Anchors Aweigh!
From a search engine optimization perspective, there is hardly something that peeves me more than seeing a blogger use the phrase “click here” as a live link, and, unfortunately it is quite common practice. When was the last time you typed “click here” into Google as a search phrase? Probably never, so why would you optimize your website with that keyword phrase? Let’s go over anchor text 101 and improve your blogging skills in the process.
First and foremost, a definition – anchor text is the word or words used to create a hyperlink to another website.
Now, why should I care what word or words I use as anchor text? That’s an easy question to answer, because the search engines do. The search engines use anchor text to determine the subject and relevance of web page. To make the most of this relationship, you have to be smart about the word/words you choose as your anchor text. You don’t want your website to be associated with the phrase “click here” because that will do nothing for you. Instead, incorporate some of your targeted keywords or use your company’s name as the text phrase for a hyperlink to your website.
Yet, don’t go overboard. Of course “Angelina Jolie” may be one of the most commonly searched phrases, and it would be great to target all of that traffic. But, if your site really has nothing to do with Angelina Jolie, the search engines will not be happy that you are trying to fool them and will probably punish you for it.
Blogging is a fantastic way to drive more traffic to your website and increase search engine optimization, as long as you are making the most of all the opportunities a blog has to offer. Adequate use of anchor text is a big step in the right direction, but isn’t everything. We would love to help you get comfortable with the fine science of blogging. Contact mRELEVANCE for more information.
Social Media Marketing Return on Investment
What are your goals for social media marketing and what key performance metrics do you use to determine if your efforts are effective?
This is a common question we get all the time. The trouble with this question is that it is easy to answer, but more difficult to understand the answer. Often he answer is somewhat abstract.
Similar to Search Engine Optimization, social media marketing and social media optimization not only requires an understanding of how search engines work, but also a strategic goal for targeting both your demographic market and your effective key word phrases.
But what does that really mean and how do you gauge success? There are a few metrics we look at specifically to determine the success of social media marketing. The first, and most obvious, is the amount of and quality of traffic each social media source drives…total visits, unique visitors and how deep and long these visitors remain on your site. How many visits did you get from Facebook or LinkedIn? These numbers typically are not that high on any target tracking report because the underlying purpose of many of these sites is to interact ON these sites. Still, getting quality traffic from these sites is one key performance indicator.
Another and better indicator is where these alternate sites rank in the SERPs for your targeted words. Does your blog or Twitter account appear in the top ten results in a Google search for your name? Having these ancillary sites appear in the SERPs is a huge win. As Carol always says, “When you Google your name, do you like what you see?”
A third area to look at when determining the effectiveness of your social media and SEO program is your keywords and referring URL numbers. Effective social media and SEO will increase the number of key word phrases coming into the site and the number of URLs into the site – which inherently expands the overall reach of the site.
In addition to all of these, a well built blog and effective blogging and moderation (with SEO in mind) should produce a top 5 referral source to your site. To date, mRELEVANCE has built well over 100 blogs and all of them (when run effectively over time) have become a top 5 referring site for the client…along with the overall program increasing quality web traffic between 50 – 200%. This is a common occurrence for a company that operates at the intersection of Social and Search! Contact us when you are ready to see this kind of result.
Integrating Social Media Into Workflow
Do you have a social media strategy and policy? How do you work social networking into your daily routine so that it is effective but not overwhelming? As marketers, we know that social media requires thought and strategy in order to be effective…and that strategy and thought require time, effort and experience.
Not to mention, surfing social media in your free time because you are looking for a long lost friend on Facebook is much different time to spend than tweeting a recent news article about your company or blogging about a local area event. How do you make it work and still have time left to do your day job? Below are four tips to keep your social media marketing within your regular day and give you some pointers to remain effective.
1. Don’t bite off more than you can chew – Make sure that whatever social media sites you decide to use in your strategy are ones where you can interact consistently. Making sure you post regularly will help set the expectation of those that are in your ‘network’ of friends, followers and fans, not to mention Google and the other search engines. But be realistic – there are only so many hours in the day and you can’t work them all.
2. Use breaks and quick task changes effectively – in between tasks is a great time for a quick post or update on what you are working on. This time gives you the chance to change gears and begin to think about something different, and is a great time to quickly update your status or tweet about what you have completed or are about to tackle. Be careful, though, this tip requires that you are disciplined and not susceptible to ‘only 5 minutes of Farmville or Mafia Wars’. Focus and remain productive.
3. Don’t think more is always better – Adding a quick 120 or 140 character tweet once a day, a 250 word blog post once or twice a week on your favorite blog or even commenting on a LinkedIn group discussion is better than making sure you have updated every site you are on everytime you make a change to anything. Remember, the goal is to be heard, not ignored, and your network is interested in who you are and what you are generally doing, not what you do at every moment.
4. Walk before you run – If you are new to social media, try adding sites one at a time until you have 3 or 4 profiles and are comfortable using all the sites. Listen to and watch how other people in your network use each site so that you can follow along and participate effectively.
Facebook Pages vs. Groups: Which is Best for My Company?
Facebook Fan Page or Facebook Group? It’s the question of the week over here at mRELEVANCE. There are pros and cons to both and the final decision has to come down to what your company needs and wants to gain from its Facebook presence. To help you decide, we’ve come up with a list of pros and cons for each. Feel free to let us know which works best for you and why!
Fan Pages :
- Pro: Can import blog, YouTube, other social networking sites
- Pro: Can create events
- Pro: Can invite all of your friends (and potentially all of your fans) to your events
- Pro: Updates to your wall will appear in the live or most recent news feed
- Con: Can’t Facebook-Email fans
- Con: The page creator cannot leave or un-fan the page (it will be deleted)
- Con: Cannot control who becomes a fan
Groups:
- Pro: Can Facebook-email group members
- Pro: Can control who can join the group
- Pro: Can create events & invite all group members & your friends
- Pro: Group creator can leave the group without deleting it
- Con: Can’t import blog, YouTube or other social networking sites
- Con: Wall updates do not appear in the news feed
How To Tell if Your Social Media Consultant “Gets It”
Here are 8 critical areas you should use to evaluate the competency of your social media marketing consultant, agency or team before hiring. Avoid making a costly mistake by understanding the necessary skills to build an effective social media program.
1. They have a blog – We know this seems basic, but if they are going to build an effective blog for your company, they need to have built and run one successfully themselves. Most seasoned social media marketers who can prove ROI understand how to build your program with the blog as the engine. An experienced consultant will have been blogging and building blogs since 2006 or 2007.
2. Search results – When you Google their name, what do you see? A seasoned social media marketer should have pages of search results for their company and themselves personally. How are you going to trust your online reputation to them, if they have not created their own?
3. Social networking sites – If your social media consultant believes in social networking. . . shouldn’t they actually use the sites? You should find pages on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Trulia, ActiveRain, YouTube, GoogleProfiles and MANY other sites that are fully built-out, active and years worth of content.
4. Strategy – A competent social media marketer can build a strategy that works for your team. Social media marketing is not one size fits all. Your goals will most likely be very different than the goals of even your closest competitor. Your strategy should be part of an overall marketing plan.
5. Training – Your consultant can train your team to use the various sites and tools. They have developed training materials and can answer your questions and/or know where to find the answers.
6. Search Engine Optimization – The ultimate success of a sound social media program is the ability to increase traffic to your blog and website and capture leads. Understanding SEO and SMO (social media optimization) is HUGE. Look to see if the social media firm you are shopping is using the proper tools to optimize their own presence on the Web. You can rate them with a quick glance at the title tags on their website and/or blog.
7. Connectivity – We like to call it Netweaving. The ability to interconnect all of your sites increases their effectiveness exponentially. Ask for examples of clients with “netweaved” social media sites.
8. Tracking & Reporting – What is your Return on Investment (ROI)? Can you track and measure it? Does your consultant provide you with reporting. . . or at least tell you what metrics you should measure? Can they tell you what is working and what isn’t? Again, it is critical to know what works and what does not to avoid costly mistakes.
Effective social media and search engine marketing starts with strategy and drives through implementation. You would not trust your identity and the four “P’s” of marketing to someone new to your industry, why would you trust your online brand image to someone without a proven online history and track record? Contact the team at mRELEVANCE to find out how we can create an effective social media marketing strategy that results in proven ROI. mRELEVANCE campaigns operate at the intersection of Social and Search (that’s social media and search engine marketing). Our campaigns have resulted in increased website traffic ranging from 50 to 200 – percent. Call me direct at 770-383-3360 to schedule a call.
