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Top 5 Reasons to Write a Press Release for Your Website
Friday, July 3, 2009
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Loading ...Press releases are not just for large companies to release their latest earning statement. Press Releases through online distribution can be a valuable resource for increasing the online visibility of your company and building trust with your audience.
Press Releases need to be news worthy to be effective
Top 5 Reasons to Write a Press Release for Your Website
- Organic traffic: a well written and news worthy press release distributed through the top online press release channels can get displayed in Google news and show up in Google organic search. Google search and Google news both can drive thousands of people to your website.
- Link building: at the bottom of your press release will be the ability to add a link. The link gives your website a one way link from all the websites that your press release was distributed to.
- Reputation: press release distribution websites rank well in Google typically for your company’s name. Consistent submitting of press releases can make news from your company be the top 10 ranking results when a future customer Google’s your company’s name online.
- Web 2.0: blogs and other social media subscribe to press release syndication sites and if your press release is interesting enough they might blog about it, add it to Twitter, or so on which can virally increase your online presence.
- Traditional media: journalists who find your story interesting can follow up with you and write a story about your company or service in traditional media outlets.
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The Science of Retweets and How to Get Them
Thursday, July 2, 2009
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Retweeting or the act of re-posting a particular microblog post you like in Twitter seems simple enough. If there is a post that you really like from a Twitter profile you are following you simply retweet their post to send it to your followers. You may see many websites like Authority SEO which displays the number of retweets that each post gets.
How do I get my tweet retweeted
The goal of posting in Twitter is you want readers to find your information like it enough to want to share it with their friends and followers. This is why what makes a good post worthy of being retweeted is important if you want to increase your online visibility through Twitter.
The following stats on what makes a good tweet for retweet is from Dan Zarrella. The data was collected over an extremely large sample size of over 10 million tweets.
Science of How to Get Retweets
Links: the data showed that only 18.96% of all tweets include a link while 56.69% of retweets included a link. If you want to get more retweets post with links to interesting information.
Bigger words: the average Tweet is 1.58 syllables where as the average Retweet is 1.62 syllables. The idea here is more complex ideas are retweeted more often than simple ideas. Read the rest of this entry »
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Is Your Business Online Perception Negative or Positive - Rush Hour Traffic by Authority SEO
Thursday, July 2, 2009
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Rush Hour Traffic Podcast - Is Your Business Online Perception Negative or Positive
- Find what people are saying about your business online and what to do about it
- Strategy for utilizing social bookmarks
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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There are a thousand and one ways to create a website. You could use a content management system, blog software, or static html coding. Each of these has its own CSS style sheet to create a unique look and feel and support your brand.
Clean and professional web design works no matter what business you are in
No matter what business you are in or the reason for creating your website there are common themes that all successful website abide by. As you are creating your website you always need to remember you have 5-10 seconds to make a person stay on your web page.
5 Things that Every Website Most Have
- Professional: when you go into a brick and mortar store to buy something, what do you think when the store is a mess? This works the same of websites. Clean and professional always work to matter what business, product, or service you are offering.
- Navigation: make your navigation easy to find and use. I have seen websites with fancy flash for a navigation which can be confusing, plus lacks good search engine optimization. You want to make it easy for visitors to find the information you want them to and they are looking to find.
- Colors: have you ever looked at a website and it gave you a headache? The color scheme has to easy on the eyes. This also works for the text. Often websites get too artsy with the colors and text and you can’t read anything on the site.
- Call to Action: every page of your website needs a “call to action.” This is what you want people to do next on your website. The best place is in the right hand navigation as people’s eyes move from left to right and diagonal across the page.
- Test: most website owners don’t test their links and their new web pages they add. It is so easy for a photo to not be formatted or a link to not work. It takes just a minute more to test your new page and it is well worth it. This also goes for periodic checks as things can just stop working for some reason. Another way to know if something isn’t working is to see a sudden high bounce rate on a certain page.
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Do You Know What People are Saying About Your Company Online
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...I looking through one of my clients analytics to create a monthly report on the traffic when I see one of the keywords that got traffic had the word scam in it. I put the keyword phrase into Google’s search bar and to my amazement what I found were fake accounts under the companies name with negative reviews placed the same day. The profiles online were not created by Authority SEO or the company themselves. What I can figure is work of a competitor attempting to deface an honest company.
Do you know what people are saying about your company online?
I have already read about people creating fake accounts on Twitter and Facebook to steal companies name in an attempt to sell ebooks and other spam related products. It the day in age where anybody can see your friends and followers online you have to be vigilant on what people are saying about you online.
A negative comment online unchecked is perception left to chance
All companies need to have a strategy to handle what people are saying about your business online. Depending on the amount of content being published will determine the expense and planning that it will take. To start type in your business’s name and include the term fraud and then do it again and switch the term fraud with scam into Google and see what comes up. Then you also want to just type your business into Google and see the results. The amount of negative information that you find will determine your vulnerability to Internet negative feedback.
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Twitter Promotion Beats Michael Jackson #moonfruit
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Companies are becoming more clever on creating publicity using Twitter. It started with SquareSpace a blogging software company offered one free iPhone a day for 30 days for people to retweet them and has been taken to a new level by Moonfruit. Moonfruit is giving away 10 Macbook Pro’s over the next 10 days. They state they will deliver them to your doorstep as SquareSpace send gift cards instead of real iPhones.
Retweet this post and you will be eligible for free Macbook Pro computer
To win you have to use the hashtag: #moonfruit in one of your Twitter posts. Moonfruit is picking one winner per day with winners being announced at @moontweet.
What is amazing is the promotion is working and beating Michael Jackson, Iran, and everything else on Twitter today. I think we are going to see more of these as giving away free stuff seems to really work on Twitter. The question will be will this popularity today translate in increase sales, that has yet to be determined.
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3 Biggest Myths About Websites and Internet Marketing
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...You have heard of vast fortunes being made online and you want to get into the ball game. You may already have a business and want to market your products and services on the web, or you want to start a new web based company because you believe that using the Internet is the route to fast cash.
Yes, I too have read about the people who started Google, Yahoo, Youtube, and more which have turned their great ideas into real fortunes. Did you know that 95% of all people attempting to make money online are not profitable. Even large sites like MySpace are having a serious time of finding a way to generate revenue from their millions of visitors.
Everyone thinks Twitter is an over night sensation. Twitter was started in 2001, and it has taken 8 years for Twitter to explode into the mainstream.
The purpose of this post is not doom and gloom, but to misspell certain myths, lies, and misconceptions of owning a web based business and Internet marketing. When you are armed with the right expectations and mind set before starting off on your online journey, you will greatly increase your chance of success. I believe that most good ideas fail before the website was ever created from unreal expectations. Once the new websites results don’t match up to the instant riches, what was a good idea gets abandoned.
3 Biggest Myths About Websites and Internet Marketing
- Gurus: it seems everyone is a “guru” of some kind online now days. Be careful before spending money with websites that may have really cool names. You want to get past the flash of the name and look at the real credibility. Does the “guru” offer real case studies of his/ her work? Do you know exactly what you are buying before you hand over your credit card? Guru websites use hype to feed your compulsion to act now to get your results.
- Fast Fortune: people see the meteoric rise of websites like Twitter and think that success happens over night with websites. Did you know Twitter has been around since 2001? The “if I build it, they will come” mentality. The reality is that Internet marketing is about a consistent approach on a daily basis to increase online visibility. Google has features in its algorithm called the “Google Sandbox” that keeps new websites from ranking for competitive keywords.
- Sit back and watch the money: lets face it every business needs support if they are going to be successful online. Your role is to be an expert in your genre of products and services not in search engine optimization. The #1 trap businesses fall into is finding the “all in one” programs. The programs claim for just a nominal fee you will get all the traffic and sales you want. All you have to do is pay and sit back and do nothing. These programs make money for themselves because they feed this idea that Internet marketing doesn’t take work. Most websites are abandoned because business owners don’t understand how much work it takes to be successful online.
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Constant Contact is the Email Marketing Service Used by Authority SEO
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...I believe the best review of a product or service comes from people who actually use the products or services. I hear on the radio all the time people talking about products that you know they don’t use just because they sponsor the show. For the record I use Constant Contact
for my email marketing campaigns. You can see this in the right navigation where you can sign up for me free SEO newsletter. In full disclosure, I also earn commission if you click one of the Constant Contact links, and we at Authority SEO would appreciate it if you like the SEO and Internet Marketing strategies that I provide that you use one of the links to sign up.
Authority SEO picked Constant Contact because they are one of the best email marketing services that works with small businesses as they grow
Why do you need an email marketing service? The answer is two fold. First, if you are going to send out thousands of emails at once the only way to get them into people’s inbox and not their spam folders is with a good email campaign service. The second is email marketing services allow you to send professional emails that have greater click through rates and conversion percentages.
Why Authority SEO uses Constant Contact
- Ease of setting up on website
- Professional newsletter formats
- Email campaigns get into inbox
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You many be wondering what websites get the most traffic on the web? Your first guess is probably Google and you are right. The Internet is a very vast place so there is still room for your website to get traffic. The top ranking websites are search engines which is no surprise. What is important to understand about that is the #1 websites people use are services to find a local business or ecommerce store like yours.
Photobucket receives more traffic than Twitter. Do you have a Internet marketing plan that involves photos? If not you should.
You can learn great insight into what people find important and how to create your SEO strategy by looking at the sites people visit to most. First as Google is #1, ranking is Google’s organic search is the top priority for your website’s success. You probably already knew that though here are a few other observations you may not have. Youtube is #5 and Photobucket is #23 which means that having a search engine optimization strategy for using videos and photos can allow you to get a leg up on the competition. Twitter may be all in the news right now though Youtube and Photobucket still receive more traffic.
The rankings were gathered by Ranking.com
Top 25 Websites on the Web
- google.com
- yahoo.com
- msn.com
- live.com
- youtube.com
- aol.com
- myspace.com
- facebook.com
- google.co.uk
- microsoft.com
- ebay.com
- ask.com
- wikipedia.org
- go.com
- google.ca
- blogspot.com
- casalemedia.com
- findstuff.com
- starware.com
- att.net
- cnn.com
- mywebsearch.com
- photobucket.com
- netzero.net
- amazon.com
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12 Steps Your Ecommerce Website Needs to Process Credit Cards
Monday, June 29, 2009
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Once you start the process of getting a merchant account so your business has the ability to charge credit cards you will hear the term PCI Compliance. PCI stands for Payment Card Industry which has its own set of rules for ecommerce website to have the ability to charge credit cards.
Unfortunately, the Payment Card Industry holds all the power and your website will comply with their standards or you won’t be able to charge credit cards on your online store.
The following are the twelve steps you need to do with your website to make sure that you comply with all regulations. By already getting this list down can save you time and headaches instead of having the merchant credit card processing company tell you that you need them.
12 Steps to be PCI Compliant and Process Credit Cards
- Firewall: you will need a firewall in place that protects cardholder data
- Passwords: all passwords must be changed to unique phrases and no default software passwords
- Stored info: where you store the card holder data most be protected from hackers
- Encryption: you will need a SSL certificate which encrypts the data being processed
- Anti-Virus: you will need to have and keep updated anti-virus software
- Secure system: your entire system needs to maintained and updated
- Restrict access: you will have to cardholder data visible to restricted access
- Physical access: there can be no physical access to credit card holder’s information
- ID: each order and customer needs to have an unique identifying number
- Monitor: your network needs to be monitored to who has accessed the card holder’s information
- Testing: you most have a protocol in place that regularly tests security systems
- Policy: your policy on how you utilize card holder information has to be visible on your website. Usually placed in footer.
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Google One Way Links - 2 Min SEO by Authority SEO
Monday, June 29, 2009
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If you have typed in your industry into the Google or Yahoo search engine, you have seen the Local Search results for your competitors. Having you company listed in local search is essential to receiving the future customers who are looking for your direct business. If you don’t have your company listed, people will just find your competitors.
Local search results show above organic listings in Google’s search engine for GEO targeted searches of local businesses
As the following is a list of tips for increasing your ability to show up in the top local search results, we will not cover any more spam techniques that I feel will eventually get you caught and your company’s listing removed. I highly don’t recommend using fake phone numbers or addresses to cheat the system.
5 Tips to Increase Exposure of Local Search
- Links: as with all SEO one way inbound links still rule as it comes to the importance of your website. Google knows how many links are pointing to your domain and will use this to rank those company’s listings that have more powerful sites.
- City Keywords: if there is one city that you want to show up for then add those into your title of your company (example “Phoenix Authority SEO). Be careful with this as you don’t want to look spammy and it can hurt your ability to show in other suburbs where people could be searching for your products or services
- Reviews: Local search offers reviews of your business. Send a link to customers or business partners who can give you a favorable third party review. The number of reviews is important as well. A company with 4 starts and 100 reviews looks better than a company with 5 stars and 3 reviews.
- Location: as best as possible get your business address as close to downtown as possible. If you notice the local search results that rank the highest have geo centric location to downtown. You can get a PO box downtown to use as your business address.
- Categories: take the time to get into the right categories. Local search works like the Yellow Pages so it is vital you are in the right category for your business.
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Transformers Search Engine Optimization - More Than Meets the Eye
Sunday, June 28, 2009
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...In the Transformer movies the term is used “more than meets the eye.” The phrase may be used to describe how the Transformers turn from cars into fighting robots though you could use this to describe some of the most basic aspects of search engine optimization (SEO). When people think about SEO transforming the basics can achieve big dividends as it relates to search engine rankings.
Like Transformers their are parts of your website that are “More Than Meets the Eye”
Transformer #1
Titles: Titles are as basic as it gets on your website. Every page on your website has a title. I believe titles are the #1 aspect of your website done poorly for SEO than any other. If you want to rank for a competitive keyword, the keyword phrase has to be in the title.
- Many websites have the same title as their homepage spread throughout every page. This tells Google and other search engines that every page has the same info. Every page on your website needs to have a unique keyword driven title.
- The second way to transform your titles is by adding other keyword adjectives to your keyword phrase you want to rank for. Seventy percent of all searches are unique and this will greatly support you in ranking for many of the different ways future customers are searching for your business.
Transformer #2
Meta Tags: Meta tags are the description of every page that you tell the search engines and is the brief description online searchers will read under your website in organic rankings. You want the meta description to describe your title and you have 160 characters to do so. More than 160 won’t be picked and can look spammy.
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If you are looking to find new ways for your website to generate revenue than affiliate marketing may be your best choice. Affiliate marketing is the presence of ads or links place on your website though different than Adsense is that you get paid not when a person clicks; when a person converts to a sale on the website. You may be thinking that this would pay on less because it will obvious take more clicks to get a sale though with good commission structures you can make more money on getting the right advertisements for your website than the cents you get from Adsense.
Affiliate marketing is a win/ win for both merchants and publishers
In affiliate marketing a merchant is the company or website than has an Online store or service than they want to market. They create an account with an affiliate ad agency which allows publishers to find them and join their campaign. Publishers are websites who are going to place a merchant’s ads on their site to earn commission. Why this a win/ win for both is that merchants only pay when it works. No more click fraud, when a person converts to a sale you pay a commission. Instead of having physical sales people you have virtual sales people. For publishers you can earn more income than you can with PPC campaigns. To generate consistent income you do need to make sure your ads you are running match with your website.
Top Ten Affiliate Networks
The affiliate network websites listed below are ranked by total traffic. This is not a ranking of how effective or how easy it is to use the networks. One thing to keep in mind though is if these are ones people are visiting the most than there is a good bet they work exceptionally well. I have personal experience with Commission Junction and Shareasale. I have found both work well.
If you are a new merchant when I recommend Shareasale as a good starting point. Shareasale has one of the lower upfront costs to creating a merchant program and they have good customer service which I have personally used.
- Clickbooth.com
- OurFreeStuff.net
- Copeac.com
- XY7.com
- RevenueLoop.com
- CJ.com (Commission Junction)
- ClickBank.com
- FriendFinder.com
- ShareaSale.com
- Zanox.com
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Local Small Business SEO - 3 Reasons Why You Need To
Friday, June 26, 2009
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Whether you are a small business locally found in Phoenix, Arizona, Denver, CO, or Las Vegas, NV Internet marketing through search engine optimization (SEO) has the ability to deliver a wealth of new customers. Local small businesses are the last group joining the party as it relates to Online marketing. It was obvious from the start that large national or global companies would benefit from SEO consulting though there was a question if local doctor offices, lawyers, dry cleaners, dentists, and more would achieve the same rewards.
Google now uses GEO Targeting which determines the Online searcher’s physical location through their IP address
There are three reasons why local businesses can be successful with SEO and Internet marketing. They are GEO targeting, local search, and search engines are the new Yellow Pages.
3 Reason Why Local Small Business SEO
GEO targeting is the term associated with using your IP address to determine what city and state you are in. Your IP address doesn’t show your exact location unless you are hosting your own servers. It shows where your local host server is located. My IP address shows that I am located in downtown Phoenix, AZ while I am actually located in one of suburbs.
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