Many people took time out of their day yesterday to take action against the passing of two proposed bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property  Act (PIPA). An astounding 4.5 million people signed Google’s Anti-SOPA petition, according to the LA Times. Eighteen senators pulled back their position on PIPA, including Senator Marco Rubio (co-sponsor from Florida), and SOPA co-sponsor Arizona rep. Ben Quayle also changed his stance to opposing the bill on Tuesday.

The goal of these bills is to censor your web browsing which would also potentially impose damaging effects on American business and even our very own Internet Marketing Inc. All of you last minute paper writing college students must be in for a tough week because Wikipedia is officially blacked out in an attempt to dislodge the bills from being accepted. Wikipedia is allowing you to raise awareness by putting up a fancy box that allows you to input your zip code and let your voice be heard. After submitting your zip code, information of your district officials allows you to contact them. Feel free to drop them a line, express your concern and give them your opinion on censoring your rights.

Now there is always two sides to the story. Google understands that combatting piracy is vital, but, “the most effective way to shut down pirate websites is through targeted legislation that cuts off their funding. There’s no need to make American social networks, blogs and search engines censor the Internet or undermine the existing laws that have enabled the Web to thrive, creating millions of U.S. jobs.” Also joining in is Mozilla as they changed their default home page from a blank white background to black.

What are your feelings as to how citizens have reacted to this attempt at censoring your web searches?

Simply deleting extra data fields on your website can potentially save you millions, as shown in the article “Expedia on How One Extra Data Field Can Cost $12 M“. Expedia utilizes SAS® predictive analytics, which helps them understand their customer base statistically, based on web traffic and user behavior. They realized from studying this data, they they needed to eliminate ambiguous data on their online form  that was misguiding their customers away from their product.

Expedia realized customers were inputting their bank name in the optional ‘Company’ field and proceeded to enter their bank address instead of their home address in the subsequent field. This was preventing the credit card verification process and consequently driving customers away. By simply removing one misguiding data field, an immediate improvement was noticed resulting in a $12 million profit per year.

We can all learn from this example.  It is essential that the direction on your website is efficient for the average online user. Remember that people do not want to spend extraneous time on a website if they don’t need to.   The information you provide on online forms  must be straightforward and free of misunderstandings. Analytics can only obtain so much information about online users. One way to completely understand your website users’ behavior  is to  physically observe them navigating the website and note their confusions.

According to SAS analytics (http://www.sas.com/success/expedia.html), Expedia applies their resources in three ways: inventory selection optimization, website design and fraud reduction. Each facet of SAS analytics observes data in order to learn and optimize on previous customer behavior. These data collections ultimately prevent issues like credit card fraud and help interpret data that will be useful to a specific customer.

Although the primary purpose of using analytics is not eliminating problems such as these, it has proven to be useful in removing glitches to optimize a website’s performance. Analytics only provides statistical information which is why it is crucial to understand your customer in order to make your website as efficient as possible. Who knows, maybe removing a couple of optional fields on your website’s  online form could result in similar benefits.

When writing content on the web, a good rule of thumb is to use the inverted pyramid technique, also known as Bottom Line Up Front.  This entails putting your most important point as the title and first paragraph of text in your article, and the supporting details towards the end.  Be sure to capture the attention of your users’ right at the beginning of your page, so that way they don’t need to scroll down to get the main points of your article. On the web, people tend to jump from page to page on websites, so you want to catch their attention right away.

Benefits for Readers

If a user likes what they see in your article from the beginning, they are more likely to bookmark it and read the rest of the article later. Or, if they are using a mobile phone, they can see the main point of the article and email it to themselves to read later on. (more…)

Information Architecture Optimization involves the global navigation of your website. It will be helpful for users and search engines. Basically, it is a way to get the keywords you want to rank high for within the link text. The users experience should always come first before the search engines – so, you don’t want to cram a bunch of keywords on the buttons at the top of your website, because it might confuse users, it may not fit within the space you have, and could disrupt the look and feel of your website.

For example, most people have very general terms like “about us”  “contact us” and “customer support” as their navigation pages. With information architecture, you would make these more specific and keyword focused, so if we were to implement in our about us page, we could say:

“About Us – We are an internet marketing firm in San Diego”

The ways around actually displaying all of those words on the page, but still having them there, is by using one of four different strategies listed below:

Code Order

Within the code of the website, you can rearrange the order so that the first thing listed is the content of the page, then the side bar navigation, and then the header information.  This way, your website will be more optimized so that the links with the keywords are prioritized.

CSS Status Tip

The CSS Status tip is what appears in the bottom left hand corner of your screen. If you use this technique, your keyword rich sentence will show up at the bottom of the page when someone hovers over one of the buttons in the navigation.

CSS Tool Tip

This strategy is most commonly used and would display the longer keyword phrase right at the same place you are scrolling over. So, it will appear as a text balloon right next to the link.

Image Based Navigation

This way you would use images as the actual buttons and add alternative or ALT text to these images as the keyword phrase you want to use.

All in all, information architecture optimization is a more advanced technique, but if you are willing to put the effort into it, it will make a big difference. Have any questions? Let us know!

You need to be selective when choosing inbound links to your website.  Just having random websites link to you is not enough these days. You need to take a close look at them and understand that there are some important SEO factors and criteria to consider first. Read on to learn how to  improve your link building strategy overall.

Visit the link – how does it look?

First, visit the actual website. Does it look like a natural website that web visitors will enjoy reading? Does it provide good information or are you bombarded with spam-like images and banners when you visit it? If it looks like the website only exists to spam users or solely to provide a back link for many websites, reconsider using it.

Is the content relevant?

Now, if the link passes that test, the next thing to look at is if it is relevant to your website. Is the topic of that website related to your website?  Does it mention the targeted keyword terms that you want to rank high for in search engines? For example, if your business is a Casino, you want to partner with websites about the gaming industry and casinos, not football. Try to get inbound links from websites that are within your industry or field of expertise.

You don’t want a site that is overly saturated with keywords either, as this will make it difficult for users to read, and may lead to having a keyword density number that is high.  Search engines look upon this negatively.

What is the Page Rank of the URL?

Take a look at the Page Rank of the website. If the site is not related specifically to your website topic, but has a Google Page Rank of 5 or higher it may still be good to include it. For example, a local news station that has a link to your website is very helpful. Not only will a lot of people see this, but it will show search engines that you are connected to a high quality website.

Additionally, a website that has a link to your website on it and the domain ends in .edu, .org, or .gov is beneficial, because these websites are seen as authoritative and generally have higher Google Page Ranks.  Keep in mind just because the website extension ends in .edu or .gov does not mean necessarily it has a high Page Rank. A good rule of thumb is the closer your website link is to the home page of that .edu or .gov site is the better. If it’s hidden within a blog or forum, it won’t help as much.

Is the link set as a No Follow?

The link will not help your search engine rankings if the URL is set to “No Follow” and its page rank will not carry over to your website. “No Follow” discredits the link for search engine robots. A website may use the “no follow” attribute value if it is a blog or forum and gets a lot of spam.

How many outbound links does the website have? (more…)

Last Saturday, on December 12th 2009, Internet Marketing Inc.’s New York City office launched its first holiday party ever.  With little under a year of existence, IMI NY has won a strong book of business and surpassed many milestones these last few months.  Partner and President, Todd Soiefer, invited the team to a holiday party to celebrate this success and ring in the new year “Internet Marketing” style.

The party was a huge success, with the attendance of several staff members- interns, developers and all.  A surprising guest appearance was made by the CEO of Internet Marketing Inc., Brent Gleeson, who is based in the San Diego office.  His arrival not only added an element of surprise, but also much entertainment as well.

The party involved a champagne toast and then a sushi dinner at New Ashiya in downtown Manhattan.  It was hard to even hear normal conversation over the continuous ruckus of laughter that practically usurped the night.  I am honestly surprised anyone had time to eat.

So you may ask: what’s my point?  It’s the small things that count.  Having a holiday party for your employees really inspires good cheer and let’s them know how much they truly are appreciated when it really counts.  If you don’t already do it, I suggest you make it your next New Years resolution- not only will good memories be shared but the team bonding is priceless.

I recently read and article with a somewhat missleading title, but the content was interesting, and a bit scary.  The article is from the LA Times and was called “Congress is Cracking Down on Internet Marketing Companies“.  Now, when I think of Internet Marketing companies I think of firms offering actual marketing services.  In this case the article is really referring to Internet advertising and sales technology companies.  Either way, the topic is about these technologies being used by major retailers which use people’s credit card info and share it with other services.  Next thing you know you are getting reoccurring bills from some site you have never heard of.

Here is an example.  You are ordering tickets online and during your check out process an ad pops up urging you to “click” in order to get $20 off your next purchase.  That click then automatically sends your credit card info to another company you have never heard of and signs you up for a “membership”.  You then get billed automatically for months before you realize it and cancel.  Most people are too busy to notice or forget whether they signed up for something and never really pursure it beyond cancelling. 

As I said before the article refers to these firms as online marketing companies.  The companies they are talking about are the ones who are creating and distributing these technologies and then partnering with major retailers.  Some of these companies include (according to the article)  Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty.  The scary thing is that these shady companies have been able to partner with major retailers like Hotwire.com and Continental Airlines.

The article stated that stories like these have encouraged members of Congress to seek legislation designed to crack down on these types of aggressive sales tactics (and the technology that makes them a reality).  This type of thing is no doubt something no consumer should have to worry about!

Has this ever happened to you?  Please share!

When discussing organic search engine optimization strategies and best practices, most people have heard the terms “blackhat” and “whitehat”.  Of course, Blackhat tactics refer to shortcuts and tricks meant to fool the search engines such as duplicate cintent, various content delivery tactics, improper redirects, and poor link building practices.  The whitehat tactics are the guidelines suited for best long term orgainc placement meant to create a healthy website environment that adds value to the Internet and that is seen as relevant by the search engines.

When search engines marketers, SEO consultants, and Internet marketing companies try to stay on top of the game, most of the effort is placed on keeping up with “what Google likes”.  What are the Google algorithms looking for now?  So naturally it takes a lot of research, attending trade shows, reading blogs, etc. to stay current with the industry.

Four or five years ago it was very difficult to do this.  Naturally, Google is still as secretive as ever.  But are they becoming more transparent with their ideal best practices?  I would say definitely.  At least now we can read articles from Matt Cutts and go to Google Webmaster Central to glean the latest Google knowledge, get advice, and stay current.

Back when information was less readily available, the formation of various Blackhat tactics could have been intentional…or was it because people just didn’t know better?  Probably a little of both.  Of course, there will always be SEO consultants and “SPAM” artists out there trying to take shortcuts and make money.  That will not change.  However, back in the day many people in the industry were not certain about what is “right” and “wrong”.  The best practices are now much more clearly defined and it is widely known that shortcuts and Blackhat tactics will not result in anything positive.  Technology is simply far too advanced.

The typical Blackhats these days are most likely the random “companies” or individual consultants that charge very little ($200 per month) and do not openly communicate their methods.  If they can’t educate you on search engines optimization and show relevant case studies for reputable clients, then they probably are not worth your time.  I am not saying an SEO consultant or Internet marketing company has to have an amazing client roster to get the job done, but you still need to be selective when choosing a company that could change the future of your business.

Newspaper giant, The Tribune Company has recently filed for Chapter 11. The Tribune company owns Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and many others. This is a pretty incredible piece of news for many reasons and this is a huge step for the internet as a viable source of both news and advertisements. Many newspapers rely on advertisements for revenue – especially the classified sections which in many newspapers allots for over 50% of the newspaper revenues. (They don’t make anything on the subscription) With the “recent” rise of internet marketing and online forums, many people have chosen less expensive and mostly free ways to market themselves. Let’s take the classified section for example. With the “recent popularity” of the internet, many people will go to listing websites- the most popular is of course craigslist.com – and list their services, sell anything and even post jobs. I have put the phrase “recent popularity” in quotes because this scenario is quite intriguing. The internet has really only been around for consumers and users for 15 years? Maybe 16 years? Newspapers have been around for hundreds of years. Isn’t it incredible that the online forum has been able to chip away so quickly at big newspaper giants?

And what does this really come down to? Trust. Before, people turned to newspapers to advertise because they trusted that source as a way for them to advertise their product or list their service and etc. Now, the internet is gaining the trust of so many. Plus, it’s much, much cheaper than print media. We’ve seen this happen already with other print publications like magazines. Now, we’re starting to see the big ones start to weaken. Many other newspaper companies are up for sale now as they fret about going into Chapter 11. Internet marketing companies have been telling clients that the print mediums are no longer the way to advertise and to be quite honest, I don’t know how many people will need that much more convincing. I recently wrote about when online media will become traditional media. Well, it looks like online is becoming more traditional faster than I expected. With The Tribune Company going into Chapter 11, it’s pretty obvious that consumers are using more online marketing realms and ever before. And that number is only going to increase.