Entries from June 2008 ↓

A lot of the work I am completing lately – for myself and for clients – is revealing interesting differences between the top search engines. The big daddy engines, of course, are Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Strangely, each of these search powerhouses responds very differently to new, existing, and updated websites. Here are some of my most recent observations…

Google, as we all know, is the master search engine. With the majority of search hits daily, these guys dominate the search marketing world and most of what you hear about in terms of strategy and keyword targeting is based around making the Google algorithm happy.

These days, Google’s requirements for high page rank (the number or value it assigns to your website and individual webpages) is much more stringent than ever before. Still, PR is something a lot of us do not understand. With little transparency on Google’s part, the question of how to rank high is still largely a mystery although a number of factors are of obvious importance – quality links, quality content, and long-term presence.

On the Yahoo and MSN side, the rules seem to behave much differently. Some of the projects I have worked on recently have had surprising and seemingly inconsistent results in these Google counterparts. One website, for example, miraculously appeared right at the top of MSN for a target keyword without any explanation or clear reason. Very strange.

MSN has a network of tools available on its website, which I highly recommend. These are a nice complement to the Google tools we all recognize and use so often already. Like Google, there is very likely a strong connection between the tools MSN offers and its expectations for high ranking values.

This conversation of “how to get top search rankings for my website” is nothing new and will likely go on for a long time to come. If I have anything unique to add (or at least semi-unique) it’s to say that regular content seems to make a tremendous difference in my work. Google’s primary concern (and the other search engines will follow suit) is and always has been content. Sure, links and on-site optimization is important, but those elements seem to be increasingly arbitrary in the fight for SERPs.

I am a firm believer that the greatest investment of time for the best ROI in website development – whether for your business website or your affiliate marketing system – is always going to be in creating more on-site content.

If you are looking for a local Marketing Consultant in the Fresno area, you have come to the right place.

I specialize in helping local business owners get more results from their business website to transform their online business into more offline business in a matter of months.

• Does your website need more of a marketing impact?
• Are you not converting visitors into buyers?
• Is your daily traffic too low for generating sales?
• Do you need help understanding the Internet’s impact on local business?

These are all areas where I can help. My approach is very straightforward and tailored to your needs. I am a big believer that web marketing – and any kind of marketing – is a creative process that requires a long-term relationship with short- and long-term results.

If you’re in Fresno, Clovis, Visalia or any surrounding communities, contact me today to find out how I can help.

If you talk to enough Internet Marketing consultants and experts, eventually you’re bound to encounter what I like to call the creativity trap. Because so many people are out there looking for the big pie in the sky solution to everyone’s problems, there’s a tendency in this industry - like any industry - to think that some holy grail of web marketing really does exist.

First, targeted analytics was the answer. Then, Search Engine Optimization came rushing on the scene. And, today, Social Media is all the buzz. But what will be the next big thing?

Honestly, I haven’t a clue. (OK, well maybe I have a clue, but I certainly don’t have *the answer* you want.)

That’s what makes Search Marketing so exciting. Every new client project I work on brings new questions and thus new answers. And on the other side of the equation, the major search engines are constantly changing their rules to reflect their evolving standards and expectations from web developers.

Suggesting that a final solution exists for any form of marketing is, well, discouraging to say the least! The beauty of the Internet as a social and commercial space is its speed of transformation. Sure, there are major roadblocks and discouraging elements to marketing online - online traffic is much harder to convert these days; search companies are becoming much more stringent; social media is over-hyping and over-buzzing everything!

Still, the answer to these problems is NOT some hard-and-fast system. This is a creative business. (Wait! Isn’t business itself creative?) And creativity is going to be the leading factor for success in the years to come.