WSI Marketing, Surf, Search and Social

Do you have a company presentation? You can use SlideShare to get the message out about your business. SlideShare provides tools and web space for publishing your business presentations online.

An astonishing 25 million website visitors – most of them professional people – participate in SlideShare every month, making it ‘the world’s largest community for sharing presentations‘.

How Can SlideShare Help you?

Participating as part of the SlideShare community enables you to upload, enhance and share your slides, and discuss other PowerPoint, PDF and Open Office presentations with like-minded people.

The purpose-built online sharing tools allow presentations to be shared privately (for internal use only), as well as publicly, with the aim of eliciting some social interaction from your target audience.

Getting Your Message Heard
Spreading your sales message across multiple web platforms is part of an effective Web 2.0 marketing strategy. With this is mind, you can use SlideShare to help:

• Upload your company presentation to share with new and existing customers
• Publish tutorials about your products to enhance your support services
• Share slides from business presentations as a means of reference and promotion
• Develop conversations with other businesses that relate to your industry
• Add insightful comments to enhance other presentations in your niche

To bring an extra dimension to your presentations, SlideShare tools allow you to synchronize audio with your slides. Once a presentation is viewed, the user interface provides all the usual methods of sharing content across the web that millions of web users are now accustomed to just as in YouTube.

Making New Connections
As well as publishing your own materials, use the SlideShare search tool to find other presentations that relate to your target market – or simply to locate topics that interest you. Make comments and contribute genuinely to enhance the presenter’s message.

As part of the SlideShare community you can join and create groups related to your areas of interest. Monitoring groups will allow you to hone in on who will be most compatible with your interests. It will also give you a feel for the tone to take when you first make contact.

Presentation Tips
Adopting a professional but simple approach to preparing your business presentations will enable you to publish short, succinct and memorable marketing messages. With this in mind, here are some tips:

• Be creative with your copy – not with ‘wizzy’ effects
• Keep the presentation style simple – a light colour background for your slides is ideal
• If you are using images, optimize them so the slides load immediately
• Keep your messages short and to the point
• Consider adding some personality – it is a social networking site, after all
• Don’t overwhelm the viewer with facts and figures; use them to enhance your message, not as your message.

Additionally, if you use business presentations, you may want to consider dusting them off and publishing them on the web.

There are many more digital marketing techniques like this that will help your business gain exposure and drive growth online. Here are a few of the world-class online strategies you can implement into your company’s digital marketing mix.

I get this question all the time. Unfortunately, it’s not an easy question to answer.

To back up a bit, there has been a major shift in the marketing rules in just the last few years. Interrupt marketing (commercials, pop-ups, banners) and passive marketing (magazine ads, flyers and mailers, phonebook ads) have become less effective as more people are engaged with the Internet. I give talks to groups of business owners, and at the start of each talk, always ask two questions:

1. How many of you have used the yellow pages in the last month? (a few hands go up)
2. How many of you used Google yesterday? (every single hand in the room goes up)

This is a poignant illustration that we all use Google and the other search engines to search for products and services, and do research before making a purchase or finding a company to do business with. Unfortunately, many businesses still cling to the “old ways”.

As business owners start to realize that their advertising dollars bring fewer new clients in the front door, they start to wonder, “What would it take to get onto Google and the other search engines?” That’s where the question, “How much does SEO cost?” comes in.

There are so many factors that determine who gets to be “king of the Google hill” and who is relegated to the bottom of the heap. We don’t have a magic wand to wave over a client’s website to make it to the top. It’s been documented that Google actually changes the rules every single day! Furthermore, the client’s website itself usually has significant enough problems that prevent it from performing the way it could on the search engines.

We always recommend that a business that wants to get ahead of their competition on the search engines, must have us perform a thorough analysis. It’s kind of like going to the doctor. You may have a pain that’s bothering you, but the doctor isn’t going to just recommend surgery or a prescription. They have to run tests – blood work, diagnostics, x-rays, and so on, before deciding upon a course of action.

Similarly, WSI’s analysis looks at many factors:

• The client’s website coding structure (think of it as their vital signs)
• A 25-point SEO readiness checklist (health history)
• A WebScan™ that looks at on-site and off-site factors (an x-ray)
• Keyword research – what are people really searching for? (We hate shooting in the dark!)
• Competitor research – what do the client’s search engine competitors look like (environmental factors)

Once our diagnostic analysis has been completed, then we can effectively answer the question, “How much does SEO cost?” It may be just fixing a few things on the site, or it may be “major surgery”, depending upon how aggressive and competitive the landscape is.

If you as a business owner want to get to the top, insist that your digital marketing expert run these tests to diagnose the problem. It’s better to know up front what you’re facing, rather than shooting in the dark and completely missing the mark!

Learn more about how WSI Consultants leverage SEO techniques that will help your business gain competitive rankings for your site.

WordPress is an excellent blogging platform with loads of blogging features. It’s easy to set-up and maintain to make sure you can start blogging straight out of the box. WordPress can be used as a blogging platform, CMS (content management system), E-Commerce platform, social network, press release website, etc.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plays a big role in blog marketing and any other online marketing strategy to make sure your content is listed on the search engines.

WordPress out of the box doesn’t include enhanced SEO features but having one of the biggest open source communities in the world, smart people created a couple of plugins that can be installed without any hassle to make sure your blog gets listed on the top search engines. Find below a couple of plugins to help you optimize your WordPress blog.

WordPress SEO plugins list

• All in one SEO pack (Optimized your blog for the search engines. You can add specific keywords and meta descriptions for your blog posts).
• Google XML Sitemaps (Creates an XML sitemap containing links to all your categories, pages and blog posts)
• Platinum SEO Plugin (Similar to All in one SEO pack with a couple of extra features)
• SEO Smart Links (SEO Smart Links can automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts and comments with corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your posts.)
• SEO Slugs (Long URL’s may have a better ranking in search engines because it will contain more keywords. But search engines like Google tends to ignore some common keywords such as “you”, “a”, “the”, and “what”. This plugin will remove all the unused common keywords in your URL)
• SEO No Duplicate WordPress Plugin (If you must have duplicate content on your site for whatever reason, SEO No Duplicate will allow you to state which version of the post search engines should index while ignoring the others.)
• Robots Meta (Robots Meta enables users to control which pages/posts can be indexed and which can’t.)
• Nofollow Case by Case (This plugin allows you to strip the “nofollow” command from your comments, and then you can apply it to only the comments you don’t wish to support.)
• Google positioner (It’s important to know your keywords. And this handy plugin allows you to track the keywords you’re getting searches for.)
• Broken link checker (This plugin will monitor links in your site and list out links that don’t work or any missing images.)

Have you ever Googled your name, business, brand, product, or website? Try it; you may be surprised by the results. Some companies have lost significant business and authority with their potential customers because of what is written online about them. Even if your business doesn’t have its own website, the Internet could still be damaging your reputation.

Why?

Disgruntled employees or customers could leave negative reviews on review websites. These may even be false negative reviews that have been written by competitors to try and ruin a reputation. Whatever the reasons, it’s likely to be having some kind of damaging effect on your business and you should take action.

Legal Action

Getting negative reviews and posts removed is a lengthy battle that could incur costs and you may not even manage it in the end. Online publishers can be difficult to trace and ISPs (Internet Service Providers)  are often unwilling to remove search engine listings. It can take several months or even years if you are successful and this may only deal with one such post on one website. If the writer is trying really hard to ruin your name then they are likely to re-word their negative piece and then post it elsewhere. And what if the legal action is unsuccessful?  This can give the story even greater publicity!

So, whilst there are legal avenues designed to help remove false negative publicity, it is better to take action and implements a savvy digital marketing strategy, which will perhaps work to bury the negative online content and replace it with positive or informative pieces.



Of course, there are countless other methods to maintaining a positive online reputation! contact us uf you would like more information

Did you realize that more than 60% of us prefer to do business with a local business in our own neighborhood? As consumers, we’re always searching for “wallet-ready” businesses like auto repair shops, electricians, hair salons, attorneys, restaurants and so on. But each of these businesses has plenty of local competition.

This is precisely why it has never been more important for the business owner to be found in their local town, city or region.

You have people searching for your business online right now and you need to ensure that your business will stand out from your local competition! But competition for placement on the search engines is stiff. How can you possibly guarantee that your business stands out easily and can be found by those who are searching for your product or service?

This question (and more) will be covered in a complimentary whitepaper entitled: “Driving Business with Local Search: Your Customers Are Looking For You!” Written by WSI Search Engine Expert, Tom Petty, this whitepaper can help you realize the benefits, strategies and techniques for developing best-in-class local SEO campaigns.

And to take full advantage of Tom Petty’s search engine know-how, you can also register for the free webinar of the same subject. With both the webinar and the whitepaper, you’ll definitely be well-equipped to improve your business’ online visibility and SEO strategy. This is your free access to invaluable digital marketing expertise and it’s a chance to use gain an edge against your local competition!

Digital marketing has a do-it-yourself, pioneering nature at its core. So it’s tempting to think that search engine optimization (SEO) is one aspect of digital marketing that we can do ourselves. Yet anyone who has tried just that knows how time-consuming and stress-producing it can be, which makes the thought of hiring an SEO professional quite tempting. We know that going pro likely will save precious time while providing relief that the right person is in charge of this important task.

So how do we solve our SEO dilemma? Do we go to the pros or do we forge ahead with our own homemade marketing plan? Maybe we can handle SEO ourselves, but should we?

SEO – Do It Yourself

Done properly, SEO is a digital marketing strategy that utilizes all aspects of search engine optimization. From social media and content marketing to developing strong keywords and monitoring web analytics, strong and effective SEO plans should cover all the bases. Doing it yourself without any prior experience can open a can of worms you may be unprepared to deal with. SEO requires daily maintenance and upkeep that busy professionals simply don’t have time to for.

SEO – Hiring a Professional

If you are like most business owners who barely have time to Tweet or write company blogs, then hiring out your SEO development is the best move for your business. Not only will a WSI SEO expert take advantage of tools like Google, but they will also dig deeper into search engine optimization. By analyzing your specific needs, SEO experts can customize their services to suit your specific business needs. Instead of trial and error, digital marketing consultants know a variety of techniques to help bring an immediate increase in targeted traffic to your site. Ultimately, a certified SEO expert could provide you and your business a sense of security and maybe a few extra moments of relaxation.

Content marketing, much like SEO and social media marketing, is a snap if you have the right tools and techniques to reach your desired audience. Read on for some “gotta have ’em” strategies for content marketing in today’s new media world.

Content Marketing Tools

The tools for content marketing cover a lot of ground, but don’t get flabbergasted. Multiple means of content marketing help your business’ visibility in the crowded content population. E-newsletters, company blogs, social media pages and press releases are some tools to help push your brilliant content to the front of your customers’ conscience. The more places for content to be read, digested and forwarded, the better. Social media is a fast-acting tool that encourages spreading the word. By discussing content with followers on Twitter or fans on Facebook, you can speak directly to your clients while delivering content right to your intended audience. Your company blog can be linked in tweets, while press release information regarding new services and products can be posted on social media pages. Homespun publications like emailed newsletters or e-magazines are another brilliant home for original content — as well as an invaluable tool for new clients.

Content Marketing Techniques

When it comes to techniques, there are dozens. But one of the most effective is ROI (return on investment) tracking. ROI tracking is a technique that allows you to peek in on how well your content marketing is working. Tracking should be implemented into all strategies with early reporting to establish basic baseline metrics (the barometer of how our content plans are performing). After taking a peek at our baseline metrics, we then can determine which content marketing strategies stay and which need to be tossed out.

Why Content Marketing?

All of these tools and techniques, however, are of little use unless we see why content marketing is important to your business’ digital marketing strategy. Content is the bread and butter of the Internet. If you don’t have anything unique or interesting to say, then you won’t gather readers or attract new customer. Likewise, if you don’t market your witty, wonderful, one-of-a-kind content, then it simply goes to waste.

Content marketing is a fun and exciting way to reach readers and, more importantly, buyers. Contact us now for more dish on the latest content marketing tips and techniques.

Title tags is one of the most important tags on a web page for on page SEO. A website title (defined with the title tag) is the first thing that appears on search engine result pages (SERP) on which the site visitors click to go to the site.

Simple on page Search Engine Optimization methods like the title tag can make such a big difference on how well a website does on the search result pages. Many website owners are not even aware about the title tag defined within the HTML of the page (<title>page title</title>). Most website owners confuse it with the big bold text on the page.

SEO Title Tag Tips

1. The length of your titles should not exceed 65 characters including the spaces.
2. Use your keyword phrases in the title tag, taking care that the title looks natural and does not appear keyword stuffed.
3. If you wish to use your site name for branding, use your brand or site name at the end of the title tag on every page of your site. A good way to separate your title from your brand/business name is by using the “|” symbol between them.
4. Each page of your site should have a unique, descriptive title tag which should match with your page content. It also makes sense to reuse the text in title tag of each page in H1 header tag too – from the viewpoint of on-page optimization as well as for enhancing user experience.
5. Shorter page titles are usually better than long ones. However, longer titles make sense when you don’t want to lose traffic from long tail keywords. You may also combine or overlap many keyword phrases in the page title. For example, a title such as ‘Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Tips’ can help you to rank for keyword phrases such as ‘Search Engine Marketing’, ‘Search Engine Optimization Tips’, etc.
6. A compelling title can attract more eyeballs and clicks when your page appears in search results. You should therefore focus on the art of writing headlines and titles for improving your conversion rate.