Archive for SEO
A Little-Known YouTube Feature that Delivers Vital Information
Posted by: | CommentsDo you know what the second most popular search engine is, after Google?
YouTube.
And for “how to” information, YouTube is the #1 search engine.
You can take advantage of a little-known YouTube feature to gather statistical information about videos in your niche, and to learn how people are finding those videos.
Here’s what to do:
For our example, I’m using one of my favorite marketing videos, “What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church? A Parable.” (The video is embedded at the end of this post…be sure to watch it!)
This popular video has had over 585,000 views. Let’s find out how viewers discovered this video.
Beneath the video, you’ll see a hyperlink that reads, View comments, related videos, and more. Click the link.
Directly below the video (on the righthand side), you’ll see a box that notes how many views the video has had. Click the “Insight” button in that box and scroll down to the “Links” section of the analytics.
You’ll notice that over 67,000 viewers came from various Facebook pages. That information tells me that this video “went viral” on Facebook, with people liking and sharing it like crazy.
Over 13,000 people accessed the video from the creator’s website (where the video resides permanently on the Home page).
More than 11,000 people viewed the video from their smartphone.
And here’s a telling statistic: Over 10,000 viewers found the video through searching within YouTube.
Here’s how to apply this information to videos you are developing:
1. Before you create a video, search YouTube for keywords you’ll likely use to help folks find your video.
2. Check out the statistics of the most popular videos for that keyword and list the most prominent sites from which viewers are finding the videos.
3. Note the keywords that those popular videos use in their titles, descriptions, and tags.
4. Use the most relevant keywords in the title, description, and tags of your own video.
P.S. If you have uploaded your own videos to YouTube, and you don’t want your video’s statistics visible, click the “Insights” button (in the box next to the number of views) and then click “Private.”
Now for the video you’ve been waiting for (let me know what you think of it):
Convert Prospects Into Customers Through Targeted Online Content
Posted by: | CommentsYou’ve probably gawked at websites that boast thousands of fans. While these sites draw huge amounts of traffic, many of them convert only a fraction of visitors into customers.
More visitors doesn’t necessarily equal more customers.
It’s better for your website to get half as much traffic — and for you to receive twice as many phone calls — because your content mirrors the needs of your target clientele.
In my July Relationship Marketing column in the Snohomish County Business Journal, I explain the best ways to create targeted content that converts prospects into customers.
You’ll learn:
- why it’s important to embed a theme-oriented blog into your company website
- how to correctly use keywords in articles, links, titles, images, permalinks, categories
- where to syndicate your blog’s feed
Read the entire article and let me know what you learned!
The Two Most Important Traffic-building Essentials Every Website Must Include
Posted by: | Comments“I have a Website for my business, but only a few people visit it. How do I get more traffic to my site?”
It’s the question of the decade. For years, I’ve picked the brains of experts in hopes of discovering a magic key that unlocks the mysteries of search engine optimization.
Turns out there is no magic key; enticing visitors to your site requires old-fashioned elbow grease.
My June Relationship Marketing column in the Snohomish County Business Journal explains two critical elements your site must include that will help your search engine rank.
If your site doesn’t include these important elements and you aren’t sure how to add them, contact Blogging Bistro. We can help.
8 Great Reasons to Embed Your Blog on Your Web site
Posted by: | CommentsThis is a guest post by Mark T. Hancock.If you would like to submit a guest article please check out our guest post guidelines.
The explosive growth of the blogosphere remains more than impressive. BlogPulse estimates that there are currently over 126 million blogs, with over 42,000 new blogs added to the mix each day.
Most blogs are hosted with a sub-domain address like MyBlog.blogspot.com or MyBlog.wordpress.com. But more people are recognizing that to stay above the fray, to take advantage of SEO opportunities, and to build an online community presence that can be enhanced it may be advisable to transfer content from the free blog hosting services (like Typepad, Blogger, or WordPress.com) to a self-hosted Web site.
Recently I considered making the switch from a free blog to a dedicated Web site that would host my blog. I gathered my research and came up with my pros and cons. I hope these notes are helpful for you.
Pros for transferring my blog to a Web site:
1. I Can Prepare Myself for Expansion
On a self-hosted Web site, my blog can be one tab amongst a number of tabs that my reader can find. I can even post to different tabs, based on the content of the post, as another way of presenting my content and of keeping my reader on my site.
I will be able to add an unlimited number of tabs to pages with elements like forums, a store, a photo archive, a speaking engagements calendar, audio and video promotional tools, online small group studies and more, all aimed at broadening my exposure to my reader and improving on their experience.
2. The Respect Factor
My own dedicated Web site address immediately adds credibility to what I am doing. It is like the difference between having an office and working out of my home.
3. Email Address Link
Every email I send out will carry the URL of my site in its address. If someone gets an email from me and wants to know a little more, they can easily find my Web site. They are less likely to follow a link to a free-hosted blog because they already know what they will find – a blog! But the Web site address holds some mystique that might be sufficient to get them to see what I am all about.
4. Free Ads
Some Web site host companies give credits for advertising through Google Adwords and others. This allows me to promote my site in exchange for contracting with the host. This exposure will increase my presence on the Web.
5. SEO
This industry buzzphrase is the key to making my site more visible through search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc). There are plenty of SEO plug-ins available, particularly for WordPress Themes, that will increase my visibility in cyberspace and will drive interested readers to my site.
6. Ownership
If at some point I build up a good amount of traffic but want to move on to something else, my Web site domain address will actually have a monetary value. It’s like the difference between owning and renting. I own it, so I can sell it.
7. Design
Free and low-cost template designs are available. The ones I am familiar with are through WordPress.org. These can be personalized rather effectively into a fully-functional website at a fraction of the cost of a site from scratch, and they are built with bloggers in mind. I will have much greater control over HTML and CSS through a self-hosted Web site.
8. Monetization
There are a multitude of ways to profit from drawing traffic to my Web site and then letting folks click through to view something else or to make a purchase.
Cons for converting to a Self-Hosted blog or Web site:
1. Learning Curve
Although WordPress.org provides content management software (CMS) for websites, including the familiar blog interface that is on their free side (WordPress.com), I will want some pizzazz on the new site. Dealing with flash, banners, widgets, plug-ins, etc. can be time-consuming if I want to supercharge my site and take advantage of the enhanced possibilities. Do I have the time to do this?
Unless I am willing to get experience with HTML and CSS I should probably hire a professional to help set up my blog on my site. BloggingBistro.com can be a great partner in getting me going.
2. Cost
In addition to optional design fees, there are annual domain registration fees and monthly web hosting fees.
In case you are wondering, I determined that the promise of greater SEO, enhancements, and design possibilities was worth it, but a big risk that I still had to consider had to do with my archived content, my base of current loyal readers and SEO, each of which I had been developing over time.
Fortunately, WordPress allowed me to import all of my postings from Blogger, and the Theme program (I use Thesis, which is not free, but offers lots of options and built-in SEO) allowed me to post the entire blog to my new Web site easily.
But what about my established readers? I addressed this by continuing to post to my Blogger site at the same time that I post to my self-hosted site. On Blogger I post only a little of the post, usually the first sentence or two, then I provide a link to “read more” that takes my reader to the new site.
My new site is still under development, as some pages are being withheld as I wait to contract for the publication of my first book (this book project is the reason I needed to consider the switch in the first place), but I am already seeing the daily readership catch up to my Blogger site and I look forward to seeing it grow into the vibrant community I envisioned.
Mark T. Hancock, MA spent 15 years as Founder and President of Mark One Advertising. He also was in private practice as a Mental Health Therapist, traveled internationally as a Global Event Director, teaches college, runs a small finance company and manages a portfolio of investment properties with his wife, Michaell. He has two boys and lives in Port Orange, Florida, patiently waiting the publication of his first book. Visit Mark at www.LeaveTheGate.com and at Facebook: www.facebook.com/MarkTHancock
Trying Out an Interactive Commenting System
Posted by: | CommentsAn increasing amount of blogs are implementing interactive commenting systems that encourage readers to engage in conversation — not just with the blog’s author, but with each other.
I’ve enjoyed participating in these forums on others’ blogs, and after evaluating several commenting systems, I installed Disqus (dis·cuss • dĭ-skŭs’), a free, easy-to-use comment moderation tool.
You can use Disqus on many popular platforms, including self-hosted WordPress (the platform I use), Blogger, Moveable Type, Tumblr, and more.
Disqus gives you all sorts of one-click customization options. It also ramps up social media sharing for the truly narcissistic by allowing commenters to broadcast their comments to their Facebook and Twitter feeds.
When I installed the Disqus plug-in, it captured the existing comments on my archived blog posts, so I didn’t lose any of my previous comments (you should back up your database before doing this, just in case).
So, let’s give Disqus a test-drive. In the Comments area of this post, tell us the most interesting thing you’ve done/learned in the last 24 hours.
5 SEO Tips and Tricks that Work
Posted by: | Comments
This is a guest post by Vyom Munjaal. If you would like to submit a guest article please check out our guest post guidelines.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is now considered to be the most important aspect of a website. The 5 tips below and this will help you optimize your website so Web surfers and searchers can find it more easily.
- Even before you design your website or add content, it is important that you define your target audience according to your geographical area of focus. Depending upon that, buy a domain name that is appropriate. It can be a great advantage if the domain name matches your core business and even better if it contains your most targeted keywords itself.
- Create interesting content for each section of your website. Before uploading content to your site, research keywords. You can use Google analytics tool or Word Tracker to analyze the competition of the particular keywords you choose. Once you have finalized 4 or 5 primary keywords, start editing the content in such a way you implement the keywords in them. Also make sure you not use those keywords excessively since the search engines may consider the site as spam.
- Once the content is ready to be uploaded, plan the navigational structure of your website. Search engines do not recognize JavaScript, Flash or any other graphics based coding. But it does not mean you shouldn’t use them. Incorporate HTML at various places for the search engines to crawl over easily. You can also use the primary keywords as Meta tags, sub-headings and links.
- Sensible use of keywords as Meta tags help to a great extent. If you have a lot of images in a page, you can use the secondary keywords as titles for those images. Also don’t forget to implement a sitemap. This helps the search engines easily recognize the links in your website.
- Once you launch your website, it is important that you keep your site breathing. Update quality content frequently, targeting your keywords on the content you create. Make sure your content is unique, and write interactive content where viewers can comment and share their ideas. This way your site gets a better traffic.
Vyom Munjaal is a writer and designer from an SEO Company in India.