South Florida Web Marketing Blog

As search and social become ever more entwined in Google’s and Bing’s algorithms and search results, search engine optimizers cannot afford to turn a blind eye to social media. Bing incorporates Facebook data into its search results. Google has taken another big step with the introduction of Search, Plus Your World. Last week we explored the social media impact of Search, Plus Your World, in “Google Integrates Google+ in Search Results.” In this article, I’ll focus on the search-engine-optimization impact of this new feature.

Visibility in Search Results

The biggest impact SPYW has on SEO is the visual and personal nature of the results it returns. Compare these two search result sets for a very common search phrase: “shoes.”

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On the left is the typical Google search result set with a couple of high ranking brands, some local results and image results. On the right is my SPYW result set, made up entirely of what my circle of friends shared on Google+. It contains everything from a fabulously geeky post about modifying shoes with Android to a gleeful post about shopping for shoes to wear to a summer wedding.

The SPYW results are far more visually appealing, with the many images and mug shots of faces I’ll recognize because they’re in my Google+ Circles. It’s also much more entertaining than the straight result set because it’s full of opinions and some just weird stuff. So if I’m in the mood to be entertained and see what people I know think about a topic, SPYW is great.

But what if I want to buy shoes for my wedding in four months? This SPYW result set is not in the least bit useful to me. Even if I narrow my search query to “ivory wedge wedding shoes,” the SPYW results are still not useful in my online purchase quest.

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It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that SPYW is not relevant to ecommerce SEO. But that would be a premise based on a couple of things that are specifically true about my interactions on Google+, which determines the deeply personalized results I’ll receive in SPYW. First, nearly all my Google+ friends are obsessed with SEO or Android or technology in general, not shoes. Second, I’ve not been able to coax most of my Facebook and Twitter friends over to Google+. The everyday girly interests we share are still occurring on Facebook rather than Google+. Third, I haven’t +1’d a single shoe brand. All of these factors — specific to my interactions in Google+ — limit Google’s SPYW usefulness in an ecommerce query for “shoes” or “ivory wedge wedding shoes.”

This dive into the minutia of my personal Google+ activity is meant to illustrate a larger point. Just as my Google+ activity is specific to the people I know, their willingness to join Google+, and their desire to share certain things and not other things on Google+, so is every other individual’s Google+ activity out there. This is personalization at the most individual level, and represents a completely different SPYW experience for each of those people.

Ecommerce Sites Can Benefit from SPYW

So how does an ecommerce site take advantage of the SPYW opportunity for more visibility in search results? Contributor Paul Chaney got the ball rolling in his article last week with the following action items.

• If you don’t already have a Google+ business page, set one up. Paul’s previous article on the topic, “How to Create a Google+ Business Page,” should help.
• Share content with Google+ regularly. Zappos’ Google+ page is a good model to follow. The company shares product images with links to the online catalog, videos, status updates, news about issues related to the company, and even personal anecdotes.
• Build your network. It does no good to post content if you don’t have a group of followers to share it with. One way to do this is by adding a Google+ badge to your website that links to your Google+ page. In addition, add the +1 button to product pages, which enables people to recommend your products and services. Once people add your page to their Circles, add them back.

These are great tips. To these I’ll add a fourth step: Make it easy for fans to +1 content on your ecommerce site. I wrote about this previously, in “Using Social Buttons to Enhance Search Engine Optimization.”

Paul is right. Zappos does do an excellent job populating its Google+ stream with content. It even has some fan comments, re-shares and +1s of its posts, each of which shares the content to a wider audience on Google+ and in search results. But on the Zappos site itself, there’s no mention of its Google+ account, no buttons to +1 Zappos.com, and no buttons at the product level to +1 or share to Google+. You can email, Facebook or tweet any product you choose, but Zappos hasn’t yet made it easy to +1 and share to Google+. The same goes for Shoes.com, another major ecommerce shoe site with a strong Google+ page but poor onsite integration with Google+.

Summary

Remember, arming an ecommerce site with sharing buttons is like partially outsourcing social media and SEO success to consumers. A marketing team can only share so much content on its own, and that content tends to sound like, well, marketing. But empowering consumers to share content in their languages with their enthusiasm goes a lot farther both in terms of the sheer numbers of sharing posts and the power of that person’s endorsement with their friends and potentially their friends’ friends on Google+. It now affects Google’s Search, Plus Your World results.

Read More

• Google’s +1 Expansion Boosts Search and Social
• Using Social Buttons to Enhance Search Engine Optimization
• Managing SEO and Social Media Together

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Article source: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3339-SEO-Impact-of-Google-s-Search-Plus-Your-World

In its simplest form, search engine optimization (SEO) used to be about three things – making your content crawlable, linkable, and usable. Gaining greater visibility on search engine results pages was relatively easy. Depending on your business model, it was also much easier said than done.

Nimble smaller businesses routinely outmaneuvered larger enterprises when it came to securing specific query-relevant rankings in the search engines, especially in Google. Ultimately, relevancy had to be redefined by shifting algorithmic weightings toward trust and authority, and away from feigned popularity and repurposed content.

Now, SEO needs to be as conversational as it is contextually relevant, in order to be well represented in Google’s most recent algorithmic shifts. True to form, enterprise level SEO initiatives will have to play a game of catch-up this year in order to reap new opportunities from social search results.

Recent Developments

Google’s search results have been influenced by some measure of social signals for years. It’s only now that the social signals can wholly resonate through Google’s Search Plus Your World release earlier this month.

Google Plus Buttons made their debut in June last year. At the time, experts gave it a bit of a “so what” nod as yet another “me too” social experience. Recently Larry Page announced that 90 million users have signed up to Google Plus since launch. Those Plus buttons are growing in importance.

Google Search Plus Your World is the next evolutionary step in determining what is relevant to personalized search queries in that individuals search results are greatly influenced by their circles of friends.

In Google Search Plus Your World, your friends’ online experiences are more relevant to your personal search results than links and domain authority. This is a game changer from what we all knew and understood about perceived relevancy of public web search results. When you’re signed in to Google all you need do is toggle between the two very different, yet seemingly relevant, search results.

Presumably if you find that your personalized search results in Google Search Plus Your World lack relevancy, you be well advised to start finding some new friends. Not to worry. Google’s been thinking about that too.

Last week Google rolled out yet another new feature for Google Plus that lets searchers start a conversation directly from search results, and contribute to the relevant conversation by way of the Google Plus stream.

It’s not only easier to find people, personalities and pages in Google Plus personalized search results, you can readily expand your circle of influence by adding these people to your circle of friends – and vice versa. All you need do is find the “share box” in your search results and you’ll be presented with an opportunity to “join the discussion” about whatever you’ve searched for.

In Google Search Plus Your World, there is no search without social. Your search queries resonate social signals through personalized search.

Better be careful for what you search for. Oh, snap! That’s right. No one will know what search phrase you used, except you and Google, because your Search Plus Your World results are hidden behind https:// and no keywords will be linked to your search in any analytics programs.

Points to Ponder

While Google Search Plus Your World evolves into a centralized social hub of activity that connects search results with social functions, we must be cognizant of the fact that the search engine will likely be testing algorithms that introduce weighted social search signals into Google’s public web search results.

Google search has historically been about finding the best results for the many. Google Search Plus Your World is about finding the best results for you. Now, “you” are the enterprise. That is to say, each individual that uses Google Plus represents a new opportunity to have digital content produced by or about your enterprise discovered and shared among immeasurable circles of friends.

SEO in 2012, be it public or personal, is all about providing content that is worthy of being shared, by links or by circles. Now that the context of the search query is the conversation, relevancy is truly in the eye of the beholder … as long as the people or the publication is beholden to Google+.

Tag Cloud crafted at Wordle from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/search-plus-your-world.html

Register now for SES London 2012, the Leading Search Social Marketing Event, taking place 20-24 February, 2012. SES Conference Expo features presentations and panel discussions that cover all aspects of search engine-related promotion. Hurry, early bird rate expires February 3!

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2141420/How-Google-Search-Plus-Your-World-is-Changing-SEO

“Why can’t you just give me a straight answer?”

Johanna’s voice showed a trace of irritation.  “All I’m asking is how much you charge for SEO services!”

I smiled. This was familiar terrain. As an SEO consultant, almost every client asks me a similar question. My answer is always the same.

“It depends. On many things. Because SEO is not a turn-key solution you plug in to play.”

“Wait.  You’re an expert – and you can’t tell me what you’ll charge?!”

That’s when I explain why and when SEO matters, and the dynamic process of fixing my price for SEO consulting.

Broadly speaking, here’s what I share – and 3 analogies I use to make it easier to understand – buying a car, an iceberg or a dam!

Why SEO Matters

Every client likes to save money while getting great results from search engine optimization. But by always looking to save money on SEO, you’ll take your eye off the more important issue of intelligently allocating your marketing budget across various tactics, of which, SEO is often the most cost effective.

SEO isn’t simple or easy. Google itself rates websites based on over 200 ranking criteria – and keeps tweaking the algorithm constantly, up to 600 times in a year.

So if an ‘expert’ takes one look at your site and quotes you a “complete price” for SEO, run for the hills (or at least exercise extreme caution). Sure, they may fix some glaring weaknesses, or help you pick the low hanging fruit – but deep and lasting SEO is about a lot more than that.

Simple ‘Gold’, ‘Silver’ and ‘Bronze’ packages don’t work for SEO. SEO isn’t something you install or plug in to your website. It’s not a ‘one-time’ operation. Good SEO is a process. Research and planning are critical components of it.

That’s why no SEO consultant can make an off-hand estimate, or set a ‘price per site’ for their services. Everything depends upon your goals and targets, the nature of your business, your audience, and more.

There’s good reason why, as a client, you shouldn’t focus on the cost alone. It’s better to concentrate on the key performance indicators (KPIs) of your business such as the cost per acquisition, profit per sale, conversion rate and others.

A cheap SEO service may save you a little cash, but you won’t earn a lot from it either. In fact, it’s more likely that you’ll “save yourself into the poor-house!”

So ask yourself these critical questions first:

• Why are you even thinking about hiring an SEO consultant?
• Is SEO merely going to be your alibi instead of your ‘secret weapon’?
• Are you looking for SEO help just because everyone’s doing it, or your marketing department insists upon trying it?
• Or are you developing an SEO strategy to skyrocket your rankings, and along with it your profit?

Then, depending on the type of client, I introduce one (or all) of the 3 analogies.

Analogy #1: SEO Is Like Buying a Car, Your Price Will Match Your Needs

Johanna kept nodding her head, listening attentively to all that I said… but she still wasn’t convinced.

“Well, that’s fine,” she continued. “But I still want to know what it will cost to get my site optimized for search engines. How much does SEO cost?”

I asked her, “How much does it cost to buy a car?”

Johanna was a little confused. “Why, that depends.”

“Exactly” I said.  “The price you’ll pay for a car will depend on the make and model, its size and purpose, where you’ll drive it, and with whom. A sturdy station wagon for your family will be priced differently from a sports car you want to show-off!”

SEO services also range in price depending on what you want from it. The best SEO strategy begins by evaluating needs and problems of your prospective clients. It then deploys SEO as a magnet to attract only the most relevant leads out of the vast ocean of online Web surfers.

Setting up your website to do this effectively and well isn’t easy. Building laser focused landing pages targeted at sub-segments of your audience can draw a flood of relevant traffic that converts nicely into customers. But getting this right takes time and resources.

Cheap SEO is like bargain hunting. You might save some money. But you won’t earn much either. The way I practice SEO is not qualified guesswork that endangers a client’s business. Research and analysis come first, often followed by a face to face meeting with clients to gather all relevant information.

There’s nothing “turnkey” or “standard” about this kind of SEO. You can’t buy it, install it, and sit back. It is dynamic and constantly evolving. The ranking signals are in constant flux, and are impacted by various external factors, not just on-site ones.

SEO is also not about “fixing” things. Viewing SEO as a quick fix for reduced sales or traffic is a big mistake. You’ll only end up leaving money on the table (a lot of it!)

Good SEO must deliver a huge ROI. It is not just about getting high rankings and more traffic, clicks and page views. It’s about converting those visitors into paying customers. What happens before the landing page has a major impact on conversion rates.

SEO consulting of high caliber will help you:

• find your customers’ intent, needs and pressing problems
• identify their expectations from your business or website
• decide how you will deliver value (on the landing page)
• uncover areas of profitability
• pick triggers that convert visitors into customers
• personalize the experience for each visitor

Getting all these elements of SEO right takes a lot of time. Knowing where to begin for the best, fastest results will takes tremendous research. But the investment is worthwhile, because it will earn you a high return.

That’s why SEO should never be viewed as a cost. It’s an investment. One that pays off for a long time.

Analogy #2: SEO Is Like An Iceberg, Mainly Hidden But With Massive Impact

It is said 90% of the mass of an iceberg is under the water, hidden from view. SEO is just the same.

While you might see only the attractive top ranking on Google as the impact of your SEO, there are a hundred unseen elements at play, all working in concert to deliver the collective impact of intelligent optimization.

Like icebergs, SEO has some serious risks to balance the great opportunities it creates. Boats, ships, cruisers and even ocean liners have run aground on hidden rocks under the sea. And countless businesses have paid a steep price for wrongly executed SEO campaigns.

Mainly, such campaigns were put together by amateurs. Business owners wrongly assume that any Internet consultant is capable of “good enough” SEO, and hand it over to a Web designer or developer.

Just because they’re already in there coding or designing your website is not a reason to thrust SEO upon a Web designer or programmer. That’s like saying you’ll just get your plumber to do the wiring because he’s already working on the walls! Web developers are great at developing. SEO experts are best at SEO.

Sometimes, through sheer good luck (or even accident), you may own a great business with top search rankings and a steady flow of traffic coming in. That’s “good enough” – but with SEO, it can become so much more. And only a specialist can deliver great results.

SEO is well known to be one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing. For this reason, SEO should have a larger budget. Yet even after Web analytics data prove beyond doubt that SEO is the absolute winner at driving more traffic, many companies pay little attention to it.

In today’s competitive online arena, SEO cannot be relegated to the status of a secondhand job any longer.

It is not a trivial task to be handed over to a friend or distant cousin who knows how to “fix it”. It shouldn’t be put off until the site is ready to launch. SEO should be the first thing to focus on. And there’s a reason for this.

Not everyone will arrive at your website through the homepage. Search engines will not ask you which of your landing pages you wish to have listed in their directory.  Generic searches on business critical keywords will throw up different entry points into your website. Many visitors will enter through these back doors.

Knowing why they landed at your site, what they expect to find, and what motivates or drives them to seek your solution is critical information if you are to capture their attention, retain their interest and gain their trust.

How will you optimize every page on your large website later on?

It’s far easier to plan for it in advance. This is something I insist upon with SEO clients. After all, if your website (or any section of it) is not important enough for you to do this, why does it even exist in the first place?

Analogy #3:  SEO Is Like a Dam – Open Flood Gates Traffic Just Keeps Flowing

Dams across massive rivers store water. Think about search engines like Google as huge dams that store your targeted visitors, and your listing on SERPs (search engine results pages) as holes in the dam. Punch enough of them, and you’ll be drowned in a flood of traffic!

That’s a great reason to start optimizing your website right now – and not take it in small steps, but go for a massive overhaul.

No matter what niche you are involved in, there are ‘evergreen’ search phrases with the potential to drive a large amount of traffic to your website for years. And this traffic is free! It will continue without any dent in your ongoing or proposed marketing budget.

But optimizing just one page on your website will only deliver one extra traffic stream. What if you opened the flood gates?

Keyword research will reveal that many searches are carried out on business related and highly relevant ‘non-brand’ generic keywords. These are used by people who have never even heard about you, but are focused on their needs and problems, actively seeking out solutions. That’s the ‘water’ behind the ‘dam’ that you can tap into through SEO.

Or if you don’t like the idea of punching holes in a dam, think of your keyword research as finding a pinata, the decorated papier mache container full of candy, that you can break open to get a treat. SEO is the candy king!

Speaking of candy, a website without strategically planned design is little more than eye candy. If all it does is look nice without providing any value, then it’s like playing trick-or-treat with kids – but keeping all the sweets for yourself!

Elements other than SEO are important. You should use SEO as a way to convert and engage your visitors. Knowing the intent behind keywords that lead visitors to an individual page on your site will be valuable for your Web designer.

But don’t let your designer start outlining your site or your programmer begin coding your pages before you’ve finalized an SEO strategy and done your keyword analysis. That’s the platform upon which you can build your future success.

You may get everything else right. Your inbound marketing strategy may cover all the bases – heavy SEO, social search, local SEO, mobile optimization – and may integrate nicely with other parts of your offline and digital marketing. But without diligent keyword research underlying it all, you’re only building a superstructure upon quicksand. That’s just not smart or effective.

In 2012 or 2013, I’m guessing that search and social media will meld. Researching generic long tail keywords and merging them with local terms like cities, place names and more will become important. The growth of mobile search and the rising awareness and experience of search engine users in general will power this trend.

When you know what savvy searchers are looking for, identify the exact keywords and combinations they use, and map them to individual pages on your website, it will make the difference between a 1% and a 20% conversion rate.

Do you think it might be a good idea to raise earnings from an individual page by 20% or more? Definitely, yes!

Do you think it’s quick and easy work to do this for each page?  Absolutely not!

An extensive e-commerce website with thousands of products for sale will have prospective buyers with totally (or at least slightly) different tastes and needs. Optimizing your site for each of them is important.  The text on your site, the visual appearance, the products and services you present to them – all need to fit into the concept of an “ideal solution” that your visitor has in his or her mind.

If you add value to their lives based on uniquely individual needs, you will boost sales.

Who Should Be In Charge of Your SEO?

Definitely not the information technologists.  The project should be owned by your marketing department.

At a local conference on SEM a few years ago, I heard the term “Business Prevention Unit” applied to the IT department! There was a brief stunned silence. A few seconds later, everyone burst out laughing.

During breaks and in other presentations, people talked about this remark. It’s especially appealing to me because so many of my clients start out thinking about SEO as a purely technical challenge. That’s so wrong!

SEO is about becoming a detective, a hunter, an explorer. You’re out looking for opportunities hidden inside the psychology of your prospects and customers.

This is a mindset that’s totally foreign to an IT manager, server administrator, programmer, Web designer or other technician. If you want to put food on the table, hire a hunter!

At the same time, it is wise to keep in mind that SEO is a team game. One of my clients runs a large website with over 10 million pages indexed in Google. Optimizing each one of them individually is simply not feasible. It would be too costly in time and money. Manually tweaking every page isn’t practical, even if it’s the ideal solution.

Therefore, an SEO strategy is critical.

Where is the highest profit lying hidden? Where should we focus to reach business goals set strategically for the long term?

The answers to those questions are important. And automation is important. So is optimizing the website structure and coding. A comprehensive plan to work on such a big site is mandatory. Having an expert programmer and great server administrator as part of the team is helpful. With literally millions of page views each day, it won’t help to hire just a great SEO strategist.

It also pays to keep in mind that your website is probably the best salesman in your company. But you’re locking him up in a closet! Release him right away.

Knowing that SEO is one of the most cost effective forms of marketing out there, it’s surprising that more companies don’t invest heavily into this. Is it because it “looks too good to be true”? Probably, because so many of my clients seem to think so.

Explaining to them that it’s real, and possible, is quite a challenge.

A part of the problem is technical language, jargon and lingo used by SEO specialists to outline the benefits of their craft to regular business owners.

So, What Does SEO Cost?

If you’ve been watching closely, you’ll notice that I still haven’t answered Johanna’s initial question…  What does SEO cost?

I’ll stick to the same response. It depends.

How high are you willing to jump? How fast are you going to run? I need to know this if I am to estimate how much energy and resources you’ll need.

Pricing SEO is equally difficult. It is complex. There are many rich opportunities. Several external factors and ranking signals skew the scenario further. And then, there’s the natural skepticism of a client to overcome.

Is SEO too good to be true?  Are SEO consultants snake oil salespeople who are out to trick and cheat you?

Yes, there are charlatans and cheats out there, and you ought to keep your eyes open and your feet firmly on the ground.

But any Internet marketing manager or business owner who is still not taking SEO seriously should consider stepping down. Because, let’s face it… the most dangerous person is yourself! Especially if you’re a frugal penny pincher looking for cheap results. Remember, in SEO as with life, you reap what you sow!

In the construction industry, there used to be people who dug with shovels. A company that invented and used the “digging machine” made results happen faster, easier and at lower cost.

Effective SEO is just like that. It can bring you better results faster and at a lower cost. That’s why you shouldn’t even consider letting anyone else handle your SEO tasks.

What does a rope cost?

Asking how much SEO will cost is like asking how much rope costs. It will depend upon how many meters you need, the quality of the rope, what you plan to use it for, or how long you want it to last. You can buy the cheapest rope you find, but will it be good enough?

Hiring an SEO consultant is similar. Just like rope has its per meter price, SEO has a price too – maybe a per hour rate. How many hours you will pay for depends upon all these factors we’ve discussed earlier.

And what you pay for is not what it costs you. That is defined by the return you get on your investment. If an SEO consultant delivers a boost in sales and profit that’s 5, 10 or 25 times what you paid, it didn’t cost you anything!

So that’s how I answer Johanna’s question – which is the same question many clients ask their SEO consultants.

I’m sure you’ve faced some frustrating challenges while trying to explain the value of what you do, to a client who can’t see it as any different from the dozen other marketing and designing tasks underway. Or when you’re called in as an SEO specialist to fix things after the entire website is built and running. Got any interesting stories that come to mind?  Go ahead and share it in a comment.

What do you do when you’re asked about pricing your SEO services? Do you have any personal experiences or favorite analogies you use?  What happens when you’re asked to give a ‘fixed price quote’ upfront? Tell us how you overcome price objections.

As a customer, what do you look for with SEO consulting? What parts do you wish your SEO consultant explained better or insisted upon more firmly? Please let us know, too.

Image credit: Crestock.com

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Google: SEO

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Article source: http://searchengineland.com/how-much-does-seo-cost-3-analogies-to-help-you-determine-its-value-108870

“While Google has ended its Realtime Search deal with Twitter, search engines are still using social media sites for ranking purposes,” says Jillian Stira at the Scholes Marketing blog.

And Twitter remains a critical part of your search strategy, she notes: “Twitter has pulled ahead of many other social media platforms, becoming a critical source for search engine optimization (SEO).”

Stira offers specific advice for making your Twitter account an SEO machine. Here are some key takeaways:

Choose your names with search engines in mind. When setting up an account, Twitter will ask for two names. The first is a real name—of you or your company—and you’re allowed up to 20 characters; it’s important to choose the name people will most likely search. The second is a username preceded by the @ symbol. You’re limited to 15 characters here, so you might have to do some trimming. “If your company name is long,” suggests Sitra, “consider using abbreviations, keeping the most relevant word whole.”

Create relevant and searchable content. When tweeting in a professional capacity, the occasional personal observation is fine. But your general rule should be to stick to professional content. That is the content your followers will want to share in social networks. “[I]t is vital that you use relevant keywords and #hashtags to warrant more visibility on search results for the terms important to your business,” she advises.

Include links to your URLs. Twitter links don’t provide SEO authority, Stira notes, but they do send followers to your website and prompt Google searches for follow-up research. That is where the keywords in your tweet also come into play—since you’ve given followers the terms with which they should search.

The Po!nt: You really can tweet for dollars. When executed properly, your Twitter presence can pack a mighty SEO punch.

Source: Scholes Marketing.

Looking for great search marketing data? MarketingProfs reviewed hundreds of research sources to create our most recent Search Engine Marketing Factbook (May 2010). With 121 pages and 81 charts, it is full of relevant search marketing stats and trends. The Search Marketing Factbook is Part 2 of the complete Digital Marketing Factbook (our 296-page full report).

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Article source: http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/2463/three-ways-to-enhance-seo-with-twitter

Optimizing a website for local search is important for a few reasons. First, the number of smart phone and tablet users is on the rise meaning that a larger percentage of searches are being performed “on the go”. Mobile web searchers are often looking for local information and local establishments. Second, search is becoming more personalized and search results vary depending on individual search behavior, social media connections, and location. Therefore, it’s important to consider the following local SEO best practices while conducting an SEO campaign:

Incorporate Local Keywords
The first step of an SEO campaign is to conduct keyword research to find out how target audience members are searching for the products or services that you provide. Skipping this step can result in less traffic or less qualified traffic that won’t convert. Keyword research should first be conducted nationally, and then localized later by adding the city or town, state, and neighborhood in front of the chosen keyword. For example, for a local pizza shop it makes more sense to optimize for “Anytown NY pizza place” than it does to target the much more broad “pizza place”.

Develop Local Search Profiles
You don’t need to be a business that only operates locally to create a local search profile. In fact, all businesses should submit their information to Google, Yahoo!, and Bing local directories. It improves search engine results page visibility, increases your online real estate, and builds another legitimate inbound link to your website.

Include Contact Information
Contact information including a physical address, a mailing address, and a phone number should be included on every page of the site and should be crawlable text that the search engine spiders can “read”. For many websites it makes sense to include this information in the footer.

Optimize Social Profiles
Just as you would optimize your website for local keywords, it’s important to do the same to your social media pages. Optimize the title of the page using a local keyword and include local terms in the bio sections as well as in post content whenever it makes sense to do so.

Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Friendly
What’s the point of optimizing your site for local search from mobile devices if your site can’t be viewed on a mobile device? You can’t assume that a visitor will return to your site at a later time on a desktop. In fact, it’s doubtful that that will happen. They will simply go to your competitor’s site and do business with them instead.

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Article source: http://isedb.com/20111230-16168.php

Welcome to 2012, everybody! We hope your holiday festivities were smashing successes, and that you brought in the New Year with joy, appreciation, and excitement for an even better 2012. Most of us have made New Year’s resolutions to exercise, eat better, overcome irrational fears (okay, maybe that’s just me) and more- so, here’s to sticking to all of these resolutions and more. With new goals to achieve and a clean slate with which to approach them, we should all enter this New Year with excitement for many promising days ahead, especially when it comes to working extra hard to triumph in a bad economy.

If you are a small business owner, likely your number one resolution is to bring in more business this year – in fact, if you are a business owner of any size, this is likely your goal. With that in mind, as many of you know, one way to approach this is to invest time, money and energy into Search Engine Optimization. Though there will undoubtedly be more challenges to face in 2012 as SEO grows and evolves (and as Panda updates continue to be run), ultimately, we all adapt and work together to achieve a better, more user friendly internet experience.  The most important thing to remember going into 2012 is that the game has changed. It’s not about just link-building anymore; it’s about branding, content, social media, and more.

SEO in 2012

So, keeping all of that in mind, I’ve drummed up six things SEOs should adhere to as they get back to work after the holidays (at least, these are the factors the folks here at ESI are focusing on!):

1. On-Page Factors: Make Sure Title Tags and Meta Descriptions Read Well

In much earlier posts, we have discussed the importance of optimizing your title tags and meta-descriptions. Just as a refresher, your title tags should include at least one (if not two) of your high-priority keywords, and should not exceed a 70 character limit. Your meta-description, which should be under 157 characters, should also include these keywords, as well as a call to action. But what’s important about creating these important elements for your website in 2012? Gone are the days of the mechanical title tags and meta-descriptions: conversational, catchy and well-written title tags and meta-description are incredibly important for SEO success now. For those who were reluctant to spend a little extra time on these on-page factors, carving out creative time to do so might be a good (albeit, slightly late) resolution.

1. Improve the Relevancy Off-Page Factors: Link-Building

Link-building is as important as ever, but with the Panda update, higher quality links are paramount. Further, these links should be relevant to your site, and spammy links should be avoided at all costs. Further, rather than simply building links for your highest priority keywords, be sure to focus on branding as well.  Further, make sure to go after quality over quantity when it comes to link-building!

1. Create High-Quality Content… and Keep Creating!

In my (somewhat crazy) mind, I tend to think that all SEOs have chants continuously repeating in their heads – or, at least they should – to me, “Content is king” is and should always be on your mind if you are an interactive marketer. As Panda continues to be run, content will continue to rein over the land of SEO, and if you aren’t consistently creating fresh and unique content, you will be expelled from the kingdom (too far? Probably – but it’s my first day back, so give me a break!). Create content that users will want to read and engage with, comment on and share with their friends and colleagues (while this is easier said than done, it’s something to strive for. Spend some time getting to know your audience before beginning to write, and you might notice improvement!).

1. Implement the Rel=Author Markup

The authority of content has also been important, and will very likely continue to be this year. How do you prove the authority of your content? Well, you (or whoever writes content for your blog) use the rel=author markup (if Google approves you, that is). This necessitates having a Google + profile, and linking it to an author page on your blog. With a clear headshot, someone who has the rel=author tag correctly set up will likely see his or her information show up in the SERPs when his or her blog posts come up in the results.

1. Get Social, Especially On Google +

It’s always a good idea to expand your social reach – for marketing and SEO purposes. Think about it – Google wants to create a good experience for the user. Isn’t it evidence that users want to hear from a company, if that company is engaging and interactive with its customers and therefore popular on social media? If, last year, you knew this but didn’t act on it, maybe it’s time to take the proverbial leap of faith and get to work on social media monitoring and marketing.  In this case, it’s important to be a social climber!

This is especially true when it comes to Google +, which we know impacts the rankings on the SERPs signed in Google users see. Plus, posts made on Google (like, say, from a business page) tend to show up pretty high in the search results anyways. This is reason enough for both you personally AND your business to have a presence on Google’s social network. Sharing photos, videos and other types of viral content will only contribute to a positive outcome when it comes to climbing the rankings.

1. Focus on Local and Mobile

With an ever-increasing number of people using cell phones and tablets to access the internet, SEO has had to adapt to a correspondingly growing local audience. Focusing on local keywords and mobile optimization will be one key to success in the coming year.

But Don’t Forget the Basics

While you’re doing your best to keep up with the changes to Google’s algorithm and to interactive marketing as a whole, don’t forget to stop, breathe, and remember the fundamentals too. SEO is about climbing the organic rankings and putting yourself in front of your potential customers.  Always keep the customer in mind, remember to create a website that is both engaging for the user AND satisfying when it comes to the search engines (and not just one or the other), get the important directory listings, and continue to guest-blog.  Go for a holistic approach; you won’t find one single smoking gun that will bring you to that coveted number one spot, but rather you will find your success in a balanced combination of a multitude of factors.

More Information

If you’re looking for more free SEO tips, updates and information about interactive marketing, come back and revisit our blog for regular updates about what’s going on in the industry. If you have questions that are more specifically related to your company’s SEO efforts, give us a call at 770-481-1766.

Related Information:

12 Things We Lived, Learned and Learned to Live With In SEO This Year

Google Plus Thanksgiving Day Commercial: What Does it Signal?

Digital Atlanta: Discussing the Usefulness of Google +

5 Common Content Mistakes to Avoid

Now, You Can Put a Face to the Blog

Google Has 60% of Search Market Share as Plus Grows

Google Ushers in New Year with Plus Changes

Google +1 Button Changes, Twitter Redesign Up the Ante on the Web

Local SEO Tips

Read more posts on Everspark Interactive »

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Article source: http://www.businessinsider.com/6-seo-tips-for-the-new-year-2012-1

SEO, SEO, SEO

Google has made many changes to its search platform over the last six months. Real-time search was suspended this summer, and once the contract with Twitter expired, the search feature, which displayed Twitter feeds in real-time, was turned off. Now, Google has integrated a live Google+ feed into its searches.

The best way brands can take advantage of Google+ is to amp-up their SEO. Each time a user clicks the +1 button, it helps with that brand’s SEO and the content getting served to users above other content. Search results are personalized based on the +1s of those in your circles, and as a marketer, that changes the game. Search results are still based on Google’s proprietary algorithms, but sites with more +1s will appear to be more relevant and thus ranked higher.

With the addition of social buttons in search results, SEO is where brands can expect to see results. Buying AdWords won’t help brands in natural search results, but creating great, well-linked content will.

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Article source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/30867.asp?step=toc

If you’re an SEO Jedi, black hat tactics undoubtedly tempt you on a regular basis. Before giving in to the dark side, check out these SEO tips to renew your faith in the [white hat] light side of the Force!

In an earlier post, SEO Wars: Forget Black Hat, White Hat – What Color Is Your Lightsaber, I introduced six unique SEO styles (and respective lightsaber colors) for wielding the Force of magnetic content.

“The Force is what gives an SEO their power. It’s an energy field created by magnetic content that binds search engines, web visitors, and marketers together.”

White hat SEOs are called to a higher purpose of serving up quality content that web visitors would value, while [dark side] black hat SEOs are instead focused solely on the power of search rank, leveraging any tactics necessary to achieve it. Both sides of the Force leverage inbound marketing tactics to organically draw users to content.

The lightsaber color symbolism is fun, yet practical, as noted by this tweet:

Tired of swinging the blue light saber for one client. Its not working. Changing to orange j.mp/seolightsabers @sewatch

— Scott Hendison (@shendison) September 13, 2011

Perhaps you can relate? The rise of the black hat SEO dark side cannot be denied. However, the temptation and seduction can be …if you’re strong with the Force and leverage the right tools.

The SEO Jedi Order: A New Hope…

Listen up, fellow SEOs… it’s time to unite! Provide accountability to your fellow white hat SEOs and creatively contemplate ways to wield the Force of magnetic content.

• Believe in what you’re fighting for…Never forget that the purpose of SEO is to help users seeking your content easily find it. Moreover, search rank means nothing if it doesn’t produce results. White hat tactics fight for the greater good of a quality user experience. Wielding the Force of magnetic content not only boosts authority and relevance with search engines, but it also aids conversion, brand advocacy, and user experience.

  [Luke:] I don’t believe it. [Yoda:] That is why you fail.

• Recognize that black hat SEO is not stronger.Although dark side SEO tactics may yield faster results, the tactics are weak – inevitably failing and therefore only yielding short-term gains. For basically every black hat SEO tactic that “works”, there are white hat SEO tactics that work just as well, or better, because they have long-term value. (Check out these 12 examples of black hat SEO tactics transformed into long-term, white hat SEO wins.)

  [Luke:] “Is the dark side stronger?” [Yoda:] “No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.”

• Learn from SEO Jedi Masters, not just any SEO.With the abundance of SEO spam on the market, novice SEOs (a.k.a. SEO Younglings or SEO Padawans) easily interpret gray or dark side tactics as acceptable means for achieving search rank. Leverage these SEO training resources and learn directly from the [white hat] experts. (Note: A Jedi Master is one who has successfully trained a padawan into a Jedi Knight.)

  [Yoda:] You must unlearn what you have learned.

SEO Jedi Masters actively teach their trade and defend the white hat SEO Jedi Order.
(Action-Oriented, Content/Linking)

(Strategy Measurement)

(Specialized Skills)

6 Compelling SEO Jedi Tactics for Wielding the Force

If you’ve been wielding lightsabers of the light side of the Force and fear it isn’t working, check out these tips for inspiration. Each tactic has generally low competition and therefore presents great opportunity.

1. Universal Search Optimization

Leverage the diversity of Google universal search results mixed with videos, images, shopping, books, maps (local), and news. A SearchMetrics study recently showed that video and image formats dominate Google mixed results, yet few sites actually apply SEO to these assets. Include these assets on your pages and step ahead of the competition. Submit specialized XML sitemaps (image, video, news, local, etc.) to ensure these resources are adequately indexed and apply video optimization and image optimization to assets before publishing. Surround on-page images or videos with relevant textual content to help search engines better understand the asset and in-turn boost the relevance of the page as well.

Note: The Google video sitemap content “includes web pages which embed video, URLs to players for video, OR the URLs of raw video content hosted on your site.” The embedded video indexing option allows you to potentially drive traffic and clicks to your site instead of YouTube. Huge!

Tip: For videos, write a blog post with the embedded video and include additional, relevant engaging info like statistics, commentary, quoted responses, or related remarks. Tools like SpeechPad.com and SpeakerText.com can help with transcription. The added value of the content/video combo will encourage users to link to the web page versus directly to the YouTube video.

2. Clever Link Bait

Link bait is a tantalizing “content treat” that web visitors love so much they’ll link to it via bookmarks, social shares, or blog posts. Fresh, unique content with an exceptional educational, entertaining or X-factor twist qualifies as link bait.

• Infographics or Industry Reports  (trends, historical timelines, statistics, comparisons)
• Comic Writing  (humor on brand-relevant topics that ring true for your audience)
• Comprehensive Guides  (detailed instructions, checklists, “top lists”, training resources)
• Badges  (awards, certifications, achievements, recognition, identity labels)

Examples of quality link bait include: marketing infographics by Unbounce [Oli Gardner], webcomics by the Oatmeal [Matthew Inman], and SEO lightsaber badges by yours truly.

Tip: Include easy-to-copy HTML source code for your link bait. This makes syndication of your content easier and also empowers you to search-optimize the reproduced content with SEOd URLs, link text and image alt attributes.

Webcomics and humor videos are a great way to show that your business/industry (no matter how boring) can be fun. Every industry has something to laugh about. How does Murphy’s Law apply to your business? What’s a bizarre implementation or use of your product? Use it! For example, how could B2B toilet seat sales possibly be entertaining? Get inspired from this video!

3. User-Generated Content (UGC)

Has the Google “freshness” algorithm update got you flustered? Stop fretting about creating great content yourself, and start brainstorming how you can identify and engage brand advocates to generate content for you. Guest blog posts, crowdsourced content, comments, ratings/reviews, QA, testimonials, and user-submitted stories/projects are all great opportunities for building fresh, diverse content that search engines love.

• Guest Blog Posts. Leverage the expertise, diverse writing style, and social network of influencers in your industry. The authors will help promote their articles for you. Example: Unbounce’s Conversion-Fest Blogging Contest.
• Crowdsourced Content. Identify top influencers in your network, ask them to answer a few brief questions, and aggregate their responses into one post. The participants will share the content for you! Example: Recent posts on Crazy Egg’s blog.
• Comments Reviews. Provide tools that empower web visitors to add fresh, relevant content to existing pages for you. Default the sort to display recent posts first to prioritize those for indexing. Make sure the tool provides a means for the content to be indexed by search engines. Example tools: Disqus, Livefyre, PowerReviews and Bazaarvoice. Note: The March 2011-released Facebook Comments Box plug-in is not SEO-friendly by default, but some hacks have been proposed. (In October 2011, Google began indexing Facebook comments generated by AJAX or JavaScript, but don’t forget about Bing and Yahoo.)
• Testimonials. Acquire recommendations by following the “give to get” principle. By giving an endorsement, you can also acquire a backlink. In accordance with testimonial best practices, include your full name, company, title, link and photo along with a “product X solved my problem by…” or a similar value-added description. The specifics for identity and experience provide credibility and a mini story to which readers can relate. When requesting testimonials, ask endorsees to use the same format.

4. Microdata Annotations Rich Snippets

Rich snippets are tiny excerpts of actual content identified via semantic markup and selected to display inline with search results. Star-ratings and reviews are commonly seen rich snippets.

Semantic markup and rich snippets work hand-in-hand. Just apply simple HTML attributes in accordance with semantic markup specifications, and you’ll enable search engines to uniquely index that data and potentially display the rich snippets. The common semantic markup formats have been microformats, RDFa and microdata. (These different types of structured formats are also sometimes referred to as annotations or markup.) In June 2011, Google, Yahoo, and Bing came together in support of microdata as the HTML5 standardized format for semantic markup. The recent hype on updates to Google authorship markup reference rel=author and rel=me attributes which are HTML5 microformats.

Apply these annotations to your content accordingly. Seriously, mark everything up! Well, everything relevant where you’d desire rich snippets. There are 100+ new HTML5 markup types documented with microdata at Schema.org, each of them presenting SEO opportunities. Although this tactic is technically purely aesthetic, tests have shown that rich snippets yield higher click-through rates. On the same note, I can’t help but suspect that search engines may boost search rank for “guinea pig” sites to test new rich snippet formats. Be mindful of this, and track your search rank trends and rich snippet displays accordingly.

Tip: Complete the Rich Snippets Interest Form to get your site on Google’s radar, and leverage the Google Rich Snippets Testing Tool to validate your structured page markup/annotations and preview how it will look in search results.

Note: Although some of these annotations have been around for years, a consistent markup format has been lacking along with an adequate quantity of web pages that would justify rich snippet production. The consistent format issue seems to have been resolved. However, this early in the game there’s no guarantee that search engines will display rich snippets, even if annotations have been applied correctly. Be patient, and be ready. Your annotations will eventually bear fruit!

5. Social Media Optimization (SMO)

SMO is the process of optimizing content for social interaction, discussion and sharing. Since social influences are an integral part of SEO strategy from both a causation and correlation perspective, empower social interaction by providing on-page tools to make sharing easy. (Check out my comprehensive blog SMO guide for a plethora of tips and tools to get you started.)

To maximize sharing potential, publish new blog content at the start of the day and socially promote it immediately. Date posted plays a critical role in social shares. Share-savvy folks hunger for hot, fresh content… NOT day-old blog bread. Leverage super early publishing times to maximize your sharing window. This will also allow more shares to accrue on social sites across time zones improving the chances of being featured as “top [shared] news”.

Promptly submit content to social sharing sites like StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Delicious to jumpstart the up-vote process. Apply categories and tags accordingly to aid visibility. Delicious recommends tags used by other bookmarkers on new bookmarks, so tag your content wisely to feed suggestions with keywords you want others to use.

6. SEO “Social Networking”

If you have great content, look for new ways of promoting it beyond the standard of social posts and submissions. Start by “networking” with and investigating the social-savvy elite that regularly engage with your content.

Who submitted your content to StumbleUpon? Do you know or follow these people? (Folks you follow on StumbleUpon are denoted by the red person icon.) Be watchful of people with high numbers of “Favs”. Visit their profile and determine if they routinely share “your type” of content.

Who bookmarked your content on Delicious? Be mindful of folks using numerous tags. These people likely use Delicious often and need multiple tags to find content. These tags are handy for keyword research too.

Folks using social bookmark/submission sites are likely engaged on other social networks as well – just check their profiles or try their username on other networks. These people are your viral seed planters. Find them, follow them, connect with them, and retweet their content. When you have new content ready to post, notify them. Do this sparingly though. Don’t take advantage of the relationship, and be prepared to reciprocate in sharing their quality content.

Do You Feel Stronger in the Force?

Which of these tips might you pursue? How are you managing to resist the temptation of black hat SEO? If you’re compelled to defend the SEO Jedi Order, share this post! Add your feedback, success story, favorite link bait example, or newly selected SEO lightsaber color badge (just paste the HTML) in the comments below!

Register now for SES London 2012, the Leading Search Social Marketing Event, taking place 20-24 February, 2012. SES Conference Expo features presentations and panel discussions that cover all aspects of search engine-related promotion. Hurry, early bird rate expires February 3!

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2135348/6-SEO-Jedi-Tactics-to-Try-Before-Turning-to-the-Dark-Side

This is an extremely valid question and one that doesn’t really have a definitive answer as such. But, having said this, it is also fair to say that any small business that has a website which they hope will generate them some revenue stream, it will almost certainly be a worthwhile endeavour to seek the services of SEO specialists.

It is natural that small businesses will have fewer resources at their disposal that can be utilized for online marketing campaigns but this isn’t to say that they won’t be able to achieve some extremely positive results for their website within their budget. A good team of internet marketing professionals will have the necessary knowledge and skills to tailor a target campaign that will help to yield results for small businesses.

Differentiating the Types of Small Businesses Online

First and foremost, an awful lot of small businesses will just have a purely informational site that has no capacity to purchase their products or services online. This type of website is extremely commonplace amongst small businesses as they don’t have the capacity to venture into the world of ecommerce at the present time. However, with platforms such as Magento and Shopify, it is becoming much easier for these types of businesses to take their retail efforts online.

In terms of providing SEO to a client who only has an informational site, there are still a variety of tangible benefits of doing this. In most cases, the small businesses with purely informational websites will have a retail shop or some sort of premises for customers to visit so undertaking an online marketing campaign can be instrumental in driving traffic to the website which will increase the company’s visibility and this will usually have a positive impression on footfall to their business premises.

The other type of website that many small businesses tend to have is a small but not well optimized online shopping facility. Having e-commerce capabilities but no site traffic doesn’t make much of an impression on a company’s sales figures so it is always worthwhile scoping out a team of online marketing professionals to establish the sort of services that they can provide from an SEO perspective to help increase the flow of traffic to your website and, more importantly, ensure that this increase in traffic converts into more sales for your business.

Both these types of websites that are commonly utilized by small businesses can benefit from an SEO campaign but it is important to set out some goals in the first instance and share these with the online marketing professionals whose services you choose to utilize as this will give them a target to work towards.

It doesn’t matter what type of website that you have and the goals that you hope to achieve – a skilled team of online marketing professionals will be able to work alongside you to help your website realize its potential. Most internet marketing and SEO agencies will also offer web design services, so it may well be the case that you will be able to kill two birds with one stone by making your site more appealing from a visual perspective whilst also simultaneously making it more SEO friendly and attractive to the search engines.

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Article source: http://isedb.com/20120112-16230.php

What will happen in the year ahead? I’m no fan of making predictions, but there are some major social media tactics that we can expect to affect businesses in 2012. Some of these tactics already have been adopted by select companies, but this year we’ll see mass adoption of these tactics by businesses of all sizes.

1. Social Listening for Marketing Intelligence

Last year we saw a plethora of new technology platforms that moved social media monitoring and started crunching some sophisticated data to gauge sentiment to drive marketing campaigns.

In my view, 2012 will be a year where businesses will take a step forward from simply looking at company mentions, debatable “sentiments”, and arguable influencer scores, and instead move toward combining all disparate social data to form a marketing intelligence that drives future marketing campaigns. Quite a few tools are doing this already, but expect to see more.

Marketers will no longer be tongue tied when asked by C-suite “mentions on social media…so what?” Instead, platforms will help marketers make smarter marketing decisions based on social listening.

2. Facebook – Advertisers and Brands will Focus More on Profitability

With Facebook on pace for a billion users, playtime is over. Businesses had in the past put lot of emphasis on the somewhat superficial numbers like number of Facebook fans without taking into account the quality of that fan acquired. What we’ll see instead in 2012 is businesses focusing more on profitability and a laser-sharp ROI focus when it comes to Facebook contests, Facebook ads, and Facebook only promotion.

Businesses will also realize that there is more to Facebook than measuring a linear conversion path from a fan to a paid customer. Marketers will be open to measure non-linear path of ROI measurement like creating Facebook-only promos to drive offline traffic. Retailers are a classic example, where lots of buzz and Facebook-only promotions will be done to drive foot traffic into retail stores. Besides large retailers, we’ll see an increasing number of small and medium-sized businesses adopt this strategy.

Advertisers will start measuring their Facebook Ads campaigns based on profitability that either helps generate revenues or supports in some kind of cost savings. Brian Carter’s new book “The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money with Facebook” is an excellent resource.

3. Google+ – Pedal to the Metal

Google will aggressively roll out new features to Google+ and make Google+ pages more business-friendly. The biggest advantage Google has is its integration with other Google properties, like in its search engine results pages, in paid search ads, Google Reader, YouTube, etc.

Google also put a great internal focus on social last year by restructuring its employee bonus and salary structure based on Google’s success on social. This internal focus ensures that everyone inside the Googleplex thinks of social all the time. So, this internal focus with external push to consumers could make 2012 a year of Google+.

4. Quality Content

We all appreciate the importance of quality content – content that is engaging, relevant, and unique to the user.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen this mad rush (and budget) from companies to create content with the sole purpose of creating content for SEO. But we all know what happened to that with Google’s Panda update! So, in retrospect, Panda was a timely and much needed update from Google.

Instead, what we’ll see in 2012 is a more structured approach by businesses to create content that focuses on provides unique value to readers resulting in higher engagement levels with their community members. We’ll see a more holistic approach from businesses with content, whether it’s videos, how-to content pieces, or other types of content.

5. Community Building

As marketers get sophisticated with planning and measuring their campaigns, we’ll find businesses paying close attention to their existing community members. An increased emphasis will be placed on building an engaged community as opposed to simply amassing numbers. This means community managers must energize their community members as well as engage members for a variety of things like product development, market research, and special product discounts, to name a few.

Community building and management is all about people, content, and consistency. This tactic will be widely adopted in 2012 and will become an integral part of community management.

6. Social, Local, Mobile (SoLoMo)

SoLoMo – the social, local, and mobile triumvirate, will get a strong hold in 2012 with more integrated campaigns combining social media with local offers involving mobile devices. Essentially, socially advocated mobile content has the potential to boost brand loyalty, and this can boost sales among nearby on-the-go shoppers.

Top daily deals sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are perfect examples of this where they using deals to drive local sales. Foursquare is perfectly positioned for this SoLoMo tactic. We’ll see more local merchants signing up with Foursquare.

7. Social Media Drives SEO

Traditional on-page SEO factors will still hold true since it’s all about making your content search friendly, but what we’ll see in 2012 and beyond is strong social media sharing activities will drive SEO results. Last year we witnessed Google’s push to integrate social results into its SERP’s (and the newly launched Search Plus Your World update) and the Facebook-Bing partnership.

Ultimately, SEO will win because conversions will be higher (and relatively straightforward to measure) on organic search. As a result, more businesses will ensure closer collaboration between their search and social teams.

Summary

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the rapidly evolving social media and search landscape. Social and search are also closely intertwined so pushing on few tactics above will impact other tactics as well.

Over to you now: what other tactics do you think we’ll see businesses adopt in 2012?

Register now for SES London 2012, the Leading Search Social Marketing Event, taking place 20-24 February, 2012. SES Conference Expo features presentations and panel discussions that cover all aspects of search engine-related promotion. Hurry, early bird rate expires February 3!

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2137307/7-Social-Media-SEO-Tactics-Businesses-Will-Adopt-in-2012