ll the major search engines (Google and Bing especially) have aggressively modified their ranking algorithms to ensure that their search results are uniquely pertinent to individual queries. In doing this, there were two significant algorithm shifts that we want to bring to your attention that happened in the last few months.
The first algorithm change impacts sites with duplicate content. Many of our clients are affected by this, and some have been penalized. For instance, if you have a site where you post a white paper with a summary, then also post this same exact summary text on many blogs with a link to the white paper on your site, you may be penalized by duplicate content algorithm changes, and loose rankings on certain keywords which were emphasized in the text. From now on, please rewrite the summary text so that it is more than fifty percent different from the original text. Another example of the penalty applies to ecommerce sites that resell manufacturer’s brands. If you use the exact text that the manufacturer supplied, this duplicate content issue will penalize your product descriptions, and you will need to rewrite them.
Take a look at the content that is duplicated on your own websites. You can use the www.copyscape.com website to see where you might have duplicate content.
The second large search engine algorithm change makes search more personalized. I have blogged about this in the past, and the change can be demonstrated by searching on Google, and on the left navigation bar, selecting the real time results, blog, or discussions. Now, more than ever before, social media appearance is playing a crucial role in search engine ranking. By making a small change in your work routine, you can make significant improvements in your search rankings by providing social referrals. Here are my recommendations that can help each of you generally improve in search rankings by always following white hat practices and never creating spam content or links.
Forum and Blog Participation:
- In many cases, you probably already know the industry related forums and blogs that are most solicited by your clients. If this is the case in your industry, it makes sense for you to spend some time becoming known, and making a name for your company in these discussions. Comments on forums and blogs are very valuable if you keep the following things in mind.
- If you are joining a forum or blog for the first time, don’t automatically start promoting your products or services without first spending a few days familiarizing yourself with the others in the discussion.
- When you are ready to create or join in the discussion, wisely drop a comment into the discussion with a text-link to your website in the signature. The anchor text must use one of the chosen industry related keywords that are part of your general SEO strategy. However, always remember that your job in any conversation is to listen, to help and to get your message out only when appropriate. Just as you would not join a conversation at a party by announcing how wonderful your company is, you must first establish your expertise and brand before flaunting it in social media. Only one in about 10 of your social messages should be about yourself. Social media is all about connecting with your customers so that when they have a need for your products or services, they remember they have a friend on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Facebook who specializes in that field.
- Sometimes it is very valuable and has wonderful results (not only for increasing the social references (links) to your website, but also for generating traffic to your website) if you have created a video, whitepaper, or well-thought-out how-to article that pertains to the subject, that you can link to in the discussion. Many people will click the link to get the free information.
- Another great source of social links or references for your site is the Yahoo Answers site. Take a look to see if there are already questions out there that you can answer. Try to be active on Yahoo Answers without doing self-promotion. The only links to your site should be in your signature
Create A Corporate Social Presence
- Social networking websites are a tremendously valuable business tool. So, create a complete profile for your company on all of these social sites: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you have videos, it will also be very beneficial to create a Youtube channel for your company. Fill in as much information as possible on each of these profiles. Next you have to begin actively using your profiles. If you are reluctant to do this yourself, please give us a call. We can help you though this. Once your profiles are up, you need to start using them. Many companies are reluctant to start a social profile if they feel it might sit dormant. One way to circumvent this is to connect your blog with your social profiles so that at least you are posting every time you update your blog.
- Create interesting posts abut important or newsworthy topics related to your industry on social networking websites and engage with your friends there.
- Use all the features of the social sites to increase your network by adding valuable friends.
- Create valuable tweets on twitter and constantly follow others in the hope that they will follow you, in an effort to build up your following. You can find related people in your industry on twitter by using free services like http://www.twellow.com.
- It is important to do as many posts as you can. For some this will be many posts a day, while others will only be able to manage a few posts a week.
- Vary your link-text as well as the URL you use to your website for the best results. Keep in mind that the appropriate content for the discussion may not always be found on the home page when you are joining the discussion to add links to your website.
- Post Blog Comments on industry blogs that interest you. Make sure that you leave your email and URL on those blogs. Only really informative comments will get readers of that blog to click through to your website. Note that sometimes blog owners sell or use your email for newsletters and other promotions, which you might regard as spam.
Using Your Corporate Blog
- Now, more than ever, it is imperative that each company creates and frequently posts to a corporate blog. Even if you can only post once a month, at least you are reaching out to your customers and followers at that time. Blog posts can be just a few sentences, and sometimes they can be comments about other people’s posts that you cite. It takes minimal effort to post at least once a month.
- Please use the keywords chosen in the SEO strategy for the content and titles of each Blog post.
- Ensure that each post has industry related tags.
- Allow visitors to subscribe to your blog through email, and add the social plugin for your blog that allows visitors to “like” and “share” your blog post easily on social sites like Twitter and Facebook.
- Make sure you have the “allow comments” option turned on for your blog. In this way you can encourage interaction with your Blog visitors, and post their comments after you review. This is very helpful in building relationships with other Bloggers and potential clients.
- Monitor comments on your post regularly.
Other Social Tasks
- Make sure that all your corporate emails use complete email signatures with your business logo and a link to your website.
- Bookmarking your services on major bookmarking website like DIGG and De-lici-ous is very helpful. (create profiles on social websites like DIGG and De-lici-ous and post links on which your customers might be interested. Make sure that these links are public and these links should help your business to get more sales)
- Create blogs on free blog hosting websites such as Google Knoll and create industry related posts. Don’t forget to add text-links to your website.
- Let us know if you don’t feel comfortable doing this on your own. We can help.
Links from Partner/Associates/Friends websites:
- Try to get links form all your partners, Business Associates, friends and franchise websites which include a description of your business.
If you need help setting up profiles or blogs, identifying good discussion groups, keeping up with tweets or posts, or developing your company procedures in this endeavor, please give us a call, and our social media experts can help you.
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