Given you’ve researched the keywords you want to target, the six main factors listed below are what I believe to be the most important for high rankings in Google. Obviously there are more than 100 factors that Google takes into account, but these are the six I believe to be the most influential.

Number of Incoming Links – The more links going into a page, the more “respected” and higher ranking a page will be on Google. This can be taken one step further, in that a link coming in from a page with lots of links going into that page is worth more than a link coming from a page with very few links coming in.

Incoming Links Anchor Text – Links with keywords as the anchor help Google decide what the page is about. Internal anchor texts are an easy way to influence this.

Coding – Google spiders have only so much time to read all the pages on the Internet. If your pages have long backend codes, Google might not read all that is on your pages.

Titles, Text and Descriptions – Whatever keyword you are targeting, make sure it is present in your page title, description, headings and page content.

Visitor Behavior – Google tracks everything users do through the Google toolbar, web browser. If people click on your page, then go back to Google to look for another page with better information, Google will drop your pages in a hurry.

Timeliness – Old pages don’t get much love on Google. That’s why search marketers love blogs.

Disagree with me? I’d love to hear what you think I missed.

In the spirit of sharing things I like on the web, check out the video below about social media usage.

Read the blog post behind the video on socialnomics.net.

Depending the industry, chances are you have been approached on some level about putting up a billboard. You may want to consider it, however before signing off you should make sure expectations are clearly set.

Remember that your audience has between two and eight seconds to understand and react to your message and that it takes approximately nine impressions before a message sticks. For the average passerby who isn’t paying any attention, it can be difficult. To combat this, make sure your billboard is simple, has an easy follow up and that it is not the only way you going to market a product or service.

Below is a simple list of dos and dont’s, when planning and considering placing a billboard:

Do:

  • Place a billboard if you are looking for brand awareness.
  • Keep your message simple.
  • Add a web address and phone number for people looking for more information.

Don’t:

  • Place a billboard with too many key messages.
  • Expect to be able to clearly measure ROI, unless you use a vanity phone number or url, which starts to defeat the purpose of branding.
  • Expect just because you put a phone number on a billboard it will prompt people to call you.

Time for blogging, social networking and contributing to online conversations has been hard to manage recently with major events going on in my life. I wanted to give a quick check-in of a few trends I am watching.

  • The Twitter Explosion. Three years ago, new media marketers predicted mobile marketing would be the future and here we have it. The growth chart has hit the proverbial exponential upswing and if your not on Twitter it’s time to figure it out. Basically, people can broadcast what they are doing from their mobile phone. And for businesses, they can do it too. It’s nice.
  • MySpace is officially past it’s prime. Just this week, comScore came out with numbers that indicated that Facebook was bigger than MySpace.  I’m afraid, not even Borat can save this one.
  • Social media marketing is becoming more and more integrated with customer service departments. Check out what Zappos.com is doing on Twitter.
  • For my healthcare followers, the all important mom of the household decided to check out Facebook and abruptly decided it was more for their kids.
  • Done with SEO, most companies have moved to more advanced marketing tactics like developing useful applications for mobile phones.
  • Crowd sourcing using web technologies has and will continue to drive business decisions at innovative companies.

Please feel free to let me know if you think I missed some important social media marketing trends.

About Allan Woodstrom

Minneapolis, MN
Marketing Communications Specialist

[Read Allan's Articles]

About Josh Neiman

Minneapolis, MN
Interactive Advertising Professional

[Read Josh's Articles]

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