Posts Tagged ‘internet marketing professionals’

How Important are Long Tail Keywords for Businesses and Internet Marketing Professionals?

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

internetmarketingprofessionalsThe term “long tail” Has been around for at least a few years now, but if you read the latest assessments of long tail search, you’ll find that there’s still no consensus as to how much time Internet marketing professionals should spend chasing it. Are long tail keywords crucial to a commercial Website’s success? Or should they be ignored?

First, let’s back up a bit and explain what long tail keywords are. As the name implies, they’re keyphrases that are long. They usually contain at least four words. Furthermore, they’re not keyphrases that are searched for a lot. For example if you own a rock climbing gym in Cleveland, you may want to go after a long tail keyphrase like beginner rock climbing lessons in cleveland. The truth is, there are probably not a lot of people typing that phrase into Google, but if you optimize for that long tail keyword, you’ll be able to attract the few who do search for it.

Now back to the topic at hand: are long tail keyphrases worth the trouble? There are as many opinions about that as there are Internet marketing professionals. And the latest report by the Rimm-Kaufmann Group should only fuel the controversy.

That’s because the report states 5 key findings that all Internet marketing professionals should consider:

  1. The value of long tail keywords depends on several factors, the nature of a company being the most important. One company only earned 8% of its sales from long tail keywords, while another claimed that 83% of sales were from long tail keywords.
  2. The type of product is also important. Since people will search for different products using differently, what works for one product or service won’t necessarily work for another.
  3. The budget that Internet marketing professionals and companies set for a campaign does not necessarily affect the success of chasing long tail keywords. In other words, spending more money to chase more long tail keyphrases won’t necessarily result in better ROI.
  4. Internet marketing professionals have had the most success with long tail keywords were retailers selling SKU-based products.
  5. Long tail keywords can help all online advertisers and Internet marketing professionals, but the amount to which it helps can vary greatly. Even that aforementioned company that only earned 8% of its sales through long tail keywords had a positive, if small, ROI by going after those keywords.

While there’s still a lot of discussion about the effectiveness of long tail keywords among Internet marketing professionals, one thing remains clear: long tail keywords can help any online business. What’s contested now is how much businesses and Internet marketing professionals can benefit from them.

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What Do Internet Marketing Professionals Think About Recriprocal Links?

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

internetmarketingprofessionalsIf you’ve talked to any Internet marketing professionals about all the available options for optimizing your Website, then you may have heard the term “reciprocal links” batted around. We know that just the term “reciprocal links” may make one’s eyes glaze over; it’s not exactly a term that sounds like it’s a lot of fun.

So what are reciprocal links? Reciprocal links what Internet marketing professionals use to create a mutual link between two separate Websites. They are implemented to ensure a mutual traffic boost from both Websites. There are a number of reciprocal link directories on the web that you can join. That will mean that your Website link will show up in their online directory, but only if you include a link to their directory somewhere on your site.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But a much more complex question is whether or not reciprocal linking is useful at all. That’s an issue where Internet marketing professionals diverge. Some Internet marketing professionals think that reciprocal links are great, while other Internet marketing professionals find them quite useless. And there are some Internet marketing professionals who land somewhere in between. They think that reciprocal links can help, but they’re not absolutely crucial to a Website optimization strategy.

Many Internet marketing processionals think that there’s a threshold to reciprocal linking. In other words, some are good, but too many reciprocal links will be a huge red flag to search engines. If Google or other search engines notice too many reciprocal links within a Website, then that Website is in danger of getting blacklisted.

The thing to remember with reciprocal links is that quality matters. Linking to a lot of high quality sites will probably not get a Website penalized. But linking to too many link directories runs the risk of getting on Google’s bad side.

Unfortunately, there’s no clear cut and dry case of when to use reciprocal links and how many to use. Tests by Internet marketing professionals have shown that reciprocal links will help a Website if that Website deals with a very specific issue, and if that site has reciprocal links going to related sites.

For example, the study in question involved a Website called “The Southeastern Bat Diversity Network” it’s an organization that works to conserve bat habitats in—you guessed it—the southeast US. All reciprocal links on that Website were to other Websites that covered bats. Those are the types of links that are considered “high quality.” If the reciprocal links were to Websites that were about something different—if the bat conservation Website linked to a Website that sold iPhone accessories—then that would look suspicious.

So should you use reciprocal links? The bad news is that it’s too complex an issue to offer a straight yes or no answer. For the best results, an experienced Internet marketing professional should evaluate the Website in question and decide whether or not it’s a good candidate for some reciprocal links, or perhaps many reciprocal links. Shoot Search Circus an email if you want to know more about what reciprocal links can do for your site.

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