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online marketingIf you’re just getting into the online marketing game, Twitter can be especially daunting. It doesn’t work like Facebook; you can’t just add people and expect to look cool. In fact it’s just the opposite — to get people to follow you, it helps if you have fewer followers. So is becoming successful at Twitter a catch-22?

Not really. The key is to keep your tweets relevant and engaging. No one cares what you had for breakfast, unless it was at the Ritz Carlton as a result of the small business conference you were invited to because you’re a leader in the internet marketing business.  Keep tweets to the point, try to be funny, and if all else fails, just retweet the headlines that you’re reading. Chances are some people aren’t up with the latest, don’t read that newspaper, and aren’t informed about it — the faster and more clever you can be about interpreting that news the better your chances of gaining followers.

Consistency is another factor. Try tweeting at least a few times a day. And if you want to quickly build a following, search for people who are in your field, in our case online marketing. Follow them, and chances are they’ll follow back. At this rate, in a few weeks you’ll feel pretty comfortable on Twitter.

 

 

online marketing

Welp, the genie is out the bottle. The internet is ablaze with news of the Christina Aguilera leaked photos — the result of an alleged hacking on the starlet’s computer. Ajax Union handles situations like these, on a smaller scale, for our PR online marketing plans on a regular basis.

To remove undesired pics from Google Images, our PR staff pursues one of two plans of action:

  1. We contact the owner of the site hosting the image and request that it be removed.
  2. We push the image down on Google Images by uploading pics of our own with strategic file names, titles, and captions.

Sometimes, we even do both. So next time you feel yourself facing a Christina Aguilera-type debacle, remember our search engine agency. You can visit us online at www.AjaxUnion.com, or give us a call at 1-800-594-0444.

business marketing

Even those outside of the online marketing community were waxing SEO and such last week, when The New York Times (perhaps you’ve heard of it?) published an article about DecorMyEyes, an online eyeglasses retailer based in Brooklyn with a reputation for gnarly customer service.

Knockoff products? Sure. Fraudulent charges? Uh-huh. Threats and harassment? Yessir. And all over luxury eyewear.

Understandably, consumer review websites doth overflow with warnings and complaints re: DecorMyEyes. Bad for business, right?

Maybe not. In the article, the owner of DecorMyEyes, Vitaly Borker, explained the NYT that his company was actually benefiting from the negative press, as it was pushing his name up on Google. It’s like the SEO version of that old expression — “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

Like every part of the Google algorithm, whether or not the search engine factors in customer feedback into their rankings is rather mysterious, although the industry consensus is, um, probably not.

Still, Borker’s evil plan would only work for shoppers searching for keywords alone; run the company name through a search engine, and the results page practically explodes with DO NOT SHOP-aganda.

In response to the article, Google has penalized DecorMyEyes and resolved to investigate similar issues. Google reps reported the site was the exception, not the rule, in such matters. Borker was also arrested post-article, by the way, for fraud.

The moral of the story? For consumers, thou shalt Google the name of any company you’re (err, thou art) considering doing business with. And for search engine marketing folks — as usual – it’s always good to stay above board.

web design

It doesn’t take a magnifying glass to see Google’s new magnifying-glass-clad feature, Google Instant Previews. In fact, the aforementioned enlargement icons are rather distinct — and distinctly game-changing to the world of online marketing. Why? At the click of a mouse, Google Instant Previews transforms the search engine experience from verbal to visual, allowing users to eye before they buy.

What does this mean for online marketing? For one thing, it means that the Creative Suite 5-wielding Mac enthusiast you’ve been hiding in your utility closet has been right all along: design matters. And with Google Instant Previews, it matters even more.

Some simple tips for improving your website’s design — and making it snapshot friendly:

  • Stick to a color palette. Pick two or three colors to brand your site, creating a vibe of visual legitimacy for your search engine audience.
  • De-clump your text. It doesn’t matter how informative your website is: searchers are turned off by large blocks of text. Make sure the preview of your website shows short, easily digestible paragraphs for your visitors to enjoy.
  • Do some housecleaning. In web design, everybody loves doohickies — from Google AdSense to social media badges. But if said thingamabobs dominate your search engine snapshot, your website will wind up looking like spam. Be mindful of this content, and push it to the bottom of the page if necessary.

Need more help with web design? Check out www.ApplesCreations.com for affordable small business websites by the Ajax Union search engine agency.

seo company

Whoever said “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” obviously never met Yelp. Or TripAdvisor. Or any of the other customer review websites that can make or break a business and disrupt an otherwise smooth sailing online marketing campaign.

If a negative review is showing up for your company on Google, this complaint is likely costing you business, and it’s in your best interest to counter or remove it ASAP.

How? You have a couple of options:

  • Contact the consumer. If your review comes from a consumer with a specific complaint, the simplest course of action is to correct the damage at your source. Are they mad that you didn’t refund their shipping? Refund their shipping. Do they claim their product was defective? Send them a new one. Spending $20 or even $100 pleasing a customer is a worthy investment, consider dozens of customers it’s likely scaring away.
  • Consult the Powers That Be. If your review includes information that you know to be false, you can try asking the website that hosts it to remove the offending content. You might even consider taking legal action.
  • Cancel it out. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, negative publicity cannot be removed. In this case, your best course of action is to counteract the bad press by promoting a positive company image. This means a company blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and positive buzz on other forums and customer review sites to help push that negative feedback off the front page of Google.

Whether you’re working with an SEO company or doing your online marketing in-house, it’s important to keep tabs on your business’s reputation online. Sign up for daily Google Alerts of your company name — including variations: Ajax Union, AjaxUnion, AjaxUnion.com — to monitor the web for negative publicity.

And if you need help countering bad press, trust PR United, our business PR service, to repair your reputation online.

online marketing

Facebook? Check. Twitter? Mmhmm. But online marketing is about more than these two biggies. Let’s take a look at five resources you might have overlooked.

  1. FFFFOUND! — It’s like social bookmarking, but with images! Our SEO company loves FFFFOUND! — in part because it’s so fun to type, but also because it allows you to promote your company logo and other relevant images online.
  2. DISQUS — A popular tool used by CNN, MTV, and similar, DISQUS allows you to add suped-up commenting to WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, and many other platforms, and integrate the aforementioned with other social networks, and the rest of the DISQUS community.
  3. Vimeo — It’s no Youtube, that’s for sure, but Vimeo isn’t exactly small potatoes either. If your company has a lot of videos, you should promote them wherever you can!
  4. Gather — This site makes it easy to share blog posts, photos, and videos online to its growing audience. Worth giving a spin, eh?
  5. Mixx — The other other other white meat — or, um, social bookmarking outlet. Mixx offers all the standard stuff, and it’s another chance to reserve your company name online and create a profile.

Ever wish someone would create all of these profiles for you? Our SEO company will — it’s part of the standard setup on our off page SEO program, the AnewB Plan.

search engine marketing

Done any Googling lately? If so, you might have noticed a subtle change amid your search results — the Pay-Per-Click search engine marketing advertisements, normally known as “Sponsored Listings,” are now labeled as “Ads.”

It’s short, it’s punchy, it’s vaguely hip. But what will the new “Ads” label mean for PPC advertising? Good things, apparently. Search Engine Agency reported that CTR (Click Through Rates) have jumped 11.4% since the switch. Nice.

Why would “Ads” inspire more clicks than “Sponsored Listings”? It’s hard to define exactly, but “Ads” just sounds better. The word “sponsored” has always had awkward connotations — as in, “And now a word from our sponsors…” — and we’re glad to see Google moving in a different direction.

Want to get started with search engine advertising? Ajax Union offers full-service Google AdWords management with no long-term contracts. To find out more, call us at 800-594-0444.

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Solid Cactus just posted a pretty neat article about the valuable business lessons contained in The Social Network — that movie about Facebook that isn’t Catfish. So put on your thinking cap and soak in the following business marketing tips, as culled from David Fincher:

  • Address a Need: Before you start a business, ask yourself, who are you helping? What do you have to offer that your competitors do not? In The Social Network, Zuckerberg saw a hole in way people communicate online and was the first to fill it.
  • Create a Need: In the film, we witness Zuckerberg’s a-ha moment when he releases that he his budding social network needs a Relationship Status function — a function we’ve all relied on, but probably didn’t know we need. Can you create a need for your customers?
  • Keep It Cool: Considering its C++(plus)-proficient founder, Facebook has maintained a rather cool reputation through a variety of factors — the initial exclusivity, the reluctance to commercialize. Think about what you can do to make yourself cool.

Facebook is one of our favorite online marketing tools, but we never thought we’d be taking notes on their business strategy, especially not the cinematic interpretation. But then again, it was a pretty good movie.

Sites Our SEO Company Loves

November 11th, 2010 | Posted by AjaxBlogging in seo company - (0 Comments)

seo companyLet’s face it — you can’t spend all of your time on AjaxUnion.com. And for those rare moments when you need to take a break from our SEO company, you might be wondering, Where should I go?

Well wonder no longer. Here are 4 of our favorite sites around the web:

  • Selma Deals — A budding deal site featuring multiple hot deals every day, Selma Deals is a shopper’s destination. Window shoppers welcome.
  • NY Sports Digest — Yankees or Mets? Giants or Jets? NY Sports Digest is the only blog online to cover ALL the teams in New York, even the little-known Brooklyn Nets.
  • Entertain Me Daily — Great blog about everything from Glee to iPhone apps. (Maybe even iPhone apps about Glee.)
  • Brooklyn Trends — Whether you’re looking for a BK bar or simply checkin’ in on the hood, Brooklyn Trends is an excellent resource for the intellectual Brooklyner (or the nosy Manhattanite).

Still stumped on where to go? You can always check out our search engine agency online on Facebook and Twitter! Or, you know, Bubble Spinner.

online marketingIf you run an ecommerce site — or if your search engine agency is promoting one — there’s one website you should absolutely incorporate into your online marketing campaign: Kaboodle. A well-trafficked online shopping community, Kaboodle makes it easy for users to add and share individual products from around the web: items they own, items they wish they owned, and — in your case — items they’d like to promote.

Kaboodle comes with a handy drag-to-your-toolbar button that allows users to submit content directly from product pages. You can customize the title, price and description of the item, and even enter a comment to go with it. It’s a great way to tie individual products to keywords, and get your pages indexed faster on Google Products and other comparison shopping engines.

Note: When creating a Kaboodle account, it’s best to use your real name, then add your business as a Kaboodle Brand. This is in accordance with their TOS, so your posts will not be deleted as SPAM. (Remember, White Hat online marketing is always the way to go!)