Over the past couple years it has been impossible to avoid the buzz about images and their increasing role in search; such as universal search which is becoming commonplace among the major search engines. But universal search is only the most prevalent news and only the baby-steps of a new format of search that is about to take over the Internet. Do I have your interest piqued? I will now lay the foundation of my statement to hopefully get you as excited as I am about this unstoppable search evolution.

The goal of the search engines is to provide the most relevant information to its users. It’s in the best interests of the search engines to be relevant because if the information returned is not relevant, the web user will use a different search engine and this will take money out of their (massive) pockets.

The majority of searches worldwide are conducted on 3 major search engines (Google, Yahoo! and MSN).

Are you familiar with algebra? The search engines use mathematical formulas called ‘algorithms’ to evaluate your website’s relevance in relation to ’search terms’ or ‘keywords’. Each search engine uses different algorithms (which are not disclosed to the public), which focus on 2 main areas which I call: Content and Link Popularity.

Undertaking any new advertising campaign should also entail the optimization of your landing pages. These pages need to be set up primarily to convert the visitors that your advertising generates. No matter the method of marketing or advertising you use, even offline advertising, you should have a clear understanding of the visitors that it will produce.

- What keywords, if any, led a visitor to your page?
- Are your visitors looking for information or products?
- Where are your visitors likely to be from?

Results from a survey conducted by Cambridge-based Internet design and marketing company, Netflare revealed some startling statistics about small businesses and eCommerce.

Stats like:
- 23% of sites hadn’t been updated since their launch leading to inaccurate and obsolete content

- Only 8% even had an eCommerce element to their site

- 25% had no way of tracking online sales

- 38% didn’t have a budget at all for updating their sites
And the survey covered small businesses in 19 different sectors.

What is Universal Search and Why Should You Care?

Universal Search combines all the information within its Vertical engines/databases into one index to serve a single set of SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

An example of Vertical engines/databases are Google News, Google Video, Google Images etc.

What this means is when you go to www.google.com, (their most highly trafficked domain) and do a search, rather than just getting websites from their main index, you will also get results from the News, Images, Video, etc databases as well. It is a more comprehensive results page.

An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage. – Jack Welch
Many people may believe that obtaining top rankings in Google is nearly impossible. The competition for page 1 is fierce and it seems daily there is yet one more marketing must have that you must learn and apply to achieve top positions.

This is partly true. There are general markets that are hotly competitive, such as real estate, health and beauty, weíght loss or general medical supplies. Niche markets present an easier opportuníty to predict and/or manage the outcome of specific search terms.

Ah, the good old tactic of using controversy to get exposure. The “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” cliché. Though this may be true sometimes, I don’t think it’s quite as simple as that.

Lets take a look at the positives and negatives of controversial marketing.

Why Controversy Can Help Your Business

Blogs have been around long enough to become standard elements of the web landscape. They’re easy to construct and manage, they create fresh, user-generated content and, if well-executed, blogs draw crowds and the attention of search engines.

Whether starting out with a new domain name, or a domain that’s been around for a decade, you can rank your blog on Google if you just do what Google wants you to do. So here are 25/50 tips to get your blog ranked by the world’s biggest SE.

Do you know what your target audience wants and how they are looking online? As an Internet Marketing Consultant I am often surprised that many website owners don’t know who their market is, and how to target them with web copy and SEO.

Keywords are the words that web surfers enter in search engines to find websites about their search terms. If you want to get in front of your potential audience, it’s important your website has good search engine rankings for your keywords that are related to the theme of your website.

WNW Design is pleased to anounce the launch of a new website for M.J. Baker Foodservice Ltd. M.J. Baker Foodservice is the West Country’s leading independent Foodservice supplier.

Please use the website www.mjbakerfoodservice.co.uk to view the latest product promotions and price lists.