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Archive for January, 2010
Jan. 29th 2010
When it comes to search engine strategies, there are some things that everybody does. Of course, your business is individual, and you need to stand out from the pack. When it comes to search engine marketing, though, it’s like a war with a hundred competitors vying for top spot. Neglecting the weapons that are in other people’s arsenals won’t get you the victory! Today we look at the basic search engine strategies for the war fought over Google territory.
1. Make sure your content is crawlable
Your page content should be in plain text, preferably. Images, frames and Flash cannot be crawled by search engine spiders, so anything that appears here should be minimal and not text-based.
2. Tagging
Your heading tags are one of the most important ranking factors currently. Not including your keywords here will make your SEO campaign a losing battle. Meta descriptions are no longer as important to the Google algorithm, but are important to consumers, so don’t ignore them either!
3. Make sure you submit
People will tell you that search engine submission is not necessary, as Google bots will crawl your site eventually anyway. This is true at one level – but why let your competitors keep gaining search engine respect (it matters how long your domain has been recognized by the search engines) while you wait for Googlebots? Submit your site, or use a service. This also helps you get listed on plenty of other search engines that have less, but not insignificant, traffic.
4. Never, ever give up!
Keep on doing your link building, publishing your articles, putting out your press releases, submitting to directories, and blogging. Of course, you can always have someone do the dirty work for you!
5. Stay up to date with how the search engines work
Google’s algorithm is constantly being fine-tuned. Sometimes a previously white hat tactic turns black hat, sometimes a very important element is devalued. Your search engine strategy should incorporate having an understanding of how the territory is formed … or hiring someone who does!
Jan. 28th 2010
We all know that we need to maintain our SEO and Internet marketing efforts. It is clear that they aren’t a one-time activity, but a long-term investment that must be maintained. Links must constantly be built or baited, blogs have to go out every month, and there are always new directories to submit to. But there are several factors that can have a big effect on your Google ranking that are very rarely discussed! If you have a significant Internet advertising investment, it makes sense to protect it with the following measures.
1. Domain name registrar reliability and support
Cheap domain name registration seems like the way to go when you are opening a website. What could possibly go wrong? Well, if there is an issue with your domain name and the website is inaccessible for a period of time, it is likely to affect your Google rankings. Google will find your site again when it is back up, or you could manually submit it – but the ranking you’ve done so much Internet advertising to gain might be much lower.
2. Renewing your domain
If your domain name expires (especially if it is a high value one), there will be people waiting in the wings to take it up – don’t worry about that! Your SEO ranking that your Internet advertising gained you is linked to your URL, not to your site content, so someone else could benefit from your work by registering what was previously your domain name.
3. Phone support by hosting company
Downtime on your website host’s side can be as devastating as problems with the domain name registrar. Make sure your hosting company offers 24/7 phone support in case you discover a problem.
4. Website security
A new and worrying tactic that blackhat SEOs are using is to hack a website to insert their links into it – often invisibly. It won’t be till your rankings plummet despite your Internet advertising efforts that you find out about the hundreds of hidden (but indexed) links to unauthorized sites that appear on your domain. This can cause Google penalties that are hard to recover from.
Jan. 27th 2010
Popunder ads are sometimes derided as seedy, seen as a cheap alternative to ‘real’ advertising. In fact, popunder advertising has netted companies millions of dollars, and been used by brands that care deeply about their reputation … and yes, they have quite a reputation to care for! Today we are looking at some of the big names that have dabbled in popunder advertising on their sites.
1. Orbitz
This is the brand that began the whole popunder advertising craze, one of the biggest names to initiate and track a popunder advertising campaign from its beginning, and also one of the brands to make the biggest bucks from its campaigns. Orbitz saw big click through rates and enormous conversion statistics from their popunder campaign, and encouraged many others to get on the gravy train.
2. Tripadvisor
Tripadvisor used popunder ads for a significant amount of time, using them to push accommodation or accommodation providers in the location that the visitor was searching for information on. The ads themselves were very natural and non-intrusive.
3. Condenet
If there ever was a brand that cared about its image more than Conde Nast, I’ve yet to encounter it! The Conde Net site used popunder advertising for a while, and while their consumer interest is ongoing, they suffered no reputational damage.
4. J Brand Jeans
Another high-end company that turned the popunder advertising craze to its advantage in the past. They no longer use popunder ads throughout their site, but had success with them for a period.
5. Cingular
Back before this company merged with AT&T, you could find popunder advertising throughout their site, letting you know about special offers related to the pages you viewed, etc. Their popunder advertising was all contextual.
6. X10
This was one of the big names in popunder advertising for quite some time, experiencing huge success and perhaps even spawning Orbitz’s foray into the online marketing medium.
7. NY Times
This is a Conde Nast publication (you might remember them from company number 3!), which used to use popunder ads frequently on their site. They were limited to one per visitor per day, to keep the ads themselves novel and interesting.
8. Yahoo
They ran popunder advertising in the early 2000s for quite a while, and made quite a bit of revenue from them.
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Jan. 26th 2010
Being a startup can be tough. They say it takes money to make money, and that is very true. It also takes contacts to make more contacts, it takes customers to create more customers (through testimonials and word of mouth) … and psychologically, you need a little bit of success before you can start to fell confident enough of your idea to market it passionately. Things are just different when you are a startup – even web site linking is! Today we are looking at 6 more web site linking strategies that are great for startup sites and companies.
1. Press release submission
Submitting your press release to free sites will help get the word out about your new business and the hole you are filling in the market – and also start getting your link popularity building.
2. Create a Hubpage or Squidoo lens
A better quality version of submitting a single article to Ezinearticle or another directory. Squidoo lenses offer very comprehensive information on a subject, and Hubpages give well-researched information. They help position you as an expert in your field, even if your business hasn’t been n the web for vey long.
3. Profiles on social media
There are literally hundreds of social media sites – if you set up a profile or page for your business on several of them, and start ‘befriending’ people, you are well on your way to having a customer base.
4. Forum contributions
Are people asking difficult questions within your niche that you can answer? Start looking through forums for threads that people have started, and answer questions or provide information where you can. You shouldn’t hard sell in this situation – look for posts where the solution that your product provides is naturally evident.
5. Hold a contest
Find a way to make a competition out o promoting your website and business to other people – for example, offer a tiered reward structure for bringing people to your website, or a reward for the most creative advertising slogan. Get graphic designers involved too, creating your print ads as part of a competition. This creates much more buzz and publicity than simply outsourcing the design, the slogan, or the direct marketing would.
6. Extra blogs
You might already have a company blog, but do you have a blog on the Blogger.com platform, the WordPress.com platform, and Xanga? Start blogs here and link back to your site – this is a tried and true web site linking method that the experts use.
Jan. 25th 2010
We understand that not every person sees things the same way as another. It is one of the great philosophical problems … Socrates recognized it, and if you are smart with your email advertising, you will as well! There’s no need to start a dialogue with your recipients on the meaning of life, though. To see things from their point of view there are a few easy tricks that you, or your Internet marketing experts, will use. Here are some best practices for switching your email advertising perspective.
Preheaders
Everybody receives their email with different settings. Some messages come up with a bunch of blank boxes (not even an option to load the pictures!), and a line saying ‘If you cannot read this message, click here to view on the web’. This does nothing to compel your reader to open it. Use the preheader space to provide secondary info that supports your subject line, and include a link in anchor text here just in case it won’t load for some people.
Image positioning
If you have a single large image at the top of your email message, this might be all people see in their preview pane. However, if that picture doesn’t load, they just get a big blank. “Man, I wish people wouldn’t waste my time sending me blank junk!” your customer thinks … taking note of your business name and putting a mental black cross next to it. Not good!
Button copy
If all your button says is ‘Submit’, it will scare people away – even those who might have bought something through the message. If nothing else loads, your button copy should support the subject line. Use text like ‘Click for your free gift card’, or ‘Click to find out about the hidden dangers of white bread’.
Make your button bulletproof
Use HTML text instead of graphic text, and a color that stands out without clashing with the main background color for your button. Whichever way the message renders, people will be able to see the guts of it.
Share button
If you are sending a message with wide appeal, make it easy for people to share with others with a button like you see on many sites nowadays – the Share This button. Your recipients may be able to extend the reach of your email advertising message through Facebook, Delicious, Digg, etc.
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Jan. 22nd 2010
There are plenty of services out there that offer automated directory submissions, and the prices look extremely attractive. Unfortunately, as with many things in life, the older and slower way of doing things is actually the best! Manual directory submissions ensure that your site is included; but this is just one of several best practices for a seemingly point-and-click process that help ensure that the money you invest in directory submissions actually has the desired SEO effect. We check out some of the practices that are essential to effective directory submissions here.
Using anchor text
Unless the directory requires that you only include URLs with their physical address, not using anchor text in directory submissions is a missed opportunity the size of an airbus! It links your site to your keywords in Google, doubling the effectiveness of the link.
Indexed directories
If your own website isn’t indexed by Google, it won’t appear ANYWHERE in the search results for your keywords! Similarly, if any of the directories you submit to aren’t indexed by Google (usually due to webmaster error or black hat SEO tactics), there is no point listing your website there.
Related pages and directories
For best effect, submit your website to a directory that is somehow within your niche (either industry-wise, or location-wise). Then make sure you are listed in the most relevant category for your business. Google will assign more relevancy to a link when calculating your link popularity if the link’s context is relevant to your site.
Identifying relevance
Not sure whether Google will think the page is relevant to your business or not? There’s a quick way to help on some web pages – look for Google AdSense ads. If you have to, press Ctrl+F in your browser, ands search for ‘Ads by Google’. You’ll notice themes within the ads, and this will tell you what Google thinks the page is about. If it’s left field of your product offering, check out some different categories for your directory submission.
Jan. 21st 2010
Some article marketing tips are repeated everywhere on the web … write only informational content, make sure you keep the self-promotion for the author box, etc. Many good articles follow this advice, but take only baby steps beyond their original sphere of publishing. Social media and bookmarking sites are a great way to get exposure for your story, and if you’ve decided to use Digg as an adjunct to your article promotion, we have some article marketing tips for brainstorming for Diggable content.
Brainstorming Tip #1: Put yourself in others’ shoes
Your own personal biases might lead you to spend a lot of time creating an article that only a small set of people will find interesting. If you find it hard to know how much your personal biases are interfering, look for outside feedback from your colleagues and friends as to the ‘Digg-ability’ of your topic.
Brainstorming Tip #2: Broad demographics
Ordinarily in marketing, you would try to appeal strongly to a narrow demographic, rather than shallowly to a wide demographic. In article marketing with Digg though, quality actually means quantity! Think of a story that will appeal to a wide audience, not just a narrow one.
Brainstorming tip #3: Go for Digg hot topics
Just like Slashdot is big in the tech news sector, and Zenhabits is huge with the lifestyle crowd, Digg has its own peculiarities. If you can link anything on programming tricks, the Nintendo Wii, or industry news to your article, you should find a sizeable audience on Digg.
Brainstorming tip #4: Fear and relief
We’ve seen plenty of this type of headline in our life … ‘A Current Affair tells you about the hidden danger to your children that is in every school, at 6 o’clock tonight’. You know it’s nothing huge … but are compelled to watch it anyway. If your product can be framed in this way, you’ll be instantly Digg-able.
Brainstorming tip #5: What everybody wants
Article marketing tips rarely mention these few little categories that can instantly boost your readership. If you can:
* Make people feel good about themselves
* Help them genuinely save money (wide audience, remember)
* Help them genuinely save time
* Help them acquire a skill or talent easily (how to do xx in five easy steps)
* Make people feel good through other’s people’s misfortune (though it must be framed correctly)
Then you have big Digg potential!
Jan. 20th 2010
There are quite a few things to consider when you begin press release distribution. Will you use all of the free sites, or just one or two of the paid sites? Will you use your home page or deep links to your website? As a matter of fact, will you get an Internet marketing service or another professional to do all this for you, or will you go the hard yards yourself?
In fact, one question looms above all the others in importance, almost the sole determinant of the breadth that your press release distribution will achieve. That is whether your topic is newsworthy, or not. So, how do you write a press release that is worthy of the news? We give you a guide to some common occurrences, which news sites will pick up.
Specials and Promotions
People like to know about specials and promotions. The more coveted these are, the more newsworthy they make your press release … so choose your specials carefully! A 5% discount storewide might cost you more money, but garner less free press than putting on a promotion where all drinks are free every Wednesday from 3-6pm. Press release distribution breadth is generally good for this type of release.
Competitions
In the same way as promotions and specials, competitions are sure-fire attention getters for the public, and so very newsworthy. They cost extra money – but the breadth they give your press release distribution is well worth it.
Product launches
This may not be a big attention-getter in the world of press releases, but it is definitely newsworthy. If you recently launched a new product or service, write a press release about it!
Celebrity encounters
You don’t have to be Yves Saint Laurent to put out this sort of press release. If you have any famous customers, it is reason to publicize and celebrate … as long as you are not violating any privacy laws by doing so.
Staff changes
For major companies, changes in staff are often picked up by industry news sites when your press release distribution includes details. Get a positive quote from the outgoing and incoming members of staff, and you may even create a buzz about the event!
Commenting on social phenomena and news, making predictions
The success of each of these tactics depends on you being seen as an expert in your field. If you are based in Wisconsin and sell horse-riding supplies, you may not be seen as an expert in horseback riding … but you’re an expert on riding in Wisconsin, so start local. People desperately want to know what the future holds, so if you are fairly certain of any element it can bring a lot of unexpected coverage from your press release distribution.
Jan. 19th 2010
The world of SEO can be sort of like a very backwards fishing expedition. Google is the trawling net … your website is the big, juicy tuna waiting to be caught by it, and you actually WANT to be eaten up for lunch in a mornay! When you linkbait in your blog creation, it is sort of like improving the ‘health’ of your website. People are more likely to want to chow down on the biggest, muscliest, shiniest tuna, just as they will gravitate to the site that is the most content-rich. Linkbaiting is the most natural and valuable form of blog advertising – we explore the concept and look at how you can apply it.
What is linkbaiting?
Linkbaiting is nothing more than putting out content that people will want to link to. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?! Investigate a little further…
Why is linkbaiting a good thing?
If your blog creation includes powerful linkbait, you will get dozens, perhaps hundreds of sites linking to you, and potentially thousands of visitors that visit you through those links. Both of these individual factors help Google to recognize your website as valuable, and pushes you higher up the Google ranking for the keywords that are important to your business bottom line.
Is linkbaiting white hat or black hat?
Most definitely white hat! Google loves any content that people love. It is the ultimate ‘the customer is always right’ machine. Matt Cutts, famous Google blogger, has spoken about Linkbait on a few occasions, always positively. Remember that you aren’t really hooking customers in this little analogy … they are the ones that get to consume you!
Isn’t linkbaiting just saying something offensive or controversial in order to start arguments?
People do use linkbaiting in this way, but they are in the minority. Linkbait content can be a multitude of things – sometimes it gets link because of the controversy it creates, but most of the time links come to good value content. See below for more details!
How do I create content that gets lots of links?
There is a vague answer to this question, but it isn’t always what people want to hear! The main tactics for creating linkbait content are:
* Creating an original piece of research that people need
* Give something away (a competition is good linkbait)
* Tell people something unusual and interesting (‘Baby born with two faces!)
* Be controversial
Businesses generally have issues with all of these strategies. Research is time consuming, competitions are costly, finding something unusual and interesting is potluck, and being controversial might alienate some potential customers. The good news is, that strategies with a cost involved are almost always worth it. Linkbait blog creation takes some time, but will always be a tactic that Google loves you for.
Jan. 18th 2010
If you’re new to banner marketing, one of the first things you wondered was most likely about what the heck the difference between a CPC and a CPM was! The fact that many websites discussing banner marketing assume that the audience has knowledge of these things isn’t very helpful. Today we are looking at all those three- letter acronyms in banner marketing, and what they mean to your bottom line.
CTR
This stands for your Click Through Rate. It is (sometimes mistakenly!) considered the Holy Grail of banner marketing. The rate is worked out as a percentage, dividing the number of people that clicked on your ad by the number that it was displayed to. Many people aim for a higher click-through rate, some using less-than-honest tactics to get it, including false advertising. This is never recommended.
CPC, CPM, CPA
This set of triplets refers to the price that a website or content network charges you to display your banner marketing ad. You might pay either on a:
* CPC or cost per click model
* CPM or cost per thousand impressions model
* CPA or cost per action model
The advertiser information for a specific site might tell you which format they use; alternatively, your Internet marketing firm may set your business up with the model that best suits you.
However, no matter what payment model you are on, these triplets are also used to help understand the value you are getting from your banner marketing. Even if you are not paying for your ads per click, if you determine that the way you are measuring the value of the ads is the number of clicks they generate, you might divide out your total cost by the number of clicks you’ve received to get your personal cost per click. You could then compare this to the likelihood of a click generating a sale, and thus the value of that sale. This can be done with any of ‘cost per’ measurements.
ROS
ROS banner marketing means that you have the ‘run of site’. If you are happy for your banner to be shown anywhere on a site, and your product has broad appeal, ROS advertising is often much more cost effective than targeting your ads narrowly.
ROI
Not quite a banner marketing specific term, but important nonetheless, is your ROI: Return on Investment. How much money are those banner ads making you compared to what you’re putting into them? ROI can be tricky to measure though, with the possibility of people remembering or bookmarking your site for later purchases after viewing a banner ad, without directly clicking on it. ROI is a science unto itself.
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