Search engines such as Google sometimes change their algorithms which are used to determine the ranking of each web page in search results. Sometimes, these changes are very minor and go largely unnoticed. Sometimes, they create waves in the entire online marketing and webmaster world. Many are now asking themselves this: how can I keep up with all these changes that search engines make? The answers are actually quite simple. There are a few things that you need to be doing which will increase the chances that your website will not be affected in any major way by any changes that the search engines make to their algorithms. Here are some of these tried and true methods:

• Avoid Black Hat SEO If You Want Long Term Results

Well, the goal of this article is not a debate on ethics or whether using black hat SEO tactics is “evil” or not. Let’s simply stick to looking at the facts: if you want long term results, then black hat SEO methods are not your friend. Basically, black hat SEO involves finding loopholes and ways to game the system so that a website rises in rankings rapidly. This might be something desirable if you are launching a temporary website that will only be making you money for a few weeks and you don’t care about what happens after. But if you want to build a long term online business, then these tactics are to be avoided, since you will get slapped down by search engines eventually.

• Make Your Site Easy to Navigate

Both search engines and human visitors love a site that is well structured and has an easy navigation. Therefore, create simple menus that will lead your visitors to different areas of your website that they would want to see. Also, it is a good idea to create a site map and include a small link to it at the bottom. True, most visitors will not use it. In fact, it has been almost 10 years since I last looked at a site map when I was visiting a website. However, most experts on SEO would agree that including one would increase the chances on getting a good ranking with search engines. There are many software programs as well as scripts available which can create one automatically for you. Since it takes very little effort on your part, this is not a step that you should neglect if you care about your website‘s position in search engines.

These are some of the two basic ways that you can employ to keep your website ranking high in search engines, or to help it move up in rankings if that is your goal. Their advantages is that they will work, no matter what changes search engines bring to their website ranking and scoring algorithms. Tomorrow, we will explore some additional ways that webmasters can employ to control their websites search engine ranking, consisting of both on page and off page factors which have been tried and tested ever since search engines came into existence.

Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook can be a great marketing tool if you know how to use them the right way. They can also be an incredible source of valuable information if you know what to look for. Social media sites can teach you a lot about your target audience, and their needs and wants.

Search

Take the time to do a series of searches related to your niche on social media every week. Pick a set of terms, or phrases that relate directly to what you’re doing, and search them on social media. The results will contain people talking about your niche, and what’s going on in it. If you take the time to read through some of those results, you’ll get two things out of  it. First, you’ll get new friends and followers. By taking the time to connect with the people you find through these searches, you’re gaining high quality friends and followers. Second, you’re gaining valuable information about what people in your niche are talking about. The more you know about their interests, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

Polls

Set up a poll on your website that asks questions about your customers, and their wants and needs, and what they think of your products. Use social media to spread that poll around to your friends and followers. If you’ve been using social media the right way, and interacting with them on a regular basis, they’ll most likely leap at the chance to give you feedback. If you don’t get the response you’re hoping for right off the bat, create a contest around the poll, and offer one lucky poll taker a prize.

Questions

If you want to know something about your customers, just ask. By asking questions on social media sites, you’re achieving two different things. First, you’re interacting with your friends and followers in a meaningful way. Second, if they’re answering your questions, you’re learning about them and their needs at the same time.

By spending some time with social media, you can turn it into a valuable market research tool. The more you can learn about your customers, the better equipped you’ll be to sell your products to them.

If you read this site, you probably already know you can use Twitter to promote your website. What you might not know is that it can also be a valuable market research tool. Twitter can help you learn a lot about your audience, and their opinions about your products.

Solicited Feedback

If you have a large number of followers that are interested in your products, poll them whenever you want some feedback about a feature. Just ask your users a question, and wait for some responses. If you don’t get any responses right away, ask again later. The responses to your questions will give you some idea of the overall attitude of your customers toward your products.

Unsolicited Feedback

If your followers care about your products, they’ll @reply you and let you know what they think of your stuff. Take that criticism to heart. Unsolicited feedback is the most honest feedback you’ll ever get. Unsolicited feedback comes from customers that genuinely care about your products. If you get a lot of positive feedback about a product, try to apply the best features of that product to other products. If you get a lot of negative feedback about a product, try to improve the features your users didn’t care for before launching another product in the same line.

Search Results

Even if they’re not addressing their comments your users might still be talking about your products. Once a week, do a Twitter search for your products, and your company name. Keep an eye on what people are saying about you in the search results, and you can get a good idea of how people feel about your company and your products. You can also use the search results to get an understanding of what topics your niche is interested in.

Twitter is an extremely useful tool for marketing your site, and your products, but it’s just as useful in developing your marketing strategies. Pay attention to your user’s feedback, and keep up on your niche’s interests by doing frequent searches, and you will be able to keep evolving your marketing strategies in a profitable direction.