Get More from Search - Trends in Search & Social Media

Once you’ve created your blog and added intriguing content, you might think that the visitors will just start flowing in. Not necessarily so. Relevant content is just the beginning: you have to attract visitors to your site to complete the loop. Then, to engage them on an ongoing basis, you’ll need to maintain fresh content so that inbound links and bookmarks keep the repeat and new visitors coming.

But how do you get the online community interested in your company enough that they’ll share links and bookmark your site? Creating buzz, or more simply, word-of-mouth, takes some serious planning, but with the plethora of social media sites now popular, you can pick and choose which sites will best serve your brand.

What makes your company buzzworthy? Is it superior customer service, beautiful products, new or improved facilities, being environmentally conscious, solving an age-old dilemma, being featured in a slew of unsolicitied press, or passionate community-oriented customers? What’s intriguing about social media is that it relies on user-generated content (UGC). That means that you can create an interactive environment to annouce the buzz and let the conversation begin.

To locate and maintain new site visitors, identify which social media sites best complement your site, products and services. Then, join as many as make sense from a content, audience and campaign maintenance standpoint so that you reach the broadest audience. The most popular UGC sites include MySpace, YouTube, del.icio.us, Wikipedia, Digg and Squidoo. Because these are such popular sites with excellent page ranks, your contributions can get you noticed by major search engines very quickly.

For instance, if your company has made a commitment to preserving the environment, creat a MySpace page that highlights a particular environmental issue and subtly note that your company donates a protion of its revenues to this cause. Invite other MySpace users to comment on the issue; you might be surprised at the passionate response engendered by people far and wide. You’ll create awareness for the issue and for your company. These types of impressions stick long after the social media site is viewed. You’re creating a community that identifies with your company which means that the next time you MySpace friends need what you offer, they’ll most likely think of your website. But don’t disappoint - make sure that your website is prepared for this focused traffic. Update your home page with links to subpages that relate to these user-generated campaigns. Generating traffic via engaged users can mean loyal, long-term customers - something no business can ever get enough of.

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Smaller companies often have more obstacles in doing business on the Internet. Although the tools are often the same – for instance, a dynamic website with shopping capabilities and live chat – it’s the traffic-generating methods that small businesses sometimes lack in either experience or budget. But there are low and no-cost methods to drive traffic - no matter the size of the company. Adopting tried-and-true search engine optimization (SEO) practices will improve visitor numbers while keeping costs down.

Basic SEO techniques include the use of abundant, brand and industry-relevant keywords and a healthy number of incoming links.

You’ve heard it before, but it’s never been more true: keyword-rich relevant content is the most essential tool in any good SEO strategy. The easiest way to increase keywords is to increase the content available on your site. Before launching your writing expedition (or hiring someone to write for you), give serious thought to the keywords that describe your products and services and that search engine users are most apt to use.  Steer clear, though, of reckless use of keyword-rich copy – it must be sensible, conversational and easy to read.

Location is also key for notifying search engine spiders to pay more attention to certain keyword-rich areas. For your best description language, focus near the top of the page, headline and header tags, hyperlinks (both inbound and outbound), and then, within the general content body.

Next, focus on the number of links coming into your site. More incoming links should improve your ranking in search engine results because as a general rule, search engines believe the more sites linking to a website, the more valuable content the site contains and is therefore a quality site for search engine users to visit.

One way to increase incoming links is to join forums that are relevant to your business. Just make sure that forum comments stay within the parameters of the posts. Also, one of the most common and most effective link-building strategies is to identify sites with similar content or audience demographics and exchange links. The effect is mutually beneficial.

Writing about your business or the needs of your customers and distributing that content to reputable informational or educational sites can be a great way to expand your influence. Just don’t forget to add a proper bio with a link back to your site. When you establish your site as an expert source, you might find that content sharing becomes a key to more traffic. Utilizing simple features such as “Email to a friend/colleague: can help spread the word about your business very easily. In the “Terms of Use” of your website, you can allow properly annotated reproductions of your articles by other sites, blogs, etc. which can also create a inbound links without much effort.

No matter how many people or dollars power your website, increasing traffic isn’t an easy task. It takes effort and diligence, but by incorporating tried-and-true development and content methods in the beginning and sustaining those efforts, will bring rewarding long-term results.

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Market research in regards to search is on the rise and it is more in-depth than keyword research. Companies are beginning to use market research and analytics to more thoroughly understand their customers’ search and browsing intent.  Businesses are integrating the findings into their Web design strategy to create a more focused environment for a site visitor’s behavior, often focusing on personalization to deliver a better overall experience.

Many companies focus on keyword research instead of market research. They believe the hype that has been generated by the large search engines in an effort to increase their advertising sales that all websites need to do is focus on their keyword research and they will succeed. Unfortunately, many companies do not understand that to fully understand your keyword research they need to understand market research. To be able to fully comprehend the desires of your target market and generate keywords that will spark their interest, companies need to understand their market which means they need to research not just the keywords that will work but the market as a whole. Companies need to remember that for all the advances in search, searches are conducted by humans and humans are complex individuals.

In the future, the focus will be on finding out what the consumer wants, understanding their mindset and figuring out how they will search for what they want. If sites are able to provide the content and information they are looking for, then they will be able to match their product mix to the consumer’s personal choices. This will be able to be analyzed through the use of statistics such as time-on-site, page views, repeat visits, click-through rates, etc. Companies also have the option of utilizing site search statistical software to help improve your analytical research. If the companies are able to attract their target consumer then they will also attract the attention of search engines.

Search optimization is in a state of transformation at the corporate level, which will change the way that consumers and companies view search and therefore your site. If anything has changed, it is that the bar has been set higher for Search Engine Optimization.

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These days, when the 40 and below crowd think about newspapers, they think of an older, leisurely mentality that no longer exists.  Newspapers have been tagged with an image that is antiquated and somewhat irrelevant. Something had to be done. Rather than become handicapped by this image, newspapers across the United States have decided to improve the view that people have of them. They didn’t do anything flashy or ostentatious and they didn’t eliminate the traditional newspaper. Instead, they provided their content online for a busy community to peruse at their leisure.

Newspapers decided that instead of forcing their consumer to go to the store and buy their product that they would offer it free online. Then you have to ask yourself, how do they make their money if people aren’t buying the newspaper they can get for free? Advertising. This same philosophy works for them online. Instead of selling print ads in their newspaper, they sell online ads on their website.

And their audience is responding – both in readership and in online purchases.

Another aspect that newspapers are tapping into is the blog market. Traffic for newspaper blogs for the top 10 online newspapers grew 210% from December 2005 through December 2006. If newspapers can get consumers to visit their blogs then they are likely to view the articles provided online. With the increase in traffic, newspapers have the opportunity to increase their advertising exposure and therefore are able to improve their advertising sales.

 

 

 

 

In a recent study by the Newspapers Association of America (NAA), it found that 82% of the people who visit newspaper sites on a daily basis are more likely to make purchases online. This study will help newspapers leverage their advertising campaign to corporations and enable them to increase their advertising business. To find out more information about online newspaper growth, you can visit www.digitaledge.org, the NAA’s digital-media analysis website and www.emarketer.com, a streamlined, e-business research solution.

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