In today's tech-savvy marketing community, SEO, PPC and Social Media are common buzz words in the industry. There are endless blog posts, articles and webinars on maximizing your ROI and perfecting these areas of business, but for those who are completely new to the Web Marketing arena, we want to provide a quick and easy guide to get you started.

1.     Why should you consider web marketing?

After you put your time, effort and money into creating or redesigning a website - it is likely that getting potential clients and customers to your site is important to you. Instead of waiting for customers to find you, web marketing will help you find them when they are in the buying mindset. The costs of web marketing are much lower than traditional advertising and there are more measurable results. For example, a Google AdWords advertisement can cost as little as $0.25; once placed, you can determine how many people viewed and acted on your ad.

2.     What is web marketing?

Search Engine Optimization: Often called "organic" or "SEO," this type of web marketing is represented in the listings that appear on the left hand side of Google, outside of the yellow Sponsored Ads box. The position that your company holds is dependent on 100+ factors; your goal is to optimize your website to satisfy as many of those factors as possible to boost your organic ranking. This can be done through selecting keywords and using them in web copy, increasing credible inbound links, submitting sites to search engines and ensuring that back end items like ALT tags and H1 headers are optimized. Not only does a higher ranking give you credibility, but once you secure a comfortable ranking it takes a long time lose it. With SEO, potential customers are actively looking for your product or service and you have the ability to be at the top of the list when they search.

Pay Per Click Marketing: PPC is often considered the opposite of SEO. It is represented in the yellow Sponsored Ads box at the top of the page, and down the right hand column. You select the keywords you want to advertise your company on, and ads only appear when that keyword is entered into the search engine. When your ad does appear, you only pay when someone clicks on it. Your advertisement position depends on your bid and past click through history, so it is important to choose relevant keywords and ad copy. Companies like PPC because it is a quick way to advertise on the web, it offers good visibility and there is complete control over advertising costs when you set budgets for your campaigns. After setting up your account on Google, Bing or Yahoo! (which will soon merge with Bing) you can select keywords and write ad copy. As you move forward and tweak your campaign, you should shoot for a position between 1-3.9 and pay attention to click through rates.

Social Media: Social Media is essentially a variety of websites and tools that allow you to share information, connect with other users, and increase brand awareness. Some common avenues of social media are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Blogging. The benefits of social media include the ability to communicate with existing or potential customers, develop your brand, and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Getting started it easy, just sign up for accounts with a consistent username, determine your goals, create a strategy and begin publishing content that is consistent with your strategy and meaningful to followers. It is important to interact with others through various methods on each site. On Facebook you can "like" companies and post on user's profile walls. On Twitter you can reply, retweet and use hash tags (#) to engage in conversations. On LinkedIn, you can follow companies and respond to posted questions. You should continually monitor what is being said about your brand, and engage in discussions with people who are talking about your company, or the industry it is in.

3.     How do I begin web marketing?

There are a few strategies for beginning web marketing. Companies can choose to do all work internally, hire an agency to do the work for them, or a combination of the two. We recommend the combination, especially when it comes to social media. The people representing your brand should have an in depth knowledge of your organization, which only comes from being immersed in it. In order to determine what is right for your company, ask yourself:

• How much time do we have?

Typically social media is the most time consuming avenue of web marketing, with SEO close behind. PPC Advertising requires the least amount of time because once it is set up, only minor maintenance is required.

• How much money do we have?

In general, you will find that PPC Advertising is the most expensive, since you pay for every click on one of your ads. You can always set budgets, however, to control these costs. SEO requires ongoing maintenance, which can introduce costs for items like directory submissions. Social media is likely to be the least expensive option, as networking sites are free to use.

• How soon do we need results?

The quickest option to get results from your web marketing efforts will be PPC Advertising. To set up an account and post ads, you only need a couple hours to start receiving leads. Social media demands more time to build a following and establish your company as a leader. SEO efforts need to be spread out over a longer period of time so search engines don't perceive the website as spam. In order to increase your organic ranking, a few changes should be made each month, rather than all at once.  

With this brief overview of web marketing, you now have the ability to select what areas you would be most beneficial for your company. All industries, companies and customers have different needs, and they like to be communicated with in different ways. Make sure you have a firm understanding of these things before diving in to any of these web marketing tactics.

Developing an effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is an important consideration for any business owner looking to create a profitable online presence.  When properly executed, a successful SEO strategy will drive highly targeted organic traffic to your web site for months or years to come.  Also known as natural or non-paid traffic, organic search engine results are very desirable due to the limited ongoing costs associated with obtaining those potential new customers. Therefore, a well-executed SEO campaign will continue to yield financial benefits to your business long after your initial investment is made.

An effective search engine optimization strategy takes many factors into account, including keyword usage and placement and the relevance and quality of backlinks pointing into a web site.  A primary challenge with trying to obtain top organic search results is that ranking factors continually evolve and change over time. This is because Google and the other major search engines continually tweak their ranking algorithms in an effort to keep savvy online marketers from “gaming” the system and developing an unfair advantage. Not only are new ranking factors, such as site speed, added on a regular basis, the weight afforded to each factor is frequently adjusted making some criteria more valuable and others less so at any given time.

Not surprisingly, it is nearly impossible to accurately predict what factors are going to be afforded the most weight in the coming months and years. However, there are a couple of key things to remember that can make the process of developing a successful search engine optimization strategy much easier. First, Google (and other search engines) have two primary customers: web searchers looking for information and the advertisers who want to be found by those users. Therefore, their primary concern is to return quality and relevant search results that provide online searchers with the information and resources they need. For this reason, developing great content built around sought-after search terms (keywords and keyword phrases) is one of the most important building blocks for an effective search engine optimization campaign.

Another key factor to keep in mind is that the search engines give more credence to “authority sites” – and tend to rank those sites higher in organic search results. The number, quality and relevance of incoming backlinks from other sites is how the relative importance of any given site is determined.  In other words, the more other sites refer to and link to your content, the more credible your site will appear in the eyes of the major search engines. Guest blogging and submitting high-quality content to article directories (that then gets picked up by other online publishers) are two main ways of building these all-important Internet assets. 

It takes a lot of time and effort to succeed at search engine optimization. Therefore, many business owners find that working with a professional SEO firm can greatly reduce the ramp up time it takes to achieve solid traffic results. Without question, finding the right company to provide this service can save tremendous amounts of time and greatly add to your bottom line.

There are many advantages to choosing a custom web design service for your company’s online presence. Your web site is one of the most important marketing decisions you will make, so it is important to make the right choice from the outset. Although a customized web site will cost more upfront than a pre-designed template, there are a number of distinct advantages to selecting this option. In fact, working with a professional web design company can translate into a great long-term investment for your business.

Here are 3 Great Reasons to Consider Custom Web Design over Pre-Designed Templates

1.    One-of-a-Kind Design. It goes without saying that your business and your brand are unique. With custom web design, you can convey that originality via a professionally crafted and imaginative web site. Unlike the many cookie-cutter templates on the market, a customized solution created just for your business won’t be duplicated all over the Internet. Instead, your web site will enhance and reinforce your marketing efforts by conveying a distinctive look and feel that is uniquely your own. This will increase customer recognition of your company and its products and services – and will help build greater trust and credibility with your potential clients. The end result is a more robust bottom line for your business.

2.    Better Search Engine Optimization.  As more and more people are taking their search for information, products and services online, the importance of this aspect of web design is becoming increasingly important.

Most reputable design firms are familiar with search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and will leverage that expertise on your behalf. This technical know-how is invaluable in terms of delivering highly targeted organic search engine traffic to your web site. On the other hand, if your site is poorly constructed from this standpoint – as is often the case with pre-designed templates - it can negatively impact its overall performance for years to come. In most instances, the amount of traffic your site receives is directly proportional to its overall success. It is very difficult to convert traffic that isn’t there into loyal customers!

3.    Design with Future Growth in Mind. Another great feature associated with hiring a professional web design firm is that they can help plan for the future growth of your company from a technological standpoint. This is great for many start-up operations working on limited marketing budgets. While it is important to establish a web presence as soon as possible, many young organizations are unable to invest large sums of money right out of the gate. However, by working with a professional web designer, you can quickly establish a near-term web presence that can be expanded as your business grows and prospers. In this sense, the web design firm you select is a true partner in terms of the long-term success of your business.

Although having your web site professionally designed will cost more at the outset, the long-term benefits of doing so make it a worthwhile investment in your business.

Quality web design can mean the difference between success and failure for your online business efforts. Whether your business is primarily “brick-and-mortar” or completely “click-and-order” (or somewhere in between), there are a number of ways that effective web design can help make your operation more profitable. Therefore, it is a good idea to keep these factors in mind before you launch a new website or revamp one that already exists.

One way quality web design can make your online venture more profitable is by making your website more visible to search engine spiders. There are a number of ways this can be accomplished by optimizing your site “behind the scenes.” One way is to incorporate targeted keywords into your title, “meta” and “alt” tags. Another is to develop an intra-site linking strategy which makes it easier for search engine spiders to find and index all of your web pages. When done correctly, effective search engine optimization techniques such as these can lead to more and more free (organic) web traffic coming to your site over time. This, in turn, creates more opportunities for you to convert those first-time visitors into satisfied repeat customers.

Another important aspect of effective web design is how well it appeals to and engages human visitors. The reason for this is quite simple: for a business to exist at all, it must have a steady supply of new and repeat customers. Therefore, your website must be designed in a way that grabs your prospects’ attention and holds onto it long enough for them to take action. After all, what is the point of having a website if the vast majority of your potential customers hit the back button within the first few seconds of landing on it?  It is really hard to make a sale to a prospect who has already left!

Good website design can also improve your bottom line by helping your site appeal to a wider audience. This can be accomplished by offering a value-added, content-rich layout enhanced by strong aesthetic appeal and intuitive navigation. The goal is to create a visually rich and welcoming destination that is easy to use and understand. As with other types of design, a simple and consistent approach is often best. For example, you may want to select only 2 or 3 complementary colors and use them consistently throughout your entire site. Same goes for font choices, formatting and text size. Using a limited number of options repeatedly is much more appealing than a random hodge-podge of choices that don’t follow any pattern. Without question, these and other bad design choices can be distracting – and can result in lost sales opportunities.

Remember, the key to effective web design – and a profitable online venture - is to stay focused on providing the type of products, services or information your potential customers are seeking. Keeping these basic principles in mind can help maximize the profitability of your own online business efforts.

By now you’ve probably heard about the Yahoo/Bing Search Engine deal.  So what’s that mean for Joe User?

Basically, it all boils down to the fact you’ll need to start paying more attention to Bing.  Google still dominates the market and will for some time.  However, Bing is gaining traction with this deal and could gobble up some search market share over the coming months.

That said, I’m recommending to clients that they don’t make an abrupt strategy decisions just yet but instead address the merger with a measured approach.

From an organic search engine optimization standpoint, I am keeping a closer eye on their Bing search rankings and making some site changes that will specifically help their Bing placements.

Most of our clients use Google exclusively for pay-per-click marketing for reasons explained in my earlier post, Pay-per-click Marketing – Where to put your money?  However, I am considering splitting some PPC campaigns between Google AdWords and Bing on an experimental basis.  I’ve read some anecdotal evidence where others have had better success with Bing than Google.  I’m curious if it will translate for our client base.

In summary, pay attention to Bing but don’t go change everything just yet.

P.s.  SEOmoz published a great blog post, Top 10 Things the Microsoft/Yahoo! Deal Changes for SEO, that explains the implications of this merger more in depth (and perhaps more eloquently) than I have.