SEO Marketing World

A growing trend in search engine marketing and search engine optimization is known as Social Media Optimization. This involves uses the myriad social networks available to drive traffic to your website by marketing through them. Interestingly, this also works to increase your link popularity, which will in turn boost your PageRank. However, there are some things to remember in order to make your social media marketing strategy most effective.

Not all social networks or social media sites will be beneficial to you. For starters, you have to have a good idea of who your target audience is, and what social media services they might use. These are the places in which you should focus your efforts.

Another thing to remember is that on many social networks, users are hyper aware of spam. Therefore, you’re going to have to get creative about where and now you submit links, because you don’t want to come off as a blatant marketer. When using social bookmark sites, such as Digg or Del.ici.ous, don’t make overt attempts to have your content voted to the top, either by encouraging others or creating false accounts and voting for your own content. This is considered black hat SEO in many circles, and your content can be removed if this is discovered.

One thing that’s important to remember is to provide specific tags for your links. Specific keywords and tags can help you stand out in a crowd. Rather than competing for a popular keyword such as “used cars”, try being more specific, using something like “used car parts” and try to tackle a niche. This will result in more attention in that niche and much better results.

When you link, link to content within your site that will be useful to users. Providing them with something specific is much better than linking them directly to your homepage. Remember, providing specific, useful content to a niche interest group will ultimately be much more effective than trying to reach everyone through general, boring content. A great idea is to link to an article within your blog, and then use the blog to relate back to your main site. Make yourself look like a specific expert, and your SEO and social media marketing will be most successful.

Social media sites can be very good at drawing traffic to your website, as well as at increasing your link popularity and thereby your PageRank. Social bookmarking sites such as Digg or Del.ici.ous are proven to draw vast amounts of traffic within a very short amount of time.

StumbleUpon is a different type of social bookmarking site, but can produce just as effective results. StumbleUpon allows users to add a toolbar to their browser that includes a like/dislike vote feature. If a user likes a site, it will be submitted to StumbleUpon. What’s interesting is that unlike the other sites mentioned, StumbleUpon draws a lower amount of traffic over a longer time, but that consistency can be very beneficial to your search engine optimization. Here are some tips to improve your own StumbleUpon ranking.

• Get on StumbleUpon and rate sites that you like. Getting involved in the community in this way will make your website get more visibility to users with similar interests.
• Add new friends frequently. The more people who see your site and site’s that you give thumbs up, the more your own rating will improve, and thus your visibility.
• Create and submit new websites often. If you have a new site, new content or a new blog post, submit a link to StumbleUpon. The more sites you have in their database, the more likely that users will find you. Cross linking between these sites can have a great effect on your SEO as well.
• Choose titles and tags carefully. Try to appeal to those with relevant interests, so you can improve the quality, and not just the quantity, of your traffic.
• Use several tags rather than just one. This will spread out your appeal and attract more viewers.

StumbleUpon can be an excellent part of your search engine marketing strategy, and a great way to generate useful, specific traffic for your site.