Gears have shifted within the last year, and the name of the SEO game is content. What are all of the ways we can generate useful or interesting content for potential customers, followers, friends, etc. Today in our Effective SEO update, we talk about Pinterest. Specifically, we talk about the value of adding video to your Pinterest board and how creating a diverse and engaging board can lead to more interactions with the people following you.

Many people that use Pinterest don’t even know that they can pin videos to their boards and believe it or not videos can be one of the most effective way to get other Pinterest users to see and share your content. Most of the people that browse on Pinterest do so while doing other things. Social media users are generally considered passive users for that reason, and it takes a lot to keep their attention. Videos are an excellent way to do this. By creating video pinboards, you’re more likely to hold a user’s attention for more than just a minute or two. Once a user likes your content and spends more than a few minutes with it, they’ll be more likely to click through to your site or share your content with other like-minded individuals.

Pinning Videos to Existing Boards

If you’re already using Pinterest and have created boards that you add to on a regular basis, consider adding a video the next time you want to add content to a board. Videos can attract people that already have an interest in your content or a specific board to come back and look at your content again. In some cases, you may find that people who have already commented on your boards or shared them will do so again if you add video content.

Picking Video Content to Pin to Existing Boards

While the video content you add doesn’t have to be yours, it should of course be related to the board that you’re pinning it on however, the video content you add to an existing pinboard really doesn’t have to have a ton of value. That means that if you have a pinboard about “How to take care of Dachshund’s”, for example, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with adding a short YouTube video of dachshund puppies playing in the park or running after a ball. That video doesn’t really contribute anything to the quality of your content, but it doesn’t take away from your real quality information, either. In fact, pinning a video could get more people to check out the quality content on the rest of the board. After all, who doesn’t want to watch cute puppies playing in the park or chasing after a ball on a summer day? People that do watch your video may share your other content and check out your other boards as well.

Creating Pinboards Exclusively for Videos

Adding video to your existing pin boards isn’t the only option when it comes to putting video content on Pinterest. While that may be helpful for some Pinterest users, others may find that making a new pin board or two exclusively for certain types of videos will be best for them. For example, a pin board dedicated exclusively to funny viral videos may be a big hit, and on that particular board, there’s really no room for anything except video content. Pinboards created exclusively for video can hold a Pinterest user’s attention for a much longer period of time than a simple photo pin board – no matter how elaborate that photo pin board is. Users that are looking at videos are also much more engaged because they require them to look and listen.

When a user is watching one of your videos, they’re actively engaging with your content. When a user is just looking at a photo, they could be doing a hundred other things at the same time. In fact, many passive users of Pinterest probably watch television, listen to music or talk with friends or family members at the same time. Even if you create memorable content, a user that isn’t fully engaged is likely to forget about it as soon as they open up a new tab in the browser or turn their computer off.

Make Sure Your Video Content is Enticing

The video content you pin to your boards should have something about it, at least to your target audience, which makes it nearly irresistible. Cute puppies for pet lovers, beautifully decorated cakes for foodies – the content doesn’t matter as long as you know there are people out there that simply can’t resist clicking it. By creating content that’s immediately enticing to people you’ll get a lot more likes and repins.

Today’s guest post in Effective SEO comes to us from frequent contributor Marcela De Vivo. Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer in the L.A. area. She’s written hundreds of articles ranging on topics from optimizing SEO to designing safe spaces for children.

Interested in writing for the Evolving Interactive Guest Blog? Check out the details and contact us at the Guest Blog page.

Social media has become an important part of pretty much all businesses, including traditional brick and mortar businesses and online businesses. However, social media has become increasingly important for people that work in SEO, since social media is being used differently by many companies to find their target audience.

Individuals that work in SEO have also seen major changes that have likely affected the way that they work, giving them even more incentive to utilize social media as an outlet for creating and getting work.

Google Algorithm Updates

Google Panda and subsequent updates have had a major impact on people that work in SEO. Recent changes to Google Penguin and Panda have been put in place to penalize companies and individuals that produce fast, low-quality content just to fit in keywords that are popular in searches and on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Many major sites labeled as content mills – sites that employed writers to write on a variety of topics based on a particular keyword – were penalized the most. However, these algorithm updates also affected bloggers and people that make their living doing SEO work for private companies.

Local SEO

Local SEO has become more and more important since Google changed its algorithm, and it has become very popular with many businesses because it allows them to find only clients or customers in their area that fit their criteria. That means more focused marketing, which can result in more business at a reduced cost for many businesses. Many businesses use SEO writers to create local content for their Facebook, Twitter or Google+ pages to help them attract clients.

While writing for social media isn’t that much different than writing for a blog, understanding what works best on sites like Facebook and Twitter – which has a letter counter restriction – can help you do your best work.

Social Media Affects Ranking

After Google algorithm changes, social media rankings have become more and more important to businesses and writers that use SEO to drive traffic to their blog or website. This is because Google put more importance on organic links and mentions of a certain keyword or brand than on many other websites. The more people are talking about your product or business on social media sites like Google+ and Facebook, the higher your ranking will be. That’s why writing for social media sites has become so popular among SEO content producers.

Social media numbers should also be viewed in conjunction with more traditional page rankings and backlinks.

Apps Are Your Friend

Apps designed to help you create quality posts for social media sites like HootSuite also allow you to monitor how your post is doing and how many people are looking at and sharing your information.

HootSuite also allows you to publish your content across various networks in a safe, secure manner that is very user friendly for most SEO content creators.

Another app that’s popular among SEO content producers is BufferApp, which allows you to create posts in advance and share them on social media sites throughout the day. BufferApp also works with your email provider so that you can share updates through your e-mail system if you’re on the go. While there are certain restrictions with BufferApp about how many posts you can create in advance, most people won’t ever reach the limit, making it a very efficient tool.

Pingraphy works sort of like BufferApp, but it’s designed for both business and personal users of Pinterest. Pingraphy allows you to disperse your pins throughout the day so that you don’t bombard your followers all at once. Using Pingraphy also allows you to post during peak hours when you know your followers will be ready to look at the items that you’re posting.

If you’re doing SEO content work on social media sites, these useful apps can make it much easier to share what you want to share, when you want to share it. They can also help you to reach more of your target audience by allowing you to create more content. Using apps also means that you don’t have to sit at your desk all day updating Twitter and Facebook.

Today’s Guest Blog Post courtesy of Marcela De Vivo:

Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer in the Los Angeles area, specializing in articles about the best blog content, SEO, and moving blogs to WordPress.

Last week, Google announced that its new Social Network platform, Google Plus, will now effect search results.  The buzz spread like wildfire across the SEO industry. How much of a game changer will this be? Will search engine optimization still matter if search results are now personalized instead of taking the most relevant and trustworthy sites and ranking them accordingly?

It’s no secret that Google’s main goal for the past year has been integrating their new budding social network with their search results. Anyone logged into their Google account with a Google Plus profile will see a different set of results than a searcher not logged in. Google Plus users will have the option of personal or worldwide results. There is an icon at the top right of the SERP that shows a silhouette of a person or a globe, and the Plus user can toggle between the two sets of results.

Clicking on the person icon, the top results for a search will be based on recommendations, or Plus 1’s, that you and the people in your circles have made, or info that others have shared with you. Results with reviews and pluses will have higher ranking then those without. By switching over to the globe, you will see the natural results without these social signals affecting them as directly.

Google has used social signals as a part of their algorithm for years, with personalized results getting a boost.  Twitter follows, Facebook likes and shares, and Yelp reviews have factored in to results; companies have used this buzz to crawl up the rankings. Facebook and Twitter have criticized this change, citing that Google will give preferential treatment to its own social signals, a claim Google has denied.

Other features to Google Plus, like the fact that users must opt-out of the personal search and not opt-in, have led to concerns among users and SEO’s. However, it is easy enough to switch the results back to the global, impersonalized results. There is even a way to permanently remove the personalized results in the search settings. Concerns about privacy are also prevalent, as anyone with access to private information can share it publicly. It is ultimately up to the user who they share info with, but the receiver can post it at their whim, so know your circles. As with anything on the internet, it’s a good rule of thumb that if you wouldn’t want your content on the web, don’t upload it to begin with.

As Google Plus fixes the issues and bugs that are inevitable as it gains in popularity, it will be important to make the most of its features. As the social signals for sites that have “Plus 1’s” will affect their rankings, it will be essential to have your customers, friends, and followers take the time to “Plus 1” your website. While there are already business profiles in Google Plus, expect them to take an even bigger role in the coming year. Add your business and website to the Google Plus universe, and interact with as many people as you can. While you will undoubtedly hear a fair amount of back and forth criticism as this new platform gains traction, the fact is this is a product of Google, the search engine that typically dwarfs all competition. Even if it is never as popular as Facebook or Twitter, it will have an impact on your rankings, so you’ll want to get on board.

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It is cliché, sure, but we’re about to start a new year, and there really is no easier time to set some new SEO goals for your website. You have 12 months and 4 quarters in front of you to track growth and get into a groove of building your business online. Here are a few tips Evolving Interactive recommends for staying ahead of the search engine marketing game in 2012.

1. Keep up with changes – One of the most valuable tools for me this year has been subscribing and checking in daily with Google’s Small Business blog. In 2011, we’ve had the Panda update, the launch of Google +, a push to develop local businesses, and much more. Subscribe and check in daily to learn about the latest changes that Google is making to (hopefully) make life easier on small businesses.

2. Monthly Brainstorming – Make SEO a priority. Obviously, it’s important. As you look at monthly numbers and reports, think about where you want to improve, and set a few goals in place to get you there (or on the right track) by the start of next month. For example, if you’re seeing growth with a few keywords but are stagnant with others, focus your strategies on some new keywords. It’s going to be more valuable if you’re on top for a wide range of terms. Expand the conversation to include others on your team. Maybe some unconventional ideas will be the shot in the arm you need.

3. Monitor your growth – Think of your most important keyword terms. When you type them into a search engine search bar, what do you see on the results? Are you on the first page? Do some research to figure out how you’re ranking at the start of the new year. There are several tools out there that can help you do this. It’s a good idea to check in with the rankings every month or so to see if you are improving or not. A steady drop in rankings may mean your website has other problems, like broken links or missing pages. Of course, moving up means you’re doing something correctly. Part of the initial consultation we offer at Evolving Interactive is a ranking report for the keywords you pick and we recommend.  If you’d like to know more about SEO rankings and how it affects your business, contact us for a free consultation to get you started in 2012.

And since we’re already on the subject of the new year, all of us at Evolving Interactive want to thank you for keeping up with us at the Evolving Interactive Blog this year. We appreciate your guest blog posts, your comments, and your interest. We look forward to writing for (and with) you in 2012. Happy New Year!

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The plus side to working in the ever changing internet marketing business is the ability to try new things. Sure, there are tried and true methods and strategies in SEO. Finding valuable links, submitting press releases, keeping up with your blog; these are just a few proven tactics. But there are other, more unorthodox methods of attracting the search engines, which can attract the masses (and isn’t that the real goal?)

Whether you are an SEO or a small business owner going the DIY route, you shouldn’t be afraid to try new methods. With some experience, you should be a good enough judge as to whether a tactic would be white or black hat, and frowned upon by the engines. Plus, I’m not talking about going out and buying up a whole bunch of links. I’m talking about brainstorming new ideas that go beyond the concept of traditional internet marketing.

For example, Evolving Interactive wanted to get the word out about our successes as a leading Chicago SEO firm. We wanted our friends, their friends, and more to hear about our services, and how we help small businesses get to the top of the search engine rankings. After writing the informational blog post, sending out a press release, and commenting on some trending stories; we decided to try something new. One of our multi-talented SEO analysts thought it would be cool to make a stop-motion video highlighting what we do. Here is the result:

This video didn’t go viral and reach the world-wide masses, but it got a handful of Facebook shares, links, and mentions. So maybe a few people unfamiliar with our company are now familiar. We found a new way to market ourselves on the internet, and did it in a way we hoped would catch on because of its fun nature and cool look.

Making an online commercial isn’t re-inventing the wheel, but it’s something we hadn’t tried before. This should be your goal in SEO. Once you know a method works, keep at it, but try new things. If it doesn’t work, drop it and find what does.

Once you have worked on the traditional SEO methods, try to brainstorm some new ideas, and see what that does for your online presence. Think about your customer base and your potential customers. What can you do to catch their eye beyond killer keyword placement?

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