by KevinPosted on Posted in Domains, Search Engine Optimization — No Comments ↓

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The first step in developing a web site is coming up with a domain. Domain names are often compared to real estate in that domain names are foundations on which a website such as a house can be built. The highest quality domain names are similar to high demand real estate carry higher value, because of their online brand potential use in advertising and search engine optimization. A domain name uniquely identifies a website. Typing your domain name into your browser allows you to visit that site. When picking a domain, pick a domain that is memorable, your company name, shorter domain is better, get a .com or .net extension.Your domain is your company name with an extension such as .com or .net. For example, Google.com uses the company name Google and is easy to remember and short.

Here are common domain extensions:

.COM (Commercial) – Mostly intended for commercial use. It is the most recognized domain name extension.
.NET (Network) – This was originally intended for network oriented sites such as internet service providers. It is not the case any longer. People will register .NET domains for commercial use and if .COM is not available. In addition if they would like to protect their main .COM domain by registering another extension.
.ORG (Organization) – This domain extension was originally intended for non-profit or trade organizations and this is no longer the case.
.BIZ (Business) – This is registered to classify their website as a business. It’s a great to buy, if the .COM extension is not available

There are few things as frustrating as doing an Internet search for your own name and not being found. We had one customer who wanted to maintain their domain but let the domain time lapse. Worse the competitor purchased the domain and would not sell the domain unless $1,000 or more for the domain. The customer’s reputation, brand and the domain were taken. Just think of all the lost sales because the domain expired.

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by CoryPosted on Posted in Content, Keywords, Marketing — No Comments ↓

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Any Web Marketer worth his salt knows that you can’t be successful without goals. And you can’t set goals without being able to measure them. So how do you measure goals in something as obscure as web marketing? Simple. Web Analytics. Web Analytics is technology that tracks how your website is being used. For example it can tell you how many visitors you have, where they are coming from, and what they are doing on your site.

There are two main types of web analytics softwares, server based, and client based. Server based software periodically scans the server logs to determine who was accessing your site. One of the most popular forms of server statistics software is AWStats The overview of AWStats is shown below:

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As you can see, AWStats gives you an overview of information, mainly the number of visits organized by the time. There is a lot of other information that AWStats gives you. For example, The specific pages that were accessed, the countries of the visitors, their operating system, etc.

The second type of web analytics software is client based. What this means is that instead of the software running in the background on the server, it is activated every time a visitor accesses the website. This software can either be hosted on your site, or hosted externally. The most popular client-based analytics software is Google Analytics. Google Analytics works by embedding a small tag on each page of your site. This tag activates javascript hosted on Google’s Servers, which then retrieves data and information for analysis. The overview of Google Analytics is shown below:

Main Screen Shot

As you can see, this overview is more intuitive than AWStats. It shows information in a more visual way, and is able to tell you if your traffic is coming from referring sites, or search engines. Google Analytics allows you to set up goals and conversions so you can get a detailed look at the traffic to your site(s).

This video should give you a nice overview of the Google Analytics Interface

As you can see, Google Analytics is very detailed, powerful software. However I would recommend you use both for your analytics needs. They each have their own pros and cons, so using them together is a better way to harness the power of the software.

Now that you know the basics of using analytics, here’s why you should:

  • Gives you an overview of how many people are coming to your site.
  • The only way to be successful is to measure success, and web statistics allows you to do so.
  • Allows you to better focus your marketing efforts on the worst-performing parts of your site.
  • Let’s you see the most popular keywords that people are hitting your site from.
  • Allows you to set goals based on your traffic, so you can have measurable marketing results.

To get started with analytics right now:

  • AWStats: Talk to your administrator or contact your web host to see if you have AWStats currently enabled.
  • Google Analytics: visit http://google.com/analytics and sign up. Insert the provided tracking code into all of the pages of your site.
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by CoryPosted on Posted in Content, Marketing, Social Media — No Comments ↓

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If you ever took a marketing class in school, you learned that word-of-mouth is the best kind of marketing. Wikipedia defines word of mouth marketing as:

Word of mouth is a reference to the passing of information from person to person. Originally the term referred specifically to oral communication (literally words from the mouth), but now includes any type of human communication, such as face to face, telephone, email, and text messaging.

In this article, I’m going to discuss how, when utilized properly, Social Media networks are the foundation of a new type of word-of-mouth. This new marketing is different than old marketing. Mainly because of the time it takes for one person to make a recommendation to someone else over an existing social network. We see this all the time, we just don’t know it. A great example is product reviews on things like blogs. One person posts the review on the blog, and people read it. This is word of mouth marketing, just in a different form.

The reason word of mouth marketing is so effective is because its personal. Humans are the most social creature on Earth, and this is directly reflected in marketing. Remember, word of mouth marketing doesn’t mean that it has to be someone that a person knows who is passing them information, just that it be a personal exchange. Either face to face, over the phone, etc. Information like this is passed in huge numbers all of the time. In fact, according to Internet Retailer Magazine, Facebook is now more popular then email.

Whenever you pass information on to someone using the internet, whether it be email, a blog post, a forum, or even something like Twitter, that is word of mouth. Now the question is, how do you take advantage of this enormous advertising potential? Simple, you pass on information. Write blog articles about your business, post comments on blogs, send emails, post in forums. Actively participating in social media is the only way to take advantage of it. Once you participate in the community, you become part of the community, and then you have the ability to spread your message throughout the community.

In essence, like normal word of mouth marketing, social media marketing is the hardest path to undertake, but the most rewarding in the end. By tapping into resources like facebook, blogs, etc however, your job can be a little bit easier.

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by KevinPosted on Posted in Content, Keywords, Marketing — No Comments ↓

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Are you spending too much money on the Yellow Pages and not getting the results? My office building has a huge stack of the Yellow Pages that no one has picked. If you are an advertiser in the Yellow Pages, how does that make you feel? People are searching for your business online in Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s local listing but the bulk of your budget was spent in the Yellow Pages.

We do not know about you; we search the search engines local listing to find a business.  Can we find your business online?

It is a good idea to become familiar with Microsoft’s new search engine Bing.  Bing is branded as the decision engine providing faster more relevant search results.  For instance, Bing is broken down in four categories: Travel, Shopping, Health and Local.

Bing Local allows users to find businesses near them, where they want to go. Listings are returned in search results, removing the tedious tasks of businesses searching for new customers.  The customers have already located the company.

For now we will discuss local search, which is an enormous part of Bing.

A free local listing to add your business is Bing’s Listing Center.  Visit https://ssl.bing.com/listings/BusinessSearch.aspx and check to see if your business is listed on Bing Maps Search. If not add your profile in the Listing Center.  Make sure if your business is listed to verify the accuracy of the information.

Add all of your business locations separately. The following information can be changed:

  1. Web page
  2. Business description
  3. Hours of operation
  4. Payment methods
  5. Photos
  6. Year established
  7. Company tagline
  8. Brands carried
  9. Professional affiliation
  10. Languages spoken
  11. Parking options and personal contact

Fill out as many fields as possible that are applicable to your business.  The more information filled out will lead to a higher probability of doing business with your company. Remember, people like to do business with companies close to them and it is integral that you sign up in the listing center.

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by KevinPosted on Posted in Marketing, News, Search Engine Optimization — No Comments ↓

chart_yahoo_microsoft.03Yahoo and Microsoft agreed to a 10-year partnership.  Combining both Yahoo and Microsoft creates a market share of 28% of the Internet search market still lower than Google’s 65% in the United States.   The combined companies Yahoo and Microsoft makes it the number 2 search engine behind Google. According to ComScore Inc., Google is even more dominant in the rest of the world, with a global share of 67 percent compared to a combined 11 percent for Microsoft and Yahoo.

  • Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies.
  • Microsoft will be able to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms
  • Yahoo! will keep its existing search affiliate partnerships.
  • Microsoft’s Bing will also be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! Continues to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display-advertising technology.
  • Each company will have separate display advertising business.
  • Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.

The partnership still has to be approved by the Federal Trade Commission.  Sen. Herb Kohl said the Senate antitrust subcommittee he chairs will review the deal “because of the potentially far-reaching consequences for consumers and advertisers and our concern about dampening the innovation we have come to expect from a competitive high-tech industry.”

In our perspective this deal does not really change anything from the search point of view. It will create more advertising opportunities, bringing the share to 28%. The advertisers gain more exposure. We do not believe that there will be much of an impact. Furthermore, the search problem for Yahoo and Microsoft still remains and Google clearly is the dominating force and this will not make a significant difference.

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by CoryPosted on Posted in Content, Marketing, Social Media — No Comments ↓

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RSS, usually translated as “Really Simple Syndication,” and sometimes “Rich Site Summary,” is a standardized web file format used to publish frequently updated works: such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video. An RSS Document (called a “feed” or “web feed,”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.

Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.

An Example of an RSS 2.0 Feed:

[xml]<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<rss version=”2.0″>
<channel>
<title>Lift Off News</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/</link>
<description>Liftoff to Space Exploration.</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:41:01 GMT</lastBuildDate>
<docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
<generator>Weblog Editor 2.0</generator>
<managingEditor>editor@example.com</managingEditor>
<webMaster>webmaster@example.com</webMaster>
<ttl>5</ttl>

<item>
<title>Star City</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-starcity.asp</link>
<description>How do Americans get ready to work with Russians aboard the
International Space Station? They take a crash course in culture, language
and protocol at Russia’s Star City.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2003 09:39:21 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/06/03.html#item573</guid>
</item>

<item>
<title>Space Exploration</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/</link>
<description>Sky watchers in Europe, Asia, and parts of Alaska and Canada
will experience a partial eclipse of the Sun on Saturday, May 31.</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2003 11:06:42 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/30.html#item572</guid>
</item>

<item>
<title>The Engine That Does More</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-VASIMR.asp</link>
<description>Before man travels to Mars, NASA hopes to design new engines
that will let us fly through the Solar System more quickly. The proposed
VASIMR engine would do that.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2003 08:37:32 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/27.html#item571</guid>
</item>

<item>
<title>Astronauts’ Dirty Laundry</title>
<link>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2003/news-laundry.asp</link>
<description>Compared to earlier spacecraft, the International Space
Station has many luxuries, but laundry facilities are not one of them.
Instead, astronauts have other options.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2003 08:56:02 GMT</pubDate>
<guid>http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/2003/05/20.html#item570</guid>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>[/xml]

Now that you have a general overview of how RSS works, you can use it to send content to your users. Remember that RSS is only useful if you publish content often. If you have a basic website that doesn’t get updated, RSS isn’t something you need to worry about.

Now, if you do have a website that is frequently updated, it may already have a web feed. Go to Feed Validator, and type in the URL of your site, blog, etc. If it shows up as having an RSS feed, that means it is most likely automatically generated by your software, and there is nothing more you need to do. If not, I would recommend that, instead of hand-writing your RSS, you sign up for a site like Rapidfeeds. Their online tools allow you to create and publish RSS feeds for your site in realtime.

If your site doesn’t publish frequently, starting a blog can help. I will discuss using wordpress to create a blog in a later post. For now, keep on publishing!

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by CoryPosted on Posted in Marketing, Pay Per Click — No Comments ↓

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Whenever you search Google for some type of business near a certain area, not only does it query its usual web results and AdWords database, it also queries its Google Local database.

Google’s Local Business Center Listings are the information that appears when someone search Google, Google Maps, Mobile, or Google 411. And that information, which can fill the same purpose of an ad, is absolutely free.

You may be wondering why Google gives this away for free? When asked this question, John Hanke, president of Google Earth, responded “It makes our search results more accurate.” Google’s goal, Hanke explained, is to be the source of people’s information. To do that, Google needs reliable data.

If you are like many businesses, you may be paying a hefty price for an ad in yellow pages. But if someone uses Google/Google Maps, or calls 800-GOOG411 for information instead of the Yellow pages (and ask anyone under 35 when the last time they used Yellow Pages was), they may find the name of your company, a little bit of info, and next to it, the words “More Info.” Google gathers as much as they can about business from many sources, but that information may be inaccurate or out of date.

If your information is displayed in Google Local already, why not take control of it? And if not, why not get your information up there?

To start, go to www.google.com/localbusinesscenter. “Claim your listing if your business is listed or add it if not. To confirm that you are actually the business owner, Google with either call you or send you a postcard (you get to choose which). You’ll be given a PIN number (write it down) and then can edit your company information.

You can choose a number of categories to describe your listing and make it more likely for searchers to find you. If your a graphic designer, you might choose categories such as “graphic designer,” “web designer,” “marketing collateral.”

We would recommend at least every business owner add at least this basic amount of information. You can also add photos (of logos, products, services, your datacenter, etc), coupons, products, services, etc.

Google’s Business Center provides you with a dashboard to see how people are finding your listing. It shows where people are coming from – figuratively, and literally. You can see which keywords people use to locate you, and where they are searching from geographically.

This services is almost getting a free AdWords ad, so take advantage of it ASAP.

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by KevinPosted on Posted in Content, Ethics, Keywords, Search Engine Optimization — No Comments ↓

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In deciding on a search engine optimization firm make sure the firm uses an ethical approach. The ethical search engine optimization method is called White hat. White Hat SEO involves techniques and tactics that focus on a human audience as opposed to search engines. This technique completely abides by search engine rules and policies. A web site that is SEO optimized focuses on relevancy and organic ranking is optimized using White Hat SEO practices. Other examples of White Hat SEO strategies include using keywords, keyword analysis, back linking, link building to improve link popularity, and writing content for human readers.

Although White Hat SEO might not have instant results; however, the lasting success is worth the wait. The objective of White Hat SEO is to improve overall site quality and increasing the site’s ranking. White Hat SEO is not just about following guidelines but is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes.  Also that the subsequent rank is the same content a user will see. White hat advice is generally summed up as creating content for users, not for search engines. Then making that content easily accessible to the spiders, as opposed to attempting to trick the algorithm from its intended purpose.

White Hat SEO will not guarantee you top placement for keywords. No SEO company can guarantee top placement for keywords. Search Engine rank is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the web. In fact, it was reported last year that the algorithm Google uses to rank sites changed over 400 times!  Make sure that they do not make big promises,because it is more likely they are unable to keep them. Therefore, the search engines are always ahead in the SEO process.

The white hatters fix critical mistakes in design,set-up of their websites,so that the sites will rank well. The SEO experts discover and correct mistakes such as unreadable menus, broken links, temporary redirects, and weak navigation structure.

White hat marketers implement a common sense, ethical approach to SEO. These techniques include:

  • Creating quality content
  • Building legitimate links
  • Developing a solid keyword strategy
  • Maximizing spider friendliness
  • Building page rank over time
  • Use description meta tags without excessive use of keywords.
  • Optimizing tags, titles and other parts of the code is integral.
  • Using specific keyword rich page titles, headers, subheaders, internal linking, and page copy.

Using WordTracker or Google Adwords Keywords Tool to find popular and relevant keywords and phrases to use for your site. Monitoring the various search engines to ensure that your URL gets indexed. Increasing the amount of unique content on the site. Writing quality content for the website visitors instead of the search engines.

by CoryPosted on Posted in Marketing, Social Media — No Comments ↓

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Facebook is the fourth most-popular site on the web. What is Facebook? To understand what facebook is, you need to understand social networking. Wikipedia defines social networking as

online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging.

Facebook therefore is simply the most popular social networking website/platform. Users all over the world connect and share information, photos, etc on facebook, and it is an abundant resource for businesses. Before you start tapping into the Facebook resources however, you should be aware of certain things:

  • Facebook Demographics
    According to iStrategyLabs, over half of Facebook’s users were in the age range of 18-24 this year. Only roughly 8% of the users are above 35. Therefore, if your target demographic is middle aged folks, you probably should look for another resource targetting your demographic a bit better.
  • Business Features
    Although Facebook does have business features, most of them require people to be seeking the type of business you are in, and in your area. Therefore you should be doing more Pull marketing than Push marketing. (Bringing users to you for information instead of pushing information at them).
  • Advertisments
    Facebook does offer CPC (Cost per Click), and CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions), however Facebook is a pricey advertising platform, with a minumum $5 bid for both CPC and CPM

Now that you know pitfalls to avoid, here are 10 ways for a business to get more out of Facebook:

  1. Ensure your profile is fully filled out to gain trust.
  2. Create a business account if you don’t already have one.
  3. Create a new group or page to market a product or service.
  4. Offer promotions or discounts to bring in visitors/get customers.
  5. Obtain a Facebook Vanity URL for SEO Purposes and so people can remember the URL.
  6. Create links to your Facebook page from your regular website.
  7. Join network, industry and alumni groups related to your business.
  8. Combine Facebook with other social media tools like Twitter. For example, when someone asks question on Twitter, you can respond in detail in a blog post and link to it from Facebook.
  9. Post business updates on your wall. Focus on business activities, such as “Working with ABC Company on web site redesign.”
  10. Add your Facebok URL to your email signature and any marketing collateral (business cards, etc.) so prospects can learn more about you.

There you are, 10 short ways to get more our of Facebook. Stay tuned for more helpful posts!

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by KevinPosted on Posted in Pay Per Click — No Comments ↓

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In our previous blog posts, we discussed search engine optimization.   Search Engine Optimization is a long-term process.    A great online marketing method to use in combination with search engine optimization is pay per click advertising. Pay per click advertising is a search engine marketing method used to increase traffic to your web site and increase return on investment.

According to the research firm eMarketer Inc., Google already holds about 75 percent of the $11 billion search advertising market in the United States, with Yahoo! in a distant second at 9 percent,

Pay per click marketing you can either do yourself or hire a company to do it for you.   By doing yourself, allow for a learning curve and visit http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/. If you hire a search engine marketing company, find out their experience level in the program.Find out what the search engine marketing company offers and their plans with your account.

How do you generate immediate traffic to your website, and increase marketing ROI? The answer is pay per click advertising. Pay Per Click Marketing is Recession Proof. Pay per click advertising such as Google Adwords is the most efficient return on investment. According to Google Adwords, each month approximately 80% of Internet users in the United States and hundreds of millions more worldwide view Adwords ads. The marketer can change campaigns, ads, add keywords very quickly as opposed to traditional marketing. The process is based on quality, relevancy, click through rate, keyword performance, landing page load time, and bidding. For instance, by improving your quality score, it reduces the minimum bids and ad rank goes up.

Pay per click marketing such as Google Adwords is the most cost effective in a recession because the advertiser sets the daily budget, target the ads regionally or nationally. For instance Google Adwords allows the advertiser to pick the time of the day to run the ads. The pay per click is flexible because you make changes and the changes can be up within 15 minutes. Pay per click marketing programs allows marketers to choose what to spend.   The advertiser is only charged when someone clicks on the ads.

Pay per click advertising is easier to measure results and the leads are better than traditional marketing.  People on the web are searching for your specific products and services so the leads are more relevant.  In addition, there is code from Google Analytics that you put in the body of each web page that shows your performance.  Traditional marketing is for a general audience and not all of the audience is interested in your products or services.  In addition, it is harder to measure the results from traditional marketing.  Traditional marketing is more expensive.  For example, a New Haven Yellow Page Ad Full Page Full Color costs $31,176 a year.  Do you think that it is worth spending on the Yellow Pages?   How many of you use the phone book?  The amount of money for the Yellow Pages would be better off spent on your web site and your pay per click advertising.  Moreover, Pay per click marketing generates immediate traffic to your website, and increases return on investment.

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