When to Post to Facebook or Twitter

Social Media Marketing is no longer an option for the vast majority of businesses.  Social media channels are a good way to increase a company’s trustworthiness and goodwill. They are also a primary way to obtain leads, engage with customers and get access to customer’s feedback.  In terms of search marketing campaigns, study after study reveals that social media have proven to generate traffic back to the Company’s website.

With the importance of social media and the time it takes to manage a successful campaign, it makes sense for most businesses to hire a social media consultant.  Running a social media campaign takes a lot of time and energy.  A social media company helps find ways of representing businesses through social media in a positive and authentic way. If you do decide to manage your own social media campaign, here are some tips on when you should post your tweets, links, etc.

Research has recently been completed about when to post branded updates to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Interestingly, all social media cannot be treated the same.  As the researchers wrote, “It’s easy to see that just like your neighborhood restaurants; each social network has its own culture and behavior patterns. By understanding the simple characteristics of each social network, you can publish your content at exactly the right time for it to reach the maximum number of people.”

The study found, for example, that on Twitter, the best window is 1 to 3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The best window for Facebook is 1 to 4 p.m. While other social media sites, such as Tumblr are later in the night. Specifically, for Tublr, a posts will do best after 7 p.m. The research found that Facebook usage peaks at 3 p.m. ET on weekdays, with Wednesdays being the busiest day of all. Of course, these are national studies. The 3 PM time slot takes into account both Eastern and Western time zones.  As for weekends, Sundays can be slow. Interestingly, for Twitter, consumer engagement with brands appears to increase on the weekends, particularly for certain brands. Sports brands, for example, are typically up to 52% higher than average on weekends, while apparel companies can see increases of more than 30%.  As for the best time to Tweet, there is a larger window of opportunity. Marketers should target the peak usage hours of 8 AM and 7 PM. The study suggested that marketers will get about 30% more interest than they would by posting at any other time. Link postings, however, one should aim for sometimes between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM, as this is the time frame in which they’re likely to get the most clicks. Sending a tweet with a link after 8:00 p.m. should be avoided — as should posting links after 3:00 p.m. on Fridays. The researchers also recommend not posting the links you want to go viral during the weekend.

These are but a few of the nuances one needs to know to run a successful social media campaign.  Companies such as Sacramento’s Top Web Rank can run your entire social media campaign from scheduling your Facebook updates to sending Tweets to running a contest promotion and sending printable coupons to your fans. Top Web Rank can also send run fun polls and promotions for your business!

By: Sacramento Search Marketing Firm | Sacramento Internet Marketing

What is a Favicon and is it Important?

A favicon is short for favorite icon. It is also known as a shortcut icon, url icon or a bookmark icon. A favicon is most commonly 16x16 pixels but can be 32 x 32, 48x48, etc. It is a file used to associate a particular website. A site like Blogger, for example, has a favicon that distinguishes the site from other sites.  It is prominently displayed on the left hand side of the tab and looks like the graphic at the start of this blog.

A favicon makes sites stand out from other sites.  When your site is crawled by search engine bots, favicon.ico is one of the files that they search for.  It helps with online branding and could help your clients return to your site.

A favicon is also useful because it helps your clients identify your site easier. As sites are adding bookmarking options, it helps to make your website stand out visually. The favicon makes it easy to find and easily click on your tab right away. You can create the favicon and a web design company like Top Web Rank can incorporate it on your site or a company like ours can create it for you as part of their logo design services.

Favicons are really an important part of the website, just like any images in a website and we believe it is as important as the logo of a website. To make a website distinct from the others it is necessary to have a favicon in the website for both branding and usability purposes.

By: Sacramento Search Marketing Firm | Sacramento Internet Marketing

The Role of Blogs in your Search Marketing

Business blogging and content marketing make an effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategy for generating traffic and improving your website’s ‘stickiness’. The first and most important part of the search engine strategy (SES), is to ensure people are coming to your site who is interested in what you have to offer.  Second, you want to ensure that those same people stay on your site to read or view what they believed they were coming for in the first place. Recent research suggests that the length of time someone stays on your site has a big correlation in your website rankings. At Top Web Rank, we treat blogs as one important piece of the puzzle to ensure your clients find the content they are looking for and ‘stick’ around. Blogs, when integrated with other pieces of the puzzle, including posts, videos, audios, sales text, white papers, reviews, etc. is an important piece to keep your customers engaged and interested.

Combined with social media, blog services talk directly to your customers and prospects without editorial filters. Blogs also are the perfect cornerstone of social media, meaning they are the perfect hub for social media campaigns.

If you do plan to manage your own site, here are some tips to help you:

Social Media: Use social media such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, StubleUpon, YouTube, etc to promote your blog. Remember that no one knows your blog exists if you don’t tell them about it. Build up a presence on social media channels to drive people back to your blog. Invest your time in it. On Tweeter, tweet when you first publish your blog. Tweet post again later in the day and with a different introduction. Tweet a third time a few days later. We are not advocating, however, to tweet about your post every hour.

Structure Content: Group your blogs in accordance with common themes. This categorization will help not only help your readers find their desired content but also help the search engines that interpret and index your content smoothly. The end result is better rankings on the search engines.

Updated Contents: People love new content. So do search engines! Research suggests that search engines have penalized websites that have not been updated for a period of time.

RSS Feeds: RSS feeds help you distribute your blog posts to a larger audience and enhance your link popularity. This tool is effective in disseminating not only text but audio and video as well.  The RSS feeds enable your users to receive updated content from the web log automatically. In addition, the RSS engines will regularly include your web log content.

Build a Community: A good blog can pave the way for an effective interaction among similar minded individuals. Create a sense of belonging and participation at your blog. The outcomes of establishing a good community includes repeat traffic, interaction and good vibe amongst your readers.

Create Search Engine Friendly URLs: Choose a friendly uniform resource locator (URL) for your blog. This makes it easier for search engines to locate and crawl your posts. Use a URL shortener where you can track clicks.

Submit your address to blog search sites and directories: Register your blog at Technocrati, Daypop, Blogdex, Popdex, and other sites.

Other tips include: connect your blog with Google+, build your followers by following other users, post and comment on their blogs regularly, if you mentioned someone in your post, ping them,

While blogs can be a perfect vehicle to promote your business, the problem is blogs take a lot of time to write, edit and especially promote. Using a Blog Writing Services like our professional blog service will save you time, so you can focus on your business! Our Sacramento Blog Service: you provide the inspiration, and we provide the perspiration.

By: Sacramento Search Marketing Firm | Sacramento Internet Marketing

Lesson from a Clever Bird Using Bread As Bait

Bird makes investment to get bigger ROI (Return on Investment).

Check out this great MSN video: Clever Bird Uses Bread As Bait

By:  Sacramento Search Marketing Firm | Sacramento Internet Marketing

SES Conference San Francisco

I arrived at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference Tuesday morning via Bart from Sacramento (parked in Pittsburg). The SES Conference in San Francisco held August 13-17, 2012 was full of rich and actionable information for search engine optimization (SEO) companies. Valuable information from well establish gurus such as Bruce Clay and Avinash Kaushik to help websites be found. Granted, the fee for entry can be quite expensive but well worth it.  From the latest in site structure to content hierarchy to link building, the conference is full of priceless materials.

Theatre presentations included useful tips on conversation rates, optimization tips, improved SEO tools, Pay Per Click analysis and social media tools. Great information was also shared in understanding link pruning, rebuilding a website for results and building relationships to build quality links.  I also learned a tremendous amount from speaking with vendors offering productivity and efficiency software including effective SEO Tools to complete keyword research, competitor research, link monitoring, website management and campaign reporting. Social media tools included brand monitoring, reporting KPIs (Key Performance Index) and measuring ROIs.  PPC tools from Google Adwords and Bing campaign managements and metrics reporting was all very informative.

The conference reinforced what we share with our Sacramento, Stockton and Bay Area clients during our initial consultation meetings. First, SEO is a process and not a single action.  Second, effective SEO is focused not only on quantity of the traffic but also on its quality. Finally, SEO is made up of different search engines including image, video, local and vertical search.

One of our philosophies here at Sacramento’s TWR is to continuously improve our search, social and digital skills. We are planning to attend specialized classes in September via OMI (Online Marketing Institute) and attending Pubcon in Las Vegas from October 15-18.  This upcoming conference is supported by the industry’s leading businesses, exhibitors and sponsors involved in social media, Internet marketing, search engines, and online advertising.  Our Sacramento team is looking forward to a week-long session to learn from dozens of cutting-edge sessions so we can service our Sacramento and Bay Area clients better and achieve results. 

By: Sacramento Search Marketing Firm | Sacramento Internet Marketing

Top Web Rank is an internet marketing company serving Sacramento, Stockton and the San Francisco Bay Area.  We offer search engine optimization services (SEO), Pay Per Click Management Services (PPC), Link Building, Web Analytics, Social Media and Web Design Services.  We have a team of experts to help you get found.  Why is it important to be found? Here are some facts:

Top 6 in Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

Ask yourself when you are searching on Google, how far do you scroll down? Having a result position of 6th or better gives a click share of about 85% of all click referrals from Google. Essentially those typically are the positions above the fold, i.e. visible in the SERP without the user having to scroll down.

Anything beyond the 10th position falls into the small 6 - 7 percent of Google clicks, so the target when paying for SEO should be that the search term lands in the SERP on 6th position or better if to provide any volume. Why else pay for SEO?

From a conversion perspective this might vary, the focus here is pure click volume. Contact Us us for a free consultation.

By: Sacramento Search Marketing Firm | Sacramento Internet Marketing