Search Engine Marketing
Internet Marketing is Obsoleting Traditional Media Advertisers
Jan 23rd
Advertising via print and radio has been in steady decline for the past few years and very soon we will see internet marketing surpass television as well, possibly in the next year or two.
What does this mean for traditional media advertisers? Well, it means their job is becoming obsolete. (more…)
Basic SEO Marketing Explained
Dec 14th
You might have a general understanding of what SEO marketing is, but do you know why it is important, or how it benefits a business? Basic SEO marketing attempts to learn the words and phrases that internet users are searching for, in order to use this information to get their products to the people who seek them.
Some may say that this is manipulative, but wouldn’t you want the best websites that suite your need, rather than riff-raff? Even Google agrees that SEO marketing is good.
But what check are in place to prevent keyword stuffing, where website creators fluff their content up with repetitive, overuse of their keywords?
Luckily, search engines, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, have complicated algorithms that account for other factors beyond keyword usage. They actually observe keyword percentages, to ensure that the phrase is not being stuffed in places it doesn’t belong in order to gain ranking. In addition, they have a fair understanding of grammar and vocabulary, so they can judge what is well-written English and what is gibberish filled with keywords.
Another safeguard is bounce rate, which track how long a web searcher stays on a website. If a website receives too many short visits, or “bounces,” More >
Google States Approval of SEO
Nov 2nd
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a rising facet of the marketing industry. As internet marketing increasingly overtakes television as the top means of reaching an audience to sell products, marketing companies are trying to learn how to stay ahead in the area of SEO.
What this leads to, in some situations, is the use of bad SEO, referred to as “black hat SEO“. Businesses stuff keywords into their websites in order to get higher rankings in the search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Does this mean that SEO is bad? Is it wrong to use and manipulate it?
Matt Cutts, Google’s head of fighting internet spam, recently stated that he does not believe SEO to be spam. In a short clip, provided below, he points out the positive values of SEO.
“We don’t consider SEO to be spam,” Cutts said on behalf of his company. He then proceeds to list numerous reasons why SEO is advantageous.
Amongst the points he lists advocating SEO are:
- Designing and organizing the initial website
- Increasing usability and site speed
- Providing customers with superior results that better suit their needs
- Allowing for a greater return on investments
- Helping the search engines compile more useful data
Mr. Cutts then admitted that while there are websites and More >
Google Plus Brand Pages Could Fix Problems of Facebook and Twitter
Oct 24th
Google recently announced that they were implementing brand pages for corporate advertisers on their social media site, Google Plus. As Facebook is still developing tweaks to their system in order to raise user enjoyment, Google Plus will hopefully begin with a system that does not necessitate any additional changes in the future.
Amongst the issues that Facebook and Twitter deal with is the layout of their pages, which do not allow for much adjustment. Large companies, like Coca Cola or Disney, can only do so much to organize their pages within the strict guidelines of Facebook and Twitter’s programing code.
Facebook, for example, allows for a main picture on the upper left, content scrolling down the center, and that’s about it. No designing backgrounds, no customizations, and no overriding the website’s programing.
In addition, companies cannot choose which advertisements appear on the right side of their own pages. Hypothetically, a Pepsi ad could load onto the Coke’s Facebook page, creating a conflict of interests.
But hopes are high that Google will solve these issues before the launch of their brand pages.
Ad agencies are already starting to develop brand pages for Google Plus that work with its rigid formatting that is somewhat layered, but still More >
Local Search Optimization
Jun 8th
As we all know, more competition means more challenging and so does broader coverage. Therefore local search optimization is not as challenging as broader categories – but it still has its own challenges. Many of the same SEO rules still apply to local search engine optimization, but because of the improvements done on the search engines for the past 3 years with the interaction of social, it has become far simpler than we thought.
Basics of Local Search Optimization
Be Everywhere That Matters: From Google Places to local directories, local links and user citations are the primary influencers of high rankings for geo-specific terms. Local users go deep for information, so even small, low-volume destinations can result in quality links. They may not deliver that much traffic individually, but a few links from relevant blogs can get your business name and website address a long way on the search result pages including local community pages.
Ask for Reviews: If you’re a local business and are not collecting reviews, you should start considering to ask your customers to write reviews for your business since a lot of locals count on reviews and so do search engines especially for local search listings. After all, search engines More >
SEO Content Writing Tips after Google’s Panda Update
May 9th
SEO Content Writing Tips
Writing plays a large roll in Internet marketing and SEO campaigns. Despite the recent algorithm changes from the Google Panda Update, content is still the No. 1 determining factor in getting your site to rank.
The principles of good writing are as much of a skill as an art form, and when you or your Internet marketing company view content creation from both perspectives, you stand to achieve maximum gain from your efforts.
Despite the changes that occurred from the Panda Update, the following tips are still great to hold onto whenever you find yourself generating content as a part of your web design or online marketing campaigns.
Content Does Matter Content matters to your users and it always will. Just because you can fool a search engine robot doesn’t mean you can fool a customer. Whatever it is you’re writing, be sure it has some inherent value. Writing for the customer first and using technical SEO principles second will always help you optimize your content.
Keep Keywords in your Headlines While a headline should always be compelling, it needs to be discovered in order to be able to compel. Titles are the first thing that grab your readers’ attention – and the first thing More >
Google Panda Update Says Goodbye to Low-Quality Links
May 2nd
Google has made major changes to its algorithm to target spammy sites, followed by the larger Panda update that targeted “low quality” sites. This all started when Google penalized JCPenney, Forbes, and Overstock.com for “shady” linking practices.
What’s it all mean for link builders? It means we say goodbye to low quality link building.
If your competitors are still highly ranked on Google and you find that they have low quality link built around their search marketing campaign, then there are two things you must consider about finding low quality, high volume links in your analysis:
- Maybe it isn’t the links that got your competitors where they are today. Maybe they are a big enough brand with a good enough reputation to be where they are for that particular keyword.
- If the above doesn’t apply, then maybe it’s just a matter of time before Google cracks down even further, giving no weight to those spammy backlinks.
Lets face it, non of us here at Trimark Marketing Group want to be the Internet Marketing company behind the next Overstock or JCPenney link building gone wrong story!
How to Determine a Valuable Backlink Opportunity How can you determine whether a site you’re trying to gain a link from is More >
Internet Audibles: Search Engine Optimization and Making Adjustments
Oct 11th
If you work for an Internet marketing company or in any facet of search engine optimization, chances are you recognize the enormous value that patience and persistence have in making online marketing services successful for your clients.
There are many angles to search engine optimization and the most popular search engines employ extremely complex algorithms to determine keyword-based page rankings. It’s this nature of the industry that makes SEO services anything but an exact science.
If you’re a business owner paying for search engine optimization services, however, odds are you don’t share quite the same reverence for letting nature take its course! Though many clients understand the general principles behind SEO services, many are hoping for—and oftentimes depend on—quick results that drive traffic and ultimately business to their websites.
In many businesses, however, especially those that are saturated with online companies, it’s not uncommon for thousands—even millions—of websites and SEO service providers to be craftily employing strategies and competing against each other to earn page-one rankings for the same keywords and phrases.
When this is the case, the question becomes: How long is too long to focus your energies on one keyword or phrase?
Though there’s no cut and dry answer to this question, it’s More >
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Winemaking
Sep 28th
Online Marketing and California Winemakers One of the pleasantries of living in coastal California includes having access to some of the finest wineries and vineyards in the world. The lush country and landscape has attracted some of the world’s best winemakers—the climate is perfect for growing different grape varietals and the beautiful landscape and greenery pairs perfectly with a relaxing day of wine-tasting.
A good friend of mine is a winemaker at a small vineyard in a town called Lompoc, just outside the city of Santa Barbara. He recently bottled a pinot noir that Wine Spectator awarded a 96 to—something only 12 other pinots have ever scored equal to or better.
As we were chatting about this delicious and magnanimous achievement, it occurred to me that online marketing—particularly web development and SEO—are a lot like making wine.
Notice I didn’t say a “fine wine;” this analogy can work both ways! There are plenty of SEO “tricks” out there—and to a certain extent, even natural circumstances—that can spoil your harvest and ultimately ruin your page ranking and the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts.
But if done properly, with continued attention, a little patience, and the right amount of aging, you could create a web presence that More >
Marketing Concept: Don’t Rent Your Marketing, OWN IT! Search Engine Results (Part 2)
Aug 31st
We’ve already introduced the concept of “rent marketing” vs. “own marketing,” relating online marketing services and traditional advertising methods to the real estate market and the benefits each can have.
This concept can be extrapolated upon in relation to search engine optimization.
If you’ve noticed the results you see after searching for something on Google, there are three parts to each search results page that yield different information: sponsored links, Google Maps listings, and organic results.
Sponsored links and listings are marked as such—displayed with a yellow background on the first three results and also in white along the side bar. The next portion is the Maps portion of Google, you know, the map that pops up on top and showcases local businesses in a Google maps window, kind of like a directory listing. The third are organic listings that yield ten results per page.—in other words, the regular search results that appear based on what keywords you’ve searched.
Of those three divisions of results, one is falls into “rent marketing,” while the other two definitely classify as “own marketing.”
The advertised sponsored listings are exactly that—essentially businesses are paying to be listed on the top of the page based on certain keywords. You can put More >
Marketing Concept: Don’t Rent Your Marketing, OWN IT! (Part 1)
Aug 20th
If you’ve ever bought property or studied the real estate market, you may have concluded that it oftentimes pays more dividends and makes more long-term sense to own property vs. renting it.
Taking that concept and applying it to your marketing and advertising budget can pay off greatly because the same concept holds true: Having ownership of your advertising dollar allows your business to grow over time and you to yield returns throughout your lifetime—even long after you’ve stopped paying for services.
Think of this example: Spending money on temporary ads in media like the yellow pages, billboards or newspapers could easily rack up a several thousand-dollar bill over just a few months of run-time. That money is gone as soon as you spend it and your returns vanish immediately after the ads expire—and who knows if the ads will even yield you any real returns at all?
Consider this kind of advertising “rent marketing.” Just like an apartment’s benefits would cease immediately after you stopped paying rent (because you’d probably get kicked out), so too do your marketing returns end as soon as you stop paying for run time, because your ads essentially get evicted from their media as well.
So what’s an More >
Diversifying Your Marketing Portfolio: An Introduction to Modern Marketing as Compared to the Stock Market
Jul 30th
It’s becoming pretty common knowledge that if you want to have success in the stock market, you have to have a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
While your formula will vary a bit based on age and your overall investment goals, it’s usually a good idea to have some risky quick-gain stocks offset by long-term and steady growth options.
This same principle can be applied to the marketing portfolio of any sized business. For the past 10 years, Trimark has experienced the full gamut of marketing strategies, some borderline insanely risky while others have been chugging along steadily for the past 10 years constantly making small strides for the better.
As uncertainty of times come and go, marketing campaigns are tested. Those with a great diverse portfolio always seem to weather the storm. At Trimark Marketing Group, each client’s marketing goals are evaluated, and a diverse marketing plan is suggested for continual growth and sustainability. All the pieces of this customized package work different avenues of advertising and brand presence, and should combine to meet the goals of the business owner.
Here are a few examples of marketing strategies at each spectrum of risk taking and the reward associated with each:
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