MediaFirst PR - Atlanta - search engine optimization

7 Reasons Your SEO Efforts Fail

jimcaruso — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:43:38 +0000

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms sell snake oil. Unfortunately, that is how it looks to lots of us, customers of the SEO firm. These are all real issues that I've seen over many years.

Here are the 7 reasons your SEO spend is ineffective:

1.) Search Engines Rank Pages, Not Websites

Remember that Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines rank individual pages, not your website as a whole.

If your SEO company builds links to your home page, but never to the pages for your products or services, these pages will never rank highly in comparison to your competitor's product and services pages.

SEO Companies need to offer optimization that drives traffic to your product and service pages. Although I'm not going to discuss online lead generation in this blog post, be aware that each of your pages need a Call-To-Action (CTA) that will capture leads from visitors.

2.) Your Website Can't Be Found By The Search Engines

Ever see a really beautiful website? Gorgeous website, appealing graphics, lovely video, etc?

If the site is built entirely in Adobe Flash or Flex, it is possible that the website has absolutely no text. Believe it or not, this still happens. My friend Scott was working with a company just last year. The guy had real web traffic and good revenues from his old ugly site, but had it rebuilt. The new site was pretty, but had no text. No text, means that search engine, such as Google, can't see the site, at all, nada, for real.

Rather than beat this into the ground, understand that text on your website is the primary factor that drives traffic via search.

3.) You Annoy Web Visitors, Maybe With Too Much Video, A Culturally Inappropriate Look, or The Wrong Industry Terms

These are really 3 issues. There are other examples of angering web visitors, like making navigation or search difficult.

Video and motion: Does your video play automatically? Are there 3 or 4 videos or animations that play simultaneously? Did a non-industry person or the wrong person write the text? My favorite example is that in the utility industry for wires attached to poles, telephone companies use the term aerial plant, while electric utilities use the term overhead plant.

You website should be pleasant to use and useful for the visitor.

4.) The Wrong Keywords, Such As High Traffic Keywords Rather Than Your Buyer's Or Customer's Keyword

Buyer Keywords are the words that your buying prospect will use to find your website and your products or services. It can be very difficult to compete with the high traffic keywords, yet these may not bring buyers. What is your buyer searching? For us, it includes the terms: agency, firm, and company.

Competing for the wrong keywords wastes your time and money on search engine optimization, but worse than that it can cause you to spend on advertising for these same, incorrect, sub-optimal keywords.

5.) Low Quality Links From Link-Building

One great way to raise the search engine rank of any page is to build links. My best links come from alliance partners, suppliers, industry directories, and the websites that I built that are ten (10) years old.

There are lots of link-builders with terrible, low ranking directories that generate visitors that will never buy. These can confuse you into believing that you are building more traffic, when this traffic has no value.

6.) Bad Content, Bad Writing

This is similar to the issue of using the wrong industry terms in written text. Good content is clear, helps your reader, honestly reveals truths, and is worth sharing among co-workers and friends.

Writing has a tone, a voice. It becomes the voice of your company. Is it conversational or formal? Which suits your reader? Readability, in part, is the grade-level-equivalence of your writing. For example, many newspapers write for 8th grade readers. However, if you are writing about optimization or economics or finance, chances are you will have difficulty keeping it down to 12th or college-level, which is fine. The business reader, technology geek, or automobile enthusiast will know and understand the terminology of the industry. We have this issue all the time with tech software firms and supply chain optimization clients.

7) Failing To Leverage Social Networks & Social Media

Sharing your content over social media, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can carry your story far beyond your website. While at a conference in Denmark, I sat a a lunch table with a group of web guys. One knew of me and followed me on Twitter, amazing.

There are many tools that will share your content, such as blog posts, directly from your website, even as they go live. In addition, sharing buttons, such as Google plus one "+1," Facebook "Like," Twitter, and email sharing let visitors send your content to colleagues and friends.

Link shorteners, such as bit.ly, transparently pass SEO credit to your website. Bit.ly Pro offers the ability to view your traffic.

Just do it. Share your content and make it easy for others to share from your website.

On-Page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Boosts Page Ranking via Buyer Keywords

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:56:32 +0000

On-Page Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It can boost your page ranking, increase website visitor traffic, and attract the right web visitors, buyers. Getting web traffic is not enough, selecting "buyer keywords" and integrating these into you content helps your page rank in your market niche. This allows you to rank well for the organic searches that matter; the ones that attract buyers. Our staff will pick and place the right keywords in page titles, bulleted lists, headings (for example, h1, h2, h3). These buyer keywords can be placed with a keyword density and tags, on each page of your website, so that search engines know what your website is about. MediaFirst's On-Page SEO Package Offering on the Hubspot Marketplace. This offer has special pricing in celebration of our partnership with Hubspot.

Keyword research or review for 30-40 keywords
Keyword mapping and optimization of up to 10 website pages
Updating 10 website pages (HubSpot CMS websites only)
Documenting changes for 10 website pages (non-HubSpot CMS websites)

Jim Caruso Speaking On: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and Inbound Marketing

jimcaruso — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:05:48 +0000

Jim Caruso, CEO of MediaFirst, at the Atlanta Drupal User's Group

Overview of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and Inbound Marketing

The content includes an overview of search engine optimization (SEO), conversion rate optimization (CRO), and Inbound Marketing. The presentation includes best practices in SEO, search engine marketing (SEM), content, traffic, and lead generation from a website. Supporting materials came from Volacci, Hubspot, and the specific experience of MediaFirst.

MediaFirst PR's Jim Caruso Delivers SEO Presentation For Atlanta Drupal Users Group

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:00:00 +0000

See the presentation here:

Jim Caruso from MediaFirst on SEO, Conversions & Inbound Marketing from Jim Caruso on Vimeo.

Maximize Revenues Via SEO + Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) + Engaging Content + Effective Calls-To-Action (CTA)

Atlanta, GA – April 12, 2011 – MediaFirst PR - Atlanta, a tech-savvy agency offering go-to-market strategy, interactive marketing, social media, and public relations, announces that CEO, Jim Caruso, will speak on Internet marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and conversion rate optimization (CRO) for the Drupal content management system(CMS) at the April meeting of the Atlanta Drupal Users Group. Jim will present "Best Practice & Experience with Drupal SEO and Site Conversion," which details how to create customers from Web visitors. Jim will use presentation slides from MediaFirst, Volacci, and Hubspot.

Attend Jim’s presentation at Matrix Resources on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 7:00 PM. The doors open at 6:15 for networking, the presentation starts at 7, and there will be time for questions. Jim will cover how to keep website visitors engaged, calls to action, content strategy, and the multiplier effect from improvements across Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

“SEO creates web visitors from search engine strategies, known as Organic Search. Conversion Rate Optimization attracts site visitors and persuades them to take an action, such as buying, completing a contact form, or subscribing to a newsletter,” notes Jim Caruso, CEO of MediaFirst. “Smart marketers know that to win the Search Engine game, they must find SEO firms with expertise and proven tactics. Moreover, the end game is creating customers, so effective onine lead generation is key to success.”

About The Atlanta Drupal Users Group

The Atlanta Drupal Users Group (ADUG) is organized by members and volunteers for the local and regional Drupal community. ADUG feature s a premier, regional Drupal event, DrupalCamp Atlanta, which attracts national speakers and strong attendance from a multi-state area. Follow ADUG on Twitter @DrupalAtlanta or find us on Meetup.com at http://www.meetup.com/DrupalAtlantaor on the web at http://www.drupalatlanta.com.

About MediaFirst

MediaFirst PR - Atlanta is a full-service, high technology marketing services firm that is uniquely able to comprehend, communicate, and evangelize the most complex technologies. Account teams deliver the ultimate in creative solutions that ring true with target audiences. Deep and global experience in the "business of technology" empowers great strategy, positioning, marketing, publicity, writing, and leadership – converting directly to success. The firm’s record includes building valuation, empowering venture funding, and expanding targeted audiences - prospects, customers, analysts, employees, allies, investors, and the media. MediaFirst creates awareness, investor interest, and competitive advantage. Clients often combine services for high-visibility speaking opportunities, industry analyst praise, great media coverage, and notable industry awards. For more information, visit us on the web at http://www.MediaFirst.net or call 770.642.2080 x 214.

Volacci Introduces Iris to “Shed New Light” on Internet Marketing Campaigns

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:10:19 +0000

Complete Transparency into SEO Campaigns Brings New Openness for SEO Customers

Austin, TX – April 6, 2010 – Volacci, the search engine marketing company that leverages Drupalcontent management systemtechnologies to create customers from Web visitors, announces a comprehensive new offering called Volacci Iris, which enhances SEO campaigns with extensive reporting and event tracking. Manage and monitor details of Internet marketing campaigns, from keywords to analytics, with a Client Portal that centralizes all of a company’s activities in one easy-to-understand dashboard. Event tracking, such as marking recent updates to Google’s algorithm or tweaking messages on a client’s home page, displays how these changes affect search engine ranking and website visitors.

“Clients can determine what effect recommended changes have on website traffic, then chart the event with search engine ranking and Google Analytics results,” said Ben Finklea, CEO of Volacci. “Knowing what works and what doesn’t work in a campaign and measuring the impact on website traffic gives clients deep insight into the success of our efforts. This transparency allows us to be held radically accountable for our clients’ search marketing results.”

Iris tracks search engine page rankings (SERPs) for user-selected keywords, monitors fluctuations in keyword rankings over time, and stores ranking data for a six-month rolling view. Iris then compares your website’s results side-by-side with competitors.

Integration with Google Analytics meshes user engagement metrics with search engine page rank data to create historical line graphs that give a more complete picture of how SERPs are driving traffic to your website over time.

Iris provides impressive reports that can be automated to show campaign results on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. Keep everyone in the loop by scheduling reports for automatic e-mail distribution on things like keyword history, link building, overall ranking results, and Google Analytic information including top referrers, top landing pages, and other traffic sources.

“Companies invest significant time and money in campaigns with SEO firms that do not want to be held accountable for their efforts and results,” adds Ben Finklea. “Iris is a massive injection of integrity into the SEO world and I couldn’t be prouder that Volacci is bringing this transparency to our clients. Look for us to continuously add and improve Iris in the months ahead.”

About Volacci

Volaccicombines Search Engine Optimization(SEO), Pay Per Click(PPC) advertising, and Conversion Rate Optimization(CRO) to market profitable websites and create customers on the Web. Volacci services include planning, implementation, training, and analytics. The firmtook more than 200 Web sites to new levels of success, across industries as varied as publishing, software, retail, law, real estate, and Fortune 500 companies. In 2007, Volacci developed the popular Drupal SEO Checklistmodule, with over 10,000 installations. The recent book by Volacci CEO Ben Finklea, "Drupal 6 Search Engine Optimization," is a step-by-step guide for ranking high in search engines with professional tips, modules, and best practices for Drupal web sites. Work with Volacci and expect your website to be humming with happy visitors, consistent growth, and a predictable revenue stream. Please find Volacci on the web at http://www.Volacci.comor call (512) 989-2945.

Embed Key Words in News Releases to Raise SEO

Becky Boyd — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:32:38 +0000

News releases are not just for the press. They are tools used to communicate important developments in your company to your target audience. They generate tremendous traffic to your Web site.

While it’s important to develop news releases with a strong news-writing style that meets standards of reporters, editors and analysts and clearly demonstrates strong news value, it’s equally important to craft the announcement with the critical key words needed to boost search engine optimization.

We can show you how to do it.