Small Business SEO & Social Marketing Tips

Getting your blog listed in quality blog directories is paramount to increasing your following and your readership. I highly recommend your submit your blog to any or all of the following blog directories. Most of them are free. If there is a cost for submission, it is in parentheses.

Technorati (Make sure to create and account an ‘claim’ your blog here first)
Google Blog Search
Ice Rocket
BOTW Blogs (Only accepts blogs that are excellent quality and at least 6 months old) ($75.00)
Bloggeries ($39.99)
Eaton Web ($34.99)
OnTopList.com
Blogged.com
Blog Catalog
Blog Universe ($4.99)
Bigger Blogger
Bloggernity.com
Bloggapedia.com
Spillbean.com
Blogging Fusion
Blog Flux
Bloglisting.net
Blogio
Blog Explosion
Super Blog Directory
Blog Hub
Blogarama.com

Looking to generate some quality backlinks to your site? Here is my personal list of backlink authority sites I use to increase my site rankings.

Of course, there are tons more, but this list will give you a good solid mixture of dofollow and nofollow backlinks; ensuring that your backlink profile looks ‘natural’ in the eyes of Google. Enjoy!

Wikis
Wikis are seen as authority sites in the eyes of Google, and it pays to take the time and create listings for your business on the following wikis:
Knol.google.com
Aboutus.org
Wikidweb.com
Mywikibiz.com
Wikidot.com

Article Marketing
While there are literally thousands of article directories out there, most of them are garbage. I only recommend the ones listed below for serious article marketing:
Buzzle.com
GoArticles.com
EzineArticles.com
Articlesbase.com

Instructional/Informational Sites
These sites let you establish yourself as an expert in your field by creating content and/or answering questions submitted by users.
Yahoo answers
Linkedin answers
Alltop.com
Qondio
Squidoo
Instructables.com
Ehow.com
Hubpages.com
AllExperts.com
ExpertVillage.com
43Things.com
Associated Content
Docstoc.com
Scribd.com

Social Bookmarking (Top Sites)
These are the main social bookmarking sites for submitting articles, blog posts, news stories and webpages of interest:
Stumbleupon
Delicious
Digg
Mixx
Reddit
Propeller

Social Bookmarking (Secondary Sites)
Socialmarker.com
A nifty tool that allows you to enter the title, description ,URL and keywords for a a story and then post to numerous social bookmarking sites from one place.

Addthis.com
Add their button to your website or blog to allow other a one-click way to share or bookmark your posts and stories.
Backflip
Blink List
Connotea
Diigo
Dizzed
Faves
Folkd
Google Bookmarks
Jump Tags
LinkAGogo
Mister Wong
My Link Vault
MyJeeves
OYAX
Spurl
Wirefan

Social Networking
My personal favorite from an SEO point of view is Facebook, followed by Twitter.
Both allow interaction with followers/fans while offering opportunities for folks to bookmark and/or link back to your original post or webpage.
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Flickr
Myspace
Friendster
Ning

Twitter Sites
Twitter is so popular at the moment that it has it’s own librabry of specific tools:
TweetDeck.com
Twitter Karma
Local Tweeps
Twitter Grader
Social Oomph
Twollow.com

Professional Networking
As well, profiles on the professional networking sites below help you connect with likeminded business owners AND get a few quality incoming links to your site.
I recommend you take a few minutes and create profiles on all of the following:
LinkedIn
Plaxo
LookupPages.com
Partnerup.com
Entrepreneur Connect
PerfectBusiness.com
StartupNation.com
Ziggs
ZoomInfo
Biznik
Xing

Blogging
If you aren’t blogging about your business, you are missing a huge source of possible traffic, links, customers and sales. Yeah, it’s that important.
Without a doubt, my favorite platform is Wordpress.
Wordpress.com (This is the free version)
Wordpress.org (This version requires you to install software and host it yourself)
Tumblr.com
Posterous.com
Typepad.com
Blogger.com
LiveJournal.com

Local Search/Review Sites
Possibly the most critical tactic in any current small business SEO strategy is to create and optimize your local search engine listings and review site profiles.
Yahoo Local
Google Local
BOTW Local
Localeze.com
Citysearch.com
InfoUSA
Local.com
Superpages.com
Yellowpages.com
GetListed.org
Yelp.com
Insider Pages
RateItAll.com
CityVoter.com
Openlist.com
Viewpoints.com
AmericanTowns.com
MerchantCircle.com

Press Releases
The key here is to only submit a press release when you have something important to say about your business.
Free-press-release.com
Prlog.org
PR.com
1888pressrelease.com
Prleap.com
Prweb.com

Paid Directories
Yet another necessary evil in any current good SEO strategy, paid directories compliment your other linking efforts and are seen as authority sites in the eyes of Google.
Yahoo
Business.com
BOTW
GoGuides
JoeAnt
Skaffe
RubberStamped
MassiveLinks
Gimpsy
Directory Journal
Sezza

Free Directories
Directories still have a place in any good SEO campaign, as Google likes to see a variety of link types pointing to your site (i.e. articles, wikis, directories, blogs, etc).
DMOZ
Alexa
Amfibi
Cuil
ExactSeek
IllumiRate
NetInsert
ScrubTheWeb
SearchSight
SoMuch.com
SonicRun
SurfSafely
TowerSearch.com
What U Seek
World Site Index

Do you have some sites to add to the list? Let me know in the comments..

A typical small business needs to use a mix of SEO, SEM and social media to boost their search rankings and increase their web traffic. The following is an outline of the online marketing mix that has worked very well for me over the years. Enjoy!

SEO
- Create an easy to navigate website with informational ORIGINAL content that is helpful to HUMAN visitors (not search engines). Write content that is informational and valuable. Make sure every page is properly optimized for on-page SEO.

- Start a blog and post relevant, helpful information on it several times per week. Sign up for RSS feeds and/or Google news for daily updates and breaking news you can blog about. Link to other blogs and news stories that are relevant. Get to know other bloggers who are talking about your topic(s) and stay in touch with them.

- Spend the $$ for directory listings on the Yahoo and Business.com directories.

- Create wiki pages for your business at AboutUs.org, Wikidweb.com and MyWikiBiz.com

- Create profiles for your business on the local search engines and review sites.

- Create and submit an XML sitemap to Google/Yahoo/Bing regularly.

- Submit an optimized online press release when you have something IMPORTANT to say (i.e. new product, new partnership, etc) and then pimp your release at Pitch Engine.

- Continue to create great content for your website and blog. Check your analytics… you may be missing some key terms people are using to find your site (hint: create new pages around those terms and create even more great content for your site).

- Write an ebook/whitepaper/article that highlights your expertise and gives the reader something useful for free. Post that to your website and blog (and post to Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon.com or Mixx if its really good). Repeat this process every 2-4 weeks if you can.

Social Media
- If you haven’t yet, create a Facebook page and a Twitter account (yes, it’s time to do this!) and use a service like Twitterfeed.com to automatically post your blog posts to your FB and Twitter pages to expand your reach (and your readership).

- Respond and interact with your visitors, and don’t be afraid to give away (some) valuable information to build trust and show you are an expert in your field.

SEM
Research your vertical, find 3-5 longer-tail keywords (typically at lower CPC’s ) and launch a small Google Adwords campaign. Make sure to break out your keywords into separate adgroups that land on individually created landing pages so you can track what’s converting. Use Google conversion tracking to measure conversions. Optimize and tweak these until you have adgroups that convert at a rate you are happy with. Adjust your budget to whatever is comfortable for you.

Of course, this is not even close to an exhaustive list (I can’t give away all of my secrets for free ), but it will certainly give your site a nice jump in the SERPS if you follow these tips.

Do you have any tips to add? Leave a comment below..

At 9pm this past Monday, January 18, 2010, I officially became a statistic of the ongoing recession. The company I had been working with for the past year and a half had to let me go due to financial reasons. With that said, I am officially on the market for hire as a senior SEO manager.

Highlights from my last role as SEO & Marketing Manager include:

* Doubling the monthly sales lead flow in 10 months using a combination of SEO/SEM, automated drip marketing email campaigns and custom SalesForce web-to-lead form integration.

* Dominating our key search terms (85% of terms #1-3 positions) for four separate web properties.

* Spearheading the single largest monthly sales total in company history this past December; recording 5 times the normal amount of monthly sales.  (yeah, and they still fired me barely 2 weeks later..)

I am looking for:

* A full-time position with benefits. I am not looking for contract work at this time.

* A financially stable company of any size that wants to explode their sales and brand recognition via the web.

* Any industry is fine, but I would love to be involved with a ‘fun’ product such as travel/tourism, entertainment, gaming, etc.

* Perfect world would be a telecommute position with reasonable travel for face-time. Relocation along the East Coast is also an option (especially to the Orlando/Tampa, FL area).

If you think we might be a good match for each other, please shoot me an email at mike(at)loudmarket(dot)com and let’s chat. Feel free to scope me out on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegracen as well. And you can grab my resume here.

Thanks in advance to all of you who Tweet, forward and share this post.