"4 Resources on How To Optimize Your Website's SEO Using Social Media"

I was at a trade show a few weeks ago and a guest to our stand at Infinity Technologies came up and started talking to us about his web site, that had just been completed by another web designer, and wanted us to have a look at it and see what we thought (about its SEO). So after a brief look we determined that not even SEO 101 basics had been implemented despite his clear directions to the company he had engaged, he left our stand, and I am sure the company who had done the work received a very interesting phone call. 

Search Engine Optimisation is one of the foundations of getting found, whether that is for your blog ,e-commerce site, or your non-profit organisation that is competing for the donation dollar for the cause that matters. Yellow pages are hardly used any more and I have heard of small companies spending upwards of $50,000 a year on this type of media with almost no results with 85% of all purchasing decisions are starting with a Google search, $50,00 can be invested in an SEO strategy, enhance your website, allow you to devote some resources to content, put up a blog, get your twitter site and campaign up and running, and plan and start a social media marketing program and run pay per click campaign on Google. So have a look at these blogs just implement a few of the tactics and strategies and keep learning, but most of all have some fun along the way. 

1. “How to Grow Your Google Authority”

Authority Leads to “Google Authority” so says Chris Brogan from his blog on Blogging and New Media. So what is the real route to better Google rankings? Many new Internet marketers obsess over Google pagerank believing it to be the route to rising in the search results, where in fact pagerank is just one of many factors involved in your search engine ranking and, most misleading, what you see in the Google Toolbar is very inaccurate anyway.

People look at Wikipedia and think they rank so highly and so often because of pagerank, or perhaps because they have a gajillion links, but there is another powerful element we can overlook if we are not careful.

Once relevance, links and keywords are taken into account, the true engines of search engine success are now believed to be “Trust” and “Authority”. But what do those phrases mean in this context, and how do you get more of the good stuff?

So what is authority in your blogging? Authority in general means that people trust you to supply expert insight. The good news is that authorities trusted by human beings are also trusted by Google.

“If a site is an authority in your industry, you can bet that it will be for Google as well. So if you’re a web designer, a link from Smashing Magazine or A List Apart helps, as a lot of other web design sites will be linking to those sites, thus causing those sites to be ‘hubs’ in the web design space.”
– Joost De Valk, Yoast

Authority in a search context takes into account all the elements of a site then determines a grading on the spectrum from completely authoritative through to no authority at all. The more authoritative and trusted your site, the better you will rank.

In fact, being an authority in Google’s eyes is a game-changer. The rules are quite different for authorities and authorities can get away with much more gray and risky behavior than other sites.

There are many factors that directly influence your Google authority including the domain (a .gov is going to be more trusted than a much easier to gain .info), quantity and quality of links, plus traffic elements.

2. Social Media & SEO: The 5 Steps to Success

Lee Odden in this guest post with Mashable lists 5 suggestions on using Social media to optimise you site on search engines. (Lee Odden is the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and editor at Online Marketing Blog.)

Now because of the GFC ( Great Financial Crisis ) company marketers are charged with improving performance with fewer resources and shifting marketing budgets from traditional to digital tactics like SEO and social media. There are significant benefits from combining search engine optimization and social media marketing tactics ranging from increased social network discovery via search to the ability to attract links for improved SEO.

Making the most out of combining SEO insights with social media marketing tactics can be accomplished with a roadmap that identifies the audience you’re after, the goals you’re trying to reach (and can measure) as well as a strategy that sets the stage for the tactics you’ll use to execute your game plan. Read on to get a better understanding of how SEO and social media complement each other and a step by step guide for creating a social media roadmap.

3. “SEO For YouTube – How To Search Optimize Video For B2B Marketing”

 This is a great blog from Hubspot showing you how to optimize your YouTube video for SEO . Content including videos are an important partg of  inbound marketing.   Given that YouTube is by far the most popular video website, you should be publishing videos there.  You also need to be able to optimize your videos to show up higher in searches on YouTube.  Here’s a great practical demonstration of how to optimise your YouTube Videos.

4. Video “How To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile For SEO in 4 Minutes”

There are two really quick things you can do on LinkedIn to optimize your profile for SEO — both to make your LinkedIn profile more discoverable, and to make your profile work for you by sending some SEO authority (link juice) to other pages on the web that you choose. The video explains it all and shows you exactly how to do it in under 4 minutes.

In my line of work in the Web and Internet industry I never cease to be amazed at how even the basics of SEO are very often not done. SEO is also not a destination, it is an ongoing journey and challenge to ensure that you have the best chance in an Ocean called  the Web that your company, NGO, or name will  will be found  when that key word or phrase is put into that search engine. To every one of my clients I strongly suggest that they invest in SEO or why even bother to take the time and investment in developing a website. What is the point of spending $50,000 or $100,000 if you are going to be on page 100 of Google.

We are entering a new phase in business where commerce is moving more and more online and it is a different  game, so you need to win or your competitors will.