Integrating Your SEO And Social Campaigns

In the past, social media and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) were two very different, very separate things. Social media was a way to write funny and annoying statuses, SEO was a way to make search engines like you. Nowadays, however, social media and SEO are well and truly joined at the hip.

Everything is pointing towards the coupling of social media and SEO, but if you aren't too sure on how to go about integrating your campaigns, you could find yourself lagging behind still. This is the case for a lot of SEO professionals that are only just jumping on the social media bandwagon.

The integrated first began when Google set up its very own social media platform, Google Plus, way back when. This might be old news to some of you, especially if you have already decided to discount it as a "bad" social media site. Google is the most powerful search engine out there though, so what Google wants, Google gets.

The search engine superpower has even confirmed that social trends influence search results, as the whizz kids at Google have been working on tweaking the algorithm to show people what is trending at the moment, not just what SEO's have managed to squeeze into the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Facebook and Bing were also recently married, with the implementation of Graph Search. This is Facebook's very own search engine, where you can search for pretty much anything you want. Some examples include:

- Friends that like "The Beatles".
- Friends that like "The Beatles" and visited London in 2009.
- Friends that like "The Beatles", visited London in 2009 and have cats.

Yes, it really is that specific. And, if it can't find what you're looking for (because you have no friends that listen to "Hey Jude" on repeat, love London an cats), then it will produce a plethora of Bing search results that are closely related.

No matter what you Google nowadays, you can almost guarantee that a number of YouTube videos will pop up, or even some Facebook profiles or Twitter pages.

So, if you want to get started on your integration, here's how:


1. Get on top of social media

Before you integrate, you need to be fully aware of how social media works. Ensure your social media presence is active and that you have profiles on all of the top social media platforms. If you don't know how to do this, employ someone that does.


2. Link your sites and your social media

You can transform fans into shoppers and vice versa by making sure you have social media buttons on your website. Make them big and bold, and consistently link to your site from your social profiles.


3. Make your content findable

Good content is the perfect viral tool, but only if it's easy to find. Again, social share buttons need to appear on your pages. That means on every single page, not just the main page.


4. SEO your content

Of course, keywords are always involved when it comes to SEO. If you want to create a super piece of content for your social media though, you'll need to ensure it's about what people are interested in. Dive into your analytics or run a keyword campaign to find out; then write your content.


5. Encourage people to get involved

Remember calls to action? Well, they're more important than ever now. If you want people to share your content or like your page, tell them to! Something as simple as "like this post if you loved it!" or "what did you think of this post?" will suffice.


About The Author: Lauren Belfield, 26, is a graduate from the University of Manchester who now works as a freelance writer specialising in Search Engine Optimisation. Lauren does lots of work currently for the well-known SEO Agency in Manchester, Lakestar Mccann.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Lauren and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


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The Death Of Link Building?

The Google Penguin update last year has, one assumes, had the desired effect - it has got the SEO community running for the hills, abandoning black hat tactics in droves, and heading for the safety of the white hat content marketing fold. Some have even announced the "death of link building" (though I think it is slightly wide of the mark).

Certainly the days of spammy, manipulative, black hat SEO seems to be over. Here are some well-worn tactics that are pretty much no-go in a post-Penguin world:

1. Link farms/blog link networks.
2. Spamming and over optimisation of anchor text.
3. Forum spam.
4. Comment spam.
5. Pretty much any link building tool that generates links automatically.

For broadly white hat SEO's like me, the Panda/Penguin hit over the last couple of years has been welcomed - I welcome anything that will significantly improve the relevance and quality of my search experience. Whereas many SEO's tend to panic when the Google updates come out, thinking "are my sites next??" my view is, great, get rid of the bad guys - it means a level playing field for us good guys.

Despite the algo changes, I do see white hat link building as broadly ethical, promotional tool, does have a future, in my opinion.

I saw a SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday today, called "The Death of Link Building and the Rebirth of Link Earning." Rand's general point is that with the Penguin update, and the movement of the industry as a whole, the days of going out and manually building or placing links are limited. The best links, he says, are earned; this has always been true, the trouble is, earning these great links and citations to effect page one rankings for your clients is really hard.

In the video Rand gives some examples of old skool vs new skool link building/earning tactics; I've given a few here:

Link Building	Link Earning
Link exchanges/reciprocals	Cross promotional/partnerships
Email blasts for links	Social sharing that leads to links
Paid links	Earning links with content
Submit to directories	Request inclusion on curated lists
Article directories/article marketing	Getting a guest post on "picky" sites/blogs
Getting links on forums/guestbook/comments	Participating in active communities
Mining competitors backlinks	Using OSE to find most linked to content on competitors sites
Building a blog link network	Building a social network of followers and fans

So it's clear that, broadly speaking, link earning, rather than link building is the future of the industry. Now begins the hard work - convincing our clients to invest in content!


About The Author: Centreline Air are a leading private air charter firm in the South West UK. Visit http://www.centrelineair.co.uk/ to find out more.

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Related articles:
5 Helpful Tips To Recover From Recent Penguin Update
SEO Link Building Techniques That You Should Avoid
A Guide To Guest Blogging For SEO In 2012


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What Should Large Businesses' Technology Strategy Include?

Technology has a role to play in the operation of every business. For large businesses, however, it can be central to everything and perform a major supporting role. This is true whichever way you look at it; servers for maintaining data and systems, powerful communications channels for both internal and external means, and the hardware that employees of a business use.

How a large business approaches technology can affect everything that happens "in house," from the level of morale and productivity of the team to expenditure and bottom line profitability.

What should the technology strategy of a large business look like and include?


Making Room for Innovation

Whenever a part of a business is "in transition," it can be difficult to get excited about anything that happens within it. However, the reality of technology is that, by its very nature, you're always going to be in transition in this respect.

The reason for this is that in an ideal world you will always be looking for ways to innovate and take your technology forward. However, the trick for large businesses is to ensure that the majority of their employees can continue using the platforms that are already in place, while a specialist team of IT-professionals and developers focus on research or coming up with a new idea.

If a business can achieve this, the natural evolution of their technology will be effortless.


Keeping it Green

Today, the demands on a business when it comes to being environmentally friendly are bigger than ever before. If a company isn't green, then at best they can expect to get some negative publicity.

Businesses should be doing all they can to ensure they are as green as possible when it comes to technology. How they go about this is up to them; some are choosing to use cloud technology to a greater extent to minimize the energy they use from a physical data centre, while others are embracing green technology to the fullest extent, using energy monitors, solar panelling, and other initiatives.


A Commitment to Training

One aspect that holds back even the biggest businesses is that they operate in a kind of "need to know" bubble when it comes to technology. While this is perhaps not necessarily an issue at ground level in more junior positions - there may be advanced programs that are relevant to those higher up in the company - it is definitely something that should be looked at from the top down.

Many businesses exist where senior executives have no clue around the systems and technology being used by those at various levels in the company. Of course, these executives will look at their output in terms of finances and what they add to the business; is it really fair to do this without a real knowledge of how they work?

At the same time, the role of technology in the world is increasing all of the time, so there should be a real commitment to training and continued development at all levels. Without this, a company will stagnate, and it is likely that other areas will suffer as a result, such as the morale and productivity we alluded to earlier.

A technology strategy with clear objectives that benefit everyone in the business is important for a large company to make the most of what they're using; without one, they are making life difficult for themselves unnecessarily.


This article is written by Jaguar PC, providers of managed VPS hosting with 24/7 professional support and daily backups.

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How HTML5 Can Help With SEO

HTML 4.01 has been in use for almost 10 years now, until recently when HTML5 morphed out of it as the new standard for website content and functionality, and it continues to evolve ever since then. Latest web browsers like Safari, Chrome, IE and Firefox have adapted well to this latest web standard and continue to make their latest versions adapt to its features.

HTML5 has a number of elements that help online marketers to carry out effective SEO by way of its technical enhancements and improved features. It is however important for them to understand in detail, why does HTML5 matter for their SEO efforts.

To start with, here is how HTML5 can help with SEO:


1. New Semantic Tags and Geolocation Microdata Elements

HTML5 has new elements to offer that enable a better structure of the site viz. header tags, article tags and nav tags. You can make search engines understand and index simple content such as ratings/reviews, company events, people and products by using Geolocation Microdata.

SEO benefits: The cleaner code enables webpages to be efficiently searched and indexed. Also, the download time for webpages decreases significantly. Google identifies and presents the information in a better manner by virtue of the rich snippets generated by webmasters with the help Microdata.


2. New Media Elements

HTML5 brings along a new standard for multimedia content without the need for a plugin by a third party vendor. For instance, playing audio or video on a webpage had no set standard practice until HTML5 came into being. Generally, third party plugins such as flash are required to play audio and video files, however same plugins are not shared by all browsers. By using HTML5, you can directly build videos into browsers that support it and enable fast video downloads.

SEO benefits: Search engines better index and search HTML5 videos. Videos are ultra-fast and are browser based. Also, slower internet connections can have a better browsing experience without video buffering since the downloading and playing both take place in HTML5.

The independence from a third party vendor's plugin makes HTML5 more companionable with mobile gadgets which classically have restricted memory resources. The benefit of this video element for SEO is due to the fact that you can do away with much coding in order to be able to set in the video. Also, the video tag enables a search engine crawler to be more discerning as to what is this code for.


3. Canvas Element

This is a new pixel based graphic area that enables drawing charts, graphics and graphic visuals on a webpage.

SEO benefits: It provides greater stability as compared to a plugin since the browser includes the Canvas.


4. Local Client Side Storage

Cookies have not proved to be the right solution for storing huge volumes for data since every request forwards them to the server making it unproductive and sluggish. HTML5 uses data only when called for and it does not practice passing data on every server request. Data is stored and accessed using Javascript. This storage function benefits web apps and emails the maximum.

SEO benefits: You can leave the website's performance unaffected even after storing large amounts of data.


5. Form Elements

The forms have been equipped with more variety and functionality viz. date, time, URL, email, calendar, search etc.

SEO benefits: These new form options provide better design and functionality on mobile devices.


6. Multi-tasking capabilities through Web Workers

HTML5 has made web browsers capable of multitasking through Web Workers. The benefit of a feature as Web Worker is that the browser does not get locked up even when several processes are operating in it. Javascript used in the past could not even handle heavy computing. Scripts that would run for long also used to get timed out. The features of Web Workers are somewhat similar to the traditional Java or C# multi-threaded applications. Two of the uses that Web Workers come handy for are doing exhaustive numerical calculations and updating client-side databases.

SEO benefits: Web Workers give a greater flexibility to the developer in separating the content from code intended for processing tasks.

The above mentioned features of HTML5 and the SEO benefits that they bring along bear enough testimony to the fact that HTML5 is the new standard in markup for presenting webpages.


About The Author: Jason Smith is an online manager for a company who provides social security disability help. Jason likes blogging about online strategies that are related to SEO, Content, PPC and Lead generation.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Jason and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

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Until my next post on Wednesday, have a wonderful and relaxing weekend!

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Strategies For Finding Guest Posting Opportunities

Guest posting is a great way to build relevant inbound links to your website which contributes to about 80% of what you can do to improve your SEO rankings. It is important to mention that on-page SEO is about 20% of what you can do to rank your site organically.

Guest posting in some cases is also referred to as guest blogging. It is one of the best ways to build authority to your site. However, identifying the best guest posting opportunities for link development strategy is the most difficult part. You can build credibility around your site by guest posting or guest blogging on the most credible locations or guest blogging sites.

When you are starting a site from scratch, it is rare to get an audience. However, you shouldn't find this a problem anymore if you use the following best strategies to find the best guest posting or guest blogging opportunities.


Search engines

This is one of the quickest and most intuitive ways to finding relevant guest posting opportunities related to your website's niche. It is for this reason that you should make Google and other big search engines your great friends. Once you find the relevant guest blogging locations you are looking for, it is very vital that you check if they have a well-established guest post system. You can do this by checking if they've ever accepted guest posts in the recent past. Ignore guest blogging sites that lack the history of accepting guest posts.

You can also check out the advanced Google blog search bar if you can't find the best guest posting location using the traditional Google search bar. This is quite simple because it involves searching for your primary keywords with quotations like "write for us", "submit guest post" and "submit an article" etc.


Leveraging social media

Once you have exhausted all the advanced search engine queries mentioned earlier, social media can be your best option to turn to. It mainly involves looking for friends on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter who have guest blogging sites relevant to your site's niche. For instance, you can do this by typing and scanning for the keyword on twitter directories like Twellow and Wefollow. This gives you a pretty good list of people who have guest posting sites you can actually put your guest post. Leveraging with social media is the only way to find influencers around a specific topic relevant to your niche.


Spy on your competitors

This is one of the best strategies you can use to find the best guest posting opportunities used by your competitors. However, majority of people are not willing to fully exploit this strategy. Check on your competitor's backlinks with SEO tools and sites like Majestic SEO, Open Site Explorer or backlinkwatch.org. This mainly entails analysis of successful guest posting opportunities used by your competitors. Spying on your competitors is indeed a great strategy to gain additional backlinks with a little effort.


Blog directories

Blogging is the most raging activity online these days. Quite a large number of blogs offer free guest posting opportunities even if you don't have to advertise them. If you can tap into existing blog directories then, make an inquiry with some blogs regardless of whether they advertise or not. If you want to concentrate solely on your website's niche then, look for specific blog directories using search engines like Google.


Leveraging previous guest posts

You can leverage on your previous guest posts by using them as a billboard to advertise your inbound links. Also, mention your availability for guest opportunities by interacting with your commenters. Interacting with your commenters can create an opportunity for you to rub shoulders with the followers who have blogging sites relevant to your niche. This is one big opportunity to grow your audience and a network. The bottom line is: even if you have worked with a blog in the past, take the entire guest post opportunities you can get.


Tell people

This is one rare strategy employed by a few website owners seeking guest posts on other blogging sites. You should put into consideration the fact that one of your visitors could be a blogging website owner who is willing to let you guest post on their sites. Bloggers are always looking for quality content to add to their blogging sites, your guest post might be one of them.


About The Author: Jason Smith is an online manager for an Inbound Marketing Company. Jason likes blogging about online strategies that are related to SEO, Content, PPC and Lead generation.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Jason and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related articles:
How You Can Get Started With Accepting Guest Posts On Your Website
A Guide To Guest Blogging For SEO In 2012


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Until my next post on Friday on how HTML5 can help with SEO, enjoy the rest of the week!

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Attract More Customers! 10 Internet Marketing Strategies For Small Business Owners

Small business owners are the lifeblood of our economy. According to The U.S. Small Business Administration, since 1995, small businesses have attributed close to 50 percent of the total United States private payroll. That's pretty impactful isn't it? What isn't that remarkable is how some small business owners utilize internet marketing or social media. Some don't even know what it is or shy away from it thinking that it can't help or grow their customer base or business.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Google+ are just a FEW of the social sites that every small business entrepreneur needs to know about. Why? They can be the main conduit to the individuals and groups who are the target audience for your business.

As a business owner you're probably thinking that you don't have time to learn about social media or internet marketing. Actually, you don't have the time NOT to. There isn't a definitive number that captures how many large corporations or small businesses have a social media presence or use the internet to market their services, but let's look at the number of people who are signed up on two of the largest social media networks. Cnet.com reported late last year that Facebook has a billion users. Twitter is not far behind at half a billion users. In order to reach them you have to have a presence as well. Depending on your business, Facebook or Twitter may be right for you or perhaps other social sites would be best. After you determine this, here are 10 tips that will help you maximize your social media efforts and activities.

1. Pinpoint why your business is unique and promote the hell out of it in creative ways! Do you make cakes that have a special ingredient that cause people to dance and smile after eating them? Zone in on the special value you provide and build a framework to highlight it in your internet marketing plan.
   
   
2. Create a catchy offer. If you're an author, give away a specific number of books when you hit benchmark social media follow numbers or give away tickets to an event you're appearing at. Always make sure the offer benefits your audience!
   
   
3. Provide continuous value to your followers. Whether it's promotions, how-to videos or personal advice or reflections about your business experience, make sure you're connecting directly to your social media supporters. People always respond favorably when they feel valued and are more inclined to share this feeling with others.
   
   
4. Create a lead generation website or blog. We all like pretty websites don't we? As a business owner looking cute is nice, but if your site doesn't include a way to attract new followers or customers then it's not going to be of much use to you. Make sure you have plenty of ways built in to your site that allow visitors to share your content. Also, provide coupons and promotions and other special offers for your products often to ensure you are reaching new potential customers.
   
   
5. Implement a follow-up system. If your followers are responding to your content, communicate with them. If they are asking questions, get back to them in a timely matter. If your site collects emails, create a newsletter so you can let them know what's going on with your business, that way they always feel connected to you. Followers or customers who are ignored will leave.
   
   
6. Use an "attractive character" to endear your business, blog or product to your audience. The Geikco Gecko, Jared for Subway and Flo from the Progressive Insurance commercials are great examples of attractive characters. Of course as a small business owner, you may not be able to create larger than life characters as these so you will have to be creative. Is your cat or dog a ham? Use them in your marketing! Do you have a friend who is a graphic artist? Ask them to create a unique logo or artwork for you.
   
   
7. Provide ease of use on your site. You can have an amazing product, blog or service, but if your site is not organized in a way that people can find what they are interested in a quick and efficient manner, all of that greatness will be for naught.
   
   
8. Encourage evangelism! One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website or blog is to get others to do it for you! Build collaborative relationships with other blogs and businesses, place social media share buttons in prominent places so visitors can share content easily and be active on other sites and in your business community. If you show interest in other's projects and businesses they will share the wealth.
   
   
9. Use powerful keywords. In order for people to find your site or blog on Google, it has to be ranked high. Employ the use of Google AdWords for assistance in selecting the best keywords to include on your site and also do your own searches online to test out the best headings and titles to use in your posts.
   
   
10. Build a social media strategy. Seems simple right? Create a Facebook or Twitter profile and then the people will come! It doesn't quite work that way unless you're a high profile celebrity so you have to create a specific strategy in order to maximize your social media efforts. Determine how many followers you want, how often you will engage them and track your success by analyzing your profiles through Google Analytics or other social engagement programs.

The proper use of these tips should help you maintain and grow your social communities and customer base! Let me know if you need a consultation or additional information on internet market and social networking.


About The Author: Bob Mangat is the Owner/President of Invigo Marketing Systems Ltd, a leading Vancouver SEO Company offering a variety of services including Internet Marketing Consulting, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, List Building and Website Design/Redesign.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


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As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
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Until my next post on Wednesday with strategies for finding guest posting opportunities, have a great and productive week ahead!

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LinkedIn Groups For Marketing: How To Create The Buzz And Get Noticed

It is now a well-known fact that LinkedIn is the Facebook of business community. It has become a very common practice amongst businesses to look into the LinkedIn accounts for business related or professional information on any company or individual. So, you must be careful about what you post on your LinkedIn page and the image that you portray there. Here are a few tips that will help you in creating the buzz and getting noticed.


Install the "Company Buzz" Application

"Company buzz" feature of LinkedIn allows you to keep track of what others are saying about your company across social media platforms. This is very important as the image you have on social media platforms can be a big factor in driving your business. Visit the "company buzz" application page on LinkedIn and you will get the instructions on how to add and use the application. Make sure you go through this thoroughly to get an idea of how to maximize its usage.


Use of Buzzwords

There are a few words that are called as buzzwords in the LinkedIn circle. Essentially, buzzwords are the terms that grab attention of casual browsers. For example, some of the buzzwords are organizational, creative, dynamic, innovative, etc. When a viewer looks at these words, he/she will get an impression of sophistication and professionalism. Also, while people are searching for companies, they use these terms as keywords. So, your company profile has a greater chance of popping up in the results if you use these words.

At the same time, make sure that you don't overuse these terms. Over usage of buzzwords will give an impression that you are trying too hard to get noticed, something you must avoid at all costs.


Post Blog and Twitter Feeds in Your LinkedIn Page

If your company has a twitter account and a blog, make sure that you share those links on LinkedIn. There is a feature on the site that allows you to automatically link your social media feeds and blog feeds on your company's page. By doing this, you don't have to worry about posting the same thing on LinkedIn again.


Leveraging your Employees' Profile

The type of employees that your company has projects a relevant image of your company. For example, if you have a team that is experienced and well qualified, your company's image will receive a boost. The trick here is to make clever use of the profiles to boost the reputation of your company and create a buzz. This is within ethical realms and permissible.


Building Network

Don't expect people to start connecting with you right away. You must be proactive in building a network. Send out invites to people and start a network. Once you have done that, others will also want to stay connected to your profile. Join some groups and comment actively on posts. That will help you in creating an image for your company and get noticed.


About The Author: Grace Beckett is a Content Strategist and Senior Writer with Godot Media - a Content Marketing Firm. She works with small and mid-sized businesses, helping them create a solid Internet footprint. She has also helped many online businesses develop a blog writing strategy. Her other interests, besides internet and content marketing, are fashion and technology.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Grace and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
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Until my next post on Monday with 10 internet marketing strategies for small business owners, have a fabulous weekend!

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Some Google Prospecting Tips For SEO's

Link prospecting - finding good quality websites that that might want to link to yours is one of the most basic tasks for today's link builder/SEO/inbound marketer (however you want to describe yourself) along with content creation and outreach, it's one of three of the main link builder's daily tasks, in the process of building links to your site.

There are number of tools out there for link prospecting: Citation Labs Link prospector is one, SEOmoz's Open Site Explorer is another. However, in my experience probably the best all round link prospecting tool out there is good old Google. As veteran link builder Eric Ward says, the only link building tools you need are "Google and your brain."

Google is a very powerful tool, but like all computers, it's only as intelligent as the person using it. In order to start prospecting, you need to first select your keywords, obviously, these are the words related to your site's niche; so if you link building for a removals company in London, then you want to include removals-related phrases, London-related phrases, plus any other phrases from related niches, that you think might work. So a query you might want to try first could be:

"list of removals companies"

Or perhaps

"list of London removals companies"

You could extend this query by including the "linurl:links" stem; this brings back queries that are related to your niche, but that also have the words "links" in their URL - very useful! So you might follow up a few searches like the ones above with something like:

"list or removals companies inurl:links" or perhaps "list of removals companies inurl:resources"

After these searches, you should have a few dozen prospects to outreach to. Another prospecting angle is to go down the route of looking for links on university or government sites. These sites get a Page Rank boost from Google, or at least tend to have good authority and inbound links profiles, meaning they make great link prospects. Try a few searches like this:

"site:.gov removal companies" or perhaps "site:.edu removals companies" which brings back US university pages. Try "site:.ac.uk removals companies" for UK university pages.

OK, so there are unlikely to be loads of prospects to found for removals firms on university sites, but you never know!

There are a number of stems that can be used to find more links pages:

1. "useful links" or "useful resources" or "useful sites" or "useful websites"
2. "recommended links" or "recommended resources" or "recommended sites" or "recommended websites"
3. "suggested links" or "suggested resources" or "suggested sites" or "suggested websites"
4. "more links" or "more resources" or "more sites" or "more websites"
5. "favourite links" or "favourite resources" or "favourite sites" or "favourite websites"
6. "related links" or "related resources" or "related sites" or "related websites"

All the phrases above can be combined with the "inurl:" stem for more options.

This is just the tip of the iceberg; there are literally hundreds of Google prospecting options out there, it just requires imagination. Of course, once you've found the prospects, you have to outreach to them - that is a whole other blog post!


About The Author: The Traveller are experts in cultural and historical tours. Start your adventure with us today.

Did you find this article helpful? Do you have any link prospecting tips to share? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments.

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5 Reasons Why SMBs Are On The Rise In United States

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

It's been quite a while since my last blog post, five weeks in fact which again was due to illness. After my bout of the flu which put me out of action for almost two weeks, I picked up quite a nasty bug a week or so later which put me out of action for a further four weeks. I'm happy to announce though, that I'm feeling much better now and it's so nice to be able to get back to my normal blogging routine. I just hope I don't pick up any more bugs, given the unusual cold weather we are currently having here in the UK. :)

As always, thank you for your patience and understanding during these absences and without further ado, here's this weeks first blog post by our guest author Matt Dyson highlighting the top 5 reasons why small and medium sized businesses are on the rise in the United States...


5 Reasons Why SMBs Are On The Rise In United States

When it comes to starting off a business venture, most people opt to start at a small scale and then moving on to bigger ventures once they have raised enough capital. According to most experts this is the right approach, as it requires minimal investment in terms of capital; both human and monetary. However, if you are wondering what type of business qualifies to be a small or medium business in the US, then you should know that there are varied views on this.

Sometimes there are businesses which may have as little as 10 employees, and there may be businesses that may have over 500 employees and they still qualify as a small and medium business. The definition varies based on the industry, the ownership structure, revenue and also the number of employees.

Of late several small and medium sized businesses have on the rise in the US. However, there is more to just the investment that is to be considered when you are looking for the reasons for this rise. This article aims to highlight the top 5 reasons for this rise.


Catering to a niche

When you narrow down your focus you know what type of customers you want to attract and the type you do not want to attract. When catering to a niche it is extremely easy to identify what the market wants and you can easily build a reputation with your niche. Also, with a narrow focus you can offer the best customized products/services to your customers, which gives you a competitive edge over your competition.


Collaboration with clients

When it comes to a SMB it works more like a closely knit community. All customers want personalized attention when it comes to getting things done, this is something that most big businesses have to forego for greater profits. With SMBs you can create products/services that address highly personalized requests from customers. Doing so, the small and medium businesses get to know the ins and outs of the business. This not only creates further opportunities but also helps gain trust of the customers much quicker than in the case of a big business.


Added agility

When it comes to meeting clients requirement, there can be opportunities where the business may have to change its business model drastically to take advantage of several opportunities that are available in the market. This is something no big business owner will do and as a result letting go of the opportunity. With small businesses making these changes is not that difficult and this aligns them with the business opportunity. This flexibility allows most small businesses to be innovators in their field. The unwillingness or rigidity of big businesses is opportunity for small businesses.


Better experimental depth

A small business can easily grow with a customer's needs. The turnover time for the small business time when it comes to providing personalized solution is drastically reduced if compared to a big business. The small business can offer partnership to its clients, churning out the best possible option for both the client and itself. When it comes to a big corporation, they usually come with a big solution that might require several changes, leading to increased costs.


Ease of outsourcing

Through technological advancements, small business can easily manage activities like follow-ups, accounting, prospecting for a client without having to bear cost associated with overhead when it comes to departmentalization. Small and Medium businesses, look to outsource and leverage technology to its advantage, something most large organizations do not do.

The advantages of an SMB definitely outweigh those for a big corporation. The market is always open for businesses that are willing to go beyond products and services, making the experience more personalized. An SMB can deliver something that has meaning and purpose attracting both internal and external audience without being answerable to investors in search of profits.


About The Author: Matt Dyson is a blogger and a strategist who usually writes about current business trends and how businesses can get advantage from it. He also writes for US Media TV.

Did you like this article? Please let Matt and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on NetworkedBlogs, via Email (maximum of one email per day), on Facebook and Google+ or by subscribing to our blog feed at:
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Until my next post on Wednesday on Google prospecting tips for SEO's, have a great week ahead!

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