It’s pretty safe to say that managing the clients’ or boss’ expectations in this turbulent environment are almost more difficult than the moving target of SEO itself.

Over the past three years, the SEO landscape has changed for the better, with Google’s continued and unwavering focus on the concept of relevance. However, three aspects of SEO haven't changed at the same pace. The outcome is often a gap in expectations between the team delivering SEO services and the client literally banking on the results.

The three aspects of SEO that haven't changed at the same pace as the SEO industry include:

1. The way SEO services are marketed and sold.
2. The processes around how SEO is delivered and reported on.
3. The ability for agencies and in-house teams to prove the ROI of SEO efforts.

But the importance of SEO in the digital marketing mix remains unchanged and unchallenged. There are consistently 1 billion Google searches performed every day with 94 percent of those searchers clicking on organic search results over paid search results. Patience will continue to be a virtue to the marketer who invests in SEO over the long run.

Here are 10 SEO truths, based on conversations with agencies, in-house marketing teams and end clients over the past 12 months

SEO Truth #1: Rank Doesn’t Matter, Conversion Does

If I had a dime for every time I heard the statement, “Oh, we don’t need SEO, we already rank number one for [insert keyword here].”

I witness many SEO conversations where improvement in rank or position is the focus without any consideration given to web page visits and conversions. Many prospects, clients, and bosses are lost in the infatuation of ranking first in Google. Unfortunately, because that’s what they want to pay for, that’s what they are sold and/or what we attempt to prove to them.

The more important metric is conversion.
It could be that a client wants to rank first for "HR Software", and they currently rank fifth for that keyword with a conversion rate of 5 percent, while a similar keyword phrase, ‘HR Software for SMBs’, has a conversion rate of 10 percent and is ranked ninth. Clearly the latter should be the focus since it already has a higher conversion rate with a lower rank.

Assigning resources to understanding the opportunities throughout the web presence, and optimizing content for the keyword "HR Software for SMBs" is a better investment of time and money.

SEO Truth #2: Great SEO Results Require Great SEO Data

SEO is the ongoing process of understanding a web presence, how it compares to the competition, which keywords are driving organic search conversion, and optimizing for those keywords by producing fresh, relevant content. This process is impossible without access to accurate, timely data about that web presence including:

• Page-level rank.
• Backlink and social signal data.
• Organic search keyword research.
• Competitive intelligence.
• Analytics conversion data.

Basing SEO decisions on old, inaccurate SEO data will yield corresponding SEO results. SEO data is the starting point to the entire SEO process and outcome.

Great insights will lead to great outcomes. SEO data and SEO software should be considered a cost of doing business or executing a campaign just as email marketing campaigns require an email marketing platform.

SEO Truth #3: Report on Social Signals Just Like Backlinks

Think of social signals as the new backlink. Now don’t get me wrong, backlinks are still important to organic search and should continue to be reported on, but social signals also deserve ongoing focus and integration into an SEO strategy.

It has been two years since Google and Bing announced that social signals now account for 8 percent to 10 percent of their organic search algorithms. Agencies and in-house SEO teams need to demonstrate that they are increasing the number of Likes, shares, +1s, tweets, retweets and YouTube Views at both the web page level and the network level. Social signal metrics should be included in the monthly SEO report as well.

SEO Truth #4: SEO Technology is Telling

Just as a sales consultant hired to improve sales processes and ultimately conversion rates would not attempt to do so without customer relationship management (CRM) software, neither should an SEO agency or in-house team attempt to effectively improve a web presence for SEO without some support and assistance from technology.

There are many SEO software and tool options – from full software systems to standalone tools. The technology and tools you select can make or break you, too.

SEO technology is required more today than ever before in order to assist in the ongoing efforts of keyword research, rank checking, competitive analysis, backlink discovery and tracking, content tracking, analytics, social signal monitoring and monthly reporting capabilities.

Going it alone, without the support of a technological foundation to track a web presence on a daily basis for the purpose of ranking higher organically in the search engines is like trying to do email marketing by BCCing your list from MS Outlook – your deliverability rates, open rates, and conversion rates will be immeasurable and less than expected.

SEO Truth #5: Daily Insights into SEO Metrics is Essential

The SEO reporting cycle is still very much a monthly process (although I’m seeing this standard move to weekly with larger agencies and marketing teams). Having daily and weekly insight into all the SEO metrics included in an SEO campaign is important to understand how your efforts are tracking towards the ultimate goal.
Having the insight and intelligence to adjust the goal if more or less progress is being made than anticipated can only be accomplished with daily insight into accurate SEO data and metrics.

SEO Truth #6: A Backlink Strategy Without a Content Marketing Strategy is Just Plain Scary

Even after all the Panda, Penguin and Freshness updates, it's still amazing to see some agencies providing quotes to clients where the main thrust of the contract is a promise to build x number of backlinks per month. SEOs should continue to deliberately build backlinks in directories that are industry or locally specific to the client, but that’s where deliberate backlink building should end.

To build long-term, non-spammy backlinks, an optimized content marketing strategy is required where fresh relevant optimized content is being produced on a consistent basis.

Content may be in the form of blogs, press releases, case studies, and whitepapers wherein the content contains keywords that are driving organic search conversions as well as naturally occurring backlinks to the main corporate website. Not only will this approach to backlink building withstand the test of time, it will also create social signals which will also positively impact the web presence.

SEO Truth #7: Spend Less Time on Reporting, More Time on SEO

A typical SEO contract consists of analysis, recommendations, implementation, and reporting. The most painful of which is reporting – mashing together end-of-month reports from multiple data sources to demonstrate progress to the end client, never mind trying to make it look pretty. Laborious, repetitive reporting takes away too much time from what will really pay off – the doing of SEO.
This reinforces truth #4: SEO Technology is Telling. Making use of technology for weekly or monthly automated reporting will allow for more time being spent on the task of SEO which will yield better results for the client and will allow you to scale your business.

SEO Truth #8: Think Outside the Google Search Box

Yes, Google continues to be the entity that SEOs attempt to please, and rightfully so. I can’t see this focus changing in the near or distant future either.
With the continual convergence of social media and SEO, we also need to think about the prospect of searchers starting their searches directly on social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. A web presence should be represented for its branded keyword phrases within these sites as well.
Test your branded keywords and test your clients’ branded keywords to see if they return the expected search results on these social networks. If not, optimize!

SEO Truth #9: Communicate the CTR Opportunity Gap by Keyword

Once there is an understanding of the high-converting keywords, it is worth the exercise of applying paid search volume data with organic click-through rates (CTRs) to communicate the opportunity gap between ranking ninth versus third.
Let’s use the keyword “HR Software” as an example. The total Google search volume (U.S., Canada, and Australia) is 2,120 searches per month, combined with the fact that 94 percent of searchers click through on organic search results (GroupM UK and Nielsen, August 2012). Given Optify’s CTR data for positions 1 through 20, the opportunity gap can be communicated to the client.

Position 9 will yield 60 clicks per month (2 clicks per day * 30 days) while increasing to Position 3 will yield 180 clicks per month (6 clicks per day * 30 days) presenting an opportunity gap of 180-60 = 120 clickthroughs per month. What value does this translate into for the client?

SEO Truth #10: It’s About the Hierarchy of Web Presence Optimization

Search engine optimization is now more about web presence optimization. As the ways we sell and deliver SEO services continue to evolve, the hierarchy of web presence optimization is a model that may help structure sales contracts and service delivery tasks while ensuring that keyword metrics are focused on conversion, backlinks are built out effectively, and social signals are integrated into the overall SEO strategy.

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Where is Digital Marketing Heading in 2013? Find Out at SES New York.

Guest blogging is a win-win strategy used by websites and blogs owners in order to increase their pages’ visibility on the web. The host bloggers see it as an opportunity to obtain fresh content without having to write it themselves or to pay a ghostwriter for the job. Moreover, guest blogs bring a different perspective and new topics. On the other hand, guest writers are rewarded a number of backlinks towards their own pages. This helps their SEO and drives more traffic to their website.
Despite its great potential for both parties, guest blogging is rarely properly done. Here are a few tips to help you build a successful guest blogging strategy:

1. Take the time to study the host website

Guest blogging is not only an optimizing strategy. It is also a way of getting your voice heard across the web. Browsing the website you are planning to submit your post to will allow you understand what its readership is. You will thus be able to choose an interesting topic and to adapt your writing style accordingly. Take the host website’s architecture into consideration when picking your topic and check whether the subject hasn’t already been approached. If this is the case, ask yourself the following question: Can I bring a different perspective and new pieces of information? If the answer is negative, brainstorm for another topic.

2. Write for your audience

A common mistake bloggers frequently do is writing for search engines and losing sight of their readers. If they want to increase their pages’ position, most webmasters will reject over-optimized keywords stuffed articles for a simple reason: Google penalizes such blogging behavior and no one wants to fall in the disgrace of the virtual world’s major player. Research your keywords and introduce them naturally, without overdoing it.

3. Turn the author’s bio into a marketing tool

Craft a detailed bio, providing the relevant pieces of information that position you as an expert in the field you are writing about. This increases your words’ credibility. With the amount of information currently available on the World Wide Web, anyone can write about anything. However, this does not make them experts in the topic they are blogging about. Therefore, when writing the bio, explain your readers why they should take your opinions into consideration.

4. Respect your quality standards

If your article is meant to be uploaded on somebody else’s blog, this does not mean that you don’t have to respect your usual quality standards. Structure your ideas, pick your words, and check your spelling and grammar as if you were writing for your own website. After all, each guest post takes back to your pages. A poorly organized article or one filled with typos is not likely to persuade readers to click on the links you inserted. Such a guest post will bring little benefits to your blog.

5. Check your facts

Informative well written articles are more likely to be accepted. Do your homework, make a proper research and check your facts. Nothing could be more embarrassing both for you and for the webmaster who has published your post than a comment proving your sayings wrong.

6. Avoid self promotion

It is true that guest blogging is meant to make your pages more visible and to drive traffic towards them, but too much self promotion will only decrease your post’s chances of being accepted. The best strategy is to find blogs and websites focused on an adjacent topic. For instance, if you have a photography blog, you can look for travel, wedding or party planning websites.

7. Choose your host carefully

Just like in the offline world, the entourage says many things about you. This is a crucial criteria search engines use to calculate a website’s page rank. Therefore, evaluate your relationships carefully. Spammers are the worst alliance within the blogging world. A glance at Alexa toolbar will provide you with valuable information about your potential host. Check out the website’s rank, the back links redirecting to it and the traffic flow its pages have been driving.

8. Introduce yourself

When pitching a guest blogging opportunity, start by introducing yourself. You don’t have to send over your curriculum vitae. Keep things simple. Provide your potential host bloggers with the pieces of information they need in order to trust you. It is advisable you use your real name, but even if you don’t, be persistent. Pick a suggestive pen name and stick to it. When approaching a blogger for the first time, show samples of previous posts you have published and come up with a topic. You could also mention the social media channels through which you are planning to promote your post. Proving that you have a good number of Facebook likes or Twitter followers may give you more chances to have your post accepted.

9. Create a personal relationship

The first step is to personalize your message. Canned e-mails put people off and this will decrease your chances of getting an answer, left aside having your article published. Then, try to engage with your peer webmaster on topics that would concern you both. You may not get together for a beer, especially if your host blogger lives on the other side of the Earth, but it will help you open new doors and discover new opportunities.

10. Don’t take no for an answer

Although the above mentioned pieces of advice will certainly decrease your chances of rejection, nobody’s perfect. If your peer blogger does not accept your post, ask for details about the reasons. Remain polite and take the rejection as an improvement opportunity. Brush up your article and re-submit it, letting the host blogger know about the amendments you made and thanking for the chance.
By following these simple tips, you will increase your chances of having your posts accepted from the very first submission, even if you are approaching the most demanding webmasters. This will help you create valuable relationships within the blogging world and build a successful guest blogging campaign.

Source : 10 Awesome Tips for Successful Guest Blogging

Is your online marketing effective? What techniques can you add that will increase its effectiveness—and therefore your ROI? If you’re not currently using these seven techniques, you’re missing out on some of the most effective campaign options.

1. The Press Release

Just about any event with a business can be turned into a press release with the help of a skilled writer. Submitting those press releases to highly trafficked sites helps a business in two ways. First, it provides media coverage and gets the business’s name out there, and second, it boosts search engine rankings because of the high weight of links on these sites in the eyes of Google. To start using press releases, simply hire an experienced freelancer and submit them.

2. Retargeting

What happens when your marketing techniques work perfectly and a visitor comes to your site, only they fail to take action? Retargeting follows these visitors and tries to get them back to your site to complete their transaction. Retargeting can be implemented through email marketing and pay-per-click ads. With email marketing, you can send a follow up email to the visitor who left the site without making a purchase. With pay-per-click ads, you can set up your ad campaign to show ads pointing the visitor back to the page if he leaves without making a purchase.

3. Social Media Integration

You probably already know that you should be using social media to help market your site, but if it’s not integrated the rest of your marketing efforts, including blogging, email marketing and mobile marketing, you could be missing out. How can you do this? Just add sharing buttons to your content and email newsletters, then provide people with content they’ll be inclined to share. Then, create a viable presence for your business on several major social platforms. It will take off from there.

4. Effective Landing Pages

Landing pages are not new as an advertising technique, but making them effective is the difference between success and failure. One way to make your landing page more effective is to offer something. A limited time offer or special discount is going to tempt people to take action. Simply showing what you offer and asking them to buy is not going to be effective. Test different types of offers until you find the one that works for your target audience.

5. SoLoMo Marketing

SoLoMo marketing refers to marketing to “social, local, mobile” customers. People who are visiting your site on their mobile devices are increasingly social and interested in local marketing, because they are using their phones to find out what is available to them right now where they are. Capitalize on this by integrating local search terms into your mobile sites and ensuring that your sites are fully optimized for mobile users.

6. Phone Marketing

Not all marketing has to be digital. In fact, with the rise of digital marketing, some experts feel that picking up the phone and talking to your target market can be quite effective. If you have captured phone numbers for customers and clients, consider giving them a call. Call to ask for a quick feedback survey, and you’ll gather important information about your customers while making effective personal contacts.

7. Email Marketing

Email marketing isn’t dead. If you can target it well and provide the reader with something helpful, it can be quite effective. Consider pulling together a compelling newsletter that people will want to read. If you give them valuable information, they’ll be more inclined to click through and interact with your site.
Today’s marketers have a plethora of tools at their disposal. Knowing which ones to implement to effectively reach your target market is the key to success. With these seven ideas, you can create a successful online marketing campaign that will reach the modern audience.

Source : 7 Marketing Methods Every Internet Marketer Should Know

Social media has revamped the Internet through its ability to not only build influence, but also humanize a brand or individual. This counts as much in a content sharing environment as it does to the ability to impact online reputations. What’s more is that publishing to social networks is both simple and cheap. However, as great as social media outlets are there is also a battleground mentality present for people who are targeted by negative content. No matter how this information is published—a blog post, article, press release— it affects success.

Understanding how social media factors into reputation management is key. Remember, social networks are a veritable arsenal for the savvy user. They are free tools that will give you the ammunition you need to fight back against any negative post that may surface on the Internet. But in order to make it work, you have to know the tricks used by online reputation management pros. Read on to discover some winning strategies that produce positive results.

1. Picking the Right Social Media Platforms

You don’t have to be Mark Zuckerberg to understand that some social networks are more powerful than others, which impacts rankings. For this reason, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest are the best platforms. From there, you might want to check out Crunchbase and Quora. Neither is currently the “cool kid” amongst their social networking peers, but both rank well and allow for the profiling of tech companies and professionals as well as the posting of questions and answers, respectively.

2. Up the Ante on Your Social Media Activity

So you have to do more than simply create the account. Social media is about user engagement and content creation; you have to stay active if you want the account to work for you. Google ranks compelling, updated content higher than stagnant material. For this reason, a Facebook profile that has daily activity will rank higher than one that has been long forgotten. But it can’t just be all about hyper-promotional content either. Finding a good balance between sharing information, education and inspiration also assists in driving traffic and creating great backlinks, which serves to strengthen existing, positive assets.

3. Use Keywords Wisely

It’s a foregone conclusion that search engine optimization is an essential part of using social media to improve one’s online image, but recent Google updates have also impacted this, namely in the world of keywords. A few rules of thumb: Use the keyword in the page name or in the Twitter handle for best results. Additionally, planting the keyword in static content on a page or profile works best, i.e. look to the “about” section on a Facebook page.

Let’s face it, social media is about much more than just sharing pictures of your dog. When considered as a whole, social networks are a fantastic tool in online reputation management. By using these tactics, negative information can be suppressed and positive information will be promoted, which will assist in controlling the brand image that you want the public to see and remember.

Source : Social Media Tricks

A month ago, I covered how Matt Cutts of Google said guest blogging can be good. But shortly after writing that, a client emails me about where they should place links in their guest blogs. Should they place two or one.
I sent him the video and they respond, "okay, so how many links." It is like I want to bang my head against a wall.
Now, Matt Cutts created another video about "spammy" guest blogging and how Google will take action against it. Here is the video, watch it:



Source : seroundtable