For many local businesses the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN have become the ‘new yellow pages’. For them it's vitally important to be seen. For organizations with national and international reach, if they're not recognized in the major search engines in connection with strategically important keywords and phrases, they effectively don’t exist, i.e., won't be discovered, by the millions of daily search engine users.
Affinity Track Internet Promotion is a leading Colorado-based search engine/internet marketing company. Affinity Track works with businessess to improve their positions in the major search engines and promote themselves online. We plan and implement both organic and paid search engine promotional programs. For more information you're invited to contact us today to begin a discussion about your search engine and overall internet promotional objectives.
Here’s an example of one of the types of website video interviews we produce. While professionally produced, they’re not glitzy, and so don’t cost and arm and a leg. For website and search engine promotional purposes multiple lower cost videos are probably a better bet than one or two highly produced versions.
The interview format is great for allowing prospective customers to get acquainted with management and key people associated with a company or organization. It’s been said before but it’s worth repeating that people like doing business with those they know. A video interview can be a great first step in introducing the people connected with your organization.
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Affinity Track Internet Promotion
357 S. McCaslin Blvd.
Louisville, COÂ 80027
(303) 404-8699
Here’s something to consider … if your company does just 10% of what’s possible to promote itself online … you’ll be doing more than 90% of your competitors.
No, the percentages represented in the foregoing statement are not statistically verifiable. The point remains though that it’s possible to gain competitive advantage in the search engines and elsewhere online by directing just some resources to this obective every month. Over time, developed content that’s intelligently created and strategically managed, can represent big advantages for your business.
Every company’s budget and objectives and approach will be different. That’s why we don’t advocate a one-size-fits-all approach. Developing a plan will require a little forethought, and thereafter discipline to ensure the tactics employed are having the desired effect. It’s all doable … and it begins with a prospective client’s first contact.
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Affinity Track Internet Promotion
357 S. McCaslin Blvd.
Louisville, COÂ 80027
(303) 404-8699
A magazine recently ran a ‘Dilbert Quotes’ contest. They were looking for people to submit quotes from their real-life Dilbert-type managers. These were voted the top ten quotes in corporate America:
‘What I need is an exact list of specific unknown problems we might encounter.’ (Lykes Lines Shipping)
‘E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business.’ (Accounting manager)
‘This project is so important we can’t let things that are more important interfere with it.’ (Advertising/ Marketing manager)
‘Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule.’ (Plant Manager)
‘No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We’ve been working on it for months. Now go act busy for a few weeks and I’ll let you know when it’s time to tell them.’ (R&D supervisor)
Quote from the Boss: ‘Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say.’ (Marketing executive)
My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my Boss, he said she died on purpose so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday. He said, ‘That would be better for me.’ (Shipping executive)
‘We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees.’ (Switching supervisor)
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(This was the winning quote)
‘As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday, and employees will receive their cards in two weeks.’
Keyword research — what is it? It’s taking the guess work out of promoting your company’s website in the search engines. If you’re hunting for big game (e.g., the illusive prominent ranking in Google for instance), we need to first define the quarry further. Is it fish, fowl, or mammal? OK, enough ‘poetry’. You want a page one Google ranking right?!
Before we pursue that goal a little investigation/preparation is needed. The tools exist to allow us to determine with a high degree of confidence just what keywords and phrases search engine users are querying. These tools also provide us with intelligence to make smart choices about which keywords/phrases to pursue. Once the decisions are made, we can then begin to chip away at creating correlating content that search engines see and understand in connection with these target search terms. Slowly, methodically, in a disciplined way content is regularly created and put online in an optimized form for search engines to see, index, register in connection with search engine queries, and ultimately lead prospective clients/customers back to your company’s website. And voila … a lead is born!
Affinity Track Internet Promotion
357 S. McCaslin Blvd.
Louisville, COÂ 80027
(303) 404-8699
Below is an email I sent off (in a hurry as usual of course) to a prospective client today. What the heck (I’m due for another blog post), I thought I’d include it here, and it does highlight some salient points for consideration.
A great weekend to all …
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Here are a few points to consider in connection with a potential internet search engine marketing program:
1. Internet marketing, in particular search engine marketing, is paradigm breaking relative to conventional interruptive marketing methods because we seek to present prospective customers with a relevant message at arguably the most important time. If someone enters ‘your phrase’ or some other identified keyword into Google or Yahoo, it’s at THAT MOMENT we want to present them with our message … not before and not after. Conceptually this is like science fiction, reading someone’s mind, or the closest we can come to it.
2. [your company] is a startup (small) business with a national (if not international) market. Search engine marketing allows that reach. We can build in geographic concentrations, exclude others, if that’s determined to be best.
3. Whatever budget amount you may decide on I suggest planning on that amount ‘forever’ (or at least one year). The natural (organic) search efforts will be cumulative, a mix of near-term and long-term results. Pay-per-click advertising will give us immediate exposure and we can select what message, where geographically, what we’re willing to spend on each click, etc., etc.
If you want to rank prominently in organic search results you’ve got to write copy. There’s no getting around it. Whether your site is a blog or a more traditional website, search engines primarily recognize content in the form of text.
To write it certainly helps to be knowledgeable in domain area of what you’re writing about, though in creating copy it’s also important to be aware of how search engine ’see’ and ‘think’. Much of this information is available online and in various publications. SEO copywriting expertise also comes from experience, experimentation to some degree, in finding the optimal combination of factors that bring about favorable search engine ranking. And even once it’s found, there’s no guarantee that what you’ve discovered will work indefinitely or uniformly across the board since search engine algorithms are not static.
In many instances the domain expertise needed to write online copy can be found by doing research. If the ‘researcher’ is skilled in SEO methods, this can be a workable approach to creating website or blog copy. Affinity Track provides search engine optimized copywriting services on a variety of speciaized topics. For information about these services, feel free to give us a call or drop us an email.
Too often, search engine optimization-marketing is thought of as an event or discrete task, something that’s done at a point in time, and then it’s complete. Actually, as with most other forms of marketing or promotion, it’s an ongoing process.
This misguided way of thinking can be used to our advantage since much of creating competitive advantage in business comes from looking for those spots in the business environment where an inequity or imbalance exists, then acting. If your organization’s business benefits from a strong search engine presence (and today almost all do) then a systematic approach to strengthen your online presence relative to competitors is a ’sweet spot’ that can be exploited. If competitors are not taking full advantage of the internet (or not doing it well), you can.
So we suggest that business leaders benefit by looking for places within the business environment where they can set their organizations apart from competitors. For many this may include improving their search engine presence. For those who seek assistance with this … well, that’s what we do.
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Today’s quote:
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.Â
Search engine optimization-marketing tactics may differ depending on whether a local or national audience is desired. Local search engine queries may include a geographic reference … while searches that are not locally bounded may not. Including company geographic identifiers such as the address, zip code, or telephone number in searchable content is often recommended in support of local search.
Our point … to target locally or nationally is not an SEO decision, it’s a business decision, a decision about your target market. It’s important to have your business model/plan clearly established prior to launching any search engine optimization-marketing program. SEO-SEM techniques will conform to your company’s business plan … rather than the ‘tail-wagging-the-dog’ alternative.
If your company is interested in marketing itself online, particularly if ‘online’ means ’search engines’, it’s necessary to know what your targets are. Keyword targets that is.
We don’t have to guess about what search engine users are looking for. Tools exist to tell us exactly what keywords and phrases are being searched on. For example, ‘internet marketing tools’, the title of this blog is, according to the Google keywords tool, a popular search phrase.
Anyone can use the Google keyword tool for example. It’s located at:
There are other more in-depth internet tools around. This blog is not intended to be comprehensive. So if you’re interested, query the topic in your favorite search engine. Typically you’ll find that there are many more tools available than can realistically be utilized (and still run your business). Though with us, we can justify spending a little more time on such things … given the nature of our business. And of all the available tools … keyword tools are likely among the most useful. Â