Category Archives: SEO

Facebook SEO 101: Social Media for Search Engine Optimization

Facebook SEO 101: Social Media for Search Engine Optimization
Facebook isn’t only meant for connecting friends and family. The mega-social networking site can also be used for search engine optimization. After all, you can share a variety of multimedia, as well as links that point directly to your blog or website. In fact, your own Facebook page can have a page rank!

But how do you exactly do SEO in Facebook? Here are our tips:

Don’t spam.
Just because it’s your profile doesn’t have to mean you’re going to drown your feeds with a lot of links. Trust us, you’re bound to lose a lot of your contacts. If you can’t help it, limit your links up to 3 to 5 a day. Make sure that you can properly space them all throughout the day so you don’t end up flooding news feeds and your own profile.

Create a fan page.
If you’re using Facebook for business or any type of promotion, it’s best to use its fan page version. This way, you can take advantage of more features. For example, you can create a Welcome page, which may also be your very own mailing list form. You can also be the administrator of your own page and be more in control when it comes to who’s liking your page.

Develop a group.
Going to a much deeper level, to be successful in SEO, you need to be trustworthy. People should find you credible or authoritative, and that all your recommendations are noteworthy. Otherwise, no matter how much you share well-created content, hardly anyone is going to click on your link.

One of the best ways to be considered an expert in your field is to create a group. As the owner, you can then include individuals you think are deserving to be part of your group. Normally, these are your potential market. Make sure you can take the time to answer questions and clear out any issues related to your niche. You should also encourage interactions among members by posting worthwhile links, asking questions, or even creating surveys or polls.

Use keywords.
Yes, you can still use keywords in Facebook. Many are actually using the Search tab to look for a specific information, group, page, or individual. The keyword may be found in your profile name or Facebook URL. You can also pepper some keywords in your multimedia, as well as your status messages.

Upload your own media content.
Get great photos and videos, then upload them in your Facebook. This way, every time someone shares your content, his readers will be directed to your main website or blog. There are plenty of tips on how to produce stunning and well-optimized videos and images online. You can read them for additional knowledge.

Be open for comments.
Another way to engage your friends is to make your page open for comments. Allow them to say something about what you just shared. They may not like everything, but at least you are able to accomplish one of your goals: capture their attention. Just ensure comments remain objective—nothing personal or downright offensive to you or to anybody else.

How to Write Content Search Engines Will Love

Definitely, there’s a long list of tips, tricks, and tactics on how to do search engine optimization. But they are all worthless if you don’t have content.

Content is what people share to others. It contains all the types of information they’ve been searching online. Content drives traffic, increases page rank, contains keywords and phrases, and persuades readers to buy your products or subscribe to your mailing list.

Because of the crucial role content plays in SEO, you can’t do it haphazardly. You need to strategize and know the most ideal steps in creating one:

Begin With The Title

You can never force your potential readers to even click on your content if you don’t have a compelling or powerful title. After all, it’s the first one they see. Titles don’t have to be extremely long, but they shouldn’t be very short either. It must summarize the essence of the article without revealing so many details. Avoid being vague. If people can’t get the meaning of your title, they’d think they will feel the same way with the rest of your content.

Make it Brief

Unless you’re creating content for your e-book or a mini-course, there’s no need to produce very lengthy ones. In fact, you should try to limit your articles to around 300 to 700 words. People don’t just have the time to sit down and read everything you’ve written. Worse, if they see it’s extremely long, they would easily give up without even reading the first paragraph. Going for conciseness will also train you to focus on what’s the most important.

Spread Those Keywords

Since you’re doing SEO, you’re going to add some keywords in your content. The general rule is no spamming. A lot of pundits say keyword density should be around 1.5 to 2 percent only. Regardless, just include them only when they’re absolutely necessary. You may also want to include related keywords in your article. This technique is favorable to you since search engines such as Google like content that sound very natural.

Make Your Post Dynamic

How do you do this? Try to be bolder by adding images, videos, and even some podcasts in your content. You can even do that with e-books and courses these days. These media files break the monotony or the drabness of long content. They can also enhance the power of your message.

You can also optimize them too to further strengthen your SEO efforts. For instance, you can add alternative text for your images and add keywords in your video and podcast description.

Write For Your Audience

Many SEO experts are torn between creating content for search engines and producing one for humans. SkySpark says, go for the latter. After all, it’s not the crawlers who are going to buy your products or services. It’s your audience. If your content is really good, your link is still going to go viral, and you can move your way all the way up to top search engine rankings.

SEO: Start with the Domain Name

When it comes to search engine optimization, a lot of so-called experts immediately jump into content as well as on-page and off-page optimization. They immediately plan for their link development strategies, set up blogs, add a sitemap, or create social media and networking profiles. They usually overlook another important element: the domain name.

The domain name plays a very significant role. It’s your website’s or blog’s address online. If you get it wrong, then you’re bound to suffer terrible consequences. Fortunately, you don’t have to go through such a stage. You can take note of SkySpark’s tips on how to go about choosing your domain names:

Make Your Domain Name Short

It’s advisable to tell your readers to bookmark your website, but there’s also a huge chance they won’t pay attention to it. It’s best to be on the safe side. Find a domain name that’s short, so it’s very easy to remember and spell out.

Include Your Keyword

Unless you’re already popular by your brand name, try to incorporate some keywords into your domain name. It does help boost your ranking in search engines. Usually, those who don’t utilize search engines type domain names based on keywords they currently have in mind. You can use tools such as Google Adwords Keyword Suggestion to help you determine the most ideal keywords for your domain name.

Watch Out For Misspellings

Some SEO specialists are confused: should their domain name be misspelled or not? There’s a reason for this. In some instances, misspelled keywords tend to rank very high. Here’s our tip though. Make sure the keywords are spelled correctly. There are still many who know how to type words very well. Besides, misspelled keywords can definitely ruin your reputation online. They spell unprofessionalism.

Settle For A dot com

There are a lot of extensions you can choose for your domain name. You have .info, .biz, and .net. The extension .gov is reserved for government websites while .edu is for schools. In terms of commerce, the best extension is definitely .com. This should be your main priority when trying to create your domain name. So unless you have exhausted every domain name with dot com in your list, don’t pick the others.

Buy Your Domain Name Now

Once you’ve figured out the domain name you like and it’s surprisingly available, register it right away. Every day there are thousands of marketers, business owners, and bloggers who are going to register their domain name too. If you wait for another day, your domain name may have already been owned by another.

Consider Purchasing the Domain Name With Other Extensions

If you have extra cash, you may also want to buy your domain name in other extensions such as .net, .biz, or .info. Some people are just hungry for intense competition. Others may be potential scammers aiming to direct your readers to their website simply because it sounded a lot like yours.

Match Your Content With Your Domain Name

If you happen to have a domain name that says thewebsite.com, make sure you can also introduce it to your readers as The Website in your main content. This way, they can easily associate your website name to the right URL.

Transform Your E-book into an SEO Machine

One of the best things about e-books is besides being able to earn money from them, you can also transform them into an SEO machine. Simply put, you can create an e-book with links pointing back to your website.

This benefits you in a lot of ways. If your e-book gets shared multiple times, your inbound link also increases. Moreover, you can enjoy an increase in your web traffic.

Nevertheless, there are right ways to optimize your e-book. Here are 5 of the best ones:

1. Use Some Keywords

Since keywords are those that make your e-book viewable in search engines, you should never forget adding the most appropriate ones. If you are finding a hard time knowing what keywords to use, you can always use the various programs including Google Adwords Keywords Suggestion Tool.

Needless to say, never forget to use these keywords in moderation. The last thing you want to happen is for your readers to think you are actually spamming in your own book. Better yet, use a variety of related keywords.

2. Add Your Internal Links in the Pages

Instead of promoting other links, why don’t you use yours? You may want to include in your e-book links that point to some of your web pages, such as your blog. Besides being able to boost your search engine ranking, you can also increase your traffic considerably.

3. Create a Smashing Title

Though it is necessary for your keyword to appear on the title, it is also equally fundamental to come up with a really good e-book title. Whether you like it or not, people are going to initially judge your e-book based on what they see first, which is the title. If they do not like it, you can’t force them to download your e-book and give its internal content a try.

Since titles are very important, take time in creating one. It is advisable to come up with a variety of suggested titles. Ask your friends and family, even e-book experts, to evaluate them. Let them choose which ones they like. You do not have to follow their recommendations, but at least you will have an idea what will possibly work.

4. Make Sure Your Links are Working

One of the biggest mistakes you will ever do is to publish your e-book with links that lead to nowhere. If you are using a word processor such as Microsoft Word, to create a link, you need to find Hyperlink first, highlight the word, and then add your link. Always test your links too, making sure they do not lead your readers to an error page.

5. Create Quality Content

Please do not create an e-book for the sake of having one. If you want to increase your chances of earning money from it, as well as having it shared to a lot of people, give its content utmost priority. Provide information that isn’t usually shared yet or extremely valuable people are willing to download and or even buy it from you.

Video Marketing Made Easy

So how many people are watching videos online these days? Based on a ComScore report in 2010, in the United Kingdom, there were more than 5 billion videos watched. Now, that is only one country. So you can just imagine how many are actually checking out videos on a daily basis and not only in YouTube but also in other websites. In fact, videos have grown so much YouTube is already considered a search engine.

The good news is you can use videos to promote your products and services. A lot of people have already found success just by doing that. Think of Justin Bieber, for example, or BlendTec and its series of videos called “Will It Blend?”

You also can achieve the same status they are enjoying right now, only if you are willing to do the following:

Limit your video. Have you seen TV shows? A lot of them last for only a couple of minutes, 40 minutes max. Otherwise, it gets really boring. If you are creating a video, you should also limit its airtime. A single YouTube video normally lasts for around 10 minutes. If you can cut that to half or even a fourth, then better.

Do not forget your call to action. Sometimes you get too engrossed with the video’s production value you forget the most important thing: call to action. What is your objective for coming up with a video? Is it to convince your viewers to buy the product? Should they call your hotline? Must they anticipate your launch? The call to action should be very clear. If you have someone in front of your video, make him say, “Call us” or “Buy our product now.”

Come up with something ingenious. Seriously, this is the hardest part. How do you come up with a very original, fun, and worth-sharing video? But with a lot of brainstorming and coming up with a strong creative team, it is something that can be done. Here is one good tip: let them feel some emotion. Make them happy, sad, or even angry. The goal is to get into their psyche. Let them be inspired by your video they would love to hear what their friends and family say about it.

Allow embedding of your videos. Now that you have accomplished a video and you have already uploaded it, it is time to let your viewers do the job of marketing. One of the best ways to do that is including your embedding link or code on your video. It is the one viewers have to copy if they want to share your videos in their website or blog.

You can also turn on all those sharing buttons, such as Facebook and Twitter. That would also make sharing your content so much easier for your viewers.

Interact with your subscribers. If you happen to have some subscribers, take the time to be more engaged with them. Ask them questions. Let them look forward to more of your videos. You can even solicit ideas from them.

Using Social Media to Gain Credibility for SEO Companies in Calgary

Living up to its name, the web has become increasingly interconnected, especially on the social media front. For businesses in Calgary Social Media Marketing is a great to build a strong web presence and boost online credibility. Anyone can start an “online business” these days, but not all online businesses are treated with the same respect. Customers are becoming increasingly wary about websites that remain static and only seem to be there to collect traffic. Interacting through Social Media is a great way for a business to build credibility and put those who do business with them at ease that they are not taking a big financial risk with some stranger who really knows nothing about the business they are in.

Increase Your Authority
Posting updates on happening in your industry and interacting with users of your site on a daily basis will increase your overall authority in the field. Having your posts be “liked” by other users not only feels good, it also increases the amount of trust users have in you and improves your Search Engine Rankings. When it comes to SEO Calgary businesses can no longer rely on merely having the right keyword count in their articles, they need to be recognized as the authority in their field.

It’s about who you know
While one part of the Social Media Marketing formula for Calgary business is how many people you know, a more important part is who you know. When networking on sites like Twitter or LinkedIn, it is important to link up with the power users in your particular niche. Being in the company of other experts will help boost your own credibility and increase the amount of trust between you and your followers.

Share and Share alike
Social Media is all about sharing content with others. Encouraging your users to share your content with their friends and followers will not only increase your online credibility, it will also make you much more attractive to search engines whose algorithms just love sites whose content is shared. One of the easiest ways for a business in Calgary to encourage sharing is to include sharing options on their websites which allows users to share your content with their other social groups with one simple click.

Personality Counts
Sure you’re a business, but you are people too. Appearing too serious and business oriented on Social Media Calgary sites can actually have a negative impact on your SEO ranking. Social is the keyword in Social Media and appearing overly stiff will have people thinking you are there only there to promote and not to interact with them. People want to do business with other people so do not be afraid to show them that you are indeed a human being.

Share Only the Good Stuff
People do not subscribe to your feeds in order to look at subpar content. Be sure to increase your reputation by sharing only high quality content. Do not feel pressured to share mediocre content just because the creator of the content likes to share your stuff. While it is important to reciprocate, sharing content that is not up to snuff will cause people to start ignoring you.

Share Other’s Content
On the other hand, Social Media Marketing will only work for Calgary companies who are willing to show more than just their own content. The only way to become a respected voice in your niche is to share the best content you can find, even if it comes from your competitor.

Easy Does It
This is a Social Media Website, not a used car lot. Pushy sales tactics are not very social and might drive people away. Be personable, not pushy and let your customers get to know you before you start laying your promotions on them.

Building Traffic to Your Business Blog

Anyone with an email account can start up a business blog but maintaining a popular blog that utilizes search engine marketing to bring traffic to your business in Calgary is much harder. Whether you are a small business owner trying to tackle web marketing on your own or you are employee working for a larger company with the task of managing their business blog, there are a couple of proactive things which you can so that your content finds an audience.
SEO Web Marketing Calgary Tips:

SEO Friendly Content
Billions of searches are done every day through the use of search engines, the most popular being (say it with me) Google. It is almost foolhardy for you not to optimize your blog in way so that you are able to attract a steady stream from this giant river of online searchers. While some people might see using SEO search marketing tactics for your Calgary based business blog as something that could ruin the quality and creativity of your content, but that is simply not the case. While it can be challenging to include SEO Keyword content into your blog, when done right, it will be even be noticeable. Using basic SEO on-page tactics and techniques such as link building, you can steadily build up traffic levels and get your content on more computer screens.

Join Target Communities
Whatever your business is, there is probably a community, forum or Facebook page out there where your target audience likes to gather and share ideas. By joining these target communities and participating in discussions and forums you help build your reputation and your business’ credibility. For example: a SEO Marketing Calgary business might want to join a forum on web search engine marketing techniques for Calgary based businesses. By joining this sight and sharing content and this business will undoubtedly start getting more people checking out their business blog.

Take it Easy
Also, while you might be tempted to immediately go into a sales pitch talking about how great your SEO Calgary based company is, it is better to ease yourself into the community and provide other members with quality content and advice. Eventually, your new community will go to your site freely to find out what other great stuff you have to offer.

Find Friends Who Like to Share
Once you join your target communities, look for users who are active in social media or have blogs of their own. These people are more likely to share the content that you provide and provide more links to your business blog. Just make sure that you provide quality content that these power users are going to be willing to share.

Social Networking
Facebook is not going to go away and neither are Google+, LinkedIn or Twitter. In order to take advantage of the new era of search engine marketing and keep your Calgary Business Blog relevant it is imperative that you have profile on all of these social networking sites. Be sure to fill out your profile completely so people know what you are all about. Also, follow the big players in your industry and share content and queries on a regular basis. Interacting in these social media circles is a sure way to build trust and credibility.

Linking
If you write a post and it refers to an earlier post on, be sure to provide a link to the older post in your new one. This will not only provide your readers with a more valuable content, it will also give your older posts new life in the search engines.

Comments
Relevant comments are golden in the eyes of search engines. If someone comments on your post, be sure to comment back to answer in queries and do not be afraid to provide them with links to other posts that you may have written. Also, be sure to provide relevant comment to other industry bloggers that you follow. These comments allow you the opportunity to provide links to your own site, which equals more traffic portals to your own blog. Commenting, or even a Guest Article on other sites is another great way to get links out there and increase your search engine presence.

Debunking SEO Myths in Calgary

When it comes to search engine optimization, Calgary web businesses tend to fall prey to the various myths concerning SEO optimization techniques. Since search engines like Google keep their algorithm secrets safer than the recipe for Coca Cola, misconceptions about what works and what does not work for search engine optimization abound. Like all rumors, all it takes for one of these SEO myths to spread like wild fire is one errant blog post.

Here are five myths from the world of Search Engine Marketing that can actually damage your overall page ranking:

1. Toolbar page rank means something
Where you are ranked in Google’s toolbar no longer has any bearing on your actual page rank. Once upon a time in SEO, the higher your site’s toolbar page rank, the more attractive it was to the search engine. This meant if your toolbar page rank was less than 4, you were less likely to attract links from other webmasters. While many search engine optimization companies in Calgary still follow this link building strategy, it has been proven that Toolbar page rank no longer plays a factor in your site’s overall rankings

2. The META Keywords tag boosts your ranking
While it does not do any harm, creating a META keywords tag will also do nothing to increase your sites overall rankings. Google announced they quit using them in their algorithms several years ago. Adding the tag to your site for the sole purpose of Search Engine Optimization is a waste of time for Calgary businesses. META Descriptions are another story. While they also have no affect on your page ranking, these “snippets” of information about your site can help increase your click through rate.

3. Regular search engine submittal is necessary
Trust me, if you are out there, search engines are going to find you. Many SEO firms in Calgary still charge their clients outrageous fees to submit their sites to a search engine multiple times when doing so is free and one time is enough to get you noticed. In fact, your site will probably be indexed even without submittal once you get a few visitors and links.

4. Nofollow backlinks are not worth anything
Once thought to be worthless to overall page ranks, many SEO Calgary professionals are now convinced that nofollow links do play a factor in a Search Engine’s algorithm. The fact that highly regarded sites like Wikipedia use nofollow links is considered proof of this. Also a link is a link and can refer visitors and future customers to your site, making them very valuable indeed regardless if it is nofollow or not.

5. Linking out is bad
In fact linking out is good. While some webmasters consider having too many outgoing links on their site to be detrimental to their page rank, the opposite is actually true. Google likes to rank sites that offer the best user experience, and providing useful links is considered to be very user friendly. This makes out linking very smart search engine optimization for Calgary companies. Also, having no links out whatsoever will definitely hurt your ranking. Just make sure the links you provide do not lead to anything malicious or spammy.

Online Techniques for Affordable SEO in Calgary

As we continue to climb out of the great recession, many business owners are still faced with a very limited marketing budget in which to work with. With print advertising going the way of the horse and buggy, many Calgary companies are turning to web marketing techniques in order to promote their products and services. Here are some affordable SEO techniques for Calgary companies to use in order to promote their products online without breaking their budget.

Inexpensive SEO Calgary Online Marketing Strategies:

Videos
With fast streaming data becoming the norm now, everyone, especially search engines, loves informational videos. In fact, making a video series and starting a YouTube or Vimeo Channel for your business is much more effective at getting you ranked than your basic SEO business strategies. With a little creative imagination, you can create great content with links to your site that will target the right kind of cliental.

Lists
When it comes to affordable and inexpensive SEO Calgary businesses know the value of having a list of potential clients that you can send emails too. Even if half of your sent email messages wind up in somebody’s spam box, email marketing is still one of the most effective online marketing techniques that is out there. In order to maximize the impact of your emails, be sure to provide content that is valuable to your prospective clients.

Directories
Business Directories are a great way to drive business to your site. By making sure that your site is listed on all relevant business directories, people will be better able to find you and you will create a bigger web presence in the eyes of the search engines through the creation of backlinks. Listing your site is generally easy and a very effective technique when it comes to affordable SEO Calgary online marketing techniques.

Landing Pages
When you launch a new online advertising campaign, people might very well forget why they clicked on a link if they suddenly find themselves on your site with no idea what they should do next. A much better strategy is to create a Landing Page which takes off where your ad left off and reminds people why they clicked onto your site in the first place. Landing Pages are a Basic SEO technique that all Calgary based business should utilize. They are relatively easy to create and should utilize the same type of messaging and branding of your online ads. Use split testing in order to maximize your conversion rates of these created landing pages.

White Paper Sharing
Do not rely solely on online ads to drive traffic to your business. White papers, reports, and power point presentations are effective ways to get your message to your target audience as well. By sharing them on sites like Scribd or Slideshare, you help ensure your credibility and increase the overall rank of your site. By including links back to your site in this white paper content, you provide yet source of traffic to your site for people who engage themselves with your content.

High Quality Content
A Cheap SEO Company in Calgary might be able to provide you with generic content that is dated and only slightly different from your competitors, but that will only take your site so far up the rankings list. What search engines really love is fresh, high quality content that is relevant to your particular business niche. Create a steady flow of quality content in all forms of media : articles, blogs, videos, podcasts and white papers. If you do not have time to do it all yourself, hire a online content specialist to help you out.

Friendly SEO Calgary Content
The most affordable SEO Content for your Calgary business is content that is search engine friendly. Be sure to include all of the relevant keywords in your press releases in order to find your target audience. This is where hiring a qualified and dedicated content specialist can really come in handy.