Posts Tagged ‘seo’
Don’t forget Google Local
Dec03If you are at all interested in making sure your customers can find you on the internet or on the road, make sure you remember your listing within Google Local. It is often overlooked but is still very important to your online marketing efforts. Beyond search engine strategies like pay-per-click, optimization, and off-line efforts, your listing in Google local can be quite helpful.
- Google Local shows above the organic listings allowing your business to show at the top of the page.
- Searchers looking for a specific location will more likely click on your business listing because they have purposefully entered that city or address.
- Local allows you to enter detailed information about your business like phone, address, list any coupons or specials.
- Your customers can review your business.
- Websites linking to your site, and any pages indexed by Google, and any photos you’d like to show off.
To the left is a screenshot of my Google Local listing when searching “web designers richmond tx.” Because I have two phone numbers listed I show twice.
Which brings me to my next reminder, take some time and check your Google Local listing. Then claim your listing by clicking the “Edit this Listing” at the footer of the detailed page. Follow the instructions to validate your listing using a mail post or phone call.
The importance of headlines and sub headlines
Aug13For search engine optimization, one of the primary edits I will make is to make sure that each web page has its own headline using the <h1> and <h2>
Google and Yahoo! likes to see that you have labeled your page using these tags. They are part of the indexing algorithm and any text within these tags get a little extra weight. Be sure to use your chosen key words within the title naturally. It makes no sense to have more than one <h1> on a page for instance.
Growth for Online Advertising
Jan05There are conflicting predictions on how SEM spending will grow. According to JP Morgan, they predict that growth in US paid search ad revenue (currently the largest segment of US online ad spending) would fall to 31.9% in 2008, down from 36.8% in 2007. Unlike JP Morgan, eMarketer expects growth in US online ad spending growth to rise slightly in 2008.
“David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, predicts that online ad spending will grow by 28.5% in 2008, compared with 26.8% in 2007. eMarketer also projects that US spending on paid search advertising will increase by 27.5% in 2008, compared with 26.8% in 2007.”
eMarketer predicts a growth in online ad spending, specifically pay-per-click. They see it reach its peak growth in 2008 with 27.5% increase. It then dips in 2009 to 17.6% until in 2011 to 11.3%. Other online spending areas included video, referrals, classifieds, display ads, sponsorships, and email. All peak this year and suddenly drop next year and continue.
I believe this shows the SEM industry is leveling and normalizing.
But, hold on there, ZenithOptimedia predicts a much sunnier horizon. They are predicting record growth. They are saying…
- Online ad spend will overtake radio by 2008;
- online ads will make up a double-digit share of all advertising by ’09
- it will surpass magazine advertising by 2010.
I don’t agree with the first and last predictions, as Google has added their new advertising segment within adWords, advertising on the radio and print. I do agree with item #2 but still believe that the spending will normalize over the next couple of years as interest in quick-results advertising and conversely frustration over managing it grows.
Top Ten Search Engines – Top 10 SEs
Jan042007 October: According to 2007 October figures from Hitwise…
1. Google has the largest market share of U.S. based web searches at 64.49%
- 2007 September 63.55%
- 2006 October 60.94%
2. Yahoo is second with a market share of 21.65%
- 2007 September 22.55%
- 2006 October 22.34%
3. MSN is third with a market share of 7.42%
- 2007 September 7.83%
- 2006 October 10.72%
4. Ask is fourth with a market share of 4.76%
- 2007 September 4.32%
- 2006 October 4.34%
“Note: Data is based on four week rolling periods (ending Oct. 27, 2007, Sept. 29, 2007, Oct. 28, 2006) from the Hitwise sample of 10 million US Internet users.”
Source: Hitwise – Dominance continues with a six percent increase over last year.
Top 5 Search Engines in the United States (The Majors) by Rank
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- Google
- Yahoo! Search
- MSN Live Search
- AOL Search – Powered by Google
- Ask – Powered by Teoma
