Solid Ways To Boost Your Social Media Marketing

Social Media Sites

Social media marketing is all about social networking, so you need to tie your different sites together within the same network. Insert links onto your blog so that readers have the option of following you through Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. On your Twitter profile, include the URL for your blog and Facebook. When you come up with different types of links in social media, you help to generate a larger customer base.

Put social network widgets on your website to help advertise your social media sites. This is an easy way for visitors to share your site. You can make it easier for people to direct the content from your site to social media sites with a widget. Related:GroupBuy SEO Tools

If you want people to follow you on social media marketing, offer exclusive deals that may only be taken advantage of by doing so. When people see deals or promotions on Facebook they will want to spread the word about what your site has to offer.Related:GroupBuy SEO Tools

Answer as many questions people throw your way as possible. Take the time to look for these each time you visit your site.

Think about serving as a guest blogger or letting a well-known blogger in the field to post on your website. Both tactics will increase your traffic. When you guest blog on another blogger’s site, make sure part of your agreement includes leaving a link back to your site. Also, allow any of your own guest bloggers the same accommodation. This way, both you and the other blogger will build a larger audience by sharing your readers with each other.

While you may not know what you are doing at first within social media marketing, fake confidence until you get the hang of it. Research the social media marketing techniques that your competitors are using, and model your plan after theirs until you determine what strategies best suit your business and the needs of your customers. Look at their content on social media, and focus on the promotions they offer.

It takes time and patience to construct a social media network. It is unlikely that you can recruit 15,000 fans in 24 hours. It is possible and has been done before, but it is highly unlikely that your social media profiles will go viral the moment that you set them up. Practice patience, knowing that you will find your users in time.

Avoid making every one of your posts a product push if you want to attract new followers. Instead, provide valuable content articles or links to other high-quality sites that provide useful information for your product area. Try running contests, posting pictures or asking questions. Converse and have a dialogue with your subscribers and followers. Seek product or service engagement rather than product placement. The best way to create a lifetime customer is to get them to make your brand a part of their everyday lives, rather than just thinking of it as “a product to buy once.”

Don’t fear asking for assistance with social media marketing. This market is enormous; there are many designers and consultants that can prepare an entire strategy for you. They are not inexpensive though, so be prepared to spend some money if you go down this path.

Include the names of influential users of Twitter by name-dropping with an “@” symbol preceding the name. These people will receive a notification when you make such mentions, which means they may retweet your content or respond to what you’ve said.

When you post on social media sites, make an effort to always display a humble attitude. If you sound like you’re arrogant, you’ll end up with a bad reputation and your offensive posts repeated all over the Internet. Remember that your followers and customers have all the control. If it weren’t for them, you would be out of business.

Adjust your Twitter profile settings to ensure that all of your business posts are automatically tweeted. You can also borrow on the popularity of other Twitter accounts by re-tweeting and commenting on their content regularly. They will love the free publicity, and your customers will appreciate that you are pointing them to quality content.

Use a social media tool that will help simplify your social media efforts, such as Twello or Tweepi. Such functions let you identify those who are part of your desired audience and isolate the most relevant among them. You should come up with lists of consumers to target, in hopes that someday they will sign up to receive your updates.

You are going to have a tough time in the world of SMM if you don’t know your target audience well. You have to figure out what everyone is using their social network for as well as how often they use it. This will help you figure out what kind of things they wish to see.

Like all social media content, videos should always have descriptive and interesting titles. Incorporate the keywords in your title that are most appropriate to the products you offer. You will get more views if users can quickly identify your videos as helpful, and your videos will show up when users type in certain keywords.

Be certain to utilize numerous outlets when crafting a social media marketing plan. While Facebook may be the most popular and effective tool, do not underestimate the marketing capacity of lesser sites like Myspace and twitter. The more places you try to market from, the better chance you have at success.

Your social media campaign is going to fail unless you have a crystal clear notion of what your target audience is and is like. Find out what they’re using social media for, what content they want and how long they linger on this site.

Try to use several websites when engaging in social media marketing. You want to use multiple sites to increase your readership and help expand your business across the Internet market. It can also be helpful in other ways if you take advantage of the different tools available.

Be prepared for a certain amount of negative feedback. You may see that many people love your company and products, but you must be able to deal with with unhappy customers too. Do not turn your back on it but face it head on and help those customers who are unhappy.

Social Media

One way to make the most of social networking sites is to tie them to attractive sales promotions. It’s more likely that people will discover you on these sites, such as Facebook, if they can see a greater amount of content and receive better discounts. Social media needs to be seen as a chance for customers to receive more information about you and to be more involved with you and your brand and products.

You can create attention and interest for your business using social media marketing techniques. Business owners can benefit when people share their content over social media networks. You can provide incentives through sharing by implementing promotions, special offers, or competitions.

Be sure your website is connected to each social media profile you establish. By including widgets on your website, visitor can share your content easily. It will be easy for your audience to pass your content along if you include buttons on all of your RSS feeds, blog posts and your main web page.

Look at what time of the day it is you’re receiving the most responses and re-tweets from your Twitter account. Take advantage of that fact and schedule your messages to correspond with that timing. If your message service is automated, you can have your account sent tweets when your followers are usually logged onto their twitter accounts.

Keep your business site interesting and informative by hosting blogs by several of your most successful or engaging employees. Blogs like these can give others a glimpse into what your business is like. It gives them a chance to understand your business ethics, get a feel for your work environment and realize what it takes to make your products. Customers are more likely to trust your company if they have an idea of the inner workings and are shown a transparent picture of what happens inside the business.

Make it easy for people to subscribe to your bog. The subscription link should always be placed in a prominent area. Putting the subscribe button in sight will increase the amount of subscriptions that you get. Keep in mind that some people have slower Internet, so it is beneficial if your subscribe button is one of the first things to load.

Generate publicity for your company by hosting contests that offer attractive awards. Word travels fast on the Internet and before you know it word of your latest contest will spread further than you could imagine. Ensure that the contest is exciting, fresh, and relevant to the products or services you sell. One example of a contest you can run is designing a logo for an upcoming product.

If you use Facebook, keep the account updated regularly. People will lose interest in your page if its content is not fresh. As soon as you make a blog post, you should share it to your Facebook page. A single blog will provide double the exposure.

Research has demonstrated that the most common hours individuals use to read social media content is during weekly banker’s hours. You can use existing tools to post your social media content during these times automatically, although you’re free to write them whenever your creative juices happen to be flowing.

To target the appropriate demographic in your social media campaign, review whatever market research you have done about your customers and put it to use. If you find that most of the people who come to your page fit into a certain group, target them and build your ads for them.

Social media marketing is a good way to get the attention you need. This benefit is increased when customers give word-of-mouth referrals through review sites and other business websites. You can entice your customers by offering special deals, and friendly competitions as a means to promote your business.

Social Media

There are many services available that can help businesses to manage their Twitter accounts. Some services allow you to automatically build or trim your list of followers according to a set series of criteria. These social media services will help keep organized and find the proper audience for your marketing.

Using YouTube can offer you big advantages when it comes to marketing your goods or services with social media marketing. Make video blogs or issue updates concerning new products. Place these videos in your blogs, on your social media pages, and your website to further increase your exposure.

Hold regular Facebook contests and promotions. People often times jump at the opportunity to try and win something. When you have a contest, you can gain followers as well as people who like your products. Contests will also give people something to be excited about and to talk about with their neighbors.

How is your competition using social media? You should look at what they are doing right, and what they are doing wrong. Take this information and use it to improve your campaign.

Use social media for incentives, but don’t overwhelm your customers. People don’t want to be forced into buying something. Post a sale or special once each week at a regular time. When customers find things themselves, they’ll feel in total control and not as if you pushed them into a decision.

Make sure you keep history in mind. Use previous lessons to refine your marketing strategy and incorporate profit-increasing methods. In doing this, you’re going to find out what works best when you choose to tackle a social media marketing campaign.

Be sure to post regularly and update frequently. You don’t want customers to grow bored. Keep them entertained and interested. Design a posting schedule you can live with, or hire a service that will post on a schedule determined by you. This can help you remain visible to your readers.

You should know which sites are popular, but you must also look into smaller networks for specific audiences. Get to know your target audience so you can find out which network they use, especially when targeting certain age groups.

Build up the audience in your Facebook account by sending the link to your email subscribers. You probably already have your own mailing list if you’ve already done marketing. Utilize this by sending your subscribers a link to your Facebook page. This can help your current customers find you.

Powerful Sites About Copywriting

Copywriting can be a great way for freelance writers to make significant money. Dedicated and proven copywriters can command hourly rates in the $100-200 range or more. For those you’ll need a stellar portfolio, complete with at least some evidence that your copywriting is successful.  If you’ve got an interest in writing copy that sells it may make sense to develop your copywriting chops.

Even if you don’t want to make a career of writing copy, since you’ll need to sell yourself and your writing, learning a bit about the art makes sense.

Here are 5 articles on 5 websites about copywriting that I like. They certainly aren’t the only ones… copywriting is a popular term indeed and lots of people have lots of advice about it.

As you look at these and others, keep in mind that the goal of copywriting is simply to get someone to buy an offered product or service.

1 – 7 Scientifically-Backed Copywriting Tips

I was brought up with the canard that someone famous in advertising (it was never clear who) said “Fifty-percent of all advertising is wasted; it’s impossible to tell which fifty percent.” I suspect that’s more or less as true today as it was when I first heard it. Nonetheless, Gregory Ciotti over at Copyblogger, lists seven tips for copywriting he says are science backed, and he’s got sources to prove it.

I was particularly interest in his item 2 which says, among other things, “selling “time” is far more effective…. than selling money.” Food for some serious re-thinking on my part.

2 – 35 Copywriting Tips & Tricks from the Pros

This post from Writtent– and no, I have no idea what that means – lists 35 tips. Some are familiar,  others not so much. There are lots of quotes in this piece from well-known copywriters. My suggestion is read it through, then find one or two you like and study them.

My favorite tip there at the moment is number “26. Evaluate your copy’s ratio of “you” vs. “we.””I like it because it gives me a way to double check that I’m really speaking to the customer rather than trying to convince the customer I’m a good guy by focusing on me instead.  Related:GroupBuy SEO Tools

3 – David Ogilvy’s 7 Tips for Writing Copy That Sells

Ogilivy was an advertising legend. Nathan Hangen of Kissmetricshas gathered seven of Oglivy’s quotes and discusses each one. A good, informative read.

My favorite? “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative. -David Ogilvy” I suspect this is really true and I’d never heard this one until I started on this blog. It makes sense to me.

4 – SEO Copywriting: 13 Killer Techniques (With Examples and A/B Test Results!)

Robbie‘s style drives me mad, but his information is solid. And for those of us writing in this digital age, using SEO in our copywriting is a must. This article explains both why and how. It’s a long and sometimes complicated article, so take it in small bites… that’s what I had to do. I don’t have a favorite tip here – maybe you’ll find one and share it with us.

5 – How to Become a Better Copywriter: 21 Tips from the Experts

I was delighted to find this one because it’s from our very own Sharon Hurley Hall! She’s writing this time at CrazyEgg, where she’s gathered some great quotes about writing copy. My favorite is number 5, from Tania Cheemawho says, ““Nobody has the time or patience to read linear content. Instead of writing long indigestible blocks of text, make your content skimmable.”

Each of the sites here will give you outstanding info on copywriting – so will the authors.

What would you like to tell us about copywriting?

I know you already know what Ahrefs group buy is

I know you already know what Ahrefs group buy is. But, you must be aware that these type of web-based tools keep their tools updated day by day. So, I think it is my responsibility to give short review about it but if don’t want to read review you can directly go to “Hot SEO Tools” website to order ahrefs for your projects.Related:GroupBuy SEO Tools

Ahrefs Review: What is Ahrefs.com?

“Hot SEO Tools” group buy Ahrefs for you so that you do not need to pay for expensive plans. You can use all the features of Ahrefs without any problem. If you don’t know what is Ahrefs.com? Keep reading, Ahrefs is one of the best tools for backlink analysis. It was specifically designed for SEO Professionals but nowadays other field related people are also using it for their different purposes. Ahrefs provides wide range of features to help SEOs such as finding keywords, exploring websites information, backlink history etc. By using this Ahrefs group buy seo tool, you can analyze any site you want and investigate your competitors’ websites.

I Built An SEO Niche Site While Sitting At A Korean Airport 2017

In December 2016, I had a 13 hour layover at the Incheon International Airport in South Korea.

With all that free time on my hands, I issued myself a challenge: write an entire website’s worth of content in under 13 hours. And, make it so good that it’ll rank well in Google.

Things like adding pictures or putting the site online could wait. This was just about finding a product to sell and writing a bunch of quality, SEO-friendly, content. A tough task, but still very doable.Related:GroupBuy SEO Tools

By the end of my challenge, I’d created:

• Nine articles, each ranging from 700–1,200 words.
• One 700+ word “About” page.
• An “Affiliate Disclosure” page (made by reworking an existing template I had).Related:GroupBuy SEO Tools

None of the articles took more than an hour to write, and the affiliate disclosure was knocked out within 10 minutes.

Time So Far: 10 hours.

I also cheated (kind of), by coming up with some extra content ideas (like a YouTube video and picture guide) that I’d create later on. This meant there were about three pieces of content I created after my challenge was done.

However, none of these were writing based, so I’ll let it slide.

Anyway, I got my writing done, hopped on the plane, and watched Operation Chromite (Liam Neeson plays Douglas MacArthur!) while flying back to Iowa.

The following weekend, I:

• Put the site online and scheduled each article for publication (took all of 45 minutes).
• Added pictures and videos (30 minutes).
• Created social media accounts to auto-promote new blog posts (15 minutes).

Time So Far: 10 hours for content + 90 minutes for technical details.

After that, I sat back and let things run on autopilot.

So? How’d the site do?

From December until now, I’ve received a total of 3,087 pageviews. That’s about 22 hits per day.

I’ve also made just over $100 in confirmed sales, with an extra $167 estimated for the month of April.

So that means…

$100 + $167 = $267

And…

$267 / 12 (hours I worked on the site) = $22.25 Per Hour

That’s pretty good. Especially considering that I had nothing else to do while waiting at the airport.

The point of this article was to show how easy it is to come up with an idea, do a little persuasive writing, and turn a profit. You have the technology to do this anywhere. Whether you’re stuck at the airport, waiting in the doctor’s office, or sitting at your kitchen table on a Sunday afternoon.

That’s my little experiment (and the results). I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading,

Robert

Create the Best Social Media Marketing Plan for Your Business 2017

1. lished a Goal

• Exactly what do you plan to complete
• Evaluate your goal. Instance: Engage a 15% more per month with present Instagram followers.
• Be clear using what you need to accomplish. No more than 2 phrases.
• Be sensible. Don’t set goals that you understand are way too tough to reach.
• Have a set budget of cash you’re prepared to invest.

1. Establish Objectives

• Here you will be more certain and explain more in depth what your objectives are.
• Quantify your goals. Usually talk numbers. Instance: Development of 10 followers each day.
• Every objective is a short sentence. Do not Create A PARAGRAPH!
• Use bullet points for every objective.

1. Understand your target audience

• Who’s your main Audience?
• Who’s your secondary Target audience?
• Who’s your target market?
• Exactly what social media programs do your audience engages with the most.

1. Strategies as well as Tactics

• Write down each and every goal
• Describe how’s it going to achieve each goal
• Use bullet points to describe the strategies as well as tactics that you’re prepared to use.
• Be comprehensive.
• Estimate how much cash you have to achieve those goals.

Your social media marketing plan shouldn’t be longer than one web page. Once you have made a plan, now you are likely to produce a calendar or even checklist to watch your posts, as well as write down the stats as well as results of your progress. 1 good free website to get info about social media statistics is fanpagekarma.com. Some other helpful paid was calculated tools are Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer etc.Related:GroupBuy SEO Tools

 Exactly what should my personal social media calendar currently have?

1. Produce diverse columns

• Date
• Social Media Marketing platform (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
• Post/Content
• Engagement (%)

1. Build a whole month ahead of time.

• Set the images you are likely to use.
• What exactly are you likely to write every day?
• Use inspiring quotes or even fun facts.
• Share incentive prizes to engage together with your audience.
• Schedule your content utilizing Hootsuite or any other similar helpful resources.

1. Effects

• By the end of every month write the effects.
• In which you started and where you completed.
• Page development (%)
• Engagement (%) Related:GroupBuy SEO Tools

Evaluate your data and your posts. Observe what worked good for you and just what didn’t work. Carry on doing what worked for you, and discover a way to modify what didn’t work to help make your social media marketing powerful.

Plan an SEO Campaign 2017 That Works？

Setting Things Up

Don't be surprised if this is longer than you expected. Preparation is the key to success with every worthwhile job, yet it is the part that is most often neglected. Think of it as setting up the solid foundation on which your business empire (well, your search engine rankings at least) will be built. Don't build your castle on sand. iMyFone D-Back iPhone Data Recovery Get Back Lost Files on iPhone:https://www.imyfone.com/iphone-data-recovery/

Manage Your Expectations

1) Be Patient

Don't expect to see results in your first week, or even month. This used to happen in the early days (with smaller markets, we were so confident we'd predict quick success, and always got it), but nowadays it's not just the work that takes time, but there are time delays built into Google's own algorithm (see this article for some very high authority research).Related:GroupBuy SEO Tools

Also, be prepared for an environment where there are lots of grey areas.  This guide is as factual and action-centric as I can make it, but if you want to know, at the start, how long it will take to get results, all I can say is that it depends, because every business, every website and every market are different. There is a "Time Plan" later on, and I guess you could say maybe six to twelve months (depending), but at this stage you must concentrate on getting the structure and process of your campaign put into place.

If you like to set yourself targets, it's best to make them process-related (e.g. "Do jobs A, B and C") rather than results-based (e.g. "Achieve rankings of X, Y and Z").

If your business is in trouble, SEO won't save it: it will demand resources you probably can't afford over a time scale you surely don't have. But with the right budget in place in a business where the culture is positive and growth-driven, SEO will provide what is likely to be the most cost effective route to new customers that you have ever seen.

Just be patient.

2) White Hat versus Black Hat

These terms were coined to reflect the situation in Wild West films, where the white hats were worn by the "good guys" and the black hats by the "bad guys" (see here if you want confirmation).

And if you like the idea of being one of the "bad guys", just remember that although they may have had a lot of fun for a while (shooting people and frightening everyone, getting money and "goils"), they were the ones who got shot at the end – which is another great parallel for what happens with SEO.

Established wisdom is that black hat SEO techniques may (if you're lucky) work for a while, but sooner or later you'll be caught and justice will prevail. I never bother with any kind of shortcuts because I want my results to be sustainable. If I may say so, so should you.Related:GroupBuy SEO Tools

3) Quality versus Quantity

Relax, take a breather, and realise you will succeed by the quality of what you do. Get into good habits: it's better, for example, to create one very good blog post every month than twenty pieces of utterly forgettable rubbish.

You can scale up later, when you have acquired more experience, better contacts and improved skills.Related:GroupBuy SEO Tools

4) You Reap What You Sow

As long as you work effectively (yes, following these guidelines) it will be a straightforward matter of the more you put in, the more you will get out.

Lots of well-informed, consistent work will get you places. But if you dabble at it, or work when you feel like it, or chase every new idea you come across, you really shouldn’t be wasting your time.

A point to remember here is that if you have some "big hitters" in your market, you can still beat them if your activity is more organised and better managed. We have done this many times: one client overtook Regus in the serviced offices market, another outranked Microsoft for training, and another beat all the multinationals for freight forwarding.  You can do this: just remember to prioritise and focus on what’s important.

Preparation of Your Campaign

As with many jobs (whether you are cooking a new recipe, spraying an auto or writing an article), the standard of your preparation will often define the quality of the finished result. Yes, it's time consuming, and can be boring at times, but if you skip this part of the job, you will set yourself up for poor results, if not complete failure.

1) Match Yourself and Your Market

This shouldn't take long, but the answers you give here will drive the rest of your activity.

What is Your Market?

Although you may feel there's an obvious answer, try to think more deeply. If you sell motorcycles, are they sports, commuter, or do you try to cast as wide a net as possible?

Who Are Your Target Customers?

This just means knowing what kind of people they are, and what position they are in. Try to be reasonably specific: "Purchasing Manager" doesn’t really do it. In our own campaigns, we often give people a name, and a persona, to aid our visualisation.  So it could be "Helen from HR" or "Trendy Tina" or even "Billy Who’s Broke".

What Are Their Expectations?

Why do they buy your products? What drives their choice is often different from the function of the product or service. What does your customer want to do? What are their objectives? What "pushes their buttons"?

If it's Helen, we may say that she wants a reliable provider, with whom she can forge a long-term partnership. But if it's Tina, she may be preoccupied with style and other people’s perceptions. And we're sure that Billy’s decision is likely to be extremely price-driven.

How Do You Match Their Expectations?

In other words, how do you (and your website) match the features of your goods and services with customer expectations, so you provide the benefits they want? The answer is usually straightforward enough, but I have sometimes seen clients who cannot really answer this – and this leads to a (very useful) tighter definition of what they do.

2) SEO Tools

There are lots of tools out there, each with their own advantages, and here are a few of those that combine lots of features with relative ease of use and reasonable costs:

• MOZ
• Ahrefs
• Majestic
• SEMRush

We have used them all (and many others) in our time, but it's beyond the scope of this guide to review them: they all have their strengths and provide value across the board.

3) Research and Select Your Keywords

We are still on the basics here, but this is probably the biggest factor in deciding the results you get from the hard work you put in.

A Few Notes About Keyword Strategy

It is important that your final list of target keywords contains only those which have some "commercial intent". This means that a keyword phrase that says "buy", "order" or "suppliers" implies an intended commercial action, and will be valuable. On the other hand, if it includes "definition of", "how to" or "history of" then the visitor is just looking for information. I'll ignore arguments about early-stage research because I want to get you somewhere quickly, and will recommend that you go for keywords that have high commercial intent, or are neutral (e.g. "water softeners", "party entertainers").

Set Up Your Preliminary List

You know the names of your products or services, and you also know (from your work above) what extra words, like "reliable", "latest" or "cheap", could be used by your target customers.

Make selections that are consistent with your business objectives (so don't use "cheap" if you are marketing a high-end product). Draw up a preliminary list, which will form the basis for your work.

Look at What Your Competitors Do

Firstly, define your competitors! For the purposes of SEO, a competitor is not Jonny-In-The-Next-Town with whom you’ve been local rivals for years. A competitor is someone who has search engine rankings for the keywords you want to target. So it's easy to find them. But look at the other keywords they are targeting: inspect the meta tags on their main pages – that's Title, Description, and even Keywords (though few use that one any more). Experiment with similar keywords and see if they have rankings or even ads appearing.

This is a great way of mining for additional keyword terms, and it may yield some that are more productive than your original choices.

Dig Deeper For Your Core List

Plug the list into a keyword research tool.  All the tools I’ve listed above have their own variations, though Google also has a Keyword Planner for which you'll need a Google Adwords account, but although it is easier to use than more advanced tools, its results are too aggregated for many people's liking, the "competition" metric relates to advertising bids (not rankings), and you can't extend its use to other kinds of analysis (covered later on).

Also, any article about keyword research wouldn't be complete without a mention of WordTracker which has been around for a long time, but it lacks the breadth of other functions that you may need later on. It's your choice.

There are two measures to bear in mind: Difficulty Level and Search Volume. Don't pick those where the difficulty level is too high: this means it will take a lot of work to get results. And if the search volume is low, even with top rankings, you’ll not get worthwhile numbers of visitors.

An example of some research we did recently showed up the following example:

• Equestrian clothing:             Difficulty:   6%         Searches:   1,600
• Horse riding clothing:          Difficulty: 11%         Searches:    200
• Equine clothing:                    Difficulty: 22%         Searches:    150

Here, it's clear that, of the three keyword terms, the highest volume is (unusually) the easiest to get results for: if you see these kinds of opportunities, be sure to take advantage of them.

Aim for a list where the keywords have low difficulty and high volume, which avoids the two "brick walls". If you select keywords with low difficulty but also low search volumes, it will mean that although you may be encouraged by improvements in your rankings, you are likely to be baffled because your web traffic doesn’t improve. We see this all the time.  On the other hand, if your keywords have high volumes but also high difficulty, you may be permanently marooned on page 2, or 3 (or worse…).

Make a list of what you may consider to be "achievable" and divide them into categories or sections that correspond to your website. This is your core list of keywords that will direct everything you do from now on.

Your PPC Trial

The best way to proceed next is via a pay per click (PPC) advertising campaign, through Google or perhaps Bing (though Bing doesn't have the volumes of Google). This will take several weeks, plus some further resource in setting up the campaigns and, of course, paying for the ads.  Many people want to move on without this, and they are obviously entitled to do so.

However, if you do follow the PPC Trial route, you will test your keywords in real time, in your market, and be able to see how they perform. Analysis of visitor behaviour, as well as (hopefully) business sales or leads, will give you an insight into how things will operate with your SEO. It can direct you in where to focus your efforts, and maybe where not to waste your time.

4) Onsite (On-Page) SEO

With the "hard yards" out of the way, and your list of keywords at the ready, you can now optimise the pages on your website.

Page Selection

Because you divided your keyword list into website-related categories, you can now apply them to specific pages. Observe the following rules:

• Apply one keyword phrase (or two closely-related phrases) to each page
• Use major pages (just one click, maximum two, from the home page) wherever possible
• Ensure that the content on the page is highly relevant to the keyword phrase

Page Optimisation

A how-to process guide on this subject would drag us into too much detail (a bit "off-topic" maybe), but the essence of it is to make sure you have your keyword phrase (or a close variant of it) in the following elements on your selected pages:

• Meta Title tag – this provides Google, Bing (etc) with the heading text for your listing. The general rule is to capitalise every major word, and keep it between 55 and 65 characters in length. Make it descriptive, not just repeated keywords, so that more people will be likely to click on it.
• Meta Description tag – if you do this well, it is very likely to form the descriptive text below the heading. It needs to be informative but more conversational in tone: again, think of motivating the viewer to click: including the keyword term once, and a call to action at the end, are often a good idea.

• Page Structure – Ensure that heading tags (H1, plus 2-3 H2 tags) exist on the page and contain variations of the keyword phrase (not all the same text!) Also ensure that the keywords appear in the main body copy of the page, including variations (e.g. "quality printing", "printing quality" and "quality expert printing").
• Image Alt Tags – Make sure that all image tags have alt attributes (often, mistakenly, called "alt tags"), and that some (but not all) contain your keywords.

Remember that this process is not to "fool" search engines, but to inform.  If you don't do this, and your pages are devoid of any real occurrences of your keyword, how will Google et al know what they are about?

It's also, when compared with the other SEO work you have to do, a very quick and simple job.

Link Optimisation

There are three elements here:

• Usability – a general usability rule (which applies to humans and search engines alike) says that every page on the website should be no more than three clicks from any other page. Make sure that this is true wherever possible.
• Anchor text – this is the text you click on to follow a link, and which sends a signal to the search engine about the topic of the page it points to. If, therefore, you include keywords in the anchor text, that will give a tiny boost to your SEO. But do this in moderation, because "over-optimisation" with keyword-rich links all over the page, will be ignored or even penalised.
• Target pages – these are your "selling" pages: those that you want people to visit.  You should always make sure that any pages relevant to the subject of a target page have a prominent link to it. (So an article which reviews are announces a product should link to the page that sells it.) This will help you get more from visitors and search engines.

Technical SEO

You must always keep a regular check on SEO-related technical issues.  These include:

• Page script (500) errors
• Page not found (404) errors (broken links)
• Page load times

You can do this by using the Google Search Console, for which you'll need to set up a Google account, then add your site to your login page.

In your first SEO exercise, you should audit the site and confirm that these are under control. When this is done, you should perform a monthly check to make sure all is still in order.

Mobile

Mobile search is growing fast. But the evangelists don't tell you that it's only in relevant markets: if you're selling music downloads, or run a local restaurant, mobile is likely to dominate your traffic. However, if you are hoping to grow the distribution network for the heavy machinery you manufacture, I'd say that your potential customers, even though they undoubtedly have mobile phones, are going to prefer to use a PC for their search. I'm not trying to over-simplify, but if you're in a B2C (business to consumer) market, mobile is more likely to feature than in a B2B (business to business) market. But you know your customers, and it's your decision as to whether you concern yourself with mobile.

If you do want to optimise for mobile, there are several additional factors to consider:

• Make sure you site is responsive (i.e. it creates a different version in response to whether it is viewed on a PC or mobile (or tablet for that matter).
• Avoid animations using Flash (or at least hide them on mobile and tablet)
• Don't use pop-up windows
• Be VERY attentive to page load speeds: images, in particular, can slow down a page to a crawl, during which visitors will just give up (they are VERY impatient!)
• Use a font size that can be read easily on mobile. A general rule is that it should be at least 16px (pixels)
• Make sure that "touch" elements (e.g. links) aren't too close together

Google has a very good mobile-friendly tool that you can use to check your own website (or any page on it). And who better to judge whether your site will do well on Google than Google?

Wrap Up

I warned you – there's a lot to it. But once you've done it, with the exception of periodic reviews, it's in place and you have a great basis on which to build.  If you don’t have the time, or the patience, to do all this, and want to get on to the more "interesting" stuff, you do so at your peril and risk spitting into the wind for ever. But, as always, it's your choice. :-)

Today's post is the first part of our three-part “How to Run an SEO Campaign That Works” series of articles - if you enjoyed reading the article, make sure to have a look at the next two instalments here: