Posts Tagged ‘search engine optimization’

The Future Progression Of Search Marketing

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE FOR SEO

One of Bob Dylan’s most famously quoted lyrics is, “For the times they are a-changin’” Never has that been more prevalent than in the world of internet marketing. Just a few years ago getting number one rankings on Google was relatively easy. We as internet marketing specialists can only look back at those times and think of the good old days of “low hanging fruit”. When Google started in 1998 the company indexed 26 million pages of content, by 2000 that number had reached 1 billion pages of content. As of 2008 there were well over 1 Trillion pages of indexed content on Google! That’s a lot of information to keep track of; more importantly a lot more competition for those marketing online.

With all of these additional pages, Google as well as other search engines, are constantly updating their algorithms to make searches more relevant and targeted to the user. Social search outlets as well as semantic web software (improvements in the working relationship between computer and man) are some of the new trends with search engines and search marketing companies alike.

THE RISE OF THE ACTIVLY SMART SEARCH ENGINE

Microsoft recently unveiled the new search engine Bing which works as a “decision search engine”. New additions to Bing over the old MSN include video and image preview within the search results, local information that is personalized in the organic rankings (traffic, business listings, maps, reviews etc…) and instant answers. For example, current information will be displayed first in the organic listings for sports scores, finance, airline flight status’, celebrity news, new products/services and many other search terms. Bing, in essence, is making search results based more upon geotracking, recent search history, account/profile settings and currently published articles. Google, believe it or not, keeps tabs on what you are searching for. Other search engines like Yahoo, as well as industry specific vertical search engines are quickly adopting these new methods of indexing. internet marketing just got more complicated!

The big question still remains; what does this mean for businesses looking to get number one rankings? It means that a website can no longer solely focus on proper keyword text optimization. The term ‘Digital Asset Optimization’ has been thrown around some in the past years as a term to describe the practice of taking all of a company’s digital assets and promoting them through relevant marketing channels in addition to developing appropriate keyword and linking strategies. Digital Assets refers to various types of interactive media (video, image, audio, blog, podcast, ebook, webinar, RSS feed, news/pr, product/service, social media and networking sites). As of a few years ago only a few innovative search engine marketing firms adopted the use of Digital Asset Optimization, but in today’s economy more and more search marketing firms are jumping on board to stay ahead of the curve.

EXPANDING SEARCH ENGINE OPTMIZATION TACTICS

According to a Marketing Experiments Inc. estimate, that in the future 90% of B2B buying communication will be through video. Tools are already on the market for general public to create professional looking videos with ease. Today’s consumer wants to be entertained while quickly absorbing information to make smarter purchase decisions. It is up to us as SEO and SEM marketers to incorporate search engine optimization strategy into interactive media. The same rules do not apply to interactive media as they do with traditional SEO or SEM. A common rule of thumb in search marketing is to create and publish a lot of content. Creating a lot of quality rich content will not only gain a prospects trust but also look first-rate in the eyes of search engine spiders. Online Marketing isn’t all about content creation but more so about creating an online charisma that extends to hundreds or thousands places on the web. Your content should be considered a brand extension of your company.

No matter what trends may come and go one thing will always remain constant: Content is King. The internet is no longer a digital storefront for an organization but rather a venue for a company to engage and interact with its customers. SEO Marketers need to be aware of the challenges of creating, branding, promoting and optimizing new forms of rich interactive content for their clients. For those internet marketing firms willing to take SEO and SEM to the next level the long-term rewards will be numerous.

7 Easy Search Engine Optimization Strategies That Work

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

As the Internet becomes even more pervasive, the magnitude of internet marketing continues to develop. You can make the most of your Internet promoting efforts by following the identical steps that top ranking sites do for improving their rankings. You may think that leading ranking sites have to pay out bags of cash to get there. The reality is that sites that come out on top, adhere to some major search engine optimization methods. These plans are straightforward to adhere to and often cost little or zero to put into practice.

1. Manually sign up your site with DMOZ, also recognized as the Open Directory Project. The Open Directory Project is the largest, most broad human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors and feeds other important web directories.

2. Manually submit your site to Google. If you’d like to wait, Google will in due course spider your site and return it in search result listings related to your site name and marketing. However, this may take some time. For quicker inclusion, visit Google and submit your site yourself.

3. Buy a listing with Yahoo! Directory Submit. Yahoo!, like Google provides a lot of search products. Nevertheless, Directory Submit is critical for any business on the web. For a fee, Yahoo! will enter your web site in their list that fuels websites like Yahoo!, MSN and AltaVista.

4. Make sure you are using search engine optimization with a high KEI. This measure takes into consideration both the popularity and competitiveness of your keywords. By focusing on keywords with a higher KEI, you can optimize your chance for search engines to pick your site for keywords at little or no expense.

5. Engage in a link building campaign. The more links you get to your site, especially if they have a high Google Page Rank, will signal Google and other search engines that your site is worthy. A great way to do this is through article submission or affiliate programs.

6. Make your site easy to crawl. Search engines do not like dynamic pages. Although this is shifting with the start of Google Site Maps, it is nevertheless imperative to make sure that all search engines can easily navigate through your website. Make sure to use HTML coding and avoid dynamically created pages.

7. Be patient. Once you implement these suggestions, allow search engines time to re-index your site. In the Internet age, we are looking for on the spot results. Nonetheless, it does take some time for all of your search engine optimization maneuvers to take hold.

By implementing the strategies I have discussed in this article, your search engine optimization efforts can make positive profits. As the world of search engines go on to develop, it’s vital to learn about the most up-to-date strategies and requirements for improving search engine results. Continue to concentrate on SEO. If you do, you’ll find yourself at the top of the rankings!

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15 Keyword Marketing Tactics That Work

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

“Men of few words are the best men.” Those words are as true today as they were when Shakespeare wrote them. This less is more approach also applies to search engine strategies. The outdated strategy of keyword seo stuffing simply doesn’t work with today’s search engines, however less isn’t necessarily better either; as an internet marketer you need to develop cohesive and relevant keyword marketing strategies that work with today’s ever changing search algorithms.

As internet marketing strategy professionals we are frequently inundated flooded with various keyword marketing strategies. In this post I have decided to focus on 15 keyword seo strategies that will get results if employed properly.

1. Remember Last Second Keywords – Keywords that focus on timing such as such as next day delivery or last minute valentines day flowers are often underutilized and have low competition. Of course you need to be able to change content readily to accomplish this type of traffic generation.

2. Focus on Brand Specific Keyword Optimization – Depending on your product, using brand-specific keywords might be a more viable option to receive qualified traffic even if you’re using your competitors brand, ride along traffic is not spoken about much but often practiced.

3. Attract Qualified Customers – If you are in a specialized vertical industry such as organic foods; make sure not to entirely focus your internet marketing strategy on generalized food products. The same thing would apply if your company is a consulting firm specializing in remote IT Support. Focus your keyword optimization strategy on remote IT or SaaS delivery type keywords more so than IT keywords.

4. Use Many Keywords in the Anchor Text Links – Keywords in backlinks are more relevant than the meta tag because the link will generally point to a highly significant page.

5. Create a Keyword Seo List Before Writing – It is far easier to research and write keywords into the copy than to write the copy and try to fit in the keywords. Keyword marketing shouldn’t be a challenge!

6. Spread Your Keywords Around – Make the extra effort to add high ranking keywords into your page titles, URL’s, logos/pictures, anchor text links and value propositions.

7. Use Bold, Italics and Underline During Keyword Optimization – The use of bold, italics and to a lesser extent underline can increase the importance of your keywords.

Many top search engines view bold and italic words as being more important and relevant to the copy.

8. Take Advantage of Singular and Plural Words – Typically the singular use of a word will have more searches per month than the plural of a word. However, numerous internet marketing strategy studies have shown that more than 5 times the number of buyers actually use the plural vs. the singular case. Those doing research typically use the singular use of a word. It is good idea to have both uses of a keyword in your web pages.

9. Give Pages a Boost With Internal Links – If a certain webpage in your website needs a boost simply link it using internal links. Relevant, keyword rich internal links can boost organic rankings for that page over time.

10. Acquire Additional Listings on Google – For many low ranking keywords you can get a second Google listing indented below the first. Typically, all you need to do is write an article or FAQ page then link it to the main page.

11. Sprinkle Long Tail Question Keywords Into Your Content – Many people ask questions in search engines. Simply add a few who, what, where, when, why or how questions pertaining to your products. For example how long does aspirin last would be a unique keyword if you manufactured aspirin or wrote a blog about the positive affects of aspirin.

12. List Your Part or Model Number – Technical buyers as well as average consumers will look for a specific model or product. If the model number has hyphens or periods write it multiple ways i.e. 73-AE90 could also be written 73AE90.

13. Keep Up With Trends – Sites like Yahoo Buzz, Google Trends, eBay Pulse and Trendwatching.com will actually allow you to see what keyword marketing trends are popular right now. Google News also allows you to subscribe to a news feed based upon keywords you choose.

14. View The Competiton – Take a look at the number one ranked competitor on Google and what keyword marketing strategy they are using. To view a websites keyword seo strategy simply go to VIEW in the main toolbar in internet explorer, then select SOURCE. It will bring up the source code of the competitor. Look for the term META KEYWORDS for the list of keywords the site is using.

15. Use Keyword SEO Tools – There are many keyword tools out there; Wordtracker and Google Keywords are two of the top keyword seo tools. You can also buy various software packages that list data on keywords.

There are millions of different keyword optimization strategies out there but with some diligence and implementation, each of these recommendations can help you gain traction with your search engine marketing. The industry changes almost daily; an internet marketing strategy that worked a year ago might not work today because search engines are constantly changing their algorithms. If you are truly serious about keyword optimization and ultimately growing a business, take the time to learn the little nuances and never stop reading what’s new.

Boost Your Marketing Campaigns Pronto Through Simple Testing

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

There are two main components to any undertaking, marketing related or not, that determine if the endeavor will be successful: Research and Testing. All too often we see b2b lead generation campaigns falter because someone jumped the gun or failed to refine their processes until they were running at optimal efficiency. Today, I’m going to talk about the importance of marketing testing and how you can immediately improve your marketing campaigns through simple tests.

Sales lead generation is one of the more interesting sub-industries simply because things are constantly changing. New ideas, processes and technology make sales lead generation an evolving science. It is because things are changing that, we as b2b lead generation professionals, must constantly test our work to make sure we are getting the best possible gains from our efforts. Marketing testing is a great notion but is wasted if you don’t have tangible methods of testing.

Marketing testing protocol contains 6 major parts: the question, testing variables, metrics, validation, results and interpretation. You should establish a plan for these six components before any actual marketing test takes place. The question, pertains to what you hope to answer i.e. what conversion beckon will produce a better click through rate? Ask yourself what you are wanting to achieve to produce a primary or secondary market research question.

In the testing variables phase you want to clearly describe what tests you are going to run. Make sure to include what will become your variables as well as establish a control sample. For example if you are testing a new landing page to see which design works better, you need to establish various options to test. Option one could be a large table with details on the offer. Option 2 could be a small table with less detail. Option 3 could contain no table and only an offer and a form to fill out. The key is to test each one against one another and establish a clear winner.

The third marketing testing protocol is metrics. Metrics are considered the, “what” phase in a marketing test. You need to determine specifically what you are going to measure in your marketing testing tests. This could be a number of different things from click through rate, conversion rate, number of times a whitepaper has been downloaded or the number of clicks on a flash piece to an a special offer. It really is up to you what you are going to test and what type of internet marketing strategy you are using.

The fourth testing phase is called validation. In the validation phase you are going to determine various factors regarding the actual marketing test itself. Such factors include the sample size needed to perform an accurate test, the time frame required to gather a sizeable test sample, the length of the test itself and any outside influences that might be a factor during a b2b lead generation test. Some outside constituents to take note of are selection effect (a biased sample), using skewed analytics software (using analytics software which interferes with the code of a website thus making the webpage display incorrectly) and the timing effect (running a direct marketing test during peak months or slow months or running a test on a weekend vs. a weekday.)

The fifth phase in marketing testing is the results phase. The results phase is strightforward, it is important to keep accurate data throughout the duration of the test. The last phase of testing is interpretation. It is during the interpretation phase of a test where the most insight can be gained; not only for the specific marketing test but also for future tests. Notes and records should be filed away so that you can learn from your experiment and build upon it at a later time.

A principal aspect to keep in mind regarding testing in b2b lead generation is to never stop testing. A common mistake search engine optimization professionals make is to test once and then run with the results. Once you run a marketing test and achieve optimal results you should take your best results and see if you can top them. Many times if you run a marketing test three or four different times you will see better results than you previously thought you would. With some practice in testing you will start to see better results with your marketing campaigns.

What Is Search Engine Optimization Understanding

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Search Engine Optimization is a process of choosing the most appropriate targeted keyword phrases related to your site and ensuring that this ranks your site highly in search engines so that when someone searches for specific phrases it returns your site on tops. It basically involves fine tuning the content of your site along with the HTML and Meta tags and also involves appropriate link building process. The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves.

The truth is that search engines have a secret method and original algorithm to rank sites. These also help in getting the most useful search results and to keep away from spam pages. Most search engines consider hundreds of factors whenever they make rankings and listings. The factors involved in this or the weight might surely change. Algorithms can be so inconsistent that it would be possible to have a particular link rank 1 on one website, while the other website would rank it as its 50th. When creating a new site, there won’t be any need to “submit” these same links to search engines. A crucial link that connects to a well established site will allow search engines to visit the new site and begin to spider its contents. It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main search engine spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new site.

If you are unable to research and choose keywords and work on your own search engine ranking, you may want to hire someone to work with you on these issues.

Search engine marketing and promotion companies, will look at the plan for your site and make recommendations to increase your search engine ranking and website traffic. If you wish, they will also provide ongoing consultation and reporting to monitor your website and make recommendations for editing and improvements to keep your site traffic flow and your search engine ranking high. Normally your search engine optimization experts work with your web designer to build an integrated plan right away so that all aspects of design are considered at the same time.