By Claudia Bruemmer (c) 2007

For long-time search marketers it will come as no surprise that search has become a media darling. Pay-per-click advertising is the most popular online marketing strategy, and organic search engine optimization provides top click-through and conversion performance.
Search is more popular than display ads and emaíl marketing because of its excellent performance and ROI. Internet marketers should take note of the development in the search marketplace in order to better focus their advertising budgets.

Search is Evolving

The jury of search engine experts over at SEOMoz has weighed in, and here are the top factors affecting search engine placement, according to them, with my comments.

1. Keyword Use in Title Tag
I have said for many years that if I had a gun to my head, and could do only one thing to a web page to optimize it, my choice would be the title tag. Put your keyphrases in your title tag, and remember to optimize each page individually (i.e. don’t overstuff your title tag, and have different title tags for each page that reflect the content of that particular page - otherwise, you may suffer from a duplicative content exclusion and find yourself in the supplemental results).

Building customer trust online is a combination of good branding, good design, and good content. A website needs all three components to be successful in creating a climate of trust that encourages sales.

Branding is about finding a specific idea that you stand for, finding a way to own that idea in a credible way, and ultimately building a total trust that you will always deliver.

Branding for Success

Are you considering adding a newsletter to your website but need some newsletter writing tips to get you started?

Do you have concerns like: How much of my time is this going to take up? How long should each email be and how many emails should I send out in total? What if I no longer have anything relevant to say? Can I keep up the quality of my newsletter over a certain length of time?

By Mark Daoust

There is a vicious rumor circulating among website owners that search engine optimization (SEO) is the single most powerful förm of marketing on the web. I have my suspicions that this rumor was started by professional search engine optimizers, but I have not yet received my mail-in Nancy Drew kit to reach a definitive conclusion. All the same, it might be best to not share this information with any professional SEO who is trying to win your business.
The truth, however, must be told – SEO is not the best marketing for your website. To those of you who are professional marketers, this will not come as a surprise, but SEO takes a backseat to the real king of marketing. Unfortunately the mystique of Google, complete with their daily updates and rumors (I heard that Larry Page has been parting his hair on the other side this week - a pagerank update must be near!), has gotten so many website owners Googley-eyed that they are missing the real marketing gem that we should all be aiming for.