All Posts, Blog, Marketing, SEO
When it comes to SEO, there is always questions about how to use it, how much it should cost, is it worth understanding, and more. I asked a friend and colleague of mine who is the owner of an online marketing firm called PalmettoSoft to come in and talk about these common questions and concerns that people have. Meet Rhett while watching this talk and if you have further questions about SEO or his company’s services be sure to reach out to him or place your questions in the comments below.
Blog
I’m sitting at a Starbucks getting ready to do some client work. I had already picked up my little dried fruit snacks and fruit drink. Ironically no coffee since I don’t want to make it back to back late night, so that’s why I chose the fruit juice instead. Upon signing in I am brought to a quick pop-up window for a poll that I am fairly used to when coming here.
What’s different about this poll among others I’ve participated before was this question that resonated a lot closer to me as an internet creative than others before. This one asked what I craved more, internet or coffee. Normally I’d quickly choose my poll answer and continue about my business. Sometimes I’d check the answers to see how much of a difference in range it could be. This time I was kind of amazed that it was an even draw for the answers.
Over forty-seven thousand people answered this poll and it was even? Really? That’s strange and amazing to me at the same time. I’ve never really thought of one without the other, but clearly people do and both are equally important to many.
I haven’t used a poll for my own gain in my reach or business knowledge yet. There’s a bunch of good sites out there that offer good polls from free to premium like Google Forms and Survey Monkey, but for some reason I haven’t tried. I can’t tell you why I haven’t, but I’ll say it’s mostly due to laziness and lack of priority among other things. Meh, I’m just being honest. However the amount of data that I’d be able to get even if ten people out of 30 participated in my poll.
Questions could be:
- Do you prefer the ability to make updates to your website on your own, or would you pay a small fee to have a web designer do them for you so you can save time?
- Do you prefer having professional photos all digital, or would you pay to have some prints as well as have some digital?
I know those are questions I ask potential clients from time to time, but I don’t track it, and I certainly can’t identify a trend. Could be the way I ask or whom I ask I suppose. Still if you could create a poll right now, what would you ask? What would you like to know about your services or product or website that you don’t really know full feedback about? Lets talk about it in the comments below. Oh, and I chose internet!
All Posts, Social Media
While reading through my Twitter stream, I see a lot of posts about news, articles, stories, advice, and more. Sprinkled in there from time to time are questions the people I follow ask. Sometimes these questions are Re-Tweeted if others are unable to answer the question, and therefore amplifying the chance that someone may answer it. I’ve found a simple and quick way for you to engage people, provide answers to their questions or complaints, AND drive traffic to your site all at the same time.
If you provide a service in lets say plumbing, and someone asks a question about how to remove a clogged drain with common household goods because all the stores are closed and its after hours. Surely you could just answer the question within your reply tweet, but where’s the originality in that? Better yet, why not answer the question but also provide a link back to either your blog where you had a post that shows in detail how to unclog a drain with some everyday household items.
What happens is that person visits your site, reads your post, hopefully will comment too, but also is a appreciative of your content. In turn they’ll probably view more about you and your services, forward your site to friends, follow you on Twitter and Facebook, or better yet become a new client. Your blog is valuable content that can be helpful to just about anyone. Though it may be indexed in Google, chances are your blog isn’t ranked for page one, so why wait for someone to find you when you can engage them now.
Twitter has a really good search part to their site. You can test it out by clicking here.
Through Twitter Search you can type some keywords that someone may type in looking for something. For example “I hate Internet Explorer.” You’ll find plenty of tweets among users with their complaints. If you have a simple solution for them and you’ve got a post on what to do, and its free, reply back to them. It won’t be spam if you come across sincere, and if you want to wait for them to reply back to you to provide a link to your post then do it that way.
The point is that you have worthy content that can help someone through a situation. Maybe its academic studies or a simple how-to. Point of the matter is that you’re getting it right to someone who needs it at the time they’re looking for it. If you’ve tried this before or are currently practicing it, I’d like to hear your thoughts and comments below.
