The first thing to do is to realize that SEO is as much an art as a science and is likely to remain that way. That’s because internet search companies are constantly modifying the criteria they use for ranking websites in their search engine results pages. A keyword that ranked highly last month may be on page 5, 10, or 50 today. The methods search engines use to determine a site’s ranking for a key phrase have to evolve to combat those trying to game the SEO system.

For some reason, internet marketers sometimes forget that Google has an overarching primary goal. They want to give users the best results for each search engine query. They aren’t there to make your site rich. They have a job to do, and anyone who attempts to get around it can end up with their site falling in the rankings, or being banned altogether from the search engine. You certainly don’t want that to happen.

Newer SEO methods continually evolve, and it’s not worth your time to rush into changes to accomodate all the evolutionary steps search engines make. You can do something today that works great, but it could backfire on you as the search engines learn about different methods of manipulation.

Now you’re probably wondering if there is a “best” SEO tactic that works today that will work tomorrow and next year. Of course there is, and it’s so obvious that it’s amazing so many websites seem to forget it: make sure you build your website for your visitors and not for Google. Good content that visitors want will work forever and you won’t end up banned from the search engines.

Here it is, straight from the horse’s mouth (Google’s webmaster guidelines): “Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.”

In other words, work on your site’s content and don’t sweat the search engine algorithms. Google is telling you the “big secret” of what the best SEO strategy is today and tomorrow and for a long time: good content builds better rankings. and by concentrating your site design with visitors in mind, keywords will naturally be woven into your site rather than being stuffed into it like some sites do in an attempt to boost their rankings.

You don’t want to throw out the fundamentals of SEO. SEO is still an important goal. But trying the latest gimmicks isn’t going to get you much in the long run. Just use keywords responsibly, fill your site with good content, and make your site easy to navigate by humans and search engine spiders.

Like any business, you should cater to your visitors, not your critics. Good old fashioned relevant content is what will make the biggest difference in the long term. Search engine crawlers need to come up with the most accurate information possible. If your site offers the most accurate information then eventually you’ll cruise past the keyword stuffers and link buyers with a lasting place at the top of the search engine rankings.

While the SEO landscape is constantly changing, the following SEO best practices will provide you with a secure strategy for building organic traffic to your site for the long term.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is a critical phase in your SEO campaign. If you don’t get this right then problems are likely to crop up later on.

It is essential to target highly relevant keywords for your website. The keywords should have less competition so that you have an easier task of ranking well for them.

If you go after competitive keywords because they have a high number of searches every month, it can take a lot of time and effort to achieve high rankings. Even if you’re successful, the cost (time and effort) might not be worth it.

At the same time, it would be useless to target keywords that do not get searched at all. So you need to find a balance between the two.

You may need to work hard to find keywords that are both highly searched and do not have very strong competition. Don’t get discouraged by this. Your efforts may be hugely rewarded if you finally succeed in uncovering such golden keywords.

Study Your Competition

Top SEO experts spend a lot of time studying their competition. What keywords are they targeting, how many links do they have and from where are they getting their links, what meta tags are they using etc etc.

Don’t consider studying your competition a waste of time. It has many advantages. First of all you may learn something new that you didn’t know before about SEO.

Secondly by analyzing your competitor’s website you might get an idea how to optimize your website and improve it further. So this is one of the best SEO practices for people who want to excel at this art.

Learn About SEO

Top SEO experts also keep up to date about industry trends and new technologies. Why do that when they are already successful? It is because they are constantly on the lookout to learn new things and try out new strategies. In addition, search engines are constantly updating their ranking algorithms. So we have to keep learning the latest factors that are important for better rankings otherwise our competition is going to overtake us.

Once you stop learning, you stop growing. Never make the mistake of assuming you have learned all that there is to know about SEO.

Create a Sitemap

A sitemap helps search engine crawlers find all the pages on your website quickly and easily. This helps in getting all of your pages indexed. Without a sitemap, you risk having only a portion of your web pages indexed.

A sitemap is also useful from the visitor’s perspective. It helps them find pages they are interested in reading. Absence of a sitemap may make some pages of your site hidden from the users’ view. Therefore it is best to have a sitemap and link to it from every webpage on your site.

Pay Attention to Humans

Many people in their bid to attain top rankings forget that ultimately it is the human visitors that matter most. Top search ranking is just a means for getting more people to visit your site.

If you forget to make your site user friendly or fail to have useful content on your site then you may not be able to earn a lot of money through it. Even if you achieve top rankings, people may come to your site and leave quickly because they do not like it.

It is human visitors who buy your products and pay you money. As such, one of the best SEO practices is to focus on humans more than search engines. You may find that this has a positive effect on your rankings too!

What are some of your SEO best practices?

The legions of fans you need to promote your brand, engage with you on interesting niche issues and ask important questions that allow you to show off your immense intellect are missing. Well, no longer my friend. Here are five simple tips to help you blow your fan count out of the water.

1. Seed the Fields – People are more interested in something if they think they are missing out. So, get a few hundred fans to start so it looks like you have something interesting other people might like. Fiverr is great for this. You can find multiple $5 gigs that offer between 300 and 600 Likes each. Spend $20 and get between 1000 and 2000 Likes for your page. Most of them won’t do anything (often they are shell accounts), but they make your page look more alluring to passersby.
2. Create a Fan Gate – Interestingly enough, one of the most effective ways to get fans is to block the content on your page until someone Likes it. By implementing a Fan Gate and forcing people to give a like to see what you have (free reports, emails, updates, etc.) you attach a sense of value to your page and if it’s worth something, people want it that much more.
3. Integrate with Your Website – If you have a website, you have readers and visitors. Strongly encourage them to Like your page by implementing a Facebook Like box somewhere on your site. If you use WordPress for blogging, you can do this with a simple plugin. Remember, you want Likes on your Fan Page, not for your articles (though both is ideal).
4. Build a Regular Posting Schedule – Don’t just post one or two days a week at random. Post to your Page once a day at the same time. Extras are great, but if you’re consistent with a useful tip, link or video every day, people will return to see what you have to offer.
5. Ask Questions – Ask and answer a lot of questions on your Page. If people see that others are interacting with your Page, they will do the same. No one wants to be the first person to step onto the dance floor. Drag someone out there and the rest will follow. More importantly, it will show that you have the answers to their questions. People want expert guidance – offer it and they will become loyal fans.

Your Facebook Page can be a tremendously useful tool in generating interest in your business, services or brand. It just needs a little kick start. Do these five things and you’ll be swimming in new fans before you know it.

But Twitter marketing isn’t easy – certainly not as easy as many social media experts will have you believe. Not every company that uses Twitter is going to achieve instant success. So here are five ways that you can improve your success with Twitter and potentially help your business or website thrive.

Tweet Regularly

You should have someone in charge of your Twitter account that is ready and able to make regular updates. These days, your followers follow hundreds of other people at once, and your presence is often lost in the sea of other tweets being made every second. Only if you’re able to regularly update your Twitter account will it have any chance of being noticed, so don’t start a Twitter campaign unless you plan to commit to it.

Be Interesting

Don’t even bother with a Twitter account if the best you can do is describe your lunch or the magazine on your latest flight. “I am tired” is not an exciting tweet by anyone’s standard, and if your presence is too boring you’ll either lose your followers or develop a negative image for your brand. You want to be interesting, so people associate your account with excitement.

Market Your Twitter

For some reason, many people join Twitter and expect the followers to come rolling in. But there are thousands of businesses already on Twitter and millions of people that use it regularly, and no one is going to follow you simply because you are (or think you are) an interesting business. You have to go one step further and market your Twitter account – on your website, your blog, your other social media accounts and more.

Have Special Offers/Inside Info

Depending on your style of business, you should consider having special offers exclusive to your Twitter followers or inside information that isn’t available elsewhere. This will give people a reason to follow you, hoping to find out more about what you have to say or offer. Special offers can also be a great way to create a buzz about your business.

Listen and Respond

Finally, you’re going to have people communicating with you on your Twitter account – the best way to make sure you develop a positive image is by tweeting back to them, and engaging in conversations. This creates loyalty with potential customers and shows that your Twitter account isn’t just for marketing.

Running a Successful Twitter Campaign

Succeeding with Twitter isn’t as easy as people claim it is. Thousands of companies launch new Twitter campaigns every day and they crash and burn. If you really want to have a successful Twitter account, you need to make sure you follow the above tips and run your Twitter the right way.

There are any number of reasons why your Facebook Page may not be attracting the kind of attention you wanted, but here are three you should put at the top of the list.

1. Stopping, Interrupting or Deleting Conversations – Every brand owner is afraid of the conversation getting away from them. They don’t want negative reviews, arguments or rude comments to make their brand look bad. But be very careful what you delete or change on your Wall. The point of Facebook is to encourage participation and interaction. If you stifle that, people will leave. Include a question or call to action in every post you make and don’t delete or edit anything unless it is abusive or hateful in some way. Use bad reviews as an opportunity to showoff your customer service skills and help that person out, not as an excuse to censor your page.
2. Aiming for Interaction with a Clear Plan – Ever wonder how Facebook decides what appears in your News Feed and what doesn’t? They use an algorithm that measures interaction on your Page. How many comments, likes, reads, rereads, etc. The more people interact, the better your site performs in News Feed impressions. Know what people want and offer content that encourages engagement on every level – videos to draw people into extended conversations, polls and questions to get people going back and forth and activity from you to show that you are a major face for the brand.
3. Two Ends of the Spectrum – The ideal approach to Facebook is friendliness, encouragement and social engagement. The wrong approach is to be either too boring or too heated in an attempt to draw attention. The boring problem occurs when someone feels they need to post to Facebook but has nothing interesting to post. So, they just post whatever comes to mind – what they ate for lunch, their cat’s latest antic, the color of the cab they just got in (hint, it’s yellow). On the other end of the spectrum, some people get argumentative or aggressive in an attempt to be edgy and attract more attention. If it doesn’t work in high school, why would it work on your Facebook Page?

Facebook is a huge platform with plenty of opportunities to be engaging and interesting, but you need to be interactive and use the things they enjoy to draw them into conversations as well. Don’t assume everyone will be interested in your Page just because they clicked “Like”. Offer something unique and always be ready to change if you feel your current strategy isn’t getting it done. You’ll have a bigger, better and much more interesting Page as a result.

Fortunately, search engines quickly caught on to this fact, and they stopped taking meta tags into consideration as far as ranking sites.  These days, most search engines do not use meta tags at all with regards to rankings, and those that do often give them very little weight.

But meta tags are definitely still important.  Sure, they may not make a difference to how well you actually rank in most of the search engines, but it is still important to use these tags on every page.

For one thing, you should be sure they are included for those search engines that do use them.  Ranking well in a smaller search engine can still bring you a significant amount of traffic.

More importantly, the meta description is vital for bringing you more traffic from the rankings that you do get.  Many search engines, including Google, use the meta description as the description displayed in their search engine results pages (SERPS).

If you do not fill out the meta description field, search engines will generally pull your site description from either you site’s DMOZ listing (if you have one), or from some a sampling of text from your page.

If you have text navigation on your site, you may find the description shown in the search engines makes no sense at all.  It could end up looking like a random list of keywords, and that would not encourage people to visit your site.

You need to make sure the description that shows up is one that will get people to click your listing instead of someone else’s.  It should accurately describe the topic of the page, but it should also be as enticing as possible.

One great way to make sure your description will pull clicks is to research the competition. Look at the descriptions of pages from other sites that rank on the first page for your target key phrases. Then you can write a description that is similar, but more exciting.  You will find that most pages have very boring descriptions, so this shouldn’t be too difficult.

Your meta description tag should be 155 or fewer characters. While it could be longer, you run the risk of Google cutting it off. To be safe, keep your description between 125 and 155 characters. This will generally be about two sentences and a total of 20-30 words.  This gives you plenty of room to come up with an exciting, effective description.

Many people consider search engine optimization (SEO) to be the best strategy for getting targeted traffic. All webmasters and bloggers are competing for a spot on the first page of Google. Obviously, your chances of ranking high depend on a number of things, including the niche, your site’s relevance, and how much work you’re willing to put into the SEO campaign.

Here are a few tips for optimizing your site or blog for the search engines:

1. Choose a domain name that includes one of your site’s keywords. If you’re selling furniture, for instance, you need to include the word “furniture” in the domain name. Try making it as simple as possible, though, so that it will be easy for internet surfers to remember.
2. Do some research to find out which keywords represent your website the most. There are tools you can use to find out which keywords your competitors are using. For some keywords, competition is fierce, so you need to get a list of lesser known ones as well.
3. Use important keywords in your H1, H2, and H3 tags. Break your page up into sections, and include relevant keywords throughout the content. Don’t go overboard with them, though—keyword placement needs to appear naturally through the page.
4. Interlink all the pages with important keywords as anchor texts. Not only will this help with SEO, it’ll also make your website more user-friendly to visitors. If visitors find your site easy to navigate through, they will be more willing to stay.
5. Even though meta tags aren’t as important as they used to be, you should still use them. Visit your competitors’ websites and view the sources to see what keywords they are using for their meta tags. This will give you some idea of what to use for yours.
6. Be descriptive with your image ALT tags. Use keywords for all the images and graphics featured throughout your website. If you can’t get your content to rank high in Google, at least try to get the images and graphics to rank high in image searches.
7. As for the content itself, use a keyword as the very first word at the beginning of every article. It’s important to use the main keyword at the very beginning of each article and at the very end, with a few secondary keywords in between. Overall, keep the density less than 2% so that you won’t get banned from Google for keyword stuffing.

Follow these search engine optimization tips and hopefully you will increase your site’s ranking. Don’t expect to make it on the front page of Google overnight, though: it can take awhile to get a steady flow of organic traffic. Doing these tips will speed things up a bit, however, so you definitely need to do everything outlined in this guide.

Choose keywords that users will likely search on. Also position your keywords towards the top of the page. The first thing to remember about selecting the right keywords to target is to try and determine what users are typically searching for. This process usually starts by brainstorming the various search terms you think users will enter for a search. Just like in writing, you want to list all phrases that come to mind. You can even think of misspellings. Avoid using key phrases that are too competitive. For example, SEO Seattle is less competitive than just SEO.

Put your main keywords in the title tag of your web pages. The title tag is important because it is at the top of the page and is one of the first things the search engine crawler sees. For example, if you are selling paintings in Houston then you want to make sure that the words paintings and Houston are in the title. Some, in order to get the maximum utilization of the title, don’t even mention their company name as this will not be something that users will commonly search on.

Make sure your content and blog are relevant to your website’s target market. Your blog is not only important to search engines but it is one of the reasons visitors will come back if it is interesting.

Make it easy for a search engine crawler to navigate your site. The first rule here is to keep your web pages simple. Avoid cramming too many keywords on one page. You should only target a page for one or two keywords and put them towards the top. Minimize the use of images and don’t use Flash graphics unless you must. Always remember that search engine crawlers only read text.

Use relevant images with an ALT text that describes them. The ALT text area is also a logical place to put in keywords but major search engines do not place much weight on it. The reason is because it has a history of being used for spam. However, what you should do is use a descriptive ALT text for the benefit of your visually impaired visitors. If you are going to use a keyword in it, make sure it is appropriate for the context and appears natural.

Run your HTML code through a validation service. This would be a service like the one offered by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C.org). By running your code through their validation software, you will be alerted to any problem areas that could interfere with either site usability or search engine indexing.

Avoid duplicate content on your site or across sites. Obviously, you don’t want to post exact copies of the same content on multiple domains but another scenario is when a company mirrors their own website. Recommendations are to have the mirror sites do a domain level redirect to the main site to avoid getting tagged as having duplicate content.

Never use text that is hidden. This is an unethical SEO method and involves inserting keyword phrases that have the same text color as the background. The hope is that the user won’t see them but the search engine crawler will. This can get you penalized by Google.

Keep track of your sites with regard to indexing and ranking. SEO is an abstract process in some ways and if one approach doesn’t work with a particular search engine then you have to try another. This is why it is important to keep track where you submitted your pages and how they are ranking.

Get as many backlinks to your site as possible. Each link that points back to your website is like a stamp of approval from the other site owners. However, you don’t just want to get any link. Strive to get backlinks from reputable websites.

But you may have to fail a lot of times and learn from your mistakes before you become a blogging sensation. But why to go through all that stuff when you can learn tips that are most important for a successful blog?

Here are some tips which should shorten your learning curve and get you on the right track with respect to blogging. If you follow these tips sincerely from the start then you can enjoy huge rewards later on.

1. Be unique: Try and be different from the rest of the world. You are unique as an individual and so should be your blog. It doesn’t add any value to the blogging world if your blog is the same like countless others.I am not saying that you need to be 100% original and unique all the time. It may not be possible to do that. But something in each of your posts should be different even if you are writing about the exact same thing as another blogger.

   In such cases, you might add your own experiences, twists, tips or opinions which will make your post different from the others. Be creative and find something where you can be different in a positive sort of way.

2. Build relationships: Blogs are about building strong relationships with the readers. The focus of a successful blogger would be about making people fall in love with your blog and come back to it often.This can happen if you are friendly and encourage people to visit and contribute. Respond to peoples’ comments and answer questions when someone asks something on the blog. You may also comment on other people’s blogs.
3. Write as if you are talking:Blog posts are meant to be informal, personal and refreshing. They should not be boring! A good strategy would be to write blog posts as if you are talking to people.Imagine an audience of many interested people with you addressing them. Imagine these people hanging on to every word that you speak. Imagine a two-way dialogue between you and your readers. Such should be the feel when people visit your blog.
4. Educate and Entertain: Your blog posts should be such that they not only educate the reader but also entertain them. Nobody likes reading a long and boring article even if its a useful one.Not only should you research well about what you want to write but also write it in an interesting manner. The blog posts should be full of useful information and tips which the readers find helpful in solving their problems. At the same time the information should be presented in a friendly tone and some humor injected into it.
5. Link to useful posts: We should try and make our blog as useful to readers as possible. Even though you might covered a topic well in your blog posts, but it is unlikely that you had covered all aspects related to a topic.

Instead of trying to do all the work by yourself, you can cover some aspects of a topic and then link to other websites or blogs which cover some other aspects related to the present topic. Do not be afraid of sending your readers to other websites.

While many bloggers might flinch at the idea of linking to other sites from their posts, it might prove very beneficial. You are adding more value to your blog posts by linking to relevant and useful posts.

You are exhibiting that you are not afraid to link to other websites if it is for the benefit of the reader. This can make people respect and love your site all the more.

A Facebook fan page (also known as an official page or business page) is similar to a personal Facebook profile, but it allows you to create a profile for your business rather than yourself. Similar to a website, a fan page allows you to present what your business is about, while communicating with an active audience of potential and existing customers. Through your fan page, you can engage with your customers and alert them to upcoming events and specials. You can also provide customer service by interacting with customers and responding to their questions and reviews.

How do fan pages work?

Fan pages contain information such as your business’ contact information, website, hours, location, and other basic business information. A fan page is also a great platform for posting your blog articles, events, and photos.

Fan pages are designed to collect Fans in the form of other Facebook users who “like” or subscribe to your page. Users do this by clicking the “like’ button at the top of your fan page. In doing so, they are automatically subscribed to receive updates from your fan page.

Why should my business have a Facebook fan page?

Social Media Marketing is an important component of building your business’ online presence. While Facebook traffic may not directly result in increased sales, a fan page allows you to communicate your message directly to your customers.

Fan pages offer users the opportunity to post pictures, provide product reviews and post feedback and comments that can attract others and give you valuable insight into your customer’s needs and desires.
The ability for customers and businesses to connect using this platform increases engagement and brand loyalty. Because of the viral nature of Facebook, customers can easily recommend your company, product, or services to their friends.

Other benefits of having a Facebook fan page include:

• Capture customer’s contact and personal information—Facebook is full of detailed personal information that users / potential customers have chosen to share. When someone “likes” your fan page
• Easier search engine optimization—In addition to the exposure your business will receive on Facebook, your fan page also increases the likelihood your business will be found on search engines, like Google.
• Increased customer loyalty—Current customers who follow your Facebook fan page will develop a personal connection to your product or service, especially if you are diligent about feedback and responses to their posts.
• Get to know your customers—Facebook’s detailed analytics provide you valuable information about those who follow your fan page, such as their gender, age and location.  Gaining a better understanding of your fan / customer demographics can help you more effectively reach particular individuals with targeted advertising.

Power Play Marketing can create Facebook fan page for your business. View our Social Medial Marketing Packages to get started today.