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If social media is the darling Cinderella of the current marketing world, then link building might be the u___ (unrecognized?) stepsister. When I describe link building and its important role in creating a company’s Web presence (see SEOmoz’s What is Link Building? for a definition/details), most people furrow their brows and say, “Sounds like you’re talking about social media.” (Cinderella gets all the glory!)
So, we’d like to end, once and for all, this unnecessary cause of forehead wrinkles by tackling the FAQ: What’s the difference between link building and social media?
Stoney (@StoneyD): Link building and social media have a lot in common and, in many cases, share similar goals. I would say that pure link building is a sub-set of SEO. The goal is to get keyword rich links on external sites pointing to your keyword-optimized pages. There are a lot of link-building methods, several of which cross over into social media: building relationships, creating great, linkable content and broadcasting it to bring eyes (and links) to that content.
Social media is an outlet for link building, but it also has its own goals, one of which can be getting valuable links. But social media has concerns far greater than just getting links, and any social strategy that doesn’t look beyond links is bound to fail.
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Companies focus a great deal of attention on two things: ROI and the bottom line. Rightfully so. When you invest thousands of dollars and perhaps hundred of hours in a something you believe will help your business grow, you want – and deserve – to see some results. So, a question we often hear is:
How much does online marketing cost?
The response from our team comes at this tricky question in a variety of ways…
Stoney (@StoneyD): There is no one-size-fits all answer to that question. It’s kind of like asking, “How much does a house cost?” Or a car. Or surgery. Or ObamaCare. Well, not the last one because the others can actually have a defined costs. The better questions is, “How much ROI will I get for my investment?” While there is no “sticker price” that can be placed on that, it really is the bottom line question. Whether you’re paying $5,000 or $500,000 for online marketing, you need to make sure you will get a return. This comes back to making sure you trust your SEO. If you pay a lowball price then ROI can be very difficult to be achieved, especially if your competition is out investing you in SEO. You also don’t want to over-pay, either. If your SEO provides quality and gets results – and more importantly, gets ROI – then there is no such thing as overpaying. Bottom line is, you need to invest whatever is needed to grow profits and not a penny less.
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When it comes to Web marketing strategies, sometimes it’s difficult to know where to start. A question we hear often is:
Should I start marketing my website with search engine optimization (SEO) or pay-per-click (PPC)?
The response from our three in-house experts was unanimous! You need both. Here’s why…
Stoney (@StoneyD): While both SEO and PPC results are displayed on the same search results page, they operate very differently (and independently) from each other. PPC can be set up much quicker and get results sooner than SEO can. But don’t let that make you think you’ll “instantly” get ROI out of it. PPC takes optimization before profits are secure. SEO, on the other hand takes along longer to work. My suggestion is, if you can afford it, get started on PPC right away to start bringing in profits sooner. While the PPC campaign improves, be working on the optimization of your website, targeting keywords, building links, growing your social base and improving conversions.
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As much as the title is vastly overstated, these questions will at the very least help you ponder SEO in a way you hadn’t pondered before. At least that’s my theory.
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This is a continuation of the questions I was asked during a webinar presentation on website architecture. Before and during he presentation I was submitted over 70 question and each week I’ve been answering a handful of them. This article covers questions about WordPress, password protected pages, iframes, multiple paths to content, and filenames.
I don’t know about you but I’m glad to be back to work after such a long weekend. I don’t do well over long weekends. Mostly because I’m extremely lazy and I end up sleeping about 12 hours every night. And that’s not including the morning, mid morning, noon, post-noon and early evening naps.
So I’m glad to be back to work. Back to a regular schedule of long work hours, few sleeping hours and a few minutes on the pool table a day. While they are not quite as awesome as my “real” family, if you have to be stuck with any group of people for nine to twelve hours a day, you could do worse than the Pole Position Marketing team. They’re good peeps.
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Let me apologize for last weeks Q&A session. I just simply wasn’t funny and I feel terrible about that. The problem is, these Q&As don’t leave much room for humor. Unless I make fun of someone and, well, I’m trying to get people to ask questions, not run away from me.
Which begs the question… where are all you question askers? I mean really, I know you’re out there, I can feel you lurking. Are you shy? Do you feel silly asking a question to someone that you’re just not sure is “real”. Hey, how do you think I feel? I have to deal with that every morning. Being in doubt of your own existence is quite frightening. But luckily I have myself to convince me that I am, in fact, real. I blog, therefore I am.
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I’m back with another round of Q and A. I’d like to thank all none of you that took the time to submit the quality insightful questions below. If it weren’t for people like you, I’d be on the SEO Blogger’s A-List.
Has anyone been able to find any internet marketing or sales techniques/strategies that have worked for them?
There are a lot of viable options for internet marketing, but you have to remember that not every method works for every type of business, product or service. You have to figure out what’s going to work for you and, sad to say, sometimes that means you have to do a bit of trial and error.
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I’ve been silent here on the (EMP) blog long enough. While Stoney requires all his employees to blog on a weekly basis I’ve been given no such authority. That’s all going to change. I’m tired of playing second fiddle. I’m sick of being the Ben Assflake in Matt Damon’s shadow. I’m sick and tired of being the direct to DVD sequel, panned by critics and relegated to the 2 for $11 bin at Wal-Mart.
Today I step out on my own and prove that I’m not just the side-kick that gets to say a few pithy lines for comedy relief. I’ve got a voice that wants to be heard… that needs to be heard… that you, my friend, want to hear! Am I overstating? Perhaps. But by the time you figure it all out I’ll have you wrapped around my little finger like a pig in a blanket.
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