A few days ago we talked about how important local search / SEO has become – and what you can do to enhance your local search performance and Internet marketing efforts. Well, as we conducted our research for that story, we stumbled upon a number of neat local search engine optimization tools. And, knowing how much readers love lists (our competitive intelligence tools post is one definitely worth checking out), we made another one – this time, to help you in your search for tools that are designed to give you an edge over local competitors. Enjoy! Local Search Toolkit This is one of our favorite local SEO tools right now. The invention of seOverflow’s Mike Belasco and Mary Bowling, the Local Search Toolkit features a Google Places Results Analyzer which generates competitive analysis and data from search results in Google Places. With the Local Search Toolkit, you can download, analyze, and review citation sources – and sort seamlessly through – Read the full article
Blogging doesn’t involve just writing: it involves promoting your content and making it rank for relevant search terms, too. Don’t worry if you’re not a technical expert or SEO rock star: like in most areas of Internet marketing, there are tons of ways to improve your performance in SEO-focused blogging, and it sounds a lot easier than it actually is. If you’re not quite convinced that you should have anything to do with SEO when blogging, just remember that getting people to your site who are already interested is much easier than the kind of cold, hard sell tactic used by most traditional outbound marketers. So drive those visitors to your site. Here are 4 tips to improve your inbound Internet marketing tactics with a blog: Write Creative Headlines Write blog headlines that will drive clicks on Twitter. Think from a user perspective; there are 60 million tweets sent out each day. Getting people to click on your URL from – Read the full article
The E-commerce industry hasn’t only grown bigger than ever. It has also become more social than ever. Thanks to the constant evolution of the Web – and to the popularity of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter – businesses and retailers are now doing more than just catering to individual Internet users and online shoppers. They’re also marketing to the people’s friends, inner circles, and communities, with the aim of bringing in more fans, followers, and dollars. Yes, dollars. In a recent story by Mashable, Jason Taylor, vice president of Platform Strategy at Usablenet, wrote that, when it comes to marketing, it’s “no longer just about ‘liking’ brands.” With a social network like Facebook giving way to new sales opportunities, businesses and online retailers are maximizing their social presence to drive not just marketing and branding campaigns, but also additional revenue. “By integrating purchasing into their branded pages,” Taylor said, “businesses can effectively take advantage of Facebook as a – Read the full article
About a year back we compiled a list of competitive intelligence tools and it turned out to be one of our most popular posts. Well its a new year now and we thought you deserved an updated list. We went through the old list and threw out a few services that are no longer useful and added a whole bunch of new ones for you to check out. Some of the sites are more convenient than others depending on your needs. Some are free and some our expensive. Some of them directly monitor competitors’ advertising efforts while others track social media channels. Some of them offer several services and others only one or two. Heck, some of them aren’t even meant to be competitive intelligence tools, but we think each has something beneficial to offer. It was by pure coincidence that it came out to be an even 40 tools so let us know if there’s more we need to – Read the full article
Social networking giant Facebook has passed Google, the world’s most popular search engine, as the most-visited site in the United States in 2010, according to leading Internet research and competitive intelligence firm Experian Hitwise. Facebook received 8.93 percent of all US web visits from January to November 2010, while Google accounted for 7.19 percent. Rounding out the top five were Yahoo! Mail (3.52 percent), Yahoo!, and YouTube (2.65 percent). Facebook ranked only third on the list last year, trailing Google and Yahoo! Mail. In 2008, it ranked ninth, behind sites like Google, MySpace, and eBay. “Facebook” was also the most-searched term for the second straight year, followed by “Facebook login” and “YouTube”. According to Experian Hitwise, however, the combination of Google-owned sites like Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube still ranked ahead of Facebook properties, accounting for 9.85 percent of all US visits. Facebook received 8.93 percent, while Yahoo! properties came in third with 8.12 percent. The results of the study – Read the full article
We all know that E-mail is one of the most potent tools for Internet marketing. And, thanks to the growth of mobile Web browsing, E-mail marketing is now bigger than ever. We’ve written about E-mail marketing before, focusing on things like: Starting your E-mail campaign How to write irresistible subject lines And E-mail marketing etiquette in the time of social media …but there’s something we haven’t yet touched on: video. That’s right. The Web has evolved well enough to more fully enable E-mails with videos – and we’re not just talking about 25 GB WMV attachments that take forever to download. There are a number of E-mail marketing-related products out there today that allow you, for example, to embed your YouTube videos so that recipients can watch it from inside the E-mail message. E-mails with videos significantly boost your click-through rates Not only does video E-mail marketing introduce new creative possibilities (no longer will marketers be limited to text and – Read the full article
We all get it from time to time: blogger’s block. Like we’ve completely run out of ideas for our blog or website. Like we’ve completely run out of time. Drinking gallons of coffee to no avail; staring at a blank screen for hours; pressing “Save Draft” over and over when, sadly, there isn’t really any “draft”. And with the onset of this “writerly” disease, we wonder: will traffic go down? Will readers soon unsubscribe? Will my online presence suffer from this inability to generate creative, engaging blog content? What about my business? Have I turned into a vegetable? It’s a scary thought, especially considering that one of the best ways to gain visibility, name or brand recognition, and search-engine love in this information-crazy world is to write or blog as best as you can. Calm down. Throw your worry about your writing room window. And beat blogger’s block by following these great tips below: Keep an idea journal. You never – Read the full article
Facebook revamps profile pages Facebook rolled out a new look for the profile pages of its users last Sunday, coinciding with the broadcast of a 60 Minutes interview with its notoriously media-shy CEO Mark Zuckerberg. According to the company, the revamped profile pages now organize personal information in a way that highlights “the important people in your life, and all the things you have in common with that person”. Among the most obvious changes is the appearance of a first line at the top of the profile page that gives a short description of who the person is, as indicated by the user on Facebook. Information such as one’s workplace, school, current location, and birth date also appear on the profile page without having to click a separate tab or link. The Facebook profile redesign also shows a new string of photographs of the user, as tagged by Facebook friends and family. The application tabs – Wall, Info, Photo, Notes, – Read the full article
