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: