Carson and Company

If you haven’t already heard, there is another new search engine, called “Cuil“. It is an Irish word meaning, Knowledge. PR Clients, as well as all publicity professionals, public relations agencies, even local orange county publicity professionals should keep an eye on this new SEO. Why? Because this could be a publicity opportunity for pr clients to gain recognition as this new SEO gets more attention.

Ok, let’s look at this new search engine to get a better understanding. The company was started by former Google engineers. Top notch people, not the sub-level engineers. eWeek article tells more about this.

Cuil feels they have listened to the users of search and decided to provide a better indexing of pages. Here is the catch. There are over 120 billion web pages. That’s a lot of pages to try and create a better search platform. Anyway, these engineers have the support of investors who poured over $33 million into the development. Already, since launch day on July 28, the site has had unexpected traffic causing it to lock up for a time.

What makes this search engine different…Cuil provides tabs to better clarify subjects, they organize the features better so that images are identified by topics with a search refining suggestion area. Is this a better mouse trap? Possibly, but it takes some time learning how to get the most use of this new search. TechCrunch states it is an overrated site and may not live up to what the former Google staffers think it really is.

In any case, publicity professionals should include this search engine as part of their pr clients marketing and publicity program. If you are unable to keep up with all the new search engine changes and need to get noticed, or ranked in the top, then give George Carson a call at 949-477-9400. Carson Marketing, Inc is a solid web marketing company that knows how to get your company noticed. Call today for a free consultation, and just maybe you will learn the secrets to being a top ranked web site.

Publicity is Everywhere series

As we enter the end of this year, I want to make sure that many of you are taking advantage of the web site your company, or pr client has. If you haven’t checked your site lately, within the past 6 weeks, then it’s time to take another look.

This time you need to look at where your site is ranked. How is it positioned with the search engines? Does the site appear when you type the different keywords…near the top, or way down past the 100 other companies listed? Do you even show up? How many layers of keywords do you need to type before your company appears?

If your site is not getting high rankings, don’t call your pr agency, or the IT department, or the web designer. The search engines are again re-structuring how they rank and search a site. It’s time to get smarter on how you market your pr client’s web site.

That is why I continually recommend pr clients and web-marketing companies to re-visit their web sites at least every 6 to 8 weeks and do updates to re-fresh the site. Many times this re-fresh will require some additional optimizing to meet the new demands set upon sites by the SEO’s. It is a good idea to take advantage of checking your pressroom, contact info and make sure your products and services are current.

If you want us to check how valid your links are, how valid your site is with the search engines, just give us a call. The service is FREE! Yes, free. No strings attached. It is our holiday gift to you.

See Also

• Learn how to get higher page rankings
  SEO and search are changing, is your site ready for their reviewing?

These two can be powerful when used properly

If you are a pr client, or a publicity agency, you know the power of pr. But have you combined any of that power with your web site? Probably not. Beacuse most publicity experts and pr clients think these two should stay separate in different departments. If that is your thinking then you are not providing your company, or pr client the full experience they can have when you use these tools properly.

Let’s accept the fact that you are a savvy publicity person. And that you have media contacts, a good copywriter to do press releases and articles for the company. Now what about the web site.

I have spoken about organic search engine listings before, and this part of the "SEO TIPS" is based on getting organic listings. In case you do not understand what Organic listings are, let me give you a very brief explanation. Keywords are either purchased and/or placed into your web site so that people can find your site. Organic listings are thosse that are not "paid" listings. The paid listings, you have seen them before. It is where Google, and Yahoo have web sites listed on the right side, or at the very top. Notice above those lists the words "sponsored links". That means these are paid positions. The other sites listed are non-paid, also called Organic Listings.

Here are some tips about SEO basics. I use these and found other professional SEO’s use them as well. You can more of these at the Target Marketing web article.

• Look for synonyms when doing keyword searches
• Get links to your site, make sure these are quality links
• Have a site map
• Create a press room
• Keep the site fresh, modify pages every 10 to 12 weeks

These are basic, but important. If you want to get into the heart of using marketing with publicity give us a call. We’ll make sure you are getting noticed!

See Also

• Learn how to get more power from your publicity program
  Using the tools wiesly can get you noticed

Supplemental Results, are they good or bad?

The battle continues at the big Search Engine Wars to see who is the biggest and strongest. In this battle it always seems that the loosers are the webmasters and ultimately the pr clients, manufacturing clients, and any company that has a web site.

The term: Supplemental Results, is something that Google has created less than a year ago. They, Google, claims it is a good thing, but is it really? From all the stories and blogs and webmasters that are writing about this, it seems to be not very good.

Let me explain. While AllTheWeb tries to claim they are the biggest in indexing sites with about 3.2 billion pages, Google at the time of this announcement had only 3.1 billion pages indexed. Then Google decided to list those pages that have not been crawled get into this pile. That way Google was able to announce it has 3.3 billion pages indexed. It is all publicity at the worst. Why? Because while these SEO’s fight to get attention in the media, we, that’s you and I, suffer.

This is how Google explains this black hole listing:

"Supplemental sites are part of Google’s auxiliary index. We’re able to place fewer restraints on sites that we crawl for this supplemental index than we do on sites that are crawled for our main index. For example, the number of parameters in a URL might exclude a site from being crawled for inclusion in our main index; however, it could still be crawled and added to our supplemental index. The index in which a site is included is completely automated; there’s no way for you to select or change the index in which your site appears. Please be assured that the index in which a site is included does not affect its PageRank."

Confused? Yes, we all are. Now you can see why web marketing is a full time position. It’s like a battle field. The big SEO’s are fighting while developers, pr agencies, web masters and web marketing experts need to dodge their bullets in order to get sites listed correctly. You don’t want to get in this "supplemental results list". Webmasters, designers and web marketing experts are learning how to avoid this from happening. Make sure your pr agency, or web marketing company knows about this or your site might just be next.

See Also

• Keep your web site SAFE from poor listings
  Google’s supplemental results can cause poor listings for web sites

It’s not graffiti anymore, it’s pr

When you first hear or read the word TAGGING, you probably think of taggers who do graffiti on the walls. Well, think publicity and then think Internet, now you’re getting closer to tagging in today’s terms.

It is the linking of web sites. This old term is what describes how we use links to each other sites making search engines locate us faster.

It seems that this "linking" has been around in the earlier days of the Internet. Spammers were probably using this technique of marketing and when we were all hit hard with spam, search engines became more intelligent by counter acting their tactics.

You or your web designer, programmers often use tagging with your site. You have heard the words meta tags, keywords, right? Well, that is a form of tagging.

When a company wants to optimize your web site, this is one of the tagging areas that are often refined.

If you are in publicity and think this stuff is too deep in conversation and you don’t have an IT person, then use this handy tool for creating links. It is Yahoo’s Del.iclo.us. This is a tool bar that you can download from Yahoo’s site.

Tagging can help your publicity in many ways. For example, tagging can be done with pictures that are in your press release (which should be in your pressroom’s web site), or online video. Many sites have this available such as Yahoo 360, or Technorati’s blog that addresses tagging.

Publicity campaigns are no longer a list of releases or articles; it is your web site and making it SEO friendly with tagging, as well as other unique optimizing tricks. But that’s another subject.

See Also

• Create a powerful Web Site with Tagging
  Publicity needs to be tagged

Make your web site a publicity magnet

Do you currently have a web site? Is it attracting clients? What about the media?

If you are ready to launch a new web site, or about to modify your existing site, you need to do these things first!
What I am about to explain, is based on your site being SEO friendly. That means it has been optimized correctly, the use of flash is correctly displayed and that your site is NOT built with frames. Optimizing a site is more than placing a bunch of keywords into your HTML or in your main text. If you are not sure if the site you are about to launch, contact a company who understands web marketing to help you increase the traffic and publicity attention your company needs.

INCOMING LINKS
You have heard this many times before, but building external links is still a high priority with all the major search engines. Make sure the links you setup are with those who have a Page Rank in excess of 3/10.

PRESS RELEASES
I can’t stress enough that this section of your site can be a main channel to the media. Your site should include a "press room". In this area you should place all your press releases that are optimized. Yes, even press releases, articles and short stories about the company need to be optimized. If not, then your pressroom is only another page. Also, be sure to submit the releases to all the appropriate online media. If you need help with your publicity, hire a company that can help you.

PURCHASE TEXT LINKS
Yes, there are times that you need to make some purchases to get the site in a high position and to attract clients/customers. Be wise in your purchase. One company that can help is called text link ads.

LINK EXCHANGE
Another excellent marketing tip. Be sure to get as many relevant links exchanged. Make sure these are companies in your related industry.

BLOG SITE
I cannot say this enough times. A blog "company" site, or a blog site from the CEO, President, or other noteworthy person in your company can be another excellent marketing tool. It does require daily attention. This can be done with the assistance of other staff members of the company that the author can then review the blogs prior to posting.

Want more leads, more traffic? Try these tips and if you really want to jump start a Publicity program, give us a call.

See Also

• Web Marketing for Publicity Awareness
  How to attract the media with your web site

Medical account sees positive marketing

Not very often do we get the opportunity to shout and let the world know of our new accounts. But this was one we need to mention.

Regal Medical Group is a new company that offers the services to its doctors and patients’ bringing them health plans and government programs for better family healthcare.

As we do with all new accounts, we had a fact-finding meeting to review the goals and objectives with the different marketing and publicity strategies to make "positive things happen" for Regal Medial Group. Priority for the company was to develop several brochures for the doctor’s directories for the different regions in Orange County, CA. The challenge was to meet a rigid deadline. It was successful and we did it all in record time, and within budget.

The medical program has quickly grown and now we are developing literature for the Inland Empire. Regal Medical is having us work closely with them to identify the best marketing and pr strategies to target their audience.

I’m telling you these things, because it is great when clients fully trust your input and work together as part of an overall team. It is this open relationship, which we started from our first meeting that will have positive impacts on both sides.

We will be working on all areas of web marketing, publicity, direct mail, incentive programs, literature and marketing.

See Also

• Leran How We Can Improve Your Visibility
  We Make Things Happen for our clients

Web Marketing and Publicity

What? You still think those people in the IT department are not part of the overall publicity program? If you cannot work with your web marketing staff, or outside source (if you don’t do this in-house), then you’re work on that publicity campaign can have little impact.

The word that still means success is TEAM. Working together can generate a lot of positive results. Especially when any campaign directs pr clients, customers, or B2B companies to visit your web site. Hey, if all the publicity you’re doing doesn’t include the web address then you’re missing out.

Ok, let’s get to building traffic.

As we all know, Google and Yahoo as well as MSN have taken over the search world. They are also changing how search works. By knowing some of these tips, pr people can better understand the mysterious world of search to improve their press releases, articles, and even how to find things on the net.

An important element now is TAGS. Yes, these are the same tags that were once considered a few years ago as a way into the hearts of the search engines. These were the metatags, title, tags, etc. But unlike they were before; there are new twists to making tags more successful. Understanding optimization and knowing how this new system is working, is very important in SEO marketing for web sites.

Let me give you a few tips that I read about the NEW Yahoo My Web. For example:

• You can now share bookmarks

• Store bookmarks (Google Bookmarks has the jump on Yahoo in this area)

• Tagging images. This is great for pr stuff and bloggers

Publicity agencies and pr people as well as pr clients now need to get more serious about optimization. It is how companies’ web sites will survive in the next couple of years.

See Also

• Get More traffic With Web Marketing
  Do more than optimize your site

How to generate traffic

Sometimes it is difficult to explain to pr clients how to get more traffic to a company’s web site in these short blogs. The reason is that it takes more than just a few keywords or phrases embedded into the HTML codes. It requires a plan to get fully indexed and recognized by search engines (SEO).

For those of you who understand the behind-the-scenes, and for those who have a fair knowledge of web marketing, then this is for you.

Before launching your new web site, or your updated site, you need to make sure the following has been completed.

• First, make sure your domain name is registered, or renewed
• Review your home page and the other key pages, these could be up to 5 or 6 different pages
• Make links to your page with other high ranking pages that are already indexed. This will give your site immediate recognition by the search engines
• Develop a PR campaign with releases on your site. These can be releases that have been distributed to the media
• START A BLOG SITE! Not that I haven’t said this a few times before, but a blog site with your company web site will build high rankings with search bots as they crawl the different sites and your links
• Make sure you write articles that are relevant about your company, the products or services you offer. Write articles about topics that you can later submit to other Ezines

One last item for this blog. Get links from other indexed sites to your company site. That completes the cycle.

If you need help with web marketing, give us a call.

See Also

• Building traffic to web sites
  Using the right Web Marketing Tools builds traffic

Get more traffic using these tools

No matter what your clients or pr agency says, you cannot have a successful pr campaign if your web site isn’t visible to the search engines.

So what does all this mean? By working with your pr staff, or your publicity agency, and the marketing people and the web IT department, you will see positive results.

Now let’s talk briefly about your web marketing. Maybe you do not have a web marketing or IT department, or your web designer doesn’t do marketing for web sites. No matter what your situation is, start building links to your web site. First, let me remind you that the site needs to be optimized for any site to gain credibility and ranking. If you are not sure how to optimize the site, contact me and I will give you a FREE analysis of your site’s optimization.

In previous blogs, I have addressed the two types of links. They are:

• ONE WAY links. This is when you ask someone to have him or her place a link to your site on his or her site.
• RECIPROCAL links. These are the type of links that you exchange with another relevant web site. Basically, you are linking to each other’s site.

Remember that it is always best to link to a high-ranking web site. And it is more critical to link to a site that is relevant to your industry. If not, then you are defeating the process and the search engines will penalize your site.

Some other web marketing tips:

1- Do Not link to too many sites too fast. For example, Google wants to see a slow progression of links built

2- Try to get about 5 or 6 new links per day

3- Make sure your keywords are relevant and placed into the text (body) of your message and into your title pages

If you want to learn more, contact me.

See Also

• Web Marketing–How To Do It Right!
  Publicity with web marketing creates results