People often ask me about their overall website marketing mix, especially as it pertains to search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). I usually have to remind people that although I have an MBA, my specialty is search engine optimization which is a subset of the overall marketing mix of a website. However, I'm always game when it comes to discussing the best practices of search engine optimization. Since this portion is really a summary of the full article, I can summarize best practices of search engine optimization by quoting none other than Sergey Brin of Google when he said, "although all people are created equal, all websites are not." Click on the "read more" link to read my tips not just on following search engine optimization best practices, but in choosing the best search engine optimization company for your website.

Although retail sales were down 7.4%, online sales of many popular websites had increased according to the New York Times! In fact, some websites had doubled their online sales!

Yes folks, it is absolutely true! While everyone in the media is out discouraging us about the economy, the NY Times reported that online sales have doubled! According to the article, they attribute the drastic increase in online sales to the high gas prices. People are driving less and staying home more often. We can’t help ourselves. If we are not being entertained by being outside and shopping, then we tend to stay inside and shop. This is why it is now more crucial than ever to have your website appear on the first page of search engines. Without traffic to your website, having the website is a mute point.

Source: NY Times Article

Yes, its true the economy is currently in a stump. The DOW went down over 500 points today. If you have stock in the financial sector, you probably felt the pinch. Sorry. However, this downturn will not last forever. ***UPDATE: 9/19/2008 - What a difference 2 days make! We just had the 2 biggest days on Wall Street since 6 years ago! Folks, start building traffic to your site!*** In fact, in early 2009 many analysts predict the roller coaster economy will begin a recovery. However, will your site be appearing at the top of the search engines by then?? Search engine optimization, or even web optimization on steroids is not going to get your site up there over night. It takes time for search engine optimization to work. The search engine rankings will improve as the weeks go by. It will take at least 4 weeks to as much as 16 weeks for our search engine optimization methodologies to kick-in and for the search engine rankings to improve. Is your site prepared for the search engine traffic? Are you going to do what most good marketers do in an economic downturn, spend money on the advertising their businesses? Or are you going to curl up in a shell? When it comes to marketing on the Internet, specifically when it comes to search engine optimization, if you are not advancing, you are declining. No action equals certain death! Take action now and improve your rankings in the very near future. You NEED traffic to increase sales! If you don’t have traffic to your site, there is really no need for your site…

There should be no commercial website on the planet that does not have some sort of search engine optimization techniques applied to it. If you do not have SEO applied to your site, you are probably letting search engine traffic slip right through your fingers and that can be costing you dearly and making your competitors richer! However, depending on the type of business, search engine optimization should be affordable for people to be able to implement it to their sites. I am NOT referring to the $29.95 per month gimmicks, as that is probably not legitimate search engine optimization. Having said that, search engine optimization should not cost you an arm and a leg either. In fact, the whole purpose of search engine optimization is to drive traffic to a site at an affordable rate. So why do so many search engine optimization firms charge and arm and a leg for SEO? Read on to find out…

It is evident that Microsoft wants to be a major player in the search game. Let me restate that, they want to be the #1 player in the search engine marketing game. They are not happy with being #3. To that end, they want to buy Yahoo, well not all of Yahoo, just the search engine portion of it. Why you ask? Well, because it seems that have hired the best minds on the planet, strike that, the universe, to come up with an absolutely brilliant strategy to take the #1 spot from Google. How, by purchasing the #2 guy Yahoo. So if they buy Yahoo, they become #1. Let's do the math: 2-1=1 & 3-2=1. Eeeeeasy! The best answers always are... so as you can plainly see, if they buy Yahoo Search, then they will become #1. You do see it right??

Yes, folks Google has announced on their very own blog that they wish to sell off Performics Search Marketing, the search engine optimization wing of the DoubleClick purchase Google wrapped up on March 11, 2008.

Tom Phillips of Google writes:

"It’s clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business. Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google’s mission and core to the trust we ask from our users. For this reason, we plan to sell the Performics search marketing business to a third party. We believe this will allow us to maintain objectivity and the search marketing business to continue to grow and innovate and serve its customers."

Folks, I'm sure you have come across so called search engine registration websites that talk about search engine submission and web optimization for $9.99 or some other RIDICULOUSLY low price! No matter what you do, please PLEASE do NOT waste your time on such hogwash! Nor should you burn your money and pay $60,000 for SEO.

Here is the very succinct answer to both those questions. The keywords your clients will type into the search engines. Killed 2 birds with one stone (actually in real life I would NEVER kill any bird, unless they wanted to kill me for some reason, then I might). Some other questions I normally get are “How much traffic can I get?” Also, “How do I get my site up higher in the search engines?” And again, “How do I get Googley (yes, many people still call it Googley) to make my site come up like my competitor's site does? I answer all of these questions here and you will truly find it very informative!

There are 2 types of search engine marketing. Natural search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. These 2 methods are not enemies. In fact, they are friends. However, in most cases, search engine optimization is FAR LESS costly than having to pay-per-click. If someone offered you 2 options – option 1 pay a flat fee of $2,500 upfront for a whole year or option 2 – pay just a measly little $1 per click, which offer would you take??

There was a time that Google engineers used an algorithm that gave sites great rankings if they exchanged links with related sites. That is simply no longer the case. Caller after caller that calls us that has used link exchange software or link exchange services has one common denominator in their story- I was ranked so well in Google, but for some reason I am now nowhere to be found. What happened?!

Why do so many firms still approach search engine optimization companies and give them tens of thousands of dollars and do not DEMAND a money back guarantee if the site does not hit the first page of search engines. Why even bother optimizing your site if your site is not going to end up on the first page. In addition, why do so many people turn to their web designer for website optimization and 6 months later find every one of their competitor's sites on the first page, yet their site is deeply buried in the search results. Why oh why?? I explore these topics and provide a clear and concise methodology of weeding out the wrong search engine optimization companies. A MUST READ for anyone who is contemplating hiring an SEO company.

Most people realize there is tremendous value and return on investment when it comes to search engine optimization, and most people know they need to do something and take action to get that traffic, but to their own detriment, most people procrastinate on getting the process of search engine optimization started. They do all the research, read all the materials, ask all the right questions, but they wait, and wait and then wait some more. All the while, they are losing months of missed business opportunities due to their lack of presence on the natural search results of the major search engines.