Here in Chicago, it’s raining links and blogs. (SEO joke. Sorry.) In our last blog post, we discussed being proactive and original with your SEO campaigns, wowing potential customers with your freestyle, outside the box thinking. But, today I don’t feel like it. With the dreariness of a long Chicago winter ahead, and days like this, here is a list of five SEO strategies that can pass the time and still help you market your business.

Link Building – This is one of our premier SEO services for our clients. It’s the strategy (art) of connecting with relevant sites and having them link back to your site because you have something important to share; like an idea, product, or service. Link Building is my #1 favorite lazy day SEO activity. I turn on a movie or play a few albums, and just plug away at the computer. Most of link building is research, and reaching out to websites. It takes a while, but it is the backbone of search engine optimization. Plus, you can get in the zone and make a lot of progress when not distracted with the dreary outside world.

Blog Writing – Considering our last post, you can look for inspiration in anything to promote your website with a new blog post. A grey day is no exception (re: this post). Grab a hot beverage and just write. Try to keep it loose and comfortable. Come up with a few topics you haven’t blogged about in a while, and give a few reminders and updates to your readers.

Social Media Promotions – From a marketing standpoint, this is a slam dunk for local businesses that are social media savvy. In order to get a few extra followers, likes, and shares; target the people nearby passing the rainy day blues in front of their computers. Offer a promotion that will warm them up a bit. For example, “Rainy Day Special – The first five people to repost this on their wall receive two free movie passes, Starbucks Giftcard, etc”. If you’re running a restaurant or local service, you can give away a little something to get people to call you, as well as promote your company online. (I know this is skirting a fine line between being creative and proactive…I’ll fix that)

Organize Your Monthly Schedule – Don’t do today what you can put off tomorrow. While this seems like the ultimate lazy brush off, it can actually be quite helpful. Take a look at what needs to get done for the month in your marketing campaign. Go to your calendar; mark your time for link building, social media updates, blog posts, and more. Get organized, and it will help you when you feel like be more proactive on the next sunny day. I’d actually recommend doing this once and a while anyway, but why not on a day with nasty weather?

Website Maintenance – This is another thing you should do every once in a while anyway, but it can be tedious, so better to get it done without the allure of the great outdoors (of Chicago). Go through the back end of your site, and make sure everything is working properly. Make sure each link on your site is working, that your 404 page is in order, and update your content with some fresh, keyword rich text.

These tips should help maintain your valiant SEO efforts while keeping your occupied mind off of the rain, sleet, and hail of the longest season. Happy internet marketing!

Guest Bloggers wanted! Evolving Interactive is now accepting guest blog posts. To submit your post, check out our new resource for guest bloggers. It has suggested topics, posting guidelines, and instructions on how to get your story posted as quickly as possible.

In return, Evolving Interactive will link directly to your site or your blog on every post that you submit, as well as promoting it. So head to the Guest Blogger page and get started on your post today.

According to Local SEO expert Mike Blumenthal, Google is quietly adding a new feature to the places page that will show current events for specific venues; like theaters, concert halls, museums, and more. For these venue owners, it allows another useful step in optimizing the local page, providing more specific information and search terms. And for the searcher, this new places addition provides a more social experience to their search.  Starting in major cities, this feature will allow searchers to find their venue, add the date of the concert, opening, gala, etc. directly to their Google Calendar. From there, users can then notify and invite friends about the event.

Though this isn’t a mind-blowing update, it does represent another step in the direction of Google closing the gap between the search and the social. Less than one month ago, Google unveiled the +1 feature, citing that relevance (one half of the goal of their elusive algorithm) is about as much about the relationships as the content on web pages. This +1 feature appears next to results on the SERP, and searchers only need click once on the tiny tab to give their virtual thumbs up that the result is relevant and worth checking out. These kudos will start to show up to other people searching for the same thing. The idea is that you’ll see your friends, family, and those with opinions you generally respect (those with Google accounts anyway) pop up next to the result you’re searching for, and their approval will inspire you to check it out.

Also this month, and perhaps a bit more mind-blowing is Google’s take on the take-on of social consumerism, a la Groupon and Living Social. About a week ago, Google began a preliminary release of Google offers in a few select cities, promising future bargains of 50% off or more from local vendors, restaurants. These offers will be distributed by email as well. Given the success Groupon has had from a networking perspective with its daily deals, it’s no surprise Google has found its own style and flair for its own daily deals. While Google may not have been the first to come up with any of these concepts, it’s constant overhaul of “what’s working” and “what isn’t” could make Google the life of the social searching party, even if it is a little late.

Evolving Interactive is a Chicago SEO firm, specializing in SEO, Local Optimization, and PPC campaign management.

So you’ve got a web home (your website) and have worked hard on making it SEO friendly. But you still need a boost in the online buzz department. Here’s a few easy, 30-minute or less tips to get you started.

Write a blog post
Websites used to be a home page and a series of jump and landing pages. They were an interconnected loop of relevant information that led to a specific result (usually a sale). Blogging has changed that; since you update it regularly (right?), you are constantly feeding the search engines new keywords giving them reason to rank you higher and give you more buzz.

Post a video on YouTube
Video is probably the quickest way to reach a broad audience, and YouTube is the biggest channel to broadcast it on. Popular videos are two things: engaging and informative. You want to give your viewer valuable information without putting them to sleep.

So play to your strengths. If you’re funny, be funny. If you love sports, slip a few references in there of your favorite team. Don’t shy away from who you are because you want sound a certain way. Authenticity is king on the web; be who you are and people will respond.

Tweet tweet with Twitter
A “real time” results scroll pops up with every Google search. Tweeting is now a two-fold activity; you talk to your follows while also building some up-to-the-second Google buzz. Update Facebook, too. If you can get a buzz going on both sites, the rest of the web is soon to catch on.