Businesses all over the world are recognizing that their promotional campaigns have to stay current with the latest trends or they’ll ultimately fail. Lately, the economy seems to be crashing lower and lower everyday, forcing both large and small businesses to let go of their staff and cut down on marketing costs. The bright side? A lot of companies are turning to the Internet to promote their brand, services and goods. Case in point: Cable TV.

Cable TV is “shifting” their services to accommodate Internet users. The main ides is that if you already have a subscription to Cable TV services, then why should you be constrained to only being able to watch cable on your TV? Why do you have to be at home at all in order to watch cable programming? You should be able to watch cable TV anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Major companies, including Time Warner Cable and Comcast, are in discussions working to increase their presence online by making their services available to paid subscribers on the net. An article on http://www.engadgethd.com said that “In an effort to maintain relevancy during a time when online TV viewing is on the rise, a number of big name cable companies are looking to throw in online companion packages to sweeten the pay-TV equation.”

Cable companies are looking for a way to satisfy the online consumer and cash in. Not only will they be satisfying a hungry online market, but they will be making profit off of it, increasing brand awareness, and revolutionizing their current business model. By keeping up with the latest online marketing trends, they are bound to stay afloat when so many other businesses are quickly sinking.

In an economic downturn, it’s important to spruce up your landing pages to capture more traffic. There is an overwhelming increase in web traffic as more and more people turn to the web to find articles, blogs, services or products that can help them survive these tough economic times. When the value of visitors is so crucial, there are a few things you can do to tweak your landing pages and optimize them for success.

• Be Daring. Reconsider the practices you’ve applied in the past, and be willing to make bolder changes. Consider a larger redesign, enlarge the Call to Action (CTA) buttons, shift the placement of the CTA’s to a “right-in-your-face” location, and ask yourself if your landing page really pop’s and keeps the attention of your audience.
• Include More Information. Online users are currently searching for more information before they make a purchase or commitment. It’s a good idea for copywriters and marketers to re-word their content on landing pages to include more detailed information about their company and the product or service they’re offering.
• Keep An Eye On Competition. Although you can never be too sure how your competition is capturing leads and converting visitors, it’s always wise to keep tabs on your user’s demands. Keep an eye on any new site functions or content changes your competitor’s are making and notice what user needs they are addressing. Review your own site and make sure you’re addressing similar needs.
• Test your strategies. Implement new changes and allow enough time to pass for you to see results. Study what works and what doesn’t, and make any needed adjustments. Don’t panic if you don’t see results. Online user’s spending patterns are continuously changing as the economy shifts and budgets change.

Over the next couple of years we will see user spending habits change and new marketing tactics emerge to compensate. Landing page optimization is a key component in any successful web campaign. Adding more landing pages or fine-tuning the ones you have may be your best bet in a struggling economy.

One of the reasons Google is the most dominant search engine on the web is because of the constant improvements they make to help stay ahead of the competition. Their latest change will help searchers find what they are looking for faster and will help websites owners diversify their SEO strategy.

When you search for a term on Google, you now receive a button that says “Show Options”. Now you  can see different options to search for videos, forums, and reviews. When you click on any of these options, new search results appear to the right.

“Any time” section allows you to view results based on the latest information. Google has always favored older sites which don’t give the latest results. This will encourage webmasters to update their site often.

There is also a new tool called “Wonder Wheel”. The term you searched for is in the middle and the secondary terms are all around it. The results change in real time to the right. This will help website owners know what keywords they should be focusing on so they get the most SEO traffic possible.

View this video from Google that highlights the new search result changes.

What Does This Mean To SEO:

• Sites need to focus on posting fresh content to take advantage of the new “Any Time” search results.

• Video is now even more important in the search results. Videos don’t have to be a big production to get search results.

• Reviews are very important to websites. If you are selling items, make sure you have an option for customer reviews on your website.

• Forums can help your customers share and post their passion for your brand. The new forum search will help searchers find your products in forums.

• SEO Keywords that surface in “Wonder Wheel” around a website owner’s main term are now even more important. Most website owners concentrate on just a few keyword terms, but now it is easy to see the most popular secondary search terms around your most important keywords.

Using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) has turned out to be beneficial for viewers, search engine optimization (SEO), and, last but not least, web site owners. Below is a list of the many advantages of building a site in CSS rather than tables.

• CSS delivers pages faster. Browsers read through tables twice before properly displaying their contents - once to determine the structure, and once to determine the content

• Table websites only appear on the screen when the entire table has been downloaded and rendered

• Table sites use 4 to 5 times more code than a CSS site

• Table layouts takes 2 to 4 times longer to load in browsers

• Less code means easier SEO crawling

• CSS is easier to achieve html validation because they contain less code

• Lower hosting cost because of less bandwidth

• Redesigns are less expensive because CSS is faster to design than tables

• Visual consistency is maintained throughout the site because of CSS global changes

• Better page structure with header structure. Headers tell search engines what is important on the page

• CSS allows text rollover effects which search engines read. Table sites uses JavaScript rollovers which are generally not read by search engines

• Universal cross-browser style declarations means your site has a better chance of looking the same regardless of the browser

• Printer-friendly style sheets means you can actually print your website

• Table-based layouts must be downloaded over and over and over again each time a page is loaded
  CSS is only downloaded once and each page within the site will load easily

• Background images can be as thin as 1 pixel and CSS can be used to repeat the background so it covers the entire background. This allows the page to load faster

• One CSS change can affect the entire site, instead of just one page like a table site

• Many table sites use spacer gifs which take time to load and don’t load the same in every browser

• Sophisticated Layouts and Designs - Unlike the use of tables, CSS offers freedom in designing. Because of the rigid, inflexible, and grid based form of tables, designers cannot utilize their potential in designing

• CSS offers more flexibility in designing a menu system that can be consistent on each page

Where do you turn to find the most current information? The newspaper or the Internet? News junkies all over the world are ditching the newspaper and opting to scroll through the Internet on their iphone or laptop to find the latest news, facts, figures, stock changes, market crashes, and impending doom the world seems to be facing at any given moment. Electronic media is quickly becoming the world’s largest free source for quality up-to-date news.

The Internet is hitting newspapers where it really hurts– their pockets. Once upon a time, people had to pay to read printed news and advertisers paid to reach these customers. The publisher and his journalists made a profit and continued the cycle of selling news. The Internet, however, offers overwhelmingly vast amounts of information at a cost everyone can afford, free.

Most newspaper businesses don’t understand that they have to incorporate the Internet into their business model to avoid failure. People are cutting costs everywhere, and if paying for the newspaper becomes too big of a hassle, customers will quickly jump onto the web to find the latest and greatest ground-breaking news stories. Newspapers argue that the Internet lacks quality content and true journalism and are fighting to keep it alive.

Many people argue that newspapers are one-sided and don’t cover enough newsworthy information. Surfing the Internet allows customers to read millions of different articles on the same subject with varying opinions and angles. It’s also said that scanning information on the web is much easier than the traditional method of having to flip through pages of the newspaper to find the story you’re looking for. In the 21^st century, people have entered the Age of Technology where they’re turning to quicker, faster, cheaper and easier solutions for just about everything.

Daniel Vahab recently wrote an article for http://www.tothecenter.com/news.php?readmore=8877 saying, “But the recession is not to blame. Newspapers have been on a downward spiral ever since the advent of the Internet and the surge in popularity of blogs. All the recession did was speed up the process. And there’s no turning back. The Internet is here to stay.” Technology will always advance. Those who choose not to climb aboard and face the future may see their company crumble as newer technology replaces the old.

Web designers can show off their designs to a client and programmers can show off their websites, yet SEO Specialists sometimes have a hard time proving that a long-term investment in SEO strategies is the way to go. Many website owners think that their site should just naturally appear on the top of search engines without putting in any effort or long-term investment.

SEO IS NOT FREE
ClickZ had an article by P.J. Fusco, titled SEO Is Not Free, which clearly states the importance of organizations investing in SEO for the long-term. A quote from the article says, “When an organization says, ‘We don’t have any budgeted money for SEO,’ it’s like trying to hire a construction company to build a new corporate headquarters and informing the general contractor that the organization isn’t likely to have the money to pay for the building.”

THE SEO MYSTERY
SEO sometimes has the mysterious ‘black magic’ tag attached to the work associated with optimizing a website. A lot of people are under the misconception that they simply have to design a visually-appealing website and their site will automatically hit the #1 spot on search engines. Unfortunately, this is not true. There is a lot of work that goes into optimizing a website and it is practically a full-time endeavor to keep up with the latest SEO tactics. Many organizations make the mistake of handing off the SEO task to someone who is not an SEO expert. This often leads to using SEO practices that are outside of search engine guidelines and result in targeting the wrong keyword phrases, or even worse, getting the site banned from search engines altogether.

SEO IS NOT AN ENTITLEMENT PROGRAM
P.J. Fusco made a great point in her article stating “Perhaps the idea that SEO is free stems from the misguided notion that every Web site is somehow entitled to volumes of natural search referred traffic. SEO isn’t an entitlement program. It’s an ongoing investment that must be resourced properly. It’s not a one-hit, one-phrase paradigm. It’s not built on quick wins for trophy phrases. There are hard costs and soft costs associated with building a successful SEO strategy that deserve proper budget allocations.”

WHAT SEO CAN DO FOR ORGANIZATIONS
In our current economic situation, many organizations are looking for ways to cut budgets. Cutting the budget for SEO can not only hurt your organization, but you could be cutting off your most profitable web traffic source. SEO is an investment in highly targeted traffic that leads to conversions. An ongoing SEO budget should look at on-page optimization and off-site strategies to build links. SEO can also add to your brand, corporate image, and long term viability in a competitive market place.

Google recently stated that they use over 200 factors to determine the relevancy of a web page and how that page ranks with targeted keywords. The problem web marketer’s face is that Google has never come out and said what those 200 factors are.

In the past, Google published their Google Webmaster Guidelines, but it was fairly vague. Recently, Google published the Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. This guide gives specific advice on how to perform basic SEO on web pages, but it is not a fully comprehensive SEO guide. SEO specialists are excited because this guide validates the work that goes into optimizing a page.

Some sections of the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide include:

Metatag Strategy:
The guide teaches good fundamental Metatag strategies that will help your site get found and entice click-throughs. It is amazing how many websites have no title tag, meta description, or meta keywords in the code.

URL Structure:
The section about “Good practices for URL structure” covers creating simple directory structure and using keywords in url’s. Google’s goal is to make sure navigation is easy and intuitive for the user, which makes it easier for their spider to crawl all pages. The area about “Make your site easier to navigate” is trying to get webmasters to build content that is easy to find. The guidelines also make expanding a site easier as well.

Header Tags:
When Google searches the content of a page, keywords used in a header are given added weight to the importance of the subject and help the Google bot spider crawl the site easier. Using the correct H1 and H2-6 formatting allows Google and readers to quickly read a page.

PROMOTING YOUR WEBSITE:
The guide contains a section called “Promote your website in the right ways.” Google doesn’t want you to just build a website and not promote it. They encourage blogs, RSS feeds, social media sites, and building a sense of community. They give excellent guidelines on how to use this properly to promote your content.

Free Stuff:
Google provides links to plenty of free webmaster tools, and of course Google Analytics in the guide. This is a good reminder to use the tools in the Google Webmaster Tools to help your site rank for your keywords.

The Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guidelines can help any webmaster make sure their web pages have the basic SEO fundamentals. This guide is only a fraction of the work an SEO firm can do to optimize a website, but it is a great starting point.

I thought I would take a minute to write down some of the basic things you can do when taking a creative idea through the development process to completion. I am going to be relating these concepts to web projects, but they apply to almost any creative endeavor. These are some basic concepts I have picked up over the years spent doing Web Design and Development, and they have worked well for me.

1.    Figure out exactly what you want your website to do. This might be the most important step in the entire development process.  So much time and energy is spent figuring out all the other elements of your site - colors, layout, navigation, content, etc… that it can be easy to forget this very important step.  I suggest before you pick up that color wheel or get those business cards designed you come up with what I like to think of as a mission statement for your site.  This can be as simple as:  “To sell socks to west coast customers who are online-savvy.” But serves as a valuable anchor point when looking at the other aspects of your site.

2.   Know who your users are.   Don’t make a website about retirement options using a tiny font that might be hard for your target audience to see.  Don’t use a lot of flashy colors on a site for colorblind people.  Make sure the color, layout, fonts, functionality and content are either as specific or as broad as your user base.

3.    Understand your competition.  No one is going to use your website if  there’s a website out there that already does the same thing but looks better,  loads faster,  is easier to navigate etc..  If you are going into a market or industry where there is a lot of competition, it is your job to determine what they’re doing well and why they are succeeding, and to do it better.

4.   Take good notes.  So many times I have had to go back and make revisions or sometimes even a major change because I thought I would remember something I didn’t.  So many times a creative brief can turn into a hectic, cathartic, explosive brainstorm session and little details the client might place a lot of importance on can get lost in the dust.  A digital recorder or similar device will help immensely.  Good note taking is also a very valuable tool to have as a reference when a client questions something in your design and functionality.

5.   Make it Awesome.  How many sites have you been to on the net just aren’t awesome?  I can think of lots off the top of my head that might have really good content or a really great idea driving them, but because of the execution it just doesn’t stick in my head.  I think that so many times as Designers and Developers once we make a site functional we forget to ask ourselves:  what can we do to make it better?  I recently had a site completed (or so I thought) when a coworker prodded me to do a little more to it.  We did some back and forth, spent maybe another hour or two on the project, and ended up with something I was really fired up about.  We had added the Awesome Factor.  I think that little extra, that x-factor, or just the desire to make the best product you can is what makes for memorable, useable, feature rich websites that become mainstays in peoples web travels.

There are about a billion things you have to do and do well to be a successful Designer/Developer but these 5 seemed like good ones to share.  Remember folks:  we’re all in this together:  let’s make the web a more awesome place!!

I hope this is useful for anyone looking for a quality internet marketing firm, but equally important, I hope this is useful to those SEOs out there who desperately need to understand that most of us don’t know flash as anything more than an accessory for a camera.

During my tenure at a local non-profit, I was instructed to find someone to build us a website and get it found online.  Understand that I had never heard the term SEO, SEM, PPC, and had no idea what an SERP (though it sounds like “syrup” if you say it out loud, and that seemed encouraging…)  I was chosen for this task simply because I was the most “computer savvy” guy on the team (meaning I knew RAM wasn’t just a brand of truck.)

So, how did I find SEO experts without even knowing that that was what I needed?  That’s where the Dummies’ Guide to Choosing an Internet Marketing Firm comes into play…

1.    Where Do I Look
The first step is to get a list of possible firms that can serve you internet marketing needs.  There are many ways to find these companies, but I’m going to give you three methods that are reliable to consistently find worthwhile firms
Search Engine Results – These firms are in the business of getting people to the top of search engines, so the most natural way to find them is through a search engine.  Do not, I repeat, DO NOT base your decision on an internet marketing firms solely on the top ranked listing from one search you threw into Google.  You’ll get different results with each new search you try, so to quote Treebeard from Lord of the Rings, “Don’t be hasty.”  Try searches that are broad and searches that are more local.  Your top results from these searches can be the beginning of your list of possible firms.
Phonebook – Don’t ignore this incredible resource.  If you’re like I was (lost in the web of online marketing), this seems like a no-brainer.  This is a great way to limit the field.  Firms that are sensitive to beginners and are in touch with their customers know that they still need to have a good phonebook listing.  Firms that are 100% focused on the net, may not even bother listing themselves.  Plus, “fly-by-night” operations never have a chance to get a phonebook listing, though they may weasel their way to the top of the search engine results in just a few days. (Hey all you SEO experts, this is a huge hint to you:  get a phonebook listing if you want to find and build credibility with new customers.  People who need your services most ARE NOT FLUENT WITH THE INTERNET!! Meet them on their turf.)
Referrals – There is nothing more powerful than word of mouth and personal recommendations.  This is age old knowledge that has proven itself again in the cyber-world in the form of sites like www.cnet.com and  www.epinions.com where users can recommend or rip apart products and services.  Once you’ve got your list from of internet marketing firms from searches and the phonebook, ask around to see which firms are recommended (or have even been heard of before).
If you do all three of these things, you should have a pretty good list of online marketing firms to choose from.  Remember, if you find the firm through all three of these methods, they are a strong candidate; two of the three they are worth considering; one of three… well, I wouldn’t bet the farm.

2.    My Mama Told Me, You Better Shop Around
Remember the advice immortalized by The Miracles in the 1960’s – “You better shop around.”  Just like any other business partnership you are forging, your relationship with an online marketing firm needs to be carefully considered.  Make sure to compare companies with each other.  Make sure to consider bids from multiple companies.  Remember also that many small internet marketing “firms” consist of an individual working from home who often are ex-employees of a larger firm.  They learn what they think they need and then set out on their own to capture the top search engine listing and with it all the customers (and cash they can imagine).  This is a nice pipe, but the reality is your are better off with an established, reputable firm that has normal business hours and a team of people working on your project.

3.    Limiting the Field
You’ve got a list, you’ve shopped around.  Now how do you get it down to your final selections?  Here are some great identifiers of online marketing firms you WANT to work with:

• Talk with a live person – If you can’t get to a live person over the phone or at their location easily, than chances are any concerns, requests, or emergencies you have in the future will be handled with the same time-delayed e-mail approach you see during the sales process.
• Check their portfolio – Look at the company’s track record with clients.  Are they clients you’ve heard of?  Are their websites ones you can find easily on the web?  Do you like the look, the navigation, and the content of their clients’ sites?
• Do Searches – Go to Google, go to Yahoo, go to MSN and type in keywords that relate to their clients.  Do their clients’ sites come up?  This is the best way to see if they are being effective in their campaigns.  Be from Missouri – the “Show Me” state.
• •Talk to their clients – It’s nice to have a great looking portfolio, but if clients hated the experience, paid more than they thought, and still got their products late than there is still a problem.  Ask a firm’s clients about what the strengths & weaknesses of the firm are.  A good client will have honest answers to both.  If all you hear is how perfect the firm is, send up a red flag and ask yourself whether this client is giving you the real scoop.
• Compare Pricing – Notice I did not say compare PRICES.  There is a difference.  A fledgling firm (often one person trying to make it on their own) will simply try to charge a little less than what everyone else is.  Ask for a break down of what the final price is for.  Ask them what dictates those prices.  Going with the cheapest bid can lead to bad product, but going with the most expensive doesn’t guarantee the best product either.  Compare prices, but look at how much is spent on what and where they can up with those numbers more than the final price.  Pay for quality, but don’t let yourself get gouged because you were an “easy target” for a money hungry firm looking to exploit unknowledgeable customers.

4.    Define Expectations
All right, you’ve limited it down to a choice and are talking to your firm about the scope of your project.  Here is the key to making this go well – make sure your expectations are very clear AND written down for both parties.  There can be a lot of confusion between a business and its chosen internet marketing firm because they practically speak different languages.  (Here is another big tip for you SEO people wanting to impress and keep your clients.  Drop the acronyms and explain what you’re accomplishing.  They don’t want to hear about CSS, SEO, PPC, & link structure.  They want to hear “easy for your customers to purchase” “highly visible” “easy for customers to find”)  Let them know what you want in definitive terms – x% increase in traffic; Y numbers of conversions to sales; complete by this date.  By the end of a good meeting, there should be identifiable goals on paper for both parties to see.  Being clear with expectations from the onset will allow for better business decisions and a happier relationship between client and internet marketing firm.

5.    Expect Results… but stay the course
Once you have you new online marketing partner, it’s time to get to work.  Make sure and hold to the expectations you have laid out.  Do not expect excuses or failures that are buried in technical phrases and confusing explanations.  I’m not saying it will always be smooth sailing, nothing in business ever is, but you have paid for their professional services and you can expect them to deliver.  Use the metrics you established with them to rate the progress.  Keep track of deadlines and expect them to be hit.  Just because you are not an SEO expert doesn’t mean you need to accept whatever you’re told.  That being said, there will be missed deadline here and there.  Tough times will come, and mistakes will happen – even with the best firms out there.  What is important is how those situations are handled, and if the firm continues to try to deliver as promised, or if they make excuses.  Going back to our friend Treebeard, “Don’t be hasty.”  Switching online marketing firms can be a bumpy process and slow down your business objectives, so even if there are some bumps, stay the course if you have a good firm.

There are many different approaches on how to write an effective blog, but there are certain guidelines you should strive to follow in order to captivate your audience and get your message across. Blogs can be written for a variety of reasons: to entertain, educate, inform, receive feedback, podcast, or to promote and market service or goods. Today there are blogs on everything from drugs to politics, celebrities, news, conspiracy theories and more. Blogging is an excellent platform for people to quickly and easily share information and to also create a powerful online presence.

1- Choose a topic and stick to the facts
Your content should reflect your topic. Stay focused. Although you may think you have an excellent sense of humor, if you’re not writing an editorial, refrain from being too witty so that you don’t lose credibility with your readers. Stick to the facts and relay them appropriately. Most of your readers won’t care too much about your opinion; they’ll care more about the facts.

2- Stay current
Always check your facts when relaying information. If your information is not current, then you’ll create the impression that you’re not up-to-date, and therefore, not credible. Fellow bloggers will find you less credible because you are relaying older information that they have already heard. Offer new information and ideas that people will be eager to read.

3- Blogs don’t have to be a certain length
As long as you can relay your information in a clear, concise way, then there is no need to make your blog longer than a few good paragraphs. What counts is how effectively you have communicated your message.

4- Create a powerful title
Having a weak title will prevent bloggers from reading your article. Create a title for your blog that clearly states what you will be talking about. Try to keep it relatively short. The popular blogging site http://digg.com/ has clear and concise titles that tell readers exactly what they will be reading before they even click into the article.

5- Make sure your writing flows well and always use spellchecker
Nothing ruins a blog faster than when things don’t flow well and there are misspelled words throughout the text. Not only does it sound like the writer is illiterate, but it makes it harder to take the article seriously. Read through your blog a few times to make sure that there is proper grammar, punctuation, spelling and rhythm.

No matter how well you follow these guidelines, your blog will undoubtedly still receive criticism. Develop a thick skin and work through it. Once your blog goes public, there will always be those fellow bloggers that have something mean to say about it. Frequent blogging will help you develop a solid technique and will introduce you to various other bloggers that can teach you more strategies that will help you improve.