seobridges.com

Last week I talked about the importance of integrating your SEO content and social media marketing.  I also mentioned it’s important to make sure your site is designed to be SEO friendly.  I mentioned it, but I never explained it.

The other day, I talked to a Web designer whose clients we write Web content and handle the social media marketing for.  We talked about his latest project in comparison to a website he wants to model that project after.  He asked for my thoughts of what we could learn from the model site in integrating SEO into his latest Web project.  I’ll tell you what I told him and more.

Quick SEO tips for Web designers:

1. Make your text readable – It’s best to use simple black and white text, but just make it as readable as possible.
2. Buttons – Let search bots know where they should go.  If a link leads to your services, title it ‘Services,’ not ‘What we do.’
3. Use Bold Text – Tell the search bots what’s important about your site, but not too much.
4. Add a site map – An XML for the search bots and an HTML site map for your users.
5. Registration period – Okay, this one isn’t really Web design or SEO related, but it’s a good tip.  If you only registered your site for a year, search bots won’t consider you very serious.  Register your site for at least five years.

There are more, but those five should keep you busy for a while.

Any other ideas?

Stay social,

Erick

All week I’ve been thinking about what I could blog about on Fridays that would set this blog apart, and I have nothing.  I came across a hilarious Stephen Colbert video on Social Media Marketing, but I can’t find the code to embed it.  So, I looked through Google to see if I could find another funny video on social media marketing or SEO content, but I couldn’t find anything.

On Fridays I’m just going to post blogs about the week in social media and/or SEO content.  Whether it be articles, videos, or other, every Friday I will publish a blog about whatever’s happened that week in social media or SEO content.

For this week, here is a video on how to suggest a Facebook fanpage to your friends.  I know it seems like such a simple thing, but Facebook keeps changing the look and feel of their site.

Also, you’ll notice I added a ShareThis button to the bottom all my blogs.  Thank you to those who took the time copy my URL and Tweet it yesterday.  Now, you just need to click the ShareThis button, choose which social networking platform you want to share my blog on, type a message, and let the Internet do the rest.

If you have a WordPress site, you can add a ShareThis button.  Feel free to comment and please come back next week for more on social media marketing and SEO content.  I appreciate all of you.

Stay social,

Erick

The best way to integrate your Web content with your social media marketing campaign is to write a blog at least once a week and use social media to promote it. The more you write and promote your writing, the more people will become familiar with your name and your site.

Blog about whatever your site’s about.  If your site’s about politics, blog about politics and use political keywords.  But use language that allows your writing to remain accessible to anyone who might read your blog.

Let others know about your blog by posting it to social networking sites.  But don’t stop with Twitter and Facebook.  Set up accounts on social bookmarking sites like Deli.cio.us, Digg, and Reddit.  Web browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox have apps that automatically fill in content for you on those and many other social bookmarking sites.  You can even integrate many of those sites with larger ones like Twitter and Facebook, so they automatically update when you update your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

The Internet allows people to do faster for free what it took several weeks and dollars to do less than ten years ago.  It takes time to setup and update those accounts, but the return on the investment is worth it.

Stay social,

Erick

We’ve focused on making connections with potential clients, our website’s recent redesign, adding content to our static pages, and other side projects.  Now, we want to focus on getting more content on our dynamic pages, so we’re blogging Mondays through Fridays.

Yesterday, I talked about considering your customer base in your social media marketing efforts.  Now, the question is how do you do that when writing SEO content?  It’s simple.  Okay, it’s not simple, but it is vital.

We’re all about integrating our clients’ social media campaigns with the content on their websites.  We’re also big proponents of writing content that reflects the design of the website. Integrating your site’s design, content, and social media marketing will allow you to create Web strategies that reach your customer base.

One of our clients recently wanted to optimize for a particular word.  We optimized for that word, except for one page that had no products specific to that keyword.  We told the Web designer and the website owner the reason we wouldn’t optimize for that keyword.

Search engines dislike it when websites use words on pages that have nothing to do with those pages.  Our SEO content strategies play according to the rules of search engines’ algorithms, because without search engines there would be no such thing as SEO content.  Be leery of any content writer who wants to put content on your website’s pages that doesn’t reflect what that page offers. They either don’t understand this concept, or they’re using black hat SEO practices.

I’d love to hear your comments.

Erick

This last weekend, I went to a small café. I walked through the doors of the once 19th century home, ordered a coffee, and found a seat. Moments later the barista brought my coffee to me and asked me if I’d like a menu.

All I wanted to do was sit, drink a cup of coffee, and catch up on some work. All he wanted to do was capitalize on me sitting at one of his tables and make money.  I ordered a bagel with cream cheese, caught up on some work, and left when the lunch crowd started pouring in.

I recognized and respected their business model was not for people to order one cup of coffee and sit with books open for hours. Though, they made room in their business model to make customers like me feel comfortable.

Leverage your website and social media marketing so your customer base feels comfortable with who you are and what you offer.

Their purpose for interacting with you or your website may not align with your business model, but your business model should always align with the reason they interact with you.

At SEO Bridges, we understand our customer base may not understand what SEO (Web) content and social media marketing are, why they’re important, or how to best use them. That’s why our content focuses on educating people who come to our website.

Speaking of which, we’re working on an e-book. I’d love to read your comments.

Erick

I want to start by thanking those who made the all new SEOBridges.com a reality. Thank you to Renee Johnson of DevotionalDiva.com, who introduced me to Michael Forney—CMO of Ignition Garage. And thank you to Michael Forney and the team at Ignition Garage—Tim Engstrom (redesigned my site) and Sheila Cowley (designed my new logo)—for making this happen.

Onto the future of SEO Bridges.   We are discontinuing our blog on open source software; though, you can read those blogs below this blog or in our articles section.  Moving forward, I will personally blog about SEO content and Social Media Marketing (SMM), as it pertains to our audience. Of course, we will also have guest bloggers from time to time.  In the near future, I will launch a charitable arm that will benefit San Diego’s literary community.

With that said, I extend my thanks to those who have worked with me, supported me, or just clicked through my site. I anticipate working with many of you and serving your needs.

Erick Pettersen

SEO Bridges, Principle