Do You Want To Be On Top? Learn SEO

I recently Googled myself to see what will come up in the search. And I must say, I am impress. The first thing that showed up is my LinkedIn profile. How did I accomplish that? By planning and using specific keywords, relevant content and designs, it will allow my blogs, profile pages, published content and any other online marketing that I am creating to drive traffic to these Web sites. 

Let me explain. Search engine optimization or SEO is a way to reach your audience by providing great content and have a way to cater to their needs. Your publish content on the Internet must be “search engine friendly.” In his book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” David Meerman Scott gives this definition of SEO: “Search engine optimization is the art and science of ensuring that the words and phrases on your site, blog, and other on-line content are found by the search engines and that, once found, your site is given the highest ranking possible in the natural search results.” Sounds easy, right? Believe me, you can get to the top on search engine sites.

Mediacollege.com explains how to use your keywords effectively on your page, blog, and profile to get the highest ranking possible. Here are a few things they noted in their article:

 

• Page Titles should use be short and describe the content accurately. Using keywords can be used also
• Search engines place an emphasis text and descriptions that are in heading tags (h1, h2, h3…). Use the list of keywords you have in these tags
• Make sure to have common words and text that your expected audience will search for on sites like Google and Yahoo!

 

Other ways to get to the top is by joining sites like Digg and del.icio.us and bookmarking the links to your pages on these websites. Use keywords from your pages for your tag words.

If you have Firefox, download the Google Toolbar. There is an Page Rank application to check the ranking of any page on the scale from 1-10. When I checked the ranking of my LinkedIn page it was 5/10.

Check out this site, The Digital Bus, for the basic on SEO. For more information, check out Google’s SEO Starter Guide and SEO Basics. 

Use these basics and check out recommended Web sites. Follow these tips and you too can get to the top of the rankings. 

Till Next Time.

Google Adwords

Google never cease to amaze me. I remember when it was just a search engine that we used for research in middle school. I remember my teacher telling us to go to Google, and the first thing in my head was “What the hell is Google?” All I knew was either MSN, Yahoo, and Lycos (you remember Lycos?) Fast forward ten plus years later and Google is the top leader in the internet world. I can go on and on about the things Google has to offer to those who are following the new media movement, but I already went into detail about that in my last post on Google Earth. 

So I am going to move onto what I wanted to talk about, Google Adwords. Adwords is Google’s primary source of revenue. It is a pay-per-click advertising campaign that is triggered by keywords that are associated with the ad (in this case a banner that will show up on the side of the screen). So, if a person searched a word, say for example  ”Playhouse,” Google or Web sites affiliated with Google will have advertisements that will show up underneath the “Sponsored Links” column. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had the experience of creating my own Adwords banner and have specific keywords that are associated with my blog. I must say the process was not difficult at all. When I first thought of creating a Adwords banner, I thought the process would take a very long time and will give me some sort of a minor headache. But, I was wrong. I set my budget to $10.00/month. The HIGHLY suggest against creating a budget below $50.oo. But, I was doing this for fun, so my budget did not matter as of now. I have chosen 14 keywords that will trigger for my ad banner to show up.  Here is a list of keywords I have chosen to advertise my blog page: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally here is my ad banner:

Ad Banner

 

 

 

 

 

 

I must say that this is a different avenue to do advertising. However, you have to know what keywords will help your campaign get awareness. In addition, you must have a budget that can help your ad get pushed to the top of the “Sponsored Links” column and have an increase number of clicks on the ad. I have learned a lot more about this form of advertising and hope to continue learn more. Not bad for my first Adwords campaign!

Till next time.

Google Earth

Google is becoming one of the leading companies that is involved with the new media era (I remember when it first was known to find information on the internet). Now, it has many applications to cater to everyone’s need, whether it is putting or creating documents through Google Docs, e-mail, online shopping, or keeping everything that is going on in your life with Google Calendar. 

With many applications and tools, one of my favorite tools is Google Earth. For those who may not know what Google Earth is, it is a 3D system that allow you to view the world in 3D satellite imagery of the galaxies, buildings, and geographical areas. Through the tool, you can search for places around the world, such as Greece or Cabo or see a 3D image of your home or job (I must say I was very excited when I saw the image of my Dad’s car sitting outside of my house in Denver). In addition, you can get directions to and from destinations in a 3D format. You can see that is is one of my favorite features in Google Earth.

One thing that I do find scary is the fact that major influential people has no control over the fact that their house can be searched through Google Earth (yes I did put this to the test. Like I said I explored everything about Google Earth). Some major celebrities’ houses can be found through Google Earth; meaning that you can obtain directions to and from their house. So much for privacy.

According to the “official” Google Earth Blog, Google Earth has added new features and concepts to their tool, such as having the ability to see ocean floors in 3D satellite imagery. Google Earth was able to produce 3D images of President Obama’s Inauguration. GeoEye provided some of the satellite images during the inauguration.

In addition, those who volunteer in their community can now search for volunteer work using Google Earth through VolunteerMatch, one of the leading websites that lists community service opportunities in the United States. To see this feature, check out the video.

I love Google Earth! I will continue to use this tool in the future. I know it will continue to grow into something bigger in the future. Maybe watching live images through tool. You may never know.

Till next time.