Many people are now coming to realize the importance of Search Engine Optimzation, Paid Search, Email Marketing, and Social Marketing. However, some businesses fail to realize the importance of creating a Google local business listing. These listings can appear in search results ahead of sites competing for top ranking natural terms. Google local business listings have been around for a while now and should be a part of any online strategy.

On June 10, 2009 Google took another step in enhancing the value of having a local business listing. Google Base announced a new expanding feature related to the Google Business listing product.  The new feature still in beta allows businesses that submit their physical store location to show up in the Google Base product search section. This feature would allow a business to list a store front location to match up with a product search that an end user could be inputting in Google Base. The value of this can lead to additional store traffic to your storefront. Once again showing how valuable and important it is to have a Google business listing. Also, setting up a business listing is very easy. Simply follow this link to do so.

Social Marketing has become the latest buzz word in the internet marketing industry.  Organizations, companies, and bloggers are now using this method to convey their messages to their intended audiences effectively and quickly.  There are many tools, perhaps too many tools at their disposal to be able to create effective messages.

Some of these tools include the ever growing FaceBook, a social networking site that has grown from being exclusive to college students, to an internet marketing vehicle for companies, bloggers, and yes, even celebrities.  There are many other social networking sites besides FaceBook such as MySpace, Bebo, Xanga, and even Ning which allows you as a user to custom create your own little social network.

In addition to social networking sites there are also micro blogging sites.  These micro blogging sites such as twitter, tumblr, and Pownce (now Six Apart), have been great vehicles for launching the latest news, keeping tabs on the recent elections, and simply updating your friends and followers alike of your daily activities.  All of these tools, from social networking sites, blogging, microblogging, and doing search optimization, can become rather overwhelming for most companies, and surely so for people.  All of these tools have gotten a term coined by the marketing industry, called social marketing.  If you have a business, a blog, are a celebrity, or a large corporation, it becomes more and more important to hire professionals to do social marketing for you.

The days of getting the message out via static images in newspapers and magazines are over.  Television ads are also not as effective as before as more and more people have turned into engaged consumers, instead of passive consumers.  Consumers want to choose what to view, what to buy, and what to admire.  To become successful and get  your message out there, you need to be actively involved in all of these social marketing tools.  However, if you dedicate your time to that, you may not have the time of day to effectively run your business.  Perhaps now is the time for you to think about social media marketing by talking to people and see what they think about it, as well as do some research on your own.

It is no secret that Google changes its algorithms and search logic many times throughout a given year.  Some of the newest changes however are much more significant than we have ever seen before and will lead a dramatic shift in the way we search.  Google has been rolling out their new (and much anticipated) personalized and universal search features.  First, let’s define each and how they will affect the results that users see in the search engine results pages.  Then we will discuss how this may or may not change the face of search engine optimization forever.  Chances are that any Internet marketing company that is not ready for the shifts, will fall behind…and so will their clients.

Personalized Search: This goes by the basic theory that Google is constantly trying to improve the user experience and give the individual more relevant results.  Google is now tracking a user’s IP address and recording search behavior to create a “profile” using artificial intelligence.  Using the information it collects over time, Google will cater your results based on where you are, what types of searches you do, and what sites you go to.  The result will be that each user may get slightly different results for the same searches.

For example, if you live in Los Angeles and search broad terms like restauants, over time you will get more localized results.  The big question is whether Google’s artificial intelligence will really yield the most accurate results.  Many people are opposed to this shift because they want to get results the same way they always have and sift through them accordingly.  People do not want to recieve results based on what Google “THINKS” they want to see.

Another interesting aspect to this is that over the next few years Google will be shifting to users having their own logins and will be able to delete certain results and post comments on results.  In fact, this is rolling out as we speak.

Universal Search:  Universal search is placing more emphasis on all types of results and digital assets on the web.  Images and video content now carry a huge impact.  Google wants to give rankings to sites that provide the most value and have the best interactive experience.  This includes sites that have videos.

For example, the most relevant video content a site can have currently is YouTube.com videos displayed on their pages.  Google can index videos, images, and even audio files in a similar way to how it looks at regular content.  We have other great blogs about video optimization for SEO that go into greater detail.

So how does this affect Internet marketing strategy and search engine optimization?

Chances are that things like inbound links and page rank will have less value than the site itself.  All the general rules should still apply, but all SEO consultants should keep in mind that there may be different priorities in how we implement a comprehensive SEO campaign.  Rankings will matter less, and overall traffic and conversion will be the focus (and end goal – as it should be anyway).

This also means that Internet marketing companies and search engine optimization firms will have yet more educating to do for their clients.  Most businesses out there are just now getting on board with SEO and online marketing.  Now we are supposed to tell them that getting to the first page of Google won’t matter?  It is not quite this simple but the real emphasis for clients needs to be on traffic and conversions…not just rankings.