Author Archive
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
Social Media is one of the most exciting aspects of SEO/SEM, I love it! This entry will just cover a few of the basics about Blogging and publishing. If you are not involved at least at some level, join us! We have several helpful topics on Blogging, Social Bookmarking and Social Media and will continue to follow it closely.
Social Networking and Social Media are powerful tools in your Internet Marketing, Brand Awareness and Public Relations strategies. This entry may be elementary for some and new for others but equally as important.
Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last 48 months or so, you know what a Blog is, you may know of a few highly visible blogs, and if you’re really with it, you own a Blog and update if frequently! Whether you own a business, handle PR in a corporate setting, hate this country, the elections, the war, meat eaters, the climate or republicans, the truth is, Blogging is like publishing your own newspaper from your home in your underwear. Its a great way to be heard regardless of what you write about!
“Freedom of speech and expression has never been so widly exercised by so many, so enhanced by technology, and so effective until the dawn of Social Media and all that it encompasses.”
To make this article relatively short and concise, if you are the owner of a business and you want to increase your public visibility, create multiple portals to your company and create open communication lines between your clients or potential clients; build a Blog, update it regularly, write useful and compelling content, and then promote it!
Where To Start Blogging:
1. Wordpress (Best Blogging Platform by far in my opinion)
2. Blogger
3. TypePad
These are just a few I would recommend. However, you can check out several, click this link to see how others rated various Blogging platforms. A lot of it is preference and usability but we think in terms of SEO with nearly everything and Wordpress has proven to be very good if not the best for SEO purposes. It seems to have a faster indexing time across the board than other Blogging platforms.
All right, sounds easy enough right? Well, the act of blogging is simple in its self but just like promoting anything else on the Web your Blog should be submitted to directories, optimized, and establish some authority before others will find it. Especially if its a stand-alone and not linked to your main website.
Social Media…how do you make the connections to your Blog and major Social Media sites and how is this going to help you?
Simply put, what ever you write on your Blog you are going to want to publish a snippet of each article and its URL and syndicate it across the web. Here is a great tool to help you do so…http://www.socialmarker.com. Simply select what articles you want to bookmark and publish on major sites and follow the interface instructions. You can select the “top sites” option to cut down on wasted effort.
This is time consuming at first, but once you get the hang of it you’ll love it and results can be very substantial.
Check back soon I’m going to continue to write about Social Media in greater detail. Maybe one article per site.
Have Fun!
Posted in Blogging, Social Media | No Comments »
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
Search Marketing Regulations
The search marketing industry, in large, doesn’t necessarily function according to a certain list of regulations or enforced standards. Sure if you are blatantly violating Google’s standards by spamming, cloaking, sneaky redirects or any other “black-hat” SEO method, watch out, there could be penalties!
But, on the home front, this industry is relatively new and evolving so quickly that there are no official “codes of conduct” being strictly enforced or regulated at this time. To implement any type of regulatory agency would call for a massive effort by many and could take a long time before any real results became evident.
However, SEO’s and others are under the shadow of the search engine giants, they set the standards and regulate to some extent, what takes place in the SEO world. Tick someone off at Google and good luck!
Do standards need to be implemented?
Here at Searching Solutions we hold a strong view that Search Marketing shouldn’t be a heavily regulated industry. Why? First of all, Searching Solutions is a “real” business that operates on core sets of business values which supersede any standards out there! Even if there were strong regulations out there, just like any other business there will always be those who violate them!
Furthermore, SEO and Internet Marketing is so vast, so intricate so much more like an art form than a practice, it would be extremely difficult to regulate. As a result, your market would become like a Government agency and take months to see results if strong standards were introduced.
How We Operate
Searching Solutions strives to win consumer trust and achieve real results. We do this by working directly with businesses; we get to know your business inside and out! We are locally based in Colorado and if at all feasible, we will come to you and meet face-to-face! That would be a little difficult for those based in India or elsewhere.
Our Credentials
Who can offer professional SEO credentials? As of now, nobody! Don’t be fooled. As a business, our goals are consumer trust, real results and satisfaction always! If we can’t achieve these we may as well shut the doors. We avoid “cookie cutter” methods because every business is different so don’t expect a “package deal” with us, you deserve a deeper strategy than that. In short, we base our degree of professionalism and credentials on real results! Check out our case studies and see for yourself!
Posted in Search Engine News, Searching Solutions | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 26th, 2008
The term Viral Marketing was coined by a Harvard Business School professor, Jeffrey F. Rayport, in a December 1996 article for Fast Company The Virus of Marketing.
More than 90% of consumers said they told at least one other person about a Web site when the original recommendation came from a friend, according to Jupiter Research
Advantages of Viral Marketing
1. Viral Marketing detours the cluttered mantra of traditional advertising. This allows marketers an advantage in more effectively reaching their audience.
2. Viral Marketing doesn’t require a product with a wow factor in order to raise awareness,
generate buzz, and kick-start peer-to-peer spread. Instead, the viral campaign’s communication agent is the element that needs a wow factor or element of interest .
3. Unlike traditional advertising viral is not an interruptive technique. Instead, viral campaigns work the Internet to deliver exposure via peer-to-peer endorsement. Viral campaigns, whether ultimately liked or disliked, are often welcomed by the receiver.The focus is on campaigns with material that consumers want to spend time interacting
with and spreading pro actively (MindComet Corporation, 2006).
Viral marketing is a term used often in the online community because news and information can spread so fast! This marketing phenomenon is similar to the spread of organic and/or computer viruses. Venues through which Viral Marketing information can spread: Social Networks like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Squidoo. Viral marketing takes on many forms like video clips, Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages.
The basic form of viral marketing isn’t very sustainable for the long-haul but is very effective in creating a “buzz” around a specific product, service or promotion.
How can Viral Marketing help your business?
You can leverage so many tools on the web to help generate a “Viral Marketing Buzz” around your business. Do you have a new product or service you want to promote but know were to start? Creating an explosive Viral Marketing campaign may provide the results you are looking for.
-Searching Solutions
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Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Being that Searching Solutions is still less than 6 months old, we are still learning alot about what companies look for in an internet marketing company. Everyone’s needs are a little bit different.
But one thing that we have universally found is that each company we talk to is really excited about the fact that we are local. There are so many faceless marketing and seo company’s out there, it can be overwhelming when trying to decide who to use. But one thing that can make that decision easier is knowing that there is someone that can work with you in person.
So, if you are in Colorado and are looking for an internet marketing company that can help with search engine optimization, pay per click management, and local brand awareness, let us know. We’re here to help and promise to give you the personal touch you’re looking for.
Posted in Searching Solutions | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
We’re excited to announce the launch of the Searching Solutions Blog! From here, we hope to provide you with great tips, insights and commentary about the world of blogging, Social Media & local SEO.
We love what we do, and we hope that this blog will be useful for you in your journey towards running a successful small business.
Please feel free to leave a comment anytime, and if you like what you’re reading, please subscribe to receive future blog posts delivered to you via email. Enjoy!
Sincerley,
Searching Solutions
Jay Clark ~ Justin Smith
Posted in Blogging, Searching Solutions | No Comments »
