blogging for success - social media breakfast dallas

BLOGGING FOR SUCCESS

Mark Barrera@mark_barrera

Who Am I?• President of DFW Search Engine Marketing Association• Who I have worked with:

• Lennox• Onlineshoes.com• National Breast Cancer Foundation• Palm Harbor Homes• TexasLending.com• Cookies by Design• Scottish Rite Hospital• Donald Trump

• and many more…

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Blogging for Success• Making Your Site SEO Friendly

• Creating Your Content

• Promoting Your Content

• Conversion Optimization

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Making Your Site SEO Friendly

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Making Your Site SEO Friendly

Title Tags • < 70 Characters.• Use Keyword(s)• Make it enticing

Description Tags• 1 to 2 sentences (90-150 characters)• Call to action / Value proposition• Do not stuff with keywords

URLs• Use title of post in URL

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Making Your Site SEO Friendly

Linking• Focus on Link Anchor Text• Link to Your Other Posts• Link to Authority Web Sites

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Making Your Site SEO Friendly

Images• Use custom alt tags• Use custom file names• If hosting them on Flickr or other photo website, link to the file on

that network also• Make sure to link to the post that you used the photo in from that

website also.

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Making Your Site SEO Friendly

Categories• Don’t over do it• Use keywords

Breadcrumbs• They allow your users to easily navigate your site.• They allow search engines to determine the structure of your site

more easily.

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Creating Your Content

Think Like a Publisher!

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Creating Your Content• Post on a regular basis

• Create weekly ‘features’• Weekly Interview• Weekly News Wrap-up

• Write awesome content• Timely• Use examples / analogies / metaphors• Give your opinion• Create relevant images / infographics

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Creating Your Content

Remember the 80/20 Rule!

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Promoting Your Content• Social Media

• Email

• PR

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Americans spend over a third of their online time (40%) communicating and networking across: • social networks • blogs• personal email• instant messaging• video sites

Promoting Your Content Socially

Facebook• Optimize Title / Description / Thumbnail

• Use proper Facebook meta tags

• Post to relevant groups• Facebook as a commenting system• Monitor your Facebook Insights (analytics) data

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Promoting Your Content Socially

Twitter• Promote more than once• Use hashtags where appropriate• Use the ‘follow suggestion’ in your tweet button code

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Promoting Your Content Socially• LinkedIn

• Status Updates• Groups• Email Notifications

• StumbleUpon

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Promoting Your Content• Pings• RSS• Bookmarking

• Delicious / Diigo / Evernote

• Email Signatures• Blog Commenting

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Promoting Your Content by Email• Feedburner• MailChimp• Aweber

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Promoting Your Content with PR• Press Releases

• Free Press Release Sites• http://bit.ly/freeprsites

• Paid Press Release Sites• PRWeb• PRLeap

• Know Your Influencers• Keep a list of contacts

• Include blog URL / email / twitter / facebook / phone

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Conversion Optimization

Visits Aren’t the End Goal!

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Conversion Optimization• Social Sharing

• Subscribers

• Leads

• Example• http://www.copyblogger.com/linkedin-profile/

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Conversion Optimization

Subscribers

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Conversion Optimization

Social Sharing

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Conversion Optimization

Leads

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Conversion Optimization• Google Analytics

• Track Goal Conversions• Track Referring Traffic• Know Your Referring Keywords

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Tools I Use

Google Analytics

Scribe SEO - http://bit.ly/e9ThCh

StudioPress - http://bit.ly/jZRujf

Raven Tools - http://bit.ly/h2p8D7

SEOmoz - http://go.seomoz.org/SH5z

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org

Contact Me

http://bit.ly/markbarrera• SEO / PPC Consulting

• Project or Retainer

• Agency Solutions• Employee Training / Process Improvement• White Label Partnership

• Coaching / Mentoring

@mark_barrera | facebook.com/mark.s.barrera | dfwsem.org