Love it or hate it Twitter can no longer be ignored. Celebrities, businessmen (and women to be politically correct) big companies, small companies have all fallen for the micro blogging culture, if you put in the time to get it right and use a bit of imagination Twitter can be a great tool to use as part of your internet marketing strategy.

As with anything in life, Twitter will only give you back what you put in. The rewards are vast from free publicity, increasing your network and marketing your business. Be smart and make your tweats a mix of things people will want to find out about.

Building and using a Twitter Profile

• Don’t be selfish, help others out with problems. I little kindness goes a long way.
• Share tips and report any industry news that is related to your sector.
  Link to any articles you have read or content you have found valuable and think others can benefit from.
• If like the Creare offices one rare hot summers day you are enjoying a Fab ice lolly, Tweet about it. Companies appreciate a bit of positive PR.
• Make recommendations.
• Follow related industry groups, other similar companies, your suppliers, your customers, and your competitors.
• Make an effort to stay in touch with friends and colleagues, if your business is kept in the forefront of their mind they can bring you leads.
• Engage with people by asking and answering questions.
• Make use of the search feature, if you are an air-conditionnig company you might stumble across someone who is calling out for some assistance.
• Tweet any special offers you might have on, lunch time specials, seasonal offers etc.
• Spread Tweats throughout the day. Lunch time and early evening if you are that dedicated…
• Invite guests to blog for you to add to the mix.
• Put a bit of effort into personalising your Twitter Profile.
• Add a link in the footer of your website, email signature and have it printed on your business cards. As a species we are naturally curious, capitalise on that.
• Any developments, promotions, new job opportunities.
• Be genuine and engaging, amusing and informative.

Twitter is a labour of love. It might not be suitable for every industry and takes a lot of work before you will see any rewards. SEO is no longer only dominated by rankings, building an online presence through social networking should be something you consider integrating into you internet marketing strategy.

We all know by now that quality relevant links pointing to your site is an important ranking factor in search engines. When commencing a link building strategy for your chosen keywords, it is important to consider your anchor text. Anchor text is the visible text that contains the link to a web page e.g SEO. As a user you will know if you click on that link you will go to a page with information about SEO.

Historically people made the mistake of linking up their company name, or a prime example is “to find out more about SEO click here“. This link will work from a usability perspective, but a search engine would not know you want to rank for SEO, although it appears effective, there is no benefit for your rankings.

Use Anchor Text Wisely:

• Keep the user experience in mind with internal linking, make sure the link is relevant and not there for the sake of adding a link.
• Links will only add value if they are related to the page they are on.
• Links within the copy are more valuable than within the footer or another secondary area of the website.
• Vary your anchor text when carrying out external linking. To many incoming links with the same anchor text will shout that you are trying to manipulate rankings!
• Leave a snippit of code on your contact page with your desired anchor text in, that way if someone wants to add a link to your site from theirs, you are getting the most benefit.

As with all ethical SEO practices don’t abuse anchor text, anchor text is an important way of highlighting to search engines what you wish to rank for, and at the same time has help your users understand and navigate your site.

It is well known that Twitter is a great way to connect with millions of people worldwide, and there is no doubt that if you can master it, it can be an effective way to promote your brand and your company. Social media and SEO do go hand in hand in many ways although not in the conventional sense we would imagine when talking about SEO. If you choose to use Twitter as an online marketing tool you need to earn your respect and build trust. You will be the voice of your company. This is not easy as anyone who has been involved with a forum will know. Online “relationships” are more difficult to build than in real life and equally as hard to maintain.

The first and possibly the most difficult step is to build up a following for your company. This is going to be the tricky part. A good place to start is to make a list of suppliers, clients and retailers you offer your products and services to, if they are on Twitter follow them and it is likely they will reciprocate. If you use Facebook add a link to your Twitter page, equally add a link in your email signature, many people out of curiosity will click on the link and then it’s down to the profile being engaging enough for them to follow you.

Use your Twitter account as if you are a real person, make your Tweets interesting and if so inclined there is no harm in adding a touch of humour. Ensure your blog is linked up to aggregate your latest post, make the effort to engage with your followers and those who follow you, you never know who might be reading it. Try search.twitter.com to see if someone has mentioned your company name, if so acknowledge that, it will go a long way. Try and tweet once a day and re-tweet anything you find interesting, flattery goes as far online as in real life, knowing someone has read something you have written and found it interesting makes it all worthwhile!

Twitter is very similar to SEO in the sense that it takes time, but it is free and nothing worth having comes easy. Twitter won’t help your rankings improve but it can give you a greater presence, and therefore more traffic and more people visiting your site, these factors combined will go a little way towards helping your SEO.

Choosing an SEO company to optimise your site is probably a likely move for most small to medium companies. There are advantages and disadvantages of carrying out your SEO in house, but for most companies the main issue is having the resources available. Realistically you don’t need to fully understand how SEO works to make a decision on which company is right for you, but you do need to have enough knowledge to know you have made an informed choice. Here is my list of questions you should find out answers to:

• Will the company outsource any of the work?
• Can I visit my SEO consultant if needed?
• How much time will be spent on my account?
• Can I call my SEO consultant when I need them during business hours?
• What is included in your budget, web changes, article marketing, link building?
• Are only rankings important to their company or keywords that provide the best return on investment, and will they adjust my campaign accordingly?
• What is the payment plan and contracts?
• How much will I have to be involved?
• How much will the company allow me to be involved?
• What are the timescales they would expect for my site to perform?

This list will give you something you can compare and gauge feedback from different SEO companies. Leaving you with the best opportunity to make a decision on which company will be most suitable for you and your business.

Finding an SEO company can be difficult. It is not like buying a physical item, it is not something that from the outset you can quantify. You are having to put money into trust and that is something you should not undertake lightly.

With any industry there will be the less discerning companies who will wrap it up with a nice bow, leaving you with a warm glow of excitement, full of promises and guarantees. If this is the case run and for God’s sake don’t look back.

The harsh reality is there are no guarantees with SEO. Any ethical or unethical SEO company knows this all too well, the difference being an ethical SEO company will offer you realistic time scales, won’t promise you world domination and won’t guarantee you will receive an extra 5000 visitors a month after paying for their services.

If someone emails you out of the blue offering to submit you to 1000 directories a month remember link building is not about quantity it is about quality. A common misconception I hear a lot… “well how many links are you building for me a month?”. A couple of industry specific links with a page rank are very difficult to come by but will be much more effective than wasting time submitting to a general web directory.

If they offer to optimise your site for 15 keywords for free, ask yourself who does anything for free… The fact they are offering them for free generally means they would come through naturally because they have no search volume.

If you are spending a large amount of money to outsource your SEO, can you go and visit your consultant, can you call them and speak to them directly? After all how can someone who has no idea about your business, your future goals, your company’s ethos ever be as passionate about your business’ success as you are.

Hiring an SEO firm has to be thought of as bringing in a new employee to your company. If you were creating a new role, you would have a check list of criteria you would expect that employee to meet. Next week I will compile a check list of basics that will put you in good stead when choosing an SEO firm. If you take anything away from reading this, think of SEO as like fishing. You can put the bait in the water but there is no guarantee the fish will bite, if you choose the right company they will find you the right bait.