In this issue:

From the Editor:

Well, 2010 is almost gone and it's time to plan for success in 2011.

There are now over 7 BILLION web pages on the Internet and everyone's clamoring for the top spots (especially on Google since they're #1).

So what is your SEM (Search Engine Marketing) strategy for the upcoming year? Google has implemented many changes this year which have really hurt many of your rankings if you have not been on top of the latest trends. It's time to come up with an ongoing SEM plan if you rely on business from your website. So read on, I've got some great info for you!

Be sure to check out our Just for Fun or Useful section too. Boy, do I have a great tip for you! If you do a lot of social marketing your going to love Ping.fm.

Here's to your Web success!

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Happy kwanzaa!

- Michelle

“Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.”

"What's your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategy for 2011?"

You may not have heard, but dramatic recent search engine trends could be giving your web page results a serious drop in results. Are you monitoring your SE results? Hmm, well you should be. Your competitors surely are.

It used to be that Internet Marketers could expect Google's algorithm to change maybe once a year. But in 2010, MANY major changes happened!

Many businesses have suddenly seen a slide in their page rankings and traffic as a result of these major developments:

Google Speed: I feel the need for speed says Google. This is what Google said this past April regarding website load times: "As part of that effort, today we're including a new signal in our search ranking algorithms: site speed. Site speed reflects how quickly a website responds to web requests."

Google May Day: If your web pages use "boilerplate" text from manufacturers and others, they're no longer considered quality pages. You need original content to stay in the rankings and attract prospects.

Google Caffeine: This update brings new content into rankings much faster than before. If your competitors frequently use Twitter, blogs and other fresh updates, they may bump your position.

Google Single Site Results: In August 2010, Google reported... "we've launched a change to our ranking algorithm that will make it much easier for users to find a large number of results from a single site." Suddenly your competition can dominate the first 7 search results and bump you down.

Google Places: in October 2010 Google implemented some big changes in their Google Places that really shook a lot of people up.

Competitive SEO (search engine optimization) and Other Updates: Your competition may be getting smarter about SEO and adding fresh or updated content to move up in Google rankings.

The 2 top keys to SE success is inbound links and fresh, original content updated regularly; at least once a month. That's where your blogs and Social Marketing can really help.

Without an ongoing SEO strategy, your Google and other SE rankings are certain to fade, opening the door for competitors to lure away your precious visitors.

Here are just a few of my SEM tips to get you back on track:

Establish a keyword strategy and check your keywords to see if anything has shifted over time. You may discover that your primary keywords are no longer as relevant or competitive as they were when you last researched them.

Build inbound Links. One-way inbound links are crucial to SE rankings. Make sure you post links back to your site on all your Social Marketing and Social Bookmarking.

Google Places. If you have a brick and mortar store, claim your Google Place and optimize it well. That will really help you with Local SEO (search engine optimization)

Video Marketing: Youtube is now the second largest search engine. If your competitors are using video to market their sites, their improved search rankings can bump you down. Simply having videos on your website is not enough. Set up a Youtube account, upload your videos and put link backs to your Website.

Review your sites speed. Is it too loaded down with Flash animation? Videos? etc? Is the site code old and bogged down?

Regularly post original or updated content to reflect what your primary audience is looking for. A useful strategy is to post a new article, press release, special promotion, product page, blog or other content as often as possible. Make sure it's content your audience will appreciate! If you sell products on your site that are also sold elsewhere, make sure your product descriptions are unique from the other sites' descriptions... in time for the upcoming power-shopping season.

Analyze your search results each month, at least for your top "money-pages". You can use your web host traffic logs and/or Google Analytics to find out who's coming to your site via search engines, and which keywords they're using. Also check your web page results when typing certain relevant phrases into Google, Bing, Ask, Yahoo, etc.

Call us to help get you started on SEM strategy!

back to top

Tips and Tricks

Request the Email Address!

No matter what kind of website you run, whether you're an ecommerce retailer or service provider you should be asking for your visitors' email addresses. It's easy to install a great-looking sign-up form using a service like Vertical Response. Their services only cost money when you send an email, and VR has a promotion for 1,000 free emails - click here. So even if you're yet to decide on what to send out, you have no excuse.

Just for Fun or Useful Links

Ping.fm- Update your social networks from ONE PLACE!

Inbound link building is imperitive to increase your website traffic and the easiest way to do that is with with social marketing and blogging.

But keeping up with all your social networking, is well, work! But Ping.fm makes it easy! Ping.fm is a simple and FREE service that makes updating your social networks a snap!

back to top