Blog: search
Blogging your way to keyword bliss
September 15, 2008This post is excerpted from an upcoming issue of Identity Marketing magazine
Once you’ve filled your site with appropriate keywords, there’s still one other place you can build relevant content that will help your site’s search performance: a blog. Blogs (short for web logs) are simple, personal publishing platforms that allow you to post daily updates or information about your business. They’re easy to set up; just go to blogger.com, typepad.com or a host of other providers and you can set up your own company blog for free.
To Flash or Not to Flash
September 8, 2008This post is excerpted from an upcoming issue of Identity Marketing magazine
In a keyword-centric universe, interactive or animated content like Flash can be problematic. We generally don’t recommend that companies who are selling online and competing for keywords build their sites in Flash. Although Adobe recently announced full support for keywords in Flash, it’s unclear how much re-authoring of content is required to make this happen.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use Flash at all. Flash is very effective in an embedded format, when it is simply another element on a page. Many of our customers use Flash banners on their homepages or other areas of their sites to highlight products or specials, or to show a product in a more attractive, animated presentation. Embedding other multimedia content, such as product videos or interactive features, can also be a very effective way to keep audiences engaged. If the content is strong, you shouldn’t worry about the impact on your keywords. Just make sure the rest of the page and the site is built with keyword content in mind.
More Keyword Help
September 3, 2008This post is excerpted from an upcoming issue of Identity Marketing magazine
So, you’ve done the “uniqueness” exercise and you’ve got your site built with appropriate keywords, but you’re still not getting much search traffic. What’s going wrong? Well, beyond the sheer volume of competition that’s likely fighting for those words, you may be simply using ineffective keywords. Sometimes it’s difficult to predict what real users are actually searching for, and it could be that your words – as meaningful as they may be to your business – are not particularly effective for searches.
Thankfully, Google provides a free tool to help you generate keywords. Available at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal, Google’s Keyword Tool can take your basic keywords and show you alternatives, along with their potential search traffic. The tool is built primarily for pay-per-click advertisers looking to generate keyword lists for their advertising campaigns, but it’s also an effective way to see what users are searching for. The Keyword Tool is one of a list of many free tools I’ll discuss in the coming months to assist you in your search engine optimization.
