Social Media and Web 2.0
March 10, 2008 on 5:40 pm
Filed Under:SEO, Web
Jason Burby, another favourite over at ClickZ, recently wrote about Social Media and Web 2.0 and I am forced to echo his sentiments once again.
In times passed, I may or may not have been guilty of pushing the Web 2.0 aspect of site promotion a bit too hard, encouraging blogs and forums where they may not have been the absolute best solution. Now though, I can sum up my overall theories and beliefs on the best things for a site in one phrase:
Have a good website.
I say this quite often, I’m aware, but that’s because it’s so important to me. Part of the reason that SEO/SEM firms get such a bad rap about being snake-oil salesmen and scam artists is because so many of them push something purely because it’s working.
Social Media, sadly enough, is yet another victim of this. SEOs see that Digg and Reddit can drive traffic to a site and, as they’ve undoubtedly promised it already, they’ve got to deliver on some increases in traffic or end up looking inept. So, they throw a few articles in there, plug a few pages, and use these clever tools in ways that they weren’t originally intended.
Unfortunately, many Social Media sites are headed that direction, where they’re being used for the wrong purposes, and I fear they’re going to get burned by it.
The Social component to a site needs to be just that, social, and as soon as SEOs start making it too commercial then we’ve only given ourselves a bad name.
Yet again.
Combining your Pay-Per-Click Campaign with Search Engine Optimisation
March 3, 2008 on 9:18 am
Filed Under:SEO
I’ve heard it said enough, on enough SEO company sites, that your Search Engine Marketing strategy should always combine your Pay Per Click Campaign with your Search Engine Optimisation efforts.
While this is for the most part true, I don’t believe it’s absolutely integral to a solid campaign.
“What? Did he just say I don’t need to do the thing that every other SEO says I have to do?”
You got it.
Though much like everything in this online world, it all depends.
Sure, if you’re a brand-new site, don’t have much budget, and need to start getting some interest on your site quickfast, PPC is the way to go. SEO should always, ALWAYS, be there though, regardless of whether or not you’ve got a Pay Per Click Campaign going.
And also much like everything else in this world, it comes down to budget too.
If you’re new at this, then using just a bit of your budget to get some exposure, as well as get a feel for the market and keywords, is a fine idea and PPC is a decent way to do this. But, if your site has been optimised, you’ve got a solid idea of what the market looks like, and you’ve even done some keyword research, then I find that it’s a better idea to save your budget for companies like ours.
Depending on the bidding competition, you’re sometimes better off paying someone like me to do your keyword research and hustle to get you that one, high quality, high profile, highly relevant link, which in turn will drive your site’s value up as well as give you plenty of traffic.
It’s been my experience that Pay Per Click has it’s place, a close second to SEO in some cases, but your money can be better spent getting the right kind of qualified and relevant traffic to your site via quality linking. To me, it’s a much firmer foundation for traffic than something that people may or may not arbitrarily click on and you have to pay for regardless of whether or not they actually do anything on your site.
