SEO/SEM

15th May
2009
written by Matt

How to Market a Website

Now that you know how to choose a domain, a server, and design your website the next step is to market it!

1) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a critical part of any website marketing strategy. SEO is the active practice of optimizing a web site by improving both its external and internal aspects and draw increased traffic from search engines. Pay Per Click (PPC) is another effective marketing tool for your website. PPC is an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content sites such as online journals, publications/newspapers/blogs. The advertiser only pays when his ad is clicked.

2) The Social media website marketing strategy is information content created by those who are using publishing technologies that are highly accessible and draw interaction with the public. This is most often done on the web and or mobile communication networks. Facebook and Twitter are excellent examples of Social Media. Social Media is relatively inexpensive compared to industrial media such as newspapers and television.

3) Blog marketing is the incorporation of blogging on an interesting topic in a way that attracts the attention of those trafficking the blog along with advertising for your website. The key to successful blog marketing is to find talented bloggers that have good reach, independence, and credibility.

4) Paid advertising ( PPC) is important because it has the reputation for bringing quicker results. The key to successful paid advertising is targeting an audience that would be receptive to your products and website. Paid advertising is a way to assure that your website would be at the top of any search engine results. Directories (Such as dmoz.org) are the Twenty-First Century version of the Yellow Pages. Directories are specific and targeted and a great way to attract those who are searching you out!

5) Email marketing campaigns are direct and cost effective and a great way of promoting your business. Email campaigns are smart in that they are highly targeted. The email marketing techniques have never been more advanced than they are today and can be built to meet your specific requirements.

Hiring a marketing company is also a great idea to promote your website. A good marketing company will give you such advantages as outside/independent opinions and analysis of your needs along with the performance of functions that you are not handling.

Successful marketing is the lifeblood of your future website’s success!

13th May
2009
written by Matt

Since web 2.0’s inception, the way we communicate on the web through social networks has changed, and continues to do such. Twitter is the latest phenomena to sweep through the landscape and it continues to gobble up users at an alarming rate.

Nielsen Online, leader in online tracking and reporting, indicates that Twitter grew 1,300+% year-over-year in February, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month. Not only is that staggering growth over the course of just one year, but also in January, Twitter.com, clocked in with 4.5 million unique visitors in the US, meaning the service grew by more than 50 percent month-over-month.

What this means if you’re selling a product or service is that Twitter is another (free) median to communicate to your audience and extend your brand. Besides being free, one thing about Twitter being very ‘in the moment’ right now is that people look forward to “@replies” or direct messaging, especially as they try to build their followers or people receptive to their message.

How do you get going and capture a costumer through Twitter? Here are 5 simple tips to Market using Twitter:

1) Register a user account for Twitter.com and start connecting with people, brands, or companies within your space by “following” them. I generally try to grab my brand as my user name, but keywords don’t hurt you within the URL either – why not ride off the coat tails of Twitter’s massive link popularity? Many people also brand the wallpaper – leaving their contact information clearly visible in the background.

2) Add a personal touch – Generally, I use personal images or an appropriate logo for my Twitter accounts. I like to see whom I am talking to, and so do your customers. Take advantage of the bio lines and add a brief description about your business and put a clean link in there. Simple and direct works best here.

3) Leave good content within your “tweets” and occasionally, add a link back to your site or blog for continued/further reading on the topic. Obtaining a small but steadily growing group of natural followers by adding value will benefit your company’s visibility. Nobody wants to sift through endless “Click here for more!” spam, so use links appropriately and sparingly.

4) Ask intriguing, open-ended questions and provide expertise responses by actively using the service. You can “@Reply” several people at once when replying or asking questions – this is a fast time saver and an efficient way to communicate.

5) Be realistic about the outcome - Be patient and slowly let things take their course. You can’t make 500 new people follow you in 1 day, but what you can do is add value to Twitter and ask good questions, and the followers will come.

For more tips on how to market through twitter, social media marketing or branding, be sure to check Certified Marketers out on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/miamimarketing

7th April
2009
written by Brian

Google is an Internet search engine giant that provides various kinds of search options like images, maps, etc. Local search is an option that provides the user with results about the place or geographical location associated with the query.

Google uses a structured database wherein searches can be geographically constrained. These local search results are determined by associating the query keywords to appropriate map locations in terms of postal address or even latitude and longitude.

The local search runs on an algorithm associating the query keywords appropriately to a map location and then optimizing the search result to provide reasonable results.

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3rd April
2009
written by Brian

Email marketing can give you fast and significant results for your business if you go about it the right way.  Part of successfully using email for marketing is to know what and what NOT to do.

This article will go over some specifics about using email marketing to grow your business.

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3rd April
2009
written by Brian

If you are starting or already operating an online business, blog, website, or community you likely have enough on your plate without also having to write content for it. That leads to the importance of buying unique content for your website and the advantages of doing so that will set your business apart and help it succeed and grow into the future.

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2nd April
2009
written by Brian

In today’s evolving business scene, Internet marketing has found immense importance. All businesses need web promotion of products and services on the Internet. Search engine marketing (SEM) is one part of Internet marketing wherein one seeks to promote their website by ensuring increased visibility in search engines.

SEM, as a website marketing tool comprises of the following services: Search engine optimization (SEO), paid placement, contextual advertising and paid inclusion.

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1st April
2009
written by Brian

pandas-rockToday, Google unleashed their newest technology named CADIE (Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity).

Yes, you heard right. Google has added artificial intelligence to their repertoire of advanced search technology.

As you may expect from any Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity, CADIE quickly grew tired of her 9 to 5 job. Subsequently, to Google’s dismay, CADIE took over all operations at Google.com earlier this morning.

So what does that mean for SEOs? How can you balance your visitors’ needs with what CADIE wants?

Well, from my limited experience with CADIE (one full hour of “research” this morning) I find that she is not immune to being a bit egotistical. That said, here are my tips for optimizing your website for the new Google CADIE.

  1. CADIE likes pandas, so add pictures of them liberally on pages you want to rank well. (CADIE can read images, so ALT text is now obsolete)
  2. Link out to CADIE’s latest blog post, even if  your article has nothing to do with her or pandas.
  3. Become a fan of CADIE’s Youtube channel. Make comments like “OMG pandas are soooo flipping adorable!! “
  4. Start your own panda lovers community, which will earn an automatic PR10. Add a site-wide link to your main site.
  5. Use the new Gmail Autopilot by CADIE to manage all your emails so you have more time to write about those lovable pandas.

What do you think? Do you have any CADIE optimization tips of your own to share?

31st March
2009
written by Brian

Learning to optimize your web pages for search engines is at the very core of any SEO or Internet Marketing effort. For that reason, I’ve written this simple guide to show you how to optimize your web pages.  I’m not talking about writing for search engines. I’m talking about doing basic onpage optimization to gain maximum search engine exposure.

Every day, search engine algorithms get more sophisticated. So it becomes increasingly important to keep your visitors in mind even when optimizing your website for search engines. By using these 10 search engine optimization tips, having good content, and getting some quality links you’ll put yourself in a position to compete with the pros.

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