Arrow Internet Marketing SEO Blog

1. Twitter : Your Bio on Twitter has 160 Characters. Make This content both keyword rich and impelling.

2. Make the initial words of each tweet keyword rich (Not the same keyword everytime, otherwise you will look like a manic squirrel)

3. Insert backlinks to drive users to your content (strategically, and not everytime) for SEO Advantage

4.  Use twitter search to find people from your target market and form a community by following them

5.  Retweet other tweets to interact with the twitterati (active users). They will retweet stuff you post which they find useful

6. Make sure that the characters of your tweets don’t fully use the 140 characters to allow for retweeting

7. Market your twitter URL on Blogs and forums.

Join me on www.twitter.com/seo_secrets

If I was writing this blog post three years back, a lot of people would have  cracked up at the mention of increasing profits through Facebook. Now having used this strategy successfully for both Arrow and it’s clients, it is worth writing a few lines on it.

Can we sell on Facebook?   Yes…As you read this, large number of  people are buying and selling on Facebook. It is happening in various ways :

(A) Facebook Specials :  This is a popular selling tactic in the online retail space. Provide facebook users with a coupon (say 10% discount) and ask them to redeem it on the website. We have a client in the fashion retail space. Their products are popular for one and when they back it with a facebook special, sales go through the roof!  Facebook specials are also being used to get bookings for events.

(B) Facebook Marketplace :  http://apps.facebook.com/marketplace/ is a utility that enables people to buy and sell products and services in their local area. It is a low cost way of increasing sales!

(C) Facebook Groups :  Creating a Group on Facebook is a great way to get your target market to participate in conversations about your company or its mission. To create a group on facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/grouphome.php and click on the create button. Make sure you put some text and photos while creating your group and invite people you know. As a next step, you can request the people who are your brand advocates to invite people from their network to join the group

(D)  SEO :  All the work you do in your facebook marketing will have implications for your search engine optimisation. If you drive targeted traffic to the targeted landing pages on your website, your bounce rate will be lower and your trust rank will be higher. More on improving search engine rankings through social media marketing in the next post!

To learn more about facebook marketing, attend our workshop for an indepth overview of this topic. http://www.searchenginerankings.com.au/seo-events/2010/energise-enterprise/

As part of the Government funded Energise Enterprise festival, Arrow Internet Marketing will be running a series of internet marketing events for small businesses in August. Energise Enterprise is an annual festival for small businesses in Victoria.  Last year we presented a range of sessions and we got a fantastic response, with such great interest we are presenting even more sessions this year!

With more than 42,000 people expected to be participating in this festival it is Victoria’s premier small business event. Join us for some interesting sessions including social media marketing, Facebook marketing, getting page 1 search engine rankings, how to take your business to 6-figure income and Adwords  (beginner and advanced sessions). These events are heavily subsidised and will sell out fast so book your place now and get your business booming in no time!

See what last year’s attendees had to say http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y46eerG_SfY

Before you embark on a social media campaign its worth doing an analytics report so you have a baseline before social media, that way you have something to compare to.  If you have already started a campaign, don’t worry, there is a whole host of free tools that can help you keep track your success.  A few of these are:

Google Alerts

Google Alerts help you keep track of when your company or brand is mentioned, Google will keep you up to date with an email

HowSociable

HowSocialble allows you to see how much visibility your company had over 32 metrics including Facebook, Youtube, Blogs, events and images.

SocialMention

SocialMention is a quick and easy to use free tool where you can search for where your company name or brand has been mentioned.

AdditOMatic

AddictOMatic enables users to create a customised dashboard, which gives information about issues and news in your industry so you can track conversations across a braid range of sites from Twitter to Delicious

If you have engaged an SEO company to optimise your website on search engine results, chances are that you consider it to be an important element of your marketing strategy. But have you thought about what is the best way to measure the progress of your SEO Agency. Be wary of the following :

• Giving too much importance to rankings instead of Business Goals. Install Goal Conversions in Google Analytics to measure the dollar value of SEO Results
• Choosing keywords which are low on search intent  :  Keywords which have a high relevance to your offering will have a lower bounce rate. For example, if you are a local company, it is better to optimise your website for region specific keywords than generic keywords
• Cluttering your website with keywords to get rankings without regard for navigation and user engagement
• Creating Links from irrelevant websites. Exchange links with quality websites from complimentary businesses.
• Not talking about the customer and their needs in the website. Instead of talking about yourself, it is better to start with the needs of the customer and how you provide the best solution
• Copying other websites :  If you must copy, do it intelligently…add your creativity and uniqueness.
• Boring content :  Generate interest by engaging your target audience through quizzes, polls, seeking opinion etc

Claiming the lion’s share of business in any industry is an art, known to and practiced by selected people. So what is the secret recipe of those who lead the market and give sleepless nights to their competition?

While launching our Dominate SEO Package at Arrow, I conducted some research on winning companies and found the following things :

• Originality :  Leaders are innovators. They come up with original ideas to serve a gap in the market and innovate their way to success.
• Engagement : Leaders know how to engage their employees, prospects, customers and investors and collaborate with them to evolve their offerings
• Killers : : Leaders are killers..They are on the lookout for opportunities and know how to close them
• Street Smart : Leaders know their stuff but they are also street smart.They can respond to changes in the business environment with an amazing agility
• Risk-Takers : Leaders are risk takers. They know how much risk to take and when. They can be very liberal with spending or very frugal depending on the time and occasion
• Focus :  Leaders know the power of focus and preserve their energy for selected items on their agenda, putting other ideas on the back-burner
• Both Arrogant and Humble : Leaders can be both brash and modest, depending on the situation.
• Have fun at work : Leaders enjoy their work and it is their passion which gives them the energy to stretch themselves
• Leverage :  Leaders understand that winning requires partnering with capable people and businesses and go all out to maximise leverage

So you want to claim the lion’s share in your business? Talk to us today on 03-9863 7973 and get set for market leadership in 2011

So, you set up a Facebook business page and you wonder why nothing much happens, how you’re ever going to get loads of fans and whether any of this is worth it.  Don’t give up so easily!  Firstly, remember that Facebook is about social networking… well, have you been networking?  Online networking is just like networking in person (minus the champagne and volo vents – and you don’t have to go anywhere!)  Read the rest of this entry »

There is a lot of controversy in the SEO fraternity and outside on whether an SEO company should provide Guarantees. The vote is divided with majority of the SEO companies choosing not to provide Guarantees. They reason that if an SEO company has no control over the changing search engine algorithms, then how can itn provide a Guarantee? The rationale is sound!

Now look at this from the point of a small business owner who is going to invest in the services of the SEO company. Depending on the plan he/she goes with, the business owner may be investing a significant portion of the annual marketing budget into SEO.  What if the person makes the investment and at the end of the 12 month agreement, there is no return whatsoever. It will surely affect the business owner’s profitability. The absence of results could put the small business behind. If the SEO company offers a money back guarantee, the business owner has the peace of mind that in an eventuality of the results not coming, he or she will atleast get the investment back.

Why in my opinion should an SEO company offer a money back Guarantee?

Risk Sharing :  Let us say that in 2% of the cases, the SEO company is not able to deliver results. If it returns the money back to these clients, it is making it easier for all the clients to invest in the service. Many of these clients to whom the company returns back money may reinvest the money later on with the SEO company, because it is honest and straight forward.

Taking Pressure :  The fact that there is a Guarantee puts pressure on the SEO Company and it’s team to deliver results. We at Arrow often work harder to make sure that we meet our deliverables atleast one month ahead of the agreed timeframe.

Ownership :  When we share risk, the ownership is at our end to drive results. This makes it imperative for us to push clients to provide us with the information and resources we need to deliver the results.

We all like a shot of caffeine every now and then…now is the time to give our websites a strong expresso shot   Here are Three ways you can make your site rank on top for Google Results using the latest change in Google Algorithm AKA Google Caffeine

• Site Speed :  Make sure your site is on a fast server and is not heavily loaded with graphics. If it is an image rich website, make sure that the images have been compressed. Ensure that coding is done in CSS to make the site lighter to load and easier for the Google Spider to index.
• Real-Time Search : Google has started indexing blog posts, tweets and updates on Facebook business pages in real time. Integrating these elements into your website will make the Google Spider come to your site more frequently and index it
• Fresh & Interesting Content : If your website provides new content which is of interest to the searchers, Google will reward it by higher rankings. Now more than ever before, site owners who think of ingenuous ways to add value will find themselves on higher rankings. Your content could be thought provoking, controversial, humorous, informative or mix of all these. Most important of all, providing original content will be the mantra for SEO

Do you want to optimise your website yourself to get top rankings on search results? Are you feeling unsure as to whether you will be able to do it or not? Here are a few simple questions that will help you find the answer?

• What is your cash flow situation? If you are tight on budget, it may be advisable to take a few hours of consultation from an SEO expert and do the work yourself.
• How competitive is your industry and how many searches are being made online? If you are in a competitive industry like travel or finance, it is not advisable to go the DIY route. Chances are that your competition would have hired experts whereas you would still be learning.
• Do you enjoy coding, writing content, making blog posts and reading up on the latest developments in SEO. If so, you are well positioned to do the work yourself!
• How much time do you have to spend optimising your website? SEO is a rigorous, time consuming process and demands ongoing effort. If you think you will be able to take out atleast a few hours per week to focus on your website, you are best off leaving it to the experts.