SEO Blog Post- Week 14 (Understanding Google Panda 2.0)

For its last training session, http://www.seocertification.org/ explains Google Panda in great detail. In short, it discusses the end of black-hat over-optimization tactics and new requirements for high search engine rankings.

Due to the end of black-hat over-optimization tactics, Google Penguin 5.0 penalizes websites that result in poor user experiences. In addition, over-optimized websites utilizing black-hat tactics are punished or penalized with low search engine rankings. The following factors are examples Google Panda considers when searching for over-optimization tactics:

• Backlinks Revamped 
• Paid Editorial Links
• "Exact Match Anchor Text" Keywords
• Authorship 

Another important aspect of understanding Google Panda are its new requirements for high search engine rankings:

1. Good Content
2. Social Proof
3. Author Rank
4. Internal Links
5. HTTPS as a new Ranking Factor

SEO Blog Post- Week 13 (Understanding Google Panda)

According to http://www.seocertification.org/, Google Panda is an extremely important aspect of SEO to understand.

In short, Google Panda represents a series of cumulative changes to the algorithm used by Google to sort through search results rankings. It provides higher priority to sites with both original and high quality content, and lowers the rankings of sites with low quality or duplicate content. As a result, users are able to find sites or links in a more accessible manner. Google Panda was actually released to address allegations that Google SERPS delivered useless sites which had to bypassed in order to visit the site that could actually be used.

In addition, Google Panda uses artificial intelligence to maneuver through search results. In fact, Google Panda has advanced AI that monitors and tracks the quality of content on the Internet to determine what is relevant or not.

The following list demonstrates some of the key characteristics Google Panda emphasizes:

• Advanced AI
• The quality of articles or websites
• The ability to use social media to your advantage
• The ability to relate relevant backlinks to a niche
• Be prepared for continuous Google Panda and Penguin updates

SEO Blog Post- Week 12 (Social Media Optimization)

There is an enormous amount of information regarding social media optimization on http://www.seocertification.org/, some of which I will be explaining in this blog post.

As is the case for almost all social media sites, the path to Facebook news feed optimization is through content. If you create quality content that users are interested in and will interact with, then it is more likely to show up on his or her news feed. Even more, quality content goes along with the frequency in which you post on a social media site. A user is more likely to notice or engage with content if it is reliable and frequently appearing on his or her news feed. 

There are various social media marketing and optimization tools to consider when you are looking for ways to improve SEO through social media. The following list may be helpful to consider:

• Regularly engaging with users
• Asking questions to entice users to interact or respond to your social media pages
• Holding contests
• Posting videos or pictures
• Monitoring both quality and frequency of user interaction with social media accounts
• Envisioning yourself as a user
• Contemplating what makes a unique and high-quality post

Conversion rate optimization is another key factor to examine when you are looking to improve on social media optimization. Using the "Facebook Insights" tool is a great example of how to improve on a conversion rate, since it provides you with direct feedback on conversion efforts. Ultimately, the overall goal of increasing a conversion rate should be to provide a relationship with a user. 

SEO Blog Post- Week 11 (Latest SEO Tactics and Strategies)

To begin, I would like to mention that I am officially certified from http://www.seocertification.org/, as I passed its exam earlier this week.

Material that I learned this week is related to some of the latest SEO tactics and strategies available to digital marketers. The first topic I read into was SiteLinks, which are used when you want to navigate through a website. The term "breadcrumbs" is often associated with a SiteLink, since it operates as a hierarchy that can replace URL's to show where in a website a certain result best fits. Also, I learned that Ad SiteLinks are used to attract more traffic to a website. In turn, this enables users to find a website more easily. It is also worth mentioning that Ad SiteLinks are managed at a campaign level, as opposed to a group level.

Another recent SEO tactic and strategy is Website Speed Optimization. This can result in higher search results if Google Webmaster Tools are utilized correctly. For example, Firebug Plug-in is an available tool that can increase a website's overall speed optimization. The following strategies should be monitored to further improve loading speed:

• Script Language
• Hosting Server Speed
• Coding Quality
• Picture Resolution
• Bulky Applications 

Lastly, increasing traffic by using social bookmarking can also assist SEO efforts. For instance, Facebook Ad Tactics consider geography, age, gender, education, relationship status, workplace, and keywords to ensure ads are approved. Carefully selecting a target market, testing markets and improving ads, using Facebook reports, and using creativity with both text and images can also improve SEO results greatly. 

Classmate Blog Links

The following links correspond to my peers blogs:

John Dodson - http://jdodsoniii.blogspot.com

Francesca Guido - http://francescaseoblog.blogspot.com/

Shannon Oconnell - http://shannonsmarketingblog.blogspot.com/  

Carlos Salinas - http://carlosmarketingblog.blogspot.com/

Ashfaaq Seedat - http://ashmarketingblog.blogspot.com/

Maureen Lepke - http://maureenlepkemarketingblog.blogspot.com/

Cory Evans - http://coryevansmarketing.blogspot.com/

Caitlin Campbell - http://campbellmarketingblog.blogspot.com/  

Kaitlyn Szaflarski - http://kaitlynmarketing.blogspot.com/  

Bruno Gomes - http://brunogomesmarketing.blogspot.com/  

Sumaira Quraishi - http://sumairasmarketingblog.blogspot.com/  

Trevor Walzak - http://trevormarketing1.blogspot.com/

Anthony Phipps - http://phippsmarketingblog.blogspot.com/

Kevin Carroll - http://kc3marketing.blogspot.com/

Tommy DiPonio - http://tommydmarketing.blogspot.com/

Steve Kositzky - http://stevesmktgblog.blogspot.com/

Drew Keil - http://drewkeil.blogspot.com

SEO Blog Post- Week 10 (Advanced SEO Techniques)

According to http://www.seocertification.org, there are many advanced SEO techniques to take into consideration as a digital marketer. The top three techniques that I have learned include pointers on how to earn high rankings on local search engines, how to use HubPages to promote websites, and how auto-pinging a blog can be beneficial for a user.

There are four major pointers to consider for earning high rankings on local search engines:

1. Include your clients' websites to local search engines 
• Google Local Business Center
• Yahoo! Local Merchant
• Ask Business Search
2. Submit your client's website listings to popular directories and Internet Yellow Pages
3. Set your geographic location in Google's Webmaster Tools 
4. Add contact information to your site

Another important technique to utilize for SEO is to use HubPages to promote websites. In short, HubPages aim to allow users to publish content and gain information about a specific topic or submit content via one-page websites referred to as "hubs". In addition, HubPages can increase customer traffic by adding links to a website and attracting readers to a hub by constantly updating them. 

Lastly, auto-pinging can be used as an advanced technique for SEO to improve blogging and its RSS. Essentially, pinging is a tactic in blogging that tells Google that changes have been made to a website or its corresponding pages, and that it should come back to that site to have a look. Therefore, auto-pinging is considered the consolidation of all pinging into one common location that is completely disconnected from someone's blogs. 

SEO Blog Post- Week 9 (Marketing Strategies)

From http://www.seocertification.org, I have learned a lot about marketing strategies as they relate to SEO. To begin, I learned about local search marketing, which is considered search marketing in a limited geographical area. Moreover, local search marketing tends to involve keyword research. For example, keyword research could contain zip codes, city names, county names, state names, or even streets. Essentially, keyword research aides local search marketing in adding geographical and local language qualifiers.

Another important marketing strategy related to SEO is link baiting, or the process in which you use a bait or hook to attract back links. This may include but is not limited to:

• Resource Hook
• News Hook
• Contrary Hook
• Attack Hook
• Humor Hook

Finally, another useful marketing strategy useful for SEO is Google Webmaster Central and its corresponding tools. In short, Google Webmaster Central provides tools to diagnose, analyze, and solve crawling and indexing issues. In addition, the service can also submit content to various Google services, enhance site functionality, and analyze traffic.

Google Webmaster Tools form the central and most important part of Webmaster Central. The tools related to Google Webmaster allow you to do the following:

• Analyze robot.txt files
• Set geographic target for website
• Enable enhanced image search
• Remove a URL from Google's index
• Set preferred domains
• Set a crawl rate
• Re-verify site with Google Webmaster Central  

SEO Blog Post- Week 8 (Emerging Trends in SEO)

From material on http://www.seocertification.org, I have become more educated on emerging trends in SEO. In short, there are many emerging trends that revolve around SEO. I have decided to discuss some of the trends that I believe are the most important to improve SEO practices. Therefore, I will be explaining the appeal of blogs, blog optimization, content duplication, branding, affiliate marketing, web analytics, and RSS.

To begin, I believe it is noteworthy to mention that writing a blog and practicing regular blog optimization are both major emerging trends in SEO. Moreover, a blog is a user-generated website with journal style entries that are diagnosed in reverse chronological order. A blog may contain text, images, or even links. Furthermore, blog optimization tactics may include simple content, search engine submission, keywords, optimizing blog templates, and conducting routine updates. It is also important to create a brand for a blog, that is, increase the traffic to its website.

Another emerging trend in SEO is content duplication, which is referred to as the presence of the same content on two different websites. Typically, search engines consider the following factors for content duplication:

• Product Descriptions and Manuals
• Alternative Print Pages
• Pages that use Duplicated Syndicated RSS (Real Simple Syndication) Feeds
• Canonicalization Reasons
• Article Submission or Syndication 
• Mirrored Websites

Finally, affiliate marketing and web analytics are both popular trends related to SEO. Thus, affiliate marketing is considered the method of promoting web business in which an affiliate is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, or customer. I would also recommend researching web analytics, which is the process that involves the measurement of visitor behavior to a particular website. I personally believe that becoming familiar with web analytics is crucial to improving your marketing portfolio in today's business world. 

HubSpot Blog Post- Week 8 (Cultivating Happy Customers)

For the last training session of the semester on http://www.hubspot.com, I learned more about how to successfully cultivate happy customers. Moreover, this involves building trust with customers to develop long-lasting relationships. In turn, more trust can translate into more promoters that can attract prospects to your business. Even more, trust is a crucial component to creating an inbound experience, which is one of the ultimate goals of a marketer. In addition, I found it interesting that customer delight can be viewed as a competitive advantage. Therefore, if you are able to consistently delight your customers and satisfy their wants and needs, then it will put you at an advantage over your competition.

Additionally, I believe it is important to discuss how to properly delight customers. Thus, any business should strive to make serving customers its number one priority. As a result, a foundation of trust can be built. Since the customer experience is such an integral piece of building trust, it is vital to make the most of every interaction to ensure incredible customer service is being offered. Furthermore, I have learned that customer delight should include both pre-sale and post-sale activities   to fully assist customers through the buyer's journey.

Most importantly, there are three major pillars of customer delight to abide by. The following list explains the three pillars:

1. Innovation: "Change is better than the Status-Quo"
2. Communication: "Personal is better than Impersonal" 
3. Education: "Empowering is better than Ignoring"

Overall, to successfully delight customers it is important to make customers feel like the focal point of your business. Also, recognizing that customers and employees are a business's greatest asset can contribute to success as well. Finally, developing and establishing trust is critical to creating a rewarding inbound experience. 

Consider the "Seven Customer Delight Guidelines" for additional ways to ensure customer satisfaction and a polished overall inbound experience:

SEO Blog Post- Week 7 (SEO Monitoring)

During class this week, I read information from http://www.seocertification.org and developed a deeper understanding of SEO monitoring. Essentially, SEO monitoring allows you to deliver long-term success and better overall ROI. In turn, search engine marketing can offer a unique promotional advantage when it comes to ROI. In order to measure a successful SEO marketing campaign it critical to to measure rankings, percentage of traffic from different search engines, and traffic from various keywords.

Furthermore, visitor traffic analysis constitutes another major aspect of SEO monitoring. Moreover, the objective of visitor traffic analysis is to obtain qualified traffic to a site and convert as much as possible into leads or sales. To fully understand this concept, I also believe it is important to understand the characteristics of traffic analysis, otherwise known as the evaluation of referrals from search engines based on conversion of traffic for keyword choices.

Examples of How to Measure Traffic Analysis:

• Traffic on Keywords
• Keywords & Landing Page
• Whether the Call-to-Action was followed for conversion 
• Qualified (Targeted) & Converted Traffic 

Lastly, SEO consultants play a large role in SEO monitoring as well. SEO consultants typically provide SEO services to clients who own websites and would like to achieve a beneficial ranking in search engines. Further, the ultimate goal of a SEO consultant is to achieve higher rankings for a client's website. However, it is important to note that some SEO consultants use spam and are considered unethical, so it is necessary to conduct research and only hire those individuals who are "SEO Certified" and that can provide a ranking guarantee. 

HubSpot Blog Post- Week 7 (Perfecting the Conversion Process & Taking Your Sales Process Inbound)

This week I learned how to perfect the conversion process and take your sales process inbound. To begin, I found it interesting that the conversion process is widely considered the main way to convert visitors into leads. Moreover, there are three main building blocks to implement in order to strive for a successful conversion path. The following picture illustrates the conversion path being put into fruition:

Next, I have also learned about the concept of converting the right visitors into leads when it comes to the conversion process. For instance, it is crucial to use conversion paths to guide visitor's through the buyer's journey in order for them to recognize your call-to-action (CTA). Therefore, the ultimate goal is to attract an ideal buyer persona and guide them to your site through the conversion process. One way to go about doing this is to create a compelling CTA, which is a button or image placed on pages with the sole purpose of driving visitors to your landing page. Once a visitor reaches your landing page, it is then important to make sure he or she views your thank you page. As a result, the visitor will be officially introduced to your content through the CTA or landing page and can now be considered a lead.

In order to ensure that your CTA and thank you pages are effective, be sure to abide by the following best practices:

CTA Best Practices:

• Make your copy action-oriented
• Use an attention-grabbing design
• Make sure to use strong on-page placement
• Repeatedly test for efficiency 

Thank You Page Best Practices:

• Deliver the offer
• Guide visitor further though the buyer's journey
• Include social networking capabilities 

To learn more about thank you pages, be sure to visit the following link: http://blog.hubspot.com/customers/bid/109485/5-Steps-to-Creating-the-All-Important-Thank-You-Page

As mentioned previously, I also learned more about how to take your sales process inbound after this week of class. In short, to successfully take your sales process inbound it is critical to change it to match the buying process of your intended buyer persona. 

There are various strategies to use to fulfill this goal, but one of the most important is to research a lead thoroughly. This can be done by researching the following factors :

1. Company Information
2. The Lead's Industry
3. Check Social Media
4. Lead Intelligence 

Overall, adopting the best practices for effectively transforming the way you sell provides you with the best foundation to take your sales process inbound. Please consider the following picture for more clarification on the subject if necessary: 

SEO Blog Post- Week 6 (Pay Per Click)

For this week of class, I read about Pay Per Click campaigns related to search engine optimization. I learned about the material from http://www.seocertification.org, which is a very informative site that offers bundles of information regarding SEO. Moreover, PPC campaigns are advertising campaigns that run on search engine result pages. Payment is based on the number of times an ad is clicked on the results page. Even more, PPC is the only form of online advertising where media is sold exclusively on clicks and not on impressions or actions. I found it interesting that PPC campaigns are all paid placements, but offer the best opportunity to generate traffic for a website.

There are three major players in the PPC Campaign arena:

1. Google: Google Adwords
• Considered the best in the industry 
• Can invest any amount
• Ads are added automatically 
2. Yahoo: Yahoo PPC Ads
• Defined minimum level for every single element of advertising ($.10)
• Human editors review your keywords and site, as opposed to ads being added automatically
3. Bing 

I also thought it was important to understand how to set up a PPC Campaign after learning about the benefits they offered. In short, it is critical to monitor keyword selection, bidding strategies, advertising text, and landing pages when creating a PPC Campaign. For example, bidding strategies could include Atlas One Point, BidRank, or PPC Pro. On the other hand, advertising text may include the title of your campaign and the ad text used. Further, landing pages make webpages attractive and motivate visitors to visit and possibly view your PPC Campaign. 

Overall, I have learned PPC Campaigns offer insight on how to efficiently track and monitor the success of a website's traffic or success. The following list includes some of the most impactful ideas that I took away from the reading I did this week:

• Google has the greatest overall reach, but Yahoo tends to have the highest conversion rates for PPC Campaigns
• Many experts recommend to use both Google Adwords and Yahoo PPC Ads simultaneously 
• Usage data that is generated from a website is often the most important research to analyze 
• Keyword level tracking systems should be used to distinguish which PPC search engine results in the most cost effective option and best converting visitor rate 

HubSpot Blog Post- Week 6 (Sending the Right Email to the Right Person & Smarketing)

This week I learned about sending the right email to the right person, which is actually rather important when considering a customer base for your business. In fact, email marketing is starting to grow in popularity. It's an ideal way to gain trust with potential customers, especially if you use it as an avenue to listen to your audience's needs and wants. In addition, I have learned that email marketing is a cost effective strategy to strengthen relationships with customers by repeatedly engaging them with remarkable content.

Consider the following link to learn more about how to make your emails more clickable: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/make-emails-more-clickable-list

Here are the some of the reasons why email marketing works:

I have also become more educated on how to send the right email, especially where content is concerned. The following list addresses that notion:

• Determine who your audience is
• Segment your content's database
• Send the right content at the right time
• Nurture your lead into a customer 

It is also important to segment your contact database to create context and to hit specific goals. This includes increasing deliverability, engagement, and reach. Consider the following picture regarding segmentation to truly grasp an understanding of the impact it can have on turning leads into customers:

Lastly, I read about information regarding "smarketing" this week. In short, smarketing is the combination of sales and marketing. It offers alignment between the two fields in hopes to establish and reach goals or buyer personas. There are five simple steps to incorporate smarketing into your business; speak the same language, set up closed-looped reporting, implement a service level agreement, maintain open communication, and rely on data. Although the relationship between sales and marketing is often portrayed as negative, smarketing provides the opportunity to capitalize on that perception and turn it into success. 

SEO Blog Post- Week 5 (Site Readiness)

From material published on http://www.seocertification.org, I have started to learn a lot about site readiness. I was responsible for reading chapter 3 from the certification textbook for class this week, in which discussed two main ideas. First, it explained the different types of link building techniques  that are available to increase search engine optimization. Second, the chapter went into great detail about cloaking and doorway pages, which are two potentially unethical SEO practices.

According to my reading, there are three main types of linking to consider when studying site readiness. They can be considered the following:

1. One Way Linking
2. Reciprocal Linking
3. Triangular Linking

One way linking is when your link is put on a website without exchanging another link. Therefore, it can be considered the best way to improve your search engine ranking. One way linking also protects you from bad links, so search engines will be able to tell which links actually offer value to customers. The one major disadvantage to one way linking is that is usually beneficial in the long run, as opposed to it being helpful in the short term. Next, reciprocal linking is widely considered to be the most popular link building technique to date. It allows two websites to agree to link with one another, which can provide credibility to both parties involved in the link since both believe each link is relevant enough to trust. The main focus of reciprocal linking is to get quality links to generate traffic to a website and increase its ranking in search engines. Lastly, triangular linking attempts to fool search engines that it uses two websites, when in reality it is attempting to turn reciprocal linking into one way linking. Techniques are being developed to stop the ability to utilize triangular linking since it can be considered deceptive.

Another important topic I learned about this week was the difference between cloaking and doorway pages. Thus, cloaking is the process of serving different versions of a page based on identifiable information about a user. On the other hand, doorway pages are built to draw search engine visitors to your website to trick them into crediting you with a higher ranking. Doorway pages are considered an unethical SEO practice. 

Based on what I've read, an example of cloaking would be if a webmaster delivered one page to search engines for indexing, while also serving a different page to everyone else. To gain a better understanding about cloaking, here is a list of 5 common types that are used: 

1. User Agent Cloaking (UA Cloaking)- For Specific Agents
2. IP Agent Cloaking (IP Cloaking)- For Demographic Groups
3. IP & User Cloaking (IPUA Cloaking)- Combo of the two types listed above
4. Referral Based Cloaking- Basing delivery on specific referral strings
5. Session Based Cloaking- For sites that use session tracking techniques

HubSpot Blog Post- Week 5 (Creating Content With a Purpose)

During this week of class, I learned more about the concept of creating content with a purpose. Put simply, inbound marketing cannot exist without content. Therefore, it is crucial to create content that is meaningful to potential end-users of your product or service. In other words, content is the information or message that you are attempting to get across to your buyer persona. Another important concept to grasp regarding content is that the limiting factor for marketing success is attention, not space. So, it is more important for your content to grab the attention of your target audience as opposed to it accounting for more space through social media or blogging.

Further, this week I increased my understanding on how to create remarkable content. To begin, content should focus on the solution to a problem. Hence, you will need to know the problem and who you're trying to solve the problem for before you can create remarkable content. Once this is done, you will be able to determine what content to create that will be valuable to a consumer.

There are two key ideas to consider when creating remarkable content:

1. Buyer Personas
2. The Buyer's Journey

Moreover, I have learned that it is critical to realize that content is the honeypot or bridge between your buyer persona and their respective buyer's journey. A key component to creating remarkable content is to abide by the content creation process, which is pictured below for more clarity:

Finally, towards the end of this week I read about something interesting regarding landing pages. In short, landing pages are when website pages are specifically designed to convert visitors into leads. I found it interesting that HubSpot coined the term "Digital Sales Reps" to represent landing pages. If you want to learn more about landing pages, make sure to visit the following link:  

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33968/Before-and-After-3-Real-Life-Landing-Page-Makeovers.aspx

SEO Blog Post- Week 4 (Search Engine Optimization & Keywords)

Last week I discussed the basics of search engines. After reading up on material from http://www.seocertification.org, I now have a better understanding on search engine optimization. Broadly, SEO can be separated by two major factors; on-page optimization and off-page optimization. Regardless, I have begun to understand that spelling and grammar are extremely important to monitor regarding SEO. If kept in mind, grammar and spelling can greatly increase the likelihood that your site will rank higher when typed into a search engine. This also goes hand in hand with creating remarkable content, as both will give you a significant advantage over competition.

I believe that some of the more interesting information that I learned this week consisted of the differences between on-page optimization and off-page optimization. The following lists will provide a basic explanation on the different factors that make up both types of SEO:

On-Page:

• Keywords
• HTML Tags
• Content
• CSS
• URL Writing

More specifically, I will breakdown a few of these on-page optimization factors to provide a more precise idea of what they are composed of:

Keywords: (Suggestion Tools)

1. WordTracker
2. Yahoo!
3. Google Suggest
4. Digital Point Tool

HTML Tags:

1. Title Tag
2. Meta Tag
3. Alt Tag

Content Optimization:

1. Headline Tags
2. Special Text (Bold, Color)
3. Inline Text Links or Anchor Text (Visible Hyperlinked Text)
4. Keyword Density

Lastly, I will list common off-page optimization factors that are often associated with SEO.

Off-Page:

1. Building Link Popularity
2. Google Page Rank
3. Measuring Link Popularity
4. Anchor Text Optimization 

HubSpot Blog Post- Week 4 (Amplifying Your Content with Social Media)

This week during class I learned about recommended ways to amplify your content with social media to successfully align it with your inbound strategy. In short, it is crucial to use social media as an avenue to convert visitors into leads. Therefore, social media can be considered an effective way to increase your customer acquisition rate. It is also important to note that incorporating your social media links within your blog content can rapidly foster connections with prospects and provide you with the opportunity to display your personality.

According to information that I have learned from HubSpot, content is considered king, and distribution (social media channels) are queen. Both can be considered interrelated, especially if you are looking to attract your buyer persona to your blog or website. Be sure to read this article for additional information on how to effectively manage your time on social media platforms: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33438/11-Ways-to-Make-Social-Media-Marketing-Less-of-a-Time-Suck.aspx

Moving forward, I would highly recommend following these social media best practices to improve your overall content:

1. Optimize Profiles
2. Personas (Know who they are)
3. Build Reach
4. Customize Your Content to Each Platform
5. Analyse to Refine

Another important topic I learned more about this week was how to specifically customize content to each major social media platform. Hence, it is crucial to understand what content is appropriate to post on each social media site that you use. A major component of refining your content for social media is using keywords that attract potential customers to a post or topic, or at least make your profiles more searchable for them. The following picture does an excellent job of illustrating the impact keywords can have on a social media profile:

In addition, I would also consider the following descriptions of the "Big 4" social media sites to ensure you are posting appropriate content with your buyer persona in mind: 

• Twitter: The Conversation
• Facebook: The Personality
• LinkedIn: The Professional
• Google +: The Search Engine Driver

SEO Blog Post- Week 3 (Search Engines)

I was introduced to material this week concerning search engines, which are essentially programs that search documents for keywords and produce a list of documents where those same keywords can be accessed on the internet. Moreover, I am utilizing http://www.seocertification.org to learn more about the basics of search engines.

I believe that one of the most interesting things that I have discovered so far is that there are two broad areas to consider when introducing SEO, which are search engines and directories. Examples of search engines are Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Currently, Google is the undeniable market leader when it comes to search engines. It is a crawler oriented search engine, and is easily one of the most recognizable names in the business world today. On the other hand, directories are web search tools that are edited by humans. An example of a directory is the Open Directory Project (Dmoz). Therefore, directories rely on human interaction, whereas search engines use tools like spiders to gather information for users.

One of the most important pieces of information I took away from reading about the basics of search engines was that any crawler based search engine must be made up of the following three elements:

1. Crawler or Spider
2. Index
3. Search Engine Software

In addition, I have read a lot about search engine spam, which is essentially the unethical attempt to earn a higher ranking on SERP. I would definitely recommend looking into what Google considers spam to be, as it is likely a safe bet to be universal across the industry if a market leader permits it or not. There are many forms of search engine spam, but here are a few of the most interesting that I have stumbled upon thus far:

• Unrelated Keywords
• Redirects
• Tiny Text
• Cloaking
• Hidden Links

I look forward to learning more about search engines in the upcoming weeks and sharing that information routinely.

HubSpot Blog Post- Week 3 (Fundamentals of Blogging)

This week during class I continued to learn more about inbound marketing and the basic fundamentals of blogging. To begin, I believe it is important to understand that there is a major difference between a business and a personal blog. In particular, business blogs are ideal to use when attempting to acquire customers. In fact, according to HubSpot, 79 % of marketers with a company blog reported inbound ROI in 2013. Also, 43 % of companies have acquired a customer through their blog. Clearly, if you are looking to increase your customer base, blogging can be a successful option. Blogging for a business is also great for SEO, as it can lead to indexed pages and convert them into potential leads.

I also learned a lot about some of the best practices for creating remarkable blog content. Moreover, remarkable blog content has proven to be rewarding, as it can lead to inbound links and social shares. This can greatly impact the amount of people that view your blog, especially potential users who could be interested in your product or service.

Here are the top five practices to keep in mind while blogging according to HubSpot:

1. Keep your buyer persona in mind
2. Address one topic per blog post
3. Blog consistently and frequently 
4. Don't forget about great formatting and imagery
5. Or miss out out on lead conversion opportunities! 

The following image represents possible ROI outcomes of blogging consistently and frequently:

Overall, I am now more familiar with what blogging execution looks like. Based on what I have learned, here are four clever ways to promote your blog content:

1. Leverage your website
2. Use your social media presence
3. Include email marketing 
4. Connect with your network

I would also highly recommend checking out the following link, as it does an excellent job of providing details on the fundamentals of blogging:http://blog.hubspot.com/customers/7-elements-of-a-blog-to-be-more-successful

Blog Post- Week 2 (Optimizing Your Website)

This week, I learned a lot about website optimization and inbound marketing from HubSpot videos that were viewed during class. In order to set up a website for success, it is critical to focus on SEO, the user experience, lead conversions, customer acquisitions, and customer delight. According to HubSpot, the most practical way to do this is to optimize a website for searchers and search engines.

Moreover, I found out that searchers are people who are looking to buy products or services, and are often searching to accomplish or navigate to something. Searchers are also called buyer personas, which are essentially the personalities that constitute the target market a business is aiming to sell to. On the other hand, I learned that search engines crawl through content to understand people. It is crucial to focus on searchers because this will then result in more accurate search engine optimzation.

Additionally, I learned about information that relates to attracting customers to a website this week. Essentially, there are two main things to practice in order to attract customers; have a goal in mind and make the website easy to understand and crawl. If you have a goal in mind while trying to develop a website, then it be will much easier to attract customers to align with your goal. Also, focusing on design, content, and formatting will ensure that you can make a website that is easy to understand and crawl through as a user. If you are seeking more information related to what content is recommended to include on a website or blog, be sure to check out the following article published by Google:http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-guidelines-high-quality-content-var

The following picture illustrates one of the most important things that I took away from this week of class. It relates to formatting of content, and describes how websites should not be static, but instead should evolve over time to adapt to searchers and search engines:

Blog Post- Week 1 (Inbound Marketing Essentials)

In a matter of one week, I have started to learn a lot about content development and search engine optimization. To begin, I learned how to create a blog, which is something that I was previously unaware was available to the general public. I thought it was interesting that a blog could be setup in a matter of a few simple steps, which I found out relatively quickly during the first class period. Moreover, most of the time in class this week was devoted to introducing HubSpot, which is an inbound marketing and sales software company. The services the company offers are quite impressive, especially if someone is attempting to increase their inbound marketing efforts or overall knowledge.

Furthermore, after I learned more about HubSpot and watched the tutorial videos during class, I was able to register online for the service. I thought that the company's website had a very inviting interface. Additionally, it displayed inbound marketing at its finest with the ability to watch its videos without the interruption of unwanted advertisements. I would recommend anyone seeking additional  information regarding inbound marketing or blogs to visit the following link from HubSpot, as it explains common terms that are used in the marketing industry: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/inbound-marketing-glossary-list.

I think that the some of the most important information that I learned this week came from the HubSpot videos related to Chapter 1, which discusses inbound marketing essentials. Thus, I learned that there is a major difference between inbound and traditional marketing. Inbound marketing consists of search engine optimization, blogging, attraction, and customer-centric relations. On the other hand, traditional marketing consists of cold calling, cold emails, interruptive advertisements, and marketer-centric relations. I thought that this was very interesting because I was unaware that inbound marketing even existed before starting this class. I also learned that inbound marketing needs to attract, convert, close, and delight customers in order to be successful. This can be accomplished by following a series of fundamental steps, which include using buyer personas, using the buyer journey, creating remarkable content, and leveraging content. Overall, I believe that one of the most important ideas to take away from the introduction to inbound marketing is that it is a fundamental shift in the way that people do business. I look forward to learning more about inbound marketing and the advantages it has to offer and continuing to update everyone in the process.

The following picture provides an example of what HubSpot's website looks like: