Let’s face it, competition for attention on social media networks is ridiculously tough. Novelty is a sure way in, but it’s difficult to come up with novelties again and again. Offering something that users can make use of again and again is a much better plan.

Facebook is a prime example of this technique. Much of the activity on Facebook is generated by use of those cute little programs anonymous companies supply, as attested by the incredible success of Farmville. The cost to the user is access to their contacts, allowing companies to build their network.

You don’t have to be on Facebook to use this technique. Embedding a handy little program on your own pages and then promoting it in social media is another great way to catch attention and get people talking, and you can discuss this with us at www.SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk. This may take a little more work, but the benefits go beyond SMO and straight into SEO in terms of link building.

When planning out your social media optimisation campaign, think about what’s going to get you ahead. Look at what your competitors are doing, analyse their moves, and provide your audience with a different, more useful option.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we are experts at online reputation management. This means that we are in a good position to assist firms with a need for this kind of provision. Outsourcing internet reputation management makes commercial sense because it is a specialist activity that demands expertise and experience in equal measure.

The modern problem with irresponsible comments is more difficult than it used to be because of the growth in the popularity of the social media networking sites. Individuals often use them in a personal and a corporate capacity and there is a lot of scope for error. It is also the case that comments made on such media can easily be misinterpreted as there is no potential for attitude to be conveyed by tone of voice.

Internet reputation management is also tricky because of several other tendencies:

• Journalists tend to use the social media to do their research. Any ill-judged comment may well end up being picked up and circulated on the local traditional media. If something is offensive, revealing or embarrassing, then it may be felt that it is appropriate to include it in a news item on the radio or in a paper, for example. It is also the case that a user may write to their local paper about the remark
• The social media allows information to circulate around it in a haphazard fashion. A remark could be taken out of context and it might be then passed around the social media. For instance, it could well be tweeted about and retweeted by individuals who are barely thinking about their motivations or the consequences of their actions
• There are bloggers out there who give little thought to accuracy. They vent their opinions on everything and nothing. If a member of a firm makes an injudicious remark a blogger who may have a grudge against the firm could well do something about in and use it as content. This may mean that a slanted version of events ends up in the search engine results pages doing a lot of damage to the firm’s image in the process

It may be thought that litigation could be the answer. However, whether the comment has been interpreted fairly or not, it could well be the case that legal action only creates additional difficulties in terms of generating negative publicity. Therefore it is always best to place the emphasis on preparation and on dealing with any issues with the minimum of fuss.

It can be shrewd to inform employees that they must be responsible on the social media. However, implementing an optimization campaign is also a good insurance policy to pursue alongside this.

Even as recently as a year and a half ago, the best link building strategies involved contacting the owner of a target site and making some kind of arrangement. Although this can still be a good way to get quality links, there are now better, more organic ways. These centre on your content.

Why mix link building and content? Google’s changes should give you a clue. People are changing the way they interact on the net, and content is becoming central to all types of communication. Whether they’re on a social media network, sampling an online publication or shopping for new shoes, internet users are accessing information and sharing it like never before. These days, link building is as much about sharing as it is about making contacts.

Laying out plenty of quality content and publicising it via your social media marketing campaign is a method of link building that stays true to the principles of organic search engine optimization. It creates links that please the search engines. Handily, it puts your resources to multiple use as well.

In 2012, work your link building plans in with your content. It’s the smart way to get ahead.

They say that everyone’s a critic, and there’s certainly plenty of them on the net. For gaining easy attention, though, offering criticism is ideal. It attracts attention from all corners, including your target market and your peers.

Criticism can come in many forms. It might be a series of reviews of products, services or ideas. It could be a regular opinion piece that you publish on your SEO blog. Whatever form it takes, critical content comes with bonuses:
*Direct attention – your target market is more likely to come to you if you’re a resource on your industry as a whole.
*Links – sites, bloggers and businesses that receive a positive review generally jump at the chance to link to that review. Covering more than one influential person, business or site in a review is a great way to build a powerful link profile.

Reviews and opinion columns are a great way to open the door if you’re social media marketing or just trying to attract attention for your site. Talk to your SEO company about adding criticism to your content plan.

Picture this. A customer interested in your star product runs an image search. Because you’ve ignored your image optimisation, the first set of images that appear consists of a couple of pictures taken at home by an amateur reviewer and the usual hodgepodge of slightly related images Google throws together. Your beautiful product photos are nowhere to be seen, and as a consequence, the customer is put off the product.

Image optimisation isn’t too difficult to add to your search engine optimisation plan. All it takes is a little thought about file names and sizes, and the usual application of keywords. If you really want your images to travel, it’s wise to think off-page as well.

As your SEO company can tell you, images have an influence on your website optimization as well, although this relates mainly to the way they’re captioned. Placing keywords in images can be a good way to increase your page’s keyword relevance, and you can discuss this with us at SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk.

Images shouldn’t be simply placed on your pages and forgotten about. They are a valuable internet asset and should be taken into consideration in your SEO plans. Consider your images when you’re thinking about search engine reputation management.

Parked domains are an old standby for any business that’s interested in protecting its reputation. Very few businesses can afford to operate more than one website, so it’s been easier, until now, to simply slap on some place-holder content and ignore these minor domains. There is still no harm in doing this, but if you want to make use of all of the internet assets at your disposal, you’re better advised to put in a bit more effort.

How to use parked domains

The essential word here is ‘parked’. Businesses began putting basic content on secondary domains so as not to lose them. This is a good way of keeping the domains under control, but not so good if you want to help your main site’s SEO, and you can discuss this with us at SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk.

*Develop secondary domains as mini-sites, used for promoting particular products or services
*Add some fresh content every now and then
*Begin to add them to your social media campaigns.

By putting just a little bit of work into these domains, you can turn what is essentially a drag on your internet budget into an SEO asset.

Having a few parked domains isn’t going to set your business back, but it does mean you’ve got business assets not being put to use. Talk to your search engine optimization company about your options for using secondary domains.

1. Seek out other businesses, and get excited about your business. One key to making your SMM campaign even more productive is genuine engagement. Give yourself time to get into interesting conversations with business owners in your industry. These business relationships are the first step to quality, long-lasting links.

2. Pay attention. Links are given on social media all the time. When you see a link being shared that’s relevant to your keywords, take note of who’s sharing it. Chances are, that social media user makes a habit of sharing interesting links. You can make use of such habits. Talk to us at www.SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk about this.

3. Build your presence. Your search engine optimization company is likely to have encouraged you to participate in social media to build up your reputation. This can help with link building as well. In building up awareness of your business, you are essentially enhancing your reputation. This makes link building a little easier, acting as a pre-introduction of sorts.

Social media campaigns bring about a lot of indirect benefits, and smoothing the way for link building is one of those benefits. Keep an eye out for opportunities.

The search engines would certainly like for site owners to let link building happen by itself. An untouched link profile is one that reflects the true state of a site’s popularity. Naturally enough, your search engine optimization agency isn’t likely to be happy with that state of affairs, and neither should you be.

The line between ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ really depends on who you talk to, although most would agree that buying links is strictly against the search engines’ rules. This doesn’t mean that buying links is universally frowned upon, but it does mean that during link building services you are well advised to investigate some natural options.

When looking into link building for your site, pursue as many natural options as possible:
*Make contact with other businesses.
*Use your existing contacts.
*Organise guest posts.
*Post comments, with your link in your signature line.
*Push for links using your content – talk to our experts at SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk about using content for SEO link building.

While it is tempting to take linking short cuts, in the long term your site will be better served by building natural links. Such links are usually the result of relationship-building, which means you’re more likely to get continued support down the track.

If you don’t optimise your pages for your business name and related keywords, you’re losing out on a fair few opportunities:

*Determined or repeat customers. Internet users don’t react favourably if a business doesn’t appear first in a brand-name search. If all they get is a list of directories, they’re likely to feel that your brand isn’t a strong one.
*Search engine reputation management. If you don’t appear at the top in a search for your brand name, you risk having negative responses turn up instead. Controlling your brand name is a first step for online reputation management.
*Authority building. In a purely technical SEO sense, making your brand a strong presence in the search engines helps to build your rankings generally. It also helps to link your business more closely with your keywords.

Navigational searches are performed by people looking for you. Don’t miss out on their business by concentrating solely on the searchers who don’t know your name. Talk to us at www.SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk for more information about navigational search.

These are all questions that your search engine optimization agency has probably already brought up. They have a deep effect on the nature of your site itself, not just your website optimization campaign. Their answers will tell you what sort of site you need to build: transactional, informational or entertainment-based.

*Transactional: Users who are searching for transactional reasons are usually the most straightforward. Online retailers attract quite a few of these types of searchers, but other businesses do too. It’s important to identify the transactional keywords in your list and build user paths that will suit these kinds of customers. ‘Buy’ and ‘price’ are good indicators of this, and you can discuss this aspect of SEO marketing with us at SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk.

*Informational: All websites attract a certain percentage of these searchers. They are the people you build your content for. Their keywords need to land them on pages packed full of pertinent information.

*Entertainment: As your social media optimization campaign has probably shown you, there is a lot of entertainment-based browsing that happens on the net. Some searches happen spontaneously, when the searcher is looking for content related to a particular topic but not for informational purposes. These are the other people you should be writing your content for, and making use of in-text hyperlinks to draw them deeper into your site.