The rise of social media has been so rapid that it’s easy to feel left behind. And it’s not just a personal scene any more – many businesses are using sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to attract followers and fans.
If you run your own business, social media offers you the chance to spread the word about what you do. It enables you to build a reputation, forge new relationships and bring in new business.
But if you haven’t taken the plunge yet, you’re not alone. According to research by specialist SME insurer Hiscox (2012), only 57% of small businesses currently use social media to support their marketing efforts.
And research by The Neilsen Company has found that 53% of adults who engage in social networks are active followers of a brand.
It’s never too late to start – there are exciting opportunities for most businesses on social media.

The Sage guide offers advice on how to spread the word using social media, including:

• How social media can help your business
• Choosing the right channels for you and your business
• Balancing business and personal
• Finding your followers
• Reaching out to your customers

Download the guide (1.5MB pdf)

The SEO experts here at the Search Engine Strategies Conference are trying to shed some light on these issues for business owners, as well as fellow online marketing professionals. One of those experts is Mike Grehan, group interactive publishing director for Incisive Media, the London-based company that owns the conference, as well as marketing news sites ClickZ and Search Engine Watch. Before joining Incisive, he spent nearly two decades as a search marketing consultant for a number of major brands.
 
The biggest one is that there is some secret SEO code somewhere that you can use on your website to rank higher at Google. There is no magic bullet.

Do as many searches as you like and analyse the top ranking sites at Google. The one thing that makes them stand out more than others is that they’re really good at marketing themselves online, and most likely offline, too.

What’s a business owner to do about the frequent search engine algorithm changes?
My advice is to not lose sleep over anything regarding algorithm updates. Be aware that it happens, but don’t change your entire business or marketing plan every time Google burps.

For Google, the critical analysis in their information retrieval algorithms is based on relevance feedback. What that means is that given you’ve done all of your SEO fundamentals and you have other websites linking to yours, the end user data kicks in. How many times do people click on your link in the search results compared to others? How long do people stay on your pages compared to others? Those are basic examples, but the real secret to success is still based on creating compelling, relevant content that is both informative–and maybe even entertaining–in order to provide a richer experience.

Google has penalized many websites for trying to game the algorithm. In my experience, the two most important things are to design your website for human beings, not algorithms, and to gear your business toward multiple sources of traffic, not just from Google.

How are tools like Apple’s Siri changing local search?
Siri is the forerunner of what you could call concierge search. It’s not just about voice-activated commands. It’s about multimodal search — information which is aggregated from many sources to suit a given environment or set of circumstances. This is a glimpse into the new “information provider” as opposed to search engine of the future. Google’s new Nexus smartphone has a similar feature called Google Now. It proves this type of search is going to be big.

“Data” seems to be a buzzword at the conference. What’s that about?
Data is the modern equivalent to black gold in digital marketing terms. In much the same way that Google has been able to take implicit data about end users to provide more relevant results, marketers use this “big data” for exactly the same reasons. I use an analogy sometimes about Google. People look at Google and it’s a mysterious black box and nobody knows how it works or what goes on inside it. Yet, it is looking at you, the end user, and you’re a mysterious black box, and it has no idea how you work or what goes on inside. But if you share some data together, there’s a much richer and more personal experience. Mining data is a way of personalizing information for you, and that includes advertising.
 

What’s the key to managing SEO on top of everything else an entrepreneur has going on?
SEO doesn’t have to be rocket science. If you choose to set up a business online, then you should know something about how the Web works. So the jargon involved in SEO and the process is something you’ll pick up pretty quickly along the way.

The hardest part of the job for most people is understanding why links are so important. Search engine algorithms begin with an analysis of how many other Web pages link to yours as a sign of popularity. The big mistake is to start thinking about “how do I get links?” The better your marketing is online, the more links you’ll gain as a by product.

Even for smaller businesses, it’s possible to do all of this in-house, just as they would probably handle their offline marketing. It’s more of a case-by-case thing than it is a rule.

Remarketing is a feature that lets you reach people who have previously visited your site, and show them relevant ads when they visit other sites on the Google Display Network. When people leave your site without buying anything, for example, remarketing helps you connect with these potential customers while they browse other websites. You can even show them a compelling message or offer that will encourage them to return to your site and complete a purchase.

The feature will be rolled out in waves by the end of the summer to all Google Analytics users who are account administrators with at least one linked Google AdWords account. Below is a screenshot on where you will find it once you have access to it:

Requirements For Using Remarketing With Google Analytics

• Agree to the Google Analytics Terms of Service(please make sure to review them fully as they may have changed since you last viewed them).
• Agree to the Google Analytics for Display Advertisers Policy.
• Update your privacy policyand include an appropriate description of your use of remarketing in online advertising.
• Update your Analytics tracking codeby adding a single line.
• Have at least one active Google AdWords account that is linked to your Analytics account, and be an Admin on that Google Analytics account.

When you create a remarketing list, you can share it with a single AdWords account. If you want to use the list in more than one AdWords account, then you need to recreate the list for each account.

Change To Code Snippet And Privacy Policy Required

According to a help article, only one line of code needs to be changed on the standard Google Analytics tracking code in order to make it work. According to them, after the change Google Analytics will also collect information from the DoubleClick cookie when that cookie is present; the DoubleClick cookie enables remarketing for products like AdWords on the Google Display Network.

Important to note that it is recommended that websites update their privacy policy following these guidelinesonce the change is made.

In terms of code, look for the following line

ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'https://www') + 'google-analytics.com/ga.js';

And replaced it with

ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://' : 'https://') + 'stats.g.doubleclick.net/dc.js';

This is great news for Adwords users as it provides a simplified way to use the Remarketing feature, without the hassle of code updates. It is also great news to Analytics users as Google is pushing the use of Analytics even stronger than before. We can see a pattern where Google is trying to use the Google Analytics code (which is found in over 10 million websites) to enable additional products (just like they did with Content Experiments).

This is a very interesting trend, will you be looking to implement remarketing?

Last week Google announced 3 upgrades that will make testing with the tool significantly easier and more powerful. Below I discuss each of the upgrades and how they can enhance testing with Google Analytics

1. Ability To Copy Experiments

This new functionality is valuable as it allows marketers to perform additional tests to the same page without modifying the codes, which makes the process much shorter. In order to copy an experiment, go to your experiment results page and click on “View settings”.

2. Support For Relative URLs For Variation Pages

This upgrade is extremely important as it allows website owners to test different page versions without having to create multiple URLs, they can simply create a version that has a different URL parameter (either using a “?” or a “#”). This is critical, for example, for ecommerce websites that want to test different versions for a product template page. Using relative URLs they will now be able to to that.

In addition, it is important for websites using multiple domains (such as Top Level Domains) where the URL is the same with the exception of the domain. According to the help article:

Relative URLs offer more flexibility in defining the location of the variations. Content Experiments takes the concept of relative URLs as used in hyperlinks since the early days of HTML and applies it to the definition of variations. This means the variations may inherit parts of the original URL (e.g. the domain, the domain and path, etc.). Using relative URLs doesn’t conflict with parameter propagation. This means that any parameter not specified in the variation will be copied over from the original page at runtime.

3. Improvements To The Experiments Report

Google added standard report capabilities to the experiment reports, such as: Site Usage (Pages/Visit, Time on Page, Bounce Rate and % of New Visits), Goal Sets (includes all goals), Ecommerce, and Adsense. This means that from now users will be able to compare the page variations based on all the metrics, not only the goals defined while setting the experiment.

Google will improve the tool in fast pace.

A keyword or keyword phrase is a word or series of words that a user enters into a search engine. Keyword research refers to the process of choosing a few of the infinite number of possible keyword phrases to use in search engine optimisation efforts for your website.

For example, if you’re planning a family trip to Disneyland and want to find the weather forecast, you might search for the phrase: “average Paris weather in June.” Google takes this text and compares it against the billions of web pages in its index, using its complex algorithms to determine which sites represent the best matches.

Here’s a look at what you need to know about keyword research for your site, why you should care and how to get started:

What makes a good keyword?
Getting a high rank in search engine results pages is important, but it’s the specific keywords you’re ranked for that can determine how successful your website will be.

To understand the difference, compare a site that’s ranked for “make money online” to one that gets a high ranking for “online tutorials on underwater basket weaving.” Because more people are searching for the first phrase, a search engine ranking for that term can generate significantly more traffic and hopefully enable the site to make more money.

Two important concepts help us determine which keywords to target: search volume and competition. Volume refers to the number of people who enter your chosen keywords into the search engines. Greater search volume is usually better, enabling your site to draw more natural traffic.

But search volume should be tempered by a careful analysis of the competitiveness of the keyword phrase. In the example above, the keyword “make money online” receives significantly more volume, but it will be much more difficult to get your site bumped into the top 10 search results for that phrase than for “online tutorials on underwater basket weaving.”

How do I conduct keyword research?
The first step involves researching potential keyword phrases to target. There are plenty of tools that provide this data, but one of the easiest to use is Google’s free Adwords Keyword Research Tool.

You can enter phrases related to your website or just your site address, and the program will generate a list of keywords to consider. The tool also will provide data on how many global and local searches occur for a particular word or phrase each month, as well as Google’s estimate of the difficulty of getting ranked for the keyword.

Unfortunately, there are no “search volume versus competitiveness” rules to follow when choosing keywords to target from this list. But keep in mind that while the competitive keywords will require more time and effort to build a high ranking, they can pay off in increased search traffic to your site.

As you research keywords and integrate them into your site, you should start to see a pattern in terms of the ideal mix of search volume and competitiveness. Much will depend on how big an investment you’re willing to make in search engine optimization.

How do I integrate keyword research into my website?
Once you’ve identified a few potential keyword targets, start integrating them into your site. To increase your chances of getting ranked for your chosen terms, you’ll want to follow standard search engine optimization practices, including any of the following:

• Create pages on your site featuring helpful content based on your target keywords.
• Incorporate your target keywords into your page’s HTML in various places, including your site’s title, heading and meta description tags.
• Build backlinks pointing at your site using your target keyword as anchor text. The anchor text of a link refers to the part that remains visible and underlined on the referring page. For example, the link <a href=”https://www.yoursite.com”>keyword phrase</a> would appear like this: keyword phrase. This lets the search engines know that this phrase is relevant to your site.

It will take some effort to target particular keywords but, over time, your research should yield significant improvement in search traffic volume.

I do all my keyword research through a really useful tool called Market Samurai. I couldn’t imagine keyword research without it now.

Here is a list of the features you’ll get access to:

• Rank Tracker track your website rankings over time instantly
• SEO Competition Analysis analyse the strength of competition in any niche
• Keyword Research find the right keywords to control your niche
• Domains choose a domain that will boost your rankings in the search engines
• Monetisation turn traffic into cash with instant affiliate ads, published straight to your site
• Find Content research articles, and find content to republish immediately
• Publish Content write, schedule and publish content straight to your blog
• Promotion build high-authority backlinks to improve your site rankings

You can download a free trial to find out just how useful Market Samurai really is.

Measuring your conversion rate or number of top 10 rankings can tell you a lot about how well your website is performing. Obsessing over your social influence, on the other hand, isn’t as productive.

The following five commonly-tracked SEO metrics, for instance, don’t tell you that much about how your website is performing. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the number of metrics you’re tracking, consider cutting them out of your data collection process entirely.

1. Toolbar PageRank
Many website owners who live and die by toolbar PageRank — the score that appears in toolbar plugins and extensions designed to provide SEO data — even though Google spokesman Matt Cutts has all but deemed this metric irrelevant.

Although Google’s servers run PageRank update algorithms that determine how much authority sites should receive in relation to one another, they only push these scores out to the general public a few times a year. As a result, the number displayed by toolbar SEO tools may be woefully out of date, rendering the metric meaningless.

By all means, check your toolbar PageRank from time to time. A significant decrease could be an indication that Google has detected and penalised unsavoury activity on your website. But when it comes to regular management of common SEO metrics, you can leave this one off the list.

2. Top 30 rankings
Some webmasters measure their SEO success by how many times their websites appear in the first 30 Google results for their target search phrases. But the percentage of natural search users who ever navigate past the first page of results is so small that this metric is nearly meaningless.

Instead, focus on top 10 rankings. Getting on the first search engine results page is really the only way to build exposure for your company.

3. Social media shares
Social media signals play a role in your site’s SEO because both Google’s and Bing’s ranking algorithms currently factor in link shares and the relative authority of the sharers. But there’s a big difference between publishing content that will attract these social signals and obsessing day after day over exactly how many Facebook “likes” or Twitter “re-tweets” you’ve attracted.

Realistically, whether your website has 50 “likes” or 500 isn’t as important to your natural search performance as focusing on other aspects of your marketing strategy — such as how well your social media referral traffic is converting into buyers or email newsletter subscribers. Check your site’s social shares every so often to ensure that they’re trending in the right direction, but don’t waste time worrying about minute changes in your numbers.

4. Daily visitors
Of course website traffic is important, but knowing the number of daily visitors arriving on your site at any given point doesn’t make much of a difference.

Think about it: It doesn’t matter if your website receives 100 or 100 million visitors a day unless you have a method for determining how many are converting into subscribers or buyers. If you haven’t put a conversion rate optimization strategy in place, there’s no reason to worry about attracting more subscribers because you can’t guarantee that your efforts will pay off in increased revenue.

Instead of determining whether you attracted a few more visitors to your website today than you did yesterday, focus on how and when conversions are occurring. Then, feel free to track traffic flow — and conversions — to your heart’s content.

5. Social influence
Sites such as Klout and PeerIndex have been popping up recently in an attempt to quantify the relative authority of individuals and brands in any given industry. Some people get wrapped up in tracking this metric and trying to increase their scores, but I can’t think of a worse way to waste your time.

While services like these might have potential in the future, they currently are nothing more than online popularity contests. Rather than spending time trying to win these superficial contests, focus on the areas of your business that will actually enhance your bottom line.