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Category: Search Engine Marketing
4 Mar 2010Press releases are a great tool to use to promote your business and web site online. SiteProNews has recently published an article that further explains three good reasons why companies should try to create and distribute at least one press release each month.
1. Press Release Distribution is Good For Organic Search Engine Rankings
One of the most important components to getting ranked high on the Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc., search page results – is the number of external web sites that link to your web site.
Your news release appearing on an online or industry news site, a social networking site, a newswire such as BusinessWire or PR NewsWire, or even on a directory of press releases, helps improve your web site’s overall organic search engine rankings. In addition, many other sites and blogs may pick up your release and print it on their pages, further increasing the search engine results for your web site and business.
Did you know that a good news announcement could show up on hundreds or thousands of different sites?!
Most major news sites only keep their press releases online for about a month or so, you need to keep posting new press releases and news announcements every month to maintain your SEO rating and web page search results positions. By optimizing your press releases and embedding hotlinks, you can further increase how high up your web site will appear in the search results.
You should also make sure to post your press releases on your own web site. By posting your press releases on your site, you increase the amount and quality of content on your site. For most search engines, the two of the most important factors towards getting a high search page result are the amount of quality links pointing to your web site and the amount of quality content you have on your site. News announcements can fulfill both.
2. Press Releases Inform Potential Customers About Your Company & Products
Most people and businesses now rely on a web search as an integral part of their search for products, and services. Seeing your news announcements all over the web – at the magazines they read, at various blogs, and as a result of web searches, can greatly help boost your company’s brand and product awareness in their mind. It is also useful to have news announcements that inform current and past customers of what is new and that you are still successfully in business.
3. Distributing Press Releases May Increase Company Press
Press outlets that come across your press releases may be interested in your news and want to include it as a standalone announcement or as part of a trend article or column. They may be doing an industry overview or product round up. It is also useful to occasionally inform press that you are an expert in your industry and are available for comment as needed. If they don’t see press releases from your company on a regular basis, you may drop off their radar screen. You need to show ongoing, consistent news and growth or the press will forget about you.
To read this article in its entirety, click here.
Category: Search Engine Marketing| Web 2.0
24 Feb 2010Landing pages are typically one page websites that are developed to generate a conversion. They are simple and direct and ask for whatever the conversion may be. They rarely lead one to the actual website. Landing pages are primarily used for direct marketing and search programs.
Tips on what makes a good landing page:
Category: Search Engine Marketing
19 Feb 2010In order to take your pay per click campaigns to the next level in the upcoming year, you must go beyond simply measuring leads and transactions and start measuring new goals such as social media engagements and RSS subscriptions. The Search Engine Journal has listed 10 types of conversions marketers should be tracking in the upcoming year.
1. Transactions/Purchases
Measuring purchases is a standard practice for PPC marketers. In addition to tracking the amount of purchases, start measuring your average order value. This is the next most important metric to measure and work to increase in your PPC campaigns.
2. Leads
If the purpose of your PPC campaigns are to generate leads, be sure that you are measuring them and tracking them as conversion goals.
3. Up-Sell or Cross-Sells
Once a visitor converts — whether as a lead or transaction — there is still more conversions to be had on the thank you page. If you are generating leads for a paid online service or subscription, you can up-sell your initial lead conversions with the opportunity to sign up for a trial or make a purchase. This is a great way to lure PPC clicks in with a free, lead gen offer, but also grab any paid opportunities post-conversion.
Likewise, you can cross-sell leads or customers with a relevant offer on the thank you page, and gain more lead data or generate more revenue after the initial conversion.
4. Video Views
There’s no doubt – video is hot right now. And it is a highly effective way to support transactional or lead generation goals. You can test landing pages with video vs. pages without video and see what pages convert higher (meaning, which pages drive more leads or purchases). You should also measure how long visitors watch your video & how they engage with it.
5. RSS Subscriptions
An RSS subscribe is a great, friendly introduction to a brand or company. It’s anonymous and almost as valuable as grabbing a visitor’s email address. You can provide opportunities to subscribe to your RSS along with other goals, such as video views, leads, or transactions.
6. Inbound
Make sure you are setting & measuring inbound goals – anytime a visitor says, “please contact me!” You can cross-sell inbound opportunities on the thank you page after a lead conversion, or include an inbound opportunity alongside a lead conversion, as a secondary choice.
7. Forward To A Friend
Think of forward to a friend as instant word of mouth marketing. Most email marketers have embraced forward to a friend as an easy way to boost the viral distribution of their content, but most PPC marketers haven’t. Forward to a friend functionality is easy to integrate onto your landing pages with simple forms or social networking tools.
8. PDF Download
PDF downloads are extremely popular in lead genereation PPC campaigns — whether a product brochure, white paper, eBook, or brief and you should be measuring how many people actually download these items instead of just requesting them. Just because the visitor converts as a lead, doesn’t mean they are reading or engaging with your offer.
9. Social Engagement
You can easily measure and track how many people click on the social links or feeds on your web sites and landing pages.
10. Landing Page Clicks
A popular best practice for PPC landing pages is to create a multi-step landing experience that segments the visitor according to their audience segment or offers of interest, and subsequently delivers more relevant pitch and information. When creating multi-step experiences, it’s important to measure:
Category: Search Engine Marketing
11 Jan 2010Meta descriptions were once an important ranking factor when it came to organic search, until Google announced that they were no longer going to use meta descriptions in their search algorithms. However; recent developments in Google’s search algorithm have once again decided to take web sites’ meta descriptions as a ranking factor.
Now, your web site’s meta description can significantly affect your organic search rankings. Here is how:
In December 2009, Google announced that they would be tailoring search results based on a users search history, even when users are not signed into Google.
How does this work? All of the searches that a user runs, whether on Google or not, are stored in their browser cookies. This data is referred to as ‘Web History’ and Google uses it to customize your search results.
To learn more, click here to read the article recently published on Site Reference.
Category: Search Engine Marketing
8 Jan 2010Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, envisions a radically changed Internet 5 years from now. Some of his predictions include:

What do you think of Eric Schmidt’s predictions?
Category: Search Engine Marketing
8 Jan 2010Google has announced that they are introducing new features that will bring Google Search users results with a dynamic stream of real-time content from across the web. Now, immediately after performing an online search a users can see live updates from people on popular sites such as Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before the search was conducted. When relevant, Google will rank these latest results to show the freshest information right on the search engine results page.

This real-time search will enable users to discover breaking news as it’s happening, even if it is not the popular news of the day.
To read more details on the new Google search feature, click here.
Category: Search Engine Marketing
22 Dec 2009As Google’s algorithm evolves, which is better: have a web site with exceptional links and mediocre content, or a web site with exceptional content and mediocre links?
Watch the video below for answers.
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