SEO marketing table - Social Media - The Perfect Compliment to SEO

Social Media and SEO – Together, at Last!

Remember the song “Why Can’t we be Friends?” by War? Well, it’s a perfect theme song for the social media – SEO relationship. In recent years, there have been many articles arguing the value of one over the other. “SEO is Dead.” “Why SEO will always beat Social,” and on and on.

The truth is, you don’t need to take sides. Successful marketers see the benefit of using social media as a complement to SEO. When social media joins forces with SEO, it can spell wonderful things for your company. Check out our illustrated explanation of how Google+, specifically, can boost your search engine rankings.

How Social Media Complements SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) and social media serve very different, but equally important functions in marketing your business. Let me explain. Remember that kid in grade school? The guy who liked crunching numbers and problem solving? Of course you do. That guy is SEO personified.

SEO is made up of algorithms – complex mathematical formulas used by …

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Learn to love keyword research in 7 simple steps

Keyword Research in Seven Simple Steps

Choosing which keywords to use for your website, blog, or other online marketing can seem like a complete mystery. I know it has been to me for years. No more!

Like it or not, keyword research is a must for any business with an online presence.  Not only will it influence your choice of domain name, your content and your social updates, but it will help you get to know your customers better, as well. Let’s learn to love keyword research together, shall we?

#1 Stop Guessing Which Keywords You Should Use

If you are, for example, and independent pharmacy in Wilmington, NC you may think that your best keywords are “pharmacy”, or even “pharmacy NC”, and that would be nice to dominate in search for those who are logged in and see local results. However, that Google search returns 200 MILLION results, and in my results, local results rule.

If you sell boots, you might think you want to rank #1 for “boots”, but do you really?  Someone searching for “boots” is more likely to be browsing than …

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How to Get Your Facebook Updates Seen – Understanding Edge Rank

Because of  its growing popularity and ease of use, more businesses have a Facebook page than ever before. The result is a very competitive market, where your posts can get quickly pushed down the newsfeed (or never even displayed at all). So how can you get more from your Facebook page and stand out from other businesses?

Increase Your EdgeRank

This is key in being competitive with your social media page. What is EdgeRank? Put simply it’s the name Facebook has given the algorithm which they use to determine what appears in their users’ news feeds.

Still sound a bit complicated? Basically, every interaction you have with Facebook creates a piece of content known as an Edge. These interactions include: Status updates, Photos uploaded and shared, likes, even songs we listen to on Spotify. If you get right down to it, the news feed isn’t really a feed of news.  It’s actually a chart of the most ‘important’ Edges as determined by the Edge Rank Algorithm. The more “weight” the Edge the more often it will result in the news feed.

This is key to small …

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Does Article Submission Still Work?

Recently, a friend of Scalable asked, “What do you think of services such as Manual Article Submission?”

Great Question!  What she was referring to is the practice of submitting or syndicating articles to various online directories. Unlike automated submission, which is likely to get you penalized in a hurry, those offering manual article submission promise to raise your search engine ranking and drive traffic to your site by providing many links to your site.

However, with recent updates, Google has begun penalizing sites with low-quality article directory links. What about quality submissions and good content?  Directories that changed their policies in response to Panda (Ezine, Digg, Buzzle, ContentDig) may get you some higher-value links. However, you’ll need to contribute unique, quality content to each, and who has time to do that when you have your own blog to maintain?

Why unique to each site? Because of duplicate content rules, if you publish the same article to your site and to a directory, Google may very well filter the article on your site, giving ranking only to the directory. If you …

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Social Media vs SEO for Pharmacy Promotion?

Short Answer: YES!   Social Media and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) work together beautifully, so  you really shouldn’t choose one or the other when deciding how best to invest your time and budget when promoting your pharmacy or other business online.

The Case for SEO

Since you want to be found (usually by people using search engines), you must pay attention to SEO.  It should be acknowledged that Facebook, Twitter and even Google+ are becoming tools for searching in their own right.

Adding fresh content, using the right keywords, and basic SEO strategy will go a long way in improving your search engine rankings and bringing in more qualified visitors. Always write for the readers, not the search engines.

The Case for Social Media

Because social media has become an ingrained part of our culture, once people find you, they expect your site and blog to be engaging and interactive.  Having become wary of company marketing, they also want to see what others are saying about your products and services.  So, it is beneficial to have a strong social presence as …

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Google Plus Makes Search Personal

Google Search plus Your World – Personal Search Results

Yesterday, Google Search was limited to public webpages. Great information was out there, sure, but most of it was published by people you don’t know and really have little reason to trust.  Starting today, Google Search is adding content published on Google Plus to your search results!  Because of the way Google Plus manages relationships, this translates to search results based on YOUR relationships.

You can now your own content and content shared specifically with you by those in your circles – and this will ONLY be available to you! Autocomplete and results will display Google+ Profiles,  helping you find people you might be interested in following. People and Pages related to your query will display, enabling you to follow them with just a couple of clicks.

Searching the web will always be a good way to research, but experience from friends is, let’s face it – just worth more!  Now your searches will include public and private (shared with you) Google+ posts from friends, enabling you to access their views and opinions instantly! …

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Why Your Business Should Have a Google Plus Page

I know what you’re thinking… another social network to worry about? Is there even anyone ON Google Plus right now? Whether you are a fan of Google, have no opinion, or are convinced that it is going to take over the world, if you’re in business, I’m afraid you simply cannot afford to ignore Google Plus Pages for Brands.

Is Anyone Out There?

With over 20 million users at the end of 2011, 170 million users as of March 2012 and a projected 250 million by the end of 2012, Google Plus is making inroads in the Social Media consciousness.  At first mainly a lurking place for techies and photographers, more and more people are taking notice.

While we wait for more of our customers to join, this is a great time to make connections with other businesses, both those in your industry and those in your locality.  Watch what they do, see what works, and contribute to their conversations. You will often find that they return the favor.  When your customers do start trickling in, …

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Using Zemanta to Enrich your Blog Posts

Zemanta is a writing assistant that recommends content while you write. It is a great time-saver because it finds additional content elsewhere – content you would otherwise have to search out.  With just a drag and drop (for photos) or a click (for links, tags and related articles) you can add truly related content to your posts that otherwise, you would have to search for online. As you type, Zemanta updates its recommendations for you (or you can set it to update on command only).

Setting up Zemanta Preferences and Sources

When you set up your Zemanta account, on the “Me” tab enter your name, Email choice, change your password and username, and, most importantly, add all your blogs.  When you add your blogs, Zemanta indexes them and your articles will be added to the “Related Articles” suggestions for other bloggers, increasing YOUR inbound links!

On the Sources tab, you can add other sites you would like to see Zemanta search for relevant suggestions under “Blogs and Other Content”.  If you use Flckr, add your screen name …

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The Periodic Table of the (SEO) Elements

Have you ever felt that Search Engine Optimization is one of life’s great mysteries – impossible to understand?  Enter the Periodic Table of SEO Ranking factors. When examining the table, keep in mind that everything works together.  Having a terrific title will not compensate for content that is no good.  This chart doesn’t cover everything, but it’s  a great start.

This table also nicely shows the items having more influence a the top (look for the +3s), so if you have time to fix just a few issues, begin here. Here’s what I got out of the accompanying explanation, along with some of my own observations:

Content

Content Quality and Engagement

The first section covers Content.  The most important factor is the quality of the content.  Even if your aim to simply to sell a product, make sure that you offer helpful information that is not already available on countless other sites.  Check your site’s average time on site to get an idea of whether or not people are finding enough value in your content to stick around a while.

…

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Why isn’t my blog on page one of Google search results?

This may be the number one question we get! Usually the reason is that your blog is very new and it takes time to rise in the search engine results. In years past, you may have seen a brand new site or blog rise to the top of search engines very quickly. However, over time and most notably with the infamous Google “Panda” update earlier this year, the search engines are becoming more sophisticated. No longer will keyword stuffing, cloaking, low-quality content and other shady SEO tactics catapult you to the top in weeks or a few months.

The objective of Scalable Social Media is to help businesses, and franchise owners in particular, find and project their own unique Social Media voice.  Through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other channels, we help potential customers get to know individual business owners and their staff so that they’ll be more likely to pick up the phone and give them a call when they need their services. Social Media is more of a marathon than a sprint.

That said, your blog WILL begin …

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