Build a Business Social Network

Internet marketing incorporates the optimization of websites for ease of use by the search engines. Through site architecture, keyword, content and Meta tags, a website can be made friendlier to search engines. While optimization is an essential part of any website, Internet marketing extends beyond the scope of optimization and reaches into the campaigns associated with social networking. By creating links to common interests within the online community the business website can draw in consumers and generate online sales.

Internet marketing consists of search engine optimization that is the target of creating specific results for search engines to locate and return a list of websites that are most related to the search criteria. Through website optimization a business can gain a competitive edge over other retailers or service providers. Website optimization consists of keywords, content, Meta tags, and site architecture that all contribute to the manner in which a search engine explores a website and stores the information as an index for future reference by search engine queries that are conducted by web surfers looking for specific products or information.

Internet marketing includes search engine optimization, but extends beyond the website of the client to include such things as social networking and link building. Social networking is the next generation of online marketing that allows businesses to promote wares through the use of a social network website and connect to an audience that has a shared interest with the specific goals of the business. Some sites like Twitter allow users to build a marketing campaign around a topic of interest and allow for the debate of differing points of view while conducting a live online marketing campaign that centers round the business. If that sounds confusing it can be which is why Internet marketing experts are specializing in the specific details and operation of such campaigns.

Networking through a social website allows businesses to build a web presence in a nonthreatening way, where consumers can be introduced to brands, products or services and discover the mutually beneficial connections to business without involving direct selling.

Keywords Build Links that Unlock a Website's Potential

A website is like a balloon floats through cyberspace. For some people a website marketing strategy provides them with the direction that they are traveling in as they navigate the search engines hunting for people that are looking for them. Using links that are attached to the website, a marketing plan allows consumers who are searching the World Wide Web to find the individual sites that have something to offer them. 

People use the search engines to guide them through a maze of websites to find the information they want to see. This is where keywords come into play. A keyword is designed to make it easy for someone searching the web to unlock the information that they are looking for. Search engine marketing allows a website to use keywords to optimize a website and build links that anchor the website and make it easier to find. Like the anchors that are attached to a ship, the links to a website hold it in place so that is not being tossed around in the ocean of websites that appear online.

There are more than 300 million websites on the Internet and each year more and more people launch a site that is designed to promote certain products, services, organizations, or individual people. There are entertainment sites, non-profit charities, and news services online that have something for everyone on the planet to look at. While people have different interests and look for different websites to visit, they are drawn to the places that appear in the results of a web search because they associate a series of keywords with the information that they are looking up.

Keywords and phrases help to single out the hundreds of millions of websites from one another by allowing differentiation. No two websites are identical even when they are based on the same template, so it makes sense that keyword optimization helps to set each individual website apart from other sites that are hosted online.

Link building adds to the presence of a website in the search engines by increasing the number of times a keyword appears on the Internet. Articles and blogs that are written about a keyword and include the same optimized words that are associated with a website provide the anchors that link the site to the search engines. When someone enters a keyword search into their browser bar the results appear based on the popularity of the website (or how many times it has been linked to relevant material online).

It is important to build links on a continual basis. Even after reaching the first page of search engine results there is a need to constantly add content to the Internet that links information on a website to the related articles that are published online. When building links it is important to use the same keywords in the same order as they are coded into the source code of a website and included in the written content that is provided on the pages of the site. Together with strategic campaigns that target an ideal consumer audience the selected keywords provide the means to attract people to a website from all over the world.  

Whether you want a local audience in the same city and neighborhood to visit your website or you are looking to spread the word about the benefits of your services, products, or information that appears on the pages of your website, you can use keywords to build links that improve the placement of your site in the search engines by adding anchors to the information you are hosting online.

Comments and Testimonials Add Value to Websites

90% of all people who are using the search engines are looking up products and services that they want to buy. Research provides the information that leads to a purchase decision. But looking at a list of features and benefits for a particular product is not the only thing that people research. Reviews of the product or the company selling an item also have a lot of pull with consumers. Comments that are posted online carry a lot of weight with the individuals who are considering making a purchase. Through the use of online commentaries and information that has been submitted by actual clients or customers of a business it is possible to learn about how you will be treated and what type of results you can expect if you choose to buy from a company to that sells the products or services you are looking for.

Reviews and comments that are posted online provide information that to consumers that is unbiased. If you are looking to grow your business you can promote your website and offerings by requesting comments, testimonials and reviews from the people who have been happy with the service or quality of products that you are selling. With more than 3.45 billion searches conducted online each month, there are a lot of people researching the product reviews that influence their buying decision. 

By adding the ability to post comments on your website, you can influence the future sales of your company. Before posting any review publicly, you can read through the submissions to make sure that every comment is something you want to post. Millions of people look up companies and brands online before buying. The added support of positive reviews that are posted by actual customers goes a long way in capturing the attention of potential customers. 

As you are building and marketing your website, remember to include a page that provides feedback and comments which will allow anyone who searches for your inventory to gain some insight into how well they will be treated. Consumers trust their peers when it comes to making purchases. By allowing comments to appear on your site, you can gain sales from the Internet traffic that is directed from the pages of a search result to your website. When a person finishes looking up the reviews about a business or a product they are interested in, they are ready to buy. Keep that in mind as you are marketing your merchandise and watch how many more sales you will make as people trust in the comments that they find while doing their research.

Comments Left on Websites Influence Search Results

Articles that are written in an unbiased yet positive format are an excellent way to help promote a business. By submitting content to any number of online publishers, corporations across the globe are finding that their rankings within the search engine directories is being influenced for the reinforcement of their marketing efforts that place a website in the resource channels of the search media. By targeting the keywords that are linked to the offerings of a business, the owners and managers are able to coordinate their tactics for driving traffic to their virtual storefront. Any increase their ecommerce sales comes as a result of their constant delivery of new material through articles and blogs that are of interest to the cyber community.

Another useful tool that is gaining recognition in the strategic placement of a website is the incorporation of comments or recommendations that are being made by clients or customers who are satisfied with their experience in dealing with a business. Satisfied customers favorably share the successes that are directly tied to the work or services of am organization that they have hired to help them. Service providers rely on referrals as much as they do their advertising efforts. The feedback that is given by their clients aides in the overall promotion of the business and its offerings. The endorsements that appear online add to the overall promotion of the company and assist in the placement of the website in the search directories.

Online marketing that includes comments and posts from current or past customers is a valuable piece of the puzzle that generates more business for a company. Websites that allow visitors to leave their comments have an influence on the search engines that rank a business based on the relevancy of the content and the links that support the work being done by the company. By soliciting positive posts on your site you can increase the ranking of our landing pages in the search engines.

Paul Cuthbert celebrates 3 Years of SEO Content

This month marks the official anniversary of my entry into online marketing as a freelance writer and SEM consultant. Three years ago in mid April 2009 I began creating unique articles that are appearing all over the Internet. Working as part of an outsourced team of more than 70 professional writers my work appears under the names of fictional writers that are credited with the work that I have continued to produce over the past 36 months. In that time my skills as a writer have improved and so too has my ability to type. When I started writing professionally I was producing between 35 and 40 articles a week, but as I have grown in speed and proficiency I now turn out between 60 and 75 unique and original articles that are used to generate backlinks from publishing sites to the landing pages of my client's websites.

Although I am prolific and to date have delivered over 6,500 unique articles to the online publishing community I do not receive credit for my work as a writer because my name is pooled with others that are also writing for the same organization that outsources assignments to me. However if you look up the names Art Gib, Billings Farnsworth or Johnny Wik you will be able to see some of the articles that that I written for hundreds of clients of my 1099 employer. For about 9 months the supervisor that I reported to also added articles to the web under his name instead of giving credit to the individuals that were submitting work under his direction. Although he is a credited author and has written many articles himself a number of submissions for my work can be found under his name instead of under Paul Cuthbert. (Legally that's plagiarism, but there's nothing I can do as I was paid to write and compensated for my work.)

As for me I continue to generate content for the Internet and work to help people with their Internet marketing by offering website analysis and optimization in addition to writing supporting content for the search engines to index and reference. With the knowledge of search marketing and my own brand of SEO strategies I continue to move forward as I am happy to working from home doing something that comes naturally to me. So to celebrate three years of working in Internet marketing I am posting this article to my blog as part of my own marketing media strategy.

SEO Strategies to Avoid

Last week I met with a man who had some questions about his website marketing. Although he has been paying out $500 a month for PPC (pay-per-click) advertising his business is not gaining from the advertising that is taking place in the search engines. As we chatted he talked about moving his online marketing from PPC to SEO for the organic results that will do more for his business than he is currently gaining from the money that is being invested in AdWords and other online promotions.

As part of the reputation management work that is supplementing the SEO strategies that are in place the company is doing something that I wholeheartedly disagree with. In an effort to gain customers and give the appearance that the organization is a success (although it is still a startup) the owner has authorized the creation of 1,500 email addresses and social media profiles that are in realty a sham. Without realizing the mistake the company is attempting to generate support through likes and comments that are made by their employees who are posing as customers. This practice is considered to be black hat and is not helping the company at all.

The reason that no one is taking notice of the false success of the number of "likes" is that the search engines know that all of the emails and profiles are linked to the same IP address. Even if the reviews are positive and appear to be coming from outside sources there is no fooling the search engines that identify each URL and email address by the senders IP address and location. Geotargeting is engineered to help customers to find businesses in their immediate vicinity, but it also works to provide the analytical information that the search engines provide to website owners to determine unique visitor traffic. So by creating 1,500 new users that are all using the same router and IP address the search engines are not fooled and therefore are not applying the results of the fraud to the page rank or placement of the site.

Even with the same IP address being linked to 1,500 different emails or social media profiles the search engines see only one unique IP address and that is the reason that a business ranking and links are not being recorded and tied into the statistics that build up the legitimacy of a website and add to the PR (Page Rank) of the URL. Even though the company's social media page might appear to have 1,500 "likes" from each of the unique profiles that are attached to the individual email addresses the long reaching effects of the Internet requires that a business conduct their reputation management legitimately.

As I listened to the frustrations of the executive concerning the lack of interest in the website and subsequent failure of their internal social media campaign I recognized that there are a number of things that can be done to review the website and make recommendations to improving the status of the site in the search engines.

Through the tools and techniques that I have discussed in past blogs I can help this organization to build a marketing media strategy that will get it to where it wants to go. But for anyone reading this article and thinking "I can fake some social media likes too," I have to say please do not stoop to black hat practices that will ultimately do nothing for your website and may cause more damage than good. Remember that online reviews and reputation management cannot be faked and success comes from patience and putting in the work that will build long term results. If you need a refresher review my blog about "The Tortoise and the Hare approach to SEO.”