Tag Archives: search engine results

5 Lines From Sleepless In Seattle That Explain Why You Should Use Video

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Well, it’s Valentine’s Day. Not the holiday you think about when video production comes to mind..(Wait a minute..OK. No, don’t go THERE. That’s an entirely different blog..) I just thought it might be fun to take a classic Valentine movie like Sleepless In Seattle and see if I can make some of the lines relate to using Videos On Your Website.  Ready?

Jessica: H and G.
[Sam peers back at her]
Jessica: Hi and goodbye. A quick entrance and exit. Unfortunately, that’s what happens on most business websites. If the visitor can’t find what they’re searching for, or if there’s nothing there to engage them, they’re gone.  Websites with video hold visitors longer. The average time spent on my clients’ sites is six to eight minutes.

Sam Baldwin: Well I just want somebody I can have a decent conversation with over dinner. That’s what your prospects and customers are looking for, too. Well, maybe not over dinner, but they do want to connect with products and brands they know and like. Back in the day, before the Internet, you’d be hard pressed to find a way to reach out to a large company. Now with blogs, Twitter, Facebook, AND Videos, customers feel like they have an advocate inside those companies.

Jonah Baldwin : Thanks for dinner. I’ve never seen potatoes cooked like that before. Let’s talk about being unique. With every other accountant, doctor, landscaper, or restaurant having a website these days: what really sets you apart? The best way to tell that story is with video. Show your customers how to something they’ve never done. Show what your product does that the competition doesn’t. Be memorable. Be compelling.

Jessica: If it’s in the computer, they believe anything. Some businesses believe that. Hopefully, the ones that do are your competition.  I’ve seen websites that literally have not been updated in 5 or more years!  Their only purpose is to be an online brochure. Copy may be wrong or outdated. Websites that are updated on a consistent basis get more “points” with search engines. Websites with videos can get a big boost in their search engine optimization. And, it’s been shown that companies with three or more videos are thought of as experts by their customers.

Jonah Baldwin: In the movies, women are always scratching up the men’s back and screaming and stuff.
Sam Baldwin: How do you know all this?
Jonah Baldwin: Jessica’s got cable. I don’t know how much Sam trusted Jessica after that.  Trust is a big issue.  If you’re a company who has to perform their service in a customer’s home, they’re not going to hire you unless they trust you. With video, they can meet you and your staff before the work is done. Put your best face forward. The transparency of your company and the trust it instills in customers depends on it.

There are as many whys and ways to use video as there are websites. Every project I’ve done for the past two years has had a different twist. But one thing is certain: video has been the most added element to websites for the past two years.  Call me and let me show you the success stories.

That’s a wrap.

There Is No Trophy For Second Place

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My wife loves to read. Both of us could browse thru Barnes & Noble or Borders all day.  But she rarely buys from them. Instead, she browses Amazon.

There are some items that I don’t bother shopping for at all.  I just look on eBay.

There are many places to buy books online. Ask someone, and see if Amazon isn’t the first thing on their minds. Same with auction sites.  Same with a lot of business categories. (Kleenex instead of tissues, Xerox instead of copier, PingPong instead of table tennis).

When you’re first at something, you can pretty much “own the franchise”. And when you can do that PLUS be outstanding at connecting with your customers, you can reach that Top Of Mind status reserved for the Amazon’s, and eBay’s and Zappos.

How many of your competitors are using video? If you said none, that’s your chance. It doesn’t matter if you are B2B or B2C. Your customers and prospects are searching for what you have to say.  Video was the most added feature to websites in both 2009 and 2010.  If you don’t know whether or not your competitors are using video, find out. Do it now.

Building your authority and your expertise should be one of your major goals this year.  If you’re in a business in which customers need to place their trust, you can’t afford to go forward without shoring up that trust with all of the compelling stories you can tell with video.

Hopefully, you can be the first.

That’s a wrap.

21 Signs Your Company Is Ready To Put Videos On Your Website

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It took me about five minutes to come up with this list. I like the number 21. But there are a few dozen more I’ll save for another post. Ready?

21 SIGNS YOUR COMPANY IS READY TO PUT VIDEOS ON YOUR WEBSITE

1. Your “time spent on site” analytic is less than 60 seconds

2. Visitors do research on your site, then buy from a competitor

3. Visitors read the “About Us” page then leave

4. You sell a service which is performed in your customer’s home

5. You sell a service to customers which is performed in your home

6. You compete in an industry that has a less than stellar reputation

7. You keep trying to get on the first page of search engine results, but never make it.

8. Your company president asks, “What is You Tube?”

9. Your company president asks, “What is the internet?”

10. Your Unique Selling Proposition is better customer service

11. You have to show your customers how your product works

12.You have to show your customers the safety features of your product

13. You need to show why your product is built better than the other guy’s

14. There are questions you WISH your customers would ask

15. Your company is celebrating a milestone anniversary

16. You want your customers to meet your staff

17. You want to build brand loyalty

18. You want to show off your expertise

19. You want to be the “go to” person in your industry

20. You’re getting ready for a price increase

21. You’ve just started a new business

Do any of these sound like you or someone you know? Let’s talk about it. I’ll buy the coffee. Maybe I’ll even buy lunch.

That’s a wrap.

Give Your Website Visitors A Reason To Stay

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I’m sitting here looking at my latest stats from Google Analytics, and I found something very interesting: When a visitor comes to my site as the result of a Google organic search, they stay for almost SEVEN MINUTES! Even when I’m found through a Yahoo search, visitors hang around for just under four minutes.

There’s a video on almost every page of my site. Only two of them are about me or my work. The rest show my clients and how they are using video to enhance their brand, establish trust and credibility or take viewers on a behind the scenes look at their business.

Here’s another stat that’s hard to believe: one of my inbound links brings visitors who stay an average of NINE minutes.

If you buy advertising on radio or TV, you have only thirty seconds to present your message. And with both of those mediums, you’re competing with all the other stimuli that surrounds the user. Plus, it’s extremely costly.

Videos on your website are available 24/7. They’re one of the most cost effective strategies to get in front of a prospect and present yourself as an expert in your field.

If you know a small business with a website, invite them to take a look at their user statistics. Then, ask them to give me a call.

–That’s a wrap.

How Video Helps Your Website SEO

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Everytime I talk with someone about using Videos On Your Website, the conversation invariably turns to Search Engine Optimization.  A lot of folks hear the term SEO, and they know it has something to do with keywords, but after that, they’re lost.

SEO is kind of like trying to put a bowtie on a fish.

The guys who do this for a living twist and pull and tweak their websites so they can in some measure figure out what the search engines are looking for.  Nobody’s supposed to know for sure.  But we do know that titles, headlines, and what you write on the page all get the attention of the search engine robots. We also know that a few of the right tweaks will get your ranking up, but with time, that ranking begins to fade as something newer takes its place.

There’s another fish analogy – if you turn your back and forget about it, it will start to smell.

That’s why constantly updating your website makes those search engine robots very happy.  Because a changing site is a fresh site.  And a fresh site must be more relevant. That means content.

If content is King, then having videos on your website should at least be Prime Minister. Videos can, and should be optimized with keywords.  They should not only be on your website, but distributed to as many of the video sharing sites as you can with a URL pointing back to your main page.  Everytime you do this, even if it’s the same video, it is fresh content in the hearts and minds of the search engines.

Ultimately, a visitor might share your video with a link, or a recommendation to a friend. That builds credibility, and that’s the other thing that feeds the search engine’s ranking machine.

To put it another way: having videos on your website can make you up to eight times more likely to land on the first page of Google results than if you just have text.

How are folks finding YOU?  What are they doing when they get to your site?  How long would you like to keep them there?

I’d be more than happy to talk to you about it.

–That’s A Wrap