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Search Engine Optimization for Associations

June 2, 2010 By

When it comes to SEO, associations face a few different considerations from the regular business organization crowd. Because they’re typically nonprofits, they need to show members the value of the SEO investment, while also keeping from raising dues as much as possible. (Well, okay, companies also need to show value to the shareholders and try to keep from raising prices, too…)

And with Internet penetration at what feels like 100% of the population, even farmers and the organizations they belong to are feeling the need for Google love.

For the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association (AOBA), search engine optimization had become a clear necessity: Its members were already turning to other organizations for SEO and online marketing help. Offering these services could help increase the association’s value to its members and strengthen its membership base for the long term. In addition, ensuring its web properties ranked above other competing organizations and for-profit entities would help bolster and reinforce its position as the primary association for the industry.

Bill Edmunds, a veteran of association management, recently wrote about his experience working with SEO Advantage while part of the leadership at AOBA in an article titled A Race to the Top: Search Engine Optimization for Associations.

Recently published by the Tennessee Society of Association Directors, the article details the systematic process AOBA used to find the right SEO company. Edmunds also outlines the planned steps for optimization, including setup of a revenue generating product that could offer more value to members than what was currently available on the market. This new product is also designed to help cover the costs of implementation, so the costs of taking on a major SEO project don’t have to be passed along to members.

Read the article to and see how this association took on the high tech aspects of SEO without burdening themselves or their constituents: PDF of the article

Filed Under: Online Marketing, SEO Advantage

Why you need to found in the search engines if you sell consumer products online

June 15, 2009 By

According to ComScore’s “State of the U.S. Online Retail Economy in Q1 2009″, search engines are considered the most important web sites to consumers when shopping online.

- 72% said search engines are important (up 5% versus Q4 last year)
- 54% said online coupon sites
- 46% cited comparison shopping sites (an increase of 4%)
- 44% said auction sites were important
- 36% noted online classified as important

If your ecommerce marketing strategy does not yet include helping your products show up in search engines, you’re missing out on the number one way to reach shoppers!

Filed Under: Tip of the Day Tagged With: ,

New Web Site Design for SEO Advantage

June 4, 2009 By

Our web site development guru, Gaby Zapien, has done it again! She was looking for a way to update the SEO Advantage site design while retaining the unique look of our brand. You can see the result at our SEO company web site. I particularly like that she has increased the font size and given the site a much simpler, easier feel. One thing I do intend to watch, though, is whether the new horizontal menus, accessed by mousing over 4 circles representing top-level pages, is too advanced for some users. We love how it gives some movement and color to the site, however.

There are several different approaches to redesigning a web site. Some companies decide to do a complete redesign every few years (or even every year!) However, if your site has built up a good client base or following, it may be worthwhile to simply evolve your site design bit by bit over time. Make changes incrementally, keeping in place major elements that your site visitors will identify with. In addition to retaining that continuity, you’ll also be able to see which changes helped make a difference. If you change everything at once, there’s no way to tell which new aspects may have been the most impactful.

If you were familiar with our previous SEO site design, you’ll see that we’ve kept the grey while just adding colorful pops in the text and images. The menu uses a completely new format: SEO + Copy + Media + Design = Long Term Rankings – and each of these items contains sub pages that go into more detail. The text is larger and there’s a magnifying glass giving the page some dynamic movement. While a bit of a departure from our previous design, it’s still easily recognizable to repeat site visitors and all the same information should still be easy to find.

Let us know what you think!

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: ,

Online Marketing Tools for Small Businesses – The Best in Each Category, from Email Marketing to SEO, Content Sharing and Social Media

May 27, 2009 By

Marketing your small business online requires finding the right tools to make the greatest impact. But there are so many out there – and more cropping up all the time. Finding which marketing tools to use can take weeks of research.

This small business marketing article shortlists the best of the best when it comes to online marketing tools. We have already researched and used most of them ourselves, so we can point out the strengths and why we recommend them. You’ll find listed free marketing tools as well as those that require investment.

Here’s a sampling of the 39 recommended online marketing tools for small businesses:

Press Releases

Marketwire offers traditional wire service distribution and exceptional online benefits at cost savings over PRNewswire and BusinessWire. We recommend PRLog for free press release distribution due to the long-lasting, high visibility of releases and great site features like dedicated press rooms.

Social Networking
Create a page on Facebook and think about MySpace, even though it’s no longer the center of focus for the media (a large percentage of this crowd may still be in your target market). LinkedIn is essential, now allowing you to create a profile for your business in addition to your own professional page.

Email Marketing
AWeber lets you start building your email marketing list for under $20/month. You get unlimited autoresponders and email blasts, where most providers only offer one or the other.

Continue reading all 39 Essential Tools for Marketing Your
Small Business Online >>

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: , ,

Using Ecommerce Customer Reviews for SEO

April 27, 2009 By

Customer reviews on ecommerce sites can give a leg up on SEO. When customers review products, they use a whole set of keywords that the company itself most likely can’t use in their product descriptions without writing too casually. Reviews also can mention terms such as competitor brand names and specific feature or model names, helping provide unique content around those important keyword terms.

The tragedy is that many ecommerce customer review solutions serve up the reviews in a format that’s inaccessible by the search engines. Diapers.com, however, has just started using PowerReviews to serve up its customer reviews, saying that the provider “packages up the first 15 user reviews”, so Diapers.com can put them into its own database and serve them in a manner that’s more accessible. Diapers.com saw a 48.8% lift in natural search traffic on the product detail pages – and a 33.2% increase in sales directly attributable to SEO within only two weeks of implementation!

Now’s the time to optimize your ecommerce product pages and start incorporating user generated content like customer reviews…

Filed Under: Online Marketing, SEO Technology, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , ,
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