Pinterest: The Hottest New Social Network
Well, if you are fixated on the title of this post, I guess you are right. Pinterest isn’t quite that new anymore, but as you may have noticed I took a bit of a hiatus from posting here at SearchChica…been preoccuppied with job transitions, a wedding and motherhood over the last two years, but happy to say I’m back 
!
Although Pinterest may not be all that new, it certainly is one of the hippest social network sites everyone and their mother are drawn to. And the same goes for businesses of almost every kind!
So what exactly is all the hype? For starters, Pinterest is a “virtual pinboard” that lets you organize and share all the awesome things you find on the web. It can be used as an inspiration board for holidays and special occasions or simply as a place to share your favorite photos and bookmark ideas. But there is so much more than that. Businesses can benefit from Pinterest’s “free” marketing and SEO opportunities.
Melanie Duncan, entrepeneur and Pinterest expert, cites specific tactics to help enhance your boards and individual pins that most pinners tend to overlook. I’ve highlighted some of her main points below.
Keywords
It may seem like a no-brainer, but including your target keywords in each caption can really help boost your search visibility. Oftentimes,
5 Common SEO Mistakes
Despite the plethora of literature available on the web, in blogospheres and search conferences, there are still very basic search engine optimization concepts that webmasters continue to overlook. 
And while the specific variables that comprise each search algorithm remain closely-held trade secrets, there has been ample research and testing conducted to shed light on some of the most important factors the spiders crawling your site are looking at. But still, mistakes of all sorts continue. Therefore, I’ve outlined the 5 most common SEO mistakes to avoid:
1. Misuse of Title Tag
This is a big one. Title tags (titles appearing at the very top of web pages) tell search engines, like Google, what a given web page is about. It’s important that these titles, therefore, include descriptions of the page content. A lot of sites simply use their brand name as the main title tag. Now this isn’t the worst thing in the world…if you’re a site like Coca-Cola, Nike or even Facebook! Big brands can get away with this since people are actually searching for those brands by name. But small-to-medium size brands (in terms of traffic and popularity) have to work a little harder. Take a competitive industry like weddings — a smaller brand, with little to no online presence, benefits from incorporating keywords like “unique wedding favors” or “wedding party gifts” within title tags.
Something brands will want to avoid? Having the same title tag on every page which can cause duplicate content issues, or worse, using “Homepage” as the homepage title tag. This tells Google absolutely nothing about what the site is about…other than a homepage.
2. No Keywords in Alt Tag or Image Names
alternative text
Another common mistake that plagues a number of websites is unoptimized images. Because images are becoming more insightful in the world of search, it’s important that they are saved and titled descriptively. I often see MANY (reputable sites) in the industry that have neglected their image optimization. This is just some low-hanging fruit that shouldn’t be neglected. The two main areas where specific keywords can be incorporated, are the image file name (what it is saved as) and the alt text, or words that appear upon scroll-over (see image). If you’re using target keywords within images just make sure they truly describe the image…otherwise it’s keyword stuffing!
3. Poor Use of Anchor Text
Inbound links are one of the most important ranking factors for a website. Equally so, are the clickable words or anchor text on a page. In fact, a recent study conducted by SEOmoz found keyword-rich anchor text to be one of the top 5 ranking factors. In other words, if you want to rank for a term like, “cupcake recipes” it’s important to have links to that page with the words “cupcake recipes” hyper-linked. This is what search engines like to see. However, far too many sites do the unthinkable and link to important pieces of content using “click here” anchor text. This is one of the biggest mistakes seen, sadly. When would “click here” be okay, you ask? Well, if you’re linking to pieces of content you don’t really care about then “click here” may not be such a blunder. But 9 times out of 10, you’ll be referencing content you value, whether internally or externally.
4. Flash-based Sites
Sure you want to make your site attractive and engaging for visitors, but are you willing to sacrifice search engine visibility? Flash-based sites do just that: make it harder for search engine spiders to access your content. That’s because SEO is dependent on text. If a site uses a lot of flash and even worse embeds important pieces of content within flash, spiders can’t process the information. And while search engines have become more sophisticated, it is still recommended to avoid wrapping important pieces of content in flash. Try HTML for a change!
5. Focusing on Meta Tags
I’ve lost count on the number of times I’ve heard people (new to the industry) talk about meta tags — particularly working to get the “right” meta keywords on their web pages. The fact is, the only meta tag that is truly valuable is the title tag, as mentioned earlier. The meta keyword tag is actually the least important tag, due to keyword stuffing tactics that has even led Google, to devalue the tag. You can’t expect to rank for a particular keyword by simply manipulating some code on your site. That would be far too easy.
Avoid these beginner mistakes and you’ll be on your way to an SEO-friendly site!
Keyword Research: Finding the Right Words to Target
Okay, so you get this concept: Without the right keywords on your page, search engines and potential customers may never find your site. Keyword research is in fact an essential piece of any search engine optimization strategy. But do you know to look beyond the surface of the words you choose? Put simply, not every person is familiar with what you call your product or brand. You need to understand what users automatically think and therefore type when searching for a product like yours. It takes a combination of good keyword research tools and careful topical analysis to do this!
Google Adwords Keyword Tool: A Great FREE Tool
This is an easy (and not to mention, FREE) tool to begin with. The Keyword Tool (originally designed for Adwords/PPC campaigns) shows the average monthly search volume for a particular keyword phrase along with a competition rating.
For example, say brand XYZ is a site that sees itself as a door replacement store for both personal and business needs. The brand may see door replacements as it’s main keyword to rank for, but the data below shows very different results for variations of that keyword.
Door repairs and commercial doors, yield an estimated 22,200 and 33,100 monthly searches respectively – more than ten times the amount that the favored keyword door replacements receives. Even the long-tail phrase, garage door repair, yields a significant volume prediction at 90,500. This has some major implications for what brand XYZ should be focusing on. XYZ should keep an open mind and be ready to adjust their target keyword language depending on what the results show. Why focus on ranking for a word like door replacements if most people aren’t even searching for that phrase? On the other hand, choosing keywords that are both relevant to the offerings of a web site and directly in-line with the specific phrases people search for, will boost the chances of that given word being found in the search results.
Keyword Semantics & Analysis
An important factor to consider? Whether to focus solely on generic, head-terms like doors and door repairs or to take it a step further and target extended versions, such as the long-tail keyword phrase garage door opener remote. XYZ should aim to make it’s target keywords as specific as possible in order to better mimic the way people search. That is, given the fact that people no longer click beyond the first search results page in Google, but rather edit their original search query to include more words with specificity, marketers should do the same on-page. I’m not advocating solely for the long-tail; I think both head and long-tail need to be used for different purposes.
When thinking of which keywords to target, it’s equally important to really look at associated words or details that given word connotes. For instance, take the word, football training, which on the surface can simply bring thoughts of football camps or football programs to mind, but when pulling all the related words in this category, can bring more specific thoughts like quarterback, kicker, offense, defense, training camps, strength-training etc. These variations should also be included among sub-categories and deeper pages within a site, for optimal targeting.
One last factor to consider, is your target audience. Using a word such as gaffes in all titles and headers won’t get you anywhere, if most people in your demographics search for a more popular term like, mistakes. You may think your sophisticated target audience searches one way, but you have to actually look at the numbers before you start assuming. This way, you don’t end up losing half your audience before they even start looking.
Webinar Review: 5 Ways Facebook Rocks & 5 Ways Facebook Sucks!
Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a Facebook webinar by MarketMotive.com. Internet marketing companies offer webinars all the time on an array of topics from social media trends, and search strategies to web analytics and site diagnositcs– they are indeed one of the easiest ways to learn via the web. The specific topic covered in this latest session: 5 Ways Facebook Rocks, 5 Ways Facebook Sucks by Jennifer Laycock – and I must say she did a fabulous job! Below, I’ve recapped some of her key takeaways, with some personal commentary.
The Good: 5 Ways Facebook Rocks
1. An insanely invested audience
It’s true – Facebook users are extremely active. According to the statistics Laycock provided, the average user spends 55 minutes a DAY on site, averages 9 “likes” 25 comments and 3 invites! Those are some pretty engaged fans! With more than 500 million users, half of which log in each day, it is clear why so many businesses choose this social platform as one of their key word-of-mouth marketing vehicles. The numbers are staggering.
What was even more interesting, is that she described Facebook marketing as more trustworthy than Twitter marketing. She described Facebook as having “a higher barrier for connection.” And I can see the validity in her point. For most of our Facebook friends (or brands we “like”), we typically have a pre-existing or face-to-face relationship. Think about it: These are the people you’ve either reconnected with from high school, met through a mutual friend or have worked with. Your Twitter audience, on the other hand, is most likely made up of industry leaders or brands you’ve connected with out of a mutual interest. Thus, it makes sense that you’d be more likely to trust a recommendation coming from a group you’ve actually had a real-life experience with versus a complete stranger.
2. Easy auto-tagging
Facebook recently launched it’s auto-tagging feature – which goes beyond the @[insert friend name] tagging in status updates to include auto suggestions. What this simply means, is that as you type the name of a friend (or brand you like) in your status update, a drop-down appears with name completions. This makes it easy to find the specific friend you want to tag, but more importantly for brands, this allows for greater exposure. Say, person “A” tags “New Brand” in an update. Person “B” who is a friend of “A” but unfamiliar with “New Brand” now has the opportunity to see this brand in their Facebook feed with a visual snapshot upon scroll-over. Talk about increasing brand awareness and getting people to “like” your Facebook page!
3. Location-based tagging
This feature is basically similar to the Foursquare “checking in” idea. The benefit here of course being for mobile integration. People can now tell all their friends where they are and also get notifications of friends at nearby venues. Pretty neat. Although of course this brings up a whole slew of privacy issues. Can anyone say, “stalker”?
4. Open Graph protocol
We’ve all seen it. It’s the integration that saves users time and earns brands visibility, by allowing connections to be made from within a brand’s site, rather than calling for users to visit a variety of company Facebook pages and “liking” them there.
It is extremely useful in building a fan base, making an article buzz-worthy and simply keeping with the changing landscape.
But it has also been widely controversial for making Facebook the central hub for user information and for the possible data made available to third-parties.
Of course in the age of sharing everything from where you are, who you’re with and what you’re doing, what still is private?
5. Build a secondary home on the Web
The bottom line for this one? Facebook can now act as a second home for users who “like” a brand. When you integrate your games, contests, discussions and conversion events within tabs on your page, users can take all the actions you desire of them, right there. Just be sure your call-to-actions are very clear.
The Bad: 5 Ways Facebook Sucks
1. Ever-changing interface.
Admit it. We all get frustrated when Facebook makes some new “site upgrades” and we find ourselves searching for the new inbox location, where to upload pictures or where to find our apps. For the audience who is checking in daily, surprises aren’t always welcome. Changes to any site, whether necessary or not, causes navigation trouble…at least in the short-term.
2. Big-money wins.
Big brands, willing to spend more money are likely to get more attention from Facebook support. Whether it’s access to a dedicated representative or just the resources necessary to build an app – if you have the money to show, then you can expect quality service. On the flip side, a small company who can’t shell out the cash, won’t get any of that first-class treatment. You’ll have to do your own research!
3. Uncontrolled tagging
The new auto-tagging feature, of course comes with one major down side: ANY of your friends can tag you and let the world know what you are doing. Point in case: Not so good.
4. Rules, Rules, Rules
We are all guilty of it. Ya’ know. Not reading the fine print: TOS. If you actually look carefully, there are a number of legal restrictions on what you can and can’t do with your Facebook page. One of the major ones? No contests or promotions – unless of course you notify Facebook, first. It’s there way of keeping the money flowing in. They are a business aren’t they? NOTE: Just to be clear here, it’s still okay to provide a link to your contest or promo within your status update. Just don’t do it within a tab or Facebook app.
5. A Modern Day AOL
Major takeaway here: don’t do so much with Facebook that users don’t have a reason to come back to your site. It’s all about strategy.
TWTRCON 2010: How Twitter is Transforming Business
In June, my boss and I had the pleasure of attending TWTRCON – the big Twitter for Business conference in New York City.
Who ever thought of attending a Twitter conference, right?! Well as many of you know, my company is active on Twitter (@FreeScore) and ready to launch accounts for the new product brands – DebtPlan and IdentityHawk. These days, customers expect brands to be present where they are, especially on social platforms which provide easy access for customer support, discounts or freebies.
More importantly, conversations from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are shaping real-time search results. Therefore, influencing brand results on such platforms and keeping informed about the latest trends and strategies remains key.
Google, Search Product Manager, Dylan Casey spoke about how real-time search is changing, advising brands to continue the traditional search best practices of publishing good content, focusing on frequency and quality. While he was sure not to mention any specifics of the variables in the search algorithm, he emphasized that relevancy and quality – standard factors of organic search results – also apply to the indexing of social results. Other factors such as number of re-tweets and trending topics will also begin to influence what conversations appear in real-time search results.
The array of notable speakers and companies represented included: Google, Starbucks, Foursquare, NASA, New York Times, AT&T, PepsiCo and Comcast, just to name a few. Why, even the renowned Martha Stewart was present, discussing topics she tweets and defending the authenticity of those tweets! Martha admitted to using Twitter primarily for research, asking questions, information sourcing and for surveying her followers — she is a firm believer in crowd-sourcing and lives by the motto “The customer is always right.”
Social Media Case Studies
Companies like Dell, TurboTax and JetBlue provided case studies and strategies that have worked for them. Dell for example, utilizes specialized Twitter accounts, like @DellCares to proactively reach its customers – they claim to reach out to the bulk (95%), while the remaining (5%) seek them out.
JetBlue showcased its social media efforts following the “perfect storm” that took place in February 14, 2007, stranding hundreds of would-be passengers in airports. To win-back public confidence in the brand, JetBlue issued a viral campaign that began with the CEO’s apology via YouTube, followed by various compensations to travelers. Their admission to what the public had experienced opened a two-way dialogue with customers. Then, the “All-You-Can-Jet” promo sought to fill all empty airline seats, by allowing unlimited flying during the slowest travel month – the campaign was initiated by a single tweet (no traditional promotion) and illustrated the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Furthermore, the company utilized a strategy that relied on four steps to form real relationships with customers:
- Monitor and listen to feedback
- Engage (events like “Travel Tip Tuesdays” with packing tips from travelers and search capabilities #keyword)
- Inform (provide good and bad news)
- Humanize (add personal element to tweets)
Although there was a plethora of ideas discussed at the conference, the overarching theme was clear: participate in the dialogue your customers are already having, because they will continue to talk, with or without you present.
And interestingly enough, the majority of companies at the conference didn’t have a “dedicated Twitter team.” This appears to be a shared responsibility among the group of employees that are passionate about their products and services.
As our brand progresses and our customer base grows, we expect Twitter to step up as a powerful CRM tool, ready to engage all audiences.
Want to learn more about Twitter? See the helpful links below:
- Twitter Overview – Introduction to basic Twitter concepts
- CoTweet – Allows multiple people to communicate through corporate Twitter accounts
- FollowFinder – Finds people you may want to follow using your public social graph
- Tweetdeck – Personal browser that allows customized display of who you are following
- Gist – Connects your inbox to the web, to help build stronger relationships with customers
- Hootsuite – Allows you to manage multiple social networks/user accounts in one place
- Tweetmeme – Aggregates all the popular links on Twitter so you can decide which to tweet
- Qwitter –Provides a summary of users who have stopped following you
I’ve recently been tasked with finding essential SEO tips for web writers and journalists — professionals who can oftentimes lose free traffic to their sites by focusing on creativity alone. Writers think using clever headlines and titles are the keys to driving visits, but they forget to think about the way people are actually searching.
Think about it for a second. When was the last time you googled, “skip marriage” when looking for “pros and cons of being married versus living together”? That is, who actually searches using clever phrases versus using the literal translation? Not many people. Therefore, if headlines and titles are one of the key on-page factors that search engines turn to when evaluating the relevancy of a page, why not use words that people are actually searching for in these particular areas?
Well, a lot of issues writers encounter in their efforts to increase organic visits derive from their lack of SEO knowledge. They may have heard something or read something in forums, which they don’t quite understand. They then misapply the basic SEO principles.
This is where tools come into place – actual measurable indicators of how people are searching and in what frequencies. Take the Google Keyword Tool, a free tool that quantifies the volume of monthly searches for a particular keyword or keyword phrase. This tool will literally show the most popular phrases people are searching for along with how competitive the term is.
This is an essential tool for all web writers. Armed with this data, they can effectively target keywords and even weave some creativity into the picture — revamped headline: Skip Marriage: Pros and Cons of Living Together vs. Marrying! An SEO-friendly move certain to increase natural search visits.
