Submit Express Newsletter #77 (January 2011)
elcome to the latest edition of the Submit Express newsletter, where we share the latest news about our company and the rapidly-evolving worlds of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. We want to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a happy holiday season. The Submit Express family is always working hard to help thousands of clients with our digital marketing needs. We're also taking a much-needed break before getting back on the road at some of the leading tradeshows and conferences in the industry, meeting with current and potential clients.
However, we'll be getting on the road as soon as the New Year starts. Our President and CEO Pierre Zarokian is speaking at the Social Media Marketing 2011 event in Las Vegas on January 12 on the topic "Social Media Marketing Tips, Tools & Techniques." More information about Pierre's speech is below, along with how you can win tickets to the event!
In this newsletter, you can also read an article by Pierre for the new eBook "The How to Make a Blog Book" from Monitoring Social Media event organizer and co-founder Murray Newlands. You can read Pierre's section featuring 10 great tips for bloggers to enhance their SEO below and learn how to order a copy of the book.
In this issue read about:
Top 10 SEO Tips for Bloggers
By Pierre Zarokian, President and CEO, Submit Express
- I always recommend using an off-the-shelf blog program rather than joining a blog network like blogger.com. This is because off-the-shelf software tends to provide increased flexibility in regards to SEO and the many SEO plug-ins available for installation.
- Always come up with a few relevant, targeted keywords and use them once or twice in your post.
- The subject or title of your post is the most important place to put a keyword, so keep that in mind and use keywords in your titles.
- Never copy anyone's post or news from other sites and post word-by-word. This will create duplicate content issues. Rather, if you are going to post a news story, write it from scratch. Try to give credit to the source to be nice; however, this may work in negative fashion for you because you now gave a free link to another story which may end up ranking better than yours. However, you also need to comply with copyright issues and most news organizations have rights to their news and may require you to give them credit. One possible solution would be to give credit to the source and link to their main page rather than the article itself.
- Stay on topic with your blog and write informative content. Don't try to cover too many unrelated subjects in one blog as this might confuse a search engine which is trying to figure out what your blog is about and its category.
- Post on a regular basis. Fresh content may outrank older content. In addition, Google also has a Blog Search Engine and there are many other blog search engines out there which give preference to new content.
- Use social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon to bookmark your posts. You may get additional traffic and links from the coverage.
- Install social bookmarking plug-ins in your blog so your visitors can also bookmark your posts. AddThis.com offers such a plug-in.
- Announce your new blog posts on your social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The more coverage you get means the more traffic and links you may get. You can even automate some of this. You could autotweet your blog posts with a tool such as twitterfeed.com. You can also autopost your blog posts in LinkedIn and Facebook with their applications.
- Build as many links to your blog as possible. If your blog has many links and ranks well, almost any content you post will also rank well. Some ideas would be to trade links with similar blogs from their blog roll or trade blog posts with other bloggers. Guest blogging is also a great idea. Many bloggers will allow you to provide them free content and in return you get a free link from the post.
Win Two Free Tickets to Social Media Marketing 2011 in Las Vegas
Want a chance to attend one of the hottest social media events of the year in America's most exciting city? Submit Express President and CEO Pierre Zarokian is giving a speech on "Social Media Marketing Tips, Tools & Techniques" at the Social Media Marketing 2011 event in Las Vegas on January 12. Coming on the heels of the Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas, this show brings together the brightest minds in social media to tell you how to create and leverage a social media platform to promote your brand, goods and services. You can find out more about the show at http://www.socialmediamarketing.co.uk/lasvegas.
Submit Express is giving away two free tickets to attend this premier event to the person with the best Tweet promoting the show. Simply make a post on your Twitter account about the show by December 31 and use the hash tags #subm10 and #smlasvegas. We'll review the posts and select the most creative and informative Tweet. Submit Express is also giving everyone a chance to get 10 percent off of their registration by using the code "subm10" when signing up online.
When it comes to the Social Media Marketing 2011 in Las Vegas, Submit Express makes sure that everyone wins!
Submit Express Adds Blekko to Its Link Popularity Checking Tool
Submit Express offers a wide range of free tools to webmasters, website owners and other people who want to improve the scope and outreach of their websites. One of the most powerful free tools offered by Submit Express is its Link Popularity Check Tool, which lets users get detailed information about their site's position and influence with various search engines. One click lets users see exactly how many back-links various sites have with the popular search engines.
This tool is even more powerful now that Submit Express has added the Blekko search engine to existing search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Blekko is a new search engine which provides enhanced information with incredible SEO value. It provides information on mentions and back-links, allowing users to drill down deep and find the SEO and link value of specific back-links found by the Blekko search engine.
Blekko takes a different approach to its search engine data; instead of making its process secretive, Blekko has a transparent model which allows users to take advantage of its SEO information for their own uses. It's a valuable tool for anyone building SEO campaigns or interested in testing the effectiveness of any online marketing efforts. By adding Blekko to our existing list of search engines scanned with the Link Popularity Check Tool, we give you the ability to access more data to create powerful SEO campaigns.
It's easy to try the Link Popularity Check Tool for yourself: simply go to http://www.submitexpress.com/link-popularity-check.html and enter in the website you want to check. We think you'll be intrigued by the depth of information provided by the Blekko search engine.
Bing Unveils Latest Search Engine Updates
On December 15, Microsoft announced several new enhancements to its Bing search engine and other tools. Scheduled to go live in the coming weeks, the latest release includes changes to Bing's visual image search, ticket buying experience, maps and more.
"Our focus on reimagining what search can be to better respond to what you're doing has not changed," writes Satya Nadella, Bing's Senior Vice President of Online Services Division, in a company blog post.
"To do that, we are building new technologies that help Bing figure out what people like you are trying to do, and match that with the right experiences to help get things done."
To help users make informed ticket purchase decisions, Microsoft has incorporated FanSnap's venue maps and event catalogue into Bing Search. With the new update, users can compare ticket prices from other sites, explore the view from the seat and locate the best deal.
Looking for a particular image? Already a feature offered by Google, Bing has updated its image search results to include Instant Answer, a tool that organizes the images into the main results page. Users can qualify the search by clicking on the suggested tabs.
According to the company blog post, Bing maps have also been updated and will now feature interior panoramic views of restaurants. After exploring and selecting a restaurant online, users can also make reservations through Bing's new OpenTable integration feature.
Among other upgrades, Bing has also added a new social experience feature through its partnership with Facebook, which will show users which of their friends have "liked" search results.
Bing Replaces Yahoo! as Number Two Search Engine
Microsoft Bing reached a major milestone for usage in August, the same month it officially became the technology which powers the Yahoo! search engine. According to PC Magazine, the latest statistics from The Nielsen Company show that Bing surpassed Yahoo! for the first time in August to become the second most-used search engine in the United States.
Bing represented 13.9 percent of all domestic Internet searches in August, placing it ahead of Yahoo!'s 13.1 percent. Bing still is a distant second to industry leader Google, which represented a whopping 65.1 percent of all American Internet searches in August. However, the combined number of user-generated searches performed by Bing and Yahoo! in August would be 26 percent, according to a Nielsen blog post.
Bing is also showing tremendous growth. According to Nielsen, while Google's searches have grown by just one percent in the United States since August 2009, searches on Bing in the same time frame have risen by 30 percent.
Yahoo! Announces Local Search, Social Media Enhancements
Yahoo! is getting more heavily involved in local search, as PC World reports that the search giant has launched a program called Local Offers which will offer Yahoo! users special deals targeted to their demographic market. According to a Yahoo! press release, initial partners for Local Offers include Groupon, LivingSocial and Coupons.com.
Yahoo! also announced new local search enhancements, including new "Quick Apps" features designed to allow people to hone in on local areas of interest during searches. A new Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search feature will let people visually narrow down search results for popular destinations like restaurants. Other local search enhancements will let people compare local restaurants and let people make reservations through OpenTable right on the Yahoo! Search results page.
In addition to expanding local search, Yahoo! also announced new social media products and services. A new global rollout of Yahoo! Messenger allows users to play social games from publishers like Zynga, ELEX and OMGPOP, share their status across networks, and view, comment on, and "like" updates from Yahoo! Pulse, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter.
"Our job is to connect you with the people, places and things that matter most to you - whether that's making a restaurant reservation, finding a discounted tee time, or playing popular online games with friends," said Blake Irving, executive vice president and chief product officer, Yahoo!. "By enhancing Yahoo!'s most popular sites and services with social experiences like Zynga and Twitter, great local content, and a new platform for sharing your voice with the world, we're making Yahoo! an even better place for everyone to stay entertained, productive, and informed."
Retailers Taking Advantage of Facebook Deals
PROMO Magazine reports that many leading retailers are taking advantage of the new Facebook Deals app to market directly to customers who are already near their stores. Taking advantage of the Facebook Places app for many smartphones, retailers such as Gap, McDonald's and Macy's are delivering personalized deals to customers when they "check in" that they are at or near a certain location.
Facebook Places lets users share their locations with friends. Facebook Deals gives them the ability to view deals at nearby businesses through their smartphone and instantly take advantage of the deals without printing out a coupon. For example, Gap stores gave away blue jeans to the first 10,000 customers to take advantage of a Facebook Deals offer, leading to lines forming outside of a New York store by 8 a.m.
Is your site anywhere to be found in the search engines? Do you need to be in the top 10 of search engines, but don't know how? Are you tired of trying everything you possibly can and still are nowhere to be found?
If you need help getting your site in the top 10 of major search engines, please check out our search engine optimization services:
We can also give you free advice when you order our 75,000+ Search Engine Submission. We will visit your site and send you a list of suggestions on how to improve your rankings.
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