The key to making SEO, SEM and local online marketing work lies in content that is not only newsworthy, but makes people want to spread the word about your business. This type of content is what is commonly referred to as link bait.

This means that every time your company introduces a new product or services, it must be promoted on both your website and across social media sites. This is particularly important if your business carries new products from a popular manufacturer, because it allows you to ride the wave of their own publicity.

It has become increasingly apparent that social media impacts local Internet search engine rankings. Combine social media with good link baiting techniques and you have a recipe for success.

To effectively link bait, I encourage our clients to link to other relevant business’ newsworthy content or create their own content on their website or blogs. This content may include promotions, breaking industry news or upcoming industry events.

If done properly, you’ll get other websites to link back quickly and you’ll see an increase in traffic. The goal is to strategically publicize any newsworthy events or promotions and your link baits can come in the form of articles, photos, graphics, videos, and more.”

Once the link bait is created, the link should be promoted through social bookmarking on company websites, Facebook pages, Twitter, email and other social media venues.

Once you start getting the word out, by posting the link on every social media platform available to your business, industry-related websites will start picking up the link and drive more traffic your way. As your links begin to pop up on web pages and traffic begins to increase, your search engine ranking will increase as well.

By searching for great content to link to or creating your own great content, businesses can stay ahead of the game. In the end, he says that this means building and growing your local marketing campaign on a continual basis.

Copyright 2011 dzine it, inc. web marketing All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

New York SEO firm, offering SEO training classes, says that everyone can learn something from America Online’s new master plan.

According to Peter Crisafi, Vice President of dzine it, Inc., (www.dzineit.net), a leading Manhattan SEO and Internet marketing firm that offers SEO classes through its popular ExpressoSEO (www.expressoseo.com) program, AOL's new "master plan" indicates that the company is going to change the way it approaches content this year, producing more search-friendly content and increasing the overall frequency of web publications.

“While the buzz around the industry this year has focused on the controversy of content farms, it is important to take a closer look at AOL’s plan before accusing them of editorial spamming,” says Crisafi.

“The ‘AOL Way,’ as the master plan is called, indicates that SEO will play an increasingly important role in the company’s content production, complete with an ‘SEO checker’ to be used on all stories generated through the company’s publications.”

According to Crisafi, AOL has also come up with a content generation process which looks for in-demand leads using traffic potential as a decision point in the content it provides users. Of course, many in the industry are already crying, “foul,” Crisafi says, claiming that this type of search-focused production will sacrifice readability.

“AOL’s plan is really nothing new,” says Crisafi. “Many popular online publications are using some form of content generation process that uses search trends to determine what stories are published.”

The UK’s respected “Telegraph,” and Internet giant, Yahoo!, both use a search-driven editorial process.

“As long as the company’s editorial quality is maintained, offering search-driven content is certainly a credible way to become a leader, attract online traffic and boost a company’s brand,” says Crisafi. “In fact, small businesses should take AOL’s lead and consider following the same model.”

Those in the industry that have accused AOL of taking desperate measures to increase popularity or have called its writers content robots, fails to recognize that AOL takes editorial integrity quite seriously in its master plan.

"AOL takes measures to ensure that their writers are producing high-quality content that conforms to the company’s editorial standards,” says Crisafi. “AOL knows that the goal is not to get people to its website, but to engage them when they're there. High caliber, search-friendly content is the way to achieve that goal.”

Copyright 2011 dzine it, inc. seo training All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.