The Maine SEO Blog

Have an outbound link you’re desperate to get traffic reports for? Maybe the affiliate reservations site you use? Well you can track it using your Google Analytics!

All you have to do is insert a piece of javascript into the href tag; in this example I track the link to flyte:

Then, you can track who clicks on the link by looking at your “Top Content” in Google Analytics.

In Top Content, look for the name you gave the page. In this example, it would be “flyte.biz”. That’s all there is to it – it’s really that simple!

Nicki Hicks
Tracking outbound links

…or as spammer would have you believe: How to get 200 followers a day!!!

#FollowFriday or #ff

When done properly, FollowFridays are a great way to increase your Twitter network. The way it works is simple: on Fridays, you suggest your followers follow a certain tweep in particular. You can see that there’s the added benefit when the reverse is true: recommendations from the people you follow.

Look for the icon

Some time ago, Twitter launched its Verified Accounts for businesses and celebrities. With all of the copycat Tweeps out there, this is how Twitter is attempting to set your mind at ease.

Tweetups

I’ve talked about the utterly incredible #MEtweetups we have here in Portland, and they really are a great place to meet new folks on Twitter – both to meet some you follow already IRL (In Real Life) and others you hadn’t been following before!

Search for ‘em

• Happn.in – find out what people are tweeting about in the world’s largest cities
• Nearby Tweets – search this very cool interface by keywords in tweets or location
• TweepSearch – search through bios for keywords or locations.
• Twellow – the “Twitter Yellow Pages” is another good source for searching by geographic location.
• Twitterholic – my favorite source to find tweeps by location.
• Twitter search - You can use Twitter search for a particular keyword, for your company, or even your location.

Nicki Hicks
Follow me on Twitter

…that is the question.

Extra Google Results

Typically, Google will show one website per result – possibly with a second, indented result (should it apply). With a separate blog domain, you could theoretically take up four spots out of the 10-pack. That’s 40% of the first page, folks.

Anchor Text

Most of the time, people will link to a blog using the name of that blog. When you’ve got a keyword rich domain and matching title, that comes in handy; for, as we know, anchor text is mighty important.

Keywords

SEOs will go back and forth on the argument about keywords in domains and URLs for all eternity. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you can choose, go with a keyword rich domain and URLs. If you’ve already got an established domain with not-so-keyword-rich URLs, never fear. You’d do more harm than good renaming them.

Nicki Hicks
Go for the separate domain

Flyte recently relaunched a website for a local Bed & Breakfast that we converted onto a WordPress platform. The Elms Bed & Breakfast, located in Greater Portland, is a gorgeous little Inn right on the riverbank in Westbrook, Maine.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with the owner, Scott Balfour, who’s shared many wonderful stories on his new blog: mainly covering tales of the trials and tribulations of being an Innkeeper.

Scott has already seen the benefits of being on WordPress – with the ability to update his site (and blog) whenever he pleases. For the benefit of his guests, this means that Scott can upload up-to-date photos of every room.

So if you’re looking for a great place to stay in Southern Maine – with all that’s exciting in Portland, with the peaceful ambiance of Maine – look no further than the Elms Bed & Breakfast. If you’re looking to convert your website to a WordPress Platform, look no further than flyte.

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

So you’ve just created a killer blogpost. It’s got a ferocious title that will bring in a ton of readers, it’s keyword rich, and to top it off – you’ve got some stellar, unique content. Ok, so now what? Hit “publish” and you’re done? I think not…

1. Email subscriptions and RSS

It may sound silly, but make sure your readers have the ability to subscribe to what you write: be it via email or RSS. I can’t tell you how many blogs I’ve seen that don’t have either option, and interestingly enough: I’ve only seen them the one time.

2. Tweet about it, post it on Facebook and LinkedIn

Make that puppy viral! Sure, you have your email and RSS subscribers, but proactively seeking new readers and subscribers adds to your community. On top of that, your followers on Twitter might ReTweet your post – sending it out to their followers; your friends on Facebook might “like”, comment, or even repost your post; and your connections on LinkedIn could also access your post.

Specifically for Twitter, give your reader the option to “ReTweet” – the icon in the top left of this post – this way, they don’t have to do any work outside of hitting a button.

3. StumbleUpon it

I’ll be the first to admit I don’t use this tool for all its worth. But the reality is, you can create quite a bit of traffic around StumbleUpon – specifically among those people in your network or those that simply like the same things you do! Bonus: get other people to StumbleUpon the post too!

4. Digg it, or add it to your favorite Social Bookmarking site

There’s a lot of junk on social bookmarking sites. But then again, there’s a lot of great stuff too. Once articles go viral, there’s a ton of traffic in store for them, even if it’s for a short time. (That’s why you need #1 – to keep the readers.)

So, have someone digg or sphinn your post, add it to delicious, reddit, or whichever social bookmarking site you love!

5. Get your incoming link juice on.

Last, but certainly not least, get back to some basic SEO and get some other bloggers/sites to link to your post.

There’s an overlaying theme here: be everywhere. Be it a blogpost, a marketing message, newletter, what have you; distribute it to as many channels as humanly possible.

Nicki Hicks
Getting your blog out there, one post at a time

FriendFeed

The original tool for the social media multi-tasker. However, it does just the opposite of the other sites listed here: it actually gives you the ability to keep track of your friends on all of your other social networks. See what Johnny is doing on Twitter, what Billy is doing on Facebook, and what Sue’s doing on Flickr. It literally is your friend feed.

Ping.fm

To this day, Ping is still my favorite social media managing site both on the computer and on the iPhone. They have the largest number of available networks to quite literally “ping” a message to.

Here’s the list of networks I subscribe to via ping, with many more popular networks available too.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck makes it easy to reach out to my two favorite social networks: Facebook and Twitter. TweetDeck also has a great groups interface to split the Twitter folks I follow into certain categories. For example, two of my categories are SEO and Maine.

HootSuite

The newest tool I’ve been testing out. Initially built as a Twitter collaboration tool, with v 2.0 you can now track your statistics – enabling you to see who clicked what link you posted, as well as many other cool features! HootSuite is ideal for a company’s Twitter account, as it easily gives multiple members access to a single account.

These are just a few of the social media management sites and tools out there – and only ones I use at that. Which are your favorite?

Nicki Hicks
One-stop social media shopper

Webmasters and bloggers are more likely to link to business blogs than business websites. You might’ve heard Rich say this.

The reality is: it’s true! That’s why you need to really work on leveraging that blog. Hopefully your blog and website link back and forth, so while a link to the blog isn’t as good for the website as a link directly to the website, it’s pretty close!

How do you leverage the blog? Create captivating posts: not only what’s going on with your business, but also what’s going on around town (bringing in the local bloggers), what’s going on in your industry (bringing in industry bloggers), etc.

Then, go looking for blogs/websites that talk about the same subject(s). Google’s blog search is my favorite resource. The best way to start is by commenting on blogs you find – not just the generic “Great blog, keep it up!” but something insightful, a question, or best of all: that starts a conversation. Then, start the process of asking for a link.

The next time you write, ask yourself: what would be of interest to a blogger enough so that he/she would want to link to my blog? At the same time, these posts shouldn’t overwhelm your blog; first and foremost you write for your readers. So what’s the balance? Writing interesting posts that will entice both links and potential customers.

Nicki Hicks
Link Building for Blogs