PPC is not always easy and can be expensive. The following graphic may explain why some of you are spending a lot on PPC. Click on the image for a larger image.

I have talked a lot this month about Social Media:

• Don’t Believe Everything You Hear / See In Social Media
• Your Social Media Campaign is Doomed to Fail
• What Industry Experts Look for On Twitter

Social Media Done Right is Not Easy

I have to say it again, it bothers me immensely to see so many businesses offering Social Media services and they really don’t know how to create a strategy, how to be effective and how to measure results and failures (both are important). I am going to go over the basics of creating a social media plan.

Components

Goals

Whenever you plan anything you must have a goal or goals in mind. The same goes for Social Media. What are your goals? Have you clearly defined these goals? What do you want to achieve? What do you need to receive to make your investment in social media worthwhile? Goals can be about engagement, advertising, leads, conversion, links…really consider why you are getting into social media and review your goals before you start. (always ask yourself, are my goals achievable?)

Target Your Audience(s)

What are your target markets? Who is going to be needing what you have to offer? Where are these audiences? Can you engage them? Create customer profiles and really research and plan strategies that will help you meet your goals. A quick list of what to consider when targeting an audience:

• Age
• Interests
• Gender
• Locations
• Personalities
• Customer Needs

Offer Something  - of Quality!

• Educate your audience – from the beginners to the advanced.
• Solve problems.
• Entertain, but don’t offend!
• Offer discounts or coupon codes.
• Listen and Answer.
• Be real and kind.
• What are your competitors now doing/offering – d0 it, offer it and be better!

Not everything you offer should come from your own site. Show that you know there is quality info out there and provide it. You are not losing business to others; you are proving that you are educated on the subjects you discuss.

Engage

Be engaged with your followers and those that are checking you out to determine if they want to follow you. Always be engaged with those that have questions about your business. You create relationships by engaging and the positive relationships are the key to your Social Media success! You can also use these relationships and interactions to ask questions and research.

Advertise Who You Are, But Subtly

If all you do is talk about yourself, your business and how great you are you will have no followers. People are looking for quality information and relationships…subtly keep your business or self in them mix. Promoting blog posts and specials are an easy and effective way to do that.

Measurement

Things to Think About When Planning

• How much time do you have to be involved in Social Media?
• Which platforms will you use?
• Which monitoring options will you use?
• Are your goals realistic?
• How will you measure success? Each goal should have some form of measurement that tells you whether or not your have succeeded or not. Which social media tools will you use?
• What is your strategy for branding?
• Are your goals achievable?

Melissa Fach – SEO Aware

2011 Must Haves

1. 2011 Must Have #1 – An Attractive Website w/CMS
2. 2011 Must Have #2 – An Optimized Website
3. 2011 Must Have #3 and #4 – Off Site Optimization & Local Search

I am not sure if I am getting too irritated or if this is just a difficult concept for people to understand. I have had like 10 conversations this week with people that do not understand that traffic is just that, traffic. It doesn’t mean that it is “quality” traffic- traffic that will convert to sales/money/income.

Without research, a marketing plan and goals beyond “getting more traffic”, you have absolutely nothing. You have to create something of interest for your visitors. Content, pictures and/or videos that offer something valuable to the reader are very important.

Traffic does not just magically appear and make you money. It takes a plan and a lot of work. There is no point in driving traffic to a site that has nothing to offer. They will come in fast and leave fast. An increase in numbers does nothing for you, except maybe stroke your ego. People also say to us “traffic will increase our rankings!” Really? Well, it can and it can’t. Good content that keeps driving in traffic that stays awhile and helps create incoming links can help increase your ranking. People that click in and click out in 2 seconds will not necessarily help your ranking. (FYI- Ranking depends on many things)

My Point…

My point is that if you want the traffic you have to create something of interest that will keep people coming in, keep them engaged and keep them coming back. You want visitors to recommend your information elsewhere on the web and hope to create incoming links. You want people to start to trust you enough to invest in your products and/or services. You want people to recommend what you offer to others. If you are not focused on everything I said in this paragraph your online priorities may need some revamping.

Melissa – SEO Aware

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Video from Google’s Matt Cutts.

We are often asked why bother doing both…our answer is why not? Well, both don’t work for everyone, but they work for many. Of course your business needs to plan out your marketing strategies for the next month, 3 months, 6 months etc. Then you need to determine how to bring in potential clients/customers and convert.

Blogs, emails and videos can help!

A Good Plan Provides You With Much Information

If your marketing team plans out what your company wants to promote or focus on in the upcoming months you should use this same information in your blogs, videos and your email marketing campaigns. How you do this can either help you or do nothing for you.

Example, you have a blog article with “20 things you should know before buying a new office printer”. Great article idea and blogs can help you add related articles that might benefit your readers. You retain the reader and create trust. It is important to not forget to do the same thing in your email newsletter. A great article that matters to me is always welcome, but the emails that get my attention are the ones that include links to related articles, tips and information I may need.

When you create blog entries you are creating not only a resource for others, but also a resource for your own marketing campaigns. How you display these items and appeal to the reader is up to you, but make an effort to give them links to great information on your site. You can also mention your services/products, but don’t over do. Get them to the website and blog, which should lead them to your products and services (see article link below).

Why Bother With Both Blogging and Email Marketing?

Well, some people like email newsletters because they do not have to remember to go to a site and find what they are interested in. Some people prefer blogs, iGoogle and blog readers, but don’t want the newsletter. I actually have both coming my way.

One Tip – Don’t have articles exactly the same on both the blog and email newsletter. Change it up a bit. Have some additional tips on one, but not the other. Encourage traffic to the blog and also encourage people to sign up for “exclusive” information only available in your email newsletter. Keep in mind you better have some great info or they will opt out of your email list.

Related Articles:

How to Cross-Market Your Blog and Your Business, Promoting Each to Each Other’s Audience
SEO Aware’s New Class – October 8, 09 – Local Search & Email Marketing

SEO Aware

Google Loses “Backwards Compatibility” On Paid Link Blocking & PageRank Sculpting By Danny Sullivan

Capturing the Value of Content Marketing – Search Engine Land

Mega Session: SEO Vets Take All Comers – Lisa Barone – SMX Advanced.

Amazing PPC Tactics – Lisa Barone – SMX Advanced.

Conducting An SEO Audit To Troubleshoot Problems & Tune-Up Performance – Lisa Barone – SMX Advanced.

Is What’s Good For Google Good For SEO? a Q&A with Matt Cutts and Danny Sullivan – Recap by Aim Clear Blog

SMX Advanced [Holistic] Keyword Research- Recap by Matt Peterson at Aim Clear Blog

May ‘09: Best Search/Marketing Posts -by the lovely Matt McGee

Live from SMX Advanced: How Much Do I Charge for SEM, Especially Now! Search Marketing Agency Pricing Models Search Marketing Sage

Flash & Search: How’s It Going These Days? – SMX Advanced – SEO Gadget

Beyond the usual linkbuilding – SMX Advanced 2009 – SEO Gadget

SMX Advanced With Matt Cutts – SearchNewz

Microsoft’s Bing Falsifies Site Data to Increase Click Through Rates – Search Engine Journal

Duplicate Content Solutions & The Canonical Tag – SMX Advanced Coverage 2009 -SEO Gadget

Nofollow Makes News at SMX Advanced -Virginia Nussey at Bruce Clay

Melissa Fach- SEO Aware

123People.com

I really like this site. This site lets you find information about people. I have been able to find some places I have been discussed that I was not aware of. I also like being able to find so much information one place. Some things you can find at 123People.com.

• Weblinks
• Images
• Videos
• Social Network Profiles
• Emails
• Phone Numbers
• Blog Posts
• Documents
• IMs
• News

WhosTalkin.com

Whostalkin.com looks for anything and everything related to your search query. Keyword phrases, business names or anything else. Where this site looks to find information is broken is down below:

BLOGS
Backtype, Blogdigger, FriendFeed, Google Blog Search, IceRocket, identi.ca, Indianpad, Myspace Blogs, Plazoo, Plurk Social Mention, Technorati, Twitter, WordPress.com

NEWS
Ask News, BBC Google News, ITN, Microsoft Live News, Newspad PRWeb, Techmeme, Topix, Yahoo News

NETWORKS
bebo, Facebook, Friendster, hi5, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Myspace, Netlog, Ning, xanga

VIDEOS
Blinkx, Blip.tv, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Revver, Viddler, Vimeo, Yahoo Video, YouTube

IMAGES
DeviantART, Flickr, Fotki, PhotoBucket, Picasa, SmugMug, Yahoo Image Search

FORUMS
BoardReader, BoardTracker, Omgili

TAGS
Blinklist, Blogmarks, del.icio.us, Faves instablogs, Jumptags, Metafilter, MyWeb, Newsvines, Reddit, WordPress.com

Why Should I Take the Time to See What People Are Saying About Me or My Business?

Lots of reasons!

• You need to find out what people are saying about you/your business. Think Online Reputation Management.
• You can see if your online marketing strategies are working or not working.
• You can find backlinks you didn’t know about.
• Determine if your online presence is positive or negative.
• Determine if your online presence is strong or weak.
• Use the data to help you determine what you need to do to either create an effective online marketing campaign or create a reputation management plan that will push negative information back in the SERPs.

Melissa – SEO Aware

I think it is really important for businesses to understand that there is an assortment of ways to get potential clients to your site, but just getting someone there is not enough! How do we get them to trust you enough to invest in services or products?

Have you considered the fact that photos of what you do may not be enough?

I have had many potential and new clients contact me in this past 2 weeks asking me to look at their site and tell them what isn’t working. Bad coding and lack of optimization aside, there is no quality content! In many cases there is no content at all on the home page.

So, let’s use an interior designer as an example…you go to an interior designer’s site and they have a really attractive flash area that displays a variety of homes and businesses that appear to be decorated very well. To you that may seem good enough. To me it is not. Why? Because many businesses lie on their websites! How do I know those are actually homes/businesses they worked on?

In my direct area I can tell you that about 90% of all Web design companies offer SEO services. When you look at their portfolio it is quite obvious they don’t know what SEO is. If you call and ask questions it is also clear that their focus/specialization is not SEO.  Their clients call me and ask me to fix whatever is wrong. Guess what? Nothing was wrong, nothing was ever done (at all or done right).

I also see several businesses all over the Web and in my local area that claim they have worked for large companies when they really haven’t. Some use photos they have bought and claim it is their work. Just because you have attractive pictures, logos, flash or whatever on the Web doesn’t mean you are qualified to actually perform the services you offer.

Real, Thought-Out Content Can Prove You are Qualified

Before I invest in anything with anyone I make sure I know a business is qualified. Recently I had to invest in a very expensive air conditioning system. The truth is the site wouldn’t have sold me; I talked with the owner about optimization and marketing a few weeks earlier and everything he said impressed me so much that when my air conditioner died he was who I called. Everything he said should have been on his website (and will be soon).

No matter what industry you are in, if you want people to believe you are the best you need to tell them why you are. If your focus is what is best for them, tell them! Spell it out and be honest. Don’t write a novel, but write enough to convince them that they are not risking their precious money.

Findability vs. Trustability

A good SEO/SEM company can help people find you. Not all companies in this industry are concerned with helping you create quality content that creates trust or getting new clients to call. If they aren’t then it is up to you to ensure that it gets done. I know about my industry, but I know nothing about yours. Explain it to me in simple but complete terms. Then show me you actually know what you are doing. Show we your qualified; make me trust you! Make me feel like you want what is best for my family or my business. If you do that I will pick up the phone; if you don’t, I won’t.

Melissa- SEO Aware

Related Articles
Let’s Talk About the Many Jobs of Your Web Content

Being Found Is Crucial, But Keeping the Visitor is Just as Crucial

Also Visit SEOAware.TV

I tell businesses all the time that they need to be blogging. I get the same questions all the time, “What should we write about?”. Well, I am actually blogging about my first suggestion, answer your clients questions!

Why People Read Blogs

People read blogs for information, credible information from experts! If you are an expert in your field you should be writing about what you do. Pool companies, lawn companies, doctors, lawyers…everyone!

I have a “What is/Are?” section on my blog because it answers the most basic questions I get- “What is a title-tag?”, “What is Anchor Text?”. I get hits every single day from people searching for these and other things. More importantly it is a resource for me to use. When I get a new client I send them an email full of links from my blog. Then from the beginning they have an understanding of what I am doing and what I am talking about. More importantly, they got the info from me- they see that I know what I am doing and BAM, trust is established!

Some Ideas on What to Write About

Answer ALL Questions!

My first suggestion is that every employee that deals with clients, customers or patients write down the questions they are asked. I am sure that many businesses, like myself, get the same questions all the time. Answer them! If you answer important questions on your blog you not only create valuable content, you also create a resource for Web users, clients and potential clients! If you optimize correctly you can also bring in traffic that will invest in what you offer.

Explain What to Look for and What to Avoid

Some of my most visited articles are what to look for in a certain type of company and what to avoid. Help readers make a good choice with a business and help them avoid throwing money away. Help them choose the right doctor…help them avoid choosing the wrong lawn company. Help them make good choices and avoid bad ones and they will appreciate it.

REALLY and TRULY Explain What Each of Your Services Are About

I get quite a bit of traffic from people trying to figure out what SEO is. I get comments that really should be emails with some interesting questions (with their phone # and address). If someone is looking for a landscape designer and they go to a site that says, “We are Landscape Designers!”, then they go to another site that has services and articles on “What does a landscape designer do?”, “How to choose a qualified landscape designer”, and “Top 10 Landscape Tips You Can Do on Your Own”, which do you think will get chosen? Which creates trust?

Recommend or Comment on Other Articles and/or Videos

If you are an expert in your field you read articles and watch videos about your industry. You know what is true and what is false. Recommend the good ones on your blog and discuss the ones you disagree with.

Discuss Changes in Your Industry or Laws Relating to It

Obviously SEOs blog all day everyday because something is always changing, but that isn’t the case in all industries. Discuss any changes and discuss changes in the law. Inform your readers, clients and potential clients!

Define Tough Definitions

What is the difference between a truck accident and a big truck accident? Should someone hire a lawyer for a traumatic brain injury or wrongful death? Explain what the basics are for, because they are not the basics for us. Educate us!

Blog About Your Business News, But Not Too Often

If you have exciting business news blog about it. If you have a huge sale you should mention it, but don’t spam your blog with crap about sales and stuff we don’t care about.

Create a Contest or a Poll

You can create contests and market them around the web or create a poll that will interest current clients/customers or new ones.

Give an Opinion on Recent National News

I gave my opinion on the Nick Hogan Car accident and the amount of traffic and links I have received is sick. Plus, I have been indexed a ton of different ways and got #1 placements on google, yahoo, msn and more. It brings in traffic and you need traffic. It might cause you to gain or lose clients, but it makes the blog more interesting. Look at my ranking for my article about CNN. Tons of traffic still.

Put Videos on Your Blog

You can add your own videos or embed videos from other sites. Either way you can either educate or make someone laugh. I have one client that needed a #1 placement in a major metropolitan area for a certain type of vehicle. His dealership couldn’t get there, but his blog did. #1 for 2 different good selling cars and I didn’t write anything! I just got videos from YouTube that compare the cars and described their features and BAM! #1 for 4 major keyword phrases in an extremely difficult location.

Restaurants…

What kind of fish is good for…whatever? What do all those weird sauces mean? Can I order it without the wine in the sauce? It always looks good until I read “wine”. Tell me about food. You don’t have to give  things away, just talk about food!

What Not to Do

Don’t write about your dog, your cat or your kids too much. Your education really doesn’t matter; I can read your about page. Don’t talk about your favorite golf course or which house you have for sale every other article. Focus on educating your readers on what you do and what they need to know about what you do.

These are just a few ideas on what you can and should write about.

Good luck! Melissa Fach – SEO Aware

Visit our New Site – SEOAware.tv

Quick, but informative video. If Century 21 thinks online advertising works, shouldn’t you?