Friday, February 10, 2012

Things You Can Do For Search Engine Optimaztion

A lot of people asking if we (Moonstruck Media Production) can help them boost their Google Rankings aka boost their Search Engine Optimization. And recently, I was writing up a document to go along with a quote and came to the conclusion that this is information that every business should know. There are many things that you can do without hiring someone to do it for you. Don't get me wrong, there are things that only a web person can do for you, assuming you hire the right one, but there is also a lot that you can do yourself.

Out-Of-Site Links
The more companies that link to your website the better. Some of the ways to get people to link to you is to join local groups or find other companies that you may use to link to your site and you do the same back to them. Some of the items below are also great ways to get links back to your site.

Social Media Accounts
Adding social media accounts, the more the better. Yes, it can be time consuming and hard to come up with content to post all the time, but it builds a following and can attract new clients. Also, it’s easy to create links that link back to your website. For example, in your Facebook posting we can use something that says...

"Give your website a personal touch with web videos from Moonstruck Media Production."

Not only are we giving people an idea of what we can do for them, but it's also directing people to the "Services Page" of our Moonstruck Media Website.

Another good example is this blog! But more on that in the next tip. :)

With Twitter, you can also have the ability to reach out to more potential clients. For example, if you go on Twitter and search “Chiropractor” or “Back Pain” you can reach out to that person (assuming they are in the Madison Area) and say "Hey you should come check out our company".

I went to a seminar recently, and someone in the Madison area posted on Twitter that they wanted to purchase a particular car. Within hours, a sales person from Milwaukee reached out to them and sold them a car with the use of Twitter and email. It's amazing what you can do!

Social Media to conciser (but not limited to):
Facebook
Twitter
FourSquare
Google Places
Google +
Linkedin
Yelp
YouTube

To manage Twitter and Facebook, you can use HootSuite (free program you can download) and schedule postings weeks in advance. There are many other programs that are simular to HootSuite, both free and paid. You just have to play with all of them to see which one fits your needs.

If you need help getting content to place up on your social networks, you can use Google Alerts. With Google Alerts, you type in a keyword that maybe interesting and every day or week (depending on how you want to set it up) you will receive an email with when that word was used in an article or blog. You can use those as social media content, or get inspired. You can use it for fun too. For example, I love movies, so if anything about the new "The Dark Knight Rises" movie is talked about, I know about it. Yes, I'm a bit of a movie geek. :)

All of these accounts not only will help you build a following, but it also helps to build that personal connection and trust.

Blog
By creating a blog and updating it at least monthly, you can reach out to your clients and potential clients how you can help and inform them on the company, any events or other new information that involves your company. You can even write blogs in advance and have them automatically post. Recommended blog to use (and what I am currently using) is owned by Google and is called Blogger. With Blogger, you can fully customize the Blog so it matches your website and company branding and it's free, which is a plus. (You may need help making your blog match your website, if you do, give us a ring!)

With blogs, as you can see in this one, every time I mention Moonstruck Media Production or something that is related to Moonstruck Media Production, it's a link that links back to a specific part of our website. This is something that you don't want to go over board with because search engines (especially Google) can realize that something not right and make your website listed as spam. And we don't want that.

Notes about everything listed above
Everything that I have listed above, are things that take time. The more you do it the better chance your website has on seeing the light of the first searched page. I wanted to list everything that was free first, however doing these things won't make your website appear at the top overnight. And I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that. Google changes it's search criteria a lot and no one really knows what exactly they are looking for, no matter what anyone says. The only thing we can do is watch for new criteria that Google releases.

There's the paid way to get on that first search page... and pretty fast...

Google Adwords
When you search on Google, you may notice that there are links in a yellow box at the very top of your search or on the left hand side. These are paid advertising that you can purchase. The minimum amount you need to put toward a Google Adwords is $50. Google Adwords prices vary depending on how popular the keywords you use. You can pay for a Google Adwords Campaign two different ways: Pay-per-click or pay-per-view. Pay per click (recommended) you pay when a person clicks on your ad and goes to your website. Pay per view is you pay every time someone searches your keyword, even if they don’t click on your ad, if it comes up, you pay for it. The price per-click and per-view vary depending again on how popular the keywords you use are, but it usually costs between 50¢ and $2.00 each and will stop showing your add when you hit your budged amount that you put in.

In Summary
There are many things that you can do, but some that you many not be able to do unless you know some coding or website maintenance. The best you can do are the things above and UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN and have great content on it. By great content, I'm not talking about an outline of what you do, I'm talking about the full explanation of what you do with relevant photos. Also, having a programer or designer who is designing your page who knows what they are doing helps as well. :)

I really hope that this helps everyone in their Search Engine Quest to the top. Please let me know if you have any questions. And don't forget to check us out on our many social networks below as well!




Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Reflecting on Last Year in to 2012

2011 was a successful year to Moonstruck Media Production, LLC. And as we look back we would like to thank all those people who helped us make 2011 a success. From website design and updates, recording and editing everything from business information and testimonials, facility tours and safety, to sporting events, to designing logos and flyers. 2011 had a little bit of everything, which is perfect because that's what we're here for.

Also looking back there are some resolutions we have decided to make for the company. The biggest one is to keep everyone updated on what types of things we're working on. You may not know it, but we have some big and exciting projects in the works!

The next resolution is write more blogs. The last one that was written for the company was a year ago. Our goal is to write one every month. Topics that we're considering include, but not limited to:


  • HD Video & New Media Information

  • The world of Live Streaming

  • Easy ways to boost Search Engine Optimization

  • How to create an effective email for your company

  • Information on our staff

  • And More!



Any ideas that you have about the products and services that we offer, or just questions that you would like us to answer, please let us know. There is probably someone else out there with the same question, so please ask!

Here's looking forward to a great 2012!