Sales & Marketing Consultant, Bestselling Author & Business Motivational Speaker

So we’ve all heard of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and a few of us will even have a good understanding of the basic principles of SEO and will be able to use these to generate more traffic for our company websites and blogs. But as always the platforms for online marketing are changing, and as we move into 2012 we need to not only be focusing our efforts on increased SEO for our sites, we also now need to be thinking about our social media marketing goals and how we can further engage our audiences for the year ahead.

Social Media Optimisation (SMO) is the new SEO and it can do wonders for your business in terms of generating more leads and increasing awareness of your brand – so how can you optimise your corporate social media accounts to get the most out of them in 2012?

Well, there are two basic components to any good SMO campaign. Firstly, you need to link your social media sites to your website and blog content through the likes of social media share buttons. By adding a Facebook “like” button, a “Tweet This” button or Google Plus’ “+1” button to your content your audience can easily share your content with others and give recommendation to your work, which any visitors to your site will be able to see through the number of likes and shares each your posts or pages have had.

The second component to a successful SMO campaign comes from the contributions you make yourself – by providing high quality content which continuously engages your audience, then sharing this to all of your social media platforms yourself so that all of your followers have regular updates to keep them interested.

It is also very important when creating improved SMO for your business that either you yourself, your marketing team or your company as a defined brand itself interacts with your audience directly, through posting comments on your own sites, interacting with your followers and engaging in discussion and debate on other relevant blogs and forums. Simply plastering your content all over your social media platforms is not enough – you need to engage your audience and interact with them in a way which drives discussion and sparks further interest.

In basic terms, in order to be successful with SMO your content needs to be engaging and up-to-date, and it needs to be made easy for your audience to share this content across as many social media platforms as possible.

SMO is just as important for your business as SEO has been, as not only can it drive traffic to your sites, creating increased lead generation and in turn boost your sales, but it is also aimed at increasing your direct contact with your current followers – which in turn will push your online reach out across your targeted markets and allow you to engage with more and more potential clients.

The main downfall with pursuing an SMO campaign is that it can be very time consuming, and if you don’t have a dedicated team to push SMO it can be very difficult to maintain a strong online presence for your business – so look out for future posts about some great online tools which can help streamline your social media efforts and increase SMO in one foul swoop.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker

We’ve spoken in the past about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how using proper SEO techniques can really boost your web presence. Today I want to leave you with a few more tips to incorporate into your online marketing plan.

• When creating your sales website, try to avoid using Java script to create drop down menus or image links. If you do decide to use Java, make sure you put text links on the page in another area so that the search engines can find and follow them.
• There is a saying in the SEO industry – “Content is King.” The better the content on your website, the better your traffic will get. People are looking for good, quality content on a regular basis. Make sure what you’re dishing out is informative and helpful. People will begin to trust you, refer others to you, and revisit your site.
• When searching for keywords to use on your site, don’t forget to use not only single words but entire phrases as well.
• When building backlinks, remember that quality is always better than quantity. If a site with bad rankings or bad content links back to you, the search engines will not hold that link in high regard. A link from a site with lots of traffic, in a similar niche, on the other hand, will do you more good.
• Avoid keyword stuffing. Yes, keywords are what will get your site found, but if you use a keyword a zillion times within your content it will look unnatural and trashy – and, of course, people will notice and stop reading.

Keep the above in mind as you work to build your next sales page or website. SEO is huge – and if you follow the rules you’ll find your site flowing with free traffic on a regular basis.

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant - Internet Marketing Consultant - Sales Expert

Studies have shown where people look when they are searching for things.

I mean, where they look and where their eyes are drawn to.

The heat map above shows the importance of being in the natural search engine rankings and the importance of  SEO.

And take a look at the adwords down the right hand side. If you’re not in the top 2 or 3 then you’re not in the game.

If ever there was a case for you to take SEO very seriously then this is it!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant

Should You Play the SEO Game?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plays a vital role in the success of any website. The more SEO tactics you use when creating your site, the better your chances of experiencing higher levels of traffic generated from the search engines themselves. Devising a good SEO strategy can take quite a bit of work, but is it really necessary?

I’ve found that while SEO is important for some projects, it may not be as important or effective for everything you work on. Before you embark on your SEO journey, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is my project short-term or long-term?

2. Am I creating a simple one-page website with sales copy or am I creating a multi-page website that I am     going to update on a regular basis.  

3. How much time do I have to put into this project daily?

These are questions you should ask yourself before beginning any project. The reason is simple. If you don’t have enough time to put into devising an SEO strategy and marketing your website, you really need to reconsider whether or not you want to put up a website at all. Consider whether or not you honestly believe your venture will be successful.

There are hundreds of Internet marketers who love throwing up one-page sales sites and then promoting them until they can’t promote them anymore. They’ve found a popular niche that may not be hot for a very long time, so they want to get as much out of the product they’re trying to sell as they can. If you’re in this type of situation, SEO may not be top priority. You should certainly consider SEO techniques as you create your sales copy, but issues such as backlinks and search engine traffic may not be as important to you. In your case, a pay per click advertising campaign is going to drive traffic to your website quickly and help you to make sales.

On the other hand, you may be launching a long-term project. Perhaps you’re starting an informational website or blog into which you will later weave some money-making campaigns or products. Long term traffic goals are important, so SEO tactics should be carefully considered every step of the way so that you are constantly building up your traffic volume with both repeat and new visitors daily.

While it’s not always necessary to play the SEO game, it’s always important to keep SEO techniques in mind. You may not have a long-term vision for your website, but even a little bit of search engine traffic will help boost your popularity.

Happy Marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant - Internet Marketing Consultant - Sales Expert