 Using YouTube For SEO And Commerce
Reel SEO
YouTube recently rolled out "click-to-buy" ads for music (and gaming) videos that let viewers click over to Amazon.com or iTunes and buy the music (or game) featured in the clips. Unfortunately, the ad units are geared toward YouTube "partners," which typically are larger, more established companies. Smaller businesses seeking to use the video property for e-commerce and search benefits need to try alternative measures, one of which Grant Crowell outlines in this post.
"For your YouTube Description field, lead with a hot URL to your Web site," Crowell says. "It serves as a direct call-to-action with good proximity to the video and how people's eyes normally go from left-to-right." Plug your call-to-action in on the first description line. A blender video, for example, could say "Buy our Super Ice Crusher blender here," and then enter the "hot" URL to the product page on your Web site next. In the following lines, add more product descriptions, relevant keywords and if there's room, details on what people will see when they click on the link.
"You can take this strategy even further," Crowell says. "Do a video for each individual product or service you have, and any popular and targeted subject matter. The Hot URL becomes your call-to-action landing page for every single video, allowing you to track your YouTube video-to-on-site conversion." - Read the whole story... Brands Tapping Twitter
Search Engine Journal
Ann Smarty rounds up a list of big brands that are tapping Twitter for its marketing and reputation management capabilities. Dell, for example, has created multiple profiles tailored to specific kinds of deals. "DellOutlet posts recent refurbished Dell computer offers," Smarty says.
Meanwhile, Whole Foods recommends new foodie podcasts for their shoppers and invites them to in-store events, and Forrester Research is using Twitter to post snippets of engaging forum discussions. Smarty also breaks down the main ways companies use the micro-blogging/instant messaging network, which include making it an alternative customer service/support platform, to reach to their feedback, to post company news, and to promote the corporate blog. - Read the whole story... Page Rank Isn't The Best Barometer Of Online Influence
Vanessa Fox. Nude.
Vanessa Fox goes toe-to-toe with Steve Rubel in this piece, disagreeing with his assertion that a site's PageRank is the ultimate barometer of its influence in the online world. Rubel's argument, in a nutshell, is that since Google uses a number of factors to determine PageRank, and since Google is the primary starting point for most Internet users, its assessment of a site (i.e. the site's PageRank) is the best measure of whether you're producing quality content. Not so, Fox says.
"I agree with him that we need better measures and the ones that we have are looking through a glass darkly (at best), but PageRank is probably one of the worst measures around," Fox says. "At the simplest level, PageRank (both toolbar and internal) is a measure of a page's link popularity."
She says that toolbar PageRank, in particular, is almost useless because it's infrequently updated, it can easily be gamed, and it often isn't an accurate reflection of actual SERP rankings. Meanwhile, the way Google calculates internal PageRank is still relatively obscure. - Read the whole story... Using Trust Symbols To Boost Conversions
PPC Hero
Including trust and credibility symbols on your Web site (like the VeriSign secured logo or a secure socket layer notification) can be one of the small tweaks it takes to help boost conversions. That's according to Tim Ash, author of Landing Page Optimization and CEO of SiteTuners.com. Amber Benedict reviews a presentation Ash recently gave during the PPC Summit, which focused on the small things site owners could do to make readers feel secure about providing things like contact info or making purchases with a credit card.
"Trust symbols would include safe site logos and secure checkout logos," Benedict says. "Credibility elements should include any awards the company has won, any news articles that company has been featured in, case studies, and company logos that you have or are currently working for. Having these elements on your site will reduce the amount of risk a potential buyer may feel while doing their research and browsing your site."
Of course, incorporating these symbols, badges and endorsements throughout the Web site is key. Having the logo visible while consumers are checking out (or filling out a subscription form) is good, but reinforcing that trust by showing the logos on product pages (or even the homepage) is better. - Read the whole story... Introducing Yahoo Web Analytics
Webware
Yahoo has rebranded IndexTools as Yahoo Web Analytics, likely the first step in really giving Google Analytics a run for its money. "Its big advantage over Google Analytics is that the information is updated within a few minutes of user activity," says Josh Lowensohn. "In comparison, stats from Google tend to take about 24 hours, however anyone can sign up for it."
Currently, the only issue with the new suite is the excessively high demand for it. While advertisers and third-party developers already have access to Yahoo Web Analytics, small business owners and other interested parties are being added to a wait list. But there's an easy way to get your hands on the new version ahead of the masses, Lowensohn says, and that's to tap Yahoo for either search or display ad services. - Read the whole story... |
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