Internet Marketing and SEO

“Twitter…? This is not for me!” Too many businesses still believe this! Nonetheless, Twitter does offer numerous possibilities for any type of business. There are good reasons several multinational corporations and SMB’s take advantage of Twitter. Just look at the following examples @Ford, @Bombardier, @ATSContainers or @BB_SourisVerte.

Here are some of the ways businesses use Twitter:

Share your news

Your customers need to know what is happening in your business and thanks to Twitter you can easily share this information. Whether it is a new product, a new factory or any other information linked to your business, you will be able to quickly share it all. In addition to keeping your customers informed, you will be able to find new customers for your products and services.

Show your expertise

Do you really know what you have to offer? Prove it, while sharing important information about your business sector. Customers will be more open to doing business, if you demonstrate your expertise and show that your services are also your passion.

Help your customers

Twitter is a way of providing unparalleled customer service. Answering questions and comments is a way to maintain customer loyalty. In addition to answering your own client questions, other Twitter subscribers can help you answer the questions and save you time! Looking for an example of unparalleled customer service? Some restaurants offer gift certificates to customers who share the fact they have not enjoyed their meal!

Humanize your company

For many of your customers and employees, your business may be just a stone building operated by robots and machines. Twitter allows you to demonstrate the human side of your business and show customers your personality.

Surveying your customers

Do you want to launch a new product or service? What better way to check on the popularity of the product before investing a ton of money? With Twitter, you can present your products to your customers; find out what they think and how to improve the products. You save time and money!

Know what people think of you

With Twitter, you can see if people are talking about you. On search.twitter.com, type the name of your company or your products and see all the messages pertaining to your business. It‘s a simple and effective way to verify the quality of your products and customer satisfaction!

Hiring

Finding it difficult to hire employees? Not with Twitter! Twitter allows you to instantly reach people who are already interested in your business. You will easily find passionate people seeking employment in your business sector!

You can see how Twitter helps you find customers, sell products and of course increase visits to your website. Not convinced about the benefits? Just search “CoffeeGroundz Twitter” on Google; the story of a small coffee seller who doubled sales through Twitter. Need more convincing, feel free to ask me questions on Twitter.com/David_Royy.

People find you by using Google, but there remains an essential element to be determined; which words will they use to find you?

When Google finds your site, it associates it with certain key words. By using these words, people will then find you in the search engines. It is therefore paramount, before using the web for Internet Marketing, to choose key words which will be useful to you and especially to your visitors. Here are six qualities which your key words must have:

Note: The term ‘key word’ used in this article is interchangeable with the term ‘key phrase’, which means group of key words.

Be representative

Would you put this word on your business card? This is the question you should ask yourself. If the answer is no, then you have made the wrong choice! The key words you select for your Internet Marketing will be found on your site and choosing words that are unrepresentative will reflect poorly on you and your brand image. Therefore, select key words that best represent your company.

Be specific to your company

Too many people choose their key words based on the competition. Although it is good to be aware of your competitors, consider your own situation first and foremost. Because a competitor uses a key word does not necessarily mean that it is a good choice. Ensure that your key words describe you and the sales will follow. You can choose better SEO key words then your competition. Just do it!

Be precise

The more precise your key word is in portraying a service or a product, the greater your chances of success. Those who search using general key words are often more interested in getting information than in making purchases. Moreover, these general words often attract people who are not necessarily looking for your products. For example, a user who searches for “web design” may be searching for software, guidance or other types of information. A user who searches “web design company” is more likely to be looking for a company to create his site. This key phrase would be more significant for a Web design company. This is why you want to use specific key phrases rather than general key words.

Be conscious of the user

Think like the user and not as if you were conducting the search. Perhaps you sell “residential theft protection systems” but your customer is searching for “home security”. You must put yourself in the place of the users by choosing key words that they would use for their search.

Be achievable

A key word that represents you is good, but only if it has high visibility! When you chose your key words or you Internet Marketing efforts, ensure that you will be able to place in the top positions of the search engines. Even if your key word generates thousands of searches, it will be of no benefit to you if your page is not high in the search engine results.

Be targeted

Once you have chosen your key words, make sure to associate them with the correct pages. If your key word is found on a page that is too general, the visitor is likely to leave the site very quickly. Consider this situation; a user searching for a recipe book wants to land on a page of recipe books and not on an unrelated home page. The closer the visitor is to the product he searched for the greater the chance of a sale. Don’t make the user visit the whole site needlessly.

Never neglect the choice of your key words, this choice will have a big impact on the contents of your site as well as the number of visitors. Don’t hesitate to seek Internet Marketing professional advice. You can contact me at david@kezber.com.

From the outset Google has been in a constant state of evolution. The ever changing nature of its algorithm makes it difficult to interpret and we may never know all the elements which influence the outcome of a Google search.

In spite of this unknown, it is clear that the people behind Google want each user search to get the best possible outcome from a search. For this reason people see more and more differences in the results of a search. Google seeks to recognize each user as an individual and offer search results that reflect this individuality. This is why your search results differ from those of your neighbor and even more from people in other parts of the world.

At the outset of an Internet Marketing or SEO campaign, it is quite important to understand the reasons behind these differences. Here are 10 of these elements which affect the results of a Google search:

1. The Google Top Level Domain

The principal influence on a Google search is which of the 176 Google Top Level Domains (TLD) you select. A Top Level Domain is recognized by the domain name extensions, .com, .ca, .fr etc. The results of a search are quite different according to the TLD selected. A visit to Google.ca means that your search primarily includes the Canadian market while a Google.com search gives you more international results. There are many other functions that could modify your search results. For example, on Google.ca you can select the language and you can choose to display only pages written in French or pages from Canada. You can also personalize your search with options like “Advanced Search” and “Preferences”. Like the TLD, these selections will ultimately influence your search results.

2. Your Use of Google Tools

When you use Google products like Gmail or Adwords, you must first setup an account. Through this account Google continuously collects your personal information, things like your actions on the pages you visit and your search preferences. Through the collection of this information, Google assigns you a profile and modifies your searches to reflect the way you use the Internet. Items like the Google toolbar, relays information to Google on how you navigate the Internet, which can also influence your searches.

3. Adding a Location Term to your Search

The addition of key word or key phrase to a Google search that includes a geographical reference will significantly affect the results of your search. For example, there is a big difference between the results of a search using the key phrase Montreal web design company versus New York web design company. Although both searches include the key phrase web design company, the Google posted search results reflect the geographic location referenced in your key word or key phrase. It is therefore important to take into consideration a company’s business location when optimizing an internet site for a SEO campaign.

4. Your Google Cookies

When you visit Google, cookies are automatically installed on your computer. These cookies operate using the same principle as a Google account, making it possible for Google to analyze and record your preferences. The cookies operate in the background and scrutinize your use of the Internet in order to provide you with search results that reflect your unique internet footprint. Google can track internet preferences without the user being aware that it is happening.

5. Your Internet Browser

Google tends to associate internet users by the browser type used for searching. For Google, a Firefox user is seen as different from one who prefers Internet Explorer or Chrome. For example, Google associates a Firefox user with every other Firefox users so his search results resemble those of the other users. The language of the browser is also important because Google tends to present more results in the browsers own language. For example, a search using the French version of Firefox can give search results that are very different from the English version of Internet Explorer.

6. Your Computer Type

Google recognizes computer types and this can also affect your search. Computers can be categorized in several ways. They can be laptops or desktops, they use various operating systems such as Windows, Linux or Mac and they can be operated in French, English, Spanish, etc. You can also search from a mobile browser and Google will then favor pages optimized for mobile. All the elements which differentiate one computer from another play a role during the posting of the Google search.

7. Your IP Address

Your IP address can reveal certain information to Google, details like your Internet provider and geographical location. The geographical location will have a profound influence on your Google search results. Google looks at your IP address to roughly determine the location of your computer and then posts results which are in proximity to your computers location. This is the main reason why someone in Japan using Google.com will not obtain the same results as a Canadian using the same Google.

8. The Sites you frequent

The types of Internet sites you habitually visit are recorded by Google in a site history using cookies or information from your Google account. Google can then provide search results that better reflect your interest as determined by search histories.

9. Your Default Address on Google Maps

When you use Google Maps, you have the option to define your default address which allows Google to determine the geographical position which best corresponds to your location. The Google engine will then use this address to influence your search results. If you use a street address in Las Vegas as a default address, Google may conclude that you are not very interested in European companies.

10. Google Servers

This last element is more technical than the others. When you conduct a search on a Google site you connect to Google Data Center servers. In order to reduce the search time and the operating costs of its search engine, Google does not connect to all of its servers (which are represented by various IP addresses). It’s like using a library for a search; to save time and effort you would not read all the books on a certain subject in that library. You will miss some information but the overall portrait of your search will likely be the same. It is the same principle for Google, searches will always be very similar, but some difference can appear. This explains why your results could vary from one day to the next, even if the nine other elements previously discussed remain identical at the time of your search.

Finally, with all the secrecy surrounding Google and its algorithm, it is difficult to gauge the exact impact these ten elements will have on your search results. What is certain is that combining several of these elements will greatly affect your search results. The next time you conduct a search, remember that your search results are unique and that the order of results displayed are certainly not the same as those of your neighbour! This is an important consideration when analyzing web site rankings in an Internet Marketing campaign!

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