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What is link building anyway, you know, this has gone way to far!

Is link building building a site that everyone loves to draw content from and promote because they enjoy the value of the company and its expertise? You know, everyone would certainly link to the iPhone because, well it’s cool and for those that can afford it, it’s even cooler… But what if you are an average online business making your way into the search results? What if you are an SEO expert and have done everything by the book, for the user and not the search engine? What if all this work takes place and the site is great, the conversions are strong, but no one links to the site because you have not asked them or even worse paid them.

Is that link building? Paying someone to actually write about your company, is this where it’s going? Why then are we building web sites for users, should we not just build a website for a search engine so we can reach maximum results and benefits…

Why don’t we do this? Well, because for most search engine marketers they value their job and more importantly they value their businesses reputation and domain. If every SEO expert was to launch massive link building campaigns all just to get people to link to the domain and then sometime in the near future Google decides that these paid links are not worth anything at all; when they once were the source to page results, then where would we be?

Other link building topics under: http://seo.redevolution.com/a-link-building-rant/

http://www.seobook.com/archives/001792.shtml

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As continued from our last article, (With the market so bad, SEO could be the only solution.)…

In short, SEO from my experience has a relevative increase on conversion when running strong SEO campaigns on a TLD or a very strong generic “keyword” domain name. I have also witnessed stronger conversion ratios on PPC when running campaigns for a domain name that is not relavtive to a keyword or search query other than the company name itself.

Brad Geddes from eWhishper.net posted a great blog article on the vast increase of conversions on PPC and the comparisions to other sources like SEO and press releases…

See article: Traffic does Not Convert the Same: SEO vs PPC vs Press Releases vs Social Bookmarking

Note: As traffic increases so does converions…

This has been your optimization piece for the day.

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As we all know industry markets today are trying to subsidize production cost with the vastly increase in gas and oil prices. Many business tend to crunch numbers and then look at advertising as a way to cut cost to save a few dollars. Meanwhile, the web is energy effecient and gas and oil free to some extent and internet marketing may be the solution to saving money while still being able to promote products and services.

Not only are businesses moving forward with online sales, lead generation, and products, but now SEO could really play a new era in marketing dispite the struggling economy. If businesses can now turn to “organic” recognitions for online sales and services then the cost of promotions will drastically drop because the ability to be present online is free with SEO. Of course we all know that “organic” listings are not necessarily free but the listing is. Many hard working hours, plans, and skills go into making a competitive business and allowing it to rise to the top for keywords and top ranking positions. But ultimately, the internet is going to be the only way that we can withstand the market and still keep product levels up and moving forward.

For your next advertising venture you may want to consider moving toward SEO and “organic” listings. Studies have shown that strong buying consumers focus their eyes on the “Golden Triangle” which is the top 5 “organic” listings just under the sponsored ads within a search engine. And with 98% of business to business buyers searching in Google, then it would make sense to spend more and more advertising dollars on SEO rather than print media, billboards, etc.

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Is your website “blah!” Are you suffering because visitors come and go and you never see a benefit on your ROI calibration. Or even worse you have the domain and you have the webpage, but you don’t have visitors or any traffic. Well, we have developed the top 3 ways to generate the strongest conversions on the web.

1. Brand awareness and brand identity. Is your site valued in branding, look and feel, and consistency. Often to many times these days you run across old HTML page layouts that don’t have a brand image or an identity to go along with the impression that you want to portray to your visitors, which is strenght, quality, and dependability. We suggest you start with your logo and then allow a strong graphic designer to incorporate the identity mark with the rest of the look and feel of your website. If your website is up to date and it just explodes in color and appeal then you will see a stronger conversion on your site. When is the last time you purchased an item on a website were the company looked “mom and pop” and the store page seemed to jump to a whole new layout and theme.

2. Once you have that beautiful site up and running you need to pay attention to navigation and home page marketing. If your home page is confusing then your users are confusing. Pay close attention to the products or services that you want to offer and make sure that your visitors without question can find what they are looking for fast and quicly. For more detail we suggest taking a look at a high quality website like apple.com, these online marketers know what they are doing and with all the products they have to offer you are still not overwhelmed on the home page. Rememeber, keep it simple, quick, and easy so that any user can purchase what they are looking for in three easy steps. Find, click, and buy… It should be as simple as that…

3. And last but not least, make sure that your target market is your target online. Sometimes a lot of traffic is not the best traffic to increase sales. Make sure that your keywords that you are targeting meet the demands of your users. For example; targeting a user searching for “cheap used computers” is not something Apple Computers will want to visit there website, instead, Apple may target users that are searching for a term as broad as “laptop computers” to “small laptop computers.” Both of these are keyword targeted campaigns that are able to capture the searcher.

Well, there you have it, as long as you have your branding up to date, your site architecture quick, and your marketing targeted you will see an increase in ROI on your website.

So make your mark and make your impression last.

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For many years now search engine marketers have evolved out of multiple industries and professionals. From the computer science major, to the business marketer many internet related professions have found their way to to web design, SEO, and even pay per click campaigns. We have certainly seemed to evolve into this industry because of the passion for it and the past experiences that have allowed us to be apart of such a vibrant and strong “cutting-edge” profession.

Today, Search Engine Marketers are now gaining credibility for certifications like the Google Adwords Professional and many others that are now online today. Yet, we still have not actually had a department arise in universities or a degree set for a “search marketing” professional.

Although SEMPO is building out lesson plans and small degree like formations for the younger generation to get a grasp of the track that we are now laying before them. It is now my knowledge that SEO, INC (an SEO company based in San Diego, CA) is now teaching classes at UC San Diego. Although I am not surprised, it seems that this will become the norm as we approach 2009 as more and more SEO companies, firms, and freelance professionals begin teaching circulum for the up and coming SEO minors.

Actual Article of SEO INC: SEO Inc. to Teach Search Engine Optimization Class at UC San Diego

Keep up the good work, we have a lot more to learn and to teach.

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