1. Make how-to videos … don’t try to be funny

If you have to try to think of something funny, it just won’t work! The most valuable thing that many companies can offer consumers is their know-how. How-to videos are easy to make and have plenty of specialisation potential, while often still fitting with corporate aims and personality.

2. Follow formatting best practices
That is:

• Keep your video to 5 or 6 minutes
• Tag it with plenty of related keywords
• Structure your video with subsections to facilitate viewer learning
• Enable comments to generate discussion and get you some feedback

3. Call them to action

In a how-to video used for internet marketing, your call to action would probably be something like “If you would like to learn more about XYZ, here at XYZ Corp we’re always available to help. Call us on 123 XYZ”.

Avatars are good because…

Some customers are auditory learners – Highly visual information just doesn’t suit some brains.

They can help you do complicated things – People learn best from other people, not necessarily from reading something, and avatars provide some of that interaction.

Avatars are evil because…

They’re creepy! – If you must have an avatar, I recommend having an ordinary video shot of yourself, rather than an animated avatar. Especially one with an electronic voice.

People don’t always have or like sites with sound­ – I’ll vouch for the truth of this – I’m one of them. I can skim read much faster than the time it takes for someone to have a casual conversation with me.

Bottom line? If you have a site where people might need to be walked through complex tasks, or if the avatar is opt-in rather than opt-out (by exiting the site!), then go for it.

Don’t have an internal site search bar? Why, if Jakob Nielsen saw you in the street he’d rap you across the knuckles, young whippersnapper! Seriously though, an internal search bar is vitally important to the success of most sites. Your web marketing effort and SEO will bring visitors, but if they can’t find what they want, it will all be for naught.  Here’s why a search bar should be your next website investment.

Because it’s actually pretty easy!

Ask your SEO firm for help if you aren’t sure how to get a ‘Powered by Google’ search bar, at the minimum. It’s easy!

Because if they can’t find what they want, they’ll leave

There are thousands of sites on the net, and quite a few selling the same thing as you. If you make life hard for your customers, they’ll go to a site that doesn’t.

Because it gets you lots of sweet, sweet data!

Want to know what language your customers use? What they really want when they come to your site? The data from a search bar tells you much more explicitly than any other analytics tool.

Because your customers are ‘the searching type’

If your customers found you through SEO and search, they’ll certainly appreciate the same convenience within your site.

What’s Google Suggest?

Unless you have managed to switch the feature off without even knowing what it is, you’ll see Google suggest almost any time you type in a search term in the Google box. For example, when you type in ‘Am I on…’ to Google, a drop down list comes up showing you options like ‘Am I on the no fly list’, ‘Am I on the terrorist watchlist’, Ám I on Santa’s good list’, etc. These are high volume search terms.

How to use Google Suggest for keyword research

There are three main ways:

• Use the terms there as inspiration when you are creating more targeted content pages or thinking of blogging topics
• Include the terms in your heading tags and page titles
• Include the terms in your page copy

Choose results from near the top of the list – these have a higher search volume. Of course, you will be kicking your own web marketing in the shins if you choose terms that aren’t relevant to your business … remember your golden rules!

There are other tools (and indeed, other Google tools) that do exactly the same thing. However, Google Suggest is quick, easy, and simple. A great starting point – but not necessarily the web marketing guru’s top tool .

Research shows that approximately 213 million searches are made on the most popular search engines every single day. This means that if your web page lands on the first page search engine results, your website will have more visitors. This cannot happen if the pages of your website are not properly optimized. No matter how brilliant your website is, the search spiders could still find it completely unnoticeable.

Specific problems call for specific solutions so if you are having problems with internet marketing, make sure that you consult with the right people.

Web marketing firms have employees who are knowledgeable enough to take care of your online marketing and advertising needs. Even if you hire an expert on this field, if this person does not understand how search engines work, you will never get your money’s worth. Doing SEO requires a full website analysis and only those who are knowledgeable enough can do the job. This is to make sure that every page of your website is indexed by all search engines.

There already are a lot of do-it-yourself articles for web marketing out there but you cannot learn all of these and do the job on your own when you have a business to run and employees to attend to. Web traffic, conversion rates, and business sales would only increase if hours of research and testing have already been spent.

Presently, there already are over 25 billion web pages all over the web and this number is practically increasing. Just imagine how your website can get lost amidst the sea of all the other sites just because you did not optimize it for search engines sooner.

If you wish to get the wheels of your web marketing endeavors going, never hesitate to consult with experts. It doesn’t hurt to seek professional help. Try searching the web. The results might just lead you to an online marketing firm that can provide you with excellent service at reasonable rates.

Blogs are very advantageous to use in the initial and even in the later stages of business operation. If you would notice, there are already plenty of sites that employ blogging as their most powerful means of launching and accomplishing an effective internet marketing campaign for their business. In low financial situations, blogging is a cost-effective toos that need neither external support nor costly maintenance in order to work. All that is required is a clear purpose, an undying flow of thought and a target audience.

There is nothing completely unique about blogs. They are as good as any other write up found in the Internet. What makes them more preferable to use is the fact that they are easily made. Compared to the standard HTML page, thoughts on blogs are less complicated and less laborious to produce. Forget about dealing with technicalities when it comes to writing blogs. In addition to that, there is no need for special skills either (well, except maybe to write). It is convenient and simple to maintain. You can add or change content any time you like. So, what does this imply then?

High page ranking! Search engines have a strong desire for unique, regularly updated content. This is what they look for in a site and this is what they favor most. With blogs, people can effortlessly upgrade the value of their site without getting entangled with codes and complex technological jibber-jabber. All they have to do is to write something relevant to their niche, and their site will get optimized. Furthermore, blogs are less difficult to read and are therefore, easily indexed as compared to lengthy articles that are flooded with keywords and subtexts. With blogs, there is a greater chance for the host site to be shown on the search engine result list and be visited by searchers.

Here are some useful tips you can put into your mind to make your blogging experience great:

(a) Blogging is a private activity. It is an act of expressing yourself through words. However, the trend shifted from making it a private into a public act. Blogs are easily spidered by search engines; with right keywords, your blog post is easily seen through search engines. That is why, the usual view on blogs that it is a private space is no longer applicable; the entire world can read your blogs. Although it may be customized in order to prevent search engine spiders from crawling on it and prevent search engine visibility, still there are lots of people who want their blogs to be exposed to the world. Sharing your opinions and thoughts is great and, in a way, satisfying. With blogging, you can be personal. Share your feelings and thoughts; after all, it is your blog.

…continue reading here: Helpful Tips about Blogging Part 2

Although nowadays blogs and articles can be both marketing driven, more often, articles are more effective. In terms of web promotion write up, articles are being read more than blogs. They re-enforce what you are selling by giving your readers the information they want to know. Usually, potential customers do not just search for products or services and immediately purchase them; they are usually searching for information about the products/services they are going to buy. Articles are the best medium for to satisfy the customers in terms of information. In the end, they would likely buy or even refer the product or service to the rest of the people they know.

There is a prevalent perception that an article is carefully written than a blog. Since there are no governing rules for blog writing, one can write without even be aware of misusing a word or committing some grammatical mistakes as long as the message is clearly presented. In article writing, one is bound for the guidelines of quality writing. So, in terms of authority, articles win out blogs.

There are rumors that are already widespread in the internet that directory submission is no longer effective in boosting your site ranking in the search engine listing. Well, those are only rumors because the truth is—directory submission still holds weight as one of the effective web promotion strategies. However, to what directory submission service you would be submitting your site matters.

How to know if the directory submission site is credible? This is simple. Searching sites using relevant keywords such as “directory submission sites” or “web directories” is the first step. The websites listing within top 10 are the ones that offers great service especially if you are searching with the use of Google. It is even worth it to buy links from those sites.

Submitting your site to relevant categories is a must. Of course, search engine robots only gives credits to relevant links pointing to your site. Avoid directories that offers free submission and post your site right away after submitting. They are usually link farms. If your site get listed here, you site is potential for removal from the search engine index.