How Social Should I Be With My Business

How Social Should I Be With My Business

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A recent study showed 72% of businesses that have a online marketing strategy include Social Media within that strategy.

The biggest challenge though is how do you measure a return on investment, especially as the more time you give to Social Media, the more it can take.

In this video we discuss how social you should be and how you can ensure you’re getting the best result for the time you invest.

 

Time Stamps

1 – The Top 3 Ways To Market Online – Time: 00:23
2 – What Are The Benefits Of Social Media – Time: 1:39
3 – 2 Reasons Social Media Sucks! – Time: 2:02
4 – 5 Ways To Measure How Social You Should Be – Time: 4:49
5 – In the Next Video – Time: 6:30

Transcript

Hello and Welcome, David Judge here and in my last video I spoke about the basics every website should have .

In today’s short video I’m going to discuss how social you should be with your business, especially as Social Media can be a massive time suck.

A quick shout out to Michelle MacPhearson and MarketingProfs where I found some of the statistics I’m going to share today.

The Top 3 Ways To Market Online

So let’s jump right in and discuss the different ways businesses use to market online.

The stats from MarketingProfs show that 86% of businesses use email marketing, 72% use Social Media and 70% use SEO (search engine optimisation).

Although that makes Social Media the number 2 preferred platform by businesses when it comes to social, 52% of the people that use Social Media agree that it’s difficult to prove an ROI for social media marketing.

Now that’s sort of funny cause only 10 years ago your main options of marketing were Radio, TV, Newspaper, Direct mail and if you were dumb like me Cinema Advertising.

Back 10 ago, how would you measure if what you were doing worked?

Well, you’d have to ask every person that got in contact with you and if you were a larger company you’d arrange group events where you’d gauge public sentiment which would cost a fortune.

What Are The Benefits Of Social Media

So, yes while it is more challenging to measure a return on investment, social media offers other benefits.

It allows you to:

– Engage your customers on a regular basis
– Target the audience you want
– Help you better understand your customers

But Dave, I want to focus on the problems with social media not why it’s so good.

So, lets touch on that then…

Social media is like a rabbit hole, the deeper you go, the deeper the hole and there are so many darn options out there that it can be a total time suck (as I said before).

Not only that, by putting your business out there people may actually say bad stuff about you, which can be totally soul destroying if you’ve put all of your heart and soul into something you love.

2 Reasons Social Media Sucks!

So lets address those 2 points now and then wrap up with a couple of important pointers on how you should approach social for your business.

1 – Social can be a time suck
Yes, it can and there are 3 ways you can overcome the time suck.

You can:
– Employ a business to do it for you
– Employ a Virtual Assistant to handle it for you
– Focus on one – two key Social Platforms that would suit your business best

If you focus on the first 2 ways it will obviously cost you more (with the second option a lot more affordable than the first) and the 3rd way is more affordable again and will reach a smaller audience of people.

The scale and size of what you can accomplish directly reflects your budget, yeah?

2 – What if people say bad stuff about me

We were actually managing a client that had a person they had cheesed off, set up a bunch of fake accounts and start trolling the person with a series of fake reviews, each review knowing exactly the wrong thing to say to really hit home for the business owner.

This hit them really hard and they lost a lot of sleep over it.

They called me into the office and they wanted to pull the campaign yet the main issue was it was a google places account and due to the way Google Places worked another account could be created that meant the trolling could continue.

The key difference here is the client had control over the account, so they decided to find out who it was (by asking their team) and got in contact with the person, met them face to face and resolved the issue. This resulted in the Troll removing the fake reviews which of course, fixed the issue.

The moral of the story here (and this was an extreme) is if you don’t engage in social media and you have disgruntled customer, they will still put up negative information about you, so it’s better to at least have control of how you are social.

5 Ways To Measure How Social You Should Be

Ok let’s wrap up with a few important points on how social you should be:

1 – Know your customers. Who is following, liking and engaging you? and when you figure that out, you can tailor how you stay in touch and what to say to them

2 – Be consistent. This is in your brand, but also where and how often you post social information out about your business.

This means if you are going to post weekly, then post weekly, on the same day. Find out when the best times are for you to post based on your followers and post at that time.

3 – Be creative – Rather than sharing the same content that someone else has created, invest 10 mins creating your own content. This can be an image with an inspirational message, an event you’re holding, relevant information that your followers would like to know about. Mix it up and see what your followers like

4 – Keep branding – When you create social content, always include your branding on it and make sure it looks consistent every time. You can even include your website so people that see your content know where to go to find the source

5 – Execute – Get out there and engage your audience. Engage your audience based on the time you have available and create a realistic sustainable plan of consistent attack. Social is an ongoing task

Remember, the way your business appears online is a reflection of how you do business. Which ever way you do get out ensure you focus on consistency and a plan you can sustain in the long term.

In the Next Video

Ok, great. in the next video we’re going to talk about email marketing.

As you saw from the stats I shared earlier, it’s the most commonly used form of marketing, yet so many small to medium businesses simply don’t use it.

If you have a question you would like me to answer make sure you get in contact and I love to hear from you.

As always this is David Judge talking online marketing and showing you how to grow your business online.

 

You May Also Be Interested In:

  1. Top 5 Online Marketing Strategies If You’re On A Tight Budget
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  3. SEO and Social Media
  4. The Top 5 Ways To Understand What Your Customer Wants
7 Basics Every Website Needs To Succeed

7 Basics Every Website Needs To Succeed

in , , /by

Getting found in the Search Engines, Bringing in Traffic and Getting Customers from your website come back to 7 simple principles. In this video we cover the different ways people view your website and the foundational areas you need to have a website that flourishes now and in the future. These really are compulsory if you want to GROW your online presence.

 

Transcript

Hello and Welcome, David Judge here and in this short video I’m going to talk with you about The basics every site should have.

Now I’m talking from a User Experience Perspective and the basics a website should have to make it easy for visitors to find out your products and services and want to deal with you.

The Evolution of Technology over the last decade

Over the years and as technology evolves the way people look at websites has changed. 10 years ago we had 2 different mediums to view a website…

– Desktop
– Laptop

Now we have 4 mediums – Desktop, Laptop, Mobile and Tablet and the way we view, read and react to content has changed.

What is interesting amongst all of this change is the 7 elements I’m going to share with you today have stayed the same and in many ways these are more important today than ever before due to the level of choice people have at their fingertips.

In a few short words… you need to stand out from the crowd and what I’m about to cover is like a checklist of how you can do exactly that.

7 ways to position your website for Success

One last point before we jump into these 7 elements… I’m going to talk about this concept called ‘above the fold’ and ‘Below the fold’. In a nutshell ‘above the fold’ is what visitors see when they load your page, before they scroll down with their mouse (or on a smart device with their finger). Below the fold is what they see when they scroll down.

Make sense??? Great, lets move on.

So, lets get into it and look at Element Number 1

1. Keep It Simple

What does this mean? If a stranger were to look at your website would they understand what you do and the services you offer right away.

Would they feel they were in the right place?

I see a lot of websites that literally have flashing text, tons of images with a total information overload above the fold (eh, using the term already).

You have to consider your visitors and make it as easy for them to find that information as possible and if you bombard them with information overload or make it too hard to see where the information is they want, you’ll simply scare them away.

One other point here, remember scrolling is your friend and you can actually lay out and space out additional information below the fold. This is stuff like a preview to your testimonials, expanding on ideas, charities you support, awards you’ve won and the list goes on.

Ok, element 2…

Let them know what to do next

Another question… I on a product, service, blog post any page of your site. If a visitor wanted to take some sort of ACTION, would they know what to do next? Is this clearly laid out.

One example is to have the main way a person should get in contact with you in the top header of your website.

Another example is within the body content of one of your services. If a person wants to call you or use your service, is it clearly defined what to do next?

This little detail is the difference between a person using your service (cause it just didn’t feel right) or picking up the phone and saying – ‘Hey I want to take the next step’

It may be to fill out a form, email you, subscribe, call… whatever it is, make it clear and concise.

3. Explain the benefits of your products and services

Imagine for a moment 2 websites that sell digital cameras and I’m deciding which one to buy from.

Shop 1 has a Canon 5d Mark 3 (a nice camera) and says… It takes photos at 22.3 megapixels, 61 point autofocus and 6fps continuous shooting.

While that’s great to know, if I don’t actually know what that means to me what would I do?

Ok lets look at the second site that has the same camera and list the same Features, but this time they explain the benefits.

22.3 megapixels meaning you can print photos up to A1 in size and still capture crystal clear clarity

61 point autofocus so you always maintain a clear and crisp image with even the highest level of movement

6fps so you’ll always capture every important moment.

Get the drift. Sell with the benefits and again you’ll stand out from the crowd (hmmm remember that standing out from the crowd point again?

4. Keep adding content that expands on your products or services

This is all about supporting content again that informs and helps your visitors make informed decisions and also assists with the sites search engine visibility.

I actually cover this off in a previous video titled ‘Creating Content and supporting content, so make sure you check that out for more.

5. Always consider how you can add value to your visitors

This is all about that little bit extra you can give to your visitors to entice them to use your services. What’s really funny when I mention this point is a lot of people talk about how they can discount or give something away and that’s not what it’s about.

This is all about sharing reviews on a product, recording videos that show your products in use, educate people a little more on your industry or service by creating content, and more.

Always think what else I can give to people that are thinking of using my service that will get them to contact you. Check out a guy called Gary Vaynerchuck and a book called Jab, jab, jab right hook for more on this.

The main message here, give and you shall receive.

Ok, second last…

6. Look at what your visitors are doing

You can use a site called Google analytics which shows you the number of visitors, the pages they visit, how long they stay and all sorts of critical information that can help you to improve your user experience.

This specific information was never available when you would advertise offline, so jump on it as it will help you tailor your clients experience.

Last one and it’s a Doozey.

7. Deliver the content based on the device they use

Like I said before, there are all sorts of ways that people are using all to look at your website and you need to make it as easy to see the content based on that device.

This is commonly referred to as ‘Responsive Design’ and it simply means the layout and design of your website changes to make it as easy as possible for a person to still use it if they using a desktop computer or their mobile phone.

If you have not yet jumped onto a mobile version of your website or ‘responsive’ then now is the time as I’m telling you your competitors are doing it and it makes it easy for people to read and navigate through your website.

Ok that’s it. 7 solid elements to a website that rocks and I tell you if you use all of these 7 elements as a foundation to your website, then you’re on the way to future proofing your online presence and standing out from your competitors.

In the Next Video

Great. in the next video we’re going to discuss How social should I be with my business?.

We’re going to delve into Social media and if it’s all worth it, especially as it can be a massive time suck. I’d love to see you on the next video as it’s an interesting subject with mixed opinions.

If you have a question you would like me to answer make sure you get in contact and I love to hear from you.

As always take care and this is David Judge showing you how to grow your business online

You May Also Be Interested In:

  1. How Do I Get My Website To Perform
  2. The Do’s and Don’ts of Internal Linking
  3. 5 different types of content every website MUST HAVE
  4. How To Keep All Of Your SEO When Redesigning Your Website
The Do’s and Don’ts of Internal Linking

The Do’s and Don’ts of Internal Linking

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How you structure and set up your website plays a BIG part on how your website ranks in the Search Engines. In this video we discuss the importance of Internal Linking and how you can you can either have amazing results or have your site crash and burn if you ignore these basics.

 

Transcript

Hello and Welcome, David Judge here and in this short video I’m going to talk with you about Internal Linking and share the Do’s and Don’ts of internal linking.

Ok, so lets presume for a moment that you haven’t heard of the term Internal Linking and I’ll briefly explain what an internal link is.

What is an Internal Link?

An internal link is when you link from one page on your website to another page on your website. Internal links are usually found in your navigation bar (at the top or side of your site) and they’re used to help visitors look through your website.

In our last video we covered Supporting Content and If you consider people visiting your website and how you would use internal links to improve their experience, supporting content is a form of Internal linking that gives people an opportunity to delve deeper or get more information around a specific topic.

This has a 2-fold effect.

1- The first is to allow visitors to get quick access to content that will improve their experience and keep them coming back

2- Actually pass Authority (or link juice) onto these other pages of your website

This all sounds nice, natural and is the way links should be set up on a site.

Unnatural Internal Links

Where this all starts to come unstuck is when a website owner tries to link internally in a way that simply does not make sense or to force the passing of link juice onto pages that aren’t relevant.

Let’s cover this off in an example.

The Chocolate Mudcake and Internal Links

Imagine you’re visiting a massive cake shop that has every variety of freshly made cakes along with cake recipes, utensils, baking products, and in general all things cakes.

You walk in through the door and you crave the taste of a chocolate mud cake. There’s a person standing at the front of the shop and they tell you chocolate mud cakes are in aisle 22. You walk to aisle 22 and there is a freshly made chocolate mud cake ready for you to pick up and take home.

Sounds great and exactly how it should be right?

Ok, lets look at this again, but from a different perspective.

This time you walk in the front door and you’re told mud cakes are in aisle 14. When you approach aisle 14 you see it’s not what you’re looking for and in fact there are strawberry cakes. This isn’t what you asked for!

You go back up to the person at the front and you ask why they sent you to the strawberry cakes when you wanted mudcakes and they tell you although you wanted a mud cake they actually prefer to sell people strawberry cakes as this is their specialty.

A question… if you really wanted a mud cake and you were directed to a strawberry cake how would you feel? Would you consider a strawberry cake even though the person deceived you to try to sell what you wanted instead of what you actually wanted?

Is there a chance you would go back and ask the person or would you aimlessly walk around guessing where you may find mud cakes and eventually give up and never go back to the store because of the bad experience you had?

Although this sounds like common sense it is amazing how often we see this with internal linking.

Artificial Internal Links and Bad Link Juice

Many internal links are set up to artificially pass link juice and they stop thinking of actual visitors. One of the most common examples is to add blog posts and within each blog post offering 2 preset in context links (these are links that are in the body content of your blog post) that pass onto the homepage and one of your other services page.

The challenge is this model of internal link building is becoming outdated, especially as search engines get smarter and come closer inline with how things work in the real world.

Top 3 Tips On Internal Links

Now, before I finish off I want to touch on a few basic hints around internal linking:

1 – Make your internal linking is really clear and logical. Make it clear where to find your mudcakes and easy to find

2 – Offer supporting pages. If I go to your mud cake page, offer additional pages that speak about mud cake recipes, cooking utensils for mud cakes

3 – If a visitor clicks on an internal link, make sure when they visit that page that and not something totally different… like we said, if they ask for mud cakes, don’t give them strawberry cakes

Finally, make sure you have a sitemap. This is like an information booth in a shop where you can see where each page is listed. This also helps the search engines to understand how your site is set up.

Make Your Internal Links For Your Visitors

To summarise… Internal links should be used to make it easy for visitors to find what they want to on your website. You should also use internal linking to show those visitors you are an authority on your subject by offering them other supporting content that allows visitors to learn more about your business.

This in itself will show people why they should use your product and/or service and by using this as a foundation will help your search engine visibility.

In the Next Video

Ok, great. in the next video we’re going to talk about ‘the basic elements every website should have’. We’re covering this from a User Experience perspective and will ensure you’re getting the most from your visitors.

If you have a question you would like me to answer make sure you get in contact and I love to hear from you.

As always this is David Judge talking online marketing and showing you how to grow your business online.

You May Also Be Interested In:

  1. Supporting Content and how it fits within the Quality Content Model
  2. Google Disavows Links – Handle With Care!
  3. SEO Penalties
  4. 7 Basics Every Website Needs To Succeed
Supporting Content and how it fits within the Quality Content Model

Supporting Content and how it fits within the Quality Content Model

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In this video we delve deeper into the idea of Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness and explore the idea of supporting content.

If you want to gain more search engine visibility then this video is a MUST!

Transcript

Hello and Welcome, David Judge here and in this short video I’m going to show you How to easily create Quality Content and the blueprint to ensure you get the most out of all of your efforts.

As we discussed in the last video quality content is measured by the Expertise, Authority and trustworthiness.

We’ll be expanding again on EAT more within your own site, more specifically the idea of supporting content and how this can help with your overall profile.

Basic Areas of Optimisation For Any Website

Whilst there are many ways to build your presence away from your website using methods that get exposure (this is often called link building), there’s often neglect around how you should structure your website to get maximum visibility online.

There are many areas you should focus on to ensure you website complies with the basic optimisation.

These include:

– You sites title tag

– a single headline for each page (also known as a h1 tag)

– a simple to follow URL structure

– easy to read content which is broken into smaller paragraphs and separated by sub headlines

– the subject of the page to be very specific to a particular subject

– Offer supporting content that a visitor could use to explore other pages on your website

The Importance of Supporting Content

As I mentioned earlier let’s look at supporting content, how and why it’s important to use it and most importantly how you can creating supporting content for your own website and business.

The idea around supporting content is to offer visitors to your site the opportunity to delve deeper into a specific topic on your website or to offer similar topics that would of interest to your visitor.

An Example of Supporting Content

ok, sounds a little complex, so let’s look at an example…

Lets say you have a business and website that around Accounting based in Australia.

One service you may offer could be Superannuation.

You would have a main page that discusses Superannuation and how you work with clients around superannuation planning.

If you were to offer supporting content you could create additional pages that discuss:

– How to find your lost super and the process
– Transferring superannuation to one single account
– How to Choose the right super fund
– Self Managed super funds
– Understanding Tax and Self Managed super funds
– and more

Hub Topics and Supporting Content

This is an example of what you would call a ‘Hub Topic’ and then expanding on each main ‘hub topic’ with supporting content to offer your visitors real value when they visit you and to also assist with showing the search engines you are an Authority on your topic.

So how would this look on a website?

Here’s a snapshot of a site that has fared exceptionally well lately from a search engine visibility:

You can see running down the left hand side of emedicine health that they have included other supporting topics around brown recluse spider bites.

These are:

– acute kidney failure
– black widow and brown recluse bites
– Blood Clots
– Coma
and more

You can see those there?

Search Metrics Example with E-medicine Health

So if we now have a look in Search Metrics you’ll see the dramatic increase that happened for e-medicine health on the 25th May 2014.

I could literally show you dozens of sites using this same principle that have increased by using supporting content as a part of their strategy.

This is essentially the idea of supporting content on a site and makes perfect sense as to why it would work on any business small – medium to large as businesses that reward visitors with a great experience should be the ones that are rewarded.

In the Next Video…

Ok Great, In the next video I’m going to discuss the idea of internal link building, how it should look and a few examples of what to avoid.

If you have a question you would like me to answer make sure you get in contact and I love to hear from you.

As always this is David Judge showing you how to grow your business online.

Resources:

http://www.searchmetrics.com/ – Search metrics is an awesome tool to keep an eye on a websites overall search engine visibility

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/spider_bite_brown_recluse_spider_bite/article_em.htm – a live example of a well laid out site offering an excellent supporting content experience

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  1. Quality Content, Google and E.A.T.
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  3. 5 different types of content every website MUST HAVE
  4. Critical Elements Every CMS Should Have

Quality Content, Google and E.A.T.

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In this video I discuss changes to Google’s quality guidelines and the concept of Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness.

If you would like to ensure you’re getting the best results for your online presence then you need to watch this video.

Transcript

Hello and Welcome, David Judge here and in this short video I’m going to share how you can make sure the Search Engines love and value your business.

This is an interesting video as we’re going to discuss what is quality content, Google and E.A.T.

The core of what I am going to discuss today comes from a variety of resources and the one I really want to mention was written by Jennifer Slegg, where she discusses an update to Google and how they measure a quality website and brand.

Whilst this update has not been officially released there are other blogs, along with my own research on a number of sites Search Engine visibility that has shown a recent change with the way Google view websites and businesses.

So what is E A T or Eat?

Eat is an acronym that stands for:

Expertise

Authority and

Trustworthiness

The idea around Eat is sites that Google find lacking a certain amount of Expertise, Authority and trustworthiness will not be considered as relevant as other sites and as a result will not hold as much search engine visibility as sites that offer more Eat.

So lets look in more detail on each elements of Eat and what you can do to work on each areas.

Expertise

If we break down the first element, it would be best to explain expertise as an expert that has experience on a particular subject.

Lets look at this in the real world.

How could a carpet cleaner show their expertise in their field. One of the best to do this would be for them to show examples of their work and explain the details around that work. They could even discuss why the job was difficult and how they worked around it to get the result for the client.

Like anything in life, the more experience you gain the more expertise you gain.

Authority

Ok, the second element… Authority. If you work on and gain enough Expertise you will naturally become an authority in your industry.

Jamie Oliver is a very well known chef that holds a lot of authority due to his demonstrable expertise in cooking.

Of course he has gained that authority over many years of hard work and toil but Jamie is working on a Global scale where you only need to apply this to your own region or area you service.

Trustworthiness

Ok, let’s explore the last element… trustworthiness.

Trustworthiness can be gained by others showing their experience in dealing with you.

This is can in the form of independent reviews that demonstrate how it is worth with you.

This is the proof in the pudding, where other demonstrate your results.

You can also gain trust in consistent action in how you represent your business online.

How E.A.T. Can apply to any business

When looking at EAT you can apply this in any sized business, from small to large and in reality the level of activity and method of demonstrating your expertise depends on your business.

One thing for sure is when you look at your website and if you want to can gain more visibility online as well as offering a great experience for your visitors will all come down to how well you can demonstrate why your business stands out from the crowd, and specifically what others think about how you do business.

In the next video…

This in a lot of ways is a lot more than just search engines and is important in getting the best results from the Internet.

Ok, In the next video I’m going to discuss another really important subject for businesses today…

How to easily create Quality Content and the blueprint to ensure you get the most out of all of your efforts. If you’ve wondered the best way to create content around your business then you’re going to enjoy this next video.

If you have a question you would like me to answer make sure you get in contact and I love to hear from you.

As always this is David Judge showing you how to grow your business online.

Resources:

http://www.thesempost.com/google-rewrites-quality-rating-guide-seos-need-know/ – A great post by Jennifer Slegg

http://cognitiveseo.com/blog/5536/google-panda-4-0-topical-authority-content-update-2014-case-study/ – This is a really interesting article covering the idea of E.A.T. written by Razvan Gavrillas

You May Also Be Interested In:

  1. Supporting Content and how it fits within the Quality Content Model
  2. Google Disavows Links – Handle With Care!
  3. 5 different types of content every website MUST HAVE
  4. How To Keep All Of Your SEO When Redesigning Your Website

How To Future Proof Your SEO

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Google-Vs-Dodgy-SEO
In the last couple of years Google have knocked SEO’ers around more than the last decade.

And here’s the thing … all of these nasty little updates they are doing are designed to bring their Search Engine in line with their original goal –

“Presenting the end user with the most relevant results as quickly as possible”.

All of those people out there that have always thought of SEO as a simple keyword stuffing and link building exercise are going to cease to exist.

It’s about time too! I am sick of my offline clients being bombarded by overseas companies that offer the SEO services for the price of a postage stamp without truly understanding what they need to do to assist a clients SEO success.

Not only are they making a bad name for the industry, they’re getting their clients slapped in the SERP’s every time Google do another Roll Out or update.

This translates to an industry that thinks SEO is crap!

It’s SEO Jim But Not As We Know It

ItsSEOJim

We need to get back to the basics and understand what SEO actually is… SEO (or search engine optimisation) is essentially basically setting your website and your online profile up in such a way where your fully compliant to what the Search Engines want. And what do they want???

More about that later.

First I want to share how Matt Cutts (head of webspam at Google) explains SEO:

As Matt says, the job of an SEO is to look at Search Engine Optimisation more as Search Experience Optimisation where you are creating (or helping clients) create memorable sites that users want to come back to and would like to share.

This idea is waaaayyyyy different than the ideas and concepts of old school SEO (which is dying a slow painful death).

Old School SEO

Just a few years ago by using old school SEO techniques you could easily rank a site by simply doing you good old fashioned keyword stuffing and by pointing a bunch of links back to the site you wanted to rank.

Due to spammers, scammers and the changing internet Google understood this original model was not sustainable, especially if they wanted to remain the dominant leader in marketplace.

This would also mean they would need to find a way to integrate other trends like Social Buzz into account to better measure a good vs’ not so good website, hence the stronger focus on user experience.

[Insert Social] – the Facebook Billion

Sidenote…

A couple of months ago Facebook hit it’s billionth user.

Think about that for a minute.

1 / 7th of the worlds population has a Facebook account. Sure they wouldn’t all be active users, but that still a lot of people using one website.

If I were Google I would’ve been shaking in my boots, especially with Mark Zuckerberg looking at launching their own search engine in the very near future.

And what do people do when they are using Facebook? They’re interacting, they’re sharing opinions on what they like and don’t like which in turn is creating trends (also known as Social Buzz).

I love numbers and if I had access to that sort of data I would be like a pig in you know what.

Larry Page (you know the guy that started Google and is currently running it) said in an interview with CNN MONEY: “We’d like to have more of a social component in what we do.”

Welcome Google +

Many people thought Google + was designed to take on Facebook. WRONG!

Google were simply developing a way of measuring social buzz with no intention of trying to compete with Facebook. If anything what Google are doing is soooo much bigger than Facebook could ever be(for now anyway).

They are effectively buying up as many properties (online and offline) to not only future proof their business, but to capture data and trends so they can better understand what the end user wants.

Not only does this give them additional data streams to dominate, it also gave them extra ways to make money (But that in itself is another article I’ll write in the future).

Future Proofing Your SEO

What does all of this mean and how do you future proof your SEO?

Option 1 – If you think SEO is just about link building and keyword stuffing, then either shift your way of thinking or get out of the game.

Option 2 – You can approach SEO from a broader perspective, focussing more on a number of factors that come together to form the bigger picture. Not only is this an opportunity for you to future proof your SEO, but if you have offline clients it’s an opportunity for you to help them to grow a stronger overall online presence.

Breaking It Down

In my mind SEO has always been about a number of many areas that come together to form the big picture. There are certain areas that need more work than others.

To show you I’ve put together a little graphic that displays the different areas and the importance of each area.

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By David JudgeFuture Proof SEO.
This puts a totally different slant of what I believe old schooled SEO’ers think they should approach SEO.

What Should You Focus On?

Although Google are totally against it, I would still say to do link building, but make sure you don’t do JUST link building.

My main point here is that SEO is (and has always been) more than link building and keyword stuffing.

For your SEO campaign to succeed you should really be focusing on:

Your On Page Optimisation (this is a big one)

Google+ and Authorship

Creating Quality Content

Engaging in Social Media

Consider User Experience (via analytics and webmaster tools)

Growing Your Reputation Management

Involvement Your Client – encourage them to be involved

 

If you want to succeed in SEO in the 2013 and if you haven’t already made the change then you better hurry up or you’ll be left behind.

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Google Disavows Links – Handle With Care!

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Ok… Google have made another update and this is a doozey!

No I’m not talking about the latest Panda or Penguin refresh, or the EMD (exact match domains) update.

Today we’re talking about the ability to ‘Disavow’ your existing links, especially if you think they are affecting your online footprint and causing your ranking in the Search Engines to bomb.

Yes, this means you could potentially get rid of any ‘Bad Links’ pointing toward your website.

Here’s The Facts

On the 16th October at PubCon, Matt Cutts (head of spam for Google) announced the release of a tool that will allow you to Ignore Bad Links that come through to your site.

This is specifically designed for those individuals that received notification within Google Webmaster Tools (or those that know they have been engaging in bad links schemes) letting you know that they had detected un-natural link building patterns.

Although this sounds like a big win for Google and SEO’s alike, Matt warns you should only use this tool if you are experienced in SEO and if you really believe you (or another SEO company) has been engaging in negative activities, based on their Quality Guidelines.

Here’s a Video Matt released where he talks you through it (it’s 9 Mins and 20 Seconds in length)

A Quick Low Down on What Matt Covers:

Matt is really specific in mentioning ‘Most People Will Not Need To Use This Tool’

The tools lets you tell Google which links you would like them to ignore

You can use the tool to clean up various link building schemes or if Google have sent you a notification to clean up your link patterns (see an example letter of this here)

Before you use the tool, they encourage you to try to get them removed manually by contacting the source of the link

By going through Google Webmaster tools (and looking at recent links) you can potentially identify the source of the links to remove

If you do choose to use the tool it will take a couple of weeks before you see an impact as Google re-index the requested sites

What’s My Take On It All?

The ‘Disavow Link Tool’ is another feather in Google’s cap.

It’s yet another acknowledgement that they can’t simply use their in house algorithm, ignore shady SEO’ers and hope the issues go away.

Google have said they are looking ways of implementing more social methods into their algorithm and isn’t this in itself an example by involving the wider webmaster community?

I think they’re going to have a number of teething issues implementing this new strategy (I can already think of a number of ways of abusing the process off the top of my head), but at least they’re giving it a go.

No, I’m not a Google lover, but I do run an SEO business and believe if I were to run to the hills every time Google releases something new, blowing my trumpet over the negatives, that I would lose whatever hair I have left.

Like any real SEO will tell you, slow and steady wins the race.

Should I Use The Tool?

Let’s ask a couple of questions:

Have you used any link building (or hired a company) that you know are using techniques that go against Google’s Guidelines or received a notification from Google (in Webmaster Tools)?

If you’ve experienced a drop in traffic to your site do you know it’s as a result of link building or is it as a result of poor on-page structure?

If you’re answering yes to both then I would look at using the tool but HANDLE WITH CARE!

Personally, I have a few clients that I can confidently answer yes on both counts, but I see it as a last resort.

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I’m first going to re-explore if I’m able to add more good quality links, rebuild the site structure, or add more quality content to re-channel the theme of the site.

That will give enough time for the dust to settle and make a more informed decision.

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Setting Up Rich Snippets For A Video Post

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Rich Snippets are turning up everywhere in the SERP’s as a result of Bloggers and Publishers marking up their content to make it more visible in the search engines.

And Why Wouldn’t You?

Rich snippets allow you to put a break in the sometimes mundane search engine results, with information showing the same result in a SERP including rich snippets experience a 20 – 30% rise in click through rates.

What are Rich Snippets

For those of you that are new to the whole internet game, check out the image below that shows an example of a rich snippet in action:

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The True Benefits Of Rich Snippets

As mentioned above, rich snippets allow you to stand out from the crowd in the SERP’s (search engine results pages), resulting in an increase in click throughs as a result of the end user getting a much better idea of the details of the page their visiting.

I know if I was looking for ‘Beef Mince Recipes’ I would definitely select the second result as I can see an image right away and it even shows me a 4.5 out 5 stars, based on 51 reviews.

You can instantly share this important information by simply marking up your pages and you could really say that marking up your content helps you stand out from the crowd.

Different Types Of Mark-Ups

As I am writing this post and checking Google’s site on rich snippets (check it out here) there are 11 different types of mark-up you can use that cover an array of services.

The current list of Rich Snippet Types are:

Breadcrumbs

Events

Music

Organizers

People

Products

Recipes

Reviews

Review Ratings

Software Applications

Videos

Each snippet has it’s own unique code, some offering different features and functions then others.

As I mentioned earlier, check out the Google’s Rich Snippets Page Here .

An Example Of Rich Snippets In Action

In this post I have placed a short video which and have marked up that video using the rich snippets methodology.

If you take a look at the ‘source code’ of this post you can see exactly how it looks.

As of writing this post it is a little complicated to set up mark up your code but like any emerging technology as people use an embrace it, developers will develop to simplify.

Elements Of Video Markup

Ok, let’s briefly get a little Techo for a moment…

The elements of a marked up video are:

The Title of the video

The location of the embedded video

The length of the video

A thumbnail image of the video
Description of the video

A link to the author page of the creator of the video

These are the areas you essentially need to tag in order to communicate what the video is about. If you understand a little bit of code, it’s really that simple.

So, how does it actually look for those that are a tad lazy or don’t understand how to view source code?

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A Word Of Caution

Yes a word of caution! There are a couple of not so bright individuals that have figured… Hey, I can use rich snippets to make the SERP’s think my page is about [subject] by just placing the wrong or inaccurate mark up code. Well, don’t bother! The SERP’s are keeping an eye on that too and they may penalize you if you mess around with it.

Direct from Google Webmaster Quality Guidelines:

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Will It Help Me Rank?

At the time of writing this post… no.

But as mentioned earlier it will help with the conversions of people viewing your site and more importantly will assist with your end users overall experience.

Cool? I think so!

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How Do I Get My Website To Perform

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In any successful business there are a series of smaller elements that come together in order to create a good model. These are really very basic pointers that most people understand and cover off before they open their doors.

A few of these elements include:

A business name

A company logo that people can easily identify

A message that tells your customers what your business is about (USP)

Easy ways for your customers to get in touch with you (email, phone etc)

Reasons and benefits on why people should deal with you

A way to attract visitors and keep them coming back

Ways to build credibility about your business (awards, features in
magazines, testimonials, a proven track record of success)

These elements combined create an image of a legitimate business that you could buy from with little risk.

A real no brainer, right?

Let’s look at these elements and see how they compare on a website…

To get people to take action when they visit a website uses the same principles as running a successful business. Without these core elements people visit a website and leave confused and lacking confidence in using their products and services.

As an example – When I start working with a new client I usually find their website is on average losing 47% of all visitors without even looking at details on their products and services. This means for every 100 people that walk into your business, almost half of them turn around and walk straight out.

If this was happening to your business you’d start asking questions, yes?

Did you know that you can access this information easily for FREE.

Lesson Number 1 – Get Access To Your Websites Stats

When you look at your websites stats you can see immediately why your customers are leaving right away. You can see what they are doing when they visit your site.

Google have a really cool tool called Analytics that you can install on your site for free which lays out your stats in a nice simple graphical method.

If you don’t understand how to read them, hire a person like me to show you or to set up a simple summary that will give you a list of recommendations to implement.

Lesson Number 2 – Apply Real World Rules To Your Website

Remember our successful business elements we mentioned earlier? The colour and shape of these elements may change, but the same basic principle can be applied to any component of a business, especially your website.

To make this nice and simple, I’m going to show you a simple, yet highly effective checklist every well performing website uses to get customers to take action when they visit their site. Compare this to your site and see how you stack up.

These are proven techniques I have tested with many clients and have achieved great success:

Your logo clearly displayed on your site (normally top left hand corner)

Your catchphrase under your logo (only one sentence, short and concise)

Your main method of contact in the top right hand corner (this invites people to do business with you)

If you use images, don’t let them take up all the space and include a benefit statement in the image (a icture is worth a thousand words, but are any of those telling people why they should buy from you?)

Have an offer (people will visit your site not ready to buy. If you make the right offer you can capture their contact details and follow them up later)

By using these proven techniques and measuring your website stats you are on course to a better performing website. Not only will these techniques make your website easier to navigate, it will build credibility in the eyes of your
visitors.

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