AGIS | Web Development & Marketing Blog

One area often overlooked for SEO is Videos. Videos can generate awareness and lead people to your site.
The word keywords, used below and so important in SEO, are words or phrases that you would type, or more importantly would expect someone searching for you to type, into a search engine query. Try to think like a searcher. Don’t use phrases only insiders might use if outsiders are the ones searching for you.
The primary areas of focus for SEO with your videos are:
• Title –
o Be specific and use appropriate keywords. Short cryptic titles or ones oozing generic words and phrases are not of much use.
• Video Description
o Here again include appropriate keywords and also include your URL. Overly long descriptions might be discounted, so try and keep it under 3 sentences.
• Tags
o List keywords and keyword phrases that describe your video. Be relevant and be specific.
• Views
o Get people to view your video. Encourage friends or customers or basically anyone to view your video. The more views, the more Search Engines might think someone is looking for, and might want to watch, your video.
• Transcripts and Captions
o This is a new area for SEO, but growing in importance. Below are a few tips and information to help you.

 Once you have created your video you will need to make a transcript for it. There are services available that run about $2 a minute or less.
 If you create your own transcript, you should type it into a plain text file.
 Avoid using any special characters since YouTube will be using speech recognition software to match it with your video and add time stamps.
 If there are long pauses in your video use a double line break. These can also be used to mark a new sentence.
 If there is a change in speaker, add a tag like >> to denote the change.
 Here, as in the Video Description, add your URL at the end.
 To add this file to your video go to the Edit section of your video under VIDEO MANAGER.
 Then select CAPTIONS and ADD NEW CAPTIONS OR TRANSCRIPT.
 You want to select Transcript File under TYPE.
 After the file is fully loaded select VIEW to check that everything is working the way you wish.

There are many aspects of search engine rankings that are out of your control so it is important not to miss the areas where a little effort can produce results.

The truth is, for most sites, Google, Bing and Yahoo represent the greatest source of new traffic. While Search Engine Optimization (SEO) focuses a lot of attention on foundation type improvements, such as increasing links to your site and page optimization, the more dynamic aspects like Social Media and Blogs are gaining in importance.

SEO for the most part is left to specialized people both inside and outside a company who deal with SEO and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) on a regular basis.  Social Media and Blogs on the other hand can fall into the hands of a wide array of individuals, both experienced and inexperienced in SEO. As with SEO in general, for Social Media and Blogs there is no check list and a best practice today can quickly become obsolete in short time.

That said, one very simple concept that carries across all SEO, and for this example of blogs, is the idea of keywords and keyword phrases. Keywords for this discussion can be thought of as the words or phrases you would expect someone to type into a search query to find the topic you are writing about. The reason to include keywords and keyword phrases is to increase the keyword relevance to search engines for your blog, and therefore your ranking in search engine results

My topic is Blogs and Search Engines so let’s look at what I have included so far, often with multiple references:  Increase Search Engine Visibility; Google, Bing and Yahoo; Search Engine Optimization (SEO);  SEO;  Blog(s);  Search Engine(s);  increasing  links to your site;  page optimization; Social Media;  Search Engine Marketing (SEM);  SEM; keywords; keyword phrases;  search query ; keyword relevance;  ranking in search engine results.

A Blog must be readable and worth reading, but including keywords and keyword phrases will not only make it more relevant to the reader but also more relevant to search engines. So, as you review your blog look for ways to expand an idea, or be specific rather than general, why say results when you can say search engine results? Never use 1 word when 3 will do.

Is it Worth it?

That is a question you may ask yourself everyday, perhaps even multiple times a day.

…is it worth doing this load of laundry now, knowing the kids’ practice clothes will be in the clothes hamper in four hours?

 …is it worth washing the car even though there is rain in the forecast tomorrow?

 …is it worth going to the gym this morning when the entire house needs cleaned and exercise will be obtained via vacuuming and scrubbing floors?

 Okay, maybe these are just the neurotic questions I tend to ask myself as I’m always looking for ways to be more efficient in time management, but you get the point! Does point 1 outweigh point 2? Does it make sense to do A, when you know what lies ahead with B?

In any business, one needs to ask questions and assess information to make good, solid decisions, especially in these volatile economic times. Most decisions directly affect bottom line, and that is where the question of “is it worth it” comes into play. Maybe the questions above aren’t the best to illustrate an “is it worth it” question from a financial standpoint (although with gas so high, daily exercise through cleaning house or jogging the neighborhood may outweigh driving 14 miles roundtrip to the gym and back). Every dollar matters today, and every decision made in business should be viewed from a financial standpoint.

 Take the situation of one of our clients. In the manufacturing sector, they and their peers, including other manufacturers, vendors, OEM’s, etc. participate in several trade shows per year. Trade shows are the perfect venue to display new goods/services, meet and greet customers, clients and prospective customers and clients, hold strategic planning meetings with vendors and distributors and generally speaking, “be seen”!

 But at what “cost” is it worth it to be seen these days?

 I’ve approximated the amounts below for a client’s participation in a recent trade show:

•  Booth space at expo hall: $33,000
• Exhibit company – prep, shipping, set-up/dismantle: $15,000
• Hotel for eight employees (3 nights/each): $5,400
• R/T airfare for eight: $6,000
• Meals, cab/bus fair, other incidentals: $5,000
• Meetings/meals for customers: $8,600
• New shirts for staff: $1,700
• Marketing firm work (i.e. advertising/press; coordination of all hotel, meetings, space, exhibit; correspondence with all staff, sales representatives, hotel staff, banquet managers, etc.): $8,000
• Other miscellaneous (i.e. shipping charges, special signage/printing, etc.): $3,000

 Total: $85,700

 Wow – a lot of ca-ching for three days of exposure! Think about the kinds of things a business could do to gain similar exposure with almost $90,000? That kind of money buys a lot of print advertising in trade journals and magazines. It would also buy a company a lot of air time on regional radio stations. A new website with all the bells and whistles, plus a mobile website for smartphone using customers? There is a good chance $90,000 would cover it! How about engaging the company in a new internet marketing plan, including SEO, PPC and a social media plan to go with? With $90,000 they’d be off to a great start!

 Now this article isn’t to knock trade shows as there is a lot of marketing benefit from gathering with peers, competitors and customers who are all like-minded in their business goals and who can share ideas, thoughts and product innovations. Instead, the point of this blog is to pose the question as you ponder business decisions for 2012…

 Is it Worth It?!

Call the internet marketing experts at AGIS for information and a quote (and yes…we do trade shows, too!)

Found a great article on working on long term relationships relative to Search Optimizaton and results.

To build trust you must first gain permission to communicate with your potentials clients. Here are a couple of ideas how do connect/educate and build a relationship with your clients.

1. Offer Subscriptions
2. Ask them to sign up on your email list
3. Blog Readership
4. White Paper Downloads
5. Helpful Tools
6. Twitter/Facebook/Social site engagement
7. RSS Subscriptions

Six steps to building that longer term relationship.

1. Ask for permission
2. Create stepping stones
3. Make your customers successful at something i.e. makeing a sale or increasing click through rates
4. Segment and treat them special. Give them something of value the can’t get anywhere else
5. Provide learning content
6. Be respectful of peoples time

If you focus on longer term relationship vs the One Night Stands you will win in the long run and gain repeat business.

We often get questions asking, why does a website need SEO Optimizing? Your site looks great, reads well, so everything must be fine, right? Not necessarily. It is hard to describe a Search Engine process that involves an algorithm that must be mind boggling and for the most part is a secret. Plus, beyond the basic Keyword Search the process involves Quality Rankings for the site based on traffic and links from other quality sites and so on, that can determine your position.

The first thing I try to tell a customer is imagine taking all the words and phrases in your copy or links from your home page (the most important page to a Search Engine), jumble them all around, then reading  this mish- mash, can you determine what your site is about? Also, if you throw out all the generic words that could apply to most things or most any site, is there anything left?

How does SEO Optimizing help with this aspect of your site? SEO Optimizing starts by adding or improving your; Head Tags, Links, Titles, Descriptions and Copy.

Take the example above. Let’s assume after SEO Optimizing your copy is either good or with some minor tweaking has been improved. You should now have at least some descriptive Keywords and Phrases that help explain what your site is about. SEO Optimizing of your copy has likely increased the density of important words of phrases, so highlight those in your mind.

With your Meta Descriptions added or improved, you can now highlight, or highlight more, those words or phrases that are also in the Description. Same goes for the Title. Now, highlight further anything that is a Link or with a List Tag and strongly increase anything included in a Head Tag.

Throw out the words with no highlighting and rank the rest based on the weight of the highlighting. What you have left is simple example of what a Search Engine will take away from your site. Chances are if you do this before SEO Optimizing and then after you will see a vast improvement in your rankings for Keywords and Phrases important to you, from seemingly minor adjustments.

As luck would have it for you, AG Information Systems has a wide variety of plans from Basic to Advanced. Check out AG Information Systems‘ SEO page and request more information. With so many sites dependent on Search Engines for 75% or more of their traffic, can you really afford to let your competitors rank above you?