Google recently unveiled a new feature that could change search engine optimization forever. The “+1″ feature, which echoes Facebook’s “Like” button, allows users to recommend the site to others while also giving it a boost of credibility.

To use the +1 button, you have to be signed in to a Google account. In addition to helping people share relevant pages with their contacts, the +1 button will also Google tailor search results to users’ individual preferences. Here’s how it works:

Google debuted +1 at the end of March. In coming months, it has plans to make +1 available to web publishers. That means that you may be seeing little +1 boxes on each web page, just like those ubiquitous Facebook and Twitter chicklets.

To understand the new Google +1 button and its implications for search, I recommend checking out my colleague Serena Fedor’s recent blog post, “How Google Is Putting Users in Charge,” or SearchEngineLand’s exhaustive review.

What do you think – will the +1 revolutionize search engine marketing, or will it go the way of Google Buzz? Let me know in the comments section below.

Confession: I have purposely inserted misspellings into my own writing.

I have rejected really good headlines and great lead sentences for mediocre ones that start with a keyword or phrase.

I have stifled the urge to delete redundancies. I’ve even added redundancies to get one more keyword into my writing.

For a former journalist, this is painful to admit. But for an SEO copywriter, it’s all in a day’s work.

Read the rest of my guest blog post at SEOSage.org.

The Lancaster SEO Meetup Group recently invited me to speak on one of my favorite topics, writing killer copy for the web.

Copywriting describes writing that appears on sales and marketing materials. (No, it has nothing to do with copyrighting, or registering stuff with the government.)

SEO copywriting is a subcategory of copywriting that describes writing that has been optimized with keywords and formatting that makes it appear higher in search engine results.

Have your eyes glazed over yet? I hope not, because while search engine optimization is a mouthful, it’s essential to effective online marketing. Without it, nobody’s going to see your web site.

In the following two videos, I:

•    Give some examples of bad SEO copywriting

•    Reveal what constitutes good web copy

•    Give a step-by-step tutorial on writing copy for the web

•    Provide tips on hiring a good SEO copywriter

You can also see a short SlideShare of the PowerPoint presentation I used below.

]]> http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/write-killer-copy-for-the-web/feed 0 http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/google-yourself http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/google-yourself#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:49:35 +0000 Kelly Kautz http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/?p=3576

There’s a little restaurant in my hometown that has been in business for years. The food is delicious but the owner is … how can I put this? Eccentric.

Arrive on a good night, and he’ll treat you like royalty. He’s been known to keep the kitchen open past regular hours to feed visitors from out of town.

Arrive on a bad night, and he’ll hover over your table, help himself from your bottle of wine and drunkenly curse at your dinner companions. He’s also particularly ornery toward anyone who uses a coupon.

I’ve never seen any of these altercations, but I can quote some of them word-for-word. (“It’s a shame it takes a coupon for people to come here!“)

How is this possible? In a word: Google reviews.

Thanks to the internet, you can find out all sorts of things about the world. That’s nothing new. But do you know what search results appear for your business’s name? What about misspellings of your business’s name? Your name?

Searching for your business name is also a great way to make sure that your data is complete and up-to-date. Many places, including Google Local, will let you upload a photo and even a coupon or two.

If you’re not listed under sites such as Google Local and Superpages, take a moment to add your business. You’ll not only increase your visibility, but your search engine optimization as well.

Finally, don’t forget to set a Google Alert for your business’s name, so you can handle press as soon as it appears. Read my blog post on Google Alerts for step-by-step instructions.

Ashley and I discuss a number of SEO strategies for women in business such as link building, on-page keyword optimization, article marketing, and whether submitting your site to link directories really works or is just a waste of time.

Save podcast as MP3

In the podcast, she lists a number of  tools that can help women in business generate keywords and research traffic. They include:

•    Google’s Keyword Tool
•    SEM Rush
•    Compete
•    Wordtracker

Tune in April 1, 2009 for another episode of the One Woman Marketing podcast with more tips on the feminine way to market your business and grow profits.

This is a guest post by Ashley Lichty, an SEO copywriter for ProspectMX, a web marketing company that provides SEO services to companies of all sizes on a nationwide level.

Whenever I run into friends or family I haven’t seen in a while, they inevitably ask: “So what are you doing now?”

Answering “I’m an SEO” draws blank stares. Expanding on that by saying, “It means search engine optimization specialist,” only makes their eyes glaze.

Eventually I developed an explanation that made sense to both the internet-savvy and the hopelessly lost. Basically, SEO is doing things that help search engines know what your website is about so they can show it in their results pages for relevant search terms (or keywords).

To make it even less painful: SEO is how you make your website found on the web.

Why do SEO? Well, what’s the point of having a website if people can’t find it? The best part of SEO is that once the initial work is done, it just takes a little maintenance over time and you’ve got free traffic for years.

The main things involved in optimizing your website are:

Keyword research lets you discover what words people use when searching for things relating to your industry. Google’s free keyword suggestion tool is a personal favorite of mine.

On-page optimization involves choosing one to three keywords to use when optimizing each page of your site. Then, work these phrases into title tags, URLs, internal links (within the anchor text), and content, so the search engines know what your site is about.

Link building is probably the most important aspect of SEO. Search engines count the number of inbound links you have as “votes” in your favor. The more sites link to yours, the more authoritative your site looks to the search engines. An important aspect of this is ANCHOR TEXT! You want the site to link to you using your preferred keyword phrase as the anchor text.

Social media participation is about getting out there in various forums, blogs, and social networks in your industry. It also requires getting involved in the community, getting known, and becoming a productive online member of your industry.

Of course, Google has thrown a wrench into the works with the introduction of its universal search model. Google has begun integrating not just websites into its search results, but images, video, news stories, products, and other types of content.

That means you have to optimize your site, your content, your images, videos and so on so they have a chance of ranking. (You can check out my company’s Universal Search Chart to learn a little more about that.)

For more SEO help, check out A Beginner’s Guide to SEO and SEOBook’s Search Engine Marketing Glossary.

The following is a guest post by Jonathan Bentz, a link builder for ProspectMX, a provider of internet marketing services located in my hometown of Lancaster, PA.

What Link Building Has To Do With SEO

If you’ve ever read an internet marketing blog or studied search engine optimization (SEO), you’re probably familiar with the importance of having links point to your site. Not only do links drive referral traffic, they also improve your site’s search engine ranking.

But how can you secure links to your site? The internet is a large place! While there are tons of websites out there, starting to link build and improve SEO can be a daunting task.

Why Link Building Is Worth The Efffort

The best thing about link building is that almost any link is better than none. Getting started from scratch might not be as difficult as you think. For example, do you have a profile on Facebook, MySpace,  Twitter, etc.? Most social networking websites include a profile field for a website link. Completely fill out your profiles on those sites, include your URL, and boom! You have links.

That said, certain styles of links are considered more valuable than others. Links that include the target keyword text of your website are more beneficial than simply having your website address typed in a document. Also, links from sites directly related to the topic of your website are also preferred.

When doing link exchanges, never work with an adult site, prescription drug e-store, or gambling website. Unless your website is in those industries, links from sites like that pointing to yours will only be a detriment to search engine rankings.

Building Business, One Link At A Time

Below are 10 quick tips for starting your SEO link building efforts. For a great guide to this process, ProspectMX (my internet marketing company) put together an easy-to-understand chart explaining link building that is 100% free to download.

1.    Submit your site to directories. Many of them are FREE to submit, and a reciprocal link is all that is required for instant publication.

2.    Publish an article about a hot topic related to your website on a free article submission site like EzineArticles.

3.    Request reciprocal links from related websites and blogs.

4.    Write a Squidoo lens about the topic of your website.

5.    Distribute a press release about the debut of your website on free submission press release sites.

6.    Add a link to your forum signature on any message boards you regularly participate in.

7.    Comment on blogs and include your website address in your comment user name.

8.    Fill out your company information on websites like SuperPages and Yahoo! Local.

9.    Bookmark your website in any social media or news sites, like delicious.com.

10.  Request links to your website from any friends, coworkers, or family members who also have sites.