Category Archives: Social Media Marketing

What in the World is Google Doing with Hummingbird!

Content creation, content marketing, Link Building, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing

google hummingbird updateGoogle Hummingbird Update As of October 9, 2013

For those of you that have a website that was currently ranking for different keywords you may have noticed a disheartening minor or major drop in ranking. Google has recently launched 2 algorithms. One is Hummingbird and the other is Penguin 2.1. Hummingbird has to do with quality fresh content detection and Penguin 2.1 has to do with spam-filtering.

The general overall pattern seems to suggest Google likes content oriented sites and sites that regularly update their website.  Many of the sites which fell in rankings either lack text-based or video content or did not update the site regularly with unique offers/content.  On-page search engine optimization is not just about having the right meta information any more. It seems Google is actively targeting sites which do not update their on-page content since Hummingbird is designed to look for the content originator.  This means on page schema coding is more important than ever!

Me and my team do differing amounts of link building from different networks and record them just to see the effect it has every time an update gets rolled out. After careful consideration, I decided to discontinue the links from some of our partner networks and invest more on custom built blogs or blogs with high Google authority.

My team and I just made a major change to how the links are distributed during the syndication process. Instead of adding 4 links on some of the article pages with differing anchor tags, we have limited it to 2.  We are making all ‘click here’ anchor tags as no follow links.  Due to this process, you may see some link loss over time. We do strongly believe this process will help everyone in the long run. We’ve also decided to include more co-citations in the articles we create to help with the new algorithm.  What is co-citation? Read here for more.

What I am also seeing is irregular patterns which do not single out any one single factor. Some webpages and sites just seem to have randomly lost rankings while others gained traction from the same domain.

We are fighting an uphill battle since we just never know what Google will do next. There are some reports that Google will de-rank a site if almost no one clicks on the site while it stays on page 1 even though you are doing everything correctly SEO wise. All we can do now is constantly make an educated guess and deal with it. I highly recommend regularly updating your websites and adding a blog to your site and/or post articles on other sites as a guest blogger.  Thus, our focus at reelWebDesign.com will be starting to go deeper into the realm of content marketing as this is where Google is headed.
For current clients I am disappointed just as much as you are as we are at a time of such great change in SEO prompted by Google.  However, if we work together we can prevail, we’ll just need to cooperate with this giant that controls the Internet.  Content marketing seems like the most fool proof way of getting your website ranked and to add consistent traffic for the long term.  For more information and sample content marketing packages click here.

Peter MarinoA direct message from the owner of this blog,  Peter Marino.

Getting the Most ROI From Your Social Media

content marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, , , ,

Getting the Most ROI From Your Social MediaSocial media is very common for today’s business and many brands are doing all they can to establish themselves via these platforms. As many big brands have learned social can be a very challenging platform when it comes to measuring return on investment.

For companies that developed on conventional metrics and advertising models, it can be troubling understanding how valuable the online ROI is to their brand. Luckily, there are several must-know social media ROI growth tools that can be used to help succeed in this emerging marketing area.

Engage

The internet is full of user-generated content, chatter, tweets, videos and blog posts. You can empower participation by addressing customer concerns, fixing problems and harnessing the authority of brand advocates.

Remember, it is easier to fix problems than it is to ignore them. People are looking to interact and establish relationships with brands on the web. Indulging those fans through social interactions, real replies and product giveaways separate the companies or businesses that succeed from those that get stuck in the dark.

Keep Content High Quality

You should make sure that all content you publish is premium. Take advantage of Tumblr, social media and WordPress to craft strong messages. Be familiar with the rules and ensure you follow them.

Each network calls for a particular approach and language (Facebook posts are not written in a similar manner as tweets for example). Abide by a calendar for posting, and center on making the followers feel as part of the brand’s family. Applying platforms solely as selling instruments rapidly alienates clients. Employ social media experts and fight the lure to convert websites into content farms or computerized feeds.

Be Real

It is impossible to fake it on the web. You might think you have it all under control but people will smell your lies, and this will not go well for your brand. Very committed brand advocates who support your product will be the initial ones to make a noise when they sense shady behaviour or content which does not tie in with the brand culture.

When unsure, it is advisable to ask your community for assistance whenever it comes to content (they will appreciate being taken into consideration).

Incorporate Real-Time Apps

Integrate social media in all aspects of what you do. A good number of companies using Twitter feeds, ratings, reviews and comments on homepages have increased user engagement. Although this might sound very easy, adding these tools is very crucial. It empowers users to connect and share content. Moreover, constant updating betters search engine visibility more than pages that are static.

Experiment

If you do not risk something, you will gain nothing. This is true, particularly as far as social is concerned. Test tone, style as well as fresh monetizing tools, for example ‘native advertising’, which supplies sponsored content, Facebook stories and also tweets. As social media is always changing it is very important to keep experimenting with new strategies and tools to keep at the very forefront of this medium.

Our guest blogger, Jon, works with many large brands social media accounts in Perth. When not on the laptop, he is out surfing the waves of the Australian coast.

How Social Media Is Changing The Way Companies Find Staff

Business Tech, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, ,

Social Media and StaffingIn a very real sense, social media has changed the world (mostly for the better) in recent years. What began as a simple way for friends and family members to stay in touch over the internet and organise their media libraries in one convenient place, has morphed into a global market sector worth billions.  YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are now household names across the globe, even amongst those who might not even own a computer! It’s also started to change the way companies hire their staff. All potential employees will doubtless have some kind of online presence and this is an incredibly useful tool for rooting out potential employees and expanding the profile of the company. Thousands of businesses across the world are using social media to hire new staff. Here we’ll explore how and why your company should be doing likewise.

The Pros

It has been proven that businesses which use social media experience a far less significant turnover of staff. This is primarily because social media networks allow companies to find staff members who are more suited to the job, not just professionally, but personally as well. Most of the top-tier companies are now using social media as their primary source for new employees as it not only works as a means for hiring new staff, but as an incredibly cost-effective marketing campaign. Whilst you’re looking for the best possible people, you can also use the time to expand your company’s brand and get your name out there. There is also the opportunity with social media to build a more tangible and emotional connection to your employees by building a more attractive and personable company brand. The most obvious boon however is the sheer reach you gain from using social media. Social media is fundamentally changing the way business gets done, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

The Cons

To be completely honest the cons are few and far between but they are there. The primary con of course is the potential for fraud. It is quite simple for an outside source to hack into potential staff members Facebook, Twitter or Linked In account and sabotage their personal information. The ‘casual’ nature of sites such as Facebook could also prove a liability as employees might think that their privacy is being ‘invaded’.

LinkedIn

Perhaps the first social media site to exist primarily to create connections between employees and employers, having a Linked In profile is fast becoming an absolute necessity if you wish to be taken seriously in the business world. On your LinkedIn Page you can upload your CV, your previous jobs, interests, personal details and (perhaps most importantly) a list of skills that other members of the website can choose to ‘endorse’. For many companies and recruitment firms, Linked In endorsements are incredibly useful tools for gauging whether or not an applicant’s claims can be backed up by their fellow professionals.

Facebook/Twitter

The undisputed daddies of social media; more than 60% of recruiters now use Facebook and more than 50% use Twitter. Although Linked In dominates the social media market when it comes to recruitment, the fact that it’s specifically geared towards professionals means that its reach is rather limited. For example, at last count there were 225 million registered Linked In users but Facebook has a staggering 1.15 BILLION. Of course this is only an estimate. The figures are undeniably impressive though and of course Facebook cannot just be used for recruitment, but can be an invaluable tool in expanding your brand and audience awareness.

Top Tips

  • Know your target audience and stick to it. Decide early on which social networking site best suits your needs and focus all of your energy on it. Being a ‘jack-of-all-trades” is not recommended.
  • Be creative. Everyone and their dog will be using the same tactics so try to think outside the box.
  • Always return messages. By having an open dialogue with your audience and potential employees, you’re encouraging growth and will come across as a ‘people focused’ company.
  • Start early. Don’t delay and let your social media profile be the last thing you decide to focus on, if anything, it should be the first thing you focus on as it can be linked to all other aspects of your recruitment campaign.

This guest post was written by Crispin Jones. Before starting work with the team at www.depoel.co.uk, Crispin worked for several SME’s and has witnessed recruitment through social media at it’s finest, and at it’s worst. He actually found his current business partner through twitter, and would highly recommend for businesses who can’t afford administrative costs to give social media a go. 

Why Is Social Media Such An Important Part Of Web Traffic?

Social Media Marketing, Web Traffic, , ,

social media web trafficSocial media is in the spotlight of all SEO companies after recent changes to Google algorithms. It’s now the number one way of increasing the amount of web traffic flowing through to your website. It’s led to questions about what this is going to mean for other SEO methods and whether this has changed the way every website has to approach promotion.

What Happened?

Google Penguin and the updates after it led to various SEO metrics changing. Whilst we can’t prove this because Google won’t reveal how much each factor influences ranking, SEOs have reported how the effects of their techniques have changed. The value of hyperlinks and keywords has dropped significantly. The highest metrics are social media.

Obviously, Google+ gets the most emphasis since this is backed by Google. Twitter and Facebook follow close behind.

The Drive to Relevancy

The SEO rankings are designed to help the most popular websites appear at the top and the least popular to appear at the bottom. In the past, they’ve been relatively easy to manipulate. It’s why you could type a search string in and get results completely unrelated to what you were looking for.

Google has always wanted to make the sites at the top more relevant to you. They want to make sure the most popular websites reach the top. The easiest way to do this is to take social media into account. If people are talking about something it means it’s more popular.

Now you have to rely on other people to increase your SEO ranking. You can’t just pay an SEO company to make a few backlinks. You need to rely on total strangers to promote you.

What Does this Mean to You?

In short, companies have to cater to their customers for the first time. Their marketing campaigns need to be less self-serving. If they’re to succeed, they have to produce content that people like and that will actually want to share. You can rate how hard this is depending on what category you’re trying to target.

If you’re involved in building or accountancy, you’ll have to rely on customer reviews and testimonials. Blog owners can rely on funny and amusing pictures and stories. The latter will need to focus more on social media than the former, though.

Does it Change the Way You Promote Yourself?

It doesn’t mean older SEO techniques are now irrelevant. Webmasters still have to optimise their websites if they’re going to succeed in ranking highly in the Google search rankings. All it means is you’re going to have to sign up to the big three or four social media websites, and these are:

  • Facebook.
  • Twitter.
  • Google+.
  • LinkedIn (assuming you’re more business orientated).

It doesn’t take much to fulfil your social media quota. There are so many plugins and add-ons which automatically share your information to your social media channels. Make sure you get full email notifications of any direct messages from these websites. Try to encourage interaction by replying to any and all queries you receive.

Today’s guest post is authored by Neal Henderson. He is a popular freelance writer and a SEO genius. He has written many SEO, business and computer related articles. He recommends megawebtraffic to his readers who want to increase their Google page rank.