SEO Sticky Black And White Uppercase Words

Questions asked:

Is it best to use the color black in creating the home page. . or is it alright to use gold or purple for the search engines?

Is it better to make a lot of uppercase words?

When making a site ‘sticky’ does that apply for the most part to the Home Page?

Let me answer your second question first about using all UPPERCASE words.

If you are going to use all uppercase words, do it in extreme moderation. All uppercase words looks like shouting to most people, and in my opinion the search algorithms tend to categorize all uppercase words as shouting too. What I am saying, is the engineers at Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Search are always tweaking the algorithms to get the best search results possible. They don’t want search results pages that look like they are shouting at people either. Now, that doesn’t mean that the search results pages are not going to pick up any (all uppercase) pages in the search results, it is just a guideline to think about when you are designing your website and performing SEO Best Practices.

Try to use good writing techniques in all your published writing on the Web. I am of a strong opinion, that the search algorithms are actually being engineered to analyze writing styles, proper writing syntax, and text semantics. If you write and publish on your website using good sentence structures, then the search algorithms will tend to give your website higher marks. It’s just like a writing rubric grading system at school, but this grading system is truly color blind to unjust prejudice.

Don’t fret if you are not a literary genius, or have a tendency to misspell words, or have other dyslexic writing tendencies. Use web browsers that have automatic spell checkers, like Firefox, or write using Microsoft Word or equivalent word processors, and have these programs do automatic spell checks and syntax checks for you. If you want additional writing help, there are automatic programs such as WhiteSmoke that will help analyze, proofread, spell check, and edit your text to make it much more palatable to your visitors and the search engines too. The WhiteSmoke writing program has various writing modules available for help with general, business, creative, Hi-Tech, Bio-Tech, and executive writing styles. In addition, it is wise to have others check your published works. Don’t take constructive criticism personally, and continue learning from mistakes. The best way to improve your writing skills is with practice; there is no other way.

What color should I make the home page for the search engines?

I’m convinced that color schemes in the website pages are not so much as an important factor for the search engines, as it is for your readers, and people that are likely to link to your website in the future. It you have body text, that is not hidden in the page, the search engines can read it regardless of what color your page is. An important point here is, don’t make your body text hidden by doing some form of Blackhat SEO tactics. The search engine algorithms are getting much more sophisticated, and will likely give your website a search ranking penalty if you use Blackhat SEO tactics. You however do need to make the page easy to read for your online readers. Typically white on black is harder to read than dark on light colors. Once again this is just a guideline. I have used both at various times. If I have a lot to say, and I expect my readers to be able to spend a lot of time on the website, then I would make the pages as easy to read as possible. If I have a little bit to say, and I want to use a little bit more creative license in my web designs, then experiment with other color schemes.

For example: My Backflag site that I use for Internet shorts, is light on dark backgrounds which in my opinion is harder to read. On the other hand, my According to Jim site is mostly dark on light backgrounds, for easier in-depth reading. See Marketing-101 for an overview.

Now, if you look closely, you will see that I actually use both, dark on light, and light on dark backgrounds, at www.jimwarholic.com. The header area is a dark background and the body is a light background.

Does making a site “sticky” apply, for the most part, to the Home Page?

The term “sticky” generally refers to the ability of a website to capture the attention of a reader in order to draw that reader back to your website, and the ability to empower your reader to interact with the site by having them explore the website pages and read more content. How well you do this through out the website will determine how sticky your website is. Different types of websites have different degrees of stickiness. As far as how sticky your Home Page should be is concerned, it all depends on what you intend to do with the site in the first place. In my opinion, the Home Page should be an overview guide about your website. If someone comes to your website the first time through the Home Page, and you have very little information, they will have no idea what it really is about.

The example you gave, about the “Company of Winners” books is an example of an overview Home Page. This one is a graphic, which generally speaking, an all graphic home page is not the best from a search engine optimization perspective to be search engine friendly, but it does however show the point I am trying to make about the home page being an overview guide.

Hope that helps you.

Best regards,

Jim

Set your business apart with creative online marketing results. Learn how Internet marketing can help your business get discovered on the Web. Contact us for a free website evaluation today.

Social Bookmarks Internet Marketing 101 Strategically Applied

Learn how to maximize Social Network Marketing “SMM” for your business today.Marketing Online marketing comes in all shapes and sizes.

Internet marketing information on how to use social bookmarking for businesses today. Find out how you can help yourself in your own marketing efforts, for free.

The Web is a web of links that cross back and forth from all corners of the globe. Businesses need to think in terms of having an online global presence that is continually on an outreach ministries mentality. The days of placing a website online and just sitting back, and thinking that since we have built it, they will come in the form of new customers, is long past. Years have gone by with millions of websites being created that are all competing with you and your business. Yes, I do mean millions of websites are competing with your website whether you realize it or not. These millions of websites believe it or not, are using your words, that are used thorough out the World Wide Web. You do not own the words used. OK, some words are owned in the form of trademarks, but even with that, there are proper usages for trademarks in all types of written works, as well as properly displayed online in websites, blogs, news releases, email messages, ezines, newsletters, online news articles, and online videos. The truth of the matter is that every time a word is used on the Internet, it dilutes the entire pool of search results.

Whether you use Google, Yahoo!, Ask, Microsoft Bing Search, or any of the other smaller search engines, the fact remains that information is being generated at a astronomical rate and the search engines continually increase their total pool of information, and must try to pull the best results possible from the data mix. Yes, our searches are getting smarter. Instead of looking for just the word “widgets,” people are starting to use more natural language identifiers for improving their search results. Now they are starting to type “red widgets” or “purchase red widgets” or “buy red widgets” or “sell red widgets”, or you get the point. But, even those identifier words which help in the world of search from both a website perspective of including them in the pages, and the searcher’s perspective of being able to help improve their search engine results pages, it is not the complete answer to getting a page to show up in the search engine results pages.

Business Must be Proactive in their Online Marketing Approach

Taking a proactive Internet marketing approach is absolutely necessary today for businesses to compete in their respective market places. Yes, building a quality website, with information that is useful, informative, and effectively optimized for both the reader and the search engines is a requirement for good search results, but is not the only key to online marketing success. Another area is quality link building from outside sources. Yes, businesses must target their horizontal and vertical markets in the form of getting listed in directories and other online sources (many of which might cost an annual fee for a business to be listed), but that is not the only source for link building.

Free Link Building For Your Business With Social Bookmark Network Marketing

Everyone today has heard the term social websites. Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace fall into this category. FYI; LinkedIn is a great way to expand your business contacts, and even a link back to your website, through what many business professionals are using today. However, I want to go into the category of Social Bookmarking.

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata.

In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine.

Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their bookmarks with informal tags instead of the traditional browser-based system of folders, although some services feature categories/folders or a combination of folders and tags. They also enable viewing bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of users who have bookmarked them. Some social bookmarking services also draw inferences from the relationship of tags to create clusters of tags or bookmarks.

Many social bookmarking services provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users.

As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation, and groups or other social network features.

Source from Wikipedia, online encyclopedia.

With social bookmarks you get an added power advantage from other users bookmarking your website online, and thus improving the Internet exposure of your website online and to a certain degree of improving the performance of the business website within the search engines themselves. Don’t think that just because social bookmarks reminds you of services that are personal in nature, that this doesn’t apply to B2B and B2C businesses on the Web.

So, how can you help yourself, with your own website, without having to go to your webmaster to do it? Simple to start by just signing up for a free social bookmark networking account, and bookmark your business website online. If you aren’t sure which one to use, try some of the more popular ones to begin with. Delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon are some of the more popular ones. I suggest you get an account and try it out for yourself. Hey, what have you got to loose? There free. Share with your employees too. Have them get an account so you and your employees can collaborate on all your business bookmarks for your industry.

List of Social Bookmarks:

Favorites Google Bookmarks
Delicious Digg
MySpace Facebook
Furl Yahoo MyWeb
StumbleUpon Reddit
NewsvineWindows Live Favorites
Technorati Twitter
Yahoo Bookmarks myAOL
Ask Fark
Slashdot Propeller (Netscape)
Mixx Multiply
Simpy Blogmarks
Diigo Faves (Bluedot)
Spurl Link-a-Gogo
Mister Wong FeedMeLinks
Backflip Magnolia
Seganlo Netvouz
Tailrank Blinklist

Social bookmarks list above courtesy of AddThis.com

Another list of social bookmarking links widget for your website.

Social Bookmarks Creator

Make it easy for others to bookmark your website or blog.

As the Internet becomes more popular, if you can imagine that, online applications will continue to become much more pronounced. Make it easy on your users to bookmark your website or blog using some of the free online bookmarking services by including another free online service that provides a free application that can be embedded in a website to either popup or provide a drop down menu for adding a bookmark using the users’ favorite online bookmarking applications. For example, AddThis.com provides a small snippet of javascript code that can be inserted into the website, that will automatically take the title of the page viewed and prepare the online form for adding the specific page to your bookmark files online. Also, by having an AddThis account yourself, you can keep track of the number of people that actually bookmarked your page using that particular online bookmarking application. So, if you have a blog or a business website, include a social bookmark for your customers to add it to their favorite websites today.

Most of the bookmarking programs provide a means for cataloging and compartmentalizing the various different types of bookmarks that you might want to collect. The nice thing about online bookmarks is they can go with you where ever you go. So, don’t forget, start bookmarking for social marketing today.

Do you need help with your online marketing efforts? Professional Web Services can provide webmaster support for your business now. Contact us for a free Internet marketing analysis of your small business, mid size businesses, or large corporate websites.

What are you waiting for? Now is the time to get started with professional Internet marketing by Professional Web Services.

Proactive Internet Marketing for Your Business

SEO Marketing ServicesInternet Search

Almost all of us do it; with many doing it everyday. Many more do it several times a day. We are all searching the Internet for something. We use Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft Bing Search, Ask, or any number of the other search engines available online.

Are you taking your business for granted online?

Many businesses are simply placing a website online and thinking that is all they need to do for their online presence. But, think about how everyone is using search today to find the things, information, products, services, locations, directions, videos, instructions, helps, tips, and other business related information all at the tips of our fingers. If you are forgetting these search points, then you are probably loosing market share in your business.

That is why, you need to be proactive in your B2B and B2C business approach to Internet marketing. There are a number of major on-site optimization items that can really help your business out online. Don’t just simply sit back and do nothing about improving the performance of your business website. Most businesses have some advertising budget, but devote very little in the way of funding their online marketing efforts. Advertising is viewed as something that can be turned on and off, with quick results. However, advertising is not the best answer for a good Internet marketing plan. Nor is advertising, without a top Internet marketing plan, going to provide you with the best return on investment, and provide the best sales and marketing conversions of turning web browsers in to web buyers.

Developing your Internet Marketing Plan

A good Internet marketing plan begins at the very foundation of the website design structure, information architecture, and Web branding architecture. Graphic designers are good at putting pictures and designing Flash websites that definitely show flashy to the eyes, but do very little in the way of promoting the business online, due to most designers having very little training in good marketing concepts. My personal opinion is most graphic designers probably use only the right side brain approach to designing their websites. Right Minded MarketingIn today’s online marketing landscape, you must use both left brain and right brain when promoting the website, and not always waiting to the end of the website design to do it. Don’t make the mistake of thinking a pretty website is going to be the ticket to your online sales and marketing success. Many B2B and B2C companies over the years have made that mistake with very little sales to show for it.

So take this right minded marketing tip to your business heart. Don’t sit on your online business laurels. Get more bang for your marketing dollars with Professional Web Services’ Internet marketing services.

Contact us today for an internet marketing evaluation of your business website. Find out what needs to be done to improve your online exposure. Learn how your business can become a bright Internet star.

Secure eCommerce Tops the B2C Marketing List for eBusiness

Internet Marketing ServiceBusiness to consumer “B2C” Internet customers need to know their private information is secure when provided over a website eCommerce portal.

With all the inroads and growth in eCommerce in recent years, security concerns still tops the list for both B2B business customers and B2C consumers. B2C businesses should be putting forth security of personal data as their chief customer service concern. Identity theft and other forms of online theft is a huge problem today, and while secure browsers are being built to improve security in online transactions, this is only the tip of the iceberg in eCommerce security issues.

Implement Secure Shopping Cart Software

This is at the heart and sole of the online shopping world and it is important to investigate how security is being handled for ebusiness. There are numerous open source free software and paid shopping carts available with new ones added everyday. Some hosting services actually have shopping cart software built right into the services provided. Check with your hosting service provider.

Payment gateways must also be secure. Payment gateways are external services that enable internet merchants to accept online payments via credit cards, Paypal, and other electronic funds transfer services using a Secure Sockets Layer SSL and digital SSL certificates. Read this excellent overview of Guide to Merchant Accounts, providing information on payment gateways, Internet merchant accounts, 3rd party credit card processors, and eCommerce solutions.

When a secure page is navigated to and implemented in a Web browser window, a little closed (secure) lock Secure Web Site Icon will appear on the Web browser (typically lower right or upper right) and is usually an https:// file name. Take a look at this secure web page example. When in this secure mode, any information shared on that site can not be viewed by others on the Internet.

Have a True Privacy Policy

Privacy policies are an e-commerce area in which customer trust is most certainly abused. While most ebusiness sites have a stated legal privacy policy, the actual policy may not be legally private at all. See: Privacy Policy – Yea, Right! Include a tight privacy policy that does not rent, sell, or share E-mail addresses or any other private information.

Build An Ethical Business Foundation

Ethics in business is an area that is passed over way too quickly. It is at the heart and soul of the matter, and should be up at the top of a companys’ employees requirements list. Information can so quickly be extracted from any business database with-in an organization, and bought and sold in the market place. Don’t let this happen in your business. Implement an ethics policy for the entire company.

Build your company with good marketing ethics and include a system of checks and balances. Guard customers’ private e-commerce data as though it were your own.

Tell It Like It Is

As e-business continues to advance online, provide privacy and security information for your customers to easily understand. Do not wrap it up in legalese.

Market Your Business Online

Once you have the secure foundation in place, then promote your business online. Get your business found on the Internet. Internet marketing with Professional Web Services today will gain your business more sales tomorrow.

Article By: James Warholic
Professional Web Services

Marketing Attorneys, Lawyers, Legal, and Business Professionals

Legal Scales of JusticeWhen marketing an attorney online or other business professionals on the Internet, there are many important considerations to weigh out when developing your online Web presence.

Domain name strategies and online branding should be prime considerations for marketing your business profession.

Your first consideration that needs to be addressed online is your brand image. In the age of the Internet, domain names and branding are intrinsically linked together. If you are an attorney, consider the following article information for your website presence. While, you may want to start building up your law firm’s name for your business profession by including your law firm name in the actual domain name; this may not be the best or only solution for a professional to begin with.

Many times professionals such as lawyers, are placing their website placard on the Internet, without a good understanding of the marketing concepts involved online and expecting that is all they need to do to promote themselves. For example, many of the attorneys’ websites I have seen online give general descriptions and typically no locations of their business listed on the home page. If I am a consumer looking for an attorney in my city, how likely would I do a global search of the entire USA and world for “attorney” on Google Search? Let’s be realistic here, most people want a local attorney that can give them the personal touch, and one that can handle whatever the local issues are. They don’t want to use someone to represent them hundreds or thousands of miles away from their local needs. Likewise, if I need a lawyer’s service in another town or a distant state, I would want to find a local lawyer who can help me in those local towns and distant state locations.

Again, let’s take the attorney professional as an example, and look at what they would need to do when picking a domain name for their legal profession. Actually, you might want to have two domain names with very distinct and different information on both websites, though having unique content on each site is critical from a search perspective. It would not be a good idea from an SEO perspective to have both websites saying the same exact things. One website might have the actual law firm name of the law practice in the URL, while the other site could have the name of the legal specialty practice in the URL. Consider for a moment, how the Internet is shaping the way businesses and consumers find information today. Refer to: Online Marketing Tips for Attorneys and other Legal Professionals, below, for more pointers.

Most people look to the Internet first and foremost with searches for all types of professionals, before they even open up their Yellow Pages phone book to look for a professional or an attorney. Heck, most people never use the Yellow Pages anymore except on rare instances, and certainly the younger generation hardly even picks up the Yellow Pages even once a year. A person searching online is very likely to type in the name of a local city, with the word “attorney” or “lawyer” after the city name, when doing a Google Search. These search engine results pages would reflect the use of those keywords specific to the city being searched for. This is true for other searches too. A person would much more likely find the particular profession they are looking for by typing the city in addition to the keyword, attorney or lawyer.

OK, what about all the different areas of law practice? How do the areas of law affect your search results online?

For example, take a look at the long list of attorneys that specialize in a particular branch of law. If you are an attorney, how do you differentiate your law practice from the thousands (actual number of attorneys is well over one million) of attorneys online?

List of Attorneys and Areas of Law Practice

Administrative Law
Admiralty and Maritime
Adoption
Appellate Practice
Arbitration and Mediation
Aviation
Banking
Bankruptcy-Creditors
Bankruptcy-Debtors
Business Litigation
Child Custody
Child Support Collection
Civil Litigation
Civil Rights
Class Action Lawsuits
Collection/Creditors
Computer
Condemnation
Construction
Consumer Law
Contract
Copyright
Corporation/Partnership
Creditors Rights
Criminal
Divorce
Drunk Driving
Education
Elder Law
Employment
Entertainment
Environmental
Estate planning
Family
Finance
Firearms Law
Food and Drug
Foreclosure
Franchise Law
General Practice
Government
Health Care Law
Immigration
Insurance
Intellectual Property International
Labor-Employers
Labor-Workers
Land Use (Planning/Zoning)
Landlord Tenant
Lemon Law
Libel / Slander
Malpractice-Plaintiff
Military Law
Native American Law
Not For Profit
Nursing Home Abuse
Patent and Trademark
Pension and Profit Sharing
Personal Injury-Defense
Personal Injury-Plaintiffs
Phen-Fen and Redux
Privacy Law
Probate
Products Liability-Plaintiffs
Real Estate
Securities
Securities Arbitration
Sexual Harassment
Social Security
Sports Law
Tax
Traffic Tickets
Wills and Trusts
Workers Compensation

Think Like a Marketer, Not a Lawyer

To really distinguish yourself online today, requires using the keywords related to your legal profession. Most attorneys are specializing in one or more of the areas of law practice but not all. Simply telling your specialty one time in a website, is probably not going to help your branding efforts online, nor, will the small effort of publishing it once help get your website found in the general search results pages. You need to think like a marketing person, instead of as a attorney, when it comes to promoting yourself on the Web. In fact, you have to think of yourself as the client, and think how new clients would go about searching for your legal profession specialty on the Web. You need to know your clients semantically. Then the next requirement is the website needs to have good copy writing — actual body text (not just the website graphics) that reflects the way your clients think and talk. Get down to earth. Speak your clients’ language. Tell it like it is, and do it with style!

11 Online Marketing Tips for Attorneys and other Legal Professionals

  1. Consider having two websites, both your law firm name as the domain name for one, and another domain name for additional information and writing within your area of expertise. Must have unique information on each website.
  2. Use your local state and city names in your website copy writing.
  3. Include the keywords related to your legal profession throughout the website.
  4. Make sure your website is both a marketing and advertising tool that is search engine friendly, one that can be found in the search engine results pages for your local practice areas.
  5. Don’t just get lost in the myriad of online legal directories in which people have to go searching for, in order to find your name or someone else’s name.  Start building up your online brand in your location today.
  6. Promote yourself with a website blog. Blogs are simply a means of easily sharing with readers what is happening in your area of expertise. Note: One of the two domain names from above could be your blog website URL. That way, you could simply update it anytime you wanted and provide additional marketing and advertising channels online, with quality links back to your main legal website.
  7. Incorporate your brand architecture across all online market channels. In essence, make it known online that the two websites are yours (your brand) and promote that fact (the websites don’t need to look the same).
  8. Advertise in your local markets online. Set aside an advertising budget. Google AdWords and other online advertising channels should be serious considerations for marketing and advertising online.
  9. Build quality web pages that can be used for advertising and sales landing pages.
  10. Stay in touch with your clients through email campaigns and reach out to new clients with automatic sign up pages for more information.
  11. Consider again, writing a blog on the general subject matter and legal practice. A blog can gain you extra traction online.

The above pointers are things to consider going forward. Don’t get lost in the details. Start first with a quality website, one that is search engine friendly, and go from there. Need help with your legal marketing? Professional Web Services knows what it takes to get you found online today. Set your brand apart. Contact Professional Web Services for a website analysis and establish a great brand online today.

Click Here for Getting Your Website Found Online

Remember, your profession is your business, so now is the time to get found online.

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Online Marketing Means Knowing Your Customers Semantically

Do you know your B2C customers or B2B buyers intimately on the Internet? If you don’t know your customers, you are probably not talking their semantic language online and your website is probably not being found in the search engine results either.

Professional Web Marketing

When it comes to online marketing, a close working relationship is a must between those that take care of your website and the products or services you provide. Simply having a website online, with just a sprinkling of your keywords throughout the site, is not good enough to getting a business found in the search engine results pages. Most of all, quality content is required, and that content better stand on its own merits. Sure, you can publish on your business website a list of things that you sell, but how is that going to hold up to the hundreds, or thousands, or even millions of websites that use those same keywords as yourself.

Think about the difficultly of reaching the right customer on the Internet. There are not an infinite amount of words in the English language. The most common words are used by everyone. With that being said though, the search algorithms have gotten much better at evaluating what a web page, and for that matter, what a website subject matter (the website theme) is all about. In the future, search algorithms will be using a form of artificial intelligence, where not only will they learn from you, but they will improve themselves with constant AI tweaking, and self learning to improve the search results.

So, how does this affect your business on the Web? What does artificial intelligence have to do with your business website, and how will artificial intelligence play out in the real world of Internet marketing in the future? The answers can be found in the actual copy writing that is on your website.

Semantic Text Analysis

Get Your Business Discovered OnlineNot only are the words you use important, but the writing style, the proper grammar usage, the syntax, word capitalization, alternative word meanings, and even the titles, headings, and the included pictures can all be relevant factors in determining what the main subject is all about. Prior to the use of computers, people would read an article and be able to point out what type of writing style was being used. For example: English professors would be able to tell if a style of writing was; Argumentative – the speaker involves himself, argues, explains or analyzes in order to try to convince the interlocutor; Narrative – a narrator states a series of events, happening at a given time, and in a given place; Enunciative – the speaker and the interlocutor establish a mutual relation of influence, make their standpoints known; or Descriptive – a narrator describes, identifies or classifies something or somebody. Source: Semantic Knowledge

Writing analysis has much to do with the way the words are interconnected to one another. There are classes (direct relations) between using certain keywords with those of others in sentence structures. Text analysis programs take into account these keyword relationships and produce sets of references between various keyword categories, which can identify what the main subject is about. It can also be used to give an indication of the frequencies of words used and the meanings of the ambiguous words used throughout a written document in order to give a better analysis of the theme topic being discussed.

Words have different meanings depending on where and how they are being used in the body text. Also, there are times within the body text, where the same words are used as nouns in some instances, and at other times as verbs; with many times the verb noun word usage is switched even in the same document. It is said that one in four words used in a document could be deemed as ambiguous. As computer algorithms are improved, the word usage ambiguity is broken down with mathematical formulas, by evaluating all the given factors to determine with a high degree of certainty what the written document is all about.

Semantic Text Analysis Example

Business Keyword Reference Field
Business Keyword Star Graph

The Star graph above displays the relations between references, or in this case, between the “business” word category and other references. The figures shown on the graph give the number of relations (co-occurrence frequency) existing between the various references in this document. This graph shows the relations between those references. They are oriented: the references on the left of the central reference are its predecessors, those on the right are its successors. Reference Semantic Knowledge Tropes

This is a prime example of showing the relationships between the word business, and the words prior to and after business. While most of the word associations make sense from a logical perspective, however you will notice that a few of the word associations seem out of context. For example: the water_travel successor represents a usage of the words “sprinkling of your keywords” used near the top of this article. However, when this article is taken in its entirety, it is obvious that this article is not about H2O travel, but how business and the Internet have a direct success relationship together along with a host of other keyword associations.

The Semantic Web

With the aid of powerful computer programs, search engine companies can now build search algorithms that are quite smart. We generally think in terms of Search as being something we do, or a place we go online to shop, look for products and services, read the local news, or the quest for information for our business or personal use. However, Search from the standpoint of the search engines is simply a program or group of programs all designed to take and catalog the library of information online, and provide the best results possible. But, it is wise to understand the end result, in that Search is not just one particular result or even one style of results for a select search phrase. What I mean by this is, the top search engines such as Google, I believe, builds a collection of results that try to cover as broad a range of information area as possible, while keeping the results as narrow to the search terms that are practical. I’m not referring to Universal Search with the inclusion of various types of vertical search content from picture images, videos, directories, book searches, or local news data sources into one universal search output, but more as it relates to the basic search database of website results.

I’ll give you an example: Let’s say we are looking for information on how to replace the cabin filter on a 2000 Honda Accord. If you were to do a simple search query using Google Search for 2000 Honda Accord Cabin Filter, you would likely find information on the parts, prices, replacement procedures, and associated automotive areas that are directly related to the search query. While the given search query example was not placed in the form of a question like, “How to, how can, what is, or where is;” never the less, the results are given in the form of an answer by answering as broad a range of probable questions as practical, while being constrained to the topic at hand. Take a look at the results from the above search. It is interesting to note, as people become more adept at searching, they will begin to constrain their own search queries with using more sentence like structures to search and find the information they are looking for.

So, how can you apply this semantic knowledge for online marketing?

Market Segmentation

Internet Marketing StandoutFind a hole and fill it! You need to ask yourself some business related questions. What is missing in your particular Web market segment? What horizontal or vertical marketing information is lacking? What products or services that your business supplies, produces, or could produce need filling online? What other market segments can be penetrated?

Research and analysis is 90% of the marketing effort required. Doing due diligence, studying the competition, and keyword analysis are some of the major factors right off the bat that need to be researched, analyzed, and evaluated for the Web opportunities that are present. Then by structuring an online marketing strategy plan that can take your business’s strengths, and apply this to the business opportunities present on the Web, will help produce a sales and marketing impact success for your business. Read about strategic marketing from an Internet perspective to understand the relationships between your business, your competition, and how by including a website SWOT analysis, which includes analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your business online, can bring to light various marketing and advertising strategies that can be substantially applied for a sustainable competitive market edge.

The Top Ten Percent

To take advantage of your 90% effort requires the last 10% commitment. Think of it this way, you’ve done the research, you’ve identified the hole to be filled, you know what information is missing; now go do it. That might be easier said than done. Someone, either yourself or others, needs to take the next step and write the information down. Then, the information needs to get published online either in the form of a web page or pages of a website, or even in the form of a blog. The more proficient and succinct your copy writing is; using the best grammar that you can muster, taking into account the style of writing that is missing in the search engine results pages, the more likely you will be successful in your Web marketing strategy. Be aware, online marketing success is an ongoing process; it doesn’t happen overnight. Simply writing one or two articles in your particular field is probably not going to get you in the top ten percent of the search results, unless very few others have written and published about the same topical information.

Reaching Your Customers and Buyers Online Marketing Tip

Here’s an important marketing tip to remember when getting intimate with Web prospects. Reaching your customers and buyers online requires you to talk their language. When writing articles for your BtoB or BtoC business, in which you are planning for it to be used as promotional pieces to target potential customers; what good is it if you habitually only use keywords in your articles that are never searched for on the Web? Sure, you can use your own keywords or trademark phrases, but those trademark phrases also better include references to keywords used online by perspective Web customers. If there is a customer information barrier present between the way you talk and the way your customers talk, you are more than likely missing the sales and marketing boat. If there are synonyms for the various keyword terms, it is wise to also include these synonyms where appropriate, in the article too.

Natural Language Writing

KISS your prospective customers and buyers now! For those that don’t know the KISS principle (acronym for “Keep It Simple, Stupid”) states that design simplicity should be a key goal and unnecessary complexity avoided. It serves as a useful principle in a wide array of disciplines, such as software development, animation, engineering, strategic planning, Internet marketing, and online advertising. Read more about the KISS principle at Wikipedia.

Set Your Business Apart

Be different. Do it to the best of your abilities; learn, improve, and perform to a level of excellence that sets your brand apart online. Remember, everything is linked together on the Web. Your sales, marketing, advertising, and branding architectures are all inner related to each other through the information architecture(s) of the website(s). Read about marketing strategies for your B2B or B2C business. Don’t settle for mediocrity for your company. Start making a difference for your business and your future customers. Professional Web Services, can help set your business apart on the Internet. Contact us now for the business solution, to help you reach new prospects today while turning those new prospects and sales leads into customers tomorrow. I invite you to take the next step now into gaining more sales for your business. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. Ask for your free Internet marketing SEO website evaluation today.

Now is the time to get your business discovered online. Contact Professional Web Services today.

Get Your Business Discovered Online

Internet Marketing Website Advice For All

Marketing StandoutInternet marketing website advice is running rampant on the Net.

People come up with all sorts of linking schemes, website keyword packing suggestions, and advice that is at best just a guess and at other times dangerous for anyone and any business that follows.

Website Contents: Thesis

I have always felt the most important item a website has to share is the content. I still firmly believe that this still has the highest value in any search algorithm. People talk about getting inbound and outbound links. Others offer advice that has not been tested and in fact gets themselves or their clients in trouble when they try it themselves.

This site is designed with lots of wild looking stuff, with a number of quality outbound links, but at its core is content. Content that is original and carefully thought out.

Marketers Keys To Online Success

  1. One of the aspects of online marketing is keeping browsing fun for a company and your audience, and at the same time getting your point across. To accomplish this goal requires some creativity.
  2. Impacting an audience on the Internet can be accomplished in the form of special graphics mixed in with creative copywriting.
  3. Another is to have the site interact with your audience by providing additional information that would be helpful to those that wish to gain more in-depth information.

So consider carefully the advice you find online because following the wrong path could drop you at the end of the search line.

Reach Professional Web Services Internet marketing and online advertising help desk today.

Live from California, Internet marketing and branding to the world.

Creative Marketing With Style!

Strategic Marketing From an Internet Perspective

What is Strategic Marketing?

Internet Marketing StandoutStrategic Marketing attempts to determine how an organization competes or how it will compete against its competition in a market place. In particular, it aims at generating a competitive advantage relative to its competition. From Wikipedia.

Various marketing buzz words abound online. The above definition for strategic marketing is probably one of the most concise and defines it in a manner which can be easily grasped.

There are strategic marketing firms that will analyze the market place for the entire business structure and come up with a marketing strategy for their clients to compete on a global scale. While this type of service is needed to help determine a direction a company wants to go, there are however requirements for more specific strategic marketing evaluations that can have a major global marketing impact.

Understanding Internet Marketing

It is imperative for companies, as part of their strategic marketing, to understand the relationship the Internet has on a company’s market reach in both vertical and horizontal markets. The Internet provides a wealth of information, tools, and potential to expand a company’s sales through the use of the company website, online advertising, and Web 2.0 technology. Learning to use the Internet to fine tune (optimize the website) for various market segments are one of the keys to having more penetration both horizontally and vertically online.

Developing the penetration into these markets is what Internet marketing really is all about. A company can be all over the Internet, or not at all found online, but if it is not found in its industry specific area for engineers, buyers, and consumers searching for the products or services provided by the company, it will have little impact on the bottom-line sales generated.

Strategic Internet Marketing Evaluation

Marketing has what is known as a SWOT analysis tool. The acronym SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The SWOT analysis  is a way of evaluating the direction a company wishes to go. For example below is a SWOT Chart courtesy of businessballs.com

Subject of SWOT analysis:
(define the subject of the analysis here)

strengths

  • Advantages of proposition?
  • Capabilities?
  • Competitive advantages?
  • USP’s (unique selling points)?
  • Resources, Assets, People?
  • Experience, knowledge, data?
  • Financial reserves, likely returns?
  • Marketing – reach, distribution, awareness?
  • Innovative aspects?
  • Location and geographical?
  • Price, value, quality?
  • Accreditations, qualifications, certifications?
  • Processes, systems, IT, communications?
  • Cultural, attitudinal, behavioral?
  • Management cover, succession?

weaknesses

  • Disadvantages of proposition?
  • Gaps in capabilities?
  • Lack of competitive strength?
  • Reputation, presence and reach?
  • Financials?
  • Own known vulnerabilities?
  • Timescales, deadlines and pressures?
  • Cash flow, start-up cash-drain?
  • Continuity, supply chain robustness?
  • Effects on core activities, distraction?
  • Reliability of data, plan predictability?
  • Morale, commitment, leadership?
  • Accreditations, etc?
  • Processes and systems, etc?
  • Management cover, succession?

opportunities

  • Market developments?
  • Competitors’ vulnerabilities?
  • Industry or lifestyle trends?
  • Technology development and innovation?
  • Global influences?
  • New markets, vertical, horizontal?
  • Niche target markets?
  • Geographical, export, import?
  • New USP’s?
  • Tactics – surprise, major contracts, etc?
  • Business and product development?
  • Information and research?
  • Partnerships, agencies, distribution?
  • Volumes, production, economies?
  • Seasonal, weather, fashion influences?

threats

  • Political effects?
  • Legislative effects?
  • Environmental effects?
  • IT developments?
  • Competitor intentions – various?
  • Market demand?
  • New technologies, services, ideas?
  • Vital contracts and partners?
  • Sustaining internal capabilities?
  • Obstacles faced?
  • Insurmountable weaknesses?
  • Loss of key staff?
  • Sustainable financial backing?
  • Economy – home, abroad?
  • Seasonality, weather effects?

The table above can be used for all types of analysis. Using the four main keys and applying it to an Internet marketing plan is beneficial for helping visualize and evaluate what needs to be done.

While the particular example above is more general in nature, it can be applied to specifics. For example when determining how a website needs to be optimized and/or the Web presence, a person needs to look at the four keys. Some of the questions that can be asked are: What is the company’s online strengths in meeting their marketing goals? How well is the website designed? Does the website provide quality information for readers, visitors, and the search engines? What types of links point to the website? Are these links quality links? What opportunities exist in the types of niche markets that the business can expand online? What are the current weaknesses with the business’s Web efforts? How can the business improve their brand recognition online? Does the website provide a solid tool for the sales and marketing departments? What threats are faced from the competition and other market factors online? What other tools are available to take advantage of online opportunities? Is the company advertising online? Is the competition advertising online? All of these items and more can be written down or verbalized to help develop an Internet marketing plan to help grow and promote your company.

Once the market analysis is performed then a strategic plan needs to be developed, and then implemented. Certain items can be quickly changed or applied, while others on the list will need substantial time and effort to attend to. All of the items will factor into the viability of the company competing across the Internet.

Developing a quality web presence is one of the most important items a company can invest in. It is very shortsighted to think in terms of “the cost” of developing a website. It is a business investment, and it is an investment that has the potential to bring forth many returns.

Get the Business Solution today from Professional Web Services. Contact us today for a free Internet marketing evaluation or other Internet marketing services.

Decisions for Your Business – Strategies for Success

Maybe your are asking the question, “Why do I need professional Internet marketing services?”

Let’s take a look and see why you need good online marketing today.

Would you like your business to show up in the major search engine results pages of Google Search, Yahoo Search, and Bing Search? If the answer is yes, then you need good Internet marketing services.

Would you like to have greater brand recognition for your business? If the answer is yes, then you need good Internet marketing services.

Would you like your business to be able to break into or expand into new market segments? If the answer is yes, then you need good Internet marketing services.

Would you like your advertising budget to be spent efficiently and have the best return on investment possible? If the answer is yes, then you need good Internet marketing services.

Would you like to see an online advertising campaign targeted to specific buyers or consumers? If the answer is yes, then you need good Internet marketing services.

Would you like to obtain more sales for your business? If the answer is yes, then you need good Internet marketing services.

Can you afford to sit by, letting the competition pass you buy on the Internet, and not have good Internet marketing services? If the answer is no, then you need good Internet marketing services. Remember, good Internet marketing strategies are keys to online marketing success.

Good Internet marketing strategies by Professional Web Services.

Set Your Business Apart From the Online Crowd

Standing out from the online crowd should be a strategic component of your marketing plan.

Your business is special. That is the first thing that must be thought about when marketing a company online. What is it about your business that makes it different from all the other B2B, Business to businesses, or B2C Business to consumers companies in the world.

Yes, you are competing at the world level. The Internet has made the world a very small place indeed. Circuit board manufactures have found that out since the turn of the century. Data for building the circuit boards can be delivered via electronic forms of communication in a matter of seconds to the other side of the world. Circuit boards can be built in China and shipped overnight to anywhere on the globe. Nothing is out of the realm of world competition except for maybe the local food providers or local service providers. But that is changing also.

Throwaway products are coming on to the market place which simply make it unaffordable or not cost effective to repair older things like VCRs and small stereos. The cost of new products has been dropping, in real dollar terms, significantly since the turn of the century. Hard disk drives have gotten cheaper and can store more information than the previous year’s model. Computers on our desktops are more powerful today than what the US Government had 50 years ago. Solid state memory devices can store over 1000 songs on a single USB flash drive. DVD players for the television market place have dropped to where a DVD player can be purchased for below 50 dollars, and that even includes a remote control unit.

Competition is not just in the same horizontal or even in what would be typically defined as a vertical market. Grocery stores for years have increased the types of products they have carried. Forget the days when you just went to a grocery store to buy food. Now you can buy everything from the superstores. Remember that 50 dollar DVD player I was talking about above? I saw one on sale for 20 dollars by using your free grocery store buying card, and that was not even a superstore.

So, this brings me back to marketing. Good marketing services must include expanding your brand market reach online. This requires more creative thinking and good Internet marketing strategies to really promote a company online.

Take a look at any movie that comes out today. One of the first things a movie studio does today is set up the movie’s website. Movie studios understand that not only is their production studio the brand, but the movie is also being branded in the hearts and minds of the consumer. Likewise, your company may very well have a great brand name recognition, but does this brand recognition lend itself to being found by new customers that might not think of your brand for a certain product or service? This is even more important for the company that does not have the type of brand recognition that some of the bigger players have in their respective fields.

What you need for your business today is greater market penetration, across all key markets that your business is associated with. That really comes down to having good Internet marketing strategies for promoting a B2C or B2B business online. Remember, good Internet marketing strategies are keys to online marketing success.

Contact Professional Web Services. Professional Web Services, Inc. is an Internet Marketing Services, Ethical Search Engine Optimization, Online Advertising Strategies, and Web Branding Solutions provider for the B2C and B2B market place.