If you've something to say, say it with a press release!

No points for guessing that we are great fans of online press release (PR) distribution. And mind you, it is not just a SEO tactic for getting visibility via the search engines, which by itself, is quite a compelling factor.

We have seen clients who have lots to say to the world about what is happening with their organization, but don't do so.

Typically, there are one of three reasons for companies being 'media-shy':
(a) they haven't bought into the value of online PR: it becomes a concept-selling issue for us in such cases
(b)they don't know how to do it-- in which case it becomes a matter of selling the service, and lastly (this is often the toughest!)
(c) they don't want to-- they cite strategic and competitive reasons for moving under the radar.

The ironic thing is that the same companies want more prospects to know about them, get more leads, and create a positive perception about themselves. Is there a better way to get into the minds of the target audience than by spreading the word through something worthwhile to announce?

With there are hundreds of companies waiting for the slightest opportunity to announce something ("Experienced receptionist joins Joe Bloggs & Co. to boost customer service"), our message to our prospects and clients is: don't let your company be drowned and buried in all that trash. Let the world know about the exciting things happening at your company: whether it is a new product or service launch; changes or enhancements to an exsisting product or service; a new partnership; growth in business. There are always stories to tell; stories that will be of interest to somebody who matters. Don't let these genuine marketing opportunities go begging: if you have a story to tell, go ahead and tell it!

PS: Some more tips on using PR for SEO purposes in this article.

Keyword insights with Google Insights

Yesterday (August 5), Google announced the launch of Google Insights, which builds on Google Trends and provides a whole lot more data.

According to the official Adwords blog, which announced Insights for Search, this new feature is "a new product designed with the advertiser in mind. It provides more flexibility and functionality for advertisers and marketers to understand search behavior, and adds some cool new features like a world heat map to graphically display search volume and regional interest.".

The features should certainly help get an idea of macro trends, which search marketers should definitely factor in during the planning and execution of SEM campaigns. Yet, doubts will continue to linger on the accuracy and reliability of this tool. Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim points out precisely why, with a couple of examples.

Keyword Research with the "new" Google Keyword Search Tool

Keyword research for search marketing campaigns just got a bit easier, and dare I say, cheaper? The Google Keyword Research tool, which until now gave a visual indication of search demand with its green bar that hardly gave anything away, is now showing "approx" numbers for the most recent calendar month. In addition, it also gives the average monthly search volume over a "recent" 12-month period.

Even though these numbers are based on searches on Google and the Google search network, I'd like to believe that these numbers are probably more representative of potential demand for a search term than the numbers we get from some of the other keyword research tools. As the reaction in the SEM community shows, this enhancement to the keyword research tool was long overdue; I sense there is a sense of relief more than elation.

There are bound to be more questions and business issues for products like Wordtracker & Keyword Discovery, as suddenly these products become a lot more dispensable, particularly for the small business. Can these products bring in more value added features that can help SEO / PPC professionals? How will they differentiate themselves from the free keyword research tool to justify the prices they charge? I doubt if the argument that the Google tool is limited to showing search volumes from Google only will fly; there better be a much stronger value proposition.

Google improves indexing of Flash files

Google can now better index content in Flash files, a news that will be greeted by web designers/ developers with a fascination for Flash. Apart from text content in Flash files, Googlebot can also detect URLs that appear within Flash files and add them to the list of the urls to be crawled.

Complete details here. And, for a quick summary the current limitations with Flash indexing as listed on the official Google Webmaster blog, see below excerpt:


1. Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. So if your web page loads a Flash file via JavaScript, Google may not be aware of that Flash file, in which case it will not be indexed.
2. We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads an HTML file, an XML file, another SWF file, etc., Google will separately index that resource, but it will not yet be considered to be part of the content in your Flash file.
3. While we are able to index Flash in almost all of the languages found on the web, currently there are difficulties with Flash content written in bidirectional languages. Until this is fixed, we will be unable to index Hebrew language or Arabic language content from Flash files.