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"Local Search Marketing - The Next Wave!" Excerpts
from 
Local Search Marketing provides the opportunity to geo-target customers like never before.
The Good News: Local customers are actively searching for a business likes yours on the Internet. And studies show that these customers have a serious buying intent.
The Problem: As a local business you have to figure out how to cost-effectively connect with them. You probably have heard of search engine marketing or pay-per-click advertising; but what does that mean to your local business?
Where Are Your Customers Searching?
1. The major search engines, including Google, Yahoo and MSN. All three of these search resources have a local search feature.
2. Internet Yellow Pages. The offline Yellow Pages see the writing on the wall and are scrambling to transfer their business model to the Internet.
3. Local Directories and Portals. There are national directories like CitySearch that offer localized business information. In addition, there are directories and portals that only service local regions.
4. Industry Specific Directories. There are numerous directories that focus on specific types of businesses and services and will list them geographically. For example, wedding photographers, realtors, hotels, bed and breakfasts, and web designers.
The Internet is changing how local businesses are marketing. The future of your business will be determined by your ability to effectively adapt to this media.
Local search marketing is the next wave of the Internet, in fact, it will be a tsunami. Nöw is an excellent opportunity to position yourself and get the jump on your competition. Will you be ready to ride the wave?
"SEO - Natural Linking Strategies" Excerpts
from
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be the difference between a small, barely profitable or visible website and a traffic magnet website. There are a lot of ways, both good and bad, to influence the search engines. Some search engines react to certain strategies better than others. Some even have conflicting strategies that they react to. To document all of these things would require a significant number of pages and research that goes beyond the scope of this article.
However, there are a number of things that can be documented that will work for most, if not all search engines. And let's face it; there are really only 3 that make a difference between a successful and an unsuccessful SEO strategy. They are the big three: Google, Yahoo and MSN. These three search engines in any given month are responsible for over 90% of all internet searches.
So, what is this article about? It's about what you can do as a website owner that will influence the search engines using commonly accepted practices of linking to other websites (outbound) and getting website links (inbound) back to you. There are basically 4 strategies that a website owner usually will employ to increase website value in the eyes of the search engine. They are reciprocal linking, one-way linking, multi-site linking and directory linking. A website owner should not think that using just a single strategy is the right answer - sure it will help your SEO, but it won't be the Best answer. The Best answer is to employ all 4 techniques and to do it naturally.
Each of the four linking strategies has specific descriptions that can be summed up as:
1. Reciprocal Linking = Site A links to Site B, Site B links back to Site A.
2. One-Way Linking = Site B links to Site A.
3. Multi-Site Linking = Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, Site C links to Site D, and Site D links back to Site A. Could be 3..N number of sites involved.
4. Directory Linking = Site Directory A links to Site A.
That seems simple enough, but it takes time and effort to perform all 4 strategies and most website owners aren't willing to spend the time or don't have the time to spend on it. As a website owner, SEO needs to be one of the highest priority tasks that you need to address, just after Order Processing and Fulfillment and Customer Service. Without free traffic from the search engines, other traffic generation strategies that usually require payment must be engaged.
Finally, it would be best for a good percentage of your inbound links to appear within the text of a page that appears natural for the reader of that site. And for those links to not all point back to the home page of your website. It's most natural for a good high quality link to appear in the text of a page and have it point internally within your site.
So, when you begin or continue your SEO activities keep all of these things in mind and don't be impatient. Impatience could incur penalties or worse. Your website could end up in the "sandbox". It is rumored and becoming more concrete that Google supposedly uses a sandbox that questionable sites are put in until they have aged to a point that Google no longer feels that they are being manipulated. Many of the search engines use similar protection schemes to eliminate sp@m sites and manipulation sites to keep their SERP's from being cluttered.
"10 Better Ways Than "SEO" To Get Web Site Traffic" Excerpts
from
Does your web site clearly tell your prospects why they should do business with you instead of your competitors? Does it have a clear "call-to-action"? Are you set up to track your visitors and conversion rates? And lastly, do you know what a visitor is worth?
If you've done all this, you're ready to bring traffic to your site. If you haven't, go back and do those things or you'll be wasting money.
Everyone wants "organic" or "free" traffic, but it's a full time job to try to keep on top of the search engines changing rules. Instead, if you build a good content-rich site and do the things on this list, you'll get traffic from these things and help your ranking at the same time.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ... Distribute Your Content ...Get One-Way Incoming Links ... Give Other Sites Your Testimonial ... Email Promotions ... Get Affiliates ... and
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Lots of technical issues and you should hire an expert to do it for you. Anyone who guarantees high rankings is a fraud because no one can guarantee Google or Yahoo will do anything and the rules change constantly. (They will guarantee some key word like your company name, but not a competitive word that would do you any good). How your site is designed is the key to this.
The big 3 of SEO are:
Content
Relevant one-way incoming links with good Google PR
Proper site design.
Everything listed in the 10 points above helps with content and providing one-way links, so all you need to add is proper site design. Key to make this work: don't think one page site, think a site with hundreds of optimized pages all tightly themed and relevant to one target market. Make sure to get someone ethical and competent. People publishing articles on MarketingSherpa.com or SiteProNews.com are typically good.
November Search Engine News From
www.searchengine-news.com
Google - As this month's update issue is coming to publication, Google is in the process of a major update to its search index. So far the update, dubbed Jagger, has been rolled out in two of its three planned stages. Jagger 1 and 2 have already taken effect. Jagger 3 is roiling the web at the moment of this writing. However, before you make any adjustments to your site, we strongly recommend that you bear in mind that its still too early to completely gauge the update's full effect. In the past we've experienced tumultuous ranking changes that mellow out over a period of weeks following the initial emergence of a major update.
1. Run-of-site links have become even less effective at boosting link equity and rankings.
2. Having incoming links from a wide variety of sources has become even more important.
3. Links coming from many different sites with a wide range of PageRank, and scattered across a natural looking spread of IP addresses, is even more rewarding than before.
4. We have seen past instances where Google, as they test their update and acquire feedback, gradually return the good sites that were inadvertently penalized back to their original positions—while continuing to filter out most of the sites they deem undesirable.
MSN - As we predicted last month, MSN has begun accepting applications for its new adCenter PPC program. It's not exactly open to the public yet, and the application process is still pretty rigorous, but if you're looking to get in on the ground floor of what is likely to become a major new PPC engine, then head on over and fill out your application.
AOL - Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Comcast are all rumored to be competing for the purchase of a stake in AOL's portal. While AOL's star has been on the wane these past few years, it's still one of the most highly-trafficked sites on the Internet.
Yahoo! Search Marketing - Yahoo finally eliminated their $20 monthly minimum spend requirement, which many felt was one of the most annoying aspects of running a Yahoo Search Marketing campaign. Advertisers are likely to appreciate the increased flexibility. They'll no longer have to worry about wasting money whenever the minimum monthly spend requirement isn't met.
336-408-9075
Rich@RichsWebDesign.com
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