Why You Should Use YouTube More for Your Digital Marketing

You couldn’t list down the most famous social networking sites without mentioning YouTube. First surfaced in the mid-2000s, YouTube is now one of the largest websites there is that drives insane amount of traffic than anyone could ever think of.

And what makes YouTube unique is its main handle: videos. Through content put in the website, users have more engaging interaction that leads to better marketing. As a digital marketer, we often forget about YouTube digital marketing and this post is here to help you realize why you should be uploading that content now.

Content-making is exceptional

What’s more creative than making videos? Through them, your creative juices are consumed to the brim just to craft the perfect content that is not only appealing but also valuable to the audience.

Once you get the flavor that your audience wants from you, it’ll be easier to create videos that you can use for your YouTube digital marketing or the marketing of your products and services.

YouTube digital marketing still has SEO

The reason a lot of digital marketers skip YouTube is because they think it lacks SEO capabilities that can be of any benefit for their websites. This is not true. What you need to do is make sure that the title, tags, and descriptions are all optimized. You just don’t plaster title on the video you think is cute and attractive: you need to have keywords that are backed by research so your video lands in the top of search results. Links, annotations, custom thumbnails, and how your channel is presented is also important to garner good SEO from the YouTube digital marketing venture.

You can reach bigger audience

As you begin to put better content and your YouTube SEO gets more precise, you will gain more and more followers and you can even have the chance to go viral. Know that once your videos get millions of play time then you have hit a milestone for your digital marketing in the Philippines. With this boost, you can easily market your business and acquire return of investments that you desire and vanquish some of the digital challenges you are facing.

We can say that other leading social networking sites today only realized how powerful videos are once they saw YouTube’s digital marketing success. This is not a bad thing because as a digital marketer you need to ride the feat of others to figure your own. It’s a well-known fact. And YouTube is available for anyone to find their footing, even when it comes to digital marketing in the Philippines.

Advertisement

SEO Changes: How Users Became Top Priority These Days

SEO changes are inevitable. During the many years that it is being used to rope in website visitors to gain footing, innovations and evolutions are only natural to transpire. And one of these evolutions are the shift of priority of SEO endeavors. During its initial establishment and eventual thriving, SEO was just being accomplished to get audience no matter the cost. But now, everyone had learned that User Experience is the paramount to having an authentic, actually long-lasting SEO engagement.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane and see how SEO had changed these past years for its users and how you can tweak your own mechanics to better fit your audience!

The Refurbished User Experience

If you have been using the web in the early 2000s, you would remember how bulky interfaces look, how dizzying colors are, and how overwhelming fonts can be. Today, this would not work and your bounce rate would skyrocket, meaning your SEO will suffer terribly—simply because they do not make for a satisfying user experience. As time goes on, people’s tastes have become more sophisticated, not just in design but in content as well.

Gone are the tacky designs and the less-than-filtered content, SEO changes paved way for brimming with sleek designs and actually engaging and useful content. Specifically, websites now are made sure to fit in different devices and we will be sure seeing more of this in the future due to Google’s mobile-first indexing.

UX design or how your website looks and is navigated have also became more complex than before, from knowing your audience to setting up your site’s wireframe, the strategies have turned multi-faceted to ensure that the journey’s user is a worthwhile one.

The Benefits of Focusing on Users

When the needs of a user are fulfilled, expect for trust to grow. With this, they will come go further your services, will come back for more, and tell people about the customer satisfaction you provided. In retrospect, an outstanding user experience calls for valuable returns for your business because of brand loyalty and even if some won’t go ahead with what you offer, there will still be an imprint that might prove useful in the future. According to studies, good user experience in the website can produce conversation rates up to 400%. This is one of the best benefits to come out of the many SEO changes over the years.

Users are a vital part for a successful SEO, even if you have the most organized system, you will not garner any return of investment (ROI) if you do not have a connection to your potential users. Digital marketing is for people and about people so if you’re still adhering to some SEO changes then you are definitely falling behind. Did you know that only 55% of companies perform user experience testing for their website? Step up, do not follow the herd: instead, be the one the people will follow.

The biggest mistake in Internet Marketing

I would like you to meet three of my friends I meet daily.

Here’s John, in the center, he is an interior decorator. After doing business in his city – mostly through referrals for the last 5 years — he has seen some of his competitors do very well using internet marketing and he knows he can do better than them.

On the right is Sean. He is fresh out of college. Being an amazing software programmer, he decided to make his own proprietary software to E-commerce businesses. He has a good product but nobody knows Sean and his software called “SeanSoft.” He wants to aggressively compete in the E-commerce space and mark his right to his market share.

On the left is Betty. She is almost turning 50 and she sells real estate. She is amazing at what she does but she is losing leads because of having no Internet presence.

They all decide to call and work with an internet marketing agency.

They are given a “cure” to their problems and this is what they are told:

• Make a website (‘Cause your current site is outdated or has bad user interface or some other reason)
• Do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and rank for your keywords. And for this, you will need content and links.
• Do social media (Get into the Buzz) and be on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Periscope, Facebook Live, Instagram, etc.
• Create Amazing content.

You get the scenario—if you see the activities needed to be done, it’s daunting. John, Sean and Betty are now thinking: “I can’t do this myself. I need to hire someone”.

The three did hire internet marketers and crossed their fingers hoping it would work, or at the very least, get returns on their investment.

Things did not get as planned.

John gets the visibility he wants but he just can’t get more business deals. He was asked for a lot of quotations for his service but no one really hired him. All smoke, no fire!

Sean needs to have a lot of patience since his business is very fierce and competitive. However, he has been waiting it out for the long term turn-around.

Betty is now ranking for some keywords, but no one’s really calling or filling her forms. Her marketer posts 20 times per week on Facebook and if they are lucky, their posts get 2 “likes.” No shares, no page likes.

By now, I need to re-introduce you to a word that comes to mind on such circumstances — frustration!

If you re-cap the entire story. You will notice something strange in the way the internet marketing was planned for our three friends. Although everyone had the same need — more business — everyone was cast into a format.

John needed clients for interior decorating. He got some site visits but it didn’t convert. The same thing happened to Betty. Sean, however, had nothing. He’s just waiting for his SEO to turn.

Getting better ranks and more followers does not guarantee anything. There is no truth to it whatsoever. This is based on an old volume marketing technique which does not apply to internet marketing because of an inherent thing that people do a lot these days which is “short-listing”.

The biggest mistake in internet marketing is not having a truly unique value proposition than the competition and making that the focal point of everything.

Now let’s revisit John. We know people like his work because he has got word-of-mouth referrals and has been existing to this day. This says something about the quality of his work. If he got some visits due to SEO but nothing turned to money is probably because his site said nothing about why he should be hired.  The mistake here is he went into SEO without a message.

Sean was told to do SEO as well, but SEO would take a long time for his niche. He should have been working on Twitter and other social media platforms instead, trying to reach people directly and asking for product demo sessions with tech journalists or potential clients. Marketing on YouTube would also have worked really well instead of waiting for his SEO to bloom.

Betty has spread herself thin. She gets “x” amount of SEO and social hours performed by who she hired but both are failing. There seems to be more promise currently in the SEO side of thing and her social is not amounting to anything. It would have been wiser to work more on SEO and her value proposition in her site.

So, do you need to be anywhere and everywhere? Absolutely not. All you need is something that is “sell-able” that offers a value proposition unlike any competitor and then send the message out in any way. It may not be Google, YouTube… It may be just an E-bay account for all we know.

So don’t spread yourself too thin. Just focus on improving your product and service to such a point that it outpowers the competition and decide how to spread the word from there.

 

 

7 Advantages in Customizing MLS IDX For Real Estate Websites

In real estate websites, the MLS (Multiple Listings System) is the holy grail of information of homes available within the jurisdiction of the MLS provider. They contain updated information of all homes for sale, the information is precise and comprehensive.

Usually the MLS database consists of property

• images
• specifications
• amenities
• HOA information
• prior sales records
• current market status

and more. Here are other common functions of a real estate website.

This is a huge pool of information to tap into and there are two ways you can go about it.

Your web developer can pull this feed via IDX (Internet Data Exchange) protocol into your real estate website using the

• Standard IDX also called the Matrix Tool by some MLS providers, usually provided by themselves, is more of a “plug and play” that embeds the feeds into the website.
• Custom IDX (your own design specific pull from the MLS)

But here are 7 reasons why you should opt to use the MLS more towards your advantage through customization.

Advantage #1:  Branding

The best way to describe branding is this feeling we get, like an “aftertaste” we feel after having met someone, having worked with someone or by simply entering a store. Logos, color schematics and slogans are a part of branding but it is only superficial.

Logos, colors and slogans are “one-sided” i.e. it is a one way communication from the business. The bigger chunk of branding lies in how you handle yourself, how someone conducts themselves and their enthusiasm towards their profession and especially how customers perceives them. Its about their “aftertaste” of having been to a website.

When you customize your MLS, you are saying, “I am different” and “I care” about how I want to represent myself.  This is a powerful message you will be sending to your website visitors subliminally.

Advantage #2: SEO

Most standard IDX involves using Javascript which only embeds the information into your site. By using custom IDX, you can pull the feeds onto your own server and display them how you want. You can set them up as unique pages which is a marvel for SEO. However, you need to attempt to make these pages as unique as possible through Meta-data and descriptions.

Imagine ranking for property keywords or address searches in Google.  You can do this by customizing your IDX.

Advantage #3:  Social Media

Now, that you actually have a digital page on your website for each property, you then have the chance of using social media to share these homes. Using Standard IDX, this is not possible as the homes are actually digitally not present on your website.

Advantages #4: Sharing URLS / Refer Property functions

Once again, since you have a page per property, people can share/refer your property to others.

Advantages #5: Display preferences

Through Customization, you now have control on how you want to display your property pages, you can stack them differently, use the fonts of your choice and remove areas that are not necessary. You can add more information and brand them to look consistent.

Advantage #6: Mobile

In April 2015, Google already started to implement better rankings for websites that are mobile ready either through a .mobi or responsive websites.

By customizing the MLS, you can configure them to work on all mobiles for better interaction. Read Google Algorithm Update for Mobile Websites April 2015.

Advantage #7: Portal Functions

There are better ways to convert once someone signs up to see more information or saves a property while searching. Customized IDX for MLS also allows you to make your portal seem more fluid and interactive by applying creative conversion-driven functions that you can track using Google analytics.

Internet marketing in Real Estate is about information, take MLS information to a whole new level by having a custom IDX. It makes your website look superior and very modern. View Modern Real Estate Websites.

Link Building or Link Earning: Which approach will you choose?

Google’s dynamic algorithm is a challenge for SEO companies – especially for link builders. Earlier week, I had a brainstorming session with my partner about link building strategies and link earning. We were able to raise the following questions during our discussion:

• Which is better for SEO? Link building or link earning?
• Why is one better than the other?
• What are the long term and short term effects of the two?
• Which is more practical?
• How do we need to implement our strategy?

Before we answer all of these questions, let us first identify link building and link earning.

What is Link Building?

Link building is the process of placing hyperlinks, anchor text, or the link itself on a webpage. It helps the search engines discover web pages across the internet – more like a bridge between web pages. Generally, SEO companies use link building to generate more traffic, increase page rankings, and get ahead of their competitors. Each company has their own link building techniques. I cannot say what kind of technique is better, but I can assure that most of them produce good results.

What is link building’s role in SEO?

Link building had always been a factor in computing a website’s rankings. A few years ago, Google determined the ranking of a web page by the number of the links pointing to that particular page. In short, it was a matter of Quantity over Quality during those years. Now, Google is prioritizing Quality over Quantity. A Quality link is a link that comes from a website that has a high trust flow and has a good number of visits. More high quality links meant more SEO juice, which will also equated to higher page rankings.

What is Link Earning?

Link earning is a way of earning referral traffic through content marketing. In this strategy, an internet marketer “shares”, “markets” or “promotes” share-able content. A sharable content can come in a form of an infographic, image, blog, slideshow, video, etc. Since the content is catchy and engaging, it normally gains referral traffic from relevant sites, followers, audiences, and blog citations.

What is link earning’s role in SEO?

Link earning is a long-term process, but is proven to bring success. (see the work on the topic by Rand Fishkin, Bruce Clay, Kris Jones) Earning referral traffic does not happen overnight. The company sees the results of link earning once their content has already earned some good reputation. The company or their content can build-up their reputation through referrals, citations, advertisements and endorsements. Related Articles: Essential Websites to start Generating Traffic.

So back to these question, we will be as brief as possible and provide answers thats relevant to todays algorithms.

• Which is better for SEO? Link building or link earning? Link Earning
• Why is one better than the other? Reaches a broader Audience
• What are the long term and short term effects of the two? Link Earning provides loyal and long term readers. 
• Which is more practical? Both are needed at some point especially for start-ups but once standard links are placed, its a fight for content marketing and Link Earning. 
• How do we implement our strategy? Focus on the Content Generation and Distribution Process. 

Modern Real Estate Websites

What differentiates a Modern Real Estate Website Design from an older one?

The answer is quite simple – just take a look. If you see too much text in small fonts, small thumbnail images, lavishly colourful themes in non-responsive layouts (site layouts that do not conform properly in mobile devices i.e. to read anything you will need to zoom for legibility of the text and images).

Modern Real Estate Websites differ from their older counterparts in their :

• Graphics

The graphics in modern real estate websites are minimalistic in nature and stunning. The graphics and layouts of the website focus on a few things only, most importantly, in the images of the properties.

We want to be able to make the homes speak for themselves. The homepage, single property display pages and even search results show the importance of property images in a modern real estate website.

Apart from the images of the homes, building, apartment or commercial space, modern real estate website graphics focus in on the branding of the Real Estate Company, agent or boutique.

• Functionality

The modern real estate website is “armed-to-the-teeth” with customizable functionality.

    Modern Real Estate Websites from end users point of view

• The MLS IDX is customized, they are made to work in mobile devices and to load at faster speeds.
• Moreover, modern real estate websites are designed to have portals wherein people can
  1. Save properties,
  2. Compare properties,
  3. Chat with agents,
  4. Get open home schedules and information,
  5. Calculate mortgage information,
  6. View Location Maps
  7. Share and refer properties via social media or through email
  8. Receive alerts and notifications on properties and areas
• View property videos and Advanced Virtual Tours of the homes

 Modern Real Estate Websites from admin point of view

Real estate websites these days, need to be highly competitive in Google. The SEO in these websites is usually well founded and this can be blended well into the designs without over-writing or by almost stuffing keywords.

Agents and Website Administrators find these functions useful in modern real estate websites,

• Lead Management (CRM – Client Relation Manager)
• Content Management (CMS – Content System Manager)
• Newsletter Campaigns
• Drip Email Marketing
• Social Media Ready

• Website Brand Tone and Themes

Modern Real Estate Websites have seamless, cohesive tones and themes in them. The branding, message and artwork is aligned immaculately for their audience.

A really good real estate website builds interest and they come off as looking very unique. Older real estate websites all tended to look the same. They all said the same things!

• Website Goals

The new types of real estate websites have various goals. Their older counterparts just had 1 huge goal — sales.

These days, a good real estate website is designed intuitively and in anticipation that the target audience will not necessarily call or sign up right away.

Retargeting tools like Social Media Marketing and Newsletters are considered to be goals as well.

Other goals can be to

• Increase Visibility Index in Google
• Decrease Bounce Rates in landing pages
• Minimize Exits and Drop-offs
• Maximize time per session
• Increase loyalty with old and new visitors
• Get an App!

• Accessibility

The biggest giveaway that a website is not new, contemporary or modern is that it is not readable in mobile devices. The entire pages of the website loads just like images. The user needs to pinch and zoom to read the content well. Modern real estate websites are responsive to mobile device screens. They are legible, readable and usable when the page loads without any need to zoom, scroll and pinch.

Of course, real estate applications for Android and iOS is getting extremely popular nowadays.

• Intuitive Navigation

Over the years, internet marketers, web designers and coders have gotten a lot smarter. They are able to make intuitive websites that speak more to the people. If there is any reason, why to get a modern real estate website as soon as possible, could be for this reason alone.  The navigation and flow of modern websites are designed to work with the target audience. The sites unique navigation features are able to sort and filter people to desired channels faster. They simply make more conversions happen.

I hope I have been able to explain the differences between older real estate websites and the modern day websites for real estate. They were not meant to just look good, modern RE websites are meant to work for todays people i.e. both sellers, buyers, site-administrators and for real estate agents and brokers. Click here to get the benefits of a modern real estate website today at your preferred budget.

REINE

HEAD WEB DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT

A RedKite User-Designed Website

Is there a formula to making websites?.. In my opinion, there is a production back-line like in every other industry, but thats it!.. there are ways to manufacture Ideas, but the most important and hardest part, starts with Imagination .

There is more what happens in the ‘behind-the-scenes” at RedKite Internet Marketing and Web Designs Philippines.  I want to share why I know RedKite Websites are artistic, scalable and most of all,  “User-Designed”  – A phrase I am working on, since we make websites, as we see how the end-users, would use them.

Any Successful Website Starts With Imagination

I like to make websites using plain “child-like” imagination. I imagine going through a website from two points of view i.e.

• I think of how the website experience would be from the homepage going forwards and back.
• I think of how this website experience would be from other landing pages (this is important especially for SEO since most visitors drop into a landing page other than the homepage. They maybe category pages or they may just be smaller blog pages or sub-service pages.)

After I get the feel of the navigation, I look for conversion points. Conversion points are those smaller pieces of content that drives a visitor to opt-in or to engage them to inquire about a product/service.  These pieces of content are generally customer reviews, testimonials and results.

Then, I think of how I am going to successfully get them to contact us, what information they need to supply us and how I will sort them into the database for future emailing.

At this point I am pretty sure of how people will use the website, I usually then proceed to thinking of an interface that can make sense of how quickly one can get to the most important data quickly. I want the experience to be engaging, impressive and most of all, intuitive.

After that, I am off to social media. I want to present us well in our social media. I want the social media accounts to be active with relevant social information. I want to see how I can get them to understand the purpose of what the site is all about, the people, the achievements.

From The Mind to The Wireframe

It is now time to turn this dream of a website and put it into a visible blueprint. This is the point where the Sitemap and wireframes of the site is then produced.  The sitemap and the blueprint, allows me to communicate the vision of the website into smaller chapters.  It also allows for the SEO team to see any glitches in the structure of the website and if it will make sense for Search Engines to correctly index and categorize the website.

The Wireframe To Photoshop

The Wireframe is then brought to life using Photoshop. This is the mock up process where the actual look of the site is developed. From menu bars, columns, text position and buttons, laying out a website visually is the most interesting phase of the entire designing process. At this point, the website is still hypothetical, a digital representation of a website, but still this needs to be sliced into something the internet and browsers can read.

Photoshop To HTML/CSS/PHP

The layouts are then sent over to the web team. They find ways on how to cut, slice and code the visual representation into something that computers and browsers can read and interpret using web code.

Code Back To Graphics

Once the site is coded, graphics check for accuracy of the Code. There should be no difference, “A” should be equal to “B”. The fonts, colors and images should match the photoshop design. If it is identical, it is sent backwards to SEO and Sitemap for a final check on SEO health.

Approval Of The Website

Is the website congruent with the vision? Is this website that was imagined, now existing in reality? Is it as close as possible to the concept?

If it is, it is good for a RedKite launch!

Remember, We Want You to Outsource Your Web Designs To Us, For a Reason (not just because its cheaper), but we don’t what you to take our word for it, we want you to call USA (516-874-4777) or Philippines ( 0063-46-416-2483),( 0063-928-980-9277),  and we want you to have a serious business discussion with us. We want to tell you why RedKite Web Designs can make a difference in your business.

RedKite Services – 1 Turnkey Solution for Modern Businesses

To summarize, think about this? We all want websites, to rank in Google and have an incredible visitor rate, but do you have the resources to maintain your website and traffic 100% optimized all the time? This is where RedKite Philippines steps in to deliver an amazing partnership opportunity. How would you like to have a 24/7 weekday support for businesses in the United States, UK, Canada and Australia for these professional services:

• Web Design
• Website Maintenance
• Web Master
• Application Developer and Programmer
• SEO copywriter
• Link Builder
• Online Reputation Manager
• Project Manager
• Online Consultant
• Virtual Assistance
• Customer Service

Only at US$35/Day!

RedKite: A Complete Web Service Company   RedKite has been in the internet marketing world for over 8 years now. For years, we have worked with North American Businesses and have grown together successfully. Whether you are running a huge firm, small-medium enterprise, or a single proprietorship, our plethora of services can fit into your daily requirements.

Our Services

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The algorithm of search engines is dynamic and complicated. They are now becoming to act more like humans. They know if they’re being fooled and they know if they’re being manipulated.Our mission is to understand, harness, and use the power of search engines to increase marketability, generate leads, and ultimately generate results.

Our SEO campaign is broken down into several sub-services. We create blogs, tweak the website, create infographics, do copywriting, formulate link building strategies, analyze the competition and research keywords that makes money for our clients.

• Keyword Research

Keywords are the heart of SEO. It is that query that people use to search for products and services in the internet. We analyze your competition, generate keywords and rank clients websites on search engines.

• Link Building

Link building, as the name suggest, connects the link of the different web pages and websites. We scour every directory, every page, and website in an effort to create links that are relevant to the main website.

• Blogs

Every week, we generate original content, blogs and articles for our clients as part of our social media and SEO campaign. The blogs would be shared onto various social media sites such as twitter, facebook, google+, etc. for maximum social citations.

• Infographics

Infographics, like blogs, are also part of our social media campaign. Infographics are also shared on social media sites for maximum customer knowledge dissemination.

• Website tweaks

If you have an existing website, we would perform an on-site audit, analyze what needs fixing, and tweak it according to the rules and guidelines set by search engines.

• Web Design

Every business owners who want to venture into the online world needs a professional and well-built website. A website should match the business description, show the uniqueness of the firm, and why the business is ahead of the competition.

RedKite has been creating, designing, and maintaining website for many years. We build websites for professionals, businessmen and corporations. Each of the website that we build is carefully analyzed and matched according to the behaviorism of our clients target audience.

“We never use templates in our web design, we want our websites to be personalized for every client. Our goal is to meet their demands and requirements” – Reine Ojeda, Head Web Developer

• Customize your own site

We design our website based on your preference. You may suggest your own idea to our designers. We would send you a prototype of the website before we do actual coding work.

• Responsive Website

The website that we build are compatible with all browsers and mobile devices. A thorough quality-assurance is conducted before any website is launched.

• User Friendly Backend

How would you like a backend that even a kid can navigate? The backend of our website are user-friendly. You can easily manage the content, post pictures, reply to inquiries, and manage leads — All with only a few clicks. Our drag and drop (WYSIWIG – what you see is what you get), live time editing allows even non-savvy administrators to handle the website perfectly.

• Flexibility

Our frameworks are flexible, customizable, user-friendly, easy to understand and are budget-friendly.

• Regular Maintenance and Updates

If there are new browser updates, smartphone updates, etc. We make sure that the website are still responsive. We regularly inspect for bugs & fixes.

• Communication

If you want anything changed in your website, you can reach us quickly via emails, sms, and phone calls. We guarantee live response as we work 24/7 weekdays.

Internet Marketing RedKite specializes on anything that is related to Internet Marketing. We do market analysis, we do research, and we formulate and implement a game-plan based on the requirements of our clients. RedKite specializes on the following fields:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Site Audit
• Web Design
• Web Development
• Web Maintenance
• Lead Management
• Social Media Management
• Copywriting
• Customer Review Management
• Referral Traffic Building
• Virtual Assistance

Outsourcing your internet marketing and web admin needs to a complete web service company is not just getting popular and preferred, it is beginning to be that competition advantage a modern business needs these days.

Virtual Assistance

Virtual Assistance is a sub-service of RedKite that provides our clients with a quick and organized way to get dedicated personnel offshore. Our Virtual Assistants are well-trained in the art of SEO, Web design and development, and internet marketing. Interested in working with us? We are just an email, skype and phone call away. You may contact us using the details below. US: (516) 874-4777
PH: 0063-928-980-9277 / 0063-46-416-2483