Search Engine Marketing

The advantages of having a blog are pretty well-known – they are key for giving visitors an incentive to return to a site. Not only can they increase and maintain traffic, but they are great ways to incorporate keywords, which can help for SEO. Two new services on the market allow sites to increase their web 2.0 presence and search engine ranking without much bother at all.

Yahoo recently announced the launch of its new online advertising service, My Display Ads. The service appears to be ideal for those smaller online businesses that want to take their bland, text-based ads to the next level. However, the service has already been proclaimed by the blogosphere to be far from perfect. Here we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of Yahoo’s new ad service.

In the paid search world, one of the most overlooked elements of campaign success is geo-targeting. For national advertisers, PPC geo-targeting is an absolute must; however, few are fully utilizing this tool to its full potential.

It seems that everybody knows somebody that does “website design”.  The term can refer to anyone from a high school student working on the weekends between book reports to an established professional website designer. Because of this, you need to be careful when choosing a website design company. Choosing the wrong individual or firm can mean the difference between having a website that turns out sales and ending up with a website that turns off customers. You need to do your due diligence when you sit down with your designer (or web design firm) to ascertain the level of competency and professionalism they have.  It is important that business owners ask the following five questions in your initial conversation with any potential web design firm or individual. 

It surprises me how many companies underestimate the marketing value of their website. In many cases, design and content development are left to the IT department with little to no input from the marketing channels other than logo and color scheme.  The websites are put up too fast, without enough consideration of fundamental elements such as traffic sources, conversation to sales and design.  A website represents the company behind it and the effectiveness of a website signals the quality one would receive from that company.  It is important that business owners answer the following five questions before tackling a new website. 

It's a fact of life in business that when there's an economic downturn, the first thing that's usually cut is available marketing spend, typically an unfortunate byproduct of accounting's inability to justify costs without hard data in place. While the argument has been made numerous times over the years in books and articles that cutting budgets in a down economy is one of the worst moves you can make, I won't rehash this old (but still valid) argument. Instead, I'd specifically like to address why cutting your search engine marketing budget in a down economy is a bad move, and why it's equally important to place your trust in your search engine marketing company during a down turn.

As the population with internet access explodes, and more and more people are using search engines to find what they need, the usage of local search also continues to rise. For any sites servicing a local or specific geographic audience, submission to local search based engines is becoming more and more important.

It's usually the first thing we hear in terms of search engine optimization - a company wants to be in that coveted top spot on Google, Yahoo!, Ask, and MSN. No matter the industry or specialty, when companies approach us with their desired goals for an SEO campaign, it's usually all about improving their rankings and positions

It's no secret that a continually updated website with new content being added regularly stands a good chance of doing well in Google. One of the long standing methods to regularly expand a site's content is through the use of a blog. While there are numerous platforms to choose from for managing a blog, few can compare with the immense flexibility offered with WordPress, and at a cost of free, the price can't be beat either.

Many companies make the mistake of spending money in areas where it's not necessary. Take, for example, companies pumping marketing dollars into increasing traffic on the website. It's great to get more traffic, but that is just the first step. Now you need that traffic to do something.

To many people, the idea of guest blogging is fresh and new and very "Web 2.0." Personally, I find the discussion to be a rather déjà vu-like experience. In fact, one participant on my blog responded to a post about articles by asking how I would contrast guest blogging with article marketing. He wanted to know how I chose between placing my articles on directories and writing an exclusive blog post. The short answer is: I don't.

Increasing your conversion rate is a straightforward, even dramatic way of positively impacting your bottom line. It really cannot be emphasized too much that any increase at all in your conversion rate means additional revenue that is total profit.

There are many different ways that a link can be built.  One that is often overlooked but which can have huge rewards is writing and submitting articles.  The reason article writing and submission is arguably one of the best of the link building methods is that it not only functions as a link building exercise but also a traffic source.  Honestly, can you think of a better use of your online marketing time than a tactic that provides for traffic and which can help improve your search engine visibility?  Neither can I.

I'll admit it. I used to be scared of social media. I didn't know what it was, nor did I want to. I'm rarely an early adopter of anything; in fact, some might call me a Luddite. (Yeah, I still use my 1994 HTML editor!) Let's just say that I resist change with every fiber of my being.

Though intrusive, cookie-type advertising technology is still able to be blocked, a new behavioral advertising technology on the front, however, began taking that option away from Internet users. Is tracking at the ISP level the future of online advertising or will users have the ability to opt-in at some point?

An examination of Warren Buffett's role in Kirby Vacuum reminds us what to look for in a search engine marketing agency.

First, let’s tackle competitive analysis. As an entrepreneur, you're no doubt familiar with some of the conventional wisdom about how to handle competitors. Do your research. Check public records and disclosures about big name firms in your industry. Assess your goals, branding plans, and future efforts in the context of the presumptive goals of your industry rivals. Understand why customers choose competitors over your firm -- both why they like your rivals and why they refuse to work with you.

Early Internet companies had funny ways of presenting advertising technology to audiences, lulling them into a false sense of security. As the Web grew, the Internet began using targeted online advertising that accounted for a reduction in the amount of privacy that users were accustomed to. Continue reading to see how this phenomenon decreased our online confidentiality one step at a time.

At some point, most people have had some sort of encounter with internet scams, viruses, spyware or other security problems. Hackers and scam artists are a pervasive reality in today's world and making assumptions about security is unwise. A pay per click account makes an attractive target to a technically savvy criminal and gaining access to someone's account allows them to promote their schemes at someone else's expense.

I use Google Analytics all the time to see what keywords people are finding our clients' websites with, and I do the same for our own website. But I don't always think to use it for other information, like looking at where else (besides the search engines) traffic is coming from. After all, online marketing isn't just about search engine traffic.