Ideas for Business

There is a lot of noise on the web at present surrounding the removal of low quality directories from Google’s search results. When running a few tests myself, I found I could replicate some of the results mentioned, however, there were many directories that have reappeared in search results. There are times when a lot of noise is made about changes when perhaps it would have been more prudent to wait a couple of hours, or even days, to see if things had changed. All that aside, is does beg a couple of questions about your inbound links. Here are a few for you to consider:

• Do you keep a list of inbound links that you have built?
• Do you check the currency of those links?
• Do you remove, or request removal of links if they sour?
• Do you redirect links (301 permanent redirect) after deleting pages?

There is more to link management than building links. It can be frustrating building links only too see pages (or whole websites) removed. It’s even more frustrating to find that what you thought was a quality site has soured in the eyes of search engines. That’s when a link removal request could be in order.

If you are building links, then keep a record of those links. A simple spreadsheet is all that is required, then once every three or four months, go through that list to ensure they are delivering a benefit to your pages, and not dragging them down.

So you think you don’t have any spammy links. I would estimate that just about every website on the Internet would have at least one spammy link, even if it has been created by accident, or in the early days when you were trying to build your business.

Of course, “build inbound links” has long been the call of the SEO wild. In recent times, that has changed somewhat to include building outbound links. The whole link building scene has changed once more with Google now treating some links with disdain – in fact, they are treating some links as poison and many a site has experienced a sudden overnight crash in traffic numbers. If links are the issue, what type of links now draw Google’s disfavor?

• Paid links – if a link looks like it has been paid for, then you’re going to get nailed by Google. Obvious paid links include those in footers and those in sidebars.  The best links are those found within content, that relate to the content, and that link to related content on your site. In the past, it was those accepting payment for links that took the hit – now it’s the link destination that takes a hit.
• Social bookmarking – if you have a long list of poor quality social bookmarking sites that you send every post to – stop. Social bookmarking really only counts if the site is a quality bookmarking site, and if it’s your visitors who are doing the bookmarking.
• Directories – quality is again the issue when it comes to directories. There are thousands of directories online now, and most are poor quality. Ironically, higher quality directories that charge for a listing have escaped Google’s attention. If you want to pay for links, then look at some of those high quality directories.
• Article marketing - like every other link issue, quality is again the problem. Write an article, spin it to death and send it to a couple of hundred directories and you’re asking for trouble. Write a single article and have it guest posted on a quality site, or saved to a quality article directory and you may be okay. From what we have seen in the last Google updates, some supposedly quality sites and directories suddenly fell out of favor.
• Blog comments – quality, content related, and preferably interactive – that should be your aim when it comes to blog commenting. Write a good comment on a blog post that relates to your niche and you won’t have a problem. Leave a dud comment on an unrelated blog post and Google will consider it spam.
• Forums – like blog comments, only write to forum posts that are related to your content. Steer clear of low quality forums – you can tell a low quality forum fairly quickly – there are un-moderated totally unrelated posts everywhere linking to weight loss and similar products. Look for heavily moderated forums that don’t tolerate spam.
• Self – one area that many website owners don’t consider is their own internal linking strategies, and the links they may send from any other web properties they own. You can link from every website you own, however, the expectation is that it’s going to be in some form of blogroll, not within unrelated content. The same is true for your own content – keep the internal link strategies to related content.

Inbound links are, in theory, supposed to take readers to more content on the same subject (not the same content either). If your links don’t achieve that goal, then somewhere along the line you’re going to get a Google slap down.

If you are looking to see how a coordinated social media marketing campaigns looks, then there is probably none better than that put together by Ikea. The famous flat pack furniture specialists have created a campaign that combines the power of e-mail marketing, the use of a specialty micro-site, Pinterest and Facebook. It’s a mix that’s made in heaven for Ikea as it channels traffic through its latest creation.

Here’s how it works. Ikea has sent e-mails to its loyalty list announcing the brands latest products. The e-mail links to the micro-site which basically acts a teaser and encourages readers to view the full range of products on Pinterest. Readers are encouraged to “re-pin” products they like, and to share those products on Facebook.

This should prove to be effective in a number of areas. Pinterest itself will send visitors to Ikea’s main website, and Ikea will hope they decide to sign up for future newsletters and special offers. Facebook will also attract readers, and they too will be sent to Ikea’s main website, again, to view products and hopefully sign up for newsletters.

The end result is more brand awareness; awareness of Ikea’s latest products (inspired by the culture in India); and an enlarged e-mail list. Of course, the real prize will be in the number of sales that Ikea can make from readers who like these products and visit their stores.

What is interesting is that anyone can duplicate this marketing plan for a new product launch. The four channels (e-mail, micro-site, Pinterest and Facebook) can be used together very effectively and the flow of traffic can be quite large if your content is written in a manner that engages readers.  As a small business marketing plan, it’s simple, it’s clean, and it’s very doable.

BrandRepublic has more information on Ikea’s marketing strategy here if you’re interested.

After many years of Internet marketing hype, latest data suggests that e-mail marketing is still the top earner for many businesses. It’s not a surprising statistic really, especially when it comes to businesses that follow the e-mail marketing protocols of double opt-ins and easy opt-outs. Most e-mail recipients are viewing e-mails because they want too – they are already interested in the business and the products they sell.

What’s often hidden in these statistics is how a business comes by their e-mail marketing list. Search marketing and social media marketing both play a big role in helping businesses build their e-mail lists. Potential customers have to find your site somehow, they don’t just magically appear in an e-mail list. Just as importantly, your business reputation, prices, and your web site in general all help to convince visitors to then sign up for your e-mails.

Having a well planned coordinated marketing approach will pay dividends. Rating well in search results (both organic and paid), and having an effective social media marketing plan will help to deliver potential customers to your door. You then need to sell them on the idea of signing up for a regular newsletter. Your newsletter (or marketing material), then needs to be designed to engage readers and to bring them back to your website (or shopfront) to spend their money.

The mistake many businesses make is to target sales and nothing else. Often, visitors to your site are still in the ‘looking’ stage of a purchase. Rather than targeting a sale all of the time, consider changing some of your marketing activities to building an e-mail marketing list. That list will reward you many times over, and keep your customers coming back for more. If you can’t sell, don’t lose them, convert them to readers of your e-mail marketing material – more people spend from an e-mail than they do from either search or social.

For many, social media marketing is all about Tweeting and working on a Facebook page. Whilst those are two of the bigger players in social media, they are not always the best when it comes to delivering traffic. Other sites such as Stumbleupon, Linkedin, Pinterest and Digg can still generate a lot of traffic. Digg seems to have gone through a slow down in recent times, however, I wouldn’t ignore it totally. What is important is you some of these sites to best effect. Where small business owners have failed in the past is the limited exposure they give to the social side of these websites.

Stumbleupon is a good example. Sure, you can add the toolbar to your browser, and you can ‘stumble’ every piece of content you publish, however, this is not using Stumbleupon to best effect. Rather than ‘stumbling’ every piece of content, you need to be far more selective. More importantly, you need to engage other users. Add them as friends. Over time they will add you. If one of your ‘friends’ stumbles content, restumble it yourself if it interesting and worthy. You should also look for content related to your niche that has been published by others and stumble that as well. What others don’t want to see is your profile full of self stumbles.

Linkedin is another that is often taken for granted, or totally forgotten about. I wonder how many readers set up and Linkedin profiles and have never been back? Keep your profile up-to-date, and to really get the most out of of Linkedin, join and participate in relevant groups. Let people see that you really are an authority in your niche. People will then sit up and take more notice.

Pinterest is the newish kid on the block, and you do need to be careful how you use this site. To be successful, you need to be in a niche that is popular with mothers, since they are amongst the biggest users. Pinterest works by pinning images to your pinboard. Every image that is pinned also appears on the front page where others can view them, and perhaps pin them to  their own pinboards. Pin images that others will find interesting and useful. Infographics are enjoying a lot of success at present.

Digg has gone through some changes and it no longer really delivers the massive amounts of traffic it once did. In years gone by, a popular article could receive so much traffic the servers would crash. The key to success on Digg, (and like most social media sites), is befriend the right people. You need to find the movers and shakers in your niche and follow them. If they follow you, and they like the content you are wanting to have promoted, they may just Digg it for you, and that could lead to a significant increase in traffic.

Used effectively, alternate social media sites can deliver more traffic than either Facebook or Twitter. Whether that traffic converts will depend on how you can engage them, and of course your website itself.