Oct
6
Social Media Optimization or SMO is being talked about quite a bit by online marketers these days. What is it, and why should you care? As you know by now, I am a big proponent of social network marketing strategies that are used in conjunction with good search engine optimization (SEO) practices. Social Media Optimization is yet another term for the same thing - Web 2.0 Applications.
Let’s break down SMO, SEO and Web 2.0.
SEO - Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization or SEO is a process that involves making a website perform well in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). It involves a group of standards and practices that make your website appealing to search engine spiders. That includes but is not limited to:
- Good Domain- the best scenario is to have the keywords within the domain itself. There is no need to separate the keywords or phrases with hyphens, in fact sites without hyphens rank better than ones with hyphens.
- Good URL Structure- the keywords must appear within the URL itself. This can become problematic with dynamic database driven sites; however tools such as mod rewrite and 301 redirects can make even the ugliest database driven URL’s pretty in the eyes of the search engines. Even Miva has built in SEO tools now. The keywords have to be in the URL for spiders to understand and gauge importance of any given web page.
- Deep Link Navigation- otherwise known as breadcrumb navigation, deep links are paths that your visitors follow as they traverse your website. By displaying the links to your major sections, you are giving both your visitors and the search engines a path to follow around your site. The better a spider can follow links and index content, the better ranking you will get.
- Keyword Density - also known as keyword stuffing, it is critical for you to take the keyword or keyword phrase that you are promoting and incorporate it into the URL, page title, meta tags, content, H2 tags and links. By bolding or italicizing the keywords, you are telling the search engines that they are important.
Social Media Optimization
SMO is using rich media like video and podcasts to drive traffic and enhance your site. Don’t get caught up in the trap of spending a lot of time promoting your site and content on useless sites like Digg. They don’t give any SEO value at all, but can help with traffic if your content can generate interest.
Web 2.0 applications like RSS and WordPress are very powerful SEO tools. By cross promoting your sites through video and podcasts you will be able to get more functionality out of your web presence and give your readers and site users better benefits. It all starts with quality content!
The best use for social media is to build brands and drive traffic. Since Google strong armed social networks into nofollowing outbound links on their user generated content. At one time Flickr was an outstanding source for Yahoo backlinks. Now it is a waste of time. There is only one Social Network site that still produces quality SEO links. I’ll be writing about how to leverage that site in my next article. Give me a call if you can’t wait to find out what that is!
Learn more about social network marketing here.
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Comments
2 Responses to “Social Media Optimization - Practical Applications”
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Thanks for the great post. I tried to look for the next article but was unable to find it.
Jen,
I decided not to share that website publically because I have found that it is not being used very much as a marketing tool by SEO webmasters. Send me a request for it through the contact form on Contact Get Found Now asking for the name of the last major social network to pass on link juice, and I will email the info to you directly. Anyone can also use the form or call me at 866-418-3843 to learn more about social network marketing that works for SEO.