It was recently announced that Yahoo, Google and MSN will all be using the same format for site maps, a format based on the Google sitemap. Most people think that a good site map will help your site get increased search engine rankings, but according to Google, that is not the case. According to Vanessa Fox from Google, sitemaps don’t affect rankings at all, they are merely a way of ensuring your pages are being picked up. The site map is a tool to help search engine crawlers access more pages. So put a site map on your website, but don’t expect it to increase sales. In order to do that you have to generate fresh content and back links. The quickest way to do that is with a company blog, viral marketing and video optimization.
We are in the midst of the most important quarter of the year for onine retailers, but is it too late to generate more sales for the year? It is probably a little late to expect increased natural search traffic, unless of course you are using blog marketing, but retailers can convert more of their visitors with a few simple steps.
Your pages should all have a definite call to action, and these marketing hooks should stand out from the rest of the text on the page. You should be able to spot the call to action from six feet away, and you can achieve this by contrasting colors, fonts and print or graphic sizes.
Testimonials should be placed on the right hand side of the page, while associations should be at the bottom; BBB membership, secure checkout, Versign, credit card logos, chamber of commerce etc. You should also make sure that your customers know you have a company blog, message board or forum. If you are doing any video optimization or podcasting on your blog, be sure and provide a link where people can view a category page of video.
With all the news about the purchase of UTube, there has been increased scrutiny on video spending trends. EMarketer is talking about studies that have not yet been released. They estimate that spending on online video advertising will surpass the $410 million mark. That is an 82% increase from 2005. Video advertising is expected to generate over $3 billion a year by 2010. No doubt big advertisers will cash in on this bonanza and look to snap up video time on well travelled websites. Also expect video advertising on search engines. But how does the smaller company get involved? They use use a company blog, and the power of multiple blogs to distribute their videos and commercials. They tap into the 60 million plus people who read blogs; the blogosphere is where smaller companies will smartly spend their advertising dollars.
