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It’s time to admit that I have been sitting on the fence regarding the benefits of Facebook for business. Lets face it, when it comes to business it is hard to beat the business orientation of Linkedin. In comparison Facebook is much closer to what we regard as being social. In many cases Facebook is providing a vital link between friends, family and work colleagues often used as an alternative to the age old communication device the telephone, unless of course it is a mobile device being used to interact with the Facebook community.

But ignoring or not fully participating on Facebook is no longer an option for businesses. Consider for how many years a first page presence on Google was the Holy Grail and why. The why is simple, Google was the most visited web site on the Internet. Obtaining first page visibility was the goal, simply because it created visibility and most importantly web site visitors which translated into business.

Well that’s changing and changing fast. According to Hitwise, Facebook has surpassed Google as the most visited web site on the Internet for the week ending March 13th. This benchmark is not a one of, there have been days in the past 3 or 4 months where Facebook has defeated Google in the race for popularity however, when you view the graph it is clear from the progressive and consistent nature of the statistics, that in the future Facebook could possibly consistently own the number one spot.

Time Spent on Facebook

The number of visits Facebook is receiving is not the only significant statistic which needs consideration. The average time spent on the site also creates additional confirmation that Facebook may becoming the most important web site for businesses. According Nielsen there is a significant difference in the monthly time spent on Google 1:47:44 (Hour/Minutes/Seconds) compared to Facebook’s 6:27:43 (Hour/Minutes/Seconds).

Connecting with your market

Within the online environment, connecting with your market and audience is one of the primary elements of online business success. Considering Facebook’s own data stating there are "more than 400 million active users", and the above data it is quite clear that in most cases your business’s targeted audience is to be found on Facebook, it would be difficult to argue otherwise. The conclusion is people are using Facebook regularly and are spending considerable time on the web site, giving your business ample opportunity to connect with your market.

Leveraging Facebook for Business

A quick review of some of the methods Facebook can be leveraged by your business include:

Social Search: Google’s Social Search is a rather complex due to the requirement to set up your profile with Google, but ultimately well worth the time. This works best if you encourage your contacts to establish their Google profile and once the connections are made, when you or your contacts view the Search Results the social results will be included within the primary results with added exposure to your network. More can be read on this topic by reading the Blog Post Leveraging Google Real Time and Social Search. Google has provided a Social Search Video.

Fan Pages: Developing a Fan Page for your company on Facebook is another option available to assist business to leverage the highly popular Social Network. One of the benefits which stands out regarding Fan Pages, is the ability of Search Engines to index the pages which can assist to improve your company’s online visibility.

Facebook Search: Facebook’s Search functions are another element which can be leveraged to connect with your audience. The Search function has been recently updated to include search suggestions similar to those found on the major Search Engines and therefore, understanding and utilizing your keyword research has become even more important not only in the SEO environment, but also the Social Networking environment.

The Last Word

Without doubt Facebook is increasing in popularity daily and if your potential clients and customers are utilizing Facebook your business must have a presence on Facebook as well. However, it must always be remembered that to use Facebook for business requires a softly softly approach not hard out in your face advertising campaigns, which are sure to turn the network against your company.

The methods mentioned to leverage the power of Facebook are just the tip of the iceberg, with some ingenuity and familiarizing yourself with the Facebook environment additional opportunities will present themselves.

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Like it or not gone are the days when marketing a web site was straightforward. Complete some Organic Search Engine Optimization, push it along with some Pay per Click advertising and in most cases the web site would experience an increase in targeted web site traffic.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay per Click (PPC) are still important elements of a Holistic approach to web site promotion. However, with the steadily increasing popularity of Social Media Marketing the addition of Social Media Optimization (SMO) is an absolute necessity, not only to increase targeted web site traffic but Internet users have come to expect some form of Social interaction on web sites. To disappoint a web site visitor is the best way to lose a web site visitor.

Social Media Optimization (SMO) Defined

Wikipedia defines Social Media Optimization as "The methodization of social media activity with the intent of attracting unique visitors to web site content."

Although I agree with this definition to some extent with regards to the use of Micro Blogging and Social Networks to drive targeted traffic to the web site, this definition does not take into account the necessity of various Social Media Tools within the web site’s development structure to provide a social environment once the visitor has arrived at the web site through the use of Social Networks.

An alternative definition may be: The methodization of social media activity with the intent of attracting unique visitors to web site content and continuing the social interaction within the web site environment through the use of Social Media Tools to assist with the sharing of ideas and content.

The SMO Process

There are of course numerous ways that Social Media Optimization may proceed with consideration to the above definition. A typical scenario may be something like:

1. The company’s web site incorporates a Blog into the web site structure to facilitate the sharing of information and points of view with their targeted audience.
2. A Blog post is written on a topic of interest to both the Company and the target audience.
3. A representative of the company who belongs to various Social Networks creates discussions or micro blogs on the topic of interest which attracts visitors to the web site.
4. Visitors arrive at the site, read the Blog Post, and would like to share their point of view on the topic, they will submit a comment for additional discussion.
5. Comments encourage additional dialogue between visitor to visitor and visitor to company.
6. Web site visitors consider the content worth sharing and may use methods such as Social BookMarking (Digg, Delicious etc) or sharing on Social Networks such as Facebook and Linkedin or Micro Blogging such as Twitter.

As you can see from the above scenario the Wikipedia Definition of Social Media lacks the required web site support of the Social Media Optimization process.

Web Site Social Media Optimization

Clearly there are some Social Media Tools which are required within the company’s web site to support the Social Media Marketing Program. The Social Media Tools I consider to be an absolute minimum include:

Blogs: Blogging for business is an essential Social Media activity. Not only does a Blog support Social Media initiatives, Blogging has considerable Search Engine Optimization benefits which enhance the web site’s ability to improve search engine visibility and increase inbound linking opportunities.

Social Book Marking: Providing tools to enable web site visitors to book mark your content offers businesses a powerful tool to empower web site visitors to share content within their social circle. Social Book Marking is clearly an extension of word of mouth referral, and can increase web site traffic considerably should a particular content item be well received by the Social Book Marking and Recommendation web sites such as; Digg and in particular Stumbleupon which has recently increased the social sharing aspect of Social Book Marking.

Social Network Sharing: Without doubt Social Media Marketing is primarily carried out on the numerous Social Networks such as; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin and although not a Social Networking web site the recent addition to the Social Media mix Google Buzz cannot be ignored.

To further improve your Social Media Marketing Program it is necessary to include methods to facilitate the sharing of your web site content by visitors to their Social Network. The personal recommendation of a specific article or Blog post has a significant impact on spreading the word about your company’s views and products which of course increases your business’s online visibility.

Social Media Optimization supports Search Engine Optimization

One aspect which is often overlooked within a Holistic approach to web site development and promotion is the interaction and supporting nature of web site elements and promotional activities. The relationship between Social Media Optimization (SMO) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is no different.

Increasingly a web site’s SEO initiatives are supported and enhanced by the Social Media Program. With the recent introduction of Real Time and Social Search SMO has become even more important to increasing a web site’s visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages.

There are a number of factors which come into play at this point such as:

Blogging: The Real Time aspect of the Search Engine Algorithm favors fresh content which is supported by regular blogging.

Micro Blogging: The Social Search aspect of the Search Engine Algorithm focuses on numerous elements related to your Social Networking activities. Twitter and Real Time Search is a crucial element in the Social Search equation due to agreements between Twitter and all the major Search Engines to show Tweets in select search results.

Social Networks and Book Marking: The relation of inbound links and Search Engine visibility is common knowledge. Profiles within Social Networks and Social Book Marking web sites are excellent methods to improve the number of back links to a web site.

Search Engine Optimization supports Social Media Optimization

The introduction of Real Time and Social Search has increased the need to consider what keyword phrases are used within Social Media Marketing Programs and also how these terms are integrated into the Social Media content.

Keyword Research: The one thing that has not changed within the Search Algorithms is the fact the Search Engine’s use of keywords and how they are incorporated into content to determine the relevancy of a particular Tweet or Blog Post to an Internet user’s search query.

Therefore, the development of a Keyword Research Program has become necessary not purely as part of a SEO program but now should be integrated into a SMO program to ensure Blog Posts, Tweets and discussions include keywords which are most commonly associated with specific topics by Internet users.

Keyword Integration: How keywords and phrases are used within your Blog Posts, Micro Blogs and Discussions will have an impact on the visibility and attention a particular content item will receive.

Supporting your keywords with words and phrases relevant to the primary keyword is extremely important to convincing a Search Engine your content item is relevant to Internet users search queries. In addition to this requirement when developing Blog content it is still necessary to utilize some SEO basics such as; including your keywords and phrases in titles and descriptions and to use the H1, H2 and H3 HTML tags to identify the important keywords within your content.

The Last Word

There is absolutely nothing within the web site development and promotional environment that is stand alone. All elements need and support other elements and strategies. SEO and SMO are no different and if you have not been integrating these two methodologies in the past the introduction of Real Time and Social Search requires that to succeed in the fiercely competitive Internet environment SEO and SMO be developed as a unified approach in the future.

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Social Media Marketing performance monitoring is required to ensure your company benefits from the financial and human resources required to participate in the Social environment.

Including some basic Social Media Monitoring along side Google Analytics reports provides an indication of the effectiveness of your online promotional activities. Last week I published a Blog Google Analytic The Basics which reviews the web site metrics which should be reviewed in conjunction with Social Media Monitoring.

Social Media Monitoring

Social Media monitoring does not have to be a high cost, high complexity task. With a few basic tools and an understanding of what is important you can obtain the information required to indicate how well your Social Media Program is performing.

Social Media Elements to Monitor

The key Social Media Marketing performance indicators includes:

Blog Commenting: Blog commenting activity can provide an indication of your posts popularity. However, it must be remembered that in many cases your Blog visitor is time stressed and due to commenting requiring additional time it cannot be used as the only metric to determine how popular your posts are. To gain a better understanding of your Blog’s popularity you should also review some of your Analytics reports such as:

• Number of pages
• TIme on pages
• Bounce rates

Social Bookmarks: How many Social Bookmarks are obtained by your site is also important. Again consideration must be given to how much effort is required to Bookmark your site. To put your data into perspective it is suggested you also review the Social Bookmarking performance of your competitors.

RSS Feed and Email Subscriptions: The number of RSS Feeds and Blog or Newsletter subscriptions you receive, is a good indication of how well you are engaging your web site visitor. These visitors are important due to providing a clear indication of wanting to learn more about what your company is saying.

Brand Saturation and Social Response: How often and what comments your company receives is an important indication of how well your Social Media Marketing is performing. The mood of the conversation should be closely monitored to ensure that should you be receiving negative responses, you can act to improve your company’s reputation.

Social Media Monitoring Services

Some of the information required to monitor your Social Media Marketing performance are quite obvious. Monitoring your Blog commenting, RSS Feeds and Subscribers is straightforward. The only thing I would like to point out at this point, is you must keep a record of this data to obtain historical data which can be used for a comparative analysis as your move forward with your Social Media Program. The best tool for this is simply setting up a spreadsheet to record this information.

Monitoring Brand Saturation and Social Response

There is no way you can monitor your company’s reputation or saturation without using some of the Social Media Monitoring Services available. Some of these services are expensive and often out of reach of small businesses. However, there are solutions available some of which are free which provide adequate information, however, it is often recommended that you upgrade to some of the fee based services to obtain additional information regarding your business’ saturation and Social response.

UberView: Uberview offers an affordable solution with excellent reporting and ease of use. The interface provides details on conversations and the overall positive and negative response to your company’s Social efforts. This service would be my first choice.

Alterian SM2: Alterain SM2 offers substantial free reporting under their "Freemium" service. The user interface is comprehensive and there is a certain amount of time required to learn and use the service to its maximum potential but well worth trying.

I have tried a few other services and out of all the various services I have tried the above are the only two that provide in depth reporting at a reasonable cost. I’m sure there are others and if you have discovered Social Media Monitoring Services which you consider offers value to your company please share by commenting below.

The Tools: A Warning

Having tried so many various tools I often come across tools which provide results which are not accurate. When testing a tool I always try to check the information using other methods. For example the tools which report on Social Bookmarking are very prone to error. Some of these results indicated nil results when I am aware that this is not the case. So be warned, be careful and try and test the tools you want to use to determine if they are providing you with quality data.

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The age old adage you get what you pay for is in most cases true with the exception of Google Analytic which is free. The Google Analytic application to monitor web site performance is a powerful tool that is often under utilized by many web site owners who just barely scratch the surface of its capabilities.

Google Analytic: Getting Started

There are a number of quick check reports that are invaluable to web site owners, some of the more important reports include:

Visitors

The visitors report provides an indication of how well your web site is engaging your visitors by providing data in the Visitor Summary such as:

• Average page views: The average number of pages viewed by visitors.
• Time on site: How long your visitors spent on your site.
• Bounce rate: What percentage of visitors are leaving your site without viewing additional pages.

Included within the Visitor’s drop down menu are a number of additional reports which are highly recommended depending on your requirements.

Benchmarking report: The Benchmarking Report provides an excellent indication of how well your site performs compares to the average of the competitiors in your niche, and provides a clear indication of whether or not you have to improve your web site promotion strategies. There is one catch to this report, to gain access to this comparative analysis you must agree to share you Analytic data with Google for comparative analysis.

Map Overlay: If your business targets a specific geographic area the Map Overlay is a report you should not ignore. It not only provides a report outlining the country of the visitors origin, but can also drill down to cities to provide you an indication of how well your web site marketing programs are working for such tactics as Local Search or advertising.

Mobile: Viewing the Mobile Report may just offer a few surprises to many web site owners as to how often the web site is being accessed by mobile devices. The Mobile Report may encourage you to consider developing pages specifically for Mobile devices which can potentially offer benefits in Mobile Search.

Visitor Loyalty: The Visitor Loyalty reports include a wealth of information in addition to the Visitor’s Summary Report. Some of the more notable reports providing additional information on how well you are engaging your visitors include:

• Loyalty: Reports on how often visitors are returning to the site.
• Depth of visit: Provides a percentage break down of how many pages are visited.
• Recency: Reports on the time span between first visits and additional visits.

Traffic Sources

To monitor and improve your web site promotion initiatives it is important to understand where your web site traffic is originating. Google Analytic provides this information within the Traffic Sources section. Reports of interest include:

Direct Traffic: The Direct Traffic Report provides an indication of the percentage of visitors which have accessed your web site directly, these could be from a Book Mark or typing the URL into a web browser. This report can assist you to determine the level of public awareness of your web site from either off line marketing initiatives, or to some extent Email marketing or Social Media Marketing programs.

Referring Sites: The web sites referring traffic to your web site are an important part of your traffic generating mix. Understanding which sites deliver traffic to your site can indicate the value of the Blogs you comment on regularly, the effectiveness of your Twitter or Facebook presence, and also provides an indication of how well targeted your link building program has been.

Search Engines: Search Engines are the primary reason you implement an Organic Search Engine Optimization Program. The Search Engine Report when read in conjunction with the Keyword Report also under the Traffic Sources tab provides detailed information about which Search Engines are delivering traffic for specific keywords.

Content

The reports under the Content category provide a wealth of information which can assist you to determine web page popularity, and also identify pages which are not performing to their maximum potential. Of particular interest in this section are:

Top Content: The Top Content Report lists your pages from the most to least visited. Within this report is also important page by page data such as Bounce Rate, Time on Page, Exit Rate and if Ecommerce is used on the site, information about the financial value of the page is also provided.

• Bounce Rate: If the bounce rate of a page is high it is recommended a review of the page is undertaken to determine how to improve the page.
• Time on Page: Consideration must be given to the page content to determine if visitors are utilizing this page as expected. If the time falls short your expectation of how long visitors should spend on a page, it indicates the page may need some revision.
• Exit Rate: Exit rate can be some what subjective and there may well be very good reasons people are exiting via a specific page. However, if the exit page is partially way through the conversion funnel, then close examination of the page is warranted.

Site Overlay: Ever wondered what links are being clicked on your web site? The Site Overlay Report identifies which links are clicked on each page. This information must be analyzed with some consideration of how important or popular you expect a specific link to be. Also it may indicate that an important link within your site is not properly labeled, or in a poor position if it is not achieving the click throughs you would expect.

The Last Word

Although there is some overlap in many of the reports available through Google Analytic, it is a powerful tool to assist you to determine how well your web site and promotional efforts are performing. The reports reviewed here are the basics which must be reviewed as part of your web site monitoring program. In the weeks to come I will provide additional information on how to really leverage the power of Google advanced analytical processes.

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Web site owners are well aware of the importance of Twitter to Social Media programs. Due to the implementation of Real Time Search, Twitter now also benefits Organic Search Engine Optimization programs.

The top 3 Search Engines Google, Yahoo and Bing all have agreements with Twitter to access up to the minute Tweets for inclusion in the "Real Time Search" results now included within the primary search results.

So just how does this influence your Social Media and SEO? A few weeks ago Google’s Amit Singhal leader of Google Real Time Search development team provided some insight into the inner workings of how Google will handle Twitter. In true Google style exact details were vague and web professionals and others were left to read between the lines to determine just how Google will be filtering Tweets to provide Searchers with results relevant to their search queries.

Authority and Relevancy

Google has historically depended on the authority and relevance of a web site to determine which pages were included in search results for a specific search request. Although these two factors depend on numerous elements the two issues which relate to these within the Twitter context are:

Authority

• Links: The number and quality of inbound links to a web site

Relevancy

• Words and phrases used in content

Twitter Authority

Google has apparently reworked their Page Rank Algothrim which evaluates the quantity and quality of a web site’s linking environment to evaluate the value of Tweets and Retweets. In the Twitter equivalent of Page Rank it is not how many links and who the links are from, but how many followers and the quality of these followers which is taken into consideration.

How this actually works of course was not indicated by Google. However, if we consider what we do know about how Google operates with evaluating the linking environment and transfer that knowledge to a Twitter context we can make some assumptions.

Number of Twitter Followers

The number of Twitter followers you have is taken into consideration when including specific Tweets into the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) similar to how the number of links are considered when including specific web pages into the SERPs. Growing the number of people following you on Twitter can assist to improve your visibility in the Real Time Search Results. Just like links, more is better.

A large following can also assist by providing a larger audience who will potentially retweet your Tweet. The number of times a Tweet is Retweeted is also likely to be a factor in Google’s Real Time Search Algorithm.

Quality of Twitter Followers

The quality of Twitter followers is also taken into consideration by the Google Real Time Search Algorithm, which is similar to the quality score used to rank the value and authority of inbound links to your web site.

Ideally you want to keep your Twitter followers focused on your keywords and your business niche. Targeting within your niche will be important. Keywords are obviously a large part of this strategy when determining who to follow with the hope you will get a follow in return. If you obtain a large following from industries outside of your niche it is likely to have less value than a highly niche targeted following (this of course depends on your business).

Obtaining follows from thought leaders within your niche who have a large following themselves is likely to have a positive impact on your own visibility with the Real Time SERPs. Obtaining follows from thought leaders is likely to pass on Authority in a similar fashion to that of the Google’s Page Rank Algorithm.

Twitter Relevancy

Twitter relevancy of course matters, otherwise Searchers would be served results which had no relevance to their search query, and serving the most relevant results possible is at the forefront of Google’s objectives.

Keywords are again the driving force behind building relevancy. The use of topical keywords within Tweets will be one of the primary elements which assists Google and other Search Engines to determine the primary topic of your tweet, and when to include it in the SERPs for a particular search query.

Twitter Context and SPAM

The Real Time Search Algorithm. of course will include elements which assist Google to avert spamming of the SERPs. There are a couple of methods likely to be used to defeat the Spammers.

As I stated keywords are important to achieving visibility in Real Time SERPs however, as all those who have Twitter account know, there is a significant amount of noise within the Micro Blogging environment.

To further evaluate how relevant a specific Tweet is, Search Engines will also evaluate other words and phrases which are included in the Tweet, similar to the method used to evaluate the keywords used in content and the words used surrounding Anchor Tex in web page links. When building relevancy in both web pages and Tweets it is important to include secondary terms which support the primary keyword used to ensure relevancy and context can be determined by Search Engines.

All Twitter account holders know about the # tag used as part of the Twitter search function. Search Engines are also aware of how Twitter uses the # hash tag and the potential for it to be abused by Spammers. So although the hash tag is acceptable within the Twitter domain, it would be highly recommended the hash tag be used prudently when considering its’ potential to be interpreted by Search Engines as SPAM.

The Last Word

It is still early days with regards to Real Time Search and without doubt all will be involved in a learning curve. However, by including some prior knowledge of how Google interprets and evaluates web pages and putting this information into a Twitter context, it is clear that the number and quality of a Twitter accounts followers and how keywords are integrated into the Tweets will be dominant factors in obtaining visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages.

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Regardless of whether your web site has just gone live or has been online for a significant period of time proactively generating traffic to your web site is imperative. Build it and they will come is not an option, the Internet is much to populated with competing web sites, online games and Social Networks to site back and wait for your web site visitors to arrive.

A multi-faceted approach

Going back to my philosophy of a holistic approach to web site promotion, in today’s highly competitive environment it has become absolutely necessary that you use all the tools available to your business to drive traffic to your web site. And this does includes off-line methods as well.

Organic Search Optimization

I strongly believe Organic SEO cannot be overlooked, hire someone to help you or work through the processes yourself but the thing not to do, is ignore Organic Optimization.

The advantages are many and not isolated to generating Organic Search traffic. Many of the processes of Search Engine Optimization are usable in other aspects of your traffic generation tactics, primarily keyword research. While completing the keyword research processes you will be able to identify keywords which can not only be used in Organic Optimization but also provide the foundation for any Pay per Click advertising your wish to implement and also provides an indication of the most popular terms used to find your product and services which can be used as attention grabbers in Social Media discussions, Tweets and Forums.

A thing to remember is, Search is still the predominant method used to find information on the Internet, approximately 80% of Internet users will click on an Organic result prior to selecting a paid search result. This of course does not mean that paid search should be ignored, the remaining 20% can still drive significant amounts of traffic to your web site.

Social Media

Social Media has the potential to drive significant volumes of traffic to your web site. The options to drive traffic to your web site using Social Media are primarily Social Networking, Social Recommendations / Bookmarking and Micro Blogging using the services of Twitter, and these are just the beginning there are numerous other Social Media Tools which are capable of assisting you to bring significant volumes of visitors to your web site who have a pre-recognition of who you are and what you offer, which is a contributing factor to increasing the actual conversion rate of your web site.

The key to using Social Media to generate traffic to your web site is the participation in the Social Environment and the development of relationships and trust. Once this process has began to take root, Social recommendation has the potential to inform others via the most powerful recommendation anyone can achieve, a recommendation from a friend.

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing most certainly has its’ place in the traffic generation mix. Sure only a small number of Internet users click on Paid Results but take into account monthly search volumes of some high popularity keywords and this can account for a significant number of targeted visitors to your web site.

I have been noted in the past, for not being a great fan of PPC advertising. However, there are times when this tool should be used within your web site promotion program. These include:

• A new site which needs to generate traffic while Organic Search becomes affective
• When targeting a highly popular keyword which your web site does not possess the authority to compete head to head
• Advertising special product and promotional offers.

Off Line Promotion

Let us not forget how businesses were promoted prior the the advent of the Internet. These methods in many cases are still effective and with the huge popularity of mobile devices can be leveraged in locations not previously considered as an outlet for promoting your web site.

Consider a moment your daily commute, especially if you use public transport.

Advertising your business on the bus, subway station and other common on the way to work locations has the ability to add to the traffic to your web site. The individual commuting to work daily needs something to break the monotony of their commute and noticing an interesting ad on the bill board may just be what they are looking for to add some interest to their journey, and visits your web site using their mobile device.

All though not entirely necessary, the development of a few web pages specifically for mobile devices will also greatly enhance your search positions within the mobile realm providing additional web site traffic.

The Last Word

This is just a primer to get you thinking in broad holistic terms on how to drive traffic to your web site. Start thinking outside the box, avoid tunnel vision and you will be surprised at the innovative methods available to your business to entice visitors to your web site.table width=”90%” border=”0″ bordercolor=”#FFFFFF” cellspacing=”0″ cellpadding=”5″ align=”center”>

About The Author Pete Hollier is an Information Scientist, and possesses a Bachelors Degree in Information Science. Pete is SeoWizardry’s owner and principal Web Site Performance Consultant, assisting businesses to leverage the power of the Internet to improve overall business performance.

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In quite a few of Blog Posts I have recommended business owners use a Self Hosted version of Wordpress over the hosted version offered by Wordpress.com and Blogger.com however, I have never gone into much detail on why or what the primary differences are.

Wordpress.com and Blogger Blogs

Wordpress.com and Blogger Blogs are hosted and essentially controlled by Wordpress and Blogger web sites. They are free to use and very quick to set up, you can be Blogging in minutes. However, from a business perspective that is where the benefits end.

Self hosted Wordpress Blogs

There are other Blog Platforms available but Wordpress is the most popular and therefore has many more themes and add on functions available than other Blogging Platforms such as B2Evolution and NucleusCMS. I use and recommend Wordpress.org and Woothemes to my clients.

The Advantages of a Self Hosted Wordpress Blog

As I stated earlier if you are Blogging for personal reasons using a hosted version offers a quick, easy and affordable method to broadcast your message. However, Blogging for business is an entirely different scenario. The only way for business to really leverage the power of Blogging is to use a self hosted Blog. Some of the primary reasons for this include:

Blog Control

Although the current policies of Wordpress.com and Blogger.com may be favorable to your business, no one can foresee how these policies may change in the future and what impact any future changes may have on your businesses Blog Program.

Professionalism of Design

The professionalism of design is an important factor regarding how your business is perceived by your current and potential customers and clients. In many cases the days of the Home Page are over. It is likely that once you initiate a Blog for your business your Blog could be your point of first contact with your customer. Therefore, you require a design that portrays the professionalism of your company to the Blog’s visitors.

There are very few themes options available for Hosted Blogs in comparison to the large number of both free and paid theme templates available for the hosted version of Wordpress. With a hosted version of Wordpress you also have the opportunity to develop a custom theme which provides seamless integration with the look and feel of your business’s web site.

Added Functionality

One of the most powerful elements of Wordpress is the vast array of plug-ins available to assist you to add functionality for just about every online tasks imaginable. Although I have never used a hosted Wordpress Blog I have signed up for an account to view the differences and from what I saw the ability to add functionality through plug-ins appears to be missing.

I see many of the WordPress Plug-ins as an absolute necessity for businesses to improve both business connectivity with visitors and to improve the Blog’s visibility in the online environment. The lack of plug-ins on hosted Blogs is a considerable drawback.

Back Links

The number and quality of Back links leading to your Blog has a significant impact on how visible your Blog is in the Search Engine Results Pages. If you do not purchase a Domain with Wordpress.com and pay for the additional Wordpress service Domain Mapping if you decide at a later date to migrate your Blog to a self hosted version redirecting the back links you have acquired will not be possible. Considering the importance of Back Links to your Search Engine Optimization Program this is one of the most serious drawbacks of a hosted Blog.

The Last Word

If your in business and Blogging there is only one option for your Blog Platform and that is a self hosted version of Wordpress. Although in the beginning when your business is new to Blogging and not sure how to implement a Blog into your online strategy a hosted version appears to be the ideal solution. It is fast, easy to set up and free which are some pretty appealing when entering something new. However, once the Blog begins to show its benefits it is often much more difficult and costly to migrate to a self hosted platform with some of the primary concerns mentioned above.

I encourage all my clients to Blog, the benefits for Search and Social Media visibility are enormous. Blogging is a long term strategy, so get started on the right foot and implement your business’s Blog on a Self Hosted Wordpress Platform it is a strategic move your business will benefit from time and time again.

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About The Author Pete Hollier is an Information Scientist, and possesses a Bachelors Degree in Information Science. Pete is SeoWizardry’s owner and principal Web Site Performance Consultant, assisting businesses to leverage the power of the Internet to improve overall business performance.

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For those who know me it is a well known fact that I am a great fan of Wordpress, and with some thought and ingenuity the Wordpress platform can be utilized for the development of entire web sites. Wordpress can be so much more than a Blogging platform, the entire SeoWizardry web site is built on Wordpress. I used Woothemes for some added functionality, and two Wordpress installations to pull the whole thing together seamlessly.

One of the strong points of Wordpress is the abundance of Wordpress Plug-ins, which are available for just about every application you can conceive and probably a few more. Everyone has their favorites, and I of course have some that I feel come under the must have category, some of which I’m going to tell you about here today. Please note links to plug-in sites open in a new tab or browser window.

My Must Have Wordpress Plug-ins

1. Headspace2 SEO and All in One SEO

Of course being involved in Search Engine Optimization my most prized Plug-in would be a SEO Plug-in. I’m not sure if I have tried them all but over time I have checked out quite a few of them. I am quite fond of All In One SEO which makes some of the basic on page tasks simple for most Wordpress users. However, not long ago while tinkering I came across Headspace2 SEO which has a couple of features I like such as, the plug-in management features and the noindex / nofollow META tag editing.

2. Contact Form 7

A web site without a Contact Form is next to useless, if your current and potential clients and customers find it difficult to contact you it is a given that your business will suffer. Contact Form 7 makes creating and adding forms to your web site a breeze and of course the most important part, getting that form information to your in box is all handled quickly and easily by Contact Form 7. If you have some basic HTML skills or some basic web site editing software you can easily customize all forms to create a web form that meets most business requirements.

3. Really Simple CAPTCHA

If you’re sick and tired of Form Spammers hitting on your online forms then Really Simple CAPTCHA is the plug-in you are looking for. This plug-in interfaces with Contact Form 7. I spent quite some time trying out various forms and CAPTCHA plug-ins and find this duo is by far the best solution I have found. It has virtually eliminated all the Form Spam I had been receiving in the past.

4. Google XML Site maps

XML Site Maps are an absolute must if you really want to assist the Search Engines understand what is available on your web site. Google XML Sitemaps does a great job in creating site maps and updates them whenever you add a new page or post to your site. Google XML Site maps does a pretty good job but it does pay to edit the site maps produced to ensure pages and posts are prioritized correctly. It is also a good idea to submit your site map to Google using Google Web Master.

5. Subscribe2

A Blog is all about connecting with your readers and creating a long lasting relationship. Subscribe2 is a terrific plug-in enabling you to do a couple of important Blog tasks. The first is Subscribe 2 enables you to put in a simple Subscribe Now Form in your Blog Posts and side bars as required. The second feature of this Plug-in is to automatically notify your subscribers with a short email informing them that a new Blog Post has been posted. This is a great plug-in for developing a loyal following.

6. Sociable

No Blog is complete without a Social Bookmarking plug-in. Social Bookmarks are a terrific way to build back links to your web site, and since building links is a time consuming and often frustrating task, anything that assists you to build links is well worth while. Sociable puts a Social Book Marking widget at the bottom of each post. The selection of book marking sites available using this plug-in are almost limitless, offering plenty of potential for adding back links to your Blog.

7. TweetMeme Retweet Button

With the recent implementation of Social Search by the Search Engine Algothrim having your Blog Posts Tweeted can have a positive impact on the visibility your Blog obtains in the Search Engine Results Pages. Tweetmeme is a great plug-in making it very easy to Retweet a Blog Posts to spread the word of a Blog Post you have enjoyed. So how about it! Scroll to the top of this post and please Tweetmeme.

8 Facebook Share

Facebook is the 2nd most popular web site on the Web and therefore, possibly even more important than Twitter when it comes to spreading the word in the Social environment and to achieve this Facebook Share is the right Plug-in for the job. I’ve not used this plug-in for very long at all, I have reviewed numerous Facebook plug-ins in the past and did not find one I was prepared to use until I discovered this one which so far is highly recommended to assist you to improve your Blog’s visibility using the Social Search criteria.

9. Arkayne

Do I ever like the Arkayne plug-in! This plug-in searches your Blog for relevant content for each and every Blog Post and provides a list of additional Blog Posts which will interest readers who are reading the current post, Arkayne greatly increases the time visitors spend on your site, plus you get all those extra page views. There is also a Social Networking community attached to this plug-in which has the potential to drive additional traffic to your site. And it works. I have seen the results in my Blog’s analytics, I do get significant traffic from the Arkayne network. This plug-in is a winner.

10. WP-Cumulus

Ok up till now all the plug-ins mentioned have had tangible benefits, but hey there is a kid in all of us and the WP-Cumulus plug-in is just a bit of added glitter to the site, but I could not resist. If you’re tired of the same old tag clouds then this plug-in is for you. It puts your tags and categories into a nice Flash movie which revolves and does other cool stuff when moused over. Check it out on the top of the side bar, yes I know not necessary but …. I like it.

The Last Word

Like I said earlier I love Wordpress and all the plug-ins listed here are in use on this site. And when I look at my plug-in list there are a couple others but this list about covers all the really good ones that I just don’t want to be without.

How about a few comments, I am always interested in learning about new Wordpress Plug-ins and would like to hear all about your favorites. Oh and please do Tweetmeme and Facebookme. I hope you enjoyed this Blog Post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Happy Blogging!

Want to use this content on your web site?

If you would like to use this article on your web site please contact pete@seowizardry.ca for an html version. All I request is you provide Pete Hollier and Seo Wizardry with a reference to this article and provide a link back to www.seowizardry.ca

Determining where to start an SEO program can be a daunting task. With so many different elements involved, deciding on just what should be done first can be far from easy. I get asked this question so many times I decide it was time to address this topic.

1, Firefox and SEO Plug-ins

The first step is to quickly review your web site for the key competitive indicators such as Google Page Rank, the number of Back Links, the age of your Domain and the Alexa rank of your web site. The quickest way to complete this is to use Firefox with any of the SEO Plug-ins available. I know Google Chrome has introduced a number of extensions to assist web developers, but so far I have not found the time to research these, although I am sure there must be some excellent tools available from Google if you have the time or inclination to try them.

Once you have your Browser set up and Plug-ins installed, visit your web site and make note of its Google Page Rank (1-10) , Back links and the Alexa Rank (the lower the number – the higher the web site traffic estimate). You will need this data as you move forward with your Search Engine Optimization project.

2. Review your web site

Web Site Design

Now this is the time where you have to sit yourself down and ask yourself the hard questions and provide honest answers. You may hate to admit it but one of the problems with the performance of your web site may come down to the simple fact that the design is not as visually appealing as it could be. Spend some time viewing your competitors’ web sites and comparing the design features to your own site. There are no hard and fast rules here as this is a very subjective comparative analysis.

Web Site Content

Once you have reviewed the design of your site spend some time navigating your site. You must try to see this from the perspective of a new web site visitor who has not been to your site before. Set yourself some tasks to complete, such as a product purchase, finding some specific company information or something simple, such as contacting your business.

• How hard is it to complete the task?
• Did you have to think your way through the process or was it intuitive?

Although not purely Search Optimization these are factors which will affect how well your web site performs for your business. If visitors find it difficult to use your web site, you can be assured they will bounce back to the Search Engine Results Pages and visit another site. If this happens frequently enough, you can be assured the Search Engines will make note of this fact and alter their search results accordingly.

3 Consider your keywords

I consider keywords the foundation of all your online marketing programs. The Keyword Research and Analysis you complete can be used in your Search Engine Optimization, Pay per Click and Social Media marketing programs. Do not underestimate the importance of your keywords, spend the time to gain a thorough understanding of the keywords and phrases which are used by your clients and customers to find the product and services your business provides.

I like to use 2 or 3 keyword research tools predominantly WordTracker, Keyword Discovery or Google Keyword Tool. All these tools provide various features which I rely on to complete my Keyword Research and Analysis.

4 Web Site Competitive Analysis

When you have completed at least some preliminary keyword research you will need to find out what the competitive environment for those keywords is like. This can be a very time consuming process however, if you decide to not complete this research thoroughly it is highly likely that you will optimize for specific keywords which although you think are ideal are likely to be very competitive and very difficult to achieve Search Engine Visibility for.

Domain Strength

The best way to approach Domain strength analysis is to set yourself up with a spread sheet with the primary performance indicators mentioned earlier. Create a section for each of the keywords you want to optimize for, search Google, since they get the most Search traffic and quickly review the sites to:

• Gain first impressions in comparison to your own
• Record ranking web pages; Page Rank, Back links, Domain Age and Alexa Rank

Do this for at least the top 5 sites preferably 10 and average the results and compare to your own web site’s performance indicators. This will provide you a very good indication of what work is required to compete with the ranking web site for your selected keywords.

This research is the absolute minimum which needs to be completed.

5. Keyword Optimization

Keywords are integrated into your web site content to provide the Search Engines with an indication of the web page’s topic and its’ relevance to an Internet User’s search query.

Keywords should not be over used. However, keywords should be used prominently within web page; URL’s, Page Titles and Description. It is also recommended the keywords be placed in the contents heading and placed prominently within sentences and paragraphs. Do not over use keywords in the web page content as this is likely to be classified as Keyword Spam by the Search Engines and also results in content which is not easy or pleasant to read by the visitors of your web site. For additional information on keyword integration you may want to read Increase Keyword Relevance Scores.

6. Link Building

Link Building is absolutely critical to achieving visibility in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The Search Engines view a link to your site as a vote of confidence in the quality and authority of your site within the relevant topical area. Be prepared, Link Building is a time consuming and ongoing task which cannot be over looked.

Having an idea of the keywords you are targeting is important to the Link Building program. Having your preferred keywords included in the text of links leading to your site (Anchor text) provides additional indication of the authoritative of your web site with regards to the areas of relevance determined by the keywords selected. There are numerous strategies used to develop a network of inbound links. Additional information on Link Building can be found by reading this article, Link Building Fundamentals.

The Last Word

Obviously this is not an in depth review of developing a Search Engine Optimization Program. However, these are the fundamentals which must be completed in the course of even the most rudimentary SEO Program. There is plenty of additional information within SeoWizardry’s Blog which provides additional information on the various topics mentioned in this Blog Post.

Otherwise you may wish to obtain a copy of SeoWizardry’s Step by Step Guide to Search Engine Optimization. This guideline provides you with a step by step approach enabling you to complete your own SEO Program using the processes used by Search Professionals.

Want to use this content on your web site?

If you would like to use this article on your web site please contact pete@seowizardry.ca for an html version. All I request is you provide Pete Hollier and Seo Wizardry with a reference to this article and provide a link back to www.seowizardry.ca

Web Content Development is defined by Wikipedia as "The process of researching, writing, gathering, organizing, and editing information for publication on web sites. Web site content may consist of prose, graphics, pictures, recordings, movies or other digital assets that could be distributed by a hypertext transfer protocol server, and viewed by a web browser."

The Search Engines

The recent changes to the Search Engine Algorithms has increased the emphasis of fresh web site content. The updated algorithms come in two forms, Real Time Search, and the latest Google offering Caffeine, both which put additional emphasis on the freshness of a web site’s content.

With so many varied types of content and the increasing importance of fresh content to the Search Engines, the development of a Content Development Plan becomes a necessity to all web site owners whose web sites play a significant role in their business plans and objectives.

Static Content vs Fresh Content

In most cases having static content on a web site is unavoidable, and not necessarily a bad thing. With any business web site there will be content which in most cases has very little reason to change. However, to perform well in the Search Engines fresh content is a necessity.

Although there are numerous opportunities to create additional web pages and landing pages to create additional content, I consider Blogging as one of the easiest and most beneficial methods to keep your web site fresh and relevant. Blogs enable you to add text, images, audio and video content covering a wide range of topics relevant to your business niche.

Blogging also provides you with a method to interact with your customers in a non formal way, and of course Blogs are very popular with Search Engines due to the varied and fresh content they have the potential to offer.

What types of content?

The type of content developed for your web site will be defined by business goals and objectives, and the informational needs of your web site visitors.

In most cases a variety of content types will be utilized which not only assists to engage and inform the visitors, but each additional content type developed creates an additional opportunity to create visibility for your web site in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

The Search Engines provide specific results for the following content types:

• Images
• Video
• Blogs
• General web page content (text)

Who is responsible for content development?

The quality of your content has a significant impact on many web site statistics such as bounce rate and time on site, and ultimately web site conversions. Therefore, be sure you have identified the right people with the right skills required to develop highly relevant and informative content. To ensure the content developed is consistent with business guidelines, it is imperative staff members or sub-contractors are identified as being responsible for the various web site content.

It is unlikely that one individual will have the skills or expertise to develop all the required types of content, or have the knowledge to develop content on highly specialized topics. Therefore, be prepared to outsource some of the more specialized content development such as video which requires significant expertise to provide the professional results expected by today’s savvy Internet users.

New Content Frequency

There are no definitive rules on the optimum frequency for providing additional content on your web site.

The availability of financial and human resources is likely to be the contributing factor determining how frequently you add content to your web site. Considering this it is necessary to develop a plan for future web site updates or Blogging initiatives.

Once the plan is in place be sure to stick to it, if the financial and human resources have been allocated for the project during the planning stages, careful monitoring will ensure the content development initiative will progress as planned and offer the benefits of increased Search Engine visibility.

Want to use this content on your web site?

If you would like to use this article on your web site please contact pete@seowizardry.ca for an html version. All I request is you provide Pete Hollier and Seo Wizardry with a reference to this article and provide a link back to www.seowizardry.ca