Video SEO is a largely overlooked search marketing strategy. Even as videos continue
to gain significant traction in the search engines’ natural listings, most companies
either ignore them, or remain completely unaware of their potency. That oversight
represents a valuable edge your company can use to leapfrog your competitors in the
organic rankings.

The strategy blends traditional search optimization tactics with a relatively new
platform. With the rise of YouTube, Revver, Blip, and similar video sites,
consumption patterns have driven the search engines to provide these sites with
greater ranking authority. As long as your primary objective is clearly established,
a video SEO campaign can have a dramatic effect on your exposure in Google, Yahoo,
and Bing.

In this article, we’ll explain why you should integrate video SEO into your current
search marketing strategy. We’ll also provide a few key ingredients that will help
you avoid potential pitfalls along the way. Lastly, you’ll learn what to look for
when choosing a video SEO company that can drive more traffic and higher
conversions.

How Video SEO Improves Your Search Exposure

Before Google released their Universal Search platform in May 2007, their natural
listings were dominated by text-based pages. Videos were rare in the top positions.
Universal Search changed the way Google displayed their primary index. Google,
Yahoo, and Bing now include entries from their respective video search platforms.
What’s more, popular video-sharing sites have been given higher ranking authority
and increased link weight (we’ll describe this latter point in a moment).

Video SEO gives you greater exposure in the search engines through two levers.
First, it caters to the algorithm used for Universal Search. By syndicating your
videos to authoritative video-sharing sites, you’ll enjoy more exposure through
their increased ranking authority. In effect, those sites will rank higher, drawing
more people to your videos.

Second, videos that are placed on your site (as opposed to syndicating them) attract
links - both directly and indirectly. As your videos gain popularity, direct links
will build naturally, pointing to the pages on your site that host the videos.
Indirect links will point from other sites whose owners have embedded your videos.
As a result, your inbound link profile will continue to grow and strengthen, lifting
your site higher within the search engines’ organic listings.

3 SEO Video Tips To Capture Higher Search Positions

Your video SEO campaign can only be effective if you recognize the limitations of
the search engines. First, their algorithms cannot read lips. In order to rank for
your target keywords, they must be available to the search engines’ spiders in text
form. If you’re placing videos on your site, optimize your titles and surrounding
text, and include an edited transcript of the video. If you’re syndicating them,
optimize your external titles and tags.

Second, focus on inbound links. An effective video SEO campaign relies on
contextually related links pointing from a wide breadth of sites. Videos that spark
a groundswell of attention - whether through entertainment, information, or
controversy - can achieve this easily.

Third, integrate a social media sharing component. You want viewers to share your
videos with their friends on Facebook. You want them to “Tweet” about your videos on
Twitter. You want them to bookmark your videos on Digg, Delicious, and StumbleUpon.
These social media sites can form the backbone of your video SEO campaign, driving
waves of inbound links to your site.

Key Factors In Choosing A Video SEO Company

Traditional search optimization is a mature strategy. SEO specialists have honed
their craft for more than a decade. By contrast, video SEO is still an evolving
science. Even though it leverages the core tenets of a traditional optimization
campaign, the rise of social media and video-sharing sites has infused video SEO
with enormous complexity. Hiring a video SEO company removes the need to keep up
with the roiling landscape. The key is using the right criteria to identify a
proficient firm.

A professional video SEO company should have an established track record that shows
a keen grasp of the search engines’ organic algorithms. That track record should
also demonstrate an ability to evolve as the algorithms change. Many search
optimization experts were completely unprepared for the debut of Universal Search.
By extension, so too, were their clients.

Leveraging Video SEO For More Traffic And Higher Conversions

A carefully executed video SEO campaign can sharply increase your exposure within
the search engine’s natural listings. When implemented as a key component of a
multi-pronged search marketing campaign, it can drive more targeted traffic to your
site. Targeted traffic translates into higher conversions. If you are not yet
leveraging video SEO for your site, your current organic rankings may be more
vulnerable than you realize.

Search engine marketing (SEM) has evolved to become the most reliable strategy for reaching a target audience,driving sales, & managing public relations online.. It boosts your company’s
exposure within your space; it compels your market to visit your website; it
positions your product as the solution to their problems. As a result, your sales
increase. Your revenue and profit swell. Your ROI rises. And your business enjoys
stronger branding and customer loyalty in the process.

Many of your competitors are already using SEM in an attempt to capture a larger
portion of your market. There has never been a better time to protect and expand
your territory. This article will explain why search engine marketing should be a
critical piece of your online marketing strategy. You’ll discover the value of
hiring an SEM expert versus forging a path on your own. We’ll also describe how SEM
PR and SEM social media tactics converge with SEO and PPC to produce a groundswell
of momentum.

Why Search Engine Marketing Is Critical

Search engine marketing blends SEO, pay-per-click advertising, and social media
strategies to give your company a higher level of visibility within the search
engines’ listings. But, visibility without sales is useless. And therein lies the
true value of SEM.

Your online marketing efforts must generate conversions in order to justify the
investment. Conversions might include a prospect buying your product, signing up for
your newsletter, or becoming your affiliate. It might include subscribing to a
continuity program that generates monthly revenue. Search engine marketing not only
allows your company to approach your audience, but it engages the conversation that
is already occurring in their mind. It compels action, which lifts your conversion
rate.

Is Hiring A Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Expert Necessary?

Every tactic that is leveraged within a comprehensive search engine marketing
deployment can be learned. The problem is, doing so is incredibly time-consuming.
The algorithms that govern the search engine’s organic rankings change constantly.
The major PPC platforms endure a seemingly endless string of upheavals. Social media
sites are still in their infancy; as they mature, so too, will the tactics required
to leverage them. Developing proficiency in each area of search engine marketing
takes an enormous amount of time.

An SEM expert will design a search engine optimization campaign that pushes your
website to the top rankings for your chosen keywords. They can also launch a
pay-per-click advertising campaign that further improves your exposure. Social media
marketing tactics can be integrated to dovetail with the rest of your search engine
marketing deployment. Even though you could launch these strategies on your own, do
you have the time to learn and apply them?

SEM PR: Melding Search Engine Marketing With Public Relations

SEM PR has its roots in search engine optimization. Years ago, online public
relations was managed largely through the creation and distribution of online press
releases. This is still effective today. These press releases gain traction in the
search engines’ organic listings. That builds your company’s brand while helping to
push negative publicity off the first page of results.

Today, online PR has been incorporated within a broader search engine marketing
context that includes SEO, PPC, and online reputation management (ORM). For example,
a press release can be distributed online in order to gain traction within the
natural listings. Then, a PPC campaign can be launched to direct your audience to
the press release on your website. Links can be placed throughout the page to other
positive coverage. The more points of exposure, the less likely negative press will
penetrate the top rankings in the search engines. This is a core element of ORM and
by extension, search engine marketing.

Leveraging SEM Social Media Optimization For A Competitive Edge

Social media sites began to enjoy ranking authority in the major search engines a
few years ago. That authority has only increased over time, making social media an
important cog in search engine marketing. This is the reason SEM social media
optimization has become critical for companies that need to reach niche markets.

By establishing a presence on the top social media sites, a search engine marketing
agency can develop multiple entry points in the organic listings. That increases
your exposure to your audience. It also prevents bad press from infiltrating the top
listings for your keywords. These advantages converge to deliver a competitive edge
for your company.

The Value Of Hiring A Professional SEO Marketing Consultant

Time is the most valuable commodity of all. Once it expires, it cannot be retrieved.
This is why a growing number of companies - including your competitors - are opting
to hire a professional SEO marketing consultant. They realize that search engine
marketing strategies are complex. The learning curve is steep. What’s more,
deploying SEO, PPC, and SMO tactics poorly can do far more harm than good. Precision
in execution is critical.

If you have already mastered each of the strategies that make up search engine
marketing, and have a refined system through which to deploy them, you may not need
an SEM expert. Otherwise, you might be fighting an uphill struggle. Consider
contacting a search engine marketing specialist today.

Online reputation management (ORM) was created to help business owners and professionals deal with bad press. Countless companies - large and small - have found themselves on the receiving end of negative publicity. When it is posted online, it can spread quickly. The size of your business has little influence on the devastating effect of such feedback. Multinational leviathans have struggled under the assault of bad publicity that first gained momentum in the search engines. Online reputation management curbs the impact. It lets you control the message that your target audience sees.

In this post, we describe how reverse SEO is an important piece of your broader online reputation management campaign. You’ll also discover how ORM works within the framework of your SEM strategy. We’ll then explore the difference between public relations online and ORM before explaining how the latter insulates your business from negative feedback.

How Reverse SEO Supports Online Reputation Management

Most companies turn to online reputation management as a reactive approach to existing negative feedback in the search engines. In effect, the damaging press has already gained a foothold in Google’s listings. While a preventative ORM strategy is a better approach, a reverse SEO campaign can help remove negative publicity from the first page of organic rankings. Consigned to the second and third pages, the bad press lacks exposure. Without exposure, it cannot gain significant traction.

Having said that, you should take a proactive approach to online reputation management. Every piece of content you produce should be carefully optimized to help your company dominate its top positions in the search engines. That reduces the likelihood that you’ll be forced to react after your brand has received negative publicity.

Online Reputation Management: An Irreplaceable Component Of SEM

Your search engine marketing (SEM) strategy can only be as successful as the level of trust your audience has in your company. If bad press has crept into the top positions of the search engines, it will tarnish that trust. Keep in mind that the social networking sites have gained enormous authority in the search engines. Negative feedback posted to these sites can rank in Google and become difficult to displace.

This is the reason online reputation management is an irreplaceable component of your SEM campaign. It is too easy to lose control of your brand and message through bad press that infiltrates the search engines.

Public Relations Online Versus Online Reputation Management

Public relations online is different than online reputation management, though both fulfill a similar function. In fact, each strategy includes elements of the other. Public relations attempts to control the message you deliver to your audience. It also forms the mechanism through which you can learn what others think of you and your business.

Online reputation management is a set of strategies that help to displace negative press in the search engines while monitoring every mention of your company. By continuously monitoring comments made by customers, employees, and even competitors, you can respond and control the message. Both public relations and online reputation management should have a place in your marketing strategy.

What Is Online Reputation SEO?

Online reputation SEO is a strategic counterpart to reverse search engine optimization. A reverse SEO campaign can be launched to remove bad publicity from the top positions in the search engines. By contrast, online reputation SEO takes a proactive approach to control that territory in advance. In the same way that negative press can gain traction and become difficult to remove, so too, can your own content. By controlling the top positions, the strategy prevents bad publicity from gaining exposure.

Protect Your Business With Online Reputation Management

Online reputation management plays an important role in your SEM efforts. It incorporates multiple strategies to insulate your company from the effects of negative publicity. Reverse SEO displaces bad press that has already climbed to the first page of Google. Online reputation SEO prevents future bad press from gaining similar traction. By monitoring every mention of your company, brand, and executives, you’ll be able to quickly identify potential publicity problems. That allows you to craft an immediate response, if necessary.

Most companies launch an online reputation management campaign after the damage of bad press has already spread. That is a mistake. Take a preventative approach to protect your business with an SEO campaign designed for public relations online.

Reverse SEO has become critical for all types of organizations. It has never been
easier for your customers, competitors, and employees to publish items online that
can have a damaging impact upon your business. If those items gain exposure in
Google, Yahoo!, and other major search engines, their effects can last for years.
Regardless of whether you operate a small firm with less than ten employees or a
multi-billion dollar company, bad publicity can decimate your business.

This post will introduce you to the fundamentals of reverse SEO. We’ll explain
how it works and the advantages of using it. We’ll also describe a seldom talked
about strategy of leveraging reverse SEO as a preventative approach to online
reputation management (ORM). You’ll discover why many companies are rushing to
search engine optimization specialists to enlist their help for damage control. If
you are not currently using reverse SEO to limit the effects of bad publicity, your
company may be vulnerable.

How Reverse Search Engine Optimization Works

Google ranks pages based on several criteria. One of its organic algorithm’s ranking
parameters is a website’s authority within its space. The more authority a site has,
the easier it is for a page on that site to rank well and control its position. When
an authoritative page carries bad publicity about your company, it can gain exposure
to a wide audience. This is the problem that reverse search engine optimization
resolves.

Reverse SEO specialists have a number of tools at their disposal they can use to
suppress bad publicity in the search engines. First, they’ll analyze the authority
of high-ranking pages that speak negatively of your business. Then, they’ll
formulate a strategy to push those pages into the depths of the search engines’
organic listings, limiting their visibility.

Long-Term Advantages Of Reverse SEO

A single unsatisfied customer can create havoc for your company by spreading
deceptive stories of poor service or shoddy workmanship. Similarly, one resentful
employee can anonymously unfurl a string of damaging diatribes. If such stories and
diatribes are merely told to another person, their effects are limited and
temporary. By contrast, if they are published online and gain exposure in Google,
they can have disastrous results for your business.

This type of negative press tends to gain a groundswell of momentum, regardless of
its accuracy. By suppressing these pages in the search engines, reverse SEO allows
you to control the effects of bad publicity. It helps you to smother the flames
before they grow out of control.

Reverse SEO: The Preemptive Strike

Most companies launch a reverse SEO campaign after bad publicity has already crept
toward the top of Google’s organic listings. That is a reactive approach. The
problem is that high-ranking pages with negative press tend to generate inbound
links. Those links further strengthen the pages’ positions. As a result, they become
more difficult to suppress.

You can use reverse SEO as a preventative measure. By launching a campaign that
controls the top organic positions, you can prevent negative publicity from gaining
exposure in the first place. In effect, you can insulate your company from the whims
and machinations of frustrated customers, unhappy employees, and deceitful
competitors.

Is Reverse SEO An Essential Cog Of Search Engine Marketing?

Search engine marketing (SEM) increases your company’s exposure within your space.
On its own, an SEM campaign can deliver staggering results that translate directly
to your business’s bottom line. However, bad publicity can disrupt even the most
formidable of search engine marketing campaigns.

Reverse SEO is a vital component of any SEM effort. It protects the integrity of
your search engine marketing campaign and supports its growth. The same tools that
can be used to control the top positions in Google and prevent negative press from
gaining traction can seed inbound links to your website. This creates a well-rounded
SEM campaign that is potent on multiple fronts.

Damage Control And Online Reputation Management

If your company enjoys exposure on the internet, whether from social networking
sites, professional online trade journals, or broad media, online reputation
management is important. The number of authoritative websites that your customers,
employees, and competitors can use to spread negative press about your business is
increasing. Making matters worse, many journalists have become lax in sourcing their
stories. ORM and reverse SEO can work seamlessly together to control the spread of
bad publicity.

Negative press does not need to be accurate in order to rank well in Google. That makes reverse SEO more critical for your company than ever.

Receive a free reverse SEO evaluation and begin to take control of your company’s online reputation today.

Social media optimization is a way for organizations and individuals to generate publicity through social networking tools like Twitter and LinkedIn, online communities like Facebook, and automated tools like TwitterFeed and Ping.fm. The term “social media optimization” was originally coined by SEO consultant extraordinaire, Rohit Bhargava, the senior vice president of Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence and author of the Influential Marketing Blog. (Bhargava’s work was so groundbreaking, Jeremiah Owyang, another social media optimization expert, even dovetailed a few of his own rules to the original work.)

Social media optimization is basically a way to promote your blog, website, or even your company’s brand, through social media, without being obnoxious or overtly commercial. Sure, you can blanket sites like Twitter with “Want to lose weight? Download my free report, ‘21 Ways to Lose Weight Fast’” over and over, or brag about your latest affiliate paycheck, but that’s not going to get you any followers. At least none worth talking to.

Bhargava calls these people”Twankers” (people who use Twitter for one-way broadcasts about their own greatness) and “Twidiots” (people who only tweet insignificant things like their latest press release or what they had for breakfast). If you’re just having one-way conversations and telling people about the minor, mundane details of your company, you’re not providing any value, and your social media optimization efforts will be wasted.

Whether you are an SEO consultant or you are new to social media marketing, there are a few rules you need to follow in order to be effective. Bhargava’s five rules of social media optimization included important things like increasing your linkability, helping your content travel, and encouraging the mash up. To that, we would add our own four rules.

* Focus on a few networks, not many. Many social media optimization beginners make the mistake of joining as many social networks as they can, and getting a few followers in each. The problem is you’re getting 10 or 20 followers in 10 networks, rather than 400 or 500 in 2 networks. If you take this shallow route, chances are you’ll attract the same followers in each one.

* Find people in allied fields, not just your own, to improve your social media optimization. Think referrals, not customers. If you’re in the financial services industry, don’t just focus on finding people who need to invest. Connect with people who can refer those same people to you, like lawyers, real estate agents, bankers, and anyone else who has clients who will need the financial services you offer.

* Provide real value to others. Telling people how they can earn money while they sleep, or “Lose Weight Fast!!!” is not valuable. Steering people to a recipe site for people who are trying a low-carb diet, or writing a blog post about the top five fat-burning foods is valuable social media optimization. Refer people to helpful websites, even if they’re not your own. And don’t be afraid to ask questions of your own. It makes you look like a real person, and not just a know-it-all.

* Commit to a social media optimization program for the long haul. It’s not enough to just use it a few times and be done with it. This is an ongoing process. You wouldn’t make a new friend and then never hang out with them, would you? Some of these people will become your online friends. Ignore them, and you’ll waste all the effort you put into your social media optimization and developing those relationships. Remember, social media marketing is actually about building real relationships, not just broadcasting one-way information. That’s what a TV is for.

By starting a social media optimization program, you’ll accomplish two things: 1) You’ll become a thought leader in your chosen field, and 2) your expertise will lead to more and bigger clients or job opportunities.

What is reverse search engine optimization? Is that even a real thing, or just some sort of search engine marketing they practice on Bizarro World?

Regular SEO means practicing positive online reputation management and making sure your website reaches the top of the search engine rankings. But reverse search engine optimization means doing the opposite, and pushing negative press and negative reviews further down the search engine results.

Use reverse search engine optimization when your company or brand has been lambasted in the online world, and that negative review is showing up at the top of the Google search results. Reverse search engine optimization pushes the negative pages down in the ranking, but doesn’t necessarily put your page at the top.

We have a friend who once had a very unpleasant experience with his personal bank, and blogged about the experience. For months afterward, if you were to Google the name of that bank — and it was a small one, so it’s not like you were spoiled for choices — his post was the #1 result. Even now, it still appears in the top ten. But if the bank were to practice a little reverse search engine optimization, they could have that problem solved in no time.

What about when customers are Googling your name or products, but your competitor’s name is showing up at the top? While you have to admire the other guy’s online reputation management, it can be aggravating when you’re selling roses, but your competition’s tulips keep popping up instead. While you can hope and pray that the other jerk goes out of business soon, you’re better off trying a little reverse search engine optimization instead. It’s cheaper, easier, and doesn’t cost other people their livelihoods. (On the other hand, anything that happens to them after your reverse search engine optimization is just a bonus.)

Search engine marketing experts tell us that most people don’t visit the second or third page of results. So the goal behind reverse search engine optimization is to push a negative review like that off of the first page, and possibly into the fourth or fifth page.

So what are some reverse search engine optimization techniques? What can you ETHICALLY do to make sure your bad press or your competition’s results are being pushed farther down the search page?

The biggest weapon in our reverse search engine optimization arsenal: start blogging. Search engines love blogs, because they provide fresh content. And the more fresh content you have, the higher you place in the search engine results. Publish a new blog post at least two or three times a week (10 times a month).

Another reverse search engine optimization technique is to write press releases filled with your search engine marketing terms. If you sell roses in Chicago, write press releases about roses in Chicago. It helps search engines find your content useful, which boosts you up in the rankings, and pushes the other websites down.

Leaving comments in other websites is another reverse search engine optimization practice. By leaving comments on other blogs, discussion forums, and social networks with links that point to your blog posts, you tell the search engines your blog is important. If you find a blog about removing thorns from roses, leave useful comments like “I wrote about five ways to safely remove thorns on my own blog,” and then link it to your blog.

Finally, joining social networks is another great reverse search engine optimization method. Believe it or not, search engines will even post results from Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube in their search results. So don’t forget to include valuable content (including keywords) on these other sites, which will then start appearing on the top search pages.

Reverse SEO has become one of the most effective strategies for pushing down bad publicity within the search engines’ organic listings.  It is an online reputation management tool of SEO consultants who manage public relations online.  Too often, companies become targets for negative press online. Angered customers start blogs to take businesses to task for grievances suffered, real or imagined. Dishonest competitors will often go to great lengths to distribute fraudulent reports online. Still others post untruthful reports about companies simply to cause mischief. The problem is that these blogs, pages, and reports can start ranking well in Google and Yahoo.

Reverse SEO can be used to suppress any negative publicity that targets your company in the organic listings. By pushing bad press onto the second, third, and fourth pages of Google, those pages will be prevented from gaining traction or attention. In today’s article, we’ll explain the potentially devastating effects of negative press and how reverse SEO can help you manage your company’s public relations online. We’ll also describe what you can expect when you work with an experienced SEO consulting service.

Why Reverse SEO Tactics Are Used

The reason to use reverse SEO is based upon current societal trends. Many of your customers are likely to research your company on Google, Yahoo, or Bing before purchasing a product or service from you. When they find reviews, they tend to believe them. Unfortunately, there are few barriers that prevent people from posting negative reports online about your business.

For example, a disgruntled employee can start an anonymous blog vilifying your company. An unsatisfied customer can post a less-than-honest story about your business on ripoffreport.com. Your competitors can do the same. The reputations of more than a few companies have been decimated in this way.

When prospective customers find these pages on the search engines, they give them unwarranted credibility. Reverse SEO minimizes the damage. Studies have shown that a large majority of searchers never venture onto the second page of listings. Of those who do, a small fraction progress to the third page. By pushing negative publicity off the first page of Google’s listings, a reverse SEO strategy removes them from sight.

Reverse Search Engine Optimization Curbs Negative Publicity

Negative publicity, if left unchecked, gains momentum in the search engines. Highly-ranked pages attract links. As inbound links increase to these pages, they become harder to remove. This is why it is important to launch a reverse SEO campaign as soon as bad press emerges, if not beforehand. By suppressing negative pages quickly, you can prevent them from gaining traction. Cut off from a supply of links, they will eventually submerge into the depths of the search engines’ listings.

The Basic Strategy Of Reverse SEO

In the same way that a search engine optimization project requires a refined approach, a reverse SEO campaign should also follow a rigid formula. The basic strategy relies upon a network of authoritative sites to control the first page of organic listings for your company’s name. That includes article and press release syndication, capturing keyword-rich subdomains on authoritative blog sites, and carefully using social networking properties. There are also a number of formidable online tools that can be used to further support your reverse SEO efforts.

By leveraging the ranking ability of these authoritative sites for your company’s name, you can control the first page of organic listings. That pushes negative press downward beyond your customers’ field of view.

The Positive Effects Of Reverse SEO Require Time

It’s worth emphasizing that a reverse SEO campaign takes time to gain momentum. Even though you will be leveraging authoritative sites that rank more quickly than other properties, controlling the first page of Google is not an overnight process. However, once these sites climb to the top positions, they are incredibly difficult to remove. Their ranking ability does not guarantee immediate results, but results tend to last over the long run. That means future attempts to attack your company with negative publicity will be forced to climb a much higher wall to do so. In effect, your business will be insulated.

Working With A Reverse SEO Consulting Service

The full-service SEO agency with whom your company works will already have a honed strategy for deploying a reverse SEO campaign. They will maintain a list of authoritative sites that are groomed for your circumstances. They’ll research your website’s position in the search engines as well as the positions of any negative press that currently populates the organic listings. Rather than pursuing reverse SEO methods that are unethical and thus, have only short-term results, they will use principled tactics that prevent bad publicity from gaining traction in the future.

Reverse SEO is becoming a popular method for minimizing the damage from complaints and negative reports, whether they are valid or not. In fact, a growing number of companies are relying upon reverse SEO tactics as a preemptive strategy for managing their public relations online.

Social media optimization (SMO) is gaining momentum in SEO Consulting.  MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and similar properties that form the springboard for communities of like-minded consumers have reached a tipping point. Once a novelty, they have quickly dominated popular media. In the process, they have become the focus of social media optimization.

One of the reasons social media optimization has gained significant traction with companies is because it provides a unique marketing channel. Rather than depending solely upon traffic generated from specific search queries on Google and Yahoo!, a site can be positioned to enjoy a grassroots - and often, viral - marketing momentum. But, the strategy is not without challenges. To that end, here are the four basic tenets for a savvy social media optimization (SMO) campaign.

Encourage Community Links

Consumers are starved for compelling content. Blog posts, videos, white papers, and news feeds that inform or entertain (ideally both) are perfectly positioned to attract attention. Once such content is discovered, entire communities descend upon it and spread the word. As a result, a company’s exposure and link profile can expand rapidly. Community links are one of the underpinnings of an effective social media optimization campaign. As the members of a community spread the word, inbound links grow. And with it comes a growth in organic traffic.

Leverage Tags And Bookmarks

When sharing content with others in their community, people will always gravitate toward the path of least resistance. In the context of social media optimization (SMO), leveraging tags and bookmarks from popular social networking sites is critical. There is no shortage of plugins and scripts that allow your audience to share your content with a single click. Whether “tweeting” to their thousands of Twitter followers or seeding your content on YouTube, Flickr, or Facebook, these tags and bookmarks can help trigger a groundswell of exposure.

Identify The Best Opportunities

Not every social media site offers the same potential for a social media optimization project. Some sites cater to a younger audience. Other sites cater to a professional audience. The key is to properly isolate the target community given a company’s product line. For example, a financial services company geared toward high net worth individuals would find limited success on MySpace. On the other hand, a social media optimization (SMO) campaign that targeted professional communities on LinkedIn might be more appropriate.

Integrate Social Media Optimization

The advantages of a social media optimization project, while significant, often distract companies from leveraging SEO, SEM, and ORM. It’s important to realize that effective online promotion is a confluence of all strategies. Not only does each use a different route to increase a company’s exposure, traffic, and sales, but all blend seamlessly with one another. In effect, social media optimization (SMO) should be integrated as one of several best practices.

These basic tenets form the foundation of a social media optimization project. When crafted carefully, SMO can be used to gain access to communities that would otherwise lie beyond the reach of traditional marketing strategies.

SMO Experts in Social Media Optimization are found at Rostin Regor Smith.  Contact us today.

Hiring an SEO Consultant has become critical to the success of online business. As every industry has become more competitive online, business owners are struggling to expand their revenue. Search engine optimization offers a cost-effective solution. When executed properly, it can build your website’s exposure, increase your traffic, and improve your conversions. But, an effective search engine optimization campaign requires the trained proficiency of an experienced SEO consultant.

Many business owners have been surprised to learn that their own efforts have sabotaged their ability to rank competitively in Google’s organic listings. That problem is easy to avoid. Below, you’ll discover the four key advantages of hiring an SEO consultant.

#1 - A Comprehensive Approach

The search engine optimization landscape changes quickly. Achieving and maintaining a top ranking requires a careful approach that brings together several disciplines. It is no longer sufficient to stuff keywords onto pages. Similarly, link popularity has given way to link authority. Thematic content should be woven into web 2.0 properties. An SEO consultant will provide a comprehensive approach that integrates the most effective optimization techniques.

#2 - Clarity of Purpose and Goals

With each change in the search engines’ ranking algorithms, a new crop of rumors and speculative theories emerge. As a result, business owners unwittingly adopt search engine optimization methodologies that are based upon fallacies. They lead nowhere and poor organic rankings predictably follow. Experienced SEO consulting specialists have developed a keen sense for sensible strategies that yield long-term results. In effect, a skilled SEO consultant can cut through the noise and identify the most advantageous path toward a high ranking.

#3 - Increased Exposure And Traffic

The goal of an SEO consultant is to lift your website to the top organic rankings for your main keywords. In doing so, you’ll enjoy more exposure to your targeted audience. But, mere exposure is not enough. When your audience sees your site at the top of Google’s listings, they must be compelled to click through and visit. Search engine optimization experts realize that exposure without traffic offers little value. Part of an SEO consultant’s job is to bring that traffic to your site.

#4 - Access To Hard-Earned Expertise

Search engine optimization requires a blend of several refined skills. From SEO copy writing to thematic link building and from web 2.0 integration to social media marketing, SEO consulting is both art and science. Not only does it take years to develop these skills, but an effective SEO consultant realizes that algorithms change constantly. Keeping up with them is not a part-time endeavor; it requires dedication. When you hire an SEO consultant, you’ll gain access to their hard-earned expertise.

One of the main challenges for business owners who want to reach their audience online is to create a reliable funnel of search engine traffic. But, the days when search engine optimization could be performed quickly and simply are long gone. It is now a complex discipline incorporating multiple skills. By hiring an SEO consultant, you can tap into these skills and enjoy measurable, long-term results.