Is Your Web Site in the Sandbox? »

I have been in the search engine optimization field for close to 2 years and the most commonly asked question by clients is:

Why is my website not listed in any search engine and not ranked?

I have always tried my best answering this question, coming up with 101 theories and saying things like “Google algorithms are working on it”, etc., etc. Now, I don’t need to worry about “lying” about the answer because I have found the perfect answer for the clients.

Check out this article written by WebmasterBrain about sharing 10 Effective Methods to Bypass The Google Sandbox.

You will learn things like:

1. What is Google Sandbox?
2. Does Google Sandbox really exist?
3. Who does the Sandbox affects?
4. How long are the websites sandboxed?

Read more of the article here.

Now this certainly does not mean that the Sandbox can be blamed for ALL cases of a web site failing to rank because there are dozens of factors involved in the placement of a site. When a web site doesn’t rank well or doesn’t rank at all, sometimes it means that you should examine your SEO efforts instead of blaming it on the Google Sandbox.

If you would like for us to take a look at your web site and see if improvements can be made, contact us and we will take a look.

Search Engines Best for Local Search »

When you are looking for a local business, do you reach for the phone book or do you head to your favorite Search Engine? That is one of the topics researched by WebVisible and Neilson and blogged about by Search Engine Land.

The roughly 2,000 respondents were chosen at random and asked several questions related to local search and online advertising. The results were quite surprising to me. For example, Search Engines are the number one source for information on local businesses:

• 74 percent used Search Engines to find information on local businesses
• 65 percent used the print version of the Yellow Pages
• 50 percent used the Internet version of the Yellow Pages
• 44 percent used Newspapers
• 33 percent used print White Pages
• 29 percent used Television
• 18 percent used Internet review web sites

I am not sure about the age demographic of the people polled. I think the older generations probably tend to stick with the traditional methods of getting business information – primarily phone books and newspaper, but I don’t know too many young people who even look at the phone book, let alone use it to find business information if a Search Engine is available. I personally only use the phone book when 1) the Internet is not handy OR 2) when I know the business I am looking for is not going to show up on the Internet because they don’t have a web site, to which I say, “Get a web site – its almost 2008!”.

Here are some other interesting percentages:

• Today, 78 percent use the Internet more to find local businesses than they did 2 years ago.
• 6 percent use the phone book more than they did 2 years ago to find local businesses.
• 52 percent use the phone book less than they did 2 years ago.

What this information should help to reinforce is that whether you are a small business or a large corporation, you really need to have a web site AND your web site must be accessible to your potential customers, which means it must rank well in the Search Engines because that is what the majority of them are using.

This does not mean that you should completely forget about listing your business in the phone book (although we are not listed in the phone book and we have more work than we can handle) or quit advertising in the local newspaper, although we don’t do that either because newspapers, tv and radio can’t seem to tell us how many people heard or saw our ad and I don’t like gambling with my limited advertising budget. If I spend a grand on Internet advertising, I can tell how many times my ads were displayed, how many times people visited our web site through one of the ads, where the visitor is from, how long they stayed on our site, what pages they visited and lots more. Try that with the newspaper, radio or tv.

Internet Advertising Expected to Double »

According to a report released by Internet Marketing research firm eMarketer, Internet advertising spending by US advertisers is expected to double by the year 2011. This is bad news for traditional advertising methods such as newspapers, television and magazines.

Internet advertising includes methods such as:

• Display ads (banner ads seen on web sites)
• Paid Search ads (also known as Pay-Per-Click or PPC and includes Google AdSense)
• Rich Media (Online video advertising)
• E-mail advertising (Ads embedded in e-mail)

One of the main benefits Internet advertising has over traditional advertising is the ability to track the advertising campaign results in ways that you simply cannot do with ads run in newspapers, magazines and on television. An ad placed in traditional print advertising provides no guarantee that even a single person will see your ad. The best “guarantee” that a newspaper or magazine can give is when they tell you the size of their circulation and all that really means is that they will print your ad that many times, not that your ad will be seen that many times.

Ditto for television advertising, especially with Ti-Vo, DVR and other similar methods available for skipping commercials.

This type of thinking is probably a big reason why traditional marketing budgets are being trimmed by US companies.

In 2006, Internet advertising accounted for about $17 billion of the more than $280 billion spend on all advertising, which included newspapers, television and magazines. That is a 6% share of the market. In 2007, that dollar amount increased to $21.4 billion of the $287 billion total or a 7.4% share. As the accompanying chart shows, eMarketer predicts that the trend will continue to increase, doubling by 2011.

Microsoft Offering Web Analytics With Gatineau »

Microsoft is finally getting ready to launch Gatineau, its version of Google Analytics.

Tamar blogged about this back in January and there are all types of screenshots from the lucky few that have been able to get a sneak peek. Microsoft’s Gatineau web site is setup to accept applications, though it will cost you $5.

I’m sure it will be great to run Google Analytics and Gatineau in a side-by-side comparison, but I will stick with Analytics for now, save my $5 and wait for some feedback from other bloggers. Based on the screenshots and the other information out there, Gatineau does look really cool, however.

Marketing Budgets Being Trimmed »

According to an article on Bloomberg.com, for the second consecutive quarter, U.S. companies are spending less on advertising.

As a web design company, we try to stay up-to-date with advertising topics because of the Search Engine Marketing connection. So, reading the article, I noticed some interesting figures presented dealing with the advertising market decline:

• Advertising on network television dropped 3.6 percent
• Newspaper advertising fell 5.8 percent
• Radio ad spending dropped 2.7 percent

But, not all the news was bad. The part of articles like this that always catches my eye is the part that deals with Internet advertising:

• Money spent on Internet display ads rose 18 percent

It seems that the average advertiser is slowly becoming more and more aware of the power of the Internet. Think about it, when you place an ad in a newspaper, you have no guarantee that one single person will even see your ad. The best “guarantee” that a newspaper can give you is when they tell you how large their circulation is. But all that really means is that they will print your ad that many times, not that your ad will be seen that many times.

However, when you advertise on a web site, the owner of that site can (and should) provide you will all kinds of metrics showing how many times that site is viewed each month (unique visitors), where those visitors are coming from (tracked by IP addresses) and even what terms they typed into the Search Engine before arriving at that particular web site. How many times were last month’s advertisers visited? How many times were each of those ads displayed? The data stream goes on and on.

Don’t misunderstand, I still think there is a place for the traditional newspaper / radio / tv advertising. There are plenty of people that still prefer to thumb through the newspaper and almost everyone watches tv and listens to the radio. The point that I am stating is that Internet advertising can usually offer a better ROI.

So, if your advertising budget is tightening, try looking into Internet advertising on a web site that caters to your type of client. Most web sites offer ad placement for a very nominal fee on a month-to-month basis.

Of course, if you would like some information on how you can advertise on our technology blog, we have all the details for you to help you determine if it is a good fit for you.