Kick your SEO strategy up a notch or two by incorporating these 4 social media must-haves.

Social media may not be the end-all be-all SEO strategy that media hype made it out to be, but that doesn’t make it any less important. In fact, social media is becoming increasingly more prevalent as a ranking signal and maybe what brands need to get a one-up on their SEO strategy. Here are 4 ways you can leverage social media to spice up your SEO efforts.

1. Add social media share buttons – The term ‘social media buttons’ is frequently used interchangeably, when really, there are two distinct types of buttons that need to be recognized. There are ‘social icons’, which simply link to the brand’s social media channels and there are ‘share buttons’ which share the page’s content. While traditional social media icons are great for creating awareness around the existence of your social media channels, the social media share buttons are what help to pass possible SEO authority. Incorporate social media share buttons onto every page of your website, as well as on content that you create.
2. Blog – Blogging is a great tool for any business. It can promote thought-leadership, awareness, and traffic, not to mention, it can give brands more opportunities to rank in organic search. While the benefits of SEO for blogs are vast, the most notable are backlinks and increased site crawlable, both of which can help brands with their rankings. To get the most out of your blogs, do your research on your audience and their searches. Leverage headlines, title tags and content to incorporate keywords that reflect your research; and above all, create content that is of interest and value to your target audience. Focusing on quality helps to promote more quality traffic and links. Since creating great content is only half the battle, it is also important to focus on distribution and sharing. Incorporate the social share buttons that we talked about above to each blog article to promote sharing and don’t forget to distribute it through your social media channels and online forums to promote further reach.
3. Leverage Google+ – Google+ is a great asset for brands on a few different levels. First, there’s Google+ Local, which is essentially a local listing with some social flair. Google+ Local is a great tool for any brand with a local address and can help boost local SEO rankings. Setting up a Google+ Local listing is fairly effortless, and if you’d like to set one up for your brand you can find more information here. Second, the rel=”author” and rel=”publisher” tags are simple code snippets which can help promote authority for authors and brands, respectively. In order to utilize the tags, however, you must first have a Google+ profile (rel=”author”) or a Google+ business page (rel=”publisher”) set up and some general knowledge of .html. You can use either or both tags on any one site. As long as they are utilized correctly, these tags are minor updates that can have a significant impact.
4. Review Websites – Reviews can go a long way. Not only can reviews influence buying decisions, but they can possibly help your search rankings as well. However, review sites like Yelp can be a double-edged sword. Review sites tend to rank fairly well for brand queries, and if your reviews are less than par, this could actually hurt you. If your reviews are awesome, then a high ranking for your review sites is a good thing. Promote positive reviews by asking happy customers to review you and if any negative reviews do arise, be proactive about commenting back and amending the situation.

Since social media is becoming predominantly more important as a ranking signal, it may just be that boost you need to send your SEO efforts over the top. More importantly, if you are not invested in your social media presence in the years to come you could be at a disadvantage. Taking the time to do it now will not only help give you a boost today but will keep you from playing catch-up tomorrow.

If you have any questions about social media SEO strategy and its impact on your overall SEO strategy, or how to begin leveraging social media, contact us below for a free assessment.

Submitted by Erica Machin, Titan Growth

Titan Growth is pleased to announce the appointment of Jesús Parrilla as VP of International Business Strategy. In this new role, Mr. Parrilla will lead the company’s strategic expansion initiatives into global markets. Mr. Parrilla comes to Titan Growth with a wealth of experience in international business, having spent the last several years as CEO of Explora, a luxury international travel company. During his tenure at Explora the company enjoyed its most successful run in 20 years of operations, garnering multiple awards and recognitions.

Danny Shepherd, CEO of Titan Growth, commented, “In our quest to continually fill the need for sophisticated and results-oriented digital marketing for our clients, it is vital that our team includes an informed strategic thinker with a global perspective. Having previously worked with Jesús, I am confident that he is the right person for this new role in the company. As one of the world’s leading international luxury travel experts, Jesús will allow us to supply our clients with strategic and tactical advice beyond our core services. His expansive experience in global sales, marketing, and business development, along with a venerable academic background, make Jesús uniquely qualified to guide us as we expand internationally.”

Jesús Parrilla holds a BBA in International Business and General Business from St. Mary´s University in San Antonio, TX and an International MBA in Marketing from the University of Memphis. In addition to his successful tenure as CEO of Explora, Mr. Parrilla has held Board of Directors positions at Metropolitan Touring in Argentina, Chile, and Peru, where he played key roles in regional expansion and global distribution strategy.

“Danny and the Titan Growth team are building an exciting, dynamic and innovative company that is positively impacting their clients’ bottom-line,” stated Mr. Parrilla. “Titan is an industry leading game-changer in their market and I had the opportunity to closely see the impact of their work while at my previous organization. I am honored to be a part of the team, a team that I considered my secret weapon while at Explora. I am excited to work on a long-term strategic plan and to offer what I have learned in the hospitality and travel industries to their benefit.”

How to Use Display Retargeting Ads to Grow Your Search Business

Businesses interested in maximizing their SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) spend would be wise to consider using retargeting via display ads to draw past visitors back to their website. If you are familiar with how SEO and PPC work, you know not all visitors end up becoming customers. Many visitors never make a purchase, sign up, or use the contact form. Instead of counting those clicks as “lost”, display retargeting allows you to position another ad in front of a potential customer who is clearly already interested in your industry or product. A customer that has already visited your website and is interested in what you have to offer.

Display retargeting is a method whereby websites post a cookie on the computer of a website visitor, and later “find” that visitor again when they are viewing another website with available ad space. Advertisers can “retarget” their previous website visitor by using a display ad to get their brand back in front of the searcher while the searcher is browsing the web.

Are there benefits to retargeting your ad in front of someone who decided to leave your site? Certainly! The previous web site visitor already has an interest in what you have to offer, and they have already seen your brand. We know brand awareness is extremely important for consumers and can be a major reason for purchasing one product over another. Even if you are not able to convert all of those “retargeted” ads, you are continuing to build brand awareness with someone who has already been on your website, which can be a very effective tool in future purchase decisions.

Once you decide to retarget your ads, you have many options from which to choose. You can use the products offered by the search engines themselves, such as Yahoo’s retargeting program, or Google’s Remarketing, which is still in Beta. Or, for additional benefit, you can use a search retargeting company such as Titan Growth^®‘s retargeting technology powered by Fetchback.  Agencies like Titan Growth^®, which specializes in combining the benefits of SEO and PPC with display retargeting, have a wealth of tracking abilities at their disposal, which can be extremely useful for the advertiser.  Deciding on which type of program to use will depend on your company’s budget, tracking and analytical needs, numbers of unique site visitors per month, and other factors.

Bottom line: if you see visitors bouncing off your site without converting, it might be worth considering whether or not display retargeting is right for your search business. A cost-effective addition to PPC and SEO, retargeting has the potential to turn many “lost” visitors into customers.

Contact us today to learn more about how to use display retargeting ads to grow your business!

Contributed by Amanda Finch, VP Operations