To ensure that your press release gets the best possible search engine results, it’s a good idea to review the following questions.

What’s the Best Word Count for a Press Release?

Even if you have a perfect headline and the best keywords, the length of your press release can make or break its optimization. If the press release is too long, search engines can’t index it as specifically. If this happens, your press release may drop out of the top search results, making it less likely to be found online.

The optimum press release length for SEO is 400 to 600 words. A press release should be concise and easy for readers to comprehend but long enough to include some relevant details with color — the information that readers find interesting and which search engines latch onto.

How Do I Optimize a Press Release Headline?

Press release headlines have always been important, and they’re even more crucial from an SEO perspective. Online news sites typically use the headline to populate several important HTML fields that optimize your press release, including the title tag and the search engine results page description.

To optimize your press release headline and subhead, try to lead off with a sentence that includes your most important keyword. Keep your headline under 70 characters. The subhead should be no more than two lines, and both the headline and the subhead should include language that is repeated in the body of the press release.

Do Website Links Belong in a Press Release?

While the press release is a tried-and-true format for dispensing information, it’s also an opportunity to drive traffic to your website. Don’t be afraid to include anchor text (text hyperlinks). Your anchor text should be from one or two keywords (not “click here”), including one link from keywords in your lead sentence. But don’t overdo it. Two links per press release will help search engines focus on your most important keywords.

How Important Are Meta Keywords Tags in a Press Release?

While meta keywords tags were important to most online search engines five years ago, that’s no longer the case. Today, search engines and news wire services are all about content, and meta keywords tags are used in a different way. For example, PR Newswire’s system populates meta tags with information such as the name of the issuing organization, geographic information, and industry and subject details.

Avoid the temptation to load your meta tags or the press release itself with keywords — hidden or otherwise. It doesn’t work any more, and it can annoy readers. It may even harm your SEO results.

In short, pay attention to how you write your press releases. Use accurate, plain and descriptive language. Avoid jargon. Use language thoughtfully and carefully and make good use of keywords and anchor text. If you follow these best practices and stay current on other SEO techniques, you’ll get the most out of your press release campaigns.

Bump Agent Website

Bump Agent, a website designed and developed by Synerge-marketing,  launched this week.   Bump Agent is a new concept targeted to flexible travelers.   People that sign up are notified more than a day in advance if their flight is overbooked and receive valuable travel incentives to rebook on an alternate flight.   It’s bumping with benefits.  The system helps the airlines keep passengers (and flight crew) happy,  and it helps passengers by providing rewards and convenience for rebooking.  Smart Idea!

The challenge was to create a new brand that appealed to business and leisure travelers, college students and empty nesters.    We needed to design a website that brought the visitor through the concept, benefits and sign up without any effort.   The goals were to make the brand distinctive, deliver the message clearly, and engage vistitors to sign up for free.

For this challenge, we decided to take the visitor through the bump agent story and benefits, and invite visitors to “get onboard” all within a single web page.   An airplane and flight path lead the visitor down the page and to the call to action.  Our web designer, Kim, combined old fashioned airport icons and nostalgic graphics with bold colors and modern background scenes.   The forms were designed as a “ticket”.

Our developer, Garry, made the functionality elegant and effortless.   He was able to integrate the forms, rotating surveys and refer a friend  all within a single process and without leaving the page.  The forms were programmed to rotate so that the client would receive a variety of feedback from visitors relating to the service.  All this was custom programmed without using any 3rd party software.  Not an easy feat.

The Synerge-marketing team of  web designers and developers worked together to come up with a website that was original, compelling, intuitive and fun.    Untraditional in both design and function, we’ll be interested to see how it is received and look forward to the phase 2 version including “My bump agent” profile and full registration.  Check it out:  http://www.bumpagent.com/ And Stay Tuned.

As a recent college graduate, navigating my way through the business world, I had been worrying about how my social profiles might affect my chances of landing a new job. Facebook and Twitter were my main streams of communication, but with employers investigating facebook and twitter accounts, I find myself with the new challenge of separating my professional life from my social one. This is a topic that often arises when grassing at the local bar with acquaintances that have parallel feelings.

At a recent gathering of “the minds” a buddy of mine explained to the faction why he didn’t receive a job offer from a particular top financial firm; his facebook page tainted his chances of becoming an elite equities trader.  Again, this is a very controversial topic of discussion; especially due to recent invasion of privacy complaints raised against some internet giants (i.e. facebook, Google, and MySpace just to name a few).

The next day, Friday, I enter work with my mind still wrapping itself around the idea of employers searching through my social media accounts. I needed to dive in to this topic with my boss (Randi Brawley); I know she would shoot me straight on the topic. As I sit at the table, cluttered with newly acquired projects, I pretend to start my work, but I was truly lurking until I found the proper time to approach her with my query.

I like the table because it gives the work area an honest feeling, so it would be the perfect platform to indulge. I smelt first blood when she asked about the status of a few clients’ facebook pages that I was updating. After answering her question I asked,” Hey, did you know that some employers search through employees’ facebook and twitter pages? What do you think about that?” She sequenced her eyes over her glasses and attacks head on, what I thought was food for thought was actually a tricky subject for her (and employers like her). Randi explains to me how difficult it is to hire the right person and so on and that she has looked through my social networking pages. Having a college aged son, she brushes off the pictures of solo cups and party hugs as part of the internet generation that keeps her work thriving, but she warns that serious corporate employers may not be so tolerant.  She also makes a great point in saying that people in her position have to also be careful about what they put on their social media pages. Employees or clients may look them up as well. Evidently the issue of separating social life and professional life applies to employers as well.

As that conversation dies down she sends me an e-mail about Google+ and asks me to do some research on the new social media platform. I didn’t initially understand the point but as I carefully read through the numerous reviews, articles, and blogs, on the subject I realize that Google is on to something. What she was showing me is that Google+ is trying to solve the problem of separating one’s social life and professional life with “Circles.” Google+ has combined sharing and exclusivity of different circles; you can share posts, photos, articles, talk, and more with everyone or just a particular circle (business contacts, friends, family, etc). So, you aren’t exactly hiding from your employer but you are keeping things professional and responsible and not embarrassing them or yourself.

I know it took me a bit of time to get to a certain aspect of Google+ but it just might be the new western frontier for me – a “grown up” facebook of sorts.   And the circles aspect alone has gotten my attention and my willingness to explore this option. I am currently in the process of setting up an account ant navigating my way through this new platform. So far, it has been a pretty straight forward process; Google+ isn’t a difficult social networking platform to operate. I will share more of my experiences in the new land soon. Stay tuned.

Written by: Raymond Allen

Creative Commons Photo Attribution: 8-bit Google+ Logo; by imjustcreative

Blogging 101: How to Get Started with WordPress

As a business owner, you may not be convinced that starting a blog is the best use of your resources. You don’t know if you have the time, you are concerned about the return, and you might not even know where to start. Yet you’re considering a blog because, despite your reservations, you hear more and more from your peers that a blog has benefits. You hear that a blog can bring you new business.

We’re here to tell you that, YES, a blog does take time…but it WILL help build your business online. A blog will bring you more visitors from search engines, help you develop a relationship with a potential client who finds your site, and prove to all visitors that you are a trusted resource and one they should hire or buy from.

Unlike the other posts in this series of blog posts about how to build your business online without spending a dime, today’s post talks about both a FREE blogging option and a PAID blogging option for your business.

First, what is a blog?

Unlike your main website pages that don’t change that often (home, about, etc.), a blog is frequently updated and organized chronologically instead of by subject.  It is more conversational in nature and articles are generally written in the first-person. While a blog is an indirect sales tool, you don’t use it to sell directly. Instead, you use it to showcase your expertise and prove your value.    

What does a business blog about?

A business blogs about any and all topics that its customers care about—from how-to advice to opinions on industry news to product reviews and beyond.   This is a place to share your knowledge and help potential clients solve problems that relate to your field.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is an open source content management system (CMS). In other words, WordPress is free software that anyone can use to create a blog and organize all the content for the blog.

You’re looking at a WordPress blog right now.

Not all WordPress blogs look the same. There are different themes that dictate how a site is laid out and designed. Some themes are free, but not all.

The Free Versus Self-Hosted Version of WordPress

You can go to www.WordPress.com right now and create your own blog for FREE. It’s so easy that you can even post your first article within the hour. However, the free WordPress blogs have limited design functionality and have a URL that looks something like this: freeblog.wordpress.com.

You’ll notice that “WordPress” is part of the domain name. That’s because the blog belongs to WordPress—not you.

Enter self-hosted WordPress blogs.

You can create an easy-to-update blog using WordPress without giving that content to the WordPress domain. In other words, you can buy your own domain name and hosting and keep your content branded with your company.

Owning your domain is beneficial because you will own that content for all of time (there is some concern that WordPress.com might own all the content on their site, even though they do not actively claim that content), and you won’t be beholden to WordPress.com terms and conditions. You can do what you like with your own self-hosted blog (as long as it’s legal of course), you have more options for appearance and customizations, and you have almost unlimited possibilities when you manage your own WordPress site.

If you use WordPress.com, you’re really limiting yourself for the future. Blogging and WordPress are huge topics. We’ve barely even scratched the surface (but we will go deeper in future posts). If you don’t have the time to learn and implement a blog for your business, contact Synerge-Marketing (link to home page). We’d be happy to help you set up a blog and a marketing strategy that meets your goals.

Synerge-marketing is a Connecticut Web Design Firm in Fairfield with services that include internet marketing, web design and development and social media marketing.

Understanding LinkedIn and Getting Started

LinkedIn, established in 2003, was one of the first social networking sites. Originally designed to connect professional peers, almost like an online rolodex of sorts, LinkedIn has grown to encompass more—a robust Q&A section, group memberships, advertising, job searches, status updates, and more.

To get started, you’ll need to visit http://www.linkedin.com/ to create a personal profile that mimics your resume. Understand that unlike Facebook or Twitter where you may reveal personal information and several pictures, LinkedIn is meant to be your professional front. When you are creating your profile, remember that an investor or potential customer could someday view what you share.

Once you have a personal profile on LinkedIn, visit http://www.linkedin.com/companies and select “Add a Company” (on the right) to create your business page. This page will not talk about you in detail, but rather, it will describe your business.

How LinkedIn Will Grow Your Business

Professional credibility – Prove to customers and prospects that you have what it takes to do the job right. Take the time to answer questions within the Q&A section to really set you apart.

Search engine presence – LinkedIn profiles and business pages come up at the top of search engine results pages, helping to manage your personal and business reputation online. LinkedIn also allows you to add links to your website(s), and every link helps. In fact, the search engine optimization benefits of creating a professional profile and business page on LinkedIn are reason enough to do it! Note: You need to set your profiles settings to “public” in order to get the full search engine benefit.

Stay in touch with your peers – The best way to market your business is through relationships. LinkedIn allows you to stay in touch with your network in a non-obtrusive and “non-salesy” way. Foster your relationships, provide testimonials, and make it easy for others to refer you. A LinkedIn account will help you do all that.

Proof that LinkedIn WILL Grow Your Business

Yes, creating and maintaining your LinkedIn profiles may feel like more work you have to do, but it’s not a wasted effort. Smartly, LinkedIn has a page dedicated to LinkedIn success stories that prove it.

LinkedIn press proves it too. In a recent Fast Company article, it was reported that LinkedIn has more than 90 million users and earned $120.13 million in the first nine months of 2010. All this shows that LinkedIn is here to stay. It’s time for you to jump on board.

Synerge Marketing can give you more detailed advice or handle to the job of creating your LinkedIn profiles for you. Contact Synerge-marketing to learn more.

If you’re just tuning in, check out our other posts in this series including How to Create a Google Places Profile for Your Business and Using Facebook to Grow Your Business Online.

What Facebook Business Pages Are All About

Unlike your personal Facebook profile, your business will not make “friends” through Facebook. Rather, your business will gather “Likes.” Depending on how you setup your Facebook business page, you can create an open forum or you can exert complete control over what is published to your Facebook business page.

These are the essential elements of a Facebook business page:

1. The wall where you post updates and where fans can post comments (if you enable this feature).
2. The info section where you post contact information and a brief description of your business.
3. The photos and videos sections where you share information and promote your business.
4. The reviews area presents an opportunity for your fans to comment on your business.
5. The notes section can be used for relevant discussions or to feature your blog posts.

In addition to what’s listed here, Facebook also allows for custom applications, custom tab designs, and advertising. We recommend these additional features to businesses that are serious about branding their Facebook presence and/or advanced Facebook users who have demonstrated a return. We’ll talk more about these topics in future posts.

How a Facebook Business Page Will Help You

If you don’t have a website yet, your facebook business page can serve as your temporary online place of business where customers and prospects can find important and helpful information about your company.  You can upload photo albums which can serve as a portfolio of your work, offer hours or contact details, relate events that are happening around your business and engage your customers.  By doing so, they will “like” your page so that your posts show on their news feed.

Once you have more than 25 fans, you can (and should) create a custom Facebook Domain. The instructions for doing so are here: http://www.facebook.com/username/. Take care to choose your custom URL carefully – it cannot be changed.  Ours is www.facebook.com/synergemarketing.web.design. 

Online reputation management – In a search engine query for your business name, a Facebook business page (along with your other online social network profiles) will come up high on the list. It’s important to dominate the search results for your business to keep any negative publicity or companies with similar names out of the lime light.

Community building – Your community is made up of happy customers, dedicated partners, employees, friends, and others who appreciate what you do. A Facebook business page allows you to build loyalty within that community.

Search engine optimization (SEO) – To improve the search engine ranking of your website, you need links pointing to your website. While Facebook links are considered “no follow” links—links that the search engines claim not to notice—many SEO experts argue that there are some SEO benefits to linking from your business page.

How to Get Started with Facebook Business Pages

Once you have a personal Facebook profile, you can follow the step-by-step instructions here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.  The process should take no more than 30 minutes.

You can set up your profile with photos, videos, events, discussions and reviews through the settings tab.  Either allow people to post comments, images and videos or restrict their access as you see fit.  We encourage our clients to engage with visitors and allow posts.  Since you control your business page, you can always delete unfavorable posts .

One important thing to remember about posting on your facebook business page (as opposed to adding content to your website) is that this IS social media.  So keep it social.  Your language and messaging should be conversational.   Certainly it can be as professional and credible as fits your organization but keep away from promotional or technical speak.   If your posts are strictly self-serving, they will be viewed negatively. Consider how the information you provide helps people that are visiting you.   It’s not about what they can do for you (YET), its about what you can offer them(so they “spread the word”).  The Web public is a savvy group.  Don’t underestimate them.

Research the blogosphere in your industry.

Using keyword phrases specific to your industry, do a Google Blog search to see how your competitors blog. Notice which blogs provide valuable information for the reader and which blogs only write fluffy content to promote themselves. The larger companies most likely use professional writers to blog, so take note of their content as well (outsourcing blog writing is an option for you too, of course.). By assessing your vertical online, you can make a conscious decision on the style of writing you would like publish online.

Decide on a handful of blog topic themes.

Yes, planning can be a drag, but planning will help you refine your blogging voice.

How?

Because you can think in terms of what’s important to your readers and write accordingly. For example, if you were a divorce lawyer, you could write a series of posts about finding a lawyer. More specifically, you could write a post titled “Top 10 questions to ask a prospective lawyer.” Not only will this get you search engine traffic from people seeking a divorce lawyer, but it will position your firm as a trustworthy and knowledgeable resource.

Before you start blogging, sit down and decide on the topics that your clients want to know more about. Don’t stop there. Create a schedule for these posts and follow it.

Think of yourself as a publishing company.

In today’s online business world, every company can be a publishing company. Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman in the book Content Rules outline the ways you can publish online content (through blogs, white papers, podcasts, etc.) and how that will better your business—we couldn’t agree more. If you only read one business book this year, make this the one.

Blog as you speak.

If you have a hard time writing, record yourself speaking about a particular topic and have it transcribed (you can find someone on eLance.com to do this for you or you can use software such as Dragon Speech Recognition Software). It’s much easier to edit what’s already on paper rather than starting at a blank page.

Be yourself.

Your customers and readers will visit your blog as a result of the helpful information you provide and because they like you. This means that you can’t get bogged down in jargon or marketing speak and that you need to reveal a bit about yourself in your blog. You can do this by writing in first person, sharing your opinions, or personal information (within certain limits, of course).

Over time and with a well thought out strategy, your blogging voice will come naturally. However, if you don’t have the time to create that strategy or write the posts, don’t fret. Synerge-marketing can help. Contact us to learn about our blog development and blog writing services

Creative Commons Photo Attribution: Loud!; by Lejo

You have heard it a million times: A picture is worth a thousand words. In blogging, this old adage remains true.

Your blogging goal should be to inform your readers without being overly promotional, so that they come to trust you and return to your blog again and again. A photograph or graphic will help you to both inform and engage. Other benefits include:

• Highlight your products/services and your people. Show your readers who you are and what you do.
• Support headlines that evoke an image – try using metaphors. For example, a headline that references the beginning of something within your business might be complemented well with a sunrise image.
• Entice visitors to spend time with the post. Few blog visitors will read your blog post word for word. By adding images to your post you make it easier for the reader to scan and hopefully tune into more of the details.

Of course, it’d be great if you had a staff photographer or graphic designer who had time to produce all your blog post images, but that’s not exactly realistic. So, online image resources are the second best thing.

Synerge-marketing recommends the following free stock photo and images websites: Flickr Creative Commons, Wikimedia Commons, and Photo Xpress.

The Fine Print of Using Free Photos and Graphics

While many photos and images from the sites we recommend are free, you may need to attribute the source. Every site has different requirements for attribution, so we recommend you always read the fine print. However, here’s a brief shortcut.

Flickr’s Creative Commons – Flickr.com is a social website that allows you to post your own pictures for the world to see. If you want to allow others to use those pictures for their own purposes, then Flickr encourages you to apply one of six Creative Commons copyright licenses to the photo.

You do not need to have a Flickr account to use a licensed photo for your own blog. You can simply search for the photo you need within the “Commons” section of Flickr and then use the photos appropriately.

Here’s how:

1. Visit www.flickr.com/creativecommons.
2. Click on “See More” under the first section titled “Attribution.”  We recommend you only choose a photo with an “Attribution” license, because it’s acceptable for commercial purposes and you are allowed to “copy, distribute, display, and perform the copyrighted work – and derivative works based upon it – but only if you give credit.”
3. Use the search feature at the top of the page to find the type of picture you want.
4. Once you see a picture you like, click on the image to open that image’s page.
5. Select “Share This” at the top of the page and select “Grab the HTML.”
6. Copy the HTML code and paste it into the HTML view of your blog post.

Any picture that you take from Flickr’s Creative Commons section must be attributed to. Whenever we use a Creative Commons image, we put our attribution at the bottom of the post (see below) and make sure to say “Creative Commons Photo Attribution” followed by the name of the photo and photographer’s user name, which is hyperlinked to the page on Flickr.

WikiMedia Commons – Once you find a photo/image on Wiki Commons that you’d like to use (either by searching or drilling down into the categories), simply scroll down below the image to see the license information and attribution requirements.

Any images licensed under “Public Domain” can be used without any attribution, so you might try searching using the image keyword followed by the words public domain, i.e., “sunrise public domain.” You can also explore this page on WikiCommons that details all of the different licenses.

Photo Xpress – This site offers both free and premium (paid) images. If you find a free image you like, simply create an account (requires some background info from you), which allows you to download 10 free images a day. No attribution necessary.

For more tips on blogging and growing your business online, check back with us every month. Better yet, subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date on our posts.

Creative Commons Photo Attribution: sunrise; Hartford, Connecticut by Global Jet

So you’ve got yourself a business and you know you need to be on the Internet.  Even if you don’t have a website, there are several ways to start building your business online that are relatively easy and inexpensive (or free). A few of those ways include:

1. Create a Google Places profile for you business
2. Create a Facebook business page for your business
3. Create a LinkedIn profile for yourself and your business
4. Create  a self-hosted blog (using WordPress) for your business
5. Submit your business to online directories
6. Create a Google Plus One Profile

In  today’s post, we’re going to cover the importance of a Google Places profile for your business.

Google Places – Boost Your Search Traffic in a Half an Hour or Less…. For FREE

Often times it is possible to be at the top of a search engine query for your local business category without having a website and without spending a dime. How?  Google Places offers a free profile for business owners. On Google.com, these profiles are often positioned at the top of the search results, so if you have a Places page for your business, you have a chance at being in the top results.

There are 1,500,000 results for landscapers in Easton CT. Candeee Landscaping is number one of page one, yet he doesn’t even have a website.  What he DOES have is a Google Places profile.

How to Submit Your Business to Google Places

What you’ll need:

1. If you don’t have one, you’ll need to create a Google account.  It’s easy and it’s free. You will need to have a business address and phone number. 

 Once you have a Google account, here’s how to create your Google Places listing for your business:

1. Go here:  places.google.com/business
2. Follow the steps to verify your listing. Depending on your business, you can either answer your business phone to receive a verification code or Google will send you a postcard to the business address you provide with the PIN code you need. You need a verification code to have a Google Places listing—this is how Google prevents their local listings from getting filled with spam.  And it prevents fraud.
3. After verification, follow the tutorial here:  Google Places Setup
4. Complete your profile as thoroughly as possible—upload pictures, fill out all requested information, and upload a video if you have one. Also, be sure to target individual towns when you describe your business.

While it might take about 30 minutes to create an informative profile for your business on Google, it will be much easier for potential clients to find you. More and more, search engines like Google are used instead of directories or the Yellow pages. You need to be visible online now more than ever.

Our next blog post will show you how to create a Facebook page for your business. Yes, Facebook.  It’s not just for kids anymore. (The New York Times has a profile, after all.)

If you need help with your internet marketing, we’re here to help.  Feel free to contact Synerge-marketing  for a complimentary internet marketing consultation in Connecticut.

I hate sales.  Put me in front of a cold call list and I cower.  I’m not the nagging type and am uncomfortable staying in someone’s face, which is generally what it takes to close a sale in the traditional way.

Ah, but if someone calls me with a specific need,  I jump at the opportunity to help solve their problem.  As an internet marketing consultant and a partner at Synerge-marketing, I pour myself into research by asking  questions, looking at their business, consulting with my team, and thinking of ways to meet their business goals.

I think one of the things I love most about this job is that I get to help decision makers acquire customers without having to sell.   That’s what this business is all about—getting in front of people at exactly the time they need you (when they search for your services on the web), and showing them – through your website – how  you can help solve their problem.  And if that website does its job – the introduction will be precipated by the customer instead of the other way around.

After all, the only way someone will ever see your website is if they search for what you do or look for your company directly.  It isn’t like a billboard or newspaper or a cold call where you appear in front of people that will never need or want your product or service and only a few that do.

And that is what this blog is about.  It’s about teaching you how you can take small steps to get your business in front of the people that need you.  It’s about sharing simple strategies that let you compete in a crowded space.

Why We’ve Created this Blog

We consistently advise our clients about the importance of providing website visitors with substantive content that is useful and relevant.

On the web, those that give DO receive. So we’re following our own advice and using this blog as a medium to offer honest, ethical advice about web design, development and internet marketing strategies that we’ve found to be practical, productive, and that help businesses create strategies  for growing and improving their brand and business online.

And, of course, we hope that when you hit a snag in the road, you’ll reach out for some professional advice and services.  We’re here to help and hope that you’ll come knocking on our door.

As you’ll learn in the months ahead… your message always needs a “call to action,” so here’s ours:

Leave a comment or contact us today to see how we can help your business thrive online.