to stay ahead of the game.

If you are sat staring blankly at the computer screen praying for inspiration, now is the time to get proactive and produce content that both you and your client can be proud of by taking these top tips into consideration.

This post was written by Sophie Baker-Britton, a Content Writer for an expert SEO company that specialises in areas of internet marketing such as social media, eMarketing and article marketing.

As all tech fans waited with bated breath as Apple CEO Tim Cook stepped into the spotlight for his first product launch, the hope from many was that this would bring the eagerly anticipated launch of the iPhone 5. Now to be fair, it was an advancement on the previous model however the iPhone 4S was not exactly what people were hoping for! Whilst competitors such as Samsung and HTC continue to develop new and exciting products that are beginning to surpass the developments of Apple, it could be seen that the once technological juggernaut is starting to fall from the tree.

In terms of relating this to the wonderful world of SEO, it is important that patience alongside regular development is taken into consideration within a campaign. We all know that page one, position one is not going to come immediately and that continuous hard work has to be put in to achieve the desired rankings. This is most definitely where the patience factor comes in. However in terms of development there are always advancements being made and it is important that for a client’s sake, a campaign is regularly moving forward.

Although Apple could be seen as moving forward with the release of the iPhone 4S, this was not exactly the development that most fans wanted. In many ways, despite a new model being released, the lack of cutting edge technology in relation to that of their closest competitors has, by some in the industry, been called a backwards step. Everyone was waiting for the release of the iPhone 5 which would prove that Apple were still committed to being at the top of the tree, however instead came a small development on an existing product.

There are regular advancements and new ideas that can be incorporated within an SEO campaign that can make the initial patience from clients get its just rewards. From the set up of social media profiles in order to build up social circles through to guest blogging for those all important back links from high authority sites, there are numerous ways in which a stagnated campaign can be avoided.

Now I’m sure that the genius’ at Apple are working hard to develop new and innovative products but on a personal level I feel that a little tempter of the iPhone 5 would have been all it needed to get the excitement about the company back again. Instead the doubters are jumping on the bandwagon to further enhance the doom and gloom surrounding this once cutting edge and stand alone giant.

When you think about it, with $75 billion in the bank, I’m sure the top dogs at Apple probably don’t care too much. There will be an iPhone 5 out at some point in the not too distant future and those people currently with an iPhone will upgrade and take on another 2 year contract whilst curious newbie’s will also sign up to keep the money regularly rolling into Apple’s back pockets!

In terms of SEO, there is a fine line between managing the patience of a client and regularly pushing a campaign on through developments and incorporating new features. As Apple sits precariously on its technological tree, make sure your campaigns are sitting in a comfortable position as you strike a balance between patience and development to move forward in the right direction.

This post was written by Oliver Kyle, a keen follower of modern technology with an interest in the processes of an SEO company and their innovative approaches to internet marketing.

There is one thirteen year old though who stands out from the crowd, who is known worldwide, adored by millions but despised by a few thousand too. This thirteen year old could be considered the marmite of all thirteen year olds, you ever love “it” or you hate “it”, but what you cannot deny is that this particular teenager is potentially more powerful than Sir Alan Sugar, Rupert Murdoch and Richard Branson combined…………………. Step forward Google!

September 27th 2011 saw Google leave the tweenies’ age bracket and become a teenager and to be honest, in the last thirteen years, Google has influenced more people and more businesses than anyone else could honestly ever dream of doing. Part of me wonders whether its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin ever dreamt that their simple website would ever become so big, let alone celebrate its thirteenth birthday as the most powerful thirteen year old in the world (especially in terms of SEO).

Whilst the “Official Google Blog” seems to turn a blind-eye to the birthday celebrations, I on the other hand (despite not receiving an invite to the big bash or a slice of birthday cake) have decided to take a look at what makes Google so powerful, especially within SEO circles.

Pinpointing the success of Google is similar to trying to explain the meaning of life, it’s virtually impossible, but there are various elements of Google which have been attributed to its popularity and success in the search engine optimisation industry. These include:

Adwords

What Does Google Say about Adwords: According to its search engine, Google Adwords helps you connect with potential customers in the right place at precisely the right time.

Put Simply: Google’s Adwords tool provides you with a guide of how many people are searching and paying for a certain keyword, enabling you to see how competitive your selected word is and it can be used to help find long tail keywords

If you squint very carefully at the above image, you can see that the keyword “solicitor” has an rough local monthly search of 2,240,000; whilst it also offers an insight into the competitiveness of certain phrases, such as “free solicitor advice” and “solicitors in London” enabling you to choose excellent long tail keywords for article titles!

Insights/Trends

Whilst its Adwords tool enables you to see the competitiveness of “x” keyphrase or keyword, the Google Insights and Trends tools allow you to see how popular (in real time) certain keywords and phrases are, whilst also comparing the popularity of certain keywords and phrases against each other.

To define your results even further, through the Insights tool, it’s possible to alter variables such as where you search, the timeframe you include, etc. Unfortunately Trends only appears to be targeting the American market at the moment, but who knows, by time Google turns 14 it may have branched out to Europe and the UK.

Again, squinting carefully, using Google Insights you can see that in a worldwide search between 2004 and today, in all categories, the phrases Chelsea, Torres and Premier League are all relatively similar in search volume. However, if you alter the parameters, to make the search focus on the UK and in the last thirty days you can see that the searches for Torres have been relatively low, whilst the Premier League and Chelsea have fluctuated around weekends.

Such information can help you to tailor your blogs and content, depending on when and where they will be distributed, enabling you to reach the widest market possible.

Webmaster Tools

Webmaster tools could be the ultimate tool for all website owners and those working on SEO campaigns, as the tool lets you see your website in the same way that Google views it. This means that when crawling your website, any errors which Google finds which are preventing your website from climbing the SERPS can be found and rectified, whilst you can also see which keywords are listing and if you have any internal links which are defunct, i.e. follow links going to your “contact us” or “resources” pages.

Google: The Future

In its short lifespan, Google has already managed to achieve so much and with the SEO industry still considered to be an expanding market, the dominance, power and progress Google will continue to have, share and hold in the next few months and years is bound to be astonishing. Whilst it’s pretty much impossible to guess which way it’ll be turning next and what changes or platforms it’ll offer, one thing is for sure, it’ll be a fun-filled ride that brings with it thrills, spills, laughter, tears and joy!

Many Happy Returns Google!

*For those who are too young to remember, the title are lyrics taken from the opening of UK Subs’ “Teenage”

Written by Michael Younger a content writer for a leading SEO company who specialise in Pay-Per-Click, Social Media and Internet Marketing. In his spare time, Michael also updates his personal blog.

However, as happens to all the popular children at school, as they get older and a young pretender challenges for the thrown, they get found out for what they really are, the bubble bursts and the popularity starts to diminish. Unfortunately for Facebook, although they have been challenged for the starring role by Twitter, they seem to be the cause for their own misfortune and fall from grace, so with the year all but gone, has Facebook’s bubble finally burst?

Facebook: The Early Years

Before we look at the “demise” of Facebook, first of all we have to have a brief look at its rise to stardom and popularity. Unfortunately for its precursors, especially the once loved MySpace, Facebook seemed to turn up to school one-day, as the new kid, and instantly took its rightful place as the main attraction in the popularity circle and unlike some fads, this wasn’t to be a short term fix. Instead Facebook had dug its “Jimmy Choo” heels in and decided for itself that it was to remain at the top for as long as possible.

This potentially could be considered the first mistake that Facebook made. As is common within many films based around American High Schools, the leader of the popular group begins pushing their weight around, bullying those that get in their way and does all they can to stay at the top, only to push that little bit too far one day and begin the slippery slope down.

Facebook: The Fall from Grace

Facebook seems to have found every group possible to push around and whilst at first they managed to get away with it, because they were seen as “too school for cool.” However this year, especially during the last few months, they seem to have pushed too far and have faced some resistance.

It isn’t that Facebook has pushed and bullied its way around this year, instead they’ve opted to move the goalposts and change who and what they are overnight, not only making themselves unapproachable to the smaller groups but also alienating themselves from their own group too.

Despite being given sound advice from those loyal followers who have hung on every word that Facebook has said, as though it was gospel, for the last few years, Facebook have forged ahead with the drastic changes, actually scrap that. Facebook hasn’t made changes, instead it has thrown its toys out of the pram and re-labelled itself, but this time it’s no longer the loveable rogue, but instead a true monster!

It’d take an age to write, and a fair while for you to read all the changes that Facebook has made over the last few months. However, if any of you use the social media platform for either personal or professional reasons, you’ll have seen the changes come into play.

For some, it’ll be taken in your stride, whilst for others, with the rumours about Facebook charging for future content or the privacy policy changing, it’ll be seen as the last straw and as Facebook steps forward to claim its Prom King/Queen crown you’ll begin the chorus of boos!

Is This The End For the Once Great Facebook?

So is this the end for the once great, front runner of Facebook? No-one can be sure, after all it managed to reach top dog status without trying and I’m sure the management team there will have its fingers on the pulse, ready to switch again if Twitter (or even Google+) are deemed to get too big for their boots and threaten to take the top spot.

However, what you cannot deny is that if Facebook continues on this current trajectory, with the needle precariously positioned, one mistake could see them become relegated from football team captain, to reserve player alongside the likes of former greats, Myspace, Bebo and Hi5!

Michael Younger is a professional content writer and in his spare time he likes to update his personal blog.

Before launching Google Plus, Google gathered data about the popularity and social values of websites by implementing the +1 button for users to denote that they liked a particular website. Preceding the +1 button and the Google+, Google introduced real time search feature with a social element infused into it. This feature that will be included on all SERPs and Google+ feeds, is destined to change search results significantly.

The Power of +1

The addition of +1 button is a great way to endorse the value of a website’s pages, thereby increasing its popularity. Google recommends including the +1 button to all business owners and marketers who want to track their positive customer experience. When a user clicks on the +1 button on a particular website, it boosts the website’s value and reputation and influences other users too. The most interesting and powerful concept in Google+, however, is the “Circles” feature that allows users to share their likings with specific groups, circles, or people.

In order to use the Google+, you need to create a Google profile. You can then begin adding people to your network, thus creating circles for whatever categories you want, like friends, family, co-workers, dance class friends, SEO friends, etc. If anybody from the circle has a +1, other users in the circle will be able to see it and they are more likely to review that website. This strategy by Google, avowedly, has an enormous search engine optimization potential. As the +1ed pages of your website get indexed on Google, the ranking of your website will move up, gradually hitting the number one spot.

Spread your Word with Google+

For those who are looking for ethical search engine optimization, Google+ can bring them real time results. Links shared on Google+ have great chances of being indexed faster and consequently can show up in good positions on search engines.

If you still haven’t joined the Google Plus bandwagon, it’s time to break the ice and get ready to revolutionize your SEO experience.