Boost Your SEO with Social Media

Social signals are a hot commodity these days; without them, your SEO and overall traffic won’t be all it can be. Socials signals are any promotion or mention of your brand or products through tweets, Facebook “likes”, and related blasts. The more you engage your audience in commenting and sharing your social media and content, the better your overall SEO results will be.

Social Media for Business

Both Google and Bing have shown an increasing interest in the value of social signals, making an overall strategic social media plan an essential part of your marketing landscape. Understanding how and why social signals are so crucial to SEO will assist you in planning your overall SEO tactics.

How Social Signals Can Increase Your Rankings
The level of social interaction your customers have with your brand directly and indirectly impacts your SEO clout. Organic search rankings have been increasingly affected by social signals, and while it’s arguable to what degree (and varies by search engine as well), it is abundantly obvious that overlooking this aspect of SEO is flat out foolish.

How do social signals directly impact SEO?
The following are critical:

Google+ Circles – Yes, it’s apparent many folks have challenges with the popularity of Google. The thing is, Google loves its social platform, so if you learn to embrace it too, your SEO results can see a boost. Note that the number of people you have in your own circles is not as important as the number of folks who include you.

Facebook Shares – Get your Facebook followers engaged in your content. How? By creating truly valuable posts, ideally rich in graphics and video.

Twitter Followers and Tweet Mentions – Remember that a bigger audience isn’t necessarily better. You again want a demographic that is engaged and active with your content. Retweets and social mentions are golden – getting folks to write #yourbrand is extremely valuable.

Facebook Likes – Quality over quantity rules here too. 1,000 active followers are better than 2,000 fans who ignore your posts. Engagement is always key.
Social signals increase rankings in an indirect manner too.

Examples of these actions include:

Positive Reviews – If folks are saying nice things about you on sites like Yelp, Google Local, and various prominent blogs, your SEO will show it. In fact, Sam McRoberts of Vudu Marketing says the number and tone of these reviews are two of the three most substantial factors in determining local search. It’s integral that your social media strategy include near real-time responses to users that have issues or questions; many people now use social profiles for brands as their go-to for customer support. These interactions can then assist in your overall SEO results, so make a commitment to be very active in this space. You won’t just see an increase in your rankings through this policy, but in overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Inbound Links – These help increase your visibility and credibility, and have been the darlings of SEO efforts for some time. Matt Cutts, the Google search spokesperson, has repeatedly hinted that links are still SEO-critical. Although some feel this impact has been lessened in recent months, links still should not be ignored. Creating a strong social presence and a website that extends the feeling of credibility and professionalism is your best bet to attracting link support from equally reputable partners.

Advice on How to Improve Your Social Signals
You get it – social is crucial. So how do you increase your social signal power?

Here are some practical tips:

On-site Updates – Make sure your website has oodles of opportunities for folks to share your content. Let them tweet articles, Google +1, recommend, bookmark – you name it. Encourage visitors to follow you on the various social platforms too. Blogs are also essential – they not only give visitors lots of options to share, but frequent high-quality and current content makes search engines very happy.

Updated Social Profiles – Choose only those social networks that actually pertain to your business, and dedicate a member of your team to keeping it current. Profiles should be complete, and monitored daily for comments and questions. Facebook and Twitter are a must, as is a LinkedIn profile. Sites like Vine and Pinterest are hot too, and relevant if your demographic fits the bill.

Integrate Your On and Off-site Efforts – Every time you publish content on your blog or website, you should in tandem alert your social stratosphere. Give viewers the ability to follow you on your social spaces, and to comment as well. You don’t just want eyeballs, you want clicks, comments, and shares. The quality and frequency of your content is essential, as is your willingness to engage in return. Make sure everything you do is reflected appropriately on all your social channels. And please take the time to treat each social network separately – status updates and content shares on LinkedIn, as an example, need to be professional and concise. Facebook can be more informal and wordy, and Twitter is obviously short and sweet. Respect the nature and demographic of each network and your efforts will be rewarded.

All the tactics above will not only increase your SEO rankings, but your brand credibility and reach as well. Focusing on social signals is that proverbial win-win.

How have you seen your SEO impacted by your social reach – either positively or negatively? What tactics do you feel are the keys to success?

Don't Fight With Google!

Promote your business and website naturally on google without resorting to quick fixes or shorcut tricks!

Here’s the problem – Google left the door wide open and people took advantage. This led to great rankings, traffic and, more importantly, money in the bank. People started to rely on the majority, if not all traffic coming from Google and then the rug was pulled from under their feet. This kicked off an almighty struggle with the King of Search, but I’m here to tell you today that it doesn’t have to be a fight. There is another way.

Stop Building Dirty Links
If you’re going to get back into Google’s good books, you need to cease using dodgy link building tactics full stop.

This isn’t one of those situations where you can be half in, half out – you need to move away from dodgy links completely.

Stop Now!

And a word to the wise: dodgy links with generic anchors can only work for so long. Eventually Google will catch you (if they haven’t already). Then, say goodbye to Google sending you any traffic.

Get Rid of Legacy Links that Don’t Fit with Google’s Guidelines
If you have been building nasty links in the past, you need to get rid of them, or at least try to.
It’s a fact: you can’t get rid of them all, but the consequences of not doing this could lead to an algorithmic penalty or even a manual penalty.

You’ll know about a manual penalty in your Google Webmaster Tools account. You will usually see an unnatural links warning message.

If you’ve got an algorithmic penalty, you’ll only notice this when you check your analytics and see your traffic drop through the floor.

You can get a manual penalty (or manual spam action) revoked by showing Google the lengths you have gone to in order to try and remove the links. You’ll usually get a message back from Google within 1-2 weeks.

If you have an algorithmic penalty, you can go through your links, highlight the nasty domains that are linking to you and disavow them, but ultimately you may have to wait until the next Penguin refresh to see whether your rankings come back.

Dance to the Beat of Google’s Drum
Google has a set of quality guidelines that they recommend to webmasters and, when you think about it, it’s all really straightforward stuff. It includes avoiding nasty things like cloaking, hidden text, doorway pages and all that blackhat stuff.

It also involves making your pages for users, adding value and creating unique content.
This isn’t groundbreaking, or even rocket science, and remember that these guidelines are updated as Google continues to evolve along with their search algorithm.

Most importantly, though, when these guidelines are updated, don’t jump to conclusions and don’t make assumptions. This goes for algorithm updates, too.

A lot of people within the industry are being too quick to make up their minds without looking at the data, and these assumptions can often cause more problems than they solve.

Think about the Future and the Big Picture
One of the big mistakes that a lot of people are making is that what works now will carry on working forever.

Before Google’s Penguin update in April 2012, a lot of people thought that blasting nasty links at websites was going to continue working.

Those that looked at the bigger picture, however, could see that those practices were at best a calculated risk, and that Google would eventually bring the boom down and take action on manipulative link building tactics.

Content is what it’s all about, as it has been for a while (that and user experience). While there are a lot of people that struggle to get traction, there are tactics you can use that will get you results.

Don’t Put All of Your Eggs in One Basket
You can understand the temptation, knowing that some websites are getting 100,000′s of visitors a month from Google. While I don’t think you should give up working towards those insane levels of traffic, you can’t just rely on one tactic.

In business, you always need a contingency plan for anything that could go wrong, so you need to be sure to focus on other ways of generating traffic.

Just look at some of the top business blogs. Sure, they may be getting a lot of traffic from organic search, but there are a lot more things you can try:

• Social media
• Contributing to other blogs
• Doing interviews
• Link building (the white hat way)

I’ve found that the best way to figure this ‘traffic generation’ thing out is to not just look for a list of tactics, but look at how people are using them in case studies.

Summary
I understand that there may be some of you reading this post who don’t have any love for Google generally, and don’t like following anything Google says.

I understand why – Google does have a lot of power (too much), and its algorithm updates have the power to shake entire economies.

The truth about the ‘user experience’ thing is that, while Google’s ultimate aim (at a guess) is to stop users from going over to Bing and so protect its advertising revenue… Google is actually on to something.

Where are all those sites that didn’t give a damn about the user experience now?
Nowhere to be seen.

Where are all those sites that thought about user experience and building a community before anything else?

They’re still here and a lot of them are leaders in their field.

So, whether you like it or not, it’s time to get on board with the ‘user experience’ thing.

What’s your take on the current state of search?

For more information on anything you have read in this article please contact the IT Support Experts at Click Networks on 0141 530 9116 or visit our website: http://www.clicknetworks.co.uk  for information about our web services (SEO, Ad Words, Analytics).

See the original article here: http://www.sitepronews.com/2013/11/20/end-fight-google/

Police warn of 'ransom' spam targeting UK users

Tens of millions of UK internet users could be at risk from "ransom" email spam seemingly sent from financial institutions.

Read the full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24964426

The email has an attachment that looks legitimate but is malware that encrypts computer files.
If the attachment is opened, a displayed countdown timer demands a ransom to decrypt the files.
Small to medium businesses seem to be the target and the National Crime Agency says there is significant risk.

Lee Miles, deputy head of the National Cyber Crime Unit, says: "The NCA are actively pursuing organised crime groups committing this type of crime. We are working in co-operation with industry and international partners to identify and bring to justice those responsible and reduce the risk to the public."

The malware installs a piece of "ransomware" called Cryptolocker on computers running the Windows operating system. The ransom demands that the user pay two Bitcoins, a virtual currency, that would be worth £536 to release the decryption key.

Reports suggest that people who have paid the ransom have not had their files decrypted and it has been impossible to restore encrypted files.
  
The NCA said it would never endorse the payment of a ransom to criminals and warns that there is no guarantee that the people behind the demand would honour the payments.

An NCCU investigation is seeking to identify the source of the email addresses used.
Computer users are being warned not to click on any suspicious attachments, to have updated antivirus software and to regularly back up files. If a computer is infected the advice is to disconnect it from the network and seek professional help to clean the device.

The NCA said that anyone infected with this malware should report it via actionfraud.police.uk.

For more information on how better to protect your business or customers please contact the IT Support Experts at Click Networks on 0141 530 9116 or visit our website: www.clicknetworks.co.uk for more information on how to clean an infected device of harmful malware.

Microsoft Office 365 What You Need To Know

Firstly, What is Microsoft Office 365

It is secure, anywhere access to email and calendars, Office Web Apps, instant messaging, conferencing, and file sharing. See how Office 365 makes easy to communicate, create, and share in the cloud.

Explore what Microsoft Office 365 can do for you

• Office 365 adds more power to the Office you already know and use by making it easier to communicate and collaborate with others.  
• Access your email and calendar from your computer, the web, and smart device.
• Launch and sustain a professional website for your business. 
• Connect immediately with colleagues. Set up and conduct online meetings.
• Share documents and collaborate with colleagues online.  
• Create, store, and edit Office docs online. 
• Get virtually anywhere access on nearly any device* so you can be productive on the go.  
• Microsoft helps keep your data safe and private.

 

Why choose Microsoft Office 365?

 

Easy to setup and use

• Get started in minutes. Setup new users in seconds
• No training needed. Use Office tools your team knows and loves

Work anywhere

• Get virtually anywhere-access on nearly any device*
• Work on your Office files online or offline

Worry-Free IT

• Stay safe with our built-in anti-virus and spam fighting technology
• Count on 99.9% uptime
• Lower costs vs. on-site solutions

As an experienced Cloud provider, Click Networks can offer to provide you a free trial of this excellent Microsoft based service which can transform the way your business operates and budgets for its IT. Please contact us and we can get your trial up and running quickly so you can begin experiencing the brilliant Office 365 for yourself.

For more information on Office 365 please contact the IT Support experts at Click Networks in Glasgow on 0141 530 9116 or visit our website here: http://www.clicknetworks.co.uk