Smart Internet Marketing

With Google Caffeine upon us — the suped up version of the search engine’s usual indexing system — it’s now more import than ever to choose an SEO plan with frequent updates. Google Caff indexes the web in little chunks instead of big layers, allowing for results about 50-percent fresher.

For the most part, the relevant to-do list is fairly obvious:

• Frequently update website content.
• Frequently update company blog.
• Frequently update social networking and bookmarking sites.
• Frequently visit… forums?

In the world of SEO, that last bullet point is somewhat of a curveball, as online forums are not generally recognized for their marketing potential. But forums’ ever-dynamic content puts them in line to benefit dramatically from Google Caffeine. And, as usual, those in the SEO community are looking to get a piece of the pie.

Marketing via online forums is similar to working with Facebook and Twitter, except that posting in forums requires slightly more finesse. With forums, the other users can make or break your SEO efforts — if they smell a rat, it’s bad news.

If you’re worried about alienating said users, consider the following tips:

• Don’t try to make a million posts in one day (especially not for a million different clients). Creating small, realistic posts under multiple usernames will likely be more effective.
• Do post on the forum’s designated advertising section if one exists.
• Don’t forget about your signature! Your forum signature is a great place to squeeze in some SEO linking without fear of retribution — and it will show up on every post.