Search engine optimization has become a top priority for digital marketing professionals, according to a recent survey from Practical eCommerce.

The online magazine polled readers in April, and found that 95 percent of respondents said SEO was important to their business. Just 3.1 percent said they didn't know, and only 1 respondent said it wasn't important.

The survey found that 82.8 percent of respondents indicated their website is search engine optimized, while 11 percent said it wasn't and 6.3 percent professed they didn't know.

Comments about the importance of SEO included "essential" and "imperative," but there was found to be a gap between the number of respondents who said SEO was important and the number that said they understand it.

The survey found that 40.6 percent of respondents "completely" understand SEO, while 54.7 percent understand it "somewhat" and 4.7 percent said they don't understand it at all.

When it comes to search engine marketing, it seems natural search has emerged as the most effective. A recent study from Internet Retailer found that 51 percent of retail marketers said a quarter or more of their website traffic comes from natural search, compared to 28 percent who said so for paid search.

 

From http://www.ricg.com

 

Expert: B2B SEO is the future of web marketing

2010-05-13

B2B SEO can be a crucial tool for businesses when it comes to generating new leads. Now, one expert claims that it could become even more important in the future.

According to B2B search engine optimization expert Tom Demers, SEO will dominate web marketing in the future. SEO's rise in popularity will be due mainly to the tremendous benefits it can provide a business, especially in regards to the relatively inexpensive barrier to entry, reports DirectNews.

Social media marketing may also enhance SEO. Demers believes an integrated marketing approach can strengthen a company's brand.

"Building relationships and building your brand is great for SEO ... Every form of marketing helps supplement and amplify every other form of marketing when done properly," Demers said, according to DirectNews.

This news comes after a recent survey conducted by Genius found that many B2B organizations are missing out on opportunities to use SEO. Of the respondents, 32 percent of B2B companies didn't use SEO tools, reported Genius. Similarly, many didn't use social platforms, like blog software or social media, either. From http://www.komarketingassociates.com

Captiva Marketing Debuts SEO Friendly Content Management System

Published on May 13, 2010 by Last Click News ·   1 Comment

[PRWeb] — St. Louis-based, web design and search engine marketing firm, Captiva Marketing, prepares to take calculated risk with launch of new search engine friendly web content management system. After posting $2.2 million in revenue in 2009 and ranking as one of the fastest growing companies in the country by Inc. magazine, the search engine marketing firm is debuting a new SEO friendly CMS called Empoweren intended to help users build, maintain, and promote their websites more effectively in search engines.

While it may seem odd that a company that provides search engine marketing services would create a content management system that cannibalizes the needs for some of its services, Captiva’s management anticipates an opposite effect.

“By empowering our clients to do more search engine optimization internally, we are seeing them generate more ideas and wanting more consulting, design, and development assistance than when they were in the dark about how the whole optimization process worked,” said Mark Forst, President of Captiva Marketing.

The Empoweren search friendly CMS incorporates important features like customizable SEO fields, search engine friendly file names, a spider friendly menu system and auto generated site maps and breadcrumbs. It also integrates easily with Google Analytics and the Forms Manager has fields so that one can apply CPC conversion tracking codes with no assistance from a programmer. For more sophisticated users, the system allows users to include page-to-page server side re-directs, no index / no follow options and even has a method for addressing duplicate content within a site.

“As SEO consultants, we know that two of the most important aspects of search engine optimization are building good content and generating links into one’s site. Based on this, we placed a huge emphasis on making the system easy for non-technical personnel to use and offer support in link building, online PR distribution and social media,” adds Mark.

To accommodate these goals, every aspect of the system was built with usability and search engine friendliness as its two key driving forces. The company methodically moved new and existing clients to the system over the past year and a half in order to ensure that it achieved these goals. Its ease of use is evident as one of the system’s original users, a large municipality in Missouri, has over 50 people effectively editing its site despite very minimal training.

In regards to link building, the system includes modules that allow users to easily publish and distribute news releases, white papers and other information as well as blog module that can help serve as the hub of one’s social media efforts. Captiva Marketing’s SEO and PR/Social Media teams are also available to help set up and integrate the system with one’s initial link building and submission work and implement ongoing PR and social media programs that can be self managed or run by Captiva Marketing.

Empoweren has already been implemented by almost 100 websites including one of the country’s largest material handling equipment distributors, a major restaurant chain in the Midwest and the economic development department of St. Louis County. Empoweren has been implemented in a variety of industries including retail, industrial, manufacturing, restaurants, schools and more. A reseller program is currently being developed to accommodate requests from ad agencies, web design firms and SEO consultants who want to use the system to streamline their own operations.

“Having serviced a wide variety of business and organizations with SEO services for the past 8 years, we have been constantly frustrated by the limitations of many web content management systems. With Empoweren, we have not only addressed these issues in the development of the system, but also in creating an organization that can help develop search engine friendly websites and provide ongoing training and support. Plus, since Empoweren is a hosted system, we continue to roll out system enhancements to take advantage of new opportunities in the dynamic search engine marketing field,” said Forst. From http://www.lastclicknews.com

 

Mixing and matching content and SEO

Published on May 6, 2010 by Last Click News ·   No Comments

You can find anything on the internet. Writers around the world write about any topic under the sun, and they post it on the internet—making it a huge sea of knowledge.

However, in order for articles to be read, it needs to be found in the vast Web. To do this, internet content needs search engine optimization (SEO).
All the experts know that without a comprehensive SEO campaign, an online article will die.

How do you optimize content? Simple—use keywords. This is basic for any online site. A site uses specific keywords and key phrases targeted at an audience.

A browser will type in the keyword or key phrase in a search engine, which will rank relevant sites for the browser. However, keyword placement is not as easy as it seems.

Today’s search engine have complicated algorithms that can discern whether content is relevant or irrelevant. When you start sputtering keywords all over an article (ruining creative integrity in the process), search engines become more suspicious about your article. Hence, there’s a high chance that the search engine will not rank your site high for that particular keyword.

That’s why big online companies choose to pass content creation to SEO firms, whom have a great understanding of how to integrate SEO techniques with content.

For others, however, keyword placement is one quick way to kill creativity. It puts structure on creative content, prioritizing a term—not because it is right—but because it is frequently searched.

A great SEO campaign will be able to balance it out. Integrate good content with SEO techniques without sacrificing quality—that’s the key! From http://www.lastclicknews.com

 

Google's search market share increases in April 2010

Google is the most popular target for search engine optimization (SEO), and with the latest search engine market share report from Experian Hitwise, it doesn't look as if that will change any time soon.

According to Experian's latest report, Google accounted for 71.4 percent of the total searches in the United States in April, up 2 percent from March 2010. Google's top three competitors - Yahoo, Bing, and Ask - all fell month-over-month. Yahoo, Bing, and Ask made up 15, 9.4, and 2.2 percent of searches, respectively.

Search engines continue to be the most popular way for consumers to navigate the internet. In April 2010, the automotive, business and finance, entertainment, news and media, shopping, and social networking industries showed double-digit increases in traffic from search engines.

Experian's report also showed that keeping keywords short and simple is key when modifying a site for search engine optimization (SEO). According to the report, searches that were one, two, and three words long made up more than 65 percent of the total searches.

Last week, Yahoo announced a new ad campaign designed to drive traffic to their search engine. The campaign labels Yahoo as a one-stop internet destination. From http://www.brafton.com

Linking from other sites for better SEO

Published on May 8, 2010 by Last Click News ·   No Comments

Linking from other sites are detrimental to the success of you search engine optimization (SEO) campaign. The general idea is: the more links you have from other sites, the better chances you have in ranking among the top search results.

However, you need high-quality links from authoritative sources in order to achieve maximum effectiveness.

Links from your peers

Links from high-quality websites that have similar topics as yours are important. Look for businesses related to yours, but ones that you are not in direct competition with. Competitors will not be willing to link to your site as it may affect their own SEO campaign.

In order to find these sites, you will need to research. You should look for a site that has the following: relevant content, good reputation, and an online community.

Go Social

In today’s context, social media networks are widely popular—the market is there! With millions of users, you’re sure to obtain traffic from these sites.

Create a social networking profile for your site, one that will give it attention from other users. A profile is a great way to earn a user’s trust and loyalty.

Blog, blog, blog

These days, more and more businesses are using blogs as a part of their SEO campaign. The most important thing here is to always prioritize high-quality content and to constantly update the blog. Web spiders are always on the look out for new and relevant content, and if you have both you’ll have a better chance at getting top ranking.

The blog is a venue for you to introduce your business to browsers, and give them a casual idea of how your business works.

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwire - May 10, 2010) - Custom Tee-shirts Company, Speedee Shirts, recently announced their decision to form an alliance with SEO 1 Services, the search engine optimization firm from Dallas. A spokesperson for Speedee Shirts said that one of the primary reasons why they chose SEO 1 Services is because the company offers organic SEO solutions that fit well with the company's objectives of advertisement for today as well as tomorrow. Apart from the cost effectiveness and affordability of organic search engine optimization over regular PPC marketing, the strategy is in line with their long term goals.

Speedee Shirts offers a variety of custom gift items including customized t-shirts and stationery items. The company would now like to let people know about their services through their portal in a fiercely competitive environment. The retailer offers one of the widest ranges of custom t-shirts, including a vast array of patterns such as sleeveless, long sleeves, ladies' tee-shirts, crewnecks, hooded sweatshirts, with pockets, team uniforms and tank tops.

When quizzed about their decisions to adopt SEM Marketing, Christopher LeDonne, the president of Speedee Shirts, said he was confident about the search engine optimization company's ability to deliver suitable visibility solutions. He also stated that the mounting cost of PPC campaigns make the prospect of using organic SEO techniques more feasible. He further added that the long term benefits and pledge of organic SEO were in tandem with the company's commitment to their customers, unlike PPC marketing which is now being associated with fly by night operators. Mr. LeDonne said that he was confident SEO1 would be able to propel their website to a high Google ranking and turn it into prime online real estate.

Speedee Shirts has also recently added a new line of promotional items to their site, such as banners, promotional pens, commercial printing, as well as holiday cards. A new version of the portal is schedule to go live the next quarter in a move to make the design center an even more appealing experience to the end user. From http://www.marketwire.com

 

The Evolution of Search Engine Optimization Maintaining the applicable skills relevant to SEO can leave many SEO specialists floundering. Following the evolution of SEO is the best way to update the skill set necessary for effective search campaigns.
by Brian Easter April 26, 2010

The biggest change search engine optimization has seen in the last 5 years is recognition.  Previously, “SEO” was a term that might be thrown in at the end of a meeting and left mostly unexplained. Now, SEO is a major focus of many firms’ marketing campaigns – and it’s often specifically requested. In addition to increased interest, the actual process for achieving success has evolved dramatically.  Previously, keyword stuffing, link farms, and other shady tactics were all perfectly acceptable.  If you practiced SEO that way today, you would be accused of “Black Hat SEO”.  Although SEO is still a young profession, it has evolved rapidly to handle the increased adoption from major companies and the constant changes in search engine algorithms and behavior. Keywords: From Stuffing to Purposefully Selective Historically, one of the primary focuses of SEO has been keyword density.  Including a desired keyword as many times as possible in meta tags, title tags, and on the page was an effective strategy to create rankings in search engines.  Now, if you try the same strategy, search engines will quickly red flag your site; and instead of gaining rankings, your site will be exiled to no man’s land. Today, SEO depends on quality content.  Creating content and title tags that still draw attention to particular keywords is a key part of this strategy; however, including these keywords in text that is naturally written (without forced repetition) is now considered the best practice for having your page rank for desired keywords. Design: From Afterthought to Intentional Design The promotion of SEO has long been solely the domain of marketing companies, but recently an increasing number of companies have taken the initiative to pursue SEO firms, rather than be pursued by them. Not only is SEO in greater demand than ever, SEO strategies are being incorporated into comprehensive marketing strategies, making SEO efforts more effective.  The appearance of SEO as a driving force in a marketing plan makes maintaining effective, relevant SEO practices all the more important – a piece of the marketing mix that cannot afford to be relegated to the backburner, but must rather be intentionally designed and thoughtfully planned to achieve success. Links: From Quantity to Quality As with any profession, if you start talking to a SEO specialist about certain aspects of their job, there will always be a point about which they wax rhapsodic, usually regarding how it was better in the good old days.  In the case of SEO, the good old days are approximately 5 years gone, and the topic of discussion is links. Getting links used to be simple; working with link farms and creating reciprocal link trades often involved an email or two at most.  Google didn’t mind – seeing that a site had 1,000,000 links was sufficient to ensure that rankings were achieved, never mind that 999,999 might be from online gambling sites. These days, however, search engines have refined and streamlined the criteria for what constitutes a good link. The quality of linking domains has gained prominence as sheer volume has decreased in importance.  The best links today can be described in two words; “relevant” and “organic”.  Gaining links from another website closely related to your products or services, or even merely in the same genre, is much more beneficial than farming out links to say, textile manufactures in China.  In SEO terms, organic doesn’t mean pesticide-free, but rather the appearance of naturally occurring links, or linking for interest and not for money.  The combination of these two factors makes quality links much harder to obtain and is one of the more difficult challenges SEO specialists face when creating effective campaigns. The New Kid: Social Media The emergence of social media marketing as a viable option to draw traffic and position the brand in search results has lead to a new interest in strategies for gaining dominance on social networks. Although effective SEO strategies for social media have not been completely solidified, what is clear is that the rules are radically different from traditional SEO.  For a successful pairing of SEO and Social Media Optimization (SMO) consumers must enjoy your product and appreciate your site.  Creative skills like web design and marketing tactics like coupons or sales are becoming increasingly important to successful search campaigns, in large part due to the impact of social networks. The Skills SEOs Need Now: Writing and Networking Never underestimate the talents of a technical SEO specialist.  With their up to the minute knowledge gained from constant blog perusal, knowledge of HTML, and ability to perfectly place content, these masters continually force search engines to update their algorithm.  These days, however, technical skills alone are not sufficient for effective SEO.  Writing compelling copy, be it for on page content or off, is now a required skill.  Developing unique and imaginative content, while still conveying the brand message of clients, is a difficult task that requires both creative talent and experience.  However, using writing skills effectively to create valuable content is now vital to the success of SEO campaigns. The next set of skills now essential for SEO efforts is networking.  Gaining a network, through social media or in person, is a much more effective way to gain quality, organic links than dated tactics like trading or buying links.  A result of the evolution of link importance, these quality links are valued by search engines for their relevancy and context. SEO: Dynamic, not Static SEO continues to evolve, and smart firms will evolve with it.  Although the importance of keywords and links cannot be discounted, new factors such as networking and writing are valuable skills that must be honed.  The combination of traditional skills and current techniques make SEO more effective and more integral to marketing campaigns than ever before.   Climbing to the Top The NUMBER ONE QUESTION since announcing our entry into the world of web development has been, “How do I get my company listed on the first page of a Google search?” While many in the development world promise miracles, few produce tangible results. Search engine optimization—or SEO as it is commonly referred to—is both an art and a process.  Then come social media strategies for Facebook and Twitter. These modern methods of staying connected are no longer just for your kids just to chat with their friends. All of these things offer a powerful addition to the advertising campaigns currently utilized by successful companies. The problem is finding the right company to engineer and implement the correct strategy to bring your marketing efforts to new heights. Our approach to integrating web and social media into existing campaigns is based on a team concept.  Each member of our team takes part in developing recommendations for your business. Taking time to really understand what your company needs is our number one concern when designing and implementing a successful plan.  As part of our new approach we have started the “Hot Pass” promotion. This innovative method offers an affordable way for merchants in our community to communicate special offers to customers virtually instantaneously. It incorporates print advertising, web and social media all into one simple solution. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the hottest specials in town. See you at the top!