Marketing Is Essential

10 Things You Need To Know About Google+

2011-11-09T20:41:00.003-05:00

This is a presentation given at this year's Pubcon Conference in Vegas that I am very sad to have missed out on. Presented by Jay Berkowitz of Ten Golden Rules.

Google+ Pubcon Presentation

View more presentations from Jay Berkowitz

From @MarkRaganCEO: Communicators share their favorite smartphone apps. Are yours on the list?

2011-10-28T11:47:00.001-04:00

Integrated Social Media - Study Done by Ogilvy-ChatThreads

2011-10-24T12:01:00.003-04:00

Ogilvy-ChatThreads Integrated Social Media Sales Impact Study 2011

View more presentations from 360 Digital Influence, Ogilvy PR Worldwide

First Google Wallet Customer

2011-09-18T21:12:00.003-04:00

This really just made me laugh....

New Dodge Ad Campaign Taps in to YouTube Users

2011-09-11T20:33:00.004-04:00

I was watching the start of football season today when a new commercial caught my eye. Dodge has unveiled a new ad campaign which taps into the use of YouTube, in which they are giving away 3 brand new 2012 Dodge Journey’s.

“Find the Hidden Journey and it’s yours!" I thought to myself, well that is really clever. The commercial directs viewers to their YouTube channel for details, then there are a series of videos one has to watch in which unlocks clues on how to find this new SUV they are referring to as, "The Search Engine for the Real World."

The contest ends on September 27th and is open to all US Citizens, one car has already been located on the West Coast, the Mid-West is next (9/16), and the East Coast will follow shortly after (9/23). Following the clues is one thing, but actually racing to the location is completely different. It is definitely a pretty cool way to give away a car.

Check out the how-to's below:

Incubus - New Approach to How Social Media Meets PR

2011-08-19T21:16:00.008-04:00

I have seen a lot of different social media campaigns in my day but one that struck me as very clever has been what the band Incubus has done. In preparation of the launch of their 7th studio album "If Not Now, When?" and kickoff of their U.S. tour in over 3 years the band has setup what they refer to as "IncubusHQ".

IncubusHQ launched on June 30th, the campaign enabled the band to interact with their fans regularly through multiple events most of them via the web. For 7 days (6/30 – 7/06) Incubus was inviting fans in the LA area to undisclosed locations for the most unique, personal and up-close fan experience - I have to admit I was wishing to be there with them.

Incubus' official statement about the kickoff stated:

"In “Incubus HQ Live” the web meets reality; it’s where web technology combines with fan-to-band interaction complete with impromptu live sets, live web streams, instructional clinics, and full performances from the band all being captured in a real-time documentary. Basically anything is possible and anything can happen!" http://on.fb.me/rbQBAm

But that's not all IncubusHQ was focused on, they also heavily promoted the album, and US Tour via email, on PING (iTunes Social Network - awesome), Facebook and Twitter - they also had press on sites like Mashable. The emails were great because it gave any fan a step by step rundown of what the band is up to, and how to connect with them as they were approaching the first day of the US tour. All the hype was to lead up to the live feed of their 1st show at Red Rocks on August 17th.

I have always known that PR and Social Media cross paths but this particular campaign has really brought a new element for musicians and how they now can approach new ways to promote their music without the help of MTV, David Lettermen, and Jay Leno, and I have been enjoying the hype from a social media distance.

Social Media Faux Pas - E-470 Twitter Mistake

2011-06-16T21:19:00.005-04:00

I recently spent some time in Colorado and as I was driving along highway E-470 I noticed an interesting social campaign unfolding before my eyes. On the emergency digital road sign, which is typically used for Amber Alerts, Highway Accidents, and Emergency Road Announcements, the sign said, “E-470 Live Twitter Chat - Tweet 2 Win June 15th 11AM” – while I understand the intention of a Social Media campaign, I could not help but think to myself how people can misconstrue this for a promotion to tweet while driving – can you say dangerous?? I don’t believe that signs like this should be used to advertise a sweeps or anything for that matter other than what it was intended for. With all the hype the story hit the local news, it seems many others felt the same way I did and I was not surprised. A spokesperson for the highway said the message was never intended to promote tweeting while driving at all. Well I bet they learned their lesson and I am sure they will think twice now about promoting the use of social media on their emergency road signs.

Check out the news story here, "E-470 Twitter Signs Cause Controversy"

2010-05-19T20:12:00.001-04:00

Social Networks for Business

View more presentations from Katie Laird.

Google Ad Rank Video - How Adwords Ranking Works

2010-04-01T19:56:00.005-04:00

The Best SEO Tool is SEO Power Suite!

2009-11-28T19:32:00.005-05:00

Everyday I go to work and find myself buried in “what ifs”. What if I had more time, what if I had more staff…

I work with a company who owns 30+ websites, and I am only one person doing the best I can to follow the best practice I know how of going after linking opportunities, creating compelling optimized copy, and monitoring all the sites to ensure we are staying on track with increasing traffic that will benefit the organization. Now granted I probably need a couple more people to help, but I also need good tools that will help streamline all strategies.

There are many free tools out there that can help with watching your rankings, help build a link strategy, analyze your on-site optimization efforts and determine if your content is relevant for keywords you wish to rank for, but many of these free tools are limited.

Lots of SEO folks find that the paid tools are worthless. Why should I pay for a tool when I can get information like that for free? I know you can get it for free but how much time do you have to invest? I am a busy person and I cannot afford to take too much time to search for links, run ranking reports and constantly keep up with what my competitors are doing. So I did some research on paid tools and I found software that has made my life SO much easier. The software is called SEO Power Suite. It is one of the best ones I have seen on the market so far. I have used Web CEO, IBP, and SEO Elite and this software by far has so much more to offer. It has several tools in one suite:

Rank Tracker - this tool allows you to customize ranking reports so you can monitor what is going on with your search results. You can automate it so that it will run when you need it to run.

Website Auditor - this tool will allow you to view what your competitors have done to their web pages to rank well in search engines. After analyzing the data you can use the same techniques and apply them to your site. Brilliant!

SEO Spyglass - this tool alone was the reason I bought the entire SEO Power Suite! The one tool I felt was a tremendous asset. You can literally spy on your top competitors and see what linking strategies they have employed. You can run customized reports easily and the tool will tell you what links they have, where they came from, what their PR is, and even if they actually purchased the link or not! Amazing!! If you are tired of doing the tedious work searching for links yourself this tool is amazing and completely assists in the time factor that is involved of doing this research.

Link Assistant - helps you find additional link partners and assists in providing you with their contact information so you can establish a relationship and hopeful earn that link partnership as well as monitor your link popularity over time.

I would recommend the entire suite of tools, but if you cannot get the entire suite then at the very least try the SEO Spyglass and Link Assistant, you won’t be sorry you did. But if you do decide on the SEO Power Suite, for a small business owner they offer a Professional license. But if you are a Search Marketing Firm or a large organization that hosts many websites then the Enterprise license is for you. Now there is a way to manage your clients or your own websites easily and stress free and gain more insight than you may have in the past as well as cut costs with effective time saving methods that work.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have purchased the tool and let me know what you think of it.

Get a Free Website and Get Found Today

2009-10-13T20:21:00.002-04:00

Just saw a commercial for the new Intuit quick site builds. What bugged me about this commercial was how they were quick to say “Get a FREE website and get found today,” If the offer is too good to be true then it probably is. I don’t think it is right that companies offer products like this and essentially prey on people who really do not understand what it takes to be found on the internet. You don’t just slap some content together click publish and “get found” in the search results as their commercial implies. This may be far-fetched but I just think that companies should be more forthcoming with consumers who are looking for ways to make money online with a brand new website. Buyer beware, if you are looking to start a new business online do the necessary research and find out what it will really take to market your site to the masses. Get educated and understand the essentials of marketing your website online.

Just my own $.02.

Twitter For Business

2009-03-12T09:12:00.004-04:00

I recently read a great article on the 50 Ideas for using Twitter for business. It was originally written by the very smart Chris Brogan, check it out:

First Steps

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.
3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
5. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
6. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)
7. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out.
8. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)
9. Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.
10. Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga.

Ideas About WHAT to Tweet

11. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
12. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
13. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
14. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
15. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
16. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
17. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
18. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
19. Don’t toot your own horn too much. (Man, I can’t believe I’m saying this. I do it all the time. - Side note: I’ve gotta stop tooting my own horn).
20. Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck out of others, too.

Some Sanity For You

21. You don’t have to read every tweet.
22. You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
23. Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation ( got this from @pistachio).
24. Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
25. 3rd party clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier to manage Twitter.
26. If you tweet all day while your coworkers are busy, you’re going to hear about it.
27. If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting all the time, you might hear about it.
28. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
29. If someone says you’re using twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.
30. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.

The Negatives People Will Throw At You

31. Twitter takes up time.
32. Twitter takes you away from other productive work.
33. Without a strategy, it’s just typing.
34. There are other ways to do this.
35. As Frank hears often, Twitter doesn’t replace customer service (Frank is @comcastcares and is a superhero for what he’s started.)
36. Twitter is buggy and not enterprise-ready.
37. Twitter is just for technonerds.
38. Twitter’s only a few million people. (only)
39. Twitter doesn’t replace direct email marketing.
40. Twitter opens the company up to more criticism and griping.

Some Positives to Throw Back

41. Twitter helps one organize great, instant meetups (tweetups).
42. Twitter works swell as an opinion poll.
43. Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
44. Twitter at events helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
45. Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially if the news impacts online denizens).
46. Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s?
47. Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).
48. Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
49. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (mine are).
50. Twitter can augment customer service. (but see above)

So how are you using Twitter for your business?

Tips for Local Search Campaigns

2009-03-02T20:17:00.002-05:00

There are many businesses that are local in nature. What I mean is local businesses who look for an increase in visitors to their website via local traffic online. The goal of many local businesses is to turn to search engines to advertise their websites online in search of this local traffic. Geographic targeting is an easy and sometimes an inexpensive way to reach this goal but there are a few things one must consider when building out these local pay per click campaigns.

In Google Adwords you can choose your geographic location. Not only can you choose the city and the state you would like your ads to appear in, but you could even include a zip code to narrow down your locations.

Choosing keywords is critical, you should not just target general words, consider targeting words that include the city and state as well like:

Blue Widget Ft. Lauderdale
Blue Widget Ft. Lauderdale Florida
Blue Widget Ft. Lauderdale FL
Blue Widget Ft. Lauderdale 33316
Blue Widget Ft. Lauderdale Florida 33316

Assuming you have an ad of interest these keywords should bring you some pretty targeted qualified leads.

Take it one step further; for those who are familiar with Google Adwords and understand the ins and outs of keyword matching you can take your Geo Target campaign to a whole other level.

Once you have your geographic campaign setup create an additional, or companion campaign that is “Nationally” targeted. Yes, I said nationally targeted. But make sure that ALL of your keywords used are listed as “EXACT” matches ONLY. This way you can ensure that you cast an additional net to those folks who may not be in the city of your specific location at the time of their search online.

This is important for businesses like, limo services, or spa services. You might want to just advertise to your cities location, but those who live elsewhere who may be traveling to your city would benefit from seeing your ads appear for services they might be interested while in your city.

Remember when building pay per click campaigns be smart about your local advertising. Should you ever need assistance seek a professional who is well versed in local search and paid search advertising.

Google Pulls The Plug On Yahoo Advertising Deal

2008-11-05T11:48:00.001-05:00

After vowing repeatedly to go through with its search advertising deal with Yahoo no matter what the Justice Department does, Google reversed course today and pulled the plug on the deal.All I can say is WHEW! Not sure this was a good thing anyway!

read more | digg story

Google Tweaks AdWords To Reward “Quality” (And Juice Revenue)

2008-10-31T12:47:00.002-04:00

Google is ready to make some more changes to way they are currently ranking Adwords ads. What does this mean for advertisers? It means you really need to be sure your keywords in ad groups are very relevant, along with your ads and landing pages. We know that is important but now it is crucial that you ensure your keywords are grouped together as tightly as possible so that your ads become that much more relevant!

read more | digg story

Marketing Through Tough Economic Times

2008-10-22T10:42:00.005-04:00

Typically the first reaction to a market trending downward is to cut marketing spend. In these tough economic times savvy brand, and search marketers alike are seeing this time as an advantageous opportunity. Well how can THAT be, you ask!?

When things get quiet in the world of our competitors opportunities may present themselves in a way you have not thought about. Think about it, if you are considering cutting back on marketing spend what do you think your competitor is thinking, potentially the same thing, right? Therefore, continuing your marketing efforts as you were, or even increasing your spend, to gain more exposure can open a door of opportunity to increased brand awareness and higher profits in the end when all is said and done. As a business owner you just need to be wise in how you spend those marketing dollars. Tune into your customer base and present a message that will stick as well as make sense in these tough economic times.

Now you might ask yourself, well what do you mean by “stick” or “make sense”? If you are running a Paid Search Campaign in Google, Yahoo! or MSN, now is the time to be creative and test new ad copy that could have a positive affect on your traffic and overall sales. Change your call to action to something like, “Shop Online Now” vs. “Buy Now,” if you are running a special promotion try, “Save Now,” instead of “Shop Now.” Get it? You can also call more attention to your products or services by stating they are more “efficient” or “provide a better value.” These slight variations can really hit home with what consumers “want” to hear instead of what you want to tell them.

The bottom line is to be innovative, don’t be afraid to try new things, stand strong through tough times. Tailoring your message to consumers can really grab their attention and make a difference in your success. This is the time to be more visible, and emerge with a stronger brand when things get back to normal. Spending money wisely is the key, and focusing more on your consumers needs is crucial. But please be careful when you begin to ask untrained employees to make critical decisions for your business just to save a buck. Be smart, yes these are tough economic times but that does not mean you need to lose sight of your business goals. Plan ahead with thoughts to replace companies that probably won’t survive this economy, this should make your pain a bit more manageable don’t you think?

The 10 Truths Every CMO Should Know About Search Marketing

2008-10-14T10:40:00.005-04:00

Last week I attended Search Engine Land’s SMX East show in New York City. What a great time of year to be in New York. My first day there I attended a couple of seminars, day one was not the best for me, but the one that really stood out to me was The 10 Truths Every CMO Must Know About Search Marketing.....

What amazed me about this track was how trivial it was...if you are a CMO, Chief Marketing Officer, I would think you should already know what those 10 truths are.

1 - SEO is an ongoing process – as an executive in a company please don’t ask for miracles, you cannot just optimize your meta tags and think everything is “A OK,” now where are our rankings!!!???
2- The #1 position is not always everything and sometimes not even possible--- NO KIDDING!!! Multiple positions can and should be a blessing...
3 - The long tail is your friend --- if you are a CMO and do not know what the long tail is and that it can bring in extremely qualified traffic then maybe you should not be a CMO! Sorry just my opinion.
4 - Both paid and natural search are equally important. Ask yourself, do you want to increase brand awareness??? Well being seen more often will allow that and then some....
5 - Customers -- hear “their" language not "yours" -- yes by golly darn you betcha -- you should be speaking to your customers telling them what you they WANT to hear not what YOU want to say!!

**SIGH** half way through what a CMO should already know!!

6 - Web pages are not the ONLY assests you need to optimize -- come on folks there are Press Releases, blogs, articles so much MORE than just the web pages which should be optimized and even bidded on at times in paid search arenas.
7 - Integration is a must! -- if you are NOT sending the same message in print, that you are on the web there is a serious issue, get it together!
8 - Tools simplify everything -- well I was hoping to get some golden nugget from this statement, and well I didn't, yes tools simplify everything and yes you should be using them to make your life easier, but is there a new one, a better one????? I didn't get anything from this one other than if you are able to utilize tools to make your life easier and it does not have a negative affect on your consumer then good for you ... I already knew that – **SIGH**
9 - Bid on brand terms - if you are not doing this you are completely missing the boat ....enough said..

FINALLY – Number 10!!!

10 - Set goals -- ya think??? All CMO’s should know that goals need to be set, but you need to understand what you are trying to accomplish before you set those goals, be clear, and don’t be unrealistic, please!

Someone told me there were 11 things a CMO should know but I didn't buy it, this pretty much covers it unless someone else can think of something I might have missed. If so, please do chime in!!!

Google Says, Don't Rewrite Dynamic URLs To Static URLs

2008-09-23T11:01:00.002-04:00

Google says that it's better to leave the dynamic urls as they are, than to rewrite them to look static, So now Google says do not rewrite dynamic URLs, they can crawl them just fine?? Well I tend to think that it would be easier to index, as well as being more user friendly, like this:

whereever.com/camping/tents/accessories
VS.
whereever.com?product_cat=camping&sub_cat=tents&sub_sub_cat=supplies

Who knows maybe this is a good thing for all those who do not know much about this, it will keep them from doing it incorrectly and could save a lot of headache. I am anxious to hear more about this at SMX-East!

read more | digg story

Google Releases Keyword Search Numbers

2008-07-14T20:43:00.004-04:00

Keywords. It is always the hot subject of every online marketing campaign. How do I find them? What is the best tool to use? Can you tell me how many people search for this phrase or that phrase! There was a time when Yahoo offered up tons of information with their keyword selector tool. But alas that tool is old and not updated. Sure there are others out there, like SeoBook keyword suggestion tool, keyword discovery, wordtracker and even SpyFu although it does not really provide search volume data it does provide some very useful keyword information and I was quite upset when they started to charge a membership fee for their keyword data services.

So what is the hype about Keyword Data? Well I was happy to hear that Google FINALLY released keyword search data after years and years and years of advertisers waiting for the information we have wanted to know for so long. Is it good information? Of course! Do I think it is accurate? I am sure it is somewhat accurate, but Google has been so evasive when it comes to releasing data that will "really" help online marketers, but it is helpful and also a great gauge for keyword research. So, now if you need to determine how many searches were done per month for a specific keyword on the Google Search Engine, have at it, the new and improved Google Keyword Tool will give you that data and all I can say is it’s about time!!!

Brand new Google Reader for iPhone

2008-05-21T09:15:00.005-04:00

As if the Google Reader on the IPhone wasnt already awesome they just made that much better.

read more | digg story

Internet Marketing Tools - Assisting Small Business Owners

2008-04-27T14:49:00.004-04:00

These days it seems that everyone claims to be some sort of Internet expert. I have quite a few years of experience and have been lucky enough to work with and be mentored by some pretty talented folks. However, I am always learning more and I try to stay abreast of as much as I can with regard to Internet search and search marketing in general. With my own busy schedule I know how hard it is for me, based on that, I know it must be even harder for small and mid-sized business owners who are at a loss for information I may be privy to, just simply because they are caught up in everyday life of managing their business while I am immersed in finding the next best solution as an Internet Marketing Executive. I am always looking to help business owners with their Internet strategies, so I thought it would be fitting to offer some easy to use tools that will assist business owners as they try to wrap their heads around the idea of marketing their website online with little or no help.

Check for Rankings:

SEO Digger -Just plug in your URL and see what turns up.

Google Webmaster Tools - Gain insight into rankings, keywords, indexed pages (how many pages of your site are in the search engine database) and much more.

Research Keywords:

WordTracker’s Free Keyword Tool

Google Free Keyword Tool

Keyword Spy -Check out information related to your competitors and find out what keywords are important to them.

Sitemaps

XML Sitemap Generator - When you create an XML Sitemap,this file resides in the root directory of your website. It helps to inform the search engines of the pages within your website. This tool can also assist you with creating an HTML sitemap which should reside on your website as a content page, it serves as a table of contents for your visitors and search engines as well.

Links are the backbone of the web

Free Backlink Checker -This tool will not only tell you how many web pages link back to you, but it also shows you the detail so you can visit the page. You can also use this tool to research links for your competitors.

Xenu’s Broken Link Checker - This requires you to download the software, but provides a very easy to read report.

Bad Neighborhood Links - Looks for sites you are linking to and find sites that are linking to you. Remember that you can never control who links to you but you can make sure you are aware of who you link to.

These are just a few helpful tools to start you on your way. Ensuring your website is visible online can ultimately be the turning point for the success, or lack of success, for your online business. Be sure you have educated yourself thoroughly regarding what it takes to gain more exposure online. If you decide that it is too overwhelming and you would rather talk with someone who has the experience to assist you, research and find the right person who understands your individual needs as it relates to your business’ Internet marketing strategies.

Good Luck!

ComScore Releases U.S. Share of Searches

2008-04-16T15:15:00.005-04:00

ComScore has released its U.S. share of searches for March 2008. Google Sites extended its share of core searches to 59.8 percent, up from 59.2 percent the previous month. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 21.3 percent - no surprise there, followed by Microsoft Sites 9.4%, AOL LLC 4.8%, and the Ask Network 4.7%.

What does all this mean? Well it is pretty obvious that Google owns the majority of the market as it relates to search traffic so it is important to ensure that your Internet Strategies are in place with regard to your website. You not only need to penetrate Google search results but you cannot loose site of those prospective clients who are lurking in Yahoo!, MSN(Live.com), AOL and Ask!

Small Business Owners - Trust Your SEO Professional

2008-04-14T12:46:00.005-04:00

Small businesses are always challenged by finding the right folks to help them improve their search engine visibility. Most small business are starting off with limited capital and therefore are challenged by the price tag that comes along with either hiring an SEO professional or outsourcing a reputable SEO professional who can assist them. What often happens is they end up finding someone who will “cut them a deal” and sometimes you get what you pay for. So what is a small business supposed to do? If you are a small business owner you need to get educated. Try reading some blogs from places like, search engine land to get up to speed, or sign up for Mediapost to read articles related to building an internet strategy. But most of all if you hire a consultant make sure they have not told you any of the following will help to increase your ranking in the search engines.

Here are a few SEO “I Don’t Think So’s”:

You Must Submit Your URL to Google, Yahoo!, and MSN On a Monthly Basis
While that might have been the case many years ago it is definitely not the case now. Once you register your domain name these search engines will find you. So don’t let someone tell you that you need to submit to over 5,000 search engines and directories just stop right there and say, No Thank You!

Organic Rankings Are Affected by Pay Per Click Campaigns with Google Adwords
This one always makes me laugh, but quite honestly there are many people out there who actually believe that if they run a pay per click campaign with Adwords they will get organic benefits from it, and believe it or not I actually spoke with someone who even thought that when they stopped running their pay per click campaigns with Google that their natural search results would disappear. Now come on, this is just simply not true. Paid search campaigns are an absolute benefit for many types of businesses, it helps to expand your exposure online and increases the chances of getting that prospect to your website where you can convince them to become a customer, but in no way will a paid search campaign positively or negatively influence your organic positioning.

Update Your Website’s Content Regularly to Gain Higher Rankings
While I am not against updating website content/copy and keeping it fresh this does not mean you need to go in every month and add a word or two, it simply is not going to affect your overall ranking the search engines. The only time you should update your content is when you have something of value to add that not only your potential customers will benefit from but also the search engines. Think about becoming a resource to your customers and a source of relevant information for the search engines to index and you will find that the spiders will crawl your site more often, but still no guarantee here on higher ranking.

Google Will Ban My Website if I Buy Paid Links!
You know this one is the worst, in my opinion. Not only is it not true but I am quite annoyed by this comment. Part of building a good solid online strategy may include at times purchasing paid link to increase traffic flow to your website. Google will not “ban” your site, if they feel the links are not relevant to your website’s content they may “discount” those links but they certainly will not “ban” your website, that’s just silly. Now I will say that when purchasing links one should absolutely be cautious of those strategies and ensure they will benefit your website’s overall website traffic. You will also need to be sure the site linking to you provides relevant information related to what your website offers, and finally try to stay away from those sites that are obviously adding tons of outbound links from their website. Just be smart about it and stop worrying everything will be ok.

Now I can probably go on forever here but I won’t. Here are a couple more thoughts:

Use of the Meta Keywords Tag for Higher Ranking
Do you need it? Well some might yes, and some might say no. Google does not really pay attention to it but it does not hurt you to have it, as long as you do not over do it. Keep it to about 5-7 relevant keywords and leave it alone.

Adding a Google XML Sitemap for Higher Ranking
The idea of adding the good ole Google XML site map is to let Google know about pages within your site that it may not have recognized already. Go ahead and create it you can easily do so by using a tool like XML Site Maps, and make sure you do not forget to add to Google's Webmaster Tools. While you are at it you can also submit it to Yahoo! Site Explorer and check out the Live.com Webmaster Tools as well - although the Live.com one is still in beta but worth a shot.

To wrap things up let me just quickly remind you not to use submission tools, and never believe an SEO “professional” who tells you they will guarantee you top listings in Google because to be real honest NO ONE can, how could they, even their top Web Spam Strategist Matt Cutts says you can never guarantee a #1 position in Google.

There are many consultants out there and some are willing to train you instead of tell you what they think you need to do. If you decide to hire an Internet Marketing Executive who can help with your internet strategies try to choose one that will not only be honest but one who is willing to share their strategies that will help you succeed online.

Google Health To Lauch Soon

2008-03-07T10:33:00.003-05:00

Google to Offer Health Records on the Web? What is next for search engine giant?

Yes, it's true, a company known for broadcasting information through its search engine has launched a new Web service called Google Health. Currently in its initial rollout phase, the service will store patients' personal health data and medical records and be viewed online by doctors and other medical personnel.

Read more about the implications this new Google project can have on your personal health information, from experts in the Health Insurance industry.

digg story

Website Grader Gives Out Free SEO Tips

2008-02-05T14:16:00.001-05:00

Every once in a while I come across a good tool that catches my eye. Well this particular tool is a Website Grader essentially. It will ask you a few questions and spider your site to access some key information related to how the site has been optimized for search engines and spits out a report fairly quickly to review. You will even get a competitive analysis! This is a great way to initiate any SEO project to get preliminary data on a website. The only thing it did not pick up was my blog which is odd because my blog has been up longer than Marketing is Essential.

Try it out, just type in your Website address, and watch it spit out a report detailing what you can do to boost your site’s SEO juice. Pay attention to your grade as you adjust your website to meet your goals this report should be updating your initial grade!!

Good luck!

read more digg story

Catchy Linkbait Is Worthless Without Really Good Content

2008-01-22T19:31:00.001-05:00

Recently I read an article that came from Search Engine Land regarding LinkBait. What is linkbait? The best definition I could find on linkbaiting was written in a blog by a man named Stuart Brown -- ahhh the love of blogs ** sigh ** Linkbaiting is essentially a piece of content placed on a web page - whether it's an article, blog post, picture, or any other section of cyberspace - that is designed for the specific intention of gathering links from as many different sources as possible. Does it work? It can if it is done the right way but it should not be considered as a sole source of long term traffic. Check out this post from Digg which basically says the best way to handle Linkbait is with really good quality content. Getting to the top spot on Social Network's doesn't mean you will automatically get the inbound links you really want....

read more digg story

Vocus and Hostway Corporation Announce New SEO

2008-01-15T20:08:00.001-05:00

Vocus, Inc (NASDAQ: VOCS), a leading provider of on-demand software for public relations management, and Hostway Corporation, the global hosting and web services leader, announced today that they will enable Hostway's customers to distribute press releases via Vocus' PRWeb.

For those of you that don't know Vocus acquired PRWeb in August of 2006. The acquisition of PRWeb positions Vocus as a very large player in the world of online Public Relations. The partnership between PRWeb/Vocus and Hostway is an interesting one and has been long awaited, as it was heavily pursued by the FORMER EXECUTIVE TEAM of Affinity Internet, mainly by William Toll previous Director of Product Management, PRIOR to the acquisition of Affinity Internet by Hostway in April 2007.

I am glad to see that my previous employer was finally able to make this partnership work. Their clients will be pleasantly surprised by how well this can work for their search engine optimization efforts. It's too bad that the Press Release they created to announce the program was not optimized as well as it could have been for keywords that should have linked to their SEO Services, such as, SEO, Search Engine Optimization Services or SEO Consulting, just my opinion.

Check out the story anyway it was a good read and the service is definitely one that everyone should incorporate in their strategic internet initiatives.

read more digg story

Favorite Pay Per Click (PPC) Blogs

2008-01-07T20:33:00.001-05:00

Recently I came across an article regarding, Top Blogs Focusing on PPC (pay-per-click, or paid search advertising) for Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, etc. I felt compelled to share this information that I learned from Clix Marketing. The list is pretty extensive, if you feel the urge to add to this list please feel free to do so.

Sneak Peak:

PPC Lab
PPC Super Affiliate
PPC Think
RedFly Marketing
SEM Geek
The AdWords Addict
The PPC Book

read more digg story

U.S. Album Sales Fell 9.5% in 2007 - Online sales up 45%

2008-01-04T15:34:00.001-05:00

Album sales in the United States plunged 9.5 percent last year from 2006, as the recording industry had another weak year despite a 45 percent surge in the sale of digital tracks, according to figures released Thursday.

This is a sign...as online sales continue to climb large and small businesses alike have to remember to think of the future and their Online Marketing Strategies.

read more | digg story

Whopper Freakout Commercial VIDEO

2008-01-04T15:22:00.001-05:00

What would you do if you entered your favorite local Burger King all set to order your favorite Whopper meal and the employee behind the counter said, “I’m sorry but we no longer serve Whopper’s. Burger King’s marketing group staged the publicity stunt in order to capture the reaction of their customers.

read more | digg story

Blogging is a Powerful Online Marketing Tool

2008-01-03T09:42:00.000-05:00

Recently I posted a blog about how my daughter and I were having problems accessing her favorite website “webkinz”. Their website was having some serious issues with uptime and the volume of traffic was extremely high on Christmas Day so virtually nobody was able to login and adopt their pets.

In my total frustration I posted a blog about our webkinz problems. Low and behold there were many others who were feeling the exact same way we did. To my surprise my blog popped up in the SERPS (search engine results pages) the same day I had posted it and the traffic to my blog soared. Although I did not realize it until almost 5 days later when went back to check my traffic stats.

Knowing this it seems like a no brainer to continue to blog in this fashion attempting to drive more and more traffic to my blog which can hopefully find its way back to my website. The point I am trying to make is blogging has been said to be a very powerful and FREE Online Marketing Tool that many small business owners are not wrapping their hands around just yet and they seriously need to. So don’t wait any longer, start a blog today.

Whopper Freakout is Brilliant Branding Offline and Online

2008-01-02T22:21:00.000-05:00

The last month or so I have been seeing the commercial about Whopper Freakout, and I have to say those commercials crack me up. They took me back to those candid camera days, are you old enough to remember those? Allen Funt hosted the shows and basically pulled pranks on everyday people. What a great concept.

Well with Burger King they were out to make a point, that the Whopper is King – America’s favorite burger! So what would happen if they just removed it from their menu, well the commercials show snippets of actual events that took place real emotions from customers. One person even said “So what are you going to put on the logo now? Home of the, whatever we got?” They even showed two guys who looked like they were straight out of the 70’s saying, “Burger King without the Whopper? You may as well call it Burger Clean!” They even brought in the King to break the good news to their customers, that is was just a joke. All I can say is this is brilliant branding once again by Burger King’s marketing team.

Burger King has brought out some of the most interesting online marketing ideas such as the subservient chicken, simpsonizeme, and now the Whopper Freakout. If you have not gone to their website to check out all of the footage do so soon because it is funny and well worth the 7 minutes.

What Happens at PubCon Shouldn't Stay at PubCon

2007-12-25T22:06:00.000-05:00

Over a year ago (August 2006 to be exact) I hired a young girl from a Craig's List ad to join my staff at Hostway as an Online Marketing Analyst. She was straight out of college and green with experience related to the search industry. Well recently I received a blog that she wrote for the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association titled, "What Happens at PubCon…shouldn’t stay at PubCon: The Top 10 Takeaways " She was invited to go to one of the most popular conferences of the year PubCon. I should have been there this year and actually speak on a Pubcon panel but I decided to move my family to a new state for a new and exciting opportunity.

Back to the subject, Stephanie Faskow is her name and she wrote a blog about what happened at PubCon, while I wanted more and hope to soon hear from her all about it in more detail, I thought I would share with you her Top 1o PubCon Takeaways:

10. Some SEOs still use black hat techniques– you shouldn’t.

9. Sub domains will soon be treated the same as sub directories in Google.

8. A directory that provides listings to all websites that submit to the directory is not a one that you want to be in. Human editors are the key to a good directory.

7. Everyone should have a blog. Corporate or personal, just remember that there is a fine line with transparency. How much do you really want people to know about your personal life?

6. According to Webuildpages’ Jim Boyken the best way to gain entry into DMOZ is prayer…and to closely follow all of the guidelines provided. Don’t spam and use the real title of your website.

5. Do NOT buy links – at least not openly.The ultimate goal of the search engines is to have the results be (or at least look) natural.

4. Find small and relevant directories: they may not bring the most traffic, but they are more likely to convert.

3. The ‘No follow’ tag is one of your best friends.Especially when you are using paid advertising, or feel that one of your links may be connected to a bad neighborhood.

2. Linkbait: Create it. This was one subject that was discussed over and over again throughout many of the sessions. Create articles and contests (or top 10 lists): any sort of content that will attract other users to link to you.

1. Do not expect to be successful on all link bait attempts. If you fail, try try again.
Hint: Diggers are techies; write for them and your target audience.

Well if she passes me more information about this event I will certainly return the favor! Thanks Stephanie you make me proud! :)

Webkinz Problems - Holiday Craze Gone Bust?

2007-12-25T21:29:00.000-05:00

I read recently an article that indicated Webkinz was in the top ten of keywords being search on search engines in the last 30 to 60 days. Why you ask? Well Webkinz is the newest young craze these days and the people behind Webkinz is a company called Ganz. What is Webkinz you ask? Well it is a safe virtual world for young children from the ages of about 6 and up. Essentially this company has done a great job marketing to our younger generation, everyone who is anyone wants to purchase a Webkinz which comes with a unique “secret code” in which you can access their website in order for you to “take care of” your newly adopted pet.

Well it is Christmas Day and of course I bought my 9 year old daughter two of these so called Webkinz, the Webkinz Pinto Horse and a Webkinz limited edition Reindeer! Her face just lit up finding those under the Christmas Tree. With all the excitement in her little body she ran upstairs to log on to Webkinz world – mind you she had lost a previous “secret code” to another one of her pets and thought she would NEVER get in again – she gets the site up and proceeds to sign up her new pet and all she got was “I’m sorry all servers are busy right now,” fast forward and try to actually log in and she got “500 Internet Server Error”. WHAT??? Are you kidding me????

My kid is now devastated – Webkinz did an excellent job letting all these children know that they would have some “special” offerings on Christmas Day and now you cannot even get in to the site? Did they not plan for all this traffic? They sure marketed it well enough to boost their sales in the stores. So what do I now tell my 9 year who has tried ALL DAY to simply register her pet and get online with the most popular virtual world for kids under 12? Sorry honey their servers cannot support the overwhelming amount of traffic to their website and maybe their server administrators are all on holiday, try again tomorrow when ALL OF THEIR PROMOS are over and done with!

OMG did they not think about this? I guess not, we are very disappointed in how Ganz and the people at Webkinz world have handled the planning of this Christmas rush, they sure had no problem pushing their toys but they obviously could not support the website well enough so the children could enjoy their toys and that is just sad. The fun of having the pet is taking care of it online not that it sits on your dresser to collect dust! To make matters even worse there is no forum or blog of record to even be able to discuss the problems directly with their staff.

This really is good marketing gone BAD!!! Thumbs down for Webkinz and Ganz! I told my daughter to go back to Club Penguin at least they can support the traffic!!

SEO Do's and Don't's

2007-12-08T20:08:00.000-05:00

I often get caught up in the every day grind that I sometimes forget most small businesses are still doing things they should not be doing to get their site noticed online. It seems that more and more people every day continue to build websites and hope for their site to begin appearing in the search results. Getting traffic to your website once it is built takes time and patience. Many search engines use tiny programs, called spiders, which crawl the Internet in search of new web pages; as such your site appearing does not happen by chance. There is actually a method related to how you get your site noticed by search engines spiders.

I came across a list the other day of “Thou Shalt Not’s” related to optimizing your website. Let’s review them, understand them and follow them for it could be your future rankings at stake:

Thou Shalt not repeat keywords over and over in the meta tags
Thou Shalt not use the same title and meta description for each page of your site
Thou Shalt not link out to a bad neighbor or neighborhood
Thou Shalt not copy they neighbor’s content
Thou Shalt not hide your content
Thou Shalt not make doorway pages
Thou Shalt not submit the same pages with different URLs
Thou Shalt not use submission services/tools for repetitive submissions
Thou Shalt not use frames
Thou Shalt not believe people when they say, “we guarantee top ten listings”
Thou Shalt not expect to find your brand new site in search engines after launching it just 2 days ago

What things can you do?

Do the necessary research to find the best keyword phrases that relate to your business avoid general terms
Use unique titles and meta descriptions for each page within your site
Create unique content that will entice your visitors to continue visiting your site
Ensure there is logical navigation, good site structure and descriptive link text throughout your site
Make sure your site is crawlable, stay away from all flash or all graphic sites that search engines can’t or won’t crawl
Keep in mind there should only be one address to get to your site, two separate addresses can be www.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com, to a search engine, that means you have the same content at two addresses in other words – duplicate content.

There are definitely more than what you see here, but you get the hint. The bottom line is do what is right there really are no quick fixes that give you long lasting results when it comes to optimizing your site. Google has quality guidelines take the time to read through them and you will reap the benefits of streamlined free traffic to your site.

The above list was taken from a variety of sources such as Webmaster World’s forum, Search Engine Land, WebPro News, and SEO Chat.

Do Search Engines Have Your Best Interest at Heart?

2007-11-18T21:27:00.000-05:00

A question was recently presented to me about how marketers may have had search engines pitch to run online marketing campaigns directly instead of working with an Online Marketing Agency. I haven't had this problem prevalently, but I have learned by other search marketers that this does go on. Turn over your campaign to the engine directly? Are you kidding?

Well I have to say that there may be instances where this happens especially since I know it has been brought to my attention recently. Search Engines, in my opinion, are probably not the best to manage a client's campaign as they are all about the almighty dollar - if they can help a client spend more money with their engine the better off they are and we as marketers we cannot deny that this is taking place.

I would say that a search engine has much more to gain by your advertising with them as they stand to gain increased revenue. But can they ever really "assist" you with your campaign? They can leave you no trust for those who really know how to manage an online campaign. While they can attempt to "educate" clients as to best practices with regard to their campaigns it seems at times that they are educating clients to spend more money with them so the engine can come out ahead. I could be wrong but it seems that way at times.

I encountered an event directly with a prospect of mine who wanted to stick it out with Google because they felt that Google reps were giving them enough information to assist in the management of a campaign. To be honest, based on the way this campaign was developed I can honestly say it was not in their best interest. I have also been on the forefront of reaching out to Google teams for help and have received very vague answers.

In my opinion, it makes sense to work with those who do understand the ins and outs of Search Engine Marketing because more times than not they will have your best interest at heart since they stand to make more if they show you results in the end.

Invest in an Online Marketing Agency or Not

2007-11-18T20:48:00.000-05:00

You have JUST started an online business and you are now learning the ropes, what do you do? You are looking for someone to help you increase your visibility online and several people have approached you advising they can help. What do you do?

Research – Due diligence. Make sure you as a business owner have done the necessary research and due diligence related to the person/company you plan to do business with.

Most small business owners will start off doing their own online marketing with little to no experience, and they quite often get sucked into programs that insinuate they can assist with “more” traffic. Be wary, any company that asks you to “order now” or “sign up today” “Get top listings in 24 hours”, is more than likely just trying to take your hard earned dollars without benefit to you.

Take the time to review the website of the online marketing consultant, learn about what they have to offer, and speak to them about the benefit of consulting with them. Will they educate you in Online Marketing? Will they keep you in the dark regarding your Online Strategy? What will they really offer with regard to Online effort?

Most small business owners do not have the capital to work with the top Search Firms in the industry but that does not mean that they cannot do what is right, and research to find out which companies that are willing to educate them so they can not only understand the business but possibly start their own online marketing campaigns with the help of an agency.

Think about it.

Are Virtual Worlds crossing the Marketing Line?

2007-10-12T22:48:00.000-04:00

It’s funny, about one year ago I heard about Second Life. I thought to myself what the heck is Second Life? I don’t understand. Well basically Second Life is a virtual world where you can create a different life or alter ego with an avatar. Second life is SIMS gone wild; it is a 3-D world where you can create your own alter ego and invent your own experiences. Currently the site entertains over 9,114,494 residents. As a resident you can buy and sell items, meet new people and essentially create a life all your own to be shared with many people you do not event know.

Since the development of Second Life many advertisers have made appearances in this virtual world, such as Coca-Cola , Sony BMG Music Entertainment , Sun Microsystems, Nissan, Toyota, Starwood Hotels and Intercontinental Hotels.

New to the lineup on the Second Life kick is CBS. Yes I said CBS. The show CSI is making a debut on Second Life. Here is the snippet:

The episode of CSI is scheduled for Oct. 24, Taylor, played by Gary Sinise , finds himself entering the computer-based virtual world known as Second Life, walking (and sometimes flying) around three-dimensional, animated Manhattan landmarks, recreated by a technique called machinima, and pursuing not a suspect but an avatar.

CSI and Second Life? All I can say is -- WHAT?? You cannot be serious!! TV is switching over to interactive marketing in a scary way. I know I am going to be watching that episode if anything just to see how they cross television with the idea of social media. Can it get any crazier?

Holiday Online Advertisting – Are You Ready or Is It Too Late?

2007-09-27T20:11:00.000-04:00

It is the end of September and there are only approximately 88 days left to shop for Christmas – depending on when you read this of course – but for the sake of my blog I am sticking to 88 days based on the day I have written this.

Halloween is around the corner and following that will be Thanksgiving, then Black Friday followed by Cyber Monday is your site ready for the season? If not you are losing out on prime time! Get yourself in gear and get your advertising campaigns fully functional. Kick start your marketing efforts with a Pay per click advertising campaign. There is no better time than the present to focus on a strategy that targets holiday shoppers then right now. If you wait any longer you are seriously going to miss the season completely.

Google AdWords has made advertising fairly easy for first time online marketers. They give you two options for an account, a Starter Edition or a Standard Edition. If you really want to make the most of your online efforts you really should just go for the standard edition this way you can create it and optimize it effectively. All you really need to do is go to Google AdWords register for an account, create your ads that are relevant to your business and choose your keywords with the Google Keyword Tool and you are off and running.

Here are some stats for you if you are not a believer, according to comScore, online consumer spending grew 26 percent in 2006 to $24.4 billion. More than 80 percent of consumers did at least some shopping online (BizRate and Shop.org Holiday Mood Study 2006), and 50 percent of shoppers bought more stuff online in 2006 than 2005 (NielsenNetRatings research). I would say those are some telling numbers.

Here are some tips for you:

1. Focus on the Holidays and create campaigns that geared toward those shoppers by creating titles that are specific to holiday shoppers. Choose keywords such as “Christmas Gift Ideas” or “Creative Christmas Gifts”.

2. Create an offer that will be enticing for this time of year with discounts on shipping if possible. I do all of my Christmas shopping online for my daughter, who is 9, so I don’t have to deal with the nightmare at Toys R Us, which is by the way instant headaches for me – and if I can order the same thing online that I can get in the store without paying shipping then I am in!

3. Make sure that your landing pages are also relevant to your keywords. Nothing is worse than offering a promotion for an item and when you click to the website you cannot validate that the offer is real. Please do not make me search around your site to find the offer that was presented in the ad, because if I don’t see it on the first page you bring me to then I will be gone. You can lose a visitor that quickly! Make sure your promotions are visible within the first click.

There is still time to jump on board but don’t wait too long because before you know it Thanksgiving will come and go, and the next thing you know you will have a champagne glass in your hand wishing people you don’t know a Happy New Year!!

Looking to Get More Traffic Naturally? There is More to SEO...

2007-09-26T21:00:00.000-04:00

There is big hype on how to gain more exposure on the search engines. Many small businesses think they just need to “optimize” their website. What exactly does it mean to optimize your website anyway? There are many company’s who will tell you that there are specific things that need to be done to your site to make sure the site is able to be crawled by search engines, and if you are lucky maybe they will talk to you about linking, accessing links to your site from other sites that are relevant, and then it stops there. There is more to optimizing your site than titles, descriptions, and directory links.

As a small business owner what else can you do that won’t break the bank?

1 – User Generated Content – let me explain what this is. Simply stated, it is available content that users are generating on social media sites across the web such as MySpace.com, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, and even Yahoo! Answers just to name a few. These sites allow you to create profiles and add valuable content to them which could be highly relevant to your business. It also allows for huge opportunities to increase traffic to your website which at the end of the day that is what you want to see.

2 – Blogs by far are the easiest ways to generate traffic to your site. How you ask? By simply writing and linking which is exactly what the search engines are looking for. The content within blogs gets crawled by search engines and eventually can make its way into the search results chock full of keyword phrases. It is so easy and it can be done for FREE! The only costs that are related to this effort is maybe ten minutes of your time about 2 times a week. If you are not a believer check out Blogger.com and get your blog started today!

3 – Articles and Press Releases – are also an easy way to generate traffic to your site. With this method you can actually increase your backlinks (links leading back to your website) naturally as well as give the search engines lots of content to crawl. Your article or press release is highly relevant to your business because it is typically about your business once again chock full of keyword phrases. For this effort check out companies such as PRWeb, Market Wire, and Ezine Articles.

4 – Last but certainly not least, there are Viral efforts. Have you checked out YouTube lately? If you don’t have a lot of money to spend on viral efforts my suggestion would be make a video and post it. It is easy and effective. You can also submit it to Google Video and don’t forget to optimize your title and description for this video with links leading back to your website. Imagine that! You can do it for such a low cost and actually get a stream of traffic absolutely free.

Remember having your own business is great but don’t forget that in order for your business to succeed you need to be visible and market your site the right way as well as the smart way.

Girl Power Gone Wild

2007-09-06T22:35:00.000-04:00

Today I received an interesting email from a friend who wanted me to read an article about a 17 year old entrepreneur. The article referenced at length about how this teenager is truly an Internet Marketing Professional. All I could do was be in awe over what she has created. ValueClick's Director of Media Development has said, "She knows so much about what her site does, more than people three times her age."

This actually struck a chord with me because there are so many website owners who do not know enough about their own sites to make educated decisions about their businesses and here is this 17 year old running the show and became the breadwinner in her household and all because she is targeting young teenage age girls to get free --- YES FREE --- myspace layouts for their myspace pages.

How did she do it? Well through advertising of course, most of her revenue comes from…… can you guess? Google Adsense! Imagine that. While she is starting to work on other ventures to generate more revenue at the end of the day her whole premise has been to service female teenage web users who want “cute graphics” or “hot layouts” for their myspace pages from her website whateverlife.com.

Ashley is by far the youngest Internet Marketing Professional I have read about and hats off to her for gaining exposure in the search engines that land her first page placement on Google for terms such as “cute layout myspace” or “cute web site backgrounds” certainly keywords that I would not think to search on as an adult. She is by far more in touch with her target market than most people I speak with on a regular basis and this includes those who I work directly with and that my friends, is really sad.

For more about Ashley and her site Whateverlife.com read the article listed in Fast Company.

I wish Ashley continued success!!

Pay Per Click or Search Engine Optimization? That Is The Question!

2007-08-22T21:24:00.000-04:00

Since I work so closely with businesses that are just getting started online I come across this question quite often. Do I start a pay per click campaign or is search engine optimization the way to go? Often I respond with a very quick, “You need to do both!” I feel very strongly about ensuring a website is getting as much exposure as possible. Many years ago it was fairly easy to get strong positioning in the search engines – mainly Google. This has changed significantly and as a result new businesses find themselves struggling to get traffic if they do not plan effectively. Understanding the differences for both efforts is crucial so let’s go over some very specific details first:

What is Search Engine Optimization?

By definition search engine optimization is a process of overseeing a website to ensure its ability to attract traffic naturally by achieving strong positioning in the major search engines for specific keyword phrases that are related to your business.

Read more about what search engine optimization is by visiting sites like Search Engine Watch.

What is Pay Per Click Advertising?

By definition pay per click advertising is a marketing effort that enables a website to bid on keyword phrases related to one’s business which can appear in the search results pages of major search engines. Visitors can find your ads online with ease, once they click on your ad you pay for that click. The cost is based on the competitiveness of the keyword associated with others who are also bidding on the same terms.

Want to start your own pay per click campaign, it is easy to do with Google Adwords.

Now back to the question of whether or not to do one vs. the other. Natural traffic is free, while pay per click is paid traffic. All in all traffic is traffic and the more exposure you can achieve especially during the early phases of getting noticed in the search engines the better. It is important to have a strong online marketing strategy in place that will help to grow your business. Search engine optimization takes time as you earn your place in the search engines and gain respect and trust from engines such as Google.

While you are waiting to get noticed it makes sense to essentially push your site in front of visitors initially with a pay per click campaign. As your site gains more credibility and positioning improves over time your traffic will increase. If you are also managing a pay per click campaign the traffic increase can be quite extensive in addition to your site’s natural traffic from optimization efforts. It is in your best interest as a business owner to ensure your site is being found and a combined effort of pay per click advertising as well as search engine optimization can assist you with this goal.

As always research before you start an effort such as this, understand your market and what it takes to market your business. Should you decide to consult with experts make sure it is a company that understands the essentials in marketing your business online.

Top Ranking - How Important is it?

2007-08-10T23:21:00.000-04:00

Today I had an experience with a client who was all about wanting top positioning in the search engines. Everyone wants to be number one but it is not always possible and with search engines such as Google making many updates to their search results it is very unlikely that any position will ever remain the same for extended periods of time. That said, one must think of other areas of concentration aside from just position or being above your competitor. More concentration must be paid to increased exposure, traffic and conversion – meaning sales or leads.

Now while I tried to explain this to the client he really did not want to hear it. He wanted guarantees and in this industry everyone knows that companies who give guarantees are typically just trying to take your money. Google has a section on their website which talks specifically of SEO firms to be wary of, visit Google Webmaster Tools for more information on this subject. Back to the client, the funny thing about it is that this particular client was no where to be found online and now he has over 25 top 10 placements and multiple pages indexed. In addition to the fact that his traffic tripled in just 9 months, and that I can say is improvement in one’s search results, numbers just simply do not lie.

The lesson to be learned here is as a new business try not to focus so much on where your competitors are appearing on the search engines and try to focus more on increasing your exposure online by increasing your traffic naturally over time, there are many ways to do this of which I will talk about at a later date. If you are as good as your competitors and your site is offering enough content to support this then eventually your site will climb the ranks as your competitors have (as long as you do not do anything sneaky) it just takes time.

Starting Your Online Business

2007-08-09T20:49:00.000-04:00

I talk to so many people on a regular basis about their websites and what they can do to help themselves gain more exposure online. I tell them its simple, offer more content within your site and eventually it will happen for you, but it certainly will not happen overnight. There are other things that can be done as well but the most important thing to do is pay attention to the content within your site. One of my biggest challenges day in and day out is talking to business owners about expectations. Many people build a website thinking that once the site is launched traffic will come and people will begin to buy their products or services. Remember the saying, “Rome was not built in a day”?

When first getting started, just like with any business, it is important to earn credibility. You can’t just open your doors to the public and expect them to come into your store and buy any more than you can expect a search engine to place you on page one of their results so that traffic will stream to your site right away, that would be silly.

So as a small business owner what do you do? Make a plan and really think about the best way you can present your products and services within your website. Inform your prospects and guide them by creating a content rich website that will not only help them to understand what you offer but will also help the search engines understand who you are.

Take a peek at this article The Keys to Creating a Small Business Website, and get going! There is exposure to be had and revenue to be earned!

Marketing is Essential

2007-08-08T21:21:00.000-04:00

My name is Melissa Cartagena-Ulrich, I am an Internet Marketer who is focused on educating small to mid-sized businesses on how to become successful online. Many people build a website thinking that once the site is launched traffic will come. Remember the saying, “Rome was not built in a day”? This statement could not be truer as new business owners enter the world of e-Business for the first time where expectations and realizations on the internet are very different than that of their own.

Currently I am focused on building and managing an Online Marketing Team with a very large privately owned web services company who consults and manages Pay per click and Search Engine Optimization campaigns for small to mid-sized businesses that are experiencing the challenges of advertising their website online.

My role is interesting because I have the opportunity to speak with many types of entrepreneurial spirits in many different vertical markets. It is rare that I work with just one market for an extended period of time which captivates my attention since it is constantly changing and evolving. Even though there are many types of markets typically the essential principles of marketing remain the same. Any company who takes their business online will find that marketing is essential as it relates to online exposure, and generating leads or sales to any one website.

With this blog I plan to discuss the options, as well as the challenges, associated with starting your own business and how to increase exposure in addition to continuing to drive the right kind of traffic which will ultimately drive the right kind of business a website needs to be successful online.

I hope you enjoy what you read and I hope you learn something new that will help you grow your business online.

Melissa Cartagena-Ulrich
President, Marketing is Essential