Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The keyword analysis and SEO process

Keyword research is an essential SEO operation. Keywords are refers to how people searches for website on the internet and how well you fare on the keywords with searchengines.
A lot of potential leads will be missed out if you are not optimizing the exact keywords on what your targeted market is really searching for.
The worst SEO error is not targeting the right keywords or completely skipping the  process when starting a website.
Here are the list of steps that may guide you on your keyword research process.
At the beginning
Prepare a few keywords in relation to the site that you are doing keywords research on
Do check that the corrent keywords are being used for the website.For example, when optimizing a site that is related to photographer blog some keywords can be used are photography, photo 
Keywords research tools
Some good tools for keywords research are Google Adwords and Wordtracker. Try always to get keywords that are less competitive and highly targetted
Using Long tail keywords
Long tail keyword consist of a number of combination or permutation of words that user searches for. Take an example ,If you are targeting a website which rents out real estate property. Always go for keyword like "flat for rent" that has less competition than "real estate for rent". Results also shows that users that search for broad keywords searches usually has higher intention on the search and so the leads may yield higher conversion.
Targetting areas and geography location
Using the geographic location of targeted market do help to narrow down the kewords competitors. For an example  there is a big gap if you are aiming for keywords say in comparison of "real estate for rent" and "Texas  "realestate for rent". It it alwas better to specify and narrow down your keywords to your particular geographical area.
Competitor check
Likewise it is worth while to the check the competition of the keyword that you are targeting. Usually it is much harder to get good rankings for highly popular keywords. Do some Msn search on the exact keywords that you are targeting on the search engine.Do have a look at the top 10 results website to check roughly how good these competitors are. Usually by check at the google page rank of these competitors, you can assume how well they are establish for that particular keywords. It is gonna be be long of uphill battle to compete with highly established competitors.
If you are interested to be successful in search engine optimization , it is essential to spend the time and effort  to  ample keywords research for the optimization website. A lot of effort will be in vain after you  that you have been targeting tough keyword earlier stage of search engine optimization.

There are more SEO strategies than you know. Discover the secrets to improve search engine rankings and get better search engine placements on your webite today.

Friday, January 14, 2011

How to Crowdsource Videos for Your Business [Marketing Cast]

HubSpot makes closed-loop internet marketing software that integrates your sales and marketing activities. It's simple really.
Get found.Convert visitors into leads.Close those leads efficiently.

12 Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid [New Report]

dirty dozen email report

While I was working at MarketingSherpa, we published MarketingSherpa’s Dirty Dozen: Email Newsletter Mistakes Nearly Everyone Makes as a lead generation offer for the 2008 Email Marketing Summit.  At the time, I thought that this was a valuable document that could help companies recognize and change their less than stellar email habits. Three years have passed, and I’m inclined to believe that the email mistakes that were most common then are still rampant today.

We all make mistakes, and my recent blog posts on the topic of email marketing challenges, objectives and tactics have generated comments from our readers highlighting perceived errors by HubSpot's marketing efforts, primarily the perception of too frequent emails. 

Here are the "Dirty Dozen" and my brief commentary on each with their current relevance to your email marketing efforts.

Mistake #1: Blatant Lack of Permission - Companies still try to get around the permission issues in search for the quick buck. That’s a big mistake.

Mistake #2: Utterly Deficient Segmentation - Content relevancy is the number one issue for the email marketer. Without segmentation, you have no real relevancy.

Mistake #3: Lame ‘Welcome’ Messages - We still receive far too many lame welcome messages. What a wasted marketing opportunity.

Mistake #4: Frequency Decisions Made for the Wrong Reason - Marketers are in a constant battle on the matter of frequency.

Mistake #5: Institution-to-One Messaging - The debate on how to personalize company emails is ongoing. It’s all about testing.

Mistake #6: No Real Interactivity - Interactivity is not only for social media. Email was once the relationship building medium, and it still can be.

Mistake #7: Deliverability: Content, Formatting & Lack of Self-Advocacy - If anything, deliverability is even a bigger issue than it was a few years ago.

Mistake #8: Designing Images That Appear as Red Xs - Getting HTML images to appear for those who have images turned off still requires that they turn the images on. It’s the text vs. HTML debate.

Mistake #9: Disregarding Your BlackBerry and Mobile Readers - The number of mobile readers has exploded since 2008. Thank you iPhone and Android.  It’s more important than ever to make your email mobile reader friendly.

Mistake #10: Repeating Ad Types - Banner blindness in email newsletters is more prevalent than ever.

Mistake #11: Collecting Bad Response Rates - You need good analysis to determine the effectiveness of your email. That’s always been the case.

Mistake #12: Relying on Email Only - This last mistake of relying on email only was written during the dawn of the social media revolution. It’s the only one that feels a bit dated, but it’s still worth noting that relying on just one tactic alone is never a good plan.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the Dirty Dozen: Email Newsletter Mistakes Nearly Everyone Makes, you can download a free copy. We’ve updated portions of it with data from MarketingSherpa's 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark Report. What we’ve kept is the wisdom.

Free Ebook: Email Newsletter Mistakes Nearly Everyone Makes

View the original article here

Foursquare Launches Business Pages for Small Businesses and Brands

Today, location-based social network Foursquare launched business pages for brick-and-mortar small businesses as well as for large brands who may not have a store-front but want to engage Foursquare's userbase. This launch is a big step forward for Foursquare, which previously had little in place to help businesses market to users of its platform.
Let's take a quick look at what is available to small business owners and larger brands.

For a business that has a physical location, Foursquare has opened up new marketing opportunities on its platform and compiled a three-step quick-start guide. Venue owners should first claim a business location, then create a special for users who check in, and finally analyze data from their Foursquare campaigns to generate maximum foot traffic. A Foursquare special is traditionally some type of discount at a specific location. For example, a retail store may offer a 10 percent discount on one item if a person checks into their location on Foursquare.  The idea behind specials on Foursquare is to create an other that makes people want to check-in, so that your business will be exposed to that person's Foursquare friends.

In addition to allowing businesses with retail locations to run campaigns, Foursquare is also providing eduction on their platform to business as seen in the image above. However, the analytics provided to venue owners might be the most interesting piece of the entire offering. Among some of the data provided you can find total daily check-ins over time, repeat and unique customers and time of day of check-ins.
The bottom line is that if you are a venue owner, you should at least claim your venue, and consider offering a special.

From the early days of its service Foursquare worked with major brands that did not have a physical location to create customer badges and other campaigns. Today, brands have specific opportunities to leverage the Foursquare community for marketing. Foursquare is going to continue to do what they call Partner Badges, a paid sponsorship that results in a custom badge related to a brand that Foursquare members can unlock after checking-in at specific location.
Additionally, with this launch, Foursquare is allowing businesses without retail locations to create a page on Foursquare. The page contains the business logo, tips that the business as left at Foursquare venues, the option to follow that business on Foursquare. The page also includes links to that businesses profile on other social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Unfortunately, Foursquare has not yet launched a web-based tool for creating your page, so currently businesses must complete a form and submit it to Foursquare. On its website, Foursquare notes that it could take as long as 2 weeks for a page to be completed, once a form is submitted.
Location-based social networks are still developing, but have gained a critical mass in some markets. Examine the Foursquare community in the geography of your target market and determine if your business should leverage one of Foursquare's new features for businesses. However, if your are a retail business, you should claim your venue now to protect your brand, even if you are not planning on using Foursquare for marketing at this time.

A Marketer's Guide to APIs

HubSpot makes closed-loop internet marketing software that integrates your sales and marketing activities. It's simple really.
Get found.Convert visitors into leads.Close those leads efficiently.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

13 Business Blogging Mistakes and Their Easy Fixes [Ebook]

HubSpot makes closed-loop internet marketing software that integrates your sales and marketing activities. It's simple really.
Get found.Convert visitors into leads.Close those leads efficiently.