One of the more traditional ways of getting attention is to get your business in the news. This tradition continues strongly on the net, with businesses routinely distributing press releases and their methods even more vigorous than in the old days. One of the places to be seen is on the pages of Google News.

The news section of Google was introduced in beta in 2001 and in full version in 2006, but all that time hasn’t made getting on its pages any easier. There are certain restrictions you need to be able to work around. Optimistically for Google News is also slightly different from regular SEO methods.

The restrictions

The biggest restriction for getting on Google News is that it’s not as open as regular Google search. In the interests of providing genuine news stories, the site searches only approved news sources. Needless to say, getting your site recognized as a news source is well-nigh impossible if you’re the average business. Some sites have managed, with time, patience and a real dedication to news in their industry, to achieve this aim. Unless you have a genuine interest in your industry’s news, it’s just not worth it.

Another restriction comes in on the second level. Once you manage to get your article on one of the news sites that Google does search for News, you need to ensure it’s the kind of article that will appeal to Google. This means that a special kind of optimization for Google News needs to be performed, adding another layer of work for you and your SEO company.

Optimisation considerations

Optimisation for Google News has some similarities to search engine optimization. Keywords are still important, although you need to look at the keywords that will appeal for this specific kind of search. Some differences include:

Sources: It is thought that having your news piece appear in several places makes it more attractive to Google. This makes sense, as it shows that your article is newsworthy, but it is a shift in thinking when you’re used to SEO.

Location: A representative from Google News has said that location matters with Google News, but hinted that the usual tricks for location won’t work. Simply putting location keywords into your title and tags isn’t enough. Location needs to be mentioned throughout the story.

Other things to note

Real time is a major consideration for Google News. The pages update continuously and all of the flaws usually seen with Google’s real time efforts are decidedly absent in Google News. As a consequence, you need to consider not just the amount of time your piece is likely to stay on its pages, but when you want it to appear. Posting something in the morning is a good idea, but it may take a little experimentation before you get the timing just right.

Source: http://www.seoconsult.co.uk/SEOBlog/google-and-search-engine-optimisation/attracting-the-attention-of-google-news-to-promote-seo.html

Despite the metrics and information available to optimize search engine optimization, Fortune 500 companies continue to struggle with the medium. According to the Conductor Research Q4 2009 report only about 25% of Fortune 500 keywords rank amongst the top 50 natural search results. The report further indicates that Big Business isn’t linking paid search keywords to SEO campaigns.

This is the second year in a row that Conductor Research has outed Fortune 500 companies as behind in keyword search. According to a 2008 study only 8% of Fortune 500 company search campaigns showed a ‘mid to strong presence’.

Together, these businesses spend millions each day on nearly 100,000 keywords. Why, when small and medium sized businesses are succeeding are the Fortune 500 brands disconnect with search?

• More than 50% of Fortune 500 companies had nearly zero search engine visibility
• 32% had ‘very low’ search visibility
• 14.6% had ‘low’ keyword search visibility
• Only 25% of companies show up in the Top 50 natural search listings, an increase over 2008’s 17%

So, why is Big Business failing at natural search? Some suggest that it is more difficult for big business simply because they don’t spend the time to better organic listings. Unlike paid search, Fortune 500’s cannot buy their way to the top. Still it would seem simple for these industries to pay for quality content and then structure the data included on-site for optimization purposes.

Source: http://www.bizreport.com/2010/02/fortune_500_natural_search_seo_fail.html

A site should contain more incoming than outgoing links. Due to search engine requirements, incoming links have more value in page rankings than reciprocal or outgoing links. Please see my article on one way linking versus reciprocal linking for more information on this topic.

To successfully obtain backwards or non-reciprocal direct links to your Web site you need to run an on-going campaign, just as you would for any product or service. We’ve identified 15 bullet points which we cover below. Not every point will apply to every Web site, and the emphasis on each bullet point may vary according to your situation. These include:

1) Get your site listed in the major human edited directories
2) Get your site listed in directories relevant to your particular product or service
3) Obtaining Links From Other Web Sites
4) Purchasing Ad Banners on Other Web Sites
5) Get Your Product or Service Reviewed by other Websites
6) Issue a Press Release
7) E-mail Lists
Newsgroup/forum Announcements
9) Publish Articles on Other Web Sites
10) Provide Quality Content on Your Own Site
11) Running On-Site Events
12) Conducting Direct e-Marketing Campaigns
13) Issuing an E-Newsletter
14) Integrating Your Traditional Marketing and Sales Programs
15) Measure your results

1. Get your site listed in the major human edited directories

Presently the two most important human edited directories are Yahoo and the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org). Despite the mighty rise of Google, the addition of a yearly $299 fee, and changes in the way they display their listings, a link to your site from Yahoo’s main directory can increase the standing of your site much more than a few links from an undistinguished unknown website.

The other well known directory, the Open Directory Project or DMOZ has no listing fee and is entirely human edited by volunteers. Not like Yahoo, whose editors are paid for their work DMOZ editors are all volunteers whom edit at their own pace. It is often difficult to get a listing if your site doesn’t offer unique content and is not considered a valuable resource to the internet community. If your site consists only of affiliate links, then the editors will reject your application. In addition the volunteer editors have been unable to keep pace with the amount of sites to be reviewed and they can take months to process your entry. Despite possibly taking months to get included into DMOZ the problems of inclusion here is well worth your effort, and you should by all means be persistent, without spamming the directory with multiple submissions. Inclusion in Yahoo and the Open Directory Project can mean the difference between your keywords coming up on the first page or page 10 in search results, especially in competitive categories.

2. Get your site listed in directories complimentary to your particular product or service

If you offer electronic repair equipment that would be helpful to electronic repair shops, for example, then do a search for electronic resource directories and you will find sites where you can add your URL. Did you write a novel? Then, find book directories, and apply to be listed. You will have to spend some time accustoming your self to what to look for, but once again persistence will definitely pay off. You will not only see improvement of your page rankings but listings in specific related industry directories to your company will bring you targeted traffic, particularly interested in what you have to offer. What we like to call a qualified lead.

3. Obtaining One Way Links From Other Web Sites

There are two types of links: 1) one-way links to your Web site, which is more valuable in your page rankings; and 2) two-way links where you provide a return link to the other Web site in return for a link to yours, which is less valuable than one way direct links.

In acquiring links, look for sites that have similar relevant content to your own site. Site owners look for resources that would be helpful to their site visitors to link to. It is advantageous if a site can link to your main page. However, requesting a link to a specific page that offers the resources a site owner desires is still beneficial.

Seek out partners for trading links including vendors, suppliers and providers of complimentary products.

Locate reciprocal link partners who have multiple sites. Ask for a link from one of their complimentary sites and in return you will link to their main site. This in essence will show a search engine that your incoming links are true in nature based on the public’s perceived quality of your site and not based on a shoulder tapping reciprocal linking campaign.

For more information and to view an example directory please visit: KosmosCentral.com.

4. Purchasing Ad Banners on Other Web Sites

If your marketing budget allows you the room to purchase add banners then by all means do so. The more links that appear on any given page becomes a way to stand out from your competition with advertising. You can sponsor another site through barter or direct payment. In either case, you can find appropriate sites to sponsor yourself or have another SEO company find them for you.

5. Get Your Product or Service Reviewed by other Websites

Are you a networking components manufacturer? Then offer a discount to high quality websites whose themes are similar to yours. If they write and publish a review, then you will get a link back to your site. In addition, you can publish their reviews on your own site, which will add a lot of weight to your own claims about the validity of your product or service. Keep your eye open for sites in your field and make your offer. In the process you will also build potentially important partnerships and alliances.

6. Issue a Press Release

A press release will allow you to reach prospects through publications that cover your topic of interest. A release will need to be coordinated with the launch of your new site (or it’s not news) and may be distributed by e-mail, newswire, fax or mail. The main keys to a successful press release are: 1) having content that is newsworthy; 2)targeting editors that are interested; 3) matching distribution method with editor preference; and 4) formatting the release properly for each method of distribution chosen.

7. E-mail Lists

E-mail lists are much like a newsgroups. The key difference is that messages go directly to a participant’s e-mail box rather than the participant going to the newsgroup to read the postings.

8. Newsgroup/Forum Announcements

Newsgroups also known as news forums are electronic bulletin boards where people with similar interests can communicate with whole communities of bulletin board postees. There are over 20,000 newsgroups on the Internet with millions of daily participants. If done right, postings to forum newsgroups can generate tremendous amounts of free advertising.

If your looking to post in a newsgroup, target those groups that cover topics related with your service or product. The first thing you need to determine is if the newsgroup accepts any postings. If so, monitor all postings and participant response. When you post, provide useful advice or information and not annoying advertisements for your product or service. Be helpful, specific and keep it short. You can end your helpful feedback with mentioning that your site has additional useful information on the topic you are posting. If possible, become a known participant by posting frequently with both advice and questions. And don’t forget to include your signature on every e-mail or posting. If you have any announcements be sure to post it to the “announcement newsgroups” which are designed for announcements. And, finally if there’s sufficient interest, you may even want to create your own forum newsgroup.

9. Publish articles on Other Web Sites

With millions of websites on the web, large percentages are very hungry for quality content. Since you have published your own website and have provided useful information to the public, this in turn makes you an “expert” in your field. Use your expertise to write simple, but useful articles in your field and forward them to other webmasters hungry for additional content. If your articles are published, they will in turn include a “resource box” giving credit to you with a link back to your site. The link will once again boost your Page Rank, but just as importantly, it will establish you as an authority in your field and will help “brand” your product or service. Don’t worry about writing to hundreds of webmasters individually to get your article published, go to www.yahoogroups.com, or do a keyword search on google and do a search for “Internet Articles Publishing” and you will be able to locate many groups enabling you to reach webmasters whom are looking for articles to publish.

10. Provide Quality Content on Your Own Site

The original focus behind the Page Rank rating system was to try to highlight the sites that are offering the most valuable content, and offering something unique to the Internet. If you publish an Internet version of your company brochure, no one is going to link to you unilaterally. However, if your site is filled with interesting articles, reports, data, free software and reference material then you will get links without even asking for them. By writing and publishing your own articles you can add quality content to your site, the same articles that you will offer to other sites, as well as by publishing the articles of others. Again, the publishing groups for articles at www.yahoo.com or sites such as www.articlecity.com will provide you with a plethora of information and useful material.

11. Running On-Site Events

Promoting events on your site is a strategically outstanding method of encouraging repeat traffic. Events are a good way to bring traffic back to a site once interest begins to fade. Tactics include: games, online interviews, contests/tournaments, chat sessions, and audio or video broadcasts.

12. Conducting Direct e-Marketing Campaign

Direct e-marketing on net is in its formative stages. You can send your message in e-mail or HTML format; solicited or unsolicited. We do not recommend using unsolicited e-mail as the receiver bears the cost.

13. Issuing an E-Newsletter

You can always ask site visitors to sign up for a newsletter, then distribute it by e-mail. An e-newsletter allows you to keep visitors up-to-date on site changes and new offerings. It also serves as a channel for delivering valuable information related to your products that can help convert prospects into customers.

14. Integrating Your Traditional Marketing and Sales Programs

Start by promoting your Web site address on business documents and correspondence, including: letterheads, flyers, and brochures. Encourage use of the web site for certain information, services, products, or programs if it advantageous to the business to offer these services online. Also offer incentives through traditional marketing that would lead potential customers to the web site.

15. Measuring Your Results

To measure the effectiveness of each point of your campaign, first determine where your traffic originates. Then measure what individuals do once they get to your site to determine if traffic generated from one source is more valuable than others. Note that this is different than measuring the effectiveness of the site itself. With data in hand, you can begin the process of fine-tuning your Web site marketing programs.

You must also keep track of your one way links and a great software application tool that makes managing links so much easier is provided by 123LinksManager. 123Linksmanger helps you identify unethical link partners that are hiding your links on their pages, validates links daily for reciprocation, has the ability to manage multiple domains and directories at once, manage one way, two way and three way link opportunities and more.

The internet age is no longer on the way; it is here now. For auto dealers the question is no longer whether or not to have a website, but what kind of website and web resources they should use to reach the vast majority of consumers that are searching the internet for their next vehicle. Although the internet is now the place where the majority of customers start looking for a vehicle, it is still new and many dealers continue to figure out the best way to use their websites and the internet to grow their businesses. In order to help, we’ve spoken with a panel of experts to bring you the very latest in best practices and marketing techniques for the internet.

The first thing that dealers need to realize is that the internet has become the first, and sometimes only, place that consumers go to research and sometimes even buy their new vehicles. This means that dealers must change the focus of their advertising and marketing. On this all of our experts agree.

“Our old marketing pushed consumers to visit the dealership. New marketing needs to push consumers to visit the website. The reality is automotive websites are now the hub of the industry’s sales operations as far as consumers are concerned,” explains Dean Evans, CMO of Dealer.com, a leading provider of online marketing solutions for the automotive industry. “If your organizational structure isn’t aligned with this, then you can bet you’re losing business every day.”

“The website is really the dealership or the point of initial contact for the consumer and the actual real physical dealership is becoming less important than the virtual one,” adds Ray Fenster, VP of business development for AutoUpLinkUSA.

Interacting with consumers online

Just because the internet has come of age, does not mean that it is not changing. Consider television; TV has been a major focus of dealer advertising for decades, but that doesn’t mean that the same ads that worked in 1979 would have worked in 1999 or 2009. What was once cutting edge on television is now considered hokey and passé and the same is true on the internet. If you want to stay in front of consumers, you have to keep your website and internet marketing up-to-date.

One of the most significant effects the internet has had on dealership marketing is how it has changed the way that dealerships and consumers interact. “Online communication is becoming more of a two-way dialogue between consumers and businesses, rather than one-sided, business-controlled messages and information,” explains Dean Evans. “[In the future] online retail success will become more about listening to and participating in a conversation with consumers.”

“They [dealers] have to talk differently. They can’t talk over someone’s head; they have to talk with the consumer, not to the consumer and there’s a difference there. They have to start learning from what ad agencies have been looking to do for years in connecting with the consumer,” continues Ray Fenster.

One of the most important aspects that is driving this trend towards greater interaction between dealers and customers is the advent of social media, particularly online review sites, where consumers can share their experiences. Although this may seem worrisome to many dealers, it should be viewed as a new way to communicate with consumers and, more importantly, to let them communicate with the dealership. “Letting the public ‘experience’ your dealership’s customer service through user reviews (now available on sites like DealerRater.com) is a great way to allow shoppers to see your customer service policy in action, vs. the days of saying, ‘We have the highest CSI of any Honda dealer in the state.’ This scares a lot of businesses, not just dealers, because they can no longer control the message as they could in the mass media age that dominated the 20th century. But, this is the reality,” offers Dean Evans.

“Today maybe one in ten automotive consumers rate their dealership experience online on dealerrater.com or other online review sites. In the future, nine out of ten, or even ten out of ten will do so. The increased transparency that we are currently witnessing will continue in a big way,” adds Todd Smith, founder of ActivEngage. “While these channels are still in their infancy, the potential power is being explored by progressive dealers who are getting out there and connecting with people through online social media and networks.”

Fortunately, there are new tools such as live chat, online video, and interactive forums that can help dealers communicate better with their customers and keep them from navigating away from the dealership website to find what they need. “Combining quality information with stimulating multi-sensory applications such as video and live chat is a great way to engage consumers. As they expect more instant gratification online, any steps dealers can take to make their sites more interactive, more robust, and easier to find online, adds the most value. Email blasts, direct mail, etc. simply have a lower return on investment than continuously perfecting the dealership’s online presence,” continues Todd Smith.

On the other hand, as Danny Sanchez, president of Auto Shop Solutions, warns, if your website doesn’t have the features consumers have come to expect, you can hurt your image in the eyes of the consumer. “The lack of a professional website signals to an online shopper that the business may not be here to stay,” he says, and in today’s fragmented car market consumers do not want to do business with a company that they think isn’t going to be around in the future.

Analyzing the results

One thing that almost all internet marketing experts agree on is the importance of tracking the results of your internet marketing. “Since the web is so measurable, every dollar allocated can go miles beyond the traditional advertising budget. But many dealers do not understand or take advantage of the data analysis available. When you effectively monitor your metrics, you can make sure you’re only paying to market to consumers who are interested; you show up only where you’re wanted. This is still a huge area to create greater efficiencies,” says Dean Evans CMO of Dealer.com.

Interpreting web analytics can be a daunting task at first. There is a lot of information available and it can be difficult to know which information is important and what all the numbers mean. If you’re just beginning to use analytics on your website or your internet marketing, you can start by just concentrating on the basics: website traffic, traffic to lead conversion, and lead to sales conversion. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming, but it does need to be monitored regularly,” explains Todd Smith.

It also helps to think of your internet marketing in the same way you think of all your marketing efforts. “Monitoring your internet campaign is much like monitoring your business. There are key performance indicators (KPI) that can help the dealer fine tune their online marketing strategy,” explains Danny Sanchez. “For example, one KPI we watch closely is the amount of time the visitor spends on the dealer’s website. When we see that number drop below our benchmarks, we know the site has become outdated or uninteresting to the consumer and needs to be updated.”

“By using better analytics…dealerships [can] continue to tweak every piece of their online presence and their response to online communications from customers, and improve their results in all of these elements,” imparts Ryan Mull, managing partner at Web design and internet marketing firm IMAVEX. “The ones who figure this out will continue to outperform their competition and generate a much higher profit ROI.”

Integrated marketing

Many dealers still consider their internet marketing efforts separate from their offline marketing, but in order to succeed in today’s marketplace, “You’ve got to combine and coordinate your message to the consumer,” asserts Ray Fenster. “It gives a clear message, it helps you brand, and you do not confuse the consumer.”

One of the difficulties with integrating your online and offline marketing has been that oftentimes a dealer’s advertising agency and their website provider don’t coordinate their efforts. “Your website provider should give you leading online technology and tools and your agency should provide regularly updated, consistent creative content. They should collaborate directly to optimize content, promote events and specials, brand your online presence, and help broadcast your marketing messages,” advises Dean Evans.

“There are endless opportunities to create cross linked marketing campaigns using traditional advertising and driving traffic to online marketing. The combination can be very effective in capturing leads,” iterates Danny Sanchez.

Integrating your marketing does not have to be a complicated task. Danny Sanchez reminds us that integrating your marketing can be as simple as “sending a mailer with a link that takes prospects to an online coupon is a great example of cross marketing.” Other examples such as placing your web address in all your television and radio commercials or creating online videos of you TV commercials have also been shown to be very effective and are inexpensive to implement.

“The internet doesn’t work like a yellow page ad; you have to work at driving traffic to your website by using search engine marketing (SEM) and continually improving your organic search results by using search engine optimization (SEO). The most successful online campaigns use a balanced marketing plan to target qualified leads and get them on the website,” he adds.

The most important thing to remember about internet marketing, as with all marketing, is that it is not about you, it is about the consumer. As Ryan Mull reminds us, “don’t make the mistake of focusing on what [you] want and what [you] like personally on the internet, and not focusing enough on what the online auto buying users want and need.”

What is important is what consumers think of your site, not what you think.

First of all, SEO provides you with targeted traffic, not just any visitors. That means visitors that are looking specifically to buy what you are selling.

Common traffic methods like traffic exchanges, safelists, popup or popunder traffic, buying traffic and other methods provide visitors, however these visitors are not always looking for what you sell. In other words most of the time they are looking for something else. It means they will not buy from you.

There are many other reliable traffic generation methods, it is not just SEO. However SEO is one of the best methods and here are some reasons.

First of all you can get a ton of traffic, not little but a lot. You may require some time if your website is brand new to get rankings and start getting traffic. But once you get that first
keyword ranked on top, you start getting rankings much faster and much easier.

It is because you get more link exchange requests. Search engines prefer old sites, instead of those brand new. Once you start making money you can invest to automate SEO completely.

So if it takes you two months to get that first keyword ranked on top, it will then take you a month to get three or four more at once. The experience alone and results motivate you to do more. There is another advantage.

If you just got the top position for a keyword such as free mouse traps it will be easier to get on top position the keyword mouse traps or cheap mouse traps. It is because you already have several backlinks with the anchor text mouse traps. If you have the top position for free mouse traps, you should have backlinks with that anchor text.

That is another benefit of choosing long tail keywords, which means keywords with multiple words.

The more backlinks you have the better. So after you get that first keyword ranked on top, while optimizing your site for the new keywords you already have a ton of backlinks. Your site is already established, not brand new. This all makes it easier to get high rankings again and again for new keywords.

So do not believe into what you hear that SEO takes long time, like six months or a year to get results. It all depends on how well you know SEO and how properly you follow SEO strategies. You need to learn SEO from a proven source, someone who can show you results. On the Internet there are many so called SEO experts and firms, who guarantee too good to be true results.

You should get on page one within two months, not a single day more. If it takes you three months you are doing something wrong or you can do something much better, or you are not applying some method correctly enough.. SEO can be fully automated and it can be your traffic generation machine day in day out. SEO alone is enough to give you enough traffic to make four, five or six figures income assuming your website copy and other elements are properly set as well.

There are keywords you can target once you get that experience and you have that extra more investment which can give you fifteen thousand visitors or more a day. Just from one keyword.

That alone should be a good reason to think about implementing SEO in your business as one of the main methods to get targeted traffic.