Worth a Look

• Most search engine marketing strategies include SEO and Pay-per-click components. While SEO and PPC are unique disciplines, smart web marketers know there is a valuable connection between the two. This week Search Engine Watch explores ways to integrate your PPC and SEO strategies for improved information and effectiveness.
• Mobile search is growing rapidly, but will its revenues ever exceed desktop search revenues? While mobile usage continues to grow, traditional search engine marketing strategies do not take advantage of how mobile search is used. This article from the NY Times examines what it will take for mobile to be as big as desktop search for Google
  

  Will mobile search revenues continue to rise?

  Trending Searches

  Find out the search terms that have been trending on Google during the past 30 days. Data was gathered using Google’s Insights for Search tool.

  With the hype surrounding its announcement and release, the iPhone 4s topped the search traffic charts for the past month. Seasonal searches for October were also very popular, as many turn to Google for the perfect costume.

  1. 1. iphone 4s (Breakout)
  2. 2. troy davis (+3,700%)
  3. 3. amanda knox (+2,450%)
  4. 4. steve jobs (+600%)
  5. 5. mayweather (+350%)
  6. 6. halloween (+180%)
  7. 7. halloween costumes (+180%)
  8. 8. iphone 5 (+100%)
  9. 9. kindle (+90%)
  10. 10. party city (+80%)

  TNI Partner Spotlight

  • We love when our partners get recognized for excellent work! Last week the annual publication Best Lawyers named “Lawyers of the Year” in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. Two of our law clients achieved this distinction. See the Sandberg, Phoenix, & von Gontard Lawyers of the Year and The Stolar Partnership LLP Lawyers of the Year.
  • Major congratulations to nonprofit partner Concerns of Police Survivors. This year, $244,000 was raised during the annual C.O.P.S. WALK!
  • Susanne Evens of translation partner AAA Translation was recently profiled in “The American Dream”, a blog that highlights German individuals finding success in the United States.

  Stay up to date on industry news and commentary, TNI happenings, and events with web experts. Sign up for The Impact Update today!

Thank you to those who joined The Net Impact and Reel Impact for “Watch This”: Video Marketing That Search Engines Love. Adam Crosley and Steve Thomas presented some great video creating and video posting tips and we just couldn’t wait to share what we learned!

Key Takeaways from “Watch This”: Video Marketing That Search Engines Love

1. Video is an art form but it helps to think of it as a communication tool. Create with the end result in mind. What action, understanding or feeling do you want to communicate to the audience?

2. ONE good, clearly written communication objective is a great blueprint for a marketing video. Do not overwhelm your audience by trying to communicate too many things with one video.

3. There is no “magic, right length” for a video; the shorter the better. 44% of audiences abandon a video within the first 60 seconds  (Adam Crosley, Reel Impact).

4. Even with just a few views, a video can rank high on search engines when optimized properly.

5. Don’t just produce video; pass it around, search for it and use it to connect with your customers and potential customers via social media. Video is a great trust agent if created and shared properly, so be creative!!

We hope you join The Net Impact team for our next monthly seminar at the end of June. More details to come. Stay posted!

Watch the Reel Impact Video Demo to learn more and if you’re interested in attending this FREE event, Sign up on The Net Impact website!  See you there!

At The Net Impact, we conducted a short study pitting the SEO efforts of our local St. Louis non-profits against national powerhouse non-profits.  In other words, we graded their websites using HubSpot’s Website Grader tool. 

HOW WE DID IT

Through a Google search, we selected 10 recognizable St. Louis based non-profits for our St. Louis SEO sample.  Then we selected the top ten non-profits from a 2005 Forbes list of the Top 200 national charities (we verified that all 20 organizations in our sample still exist and have websites).

Using HubSpot’s Website Grader tool, we analyzed all 20 non-profit URLs.  Then we averaged all the statistics to compare St. Louis SEO to national SEO.  Here are the results:

WHAT WE MEASURED

Average Website Grade.  This is a HubSpot scale from 0 to 100 (100 being the best).  Hundreds of thousands of websites make the top 5% (scoring 95-100). An average score of 77.1 means there is a huge opportunity for St. Louis non-profits to improve their overall SEO efforts.

Average Indexed Pages.  This metric is the average number of pages that Google indexes from each website.  Google indexed as many 37,000 pages for the top indexing St. Louis non-profit in our sample and as low as 58 pages for the lowest indexing St. Louis non-profit in our sample.  Interestingly enough Google indexed only 32,000 pages for the top indexing national non-profit.  And the average page index of 5,742.2 pages nationally versus 4,552.1 pages here in St. Louis, is fairly comparable. 

Average Linking Domains.  Perhaps the largest gap in performance is the number of inbound links to St. Louis non-profit websites versus the average number of inbound links to national non-profit websites.  St. Louis SEO fell short with an average of 1,063 inbound links compared to the national average of 15,256.2 inbound links.

Best Traffic Rank.  Traffic rank is a statistic that defines a website’s overall rank in terms of site visitors compared to all indexed websites.  The top ranked website of our entire 20 website sample hailed from St. Louis as the 1,422^nd most visited website (which is actually pretty darn good).  The top national traffic rank was 8,547 (hint: it was the Red Cross). 

% Sites With Blogs.  Only 4 websites in our sample contained blogs that Google recognizes.  One non-profit in our St. Louis SEO sample had a recognized blog.  Three national non-profits hosted a recognized blog.  So on this metric, everybody gets a big fat…Eh….

MozRank.  Yet another linking measure.  The Moz Rank weights inbound links not only by quantity but by the popularity of the referring website.  For example, one referred link from CNN.com might be worth as much as many referred links from a small blog. 

Overall, St. Louis SEO is growing among local non-profits, but we can do better and we’re well on our way to competing with huge national non-profits.  If your non-profit is looking for an SEO solution or any other type of interactive marketing solution, check us out at http://www.thenetimpact.com/.

Believe it or not, not too long ago, a press release was actually a release sent directly to the press. The sole reason a press release was issued was to convince the media to write about you. Nobody saw the information in a press release except a handful of reporters and editors. The media was the ultimate filter between your company and the public, they were the deciding factor if your news was publicized or swept under the rug.

David Meerman Scott, author of the bestseller The New Rules of Marketing & PR, speaks frequently on the subject. He believes Web 2.0 has changed the way everyone should think of marketing and that marketers who fail to grasp that are doomed to be left in the dust of 20th century ideas. Thanks to the emergence of Internet marketing and Web 2.0 our audience today is millions of people with an Internet connection and access to a search engines and RSS feeds.  Today, press releases are search engine optimized (SEO), publicized and socialized. With 65% of journalists using social media sites for story sources and 100% using Google for story research, your press release needs to be optimized in order to gain the strongest visibility by search engines, target audiences and the media.

“Something like 25,000 press releases have been sent to me, resulting in no stories. Instead, I think about a subject that I want to cover in a column or an article, and I check out what I can find on blogs and through search engines.” – David Meerman Scott

While all PR and marketing professionals understand that press releases sent over the wires appear in near real-time on services like Google and Yahoo News, very few understand the implications for how they should dramatically alter their press release strategy as a result. When done well, optimized press releases can be powerful marketing tools with HUGE SEO benefits.

What makes some press releases more effective than others? The most important factor for a successful press release remains the content itself, but there are certain techniques and tactics that can help optimize the visibility of your release to readers and search engines.

The following are some useful tips or your well-written press release to gain the strongest visibility by search engines, your target audience and the media:

• Use the most popular keyword phrase in the headline – carries the most weight with search engines.

• Repeat the phrase at least three times in a 300-word release (the longest you should make a release that’s search-engine optimized)

• Send your release out via news services, such as PRWEB

• Include a link to your site, but make sure to include the http:// part

• If your release is more than a few paragraphs long, include a subhead with a keyword phrase. It makes the release easier to read and search engines give more weight to bolded text.

• Resist the tendency to shorten familiar terms.  (example: St. Louis or the city)

• Post your release on your site, on its own page, in addition to sending it out over wire services and other distribution methods.

• Include 3 Anchor text links 
 
   -One to homepage – direct visitors directly to your company website.
 
   -One to product/event page – send media and consumers directly to the  product  they are reading about.
 
   -One to blog post – this presents an opportunity to speak to readers in a  less formal fashion.  With social web users     and digital influencers continually  expecting social content, a press release presents a great opportunity to spark interest in your social content.

 
• As more of the web moves to video and imagery, including a photo or other multimedia in your press releases can increase your click-through rates by 2.5 times

- Images can increase the click through rate on releases in both regular and news search by 15 – 25%.  It’s a simple step, but can’t be stressed enough.    Additionally, using images creates more traction in media – journalists and bloggers both love images as it helps them tell their story.

- As the web shifts to a rich media experience, bloggers, media and end users are becoming more accustomed to video.  In the future, it may be common that video is included with releases.  But since today it is not as frequently used, it’s a chance to make your news stand out. *PRWeb has seen up to a 500% increase in time on pages when video is included in a  news release.

If you want to best ensure your release gets into Google News, be sure to pay attention to the following:

Headline. If the headline of your press release looks and sounds like ad copy, then it will stop it from getting included in news search engines. Conventional wisdom suggests that 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only two will jump to the rest of the story. Craft a compelling headline and multiply your chances of engagement.

Release Date. Press releases that include a date in the lead paragraph (first paragraph) earlier than the actual release date, typically do not get included into Google News. If you prefer to include a date, make sure that it syncs with the actual release date.

Length Matters. If your press release is too short (less than 150 words or so), or too long (more than two pages or 500 words) it will be less likely to get included into Google News. News releases that are too short tend to read like an advertisement and are not considered newsworthy.

Links. Too many links in the body of your news release is bad. They could potentially be considered spam and make it difficult to read. Good rule of thumb: one link for every one hundred words.

Duplicate Content. Duplicates are not accepted. If a press release has been previously released via a newswire service, and was already included into Google News, then it is most likely not going to be included again.

In conclusion, digital media is revolutionizing the way in which we communicate. There has been a lot of change in the field of writing press release in the past few years. New platforms, such as PRWEB, allow public relations professionals to communicate directly with their target audience, generate their own news and boost search engine ranking – all with bypassing the media and assuming the role of news provider for the company in which they represent.

One aspect of press releases has not changed, the best public relations strategy remains to find a worthwhile angle to a story and create quality content that is visible to your target audience. Covering all aspects of the writing and online press release distribution process, from attention-grabbing headlines to helpful social media sharing links – will provide you with a rewarding public relations effort for your company.

If your company is looking to integrate online press releases into your online marketing strategy, but does not have the time or resources to craft a new worthy press release Contact The Net Impact to help you begin your online public relations effort in an organized manner. Our clients see their press releases on top placements on the most popular search engines, industry-related blogs and websites, commented on by experts and included in newspapers and magazine articles.  Let us help your news make an impact online.

Sundeep Kapur hosted a session that gave us some great insights on how to create content that is worth reading.

*Create content you can use for interaction.
Publishing content with no intent to create conversation will leave your online presence stale.

* Keep it authentic.
Your computer is a machine, you’re not – the interaction should be real.

* Only push your content to channels that are relevant to your target market.
Don’t just throw spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks; place your message where your target market is.

* Give your readers simple nuggets of information that they can share.
A tweet is 140 characters, make sure your information is re-tweetable.

*Do not tell people to “Follow You” or “Like You”
Give them a reason to want to.

*When creating print collateral, think of sending readers on an online scavenger hunt.
Direct them to your “hub” with an offer.

*When posting content on Facebook, consider what you would share with your friends.
If you wouldn’t – don’t post it.

Stay tuned for more updates on SES Chicago 2010!

What effective tactics has your company used when creating and posting content?

E is for EBay, G is for Google …

Google’s never-ending mission to continuously improve overall user experience and increase search result speed, has resulted in Wednesday’s launch of Google Instant, a faster than the speed of typing  game-changer for online search engines. Your enter key is all but useless when using the new search interface with predictions from A-Z.

As Marissa Mayer Google’s vice president of user experience described in  a press conference in San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art: “Google Instant searches as you type, not after you type.”

Google Instant uses new caching systems and JavaScript to shorten the time it takes for users to find what they’re looking for by showing search results as you type (If you are  logged in to Google, your search results will be personalized based on previous searches).  Google may be feeling some heat from competitors as they continue to appear to be trying very hard to differentiate themselves from Bing, which is running a distant second in the search market share, even after recently combining operations with Yahoo.

Aside from saving information seekers two to five seconds, Google’s new search tool may be creating a whole different climate for businesses, especially for those involved in e-commerce and Internet marketing. There has been a great deal of debate circling the blogosphere since Google unveiled Google Instant regarding the impact on Search Engine Optimization. By effectively compressing the time of each individual search and allowing users to edit searches in real time, Google Instant has the potential to significantly alter the current mechanics of search and the visibiltiy of sites.

PR pro Steve Rubel, wrote on his blog, “Google Instant means no one will see the same Web anymore, making optimizing it virtually impossible. Real-time feedback will change and personalize people’s search behaviors.”

Furthermore, Instant could have a big impact on Adwords, with the numbers of impressions your links receive going up as people correct or make mistakes as they type. There may also be more opportunity to try and grab someone’s attention midway through typing a long-tail query using image results or something. Currently, businesses purchase web ads that target specific queries. But since Google users are getting results quicker than ever, they may never get to more complex queries. The result could be less business, especially for smaller businesses that can’t afford to advertise against simpler, more popular search terms.

It remains to be seen how much of an impact the preference towards brands and the change in impressions will have on marketers ability to leverage Google  in new ways.  Some marketers have already published tips on how to track Google Instant using web analytics, which will assist in developing insights on what has impact and will be instrumental in learning what to refine.

According to Mayer, “it’s too early to determine how the new feature will affect the company’s bottom line and she believes there will only be a “small change for the SEO community.”

When Google’s Matt Cutts was asked, ‘Does Google Instant kill search engine optimization (SEO)? He replied:  “No!  I think over time it might. The ability to explore the query space and find out new things will inevitably lead to changes for SEO.”

Google Instant is also heading to mobile devices later this year, and it will also be added to the desktop version of Google’s Chrome web browser, which features an integrated web search feature.

What do you think of Google Instant?  Do you think it will impact SEO?

These were just a few of the questions answered at The Net Impact’s Search Engine Strategies Session on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010. The seminar covered current trends in search engine optimization and highlighted the best presentations from the The Net Impact’s SEO team’s recent trip to the Search Engine Strategies Session held in Chicago December 2009. The three presentations presented focused on B2B, Blended Search and Linking.

The first presentation, presented by Angela Cicerelli, Web Account Manager at The Net Impact, covered blended search. Blended search enhances user experience and is another way to engage with potential customer. If you are having troubles ranking for a keyword, blended search just may be the answer. The presentation discussed why we should care about images and videos in search. Social media sites, such as Flickr and YouTube, are now becoming major sources of  website traffic and are appearing in search results. What to take away from the session regarding blended search – The web isn’t about pages anymore, it’s all about streams, feeds and syndication. If information is important, it will find you.

The next presentation, led by Lauren Williamson, Web Content Manager at The Net Impact, highlighted the importance of linking. Link popularity measures the quality and quantity of links pointing to a web page. Recently, social media marketing has become one of the most practical and high quality ways to earn links. The Chicago Search Engine Strategies Session touched on three main reasons why it is important to have a linking program: improve rank, boost traffic and to increase brand exposure. Lauren closed with the statement: “Building links is similar to building relationships – it takes works and is all about quality, not quantity”.

Sonya Sawall, Web Account Manager at The Net Impact, led the final conversation on B2B. Business buyers and decision makers are online, using search engines. Business professionals engage in social networking in order to build relationships that bring business. They rely on search, sometimes throughout the whole buying cycle, and in order to be successful, Internet marketing experts must align their messages with buyers needs throughout each phase of the buying process.

The most important thing learned at The Net Impact’s SES Session: There is one certainty about SEO – the game is always changing. “If you are following a best practice that dates back to 2008 or earlier, toss it away.  It’s now wrong”. 2010 is the year of real-time, personalized results, growing importance of social, community and web mobility. We need to continue to adapt our SEO strategies to stay ahead of the curve.

We hope you all enjoyed the presentation as much as we did, and we look forward to seeing you at the next TNI event!

Check out some great pictures from the event on Flickr!

 The presentation focused on:

-Understanding your Google Analytics Dashboard

-Navigating the Google Analytics report suite

-Defining the metrics that matter most

-Setting up goals to track conversion

The engaging conversation highlighted all of the advantages, latest features and benefits of Google Analytics. One of the topics covered was tracking social media traffic. Erica emphasized the importantance of tracking social media sites on the campaign level to effectively gather and analyze social media analytics.With Google Analytics, you can thoroughly analyze results using the various filters and components Google Analytics offers.  For example, tracking social networking sites will show you social media traffic sources in relation to your overall site traffic. This will in turn give you a good idea of which social media tools are working most effectively for your brand.

Web Account Manager, Erica Sharinghausen leading the discussion on understanding your Google Analytics Dashboard

What is a good bounce rate for my website?” …. “How do I track my Facebook Advertising? … ”What metrics should I pay the most attention to?”

These were just a few of the questions answered “at The Net Impact’s Introduction to Google Analytics seminar, which was geared to introduce business professionals to the basics of web analytics. Erica shared valuable insights on how to utilize Google Analytics to optimize online marketing, improve website performance and increase conversions.  Attendees left with a better understanding of how Google Analytics works and what tools and reports would best serve their individual business.

The Most Important lessons learned from the presentation

- Adjust spending on paid keywords that have high bounce rates

- Identify your problem – unpaid keywords with high bounce rates

- Identify landing pages that need to be more relevant or need stronger calls to action

-Setting up goals to track online success

The Net Impact Team would like to thank everyone who participated in the Introduction to Google Analytic Seminar and we are  looking forward to having many more interesting informational sessions to come!

Check out these great photos and videos from Wednesday night’s seminar!

Until recently,  companies and PR Firms wrote press releases in a very uniform fashion designed for the eyes of the traditional journalist. But the evolution of online public relations has created an entirely new approach to the writing and distributing process of press releases.

The purpose behind most online public relations efforts is to increase overall online exposure, which will in turn direct more people to visit your targeted website.  Increased online exposure can lead to greater brand development, a stronger relationship with your public, increased interest from the media, more connections with potential partners and increased lead generation causing greater revenue.

Any topic that will be of interest to prospects, the media and potential partners (such as a new product launch, industry news, events, community activities, etc…) can be used to construct a press release that is search engine optimized and distributed online. Then, distributing optimized press release via newswires has the power to directly reach millions of Internet users, generate inbound links to your website and raise search engine visibility of your website. The Net Impact’s most often used press release distributor is PRWeb, an excellent proven third party partner for publication of your online press releases, with an average charge of $200 per release.

Most newswire services offer you an exact report on how many people accessed your optimized release. This is an essential tool in gauging your reads and impressions.  In addition, through other analytical tools, such as Google Analytics, you can determine when someone follows a link to your targeted website through your optimized press release.

Now that online news sites such as Yahoo News and Google News contain such an abundance of press release content and RSS feeds, it is easy to syndicate news. An optimized press release can get you a page one SERP result for your relevant keywords in the search engines, news engines and news websites. So we see that press releases are not only an effective tool for distributing content to the media and consumers, they are easily syndicated creating an excellent opportunity to attract organic traffic and incoming links.

 A well written online press release has the ability to:

1.) Capture the attention of editors, journalists and bloggers looking for compelling topics for news stories

2.) Live on the web indefinitely. Press Releases are  published to various websites and blogs, giving your content a long shelf life as the content is never deleted creating enduring links.

3.) Create conversation on social networks.The press release link will be shared indefinitely through social media marketing, such as Twitter and Facebook

4.) Be viewed by new prospects – your target audience.

*As a result of all of these activities, hyperlinks will generate that will point back to the release creator’s targeted web site.

How to re-purpose a press release.

Once the press release has been released, there are still opportunities for increased exposure. The Net Impact Recommends:

-Writing a company blog post with the press release content

-Sharing the announcement using Twitter                                                                                        

-Posting an update on the press release on your Facebook                                   

-Adding the press release to the news page on your company website

-Posting any media collateral on other social sites

-Sharing the press release on your company newsletter

-Distributing the press release internally so associates can share it with their friends and business partners

Lastly, creating a calendar for PR that plans a regular expectation for your potential publishers is important.  Frequent and consistent news will generate more interest in your pieces as publishers begin to rely upon them. 

 Don’t forget, the best public relations strategy is to find a worthwhile angle to a story and create excellent content that is visible to your target audience. Combining creative ability and optimization skills to create compelling, keyword relevant press releases will only prove to be a rewarding public relations effort for your company.

 If online press releases sound like something your company should be doing but you do not know the right approach,  have the time or the resources, Contact The Net Impact to help you begin your online public relations effort in an organized manner. The Net Impact’s public relations services include press release copy-writing and press release submission through third party online platforms.. We can help you implement a successful public relations strategy into your overall marketing plan.