I have written in the past about the importance of having videos, blogs, etc. in your marketing plan.  With the news today that Google is testing a new Google search sidebar, I am even more convinced.  Why?

This new sidebar will be placed as a permanent fixture in the Google search engine.  This means more people will click these options.  If someone is doing an organic search for your niche, Google is making it even easier for them to search other verticals such as videos and blogs.

So how can you prepare for this?

• Create videos around your niche and post those videos to YouTube and other popular video portals.
• Optimize your images (image name, alt tag) for the page you place them in.
• If you don’t already have a blog, it’s time to get one.  Focus your blog around your niche.
• Submit press releases for product launches or announcements.
• Participate in industry specific forums.  Don’t spam, but participate.

So you’ve done your smart organic keyword research and have your pay-per-click campaign in place. You’re starting to see an increase in search ranking and visits to your site, but how do you ensure that your visitors are converting? Another helpful session at PubCon revealed important tips to help your post-click conversions.

1. Deliver On Your Promise - Whether someone has landed on your page from a PPC campaign or an organic search, your title tags and PPC titles have given them an expectation of what to find when they click through. Make sure your landing page is targeted and relevant to that visitor.
2. Above The Fold – This term has been brought over from the print world when it referred to making sure that important messages and headlines appeared above the newspaper fold. This is also true with landing pages; your important messages and “call to action” should appear “above the fold”. A visitor shouldn’t have to scroll down the page to get what they’re looking for; most times they won’t.
3. No Flash Messages – If your landing page has important selling points that rotate, there’s a good chance your visitor will never see the message you want them to (they won’t wait). Use a static image or bold text headline to convey the message clearly and instantly.
4.  Simple is Better – This point echoes the first, but refers more to the layout and design of the page. If there is too much information (text, images, video, forms, etc.) on your page, visitors may become overwhelmed and click out. Instead, take advantage of whitespace on the page and have only the elements that are absolutely necessary to the visitor. For example, a landing page with one title, one image, one paragraph, and one form (or other “call to action”) will convert much better than the “information overload” page.
5. Test, Test, Test – This is something the landing page experts could not stress enough. Every business is different and has customers with different preferences on how and when to take action. To truly make landing pages the most effective they can be, you must continually test them against other versions.

While these tips are not absolute truths for every business and every industry, they are a starting point for creating landing pages with great post-click conversions. With continual testing (research “A/B Testing” and “Multivariate Testing” for landing pages), you’ll be on your way to carving out landing pages that convert.

What’s better than free, targeted traffic to your website? If you’re a site or business owner, not much. While the sessions at PubCon offer up everything from general to painfully detailed advice on organic search, here are the “ABC’s” of search from presenter Carolyn Shelby:

1. Analytics
   - Don’t rely solely on keywords that are already driving traffic; seek out other possibilities for new insights.
   - Go through your 404’s (people that have incorrectly typed domains in a search bar) to see what people are looking for (but not finding) on your site. This will shed light on what the user expectation is when they visit your website.
2. Ask
   - Don’t assume that real people understand industry jargon and buzzwords. You understand it; they may not.
   - Ask non-industry people about your product or service. Take note of the terms and phrases they use to describe things and incorporate those into your keyword lists.
3. Brainstorm
   - Invite people from throughout your organization to brainstorm on how they would search on the internet for your product or service. Their fresh perspective may reveal valuable insights.
4. Crunch your numbers, Cull your lists, and Create your keyword lists.
   - Once your research has yielded workable lists, it is imperative to evaluate which keywords and phrases are yielding the desired conversions.
   - Pull keywords that are not productive and focus on ones that are.
   - After honing in on the keywords and phrases that work best for your site, you should be able to build and nurture very effective keyword lists.

By no means do these “ABC’s” cover all that is important with SEO. They do, however, bring to light methods that oftentimes don’t immediately come to mind.

At Go Smart Solutions, online marketing is part of the fabric that makes us who we are, as we constantly strive to deliver the best and most effective marketing solutions through our brands. In just a few days, we’ll be mingling with the best and the brightest in this industry at the WebmasterWorld’s Search & Internet Marketing Conference, more commonly known as PubCon.

While we’re there, we’ll be learning about the latest trends and techniques in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, and pretty much everything that has to do with internet marketing. And of course, you better believe we’ll be implementing the best solutions into our products!

From the event site:

When it comes to creating marketing buzz online, webmasters pretty much invented the concept. PubCon is four days of leading edge education and networking in over 90 sessions featuring 200 expert speakers in Social Media, Affiliate Programs, Search, and SEO/SEM. These aren’t people who just talk about this stuff – these are people who do this stuff.

We are excited to share and implement what we learn. Also, if anyone plans to attend PubCon in Vegas next week and would like to meet up, let us know! We’d love to sit down and talk about online marketing face-to-face with you.

We are hiring! Following is a position we are looking to fill for our RentShout.com service.

Overview

Become part of the innovative team of professionals in an established internet-driven nationwide ad marketing company. Working with a small but growing company, you will be part of an environment that thrives on collaborative team spirit mixed in with a success oriented atmosphere.

This position calls for a motivated, self-starter who flourishes in a results-driven, client-focused environment. You can work remotely from your own location. The Top Level Sales Representative will call on a targeted list of accounts and sell rental advertising solutions to large and mid-size REITs, Apartment Management companies and Property Management companies.

Responsibilities

• Increase customer base using top down sales strategies and a targeted list of National Account prospects
• Sell web-based advertising solutions to prominent Apartment REITs
• Develop and implement sales strategies to increase revenue and sales
• Develop and enhance corporate level relationships at key National Accounts
• Keep pace with trends in the Rental and real estate industries and develop comprehensive industry expertise

Skills

• Senior level sales skills and experience required
• Exceptional networking skills required
• Proven track record of exceptional performance and high sales closure rate
• Real Estate industry experience required
• Digital marketing or new media experience preferred

Compensation

50% commission for each new account you close and 20% ongoing commission for as long as the account stays active.

• Commissions range from $250 per new account to over $1000 per new account depending on size.
• Ongoing commission can range from $100 per account to over $200 per account depending on size.
• Potential earnings can be over $15,000 per month and will grow as you build up accounts.