Everybody seems to be jumping unto the Facebook bandwagon with countless “gurus” promoting it as the best new traffic source online. What social media traffic lacks however is one of the most important words in online marketing and that is intent.

When someone is doing a search on any of the search engines, their intent is very clear in the form of the keywords they are entering into a search bar. They are looking for something very specific and most of all, they are in a specific frame of mind. they are actively looking for something and as an advertiser you can bid on keywords that reflect a specific intent.

On social networks, both the user mindset and the user intent is completely different. No one uses Facebook with the hope of being advertised to. In fact, people use social networks with zero commercial intent. Although you can use keyword targeting with Facebook Ads, its really not hat targeted at all.

Obviously every traffic source has potential, but for the time being pay per click traffic still offers a level of targeting that allows you to laser target traffic with exact user intent. Yes, it comes at a price and it is expensive but adverting is all about ROI and if the ROI makes sense then pay per click is the way to go.

Do you want to buy web traffic? See my blog to learn more about getting targeted website traffic.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Deon_Du_Plessis

Related posts

• Why Internet Marketers & MLM Are Moving Their PPC Campaigns to Facebook Advertising (0)
• Web Traffic – Is Article Marketing Better Than Pay Per Click Advertising? (0)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Pay Per Click (PPC) – An Overview (0)
• Pay Per Click Basics – What You Need to Know to Get Up and Running With This Traffic Source (0)
• Get Social With Your PPC Budget (0)

Only Google knows the truth.

However, creating such a site would be a smart move on Google’s part since they do need to compete with Facebook, mainly because Facebook is turning into a real search engine, one that could possibly give Google a run for all those lucrative search dollars. Ridiculous you say – not really, especially when you consider Facebook’s recent move towards “Open Graph Search” and its use of the “Like” button and box.

Unless the surfing public changes overnight, Bing/Yahoo is not going to give Google any real search competition, but Facebook with its massive number of users and rating system could present a true contender.

We also might see a complete change in how that surfing public sees online search. Google and the other search engines are quickly becoming one big “joke” in regards to organic search with big companies buying and selling their way into the top 10 spots and the search engines are helpless to stop it.

Link buying and selling has made organic search a joke and more and more web users are catching on to this fact. Once this becomes common knowledge, search engines will be appropriately viewed as corporate billboards rather than anything of true relevance or importance – even the mighty Google could fall.

That’s why Facebook and its actual ratings/rankings by actual consumers/customers are becoming much more important. While even this kind of search equation is open to abuse, a search engine based on such “user-based” results will beat Google’s SERPs any day.

Once web users realize the true value of such rankings and search engine, then Google will have some real competition at last.

Of course, Google is not standing still, for those of us who make a full time living from search engine marketing will tell you, Google is placing more emphasis on “user-generated” content and ratings. They have placed more emphasis on the “truer” ranking systems on the web, those coming from social
networking sites like Twitter, Digg, Del.icio.us, YouTube, MySpace and even Facebook.

How many Tweets does a post get? How many Diggs does your content gather? How many comments does your YouTube video have? How many Thumbs Up? How many times is a web page bookmarked in Del.icio.us and recommended to friends.

Granted even these social bookmarking sites can be manipulated, but it is just a little harder to do than simple link buying or employing simple SEO tactics/services to get your site to the top spot.

Which brings us back to the question at hand, is Google developing a social networking site like Facebook? If you count all the programs/sites which Google presently offers up: Google Wave, Google Voice, iGoogle, Google Accounts, Google Buzz, Gmail, Google Profiles… one could even argue does Google really need another social networking program?

Even considering all of these current offerings, but is it just me, or is there no real center to all these Google products? Google needs one site which connects all of its programs/products at your fingertips, maybe iGoogle should already fill the spot, but it doesn’t take in everything or have that crucial social networking element.

Google should have a social network site like Facebook, where you can easily connect with family, colleagues and friends, but this site should have a sidebar which lists all your Google’s programs/sites which you use. Make this site your “one-stop-center” for all things Google.

Give Google and all its countless programs a concrete solid focus or center. One click and everything that Google has to offer is displayed on ONE page. More importantly, all Google’s products need to be consolidated and connected – Google Voice, Wave, Buzz, Maps, Mail, Profiles, Search… all need to be functional in one simple social networking platform.

Then make or develop a user-based ranking/rating system within this newly formed social networking site and you will be able to compete with Facebook when it comes to true democratic search. Such a site, if it does materialize, could give Google’s Search Engine, and search in general, a much needed dose of honesty. Then again, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride and Google would no longer be a one trick pony.

…
All opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author who has been following Google since it was a mere BackRub. He is also a full time search engine marketer who operates numerous niche sites, as well as two sites on Internet Marketing, where you can get valuable marketing tips for free: internet marketing tools or try here internet marketing. Titus Hoskins Copyright 2010. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Titus_Hoskins

Related posts

• Social Media – The Future of Search Engine Marketing (0)
• The Truth About SEO Firms (0)
• The Importance of Search Engine Optimisation (0)
• The History of Search Engines and Where They Are Headed (0)
• Search Engine Marketing – Are Paid Rankings Better Than Free? (0)

Years ago when SEO first came onto the scene it got a bad rap. Ever since SEO has been overshadowed with this stigma that the art of getting websites ranked and searchable on search engines is somehow some kind of witchcraft or voodoo. The truth of the matter is that it has nothing to do with witches or voodoo, you simply need to be a guru! Get it right people!

Alright, all kidding aside, SEO really has dragged this stigma along with it. The art is now questioned, poked and prodded and to be honest, for good reason. There are so many SEO people right now but only a small fraction of them are actually qualified to do SEO. The biggest problem is that technology is constantly changing and the SEO professionals must keep on top of the search engine trends and algorithm changes. Separating the good from the bad is not as hard as one would think. If you are looking for SEO and do not know what to ask or what to do here are a few great questions you should be asking your SEO expert.

1. Do you submit my website to search engines?

THE CORRECT ANSWER IS: You do not have to submit to search engines anymore. The search engines as long as the tagging on the site is correct will come to you.

2. How many keywords can I use in my META Keywords tag?

THE CORRECT ANSWER IS: META keywords are not used anymore by the search engines, this was dismantled years ago, however, if you do put anything in you should keep your keywords/phrases below 10.

3. Do you have statistical data to show me proven results?

THE CORRECT ANSWER IS: Yes, every SEO should have statistical data to show you based off of other jobs they have completed.

4. What components of a website do the search engines actually currently (2010) look at?

THE CORRECT ANSWER IS:

a) Title Tags
b) Description
c) URL Structure (url slugs)
d) Content
e) H Tags

When choosing your SEO expert be sure to do your homework on what you want from them. There are so many aspects to SEO that often times the expert does not have enough direction from the client. Understanding all the parts to SEO will certainly help you as a client to determine what exactly you want to do. SEO is multi dimensional in scope so be sure to know what you want before contacting your SEO expert. Here are a few aspects of SEO that you may or may not have been aware of.

On-Site SEO: This is dealing with all the tags on a physical website and making the page viewable by search engines.

Off-Site SEO: This essentially is building links to the website from other sources than your website. This is called link building to some. The SEO expert will need to scour the web for sources to have links that go back to your website. This is very time intensive.

Social Network Marketing: This is quickly becoming something that SEO professionals have to contend with. If you want to be found on the social networks you can expect the SEO person to be able to set this up for you and also manage your social profiles for you, however, it is recommended that you be involved in the social networks as well. So do not expect miracles from the social networks unless you are involved in this process yourself. The SEO professional will never know your business better than you know it.

What to Expect

Expecting SEO to be a magic recipe is a common mistake many have made. For some sites SEO is all they need to get a steady flow of targeted traffic, but this is not the case for every site that has SEO. There are simply some genres that are more popular than others and this will always relate to more traffic and ultimately dollars than others. In most cases you can expect a return on investment through simply the traffic and eyes on your website; however, if you are operating an online store, this is something that must have constant management and promotion. With so many business types and models it is difficult to gauge an exact number for the traffic flow. All that can be said is that the traffic that you leverage through SEO will generate targeted traffic, in, more than likely more quantity. Sales when related to SEO can NOT be guaranteed. http://www.numantis.com

Randy Comeau – CEO
nuMantis Technology Solutions
http://www.numantis.com

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Randy_Comeau

Related posts

• Would You Let A Dog Or A Butler Market Your Website? (0)
• Widget Box the Perfect Resource For SEO & SMO (0)
• Why You Need SEO Services For Your Website (0)
• Why SEO Marketing is So Important (0)
• Why Search Engines Still Matter to Your Internet Business (0)

The first thing that usually comes up when talking about social networks and link building is the fact that many of these site use the “no-follow” tag and this is true. Now, on the other hand, are search engines really not indexing these links? I think in the past the no follow tag actually meant something, anymore you can do a link search on Google and find many sites that show up with your link that use no-follow tags. So I am not a true believer that these have no value any more.

Another major change that has made social sites for SEO a huge topic of interest to search engine optimizers worldwide is the new Google “real time” search which includes results from Myspace, Facebook and twitter. So with this in mind, rather your links are getting link juice or not, you may be able to get on the first page of Google in seconds, literally!

So no matter how you want to look at this, social sites are here to stay and if you are not using them in your SEO efforts, you are most definitely missing out!

Nick Simpson is a mentor and success coach to many, find him on youtube or visit his site directly for more free internet marketing tips and resources.
Free Webmaster Videos

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Simpson

Related posts

• Your User is Supreme – Part 1 (0)
• Your SEO Toolbox is Your Most Important Asset (0)
• Your SEO Checklist, Use This to Get High Rankings (0)
• Your Rankings Vouch Your Success – Search Engine Optimization (0)
• Your Online Business’ Alternative to PPC – SEO (0)

1. To what degree are marketers using blogs as an SEO asset?

- 95% of the respondents incorporate blogs as part of their search engine marketing and SEO efforts,

2. Do blogs deliver on their search engine optimisation promise?

- 87.4% of respondents “successfully increased measurable SEO objectives as a direct result of blogging”,

3. How important are blogs as part of an SEO strategy?

- 90% mentioned blog as significantly important, important or as a primary SEO tactic,

- only 10% rated is as somewhat important or irrelevant.

4. What SEO functions do blog(s) serve for you?

- most respondents mentioned creating new and optimised content as the main function,

- second most relevant for the survey’s respondents was linking from blog posts to optimised website content,

- very high relevance is assigned to attracting external links, blog-seo-functions

5. In what time frame do you typically start to see an increase in measurable SEO performance indicators as a result of blogging?

- 94% of bloggers reported seeing measurable benefits within 12 months!

6. What are the most important measures of success when using blogs as part of a SEO effort?

- most respondents indicated increasing company site’s traffic,

- a great majority mentioned increasing company’s leads/sales,

- quite important seem to be: increasing company site inbound links, increasing blog referrals to leads and increase company site ranking.

7. What have been the most common objections from internal or external clients to implement blogs?

- 67.2% cited resource issues as the most common objection to implementing a blog,

- issues with content sourcing (42%) or simply not seeing the benefit (35%).

8. Companies that blog have 55% more visitors.

9. Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links.

10. Companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages.

Implementing a blog has become part of every business’ search marketing strategy. However, it is a difficult task to sustain it throughout time and get measurable goals. As a search optimisation consultant, SysComm understands the pressure businesses go through because of this.

http://www.syscomminternational.com/blog/blogging-for-businesses-results-in-55-more-traffic-97-more-inbound-links/

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daniela_Badalan

Related posts

• What the Heck is SEO and Does Your Website Need SEO? (0)
• Your Press Releases and SEO (0)
• You Think You Deserve Number 1 on Google – Really? (0)
• You Have to Get a Life on Line (0)
• You Get What You Pay For – A Telltale (0)

I just want to touch on the power of your friends or followers, again using Twitter as an example, but it can also be said for Facebook and LinkedIn as well. When you update your status on Twitter, your followers will all have the chance to see it. Let’s say you have 1,000 followers, and each of them have 1,000 followers. If even one person ReTweets (RT) your post, it will have a chance to be seen by their 1,000 followers – new people that you don’t even know, and if one of them RT’s it… well, you can see where this is going. So if you have a catchy headline and good information, your single post can potentially be seen by several thousand people seconds after it’s been posted.

So how can I tell if these links will be followed by search engines or not? Look for an HTML attribute called the “no-follow” attribute. You can see this by highlighting a link, right clicking and viewing the source of the web page. If you don’t want to do that on every site you visit, install a toolbar add-on. I use an addon for Firefox called SeoQuake, (they also have an Internet Explorer version but I’ve never given it a try). I’ve been using SeoQuake for a couple years, and have even had the developer comment on our forums. SeoQuake has several options, but the one that deals with the no-follow tag is a strike-though. In other words, if the links has the no-follow tag, it will look like this.

Hopefully, I’ve cleared up some misconceptions about how you’re able to get traffic from search engine via your social networks. In honor of this blog post, I’ve disabled the no-follow tag on my social media blog. As you now know, that means the search engines will be able to find your website and crawl your URL if you link to it when leaving your comment.

Brandon Sheley – Social Media Blog

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brandon_Sheley

Related posts

• Why Web Designers Need SEO Assistance – Why a Partnership is Mutually Beneficial (1)
• Social Media – The Future of Search Engine Marketing (0)
• SMO Instead of SEO (0)
• SEO is Not Dead! (0)
• SEO For the CEO – Does Twitter Equal Dollars? (1)

With this new year upon us many people are setting new goals and milestones for their personal lives, as well as businesses. No matter what type of business that you may have, your goal is probably to get more customers, make more money, or both. These are not the only two goals that are important, but they are crucial in order to grow a business and website. In order to get more customers, your search engine marketing has to be something that you focus on and put effort into in order to thrive in today’s market.

Some newer marketing methods that have surfaced in the past year or two is the use of social networks to build brand awareness and attract more visitors to your website. Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter have been the talk of the Internet. MySpace’s popularity has died down in the past year, but Facebook and Twitter have sky-rocketed. It wouldn’t hurt to have a presence on MySpace, but if you were to focus on two social networks right now, I would say make sure that you are on Twitter and Facebook. Even people that don’t have the Internet at home know what Facebook and Twitter are!

If you are looking for new ways to improve your website to attract more customers one thing that you need to focus on is speed. The speed of your website is what I am referring to. If your site is sluggish to download you will loose many customers. On top of that, Google has mentioned that they may start using the download speed of a website as one of their factors in determining search engine rankings.

Of course good, relevant content is still a key factor, but now more than ever people are not going to be sitting around waiting for your page to download. They will simply click away back to the search engine and find another website. If you think your big, flashy presentation is neat, but takes 3 minutes to download, you’d better re-think your website design. If you have video that takes forever to buffer, you will get considerably less visitors. Speed of your website is something that everybody needs to consider as an important factor of keeping visitors on your site and now even in terms of ranking high.

So if one of your goals this New Year’s is improving your website and marketing methods to increase customers you need to focus on speed of your site and make use of social media to increase your popularity. Although it is still not 100% clear how these factors will exactly be applied, we know that they are important and it is never to early to start working on them. If you jump on taking care of these things before your competitors, it can leave you in a much better (and higher) search engine position.

Scott Young is the owner of Florida SEO Pro, an Internet marketing company specializing in Florida search engine optimization and local website marketing. They provide their clients with dynamic optimization services to help keep up with the major search engines and build long-term, top rankings.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scotty_G_Young

Related posts

• Your Search Engine Rankings Take a Fall – What Do You Do? (0)
• You Think You Deserve Number 1 on Google – Really? (0)
• Widget Box the Perfect Resource For SEO & SMO (0)
• Why You Shouldn’t Fret Over Your Search Engine Rankings (At First) (0)
• Why You Need to Forget About Google to Succeed (0)

The title and the description of your video should include important keywords your company website is trying to rank for. For YouTube Optimization, the title of your video should adequately describe what the video is about. Avoid giving your video a generic title. Try to create a title for your video that is unique and uses targeted keywords. One example would be if you are uploading a video about ice cream flavors, don’t title your video something too simple such as “Flavors of Ice Cream.” A title that would help with video optimization would be something like “New & Wacky Ice Cream Flavors I Dare You To Try.” A title such as this, is giving a YouTube viewer a lot of information. First of all, it’s telling them your company has come up with something new. It’s also giving them a chance to see if they would be interested in your new flavors. Once they check out the video, most users will leave feedback saying whether they were interested in the flavors or not. Some might even go on to comment suggestions or other flavors your company should manufacture. If your flavors are available for sale and they found the video intriguing, it might even help boost your sales. Make sure you include your targeted keywords in the tags section when you upload your video. The tags section allows your video to appear in the search results of anyone searching for those specific keywords.

The YouTube username you select to upload your company videos also makes a difference. The username you choose should be something to help drive awareness to your company’s brand name. Your video should provide valuable content to the followers and consumers and help build credibility. To engage the viewers you have to respond to feedback, provide as much information as you can and communicate with your followers. If you show your appreciation they will reciprocate with brand name loyalty. It is also important to join communities that group a number of users to a particular topic of interest. If you join a particular community, you are helping create more exposure for your video and providing another platform for random users to come across your video.

With these tips in mind, you will be able to effectively build traffic for your website through Video Optimization. You can also apply these tips on other video websites besides YouTube. Most video sharing websites all generally have the same format of uploading. After uploading a video onto a website such as YouTube, you can then share your video through other social media websites such as Facebook and My Space or even on blogs. YouTube Optimization is the perfect strategy to help your social media campaign turn out successfully. Many offshore SEO companies also offer services such as YouTube and Video Optimization so that you can effectively distribute your videos on the ideal video sharing websites.

Pragmites Consulting offers YouTube Optimization assistance along with other social media optimization services. They are experienced in search engine optimization, web 2.0, website design and other Internet marketing services. Pragmites Consulting is a distinguished offshore Internet Marketing consultancy with clients from all over the world. Please visit http://www.pragmites.com for more information and details.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Angira_Pandit

Related posts

• YouTube Viral Marketing Tips (0)
• YouTube Marketing Tactics – Become an Overnight Sensation (0)
• What is Missing in My Video Marketing? – It Just Doesn’t Work! (0)
• Video Submission Secrets of 2009 (0)
• Top 10 Ways to Significantly Increase Your YouTube Traffic Generation (0)

Social Bookmark Buttons. This widget displays all the social bookmarks on your company website. Social Bookmarks include Delicious, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, Furl, Technorati, Magnolia, Stumble Upon and many more. Inserting this widget allows visitors to easily distribute the information they found interesting on your blog by using their social network accounts. Collaborating with social networks will help your social media optimization campaign and will help attract more visitors to your website.

Latest Google News — SEO News Updates. This widget displays a live feed of the latest SEO news updates from Google News. To stay on top of the latest SEO trends this is an extremely helpful application. Visitors would be able to view the topic updates and be able to click on whatever topic interests them and have the full news description open up in a second window. This widget would be ideal for Offshore SEO company websites. There are other widgets also that provide news and updates based upon the industry and topic of interest you choose. There are other widgets that just display SEO information on your website such as the number of visitors on your website, the page rank of your website. Some widgets even categorize the visitors according to which country they are from. If you are able to analyze the countries where you receive most of your company website traffic from, you can accordingly plan your campaign around this useful information and bring in more business.

YouTube Sidebar Widget. The name of the widget basically explains it. The widget after plugging in your YouTube user id information will display the videos you have uploaded on YouTube. Anyone who visits your company blog will be able to also see the videos related to your services and products in the sidebar area. In general, YouTube is a very popular social network. To allow visitors to interact with your YouTube account, it is a fool proof method of getting consumers to come back and visit your blog or website again. People are curious to see what others upload on YouTube and would be most likely willing to visit again and check back if you have uploaded any new videos. Videos provide a personal, hands on experience to your followers and consumers, so it is best to take advantage of widgets such as this.

Google Search. Being affiliated with the best search engine on the Internet is always a good thing. Allowing visitors to search the Internet with Google search engine from the convenience of your website will improve the overall quality of your website. This widget will display a Google search bar at the top of your company blog or website for visitors and followers to utilize. This widget also has transparent backgrounds to easily gel with the layout of your website.

Contact Us. What is the most important part of Internet Marketing? Communication. That’s right. So in order to hear back from your visitors and followers you can insert a widget that will display a contact form on the sidebar of your company blog. The contact form allows the visitor to fill in their name, email, subject and message. With this kind of feedback you can fine tune your SEO marketing strategies and use social media optimization to help build traffic for your website. Now that I have gone over some of the important widgets you can utilize from Widget Box, you can also browse the website for other widgets that might be of interest to your company website. There are widgets that insert games, surveys, calorie counters, recipes, movie trailers, songs, podcasts, and much more. The possibilities of what you can incorporate on your website are endless. Make your website Social Media Optimization savvy by allowing followers and users to connect to their social networks through a variety of widgets.

Pragmites Consulting offers Social Media Optimization assistance along with search engine optimization, web 2.0, website design and other Internet marketing services. Pragmites Consulting is a distinguished offshore Internet Marketing consultancy with clients from all over the world. Please visit http://www.pragmites.com for more information and details.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Angira_Pandit

Related posts

• Trust, Expectations and SEO – A Shady Past – SEM (0)
• SMO Instead of SEO (0)
• Search Engine Marketing – Tool to Get Success in the Online Market (0)
• Permission Marketing Online (0)
• Link Building For Proper SEO (0)

It is a video sharing network where users can share and upload videos of many categories and subjects.  They  has been around since February 2005 when the tidal wave of blogging was starting to become a household name.  A year later YouTube was acquired by Google, Inc. and is one of the top video sharing networks on the internet.  There are many reasons why people use video networks, many use this network for marketing and promoting products while others use it for the fun.  YouTube is totally FREE to join and is simple to setup.

It is categorized by channels to make it easier for users to find videos or to upload videos in a particular channel.  Many individuals that use them for marketing usually categorize their videos under “Guru”, a video depicting what they do for a living.  This is how many internet marketers separate their videos from the other millions of videos on the website.  The site is the third most visited website on the internet it can be a place where a person can market many products via YouTube for more exposure.

Since the service gives users step by step instructions on how to upload a video the marketing should not be the hard part.  When working with video websites to market your products/services it is simple and not only can you post your video on You Tube but you can post on a blog or site and even some of the top social networks on the internet.  Many social networks have links for video sharing through YouTube and can also help in marketing or promoting a product/service. 

All there is needed is a camera with microphone and a computer to upload your video to the database.  After that, you have the choice to upload it to your page or a social network through YouTube.  There have been many successful stories on how many entrepreneurs used YT to promote their business.  Not only can this service be used to share videos to one another, but also to broadcast your products/services to the entire world for marketing purposes

Nicole Thomas is a marketer and offers free advice to former basketball players who are looking to start a basketball business or becoming a professional basketball coach. Read more about the topic at http://www.afterbasketball.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicole_Thomas

Related posts

• YouTube Secret Weapon Review (0)
• YouTube Marketing Tactics – Become an Overnight Sensation (0)
• YouTube – Underground Video Marketing Strategies (0)
• YouTube – The 3 No-Nos of Video Marketing (0)
• YouTube – 8 Secrets to Generating More Viewing Clicks (0)