Keywords are a pervasive part of marketing today. From a marketing perspective, everything we do today has got to take keywords into account. When I say, “everything,” I mean everything. I am however not suggesting that you write with keywords as your primary focus (the content still needs to be relevant and engaging to the reader). I am saying that you should be aware when writing such things as website/blog copy, press releases, PDF content, videos, even employment resumes. Anything that is, or can be turned digital, should take keywords into consideration.
Here are a few tips to consider:
Create a target list of keywords that are relevant for your company or business so that all involved are aware of the focus.
Put yourself in the searchers shoes…if you were searching a product or service you offer, what keyword(s) would you use?
Once you have a list of keywords generated, narrow it down by doing some research to find out what keywords are most popular, least competitive, etc.
Relevancy is key – the more relevant the content is around the keywords you’re focusing on, the more likely it will be that someone will find your information vs. your competitor.
If you’re using images, be sure to use alt tags and/or captions to identify the image.
Formatting Matters – Text attributes like bold and hyperlinks emphasize info in your document for spiders bots/web crawlers.
Website urls - create descriptive urls links with a keyword…for example, rather than xyz.com/12lkkfdhadf_dfdfk.html, you could create one like: xyz.com/this-is-a-keyword.html
Direct Marketing News had a great article on optimizing your PDFs that is worth a read. If you need further assistance or have questions, please feel free to contact me.
For those of you running the Google Android OS on your smart phone, I’ve come up with my current top-10 FREE Android app list. Some you’re probably familiar with, hopefully some are new to you. In no particular order…
Google Sky – If you’ve ever wanted to know what star or planet you’re looking at, this is a killer app and one of the best I’ve seen in the category. Point your phone anywhere in the sky and with your present GPS coordinates, it will show you exactly what you’re looking at.
KeyRing - Tired of carrying a bunch of loyalty cards around? Well, no more, with KeyRing you can accept as many as you like. Just scan the bar code and it’s in your phone. When you go to a particular store, all you have to do is bring up the app and they can scan your bar code from your phone.
ShopSavvy – If you’re in a store and just about to buy something, but not sure if it’s a good price…just scan the UPC code and ShopSavvy will search area stores and online sites to let ya know.
Shazam – How many times are you listening to the radio and you wonder who the heck is singing that tune? Just turn on the Shazam app and let it listen to the song for a few seconds and it will tell you. Shazam will even find the song online for you to purchase if you like.
Movies – If you like movies as much as I do, this is a pretty cool app. Again, with the GPS cordinates you just select a movie you’re interested in seeing and it will pull up theaters near you and give you current play times.
Talk To Me – If you travel to foreign countries and don’t speak the language…not to worry. All you have to do is launch TalkToMe and speak in English what you need to say, then it translates it into German, Spanish, French, Italian, etc. Pretty cool stuff.
Goggles – This is such a killer app, it is however in its infancy, but the future is bright for this technology. Basically, you can surf the web/get info by taking a picture of something, i.e. a storefront, landmark, book, artwork, etc. Check out this video for more info, it’s really worth it!
Loopt - Discover the world around you is their tag-line. Find out what friends are near you, get coupons for places nearby, check-in service and much more. It’s a social compass.
Evernote - Lets you capture your ideas, experiences, and inspirations as they happen, wherever you find yourself.
TaskKiller – The downside to Android’s multi-tasking is that sometimes apps can become bandwidth hogs, or bring your phone down with them when they crash. Few apps provide a direct, easy “Quit” option and sometimes you can’t get to the app to close it. TaskKiller is a free app-killing utility that works from its standard icon.
