Google has been struggling for years to eliminate the current SEO spam that floods the internet on a daily basis. Can your business afford to really wait for Google to give you better search engine ranking? I think not, so we're going to list a few different strategies you can implement throughout your everyday activity.
Google struggling to defeat Local SEO Spammers
New York Times did an article on SEO spam coming from local listings saying:
"They are phone banks, typically set up in far-off places, often in other countries. Call them and they’ll dispatch a locksmith. Some are legitimate, but others may all too often do shoddy work and/or charge two or three times the estimate." -New York Times
Will Google never defeat the manipulators of the internet? Probably not, but building a diverse website marketing strategy can help you conquer those evil spammers. In this era, every successful product has gone digital. Why? Well the easier it is to purchase a product for customers, the better chance there is selling it.
Website Marketing Strategy: Social Networking
Social networking is all about involving your current clients in order to reach potential clients. In business, a referal customer has a higher chance of turning into a convertible sale. So how can we utilize social networks to produce more potential customers? Run a campaign on Facebook that offers customers something free or discounted for simply like your facebook page or Google +1 the website.
Another great way to get exposure on Facebook is by asking questions and getting followers involved with whats going on. It's not about direct sales, by exposing company branding it can stimulate awareness and curiousity. It is a great way to notify multitudes of customers about new coupon specials or changes to products as well.
Website Marketing Strategy: Forums, Blogs, & Articles
These are a frequently used resource in order to gain followers and readers to any content. Becoming part of the community can really help expand a simple link building campaign or boost digital product sales by sharing with others.
Forums: Q/A Techniques that provide traffic - Every industry has curious customers looking to either for a DYI or quick solution to their problem. This is one of the reasons sites like wikipedia has exploded by simply providing information. One of the techniques website owners can implement is answering questions with a teaser set of information and link it to a section of their website with a more thorough explanation.
Blogs: Giving frequent & positive feedback can result in referal links - When searching for good blogs, find something that is within the industry of interest. Become understanding of where the writer is coming from and try to provide true feelings on the subject. Many bloggers enjoy writing and will gladly provide referal / in-content links to a website if they like the website owner.
Articles: The unspoken word that provides links - Article marketing is one of the sources of SEO spam on the internet, but it still is proven to provide great signals to a website in a short amount of time. A large amount of written articles that flood the internet on a daily basis, which means providing 1 or 2 will not be very significant. A good strategy is to be consistent by producing 2-4 teaser articles monthly, and having them lead to thoroughly written articles on the main website.
Tips to finding relevant forums, blogs, & article feeders
Using the search engine to find "website marketing forum" is not enough of a relevant term. Instead of going with specific keyword, I recommend using long-tail specific questions. Such as "how to inspect front brake pads", go through the first 3 pages of results and see if you can respond to it. Don't forget to use Google recommendations as well by instant results when typing.