When you write web site content and design your pages, do you truly act with your target audience in mind? Or do you think global and act local?

I am amazed at the number of web sites I see that claim to target a global market, yet design and write their content for a regionally-specific audience. Not sure what I mean? Take the site I saw yesterday, for example. I won’t embarrass the site owners by pointing to the specific domain, but let’s just say the site is based in the U.S. and sells high quality gold chains throughout North America, Europe and Australia.

Google’s AdWords Optimization team has been delving into the art of making the product work better for its clients. To start things off, they recommend getting a little perspective first.

Finding those desirable customers and bringing them to your website requires knowing your industry and your audience. This is where Google believes online entrepreneurs need to look at what they want to accomplish, and consider its scope.

“Whether you are in retail or finance, an independent small business owner or a marketer for a large corporation,” blogged the AdWords team, “it helps to begin with a holistic perspective on the products and services you offer and how they fit into a broader industry landscape.”

Click fraud is the latest ‘hot topic’ circulating the online marketing arena, but what is it? And how does it affect you as a merchant running a pay-per-click campaign?

Spending on Internet advertising is growing faster than any other sector of the advertising industry and is expected to surge from $12.5 billion last year to $29 billion by 2010 in the U.S. alone, according to the researcher eMarketer Inc., with around 50% of this spending being spent on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising

Here we offer you a complete guide as to what this phenomenon is, who is likely to commit such an act, how to identify & prevent click fraud and how to best report instances of suspected click fraud on your PPC campaign.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings. (Wikipedia)

This definition of SEO sounds simple, but beware! Search engine optimization is a minefield, even for professionals, and although necessary to a business, should not be undertaken lightly. Below, is a brief look at the top 10 mistakes and how to correct them.

1. Non-Relevant Linkage.

Valentine’s Day is approaching fast, and Google has already given site publishers the equivalent of a basket full of Godiva chocolates with a Webmaster Central update featuring a much larger sample of backlinks than has been available.

It’s a good day to be a webmaster. The oft-used link: operator, long a resource of webmasters everywhere, has never been an accurate count of backlinks coming to a website. Google doesn’t trust people with the full details because they might do Bad Things with that knowledge.

Many websites currently offer a resource library for visitors - an area filled with articles covering relevant topics to the industry with which the site is connected. The articles may cover how to do something or define a particular aspect of the industry, but they do not usually directly sell the company’s products or services.

You probably already know the key to making any kind of income from the net is a well designed web site. What most people don’t realize your site doesn’t have to look perfect or be professionally designed to be successful.
Not by a long shot!

In the final analysis, any site that makes you money is a successful site. From a marketing perspective, any site which brings in an income can be considered a well designed site. Many people can’t get their heads around this fact: some of the most basic/ugly sites can be the most profitable. You don’t need a perfect site.

Just when you believed you had all your SEO tactics figured out, the web goes and changes on you. Not just the rules of the game but it takes the whole web platform right out from under your feet and changes it. What’s a poor webmaster to do?

Web 2.0 changes the whole ballgame. It not only places the Internet user squarely in the middle of things, but it gives that user the means and power to create and manipulate data. Web 2.0 dramatically changes how we view and use the web. Actually, in many respects, it creates a whole new Internet.

By Jerry Bader (c) 2007

The primary goal of all advertising, including website content is to be remembered. No matter what other marketing goal you want to achieve, if your audience doesn’t remember your presentation, it is a wasted effort and lost opportuníty. All the monëy spent on attracting people to your website goes right down the drain if your content is instantly forgettable. With that in mind it is hard to believe how little thought is put into creating content that people will remember.

By Bill Platt (c) 2007

Google algorithm updates always bring the fears of webmasters to a boiling point. In the aftermath of an algorithm update, some people come out swinging, making claims that Google is trying to put them out of business. Others look at their Google rankings and pat themselves on the back for having survived another “algo” update.