There are many methods of marketing on the Internet. All of them have a certain degree of value, but this value is usually a function of the relevance of the situation, context and environment. Many businesses still fail to effectively incorporate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with other online marketing strategies. As the Internet continues to grow in scope and complexity, SEO remains the most reliable method of ensuring that search engines can locate, read and distribute relevant content to your target audience.

Search Engine Optimization

This term refers to a broad set of activities that increase visibility online and drive traffic to a website. The website design, layout and content determine the ability of the search engine to read the page and assign a page ranking. To achieve visibility on the Internet, the search engines must be able to read the page according to a specific set of rules.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Social Media

Successful online marketing strategies incorporate social media with other techniques. Combining SEO with social media optimization is a particularly powerful strategy because it leverages the existing architecture of the Internet. Good keyword density and having social pages are positive attributes. Visibility on the Internet is a key to developing brand recognition, and business owners should consider this visibility as a kind of intangible asset.

When an advertisement appears on a webpage, the person who sees it may not immediately convert into a customer. However, an initial impression is created, and this can be developed by additional online social media management techniques. When a similar ad appears based on similar online search behavior, the potential customer is more likely to recognize the brand, and the association between the brand and the online activity is strengthened.

When this happens on a social media platform, the connection between the social activity and the product can be significant. Many advertisers believe that this strategy has a high impact because of the cumulative effect of brand exposure. The association created between the brand and the social interaction is significant enough to warrant investment. An example of this success is visible in a new generation of companies who address the concerns of their customers by producing fair-trade products and services.

They advertise a company process as much as the product because of new market demands. This provides a specific kind of value, and they know other companies are either unable or unwilling to compete with a process-driven ad campaign. For example, companies who advertise social benefits like paying a living wage to employees enjoy the most traction in this developing niche. This kind of ad grabs the attention of their customers and develops a very progressive style of brand loyalty. It can quickly go viral on social media because users want others to know about companies who are treating their workers fairly.

This particular strategy might not work equally well for every company, but it does demonstrate the powerful effect of developing an authentic connection with a loyal customer base. Marketing strategies should always be sensitive to social context. Social media can spread the message about the benefits of doing business with a particular type of organization, and leveraging this network has the potential to catapult visionary companies into a position of social leadership in an evolving online economy.

Pay Per Click Advertising and Online Marketing

Pay Per Click strategies receive mixed reviews from users. Some businesses find them extremely helpful, but others are less convinced of their efficacy in converting visitors into customers. Many online campaigns are also constrained to operate within a finite budget. Therefore, combining Pay Per Click advertising with other relevant online marketing strategies offers more long-term benefits than using PPC alone.

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It’s been a week since the Super Bowl and people are still talking about the ads more than the game.  Sure, everyone discusses their favorite commercial,but the real buzz is about the social media surprise successes of the game.

Every year, companies spend spectacular sums of money for short 15 sec or 30 sec commercials, but this year was vastly different.  Many, if not most of the advertisers utilized their commercial time to direct viewers online to their social media accounts.  Twitter estimated at least 50% of advertisers used a twitter hash tag somewhere in their Super Bowl commercial with almost as many mentions for Facebook.

In the past, a business only had the time during the commercial to familiarize the viewer with their brand and sell you their product.  Now, advertisers can piggyback on that ad time to invite the viewer to become a fan.  Their social media invitation creates an online relationship that extends beyond the initial commercial involvement.  For a business, connecting with customers and potential customers online opens the opportunity to convert the person into a loyal customer and fan.  By building their brand presence online, these fans and customers will add to their intentional marketing by generating their own buzz online.

Now that we are a week past the Super Bowl, those commercials and their social media presence are still buzzing around the water cooler therefore multiplying the effect of the initial ad buy.

The most talked about commercial/social media presence has been Oreo.  Oreo used their Super Bowl commercial to announce the launch of their account on Instagram.  By asking, “Are you cookie? Or are you crème?” they invited viewers to take part in their visual discussion on the still new Instagram.  In just a week, their Instagram account now boasts over 80,000 followers.

The surprise power outage in the 3^rd quarter threatened to be the most talked about part of Super Bowl XLVII until Oreo jumped into the discussion with a now infamous tweet, “You can still dunk in the dark.”  The social media team at Oreo created and posted this image within minutes of the power outage. They seized on the crisis at the stadium to get people talking about their brand once again.  I don’t think they could have even imagined the widespread success of that one picture and tweet.

With that one tweet, which has been retweeted over 16,000 times, Oreo stood out in a very crowded field and made headlines for days.

That is the power of a business using Social Media correctly.  To engage fans and stand out from the crowd.  How is your business using Social Media?

Lisa Jones

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Is SEO dead? With so many companies shifting their marketing dollars and efforts from SEO to Social Media Marketing, some are left to wonder, is search engine optimization obsolete? In this day and age of digital communication via texts, Facebook, Twitter, and the likes of Instagram, building relationships with client and consumer hopefuls, can’t possibly be a bad thing if it’s done correctly. Right? It takes a dedicated and trusted social media manager, good strong strategies and proper management of the networks for social media marketing to really pay off.

Let’s assume you are performing social media marketing correctly and that you are building a good following in all the major social networks. You are babysitting the networks and responding to inquiries in a timely fashion and people seem excited. Are you converting these new “friends” and “likes” into sales? If not, why? Could it be that ALL of your efforts are going into social media and that you haven’t checked your website lately? Maybe your website is just not up to speed with what this technology savvy, social client base you’ve been diligently working on needs.

Guarantee: Times and strategies will constantly change. There are only so many hours in the day to complete all the necessary tasks of running and maintaining a business. One task that cannot be overlooked, ever, is SEO. Good, old fashioned, white hat search engine optimization. Fine tuning your content, titles and pertinent information on your website is crucial to an engaging website. With information on how the search engines utilize urls and meta-info being a bit sketchy, page titles, images and paragraph titles have to be engaging yet convey the correct information of the content quickly.

Might I suggest a Spa & Salon Day for your website? Spa & Salon Day? Really? Did a real live, experienced SEO/SMM strategist just suggest a spa day for a website? Yep. Sure did. Websites need a little love and pampering too. While social media marketing is an absolutely wonderful way to gain new clients, if your website can’t support your SMM efforts of traffic to your site, you aren’t going to ride the social revolution wave…at all.

Spa Day Specials for your website could be:

• Facelift: Does the content on your website need a facelift in order to utilize keywords representative of your company’s needs? Is the content of great quality? Is it engaging enough for the reader?
• Manicure & Tips: File down your titles and make them engaging, yet short. Are you page and paragraph titles suggestive enough to keep a visitor on the page?
• Soothing Eye Treatment: Does your website flash and blink and sliders make readers dizzy? Are images eye catching or distracting? Don’t forget some could be viewing on a mobile device.
• Microdermabrasion:  Scrub and remove that dead content that is no longer applicable.
• Full Body Massage: Does information flow in an easily navigable manner or do you have to “massage” it to get where you want to go? Do your menus and buttons still go where you think they go?

Spa Days can be expensive, especially when done right. But with regular website maintenance, hopefully you site can stick with spa treatments and not have to go the surgery route! Don’t forget….SEO IS NOT DEAD!

Melanie Ledbetter-Remy | Bizopia – Social Media Marketer

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Any small business owner understands you need to get your business in front of customers, but how do you do it on the web? You must first know where are the people on the web. The answer: Social Networks. To get in front of them, you must design your corporate website so social media platforms are integrated with your business website.

Interacting on social media has a dual purpose for a small business; first, to be where people are and second, to link back into your website to help your search engine optimization (SEO). The Google search engine indexes every tweet you make, so if you are talking about content that is important to you as a business on a daily basis via Twitter, Google is going to recognize you as an expert in that field. Social media engagement helps your ranking results for your website when you focus on keywords and that activity drives organic traffic back to your site.

Facebook is the first place for a small business to establish a brand presence and go social because Facebook is now the most visited site on the web, ahead of even Google. As a small business, you use Facebook to connect with clients and fans, spread your message, and differentiate your business from the competition. It is your opportunity to show the world why you are the best to do business with in your industry.

At first, our goal at Bizopia was to teach our Houston SEO clients to integrate their Facebook and other social media sites for their businesses themselves; however, we learned that most business people don’t have the time to get involved in social media for their company. Now, managing the social media for our Houston SEO clients is a fast growing part of our web design business.

We speak and interact on their behalf via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Blogs and Pinterest to spur their social media activity. It is amazing to watch their fans and influence grow across the Internet. This social media integration shows them online as the experts they are in their business and industry.

Just because a business has created a Facebook or Twitter account, doesn’t mean they’ve established a real online social media presence. You have to do it right. Your activity must be consistent and regular for people to take notice. Social media interaction must be timely to generate higher rankings and traffic on the web.

If you can’t find the time to incorporate social media for your business, let us show you how we can make your business more effective on the web.

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Gary Remy leads Bizopia as CEO, helping Houston small businesses get found on the web through SEO, Web Design and Social Media Optimization. Stay in touch with Bizopia on Facebook, following on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn or Pinterest.

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With the release of Google’s latest update, Penguin, the rising significance of social media is being realized. Search algorithms appear to be increasing the weight of successful social media interaction in calculating search engine results. Businesses are taking notice of the importance of being engaged as a company online, but may question whether hiring a professional is necessary and best practices.

Most Businesses Give Social Media A Try Themselves At Some Point

Many business owners and employees are on social media personally and believe they can create and manage the social media platforms for their business themselves. However, there is a distinct difference in managing social media for a business than simply using it for personal engagement. Businesses participating in Facebook or Twitter have vastly diverse goals than an individual. Without the proper emphasize on social signal strategies for businesses, a company could end up joining the long list of companies with social media faux pas horror stories after passing the job off to an intern. But most businesses will give it a try themselves at some point before realizing they need to bring in a professional to map out their social media strategy and dedicate the proper time to engaging online successfully.

Social Media Is A Commitment, An Investment In Resources.

Social Media Management (SMM) requires an investment in time, resources and education. Any firm considering managing their social media in house must ask, “Do I have an available employee to dedicate to it?” and “Do we have the internal expertise to do it ourselves?” In truth, the cost of hiring a professional social media consultant or agency to manage the social presence of the company is less than the cost of traditional marking. Hiring an outside SMM firm will save the business time and energy to focus on performing the actual business of the company.

If you have a firm already managing your web design and SEO strategy, it would be beneficial and a natural fit to integrate your social media optimization into the package. Your SEO firm must stay abreast of the constant evolution of Search Engine Optimization, which requires more social media engagement to achieve successful search engine results.

A social media agency maintains a wealth of professional knowledge and experience in building and maintaining social media accounts for business clients. Outsourcing your social media marketing allows the business to maintain control of the “voice” of the company while reaping the benefits of the professional knowledge base and experience online.

Lisa Jones

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An important key for small business marketing is getting your message out where people will see and act on it.  More and more people are not only online, but also actively engaging in social networks.  Studies show that almost 70% of online Americans are engaged in social media networking with the greatest increases taking place in the over-25 crowd.  Six of the top ten most visited websites in the US for 2011 fit into the social networking genre of websites.

The rapid growth of social media and social networking is changing the traditional marketing model for small businesses. Engaging online with social media allows a small business to push their brand directly to their customer base, engage their clients, provide better customer service, and target niche markets at a lower cost than traditional marketing.

The benefits to a business engaged in social media go far beyond the most obvious direct marketing opportunities. Actively participating in social networking will increase search engine optimization (SEO), and lead generation and customer loyalty. Search engines, including Google, are incorporating social media pages, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, and the content found on them, in their formula to generate search engine results (SER). Activity on these social networks now positively affects your SEO and SER.

This online engagement presents a public face and personality for your company, increasing the potential for stronger customer referral and loyalty.  People want to connect with or develop a relationship with a business that they are interested in, or comes referred by friends. They also want the opportunity to sneak a look behind the scenes of your operations.

A social media presence does not happen overnight, but through a well-developed strategy focused on clear goals. When starting a social media strategy, many small businesses prioritize three goals: Increased Brand Awareness, Improved Customer Communication, and Greater Sales Reach. These goals may and should be customized for each company and adjusted as the social media strategy progresses. As people spend more time on social media the opportunities for small businesses to develop engaging and productive business social presence increases.

The cost of traditional marketing to obtain this level of personal connection with the customer base would take a serious bite out of the budget for most small businesses, whereas the cost of hiring a company or consultant to manage the social platforms and engagement is much less. An investment in social media with a proven Social Media Optimization company gives businesses a great opportunity to reach their customers, potential clients and others in their industry.

Lisa Jones

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Amazing social media statistics are out! Social Media Marketing has really climbed to the top of the ranks as a major player in the game of web design and search engine optimization. Your business can NOT afford to ignore this anymore. According to Facebook, 30 billion pieces of content are generated each month. EACH MONTH. That’s crazy wild! According to Twitter, over 25 BILLION tweets were sent out to the Twitter world in 2010 with 200 million registered users as of January 2011. 100 million or so tweets are made on a daily basis. Here’s the one that blows me away…..YouTube. If you are reading this on your phone. sit down for the next stat. Here it comes. 200 million views of YouTube via MOBILE devices – that’s just MOBILE………PER DAY. Yes, you read that correctly. PER DAY.

Why then, as a business, aren’t you trying to figure out a way to use some type of a social media marketing strategy? I’ll tell you why. You don’t have a clue where to start. Bizopia can help. Some of my friends and business associates ask, “what is social media marketing?” It is simply a sub-category of our online marketing and optimization strategies that shouldn’t be ignored by anyone.

Realistically, you don’t have time handle your own social media marketing, right? You are running a business and just don’t have time or the staff to sit down and blog, tweet, post in odd places, Facebook, etc. like you should be doing in this ever-changing, technologically savvy world. We get it. That’s why we’ve integrated social media into our search engine marketing strategies – ALONG with our websites. When we design or redesign our websites and copywrite, these SEO services can be handled for you on a daily basis. See, not so scary anymore. Someone else can be doing it for you.

Bizopia, Houston’s leader in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and social media optimization, builds custom websites correctly the first time. With our seasoned website design guys and through extensive research and frankly “time on the net” experience, we have developed strategies that will get you found on the internet and more importantly, strategies that will get you found in the correct niches and target audiences.

Call Bizopia today and let’s get started helping you GET FOUND on the internet. 832.327.3230

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Should your website speak for itself? Seriously? Here’s why it should. The global leader in measuring the digital world, comScore, released the U.S. Online Video Rankings for August 2010 today. This report suggests that 178 million U.S. internet users viewed online video content in August 2010. The numbers compute to an average of 14.3 hours per viewer. FOURTEEN HOURS? Oh my. That 178 million individual viewers racked in 5.2 billion online viewing sessions during August alone.

As you might expect, Google owned YouTube.com ranked the highest on the list with 146.3 million unique viewers. Second on the list….wait for it…wait for it….Facebook, with 58.6 million unique viewers for a total of 243 million viewing sessions. Yahoo! sites came in third with 53.9 million unique viewers. Wow! Facebook – number 2?

Website Design. With the above mentioned numbers, why on Earth would you NOT have a online video on your website? It’s yet another marketing tool that can be used to reach a specific audience. When websites are designed correctly, and every opportunity is exhausted to get all of your pertinent information out there for the world to see, great things can happen.

Our goal at Bizopia, Houston website design and internet marketing company, is to combine all of the latest trending techniques to get companies at the top of the search engines so you CAN be found. Everything from properly designed pages, constant search engine optimization, internet video, and proper application of social media marketing tools, is available with one company. Why organize multiple agencies, when you can get it all in one place? It’s like one-stop-shopping, my dream come true.

Call Bizopia today, and let’s get started on your new website, or revamping your old site. Old isn’t good enough in this day and age. Call today! 800.372.8552.

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Want to move up the ranks in Google, Yahoo or Bing? If so, contact Houston SEO company, Bizopia, and let us help you develop and market your business site through proven SEO and website development strategies.
In business since 2002, Bizopia has helped companies improve their ranking through increasing exposure via different methods such as Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and strong website design and development.
With professional website designers, proven SEO copywriters and research assistants, Bizopia builds sites CORRECTLY the first time. With the ability to provide SEO services to companies with websites that are already constructed, sound SEO principles can be applied without major changes to the look and feel of the current site.
Multiple packages are offered for those that are still unsure or uneasy with this SEO (Search Engine Optimization) process. We guarantee that you will be satisfied because we still do business FACE TO FACE, and we will discuss our strategies up front with you. In this day and age of fast paced business transactions, the team at Bizopia still believes that it is very important to meet with every client and discuss your goals, as we know they can change over time.  Our customer service team is knowledgeable and friendly, and the development team can make changes in a timely manner – unlike large development firms.

To tweak, or not to tweak?  Keep your current site or start from scratch? Those are the questions you need to ask in this online marketing, web-centered world. Sure, there are ways to gain exposure without hiring a professional website design and search engine optimization company, but seriously, do you really have the time and the resources to provide maintenance to your site daily? Do you really have the time to do in depth research on your competitors – and to do it often? That’s why we feel it’s best for you to do what YOU do best, and to let us do what WE do best – and that’s to help you get noticed by the major search engines, attract new customers and clients, and to gain on that number one spot that everyone has their eye on.

Call today and let BIZOPIA, Houston’s SEO Company, get you noticed!

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When I am talking to business owners about their website, and why it is not ranking, many times I get the question, “ In order for your Search Engine Marketing services to work do I need to re-design my website?”  The short answer is no, but would you take a golf cart to Le Mans?  You don’t have to completely re-design your website, but we wouldn’t be talking if you were pleased with your website’s results so let’s take a look at the car (website) first before we discuss the fuel (Search Engine Marketing.)  Most business owners I meet with think they have addressed their website marketing needs because they have a website.  It may not get them business or drive much traffic, but the simple fact they have a website allows them to check off that task and wonder why their business isn’t growing. Many times their first website was built by a friend, child or part time web designer that has no clue about Search Engine Optimization.  The website may look good and talk about the products and services of the company, but without SEO architecture and content focus, the site will never rank in the search engines or on the clients preferred keywords.

So when you begin SEO marketing activity, it will improve the ranking of the website, but the results will not be near as successful if the website was built for SEO.  I like to compare it to putting high octane performance fuel in a go cart.  At the end of the day, it helps, but doesn’t get you there very fast. So my recommendation in most cases of a website re-design is to completely start over.  Build the website focused on the key words you are going after with a clear, focused, call to action.  The goal in any website is to have a visitor do what you want them to do, but they will never get that chance if they don’t find your website.  By building your website with the basic architecture of SEO: Keyword focused Title Tags, Keyword focused Header Tags, SEO Copywriting, Sitemap, etc. you can create a website or performance car ready to fly with online marketing activities.

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