Importance of Diligent Tagging

Tags and bookmarking clouds need to be well thought when you are promoting your site. Search engines are using social media as a source of ranking information in their algorithms. Using tags that directly relate to the information you are providing will help search engines see specifically what you are talking about, therefore exposing more users to your links and relevant information. You should also include generic, more general terms that relate to your area of expertise, if and only if they pertain to the article, video, podcast, etc. that you are posting.

Tagging in order of importance can help your tag cloud be indexed more easily. For example, if I was writing about cavities for a local dentist, my tag list would look something like this: cavities, cavity treatment, porcelain fillings, dentist Huntsville AL, Dr. Davis Huntsville AL

Notice how the tag line starts out with the information most specific to the article. Then, it goes on to include people that may be searching for a local dentist or for information about “Dr. Davis” in Huntsville, AL. Dr. Davis is totally fictional, by the way.

Do not use tags that use your keywords unless those keywords were mentioned in the article. Some people are tempted to get their favorite keywords out there as much as possible. But, it could seriously backfire unless the information you provide pertains to the keyword. Using a keyword specifically to bait people to your site link without providing information about that keyword, will only drive people away. It will even cause current customers or readers to lose their trust in you. In turn, it can affect your rankings.

The moral of the story is that you need to avoid black hat SEO companies that use keyword and tag stuffing as a way to show you quick results. The boost will be temporary at best and can cause you to fall lower than before you even hired them by turning your readers and customers away. Make your efforts genuine and organic. Organic SEO companies provide actual unique information that relates to your industry to help you get your name out there. This also helps people and search engines see you as a trusted source of information.

Your SEO company should put a lot of effort into your keyword research. This will give you the best chance of finding out how users are trying to find you. Some terms may prove to be too competitive for your time frame or budget. You can discover which keywords are being searched for without producing results and dominate these searches. These keywords will translate into ideas and tags that will help people and search engines find you more often.

Social media efforts need to be sincere and may take a little longer to catch on than some other “tricks of the trade”. But, the results can be really long lasting and can put your investment in SEO to work for you. Remember that rank criteria are always changing. In general, the criteria trends toward real results. Rankings are becoming more and more like a true picture of what people find interesting and trustworthy, as opposed to yesteryear when they only produced results for pages that mentioned your keyphrase over and over again.

Search engines are very intuitive and can figure out if your information is current, useful, respected and popular. Doing the proper research for topics and keywords is ultra important. This information can be used to properly tag your articles and so forth, thus producing the long-lasting, dependable results that search engines and users are drooling for.

About the Author: Stacy Pessoney is a Project Manager for ArteWorks SEO, one of the top search engine marketing companies in the world. A graduate of the University of Alabama, she implements and manages comprehensive SEO strategies and serve as an organizational liaison among company executives, clients and colleagues.

Should Twitter be Part of Your SEO Strategy?

Twitter is still a very young site, but its growth as a social network catalyst and its effective uses as a marketing tool cannot be ignored. Twitter acts as streaming search engine, allowing you to find the latest news about the topic you’re interested in. Of course, Twitter has its advertising spammers, but mostly you’ll find recommendations for information that includes user comments and other valuable links to the subject you’re looking for.

Twitter has taken social media by storm. As you may know, social efforts on behalf of your site can be almost as important as your content when it comes to rankings. For example, you may have a top-notch design, proper keyword placement and the most user-friendly site in the business. But if people aren’t talking about you, sharing your links and promoting you on social networking sites, you could be dead in the water.

This is what organic SEO’s have been talking about for years. Hallelujah! The world is finally catching up. You can’t just cram in keywords, spread your links around the web and expect to see lasting results. You have to tediously and carefully place your links where they can be shared, commented on and seen.

Think like a user. If you enter a phrase into a search engine and get results, what do you assume the top results are showing you? Is it the most keyword rich site? Probably not the first thing on a users mind. Users have come to expect that the top rankers are the most popular as well as the most relevant to their search. So, as a business owner, shouldn’t you be focusing on making your site not only look good and function properly, but also on making your site popular?

You can’t force it down people’s throats and you can’t make it all happen with Twitter. But, you can provide useful, interesting, current information about your field, prompting users to popularize your site for you. Twitter is only one of the tools that your SEO company uses to help you accomplish this.

Popularization through social media can take some time to increase your search engine rankings. The upside is that the results can last a lot longer than the occasional promotion or print ad. Furthermore, investing in search engine marketing will help sustain your site’s popularity through economic downfalls that can zap your advertising budget. Would you rather pay for a temporary ad or actually gain a fan base that can weather the storm in hard times?

About the Author: Stacy Pessoney is a Project Manager for ArteWorks SEO, one of the top search engine marketing companies in the world. A graduate of the University of Alabama, she implements and manages comprehensive SEO strategies and serve as an organizational liaison among company executives, clients and colleagues.

What Is Social Media and Does My Site Need It?

Social media refers to an electronic means for people to share your information. People visiting your site or blog can make comments, e-mail links to their friends, or post information on their personal blogs linking to your site. All of these things help to build your social media reputation.
Social media is also referred to as social networking. As more and more people comment about you or pass your site around, you build a reputation online. Search engines weigh the opinions of others heavily when giving you your ranking. This is the main reason that social networking has become such an iatrical part of Search Engine Optimization.
Social media is not just comments on your blog. Social media can consist of video, pictures, reviews, articles or any other form of electronic communication. Blogs and other user driven forums, such as discussion boards, FAQ’s and comment sections of your own web site can help build your social media reputation.
Google does not care what you say about yourself. Actual users must be able to find your content and then it needs to be interesting or informative enough for them to want to pass it on or link back to it in some way. Social bookmarking is an effective tool when optimizing your site. Including links to social bookmarking sites on your blog or discussion forum can help you to encourage your users to spread the word, so to speak. Once bookmarked, you will suddenly become more visible to people looking for information on the subject that you are discussing. This should hopefully drive more web traffic to your site.
When your social efforts start to pay off, then you have a stronghold over search engines. Blogs and other user driven media are heavily weighted by the search engines and this side of search engine optimization should not be ignored. Developing a social reputation can take some time. You can help it along by utilizing a blog or other social media outlet.
The more varied your social media network the better. Make sure that all of your forums are relevant, especially if they are linking back to your site. The higher the quality, the higher the rankings can get. This is something that you should really spend the time and money to make sure that your site is getting all of the exposure that it needs to compete in today’s SEO market.