Isn’t it odd that small businesses will do whatever they can afford to market their products and services, but Fortune 500 companies often put their heads in the sand when it come to search engine optimization?
You can get the latest sad results from Conductor, a leading provider of search engine optimization technology and services.
Here are two of the whoppers:
- “The Fortune 500 as a group spent approximately $51 million / day on 88,792 keywords – yet only 20.82% of these keywords rank in the top 100 natural search results.”
- “Only 1.41% of the domains (not companies) surveyed showed a significant number of their terms in the top results. In all cases these companies had domains with significant visibility issues that offset their overall score.”
Learn more and get the free study here.
Just go to Google and search for notebook computers – (skip the quotes as many searchers don’t use them). Odds are, you’ll spot that expensive pay-per-click ad for Dell right at the top. Maybe on a good day, you’ll see an organic ranking, but usually I don’t see one in the top 10.
Sure, they probably rank naturally for some keyword phrases.
It’s not that they can’t rank for the natural spots – they just don’t bother. Their website is ripe for search engine optimization, but no one is trying. Maybe they gave up years ago.
My guess is it’s a branding issue. Sometimes SEO takes a little adjustment – often within the existing website architecture. But the right people don’t want to tinker.
Dell isn’t alone. Play with any number of Fortune 500 companies and you’ll see the same story over and over.
Actually, countless companies miss the boat. No one is leading the charge. Whatever the reason, clearly some top online marketing executives aren’t feeling the pressure with SEO.
In these tough economic times, maybe they have all the profits they need. Awesome. Maybe the PPC campaigns are going exceptionally well – delivering the traffic and sales they need.
I have to wonder, though. Who actually thinks it makes sense to ignore dollars that SEO bring? Large websites with plenty of content and links have an upper hand with top rankings. But they won’t get the maximum visibility if they don’t first come to grips with marketing short-sightedness.
Ironically, the solution is right in front of their eyes.
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »The day has finally come where videos have officially established themselves as “rankworthy;” finding their way to the top of the ranks in Google’s Universal Search. Whether you are a small business in Seattle selling argyle socks or a large corporation with a global stronghold in your industry, online video is more valuable than ever in promoting your services. Need more motivation to drive your business into online video? Here are 10 reasons to use video for your business!
- On-Demand Accessibility
Widely available, low-cost, high-speed Internet connections are available almost anywhere these days. And, with the influx of portable, Internet-ready devices (cell phones, iPods, laptops, etc.) capable of streaming online video content, viewers will soon be able to access video from virtually every corner of the world. - Powerful Sales Tool
According to comScore, the number of online shoppers who watch online retail product videos before buying a product grew 40% from January 2008 to January of 2009. According to Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst for eCommerce and author of “Video Usage in Ecommerce: The Best is Yet to Come,” the benefits of videos touted by Web retailers include a lower number of abandoned shopping carts, reduced return rates and higher sales. - Adding Video is Tops Among Retailers’ “To-Do Lists”
Even in the current state of the economy, seeing the sales lift from video content on their websites, retailers are exerting pressure on their suppliers to create innovative, eye-catching video content. Even with tight budgets, retailers are reluctant to cut online video production spending. According to SLI Systems, only site search, email marketing, user-generated content and search engine marketing were found and considered less dispensable than online video. - Blogging, Video Sharing & Social Networking
Once retailers and online marketers build up video content on their sites, they will then focus on turning their efforts and video assets into customer acquisition tools by pushing video to other sites, such as affiliates, social networking sites and video-sharing destinations, according to Jeffrey Grau of eCommerce. - Awareness
Online videos can create awareness to the viewers on many levels. Video campaigns should create awareness to the type of company being represented, types of products offered, and any other products or services. Online video is interactive, measurable and cost less per eyeball than any form of print media. - Free Advertising
Probably the best thing about online video is that everyone – retailers, marketers and even your average Joe – can upload any video, anytime, for free! With free uploading, and a down economy, we may begin to see the highest increase in video uploading and sharing than the Internet’s seen in its short history.
“My opinion is that [retailers] will be putting the marketing dollars that they have remaining into online [video marketing] vehicles.” – John McAteer, Google’s head of Retail Marketing.
- Demographics
You may be asking yourself, “Why should I invest my time and efforts into online video to promote my product? Only college kids watch videos, right?” Wrong. According to a nationwide survey conducted by Burst Media, online users between the ages of 35 to 44, and 45 to 54, are just as likely to search and view online video content as online users ages 18-24. - Better-Educated Leads
Users are more likely to watch a visually stimulating video about your products than they are to read a long and possibly boring text document. Online video can stimulate your potential customers or clients to learn more about your products and services before they buy. And, with the knowledge they’ll gain from their viewing experience, your life will become easier when you don’t have to explain what exactly it is that your company specializes in. - Results!
By having an online video embedded within your site or on YouTube, you are more likely to rank within the top pages of Google search results. As a matter of fact, video is 53 TIMES more likely than text content to rank within the top of search engine results! - Your Own Personal FCC License
When it comes to online video, you can throw away all of the traditional commercial advertising rule books! Having a domain name is like having your own personal FCC license. You can produce any type of multimedia content to broadcast your company’s products, offerings and services. You have the ability to produce as much, or as little, content as you deem necessary.
A recent National Public Radio story on Vidders – fans of television programs who record and edit episodes of TV shows into music videos featuring disparate clips of the programs assembled in new ways to pay tribute to their favorite programs or to tell entirely new stories – is another example of the relative ease and ubiquity of Internet video. It turns out that vidders have been doing their creative pirating and montaging for several decades now, on programs from Star Trek and Mash to CSI and Law & Order, but have always relied on hand-to-hand exchanges or the postal system as ways of sharing their creations amongst themselves. Today, thanks to YouTube and other video sharing services like Vimeo or Meta Cafe, vidders can share their creative visual mash-ups with the whole World Wide Web, vidders and non-vidders alike.
My point is that Internet video can cater to interest groups large or small, and that there’s an audience out there for every interest. From a marketing perspective with a purely profit-driven motive as the bottom line, Internet videos are a great tool for getting the attention of viewers who might never know about your products or services otherwise. And a recent article by technology and marketing researchers Forrester Research, claiming that optimized videos have more than 50 times the chance of ranking on the first page of Google compared to normal Web pages, just drives home the fact that Web video and marketing is here to stay and is an affordable and highly effective way to promulgate your wares in the Digital Age.
So, intrepid readers, what are you waiting for? Get in the game while the getting’s good! Fathom SEO can show you how to leverage Internet video.
1 Comment »Google’s related search information is a simple search feature that can help aid your reputation monitoring efforts. Related searches can easily be overlooked, due to their location on the search results page, and the fact that your site probably isn’t showing these search queries in your website analytics. However, these related keywords are a great insight into how people search for your company, product, or service name. Any related keywords that are negative in nature can have a big impact on how your company is perceived on the web. They can be a difference maker in a lead or sale from a prospect that is really close to making a decision.
The nature of the related search queries can vary, so this information might not even work for the keywords you are targeting. If you don’t find anything negative, that is great, but if you do, then you’ll want to act quickly. The related searches can bring back results that are positive, negative, neutral or even non-relevant. Use the information at your discretion to combat the negative results or give a boost to your positive results.
Using the related search information in your online reputation management strategy is fairly simple. Clicking on each result link will show you if your site or other online properties are ranking. If they are, then you want to do what you can to bump up these pages in the results for that particular keyphrase.
If you see one of your own website pages ranking, then try to get creative with how to weave a negative-natured keyphrase into your Page Title and on-page content. The key is to do this without undermining your webpage’s message. If you see one of your online properties ranking (i.e. videos, social profiles, local search, press releases), then try to creatively add the keyphrase to the copy on that page. The second part of the strategy is to focus on pointing some strategic keyword links toward those pages.
Situational Example:
Your “About Us” page on your website is ranking #7 in Google for “company name review”, your YouTube video is ranking #10, and there are a few negative websites listed above and between those two results.
Strategies to improve the rankings and visibility of your properties:
- Modify the copy of your “About Us” page to reflect the keyphrase “company name review” – Don’t forget the power of the Page Title if there is an emergency to get this page ranked higher!
- Change the YouTube video title, description and keywords to include that keyphrase.
- Point links to your “About Us” page and YouTube video from your Squidoo Lens or other property you can control, and name the link “company name review”.
These strategies above are not guaranteed for success, and it may take months to see results. There is no easy or overnight solution to improve your online reputation – but don’t let that discourage your repair efforts! Your activity and effort to portray your company in the best light on the web is crucial to staying ahead of your competitors in tough economic times. Creating and maintaining dialogue with your customers on the web is easier than ever with social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Leveraging and cross-promoting ALL of your online marketing and social networking efforts is a wise decision if you are serious about your company’s online presence.
Learn more about Fathom SEO’s online reputation monitoring (ORM) services.
2 Comments »Think online display advertising doesn’t work? Afraid of the low CTR compared to other forms on online advertising? Perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate how to measure the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.
A recent study from Specific Media indicates online display advertising has a significant impact on natural search. As referenced in the study, “Consumers exposed to display advertising were more likely to search for brand terms (i.e. automotive manufacturer), and segment terms (i.e. vehicle class), than unexposed consumers.” Advertisers in eight categories saw an average lift of 155% in search activity after running online display advertising campaigns.
This study helps to emphasize the importance of a multi-faceted approach to internet marketing. Many online marketing initiatives help support one another; for instance, video marketing and online display advertising can support organic search, while email marketing aids organic search, pay-per-click and online display programs.
1 Comment »
