Recently, SEO and Social Media Specialist Andrew Schiller had his article published on SiteProNews that discusses how to use Search Engine Optimization and Social Media strategies to build brand authority online.

A web site may be at a point where it has lots of usable and compelling content; however, it isn’t always enough to gain new readers and revenue. It could be time to build a link strategy to boost your brand authority and site ranking. The way to begin is by making partnerships, starting conversations and trading links so more webmasters know who you are.

How is this beneficial? The majority of computers and much of the media are now social, so it’s time for you to break out of your bubble.

Getting your site optimized can be time consuming and often you won’t see the results of the labor for a few weeks, if not months. A site that ranks well is the outcome of shrewd planning and lots of effort with few shortcuts. You have to make good decisions early in the process to gain a good amount of momentum. Basic SEO strategy is a lengthy process, and you can find out smart ways to begin here.

Similarly, incorporating social media into the public face of your business is a long process that will take time to reach its potential. Success in social media relies on cooperation and engagement with your clients and customers.

Where is a good place to begin? Inbound Links.

Inbound links are widely regarded as a necessity for high ranking in the search engine listings. Search engines view links to web sites as a vote in favor of their importance. If popular sites like your site, then search engines like your site. It resembles how high school cliques are formed. What this means is the more authoritative a site, the more powerful their link seems to search engines. If the link goes to your site, then search engines think your site also holds part of that authority. The authority of a site is gauged by its page rank (PR). This is a standard 1 to 10 scale Google assigns to pages based on hundreds of qualifications, 10 being the highest rank with most authority.

Part of best practices in building page rank and authority is submitting links to directories and sites that point back to your site. But don’t waste much time sending tons of random links out to directories with very low PR. Your time is better spent sending a few well-optimized links to popular sites that share context with content on your site.

Other important aspects of in-bound links are:

• Don’t do too much too fast. The rate of increase for incoming links should never be more than 20% per month. If too many inbound links pop up at once, search engines get nervous and your authority may suffer.
• The links should contain phrase-rich descriptors (page descriptions, alt tags for photo links, and/or your business name). The link structures should vary from site to site – they don’t have to be wildly different, just dissimilar.
• Avoid lots of effort (but not all) directed at link building on sites that feature a “no follow” rule for back links. This eliminates most SEO value to your link. You can see which sites do this by investigating the source code, and no-follow commands are usually within a javascript applet.
• Media can be a powerful tool in building both traffic and PR for your website if you adhere to a few rules. More about that later.

To read this article in its entirety, click here.

Related Posts:

• Tweet Optimization
• Big List of Social Media Sites
• NICOLE WAGNER TO SPEAK AT SOCIAL MEDIA SUMMIT FEBRUARY 23RD IN ALSIP
• The End of Link Building as We’ve Known and Loved it
• Finding Topics for Your Business Blog – The Ultimate Cheat Sheet

Stevens & Tate Marketing, a full-service advertising agency, developed The Daily Twitch to consolidate and provide useful information surrounding advertising and marketing. We are devoted to serving content useful to an array of industries including B2B, Hospitality, Real Estate, Education, Senior Living, Food, Packaging and Retail.

We encourage you to view our work on the S&T website in the following categories:

B2B Advertising
Food Retail Advertising
Healthcare Advertising
Real Estate Advertising
Senior Living Advertising
Hospitality Advertising