Posted By Amanda Collins on July 2, 2010

Sometimes we forget that not everyone knows the same things we do – or maybe that’s just me. Recently, while sitting down for a one-on-one with a web designer, we were talking about the benefits of great content in boosting SEO. I was telling him about how he should be blogging on a regular basis to add more content to his site, and that he should follow up with notices on social media about his blogs.

“Can I just lift blogs from other people if I give them credit?”

It’s a good question—with an easy answer. Ideally, you should contact the writer and ask for permission. Short of that, giving full credit to the author on your blog, along with a link to the original post, is sufficient.

However, the question about cross-posting brought up another topic of SEO: commenting on others’ blogs. If you run a Google alert on certain keywords significant to your business (résumé, job search, etc.), you will learn of all kinds of blogs from colleagues. What a great way to make connections and drive traffic to your site by adding supportive, thought-provoking comments to those blogs!

Determine who the industry and thought leaders are in your profession. Follow them. Comment on what they have to say. Readers will link back to your site if you offer noteworthy comments that capture their attention and provide information. It’s a simple, effective trick to improve your SEO and continue to position yourself as an expert in your field.

Category: Business Development, seo | No Comments »
Tags: building relationships, Business Development

Posted By Amanda Collins on March 10, 2010

Content. Of all the SEO buzz words, few are as important as good content. Obviously, it’s not a one-shot, simple fix to get your site on the first page of Google, and you need links, the right keywords, etc. But content is king in the online world. Google LOVES fresh content. That’s why WordPress is so popular as a Web site content management system (CMS). Within just a few minutes of posting a new blog on my (WordPress) site, Google has picked it up. Every blog on your site acts as another page, and the more pages your site has, the more dynamic Google recognizes it to be.

Aside from just the SEO components – which are all important – fresh and engaging content draws and keeps potential customers on your site. That doesn’t mean you need to drone on and on to get readers; in fact, in our “Twitter” society, most Web surfers are looking to find the information they want FAST. They also want to feel as if they know the person behind the brand and have a commonality. Humor can be a great way to do that.

Combine content and links by guest blogging on someone else’s site or writing articles hosted elsewhere. Then you’ll gain exposure across a wider audience while directing those readers back to your site through links. You can also post your press releases on various Internet sites to drive the same kind of traffic.

Make it a practice to write something at least once a week, whether on your site or elsewhere. You’ll find that not only does it create a better online presence, but it also positions you as an expert in your field, which typically translates to more clients.

Category: Business Development, seo | No Comments »
Tags: online marketing, search engine optimization, seo, Web content

Posted By Amanda Collins on March 9, 2010

Lately I’ve been attending a bunch of social media training events, and time and again the topic of Google Alerts has surfaced. Of course, I’ve been running alerts on myself for a while now, mostly because I’m a little narcissistic and like to know what people are saying about me. As usual when I go to those kinds of things, I’m amazed at the “Huh?” looks I see around the room. Really? People aren’t running Google Alerts on themselves? If you’re one of those folks, here are just a few reasons you should be doing this.

Whether you’re a business owner, job seeker, or just average Joe Citizen, you want to manage your brand and your reputation. You can run an alert on just about anything: your name, your company name, your competitors’ names, a keyword for your industry; the sky’s the limit. You can have the alerts come “as they happen” or digested, depending on your need to know. Since WordPress and Google have a symbiotic relationship, when I post a blog, I receive a notification within 10 minutes, so it can happen pretty quickly.

If you know what people are saying about you, you can comment back and, if it’s negative, you can do immediate crisis management. I’m always amazed where I come up in searches. Sometimes people quote my blog and never ask, so I didn’t realize. Of course, I’m not the only Amanda Collins in the world, so I see what my namesakes are doing as well.

It’s pretty simple to set up, really. Go to Google Alerts and put in your parameters. Remember that if you want to track an exact phrase, you have to put it in quotation marks (“”). If you want to track a keyword, you can use the results as fodder in your social media communications or cut parts into your blog.

Keep in mind that the name of the game is communications and relationships, so while you’re definitely out there managing your brand, share some of the information you find with your network and you’ll win in two ways.

Category: Business Development, Communications, reputation management, seo | No Comments »
Tags: brand management, google alerts, reputation management