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Use Robots.txt: Save the World
Robots.txt help the search engines learn all about your website
There is a growing interest in the little known file that every website should have in the root directory: robots.txt
It’s a very simple text file you can find all about at the robotstxt.org website Why should you use it ? Here are some good reasons for you to consider.
* Controlled access to your content
With a robots.txt file you can “ask” the search engines to “keep out” of certain areas of your website. A typical area you might like to exclude is your images folder: If you aren’t a photographer, painter and your images are for your website use only, there are good chances you don’t want them to be indexed and showing up on image search engines, for people to download, or hotlink.
Unfortunately grabbers and similar software (such as Email harvesting applications) will not read your robots.txt file disregarding any indication you may provide in this respect. But that’s life isn’t it, always someone being disrespectful to say the least …
You can keep search engines away from content you wish to keep out of sight, but remember your robots file is also subject to attention of hackers seeking sensitive objectives you might inadvertently list: keeping out the robots while inviting the hackers – keep this in mind.
(cont. from front…)
* The growing importance of robots.txt
At SES New York a robots.txt summit was held where major search engines (Ask, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!) participated, sharing interesting information on this file. Here are some numbers.
According to Keith Hogan from Ask:
a) Less than 35% of websites have a robots.txt file
b) The majority of robots.txt files are copied from others found online
c) On many occasions robots.txt files are provided by your web hosting service
It looks like the majority of webmasters aren’t familiar with this file. This is going to play a major role as the size of the web continues to grow: Spidering is a costly effort that search engines tend to optimize. Those web sites demonstrating optimal command (which in turn determines efficiency) will be rewarded.
During the summit, all search engines announced they will identify (or autodiscover) sitemaps via the robots.txt file. In essence search engines are now able to discover your sitemap via a link in the following format:
Sitemap: <sitemap_location>, where <sitemap_location> is the complete URL of your Sitemap Index File (or your sitemap file, if you don’t have an index file).
* Being compliant to Google Terms of Service
Robots.txt can help prevent you getting banned or being penalized by Google. In a move to eliminate search results pages because “web search results don’t add value to users” Google has recently added the following sentence to their terms of service:
- Use robots.txt to prevent crawling of search results pages or other auto-generated pages that don’t add much value for users coming from search engines.
* How to implement a robots.txt file
If your website doesn’t support a sitemap and you do not have any areas to exclude, include an empty robots.txt file in your root directory. By doing so you are acknowledging full spidering of your entire site.
Carefully review the robots exclusion protocol available at robotstxt.org. If you must exclude numerous areas of your website, build your file in a step by step manner and monitor spider behaviour with a log analyser tool.
Test your robots.txt file with a few online tools and keep in mind that every spider has a different behaviour and spidering criteria.
* Avoid useless spidering traffic
When your website grows to a significant size and achieves optimal visibility, spidering significantly increases to hundreds (if not thousands) of hits per day and will put your server and bandwidth to the test.
Recently I was called on to examine a blog burdened by a very unusual and extremely heavy spidering activity: the log file I examined reported an excess of 8 Gbyte of invisibile (spider) traffic over a 1 month period. Given the reduced amount of daily visitors (less than 200) and the reduced size of the blog (less than 100 posts), there was something wrong in the architecture.
It took just a few minutes to identify the problem: There was no robots.txt file.
At each request for a robots.txt there was a redirect to the home page of the blog triggering a complete download of the blog home page. Each download of the home page was approximately 250 K. There were thousands of unnecessary hits on the home page. This was causing a spidering frenzy that ceased when an empty robots.txt file was created and uploaded to the server. Traffic is now down from 8 Gbyte to 500 Mbyte.
* Keep the spiders informed, help save the world
The web is growing by leaps and bounds, the use of a robots.txt file helps the search engines effectively allocate their resources and is a tangible sign of respect and courtesy. If you don’t have a robots.txt file on your website set one up now. Use it to inform the crawlers on how your site is organized, and how often it is changing. I think we should all do our part to avoid waste of resources, saving energy and helping to save the world.
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Monitoring Search Engine Positions
Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve.
This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.
Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage.
In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It’s the long-term changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.
Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes – many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking – your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch “the market” closely.
Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn’t become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.
You must also deal with your competition – a crucial factor you must always be vigilant about. Your competitor’s position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor’s position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase your position in search results.
Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be effective. Right now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that these top ten may change from month to month.
This means that your must not only monitor your search engine positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the Internet users. Check out http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html for a current list of website favorites.
Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations – this is a neon red warning sign! It could mean a number of different things.
It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate that search engines spiders – those sneaky programs that seek out your site and rank their positions – have found some type of problem with your website. If you have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly confused and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its formula, and suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant. If that search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search engines.
Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.
Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.
Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture – your long-term marketing campaign.
How to Protect Your Search Engine Rankings
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, August 19, 2011
How to Protect Your Search Engine Rankings
If you have a web site that you have been maintaining and updating on a consistent basis for several years, chances are, you have acquired some decent traffic from the search engines. The thing that most webmasters don’t consider is that once they have that search engine traffic, it doesn’t mean it will stay forever. There are things that can happen with your web site that can cause it to drop out of the search engine rankings. So what is a web master to do in order to keep their search engine rankings?
Some very legitimate high quality sites are being hurt by some of the actions taken by the search engines to ban the spammy sites created by less than above-board webmasters. There are some things a webmaster can do to reduce their chances of their legitimate site being mistaken for a spam site.
1) Take care in who you are linking to on your website
While it is good to have links that are helpful to your web visitors, you need to be careful who you are linking to. If you link to sites that are considered “bad neighborhoods”, you will certainly see a drop in your search engine results. This is because the search engines will assume that you are linking just to increase your search engine ranking. Avoid linking to sites and pages that are mostly a list of links. Many of these sites are somewhat spammy and also link to many other “questionable” sites. If you want to put your link in a link directory, go for high quality link directories, especially if these directories require a reciprocal link back to their site. Sometimes paying the few bucks they ask for to get listed could be worth it as it will filter out all of the spammers. The penalty hit is from an action on your part of linking to the bad neighborhood so you can control it by not linking to one in the first place. If you aren’t sure if the sites are in bad neighborhoods or not, you can easily check it out by using online tools that tell you if your website is linking to a bad neighborhood. Tools like bad-neighborhood.com give you detailed information about the websites you are linking to.
2) Make sure your keyword density isn’t too high
Your keyword density is also a factor that affects your search engine rankings. Search engines determine the relevance of your website to a particular subject by the use of keywords in your web page text. The higher the density of the keyword, the more relevant the web page for that keyword subject. However too high a keyword density, and the search engines will consider you trying to spam the search engines and will penalize your website for keyword stuffing, or keyword spamming. Content with a conversational tone or a natural editorial flavor can produce a premium keyword density and leave you with good quality content. The old rule of thumb is that your keyword should never appear in more than half of the sentences on the page. A better approach is to have your keyword not appear in more than 1/3 of the sentences, yet use synonyms and other related keywords on the page as well to add relevance. In total, you don’t want your keyword density to be above 3%. Tools like keyworddensity.com can give you a quick reference to web page keyword density.
There are some simple things you can do to keep your legitimate web site above board and not have it mistaken for a spam site so it doesn’t lose rank in the search engines. These 2 are some of the easiest and quickest things you can do to keep your website above board and ranking well in the search engines
Google Instant Search for Marketing
Google recently introduced their “Instant Search” feature which starts to populate search results the instant you start typing into the search box. At the same time, Google suggests alternate search terms as you type to help narrow your search without forcing you to enter entire search phrases.
The main idea behind this new feature is to save users a few seconds on each search and cut down on misspellings for search terms, business names or product names. Users may not notice much difference in their overall experience, however, for small businesses and online entrepreneurs, this new search method carries a few interesting ramifications.
Since Google clearly ranks as the “900 lb. Gorilla” of the online marketing world, acting as de facto gateway to the Web for millions, any change to their system makes businesses nervous. Many have expressed concern that this latest change will force users of Google’s AdWords program, the search giant’s lucrative pay-per-click marketing arm, to pay for more expensive keywords.
They reason that since the most popular search terms appear in the search box first, and that most people will opt to accept Google suggestions, those most popular searches will carry the highest click prices. In other words, businesses that depend on Google to show their ads fear that Google will force them to pay more money by recommending more expensive keyword searches.
I disagree.
The suggested search term feature actually appeared on Google quite a while ago, and all that’s really changed is Google starts to display the actual search results AS you type. With the old 2-step process, Google made suggestions as you typed and then you clicked the search button to see the search results.
Instant Search just creates a FAST way to see the results for different search variations without forcing you to click the button each time to see those results. This process makes it simple to see the results, change your mind, and not wait for the results each time you change the phrase.
My experience shows that most people always start with a broad search and then narrow it by including more descriptive terms (often called “long-tail” keywords) to better find what they want. This new process won’t change that.
In fact, it will give people more chances to refine their searches on-the-fly by providing Google more details of what they want. Instead of posing a threat, I believe this new Instant Search feature creates an opportunity for any business to perform high-speed market research to look for possible opportunities and trouble spots.
The following four steps will help any small business use Google’s new feature for instant results.
1. Go to Google and search for your business as if you were a consumer.
2. Make a note of the keyword suggestions Google offers as you type.
3. See if those suggestions give you any ideas for your own marketing (since they should represent the most popular phrases).
4. Note which competitors show up and where you appear in relation to them.
These 4 simple steps make a great barometer for taking a read on your local market, fast.
Who appears consistently?
Who shows up hit-and-miss or every once in a while?
Who shows up in Google Maps?
If your competitors show up and you don’t, you’ve got some work to do!
Bottom line: as a small business, use Google’s new Instant Search to quickly get the big picture when it comes to your business, industry, and local competition.
8 Things Bing Won’t Tell You
Every major search engine provides hints and tips about how
to optimize your pages for improved rankings on their
sites. But when you read these guidelines you quickly see
that most of it is just their own wish list. Things like
‘Write for humans not search engine bots – or – do not hide
keywords with a font matching the background color.’ It is
all good advice but kind of general and already well known
(for the past decade.)
But there are always things a search engine will not tell
you. And, of course, these are the things that make all the
difference in your SEO efforts and results. That said; here
are eight things that Bing does not want you to know (or
you can skip to the Magic Formula section at the end):
1.) Your Domain Name Matters – A Lot
Search for just about anything on MSN / Bing and at least
three of the top five matches will have some version of
that keyword as the domain name. For example if you wanted
to optimize for the keyword ‘my domain’ you should try to
get the domain name ‘mydomain.com.’ If that is taken, opt
for ‘my-domain.com.’ If that’s taken try for a name
starting with ‘mydomain’ and ending with a word that is
commonly associated. This is called LSI or Latent Semantic
Indexing. A good example would be ‘mydomainname.com’ or
‘my-domain-name.com.’ BTW, Bing treats dashes as a space so
as long as long as the dashes merely separate words, they
are treated much like the non dash version.
2.) There is No Sandbox
Here’s some great news for anyone just getting started.
Bing does not seem to care about the age of your domain
name. There is no ‘sandbox’ like Google has. Many people,
myself included, have registered brand new domains and had
them ranking in a matter of days.
3.) DotCom Trumps DotNet
Today some search engines like Google will often give .net
and .com virtually the same value, and possibly higher
value for a .org that is for a recognized non-profit
organization. Bing however appears to prefer the .com
version. You can even see instances where a ‘.co.uk’ site
gets high rankings simply because it uses the exact keyword
in the domain name and .co is close enough to .com.
4.) We Like Sub Domains
Most web hosts will let you add sub domains to your
website. On Bing, if you have the sub domain
mydomain.mydomain.com you are in for some potentially great
rankings. The same is true if you have my.domain.com, but
to a slightly lesser degree.
5.) Less is More – Part One
We have been trained by Google to try to have hundreds of
pages of quality content on every website. Bing adheres to
the old policy that they are indexing web ‘pages’ not web
‘sites’ (like Google says they do, but Bing apparently
really means it.) This means each page is treated on its
own merit so a site with one page has the same chances of
being ranked as a site with 100 pages, because each page is
genuinely treated individually.
6.) Less is More – Part Two
The same rule as above goes for on-page text. Pages with
800 to 1,200 words seem to do best on Google but on Bing
the reverse is true, with 250 to 500 words being the magic
number. Just do not overuse your keyword.
7.) Links are Nice But Not Required
Forget about spending your life building an ever growing
number of inbound links for Bing. They do not need them.
Your site, for now at least, is judged by its own merits,
page by page.
8.) Be Bold not Strong
The original SEO method dating back to 1996 was using the
H1 or ‘strong’ heading tags in your HTML. Forget them for
now. Bing gives higher priority to how you would express
importance in a word processor document; larger font and
bolded text as the main markers.
Summary: I build hundreds of Bing (formerly MSN) targeted
mini sites every year using the information above (as it
has evolved) and the results have been consistent top ten
rankings. You can do it too!
Here’s my magic formula for a one hour top ranking:
A.) Get the .com version of a three to four word keyword as
the domain name (dashes are fine.)
B.) Use the domain name as the page heading in a bolded
font, slightly larger than the paragraph text.
C.) Write 400 words of natural sounding text using the
keyword up to five times.
D.) Mention the keyword once in the first sentence and once
in the final sentence of the page – then up to three times
scattered throughout the remainder.
E.) Bold one instance of the keyword. Italicize one
instance of the keyword. Use one instance of the keyword as
a link back to the same page.
F.) Always fill in your Title, Description and Keywords
META tags. That’s it.
Good luck and take care!
PS: This works for Yahoo too.
39 Tools for Marketing Your Small Busíness Online
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thousands of free online marketíng tools clamor for attention, with new ones popping up every week it seems. You know you should be doing more to reach out to your customers, but just researching which tools to use can be a vast time investment, even if they don’t require a big financial outlay.
Below is a compiled líst of the most popular (or most useful) low-cost or free small business marketing tools. You might be using some of them already, but you’re sure to find a couple that will round out your small business marketing toolkit nicely. And, if you’re just starting out marketing a new busíness online, this líst may help point you in the right direction.
Directories
The Open Directory – A staple of the SEO crowd, this directory can be tricky to get into but well worth it for the link juice it passes along to your site.
Yahoo! Directory – It’s not free – this directory will set you back a couple hundred bucks a year – but it’s well worth it for inclusion.
Best of the Web Directory – This directory has been around a while and can pass along some good PageRank to your site.
Niche Directories
Find the directories in your industry that pass along good link building opportunities. Some examples to get you started: SBDGraphics.com for ad agencies, web developers, printers and other graphics professionals; sbdpro.com for small businesses and businesses that serve them; Cpapro.com for the accounting industry; SEOAlpaca.org for alpaca breeders, and so on.
Press Release Distribution Services
Marketwire – The most bang for your buck from an actual wire service, Marketwire’s prices are lower than PR Newswire and Businesswire. This newer service is built for powerful online exposure, and you’ll enjoy the full online distribution with any geographical AP wire distribution. (Sometimes you can get statewide wire distribution for nearly the same cost as only your local metropolitan area.) It’s great for building inbound links – just choose the SEO Enhanced option.
PRLog – A good-performing free press release distribution outlet, PRLog press releases rank really well and for a really long time if they are written with SEO copywriting best practices. Press releases include three links, though they are URL based (starting with http) rather than text anchor. PRLog also lets you create your newsroom where all your press releases reside, as well as an “about us” page and product showcase area.
PitchEngine – A relatively new PR-for-social-media site that promises to let you create and share press releases easily and for free and syndicate content to Google News. Lets you include HTML in your press release, so you can use keyword text anchor links. The site is marketing itself quite aggressively and will likely build a big presence quickly. The only catch is your release will disappear off the site after 30 days if you aren’t a paid member ($50/month for your press room).
Emaíl Marketing
AWeber – AWeber makes it easy to start building your emaíl marketing líst, if you haven’t already. For less than $20/month, you can build unlímited newsletter lists, send unlímited email blasts, and email unlímited autorespond messages to up to 500 subscribers/líst. (Then it’s $29/month up to 2500 subscribers.) Also offers a recurring 30% commission – a pretty good affiliate program for a service you’ll appreciate enough to recommend to others. (Disclosure note: the link above is our affiliate link. We’ve been using the service for 3 years now, after trying out Constant Contact and researching about 20 other providers! Most either do autoresponders or email blasts/newsletters – not both.)
Content Sharing Websites
Squidoo – Create a lens around your business area. A good one with lots of information will even rank in the search engines and can bring traffic to your web site.
Scribd – Share your expert content like white papers and articles. You can make them available for free or sell them. You can submit documents in PowerPoint, Word, PDF and many other file formats.
SlideShare – Post your presentations and documents online for others to view and share. This is a great way to get exponential exposure for your sales or marketing materials – or share documents privately. See some tips for getting more visibility with SlideShare: http://bit.ly/aNXmS2
Flikr – Does your product or service translate well visually? Use this popular photo sharing site to get more eyeballs.
Blip.tv – A video-sharing alternative to YouTube, blip.tv lets you embed links in your descriptions and create a TV station showing all your videos in one spot.
Social Networks
Facebook – Create a page for your business. Feed your blog in. Start a group. Get fans. Advertise to targeted users if your products appeal to the Facebook crowd (which is basically everybody nowadays). See using the new Facebook business page layout to learn more. Stop by our page and become a fan, too!
MySpace – Take a second look at this medium for social networking. According to MarketingProfs, more than half of MySpace.com users are 35 or older. Explore using MySpace for your business.
LinkedIn – Like a virtual Rolodex. Build your professional profile, link up with other professionals, join groups or even start a group. Participating in Q&A’s related to your profession is a great way to build credibility and visibility.
Ning – Build your social network around your business. You may even get your network into the search engine results pages. Learn more about using Ning for business. (http://bit.ly/amLKcE)
Read “Utlize Social Media to Gain Additional Exposure for Your Site” (http://bit.ly/bcoWEQ) for more information about social networks and how they can drive targeted traffíc to your site.
Social Bookmarking
Digg – Getting your content on the home page of Digg is one way to bump up your web site’s traffic by thousands within minutes. This can result in valuable links to your site. Start with this beginner’s guide to Digg.
StumbleUpon – Build friends and send them your articles to rate. More thumbs up will get your article shown to more people outside your network and can result in thousands of visitors every day. Tips for using StumbleUpon.
Reddit – Even if your content gets buried on Digg, it can flourish on Reddit – which can be a catalyst for jumping to the home page of other social bookmarking sites. Learn more about the types of topics that do well on Reddit.
Video SEO – A Neglected Path To Higher Search Rankings
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Video SEO – A Neglected Path To Higher Search Rankings
Video SEO is an underutilized search engine marketing
strategy. Even as videos continue to gain significant
traction in the search engines’ natural listings, most
companies either ignore them, or remain completely unaware
of their potency. That oversight represents a valuable edge
your company can use to leapfrog your competitors in the
organic rankings.
The strategy blends traditional search optimization tactics
with a relatively new platform. With the rise of YouTube,
Revver, Blip, and similar video sites, consumption patterns
have driven the search engines to provide these sites with
greater ranking authority. As long as your primary
objective is clearly established, a video SEO campaign can
have a dramatic effect on your exposure in Google, Yahoo,
and Bing.
In this article, we’ll explain why you should integrate
video SEO into your current search marketing strategy. We
will also provide a few ingredients that will help you
avoid potential pitfalls along the way. Last, you will
learn what to look out for when choosing a video SEO
company that can drive traffic and conversions.
How Video SEO Improves Your Search Exposure
Before Google released their Universal Search platform in
May 2007, their natural listings were dominated by
text-based pages. Videos were rare in the top spots.
Universal Search changed the way Google displayed their
primary index. Google, Yahoo, and Bing now include entries
from their respective video search platforms. What’s more,
popular video-sharing sites have been given higher ranking
authority and increased link weight (we’ll describe this
latter point in a moment).
Video SEO gives you greater exposure in the search engines
through two levers. First, it caters to the algorithm used
for Universal Search. By allowing syndication of your
videos to authoritative video-sharing sites, you will enjoy
more exposure through their increased ranking authority. In
effect, those sites will rank higher, drawing more people
to your videos.
Second, videos that are placed on your site (as opposed to
syndicating them) attract links – both directly and
indirectly. As your videos gain popularity, direct links
will naturally build, pointing to the pages on your site
that host the videos. Indirect links will point from other
sites whose owners have embedded your videos. As a result,
your inbound link profile will continue to grow and
strengthen, lifting your site higher within the search
engines’ organic listings.
3 SEO Video Tips To Capture Higher Search Positions
Your video SEO campaign can only be effective if you
recognize the limitations of the search engines. First,
their algorithms cannot read lips. In order to rank for
your target keywords, they must be available to the search
engines’ spiders in text form. If you’re placing videos on
your site, optimize your titles and surrounding text, and
include an edited transcript of the video. If you’re
syndicating them, optimize your external titles and tags.
Second, focus on inbound links. An effective video SEO
campaign relies on contextually related links pointing from
a wide breadth of sites. Videos that spark a groundswell of
attention – whether through entertainment, information, or
controversy – can achieve this easily.
Third, integrate a social media sharing component. You want
viewers to share your videos with their friends on
Facebook. You want them to “Tweet” about your videos on
Twitter. You want them to bookmark your videos on
StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious. These social media sites
can form the backbone of your video SEO campaign, driving
waves of inbound links to your site.
Key Factors In Choosing A Video SEO Company
Traditional search optimization is a mature strategy. SEO
specialists have honed their craft for more than a decade.
By contrast, video SEO is still an evolving science. Even
though it leverages the core tenets of a traditional SEO
campaign, the rise of social media and video-sharing sites
have infused video SEO with enormous complexity. Hiring a
video SEO company removes the need to keep up with the
roiling landscape. The key is using the right criteria to
identify a proficient firm.
A professional video SEO company should have an established
track record that shows a keen grasp of the search engines’
organic algorithms. That track record should also
demonstrate an ability to evolve as the algorithms change.
Many search optimization experts were completely unprepared
for the debut of Universal Search. By extension, so too,
were their clients.
Leveraging Video SEO For More Traffic And Higher Conversions
A carefully executed video SEO campaign can sharply
increase your exposure within the search engine’s natural
listings. When implemented as a component of a
multi-pronged search engine marketing campaign, it can
drive more targeted traffic to your site. Targeted traffic
translates into higher conversions. If you are not yet
utilizing video SEO for your site, your current organic
rankings may be more vulnerable than you realize.
Do You Really Want Your Site on Page One of Google?
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Do You Really Want Your Site on Page One of Google?
Do you really want your website on page one of Google for your
chosen keyword phrase(s)? What do you want your online marketing
campaign to accomplish for you?
I asked a potential new SEO Coaching client last week this first
question. From my end of the phone call, it sounded as if he
almost fell out of his chair!
I followed up by asking him if he could ever think of ANY reason
for his website pages NOT to be found on page 1 in the Google
SERPs (search engine results pages).
How ’bout you? Can you think of any reasons you’d NOT want
your pages to be found for your targeted keyword phrases on page
1?
Keep in mind, I’m talking about your chosen keyword search
phrases.
I can think of at least 3 reasons. Maybe you can come up with
some of your own.
Is there Commercial Intent?
Let’s say you have not just a page 1 Google result, but you’re
actually the first result. Here is an important question for you
to ask yourself.
What is the commercial intent of this keyword phrase? Do the
words contained in the keyword phrase give any indication of
someone getting ready to spend money on a product or service
like you offer?
For instance, compare these keyword phrases: Keyword Research,
Keyword Research Specialist and Keyword Research Consultant. The
latter 2 phrases give an indication of someone who is getting
ready to spend money.
You can also Google the Microsoft Commercial Intent Tool
(http://adlab.microsoft.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/) and
consider its results when evaluating your keyword search
phrase choices.
If you are targeting a keyword phrase that has questionable
commercial intention at best, is there any reason to really
be found on page 1? Wouldn’t it be better to target more
appropriate phrases instead?
If there’s no commercial intent, how does that help your online
marketing?
Can you see where I’m going?
How Much Traffic Really Matters
Now, I’m giving you a choice: you can have a first page result
(with commercial intent) and your position number is 4.
Your other choice is a different keyword search phrase with a
second page result, position number 12, also with commercial
intent.
So, the choice is obvious?
Well, I forgot to give you the rest of the details.
The first page choice has monthly search queries for its
phrase of 3,240.
The second page result choice has monthly search queries for
its phrase of 22,167.
Do you still believe that the best choice in this example is the
first page result?
According to numbers from Aaron Wall’s site, approximately 6%
of search users will click on that number 4 result in Google.
That’s 194 visitors in a month.
This is figuring average title and description tags of typical
online marketing ability to convert to a click. “Your mileage
may vary.”
And for that second choice, the second page result? Over 1%
should click on the search result, but let’s use just 1%.
That’s 222 visitors per month.
Last time I checked, 222 is more than 194, so the second page
result trumps the first page result, because the second page
result has much more traffic than can convert to a transaction.
How Many Google AdWords Ads Show for your Chosen Keyword?
If you don’t see many AdWords ads, this should be a warning!
One of 2 problems exist (or both):
1. There isn’t enough traffic for AdWords advertisers to target
the phrase.
2. There isn’t commercial viability for the phrase.
Either way, is a first page result going to help you? Probably
not.
The Value of a Committed Searcher
Want a recipe to waste your time (or your employees’)?
Get a first page result in Google for your keyword search phrase
and place your toll-free phone number in big numbers on the top
right of each of your Web pages.
People clicking the first result in the SERPs are often less
serious than those who go through the first few results or who
continue searching onto the second page.
There may be something to be said for avoiding people who almost
randomly click the first result and who may have impulse control
“issues”.
Now, if you have a large staff to answer your incoming phone
calls AND if your conversion rate from those calls is strong,
then the potential problem I described probably isn’t a problem
for your business.
On the other hand, if you are a solo professional, this strategy
can be hazardous!
How are you going to perform your paid work when you get
“Internet lookiloos” asking you questions they could get
answered, if they would simply read a few words on your
website?
Are these the best potential clients for your services or
products and the best use of your time?
A second page result could bring you more serious potential
customers, people who might be more likely to actually READ your
website content, understand your products or services better and
who might be more likely to convert to a transaction.
It’s sure something to think about. 
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against first page rankings for
your online marketing. I’m just for thinking a little further
down the road than JUST first page rankings.
Google Caffeine And The New Ranking Factors
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 1:55 PM
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Google Caffeine And The New Ranking Factors
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009
Google Caffeine is the name given to Google’s “Next Generation”
search engine, which it will use to rank and index all the pages
on the wonderful world wide web. According to all indications,
this is not just another one of Google’s infamous Updates, but a
major “Overhaul” of its index and algorithm – the complex formula
and calculations Google uses to rank all web pages, including
yours.
If that doesn’t sound ominous enough, according to Matt Cutts
(Google Spokesperson) one database is already showing Google
Caffeine, and the full blown version will be released after the
holidays. The reasoning behind this – Google doesn’t want to
upset webmasters and site owners during the lucrative holiday
buying season. In the past, other major Google Updates have come
around this time of the year, most notably the “Florida Update”
which severely affected many web sites and webmasters.
Recently, Google has been more aware and much more generous to
webmasters by being more open and forthcoming in regards to how
it indexes its pages. This time around, webmasters were even
given access to a beta version of Caffeine which Google released
last summer (’09) where webmasters could check to see how well
their keywords and site would fare in this new search index.
This beta site (www2.sandbox.google.com) has now been taken down
by Google.
Like any professional search engine marketer who works online, I
was constantly checking my sites and keywords in Google’s new
search engine. I have drawn some conclusions from what I have
observed, but please be aware it is often very foolish to draw
conclusions and make predictions from your own small sampling of
results. You can end up with egg on your face very quickly,
especially when you consider Google is probably still making
adjustments and refinements on Caffeine as it analyzes the
results.
However, there are certain ranking factors that even Google is
telling us about, mainly “Site Speed” or how fast your site
loads will play a part in how its ranked. We have also heard a
lot about “Broken Links” and if your page or site has them, then
it will probably be ranked lower. Of course, linking out to “Bad
Neighborhoods” will probably still not be a good practice, if you
want higher rankings within Google.
It should not come as a shock or a surprise, that “Over-All Page
Quality” will play a greater role in how well your page ranks.
Keep in mind, Google is like any other company putting out a
product, if that product doesn’t have a high standard of
quality, it reflects badly back on everyone concerned. Google’s
SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) are the key to all their
online revenue, they must do everything in their power to keep
that product fast, relevant, current and above all high quality.
Therefore, expect “OnPage Factors” to play a much greater role
in Google Caffeine. Quality unique content, page design, good
navigation, title, meta tags, description, keyword density, alt
tags, page views, bounce rate, traffic numbers, time spent on
page, and the number of social bookmarks may play an increased
role in achieving high rankings. A perfectly optimized keyworded
page, with the keyword in the title, description, meta tags, alt
tags, on the page… will probably get you ranked higher in
Caffeine, as well as most search engines on the web.
This may be pure speculation on my part, but one of the areas
Caffeine will be addressing or incorporating is “Social
BookMarking”, that is the number of social bookmarks a page
receives will determine how high it is ranked. I also believe
one of the major reasons these bookmarks will become much more
important has to do with the whole nasty issue of link buying.
Now, the integrity of Google’s index is not in question, but any
savvy marketer or webmaster knows any individual or company with
deep pockets and huge resources can buy their way into the top
spot. Despite Google’s attempt to stop it, link buying and
keyword positioning, is a thriving industry on the web. Rightly
or wrongly, money and unlimited resources will get you or your
company to the top in organic search, regardless of which search
engine you’re targeting.
All moral and ethnical issues aside, the small webmaster and/or
online marketer is stuck right in the middle, with Google on one
side and these major multinational competitors on the other.
Looming on the horizon is Google Caffeine, a new sheriff in town!
What New Rules Will This Sheriff Bring?
The major question here is this: has the importance of
backlinking been downplayed in this new index in favor of the
keyworded domain and onsite content and optimization? Has there
been a major shift to listing more quality content rather than
relying on the number of backlinks a site is receiving, even
from important related themed sites? The major problem and
question to Google is this: if links can be bought, how do you
keep your organic results democratic and fair, which was the
original intention of Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they
started Google in 1998.
One Possible Solution is Social Bookmarking.
Will we see an ever growing importance of social bookmarks and
links in this new index. It is quite easy to buy 1000 links, but
getting 1000 or 10,000 “re-tweets” is a little more difficult.
Similarly, getting two or three thousand “diggs” may be a little
harder to pull off. Same goes for Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Facebook fans… well you get the picture. Will Google’s use of
these new social sites make Caffeine faster, more relevant, more
current and most importantly of all, can it bring some democracy
back into their index?
Of course, nothing in Google’s new index will be that cut and
dry, that black and white. Other ranking factors such as age of
site, past history and reputation, traffic numbers, authority
branding… will all play a role in whether your site gets
listed on that all important first page. However, on page
factors may play a greater role – title, meta tags, description,
keyword density, alt tags, page views, bounce rate, time spent
on page, and the number of social bookmarks may play an
increased role in achieving high rankings. Website speed or how
fast your site loads may also be a new ranking factor.
Underlying this whole issue is the fact which many experienced
webmasters/marketers already know, Google’s SERPs are not a
one-trick pony anymore. For very lucrative (monetized) keyword
phrases, Google’s results are broken up into Five categories…
Info listings, Video listings, News Listings, Shopping Listings
and Corporate Listings. Forget Caffeine, this is probably the
fairest move Google has made in the last few years to make its
SERPs more democratic.
Another even more puzzling issue for me concerning Google
Caffeine is how much emphasis or ranking power will it place on
“Keyworded Domains”, domain names which have your keyword or
keyword phrase in them. Will these domains be ranked higher?
Webmasters and marketers for years have been telling us we
should always pick domain names which have our major keywords in
them. Just common sense really, someone searching for “brown
widgets” will more likely than not find that item at a domain
called brownwidgets(dot)com or brownwidget(dot)com. The major
SEO reasoning, all your backlinks will inherently have your
searched keyword in the URL, thus bringing it up in the
rankings.
Against this whole backdrop, everyone has to realize the web
itself is evolving, new sites like Twitter, FaceBook… have
changed the whole cyber landscape. Likewise, the web user is
also changing and becoming more web savvy in how they use the
web. Will search engines, not only Google, take a back-seat role
in how we find stuff on the web? As major sites are branded into
the web user’s psyche, will these users go directly to these
sites, by-passing the search engines altogether?
As the web evolves, keyworded domains will become more valuable
and this value will be reflected in the quality of the site. If
you’re making thousands or even millions from your keyworded
domain, you can afford to invest in quality content and design.
Cream rises to the top. Gradually, as these domains become more
valuable, they will probably be snapped up by marketers and
companies who know just how to exploit them. Thousands upon
thousands of keyworded domains will probably be bought up by
multi-billion dollar corporations who finally realize what the
web has to offer. This new evolved web will probably be much
more narrower in scope and very topic specific.
In the “Next Generation” Web the Re-Direct Shall Be King!
Will the role of the search engines, whether it be Google or
Bing/Yahoo, become less and less important, as savvy web
searchers go directly to a site by typing in the keyworded
domain to find what they’re looking for on the web? Cutting out
the middleman may just become a world wide passion as big
multinational and fully funded corporations snap up all these
valuable and lucrative keyworded domains. Will we see these
domains grow in importance and the search engines take more of a
back-up role? Human nature dictates we always take the fastest
route to our destination and the web will be no exception to
this rule.
Have all the smart people at Google figured this out already,
and designed the new Google Caffeine to reflect the growing
importance of the keyworded domain? Of course, we can only
speculate when it comes to just what Google is planning and
doing with its next generation search engine, but will onsite
factors and your domain name play a greater role in their
organic SERPs?
Regardless of what the new sheriff actually does, when the dust
finally settles on all these latest developments, the keyworded
domain will probably be standing tall, watching the sun rise on
a brand new day.
Website Traffic Generation Planning and Methodologies
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 1:51 PM
Friday, January 15, 2010
Website Traffic Generation Planning and Methodologies
By Duncan Wierman (c) 2009
Real Estate internet marketing is like any other kind of
marketing, you’re trying to reach a niche market and must
plan accordingly. You have to start by identifying your
target market in order to develop your message conveying
exactly the kind of high value business proposition which
your niche will respond to.
The first steps are to:
1) Identify your target market; start with geo targeting
and work with the demographics from there.
2) Decide how you want to be perceived by this target
market and decide how you’ll foster this perception.
3) Identify and refine your value proposition.
Once you’ve done this, the next step is to develop and
distribute your value proposition, making sure that your
value proposition is perceived by your target market
exactly as intended. In marketing, shaping consumer
perception isn’t just the most important thing: it’s
everything.
You have to start by positioning yourself to be perceived
in a specific way; from here, you’ll need to maintain,
develop, grow or alter this market position as you deem
necessary.
The real challenge is putting these principles into action:
Driving Traffic
There are some important principles of traffic generation
you need to understand in order to be successful at
bringing visitors into your website.
There are both principles and rules of traffic generation;
principles have to do with your approach to the task and
the rules are the practical nuts and bolts of driving
traffic. You need to have an understanding of the larger
picture before you can successfully put the practical
techniques into action.
What you’ll usually see a lot of is the techniques alone.
While this is still valuable information, you probably
won’t get far with these techniques if you aren’t versed in
the underlying principles of traffic generation.
These are the most important principles of traffic
generation:
* Traffic generation isn’t a black art – it’s something
which largely relies on common sense and methods which
can be replicated with consistent results.
* The reason people usually fail in their traffic
generation efforts is that they don’t truly commit to
making traffic generation techniques a fully integrated
part of their business strategy.
* You need to create a plan for driving traffic. Think of
it as a road map; follow it, but remember that it’s not
carved in stone. Your plan can and should evolve to
reflect your real life experience and results.
* Continually test and track the results of your traffic
generation efforts – and adjust your plan accordingly.
* Set goals for yourself and as you meet them, raise the
bar; traffic generation is a process, not a single
objective.
* Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see results
immediately.
* Remember that driving traffic begins with building your
site – Why is this? Because your site should be built
from the ground up with visitors in mind. Look at other
sites in your industry to gain an understanding of
patterns of visitor behavior.
See what these other sites are doing; don’t hesitate to
take a page from your competition’s playbook if you see
something which is working for them.
This is where things can become challenging; it’s something
like standing in Grand Central Station at rush hour with a
megaphone, trying to be heard above the noise of the crowd.
The goal here is to get the attention of your target
market and get them to come to your site.
All business is arbitrage. You’re taking something which is
cheap (to you, at least) and exchanging it for something of
higher value – buy low, sell high.
For example, SEO and other free traffic generation
strategies essentially trade your time for traffic which is
of higher value to you; this value may be measured directly
in monetary terms or in other means (for instance, as
signups to a list). The same is true of paid methods of
driving traffic like PPC advertising; you’re paying what
you deem to be a small amount for something else which you
see as more valuable.
If you’ve been reading carefully so far, you may have
noticed that I haven’t said a word about being indexed by
the search engines; that’s because this falls under the
heading of techniques, not the principles of traffic
generation. While you do of course want to be indexed, this
isn’t your primary objective – and it’s something which
will happen naturally as you work to drive traffic using
other strategies.
Don’t lose sleep over the search engine crawlers; they will
come sooner or later. Remember that even once your site is
indexed, it’s no guarantee that visitors will follow.
Focusing on being indexed is losing sight of the forest for
the trees. This will happen anyway as a side effect of
using other traffic generation methods. What you should be
focused on is getting targeted traffic to your site. For
instance, if you exchange links with another site (or even
a directory) relevant to your industry, the search engine
crawlers will follow these links when indexing this other
site and voila! Your site will be indexed.
What you need to do is to let the web know that your site
is there while simultaneously driving targeted traffic. The
best way to do so is to create links to your site from
other sites; not only do these result in your site being
indexed, but back links are great SEO and of course, they
can generate traffic directly through visitor clicks.
Here are a few things you can do to start driving traffic
almost immediately:
* Whenever you add new content to your site or blog,
submit this content to the social bookmarking sites
(Digg, Technorati, etc.). Make an effort to give your
posts attention-getting titles so that people will be
interested in reading your content.
* Post comments on blogs which have a similar audience to
the one you’re trying to reach. Don’t post comment spam;
write real, thoughtful comments and include a link back
to your own site.
* Start contributing to forums and message boards relevant
to your industry.
* Create an RSS feed for your site or blog and submit this
feed to directories.
* Write articles on your niche topic and submit them to
article directories.
* Join link exchanges
* Build a linkwheel; create blogs and pages on platforms
like HubPages, Squidoo, Facebook, etc. and link them to
each other in a web ring-style structure. This helps
the search engines identify the topic of your site and
will improve your page rank as well.
These techniques can start driving traffic to your site
very quickly; if you implement all of these methods and
follow the basic principles of traffic generation, you
really can’t fail at bringing in targeted traffic.
So why do so many people fail at traffic generation?
Because they don’t stick with it and follow through; far
too many website owners give up after a few days or a few
weeks, saying that it’s just too much work for too little
result – instead of analyzing their efforts and figuring
out what is and isn’t working for them.
So how about search engine optimization (SEO)? Here’s what
you really need to know about:
1) Focusing on search engines rather than your potential
customers is always a losing bet. If you’re putting all of
your energy towards keeping up with the search engines and
their constantly evolving algorithms, you’re losing sight
of your visitors.
2) Optimizing your site for very competitive (i.e. popular)
keywords means fighting an uphill battle with no guarantee
of success.
3) Generally speaking, you’ll do best with long tail
keywords; these require far less work in terms of
optimizing your content. Long tail keywords are also very
effective at attracting targeted traffic. The effort you
put into optimizing your content for long tail keywords
will bring you much better results than the same amount of
time and effort spent optimizing your site for popular
keywords.
4) Offsite optimization is just as important (if not more
so) than on site SEO. Back links can do wonders for your
traffic; but remember to keep all of your efforts focused
on visitors, not search engines whether you’re working on
on-site or offsite SEO.
5) Base your traffic generation strategy on visitors and
the search engines will follow.
6) As you develop and implement SEO techniques, always keep
in mind how people actually look for information online -
that’s why long tail keywords are so important. It’s a lot
easier to rank high in the search results for long tail
keywords. Being in the top 10 on Google for several long
tail keywords will bring you a lot more traffic than being
on the 10th page of results for a highly competitive
keyword (which is where you’ll start out if you’re very
lucky if you choose to go this route).
Remember that it’s a long way to the top; be patient and
enjoy the view on your way up. Stick with it and you’ll
eventually have more traffic than you know what to do with!
20 Tools for Tracking Social Media Marketing
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 1:29 PM
Thursday, January 14, 2010
20 Tools for Tracking Social Media Marketing
By Merle (c) 2010 MerlesWorld
(http://MerlesWorld.com)
Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter make it easy
for people to come together and share opinions, experiences and
thoughts on a number of topics. Smart companies understand this
and are using the power of social media to connect and inform
their customers, and potential customers. Referred to as “Social
Media Marketing”, it’s a smart way to open the lines of
communication between you and your prospects.
Social media activities run the gamut from Blogging, micro
blogging sites such as Twitter, social networking communities
such as LinkedIn and Facebook, video and music uploading sites,
discussion forums, photo sharing and more. With so many
different sites and ways to participate, it can be difficult to
keep track of all your efforts.
Participating in social media doesn’t take a lot of money, but
it is very time consuming and businesses want to know that all
of this investment in time is paying off. Before launching a
campaign, you should have a firm grasp on what it is you’re
trying to accomplish. Is it increasing website traffic? Getting
more ezine subscribers? Having more people download your free
ebook or whitepaper? Or maybe you just want to work on your
company’s brand image. Whatever it is, you need to have a plan.
As the old saying goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going,
you’ll never get there”. Have your game plan intact before
getting started in marketing yourself, or your company with
social media.
There are many different forms of social media, so it’s
impossible to use them all. Pick three or four, and funnel the
majority of your efforts there. Even if you won’t be working
them all, at the very least you should claim your name or
company name on as many social services as possible. You don’t
want to find out later that someone has the user name that you
want. If you need to see if your chosen user name is available
try http://Namechk.com which checks dozens of social media
networking and bookmarking sites all at once to see if it’s
available. Claim your name now so you won’t end up being sorry
later.
So how do you monitor all the buzz? How do you monitor your
brand and protect your hard earned reputation? I thought you’d
never ask. There isn’t one fool-proof method but there are many
services and tools out there that will make it easy to see who’s
talking about you online. Some are free and others will make you
pull out your wallet.
These “online reputation management” tools, as they’re often
referred to, will help you to define keywords or phrases you
wish to track and then watch for any mention of your company
name, products, or services. It’s important to defend and monitor
your online reputation. Similar to High School reputations,
protecting your image online is the name of the game, and just
as in real life, everyone has one to maintain.
Let’s take a look at some of the measuring and tracking tools at
your disposal:
1) http://BackTweets.com : A search engine for Twitter. See
who’s tweeting your links and more. Can also sign up for email
alerts of new findings.
2) http://Addictomatic.com : A little different than the others,
you type in a keyword, topic or phrase and out it goes searching
the top blogs, news sites, Google, Technorati, Ask, YouTube,
Flickr, Digg, Topix and more. You’ll be given a personalized
results page to bookmark with everything it finds related to
your topic.
3) http://Buzzoo.net : All about Internet buzz, it tracks
several different websites to bring you what’s “hot” right now.
4) http://Surchur.com : Search for the latest and greatest on
topics that are popular right now. Type in a keyphrase and it
searches blogs, social news sites, photo and video sites for
your chosen topic.
5) http://Commentful.Blogflux.com : This service watches for
comments on blog posts, Digg, Flickr, and others and notifies
you of any findings.
6) http://AlertRank.com : A better way to organize and sort
Google alerts. Get a daily report emailed to you in a
spreadsheet format of what it finds.
7) http://BoardTracker.com : A search engine for forums only.
Monitor discussion boards and be notified by email when a thread
matching your search terms is discovered. Free to use.
http://www.google.com/alerts : I’ve been using this “secret
weapon” for years. Simply type in your name or company name and
receive daily emails of results found. They do the work, you
receive the links. Free and nice.
9) http://BrandsEye.com : An online reputation management tool
with a real-time, concise overview of your online reputation.
Multiple levels of services and pricing available. Starting at
$1.00.
10) http://Twazzup.com : Another Twitter only search engine.
11) http://SiteMention.com : Type in your url and find out
what’s being said about you. The results returned are gathered
from Google Blog Search, Twitter, FriendFeed, YouTube, MySpace,
Digg, Delicious and many more.
12) http://Brandwatch.net: This service tracks your brands,
companies, even the competition. Sign up for free weekly updates
on any brand. Their detailed reports break down what sites like
you, your most talked about features, weekly summary of all
blogs and forum activity. Very similar to the old “press
clipping” service.
13) http://Trackur.com : A tool that scans many websites,
including blogs, news, image and video sites, forums and
notifies you of any mention of your brand, products/services.
Easy to use and affordable. Prices vary depending on need, a
personal account is only $18.00 a month, corporate account
$88.00 a month with other options also available. Try a
“personal” account free for 14 days.
14) http://FiltrBox.com : This one searches online news sources,
Twitter and others to find out what’s being said about you or
your company. Pricing is based on the number of users, but there
is a free version that provides “5 filters” and 15 days of what
they call “article history”.
15) http://SocialMention.com/alerts : Just like Google Alerts
but for social media. Enter your keyword phrase and email address
to be notified of any new findings. Searches blogs, microblogs
like Twitter, bookmarks, comments, events, images, news, videos
and more.
16) http://BlogPulse.com : A search engine that searches only
for data posted to blogs. Enter your keyword, hit submit and
off it goes to gather results.
17) http://BackType.com : Billing itself as a “conversational
search engine” they index millions of conversations from social
networks, blogs and other social media.
18) http://sm2.techrigy.com : Industry insiders claim this to be
the leading social media monitoring solution online. Choice of
free or paid version. Free is limited to five searches and 1,000
results. There are three paid professional levels: Gold, Diamond,
or Platinum.
19) http://ReputationDefender.com : This paid service finds out
everything there is to know about you online, and if negative
information is found they try to have it removed. Different
types of plans are available such as “My Reputation”, “My
Privacy”, starting at only $14.95 a month.
20) http://Topsy.com : Topsy will track your tweets that have
been retweeted so you can find out who’s been sending you all
that “link love”. Type in your Twitter user name and you’ll be
amazed at what you find.
If you’d like to track incoming traffic from your various social
media profiles, an easy way to do it using Google Analytics can
be found here http://Tinyurl.com/kuc9rL
Just as there are many ways to market your company using social
media, as you can see, there’s a multitude of tools and services
at your disposal to track and see if all of that hard work is
paying off. Smart companies realize the importance of social
media in their marketing efforts and are utilizing it on some
level. How smart are you?
10 Tips to Grow Your Business Using Online Video
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 1:23 PM
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
10 Tips to Grow Your Business Using Online Video
By Diana D’Itri (c) 2010
Lacking any information to the contrary, many businesses still
think that all they need to do to get new clients is to put
their name and face in the Yellow Pages or online social
directories, get some professional looking business cards, a
website and Voila! It’s the old adage “build it and they will
come”.
Trouble is, that’s what their competitors are doing also and in
this day and age, it’s just not enough.
Does Your Business Stand Out Online?
Most advertising on the Web follows a time-honored format,
although some might call it a time-worn format as it does little
to differentiate itself. You can bet that a high percentage of
this advertising will be ignored and the money spent on it will
be wasted.
So how does a company stand out from the crowd online?
Thanks to an oversupply of similar text, claims, and
presentation – coupled with a short 21st century attention span
- your website has less than ten seconds to move a visitor to
action. If it doesn’t, that visitor will click away to another
site, and then another. Therefore, it’s critical that you find a
way to break through the noise your competitors are making. But
even that’s not enough.
Statistics show that even the best-looking websites generate
conversion rates of under one percent, so for every 100 visitors
you do manage to get, less than one will call or email you.
Sound bleak? Thinking of redirecting more of your advertising
budget back to the Yellow Pages? Don’t. You’re on the right
track – you just haven’t leveraged all the power available to
you online.
One-to-Many Communication. On-on-One Feel.
Most websites are little more than electronic versions of Yellow
Page advertising. For the most part, they don’t encourage
interaction beyond the obligatory “Contact me for more
information” plea. These sites don’t encourage trust any more
than their print counterparts. They don’t give visitors the
warm-and-fuzzy feeling that a face-to-face meeting would.
But they can.
Searching for a local service provider online can be a daunting
prospect, but even more daunting than the search is deciding
which provider to use once you get to the page, especially since
most websites promise the standard good service, competitive
pricing and high quality.
So how does a business differentiate itself from the sea of
competition? Web video makes this possible on a grand scale.
Thanks to rapidly improving technology, it’s easier than ever to
add that warm-and-fuzzy, face-to-face element to your site,
replicate an in-person interview, and offer your visitors an
opportunity to check you out before picking up the phone. With
Web video, you can present an interview that addresses all the
questions and concerns of potential clients. You can keep them
on your site longer and give them insight into the “business
behind the business.” In a way that wasn’t possible even a few
years ago, business owners can now speak directly to their
audiences and showcase their personalities and areas of
expertise. This is especially helpful if you are a professional
service provider.
Any business that relies on conveying trust-ability will benefit
from this type of web marketing. Really, it’s one-to-many
communication with a one-on-one feel. It’s the perfect ice
breaker and an efficient means of generating the interest and
trust needed to compel potential clients to make an appointment
and do business.
A high-quality Web interview placed strategically on your site
is a huge timesaver for you and prospective clients because you
reach a wide audience in minimal time. Potential clients get the
information they need to pre-qualify – and pre-sell – themselves
before they call.
Online video delivers some of the best ROI of any advertising
medium today and if set up properly, actually ranks higher
than text now by the major search engines like Google. Short of
spending valuable face time with a potential client (often times
a poorly qualified potential client) there is simply no better
way to forge a personal connection with them. With that in mind,
here are 10 tips to help you get the most of your online video
marketing efforts.
10 Tips for Making the Most of Online Video
1. Make Sure Your Video is Professionally Done.
This is an absolute must. The whole point here is to establish
credibility and trust, but you’ll do the opposite with a poorly
executed and produced video. Yes, many of the videos you find on
sharing sites are mediocre at best, but that is changing rapidly
as companies begin to see the value of promoting themselves in
this manner. In fact, a recent Permission TV survey found that
67% of 400 hundred top executives intended to focus their online
marketing efforts on video in 2009. The rush is coming – find a
personable, engaging interviewer and a top notch production crew
to really stand out.
2. Submit Your Video to as Many Outlets as Possible.
While YouTube is the clear leader here, there are many other
video sharing sites worthy of consideration. Here are some
others you won’t want to pass up:
� Google Video: http://video.google.com
� Yahoo! Video: http://video.yahoo.com
� Daily Motion: http://www.dailymotion.com
� MySpaceTV: http://vids.myspace.com
� MetaCafe: http://www.metacafe.com
� Revver: http://www.revver.com
� Veoh: http://www.veoh.com
� Blinkx: http://www.blinkx.com
� Break: http://www.break.com
3. Embed Your Video on the Front Page of Your Site.
Don’t hide what’s going to become one of your most effective
selling tools on a dusty inside page. Get it out front.
Customers and search engines will love you for it.
4. Find Out What Search Terms Your Potential Clients are Using
and Put Them in Your Video’s Title.
If you don’t know what words clients in need of your services
are typing into Google and other search engines, get
professional help or use some of the resources featured on this
page. Once you’ve identified these terms, use the most popular
in your video’s title.
5. Make Your Tags and Descriptions SEO-friendly, too.
Most video sharing sites let you tag videos with keywords and
post a short description, so get the most out of these by
sprinkling in the search terms you’ve identified.
6. Don’t Forget Your Thumbnail.
A thumbnail is a still shot from your video that appears along
with search results. Don’t waste this opportunity to present
yourself in the best light possible – choose a key moment from
your video, preferably one where you’re smiling as you speak
with your interviewer.
7. Link Back to Your Site.
Put your URL near the top of your video’s description. You’ll
get a higher search ranking and potential clients will quickly
learn where to go for more information.
8. Interact With Your Viewers.
Most video sharing sites allow viewer comments. Use this
opportunity to answer questions, respond to comments, and
further promote your business.
9. Consider a Pay-Per-Click Campaign.
Natural search engine optimization, while effective, takes time
to bear fruit. In the meantime, you might want to jump start the
process with a pay-per-click campaign that gives you a sponsored
search listing. You can learn more about PPC advertising at:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/ads,
http://sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing, and
http://advertising.microsoft.com/search-advertising
10. Add New Content Often.
Search engines look for it and so do potential clients. Keep
your content fresh and up-to-date and keep visitors coming back
for more.
With an ever-increasing stream of competition, it’s more
important than ever to stand out from the crowd. These days
standing out means maximizing your online presence and
leveraging the technology to present the unique advantages of
you and your firm. There’s no better way for a growth-oriented
business to build a solid and secure future than by using
effective and affordable online video.
Use these free resources to get a handle on the terms that
potential clients are using to search for you right now.
Wordtracker: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
Google AdWords: http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Keyword Discovery: http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
KwMap: http://www.kwmap.net
Google Trends: http://www.google.com/trends
Google Matt Cutts on Site Speed and the Caffeine Update
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 10:36 AM
Sunday, January 10, 2010
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