A client recently asked us about Social Media Optimisation or SMO as to ‘what the heck it was’ and if he should ‘get in on that action?’ Little did he know he was already applying many SMO techniques - he just didn’t know it!
SMO as defined on Wikipedia is ‘a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites’.
So if like our client you’re performing SMO if you are…
Adding links back to your site
Search engines like Google and Yahoo value links and reward sites who have many incoming links from other websites (especially relevant links from heavily trafficked websites). So listing your business on paid or free directories is a sound strategy for improving your natural (organic) search rankings.
How to find directories and acquire links
A good place to start: Type ‘Australia Directory Listings’ into a search engine and you’ll come across some popular directories, many of which are free. Simply submit your site and wait to receive confirmation of your posting!
Popular directories include:
- Web Wombat
- Yahoo Directory Listings
- Hot Frog
- Gumtree
- and many more…
Making your site easy to tag and bookmark
Giving visitors to your web site the opportunity to bookmark your content is also a sound optimisation strategy. Don’t lose your traffic! Make it easy for users to stick around and engage with your brand by providing them with the tools to reconnect with you again and again.
Popular bookmark tags include:
- adding RSS feeds
- adding social bookmarks such as
- “Digg This” buttons
- Facebook Share Partner Link
- del.icio.us
- newsvine
- StumbleUpon
- Yahoo toolbar bookmarks
- FARK
- Technorati
- FURL
- Ma.gnolia
Adding content mashups
A further way to enhance your website’s content is via content mashups. Add videos, maps or streamed content from a news source provider to provide a better web experience or facilitate a sale. It’s surprisingly easy and a handy way to take your website to the next level and as search engines improve, those new forms of content will count ever more towards your quality score.
For example:
- YouTube videos
- Google maps
- Or various forms of web feeds or data scrapings
Sharing your content
It pays to share. And that saying certainly holds true for the web. Sending your content on via newsletters or posting to your company blog interesting topics like ‘Social Media Optimisation’ can only serve to increase the number of repeat visitors to your site.
So share your content through:
- Blogs (like this one)
- newsletters
A little site called Facebook
And finally… Is there a person who has not heard of a little website called Facebook? Synonymous with social networking online Facebook is great way to network, keep in touch with friends and link to people with similar interest locally and internationally.
Launched in early 2004, Facebook has grown from a niche university social networking site into a worldwide phenomenon. By starting your own ‘special interest group’ on Facebook or joining an existing network of likeminded individuals, you can rapidly expand the reach of your content and broaden your link profile.