Motori di ricerca e Social Media Marketing, due mondi che si incrociano sempre di più

L'inbound marketing è al centro di una interessante evoluzione. Storicamente, la ricerca (search) è stata una delle principali fonti di traffico e contatti per le aziende che sfruttano il marketing online. La ricerca, e i motori di ricerca, sono ancora una fonte enorme di potenziali clienti, ma lentamente, i social media stanno progressivamente aumentando in importanza come piattaforma di marketing. La distinzione importante da fare è che la ricerca e il sociale non sono le forze in competizione. Invece, questi due aspetti dell'inbound marketing possono lavorare insieme per amplificare i risultati l'uno dell'altro.


Risolvere lo stesso problema
La chiave per comprendere che ricerca e social media marketing devono lavorare insieme è quello di pensare al problema che devono risolvere entrambi ovvero la scoperta di informazioni. Le persone usano Google per trovare una risposta a una domanda. Altre persone usano i social media per scoprire le risposte alle domande che non hanno ancora pensato. Tuttavia, le differenze tra i motori di ricerca e le piattaforme di social media tendono a ridursi sempre di più. Per esempio, Facebook fa della ricerca in rete una delle sue caratteristiche principali. Dall'altra parte, Google ha profili e +1 in uno sforzo per essere più social. In ambito marketing, come si possono integrare i nostri sforzi in entrambe le piattaforme?
Qui di seguito sette suggerimenti per iniziare ad integrare al meglio i due mondi e renderli sempre più compatibili e vicini.


7 Ways to Integrate Search Engine and Social Media Marketing
1. Social Sharing Buttons on Your Website - It may seem simple, but search engines like Google are starting to use social media sharing data to influence search rankings. As a marketer, it is critically important to have social media sharing buttons on your blog and website to encourage visitors to share content in social media. These buttons will not only help to increase traffic from social media but will also play an important role today and in the future for ranking positions in search engines.
2. Integrated Keyword Strategy - As I mentioned earlier, the line between search engines and social media platforms is blurring. Take the keyword strategy you are using for your website and apply it to your social media engagement when appropriate. This doesn't mean cramming tweets full of keywords. Instead, be aware of how you are wording social media messages. By incorporating keywords into social media content, you can increase the reach of your messages.
3. Include Links in Social Profiles - The links in social media messages such as tweets and Facebook status updates are traditionally no-follow links. This means they don't pass any SEO authority to the site they're linking to. While this is starting to change, it is important to understand that the URL in the actual bio of a social media accountis a follow link. Keep this in mind, and make sure you are taking advantage of these extra links.
4. Incorporate Links Into Video and Presentation Content - Some of the most powerful social media platforms are those that facilitate content sharing, such as YouTube for video and SlideShare for presentations. When sharing content on these types of networks, be sure to share links to related blog posts or other content on your website. Yes, this will increase traffic to your website, but it will also help build new inbound links. When someone writes a blog post about your content, it is likely they will also include a link from the presentation, simply because it is the "easy" thing to do.
5. Optimize Social Profiles - Think of social media profile pages as extensions of your website. In the same way that you would optimize website pages for page titles and keywords, audit your social media profiles to ensure they mirror the search engine optimization strategy of your website.
6. Build Links and Social Media Reach - Search engine optimization has long been about inbound links to your website. While inbound links are still really important, a secondary metric for marketers looking to increase search traffic should be social media reach. As we talked about earlier, social media data is becoming a factor in search engine rankings. In order to get more people to share your content in social media, you need to increase the number of fans or followers of your account. By doing this through quality content creation and engagement, you will not only build social media reach but also inbound links.
7. Establish New Relationships - The web is now a social communications channel. Similar to sales, relationships are huge for driving inbound links and social media attention. Building relationships using social media can open opportunities for guest blog posts and other link-building opportunities.

What other tips would you add to this list?

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Fonte: HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog di Kipp Bodnar

Photo Credit: Jeffrey Beall

Google AdWords. Guida semplice per preparare la nostra prima campagna PPC

Partiamo dall'inizio. Google è il principale motore di ricerca del web, inutile girarci intorno. Grazie ad una media di 2 miliardi di ricerche al giorno certamente il nostro potenziale nuovo cliente, così come quello più affezionato, potrebbero essere lì a vedere se abbiamo qualche novità esaltante da proporgli.

Ma noi siamo in grado di veicolarli nel modo giusto verso la nostra azienda e i nostri prodotti? Il motore di ricerca ci insegna che "a domanda precisa, risposta esatta" equivalente al successo per noi, ovvero contatti e/o acquisto del nostro prodotto, e alla soddisfazione del nostro cliente perché ha trovato in modo semplice e veloce ciò che cercava questo grazie agli sforzi per una valida ottimizzazione SEO.

Lo step successivo, per ottimizzare e migliorare ulteriormente, è certamente quello di utilizzare i Google AdWords, sempre in tandem con quanto fatto in ambito SEO precedentemente, ma questo passo porta con sé quel pizzico di ansia dovuto alla novità e al come districarsi al meglio in tutti i passaggi intermedi fino alla creazione della nostra prima campagna PPC.

La guida che troverete, seguendo il link a fine paragrafo, è fatta per newbie al limite dell'essere dummie, ma anche per esperti navigati con la voglia di verificare le proprie conoscenze. La bellezza del sapere è anche nel confronto di idee e suggerimenti perché nella vita non si conosce mai abbastanza e, per chi come me aspira a migliorarsi costantemente, avere la possibilità di conoscere pensieri nuovi è un profondo arricchimento.

Il post è in inglese, la fonte è Hubspot Blog e l'autrice è Amanda Sibley mentre questo è il link al post

La check list del perfetto SEO...

...ovvero come non perdersi quando si deve riprendere, rilevare oppure si riceve un account da ex colleghi, agenzie o terze parti. Per non perdersi, in assenza di informazioni chiare e precise, ecco un elenco di cose da guardare per non avere strane sorprese. Buona lettura.

The 20-Point SEO Account Takeover Checklist

What should you do if you are stepping into a role as the new “SEO Manager” of a website?

This is a question you could ask yourself either as an in-house employee at a company, an agency taking over an account from another agency, or moving into the role from one account to another within your agency.

Truth be told, I imagine that if you are at an agency, and simply taking over an account from someone else, much of the account transition will go smoothly, so you may not need to do as complete a discovery as I am suggesting below.

Think of this checklist as a way to get up to speed as quickly as possible if your predecessor did not leave a very clear audit trail/documentation. Or, perhaps you are the first person to take on the SEO Manager role at your company?

The SEO Account Takeover Checklist

This checklist is NOT in order of priority, but is numbered for usability.

Yes, some tasks will be more time-sensitive than others, and I will attempt to make a note of these as I go along. It is worthwhile to say right here that you shouldimmediately look at how links are being created to your site, and halt any link  building efforts that appear to be poor-quality, abusive, against search engine stated guidelines, etc.  At least for the time being, until you get a handle on the situation.

1. Pull Together Your Organic Keyword Targets.Get the list of the keywords that have been targeted for SEO.  While “rankings are dead“, and I am not a fan of “rank chasing”, bite the bullet and check the keyword rankings for your target keywords. You do need to know where you are starting.
2. Access Website Analytics. Get your hands on the data!!  This is an absolute must, and perhaps one of the first steps you should take. Examine where your traffic is coming from (all sources, not just search), which keywords are converting, review the most-visited pages, look at 18-month trends (to look for seasonality and cyclicality), and generally dig into the data.
3. Re-Do Keyword Research. Don’t blindly trust what you’ve been told are the target keywords for organic SEO! You absolutely must have a deep understanding of the keyword space that your business lives in. There is no substitute for doing your own keyword research. Period.
4. PPC Data. Get access to as much Pay Per Click (PPC) data as you can from existing advertising programs that are being run for your site. Get a feel for the keywords that are being bid on, the impressions being generated, the clicks to the site, and which keywords are converting best.
5. Webmaster Tools. Get access to, and log into your Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools accounts. Look to see if the XML sitemaps are uploaded, fresh, and not showing any page crawl errors. If you find that a Webmaster account has not already been established, get on it! [...]

Per continuare a leggere fai click sul link / To continue reading click the link

Fonte / Source: Andy Komack per Search Engine Land

I "ranking factors" da guardare nel 2011

SEOMoz ha da poco pubblicato la 2011 Ranking Factors Guide, che è il riferimento essenziale per i marketer per conoscere al meglio il loro mondo in rete. Tenuto conto che l'intero rapporto è molto grande, di seguito troverete alcuni dei punti principali, i più importanti per chi legge. Buona lettura.


3 SEO Ranking Factors To Watch in 2011

SEOMoz has just published their 2011 Ranking Factors Guide, which is the essential reference for search marketers to learn about the new or changing factors shaping their world. While the entire report is very large, I've pulled out some of the most important details to our readers, based on the questions and discussions that I see on a daily basis from HubSpot customers and fans. If you're interested in reading more of the report or looking at their raw data, you can find it on SEOMoz's site here. The overview page alone contains some great insights from a survey of some of the top search engine optimization experts today.

Trend Number One: Exact-Match Keyword Domains Going Away

SEOMoz calls out something specifically that has been a particular thorn in the side of many marketers: Exact-match keyword domain names. If you've never heard that term before, that means domain names that match the exact keyword phrase they want to rank for, such as "www.boston-barber-shop.com" for the phrase "Boston Barber Shop". These used to be an incredibly powerful way to rank for specific keywords, but their value is dropping quickly. Last year, exact-match .com domains had a .38 correlation with higher rankings, which is very strong. This year, they are down to .22 correlation, and the feedback from individual optimizers is much more negative. Lindsay Wassell provided the comment, "Exact match domains, while still highly effective today are beginning to wane in power." There is still some value to that exact-match domain that you might be using, but the value given by that is beginning to shrink and it will only go further downhill. As with all things, as people got better about buying domains up or trying to game the system with exact match domains, Google has turned down the value of them.

Takeaway: If you're on an exact match domain today for a generic phrase, make sure that you're doing other activities that will support the natural ranking of your site so that you don't lose your rankings. If you're not on one, don't sweat it- This just means your competition is losing a trick.

The next two trends have a lot to do with both what Google and Bing have been saying for the last few months, and the opinions of what search engine optimization experts are seeing in the wild: How people use your site matters almost as much as what's on your site. Usage data, social media sharing, and more is important to understanding how you will rank in search engines. Below is a chart from the SEOMoz survey, of the factors that SEOs believe will increase the most in the next year in importance for search rankings.

Source: SEOmoz Ranking Factors Report

Per continuare a leggere l'articolo fai click sul link / To continue reading the post click the link


Fonte: SEOmoz via Brian Whalley per Hobspot Blog