Social Media Murdered SEO!

Has social media killed SEO?

Hmmm...interesting question because you see all these SEO companies out there, probably in the dozens of thousands now, all vying for their particular piece of the search engine optimization pie.

Well, just to make sure we are all on the same page here while analyzing the question, let's look at what these SEO companies actually do. Generally speaking, they help their clients achieve better search engine result page (SERP) rankings over time according to the relevant keywords under consideration. For example, these SEO gurus will make a Google search for "auto mechanic in Santa Monica" pop up on the first page of Google, perhaps as high up as the #1 spot, for a given URL. Awesome, huh?! Well, maybe not.

Let's briefly look at HOW they achieve these results WITHOUT going into all the technical Web speak they love to throw out at their clients. Great SERPs happen with solid external SEO efforts. Among other things, one of the major external SEO factors involves creating strong, permanent, relevant backlinks. When Google magically indexes and crawls through your website, it's algorithms LOVE to see these wonderful backlinks. These links inform Google that your site may just have something that everyone else needs to see, giving it a surefire increase in rankings for specific keywords.

So getting back to the initial question, "Has social media killed SEO?" By utlizing the most popular social media channels, implementing a solid strategy and utilizing some great new tools (applications) while applying good, fundamental SEO tactics, social media may not actually be killing SEO efforts completely, but the need for strong SEO results can increasingly be obtained through your own social media processes without the need for an SEO "guru" or company.

To learn more about some of the social media tools I use or just pick my brain in general about all this fun social media stuff, feel free to shoot me an email anytime.

Tim Wagner
Web Strategist & Social Media Expert
Google "Tim Dallas SEO"
info@TimothyDWagner.com

Dallas SEO & Social Media - It's Almost Cheating!

A Dallas SEO and social media guru friend of mine is exceptional at something he calls "perceived popularity." It's not rocket science and it's definitely not new to the search engine optimization (SEO) or social media worlds. Yet, if you know what you are doing, it can be HUGELY successful for your clients.

So what is it? Well, it's simply a paid inclusion campaign that drives a set amount of traffic to your landing URL. Easy right? Exactly!

Say you have a client who sells widgets in Dallas. You simply get your landing page(s) ready to go, add any affiiliate links (more on affiliate marketing soon!) or Google Adsense, then turn on your mass traffic campaign, driving huge amounts of traffic to the site. Of course, you need to be wary of some common sense issues too when diving into these campaisgns. For instance, you don't want to drive (again, pay for) 10 million video viewers or page hits if you are selling an extremely niche-market widget because people just won't believe it. They will know that it's been hit with a bunch a bots, which is meaningless traffic.

You need to find some really good traffic source companies as they have different methodologies. As I just referenced above, some companies will only use bots to establish your taffic. These are terrible and you should avoid them like the plaque. These can also get you into SEO trouble if you are not careful as Google can dock your ranking. However, some that I use simply redirect visitors from niche, expired domains so this traffic generally is more useful and focused. This type of traffic is typically a little more money than a bot simply because the quality is much higher.

So start digging around for some solid traffic companies (you can email me for the ones I use), tag all your pages, images or videos for proper search engine optimization (SEO), then watch the traffic come in.

To quote my friend, it can be your own ATM machine, especially when comined with strong affiliate marketing efforts.

Best,
Timothy Wagner
Dallas SEO and Social Media Expert

The Power of Social Media in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Efforts!

Recently, I had a client who needed SOME sort of Web exposure. They were not running any real search engine marketing (SEM), social media, integrated media or search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns. I educated them somewhat ont he potential power of social media with an example.

We were set up to meet on Thursday so 2 days prior I had started a simple Twitter profile for them. After doing a little SEM and SEO research on their company and competitors, I plugged in and tagged all their top 10 keywords into the Twitter profile. Within about 15 hours, they were showing up #3 on Google where they were approximately 5 millionth ranked before. They were impressed and I told them that this was basically the tip of the iceberg since they were ultimately planning on branding globally, which can lend to multiple social media routes per each local brand. The cross linking and search engine optimization (SEO) potential in this type of large scale campaign is truly staggering. Surely they will soon surpass all their competition and attain the global branding and awareness they have been needing.

Here is the image of their ranking...

Social Media = Power to Build In-Bound Links Easily!

You can use social media to build up your in-bound links easily. The great way to utilize this viral platform is to make and post videos (even if they are nothing more than simple slideshows). The KEY here is to allow your viral videos to help your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. You can do this by making sure you post all your videos to the top social networking and media websites. However, a huge factor you must not forget is to properly tag your videos, describe your content, links and seriously think about your video titles so they are relevant to you website (landing page) content, audience and SEO work.

Then go back and key an eye on your analytics to watch your traffic and trending numbers after you launch these. You can also check your in-bound links to make sure they are increasing with new social media traffic sources. : )

Social media can be an easy and very effective tool for SEO.

Best,
Tim Wagner
Web 2.0 Strategist and Digital Marketing Expert
Dallas, Fort Worth, TX
www.timothydwagner.com

Microsites are Good Friends of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Microsites are phenomenal for SEO linking building. So whart are these "microsite?" Simply put, they are just small (usually), secondary Web sites that are utilized to drive branding, digital exposur and traffic for a product or service.

I have a client that we are doing this with now. He owns a limo and personal driver service (www.MyPrivate Driver.com) and has a great website. We are now creating a secondary microsite to establish some new marketing channels for a specific service from his parent company. This will help with search engine optimization (SEO) significantly from link-building and also providing another avenue for keywords and tagging of course. You can set up additional analytics to this site as well and track your marketing progress and conversions.

Implement your microsite today and drive significant traffic to your parent site.

Happy micrositing!
Tim Wagner
Web 2.0 Design, SEO, SEM, Social Media Expert
www.TimothyDWagner.com

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tip of the Week

Recently an SEO guru friend of mine told me about a little trick he discovered that is particularly useful especially in Google's search engine with respect to search engine optimization (SEO).

Here is the tasty little SEO nugget:

Optimization SEO Tip: Using an underscore ("_") is the same as using NO space when it's crawled by Google. You should instead use a hyphen ("-") or period (".") instead for your keywords in your title and header tags.

Google's tricky but if you keep up with the latest SEO trends, you will be go to go and your Web clients will thank you. : )

Cheers,
Tim Wagner
Web 2.0 Design, SEO, SEM, Social Media Expert!
www.TimothyDWagner.com

Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Good Bad or Ugly?

Is SEO Good or Bad? @ Yahoo! Video

Search Engine Optimization (or SEO for short) is generally a very good thing. Just as there are white hat hackers and black hat hackers, there can also be black and white SEO's.

http://www.timothydwagner.com/
Tim Wagner - Dallas Fort Worth SEO, SEM, Social Media, Web 2.0 Strategist
info@timothydwagner.com