Category: Online Traffic
6 Ways to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn
Having recently reached its 50 million user milestone, LinkedIn proved itself as the new social networking site for professionals. Everyone who is in business is already expected to have a profile there.
But with the presence of more interactive sites such as Twitter and Facebook, some professionals are neglecting their LinkedIn profiles. Though not as dynamic as other social media platforms, LinkedIn still proves to be a source of value if used correctly. Below is a 6-point list enumerating ways on how to improve your LinkedIn profile. Follow it and you may double your profile views overnight!
1. Include Professional Profile Photo
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. But, which words? That depends on what people see. LinkedIn’s profile photo feature is not only helpful in spotting colleagues, but also beneficial in projecting a professional bearing in your LinkedIn resume. Just think about it. Which candidate an employer would prefer? Candidate A with a profile pic doing a head stand or Candidate B showing a good head shot?
2. Build Network Connections
Although the number of your connections may define your capabilities, it could be possible that the number says something about you. According to statistics, if you have less than 500 connections on LinkedIn, you can be found by approximately 3% of the LinkedIn Community. On the other hand, if you have 500+ connections on LinkedIn, you can be found by approximately 90% of the LinkedIn Community. Building your network dramatically improves your ability to be found on LinkedIn, apart from being seen as a thought leader and player in your industry.
3. Use Status Updates
LinkedIn is not as interactive as Facebook or Twitter. The only space to keep your connections informed is through the status updates bar. Make use of this communication section and let users learn what you have in mind, things or events you are involved with or in.
4. Gather Meaningful Recommendations
One of the most loved LinkedIn feature is the recommendations feature. LinkedIn gives you the chance to get useful recommendations from your connections. It is important to get solid recommendations because the world will see what people say about you. You can get recommendations from a previous client or customer for whom you just did an incredible job or project. Remember to be polite and thank the person who recommended you!
5. Optimize Your Profile
Although LinkedIn is a good place to search for jobs, it shouldn’t just look like an online version of your resume. Optimizing it by incorporating relevant keywords is important for search engine optimization purposes. Note that your LinkedIn profile should depend on whether you are presently employed and whether or not you are seeking new career opportunities.
6. Join Groups to Expand Your Reach
In today’s economy, employers are looking for the best possible candidates. Now, it’s more than looking at Facebook statuses, photos, and tweets. The groups you are associated with in LinkedIn can either have a negative and positive impact on you. Choose relevant groups and make smart comments. Start meaningful conversations. Be proactive and share new information on groups to help position yourself as a thought leader.
Following above suggestions can dramatically increase your search engine hits and profile views.
The Northern Office – Innovative Marketing also provides social media management and monitoring services that include setting up a professional LinkedIn profile to broaden your network. TNO focuses on online marketing support for corporate websites and e-commerce websites. For further details and inquiries, email us at inquiry@thenorthernoffice.com.
3 On Page Optimization Techniques That Work
On page optimization is a crucial aspect of SEO, yet usually overlooked. A well-optimized page can bring a significant increase in traffic. Search engines rank websites mainly dependent on two factors: search terms relevance and web authority. On page optimization helps you empower these two critical factors.
Aaron Wall, founder of SEO Book states, on-page optimization is primarily concerned with:
- Choosing the best keywords available to base your pages.
- Convincing search engines that your page is related to your chosen keywords.
Traditional on page optimization techniques don’t work anymore (e.g. stuffing keywords anywhere possible) and it is time to consider new strategies that are applicable today or suffer the consequences.
1. Unique and accurate page titles
Webmasters often ignore the value of page title. This is something you shouldn’t take for granted for it is the most important aspect of on-page SEO. Every page must have unique and accurate page titles as Google lists identical titles as “duplicates”. Google will then index the duplicates as “supplemental results.”
2. “Description” meta tag
Second to page titles, this SEO component also helps get traffic onto your site after you are appearing in the results. Google, for example, uses description Meta tag as a snipped for your page in the search results. Descriptions must summarize the content of the page accurately. Same as with writing titles, make sure that descriptions must speak of the content, but most of all make sure they sell the page to the viewer.
3. Search Friendly URLs
For better crawling, search-friendly URLs are recommended. URLs must appear friendlier so that users who want to link to it won’t have hard time memorizing the link. As much as possible, use words instead of numbers. URL’s with session IDs and overly long URLs are not desirable.
The Northern Office helps you get ahead of the competition by utilizing up-to-date online marketing techniques that will help you get on Google’s first page in a timely fashion. TNO focuses on online marketing support which involves website hosting target particularly for corporate websites and e-commerce websites. For further details and inquiries, email us at info@thenorthernoffice.com.
Google Caffeine: Your website’s content is more important than ever!
Google recently announced the completion of a new indexing system called Caffeine. Caffeine provides 50% fresher results for web searches and it’s the largest collection of web content. Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before. (source)
Online content has become more valuable when it comes to indexing your website. Unique, relevant and viral content is KING! The Northern Office (TNO) – innovative marketing support – has always impressed upon our clients the importance of their content for the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of their websites.
For example, Oasis Park Hotel is a budget friendly business and tourist hotel in Manila whose online presence was limited. TNO researched and developed their website’s content to include topics relevant or within the scope of their industry. With the proper SEO techniques in place, the website, steadily increased in ranking and now appears in top search results right beside other leading hotels in Manila.
Oasis Park Hotel Manila Website
Another example is the work we’ve done for High Performance Floors Inc (HPFI) – the leading supplier and installer of flooring systems in the Philippines. Content development also covers niche topics where in keyword density is very low. These are great opportunities to rank in search engines and also gain solid sales leads. General industry keywords and niche keywords are now ranking in top results for HPFI which includes “vinyl flooring in the Philippines,” “Flotex Philippines,” “airport flooring solutions,” “Stonhard Philippines,” etc.
High Performance Floors Inc Website
TNO continually conducts content research and development for clients in order to further expand and update content for websites, blogs and other online communication channels. Existing content must also be re-evaluated regularly to better target changing keyword trends. Social Media is also an important aspect in today’s marketing mix. Content – text, images and videos – also play and integral part in Social Media and is considered by Google when it comes to ranking.
Is your content search engine optimized? Help Google Caffeine index your content and increase your search engine results ranking.
Contact TNO for a free assessment of SEO efforts for your website!
Web Site Traffic Generation
Regardless of whether your web site has just gone live or has been online for a significant period of time proactively generating traffic to your web site is imperative. Build it and they will come is not an option, the Internet is much to populated with competing web sites, online games and Social Networks to site back and wait for your web site visitors to arrive. In today’s highly competitive environment it has become absolutely necessary that you use all the tools available to your business to drive traffic to your web site. And this does includes off-line methods as well.
- Organic Search Optimization - Organic SEO cannot be overlooked, the advantages are many and not isolated to generating Organic Search traffic. Many of the processes of Search Engine Optimization are usable in other aspects of traffic generation tactics, primarily keyword research. It also provides an indication of the most popular terms used to find your product and services which can be used as attention grabbers in Social Media discussions, Tweets and Forums.
- Social Media has the potential to drive significant volumes of traffic to your web site. The options to drive traffic to your web site using Social Media are primarily Social Networking, Social Recommendations / Bookmarking and Micro Blogging using the services of Twitter, and these are just the beginning there are numerous other Social Media Tools which are capable of assisting you to bring significant volumes of visitors to your web site who have a pre-recognition of who you are and what you offer, which is a contributing factor to increasing the actual conversion rate of your web site.
- Search Engine Marketing most certainly has its’ place in the traffic generation mix. Sure only a small number of Internet users click on Paid Results but take into account monthly search volumes of some high popularity keywords and this can account for a significant number of targeted visitors to your web site.
- Don’t forget how businesses were promoted before of the Internet marketing become popular. These methods in many cases are still effective and with the huge popularity of mobile devices can be leveraged in locations not previously considered as an outlet for promoting your web site.
In Summary
Web site traffic generation includes, but are definitely not limited to the above mentioned tools and methods. Be innovative and continually changing when it comes to your marketing content, marketing strategy and marketing approach