By Jim Hedger (c) 2006

I am going to step way out on a limb. I suspect, and am willing to propose; this short period is a major transition point in the history of search. I’m marking it in my archive, if only because a niece or nephew of mine might study economics and ask about it one day. A number of events over the past three weeks have set in motion a chain of events that will unfold over the remaining months of 2006, setting the stage for a bizarre and highly fluid 2007.
On or about November 1, 2006, three interesting press releases found their ways into my inbox. While meditating over them with Hypertext The Cat (she who watches like vulture) and a cup of coffee, it occurred to me that Nov 1 was a watershed day in the history of online advertising.

By Paul Jahn

There are many questions regarding “Local Search” marketing and how it relates to search engine marketing (SEM). Many think of Local Search as a subset of SEM. Optimize your site with geographical locations, run some PPC advertising designated to your area, get some decent site conversions, and you’ve done your job.

There’s a little more to it than that.

The opposite is actually true. SEM is a subset of Local Search marketing. The difference between the two lies at the core. Proper SEM brings targeted visitors to your Web site. Local Search brings people to your door.

By Kim Roach (c) 2006

Did you know that an ancient Chinese military document unlocks many of the secrets to your online success? This book is called “The Art of War” and was written during the 6th century by Sun Tzu. This famous document is one of the oldest and most famous studies of strategy and has had a huge influence on military planning as well as business tactics.
Sun Tzu wrote about the importance of knowing your competitors before competing. This wisdom is crucial to your online success. Here are some quotes that verify this truth in the art of war as well as business.

By Titus Hoskins (c) 2006

What makes for a great webpage?
Wouldn’t you like to know the main ingredients for creating a superior webpage? What basic elements you must have if you want a solidly designed webpage? A webpage that will stand out and be noticed by your visitors. One that will keep those visitors returning to your site, again and again. An effective webpage that is 95% better than most of the other pages on the Net.

Follow these simple design features when creating your next webpage and you will have the answer:

1. Good Keywords

By Donovan Baldwin

Search engine optimization is primarily about getting your website tuned up to optimum effectiveness as far as search engines are concerned. However, the intent is to get a good search engine placement so that more humans will be exposed to the “opportunity” to visit your website. If done properly, the steps you take to optimize your website for search engines can also often be used to optimize your site to get website traffíc. After all, it accomplishes little to get a good ranking by a search engine and yet be passed over by the human viewing the search engine results.

So you have a slick, eye-catching web site with lots of fancy graphics and flash animation, congratulations! You excitedly type in your site’s url in Google’s search engine…and your site shows up in Google’s supplemental results.

What’s going on? What exactly are Google supplemental results and why would you not want your web site to appear in them? According to Google’s FAQ page, supplemental results are part of Google’s auxiliary index (main results are drawn from the main index) and pages, which appear on the supplemental listing, have “fewer restrictions” than those that appear on the main results page. They further say that the inclusion of sites on the main or supplemental index is purely automated and does not affect page rank at all.

What is the secret for gaining a high page ranking in the major search engines? In essence, it’s nothing more complicated than doing what the search engines want you to do. In other words, it’s making things easy for the robots when they come crawling around your site.

Let’s talk first principles.

One.
The search engines don’t operate for the benefit of webmasters. Their main function is to provide good information to the public at large. This means that any website you submit to them must reach their ‘good content’ criteria. Therefore, to achieve a high ranking, it is imperative that your website has better, more illuminating content than your competitors.

By Adriana Iordan (c) 2006

For a successful Search Engine Optimization strategy, take into consideration that search engines look at content and also at the structure of the markup. They emphasize the importance of text content, page titles, keywords rich text, meta descriptions and information architecture. A website where quality of content and code prevails will rank higher in the major search engines.
There are many Search Engine Optimization tactics, but try to find the best combination and don’t sacrifice the usability and performance of your website. Here is some basic information about improving your source code from an SEO perspective:

WNW Design is proud to launch a new website for Torquay-based company Diva. Getmyfashion.com sell the latest in womens fashion, including jackets; shirts; tops; and trousers from some of the biggest brand names in the world, as well as accessories and boots.

The website, which has been fully integrated with Bleep Software EPOS system, allows Diva to manage all stock control, ordering and customer management from their existing system. 

For all the latest fashionable key looks for the winter and spring seasons, check out the Diva website at http://www.getmyfashion.com.

By Kent Lewis

The good news: you can setup and manage a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising program on Google, Yahoo! or MSN within minutes.

The bad news: you can setup and manage a PPC advertising program within minutes. That means anyone can set up a PPC program, which has led to higher overall cost, lower click-through rates and conversions. There is hope, however.

The Process

Developing and refining a PPC advertising management process is essential. It enables a company or individual to train, automate and scale a PPC program, compounding the ROI. There are four key components of a winning PPC advertising program: explore, evaluate, expand and enhance. By following the 4E process, you can virtually guarantee an ROI on your PPC advertising program.