Using Pinterest for Personal Brand Recognition & SEO

The online marketplace has become excessively competitive amongst website owners. There are tons of sites in existence that offer nearly the same services and they are all competing for top spots on search engine results. Over ninety percent of people who use search engines do not go past the first page of returned results, so it is imperative that a website owner uses search engine optimization (SEO) to get their websites ranked as high as possible. Many people do not know it, but Pinterest is quickly becoming a fantastic tool in increasing someone’s search engine ranking. Knowing how Pinterest works and how to use it for search engine optimization will no doubt produce positive results for website owners.

How Pinterest Can Help
When search engine “spiders” crawl the web to find the most relevant websites to return for certain keyword phrases, they look at several different things to decide which sites are appropriate. One of the things they look for are backlinks. These are links from websites that lead to another website. The more backlinks a website has from other sites, the better. This is especially true of reputable websites. A blog that has a backlink from Wikipedia is better off than a blog that only has backlinks from a small local shoe store website. Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media sites in existence. It currently ranks seven on the first page results of search engines. This makes Pinterest an extremely reputable website, and back links from Pinterest are going to drive up any website’s search engine ranking.

Using Pinterest for SEO
Knowing that Pinterest can increase a website’s ranking is not enough to drive up that ranking; website owners have to know how to use the website to its full abilities. Pinterest allows people to “pin” pictures and videos from outside sources. This means a website owner can pin pictures from their website directly to Pinterest. This in essence creates an automatic backlink to the original website, thus increasing a website’s search engine visibility.

It is important to utilize keywords when working on Pinterest as well. Any website owner should use keywords in the name of their saved pictures and files on their website. Google spiders go through Pinterest boards, so the owner can even use specific keywords on their boards as a method of Pinterest marketing. A person should use keywords related to their website that they believe people using search engines would use when looking for their specific type of business. Keywords are another thing that search engine spiders look at, so they are another important tool in search engine optimization.

Other Ways Pinterest Can Help
Backlinks and an increase in keywords are not the only way Pinterest can help a website’s search engine ranking. Brand recognition is always important for any business or website owner. Anything posted on Pinterest has the possibility of going viral, which would insanely increase a website’s ranking. Even if it doesn’t go viral, however, people who use Pinterest boards will become acquainted with the website the pictures and videos are linked to. They in turn can “Re-pin” these links which will open several whole new sets of eyes to a person’s website.

Other websites should also be integrated into a person’s Pinterest marketing plan. Pinterest allows people to add a “Pin It” button to their web pages. All pages, articles, blogs or videos on a website should have the “Pin It” button somewhere on the page. This will allow people who visit a particular website to share these pages on their Pinterest, which basically makes them unknowing marketers. Pinterest should also be linked to other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This will allow followers on larger social media sites to link directly to a Pinterest site.

Brand recognition also increases when a website becomes a trusted authority on certain topics. Pinning informative infographics or videos will let people know that a website can be trusted. Once a brand is recognized as a trusted authority on certain topics, it is sure to be shared via several social media outlets. Becoming a trusted authority is as useful as search engine optimization in general.

Pinterest is yet another useful tool in the search engine optimization spectrum. Search engine ranking is a competitive field, so it is important for website owners to use every weapon in their arsenal to increase their ranking. Pinterest automatically creates backlinks to a person’s website and in time will be shared via other users of social media networks. Keywords, another great optimization tool, can also be used in conjunction with Pinterest to increase a websites ranking on search engines and thus the website’s overall traffic. Although SEOmoz, Alexa and other crawler and ranking sites aren’t using Pinterest yet in their ranking algorithms, I would imagine they will shortly because of the exponential growth Pinterest has had. Once someone knows how to properly use Pinterest as an SEO tool, they will have a competitive advantage over those who do not.

Peter Marino is the Content Strategy Manager at SheffieldMediaGroup.com, a content marketing, web design and SEO firm in White Plains, NY.

Significantly Increase Amazon Affiliate Sales Using a Best Seller List

Many people have turned to the Amazon Affiliate program because of the potential revenue opportunity it offers. However, just a many do not understand how they can significantly increase their Amazon affiliate sales and increase their commissions exponentially. That well kept secret is the ‘Best Seller List.’

The actual technique isn’t new. Many businesses will create a ‘Best Seller List.’ The music industry and book industry have been doing it for decades. Amazon does it too! Feel free to think outside the box here and create your own Best Seller list. This list can be posted on your blog, in your articles, or among your content on your website.

Why Best Seller Lists Work Well

Your bestseller list should contain 6 to 10 products in your category. You can have one or more categories.

* Consumers love to be part of trends. They hate being left out.

* We claim we are unique individuals, but the truth is we are social creatures and we want to know what others are doing.

* We are by nature lazy and so we love short cuts to find something that appeals to us.

* There’s a certain kind of wisdom that occurs in crowds. We like to see what’s happening in the crowd.

Results of Your Best Seller List

There are several results you can enjoy from your bestseller list.

* Sales – Each time you produce a list you should see an increase in your sales on Amazon. Of course, that’s assuming the list links to the item on Amazon.

* Conversion – While conversion rates vary, you should enjoy a conversion rate that was higher than prior to your list creation.

* More Commission – A higher conversion rate means more sales, and more sales mean more commission owed to you. And it potentially has the ability to increase your commission rate from 4% to 6% since you are required to only sell 7 items for the jump to occur.

How to Increase your List Longevity

This is an effective technique but you want to get the maximum time out of your list. You don’t want to have to be changing your list weekly as this requires time. A better option is to choose items for your list that will stay popular at least for a 4 week period. Some items will have even a longer shelf life. Take advantage of it!