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September 12, 2018

The Benefits of A Live Stream

Live video content has been around for a while but has now been incorporated into a number of different popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Streaming content online is a great way for brands to share meaningful information to users and connect to a larger audience. Including live video broadcasts on these social media sites can make your brand seem more relatable and accessible to potential customers.

The live video features on Facebook and Instagram are useful not only because they reach more people but they also give users a chance to interact with you in real time. People can write comments or ask questions and you can respond as you are seeing them during your live stream. This real time communication can be essential to converting customers and getting people to be more engaged with your brand.

One of the biggest benefits of a live stream is that it can give you a chance to educate users about your brand and what your company is all about. You are able to promote your company in a more personal way and make sure that people are listening and will hear your message. The content can be more rich and entertaining in a way that people will be more inclined to respond.

Live streams are also useful at conveying a sense of urgency to help convert people into becoming paying customers. You can talk to customers about a limited time offer or a particular promotion that you want them to take advantage of during the course of the video. Users might be more interested in converting with the longer and more informational content of live streams rather than a quick ad.

Live streaming allows you to communicate directly to people and the more live stream videos you create, the larger the audience you can reach every time.

Emarketed

Matt Ramage is founder of Emarketed a web marketing agency located in Los Angeles. He loves coffee, good design, and helping businesses improve their look and getting found on the Internet.

https://www.emarketed.com

May 2, 2018May 1, 2018

YouTube Ads Overview

Businesses that have create video advertisements often need an easy way to get more people to view them. YouTube is the perfect place to get millions of users to see your ad and potentially click through to your website. However YouTube ads can be a little different than other types of paid advertising online so it is important to familiarize yourself with the format.

There are two different types of YouTube ads you can purchase for views to see. TrueView ads are a standard video ad on YouTube that viewers can watch and interact with. With these types of ads marketers can choose to only pay for the viewer to see 30 seconds of the video ad and the user has the option to skip the remaining time of the ad after watching 5 seconds. Non-skippable ads are required to be between 15 to 20 seconds in length.

Other YouTube ad types include Video Discovery Ads which can show up on the homepage or in related videos after a YouTube search. If the user clicks on the ad then a companion banner display ad will appear. These displayed ads do not automatically play but need to be clicked on in order for views to see them.

You can set up a YouTube ad through Google Adwords by selecting video ad under the list of campaign options. You can then select the format, the budget and the networks where you want your video to appear. There are also options to target the video for a certain audience to see on YouTube.

It can be difficult to get people to view video ads when it is simply embedded in your homepage or placed in a social media post. YouTube ads are an easy and fast way to get a much bigger audience to see your ad and learn more about your company.

Emarketed

Matt Ramage is founder of Emarketed a web marketing agency located in Los Angeles. He loves coffee, good design, and helping businesses improve their look and getting found on the Internet.

https://www.emarketed.com

February 22, 2018February 22, 2018

Google News February 2018

We’ve been blogging about Google since 2007. A lot has changed in that time! Here’s a recap of the latest Google updates that we think will impact your business online that’s happened recently.

Google Launches Beta Version of Brand New Search Console

Google has rolled out the beta version of the new and improved search console and so far we’re liking how it looks. It was built from scratch and the way the data is presented allows you to easily toggle on the clicks, total impressions, average CTR, and average position.

To access the new console click here and then click the “Try the new Search Console” link. See below for what that looks like.

The most promising new feature is access to 16-month-old historical data. It enables year over year comparison which is great. So the new search console currently includes index coverage, performance, and the ability to upload a new site map. All of the other features remain in the old version.

Some stats we found on our site that were interesting: 273k impressions over the last 12 months (this is how many times we’ve shown up in search results), out of that number 64k were on mobile, and lastly we received 505 clicks from Google search. For the last year in total we have received just over 25k in visits. Some views below from the new console.

The new search console will also help you validate newly fixed AMP URLs. The updated AMP status report will provide details into the specific Errors.

As of now, the above-mentioned tools and features are the biggest highlights of the new search console. But it’s still in the beta and many tools and features are yet to come, so stay tuned.
You Can Now Add Videos To Your Google My Business Listing

Google was testing a new video feature in early January that allowed business owners and customers to add videos, related to the business. Allyson Wright from the Google My Business advertiser community announced that they have fully rolled out the video feature and now all business owners can add videos to their listing. These videos will be visible on Google Maps and local search results. Some important points to consider:
- Videos up to 30 seconds in length are supported.
- Videos will appear in the overview tab of the GMB Dashboard.
- Customer uploaded videos can be found in the “customer” tab.
- Merchant uploaded videos can be found in the “by owner” tab.
- All videos can be viewed together in the “videos” tab.
- After upload it could take up to 24 hours for the videos to appear. Once live, they will display where local photos do.
The process to add videos is same as photos. Go to your GMB dashboard, click photos on the left and instead of adding photos, add the link to the videos. We just posted a video to our page so the video should be live within 24 hours.
Page Speed Will Officially Be A Ranking Factor In Google From July 2018

It’s 2018 and if your web page takes more than 10 seconds to load, then you are far behind! Nobody likes to wait minutes just for your page to load — they will simply hit the back button. Personally I hit the back button sooner!

According to this study, 53% of the users will abandon sites that take more than 3 seconds to load. So it came as no surprise when Google announced that site speed will be a ranking factor within the mobile search results in July 2018.

If you are not sure about your site’s speed, you can use the Google’s “Test My Site” tool. This tool uses a standard 3G connection to replicate what most people are using to surf the web using mobile. It not only tells you about your site speed but also gives suggestions on how you can improve. Our home page loaded in 5 seconds which Google says is “good” but according to the above study it’s “not good”. We NEED to improve our page speed ASAP. I’ll post a followup blog on how we improved our website speed and provide some insight into how we did it.
Important Google AdWords Updates For February 2018

There’s a ton happening in the AdWords world. Here’s the important stuff:
- The Dynamic search ads allow you to target the entire website or domain name so that you can target a broad audience. However, Google has made some significant changes to it and the changes will go live soon. To know exactly how it will affect you, click here.
- Google made changes to their algorithm for AdWords sometimes increasing budgets by 2X. Find out how advertisers are responding to it and does it really change anything within AdWords … find out.
- Google and Facebook get the biggest slice of advertising cake. A recent study revealed that 25% of the global advertising spend goes to Google and Facebook. However, the number may drop soon as people are starting to allocate their ad budget to different platforms.
- Google is officially removing the Adwords Review extension and all the performance data will be deleted by the end of February 2018.
- Last year we saw shocking reports that YouTube ads were running alongside some inappropriate videos. It scared advertisers. Addressing the issue, YouTube has now made it mandatory for users to have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of viewed content if they want to monetize their content (more below on this).
- Remarketing is one of the best marketing weapons in your arsenal. Here’s a great guide on how to utilize it to the fullest.
- What is Doubleclick adoptive re-marketing and how does it work? Find out more here.
- Manually selecting placements to run display ads may seem like a good option, but it is not the right solution to click frauds. Also, it causes you to miss the flexibility of automated placements.
- Remarketing is good but only if done in a balanced manner. Many advertisers overdo it and as a result, annoy the users. Although Google can’t tell advertisers to stop targeting a particular user, they may give the power to the users to block re-marketing ads coming from a specific advertiser.
Youtube’s New Monetization Policy, Not A Bad Decision

Recently, YouTube has announced that it will demonetize all the small channels on the platform, as per the site’s new eligibility criteria channels need to have more than 1,000 subscribers, with at least 4,000 hours of watching within the past 12 months.

The decision came after Logan Paul’s ‘suicide video’ incident. According to the company, the decision of demonetizing the small channels is taken in order to, “prevent bad actors from harming the inspiring and original creators around the world who make their living on YouTube.” The channels that fail to meet these criteria will no longer be able to monetize and will lose access to tools and features associated with the YouTube partner program by next month. If any channel fails to meet the criteria but, later if they manage to pass it, will be automatically re-evaluated in the new criteria. All the new channels joining the platform will have to, manually apply for evaluation.

Though many are criticizing YouTube’s new policy and terming it as “favoritism” for big channels or “penalty” for small channels, we feel it’s not a bad decision.

If you’ve made it this far YOU are my hero. May the Google gods bless your website.

Warm regards,

Matt Ramage
Chief Emarketed Guy

Emarketed

Matt Ramage is founder of Emarketed a web marketing agency located in Los Angeles. He loves coffee, good design, and helping businesses improve their look and getting found on the Internet.

https://www.emarketed.com

February 5, 2014April 4, 2018

Why Deep Linking is Important for SEO

What is Deep Linking?

What you link, anchor text, is just as important as where you link. The idea of deep linking means digging through your site, past your home page and linking internal pages where it makes sense to do so. The “old” idea of good SEO was to push everything and anything to the home page. You wanted the home page to rank for general, long-tail terms and everything in between.

While this is great in theory, it just doesn’t play out so well in real life. Not only is this terrible for user experience, but it’s also not good for your back link anchor text profile.

How Do You Link Deep?

Instead of pushing a reader to visit your home page, push them to visit a specific page that will help them solve their problem. You can deep link anywhere you would regularly link your home page. You can link your About Us page on your YouTube Channel, add your Office page to Facebook, or promote your Testimonials page on a press release.

Deep linking also applies in non-traditional SEO/linking methods. For example, if you’re trying to interest a car buyer with an online inquiry, you’re not just going to send them an automated email asking them to visit your home page for more information. You’re going to want to engage with them, ask them their interests, and find them specific pages for the cars their looking for (electric, luxury, sporty etc.)

Why Use Deep Linking?

Deep linking is great for a variety of reasons. First, of all the main goal of deep linking is to increase your site’s relevancy, thus increase pages views while decreasing bounce rates. The idea is that if you link to a specific inside page, visitors will be attracted and encouraged to stay and read. If you just link to your home page, in hopes that they’ll search through to find what they’re looking for, chances are that they’ll leave almost immediately… resulting in a 100% bounce rate.

Deep linking also brings out a sense of authority and trust. If you use specific anchor text and language, users expect to be taken to a particular page. You deliver what you promise and aren’t trying to hijack a link in hopes of getting traffic just to your home page.

So, if you’ve primarily been linking to your home page, it’s time to stop and encourage the deep linking method. Your back link profile is probably very home page in terms of links and could use some diversification. Here are some other places you can practice deep linking: social media profiles, press releases (remember to nofollow!), emails, newsletters, niche & trustworthy directories, paid ads, and more.

Emarketed

Matt Ramage is founder of Emarketed a web marketing agency located in Los Angeles. He loves coffee, good design, and helping businesses improve their look and getting found on the Internet.

https://www.emarketed.com

August 25, 2012

5 Things Nerdist Industries Can Teach You About Marketing Your Business

What began 4 years ago as a blog by Chris Hardwick has transformed into the giant that is known as Nerdist Industries. The site is pretty much a one-stop-shop for nerds on all things pop culture. In recent news, Legendary Entertainment has acquired Nerdist (read more about that here.) So, just exactly how did one comedian’s idea blossom into an acquisition of a major production company? This is no small feat and certainly not an overnight success. Find out how Nerdist has become so successful and what your business can learn:

1) Find a niche and go for it: Even within the “nerd culture”, there are different types of people and interests. Things usually associated with the word “nerd” include video games, computers and technology. But in fact, Nerdist has expanded on that limited mindset to also include: movies, music, food, comedy and even sex/health.

If you look at it compared to marketing, it’s the same way. Marketing is a very general term and there are so many different areas to expand on: traditional, email, newsletters, viral, direct mail, print, online, etc. Being a generalist is helpful but being a specialist can make your business stand out.

2) Appreciate your fans/customers: Nerdist provides free content via podcasts, articles and video clips. In a world where everything has a price tag, it’s nice to see something made with passion be put out for free for fans to consume. It’s also not surprising to see the hosts/comedians also respond to fans by comments or through Tweets. This personal touch makes fans feel more connected to the community and more likely to attend live shows.

Nowadays, social media provides a channel for companies to showcase the human side of their business. Personal interaction is crucial for repeat customers and to help establish a trustworthy reputation. As for giving things away, the Freemium model works well for many businesses, especially when it comes to digital goods.

3) Enlist the help of your friends: What makes Nerdist podcasts so great? When comedians invite their friends, of course! These conversations provide an inside look into the industry on a personal level that can’t be found anywhere else. And not to sound superficial, but it all ties back to promoting yourself but not at an in-your-face kind of way. After all, this is a business and there is money to be made. For example, in Doug Benson’s dining podcast, each episode focuses on a local eatery such as the Grilled Cheese Truck and the Let’s Be Frank hot dog cart. This is a great form of promotion that is interesting and relevant to foodies and comedy fans alike.

Cross promotion is a great way to gain exposure in a different audience… especially if it’s closely related. As a small business owner, there’s great opportunity when you combine efforts with friends or other local businesses. Bringing on others will help with networking in the industry and it will also force your business put out better services/products.

4) Make your branding memorable: Part of what makes Nerdist so recognizable is its consistent branding. Even though there are over 20 different podcasts, each of them still feels like they belong to the Nerdist family. Part of finding your individual voice in the crowd also means personalizing it, even if it is with a sign off catch phrase like “Enjoy your burrito” or “Keep it crispy”.

Does your business have a consistent look and feel? Branding is an important part of effective reputation management and building a credible repertoire. Whether you’re a small business or a large company, it’s important that consumers find your brand and logo memorable so that they keep you in mind for their future business needs.

5) Work hard and don’t lose sight of the big picture: Not just any comedian (or anyone, for that matter) can create a unique business model as Nerdist. Many people even question how Nerdist can even monetize the free content that they’re putting out but believe it, they are making it happen. This passion and desire for hard work didn’t just come from anywhere. After all, Chris could have been a washed-up former MTV host turned alcoholic if he didn’t turn his personal and professional life around.

There is no quick short cut to success and Nerdist is a perfect example of that. If you want your business to run like a well-oiled machine, the only way to do it is to get down and dirty and do it yourself. But no matter how much effort you put into things, remember to never lose sight of your integrity and remember why you’re in business in the first place!

Emarketed

Matt Ramage is founder of Emarketed a web marketing agency located in Los Angeles. He loves coffee, good design, and helping businesses improve their look and getting found on the Internet.

https://www.emarketed.com

June 4, 2012

Video Marketing Opportunities for Small Businesses

Some small businesses may not be aware of how video marketing services can greatly benefit their online reputation. Let’s take a look at 3 ways videos can help your business:

1) Improve Customer Relations – Videos are a great platform to do webinars, short Q&A’s, tutorials and more. In these cases, the content is free and easily accessible so that you help establish your company as a credible source of information when customers need more assistance. On the other hand, some larger companies (Domino’s and Playstation) have used videos as a medium to quickly apologize and address unhappy customers. Either way, it helps to utilize and integrate a different form of communication via video.

2) Enhance Brand Awareness – When you create videos, this shows passion and knowledge that you have for your specific industry. Not to mention that putting a face to your business helps establish trust and a genuine representation of your company. (Just think of what Matt Cutts represents for Google and Rand Fishkin for SEOmoz.)

3) Reach a Larger Audience – If you’re interesting in using video ads to promote your business on YouTube, that’s now possible! In a way, it works like Adsense, where a company can bid on keywords that are related to their business. With more users on YouTube, don’t expect this ad trend to disappear. This is an area that small businesses can really embrace to find relevant customers.

Find out more about video marketing in these related blog posts:
– Does Your Business Use Facebook Video?
– Video Marketing for Your Business

Emarketed

Matt Ramage is founder of Emarketed a web marketing agency located in Los Angeles. He loves coffee, good design, and helping businesses improve their look and getting found on the Internet.

https://www.emarketed.com

January 10, 2011

Optimizing Your YouTube Videos

There’s nothing worse than the misconception of, “If you build it, they will come.” Of course, this also applies to your website video marketing. YouTube views don’t just add up by themselves!

Just like Google’s search engine algorithm changes on an everyday basis, YouTube’s search engine also has a system for ranking your videos as it applies to related terms and keywords. So, in order to make the most out of the hard work you put into making a great video, it’s important to look at a few different ways you can improve your YouTube search rankings.

Titles, descriptions and tags – When choosing these keywords, remember that you’re not just appealing to the YouTube search engine but more importantly, the viewers. It’s important to use interesting terms that people would actually want to click on when your video shows up in their search results.

Positive user interaction – YouTube considers the number of views, comments, subscribers and ratings of your videos. Make it easy for your viewers to comment on and rate your videos. (Depending on the nature of your video, you’ll also have to keep a sharp eye out for YouTube trolls.)

Encouraging clicks – Make sure to add your site URL in your video descriptions and main channel info. Keep your viewers engaged with a call to action such as “Visit our site” or “Support our cause”. Also if you receive video responses, you can accept the links to also help increase the visibility of your videos.

PS) Remember to also optimize the technical aspects of your YouTube videos and don’t forget to check out The American Dream Film.

Emarketed

Matt Ramage is founder of Emarketed a web marketing agency located in Los Angeles. He loves coffee, good design, and helping businesses improve their look and getting found on the Internet.

https://www.emarketed.com

August 16, 2010

Arcade Fire: Social Media and a #1 Album

As Katy Perry, Drake, Eminem and Lady Gaga dominate the summer music charts, it was nice to see a change at the top spot. Congrats to Arcade Fire! But what really helped them get there? Good music, unique live performances, loyal fans or a focused social media marketing plan? How about all of the above? Earlier this month, the band even played a live show from New York’s Madison Square Garden, which was streamed in real-time on YouTube.

A look at Arcade Fire’s social media profiles reveals that they are effective because they are so well-maintained. It’s also refreshing to see a band expand beyond just using MySpace. All the profiles are linked to their main site, where fans can find tour information and buy the new album. Over 97,000 digital sales have also helped Arcade Fire secure the #1 spot.

The ease and shareability through social media has given Arcade Fire (and tons of other bands) an opportunity to reach new fans that they wouldn’t have otherwise. A new Arcade Fire fan reveals, “I just found out about this band today and I must say, I’m quite impressed. They are amazing.” Isn’t this glowing review an example of what any band or business would like to have said about them?

‘Modern Man’ is currently my favorite track off the album. Check it out!

Emarketed

Matt Ramage is founder of Emarketed a web marketing agency located in Los Angeles. He loves coffee, good design, and helping businesses improve their look and getting found on the Internet.

https://www.emarketed.com

April 29, 2009

New Google Site For Advertisers

Well Google is at it again with another new site. This brings the Google site count up to 6,341*. Wow! There newest addition is for advertisers! There’s plenty of information on it which will help you in the advertising world. There’s a great case study on the home page which is a ‘worst case’ case study of a pet stick campaign. I love it! I’ve inserted the image here for a laugh.

The pet stick case study shows you the various tools you can use to market your product which I hope is better than a pet stick. Although I’m sure people would buy the pet stick! So from media planning, new keyword tools, buidling a social media site through OpenSocial, setting up ads on Google, creating a YouTube video, engaging YouTubers, (just learned this is an actual word) you can see how Google can help. The site gets into how TV and mobile ads work as well.

My favorite section was the free marketing section. We’ve discussed some of these tools in past posts, such as Webmaster Tools and the Local Business Center, but there are many more such as Product Search, FeedBurner, Gadgets, OpenSocial, Maps API, and YouTube. I recommend reviewing these free tools and making them work for your site.

It just occurred to me that a lot of these free tools were companies that Google bought out. We’re actually in the process of creating a tool for our clients so maybe Google will try to buy us out in a few years. We shall see! Please forward this blog URL to Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google Co-Founders) so they can start preparing for the buyout!

* just kidding – I’m sure there are plenty but I just picked this number out of thin air 😉

Emarketed

Matt Ramage is founder of Emarketed a web marketing agency located in Los Angeles. He loves coffee, good design, and helping businesses improve their look and getting found on the Internet.

https://www.emarketed.com

What is Deep Linking?

How Do You Link Deep?

Why Use Deep Linking?

Piranha 3D

Tell Us About Yourself

Google Visibility Audit