Search engine marketing and optimization is not just for increasing search engine rankings. It is important to understand that once you believe in the power of SEO your mindset will begin to change and evolve into something much different. Eventually your thought process will move past just reaching search rankings and really building your business online. SEO is about building your brand and your business online.
Here are some advanced topics to increase your online brand building efforts:
Niche Industry Forums – Forums where one of the oldest forms of internet communication and still hold a tremendous amount of marketing and SEO value. Since many forums are much older your URL will be sitting on a nicely aged domain which is a great benefit. Some forums are still very heavily trafficked and if you find threads that you can really answer and participate in the conversation you can deliver some really nicely targeted website traffic to your website.
Video Sharing Sites – I know many of us have video sitting on video sharing websites already but how many of you actually use the features of the video sharing websites? YouTube and Vimeo both have powerful networking capabilities. Both have the ability to make friend requests and both have the ability to become highly visible in search results. It will take some time to sift around through the data but try making your way through the field of contacts on YouTube and Vimeo and start connecting with your audience in a different light.
User Generated Content – If you have an established website that already receives a generous amount of traffic user generated content can bring you loads of great SEO benefits. Everything from guest blog writers to product reviews can really help you increase your content amount along with generating a great deal of new web traffic.
Business Blog – Every website can benefit from have a business blog integrated into the structure of the site. Even if it is only updated a few times a month it allows a website to grow in size and strength. Over time that size and strength will allow the website to be much more visible in the search engines.
Search engine optimization does not stop at just rankings any longer. Years ago that was the name of the game but now you must take an advanced approach to marketing yourself online. SEO has become a branding game now so marketing your website as a business is vital regardless of what you offer.
How to Break Into the SEO Clique
If you are in the search engine optimization industry or you are trying to break into this incredibly saturated industry to make a name for yourself you might have a difficult time getting excepted into the circle of friends at the top of the food chain. The “elite” group that has been in the industry [...]
If you are in the search engine optimization industry or you are trying to break into this incredibly saturated industry to make a name for yourself you might have a difficult time getting excepted into the circle of friends at the top of the food chain. The “elite” group that has been in the industry since day one and think they are the all mighty of the industry. The SEO industry leaders have become a tough group of individuals to become friendly with and it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. All the “gurus” at the top that think they know every about everything seem to feel that they run this industry like they own it. The SEO industry is kind of like an open source program that should be treated like a group effort. There is plenty of business to go around. Lots of businesses out there that need help promoting themselves in the online space. People need to participate, communicate and get involved to make it a better place for everyone. One person tries something that works well they write about and things spread leading to better online marketing efforts.
I have been actively working in the internet marketing industry for over 12 years, have built Brick Marketing for 5 years successfully and have helped hundreds of clients in the field of SEO yet my educational comments that I leave on certain search engine marketing blogs get deleted, why do you think this happens? Leaving all names aside a certain someone contacted me not too long ago and asked me to stop commenting on a certain blog. Yes, I left a comment on each blog very frequently but isn’t that the whole purpose of starting a blog. These where all well written comments that where generated with real thought process adding to the overall message the blog post was trying to convey. Isn’t the whole idea of a blog to get the community interacting in your conversation? Since when is it bad to leave an educated comment on someone’s blog? Even if the frequency was high it shouldn’t really matter. I have seen this occur with other websites as well. I have seen the tone of this click with others trying to make a name for themselves in the industry and I often see a certain nastiness resonating in the tone of a variety of online discussions. Don’t get me wrong I understand this is a tough industry and if you spend some time in it you get beat up a little but that doesn’t mean you have to be nasty to your colleagues and peers around you especially if they own and operate a successful search engine marketing firm. I apologize if I have not visited you at the trade shows and stroked your ego like many people do. Is it that I don’t kiss the asses of every individual in the “cool group”?
There is plenty of room in the school yard for everyone to get along. Is it because I am a threat to them or the industry? Sometimes I feel like this industry is a lot like high school all over again. You got your cool kids that think they are too good for everyone else and you got everyone else trying to shine in front of their eyes. I by no means want to break into the “cool” click and become one of those has to have their ass kissed by everyone else.
Why is it so hard for people in this industry to come together and work as a team? I understand that everyone is trying to grow their own business but there is no reason why so many internet marketing professionals have to have such a cold shoulder towards each other. We are all in the same game and we do the best we can to provide our clients with great service.
If you are an internet marketer or SEO person do you feel like our industry is heading in this direction as well? Please leave your comments and any related experiences or stories below!