Internet Marketing

Eric Brantner

SEO Content Writer

Note: My apologies for posting this so late. Please enjoy.

Although I provide this internet marketing roundup every Friday, I’d like to encourage you all to further your SEM education by reading more blogs. Whenever I link out to another blog, take the time to look through some of their other posts. There are some great bloggers out there, and you can really receive a well rounded internet marketing education by reading several of them.

On the Directory One Blog

• On Labor Day, I wrote a post explaining the common ways bloggers over-market their content. Promoting your blog is a tricky task. You want people to be aware of your presence, but if you’re constantly pitching your content, you’ll experience a backlash. People will start to ignore you. Give your content promoting efforts a sense of balance, and always place providing quality content at the top of your list of priorities.

• Have you ever had someone leave a negative comment on your blog? Did you not know how to respond to it? Here are a few different ways you can handle negative blog comments. Every situation is different, but you can get a good idea of what approach you should take by reading this post.

Around the Web

• It seems that not a week goes by without someone posting an article on link building. By now, you certainly know the importance of having quality links pointing to your website. Here are 30 easy ways you can get inbound links. Start building those links!

• Last week, I talked about how to use Twitter for your business. Still not sold? Well, read this post about 10 reasons you should join Twitter. I think you’ll be Tweeting in no time after reading this blog. The bottom line is there are a lot of benefits to joining this social network, and once you join, you’ll be hooked like everyone else.

• Undoubtedly, you heard something about Google launching a new web browser this week. If you aren’t sure whether or not you should download it yet, read through this blog on everything you need to know about Google Chrome.  This will help catch you up to speed on everything you should know about the browser before downloading it.

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Eric Brantner

SEO Content Writing

 

This week saw a lot of interesting and informative posts about Internet marketing. In case you missed any of them, here are my favorite posts from this past week.

On the Directory One Blog

• On Tuesday, I reminded readers that content is the key to a successful link building campaign. The number of inbound links you receive is often directly proportionate to the quality of your content. Follow all the link building strategies you want; if your content is boring, you won’t get good links.

 

• For the technically challenged, Herb Firestone posted a blog about embedding a video on Wordpress. While this is certainly Wordpress 101, it’s worth going over because videos can really spice up your blog.

Around the Web

• Finally, I found someone who agrees with what I’ve been saying all along. Copywriting skills are important for SEO content writing. So many SEO companies are content with passing off keyword stuffed, boring content that ranks well. Like I said earlier this week, who cares if you rank well if your content is an embarrassment to your company? Quality copywriting skills are necessary for website conversion.

• Bill Hartzer of Search Engine Guide wrote a great post about 6 ways to generate links quickly. In this day and age where everyone wants instant satisfaction, these tips provide a great link building resource. However, always remember the most effective link building campaigns require a long term commitment.

• For a few laughs, read this post about a real life SEO snake oil salesman who appeared at SES San Jose.  It just goes to show you have to be careful when purchasing SEO services. Most SEO agencies are great quality, but there are a few bad apples out there. People who say that you will be #1 on all the major search engines within 24 hours should never be taken seriously.

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Eric Brantner

SEO Content Writer

There were a lot of great Internet marketing posts this week both here and around the web. Here are a few of the articles that caught my attention this week.

On the Directory One Blog

• On Tuesday, I discussed the importance of using Twitter for your business. A growing number of businesses are starting to finally realize how social networking can help grow their brand. Twitter seems to be the hottest social network right now, and it’s important you use it properly to get the best results. Read through these 5 Twitter tips to help you get the most out of your account.
• Yesterday, Herb Firestone posted a blog entitled “9 Viral Video Strategies.” Everyone is trying to create viral content these days. When done correctly, viral videos can spark an Internet-wide buzz. People will share the viral videos with their friends, and they will share it with their friends. But there are certain tips you have to follow if you want your video to go viral. Read the post to find out what they are.

Around the Web

• In what was undoubtedly the funniest post of the week, Darren Slatten ranted about Google’s refusal to penalize him for keyword stuffing. I can’t do the post justice by recapping it here; so, just click the link and enjoy.
• Have you ever wondered why no one links to your best posts? You aren’t the only one. The experts at Copyblogger wrote a great analysis of why you aren’t receiving the inbound links you want. But they don’t stop there. They provide great tips of what you can do to get your content the attention it deserves. This is definitely a must read for anyone who cares about link building.
• As we’ve discussed in the past, it’s important to not get so caught up in pleasing the search engines that you forget about your human website visitors. There was another great post on this topic titled “When SEO and Usability Go Head To Head.” The point we can take away from this is the key to a great website is balancing both SEO and usability. It’s an art to be sure, but when pulled off correctly, the rewards are never-ending.

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Eric Brantner

SEO Content Writing

After last Friday’s pilot episode of Internet Marketing Roundup, we are back for a second installment. Like I explained last week, the point of this roundup is to provide a one stop shop for the best internet marketing posts from the past week on both our blog and those from around the web. This week, some very informative posts were created; so, let’s get right to it.

On the D1 Blog

A couple of posts here on the home front that might have slipped past you:

• On Monday, I talked about the importance of managing your online reputation. What do people see when they type your name in the search engine? If you don’t know, you better find out, because you could be losing potential sales. Monitoring your online reputation is an important piece of your overall marketing strategy, and it should be done routinely.
• Yesterday, Herb Firestone posted a blog entitled “Defining Social Media.” The post gave us some great resources that really explain social media in a way everyone can understand. There’s no doubt social media is an important brand building tool that companies should be taking advantage of.

 

Around the Web

When I’m not writing, I’m reading. Here are a few of the posts I enjoyed this past week.

• Tom Critchlow made a great post about one of the most effective link building techniques around. Tom suggests finding websites that used to offer services similar to yours but no longer do. After you’ve identified these websites, you then find out who is linking to them. Simply inform those webmasters that the site they are linking to no longer offers those services, and suggest they link to you instead.
• Earlier in the week, Brent Csutoras broke a story about Twitter limiting the number of people you can follow to 2000. By limiting your following capabilities, Twitter hopes to combat the problem of spammers. Do you think this is an effective way to eliminate spam on Twitter?
• One of my favorite bloggers is Alex Cristache over at Blogsessive. This week, he wrote a post examining where or not content really is king. The post is full of great information bloggers from every industry can use. If you follow his tips, you will have a cleaner, more effective blog that helps build your brand.

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Eric Brantner

SEO Content Development

In today’s marketplace where a growing number of consumers are turning to Internet shopping, a company is only as good as its online reputation. Even though shopping online has become commonplace, consumers are still wary of dealing with companies they can’t see face to face. For this reason, these potential customers are doing their homework on companies before they do business with them. So, when they search for your company, do you know what they’ll find?

Ego Search

An ego search is the act of searching for one’s own name online. Even though the term conjures up images of self-importance, it’s actually a type of search every business owner should be performing on a regular basis. If you’re not doing this, you could be exposing your business to lost sales and declining profits due to negative search results.

The Results Are In…

For the sake of this article, let’s say your ego search turns up unflattering results about your company. What do you do? Don’t panic. Using simple SEO techniques, you can take control of your online reputation.

• Optimize Your Page- Chances are you are ranking very well for your own name. That’s usually the least of your problems. However, you might be able to make a bigger impact on the SERPs by branding your pages and blog with your company name. Of course, you don’t want to remove the keywords from the titles, but you can still include your company name along with those targeted keywords.
• Take Advantage of Article Directories- We all know the importance of using article directories and online press releases to take control of the top rankings for your keywords. Since these pages tend to rank very well quickly, you can use them to flush the negative results out of the top SERPs. Develop several articles and press releases that include your company’s name, and you will soon be dominating the first few pages of search results.
• Get into Social Networking- Social networking has many benefits for your business. Not only can it be used for building your brand and connecting with consumers, social networking can also play an important role in your online reputation management. Profiles on these sites tend to rank very well in the search engines. By creating profiles on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, you can take control of what users will see when they search for your company’s name.

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Eric Brantner

SEO Writer

 

Starting today, we are going to have a new feature here on the Directory One blog. Every Friday will now include an Internet marketing roundup. These posts will include recaps of the week’s best blogs from both here at Directory One and around the web. In short, we hope this Friday roundup will serve to keep you on top of important Internet marketing news you may have missed. So, let’s get this show started.

On the D1 Blog

Here are some posts from this week you might have overlooked.

·         On Monday, April Hall wrote a great post explaining the benefits of guest blogging. In this article, she details how guest blogging can improve traffic and create a loyal base of readers. She also implores fellow bloggers to allow other authors to guest post on their blog. April explains that allowing someone else to post on your site will keep your readers engaged and establish your blog as an industry resource.

·         A couple of days later, yours truly posted an entry about 5 unique ways to research keywords. I wrote this post because I believe people rely too heavily on keyword research tools. While these tools are certainly important, I contend we should further our keyword research by thinking outside the box. Doing this will allow us to generate new keywords we may have overlooked in the past.

 Around the Web

I spend quite a bit of time reading up on the latest Internet marketing news. Here are a few of my favorite recent posts from around the web.

·         This post actually goes back to last week, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless. Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz conducted a study comparing the search performance of Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and Cuil. While I believe the test was highly subjective, he does have a lot of useful information in this post. Find out which one Rand believes is the best performing search engine.

·          In another post from last week, Ann Smarty discusses 3 ways to give your keywords prominence. She argues that keyword density is overrated, but using keyword prominence can improve your search rankings. I actually agree with this post as I’ve felt people place way too much emphasis on keyword density. Keyword prominence seems to be a much more effective way to make your site relevant for targeted keywords.

·         On August 6, 2008, Andrew Shotland created a post verifying what I already knew. He says that SEO is a quickly growing industry. His post uses graphs from Google Insight displaying the sharp increase SEO has seen in search volume over the past couple years. This is certainly not surprising as I believe more and more businesses will begin to see the necessity of having a sound SEO strategy.

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