Social Media Marketing is a great way to improve your online exposure, and gain more traffic to your website. I wanted to do a blog entry on Social Media Marketing tips, but I came across a great article that is very well written, and includes 4 easy steps to improve your Social Media Marketing.

The post is called “Improve Your Social Media Marketing In Four Easy Steps” by The Ad Master Blog. I would encourage you to check out the posting, as it also includes a list of Social Media Sites.

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Technorati Tags: marketing tips, social media marketing

Search all SEO related topics with our Google Custom Search Engine, which we have created to make it easier for you to find search engine optimization (SEO) references from the top SEO resources. I comprised this custom SEO search engine to include SEO websites that include valuable SEO resources, tools, blogs, and advice from leading SEO professionals. Some of the sites we have included are SitePoint, Matt Cutts Blog, Search engine Watch, SEO Book, and SEOMoz. These particular SEO and SEM websites, in my opinion contain the most valuable information, very timely updates regarding SEO news, and provide the best SEO tools and resources available online.

Why a customized search? As you know, when you query Google for SEO resources, you will come up with a wide variety of sites, most of which are not catered to what you are specifically searching for. By including the top SEO sites, you are sure to find information on exactly what you are looking for. The customized SEO search engine will continually be refined, that said, if you use it, please leave feedback as to how well your SEO search results worked for you. If you have any other suggestions, I would love to hear those too! Happy Searching!

Technorati Tags: google custom search engine, seo search, seo search engine

SEO copywriting takes skill, strategy, and many things to take into consideration. There are many things that you should avoid doing when writing SEO copy to ensure that users and search engines alike consider the copy on your website quality.

Karon Thackson has written a great article on Site Reference that elaborates on 10 don’ts for SEO copywriting, which are a great reference for making your SEO copy flow, sound natural, and effectively rank higher with your keywords.

You can read the article here: Top 10 Don’ts for SEO

Technorati Tags: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), seo, seo copywriting, strategy

If someone were to ask me, “If I were to do only one thing to SEO my website, what would you suggest”, I would, of course, respond “There is not just one thing that you can do that will magically optimize your website to get higher search engine rankings, but….”. If you were to do one thing TODAY to your website to improve your SEO, I would suggest optimizing your page titles and descriptions.

Your page titles and descriptions tell both the search engines, as well as users, what a particular page in your website is about. Therefore, you want to make sure that the page titles and descriptions are unique and relevant  to each page of your website. They should also be descriptive, and include the targeted keywords you have chosen for that page.

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Technorati Tags: optimize, optimize page titles, page titles, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), search engine rankings

Whether you are running pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, other paid advertising, or relying on organic search engine rankings, these tips on optimizing your landing pages will help you to achieve higher conversion rates on your website.

Are you getting traffic to your web site, but finding that visitors are not taking any action? The following suggestions will have you on your way to optimizing your landing page(s) thus, improving your conversion rates:

1. Focus your Landing Pages

Your landing pages should have one offer that you focus on in order to achieve higher conversion rates. If your visitors land on a page where there are many options, with many calls-to-action and paths they can take through your site, you are only losing focused attention on the primary goal. Whether your conversion is completing a lead form, making a purchase, or signing up for a newsletter or membership, make this the main intent of your page. Give your visitors too many choices, and you run a high risk of losing them. This term is called “abandonment”. Abandonment is when your visitors initiate an action, but do not follow through. Look at your landing pages, and identify potential “abandonment points”, and remedy the situation by eliminating them.

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Technorati Tags: conversion rates, landing page, Rankings, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Website owners know the importance of marketing their website online in order to receive more targeted traffic through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), but oftentimes, usability is not even factored in to the equation.

Unfortunately, when all of your internet marketing efforts still don’t seem to be increasing sales or leads, or not as expected, a usability check is called for. Usability is critical. If the experience is not as easy and clear as possible for the user, they will go elsewhere to buy.

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Technorati Tags: holistic internet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), strategy, Usability

There are a good number of resources available to learn SEO, both free, and paid. These resources can help you to find information about how to optimize your website to running PPC programs.

Learning SEO is helpful if you want to achieve higher search engine rankings for your website or blog, or if you happen to be hiring an SEO consultant. The more knowledgeable you are, the better. It is not necessarily difficult to learn SEO, and the resources available online are plentiful. The following is my list of 5 of the best resources for learning SEO.

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Technorati Tags: analytics, best resources, favorite resources, free seo tools, google, how to optimize your website, pay-per-click, ppc, ppc programs, Rankings, Search Engine Marketing, search engine strategies, SearchEngineWatch, sem, starter guide, starter kit

Optimizing your anchor text for links within your website and for incoming links to your website is an important element to implement into your SEO strategy to get higher rankings in the search engines.

The anchor text is the text that is hyperlinked on your page as in the following: anchor text optimization. The text that is highlighted on your link is seen by the search engines as an indicator of the content on the page that it links to. Therefore, you will want to use relevant keywords for the target page in your anchor text.

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Technorati Tags: anchor text, anchor text optimization, external links, higher search engine rankings, hyperlinked text, internal links, Rankings, relevant keywords, relevant text, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), search engines, seo, strategy

In part one of “How to start a pay-per-click program”, I discussed the first steps to take in your PPC campaign, which included setting goals, determining your budget, creating your landing page, choosing your ppc program, and choosing keywords and key phrases. I will talk about the next steps to creating a successful PPC campaign in this post.

Creating your PPC ads

After you have your landing pages set up, the next step is to create the ads or creatives that will be shown for your PPC campaign. When writing creative copy, you have limited space, so getting straight to the point of your ad, and setting the expectation of what the user will see when a visitor clicks on your ad is key. You want to have a clear call to action in your ad, as well as matching the text in your ad to the text on the landing page. It is proven that higher conversion rates come from relative ad copy to the landing page. Don’t try to fool your visitors into clicking on your ad, then sending them to something they aren’t even looking for. This is a quick way to get your visitors to bounce, as well as deplete your budget.

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Technorati Tags: budget, choosing keywords, conversion rates, creative copy, creatives, first steps, google, landing page, pay per click program, pay-per-click, ppc, ppc programs

Pay-Per-Click campaigns are an immediate source of traffic to your Web site or blog, and can potentially be a crucial part of your marketing success. Before you jump in head first, though, I would like to provide a general guide on how to go about starting a PPC program.

Determine the Goals and Objectives of your PPC campaign

This obvious, yet crucial step is necessary to determine the success of your campaign. Typically, the major objectives are:

1. To make a sale
2. To obtain a lead
3. To get a phone call or visit to your business
4. To brand your company, blog, Web site
5. To make money from your Web site through affiliate programs, etc.

If you take the “I’ll just get traffic, and see what happens” approach, you do not have clearly defined or measurable goals. Some of the above objectives are easier to measure than others, but success in anything has some sort of relative measurement, So, determine what your goal is, and make future changes accordingly.

Determine Your Budget

This step is a bit like taking a trip to Vegas. Take as much as you can afford to lose. The first time you start a PPC campaign, you need to realize that just because you are paying for clicks does not guarantee anything. You must be able to afford to lose money for a short time, until you are able to measure, analyze, and adjust your campaign until you reach scalable metrics.

Create a Landing Page

This is yet another crucial step that you should not ignore. A landing page is the page that your visitors will reach when they click on your ad. The landing page should include a means to your end goal or objective. For instance, if your objective is to make a sale, your landing page should include the product(s) you wish to sell, a clear call-to-action, and a quick and easy way to make a purchase. If you want to acquire a lead, you must present a need or desire that will be fulfilled by the user submitting their information, and a form that is either on the page or maximum 1 click away, and is as simple as you can possibly make it. I will explain more about landing pages in a later post, as this is another topic that can be greatly expanded upon, but the poing of creating a landing page is to send your visitors directly to what they were looking for when they typed in a search term, and then clicked on your ad.

Choose a PPC network

There are many PPC networks to choose from, but to start, choosing one of major search engines is your best bet, as you will get the best measurement of success, more volume, and higher-quality clicks. If you haven’t already heard, the top 3 are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter. You can typically find deals for signing up, like free credits.

Research Search Terms

Once you sign up with your provider, you will be able to use their built-in keyword tools to find keywords to add to your campaign. You want to choose the most relevant terms for your campaign, and determine how popular your search terms are. You can also do this without opening an account by using some of the free keyword research tools, such as Yahoo’s keyword suggestion tool or Google’s free keyword tool. There are also many great programs out there like WordTracker and Web CEO. Use these tools by entering some of the key phrases in your landing page. For instance, this blog is about PPC campaigns, so I would type that in, and the tool will give you other suggestions, and an average number of searches you can expect. This helps to broaden your keyword base, but getting too broad will result in non-relevant clicks to your site, which have less potential to create conversions. Try different combinations of keywords and key phrases, and measure which ones give you the best conversions.

This is the conclusion of “How to Start a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Part 1″. Check back or better yet, subscribe to this blog for Part 2. In the meantime, start on these first steps, get your goals set, and do your research. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know your thoughts. Happy marketing!

Technorati Tags: google ppc, how to ppc, pay-per-click, pay-per-click marketing, ppc management