When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) many things have changed over the years. Have you been keeping up to date with the latest methods and implementing them into your business? Here are 3 signs that it may be time for you to update your online marketing campaign.

1. You have a turnkey website while these were designed to give businesses such as chiropractors, lawyers and doctors a hands free and no hassle way to get online you’ll find that many of their methods of marketing are outdated and ineffective. For example many of these website use stock photography of office and receptionist desk that does not even come close to resembling your office. Also, you’ll find the same content such as newsletters and articles on each of these websites.

2. You have a hit counter on the bottom of your website. Hits are good in baseball, but if you’re not measuring conversion then all of the hit don’t mean a thing. Also, you need to ask yourself are these unique visitors? 99.9% of these hit counters are designed to provide a link to someone’s to help them improve the rankings of their website and steal traffic from yours.

3. Your website does not a social component to it. In other words you’re not taking advantage of social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube and Digg just to name a few. You need to spread your message to as many sites as possible. You should not be relying on site such as Google as your main source of traffic today.

So there you have 3 signs that it’s time for you to update your marketing campaign. While I could have gone on these are some of the common errors that I continue to see each and everyday.

Feel free to leave a comment below or retweet this article.

Here’s the deal you have great website, but you’re not getting any traffic. I’m going to give you a few simple tips that you can use almost immediately to start driving targeted traffic to your website. And the best thing is it’s free, but it is going to cost you a bit of your time.

Article Marketing: writing articles and submitting them to various article directories is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get free traffic to your website. I know what you’re thinking. I don’t know how to write or what should I write about? Write about some of the common questions that your customers may have, or questions that they should be asking about your goods or services. Make sure the article is the least 275 words, because most directories will not accept articles that have less than 250 words.

Video Marketing: creative video describing your goods or services. I suggest that you write a short script first, practice it and few times then fire up that camcorder. If you are a little camera shy put together slideshow presentation using Windows Movie Maker or iMovie if you’re using a Mac. The video should not be more than three minutes. Once done submit to sites such as Youtube or Metacafe.

Twitter: go social by opening up an account at Twitter.com. Twitter has over 75 million users. Once you have you account setup, search Twitter for people within your city & state to follow. For starters you want to follow about 30-40 people a day. Also, tweet about articles and products on your website.

If you follow these few tips you should see an increase in your website traffic in a matter of days.

Additional Resources

Article Directories:

Ezine Articles
Go Articles
Isnare

Video Sharing:

Youtube
Metacafe
Viddler

Social Networking

Twitter
Linkedin
FaceBook

Also, if you need help with your article writing, video creation or social media please check out our list of services.

Using Twitter to market vacant apartments can be simple and easy once you know how.

As of January 2010 Twitter had over 75 million users, in this article I’m going to share with you some tips and tools that you can use in order to tap into some of that free traffic.

But first I must tell you about some of the crazy ways that I’ve seen people marketing their apartments for rent. The classic is the balloon, almost every Monday just like clockwork this property manager in my area ties 10 balloons to their sign that is at street level. I didn’t realize that the balloon was the universal language for “Apartment for Rent” because her competition does the same thing, sometimes they throw in a few lawn signs into the mix? I’ve even seen one go as far as using a 100-foot inflatable monster that flapped around in the wind.

Here’s how to go social with Twitter.

1. You need to set-up a Twitter account. Just go over to http://twitter.com. I’ll be creating videos later to go over some of the features at a later date.
2. Go over to the vacant apartment that you would like to lease and jot down some details notes of each room. Then I suggest that you go back to your desk and write some powerful tweets, try keeping them to 120 characters or less while Twitter allows up to 140 characters, you want your followers to have space to retweet your post. Also, please refrain from using the standard “1 bed room| 1 bath| 600 sq.ft.” You’re not writing for the newspaper. Try something like “Spacious kitchen,stainless steel appliances, with marble counter top with new dishwasher call 000-000-0000 for details”
3. For every tweet that you write about the vacant apartment, write 3 tweets about the community such as events, restaurants, shopping, bus line, recipes and jokes.
4. Use a URL shortening service such as budurl or bit.ly to shorten up those long links to websites. Both offer free accounts the pro accounts you can update to the pro account later if you need additional tracking features.
5. Retweet your best post every 2-3 weeks.
6. Reply to direct messages.
7. Do not use the default twitter background; you don’t want to look like every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Create at a custom background.
8. Post to Twitter at random times throughout the day. I recommend you using a scheduler, but don’t forget to tweet in real time also. Socialoomph.com

If you follow these simple steps you’ll be on your way to filling those vacant spots faster then you can say Keyword Nerd.

Need help getting your social media off the ground feel free to contact me at (612) 655-1890.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/KeithLBurke

For the last year I’ve been posting SEO tips on my Twitter account.  After careful review I will start to post videos and write articles on how you can implement these strategies in order to achieve top rankings and increase traffic in the search engines.

Social media marketing is a relatively new field in online commerce. Essentially, it is the use of social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in order to attract attention and build brand recognition for your company or service. By interacting with potential customers through these sites, you can establish a relationship that can lead to increased business for your company and improved loyalty to your brand name. Depending on the products or services being promoted, your company can even engage in a dialogue with consumers regarding new product ideas, concerns, questions, or comments; this enhances your company’s reputation for responsive customer service and allows you to connect on a personal level with your clients.

Blogging offers companies a more controlled way of interacting with current and prospective customers. If you choose this method, it’s vital to keep your blog updated on a regular basis. Outdated blog entries can create the mistaken impression that your company is no longer in business; ideally, your blog should be updated at least biweekly. Monitor your comments carefully and respond in a prompt fashion. Allowing spam comments to clutter up your blog entries will discourage readers and presents a disorganized appearance; for best results, comments should be reviewed weekly and responded to or deleted as appropriate.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube offer the least control over the public discussion of your company. If your product or service is controversial, this lack of control may create undesirable commentary about your business. However, the exposure and potential buzz that these sites can create may make them a worthwhile risk, especially if your company is relatively new to the market. For example, if you post a clever or unusual video to YouTube about your company, it has the potential to be viewed by millions of people across the country and around the world, gaining more exposure for your company than traditional advertising methods can produce at far less cost.

Social media marketing can provide your company with much-needed exposure, but that exposure comes with attendant risks. It’s vital that you monitor and control your corporate image and take steps to correct any misinformation or negative public response in order to get the most out of these versatile online marketing tools.

Article marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote your business or product. By providing online consumers with accurate, useful information on topics related to your line of work, you can develop a reputation as an expert in your chosen field; this provides you and your company with valuable name recognition that can attract orders and customers. In most cases, your results will directly correlate with the quality of the articles you publish online; providing helpful information will pay off in the number of customers who view your website and subsequently place an order.

Because of the constant demand for new and relevant content, a high-quality article is likely to be copied and posted on multiple sites, providing valuable backlinks that drive traffic directly to your website. In rare cases your article may even go “viral” and attract attention from millions of readers throughout the world. While this is the exception, rather than the rule, it points up the importance of writing quality articles that offer consumers the information they need in a concise, well-written package.

It goes without saying that your articles should be free of spelling and grammatical errors; these simply look sloppy and make your company look less professional as a result. Avoid excessive use of jargon in your articles as well. Too much specialized language can be discouraging to consumers and can obscure the point of your article. Ideally, articles should be concise and to the point; most experts recommend that your article length should range between 400 and 600 words. This allows consumers to get the information they need without being overburdened with extraneous facts.

Don’t pack keywords at the cost of readability. Nothing will drive away readers faster than a pointless collection of keywords that provide little or no useful information about the topic. When writing articles, the key to success is to provide relevant material for consumers on the topic at hand. This will allow you to promote your business while offering a real benefit to your readers, ensuring that you build your name recognition in a positive way.

Social bookmarking is only one aspect of Search Engine Optimization but despite being a simple task, it helps in building one’s presence on the web.

Social bookmarking is one of the most useful and beneficial techniques under search engine optimization. Though simple, it can help in putting your site on the top of the searches as it is an effective and clean form of building links. There are millions of social bookmarking sites on the web that can help you with this task and powered only by quick fingers or an effective and accurate bookmarking tool, you can further optimize your website and increase chances of finding traffic thanks to this process.

The advent of social bookmarks also became an opportunity for SEO companies and consultants to build links effectively without having to purchase clicks or ad-space on a website. Why? The answer is simple: social bookmarking is a free service offered by social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us, Digg.com, Jumptags, and many others. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to simply bookmark a page on a website either. Furthermore, you are opening your doors to millions of social bookmarkers every day. That alone can assure you traffic.

Free and fast, social bookmarking and its benefits might sound too good to be true; but that’s the basic and simple truth about social bookmarking. When done properly, you will be amazed at the results.

Unfortunately, there are a few sides to social bookmarking that could make it challenging. For one, SEO is not a trial-and-error activity. If you are caught spamming—either on blogs, forums, and social bookmarks, you could put your website in jeopardy or you are risking yourself from being banned. Spam is everyone’s enemy on the web—you wouldn’t want to be everyone’s enemy do you?

How to properly bookmark a website

Clicking on the ‘Bookmark’ button is the easiest way to bookmark a website—it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out, but bookmarking the right website or web page might be the challenge for you. So—what should you be bookmarking then?

Most SEO consultants would suggest bookmarking your most recent blog post or bookmarking your daily posts. If you wish to submit a link to a social bookmark, sharing a link that takes the reader to your most recent posts and fully optimized content is a method leaning to social bookmarking’s SEO use. Think of it as inviting people to read your blog post. If they find your blog post helpful or informative, then selling over the web becomes easier.

Properly bookmarking a website also means being able to use the best tags and a short, informative description about the content found on your site. In other cases, write a teaser that might grab a reader’s attention. Now, a reader will not be able to read your content in one sitting. Sometimes, an “appetizer” is needed to give people an idea about the contents of your bookmark.

How often should bookmarking be done

For most people, social bookmarking is a task done every time one finds something interesting on the net. For those who use bookmarking for SEO, sharing a link each time a new piece of content is available on your website is also a good move.

Social bookmarking has now evolved from merely saving interesting pieces of content you find on the internet. It has also become a method for building online presence for your company. If social bookmarking isn’t one of your favorite things to do on the internet, now would be a good time to get started with this quick and easy SEO technique.

Every business-owner who owns a website or two is most likely aware of the rat race on the internet. There are millions of websites and online-based companies who depend on PPC or advertisements, but there are other effective internet marketing strategies known only to a few people—particularly SEO consultants. So, should you hire an SEO Consultant?

If you are a business owner, you might hear these three letters often: S-E-O—but what is it really? And how can your company benefit from this web practice?

Search Engine Optimization or SEO, is the process of improving one’s website rankings through optimized content, effective link-building, social media, and other white-hat techniques. While SEO techniques may vary, the ultimate goal of every SEO is to generate as much traffic for your site or to generate conversion.

The main role of SEO is to complement the needs of your company. Since majority of web traffic is generated by search engines, it is necessary then to find the right consultant who can help in analyzing the needs of your company.

SEO Consultants are those who assist you with the right direction to take on the internet race. They study internet trends, tools, and formulate a plan that can help you achieve your goals of either making the top of the searches or generating a hefty amount of sales. Hiring an SEO Consultant is synonymous to hiring a business adviser who knows the internet battle field more or as well as you do. As the business adage goes, “No one else knows your business more than you do,” what then is the logic behind hiring an SEO Consultant?

The first point to consider is the expertise of an SEO Consultant. Every SEO consultant is aware of the factors that can put your website under Google’s spotlight. They are familiar with the right steps and techniques to keep you from being blacklisted. It takes lots of analysis, observation, and practice before one becomes an SEO Consultant; and at the end of the day, they have the results to prove it.

Although web designers and web programmers know the overall design of a website, SEO Consultants know how to make your website Search Engine friendly. Here’s an example: web designers, and even business owners, know that Flash websites are attractive, but SEO Consultants discourage the use of Flash sites. There is SEO logic behind this practice, and SEO Consultants can provide you with the reasons why. On the other hand, if you just can’t sleep at night knowing that your website is not as flashy as other websites, ask an SEO Consultant how to build a Flash website into something fully SEO optimized as well as SEO friendly.

Another advantage that SEO Consultants can provide for your websites is their focus on content. While web designers and programmers focus more on the design of a website, SEO Consultants keep an eye on your website content. Basically, content is the most important aspect in SEO. Furthermore, knowing how to optimize that piece of content plays an important role in building online presence.

Search Engine Optimization is not just something done on websites. It is a long, taxing process that requires observation of trends, analysis, and commitment. SEO Consultants are those who are willing to spend enough time to study trends as well as apply SEO techniques on your website such as submissions, creating unique content, build a healthy amount of links, and most of all, do these tasks without resorting to black hat techniques. Apparently, those who do are not real SEO Consultants.

There are many SEO Consultants who might claim to know the routes on the internet, but instead use methods that might jeopardize your website instead. Google, Yahoo!, and other search engines on the internet do not think twice when banning a site; hence, make sure that pick a consultant who knows the right methods in promoting your site. You only have one chance. If you are banned, you will not only lose your good reputation, you will also lose traffic and conversion.

All in all, search engine optimization is and always will be the best method to take in order to build online presence. It does not cost as much as PPC and there are SEO Consultants who are more than willing to do the dirty work for you at a reasonable fee.

Optimizing a website is not like fixing a broken pipe in your kitchen. While a plumber can do it, so can your husband. There are a lot of people who can get the job done for you, but what about business matters? Who do you run to when there’s a little rift between you and your customers?

Optimizing a website and generating good traffic and conversion for it is a task that can’t be done by just anyone. To ensure that you are getting the results you deserve, hiring an SEO specialist is and will always be the best option.

Here’s why:

If you’re a business owner, you are the only person who knows your business 100%. But that doesn’t mean an SEO specialist can’t identify more opportunities for your business, especially if it is based on the internet. Search Engine Optimization is one of those few things you will need assistance with—and with thousands and millions of potential traffic and conversion to earn, that’s one investment you wouldn’t want to let go.

Marketing using the internet is one of those developments your offline business could use in order to attract more customers without having to increase costs for marketing and promotions. Imagine reaching out to customers without having to drive to each of their homes? Instead of knocking on their doors, “knock” through their computer screens instead.

Search Engine Optimization makes it possible for business owners to reach more customers, not just in one area but also abroad; and since the internet has become more of a shopping place than just an educational resource, finding customers on the web is not only possible, but it is the trend.

While internet marketers have varying methods of attaining traffic, not all marketers focus on conversion. SEO specialists, on the other hand, know what your company needs; and conversion is always at the top of their list. SEO specialists basically find ways and means to generate as much traffic, rankings, and conversion for your site.

What do “good” SEO specialists do?

SEO specialists don’t just run around different websites on the internet and leave links to your site. SEO specialists make sure that the content on your website down to the design is search engine friendly. They take care of your website as much as you do. SEO specialists also pick out relevant keywords for your website, and well-searched keywords at that. Most importantly, “good” SEO specialists constantly keep your site updated to make sure that you will always retain presence on search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

Search Engine Optimization is not only a science, but it is an art that entails a lot of thinking, strategy, and creativity; and putting your company in the hands of someone who knows the trend on the World Wide Web is not only practical, but it is the best way to make sure you are always ahead of competition.

Bloggers around the world agree that Google is indeed the King of all Search Engines and if you’re nowhere in it, you’re basically nowhere on the web.

The Internet is basically ruled by three search engines: Yahoo!, MSN Live, and Google—and with a resounding yes, Google generates majority of the web’s traffic. Google has not only influenced the media through its famous divisions such as Youtube, Myspace, and a few other Social Media websites, Google has also influenced the trend of offline and online-based businesses. The entire SEO industry, for one, is an ever-changing process due to Google.

If you have a blog, try running a search of certain keywords pertaining to your site, can you find your blog on Google? If you can, looks like all you have to worry about is how to improve that existing level of traffic, but if the answer is otherwise, you and your blog is missing out on a lot. You’re not just missing out on the traffic, you are also losing potential conversion.

Conversion, as you probably know, is very important.

The challenge here is how to be visible not just on the web but also on Google. By securing your presence on Google, you can secure your presence on other Search Engines too. Here are a few tips on how to make your website more “attractive” for Google.

POST UNIQUE CONTENT

Google has tons of rules about website content; and mind you, they seem to be very strict on that. The most important rule to remember about content is to avoid plagiarism. Always make sure that the content on your website is yours, or if you had it written by a content writer, make sure the piece of content is not only optimized, but also 100% not plagiarized. Google filters all forms of duplicate content, and if they sniff one from your site, you will lose all chances of ranking well on their engine.

DO LINK BUILDING

What would the internet be if networking never happened? A lot of bloggers build website traffic by simply networking with other bloggers. By successfully building more links, they are also successfully generating more traffic. In SEO, this is known as back linking, and blogs are not the only ones who need this. Corporate websites will need this too if they wish to reach out to their local customers successfully.

Link building is one of the many processes done under the umbrella of Internet Marketing. Link building can be as simple as reading blog posts from other bloggers, commenting on their posts, and by being an active visitor on their site. Don’t forget to leave an URL to your site though; but make sure you are subtle when posting your blog URL. When posting comments, make sure your comments have a level of relevance with their post.

Link building can come in other forms such as link exchange and content exchange too. Contact an SEO specialist to help you out with this vital process.

OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE

Google provided a tool that identifies the most used keywords on the web, with the benefit of bloggers and internet marketers in mind. The Google Keyword Tool not only identifies the best keywords to use for your site, it is also used for PPC (Pay-per-click) marketing.

When you build a blog, you must have a goal in mind. By simply identifying those goals, you can generate a good series of keywords for your site. Use Google’s Keyword Tool, if needed, to help you identify better keywords.

You can use these keywords for the META keyword and description portion of your website, as well as for your content. Build your content around these keywords and you can never go wrong with building your presence on Google.

All in all, a good piece of optimized content plus a healthy exchange of links are two of the most traffic-generating processes in SEO. Resorting to black hat tricks and spamming will only get you in trouble. When it comes to pleasing Google (as well as staying on the search engine for a long time), always go for “clean” methods.