If you have a Twitter account, you by now know what a “social media expert” is. They profess endless knowledge of the search engines while sporting a minimal client base and a dubious background. I’m often asked about social media, having a bit of background in this field, so here are some hard facts about it and myths that need to be dispelled.

1. Nobody Can Guarantee Results in the Top 20

The search engine results pages are like waves on the ocean. Any effort at search engine optimization will raise your results, but nobody can guarantee top 20 results without using dubious methods, such as spammy directory listings and reciprocal link programs where your site is being linked to 500 others without your knowledge.

The only thing that an SEO company should be guaranteeing is that they will be spending a certain amount of time on your account for a certain amount of money; it is this time, and not simply entry into their spam database, that will yield solid and lasting results.

2. Black Hat Methods Are Short Term

Black Hat refers to methods such as the ones used above. Some businesses will actively seek out black hat SEO companies in order to get good results, as they want them at any cost. In the end, that “any cost” may be too high. Sure, if you are just selling a flash-in-the-pan ebook or are marketing for a event that takes place on a certain date, Black Hat SEO may actually be your friend. For the average business that wants to rank more highly on a consistent basis, you should not be actively seeking this kind of firm out.

3. White Hats May Actually Be Black Hats with a Mask

Some white hatters do legitimately use methods that may be considered “grey”. Realistically, there is nothing wrong with that unless you are sitting firmly on a very high horse. However, there are some companies out there who market that they exclusively use “white hat” SEO methods when they are actually anything but when you check out their business.

To see if there is some shadiness going on, check out their client sites, and if they won’t let you see their client sites, that is a red flag right there. Check for any links to website directories; a common method used to gain rankings is to turn all of your client sites into a giant link farm that may help client rankings, but will bleed valuable Google Page Rank away from your site because you are linking to an untrustworthy internet ghetto rather than a lovely, trustworthy neighbourhood.

Check also for consistent keyword-stuffed copy on site pages. This was a common early 00′s method to raise website rankings, and many SEO companies still use this outdated and much frowned-upon method. If your words are not human readable, your site is not trustworthy, and people will not buy from you.

4. Real Social Media Experts Offer to Train You

Social media is not a mysterious beast that only a chosen few can master. If you can surf the internet, you can use social media. A real social media expert won’t set themselves up as being a master of an occult art; rather they will be approachable and offer to educate you on how to do it yourself, sometimes for a fee, sometimes as a part of the project that they are working on for you. Granted, not everyone is tech-savvy, but they will at least try to put the tools in your hands that you need to succeed with social media.

In the end, good use of social media such as Reddit, Stumble Upon, Twitter and the rest in conjunction with well-written content will win over both customers and search engines. There are back-end code issues that may be affecting your search engine optimization efforts, and any good web design firm will be able to sort those out for you. If you want me to recommend any, just drop me a line.

I have found Twitter search to be indispensable for my freelance writing business. Whenever I run up against a saturated keyword that has search engine results pages that are polluted by nothing but Yahoo Answers, paid search, and eHow articles, I turn to Twitter search to get some quality results.

One example is the term “green products” or “organic products”. I write a daily blog on green living and search for new and unique green products to share with my readers. I have all but given up on Google as a source now that I have discovered Twitter real time search. The products I find on Twitter are new, they are interesting, and best of all I don’t have to wade through pages and pages of irrelevant search results. They are ALL relevant. This allows me to drill down on my information within seconds, where before it would take me up to 30 minutes to find a good product to blog about.

I find traditional search results are getting clogged with bad content from content mills, enough that I have lost faith in the depth of material available to me on a traditional search. How many of you feel the same way? Here is a list of the sites I am talking about:

Yahoo Answers
eHow
Examiner.com
Suite101.com
hubpages.com

I have consistently found that pages from these sites return results with bad data and worse writing. Twitter search seems like a much more viable option to weed out these bad apples.

On websites where I have had access to statistics, or where my clients have given me feedback, new and well-written content makes your website hits go up.

There are a few reasons for this. The first is that search engines and readers both like it when you keep your content fresh. For this reason, it is recommended that you install a blog on a company site and have someone responsible for updating it at least a few times a week. For SEO reasons alone this is completely worth it.

The second is that what was there before may not have made your offer very clear. What is your product, what benefits does it offer to your customers, and how do they buy it? All important, but companies usually leave at least one of these steps out or make the process overly complicated. If you don’t want to sell online due to vendor relationships, at least offer a dealer locator or some other method for the end consumer to purchase your product.

If you are operating on content that was written for a brochure, particularly a brochure written in the 1990′s or early 00′s, the language is not web-ready. Have a friend or a family member read it, and chances are they will tell you it is stale, sales-oriented, and not informative. For the record, I don’t believe in the old school method of writing brochures that makes them sound this way, but there is an old school that dictates that marketing has to be done a certain way and that is why you see this.

It goes without saying that increased web traffic translates to increased sales, so if you were mulling over whether or not to go for a rewrite, dive in; your bottom line will be glad you did. E-mail me at to get started today.

Have you hit this wall?

You: “You need more content on your site.”

$$: “Can’t you write that for me? I am paying you to do the site!”

You: “You hired me to program the site (and/or) up your search engine rankings, not write content.”

$$: “Isn’t that the same thing?”

When I was working in customer service, people used to call me to complain that their shipments were late. They didn’t care that the problem was with the trucking company or courier, all they cared about was the fact that their shipments were late, which made my company look bad. In their minds, our company and the trucking companies were inseparable. They just wanted someone to solve their problem.

Your clients want you to do the same thing. They want you to solve all of their web problems and drive more traffic to the site, no matter how you do it. Some of them may even be hoping that you are using Black Hat methods, as long as it gets them results.

I’m your ace in the hole. A dedicated writer, researcher, and former web designer who knows what you are up against. You need quality content that is 100% on point and on time. That’s what I do, and you can see from my portfolio that I do it well. When someone needed to have the absolute best descriptions of Tarot cards on the internet, they came to me; and then they came back to me for runes and astrology when the results bowled them over. Another client reported that his hits went up to just under 1000 per day after I started ghost writing articles for his green building blog.

Good content equals eyeballs, and it makes you look like the superstar that you are. Let me help you take your business to the next level, and call on me when your next project needs killer content that blows everything else in the marketplace away.

A new study confirms that good content is key in buying decisions on major consumer sites.  Are you getting less conversions than you should be?  If so, lack of content or poorly written content is likely the culprit, according to the study commissioned by the e-tailing group, with sponsorship from ARS eCommerce LLC.

From their press release:

(77%) of the 650 women and 350 men surveyed in August 2007 state that their interest in buying from a particular merchant is “very to somewhat” influenced by the quality of content (descriptions, copy, images and tools) on a particular website.

You can read more here – proof positive that you need to make your copy work to get sales.  Contact us today to get started!