“How much blog traffic does your company’s blog receive?”

A blog is an easy way to provide information to current customers and potential customers. It can also:

• Increase your company’s page rank.
• Help your company gain media attention.
• Position your company as the ‘expert’ or ‘go-to’ business within your industry.
• Increase sales and profits.
• Assist you with keeping on top of customers concerns, needs, and wants.

Most customers expect businesses to have a blog on their website or a link to a blog. If your company doesn’t have one, it’s time to ask, “Why not?” Taking advantage of blogging is a cost effective marketing tool. Used properly, it can increase company sales and profits.

Boost Your Blog Traffic Today With Three Simple Steps

Client's Blog Busted by Millions of Visitors Photo by John Evans-Stock Exchange Visit www.thetippingpoint.co.uk

Provide killer content for your target audience.

Customers and potential customers want quick, valuable information that will help them solve whatever problem(s) they have. Give them what they want!

After you’ve polled or surveyed your customers, think about blog topics.

Example … If your company is a graphic and web design firm targeting small businesses, you could have blog posts on the following:

• How to get your small business noticed with a logo that stands out.
• How color psychology can boost web traffic.
• How a redesign of your blog can boost blog traffic.

The next step is to write headlines that stop readers’ in their tracks.

Using the above ‘graphic and web design company’ example above, possible headlines for the blog post topics are:

Company X’s Logo on Billboard Stops Rush Hour Traffic

Company X’s Website Makeover Attracts Celebrity Shoppers

Company X Big Fat Blog Traffic Results in 20 Million Hits

Use short and simple sentences.

Use bold headings and bullet points.

Don’t use industry jargon if your audience won’t understand it.

Tip: Think of writing blog posts like writing screenplays. There’s a beginning (Act I, introduction; plot point or big event), middle (Act II, conflict; arc of the story; midpoint), and end (Act III, the resolution).

Remember, blogging isn’t about your company. It’s about helping your customers solve whatever problems they need solving. Blogging is also a good sales and marketing tool.

Optimize content with SEO.

Search engine optimization or SEO can be both time consuming and a pain in the neck. You want to optimize your blog posts. But on the other hand, you want to provide valuable content to readers. The good news is you can do both. However, I suggest putting more emphasis on content.

You can research keywords using Google AdWords Keyword Tool or another program to find the ‘best’ keywords/phrases for your blog. Select keywords/phrases and test them in blog posts. An “A/B” testing is a good way to analyze traffic to see which blog posts received the most blog traffic.

In addition to using Google Analytics, check out HitsLink. The company provides you with in-depth analysis of your blog/website. Reports are easy to download. In my opinion, HitsLink doesn’t seem as cumbersome to use as Google Analytics.

Find the right ‘tone and voice’ for your blog.

Keep your target audience in mind when you think about tone and voice. Tone is the ‘author’s attitude (or mood) towards a subject. Voice is the personality, point of view, or style of writing. Examples of voice are:

• Funny
• Upbeat
• Serious
• Trendy
• Dark
• Snarky
• Matter-of-fact

It’s usually recommended that blog posts have a conversational, friendly voice. However, there’s a difference if your blog’s audience is for those in finance organizations vs. parents of toddlers.

Conduct research on what your target audience is reading. See what others are writing in your industry. Test blog posts to see which ones receive the most comments and traffic.

Extra Blog Traffic Tips 

1. Who is your target audience? Are they chefs or stay-at-home moms? If you don’t know ‘who’ your target audience is you can’t provide them with awesome content. This is where newer businesses stumble. They don’t know ‘who’ their target market is.

2. What problems are you solving? What problems do your customers need solving? How do you find out? Take a poll or survey using Survey Monkey, a provider of free online survey solutions. SurveyMonkey offers customers more features with one of their paid subscription plans.

3. Once you know ‘who’ your target audience is build a relationship with them. Or, continue to develop the relationship with a successful blog that provides killer content. Hook visitors with brilliant content, and they’ll come back for more.

Warning! If you use these three simple steps to increase blog traffic, your website could be busted overnight. You have a webmaster in-house, right?

Has your website experienced blog traffic overload? Share.

Related articles

• 7 Dust-Busting Ways to Clean and Refresh Your Blog (savvy-writer.com)
• 4 Ways to Tell if You’re Getting the Right Visitors to Your Business Blog (contentmarketinginstitute.com)
• 7 Lessons I learned from Increasing My Search Engine Traffic by 200% in 6 Months (dailyblogtips.com)

Related posts:

1. 7 Dust-Busting Ways to Clean and Refresh Your Blog Having a blog on your company’s website or linked to...
2. 5 Blog Post Tips to Increase Web Traffic Your company may have incorporated a blog on its website...
3. Is Your Company Afraid of Blog and Social Media Commitment? When I’m approached by business owners who want to start...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Email marketing can be tricky business if you use words that scream SPAM.

If you don’t want your emails to be deleted, don’t use spam words in your subject lines.

email marketing (Photo credit: opportplanet)

This marketing strategy can save you time and money in the long run.

Below is a list of 50 email marketing spam words you don’t want to use.

If you use spam words, your email blasts and newsletters will end up in the “Land of Email Marketing Misfits,” known as the Spam folder.

50 Email Marketing Words That Scream SPAM

1. Free or F R E E
2. Buy
3. As seen on
4. Urgent!
5. Make money
6. Make money online
7. Make money fast
8. Extra income
9. Extra cash
10. Be your own boss
11. Affordable
12. Quote
13. No hidden fees
14. No hidden cost
15. Get out of debt
16. Get paid
17. Hello
18. Dear (fill-in-the-blank)
19. Increase sales
20. Increase traffic
21. Network marketing
22. Multi-level marketing
23. Fast
24. Easy
25. Lose weight
26. Weight loss
27. Thousands
28. No experience
29. Off shore
30. Limited time
31. Limited time only!
32. Act now!
33. Offer expires
34. Offer expires soon
35. Don’t wait
36. Order today
37. Order now
38. Bonus
39. Please read
40. Guaranteed
41. Risk free
42. No obligation
43. Free quote
44. Free gift
45. Compare today
46. Compare
47. Risk free
48. Trial offer
49. Free sample
50. Please read

Most email marketing services such as Constant Contact give users the opportunity to check their email blast and newsletter for spam.

A low returns indicates little or no spam. A high return means your email blast or newsletter contains spam words. Ouch!

Before you send out your next email blast or newsletter, make sure it’s not filled with spam words.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes: They’re probably bombarded with emails on a daily basis. They have information overload! Give them a reason NOT to delete, or even worse, put your emails in the spam folder.

Once you end up in the spam folder, you’ll stay there forever. You don’t want your company’s email marketing materials banished to the “Land of Email Marketing Misfits,” also known as the ‘Spam’ folder. Do you?

What spam words do you leave out? Share.

Related email marketing articles

• Email Marketing: Is Free a Powerful or Spam Marketing Term? (savvy-writer.com)
• Email Insider Summit: Email deliverability panel recap (blogs.constantcontact.com)
• Email Marketing Helps Constant Contact Customers See Higher Revenues (blogs.constantcontact.com)

Related posts:

1. Email Marketing: Is Free a Powerful or Spam Marketing Term? There’s a debate as to whether or not ‘free’ is...
2. How to Create Marketing Emails That Get Opened Are your email marketing campaigns opened all or most of...
3. Tips to Getting Email Campaigns and Newsletters Opened How many subscribers open your email campaigns and newsletters? If...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Having a blog on your company’s website or linked to your website is a cost effective online marketing tool. It’s important to provide content that will attract visitors, keep them interested, and convert them into customers. Place social media icons on your blog to make sharing easier. Have a conversation on Facebook and Twitter to show followers and fans that your company is interested in what they have to say. Show your care and concern.

Below you’ll find 7 dust-busting techniques that will clean your blog and make it shine again.

How to Clean and Refresh Your Company’s Blog 

Redesign it.

The design implemented three years ago could be out-of-date today. It’s important to stay on top of the latest design trends. Pay attention to the color scheme. A bold color scheme could work for an entertainment business, but not for your medical practice.

Rewrite blog content.

Rewrite or hire a freelance writer/blogger to rewrite old content. This is a great content strategy to breathe new life into your blog. Perhaps, the content is outdated or didn’t make a good first impression when it was originally posted. Perhaps, blog posts weren’t optimized with keywords/phrases.

Rewrites could dramatically increase web traffic.

Tip: A headline on a blog post is just as important as a headline on a print article. You still have to ‘hook’ readers.

Ask questions.

Asking questions at the end of blog posts is a web traffic building strategy that most freelance writers and bloggers use. A question shows visitors that you want to know what they think — your company’s interested in having and maintaining a conversation with them.

Revise the writing style and tone.

What’s the tone of the current blog content? Style and tone can affect blog traffic. This is why it’s important to know ‘who’ the target audience is. For example, if your target audience is marketing directors, the content should be targeted to this audience by incorporating industry jargon and lingo. However, if your target audience is the ‘everyday’ consumer, avoid using industry terms. Your message will become muddled and lost. Customers will gravitate to your competitors’ content because it’s easy to understand.

Change the structure of blog posts.

There are many ways to structure blog posts. The most common way is:

• Headline
• Bullet headline
• Information

However, you don’t have to follow this pattern. Be bold and try something new such as:

• Headline
• Quote
• Information
• Headline
• Quote
• Information

Tips

• Keep sentences short and to the point.
• Use bold headlines and bullet points.
• When it comes to links, use a different color to stand out from the crowd.

Test different structures to see which ones receive the most ‘tweets’ and ‘likes.’ One thing that never changes is that web content must be compelling and interesting.

Post consistently.

How fresh is your company’s blog content? Is it posted consistently? You don’t have to publish a blog post every day; however, choose a schedule that works for your company. Perhaps, you’ll post twice a week or twice a month. Whatever you do, be consistent.

Try new angles.

Types of posts such as “How To” and “Lists” work because they’re fast and easy to read. But, you may want to ‘shake’ things up by publishing a controversial post here and there. If you disagree with your competitors, say so. If you disagree with industry trends, write about it (or have your freelance writer/blogger, write about it). There’s no harm in voicing your opinions. It’s a great way to jump start a conversation.

Use these blog ‘dust busting’ techniques to wipe the slate clean on your company’s blog. Experiment with different types of posts from “How To” to “Tips.” What works? What doesn’t work? Analyze the results to find out which posts had the most visitors and comments. Remember to keep your target market in mind when posting web content. Once your company discovers a strategy that works, stick with it. But don’t ignore new trends either. Stay on top of the ever changing world of blogging.

What are you doing to prevent your blog from collecting dust? Share.

Related articles

• Corporate Blogging on the Decline? Don’t Read Too Much Into It (mediaemerging.com)
• 5 Blog Post Tips to Increase Web Traffic (savvy-writer.com)
• Whiteboard Friday – Corporate Blogging Tips (seomoz.org)
• Building Better Business Blogs (5/7): To Be Continued?? (zemanta.com)

Related posts:

1. 5 Blog Post Tips to Increase Web Traffic Your company may have incorporated a blog on its website...
2. Is Your Company Afraid of Blog and Social Media Commitment? When I’m approached by business owners who want to start...
3. Ridiculously Easy SEO Habits to Start Consider this Amandah’s Freelance Writer’s SEO guide to optimizing your...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

You may be shocked to know that some companies and entrepreneurs buy their Twitter followers. Can you believe it? Talk about being fake and unnatural! Why would anyone by followers? Well, it gives the ‘illusion’ of having a strong Twitter following.

Did you know that followers could be spam accounts? What happens when clients or customers start to follow some of the accounts that follow your company only to find out they’re spam? They probably won’t be too impressed with your company for too long.

You can increase your Twitter followers the natural and organic way by following the steps below. You don’t need artificial Twitter followers!

How to Gain Twitter Followers the Natural, Organic Way Instead of Buying Them

Image via CrunchBase

Upload your company’s logo.

Please don’t use the ‘egg’ which is the default image Twitter uses. You don’t want your company to be labeled as a ‘spam’ account. If this happens, you risk not having any followers.

Uploading your company’s logo is easy to do. Adjust the size to Twitter’s max size of 700k.

An eye-catching bio attracts followers.

Tell everyone on Twitter about your company in 160 characters or less. If you’re not sure what to write, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• What makes your company unique?
• What sets your company apart from other companies within your industry?
• How do your employees contribute to the success of your company and its customers?
• What do you offer that other companies don’t?

Write or hire a freelance writer to write a compelling bio that ‘shows’ everyone on Twitter ‘why’ they should follow your company. Don’t forget to include links to your company blog, other web pages, or other social media accounts.

Tip: Hold a contest and ‘tweet’ about it. People love to enter contests. More importantly, they love to win free stuff!

Use Twitter on a daily basis.

How much time do you spend on Twitter? Many social media experts and gurus will advise you to hire a community manager or social media manager who’ll spend 30+ hours per week on social media. Before you do this, answer the following questions:

• How large is your company in terms of sales and revenues?
• How many employees do you have?
• How large is your client, consumer, or customer base?
• What is the vision for growth for the next three to five years?
• Where do you see the company in five years?

If your company is as large as Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, etc., you may want to hire a social media manager (or outsource) who’ll work 30+ hours per week handling your social media networks.

Small business owners, consider hiring a part-time employee to handle your social media efforts. Spending 15 minutes per day on Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, etc. can increase your web presence and traffic. You can adjust the amount of (+ or -) time needed to be spent as your social media networks grow over a period of time.

Engaging with clients and customers shows that you’re doing everything possible to interact with them; you’re taking an interest in them. They’re not just a sale to you.

Share valuable content that will be retweeted.

Having a blog could work for your company. If you’re not interested in having a blog, consider posting free articles or giving away eBooks, white papers, tutorial videos, power point presentations, etc. Just give something away that readers will find valuable.

Tip: Retweet your followers’ posts share their content as well.

Don’t be afraid to add “Please Retweet” at the end of a tweet because studies have shown that ‘tweets’ without it receive less retweets. There’s no harm in asking your followers to share what you’ve posted.

Upload pictures.

Don’t be afraid to ‘tweet’s pictures from your company picnic or charitable event. This is a great way to show how your company ‘thanks’ employees for their hard work. It’s also a good way to show how your company and employees support a charitable organization within the community.

If your company started its own not-for-profit as a way to give back to the community, Twitter is smart way to ‘spread’ the word about it. Ask for the community’s support in terms of volunteering and or donating money. This is a good way to show how your company cares about the community and everyone in it.

Remember, sometimes a picture is worth more than 1,000 words!

Have patience.

You could grow your Twitter followers overnight if you buy them. However, it’s always best to grow followers the natural, organic way. Think about the following question:

What’s more important, quality or quantity?

You could buy Twitter followers and suddenly have 25,000, 50,000, 100,000, 250,000, etc. followers. However, what good does it do if you’re not converting them or receiving leads and referrals? If you want authentic followers, be patient and grow your Twitter followers over time.

These are some tips on how your company can gain Twitter followers the natural and organic way. No preservatives added!

How has your company increased its Twitter followers? Share.

“Discover the Secrets of a Freelance Writer!” Subscribe to Amandah Tayler Blackwell’s Savvy-Writer by Email

Related articles

• Turning Brand Advocates Into Superfans with High-Fives (socialmediatoday.com)
• Twitter Launches Self-Serve Advertising for Small Businesses (mashable.com/2012/03/26/twitter-small-businesses)

Related posts:

1. Freelance Writing Clients Discover How to Use Twitter … Confusion Ends   Are you confused on how to effectively use Twitter...
2. The Secret to Twitter Retweets … Choose Characters Wisely Question: I’d like to increase the amount of ‘retweets’ on...
3. Bloggers and Authors Who K.I.T. Have Loyal Followers Bloggers and Authors, According to Elizabeth Marshall, co-author of The...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Your company may have incorporated a blog on its website or have a blog linked to your company’s website. Your company probably uses social media, hoping it will increase your web traffic, sales, and revenues. Unfortunately, if a blog post (or other web content) isn’t compelling or you don’t have enough posts, your blog will remain stagnant.

Follow the five blog post tips below to increase web traffic.

5 Blog Post Tips to Increase Web Traffic 

Content-Content Interaction (Formal) (Photo credit: jrhode)

Select the right primary and secondary keywords/phrases.

You’ve probably heard this a million times already, but it begs repeating. Selecting and optimizing the ‘right’ primary and secondary keywords/phrases for your blog posts can increase web traffic.

To find out which keywords/phrases work for your company, test them by using the “A/B Testing” method.

Select a couple of keywords/phrases and use them within pages and Google AdWords (if you advertise on the web) in addition to blog posts.

Look at the number of clicks and impressions for the keywords/phrases. Which keywords/phrases receive the most clicks and impressions? What are the conversion rates? Knowing this information is useful when your choose keywords/phrases.

Once you have your primary and secondary keywords/phrases, hire a freelance writer, content manager, or social media manager to write your company’s web content, ‘tweets’ and Facebook status updates.

Optimizing ‘tweets’ and Facebook status updates with your keywords/phrases can increase web traffic. Try it today!

Write a blog post in a conversational tone.

Writing for the web is different than writing for print. A blog post should be written using simple and short sentences. If you don’t already use the Flesch-Kincaid method to analyze your blog posts, you may want to consider it.

Flesch-Kincaid Score 

90-100 : Very Easy

80-89 : Easy

70-79 : Fairly Easy

60-69 : Standard

50-59 : Fairly Difficult

30-49 : Difficult

0-29 : Very Confusing

It’s important to write web content that has a score of at least 60 or higher. The higher the number means the web content is easy to read.

Most journalists write newspaper and magazine articles that score a 70 and above. They use simple language to get their point across.

Pay attention to the word count of a blog post.

Most freelance bloggers and freelance writers will tell you a blog post should be 300 words to 700 words. However, I’ve read many blog posts that are over 700 words. Heck! I write blog posts that exceed 700 words.

Tip: About Pages, Bios, and other pages are usually 500 words.

Base the word count on your audience.

Ask a question at the end of a blog post.

If you want to start a conversation, ask a question at the end of a blog post. This is a good way to entice visitors to post comments which begins a dialogue between you and your target market.

You could automate an email response such as, “Thank you for reading our blog. We appreciate it!” However, you may want to answer a few emails personally or have your social media or content manager respond.

Tip: Ask a question or take a poll on your social media networks.

Speaking of responding … Make sure your content manger or social media manager responds to comments. Readers who make thoughtful comments want to know if someone from the company is paying attention to them.

If you receive too many comments (100 or more) you could always close comments.

Bold headlines get attention.

Writing headlines takes patience and practice.  A bold headline will stop readers’ in their tracks — they’ll have to read your web content.

Most copywriters will spend at least 30 minutes or one hour writing the perfect headline. This may seem outrageous, but it really isn’t.

Think about it. How much do you think the writers at top selling magazines earn for writing headlines? I won’t keep you in suspense — they earn a boatload of money! It is worth it to pay writers a high salary if a magazine receives a high ROI.

It’s all about ROI (return on investment). If your company wants to increase their ROI, it’s worth it to pay a copywriter top dollar for writing headlines.

These are some blog post tips that can increase your company’s blog web traffic.

Make sure your freelance writer or staff writer keeps the company’s target audience in mind when writing a blog post.

Writing a blog post is different from writing an editorial article. Most of the time a blog post will be shorter than a 1,000 word print article. However, there are exceptions to the rule. This is why it’s important to know your target audience. Write for them!

What is your biggest challenge with blog posts? Share.

 Related articles

• A Freelance Writer Gets Results, Increases Profitability (savvy-writer.com)
• Marketing 101 for Freelance Writers #13: How Social Media Really Works (makealivingwriting.com)

Related posts:

1. Is Your Company Afraid of Blog and Social Media Commitment? When I’m approached by business owners who want to start...
2. Tips to Make Your Blog an Internet Sensation Sometimes you need help finding topics to blog about. Thanks...
3. Ridiculously Easy SEO Habits to Start Consider this Amandah’s Freelance Writer’s SEO guide to optimizing your...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Effective communication is important for both print and web copy writing. The most important aspect of writing is creating an eye-catching headline. A freelance writer who’s skilled in writing for the web understands that it’s important to write headlines that get noticed. It’s also important to optimize a headline for SEO purposes. Below are a freelance writer’s ‘secrets’ to writing a headlines for the web that will grab the attention of readers.

How a Freelance Writer Writes Headlines for the Web 

oDesk Freelancer-RJ Nieto (Photo credit: thumbbook)

Reads tabloid magazines

A freelance writer knows that tabloid magazines have the best headlines which is why they’ll read them. Are you shocked?

Tabloids grab a reader’s attention and don’t let go. This is why they sell! The headlines ‘hook’ a reader and beckons them to read the articles.

Effective communication such as headline that grab’s your target audience’s attention is important when you write for the web.

It’s important to ‘optimize’ a headline with one or two keywords/phrases. The key is to place the primary keyword in front and the secondary keyword at the end. Or, you could just use the primary keyword.

Here’s an example:

Web Content Writers Crash SEO Companies Server for the Second Time

The primary keyword/phrase is ‘Web Content Writers’ and the secondary keyword/phrase is ‘SEO Companies.’

A freelance writer reads Cosmopolitan 

The publishers of Cosmopolitan magazine understand the importance of effective communication. Their writers create headlines that make readers want to read the articles.

They may even shock them. Talk about effective communication!

Some freelance writers have been known to subscribe to Cosmopolitan and other magazines, only to rip-off the front covers and toss the magazines. This is how a freelance writer builds a ‘headline reference’ file. It’s good for those days when a writer needs help or inspiration to write a headline.

Reads blogs

A good freelance writer reads other blogs. They pay attention to a bloggers writing style to see what attracts readers to a blog.

Effective communication is highly important when a freelance writer writes for the web. Readers want quick information that’s helpful.

In order to grab their attention, a write must create a headline that makes readers stop what they’re doing. Of course, converting them to a customer is another goal as well.

Continues their freelance writing education

A good freelance writer continues their freelance writing education by doing the following:

• Attending writer’s conferences and workshops
• Enrolling in writing classes
• Reading books about freelance writing
• Networking with other freelance writers
• Enrolling in communication classes such as public speaking

Specialize in Freelance writing

You may be surprised (or not) to discover a freelance writer began their writing career as a journalist. It’s not unusual for a newspaper or magazine writer to transition into a freelance writing career.

They’re used to meeting or turning in work ahead of time (deadlines increase, it happens) and understand the importance of writing for a targeted audience. A ‘good’ freelance writer can adjust their writing style to ‘fit’ your company’s audience. Of course, they can write headlines that get noticed!

Now you know the secrets a freelance writer uses to write headlines for web content.

What challenges does your company face when it comes to writing headlines? Share.

Related articles

• A Freelance Writer Gets Results, Increases Profitability (savvy-writer.com)
• SEO Made Easy: Freelance Writers I like Yoast and You Will Too (savvywritingcareers.com)

Related posts:

1. Why Rebecca aka Savvy-Writer Became a Freelance Writer Question: Rebecca, why did you become a freelance writer? What’s...
2. Tips to Writing an eBook That Leads to Sales … Hire a Freelance/Ghost Writer Every writer begins a book or eBook differently. Sometimes, I...
3. Ridiculously Easy SEO Habits to Start Consider this Amandah’s Freelance Writer’s SEO guide to optimizing your...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Most businesses owners hire SEO companies to optimize their websites. There’s nothing wrong with this if the SEO companies do their job. Think about the following questions for a moment:

• What happens if the SEO company goes out of business? Who will take care of your web optimization?
• What if Black Hat SEO techniques are being used? Do you even know what ‘Black Hat SEO’ means? If you don’t, your company’s website could be in danger of being taken out of search engines.
• If you have an ‘in-house’ SEO manager, what happens if they quit? Are your employees crossed-trained? Could someone pick up the work?

It would behoove business owners, especially small business owners, to know something about search engine optimization. Otherwise, your page ranking and web stats could decrease faster than you could have ever imagined.

Benefits of Knowing and Understanding Best SEO Practices

What really is Search Engine Optimization? (Photo credit: Go Local Search)

Understanding SEO is a good way to make sure your SEO company is doing their job.

If you don’t understand SEO, how will you know if your website is being optimized? If you don’t receive reports on a regular basis, how do you know if any optimization work was completed for a specific amount of time? You don’t have to know everything about web optimization, but it’s a good idea to know how to view your websites source code so you can check to see if your keywords were entered.

If your in-house SEO person quits, who does the work?

Sadly, most employees aren’t crossed trained. If your SEO person quits, your website won’t be optimized for too long. Who will write the blog posts? Who will update the web pages? It’s a good idea to cross train employees, especially if you own a small business. If you don’t want to learn SEO then one of your other employees should know how to do it.

Competitors in Your Industry Know and Understand SEO.

Let’s face it; technology moves at a faster speed than it ever did. If you don’t keep your skills up-to-date, you can find yourself going out of business. Customers expect businesses to be on social media websites because it’s a fast and easy way for them to connect. They also expect that a business is optimizing their website with keywords/phrases that will help them find what they’re looking for in a quicker manner.

What happens if your SEO company is using Black Hat SEO techniques? How would you know?

If you aren’t familiar with SEO and how it works, you could be in a lot of trouble with Google and other search engines. This means your SEO company is using unethical techniques to help your company gain higher search rankings. Unfortunately, search engines look for these unsavory practices and will ban your company from displaying in their results. Black Hat SEO techniques include:

• Keyword stuffing blog posts and web pages.
• Buying the wrong types of links (you should avoid this anyway).
• Invisible text — putting white text on a white background.
• Doorway pages are basically ‘fake’ pages.

You can save time and money.

If you understand search engine optimization (SEO), you could do the work yourself and save thousands of dollars each year. The drawback is that keeping up with the optimization can become time consuming.

It doesn’t hurt to know something about best SEO practices, especially if you hire an outside firm to take care of all of your search engine optimization. Remember, it’s important to use White Hat SEO versus Black Hat SEO techniques. If you know and understand how optimization works, you’ll be able to tell straightaway if a firm is using unethical practices.

There’s nothing wrong with becoming familiar with how web optimization works. It will only help your company in the long run. Technologies change overnight. What worked yesterday, may not work today. Updating your skills is a good way to ensure your company doesn’t lag behind other companies within your industry.

What’s holding you back from learning SEO? Share.

Related articles

• How and Why SEOs Need to Change(stateofsearch.com)Rankings: Find the Best SEO Company(www.topseos.com)

Related posts:

1. Ridiculously Easy SEO Habits to Start Consider this Amandah’s Freelance Writer’s SEO guide to optimizing your...
2. Meet Black Hat SEO, White Hat SEO’s Evil Twin You may or may not be aware of Black Hat...
3. My 7 Best Keyword Research Tips Ever Finding the right keywords for your website can be a...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If your company hasn’t taken advantage of social media, you could be missing out on the opportunity to increase business results and profitability. Social networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, and others are free to use. When they’re used properly, they can drive traffic to your website, convert visitors to customers, and increase your sales and revenue. Let’s find out why social media is important and how it can help grow your business.

Social Media is an Important Marketing Tool

Social Media Week 2012 SP (Photo credit: Fora do Eixo)

Connect and effectively communicate with customers.

Your customers use social media. They’re on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Some of them can be found on StumleUpon and other social networking sites.

The bottom line is that your company wants to be where your customers are.

Here’s an Example:

Bank of America uses social media to communicate and assist their customers with any questions they may have.

Customers with a specific question can connect with Bank of America at @BofA_Help. This is a good way for Bank of America to track how many customers use this feature.

Your industry has a social media presence.

Google your industry and other businesses in your industry, chances are they have a social media presence. See what they’re doing and find out how you can set yourself a part from them. Don’t get left behind!

Social networking sites will continue to develop.

Let’s face it; other social networking sites will be created and the current ones will evolve over time. Choose the best ones that work for your company. The ‘big three’ are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Tip: Social networking sites will come and go. Pay attention to social networking trends and use social networking sites that have staying power.

FYI: The newest social networking site is Pinterest. However, make sure you READ ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS because there’s been chatter about the legalities of using Pinterest.

Social Media: What Your Company Can Do Now

Get employees involved in social networking.

Employees may resist the idea of social networking and social media; however, it would be in there best interest to get behind your company’s online marketing strategy.

Mashable’s social media demographics INFOGRAPHIC clearly shows who’s using social networking sites and where they can be found. It’s no surprise that most people use Facebook.

Embrace social networking, it can be fun.

It’s amazing that your company can connect with customers on a national, international, or global scale. Have fun with social media — keep the tone light and conversational.

Display social media icons on your website.

Make sure icons are visible on your website. Don’t make visitors hunt for them. Place icons at the top and bottom of your website. If you have a blog, include a ‘share’ button on posts.

Be active.

Hire a social media manager and or ask a freelance writer to ‘tweet’ and post Facebook status updates (manage your social networking).

FYI: Most social media managers put 30+ hours into social media.

Automating social media sites could appear mechanical and cold. Break it up by having blog posts automatically post to Twitter and Facebook. But engage in ‘real’ conversations too.

How has social media increased your business results and profitability? Share.

Related articles

• 2 Tips on Using Social Media to Get Found Online (morecustomers.wordpress.com)
• Steps to Achieving Social Media ROI (socialmediatoday.com)

Related posts:

1. Social Media and SEO: Do Your Employees Struggle with Change? Social media and SEO are strategies to increase business and...
2. 7 Points to Look for on Social Media Sites When Hiring a Freelance Writer Let’s face it; social media and the internet can be...
3. Is Your Company Afraid of Blog and Social Media Commitment? When I’m approached by business owners who want to start...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

As a freelance writer, I work with clients in various industries. A month ago, I started working with a client in the travel industry. I’m thrilled because not only do I get to write quality content such as editorial articles and blog posts, I get to teach everyone about SEO and social media. I enjoy teaching and have taught classes such as Blogging & SEO at a recreation center in Downtown Chandler in Arizona. Below are ways a freelance writer can help grow your business, and perhaps, teach you and your employees’ new skills such as social media and social networking.

A Freelance Writer Increases Business Results and Profitability

Amandah Blackwell, Freelance Writer and Ghost Writer

1. A freelance writer is objective. Since a freelance writer isn’t a part of your organization, they’ll have an objective viewpoint of your projects whereas employees could be too emotionally attached to certain company projects.

2. A freelance writer has a high accountability — writes quality content. A freelance writer does not get paid unless a project is completed Most freelancers charge 1/2 or 1/3 up front; however, they won’t receive the final payment until the work is completed.

On the other hand, employees get paid either way. In the end, organizations could pay a lot more, especially if an employee quits or is fired. Plus, there are costs such as PTO, health care, continuing education, etc.

3. Experience. A freelance writer has a wealth of experience writing quality content. They could also have experience with graphic and web design, social media, SEO, and other professional skills. Your freelance writer can help you increase business results and profitability in the short and long run.

Tip #1: A freelance writer is probably familiar with social media and SEO along with providing quality content such as blog posts, articles, eBooks, white papers, newsletter content, and more. You may be surprised how many skills they possess.

4. Adds value. A professional freelance writer understands the meaning of value. Not only will they write quality content and eye-catching headlines, they can provide suggestions for blog posts and articles. They could rewrite web content if necessary.

A freelance writer could assist with keyword/phrase research to make sure the ‘right’ keywords are being used.

Tip #2: Social media is great way to promote a company’s services and products. Ask a freelance writer to write ‘tweet’s and Facebook status updates to increase web traffic and sales. They could manage all of your social media accounts.

5. Can fill-in for staff writers. A freelance writer can fill-in when staff writers go on vacation or a leave of absence. This way the remaining staff writers won’t feel that much pressure to pick up extra work.

Have you hired a freelance writer? How are they adding value to your company? Share. 

Related articles

• SEO Made Easy: Freelance Writers I like Yoast and You Will Too (savvywritingcareers.com)
• 9 Questions You MUST Ask Before Hiring a Freelance Blogger (hubspot.com)

Related posts:

1. 7 Points to Look for on Social Media Sites When Hiring a Freelance Writer Let’s face it; social media and the internet can be...
2. Why Rebecca aka Savvy-Writer Became a Freelance Writer Question: Rebecca, why did you become a freelance writer? What’s...
3. Freelance Writers Have More Free Time Thanks to Social Bookmarking Software How much time do you spend on social bookmarking for...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Social media and SEO are strategies to increase business and profitability. What happens if your employees don’t embrace these latest technologies? Employees may believe social media and SEO is a waste of time compared to the ‘old’ ways of increasing business, profits, and customer satisfaction. How do you get them to support social media and SEO strategies? Find out below and get everyone in the company on board with these 21st century strategies.

Social Media and SEO: How to Get Employees to Support New Strategies

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Explain the benefits of social media and SEO. Employees may not understand the importance and benefits of being on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Schedule a meeting and explain how implementing these latest strategies will benefit everyone in the long run.

• A dialogue can be created between a company and its customers on Facebook. It’s a good way to address any concerns they may have. Plus, starting a conversation builds interest in your company.
• LinkedIn is a fantastic way to connect with other professionals within your industry. Who knows, you may find opportunities to collaborate.
• Twitter is a great way to share your blog posts, eBooks, articles, and other helpful content. You can also share videos too!

Social media and SEO are here to stay. Like it or not, these technologies aren’t going away anytime soon. It would behoove employees to embrace them; otherwise, they could be left behind.

Social networking increases business and profitability. The key to social networking is to establish and build relationships first. Employees can use this tool to find out the problems that ‘potential’ customers have and then offer assistance to solve them.

Tip #1: Develop and build relationships through social networking. Ask for business (or referrals) when you’re confident business relationships have been built on a solid foundation.

SEO helps a company’s ranking in search engines. Companies use SEO strategies to gain organic web traffic. If your company uses a SEO company, schedule a meeting with them and your employees. Once employees understand ‘why’ SEO is important, they’ll be able to embrace it.

Social media is great for introverts. If some of your employees are introverted, let them manage one of your social media accounts. There’s no face-to-face interaction on social media websites — it’s all internet based.

Tip #2: Introverted employees can overcome their ‘fear’ by getting used to communicating with clients, customers, vendors, etc. Before you know it, they’ll be preparing and giving presentations, attending trade shows, and setting up client meetings.

Social networking can be fun. The internet allows us to communicate with people all over the world. Who knows, your company could gain new business nationally and internationally through the use of social media.

Social media (social networking) and SEO are strategies that help companies increase their web traffic, business, and profitability.

Employees may be hesitant to embrace these technologies for many reasons such as fear of the unknown, fear of losing their jobs, fear they may not be able to ‘grasp’ the knowledge, etc. The obvious theme is fear.

Ease your employees’ fears by informing them that companies use social media and SEO in addition to other strategies/tools such as offline and online marketing, branding, positioning, etc. to increase business activities. Everyone will benefit when the latest tools are implemented.

Are your employees struggling with SEO and social media? Share.

Subscribe in a reader

Related articles to Social Media and SEO

• Is Your Company Afraid of Blog and Social Media Commitment? (savvy-writer.com)
• Remember when social media marketing meant making a phone call? (marketing.yell.com)
• Can social media tools help to strengthen relationships? (marketing.yell.com)

Related posts:

1. Is Your Company Afraid of Blog and Social Media Commitment? When I’m approached by business owners who want to start...
2. 7 Points to Look for on Social Media Sites When Hiring a Freelance Writer Let’s face it; social media and the internet can be...
3. Freelance Writers Have More Free Time Thanks to Social Bookmarking Software How much time do you spend on social bookmarking for...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.