Google recently filed a patent application that deals with the keywords that Google finds on your web pages. Google's new patent filing describes a way for website owners to view the top phrases that Google assigned to their website. The patent shows that Google finds the most important keywords on a website with a phrase based indexing system and it describes a method that could allow website owners to add additional related keywords.

How does Google find the top keywords of your website?

All major search engines index web pages based on the individual words that they find on the page. If certain words and phrases appear together on the same page, search engines assign a topic that is related to these words to the page. For example, the words "Paris" and "Hilton" are associated with a woman instead of a city and a hotel, the words "Tiger" and "Woods" are associated with golf. Google's patent application indicates that Google might plan to tell you what they believe are the top keywords for your website and let you suggest changes to these phrases.

How can Google find the relation between words?

Google has billions of web pages in its index. If Google finds that many web pages contain both the word "Paris" and the word "Hilton" then Google might assume that these keywords are related. The other words on these pages could give Google a hint that this special word combination is about a woman. Words that frequently appear very close to each other could get a tighter connection. Google has a lot of algorithms that allow them to calculate the relation between different words.

What does this mean for your website?

Google does not allow you to suggest your keywords through a form yet. That means that you must use other methods to tell Google for which keywords you want to be listed on Google's result pages. That's why search engine optimization is so important.
Here are some things that you can do to show search engines that your site is relevant to a special topic:

• Use a meaningful site architecture

Use a logical system to organize your website content. Create content sections that deal with different parts of your main topic and make sure that everything that is related to your topic is mentioned on your web pages. Make sure that your web pages are put in the right categories on your website and that it's easy to find the different categories.

• Create web pages that use different relevant search terms

If you want to get high rankings for the keyword "shoes" then it's not enough to mention the keyword "shoes" on your website. You must also use related keywords such as "sneakers", "boots", "sandals", "footwear", etc. to show Google that your website is relevant to the general topic.

• Find out why other pages rank higher than yours

If you ever asked yourself why another page has been ranked higher than yours although you perfectly optimized your pages for your search terms then you should analyze the inbound links of the top ranked pages. The number and the authority of inbound links are important. However, it's also important that the links come from semantically and topically related pages. Optimize different pages of your website for different but related keywords to get the best possible rankings in Google and other important search engines.

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It’s a common belief among marketers that Web 2.0 as a marketing platform is about to go the way of the dinosaur. This probably isn’t entirely true, but we definitely have to rethink how we use it for getting traffic to your website.

It can hardly be argued that humans are by nature impatient. We like things to be bigger, better, stronger and faster. This is clearly apparent since the advent of the Information Age. Naturally, we have to be on top of the newest and fastest ways of delivering information and able to harness it into getting traffic to your website.

The latest developments in Web 2.0 are the microblogs and live-streaming. Microblogs, essentially, are websites where you can post a one or two-line blog either from your computer or your cell phone. With the same technology, other users can comment on your posts. This is a natural development from text messaging, only now it’s in a mass communication format.

Already, many marketers are hard at work harnessing Twitter and Facebook into getting traffic to your website. Naturally, at this early stage, there are some false starts, as some techniques are getting banned. Once everyone hits a happy medium though, it’s likely to go up like wildfire.

Live-streaming, as well, is enjoying an increased popularity. Essentially, this is the direct uploading of video recorded on a cell phone to the Internet. Currently, this is mostly being used on the amateur level, but some opportunistic marketers are getting the picture. It can be used in getting traffic to your website.

Both formats provide what consumers most hunger for—immediate information. Whether we’re talking mere entertainment, such as a member of Anonymous harassing some Scientologists, or amateur reporting in the case where a police officer was filmed while he shot a restrained man, the immediacy is a major element that can be used for getting traffic to your website.

Another bonus feature of live stream is the “gonzo” nature of it. This gives a raw edge to the video that lends itself well to viral marketing. It all seems real and unscripted. Intelligently used, it’s a powerful tool for getting traffic to your website. How can it work for you?

Promotions are a good place to start. Your script can be just on the other side of the cell phone, but you can convey an “off the cuff” air to your blurb, making it more appealing. Also, it’s a good way to get testimonials. Simply put, a video testimonial is better at getting traffic to your website than a written testimonial. How much better do you think it would be if it seemed candid and unscripted?

Besides the facts mentioned at the beginning of this post, let’s not forget another fact: The search engines respond positively to what users look for the most. Since these media are becoming the top of people’s interest list, do you think that maybe the search engines will rank them highly?

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Came across a beautiful article through my personal emails about a very cost effective and easy to perform article on online marketing in this present recession scenario.


There is no escaping the fact that we are in the depths of one of the worst economies in decades. The media won’t let us forget it, as it dominates the headlines. But we need to keep our businesses growing and healthy, no matter how bleak the prognosis. Below are a few tips for all marketing and media professionals to help get through this:

1. Keep marketing. The tendency is to pull in the corporate horns, and save the money for something solid – like payroll. But if your brand disappears from the radar, so will your customers and prospects when it comes time to think of buying again. You may need to scale back budgets, but keep brand and logo current and on peoples’ minds.

2. Measure everything – accountability for every marketing dollar spend is more important than ever. Are you sure you know where past successes have been? I’m amazed at how many companies minimize the analysis of all aspects of past campaigns for the sake of trying something new. If you have not been measuring all marketing activities, start now.

3. From a media buying perspective, think globally. Within the enterprise can you counter the tendency to silo and cluster as many departments together as feasible? Walking across the aisle or cubie, you may find opportunities to consolidate objectives or at least spends and get much better pricing for any media.

4. Also from a media buying perspective, think long term. If you can possibly forecast 2 - 4 quarters out and make even minimal commitments, you can command much better pricing. The market is soft and softening. Take every advantage of it. We are pounding on pricing and not-so-subtly-nudging our clients to make even the most conservative of commitments past a single quarter and have been able to negotiate some great deals with this strategy.

5. Stay close to your customer. Isn’t the old dictum 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers? The corollary of that is, in a down-turn, 95% or more of your growth will come from your current customers. Be sure you are emailing them frequently with new offers, discounts, thought leadership whatever is appropriate to your business to assure their loyalty. Are you sure you have captured your entire customer base? Does the training dept, or HR, or tech support have pockets of customers that aren’t consolidated on the main marketing database? Revisit your in-house email strategies, Newsletter schedules – CRM is the cheapest and most responsive marketing method. Now would be the time to start experimenting with Social Networks – to keep the conversation with your customer flowing, and at very little cost.

6. Revisit your creative versions, current assets, and tried and true marketing activities for more cost efficiency. Can you put a new headline on previously used email copy, rework the abstract to a white paper so it appears fresh, and save money on creative?

7. Don’t stop testing – even modest testing. You will still need to find new opportunities when the old successes tire and the economy turns around. The good news is that since demand is down, most types of media are willing to work with you on pricing. Your competition will be marketing in anticipation of that time – so should you.

In fact, all of this advice will stand when we are out of the recession. The marketers that focus on getting the most out of every dollar spent and on demonstrating marketing's impact on revenue will be in a good position to come out of the slump looking like stars.

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Place SWF content in HTML source

In order for search engines to crawl and index important content that is contained within a SWF file or loaded by a SWF application from an external source, the content must be placed in the HTML source. If possible, utilize XSL to transform your XML source to create both the HTML and SWF content, embedding the text in the HTML source by using the noscript> method.

Here you put the SWF files content (text, links, images, and so on) into a tag that the browser will display if it finds that the user does not have JavaScript enabled (and therefore, could not see the SWF content):

noscript>

-- alternative SWF content -->

/noscript>

The benefit is that since this content is in the HTML source, the search engine can crawl this content and get what it needs to determine what the page is about

Create unique URLs for important sections

In order to be compliant with search best practices, you need each URL to have a unique title, H1, and body copy each of which would contain the keyword for which you want to rank. Establish your site map and wireframes; therefore, make sure to plan for this. Start with the directory/URL planning. Establish a 1:1 correlation between a Preferred Landing Page (PLP) and a keyword and what the SWF content requirements will be.

Give some real text to read

A common mistake is to use an image or a flattened symbol in your SWF application to display text or even creating text with ActionScript. Since Flash Player for Search Engines can read the contents within your SWF application, give it some real text to read and ensure that the same text is available in the HTML source.

Include image viewer and video player assets

With an image viewer or video player, you may have hundreds of thumbnail images that a user can click to see an expanded view of the image or video, along with supporting information such as links and descriptive text

For more information on how to optimize Your SWF Applications for search engines check the link below:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/seo/articles/techniques_ria.html

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In order to rank a new blog you don’t need to go for PPC campaign, look for SEO experts and they will guide you the way how they move the traffic from search engines to your blog. In year 2004 Google search engine crawl 3.1 billion pages as compared to now its 31 billion web pages. You now can see how tough is to compete with your competitors in present scenario. But, if you know the right SEO you can easily come neck to neck to TOP 5 competitors in a matter of few months or week. Below are the methods which need to be practiced in order to rank your blog in top search engines.

Incoming Links: Incoming links are one of the most important factors to implement for a blog to rank well in any search engines. However getting incoming links however much intimidating it may sound is not all that hard. Here are some time tested secrets of getting incoming links for your blog that will enable your site to rank up the search engine in a matter of weeks if not days.
Quality Content : Content whatever said and done is still the king .Write Content on such topics that very few people write or develop a niche is an area which you are an expert in and aim to be the best in your area of expertise , and soon you will see people linking back to you . Remember this simple rule in marketing. Don’t try to be everything to all people .Try to be something to some people

Offer a Tool or Product or service that is hard to resist. This is also called link baiting .Offer a few tools for your visitors to download, distribute or mail to their friends which serves as a value addition to its main business.

Write Articles and Submit in on Article Directories: Writing articles in your specified niche is one of the most reliable and efficient ways to get one way links for your site. The author bio area of your article is the marketing proposition for your site. The Author Bio has the name of the author along with their area of expertise and hyperlinks to their websites. These articles once posted and approved are a great way to fetch one way links .In addition good articles that are relevant and informative also gets re -published by other websites, blogs and ezine sites giving your more coverage, exposure and more one way links since they publish your original article along with the author bio which in turn gives you added links and thereby increasing your link popularity

Enable RSS Feeds For your site: Syndicate your content to other sites. Create a content syndication feed (RSS feed) and include a link to your site. Submit your site and bog to RSS Directories and RSS Feeds. RSS feeds apart from ensuring your content distribution, is also a rich source of incoming links.

Start a Blog :Start a Blog on your vertical, and update it regularly with content and a hyperlink to your main website .Search engines love blogs because of new content that’s updated regularly .Additionally submit your blogs to the blog directories and Blog Feed readers . Also find a authority blog in your niche and comment in their blog with a hyperlink to your blog . Please do not spam their blogs but write something that would interest the owner to come you’re your blog . Try networking with your industry both online and offline.

Write comments: Visits your competitor’s blogs and share your views what you think about their blogs posts and articles. While you are searching looking any idea for in order to write for your blog, you should made a habit of writing a comment to the sources and share your blog links there. It works very fast and great and if you check your referral traffic it will show you the exact picture of benefit of writing comments to the sources.

Comments are welcome
Gary

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Do those 26 things and I guarantee you that in ones years time you will call your site a success. It will be drawing between 500 and 2000 referrals a day from search engines. If you build a good site with an average of 4 to 5 pages per user, you should be in the 10-15k page views per day range in one years time. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but that is more than enough to "do something" with.


The following will build a successful site in 1 year’s time via Google alone. It can be done faster if you are a real go getter, or everyones favorite a self starter.

Prep work and begin building content. Long before the domain name is settled on, start putting together notes to build at least a 100 page site. That's just for openers. That's 100 pages of real content, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright/tos...etc eg: fluff pages.

Domain name:
Easily brandable. You want "google.com" and not "mykeyword.com". Keyword domains are out - branding and name recognition are in - big time in. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to se's. Learn the lesson of "goto.com" becomes "Overture.com" and why they did it. It's one of the most powerful gut check calls I've ever seen on the internet. That took serious resolve and nerve to blow away several years of branding. (that is a whole 'nother article, but learn the lesson as it applies to all of us).

Site Design:
The simpler the better. Rule of thumb: text content should out weight the html content. The pages should validate and be usable in everything from Lynx to leading edge browsers. eg: keep it close to html 3.2 if you can. Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.0 and the mess that it can bring. Stay away from heavy: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them - there is little reason to have them that I can see - they will rarely help a site and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don't appreciate (search engines distaste for js is just one of them).
Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit.
You can also go the other route and just throw everything in root (this is rather controversial, but it's been producing good long term results across many engines). Don't clutter and don't spam your site with frivolous links like "best viewed" or other counter like junk. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability.

Learn the lesson of Google itself - simple is retro cool - simple is what surfers want.
Speed isn't everything, it's almost the only thing. Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even 3-4 seconds delay until "something happens" in the browser, you are in long term trouble. That 3-4 seconds response time may vary for site destined to live in other countries than your native one. The site should respond locally within 3-4 seconds (max) to any request. Longer than that, and you'll lose 10% of your audience for every second. That 10% could be the difference between success and not.

The pages:

Page Size:
The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can - I trust you are getting the idea here. Over 5k and under 10k. Ya - that bites - it's tough to do, but it works. It works for search engines, and it works for surfers. Remember, 80% of your surfers will be at 56k or even less.

Content:
Build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words. If you aren't sure what you need for content, start with the Overture keyword suggester and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

Density, position
Simple old fashioned seo from the ground up.
Use the keyword once in title, once in description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic, once high on the page, and hit the density between 5 and 20% (don't fret about it). Use good sentences and speel check it ;-) Spell checking is becoming important as se's are moving to auto correction during searches. There is no longer a reason to look like you can't spell (unless you really are phonetically challenged).

Outbound Links:
From every page, link to one or two high ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text (this is ultra important for the future).

In site Cross links.
Link to on topic quality content across your site. If a page is about food, then make sure it links it to the apples and veggies page. Specifically with Google, on topic cross linking is very important for sharing your pr value across your site. You do NOT want an "all star" page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day. If you do find one page that drastically out produces the rest of the site with Google, you need to off load some of that pr value to other pages by cross linking heavily. It's the old share the wealth thing.

Put it Online.
Don't go with virtual hosting - go with a stand alone ip.
Make sure the site is "crawlable" by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than 2 levels deep from root. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to root. A menu that is present on every page should link to your sites main "topic index" pages (the doorways and logical navigation system down into real content).
Don't put it online before you have a quality site to put online. It's worse to put a "nothing" site online, than no site at all. You want it flushed out from the start.
Go for a listing in the ODP. If you have the budget, then submit to Looksmart and Yahoo. If you don't have the budget, then try for a freebie on Yahoo (don't hold your breath).

Submit
Submit the root to: Google, Fast, Altavista, WiseNut, (write Teoma), DirectHit, and Hotbot. Now comes the hard part - forget about submissions for the next six months. That's right - submit and forget.

Logging and Tracking:
Get a quality logger/tracker that can do justice to inbound referrals based on log files (don't use a lame graphic counter - you need the real deal). If your host doesn't support referrers, then back up and get a new host. You can't run a modern site without full referrals available 24x7x365 in real time.

Spiderlings:
Watch for spiders from search engines. Make sure those that are crawling the full site, can do so easily. If not, double check your linking system (use standard hrefs) to make sure the spider found it's way throughout the site. Don't fret if it takes two spiderings to get your whole site done by Google or Fast. Other search engines are pot luck and doubtful that you will be added at all if not within 6 months.

Topic directories.
Almost every keyword sector has an authority hub on it's topic. Go submit within the guidelines.
Links
Look around your keyword sector in Googles version of the Open Directory Project (OPD). (this is best done AFTER getting an odp listing - or two). Find sites that have links pages or freely exchange links. Simply request a swap. Put a page of on topic, in context links up your self as a collection spot.
Don't freak if you can't get people to swap links - move on. Try to swap links with one fresh site a day. A simple personal email is enough. Stay low key about it and don't worry if site Z won't link with you - they will - eventually they will.

Content.
One page of quality content per day. Timely, topical articles are always the best. Try to stay away from to much "bloggin" type personal stuff and look more for "article" topics that a general audience will like. Hone your writing skills and read up on the right style of "web speak" that tends to work with the fast and furious web crowd.

Lots of text breaks - short sentences - lots of dashes - something that reads quickly.
Most web users don't actually read, they scan. This is why it is so important to keep low key pages today. People see a huge overblown page by random, and a portion of them will hit the back button before trying to decipher it. They've got better things to do that waste 15 seconds (a stretch) at understanding your whiz bang flash menu system. Because some big support site can run flashed out motorhead pages, that is no indication that you can. You don't have the pull factor they do.

Use headers, and bold standout text liberally on your pages as logical separators. I call them scanner stoppers where the eye will logically come to rest on the page.

Gimmicks.

Stay far away from any "fades of the day" or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

Link backs
When YOU receive requests for links, check the site out before linking back with them. Check them through Google and their pr value. Look for directory listings. Don't link back to junk just because they asked. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic.

Rounding out the offerings:
Use options such as Email-a-friend, forums, and mailing lists to round out your sites offerings. Hit the top forums in your market and read, read, read until your eyes hurt you read so much.
Stay away from "affiliate fades" that insert content on to your site.

Beware of Flyer and Brochure Syndrome
If you have an ecom site or online version of bricks and mortar, be careful not to turn your site into a brochure. These don't work at all. Think about what people want. They aren't coming to your site to view "your content", they are coming to your site looking for "their content". Talk as little about your products and yourself as possible in articles (raise eyebrows...yes, I know).

Build one page of content per day.
Head back to the Overture suggestion tool to get ideas for fresh pages.
Study those logs.
After 30-60 days you will start to see a few referrals from places you've gotten listed. Look for the keywords people are using. See any bizarre combinations? Why are people using those to find your site? If there is something you have over looked, then build a page around that topic. Retro engineer your site to feed the search engine what it wants.

If your site is about "oranges", but your referrals are all about "orange citrus fruit", then you can get busy building articles around "citrus" and "fruit" instead of the generic "oranges".
The search engines will tell you exactly what they want to be fed - listen closely, there is gold in referral logs, it's just a matter of panning for it.

Timely Topics
Nothing breeds success like success. Stay abreast of developments in your keyword sector. If big site "Z" is coming out with product "A" at the end of the year, then build a page and have it ready in October so that search engines get it by December. eg: go look at all the Xbox and XP sites in Google right now - those are sites that were on the ball last summer.

Friends and Family
Networking is critical to the success of a site. This is where all that time you spend in forums will pay off. pssst: Here's the catch-22 about forums: lurking is almost useless. The value of a forum is in the interaction with your fellow colleagues and cohorts. You learn long term by the interaction - not by just reading.

Networking will pay off in link backs, tips, email exchanges, and it will put you "in the loop" of your keyword sector.

Notes, Notes, Notes
If you build one page per day, you will find that brain storm like inspiration will hit you in the head at some magic point. Whether it is in the shower (dry off first), driving down the road (please pull over), or just parked at your desk, write it down! 10 minutes of work later, you will have forgotten all about that great idea you just had. Write it down, and get detailed about what you are thinking. When the inspirational juices are no longer flowing, come back to those content ideas. It sounds simple, but it's a life saver when the ideas stop coming.

Submission check at six months
Walk back through your submissions and see if you got listed in all the search engines you submitted to after six months. If not, then resubmit and forget again. Try those freebie directories again too.

Build one page of quality content per day.
Starting to see a theme here? Google loves content, lots of quality content. Broad based over a wide range of keywords. At the end of a years time, you should have around 400 pages of content. That will get you good placement under a wide range of keywords, generate recip links, and overall position your site to stand on it's own two feet.


Feel free to comment on it.
Gaurav

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Word of Mouth Marketing to Enhance Your Business

When we thinks about marketing our business, things like social media, SEO or article marketing sparks to our brain. This methods are adopted by single person who handles his/her business online. Whereas the word of mouth marketing can be as effective as you promoting your business online.

Alternative marketing is personal. Personal marketing techniques from passing out business cards, to putting up a banner at the mega mall tend to connect with people on a different level than online marketing techniques. In the traditional world, people know there’s a real individual behind that banner. Online, there’s just a computer.

So How Can We Get Started?

There are are many online tips to teach you how to advertise or even good colleges and business schools offers degree in advertising, as i am also going for MBA in marketing. I may not be able to share all of the advice those studies could offer here on my blog. However, I can suggest some simple and converting ways you can get started in your word of mouth marketing efforts:


Share Your Business cards: This is the easiest way to recruit visitors to your company traditionally. Drop your business cards everywhere, on resturarents, hotels, on the bus, at the diner, even in your kids school.



Community news: Most newspapers and public television stations offer free community news announcements. Create a special offer or even host an event to tell people about your services.



Your Networking: I m not talking Facebook or orkut here, I’m talking about old-school networking. Talk with your friends, co-workers and former employers. Give them the details on what you are up to with your company, and recruit them as word-of-mouth marketers.

You will get less traffic from word of mouth advertising comparing to online advertising, but the traffic you do get is more likely to be ready to convert.


Feel Free to comment
Gaurav

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Kosmix is a guide to the Web. The site lets users explore the Web by topic, presenting a dashboard of relevent videos, photos, news, commentary, opinion, communities and links to related topics. Kosmix’s categorization engine organizes the Internet into magazine-style topic pages, enabling people to navigate the Web.

Kosmix automatically arranges each set of results into a magazine-style topic page, giving you a mix of immersive content and new connections.

So far, the biggest online search engine "Google" operates on the following principle to search anything online.
"Finding the best set of documents for an input keyword or phrase"
As a result, Google brings hundreds of results in front of the user and the user can only visit some of them.

Where as Kosmix is a guide to the Web. Kosmix offers you a new way to explore the Web—it's the place to start when you want to browse and discover everything the Web has to offer. Kosmix gathers content from across the web and shows a page after creating a multimedia encyclopaedia entry in real time. For example search for rediff.com and you will get a lot of different content, photos, videos and links. It also has top results from Google, and suggests a list of related topics.

Kosmix gives more information about any subject. For many queries, the results are satisfactory and look as if they have been compiled by a human editor, not a computer.
Try It Now
http://www.kosmix.com/

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Google bounces back from a market share slowdown, but in a down month

With only 28 days, February is typically a low-query month for the leading search engines. This year proved no exception, with query volumes dipping across the board, despite searcher interest in the Oscars and Valentine’s Day.

One interesting result of this dip in query volume was that it actually improved Google’s market share. So while Google’s query volume fell by 1%, its market share actually rose 2.2pts. That move effectively reversed a long term trend we’ve seen with Google’s market share over the past 6 months. Since August 2008, Google’s market share has hovered at 70%. Last month, it hit 72.4%.

While Google benefited from a down month in its industry, others did not fare so well. Yahoo! lost 1.5pts market share on 11.6% decline in query volume. It hit a new market share low of 17.8% last month. MSN/Live also declined 0.4pts and hit a market share low of 6.3% of search queries. Factoring in Club Live, MSN fared somewhat better but still lost share. Ask also lost both query volume and market share. For the past 6 months, Ask’s share has hovered around 2.5%.

In February, Ask managed to increase Sponsored Referrals, or the rate of referrals that drive advertising revenue, by 46% to 6.2% of all referrals. That brought Ask in line with Google and Yahoo!, which have maintained Sponsored Referrals at 6 – 9% over the past year.


The key points for February, 2009 (excluding Club Live from the market)…

• Google query volume dipped 1% but market share actually rose to 72.4% on a down market, reversing a share slowdown.
• Yahoo! fell to 17.8% market share, a new low. Query volume also declined due to the shortened month.
• MSN/Live also fell to a new low of 6.3% market share, with a similar query decline.
• Ask maintained 2.3% share, but Sponsored Referrals rose to a healthy 6.2%.
• AOL held on with 0.8% share. We’ll see if new CEO Tim Armstrong can bring some of that Google magic.

Source : Compete Inc

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As most savvy marketers know, we live in a Web 2.0 world. What does that mean? It means that today...business is done on the web. Customers search for solutions on the web. They talk to each other on the web. They talk to you on the web. And, they can do all this from anywhere, anytime.

With that in mind, it is probably obvious that monitoring and managing your online reputation is important. But, doing so means going beyond the design of your own website. It means knowing when others are talking about you, linking to you, and engaging with them when they do. Still, breaking through the "buzz" of the internet is not an easy task.

Here's what you need in order to do just that:

TOOLS: Unfortunately there is no ONE tool to use...but the good news is there are many GOOD tools. Here are our favorites:

1. TweetBeep: This is the best tool for monitoring any Twitter buzz being "tweeted" about you. Even if the tweeterer uses the "tinyURL"...if they are linking to you, you'll find out about it. Best of all, it's FREE.
   
   
2. Google Alerts: We've talked about the great uses of this tool before, but it is worth mentioning again. Google alert allows you track when your brand name, URL, or other entered topic shows up on Google (you set the frequency). And, again...it's FREE.
   
   
3. Technorati: A great way to search the blogosphere for what's being said about you (and if anything is being said at all). Technorati indexes in real time, so if someone blogged about you 3 minutes ago...it shows up. And yup...you guessed it...it's FREE.
   
   
4. Trackur: Okay, this tool isn't free (though they have a free trial), but it is a more sophisticated tool than technorati and it emails you updates for your saved searches. And, it's not too terribly expensive ($18/mo).

PROCESS: So, you find out what people are saying about you and when they are linking to you...now what? Well, it starts with setting a process. Schedule time in your schedule every day, week, month, or whatever frequency you can afford. Review your results and where possible...respond. Interact with the users who post comments about you, the bloggers that reference you, and so on. It is through this interactivity that you harness the true power of today's web community--whether that be to fix customer service issues you didn't know you had, promote yourself and your brand more thoroughly, or measure the results of your site traffic building efforts.

What are you waiting for...sign up for the tools above and get started!

Source: http://www.gtms-inc.com/tip_onlinereputation.htm

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With the technology from DoubleClick’s acquisition, Google has launched “interest-based advertising,” which will display ads based on the user’s previous searches and page views stored. This will running in beta for sometime and will be open to all. This can be very useful for some users as they can see very relevant ads they want. See video for more info.



If you are a user who shares concerns about privacy, follow below instructions to opt-out of this.

* You can regularly keep deleting your cookies after your browsing session.
* You IE8 InPrivate mode, Google Chrome InCognito Mode or Firefox privacy mode to not save any cookies.
* You can use Google’s Ad Preferences tool to take certain behaviors and interests out of its targeting.
* You can also opt out of targeted ads altogether, although these preferences will be lost if you regularly delete your cookies.

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Google Noticeboard is a new service from Google Labs India that intends to improve the way Indian communities share information online.

Google Noticeboard is an application that helps people access and share information over the Internet using public digital noticeboards. Using Google Noticeboard, communities can access a variety of relevant information. People can create text messages or record voice snippets and post them to one or more noticeboards. Typically each digital noticeboard carries publicly accessible messages. Compared to the notion of personal communication using email accounts, the Noticeboard metaphor allows user to engage in public communication with communities.

Communities with access to shared computers can use the Noticeboard for exchanging messages related to community announcements, social interactions, local buying and selling, and information that is of wider interest to the community. The Noticeboard may also be used for the community to engage in a dialog with benefactors, public servants, and other service providers who are geographically distant. For example, residents of an apartment complex can use the Noticeboard for posting announcements, or NGOs who own and operate computer centers in several villages can use the Noticeboard to enable village residents to communicate amongst themselves

Noticeboard uses a Firefox extension and requires to enable IMAP in Gmail to send messages. The service seems to be aimed at people that don't own computer and don't have an email address, but the interface is very basic and limiting. Google Noticeboard's user guide (PDF) has more information.

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A very good article regarding “search engine optimization in a down economy” by Mark Jackson. I will be writing my thoughts below each paragraph in green color text to share my views on article.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past several months, you may have noticed that the economy stinks. This isn't just the case in the United States; this is a global financial crisis.
Yes agree with mark now the global financial crisis affected the Asian markets too. I am working in an online marketing services company and now our clients have cut down there income for online market services projects. But there is also good news for online marketing companies because there is now less print media advertising and companies are looking for cheap options.
Even those of us who work in growth industries (as I would classify the SEO/SEM industry) are affected. As a president of a SEO company, I can tell you that I'm receiving more resumes than ever before.

Only the project budgets are gone down, good companies still running their PPC and SEO/SEM projects.

It's been said for many years that you shouldn't cut marketing budgets in a down economy, because cheaper advertising gives you an opportunity to market your services more, and actually gain market share. In all of my years in marketing, I've seen very few examples of companies doing this.

That’s because in today present scenario projects budget are down and competition is high so it’s good for companies to advertise their business online.

When it comes to paid search, you'd think basic economics would come into play (supply and demand certainly affects price). I haven't been able to find much good information on this (please comment below if you can share resources with other readers), but I've seen bid rates for paid search remain somewhat flat (or even increase), while supply is increasing.

This would mean that demand must be intact or increasing. Again, I haven't found any hard studies on the average CPC rates, so I'd love to have reader comments on this. I spoke with my good friend David Szetela about this. He told me that his clients have maintained a pretty steady approach to their paid search efforts. "If we can spend 25 percent more and maintain their ROI, every single one of our clients would say 'go for it,'" he said.

Yes one of friend who handles PPC project told me that the keyword bid rate is same or increased from last 6 – 9 months and the completion search for keyword is increased 10 -15 % more from past.

That sounds pretty reasonable, doesn't it? One would think that marketers would, as we've long thought, come around to moving their marketing budgets into media that can deliver that type of accountability. And, as I've often said, marketers are more likely to move toward paid search than organic search, because it's much easier to understand and can deliver quicker results.

A brief example will help to explain regarding Organic and Paid Search. You are running a bakery shop and if customers come because you bake some good stuff you don’t need to buy a lorry in order to sell your bakery item. In online marketing language it shows if you are getting results through organic search you should opt paid search only if you are in profit and want to grow your business on other part or locations.


How is Organic Search Affected?

Organic search is experiencing "some" growth. Even if it isn't measured in actual dollars quite yet, more marketers are trying to figure out organic search, which is a good thing.
The bad thing may be that as more people begin to involve themselves in organic search, there will be more competition. Plus, more people will try to find loopholes (spam tactics) to exploit vulnerabilities in the search algorithms. Then, the search engines will become smarter and develop methods to address any possible methods of spamming the results.
If your bounce rate of traffic is low the visitor is attracted to your products rest all explain above clearly.

SEO Will Become More Difficult

SEO has always become more difficult, though, over the years. Back in the day, you might have done OK by stuffing your site with meta keywords. The search engines needed a better way of delivering quality results, so those "easy" things don't work anymore.

As searchers, it's great that we no longer have to search 10 pages deep to find what we're looking for. That's a good thing, as our attention spans just aren't as great as they once were.
Because SEO is a much more laborious process (companies must dedicate IT resources, copywriters, PR firms and others), it can be more difficult to get implemented. And, in lean economic times, the average marketer may have less patience.

This could actually be good news for SEO agencies. It would make sense that if companies have to make the difficult decisions to let some people go, they may need to outsource some of these functions.

In many cases, outsourcing the work can save money. The agency is responsible for benefits, costs for office space, costs for computers/communications and the rates that the agency may charge could be less than the employee handling this in-house, and you get a team of people -- each with their own unique skill set -- working on the initiatives.



We already getting benefited through outsourcing, so in present time only that companies will be benefited who will provide good quantity plus good quality will low budget. Gone that days when everyone says we look for quality first then quantity.

What Does This All Mean?

We're living in very interesting times. During the last downturn (the dot-com bubble), we witnessed Google become a leader in their space without much (any?) marketing budget spent. They had a better widget. To me, search marketing (both paid and organic) is the better widget, when it comes to the average marketer determining how to spend their (now limited) budget.

I'm hoping that soon I'll be able to act upon all those resumes on my desk and do my part to help in the economic recovery. Search may be very close to maturing as an industry.

Yes the downtime have made everyone to think different not just to follow paths shown by past leaders but now only who make new easy paths will prosper.

Regards
Gaurav

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