Blogging and Twitter Go Hand In Hand For Successful SEO

The convenience of Twitter beats any other social networking site. There is no babbling, ramblings or rants. You can skip to the interesting parts and, if you are lucky, you’ll be given a link to find more information.

But so many businesses are relying on Twitter and Facebook to tell people about their company and forgetting one of the most reliable ways to provide full, detailed information on your services and expertise.

A recent post I read written by Adam Singer explained ‘19 Reasons You Should Blog And Not Just Tweet’. This was a really interesting post and expressed how vital blogging is in conjunction with social media.

Blogging is key to improving SEO for many different ways; fresh content, link building and more importantly, online exposure. But it can also build up your reputation with others in the business allowing you to stand out in the crowd.

Of course Twitter is a great gateway to getting your blogs read. Linking to a post via Twitter is bound to get more readers and improve your SEO, but don’t just let a 140 characters tell your story.

Use the tools you have to ensure people know about your business, what you can offer and eve just to convey ideas and opinions on different matters. Blogging doesn’t have to be a chore but it needs to be consistent. There are no rules set in stone on the right way to blog, but of course the more you write the more people are interested to see what else you come up with.

As Adam conveyed within his post, Twitter should be used as an ‘outpost’ to blogging as well as to convey new findings that others will find of use. Posts provide the opportunity for ideas and opinions to be expressed in full detail giving you much more credibility within the blogging, and Twitter community.

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Welcome,

News: This weeks news feature is that Google have released Google Analytic Intelligence. Analytics Intelligence provides auto alerts when it notices significant changes in the data that is recorded. The sensitivity of the intelligence can be altered to allow the analytics to notify you for less or more subtle changes.

Tutorial : This weeks tutorial is how to set up custom alerts using the new analytics intelligence system.

Showcase: This weeks showcase piece is Joost De Valk link analysis tool, which highlights the anchored text, whether it is follow or no-follow and if the link still exists on the site. This gets highlighted in Yahoo! site explorer and also Googles webmaster tools.

Reference:

http://yoast.com/

For The Best SERPs, Once Just Isn’t Enough

Having an online presence as a business is a crucial requirement. What is even more important is ensuring that your online presence is visible to those who need to see it – your customers. Whilst existing customers may be aware of the exact location of your site, new customers need to be able to find it easily when searching for relevant services – and this is where SEO comes in.

However, one problem that is occurring more and more is having businesses who want SEO calling up and asking for their website to be optimised for the search engines, with no understanding of the fact that successful SEO is often a long term organic process. This is a common misconception, but one that must be addressed nonetheless. Your SEO cannot be just a one off – and if anyone tells you they can get great results that way, chances are they’re lying.

You can have a website designed to be ‘SEO Friendly’ – so the architecture of your site is as easy as possible for search engines to read. But this in no way ensures good listings. For this, an ongoing process of link building, adding fresh content frequently and a strategic social media plan is necessary. Search engine algorithms evolve over time – mutating very slightly on a regular basis so as to be able to provide the best possible results for users. If your site is a static entity, that is only updated that one time when purchased and built, it has no way of moving with the search engines to ensure high listings are achieved and remain consistent.

To get the best for your investment it’s wise to choose a package tailor made to your needs and your budget and commit yourself to a dedicated SEO campaign. Often with the most competitive key phrases, the results will not be obvious for 3 to 6 months, sometimes even longer. To see true search success – you have to be in for the long term. When your listings continue to rise, your site holds increasing authority, and as a result of this you’re seeing a massive increase in enquiries and purchases, the true benefits of SEO will become evident.

Google announced on 20 October 2009 a new feature for Google Analytics. This is the Intelligence Engine. The Intelligence Engine seems to be aptly named, as it is a very intelligent feature indeed!

So, what does it do?

Intelligence Engine has default alerts to hand feed you useful information that previously you would have had to spend a long time gathering. So, this is a time saving feature that many SEOs and Search Marketers will be incredibly grateful for as we can spend more time fixing the potential problems rather than finding them.

Watch this Google Video for a tutorial

You can see that the ability to define your alert sensitivity is incredibly useful and interesting, as this will allow you to control the number of automatic alerts appearing in the intelligence reporting page – this gives you control to view as much or as little information as you need.

Further to this you can create advanced segments to discover high converting segments that you probably should track separately. The usefulness of having this one click away shouldn’t be underestimated.

You can also create custom alerts. This could be to track visitor segments that you are most interested in, for example if you operate in a few regional areas you would want to track visitors from these areas because they are your target. You can get this information delivered to you by email, so you don’t even have to keep checking your analytics every day.

This new feature hasn’t yet been rolled out across the board so I haven’t actually tested its effectiveness myself. However, I can see that once it does become available it will allow me to monitor my sites much more easily, fix problems before they become massive and generally give my customers a faster service. Can’t wait!

How Social Media Can Benefit Your Online Marketing Campaign.

Social media websites can significantly benefit a company’s online marketing campaign and their SEO. Websites such as Twitter and Facebook can be used for a variety of purposes, to network with others in a particular industry and to help businesses to build their brand online.

However, something that is often forgotten is that the information added to these social networking, bookmarking sites and blogs can be of great use to the reader.

As a content writer, I have found that the best way to develop my writing is by learning from others with far greater experience. What better way to do this than by browsing social sites such as Twitter, keeping one eye open for the latest tips and blog posts written by others in the industry. With just a click of a ‘follow’ button individuals can receive a comprehensive list, containing 140 character snippets of wisdom from writers, SEO consultant and web designers from around the world.

On our Twitter we are currently ‘following’ high profile publications such as, Mashable and .net, as well as the industry specific blog CopyBlogger and the odd generic news feed like Sky News to keep us up to date with the latest, breaking news.

In addition to helping writers to develop their skills, social networking sites can have an effect upon a business’s SEO and brand building.

By adding tips to a Twitter feed, individuals will build an authority in their field, on the social networking website. This can result in an increased number of followers and consequently increased brand awareness.

Posting information that is worthy of reading, other users may re-tweet this information enhancing your networking and potentially making many more people aware of your business and brand.

Both Twitter and Facebook can be used to generate back-links to your website or blog. This can have an effect upon your SEO by boosting the amount of traffic to your site.

If you are struggling for inspiration for your posts, consider taking a look at what other people are writing about. You could add links directing your followers to external material on a blog or website, take a look at the latest industry news on blogs and other news sources, or even write tips from your own personal experience.

If you have not already got a Twitter or a Facebook, signing up is easy and it could lead to a multitude of business opportunities.

Many people use social networking sites as a means to gaining exposure, however, they can be used effectively as a way to develop online marketing and writing skills by learning from others.