Your business website may have lots of usable and convincing content but this alone is not enough to gain new customers and revenue.
When your website gets to this point, then it is time to create a link building strategy to boost your brand authority and site ranking. This is done by building link partnerships, creating links from directories, blogs and social networks. You may find yourself asking the question ‘why do I need to do this?”, but your ability to be found online is achieved largely through links from one web page to another. These days’ links even take the form of Likes, Tweets, and Follows, terms which may be familiar if you are an avid Facebook or Twitter fan. Being successful may involve an element of breaking out from your comfort zone to get noticed. Getting your site optimised can be time consuming and more often than not you won’t see the results of the work until a few weeks, if not months later. A site that ranks well is the outcome of planning and lots of effort with very few shortcuts. You have to make good decisions early on in the process to gain a good amount of momentum. Similarly, incorporating social media into the public eye of your business is a long process that will take time to reach its potential. Success in social media relies on co-operation and engagement with your clients and prospective customers and sometimes even your competitors.
Where do I begin?
Building Links
Inbound links are necessary if you want high ranking in the search engine listings. Search engines view links to web sites as a vote in favour of its importance. If highly ranked popular sites link to your site, then search engines will view your site in a much higher regard. In other words, the more trustworthy a site, the more powerful and valuable their link seems to search engines. If they link to your site, then search engines think your site also holds part of that trust. The reliability of a site is gauged in many ways, but the most common is probably the Google PageRank (PR). This is a standard 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being for sites that have achieved the highest rank and most authority. Examples of which are Facebook, Google Search, CNN.com and The White House. Part of best practice in building PageRank and brand authority is submitting links to high quality directories and sites that will link back to your site. But don’t waste time creating loads of random links on directories that have a very low PR. Sometimes it may seem tempting to use automated tools for building links, but your time is much better spent working on a few well-optimised links from popular sites that share context with content on your site. For example, if your business sells consumer electronics, then you could build links from popular sites that review electronics brands that your company sells. Local search is also becoming more important. Where possible aim to build links from good quality local websites and directories that serve viewers in your vicinity.
Many of the top social media sites have extremely high traffic rates and Google PageRank. Make sure you engage with clients and prospective customers on these networks as this will help build your brand personality online. Use these social networks to link to your website and drive valuable traffic through to your key content. This is important because these sites will also rank very high in organic search queries and brand name queries. Popular social media sites are:
- YouTube
- And many others…
Social media is becoming more important than ever to shape opinions about your business in the open marketplace. It’s a great way to gain brand authority as well as help increase overall exposure. Social media is more than just content on a static page – it’s a dynamic multimedia rich discussion from both sides. Here are some simple tips for using social media to build your brand authority:
- Respond to conversations that involve your company, your services, and your industry.
- Recognise then rectify potential problems in your products or services while promoting your goodwill – it’s all about sharing not selling.
- Let your customers know why you are an expert in your industry.
- Create and share unique content that displays your expertise and encourages debate.
- Build a community of people that may have special interests in your company and products or services.
It’s likely you will need a Web Design and SEO company and perhaps even a social media marketing consultant to help you to get the ball rolling and provide some initial training. But don’t despair, there are hundreds of specialists you can get advice from and don’t forget to use blogs and forums where possible as there will be lots of people who are happy to provide further support and talk about their own experiences. Over the next few weeks we will be covering a series of SEO topics in more depth. Please follow us @opaceweb on Twitter and Opacewebdesign on Facebook for information blog updates, please feel free to subscribe to our feed.
Image credit – SEOPlanter
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