25 Jun 10 Online Reputation Management

One of the hottest SEO services in 2010 is online reputation and brand management.  In this “information age” we are living in, managing your reputation online is more important than ever.  Did you know that people are searching for your name on Google all the time?  Other search engines, like Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com are being used as a tool to examine your reputation online.  Don’t forget the social media networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Word travels fast with social network media and they have search engines integrated into their systems. 

Search Engine Optimization is an Effective Tool for Online Reputation Management   

A recent Microsoft survey, “Online Reputation Management is essential in a connected world,” stated that 78% of recruiters are using search engines and 63% are using social networks, to conduct background checks on candidates.  As an employer myself, I’ve received a lot of internship applications from students who are just plain careless about their online reputation.  For employers the world wide web is considered a global talent pool because anyone in the world can have a presence online. Image is very important for business and if you are serious about maximizing opportunities then you must manage your reputation online. 

Get Control and Manage Your Online Reputation 

Set up a Website – Purchase your domain name. For less than $10 a year, you may be able to use name as a domain name. This will give you an edge to protect yourself from others who may share the same name as you. If your name isn’t available, then use your middle initial, your full middle name, or a shortened version of your name.  After buying a domain name, you should have a company like Smart Search Strategies create a website that promotes your name or business.  Utilize this website as an opportunity to feature your career highlights or business niches.  You can’t risk your reputation, because if you take a pro-active approach you will be able to control your image and reputation online. 

Publish a Blog - Another method that Bryan Dornan’s SEO team recommends is have a professional blog created in an effort to promote your business and add credibility to your name.  The search engines bots typically recognize the weblog as being associated with your business or name and often rank you site favorably. 

Social Media Marketing - Promote your business or name on social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google. Just like your website and blog, these are significant opportunities that can benefit you and your ability to succeed with internet reputation management.  The Wall Street Journal recommends to visit Facebook.com and to set up the appropriate usernames to claim your short URL. For LinkedIn, create a custom URL when editing your profile. For Twitter, just register your full name as your account name. Finally, for Google, go to Google.com/profiles and fill out your profile completely, because the most thorough profiles for each full name will appear at the bottom of the Google search results. 

Publish Articles Online – Contribute content to other sites. By writing an article you can build credibility and benefit from having another link indexed that comes up on a search when someone is querying your business or name. 

Become an Online Authority - If you share expertise on the internet, locate bloggers and traditional journalists online and build relationships with them. Comment on their blogs or articles for a few weeks and then send them a note with resources, tips, or even your story. 

We recommend being proactive managing your reputation online.  It is much better for people to see positive results show up when they Google your name.  Please complete this quick request form and get a no cost evaluation for online reputation management.  – content sources:  Wall Street Journal, Google and Twitter

Tags: brand management, online repuation management

22 Jun 10 Searching for the Right SEO Company

Nationwide Marketing posted an interesting article on finding the best SEO company. They talked about how times have changed marketing online and that SEO  is much more comphrehensive today than it was, say 10 years ago. 

Choose the SEO Company that Best Meets Your Business Needs

Today raising your website ranking to the first page of Google, Bing or Yahoo has become challenging.  There are several types of internet marketing that you should know about.

• Organic Search Engine Optimization  – Natural search engine placement
• Paid Search Engine Marketing – Pay-Per- Click and Paid Inclusion

Nationwide is a San Diego SEO company that was founded by Bryan Dornan in 2002.  Read the original Nationwide Marketing article online at > Choosing the Best SEO Company to Market Your Business Online

Tags: Organic Search Engine Optimization

08 Jun 10 Article Marketing and the Highs and Lows of SEO

Someone asked me the other day about the value or de-value of article marketing.  This person was frustrated because all of the articles they posted had very little if any on their search engine rankings.  Let’s be honest…organic search marketing can be a tiring process that has its highs and lows.  Even people like me who are very passionate about search engine optimization get tired when we hit walls optimizing.  Many A few years ago article marketing was hot topic for the SEO world.  After a while the search engines caught on to the aggressive internet marketing that SEO operatives were using and it seemed that at least Google was not valuing the links as high anymore. 

As a publisher and SEO specialist I have always valued content and posting articles online.  Posting articles on article directory sites, blogs and websites creates a new opportunity to promote websites and brand companies.  To me, the recent Google May Day algorithm update reiterated that search engines are committed to driving traffic to relevant authority websites.   I noticed that websites I’m working that were negatively affected by the Google May Day update were my sites that had little or poor content.   Most of the other websites saw the traffic volumes remain steady and some websites have even experieiced a pleasant rise in rankings. 

Article marketing requires good planning and a pragmatic plan with a committment for fresh and insightful content in an effort to maximize search engine rankings.  I believe that writing compelling content will enhance most SEO campaigns and separate the performance of websites.   Search engine algorithm changes can be an SEO specialists worst nightmare, but on the flip-side it can be an exciting ride offering the rewards of higher rankings as well.   – Bryan Dornan

Tags: article marketing, Google May Day, organic search marketing

22 Mar 10 Organic Search Engine Optimization Converts Better than PPC

Organic SEO should be the bread and butter of internet marketing campaigns for most businesses.  It was interesting to learn that more than 8 out of 10 online users go to search engines to find information and the products or services they want to buy. 

• Up to 85% of consumers searching ignore paid listings
• 63% of the top natural organic search listings receive click through rates
• Natural organic search engine results convert 30% higher than Pay-Per-Click