Register For Our Free Webinar To Learn The Top Three SEO Strategies

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Elizabethr

The world of small business internet marketing has changed immensely in the last five years. With the constant updates and improvements to internet marketing tools, this can only be expected. On one hand, this means that your options are constantly increasing and improving. On the other hand, it can leave business owners more than a little confused.

We know that it is often not feasible to sign up for every marketing strategy you hear about. Stretching your resources that thin is rarely a good idea in the long run. But, what do you need to sign up for? What services will get you the most results for your money?

Ajax Union Vice President Sarah Mogin and Agency Manager David Gscheidle are prepared to answer all of these questions, and more, in the free webinar they are presenting on Wednesday, April 10. The Top 3 SEO Strategies for 2013 webinar will include topics such as how to set realistic (yet, ambitious) goals for your marketing campaign, where to start, how to track your campaign’s effectiveness and conversion tips. Sarah and David will explain how each of these work, how they can work for you and why you will lose the competitive edge without them.

Mark your calendar and register now for this informative presentation. Your business’s bottom line might depend on it!

Keep Your SEO Company Informed

Posted on July 9, 2012 by TimD

Learning how to best utilize an SEO company is not something that you can instantly get and wield perfectly the first time out. While every bit of work an online marketing company does for you is helping your traffic and your ranking, working effectively with said company takes some growing together. Every business is different as are each business’s clientele and products. As a result, each must find it’s own particular way to generate content and traffic online.

The best way to help make this happen is to communicate what your business is and what it is doing with your SEO company. Every bit of information you share about your company can help your SEO writers and social networkers to more clearly share information about your company with consumers. If you are offering a deal on a given week on a particular product, that could be a great feature for your bloggers to write about.

Genuinely talking about the things that are being done within your business will make content at once more real and more engaging. It will also give your consumers a reason to keep coming back to your site again and again with hope of uncovering a new deal or learning about a new and exciting feature or product.

Finding The Voice Of Your Business With An SEO Company

Posted on June 25, 2012 by TimD

An SEO company like Ajax Union can offer your company a lot of things. Better ranking on search engines is of course the stated goal but the process of getting there offers it’s own rewards. One of the more important is that through trial and error and frequent feedback and corrections between the client and the internet marketing agency your business can begin to develop a cohesive and coherent voice.

In terms of marketing your business you may not know what defining your voice means but you know it when you see it in other companies. You know the tone of brands and how they talk about and sell their products. Generally this is in large scale marketing, you know what the Geico Cavemen are about or understand what the 1-877-Kars-4-Kids song says about that endeavor. On Twitter, Facebook and in your business’s blog though that voice can become much more refined. You can present your business almost as if each person was coming directly to you to enquire about it.

Finding the best way to present your business will not spring up over night. You need to have some ideas about what your company is and isn’t and a flexible sense about how best to present that. Over time your business will become a brand and your brand will have character. It is one of the best things an internet marketing agency can do.

Using Trends As An SEO Company

Posted on June 4, 2012 by TimD

Everyday and every night the internet is alive with content being created by a wide array of forces. Most powerful is user generated content on places like Facebook, Tumblr, blogs and of course Twitter. This content drives the conversation of the internet, invents memes and generates traffic to sources with the most current information on a given subject be it the NBA playoffs or the latest episode of Mad Men.

Each of these subjects enters into the either and some of them break out to become “trending topics.” Google Trends categorizes what is trending on the internet and Twitter side bars offer more specific information on the regional trending of various topics.

Driving people to your business’s blog can be helped greatly by utilizing those trends to help sell your content. If holidays are coming up it is easy to predict some trends but that is not the only way you can use this material. For a search engine agency tapping into what is in the air in popular culture is a great way to get your company outside of it’s normal circle of influence. Once your SEO company has started attaching your product to sports and television you will grow your web influence and your traffic.

Why Fresh Content Is Essential For SEO

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Ajax Union

When you maintain your website or blog, do you keep it updated? Many times people think that when a website page is complete it’s good to go. You can leave it as is and still have success. But in actuality having brand new material is incredibly important to your search rankings.

Google measures all of the website’s documents for freshness and then scores each page according to the type of search query. In many cases the newness will greatly affect your ranking. There are a certain type of keyword searches that require up-to-date text and linking. These are recent events, hot topics, regularly occurring events, and frequently updated items (i.e. “best new cell phones”).

If you don’t take the time to write up new reviews, news stories, or even just re-vamp a current page or post, you are going to drop lower in the ranks when people type in the correlating keywords. That’s why brand new content is essential for your internet marketing strategies.

Google will also determine fresh content based on inception date, which is the date Google first indexes the page. So the older the page without new material, the more stale it is considered. The more new material on a stale page, the better the chance your rank will rise again. A lot of change is better than a little change. As does the frequency of the updates– if you update it regularly it will rank higher than if you do it occasionally.

As long as you keep producing new legitimate material your site will look fabulous in rankings and Google scores.If you find yourself unable to provide consistent new material, feel free to contact an SEO company for assistance.

What Good Is SEO?

Posted on May 31, 2012 by HeinreichS

First let us define what SEO is. It stands for search engine optimization and is a method used to improve a website or a web page’s visibility in search engines. Basically, you want your website or web page at, or near, the top of the so-called “natural” or un-paid (also referred to as “organic”) search results. So how does this translate in terms anyone can understand? Read on!

In theory and practice the right kind of SEO – as in the kind that brings your website to the top of the search results – will attract more people looking for whatever products or services you are trying to sell. Very few people will actually look through several search result pages when the first couple of results on the very first page will do. If you are on the very top of the results you will get the most people checking out your website. If they like what they see, they will want to do business with you. And the more people who become customers the better, right?

So if you are looking to increase your search engine result rankings an online marketing company can do that for you. Allow an SEO company to assist you today!

Showcasing Your Best with PR

Posted on April 4, 2012 by KristenM

There are numerous ways to spread the word about your company. There is blogging, e-mails, social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, etc. All are well and good, but why not add some more oomph and have the word spread throughout Google News and Yahoo! News? How amazing would it feel to search Google News about your company and see yourself in the top results? Pretty good I imagine. This marketing dream can come true with press releases.

Press releases aren’t just a means to talk about industry news. You can use them to talk about whatever you wish –targeting both consumers and other business clientele. Discuss upcoming sales and discounts, new merchandise that just came in, or changes being made within your company or the industry. With the help of savvy writers, you can talk about a plethora of topics that will ensnare your target audience. Well-written and widely distributed press releases can make their way across the Internet and onto the screens of thousands of readers.

With the help of an SEO company, press releases can do more than just inform readers. They can be yet another means for good SEO strategies, further increasing your ever-so important Google ranking.

Never Duplicated and Always Fresh

Posted on March 26, 2012 by KristenM

When it comes to SEO skills, you might be looking for the quickest and easiest solutions. Everyone wants to take the shortcuts. But what you think are “shortcuts” are going to cut your campaign short. Blogging is an important part of small business Internet marketing and it’s not something we take lightly. No corners are ever cut.

You might be thinking that you can just copy and paste the same information over and over again in blogs and in other online marketing outlets. Think again. Google is just too clever to fall for the old cut and paste trick. Content, whether it’s blogs or articles, should always be fresh off the press, and relevant too! You won’t look too good talking about topics that have nothing to do with your business. And don’t try to just rehash an old topic over and over again. Readers won’t find that very interesting and neither will Google. Keep it relevant and engaging. Just because your blog may be geared towards more SEO purposes rather than actual readership is no reason not to put 100% into your blog, creating something refreshing and inviting to read.

Luckily for you Ajax offers help in this department –always new, never duplicated!

Online Marketing Companies Target Trends

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Ajax Union

Those who want to reap the benefits of the internet need to stay connected with social networking and media sites. They need to know why each is useful and how to tailor posts for each unique site. They also need to know how word of mouth affects the business and how to manage their online reputation.

This is where your friendly and hands-on SEO company comes in handy. You can rely on them to stay on top of developing trends and most efficiently use these sites to promote you and your services.

New sites have advantages that older ones don’t. An example would be the user-friendly browsing interface on Pinterest. It resembles that of Twitter but looks far less cluttered and wordy. These sites, especially those with buzz, are candy for web crawlers. A search engine agency can help boost your ranking simply by connecting you to others through new available media.

Each site has a slightly different format, and an internet mogul would know the best way to approach your campaigns.

Ajax Union is a Brooklyn-based Search engine agency that offers a diverse arrangement of services to help small businesses. Through industry-tested online advertising trends, you will get a comprehensive strategy for your marketing model.

SES Conference and Expo Coming to NY

Posted on March 9, 2012 by isaacf

SEO New York

Are you one of the many business owners interested in internet marketing but can’t seem to grasp how everything works? The highly regarded upcoming SEO New York based conference known as SES might be just what the doctored ordered. For over a decade the SES conference and expo has organized some of the largest online marketing events around the world. With an expected 4000+ attendee turnout this year’s program will be offering a good deal of training. Over seventy educational sessions will take place, covering both basic and advanced social media marketing, SEO, PPC, analytics and more. The conference is scheduled for March 19^th – 23^rd at the Hilton New York; you can register here.

SES is committed to making sure industry amateurs feel welcome. “Don’t be embarrassed if you’re just starting out and feel a little lost in the jargon. SES will lead you by the hand and explain in layman’s terms what search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) are, and how you can grow your traffic and business online. If you attend an SES event, you’ll soon realize that everyone was a beginner once. Attend the introductory sessions, ask questions and build your network amongst your peers. Very soon you’ll be up to speed and move on to some of the more advanced and cutting edge search marketing techniques.” – SES ‘About’ page

Hope to see you there!

Easy American Express #savings with #Twitter

Posted on March 7, 2012 by isaacf

In collaboration with the ever-growing Twitter, American Express recently launched a new creative internet marketing campaign, designed to effortlessly save Amex users serious cash. “Card holders signing up for the service can tweet a Twitter hashtag, or search term, that’s unique to a specific offer. After the purchase, deal savings are automatically credited to that customer’s American Express card statement within one to three days,” reported the Washington Post.

What consumers are finding most enticing is the sheer simplicity of the deal. There is no annoying search for workable coupons, no mail-in rebate, and no membership point conversions. Send out a tweet and if you choose to buy a particular item, you’ll be rewarded with a bonus; if not, you can wait for the next deal. You can sign up for the service now at https://sync.americanexpress.com/twitter.

Additionally, back in February, Amex and Twitter worked on a joint advertising project for small business internet marketing. Twitter plans on extending this advertising service to non-Amex users as well sometime in the near future.

Other social sites have also been in the mix. The “Link, Like, Love” program for Facebook, as well as several campaigns with Foursquare, have all played major roles in attracting new American Express customers.

American Express’s own business tips webpage, known as The Knowledge Center, discusses strategies including social media tactics and local internet marketing tips. Check it out for some really helpful marketing information.

How To Confirm Authorship and Ownership on Google Plus

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Sarah M

Google Search has recently evolved to include two important concepts: authorship and ownership. These allow site authors and owners to verify the credibility of blog posts, articles, and other content, a factor Google is considering increasingly important. In other words, a verified blog post is going to have a big advantage, rankings-wise, over Random Blog Post X.

So let’s get verified.

Author Information on Google+

Authored Search Engine Listing

Google Support outlines two methods for confirming authorship. The easiest way involves confirming using an email address:

STEP 1: Include your full name, ideally linking to your email address, on every page of content you’re trying to verify.

STEP 2: Verify your email address on your Google+ profile.

1. While editing your Google profile, select Contributor and add the URLs of the sites you write for.
2. In the Work box, click “New contact info” and add your email address.
3. You’ll then see a link you can click to send a verification email to the specified address.

Note: If you write under multiple email addresses, you’ll have to do this for every email.

STEP 3: Let Google know via this form. You can ignore the checkbox about the markup, as this is only required in the second, more complicated method of verifying things.

Verifying Your Google+ Page (Ownership)

STEP 1: Link your Google+ page to your site. Quoth Google: Edit your profile and add your URL as a custom link.

STEP 2: Link your site to your Google+ page.

Ah, symmetry. Unfortunately, this part is also bizarrely confusing and somewhat contradicts with Google’s own badge instructions. Blind Five Year Old’s Google Plus SEO guide really helped me out here.

You basically want to link to your Google+ page from you homepage using a rel=”publisher” tag, and to do so only on your home page (not in the header or anything).

The link should look like this:

<a href="YOUR PROFILE URL" rel="publisher">My Google+ Page</a>

BFYO recommends testing out your link add-age via the Rich Snippets Testing Tool. (PS: The alternative authorship method involves adding a rel=”author” tag to your content, if you want to be a punk about it.)

STEP 3: Get 1000 people to add your Google+ page to their circles. What??? Yeah, this part is hard. It might take some effort on your part — adding your page to your signature, emailing your contacts, recruiting pals from Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn. But it’s probably worth it.

STEP 4: Submit a verification request via this form.

And the abracadabra, you’re all set!

This is a follow-up blog for the recent free Google Plus Social Media Webinar our SEO company hosted yesterday. For information on our upcoming webinars, visit AjaxUnion.com/webinar.

How To Build a Custom Tweet Button

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Sarah M

Morning all, this is Sarah of @SarahMogin fame, following up on my webinar-declared promise to explain the art of customizing a Tweet button.

First, let’s talk about what Twitter has to offer in its resources section. If you visit this page and choose the “Share a Link” option, you can enjoy a decent amount of functionality without much heavy-duty coding.

I filled out the form above to create the tweet above. How? I entered:

The URL I wanted my tweet to lead to: http://www.ajaxunion.com. If you’re creating a tweet button to drop into the backend of your blog or ecommerce site (where it will apply to multiple URLs), choose the Use the page URL option.
My tweet text: My SEO company is awesome!
My username and company username — I used the placeholders myusername and mycompany. One cool thing here is that, after tweeting, I was directed to the bottom-left image above, where it invited me to follow both myusername and mycompany. (In other words, you can use a tweet button to get users to tweet about your company and to encourage them to follow up to two accounts.)
A relevant hashtag: #marketing

For slightly more customization, I sometimes roll up my sleeves and employ some HTML/CSS. This allows me to fully customize the content of the tweet and to pick a custom image for the button.

Want to know how to do this? Tweet @SarahMogin and we can talk about your circumstances.

Facebook Cracks Down on Breakup Notifier App, Heartbreak Ensues

Posted on February 23, 2011 by ajaxadmin

Facebook just disabled one of our favorite apps in recent history: Breakup Notifier, a nifty tool that sends email updates when your friend’s relationship shatter. Until a couple of minutes ago, all you had to do was add the app on Facebook, select the friends you want to keep tabs on and check your email obsessively until your crush of the moment changes their relationship status from “In a Relationship” to “It’s Complicated.”

The problem? It’s complicated. Reps from the app recently tweeted that “Facebook emailed saying that they’ve disabled us… We are working for a fix, but ask @facebook to put is back online!” — which implies that the app violated some portion of the social network’s terms of service.

Already covered on Geek.com, PCWorld, ABC News and other top outlets, Breakup Notifier is a promising — albiet creepy — app that we hope to see back in action soon.

Play Nice: Search Engine Friendly Websites

Posted on January 31, 2011 by ajaxadmin

Search Engine Watch posted a great article yesterday about the difference between SEF and SEO — search engine friendliness and full-on search engine optimization. And despite the old maxim “Nice guys finish last,” in the online marketing world, it pays to keep it friendly.

Search engine friendly websites are those that can easily be optimized for better rankings. They have simple, easy-to-define page URLs (i.e., www.yourstore.com/womens-purses/chanel-purses), as well as flexible image elements and URL, meta info, header tags, etc. This kind of flexibility may seem like a given, but many content management systems for Ecommerce are simply not built for in-depth optimization.

The bottom line: If you don’t have a search engine friendly website, get one. This is step one in optimization game, and the whole process (off site SEO, social networking, press releases, etc. etc.) hinges on the off site content’s relevance to the content on your site, as perceived by Google. If you’ve got clunky URLs and poorly optimized images dragging you down, outranking your competition is going to be very difficult.

After you’ve got a search engine friendly platform, it’s time to start thinking about SEO. The biggest step here is prefacing any changes with thorough industry keyword research — looking into the terms buyers are searching for and those your competition is ready targeting.

Do you think search engine friendly websites are important? Let us know at the Ajax Union Facebook.

Video SEO: 2 Quickie Video Ideas

Posted on January 26, 2011 by ajaxadmin

Video SEO is the wave of the future, yes, but not all of us have fancy recording studios — or even video cameras — to create the next Piranha 3D. To tap into the potential of video SEO without investing in new resources, consider the following two quick fixes:

1. Create a Search Story.

Remember that 2010 Google Superbowl commercial that left many a chip-muncher unexpectedly in tears? Google Search Stories makes it easy to create your own heartstring-pulling tour de film and upload said creation directly to Youtube. We even made one for Ajax Union!

2. Tap Into Animoto

Featuring stock photos, video clips, music and more, Animoto allows users to create 30-second videos for free — or longer ones, if you pay for an account. Grab some photos of your company and create your own slideshow ASAP.

Why video SEO?

Video SEO is valuable for both search rankings and branding, depending on where you post your videos. Host your files on Youtube, and you’ll be able to draw users to your Youtube page (and from there, possibly your site) from their Google search results — plus benefit from video networking potential. Host your videos on your site, and you’re creating another way for searchers to click to your page directly from Google.

Want to see all of our videos? Check out the Ajax Union Youtube.

BranchOut Facebook App Challenges LinkedIn to a Duel

Posted on January 25, 2011 by ajaxadmin

Note: If you’ve ever been incriminated by a Facebook photo from the days of your alma mater, this blog post isn’t from you. If you haven’t, read on.

BranchOut, a new career networking tool for Facebook, is threatening to turn everyone’s favorite time waster into a productive site the likes of LinkedIn. With BranchOut, you can search a company name and see which of your friends work(ed) there. If your friends have added the app, you can see which of their friends work at that same company.

Besides for finding out who to ask for Urban Outfitters discounts, BranchOut might also be useful for job hunters and recruiters. The app is currently permitting free classifieds for 30 days to users within your network. In the future, BranchOut will offer app-wide classifieds for $30 per month.

So, is BranchOut the wave of the future? To many users, we suspect it will be — it all depends on whether you use your Facebook for work or play, or both. Many people these days even have separate Facebook accounts for business and pleasure.

How do you balance your social and professional networking? Let us know on the ‘book.

Google AdWords Blunders to Avoid

Posted on January 24, 2011 by ajaxadmin

To the unenlightened, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising might seem as simple as choosing your keywords and setting a budget, but crafting a successful Google AdWords campaign requires a good dose of creativity as well. Search Engine Land recently posted examples of 5 Bad Google Ads — a read that gave us a good laugh, and inspired us to dispense some quick tips for our readers:

1. Really target your keywords.

Do you sell used watches? Cars? Wheelchairs? Adding “used” to your keyword list is going to attract all of these searchers and more — many of whom are unlikely to click on an ad for your pre-owned whatnots. If you’re using a modifier like “used,” “free” and “cheap,” be sure to keep these words connected to more specific search phrases relevant to your business.

2. Be agressive. Be be agressive.

But seriously, informing searchers of your 200 job openings or veritable cornucopia of discount phone apps isn’t going to cut it — to earn those clicks, you have to tell them what to do: Find a job! Save on apps! Win a free phone! And so on.

3. Don’t be a haiku. (Or in other words, make sense.)

We all love our inbox haikus encouraging us to splurge on antivirus software and Viagra, but said literature has no place in Google AdWords. Make sure your ads make sense and contain proper spelling and grammar. Another tip: Keep your title and description lines separate — Google made them that way for a reason.

Got more PPC tips? Let us know at the Ajax Union Facebook!

How To Get Your Blog Post on the First Page of Google

Posted on January 21, 2011 by ajaxadmin

Ka-chow! Let’s cut to the chase. Blogging is great for unwinding, ranting and testing out some ideas for the ole novel, but many of us have bigger ambitions than simply expressing ourselves — we want to express ourselves on the first page of Google. Area 203 just posted an awesome Guide to Blogging for SEO, which inspired us to write up some tips of our own.

STEP ONE: Choose a compelling topic. Anyone can write about what Natalie Portman wore to the Golden Globes last Sunday — what do you have to offer that’s special? Check out Google Trends to see what people are searching, but beyond that, try to provide some information or perspective that readers can’t find anywhere else. Maybe it’s a guide. Maybe it’s a rant. Maybe it’s a top ten list. Just be sure to make it unique.

STEP TWO: SEO-ify your titles. You don’t have to go crazy advertising Brooklyn NY Marketing Services or anything, but think before you write about adding a word or two here or there to better attract search engines. For example, in a post about Flock, Area 203 used the phrase “Flock Browser” in their headline — slightly less catchy, but more attuned to the wants of Google and the like.

STEP THREE: Enhance what can be enhanced. A successful blog post requires more than a SEO-friendly title. Be sure to enhance your images (file names, alt tags and title tags) with your keyword du jour, and likewise inject your paragraph headings, post tags and categories with some SEO flair. Even your post URL can be customized to include but a single keyword.

STEP FOUR: Pimp your WordPress. To take full advantage of your suped-up content, you have to make the most of your blogging platform — which, for us, is always WordPress. Download the All In One SEO Pack to let your titles and content reach their full potential. (Also, be sure that your WP theme is wisely header-ed — if your sidebar headings are H2s, you’re doing something wrong.)

Did we mention it’s Friday? Let us in on your weekend plans at the Ajax Union Facebook.

Does Google Favor Google?

Posted on January 20, 2011 by ajaxadmin

When you search “maps” on Google, the top result is Google Maps. Coincidence? Ben Edelman thinks not.

Edelman, a Harvard Business School assistant professor and notorious Google opponent (he’s served as a consultant for Microsoft and is participating in a lawsuit against the big G) recently published a study on search engine favoritism. His results showed that Google favors its own services in results 19% of the time — for terms like maps, mail, video and email.

And while Edelman interprets these results to say that Google is favoring itself, our pals over at Search Engine Land beg to differ. SEL has many objections, the primary qualm is this: Maybe Google Maps really is the most popular and useful result for “maps” searchers according to Google’s algorithm. Maybe it’s not favoritism, just business as usual. After all, Google Maps also shows up first on Yahoo! and Bing.

What do you think about search engine favoritism? Let us know at the Ajax Union Facebook.

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