Social Media Optimization (SMO) strategy tips: Marketing strategies to increase traffic to your content
It is no longer enough to have a site that is only optimized for the traditional search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. A search engine is defined as a software program that searches a database for specified keyword queries. Its objective is to output the results that contais or are related to the specified terms searched for. The search paradigm has shifted to other devices that are not bound by web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. Mobile devices, apps, social media and other content-delivery frameworks have extended online marketing as we know it. The decentralization of content has extended beyond traditional newspapers and search engines and moved on to other forms such as social media sites.
According to online trends and analysis website HitWise, Facebook surpassed Google Search as the most visited site on the web in March 2010. Google Search accounted for 7.03 percent of US Internet visits last week, compared to 7.07 percent for Facebook. Facebook is a clear example of the shift of search discovery into other areas where users hang out and interact with information. As the twitter phenomenon has shown, real-time search has become a force to be reckoned with and Google as well as Microsoft have taken notice. It is integral that content creators optimize their profiles, images, blogs, videos and other content on social neworks so that they can be easily located by the community members who search using the social network site's proprietary search engine.
An advantage of optimizing social media search is that it can help relevant link building and boost your main site's search engine ranking. The objective though is to embed content in areas where people gather to share information and initiate conversations about products, services and brands. By tapping into distribution channels other than Google and Bing, you diversify and expand upon the opportunities that the new dynamic Internet has to offer.
There are many tips and strategies for making sure that the content you create is optimized for distribution on the Internet as well as making it buzz-worthy and viral:
- Keyword List & Landing Pages: Create a keyword list of your main terms and add content relevant to those terms. Make sure the title headline is catchy and engages the reader. Attach a subtle call to action in your content and attach it to your value proposition.
- PDF & Document Files: Use your most important keywords in the title and headers of the document. Also make sure you insert relevant keywords and descriptions in the PDF meta data as well as the filename. Also post these files on Docstoc.
- Videos and Powerpoint Presentations: Make sure that you serve all videos on your site and attach a summary transcript of the content below the video. Use the main keywords in the page's title tag, meta data, video title, caption and filename. Also upload the video on Youtube an dother video-sharing sites and repeat all the tagging steps again. Do not forget to add a link back to the reference page where the main video is hosted on your site. Repeat these steps for Powerpoint and other presentations and post them on SlideShare and Docstoc.
- Images: Fill your image filenames, ALT tags, tags, captions and descriptions with your relevant keyword terms. Make sure you post your images in photo sites such as Flickr.
- Blogs and Press Releases: Use the relevant keywords in the title tag, headers, description and page copy content. Make sure you embed all media, including video and images, into the blogs and press release pages with keyword-rich filenames and content.
- Twitter and Facebook Status Updates: While these will not increase your ranking in search engines, there is a chance that your status updates can show up in Live Search and indexed twitter pages. If possible, use direct URLs with keywords and do not use URL shorteners.
- Create Keyword-Rich Profiles in Social Media Sites: Create social accounts with the target keywords selected and pay attention to the header and title of your profile. Facebook fan pages and Myspace, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles do very well getting indexed by Google.
- Use Sitemaps: Use Google XML sitemaps appropriately depending on application. Not only does Google offer regular site map integration, it also offers specialized site maps for news, video, search, geo as well as mobile.
- Build your Following: Your following in all social networks is a point of entry for both visitors and search engine spiders. For example, the more followers you have on Twitter, the quicker your page is indexed by search engines.
- Write Relevant Content which is worthy of ReTweeting and Sharing: The content created must be engaging enough that the reader would want to share it or re-tweet it to their own network of friends and followers. Content becomes viral when others want to spread it and they believe that by spreading, it will enhance their power in areas such as reputation, income, friendships or relationships. Viral messages are exponential in nature while word of mouth (WOM) have a tendency to fade out quickly.
- Pitch to the Social Influencers: Key blogger influencers such as Techcrunch and Mashable can also amplify your message. be sure that anything you submit to highly visible sites for press consideration are concise, personalized, related to their core audience and more importantly be a compelling story or product that they would want to cover. It also helps if it has not been covered extensively by other news sources and is exclusive.
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This has been coming for a while now, better to be a little bit ahead than behind.
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