More evidence is being presented illustrating the move from traditional forms of advertising to online methods, including social media marketing.  In the 6th Annual State of the Search Engine Marketing Report, released by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPRO), marketing budgets for social media services of nearly 1500 client-side marketers and agencies are on the rise.  Facebook and Twitter are being used by three quarters of companies polled to promote their brands or companies.  Although, as the report indicated, the budgets are still quite small compared to paid search and search engine optimization, I believe this indicates a trend that will continue as more and more people embrace social media as a valid and trustworthy source of information.

You can read more about other aspects of the report here or purchase the report directly from SEMPRO at http://econsultancy.com/reports/state-of-search.

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Ah, the holy grail of the internet is to be #1 in the search engines without paying a dime.  This is far more challenging than you think as Search Engine algorithms have become more and more complex, incorporating variables such as in-bound links, link importance, and site activity among others.   There are two options to increase your rankings in search engines:  (1) Search Engine Optimization and (2) Search Engine Marketing. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process for setting up your site with relavent keywords, tags, and links to establish yourself within the SERs (Search Engine Rankings).   While it is important to set up your site properly from the beginning, SEO should be an ongoing process for you, especially if

The process of optimizing your site for users begins with the content.  What are users looking for on your site?  Information is key.  People want to find what that they want quickly and easily.  Site navigation must be clear and simple.  Understanding how people use the web will enable you to design a great layout that will lead users to your call to action.   

As basic as site navigation is to developing a great web site, Web Copy (the words on the page) is even more important.   People read differently on the web and move rapidly from site to site, page to page.  Having your key messages jump out at the visitor will aid them in finding what they want immediately.  Never bury your message in long-winded text.  Most users will just move along to the next site.

You have your site up and running and have implemented an online advertising plan, but you are still not getting as much business as hoped for.  What do you do??   If you have implemented an analytics program then you can evaluate the data for trends in visitor behavior.  Marketing Analytics will provide critical details as to what visitors are viewing, how long they are staying on each page, what pages they visit and where they stop, or leave.   A key indicator of a poorly designed website is the bounce rate, or rate at which a user first gets to your page and then leaves.  This simply means that they showed up, did not see what they expected or wanted, and left.  Problems such as this could be due to having too much info on the home page or not clearly indicating what is important.  Once you have identified this flaw then you can set out to make some adjustments to you home layout and copy.

What are Essential Internet Marketing Services?   Simply put, these are the basic set of services a company needs to effectively market themselves on-line.   These services include Marketing Strategy Development, User Optimization, Search Optimization, and Marketing Analytics.  Implementing all of these will allow one to set a solid foundation to grow a successful Internet presence.  I'll expand on each of these briefly in the next few blogs.