People searching for information enter specific keywords into the search engines to find what they are looking for about products, companies, services or whatever. Keyword research allows you to see how people are searching for information, what words they are using and which phrases you should use in your content so they are directed to your website. By gathering keyword data, you can gain valuable insight to searchers behavior and ways to create a user-friendly, informational website that converts visitors into customers. So where to does one start their keyword research?

Start by washing away the common misconception that you already know what terms searchers use to find your website. If you are just guessing at what people are looking for, you run the risk of getting it completely wrong. Place yourself in the searcher’s shoes and don’t look for one right answer. Successful keyword research should lead to numerous great answers.

When doing your research, don’t limit yourself. It is easy to get trapped with a specific phrase you have your heart and mind set on. In some situations, starting with a single word can open the door to a much larger range of potential keywords. If you are not sure where to start, select a broad, non-specific term to start your search and discover a plethora of less competitive yet very effective keyword terms to develop your keyword list. Bear in mind, many keywords and keyword phrases are so popular it is almost impossible to get a high ranking for them.

Once you have completed your keyword collection, and it should be a fairly extensive list, the next step is to research the keywords popularity and competition. This can be accomplished through the use of several keyword research and analytic tools. There are many keyword research tools available, like those offered by Overture, Google and Wordtracker. To ensure the quality of your keyword data, analysis should be performed and cross-referenced across multiple tools. There are also web analytics tools available such as those offered by Webtrends, Omniture and HitBox. Using these tools will allow you to identify the most effective keywords for your optimization plan.

It is also important to target locally. Local targeting, including your location in your keyword search phrases, is very successful as many people mention specific locations when searching for services and products. Also take the time to explore all niche opportunities. It is essential to identify what part of a market you’d like to focus on. Don’t forget, getting ranked number one for a term that has nothing to do with your website is a giant waste of time and money.

Keyword research is the first step in the optimization of your website for search engines and to gain greater site traffic. So get out there and start researching. Discover new keyword opportunities and fix existing keyword uses. Keyword research is an ongoing process. Your customers and your website change over time. It is important to monitor your keywords and tweak them accordingly. Although keyword research is a tedious task it is well worth the effort.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

For years it has been the common belief that money was the key and source of employee happiness and longevity. Although money is important, it can’t buy employee happiness and your customers and business livelihood suffer the most when your employees are unhappy with their job.

It’s true. Many studies have confirmed that employee happiness has a direct correlation to customer satisfaction. Although money may keep an unhappy employee coming back to work everyday, an employee who does not feel engaged in the workplace, is going to deliver less in service and productivity. For most companies these are the individuals interacting with their customers and representing their business everyday. Bottom line, if you take great care of your employees, they will take great care of your customers and your customers will keep coming back, again and again.

Need to see this concept at work before you change your management position? Take a look at Google. This search engine giant made the list on Fortune Magazine’s Top One Hundred Places To Work in 2007 and 2008. What makes Google such a great place to work? This was not based on pay scales for employees, but on Google’s continuous efforts to support a healthy work environment for all employees. Now, most businesses can’t afford to pamper their workers with on-site laundry facilities, massage rooms, free gourmet lunches and a virtual college campus of relaxation and fitness, but Google has some programs that can help any business. Take their Innovation Time Off policy. Using this motivation technique, which encourages employees to spend 20% of their work week on a project that interests them, Google has not only given their employees the space, time and confidence they need to be themselves and be happy, but they have benefited from the plan as well, with great programs like Gmail and Adsense being the results of such freedom. You can learn more about Google’s Innovation Time Off policy at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google#Innovation_time_off, but in the end a workplace built on great employees leads to even greater business.

Poor leadership and challenging workplace cultures are among the many reasons quality employees leave. In addition, environments that are constantly monitored are stifling. Employee engagement means making your employees believe they are part of something pretty special. Employees are seeking to be treated with respect and allowed to grow and be a part of the business. Acknowledge a workers worth to you and your company. Invite your employees to share their opinions and allow them to become active participants in discussions and business matters.

Start by instilling an attitude of care and respect for your employees. Discuss expectations, goals, and future plans and keep your employees in the loop. Demonstrate that they are a part of the whole picture and the success of your company and business depends on their satisfaction with their work environment. Your business is only as good as the people working for it and if you want happy customers, be a great employer.

Aside from avoiding the greed laden financial scandal, could Krispy Kreme have taken a different path over the past 20 years? The answer is yes. Lets start with “why ruin a good thing?”. In their first 20 years of operation, Krispy Kreme was a giant in the doughnut world of the Southeastern United States. They were a thriving business with their first chain stores and they had standardized their doughnut mix and necessary machinery to produce the same quality and consistency of product through out each store. They probably weren’t making millions, but they had that “only in the South” flare and people would travel far and wide just to get their hands on the fresh hot glazed doughnuts. Krispy Kreme doughnuts were unique and word of mouth kept the doughnuts flowing out of the stores and, even today, word of mouth is the most effective marketing available.

By the year 2000 Krispy Kreme was not only all over the east and west coasts, they were international. Expansion in the 90’s was insane. And it didn’t stop, by 2004 Krispy Kreme not only had 429 factory stores cranking out hot glazed treats, but they had them on the shelves in 20000 grocery and convenience stores. Why travel to get the doughnuts from the factory store when you can easily pick them up while shopping for groceries or getting gas? What was once a high-end doughnut store chain, with a so fresh their still hot product, was now everywhere-only often not as fresh and generally not hot. They lost their long line of customers. They made their own factory stores obsolete. Had they stayed small and avoided the grocers and 7-11s, they may have saved their brand value. Coincidentally, it was at this same time that Krispy Kreme stocks started to fall and the company began experiencing “unexplained” profit losses.

Expansion is good, but it needs limits. Look at In&Out. It’s a California and Nevada only burger chain, but people love their stuff. They have high quality food for being a burger joint. They have had many offers to go national, but have opted not because they chose to avoid over-saturating, the way many companies do-which often leads to failure. Brilliance…

Keeping up with the times is a marketing must if you want to remain successful in our ever-changing world. Krispy Kreme’s Hot Glazed Doughnuts are far from a healthy snack. Very few humans missed the health revolution with the low-carb diets and movement away from fried and processed foods. People are eating better and it may be time to get creative and market some new products that fall in line with this trend. There was the whole-wheat doughnut and talk of the not-yet-seen sugar free variety, but there is plenty of room for providing a healthier alternative without losing the sugar-glaze that attracts thousands. On the same note, coming up with other non-doughnut products like fresh squeezed juices, organic milks and getting a consistent coffee throughout the stores could add a larger customer base. Donuts aren’t the biggest seller at competing businesses like Dunkin Donuts. People frequent these locals for the coffee, bagels and muffins. Not just for some sugar-glaze or jelly filling.

The Krispy Kreme brand is far from dead, but a different marketing strategy 20 years ago may have saved them from the struggles they are having today. They started in 1937 with a brilliant strategy of producing a superior product and promoting it very well, but they limited their success with over-saturation and a limited product line during changing times. It may be time to bring the fresh hot glaze back to it’s roots and let it start growing again.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

As connections and the computers they are allied with get faster, video sites must keep up with the times and meet the speed of their visitors. The large video sharing sites, like YouTube, are already testing a player that detects your connection speed to serve up higher quality video. Optional, of course, but who wouldn’t want the higher quality and where does that leave the timeless “camera phone” videos or “first time holding a camera” videos? And if video marketing was on your list of online marketing campaign strategies-what level of quality do you need?

The content of your video is extremely important, but is content more important than quality? It’s a balancing act. They need to walk hand in hand. It is vital to have effective content that intrigues the audience. Without excellent content, no matter how good the quality, your video will stink and sink right out of existence. However, by combining high quality with brilliant content you’re destined to have greater success than the lesser quality video.

Do you need studio quality stuff? No, but a broadcast filled with extraneous noise is just annoying. The people coughing in the background. The shaking and clumsy camera hand. The dog barking off in the distance. Get that stuff out of there. Don’t be mistaken; unedited video has massive value for keeping it real. But it is better to invest your time in producing high quality videos for a lasting high quality impression.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

When using keywords in the title, it is best to not to overdue it. Select a pertinent keyword to your page and form a quality title around the selected keyword. Search engines often highlight these terms in the search results when a user has performed a query. This will help to generate greater visibility and a higher click through rate.

General rules to remember:

• Keep an eye on the length-65 to 70 characters including spacing. Titles that are longer than this often appear unfinished in search results.

• Keeping your main keyword near the beginning of your title indicates the value of your site for this information. Using multiple keywords or repetitive keywords can do damage to your ranking and may get you blacklisted.

• Readability and emotional impact. A compelling title tag will pull in more visits from search results.

Proper time and use of your titles will generate better keyword driven search engine traffic and initiate interest in your site. Don’t just think about optimization and keyword usage. Think about the user experience. Your title is your first impression. Make it a positive one and write your title for the user-and not just for the search engines.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

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It’s the simplicity of the advertisement that makes it so appealing. Free from the obscure pitches of so many other cereals. They don’t boast about the power of the whole grains or the number of calories. Yet this commercial effectively leaves watchers wanting to start their day with trail mix for breakfast and fuel their own spirit for adventure.

Of course, there is the added humor of the extremely talented hound that delivers breakfast in bed (and up a lot of steps) with the sole purpose of motivating his owner to get his day started so the furry friend can steal his spot under the sheets. Obviously Post understands that at every point that a customer interacts with a company, brand communication takes place and making certain your campaign leaves customers feeling good means more customer’s starting their day with Trail Mix Crunch.

Now if they could only give you the delivery dog with your first purchase…

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

Wondering where to get insight-look locally. Tailor your marketing strategy to appeal to the shared cultural norms, values and traditions of those in your target neighborhood. Learn as much as you can about people. Where they eat, if they like french fries, Jo-Joes, or potato wedges. Do they prefer recycled products to pre-consumer brands? Understanding the variety of people in your own community can shed new light on an old marketing campaign.

Don’t forget to integrate ethnicity into your strategy. This is extremely important for product distributors. If you are a food provider in New Mexico and you don’t offer green chili, you are going to miss out on some serious business opportunities. Take the time to research the demographics of an area and then become familiar with them on a local level. This applies to national chains as well. The Sonic’s in New Mexico serves Green Chile Cheeseburgers, and you wonder why they have long drive through lines.

Does your marketing strategy reflect the changes in today’s culture or are you still selling to the group audience? Lumping all of your viewers as one mass of people with all the same interests and lifestyles is a huge mistake that could cost you valuable business. Expanding your plan to meet the needs of a variety of cultures and individuals will demonstrate your growth and change, keeping you in step with the rest of the world.

Thanks for reading!

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

Communication is much more than words. Communication involves tone, gestures, meaning and movement. Dumping lots of facts, figures and bullets on your site doesn’t mean you are delivering a message your audience wants to hear. Think true sincere communication, not marketing. Be honest and sincere, offer knowledge not sales jargon, and leave the technical stuff for the glossaries.

Write your content in a natural voice, as if speaking directly to a customer. No filler. No fluff. Keep your content interesting, engaging and relevant to ensure a fulfilling experience for your online guests. Your website should be about giving your customers attention, addressing their need to know and the ability to find an immediate answer to their question.

When looking at well-communicated sites like www.futurenowinc.com, their success is no mystery. They know why a consumer would visit their site, address that need to know and help to identify paths to meet those needs. All of this is done in a no-nonsense tone and they don’t squander their message space bolstering their own business egos.

As many businesses have learned the hard way, bad content can kill your site. You don’t have to be boring because you are talking about business. Be creative. Be Bizarre. Just don’t be mind numbing or the only place your content will lead is to the back button.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

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Is it possible they were trying to put the antisocial violent subcultures of the world into a car of their own? This would be an unusual target audience choice. As it turns out they are reaching out to the 18-35 year old males who embrace that little bit of “bad-ass” in them. Even this eludes my logic, as guys in a mini-wagon just don’t seem all that deviant to me, unless of course they are going to tool around the city taking out the conformists, but that is well beyond deviant behavior.

Could Toyota have spent their dollars on a more profitable campaign? We have all seen that the car industry giant has targeted the younger generation with their previous Scion line, but this branding point appears to so limit their buyers’ interest by associating the vehicle with deviants. Are there enough deviants in the world to make the millions spent on this promotion worthwhile?

A five-door mini-wagon would be an ideal car for small families, but what family wants to put their loved ones in a vehicle that will forever be associated with massacring misfits. And what about the millions of car guys who love to customize their rides? Scion offers many options for customizing your vehicle making it a popular choice for the younger generation, but are all those “pimped out” car drivers now considered deviants? Not to mention the “sheeples” of the world who may now steer clear of Toyota knowing that the carmaker views them as mindless, zombie-like conformists. Point being that there was a much larger audience they could have addressed and not scared away.

With all the violence going on around the globe and this generation’s movement toward unity, caring for animals and going green, I have to question the mental state of the person who thought up this approach. The delivery was outstanding, but the message was disturbing. Although I in no way identify with either the Sheeples of Attik’s campaign nor their genocidal foes, from this moment forward I will be watching in my rear view mirror, as my head will not become a hood ornament for any little deviants.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

I thought this was great, I asked him if I could take a look at a very small part of what he had done. He showed me a few sites where had set up accounts and posted information and was proud about the fact that these sites were going to push him up in the pretty competitive search terms on Google. Just to be nice I decided to point out how his one way link building had gone bad.

rel=”nofollow”

Many sites are doing this now because spammers had found it fun to get thousands of links from 1 site that were to worthless websites. What this one simple command does is prevent search engines from following that link. So while this guy was doing his amazing strategy, it wasn’t actually doing anything for him, because the search engines were being stopped before they left the site.

The deceiving part is that when you look at it on the page, it appears as a normal link, its what’s behind it that matters. You can see this if you right click on a page and select view source. Then find your link on the page, easiest way is to search for the text of your link when viewing the code. You will see the link show up. It will look something like the link below:

Visit my <a href=”http://www.example.com/” rel=”nofollow”>your link</a> site.

Notice that rel=”nofollow” in there? If you are getting that, don’t think about that site for the backlinks to your site, because they don’t exist. If you see the link without that, then you are good to go and take advantage of it.

Needless to say, we are now working with the client mentioned and are getting him on sites where his one way link building strategy will actually be successful. May yours be too!

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98