Seo Tips | Search Engine Optimization Advice & Tips - SEO Tips & Internet Marketing Advice

Anyone who knows how to use the internet is familiar if not fully aware of the concept behind Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Social Networking is the new way to connect with internet users locally and all around the world. For businesses, social networking can also be used for many purposes; while Twitter and Facebook might seem a bit irrelevant from a professional perspective, LinkedIn is the way to go to make social networking your new preferred tool for marketing, publicity and hiring. Many businesses in North America are already registered on LinkedIn but not everyone knows how to make the most out of their LinkedIn account. To use your LinkedIn account to your business’ best advantage, take particular care in your profile, your portfolio and your recommendations.

Your profile is obviously the first thing you should be paying attention to when creating or updating your LinkedIn profile. Things like your current position, your photo and your location are really important. Most people seem to overlook the importance of a photo on a social networking profile, but it is important to note that people want to know who they are dealing with and, we all know a picture is worth a thousand words! If you are based out of New York, make sure it is mentioned on your profile; this will help attract potential customers and employees that are from the same location as you. The best way to create the most attractive LinkedIn profile would be to seek help with an SEO Consulting services firm to ensure that all the necessary information is properly displayed and that your profile is showing your business at its best.

Your portfolio is also an important part of your profile. For a business, having a list of previous work done for past clients, showing examples of work executed history of your company, your own education achievement, etc. This will allow potential clients, employees or employers to have a better understanding of your experience, your expertise and what you or your business can actually offer – in other words, background information. Local clients might be more interested in your services if they know that you have experience working with clients in New York, or might be happy to know the prestigious names you have had business with.

The other important aspect of any good LinkedIn profile is to have recommendations from other businesses or individuals that are also connected on LinkedIn. If you find any past clients, or current associates, ask them for recommendations. This will help you stand out and strengthen your LinkedIn presence.

If you are serious about investing some time in a strong LinkedIn profile, it might be a good idea to get some tips from an SEO Consulting firm. LinkedIn can be incredibly beneficial for your business if your profile is done well and updated regularly. It can be time consuming at first but will be very rewarding in no time. LinkedIn will help you reach out to potential customers or clients market yourself to the business community and establish your business’ name locally and internationally.

For more information, visit www.seo5consulting.com .

Google has proven to be an extremely useful tool for businesses all around the world. For local businesses looking to improve local contact and clientele, Google Maps is the perfect solution. Google Maps will allow for local businesses to optimize their online presence by targeting searches and ranking to the specific location of that business. For example, a local travel agency based in Florida could certainly use SEO Consulting services to start using Google and Google Maps as a mean to target an audience that is geographically beneficial to their business. There are three ways of getting Google Maps to work for you easily; emphasize your location on your website and Meta tags, check your domain closely and manage your Google Maps listing properly.

The first important step, as aforementioned, is to emphasize your location, both on your website and by implementing relevant Meta tags. Meta tags are scripted tags that are not viewable by internet users surfing with a browser but allow to communicate information, such as location, for example or content information. Having your location mentioned repetitively on your web page, either by having your address tagged at the bottom of each page, inputting your Google Map in your Contact Us section or using Meta tags adequately can help your business gain local audience. Again, our travel agency in Florida gains nothing by having an audience in California – the specific location needs to be optimized to attract local visitors.

It is also well-known that search engines, such as Google, are very sensitive to domains. Your domain is your web hosting solution. If Google detects that our Florida travel agency is hosted locally, chances are it will come up in high rankings for local searches – an SEO Consulting firm can greatly help with search engine ranking as well as optimizing your local presence. Little details can go a long way, especially in the online business community, and switching domain hosting can be a great way of boosting local business and will be very rewarding in the long run.

The third step in the process of using Google Maps to your complete advantage would be to manage your listing properly. Mostly every business is listed on Google Maps already, but having a complete listing, with as much pertinent information as possible can be a great use for internet users using Google Maps as their first search option. Fill in the address completely, upload pictures and give a brief description of your business. Someone who might be looking for a travel agency nearby his home or work in Florida will be delighted to hit a detailed and comprehensive listing in only a couple of clicks.

Listing your business on Google Maps and using this tool as a business tool surely is a good way to go – get advice from SEO Consulting experts to optimize your local business and target specific geographical regions.

For more information, visit www.seo5consulting.com .

In order to maximize the use of an online marketing medium such as an email marketing campaign, for example, it is essential to have a strong and solid value proposition for your target audience. Bombarding your customer base and audience with pointless, non-personal email newsletters will certainly not do the trick; you need to state exactly what you can offer them that no one else in the business can.  To construct an effective value proposition for your campaign, there are 3 primary essential components to consider: content, customization and community.

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Selecting an affiliate site or program for your local business might seem a bit overwhelming at first; there are so many opportunities, so many different options and choices being offered! An affiliate program, if chosen carefully, can be greatly beneficial for your business and can make the cash flow in your pockets at a satisfying pace. This is why it is important to know exactly how to pinpoint the perfect affiliate site that will allow you to reach customers and get more business. There are three major steps to go through when selecting your affiliate program: research, sort and select.

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User interaction is very important in online marketing; it cannot be ignored, no matter what industry you are working in. User interaction can allow a business to be improved, to gain a stronger presence in the community. Gaining customer feedback is one of the first steps to a good market research plan, which will lead to effective online marketing. There are different ways of gaining that feedback and generating consumer interaction such as social media, e-mails and blogs.

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For many businesses, SEO is of the utmost importance. It can help build an effective presence over the World Wide Web, maximize search results and build a positive image of a business. For small local businesses, SEO is a goldmine of solutions; the usual concern for business owners is to be able to target the audience that will most likely respond well – the local audience. For example, a bakery based out of Florida might want to use an SEO Consulting firm to discover the importance of Geo Targeting and Long Tails and the benefits of targeting a specific local audience. There are three points, or steps, to consider when on-going a local SEO program; to manage business profile data in a proactive manner, to optimize search results and web pages for local queries and to increase the local Web site popularity.

To manage a business profile efficiently, it is important to understand that your business profile is the foundation of your business’s web presence but also of your SEO program. The business profile and that data included in it are the starting point of your program and it is important to be assured of the accuracy of the information available on websites such as infoUSA – if we keep the Florida bakery in mind. Other websites, like GoogleMaps, Ask.com, MSN Local and Local.com, for example, might all have a listing for your business. Knowing where you business appears and having an accurate, updated listing on these websites is a great way of ensuring the success of your SEO program.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. To optimize local search queries, to same basic principles used in regular SEO programs will apply; keyword research and developing unique content will be used as well. For local business however, it is important to incorporate local keywords.  Local keyword use can incorporate names of cities; for example, our bakery in Florida would better use the name of its specific location, for example Miami, instead of using Florida only. Another way of using locality to your advantage would be to research the dialect – some States might have specific expressions or words and if those pertain to your business, they certainly can be used as keywords.

Increasing local Web site popularity is also an important part of any local SEO program. A good way of doing so is with in-bound site links. It is well-known in SEO that links are all about quality; might as well have only a few in-bound links that will actually get you results rather than a full listing with only 2 or 3 good links. If your business or company is part of any association, such as a local business association, or chamber of commerce, requesting to have a link on their website can greatly increase your local presence on the web. These associations really have well-built authoritative websites and it might increase your local popularity to be linked to them.

You want to build a new site that has everything but will not cost you an arm and a leg — and it is very search engine friendly. The obvious choices are Joomla or WordPress — but there is a new user (and search engine) friendly CMS available called ModX. So, which one should YOU choose to make your website dream a reality — and not a nightmare!

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Guru Claims ‘Internet has ‘not become the great leveller’ – I disagree for different reasons.

Internet and marketing guru Ethan Zuckerman claimed yesterday at the TED Global conference in Oxford, England, that the ‘‘Internet has ‘not become the great leveller’ – and that information consumption habits had become narrower for most consumers since the arrival of the ‘free’ internet.

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According to media reports today, the Chinese government is stamping down on the use of Twitter and other micro-blogging site by the Chinese population. To many, Twitter and similar sites represents a waste of time and an endless series of updates covering the mundane processes of much of humanities existence. However – the real value of micro blogging sites, such as Twitter, is for viral news or message distribution (especially over mobile networks) and as a mass transit point to information and news stories.

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As previously mentioned, the World Wide Web can be a powerful marketing tool and a goldmine of information for small business owners. Social media is, of course, one of the most well-known online marketing strategies and while most new business owners seem to be aware of social media, very few of them are informed on web analytics. Google Analytics is one of the most popular analytics tool as its free, like other Google services, and is easy to use and understand once you have a firm grasp on what web analytics consist of. Unique visitors, traffic sources, referring keywords, top content and location all need to be measured and analyzed in order to improve the business and make the most out of an online marketing campaign.

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Do you ever wonder how your website measures up in terms of search engine visibility? Are you curious as to how your website compares in search engine optimization terms against your competition?

SEO 5 Consulting is very proud to announce their free website assessment tool. To use the tool is simple – input your website’s url, your email address, and the urls of any of your competitors – and then hit submit.

You will be emailed comprehensive reports on your websites performance, and will be provided with a complimentary guide through the data with one of our internet marketing experts.

Get your free website assessment today.

Social networking is everywhere; Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have become a staple of the online community and an essential aspect of our daily lives. For most individuals, those websites represent the occasion to connect with the world, to keep in touch with friends all over the globe – for small businesses; social networking can be seen as an efficient marketing strategy. Social networking websites can be integrated with other marketing strategies or can be used on its own as a unique approach to advertising. For example, if you are a travel agency based out of Orlando, you might want to hire an SEO Consulting company to execute your social media strategy in the following ways: blog posting, giveaways and deals as well as customer reviews.

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Pay Per Click Advertising is an essential online marketing tool which is offered by most SEO Consulting companies in Florida.  However, to ensure that the Pay Per Click campaign efforts are maximized, there are a few key elements to pay attention to.

To ensure a successful Pay Per Click Advertising campaign, there are four elements that need to be monitored and thought-through. The first of those four essential elements is the Average Position of your ad. The average position is a keyword-related element. It defines the position of your ad in relation to the most popular ads. The general rule is that if you are not landing in the first 10 positions on Google paid advertising results, there is an issue that needs to be addressed. The ultimate goal is to land in the top 3 positions and the only way to get there is to make sure that you choose your keywords are relevant and your bid level is appropriate.

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The old adage ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ is very true – except this rule does not apply to search engine optimization. Photos cannot be indexed by search engines, and regardless of the quality of the imagery or how unique it is, unless we actively provide search engines with a means to understand what the photos we place on our website are, that information will elude the search engines.

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In this day and age, blogging and blog marketing are the new trend. It has been popular for last couple of years and still continues to be fashionable all over the internet. As a business or a company, using this trend to your advantage is important. Having regular blogs on your website are a great way to attract traffic on your page and get potential clients and customers to know your business and your services better, to promote yourself and your brand. The thing is, maintaining a blog can be hard. There is some information that you will absolutely want to include in your blog posts, and other details that shouldn’t be discussed that way. It is important to know what to write and what not to write if you decide to start a new blog for your company’s website.

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Before we address when to use a long tail SEO strategy – let’s first discuss what a long tail strategy is. Let’s imagine you have a website that sells gaskets. Ideally, you want to return search results for the simple search term ‘gaskets’ – however, there is considerable competition for this one word search term, and you are not ranking anywhere in the result pages for this term. A long tail SEO strategy would involve optimizing your site for longer search terms that have a much lower search volume, but are very targeted to your desired keyword.

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Creating the meta title tag for your home page is a very important process – as this basically is announcing to the entire internet what your website is about. Here I am going to provide three examples of title tags – and provide a discussion about how each one is constructed.

All these examples will be produced for a fictional website called ‘BestOnlineMurals.com’ – who produces custom mural painting services.

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This is a question that many online businesses ponder. The answer is simple – yesterday! Times have changed, and the future of commerce is going to be online – or rather the future of commerce will be initiated online. I have the Yellow Pages delivered to my house, and invariably it goes straight into the recycle bin. I do not get a newspaper delivered – I read my news online. I do not watch TV on a TV – I watch it online. When I want to go on vacation – I do not go to a travel agent’s office, I book it online. I may seem like a strange creature to you – but I am just one of millions of individuals whose life is moving (or moved) from offline to online.

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Here is a fun search engine optimization test for you to take. Are you a n00b or a guru? Find out below;

1. An ALT tag is…?
a) The alternative version of your website
b) A way for people to ‘tag’ what your site is about
c) Text to allow search engine to know what an image is about
d) A different way of writing meta tags

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For many companies, putting together an effective email marketing campaign can be somewhat of a complete puzzle. Online marketing strategies can be really effective when done by professionals, but can also be a complete and total flop if not put together properly and strategically. If you have never tried email marketing campaigns or newsletters before, you might want to seek help and hire a professional team that will guide you through every step of the process to make sure that you get a tailored campaign for your brand.

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Here are 5 common SEO questions – and answers;

Q. How do I get on the front page of Google?
A. This is a question that involves so many factors it is very much like asking ‘how long is a piece of string?’ These factors include (but are not limited to) competition, budget, time, and content. I will break these down for you;

1. Competition: The success of optimizing your site for specific keywords, and the success in gaining first page rankings will depend on the competition in your market. If you have a site, and wish to be optimized for a keyword(s) where there is fierce competition (such as ‘multi vitamins’) then you will find gaining first page rankings will be a long term goal, which will require considerable time and budget. If you wish to be optimized for a keyword with little competition (such as ‘custom cathedral design’) then getting on the first page of Google will be a formality.

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Anyone, and I mean anyone, can get on the front page of Google. To get there though, you have to be clever. Let’s imagine you have a company that offers pay day loans – and you want to get on the front page of Google. It is going to be VERY hard to get on the front page for this search term due to competition for the keyword ‘pay day loans’. There are around 5.6 million results for ‘pay day loans’ in Google.com, and on the front page of Google for this search term would require a huge budget and lots of time for organic results, or a huge budget for paid ads. Let’s imagine that your pay day loan business is in Bayonne, New Jersey. There are about 10,000 results for ‘pay day loans Bayonne’ – and getting to the front page of Google for this search term is going to much easier – in fact there is 99.83% less competition for this ‘long tailed’ search term than the regular search term. Now, if we try another search term ‘pay day loan alternatives Bayonne’ – there are about 5,000 results, and getting to the front page of Google now is just a formality of SEO best principles.

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Every business owner or manager is curious about what is being said about their business, hence the growing popularity of online reputation management. Knowing the general public impression of what your business is like is key in order to keep improving the business and better understanding the target market. As the web has become a more and more important part of the business world, knowing what is being said online about your business clearly is an attractive idea. A solid and complete online reputation management service, like the one offered by SEO 5 Consulting, is a great way of being aware of what the online community thinks of your business and using the data to make better business decisions both on and off line.

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Briefly defined, affiliate marking is the concept of accepting commission based online salesmen to promote your product, who proceed to sell your product independently, they only earn money if you earn money. This type of partnership is potentially extremely lucrative, guarantying you don’t lose a penny while upping your business’s advertising potential exponentially; there is no limit to how many affiliate marketers can work for you or how much they can make you.

In a sense, it’s very similar to telemarketing, except without having to call anyone. A business owner, say selling windows and doors, hires a team of salespeople and offers them 10% of whatever they can persuade customers to buy. The business owner then sits back and counts his money. With affiliate marketing, you are that business owner and millions of people across the globe are your potential salespeople. Many of the world’s most popular purchasing websites are modeled of off this idea, such as Amazon.

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So someone has gone to all the trouble of finding your site, they like what they find, they ‘may’ want to do business with you — so they fill out the submit form on your website because they want someone to contact them. There are three VERY good reasons to load a thank you page that will load after the visitor has submitted their information.

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Your website is beautiful – you have spent a lot of time and money on building a website that is truly impressive. It is fully of stunning custom photos, flash animations, and beautifully crafted design elements. As far as Google is concerned – you have wasted your money unless it is properly optimized.

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You have a website, and you have performed all of the optimization tasks you can think of. You have optimized title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, alt tags, and keyword tags. And yet, your site still languishes on page 4, or 5, or page 10 of Google. What is the SEO secret sauce that will propel your website to the summit of Mount Google?

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Benjamin Moore versus Home Hardware

In Canada there are two stores that sell paints (there are more than two, but I am using these two as examples); Benjamin Moore and Home Hardware. Both of these companies have websites that provide the visitor with an online opportunity to showcase what they have on offer, and what visitors may want to buy.

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Social Bookmarking Explained: Why is it valuable for SEM?

A portion of a search engine marketing campaign is the actual onsite optimization of the meta tags and the content on the page. For the onsite component to be effective – there must be an off site component where links are built to point towards your site. These links build reputation and reference your site on the web, which in turn increases the authority of your site within its market or niche. There are many different types of links, but one of the most effective types is the ‘social bookmark’. A social bookmark is a link that is submitted by a regular internet user to a site such as Digg, Delicious, or StumbleUpon.

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SEO Thought For The Day: Do Not Spend Money On Web Design!

It is possible to get an amazing, fully functional, really slick and very nice looking site built for you for about $75. You heard me right. There are Wordpress themes available online from design studios like Press75.com (one of my favourites) that will blow your visitors / customers away, and will leave your bank account full. Let’s imagine you have $2,000 to spend on web design. Instead of spending $2k on design and development – spend $200 for a new website and spend the other $1,800 on SEO and new content. Many companies are under the impression that the reason they are not successful online is because their website is not modern enough, or does not have flash, or does not have…{insert latest buzz word here}. The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of website visitors will not be able to recall virtually anything about your website, as it is just another website. Unlike a luxury hotel room, or the first class cabin of an airplane, or a really nice restaurant – the design of your website, whether it cost you $200 or $200,000, is unlikely to impress the vast majority of your visitors. What will impress your visitors is the quality of your content, and the frequency you update with high quality content.

So – my thought for the day is this; Do not spend money on web design – spend it on the things that will get visitors to your website (SEO) and a reason to keep coming back (content).

What Bricks & Mortar Shops Can Teach Us About SEO

Okay – imagine you are walking down a street and there are lots of shops on the street. You are looking to buy a pair of shoes. You are looking at all the different shops but the signs outside each shop simply say ‘Shop’ – nothing else. Then you come to a shop that has the sign outside it that says ‘Shoe Shop’ and you go in a buy a pair of shoes.  This is how internet marketing and search engine optimization works. Have a look at your website, and if you see at the very top of the page ‘Home’ or ‘Index’ or ‘Your Companies Name’ you are not optimized – and you are just like those shops who had a sign that gave no indication as to whether they are a shoe shop, a bike shop, or a cake shop – they are just shops (and hence have very few customers).

If you see a shop as you walk down the street, and it gives you no indication of what it sells – the chances are you will not go in, and will not spend money. Imagine looking through the yellow pages, and seeing line-after-line of business listings that simply state ‘Shop’ and nothing else. When a search engine looks at your website and all they see is ‘Home’ as the meta-title or ‘Your Company Name’ – they figuratively throw your site onto the (huge) pile with all the other sites they have no idea what they are about.

Ask yourself this question – How are people going to find your website to spend money?

SEO consulting from SEO 5 Consulting is about more than just optimizing your business for the internet: it’s also about helping you to understand the different advertising methods and terms that pertain to our work.

To help you better understand an essential aspect of SEO consulting, we’ve prepared an introduction and explanation of web analytics. Read on to learn about this part of internet marketing and exactly how it works to increase the success of your company.

What are Web Analytics?
Web analytics is a term that refers to the collection and measurement of data pertaining to your website. It allows you to view reports that detail the statistics you’re most interested in by giving you complete access to all webpage activity. More than just a method for monitoring web traffic, analytics also allow you to shape your marketing strategy in the most effective manner possible. Simply put, web analytics are like a digital version of seeing every item or advertisement that a customer has shown interest in at a store!

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The SEM Secret They Do Not Want you to Know!

People are searching for things all the time – and if you are selling things you hope that the people looking for what you sell find you. You have optimized your site, and people are finding you — Congratulations and well done!
There is something else you can do, and this thing is not known my many ecommerce operators. This search engine marketing tool is so successful and highly targeted, and yet it is one of the best kept secrets on the internet. The use of Google Base to feature your products in shopping results is one that can bring you very good results.

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What Can My Bounce Rate Tell Me About My Website….?

Many website owners have Google analytics accounts and check the visitor stats on a daily basis, looking for upward trends and an increase in traffic. One of the most commonly overlooked statistic in Google analytics is the ‘bounce rate’. The bounce rate provides a website owner with the information they need, to know what percentage of visitors came to their site and then left without viewing any other pages. It is quite simple to use the bounce rate and the time on site metrics to quickly gauge how effective your website is.

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SEO Thought For The Day

Today I was thinking about SEO a lot (like I do every day), and today more than normal I was struck by the importance of time in a search engine optimization campaign. We have a client who a few months ago were very impatient and were demanding to see results from the SEO campaign we were undertaking. We explained to the client the importance of time in the campaign – and how it is important to be patient. After several agitated months of waiting, and countless reassuring emails and calls that we were on the right track, I had the pleasure of send out a ‘good news’ email yesterday informing the client that they had made it to the front page of Google.com for one of their most valuable keywords, and were now very well positioned for gaining a large increase in search traffic. They are actually positioned in the fourth natural position and in a very competitive marketplace.

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Is Your Hosting Killing Your SEO…?

The hosting of your website is very much like the foundation you build a house upon. There are many different hosting options available, and it is important that you choose the most effective to compliment any search engine optimization efforts you are undertaking. You will find here a guide to the different hosting options available, and which options will work best to increase your exposure within the search engine results.

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SEO consulting is key towards the success of your business. The SEO 5 Consulting blog makes it possible for you to find the most effective strategies for increasing your web presence and, ultimately, attract new customers and clients to your business.

We’ve created an introduction to social media marketing in order to help you better understand this technique and its role as a vital aspect of SEO consulting and web marketing practices. Read on to discover what it is and what it can do for your company’s level of success.

What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is an effective form of internet advertising that incorporates social networking and media platforms into your web marketing strategy to generate brand awareness. In recent years it has become an incredibly successful technique for many web advertisers. Social media marketing gives businesses the ability to tap into a customer base that may otherwise ignore your company or the services and products on offer through it.

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The Lessons Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan can Teach us About the Power of the Internet.

The film You’ve Got  Mail is based around the story of a small independent bookstore operator in Seattle who is slowly put out of business by the appearance in Seattle of a large bookstore chain. The small bookstore has a small but loyal following, but the vast majority of ‘book shoppers’ prefer to go to the large chain bookstore – as they have a bigger selection of books, and sell other stuff as well.

In a predictive sign of the future for Joe Fox, the character in You’ve Got Mail played by Tom Hanks and the owner in the film of the chain bookstore – virtually all of the communication conducted between himself and the owner of the independent bookstore, Meg Ryan’s character, were conducted over the internet. In 1998 when the film was released – the idea that people would prefer to spend money online rather than in person was, to a large degree, not widely accepted.

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Interruption Marketing Is Dead

The television program Lost has taught everyone involved in marketing or advertising a very important lesson as to what degree entertainment consumption habits have changed. Lost is a very popular TV program and yet the vast majority of the people who watch this program do not watch the show via tradition broadcast mediums. The traditional model of having a very popular TV show that draws large numbers of viewers who will enjoy the show and will also sit through constant commercial breaks has now become fractured – if not fatally broken. The people who enjoy Lost are not prepared to have their viewing pleasure interrupted by people trying to sell things that they do not necessarily want. The key here is the interruption – and the extraordinary lengths humans will go to avoid those interruptions.

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The SEO Golden Rule!

I have often been asked ‘what is the golden rule of SEO?’ I have thought long and hard about this, and what the answer could be. I think if I had to choose one golden rule for SEO it would be ‘Do not be greedy!’ I am sure some of you are thinking right now – what does he mean ‘do not be greedy’? I have chosen this as the golden rule because the choices made at the very beginning of a search engine optimization campaign will – to a large degree – determine how the campaign unfolds. Do not be greedy with your keyword selection – this is my golden rule. Choose a few keywords you wish to optimize for, and then stick with them for the long haul. The main page of your site only has 65 characters in the title tag to optimize – and the temptation could be to stuff those 65 characters with as many keywords as possible. This is greedy, and it will not work.

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What have You Done Today To Get A Customer…?

They are out there, spending money and enjoying doing it. They spend literally billions of dollars daily online, and people are getting rich. There are new customers, old customers, returning customers, happy customers, begrudging customers, big spenders, people looking for a bargain, and every other imaginable permutation of shopper.

What have you done today to get one of these customers? The chances are the answer will be ‘nothing’. There is a very good chance, if you look at your website it looks like a glorified brochure – and it looked the same last month as it does today. If you were to look at your website next month, will it look the same as it did six months ago? All of this inertia serves as customer repellent. There is no reason for a customer to come back to your site today if it has not changed from the last time they were there 6-months ago.

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Link building services are important for the success of your internet marketing strategy. At SEO 5 Consulting, we’re interested in giving our clients and blog readers information on every aspect of web advertising so that you can better understand how we can provide assistance in optimizing your internet presence.
Read on to learn more about the practice of link building and what link building services can do for your business.

What is Link Building?
Link building is a process that ensures that your website maintains a strong presence in search engine rankings. The practice involves creating links within your company’s website and outside of it to multiply its presence on the internet. Hyperlinking is, simply, clicking from one page to another through text or image portals. Link building is based on mutual advertising (hosting the link of a third party’s website in exchange for their website hosting your links) or internal linking that directs all of your website’s pages back to its homepage.

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The SEO 5 Consulting blog gives you the tips you need to get ahead with your website’s internet advertising strategy. We’ve provided an introduction to pay per click advertising that seeks to give you a good understanding of this marketing practice and exactly how it stands to benefit your company.
Read below to get started with pay per click advertising today.

What is Pay Per Click Advertising?
Pay per click (or PPC) advertising is an internet advertising format that sees a website hosting links to an advertiser’s website. Host sites are only paid for each one of the clicks these advertisements receive. This means, essentially, that hosting websites are able to earn money by simply hosting links from other companies. Advertisers are also able to ensure that their marketing dollar is well spent as they only pay out when third-party users have clicked through to view their website.

Payments for each click are set through either flat-rate or bid-based models. Flat-rate payments are agreed upon by both the advertiser and the host and are the most common payment method found in pay per click advertising. Bid-based payments allow the host to carry out micro-bids for competing advertisers and automatically host links from advertisers that are willing to pay out higher amounts.

By monitoring the most popular keywords relevant to the host’s or advertiser’s business, PPC can be effectively aimed at the most relevant users possible. Host sites can create PPC links through text or images that are found through search engines. The parties that click through on these links are thus likely to be interested in your advertisements or the content of your hosting website.

What are the Benefits of Pay Per Click Advertising?
Pay per click advertising is a great way to earn passive income on your site and is often recommended by professional SEO consulting services. There’s nothing to lose in implementing this advertising strategy — you can host advertising links that are as obvious or as subtle as you like. Many websites embed PPC links as part of ordinary text or enable images already emplaced on their site to act as portals to their advertiser’s website.

It’s also a fantastic advertising strategy on the other side of the transaction. Since pay per click advertising only requires payment for recorded activity, you’re guaranteed visibility for every penny you spend on your advertising initiatives when using this method. Ensure that your marketing budget is well spent by taking advantage of one of the web’s innovative advertising methods.

SEO 5 Consulting gives you access to a team of SEO consulting and marketing experts, ready to help your business’ website with PPC implementation and much more. Come to the SEO 5 Consulting blog often for the latest tips and strategies you need for achieving success on the web. Our experts are always available to give you the industry’s leading SEO consulting and implementation strategies.

Will Bing be Google’s King…?

Recently Microsoft Corporation and Yahoo! Announced that Microsoft’s Bing.com search engine would be taking over Yahoo’s search engine – thus creating in a single action a massive search engine – and some serious competition for Google.

What does this mean for you and your business, and how people find your site via search engines?

For Yahoo this is the final resignation that their search engine was not very good. For consumers and businesses, the removal of the Yahoo search algorithms is a very good thing. Yahoo’s results were unpredictable for businesses, and produced strange results for consumers. The emergence of Bing.com is interesting, as it appears to be modelled on the same (or similar) search algorithms as Google – and produces results of a similar quality. In addition – the Bing index seems to be updated with greater frequency than Google, which from a search engine marketeers point of view is an excellent thing.

Google remains the gold standard for search engine technology and quality of results – but with the agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo there is suddenly a second search engine in the market that will control around 30% of search results. Now here is the interesting twist – many internet users really like Yahoo for its content but dislike its search results. The Yahoo users would consume content from Yahoo, but use Google for searching. With the introduction of a quality search engine in the form of Bing’s algorithm, how many of those Yahoo users will now consume content from Yahoo and use Yahoo’s (Bing’s) search engine? If there was a steady increase in Yahoo users adopting the new Yahoo search engine – Google’s market share would begin to shrink.

Already there is some indication that Google’s strangle hold on the search engine market (the powerhouse for its flagship AdWords paid advertising system) is perhaps slipping – with its search engine market share slipping from 65.5% in March 2010 to 65.1% in April 2010.
For a long while, businesses and search engine marketeers have pretty much ignored Yahoo and Bing’s earlier incarnation, Live.com. Now, with the creation of a heavy weight in the form of the combined search volumes of these two organizations – and their ability to step out of Google’s shadow – it would be a fool who ignores 30% of all search volumes and a sophisticated and very current algorithm.

The first thing you should do is set up a Bing.com webmaster tool-kit account. This is very similar to Google’s webmaster tools – and will allow you to see how Bing.com views your site. The second thing you should do is check to see how you are ranked by Bing.com in the search engine results pages (SERPs). You may be surprised at where you are positioned and their SERPs. For both consumers and businesses the arrival of a serious competitor to Google is a good thing. As the amount of search traffic increases for Bing and the opposite happens for Google – businesses will be less reliant on a single source of traffic (which is what no business wants). When you look at where your traffic is coming from there should be a balance between search engine traffic and referred traffic – and within those two traffic pools there should be no one source that dominates the others. If you look at the statistics for your site and most of your traffic is coming from Google, it is time to make sure Bing can see you and likes you as well.

5 Search Engine Optimization Tips – Things You Must Do Today!

To gain movement in the search engines result pages (SERPs) in the right direction – you can use these 5 search engine optimization tips to start the ball rolling;

1. Optimize your site! This may sound dumb – but a site can be optimized in a matter of hours (depending on size). Get this done ASAP! Look at the title of your website – if it says ‘Home’ or ‘Index’ or ‘Your Company Name’ you are not optimized, and NOBODY is going to find your business. Start work on this right now!
2. Get a faster server. If there is one thing that search engines do not like, it is being left hanging around. If every time the search engines come to your site to have a look around they have to wait, they will be reluctant to keep coming back. Get a better and faster hosting plan!
3. Give you site a theme. What is your site about…? Search engines are relying on you to inform them what your business is about – so use every page as an opportunity to inform the search engines. If you have pages on your site where the title tag is ‘About us’ or ‘Contact us’ – you are not properly optimized.
4. Install a blog and update it daily! Talk about your business, and offer FREE advice. Be passionate about what you do, and people will find you. Give your site a pulse through the creation of content.
5. Does your site make sense, and is it easy to navigate? Search engines like sites that are easy to navigate, and easy to find all the pages. The easiest way to ensure that the search engines – in particular Google – is able to find its way around your site is to submit a Sitemap via the search engines webmaster tools section. The Sitemap file provides a list of all pages, and links, and pertinent information regarding the way your site is laid out. If you add new pages, create a new site map and re-submit.

As you can see from the list above – these five things can be taken care of over the course of one business day in most cases. Taking the first step is the most daunting, and investing the time and money into your site can seem unnecessary. It is important to remember that traditional methods of advertising are in decline due to the transfer of usage from offline mediums (telephone directories, newspapers, television, etc.) to the internet. Failing to have your site properly optimized and able to attract visitors through the SERPs is in effect removing yourself from the future of business.

My series on E-mail marketing for B2B discussed strategies for bringing value to the business relationship.  When I started the series, I mentioned that three best practices for bringing value to B2B customers using E-mail was segmentation, delivery of relevant/consistent information and feedback.  Having discussed the first two, I will now discuss feedback. Because the B2B customer life cycle is much longer than that of a B2C customer, it allows the marketer greater opportunity to acquire feedback.

Encouraging feedback is the least obvious of the three best practices.  This is because it indirectly brings value to customers through service improvements and not through content.  With customer feedback, you are better equipped to improve your products or service.  Encouraging feedback also helps to build trust with your customers demonstrating that your company cares about their input and needs.  It makes your customers feel important and closer to your company.

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Blog marketing is an essential online marketing strategy for your business to make use of. SEO 5 Consulting wants to help you gain a better understanding of this important marketing practice by explaining how it works and what its benefits are.

We’ve created an introduction to blog marketing that gives you the knowledge you need to get started with the advertising practice right away. Read on to get started.

What is Blog Marketing?

Blog marketing is an internet marketing technique that uses web blogs to increase your corporation’s web presence. It’s also a fantastic method for creating awareness of your company’s new product or service offerings. Blogs let you organically embed keywords related to your business while explaining the features, functions and details of your company’s new releases. Regular posts with proper keyword usage increase your search engine rankings, a benefit that lets new customers more easily discover your business.

This tactic differs from websites because blogs are meant to be updated frequently. Official company websites are however, a great place to host your blog and easily redirect site traffic to a consistently updated page. Blog marketing also allows you to create a level of dialogue between your business and its customers, bettering professional relationships while simultaneously expanding your web presence.

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In my last post, I discussed the importance of segmenting your list for e-mail marketing programs in B2B situations. Today, I will look deeper into the importance of sharing consistent and relevant information with your clients. Before we look at tips for executing a consistent and relevant marketing program, we must first identify what this means. In my opinion, a consistent and relevant e-mail program offers a clear benefit for opting in and delivers on the promise. Following through on the promise ensures that clients stay interested and loyal in turn, rewarding your efforts with higher sales.

There are 3 key steps that must be taken in order to create and maintain a relevant and consistent B2B e-mail marketing program. The first is to advertise the program based on clear benefits, the second is to keep your content useful and the third is to announce what’s to come. By following these steps, you are able to develop and follow through on a program your clients will appreciate.

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Is Your Website an Online Store Nobody Can Find Unless they have A Secret Password…?

Okay – so you want to build a website! You spends weeks researching web designers, and then you hire one. You then go through the pain full process of having your site designed until you have something you love. Then go through the process of finding a designer. Then you find a programmer to build it for you, and you go through the more painful process of changing design elements, adding functionality, and going around in circles for weeks on end. Months may have passed – and thousands of dollars may have changed hands. You hated virtually every moment, but – finally – you have your website!!!!

However – there is a problem. You have spent months, thousands of dollars, and sweated blood to get your website online – but you have no traffic. A week passes and there is still no traffic. You spend most of your days looking at your website, clicking around, and waiting for that first sale – but it doesn’t come. Have you built a site that nobody can ever find unless they know the secret password – which only you know and you haven’t told anyone….? Chances are you have without even knowing it.

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If you have seen the film Donnie Brasco – there is a memorable scene where the character Sonny Black introduces Donnie Brasco to a mafia kingpin in Florida, and says “Donnie is with me”, and that one phrase lets everyone, including the kingpin, know that Donnie is trusted, respected, and one of the ‘good guys’.

This is, in effect, how link building works. Imagine your website is Donnie Brasco, and the mafia kingpin is Google. Sonny Black is a website that has been around for a long while, and is well known and trusted by Google. If Sonny Black links to your website – what that link is doing is it is giving your site a reference and a vote of confidence – and it is say “This site is trusted”.

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