Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, Aug 17, 2010
What is SEO or Search Engine Optimization? SEO is the active practice of optimizing your web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the website traffic your website site receives from search engines. Companies that practice SEO can vary; some have a highly specialized focus, while others take a broader and general approach. Optimizing your web site for search engines can require some help the first is our SEO guide and the second is the tips out lined below:
SEO Tip Number One: Optimize your website for your target market, not for the search engines. Remember that Google and all the other search engines are looking for website pages that best fit the keyword phrase someone types the search engine search box. View it from the searcher point of view; if they are typing in search words that relate to what your company offers, then they are most likely members of your target audience. Therefore you need to optimize your website to meet what they are looking for. And if you don't know who your target audience is, then do some research to find out one. To know this is crucial to your website design, keyword research, and overall content.
SEO Tip Number Two: Remember that your best SEO friend is links. So make sure your website has content that is "link-worthy." As other websites that link to yours is a critical component of a successful search engine optimization (SEP) campaign, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your website's overall link popularity. Remember that if your website is full of great content then other website sites will want to link to it.
SEO Tip Number Three: Never forget the missing SEO link. Label all your internal text links and clickable images as clearly and descriptively as possible. Never forget that search engines look at the clickable portion of your links to understand what the website page is about once they click through. Don't make Google guess what's at the other end with links such as "click here", “more info” or any other non-descriptive words. Try to be as descriptive as possible with every link on your website.
If you are still under about that what to do, take one of these three options.
1: Download SiliconCloud’s SEO Guide
2: Request an SEO quote for website
3: Receive free Consultation on your website
Posted by Naylla Kassam on Wed, Jul 28, 2010
Page Titles….WHERE are they? What are they? Do I need them? And do I care?
The answer to all of these questions is YES!
1. Page Titles – Where are they?
Page Titles are at the top of the internet browser.
2. Page Titles – What are they?
Page titles are not only important to the visitors to your page, but they are also important to search engines. Google for example looks at the page title to determine what keywords that specific page should rank for. The key here is that search engines look at the page title for EACH page.
3. Page Titles – Do you need them?
Yes you need page titles. If Google looks at page titles for every page, then think of each page as a lottery ticket. For every page on your website, you have a chance for ranking on page one of Google for those specific key words. So take some time and work on your page titles.
4. Page Titles – Do you care?
Yes you should care about your page title. Every page title identifies to search engines, what the page is about, so take the time and ask yourself what each page on your site is about.
Here are some rules on page titles to help you along:
1. Google only looks at the first 70 characters so make the most of those 70 characters.
2. Make them visually appealing – that means don’t stuff keywords into the title. For example – management software for managers at management companies.
3. Make the page title inviting. Nothing worse that business analytics to help define business process and infrastructure reviews – what the heck does that mean? Make your page titles simple and make them make sense!
4. Don’t put your company name in every page title. If it makes sense, use it, if it doesn’t – don’t.
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, Jul 13, 2010
Digital Marketing, Digital Agency or Digital Marketing Company how many times have you seen those terms appear in the last few month? For me only recently on a flight did I come across another digital marketing agency starting up. However when pushed for what my Digital Marketing Strategy should be they came up blank. So what does your digital marketing strategy need to say to you and your business?
Can I suggest that your digital marketing strategy should have some similarities to your traditional marketing strategy but focused on the issues that are digital. So start building your digital marketing strategy by focusing on the following points.
Digital Marketing Strategy Point 1: Your strategy needs to provide a future direction to your internet marketing activities. This should be a long term roadmap for your online activities.
Digital Marketing Strategy Point 2: With any strategy do not forget to involve an analysis for the external environment after all what are your internal resources and capabilities to introduce a new digital marketing strategy?
Digital Marketing Strategy Point 3: The success to any strategy including a digital marketing strategy is to define and articulate your goals for each of your digital channels that support your marketing objectives.
Digital Marketing Strategy Point 4: While completing your digital marketing strategy look to a selection of strategic options to create your competitive advantage and how to maintain it.
Digital Marketing Strategy Point 5: While your digital marketing strategy might be new do not forget the traditional marketing mix and look to include such issue such as price, product or position etc.
Digital Marketing Strategy Point 6: Your digital marketing strategy is not one size fits all so there will be some strategies or digital channels that will not work for your business. So decide on which strategies which you should not pursue and not suitable for your digital marketing strategy.
If you are still unsure about your digital marketing strategy, stop and seek help before your start down the wrong digital strategy. Online Marketing, Social Media or SEO does and can work for your business but only works when done correctly and that can down to your Digital Marketing Strategy.
What else do you have in your Digital Marketing Strategy?
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Mon, May 24, 2010
Inbound Marketing for eBay, is that right. Well yes, yesterday in facebook I received an update from a friend on her new eBay store. Looking through her store I realised that eBay is no different to your website and needs SEO to build awareness and create traffic. When it comes to building a website, we spend hours doing keyword research, SEO, and optimization to make sure their website ranks well. Well selling on eBay should be no different and requires good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make the most of your store and inbound marketing.
When I search through eBay it looks like that some sellers expect that their auctions will just appear when people search. To make the most of eBay and in order to really get first-rate traffic to your eBay auctions you need SEO. To help your inbound marketing on eBay here are some simple tips.
First Inbound Marketing Tip for eBay: Repeat your keyword and/or phrase at least twice, where possible. But if you can't repeat your keywords twice, try to include around two or three keywords in your title. Keywords are important in an auction title because the more keywords you have near the top of your page the better.
Second Inbound Marketing Tip for eBay: It is important to remember to repeat your keyword in your auction description as well as this is a must for any good SEO practice. It should be noted that the eBay search engines do check your auction descriptions also when looking for search results. It is also possible to perform a search from your auction descriptions, so include your keywords.
Third Inbound Marketing Tip for eBay: While it is important to include your keywords but don't try to pack your auctions title with keyword spam or nonsense, just to try and grab a buyers attention. Buyers are not impressed by this lack of marketing. They won't think twice about not looking at your auction.
This are just some simple tips on making the most of your eBay store, you can find more in our free marketing webinars.
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Wed, Apr 14, 2010
Spending on online advertising in the US increased in the last quarter of 2009 making it the right time to turn to Inbound Marketing. Companies are starting to increase their digital marketing spend with companies spending $6.3 billion on online advertising in the last quarter. With companies investing more in PPC and online adverts means that the cost will rise and the ROI reduce making it the perfect time to move to Inbound Marketing and away from paid advertising.
Inbound Marketing is about getting found in the natural listings on Google when someone searches. In the last quarter of 2009 47% of the $6.3 billion was spent on search advertising. The only way for some companies to complete against that spend is to turn to Inbound Marketing. Search advertising can work for companies who have the budget but there are better ways to appear on page one and that is with making the move to Inbound Marketing, SEO and Social Media.
With companies will to invest so much on search advertising, it must be delivering result for them and by making the move to Inbound Marketing is a great way to deliver those results for your company. As the president of the IAB says "Digital Media are a core component of successful advertising and marketing campaigns" He goes on to say "As consumers spend more time immersed in digital media, marketers and increasingly reaching them there, building brands online and making digital the central force in their cross-media strategies." Really does say that now is the time to add and move to Inbound Marketing, SEO and Social Media.
These figures only backup the case to move to Inbound Marketing, SEO or Social Media. As the recent growth show the shift to digital media and away from traditional media. SiliconCloud are holding a free webinar next on Blogging for Business which would be a great way to find out how to immerse and move to Inbound Marketing.
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Mon, Apr 12, 2010
There are many blogs and articles on how to do SEO, Inbound Marketing or Social Media but why do it? Here are some simple reasons why you should do SEO, Inbound Marketing or Social Media for your business and website.
Reason 1, why you should do SEO, Inbound Marketing or Social Media: High Visibility. If you take your website offline and view it as a traditional shop the best location for your new business would be on the high street with a greater percentage of footfall traffic against some side street. The same goes for your website people love to search online so why not make it easy for them to find you. Over half of all web traffic is generated by search engines so getting your website on the first pages is crucial. The best way to get on to page one is with SEO, Inbound Marketing or Social Media
Reason 2, why you should do SEO, Inbound Marketing or Social Media: Business Goals. Does your business want or need more customers, maybe more leads or even more sales? Well the internet is a global marketplace and consumers see it as their first stop before looking anyway else. Today people have lost their fear of purchasing online or providing their details. Remember that search is demand-driven so you can target your messages and website to specific search queries. SEO, Inbound Marketing or Social Media is the least intrusive ways of advertising your presence to interested consumers.
Reason 3, why you should do SEO, Inbound Marketing or Social Media: Completion. The fact that your completion is turning more and more to online to find their new clients means if you are spending nothing then you're behind. Companies spend to try to stay one step ahead of their rivals in the rankings. So if you are serious about your company and your business then you cannot afford to be left behind. Have you tried searching in Google for keyphrases relevant to your business and see is your website listed? What about the competition? It they are there then they are already using SEO, Inbound Marketing and Social Media, are you?
Reason 4, why you should do SEO, Inbound Marketing or Social Media: Find You. If people are looking for then they need to find you, simple as that. What better way to reach your audience than when they are looking for information about a specific product or supplier? And the best way for them to find you is with SEO, Inbound Marketing and Social Media.
Reason 5, why you should do SEO, Inbound Marketing or Social Media: Measurement. The beauty of the internet is that every click is monitored and recorded. If you want to know if your strategy is working, it is very easy to find out. Are you top of the listings? How many customers came to you through via a search engine etc. So there is no risk as you can view the success attached to your SEO, Inbound Marketing and Social Media strategy.
At SiliconCloud we understand the challenge before taking on any SEO, Inbound Marketing or Social Media that is why we provide a free review of your website and strategy. Click here to register for the free report: Online Marketing Strategy Report
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Thu, Apr 01, 2010
This is not really a chicken and egg question, so what does come before SEO, Social Media and Inbound Marketing. When many businesses think about increasing their traffic they start with all the usual terms of SMO, SEO, Social Media and Inbound Marketing. This is before they consider the functionality of their website. Your website should always come before undertaking and Social Media or Inbound Marketing.
Why your website functionality comes before any SEO, Social Media or Inbound Marketing is that you need to consider if your website is capable of converting your new visitors into leads. What is the point of any increase in traffic if we cannot covert any of it into leads or customers? A good way to view your website is a part of your overall sales process and look to see how your website integrates into it. This should always come before undertaking an SEO, Social Media or Inbound Marketing.
You can see why this is an important step before you do any SEO, Social Media or Inbound Marketing. A quick test would be to write down your sales process in simple steps and see how or if your website adds to the sales process. Let's take an example of a car dealership, the reason why I picked that one is that most times the sales has to take place offline in person. Their sales process might be something like this:
1: Potential clients comes in or phones up about a particular car.
2: After an initial chat with a salesperson may agree to test drive
3: Once returning from the test drive the fun starts with the valuation of their current car etc
4: And so on
So what we want to do is to figure how their website can feed into this sales process even before we consider any SEO, social media or Inbound Marketing. Take the website www.maxwellmotors.ie, I know that they have recently changed their website so that is why I am using them as an example. Overall their site looks very good but does not add to the sales process. What I would be look for is various landing pages that would let me book a test drive, arrange a valuation on my own car something that places me on the first step of the sales process. When I compare this website against the BMW site, where I can request a quote, build my own car etc. For the BMW garages their leads are well on the sales process. So they now can start thinking about SEO, Social Media and Inbound Marketing.
A simple test to perform to see if you are ready for SEO, Social Media and Inbound Marketing is to ask yourself if someone rang me up what would be the next step and can my website help in that process. If the answer is no then you are not ready for an SEO, Social Media or Inbound Marketing.
And if your website is ready for social media and inbound marketing then join SiliconCloud's webinar next we on Social Media for Business. Where we will cover why and how you can use social media for your business. Click here to register. Social Media for Business
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Mon, Feb 01, 2010
The biggest disadvantage with SEO can be the lack of control. The challenge of any SEO is that there are over 8 billion pages already indexed by search engines. So your position in relation to your competitor can change as it is dependent on the search engine's current algorithm. So making your website visible can require some specialist knowledge, monitoring and the ability to adjust to any changes made to their algorithm.
As a consequence, the biggest disadvantage of any Search Engine Optimization is the lack of control. You and your website are subject to changes made by search engines in the algorithm. This is before you think that your competitors may not be playing on a level field with the use of less ethical black hat SEO techniques.
Therefore in some competitive sectors it where it may be very difficult to get listed or ranked in the top few results for your phrases or keywords. This is when PPC may have to be used, although this can be expensive in a competitive sector.
This lack of visibility can make it difficult to make a definitive business case for SEO, although it is obvious what the number one position on Google would do for most companies including yours. It is nevertheless impossible to predict and guarantee positions and click volumes from your search engine optimization because the true impact of any future changes to the algorithm is unknown.
However, over time we will see that estimates of long-term returns from SEO can and should be made. So it may take time and effort but SEO will return your investment over time.
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Mon, Feb 01, 2010
There are many views on Inbound Marketing against PPC. Inbound Marketing is not the same as PPC while the results may appear the same they are completely different. The same can be said that Influence is not the same as Persuasion.
Persuasion is the principle of convincing someone to do something once whether it is to attend an event, make a purchase or on click on a screen. The success achieved through persuasion can be short term and damage any long term influence. People that have been persuaded once against their better judgement will be more careful next time. There are similarities between PPC or Adwords and persuasion, anyone can get their company mentioned on Page One once they spend enough of their marketing budget. They may try to persuade you that they have something to do or have relevance with what you are looking for.
Inbound Marketing and Influencers are not looking for one off success or quick wins but long term success and relationships. Anyone running PPC sometimes start and finish with their own needs and the conversion or message tends to be one-sided. With Inbound Marketing think like influencers and see the world through your target market's eyes change how you engage with them accordingly. The goal is to build long term trust and respect through organic search, social media or blogs. It may take time and effort but will return your investment over time.
Remember there is a reason why only 25% of people click on PPC, could that be trust?
What is your view?
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Wed, Nov 04, 2009
LinkedIn is one of the few social media websites every professional should be using.
Here are some tips we recommend to optimize your Linkedin account:
Fully complete your profile - Ensuring that this contains all relevant career history and interests.
Use the vanity URL - This should be set to use your name (or closest match if unavailable) within the URL, for example: http://www.linkedin.com/in/murphyjpatrick - this will help you to optimize your own name in the search engines and also makes the URL easier to remember if promoted on business cards or email signatures.
Make connections - Increase the reach of your profile by connecting with current and former work colleagues, clients, friends and family. I'd also recommend adding any industry contacts, perhaps from people you have met at conferences/events or are connected with on other social media sites and share a similar interest.
Register a company profile - If your company doesn't already have a company listing, you should create one! If your company does have a profile, you should encourage employees to create their own individual LinkedIn profile's and ensure the current employer entry is completed. This will automatically update all employees listed on the company profile, providing the company name is exactly matched.
Make use of the 3 website hyperlinks - For SEO value, LinkedIn is very good - they give you the opportunity to add three hyperlinks of your choice. This is a simple way to add url to search engines.
Join related groups - Find groups where other industry professionals have joined and look to participate in (or at least join) these groups. Adding value to your own profile and helping you to get found by other industry contacts.
Use LinkedIn Answers - This can help to build up your reputation within a field. For SEO it also builds the number of internal links pointing to your profile from within LinkedIn, therefore helping to strengthen your profile in the search engines!
Optimise your job title - LinkedIn now includes your job title within profile title tags. I'm not saying you should lie about your job, but within reason you could include descriptive keywords which may help to attract relevant search engine traffic. For example, using "SEO Account Manager" as a job title instead of "Account Manager", if appropriate. any i know I have to do mine....
Please check out our next webinar on Facebook for business
http://www.siliconcloud.com/facebook