Social content sharing is all the rage nowadays and Google wants a piece of it. Similar to the Facebook “like” and Twitter “tweet” buttons that have been popping up all over the web for the past couple years, Google has entered the fray with it’s “+1″ button. It’s all in an effort to make the internet more personalized and community-based, which means the people have the power. And the great thing about Google’s solution is that it could end up driving more search traffic to your website.

What is Google +1?

To give a brief overview of what Google’s +1 is, it’s essentially a way for web surfers to publicly say “I think this is worth checking out.” If a user +1′s your site, they’re endorsing it for their friends, family, and other contacts to see. Google says it’s like giving something your virtual stamp of approval, which seems fitting.

How does +1 work?

In order to use Google +1, a user has to have a free Google profile and be logged into their account. When they search for something on Google and find content they like, they can just click the +1 button next to the search result. Now, when one of that user’s contacts searches for something similar, there will be an annotation under that site saying “John Smith +1′d this”. Naturally, seeing that a friend liked a website would make you more likely to click on it too.

How can +1 help my website?

Google has only just begun rolling out +1 to the masses, so it’s still in the growing stages. But as time goes on, there’s a great opportunity to increase the social buzz around your site. The first step is to add Google’s +1 button to every important page on your website. It should be placed in an easy-to-find location, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the page’s actual content. This makes it easy for Google’s users to browse your site and +1 it at their convenience.

If your site has seen some +1 action and received a decent number of endorsements, Google will take notice. It tells Google your site is reputable with quality content that its users will find both relevant and useful. As a result, it will be more likely to place you higher in its search engine rankings. Higher rankings means more exposure, which brings more clicks, which brings more leads. Needless to say, there’s quite a snowball effect that can take place.

There’s much more to Google +1, but these are the basics that will help you determine how to best integrate it into your site’s online marketing strategy. Time will tell just how effective it is for users and site owners in the long run, but getting onboard early could be very beneficial in such a competitive marketplace.

Album’s blog has mentioned a few times “keyword-rich” content.  Hopefully these Questions & Answers will help clarify how you can achieve this!

What does it mean to have “keyword-rich” content? Search engines like Google and Yahoo have “crawlers” that search websites looking for the ones that have relevant content.  Relevance is measured by the number of keywords.  The more relevant content you have, the higher your website is ranked.

How do you formulate copy using keywords? Start out with a list of 15-20 keywords to use in the text.  Try to incorporate each of these keywords at least once in your text.  Use different versions of keywords in your text, for example: race cars, racing cars, race car gear, how to race a car, etc.

Can’t I just fill the page with keywords? No!  Don’t be spammy.  Use a variety of keywords, not overly repeating a keyword.  Make sure your copy makes sense.  They say your keywords should be about 3- 5% of your text.

How else can this help my ranking? Another important aspect is to use these keywords as inbound links.  Create hyperlinks within your text using your keywords that link to relevant information within your website.

How often do I need to update my content? Search engines also look for websites that are regularly updated.  Keep the copy on your website fresh.  Periodically update your keyword list.  Every few months, research your keywords again to be sure that they are still current and appropriate.

YouTube is another useful site that can be very beneficial to your company’s online marketing strategy. But, instead of just having your video floating around in the YouTube galaxy, nowhere to be seen, get it seen!  Here are a few hints to get your YouTube video seen throughout cyberspace:

1. When posting your video, write a content-rich (use your keywords!) description.  Use your top one or two keywords to help describe the video.
2. Submit your website to 10 different video sites using a free tool called TubeMogul.  Send the link to your original YouTube video and use those top keywords in a description.
3. Submit relevant and keyword-rich articles of the video to all the different article directories on the internet.  Make sure that your article points back to your original YouTube video and use your best keywords in any description.  There are multiple programs available that help you submit to various directories.
4. Lastly, free services like OnlyWire, ShareThis, or AddThis or let you submit to all the different social sites at once.

Once you’ve effectively broadcast your YouTube video to the various websites and directories, you will have more links to your video than any other video.  Your video should quickly rise to the top of YouTube’s search as well as Google’s for your top keywords.

Although Yahoo’s switch to Microsoft’s Bing isn’t set to take place until 2010, here are some helpful hints as you begin to focus your SEO on Bing as well as Google.

Take at look at how to optimize for Bing:

1) Focus on the most popular categories for your key search terms. You should use Bing categories in your keywords and in your website’s navigation.
2) Having multiple domains is very important.  Building smaller sites off of your main site and then connecting is key for Bing.

3) Bing favors websites with over 300 words of text on their home page.  Make sure this content is keyword rich.

4) Outbound links are important.  Have relevant outgoing links that will add to the overall content of your website.

5) Bing favors websites with updated information over blogs.  New up-to-date websites are much better than low traffic blogs.

6) META Tags.  As with all SEO the page titles and other META tags will be important.  Include the primary subject and keywords on the page.  “Bing seems to follow this more stringently than other web sites.”

7) Flash ranks better on Bing than on Google.  Sites that have heavy Flash should emphasize their SEO on Bing because it will be seen better, although you should still continue SEO efforts in Google.   Both Bing and Google work indirectly off one another.  So over time, Bing can help Flash sites perform better in Google.

8 ) Don’t overuse keywords in your content and also don’t use irrelevant keywords to increase a page’s keyword density.

9) Avoid using hidden text links or your site will easily be blacklisted or ignored. Also, avoid overused links to also keep you from being banned.

10) Enable “MSNBot” onto your website and submit all interior pages, as it may not automatically crawl sub-pages.

11) Keep updated and fresh content on your site at all times.

Special thanks to Moosylvania for the tips.

1. Overdoing it – One of the most common ways to abuse sites like Twitter is by overdoing it.  Too many useless posts can be obnoxious and drive customers away.
2. Putting all your eggs in one basket – Some businesses are too wrapped up in Twittering for a few minutes a day, they have now ignored doing SEO or writing useful articles for their site. Don’t forget about the other important online marketing tools.  A well-balanced online marketing campaign including SEO, PPC, SEM, and Social Media are all vital.
3. Spamming – Do not fill up people’s social networking pages with unsolicited ads promoting everything ever created.  Its doing more harm than good posting bogus information about how consumers can “Get Rich Fast.”
4. Irrelevant information – They say that 40% of all Twitter posts are “useless babble.”  I think that is much lower than the actual amount of useless information.  They say that 10% of your social media should be used for sales and 90% should be used for posting relevant, usable information.
5. Repetitive Posts – Some people use programs to help them post tweets throughout the day.  But using this can be to your demise if misused.  Posts that are the same day to day or week to week are obnoxious and people notice.  Instead of people deeming your posts as relevant and constructive information, they will delete you.

Click here to read article.

You could consider this question like the chicken & the egg controversy… and you’ll get a different answer from different internet experts. 

I am often amazed at some of the websites that Google ranks #1. The design is elementary and the content is irrelevant or somewhat spammy.  These websites all have a very high bounce rate.  Why? …because their website looks terrible.  Nobody will take a tacky, unprofessional site seriously – even if it is ranked #1 in Google.

Obviously, a website is nothing unless it is aesthetically pleasing.    BUT you can’t get too carried away with the appearance. 

A few years ago, people got carried away with the design aspect and created entire websites in flash.  Search engines don’t read flash.  So any content that was on a flash site was irrelevant.  The people who paid for an outrageously expensive, beautiful site were scratching their heads wondering why there was no traffic. This pretty website is nothing but a façade and the company will end up paying a fortune in Pay-Per-Click because their website is no where to be seen in the organic search.

So what is the answer? What comes first?  The truth is, they go hand in hand.  A website needs to be constructed with SEO tactics in mind.  The extra time and money spent to do initial SEO set-up (keyword research, META tag writing and keyword-rich content) will go a long way.

This is why I believe so strongly in working with companies that cover the whole online spectrum – from branding to web design to SEO to social media.  I don’t want to work for companies that only do SEO or that only do web design.  Both need to be mended together from the beginning, otherwise the website will only be partially successful.  COMPLETE online marketing campaigns, will make the most successful websites on the internet.

At the beginning of this month Microsoft introduced their new search engine – Bing. Microsoft is not using Bing as an attempt to dethrone Google but to offer a more competitive product than Live Search as well as offer a search engine that may give more informative results.

Microsoft says that the search engine is designed to help users “make better decisions.”
The new search engine differs from others because it “delivers answers, not web pages.”  It is designed to help people make purchasing decisions, make travel plans, research health conditions, or find businesses online.  It helps searchers find what Bing believes to be relevant information to their searches.

But what does this mean for online marketing?

As far as SEO is concerned, Bing will present sites that offer quality information, not just sites that have a specific keyword.  “For example, a search for “Britney Spears” may organize by the subcategories “biography,” “videos,” “music” and “concert information.”  This means SEO strategies will adjust in order to optimize Web content for select sub categories, rather than select keywords only.”

Bing takes a valid position to Internet marketing.  As many of us have now noticed, the Internet is now flooded with web pages.  It may be good to have a less diluted search engine available.

Try out Bing for yourself and let us know your opinion.

If you have been blowing off a good SEO and Pay Per Click campaign, this eye tracking study is a powerful reminder of just how important it is.

You’ll notice the eye activity is in a triangle shape starting in at the top left hand corner.  So, search results located in that “golden triangle” will be most seen (and clicked).  There is a dramatic change in eye scan and clicking behavior as users look “below the fold” or to the scrolling point.

This isn’t just useful for your online searches, but for your web designer.  Your most important content (logo, links, information) should be in the “golden triangle.”

Read about this study here.

I was a skeptic when I heard that this guy was rapping about SEO and web design, but I have to say the dude knows what he is saying. So you if you want valuable design, web standards and SEO lessons, look no further: the SEO rapper. Or search him on youtube.

Just a quote from him to leave you wanting more: “don’t use italics, use emphasis, don’t use bold, please use strong, cause if you use bold it’s old and wrong”.