Some of these Web 2.0 sites include Hubpages, Squidoo, WordPress and others. These social media sites allow you to publish content on them, and the best part is that Google loves these sites since they’re dynamic and full of fresh content. Check out the classic link wheel chart below:

In the above diagram, every Web 2.0 site links to your main site, as well as to the other Web 2.0 sites. Obviously we want a backlink to our website from each of these sites, but the reason that we link between each of the Web 2.0 sites is to give each one more “link juice,” enhancing the value of each backlink to our website.

The biggest concern with this model is that Google may figure out what you’re doing, just like they can tell when you automatically syndicate content to social bookmarking sites. The best practice is to manually submit articles or content to make it look more natural.

Unlike social bookmarking sites, where you simply submit a title, description and maybe some keywords about the article you’re submitting, the Web 2.0 example sites I mention above require you to submit entire articles. Obviously you don’t want to copy a article from your blog verbatim and submit it to any of these sites (duplicate content). On the flip side, you don’t want to sit there and re-write the article 5 different times. Therefore, you may want to consider an article spinning service, which will re-write your articles for you. Just be careful about proof reading all articles that you’ve had spun for you.

The bottom line is, the more quality backlinks you can get to your website and blog the better. Having variations of your content on social networks, social bookmarking sites, article marketing sites and Web 2.0 sites will absolutely help with your rankings. Just remember to never duplicate content and to make any backlink or submission look as natural as possible. Search engines are too smart to be tricked like they were 5-10 years ago.

Related posts:

1. Backlinks Are Important For SEO
2. Does Google PageRank Still Matter?
3. Do Directory Listings Matter?

Before answering this question I wanted to touch on exactly what I mean by “directory listings.” An online directory is a website that lists business’ information based on its category. Website owners can submit their information, often including their website name, url and description to these directories. A web directory is not a search engine, but rather, something similar to the Yellow Pages (which, not surprisingly, is an online directory itself). There are thousands and thousands of directories out there, some general and some very niche based on your industry. There are both free directories and directories that you have to pay to join.

If you’ve read my previous blog post, Does Google PageRank Still Matter, you’ll know that the more high quality backlinks you have the more likely your search engine rankings will improve. In other words, backlinks are a good thing. Therefore, if you’re listed in a directory, with a link to your website, then you’ve essentially created a backlink to your website, which is a good thing, right? This should help boost your search engine rankings, right? Not necessarily. Here’s why:

1) Having a link to your website in a directory is only a good thing only if the search engines recognize the link and follow it from the directory to your website. There is much debate on whether search engines even index directory pages, let alone follow outbound links. Therefore, you cannot be certain having links to your website in directories matter for backlinking purposes.

2) In my previous blog post I also mentioned the importance of having high quality and relevant backlinks. While some of the directories out there certainly qualify as high ranking websites, many do not, so even if all directories are indexed by search engines, many of their backlinks would have little to no value to your search engine rankings.

So if there’s little backlinking value from directories then do they have any value? Possibly. Here’s the potential value that being listed in an online directory could bring to your website:

1) People are actually searching the directory and they find your listing. This is the most obvious benefit. Of course, people have to actually visit the directory in order to search it, which means that the directory either has to be extremely well known or it needs to rank highly on search engines. Even if the directory ranks highly I still think people aren’t very likely to use it. The reason is that it requires you to do another search. Why do another search in a directory when you can simply do one, quick Google search?

2) Along with your website, your directory listings help make up the majority (or all) of the search results for a specific keyword phrase related to your business. This seems to be the very “old school” way to dominate on search engines, and it can work (or at least it used to work). For example, let’s say that you have a window washing business in Cupertino, CA. You not only optimize your website for the keyword phrase “Cupertino window washing,” but you also create directory listings targeting this exact keyword phrase.

Theoretically, you could own all ten page 1 rankings for your desired keyword phrase. However, in order for this to happen you likely need to be in a very non-competitive field. Furthermore, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube tend to outrank directories, making it less likely directory listings will show up on page 1. This domination of the first page of Google is a thing of the past. If you’re able to do this today with directory listings alone then it’s likely that you’re in such a non-competitive industry or field that very few people are searching for your desired keywords.

So should I waste my time with directory listings?

Yes, I would get your business listed on Google Places, Yahoo and Bing, to start (these are local business listings, but we’ll call them directories since that’s technically what they are- Yahoo has a separate “directory” that costs $299 a year that I would avoid). Then consider some other top directories that are free, such as:

• Dmoz.org
• Illumirate.com
• lii.org
• hotfrog.com

Also, consider joining two or three of the top industry-specific directory sites for your business. Avoid all directories that you have to pay to join, and by all means, avoid the Yellow pages (or at least paid Yellow Page listings). In a futile attempt to catch up to the 21st century, the Yellow Pages offers online listings. Problem is, very few people search there. Instead, focus your energy on producing quality, optimized content on your blog and social media outlets. Make sure you have a presence on Google, Yahoo and Bing’s local business listings, and make sure you have a presence on review sites, such as Yelp (and other industry-specific review sites). Finally, invest in quality backlinking to your website and blog articles.

If you have any questions about online directories then contact Turbo Social Media today, or call 877-673-7096 x2.

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2. Does Google PageRank Still Matter?
3. Meta Keywords Do Not Affect SEO:

   2010 SEO Best Practices

If you’re not familiar with Google’s pagerank it is a browser plugin that you can install that will give a ranking of 0-10 for every website (10 being the highest), based on a variety of factors, but primarily how valuable the the website is in Google’s eyes. Very few websites have a pagerank above a 5, and they’re mainly educational, government or well-known, reputable companies (such as Microsoft, Abode and Yahoo). Not surprisingly, Google has one of the handful of websites with a PR 10.

In my opinion, PR is more of an external indication (one of many) of how well a website is performing, and not a search engine ranking determinate in it of itself. In other words, I can show you a website that has a PR of zero that outranks a website with a PR 5. The PR number means nothing in relation to ranking. Authoritative backlinks and optimized, unique content matter for rankings. However, keep in mind that people determine how authoritative a backlink is based on its PR. Confused yet? Basically I’m saying that PR means nothing in determining ranking and that backlinking means a lot, and in order to determine the quality of the backlinking people analyze the PR of the backlink.

Often times you’ll hear link builders say they can get “10 backlinks from PR 5 sites or blah blah blah.” However, these links lose their value if they’re not relevant or there are a bunch of other links on the page to non-relevant content. Therefore, even having many high PR backlinks won’t necessarily improve your rankings.

PR is more like an Alexa ranking, which is another thing that internet marketers get excited about. Alexa is a website ranking system that rates every single website on the web (provided that it’s index-able). More than likely a website with a high PR and a high Alexa ranking will rank highly on search engines, but not always. Conversely, a website that has a low Alexa ranking and low PR could rank poorly or rank very well.

In summary, it’s not a bad idea to monitor your pagerank or Alexa ranking. However, it’s important to be much more aware of your website’s search engine rankings, unique visitors and conversions. If you’re doing backlinking, which I highly recommend for a solid SEO strategy, then the PR  of the backlinks matters, but it matters less if these backlinks are from sites that are irrelevant or full of other outbound links.

If you have any questions about pagerank, Alexa rankings, or simply want to learn more about SEO then contact Turbo Social Media today or call 877-673-7096 x2.

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1. Do Directory Listings Matter?
2. Backlinks Are Important For SEO
3. Google Tweaks Search Results

Dr. Glazier’s experience with social media has led him to see the value in it far beyond the “relationship building” that social media is known for. Dr. Glazier claims that “when (social media) works, the relationship building is often labor and time intensive with a return on investment that is often hard to measure. Not many people understand that social media campaigns can be orchestrated to build relationships and drive in new business at a much greater rate than using the relationship aspect of social media alone provides. When I discovered this, relationship building became the least compelling part of the picture.”

“Searchial” is a term that describes the method of interacting within social media while elevating your profile in internet searches for the products and services that you offer. In short, the book (and the term “searchial marketing”) describe how businesses can utilize social media to not only build relationships, but more importantly, better optimize their rankings on search engines.

While I’ll credit Dr. Glazier with this term (which I happen to like a lot), this is a concept that we have been preaching at Turbo Social Media over the past 3 years. The blog is the core piece of any social media strategy that we implement with our clients, and this is because it serves as a tool to update your social networks with valuable information, and, if optimized correctly, can show up very highly in search engines. Check out the example to your right and you’ll see one case in which we’ve implemented this strategy flawlessly. As you continuously grow your blog you’re increasing the number of opportunities for you to rank for various services that you offer.

I encourage you to read Dr. Glazier’s new book “Searchial Marketing,” and if you have any questions about implementing a social media strategy and how you can benefit from both the relationship building and the search engine visibility then contact Turbo Social Media today, or call 877-673-7096 x2.

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2. Social Media Marketing and Its Connection to SEO
3. Why is Social Media Marketing overtaking PPC?

It is assumed that this move by Google will hurt “content farms” the most. Reference websites like eHow.com are often criticized for being full of useless content, with the sole purpose of ranking highly on search engines. It is widely known by SEO experts that original content is one of the biggest keys to obtaining high search engine rankings. With this latest move websites that produce only original content will only see their rankings improve.

“Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem,” Google fellow Amit Singhal and principal engineer Matt Cutts wrote in a blog post. “Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does.”

According to Google, the latest update will affect up to 12% of search results in the U.S. Google will likely start to introduce the new algorithm in other parts of the world soon. While changes to their algorithm happen quite frequently, they are often very subtle. This latest tweak is considered “pretty big,” the company said in a blog post.

Time will tell how this affects business’ search engine rankings, traffic, and ultimately, revenue. One thing is for certain, Google values quality, original content.

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2. Does Google PageRank Still Matter?
3. Bing Has Been Copying Google’s Search Results

Over the past few months, Google’s market share has slowly risen, to about 66% of all searches, while Bing’s has dropped a bit, to about 11.2%. In analyzing the last year or so one can easily conclude that Google has remained undisputed leader of search engines.

ComScore’s numbers, shown above, take into account all of a company’s search properties. So, for example, Google’s results include searches on its main page, YouTube, Google News, Google Images, and other pages. This would lead one to believe that Google isn’t going anywhere. With the introduction of Google’s new “instant search” people are able to do searches much more quickly, which helps to pad Google’s market share. In this study, however, ComScore was able able to account for the difference between a user simply viewing the Instant Search results and actively clicking on a search result.

The bottom line is that Google isn’t going anywhere. They simply adapt and evolve when needed. In my next blog post I’ll touch on why Google’s rankings sometimes differ from Yahoo and Bing’s.

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The reason that backlinks are so important is because Google values popularity. The more backlinks that you have the more popular your website is, thus, the higher you rank on search engines. However, it’s not quite that simple. Just having “a bunch of backlinks” is not a good strategy. The backlinks need be from high ranking websites.

The easiest way to determine if a website is “high ranking” is to check their Google page rank. This can be done using the Google toolbar in your Firefox browser window. Typically a website that has a page rank of 3 or higher is considered high ranking (like Turbo’s website!!). You can also use Alexa’s rankings to analyze a site. If their Alexa ranking is in the top million then they are likely considered high ranking. Keep in mind that a website could score highly in Alexa, but have a low page rank by Google. This is why you should consider both Google page rank and Alexa ranking.

You’re probably wondering, “Ok, so where do I find these backlinks?” Good question. Here are some tips for growing your backlinks:

1) Social Media sites: Always link to your website from your social media website

2) Social Bookmarking sites: Assuming you have a blog and are consistantly publishing quality content, then make sure you are syndicating the content to social bookmarking websites, such as:

3) Directories: It is good practice to submit your new website to multiple directories when you launch. If you haven’t, here are a few free one’s to consider:

4) Article marketing sites: Like social bookmarking websites, article marketing websites are a collection of articles or blogs about specific topics. Here are a few:

5) Forums or important blogs: I would recommend posting and commenting on blogs and forums related to your industry regardless of whether or not you get a backlink, because they give you the opportunity to interact with your target market. That being said, you can use this as a way to increase backlinks. Just be careful, because if you are not providing value or you’re coming off as overly promotional in your comments, your post might be flagged as spam.

6) .gov or .edu sites: These websites typically have very high page ranks (6 or above) because of the quality of the content. That being said, you typically have to pay to get a backlink from these sites. Paying for backlinks is something worth considering only if you’re in a ultra competitive industry, where all of the above steps haven’t done enough to help your rankings. Even if you’re in this position, I would proceed with caution when considering buying backlinks.

Remember to avoid doing anything that appears shady. If you are contacted by a company that offers to increase your backlinks, do you homework. Find out where these backlinks are coming from. Are they paying for them and then marking up the cost to you? Avoid all links farms and any blacklisted directory.

A backlink from a low ranking website typically won’t hurt you, but it won’t do you any good. However, if the website is low ranking because it has been blacklisted by Google, then that’s another story.

If you have any questions about how to effectively grow your backlinks then contact Turbo Social Media today, or call 877-673-7096 x708.

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3. How Important are Social Bookmarking sites in Content Syndication for Social Media Marketing?

Search engine expert Danny Sullivan claims that Rohit Bhargava was the originator of the word “social media optimization.” Bhargava claims there are 5 rules for conducting social media optimization:
1. Increase your linkability
2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy
3. Reward inbound links
4. Help your content travel
5. Encourage the mashup

I’ll take a moment to elaborate on two of the rules that I believe are the most important. Increasing your linkability (#1) is extremely important because you’re not only growing the number of outlets people have to finding your website or social media sites, you’re also helping to improve the search engine rankings of your website or social media site. Google, and other search engines, value inbound links. The more inbound links that you have the more popular your website is considered; thus, you rank higher.

You also need to make your content travel (#4). In contrast to SEO, SMO is not just about what goes on within your website. Back in the day (10 years ago) simply keyword stuffing your meta tags could help you achieve high search engine rankings. This worked for many people, and it was a sufficient strategy. Fast forward to 2010, search engines have evolved, and they placing more and more value on non website-related files (video, images, audio, pdfs, etc.). Not only should your business be utilizing these newer forms of media, your business should be “blasting this media out” in order to help their content travel. When I say “blast this media out” I mean submitting your videos to You Tube, Vimeo and more. If you have a portfolio on your website then consider submitting your images to Photobucket, Flickr and more. This is not just limited to new media though. Blog articles should also be submitted to social bookmarking and social networking websites.

Social media optimization has proven to be valuable not only as a marketing and brand building tool, but also as a tool for businesses to learn more about their clients, potential clients and employees, in order to improve customer satisfaction, product/service development and recruiting. That being said, social media optimization, like search engine optimization, is about generating leads and increasing revenue. So far, it has done just that.

If you need help implementing an optimized social media strategy, consider contacting Turbo Social Media today to learn more, or call 877-673-7096 x2.

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2. Social Media Optimization
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Strategy #2: Get High Quality Readers From Search Engines Who Want To Convert

Recall that your blog’s conversion rate will be better if you have a higher quality reader. So the more of an affinity the reader has to you and your content, the greater their propensity to act on a call to action in a blog post.

You want to find a steady stream of new, interested readers who actually crave the content you are writing about.  To do this, we use the basic concept in the internet marketing called keyword research.

So take those Reader Personas you documented, and brain storm some broad and specific search terms that they would be typing into Google learn about your industry/niche, or about your products and services.  Then be sure to sprinkle those keywords throughout your blog posts.

(advanced tip: there’s a WordPress plug in found at www.yoast.com that allows you to see which keywords are driving the most traffic for you if you use Adwords on your blog).

This will maximize the chances of your blog posts getting found on page 1 of Google/Bing/Yahoo/MSN search engine results for those long tail keywords.  Once you get high quality traffic to your blog, you want to get their name and email in your marketing CRM software or database. But you’ve gotta compel them to read your posts. So…

Strategy #3: Use the AIDA Formula to Compel Readership and Conversion

Just about everything in business comes down to copywriting.  That’s hard for some small biz owners to swallow.  But the better you can compel, persuade, and excite with your words, the better your conversion will be on your blog and any media.

As a copywriter, I started out using the AIDA formula as a framework to write good copy.  Apply this formula to your blog posts with some tweaking

A: Attention – use a very attention grabbing headline. Examples:

How To _______________

Who Else Wants To ________________?

I Wish I Knew <fill in blank> 5 Years Ago__________

The Shocking Truth About _______________

Warning: If You Read This Blog Post You Will ___________

I: Interest – write interesting stories with your blog content. Stories about yourself, your marriage, your kids, and your trials and tribulations seem to work well.

D: Desire – offer something valuable to generate their interested to take whatever action you give them (I’m writing about this next post).
A: Action – stipulate the call to action at least one, but preferably twice in your post.

In the next post, I’ll write about a killer strategy to absolutely compel conversion that will help you rapidly grow your list from your blog.

P. S. Go here immediately to answer a few very short, painless questions about a free teleseminar.  I’ll reward you handsomely for doing so with a $47 free gift that teaches you more about social media for small business.

Mike Lorence is the founder of Small Business Blackbelts – he teaches entrepreneurs how to double their cashflow in 9 months or less.  And he guarantees that. Go here right now to learn more about Mike.

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It is important to note that even the term “SEO” has evolved over the past decade. SEO once referred to the things you do internally to optimize a website (meta tags, content, etc) to rank highly on search engines. Now SEO has broadened to include social media, so that it is no longer just about driving traffic through high search engine rankings. It’s about driving traffic through a variety of mediums, including social media.

Here are some SEO factors of the past that no longer carry as much weight:

• Meta keywords- Keyword stuffing was the old school way to rank your website. Simply by stuffing high traffic keywords in the meta description you could potentially rank highly. Google has come out and said that meta keywords carry no weight.
• Meta description- It can be argued that Google also places little to no value on the meta description. They are still important because this description is what appears in a search engine when your website ranks. Also, other search engines, like Yahoo in particular, likely still value the meta description; however, they’re not nearly as important as they once were.
• Generic backlinks- Paid link building was all the craze in the past decade. Paying for links from generic websites and posting on forums, blogs and other directories is not nearly as effective as it once was. While very selective paid link building with highly ranking sites can still be somewhat effective, Google prefers naturally building backlinks through unique content creation. This is where a blog comes in to play.
• Keyword Density- Don’t get me wrong, having well-written, keyword-rich content s great, especially for long tail keyword phrases. However, keyword density does not have the impact it once did in search engine rankings. Quality backlinks (see below) and anchor text links tend to have more of an impact.

Here are some new SEO factors that will carry more weight in the future:

• Social Media- Being active in social networks is crucial for increasing the visibility of the content you put out.
• Unique content- It’s been known for a while now that duplicate content is frowned upon by search engines. More than ever unique content is crucial for search engines. Blogging platforms are an easy way to set yourself up to produce a lot of unique content.
• Quality backlinks- Highly ranking sites that point to your site can definitely benefit you. Just as search engines value the link these popular sites are giving you, more people are likely to click on the link and view your website.
• Video- More than ever videos are showing up in search engine rankings. Videos can be optimized, just like articles. They are a crucial component to going “viral” with a message.

It is impossible to ignore the value that Google places on social media. This is evident in the real time results with Twitter, Facebook indexing, search Wiki (Google’s own social bookmarking site), Google Buzz, Google Wave, and much more. Many people refer to this as is your “social group”. Your “social group” might consist of Facebook fans, Twitter followers, Linked In groups, RSS feed subscribers, and much more. In the past there was an emphasis on “link groups” to improve your search engine rankings. These are things like backlinks and anchor text links. While these “links groups” are still important, it is arguable that your “social group” is becoming as important as your “link group”.

One thing is for sure, the future of search engine results will be not be dominated by websites alone, but rather a mix of websites and social media websites. The blend of social media and search engine optimization has already formed the term “social media optimization.” According to Wikipedia, social media optimization is “the methodization of social media activity with the intent of attracting unique visitors to website content. SMO in one of two online methods of website optimization; the other method is search engine optimization.”

Contact Turbo Social Media today to learn more about how we can help your business improve its social media optimization. Or call us at 877-673-7096.

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2. Do Directory Listings Matter?
3. What is Social Media Optimization?