Book your holiday to ad:tech London : 21-22 Sept 2011 I National Hall, Olympia

Whether you've just returned from a relaxing holiday, or packing up your sunscreen and beach towel, now is the time to register for your FREE place at the ad:tech London show. The weather has been beautiful these past few days, which means you're yearning to get out of the office. Here is your chance! Rethink your strategy, gain knowledge on the industry you love, and build your social network.

Join us at the MMA Pavillion for the latest in mobile marketing, or the new Innovation Souk to learn more about the upcoming trends in the industry. We've got eight

Join us at the MMA Pavillion for the latest in mobile marketing, or the new Innovation Souk to learn more about the upcoming trends in the industry. We've got eight seminar theatres to tickle your fancy, and a networking lounge to share your industry knowledge over a pint.

We've got lots of great things in store; have a look below. And don't forget to visit the

We've got lots of great things in store; have a look below. And don't forget to visit the expert pathway to choose seminars and exhibitors you'd like to visit.
See you there!

Why Companies Shouldn’t Rely On Traditional Marketing

Via Webpronews

Frequently, professionals view Internet Marketing as the dark, mysterious tunnel that goes on for miles.

Some see a light at the end of the tunnel while others see no end in sight. Without the perceived "in-your-face" connection, professionals assume they receive with traditional marketing (e.g. TV, Radio, Direct Mail, or Trade Shows), they are hesitant to invest in the Internet. "How will our small company get listed on a search engine that already has millions of results?" "Will our target market even see our pay-per-click advertisements?" "How can our website bring more business into our store?" These questions reflect the views professionals, unfamiliar with the benefits of Internet marketing, have toward this form of promotion.

Target Audience

The number one fear professionals have about Internet marketing is the ability to obtain or gain their target audience online. Unlike traditional marketing, there are no pre-determined prospects that companies can discuss or send their promotional messages to and maintain a sense of security that they are received. Professionals must understand the following Internet trends:

- 95% of purchasing agents use the web to research products and services, B2B Magazine Survey.

- 73% of C-Level executives depend on the Internet to learn about new products or services, Emarketer.

- In general, there are 184-million Internet users in America alone. When purchasing a product or service, 68.3% of Internet users utilize search engines during the consideration or research phase while 42.6% use search engines to make their decision, Enquiro.

The Internet is used to make professional and consumer purchasing decisions by millions of Internet users everyday and there are tools available that have made it easier for these users to narrow their searches in order to find the specific products and services they are looking for. Key Internet features that have made it easier to find particular products and services online include:

- Keyword selection tools enable companies to optimize their website for the specific keyword(s) they believe their target audience will use to find their products and/or services online

- Search engines have sophisticated local and product (i.e. Google Local and Froogle) search options available to gain more controlled results

- Pay-per-click advertisements can be tailored to display within local searches

- E-mail marketing can be used to send targeted e-mail to select customers. There are Internet marketing methods available that enable companies to define and capture their target audiences. Upon establishing a website online, it is important that companies utilize Internet marketing strategies in order to achieve their marketing objectives.

Traditional vs. Internet Marketing

Search marketing is the most efficient way to find products or information and the best way for advertisers to find and acquire customers. For every lead obtained using a traditional marketing method, companies spend more money then they would using the Internet.

The objective of all marketing methods is to accomplish one or more of the following goals:

- Awareness - associate your company with the products or services the company provides

- Informational/Educational - educate consumers on features, advantages, benefits, and specifications of your offering

- Branding - make the market aware of the company's brand and identity

- Leads/Sales - the consumer responds to a specific call-to-action, i.e. walks in with a coupon, orders a product, requests a demo, etc…

When compared to traditional marketing strategies, (i.e. Outdoor, TV, Radio, Trade Shows, and Direct Mail) Internet marketing accomplishes all four goals with the added capability of allowing buyers to finalize the purchasing process by placing an order online. .

Consider this Scenario:

You're sitting at home watching television when a good friend calls you to discuss your plans for the weekend. When you realize you've got nothing exciting planned, you recall a new Italian restaurant advertised on television and in the newspaper a few days prior.

However, you can't recall the exact phone number or address advertised within the ads. You call information for the phone number and then call the restaurant immediately; realizing Italian food is looking better and better with each number you press. After a few minutes of talking to the restaurant's supervisor, you obtain the name of the restaurant, hours, address, and dishes.

But, this isn't enough. Although the television, newspaper ads and conversation with the supervisor were positive, you're curious about the quality of the company; "Do I really want to drive across town for this?" You decide to research the company via the Internet and find several other Italian restaurants in your search. When you locate your restaurant's website, you see that it's been open for 15-years, received positive reviews from local restaurant critiques including customers. You even notice its apart of the local chamber of commerce and maintains a high cleanliness rating with city inspectors. You also see a place where you can download the restaurant's dining menu, purchase gift certificates online as well as the restaurant's special sauces and salad dressings.

With the additional information and discount coupons, provided by the website, you decide to make the 30-minute drive and check out the restaurant.

The above scenario is the typical purchasing process of today's consumers. It is important to realize that two key factors influence consumers to respond to marketing advertisements; quality of service and incentives. Marketing methods that are capable of dispensing both are usually capable of gaining the sale.

Internet Marketing Strategies

There are two categories companies fall under regarding Internet marketing; Big Expectations and No Hope:

1. Big Expectation - Because so many people use the Internet, our company will gain leads/sales.

2. No Hope - Because so many people use the Internet, our company will not gain leads/sales.

Big Expectation companies are companies who recently created a corporate or eCommerce website but have not proactively utilized Internet marketing strategies to capture the attention of their target audience. Therefore, they have a website that is only visible to search engines when customers perform searches using the company's name or specific product names. The website contains little to no relevant information about the products, services, quality of service and call-to-action that is needed in order to gain leads/sales.

No Hope companies, on the other hand, are companies who've had a web presence for months (even years) but have not gained leads/sales because they have not integrated Internet marketing strategies into their marketing budgets. They created a web presence expecting immediate sales, but did not receive the expected results. Therefore, they look at the Internet as an impossible means of gaining sales and continue to dispense more money into less-effective and expensive marketing methods.

Internet Marketing Assistance

The reason why companies fall into these categories is because they did not have the time, staff, or information available that would have given them the leads/sales they expected from their website. Custom Information Services (CIS) is experienced with assisting companies develop effective websites and Internet marketing strategies that improve the visibility of corporate and eCommerce websites and, above all, increase sales.

***If you're a manufacturer or distributor interested in selling your products online, CIS can integrate a shopping cart solution into your existing or new website. eCommerce shopping carts have been proven to increase sales and make it easier for partners, vendors, distributors and/or customers to do business with manufacturers. We can customize our shopping cart solution so that it will work with, not against, your current process manufacturing software and specific buying processes.

Internet Marketing Facts

1) The Internet is used primarily as a resource to research products and services.

2) Most high priced items are purchased offline, for example cars, houses, etc…

3) Americans make-up the majority of online users and online purchases

4) Compared to Outdoor, TV, Radio, Direct Mail, and Trade Show advertising, Internet Marketing is the most effective way of gaining product awareness, informing or educating potential customers, branding exposure, and, more importantly, leads or sales.

5) During buying process (Awareness >>Consideration or Research>> Decision >> Purchase) search engines are used primarily during the Consideration and Decision phases.

6) Top three online activities of Internet users are e-Mail, search engines, and research products or services (going directly to the company's website).

7) 71% of Internet users don't go past the second page, therefore ranking high on the 1st page is crucial to obtaining online visibility

8) Two critical players who will use search engines ands search differently are Influencers and Decision Makers a) Influencers

· Use four or more words during searches

· Respond to Call to Action (e.g. online form for trial download)

b) Decision Makers

· Use two to three words for searches

· Less likely to respond to call-to-action and more likely to pick-up the phone and call the company

Via Internet News

Web sites are more than image-builders for small to medium-sized businesses. They're about leads and sales as well. ]

According to the ISP Interland's Summer 2005 Small and Medium-sized Business Barometer, 76 percent of SMBs said they pluck plenty of leads from their Web sites. Another 57 noted in the survey said they generate leads from their Web sites. Fifty-seven percent said they made money either directly or via offline purchases influenced by their Web sites.

And putting up e-commerce features tends to generate, well e-commerce. Take SMBs that deployed features like online payment forms on their site: a whopping 82 percent of the survey reported that they generate monthly revenue via their Web site.

Among the features that SMB's said they use to help market their Web sites: e-mail marketing topped all at 60 percent. Another 54 percent said they deploy search engine optimization to make sure they're found online, and 27 percent said they use online coupons. But only 20 percent indicated they use pay-per-click as a marketing tool. Farther down the list was the use of blogs (19 percent), podcasting (11 percent) and RSS (10 percent) for generating sales.

SMB's are also apparently updating their Web sites more often. In an Interland report from the fall of 2003 only 37 percent indicated they update their site once a month or more. That number has jumped to 52 percent in the current study. The report also indicated the frequency of updates tend to grow once the website has been online for a period greater than one year.

Sales weren't the only criteria by which SMB's evaluate the success of their sites. The study found that a majority (54 percent) of respondents use customer and prospect comments as a success evaluation criterion. Site traffic (48 percent) came in second. Sales leads came in third at 36 percent and online sales fourth at 24 percent.

Creating efficiencies such as having few phone calls was noted by 21 percent of respondents.
On different note, the study also found that 70 percent of SMB's reported backing up their computer files on a weekly basis and 34 percent back up on a daily basis. 97 percent said they have anti-virus software on their PC's and 80 percent have anti-spyware tools installed.

How are Search Marketers Performing?

Via Searchenginewatch

A new study sheds light on the performance of search marketing firms, concluding that many are missing opportunities and failing to provide important services for their clients.

The study, a joint effort between Jupiter Research and iProspect, surveyed 636 qualified search marketers and 224 search agencies, probing for specific practices and methods used in the overall search marketing process. iProspect released the findings in a series of three reports.

The first report, the iProspect Search Marketer Performance Study, looked at how search marketing firms evaluate the performance of their employees. While more than 80% of all firms reported that they evaluated employee performance using some metric, most looked at measures like web site traffic or search engine rankings rather than business results such as ROI or total sales generated from search engine leads.

Specifically, just 4 in 10 search engine marketers are evaluated on ROI or total sales generated by their search engine marketing efforts, and just under 20% are evaluated on offline results generated by their search engine marketing efforts.

While many overall search marketing campaigns are evaluated using more sophisticated business-related metrics, the individuals responsible for the campaigns aren't held to similar standards.

It's important to remember that most search marketing firms are comparatively small organizations, and may lack the formal processes or bureaucracy that can support employee performance evaluations. Employees at smaller firms may also have multiple job responsibilities in addition to search marketing. Simply put, performance evaluations have a relatively low priority compared to other activities in smaller firms.

The study notes larger firms, with more resources and established policies and procedures, are more inclined to tie ROI of search marketing campaigns to employee performance.

The second report, the iProspect Outsourced SEO Metrics & ROI Study, looked at search marketers who outsourced their natural search engine optimization to an SEM firm, and also participated in a paid search advertising campaign. Participants were asked to rate the comparative ROI resulting from each approach.

Surprisingly, only 1 out of 7 search marketers measure the overall ROI of their combined SEO and PPC campaigns. Worse, most cannot separate the individual ROI of the two different channels.

Another surprise was that 35% said that algorithmic search engine optimization produces higher ROI than search ads. Just 11% said that search engine optimization produces lower ROI than search advertising. Fully 45% said they cannot determine whether SEO or PPC provides a higher ROI.

This suggests that despite the popularity of paid search advertising campaigns, natural search engine optimization remains highly effective and should not be neglected by anyone wanting maximum exposure and return on investment for their search marketing efforts.

The final report, the iProspect Natural SEO Outsourcing Study, sought to understand the obstacles preventing firms from implementing natural search engine optimization strategies recommended by their SEM vendors. In other words, if you're paying for search engine optimization advice, why aren't you using it?

Just over a third of respondents said that there were no obstacles to implementing search engine optimization. However, fully 64% of organizations outsourcing natural search engine optimization to an SEO firm encounter obstacles within their own organization that got in the way.

The two biggest obstacles were lack of human resources to implement changes (34%) and lack of outsourced IT budget (17%). However, this suggests that if a company lacks human resources to implement changes or a budget to outsource them, they are not being well-served by their current search marketing firm.

A Useful, But Not Bleak, Industry Snapshot

Each of the reports provides much more detailed findings, and are well worth a read. In aggregate, they offer a snapshot of the industry that shows some seemingly glaring problems that should be of concern to clients of search marketing firms. And they offer valuable lessons to search marketers to improve their own work processes.

If you outsource search marketing, you should ask your SEO firm some of the questions posed in the study: How do you measure results? How do I know if your efforts are returning more than they cost? Which techniques are most effective? These are legitimate questions that any competent search marketing firm should be able to readily answer.

But remember, search marketing is one of the few types of marketing where this type of measurement is possible. It's certainly not possible to apply similar metrics to most traditional advertising or marketing efforts, since they lack the hard data available to search marketers.
So take the conclusions with a grain of salt. Yes, the search marketing industry has some problems, and larger agencies with more established procedures will often be more accountable. But the industry is still relatively young, and most of us are learning as we go along, continually improving the techniques and processes we employ. Expect that trend to continue, and for smart search marketers to absorb the findings from these studies and use them to improve their own processes.

Online Advertising Continues Rapid Growth

Via ecommercetimes

Online advertising has been growing steadily since early 2003 and is on track to surpass the $10 billion annual spending level for the first time in history. Research firm eMarketer predicts that more than $12 billion will be spent this year, double 2004 levels.

Advertisers sunk nearly US$3 billion into online marketing campaigns in second quarter, with spending on Web advertising jumping 26 percent over the same period last year, according to a new report.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers said Internet advertising revenues for the second quarter were $2.985 billion, up 7 percent over the first quarter of this year.

Consistent Spending

Online advertising marked its 10th straight quarter of growth, according to the IAB study, with the second quarter setting a new record for Internet marketing spending.

Search marketing continued to dominate, grabbing 40 percent of the total online ad spending in the quarter.

"It is clear from this continued growth, that most agencies and marketers are now committed to Interactive as a critical medium in reaching their audiences, as well as engaging them in more immersive brand experiences," said Greg Stuart, president and CEO of the IAB. "At the end of the day, it is about increased effectiveness from your marketing dollars and Interactive delivers this."

PricewaterhouseCoopers partner David Silverman said the growth is a "natural development" since consumers are spending more time online, with less time spent on traditional media. "The flow of advertising dollars follows," he added.

Keeping Pace

The IAB said the numbers also highlight how the Web has come into its own as a branding medium, evolving from a strictly call-to-action advertising format.

Rich media advertising rose 26 percent in the quarter, the report said, just edged out by search, which rose 27 percent. The IAB is currently finalizing guidelines for rich media and broadband advertising to help foster the growth of TV-style video ads.

Another fast-growing segment of online marketing was so-called lead-generation and referrals, which nearly tripled to $347 million, or about 6 percent of total online spending. Falling were sponsorship programs, which lost 23 percent year-over-year to $317 million, and so-called slotting fees, which fell 37 percent to $58 million.

Not a Surprise

Online advertising has been growing steadily since early 2003 and is on track to surpass the $10 billion annual spending level for the first time in history. Research firm eMarketer predicts that more than $12 billion will be spent this year, double 2004 levels. By 2009, that's expected to reach $22 billion.

"The spending growth is impressive, but shouldn't come as too great a surprise," said senior analyst David Hallerman. "These dazzling increases are possible in part because growth came from such a small base. And in the last few years the Internet has truly become a mainstream medium."

Hallerman said the Web advertising sector is seeing expected growth given how many people now turn to the Web for news, information, communications and entertainment. "These yearly and quarterly ad spending gains point to a sea of change in media usage among marketers, reflecting how the Internet has become an essential element of daily life for more and more individuals," he added.

Meanwhile, there's evidence that like online advertising, e-commerce is poised for a strong run heading into the all-important fourth quarter.

Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy said in a report that many e-tailers are building up extra inventories and boosting marketing budgets in anticipation of a strong fourth quarter. Some analysts believe the high price of gasoline may contribute to growth, with consumers thinking twice before driving to the mall to do their shopping.

London : AD:TECH 05 London , starts tommorow and ISHIR will be at the venue meeting similar interest companies . On this occasion , ISHIR is also launching its New Media website www.ishirinc.com . Currently the site is undergoing some testing and is the final launch will happen sometime in early October. This is a screenshot of the new look homepage.

PR Campaign Delivers Greater Return on Investment Than Pay-Per-Click Advertising,

Via

New research brief explains how news releases can cause positive spikes in site traffic and generate hundreds, if not thousands, of backlinks

A new research brief released announced that public relations campaigns can cost less and deliver better returns on investment (ROI) than pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns.

The research brief is currently available for free in the Marketing Experiments Journal (http://www.marketingexperiments.com/pr.asp).

"As marketers, the results of this research were definitely unexpected and fascinating for us to analyze," said Flint McGlaughlin, director of MEC Labs. "It proves that there is a place for both PPC advertising and public relations in online marketing campaigns. It's eye-opening to think that there are a lot of companies out there misguidedly using all of their marketing dollars on PPC when they should maybe be looking at PR to help them get more online exposure and results.

"To learn, through our research, that press releases can deliver a better ROI than PPC advertising and that press release distribution can improve any online marketing campaign -- well, it's just new and exciting for us."

Over a six-month period of time, MEC tested nine news releases covering various topics that were sent out over professional and free newswire services. MEC tracked the direct incoming traffic and backlinks on its site as well as the interview opportunities that resulted from each press release. It also compared the average cost per visit associated with each news release versus both the cost per visit associated with its average optimized PPC campaign and the cost per click for relevant targeted keywords in Google.

Results showed that the cost per click of the public relations efforts was less than the cost to drive traffic to the site through purchasing keywords in a PPC campaign. They also demonstrated that the news releases created significant spikes in site traffic and helped to create a five-fold increase in the number of incoming links to MEC's site.

"Our research is specifically relevant to many companies who are already engaging in PPC campaigns but feel they have hit a wall in terms of driving more traffic to their site," McGlaughlin said. "Press releases are extremely under-utilized in the online marketing industry, and using them strategically can produce visible results. Marketers need to realize that distributing press releases is something they can do that will make a difference and help them punch through to the next level."

Region lacks Internet marketing techniques - Jordan

[Via] Jordon Times

AMMAN — A leading British travel expert said on Wednesday that Middle East tourism industries needed to develop their Internet marketing strategies to compete in the global market.

President of the World Travel Awards Graham Cooke told TOURCOM participants yesterday that the region's tourism potential suffered as a result of insufficient Internet marketing techniques.

"The Middle East has a warm and hospitable culture but suffers from not getting the needed information out there to the world at large," Cooke told tourism officials on the final day of the two-day conference focusing on the challenges facing the region's tourism industry.

"You must do your culture justice by thinking carefully of expanding your Internet capacities, particularly in terms of the broadband because of the very competitive markets out there," he added.

He displayed the power of the Internet to relay information to a vast audience by showing a projection of a website featuring the morning TOURCOM session, which by midday had already received 67,000 hits.

While agreeing with Cooke, Syrian Tourism Minister Saadallah Agha Al Qalaa said officials needed to make sure they had the human resource capacities in place to serve the targeted markets.

"Tourism industries in this region can build their communication capacities but we have to make sure we have tour guides with the required languages," said Qalaa.

According to Cooke, who has more than 30 years of experience in travel publishing, bilingual websites are a key marketing strategy that have a direct impact on consumers.

He said such websites can improve communication between different languages and cultures, while reaching wider target audiences.

The use of language within websites directly affects productivity and revenue in tourism, improves marketing and overcomes language misunderstandings, he said.

"Organisations must communicate in different languages and understand cultures if they succeed in the marketplace." "The use of such tools however have not sufficiently made their mark in this part of the world yet," he added.

The ABC's of Outsourcing SEO

Via SEMPO

The ABC's of Outsourcing SEO
by Chris Boggs

1. Algorithms. These are the major thorns in the side of the SEO industry. Many organizations have invested a fair amount of money in an SEO project without insuring that maintenance is part of the deal. Search Engines such as Google (and others as their technology improves) spend a lot of time redefining their algorithms, and therefore SEO must be updated as these algorithms change. Bottom Line: ensure ongoing maintenance is a part of any SEO deal.
2. Business Model. B2B B2C B2G B2? Who is your target? When optimizing a site, ensure that you have properly explained your target market to the SEO Company. This will ensure that no unnecessary work is done. A good example is ?security systems.? There are many keywords that can be targeted that include ?home? or ?house.? Does your company deal only with industrial security systems?
   Bottom Line: make sure your SEO Company understands the nature of your Business model.
3. Competition. You must know your competition in order to be successful in Internet Marketing. The more websites that you can provide to the SEO Company as examples of what you want to emulate or avoid, the better the ?look and feel? of your optimized site will be. A good SEO company will probably grill you for this type of information. Some of the best competitive sites to study are the ones that are mainstays in the sponsored listings, especially in very high cost keyword fields. If these sites are spending a lot of money ?per-click,? chances are that the site is converting leads for them.
   Bottom Line: as Caesar said: ?"Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer."
4. Doorway Page. Although the idea of using doorway pages as a safe and effective SEO tool has diminished over the past few years, the ?doorway? concept is solid. Your website content should provide a doorway for your target market to step-into from search engines. This does not mean that you should design keyword-dense pages and submit them in order to gain rankings. This will no longer work as it used-to. Even if it does, you could potentially be banned from being indexed in the future.
   Bottom Line: think of what?s beyond the doorway as searchers enter your site.
5. Ethics. Ethics is a very important subject when it comes to choosing a SEO company. There are a variety of ways that a SEO can act in an ?unethical? manner when either selling their services to you or when performing the actual optimization that you contracted-for. Everyone has a different set of ideals and what they believe is morally right and wrong. You should therefore decide for yourself if an SEO company ethically ?jives with you.? The best ways are to ask specific questions about methodology; and best of all: search the Internet for the company name. If there are many negative results about the SEO Company?s behavior, you should probably look elsewhere.
   Bottom Line: ?If it looks and quacks like a duck, it?s probably a duck.?
6. Framed sites. Many SEO Companies will agree that framed sites are not suitable for search engine spiders. Although content within ?i-frames? can be read by some search engines, if you want to improve overall rankings your website will probably have to undergo a major restructuring if it has been built in frames.
   Bottom Line: see the previous sentence.
7. Google. Google is the heavyweight in this industry, period. If the SEO Company that you are considering does not offer to help you with your Google rankings, or skirts around the issue, they are taking the easy way out. Almost anyone can follow simple directions and optimize their sites to appear well within lesser search engines, but achieving ranking in Google?s top listings requires a science based on current experience and occasional failure. A very important thing to remember when optimizing for Google is found in the letter ?U.?
   Bottom Line: the majority of searches occur within the Google network, and thanks to the publicity generated with the recent public offering, as well as their outstanding search results, this is not going to change any time soon.
8. Hispanic Market. This letter will be used to discuss the idea of optimization for all foreign language keywords. In the United States, the Hispanic market is one that can not be overlooked. Most search engines will provide relevant results for searches performed in Spanish. If you rely heavily on the Hispanic market segment, or another foreign-language-speaking segment, you should look for an SEO Company that specializes in that market. You should also rely on a native speaker to proof the copywriting. One of the biggest turn-offs for website visitors is to find a misspelling or grammatical error.
   Bottom line: Not all SEO Companies are qualified to help with foreign language market segments.
9. Internet. What is this all about? It is very important to remember when dealing with an SEO Company that the Internet is their specialty. You may receive conflicting information from traditional advertising agencies that have never dealt with Internet Marketing. Things will be said such as ?you can?t market that on the Internet,? or ?no one in your target market uses the Internet.? Do not pay attention to the nay-sayers: the Internet as a marketplace and a branding platform is here to stay. Let an SEO Company decide if you can perform on the Internet, and make them prove it to you with statistics.
   Bottom Line: As of September 30, 2004, nearly 1 billion people are using the Internet. (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm)
10. JavaScript. Keeping this in layman?s terms, let?s just say that JavaScript is not conducive to search engines. A good SEO Company, however, can provide ways to move the Java into a different area of the code, in order to allow the search engine spiders to more quickly get to the ?meat and potatoes? of the site. If someone tells you that you have to remove all of your JavaScript and completely reshape your ?look and feel,? they possibly have other motives than simply helping you to rank-well.
    Bottom Line: Be aware that JavaScript can be bad, but not deadly, to search engine positioning.
11. Keyword. What exactly is a keyword? Is it one word? A phrase? The answer is ?yes.? When a SEO Company talks about improving your keywords, they are not simply targeting one particular keyword. If an SEO Company claims that they can get you ranked very highly for a one-word search phrase such as ?love,? and they are charging very little money for this work, it is highly unlikely that they will succeed. Keywords are much more than single one or two word phrases, and thorough keyword research will be the bulk of a good SEO Company?s contracted deliverables. Bottom Line: A SEO Company should give you a list for approval of keywords to target after seeing your initial list and analyzing your site and market.
12. Link. Any SEO package should include at least a preliminary discussion about linking. Many SEO Companies will spend more time and effort on your linking structure and popularity than anything else. The reason for this is the importance (especially in Google) of relevant link popularity. Text links (links with keywords underlined and able to lead you directly to the linked-website) are very effective. The only good links are to and from sites that are somehow relevant to your industry (more information on this topic is found under the letter ?P?).
    Bottom Line: Avoid ?link farms.? These are sites that seemingly exist only to provide links to other sites. These are bad and can actually hurt your link popularity.
13. META Information. META information is found within the source code of many websites. This used to be highly important in order to rank well, and still plays a major factor in some older search engines rankings. The content is provided for the search engine specifically, in order to give each page a Title (also used at the top of your browser), Description, and relevant Keywords. Although META is not as important as it once was, the Title certainly remains an important factor in search engine positioning.
    Bottom Line: A SEO Company should create META content that is unique to each of your pages to be optimized.
14. Navigation. One of the most powerful forces in increasing your website?s search engine positioning is through proper navigational structure within the website. Although this subject may seem similar to linking, it deals directly with the linking occurring within your own website. An effective SEO Company will ensure that as many useful text links and other links are available to your users.
    Bottom Line: All of your main theme pages should be easy to navigate-to from any other main page within the site. You should have a Site Map.
15. Organic Listings. This may seem obvious to many, but organic listings are the name of the game. SEO Companies specialize in providing methods for websites to improve their organic rankings. These are also known as free listings or ?merit? listings. These listings can be achieved by keeping one simple thing in mind when redesigning content and structure of a website: focus on providing search engine users with relevant data and linking.
    Bottom Line: Provide the proper relevant content, improve your traffic and linking, and you will appear within the organic listings.
16. PageRank. A big factor in Google?s secret algorithm. Contrary to a common and easy misconception, this is not what rank your site appears on a certain page of the listings. The PageRank developed by Google is a way for them to rank your site based on the number of industry-relevant inbound links, among other things. You can see any site?s PageRank by downloading the Google Toolbar. Almost as a rule, sites with a higher PageRank will rank better within the Google?s search results.
    Bottom Line: Note that PageRank is only one part of the overall algorithm used by Google to rank sites: content and popularity make up the other parts.
17. Quality. In order to measure the quality of the work done by a SEO Company in the past, simply ask to see some references. Make sure that you research further than what is provided to you, however. If the company claims that it has gotten top-three rankings for a particular site for a particular keyword phrase, double check them by searching another obvious phrase that the site should appear highly in the rankings for. A good example would be the name of the company or their ?flagship? product.
    Bottom Line: Attempt to make sure that the money that you are investing in outsourcing SEO will provide predictable results.
18. Reporting. Once you have chosen a SEO Company, there must be a way to measure success. Simply feeling like you are getting more sales or leads does not cut it. A good SEO Company will provide you with a benchmark report of your rankings within the top search engines for keyword terms that you covet. How else can you measure the success? Since linking is also an important part of a SEO campaign, ensure that you are tracking inbound links compared to a benchmark report as well.
    Bottom Line: Hold your SEO Company accountable by regularly requesting updated ranking reports after the first month.
19. SPAM. Spam when defined in SEO terms means ways to try and trick the search engines into ranking your site for particular keyword phrases. There are a variety of methods used to spam search engines, but the most common are cloaking and excessive use of keywords (sometimes hidden) within content. These actually work together: cloaking involves providing different content for the search engine spider than is actually seen by the visitor, thus ?cloaking? the true content from the spider. The content that is shown to the spider often looks garbled if read by human eyes. Keyword repetition is the norm, to the point of seeming like a punished student was forced to write the same thing over and over again.
    Bottom Line: Ensure that your chosen SEO Company does not use these methods, unless you don?t care that your site may eventually be penalized after initial success.
20. Time. Good SEO results take time. If you go into a SEO Campaign with the intentions of immediate rankings, you are heading the wrong way. The only way to get instant rankings for relevant search phrases is to use Search Advertising to appear within the sponsored listings, which is another subject entirely. You should be prepared to wait for weeks if not months for the SEO project to begin to show results. The good news is that once you are ranking-well, with continual monitoring and SEO updates, you should continue to rank well.
    Bottom Line: If you are in a hurry, buy listings through methods other than SEO.
21. User. It has been mentioned a couple times in this alphabet, but the most important focus of the SEO Company that is performing the work for you should be the user of your site, not the search engines. The horse must pull the cart, the driver must command the horse. The SEO Company should have a clear understanding of your target market as well as your product, in order to effectively provide information to relevant searchers.
    Bottom Line: Don?t lose focus: your website is for the searcher not the search engine.
22. Vision. Think outside of the box. You are an expert in your industry, so you probably see things differently than the average searcher. When optimizing, the SEO Company will suggest keyword phrases to you that you may feel are not often searched. You may also feel that a particular term is very important. If you are not a surgeon, would you tell one how to perform surgery on your child? Let the SEO Company do the research and educate you about searches for your product or service. Do not use blinders and pick all of the keyword phrases yourself. Some SEO Companies will be happy to do this for you, because they know that there are few competing sites for those terms. They will then deliver the results that you wanted as well as very little traffic.
    Bottom Line: Let the SEO Company consult you as to the best keyword phrases to optimize-for. SEO is an iterative process.
23. WYSIWYG. ?What you see is what you get? is very applicable to the process of choosing a good SEO Company. There are many companies out there that claim to be experts in the field of SEO, but that have made no efforts to achieve higher rankings for their own website. These companies should not be ignored, however, providing that they can give you an explanation of why this is the case. In some instances, SEO Companies do not want to spend the time and effort to achieve high rankings simply because they dedicate their time to their clients. If that is the case, ask for references and see ?Q? above when researching them.
    Bottom Line: If you cannot find anything about a company on the Internet and they provide no solid references: buyer beware.
24. X-Factor. There are a variety of X factors that you can use to make your final choice of a SEO Company. You may prefer a local company or at least one within your own country. Some people will chose based on price, provided that all other aspects of the proposed plan are equal. Others will base their decision purely on personal references from business associates that have had a good experience with the company. No matter which X-Factor is chosen, you will have to live with the decision.
    Bottom Line: use your common sense and analysis as opposed to emotions when making a choice of which SEO Company to outsource-to.
25. Yahoo! Yahoo is a directory before a search engine. These types of search platforms rank sites within categories, getting as specific as possible. If there is no specific category, then Yahoo will rank websites based on its own natural search technology algorithm. The directory listings are reviewed by a human editor before being ranked. This is a free service but you can pay for ?express inclusion? in order to be looked-at in a time frame that is quicker than the months it takes for the free submission to be reviewed. Paying does not guarantee inclusion within the listings. Many SEO Companies will include directory submission as a part of the SEO process.
    Bottom Line: Perform SEO first, and then submit your website for inclusion within the directory. Many SEO Companies will do this for you and build the cost into their SEO price.
26. Z END As our French friends would say: au-revoir!

Why it's good to Outsource jobs to India

Via Rediff.com

Why it's good to Outsource jobs to India
By Gary Hamel

When white collar jobs can be exported as easily as blue collar jobs were in the previous century, should society pick up the tab, asks Gary Hamel, one of America's leading management thinkers. ----------

Here he offers a radical view on the ongoing BPO slugfest between India and the United States.
Currently in the US, the issue is about how all jobs in the country are potentially going to India or somewhere else in the world. Twenty years ago we accepted that this could happen to manufacturing jobs -- but we did not consider that it could also happen to service jobs.
Now we have to get our minds around the concept that business process outsourcing is happening and will continue to happen in high wage, highly skilled jobs.

Grab the white collar
For example, a stock analyst in New York earns approximately $100,000. Now if that job could be done in India for $20,000, that stock analyst in New York is basically asking society to subsidise him to the tune of $80,000. It's interesting, because if you think about some of these jobs, ten or twenty years ago they were not globally mobile.

Here is another example. What would a reasonably skilled hairdresser make in New Delhi? For argument's sake, let's say $100. So for one cut, he would charge $1. Now the same haircut, with the same level of skills, in the US could cost $35.
Why does that job cost $35? Because it cannot be exported -- yet -- and people still need to get their hair cut. And so the hairdresser gets $35, and society subsidises him by $34 merely for the fact that that job is geographically bound.
Let me give you another example. Unlike the hairdresser, I compete in a global economy. My income comes from countries all over the world where I speak. So I am selling something that is globally traded, just like a Unix engineer is selling a skill that is globally traded.
Many people do not sell skills that are globally traded. Such people, if they are earning more than the cheapest possible rate anywhere in the world, are literally being sub-sidised by those people whose skills are being traded in the global economy.

Citizens or consumers
What the US is discovering now, as more service jobs are exported, is that there are parts of the economy that are basically being subsidised in a hidden way. Now as more such jobs are exported, the US will have another very interesting conversion, as a society.
On one hand, if a service can be done cheaper somewhere else, then that is exactly what US consumers will want. On the other hand, citizens will also be concerned about the long-term consequences that the economy will face if it cannot create enough new jobs to make up the difference.
If the solution is to stop subsidising people and send their jobs offshore, then how does one redeploy these individuals? This is a difficult challenge.

A grand canyon
Finally, today, there are in Britain, in France, in Germany, and in the US, a reasonable number of individuals whose jobs over time will be done, more cheaply somewhere else. As these jobs become tradable, and move offshore, it will result in increasing income disparity in these countries.
There will be greater income differences between people because there will be more income pressure on the less skilled people and those whose skills can be traded in the global economy. This is exactly what is happening slowly in the US.
In the long term, the income distribution of these countries may begin look more like it does in developing countries like India.

Gary Hamel is Founder and Chairman of Strategos, a consulting firm focussed on strategy innovation. He is also visiting professor of strategic and international management at the London Business School.

Marketing Insights

Via Apcug.net

AD:TECH04 was a conference last May that was all about communicating, persuading and selling online. It combined 48 different speeches and panel discussions with exhibit halls filled with booths showing the interactive marketing applications of more than 100 companies. This article describes some of the highlights and it also has information about future AD:TECH conferences in 2005. Some of these ideas could benefit your group.

Allison Johnson from Hewlett-Packard gave the keynote speech. She asked: “How many tech products could you say you love?” She urged us to look at things from the point of view of our customers. Things that are important to them include humor, fun, authenticity and excitement. Instead of Hewlett-Packard bragging about its own success, its ads feature its customers bragging about their success. Your goal should be to build lasting, loyal relationships with your customers or members.

The panel discussion about measuring word of mouth effectiveness mentioned that consumers are the best and most effective advertisers. The consumers who are influencers share their opinions with other consumers. A consumer’s value to a company equals his lifetime purchases plus his virality. Virality is word of mouth that could affect a company’s sales. New forms of word of mouth include e-mail, message boards, blogs, mobile blogs, and consumer generated ads using a product such as iMovie. Steve Knox, from Procter & Gamble said that his company located 300,000 teenage trendspreaders. Trendsetters start a trend but trendspreaders connect new ideas to larger audiences and this can affect a company’s sales. Trendspreaders ask themselves: “Is this idea worth my support?” and “Is it easy to talk about?” The message must be fast, fun and simple.

This theme was developed further in the workshop about “Influentials” given by Ed Keller of NOP World Consumer. He said that “Influentials” are people who are active and trusted in their local communities. They are enthusiastic about learning and they share their opinions with people in many groups. They often are highly educated, have a clear set of priorities, have a belief in growth, and have the ability to create change. They are consumer advocates and market multipliers. They are leading indicators of consumer trends. They are like focus groups on steroids.

At a panel about kids and brand relationships, Nancy Neumann from Random House said their Web site was designed with these requirements: make it fun, keep it simple, and use plenty of graphics. Use e-mail to remind visitors, and give rewards to just about everyone for motivation, even if some of the prizes are virtual prizes. They give each child a personal page that the child can change but that would not identify the child. Children receive virtual plants and virtual pets. The site has a Mostly Ghostly writing contest and a Mostly Ghostly Graveyard Panic Game. It is not a coincidence that they also sell Mostly Ghostly books. Childrens books from Random House also have reader’s guides and teacher’s guides. Their Web page for children is called Kids@Random, and they also have Web pages called Teens@Random, Parents@Random, and Teachers@Random for each of these specialized audiences.

Kristen Yraola from Maybelline-Garnier said that her company also has a special Web site for teens that is designed to turn them into brand evangelists. Their Web site is designed to be irreverent, ironic and fun. It is “edu-tainment for the Fructis Tribe from the Fru Crew.” It includes “the teenage passion points of music, dating and online chatting and it talks to teens in a language that is relevant to them.”

Carol Kruse from Coca-Cola explained how her company’s Web site strengthens teen loyalty to this brand. Teens online are often multitasking, combining different activities including chatting, instant messaging, watching television, listening to music, doing homework, or playing games. On cokemusic.com they can create their own characters, create their own rooms, and fill those rooms with virtual furniture. She said this idea was so popular that there are more than one million rooms with more than eight million items of virtual furniture on Coca-Cola’s Web site. Registered users also get a Coke Music Pass, play games, take surveys, and hang out in Coke Studios. This is a social network for teens that mimics real life. Teens like to be brand ambassadors as long as the brand is cool.

Another keynote speech was given by Peter Weedfald from Samsung. He said that everything that his company does starts with the Internet: every product and every advertisement. Samsung’s Web sites get one billion hits per month. Often this is for information but sometimes it is for entertainment. For example, 150,000 people went to samsungusa.com to watch the simulcast of a Bon Jovi concert. He said “my products are my heroes” and “your brand is a medal that you must shine every day.”

At the panel discussion on “Brand Marketing in the Attention Economy” we were told that there is a difference between how marketing was done in the past fifty years, with a focus on the product, and how marketing is done now, with a focus on the consumer. According to Kelly Mooney of Resource Interactive, customers are saying: “Earn my trust, inspire me, get to know me, guide me, 24/7, make it easy, put me in charge, exceed my expectations, reward me, and stay with me even after you have my money.” She called them the Ten Demandments, and thinking along those lines make us more worthy of the loyalty that we seek.

At the panel on “Targeting User Segments on Your Web Site” we learned that chevymalibu.com asks questions to find out the level of your car expertise and what features of a car are most important to you. How important is entertainment? How important is safety? Do you want a lot of room for groceries or do you want to tow a boat? The Web site has a view of the car, scenery, music, and a virtual host who explains how to use the Web site. You can save the results of your work at the site so that you can show it to your spouse later.

The exhibit hall had many great companies with great products. I will tell you about them a little later, after letting you know about Eyeblaster. Eyeblaster’s booth had product literature mentioning their floating ads. When reading a newspaper online, I sometimes see a floating ad that covers up some of the words that I wanted to read. When this happens, I play one of my video games or do something else until the Eyeblaster ad goes away, and then I continue reading what I started to read earlier. Compared to this, banner ads are totally harmless because they do not interfere with the reader’s online experience.

Among the many other companies in the exhibit hall was Claria. Claria delivers ads to consumers whose online behavior indicates an interest in that ad’s product category. These ads are only sent to consumers who opt in. Consumers choose to opt in to receive music or software utilities for free.

Mamma Media Solutions creates pay-per-click advertising. They prepare banner ads for their clients and the client pays Mamma each time that someone clicks one of these banner ads.
CoolSavings provides printable coupons to millions of consumers from companies that want to reach these potential customers.

NOP World plans marketing campaigns that are designed to result in favorable word of mouth that leads to increased sales. They create compelling messages that inspire advocacy.

Google allows its customers to conduct national, regional, or local ad campaigns to get sales leads. Google’s personal representatives can help you plan your campaign. Your ad would appear when someone does a Google search using the keyword or Google AdWord that you chose. You would pay for each click to your Web site from that ad.

The Atlas Digital Marketing Suite is software to help you manage your digital marketing campaign. Their staff can work with your team as you use this software to create your campaign, including media planning, ad delivery, analysis, and optimization.

These were just some of the many companies that were in the exhibit halls to discuss their products and services.

This year AD:TECH will have five different conferences to bring the latest developments in interactive marketing to a city near you. The cities and dates will be:

• AD:TECH San Francisco - April 25-27
• AD:TECH Chicago - July 11-12
• AD:TECH London - September 28-29
• AD:TECH New York - November 7-9
• AD:TECH Shanghai - November 15-17, 2005

Google's Arora to headline AD:TECH London

LONDON - Google's vice-president of European operations, Nikesh Arora, will headline the conference programme at online marketing conference and expo AD:TECH London, in association with Revolution, Direct Response and Marketing.

The IMP-run event, which takes place this September at Olympia, aims to bring together marketing professionals, industry icons and entrepreneurs to discuss the latest research, technology and best-practice case studies in marketing technology.

The event has run in the US for 10 years and now shows in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, as well as the Far East. The London event is the first time AD:TECH has come to Europe.


more....

Google Blog search debuts in Beta

AD:TECH05 London will have something more to talk about with the launch of Google Blog Search today. The possibilities this new service brings with itself for the blogosphere is immense ....

Read on for more information.

Via Search Engine Guide

More than two years after purchasing Blogger producer Pyra Labs, Google has finally released their own beta version of a blog search service. The move makes Google the first of the major engines to venture into blog-specific search. Google Blog Search isn't limited to blogs published through Google-owned Blogger. Instead, it works to index all blog content that is published via RSS or Atom feeds.
As Google puts it:

" Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by
blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging
universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution
themselves. Whether you're looking for Harry Potter reviews, political
commentary, summer salad recipes or anything else, Blog Search enables you to
find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice."

The size of the index is still limited, as Google has only been indexing blog posts since early summer of 2005. That means that any posts made to a blog prior to June aren't likely to show up in the search results. As for future growth, while Google expects to be able to find blog feeds on their own, they will be adding a submission form that will allow bloggers to manually add their link to the index. Bloggers that don't wish to be included in the index will be able to block their blogs the same way that they would block a web site, as Google says that the blog engine will respect robots.txt files and noindex meta tags.
In addition to standard search operators like "link:" and "site:" Google Blog Search will support new operators like "inblogtitle:" "blogurl:" and "inposttitle:." Blog search will be available in 35 different languages, though by default, the index will search all content. Safe search is also an available option.
The niftiest feature of Google's new blog search is the ability to create a custom RSS or Atom feed based on search results. Users can opt to subscribe to either the top ten or top one hundred listings for a particular search query. Google will then provide a feed that can be added to a user's favorite aggregator.
The current plan is not to include news source's feeds, which is Google's way of keeping Google News and Google Blog Search as separate resources.
The good news about this launch for the small business market is that blogs are all the rage right now. Aggregators are getting more powerful and more usable and the number of people keeping tabs on their favorite sites and topics via readers is growing. The growth of blog-specific search sites like Technorati and DayPop shows that people not only want to read blogs, they quite often want to look for specific topics on them. Google's introduction of a blog search engine will help prompt the other engines to offer similar features and will help propel the growth of blog readership.
That means that if you are already running a blog, you may be looking at some nice new traffic. After all, in the blog search engine, your posts won't have to compete with all of the other sites indexed by Google. If you're not already blogging, you need to give some consideration to whether or not you should start one up.
Now, as with search engine optimization, you shouldn't do it just to do it, you need to make sure that you have a reason to do it. Think about your target audience and ask yourself if there's anything that you can write for them that will make sense to your business. If you're a home improvement company, consider starting a blog that aims to answer common questions that your customers ask you. If you're a car dealership, consider starting a blog that features test drive information and car reviews. As with anything else online, it just takes a little bit of creativity.

Purpose of Pay-per-Click - Short Term Campaigns

Via Searchengineguide

While many small business owners know that pay-per-click campaigns are a great way to increase their search presence, not many of them really understand just how many ways they can use these campaigns to grow their businesses. Pay-per-click marketing isn't just about setting up a campaign and letting it go, it's about understanding the many ways that you can use PPC to your advantage and then launching the type of campaign that makes the most sense for your business.

Short Term Campaigns

Short term pay-per-click campaigns are ones that are setup with an end date in mind. They might be one-time launches, or they might be campaigns that are turned on and off over time for different reasons. Either way, the goal of these campaigns is usually to supplement other forms of marketing and not to serve as an on-going source of sales.

Seasonal sales

With the holiday season just around the corner, businesses both large and small will be gearing up to launch new paid search advertising campaigns to drive even more sales. Pay-per-click campaigns are a great (though expensive) way to build up a search presence quickly. Companies looking for organic rankings usually need to put a plan in place at least six months before the season starts. Since pay-per-click campaigns can be setup practically overnight, they're one of the few search related options for last-minute holiday promotions.

Jump start a new campaign

Another popular short-term use of pay-per-click engines is jump starting a search marketing campaign for a new site. Since organic listings take time, companies looking to have a presence in the engines right from the start need to setup pay-per-click campaigns at the engines they wish to drive traffic from.

Keyword testing before organic campaign

My personal favorite use of pay-per-click campaigns is to test keywords before doing an organic overhaul to a Web site. Companies can bid on all of the phrases that they are considering optimizing for and then track the results to see which ones convert at the best rate. Once they know which phrases perform the best, they can then start organically optimizing their sites for those phrases. This saves the guess work that sometimes goes with optimizing a site for the first time.

Testing sales messages

Another testing related reason for using a short-term pay-per-click campaign is sales messages. This type of short term campaign can be run at the same time as an organic campaign, or even concurrently with a long-term pay-per-click campaign. The idea behind this type of campaign is to promote different offers in an environment that can be quickly changed and easily tracked. This is a great way to find out if free shipping drives more conversions than buy-one-get-one offers, or to see if blue graphics convert better than green.

A New F-Word for Google Search Results

[Via] Search Engine Watch

A new study has added tangible evidence to the widely held view that top-ranking search results get the most attention from users, and that lower-ranking results are all but invisible to most people.

The joint study conducted by search marketing firms Enquiro and Did-it and eye tracking firm Eyetools examined the eye movements of users viewing Google search result pages.

The study found that most viewers looked at results in an "F" shaped scan pattern, with the eye travelling vertically along the far left side of the results looking for visual cues (relevant words, brands, etc) and then scanning to the right, as if something caught the participant's attention.

The researchers called this pattern a "golden triangle" at the top of result pages. The triangle extends across the top natural search result, then angles back to the left of the page down to the bottom-most "above the fold" result, typically in the third or fourth position on the page.

This area was viewed by 100% of the 50 participants in the study.

With both organic and sponsored search results, higher ranking results were viewed more often. Here are results for organic results (percentages represent the number of study participants viewing the listing):

Organic Search Results Viewed:
Rank 1 - 100%
Rank 2 - 100%
Rank 3 - 100%
Rank 4 - 85%
Rank 5 - 60%
Rank 6 - 50%
Rank 7 - 50%
Rank 8 - 30%
Rank 9 - 30%
Rank 10 - 20%

A similar, though smaller triangle effect was also observed for the sponsored listings on the right side of Google search result pages. In aggregate, fewer people looked at the sponsored listings; the exception to this was then sponsored ads were served at the top of a search result page as well as on the right side of the page.

Ads at the top of the page were viewed by 100% of study participants.

Sponsored Listings Viewed (right side):
Sponsored listing 1 - 50%
Sponsored listing 2 - 40%
Sponsored listing 3 - 30%
Sponsored listing 4 - 20%
Sponsored listing 5 - 10%
Sponsored listing 6 - 10%
Sponsored listing 7 - 10%
Sponsored listing 8 - 10%

These results are preliminary; a full analysis of the results will be available soon.

Organic Search Still Rules

The findings of this eye tracking study lend further credibility to the notion that organic search engine optimization is still critical to the overall success of a search marketing campaign. Last December, Jupiter Research released a report stating that algorithmic listings in search indexes generate an estimated six of seven commercially natured search referrals.

The eye tracking study offers a major reason why: People continue to favor organic listings over paid search listings, unless the paid search listing is at the top of the page.

And yet many search engine marketers are ignoring search engine optimization, opting instead to go the "easier" route of buying sponsored listings. The increasing body of research is very clearly saying that it's a mistake to rely solely on paid listings to drive visitors to a web site. A well-balanced search marketing campaign should incorporate both well-crafted search engine optimization efforts as well as paid listings to capture the full range of searcher behavior.

Five Reasons Why Ad Agencies Hate Search Engine Marketing

Via Media post

TRADITIONAL AD AGENCIES HAVE DISCOVERED that search engine marketing is beguilingly difficult. Not only is it more complicated than it seems, but it's surprisingly difficult to eek out a profit doing it.
Companies offering keyword bidding tools have lulled some agencies into a false sense of confidence. "Our bidding tool will make search engine marketing effortless," they were told.
What these companies didn't tell the agencies was that they still needed search engine marketing expertise to use these tools effectively to maximize their clients' results.
As a result, many big, traditional ad agencies-and even interactive agencies-hate search engine marketing. Here are the top five reasons why:

1. Achieving profitability in managing clients' paid search advertising is extremely difficult: If you don't use a bid management tool, and if each of your customers doesn't spend in excess of $50K per month on paid search advertising, you won't make money. Period. Trouble is, even many of the large client companies who employ agencies cannot justify spending more than $3K to $10K per month. The conversions aren't there; the keyword query frequency is not there.
Charging a service fee of 20 percent (a typical pricing model for PPC management) on top of a monthly PPC spend of $3K is peanuts for the time necessary to do a good job. But ad agency clients are clamoring for search marketing: they know it works; they know they have to be in the game; and they want their agencies' help. But trying to do SEM is breaking the agencies and they know it.

2. A shortage of skilled SEM practitioners: Employees with even a few years of search engine marketing experience are hard to find and expensive! Most are groomed at search-engine-marketing-only firms. Without experienced staff, an internal training program won't succeed. Without an in-house training program, you won't develop experienced staff-presenting a catch-22.

3. Even "poaching" experts cannot produce superior results: If an agency lures away a few ex-SEM-firm types, they join the agency ill-equipped to deliver results. Much of the intellectual property and knowledge that made them successful were contained in the tools that the SEM specialty firm developed in-house. Most, if not all, of the tools that made these employees efficient, speedy, and successful are not commercially available.
SEM firms have spent the last six to seven years building proprietary tools that provide enormous leverage to staff. These tools evolve and grow with the organization, and because they are enterprise-based application suites, they don't leave with the employee.

4. SEM is so complex it requires singular focus. Performing effective SEM requires practitioners to deal with 10 or so search properties who are always changing database partners, algorithms, PPC bidding rules, and paid inclusion programs. Keeping up on it all requires a dedicated focus. There's a significant learning curve every month. Most agencies are not built to manage that much change, that much data, and constantly evolving best practices, strategies and tactics.
5. SEM requires a commitment to research: The biggest breakthroughs in process improvement come through data intensive research and analysis of linguistics and search engine user behavior. This requires collection of data and results for millions of visitors in a variety of verticals with a variety of online marketing objectives for their sites. In the same way that most agencies didn't build direct marketing capabilities in the 1970s, because the practice was too data dependent and mathematically based, most agencies do not want to be bothered with the ongoing research and analytics necessary to make SEM effective.
With all this being said, some agencies have decided to partner with SEM firms and are letting the SEM firms have direct client contact. Why? Because there is too much education required for the agency to deliver the work required and yet the agency wants to successfully meet the demands of its clients.
But most agencies still hate search engine marketing. So they can curse the wind or adjust their sails.

HOW TO go about : Choosing a Search Engine Marketing firm

The NO.1

Question on everyone's mind

A brilliant article which explains both a layman , an advertising agency , a Web development company on how to go about : CHOOSING a Search Engine Marketing firm .

We at SEMPO ) wherein , we have added our inputs from an outsourcing /offshoring -of Search Engine Marketing projects- point of view.

Read on......

Choosing A Search Engine Marketing Firm
by Matt McGee

Mailing lists and message boards -- the online water coolers of the web development and marketing industries -- are filled with stories of businesses whose web sites have "fallen off the map" of search engine success or never made it on the map in the first place. In many cases, the resulting "Why?" discussions lead to one of two conclusions: the web site was poorly optimized for search engine success, or it wasn't optimized at all.
As a business owner, you may identify with those stories. And you may know the importance of having your web site rank highly in search engines for the search words and phrases that are appropriate to your business. But you may not know how to make that happen yourself.
Thanks to the growth of search engine marketing (SEM), you don't need to. A professional SEM company can help put your web site back on the map of search engine success, or get it on the map for the very first time.
(A note before we go any further: the term "search engine marketing" includes all efforts aimed at increasinf search visibility, including pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, organic search engine optimization (SEO), and pay-for-inclusion (PFI) programs.)
Choosing an SEM company is an important decision: the right choice can lead to tremendous initial growth in your company's online business and create the foundation for a satisfying business relationship that keeps this growth alive over the long-term.

Trust
When selecting an SEM company, you are first and foremost establishing a business relationship, and successful relationships are built on trust. You will be placing your online success in the SEM company's hands. Most of us can tell pretty quickly if someone deserves our trust. Follow your gut instincts, but also consider these questions:

1. Does the company answer your questions honestly and completely, or did it avoid certain topics and give fuzzy answers to others? The SEM company should have nothing to hide when it comes to describing how they optimize sites, how they manage ad campaigns, their track record, etc.
2. Does your SEM company have experience in the industry?
3. If you're hiring them to handle search engine optimization on your web site, have someone experienced with creating web sites look underneath the hood of a couple sites the company has optimized, looking for any unusual coding that may be hidden from public view.
4. If you're hiring the SEM company to handle your PPC campaign, have they managed campaigns successfully for clients of your size?
5. Do they have a list of references you can contact? Hearing the first-hand experiences of past clients is a great way to learn about the company. (Note that some of the company's past clients may have asked not to be included in a reference list, and the company should honor those wishes.)
6. Does the SEM company pressure you with sales tactics designed to force a decision before you're ready to make one? Building a relationship isn't about closing the deal; it's about doing what's best for you, the client. You should be able to speak with the individuals who will be doing the actual work on your site, not just with a salesperson.
7. If choosing an offshore SEM / SEO / PPC company , the main things to consider are :

1) past work and case studies of results and rankings achieved ( if going for SEO ). Also study the competitiveness of keywords for which rankings have been achieved

2) budgets amount and clientele handled for PPC projects

3) the team size of company in question and reqesting a company virtual tour brochure ( to ensure its not someone sitting in a room and quoting on your project)

4) reporting formats and their frequency , since effective communication is the key in outsourcing of SEM projects

5) client references you can talk to on phone( a must !!)

6) english speaking skills of the team : its funny but many so called SEO experts cannot speak English well , even though they can write well . You dont want to communicate with a project manager who cannot talk to you on the phone properly

7) chat and messenger availability of the team

8) cost , cost and only cost - outsourcing is only about getting THE SAME QUALITY , THE SAME SERVICE STANDARDS , THE SAME RANKING RESULTS , THE SAME COST PER LEAD - AT A LOWER PRICE !!!

IF YOU GET AN INSTINCTIVE TRUST IN YOUR OFFSHORE SEO COMPANY AND YET GET A GOOD PRICE AS COMPARED TO ONSITE VENDOR .....GO FOR OUTSOURCING !!

Which Services?
Search engine marketing includes a variety of methods that can increase a web site's visibility in search engines. Before choosing an SEM company, it's imperative to know which one(s) you need.

1. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making a web site search engine friendly. It typically involves making changes to the web site itself that are designed to help the site rank higher in the organic (i.e. - free) search results.
   Some search engines offer pay-for-inclusion (PFI) services, which allow you to pay to have various pages/URLs of your site crawled by the search engine spider, often on a regular basis.
2. There's also pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which offer you the chance to pay to have your ad appear when searcher type your chosen keywords into the search engine. In these programs, you bid on certain words or phrases and your advertisement appears when a search is made for those words or phrases -- usually near, but not as part of the traditional search results.
   These are just a few of the SEM services a company might offer. Some issues to consider:

1. Do you need SEO or PPC? Both? Something else? Ask the companies you're considering for their recommendation. Ask them to separate the time and costs of each service when they give you a cost proposal for your project so you can make a more informed decision.
2. If you need PPC, will the company you're hiring do that part of the project themselves? PPC advertising is a specialty that not all SEO companies practice. The ones that don't can often recommend companies to handle that aspect of your project.
3. If PPC advertising is part of your project, how long will the campaign last? How much will it cost? Which search engines will you use? What types of tools does the company use for managing your bids? Is the company skilled at writing targeted ad copy?
4. How will the company identify the best keywords and phrases for your optimization project? Whether you need SEO, PPC, or both, identifying the most appropriate keywords and phrases to target will be a key factor in the overall success of your efforts. Make sure you have input into this process since you, ultimately, know your business and industry more than anyone. If you specialize in and want to promote your blue, graphite widgets, don't allow the SEM company to emphasize widgets in general (not enough focus) or red, titanium widgets specifically (wrong focus). The SEM company should be able to provide general statistics indicating how often your preferred keywords and phrases are actually searched for on various search engines.

Know Your Risk Comfort Level
There are many ways to optimize a web site for search engine success. Some methods are more aggressive than others, and many search engines and industry professionals frown on these tactics as being too risky at best, and unethical at worst. Many search engines go so far as to warn the public about these methods, perhaps none so strongly as Google on a page it wrote for business owners :
"Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, a few unethical SEOs who have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results."
As a business owner, you have to determine how much risk you're willing to take on. If you're willing to try risky methods such as cloaking, doorway pages, and keyword stuffing (among others), you should also be aware of the potential consequences (which include being penalized by search engines). Make sure you and your SEM company are in complete agreement over the methods to be used in your optimization project, and have it clearly defined in the contract.

Executing an SEO Plan
If organic search engine optimization is one of your needs, you'll want to have a clear idea of how the company you hire will execute the project. The company should develop a plan based on your needs and budget. As the client, you may not want to know -- and may not understand -- every little detail that the project entails. But there are a number of topics you should discuss with the company to gain a better understanding of the big picture:

• Will the company execute the hands-on aspects of the optimization plan, or are they only providing directions for your webmaster? There's no right or wrong answer to this. Some firms are consultants only; others offer consulting and hands-on optimization. If you don't have a webmaster, and expect the company to do the actual optimization work, ask about their experience as programmers and make sure they are as skilled at the hands-on work as they are at consulting.
• What changes need to be made to your web site to make it more search engine friendly? In other words, what does the SEO company consider the full scope of work to optimize your web site? The project may or may not include things such as:

1. changing the layout or design of your site
2. updating the site architecture -- the menus, navigation, etc.
3. rewriting and editing content -- the visible words on your web site
4. improving HTML tags -- the hidden pieces of information in the code of your web site
5. link building -- finding appropriate web sites and obtaining links from their site to yours (hint: avoid link farms and FFA sites at all costs; hint #2: the SEO company should not require a link from your site to theirs as part of the project)
6. search engine submission -- letting search engines know about your site (hint: avoid automated tools; hint #2: avoid any company promising to submit your site to hundreds of search engines; hint #3: search engine submission is essentially obsolete)
7. directory submissions -- letting web directories know about your site (hint: this is often more difficult than it sounds)
   

How soon will the company begin working on your project, and how long do they expect to take to complete it? It's unrealistic to expect your web site to make the top ten search results within a week after the project ends, so if you're aiming to increase holiday sales make sure you start (and the SEO company can finish) far enough ahead of time to allow the project to succeed. Which leads us right into...

Measuring Success
It's up to you to determine the goals and definition of success for your SEM project. Perhaps it's nothing more than an increase in traffic to your site. Expansion of your mailing list subscriber base? Doubling last year's online sales in the holiday season? During the initial meetings with the companies you're considering, you'll need to articulate your ultimate goals and whether they're short-term, long-term, or both.
It will, however, be the SEM's job to help you calculate success with information and statistics about the project. Things to consider:

• Does the company make promises to acquire you as a customer? Building trust involves setting realistic expectations. No SEM company can promise long-term top rankings in the organic search results of any search engine because search engines are constantly changing how they index and rank web sites. (In the short-term, however, PPC advertising might include a guarantee of visibility on the first page of search results if you're bidding/paying enough to be seen there.)
• What kind of reports will the SEM company provide to indicate your web site's ongoing ranking in various search engines, or the success of your PPC ad campaign?
• How often will you get those reports, and can the company help you understand them? Some companies may be able to provide sample reports to give you an idea of what to expect.
• How will you measure your ROI (return on investment) and what role (if any) will the SEM company provide in this process?
  

These are some of the issues and concerns any business should address when considering which SEO/SEM company to hire for marketing your business online. You might also spend time using the variety of resources available elsewhere on our web site to learn more about the value of search engine marketing and the industry itself. (But try to stay away from the water cooler -- hopefully now we won't be reading about your company there, unless it's the story of your SEO/SEM success!)
Thanks to all the SEMPO members who helped in one way or another with the development of this article.

SEO tips for Blogs hosted on Blogger

Via Blog Business World

SEO tips for blogs hosted on Blogger

Blogs are the fastest growing class of websites on the internet. No longer the sole domain of teenagers and the love lorn, blogs are now an established form of internet communication. The online business community has recently discovered the power of blogging, and as such are faced with raising the blog site’s ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs). As a direct result of some of the blog characteristics, high search rankings are readily available for the careful blog writer.Like any other website, blogs have techniques for search engine optimization (SEO), many of them the same as for traditional static websites, and many of them unique to blogs. Among the issues faced by some bloggers is the abundance of free blog hosting sites. Not requiring any initial cash outlay, the free blog hosts have literally millions of blogs on their books. One of the most popular is the Google owned blog host Blogger.Note that in this article, the capitalized word Blogger refers to the blog hosting company, while the lower case generic term blogger indicates the blog writer. Confusion between the two words will be avoided as much as possible.Like all free web hosts, Blogger hosted blogs face unique optimization challenges. Unlike sites where the domain name is owned by the webmaster, free blog hosts maintain ownership of the blog. In fact, the blog name is a sub-domain of the blog host, making value from the blog URL a less powerful optimization tool.Despite the limitations faced by a blog hosted by Google owned Blogger, there are many very powerful optimization techniques available to the blogger. As we will see, blogs have some optimization methods, that are only available to blogs in general, regardless of host.When considering the optimization techniques to apply to blogs, the basics of fresh keyword rich content, theme relevance, incoming links, and link anchor text all apply to blogs. In that sense optimization for blogs is no different from other websites. On the other hand, some additional methods and some restrictions in the choice of techniques are involved as well. The various restrictions are often a direct result of the placement of the blog on the free host. In this case study, the free host is Blogger. These shortcomings must always be kept in mind, when considering the best course, to fully optimize your blog.Free Blogger hosting for your blogBlogger enables you to host your blog on their server for free. As a very simple use interface system, even a novice with absolutely no programming or blogging experience of any kind, can be fully operational in a matter of minutes. The procedure for starting a blog is very simple, and takes only minutes to complete. The Blogger server offers the choice of having a free standing blog as a separate website, or the option of writing your daily posts on the Blogger interface, and file transfer them to your existing website via the built in FTP feature.Blogger provides a choice of pre-written templates for the blog layout, but all of them are changeable to include different color combinations and page formats. Blogger freely permits the use of third party add on features, including commenting systems, track back, visitor counters, RSS site feeds, and most scripts often seen incorporated into traditional websites. Note that Blogger offers all of those necessary blogging functions, including a site feed through Atom, with the exception of track back, in its blogging service package. Other third party feeds can be freely added to the Blogger template. I use several on my blogs.The user is under no obligation to use the Blogger supplied versions, however. The company agreement does require that the Blogger logo icon remain on all of the pages, however.When choosing a URL for the blog, it will appear as http://yourblogname.blogspot.com or if you prefer, as http://www.yourblogname.blogspot.com making the blog URL a sub-domain of the Blogger system. The main domain is indicated by the “blogspot.com portion of the URL. With being a sub-domain, there are some unique, but not insurmountable challenges to optimization, as we shall see.A Blogger user is not restricted in the choice of blog titles, and careful title and URL selection can help greatly in the optimization process. Many blogs suffer from having very poorly selected titles, that contain no relevance to the overall blog theme. Keep that in mind when selecting a title. Keywords within the blog title and URL are very powerful in ranking well, with a blog component, especially as a sub-domain from the Blogger host.After creating a blog title, and selecting a blog template to be customized later, the Blogger registration process is completed. A new blog writer is ready to begin writing blog columns, which are referred to as posts.

Optimization and SEO power of blogs
Contrary to what many people believe, Google does not give preference to blogs hosted on Blogger, despite Google’s ownership of the popular blog service. As a result, bloggers using the Blogger hosting system are on even footing with bloggers using other free or paid blog hosting services, and with blogs hosted under an owned domain name, or as part of an owned domain website. The playing field for optimization is as level as possible for bloggers using a sub-domain of Blogger, and for other bloggers as well.Blogs rank well in the search engines by their very nature. They are regularly updated with keyword rich content. Most blog writers stick to a main theme for their blogs making relevance easy. Because of the blog’s versatility, the blogger can add more themes to the blog and tie them together, enabling a blog to maintain several strong themes. Blogs are also link magnets, mainly from other similarly themed blogs. It is not unusual for a blog to receive a Google PageRank 4 or 5 after being live on the internet for only one month. The theme relevant links are often placed right in blog posts, and contain powerful link anchor text. One way inbound links to blogs are freely given by other bloggers as many blog writers are not concerned about search engine rankings. As a result, the competitive level of the sought after keywords is not as strong as its overall potential, based on sheer numbers of blogs.Bloggers maintain large link lists, called blogrolls, that usually sit on the blog’s home page. The weakness of the blog link lists is their volume, providing less than optimal PageRank and link popularity passage, as it’s divided among large numbers of receiving blogs and websites. What the blog link popularity lacks in amount of what is passed along, is made up for in theme relevance and quantity. Blog links are literally a volume business. Note that reciprocal blog links don’t appear to suffer any downgrading, as is often the case for static sites. Incoming links, including reciprocal links, are effective for blogs.

On page blog optimization techniques

Blogs are optimized using the same techniques as static websites. Keep in mind that a blog is simply another website. What works in the search engines for other sites will also work for optimizing a blog. Blogger assists the blog writer by building in many optimization features, that enable a blog to compete in less competitive searches, even if no other optimization techniques are applied.The blog title is important, and should be chosen carefully to reflect the topics and themes of the blog. Many blog titles are frivolous, and provide little search engine value. Including at least one important keyword in the title is recommended.The title is important as it forms part of the URL sub-domain. Combining a keyword enriched title with the blog URL is often enough to compete for non-competitive searches. As the regular posts are added to the blog, each one generates a unique page with its own URL. Since the blog title forms part of that URL, it’s important that it contain some keyword, as the blog title is at the front of the URL. The individual page URL contains all of a short blog post headline, and most of some longer ones. For that reason, place the targeted keywords early in a blog post headline to ensure their conclusion. Blogger publishes the page URLs, with the headline words separated by dashes, in accordance with the Google preference for dashes over underscores. The blog title tags are readily and easily changed in Blogger, to reflect any targeted keywords and phrases. Because the blog itself is a website sub-domain, altering the title tag is a very powerful option for any blogger to utilize.The Blogger supplied templates are pre-written with h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, and h6 tags. The headings are placed in the heading tags automatically, providing an instant search engine advantage for the blog. The templates are fully CSS compatible and welcome both additional CSS and html coding.Blogs are well crawled by the major and lesser known search engine spiders. Because the posts are so frequent, the spiders return to reindex the blog, on at least a daily basis. By pinging the blog, which is notifying the specialized blog search engines and RSS aggregators of an update, the blog reaches a huge audience including media outlets. A good one stop multiple site pinger is Ping-O-Matic. Three very powerful optimization tools are missing from Blogger templates, and would be very helpful in improving searches for Blogger hosted blogs. One missing item is categories. Blogger users can't place their posts into theme related categories. The ability of other blog hosts to provide categories gives those blogs a bit of a theme related SEO advantage. That is to say nothing of the benefit to the blog readers of neatly organized categories for related links.Blogger doesn't provide a related links feature that lets readers find additional posts on the same blog topic. Another benefit to readers, and to the search engines due to the loss of an internal link, is missed by Blogger.A third issue is the lack of internal "tag" coding. Blogger users are required to write their own tag code for Technorati and other users of post tags for search. As embedded linked keywords, tags are also very powerful for creating themes in search engines. There appears to be little, if any discrimination against Blogger and other free hosted blogs among the members of the media, and other blog RSS feed subscribers.

Link power of blogs

Much of the search engine optimization power of blogs is through their extensive linking networks. Blog owners are free and generous linkers. They link to other blogs permanently, usually from the high PageRank home page, and freely link to what they consider interesting blog posts. Not only are posts linked frequently by other bloggers, but the on page link is often from a post to a post. As a bonus, the link is usually dripping with important keywords and phrases. Links from other blogs tend to be very theme relevant in content, as bloggers link to articles, blog posts, and other blogs that are of interest to themselves and to their readership. One way incoming links are a very frequent event for bloggers.Reciprocal blog links don’t appear to be discounted by Google or the other major search engines, as the exchanges are usually between theme related blogs. Blog owners should, however, exert some level of caution, regarding link exchanges with non-theme relevant blogs, as those incoming links might not receive full value. Linking to and from Blogger is easy, and the template provides an unlimited sidebar area for the inclusion of html links, to other blogs and traditional websites. Links can also be coded within the posts themselves, right at the time of post composition, using simple embedded html conversions.The Blogger posts are archived after a chosen time period of usually one week, into one month long archive sections. Those time frames are changeable in the Blogger settings, for longer or shorter durations. The internal linking of the pages is precoded by Blogger, enabling PageRank link popularity, and link anchor text to pass freely from one page to another. The pre-written code can also be altered should the blogger prefer a different internal linking structure.

Conclusion
Hosting a blog on a free host like Google owned Blogger need not be a disadvantage to achieving high search engine rankings. Simply apply recommended standard SEO optimization techniques and the blog will do very well in the SERPs. The Blogger supplied, and readily alterable templates contain many powerful optimization features by default, including h1 tags, CSS, and strong internal page linkage, to name just a few.Be sure to keep in mind that the blog URL shows a sub-domain. Because of that limitation, care should be taken with the blog title, title tags, and the headlines given to the regular blog posts. The power of the many keyword rich anchor text incoming links, from theme related blogs and websites, will go far towards reaching the top of the rankings.The links are to be expected because of the regular posting of theme relevant content. Other bloggers will link naturally to the blog, with the highly potent one way link.Be sure to add your own tag code for using those powerful search tools.The blog combination of fresh keyword rich content and relevant incoming links will propel the blog, and a related website, to the top of the SERPs.While it’s always a better policy to own your own blog domain, don’t be afraid of a free blog host, if you are short of cash.Even a free hosted blog is highly powered in the search engines.
Tags: SEO, Blogger, links, Google.