Wal-Mart SEO & SEM
This Post is geared towards Fellow SEO’s
Back in December there was a lot of talk about Sam’s Club offering SEO and SEM services. I haven’t seen a follow up on the service and wonder how the service is working out. I have not seen or heard of a business actually using the service.
Over at Search Engine Journal they discuss “Sam’s Club Search Marketing: Good or Bad for the Industry?” I haven’t seen a follow up since the rumblings started. I would like to get a hold of a solid review of the service. Let me know if you can review it objectively and show proof of the service.
. 02 Jun 08 | Business, Marketing, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Advertising, Search Engine Optimization | Read on | Comments (0)
Starting a Website
Since moving back to Alabama I have noticed that there are lots of businesses that do not have websites. In today’s world of the internet that is almost appalling. With the low cost of having a website and creating one is very easy. In today’s world of working and living online not having a website is preventing visibility to internet using customers.
Example:
My favorite local restaurant, Campbells Field, located miles from anything that resembles modern civilization. I even tried looking them up in the phone book and could not find them. This quaint little restaurant has excellent food and for cheap and situated next a great view of a local working airport. They have T-shirts and sponsor local little league baseball teams. They have a marketing plan that is based solely on word of mouth. Over the past few years I have put reviews and resources out to help promote them out of the kindness of my heart for the community.
The fact they don’t have a website or being listed in the phone book is hurting their growth.
In my opinion every business needs a website at least helping promote themselves locally. No matter the business having a website is simple. With the abundance of hosting providers that provide free domains and hosting for only $3.99 a month. Once you sign up they even give you automated tools to build a website. With about 30 minutes of work you can have a webpage that will bring you business that will pay for the cost within a few customers.
The host I use 1and1.com has several plans that are economical and are great for a first website. You don’t need a fancy designer or expensive web team. Most of these services make it “so easy even a caveman can do it.” Click the banners or use the domain search form to see if your company name is available. Even if you don’t want to create a webpage it is wise to purchase your companies domain name. You don’t want someone using your name.
5 free Domains with Select Hosting Plans. Get yours
Here is a recommendation to all small business owners no matter what you do. Buy your domain name setup a few page website no matter what it looks like. Put information about your services and how to contact you. A link back to my website will help raise the style, class, and look for your website.
One thing to remember though about having a website is a direct reflection on your business. So take that extra step create the website. If you feel that it is necessary barter with an employee, family memeber, friend to help you. The idea is to save on cost until it proves to you that you will get a return on your investment. The more time and money you spend on the design, development, and promotion of the website will get you a larger return on investment.
Promoting your new website can be time consuming but with all the social media outlets it has become easier. If you don’t promote it then don’t expect a large return on your investment. Having a page with links to it means it will promote itself naturally and require little input from you.
So Purchase your web address set it up on a basic hosting plan that has automated web building tools and you will be on your way into the future. Check out 1and1.com as they have the entry level plans I recommend.
If you have questions about setting up your first webpage don’t hesitate to contact me.
Social Media Makes the News
USA Today recognized social media as a marketing avenue. In fact they reviewed it so highly it made the front page.
Read the complete article here.
Social-networking sites work to turn users into profits
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — It is the burning question in tech circles, and Mike Murphy answers it before it is completed.
“I hear it every time I’m on a (tech) panel,” Murphy, Facebook’s vice president of media sales, says with a wry smile.STORY: Social networks vs. TV networks
He’s referring to the inevitable question on when Facebook and other social-networking sites will turn their steep market valuations into mounds of currency. (Invariably, Murphy answers that Facebook has a long list of major advertisers.)
Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking sites have been the rage of the tech industry for more than a year. Following investments by Microsoft and News Corp., the companies are valued in the billions of dollars and are considered blueprints for how to build a website. Yet a deeper question lingers: How are they going to consistently produce profits to match their soaring valuations?
It is a parlor game that has Silicon Valley buzzing. With online ad spending booming into a nearly $50 billion market this year, there is plenty of money to be had. Big-name advertisers are drooling over millions of young, affluent consumers who are spending more time on their online profiles than in front of TV and movie screens. They are particularly smitten with the prospect of tailoring ads to people’s specific interests.
But Google commands a sizable chunk of the market — especially in the USA — leaving dozens of social-networking sites to scramble for a piece of the advertising pie. Plus, there is the ticklish task of sites and advertisers pitching products without trampling the privacy of consumers.
Short of striking it rich with online ads or creating a new revenue stream, how can so many sites leverage their vast audiences? In many respects, it is the same query that dogged portal companies in the mid-1990s and search engines in the early ’90s. Some were sold. Some went public. Some went belly up.
The ongoing challenge is to concoct a potion — be it through banner ads, premium subscriptions or licensing agreements — that no one has perfected. Facebook, crown jewel of the field, is valued at $15 billion but barely turns a profit.
“You can’t have a $15 billion market valuation based on advertising alone,” says Bill Eager, co-founder of bSocial Networks, a maker of software that helps social-networking users market to each other. “It’s the single most-asked question in this field.”
Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li has pondered the next stage for social networks. She envisions the ubiquitous sites will, in five to 10 years, “be like air: They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be.”
Eager estimates there will be as many as 250,000 sites that call themselves social networks within a year, compared with about 850 today. “Everyone will reposition their site to take advantage of this phenomenon. It happened before with portals.”
To get there, though, there is that little matter of making money. “Facebook’s real problem isn’t privacy, it’s monetization,” says Dave McClure, a start-up adviser and angel investor in Silicon Valley. “It’s not too early to worry about how Facebook makes money.”
Murphy and other Facebook executives are well aware of that concern. “Advertisers follow people,” says Sheryl Sandberg, a former Google executive who recently was named Facebook’s chief operating officer. “We have 70 million active members. Once you have engaged users, the revenue will follow in that order.”
I have often discounted the long term impact of social media. In the short term social media can be leveraged to your benefit. The verdict is still out on the long term effect.
SEO Meta Tags
Meta tags are frequently talked about. Why? Meta tags are arguably the most important factor in Search Engine Optimization. There seems to be a meta tag for everything. But what do they really all mean?
The three primary Meta Tags for SEO and the others have little or no bearing for search engines due to past abuse or overuse.
- Title - <title>The name of your page should go here</title>
- Description - <meta name=“description” content=“The description of the content should be contained withing these quotation marks” />
- Keywords (less relevant in recent but may or may not be read by search engines so should be used with less focus) - <meta name=“keyword” content=“keyword1, keyphrase2, keyword 3″ />
By putting these between the head tags in the html source code give significant help to Search Engines. Using these tags should describe the page. A page about cooking oil should look like these:
- <title>Cooking Oil proper disposal</title>
- <meta name=“description” content=“Cooking oil disposial done correctly is environmentally safe and has the least damage to our environment” />
- <meta name=“keyword” content=“vegetable oil corn oil olive oil disposal” />
In the past there has been debate about whether to use commas or not in the keyword meta tag since they aren’t really all that important don’t get caught up in the debate. Do what ever flows or isn’t included in the other tags. Spend more time SEO copywriting the page than on the Keyword Meta Tag.
Meta tags are not required for display in a browser. Meta tags are invisible to the eye or at least relatively. You can see meta tags by right clicking a page and viewing it’s source. They are typically near the top of the page. So what makes Meta Tags important to Search Engine Optimization? The content in meta tags are displayed in Search Engine Results.
Displays:
In the case when meta tags aren’t used, search engines typically generate the description used in search results from text on page. For the obvious reason pages that don’t have the description meta tags don’t typically perform well.
Using the meta tags properly will come in another post later that you will be able to find over at Birmingham SEO.
. 07 May 08 | Business, Fellow Blogger, Online Marketing, SEO, Search Engine Optimization | Read on | Comment (1)
SEO Standards
There has been some recent discussion in the SEO community about Search Engine Standards. I have not yet formed an opinion on the standards. Really there hasn’t been any hard proof or evidence presented to me one way or another. Knowing politics and different administrative bodies, until something is put into writing in an official capacity nothing will be done. Basically what I am saying that it is a whole lot of wasted time and energy until something is done about it.
A few days ago I posed a question to a respected friend in the SEO community, Kalena Jordan. Kalena heads up the Search Engine College and as an old timer in the industry earns more than just my respect.
I asked:
Hi Kalena
This may be a little off your normal topics… But, you always seem to have such a well thought out view that I want to know your opinion of SEO Standards?
What do you really think about the idea? Good and bad?
Adios
Chris
You can see her response on the Ask Kalena Question and Answer Blog.
I still have not formed an opinion on Search Engine Standards and probably will not until I see a first draft of the proposed standards in front of the governing body. My only thought is what happens if the anti-internet regulation people get involved or even the pro? I wonder what kind of political mess that would turn into?
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