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By waynekessler, March 18, 2009

Recently, one of my clients asked what I knew about Web 2.0 and whether he needed to upgrade. After a brief laugh- I explained to him that many people think that Web 2.0 is a new version of the World Wide Web; however, it does not refer to an update of any technical specifications, but rather to different ways software developers and end-users now utilize the Web. According to Wikipedia “Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.”
What we are seeing is a change in the way people perceive and use the web from one of retrieving information to one of interactivity, dynamic content, and collective intelligence. I am simplifying my explanation somewhat as the Web 2.0 definition is much more technical and complex and beyond the scope of this blog. The bottom line for users, and especially business owners is that if you want to be competitive-you need to make full use of Web 2.0 technology by regularly utilizing social and business networking sites. There is a growing trend to use Social Networking sites like Linkedin, Twitter, and others to increase communication, better assess and meet customer needs, and ultimately build a more informed, trusting relationship with your existing and prospective customer base.

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By waynekessler, March 13, 2009

What Is Internet Marketing and How Can I Use It To Get More Business?

by Wayne Kessler, Accelerated Business Services

Part 1-SEM and SEO

This question is one of the first questions my clients ask of me when they are considering using the internet to get more business- so I thought I would write a series of articles that speak to this question. I will start this series by writing an article which addresses several concepts that many people have heard about, search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO).

The internet has caused businesses to rethink their marketing strategies because the a growing body of research shows that people are now going online to research pricing and features of products and services before they buy, or choose a product or service. This is not a temporary condition-the internet has changed consumer behavior and is here to stay. Consumers are now more informed, and in many cases have a competitive advantage in negotiating price. Business owners must also use the power of the internet to research competitors, and create an online presence which helps to build product recognition and trust with their current and potential customers.

Since we now know that marketing over the internet makes sense-let’s learn some of the basics of internet marketing. The activity of advertising and marketing goods and services on the internet is commonly referred to as internet marketing. The most common forms of online marketing include search engine marketing or SEM for short, email marketing, blogs, banners, interactive advertising, newsletters, ezines, affiliate advertising, and information articles.

SEM is the overarching category in terms of marketing strategy. It’s goal is to enable the search engines to find you or your company’s information and therefore direct more traffic to your website.

Accordingly, the means by which this is accomplished are through search engine optimization, or SEO for short, pay per click advertising, and through paid listings. SEO allows marketers to improve the search engine rankings or “hits” by optimizing the site map and structure. Optimizing Site structure is usually done by a web developer. One can also optimize their website by adding/revising it to include relevant and highly searched keywords (content). These are not only words, but also phrases that search engines and people use to conduct their search. Research must be conducted on the most search keywords and terms.

SEO can also be achieved through some of the additional, common strategies:

Reciprocal Linking: You can create keyword-oriented links to and from industry-related websites. By agreeing to link to each others site-you can direct traffic towards each other’s web page and both improve your search engine ranking. One example of this is my linking a kitchen renovator with a kitchen tile manufacturer.

Optimized content: If your site information is well organized, has content that is grouped, and minimizes the usage of graphics-it will usually load faster on people’s computers and is believed to be a key factor in SEO.

Strategic usage of misspelled or typo domain names and keywords.  Some studies show that typo or misspelled keywords can result in a 5-25% loss in internet traffic to your site. Hence, through analyzing and making changes-you can expect a corresponding increase in traffic to your site.

Ultimately, if you use the correct set of optimization tools -you will improve your site ranking. However, I do recommend that you build in an objective measure to assess the efficacy of your marketing efforts. By simply adding some of the new “analytics” tools to your website- you can see what is working and what needs to be revised. I believe that in order to stay competitive-just building a website and optimizing it is not enough. Your marketing budget should include on-going support for your online marketing campaign because even though you may have achieved high search engine ranking at one point in time- this does not mean that in one month’s time you will be at the same ranking. By working with a marketing professional on a regular basis you can take the steps necessary to maximize your site ranking and remain competitive.

If you found this article helpful or you have some feedback-your comments are welcome and appreciated-just shoot me an email at calm123@verizon.net or comment on this site.

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