However that has all changed and lots of people are arguing that SEO is dead and all is lost. That is not true. SEO is now less technical and easier than ever. Here’s why.

1) Social Signals for High Rankings
It is very well established that Google uses social signals from Facebook likes, twitter shares and its own +1 buttons to tell if a piece of content on a website (i.e., a blog post) is worth ranking. For example, if you write a great post about something newsworthy in your industry and it gets some shares on social networks, Google will rank the post high up in the search results for the posts main keywords for a few days. After a few days it will then drop in rank.

2) Links Still Count
Links are still the main ranking signal for Google. However low quality links such as generic directories, social bookmarking websites etc have zero value. Links however from blogs, newsworthy websites, industry websites, government websites etc are highly valued. Of course they are much harder to achieve than paying someone in a developing country to submit your website to 5,000 directories.

3) Social First, Links Second
SEO is actually pretty simple if you look at what Google is doing with the social signals for rankings. Produce a good piece of content, share it with your current audience by email, Twitter, Facebook and other social networks alike. If it’s good, they will share it. The people they share with will also share it. Google will reward you with high rankings for a few days.

Now you will get additional traffic from Google. If the content is really good, they will share it too and eventually it will pass by someone who has a blog, or is a journalist or is involved in an industry website. If they then link to it from their own website, whola! An organic editorial link which Google loves. If on the other hand the content is boring and no one shares it, then nothing will really happen.

So how does SEO work post Penguin?

• Create good content
• Make it easy to share
• Get in front of the right people
• Generate real links from real people
• Improve rankings

Yes that is a huge simplification, but it’s an easy way of understanding how it works. You don’t have to worry too much about “canonicalisation” or “301 redirects” or “keyword density”. This stuff really doesn’t matter if you are creating great content that solves people’s problems and is share worthy. However do keep an eye on what people have coined Google’s Author Rank signal.

About the Author

Daniel Duckworth is a Melbourne based digital marketing expert and operates a web design quotes comparison service which helps small businesses get a good deal from local Australian web designers.

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In fact, the opposite is true. When used together properly, email and social media marketing complement each other perfectly to help achieve your business goals.

Social media is great at generating exposure and building brand awareness. Just like email is excellent for lead nurturing and generating revenue. Bringing these two platforms together is easier than you think.

7 ways you can bring email & social together

1) Encourage subscribers to follow you by including social media links in your emails.
It’s not just enough to have a link in your email though. Be sure to actually “ask” people to connect with you and give them a reason to connect – say what’s in it for them.

2) Send dedicated email campaigns to invite subscribers to connect with you socially.
Include brief copy like “fan us on Facebook” and make it really clear what you’re asking subscribers to do. And for best results, offer an incentive to entice people to act.

3) Promote your emails to a wider audience using social media.
Post status updates on your social media pages each time you send an email newsletter. Provide a short overview of what the email is about and include a link to view your email online. Don’t forget to create excitement by telling people about the great stuff inside your email newsletter.

Post social media updates specifically asking people to subscribe to your email list. Include the link to your subscription form and don’t forget to give people a reason to subscribe. Tell them what they can expect to receive from you and how often.

4) Look for social media as inspiration for email content.
Listen to what people are saying on social media and use this as inspiration for content to include in your emails. This is a great way to ensure you’re sending email content that is relevant and interesting to your audience.

5) Cross promote exclusive deals across platforms.
Run competitions exclusive to email subscribers and promote them on your social networks (and vice versa). This is a great way to entice people towards connecting with you across multiple channels. Keep it easy for people to enter the competition by subscribing to your email list or joining your social network.

6) Make it easy to subscribe to your emails from your social media pages.
Make it easy for anyone viewing your social media pages to subscribe to your email list. In Facebook, include a custom tab for your email subscription form. In Twitter, include a link to your email subscription form in your profile. In your blog and website, embed your email subscription form at the top of the page.

7) Include “share with your network” (SWYN) links within your email.
Use button images as well as text asking people to share your content with their networks. Where appropriate use humour and incentives that encouraging people to share your content. Most importantly, ensure your content is “share worthy” and something people actually want to share. Test the placement of your SWYN links to find the best performing location in your email.

About the author:

Matthew Johnson is the EDM specialist at email marketing software company Vision6. His work with Vision6 helps to educate marketers and business owners on how to create, connect and convert using the power of email, SMS and social media marketing.

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As more traffic is driven to your site, you can entice many of them to subscribe to your mailing list or opt-in list. This is a list where website visitors agree to be sent promotional materials such as newsletters, catalogs and such that could keep them updated about your site or the niche of your site. These promotional materials are sent via e-mail to the members of the list in different time intervals.

When using e-mail as the media of your marketing and advertisements, you eliminate the need for high costs. Email is low cost and if you can manage to make your own promotional advertisements you can also save a bundle there. With an opt-in subscribers list, you are pretty sure that what you are sending out is received, viewed and read by the subscribers and not simply being deleted. They have signed up for service and have consented in receiving it.

This means that there are constant reminders to your subscribers about all your products and services as well as any promotions and special deals you have. There is also the chance that a subscriber can forwarded your newsletter to other potential customers as they tell their friends and families about you and your site.

Of course you should be also aware that a subscriber may unsubscribe when they feel that they are not getting what they want or expected. Make sure that they are satisfied with your opt-in marketing strategies and keep them excited in receiving your newsletters and catalogs. Here are some tips that can help you build a list of eager subscribers.

1) Interesting and fun

Make your promotional materials interesting and fun. Try to use a little creativity but not too over artsy. Build around what your product or service is about. For example; if you are selling car parts, put some pictures of what is new in the auto parts world, a new wing door that can fit any car and make it look like a Lamborghini.

2) Do your research

Try to research what people are looking for, this way, you stay one step ahead of your competition and you will be their bearer of new tidings. They will be eager to receive what you are sending them because they know you always have fresh and new things to share with them.

3) Good informative articles

Write good articles that can be informative but light at the same time. If your subscribers enjoy your articles, they will go to your site by clicking the links that you have inserted in your newsletter to read some more. You can provide articles that can connect to many people. Be diverse in your articles. Put something humorous, then put something informational, then put something that has both.

4) Create a E-book

Create and send an E-book to your customers about anything that is related to your business or site. Use your knowledge and expertise in the field you have chosen to help other people who are similarly interested. Offer this e-book for free. You can write about anything informational and helpful to your subscribers. For example; you can do manuals and guides in so many things. This e-book could be used as a reference for many people.

5) Add value – special promotions!

Add e-coupons in your newsletters or something that will help them avail to special discounts. Put a control number in your e-coupon so that they can only be used once. When people get discounts that can be found in your newsletters, they will be eager to receive your newsletter in anticipation of what you are promoting next.

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Your website is the hub of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like how they could if they were dealing with an offline company. Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a good design comes in. 

Imagine if you are running an offline company. Would you allow your salespersons to be dressed in shabby or casual clothes when they are dealing with your customers? By making your staff wear professionally, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.

Similarly, the same case is with your website. If your website is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute “quick fix”, you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care for quality.

On the opposite, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organized, focused and you really mean business.

On the other hand, you should also have anything related to your company well designed. From business cards to letterheads to promotional brochures, every little bit matters. This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business. Once again, think of the “salesperson dressed shabbily” analogy, and you will get my point.

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Your website is where your business resides — it’s like the headquarter of an offline company. Hence, it is important to practise good design principles to make sure your site reaches out to the maximum number of visitors and sells to as many people as possible. Consider these design practices before designing your next website:

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Clear Directions

Make sure you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu should be uncluttered and concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion.

Reduce Images

Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly and more often than not they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size.

Text Paragraphs

Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into seperate paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors from reading your content.

www.w3.org

Make sure your website complies to web standards at www.w3.org and make sure they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox and Opera, you will lose out on a lot of prospective visitors.

Scripting Languages

Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate data, not to create visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.

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Aside from ensuring that you have a great product to sell, and you have your company’s internal organization well taken care of, it would be time to get to the nitty gritty of things, generating traffic.If you already have a site and you want think that you’re not getting the traffic that you’re supposed to be getting, then its time to reconsider. If you are contending in these very competitive business, you should always be a step ahead of your competition, increasing your traffic flow should have been done starting yesterday. Timing is essential, that’s an old adage known to everyone. But with generating traffic, you should always be on your toes and be a day ahead of everyone. Never think of today and tomorrow as a starting point for making your site traffic laden, it should always have been yesterday.

To help you out in generating more traffic for your site, here are some seven surefire ways to increase your traffic starting from yesterday.

1) Invest in good advertising with search engines

Google’s Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture provide great advertising schemes that are very truly popular and assures great traffic. Although with this surefire way to increase your traffic would cost some money. While some would shy away from spending money to increase traffic, it is imperative in this case to do so because Adwords and Overture is the top surefire way to increase your traffic.

You could see for yourself the success this search engine advertising methods have reaped rewards for so many companies. Lots of site feature these advertising system and many have signed on to reap the benefits. Do not be left behind. Every penny is worth it with using Google and Yahoo’s advertising.

2) Exchange or Trade Links with other sites

With exchanging links with other sites, both of you will benefit from the efforts both of you do to enhance your sites traffic. When one site features another sites link, they could provide one another with the traffic one site generates. The efforts are doubly beneficial because it would seem like both of you are working to generate more traffic. The more links traded with more sites the more traffic could be expected.

3) Use Viral Marketing

Viral marketing allows you to spread the word about your company and product without any costs or if ever low costs only. This is a marketing method that can be quite sneaky; you can attach your company’s name, product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, entertaining game, an interesting article or a gossip or buzz. With this method, people get infected with the creativity and entertainment of the medium that they will pass it on to many people.

4)Make use of proper keywords or keyword phrases for your sites content

Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking in high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you.

5) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site

Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell car parts write press releases and articles about cars and car parts. Attach your sites description and services at the end of the article as well as the link.

6) Join forums and form online communities

Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When you found a good foundation for your site, people will trust you and your site and will pass on to many people their trust. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.

7) Lastly, Offer newsletters.

If many people know what you are about and your existence is shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can provide you with more traffic by recommendation. If you arouse the curiosity of your customers they would be pushed to help you with your traffic.

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- Logo Design
– Stationary Design

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