Looking for a great way to drive traffic to your tourism business?

The latest monthly report on travel from Hitwise gives a clear reminder of the importance in providing accurate map listings and “driving directions” for tourism folk.

4 of Top 11 Most Visited Travel related Web sites are Maps

The important take away: Be sure your listing on these sites is correct!

Another important finding of the Hitwise report is the listing of most popular keywords used in travel.   The keyword phrase “Driving Directions” is a top search.

Take advantage of this keyword phrase by ensuring you have a Search Engine Optimized page designed for Travel Directions to the iconic place names associated with your business (ie: cities, parks, attractions).

Links:

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Get Greater impact from Twitter on your Website Search Ranking:

Perhaps the biggest benefit of the recently announced Google / Twitter deal is that Google can now see all those links that are tweeted.

Links have always been the secret sauce for getting your Website to rise above others to the first page – or even the top of the first page of the search results. The image above says it all.

Turn your Website into a Blog to get the most of Twitter

GET BLOGGING! No matter what business you are in. Produce real time content that your community will love. The more you do it, the more you will benefit.

Here’s Why:

• Each Tweet is a Web page on a Website with high authority granted by Google – Twitter.com
• Using Twitter, people are helping Google rank Webpages in real time by linking to them.
• If your content is good, Retweeted links will produce more incoming links to your content.
• Links in Tweets can point to Webpages of all kinds but most tweeted links go to Blog posts.
• Tweets are generally about real time, current news and content. What is more tweet-worthy (if it’s not a word it should be – get with it spell checker): a Website that is updated seasonally or a Blog that is updated daily?
• Tweeted links may have higher time-sensitive value that degrades over time.
• Your Website is not likely to generate much interest if you tweet about it constantly.
• Blogs are platforms for producing link-worthy content frequently.

Conclusions: How Twitter can improve your Website Search Ranking

Blog posts that provide value to your twitter community by featuring news, podcasts, video, photos, stories can earn you considerably more link juice and lead to increased position in the Google Search results.

Links:

• Twitter and Google Partnership
• Using Social Media is a lot like flossing
• How to get any kind of media into your Wordpress Blog
• Does your Website still look like it did in December 2008?

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Time to review a little Search Engine Optimization, now that Google Shows Twitter Tweets in Search Results:

Twitter Status in Search Results

Just googled “Twitter Lists Embed” and to my surprise found Pete Cashmore’s Twitter Status in the search results. It looks just like all the other search results and shows up high in the list of first page results.

Google has adjusted their algorithm to drop in Tweets among other standard fare like videos, pdfs, blog posts, etc. in the first page of search results.

How is Google is figuring out which tweets to feature?
The same as all the other good content the search engine displays: a mix of keyword relevance and links.

But how to do you get links to your twitter status?

• Earn more followers in your community. Each follower is a link. Consider the keywords in your followers’ one line bio as a key to relevance.
• Get tagged in lists with relevant keyword attribution. Again, it’s not the number of lists you are in, but the company you keep that matters. There is likely some seo value in being tagged in small lists along with Twitter All Stars who have millions of followers, but it is likely more important to be linked among people with whom you share a keyword association.
• Have your tweets retweeted by others.

Knowing what to do to get your tweets into search results is easy, but like everything in Search Engine Optimization it’s doing the work in earning the links that mattters.

How to get links for Twitter SEO?

Produce relevant, great content for your community and/or find, curate and tweet about the good stuff that matters for your community. (Have you heard this before from me?)

Learn more:

• Twitter indexes people
• Twitter Lists: Don’t be greedy, be picky

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Twitter Lists = People Tags

This week Twitter Lists spread across the Web and early adopters have created lists of the people on Twitter that matter most to them.

It’s very early in the people tagging game with Twitter Lists. But, link this new tool with last weeks news of partnership deals between Google, Bing and Twitter and the new Google Social Search tool and look out on the horizon and you can see where we are going.

Why being tagged in a Twitter list matters?

Twitters deal with major search engines Google and Bing allow the search engines to crawl the content produced on Twitter. The most important element for Google to define the relevance of Content has always been links. Twitter lists will be search engine link gold.

Interestingly, Twitter lists get urls that include the list makers name as well as the name of the list chosen.
ie: http://twitter.com/#/list/toddlucier/travel-canada is a list of Canadian Travel-related Twitter users I created.

A design element that clearly signals a nod to the SEO implications of the designated list pages is that Twitter is automagically puts hyphens into the list names.

Your Followers are Tagging YOU

Interestingly, much like saving Web pages on Delicious.com where the user defines the keyword relevance of the content (not the producer of the content), it is your followers who have the power to define the most relevant tags for you, by putting you and your Twitter identity onto a list.

Get your name on the List

If you want to be recognized as a top member of your tribe on Twitter Lists and benefit from the keyword value that goes along with it, there are a few things you should and shouldn’t do:

1. Focus on producing relevant quality content for your preferred audience.
2. Make lists that feature to top members of your tribe. By curating a great list of the top Twitters in your tribe you will be creating a page that is bound to get some SEO attention to your Twitter account in Twitter-related search.
3. Use keyword tags in your list names. ie: Don’t name a list – “My Twitter Buddies”. Using keywords will get your list more followers and your page more SEO attention.
4. Follow lists of people that are important in your tribe. This will link your Twitter identity to lists of relevant Twitter users. An important side benefit will be the stream of valuable incoming Twitter content.
5. Don’t ask to be included in a list – this doesn’t demonstrate your credibility (just your neediness to be recognized). When the urge strikes to ask to be included, refer to #1 above.
6. Refer others for lists. Check out the new Twitter list curation tool at Listorious makes it easy to suggest top Twitter folk. If the urge strikes to recommend yourself refer to #5 above.
7. Review your Twitter Profile and edit your one line bio to include a better description of the things you tweet about and the tribe/community you serve. Use keywords.

Links:

• Be Picky about Twitter Lists
• How to create a Twitter List (Mashable)

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“Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.”

The First Law of Geography according to Waldo Tobler is also a key component in Googles algorithm to determine search ranking. Google looks at how closely search phrases are spaced in the search box, and on the page, as well as how closely linked the searcher is geographically to the search results (among other things).

So it should be no surprise that Google can now provide search results based on how closely you are connected to people. Social Search, a new Google Labs tool, brings your social circle (and the Web content they create) into your search results.

We’re more connected to people than ever before

A longstanding belief is that there are six degrees of separation between any two people on earth. Start with the people you are connected with, move on to the people your friends are connected with, and within six people you can connect any one on earth.

According to research, the social Web has helped connect us in ways like never before. According to the study, the average person is now connected by just three degrees within a shared “interest” or social group instead of six.

Social Search provides two degrees of relevant content in Search Results. Starting with the people you are connected with, Google Social Search stretches out your personalized social search index to include the people your friends are connected with to form your extended social circle.

What Social Search Does

Social Search makes use of your extended social network to help you find relevant information faster.

Using Google Social Search:

With Social Search turned on, Google highlights relevant social search results at the bottom of the first page of search results. The results may be Websites, blogs, restaurant reviews, comments, even 140 character Twitter Posts.

In my use of the social search by turning the feature on in Google Labs, I found search results appearing from a wide variety of people I’m connected with and from people my extended social circle.

Some of the search results I encountered:

• Web pages by people I’m connected to on Twitter
• Twitter status updates
• results from feeds I’m subscribed to on Google reader
• blog posts by friends of people I’m connected with on Friendfeed
• Google Chat friend links.
• Youtube videos and Flickr photo libraries

How Social Search Works:

Social search results are taken from the public Internet.

Google uses your connections across Social Web sites defined in your Google Profile. Google indexes the links provided in user profiles and the content it can see in these social networks using the same algorithm it uses for standard search. Interestingly, Google as of now cannot see Facebook content, only the people each user is connected to.

Google social search connects the links between people and the content they create all over the Web to provide personalized trusted social search results.

Your Social Circle & Knowing Their Content

The Magic behind Google – Links:

1. From my Google profile, Google sees I have a friend on Twitter
2. That friend links to their blog in their Twitter profile
3. Google links that blog to my social search world.
4. The friend’s blog has a link to their Youtube account
5. Following the links, Google could also include this Youtube account videos in my social search results.

Check out Google Social Search

To use social search, you will need a Google Profile, which identifies the social networks you are a part of. Learn more about Google’s Profile pages and their importance to your tourism business.

The more people you are connected to, the more places your content will show up in Social Search.

Social Search is one more reason for Travel Industry peeps to GET CONNECTED.

Homework:

• Update your Google Profile.
• Be Social: Work your networks and follow people who give good advice or who share similar interests.
• Add a Google Friend Connect Widget and/or Facebook Fan Box to your blog to grow your network.
• Update your profile across all your social services to include keywords.
• When you post content, comment or engage in social media use your keywords and speak the language of your extended social circle.

Relevant Links:

• Google Profile and Facebook Connect Game Changers
• Google Search results to feature Twitter Tweets
• Six Degrees of Separation is now Three
• Social Search on SearchEngineLand

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There is a strong emphasis on headlines with some information provided for free in the associated blog. For example a recent post covers Headlines for Article Writing. That caught my eye and was the genesis of a new SMM service. Headlines is, of course, a term that comes from the print media and Antcliff is a master of creating headlines that smash a brick into the face of the reader. An associated term for blogs is the Title and the two are not always the same.

Titles versus Headlines

This SMM service is all about Titles. The Title of a blog post is usually also the Headline but we prefer to use the term Title to make absolutely clear what is intended. The reason for this emphasis is that the Title is of critical importance in creating posts that will rank well in Google keyword searches. Since most blog posts will see the majority of their visitor traffic coming via keyword searches, it is important to think about search engines as well as human visitors in creating Titles that work well.

SMM offers a low-cost Blog Post Title-Plus Service. For an introductory period, an even lower price is offered. If you need help in developing winning Titles, you should check this new service out.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Stronger Titles Or Headlines For More Visitor Traffic

I want (and had set up) this URL structure:
www.domain-name.com/category-name/

So for others and as a reminder to myself - I’ll post this great little article which explains clearly how to remove the word ‘category’ from the Wordpress URL structure. This is especially helpful for SEO purposes by making your category names the second level just underneath your domain and deleting the useless word ‘category’ from the URL structure.

Click here for a great post with a couple methods on how to acheive this… (I used method two which took me less than one minute to complete).