Most of us here at WebStar Multimedia, spend our long days and nights either copywriting, building links, working on PPC campaigns, designing or any other form of marketing in front of the computer. Every now and again, one of our representatives will have the pleasure of getting out after work and going to a function that does not involve marketing or sales.  But in ‘our SEO world’ - there is always an opportunity to build links or in layman’s terms: ‘relationships’.

One of our head marketing consultants had the privilege of attending the Winter Bash event last week with celebrity blogger Zack Taylor (www.ZackTaylor.ca).  Needless to say, he had an amazing time meeting celebrities, and promoting WebStar Multimedia.

You never know who you might meet at a social gathering, even at a trendy club / bar.  People you meet on the street, might choose to write about you (give you a one way link), refer you to someone else, or even hire you for their own project.  This is what I like to call ‘Social Search Engine Optimiation’ or simply, Social SEO.

Below is a list of tools and links where you can check valuable information in regards to your website. You can also use these valuable tools to check out your competition. If they are ranking high in the search engines, it may not be such a bad idea to follow some of their internet marketing endeavors. In the links below, we have used WebStar Multimedia as an example. When you use the tools we’ve suggested, simply replace our URL with yours and drop it into your web browser’s address bar.

Dmoz Listings

You can arguably say that Dmoz is the best free directory on the net, and probably the most trusted. To check if your website has been included in the Dmoz directory swap your URL with ours in the following link: http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=webstarmultimedia.com.

As a Dmoz editor, I can say that the number one thing we look for when editing a website is the quality of the content. If your content is not original than you will have a hard time getting accepted in this directory.
Yahoo Directory Links

Yahoo Directory is one of the most important paid directories online, along with Business.com. To check if your company is listed, see the following link: http://search.yahoo.com/search?n=100&dups=1&p=linkdomain:www.webstarmultimedia.com++site:dir.yahoo.com

If your website is not listed, and you’re a non commercial site, than you can submit it for free. If it is a commercial site, you’re looking at $300US for inclusion.
Yahoo Inbound Links

Yahoo inbound links are a great way to monitor your link building progress. It’s also a great tool to see how your competitors are building links. When looking for new ways to build links, I often use the following tool to see who others have built links with: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.webstarmultimedia.com&bwm=i&bwmf=s&bwmo=&fr2=seo-rd-se.
Who is

Who is tool from Domain Tools provides some potentially useful information about one’s URL and website. Check out: http://whois.domaintools.com/webstarmultimedia.com to find out about your own URL or someone else’s.

Social Search Engine Optimization, or simply Social SEO has become the new buzzword for search engine marketers.  According to various SEO professionals - directory submissions, link building and other SEO practices are slowly becoming a thing of the past and we must begin moving towards new strategies, if we plan to stay competitive. 

Ideally, you can still carry on traditional SEO strategies, but also incorporate new ones.  If you want to compete in tomorrow’s SEO world, than social SEO might be your best bet.  Social SEO can be defined as a method used to promote your site by creating awareness on social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Youtube or bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us and Digg.  Social media types include forums, blogs, message boards, wikis and pod casts. 

Anyway you can create a ‘buzz’ around your site, you are surely guaranteed to bring in traffic.  If you have good content, people will link to you.  You can even consider Social SEO as a form of link building.

Best way to start your Social SEO campaign is to register on sites such as Facebook, MySpace and create a company or website profile.  Add pictures, write descriptions and put links up to your website.  You can also register at bookmarking sites and ’tag’ your own website.

Just remember, the more profiles you have, the more you ‘tag’, the more traffic you will get…and ultimately, the higher your search engine ranks will be.