Here is your answer….Social SEO!!

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”.  As scary as the term sounds, it simply means using techniques to help increase the findability of your website online.

We use several techniques and work some magical secrets (they really are, don’t roll your eyes) to move you from a remote page 100 on Google to the top page of the pack!  Now, don’t you think this would help to bring some customers in the door?  We think so!

So why do we call what we do “Social SEO”?  We added the “Social” in front because that is the part lots of businesses have either forgotten about or don’t think they have time to maintain.  Social Media….what can we say about it?  It is Free, Fun and Fantastic!  Also, recently it became very important in your SEO rankings so listen to this!  The major search engines, such as Google and Bing, are now using Social Media sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook to help determine which websites and information sources are the most relevant and reliable!

Here’s 3 tips to get you started:

1. Make SEO part of your website design process and not an afterthought
2. Content is King – make sure your website content is relevant and fresh
3. Look to the competition – if your competitors are ranking well, they must be doing something right

So hop on the bandwagon people and increase your Findability!

Enter the Age of Social Shopping

Plenty of research exists on the shopping habits of consumers and most have come to the same conclusion: the “New Consumer” investigates their purchases for Products or Services online prior to conducting a transaction.  They Google, Bing, Tweet (and many other acts of Social Media investigation) to find what they are looking for.  Then, they ask their Social Media networks for their ideas and opinions.

Never before have people had so many options to choose from and so many places from which to gather word of mouth “yays and nays” on products and services.  People are going mobile, online and to social media to access a powerful network of people who can make or break your sale.

What’s a Business to do?

Ensure you communicate a consistent message and brand on various consumer touch points, such as your website, Twitter Account and Facebook Fanpage.

Consumers are also looking to social networks for deals.  So provide relevant deals/coupons or offers on each of the media channels you choose.  If you offer the deals (along with the possibility for product/service reviews) right on your website, people never have to leave and can simply complete the entire process on your site.

So what does this mean for you and your business?  It means you have to be Findable and brand yourself on as many social media outlets as possible!  Ensure you communicate the same messages on each of the outlets you choose.  Also, make sure your SEO is up to date so people can find you…in the Age of Social Media, if you are not Findable, you are not shoppable!

What Is It?

The article on Wikipedia refers to the sandbox effect as:

…a phenomenon that people have claimed to observe in the ranking of web pages that is performed by Google. It is the subject of much debate.

Even if I worked for Google and had first-hand experience with its search algorithm, I wouldn’t bore you with the technical details.  For the purposes of this blog post, the effects that the Google sandbox does or does not have can be summed up in a few short paragraphs.

Instead, I wanted to concentrate on what this means for small to medium-sized businesses and new websites in general.  Any good SEO firm out there should tell their clients that if you are a new website with a domain registered within the last one to three months (sometimes longer), you already have one strike against you.  New sites haven’t built up the kind of reputation and street cred that a site that has been in existence for 2-3+ years may have.  For that reason, even a superbly optimized site may not rank within the top 10 on Google.

In order to combat spam and force sites to slowly build up a reputation, some sources say that Google has implemented this sandbox or filter into their search algorithm.

Do I Really Need a Shovel?

I asked this question because there are other respected sources that discount the existence of such a sandbox.  They claim that sites which attribute their poor rankings to the “sandbox” are in fact poorly optimized for seo.  In any case, here are a few signs that your site may be stuck in the sand:

• The domain is relatively new – usually less than 1 year old
• Pages on the site don’t rank or rank poorly (page 5+) for even exact title matches
• Older sites outrank you for search queries containing optimized keywords/phrases
• Your site ranks well in other search engines
• Your site ranks well initially and then suddenly drops in rankings for no apparent reason

How Do I Grow Up and Step Out of the Sandbox?

Unfortunately, there is no single answer to that question other than “time”.  Unless there is a way for you to automagically add months/years to the age of your site, you just have to focus on what is in your control.  Here are a few things you can do:

• Register your domain immediately.  Even if you only have a few pages of content to post, you’ve started the age clock ticking
• Work with a good SEO firm to optimize your on-page content
• Research and target specific keywords and make sure your pages speak to those keywords
• Work on building strong links from reputable sites.  Weak links, or links from sites with a poor ranking of their own carry little to no weight.  Low quality links from other sites may actually increase your stay in the sandbox

Have you experienced the Google sandbox effect?  Do you think this is totally bogus?  Let us know your thoughts and share your experiences.

Let’s Look at an Example

Let’s say your company specializes in manufacturing wickets used by ski resorts all over the world.  If you don’t know what a “wicket” is, read about it here.  You’re the best wicket builder and you know it.  Now you want the rest of the world to know it every time they search for the phrase “ski wicket”.  That’s great, but how does a search engine like Google know that you’re the best?

Content is King

There are several strategies a good SEO firm will use to improve the findability of your website.  The most important of those should be improving the quality of your website content.  The page you’re hoping to attract visitors to must have the right amount of search terms/phrases within it.  Going back to our example, if I’m authoring a page that I want Google to return in its listing of search results, I better make sure that my page speaks to the phrase “ski wicket”.

Why Small Businesses Need to Get it Right the First Time

Once your page is crawled and indexed by one of the search engines, the search engine maintains several key bits of information.  Among other things, it’s looking for the prominance of certain words – how often they appear and where within your page content.  Once it crawls your site and gathers the information it’s looking for, it’s gone.  Just as fast as it came.

If you’re a small business with a relatively small website (fewer than 50 pages) that search engine may not be back to pay your page a visit for several days, weeks, or even months.  For that reason, it is very important to ensure that the content on your page is well crafted, relevant to the topic at hand, and contains the right amount of the keyword or phrase you’re hoping to target.

Avoiding Negative Results

Before you start thinking that you’ve come across this great secret to better search engine ranking, let me provide a word of caution.  If I try to get crafty by including the phrase “ski wicket” 1000 times on my page, I can actually be penalized by the search engines and hurt my search ranking.  Your page/website needs to be designed for human beings, not search engines.  If Google lets say, crawls your page and notices that the phrase “ski wicket”  appears 1000 times, it probably won’t think you’re the authority on the ski wicket, but that you’re trying to manipulate your way to a better search ranking.  It’s true, and it does happen.