Social SEO

We’ve all heard it, Social Media and SEO are connected but why and how are they connected. Well, in a time where technology is getting better by the second, you have to understand that this includes search engines. Every day the search engines get smarter, making it easier for searchers to find relavent information. Meanwhile, Google & Bing’s algorithms continuously advance side-by-side, on top of having the ability to know how to treat all links differently, make it more prominent to adjust your current internet marketing methods.

Those that handle marketing for their company must realize that if their brand(s) isn’t publishing content to the web they will continuously fall behind the curve. The main goal of SEO is to help achieve more targeted traffic to the brand’s site and obtain whatever is deemed a conversion. These goals reinforce the importance of being social, providing endless & fresh content, frequently updating social sites & websites, social bookmarking and encouraged sharing, which produces organic links. This all revolves around the ongoing trend that potential customers that connect to a brand socially are more likely convert as well as, in a sense, viralize their site and social efforts.

So as they “If you build it they will come”, combined with a constant push of social content you will be destined to have social success, which equals an increase in ROI.

Be Relevant to Searchers with Dynamic Text

Anyone doing PPC advertising knows that you want to incorporate your best performing keywords into your ad copy. Not only will this help your quality score and cause your ad to stand out more with bold text, but it also keeps you relevant with people searching for your products and/or services. If your keywords are very similar or even synonyms, Dynamic Text will save you many headaches.

Using Dynamic Text will automatically insert your keyword or phrase that is generating the impression into your Ad Copy. This means that you no longer have to create a new ad for each one of your keywords. Instead, save time and effort by letting the automated Dynamic Text take care of it for you.

The example of how to implement Dynamic Text below is from Microsoft adCenter, although other popular PPC platforms, like Google AdWords, provide this service as well.

As you can see, this generic Ad Copy will tailor itself according to the keyword list and the search query. Depending on the search this Ad Copy could read:

Looking for Fresh Fruits?

We have the Fresh Fruit You are looking for.

www.--------------.com/Fresh_Fruits

Looking for Apartments?

We have the Apartments You are looking for.

www.--------------------.com/Apartments

Looking for Computer Parts?

We have the Computer Parts You are looking for.

www.--------------------.com/Computer_Parts

A quick warning, before implementing dynamic text make sure that all your keywords will make sense in the Ad Copy. The keyword “rent apartments” would not work in the example above. Also, make sure that the inserted keyword does not exceed the character limit; otherwise, your ad will not be shown.

Hope this helps improve your PPC efforts and keeps you relevant to your audience.

Google Analytics: New Site Speed Report Measures Page Load Time

We all know that using web analytics is key to running successful internet marketing and search engine optimization campaigns. It is always good to know what content on the website is driving conversions and where those visitors are coming from. The quest to improve your visitors’ website experiences doesn’t end there, however. With the latest version of Google Analytics, you can now monitor the average page load time via the new Site Speed Report. This new report comes along with the latest version of Google Analytics.

So why bother monitoring your website’s load times? Here are a few reasons:

• Browser Compatibility: Ensure that your website performance is top-notch for all of the most widely-used browsers.
• Search Engine Optimization: Make sure your landing pages not only have optimized content, but are also performing to the best of their ability.
• Goal Conversions: Increase goal conversions by ensuring your visitors are receiving the best possible performance and load times from your website.

Search engine optimization and internet marketing efforts don’t stop at optimizing content and online advertising. Monitoring website performance through the Site Speed Report of Google Analytics benefits both you and your visitors, and results in higher conversion rates.

PPC advertising – More than Google Adwords and Microsoft adCenter

If you are looking to run an internet advertising campaign, consider your options. Yes, Google is the search giant with the Yahoo and Bing partnership coming in second, but there are other options that may fit your advertising needs better and be just as profitable, if not more. A few of the other options include Facebook, Twitter, and Likedin. Lets take a quick look at each and what makes them different from each other and the big two, Google and Yahoo/Bing.

Facebook, one of the biggest social media sties on the web, offers a unique twist to targeting an audience for PPC advertising. Instead for the traditional keyword base targeting, Facebook opted to allow targeting through interests, groups, activities, as well as demographics and geo-targeting. If you are accustomed to keyword targeting, this may take some time to get used to, but can be very effective.

Twitter, where everyone can state what is on their mind, is currently testing a variety of PPC advertising options. Currently, promoted trends are available, but promoted accounts and promoted tweets could be coming soon. Promoted Tweets specifically, could potential have an endless reach and visibility with minimal cost. Interaction with retweets of a promoted tweet is increased reach and visibility without cost.

Linkedin, a more professional social network, provides marketers with a niche market. Targeting options for Linkedin include: Jon Title, Industry, Company Size, Company Name, and more. If you are looking to advertise specifically to businesses or business people, then you may want to take a closer look at Linkedin.

Hopefully this expanded your view on PPC beyond the search engine giants.