CASE STUDY: How We Helped One Lawyer Rank #1 On Google, Sell His Practice, And Retire in Hawaii

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Andrew Stickel

Backlink Placement Strategy

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Anyone with a basic knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) will understand exactly how important backlinks are to SEO strategy. In a nutshell, backlinks are links from one website to a target website. The site that wants the search engine benefit of the backlink is the target website. The more relevant places that a backlink can be placed online, the higher in search engine rank the target site will be able to climb. Backlinks can be placed:

In Status Updates

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ status updates are great places to include links to a website because social networks maintain their own search engines which are becoming increasingly popular among web users looking for products or services. Internal search engines index the content of status updates the same way search engines index the content of websites. The more popular that a site can become on a social network’s search engine, then the more likely the site will be able to climb in popularity on external search engines.

In Signature Section of Forum Postings

Forums dedicated to the topic of a business or professional’s niche are great places for businesses and professionals to network, attract leads, and leave links to websites. Most forums allow users to include a “signature” section in every post that imprints a preselected comment or statement to the bottom of every post. Once a signature is set, the business or professional can answer questions or comment on niche related issues on the forum, leaving behind a relevant backlink with every response.

In Blog Posts

Creating blog posts is perhaps one of the best ways to market a website online. Blog posts can be hosted on target sites or created as guest posts for other sites. If written on another site, the link in the post will be a back link and will count toward the target site’s overall SEO rank.

Avoid Overdoing It

While posting backlinks to a target website in the locations above is good for SEO, there is such a thing as overdoing it. Putting too many backlinks on a single page can make search engines interpret the page containing the backlinks as spam, and will penalize both the host website and the target website. Status updates should contain actual substance and context instead of just links.

Signature sections on digital forums should be attached to useful and relevant responses to forum discussions. Posting frivolous posts just to get a signature section online will get a person banned from the forum and will do next to nothing for the target site’s overall SEO rank. As for blog posts, a single backlink in a single blog post up to 500 words is usually sufficient to help a site’s SEO rank without activating search engine spam filters.

Longer blog posts, those over 500 words, can usually afford an extra backlink, but it should point to a different section of the target site. In other words, backlinks in the same piece of content should all be different. One backlink can point a homepage and another can point to an “About Us” page. One backlink can point to a Facebook page, and one can point to a Twitter feed.

Why You Should Have Interest In Pinterest

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If you’ve ignored Pinterest, don’t. It’s an important social media network with 70 million users and 2.5 billion page views per month. Pinterest is still relatively new; development only began in 2009, and the founders were still operating Pinterest out of a small apartment as late as 2011.

If you’ve been too busy to find out about Pinterest or to take advantage of the site, you should know that its users buy more of the products they see on Pinterest than Facebook, and they’re also more likely to arrive at your own website from Pinterest than from Facebook. Here are some basic tips for getting started on Pinterest and taking advantage of this popular, growing social media network.

Be sure to include everything about your business that customers should know, and use your business name as the “profile name.” Be sure your profile is complete, and use a business page rather than a personal profile page; otherwise, you’ll forfeit the ability to use the analytics data. Plus, a complete profile looks more professional and is key to your SEO goals.

  • Include links to your Facebook and Twitter pages and to your own site and/or blog. Used properly, Pinterest can be a potent SEO tool.
  • Follow other businesses, especially those similar to yours. This lets you see what’s working for them, and it can sometimes give you ideas and insights.
  • Generally speaking, don’t mix your personal interest boards with business boards. If you sell comic books or hand-made jewelry, your customers probably aren’t interested in your wedding plans or favorite recipes. (This advice is good for other social media sites too, not just Pinterest.)
  • Pin the right images. When you upload pictures or graphics, make sure they’re clear and attractive to the eye. Maximum image size on Pinterest is 5000 pixels high x 554 pixels wide. And don’t overwhelm your audience by posting too many images at once.
  • Don’t turn on “Search Privacy.” If you do, your customers won’t be able to find you in search engine results. Make sure Search Privacy is off in your Account Settings.

Pinterest has plenty of other bells and whistles you can use to your advantage, so it’s worth your time to take a close look at what’s there. Pinterest is just too big and important to be ignored any longer, so if you’re confused by it, or if you’re just too busy, you may choose to get some help from a good social media marketing company.

Blogging Is Imperative

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Blogging can literally help you reach an audience of millions of potential customers. In the 21st century, if you do any kind of marketing, a blog really is an absolute necessity. Let’s start at the beginning. The word “blog” is a contraction of the words “web log.” A blog is a website, or section of a website, of entries (“posts”) displayed in reverse order, so that the most recent entry is at the top. (The word is also used as a verb, “to blog” meaning to write and maintain a blog.)

You have several options regarding where your blog can be found; it can be part of your own already-established website, you can use a hosting service like WordPress, or you can join a multi-author site like Open Salon. You may even choose to blanket the internet and use all these options simultaneously. And you’ll certainly want your blog optimized for mobile technology; over a billion people on the planet are now registered smartphone users.

Be smart about marketing through blogging; you don’t want “merely” to advertise and push products or services. Give your readers advice and resources. If you sell computers or motorcycles, offer advice about keeping them maintained and running optimally; if you sell groceries, offer recipes and tips on eating healthy. If you aren’t certain what to blog about, ask your customers; a survey can also give you helpful insights into their needs and interests. Providing reliable advice creates trust, and trust translates into influence when it’s time for customers to make a purchase. Interesting topics, top-notch writing, and practical advice are the keys to successful blogging.

An additional option is podcasting, which you can use as an audio blog. You’ll need to decide for yourself if podcasting is for you. Today only 5% of marketers (in a survey of 3,000 conducted by Technorati) take advantage of podcasting, but that may change quickly; Apple has introduced a podcasting mobile app, and Ford and BMW are introducing podcasting technology into new cars.

Of course, you’ll want to post links to your blog on Twitter and Facebook. Integrating your marketing, as you probably already understand, is key to success. Finally, if you don’t have a great deal of time for writing, and if you aren’t a Hemingway or a Stephen King, you’ll want to consider hiring a ghost-writer or a social marketing company that provides blog-writing services.

Tumblr And You

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Tumblr hosts more than 130 million blogs. In May 2013, the website received more than 5 billion page views. Bloggers can post text, pictures, videos, music, and links. Tumblr’s popularity is rapidly growing. If you’re not yet taking advantage of Tumblr, it offers professionals and small business owners a fresh opportunity to introduce your products or services to new customers. Tumblr is easy to use, and signing up is straightforward; simply enter a username, a password, and an e-mail address.

Your next step is choosing an appropriate and eye-catching design for your page. Scores of themes are available for Tumblr; some themes are free and others may be inexpensively purchased. Most themes for Tumblr allow for extensive customization, and all the themes can be installed quickly and easily.

Now you’re ready to start posting. Post content that will establish your audience’s trust in you and keep them returning to your page. Along with your own posts, you’ll want to choose which other blogs on Tumblr you’d like to follow. When you find another blog post that you want to share with your audience, you can do that with Tumblr’s reblogging feature. You’ll quickly see that pictures are predominant on Tumblr – half of Tumblr’s posts are photos or other graphics, so you’ll want to start taking and looking for interesting, relevant pictures to share with your audience.

Tumblr is popular internationally too, and using the right pictures can help you reach across the language barriers. Post pictures of your product being produced and used, or your team and your services in action. Work for consistency. Whether you post once a week or several times a day, your Tumblr audience should know when to expect your next post.

Some observers expect that Tumblr will soon rival Facebook and Twitter, so if you’re not already taking advantage of Tumblr, this is the time to start.

Blogs Are Big News

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Increasingly, Americans are abandoning television and newspapers to get their news from the internet. Surprisingly, however, many of those abandoning traditional media aren’t transitioning to news sites like the Drudge Report, Huffington Post, or CNN.com. Instead, large percentages are now “getting their news” from social media sites, according to a new study from the Pew Research Journalism Project.

Americans are seeking news from sources they trust: social media networks. Facebook is the largest social networking site; users include 64 percent of the adults in the United States. The Pew study shows that half of these adults are using Facebook as a primary news source. That would mean that 32% of the adults in the U.S. are relying on Facebook as a news source.

In terms of usage, YouTube is the second-largest site, used by 51 percent of adults in the U.S., although only 20 percent of the users (about 10 percent of America’s adults) consider YouTube a news source.

Twitter, Reddit, and LinkedIn are also used as news sources, but by much smaller numbers of users. Of particular note for law firms and “high-end” retailers is the demographic group receiving its news via social media. It trends towards the highly-educated, high-income, 30-to-64-year olds, precisely the demographic that interests law firms, accounting firms, healthcare businesses, and high tech electronics retailers.

The recent Pew study, then, is good news for bloggers and others who make social media a marketing priority. Blogs move, to a great extent, through social networks. Blogs posts are shared by the readers who have the strongest interest in the post’s topic. Articles and newsletters do not get the traction that blog posts when it comes to sharing; blog posts are precise, timely, and topical, unlike “permanent” website content.

The takeaway: You need to be blogging. Blogs grow influence. A blogger sharing insights, commentary, and opinion establishes a name as a trusted, reliable voice. That influence grows as your content is shared over Facebook and other networks. If you don’t feel confident as a writer, or if you’re as busy as most professionals and business owners, consider hiring a free-lance blog writer or a social media marketing company to provide the timely, interesting blog posts you need.

Tip Jars And Social Proof

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You probably know that bartenders and musicians put a few of their own dollars into their tip jars when they begin work. It’s a simple trick for getting more and better tips. Sociologists call the concept “social proof”; little kids call it “monkey see, monkey do.” It’s the fact that our behavior is often based on watching the choices others make and following them. By putting a few dollars in the tip jar, bartenders and musicians create the social proof they need to produce more tips.

Uppsala University in Sweden found that audience members at a symphony are more or less apt to applaud depending on whether others are applauding. When 50 percent of an audience claps, individuals are ten times more likely to applaud than if only 5 percent of the audience is applauding. Often unconsciously, we make daily choices based on what we see others doing.

Social proof isn’t just about tips and applause. It can help you measure and improve the effectiveness of your social media marketing. Is 50 percent of your audience applauding, or only 5 percent? Avinash Kaushik, a digital marketing expert for Google and an instructor at the University of British Columbia, suggests that your “applause rate” can be measured quite easily.

On Twitter, for example, your applause rate equals the number of favorite clicks per post; on Facebook, your applause rate equals the number of likes per post; and on Google+, your applause rate equals the number of +1s per post. More applause actually generates even more applause and creates the viral impact that makes social media marketing so potent. Increased social media sharing leads to increased social media sharing. You get the drift.

Get the juggernaut rolling by creating exceptional content. Entertain, inspire, and inform. If you don’t feel confident as a writer or content creator, hire a freelancer or a social media marketing firm to create fabulous content for you. Then directly encourage your employees, partners, friends, best customers, and other contacts to share your content. It’s comforting to know that the content you’re about to post to Facebook will automatically have fifteen or fifty likes – the equivalent of a few dollars in the tip jar – by the end of the day. As you keep in mind the concept of social proof, you’ll find more opportunities to create it and to benefit from it.