The Maine SEO Blog

Just the other day, a prospect said this to me.

And I got to thinking about it. She’s exactly right.

Every day, old websites, blogs, heck even social media profiles, are being optimized. Most, obviously, not all, new websites launched are optimized to a certain extent.

So while, for the moment, there are plenty of sites to optimize…it may not be like that forever.

Instead, content creation is king. Constantly putting out new, fresh content is the way things have been, and will continue to be, headed.

You’ll hear time and time again that Google loves fresh content. What’s fresher than a blog? Or social media? Or social bookmarking?

More and more, people look for small, sweet snippets of information: easily digestible and quickly answering whatever query they may have.

What’s the lesson for you?

If your website isn’t optimized, start there. Get that puppy search engine friendly.

If you don’t already have a blog…create one. Then answer questions you get all the time, whatever industry you may be in; include images and video. Make lists, how-to’s, even step-by-step guides.

If you’re not on any social media network, first find out where your audience is. Then get there! Start putting out fresh content – some self serving, but more importantly information your audience wants to know – whether it’s stats, local updates, or even a piece of witty humor.

Nicki Hicks
Optimization may be dying, but content is thriving

Photo by subcess

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

I’m pretty sure I got into one of the most exciting fields there is. I’m learning a ton of new information every day, and as Rich says, SEO is one of the sexiest topics in e-marketing. Plus, it’s fun for me…that never hurts.

The issue is that I’m a relatively new blogger, so I’ve found it increasingly difficult to come up with new and different ideas to blog about. Sure, I read a ton of SEO and SEM newsletters, forums, and articles everyday; but I need new, fantastic blogpost ideas! Because, let’s face it, who wants to read regurgitated stories – that is, unless they have a new and different twist to them?

Then it hit me…I’m an SEO. I’ll just fire up my Keyword Discovery tool and find some perfect blog titles! So I did just that, and these are some of the “hot” topics I came up with that could pretty easily be turned into titles:

• Organic SEO Services
• Search Engine Marketing Case Study
• SEO Complete Link Building Service
• SEO Basic Tips for New Web Developers
• SEO Tips for Joomla
• Copywriting for SEO

Other fun ideas that seem to rank relatively well (but just sound spammy to me):

• Certified SEO Professional (There’s no “certification,” just so everyone knows.)
• Free SEO Tips and Tricks (I’m pretty certain that if you even *mention* the words free or cheap in any blog/article title, you’ll get [completely irrelevant] traffic in no time.)

Perhaps I’ll work off from this list for a while…

Nicki Hicks
Blog Newbie