In taking advantage of using various networks for profitable Internet marketing such as StumbleUpon, Digg, and Facebook, you may begin to wonder where effective SEO enters into these areas of strategy. In doing so, you are not only able to benefit from a positive impact on these networks, but the areas of social media can also be very beneficial in giving the effort you have put into SEO a solid ground to build upon. How can the specific areas you target for SEO exposure and social media be brought to their fullest potential?

Are Title Tags Really That Important?

As the title tags and the header tags are the first impression that many users read about your site, you will want to provide optimized tags that are compelling and interesting so they are effective for reeling the reader in. As you use numbers, specifics, and names make sure you use powerful words that are descriptive. After all, grabbing a reader’s undivided attention is what you are aiming for with strategic social media titles.

Titles tags that are effective in gaining SEO exposure among search engines should include keywords that are popular and relevant to your specific site. It is also important to carefully consider the strategies you use in seeing that the keywords appear in the beginning of title tags.

Some individuals are faced with a dilemma of not knowing how to use tags that will achieve both of these tasks successfully – effective exposure in both the SEO and social media arena at the same time.

The Answer…

However impossible it may seem to some individuals, it is very possible to successfully achieve both and it is simply by performing two simple steps.

When you are writing content that you plan to place on networks such as Reddit, Twitter, Digg, or StumbleUpon, create a title that reaches out and grabs the attention of readers, even if it means a title that may be controversial or shocking. After you have accomplished a snazzy title you can then use the social media sites to promote your articles. Generally this results in a large amount of traffic, but almost always the popularity will begin to lessen over time.

This is your opportunity to change the article’s title tag into one that focuses on SEO using relevant and popular keywords. You will however want to leave the social media directed header tag alone so it can continue to snag search visitors who will want to read the content you have provided.

What Does This Tactic Achieve?

Once you have obtained traffic by creating enticing titles that are shared on the social media platform that do not always offer the most detailed and search friendly, you are able to maximize your efforts by performing the next step. Title tags that are changed can benefit in even more search traffic by making the addition of popular and descriptive keywords, which will also increase your rank with search engines. Do not make the mistake of shorting yourself on visitors you could benefit from in using this effective technique.

If you’re anything like me, you probably check your blog’s stats regularly. I often spend half an hour every day reviewing daily stats for the numerous blogs I write for. I’m not normally interested in the pageviews and referral sources only. What I’m really intrigued with is the keywords that users have used to arrived at my blog.

Most analytics packages like Google Analytics, Mint and pMetrics track search engine referrals, and could tell you the top keywords that people use when they get to your blog. For example, for one particular science blog I contribute to, people referred by Google seem to be searching for the H1N1 virus, using various keywords like Swine Flu and the like. This would prompt me to write more about the topic, knowing it’s something that people like reading about. Of course, this is a popular topic today, and I’d be riding the trend if I wrote about H1N1.

However, even better for me is finding novel and unique keywords that people use on their searches. For example, I would never know how someone landed on my tech blog using keywords related to nudity and adult websites. Or perhaps it’s because I wrote about the adult website industry some time back, in the context of blogs and social networking. It’s not what I expected, but it’s intriguing. It made me realize how relevant that site could be in different niches.

Reading up on your referral stats could help you better focus the content on your site. If you find that your readers land on your blog or any specific posts within using the keywords that you are actually optimizing for, then congratulations! But you shouldn’t stop there. If you see some interesting keywords popping up, then you can also optimize for these keywords. Your site has already popped up as a relevant match. You can now follow through with this relevancy.

What best way to focus on these keywords than to use these to jumpstart new categories or topics. For instance, in my mention of referrals from adult-related searches, I could have probably written more about the dynamics between social networks and the adult industry. That would definitely be keyword rich, and would push up my site further in the search engine results. Then again, it was my choice not to, because I thought it would be too controversial. But my point remains. If you find an interesting and intriguing referral, try to do a follow-up. It might be a good way to jumpstart new topics that are interesting to new, prospective readers.

Writing great headlines is good SEO. Not only does it help search engines index your blog better with more keyword-rich titles and headers, it also attracts people to reading your posts. This is especially effective in those instances where users read your blog from RSS feed readers, and the blog post title is the only thing they see.

Top writers like Copyblogger‘s Brain Clark would usually suggest that you write bold, attention-grabbing headlines. This drives people to dig deeper into your content.

Be specific

When writing your blog post title, be specific enough to describe the content of your article. Instead of saying “Writing Tips for Bloggers,” you could perhaps say “How to Use Headlines to Attract Readrs.” Or maybe instead of saying “Gadgets to buy this summer,” you can say “Top five netbooks under $300.” Making it more specific will appeal to a user’s imagination. There are thousands of writing tips out there. There are dozens and dozens of gadget blogs offering reviews. And a user will probably just navigate out of your RSS feed page or blog homepage if they don’t get interested enough.

Ask questions

Most good headlines and titles are in the form of a statement. However, if you want to get your reader’s interest even more, ask them a question. This helps give the feeling that you are encouraging interaction and contributions among your readers. This makes them feel important. And in turn, you gain an advantage by actually passing on to the readers some of the responsibility in content-generation. Instead of sayin “Top places to spend the summer vacation,” You can post an entry that asks “Where are you spending your summer vacation?” Then in a few paragraphs tell your readers what your summer vacation plans are. At the end, direct the question at them again. Publish, then sit back, relax, and wait for comments to come in.

Promise something exciting

Most linkbait writers know how to formulate their headlines such that it would attract much attention in social bookmarking sites. They sometimes make outrageous claims or very exciting propositions. This doesn’t necessarily have to be too outrageous, but at least make it exciting. Instead of saying “Download free software here,” you can say “How to save thosuands of dollars with these free software.” Or instead of saying “Apple launches new MacBook,” you can say “Why Apple’s OS X Tiger Blows Vista Away.”

Of course, you shouldn’t neglect to write good content, because great content is the foundation of a good blog. However, headlines help people find great content, and drive readers to your blog. Good headlines also make your blog post ready for social bookmarkers, because sites like Digg.com and delicious.com usually get the contents of the