Fortune 500 Companies: Dismal Online Exposure

According to the “Natural Search Trends of the Fortune 500” 2009 report from Conductor, Fortune 500 companies are nearly “invisible” online.  In analyzing 6.7 million paid keywords and natural search engine results, Conductor discovered the following trends:

• More than 50% of Fortune 500 companies are nearly invisible in the search engines.  In fact, most of these companies do not rank within the top 100 search results for the PPC keywords for which they pay the most.
• 98% of the surveyed Fortune 500 domains did not appear in the top results for their main keywords.
• As a whole, Fortune 500 companies spent $3.4 million daily on PPC ads, but the natural search results for these paid keywords are dismal.  Their websites only appear under the natural search results for only 25% of these important keywords.

What the Study Means for the Entrepreneur and Small Business Owner

For entrepreneurs and small business owners, the takeaway message from the report is clear: capitalize on search engine optimization to easily overtake Fortune 500 companies in natural search results.

Thankfully, search engine optimization strategies are affordable, even for modest budgets.  Two of the most important SEO strategies include:

• Content, content, content:  Content shall always reign king, and the only way to solidly build your natural search engine rankings is through the regular publication of fresh, relevant, and keyword-targeted content.  Whether you publish helpful articles on your website or daily blog posts, content is what ultimately drives forth your presence in the search engines.
• Backlinks:  Backlinks are still an important element of SEO.  Ensure that your backlinks provide you with the most value by including your main keywords as the anchor text.  Article directory submissions and press release distribution can both help you garner valuable backlinks targeted specifically to your keywords.

While it may not be easy to compete against Fortune 500 companies in the traditional advertising game, the online realm is an entirely different league.  Take advantage of our affordable SEO writing, press release distribution, and manual article directory submission services to target your most important keywords – and easily beat out your Fortune 500 competition!

Adding more nails to the PPC coffin, however, are browser add-ons that are literally making PPC advertisements invisible.

Ad-Blocking Programs are Changing the Face of Online Marketing

The demand for ad-free web enjoyment continues to skyrocket, and the application developers are taking note, introducing browser add-ons that cloak PPC advertisements.  Adblock Plus for Firefox is a leading example, and since 2006, more than 67,500,000 internet users have downloaded the add-on!  Each week, nearly one million additional users download the program just for Firefox alone.

The staggering numbers of internet users downloading ad-blocking software means that PPC is quickly becoming obsolete as a primary marketing strategy.  This beckons the question: if your PPC ads are made invisible by browser add-ons, how can you reach your target customers?

The Growing Importance of Natural Search Results

With more PPC ads being shielded by browser add-ons, the importance of organic search results grows even greater.   Not only are organic search results the most cost-effective for your long-term marketing strategy, but they also generate more traffic and legitimacy to your website.

With the introduction of Google Caffeine and changes in the algorithm, today’s natural search rankings may be rearranged tomorrow.   For the next generation of online marketing, the importance of fresh content cannot be underestimated for either Google Caffeine or Bing.  Working with your content writer to produce original, fresh, and regular content will help drive your website to the top of search results, improving your market reach and solving the problem of PPC ad-blocking browser add-ons.

Nearly one million internet users download ad-blocking browser programs each week for Firefox alone, but your advertising campaign does not need to be short changed.  Focusing on your organic, natural search results will help your endeavors prosper as the world of online marketing evolves.

“Latest Results” are Replacing Google’s Top Results

Google’s most dramatic update with Caffeine will revolve around its real-time search results.  Superseding all the search results is the “latest results” section, which will showcase the latest blog posts, news stories, press releases, and social network updates pertaining to the search term.   Google published a Caffeine video demonstrating where the “latest results” section will appear, and clearly, this is a traffic gold mine just waiting to be tapped.

Testing has revealed that Google Caffeine’s real-time capabilities are incredibly powerful.  For example, Tweets are being returned in relevant Google searches within mere minutes of publication.  Each time you update your blog with new posts, you can expect a surge of natural traffic from the power of Google’s “latest results.”

How to Capitalize on Google Caffeine’s Real Time Search Results

Clearly, Google Caffeine provides you with an unparalleled opportunity to literally jump to the top of Google’s search results for your important keywords.  Each time your content writer publishes new, relevant content to your blog, searchers will see your website first and foremost.  With your eloquent content writer by your side, climbing to the top of the first page of Google results is now easier than ever.

Even before Google Caffeine is officially unleashed in early 2010, you can already witness the implementation of real-time search in “old fashioned” Google.  Some guinea pig users have randomly seen their Google search results sorted by date, while all searchers can now click on “show options” and select how they want their results displayed:

• Any time
• Latest
• Past 24 hours
• Past week
• Past year
• Specific date range

Google’s goal in organizing search results by time is to generate more relevant, accurate results – and this is certainly good news for every website that is savvy enough to take advantage of fresh compositions from their content writer.

The Decaffeinated Fate of Websites without Updates

SEO experts are speculating that Google Caffeine’s emphasis on fresh, real-time results will not bode well for websites that do not update their content frequently.  Websites that do not add new content may receive poorer search rankings, as there is a greater probability that the website is no longer relevant or accurate.

If you only make one New Year’s SEO resolution, it should be solely focused on updating your website constantly with content.  As we ring in the New Year, make sure your content writer is standing by, ready to compose fresh content that will jolt your website to the top of Google Caffeine’s search results!

Based upon a Digital Connections analysis, the change could be dramatic.  For example, in evaluating 10 two-word keywords for the retail industry, more than 47% of websites that currently appear on the first page were dropped in Caffeine.  For 10 of the four-word long tail keywords evaluated, nearly 26% of websites currently ranked first in search results lost their position in Caffeine.

The Caffeine update promises to be as dramatic as the “Big Daddy” update that occurred in 2005 and 2006.  According to Google, Caffeine will improve the “size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness, and effectiveness” of its search engine – which could mean major changes for your SEO efforts.

Why Content is the Real Caffeine King

The search engine marketer’s adage, “content is king” holds more weight for Google Caffeine than ever before.   In an effort to deliver quality search results, Google is reducing the weight of backlinks.  Instead, the search engine will be ranking websites with better content higher in the results than those with better backlinks.   This means that Google will return more searches based upon the on-page text your content writer composes, rather than the keywords of backlinks to the website.  Indeed, content returns to its pinnacle reign as king in Caffeine.

With Caffeine, there will be more than one way to benefit from the power of content.  Google Caffeine may offer real-time search, which would allow users to sort search results based upon temporal relevancy.  The value of real-time content has already been made apparent with Bing.  This makes publishing frequent, relevant, and timely articles from your content writer even more important in improving your ranking and driving traffic to your website.  Updating your blogs and issuing press releases can all help to jolt your pages upwards in Caffeine.

Prepare for Changes in Your Keywords

Based upon beta testing, the world of keywords will also change in Caffeine.  The competition amongst single keywords will amplify, while decreasing amongst long-tail searches.  Google Caffeine intends to index a higher volume of pages, which will increase the amount of competition for single keywords.  However, there is good news for the webmaster.  Google will be more accurately indexing long-tail keywords, which translates into less competition for these phrases.  Although you may experience more competition for your single keywords, you should also enjoy a growth in traffic from more relevant long-tail searches.   Now is the time for your content writer to begin targeting your articles for powerful long-tail keywords.

When to Expect a Shot of Caffeine

The full rainbow of changes that result from the Caffeine update remain to be seen.  However, we do know there will be a bevy of intriguing factors that Google Caffeine will begin using to rank websites, including site speed.

One data center has already been switched to the Caffeine algorithm, and according to Matt Cutts, a wider introduction of Caffeine will occur throughout multiple Google data centers after the holidays.  Before 2010 arrives, make sure your New Year’s resolutions include preparing for the jolt of Google Caffeine!

From penning holiday prose to composing cheerful newsletters, your web content provider is a creative resource for marketing ideas.  Consider the myriad of ways your freelance writer can help you prepare for the bounty of holiday sales.

• Novel Newsletters – Are you taking advantage of the full power of your mailing list?  Keep in mind that your newsletters should not be filled only with new product announcements and hard selling pitches.  Instead, your web content provider can turn your newsletter into a valuable read for all of your customers.  Imagine DIY projects that incorporate your company’s products, innovative recipes, valuable industry tips, and useful holiday gift ideas that excite your customers.

• Glorious Gift Guides – The holidays present the perfect opportunity to up sell your customers.  Commission your web content provider to create helpful gift guides, which can be allocated based upon gender, interest, age, and budget.  Publishing gift guides on your website is one of the best ways to point your customers to your highest margin products.

• Articulate Articles – Publishing articles before the holiday shopping spree is a fantastic way to index your best products and categories in the search engines.  Your freelance writer can compose resourceful, interesting articles on any product or category, and by publishing the content in advance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, your content may be indexed into the search engines.  What better holiday gift can you give to your company’s bottom line than free, organic traffic?

• Powerful Product Descriptions – When an individual cannot feel or touch an item, the product descriptions must work overtime to convert a browser into a customer.   If you have added new products, or you are disappointed with how many existing products you are selling, ask your web content provider to compose compelling product descriptions.  Don’t handcuff your sales potential with generic product descriptions that bore the customer.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, now is the time to begin preparing for the bounty of holiday sales!

Too many businesses wait until November or December to begin adding SEO content to their websites.  Alas, paying a freelance writer to create content during the late holiday season may not maximize the SEO benefits.   The search engines can take weeks, if not months, to fully spider and index new content on your website, especially if you do not make updates regularly.

When to Start for SEO’s Sake

Creating your holiday content in August or September will maximize the Christmas cheer your bottom line enjoys in December.  By starting early, the search engines have ample time to crawl your website and update their search results.  While starting your holiday SEO efforts early may take planning on your part, the rewards are certainly worthwhile – both in the sense of increased holiday sales and decreased advertising costs, such as expensive PPC campaigns that spike in cost near Christmas.

Content to Optimize for Search Claus

There are a variety of strategies your freelance writer can employ to optimize your holiday content, including:

• Product descriptions:  A freelance writer can craft product descriptions that are not only search engine friendly, but powerfully compelling to your customers as well.  Whether you are adding new products or want to increase the appeal of your current inventory, a freelance writer can help you both with speaking to the search engines and paying customers.
• Resource articles: A section of your website should be dedicated to informative, helpful articles that simultaneously optimize your top keywords.  These articles can provide inspiration for gift ideas (that you happen to sell on your website, of course), new inventory announcements, and other topics related to your product keywords.  If you commission your freelance writer to begin composing these articles between August and October, you give the search engines sufficient time to index and rank your website for your holiday product keywords.
• Blog posts: Your blog is one of the most powerful ways to reach your customers, as well as the search engines. The search engines are constantly looking for “fresh” content, and if you regularly update your company’s blog, you enjoy enhanced SEO benefits.  Ask your freelance writer to begin tailoring your blog articles for your upcoming holiday inventory.  While your freelance SEO writer does not need to mention the holidays specifically, infusing the product keywords into your blog articles will translate into a merrier holiday season for your profits.

While the sun may be shining and your tan has not begun fading, now is the time to begin optimizing for the holiday season.  By planning ahead, you can ensure that your bottom line will not cry or pout this year when Santa Claus comes to your town.

Capitalize on Social Network Users – Whose Numbers Have Doubled Since 2007

According to Forrester Research, 55.6 million adults, or one third of the American population, regularly visit social networks.   In fact, social networks are used more frequently than even instant messaging!

Based upon the number of monthly visits thus far in 2009, the five most popular social networks are:

• Facebook
• Myspace
• Twitter
• Fixster
• LinkedIn

With all this impressive data in mind, how can your online business capitalize on the surging popularity of social networks?

Connect with Your Existing Customers and Develop Lifelong Loyalty

Indeed, it is much more cost-effective to retain an existing customer than to attract a new one.  Social networks present you with a fantastic opportunity to develop a closer relationship with your existing customer base.   When you connect with your customers on a personal level, you foster a deeper loyalty – which translates well for your repeat business revenues.

By communicating with your existing clients through your social network accounts, you give them a glimpse into the personalized workings of your business.  Whether you ask your freelance writer to post about new products, compose amusing stories of experiences around the office, or host giveaways, social networks allow you to connect with your customers on an entirely new level.

On your website’s blog and in the footer of your emails, place an icon of your particular social network and invite your customers to become your “friends.”  Before you know it, you will develop a league of followers that translates into a stronger bottom line for you.

Publish “Linkbait” Articles to Find New Customers – Hook, Line, and Sinker

Linkbait articles, which can be funny, controversial, or a highly useful resource, remain one of the foremost ways to generate exposure and new customers for online businesses.   Your freelance writer composes a linkbait article specifically to garner the interest of social network users.   This is the type of content that becomes viral, spreading to thousands of potential customers who may have otherwise never visited your website.

Once your freelance writer composes the linkbait article, simply post it on your social network profile.  Or you can publish the article directly on your website and “Tweet,” “Digg” or “Stumble” the content, bringing traffic directly to your website from the social networks.

Use Incentives to Power the Momentum of Your Social Networking Efforts

Give your social network “friends” reasons to consistently stay abreast of your activities.  Consider hosting regular giveaways through your social networking profiles to stay in the forefront of users’ minds.  Encourage users to check your profile regularly through incentives.  For example, you can offer all customers who mention the coupon code “Facebook” free shipping.   When you entice the social networks with giveaways and incentives, your following can only grow stronger.

Social networks are a powerful marketing tool just waiting to be tapped this summer.  Enlist your freelance writer’s prose, don your creative giveaway cap, and you are quickly on your way to sunnier revenues!

Solidify Your Specific Content Needs

Before you begin your search for a freelance writer, take a moment to reflect upon your content needs.  The more you fully understand your content aspirations, the more precisely you can hone your quest in finding the perfect freelance writer.  There are two overarching elements to consider in your content planning process:

• What are your content goals? What is the ultimate goal you hope the content will achieve?  Are you looking for compelling sales copy that will convert visitors into customers?  Would you like the freelance writer to compose authoritative articles that will brand your expertise in the industry?  Do you hope for linkbait articles that will become viral in the social networks?  In searching for the ideal freelance writer, it is important to communicate your goals to find the perfect fit.
• What is your branding strategy? Consistent branding is the lifeline of successful businesses, and maintaining a congruent image is especially important online, where all marketing campaigns can be accessed with a simple mouse click.  If your branding strategy is hip and fresh, the tone of your content must reflect that same style.  On the other hand, if your branding is built upon the pillars of conservative professionalism, then an authoritative tone is critical to maintaining your image.

How to Evaluate Freelance Writers

With your branding style and content goals in mind, you can begin reviewing prospective freelance writers.  Keep in mind that most freelance writers specialize in a particular genre or niche, ranging from fiction to SEO web content.  Choosing the right freelance writer means hiring one whose specialty is in line with your specific needs.

• Specialized Niche: For online business owners, content is the key to unlocking the powers of search engine traffic.  With this in mind, hiring a freelance writer who specializes in SEO content can help propel your website to the top of the search results.  However, the ideal writer understands the fine line between eloquent writing and search engine optimization.  Hiring a freelance writer that can naturally blend SEO strategies with persuasive prose will translate well not only for search bots, but your human visitors as well.
• Copyright Ownership: Not all freelance writers are comfortable releasing the full copyrights of the content to you.  Traditional writers maintain ownership of the content, and you are restricted in how you can publish the content.  However, it is in your best interest to hire a freelance writer that automatically releases the full content copyrights to you.  This gives you the freedom to utilize the content however and whenever you wish.
• Ghostwriting Non-Disclosure: Due to the standard practices in journalism, many freelance writers will require that their name appears in the article’s byline.  If you would like to establish your company’s credibility and expertise in the field, however, it is important that you publish the content under your own name. Subsequently, you should look for a freelance writer who has no qualms about giving you “full credit” – or disclosing that the content was ghostwritten on your behalf.
• Exclusion from Online Portfolios: Duplicate content is the cardinal sin in the search engine world.  When you hire a freelance writer, it is critical to ensure that the content she writes on your behalf will never be published on a website as “samples.”  Without clarifying this understanding, your website could be penalized severely in the SERPs.

The right freelance writer can be a powerful addition to your online kingdom’s round table.  By choosing an ideal wordsmith, you can tap into the powerful potential of the internet and maximize your bottom line.

The power of written prose is especially important online, where you do not have body language, voice tones, and facial expressions upon which to rest your communication laurels.  With this in mind, there are three time-tested strategies that can certainly help you and your business communicate better online.

Trust that Your English Teacher was Right about W/C

Your English teacher’s red pen was right – at least about the dreaded editing abbreviation, w/c, otherwise known as word choice.  Passive and bland words are not sufficient online, where the reader’s attention is easily swayed by millions of competing websites.  Instead, you should always look for more powerful alternatives.  Is the sweater you are selling light blue in color, or is it a Hawaiian teal?  Do you want your customer to “shop at our spring sale,” or “enjoy discounts up to 50% at our spring sale extravaganza?”  To communicate better, the first step is to choose words that are powerful, create an image in the reader’s mind, and deliver your message.

Communicate with the Finish Line in Sight

In business, the success of your communication is measured by the numbers of increased sales and revenues.  With this in mind, it is critical to ensure that your freelance writer or SEO writer completely understands the goals you wish the content to achieve.  Are you attempting to garner trust and authority in the industry?  Would you like to convert visitors into paying customers?  Is your goal to cement your clients’ brand loyalty?  These goals are each served by very distinct types of content.  To communicate better, you must understand your goal and convey it clearly to your freelance writer or SEO writer.

Speak Only to Busy People

Internet users are notorious for their short attention spans.  With the incredible plethora of information available online, it is no surprise that internet visitors are finicky and have expectations of finding the content they need instantaneously.

To communicate better with online users, you must speak with a busy person in mind.  Would you elaborate painstaking details to a busy CEO?  How long would your elevator pitch to a Wall Street broker be?  Keep your online content concise, and you will capture the attention of the internet user.  Make use of sub-headings, lists, and bullet points, and you make the busy internet visitor’s reading task even easier.

The websites that communicate better than their competitors understand the psychological power of word choice, the importance of driving home their end goal, and the short attention span of internet users.  With these perspectives in your arsenal, it’s time for your content to communicate better.

How can you, dedicated webmaster and business owner, improve the strength of your website’s backlinks?   Before you embark upon your link building campaign, keep in mind that quality should always be first and foremost.  For example, a dozen quality backlinks are much stronger for your SEO endeavors than thousands of PR 0 or PR 1 links.

With that said, there are three legitimate strategies that you can utilize to enhance the strength of your backlinks.

Befriend the Social Networks

Web 2.0 has been a godsend for link building campaigns.  Each time an article or blog post on your website gets submitted to the social networks, you enjoy a backlink to your website.  The more people that vote, “Digg” or “Stumbleupon” your content, the stronger the results for both your traffic and SEO efforts.

However, with so many webmasters and publishers submitting content to the social networks, how can your website rise to the top – or rather, the front page of social networks?   The answer lies within the catchphrase “linkbait.”  There is no fishing or phishing involved in this strategy, but only interesting, catchy content that will garner the short attention spans of the average social network user.  Have your freelance SEO writer compose a piece that is controversial, highly resourceful, creative, or funny to increase the chances of sitting on the front page of the social networks.

Be Generous with Your Knowledge

If you have niche experience or unique knowledge, then sharing your wisdom can reap rewards for your SEO efforts.  You can publish a white paper, “how to” article series, or a report that others can download for free.  Bloggers and publishers in your industry will be keen to offer value to their readers – meaning that they are looking to link to interesting, unique information.

Even if writing is not your forte, you can convey a list of ideas to your freelance writer, who can compose the prose that will garner you the industry backlinks you seek.

Lean on the Traditional Article Directories

Last but not least, the traditional article directories are still a reliable source of generating backlinks to your website.  While there are literally thousands of article directories today, submitting your content to ones that have high Page Ranks will build powerful one-way backlinks to your website.  Remember to hyperlink your important keywords in the resources box to maximize the SEO impact of article directory submissions, rather than simply listing the URL.

By taking advantage of these legitimate strategies, you can indeed have your SEO cake and eat it too!