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YouTube’s new site creates a much greater focus on social features of the site, with emphasis on user subscriptions and playlist-sharing. YouTube is a very powerful marketing tool for brands and businesses. Surveys have revealed that companies who incorporate marketing videos onto their websites are 53 times more likely to top their SERP’s.

With many undeniable benefits of YouTube Marketing, it’s incredibly important for businesses to understand and create a strong YouTube SEO strategy to maximize their marketing efforts. One of the big changes in YouTube SEO from the site’s recent major update is that much more weight is now given to users or channel. Similar to how popular and trusted blogs rank highly in search results, users and channels that draw a lot of subscriptions and likes receive much greater SEO benefits.

These tips and strategies can help your business get the best results from its YouTube marketing efforts. Considering the social search aspects of YouTube SEO, it is important to pursue both traditional and social SEO tactics.

Creating a Title and Description

The title of your video should be simple and straightforward and it needs to contain your video’s most relevant keywords. This will make your video much easier to find for users.

It’s also a good idea to name the uploaded video file itself with the same title, as this establishes another citation of your keywords for your video.

You can also include your video’s http:// link in your description to create yet another citation for your video and its keywords.

Create Inbound Links and Embeds

Use multiple social media outlets to link and share your video. Not only does this help your video get more plays, likes, and subscriptions through your social media networks, it establishes many more address and keyword citations around the web. This can greatly improve your video’s SEO performance.

Keywords and Tags

It’s important to build strong keywords and tags for your video. Tags on YouTube make it easier for users to find your video through similar videos. Keywords similarly make it easier for users to find your video through organic searches. You can research which keywords similar popular videos use to help determine the most effective keywords and tags for your video.

Build Video Popularity and Views

YouTube’s search has moved more towards user and channel popularity over individual video popularity. You can get more views, likes, and subscriptions by establishing strong SEO and promoting your video through social media, or you can try to have your video posted under a more popular channel so that it will rank better.

Build Comments

Building a lot of comments during the first few hours can have big and almost-immediate SEO benefits for your video. Make sure to promote your video vigilantly immediately after posting!

Closed Captions

By embedding closed captions in your video, you can create yet another place for your videos keyword citations. Similarly, you can add your video’s script in its description.

Build Playlists

Building playlists under your company’s YouTube channel can greatly increase your video’s visibility. Similar videos in playlists show up in YouTube’s video recommendations. Videos on popular playlists receive even more SEO visibility, so make sure to share and promote playlists you create.

Establish your YouTube Channel

A well established YouTube channel receives many great SEO benefits. It’s not as much about plays and likes that a videos receives – YouTube channels should be updated regularly with new content for best SEO results.

It’s also important to build your channel’s likes and subscriptions. You can encourage this by establishing a call-to-action to video viewers to like and subscribe to your channel.

Post HD Video

HD videos rank over SD videos on YouTube. Not only are they preferred in search results, HD videos create an extra citation with both HD and SD versions.

Get the most out of your YouTube Marketing

Implementing good SEO strategy on your business’ YouTube marketing efforts can make a huge difference in your video search rankings. YouTube is a very powerful marketing tool for businesses that can really help improve your visibility.

How has YouTube marketing affected your business?

This article originally appeared on Content Equals Money and has been republished with permission.

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Sometimes, the best path to success in SEO is going back to the basics of good old fashioned keyword research and content creation with the end goal in mind: the customer and the conversion.

In this article, I’ll look at a website that was submitted for review from a “Keywords and Content” focus. The site is Restoration Parts Source (RPS), an e-commerce website supplying restoration car parts and accessories for new, vintage and classic U.S. makes and models.

1.  Don’t Focus Only On Broad Keywords

In his submission, Michael, RPS’s Web consultant, listed some keywords that are important to them, such as [classic car parts] and [restoration car parts].

While you do want to improve search results for broad keywords like these if you can, the competition can be very high. Plus, you’ll often find the actual business from broad keywords may not be as significant as you expect.

In addition to traffic from broad keywords, we typically see traffic and sales generated from more specific keywords such as [ford mustang parts] that typically return category pages of an e-commerce site in the search results, as well as from searches on specific products themselves such as [Headliner for 1963 Falcon Hardtop], which typically return the product pages in the search results. In fact, for many e-commerce sites, it’s the more specific keywords that are responsible for the majority of the sales.

Ideally, you’ll want to do keyword research for each of the categories and many of the specific products. Test as many of these keywords as possible using a PPC campaign with conversion tracking.

After some time, using site analytics such as Google Analytics, you can get a list of the keywords generating sales from both PPC and organic search. If you focus on improving search results for those keywords, you should increase sales. See Organic Keywords: The First Step In Search Engine Optimization for more information on this.

2.  Do Keyword Research For Product Categories Specific Products

Use a keyword research tool such as the Google AdWords keyword tool to see what people are searching on within your territory for your product categories and specific products. For most e-commerce sites, this will take a fair amount of time; so, start with the important products.

If possible, test the keywords that appear to be relevant in a PPC campaign. Then use the results of the keyword research or the PPC campaign to improve your organic search results. Start with the basics, the HTML Page Titles and the content on the pages.

For example, on the RPS site, the HTML Page Title for the Ford category is simply [Ford Parts]. Not only is this not very enticing when viewed in search results, it is likely too broad. The HTML Page title should help searchers scanning the search results understand what they can expect if they click through to the page. Try to create an enticing message and ideally include one or two important keywords.

If RPS determines that [Ford Restoration Parts] is an important keyword phrase, for example, they might create a more enticing HTML Page Title based on their value statement (which is unclear on the RPS site; see more about this below), and/or based on one or more key features/benefits such as the following (with or without the company name appended at the end):

Discounted Ford Restoration Parts Shipped The Same Day

For more information, see 12 Steps To Optimize A Webpage For Organic Keywords.

3.  Add Unique Content On Category Pages To Improve Search Results

Armed with your keyword research and/or results from PPC, add some overview text to your category pages. Yes, on category pages, you don’t want to push your items down too far, but just a couple of sentences can make a difference in search results.

This also gives you a chance to present a sales message to your human visitors, many of whom will land directly on these pages from search results without seeing any messages you may have on your home page.

Here’s an example. Assume that from the results of your PPC testing, you learn that [ford mustang restoration parts] is an important keyword. Do a search on that keyword.

Below is the top organic result I got for a Google search on [ford mustang restoration parts]. Notice in the screen shot below, the reasonably enticing description Google generated for a top ranked listing.

It includes some of the words and phrases searched for in bold such as [Ford Mustang parts], [restoration] and even [restore], which Google knows is a variation of the word “restoration.”

Search description Google generated from text on a page

The description above was created by Google directly from the text on the page (see screen shot below).

Description above was created by Google directly from the text on the page (Click to Enlarge)

You can improve your search results, both rankings and click-throughs, by developing similar messages for your category pages that include one or two of the most important keyword phrases for the category. Very often, the search engines will create a description for the search results from the text on the page around occurrences of the keyword the person searched for.

Plus, having the keyword one or more times on the page should help your rankings (don’t stuff it!). You should also create a similarly enticing Meta Description Tag in case the search engine creates a description from it rather than creating a description from the text on the page.

RPS has an issue on some of their category pages which have little category-related text. Some categories have no items at all (this site review is about Keywords and Content, not a User Experience Audit, but I think RPS needs to rethink its navigation system so issues like this do not occur). Hopefully, their site search is helping people find the items they are looking for.

4.  Add Unique Content On Product Pages

Adding your own content to product pages, such as unique product descriptions, your own commentary and helpful messages, user reviews, videos and images will likely help improve search results by making your product pages unique. Plus, including additional content on product pages may get your pages returned in more search results because of the additional text.

Finally, and probably most importantly, your content can help increase sales by helping your shoppers make decisions on what to buy and make them feel more comfortable about buying from you.

Use your keyword research and/or the results from your PPC testing initially for the basics, such as creating an enticing HTML Page Title, ideally including one or two important keywords for the product. Also, take the time to write enticing Meta Description tags for your items or, at least, the most important ones.

Include at least some product description text on the product page (see below about using descriptions provided by your vendors). Keep the important product-specific keywords in mind while writing content for the page, but write for your human visitors, not the search engines.

Many of RPS’s product pages are very sparse on product descriptions such as this Headliner for a 1963 – 65 Falcon Hardtop. There’s just a short description and a product number.

Take a look at the search listing for the top ranking site when I searched on [Headliner 1963 Falcon Hardtop]. As with the category page example above, Google created an enticing search description directly from the product description on the page.

Below is the product description for the Dearborn Classics product page that was returned in the search results above.

Product description for Dearborn Classics product page returned in search results above. Click to Enlarge

Using more complete product descriptions such as the above should not only help RPS do better in the search results, it should help improve conversions to sales by providing a stronger, more complete product sales message to their shoppers.

However, it’s important to point out that the product description above used by Dearborn Classics is not unique. I searched on some of it and found the same text being used by many websites. This text is likely being provided by the supplier of these headliners. This is typical of many e-commerce sites that sell products manufactured by others. When the content on your product pages is predominantly the descriptions provided by your suppliers, you’ll be directly competing for rankings with all the other pages that include the same text.

So, when possible, rewrite the description or include a significant amount of your own unique content on the page such as additional product information, your own commentary, additional product images and/or videos, user reviews, etc., (see the next section for more about this).

Automated HTML Page Titles and Meta Description Tags

You won’t be able to write custom HTML Page Titles and Meta description tags for all the items of an e-commerce site that contains hundreds or thousands of items. It’s ideal to use an e-commerce system that creates decent tags using the product headline.

For example, one that creates tags for the HTML Page Title (along with possibly a tag line for the site or the category), while using the first part of the product description on the page for the Meta Description Tag, both of which can be manually overwritten.

5.  Give Your E-commerce Site Personality Build Trust

As I went around the RPS site as a typical shopper, I learned very little about the company and the folks at RPS. When people shop online, they need to feel comfortable before they’ll buy from a company they know little or nothing about.

You can make people feel more comfortable about buying from you by at least employing some basics such as: a professional looking, user-friendly site; a meaningful value statement; a great guaranty and return policy; trust builders like well-known e-commerce security and process badges and seals; user reviews and testimonials, etc.

Make sure these elements are obvious as people shop by putting them, if not on every page, at least prominently one or more pages during the typical buying path (category page to product page to cart, etc.).

You can go much further than the basics and show what sets you apart from the competition while personalizing the site by including: mentions of one or more key personnel; helpful articles and videos; buyers guides; your own commentary about product categories and specific products; additional product information; videos and images, etc.

You could improve conversion rates and improve your search results at the same time by adding unique content to your site, allowing you to reach more searchers. You’ll also likely reach more searchers who are in the early stages of information gathering for a new purchase, giving you the opportunity to influence what they buy and retain them until they are ready to make a purchase.

You can learn more about this in from my earlier blog post, how to how increase e-commerce conversions 2-4x and improve search marketing results by helping shoppers decide what to buy.

6.  Increase Page Strength To Compete With Top Ranked Sites

When Michael submitted the site for review, he mentioned how eBay is often one of the top ranking sites for many of RPS’s products. It can be difficult to beat eBay because of their link popularity (page strength, etc.), but you can, in many cases.

In my searches for some of the products RPS carries, other resellers similar to RPS often ranked higher than eBay. Plus, you really don’t have to rank higher than eBay. Getting to the top few positions should give you your fair share of searchers as many people do look at a few results. And, many people may be looking for a supplier directly and not want shop via eBay.

RPS should be able to increase its business from both search results and other referral sites by focusing on improving their link popularity and social media engagement.

Take a look at some of the ideas that can be employed by e-commerce sites in the following articles to help improve link popularity and social engagement.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Beginner | How To | How To: SEO | Keywords Content

January 16, 2013, 7:58 AM —

flickr/adactio

Note: This tip is excerpted from Master Your Mac: Simple Ways to Tweak, Customize, and Secure OS X by Matt Cone. Published by No Starch Press, November 2012.

Speech recognition in OS X converts spoken words into commands that can be understood by your computer. When you enable your Mac’s speech recognition features, you can speak dozens of recognized voice commands to do things like switch applications, create email messages, or log out of your computer.

[New Chrome browser beta adds voice recognition API and Why voice recognition will finally conquer the office]

Here’s how to turn on speech recognition:

1. From the Apple menu, select System Preferences.

2. Click Accessibility.

3. From the sidebar, select Speakable Items. The window shown in Figure 10-1 appears.

Figure 10-1: Enable the speech recognition settings.

4. Select On to activate Speakable Items.

5. Click Listening Key. The window shown in Figure 10-2 appears.

Figure 10-2: Customize the speech recognition settings to match your personal preferences.

6. Select a listening method. You can configure your Mac to listen continuously for a keyword or listen only when a key is pressed.

7. (Optional) Click Change Key to change the listening key. esc is the default listening key. You’ll press this key when you want the Mac to start listening to you.

8. (Optional) If you selected the Listen continuously with keyword option, you can change the keyword settings. Computer is the default keyword — it’s required before every command when set to the default Required before each command setting. So you’ll need to preface commands with “computer” like this: “Computer, tell me a joke.”

Speech recognition isn’t perfect — sometimes your Mac doesn’t understand what you’re telling it to do. That’s why you’ll want to pay special attention to the “command acknowledgment” settings, which you can use to tell your Mac to play a sound or speak when it recognizes a command (see Figure 10-1).

If you’re having trouble getting your Mac to recognize your voice commands, click the Calibrate button (Figure 10-1). You’ll be asked to read through a series of sentences so the microphone sensitivity level can automatically adjust to your voice.

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New year, new you – but is it time for a facelift of your website’s content as well? To stay ahead of the competition and to win moments that matter to your customers, recognising the growing value of good online content is the first step; whether it’s launching a new blog, writing some guides, or revamping your landing pages and paid search text.

If you still need some persuading from the higher-ups, here’s our list of reasons for you to make content your king in the new year and beyond:

23. Keyword competition is never-ending, and even the most effective on-page SEO campaign can be scuppered by a new competitor targeting the same long-tail phrases as you. On-going innovation and investment in new optimised content helps to include a greater variety of key phrases on your site. This reduces the risk of losing your ranking if a couple of those phrases are targeted by your rivals.

22. Paid search remains similarly competitive. You don’t want to get into a bidding war for your primary target keyword bids if there are equally relevant phrases you could bag at a much lower price. Keywords are content of a sort, and content is king. So spend some extra time analysing and testing alternatives.

21. Landing pages provide a highly relevant place for paid search visitors to arrive on your site – so any tweaks to keywords used in your campaign should be reflected with tweaked or rewritten landing pages.

20. Microformats continue to make non-text content more search-visible in the same way that meta tags used to determine how your page was displayed by search engines. If your content strategy involves audio, video, and so on, make sure you’re making it as search-visible as possible.

19. Social networks increasingly drive the web audience to take action en masse – just look at the December 2012 Instagram exodus for proof. If you haven’t done so in the past, now is definitely the time to think about social and sharing factors when preparing future pages of content.

18. Televisions are set to make a comeback as the ‘first screen’ of most households, ahead of computers/laptops (the ‘second screen’) and smartphones/tablets (the ‘third screen’). Gartner predicts 85% of TVs manufactured in 2016 will have internet capability. This means it will be even harder to know what device your readers are using to visit your site. It’s essential to ensure your website is ready for visitors no matter what platform they’re using.

17. Apps further complicate the picture for anyone entering the mobile market in this way; your content strategy should include not only your website but also any in-app text and the descriptions of your app in the relevant marketplace or online store. ICM Research estimates that 28% of people downloaded a Christmas-themed app during the festive season of 2012, showing the scale of this potential market.

16. Local search is a different proposition from mobile, but the two are clearly linked. As more people search from GPS-enabled devices, producing content that caters for your local audience, rather than for the ‘global village’ of the web as a whole, can help you to establish your brand better in the real world.

15. Bing continues to compete with Google in core markets like Image Search and Shopping. Microsoft took things to a new level with the Scroogle campaign in December 2012, accusing Google’s Shopping results of being little more than paid-for listings. It’s worth keeping an eye out for the tide turning against Google, and making sure you’re ahead of any changes in search behaviour this year.

14. AdWords has a column showing which specific keyword within a search query triggered a PPC ad to be displayed to the user – adding an extra layer of transparency to accounts. Like any other interface change, it makes it a good time to review your ad copy and keyword bids, and make sure they’re optimised.

13. London 2012 may be over, but its legacy remains. With the event itself now consigned to history, look for opportunities to market your own goods or services based on the nostalgia and renewed interest in sport many Britons continue to feel into the new year.

12. ‘Not provided’ results now dominate Analytics keyword reports, since Google stopped providing that data from users logged in via an https connection. Review your content strategy in light of this, and make sure gaps in your data aren’t causing you to miss out on opportunities.

11. 4G mobile connections offer faster web access from anywhere that has network coverage, and won’t be limited to EE customers forever. As the full rollout of the higher-speed mobile data format begins, you’ll be able to serve larger amounts of content to mobile site visitors, without the worry of attrition due to slow page load times.

10. New social media sites might well emerge in the months to come – just like Google+ did in the summer of 2011. Notice them, consider them, and, if they suit your purposes, incorporate them into your content strategy. Early adopters can achieve big wins with popular new platforms. Just be ready to jump ship if they fail to establish much of a user base.

9. Navigation should work with touchscreen devices. With more tablets and smartphones being used to view desktop versions of sites, remember that dropdown navigation based on the cursor ‘hovering’ over part of the screen might simply not work and using it risks cutting off a portion of your visitor base from whole sections of your site.

8. Social spread is making it even easier to include less formal content on websites – particularly in your blog pages – and not purely on your social networking profiles. Consider your tone of voice, and whether you might find better levels of brand loyalty if you were to sound less formal and friendlier.

7. Inbound links should never, ever be paid for, or you’re at risk of vanishing from Google’s search results completely. If your site was affected by the Google Penguin update, 2012 has probably been a period of damage limitation for you. Let 2013 be the time when you begin to build afresh, through post-Penguin-friendly practices.

6. Uptake of new technologies shows no signs of stopping. comScore reports penetration of the EU smartphone market is now at 55%, and 62% in the UK alone. Serving content to this new mobile audience is a must, regardless of their choice of operating system, handset, or connection speed.

5. Inadvertent discrimination could cost you money. It’s a difficult area to discuss but some research suggests different ethnic groups are more likely to engage with different types of content. For example, Nielsen Wire reports that white people are much less likely to engage with social ads than other ethnic groups, while Asian people are much more likely to engage. Make sure no-one is missing out on your marketing messages.

4. Economic turbulence is on-going, but there are moments of brightness in various different markets. Whether your business thrives on recession (e.g. debt management) or on fresh growth in previously troubled industries, the coming months will be a key time to make the most of new opportunities.

3. Tech-savvy shoppers are changing the face of retail, whether you like it or not. Edison Research notes that shoppers embrace the benefits of technology, particularly when it helps them through a stressful situation such as intensive Christmas shopping sessions. Content that offers product details, clear pricing and sizing guides, or special offers and coupons, could all help to tap into this.

2. Responsive web design is becoming a widely used term as smartphones and tablets grow in popularity. Make your website properly responsive and you can future-proof it to make sure it remains functional for the foreseeable future, regardless of any changes within your customer base.

1. Google‘s on-going algorithm updates continue to make good-quality, informative, and relevant content the best way to rank for any given search term.

Any one of the reasons above should make it worth taking a fresh look at your content. Even if your website is performing well, make 2013 the year you review your content and see if you could do even better.

Image credit: 10ch

Editor’s note: Google isn’t the only way for your business to be discovered online. This is the fourth in a five-part series looking at alternate sources for search.

In today’s corporate world, you aren’t somebody until you can be found on professional networking site LinkedIn. But as more individuals and businesses add their profiles, it’s becoming more challenging to turn up in searches.

What most LinkedIn users aren’t aware of is that the results displayed for these searches aren’t random. LinkedIn uses an internal set of algorithms to prioritize certain profiles over others, giving the businesses and individuals who have optimized their accounts correctly a leg up in using the service to find jobs, clients and more.

If you’re using LinkedIn for any of these purposes, getting a strong ranking in its internal search results should be a top priority. Here’s how to do it:

Related: What You Can Learn From Disney, CNBC and Adobe About Creating a Great LinkedIn Page

Fill out your profile completely: One of the most important ways to improve your position in LinkedIn’s search results is to fill out your profile completely. Not only does this give LinkedIn additional opportunities to identify search-related keywords in your profile, but the company is also more likely to rank completed profiles over partially finished ones.

If you aren’t sure if you’ve filled out your profile completely, LinkedIn provides a helpful tracker in each profile that shows both the percentage of fields completed and any specific areas that still need information.

Include relevant search keywords in profile areas: As you’re completing your profile, include the keywords for which you’d like your name to appear in LinkedIn’s internal search results.

Keywords you target in your LinkedIn profile shouldn’t be the same long-tail search engine optimization phrases you target on your website. Instead, the keywords in your profile should be those that a potential client or employer would probably enter into the LinkedIn search bar.

Related: The 10 Most Overused Buzzwords on LinkedIn

For example, on your website, you might target the long-tail keyword phrase, “best Raleigh NC accounting practice.” But the odds are small that a potential client or employer will enter this exact phrase into the LinkedIn search feature. Instead, they’re likely to search for phrases like “accountant” or “accountant NC.” So in optimizing your LinkedIn profile, try to think like your target clients or employers and focus on the keywords you believe they would search for.

Expand the size of your network: In addition to considering the different keywords it finds in your profile, LinkedIn also looks at the size of your network. In particular, LinkedIn prefers to display results that have at least some connection with the search user — even if these connections are only second or third level, rather than first level direct relationships.

As a result, you will probably improve your LinkedIn profile’s visibility in the search results by expanding your network. First, make it a point to connect with your past coworkers, managers, clients and other contacts. Once you’ve completed this step, you can try to further improve your LinkedIn search presence by reaching out to new contacts, especially people who share your professional interests and qualifications.

Participate in LinkedIn Groups: Participation in LinkedIn Groups can be as powerful a ranking signal as the size of your personal and professional network. So if you aren’t having much luck connecting with new contacts, you can join groups to boost your overall level of profile activity.

To find groups to join, you can search LinkedIn using your industry’s keywords, as well as see which groups the members of your network participate in. Once you become part of a group, do your best to contribute in a positive and professional way. Simply joining a group isn’t as beneficial to your search ranking as actively engaging with it.

Related: 10 Mistakes Your Business Might Be Making on LinkedIn

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‘Graph Search’ could help Facebook users find your game more easily

January 15, 2013   |   By Kris Graph

At a press event on Tuesday, Facebook unveiled a new way for its users to proactively seek out Facebook content, including social network games.

Dubbed “Graph Search” (currently in beta), the new feature does not function the same way as keyword-based web searches. Facebook’s Tom Stocky and Lars Rasmussen explained in a statement:

“Graph Search and web search are very different. Web search is designed to take a set of keywords (for example: “hip hop”) and provide the best possible results that match those keywords. With Graph Search you combine phrases (for example: “my friends in New York who like Jay-Z”) to get that set of people, places, photos or other content that’s been shared on Facebook. We believe they have very different uses.

Another big difference from web search is that every piece of content on Facebook has its own audience, and most content isn’t public. We’ve built Graph Search from the start with privacy in mind, and it respects the privacy and audience of each piece of content on Facebook. It makes finding new things much easier, but you can only see what you could already view elsewhere on Facebook.”

This early version of Graph Search focuses on searches for people, photos, places and interests, including games. One search example that Facebook used was “Strategy games played by friends of my friends.”

 

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We all know that Facebook is a powerful social media marketing tool that when used right can help engage with customers and prospects. With more than 1 billion users to date, the potential for great reach is obviously apparent.

While Facebook can help grow your business, many businesses still have trouble with their Facebook page being found online. While optimizing content for your website is your priority, optimization of content on social media platforms such as Facebook can be as equally important.

If optimized correctly, your Facebook Business Page can show up in organic search results right next to your website and other social media platforms.

Here are 4 Key Tips for Optimizing Your B2B Facebook Business Page:

1) Create a Custom Facebook Business Page Name: Your Facebook Business Page name is similar to the page title tag on one of the pages of your website. Search engines pull the main name of your Facebook page as the page title tag. Many companies think they need to try to work in keywords, but realize that your Facebook Business Page name is the first thing searchers see as Google recognizes this to be the most important. Keep it simple and include only your company name.

2) Use the About Section on Your Facebook Business Page: The about section is another important opportunity for you to optimize content as it acts as the meta description for your Facebook Business Page. The meta description appears in search directly below the page name. Here you are given the opportunity to describe your business to current and potential customers and prospects in 140 characters or less. It’s highly recommended that you work in the use of 1-2 of your target keywords, while being as clear and concise as possible.

3) Incorporate Links to Your Website Other Social Media Profiles : Be sure to include a link to your website or blog in your About section, and if possible incorporate this in the abbreviated About copy that appears on your main profile. It’s important to also include links to your other social media profiles.

4) Include Keywords in Your Facebook Posts: Not only is it very important to include daily, fresh content on your Facebook Business Page, it’s equally important to work in targeted keywords. Keep in mind the first 18 characters of a Facebook post serve as the meta description. Google considers the first word in the post to be the most important, so it is here in which you want to include a keyword.

Using the following 4 tips will improve the visibility of your business page in search, but keep in mind like any SEO effort, results take time. For more information about Facebook and Social Media Optimization, download “The Playbook for Social Media Optimization” now!

Image Credit  

This article originally appeared on Whole Brain Marketing and has been republished with permission.

Find out how to syndicate your content with Business 2 Community.

Link building tools are everywhere, so much so that it’s safe to assume we’ve saturated the market, and it’s time to move on to building something else. While I rely on some of these as much as Instragram relies on selfies and food photos, some of the best tools I’ve found for link building were actually created to serve a completely different purpose. These are my faves.

1.  UberSuggest

I love UberSuggest. I love it in a box. I love it with a fox. Most love it as a keyword research tool — can you blame them? But, it also has some amazing link building capabilities for content ideas.

Be as specific as possible when you’re putting in queries. Long-tail keywords work great because they’ll generate better content ideas that easily translate into a blog post or article.

If Google is suggesting it, it’s going directly into my editorial calendar.

Wil Reynolds also suggested adding “Why does,” “How to” and “How often” to the start of your query to find the questions that people are actually asking about industry. Brilliant.

2.  Wikipedia

You can use Wikipedia to Search for the most general keyword that you have — if your main keyword is [all natural dog food], just search for [dog food]. On the main Dog Food page, the Contents section can give you some content ideas, but the References will be your real source of potential link prospects.

[Dog Food Reviews: Dog Food’s Finest Hour] caught my eye first. Looks like PetFoodTalk.com reviews different brands of dog food. Bingo.

Bonus: check to see if there are any broken links or links to a 404 page in the References section. The [Making homemade dog food recipes] goes to a 404; so, I’d create a piece of content about that,  and update the content in the Wikipedia page to point to a new page instead of the 404. If approved, the link will be nofollowed, but can still provide traffic.

Double Bonus: the other pages that show up under your general term are also worth a perusal.

3.  StumbleUpon

You mean there’s an entire website dedicated to bringing me directly to websites based off my interests? Hello, source gold.

Don’t search for your keywords on StumbleUpon; search instead for the general category (Interest) that they fit into.

For example, if I was doing SEO for a limo company or flower shop, one of my interests would be [wedding]. On the StumbleUpon wedding page, you’ve got oodles of potential sources.

You can also use the Expert tab so find the people who are Stumbling and liking the most wedding-related content. These people aren’t necessarily influencers, but they could be a part of your target audience, so finding patterns of what they share is extremely beneficial.

4.  Followerwonk

When something like Followerwonk allows you to “find, analyze and optimize for social growth,” your link-building radar should immediately be going off.

Search Twitter bios with your keywords [storage virtualization] or industry [technology]. A strong social presence likely indicates a strong website presence. Again, source gold.

Influencers are great, but you also want the writers from your industry.  You can do this two ways:

• By including things like writer, blogger, or journalist in your queries when analyzing Twitter bios
• Analyzing who’s currently following you (the marketer),  your client’s business, or your client’s competitors.

5.  Google Analytics

I love conversion-oriented link building tactics. It makes sense: you don’t build links for the sake of building links; you build links for the sake of getting customers.

In Google Analytics, find the location where you most of your customers are coming from.

Then, target getting links from location-specific websites. Think about promotion ideas you can do for that location. If possible, gear content around that location or that would be useful for those people coming from that location. You’re building link juice, but you’re also building customers.

Hat tip to Jason Acidre for coming up with that gem.

You can find more than just where your customers are coming from in Google Analytics. Find the browser, mobile device, or operating system with the highest conversion rate and create content around those topics.

For example, a lot of our mobile visitors who convert use Samsung devices. Knowing that — and our target audience being marketing executives — I may want to create content on how marketers can better use their Samsung, like “Best Android Apps for the Busy CMO.”

What are some other non-link building tools that you use to help streamline link building?

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Link Building: General | Link Week

After spending a lazy Sunday on the couch, catching up on all the television I missed during the week, I decided I should be slightly productive and do something I’ve been (shamefully) putting off for months: updating my LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn announced several months back that it was rolling out new profile pages that allow users to better showcase their professional story and engage with others. I finally received the new profile after submitting a request (some people automatically received the update and were notified via email) and realized now was the perfect time to make sure I was successfully utilizing LinkedIn’s advantages.

Don’t forget to take care of yourself, too!

I spend hours every day making sure each of my clients’ demands are being met. From posting on social media and optimizing blogs, to developing content and providing web maintenance, oftentimes it’s easy to let the day get away from me. It’s a fault I try not to let happen too often, though. It’s just as important to promote my clients and ensure their social pages/networks and websites are up-to-date, as it is to do the same for my own personal accounts. And LinkedIn is the perfect place to start. The new profile is visually appealing and makes it easier to showcase more details of your professional life.

Ways to Improve your LinkedIn Profile

When you take the time to update or improve your profile, there are several important areas to focus on.

1. Basic Information: The top part of your profile may be small, but it sure is mighty. This is where people can see a quick snapshot of who you are and what you do. Always be sure your title and field of work are current and to use keywords whenever possible.
2. Activity: The second most prominent part of the new profile will be your Activity. Share interesting articles you read, or start a conversation about something you’re working on or passionate about. Bottom line? Stop being passive and let your online voice be heard! It’s also good practice to follow companies and join groups that share related information to your field and interests.
3. Publications: I find this section particularly useful. We’ve discussed many times now how important Content Marketing is and many companies, including Kuno, look to LinkedIn to find freelancers or agencies. The publications section allows you to link directly to past work and organizes it in a clear and consistent manner.
4. Insights: Located in a right-hand column, insights are a great way to learn more about your network. One of my favorite features of the insights is the profile strength ranking. If you’re not at an “All Star” level, try some of the tips I’ve recommended so far and following LinkedIn’s guide to edit your profile.

There are many other additional sections to add to your page, including: projects, organizations, honors and awards, courses, certifications, etc.—making it user-friendly for every level and field of expertise.

Taking Optimization into Consideration

If there is one word you will hear over and over again from me, it’s optimization. Blog optimization, landing page optimization, SEO optimization…and the list can go on and on. And guess what? It doesn’t stop at LinkedIn. While you’re updating your profile, be sure to take keyword optimization into consideration. Take me for example. I made sure I had “inbound marketing,” “marketing” and “social media” listed several times throughout my page. These are my specialties and incorporating them as keywords into my title, description and background information allows me to come up in search results if one was to particularly search any of those terms.

What tips do you have to improve your LinkedIn profile? Share in the comment section below. 

Photo credit: ideagirlmedia

This article originally appeared on Inbound Marketing Agency Blog and has been republished with permission.

Find out how to syndicate your content with Business 2 Community.

Now that the holidays are over and the gifts budget is spent, does the world seem less burnished and a little darker? It shouldn’t, information professionals, because we know January is really the most wonderful time of the year.

Image courtesy of keng88 (Shutterstock)

Editor’s Note: Mimi hates waste and loves records management. To read more of her thoughts, check out Records Management: Retention Schedules Take a Back Seat
 

About the Author

Mimi Dionne is a records and information management project manager and Consultant/Owner of Mimi Dionne Consulting. She is a Certified Records Manager, a Certified Archivist, a Certified Document Imaging Architect, a Certified Information Professional, and a Project Management Professional. She currently resides in Seattle.

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