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SEO and Social Media Specialists Identified as Hot Tech Jobs for 2013

Recruitment firms Robert Half Technology and The Creative Group have released 2013 Salary Guides this month that identify SEO/SEM specialists and social media specialists as two of the hottest technology jobs for 2013. Both positions offer strong starting salaries in both the U.S. and Canada, with income ranges that have increased in the past 12 months due to continual high demand for experienced candidates. According to The Creative Group, the growth of online, mobile and social media content has created strong demand for professionals with a range of interactive skills, including user experience designers, mobile developers and online community managers. Marketing professionals with experience using social media measurement and client relationship management tools, for example, are highly sought after. Consumers’ appetite for targeted, up-to-date and easy-to-digest news, information and entertainment seems to grow every day. Organizations need professionals who can create, curate, manage, distribute and optimize content using a variety of channels, including social media. Demand is particularly high for copywriters, proofreaders and content managers with Web expertise

What 2012 Taught Me about Search

2012 has arguably been a more eventful year for Google than the past few years combined. I should know – I write about this stuff. All year long, I read more news about the search giant than my brain could reasonably handle. Needless to say, I was never short on good material. However, I don’t just write about this stuff – I do it. I’m a webmaster of multiple domains and I follow the SEO scene closely, so I voraciously consumed every bit of search news I could get my hands on. After all, I needed material, but I wanted to learn for my own sites, too. And boy did I learn. Google’s morphed into a completely different animal than it was just one year prior.

5 Ways To Protect Your Website from Future Google Updates — A SPN Exclusive Article

With the recent Penguin update that came down a few weeks ago from Google, a lot of site owners are wondering what they can do to recover from a search engine penalty. We know that Penguin was designed to target webspam tactics (Panda was more about content quality), and while glaring black hat tactics like keyword stuffing are easy to spot and fix, it’s not always as simple to find the gray hat SEO tactics that might be contributing (or will with subsequent updates) to a search engine penalty. Many DIY SEO site owners run afoul of the Google Webmaster Guidelines simply because they don’t realize they are doing anything wrong. If your site has managed to escape unscathed by a Google update so far, don’t assume that you’re free and clear forever. Each search engine update gets a little better at catching and flagging sites that are in violation of the Webmaster Guidelines. Before you find yourself in emergency mode because your organic traffic was cut in half due to a penalty, here are 5 things every site owner can do to protect their website and ensure that future updates will only help their site perform better in the search engines: 1. Forget About Keyword Density There is no “right” number of times you should use a keyword in any given piece of content. Forget every piece of advice you’ve ever heard about keyword density (2%, 6%, use each keyword at least three times!) and just focus on writing great content

Your Most Common SEO Questions Answered

Today I browsed through the 3,500 or so SEO questions people asked at Google and chose the most common ones to answer. I figured that, if so many people were seeking out answers for these SEO questions at Google, many of you may also be wondering the same things. Unsurprisingly, many questions were along the line of “How do I get my site found in Google?” (Answer: Read everything the High Rankings website!) And sadly, there were tons of questions about Meta keywords , as if they had anything to do with SEO. But there were lots of specific questions that you may also have wondered about recently, from very basic things that we in the biz assume everyone already knows to what’s happening right now with Google’s latest algorithm changes. (I’m starting out with the more tricky technical ones. If those go over your head, please scroll down to the “On-page SEO Question” section.) Let’s dig right in… Technical Google Questions Q. Can I recover from Google’s “Penguin Update”

SEO Siege: How to WhiteWash Your Competitors — A SEO-News Exclusive Article

Search Engine Optimization is the vehicle that’s going to bring people to your websites. Without getting to the top of Google and other search engines, you’re not going to get close to reaching the amount of traffic you need to earn revenue from your websites. Getting to #1 in Google isn’t that hard when armed with the right information. In this article you’ll discover exactly what Google and the other major search engines want from their top ranking websites, and exactly how to give it to them. Advanced SEO Tactics In this section, I’m going to talk about a few advanced techniques that I use to move up the Google rankings on more competitive keyword terms.

SEO Tips for E-commerce Sites

Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t easy for any website, and e-commerce sites have some unique SEO challenges to overcome. These tips will help you tackle your e-commerce site’s SEO so you can rank higher in search engine results and get more visitors, customers and sales for your online store. 1. Create Unique Content on Each of Your Product and Product Category Pages Interesting, unique content tells Google a page is valuable, and helps it rank higher.

Google’s First Page… Guaranteed! – A SPN Exclusive Article

A couple of weeks ago, I visited one of the Internet Marketing/Small Business forums that I’m a member of, and noticed a new member had posted a typical newbie question in the SEO forum. The member wanted to know how she could be guaranteed to get her website on the first page of Google. As usual, members came crawling out of the woodwork with advice – including members who didn’t even own a website. Unfortunately, that’s pretty typical on Internet Marketing/Small Business forums… members who don’t own a website instructing other members how to get on the first page of Google… members who don’t own a business dispensing business advice. So be careful where you get your advice from… but I digress. Not surprisingly, not a single member responded with the correct answer. And what is the correct answer? The correct answer is there is NO magic bullet that will assure a first page ranking on Google. Never has been, never will be.

How To Measure The Return On Investment For Social Media In Marketing

“ROI on Social Media? What bloody ROI?” It’s only the first week of January 2012 and already I’m hearing the same refrain as 2011! “How do we calculate the ROI on social media in marketing?” When you begin using social media in your marketing strategy or as a stand alone campaign, it is hard to determine how those numbers of followers and ‘likers’ stack up against delivery of a return on investment. We have clients who ask us this regularly so here’s some clarity for you. Measuring social media ROI is very difficult for a few reasons. The first is that it is very hard to use social media trackers for individual sales and the second is that social media is not a direct sales channel, it’s a relationship marketing tool.

5 Common SEO Myths Explained

SEO, which stands for search engine optimization, can be difficult to understand if you are not familiar with it. Unfortunately many things you read about SEO on the internet are not always true. There are a lot of myths and misconceptions floating around the net and they can sometimes be hard to confirm or debunk because of the ever changing techniques and the complexities of the search engines. Some of the most common SEO myths are listed below and with it, the information to expose the truth so you can concentrate on real SEO methods to improve your site rankings and increase your traffic.

Social Media Marketing – The Reality Does Not Need To Hurt

Why believe an advertisement if you have the advantage of social media? Might you have confidence in an advertisement over your pals suggestions and critiques? Naturally you wouldn’t! Therefore, I believe Social media marketing stands out as the most sincere form of marketing for your enterprise. Let’s address some important issues for your company: 1. Do you know what folks are saying about your business on Social media web sites? Every day I log into Facebook and Twitter and take a peek at what my buddies and friends are saying. It is not uncommon for my pals to write-up critiques, positives, negatives and feedback regarding an experience with a nearby business