The online landscape today compels businesses to conduct
well-planned Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaigns in order to
enhance their visibility to their target consumers. Together with social
media, SEO has become an indispensable component of just about any
marketing strategy that is geared towards generating the most online
traffic to a company's website.
SEO
refers to the collective methods used to improve website rankings on
search engine results pages (SERPs). A comprehensive SEO campaign has
two major elements: on-page optimization, and off-page optimization.
On-page optimization refers to the techniques used in modifying a
webpages so that search engines will rank them higher on SERPs. On-page
optimizations are readily implementable because the website owner fully
controls all the necessary tools and permissions to update the website
so that it becomes friendlier to both search engines and online users.
On
the other hand, off-page optimizations are techniques (usually
involving third parties) that a company can adopt to further enhance the
ranking of its website on SERPs. Off-page optimizations should only be
conducted after on-page optimizations have been completely implemented.
Much
of off-page optimization involves link building and usually requires
the creation of noteworthy content (such as articles, blogs, videos,
press releases) for distribution to various channels. Here are some tips
that will hopefully improve your off-page optimization campaigns.
Officially
submit your website specs to leading search engines such as Google,
Yahoo, and Bing. Submission is free and it complies with best practices
on the Web.
Create offsite communities centered on your brand.
Here is where SEO and social media intersect. Social media is a powerful
marketing tool and any company who wishes to enhance its online
presence should capitalize on a strategic social media campaign. By
creating offsite communities (such as establishing a fan page on
Facebook, or creating a Twitter account), you easily build and maintain
channels through which backlinks to your official site may be
implemented. It is also a way of deeply engaging your target consumers
so that they are encouraged to participate in brand value-enhancing
activities.
Distribute your value-laden content to reputable
social networks and websites that promote user-generated content such as
YouTube, VideoMogul, SlideShare, Digg, Ezine Articles, Suite101 and
others. Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) in distributing your content
as it is one of the most widely used content distribution methods in
the Web. To optimize your article distribution campaign, ensure that the
articles you syndicate are high-quality, written content in order for
your consumers to continually engage your content. In most cases,
article syndication helps in spreading awareness about your brand,
improving your SERP ranking, increasing user traffic to your site,
building trust among your followers, and broadening your audience reach.
Create
and maintain a trustworthy blog. Blogging counts among the most
powerful ways of promoting your brand online. Remember to hire a
credible, professional blogger to help build your brand reputation and
prevent user and search engine penalties that will surely occur if your
blog posts are substandard. Remember that posting comments on other
blogs also provides an opportunity to implement linkbacks to your
official site.
Maintain forums. Forums are not just channels for resolving user issues but are a good and valid method of link building.
Adopt
social bookmarking. Use popular bookmarking portals such as Digg, and
Delicious to further promote your brand. Doing so may increase user
visits to your site.
Engage in link exchanges with reputable
sites. Link exchanges are commonly done between two different websites
in related sectors to mutually benefit both parties. However, there are
unscrupulous players engaged in this practice and you should avoid these
players. Otherwise, their low reputation will most likely drag your
website's SERP ranking. The best is to partner with credible sites if
partnering with an authoritative company is too challenging.
Create
link baits. Link baits are exceptionally good content (articles, vieos,
images, etc) that people and websites across the Internet would like to
share to their network. Truly creative link baits are viral in nature
and will not only promote your brand significantly but will also help
you convert some of the user traffic into real figures on your
bottomline.
Publish press releases. If you are introducing a new
product or service, have your best writers or a PR company create a
compelling press release about the new product. Have the press release
distributed on popular portals such as 1888pressrelease and Open PR.
All
these techniques are designed to enhance the online image of your
brand. With complementary optimization campaigns off page and a
well-directed social media plan, you can improve your SERP ranking
significantly.