Best SEO Strategies 2012

2012 SEO Tips - Add Value, Not Spam

Published on June 10, 2012 by: James H. Hobson

SEO in 2012

In the past, organic SEO relied heavily on massive time investments in low user value tactics such as link farms, spammy article writing, link dropping, mindless blog comments and similar methods that shared the common goal of increasing backlinks. Unfortunately, this allowed volumes of websites with minimal useful content to be ranked high on search engines. With ongoing algorithm changes and refinements in the ability of search engines to associate content, the best way to improve your SEO work in 2012 is to polish your methods and focus on user value.

Leveraging Social Media

Although many business owners and managers (and internet marketing companies) debate the value of spending time and money to use social medioa platforms to generate leads or sales, social media can definitely have a profound indirect benefit to your internet marketing results. Search engines are increasing their consideration of the "social engagement" of business websites. There are obviously a plethora of social media site, and Web 2.0 properties, where your business can actively participate however we have a core group which we believe offer optimal value. Every business should establish a business page on Google+, Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube. We strongly recommend establishing accounts or profiles on othe top sites for the purposes of protecting your company name, brand and online reputation.

The "core four" listed above (Google+, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube) should be added to your business website with their respective icons and a link to the appropriate page on those sites. Your business should actively seek to build your Followers, +1 Circles, Likes and other types of user participation, validation and approval. Proven tactics for making this happen are to get your employees, friends and vendors to join your pages; frequently add truly useful information (not just sales pitches), and reach out to other social media pages. Often getting a new person to join your site is as simple as first joining their social media page.

Useful Content Contributions

Taking time to create articles and other forms of useful content is usually not a top priority with business owners and managers. To better ensure that this happens, we recommend setting aside a specific time each week to write about something that you find stimulating or of sincere interest. When you have a real interest, the words flow easier and the end result is usually much better. To get the most from any article, blog post or content that you create you should always add a byline which gives you authorship, and possible include a link within the article to your site or the source sites for your cited information.

What Are "Useful Content Contributions"? Online users seeking business related information need to solve a problem, buy a product or service or otherwise become informed. Articles and content that are predominantly sales pitches are far less useful than content which provides specifications, how-to instructions, comparisons, explanations and overviews, etc. In the course of providing this type of content it is certainly appropriate to include links to any website that can further help the user - including a link to your own site if it is relevant.

Authorship

By now you should have noticed that many search results pages on Google include a persons photo adjacent to the listed item. To make this happen you need to complete a few easy steps to confirm authorship. When you establish authorship, search engines then know that the information posted is original content, attributed to you, and overall this increase your online reputation and authority presence. Click the following link for step-by-step information on how to establish authorship on Google.

We recommend taking time now to polish your SEO in 2012, and take at least 30 minutes each week to post content on your social media sites, and become a valued contributor to blogs and forums within your industry. Within a few months you should notice improvements in your internet metrics and general visibility. For more information or consulting you can contact our company and speak with a helpful social media consultant.