On Wednesday the May 14^th, I attended a 2-hour+ presentation and panel discussion on utilizing Facebook as a business promotion tool. The event was presented by IIMA and was the most attended event in IIMA history, which only reinforces the growing interest in this marketing area.

I can honestly say that after 2 hours I am still somewhat in the dark as to any real value of Facebook in the B2B world, but can see how certain businesses could gain an advantage in B2C marketing. Continue reading this post…

What’s the big deal with Paid Search Marketing?

 There are still several different ways to pay for traffic to your site, including banners (yes, they still exist), but the most popular form has become contextual text ads, which are relevant to the search term or page content. These ads are priced on a Pay-Per-Click basis (PPC) rather than the number of times your ad is displayed (impressions). Continue reading this post…

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a multi-step process which is mainly focused around ensuring search engines can find your content, and then fine-tuning that content so the search engines view it as important and relevant for the search terms a surfer is most likely to use to find you. The more relevant the engine believes you are, the higher in the results you should appear for that term. This is commonly referred to as your “ranking”. Continue reading this post…

Myth: The Meta Keyword tag is crucial to my site’s rankings

Truth: Not only is it not crucial, it’s of little, if any, importance

I’m sure some of you are shaking your heads right now, but my statement is in fact, verifiable. Continue reading this post…

I have recently joined the Snap Technologies Team as their in-house Search Optimization and Marketing Specialist after operating my own Internet Marketing and SEO Company for over 13 years. I hold certificates in both Internet Marketing (CIMBS), as well as traditional off-line Marketing (CBM).

I felt I would kick things off on my new site/blog by covering the basics of the key concepts, definitions and acronyms used in the wonderful and wacky world of Internet Search Marketing.

Over the next few weeks I will present an overview of what I consider the 3 pillars of Internet Search Marketing: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search Marketing (PPC) and finally, Web Analytics (WA). My goal is to provide you with enough background in these areas to understand how each component fits into your over-all marketing plan.

First, let’s understand exactly how significant Internet search has become… Recent surveys show that more than 85% of Internet users find web sites with the help of a search engine. Therefore, your site’s position in the search engines is crucial to the success of your online marketing efforts.

During March 2008 Americans conducted 10.8 billion searches using the core 3 search engines. Google™ saw more than 6.4 billion core searches, followed by Yahoo!™ with 2.3 billion, and MSN™ with 1 billion.

The fact is, most surfers do not look past the first 20-30 search results for the information or resource they were seeking. This means only the first 1-3 pages of results are viewed. If your site does not appear in those first 3 pages for the search term used, chances are you will never be found!

As you can see, Google continues to dominate with an almost 60% usage amongst Americans. Some would say that the actual number is significantly higher, especially in Canada, but I have no definitive stats to support that claim. Yahoo continues to be a major player as they are the largest publisher of web content in the world (May issue of Wired), so there is a good reason Microsoft, who owns MSN, wants to acquire Yahoo.

Watch for my next posting… SEO Explained!

Ask yourself: How do you search? How often do you go beyond that first page of results? Do you bother to scroll down? Do you know what listings are ‘organic’ and which ones have been paid for?