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Microhoo Deal Given Thumbs Up to Proceed

By Kalena Jordan in Featured

Microsoft and Yahoo announced today that their planned Search Alliance has been given the go-ahead by the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission without any restrictions.

The exact implementation is yet to be announced, but will involve Yahoo shifting their organic and paid search operations to Microsoft. Yahoo will then display primary search results from Bing and enhance them with Yahoo content.

From Yahoo’s official press release:

“Implementation of the deal is expected to begin in the coming days and will involve transitioning Yahoo!’s algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft, with Yahoo! becoming the exclusive relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers globally. Once the transition is completed, the companies’ unified search marketplace will deliver improved innovation for consumers, better volume and efficiency for advertisers and better monetization opportunities for web publishers through a platform that contains a larger pool of search queries.”

Advertising for both companies will be managed by Microsoft’s adCenter platform (meaning the closure of Yahoo Search Marketing) and prices for all search ads will be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.

According to a memo sent to all Yahoo advertisers today:

• Yahoo Search Marketing advertisers will log into one place – Microsoft’s adCenter – to manage campaigns, for greater efficiency and a better ROI.
• Yahoo is hoping to transition advertisers and partners in the U.S. prior to October 2010, but may wait until 2011 for efficiency reasons.
• Advertisers will reach users on Yahoo! and Microsoft sites as well as other premium partner sites, with a single buy on adCenter.
• Yahoo will give Search Marketing advertisers 3 months warning of any changes to take place.

The two search giants have created a web site dedicated to the partnership and Yahoo has implemented a Transition Center for advertisers.

What does it mean for the search industry? To use a silly dinosaur analogy, (because who doesn’t like those?), it means that Bing the Triceratops and Yahoo the Brontosaurus have just combined to become an aggressive Tyrannosaurus Rex that’s going on a hunt for the Google Gigantosaurus.

Should be quite a spectacle.

Who’s Linking to Your Web Site – and What Does That Say About You to Google?

By Stone Reuning in Featured

Linking is the mechanism that connects all the pages on the Internet. You’ve got links throughout your web site to let people navigate their way around. You may have links going out to other web sites that you think will be useful for your visitors. And hopefully you have links coming into your web site from independent sources.

All types of links can impact your search engine optimization results, helping determine where your web site shows up online. Though the hardest to control, inbound links pointing to your site can make the biggest impact.

At its most basic, the concept is that if several high-quality sites are linking to your web site, then Google and other search engines figure your site must be a popular, valuable resource – and they will be more likely to show it higher in their search results. In effect, your site receives “link juice” from other web pages that link to it.

Successful SEO Strategies – What Should You Be Tracking?

By Dave Talbot in Featured

This might seem like a bit of a strange question but what should you be tracking as the measure of success for your SEO campaign? The success of a well executed SEO campaign can and often should be down to much wider considerations than the performance of a single or small basket of initial keywords in the search engine rankings. Typically though this is what some business owners tend to focus on and by perceived market demand what some SEO companies will lead the business owner to measure as the success metric.

The reality though is the success criteria will vary depending on each individual business and the aim of the site but without an initial consult with the site owner or business marketing manager this important metric is often overlooked.

For example an informational or charitable site may only want an increase in exposure, the same could apply to a promotional site also. But an e-commerce site may need to see both tangible and non tangible results.

A tangible result in most cases could be a seen or measured return on investment from the SEO campaign by the generation of increased sales activity of either the target product and/or associated products, and non tangible success factors could be an increased public awareness of the business or brand awareness, and additionally lead generation from client capture that could lead to future sales and/or customer referrals.

In reality whilst the success of a campaign can come down to the increased ranking of a particular single target keyword or phrase resulting in increased visitor numbers or increased sales additionally, a successful campaign will also increase the site authority in the search engines as well.

Site authority can be gained from a short term campaign but in reality is often the result of a longer sustained and well planned campaign that not only targets a small keyword basket but also a diverse one.

Typically reporting only measures targeted keyword/phrase results but often a sites biggest boost in performance comes when it starts to develop authority.

So how do you know when your site is getting authority?

Simple, not only will your site rank for primary keywords but you will also start to rank for a whole bunch of keywords and keyword combinations especially if you have good on page optimisation or have had optimised copy written for you.

In addition to this you will also notice when checking your stats that search engines will send you traffic for phrases you have not even promoted and ultimately for phrases that may not even be on the page.

What happens here is the search engines surmise from your link popularity and on page factors that your site will most probably the site (or one of the sites ) most likely to provide the searcher with the answer they are looking for.

Some typical factors that help site authority are the quality, diversity and spread of the links to your site (not only the front page), new discovered link activity, new relevant pages on your site, on page optimisation and internal linking as well as a few other factors.

So in summary not only track your initial targeted keywords carefully to ensure the results are consistent with your success criteria, but also pay close attention to other keyword traffic that the search engines send you. If the search terms are profitable then develop additional optimised content and pages to grow your site organically and further develop your sites authority.

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Author: Dave Talbot: Correct search engine optimisation and search engine marketing are vital ingredients for any websites success in todays online world. Without them most websites will simply not be found and as a result will never be successful visit =>> SEO Southampton for information on effective website marketing strategies

How To Use Ezine Publishing To Triple Your Traffic Without Google

By Paul McCarthy in Featured

There are two different types of webmaster out there – those who really understand how to generate traffic online and those that bend over backwards to obey the master that is Google.

Generally speaking, the former are more successful than the latter, or at least have a much greater percentage chance of being successful.  There are only ever 10 pages on the front page of Google yet thousands of competitors.  Even more distressing is that a high listing is only ever a temporary thing – there’s no guarantee it’ll remain tomorrow.

SEO is something you should pay attention to and be diligent about because in the long run there’s no doubt it can pay off.  However, there seems to be a definite skew in online marketing towards getting on the front page of the search engine in comparison to other powerful methods of traffic generation.

In 2010 alone a site of mine has so far received 25,313 visitors yet only a shade over 28% of that traffic has come from Google.  I know that if Google suddenly drops my rankings like a bad habit then my business will survive and remain profitable; a fact that helps me sleep at night.

5 Things Bloggers Shouldn’t Do

By James Junior in Featured

There are a lot of articles and blog posts on the web that will present a list of things you should do in order to run a successful blog, this is not one of those articles. I want to discuss some of the things you shouldn’t do, opinions may differ but most of these you will likely agree with.

1. Don’t call yourself, “An Authority” or, “Expert” on your blog’s subject.
If you run a great blog and seem to have a great answer for everything, then yes, you are likely an expert or authority; but the minute that you announce to your readers that you are, you become a jerk instead. Think about it, the people who we admire the most are those that are modest and in denial about their own talents, whether they fake the denial or not, it is the cool thing to do. Same thing goes for heroes right? When was the last time some guy pulled a kid from a burning building, and when the reporter calls him a hero he says, “Yup, absolutely, I am incredible, aren’t I?” Never, that’s when. Anyone in that position knows that they have to say, “Hero? Nah, I was just doing what anyone else would do, I ain’t no hero.” Otherwise, he would be a jerk.

2. Don’t argue with your readers.
It doesn’t matter if he is the biggest idiot in the world, and you are right as rain; you are the only one with something to lose: your readers. If you think that your content is so good that you can say whatever you want to whoever you want, then people will go out of their way to ignore your blog and tell all of their friends to do so also. Treat everyone with the same respect that you would want, even if they are wrong, it will make you look like the better of the two.

3. Don’t fail to remember your theme.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but there are so many blogs that ramble on and never recover. Please do not get the wrong idea here. If you write a blog about playing baseball, then each and every one of your posts do not have to be about baseball, but if the last twelve posts are about your mother-in-law’s divorce struggle, then you seem to have lost direction. Yes, people want to understand that you are a real person, with real problems, but unless your blog is specifically about those problems, then stick to the subject.

4. Don’t alienate the “majority.”
Now this is a big one I see continually. Please don’t think that just because two or four people want your blog to go a particular route, that ALL of your readers want it to go that way. Keep in mind, a successful blog is about pleasing the majority of your readers. Just because you have a few people who LOVE a particular type of content, it doesn’t mean that all of them do. Remember, you likely have many readers whom you will never hear from on your comments, but are extremely in to your blog. So how are you supposed to know which direction they want you to follow? Well, try using the poll feature in Blogger or WordPress, and ask your readership what they like best; you may be surprised. Also, keep a mailing list that is up to date, and ask your members for their view; most people jump at the chance to offer their voice in a matter that concerns them. Plus, it will make you look great that you are asking for their input.

5. Please do not be a rolling billboard.
Look, everybody understands that advertising is what pays the bills for a full-time blogger, but when you jam ad copy down their throat at every single turn, it gets annoying. Take care of the most vital thing, the content, and the rest will take care of itself. Yes, ads are significant, and you should optimize your ads and put a ton of work into it; just don’t be overbearing with them. They are there, people see them, and if they are interested, they will click.

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James Junior – When I started my first blog years ago, there was no blueprint to follow or system in place that told me exactly what to do and what not to do. Today, bloggers are lucky that there are guys like Rob Benwell around to teach bloggers his award winning blogging system. If you want to become wealthy through blogging, then this system is the way you do it. Click here to read more about it.

Promoting Your Business Using Email and Newsletters

By Graham Baylis in Featured

Today there are numerous ways to promote your products and services online and one of the most powerful is the email and the newsletter. However, it is very important that you have permission from the addressees or your mails will be treated as spam and will not be read, and will therefore be a waste of time. So, how what steps can you take to make the most of your emails and newsletters? Always make sure that you have a purpose in mind when writing your email or newsletter, as it is essential to know what you want to get out of the process? Do you wish to just give information, make more sales or is it just keep in touch with your customers? Whatever your reasons, ensure that you do not waste the opportunity and your time by following these simple tips.

The Emarketing List

Your first task is to obtain contact details. There are many ways of doing this, but a fairly easy way is to use a so called squeeze page asking for their information. You can sugar coat this by offering a free gift or a discount on their first order or something else. Tell them that you will be sending newsletters and always make it easy for them to unsubscribe this service if they so wish. Always make them feel that there is no obligation. Potential and existing customers are more likely to remain with you and buy from you.

Interesting and Factual

Always make information interesting but keep it factual. Do not ramble on and on about things not relevant to your business. Choose topics carefully and attract attention quickly, so do consider your target audience thoughtfully. Keep the reader hooked so that they will visit your website. Perhaps give a couple of useful tips or insights. Do not give the hard sell, people don’t like this and they won’t read your news so give them useful information about your products or services. Try to demonstrate how your products or services can enrich their lives. Depending on what you have to offer, tell your audience how your products or services work and how much you can do to help them. However, do make sure that you can follow up on any promises made as nothing is more disappointing or frustrating than being let down.

Cheaper to Keep an Existing Customer then Get a New One

Fact is, that it is easier to keep an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one, so look after your existing customers and keep them coming back for more. Using email to give special discounts to past customers can give your business a boost. If a customer purchases goods from a company and never hears from that company again, chances are the buyer will forget the name of the company. By keeping in regular contact with your customers means that they are more likely to consider you when looking for the products or services that you offer. This of course is good for business and if you give excellent service, customers are more likely to recommend you to their friends and families.

Choosing How Often to Send Newsletters and Emails

You can choose how often you send out newsletters but be aware of sending too many or too few, you need to get the timing just right. That way your customers will look forward to receiving their newsletters or emails. In the end, it is all about keeping your customers happy.

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Graham Baylis – The use of newsletters and emails as a marketing tool is increasing all the time, but for those new to the medium, it can be difficult to know what to do and how to do it. Then of course you need access to the software applications that will actually send the messages out. For advice and help on both of these check out http://www.amdcommunications.co.uk.

3 Help Guides to Increase Your Website’s Conversion

By Pamelina Siow in Featured

As part of my search engine optimization service, I evaluate client’s web design and web contents. I do this right after I finish checking their market demands. When they do not have a website, I create one for them. For me this is much easier than redesigning an incorrectly designed website.

Why A Website That Converts Traffic is a Good Website:

The first benefit is you will get more calls and inquiries. When your website builds a bond with your prospects, they are definitely going to contact you to inquire further. There is a reason why they are on your website, to seek your service or product. This means more prospects which could mean increased sales!

The second benefit is that you get to capture their contact information, even if they are only on the finding information stage. Through continued contact, you can be their selected vendor when they are ready.

What Happens When Your Website Converts Traffic Into Prospects?

I’ve had clients who expressed interest in what the internet ccould do for their business. when I explained the many opportunities that could open up for them when they went online, they were astounded. And now, they are testimonials to how powerful the internet can be, if done properly.

One client receives up to 40 new inquiries per month. Now, they do not have to worry about getting new clients as their phone and emails are ringing off the phone.

My business partner has expanded her music school twice in 6 months and has to hire 2 staff to handle the calls. In addition, they have increased the prices of the music lessons as they want to attract premium clients who pay well for her excellent services. She enjoys predictable demand and can plan expansion accordingly.

When your website moves from an online brochure to lead generating tool, you can free up more time to grow your business, service your clients well and even select well-paying and kind clients to work with.

So How To Increase Website Conversion?

Tip 1) Segment your target audience.

Determine who your target audiences are and build a page for them with layouts and contents that would make them feel special. Many companies create their website from their services and products, however seriously, no one is really interested in what you sell. They are interested in how you can help them. By personalizing their page, you can speak to them and build a connection in order to get them to contact you.

Tip 2) Reduce the choices

People do not like to make choices. When given too many choices, they do not make a choice. In addition, it is ideal to assume that people who land on your website are easily confused. In fact, the truth is that your website layout might feel idiot-proof because the ideas spring from your head, however people completely new to your business might not feel the same.

Solution: De-clutter the website. Think through of a process of how you want your prospects to navigate through your website. Home ‘> Find Their Profile ‘> Contact You. And create the flow as simple as possible and reduce the options.

Tip 3) Provide an irresistible call for action

Anyone that lands on your website is important. And it is your goal to capture them! Critical, necessary and you must do everything to get them to contact or leave their contact details for you.

Tell them the next step. Ask them to sign up for a free report. Ask them to give you a call. Add you on facebook. Read your blog. You must tell them what you want them to do next. Always communicate with your contacts. Then you can build a database of prospective clients who are only a call away from buying your products.

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You will learn insider secrets and free resources designed to help you make MORE money than ever before! If you are looking to make 2010 the year of success, register for your FREE tips at http://www.Makeit-right.com . Pamelina Siow is an expert on generating leads through the internet. To keep in contact, read Pamelina Siow blog.

Top 10 Issues in Website Design and Usability

By Pilar Torres Wahlberg in Featured

You’ve tested your website, you’ve visited it a few times, you’ve gotten some feedback on it, and you have a bit of data about your visitors.

You might want to make some changes. Here are the top ten issues in website design and usability.

Think about these things in relation to your website and consider what you might want to do to perfect your site.

1. The First Glance

In general, people look at the top left corner of your website first. You should have your essential information there: what your offerings are and how your potential customers can get it. Some visitors are at your site only long enough to confirm that you sell what they want, and some are ready to buy. All visitors need to be able to tell what you do right away. Don’t hide behind a splash page or make people wait while something loads – many won’t take the time.

Top 7 Out-of-the-Box Ideas to Get Your Articles Published Online

By Donna Gunter in Featured

Even though I use an amazing article distribution service, not all publications or blogs serving my industry or my target market are on the distribution list for this service or for the well-known, high traffic article directories. So, to ramp up the syndication of my articles yet another notch, I also submit them to specialty or niche publications that I have discovered over the years.

It’s not always easy to find these publications and sites. Here are my 7 best out-of-the-box ideas to find publications and sites that are frequented by your target market and might publish your articles:

1. Blogs. Research blogs written for your target market at Blogcatalog.com, Technorati.com, and Google Blog Search. Many of the blog owners will willing publish posts of guest authors. And, if you subscribe to Cathy Stucker’s BloggerLinkUp.com, you’ll receive weekly notices of bloggers looking for content for their blogs.

2. Associations and print publications. Research the trade and professional associations for your target market. You can create a query in your search engine for combinations like “target market” + “association” or “target market” + “magazine” to get you started.

When you locate the associations, examine their trade publications, newsletters, and industry-related magazines for information about online blogs, ezines, forums, or the online edition of their publication. Many publications well-known for their print versions now have online versions where the publication lead time is much shorter and the stipulations for publications aren’t as restrictive. And, don’t forget to look at the online versions of your local newspaper, magazines, and media outlets. They are often seeking experts with content to beef up their online offerings.

3. Your competition. Google the name of your competitors and examine the results. Note where their content is being published. Chances are that you can be published on the same sites, as well.

4. Trainers of your target market. In your search engine look up “training” + “target market.” Whatever associations, portals, training companies, consultants, etc. that are providing education and information for your target market probably also need content for their sites and blogs.

4. Gender specific or business specific groups. If your target market is women, there are countless numbers of women’s business and networking associations and portals online. Simply search for “women” + “networking” or “women” + “association” or “business networking” + “association.” Many of these sites need content for their blogs, ezines, or web sites.

5. Niche article directories. You might find article banks or expert sites geared for particular niches, so look up “target market” + “article directory.” Some of the better known niche article directories are SelfGrowth.com, for self-improvement and holistic healing experts. Many of these sites will let you create a profile and publish your articles free of charge but require a fee to move your articles to a prominent place on their site.

6. Large portal sites. Look for portal sites like About.com and iVillage.com where the sites have guides, editors, or experts in specific areas. Many times these experts must publish a regular ezine or blog and are constantly seeking content. One of their editors at About.com used to publish a lot of my articles on her section on Online Business. Check out information portals like Squidoo.com and Hubpages.com as well for ideas on where to submit your articles. You might also find large portals geared specifically for your industry or your target market.

7. Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a large online encyclopedia to which the public contributes. Some areas are very well documented on Wikipedia. Additionally, Wikipedia’s References section, See Also section, and External Links area are often good online sources as well.

The content that you create is a primary business asset. Don’t let it languish on your computer’s hard drive. Make it work for you over and over again by seeking out new sites seeking useful content like yours.

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Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

Learn to Avoid Basic SEO and Internet Marketing Mistakes

By Paul Marshall in Featured

Frankly, the biggest search engine optimization mistake you can make is not doing any SEO at all. It’s amazing how many people believe “if you build it, they will come.” Marketing coaching makes one thing clear. Just putting a site up on the Internet won’t get you the traffic you want or need. By the same token, building a site and then thinking about SEO after the fact is a bad plan too. SEO needs to be at the heart of your Web plans from day one, and it’s a job that’s never “finished.”

Learn What’s Bad For SEO And Don’t Do It

If you take a drawing class, one of the first things you’ll learn is that it’s easier to look at the negative space than at the object itself. That means that as a beginner, you have a better shot at recreating the funky-looking space between the apple and the pear than drawing the fruit the first time you pick up a pencil. And you don’t get so discouraged when your results aren’t perfect. That’s a good concept to carry into online marketing.

Sometimes learning everything that can go wrong is a better place to start than trying to do everything right. Do-it-yourself, affordable SEO is too expensive at any cost if you’re constantly shooting yourself in the foot. Some of the biggest mistakes novices make are really the easiest ones to avoid!

Bad Navigation And No Sitemap

It doesn’t take a marketing coach to know that the entire point of “search engine optimization” on a site is to get that site crawled by the search engines. If you use images — or worse — Flash or javascript to design your navigation, the search engines will ignore you. (Also, any page that doesn’t have an incoming link won’t be crawled.)

Not having a sitemap is just as bad. Many website owners don’t think they need a sitemap because people don’t use them. It’s not about people! Search engines love sitemaps. They literally crawl all over sitemaps. Even if you have to maintain the sitemap manually, have one and link to it on every page of your site.

Poorly Constructed Title Tags And URLs

There’s nothing wrong with building your own website, but pay attention to what your software is doing. Many site building packages and content management systems repeat the same title tag on every single page. Good programs of marketing coaching teach you that the title tag is probably the single most-important SEO element of any page. The title tag must fit the content of the page itself.

But, don’t pay attention to the title tag and ignore the URL. This is especially a problem in content management systems and shopping carts. The URLs are full of numbers and letters. You need to be including your keywords in your URLs so the search engines pick up on them. Don’t waste the invaluable potential in either the title tag or the URL.

Banning A Search Engine By Accident

It’s not unusual for a novice site owner to mess up their robots.txt file. The file exists in your site’s root directory to talk to search engine spiders. You can tell them not to crawl pages or sections or send other individual instructions. Since the file is just plain text and is so easy to create, site owners wade in without really understanding what they’re doing. If you’re not careful, you can ban the search engines from your site altogether. Use Yahoo SiteExplorer or Google SiteMaps to make sure that your site can indeed by crawled.

Vague Anchor Text For Links

Using anchor text like “click here” or “next” is a waste. When you are cultivating incoming links or creating your own links inside your site, use useful, descriptive anchor text. You don’t want to repeat the same phrase over and over again. Get two or three relevant, keyword-rich pieces of anchor text and also use your company name. Empty phrases are just that — empty.

Doing accurate keyword research is fundamental to successful online marketing. It’s a huge topic in its own right, but you basically want to concentrate on phrases that are not overly general or that have too much competition. Good marketing coaches will spend a lot of time on keyword selection and you should too. Put that chore right up at the top of your SEO “to do” list.

In reading all the tips available on marketing coaching, you’ll find that most articles and courses focus on the things website owners should do. It’s also important to look at what you shouldn’t do. A poorly constructed site that fails to make good use of readable navigation, workable behind-the-scenes code, solid naming structures, and relevant anchor text will have a tough time online. Consider the fundamentals of basic SEO from the planning stage of your site to maximize your results and get the traffic you want.

About The Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a realistic budget. He’s a Marketing Coaching expert offering professional marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). He also offers Paul Marshall

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