Looks like Facebook decided to borrow an idea from Twitter and Pinterest as it introduced its idea of “Interest Lists” today, that you create by incorporating posts from pages and public figures under a designated label. Once you’ve created your ‘Interest Lists’ you have the ability to allow other Facebooker’s to subscribe to them or keep them private.
Essentially the interest lists can help you turn Facebook into your own personalized newspaper based on categories and topics that you list.
Will you Create or Subscribe to an Interest List?
Facebook will be rolling out with the Interest List in the coming week but if you want to start playing with this feature visit the Interest List link and create your own or subscribe to some great lists!
Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.
You must have heard about the newest social addiction Pinterest. If you haven’t, let me give you a lil insight as to why you need to jump on this ‘pin’ board (if you will) of a network. According to Pinterest, “Pinterest is an online pinboard. Organize and share things you love.” People are utilizing their pinboards to collectively organize DIY projects, plan their weddings, put together motivational quotes and so much more.
So you’re wondering, Why do I need a Pinterest account for my business? Let us tell you.
With every social networking site, there are a variety of benefits when it comes to utilizing the obvious: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. Here are a few reasons why you should be amped to get your company and brand on Pinterest.
Link Building- each “Pin” and “Repin” creates a link back to the image source. Hello to building traffic!
Keywords- Use keywords to describe these boards- GO SEO!
Brand Management in the SERPS- you’re securing the vanity URL www.pinterest.com/yourbrandname which boosts your search engine optimization efforts and will allow your profile to show up for branded search results
Building a Repoire- as you “Pin” images from your boards or website that are being shared within your network, other Pinterest users are sharing their love and support for your product and/or brand with their networks.
Brand Awareness- essentially every “Like”, “Pin”, and “Repin” is shared within the category that’s been chosen for it, as well as the network of the individuals who may have “Pinned” the image.
So how can you be a Pinterest addict like the rest of us?
At the moment Pinterest is on an “Invite Only” basis. You can request an invite directly from Pinterest.com, but you may end up waiting awhile or you can comment on this post with your email and we will send you over an invite from our Eminent SEO Pinterest account, so you can join instantly!
Pinterest Etiquette to Keep in Mind
Create a few boards: rather having one board, it’s best practice to make a few that cover a spectrum of topics and/or interests
Don’t get greedy: Pinterest does not like vain brands who just self-promote. “Pin” and “Repin” from multiple sources.
Don’t forget to “Repin”: this is the networking side of Pinterest. It’s the best way to build up your network of followers and engage with others.
When possible Pin from the original source: giving credit where it’s due is vital and shows that you are a great resource.
Pin from permanent links: nothing is worse than clicking a link that’s now non-existent. Make sure you are Pinning links that aren’t going anywhere.
Get the “Pin It” button for your browser: this will make Pinning on the web that much easier and seamless!
Hopefully this gave a lil more insight as to how Pinterest works and why it’s soo important for you and your brand to get involved. Need an invite? Have your own thoughts about the site? Need us to set-up a Pinterest account for you? Be sure to leave us your comment below !
Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.
Whether you admit it or not, once you’ve actually realized that your friend count number has dropped, you can’t help but wonder, who just left your friends list? Well, there is actually a way to figure that out now with just a few simple steps.
Depending on what browser you’re using will determine the plug-in/extension you will need to download- We will try to make this as simple as possible for you!
Chrome Users |
The Unfriend Finder can be found on Userscripts.org. If you’re using Chrome, it will install automatically.
Be sure to click the INSTALL button located in the top right corner
FireFox Users |
Firefox users will have to first install the Greasemonkey add-on.
Once you’ve downloaded the appropriate plug-in/extension you will now see two new features in Facebook. There will be an “Unfriends” tab on the top-right of your screen and an “Unfriends” option in your “Favorites” list. You will received a red number notification, like that of when you received friends requests but not notifying you of who’s unfriended you. It will also give you a bit more detail, to the date and time they actually unfriended you. A couple other sweet features they’ve added, in this area are those people who have deactivated and activated their accounts, and those friend requests that may be pending or ignored that you’ve sent.
Do you think Facebook should show this information? Or, would you rather not know?
Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.
Google search received one of its biggest updates in a decade yesterday. Essentially Google has made it pretty much mandatory for any and all individuals as well as companies to get a Google+ account to gain any search accreditation. Google+ will be a part of everything Google does on the web and mobile, and being that Google is the number one search engine; you’d be silly not to jump on this growing band wagon.
This Google+ infused approach assumes personal connections as well as relevance. Any links shared by your Google+ connections are given more accreditation and will show up in the first page of web search results with the individuals profile avatar on the left. You will also be able to see, based on keyword relevance, Google+ posts. To put in terms you can easily understand, Google indexes the Google+ posts just like every other page, but they will show up in your search if the individual/poster is connected to you via the Google+ network. Images posted to Google+ will also show up in web and image search results, again, only to searchers who are connected to the originating person who posted the photo being searched. Lastly, like Facebook, in the search bar you will be able to ‘Google’ specific people who have a Google+ network profiles and see content from people you are connected to.
Jack Menzel, Google’s web search product management director, mentioned in an interview with VentureBeat, “Everything we show you, we label that very clearly and explain why that’s showing up.”
The social search integrations, which Google is calling “search plus your world,” can be toggled on and off by using the “person” and “world” icons in the top right corner of search results, basically allowing you to view or hide your personal search results from the Google search.
Next you may notice the promoted Google+ accounts. On the right side of the results page, you will see featured profiles and pages, along with a link reading, “learn how you could appear here too.” Though these featured accounts are currently algorithmically determined, we can see these being direct competition with Facebook’s social ads, which is HUGE! Facebook has been banking some pretty amazing revenue from their geo-targeted ads based on social graph data. With Google+, Google is on its way to building a powerhouse of even more rich social graph data to pull even more direct and specific social ad marketing.
Menzel told VentureBeat, “The more information you have associated with your Google+ profile, the better it gets. For this launch, we’re just talking about web search and image search,” said Menzel, “but I wouldn’t rule out improvements to those other products.”
Google+ results are coming today to web search, and although the company can’t talk timelines for future rollouts, we fully expect to see Google+ results in Google News, Google Maps, Google Shopping and other search properties soon.
Google+ is not just a social network; it’s the wave of a personalized search. Good or bad? What do you think? Share your comments on Google+ and personalized search below…
Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.
Thanks again to those of you who participated in our very first Twitter Chat.
What’s a Twitter Chat?
Oh, you remember the days of on-line chat rooms… similar to an on-line chat room, a Twitter Chat is when a group joins together at a specified time on Twitter.com and discusses a specific topic. The initiator (in this case our corporate Twitter account: @eminentseo) sets the date and time and invites you to join using a specific #hashtag (in this case we used #ESEOChat). Anyone on Twitter who wants to participate simply needs to search for #ESEOchat and in the results will be served a feed displaying all Tweets that include the specified #hashtag. Check it out here: #ESEOChat
In order to keep some structure, we believe there should be a series of questions presented, and an expert brought in to answer them. There are no rules or restrictions and anyone who chooses to follow along can simply search and stay on the search, refreshing as new Tweets are populated, or join in by using the #hashtag. If they want to also ask the question to the expert – they should @ the Twitter handle of the expert as well.
The great thing about the #hashtag becoming a search query is you can save it and return to it at your convenience, so if you miss a Tweet Chat or have to leave early, all you have to do is return to the search and you can still see all Tweets using that specific tag.
#ESEOChat Dec. 21st 10-11AM MST, Topic: Link Building
Today, @eminentSEO asked me, @dayofjen, a series of questions related to Link Building. For those of you who missed it or found it hard to follow along, I promised a recap on the corporate blog. I was surprised at how few questions I actually got to answer (the hour flew by!), so below you will find additional questions that we didn’t get to today.
From the Twitter Chat:
Question 1 –“How much of SEO is link building?”
My Twitter answers:
Google is looking for 2 things – content and links. So, you need fresh, up to date content and enough backlinks to outrank your competition.
If you have a fully optimized, beautifully designed, content rich website and no links, you have no rankings.
After you have optimized your website, in order to rank organically in the SERPS, you need one way, inbound links – and lots of them.
SEO can be broken down into 2 parts: on-page and off. Links are the off page SEO that help your on-page SEO rank.
Links increase your search engine visibility. Links help you gain authority. Links help the engines know what to rank you for.
Question 2 – “Why do I need Link Building?”
My Twitter answers:
A website without links is like a store with no address. Sure, it’s there, but how is anyone going to find it?
Link building is like a voting system, the more votes your site gets using a key term, the higher the engines will rank you for that term.
Links increase your search engine visibility and ensure your website gains the authority it needs to rank.
Your competition already has links – so, you need links too, otherwise they will continue to rank, you won’t.
Question 3 – “How does a new business/mom and pop shop compete with the big guys when it comes to link building?”
My Twitter answers:
We can help a website rank with any budget. So, if you have a lower budget, we find your niche and we start there.
There are still “low hanging fruit” opportunities in ANY vertical – it’s our job to find those terms and start there.
Once a client has success in a smaller niche, we expand their keywords into tougher, higher searched terms.
After a client has gained momentum on a smaller scale, they need to reinvest some of their ROI to see more growth.
More Link Building FAQ’s that didn’t make it in today’s chat:
Question – What are the most effective types of links?
It’s not about link TYPE alone, it’s about creating a natural looking link trend that can be trusted.
This generally includes a diverse strategy that integrates links from a variety of sources.
The “perfect” link would be from a relevant, high PR authority site with tons of indexed backlinks & little to no other outbound links.
But having “perfect” links only is actually bad. You want diversity; Google is looking for organic link trends.
It’s easy for Google to detect a paid linking campaign – so you have to mix it up in order to see the best results.
Question – How can you be sure that your link building strategies won’t get my site banned or penalized?
All link building comes with a risk. The key to outsourcing is to work with a reputable company who understands those risks.
We have been building links for over 7 years, we know the algorithm and we know what the engines are looking for.
When the algorithm changes, we adjust. Over the years we have never had a client banned or permanently penalized.
Link building can be grey – but the results speak for themselves. Without links, you don’t have traffic anyways.
We take care to ensure links are safe AND effective. We have strict criteria and we follow that strategy.
Question – Can you determine an estimated number of links and of what type of links is needed to get to the top of the rankings for any given niche?
Yes. We do extensive backlink comparison reports to see what the ranking sites are already doing so we can suggest what you should do.
Your competition isn’t always who you think it is. We need to discover what keywords you should rank for first.
Once we know who your true online competitors are, we can see what they are doing to prepare a strategy to outdo them.
This can be by link type, volume, keyword variation, pages linked to, etc
Question – What can I expect to spend on Link Building services?
Small businesses spend anything from $250-$10K in links a month to achieve their website traffic goals.
Link building budgets should be determined based off of the keywords you want to rank for.
Difficult keywords are going to take bigger budgets to rank for. If you don’t have a large budget, you have to go for less difficult terms.
As a general rule, we tell people you should be spending 20% of your goal revenue on marketing every month to reach your goals.
You want to make $200K from your website? You need to spend at least $40K per month in marketing (more than just links).
Question – Are there any guarantees with Link Building services?
No. There’s no telling how the engines or your competition will react. Anyone offering a guarantee is bogus, or works at Google. LOL…
But seriously, links are powerful, but there are many other variables that need to be considered when looking for results.
If your website is not optimized properly, if your strategy isn’t aggressive enough, etc, than the links aren’t going to be as effective.
At the end of the day, you still need fresh quality content, properly optimized on page elements AND links (the right amount and type).
We can make educated projections but we can’t say Yes, Mr. Client, I guarantee you will be #1 in Google if you spend X amount of $’s – it just doesn’t work that way.
Question – How do you measure ROI with Link Building? / How do I know what you’re doing is actually helping?
Link building is all about targeting specific keywords. We benchmark those terms and then track your rankings month by month.
We also gain access to the website analytics and track the click throughs, the time on site, conversions and other key performance metrics.
Our efforts are all results based – so the plan is to start with a well thought out strategy and then modify it as we go according to the analytics.
For call centric businesses, we can even install call tracking metrics and ensure the calls are quality AND they convert.
When link building is part of a more comprehensive marketing strategy we offer custom reporting and goal setting.
All of our services are results based. We want to see steady improvement in your organic rankings AND website traffic.
Your increased website traffic should be converting into an increase in sales. If not, there’s a website problem that needs to be fixed.
The list of Link Building FAQ’s goes on and on – so look out for a Link Building FAQ blog part 2 coming soon. If you have a specific question you want answered, you can always send me an e-mail: Jenny@eminentseo.com and I will be sure to respond to you directly and/or include your question in a future blog post.
And, if you really want to chat about what links can do for your website, call me: 1.800.871.4130 (ext 1)
CEO, Business Consultant, Researcher and Marketing Strategist
Jenny Weatherall is the co-owner and CEO of Eminent SEO, a design and marketing agency founded in 2009. She has worked in the industry since 2005, when she fell in love with digital marketing… and her now husband and partner, Chris. Together they have 6 children and 3 granddaughters.
Jenny has a passion for learning and sharing what she learns. She has researched, written and published hundreds of articles on a wide variety of topics, including: SEO, design, marketing, ethics, business management, sustainability, inclusion, behavioral health, wellness and work-life balance.
Facebook announced the “Timeline” design in September and for those who were eager and antsy who wanted first dibs at it, signed up for the developer test run. The Facebook network of 800 million members will have the opportunity to convert their profiles today. The official roll out will go live December 22nd, but you have the option to ‘publish now’ or make that timeline your very own today. Have fun with the new design!
Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.
Videos tell a story. Videos share a message. Videos are the marketing method of the future. According to a quote by Borrell & Associates, “Online video spending is forecasted to account for more than 1/3rd of all online advertising in 5 years.” Read that again. That is huge!
Why you need videos:
Online videos, when marketed properly, increase your online brand awareness, drive targeted website traffic to your best converting landing pages, and statistically result in dramatic increases in conversions.
Check out these stats:
Videos increase conversions by:
55% more visitors to your website
30% more direct visitors to your physical store
24% more purchases/phone calls
40% of consumers watch online videos one or more times a week – that’s over 70% monthly!
How to market your business with videos:
If you don’t already have videos, consider your strategy. Are you looking to spread a compelling message about your business that you want to last for years to come? Or, are you looking for a cheap, quick fix?
If your answer is a solid branding campaign that offers a specific message that you want to share – you need to first invest into professional video production. Just like marketing a website, if you don’t already have a website that converts – you are wasting your marketing dollars by driving traffic to it. If you want to use videos to market your brand and give the viewer a clear picture about what you want, you have to create quality videos that provide a clear message and start and end with branding and a call to action.
If you are looking for a cheap fix, you’ll have to be prepared for low quality, generic or “less professional”. Or, there are companies that will create something for you that is affordable, but still does the trick. You just have to make sure the content matches your message, incorporates a call to action, and, ideally, is something you can use on your website as well as syndicate across the web.
Now that you have a branded video with a clear message and call to action – it’s time to market your investment. Marketing your videos online can range from strategically optimizing your YouTube Video Channel to boosting your videos with links and syndicating them online. We have Custom Video Packages – including:
YouTube Channel Creation and Optimization
YouTube Channel Background Design
Vimeo Channel Creation and Optimization
Vimeo Pro Upgrade with Customization
Video Upload and Optimization (YouTube or Vimeo)
Video Boosting (for increased visibility to the video on your website as well as other hosted locations)
Video integration with your website
Video Social Management (integrating your videos into your social media strategy)
You need multiple ways to communicate your message(s) to your online audience. If people are watching more video then they are reading content – you better jump on board. Videos can relay a message within 1-2 minutes. Look at your analytics. How long are your website visitors staying on your website?
If you have videos and you are ready to get started with a video marketing campaign, give us a call: 1.800.871.4130… if you need videos and don’t know where to start – CALL US! We know what you need and can help you find the right video production company to fill those needs at a rate you can afford now.
P.S. We are always adding to our list of partners…
If you are interested in becoming an approved Video Production Vendor or you create affordable videos and you want some extra work – please e-mail: hello@eminentseo.com
CEO, Business Consultant, Researcher and Marketing Strategist
Jenny Weatherall is the co-owner and CEO of Eminent SEO, a design and marketing agency founded in 2009. She has worked in the industry since 2005, when she fell in love with digital marketing… and her now husband and partner, Chris. Together they have 6 children and 3 granddaughters.
Jenny has a passion for learning and sharing what she learns. She has researched, written and published hundreds of articles on a wide variety of topics, including: SEO, design, marketing, ethics, business management, sustainability, inclusion, behavioral health, wellness and work-life balance.
We’re all probably a little guilty of one or more of these 5 Social Media Habits below. It’s vital that you put a stop to that nonsense pronto, as we explain why each is not helping you in your social media game!
Auto Follow | Do not follow everyone that follows you. Come on now. If you’re truly going to be managing a social media platform to connect with like businesses and individuals you want to follow appropriate accounts or at least be interested in the information the people you are following have to tweet about, right? Plus in some (most) cases, bots will add you, then if you auto follow them you are now following a stream of spam. Usually they have it set that once you auto follow them they un-follow you. They’ve now gained an audience/follow and now you have some horrible feed happening. Not fun!
Auto Direct Message (DM) | As clever and sincere as you think it may be, DON’T DO IT! It’s completely non personal when you send an auto DM message to a new follower. They can be a total turn off and the follower may turn around just as quick to un-follow you.
Losing Control| You need to keep your composure and patience at all times. Don’t ever let a customer or random fan light a fire under you, so much that you lose control, but also don’t ignore your audience. Whether you keep it on page or direct them to contact you or you contact them via email or phone, ensure you give the respect to respond to all inquiries and issues. Nestle is a prime example of what happens when you can’t keep your cool.
Rely Souly on FB for your Web Presence | Sure you have to start somewhere, and Facebook Business/Fan page is definitely encouraged, but do not rely primarily on Facebook for your web presence.
Facebook is a social media site, a borrowed platform if you will not owned by you, meaning not a business asset.
Facebook doesn’t offer customization that a fully designed, customized, SEO’d site can
As far as SEO goes, you want a site that ranks YOUR NAME/BUSINESS NAME not just facebook.com/FILLINNAMEHERE
Retweet (RT) EVERY Tweet praising you | Sweet someone recognized you and gave you praise, chances are you’re the ONLY one who cares about that. It’s not necessary to boast about praises unless you were recognized for some great award or achievement. There’s this nifty lil star button called ‘favorites’ that you should utilize. Basically putting all those praises into a bucket for you to revisit at another time without sounding annoying and gloating about it.
If you take the time and consideration to avoid these 5 Don’t Do’s in your social media platforms the reward could be quite great!
Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.
It’s our goal here at Eminent SEO to keep you in the know on SEO, marketing, social media and what’s happening in the Eminent offices.
SEO Roundup:
SEO and marketing tactics, tools and best practices can change daily! Over the last month, here are the main things we think you need to know in SEO:
Google Launches Google Analytics “Real-Time”
On September 29th Google officially announced an up and coming addition to Google Analytics called “Real-Time”. This will allow you to see what is happening on your site as it happens. They have only turned on the reports for a select few, so don’t be concerned if you don’t see it yet – in the up and coming weeks they will the feature out to everyone. If you can’t wait, you can sign up for early access here.
Long Tail Link Building – A Guide
We’ve been pushing for long tail keyword phrases for YEARS – but sometimes it’s hard to convince clients of the benefits since the search volumes tend to be much smaller (but hey, aren’t we all more concerned about quality over quantity?). This guide dives deeper into the effects and “whys”. Want more? Our CEO, Jenny Stradling, wrote a piece about long tail phrases and Google Instant here: How Google Instant Is Changing Search
An SEO Checklist for New Sites
Rand Fishkin of SEO Moz reviews his own new site SEO Checklist on their weekly video session called “Whiteboard Friday”. This information is for the SEO. Looking for a website checklist that is a little more basic? Check out the Eminent SEO New Website Checklist here. Don’t worry, we got you covered.
Social Media Roundup:
A LOT is happening in Social Media right now! Star Padilla, our Social Media Director, put together the top 4 Social Media highlights from the last month:
Facebook couples with Spotify to bring music straight to your Facebook Page… read more here
Facebook brings you a Timeline of your life… read more here
Over the years we have worked with many clients who wait all year for the end of year holidays and really rely on the holiday sales to help support their business for the rest of the year. If this rings true for your business, then we have a SPECIAL OFFER that is perfect for you!
Nothing helps boost your organic rankings and traffic quicker than a LINK BOOST! Utilizing your holiday specific keywords, we will boost your traffic in time for the huge influx in sales over the next few months.
Pick from these Link Boost Holiday Offers:
*New orders only
———–
Holiday Package #1
Embedded Content Links from Relevant Websites
5 locations
3-6 keyword links per
Unique, relevant content, written, optimized and hosted for you
Boosted with Page Ranking Links for guaranteed visibility
$800.00 per order
That’s 20% off normal pricing, every month you continue, we will allow the holiday savings to continue!
———–
Holiday Package #2
Mixed Social Platform Linking
800 links from a variety of social media, blog and “real-time” media locations, from:
Blogs
Squidoo
Directories
FaceBook
Twitter
Google +
$1000.00 per order
That’s OVER 20% off normal pricing, every month you continue, we will allow the holiday savings to continue!
———–
Holiday Package #3
Mixed Page Ranking One Way and Blog Review Links
One way links from SEO friendly websites across the web
Mixture of PR and type for diversity
30-100 links per month
$800.00 per order
That’s 20% off normal pricing, every month you continue, we will allow the holiday savings to continue!
———–
Looking for a discount, but have a special request? Don’t worry, we will honor these discounts on custom link packages as well, just e-mail: sales@eminentseo.com or call us at 1.800.871.4130 (ext 1) to get started!
Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.
Facebook revealed at it’s F8 Developers conference, that they are coupling with Spotify to bring the ability to stream and share music to Facebook.
As part of its new Open Graph app platform, Facebook has partnered with a host of music companies to bring real-time music streaming and discovery to the timeline.
Launch partners include Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG, Rdio, Soundcloud, Earbits, Vevo, Slacker Radio and Songza reports Mashable.
Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.
Google Launches Google Analytics “Real-Time”
An SEO Checklist for New Sites
