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Posts Tagged ‘search engine optimization tools’

Three Reasons to Hire a Professional SEO Consultant

March 2nd, 2010 admin No comments

Business owners usually succeed by playing to their strengths while delegating work outside their areas of expertise to others who are either more capable and/or less costly in terms of handling specific tasks. When considerations are being made as to whether search engine optimization should be executed by in-house personnel or out-sourced to a professional SEO company, three issues must be taken into account. They are:
1) Time – For many people running small and medium sized businesses, there aren’t enough hours in the day already, even without taking on additional responsibilities. From its outset, a search engine optimization strategy will take time to develop and execute. Estimates of the time required to mount an effective SEO campaign can vary widely depending on a host of factors including competition, the number of keywords to be optimized, and the amount of necessary content, for starters. Add ongoing testing, measuring, and analysis of the campaign and suddenly the size of the time commitment can start to look overwhelming. In fact, the average time requirement of one hundred hours per month to start a campaign is often enough by itself to convince business owners to go with an outside search engine optimization company.
2) Labor – All of work requiring a time commitment also requires labor to conduct it. Staffing up for an SEO campaign, in addition to the time it takes for things like seeking applicants, interviewing, and then hiring them, often turns out to be a very expensive option. Most of this expense comes from the cost of the associated infrastructure such as office space, computers, phone lines, etc., as well as the ongoing cost of the labor itself. This expense can harm a company in several ways; stretching a possibly tight operating budget as well as reducing the potential return on investment, even if the SEO campaign is successful from the beginning. The distraction of resources attached to the implementation the in-house initiative would add to the cost as well.
3) Skill Sets – Without the appropriate skills, neither time nor labor will be able to deliver anything close to the results required to cover the costs incurred. As a combination of art and science, search engine optimization requires constant attention, creativity, and experience. Starting with keyword research, successful results for any SEO campaign require getting it right and getting things done in a cost effective manner. Additional requirements include quality on-site content for optimization purposes, link building, and the creation of blogs, articles, and press releases. Integrating these activities into a workable and successful strategy takes a level of skill and experience which is normally found only at professional SEO companies.
Search engine optimization which results in front page rankings on the search engines can deliver huge returns on investment by driving branding efforts, company recognition, and revenues. With increasing competition for consumer dollars, the importance of running successful SEO campaigns has never been greater. For that reason small and medium sized business must seriously and realistically take into consideration whether they have the wherewithal to succeed on their own where so many have failed before them. Professional SEO companies, like the Gervais Group can deliver SEO solutions which are long lasting, cost effective, and, most importantly, successful. For more information, visit the Gervais Group at www.gervaisgroupllc.com or call (770) 529 2262.

Keyword Research and Successful Search Engine Optimization

March 1st, 2010 admin No comments

For some of those not working with a search engine optimization company, keyword research is a simple process of either choosing search terms with the highest traffic counts or writing down a list of terms assumed to be relevant to the associated website. An example of the first method would be for a website that sells snowboarding travel packages to select a keyword like “snowboarding”. Granted, in terms of traffic volume “snowboard” is an extremely popular search term within the category. Going with a broad keyword, however, presents a couple of different issues:
* The term is so generic that the competition for the keyword ranks near the top of the category. For even the most seasoned search engine optimization company the optimization process, at least one with any hopes of success,  would take months or years of work and an enormous budget.
* Even if, against all odds, a successful search engine marketing campaign managed to get a high ranking with the search engines for the term, the resulting traffic would be so untargeted that a majority of visitors that clicked through to the site would depart quickly because they were looking for something else related to “snowboarding”.
* Search engine users are becoming savvier and are now employing more detailed search terms (aka keyphrases) to find what they are looking for. It’s very likely that the people this website would love to target would be using a keyphrase like “snowboarding travel packages Aspen” and skipping the generic term “snowboarding” altogether.
The process of making assumptions and/or guessing on the best keywords has its pitfalls as well. Using the previous example, a list of keywords and keyphrases formed around “snowboarding travel packages” might actually contain terms that could be optimized successfully. The issue is that, without analysis, choice of the terms which would provide the greatest returns would be based totally on guesswork. For example, the assumed list could contain among its entries “snowboarding travel packages Aspen” and “snowboarding travel packages Big Sky Montana”. While Aspen is an internationally known destination, Big Sky might prove to be the better location to optimize for because they get traffic but there is less competition. Without keyword research the best keyphrase of the two would remain unknown to our theoretical company. Instead of guessing, keyword research done by an SEO company would define the answer to this issue, rank the other keyphrases by opportunity, and add many other cost effective keyphrases as well. This analysis is based on:
* Keyword and keyphrase relevance – Any terms which are going to be optimized must hold relevance at the site for the search terms. In this case, a person searching “snowboard travel packages” should immediately see that the page they have landed on is about “snowboard travel packages”.
* Potential visitor traffic – Optimizing for non-existent traffic is basically a fool’s errand. Getting to the top of a search engine results page with a term that doesn’t have any searches may be fun to look up on occasion but will do nothing in terms of getting visitors to the site.
* The level of competition for each search term – At the other end of the traffic spectrum lies high traffic/highly competitive search terms. These should normally be avoided as well in favor of terms that carry less competition but which can still deliver targeted visitors.
Keyword research is unfortunately one of the most neglected aspects of search engine marketing when website owners go it alone. The fact is, having the research done by an experienced SEO company can provide a massive return on investment by providing faster and more cost effective results while delivering targeted traffic which is much more likely to turn into customers that buy products and/or services. For a complete keyword research report for your website visit http://www.gervaisgroupllc.com or call (770) 529 2262.

Six Steps Toward Successful Search Engine Marketing

February 23rd, 2010 admin No comments

Search engine marketing, as a subset of search engine optimization, can be broken into a six step process. Whether website owners decide to take all six steps on their own or bring in a professional SEO company to assist on the project is usually a decision based on a multiple of factors including time, resources, and the level of expertise required. Whether done in-house or by an SEO company, the six steps are as follows:
1) Research your keywords – Keyword research is the foundation of all successful SEO endeavors. Defining keywords and keyphrases can determine where the opportunities exist, help to avoid overly competitive ones, and will go a long way toward the success of your search engine marketing plan. If you are unsure of how to do it yourself hire an SEO company to do it for you. It’s that important
2) Find a domain name that is search engine friendly and then register it – Having a domain name that utilizes the main keywords that will be on the site will drive targeted traffic and score relevance points with the search engines. A little creativity may be required to get what you want but it will be worth the effort. Also be sure to go with a domain that has the .com extension due to its status as the quasi default choice for websites. Once the name is decided, be sure to buy and register it.
3) Determine a marketing budget – Defining your marketing budget will determine the direction of your search engine marketing plan and how it will be executed. For example, if the marketing budget is going to require operating on a shoestring, marketing options might include setting up a presence on the social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Other activities could include the creation and submission of blogs, articles, and press releases. A larger budget might allow for outsourcing the work either in part or in total to a professional search engine optimization company.
4) Content creation – Created content serves three purposes; marketing the site, capturing visitors at the site, and converting them from visitors to consumers. This content must be of high quality across the board to have the best chance at driving and monetizing traffic. It should also be created on a consistent basis to keep visitors interested and to let the search engines know that the site is constantly growing. Content creation, submission, and optimization is often outsourced to SEO companies due to the time and skill required for its successful implementation.
5) Develop additional revenue streams for the site – Selling advertising or allowing for advertising to be placed on a site through program such as Google’s AdWords can add additional streams of income to your site. Other revenue generators might be affiliates programs which carry products and/or services related to those already being sold on the site. The advantage of affiliate programs is that billing, collecting payments, and shipping are all done through a third party. Setting up referral arrangements with other on and off-line businesses can generate substantial revenues as well.
6) Re-investing revenues back into additional marketing – Once the site begins generating revenues, be sure to make a commitment to re-investing a portion of them into expanding your marketing effort. The reinvestment amounts may be small at first, but adding and expanding successful marketing efforts will start to grow revenues at an increasingly faster rate.
These are the basic steps toward building successful search engine marketing campaigns. All search engine marketing strategies should be designed with an ultimate objective of driving targeted visitors who are likely to convert into consumers at the site. Unless the site is targeted toward driving micro-niche oriented visitors, the best results are most often achieved when professional SEO consultants like the Gervais Group handle the work load. For more information, visit www.GervaisGroupllc.com or call (770) 529 2262

SEO and Keyword Tips

February 9th, 2010 admin No comments

As competition increases for the rankings on the front pages of the various search engines, the importance of getting search engine optimization and keywords right has never been greater. Whether you are doing your own optimization or have hired an SEO company, the following are some SEO tips and ideas to get your search engine optimization efforts off to a great start.

* Do a deep dive on keyword research – Keyword research is both the most important and most overlooked aspect of search engine optimization. This research is critical in that it will govern all SEO activities that follow it by providing insight into to the most optimal keywords and phrases on which to focus during an ongoing SEO campaign.
* Check the field – Part of keyword research is aimed at analyzing where competition exists and finding underutilized keywords which are generating traffic with nominal competition. These keywords are considered to be the “low hanging fruit” and are normally incorporated into the early stages of a campaign to develop traction as quickly as possible.
* Develop quality on-site content – Whether provide by you or through your SEO company, quality content is king. This is the content which will play a vital role as you build your brand, customer trust, and credibility so it has to be professionally presented.
* Set up your landing pages – Set up your landing pages so that a visitor who has arrived immediately finds content relevant to the keywords they used to find you. This is the capture aspect of on-site optimization, intended to let the visitor know that you have what they’re looking for and encouraging them to go deeper into your site.
* Develop quality off-site content – Off-site content can come in the form of blogs, informational articles, press releases, etc. Like your on-site content, this material must be of the highest quality possible considering that your off-site content will be the first impression for many of your visitors.
* Convert, convert, convert – Once a visitor has been captured, the next step is for conversion. Develop your content to encourage your visitors through your site’s sales process. Your site should be built to make this process as convenient and seamless as possible.
* Test and analyze – On and off-site activities should constantly be analyzed to make sure that the process is working at its optimal capability. This analysis should include traffic generated from keywords, visitor tendencies on the site, and a host of other measurable activities which can indicate weak points both on and off of the site.
* Have patience – The rewards from even the most expertly executed SEO campaign can take a while to develop. Committing and staying with the process will deliver benefits that will be well worth the wait.
* Know that instant gratification is available (For a price) – Sponsored ad placement and Pay per Click advertising can buy some real estate on the front pages of the search engines while you wait for organic results. An experienced search engine optimization company can integrate these ad campaigns with your organic search efforts for maximum effect without killing your budget.

The measurability and transparency of internet activity combined with the experience of a seasoned SEO company can result in a search engine optimization campaign which delivers a great return on investment. The Gervais Group has been coordinating these kinds of successful SEO campaigns since 2002. For more SEO tips and information, visit www.gervaisgroupllc.com or call (770) 529 2262.

The Push of Traditional Advertising versus the Pull of Search Engine Optimization

November 23rd, 2009 admin No comments

The migration of advertisers away from traditional media and toward the internet continues to grow each day. While there are many reasons for this migration, one of the primary ones is the different approach required of each venue.
The push of traditional advertising
The hallmark of traditional advertising has always been “push marketing”. Push marketing is essentially outbound communication in the form of direct mail marketing, newspaper/magazine ads, and television/radio ads. These formats have several factors in common including:
* Expense – Each format can be extremely expensive, mostly due to the fact that these types of advertising methods are rarely successful on a “one and done” basis. It’s common for campaigns to take months before they generate any meaningful measures of revenues. For many small to medium sized businesses the cost of these campaigns is so high that they are not even contemplated.
* They can be seen as an interruption or intrusion – People rarely look forward to seeing commercials on television or getting junk mail soliciting them for the next big thing. The development of “Do not call” lists is further evidence that consumers do not want their lives interrupted with sales calls. To compensate for the decreasing appeal of push marketing advertisers are now required to fund larger and more expensive campaigns thus pushing them further out of the reach of business owners.
* Push advertising is difficult to quantify and measure – A familiar quote “I know half of my advertising budget is completely wasted, I just don’t know which half” attests to the difficulties of measuring what is working within a campaign. While print circulation or television viewers can always be estimated, it’s impossible to know how many people are actually seeing or acting on the ads. This leaves the effectiveness of any type of campaign of this nature open to debate.
* The campaigns are temporary – Once an ad is run or a mailer is sent, that specific event has run its course and must be repeated, one of the primary reasons these formats are so expensive. Once the campaign is stopped, it’s over.
The Pull of Search Engine Optimization
An SEO campaign is basically designed to increase the visibility to consumers who are already looking for a company’s products and/or services thus pulling consumers toward them. Pull marketing then, sits on the opposite side of the coin from push marketing on a psychological basis because the consumer is already looking for a company’s product or service . This pull on consumers has several advantages over push marketing:
* Affordability – Search engine optimization campaigns can be tailored to the budget of a small business. It’s not uncommon for months’ worth of SEO work to cost less than a single print advertisement.
* A growing medium – Estimates show that between 60% and 80% of consumers use the internet prior to making a purchase.
* Search engine efforts are quantifiable – Unlike traditional advertising, search engine marking efforts can be analyzed and quantified in many different ways, allowing for visibility into what is working and what is not within a campaign.
* Search engine marketing efforts remain in the public view – Search engine marketing materials will stay on the web indefinitely whether a campaign is ongoing or not.
Business owners looking to maximize the return on their advertising dollars are increasingly seeing the value presented by search engine optimization over traditional advertising methods. For a free consultation on what a search engine optimization campaign can do for your business, call the Gervais Group today at (770) 529 2262.

Ten Rules for Writing Search Engine Optimized Content

November 17th, 2009 admin 1 comment

Simply put, the content presented on your site will determine whether your site is successful or not. Create targeted, search engine optimized content and you will drive traffic to your site looking for exactly what you have to offer.  Provide compelling content which caters to the interests of your visitors and you will keep them on your site once they have arrived and motivate them to return in the future. Lastly, organize your content so that it guides your visitor through the conversion process in as simple a manner as possible and your conversion ratio could improve dramatically. The short list of rules for optimized content which will yield optimal results can be divided into the following three categories:
Writing content for the search engines:
* Define the keywords which will most efficiently drive targeted traffic to the pages on your site.
* Use specific keywords on separate pages on your site. This will assist the search engines’ crawlers determine each page’s relevance to each keyword instead of diluting relevance by throwing a kitchen sink of keywords on to a single page.
* Do not overuse or cloak keywords in the content or anywhere else on the page. These practices can get a site blacklisted, as well as create other problems (see below).
Writing content for your visitors:
* Once your keywords have been specified, work them into the flow of your content. Forcing keywords into your text will read awkwardly and give your site an amateurish feel.
* Visitors will arrive at your site with either a “What’s in it for me?” or a “Do they have what I want?” mindset. Be sure that your content can answer those questions quickly by conveying clearly that you have what they came for with content directly related to their search term.
* Make sure that your content reads well, doesn’t contain spelling and grammatical errors, and keeps your visitor interested.
* Don’t let your content go stale. Fresh, search engine optimized content keeps the crawlers happy and gives your visitors a reason to return to your site.
Guiding visitors through the conversion process:
* The AIDA formula (attention, interest, desire, action) has been around for about eighty years and is as relevant today as it was at its inception. An SEO company will start with information that grabs your visitors’ attention by using content targeted at addressing their needs. At that point you’re well on the way.
* Make sure that navigating the process is easy so that your visitors will be able to convert at any time during the process. Your “buy now”, “add to shopping cart”, and/or other conversion actions should be accessible and visible in case your visitor makes a buy decision prior to getting all the way through the process.
* Simplify your shopping cart or other conversion pages as much as possible. Once the decision has been made to buy you don’t want to overload your consumer with too many choices. An intuitive and clear path through the completion of the conversion process will eliminate dropouts due to confusion or the uncertainty of whether the consumer is making the right decision.
The decision on whether to do your own search engine optimization can include many factors including the investment of time and money and whether writing your own content is within your skill set. Talking to professionals in the field of SEO could help you determine the best option for your company. For a free initial consultation call The Gervais Group LLC at (770) 529 2262. They have a variety of packages available which can put your website on the road to success.

The Questions to Ask Your SEO Company

November 9th, 2009 admin No comments

While there is no bad time to hire an SEO company, the best and most efficient time to hire is either when a new site is being started or when you are re-designing an existing site. These starting points will allow the incoming SEO company the opportunity to optimize your site using their own protocols instead of adapting to and/or interpreting pre-existing architecture. Whether you are hiring for work on the fly or starting fresh, hiring the right company for your search engine optimization needs is one of the most important aspects of your website’s success. The following questions, and the answers to them from each prospective company you interview, should be able to clarify which company will be the best to suit your needs, drive targeted traffic to your site, and improve the conversion rates from your site’s visitors.

On experience:

* How long have you been in business? – Hiring a new company carries its share of risks, even if their rates are discounted from the other companies you’re interviewing.
* Can you show me some of your successes? – Front page success is what you’re looking for and if the company has done it with others you’re on the right track. Take it one step further and see if you can talk to the companies which have had successful campaigns run for them.
* Can you tell me about some of the people in your company? – This gives you another experience metric to measure and leads to the next question.
* How many employees do you have? – Avoid one or two man shops whenever possible. The risk here is that, should they get more work than they can handle, your project will end up being outsourced or put on the back burner.
* Have you done search engine optimization for anyone else in my industry? – Industry specific experience may not be critical as most SEO work follows similar paths. This question can be used more as a tie-breaker if all other things are equal between companies.

On the services provided:

* How will you search engine optimize my website? – This answer to this question should help define whether the company is going to use ethical tactics for the optimization of your website. Be wary if the company is offering to do your SEO work at a steep discount to other companies, especially when the discount is combined with an unclear description of optimization techniques. The likely outcome here will be underperformance at best, and major problems such as being removed from search engine indices if the company is employing unethical or black hat techniques.
* Do you provide search engine marketing? – Search engine optimizing on the site is only half the battle. Be sure you’re working with a company that can build in-bound links to your site and create content such as press releases and articles for submission to blogs, news sites, and social media sites.

On the partnership:

* How and how often will we be in communication – Quantifying this answer isn’t as important as determining that communication is both open and welcomed. Run away if you get a “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” type of response.
* How will we define success and what’s our timeline? Getting to the front page for defined keywords will be one measure. An experienced and successful SEO company will be able to provide estimates on your timeline but can never guarantee a result. Should the company you’re interviewing respond with a front page guarantee within a certain time, they are simply telling you what you want hear and don’t have your best interests at heart.

Search engine optimization is a process usually conducted in a competitive environment with an ever-changing landscape. The best SEO companies won’t be afraid to convey to that information to you. One such company is The Gervais Group LLC, which has being executing successful SEO campaigns for a variety of clients across multiple industry groups. Call us today at (770) 529 2262 for an honest appraisal on conducting a successful SEO campaign for your company.

How to Hire the Wrong SEO Company

November 2nd, 2009 admin No comments

The business of search engine optimization can be divided into two types of companies; The Right SEO Companies and The Wrong SEO Companies. Hire the Right Company and your site will be optimized to improve its search engine rankings, increase its visibility, and see higher targeted traffic numbers. Hire the Wrong SEO Company and you will waste time, money, and even incur damage your online business. Making the choice between the two types of SEO companies is critical but relatively easy if you know what to look for, especially from the Wrong side.

Wrong SEO companies usually play to the tune of telling perspective clients exactly what they want to hear, whether the promises can be delivered or not. Another aspect of a presentation from a Wrong SEO Company will include deliverables only attainable using tactics which can risk damage to your site and the reputation of your products and/or services. The following is short a list of what to look for from the Wrong side of SEO work:

* The approach – Spammed solicitations via email are a dead giveaway. Responding to them is an invitation to trouble, at the very least confirming that your email is valid which will result in an ever growing stream of more spam. According to Google’s Webmaster Help page, even they get solicitations such as “Dear google.com, I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”
* The guarantee of a number one ranking – The only guarantee of this nature which can be delivered is one where a ridiculously long keyword (eight words, nine words) is “optimized”. The end result is that you have a phrase which is ranked number one with absolutely zero traffic. Guarantees on any type of competitive keyword or phrase are a sure sign that you are being told what you want to hear regardless of whether it will happen or not.

* Submission the thousands of search engines – While it may sound great, these types of submissions are either unnecessary or a waste of time. Think about it; beyond the major search engines are a plethora of industry specific ones. If the promised submissions happened to occur, your apple-selling website would mean nothing on a site directed at buyers of home furnishings.

* A vague list of SEO activities – As Google points out, regardless of who does it, you are responsible for the actions taken on your site. A company using Black Hat techniques such as doorway pages and keyword stuffing might initially have some success in moving you up in the search engine rankings. The biggest risk is that, should the techniques be discovered by the search engines, your site could be removed entirely from their indices. At that point your online business is effectively dead.

Avoiding the Wrong SEO Company is critical to the success of your website. To see what the Right kind of SEO Company can do for your business; call the Gervais Group today at (770) 529-2262.

Grabbing Visitors with Content

October 21st, 2009 admin 1 comment

The Problem
So you’ve optimized your site for the search engines and have a marketing plan in place that’s giving you great rankings on the results pages. The traffic to your site is on the increase and you’re feeling pretty good about things. Conversions haven’t started kicking in yet but you know that it’s just a matter of time.
Time passes, and those conversions still aren’t happening. You’ve been so happy with the traffic numbers that you haven’t looked any deeper to see what’s really happening when visitors get to the site. A quick look at your analytics shows a big problem; your visitors are certainly arriving but they’re bouncing out just as quickly. Another piece of data shows that they’re not coming back, either. What you have is a lot of new visitors hanging around for a handful of seconds and then leaving, never to return. Taking a look at the various landing pages gives you some solace because, at first glance, they look great. You’re still happy with the design and layout with your pages, they’re loading quickly and they really pop when they open. So far, so good.
It’s only after reading the text on the pages that you see the problem, and it’s horrible. Your content, even though it’s optimized with your keywords, is disjointed, unorganized, and gives the appearance of being written by a third grader. It’s no wonder visitors are bouncing. It’s also not a surprise that they aren’t returning. Whatever credibility your site is establishing with its first impression, it’s losing that and more as soon as a visitor takes a look at what is written on each page.
The Fix
People are no longer impressed just to be cruising around the internet. The “Been there, done that” mentality of searchers on the web means that content must now offer much more than just keywords and phrases in terms of keeping visitors on your site and motivating them to return in the future. Content that is well-written and compels visitors toward conversion is now one of the most important facets of your website. Delivering what your visitors are looking for will keep them coming back to both visit and make purchases from your site. Here’s what they’re looking for:
* Fresh content – Original content with your own personal spin will give your site some character and differentiate it from your competition. Keeping it fresh will both help with your rankings on search engine results pages and keep visitors coming back to see what’s new on your site.
* Related content – Make sure your content is related to what your visitors are searching for. Being all over the board with your content can confuse and alienate your visitors.
* Timed content – Tying current events to your content extends both credibility and relevance of your site, products, and services.
* Targeted content – Direct your content at your target market. Don’t be afraid to offer specific and/or technical content. Expertise in an area requires thorough knowledge and conveying that will build credibility and trust.
* Directional content – You want your content to guide your visitor through the conversion process in as simple a manner as possible. Content that helps your visitor buy what you’re offering works better than selling to them.
Providing your site visitors with a dynamic and informative experience, related to what they’re searching for will motivate them to return to your site, stay on it, and increase the odds that they will buy from you. But the fight for rankings, visitors, and conversions, is more than just a function of search engine optimization and marketing. It’s a fight for trust and credibility, which begins – and ends – with high quality content.
Call us today at 770-529-2262 or visit Gervais Group at http://www.gervaisgroupllc.com

Five Steps toward SEO for Social Media

September 30th, 2009 admin 4 comments

Recent statistics show that if Facebook was a country, it would be the fourth largest in the world. With the growth of social media such as Facebook , Twitter, and LinkedIn, an SEO program which does not include provisions to develop a presence, optimize for, and participate in the social web is effectively leaving money on the table and ignoring a massive opportunity for leveraging the content distribution and linking benefits of these social websites. The foundation of these networks, which encourages sharing, opinions, reviews, comments, and linking, provides an extremely efficient method to distribute search engine optimized content to the masses with an extremely cost effective effort.

Here are five basic steps toward optimizing your returns through social media sites:

1) Find the sites that fit your company’s demographic – Locating your audience is critical so find the sites where people will be looking for what you have to offer.  If you are offering products and services geared toward the AARP crowd, building a MySpace presence won’t be the most efficient use of your resources. That being said, with the size and variety of users on the major social media sites, you might still get some attention but it won’t be near as much as being present on sites with a better fit. If you’re unsure, starting tracking your audience using social media monitoring software that can identify where your company related keywords, and content related to them, are showing up.
2) Clarify your SEO/social media objectives – Direct selling on the social media sites is usually considered an annoyance and often thought of as pure spam. Because of that, social media related search engine optimization is a different animal than SEO in its pure form. Here, the optimal role of SEO is to directly influence discovery of social communities and/or content via search, guiding conversation, and building/protecting brand perception.
3) Determine how you’re going to participate – Successful participation on social media sites is centered on providing content, interacting, and being a part of the conversation. Be sure to put your best foot forward in all areas. If you’re uncomfortable with public communication, find someone who is. Make sure that all your communications present your company in the best light possible, are search engine optimized for your keywords, and are easy to share amongst members of the community.
4) Develop your content mix – Your content mix for a successful social media marketing effort should be based on how your audience receives and shares content whether via video, articles, research, etc. Doing the due diligence here will be well worth the investment as a seamless integration in to your community will develop your credibility and provide the means for getting your message out faster.
5) Test, measure, re-test – One of the great attributes of search engine optimization is that there is so much that is measurable and quantifiable. Goals, benchmarks, and objectives should all be tracked in order to constantly improve results. The combination of social media monitoring services as well as web analytics can provide measurements which can tell you whether you are on track and where results can be improved.

The importance of successfully combining search engine optimization with social media is growing as fast as the social websites themselves. For a free analysis on where your social media efforts should be focused, call The Gervais Group today at (770) 529 2262.