Spotlighting search terms, site linking and regular blogging are among the best ways a firm can benefit from search engines, a Google engineer claims.

Matt Cutts tells USA Today that search engine optimisation is easier than most companies believe.

He says the most common pitfall is businesses setting up websites without emphasising their key search word enough on it.

“You have to make sure the keywords are on the page,” he tells the newspaper.

“If you’re a San Diego doctor, Des Moines architect or Portland ad agency, best to let people know so immediately, at the top of your page.”

Getting other sites to ‘link’ back to you as an endorsement is also helpful as most search engines rank pages based on popularity.

Google remains the internet’s most popular search engine, with new figures from comScore showing that it increased its share of core US searches from 61.6 per cent to 61.8 per cent in May 2008.

News brought to you by ClickThrough - a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies

With the rise in awareness in the public domain of the term SEO (search engine optimisation), SEO experts are now in great demand by ambitious website owners that want to increase targeted traffic to their websites. In order to generate leads, enquiries or sales via your website you need a professional that knows just how to get great results with a substantial ROI (return on investment).

SEO or search engine optimisation is the process of optimising a website in order to achieve top rankings on major search engines that attract vast numbers of searches every single day, which could be providing your website with lucrative sales.

Whilst it isn’t rocket science, search engine optimisation requires some hard work, smart strategy and patience, in order to achieve the substantial growth in targeted traffic that is possible for your business.

As more and more website owners become aware of SEO, it is vital that you have an online strategy to market your website effectively using an SEO expert with experience in successful campaigns.

Some of the more common methods of SEO are listed below, and if you follow these, you could be well on your way to increasing your targeted traffic.

Keyword Analysis

Often overlooked, this is the most critical stage of any SEO or internet marketing campaign or strategy. Knowing what your users are searching for around the world is vital to increasing targeted leads and turnover. If you are focusing on keywords that you think are important, instead of using professional tools to find out what users are physically typing into the major search engines, then you are wasting your time and money.

Analysing your keywords is of paramount importance and you should engage people around you for their ideas on keywords, until you build up a complete picture of possible keywords and thin filter out the ones that are not being searched for.

Meta Tag Optimisation

By properly optimising the meta tags of your website, you are effectively informing the search engines what the subject and content of your site is. This also helps traffic to your site from search engine requests in the major search engines. Optimised properly, you can attract more visitors using this basic, but often overlooked essential area of SEO.

Content

Good content is precisely what the majority of visitors and search engines want to see. If your website is to appeal to users, then your site should have fresh, relevant, targeted content that is there to provide a benefit to the visitor.

Whether you employ a copywriter, a consultant or an expert in search engine optimisation, you must have well-written, compelling and above all unique content, to stand a chance in the ever competitive internet.

This is just three examples of how an SEO expert would increase your traffic, leads and turnover. To get a full insight into how to obtain top ten rankings on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and
MSN, speak to your local expert and find out what business you could be generating from this highly rewarding area of internet marketing.

[Source: via webwire.com, Lee Smith Director,Utopia Creative Solutions]

By K. Mar on Jun 29, 2008 in Marketing and Consulting, Scandinavia, Sweden, www.Icenews.is

Scandinavia’s reputation for high tech investment and innovation means it is a constant magnet for the world’s high tech industries. This year SMX Search Marketing Expo has chosen Stockholm as the location for one of its flagship annual conferences.

SMX is a global search engine marketing conference that offers a wide selection of workshops, discussions and networking opportunities for industry professionals who want to keep ahead in the rapidly changing world of search marketing.

The SMX Search Marketing Expo in Stockholm is planned for the 23rd and 24th September in the Stockholm City Conference Centre, Folkets Hus.

Speakers include Nordic eMarketing’s Kristjan Mar Hauksson and Eniro’s Christer Pettersson, as well as a host of other expert online search marketers. Event speakers are carefully selected based on proven knowledge and experience that they can share with others. There is also a commitment not to include commercial pitches in presentations – a fact that keeps proceedings fresh and fast.

Other SMX expo events take place annually in a several major cities, such as London, Sao Paolo and Seattle, as well as Stockholm. The events provide a fun and stimulating environment for professionals to exchange knowledge and experience, to find and maintain useful contacts and even to keep an eye on the competition.

Personalised search techniques, keyword research tools, and link building are among this year’s top topics. Also on the agenda are targeting potential customer habits and preferences, and how to avoid exclusion by the search engines for ‘spam-like’ behaviour.

For more information on the SMX Search Marketing Expo Stockholm, visit: www.searchmarketingexpo.com/stockholm

So you have a web site which looks pretty but does not produce any leads or sales. You have invested a good chunk of money and now what ? What can you do to finally participate in the gold rush that is more than ever taking place online.

Online marketing will help you business succeed in a competitive environment. A setting where traditional marketing channels have faded away. Some of my clients report that, this year 2008, leads from Yellow Pages ® Directory have reduced to a trickle whereas their online leads from a well ranked website have fully replaced the Yellow Gold.

If you have NOT gone with the times and have again committed all your marketing dollars for the year fully in traditional marketing channels, than you may awaken one day to a bitter surprise: Your leads stop coming and you either don’t know what to do and go bust, or you know that there is this thing called internet marketing but you have absolutely no funds left to try it out.

My advise: Don’t go overboard with spending huge dollars on a glossy online marketing agency, engage a small affordable online marketer to create a concept for you and produce 10 online leads and subsequent sales for you to build confidence in this (for you) new marketing channel.

Rule No 1: Make a Start and Experience Returns on Investment
Find your own online marketing confidence by understanding and living ROI: Return On Investment.
A small monthly budget of a few hundred dollars that returns a few thousands is a very good start to tap into internet marketing.

Well, so how can I produce 10 times ROI on a few hundred dollars ? It’s not easy and not done on the quick but it can be done, and I do it all the time:

Rule No.2: Create a Website That Sells
Display a convincing case for your products and services, not just a listing of text and images, you must have EMOTION, or FEELING on your website, something that touches your visitors. Then you must have CALL FOR ACTION on your website, which can be displayed in various ways.

They must fell the need to ACT on the EMOTION that you have created. In one way or another.

Now, make it easy for them to ACT, dont hide your contact details, calls for actions and links to your contact page everywhere plus your phone number large at the top of each page.

Build TRUST with your website: Nothing is done on the quick here - you really have to sit down with your website developer and come up with a well designed flow of click logic, add subliminal messages, photos, text, more images. They have to be convinced that it makes sense to call you or email you. You need good quality images of your products, they need to be presented nicely, there should be a good amount of confidence building text with it, like FAQ Frequently Answered Questions are very well rewarded by search engines.

Dont get me wrong - this is after they have landed on your site - so obviously - how do we make them find your site in the first place ?

(Part 2 of 3 coming soon)

Preview Part 2: Search engine myths debunked: “I want to be at the top of page one on Google for search phrase “FLOWERS”.

Good Luck ! It will be difficult to get on the top of page one in the main section on Google for ONE super busy power keyword with a small marketing budget of a few hundred dollars per month. (The top ranked guys bitterly defend their spots with the large funds available from huge profits coming from top rankings.

But you can break into top search engine rankings over time - use the backdoor, it’s all about Trust building with Google by offering more, more relevant, frequently added content. Nothing is more valuable online than TRUSTWORTHY, RELEVANT, FREQUENTLY UPDATED content.

Make a start here: Investigate and collect lots and lots of valuable income producing keyword phrases that the Google keyword tool will assemble for you for FREE and that you have implemented into your site with cleverly written content and FAQ pages etc.

(Written by Michael Arendt, Marketing Director, MyConsulting Internet Marketing Melbourne, Search Engine Optimisation

          “All is fair in love and war.” So says one of the most famous statements in the world. Some heartbroken souls may disagree. But in today’s time, all’s fair in the market, too. After all, the modern time has given rise to so many changes. If, in the past, big multinational companies have maintained dominance for decades with no questions, smaller businesses are now beginning to challenge their ranks.

What are SMEs?

SMEs refer to small and medium enterprises. These are businesses or companies whose headcount or turnover is below given limitations. In some countries, the term small or medium sized business (SMB) is more commonly used.  In the United States, a small business as defined by the number of employees is that with no more than 100 workers, and a medium-sized business is that with 500 employees or less. But the most commonly used American definition of a micro-business based on the number of workers is the same as that of the European Union: an enterprise with no greater than 10 employees.

Internet Marketing for SMEs

In the majority of countries, smaller businesses are much greater in number than bigger ones. In the entire European Union, for example, SMEs account for roughly 99% of all firms and hire around 65 million people. Therefore, in many fields of the economy, SMEs are reliable for compelling innovation and improving competition. However, it is not easy for SMEs to increase their market share, especially not within a short period of time. Fortunately, there’s the Internet. The Internet has provided a low-cost yet effective means of marketing an SME: through Internet marketing.

The benefits of SEO for SMEs

There are many benefits of SEO for small- and medium- sized businesses. First is the low cost. At a minimal investment, the Internet allows SMEs to make their presence be felt in the World Wide Web. With only a few clicks and several skilled men on the side, an SME can introduce itself and provide information about its services. Through these, customers are drawn to its products and services. Less expense as a result of SEO will be apparent when an SME no longer employs the handful of people required in doing a commercial (whether in TV or radio), a print advertisement, or door-to-door sales pitch. At the same time, an SME not only reduces costs but also widens its audience, because eMarketing through SEO is not limited unlike these traditional marketing methods. But since the Web is too vast, the probability of an SME maximizing its presence in the online world is low. That is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes handy. SEO is a vital and effective tool for SMEs to further increase their online visibility. SEO works to make an SME’s website to rank high in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Even ground

When you optimize your website and its pages, more surfers can access your pages. Being a smaller and less known enterprise, consumers are not expected to know your URL by heart. Thus, SEO paves out a more even ground between you and the bigger companies. When your website is optimized for search engines, consumers who type for a certain need (e.g. computer repair shop) can see both TheBigComputerShop’s site and yoursmallcomputershop in one page. SEO for SMEs allows healthier competition and a fairer share of the market. Because the Internet is a fast medium of communication, its users (your target customers) are often hurrying, too. After all, we’re all living in a fast-paced world. When your SME’s website is optimized, you don’t end up in the 20th SERP, where it is impossible to get a single customer. No, using SEO, you can be displayed right up there in the first page. Being on the first page puts you on the same page as the bigger players. And, like them, you get the chance of being visited by surfers-turned-buyers, too. Finally, applying SEO to your site makes the whole world your audience. Virtually every country (even third world ones) has access to Internet now. Because of this, whatever your services or products are, when your site is optimized, you can have the world as your market base.  As you see, with Internet Marketing and SEO, all is fair in business.