Have you heard about Google’s new search overhaul? Along with a cleaner and brighter logo, the search results will now feature an easy to use left-hand navigation. There will be also different categories so that you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for, whether it’s in the news or shopping section. Makes things a lot easier, doesn’t it? This is a good reason as any to consider the aspect of search engine friendly web design for your website. How exactly do you make your web site more search engine friendly?

• Relevant content via articles or blogs
• Focusing on a specific group of related keywords
• Utilizing tags (h1, title, meta) to make your website seen by search engine crawlers

If you’re not sure about these factors, now is a good time to check.

A web copywriter can help you with creating content every month. Because they specialize in the SEO aspect of copywriting, this will take the load off your shoulders when it comes to constantly adding new material. Remember some of the advantages that you can gain with copywriting services:

1. Improved search engine rankings for relevant keyword phrases
2. Effectively bring traffic to your website
3. Broaden your online reputation across multiple search engines and social media sites

• Watch your grammar – Just because you’re limited to 140 characters doesn’t mean that you should watch your grammar. Double check Tweets as often as you can. Check out Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb by Copyblogger
• Trending topics – Sometimes, useful events and stories make Twitter’s list of trending topics. Some prompts may even help you if you’re at a loss with what to update.
• Retweet useful info – It could be a breaking story or a helpful article. Pass it a long and add a message of thanks to the person you’re retweeting.
• Ask useful questions – Whether it’s for personal or market research, this is a great way to engage with your followers.
• Mind your quotes - Many studies have shown that quotes or words of wisdom often receive the most retweets. Tired of the same old quotes, why not make one of your own?

Social Media Advertising Done Right
Five Guys Burgers and Fries are known for freshly-made, gigantic sized burgers. As a rule of thumb, the owners have never splurged on advertising. Instead, they reinvest their profits to go towards their workers and fresh ingredients. Their Facebook page boasts over 200,000 fans and their Twitter page keeps followers updated. With $0 in advertising costs, Five Guys have still managed to grow in popularity and engage their customers. Much like Krispy Kreme Donuts, who is also known for not advertising, these social tools have given these businesses great leverage. These are just some of many examples of social media advertising done right! It also doesn’t hurt that their food is delicious.

One Man’s Story Sparks Online Viral Marketing
While we’re on the topic of food, have you heard about Dave’s Killer Bread? As a former meth addict and felon, Dave Dahl turned his life around by putting his efforts into making delicious, natural bread. With fewer carbs and names like “Killer Sin Dawg”, what’s not to like? Dave’s Bread is also prominent on Facebook and his page has nearly 9,000 fans. If you take a quick glance, you’ll see nothing but amazing praise for his organic bread. We’re not one to be picky, but who knew that people are so passionate about their bread? With such a wholesome product and a compelling story, it’s not a surprise that the popularity of Dave’s Killer Bread took off the way it did.

What are some other unique Facebook/Twitter accounts you’ve seen lately?

More Useful Factoids

What Kind of Local Strategy?
Another strong point that Gregg brought up that was many businesses don’t have a comprehensive view of their online marketing strategy. As he put it, it’s not an either/or but an and strategy. This includes efforts in paid search, organic search, internet yellow pages, social media and mobile content. Just because you’re doing well in one segment doesn’t mean that you should scale back or ignore the other ones. The most successful businesses will realize the benefit of having a wide-ranging plan of attack to stand out against their competitors.

Resources for Local Search

If you haven’t already, there are many resources that you can take advantage of in starting your local search campaign. Gregg recommends: internet yellow pages, major search engines, Angie’s list, local search sites (Citysearch/Yelp), industry related blogs (including your local chamber of commerce) and more. Here’s a handy list of tools from Duct Tape Marketing.

Some wise words from The Ramones. Don’t wait for a next time – start today! In other words: listen to your heart, but rely on the experience to get the best results. This holds true for almost everything in life. Fashion, love, your personal values, and even your marketing mix. Just because everyone is doing it, doesn’t mean that you should. This can go both ways but today, we’ll take the latter approach.

Here are some ways your social media presence can benefit when you take the time to listen to your heart and share your passion. Have any others you’d like to add?

1. People want to know more. This article from Social Media Today shows that the most common retweets are actually “bites of wisdom”.
2. Establish your unique voice. There must be thousands of mommy bloggers, but only one Jessica Gottlieb (@JessicaGottlieb).
3. It makes you interesting! It doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong, taking a stand will help you stand out.
4. Helps you remain consistent. Are you an avid sports fan or film buff? Your readers will probably never get a chance to meet you, but will grow to know the social you that you put forward.
5. Even if you make mistakes, you can learn and try better next time :]

No More “Batch and Blast”
I saw this tip as it applies to email marketing, but you can apply it to different platforms. Twitter, Facebook, and even blogging. Have you ever wondered why you constantly get postcards and junk from your local real estate agent? They often use this batch and blast method because it’s cost efficient and effective. Just think of it, the commission they make from one sale makes their direct mailing costs very minuscule. Sure… social media marketing is free, but you really are paying a cost if you blast your followers with self-promotion. No matter how you choose to carry out your campaign, think of it as a continuous process.

Copying Competitors and Copycats
Google alerts is a great way to keep an eye out for your reputation, but have you thought about using it to watch your competitors? This article does a great job of compiling a variety of different ways you can stay in the know. Have you dealt with plagiarism in the past? You might have a piece of content that people love to steal. You can check by searching a certain phrase in parenthesis or checking CopyScape. We’ve had 3 different “companies” steal content on our video marketing page and reported them to Google as soon as we found out.

Google Webmaster Tools for Your WordPress
Did you know that you can use Webmaster Tools to get insight about your WordPress? The WordPress dashboard already allows you to see how many visitors you get and who’s linking to you. Once you verify ownership of your WordPress account with Webmaster Tools, you’ll see where your blog ranks in search engine results along with relevant keywords. You’ll also be able to see any crawl errors and other useful diagnostics. Best of all, this tool doesn’t cost anything. Feel free to add all your blogs/sites and master Webmaster Central today.

Real-Time Search for Real Life

Search engines are useful in bringing us relevant results. But what about information that’s relevant in this moment? I was searching for Google’s financials awhile back and came across some reports from before 2004 – before it went public! How and why is this relevant to what I’m looking for? It’s not! In December, Google launched its Real-Time Search, which will help customers get their hands on up-to-date info. With Google leading the way, it’s only a matter of time before others follow. Yes, we’re looking at you Yahoo! and Bing.

Going Mobile to Accommodate Smart Phones

With new smart phones coming out every second, you can’t rule out the importance of having a mobile compatible site. I don’t have a smart phone, in fact, I like to call mine’s a dumb phone. But I do have my handy iPod touch. When browsing the internet on a small screen, you want to ensure that all the essential links are there and that your customers aren’t missing out anything because they’re not on a desktop. The sky’s the limit for mobile in 2010, as consumers will want faster ways to get their info and all in one convenient place. If you haven’t done so already, get started on making your site more friendly with the right mobile web design.

Facebook is Up While Twitter Falls Flat

Ok, so the time is here. In 2009, there were many skeptics who doubted the staying power of Twitter. So far, we can certainly see that Facebook remains in the lead. As Facebook is experiencing increasing growth, Twitter seems to be flat lining. These two giants will continue to fight for the market share in 2010 as they go head to head by releasing international versions of their services. Twitter is working hard to be more personalized and relevant. On the other hand, Facebook’s CEO has publicly announced some questionable beliefs about users’ privacy. In any case, it looks like it will be another exciting year for social media.

Where do direct marketing efforts stand during a recession? Surprisingly, the increase of marketing efforts can clearly be seen, even though marketers have been struggling. In light of the rough economic times, some companies may be putting their direct marketing efforts on the backburner. While pushing this segment aside is a questionable approach, it’s still best for most companies to incorporate multiple methods in their marketing mix. Like any other investment, you should accurately monitor its performance for the most effective use.

Why Direct Marketing?

Experts predict that with every $1 spent on a direct marketing, companies can expect a return of about $11. Be doing your research and targeting the right consumers, companies may see excellent business from their investment. When you first hear about direct marketing, telemarketing may be the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, other effective forms of direct marketing includes: direct mail, coupons, emails, infomercials, and a combination of all of the above. With a wide variety of advertising channels, marketers have the choice of utilizing a method that best suits their needs.

Change Your Approach

If you continue your marketing efforts as scheduled, it may pay off to change your approach. During Christmastime, my email inbox gets loaded with offers. Most of the time, these pesky email blasts go straight in the trash. As one spectator pointed out, it helps to help consumers. Why not differentiate by informing them about something they’re interested in or helping them out with a problem? In a way, your smaller budget is a positive asset as it forces you to be more creative with your marketing plan. As the holidays come and the year draws to a close, it’s the best time to think of your strategy for 2010.

What happens when the Apple giant acquires online music streaming services offered by Lala? Some observers think that this will change the future of how consumers will obtain their music. Gone are the days of a need for tangible objects to hold our music…
From vinyl, 8-tracks, to cassettes and eventually CDs, consumers have always been looking for a more convenient way to store and listen to their music. Lala technology allows users to stream their favorite music over an internet connection. With similar sites, like Last.fm and Pandora, there’s no longer a need for physical CDs or even storage space.

What Does This Mean for the Music Industry?

Since the early days of Napster, the music industry has been scrambling to regain their past vigor. They claim losses of album sales due to internet downloading. But the internet and music streams may be a place where the music industry can regain their momentum. Trendsetters will want to investigate this new potential, so that they don’t get left behind. And you can bet that this is exactly what Apple’s strategy is. Surely, they don’t intend for the Lala technology to cannibalize their iTunes market, but they realize the powerful potential. For now, some experts believe that it is a long way before a majority of users switch to solely streaming their music online. Internet and wi-fi connections are still problematic, even with smart phones. For now, this is a viable market to keep your eye on.

Consumers are Still Key

Music and music fans will always exist. You won’t get anywhere if you blame your failures on consumers. Internet music streaming may frighten some artists, but others have begun to embrace it for novel ways to promote themselves. For example, solo artist, Beck, has always been known for his unique techniques for marketing his music. His 2006 album, The Information, came with a CD cover that fans could personalize by using accompanying stickers and other artwork. Recently, Beck has launched several websites where he releases exclusive new recordings, interesting interviews, and just plain weird videos. This is an easy way to keep in touch with your fan base and keep them up to date with the latest news. So, whether it is an interactive MySpace or entertaining Twitter account, there are many ways musicians can supplement their online presences and embrace technological upgrades. Internet music streaming may seem new today but it’s just a matter of time before something new comes out. Maintaining your consumer base will help you, regardless of the change to come.

Have you ever found yourself fascinated by a fun flash game or an interesting video clip? These may have been part of an online viral marketing campaign. Through using online buzz marketing and word-of-mouth on social networking sites, marketers work hard to use clever techniques to capture online attention and increase brand awareness of a company. A notable marketing campaign is Blendtec’s Will It Blend? channel on YouTube. The company demonstrates their product’s strong blending abilities by testing different objects ranging from golf balls to the Apple iPhone in an infomercial type series of videos.

By using unique approaches, marketers can capture more attention than when using a more traditional marketing method. YouTube videos are particularly popular because they are embeddable and easy for users to pass along via links or on their blog. You don’t have to always use outrageous techniques or videos, but it can certainly help when it comes to attracting potential customers.

A focus on web design marketing can be just as crucial in attracting visitors to your site. Your website should always accurately represent your company. It should also display a consistent message that is easy for your clients to understand. Not only should your website be eye-catching, but also easy to navigate. In order to gain favorable traffic, it is also important for your site to be search engine friendly.

So, whether you want to try to build momentum by creating an innovative video clip or adapting a new web design, there are countless different options that you can look into. Remember to do your research and keep in mind that these options are not mutually exclusive. You can mix and match the different methods that work best for you and your company.