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Facebook & SEO

We had a request on our Facebook feed to talk a bit about SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and in human speak that means getting your website ranked higher on Google. The closer you are to the #1 spot on Google, the better your website will do generally, so most website owners are very interested in this process. The shortest, easiest tip I can give is this:

  • Get other reputable websites to link over to yours. The process is mostly about relationship building, and it can absolutely be worth it.

Since we are currently focused on Facebook, I wanted to list a few ways FB can help you with the SEO process:

  • Facebook clicks and traffic can be very affordable, which makes testing variations of your website very affordable as well. Using Facebook to help you choose your “stickiest” page variant should support SEO efforts at a reasonable cost.
  • ABT, always be testing. Insights you gain on Facebook can easily be ported back over to your website. As a quick example, Meta Descriptions are the bit of text on each listing in a Google results page, and can either help attract more site visitors – or not. Facebook could be used to test and choose between 3 – 5 variant text blurbs for the ideal meta description that will drive more visitors to your site. If you used the method above to pick the “stickiest” design, more of this traffic will hang around.
  • Facebook’s Lead Forms help you collect more email address. Email address help Google AdWords with targeting. AdWords helps SEO in some direct and indirect ways.
  • Facebook can help get additional eyes on your blog content, which would eventually lead to “natural” links from other websites. For example, a “cold outreach” email requesting that I provide a link to another website probably wouldn’t work … but if I found that blog post myself through Facebook, I’d be that much more likely to provide that link. Yet another reason why it’s important to get those likes and increase you reach!
  • Speaking of “cold outreach” to acquire more links to your website, performing this outreach through email is kind of a pain. People have a hair trigger for email spam, and you’re likely to get ignored. Outreach through Facebook can be an effective alternative depending on who you’re going for and how active they are – look for that “message responsiveness” badge on their FB page!
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Return of the Web Guy

The Website Guy returns. It’s been a very busy couple of months since I last checked in! Right off the bat – don’t follow my bad example and keep up with your blog. With that said, it’s a forgivable offense if you’re working on building a following elsewhere, which is exactly what this web guy has been up to. 🙂

One of my primary focuses for building up my budding business is local outreach. I have this silly notion of being the Spiderman Webhead of my home town, Virginia Beach. I want the websites of the businesses in my area to be top notch because I know how much it matters to the economy overall. It’s why anyone from the Hampton Roads area should feel free to reach out with any questions – I’m usually giving away great information for free because I’m motivated to improve the digital presence of our area’s businesses and organizations overall.

To meet my fellow local business entrepreneurs, I have been sampling some of Virginia Beach’s local networking groups. Business Referral Network or BNI has been my primary focus, an international networking group that meets weekly. It has been insanely instructive to step back from the national and international clients to focus on some of the most exciting first steps of a building a small business. There’s a palpable excitement in the air …  it’s electrifying. I’m reminded of why my mother (a real estate agent) liked working with first time home buyers so much – it’s such a huge milestone, and I am honored and humbled to play a role in making small business owners’ dreams a reality. Someone pinch me.

Outside of my local outreach, I’ve been busy working on a “meeting of minds” between my brother and I. He is a “web guy” himself, and recently left his place of employment to brave the wild world of freelancing. We have established a joint venture, “The Website Guys”, and we’re initially focused on helping small to medium sized businesses get the most out of the Facebook platform. Being in the #2 spot behind Google, Facebook’s platform gets more attractive every day as Facebook attempts to close that gap. You’ll find more frequent web guy musings on our page there, though now that we’re through most of the startup tasks I plan on blogging more frequently. Long form content just doesn’t do well natively in Facebook, and I’m a wordy kinda guy 🙂

So in closing, if you haven’t already please like our page and follow along https://www.facebook.com/vbwebsiteguys/ ! Thanks!