Put your Google Suggest suggestions in here!

1. Are all p …
   Seems that maths, biology, polar bears and pregnancy are some of the web’s top topics!
2. Why do I have …
   Sometimes, you might not want to know. Squeamish-ness warning on this one.
3. Can ju …
   After looking at these search results, I had to go to Wiki. I didn’t even know who the guy was!
4. Is there a he …
   Highly philosophical. I find it amazing that people actually expect Google to answer such questions.
5. Why do emo …
   Nothing about emotions, surprisingly! Seems that pop culture reigns over neuroscience … yet again …
6. Is it cool t …
   Check out the last result here (which is hopefully the same for you as it is for me!). You notice that many of the weirder results in Google Suggest are actually song lyrics
7. Will go …
   Another wonderfully poetic mix of the esoteric and the economical!

Does your web copy inspire trust?

Informational copy versus sales copy

The difference is not always apparent when you are the one behind the keyboard! As a general guide…

Informational copy

• Gives the reader information about a product or service, looking mainly at the features
• Usually doesn’t mention company names
• If a company is mentioned, there is no bias towards them in the copy. May mention several companies at once.

Sales copy

• Looks mainly at the benefits of taking out a product or service with a particular company
• Mentions only one company name
• Tells readers about how to take action towards purchasing a product or service

Benefits of informational copy

There is a heck of a lot of sales copy on the internet … and people really tend to distrust it. Anybody can write anything they like and publish it on the internet – there is little governance and few checks and balances in that regard. So sales copy is taken with an enormous grain of salt.

Having informational website copy makes your site seem much more trustworthy to visitors. You have no interest in giving bad information, because there is no direct financial gain to be had from doing so.

Additionally, people that aren’t ready to purchase will come to your site, building traffic and branding, purely for the information. However, when they’re ready to purchase (a week or year down the track), they’ll remember your site and trust it.

Benefits of sales copy
At some stage, if you’re selling something, you’ll have to tell your prospect about why they should buy from you rather than Joe Blow down the road. If you don’t let your customer know why your company is good, they might assume that it isn’t!

Several studies have shown that people have trouble finding products related to informational copy if there isn’t a direct ‘sell’ … and might then Google to find the very same product on the site they were already on … YOUR site! Thgis is one reason why some sales copy is essential.

There is a compromise between the two. For sales copy to be trusted and effective, it should have plenty of informational, factual backup – like user reviews, testimonials, technical data, etc.

-Nnnn- Flash is bad -nnn- does not compute

What’s the problem?

Before we can start extolling the virtues of Flash, we probably should run through why Nielsen famously said that it was 99% bad. Bear in mind that Nielsen is a web usability expert, and most of his statements are made from that position. His arguments against the use of Flash in websites were:

• The use of Flash in ‘forced’ intros
• The Back button doesn’t work, neither do link colours or the text zoom
• Just because we can animate something, doesn’t mean we should – Flash is distracting
• It is superficial – no concrete value

Another common complaint about Flash is that it hurts SEO efforts, as any text within Flash isn’t indexed by the search engines, and is therefore ‘wasted’ from an SEO perspective.

The Skip Intro button

This is not only available on the majority of sites with Flash intros, it is now also available as a page opening option from Google results. On sites that do force intros, users typically complain so much that they are taken down – forced Flash intros are certainly not regarded as best practice in web design nowadays. Problem solved.

Logistics

Yes, not having a back button, links that change colour when they’ve been visited, or text zoom is bad. But if you don’t make an entire website in Flash (not usually recommended anyway), this won’t be a problem.

Distraction

Yes, Flash is distracting, in the same way that animated banner advertisements are. Just use it for emphasis and attention, and don’t overdo it.

Flash …used on top ranking sites

There are hundreds of high profile, highly trafficked sites on the net that use Flash. They may use it for illustration rather than explanation and have it not as a core part of the site. Or, it may have concrete value -  the Barbie site with Flash games is one that comes to mind.

Flash and SEO

Lastly, without getting into the technical details, it is now actually possible to have Flash that is indexed by the search engines.

There are certainly some valid complaints about Flash … but don’t listen to that big meanie that says it is 99% bad!

Get the people that matter to yoour business through your doors!

1. Join your chamber of commerce

There is one in most cities and suburbs – chambers of commerce are a place for all the shop owners in the area to meet and talk, well, shop. They usually have websites, and if you’re lucky they’ll be affiliaited with the local council, which gives you a .gov link. Great value in general business as well a s link building.

2. Check in with your local business partners

Send out an email, or make a few phone calls, to your local suppliers, agents, and other business partners asking if they would like to exchange links with you. There is a real possibility this will drive both foot traffic through your door, and net traffic through your home page.

3. Launch an affiliate program

Start an affiliate program where people are rewarded for recommending new customers to you. In many cases, they will do this via the internet … talking to people they know on Twitter and Facebook and Myspace. These links may have no Google juice, but the exposure they create could certainly lead to ordinary links.

4. Submit your site to relevant government resources

Government departments often create resource lists of businesses that can help people in an area do something. Take the time to look through your local and state government websites, seeing if your site fits into any of the categories. Write asking for inclusion if it does.

Making your site more attractive!

Today we’re looking at a few easy, very quick, and mostly fun ways to make your site more linkable. We’ll focus on making people want to link to you, not the ordinary (but very necessary) method of spreading your link across the net, all by yourself. They may not all take 5 minutes … but are close enough!

1. Write a ‘Top Ten Myths’ List for your industry

People can’t resist reading about either the misconceptions they had, or the misconceptions other people have. Myths-list often get Dugg, and can even go viral if they are useful, funny or amazing enough. Myths are often one of the major talking points within an industry – people rarely understand your business from outside, so this should be quick and easy!

2. Spellcheck your site

Print out every page of your site and go over it for grammar and spelling errors. If you want to get authority links from .edu and .gov domains, you need to be as slick and professional as possible.

3. Get a standard privacy policy

It doesn’t take much time to download a Privacy Policy form a standard forms site on the internet, or make a quick phone call to your usually company legal service to have one made up. Privacy policies are important for building trust in the site. People are choosy about who they link out to because Google will penalize for linking out to untrustworthy sites – putting a Privacy Policy up helps overcome this.

4. Tag sites related to your on Delicious

There is always the possibility that someone out there will see what fantastic taste you have in websites, follow the trail back to your company site, and link to you.

5. List your site on your local library’s website

Links are like an avalanche – build enough, and they start building themselves. This little SEO trick should be on every business’s list!

Twitter - Addictive

1. Coupon delivery

When it comes to coupons, people only want to know what they’re getting. They don’t need to be convinced of the worth of your product … they just want to know how cheap it is! Twitter’s 140 character limit is perfect for this sort of thing. Post a short description of your offer and a condensed link to your downloadable coupons. Don’t forget to tell people that you’ll be tweeting with discounts via your other web marketing methods.

2. Taking orders

While most Twitter marketing, and indeed most of social media marketing in general, is targeted at big firms, this is one that even the little guys can do. Tell your customers that they can now tweet their order direct to your store – it can be received on a mobile web device or a monitor can be set up near the checkout area. People don’t have to call to make a pickup or delivery request, then.

3. Contests

The best known example of this tactic is Moonfruit, a UK-based web design firm, that gave away Macbook Pros to people that tweeted with the hashtag  #moonfruit. They have done amazingly well out of the contest, though it did cost them the price of 11 Macbook Pros and 10 iPod Touches…

4. Replace email with Twitter

This takes your private work conversations into the public arena … and while many feel uncomfortable about this, it has been quite a sales driver for some companies. Appos shoes pioneered this concept, and it seems that people love the openness.

Video Article Marketing

Video is the new black on the web. Research indicates that people absorb a heap (yes, that’s a scientific statistic! ) more information from video than they do from either audio or simple text. Almost half of the searches performed on Google return videos within the first ten results. It costs more money to make than written content and takes more time … but unfortunately, that’s why people love it! Video won’t be moving off the top of the content heap in 2010.

Better URLs

What makes one URL better than another URL? Here are a few guidelines:

• Less is almost always better
• Words are better than numbers (Ie, your pages should be named www.ladeedah.com/blog/new-products-launched.html, rather than www.ladeedah.com/blog/1234567890.html )
• Try to avoid strings of auto-generated stuff in your URLs. Anything with an equals sign, ampersand or the characters ‘csid’ (Session ID) is on the ‘boo!’ list.

There are plenty of URL shortening services, but people don’t instinctively trust them (unless they are on Twitter). It is much better to use your own URL, for both SEO and branding purposes.

Speed

Google feels the need for speed … and indications are that if they haven’t already incorporated page load speed into their algorithm, it is on the cards soon.

The various internet marketing strategies has greatly improved in the past few years. This paved the way for business establishments to access the internet and take the business to different levels. How then are you going to consider a good marketing solution? Here are some tips on how to get the right internet marketing solution that can cater to the demands and challenges of your online business.

First, a good marketing solution focuses on attracting more quality traffic. In order to generate income, your online business must generate a desirable amount of visitors that can be converted into sales.

Second, like SEO, it helps your website improve its page ranking in the major search engines. The higher your page rank, the greater possibility of increasing your online visitors. Also, high page ranking ensures your site with targeted group visitors rather than the usual random users.

And lastly, it must create means on how to neutralize online competition. In order for your online business to survive with other various tough competitors, you have to make the necessary adjustments in terms of services or fees. There is a need for you to know how other businesses in your field are doing in the competition before coming up with a desirable marketing campaign.

Some of the popular internet marketing solutions are search engine submissions, affiliate marketing, link building, competitor analysis, and the email marketing. These techniques can help you achieve your desired online visibility and increase profits in the long run. But like any other methods, it also takes time before things run smoothly.

In developing the right marketing strategies for your online business, make sure that every area in your venture is taken into consideration. Building successful online business is not just about the web design. It is getting the right online marketing solution.

For more information about effective web marketing solutions, visit www.webmarketingexperts.com.au.

There have been constant developments of new media tools wherein you can market your products and services for free. All you have to do is put your creative mind to work. In order to reach your desired audience and turn them to potential buying customers in the long run, you need to think of effective marketing techniques. The web market industry holds the toughest competition among the internet marketers and that you have to be smart to achieve your business’ bottom line.

One way to outsmart your competitors in web marketing is through social networking. More and more people are into the craze of Facebook, MySpace, and a whole lot more, giving you the opportunity to reach as much audience as possible. In order to make this social network site accounts work for your online business promotion, you must create an appropriate company profile. And as much as possible, participate in the regular interaction to create an impression and make people become interested with your business.

Another way is through podcasting. This technique is considered as the cheapest and easiest way of marketing your products or services. A microphone with free software for sound editing, an effective marketing tool is on the rise. Podcasts are easily downloaded to personal computers and cell phones making it easier for you to reach potential customers.

A good web design can be considered as an effective tool in achieving the desired profit maximization goals. However, it is not sufficient. Try to incorporate video marketing in your website. This technique is said to be the newest trend in online advertising. As the advent of the internet has provided most people the fast access to almost anything, viewing videos can then work better as compared to plainly reading bits of information. Expert SEO believes in the power of site content but there are those who really lack the enthusiasm in reading. Being effective in online marketing means reaching various types of customers and that is why you need to be creative at times. Do not allow your competitors get your potential customer.

In order to learn more about social media and online marketing, contact www.webmarketingexperts.com.au.

The increasing number of websites flocking in the web market to promote their business has created challenges especially with the competitive approaches of online business advertising. But with the aid of an experienced SEO, a more convenient means of getting high returns can be  applied to your website.

Search engine optimization can take your business way ahead from your online competitors since it provides sustainable strategies along the way. By increasing the quality traffic of your website, high search engine rankings and better online exposure is guaranteed. The techniques applied in internet marketing are aimed towards profit maximization. The higher number of visitors your website gets the higher potential for product sales.

There are no fixed marketing techniques since the application of such entirely depends on the kind of venture as well as your targeted audience. Also, the search engine algorithms are constantly changing and in order to cope with it, the necessary revisions or editing for the marketing steps would be appropriate. The whole process is not just a one time effort and that is why constant monitoring of your website as well as with the engine trends is needed.

Keyword density is also an essential element in the optimization process. Potential keywords must be properly placed in your web pages in order to generate higher yields. In doing such, make sure that it is not just about getting the desired ROI but also giving valuable information to the viewing public who access the internet. Once people find what they are looking for, then they will come back for more.

The online visibility is one important thing to consider once you have created your website. Whether the site is information-based or product-based, letting the people know about your website’s existence is necessary.

For more ideas on how to get more profit from your site through high visibility, visit www.webmarketingexperts.com.au.