Social Louise

Wednesday, 24 July 2013

How to verify your Google+ business page

These steps will help to get your page verified but are not certain; the final verification is still up to Google.

- Your Google+ page must already have a meaningful number of followers

- Business website linked and containing the G+ badge

- Email verified

G+ badge or code snippet

You must link your website to your G+ page. This not only helps you build relationships with friends and followers, but also gives Google information they can use to determine the relevancy of your site to a user query in Google Web Search. It also makes your site eligible for Google+ Direct Connect.

Google+ Direct Connect

Google+ Direct Connect lets you quickly navigate to a Google+ page (and even add that page to your circles) when using Google Search. For example, if you searched for the query '+youtube' or '+pepsi,' you could be immediately taken to the YouTube Google+ page, or the Pepsi Google+ page, and given the option to add the page to your circles.

Link your Google+ page and your website

1.    Update your site's home page by adding a link to your Google+ page, like this:

<a href="https://plus.google.com/[yourpageID]"

rel="publisher">Find us on Google+</a>

To find your page URL, open your page and copy the web address from the browser address bar.

It's best to add the link to your most significant page. Usually but not always this is your home page; for example, if you’ve created a page for a product, you can add the link to the product description page.

It is recommended you add a Google+ Badge to your site. You create this here: https://developers.google.com/+/web/badge/. Be sure to insert the required code, found at the bottom of the page into the site.

Add the following code to the <head> section of the site

<link “href=https://plus.google.com/YOUR G+ PAGE NUMBER” rel=”publisher” />

2.    Link to your website from your Google+ page's profile.

To edit your page profile:

       1.    Make sure you're on the Google+ page you'd like to edit.

        2.    Click the profile icon .

        3.    Click Edit Profile.

        4.    Click Website. You'll know it's editable when the color of the section changes to blue.

        5.    Type your homepage URL. This should match exactly the URL of the page to which you added your Google+ page link in step 1.

        Click Save.

3.         If your Google Webmaster Tools email address is the same as your Google Plus email address, Google will recognise it and verify your Google Plus page automatically.

4.    Once the above steps are complete you can submit a Google+ page verification request.

5.    Use the rich snippets testing tool to check your markup and make sure that Google can extract your page information from your content. This tool will display the markup found on a specific web page, as well as a preview of how that page might appear in Google search results.

Saturday, 6 July 2013

My Top Social Media Marketing Tips

Today I thought I would write about my social media marketing tips.

Although social media marketing has become mainstream many people are still making big mistakes.

Tip one

The first thing to remember is you need to build credibility before you sell via social media. Think of it this way, you wouldn't walk into a room of people and start trying to sell your products without first introducing yourself or engaging with them in some way.

Tip two

Make sure you include a call to action in all of your social media messaging. Your social activity will have a much better success rate if it contains a call to action.

Tip three

Ensure that you create really exciting content that people want to share. Make sure your content is insightful, engaging and interesting. This will make it more likely that people will share it with their network. Don't just create written content, use all different types of media from videos to podcasts, as well as infographics and images.

image credit: http://www.intellistart.co.uk

Tip four

Now that you're creating great content that people want to share keep the content flowing, make sure that you regularly post to your channels.

Tip five

Make sure you connect your social media channels up to your website. Ensure that your social media icons are present on your website and make sure the content on your website is easy to share on the social networks you want to have a presence on.

Tip six

Be sure to engage with people who engage with you. If somebody mentions you or retweets something you say be sure to thank them. If you have an opinion on something respond to posts made by other users. This will give you greater visibility amongst your target audience and help to increase your followers.

Tip seven

Social media metrics are becoming increasingly important to SEO activity. The more followers, shares and retweets your activity has indicates to the search engines you are credible in the subject you are talking about. This can translate into higher search engine rankings. In order to take advantage of the full SEO benefit from social media be sure to optimise your social media channels including the keywords you would like to appear for in the search engines.

Tip eight

Be sure to measure everything. The beauty of online advertising is that you can measure up all activity. Make sure you track all of the links which you share so you can measure the reach this will allow you to work out your ROI from your social media activity. You can also use this information to work out what works best for you and how you can improve this and replicate success.

Thursday, 28 February 2013

The Benefits of Google Analytics

There are so many benefits to using +Google Analytics it is one of my favourite tools and guides the strategy behind why I decide to perform certain tasks. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject:

Benefits of Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a valuable tool for monitoring and tracking the efficiency of online activity and assists the process of getting the best results for the least cost from your website and marketing efforts.

One of the major benefits of using Google Analytics is to gain complete control in managing website content. If the performance of the website is unsatisfactory, changes can be made to content, as and when required to achieve the desired results.

Additionally, this tracking tool can be used to drive targeted traffic to the website and improve conversion rates for greater success at a lower investment. Google Analytics will assist the you in achieving a high ranking on search engines and also boosts the productivity of online business.

Google Analytics will enable you to attract targeted visits.

Google Analytics provides efficient reporting tools and helps in providing customised data that is useful in formulating marketing strategies. Social reporting tools will enable the you to discover the effectiveness of social media strategies on online business and the impact on website conversion rates.

Google Analytics also provides data on paid search activity which is key to reducing costs and improving efficiency.

I know there are probably more reasons than this to love Analytics feel free to share them with me!

Wednesday, 2 January 2013

Happy 2013 - What is to come?

I wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.

2012 was a great year with a lot of things changing in he world of online marketing.

I was so busy towards the end of the year I did not have time to keep up my blog writing. So my New Years resolution is to keep blogging.

So what happened in 2012 that was exciting in the world of online marketing?

We all became more social. Those of you not tweeting, Like-ing, Plus-ing and Linking are being well and truly left behind as people, brands and businesses continue to grow their networks.

For me the big thing which appears to be changing the way SEO works is Author Rank. It's still new for many people and some sectors are not utilising it at all, IMO it is something you should be participating in.

Another thing I like from 2012 is TwitterCards. With Twitter now at 200 million active users you need something to make your tweets stand out.

Mobile is big, its been big for a while but the sheer volume of smartphones and tablets on the market means you need to stand up and pay attention to the mobile web. This could be by making your site mobile friendly, creating an app or performing mobile SEO.

Content, Content, Content. This has always been an important part of any digital marketing strategy, but with so many Google animals flying around this needs to become the epicentre of your strategy. Content is becoming more diverse too, it's not just the written word which is being shared. Infographics, slideshows, podcasts, videos, images, tag clouds and lists are all being used to increase online exposure and generate backlinks.

So I can't wait to see what 2013 will bring. It will surely involve more social media tactics and more innovative content ideas.

Saturday, 3 November 2012

Content is King

Most of you have probably heard the saying "content is king" and it really is becoming even more important than it has ever been.

Without content SEO becomes very difficult. You need great content on your site and you need to distribute your content in order to generate back links, drive traffic and increase your brand recognition.

Many businesses find it difficult to produce content as they don't see the value in it.

There are many types of content which you can create which are useful in different situations.

Articles are typically 500+ words around a subject. Articles can be factual or amusing. I have found that the types of articles people share and republish the most are Top 10 Lists and How To articles.

Press releases are also good content pieces, PR can cover news about your business, sector white papers and your thoughts on industry news.

A very popular type of content are blog posts, these are typically more informal and often have more of a personal point of view. Writing on your own blog or a practice known as guest blogging is very a popular way to increase brand recognition, reach or target audience and generate valuable back links. Other types of content which are similar to blog posts are micro blogs which are typically posted on social media sites like Twitter, where you only have 140 characters.

Slideshows are another great way to share your content, this is because you can create visually appealing content and share this on document sharing sites, for others to embed the slideshow on their site.

Slideshows can also be converted into videos which is another type of content. With YouTube one of the most visited sites in the UK, video production and distribution is a no brainier for promoting your business.

Podcasts are another very under utilised type of content this can be a great way to promote your company.

Infographics are also a popular type of content. People like visuals, and this type of content is easy to get people to share on sites, particularly with Pinterest becoming so popular.

Really useful and interesting content can drive traffic to your site, rank well in the search engines and generate back links.

Spending time to invest in quality content is worthwhile and with the recent Google algorithm updates aimed at combatting web spam the only thing to do is put on your thinking cap and get started on creating something that will excite, enrage or entertain.

Monday, 17 September 2012

Link Types

Link building is an important part of SEO, and is becoming increasingly difficult as Google looks to minimise spam and maximise quality. One way to ensure your website thrives over others is to build a diverse and varied back link profile.

Here are a selection of different types of links, can you think of any others?

Miscellaneous Links:
There many types of links ones I couldn't classify include links are found on private blogs, links from resource pages, university links, link exchange pages, links found in the footer and/or sidebar of private websites and referral links. These often make up the majority of the links pointing to a website. These ‘other’ types of links build up over time, giving the site more authority and value in the eyes of the search engines.

Internal Links:
Links created internally to connect pages within a site. These links are important as they facilitate the user navigation of a site. A limit should be placed on how many internal links each single page of a website has, typically less than 100.

Affiliate Links:
Links created from partner sites are called affiliate links, these links are from another website owned or partnering with the same company.

Article Links:
Articles are a good medium for advertisement and are used to drive traffic. Articles deliver a long term benefit with permanent backlinks which can grow naturally when content is re-published.

News Article Links:
These link are built naturally when a company is mentioned in the news. These links can be of great value, especially when they come from authority sites such as the bbc.co.uk which has a domain authority of 100.

Wiki Article:
Wiki sites such as Wikepedia, which is the 4th most visited website in the world (Source: Alexa.com), are considered high authority sites and are used to create quality backlinks and drive traffic.

Directory Links:
Directories are the places where people go to look for websites in specific sectors, they are popular in the online world. Directories must be carefully selected to offer SEO benefit as many have been abused in the past.

Press Release Links:
A well written Press Release can be a good source of authority backlinks and traffic.

Foreign Site Links:
Foreign links are links which come from websites which are not written in English. The benefit of having a foreign site link is it makes your backlink profile more diverse. The problem with this type of link is a foreign site could be poor quality or spam and this can have a negative effect on the sites linked to.

Forum Posts:
Forums are a good source of backlinks, especially when the forum is related because it helps Google create an association between the forum subject and the site. Forums are also a good source of relevant traffic and the visitor is more likely to convert.

Social Bookmark Links:
This is a link from a site like Digg, or StumbleUpon where you bookmark the page for others to find.

Social Media Links:
Social links are links from sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, they are good for traffic and also get pages ranking well if the links are re-published a high number of times.

Image Links:
Image links are backlinks from an image as opposed to text. These are sometimes sponsored or paid for links, but not always. Google will often pick up images and show them in the Google Images part of the search engine so they can be a good source for backlinks and traffic.

Sunday, 26 August 2012

How to Use Social Monitoring Tools for Link Building

Link building is a very important part of SEO, links are how you let the world know about your site. Not all links are equal. Some links are very valuable others are mediocre and others are really bad news. Obviously you want as many of the good links as possible.

Now you probably want to know “How do I find good link building opportunities?”

Many link builders use a technique known as competitor back link analysis. This is where you use tools to identify links pointing to your competitors and aim to get links from places where they have achieved links.
Another way to find places you might be able to attain links from is by monitoring the web for your brand, or for people talking about your products and services offered and looking for opportunities to link.

One way you can do this is by using social media monitoring tools. Tools which monitor social media will present real time conversations which could provide an opening for you to join the conversation and add something to it.

A good place to begin is to see what people are talking about by using Twitter search. You can use the search to look for people who are talking about things related to your business. Often people tweet links to websites that have a particular subject matter, these websites could be the ideal places for you to release content or join the conversation.

There are also plenty of free social monitoring tools that will help you identify where people are discussing related topics. One good tool to find websites which are discussing the topics which relate to your business is Google Alerts.

Google Alerts lets you track web mentions of any word or phrase and is one of the fastest ways to discover new content that gets published on the web. You can get alerts to your inbox of via RSS and you can tailor this to filter results by media type (News, Blogs, Video, Discussion and Books).

There are quite a lot of free and paid tools to help you see what people are talking about online and these will help to identify places where links can be built. The beauty of this method is you are going to be discovering themed links. Building links from sites which are related to your subject matter have always been better than links from non-related websites. These links are very valuable and can offer greater SEO benefit over a link from a site which is based around a non-related subject.