The Work Media Internet Marketing Blog

We get lots of calls from businesses wanting us to optimize and promote their new web sites after their construction...people, people, when are you going to learn that you need to hire your search engine optimization expert BEFORE building your site?

We are working with an ecommerce site that was built in a platform that does not allow the product category links (which are text links) to have titles. This is a definite weakness and one that we would have suggested the company fix before launching the site. And this is just one example of numerous flaws that should be fixed. To fix these items now, our client will have to pay its developer to implement the changes. The Company would probably have saved money overall if it had hired us to begin with so that the site could be constructed properly to start with. But now that the site has already launched, extra charges are required to implement our suggested changes.

I wish I could get into the head of every person currently in charge of having a web site built for his business and say these words:

Hire a search engine optimization professional to consult on your web site development!
If you will do this the next time your business begins the process of launching a new site, you will end up with a site already optimized to rank well for specific keywords. You will also save yourself a lot of redevelopment time and expense because the site will already be done right the first time.

If your company is in the process of building a new web site, PLEASE CALL US! If you don't call us, call somebody! Call somebody who is experienced in search engine optimization. Get it done right the first time, and save yourself a lot of frustration down the road. You can contact us at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

By the way, did you get a chance to check out our video from Wednesday? There will be many more to come and we have already begun working on videos for our clients as well. The first one is a little crude, but we're still getting our techniques down.

Labels: internet marketing, search engine optimization, seo, web marketing, web site marketing

http://WorkMedia.net Learn how to use negative keywords to fine-tune your pay per click campaigns. The video specifically discusses doing this in AdWords, but the information is applicable to any PPC platform that allows for negative keywords.

We are getting heavy into video. We have been working on our first educational video that we will be disributing via video directories such as YouTube. We are testing a new service that lets you combine an audio track with static images to quicky create a video without actually using a video camera. Given the dry, information-oriented material we deal with, the technique works perfectly for us.

It's probably time that you began adopting video. This is new for us (and we're experienced Internet marketers) so it's probably new for you as well. Our promise to you is that as we experiement with different video marketing techniques and learn what works and what doesn't, we will share that information with you.

This weekend we will be wrapping up our first video and shooting it out. We will almost certainly placed it on our own site as well as other destinations, so watch for it! The first one is about using negative keywords to fine-tune your Google AdWords campaign. We have written about this subject before, but there's just something about seeing a video with its accompanying images that really helps lock information in.

We've had a lot of success with text content distribution, so we will continue doing articles, press releases, etc., but it's time to open things up a bit. Video will become a powerful part of our arsenal, as it will yours.

So here we go...video or bust. Are you with us?

Labels: internet marketing, video, YouTube

Some news came out recently that Google and Adobe are working together to make Flash-based web sites indexable. So...it's safe to start building sites in Flash now, since Google will be able to index and rank them, right?

Forget about it. Unless you already have high name recognition and receive heavy direct traffic that does not originate from search engines, then you need to stick with the basics.

Google has been able to read the text portion of Flash files for a good while. After reading about the new initiative, nothing really jumped out at me as being any different from what Google already does. They are studying Flash in-depth to better understand how it works and how to index Flash content.

Studying?...

To me, "studying" doesn't mean much. It could still be years before Google can interpret a Flash file the way it can a standard HTML file. Do not rely on advances within Google to raise your search engine rankings. Be proactive, work hard, and stick to the fundamentals.

If you don't know what the fundamentals are, you need to call us. Or spend some time reading through our old blog posts, or any of the free guides on our Resources page. Those are the fundamentals. Content, optimized HTML, and links. Stick with those, and avoid Flash, unless search engine rankings are not important to your business.

If you need some help optimizing your web site, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: Flash, google, internet marketing, search engine optimization, search engine rankings, seo, web site marketing

Quick Tip: For the first couple of weeks after launching a new AdWords campaign, watch your keywords every day to make sure they are still online.

It's easy to feel like you've accomplished something after setting up an AdWords campaign and beginning the process of driving paid traffic to your site. But you can't take your eyes off of the situation. Even if Google begins sending a stream of traffic to your site, it is highly likely that very soon it will begin shutting off your keywords. What seems to happen is that AFTER your account is up and running, the Google system begins an audit of your campaigns to see how closely your keywords match your ad content (and possibly even your landing pages), the kind of click rates your keywords and ads have, etc. While it's going through this process, it will probably be shutting off many of your keywords and insisting that you bid more (MUCH more in some cases) to turn them back on.

So if you're not paying attention, the traffic you started receiving at the beginning of your Google campaign will dry up to a trickle until you adjust your bids. So being aware of what's going on with your campaigns early on is critical to keeping your ads running.

You can avoid this situation by bidding very high early in your campaign. The problem is you could end up paying more than you should in order to have a profitable account. It is probably best to start low and adjust your bids up as needed, rather than starting high and adjusting down.

Call us if you need some help monitoring your pay per click campaign.

Labels: google, Google Adwords, internet marketing, paid search, pay per click, pay per click management, ppc, search engine marketing, sem