If you have not been using videos on your website as a way to market your business and Orange County ecommerce website, what have you been waiting for? While we do not advocate throwing videos on your site just to have them up there, we are fairly certain that you can find a way to incorporate video into your plan to improve Orange County search engine positioning .

Here are our top three tips for using video on your website:

1. Keep it simple
A lot of people get in front of a camera and get a little goofy. If you are just beginning to use video, you can get more elaborate as you go. For now, keep your video short and to the point. Start with just one person talking in front of a simple background.

2. Tell people why they are watching
We have started to watch many a video online and been unclear as to the purpose of the video. State the reason you made the video and what you want people to do (order a product, attend a seminar, etc.).

3. Ask people to comment on your video
You do not want your video to be a static thing that just sits on your site; you want it to be part of a dialogue. So encourage people to leave comments because then they will feel as if they are connected to your organization and other people who use the site. Some people may come back to your site to read the comments of others. It takes different mediums to reach different people. Someone who may not comment on a blog, may have something to say about a video and what they say may give your organization insight into how to do more to connect with your customers and the community.

If you need help getting started, the Orange County SEO cosultants  at Increase Visibility are here to help.

Not too long ago, we stressed that content is king and we are constantly reminded just how true this is. One reason why we advocate having quality content, such as press releases, available on your website is that you never know who will decide to pick it up. You may get a call from a news organization hoping to interview someone on your staff or a mention in a prominent publication (online or print).

One business owner we know posted a white paper on her website and was very happy to learn that it has been picked up by one of the top websites for her industry. While people outside of her industry may not know much about this particular website, it is widely read within her industry. And getting recognition within your own field is a big deal because it establishes you as an expert. Despite what some people may think, sharing information with colleagues is not counterproductive. Sometimes people who do exactly what you do are your best advertisers. They tell people inside and outside of your field about you and may refer business to you.

But in order for them to do this, they have to know that you are around. This is why online visibility is so important. Good content and SEO go hand in hand. If you have great content, but know one know that your website it there, then all of that helpful information just sits without really reaching an audience. On the other hand, if you are doing all you can to optimize searches for your website, but you have not touched the content in years, you will reach people who stop by and do not return because they are disappointed.

Increase Visibility wants you to have the complete package. We want you to increase your reach and customer base through your website and we want your website to be an important resource for people who are interested in organizations like yours. We offer a free website analysis and examine your website first. There are companies that will promise you great search engine rankings and start submitting your site to directories and set you up for pay-per-click ads without having a clue about what it is you do. Increase Visibility does not do this. We know that we need to know something about your business in order to tailor an effective SEO and organic search placement campaign.

On Tuesday, we looked at some of the changes that Google has recently made to its search options, included letting internet users pick from lists of which media they want to see and letting them decide just how far back in time they want to go. The ability to go as far back as one year (and probably further) means that what you do to optimize your web presence today can have an effect on how people perceive your organization in the future. When you build your web presence and work on improving your search engine ranking, you are helping to build an archive of relevant data about your operations and your field.

 
Google users are now also able to change just how they view the information they request in searches. They can choose:

 
Related Searches: This means that a Google user can get a several lists with searches that relate. Some people would tell you that you should just optimize for every possible thing. We would not advocate that approach. You should, however, be certain to optimize for a range of subjects that are truly related to your business. Increase Visibility offers a free website analysis  to see if your website is making the most of the keywords used to find organizations like yours.
Timeline: With this option, a Google user can see search results grouped by dates. For those who are searching for time-specific content, this will make things a lot easier.
Wonder Wheel: If you have read up a little on education, you know that some people are visual learners. For this people, lists don’t quite work. This is where something like the Wonder Wheel comes into play. The main topic is in the center of the wheel and related topics are spun off onto spokes.
Take some time to play with these new search options to get a feel for the many ways in which someone can come across your organization. This will help you to understand more about the importance of organic search placement. You want to be in the places where people who are looking for you will be able to find you, but you don’t want to force it. If you try to stuff your website with what you think are popular keywords just because. Doing that means that people who are not looking for you will get to your site and may not find is useful. In the meantime the people who would benefit from connecting with you, may not get to you.

When it comes to improving SEO, content is king. Yes, you should be submitting your site to relevant directories and using pay-per-click advertising…but if the content is not there, what will people click through when they come to your website?

 
Some people have the idea the content really only matters if your main product is some kind of service. They figure that service providers need to demonstrate knowledge and expertise through articles or a blog. This is true, a service provider certainly does want to use their website to show just how that they are an authority and provide evidence of how they can be of assistance…but this does not mean that people who are selling a product rather than a service have no knowledge or expertise to share. High quality content is a must for your website no matter what kind of business you are in because good content draws people in and brings them back.

As they say, knowledge is power. When your website has quality content, people are drawn to it and will tell others what they have learned from your organization. They may do this live and in person. They may also do it by forwarding something they have read on your site to someone else or by linking to your site from theirs. Either way, you win. You can see an increase in link popularity and traffic if you have interesting, relevant content that relates to your product, expertise and sphere of influence.

 
One way to start is by issuing press releases and this is something that Increase Visibility can do for you. Press releases are often one of the main ways a business attempts to get its message out to the public.  Issuing press releases on a regular basis will ensure that there is fresh content on your website (something that search engines love) and it will inform visitors about the exciting things your organization is doing. Furthermore, creating additional web pages specifically for press releases and spider crawling will also provide the search engines with more pages to index and users more ways to find a business’s website. Our press release programs work hand in hand with our SEO programs.

 
Press releases not only drive traffic based on the content and targeted market but they will also help to create link popularity, which is a very important part in determining good positions in the search engines.

An international powerhouse in IT research recently issued a report which stated that online retailers would see the most improvement if they focused on SEO instead of trying to build a website with all of the bells and whistles.

This by no means indicates that they are telling people that how their website looks and function is of little importance.  They were also not saying that site design means nothing. You want to get more visitors and make sure that when they come to your site the stick around and maybe even return. However, depending on your business, getting new graphics or adding a video may not be the best way to do this.

What they are saying is that the best way to grow your business is to increase visibility and get your name out there. Even if your website is rather plain-looking, as long as it is not sloppy, it makes more sense to build web traffic than it does to spend tons of money revamping a website that is not drawing a lot of visitors. This is one time when saying, “if you build it, they will come” does not necessarily work all that well. Putting a site up on the internet brings no guarantees.

And be aware that this notion is catching on among online retailers. A different research firm polled Shop.org members and found that 70 percent of the retailers who responded indicated that they plan to keep or increase their budgets for online marketing. That means a majority of your fellow online storekeepers will not be slashing their online marketing budgets or doing less to reach people via the internet. They will be doing more and more to got to customers online.

If you want to know more about how you can increase your online visibility, reach more customers and boost sales, let us help. Start with our free website analysis. This will allow our trained technicians to see what the search engines see and determine what needs to be done to improve the success and top positions of your website. One of our experienced search engine consultants will email you the findings within 24 hours of your request and then contact you to discuss your options and how we can help you increase your revenue this year from your company website.

Without even trying the micro-blogging site Twitter found that getting the endorsement of some celebrities helps Increase Visibility.

We’ve mentioned before that Twitter and social media can expand your reach, and as if to prove this celebrities have signed on in a big way. If you hadn’t heard, actor Ashton Kutcher is on Twitter, and at one point he challenged CNN to see who could get up to one million followers the fastest. Now of course Mr. Kutcher was not out to gain attention for Twitter or even for CNN; he is a celebrity and businessperson who knows there is a need to feed the publicity machine to keep his name out there. The actor won, as you may have guessed (if you didn’t already know–hey, even Ashton Kutcher can’t reach everyone).

 
Twitter is a micro-blogging site where you are limited to writing just 140 characters for each post. Now someone may thing that you cannot say much in 140 words, but people are exchanging useful information and making important business connections via these short communications.  Those of you who are intimidated by the thought of writing blog posts that consist of complete paragraphs should consider Twitter, where communication is quite brief.

 
Twitter has received endorsements and lots of press because of celebs that Oprah and Diddy, as well as from everyday citizens who use this micro-blogging service. And as we mentioned before, (as far as we know), Twitter did not pay for or go out and seek these endorsements. Twitter made its presence known and soon word spread, until the mainstream media caught Twitter mania. Now articles about Twitter pop up in newspapers, magazines, online–everywhere.

 
You may not be able to get a Hollywood star to spontaneously endorse your business or product, so you will probably have to be a little more deliberate about increasing your visibility online. One way for you to do this is to engage in Reciprocal Link Exchange. When you seek our help to increase link popularity, this will greatly aid in boosting your natural positions and give you some targeted traffic from other sites of interest. This will drastically improve your PR and search engine position over a period of time if used correctly.  With the assistance and guidance of Increase Visibility, your link exchange campaign can help to make your site a winner. Building a good set of reciprocal link exchange partners can be a long task, which is why our service is competitively priced.

 
We have 4 different link monthly packages, they can be purchased separately or are also included as part of our full SEO packages.

Deciding where to focus your energies and marketing budget can be tough. Depending on the type of business you are in, you may find that a lot of your revenue comes from on kind of source and you may be reluctant to venture out into new territory. Yet, if you do not, you may find yourself in big trouble if your traditional sources of revenue disappear foe one reason or another.

 
If you are a part of an organization that has been reluctant to make a big push on the web, now may be the time to reconsider and throw more weight behind your website and online storefront. For example, if you are fairly certain that you get a lot of walk-in traffic or that yours is a primarily locally supported business, it will not hurt to reach out to the broader region, the country and even the world. You never know when a construction project will complicate access to your store. Or you may find that what you are offering falls out of favor with local consumers, but that people in other areas are still very much interested in your products.

 
According to Internet World Stats, only 26.2% of internet users are based in the United States. The other 73.8% are in countries other than the U.S. We cannot break down just how many speak and read the same language as you, but we are willing to be that if your website is primarily written in English, you will be able to attract a global following.

 
The great thing about the web is that it is on 24/7, so you do not have to be concerned with shop hours and time zones. People at home and abroad can get on their computers and read and see all about your business…

 
…at least they can if they know that you are there. And this is where Increase Visibility comes in to the picture. If you want to make sure that more and more people are introduced to your business through the world wide web, you need to do more to establish your online presence. We can help you through our comprehensive array of search engine optimization services, including pay-per-click advertising, directory placement, and keyword analysis. Check out our SEO plans to see which one may be right for you. Feel free to call us as 1-877-SEO-ADVICE (877-736-2384) with any questions that you may have.

Earlier in the week we talked about how sometimes when it comes to SEO, service providers may feel left out of the game. The notion that optimizing your website matters little because you are not online selling a product that people can order and have shipped to them is incorrect. As a service provider, you are selling your expertise. Even though it does not come in a box, you still want to make sure that your website does more than list your address and phone number. You want your website to project your professionalism and authority. And if it already does that–great! Now you need to get the word out to the masses so that you can increase your client base.

 
One medical consortium found that making the most of their website was a boon to their online traffic. After implementing search engine optimization techniques to get people to the site, they use social networking to further strengthen the connection and to stay on search engines’ radar. By having doctors who are part of the consortium blog on the site, they were able to increase the site’s original content, something that search engines value. They also were able to reach out to existing and potential patients who were able to get to know more about the doctors that work for them.

 
Their increased web visibility certainly helped more new patients find them. And it also helped potential employees find them also. Doctors, nurses and other professionals who were looking to work for a forward-thinking medical group are likely to be impressed when they see an up-to-date website.

 
The Social Media Marketing component that you get when you choose one of Increase Visibility’s SEO plans includes:

 
• Blog Commenting – in an effort to build link popularity and drive direct traffic to your site, we will find blogs with relative content and post comments about your products and/or services.
• Social Bookmarking – in addition to posting blog comments, we will also promote any mention of you in blogs, articles, news releases, etc. in social bookmarking sites which will help drive traffic to your site.
• Article Marketing – if you have any articles that you have written about your company, products or services, we will submit those to top article marketing sites, blogs and social bookmarking sites.

A lot of times when we discuss search engine optimization on this blog, we talk about products and storefronts (be they physical brick-and-mortar storefronts or virtual online ones) and at times we mention services too. However, we are aware that some of you who are service providers may not really quite see just how SEO can help you if your main product is not something you manufacture, but something that you do. Well, thanks for bringing that up (smile); we would be glad to tell you just how organic search placement and SEO can make a difference for your business.

 
Good SEO can do wonders for reputation management and bring your website to the very top of the pile when internet users are searching for a service provider in a particular area. Many years ago some business purposefully chose names like “AAA Plumbing” so that they would be first in the phone book. There is no need to alter your organization’s name in that fashion since the internet is not alphabetical. Instead, you need to make sure that your site has the keywords that people associate with your service. You also want to make sure that your website is listed in pertinent local directories and perhaps you may even want to put some pay-per-click advertising in place to increase your online visibility a little faster.

 
While everyone is not on the internet, a overwhelming number of people are. And even those who do not use the internet are more likely than not connected to someone who does. Word of mouth does not just spread based on actually experience. People go out and talk about the service providers they have read online too, even if they have never once visited the place they are discussing.

 
With that in mind, you want to make sure that people can find you online and that what they find is worth discussing. Increase Visibility can help. Here is some of  what you get when you choose one of our SEO plans:

 
Website Optimization
• Keyword Discovery/Analysis
• Optimize Site
• Promotion
Directory Submission
• Paid Submission.
• Directories Include
• Free Submission

 
Come back later in the week to learn about how one group of service providers used their website to enhance their reputation and increase visibility.

Earlier in the week, we looked at why good organic search engine optimization is not really the same thing as advertising.  With organic search, you have an ever-present internet store window display. We mentioned that while advertising certainly has its place, it is kind of like the old movies where a little more stands out on the sidewalk trying to entice people to by newspapers by yelling “Extra! Extra!” At some point, that little boy will get tired or need to go home.

And when it comes to people just walking by, you may not mind if certain people don’t pay attention because you are not selling papers by volume as the little boy is. With organic search optimization, you have tailored your internet store window with a certain kind of customer in mind. That person will not be able to resist stopping in for more. This is exactly what you want–you want internet users who are interested in what you have to sell and disposed to purchase or at least start to form a connection with you and your products to be drawn to you.

But you may be thinking–how do I know who that person is? If you haven’t already analyzed your ideal web consumer, let Increase Visibility help. We can analyze your web traffic to tell you who is already visiting your site, who is staying and what time they are spending on what pages, among other things. We can also look at your website to see if you are making effective use of the those pages. For example, if it seems that your target customer is not interested in perusing page after page, we can advise you on how to streamline your website.

Increase Visibility offers a free website analysis. We can run this free analysis and provide you with a free ranking report and it will not take forever to complete. This is a service for which most companies charge $399 or more. This will allow our trained technicians to see what the search engines see and determine what needs to be done to improve the success and top positions of your website. An experienced search engine consultant will email you the findings within 24 hours of your request and then contact you to discuss your options and how we can help you increase your revenue this year from your company website.