There’s Marketing Gold All Around Your Business

Many companies have marketing gold lying around their office or hidden in their computers. These untapped assets can give you a competitive edge if marketed correctly.

Google wants to show its users more than just text and photos, and it has successfully rolled out a program called Universal Search that targets Blogs, News, Video, and Images.

For savvy business owners, the days of posting only news releases, marketing content, and still photos are behind them. You can now enhance your search engine results and potential client base by taking advantage of this new opportunity.

Go to the Google homepage and type in “Google headquarters.” You should see three photos at the top of the results page.
Now, type in “Google data centers.” You should see a thumbnail photo of Matt Cutts, the Google guy. This is a thumbnail from his talks posted on Google Video.

Video Shows and Commercials.

Suppose you have a show, seminar, teaching session, marketing video, trade show video, TV commercial, instructional video, industrial video, safety video, educational video, or webinar. In that case, please post it on one of the free, large video websites.

I’m not going to promise that your image, photo, and video resources will instantly start popping up in search results, but chances are they will over time. Especially when searching for more cryptic information.

Be sure to tag and title your video correctly. For example, if you’re uploading an instructional video about “Sexual harassment in the Workplace,” make sure you include the title as such and a complete description of the video.

Convert your PowerPoint to Video, too.

Just about every company creates PowerPoint presentations. Convert these to video and upload them as well. If you have a PowerPoint presentation about “The Impact of Unregulated Chinese Toothpaste in the US,” chances are your Presentation Will appear in Google search results for this topic.

Multiple Stores, Businesses, and locations. Companies can also leverage their various locations.

Google allows stores, companies, and businesses to register their locations through Google Local. (Google Maps). Google wants to capture, saturate, and grow hyper-accurate local results! So why not help them and share your locations across the US? https://business.google.com/locations

If you have more locations, Google allows you to manage them from a single spreadsheet.

Google is so serious about this program that they’re paying independent contractors to visit local businesses, gather data and photographs, and inform business owners about Google Maps and Google Ads.

Google and other search engines, most notably Ask.com, display photos, images, and graphics in their search results.

Go to Ask.com and type: Andy Warhol Work http://www.ask.com/web?q=Andy+Warhol+Work&search=&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dirNotice. Notice that the three images on the top page link to other websites.

The images on your website may start appearing in search results, depending on the amount of imagery you use and the related search query. Here are some helpful hints to share with your webmaster.

1) Use keywords or key phrases in the image file name.Example: < src= “red_rubber_ball.jpg”>

2) Use the same keywords or key phrases in the ALT TAG.Example: < alt= “red_rubber_ball.jpg”>

3) Place the image near the supporting content or text on the webpage.

4) Upload your images to popular photo-sharing sites, such as Flickr and Photobucket.

Adding videos, listings, and images to your website will give your business a competitive edge as Universal Search becomes more prevalent across popular search engines.