January 2010 Archives

Long Copy Web Design Techniques

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Website Marketing
on January 29, 2010 7:39 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
When I first started web designing, developing and promoting websites in early 2000, "long-copy" pages were often the standard. While there has been a clear shift towards the "less-is-more" school of design (and copywriting), the Web is in no shortage of sites that shun the notion altogether. If you're a believer that there's something special about long-copy Web design and online marketing, then read on to discover some important site design tips and techniques.

There are hundreds of examples of long-copy designs. We will look at two today to identify techniques that you might want to employ or at least consider for your own deployments. Other long-copy websites follow pretty much the exact same formula. We will also follow up this post in the future with some long-copy Web design trends.

See the full story at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2010/01/28/long-copy-web-design-techniques.aspx

Search Engine Success: Getting Video SEO Right

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Website Marketing
on January 28, 2010 7:49 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Videos, properly submitted, are 53 times more likely to generate a first page Google ranking than traditional SEO techniques, according to a recent study by Forrester Research. However, many companies are ignoring video SEO altogether, only submitting the pages on which videos reside and not the videos themselves, or worst of all, submitting their video assets to YouTube under the misunderstanding that this will generate SEO benefits.

Video SEO Advantages

• Video SEO is 53 times more likely to produce a first-page search result than traditional techniques.
• Google is pushing video to the top of search results, creating a goldmine for marketers.
• Results begin to appear in days, and some publishers succeed in getting 25 percent or more of their videos to produce first page results.
• Search engines can't find video content on their own, so getting submission right is critical -- a knowledgeable partner can make this much easier.

The Unfair Advantages of Video SEO

Although video SEO isn't dissimilar to traditional SEO, it has two distinct advantages.

First, Google and other search engines work to have a mix of content types displayed in search results (a.k.a., blended search results). For this reason, they give a higher ranking to video content than other forms of Web content in order to make sure that searches consistently display mixed search results.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636282

Bing's IIS SEO Toolkit Now Available

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Website Marketing
on January 27, 2010 8:05 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Microsoft/Bing has released what amounts to one of the most powerful free server-side SEO (search engine optimization) tools available.

The IIS SEO toolkit, which caters to Web developers, hosting providers and Web server administrators, aims to "improve discoverability and user experience" for websites and it's going to be a game changer.

The IIS SEO Toolkit includes a Site Analysis module, a Robots Exclusion module, and a Sitemaps and Site Indexes module. These tools let you perform detailed analysis and offer recommendations and editing tools for managing files.

See the full story at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2010/01/25/bing-s-iis-seo-toolkit-now-available.aspx

Quick Tips for Successful E-mail Newsletters

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Website Marketing
on January 25, 2010 8:30 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
It's been about 15 years since I developed my first e-mail newsletter. It's not rocket science. But I still come across clients that are missing the basics.

Here are some tips to get you started -- or to help you quickly review your existing e-mail newsletter and confirm that you're still in line with best practices to make it successful.

It's All About the Reader, Not You

Remember: When you're developing an e-mail newsletter, make it relevant and interesting to your audience. This sounds so simple, but I still see clients whose e-mail newsletters are "all about us" -- we've hired a new VP of sales, we landed a new client, etc. That's nice, but what's in it for the reader?

See the full story at: http://www.clickz.com/3635165

SEO and PPC Can't Wait

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Website Marketing
on January 20, 2010 9:06 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
When it comes to big teams (and just as frequently with one-man shows), all marketing initiatives earn the distinction of being a priority, which normally denotes something that's important enough to jump on right away. But with dozens of other projects hanging in the air, a further hierarchy is required. Individual action items (or at times, the entire list) becomes a high priority, on top of which it's more than likely that the team has three or four top priorities.

When you have a project in mind that can make a huge difference to your bottom line, like SEO or PPC, hearing that it's a top priority and then watching it languish as a line item in weekly and monthly staff meetings quickly becomes a top annoyance with a high incidence of face palming as a result.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636181

Marketing with Twitter: The Power and the Pain

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Website Marketing
on January 19, 2010 7:31 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Social media has changed the way people look for jobs, share pictures of their kids and find new love interests, but thus far the vast majority of large companies still aren't taking advantage of these sites and services to evangelize -- and protect -- their brands, according to a panel of social networking experts here at the Consumer Electronics Show.

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/advertising/article.php/3857406

Link Building Strategy: Employee Volunteer Program

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Website Marketing
on January 18, 2010 7:14 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Looking for a simple way to build links? One way is to start an office volunteer program. It just needs to be promoted to get the attention of local media, bloggers, and others.

Think of a headline on the nightly news and online newspapers like this: "Local Company gives Free Computer Classes to Disadvantaged Youth." That could translate to high-quality links, publicity, and improved employee morale

The Program

One way to start this and get employees excited is to find a cause many of them are passionate about. This volunteer program could be a one-time event or recurring.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636123

Seven Top Online Marketing Trends for 2010

By
Website Marketing
on January 15, 2010 10:21 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Marketers can learn a lot from President Barack Obama's first year in office. While setting an ambitious agenda he's discovered that governing is more difficult than getting elected. For online marketers, the lesson learned is that developing an ongoing strategy to achieve profitable revenues in a maturing marketplace is harder than in a dynamic, growing one.

Three Important Characteristics of the Maturing Online Market

Since buyers are at the core of every marketing strategy, it's important to understand how the maturing online marketplace affects your prospects and customers. Here are three critical traits to consider:

See the full story at: http://www.clickz.com/3636063

E-mailed With Love: Valentine's Day Marketing Tips

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Website Marketing
on January 14, 2010 8:24 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Valentine's Day is only a month away. If you don't have an email marketing campaign planned for this popular holiday, today is the day to start it.

The good news is that even if you don't know how to get a campaign started and out the proverbial door in time for Valentine's Day -- by the time you're done reading this guide you will be able to launch a campaign that will make Cupid sit up and take notice.

Grab a pen and take notes as you read through the following 12 tips offered by Wendy Lowe, Campaigner's director of product marketing. You can use these tips to launch your entire Valentine's Day campaign -- from start to finish -- even if you have never used e-mail marketing for holiday promotions before.

See the full story at: http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/advertising/article.php/3858321

Article Marketing 101

By
Website Marketing
on January 12, 2010 7:28 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Article marketing is a good tool for reaching out to a broader audience and letting them know about your expertise on a given topic. The purpose is to establish credibility and drive traffic back to your Web site. So let's first cover the basics of article marketing and submission, and then touch on potential duplicate content issues.

What is Article Marketing?

Article marketing allows writers to promote themselves and their company by writing articles and making the content freely available for reproduction on other Internet sites. Basically, you're providing something of value for free to those who have similar interests or work in your field.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636065

Duplicate Content 101

By
Website Marketing
on January 7, 2010 8:29 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
If you're involved with SEO in any way, you've probably heard about duplicate content. If you're not exactly sure what it is and how it affects your SEO efforts, then this article is for you. This topic can be rather technical and have some advanced features, but I'll try to keep it basic and won't get into technical details here.

What is Duplicate Content?

In the basic sense, duplicate content is when two or more Web sites have the same content on their site. This isn't just the same subject or headers, but the exact same content word for word or maybe almost word for word.

This may happen for several reasons. You may have written an article and another site or blog picked up the article and posted it word for word.

Another situation is you might have multiple sites with different domains but have similar content. This is sometimes true for sites in different countries. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for having the same content. Still, it's good to understand the pitfalls.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636001

Nine Tools for Your Link-Building Toolkit

By
Website Marketing
on January 6, 2010 8:38 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Link building -- the process of attempting to influence inbound links pointing to a site -- is a fundamental activity of most SEO strategies, but very few people are armed with the tools to do it right. Even more people have the right tools but struggle to stay on top of their linking efforts and understand the impact of them.

Today, let's examine how you can be fully prepared for your link building endeavors by developing a comprehensive link-building toolkit that you can leverage throughout your program.

This "toolkit," which consists of contact lists, worksheets, and templates, is a consolidated repository or file of relevant references or documents required to undertake your link-building program. My link-building toolkit is typically a spreadsheet file with multiple tabs for each item or element. As you will be entering data into your toolkit throughout, I've found that Excel facilitates this most easily.

See the full story at: http://www.clickz.com/3635990
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This page is an archive of entries from January 2010 listed from newest to oldest.

December 2009 is the previous archive.

February 2010 is the next archive.

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