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Archive for February, 2012

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

By Sarah Faglio | Busienss 2 Community

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The social networking service Facebook was first created for just that reason – a network of social connections between friends, family, classmates etc.  Since its launch in February 2004, it has evolved into much more than just a social network between peers.  As of date, Facebook has over 800 million active users with more than 900 million objects of interaction (this includes pages, groups, events and community pages).  This social networking platforms has become a vital resource for businesses that want to extend their marketing campaigns virally to reach potential customers on the Internet.  Facebooks has continuously madebreakthroughs for many companies by enhancing their online presence and reach.

 

When businesses set up company pages on Facebook, they are able to reach out to a whole community of followers.  These pages can be as simple or thorough as the company wants – it depends on how well they use all the resources available to them through Facebook pages.  Once your company creates a page, they need to continuously update it and post new content to establish and maintain interaction with its followers.  After a user chooses to “Like“ your company page, they will receive your post updates onto their mini-feed.  How efficiently you use your company page will determine how effective it will be. 

 

Top 10 Ways To Get the Most Out of Your Facebook Company Page

 

1. Creative title that is descriptive of your business
2. Location tab makes it easier for followers to find your business location.
3. Information tab has basic information and an overview of your company describing what it does and what it offers to its customers.  It also provides website and other social media links.
4. Post updates on your page’s wall that provides valuable information and are interesting to followers.  This includes blog, website, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and news updates pertinent to the industry.
5. Photo and video updates of products, business, events or campaigns that are appealing to followers.
6. Quizzes and opinion polls/surveys that envoke engagement and interaction with followers.
7. Contest and promotions allow followers to interact with company offers or contests in the hopes of winning a prize.
8. Calendar events update and remind followers of dates and times of business campaigns, fundraisers, gatherings or other events.
9. Facebook advertising allows you to display ads to a targeted market to direct them to either your Facebook page or company website.
10. Notes lead to discussions among followers and business owners and fosters communication between the two.

 

Recent research shows that it is important to keep posts short.  Study results show that posts with 80 characters or less had 27% greater engagement rate than longer posts.  Hard-selling approaches are also the least effective.  Posts using words like “events” and “winning” gained more activity than those with words like “buy” and “shop.”  Also, the best days to post updates to your page are Thursdays and Fridays, which were 18% more popular than other days.  Posting after regular business hours increased engagement by 20%.

 

Facebook is an excellent application that offers companies a free resource to enhance their online presence and reach potential customers.  By creating a company page you are able to develop a following and create fan engagement through valuable and relevant content on a regular basis and use resourceful interactive applications.  Facebook pages give your company the opportunity to engage followers, publicize sponsored events, promote campaigns and discuss topics of interest to your industry or mission.

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

By Sarah Faglio | Busienss 2 Community

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As businesses both large and small start off a new year of online marketing efforts, a lot of which are focused around social media marketing and Inbound Marketing, it’s important to step back and evaluate if you’re overlooking any areas of low-hanging fruit that can make an immediate impact. One area that is commonly overlooked is the discipline of social media optimization (SMO), which starts with the proper optimization of your social media profiles. Here’s an overview on how you can ensure your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube profiles are properly optimized for search. Note: The optimization of LinkedIn company profiles will be covered in a future post.

 

Facebook

 

Facebook continues to be the golden child and area of focus for many company’s social media marketing efforts, especially for B2C companies. Although the optimization of a Facebook page is probably the most straightforward of the social platforms highlighted here, companies still overlook the basics.

 

 

Page Title Tag: similar to the page title tag on one of the pages of your website, search engines pull the main name of your Facebook page as the page title tag. Although you can work keywords into your page name it’s best practice to establish the branding of your page with your official company name.

 

Page Meta Description: the ‘About’ field on your Facebook page acts as the meta description for your page, so it appears in search directly below the page name. This is your opportunity to describe your page with the use of some target keywords, keeping in mind you have 140 characters to do so.

 

Keyword-rich Posts: everytime you make a new post on your page is an oppotunity to work in the use of target keywords, so ensure your posts are always keyword-rich without going overboard.

 

Twitter

 

Another widely utilized but under optimized social media platform is Twitter, which similar to Facebook is fairly straightforward.

 

 

Page Title Tag: companies most commonly use their formal company name for their Twitter profile/username, which appears as the title tag for the profile in search, but some have chosen to also work in the use of keywords with their company name if they’re available.

 

Page Meta Description: the ‘Bio’ field on your Twitter page acts as the meta description and is the best place to optimize with a keyword-rich description for your profile.

 

Inbound Link: although it’s considered a nofollow link make sure you include the link to your website or blog, which can be good for referral traffic.

 

Keyword-rich Posts: the same rule applies here; everytime you tweet is an oppotunity to work in the use of target keywords.

 

Google+

 

It’s already known that Google+ business profiles have search engine optimization (SEO) benefits, especially if you take advantage of fully optimizing your profile.

 

 

Page Title Tag: it’s been said that Google isn’t as lax about the use of keywords in your page/profile name, so stick with using your actual company name.

 

Page Meta Description: the ‘Headline’ and ‘Introduction’ fields act as your page’s meta description in search, so once again be sure they include the use of keywords.

 

Inbound Links: Google+ pages present the option to embed links within your profile’s introduction in addition to the ability to feature numerous “recommended links”. Although these are nofollow links this can be a great way to drive traffic to your site, blog and other social media profiles.

 

YouTube

 

Last but not least is an overview of how you can optimize your YouTube channel.

 

 

Page Title Tag: knowing YouTube is owned by Google and Google’s position on the use of keywords in your profile name, it’s best to stick with your company name which acts as your page title tag in search. This will also ensure people will find your channel when they search your company.

 

Page Meta Description: your channel description acts as the meta description.

 

Inbound Link: once again this is a nofollow link but it’s worth adding for potential referral traffic.

 

Keyword-rich Copy & Tags: as you build out the profile on your channel take the time to work in target keywords.

 

Optimized Video Postings: similar to every post on Facebook or tweet on Twitter, every new video post on your channel should contain an optimized title and description, and use appropriate tags. Read our post on 5 Ways To Optimize YouTube Videos for SEO Success.

 

Hopefully this post gives you the motivation and know-how to ensure your social media profiles are fully optimized for search. If your company is leveraging the power of LinkedIn, be sure to check back for a future post on optimizing your LinkedIn company page.

 

 

 

 

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

By Frank Isca | Busienss 2 Community

Many have tried, and failed, to write a good post about how to SEO a Facebook fan page.

For example, optimizing the filename of your profile picture is one popular piece of advice that doesn’t really matter, considering Facebook just renames the file something like 198135_10150109366….jpg. Another popular tip: you should link to your main website from your Facebook page. Yes, you should for visitors. But this doesn’t optimize your fan page because Facebook just nofollows, redirects, and clusters your URL in a mess of code anyway.

So let’s take a different approach to Facebook SEO today.

I want you to imagine that your Facebook fan page is your website – or another website for your brand at least. While it may not ever rank first for a keyword, you still want it to be optimized.

If you want to keyword optimize your Facebook fan page, these are the areas that actually pull SEO elements from your page’s content for additional optimization.

Your Facebook Fan Page SEO

• SEO title: The name of your page plus | Facebook.
• Meta description: The name of your page plus the About description of your page, followed by | Facebook.
• H1: The name of your page.

This is like the search optimization of the homepage of your fan page / website. If you didn’t consider keyword optimization when you created it, and you have less than 100 fans, you’re in luck. You can still change your page’s name.

Two things to keep in mind aside from search optimization includes:

• Branding: It may be more important to have your page as a recognizable brand than a specific keyword phrase.
• Appearance: Whenever you comment as your page, or people tag your page, your entire name will come up, so if you’re page is Your Brand – Keyword, Keyword, and Keywords it might look a bit excessive (and lead to less tagging).

Your title can be as long as you choose, but keep in mind the standard length of SEO titles (70 characters) before getting too crazy. Also, since your page name is also a part of your meta description, you might not want it to make it too long and overshadow that.

To edit your About information to make a great meta description, go to your page and Edit Page > Basic Information, and fill in the About field with a 140 character description like you would with any website meta description.

Facebook Fan Page Updates

• SEO Title: The first 18 characters of your update.

If you’re posting a standard status update, the SEO title will be pulled from the first 18 characters (approximately 18 characters, sometimes a bit less). The following update by Search Engine Watch’s fan page has a title of Yahoo Search, which is pretty good.

If you’re posting a link to your fan page wall, you’ll have an option to “Say something about this link…” – the first 18 characters of what you enter in this field are going to be the SEO title for the individual page of that status update.

If you don’t post something there, the SEO title for your update will just be Facebook. Plus it won’t take up as much real estate in someone’s news feed, which means it will be less noticeable. So I would suggest that, regardless of whether you care about the SEO, you fill this part out when adding a link to your wall.

If you’re concerned about optimizing your updates while considering them as individual pages for your overall fan page / website (click on the timestamp for any update to see it on its own page), then you might want to consider sticking some keywords right at the beginning of your comment.

Using the above example, I could simply put the post category / main keyword as start the update such as Google Analytics and then write the rest of my comment. If I continued this trend with my updates, my fan page would have lots of “pages” underneath it optimized for my main keywords.

The best part is, unlike Twitter status updates that don’t go that far back, you can see your Facebook fan page updates at least two years – mine go all the way back to when I created my fan page, which was in February 2009.

Facebook Fan Page Notes

• SEO Title: The title of your note plus | Facebook.
• Meta Description: Your page name wrote a note titled the title of your note plus | Facebook.

Facebook notes – they don’t get a lot of love anymore, but they do have a more controllable SEO title when you create them and, of course, they add to the additional “pages” underneath your fan page / website. Notes allow you to add lengthier updates to your fan page without having to take your fans offsite to get more of your content.

Some people use them to syndicate their blog posts on their fan page, but I find this feature is a little inconsistent. Unique notes, on the other hand, could add more value to your page.

Facebook Fan Page Discussion Topics

• SEO Title: The title of your discussion’s topic | Facebook.

Ever wanted a little forum / discussion board, but don’t want to invest in forum software? Facebook has an often-overlooked discussion board, with each topic giving you a little SEO title credit.

It might be a nice place for you to have discussions with your fans that they don’t necessarily want on your wall. If you don’t have one on your profile already, you can get it by going to theDiscussion Board and using the Add to My Pagelink to add it to your pages.

Your Facebook Fan Page SEO Tips

Those are the parts of the Facebook fan page that I’ve found specifically have controllable SEO titles, descriptions, and so forth. What other parts of the Facebook fan page have you tried optimizing for SEO, and what results have you seen?

Editor’s note: This column originally was published on September 20, 2011, and comes in at No. 6 on our countdown of the 10 most popular Search Engine Watch columns of 2011. Over the final two weeks of 2011, we’re celebrating the Best of 2011 by revisiting our most popular columns, as determined by our readers. Enjoy and keep checking back!

 

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

By Kristi Hines | Search Engine Watch

 

As technology advances, so does our means of communications with others and the public.  The radio and television were two technological mediums that companies used to advertise to their target audience.  However, since the mid-1990s, the Internet has drastically changed the way we share information.  It has turned into a new way for businesses to market their products or services directly to their target audience.  Online platforms, such as websites and social media, offer a lot to companies such as higher ROI on their marketing campaigns and more business.

Research shows that more than half of all U.S. residents and more that 3/4 of all U.S. adults are online.  A recent survey found that 92% of online adults use search engines to find information on the Internet, with 59% who do so on a typical day.  Of these daily searches, 46% are forinformation on products or services.  89% of U.S. Internet users search online before they make a purchase, even when the purchase is made at a local business.  With an astounding amount of people and potential customers online, it is important for companies to have an online presence so they do not miss out on opportunities and business that could be found on the Internet.

Top 5 Ways to Create Strong Online Presence

1. Website – This allows companies to post valuable information about their company and their products or services.  It is a centralized location where users can learn about what the company has to offer.  60% of all organic clicks go to the top three organic search results.  With correct SEO and keyword placement and number of indexed pages, websites are able to rank on search engine results – helping them get found by users who are searching for topics related to their company.  Stats:

2. Blogging – 65% of daily internet users read a blog.  By keeping a frequent blog, 2-3 times a week, you are contributing to your website’s SEO and are generating traffic to your site.  B2B companies that blog generate67% more leads per month than those that do not.  Businesses that blog at least 20 times a month generate 5 times more traffic and 4 times more leads than those who only blog a few times a month.  Blog posts need to be valuable and remarkable content and need to be of interest to your target audience.  Instead of solely company news, you should write about industry updates or other information that is of value to your target audience.  By continuously updating your blog with industry updates and information you are positioning yourself as a subject matter expert.  Also, by opening up the comment box, you are allowing direct communication between you and your potential customer – a place where you can offer advice and suggestions.

3. Facebook – 93% of U.S. adult Internet users are on Facebook.  As of date, there are more than 800 million active users on Facebook.  When users “like” company pages get updates made to the business’s profile, such as new wall posts (blog and industry news updates), pictures, videos, discussion questions and more.  Facebook allows companies to easily provide updates to followers as well as interact with users via comments.

4. Twitter -  There are 100 million monthly active users on Twitter with over 250 million daily tweets.  Companies with over 1,000 Twitter followers get 6 times more traffic.  70% of U.S. Twitter users are more likely to recommend the brands that they follow.  Twitter accounts allow companies to share quick industry or company news, as well as blog posts to followers.  Since posts are only allowed to be 140 characters, they are read quickly by followers, allowing them to easily decide if the topic is of interest to them.  These updates can link back to your website or blog to drive traffic to updates you have made.  With more than 1/2 of active Twitter users following companies, brands or products, it is important to make sure your company creates a continuously updated page for them to engage with.

5. LinkedIn – As of date, there are over 135 million professionals on LinkedIn.  Company profiles allow businesses to connect with other professionals and establish themselves in a professional setting.  They are also able to provide status updates on industry or company news as well as blog and Twitter updates to its followers.  It grants companies the opportunity to network with others in their industry as well as become members in groups consisting of other members that may be of interest to them.

Establishing your company on the Internet allows your business to develop its online presence and reach towards potential customers.  Websites provide information to help users make an informed decision about their buying purchases.  Social media platforms keep users updated on the company and industry.  Actually, 71% of Internet users are more likely to purchase based on social media referrals.  By making use of what the Internet can offer your company, you have the opportunity to boost your sales and business.

 

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

By Sarah Faglio | Business 2 Community