TopRank Digital Marketing News » Ask an Expert

How Can An Unknown Start-Up Maximize Visibility for a New Product or Service?

Mike — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:45:16 +0000

Imagine you were the enlightened caveman (or woman) who invented the wheel. How would you drum up demand for your new product – by promoting your newly coined phrase ‘wheel’ or by promoting a solution for traveling and dragging?

Today’s start-ups would be wise to heed to this analogy.

Until the product or service you create has its name ingrained in the minds of your target, there is very little chance they will find you regardless of how badly they need you. It doesn’t matter that everyone needs a ‘pilotguide’ (a fictional and foolproof autopilot for your car) if no one knows to ask for a pilotguide by name.

Instead, focus on promoting the universal benefits your new product or service offers, optimizing for keyword phrases used by your target when they seek a solution to common problems you are helping to solve.

Rather than ‘pilotguide,’ think ‘chauffeur services’, rather than ‘pilotguide evening capabilities’ think ‘nighttime driving safety.’

A good question to ask yourself is, ‘what does my prospect ask for before they have any idea that I exist?’

Answer this question with your online marketing efforts and you’ll not only maximize visibility – you may just may stumble on a messaging strategy that would have remained completely hidden otherwise.

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What Are Microformats And Should My Website Have Them?

Mike — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 22:27:50 +0000

Chances are you have recently come into contact with microformats without even being aware of it. Essentially, microformats are ways to highlight key areas on a website to make it easier for this information to be read by machines (see: search engines).

Contact information and customer reviews are two key areas in which microformats are commonly used. Most intriguingly, these particular microformats are often used in support of ‘rich snippets’. Rich snippets (think customer reviews displayed in search results) make it easier for search engines to highlight some of your more compelling web content for users.

Is the use of microformats a good thing?

Schools of thought break into one of two camps:

Of course! You are making it easier for search engines to display useful information about your website to users.
Maybe not…If all the best content from my website can now be seen in search results, why will people click through to my site?

In deciding whether or not to use microformats, the question is truly this:

Am I more concerned with a tactic that may help with my overall online marketing objective (i.e. make it easier to connect with customers) or am I more interested in achieving a metric (i.e. website traffic).

With microformats remaining a relatively new tactic, this can be a deceivingly difficult question to answer.

As with any other new online tactic, testing the water is always encouraged prior to diving in.

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How Can I Protect My Brand’s Online Reputation?

Mike — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:36:58 +0000

Online reputation management is equally important for businesses, highly visible executives and even team members. As business becomes increasingly digital, online brand reputation quickly becomes a real world reputation.

It’s been reported that over 50% of adults Google each other and over 90% of B2B buyers use search when starting the buying process. In other words: if your brand has online reputation issues, they will be discovered.

Below, find two proactive approaches that can help protect – and in case of emergency – defend your brand:

1. Own your brand in the SERPs (search engine results pages)
By building out your web presence on a variety of external sites, in addition to optimizing your own site, you can own your brand’s search engine presence. By building this presence, you make it difficult for one negative blog post or article about your brand to grace the first page of the search engines.

2. Build a digital community
Creating a digital community of brand advocates ensures that if your brand is attacked, you’ll have a group working to defend it. This group, comprised of those truly passionate about your brand, will protect it 24/7 hedging off any potentially negative groundswell that could occur.

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Why Should I Set Up Analytics Goals & Funnels?

Mike — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:33:15 +0000

For many businesses, search engine rankings and traffic are simply KPIs supporting larger online marketing goals – inquiries and sales. While these businesses may have tracking systems in regards to online sales, and may be tracking web stats via analytics, it can be difficult to bridge the gap between the two.

Analytics goals and funnels help to bridge this gap, showing how visitors convert into a sale based on factors including:

Keyword
Referring source
Landing page

So why is it important to track this data?

Quite simply, the data gleaned via analytics goals and funnels helps guide proactive and data-driven changes to website content and promotional activities.

For instance, if the keyword ‘headphones’ is driving 100 visits per month but only converting 10% of visitors to a sale, while ‘stereophones’ is driving 50 but converting 30%, it may make sense to add more content designed to pull the ‘stereophone’ crowd.

Another instance could relate to promotional activity. If traffic from an optimized press release converts at a rate of 25%, while guest blog posts convert 20%, optimized press releases may be a stronger promotional opportunity to focus on in the future.

Rather than spending hours analyzing data or surveying new customers, analytics goals and funnels provide the same level of information in mere minutes.

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How Can I Gain the Attention of Early Adopters?

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:06:48 +0000

Whether you’re launching a new product or a new blog, reaching early adopters is essential.

Early adopters may be small in number – for example, only 11% of web users know how to use RSS. But this small group packs a big punch. Using the RSS example, those 11% of RSS subscribers are by and large active web publishers.

By attracting the attention of this early adopter crowd, you can achieve:

Search Benefits: Early adopters make up the “Linkerati,” a group of web influencers who regularly link to worthwhile content from their highly trafficked websites and blogs. In most cases, the more quality links to your website or blog, the better the search visibility.
Social Benefits: Early adopters are the connectors of the web. They’re actively talking and engaging throughout the social web. By getting them discussing your brand or product, it increases the propsensity to spread.

To reach this sought-after but select crowd of influencers, leverage these three tips:

1. Engage in emerging channels. Early adopters have “shiny new object” syndrome; they engage in the latest channels frequently because they are the latest. Those channels could include Google Buzz, Foursquare – wherever early adopters are checking out as the potential next big thing. For example, Starbucks was one of the first brands on Twitter. It’s now one of the most successful brands on the microblogging site and boasts 800,000+ followers. For reaching early adopters, those who engage early may reap rewards (of course, quality of engagement matters too).

2. Leverage popular archetypes. You don’t have to invent the wheel when it comes to reaching early adopters. Identify the most popular of archetypes – the types of images that are going viral or the types of blog posts that go popular on social channels – and create your own content leveraging those formats. For example, infographics are currently popular among the early adopter crowd. Create your own unique, visually appealing infographic that educates customers about your brand or product, and may be shared more readily than a more traditional format.

3. Don’t worry about the masses. When trying to reach early adopters, put the masses on the side burner – temporarily. Speak to early adopters at a high level, provide technical details and don’t be afraid to use technical jargon. The early adopter crowd will appreciate being treated like they “get it.”

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How Can I Get More Value From Twitter?

Mike — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:57:15 +0000

Twitter remains a compelling enigma for online marketers.

In a post to Online Marketing Blog, copywriter Michelle Bowles equated the delicate balance needed in a Twitter Marketing Recipe to that of a guacamole recipe where one false dash could destroy the whole dip.

Michelle’s advice to marketers seeking to receive more value from Twitter can be boiled down to two words: be valuable. While this may read as very ‘in the box’ advice, the approach you take is what will carry your marketing efforts out of the box.

For example, when brainstorming ideas for valuable content to Tweet, does your mind automatically jump to valuable content that is available on your website?

In reality, some of the best Twitter strategies involve delivering content valuable to an audience of followers (i.e., industry whitepapers, news and headlines), unrelated to the company behind the Tweet. This is a great way to build the trust you need to ensure followers click through your Tweets when you do have that great piece of content worth promoting.

Also, don’t look at Twitter as a one-way channel to broadcast your message. The best Twitter strategies involve multi-directional communication with followers. In other words, don’t just Tweet – Retweet, especially when you see a Tweet that you think your audience will find valuable. Respond, especially when it relates to your industry, and engage by posing relevant, thoughtful questions to your followers.

In the end, remember this: Twitter is a social channel, not a promotional channel. As part of your strategy, can these definitions be interchangeable? Sure. Can these definitions be reversed? When we find a successful example, we’ll let you know.

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What Does Personalized Search Mean for My SEO Program?

Mike — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:56:29 +0000

Personalized search from Google, a new innovation ensuring search results are targeted to you and you alone, is causing shockwaves of uncertainty in regards to how it relates to Search Engine Optimization.

In reality, personalized search has been in play for well over a year, customizing search results for signed-in users based on everything from geography to browsing history. The difference now is that personalized search is in play whether or not users are logged into any Google account.

So what does this mean for SEO programs?

Search engine rankings, a long-held KPI, will grow increasingly less important – at least in a broader sense. For instance, when my #1 ranking for ‘Track Jackets’ matches what you see at #36, it can be difficult for the track jacket purveyor in question to raise either a victory banner or a red flag.

As such, rather than trying to achieve position at the top of Google’s rankings, many businesses may now find themselves scrambling to achieve position at the top of John and Mary’s rankings.

While the objective may be more complex, many of the tactics that can help promote success should already be among the components of a robust online marketing mix:

Onpage optimization: More and more, Google will be holding on-page keyword usage in higher regard as it decides where to position you in the search results of both your oldest clients and newest prospects.
Social content: Years ago, a functional website legitimatized a business in the eyes of consumers. Social content, whether it’s a Facebook page or Twitter account, will now be used as a signal to legitimatize your business in the eyes of Google. This legitimization is yet another factor to help the search engine decide that your website deserves to rank. Merely having a presence is step one; being a valuable hub in that channel is the ultimate goal.
Social mentions: Personalized search brings with it real-time search, the inclusion of real-time social mentions in search results. With content from social sites such as Twitter and Facebook being indexed by all of the engines, corresponding social buzz may be seen by searchers.

Personalized search should be embraced, not feared. It is a development that will provide us with what we truly want: search rankings defined by us, and a stronger match for us. This may require short-term adjustments to your SEO program, but the most important innovations usually do.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) programs offered by TopRank® Online Marketing focus on providing and implementing recommendations offering the highest impact as it relates to our client’s objectives. Contact TopRank® Online Marketing to learn more about high impact SEO by calling toll free at 1-877-872-6628 or locally in the Twin Cities at 952-400-0194.

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How Can I Repurpose Old Content to Increase Search Traffic?

Mike — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:52:29 +0000

The bottomline answer is, ‘Yes!’ There are dozens of different analogies that can be used to illustrate why that’s so. For purposes of this post, let’s use a fishing analogy.

Say, for example, you drop one baited hook into the water. Were you to drop a similarly baited hook into the water, do you think you would be more or less likely to catch a fish?

Just as more hooks in the water equal more chances to catch a fish, more content online equals more chances to reel in a website visitor — and a better chance of experiencing a successful Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program. One of the most efficient ways to create new content is to repurpose old content.

Just as one worm can bait several hooks, one video interview could turn into several pieces of content to lure visitors. A video interview could be repurposed and become:

An audio podcast
A transcription used as a basis for a blog post
A concept used to draft and optimize a press release

Keep in mind that all of this new content is in addition to the video interview, which still stands alone as a strong piece of content in and of itself.

Of course, a worm and a video interview are just examples. Many types of bait will catch a fish, and many pieces of content can be repurposed to attract visitors.

Spend time auditing the content you currently have available, whether it’s as expansive as a multi-media presentation or as simple as a product benefit webpage. Almost anything could potentially turn into the lots of little things needed to make your website and SEO program a success.

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Are Paid Links A Bad Idea?

Mike — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:40:42 +0000

This question has the potential to ruffle the feathers of SEO professionals on either side of the debate: “Are paid links a bad idea?”

‘Paid links’ are exactly what they sound like – paying someone or some company to link to your content. Like any other practice that involves the word ‘paid’, paid links can straddle the line between legitimate (for example, a paid online directory) or laughably illegitimate (think the linking equivalent of a Nigerian email scam).

So why the prickliness over this question that has been weighed in on by most online marketing and SEO professionals, including our own experts at Online Marketing Blog?

Much of this can be traced back to the words of Matt Cutts from Google:

Q: Is the practice of buying/selling paid links still a violation of Google’s terms of service?
A: Yes.

Q: If the practice described above IS a violation of Google’s terms of service, will Google ever do anything about it?
A: Yes, we’ve been taking action on paid links and sites that violate our quality guidelines for years, and we’ll continue to do so.

Others have noted, however, that neither Google nor any other entity has the ability to identify who is purchasing links and pointing them towards any site. As such, it seems that while the official stance and preferred action of Google is one thing, what they can actually do is something else entirely. And meanwhile, those who choose to take advantage of this paradox may benefit.

So, are paid links a bad idea?

To put it in analogous terms, Google is the biggest dog in the room. By paying for links, you are waving a juicy T-Bone just outside of this big dog’s reach.

Might you get away with it? Sure, maybe.

Are there better ways of playing with a big dog, and correspondingly, better ways to get people to link to your site? Absolutely.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) programs offered by TopRank® Online Marketing are always white-hat and focus on providing and implementing recommendations offering the highest impact as it relates to our client’s objectives. Contact TopRank® Online Marketing to learn more about high impact SEO by calling toll free at 1-877-872-6628 or locally in the Twin Cities at 952-400-0194.

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What Is Black Hat SEO (and Why Should I Avoid It?)

Mike — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:03:42 +0000

For those of us who grew up reading Mad Magazine, the image above makes the difference between white hat and black hat SEO crystal clear.

For the rest of us, black hat SEO can best be defined as a ‘morally and ethically ambiguous’ business practice. Black hat SEO practitioners, in an effort to secure high rankings, will break search engine regulations and throw any notion of a positive search experience out the window.

Examples of black hat SEO practices include keyword stuffing (ie stringing every keyword you wish to rank for in the title tag of your page, whether or not it is relevant for each term) and the time-honored invisible text (ie adding white text to a white background on your page.)

Make no mistake, black hat SEO tactics can result in higher rankings for your website. So why should you avoid them?

By becoming black hat you are choosing to go to war with the engines. As they become more and more advanced, search engines will get far more efficient at squashing those who go against its regulations. This can mean rankings that are here today, gone tomorrow.

On a similar note, the major search engines revenue streams are rooted in providing a pleasant search experience. To think that search engines are squashing out black hat practices simply to flex their own muscle is as short-sighted as thinking high rankings are the be-all, end-all of successful SEO campaigns.

White hat SEO depends on search engines and SEOs working together to produce a positive search experience, whereby a user finds what it is they are looking for with as few clicks as possible. Black hat depends on rogue SEOs working alone on narrow-minded goals that, even if achieved, mean very little.

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How Can I Get Bloggers Buzzing About My Business?

Adam — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:19:49 +0000

According to last year’s State of the Blogosphere report by Technorati, approximately 346 million people worldwide read blogs. According to the same report, more than four in five bloggers post product or brand reviews and blog about brands they love or hate. In other words – bloggers have influence about brands and they aren’t afraid to use it.

Bloggers are the world’s connectors that help businesses, products or idea reach a tipping point, or level at which momentum becomes unstoppable. These connectors are the people who “link us up with the world” and have influential social networks. Clearly this is an important group for spreading ideas online and connecting end users with your business.

But how to get bloggers, or the connectors of the world buzzing? There are many ways, and today we will share two effective approaches:

1) Viral blog outreach

Have a desire to reach a large amount of bloggers and get a big group of people talking? Develop a plan to permeate a niche and rally together a group of bloggers who have something in common. Viral blog outreach is exceedingly effective, as bloggers naturally talk to each other as an organic part of blogging. Good ideas don’t stay secrets long. The key here is to have your viral outreach play into a larger strategy to build on over time – say funneling those bloggers to subscribe to your own content and help build a thriving community supporting your brand.

2) Pull PR

Pull PR is a more surgical approach, and useful when trying to engage specific, influential bloggers. The idea of pull PR is to bring users to your information, as opposed to bringing information to users. This is possible by using inbound strategies designed to attract target influencers directly to you – like a moth to a flame. Defining who those people are is step one, followed by a strategy to engage and inspire them to take a desired action. The value long-term is to connect and forge relationships with these key people. If they can be converted to brand advocates they will provide returns for your business over long periods of time in the form of increasing your digital share of voice.

Online public relations and social media marketing programs offered by TopRank® Online Marketing focus on providing and implementing recommendations offering the highest impact as it relates to our client’s objectives for influencing the social web. Contact TopRank® Online Marketing to learn more about high impact SEO and social media tactics by calling toll free at 1-877-872-6628 or locally in the Twin Cities at 952-400-0194.

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Will Changing My Website Hurt My Rankings?

Mike — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:26:58 +0000

A more accurate question, and corresponding answer, would be:

Q: Can changing my website hurt my search engine rankings?
A: Yes, it can.

Notice the emphasis. To accurately answer the original question (see: Title of this post), we need to clarify what we mean by ‘change.’

Common changes to a web site include:

Changing website design
Changing content management systems
Changing domain names
Changing web hosts

Changing website design and content management systems are the most common things that affect search engine rankings amongst the list of issues above.

Most companies engage a web design agency or in-house design staff to create a new website. What these agencies often fail to consider is how changing URL syntax (ex: webpage.htm to webpage.php) will confuse search engines. A map of your old to new URLs needs to be implemented along with a system of permanent (301) redirects. Pages that cannot be mapped need to be dealt with using custom 404 error pages which should be user and search engine friendly.

Companies change domain names for many reasons including: improved usability, as the result of an acquisition, or simply because of a company name change. If search engines are indexing your current domain name, your rankings can certainly be affected by how the implementation of a new domain name is handled.

If nothing but your domain name is changing, rankings can be reasonably protected with a proper system of 301 redirects and by identifying top referring sources of traffic and asking them to update their links.

Changing web hosts alone shouldn’t have any major effect on how a search engine ranks your web site as long as the change is smooth. A small static site with few web pages (under 1,000) is pretty straightforward. Moving a huge site with tens of thousands of pages, multiple servers and more complex hosting and redundancy factors can be, of course, a bit more complex.

If you make it easy for search engines to understand the changes being made to your website, then the search engines can do a better job of adjusting, with minimal effect to your search engine rankings.

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Should My Company Have A Twitter Presence?

Mike — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:50:34 +0000

Twitter, a popular microblogging site that lets users communicate messages in 140 characters or less, has exploded in popularity. Twitter has become so popular, many companies feel they must have a presence there, if only to stay ahead of the curve. But is this really the case?

As much as it may seem everyone is on Twitter, this simply isn’t true. CNET reports that while 99 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have profiles on social networks, only 22 percent use Twitter.

Both gut feelings about the number of Twitter users and statistics detailing exact numbers are fairly irrelevant to the question at hand. What’s truly important is the percentage of your audience that is on Twitter.

For companies working in industries where customers and prospects are early adapters, such as marketing or technology, a Twitter presence should absolutely be considered in the mix. For more traditional industries, where customers and prospects are unlikely to have migrated to Twitter, a company presence would be fairly moot.

At the same time, early adapters can be found within groups of customers and prospects in any industry. And there is always potential benefit for companies willing to blaze new marketing trails.

The question of whether your company should have a presence in new, cutting-edge marketing channels can be answered with good, old-fashioned marketing research to determine where your audience congregates. And as long as your entire suite of marketing efforts are not wrapped up in something new and unproven, few will look down on you for trying something unique.

Search Engine Optimization and social media marketing programs offered by TopRank® Online Marketing focus on providing and implementing recommendations offering the highest impact as it relates to our client’s objectives. Contact TopRank® Online Marketing to learn more about high impact SEO and social media tactics by calling toll free at 1-877-872-6628 or locally in the Twin Cities at 952-400-0194.

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How Do I Start A Blog?

Mike — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:52:11 +0000

People and companies that start blogs often do so for different reasons ranging from promoting products to opening up channels of communication with customers.

Answering the question of “How you start a blog?” must go beyond the mechanical process of signing up at a service like WordPress, Blogger.com or Typepad.com. While each of these services provides step by step instructions, they don’t have any way of providing a blueprint for success in each specific situation.

The answer that will result in a return on your effort involves becoming familiar with blogging as a communication form and making a plan. Before making substantial efforts towards starting a company blog, it’s important to be familiar with blogs in your category as a reader. By consuming content in the form you’ll be publishing, you’ll have a greater appreciation for finding the right tone of voice, posting frequency, topics and guidelines for interaction through commenting on and off site.

Creating a plan or strategy for a blog starts with identifying objectives. What do you hope to achieve? Next is an understanding of the audience you hope to reach. What unmet needs to they have that you can satisfy through blogging? A content plan that outlines how you will reach business objectives by meeting your target audience needs is followed by putting proper measurement tools in place.

To start a blog, start by asking:

• What are the business objectives a blog can help achieve? (ie improved customer service, thought leadership, web site traffic, awareness, media coverage, leads?)
• What will I write about on my blog? What will your editorial calendar be?
• How often should you post content and who within the organization can you enlist to help?
• What success metrics can be put in place that will best motivate others in the organization to read, promote and participate in the blog?

Sketch out 20 or 30 topics you plan to write about that address the needs of your target audience. Then, establish a link between these concepts and your overall business objectives. To start and manage a successful blog requires thinking like a publisher. That means planning editorial resources, technical, creative, marketing and analytics.

Spending time up front planning a blog will help ensure it becomes a productive communications channel for your business.

TopRank has been blogging as a business for over 5 years and has helped many, many companies enter the blogging world and reach specific business goals ranging from improved industry awareness and customer communications to increased search engine rankings and online sales. If you’re interested in entering the blogging world, check out our blog, Online Marketing Blog and inquire online or give us a call at 1-877-872-6628.

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Google Says Keywords In URLs Are Good. Should I Change My Site?

Mike — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:52:36 +0000

From prominent locations including title tags, to less visible positions such as the alt text describing images, there is not one area of a website where keyword insertion will not be beneficial. Per Google, there is even “a little bit” of benefit to inserting keywords into URLs.

Does this “little bit of benefit” necessitate a site-wide overhaul? Not necessarily.

If you are launching a brand new website, or already have a complete website overhaul planned, it certainly makes sense to build with best SEO practices – from the ground up.

In lieu of a complete rebuild, however, there are far more impactful updates you can make to your site, including:
-    Optimizing title tags & onpage copy
-    Securing links from non-competitive websites
-    Building internal, keyword optimized links into onpage copy

The advantage of updating each and every URL on your website will not make up for the disadvantage of pulling time away from implementing more impactful updates, including those mentioned above.

Search Engine Optimization programs offered by TopRank® Online Marketing focus on providing and implementing recommendations offering the highest impact as it relates to our client’s objectives. Contact TopRank® Online Marketing to learn more about high impact SEO tactics by calling toll free at 1-877-872-6628 or locally in the Twin Cities at 952-400-0194.

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