Pimp My Keywords

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 96

Believe it or not, there are several elements needing optimization in your YouTube video posts.

First, and most importantly, make sure you have created your own YouTube Channel. This not only allows you to have your own YouTube "space" but it prevents competitor videos (on the same keywords and search terms) from appearing in the "other videos" section on the right side of the YouTube window.

Optimize your YouTube channel by:

• Writing a strong Title and Description with link pointing back to your website (http://).
• Create and complete YouTube Channel tags.
• Complete the Channel Type, which can be changed to what you are doing.

Also, within your YouTube channel, complete your Profile (Account > Profile Set Up). Always make sure you have the URL (http://) set up properly.

More on YouTube next week!

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 95

With local search opportunities, you'll want to participate and create accounts in "mapping" services and websites (such as Google Maps) as well as review websites (such as City Search).

No, do not set up fake accounts and pad these sites with false reviews. Consumers are too smart and they're always suspicious, especially of your 20 raving reviews - all with perfect 5-star rankings.

Creating your accounts allows you to verify accuracy of your business name, address, telephone number, website URL, keywords and business category.

Google and other search engines are "pulling" reviews from many review websites (especially City Search), so be sure to monitor any posted reviews about your business, services and products.

If needed - and proceed cautiously into this area - you can respond to any negative or bad posts. Think before you post an emotion response to a negative review.

A few sites to consider for your business listings:

• Google, Yahoo and Bing (maps)
• City Search
• Yelp
• Judy's Book
• Trip Advisor
• Insider Pages
• Yahoo Travel
• View Points
• Also: Merchant Circle, Super Pages, Yellow Pages, Yellow Book, etc.

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 94

Your website's load time is indeed a factor in both Google search engine rankings and quality score in an Adwords (PPC) campaign.

Here's a couple of websites you can visit and test your website's load time:

• www.pingdom.com
• http://valet.seoconsultants.com

Of course, with a free Google account, you can test your website using Google's webmaster tools.

Note: Our current website (www.purpletrout.com) tested very well, with the Home page loading in 1.2 seconds.

Purple Trout, LLC Now Offering International & Multilingual Search Engine Marketing Services

Purple Trout, LLC, a search engine marketing company headquartered in Newport, Kentucky, is now offering international and multilingual search engine marketing services to its clients.

Services include international search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) campaigns as well as multilingual services for website, web page and campaign translation.

“Businesses are starting to take a more serious look at the worldwide market, but there are many important steps that need to be taken before marketing internationally,” says Steve Phillips, President of Purple Trout, LLC. “For instance, search engines and keywords are different from country to country. Languages, domain names and hosting are also important considerations.”

Purple Trout, LLC will specifically target all European countries, South America, Africa, Russia, Japan, China and the Middle East, just to name a few.

“Our keyword and content translators are native to the country’s language and culture,” says Phillips. “We do not use, nor do we recommend, translation software as it does not accurately offer the best translation, slang, popular terms or phrases.”

Contact Purple Trout, LLC at (513) 885-5000 or visit www.purpletrout.com  for more information, including strategic plans, implementation fees, and estimated timelines.

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About Purple Trout, LLC

Headquartered in Newport, Kentucky, Purple Trout, LLC is a state-of-the-art search engine marketing (SEM) company that specializes in honest and ethical techniques to obtain higher rankings for company web sites in Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. Services include: Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search/Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, Social Media Marketing, Video Search Engine Marketing, Usability Analysis, Conversion Tuning, Web Analytics, Competitive Analysis, and more.

Small Business Sermon Of The Week

If you're a small business - and by that I mean you have 25 employees or less - then you should be congratulated.

Hopefully, you're surviving the worst economy since the Depression.

Perhaps, you've not had to lay off any employees.

Maybe, you've even hired one or two new staff members.

I sincerely hope your sales are steady or even up.

Nope, the bank won't loan you any money; credit is tight. Venture capitalists aren't interested because you're not generating $1 million in sales during your first year (so they can take 1/2 of it when someone buys your brilliant idea or write off 100% when you fall).

You've rolled up your sleeves and you haven't given up.

Guess what?

Small businesses - those businesses that continued to be ignored by everyone except the tax man - are the ones that will turnaround our current "recession."

How?

In an article by Marcy Gordon, with the Associated Press, "small businesses are seen as a linchpin for the recovery, with the potential to expand and soak up some of the nearly 10% of unemployment that has ravaged the country and preoccupied Congress."

So, while the fat cats are still taking home the fat check (while the government bails them out) and big companies, automakers, ad agencies, etc., are laying off employees, the small guy is hanging tough.

Keep going small business owner. Keep going.

Purple Trout, LLC Now Offering Online Reputation Management Services

Purple Trout, LLC, a search engine marketing company headquartered in Newport, Kentucky, is now offering online reputation management (ORM) services to its clients.

“Unfortunately, negative news, bad news and false complaints against your company and your brand can appear high in Google search engine results,” says Steve Phillips, President of Purple Trout, LLC. “We review the negative news and plan an ethical and legitimate strategy on how to deal with it.

“While false complaints can sometimes be removed from websites, there is often a better strategy which involves focusing on the good news about a company,” says Phillips. “The one thing you shouldn’t do when you find a negative post about your company is to respond to it. This only helps optimize the negative news on your company’s keywords.”

An online reputation management project can take approximately two-to-six months to complete, depending on the severity of the negative attack.

Contact Purple Trout, LLC at (513) 885-5000 or visit www.purpletrout.com  for more information, including strategic plans, implementation fees, and estimated timelines.

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About Purple Trout, LLC

Headquartered in Newport, Kentucky, Purple Trout, LLC is a state-of-the-art search engine marketing (SEM) company that specializes in honest and ethical techniques to obtain higher rankings for company web sites in Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. Services include: Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search/Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, Social Media Marketing, Video Search Engine Marketing, Usability Analysis, Conversion Tuning, Web Analytics, Competitive Analysis, and more.

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 93

Fortune 500 companies, CEOs, and even some ad agencies are still not using social media networks to enhance their marketing efforts; share with their clients, and engage with customers.

Why?

They don't get it.

Yep. Some businesses still do not understand social media. Bad thing is, they are making no attempt to understand it. That's good for you (if you understand it).

I still hear "Facebook is for kids."

If you think so, try this:

Go to Facebook and search for your competition. 

Uh-oh. Have they beat you to the punch?

Businesses continue to struggle as to why anyone would want to "follow" their Tweets in Twitter and or be a Facebook Fan.

These old-school dinosaurs are stuck in the world of print, radio and television.

It's time to get out of the tar pit and put a face on your business.

Now.

Non-Profit SEO & Social Media Project Updates

We're in full-steam ahead mode with all three of our Non-Profit Search Engine Optimization and Social Media projects.

Our three NPOs - Beaded Hope, Melodic Connections, and Covenant To Care for Children - were each awarded a six-month SEO and Social Media grant by Purple Trout, LLC,

Here's an update on how the projects are going thus far:

Beaded Hope
www.beadedhope.com
Twitter: @BeadedHope (90 followers)
Facebook: BeadedHope (170 Fans)

Targeted keywords have been selected and meta tag codes, including Page Titles and Page Descriptions have been written and updated to the website. To date, two keywords are ranked in the Top 10 in Google.

Currently, content is being written and tweaked to reflect the targeted keywords. Blog posts have also been written for the Beaded Hope blog.

On the social media side, we are working with Beaded Hope to create relevant content. With Twitter, we are working to "re-tweet" about HIV, Aids and South Africa topics. To date, we have 20 new Twitter followers since the project started. On Facebook, we've added a Newsletter tab for the Beaded Hope Facebook Page, so fans can subscribe to the organization's newsletter. A Donation tab has also been included.

Melodic Connections
www.melodicconnections.org
Twitter: @MelodicConnects (118 Followers)
Facebook: Melodic Connections (155 Fans)

Melodic Connections has been a little bit more of a challenge as the web site was created in Frames, which isn't good for search engine optimization. However, we have some ideas which we will be implementing in dealing with Frames and SEO.

This client has a great grasp of social media, but we're helping them take it to the next level. For example, on the Melodic Connections Facebook Page, we've added a Newsletter tab allowing their fans to sign up for the newsletter directly from Facebook. We also created a vanity URL for their Facebook Page. We're also moving forward with some new strategies in social media with this project very soon.

Covenant To Care for Children
www.covenanttocare.org
Twitter: @covnant2care (52 Followers)
Facebook: Covenant to Care for Children (105 Fans)

Covenant To Care has selected their targeted keywords and we're ready to move ahead with SEO. Strategies are forming on the social media side, which will also include a content in Twitter.

Facebook Second Most Popular Site In U.S.

Facebook has surpassed Yahoo as the No. 2 most popular site in the United States drawing nearly 134 million unique visitors in January 2010, according to Compete.com.

Google, of course, is still No. 1 drawing in over 147 million unique visitors (up 8% from a year ago), followed by Facebook and Yahoo.

Still, for some reason, businesses continue to ignore Facebook as a means for online marketing.

Purple Trout, LLC Now Offering Social Media Monitoring Services

Purple Trout, LLC, an internet  marketing company headquartered in Newport, Kentucky, is now offering social media monitoring  services to help clients keep track of online conversations about their business, brands, competition and more.

“Monitoring the chatter in social media networks is becoming more important for businesses,” says Steve Phillips, Purple Trout, LLC President. “You need to stay on top of what customers are saying about your brand every day.”

Purple Trout’s social media monitoring service “listens” to Twitter, Facebook, blogs, bookmarking posts, forums, open chat, etc., and tracks targeted keywords and keyword phrases. A detailed monitoring report will show a brief comment of the social mention post; a live link to the website containing the mention as well as sentiment tagging (positive, negative or neutral sentiment.)

“This allows clients to track the Internet any time on any web content mentioning their name – good or bad,” says Phillips.

Social media monitoring rates start as low as $99 per month.

Contact Purple Trout, LLC at (513) 885-5000 or visit www.purpletrout.com for more information.

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About Purple Trout, LLC

Headquartered in Newport, Kentucky, Purple Trout, LLC is a state-of-the-art search engine marketing (SEM) company that specializes in honest and ethical techniques to obtain higher rankings for company web sites in Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. Services include: Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search/Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, Social Media Marketing, Video Search Engine Marketing, Usability Analysis, Conversion Tuning, Web Analytics, Competitive Analysis, and more.