Have you noticed SEO seems to change almost as much as a teenage girl? If your website doesn’t keep up with the ever changing demands of SEO, be prepared to watch from the sidelines while your competitors reap the rewards of search. SEO can be a very powerful tool, but can be overwhelming to keep up with. Even within the past year, Google released its panda ranking algorithm update which lowered the rank of “low-quality” sites, incorporated social platforms to search, and is now offering features such as site-links and ratings in search engine results. With the changing climate of search, make sure your business is taking advantage of these three SEO strategies in the new year.

Integration of Search & Social

With more social platforms than ever trying to rival Facebook, there is no doubt that 2011 was the year of social media. Within 2011, search and social media have been integrated more than ever. Search engines have realized that people are getting more and more valuable information from social media platforms, which has significantly narrowed the gap between the two. In fact, search and social are only going to become more integrated in the years to come. Twitter ‘shares’, Facebook ‘likes’, and even Google+ ‘+1s’ have become a huge channel for sharing information and significant influencers in search rankings. Within Facebook, businesses are taking advantage of promotion opportunities that generate ‘likes’ through the development of custom pages. This helps in creating an audience for your business to engage and interact with. If you do not currently have a social media presence, let Starkmedia help build and integrate it into your priorities for 2012.

Content Links

One of the most effective ways people are gaining traction in SEO today are credible, authoritative content links from other sites. This can be harder than you think. Google is smart enough to know whether a link is credible or not. In fact, Google has gone out of its way to penalize websites who link to ‘spammy’ sites or content farms. So instead of attempting to trick Google, look for avenues to write fresh and creative content that the web will want to link to. Many will rely upon blogs or guest blogging to accomplish this task. Some businesses will contact publications or associations they may be a part of for content links. Other sites will naturally attract quality links. Regardless of the website, authoritative content links are necessary in the long-term stability of your search engine rankings. Not sure where to start? Starkmedia can provide you with a clear strategy to build your web presence.

Get Local

You may have noticed that the majority of searches that you perform will have a Google Places section. There is a reason for it. A study from SEOmoz has revealed that visitors gravitate toward local listings even more than the top few positions of the page when they are displayed. What does this mean? If your business generates revenue from a physical location, make sure that you are taking advantage of all local listing channels such as Google Places, Yelp, and Yahoo! Local Listings. It is a great way to build more visibility to your site. Be sure that all the information across these channels are consistent and accurate.

The future of SEO presents new opportunities for you and your business to grow your web presence and increase interaction with your customers. Having trouble establishing an online presence? Are you unsure of your website’s next step? From design to SEO, let the team at Starkmedia guide you on a path toward online success.

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Starkmedia has been in the web industry for over ten years. Throughout these years, the industry has made substantial changes and online marketing has naturally evolved with it. In our experience there are a few important changes to recognize as we tackle our marketing budget.

photo credit:scottchan

Social Marketing:
Marketing was originally focused on throwing out a message to the masses, but the adoption of social media has turned the tables. Social marketing has turned our communication into more of a two-way conversation. Expectations have shifted as consumers assume resources and information are available rather than blatant marketing messages. Start a conversation and engage your social audience by creating a customized campaign centered on a service or product.

Foot Traffic & Web Traffic:
One of the goals of marketing was to get the prospect in the door, but now there is another avenue to think about. Most prospects are checking your online presence before they even step into your store. A company must consider what impression they are making online and how they can take that opportunity to bring the prospect closer to the point of purchase. Assess how your online endeavors can support in-store opportunities.

In With the New AND Keeping the Old:
Like every other aspect of our lives, marketing has been changed by ever-advancing technology, but just because there are new channels for receiving information, we cannot ignore the traditional means. The success of a marketing campaign often lies in the merging of all marketing efforts. Find ways to promote online endeavors offline and vice versa.

Relevance Increased:
One of the differences between online and traditional marketing is that when people come to you online they are often searching specifically for your product or service. Search engine optimization takes online marketing a step further by allowing businesses to target keywords and optimize their websites to make it easier for people to find them. In online marketing there are opportunities to gain visibility both through natural and paid search. Paid search is more effective for immediate impact with little effort, while natural search results generally evolve with time and effort. Utilize the benefits of online marketing by assessing your site for more SEO opportunities.

In Conclusion:
Begin by asking yourself: “How much of our marketing budget should I allocate to online endeavors?”  Next, think about all of the online opportunities: website improvements, paid and natural search, email, social media, banner ads, etc. and ponder which areas make the most sense for your business. Staying updated on the most recent trends in online marketing is something we pride ourselves in. As you plan new marketing campaigns allow Starkmedia to guide you in the process of merging traditional marketing methods with new online marketing opportunities.

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Recently, Google rolled out its most influential ranking algorithm update in recent years. Google’s update impacts nearly 12% of ALL search queries, which when you’re dealing with billions, is a very large number! The intended goal of the update was to remove websites with “low quality” content from the first page results. The definition of low quality content is debatable, but the general perception is content that delivers little value to the reader.

Image: Salvatore Vuono

The algorithm update was directed at debilitating content farms that are mass producers of low quality content on the highest level. The content farm title is generally reserved for websites that develop content specifically to take advantage of search engine ranking algorithms. Although the content produced in most cases has little value to a search engine user, it receives a large amount of traffic by performing very well in the search results.

The purging of content farms from the search results is to the benefit of webmasters producing original content, as well as the entire Internet as a whole. For an everyday business’s website to compete with content farms is nearly impossible. Their use of search engine optimization tactics is extreme and in most cases applied at a greater level of ‘expertise’ than the average site owner.

From an online marketing stand point, the ability and opportunity for an average website to rank well for relevant search queries has greatly improved. It’s discouraging for every site owner to find their site buried on page 3 when examining the search results, especially for keywords directly pertaining to core services.

Typical feedback after major ranking algorithm updates is often heard loudest from website owners whose sites have been negatively affected, which is unfortunate. Overall, this update is intended to help site owners who don’t have the resources to pour thousands of hours into publishing content and leveraging the latest SEO strategies. If there was an opportune time for an online marketer to improve their search engine presence now would be an ideal time.

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3. Taking Advantage of Google’s New Local Search Results

Pentair provides water and technical product solutions for a global audience. Their products are sold exclusively through a network of distributors making their dealers a crucial part of their sales process. However, this dealer-centric approach creates some challenges for Pentair’s marketing and sales efforts, since many of their dealers do not currently have an online presence. To address this issue Starkmedia created pentairprodealer.com to provide a defined space to support dealers in promoting Pentair products and allow clients to freely access marketing materials.

Solutions & Support
Once the dealer’s account set up is complete a custom website is automatically generated and they are also provided with access to a multitude of marketing materials.  If desired, with their login information they are able to further customize the website  at their convenience.   The website is customized to reflect the dealer by including their logo, company information, products, and services offered. The site’s content and URL are optimized to position the website well for local search. In addition to their custom online space, dealers have access to customized quarter page ads, banner ads, radio ads, logos, and a plethora of product information for their company and consumer. All marketing materials are branded to reflect the dealer, easy to access, and printable, providing an effective solution for common marketing challenges among the dealers.

Results
Pentair’s new dealer site will increase brand exposure and strengthen their sales process. The beauty of the website is that the benefits are reciprocal; Pentair’s products are promoted and dealers gain exposure that benefits their business as well.  Finding creative solutions that provide mutual gains for all the parties involved is another way Starkmedia can benefit any business looking to grow their web presence.

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A little insight into a Social Media position at a web design firm: I see a lot of websites everyday! As I stumble across new websites, I immediately make an assumption about the company based on the pages I’m presented with. Although budgets don’t always allow for extreme makeovers there are small things that can be done to your website to steer clear of presenting the wrong impression. I’ve listed 3 areas to consider as you approach changes to your site in the upcoming year.

1. Personalization

It’s no secret that we respond to things that are specifically tailored to us—this is a big part of the popularity of Amazon and Zappos. Below are a few small ways to tailor your site towards the individual visitor.

• Options, choices, & features! Allow your visitors opportunities to personalize and create a “home” out of your site. Meriter has presented personalization through their My Chart feature, which allows their patients to securely schedule appointments, send messages to health care providers, view their medical history, and pay online.
• Custom Newsletter Sign-Up. The ever-popular Groupon just rolled out a personalization feature allowing users to choose what types of deals they would like to receive. If your company offers a range of specific services or products, allow your visitor to choose what they are interested in and send them updates and information based on their choices.
• Targeted Ad Blocks. Use personalized home page ad blocks to appeal to your visitor. Briggs and Stratton use the IP address of their visitor to feed location based ad blocks. When I visit Briggs and Stratton, I see information on snow blowers, while the individual in Hawaii will not.

2. Social

The phrase “staying ahead of the curve” is reserved for those who act upon events prior to their occurrence. Getting ahead of the online curve doesn’t require a massive social media following, just a method to engage users. Although Facebook and Twitter are the two most commonly covered platforms, they are just a part of the “social” movement. Developing strategies for your customers to engage/share with your company will not only benefit your marketing efforts, but also has the potential to enhance your search rankings.

• Customer Reviews. Opinions hold weight in the world of e-commerce. Adding customer reviews can not only add to the credibility of your products, but also enhance your search engine rankings.
• Social Sharing. Give your visitor the ability to share your content. When browsing any article allow visitors to easily share the information by providing the most popular social sharing links next to the title.
• Applications. Expand your social reach and go beyond Facebook and Twitter. Think about how YouTube or LinkedIn could promote your business. Pentair Water wanted to demonstrate the ease of installation for their Easy Sump, so they embedded YouTube videos within their site to walk users the process of installation. Make sure to bring continuity to your efforts by promoting your social activity on your website and also by customizing them to match other branding efforts.
• Mobile. Have you forgotten about your mobile audience? The use of the Internet on mobile devices continues to grow and as it grows it only becomes more important for businesses to ensure access to their site via the mobile web.

3. Site Traffic Tracking

Monitoring how site visitors interact with a website often gets lost in the shuffle. Traffic tracking tools such as Google Analytics are, for the most part, underutilized. Data collection advancements in site traffic tracking tools provide insight and customization for very specific data. Depending on your companies’ online goals, tracking tools will likely provide the ability to monitor your online success.

• Site Goals. A goal is a website page which a visitor reaches once they have made a purchase or completed another desired action, such as a registration or download. Goal conversions are the primary metric for measuring how well your site fulfills business objectives.
• Search Engine Performance. Nearly 90% of users begin their web session at a search engine. A well established search engine presence is critical to online success.
• Content Gaps. What content does your site offer which users aren’t finding or visiting? Addressing content gaps will improve site traffic, as well as the user experience.
• Custom Reporting. One of a kind reports designed for your unique site goals.

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The two biggest players in search – Google and Bing – have officially confirmed that social media, specifically Twitter and Facebook, are used in their ranking algorithms. The real game changer is that social media’s influence is no longer limited to just social search, but is now affecting ALL search queries. Search engines are determining social media’s influence for each specific query by evaluating the context of links shared on both Facebook and Twitter. Social media’s level of influence is determined in two forms: the amount of times a specific URL/link has been shared and the quality of authors sharing a specific URL/link.

Danny Sullivan, search marketer, outlines the specific changes in his recent interview with representatives from Google and Bing.

How does this apply to you?
. . . It really depends on the nature of your company. The search engine / online market environment for every website is different. Social media may be hot topic right now, but it’s not required that everyone should just jump right in. However, I can suggest that everyone at least consider it. If your website is involves in e-commerce and hasn’t gotten involved, I strongly believe you are missing an opportunity. To make an informed decision on your involvement listen to the conversation going on. If there is talk about your brand or services, it is time to get involved.

The Future:
The opinions of those we call friends are important to our decision making. Google and Bing want to integrate the recommendations (in the form of sharing a link) made by our friends to bolster their users’ experiences. The influence of web-users and what they view as important will only become more relevant to search engine rankings. The belated confirmation of social media’s influence is only the drizzle at the beginning of the inevitable storm. CNN predicts the severity of this oncoming storm in its new article, “Why Your Facebook ID is the Marketers’ Holy Grail”.

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Since the dawn of the Google-era, companies have feverishly competed over the top keyword positions. When Google initially personalized their search results based on the users’ location, general queries such as “coffee shop” or “Bedroom Furniture” returned local results. These results featured a 7-pack of local listings accompanied by their location on a regional map. The design, known as Local Search Results, maintained only a small percentage of “above the fold” display space.

This past week Google rolled out a variety of new layouts for its local search results. The new design renders search results with considerable emphasis on local listings. This change is apparent by the amount of additional display space the top 7 Local Search Results or local “Places” can take up on the search results page. Other updates included changes to the map, which now permanently maintains the top right position on the screen, preventing it from disappearing when the user scrolls down. As a result, national results have slid further down the page, thus adding more value to your local search position.

The updated local results layout has increased the value of local search rankings. It’s assumed that the increased exposure of local listings will result in an increase of traffic sent from Google’s local search results. I recommend two immediate actionable steps to capture local traffic. First, claim your Google Places/local business listing and complete as much of your listing’s information as possible. A completed Places listing will enhance your Organic results snippet (see results below). Second, devise a strategy to improve the ranking of your local listings. Exposure on other localized websites will assist in improving local results.

All three major search engines have made strides to localizing search results. Local information provides an opportunity for search engines to tailor their search results to you, thus providing a better user experience. As a marketer, knowing the data search engines want to integrate into their results provides an opportunity to improve your listing. Working towards generating local data is a proactive approach to increasing local search traffic.

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Search Engines typically produce over 50% of a site’s annual visits. If the bulk of your website’s traffic is direct, you’re missing out on a lot of exposure that should be yours.  Two well-proven methods for boosting your search profile are by utilizing search engine optimization and  pay per click (PPC). Both entail creating unique strategies to achieve traffic maximization. Although maximizing traffic is the goal, it is important to focus on driving your target audience; generally defined as qualified traffic. Creating unique content and link building are two common search engine optimization strategies used to increase qualified traffic.

Unique Content
Creating unique content is effective when geared towards search terms that your site adequately ranks for, or when targeting a narrow content market. With established trust from the search engines, unique content can be easily leveraged.

Creating unique content:

• Follow the SEO basics and write keyword-rich content that will position your site to capture narrowly targeted keywords.
• Stay persistent; continue to focus on narrow keyword markets to build relevance.
• To help add influence to new content, review old content and link relevant text to your new content.

Link Building
Commonly considered a marketing approach, link building can be influential when focusing on link bait. Link bait is creating content which users will want to link to.  Although similar to creating new content, the idea is to strive towards creating content that is both interesting and useful to your potential users.

When attempting to acquire/build links, remember the following:

• Content that accrues links not only builds PageRank, but it also provides additional content to be indexed for.
• The source of the link plays an essential role in building your search profile. Links from relevant, quality sources are very influential.
• Remember reciprocity. If you have a relationship with another website, ask them to place a link on an appropriate part of their website.

Pay Per Click
PPC can be used in countless ways to drive traffic. If you’re running a promotion or a limited time service, PPC can immediately start driving qualified web traffic.  Adding PPC to your advertising arsenal can give you another effective weapon in the ongoing battle for users’ eyeballs.

The Advantage of PPC:

• PPC is immediate, unlike SEO which takes time to establish.
• While print, radio, and television ads have their place, they are all highly constrained in the amount of information you can effectively communicate. With PPC, you can link to a webpage to fully communicate your unique message.
• Creating a stand-alone page to deliver unique content will return low cost per click rates, as well as provide a landing page that is highly relative to the users search query.

“Just google it” didn’t exist 10 years ago. In today’s vernacular it’s an answer finder, problem solver, one-stop shop for reliable, fast information. Does your website return for the informational search queries you would want it to return for? Is your site’s position improving or declining? As more people turn to search engines for information, now is the time to develop a search engine strategy.

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Every company wants prominence in Google’s search results. Whether this goal is reflected in carefully placed keywords in title tags, implementing bread crumbs or creative page descriptions, savvy online marketers have found methods of increasing site traffic.
Google’s newest feature – targeted towards local results – is a bright yellow price tag icon, denoting an online coupon. This feature can be added to a company’s local results, bringing great potential benefits to locally rendered search results.

Localized results are typically rendered via the location of the web search or, as seen in the example to the left, an area specific search query. I searched for an “Ice Cream Shop in Austin”, returning local results for Austin, TX. The third company found in the local search results, “Teo Expresso and Gelato” is utilizing Google’s new coupon feature by offering a buy one get one free coupon deal.

As this is a brand new feature, data has yet to become available on the efficacy or influence of click through rates. However, since there is a longstanding tradition of coupons in marketing, I can’t help but believe that this tag as a differentiator will have a positive effect on site traffic.

The current rate for implementing coupons into your local business listing is $25 a month. Listings include a headline, sub-headline, and details text field, each constricted by a specified character limit. Additional features include an image of your choice, offer code, and mobile device coupon template.

If your company is currently running TV, radio, newspaper or other advertisements, I would consider taking advantage of this cost-effective feature. Search engines are arguably the primary source of information acquisition. Utilizing premium space on Google for search terms relevant to your business and/or service area may be the difference it takes to improve site traffic.

Claimed and completed local results listings reflect trust, one of the largest factors for Google when returning search results. If you are interested or need assistance claiming your local listing or setting up a coupon, contact Jon Sujecki @ jsujecki@starkmedia.com

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Looking for an alternative CMS solution that is affordable? WordPress is an open source blog publishing program that is installed on the user’s Web server. Many companies have discovered the benefits of utilizing WordPress, while using its vast resources to create a custom blog or employing its content management system abilities to update and manage an affordable website. WordPress provides dynamic and user friendly input with functions that also allow easy additions and overall customization. Moreover, WordPress also allows for:

• Search Success

WordPress naturally provides a platform for creating structured content, which can be easily indexed by search engines.

• Custom URLs

Putting keywords in your URL increases relevance in search engines. WordPress allows customization of URLs, therefore allowing one to choose the influential key words.

• Applications

Applications built for WordPress provide further opportunity to tailor one’s site towards their specific needs.

• Plug-Ins

WordPress offers a large selection of plug-ins that provides links to social media sites or ways to optimize one’s search. Plug-ins offer benefits for SEO, overall usability, or speed up back end administrative use.

• Affordability

With access to plug-ins that create customization without a fee as well as applications that can be created to fit a budget, affordability reigns.

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