Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the challenging aspects of managing a website. For many businesses, it’s easier to hire someone to manage SEO and not have to think about it at all, while others prefer to keep everything in-house by using this seo video or similar ones to gain as much as knowledge as they can about it and use their knowledge by themselves to minimize company expenses. You may be surprised to know that there are plenty of no-cost, easy thing you can do to improve your search rankings, without the assistance of an expensive search agency. As major search engines consistently change and improve their ranking algorithms it is actually getting easier for your website to rank well, assuming you’re playing by the rules.

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford University in 1995 they developed a search site called BackRub, which was later renamed Google. Since it was launched Google has ranked websites according to their relevance to the search term. The primary method for gaining relevance in the eyes of Google has been the almighty link.

Why links don’t matter… as much

Links have long been one of the best ways to improve your search rankings. In fact, an entire line of SEO products and services have been developed to service that one need. For example, you can buy software that will automatically search for sites to link to your site; then send them an automated email asking for a link back. In other words, you’re asking the webmaster for that site to setup a link to your site. Usually, this is in exchange for a reciprocal link on your own site. Furthermore, there are countless services that will do nothing but search for sites to link back to yours. You can also buy software to spam forums and community sites with postings that contain a link. I am sure you have all seen an interesting blog post or conversation in a forum with one user that posted: “interesting blog post, buy your generic drugs from this site”.

In the past decade the search engines have started getting smart to these less-than-reputable search optimization methods (aka Blackhat SEO). No one knows for sure how important links are in the current search algorithms, but what is certain is that quantity is far less important than quality. If my site has 1,000 link-backs from random websites that have no relevance to my site, that will carry very little weight in Google’s ranking algorithm. However, if you have only a few links from very high quality sites in your industry, that will help significantly. The automated software, spambots, and overseas link building service are essentially useless for effective and reputable search optimization.

So what does work?

Update Your Site Frequently: Keeping your site updated with fresh, relevant content is a great way to keep the search engines coming back to index more of your site. The best way to do this is to include a blog on your site and/or Twitter/Facebook feeds. Updating a daily or weekly blog adds fresh, original content to your site and lends relevance in your industry. For example, if you write an interesting blog post about something in your industry, other site may link to it. These sites would likely be industry-relevant sites, hence lending more credibility to your own site. I could dedicate an entire blog posting to the benefits of blogging for your business, but you get the point. For small businesses it is essential to dominate your local search engine results page. Check out www.calescence.com/services/local-seo/ for full website optimization necessary for local search terms.

Use Headlines and Sub Headlines: One of the first things a competent SEO agency or consultant will tell you is that they need to reorganize the content on your website. The way Google and other search engines determine the subject of the content on your site is through your headline tags. For example, if there is a paragraph about the best way to use your widgets, make sure there is a bold headline above it that says “The best way to use our widgets”. Google can actually determine the subject of your site by reading these headline tags and evaluating if the copy that follows is relevant. To learn more about formatting text check out this article.

Limit the Flash: Though Flash technology has fallen in and out of favor amongst web designers, it is still very prevalent on the web. One thing remains true; search engines hate Flash. Why? Well, they can’t read it. If you have a fancy Flash element on your website the search engine has no way to determine what the Flash is about. Surprisingly, many businesses still create their entire website in Flash. Yes, it looks pretty but it will have a difficult time ranking well in search engines. Furthermore, the hundreds of millions of iPhone users out there will not be able to see your site due to the iPhone/Flash restriction. Instead of your website, the user will see a little blue Lego-like icon with a question mark on it. Not very effective.

I hope this brief overview of good SEO practices was helpful. To read more, check out this artifcle on pleasing Google.

I know, the thought of creating a new social network profile is not too appealing. I wasn’t so sure about Google+ when I first checked it out, but it is legit and here to stay. Of course, when I canceled my Myspace.com account and signed up for Facebook I felt the same way. Why do I need another social network?

For your personal circle of “friends” it is entirely likely that you do not need another social network. Facebook has over 750 million users and is on track to hit 1 Billion by next year. There is no question it will be a major platform for the foreseeable future. However, for business users, you’re going to have to get on the Google+ bandwagon.

Google+ has announced it will have a “business profiles” feature by the end of the year. Once companies are able to create business profiles, you are going to start seeing Google+ in a lot of marketing. Once that happens, the user base will take off. So why do you care?

Google+ for Business will have many advantages over Facebook for Business. For starters, Google is a search platform and it is very likely they will integrate Google+ Business results into their Google Search platform. Since Google is the number one search engine in the world, it’s not going to be a bad thing for your business to be on there. As you probably noticed, they have already started the integration of the Google+ icon.

You also have to consider all of the other products and services Google offers, then think about the integration possibilities. For businesses that utilize the Google platform for other things, like Google Docs, Apps, Analytics, Adwords, YouTube (owned by Google), the possibilities are limitless, so it’s not a bad wagon to hitch your social strategy to.

One of the features I really love about Google+ is that you can separate out your friends by different categories, friends, family and acquaintances. Let’s be honest, not everyone in your current list of Facebook Friends is actually a friend. Although, the definition of a friend has probably lost a lot of meaning since social networks came around.

Right now Google+ is in an “invite only” testing phase. I happened to have some invites, so if you’re interested shoot me an email.

Having been in the social networking arena ourselves for a mere 2 years, we found this Forbes article to be particularly interesting. Social Networking has become a “must” for most businesses, but there are still some myths on how to best incorporate social media into a company’s overall marketing campaign. Here are the Ten Myths according to Forbes Magazine. We’d like to know, how has your company been using Social Networking?

Marketers spend a lot of time talking about how to acquire new customers and, perhaps, not enough time talking about keeping them. However, as the economy continues to struggle companies are starting to really value the business they do have, and are looking for ways to maintain relationships. You have a sales force that is working the phones and pounding the pavement trying to find new business, so they probably aren’t spending enough time on maintaining relationships.

Recently I read an article about the most hated companies in America. There were few surprises, banks, airlines, and utilities. But when you read why they are so hated, there is one common theme, communication. The companies on this list seemingly all do a bad job of communicating with their customers. The travel and banking industries are highly competitive, so it’s not too surprising that most of their resources go to customer acquisition. The utilities, well, what can you say about them? Their customer service is usually pretty bad, but I just think people resent having to pay so much for bad television and overpriced phone plans.

As a side note, you may want to read the list of the best-liked companies. To no one’s surprise, we Americans like food and cars!

So how can you maintain a relationship with your customer base while keeping your sales force focused on new business?

In the b-to-c world social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter work well. You can create fun content, apps and things for your customers to share. Subway is a good example of a company that does this well. They are constantly having contests that require you to signup online and share content with your friends. Their Facebook page is well designed and promotes their brand. They have 7.9 million “likes” and over 250,000 people have “checked-in” at one of their stores.

For b-to-b companies, engaging your customers is a bit more difficult. Marketers have to deal with strict company policies on accepting prizes and sharing company information, so social networking doesn’t work quite as well. Furthermore, many large companies restrict access to these sites in the office.

Direct mail is a highly effective way of communicating with your customer base.  Automotive companies have used high-impact direct mail to send their dealer networks information about new car accessories and services. Recently, a large insurance provider sent a highly effective campaign to insurance agents who used to carry their product, but no longer do. The integrated campaign included a high-impact direct mail piece that drove people to a landing page. The site included tons of resources for the agents including information on how their business could benefit from carrying this insurance company’s products. Another insurance company used a similar campaign to help their agents learn how to market their businesses. The response was overwhelming and it helped solidify the relationship between the agents and the insurance company.

I was recently talking to my brother-in-law that owns a small restaurant in upstate New York. He was showing me a nice box of fine foods that one of his food purveyors’ recently sent him. It was an elegant looking box that simply said “we appreciate your business”. The box itself was probably pricy to print, and the products were all sold by the company, so it was as much a sales effort as it was a customer retention effort. But just in talking with my brother-in-law I know for sure that it was worth its weight in gold. He felt appreciated by the company, and there is no lack of food purveyors in his area.

My guess is you do business with at least one of the companies on the least-liked list. How do you feel as a customer of that company? Is it the same way your customers feel about your company?