How Help, How and What can Help Get Your Videos Watched

Getting found on line is always a challenge. It is more so for video, because in most cases your content is not being catalogued.  So you need to improve your odds.

For those of us who are doing information videos including the words How, Help or What can improve your chances to be found.  If you are looking to be found by a search engine or decision engine, one of the key variables is word match.  The more words in your title that match the query being made, the better chance you have of being selected.

Since more users are asking questions when they search, adding How,  Help or What can will make it more likely the video will be found..  When I recently posted a video on behaviors that make a good sales person, which is the most frequently asked question on the blog, I integrated What into the Title: “What Behaviors make a good sales person?  I could have just called it “Behaviors that make a good sales person”.  But adding “what” will help improve the odds.

To see this video,  check out this blog posting .  http://learnedatscore.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/what-behaviors-make-a-good-sales-person/

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Own your own name as a brand?

You have a brand that your carry through out your life.  It is on your driver’s license, your passport, and you are universally known by it.  It’s your name.  So consider owning your name as a url.

I just purchased  www.markegoodman.com .  Five years ago, when I was working for Motorola,  I would have never have thought about it.   I felt that I was a subset of the Motorola brand.  But with job changes and the fact that search has become the yellow and white pages of the 21^st century, how can I insure that I can be found.   Not only be found, but insure the continuity and integrity of your brand.

Granted, social media sites like LinkedIn,  Facebook, and Twitter can help give you presence.  However, they can come and go.  Who remembers Prodigy?   These sites often require membership from the searcher.  In addition, for the most part, they control the routing.

Think about it.  What is more important than your own brand?  When it comes to building your image and furthering your career, who is more important than you?

10 Trends to Consider

• Aging Boomers
• Economic Recovery
• Greater Education
• Rising Hispanic Influence
• Increased Immigration
• More Government
• Healthcare Reform
• Green
• Globalization
• Web 2.0 and Social Media

What’s the Best Name for my Web Site?

Small business people often ask about picking out a name for a website.  In many cases, the name that is a 100% match for the business (mycompany) is already taken.  So the company asks should they take out mycompanyinc or mycompanyco etc.    Alternatively, a company has a long name  mysmallbusinessisbrilliant.   They ask about if customer expects a shortened URL.

In today’s world,  customers will go into Google, Yahoo, Bing etc and put in your company’s name in the manner that they think of your company.   Remember, the average search phrase is 4 words, so you have some latitude in matching.

Here are a couple of suggestions.

Most importantly understand how your customers think about your business.  If you are Hilltop Garage in Big Mountain, Iowa make a list.

• Hilltop Garage in Big Mountain
• Hilltop Garage Expert Foreign Car repair
• Bob at Hilltop Garage
• Bob over in Big Mountain at Hilltop Garage
• Bob’s Hilltop Garage

Second, when building your website, don’t just think about the URL, but think about the Title, Description, Keywords and Headings on each page.   By putting the appropriate words in these areas, Hilltop Garage will have a better chance of being found.  In the title of the home page, Bob should consider having “Expert Foreign Car Repair – Bob Smith Hilltop Garage Big Mountain, Iowa. ”

Remember, you don’t have to limit yourself to one URL.  Bob could beHilltopGarageBigMountain, but he could also purchaseBigMountainHilltopGarage or even BobsHilltopGarage.  It is fairly simple to route alternative sites to one main site.

When you do pick a site, use that  URL in your email, Twitter, Facebook etc.  Instead of being hilltopgarage@globalemail.com Bob should bebsmith@hilltopgaragebigmountain.com.

If you do have a site, go back and look at your titles, descriptions, keywords and headings.  If you are not sure where they are, ask your web developer.  When it comes to social media, pick one and get started.