Creating an Online Buzz in Search Engine Marketing

September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Buzz Logo
Image by louishatzis via Flickr

Search engines are very sensitive to activity, and a constant flow of activity at best. They thrive on how frequently there are appearances of blog posts, article submissions, pingbacks and other methods that create attention around your site.

When a site is successful in creating an online buzz, it is essentially ensuring that there is constant talk and chatter going on about them online, and at all times. Search engines crawl the Internet in search of activity of any sort and rank the site according to how they fare against other sites in their niche categories. This isn’t as effective with broad term keywords as much as it is with specific keywords or keyphrases. Words that are too generic will often cause a site to rank low, especially if it has not been around for very long, while more detailed, specific keywords are more likely to gain an audience and get more clicks.

If there is a buzz going on online about a company’s product or service, the search engines get this activity and reward the company by moving them up in the ranks. This is why it is so important for company’s with any kind of online presence to be as involved as they can with Internet activity and people who frequent the site(s). Buzz marketing thrives off of people talking about the business, and needs a constant, steady supply of talk in order to make an impact.

The company’s marketing department can jump-start a buzz by offering discounts or specials on products and being completely available for questions, feedback and on occasion, an address to any complaints. While this may not always occur, it’s important to be ready for anything eventful. Whatever indelible mark that is left with the customer about the company will always go back to how the company interacted with them and handled particular issues.

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Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How to Effectively Use Search Engine Queries

September 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Current example of Google's (and web search en...
Image by lambo via Flickr

Making your favorite search on your favorite subject is not all that difficult. For the user, they will just typically type in their subject interest into the search engine’s browser, and a host of relevant returns will appear on the subject matter. Although it may appear magical, there is a small amount of work that goes into making this effective. For the user to get the maximum results from their search efforts, they can and should use a few simple strategies to make their experience enjoyable.

1. Use keywords that are “custom” for what you’re looking for.

As you key in your user queries into search engines, the crawlers examines its index and returns a list of the pages that best match their query. The more direct and detailed the search is, the more accurately and likely you will get exactly what you’ve requested.

2. Use the same engine for all of your searches.

This is preferable if you like the way your favorite search engine returns your results. This is only effective for you if your search engine returns results based on specific keywords or crawls for all of the relevant keywords or key-phrases that you type into the engine. You will either get a whole lot of broad information, or more defined and specific information for your query.

3. Use different engines for your searches.

This is preferable if you would rather have your information delivered to you from different perspectives. Students use this method a lot for research purposes so that they can get a broader view of their subject matter. It is also a good idea to do this in case the engines use different methods to get the information to the user. For instance, different crawlers are coded to search for information within the titles, body of the article(s) or on each page of the site. The software code is written and varies from one engine to another. It’s all a matter of personal preference as to how you want that information displayed.

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Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Conversions in the Context of Search Engine Marketing

August 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Search Engine Optimization and Marketing are proven tactics and skills you can use on your website and blog to increase daily hits and produce a constant flow of traffic to your home site. There are hundreds of different ways to ‘optimize’ your website, all of which involve features like link building, keyword optimization, and analytics to see what works and what doesn’t. Successful websites aren’t made overnight. They’re like businesses. They take work.
But let’s say you build a nice storefront and have a nice layout in the store. You’ve managed to get a shop in an area with a lot of foot traffic, and the time you’ve spent making your store appealing has paid off. People come in, check out the merchandise, and sometimes have good input on the way things are going. This is all good and well, but even if you have a lot of traffic, this won’t guarantee revenue. You need people to buy into your service. You need ‘Page Conversions.’
A conversion happens when someone who is just wandering along your ‘storefront’ sees a product or service they want, and they are ‘converted’ from browser to customer. You want customers, not window shoppers. A good website will convert their customers seamlessly, without any apparent effort from the consumer’s end.
Too many websites are cluttered with advertisements, pop-ups, and are unclear about the real purpose of the website. A skillfully optimized website will be clutter-free, and guide the consumer with a user-friendly interface, ‘digestible content,’ and clear calls to action. The consumer needs to know why he or she is at your website, what it is you are offering, and why it is relevant to them and their needs.
Finally, in seeking to gain more conversions, you want to have a simple website layout, and you want to provide trustworthy evidence of your authenticity as a business. No matter how good things look on the outside, if you can’t establish trust, you won’t get conversions – just like any business, electronic or brick-and-mortar.
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Finding and Using Your Future Demographics

August 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Finding the demographics for visitors who look at your site is a great way to customize your material. After all, you will use different language, types of promotions, and cross promotions based on the gender, age, and other interests of your visitors. But what about those of you who have a site that isn’t yet well established enough for you to get an accurate demographics report?

Using Shameless R&R

R&R takes on a new meaning when it comes to the world of web development. The first R here represents “rip-off,” while the second represents “replicate.” Rather than using trial and error to determine what works best for you, you can see what established sites are already doing, and work on improving it from there. This will allow you to be more competitive. The same concept applies to demographic searches.

There are multiple public website reports which will track the general demographic statistics of popular websites. The procedure to find your targeted demographics is simple.

The Step-by-Step

Step One: Visit a public demographics site, such as Quantcast.
Step Two: Find a website that is popular and in the same category or niche as your site.
Step Three: Enter their site into the public demographics website and take a look at the results that you receive.

This report can be very thorough, including age categories, the type of education most visitors have received, how many children they have in the household, and common other interests.

How to Use This Report

There are many uses to these demographics. Learning the education level, age, and gender of your audience will allow you to customize your site to their needs and language. Not only can you adapt the word choice that you use, but you can use design elements that are more likely to be appealing to them.

It extends beyond this, however. You will be able to choose what sites to try to get links from or to advertise on, through PPC or cross-promotion, and what sites and resources you advise to your visitors. This is especially useful for affiliate marketers, since it will allow you to find the best possible ads.

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Filed Under: Design Tagged With: , ,
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