Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the natural and unpaid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results (as opposed to SEM is which paid advertising on search engines).
In general, the relevance and popularity of a website determines its ranking on the Web.
SEO is the process of improving websites based on how search engines work and what most people search for. Optimizing a website involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Search engine optimization is also about removing unrelated or outdated content, broken links, organizing information and cleaning up messy web codes so that search engines like Google and Yahoo are able to "crawl" web pages more effectively.
Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO technique.
As information is propagated real-time in this new era, content on websites have to be regularly updated as well to ensure that they are timely and correct. The use of social media and networks to help promote websites is also one aspect of search engine optimization.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Is Social Media Overhyped?
More and more companies are using social media to help with building presence online.
Indeed, public relations have to be managed and with the advent of the Internet, more people are joining online communities to make themselves heard. However, social media is still in its infancy and there seems not to be any clear indication of their impact on organizations in the long run.
Needless to say, this presents boundless opportunities for organizations. It is also much easier to track and monitor trends online using tools such as MyBuzzMonitor, Google Rankings, BlogPulse and Technorati. In fact, these are probably the newer generation of web trends' monitoring tools. All the above-mentioned are free monitoring tools, however, there are also paid subscription services such as Radian6 and Meltwater Buzz.
You can read reviews on some of the tools here
Social media tools like blogs, social networks such as Facebook, microblogging services, social bookmarks are still a way of informal communications and not suited for all organizations. Professions such as doctors (or those in medical sector) and lawyers might not find using social media useful and sometimes it might even backfire. For many other industries such as those in construction, engineering and sciences, social media is still something that has yet been proven to work (bringing about a more professional image, branding, reputation). And until technologies becomes even more pervasive, many of these industries might just steer clear from social media altogether.
Indeed, public relations have to be managed and with the advent of the Internet, more people are joining online communities to make themselves heard. However, social media is still in its infancy and there seems not to be any clear indication of their impact on organizations in the long run.
Needless to say, this presents boundless opportunities for organizations. It is also much easier to track and monitor trends online using tools such as MyBuzzMonitor, Google Rankings, BlogPulse and Technorati. In fact, these are probably the newer generation of web trends' monitoring tools. All the above-mentioned are free monitoring tools, however, there are also paid subscription services such as Radian6 and Meltwater Buzz.
You can read reviews on some of the tools here
Social media tools like blogs, social networks such as Facebook, microblogging services, social bookmarks are still a way of informal communications and not suited for all organizations. Professions such as doctors (or those in medical sector) and lawyers might not find using social media useful and sometimes it might even backfire. For many other industries such as those in construction, engineering and sciences, social media is still something that has yet been proven to work (bringing about a more professional image, branding, reputation). And until technologies becomes even more pervasive, many of these industries might just steer clear from social media altogether.
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