| Small business owners everywhere are wondering | | | | content and link building, they will put metrics in place to |
| how to create a Web site presence that will grow | | | | measure both the increase in website traffic, and to |
| their business most effectively. Two effective and | | | | measure conversions on your site. A good indicator |
| common ways that small business owners invest in | | | | that search engine traffic is good traffic is a reduction |
| their Web sites are search engine optimization (SEO) | | | | in your bounce rate for search engine traffic. Make |
| and social media marketing. The unfortunate side of | | | | sure that before you start your SEO effort you have |
| both of these marketing methods is that the average | | | | analytics in place on your site (such as Google |
| small business owner doesn't know exactly what | | | | Analytics, which is free and easy to use) and that |
| either of these efforts entail, and therefore, they find it | | | | you've collected benchmark data to compare your |
| hard to choose the right consultants and to track the | | | | new data to. |
| progress of the marketing effort. The intention of this | | | | Social Media Marketing is no less complicated, and |
| article is to help clear that up a bit. | | | | often goes hand in hand with SEO. It's impossible, |
| SEO is not really as complicated as it sounds. See, | | | | actually, for social media marketing done right not to |
| search engines such as Google, AOL, and MSN are in | | | | positively affect your search engines ranking. Social |
| the business of being the best search engine available | | | | media marketing is marketing your business (including |
| by providing the most relevant results to your search. | | | | your Web site) by using social media channels. Most |
| Simply put, they do that by spidering (also called | | | | people think of this as starting a Facebook page and a |
| crawling) each website to determine what the site's | | | | Twitter account, but there is much more to it than that. |
| content is about. They then store that information until | | | | The best social media marketing companies will help a |
| such time as a search is made, when they use the | | | | business develop a complete social media strategy, |
| information they've found to provide search engine | | | | centered around developing that company's unique |
| results for the user's query. Search engines spider | | | | and authentic voice in what is known as the "online |
| words, so the first rule of search engine optimization is | | | | conversation." |
| to add words on your Web site that you want the | | | | Instead of thinking of social media as a few places on |
| spiders to read and then return as results for your | | | | the web such as Facebook and Twitter, think of social |
| potential site visitors. | | | | media as anywhere your customers or potential |
| There are a lot of "tricks" to SEO, which is why many | | | | customers are conversing online (this is what is meant |
| SEO consultant companies charge tens of thousands | | | | by the "online conversation"). Social media efforts |
| of dollars to optimize your site for search engines for | | | | include monitoring the online conversation, giving your |
| you. Typically SEO companies optimize your existing | | | | company a voice in it, and tracking how this voice |
| content, they do not provide new content. In other | | | | impacts your business. |
| words, they make the written content you have on | | | | Some elements of social media marketing include |
| your Web site more readable by spiders and they | | | | article marketing, starting your own blog, developing a |
| know how to tell search engines more precisely what | | | | commenting strategy on other people's blogs, articles |
| each page of your Web site is about, through special | | | | and videos, as well as leveraging sites such as |
| language called "meta data." SEO companies also help | | | | Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to meet potential |
| your search engine rankings by building links to your | | | | customers. A good consultant for social media will not |
| site on the web and providing special code which | | | | just offer to set you up a Facebook Page or a |
| makes sure your site's message isn't diluted or that | | | | Twitter account and then leave you to fend for |
| spiders aren't being directed away from your site | | | | yourself. They will instead discuss your goals, research |
| inadvertently by resource links you've included to help | | | | your industry, develop your voice, create an overall |
| your readers. That's SEO in a very small nutshell. | | | | strategy and plan, help you implement your plan, and |
| A good consultant for SEO will not only create for you | | | | track your results long term. |
| a clear cut plan that includes both optimizing your | | | | |