When someone is looking for you on the internet, the favored place to be is the top of page one on the search results. Try as you may to achieve that position, it isn’t practical to expect to be there all the time. Here is one idea that can help you increase you odds. Try a video.

Not just any video will do. First it has to be optimized for the search engines, has to have relevance to your site, and actually, as a final but important step, will have to be submitted to the search engines.

According to a Forrester Research study completed recently, there is a 53 times better likelihood that your site will list on page one in a Google ranking with an optimized video than without. It’s worth the odds.

Although proper SEO is very effective at raising your listing, it doesn’t always work with every keyword you would like to be able to use. Some simply have too much competition. Adding a video helps make a quantum leap in the likelihood as the search engines adopt more blended search results. Since there is less competition in video SEO, each one is more effective.

First,

The video belongs on your home page, near the top, where it is most likely to be seen. It does not belong on YouTube with only the embedding on your home page. That doesn’t create enough reasons for Google and other search engines to raise the ranking. Besides, YouTube will get the click result. Make sure the video is a good one, because that is by far the most likely item your visitors will click first. Scatter the video on other pages throughout your website.

Second,

Optimize the video using SEO techniques, placing keyword phrases in the name of the file, the captions, and so forth as well as within the code for the page where the video is posted.

Third,

Submit it to the search engines using XML tools. Promote it also on your Website, Blog, and Social Media (Facebook, Twitter).

These actions will increase you listing in the search engines general search – not just the video search.

Articles, especially SEO articles, can enhance the selling ability of your website

Imagine a steak without any sizzle. That is what a website is without articles.

Or, think of it another way, the website is a selling table that doesn’t have any legs. If we could sit alone in our offices and send out a picture of the product we offer and achieve effective sales and sales goals, we would all be doing that. However, that isn’t the way sales are achieved. (more…)

Social media is a new way to market. Even though it seems like just another form of internet chatting, it really can be used as an effective marketing tool.  In fact, there are some things you cannot do through normal marketing channels that are easy to accomplish through social media sites.

Here are just three ways you can use sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to create your own community. (more…)

Template development isn’t just easier; it’s smarter

The biggest problem in the creative process for email marketing and design may be the way you manage the creative process itself. For most people, the creative cycle takes far too long and crowds out other important processes. When producing email pieces for internet marketing, the success comes in how efficiently each can be turned around and followed up. Eliminating repetitive steps in the creative process, including re-testing and re-checking elements, can be done by investing some up-front time in designing basic mailer templates.  (more…)

Phoenix marketing agency, Thrive Marketing, is a thought leader in social media marketing. Social media marketing has already become a leading way to boost sales and find new customers, but relatively few people really understand the implications and how to use it. Find out how you can increase your customer base and your sales through social media marketing.

Certainly the things you say in and ad convey something about your product.  What about what you don’t say?

The adage “less is more” has been proven with a study by the Journal of Consumer Research.

The study demonstrated that ads containing lots of white space lead customers to perceive the brand as:

• More prestigious
• More sophisticated
• Trustworthy
• Higher in product quality and leadership
• Lower in risk than the same ad without white space

Researchers noted that these associations go back to the 1960’s minimalist movement when people were moving away from artwork they felt was deception or full of illusion. The removal of excessive imagery and language makes the information in the ad appear more truthful, and makes the advertiser appear more truthful.

A note about white space: If you want to create a sophisticated and trustworthy brand, say less – not more – in the ads you create. Also, “white space” doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of color.  It just “simplified” — remove the unnecessary and enjoy the simplicity of the message (see Apple’s ad).

Source: “How Nothing Became Something: White Space, Rhetoric, History, and Meaning“ John W. Pracejus, G. Douglas Olsen, and Thomas C. O’Guinn. Journal of Consumer Research, 2006. Click here for a PDF of the report.

This year more businesses will invest in social media than ever before.  No matter what your business goals are, using this chart (click on the graphic to make it larger), you’ll learn how to leverage social media to:

• communicate with customers
• increase brand exposure
• boost website traffic
• increase SEO effectiveness

For more information about how Thrive Marketing can help you leverage Social Media, call us at 1-866-521-0827 or Request a Proposal.

Web designers can help you find new ways to improve your interactive business.  The untrained may equate “landing page” with the website’s “home page.”  However, a landing page can be any page you create for a special purpose.  Like a home page, a great deal of thought, care, and design should go into the construction of a landing page—no less so than for a home page.  Here are some tips that you may wish to consider as you entertain the possibility of using a landing page to boost sales as well as to measure your most effective marketing. (more…)

Arizona Internet Marketing Firm, Thrive Marketing, believes that your first step in web marketing should be one of your best steps.  Nothing can substitute for an effective headline at inviting a potential customer into your marketing efforts.  There are numerous opportunities and methods for creating effective headlines and getting the most out of that first, big step. (more…)

Once you have a Pay-per-Click (PPC) campaign set-up, why would you need an Interactive Agency to  maintain the campaign for you? Isn’t it simple enough to maintain yourself?

Protect Your Investment

Because you are spending money each time someone clicks on your PPC ad, you want to make sure you are attracting the right traffic with each click– and not throwing away money. (more…)