Well, find out for yourself. There are a number of ways to analyze your social media networking campaigns and be able to measure just how well they are doing. We know now from a survey put out by by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education that roughly eighty six percent of all professionals have decided to somehow implement social media marketing into their overall programs. Unfortunately we also know from a similar survey that most don’t know how to measure the success of said programs to find out if they are really helping, and if so, in what way.

This may seem problematic, but, as it always is with the internet, there are ways of figuring out just how effective your social media networking really is. While there is still yet no one hundred percent sure way to measure this- you aren’t really going to be able to track it like a normal web site to see what worked where and why, there are a few tools out there to make it a bit more understandable. Here, we’ll talk about the three I’ve seen really display some impressive information about different social media networking campaigns.

First, a freebie- once again, from Google. (http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en&gl=us) Google Alerts is actually a very handy thing to have for several reasons. Here’s how it works, you key in the information you want to be alerted to, as it is indexed, it comes to your inbox. Choosing keywords and terms, or even your competitor’s information is how it begins, and then, you work your settings to send you the emails whenever you choose. This is quite possibly the easiest way to monitor your brand, company or anything else you are hoping or dreading seeing come up in the index.

Much like Google Alerts, Social Mention (http://www.socialmention.com/) is another free utility, only this one goes a bit deeper, and brings up a list of mentions a lot like Google Alerts would, but then does more. Social Mention also shows you the tone in which it was more often mentioned, as well as how often. So, if most people were speaking highly of your brand or company- but a couple were negatively discussing it, it would show a ratio, 6:2 or something similar.

PostRank (https://analytics.postrank.com/) is another one that is really great. It actually shows very detailed information about your social media networking, how well it is working. It also integrates Google Analytics, which is useful in having all of your information in one place. It is a paid service, however, it is fairly low cost, only nine dollars a month. It’s quite possibly one of the easier analytical programs to read and understand, but it’s also very inclusive.

There are a number of other programs out there that may cost a bit more, but each can show a quite a lot about how your programs through the various social media marketing outlets you are using are working for you.

With the rising popularity of the internet and with so many businesses jumping aboard the social media marketing bandwagon, many people are concerned about their online marketing plans- and rightly so. What once was done via word of mouth, radio and newspaper and could sometimes take years to really come to fruition is now done in much less time- thanks to the instant gratification of an online presence. Granted, it still takes time, but when you consider that the internet audience is much, much broader than say, if you were originally using only radio spots or print- your company’s reputation can either be made or broken in the span of a month in some cases.

You know that you cannot usually control what some people are going to say about you online, however there are a few ways to circumvent negativity online. We’ll begin with the very first of these things, because this should already be in place and running. Social Media Networking.

Apart from being a pretty useful tool in marketing, social media networking has some great reputation management assets, as well. Think about it- through social media networking, you connect with your target audience and others on a more personal level, you give your company a face, and this helps in a number of ways. Firstly, you’re sharing your knowledge and passion for what you do with your customers, and they do like to see that- it helps them to build trust when they can see that you are sincere, but also, that sort of connection helps in other ways.

As you integrate social media networking into your existing marketing plan, a few things happen- there are great search engine optimization benefits, yes, but when you are showing your honesty, your drive and the way that you care about what you do- what happens when someone pops off with something negative out of nowhere? You’ve got a following of people who understand your business, and who also are in your corner. Let’s face it, at some point or another, in any business, there are always going to be people who cannot resist venting negativity.

Problem is, online, those words travel fast and the better they are written, the more “reputable” the source is, the more viral they can go and your online reputation, and also your business’ reputation may well be at stake. The first way to combat that is in already having a good reputation. It is very hard to argue someone’s a faceless, money hungry tyrant when the face is there, the caring is shown, and it is more than obvious that there are more than one side to the story.

When there is an issue with online reputation, the best response is usually a professionally done reputation management campaign. Responding to the negative attacks usually does not help matters any, but if you already have laid the groundwork with a decent following via social media and other outlets, you’re already moving forward and past the negativity.

More often than not, the issue of duplicate content for many businesses is not intentional. Most small to medium business owners are not well versed in search engine algorithms so they do not realize why their pages just aren’t showing up. The culprit, many times is duplicate content. This doesn’t always mean as the title suggests, plagiarism, but it can. Sometimes, it’s just because for the sake of efficiency, a business has used the same product descriptions on another site, or throughout the pages of that same site- there are many reasons why duplicate content may be an issue, and I thought I’d go into that a little bit. This is a pretty easily avoided problem, and one that can ultimately lead to the search engines blocking your site all together from indexing entirely.

Google defines non malicious duplicate content as:
Discussion forums that can generate both regular and stripped-down pages targeted at mobile devices
Store items shown or linked via multiple distinct URLs
Printer-only versions of web pages

The suggested means of handling this, in these cases is presenting your case to the search engines, and indicating which URL you prefer to have indexed. This is known as “canonicalization” – which makes a great deal of sense if you are selling products and you don’t want to rewrite the same information over a few URLs. You basically pick the URL you prefer to have indexed, let the search engines know. How you let the search engines know is a little involved.

First, you can specify canonical link for the different pages. (Link: http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/RelExtensions) In short, this code tells the search engine they all relate to one page. Secondly, you may want to simply include the relevant articles in your site map and then, set your preferred domain. Finally, with Google, at least, you can use something known as perimeter handling to present those areas you’d just rather it did not index, so that you don’t get filtered for duplicate content.
However, Google recommends you do all of these things, and even if you do these things, there are no guarantees. This is the most intelligent way you can handle issues with non malicious duplicate content in regards to the search engines, however. Generally speaking, in cases like this, you won’t be penalized, because the search engines usually can differentiate- but, you’re better optimized and there is a faster crawl through rate if you do avoid these issues. When it comes to the malicious variety of duplicate content- that which IS intentionally misleading- they have another policy on it all together. The good thing here, is, once you have made the changes that the search engines request, you can appeal and get your site back in the search engine’s good graces, and once again trying to climb the ranks- but, having to do that is a big waste of time. It’s really just better to do it right the first time, so you can avoid this entirely.

The thing to understand when you are beginning to optimize, or perhaps working on a plan to get your search engine campaign in order is that just because the search engine spider works one way, does not necessarily mean that is all there is to think about. The best thing I have heard about search engine optimization insofar as the often asked question of “What is it”, was that it was a sort of gap stop- being able to gather up not only the spider’s indexing of sites and such, but also a useability for those who are doing the searching. Some SEOs feel that using underhanded techniques are the way to go about this- but really, that’s a waste of time. When you’re looking to enhance your search engine optimization in regards to marketing, you want to see those traffic hits turn to sales or new clients, not annoyed people who wonder why they’ve landed on your page.

Ethical SEO is not about creating massive amounts of content that basically says the same thing. It’s not about hiding little links that people accidentally click on and end up on your landing page. In a nutshell, the best thing that your SEO program is going to do for you is to get your site up in the ranking, but also, build the audience and trust you’re looking to- thereby increasing your client and customer base. Otherwise, what is the point, apart from being able to say, “I’m at the top of the Google list”. If you’re at the top and you’re not seeing any profit, or any increase of sales, there’s really not much reason to spend your time and energy optimizing.

They key formula is a well optimized, easy to understand and navigate website. Completed with a call to action that is unobtrusive and not annoying. Something that will compel the viewer to look for more information, be that in an email, a call, or by visiting a guest book page. The options are pretty varied in this, but the simpler you keep it, the better off you will be. The best way to get that happening is to use keyword analytic, and then, as you disperse them, know where to place them on your site, so that you not only have a good percentage, but so that you are also not overusing them. On that landing page, this is where it is most essential to make sure that it is clean and simple. Don’t use a bunch of content- you don’t have to. Instead, try a very clear site map, or other further options.

A note on content- many SEOs say that “Content is King”- and that’s somewhat true. I have probably said this before, because content is important. However, looking at SEO as the entire court, you realize that the King’s only a part of a bigger over all picture. Make sure that your “king” is strong, well organized and has a bit of a jester to him. Content that is not at least somewhat entertaining, but always informative is a time waster, and not something that needs to be done. If you do not have the time to create the kind of content that your site needs, consider outsourcing or keeping a blog that you update regularly.

Some people have wondered about using Flickr for search engine optimization. I hear this a great deal, “Can you use it?” Considering that any image search and many links that come up via searches are via Flickr, it’s clear that the answer is emphatically yes. Not only that, Flickr happens to be remarkably user friendly, especially when compared to other photo hosting services. The pro accounts are quite possibly one of the most useful image hosting packages around, and quite inexpensive. Also, if you decide you’re going to look into Flickr, go ahead and have a look around and you’ll notice- the traffic and community on Flickr is much more sophisticated, a different demographic than many other sites you’ll find for photo hosting.
A couple of advantages that are available even to free users are an easy interface which makes for an incredibly useful photo editing tool, perfect for hosting images for blogs, articles and even social networking applications. Buttons and widgets make posting a blog off site with a photo a breeze, and the groups do open a whole new doorway for networking. By showcasing high quality photos of your company, your events, and other things relating to your business, you have another way to connect with your client base. Another good thing about having a Flickr pro account is that you can access your stats- which helps you to keep track of what’s working, and what is getting a better response.
But can you optimize it?

Definitely. Here are a few of the best ways to optimize your Flickr page and make use of it in your online marketing campaign:

•Use your company name to create a very detailed company profile- even better, if possible, use your main web site URL. Not only does this help to give your customers and client base a better understanding of the faces behind your company, but using the company name and can also rank in the search engines under searches for that name. This is quite advantageous when it comes to online reputation management. Flickr also allows for an individual web address- another area you can throw in your company name.

•Do use your images in blog posts. This will encourage site to site traffic, and if one site leads to the other, enables both to better promote your name online.

•You can optimize your photos for better results. Give each photo a name of its own, work your business name into the description, and tag appropriately. Tagging with relevant keywords is extremely beneficial and will not only be of interest to those in your target audience, but often pull in traffic due to those tags alone. Keep the tags broad, but relevant, that is the key. Also bear in mind that statistically, photos that do have well written descriptions have shown to get a much better click through rate.

•Embedding a Flickr photo stream directly to your site is a great way to promote click throughs, as well. You may however want to consider watermarking images so that link credit is assured.

Previously we’ve discussed why your site needs and XML sitemap feed and how to go about setting up your sitemap file. If you don’t feel up to the task of building your own, then you can use any of the existing sitemap generators out there, like IntelliMapper or GsiteCrawler to build it for you. Once you have your XML sitemap file set up its time to let search engines know it’s there.

You can (and should) specify the root file in the “sitemaps:” designation of your robots.txt file. hile this method is the only means of alerting some search engines (like Ask.com) some of the other major search engines offer specialized ways of letting them know about your XML sitemap feed as well. Some even provide tools that allow you to monitor your site and can alert you to errors that might end up hurting your search rankings. So, now let’s talk about the Big 3: Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

Google allows you to submit you XML sitemap via Google Webmaster Tools. The benefit of submitting this way is that you can easily track when Google downloads your sitemap and monitor errors. Google Webmaster Tools offers a wealth of information and can give you an idea of how Google looks at your site, so that you can apply tweaks accordingly. You can also identify and correct errors through Web Crawl Errors and get statistics on top search queries, crawl rates and the like through the Statistics tool. Google also lets you specialize sitemaps for video feeds, news feeds, publicly accessible source code and pages specifically designed for mobile devices.

Yahoo! allows SML sitemap feed submission through the Yahoo! Site Explorer. All you have to do is enter in your URL. Yahoo! recognizes both the Sitemaps protocol and its own version of urllist.txt files. If you use one of the sitemaps generators, then you may have an urllist.txt file generated already. If not there really isn’t any need to create and maintain a second list. Just stick with the XML sitemaps feed file that you are using for the others. Yahoo! doesn’t offer the webmaster tools, but it is still a good idea to submit your sitemap to make sure your pages are getting indexed quickly.

MSN’s sitemap tool, Live Search Webmaster Center, is a little less comprehensive than Google’s. It does offer some useful feedback though. Once you’ve submitted your feed and your site is validated you can access information about top links, robots.txt validation and if pages have been blocked.

Of course, creating and submitting your XML sitemap is only really effective if you remember to keep it updated regularly. Your <changefreq> tag should cover any page changes, but you’ll need to modify your file any time that you remove or add a page to your site. You should also routinely utilize Google’s Web Crawl Errors tool to check for errors in your sitemap that might be hurting your ranking. It is also reasonable to assume that, in time, Yahoo! and MSN will also follow suite in the caliber of monitoring tools offered.

There are a million ways to sell something. Nowadays the sales process can come in many different forms since we have websites, cell phones, facebook, twitter, and email. With all of these tools, I feel like most people are just getting caught up in the contacting tool tornado. Just yesterday I was reading about ways to maximize your LinkedIn contacts. How does all of this increase your sales?

Well, for most people it actually doesn’t. Most of the time people get caught up in a fad and incorrectly use the tools. Selling and sales often becomes a convoluted space when really, it is much more simple. Take a look at this sales diagram for instance:

This diagram definitely looks pretty but what is it actually doing for your sales? While you can look at this and make some sense out of it, the diagram provides an overview of the entire sales process and the support blocks. Do your sales people need to know this? No way. Do you, yes. However, if sales aren’t going the way you would like to see it, then you have to go back to the basics. Here is an alternate sales diagram:

If your purpose is to generate more sales, then you and your sales team need to focus on these five sales steps. Are you completely optimizing your sales process when it comes to these steps? Make sure that you simplify your sales process. When it comes to integrating things like social media, make sure you integrate them in an orderly fashion and make sure that each integration follows your five step sales process. If the additional tools that you use to contact clients does not follow your normal sales process, chances are people on both sides are just getting confused and you are just left spending more time and money on things that aren’t working for you.

While Alfred Korzybski’s assertion that, “the map is not the territory,” may be entirely relevant for man’s relativistic approach to the world around him, we all know that, when it comes to search engines, your XML sitemap is at least tantamount to your site’s “territory”. We’ve already discussed the importance of sitemaps, so now let’s take a look at just what goes into an effective XML sitemap and how to submit them.
Your XML sitemap is, obviously, constructed entirely in Extensible Markup Language. There are 3 main tags to keep in mind for building your sitemap. The tag references the protocol standard and must encapsulate the entire file. The tag is used as a parent tag for each URL entry and the tag is used to indicate specific URLs. These 3 tags are mandatory.

You may also wish to use other secondary, optional tags to allow the search engine to spider your site more effectively. Though you don’t have to use them to make your sitemap functional, it is a good idea to use theand tags, at the very least. The
tag allows you to designate the importance of a given page in relation to the other pages, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. Highly optimized pages should be ascribed a higher priority. lets you alert the search engine to how often the information on the page changes and how often it should be re-crawled. You can also use to indicate the last time the page was modified.
Some search engines, like Google, have restrictions on the number of URLs and maximum file sizes. For Google, the maximum file size is 10MB and there is a 50k URL limit. This means you may have to break your sitemap feed into multiple files. Each of the files should then be uploaded into your site root, which should look something like http://www.mywebsite.com/sitemap.xml. This root will be what you submit to the search engine via your robots.txt file in the “sitemap:” designation.
Now that we understand the basic setup for writing XML sitemaps, let’s take a look at how a listing for a URL should actually look:

http://www.mywebsite.com/
2010-01-01
always

0.9

http://www.mywebsite.com/archive1/
2009-01-01
never

0.1

Notice that there are two distinct pages in this file. The first page is the site homepage, last altered on Jan. 1, 2010. Note that the tag must always be formatted in W3C datetime format. The “always” designation for the tag tells the search engine that the information displayed on the page changes every time that the page is accessed. The 0.9 priority value indicates that the page is more relevant than the entry below.
The second entry is a mock up of an archive page. Note that its priority setting is much lower than that of the main page. The “never” designation on the tag shows that the information on this page will never change from what it currently is.

That pretty well sums up XML sitemap construction. You can get more information on XML formatting sitemaps at http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php. Next time we’ll look at some engine-specifics for alerting Google, Yahoo!, Ask and MSN to your XML sitemap feed.

We spend a lot of time talking about what you should do to optimize your site for search engines. We even give you some tips on things to avoid to keep yourself off of page 90. Now let’s talk about things you should never, ever, under any circumstances do with your site. The following may seem like neat cheats to boost your rank, but rest assured, they are much more likely to get your site perma-banned from all of the major search engines. Once you’ve been exiled from the kingdom, it’s next to impossible to get back. So, without further ado – the top 5 ways to ruin your site, probably permanently.

If you really want to ruin your site quickly, link invisible images. It’s easy enough to do, you don’t even need relevant images. All you need to do is crowd your page with 1 X 1 pixel images with keyword heavy file names. To the human eye, the images are invisible. To search engines, they are tiny little red flags all over your site. Oh, and if you think that you might be clever and fool the search engines by using full-sized images that are resized to microscopic proportions by HTML or CSS tags, then think again. All of the majors have caught wise to this tactic.

The similar tactic of using invisible text is an equally ban-able offense. You can cram a lot of keywords onto your site by reducing your font size down to a single pixel without making a big mess. Similarly, you can hide the text by making it the same color as the background. This way, you can get the search engine’s attention while still providing customers with a usable/intelligible site and yes, you will absolutely get the search engine’s attention. However, search engines can evaluate font size, background colors and CSS tags. Invisible text is registered as spam and viola, you’ve succeeded in getting your site banned.

Creating doorway pages is another good way to get your site exiled to search engine limbo. Doorway pages are handy little HTML dummy pages that heavily optimize on primary keywords but redirect customers to your legitimate site. This tactic used to make it possible to optimize heavily for keywords that weren’t actually relevant to the page. Now it just makes it possible to get banned.
Cloaking is just as bad. Cloaking is a means of selectively showing content for search engine spiders that is different from that displayed to customers. This is accomplished by means of a CGI script that reads the IP address of the requestor and checks it against a list of known search engine spider IP addresses. If the address is a hit for a spider, then it can be redirected to a highly optimized page designed to boost relevancy. Cloaking can be an especially appealing tactic, since you can actually get away with it… at least for a while (so long as you keep your IP address list 100% current). Chances are, thought, that eventually you will get caught and banned.

Number five on our list isn’t actually an outright ban-able offense. Nevertheless, redirecting to an alternate domain is chancy since it is generally associated with the very frowned upon spam-tastic techniques of cloaking and using doorway pages. If your site does use a redirect for a legitimate reason then make sure your write it as a 301 HTTP redirect. Do not write it as a meta refresh or a 302.
These five nifty tricks are a practical who’s-who of blackhattery. They may have been useful tricks in their day, but as search engines have evolved, so have the rules of engagement. Once upon a time these tactics might have brought in the page hits. Now they just bring hits from the ban hammer.

I tend to focus on Google, but it’s certainly not the only search engine on the block, and Bing’s showing signs of growth. As a matter of fact, back in September, Nielsen reported that Bing is growing faster than any other search engine. And, according to a statement released by MSN:

“Bing website ranking is completely automated. The Bing ranking algorithm analyzes factors such as webpage content, the number and quality of websites that link to your webpages, and the relevance of your website’s content to keywords. The algorithm is complex and is never human-mediated. You can’t pay to boost your website’s relevance ranking. However, Bing does offer advertising options for website owners.”
But this does not mean that you cannot optimize- it is actually great news for anyone looking to perhaps boost their rankings with Bing.

So, thinking about Bing and a less competitive search engine optimization venue, it seems like working on your SEO for Bing’s a great idea. One of the benefits of Bing is that they have always seemed to really focus on making it easier for webmasters to optimize. This is a good thing, because it means that when you’re comparing the two- you may be able to rank higher with Bing, faster than you would if you simply focused on Google. Working on a plan for optimization for Bing is a good idea, and because their standards aren’t all that dissimilar to Google’s, it can help. Bing’s a bit more relaxed, so if you’re just dipping your toe into SEO- especially if you’re doing it yourself, give it a try. Here are a few things to know about Bing, before you get started.

Bing is highly, highly title centric- they do in fact place a great deal more relevance on titling than Google has ever done. If you’re working on keywords, think about putting the best ones in your title tags- and make sure you’re doing so on each page of your site. Bing’s also quite text focused, and the amount of text you put on each page matters. Pages that have more than a few hundred words seem to rank higher, so, be sure that your pages contain great content. Also, consider older domains. If your site’s already been around a while, great- if not, you can always purchase an older domain so that you can optimize fully for Bing. As to links, Bing’s pretty big about back links. The search engine places fairly high importance on back links coming from relevant sites, and is not as strict as Google is about out bound links.

Speaking of how easy Bing has made it for web masters, you may want to have a look at Bing’s Webmaster Center blog. (http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/webmaster/archive/2009/09/03/search-engine-optimization-for-bing.aspx)
Here, they offer tons of tips specifically geared towards those optimizing for Bing. Also, if you want to keep track of exactly what is going on with the search engine, and how you can improve your optimization for it- they offer an RSS feed. That is a pretty handy tool when you’re working on your campaign with them.

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
Albert Einstein

With search engine optimization, it’s an ever changing game. Every day, you will hear something new, there is some new tip or trick being picked up, some new change to the way that the search engines rank, the things they will exclude, and more. However, there are a few common misconceptions about search engine marketing, search engine optimization, and search engine advertising. All too often you will hear people use these terms interchangeably, when they aren’t, really. The overall objective of any good search engine optimization campaign is to increase your traffic, first, yes- however, if you are wanting it to be more than just heading the list with the searches, and you want the conversions- you’ve got to know the rules of an constantly evolving game. Let’s look at just what SEO really is.

Search Engine Optimization refers to writing, designing and using HTML coding in a web site to boost its chances of getting at the top of the search engine pages- this is by and large dependent on a few things, and if you want your page or site to hit the lists for the phrases and keywords in your niche, SEO works with a few things. Using a spider friendly sort of site navigation, url structure, and keyword rich text is a good place to start, but also, working with link popularity and useability. If you want those customers and clients in your specific industry or your target audience to find your site using search, you’ll need to make sure that you have run your analytic, and are using the best keywords. Of course, the searches use the HTML text they find, text that’s in or around your hypertext links and in the page title- but, while metatags get a lot of talk, most searches don’t use that to determine how relevant a site is.

Structure is one of the key components to a well put together website. Understand that the search has to be able to find your text. The way that you link each page- for instance, I have mentioned having a side bar with your full site navigation links, clear and clean helps, is important. The way that you’re linking each page to one another has a huge impact on the way that the search engine sees your site. If they cannot crawl through the site because your URL structure is bad, or there is some sort of technical issue with it- you may want to consider working with paid inclusion. This means that you’re guaranteed to be in the index, and that the search will be refreshing the content more often. Problem with paid inclusion is that it doesn’t really mean you’re going to get good placement- so you still have to optimize, and this is still important.

Many people believe strongly in user testimonials, and I believe that you can also apply this to the various reviews you may get on different sites, as well. These messages are a powerful way of relating other customers and clients’ experiences with your company or your products, and more often than not- these are some of the very first things potentials are going to be reading about your company. It’s important to make sure that the ones that you have posted, you choose very well. Not all testimonials and reviews are created equal.

Let me start with how to get testimonials or reviews you can actually use- this is done through a feedback form, either on your web site or sent directly to the customer or client. Often, these are also great incentive makers- offering a percentage discount where possible can not only get you the feedback you want, but entice them to be a return. This also helps you to get the approval of the customer or client to use the materiel for marketing and business purposes- but, make sure that you have a disclaimer under your feedback form where they do grant you permission to use it. If they send photos of themselves- for instance when you have the social networking aspect, be sure you have that permission. (Using tagged photos on Facebook for example) This is actually quite powerful in furthering the personal aspect of the testimonial or review, and making it that much more meaningful to potential clients and customers.

Choose the ones that are more specific. Vague assertions of how wonderful it was to do business with your company are not very convincing and they don’t offer enough direct information about what you do. Make sure that the testimonials that you use are direct. There’s an easy way to do this without coaching- simply ask them to provide a reason that the experience with your business was a good one, and why. A good review or testimonial is going to show those potential customers or clients quite directly what you have to offer, and that you have in fact provided on what you claim. Speaking directly to the customer is much easier, when it is coming from another customer, especially a satisfied one.

Also, in this same light, information that is verifiable is always best. You do this with hard numbers and facts, but how do you get a client or customer to provide those? In your feedback forms, it’s always good to include a benefits section- for instance as I mentioned above, if you’re asking for a specific reason, you can also include a question about the key benefits that customer or client saw.

These are just a few of the ways that I have seen effective testimonials and reviews work for businesses. If you have a page specified for this on your site, working with it, and managing it in a better way can bring a more personal aspect to your business and create a stronger trust in your brand.

If you own a small business, you know that sometimes, when you’re working on your public relations, press releases can lend a big boost to exposure. However, sometimes, it can be hard to get the media to pick up your press release- and this is a problem that quite a few business owners have run up against when trying to initiate publicity in this way. There are a number of things that you can do to get your small business press releases out there, seen and picked up.

Your headline needs to be absolutely finely crafted, with a skill that any popular writer would envy. This means you need to make sure that it is clear, its concise, but it draws someone in. If you are working with search engine optimization, you are going to need to also balance leading keywords with your company name. When you send the press release to the media, themselves, however, you have to remove the keyword, and then focus on making the headline simply grabby. Sound confusing? It can be. The headline is typically the area that causes public relations professionals the greatest amount of headache. How do you sound newsy, but still interesting? Make sure that if you had a look at your title, you’d want to read it. Does it seem interesting, does it make you curious about what the rest of the story may have to say? On the topic of keywords, don’t try using them for releases you intend to send to the media. Just don’t. They will notice those and shut you down faster than you can click the red x at the top right of your screen. Marketing in the virtual world means usually making two different releases- one for the actual press, and one that is search engine optimized for other submissions. So, classic style press releases to the media, optimized ones for the internet at large.

You’re pitching, but you aren’t. When you’re writing press releases for the media, steer clear of any sort of sales talk. Sure, you may be announcing something big, but there is nothing the media detests more than a thinly veiled sales pitched trying to pretend it is a press release. And, believe me, they think that all sales pitches are thinly veiled. I cannot stress this enough, make sure that you write your press release in a way that says “news”, that confidently conveys something- but is not a sales pitch. There are very few ways that will send your press release to the trash faster.

Adding meaningful and significant quotes to your press releases will also make them stand out. Sometimes, the media won’t use the entire release, but if there is a quote there that is powerful- they will pull that out and use it. This is always a good thing, so, when you’re writing your media press release, consider taking a minute to compose a meaningful thought, or to obtain one from your CEO or business owner.

It has been a while since I’ve done a ‘how not to’ guide. I decided that since I’ve been focusing a little bit on the basics, that I’d take it back a bit. Here, I am going to go into a few things that, if you’re finding you can nod and say that you agree with the list- you may be making some common search engine optimization mistakes.

•Tagging? What’s that? Many people don’t tag their pages properly with the keywords that are needed. Lost of webmaster have this problem and if you have seen any web site where the company name is only located within the title tags- you have seen this as a problem. The words that usually accompany the top left hand of the browser is where you find these little tags, and if you aren’t even tagging those with the keywords- you may have a problem. This is what is going to tell the people who are looking at your site, very quickly what it is all about. If you’re looking to rank higher in the search engine, but you don’t have appropriate keyword tagging, you’re missing out a bit.

•Why is THAT keyword optimized? Using overly generic keywords may cause what could have been a good search engine optimization campaign to come to a screetching halt. General terms are good- in moderation. If you’re competition is being more specific, then you’re going to have to be also to keep up. This is one of the many, many reasons why keyword research prior to putting together your search engine optimization plan is incredibly important and has to be a big part of the overall picture. Keeping a great balance in your keywords covers a much broader range.

•Link love is lost on you. If you are not working on link building, you are also not fully utilizing the tools right there, ready at your disposal. Yes, it takes time to build relationships and network with other professionals, especially in regards to online marketing. However, spending a little time each week, at the very least, just working towards link building will help you get the higher rankings you want. There are a number of common strategies for doing this, and if you do your homework, you should be able to make things work so that everyone’s benefiting and getting more exposure.

•Content? Isn’t the stuff I have on my site enough? If your content is minimal, or outdated, you’re really going to find that your search engine optimization campaign doesn’t go very far. If you’re wanting to keep your site indexed and crawled regularly, updating frequently is key. However, also, not having new, fresh content makes for a bad impression- the internet is the information superhighway, they used to say: if you’re a professional, but display no professional knowledge in a marketing venue where your competition is- you’re falling short. Having fully optimized content, that is regularly updated is a powerful one two punch, both hitting the search engine spiders and the user for an over all better way of keeping up with the ranking, and your competition.

Oh, no, not another application for marketing, you must be thinking if you’re new to the whole online marketing realm- but the truth is, Yelp is a very useful site for local business.

See what I mean? Now, I mention this because I was reading recently that Google’s been thinking about buying Yelp- remember, I have also talked about how Google knows how to make money. That much is obvious, and if the search giant is looking at Yelp, you should be, too. Though Google did in fact end up declining to purchase the review site, the truth of the matter is- it’s growing. And it is growing fast, and becoming quite possibly one of the superstars of local business search.

From small towns to big metro areas, you will find almost everything on Yelp, and not only will you find it- you will also find out what people have been saying about it. As a business owner, you can, then in turn respond to those things either publicly or in private, and this is a really interesting way to interact with your target audience on a deeper level. David Mihm had a really in depth blog about Yelp a bit ago, if you want to check that out you can find it here:
http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/seo-industry/yelp-comes-of-age/

This very detailed article goes through quite a bit of the history behind Yelp, both good and bad, and at parts you may be sitting there wondering why on earth I’d recommend using this service- but keep reading. It’s very interesting to note the way that Yelp has grown and progressed since its inception but also, the benefits it can have for very savvy business owners. Personally, I’ve looked around Yelp a bit and been on the whole impressed- some of my absolute favorite haunts are on there and have a number of reviews.

I have talked a great deal here and there about how you can increase trust in your company, or your brand. This is something I feel pretty strongly about- and it seems to me that Yelp could be a way of doing just that. Boldly facing the opinions of your target audience, and interacting shows a thought and caring about the things that matter to your client or customer base- definitely something that improves trust. Particularly I think many get concerned about the negative reviews- but from what I have seen, having a look around, it seems that constructively negative reviews as opposed to just people being like they’ll be on the internet sometime can actually benefit businesses. How a business owner handles such complaints is important, but having a public venue in which to do so? If you take a constructive complaint, and turn it in to something positive- that can only mean good things for your publicity and is a great marketing asset. In doing this, you show that you not only listen to your customers, but you take their needs and opinions into account and can and will make changes. Does not seem like a bad thing to me.