Nowadays, it seems like there is a social network for every possible niche or topic area, from getting a good night’s sleep to online marketing and SEO.  Accordingly, there is probably one that is related to your business - and participating in a niche social media site is a great way to drive traffic to your own website or blog.  A key part of our SEO company’s overall strategy involves researching each client’s market, including any relevant niche social bookmarking or networking sites.  Here are a few tips for taking advantage of these genre sites:

Every Saturday, we post a list of our SEO company’s favorite articles and blog posts, and here is this week’s list:

E-Consultancy has written about how they found that SEO provided the biggest bang for your marketing buck for generating online leads in their recently released Online Lead Generation Report.

The subject of our next “what would _____ do if they were an SEO or a search marketer?” post is Al Capone.  Since we are a Chicago SEO company, Chicago’s most notorious son was a natural choice.  Obviously, Al Capone would be a black hat SEO, as he was no stranger to shady and underhanded tactics (to say the least - after all, at least the people and companies who tangle with rogue SEOs are still alive at the end, and you can’t say the same for Al’s enemies).

Although press releases are typically considered more of a traditional marketing tool than a search engine optimization technique, sending and submitting optimized press releases can be a great link-building tactic and provide a nice boost to your website’s rankings - and you never know, they might lead to your company news getting picked up by media outlets, news feeds, and other websites. Writing and submitting optimized press releases is one of the many techniques that SEOGroup employs; in fact, we wouldn’t be a complete SEO company if we didn’t.

Rob Snell has an amazing search marketing and search engine optimization story. He recently testified before Congress about the impact that search marketing (both organic/natural - SEO and pay-per-click advertising) can have on small businesses. Of course, as an SEO company we are already aware of that, but it is great to see search marketing get some air time at such a high level.

When you are looking for information about a specific product, service, or company, chances are the first thing you do is search for it online; basically, all information-seeking roads lead to Google. It goes to follow that the SERPs (the search engine results pages) are one of the most likely places for new customers and clients to discover your business. Therefore, you need to not only get your company on page#1 of the results (and this Chicago SEO company can help you with that), you need to make sure that what your visitors find on the SERPs presents your brand in the best possible light - it is not all that different from PR.

There is a new article in USA Today that features five SEO tips straight from the horse’s mouth, or Google’s Matt Cutts. While his suggestions (start a blog, use social media, etc.) seemed a little basic to us (but then again, we are an established Chicago SEO company), they are great for small business owners or others who are just getting started on the web.

Although the article (and accompanying video) goes more in depth, Matt gave USA Today’s reporter five pieces of advice.

Here are some of our SEO company’s favorite reads this week:

Sonia Simone writes about Closing the Deal with Logical Benefits at Copyblogger, she says “These are all the rational, intelligent reasons we have for buying the stuff we want. You hook prospects with the heart, but you close the deal with the head.”

Some search engine optimization companies consider the challenges of reaching page#1 to be akin to a war: them versus Google (and Yahoo, MSN, and the rest). So if you think of it that way, then how would Machiavelli, one of the great writers on the philosophy of on war and politics, approach SEO?

The concept of linkbait is simple - linkbait is a post, video clip, podcast, or article created specifically for a particular audience or niche (or social media) that has some kind of clever hook or unique angle that encourages other bloggers to write about it and link to it, resulting in more traffic and a higher position in the SERPs. Obviously, creating compelling linkbait can be excellent for your website’s search engine optimization. However, while the concept itself is simple, writing quality linkbait is something that is easier said than done, even for an experienced SEO company or consultant.

There are six main types of linkbait:

1. Useful Resources/Tools

2. Humor/Entertainment

3. Breaking News/Scoops

4. Shock Value

5. Research & Analysis

6. Controversy