Content Based SEO

Article Marketing is a Key Component of Content Based SEO and Internet Marketing.

Articles are being written by the thousands to create inbound links to websites; thus increasing organic ranking. The quality of some of these articles is appalling. Many are being written by “writers” whose first language is not even English. I’ve seen grammar mistakes, spelling mistakes, and just plain awful writing. Even articles written by writers based in the United States are being published online with content that would make my high school English teacher scream with disgust.

Quantity of Articles should not be at the Expense of Quality

The increase in the quantity of articles for internet marketing is often at the expense of quality. Writers rush to get their package of articles completed often ignoring the basics of good article writing. Keywords are slapped into content at inappropriate places. A well written article uses keywords in flowing content that begs the reader to want more. That’s the kind of article where you want your company to have its name. Do not settle for anything less.

Inbound Links are not the only Reason for Article Marketing

Although inbound links play a part in organic ranking it is not the only reason for your business to take advantage of Article Marketing. Your business needs to be the authority on whatever product or service you are marketing. Do you want the articles that point to your website to be worthless pieces of junk? No, no, and, no! Chances are that someone searching for your business online is going to see some of your articles. How embarrassing to find articles that appear to be written by a third grader.

Image is Everything

Your online image is often the first glimpse that people see before contacting your business. Your image needs to ensure that you are seen in a valued and professional light. Readers will certainly pick up on poorly constructed sentences and spelling errors. What will they do? Quickly click the next search result to find more appropriate information.

An eloquently written article will increase your professional image and gain you and your business the respect it deserves. Always make sure a professional editor reviews anything that goes online concerning your business. Mistakes in articles tell potential clients that you really don’t care. Viewers will think if you are that careless about your online content that you cannot be all that great at your business. The internet has trained us to quickly move to the next article for information that seems more qualified.

Badly Written Articles Equals Bad Advertising

The explosion of Article Marketing as a strategy for increasing website traffic and promoting your website gives you the chance to rise above the crowd. One bad taste of an article that doesn’t cut the mustard could mean the loss of a client that could have brought you much more in revenue than the cost of the article.  It is well worth it to pay a few bucks more and get the quality that can bring you clients.

Show the world wide web that the quality of your articles matches the quality of your business. The need to create inbound links (or backlinks) need not be a reason for a mass of poorly written articles. Show off your business with positive promotion through excellent articles.

Dear Santa,

Ever since last Christmas you would not believe how good I have been. Yes, it has rather amazed me too. I’ve done everything the right way and have been a good little “white hat” SEO girl. My content based SEO work has been impeccable. My internet marketing techniques are beyond reproach. I’ve done everything by the book and anticipate a great year ahead. I don’t think there is anyone in the whole world wide web that has behaved any better.

My list is really not much, and I know you can easily get me all these items on my list. If you do I promise I will stay at my computer and not bother anyone…not even the cat when he foolishly tries to walk on my keyboard. That last time, I swear my hand just slipped.

1. 500 links a day from .edu and .gov websites. All my comments to be praised and honored by presidents, governors, senators, and deans.
2. Keywords: I really don’t have that many and if you could find it in your heart to rank my website at the top of the SERPs for all of them I would greatly appreciate it.
3. Please, I don’t care how you do it, eliminate all those nasty “black hatters” that have bombarded the internet marketing world. Perhaps an anonymous phone call to the FTC is in order. You know their new ruling went into effect just in time for the Christmas season.
4. Digg.com:  Please place my website and my blog on the first page of Digg. I’m certain everyone will enjoy them so it will sort of be like a Christmas present for everyone.
5. Technorati:  Please see #4 above.
6. Inbound links:  This, dear Santa, is kind of a double present. As mentioned in #1 I would like to have many inbound links from .edu and .gov websites. But let’s not stop there, let’s get inbound links from every single website that has anything to do with what I do. Part two of this double present is that if something  mysteriously happens to my competitors inbound links that might really help things along.
7. Meta Schmeta: I’ve become a little bored with all the meta tags, meta data, meta descriptions and all that silly meta stuff. Would you please take care of that for me and optimize my website for me?
8. A nice shiny robot: I would like my websites crawled on a daily basis and a personalized robot that I can command to crawl at my whim would fit the bill.
9. Website domain registration:  Please backdate my domain registrations back to the year 1846. I think that should be sufficient to show that my sites are committed to their domain name.
10. Directories: I’m getting a little weary submitting to applicable directories so if you could have some of your cute little elves take over this tedious task for me I would have more time to concentrate on doing my nails and hair.
11. Articles: I could really use some more articles. I think about 2,548 articles a day would be just fine…and don’t forget the keywords.

Just to remind you again; I have been extremely good this year. I have even helped old ladies cross the street. I’ll be waiting patiently Christmas morning sitting at my computer waiting for my organic rankings to skyrocket. Thank you in advance!

That’s about it for now Santa. Your milk and cookies will be here waiting.

Sincerely,

Eliz

So you have your blog, your Twitter account and your Facebook page and nothing is really happening for you. Are you using it how you should? Are you taking full advantage of what social media has to offer? Probably not! 

Don’t Forget the “Social” Part

It is “social media” after all. Be sociable and get your personality out there. When you are writing for your blog let your personality shine. Unless you are extremely boring, and can only come up with some mind-numbing content,  you need to promote yourself through your social media platforms.  If you happen to be one of those engineer type personalities, perhaps it is you that needs a good ghost writer.

Not to stray too far from the subject matter here, but that does bring up one of my favorite jokes:

Q.  What does an engineer use for birth control?

A.  His Personality

Sarcasm and Witt Never Hurts

Afraid of causing any controversy because you might alienate some of your traffic? Don’t worry about it. Controversial subjects often bring more traffic, more comments, and more awareness of…who else? YOU! Write what you think and don’t look back. Interject some sarcasm and witt to keep your readers alert. You just might be surprised what it can do for you and whatever it is you are promoting.

Stand Out from the Internet Crowd

More and more businesses are using social media to build their business. So what makes you stand out from the crowd? Whether it is something miniscule or huge that’s the message you need to be getting out there on the world wide web. Think about it and ask yourself some questions:

• Are all the widgets green and yours is blue?
• Are your products manufactured in the United States while your competition imports from China?
• Are you an all female business in a male dominated industry? Or vice versa for those of you who might think I am gender biased.
• Is your product cheaper but better?
• Does your customer service guarantee immediate results?

Softly Promote

The internet is full of spam, advertising, and links galore. Don’t always be promoting your business or product. Tell the world something interesting and unique. Be daring and don’t even put a link in your post or blog.

Your Social Media ROI

Return on Investment is almost always determined and measured through sales. Use your social media avenues to get a bigger return at a nominal cost. Internet marketing can be fun and easier than you might think. It beats pay-per-click and besides a better ROI it will bring you some personal satisfaction. You got yourself out there and made it happen.

Did you know that an astounding 83% of press releases are ineffective?  The sad fact is that, while many people have good intentions, very few actually know how to write a press release that makes someone stop and read it.

I think that the number one problem is simple–formatting.  If people would keep in mind that formatting is not just a formality, they would find that more people stop and read their article opposed to an article with huge blocks of text that goes on and on and on…

Why Does the Length of a Paragraph Matter with Online Press Releases?

Back in the days of high school and college composition, your teacher was looking for more than two sentences in a paragraph that included a topic sentence, three supporting sentences, and a conclusion.  Now, things just don’t work like that in cyber space.  You are dealing with very short attention spans here.

When your prospect hops online looking for some recent news on the latest product that you just released, they need something that their eye can skim over.  If you want it picked up by other journalists, bloggers, and social media, you need to make sure it has scanability.

People are tired, overworked, and overloaded with information.  What makes you so special that you are going to capture their attention with your lengthy explanations?  Break those paragraphs up to something like three or four lines.

And if you already understand the concept of short paragraphs, make sure you don’t forget the line breaks, too.

How to Use Capital Letters in an Online Press Release

As you can already tell from my subheaders and titles, I prefer Title Case.  If you really don’t want to do Title Case, just capitalize all the letters.  Most places will accept it this way.  If you decide not to capitalize anything, expect it to be sent back.

If you decide to CAPITALIZE EVERYTHING, definitely expect it to be sent back.  And if it isn’t sent back, expect to offend some of your prospects because they feel like you are shouting at them.

You can easily have your Word program do this by going to Tools> Change Capitals> and Title Case.

More Press Release Tips to Come

If you want to know more about how to write a press release, over the next 7 days, I will be writing what I refer to as the 7 Deadly Sins of the Press Release Writer.  We’ll be covering quotes, images, linking, keywords, newsworthiness, and promoting your press release.

Until then, remember–formatting is not just a formality!  If writing a press release seems overwhelming, you can always hire a team of highly qualified press release writers to do the job correctly.

I was recently in a meeting with Guerin Senter, owner of Firebird Financial. Firebird Financial is a licensed Certified Public Accounting firm in Nevada and specializes in financial records clean up. While discussing his business I asked him what he considered his best quality. He quickly stated, “I do what I say and I call people back.”  WOW! What a novel approach to business! This has become far too rare in today’s busy lifestyle.

Don’t Tell Me You Will if You Won’t

Is it just in Vegas where this is a phenomenon, or is the world turning into a bunch of non-responsive and unreliable slugs? I attend many meetings and events and meet many people with promises and guarantees. Soon enough you find out that some of the promises meant nothing and I am lucky if I get a phone call returned. Please, spare me the trouble…don’t tell me you will if you won’t.

Surround Yourself with a Dependable Environment

So as not to sound too negative here, I must say I have surrounded myself with business associates and friends that are sound, reliable, and a pleasure to associate and work with on a daily basis. But this has taken the sometimes unpleasant task of eliminating people from my environment.

I’ve become a fairly good judge of people and most often operate on the theory that if I have any doubts it’s probably best left alone. Not that chances aren’t good to take sometimes; but when we are talking character it is so much better to be surrounded by positive, dependable people.

Make Your Deals with Reliable Companies

The internet marketing world is full of “white hats” and “black hats”. Finding an ethical and reliable company to provide you with a legitimate online marketing campaign does not have to be a chore.  Deal with a company that makes a point to follow the simple rules of doing what they say and calling people back.

Reputations follow us all through life. Omissions are so easy to make but so hard to forget. Thanks to Guerin for reminding me!

Facebook Updates for Promotions

As of November 4, 2009 Facebook has revised their Promotions Guidelines. These new guidelines in no way bring an end to any company from using promotions like sweepstakes and contests. But they do place a few added restrictions for them.

Following is an excerpt from the Facebook Promotions Guidelines:

Section 1. General

1.1 Without limiting any provision set forth herein, you acknowledge and agree that you are responsible for ensuring that any promotion and the administration, advertising, publicizing and fulfillment of such promotion complies with all applicable federal, state, provincial and local laws and applicable regulatory and industry rules, regulations and guidelines.

1.2 You are fully and solely responsible and liable for your promotion, including, without limitation, every element of publicizing or administering a promotion on Facebook or using any part of the Facebook Platform, even if Facebook authorizes a promotion to be publicized or administered on Facebook or using any part of the Facebook Platform.

1.3 You will not in any way use our name, trademarks, trade names, copyrights, or any other of our intellectual property in the rules or any other materials relating to the promotion, without express written consent.

1.4 The promotion and any publicity associated with the promotion must be true and accurate, and cannot mislead, deceive or otherwise misrepresent the prize or any other aspect of the promotion.

Section 2. Prohibitions

You may not publicize or administer a promotion on Facebook if:

2.1 The promotion is open or marketed to individuals who are under the age of 18;

2.2 The promotion is open to individuals who reside in a country embargoed by the United States;

2.3 The promotion, if a sweepstakes, is open to individuals residing in Belgium, Norway, Sweden, or India;

2.4 The promotion’s objective is to promote any of the following product categories: gambling, tobacco, dairy, firearms, prescription drugs, or gasoline;

2.5 The prize or any part of the prize includes alcohol, tobacco, dairy, firearms, or prescription drugs; or

2.6 The promotion is a sweepstakes that conditions entry upon the purchase of a product, completion of a lengthy task, or other form of consideration.

Click here to read all of the Facebook Promotions Guidelines.

As usual when new or updated guidelines come out they may appear to be daunting. However, these guidelines will only help to make Facebook a more legitimate and secure site to visit and use. Your content based internet marketing campaign can benefit greatly from using Facebook. So read the promotions guidelines and continue on with your social media with confidence.

Internet marketing using content based SEO almost always includes a blog. Whether you have just started a blog or been doing it since the beginning of blogdom; chances are you don’t have nearly the following as some of the most popular. Everyday Technorati publishes a list of the most popular blogs. Check these out and see how you can make your blog better to compete with these top rated weblogs.

Technorati Top Ten Blogs

1. The Huffington Post
   Arianna Huffington covers it all. Politics, entertainment, technology, living, books, and more. This online newspaper stays on the top of the most favorite blogs.
2. TechCrunch
   TechCrunch was founded on June 11, 2005, as a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies.
3. Gizmodo
   Gizmos and gadgets reviewed with a quirky twist.
4. Boing Boing
   Tech, gadgets, science, art, culture, action are just some of the subjects covered in this popular blog.
5.  Mashable
   The Social Media Guide. This is the bible of social media. Great statistics, videos, news, and links. A must read for all you social media freaks.
6. Engadget
   More gadgets. Obviously internet techies love this stuff.
7. Gawker
   Now we’re talking, nothing better than some good gossip and peculiar news.
8. The Daily Beast
   Entertainment, politics, celebrity, news…sound a little like The Huffington Post?  There is even a Huffington Post Daily Beast Coverage.
9. Celebrity Gossip | TMZ
   Nothing gets online viewers better than some good juicy celebrity gossip.
10. National Review
    News, news, and more news. Topic of the day seems to be Sarah Palin’s new book and the civilian trial in New York for the terrorists (don’t even get me started on that one).

 If you haven’t registered your blog with Technorati, you better get on it. They are changing their submissions standards and it’s not quite as easy to “claim” your blog. Latest report from “claiming” a blog was “Because of backlog, it may take quite some time for evaluation.” So get on it and maybe you will be the next blog to be on their prestigious top ten list.

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As a content based SEO company we reveiw, on a daily basis, all kinds of different content for the internet. Spelling is one of the most important items to be reveiwed.  The English language has so many rules but what is even more confusing are the different ways to spell different sounds.

Today we have spelling and grammar checkers in many of are applications on our PCs. But they don’t always catch errors because it may be a word but not the correct word. Always proofread and double check anything that the public will see. A coupel extra minutes can help save your reputation. Its certainly worth you’re while. Your internet marketing campagn will be a step above what other companies work with.

One of my pet peaves that I commonly see is SEO company websites, from countries outside the United States, that do not use proper spelling and grammar. How comfrotable would you be with having them write your content? If the spelling and grammar on there website is not correct, can you imagine how botched up your articals, press releases, or blog posts would be? Your business could quickly loose it’s professional status and loose clients and potential clients.

How many spelling and grammar errors did you catch in this blog post?

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