Social Media Optimization - the new SEO dimension

Social Media Optimization opens a steam valve in the world of eMarketing

Online marketing takes on a new challenge presented by new search algorithms that are increasingly putting more value on your social media presence than ever before. The SEO industry is making sure that online businesses continue to benefit from search engine marketing efforts with social media optimization (SMO) that has opened up new opportunities to leverage your presence in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, along with media sharing sites like YouTube to be a step ahead of competition.

Over the last 5 years, social networks have created an entirely novel way of reaching your markets through its word-of-mouth potential to bring your products and service to millions without even spending the usual ad dollars behind traditional marketing communication channels. Social media optimization (SMO) is the new darling behind social media marketing that has now become an essential component in boosting your online presence. It is an online marketing tool that makes your content readily accessible and shareable across the social media networks.

Supercharge your online marketing efforts with the hottest new technologies

While SEO technology allows eMarketing to generate as much traffic to your commercial website as possible, there is now a compelling paradigm where generation of web traffic gives way to ensuring that as many online users see your website's content. This is what SMO technology does to the online business. Today, driven by the changes in Google's search algorithm, content is king.

It no longer matters where your content resides. Search engines like Google need not even be the first point of contact to your adds. SMO done right can bring people to view your content from apps, widgets, videos in YouTube, or Photos is Flickr. YouTube itself is now only second to Google as a search engine. Just make a search on YouTube, and you get results in several pages just like in any search engine. Same with Facebook and Flickr, and similar social networks and media sharing site. Your website can be accessed and shared whether you're at home, office or on the road through mobile phones. In fact, the more transportable your content is, the more it can reach more people. Social media can further increase web traffic from several websites through word-of-mouth social referral traffic.

SMO is about having a larger and more active social media presence for your brand, whether your organization has one or not, as SMO leverages the social networks of others to your benefit. SMO can lead more people to see your content as friends encourage their friends down the line to read your specific content. If your content can appeal to one person, there's a higher chance their friends are just as likely to be interested in your content. Just imagine the multiplier effect if your content can appeal to a dozen from your targeted markets. At the end of the day, a high viewership of your content leads to significant improvements in search engine optimization, as major search engines count on the quality links from these social media sites as a vote to your website that carries more weight than the backlinks from your articles in e-zines and directories.

Invest in a Keyword Optimizer to start off you SEO

Using the right keywords for your site increases the chances your web pages will land in the first page pf a search return. Unfortunately, website developers and business owners search-optimizing their online presence often make the mistake of defining their keywords simply based on what they associate their products with. It doesn't always work. Why? Because keywords are what customers use when searching for what they need, not what you think your products or services mean. In short, you need to do more relevant research on your keywords and even use keyword optimizing tools to fine-tune your research.

Long Tail Keywords

Finding the right keywords gets a bit more challenging when it comes to narrowing down a search for long-tail keywords. These are 3+ word strings or phrases that your customer might use to get a more focused product search. For instance, both "budget cellphone in Dallas for 2013" and "best Verizon budget cellphone 2013" are long tail keywords that derive from the theme keyword "cellphone." Targeting "cellphone" gets millions of searches on Google each month. But when you search the term, you get 59 million websites in a search result. You don't want to compete with that many websites and expect to be #1 among 59 million other sites many of which are also search-optimizing their pages.

But when you plug "best Verizon budget cellphone 2013" in a Google search, the return is reduced to 7.3 million. That's still a lot to compete with, but represents a significant narrowing that gives you better chances of landing in the first page search result. The main point to consider in long tail keywords is that they are just part, albeit a critical one, of any SEO effort. With several of your webpages, including blogs and content in e-zines optimized for your long tail keyword, your optimization efforts add up week after week and eventually land you on the first page. Also bear in mind that your homepage need not land on the search return. Your inner web pages might land there well ahead of your homepage. It all depends on how the inner pages use your keywords so that subject topic being searched could be better served by your inner pages.

Software tools that optimize your keyword research

There are a number of online software tools you can use such as the Google Adwords Keyword Tool which is one of the most popular keyword research tools used by only marketers to generate targeted traffic to their websites. It's a free tool on the side. What it does best is provide a list of top long tail keywords that matches your theme keyword based on its extensive database of search query information only Google has as the largest search engine on the planet. However, this advantage is watered down since you won't be able to leverage on what other search engines have which 3rd party non-Google owned keyword optimizers enjoy. In addition, there can be literally thousands of these keyword suggestions that are often inaccurate and require a lot of filtering. You're pretty much on your own to narrow down and choose the most suitable for your site.

It is here where some of the more competent keyword optimizing tools can automate the process to arrive at a precise keyword targeting following the four golden rules in keyword optimization - Relevance, Traffic, Competition, and Commerciality. The Google Keyword tool can best be used as your starting point and Master Samurai can pull an initial list of keywords from it. Then its applies PBR (Phrase to Broad Match) and SEOT (SEO Traffic) relevancy filters to remove any misleading or irrelevant keywords and shorten the list to a few, down to the top ten keywords that are used by the top ranking websites in the industry where your product or service belongs. These are the websites you will want to beat and you can use some of the keywords they use to kick-start your SEO effort.

Conclusion

The only drawback is that these tools, at least the better ones, do not come for free, though often offered  with a one-month free trial so you can check out first hand what it can do that the Google Adwords Keyword tool can't. But consider their modest price tags, often ranging from $150 to $250 as a small investment in making your SEO initiatives start off on the right direction, easily and with more confidence. Keyword optimization is the first step in any SEO effort. Do it wrong and all your subsequent SEO efforts will surely fail. But not with a competent Keyword optimizing tool at your side.

Taking in the right calories to lose weight

Overweight folks are always on the lookout for the best diet regimens that can lose excess fat. They often ask "how many calories should I eat to lose weight?" If you read the many nuggets of wisdom from several weight loss experts online, there are a few answers to the question that makes sense. Here are a couple of them:

You need a good calorie calculator

In theory, a pound of body weight equals around 3,500 calories. That means you need to consume fewer than 3,500 over a stretch of time to lose one pound. This can be your goal if set realistically over a period of time. For instance, you can eat 500 fewer calories per day and lose a pound in a week (500 x 7 day). Just be sure you don't go below daily survival calories. In general, you need no less than 1200 calories a day for female, and 1600 - 1800 calories for male.

There are several calorie calculators online. After specifying you age, weight, height, daily activity level (from sedentary to very active) and how much body weight you want to lose over a period of time, the better online calculators return with a recommended calorie intake over a period of time that progressively goes down as you lose weight over the period you've specified. One such helpful and well-designed calorie calculator can be found at www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/calculators/calories-required/.

It's not the calories you take in that matters, as long as you burn off more calories than you take in.

Apart from taking the right calories, Losing weight is also about burning excess fat. That won't happen if you continue to take in more calories than you burn off. This is often the mantra behind aerobics and strength-developing workouts. You can take in 500 more calories from your favorite ice cream, cakes and soda, but if you lose that much or more in a workout, then you can maintain or lose weight. Losing weight requires a holistic approach that uses the right mix of diet and exercise.

WebMD's Elaine Magee, MPH, RD (www.webmd.com/diet/features/8-ways-to-burn-calories-and-fight-fat) makes this point with her eight-point suggestion on how best to burn calories, the first of which is a rigorous workout. Cited in her article Christopher Wharton, PhD from the Yale University pointed out that the more time spent exercising, the more calories are burned. He further stresses the value of building muscle mass with the right strength exercise. Apart from burning calories in each workout session, having muscles burns more calories than body fat does even when you're at rest. Ten pounds of muscle can burn 50 calories each day compared to 20 calories from an equal amount of body fat even when doing nothing.

Burning calories is not exclusively the domain of gym workouts. Everything the body does burn calories. Magee points out that firing up the digestive process alone burns calories. Hence, spreading your food intake over several short meals and snacks each day will turn on your digestion and burn more calories than if you were to take the usual heavy meals during lunch and dinner only.

Even fidgeting burns calories since they get you to move a part of your body repeatedly while sitting or doing nothing. Jamie Pope from the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing cited in Magee's article revealed that any body movement spends energy and mundane body movements like fidgeting have been shown in many studies to burn calories, possibly even more than formal gym workouts. Rob Stein of the Washington posts (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41897-2005Jan27.html) corroborate this and cites a 2005 study conducted by James A. Levine of the Mayo Clinic which showed that fidgeting along could lose 350 lbs a day, enough to lose 10-35 lbs a year. While losing 10 lbs in a year is not exactly the goal of many obese people, it certainly helps the weight loss effort even when you're doing anything at all.

Conclusion

A calorie calculator won't reduce your weight, but the information on the right calories you need over a period of time provides a valuable guide to your weight loss effort. At the very least, this directly answers the question, "how many calories should I eat to lose weight?" Indirectly, knowing that every type of body movement and activity burns calories, from spreading your meals more evenly each day, fidgeting, to a formal gym workout session will complement a diet regimen that allows you to consume the calories within the prescribed levels. With a strong determination, such a knowledge religiously followed can get you to succeed in achieving your weight loss goal.