Social Media and Why You Should be Using it
Social media is here to stay and even though many of us are a bit reluctant to jump into it, it is very clear that your website growth and success, hinges on the proper utilization of social media.
From Website Magazine:
Technologies change so rapidly that they create the need for new ideas and improved strategies virtually overnight. You may be tired of hearing about social media, for instance, and you hardly consider it a new development. But if you employ the same social strategies in 2012 as you did in 2010, and fail to account for the changes coming in the next year, your business will suffer the consequences. To ensure that your website stays ahead of this trend, direct your focus on providing continually fresh and useful content that matters in real time — content that addresses the current needs of your audience. There is no better way to achieve this than by engaging with your customers on social networks.
Create and distribute helpful blog posts and informational videos on which users can comment and share with one another, and invite them to write reviews about your products, services and business. Build an application or optimize your website to ensure that users can access your business on their mobile devices and get the information they need right away.
To monitor the engagement, explore some real-time analytics solutions to determine how visitors are interacting with your site — while they are on-site. Optify provides just one of the solutions in this rapidly growing space, giving website owners instant analysis that allows them to immediately address the needs of their visitors.
Website Visibility – The Rules Have Changed
Gone are the days of loading up a website or web page with popular keywords (formerly known as keyword stuffing). There used to be many “black hat” tricks that people would use to lure the search engines to their websites. Using high popularity irrelevant keywords, doorway pages and hidden text on pages are all tricks of the past which will actually get you banned by Google if you try it now.
So what do you do now that you’ve got a great new website and you want people to find it? First, don’t rely entirely on keywords and search engines. Keywords are still important but must be added as relevant page content. Basically, that means you should create a page or website with meaningful content and a reasonable use of keywords…but not too many.
Reciprocal link change rules have changed too. Again, like keywords, links should be relevant and logical. If your website is travel and tourism based, it should link with websites of similar topics. Link with too many unrelated websites and you risk being seen by Google as part of a “link farm” which can also be detrimental to your search engine ranking.
Get a LinkedIn, Twitter and or Facebook account and link any or all of these with your website. Post engaging and interesting content in your social network and drive traffic to your website. Add a blog and keep it fresh with content. Add an optin e-mail newsletter option to keep in touch with your customers. All of these things will help get Google’s attention and improve your visibility.
Much better than stuffing keywords and risking a ban!
Do it Yourself Websites
The infomercials and other ads make it look so very easy to build your own website. These are also the same marketing people who tell you how easy it is to remodel your kitchen yourself, etc. Truth be told, anyone can do just about anything if they have the interest and motivation. Unfortunately, most people want the end product but are a bit short on the “interest and motivation” part.