Competition apparently far from over
Not too long ago, it was discovered that Facebook had become more popular than MySpace on a global level. Only popularity by itself has little to do with profitability, and stats show Facebook has a ways to go in major ad markets.
Whether success in major ad markets leads to profitability is another issue, of course - News Corp. isn't getting rich off MySpace's performance. Nonetheless, as noted by Andrew Chen, MySpace remains on top in the U.S., where the most money is spent on advertising.MySpace is also ahead in Japan, Germany, and Brazil (the third, sixth, and ninth biggest ad markets, respectively). Facebook has a hold on the U.K., France, China, Canada, South Korea, and India.
If winner-takes-all rules applied in each country, MySpace would still be looking pretty good. But things aren't so clear-cut in real life (look up the recent American Facebook-Visa announcement), and Justin Smith points out, "Facebook is demonstrating that social networks can gain ground against an incumbent in meaningful markets after all."
Maybe Facebook's impending move is a sign that it's even solving the profitability problem.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Facebook, MySpace Still Fighting For Ad Markets
Local Search Engine Optimization - Revisited
Roughly a year ago, local search engine optimization was all the rage - the new frontier in search engine marketing. For a while, it seemed that everyone was interested in the local search angle - even multi-national companies. However, for many companies selling products or services to the entire United States, or even globally, it seemed like a non-starter. Companies that counted on people looking for certain products or services that did not require close proximity to the company's location were unaffected. As far as local search engine optimization goes, things have changed a bit since then - at least for some.
Some time ago, Google introduced a "geographic box" at the top of its search results. This is tied in to its mapping feature, and, when it was first introduced, the engine would display three results at the top of its search results whenever somebody entered a geographic modifier into the search box ("Atlanta widgets," for example). The Google algorithm then has the intelligence to determine whether the query calls for results that are primarily local in scope.
Since that initial trial, Google has obviously found that its users appreciate the feature. The engine now displays ten local search results at the top of the listings for certain queries, provided that they have a geographic modifier attached. For example, if you type in "Atlanta gyms" in Google, you will see ten results alongside a map that shows the location of ten gyms in Atlanta.
It should be noted that you will not see local search results for all queries that contain a local modifier. In certain instances, it almost seems as if Google somehow "knows" when a geographic modifier really means that you only offer services in a particular area. Yeah, those guys are pretty good.
There are many resources on the Internet to turn to if you are looking for local search engine optimization for your regional website. However, many companies have client bases that cater primarily to a national or international field. Can they benefit from local search?
Yes, they can - in two ways (with a caveat for the first).
First, many customers prefer to deal with people that are local, even if the business is national, or even global. A businessperson that is looking for, say, marketing consulting, may be inclined to work with someone with an address in close proximity found through local search. It just feels more comfortable - if something goes wrong, he or she can request a meeting, rather than calling an 800 number.
Here's the caveat - you may not want people showing up at your doorstep. Some companies invite people to show up at the headquarters and voice concerns or sing praises, but others would prefer to keep things at a distance. This is not a value judgment by any means. With many companies that deal with thousands, or even millions, of customers, it would be impossible to service every complaint with a human smile.
The second way, which seems more customer friendly (but actually isn't), applies when a large company has many locations. This doesn't mean that your company has "walk-in" locations that are open to the public. If you have locations in many cities, each serving a different function, you can still benefit from local search engine optimization.
Say, for example, you are headquartered in Toledo. You have distribution centers in several cities across the United States. Each of your physical locations is eligible to show up in local search results on Google, provided that you supply the engine with the proper information.
Of course, as mentioned earlier, not all searches with regional modifiers attached will bring up regional results. But based on recent happenings, it's a good idea to make your regional presence known and consider the effects of local search engine optimization. After the years of talk about it, local search might finally turn out to be something that most companies can take advantage of.
About the Author: Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue, which was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world in 2006 and 2007 by PromotionWorld. Scott has contributed content to many publications including "The Complete Guide to Google Advertising (Atlantic, 2008) and Building Your Business with Google For Dummies" (Wiley, 2004).
Some time ago, Google introduced a "geographic box" at the top of its search results. This is tied in to its mapping feature, and, when it was first introduced, the engine would display three results at the top of its search results whenever somebody entered a geographic modifier into the search box ("Atlanta widgets," for example). The Google algorithm then has the intelligence to determine whether the query calls for results that are primarily local in scope.
Since that initial trial, Google has obviously found that its users appreciate the feature. The engine now displays ten local search results at the top of the listings for certain queries, provided that they have a geographic modifier attached. For example, if you type in "Atlanta gyms" in Google, you will see ten results alongside a map that shows the location of ten gyms in Atlanta.
It should be noted that you will not see local search results for all queries that contain a local modifier. In certain instances, it almost seems as if Google somehow "knows" when a geographic modifier really means that you only offer services in a particular area. Yeah, those guys are pretty good.
There are many resources on the Internet to turn to if you are looking for local search engine optimization for your regional website. However, many companies have client bases that cater primarily to a national or international field. Can they benefit from local search?
Yes, they can - in two ways (with a caveat for the first).
First, many customers prefer to deal with people that are local, even if the business is national, or even global. A businessperson that is looking for, say, marketing consulting, may be inclined to work with someone with an address in close proximity found through local search. It just feels more comfortable - if something goes wrong, he or she can request a meeting, rather than calling an 800 number.
Here's the caveat - you may not want people showing up at your doorstep. Some companies invite people to show up at the headquarters and voice concerns or sing praises, but others would prefer to keep things at a distance. This is not a value judgment by any means. With many companies that deal with thousands, or even millions, of customers, it would be impossible to service every complaint with a human smile.
The second way, which seems more customer friendly (but actually isn't), applies when a large company has many locations. This doesn't mean that your company has "walk-in" locations that are open to the public. If you have locations in many cities, each serving a different function, you can still benefit from local search engine optimization.
Say, for example, you are headquartered in Toledo. You have distribution centers in several cities across the United States. Each of your physical locations is eligible to show up in local search results on Google, provided that you supply the engine with the proper information.
Of course, as mentioned earlier, not all searches with regional modifiers attached will bring up regional results. But based on recent happenings, it's a good idea to make your regional presence known and consider the effects of local search engine optimization. After the years of talk about it, local search might finally turn out to be something that most companies can take advantage of.
About the Author: Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue, which was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world in 2006 and 2007 by PromotionWorld. Scott has contributed content to many publications including "The Complete Guide to Google Advertising (Atlantic, 2008) and Building Your Business with Google For Dummies" (Wiley, 2004).
Using Social Media To Drive Traffic
SMO, or Social Media Optimization, helps build website traffic by using social media based websites. The dawning of web 2.0 has seen many different social media websites crop up in an equally large number of different guises. Content sharing, social bookmarking, and collaborative websites form the basis of this initiative and it is these types of website that you need to use in order to leverage the power of the social web.
SMO As Guerrilla Marketing
The nature of Social Media Optimization is such that it could be considered form of guerrilla marketing. Website owners and blog owners have the choice of either investing money or their own skills and time in order to generate traffic from social sites. As long as your efforts are directed appropriately, the more work you put in the more reward you will reap.
SMO As A Link Building Technique
Social optimization also has a happy side effect - it helps to build your link profile so you will usually gain search engine traffic in the long term. Becoming a part of an online community is essential to your social optimization and this, in turn, will naturally provide links to your website. The links will usually be from relevant pages based on a similar topic to that of your own page. The more popular social sites are also given a lot of weight by certain search engines.
Optimize Your Existing Site
Create genuinely interesting, intriguing, or informative pages. Includes images, links, video, and collaborative tools so that visitors really get involved when they do visit your site. SMO is basically digital word-of-mouth and if your website doesn't offer some kind of appealing experience to your visitors, then it simply won't attract the positive word-of-mouth that you want.
Add new pages, if necessary, so that you can include more information. However, don't just add pages for the sake of it - ensure that each page really does have something unique to offer. A website still needs to be well structured.
Get A Blog
Add a blog. Every website has potential blog posts in it so find yours and start blogging regularly. Blog posts tend to attract links from other blog posts and those in turn will spread the word of your website. The more popular your blog becomes, the more value it is perceived to offer and the more visitors you will continue to get.
Be active in those blogs that are within your industry and use your link where permitted and relevant. Don't spam because that will lose you more friends than it will make but if you offer relevant information and a forum or blog allows you to link to it, then offer an insightful comment and provide a link.
Be Active
Being active is a vital part to your whole SMO campaign. Simply registering with social bookmarking sites and content sharing sites is not enough. You need to be involved, post regularly, and generally become a part of the community. If you don't have the time or the inclination to do this then find somebody else to do it instead.
Some Social Sites To Join
You really do reap what you sow in terms of SMO. Determine the sites that are most suitable to your website, join them, and become an active member. Choose some broad topic sites as well as some that are specific to those interested in the industry in which you operate or topic that you cover. Look at social news submission sites, content sharing sites, bookmarking, and networking sites and try to get a broad coverage of all of them. Here are just a few of the sites you should seriously consider using:
Social News/Media Sharing Websites
* Reddit - Reddit is a very popular social news website that boasts a lot of subscribers and covers a wide range of topics.* Digg - Initially, Digg was reserved to technology and related topics but is now a broad topic news site that again has a lot of subscribers and regular readers.* Newsvine - Not as popular as the two above but offering a slightly more formal tone to its content. Again, a good range of topics are covered.
Social Networking Sites
* MySpace - It may be largely riddled with spam but there are still too many genuine users for you to ignore MySpace. You don't have to be an unsigned band to take advantage either.* Facebook - Has caused quite a stir and offers users the chance to create and distribute their own applications as well as content. Another very popular site. * LinkedIn - LinkedIn is a social networking site dedicated to professionals and businesses. It can really help to build a huge network of partners, customers, and other useful contacts in a business network.
Social Bookmarking Websites
* del.icio.us - Register, store bookmarks that you find useful, and include a bookmark to your own website and use a public profile.* Stumble Upon - Same again. Alternatively you can add a Stumble icon to each of your pages, blog posts, and other media and let your readers do the walking for you.
Buttons For Your Pages
Many social websites offer a button that your readers or visitors can use to automatically add a page. Bookmarking and content sharing sites, in particular, have these buttons and if you've ever read a website or an article site then you will have seen the Digg This and Stumble buttons at the bottom of each entry. Users registered with these sites can click the button and quickly add your page. The most popular websites are usually displayed on the high traffic home pages delivering yet more visitors to your site.
Offering Quality
The Social Internet has opened up a whole new avenue for promoting your business, but it needs to be done properly and carefully. Simply tagging, bookmarking, and sharing every page you have regardless of its quality will not bring you the desired results. You may find that it does you more harm than good in the long run.
About the Author: WebWiseWords is a web content writer offering appealing and professional web content. Whether you are looking to implement an SEO or SMO campaign, or you want to improve your visitor's experience while on your website WebWiseWords can create the content you need.
SMO As Guerrilla Marketing
The nature of Social Media Optimization is such that it could be considered form of guerrilla marketing. Website owners and blog owners have the choice of either investing money or their own skills and time in order to generate traffic from social sites. As long as your efforts are directed appropriately, the more work you put in the more reward you will reap.
SMO As A Link Building Technique
Social optimization also has a happy side effect - it helps to build your link profile so you will usually gain search engine traffic in the long term. Becoming a part of an online community is essential to your social optimization and this, in turn, will naturally provide links to your website. The links will usually be from relevant pages based on a similar topic to that of your own page. The more popular social sites are also given a lot of weight by certain search engines.
Optimize Your Existing Site
Create genuinely interesting, intriguing, or informative pages. Includes images, links, video, and collaborative tools so that visitors really get involved when they do visit your site. SMO is basically digital word-of-mouth and if your website doesn't offer some kind of appealing experience to your visitors, then it simply won't attract the positive word-of-mouth that you want.
Add new pages, if necessary, so that you can include more information. However, don't just add pages for the sake of it - ensure that each page really does have something unique to offer. A website still needs to be well structured.
Get A Blog
Add a blog. Every website has potential blog posts in it so find yours and start blogging regularly. Blog posts tend to attract links from other blog posts and those in turn will spread the word of your website. The more popular your blog becomes, the more value it is perceived to offer and the more visitors you will continue to get.
Be active in those blogs that are within your industry and use your link where permitted and relevant. Don't spam because that will lose you more friends than it will make but if you offer relevant information and a forum or blog allows you to link to it, then offer an insightful comment and provide a link.
Be Active
Being active is a vital part to your whole SMO campaign. Simply registering with social bookmarking sites and content sharing sites is not enough. You need to be involved, post regularly, and generally become a part of the community. If you don't have the time or the inclination to do this then find somebody else to do it instead.
Some Social Sites To Join
You really do reap what you sow in terms of SMO. Determine the sites that are most suitable to your website, join them, and become an active member. Choose some broad topic sites as well as some that are specific to those interested in the industry in which you operate or topic that you cover. Look at social news submission sites, content sharing sites, bookmarking, and networking sites and try to get a broad coverage of all of them. Here are just a few of the sites you should seriously consider using:
Social News/Media Sharing Websites
* Reddit - Reddit is a very popular social news website that boasts a lot of subscribers and covers a wide range of topics.* Digg - Initially, Digg was reserved to technology and related topics but is now a broad topic news site that again has a lot of subscribers and regular readers.* Newsvine - Not as popular as the two above but offering a slightly more formal tone to its content. Again, a good range of topics are covered.
Social Networking Sites
* MySpace - It may be largely riddled with spam but there are still too many genuine users for you to ignore MySpace. You don't have to be an unsigned band to take advantage either.* Facebook - Has caused quite a stir and offers users the chance to create and distribute their own applications as well as content. Another very popular site. * LinkedIn - LinkedIn is a social networking site dedicated to professionals and businesses. It can really help to build a huge network of partners, customers, and other useful contacts in a business network.
Social Bookmarking Websites
* del.icio.us - Register, store bookmarks that you find useful, and include a bookmark to your own website and use a public profile.* Stumble Upon - Same again. Alternatively you can add a Stumble icon to each of your pages, blog posts, and other media and let your readers do the walking for you.
Buttons For Your Pages
Many social websites offer a button that your readers or visitors can use to automatically add a page. Bookmarking and content sharing sites, in particular, have these buttons and if you've ever read a website or an article site then you will have seen the Digg This and Stumble buttons at the bottom of each entry. Users registered with these sites can click the button and quickly add your page. The most popular websites are usually displayed on the high traffic home pages delivering yet more visitors to your site.
Offering Quality
The Social Internet has opened up a whole new avenue for promoting your business, but it needs to be done properly and carefully. Simply tagging, bookmarking, and sharing every page you have regardless of its quality will not bring you the desired results. You may find that it does you more harm than good in the long run.
About the Author: WebWiseWords is a web content writer offering appealing and professional web content. Whether you are looking to implement an SEO or SMO campaign, or you want to improve your visitor's experience while on your website WebWiseWords can create the content you need.
Determining How Long Your Traffic Stays
How long your traffic stays on your website is an indication of how interesting you have made your website.
It is always good to check the number of visitors coming to your site and how long they have stayed. How do you check this? You will check this by your log files. This is done by your c-panel or a similar place depending on what your host has set up for you. Here you can view the different stats about your website.
They will show you:
* Monthly stats-how many visitors came to your site during one month. These will be divided into unique and general (repeat visitors).
* Weekly stats- how many visitors came in 1 week, again they will be divided into unique and general
* Daily stats
* Hourly stats
Most visited pages: These let you know how many visitors have come to certain pages during 1 month. This is where it gets interesting, as you will be able to tell which pages are attracting the most visitors.
The amount of time visitors have spent on your website: This is a good estimate of the quality of your site. Obviously the longer your visitors stay the more chances there are of them buying.
Once you know which pages are attracting visitors you can then work on getting all your pages sticky and compel surfers to visit them.
Google also tracks how long visitors are spending at your site. Again it is a quality check as far as they are concerned. When Googlebots bring information back to the Database about a website being visited and people are staying longer, they can naturally assume the standard of that website is high.
High standard and quality means Google customers (your visitors) are being serviced well and that makes Google happy. This will earn you a higher Page Rank.
Encourage a longer stay:
So we can naturally assume that the longer your visitors stay the better it is. Now how to encourage them to stay? Have you ever read a book that you just could not put down? Well you website must have that same effect on your visitors. They will not want to leave until they have devoured every word of your pre selling content. They should be in the mood to either sign up for your free newsletter and become your leads or go on to your sales page and buy your products or services.
Making them stay: Make your site an irresistible, sticky website that draws your visitor in and compels them to stay. Here are some ways:
* Interesting informative content* Stories, anecdotes, and news about your industry
* Quizzes relating to your industry-the answers will be found on one of your important pages
* Good user friendly navigation
* Humorous jokes, quotes and stories related to your industry-these are often shared among friends and associates (viral marketing).
So try some of these ways to make your visitor want to stay at your site. Use all the resources you have and write that good informative content to pre sell your visitors. Provide them good products and services and see your visitors convert to your loyal customers because you have made your website irresistible to them.
About the Author: Frank Herald. A webmaster and internet marketing specialist Search Engine Optimization Australia.
It is always good to check the number of visitors coming to your site and how long they have stayed. How do you check this? You will check this by your log files. This is done by your c-panel or a similar place depending on what your host has set up for you. Here you can view the different stats about your website.
They will show you:
* Monthly stats-how many visitors came to your site during one month. These will be divided into unique and general (repeat visitors).
* Weekly stats- how many visitors came in 1 week, again they will be divided into unique and general
* Daily stats
* Hourly stats
Most visited pages: These let you know how many visitors have come to certain pages during 1 month. This is where it gets interesting, as you will be able to tell which pages are attracting the most visitors.
The amount of time visitors have spent on your website: This is a good estimate of the quality of your site. Obviously the longer your visitors stay the more chances there are of them buying.
Once you know which pages are attracting visitors you can then work on getting all your pages sticky and compel surfers to visit them.
Google also tracks how long visitors are spending at your site. Again it is a quality check as far as they are concerned. When Googlebots bring information back to the Database about a website being visited and people are staying longer, they can naturally assume the standard of that website is high.
High standard and quality means Google customers (your visitors) are being serviced well and that makes Google happy. This will earn you a higher Page Rank.
Encourage a longer stay:
So we can naturally assume that the longer your visitors stay the better it is. Now how to encourage them to stay? Have you ever read a book that you just could not put down? Well you website must have that same effect on your visitors. They will not want to leave until they have devoured every word of your pre selling content. They should be in the mood to either sign up for your free newsletter and become your leads or go on to your sales page and buy your products or services.
Making them stay: Make your site an irresistible, sticky website that draws your visitor in and compels them to stay. Here are some ways:
* Interesting informative content* Stories, anecdotes, and news about your industry
* Quizzes relating to your industry-the answers will be found on one of your important pages
* Good user friendly navigation
* Humorous jokes, quotes and stories related to your industry-these are often shared among friends and associates (viral marketing).
So try some of these ways to make your visitor want to stay at your site. Use all the resources you have and write that good informative content to pre sell your visitors. Provide them good products and services and see your visitors convert to your loyal customers because you have made your website irresistible to them.
About the Author: Frank Herald. A webmaster and internet marketing specialist Search Engine Optimization Australia.
Video Marketing for Small Businesses
Technology has created video marketing opportunities - cable TV, email marketing, websites and video - for small businesses to be on an even playing field with large companies. From extremely inexpensive video streaming in an email to the full-production TV ad with hired actors, even small companies and home-based businesses can include video advertising in their budget.
You might be asking why you should consider it at all when your current advertising is working just fine. Aside from the fact that adding another strategy to your marketing plan is a good idea, videos are very personal. Who better to discuss your service or product than you? It brings a familiarity to you and your company, which allows the prospect to feel like they already know you. If the message is directed to your current customer base, seeing and hearing you gives the feeling that you are presenting your message directly to them.
There are professional videos and way too often, not so professional videos. Most of us cringe when we hear a car salesman screaming about a wonderful deal waiting for you if you'll come down RIGHT NOW! Or the windows and siding guy who squawks about the fantastic savings if you call within the next 30 minutes (but the ad runs all day long). These are stereotypes of TV advertising available for the small business owner. But it doesn't have to be that way!
Cable TV ads can be very cost effective because you can be specific where your ad dollars will be spent. The cable company has demographic statistics so you can learn what programs are viewed most frequently by your target market then select where (as specific as the zip codes) and when you want your ads to run. The variety of shows cable companies have in their lineup provides a fantastic choice for the advertiser. In addition, they can also slot your ad in during the Big 3 networks' shows as well.
Videos aren't only just for cable TV. There are many companies that create videos which can be linked to websites, newsletters, social networking sites and email signature lines. They serve many purposes from advertising to introducing a new product or service to just send a keeping-in-touch message to current clients. These videos are also used for on-line training and even instructions to learn how to use a new networking website (http://www.OneDegreeConnected.com). Some are scripted, while others are produced to simulate a talk show format. Compare cost as well as professionalism. This form of advertising can be extremely high-quality or can be an embarrassment to your company's image. Get referrals! View some of the finished productions of each company you are considering before signing any contract.
You can even create your own video while sitting in your office. Do you have a video camera or a video cam connected to your computer? You're all set to create your own video stream to be placed in emails or on your website. A word of caution is to make sure it's not too long. Keep it less than 90 seconds and you'll usually keep the viewer's interest.
Video has created the opportunity for business owners to star in their own commercials. Consider the scenarios mentioned earlier of what video advertising could - but shouldn't - be. Luckily, these are the exception and not the rule; most ads are professional from writing the ad copy to the production. Of course, it's important to remember that the familiar saying "junk in, junk out" holds true for video more than any other media. You're dealing with three methods of presenting the message: content, visual and audio.
Therefore, if you choose to take part in your videos, it's best to receive some coaching prior to production. Accent On Business (http://www.accentonbusiness.net), known throughout the United States, will help you with voice and presentation skills. Public speakers, politicians, sports figures, CEOs and others consult with a professional voice and speech coach; so should you. You will have total control over what needs to be said, but they will help you say it with the professionalism that will provide the image you want to present.
New technology has made video marketing very affordable even for the smallest budget. There are a variety of opportunities and one will certainly fit your budget. Consider video in your next marketing plan. You'll find a new media that will present your company with a fresh message and make it personal.
About the Author: Cindy Hartman invites you to view her marketing video at http://www.HartmanInventory.com to discover why you need a personal property inventory. Also learn about a complete business startup package for a business or home inventory service. Let the Hartman's help you start and grow your own personal property inventory service.
You might be asking why you should consider it at all when your current advertising is working just fine. Aside from the fact that adding another strategy to your marketing plan is a good idea, videos are very personal. Who better to discuss your service or product than you? It brings a familiarity to you and your company, which allows the prospect to feel like they already know you. If the message is directed to your current customer base, seeing and hearing you gives the feeling that you are presenting your message directly to them.
There are professional videos and way too often, not so professional videos. Most of us cringe when we hear a car salesman screaming about a wonderful deal waiting for you if you'll come down RIGHT NOW! Or the windows and siding guy who squawks about the fantastic savings if you call within the next 30 minutes (but the ad runs all day long). These are stereotypes of TV advertising available for the small business owner. But it doesn't have to be that way!
Cable TV ads can be very cost effective because you can be specific where your ad dollars will be spent. The cable company has demographic statistics so you can learn what programs are viewed most frequently by your target market then select where (as specific as the zip codes) and when you want your ads to run. The variety of shows cable companies have in their lineup provides a fantastic choice for the advertiser. In addition, they can also slot your ad in during the Big 3 networks' shows as well.
Videos aren't only just for cable TV. There are many companies that create videos which can be linked to websites, newsletters, social networking sites and email signature lines. They serve many purposes from advertising to introducing a new product or service to just send a keeping-in-touch message to current clients. These videos are also used for on-line training and even instructions to learn how to use a new networking website (http://www.OneDegreeConnected.com). Some are scripted, while others are produced to simulate a talk show format. Compare cost as well as professionalism. This form of advertising can be extremely high-quality or can be an embarrassment to your company's image. Get referrals! View some of the finished productions of each company you are considering before signing any contract.
You can even create your own video while sitting in your office. Do you have a video camera or a video cam connected to your computer? You're all set to create your own video stream to be placed in emails or on your website. A word of caution is to make sure it's not too long. Keep it less than 90 seconds and you'll usually keep the viewer's interest.
Video has created the opportunity for business owners to star in their own commercials. Consider the scenarios mentioned earlier of what video advertising could - but shouldn't - be. Luckily, these are the exception and not the rule; most ads are professional from writing the ad copy to the production. Of course, it's important to remember that the familiar saying "junk in, junk out" holds true for video more than any other media. You're dealing with three methods of presenting the message: content, visual and audio.
Therefore, if you choose to take part in your videos, it's best to receive some coaching prior to production. Accent On Business (http://www.accentonbusiness.net), known throughout the United States, will help you with voice and presentation skills. Public speakers, politicians, sports figures, CEOs and others consult with a professional voice and speech coach; so should you. You will have total control over what needs to be said, but they will help you say it with the professionalism that will provide the image you want to present.
New technology has made video marketing very affordable even for the smallest budget. There are a variety of opportunities and one will certainly fit your budget. Consider video in your next marketing plan. You'll find a new media that will present your company with a fresh message and make it personal.
About the Author: Cindy Hartman invites you to view her marketing video at http://www.HartmanInventory.com to discover why you need a personal property inventory. Also learn about a complete business startup package for a business or home inventory service. Let the Hartman's help you start and grow your own personal property inventory service.
Become an SEO Pro
Google is all about linking. And if you want to snatch a top spot in Google's search results you need to link like a pro.
But don't worry. Linking is a whole lot easier today than it was a few years ago. Experience has taught us a lot and with the information in this article you won't need to worry about endless trial and error. We have a repeatable process that anyone can do, as easy as 1, 2, 3.
That said; let's take a look at the linking strategies that Google will give you the most credít for...
Link Strategy 1: Reap the Most Benefit from Anchor TextYou probably already know that anchor text is the clickable word or words that make up a hyperlink. But what you may not yet fully realize is just how powerful anchor text is. Want to test it yourself? Try a simple experiment...
Go to Google.com and search for "clíck here" (without quotes.) Did you get a link for Adobe Acrobat Reader at number 1? Why is that? Check out the page. They have no mention of "clíck here" anywhere on the page or in the META tags.
So why does it rank number 1 on Google for "clíck here"? It's all thanks to anchor text. More specifically, it's because of the countless pages that have "clíck here" as anchor text that links to Adobe's Acrobat Reader download page.
Did you notice how many competing pages there are for "clíck here" on Google? Almost Two Billion! Anchor text is extremely important. Here are a few rules of thumb to get the most from yours...
A.) Use your three most important keywords for your anchor text. Specifically, your most important word 60% of the time; your second most important keyword 25% and your third keyword 15%. And that is for every page you link to (each page should focus on two to three keywords.)
B.) Use "long tail" keywords when appropriate (3 or more words in the keyword phrase.)
C.) If your anchor text is part of a paragraph, like a signature block, make certain the surrounding text is optimized for the keyword you want or close variations. And make sure that text is varied. You want to have plenty of versions of the surrounding text block so Google doesn't ding it as duplicate content.
Link Strategy 2: Make Your Target URLs Laser AccurateURL accuracy, or format consistency, is extremely important. Be sure to use the exact same URL whenever you request a link. Even though a URL link beginning with "http" or "www" (or both) might resolve to the same webpage, Google sees them as different destinations.
Want to find out for yourself? Go back to Google.com and enter "Links: http:// " (without quotes) followed by www... any domain name you want. This will give you the inbound links for that specific domain.
OK, easy enough. Jot down the number of links. Now try it again WITHOUT the "www." And record the number of links. Now try it a third time with the "www" but NOT the http://". Are you getting different numbers? This is because Google sees them as different link destinations.
Link Strategy 3: Go Beyond Reciprocal LinkingReciprocal links just aren't enough any more. Google now discounts the importance of simple link swaps so reciprocal links alone will not do the trick like they used to. But don't worry, with a little time or money or both, you can have the best links imaginable.
The two fastest and least expensive ways are by submittíng your site to directories or paying a link service, but NOT a reciprocal linking service. Let's start with directories...
But before we do, there are two downsides to links from directories that I need to mention. First, Google has been discounting directory links over the past few months. Second, some directories charge a fee to get listed (for example Yahoo charges $299 per year!)
But don't despair. Links from directories may not be all they used to, but they still help your SEO efforts. There's a page I like to check out that has the top directories listed as well as links to the site, their GRP (Google PageRank rating), cost (if any) and more; StrongestLinks.com
You can click on the column headings to sort by any category you want. This makes finding the freebies, or top GPR sites quick and easy. This site also appears to have some sort of paid membership available, but I just use the free link above and it does all I need and more.
Important Note: There is a third possible risk that comes from link farms, which are sometimes very similar to certain link services. That risk is having too many inbound links coming from a single IP range (Internet Protocol address.) Google HATES this and will discount all these links, or worse.
As for reciprocal linking services, I recommend you avoid them like the plague. However there is a nice solution called "3 way linking" that still allows you the set it and forget it option. Here's one service I've had great results with...
3WayLinker.com does not link sites back to each other reciprocally. Instead it creates a series of one way links that are counted purely as inbound links by Google. Even more it helps eliminate duplicate content in your link text and makes sure all inbound links are from a wide range of IP addresses.
Here's how it works... Site "A" links to site "B". Site "B" links to site "C". And then site "C" links to site "A". So each is a true one way link. This also gives the system more options regarding which sites form a team. With reciprocal links, if both sites use the same hosting provider, there is a very high chance you will be linked within the same IP range. With three way linking this problem is eliminated.
So to recap, 1.) Get the most out of your anchor text; 2.) Be very consistent with your link URL, and 3.) Do more than just reciprocal linking.
Now go get that top spot you've been after!
About The AuthorMike Small is a 10 year veteran SEO professional and founder of SEOpartner.com, a free blog dedicated to helping website owners grab the top spots on the best search engines.
But don't worry. Linking is a whole lot easier today than it was a few years ago. Experience has taught us a lot and with the information in this article you won't need to worry about endless trial and error. We have a repeatable process that anyone can do, as easy as 1, 2, 3.
That said; let's take a look at the linking strategies that Google will give you the most credít for...
Link Strategy 1: Reap the Most Benefit from Anchor TextYou probably already know that anchor text is the clickable word or words that make up a hyperlink. But what you may not yet fully realize is just how powerful anchor text is. Want to test it yourself? Try a simple experiment...
Go to Google.com and search for "clíck here" (without quotes.) Did you get a link for Adobe Acrobat Reader at number 1? Why is that? Check out the page. They have no mention of "clíck here" anywhere on the page or in the META tags.
So why does it rank number 1 on Google for "clíck here"? It's all thanks to anchor text. More specifically, it's because of the countless pages that have "clíck here" as anchor text that links to Adobe's Acrobat Reader download page.
Did you notice how many competing pages there are for "clíck here" on Google? Almost Two Billion! Anchor text is extremely important. Here are a few rules of thumb to get the most from yours...
A.) Use your three most important keywords for your anchor text. Specifically, your most important word 60% of the time; your second most important keyword 25% and your third keyword 15%. And that is for every page you link to (each page should focus on two to three keywords.)
B.) Use "long tail" keywords when appropriate (3 or more words in the keyword phrase.)
C.) If your anchor text is part of a paragraph, like a signature block, make certain the surrounding text is optimized for the keyword you want or close variations. And make sure that text is varied. You want to have plenty of versions of the surrounding text block so Google doesn't ding it as duplicate content.
Link Strategy 2: Make Your Target URLs Laser AccurateURL accuracy, or format consistency, is extremely important. Be sure to use the exact same URL whenever you request a link. Even though a URL link beginning with "http" or "www" (or both) might resolve to the same webpage, Google sees them as different destinations.
Want to find out for yourself? Go back to Google.com and enter "Links: http:// " (without quotes) followed by www... any domain name you want. This will give you the inbound links for that specific domain.
OK, easy enough. Jot down the number of links. Now try it again WITHOUT the "www." And record the number of links. Now try it a third time with the "www" but NOT the http://". Are you getting different numbers? This is because Google sees them as different link destinations.
Link Strategy 3: Go Beyond Reciprocal LinkingReciprocal links just aren't enough any more. Google now discounts the importance of simple link swaps so reciprocal links alone will not do the trick like they used to. But don't worry, with a little time or money or both, you can have the best links imaginable.
The two fastest and least expensive ways are by submittíng your site to directories or paying a link service, but NOT a reciprocal linking service. Let's start with directories...
But before we do, there are two downsides to links from directories that I need to mention. First, Google has been discounting directory links over the past few months. Second, some directories charge a fee to get listed (for example Yahoo charges $299 per year!)
But don't despair. Links from directories may not be all they used to, but they still help your SEO efforts. There's a page I like to check out that has the top directories listed as well as links to the site, their GRP (Google PageRank rating), cost (if any) and more; StrongestLinks.com
You can click on the column headings to sort by any category you want. This makes finding the freebies, or top GPR sites quick and easy. This site also appears to have some sort of paid membership available, but I just use the free link above and it does all I need and more.
Important Note: There is a third possible risk that comes from link farms, which are sometimes very similar to certain link services. That risk is having too many inbound links coming from a single IP range (Internet Protocol address.) Google HATES this and will discount all these links, or worse.
As for reciprocal linking services, I recommend you avoid them like the plague. However there is a nice solution called "3 way linking" that still allows you the set it and forget it option. Here's one service I've had great results with...
3WayLinker.com does not link sites back to each other reciprocally. Instead it creates a series of one way links that are counted purely as inbound links by Google. Even more it helps eliminate duplicate content in your link text and makes sure all inbound links are from a wide range of IP addresses.
Here's how it works... Site "A" links to site "B". Site "B" links to site "C". And then site "C" links to site "A". So each is a true one way link. This also gives the system more options regarding which sites form a team. With reciprocal links, if both sites use the same hosting provider, there is a very high chance you will be linked within the same IP range. With three way linking this problem is eliminated.
So to recap, 1.) Get the most out of your anchor text; 2.) Be very consistent with your link URL, and 3.) Do more than just reciprocal linking.
Now go get that top spot you've been after!
About The AuthorMike Small is a 10 year veteran SEO professional and founder of SEOpartner.com, a free blog dedicated to helping website owners grab the top spots on the best search engines.
7 Ways to Improve the Stickiness of Your Website
Today more than ever, consumers are overwhelmed with choices, and distractions. The cost of attracting users to your website continues to increase and keeping them engaged is more important than ever.Engagement doesn’t end with an individual browser reading content or clicking on an ad. Rather, engagement is an ongoing process that results in loyal customers who come back again and again, becoming more vested in your web site.How can you make sure you’re engaging and keeping customers?In order to create a loyal following, there are some basic principles you need to consider. From first impressions to life-long membership, put yourself in the shoes of your browsers and make their experience a valuable one.1. Reduce Clutter. How many times have you visited a website only to be overwhelmed and confused? What is this site about you may have asked yourself. Or perhaps you found yourself asking, "Where is the information I’m looking for?" Don’t ask your browsers or potential customers to figure this out. Make your site clutter free and create a visual priority that emphasizes the information, resources, or actions your browsers want. By reducing obstacles you build trust among new web site visitors and allow for simple decision making – which benefits everyone.2. Make Navigation Intuitive. There are many ways to navigate a web page but intuition rules the day. Don’t try to get fancy with your navigation or overuse java script. Basic navigation that follows current convention is the best way to lead individuals through your web site to the information they’re looking for.3. Make The Initial Site Interaction Relevant. When a browser reaches your web site, you have less than seven seconds to get them engaged. Making your initial site interaction relevant to what individuals are looking for is essential for keeping them interacting long term. If you are promoting your web site with Google Adwords, or any pay per click advertising for that matter, be sure to create customer landing pages that are truly relevant to the individual who clicks-through your ad. Once you’ve established relevancy, you can move them deeper into your content, tools, and resources.4. Ensure That Your Content Is Up-to-date. Web site content that isn’t up to date does not serve your audience and browsers are likely to move on. One way to ensure that information is timely is by providing a feed of relevant news or information. If including static text on your web pages, try not to include specific dates. However, if you must publish dates, be sure to update this information on a regular basis. 5. Start an Interaction With Your Users. Each time a browser views your web page, you have an opportunity to interact with them. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by. One great way to interact is to offer something of value at no cost. This can be a white paper, access to an exclusive list, or simply a 30 day free trial. Be sure to capture an individual’s valid email address and include them on your mailing list. An auto-responder is best if you wish to engage these individuals on an ongoing basis.6. Provide Plenty Of Support. Don’t hesitate to offer support right from your home page. Prominently display your 800 number, support email address, and additional information for your prospects and customers such as mailing address. This information is viewed favorably by search engines and also creates a sense of legitimacy. Contact information builds trust among prospects and elicits interest in your company.7. Make Sharing Easy. Once you’ve made your web site easy to use, don’t hesitate to offer browsers the ability to share your web site with others. This can be in the form of a simple widget that allows users to bookmark your page, subscribe to an Rss feed, or submit your content to popular news sites like Digg.com. Individuals are much more likely to visit a web site based on a friend’s recommendation versus some other type of marketing initiative. Leverage the power of viral marketing with easy sharing tools.Your web site can be your greatest asset. Unfortunately, many marketers and website owners are so focused on increasing traffic that they lose site of the audience that’s already visiting their web pages but are simply not converting.Don’t make the same mistake. Improve the quality of you site through relevant content that is up-to-date and easy to find. Once you’ve engaged users, encourage them to share. Doing so will make your site perform better, increase conversions, and deliver value for all involved.
Top 20 Contributing Factors For Google SEO
Websites are quickly becoming one of the most popular ways of advertising. Whether it be a business, its product or service or something completely different, everyone of all ages are turning to the web as a method of getting their message out there. With the popularity of this marketing medium increasing and the number of websites always growing, it is obvious that everyone wants to appear at the top of Google's search engine rankings. Achieving such a task is never an easy feat, however with a bit of perseverance, one can definitely increase their chances of reaching that glorious first page result.
Given that there is a heap of websites out there who are on the first page, what is their secret? It is a little industry term called "SEO" and it stands for Search Engine Optimisation. SEO basically consists of the customisation of your website, its content and its internal and external links to assist in the overall indexing and ranking of your website in popular search engines. There are many contributing factors that are used in determining a website's ranking and every search engine is different. This makes trying to optimise your site for Google, Yahoo, Live and the many others quite a pain staking task.
As most of us are aware, Google is currently the most popular search engine for the majority of Internet users. As such, it is only normal that we'd want to focus our sights on achieving a higher ranking within Google first with a hope that the rest will follow. To do this, we must start a journey that could potentially take months before we start seeing any real change, however we have to start somewhere.
Our journey begins by defining some of the key contributing factors that Google uses to determine a website and webpage's ranking within its results. These factors range from keyword use to manipulating internal and external links and the list goes on. To get you started, we have listed the top twenty factors that you should focus on in order to help get your website that little bit closer to the top of the search engine results listing.
Keyword Use Factors
The following components relate to the use of the user's search query terms in determining the rank of a particular page.
1. Keyword Use in Title Tag - Placing the targeted search term or phrase in the title tag of the web page's HTML header.
2. Keyword Use in Body Text - Using the targeted search term in the visible, HTML text of the page.
3. Relationship of Body Text Content to Keywords - Topical relevance of text on the page compared to targeted keywords.
4. Keyword Use in H1 Tag - Creating an H1 tag with the targeted search term/phrase.
5. Keyword Use in Domain Name & Page URL - Including the targeted term/phrase in the registered domain name, i.e. keyword.com plus target terms in the webpage URL, i.e. seomoz.org/keyword-phrase.
Page Attributes
The following elements comprise how the Google interprets specific data about a webpage independent of keywords.
6. Link Popularity within the Site's Internal Link Structure - Refers to the number and importance of internal links pointing to the target page 7. Quality/Relevance of Links to External Sites/Pages - Do links on the page point to high quality, topically-related pages? 8. Age of Document - Older pages may be perceived as more authoritative while newer pages may be more temporally relevant 9. Amount of Indexable Text Content - Refers to the literal quantity of visible HTML text on a page 10. Quality of the Document Content (as measured algorithmically) - Assuming search engines can use text, visual or other analysis methods to determine the validity and value of content, this metric would provide some level of rating.
Site/Domain Attributes
The factors below contribute to Google's rankings based on the site/domain on which a page resides.
11. Global Link Popularity of Site - The overall link weight/authority as measured by links from any and all sites across the web (both link quality and quantity) 12. Age of Site - Not the date of original registration of the domain, but rather the launch of indexable content seen by the search engines (note that this can change if a domain switches ownership) 13. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site - The subject-specific relationship between the sites/pages linking to the target page and the target keyword 14. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community - The link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world 15. Rate of New Inbound Links to Site - The frequency and timing of external sites linking in to the given domain.
Inbound Link Attribute
These pieces affect Google's weighting of links from external websites pointing to a page and ultimately will assist in the ranking of that page.
16. Anchor Text of Inbound Link.
17. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site.
18. Topical Relationship of Linking Page.
19. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community - The link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world.
20. Age of Link.
Negative Crawling/Ranking Attributes
There are also some points we should make before you start getting your hands dirty. With any type of SEO marketing, there are some things that can actually have a negative impact on your ranking. These following components may negatively affect a spider's ability to crawl a page or its rankings at Google.
* Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots.
* Content Very Similar or Duplicate of Existing Content in the Index.
* External Links to Low Quality/Spam Sites.
* Duplicate Title/Meta Tags on Many Pages.
* Overuse of Targeted Keywords (Stuffing/Spamming).
It's now time to get busy! Start prioritising your tasks, modifying your content and building your internal and external links to meet some of the above guidelines. Keep in mind that improving indexing is mostly a technical task, improving ranking is mostly a business/marketing strategy, what might work now may not work in the future and finally, it takes time. Loads of time. Still, with a bit of trial and error and a good dose of persistence, you can achieve the search engine ranking you're after.
About the Author: Jon Bergan is the owner of Bergan Blue, an Australian based creative design firm focused on bridging the gap between the online world of the Internet with the offline world of Marketing. Please visit http://www.berganblue.com.au/ for more information.
Given that there is a heap of websites out there who are on the first page, what is their secret? It is a little industry term called "SEO" and it stands for Search Engine Optimisation. SEO basically consists of the customisation of your website, its content and its internal and external links to assist in the overall indexing and ranking of your website in popular search engines. There are many contributing factors that are used in determining a website's ranking and every search engine is different. This makes trying to optimise your site for Google, Yahoo, Live and the many others quite a pain staking task.
As most of us are aware, Google is currently the most popular search engine for the majority of Internet users. As such, it is only normal that we'd want to focus our sights on achieving a higher ranking within Google first with a hope that the rest will follow. To do this, we must start a journey that could potentially take months before we start seeing any real change, however we have to start somewhere.
Our journey begins by defining some of the key contributing factors that Google uses to determine a website and webpage's ranking within its results. These factors range from keyword use to manipulating internal and external links and the list goes on. To get you started, we have listed the top twenty factors that you should focus on in order to help get your website that little bit closer to the top of the search engine results listing.
Keyword Use Factors
The following components relate to the use of the user's search query terms in determining the rank of a particular page.
1. Keyword Use in Title Tag - Placing the targeted search term or phrase in the title tag of the web page's HTML header.
2. Keyword Use in Body Text - Using the targeted search term in the visible, HTML text of the page.
3. Relationship of Body Text Content to Keywords - Topical relevance of text on the page compared to targeted keywords.
4. Keyword Use in H1 Tag - Creating an H1 tag with the targeted search term/phrase.
5. Keyword Use in Domain Name & Page URL - Including the targeted term/phrase in the registered domain name, i.e. keyword.com plus target terms in the webpage URL, i.e. seomoz.org/keyword-phrase.
Page Attributes
The following elements comprise how the Google interprets specific data about a webpage independent of keywords.
6. Link Popularity within the Site's Internal Link Structure - Refers to the number and importance of internal links pointing to the target page 7. Quality/Relevance of Links to External Sites/Pages - Do links on the page point to high quality, topically-related pages? 8. Age of Document - Older pages may be perceived as more authoritative while newer pages may be more temporally relevant 9. Amount of Indexable Text Content - Refers to the literal quantity of visible HTML text on a page 10. Quality of the Document Content (as measured algorithmically) - Assuming search engines can use text, visual or other analysis methods to determine the validity and value of content, this metric would provide some level of rating.
Site/Domain Attributes
The factors below contribute to Google's rankings based on the site/domain on which a page resides.
11. Global Link Popularity of Site - The overall link weight/authority as measured by links from any and all sites across the web (both link quality and quantity) 12. Age of Site - Not the date of original registration of the domain, but rather the launch of indexable content seen by the search engines (note that this can change if a domain switches ownership) 13. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site - The subject-specific relationship between the sites/pages linking to the target page and the target keyword 14. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community - The link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world 15. Rate of New Inbound Links to Site - The frequency and timing of external sites linking in to the given domain.
Inbound Link Attribute
These pieces affect Google's weighting of links from external websites pointing to a page and ultimately will assist in the ranking of that page.
16. Anchor Text of Inbound Link.
17. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site.
18. Topical Relationship of Linking Page.
19. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community - The link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world.
20. Age of Link.
Negative Crawling/Ranking Attributes
There are also some points we should make before you start getting your hands dirty. With any type of SEO marketing, there are some things that can actually have a negative impact on your ranking. These following components may negatively affect a spider's ability to crawl a page or its rankings at Google.
* Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots.
* Content Very Similar or Duplicate of Existing Content in the Index.
* External Links to Low Quality/Spam Sites.
* Duplicate Title/Meta Tags on Many Pages.
* Overuse of Targeted Keywords (Stuffing/Spamming).
It's now time to get busy! Start prioritising your tasks, modifying your content and building your internal and external links to meet some of the above guidelines. Keep in mind that improving indexing is mostly a technical task, improving ranking is mostly a business/marketing strategy, what might work now may not work in the future and finally, it takes time. Loads of time. Still, with a bit of trial and error and a good dose of persistence, you can achieve the search engine ranking you're after.
About the Author: Jon Bergan is the owner of Bergan Blue, an Australian based creative design firm focused on bridging the gap between the online world of the Internet with the offline world of Marketing. Please visit http://www.berganblue.com.au/ for more information.
Test Your Way To Greater Conversions and Internet Success!
Testing your website pages, especially landing pages, squeeze pages and sales pages is one of the most profitable things you can do to tweak your pages and gain higher conversions. On top of that, you can learn more about copywriting though split tests and other means of testing your web pages than any other way.
Back in the days of mail order marketing, testing sales letters and catalogs gathered more real information about new concepts and ideas than through most other methods of research at that time. In these days of the internet, the bell even rings louder.
You can test whole concepts of your pages to find out what emotional triggers and core desires your market truly respond to. Simply test two or three versions of your sales page that each focus on a separate theme or slant on the product or service. The page that pulls the most conversions will give you the answers you are looking for.
In this day of fierce online competition, testing is something you should, no MUST do to gain the highest conversions from your website and pages. If you're not actively testing your pages, your competition will soon pass you by.
What Exactly Should You Be Testing?
The simple answer is: Everything! Everything on your pages and in your sales message is a contributing factor to your conversion rate. This includes your headline, opening paragraphs, body copy, your offer, post scripts, background color, font, font colors, images and every imaginable component of your page in between.
Volumes of information have been written about what to test and how to test your web pages. This work is extensive, so when you begin to test, I suggest you concentrate your first efforts on the three areas that have been shown to have the most impact on your sales page, the headline, the first three (or four) opening paragraphs, and your offer.
In this article, I will focus on Headlines as they are the critical element of your page.
Testing Headlines
Headline changes can have the most impact on your conversion rate and response of these three components. 75 - 80% of your visitors will never read past the headline. It doesn't matter how wonderful you have written your sales page, if the headline doesn't work correctly and do its job of getting people to read on, your page will be a failure.
In order for your headline to be effective, you have to discover the biggest core desires within your market to feed. The best headline test are based around the different core desires and motivating reasons why people would be interested in your product or service.
Testing different headlines around different concepts will tell you which one is more appealing to your market audience. Once you have the key concepts and desires tested and you have discovered which one works best, you then go to work tweaking your headline in more alluring and persuasive ways.
Split testing is generally used to test headlines. In the beginning, you will probably want to use simple A/B split testing but if you are dealing with high volume traffic and high price sales, you may want to consider speeding up the process with multi-variate testing. You can find out more about these tests by going to: What Is Split Testing?.
What Type of Headline Format Do You Test?
There are some classic headline formats that have been shown to be effective over time that you can begin with. There's the "If/Then" headline, "Amazing Secrets of ..." headline, the "Who Else Wants to ..." headline, and of course the classic "How to ..." headline.
Test as many headlines as you can think up for your web page. In fact, you should never stop testing different headlines on your page. A simple 10% increase in your conversions could result in hundreds to tens of thousands of dollar or more. Testing your headlines could bring an increase of 50%, 100%, or even 200% or more in the response your web page brings.
The next time that you feel that your landing page, sales page or squeeze page should be converting better, think about testing the component of your page to increase the effectiveness and response that it should be eliciting.
Continue reading more about this fascinating arena of online marketing by going to: Testing Your Web Pages.
About the Author: Jim Bruce is a SEO Web Consultant and writes frequently about search engine optimization techniques and search marketing. You can find out more about these topics by going to Ristvin Marketing.
Back in the days of mail order marketing, testing sales letters and catalogs gathered more real information about new concepts and ideas than through most other methods of research at that time. In these days of the internet, the bell even rings louder.
You can test whole concepts of your pages to find out what emotional triggers and core desires your market truly respond to. Simply test two or three versions of your sales page that each focus on a separate theme or slant on the product or service. The page that pulls the most conversions will give you the answers you are looking for.
In this day of fierce online competition, testing is something you should, no MUST do to gain the highest conversions from your website and pages. If you're not actively testing your pages, your competition will soon pass you by.
What Exactly Should You Be Testing?
The simple answer is: Everything! Everything on your pages and in your sales message is a contributing factor to your conversion rate. This includes your headline, opening paragraphs, body copy, your offer, post scripts, background color, font, font colors, images and every imaginable component of your page in between.
Volumes of information have been written about what to test and how to test your web pages. This work is extensive, so when you begin to test, I suggest you concentrate your first efforts on the three areas that have been shown to have the most impact on your sales page, the headline, the first three (or four) opening paragraphs, and your offer.
In this article, I will focus on Headlines as they are the critical element of your page.
Testing Headlines
Headline changes can have the most impact on your conversion rate and response of these three components. 75 - 80% of your visitors will never read past the headline. It doesn't matter how wonderful you have written your sales page, if the headline doesn't work correctly and do its job of getting people to read on, your page will be a failure.
In order for your headline to be effective, you have to discover the biggest core desires within your market to feed. The best headline test are based around the different core desires and motivating reasons why people would be interested in your product or service.
Testing different headlines around different concepts will tell you which one is more appealing to your market audience. Once you have the key concepts and desires tested and you have discovered which one works best, you then go to work tweaking your headline in more alluring and persuasive ways.
Split testing is generally used to test headlines. In the beginning, you will probably want to use simple A/B split testing but if you are dealing with high volume traffic and high price sales, you may want to consider speeding up the process with multi-variate testing. You can find out more about these tests by going to: What Is Split Testing?.
What Type of Headline Format Do You Test?
There are some classic headline formats that have been shown to be effective over time that you can begin with. There's the "If/Then" headline, "Amazing Secrets of ..." headline, the "Who Else Wants to ..." headline, and of course the classic "How to ..." headline.
Test as many headlines as you can think up for your web page. In fact, you should never stop testing different headlines on your page. A simple 10% increase in your conversions could result in hundreds to tens of thousands of dollar or more. Testing your headlines could bring an increase of 50%, 100%, or even 200% or more in the response your web page brings.
The next time that you feel that your landing page, sales page or squeeze page should be converting better, think about testing the component of your page to increase the effectiveness and response that it should be eliciting.
Continue reading more about this fascinating arena of online marketing by going to: Testing Your Web Pages.
About the Author: Jim Bruce is a SEO Web Consultant and writes frequently about search engine optimization techniques and search marketing. You can find out more about these topics by going to Ristvin Marketing.
Website Optimisation Techniques
As well as link building and on-page optimisation, there are some other very important SEO factors which can help your website index and rank in search engine listings. The following techniques are grouped into the category named 'website optimisation' and should not be overlooked when preparing an SEO campaign.
Domain Age and Expiration Date
Google and other search engines include many factors within their ranking system. One of these factors is trust rank. Owning a domain that has history improves the trust rank as does registering the domain for a long period of time.
Website History
Again trust rank comes into play here. If your website has been archived in the search engine results for a long period then it will help improve rankings and indexing of webpages created in comparison with a fairly new website with no history.
As well as link building and on-page optimisation, there are some other very important SEO factors which can help your website index and rank in search engine listings. The following techniques are grouped into the category named 'website optimisation' and should not be overlooked when preparing an SEO campaign.
Domain Age and Expiration Date
Google and other search engines include many factors within their ranking system. One of these factors is trust rank. Owning a domain that has history improves the trust rank as does registering the domain for a long period of time.
Website History
Again trust rank comes into play here. If your website has been archived in the search engine results for a long period then it will help improve rankings and indexing of webpages created in comparison with a fairly new website with no history.As well as link building and on-page optimisation, there are some other very important SEO factors which can help your website index and rank in search engine listings. The following techniques are grouped into the category named 'website optimisation' and should not be overlooked when preparing an SEO campaign.
Domain Age and Expiration Date
Google and other search engines include many factors within their ranking system. One of these factors is trust rank. Owning a domain that has history improves the trust rank as does registering the domain for a long period of time.
Website History
Again trust rank comes into play here. If your website has been archived in the search engine results for a long period then it will help improve rankings and indexing of webpages created in comparison with a fairly new website with no history.
As well as link building and on-page optimisation, there are some other very important SEO factors which can help your website index and rank in search engine listings. The following techniques are grouped into the category named 'website optimisation' and should not be overlooked when preparing an SEO campaign.
Domain Age and Expiration Date
Google and other search engines include many factors within their ranking system. One of these factors is trust rank. Owning a domain that has history improves the trust rank as does registering the domain for a long period of time.
Website History
Again trust rank comes into play here. If your website has been archived in the search engine results for a long period then it will help improve rankings and indexing of webpages created in comparison with a fairly new website with no history.
Structured Navigation
When creating a website, it is important to provide a well structured navigation, not just for users but also to allow search engine bots to follow links and index webpages within your website. Structuring your navigation correctly can help all you webpages be indexed and should help the flow of Google's PageRank spread through out the website.
Valid HTML
As with structured navigation, the importance of valid HTML to search engine bots is to allow all webpages within your website to be indexed within the search engine listings. Validating your HTML will ensure that the bots do not hit any 'brick walls' within the code that prevent them from reading the rest of the webpage.
Contextual Linking
To further help the indexing of your webpages and to even out the flow of Google's PageRank, it is useful to include links within the content text of your webpages. Wikipedia is a perfect example of how this should be done.
URL Structure Including keywords in your website's URLs will help you rank for those terms. If your website uses dynamic URLs created through variables then think about rewriting them. Separate keywords using a minus character (eg. search-phrase.html) and try and keep the important keywords as close to the beginning of the URL as possible.
Regional Targeting
If you wish to target a certain region then there are a few steps you can take to help this process. Firstly you can choose a relevant domain such as a .co.uk (UK) or .de (Germany) rather than a generic .com domain. Then look at your hosting IP location, search engines can access this information and will use it to decide your target audience. Finally, Google Webmaster Tools allows you to set a geographic target which is useful if you have a .com domain.
Site Maps
Search engine bots look for site maps when they visit your website. Providing a standard HTML site map will help improve the indexing of your webpages and allow bots to find webpages that they might otherwise have missed. You can now also provide and submit an XML site map which all the major search engines have took on as a standard. Use your robots.txt to tell bots where to find your XML site map and also submit it to Google Webmaster Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer.
Domain Name
If you are purchasing a domain name for a new website then think about including your main targeted keywords within that domain name. For example if you are building an online store that sells low price golf clubs in the UK and you buy the domain cheapgolfclubs.co.uk then you are definitely going to have a lot more of a chance for quickly ranking well for the search term 'cheap golf clubs' in UK search engines than you would with a more generic domain name. You would also do well for long tail search terms such as 'cheap golf clubs in the UK' and have more chance of ranking for 'golf clubs' in the long term.
About the Author: Steven Balfour wrote this article for search engine optimisation company Position Gold Ltd.
Domain Age and Expiration Date
Google and other search engines include many factors within their ranking system. One of these factors is trust rank. Owning a domain that has history improves the trust rank as does registering the domain for a long period of time.
Website History
Again trust rank comes into play here. If your website has been archived in the search engine results for a long period then it will help improve rankings and indexing of webpages created in comparison with a fairly new website with no history.
As well as link building and on-page optimisation, there are some other very important SEO factors which can help your website index and rank in search engine listings. The following techniques are grouped into the category named 'website optimisation' and should not be overlooked when preparing an SEO campaign.
Domain Age and Expiration Date
Google and other search engines include many factors within their ranking system. One of these factors is trust rank. Owning a domain that has history improves the trust rank as does registering the domain for a long period of time.
Website History
Again trust rank comes into play here. If your website has been archived in the search engine results for a long period then it will help improve rankings and indexing of webpages created in comparison with a fairly new website with no history.As well as link building and on-page optimisation, there are some other very important SEO factors which can help your website index and rank in search engine listings. The following techniques are grouped into the category named 'website optimisation' and should not be overlooked when preparing an SEO campaign.
Domain Age and Expiration Date
Google and other search engines include many factors within their ranking system. One of these factors is trust rank. Owning a domain that has history improves the trust rank as does registering the domain for a long period of time.
Website History
Again trust rank comes into play here. If your website has been archived in the search engine results for a long period then it will help improve rankings and indexing of webpages created in comparison with a fairly new website with no history.
As well as link building and on-page optimisation, there are some other very important SEO factors which can help your website index and rank in search engine listings. The following techniques are grouped into the category named 'website optimisation' and should not be overlooked when preparing an SEO campaign.
Domain Age and Expiration Date
Google and other search engines include many factors within their ranking system. One of these factors is trust rank. Owning a domain that has history improves the trust rank as does registering the domain for a long period of time.
Website History
Again trust rank comes into play here. If your website has been archived in the search engine results for a long period then it will help improve rankings and indexing of webpages created in comparison with a fairly new website with no history.
Structured Navigation
When creating a website, it is important to provide a well structured navigation, not just for users but also to allow search engine bots to follow links and index webpages within your website. Structuring your navigation correctly can help all you webpages be indexed and should help the flow of Google's PageRank spread through out the website.
Valid HTML
As with structured navigation, the importance of valid HTML to search engine bots is to allow all webpages within your website to be indexed within the search engine listings. Validating your HTML will ensure that the bots do not hit any 'brick walls' within the code that prevent them from reading the rest of the webpage.
Contextual Linking
To further help the indexing of your webpages and to even out the flow of Google's PageRank, it is useful to include links within the content text of your webpages. Wikipedia is a perfect example of how this should be done.
URL Structure Including keywords in your website's URLs will help you rank for those terms. If your website uses dynamic URLs created through variables then think about rewriting them. Separate keywords using a minus character (eg. search-phrase.html) and try and keep the important keywords as close to the beginning of the URL as possible.
Regional Targeting
If you wish to target a certain region then there are a few steps you can take to help this process. Firstly you can choose a relevant domain such as a .co.uk (UK) or .de (Germany) rather than a generic .com domain. Then look at your hosting IP location, search engines can access this information and will use it to decide your target audience. Finally, Google Webmaster Tools allows you to set a geographic target which is useful if you have a .com domain.
Site Maps
Search engine bots look for site maps when they visit your website. Providing a standard HTML site map will help improve the indexing of your webpages and allow bots to find webpages that they might otherwise have missed. You can now also provide and submit an XML site map which all the major search engines have took on as a standard. Use your robots.txt to tell bots where to find your XML site map and also submit it to Google Webmaster Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer.
Domain Name
If you are purchasing a domain name for a new website then think about including your main targeted keywords within that domain name. For example if you are building an online store that sells low price golf clubs in the UK and you buy the domain cheapgolfclubs.co.uk then you are definitely going to have a lot more of a chance for quickly ranking well for the search term 'cheap golf clubs' in UK search engines than you would with a more generic domain name. You would also do well for long tail search terms such as 'cheap golf clubs in the UK' and have more chance of ranking for 'golf clubs' in the long term.
About the Author: Steven Balfour wrote this article for search engine optimisation company Position Gold Ltd.
6 Qualities of a Good Domain Name
Choosing a good domain name is crucial to the success or failure of your business. You may wonder how something so small and slight could have an impact on your business, but the best way to compare this is to think about how important location is to an offline business? If you do not have a good location, you are likely not going to get many visitors. The same holds true for a good domain name as well.
Here, you will discover the six qualities that a good domain name must have to ensure maximum success.
1.) Memorable
A good domain name must be memorable. Yes, we have the option of bookmarking a site that we enjoy; however, the hard truth is that many people do not take advantage of bookmarking. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that your domain name is one that is easy to remember and makes an impact. It should be easy, memorable, and straight forward.
Avoid complexity and it is usually a good idea to avoid initials in most cases. The only exception to this rule would be if the letters represented the website name or business and was still easy to remember.
2.) Short and Sweet
Twenty characters is the maximum that you should use for a good domain name, ten is even better. A long and complicated domain name is not going to help you. Your best bet is to keep it short and sweet. A great domain name is less than ten characters; a good domain name is less than twenty characters. A bad domain name goes over twenty characters.
3.) Be Choosy On Your Extension
There are several domain extensions available to you such as .com, .net, .org, .tv, .info, .gov and so on. However, some of these work better than others and are more memorable at the same time. It is important to understand that some extensions also have restrictions such as .gov is reserved specifically for government websites. The .com domain name extension is the best by far, because it is the most widely used.
The .net extension is the second best, but be prepared most people will type .com before they will .net if they cannot remember which extension you use. The type of extension you use might also have a bearing on the type of website. Some people have come to expect certain things when a particular extension. For example, .org is typically used by not-for-profit organization and educational websites. The .info extensions are generally used for informational websites.
4.) Spelling Means Everything
Having a difficult to spell domain name could cause you some trouble. Again, many do not even make use of bookmarks; therefore, if your domain name is hard to spell, they may end up at a competitor's website.
A good domain name contains only words that are easy to pronounce, have a good combination of words or letters that are used in every day language, and does not contain foreign words that may be difficult to non-native speakers.
5.) Tells a Story
A good domain name should be descriptive and tell a story. In other words, when your visitors, customers, or potential customers see your domain name they should instantly be able to tell what they are going to find. For instance, if it is your business, a business name is good.
6.) Avoid Fancy Symbols
It is never a good idea to use numbers or hyphens within your domain name. Even if your domain name is memorable, many people will not pay attention to the symbols, which could lead them to someone else's website.
About the Author: Joseph Nyamache has the worst domain name. Learn not to make the same mistakes at expired domain names blog.
Here, you will discover the six qualities that a good domain name must have to ensure maximum success.
1.) Memorable
A good domain name must be memorable. Yes, we have the option of bookmarking a site that we enjoy; however, the hard truth is that many people do not take advantage of bookmarking. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that your domain name is one that is easy to remember and makes an impact. It should be easy, memorable, and straight forward.
Avoid complexity and it is usually a good idea to avoid initials in most cases. The only exception to this rule would be if the letters represented the website name or business and was still easy to remember.
2.) Short and Sweet
Twenty characters is the maximum that you should use for a good domain name, ten is even better. A long and complicated domain name is not going to help you. Your best bet is to keep it short and sweet. A great domain name is less than ten characters; a good domain name is less than twenty characters. A bad domain name goes over twenty characters.
3.) Be Choosy On Your Extension
There are several domain extensions available to you such as .com, .net, .org, .tv, .info, .gov and so on. However, some of these work better than others and are more memorable at the same time. It is important to understand that some extensions also have restrictions such as .gov is reserved specifically for government websites. The .com domain name extension is the best by far, because it is the most widely used.
The .net extension is the second best, but be prepared most people will type .com before they will .net if they cannot remember which extension you use. The type of extension you use might also have a bearing on the type of website. Some people have come to expect certain things when a particular extension. For example, .org is typically used by not-for-profit organization and educational websites. The .info extensions are generally used for informational websites.
4.) Spelling Means Everything
Having a difficult to spell domain name could cause you some trouble. Again, many do not even make use of bookmarks; therefore, if your domain name is hard to spell, they may end up at a competitor's website.
A good domain name contains only words that are easy to pronounce, have a good combination of words or letters that are used in every day language, and does not contain foreign words that may be difficult to non-native speakers.
5.) Tells a Story
A good domain name should be descriptive and tell a story. In other words, when your visitors, customers, or potential customers see your domain name they should instantly be able to tell what they are going to find. For instance, if it is your business, a business name is good.
6.) Avoid Fancy Symbols
It is never a good idea to use numbers or hyphens within your domain name. Even if your domain name is memorable, many people will not pay attention to the symbols, which could lead them to someone else's website.
About the Author: Joseph Nyamache has the worst domain name. Learn not to make the same mistakes at expired domain names blog.
Creating a Corporate Writing Style
Developing a corporate writing style will unify your company's communications and create a unique 'voice' that enhances corporate recognition and brand awareness. To ensure that your corporate writing style is applied consistently, you need a style-guide.
Writing style refers to the words and expressions - as well as to the spelling, grammar and punctuation - a person uses when writing letters and memos. Each of us has a personal style of writing which, like our speaking voice, is usually recognizable.
To distinguish itself from its competitors your company also needs its own writing style, one that will make it recognizable and enhance brand awareness.
The problem is that corporate communications are written by many people, each with their own personal style. This is especially true where particular documents, such as newsletters, technical manuals and corporate brochures, websites and ezines, contain contributions from several people.
Thus there is a need to create a company writing style that unifies written communications and reflects corporate identity and image.
If you examine the brochures and websites of major corporations you'll see that the style of writing varies - sometimes subtly but always distinctively - from one company to the next. You will also notice that the corporate literature of each particular company reflects a unified style, as if it had all been written by the same person, ie the same corporate personality.
The best way to achieve a unified writing style that is stamped with your corporate personality is to create a document called a style-guide.
A style-guide is a booklet that covers word, phrase and sentence usage, and approaches to be taken in structuring particular types of communications, such as brochures, technical manuals or ezines, as well as common errors in grammar and syntax. It lays down the 'rules' to be followed when writing corporate literature.
A style-guide should provide your corporate communications with a distinct vocabulary and cadence that is appropriate to your business. Obviously a writing style that is suitable for a financial services company or bank must differ greatly from the style of a fashion house. An appropriate style-guide will provide your company with the overall tone and word-quality you need to communicate successfully with your target audiences.
When devising a style-guide, an independent consultant is essential to preserve objectivity. Giving the job to an in-house executive may result in writing style that is contentious because everyone within your company is likely to have views on what is an appropriate and 'correct' style. An external writing consultant will have the experience needed to devise an appropriate style - it's his main job after all.
The consultant will begin with an examination of your company, its marketing efforts, communication channels and target audiences. He or she will also peruse the company's marketing communications and other corporate literature. This getting-to-know-you phase must be done thoroughly which can take time.
Once he understands your company, its communication objectives and typical audiences, the consultant will be in a position to draft a corporate style manual and agree its content with senior management. To illustrate the value of the proposed writing style, he or she should rewrite some of your recent corporate literature and show how the proposed style will enhance corporate recognition and branding.
You should always ensure that the final guide is delivered in electronic format so that it may be printed and distributed among your staff without restriction. Once it has been issued, you will also need to take steps to ensure that the writing 'rules' are followed in all communications with markets and stakeholders.
A well-thought out writing style-guide with clear understandable rules, which are applied consistently to all corporate literature - print and electronic - will ensure clarity and harmony in your corporate communications and reinforce corporate personality. It's just as important as your logo and visual imagery.
About the Author: Paul D Kennedy is a business consultant and writer. His writing services solve corporate writing challenges and imbue business communications with clarity, impact and persuasiveness.
Writing style refers to the words and expressions - as well as to the spelling, grammar and punctuation - a person uses when writing letters and memos. Each of us has a personal style of writing which, like our speaking voice, is usually recognizable.
To distinguish itself from its competitors your company also needs its own writing style, one that will make it recognizable and enhance brand awareness.
The problem is that corporate communications are written by many people, each with their own personal style. This is especially true where particular documents, such as newsletters, technical manuals and corporate brochures, websites and ezines, contain contributions from several people.
Thus there is a need to create a company writing style that unifies written communications and reflects corporate identity and image.
If you examine the brochures and websites of major corporations you'll see that the style of writing varies - sometimes subtly but always distinctively - from one company to the next. You will also notice that the corporate literature of each particular company reflects a unified style, as if it had all been written by the same person, ie the same corporate personality.
The best way to achieve a unified writing style that is stamped with your corporate personality is to create a document called a style-guide.
A style-guide is a booklet that covers word, phrase and sentence usage, and approaches to be taken in structuring particular types of communications, such as brochures, technical manuals or ezines, as well as common errors in grammar and syntax. It lays down the 'rules' to be followed when writing corporate literature.
A style-guide should provide your corporate communications with a distinct vocabulary and cadence that is appropriate to your business. Obviously a writing style that is suitable for a financial services company or bank must differ greatly from the style of a fashion house. An appropriate style-guide will provide your company with the overall tone and word-quality you need to communicate successfully with your target audiences.
When devising a style-guide, an independent consultant is essential to preserve objectivity. Giving the job to an in-house executive may result in writing style that is contentious because everyone within your company is likely to have views on what is an appropriate and 'correct' style. An external writing consultant will have the experience needed to devise an appropriate style - it's his main job after all.
The consultant will begin with an examination of your company, its marketing efforts, communication channels and target audiences. He or she will also peruse the company's marketing communications and other corporate literature. This getting-to-know-you phase must be done thoroughly which can take time.
Once he understands your company, its communication objectives and typical audiences, the consultant will be in a position to draft a corporate style manual and agree its content with senior management. To illustrate the value of the proposed writing style, he or she should rewrite some of your recent corporate literature and show how the proposed style will enhance corporate recognition and branding.
You should always ensure that the final guide is delivered in electronic format so that it may be printed and distributed among your staff without restriction. Once it has been issued, you will also need to take steps to ensure that the writing 'rules' are followed in all communications with markets and stakeholders.
A well-thought out writing style-guide with clear understandable rules, which are applied consistently to all corporate literature - print and electronic - will ensure clarity and harmony in your corporate communications and reinforce corporate personality. It's just as important as your logo and visual imagery.
About the Author: Paul D Kennedy is a business consultant and writer. His writing services solve corporate writing challenges and imbue business communications with clarity, impact and persuasiveness.
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