Category Archive: Search Engines

Dec
12
2008

Video for Small Business

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December 12, 2008

∞$15 Billion Videos viewed monthly
∞52% of all web Traffic is video[i]
∞Video Listings show up in the SERPs within 10 minutes
∞The human brain is optimized for story telling and immersive sensory experience – this is video!

Online video is one of the best venues to connect an audience.  This new avenue allows video creators to communicate a message on multiple levels through visual imagery, spoken words, music and visual text.  This is a huge potential to reach a massive audience with your small business.  This strategy alone can help dominate the entire front page of Google. 

With online video you can also reach a huge local audience for a minimal investment, thus the ROI of online video marketing can be surprising.  According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau; more than 50% of the US population will watch video online next year.  That’s over 150 million!  According to comScore, Americans watched 9 billion online videos just in the month of July.

While there are many sources for your video to be viewed by many, we’re talking local business marketing and many of the online video strategies you’ll talk about just don’t apply.  Online video for small local businesses is more about conversion than driving traffic, yet plays a great role in acquiring links and completing you online strategies.

The question is, how video applies to your small business?  Video help conversion.

Conversion.

We live in a world of video, yet the internet is still in a place where newspapers were a hundred years ago.  Then came television news, and specialized stations broadcasting the news to us in similar formats.  The television has completely changed the way we used to acquire and distribute our information from a hundred years ago.  The Internet is no different, however today we are in the dark ages.  That’s right, the Internet as we know it today will be mocked by our children as they grow up.  You think Granny has seen a lot of change since the early 1900′s?  The rate at which humans have adopted technology has exponentially increased in time.  While I can not support any figures without documentation and supporting evidence, please try and challenge this claim.  For the population of Americans to hit a saturation rate of 95% for newspapers took longer than the telephone, which took longer than television and now the Internet is well on its way to achieving that magic number in much, much less time than them all.  Ironic isn’t it, that the Internet as we know it today is merely a digital version of a newspaper, at least for the small local business.  Follow the trends folks, video is popping up everywhere on the Internet, why not your own business.

Let’s consider this.  Companies like Google want to organize the world’s information.  They have highly paid, MBA and Doctoral grads studying trends all day long.

They know where the Internet is moving; at least they are predicting it better than us.  Didn’t they just buy the largest video broadcasting site in existence?  Ever heard of YouTube?

The point is here is that video is, or soon to become a staple of the Internet.  Broadband is cheap, hosting is even cheaper, technology is fast enough and video creation is fairly easy and cheap.

Video is also a very big thing right now in SEO.  Video on your site greatly increases you’re exposure and ability to be ranked.

Video also vastly increases your conversions on your site.

TO LEARN HOW TO CREATE VIDEOS, SIGN UP FOR FREE AT WWW.MARKETINGLOCALBUSINESSONLINE.COM

 

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Aug
11
2008

The Future of Search Engine Marketing

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August 11, 2008

While fuel prices are cutting into the business owner’s bottom line, increasing prices of every day goods are beginning to hit the consumers.  Consumer confidence levels have dropped, housing markets declining and overall business expenditures are dropping. 

 

Opportunities?!!!

 

You bet!  People make money in both good and bad times.  No matter what, items need to be shipped.  Everything around you has been on a truck and those goods are still moving, just not quite as much.  Point is, while the others are complaining about their poor business results and blaming the fuel prices, the economy and seasonal fluctuations, you can be earning a profit.

 

Now the questions is, if other businesses are failing, which they are, how do you find their customers?  How about a billboard ad and hopefully someone will see your ad.  Better yet, buy a TV slot.  You might get better results if you throw some mud at the walls.

 

Targeted Marketing is paying only for an audience that is looking for your service.  Unlike the airlines strapping you to a seat for 4 hours and emersing you in advertising on your seat tray, we’re talking about giving your message to those that have asked for it!

 

Search Engine Marketing and Targeted Email Marketing are just that.  There is no question that advertising dollars are moving from traditional means to online means.  The North American SEM industry 30% from 2006 to 2007.  Thirty Percent folks!!!  The Kelsey Group reported that Online Advertising will hit $147 Billion by 2012, from $11.5 billion in 2007.  Are you kidding me?!!!  Someone is making money from advertising online, or it wouldn’t be growing so much!

 

Whether is Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization or Paid Inclusion, standardization and growth of the SEM marketplace is inevitable.  Today those standards do not exist.  There are white hat, black hat, grey hat and every other color hat SEOer.  Today the black hats exists, but in time, they will go away and an elite group of white hat SEOer will prevail.  Marketing in the days to come won’t find success with tricks, but old skool marketing will prevail in the online world.  Traditional tricks won’t work, but hard, quality campaigns and solid content will win.

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Jul
28
2008

Ex-Googler launch rival search engine

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July 28, 2008

Anna Patterson’s sold her search engine to Google in 2004.  Now she’s left Google and started another search engine, this time its not for sale.

If you visit CUIL (pronouced cool), you’re find a new interface, something the other search engines would not venture from.

While I’m not impressed with CUIL, there are some fundamentals that make sense.  SEO today is shady in my opinion, with strategies and tactics that I know to dup the search engines.  They don’t put enough value on the actual content of a site, something CUIL promises. 

CUIL also claims to be the largest of the search engines, with 120 billion pages indexed, while as last check Google indexed half as many as that, and MSN is 1/10th.  While 120 billion pages indexed, I was least impressed when I searched for Los Angeles Courier Company and didn’t find a single courier company on the front page!

While Google has become so synonymous with searches on the Internet, it may no longer matter how good CUIL or any other challenger really is.  Google has 62% market share this month.

The world of SEO has not changed much in recent years.  The fundamentals still work.  I think this rival will change a few things.  I believe the SEO community and industry will slowly move back towards traditional means…effective marketing….to increase rankings.  Who would have thunk….

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