The latest trend to hit the tech world of connectivity and networking is local search engine optimization. With web technologies for targeting exact geographical locations advancing at a blazing pace, everyone who needs to reach out to its local target audience is jumping on to the bandwagon of local search.
It has now become vital for everyone, from companies large and small to individual entrepreneurs and startups to promote their business in a way that their local audience can find them.
Gone are the days when people used to sift through the pages of the bulky Yellow Pages to located a local business. In today's hi-tech world, people find it much more convenient to browse the Internet-based yellow pages such as yelp, citysearch, infousa, superpages and many more such directory websites.
Especially for businesses that are typically targeting a local audience, the options for local search optimization have a been a like a boon. For instance, medical clinics and hospitals, executive coaching services, local departmental stores, restaurants, schools and training institutes, gymnasiums and beauty spas, garment shops and showrooms and other such businesses attract their maximum audience from the nearby locations.
Besides, people still think twice before buying online. Usually customers like to search for product offerings online but prefer to buy off the shelf at your business location. Even if they don't pay a visit to your business location at least they can have peace of mind that they can whenever they want to. Therefore a large number of companies now make their searches for their products and services location specific.
But what exactly is local search optimization and how can it benefit you?
We have listed a few direct benefits of local search that is helping scores of businesses reach out to their local audiences.
Benefit #1: Higher Page Rankings
Local search optimization is an Internet marketing tool which is used to attract local customers. This type of SEO strategy makes the search more specific and enables your site to achieve higher page ranking in the local searches, thereby diverting the local traffic to your site.
Even search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing are presenting users various options to enhance their search experience. For instance, if you type the keyword 'eye doctor' in search bar, you will find an option at the top of the page asking you to look for location specific 'eye doctor'. In fact the major benefit of local search optimization is that the local search results appear with a map and even rank higher than the top website on the organic search engine result.
Benefit #2: Easy update of local listings
Second major benefit of local search optimization is that you can always update your local listing on the Internet Yellow Pages any time you want. For instance, if you are offering some discounts on your products for a week or unveiling a new range of products or maybe organizing an event to promote your products/services. For any such information that has local news value, you can update your local listing.
Benefit #3: Google map
As an entrepreneur you may be running a small business and need to reach out to the local market. Local Search Engine Optimization enables you to augment your online presence among the local customers with the help of a Google map. By using the Google map, web users can easily locate your office location, office address, street name and other important information.
In order to ensure the success of local search optimization campaign, you need to increase the visibility of your site on the World Wide Web. For this you must approach a reliable Internet marketing services provider which will carry out a professional campaign to generate results.
In the coming years, local search optimization will increase as more and more people will access the net from mobile or conduct location specific search on the net. Therefore it is all the more important to be present on local search results pages and connect with the searchers in your area. In the next blog, we will be discussing how to effectively conduct the local search optimization campaign.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Video Marketing...Powerful Way To Promote Business
A picture speaks a thousand words. Imagine what a video can do. With online videos becoming a widely popular medium of content and information distribution, an increasing number of companies are now using videos for marketing and promoting their businesses, products and services.
Videos grab the attention of your target audience more quickly as they leverage both audio and visual for conveying your message. However making a marketing video is not a child's play. You can find innumerable videos on YouTube, search engines and other video directories. Question is how do you stand out from the crowd?
Here are the tips which can make your marketing video a cut above the rest.
Stick to your topic
Before making your video, find out what is it that you want your video to convey about your product or services. Be crystal clear and stick to your topic. You have a few minutes to convey your message to your audience, so you can't afford to stray from your topic. Don’t confuse visitors with lots of offers and services. Rather focus on one single benefit. The best way to make you video crisp and crystal clear is by writing a tight script and sticking to it.
Keep it short
The shorter the length of the video, the better. For maximum results keep your video up to maximum of 5 minutes long. It doesn't matter whether you are uploading a video on YouTube, your blog or your web site, the length of the video must not exceed 5 minutes. And in case your message can't be conveyed in 5 minutes time, try and break the video into various series where each part/episode can be 4 to 5 minutes long.
Incorporate relevant keywords
Apart from the content, search engines index videos too. Therefore do a thorough research and make a shortlist of the most relevant keywords. And incorporate them in the meta tags, descriptions and headings. Best is to target long tail keywords which will bring you maximum results.
Long tail keywords are more specific and have less competition. For instance, a video titled 'Spanish translations' will not take you to the top search engine ranking. On the other hand, the same video titled 'best English to Spanish translations' will have a better chance of appearing on Top 10 search engine ranking.
Video Closed Captioning
Earlier the only content we could optimize were the titles, descriptions and meta tags in a video. But all that has changed with YouTube closed captioning. YouTube is now so much more SEO friendly. According to the YouTube closed captioning, all the text spoken in the video can be read via the transcript. When you upload a video on YouTube, you can also submit a text file of the transcript which will enable the Google to index the video.
Upload videos on website and blog
In order to generate maximum leads, post a video on your website. For instance, if you have a hotel website, you can upload a captivating video on your reservations or accommodations page which will take your visitors on a tour of your hotel. Similarly uploading an accompanying video on your blog post can grab attention.
Last but not the least, encourage your visitors to leave comments on your video. Remember, the video is basically a social medium and you would like it to reach out to its widest possible target audience. Hence the more comments it attracts, the better. Increase your video exposure as much as possible by uploading on YouTube and many other popular video directories such as Metacafe, Dailymotion, and more. After uploading your video, make sure to write some forum posts or blog that provide links to your video. You can also post a link to your video on Twitter as well. This will facilitate in the viral process.
However make sure to approach only a professional Internet marketing solution provider for your video promotion. Not all companies have the efficiency or capabilities to successfully use the video marketing tool. Therefore do your research and approach a reliable search engine marketing solution provider which has a talented team of web marketers who can search the most relevant keywords for your video and optimize your video for maximum results.
Videos grab the attention of your target audience more quickly as they leverage both audio and visual for conveying your message. However making a marketing video is not a child's play. You can find innumerable videos on YouTube, search engines and other video directories. Question is how do you stand out from the crowd?
Here are the tips which can make your marketing video a cut above the rest.
Stick to your topic
Before making your video, find out what is it that you want your video to convey about your product or services. Be crystal clear and stick to your topic. You have a few minutes to convey your message to your audience, so you can't afford to stray from your topic. Don’t confuse visitors with lots of offers and services. Rather focus on one single benefit. The best way to make you video crisp and crystal clear is by writing a tight script and sticking to it.
Keep it short
The shorter the length of the video, the better. For maximum results keep your video up to maximum of 5 minutes long. It doesn't matter whether you are uploading a video on YouTube, your blog or your web site, the length of the video must not exceed 5 minutes. And in case your message can't be conveyed in 5 minutes time, try and break the video into various series where each part/episode can be 4 to 5 minutes long.
Incorporate relevant keywords
Apart from the content, search engines index videos too. Therefore do a thorough research and make a shortlist of the most relevant keywords. And incorporate them in the meta tags, descriptions and headings. Best is to target long tail keywords which will bring you maximum results.
Long tail keywords are more specific and have less competition. For instance, a video titled 'Spanish translations' will not take you to the top search engine ranking. On the other hand, the same video titled 'best English to Spanish translations' will have a better chance of appearing on Top 10 search engine ranking.
Video Closed Captioning
Earlier the only content we could optimize were the titles, descriptions and meta tags in a video. But all that has changed with YouTube closed captioning. YouTube is now so much more SEO friendly. According to the YouTube closed captioning, all the text spoken in the video can be read via the transcript. When you upload a video on YouTube, you can also submit a text file of the transcript which will enable the Google to index the video.
Upload videos on website and blog
In order to generate maximum leads, post a video on your website. For instance, if you have a hotel website, you can upload a captivating video on your reservations or accommodations page which will take your visitors on a tour of your hotel. Similarly uploading an accompanying video on your blog post can grab attention.
Last but not the least, encourage your visitors to leave comments on your video. Remember, the video is basically a social medium and you would like it to reach out to its widest possible target audience. Hence the more comments it attracts, the better. Increase your video exposure as much as possible by uploading on YouTube and many other popular video directories such as Metacafe, Dailymotion, and more. After uploading your video, make sure to write some forum posts or blog that provide links to your video. You can also post a link to your video on Twitter as well. This will facilitate in the viral process.
However make sure to approach only a professional Internet marketing solution provider for your video promotion. Not all companies have the efficiency or capabilities to successfully use the video marketing tool. Therefore do your research and approach a reliable search engine marketing solution provider which has a talented team of web marketers who can search the most relevant keywords for your video and optimize your video for maximum results.
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