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Posts Tagged ‘content’
Saturday, December 24th, 2011
For most, it’s simple enough to understand that a small business needs a website. Alright, now that you have a website, how do you market it and what do you do with it? This question comes up a lot because it takes more than just having a website to make the site profitable to you.
You also hear a lot about search engine optimization. Once again, you understand it, but how do you do it? In order to drive more traffic to your website you have to continuously add content to the site. Even though you may be selling products, you don’t want it to just sit and become stagnant without visitors to the site.
Creating content, or information, or articles, or blogs, whatever you want to call it needs to be done on a regular basis. Talk about your business, talk about your products, give advice or how to steps about something that your business offers. Customers and visitors love information and will come back to you again and again if you have good content on a regular basis.
Social Media sites are wonderful places to market your business, but your website also needs your attention. You have spent a lot of time making it look nice and getting everything in its spot. It can be very depressing knowing that no one visits your site.
In order for the search engines to find your site, you have to have a lot of information on your site with good keywords. The more information you have, the easier it will be for the search engines to find you when someone does a search for something in particular.
You can always consult with internet marketers to have them help you if you are just not sure how to go about getting the right content on your website. Several are available. Just make sure that the right internet marketer is working for you and putting your best interests first instead of just taking your money.
Tags: blogging, content, internet marketing, SEO, website development
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 3 Comments »
Monday, December 5th, 2011
Everywhere you turn, you can hear someone talking about a blog. Whether they are writing a blog or they are reading a blog, one thing is for sure. Blogs are wildly popular. And one more thing is certain – social networking is the most popular thing on the Internet. You might as well jump on the bandwagon and market your business this way.
Blogs are like websites, but you have social interaction with your viewers. Many blog sites are free and easy to use, too. Each time you post a blog, it looks as if it is an individual web page. This can make for a more dramatic look when viewed by your visitors.
Putting your business ideas into a blog will bring your business more potential customers and an audience who wants to see what you are discussing. Not only can you post your ideas in your own words, you can also have a shopping area where customers can view your products and make purchases.
One of the key things to remember is SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. If you focus your blog posts on the proper keywords and phrases, then you’ll increase your chances of obtaining high search engine rankings. For instance, if you sell gardening products and a prospect Googles “gardening,” if you have a lot of the right keywords (gardening, garden, etc.) in your blog posts, Google will favor your blog posts over those of your competition that are not well optimized.
If you aren’t sure where to start, contact Small Business Mavericks for a free consultation. We have a lot of experience and can get you off to a good start with your new business blog.
Tags: advertising, blog, blogging, content, google, internet marketing, keywords, online marketing, SEO, Social Media
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 8 Comments »
Monday, October 24th, 2011
Internet marketers have had a phrase – a mantra – that we’ve repeated over and over since the very first days of the Web. That “mantra” is “Content is King.”
To the Internet marketing newbie, that phrase may not mean much. But to those of us who have been doing this awhile, it means everything. Content is the master of all. The big question is, Why? And does is still apply just as well today as it did in 1995?
You bet it does.
Here’s a question to ask yourself. If I build a website with no content and point a hundred links to it, getting it to rank No. 1 for a specific key phrase, will that benefit me? I think the answer is obvious, don’t you? A website that ranks No. 1 for a key phrase but that can’t close a sale due to lack of content is an ineffective website.
Now ask yourself this question: If I build a website with great content that achieves mediocre rankings and has no links to it, can it still make me money?
Yes it can. All you have to do is drive traffic to that website by any means and if if the content is well written with good calls to action, it will make you money. So content is king.
Ideally, you want a website with great content and great links. You should consider links to be a part of your overall content strategy instead of seeing it as a separate activity from your on-page content. Building a web business means doing all the things necessary to help you succeed. That includes building links. But it starts with writing great content.
Tags: content, content marketing, internet marketing, link building, SEO, website content
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 2 Comments »
Sunday, August 28th, 2011
Seth Godin, a veteran Internet marketer and one of the first business bloggers, is well known for his short bursts of blog content. They’re only about 200-300 words each, if that. But many other bloggers these days tend to write longer blog posts. Some bloggers won’t write one less than 1,000 words.
So that brings up the question, Does size matter? Are longer blog posts better than shorter ones?
In general, more content is better than less. In most cases. In fact, Google has recently penalized content pages for not having enough content on them. But what constitutes “not enough content?”
More important than lots of content is the idea of quality content. You can get by with shorter blog posts if your content is high quality and original. Seth Godin, after all, isn’t hurting in the search engines and his blog posts are some of the most read blog posts in the world. But he does have a reputation, one that he built both online and off line.
You are I, of course, are not Seth Godin.
For most of us, we cannot rely on reputation. We have to use all the tools at our disposal, and that means SEO. Long blog posts might be better than shorter, over all, but high quality original content trumps all. If you can write high quality original long blog posts, then your content will be golden.
Tags: blog content, blogging, content, Reputation Management, SEO
Posted in Blogging for Small Business | 4 Comments »
Monday, August 15th, 2011
Every piece of effective marketing content ever written has one thing in common. It doesn’t matter if it was writing on a cave wall or a web page with two sentences. There is one piece of every effective marketing content that is absolutely essential. Without it, your marketing content has no chance.
That one piece of essential marketing is called a call to action. Its purpose is to spur your reader to a desired action.
It could be that you want your website visitor to give you his or her e-mail address so you can send them endless e-mails hawking your digital products. Or you might want your website visitor to click the “Buy Now” button. Maybe you just want them to download your free e-book or stand on their head and sing the National Anthem. Whatever it is, you need a call to action.
The call to action must be bold. It’s got to stand out as a bold statement or request. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
It needs to be short and to the point. A good call to action doesn’t need a set up. You sell the benefits, then ask for the order.
No marketing content – online or offline – can survive without a call to action. Remember, if you don’t ask your reader to take the action you want them to take, then they won’t do it. Spur them to action.
Tags: call to action, content, marketing
Posted in Business Writing | 3 Comments »
Friday, August 5th, 2011
I recently came across a unique use of social media that really got me to thinking, and once you hear about it, you should start thinking too.
During the next four weeks, Davinci Virtual will release clues, possibly riddles, to a contest through their social media accounts. Contestants – that’s you and me! – are to find these clues and give their answers on a special answer page.
When the contest is finished, a random winner will be selected and announced on the company’s Facebook page.
I hope you see what I see. Running contests through social media is nothing new. But the extent of this contest and how it is being rolled out is what makes it unique. Someone at Davinci Virtual will have to spend some time managing this process. And that alone makes the use of social media unique.
But there’s another thing to think about here – something very clever. In order to enter the contest, you have to follow Davinci Virtual through their social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. After all, you’re looking for clues and that’s where the clues will be dropped.
Which social media spot will be the location for the clues? You don’t know, and neither do I! The mystery is what makes this sound fun.
If you’re thinking of ways to increase your follower count on social media where you hang out, and to ensure that you get targeted followers, hold a contest similar to this one. Make sure that contest is interactive so that people have to engage with you. There’s no better way to build a following and make targeted contacts through social media.
Tags: business services, content, interactive marketing, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | 6 Comments »
Sunday, July 17th, 2011
Content scrapers have become a huge nuisance online. They’ve always been a problem, but since anyone can now have a robot that crawls the Web, anyone can effectively have a content scraper. Note that I don’t believe that simply owning a robot makes you a content scraper. There are legitimate reasons for scraping content and doing so ethically, but there are many unethical content scrapers who are ranking higher for content that they have scraped from someone else – even big brand names.
So how do you protect your content from the content scrapers?
First, you should put a copyright notice on your blog or website. Let the content scrapers know that you are aware of your rights and that you intend to pursue legal action if necessary. This, of course, won’t stop many of them. A lot of content scrapers are in third world countries where U.S. law won’t reach them.
You should also use the disallow command in your Robots.txt file to stop any robots that you know are content scrapers. One use recommended by Gab Goldenberg is to block Yahoo! Pipes, which is used by many content scrapers to program online aggregators.
Gab also has other neat tricks you can try to get the content scrapers. His blog post is a good read. You should give it a try. I really like his “baiting the trap” suggestion.
Tags: content, content scrapers, copyright
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 11 Comments »
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
Early this year, in February, Google rocked the Internet when it updated its search algorithms and slapped down some very authoritative sites in their respective niches. Some of the biggest slap downs occurred in the article directory niche. The top article directories lost tons of rankings within minutes along with traffic and revenue. What happened?
The Panda Update, as it is called, was designed to target high profile sites with low quality content. And it did its job.
While the update was designed to target large sites, it also affected many smaller sites. Many sites with a large number of pages with just a little bit of content – even though that content followed Google’s quality guidelines – lost a lot of traffic when their low content pages fell sharply in the rankings. While we can question the fairness of the update, I would like to say for the record that I think the hype surrounding Panda since it was implemented has largely been unnecessary.
SEOs are coming out of the woodwork now to “educate” the rest of us how to ensure our sites aren’t affected by Panda and future similar updates. One author cautions that Google plans to add 550 “improvements” to the update.
Here’s why I think much of this is hype: Even if you followed Google’s guidelines, if you thought you were going to dominate the SERPs because you
- Added thousands of new pages with less than 200 words of content to your website;
- Included pages on your site that were optimized for the same keywords but that promoted different products;
- And relied solely on linkbuilding strategies to push your website up in the rankings despite its low quality content
then you weren’t really interested in producing the best content for your niche. And that’s what Google is looking for.
As a searcher, I want to know that I can Google a topic and receive a fair number of web pages near the top of the SERPs that are going to actually provide answers to my query. Low quality content pages don’t do that.
So the moral of this lesson is, Don’t chase the algorithms. Instead, focus on producing top quality content for your niche. If you do that, then you shouldn’t have to worry about being slapped down.
Tags: content, google, Panda update, quality
Posted in SEO for Small Business | 3 Comments »
Monday, June 27th, 2011
I’m sure you’ve heard of the term “gone viral.” Viral marketing is a term that was coined in 1997 when Hotmail got everyone to sign up for a free e-mail account. I’d be willing to bet you were one of those who did it (and you might still have that account). Am I right?
Asides aside, David Jackson has an awesome article at SiteProNews that showcases 7 viral marketing techniques that work. And believe me, they ALL work.
Those 7 techniques (in a nutshell) are (brace yourself – spoilage coming):
- Videos
- Social media
- Articles
- Twitter
- Share widget
- E-books
- Newsletter
Trust me, these techniques all work. I know because I’ve tried them. But before you go out and start implementing these techniques in your marketing campaigns, there is one thing you have to do before you start seeking the viral in viral marketing. Do you know what that one thing is?
I hear you saying, “Create content.” That’s true. Without content, you can’t go viral. But that’s not it.
How about “great content?” Close, but no cigar.
Give up?
Well, I don’t want to keep you guessing for the next 20 days, so I’m going to spill the beans. In order for your content to go viral, you first have to create awesome knock-your-socks-off content. Truly, I mean your content has to be so awesome that your readers, site visitors, or whoever you put that content in front of forgets everything else and helps you promote it.
That’s it. Viral marketing is nothing more than word of mouth advertising at near lightning speed. OK, slight exaggeration. What I mean is: Super Fast Speed.
To achieve that effect, your content has to be awesome and nothing short of it.
Tags: content, Viral Marketing, word of mouth
Posted in Viral Marketing | 4 Comments »
Friday, June 17th, 2011
There is a concept in social media circles known as your signal-to-noise ratio. What is meant by that exactly?
In social media terms, your signal-to-noise ratio is the amount of actual value that you provide relative to the nonsense you churn. Pardon the dirty speak, but that’s essentially what it is in low-brow talk. Now, to paraphrase it in more common layman’s terms: Your signal-to-noise ratio is how much chatter you engage in that doesn’t benefit anyone in any real sense (noise) versus the optimal value you provide in your social media content (signal).
Let’s say you have a Twitter account and you post 100 messages within 30 days. Let’s say that 50 percent of those messages are links to valuable content around the Web. These include news stories, blog content, resources that are relevant to your audience, etc. The other 50 percent of your tweets are nothing more than idle chatter (what you had for lunch today, a quip about the weather, a note that the Burger King window employee teed you off because she got your order wrong, and so on). Your signal-to-noise ratio is riding at 50%. Is that good?
In a word, no. You want to minimize your noise as much as possible while improving the value of your “signal.” In other words, you want to maximize the value and minimize the chatter.
That doesn’t mean you can’t send out the occasional frivolous tweet cheering on your favorite sports team or announcing your meal choice, but if you do that too often, then you run the risk of alienating your audience. Reduce the noise and you improve your social media signal.
Tags: content, noise, signal-to-noise, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | 27 Comments »
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