Jobs in Digital Marketing

By now, you have probably heard nothing but the fact that content – content marketing, content development, and content strategy – must be a part of your online marketing strategy. And there are many, many good reasons for that. In today’s post, we’re going to look at all of the reasons that you should start implementing content into your online marketing strategy. These reasons include but also go beyond just SEO.

Content Makes Panda Happy

Panda is a hungry bear, ready to gobble up any sites with low quality content. It’s been over a year since Google released the Panda update into the wild, taking down sites with huge losses in keyword rankings. One well-known site to get hit with the update was EzineArticles – they lost a huge amount of their keyword rankings as shown in this graph by SEMrush.

What you may note is that EzineArticles has still not managed to recover their rankings. One site that has seemingly recovered is HubPages.

They did it by separating weak content from the main domain by establishing subdomains for HubPages writers and content.

The lesson you can take away from studying these two sites is that low quality content will make you target for future Panda updates. Panda updates didn’t stop with the one in February of 2011 – according to SEOmoz’s Algorithm Change timeline, Panda has evolved from 1.0 to 3.4, last updated in March of 2012. The only thing that will save your website is removing your low quality content and replacing it with higher quality content.

Content Makes Link Building Easier

As someone who has requested links for a variety of different websites in different industries, there was one thing that was a sight for sore eyes in any link building project – a website with great content. It was always a challenge to build links to the homepage of an unknown retailer or to a boring product or service page. It was rarely a challenge to build links to pages with interesting content.

When you have useful content and resources on your website, you are bound to find others who are willing to link to it. Some ideas for various industries include…

• Calculators – Getting an anchor text link to a boring home loan provider can be a challenge. Getting a link to a useful home loan calculator, on the other hand, is much simpler. It’s a tool that you can convince almost anyone to add to a home buyer’s resource page (unless they are a direct competitor).
• Infographics – Well-designed infographics are a gem for any industry and for link building. If you can find relevant blogs, they are usually happy to share your informative infographic with their niche audience. And, if nothing else, you can always submit them to infographics directories and blogs that have high domain authority and PageRank to boot! Plus there’s always the chance that someone at Mashable will take a liking to your infographic and start the viral sharing.
• Videos – There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of “As Seen on TV” products that you never have and never will hear of. But one product you may not have missed is the Slap Chop, a little food chopper. The website for it has about 20 links, 1,000 likes, and 190 tweets. The official video for it, on the other hand, has over 500 links, 44,000 likes, and 55,000 tweets. And that doesn’t include the parody or remix videos. This means a simple little product received a whole lot of online marketing thanks to an entertaining commercial that went viral.
• Lists – Love them or hate them, lists get the job done and attract lots of links. On one site that I contribute to regularly, the post that has the most links is The Entrepreneur’s Handbook: 101 Resources for First Time Entrepreneurs.

Need more ideas? Try this inforgraphic from Copyblogger and the BlueGlass infographic team.

Content is More Likely to Be Shared

Besides just link attraction, great content is also likely to receive lots of shares on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. The latter is particularly important as Google+ results might show up in search results for people connected to the Google+ user who shares the link to the content. For example, can you imagine being on the first page of search results for a search on Yahoo? This Google+ post was, thanks to relevancy and timing, with a link to the post on Google+ and the actual blog post itself.

So be sure that you don’t just create content, but you encourage social sharing for that content by adding social share buttons. You can get the official ones from Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ or use plugins like ShareThis or AddThis.

If you don’t believe that social sharing is important, consider this. One of the ways you build links is by making people aware that a piece of content exist. Encouraging the social sharing of content will make even more people aware of that content which will almost always lead to more links to that content.

Content Helps Brands Build Authority

Whenever you read a good book on a topic, you tend to believe that the person who wrote it is an expert or authority on that topic. Producing content online helps professionals and brands become publishers. It allows them to go beyond just another name in search results and become a leading authority in their industry. Some great ways to take advantage of content marketing as a way to establish authority includes the following.

• Publishing great content on your official blog.
• Offering great content to be published on other top blogs in your industry.
• Writing articles for major publications (newspapers, magazines, etc.) in your region or industry.
• Contributing to crowdsourced posts and books in your industry.

By creating content to be published on your website and beyond, you will demonstrate your expertise to your current audience and gain more exposure to bring in a new audience.

Content Can Help Your Customers

Do you find yourself (or your customer service department) answering the same questions over and over again? If so, you might want to consider publishing blog posts, reports, or even eBooks to cover those topics and offer them on your website for your customers. These could be product manuals, tutorials, or even a easily searchable FAQ database. Customers that like to be self-sufficient will greatly appreciate the ability to get the information without having to contact you by phone, and your customer service department will greatly appreciate having more time to deal with higher-level issues than being overwhelmed with the same simple questions.

Content Can Be Repackaged & Repurposed

Last, but not least, most content can be repackaged and repurposed to further increase its exposure. Some great ways to do this include the following.

• Take your blog post content, have someone read it, and turn the recording into a podcast.
• Take data from a well-researched post or case study and turn it into an infographic.
• Take sections of your infographic and turn it into a slideshow.
• Take your slideshow and convert it to video.
• Record webinars onto video, and transcribe what is said throughout the webinar to make it into a blog post.
• Take a collection of several blog posts that have a similar them, combine them, and turn them into a report or eBook that you can giveaway in exchange for mailing list subscribers.
• Take eBook content, divide it up into logical parts, and turn it into an autoresponder series such as “7 Days to ____” for mailing list subscribers.

There are many, many different ways to repackage your content and use it to gain more exposure and entice readers to become potential clients. The possibilities are endless and only require some time and editing!

What other reasons do you have for incorporating content marketing into your online marketing strategy?

Image credit: OpenSource.com

6 Reasons Why Content is a Must for Online Marketing is one of our latest posts from SEOgadget - thanks for reading! Want to stay up to date with the latest SEO and Conversion Rate Optimisation tips and tricks? Follow us on Twitter and Add SEOgadget to your Google Circles!

People love to be asked their opinion. Chance are, if you’ve been to a restaurant recently, you’ve been given a receipt asking you to rate your experience via survey. Or if you’ve stayed at a hotel, you’ve received an email survey to rate your stay. Surveys are a great way to determine user satisfaction with your products, services, and websites. The following are some great ways to use online surveys and a look at the survey tools available.

Great Ways to Use Survey Tools

If you are an online marketer or SEO, then you should consider the following uses for online surveys.

Prospective Client Surveys

Before getting started with a new client, you might want to get to know them first by providing a simple online survey form for them to fill out. Some great questions you could ask include the following.

• What websites do you own? (main domain, blog, additional sub-domains)
• What social media profiles do you use? (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+)
• What local search profiles have you claimed? (Google Places, Yahoo Local, Yelp)
• Have you worked with another online marketing or SEO agency? If yes, what services did you use? What were the results?
• Will you be working with more than one online marketing or SEO agency simultaneously?
• What are the top 10 pages you would like your online marketing strategy to be focused upon?
• Do you have any special online tools that could be used to attract links? (online calculators, widgets, industry-specific database)
• What are your online marketing goals?
• Do you use Google Analytics? If yes, can we have access?

Basically, ask them about anything you think you will need for your campaign so you know what you are working with early on.

Client Satisfaction Surveys

Client satisfaction surveys can be very useful not only to find out if you are on the right track with your client’s online marketing campaign, but also to find out if you can expand your services with them. So instead of just asking if they are happy with their results so far, if they are receiving enough communication about their campaign, and so forth, you can also ask them if they are interested in additional services they are not taking advantage of.

To keep your survey fresh from month to month, you can also ask about specific new trends. For example, this month would be a great time to ask your clients if they would be interested in mounting a campaign on Pinterest and optimizing their site with images so it will be Pinterest friendly.

Website Usability

If part of your online marketing involves creating or optimizing websites for conversion, some basic website usability testing might be required. Invite people to try out the website, then send them a survey about their likes and dislikes of the website’s functionality. You might learn about a particular pain point that others experience which you might not have even thought about.

Link Bait

Whether you are creating link bait for a client or for your own website, survey tools can help. One of the top trends in blogging is crowdsourced posts – posts where you get various people in a specific niche or industry to answer one or more questions, then compile the answers into a blog post. Not only do you get a lot of great information, but you get the promotional power of everyone you include in the list sharing it with their audience.

5 Top Survey Tools

The following are some great survey tools that will allow you to get the answers you need. The best part – they all offer free basic membership!

Google Docs Forms

Google Docs offers their own survey tool with their Forms application. Simply log in to your Google Account, go to Google Docs, and create a new Form. You can choose text based answers, multiple choice, list answers, and more, making answers required when necessary. You can also choose from almost 100 pre-designed themes. You can embed forms onto your website using iframe code, share the link to the form, or email the form directly from Google Docs. Return to the form within Google Docs to see survey results!

SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a widely recognized survey provider. They allow you to create surveys from scratch or choose from over 60 templates for different categories and industries including the following for customer feedback.

• Website Feedback
• Business to Business
• Customer Satisfaction
• Customer Service
• Software Evaluation

Their account options range from free for 10 questions & 100 responses per survey to $65 (US) per month for unlimited questions & responses, customizable survey forms, and more features.

KISSinsights

KISSinsights allows you to add customer feedback directly to your website with easy, targeted questions that will pop up on your site. It is the perfect way to do quick usability testing with your website’s visitors! Plans range from free for surveys with up to 30 responses to $49 (US) per month for customizable surveys with an unlimited number of responses.

Zoomerang

Zoomerang is on eof the best survey tools for feedback. Surveys can be sent via email, Facebook, Twitter, or your own website. Zoomerang offers a variety of different types of surveys including the following.

• Customer Satisfaction
• Business
• Marketing
• Market Research
• Meeting & Event Planning
• Social Media (Twitter & Facebook)
• Mobile SMS

Plans range from free for an unlimited number of surveys with up to ten questions and responses to $599 per year for unlimited surveys, questions, and responses, customization, data export, and more.

Smart Survey

Smart-Survey offers affordable software which you can use for customer satisfaction, specific industries, employee opinions, training feedback, and more. They allow you to cancel at any time, or simply downgrade your account and upgrade when you need it without losing your survey data. Plans range from free for an unlimited number of surveys with up to 50 responses per month to £29.99 (UK) per month for unlimited surveys with up to 1,000 responses per month, custom themes, and more.

Do you use survey tools to learn more about prospective clients, customer satisfaction, or website usability? Have you had success with crowdsourced posts? Please share your tools & tips in the comments!

Image credit: The Bees

5 Freemium Survey Tools for User Testing, Customer Satisfaction, and More is one of our latest posts from SEOgadget - thanks for reading! Want to stay up to date with the latest SEO and Conversion Rate Optimisation tips and tricks? Follow us on Twitter and Add SEOgadget to your Google Circles!

When it comes to link building, one of the toughest challenges I ran into was clients who only wanted links built to specific pages on their site. Sometimes it was just one specific page – their homepage, and other times it would be to their homepage plus various product pages. Pages that no one really would want to naturally link to unless they were already buying the products.

The best link building clients were the ones that were open to link building towards any of their pages, including and especially to their great content. There is nothing easier than link building for a website that actually has link worthy content – infographics, videos, whitepapers, tutorials, lists, or even just informative blog posts. The only thing you run into with these clients is keeping up with all of the great content that there is to link to on their site.

The Purpose of a Content Audit Spreadsheet

This is where a content audit spreadsheet comes in handy for link building. A content audit spreadsheet for link builders is simply an analysis of the top pieces of link worthy content on a website, organized in a way that makes it easy for link builders to find the right pages to propose in their link requests to other sites based on category. The main goals of this spreadsheet are as follows.

• To help link builders organize the information about each page so they are not always looking up the site to find a particular piece of content and what to write about it when it comes time to actually email a prospective link opportunity.
• To keep information organized so that it can be passed on to different link builders throughout the course of a project.
• To serve as a checklist for on-site optimization and baseline statistics.
• To keep track of overall links built to each page.

Now that I’ve hopefully sold you on the benefits of a content audit spreadsheet for link builders, let’s look at the information you will want to keep in yours.

Information for a Content Audit Spreadsheet

The following pieces of information are crucial for a great content audit spreadsheet that will serve as your ultimate link building tool for each client.

• Type – Whenever you are link building, you might find opportunities for specific types of content. For each link worthy page on a website, note the type of content on that page – infographics, video, tutorial, whitepaper, free trial download, widget, tool, application, blog post, and so forth.
• URL – This is the full URL for each link worthy page on the website for quick copying & pasting when needed.
• Shortened – For social sharing, keep track of a custom Bit.ly link that you can use for social promotion of the page. This way you will have social statistics including clicks and latest activity for that URL.
• Title – This is simply the title of the piece of content. While you might want to link everything to keyword phrases, there is nothing more natural than linking to a page by its title.
• Description – This is the description for the content which you can use when emailing a prospective link opportunity or filling out a form that asks for the page’s description.
• Keywords – These are all of the applicable keywords and keyword phrase anchor text that fits each link worthy URL. You can enter multiple keywords in one column, or add additional columns per keyword.
• On-Site Check – This can be per page or for the entire website, but it is simply a date of when someone last checked on-site optimization. If anything should happen down the road with the website’s rankings, it might be a good thing to check back up on. A number of times, I have seen client’s websites rankings drop simply because they changed their website design and their old URLs were not redirected or the newly designed pages were no longer optimized properly.
• Page Authority, Links, Tweets, Likes, and Google +1′s – One thing I like to do with any website is grab a simple baseline measurement of stats before I start working with it. This way, a month or two down the road, you can see if your link building activity is making a positive impact by checking the current stats. These stats also serve defense in case the customer starts asking about results. Grab these stats using the SEOmoz Toolbar and the official social sharing buttons on the page. If the page doesn’t have social sharing buttons, you can always plug the page’s URL as the URL to share in the official button code pages for Twitter, Facebook, and Google (under Advanced Options) to see the numbers.

Additional Tabs

Most link builders probably have your own tools for recording links. If not, just add additional tabs to this spreadsheet for each piece of content or one additional tab for all of the links. On the link recording tab, enter the anchor text used for the link, domain the link was placed on, domain authority, traffic, page the link was placed on, page authority, contact name, and contact email. This way, you have great information to give to the client if they need proof of work, and you also have a great record of contacts to get links from on future projects.

Get the Spreadsheet

Not in the mood to create a spreadsheet from scratch? Just grab the sample spreadsheet on Google Docs!

For Google Docs Users

If you are signed into your Google account, simply use the File > Save option to save this spreadsheet to your documents and start filling it in with your information.

For Excel and Open Office Users

If you don’t have Google Docs, or would prefer to save it on your local machine, go to the Google Docs version and use the File > Download As to save it as your desired file type. I’d suggest Open Office or Excel if possible for functionality.

How do you organize content for link building? What other details would you include? Please share your thoughts in the comments, and happy auditing!

Image credit: Joe Hall

Content Auditing for Link Builders – Why You Should Do It, Tips, and a Spreadsheet is one of our latest posts from SEOgadget - thanks for reading! Want to stay up to date with the latest SEO and Conversion Rate Optimisation tips and tricks? Follow us on Twitter and Add SEOgadget to your Google Circles!

I know the minute some people read the title of this post, they will think that this is a far-fetched idea. But bear with me for the duration of this post. I will show you fifteen sites (all the way up to a Google PageRank of 7 and Domain Authority of 94) that will either automatically link back to you using information in your Twitter profile or will allow you to sign in with Twitter and add links because of it.

Is Your Twitter Profile Optimized to Build Links?

Before we look at those awesome sites that will link back to you based on your Twitter information, let’s start by making sure your Twitter profile is ready to help build links. It’s really simple. You just need to have a link in both the Web and Bio fields for your Twitter profile.

This will result in your Twitter profile looking like this.

It can be the same link in both if you are only working with one website, or two different ones if you prefer. The added benefits of having two links in your Twitter profile (aside from the websites that pull this information) is that visitors to your profile will get a chance to click on two of your links (if they are different). Plus, in areas of Twitter where it only shows your Bio without your website link, people will still get the chance to click on your website.

Examples of such areas include when you are in a Twitter list…

Or when you are mentioned in a tweet.

Account Security

Before we begin, I do want to add the disclaimer that some of the profiles listed below will ask you to sign in with your Twitter to add more information to them. At the time of writing this post, none of them posted to my Twitter account without asking first. Granted, some had a crafty little checkbox that you have to uncheck in order to not tweet about them, but none just tweeted without warning.

As things with websites change rapidly, I would suggest checking your Twitter stream after signing in to any Twitter related application or service to make sure there is nothing tweeted for you. Also, you can revoke access to applications connected to your Twitter account any time by going to your Settings > Applications and clicking the Revoke Access button.

15 Websites That Will Link to Websites in Your Twitter Profile

Without further ado, here are the fifteen websites that you can acquire a link from (automatically or by signing in with Twitter) based on the information in your Twitter profile in order of domain authority and/or popularity. Anywhere you see username in a link, just replace it with your Twitter handle! And anywhere you see Bio and Web link refers to your Twitter profile Bio and Web information.

Klout

• Google PageRank: 7
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 86
• Total Links: 42,788
• Compete Traffic: 368,121 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Dofollow, Cached

Whether you love or hate your score doesn’t matter. You can get a backlink from Klout. Most people will have a profile regardless of whether they have signed into Klout before at http://klout.com/username. Klout pulls the information in your Bio field, so if you have a link within your Twitter bio, you are all set!

If you do choose to sign in with Twitter or connect with Facebook, you can add links to your other social networks to your Klout profile. Klout will then include your activity on those networks as a part of your score. You can even create a custom blurb to replace your Twitter bio if you so choose in your settings.

Twitter Grader

• Google PageRank: 6
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 78
• Total Links: 611,948
• Compete Traffic: 16,390 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Nofollow, Cached

Twitter Grader is a tool by HubSpot that scores your account based on various data from your Twitter activity. You will need to enter your Twitter account in the search box to begin scoring, but once your page has been created, you can access it by going to http://tweet.grader.com/username.

If you get an error, just use the main page to grade your account again to make it work as their tool has been having some issues lately. Also, be sure to check out the Twitter Elite list to find other top Twitter users. I find the top Twitter cities most useful!

Twellow

• Google PageRank: 6
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 78
• Total Links: 26,553
• Compete Traffic: 33,607 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Nofollow & Dofollow, Cached

Twellow is one of the largest Twitter directories. It uses your Bio and Web link, but only hyperlinks the Web link initially.

While some people may find their Twitter handle has already been included in the directory by going to http://www.twellow.com/username, others may have to join Twellow by connecting with Facebook or filling out the registration form. Once you have joined Twellow, you can edit your Twellow profile for the Twitter account you authorize. Be sure to change your Twellow bio in your settings and insert an anchor text based link – this one will be the dofollow one!

You can also add more of your social links to your Twellow profile as well as categories where people can find you.

TwitterCounter

• Google PageRank: 6
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 88
• Total Links: 50,384
• Compete Traffic: 480,396 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Nofollow, Not Cached

TwitterCounter allows Twitter users to see the number of people they are following, are following them, and their tweets over an hours, weekly, monthly, three month, or six month view. TwitterCounter uses only your Bio information initially. Most people will find they have a profile if they go to http://twittercounter.com/username, but if not, you can sign in with Twitter to update it.

Signing in to TwitterCounter via Twitter will update your page with the Web link in your Twitter profile. It will also allow you to see the three to six month view of your stats as well as follow other Twitter users listed on TwitterCounter.

Twitaholic

• Google PageRank: 6
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 74
• Total Links: 18,968
• Compete Traffic: 27,276 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Nofollow, Cached

Twitaholic is a system that keeps up to date with users stats and rankings based on number of followers and updates. Twitaholic uses your Bio and Web link, but only hyperlinks your Web link. The Bio information is also much older than the rest of the stats, and there isn’t a way to login to change it from what I could tell.

If you don’t find your profile by going to http://twitaholic.com/username, then use the search box at the top right to create a profile listing. The most interesting piece of information I find on the site is the ranking you have in your region if you have listed a location on your Twitter profile.

Listorious

• Google PageRank: 6
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 65
• Total Links: 17,344
• Compete Traffic: 13,831 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Dofollow, Cached

Listorious is a site that allows you to search for Twitter users and lists. Listorious uses your Bio and Web link, but only hyperlinks the Web link.

If you haven’t used the site before, you will need to add yourself by authorizing their site with your Twitter account. After you have authorized it, you can add six tags about yourself that other people can use to search for you.

TweetLevel

• Google PageRank: 5
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 85
• Total Links: 3,815
• Compete Traffic: 4,388 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Dofollow, Not Cached

TweetLevel is another social measurement tool that scores Twitter users based on overall influence, popularity, engagement, and trust. TweetLevel uses your Bio and Web link, but only hyperlinks the Web link. Most people will have a profile automatically generated for them by going to http://tweetlevel.edelman.com/User/username.

While I had never heard of this site before working on this post (hat tip to Travis Balinas for recommending it), they do offer a very detailed definition of their algorithm and tips to gaining influence on Twitter.

Favstar

• Google PageRank: 5
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 65
• Total Links: 358,052
• Compete Traffic: 53,923 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Dofollow, Cached

Favstar gives you stats about your most popular tweets based on the number of times they have been retweeted or favorited. Favstar uses your Bio, but does not hyperlink any links within it. Most Twitter users will find they have a profile by going to http://favstar.fm/users/username.

To get your dofollow links, you will need to sign in via Twitter. Then click on the settings link in the top menu. Here, you can add two URLs that will be hyperlinked using the site’s favicon.

twtBizCard

• Google PageRank: 5
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 47
• Total Links: 58,247
• Compete Traffic: 610 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Dofollow, Cached

twtBizCard allows Twitter users to create an online business card. twtBizCard uses your Bio and Web link, hyperlinking the URLs in both. Most users will find a profile for themselves at http://twtbizcard.com/username.

When you sign in via Twitter (not working at the time of posting), you will get the option to edit your profile and add more links to your other social networks.

Favorious

• Google PageRank: 4
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 29
• Total Links: 1,566
• Compete Traffic: No Data Available
• Link: Dofollow, Cached

Favorious is a site that keeps track of your Twitter favorites. It uses your Twitter Bio and Web link, hyperlinking URLs in both fields. Most people will find a profile for themselves at http://favorious.com/people/username.

If you choose to sign in with Twitter, it will refresh your bio information. You can then tag your favorite tweets for easier reference later on. Since I favorite tweets as potential testimonials and also favorite tweets with links I’d rather not forget, the tagging should come in handy.

Retweet Rank

• Google PageRank: 4
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 54
• Total Links: 5,329
• Compete Traffic: 4,295 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Nofollow, Cached

Retweet Rank scores you on their ranking system by the number of retweets you receive. It uses your Bio and Web link, but only your Web link is hyperlinked. Most people will find a profile for themselves by going to http://www.retweetrank.com/username.

When you sign in to Twitter to claim your profile, you will get access to a dashboard that tells you information about your latest 100 retweets. They also offer premium accounts to find out more information including top tweets, influential tweets, best timing for tweets and more for $9USD per month.

TagWalk

• Google PageRank: 3
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 31
• Total Links: 57,525
• Compete Traffic: 407 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Dofollow, Not Cached

TagWalk offers Twitter users an overview of their Twitter stats including number of tweets, retweets, tweets with links, tweets with hashtags, interests based on hashtag usage, most shared websites, and more. TagWalk uses your Bio and Web link, but only hyperlinks the Web link. Most users will find a profile for themselves by going to http://tagwalk.com/user/username.

The site doesn’t seem to be too active. Although it gives you the option to load your stats, it doesn’t seem to have updated anything but your follower / following count in months. So if you have recently changed your profile / link, you may not see the update for a while.

Crowdreel

• Google PageRank: 3
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 36
• Total Links: 67,150
• Compete Traffic: 28,522 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Dofollow, Cached

Crowdreel is an interesting site that pulls photos from your Twitter feed and (once your signed in) from people you follow as well. Crowdreel uses your Bio and Web link, but only the Web link is hyperlinked.

Some people will find their profile by going to http://www.crowdreel.com/username, but if you don’t, just sign in with Twitter. If you do have a profile already and sign in with Twitter, it will update your profile information (may take a day or two) and show you photos from people you follow. It’s like the photostream view of Twitter.

SNpros

• Google PageRank: 1
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 21
• Total Links: 11,161
• Compete Traffic: 4,060 Unique Monthly Visitors (US)
• Link: Dofollow, Cached

SNpros shows you the estimated value of your Twitter account if it were to be sold on the retail market based on following, number of times listed, age, and number of tweets. SNpros pulls your Bio and Web link, but only the Web link is hyperlinked. Most people will find an account for themselves by going to http://snpros.com/twitter/kikolani.

There doesn’t seem to be an account login section, so if your profile is out of date, you’ll just have to wait for an update to run through their system.

Twitperts

• Google PageRank: 0
• SEOmoz Domain Authority: 10
• Total Links: 8
• Compete Traffic: No Data Available
• Link: Dofollow, Cached

Twitperts is another up and coming Twitter directory similar to Wefollow that organizes Twitter users by tags or categories. When you visit individual user pages, you will see latest Twitpic photos and basic Twitter statistics. Twitperts uses your Bio and Web link and hyperlinks URLs in both.

Some people will find their profile by going to http://www.twitperts.com/username. Otherwise, you can sign in with Twitter to add yourself. If you have a profile already, you will still want to sign in so you can additional links to your other social networks.

There are many more networks out there that pull in your Twitter information. Some I left out either because they didn’t link back, they looked a little too shady, or they were difficult to use. Just in case I missed a good one, please mention it in the comments!

Image credit: Rubybgold.

15 Sites That Help You Use Your Twitter Profile for Link Building is one of our latest posts from SEOgadget - thanks for reading!Want to stay up to date with the latest SEO and Conversion Rate Optimisation tips and tricks? Follow us on Twitter and Add SEOgadget to your Google Circles!

When it comes to new social networks, it’s hard to tell which ones to get excited about and which ones would ultimately be a major waste of time. One recent emergence into the social media world has proven to be a buzz-worthy site that is worth the investment. Pinterest is a site that allows users to save their favorite images across the web by pinning them to boards on their profile. Users can create vision boards based on any themes they choose, from architecture to weddings. You can get an idea of what gets the most attention on the site by seeing what is popular now.

Online retailers can see how powerful this network can be for their business by looking at the top gifts…

From an digital marketing standpoint, you can see how nice it is to get a numerous amount of repins by others for exposure. Plus, from an SEO standpoint, the bonus is that each pin has a dofollow link back to the page the image was taken from.

Pinterest by the Numbers

So just how popular is Pinterest? Let’s look at some of the current stats as of December 2011.

• Pinterest.com has a Google PageRank of 6 and root domain authority of 93 as scored by Open Site Explorer with 56,000+ backlinks.
• Unique visitors in the US to Pinterest is 3.2 million per month as measured by Compete.com.
• Pinterst is ranked #275 globally in Alexa, #53 in the US, and #353 in the UK.
• Pinterest has 3.3 active monthly users for their Facebook app, 67,000+ ratings for their app on iTunes, and 167,000+ followers on Twitter.

How Pinterest Works

Pinterest wants to keep their community as spam-free as possible, so you might have to request an invite to join in.

If you know someone on Pinterest, you could ask them to send you an invite as well. Once invited, Pinterest allows you to log in via Twitter…

Or Facebook…

The Facebook app will also ask you for permission to access your profile information.

Although you are granting access to your account, Pinterest does not post to your Facebook or Twitter without asking for permission. Allowing access will let Pinterest share your latest pin to your social networks if you choose to. You can also unlink your Facebook or Twitter at any time after registering.

Once you have connected, Pinterest will ask you for a username, email address, and password. In the future, you can login using your Facebook, Twitter, or email / password combination. The next three steps allow you to choose some things you like…

Based on your interests, it will automatically follow top people in those categories. This is a great way to get ideas on how to use Pinterest. You can unfollow these people from here as well with the Unfollow button.

After you have decided to follow or unfollow these suggested people, you can click on the Create Boards button to start creating boards to organize your pins into.

Once your initial boards have been created (you can add, edit, or delete them later), you will get the Pin It bookmarklet to add to your bookmarks bar.

Once installed, you will be able to add images to your pinboards by clicking on the Pin It bookmarket. Click Start Pinning to complete your sign up.

Customizing Your Profile

Once you are on the main screen, click on your name at the top right side to get to your profile.

Then click on the Edit Profile button beneath your picture.

Here, you can edit your email, notification settings, password, and add your basic information. Be sure to add your website and link to both your Facebook and Twitter accounts to have them displayed on your profile.

When finished, your profile will look like this.

The RSS button links to your latest pins feed while the others link to your specified website, Twitter, and Facebook accounts.

Adding Pins

When you see an image you would like to pin to your Pinterest boards, simply click on the Pin It bookmarklet on your bookmarks bar. When you click on Pin It, you will get an overlay selection of images to choose from on the page.

Select the image you want to save by hovering over it and clicking on Pin This. In the popup, select the appropriate board for your pin, then add details.

You can check the Facebook and/or Twitter box to share your new pin with your social networks, and click Pin It when you are finished. You can then go to see your pin by clicking on the See your Pin button.

Now that you know how Pinterest works, let’s talk about how easy it is for you to optimize your site for it!

How to Optimize Your Website for Pinterest

Pinterest is all about images, so the best way to make your site appealing to Pinterest users is to have great images! This means you need to have a model wearing your clothes in a beautiful setting, not a dress on a manikin. People are more likely to pin this…

Image Credit

Over this…

Image Credit

Also, keep in mind that Pinterest users are probably using Google image search to find some photos for their board. This means you need to make sure your images are optimized to be found – file names, alt tags, title tags, and captions need to be geared toward the right set of keywords so they rank well in image search results. Even if they are just pinning your image just because, you still might win out if one of their followers likes it enough to click and buy it!

Last but not least, you can add the Pin It button to your website so people can pin your images easier. Configure the code for the button on the Pinterest Goodies page.

Have you seen good results from Pinterest, whether it is traffic from your own profile & pins or from another user’s boards? What other Pinterest tips to you have? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

Image credit: Starting with the Vision Board.

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