Spend the Rest of Your Life on Velvet

I found this in a friend’s garage…pretty interesting tin.

They won’t let this type of advertising fly anymore.  You can’t say something to the effect of spending the rest of your life on it.  There were lots of “Joe Camel” and “Marlboro Man” type ads like this too.  Eventually I think that some government oversight committee said “No, that advertising is too suggestive and it’s proven to kill” or something to that effect.

Wikipedia says this:

Internal documents produced to the court in Mangini v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, San Francisco Superior Court No. 959516, demonstrated the industry’s interest in targeting children as future smokers.^[3] The importance of the youth market was illustrated in a 1974 presentation by RJR’s Vice-President of Marketing who explained that the “young adult market . . . represent[s] tomorrow’s cigarette business. As this 14-24 age group matures, they will account for a key share of the total cigarette volume — for at least the next 25 years.”^[4] A 1974 memo by the R. J. Reynolds Research Department points out that capturing the young adult market is vital because “virtually all [smokers] start by the age of 25″ and “most smokers begin smoking regularly and select a usual brand at or before the age of 18.”

See, what really gets me is that people think that advertising really started like 10 years ago with the beginning of the Internet.  It really didn’t.

In June 1836, French newspaper La Presse is the first to include paid advertising in its pages, allowing it to lower its price, extend its readership and increase its profitability.

Almost 200 YEARS!  Now I really don’t mean to make this an entire article about smoking or some foolish thing like that, but I want to illustrate that the typeset is suggestive enough to show that the same type of advertising is done today.  It’s done a little different though.  In these days, ads are truly subliminal messaging.  You have things like a McDonalds ad that had dollar bills as lettuce.  Or you have Electronics ads that only fool the consumer.  Its all targeted.  So think about who you want to target and see how your competitors are advertising.  It’s quite simple.  Match and refine their process and you will come out on top.

What I’d like to point out is a simple process of making sure that you can maximize your SEO using the images that are on your pages.

1. Make sure ALL images have a descriptive ALT tag. For instance:

By doing this, you’re not only helping the plain-text SEO, but you’re also helping Google and other services index your site correctly if you follow that simple step.  Not sure if you are using the ALT Tags correctly?  Check your site at DomainTools.  You will see something that looks a lot like this:

Images: 1 (Alt tags missing: 0)

Ready to take this to the next level?  Good.

2. After you’ve verified your site, created a sitemap, submitted it to the major search engines, you can then select an option in Google Webmaster Tools called “Enhanced Image Search”.  The really great thing about this service is that you can begin to index your site in a whole new way.  So how do I do this again? Glad you asked.  Here’s the instructions per Google:

What does it mean to opt-in to enhanced image search?

If you choose to opt in to enhanced image search, Google may use tools such as Google Image Labeler to associate the images included in your site with labels that will improve indexing and search quality of those images.

To opt in to enhanced image search:

1. Sign into Google Webmaster Tools with your Google Account.
2. Click the URL for the site you want.
3. Click Tools, and then click Enable enhanced image search.

Once you have opted in to enhanced image search, you can opt out at any time by returning to this page and clearing the checkbox.

If you’re really bored, Google Image Labeler is actually a pretty fun way to pass the time.  You and a random partner pair up and start guessing what a picture should be called.  Now the idea, for Google, is not to take just your matching suggestion, but also to try and associate all of the terms that were suggested during that and that’s how they improve their “algorithm”.

3.  Use image names the same way that blogs create permalinks.  For example.  This blog will have a permalink like “sneaky-seo-using-google-images-to-your-advantage” in the URL.  So, go start describing your images and make sure that they are the same within the code.

These things do matter and show up in different types of search engine algorithms.  Use this tip to your advantage.