Web Design, Website Development and Internet Marketing - One Page Expert Guides

SEO vs. PPC Debate -- Which Do You Prefer?

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:19:03 -0600

SEO or PPC, which is better? That was one great debate at SES London which included excellent arguments from the SEO camp, followed by a strong defense for PPC - before Fantomaster decided that there's no need to worry about the rules, as black hat is the way forward!

There's a growing divide between online marketers who enjoy organic search and those who prefer paid search. So what do your preferences say about you?

Do you enjoy hours spent analyzing search terms and bidding on long tail PPC keywords that squeeze an extra 20 percent return out of your budget? Or do you prefer to add lasting value to a Web site over the long term, gradually building authority through clever content and inching your way to the top of the natural search results?

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3639692

Is Google Getting Into Providing SEO Services?

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:42:46 -0600

I was reading a blog post from John Andrews about a test that Google is running in the Nordic regions, and the news was a bit shocking...at least, initially.

If you're in the region, and have a Google Webmaster Tools account, you can submit a request to be included within an SEO site clinic that Google staffers will provide. Right now, they are only looking for four participants/Web sites.

Here's what is mentioned on Google's "Inside AdWords" blog post for this region:

A site clinic is where we go through the website you submit, provide feedback on them and share tips on how they can improve. This could make them better geared toward search engines, which will give better results in such as Google search. Hopefully, the work could lead to increased visibility for their website.

See the full story at: http://www.clickz.com/3636505

PPC Consulting Avoiding the Client Bad Beat Stories

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:45:23 -0600

Jamie Smith, CEO of EngineReady -- a search marketing company with several Fortune 500 clients -- has a bad beat story that is a cautionary tale for consultants in the search industry. His company became responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in AdWords spend.

Smith had worked with this company for more than three years and billed them for PPC spends without problems. But when the company suddenly went out of business, Smith's company, which had been paying Google directly and billing the client, found themselves liable for the money spent.

This question of how consultants should structure pay for PPC spends by their clients has a number of caveats.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636477

How to Build Links, Increase Traffic and Exposure

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:49:29 -0600

Searching for a way to steadily build links every week while increasing traffic and exposure? Get your content published on other Web sites.

This marketing technique has been successfully used in print publications and works even better online. Here's how to streamline the process.

First, set a specific goal of how many unique pieces to get published every week or month. It's important to start small so you don't feel overwhelmed and can make sure all the resources are in place.

A specific goal keeps everyone focused. Once the process is flowing smoothly, increase the targeted goals.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636452

Search Engine Optimization and Paid Search - What Should Your Philosophy Be?

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:52:50 -0600

As a search engine marketing company, we are often asked by clients and prospects if there's a basic philosophy when it comes to organic search engine optimization and paid search advertising.

"Is one tactic more favorable than another? How do I know which channel to pursue? Should I do both?"

Without a hard look at your company's goals and unique situation, there really isn't a concrete answer to these questions. The true test of pursuing either an SEO campaign or PPC advertising (or both) is knowing that it all boils down to your company philosophy, ROI objectives, budget, and countless other monetary and marketing factors. To determine which, or what combination of both, might offer the most bang for your buck, let's examine five types of "models" that my search engine marketing company often deals with.

See the full story at: http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Internet-Marketing/Search-Engine-Optimization-and-Paid-Search-What-Should-Your-Philosophy-Be.html

10 Commandments of Modern Marketing

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:51:00 -0600

10 Commandments of Modern Marketing Some people start the new year with resolutions. I thought, why not start 2010 with 10 commandments for online marketing -- resolutions to do marketing right; that is, marketing that takes into account how the modern landscape and modern consumers have changed.

1. Thou shalt not target customers with messages they don't want. No matter how targeted the advertiser thinks the message is, it's still not targeted, relevant, or timely enough.

See the full story at: http://www.clickz.com/3636027

Seven Tips for Picking the Best E-Commerce Program

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:14:53 -0600

So one of your New Year's resolutions is to start making money from your Web site with e-commerce. How do you get there from here?

All e-commerce programs or "shopping carts" include a way to manage and display multiple products, calculate shipping and tax, and include a private "back-end" portion of the Web site where the owner can log in to manage orders. Beyond these basics, the features can vary greatly. Some are stripped-down basic programs, others are loaded with many more features than you will ever need to use.

1. Decide on the features you want and need.

In your regular course of business, you may be accustomed to offering different kinds of discounts (volume discount, percentage off sales) to certain customers to win a sale, or you may have different types of customers, such as wholesale and retail. To continue these practices online you will need to seek out software that specifically delivers the features that meet these needs.

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/building/article.php/3860166

Universal Search 101

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:50:58 -0600

During your SEO studies, you might have come across the term universal search or blended search. Not sure what it means or how it works? Then this article is for you.

Universal search has been around since 2007 when Google announced a significant change to its search engine. Soon after, Ask announced their Ask 3D platform and Microsoft Live announced their new Live Search. Yahoo followed up with what they called the new Yahoo Search.

Search is Universal

• Add a press release about your product and post to PR sites for promotion
• Add a blog post about your product
• Produce a short video about the product and post accordingly
• Go beyond your Web site and push this content into various social media channels

Now all the major search engines use a new form of search results designed to bring a better user experience to searchers. So what is universal or blended search?

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636341

Why Settle for Best Practices?

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:18:02 -0600

When teaching your clients to fish for SEO, some clients that would like to manage this tactic underestimate the amount of work or expertise associated with it. Remember, it's OK to teach your clients how to do your job if it's in their best interest.

However, agencies must understand how SEO plays into the overall search strategy, even if you're handing over the keys to the castle to the client. SEO shouldn't be simply looked at as some technical stuff you do to improve a site. Let's stick with this theme of not taking things for granted and really differentiate between best practices and SEO.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636318/print

Long Copy Web Design Techniques

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:39:12 -0600

When I first started web designing, developing and promoting websites in early 2000, "long-copy" pages were often the standard. While there has been a clear shift towards the "less-is-more" school of design (and copywriting), the Web is in no shortage of sites that shun the notion altogether. If you're a believer that there's something special about long-copy Web design and online marketing, then read on to discover some important site design tips and techniques.

There are hundreds of examples of long-copy designs. We will look at two today to identify techniques that you might want to employ or at least consider for your own deployments. Other long-copy websites follow pretty much the exact same formula. We will also follow up this post in the future with some long-copy Web design trends.

See the full story at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2010/01/28/long-copy-web-design-techniques.aspx

Search Engine Success: Getting Video SEO Right

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:49:55 -0600

Videos, properly submitted, are 53 times more likely to generate a first page Google ranking than traditional SEO techniques, according to a recent study by Forrester Research. However, many companies are ignoring video SEO altogether, only submitting the pages on which videos reside and not the videos themselves, or worst of all, submitting their video assets to YouTube under the misunderstanding that this will generate SEO benefits.

Video SEO Advantages

• Video SEO is 53 times more likely to produce a first-page search result than traditional techniques.
• Google is pushing video to the top of search results, creating a goldmine for marketers.
• Results begin to appear in days, and some publishers succeed in getting 25 percent or more of their videos to produce first page results.
• Search engines can't find video content on their own, so getting submission right is critical -- a knowledgeable partner can make this much easier.

The Unfair Advantages of Video SEO

Although video SEO isn't dissimilar to traditional SEO, it has two distinct advantages.

First, Google and other search engines work to have a mix of content types displayed in search results (a.k.a., blended search results). For this reason, they give a higher ranking to video content than other forms of Web content in order to make sure that searches consistently display mixed search results.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636282

Bing's IIS SEO Toolkit Now Available

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:05:23 -0600

Microsoft/Bing has released what amounts to one of the most powerful free server-side SEO (search engine optimization) tools available.

The IIS SEO toolkit, which caters to Web developers, hosting providers and Web server administrators, aims to "improve discoverability and user experience" for websites and it's going to be a game changer.

The IIS SEO Toolkit includes a Site Analysis module, a Robots Exclusion module, and a Sitemaps and Site Indexes module. These tools let you perform detailed analysis and offer recommendations and editing tools for managing files.

See the full story at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2010/01/25/bing-s-iis-seo-toolkit-now-available.aspx

Quick Tips for Successful E-mail Newsletters

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:30:59 -0600

It's been about 15 years since I developed my first e-mail newsletter. It's not rocket science. But I still come across clients that are missing the basics.

Here are some tips to get you started -- or to help you quickly review your existing e-mail newsletter and confirm that you're still in line with best practices to make it successful.

It's All About the Reader, Not You

Remember: When you're developing an e-mail newsletter, make it relevant and interesting to your audience. This sounds so simple, but I still see clients whose e-mail newsletters are "all about us" -- we've hired a new VP of sales, we landed a new client, etc. That's nice, but what's in it for the reader?

See the full story at: http://www.clickz.com/3635165

SEO and PPC Can't Wait

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:06:53 -0600

When it comes to big teams (and just as frequently with one-man shows), all marketing initiatives earn the distinction of being a priority, which normally denotes something that's important enough to jump on right away. But with dozens of other projects hanging in the air, a further hierarchy is required. Individual action items (or at times, the entire list) becomes a high priority, on top of which it's more than likely that the team has three or four top priorities.

When you have a project in mind that can make a huge difference to your bottom line, like SEO or PPC, hearing that it's a top priority and then watching it languish as a line item in weekly and monthly staff meetings quickly becomes a top annoyance with a high incidence of face palming as a result.

See the full story at: http://searchenginewatch.com/3636181

Marketing with Twitter: The Power and the Pain

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:31:54 -0600

Social media has changed the way people look for jobs, share pictures of their kids and find new love interests, but thus far the vast majority of large companies still aren't taking advantage of these sites and services to evangelize -- and protect -- their brands, according to a panel of social networking experts here at the Consumer Electronics Show.

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/advertising/article.php/3857406