The internet has changed radically in the last couple years from being just static websites- to an interactive forum where average people can easily now upload photos, post comments and add text onto a web site with relative ease. It has opened up a huge opportunity for millions of people to become social on the Internet as they can now easily share ideas, content, products, services, and interact in many ways.
This is what Social Marketing is- and the best of all, it’s free or very low cost exposure. It is a wonderful way to get yourself/products known and drive traffic to your website or blog.
Content sharing, Articles, Bookmarking, Social sites, Blogs and video are just some of the marketing techniques being used on thousands of social sites in the Web 2.0 environment.
Marketing Merge is a training programme for internet and network marketers run by Mike Klingler that teaches you where and how to put content up on the internet at various social site locations. You get to learn how to come up on the first page of the Search Engine Ranking.
I am one of Mike’s students, and in four short months I have gone from only being able to send emails- to coming up on Google’s first page for three of my keywords!
This is what I learned: To optimize search engine ranking, you need to have (1) keyword value in your content, and (2) a high number and quality of incoming links that are pointing at your article (link value).
Have Keyword value in your content:
1.1. Pay attention to what keywords or keyword phrases you are using in the title tag. (To find the right Keyword, think of your target market. What are hot topics for them? What solutions are they looking for when they type keywords into Google or Yahoo. The title tag is located at the top of the website (the title is next to the browser name, for example Mozilla Firefox). For the most part, you can influence what is put in the title tag, although sometimes you can’t or are somewhat limited in influence- depending on what page you are using to put your content up on.
For example, on Squidoo (a highly ranked Social Networking site),you choose the name of your url as well as the title for your article (which is then related to the title tag).
Remember-what you put in the title tag, hugely influences your search engine ranking.
1.2. It is also important what key words are in the content (articles) or video (description). Sprinkle these keyword phrases throughout the article properly. Think of your target market, choose hot topics that would be of interest to them…and put these words properly in your content. For example, Mike Klingler’s Marketing Merge (a unique internet training for network marketers and small business owners)- is a hot topic right now amongst network marketers who are learning to put their businesses online through the principles of attraction marketing. It is being typed in by a lot of network marketers. A good title tag if you were reviewing programme, would be: Marketing Merge: Mike Klingler’s Marketing Merge for Network Marketers. And, sprinkling the words Marketing Merge generously throughout your content will optimize your ranking.
1.3. Impact is also created by how often you use the word in your title tag and in your content. So, keyword density is important. So, in our example we use the keyword Marketing Merge twice in the title. We cleverly extend the title “Marketing Merge” by adding “Mike Klingler’s Marketing Merge for Network Marketers. One could then use “Marketing Merge Programme: A Review” as the subtitle.
1.4. Place keywords in priority locations (i.e. the title/subtitle/bold/italics) in the content. Search Engines look at certain places and place more priority there-on for e.g, headlines and subheadlines. Make them bold, underlined or italicized.
1.5. Focus on one main keyword and no more than two to three related sub category keywords. For example, our main keyword is Marketing Merge. The reader should see MarketingMerge in the content the most number of times of all the keywords (around ten times on average). This tells the Search Engines what this content is about. Do not pack too many different keywords into one content location, otherwise the Search Engines get confused (they don’t know what the focus is).
In our example, one of our subcategory words, is Mike Klingler. People also type him in, as the leader of the programme. So we should see that keyword phrase about three times in the article. Another subcategory word is Network marketers.
So, to increase your chances on one particular phrase – make sure you use that one the most…and then no more than two or three related subcategory keyword phrases. Make it obvious what your main keyword is.
1.6. Here’s a simple rule to follow: Say it first and say it often. We can’t totally figure out the ever changing algorithms of the Search engines. So keep it simple….put your keyword FIRST (on the title tag, on the headline, the sub headline, the beginning of the article, in another headline later…and use it often).
1.7. Use keywords generously, but naturally. Don’t just jam pack the words in. Let it flow. Otherwise the Search Engines will take it as spam and your content won’t be displayed! It should look and read naturally to the untrained eye.
1.8. Another thing that has an impact on you coming up for certain keywords ranking is “how many people are searching for the keyword phrase and how many are competing for it”. You need keywords that are searched for by a lot of people…but that are at the same time, not that competitive.
As mentioned before, it’s a good idea to go after hot topics. Say your target market is healthy people, buying health products. You will want to talk about the kind of things that interests that target market. For example you might see an article in a magazine about a new diet, advertised on the front cover. A day later it’s talked about on the evening news as well. It’s a HOT TOPIC!
Write down the author’s name/other books he wrote/title of the magazine/the way the phrases have been used. Buy the magazine and highlight some keyword phrases that your educated target market might be searching for. Then get yourself on the internet and create some content (Squidoo, EzineArticles.com etc).
Move swiftly. For the next few weeks you will be able to use keywords for that topic- that a lot of people are searching for-with less competition, because it’s new. If you are an early bird and get in early, you can get locked in…and come up on the search engines for years…because you were one of the first to discuss it! This will attract large quantities of prospects towards you.
Link value:
This is the number and quality of incoming links that are pointing at your article.
2.1 It is important how many links are pointing to your content. So if there are a number of places/articles that link to your article, it will move your article up the priority list of the Search Engine.
2.2 What key words are used in the link that points to your content (known as anchor text). For example: A blog might have anchor text in it, that points to your Marketing Merge Squidoo article. It uses the Key words: Marketing Merge and Mike Klingler, which are hypertexed and if the reader clicks on them, they are taken to the Squidoo page, where your Marketing Merge article is. The Squidoo lens (page) will then move up the ranking, because someone else is linking to it and talking about it.
2.3 It is important what the site rank is-where the link is-that is pointing to your content. How popular is the site that is pointing to your content (according to Google/Yahoo). For example Squidoo ranks very high on the Search Engines. (It scores 7/10). So does EzineArticles.com. Utube gets 9/10. (But even pages with rankings of 3/10 have power).
(If you go onto Google, you can download the Google toolbar. It has a button called “Page ranking” that ranks the page you are on. So, if YouTube or Squidoo directs a link to your site, you get a higher ranking. Its a good idea to link to your content from high ranking websites.)
How can you increase the number of links pointing to your content?
1. Bookmarking- for example, at a site called Digg. (Another high ranking page, linking to your content).You can set up a quick note/message linking to your content. There are over a 100 places to bookmark your content to increase your Search Engine ranking.
2. Link your own content to other content you have. Link your own blog to your Squidoo lens. (This will get your Squidoo lens higher up on the rankings).
3. Other people can link to your content (for example if someone likes your content and links to your content. Or you can help your downline.
You can help a team member to rank higher on the Search Engines by linking to their content (thus pulling them higher up the rankings). This can be a great advantage to joining your team!