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After three densely-packed days at SMX West in Santa Clara I’ve come away with some overall impressions to share. Needless to say this info is far from exhaustive, but it provides some insights regarding what is getting talked about and what has traction in the search space!

• Attribution: Just as you’ve probably discovered by reading about this issue, click/lead attribution still generates a lot of heat. There are numerous “breaks” that may occur between the time an ad is viewed and a sale occurs. Using online search a user may research a product – clicking from a paid ad to the merchant website without making any purchase. A day later the user’s significant other may take information provided to them and return to the merchant site for a purchase. No click from a text or display ad, so what role did the ad play in the final sale? Just how do you determine attribution for that sale? If display and text ads are used in a campaign, does overlap occur? How does that effect attribution? Such a conundrum!

• Yahoo-Microsoft deal: How’s this one going to work? What impact will it have in the search space? Will Yahoo continue to have relevance? (Not surprisingly, Yahoo says yes!) How will the joining of these two affect Google? Will this make the online search space more competitive? The noise I heard on this subject was that Google will be pushed more by a competitor that may have as much as 40% of the traffic (as opposed to two competitors that have a much smaller slice) and that is a GOOD thing for all.

• Mobile: When Steve Ballmer was asked if this was THE year for mobile he said it was “a” year for mobile. There’s no question that mobile is generating a ton of buzz. Smartphone usage is growing monthly and companies are exploring what they need to do to produce websites that render well on mobile devices. While this seems a no-brainer, in my estimation mobile search use is only going to grow. We need to be ready.

• Social Media: Don’t ignore the growth of social media as a means to get your message out. comScore reported that “30.8 percent of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010, up 8.3 points from 22.5 percent one year ago. Access to Facebook via mobile browser grew 112 percent in the past year, while Twitter experienced a 347-percent jump.” Ignore social media at your peril. But have a plan to implement social media, rather than throwing any/everything at Facebook and Twitter.

• Research, research, research: Don’t assume you know how people search for your services. Do your research; conduct polls, surveys, interview customers, use focus groups. Learn all you can about your prospective customers. Determine how to message to different segments. The more of this work done, the better your returns will be.

Obviously, this is just a thumbnail sketch of some of the hotter topics at the expo. With 54 sessions offered (not including keynote addresses) there was an abundance of topics and a profusion of information available at SMX West. And in addition to all the info, the knowledge demonstrated by the presenters, moderators, and speakers was terrific. If you ever get a chance to attend a conference of this sort, leap at the opportunity. You won’t be disappointed.

-Contributed by Debra Northart, Director, WebVisible.

Networking time at conferences allows one to meet folks you’d likely never encounter in your usual environment. I spoke with a sixth generation Texan the other night who is the CEO of a new solar power business. In Houston, Texas – the heart of the oil and gas industry. This man has tremendous confidence in his new company’s technology, and recognizes that just as solar power is “new school” marketing has moved toward new methods for generating attention for a new business. Thus, he is attending SMX West to learn all he can about search engine optimization (SEO) and online marketing. His company hasn’t even developed its website yet – but here he is, gaining knowledge BEFORE the creation of the website so the SEO elements can be included when the site is built. Smart guy!

SEO is the focus of numerous sessions at SMX West. How to write copy for websites with an eye to SEO success, how to craft keyword lists, how to deal with the technical elements of website building and where social media fits into an SEO strategy all have been offered to conference participants. With an eye to what will provide the greatest success in organic listings and high rankings for a business website these sessions contain nuggets of wisdom gleaned from years of work in the online marketing industry.

Among some of the tips I gathered while attending these sessions:
• Don’t “stuff” your site with keywords simply to get the words in the content.
• Do write compelling content that includes key phrases that users search by. By doing research you can determine what the most relevant keywords/phrases are.
• Don’t overuse flash or images. Search engines don’t do a good job of crawling those elements and without text content your site isn’t going to perform well.
• When creating SEO plans for clients learn the lingo of your customer and his/her business/industry. Use the language that people searching for the product or service would use. Employ those terms in content and key phrases.
• Don’t spend time talking about how great your business is – tell searchers what you can do for them. No one wants to listen to someone talk about how great THEY are. But potential customers ARE interested in what a business can provide them. That’s why they’re searching in the first place.
• Do craft titles like headlines – they appear fully in organic listings and are compelling to users.

There are many more aspects of SEO that I could address, but space won’t allow. Suffice to say that attending SMX West has provided me with a plethora of insights that I plan to employ to assist customers in producing effective marketing campaigns. Stay tuned for more from the conference.

-Contributed by Debra Northart, Director at WebVisible, blogging live from SMX West.

I attended Steve Ballmer’s keynote address at SMX West Tuesday, March 2nd. Has anyone else ever thought that he reminds them a bit of Dick Vitale, the basketball commentator? Very animated, sometimes loud when emphasizing a point. Definitely entertaining.

Ballmer had some interesting things to say in response to the questions delivered to him by Danny Sullivan, conference chair. Regarding the Microsoft-Yahoo deal, it’s all good for search engine users as it provides more eyeballs on ads. BING will grow market share, but it will take time. The only trick that will allow you to beat your 8-year-old on Xbox is youth—so get younger – fast! As you can see, a very diverse topic list addressed!

After the release of Bing I wrote a piece on the value of Bing and whether it could change the culture of online search. I suggested that even if Bing wasn’t a smash hit, it might make competitors (read: Google) work more urgently to satisfy the needs of the online user and advertiser. Ballmer seemed to echo that when he said that even though Bing may not have a huge share of the search market, it’s making everyone work harder. “We got everyone moving faster, innovating more, because of Bing, so there must be something good going on.”

Asked if Bing could become number 1 in US market share Ballmer conceded that there was no good answer as he would either sound arrogant or not committed to working to be number 1. He stated that MSFT’s objective was to keep working on Bing, optimistic in the growth that would occur year over year. When asked “What’s the biggest opportunity in search?” Ballmer replied, “…to help people get done what they’re trying to get done.”

And that is pretty much what search advertising is all about.

This post was contributed by Debra Northart, Director at WebVisible Inc. reporting live from SMX West.

Many people don’t realize it, but staying organized can be one of the keys to your small business success. For instance, let’s look at your personal file storage. Do you keep team files on your hard drive? If so, I’m sure it takes up a lot of space, slows your computer down, and can only be accessed by one person – quite an inconvenience. One way to address this problem is by backing up your files on the internet through websites that provide online storage. There’s a variety of websites that provide free accounts and come with a minimum of 2GB of storage space. They are basically a virtual hard drive that you can store and share files. And, it’s usually fairly straight forward way to sync your files with the added benefit of being able to access them wherever you have Internet access. Plus, you can also use some as a “drop box” for distributing large files that would otherwise clog a recipient’s email inbox.

Here are a few options.
• www.dropbox.com
• www.mozy.com
• www.box.net
• www.mediafire.com

Now what about free advertising? Well, social media is gaining traction in the advertising and marketing community. And there’s a bunch great sites that can help you market your business while building your prospect list and increasing brand loyalty. Depending on your business needs and goals they too can be utilized for free! Post blogs, videos, pictures, specials, events, and more. A couple of free websites to advertise your business and build a customer base are:

• www.facebook.com
• www.twitter.com
• www.youtube.com
• www.linkedIn.com
• www.delicious.com
• www.blogger.com
• www.myspace.com

These are just a few examples to get you started and on your way to taking full advantage of what the Internet has available when it comes to aiding you in operating and advertising your business or service for free. Browse through the sites, see what works best for you, and choose what site is going to optimally help your business perform better.

We can all see what is available and where we can access it, but the biggest and most important question to be answered is “why”? Why take time to do this and incorporate these methods into current business practice? Well, there are the obvious reasons of convenience, savings in equipment cost, and extended presence online. However the largest gain that any business owner can take from these listed sites is the endless amount of opportunity for exposure and connection. When sharing your content online you not only put your content in front of people you know, but you also have the opportunity to be seen by anyone who is networked with anyone connected to your network. Anytime you can gain exposure and be seen online the better, and the great part is that the opportunity is endless regarding who can see you.

WebVisible CEO Kirsten Mangers recently spoke on a panel at the “Using Social Media to Grow Your Business” seminar conducted by the Association for Women in Technology (www.awtsocal.org).
It was a great discussion for any business entering the social media space for the first time. The panel highlighted the type of investment businesses should expect to make in social media and detailed how to make the discipline an integral part of a company’s business plans.

Is Social Media Saturated?

Moderator and CEO at Talent Evolution, Jared Smith, kicked off the discussion with a thought provoking question: “Is the use of social marketing becoming saturated?” The panel agreed that if the consumer is looking for new ways to learn about products and services, then businesses should provide those. And since social media tools are so pervasive in the life of the consumer today, businesses would be wise to meet the consumer in the places they frequent the most. In fact, an eMarketer study conducted in December 2009 indicated that 64% of people “friend” or “follow” a company on social media to learn about specials or deals; 62% want to learn about new products, features or services; 35% for funny or insightful content; and 30% to learn about a company’s culture.

Time & Strategy

Another top discussion point concerned social media scaring off many business owners when they think about how much time they’ll need to invest or people they may need to hire. The fact remains that maintaining a presence doesn’t take that much time at all. Part of using social media strategically is first figuring out what your company’s goals are. These may include increasing your number of followers, brand management, or driving more traffic to your site. Once you have figured out what you want to accomplish, you can determine how much time and outsourcing you’ll need to set aside. And, you might be pleasantly surprised that the people you already have is more than enough resources. Posting status updates, pictures, relevant events, or specials can go a long way to creating connectivity among your customers.
Here are a few ways to increase mindshare among your target audience with minimal effort:

• Start a Facebook Fan page to communicate upcoming products and deals to your fans.
• Create a Twitter account to connect directly and organically with your fans as well as other compatible companies in your market.
• Write a blog to engage your audience. Your blog can serve as a great platform to talk about industry news, company information, or upcoming products. A very user-friendly option for blog creation might be Blogger or Wordpress. Both companies offer free accounts and the user interface is easy to navigate in each.

Show Me the Money

The major concentration of the panel’s discussion was measuring the return on investment (ROI) in the panel’s own social marketing campaigns. ROI is difficult to measure in regards to social media primarily because it is difficult to make money from it. A recent report by Exact Target and Econsultancy found that “two-thirds of marketers are planning to increase investments in social media even though less than one-fifth can effectively measure ROI.” The panel emphasized that influence on consumers is more important (and easier to measure) than monetary return on investment. The idea is by winning their loyalty the money will follow. And to win their loyalty, you have to offer value to their lives through your brand.
Here are a few tips:

• Sponsor top-notch deals and specials never tried by the local competition.
• Donate time or sale proceeds to a nonprofit organization – and tell people about it.
• Build an email list and send a newsletter monthly. This will keep your offerings top-of-mind.
• Be green! Talk about how your company strives for an environmentally clean office. Offer something free to people who change the light bulbs in their homes to environmentally friendly options and can verify doing so.

The possibilities for engaging your audience with communications that matter to them is nearly limitless. In fact, if you’re already using social media to promote your business we want to hear how. What are some tactics that you have found successful? Have you run into any difficulties when executing your efforts? Let us know.

contributed by: Allison Lopez

In February 2009, it was widely reported that the Local Business Listing service provided by Google had been compromised. Apparently, individuals were hijacking local listings by masquerading as a local business, yet driving web traffic to another site altogether. How could Google let this happen!? Who has the sophistication to get to the heart of Google’s infrastructure at such a business-critical level? And how could the tech giant be infiltrated by some hacker stealing your prospects and the hard work that was driving them to your Web site?

It turns out that the sophistication necessary for such a ploy is a smoke screen, too. Meaning, anyone who can type and surf the Web can do it. The local business listing compromise is quite simple in nature:

1. Register with the Google service.
2. Enter the exact same physical information relating to your business as another listing of like-nature.
3. Once Google has merged the new data with the existing listing and verified the accuracy (with the hijacker no-less) then the perpetrator merely changes the Web address associated with the listing.
Now, when someone searches for your product or service and then clicks on your local listing, the resulting traffic is driven to the Web site of the hijacker’s choosing.

Supposedly, Google closed the loop hole; however, the issue has reared its head recently in the UK and has been dominating message boards for weeks.

Here is a description as one victim puts it:
“When I go to my Google local listing center and try to edit my listing, it still has my information. [But] when I click the “See your listing on Google Maps” link, the competitor’s information keeps showing up. Somehow they have gotten control of my listing and they keep changing it.

“Every time I change my listing back they go ahead and change it again. I have tried everything I could think of, but I have not received any help for the last 5 weeks.”

One would think that this would be a simple fix, but Google has not complied with public outcries for help. Their solution: give us a call and let us know. Sure Google will augment or delete the listing, but what good does that do – the violators just go back and claim the listing again.

In short, Google’s inaction points toward the “head-in-the-sand” approach. They recognize the issue but aren’t dedicating resources at the present time to fixing the situation. Multiple bloggers have noted that support numbers specifically for the issue are non-existent and discussion board questions directed toward Google remain largely un-responded to.

Here are a few lessons business owners can take away from this:

• First, give people the service you’d expect to receive. The “well you get what you pay for” – or get for free in this instance – mentality just doesn’t fly. Especially not from Google.
• Secondly, the more successful your business becomes, the more you should look out for your customer.
• Thirdly, dedicate a lot of time to delivering products and services that serve the best interests of you customers – not your business.

It’s been long recognized (and satisfaction numbers tied to revenue don’t lie) that when a business pleases its core audience with great products and services that serve the customer’s needs above the business’ needs, everybody flourishes. Maybe Google should take a cue from customer demands.

Owning a small business in this economy can be brutal. I keep driving around my community only to notice another business has closed without warning . . . paint store – empty, local market – closed, favorite dry cleaners – gone. With all this retail space, you could hear your voice echo. How are small businesses surviving? What kind of chance do they have when there are larger corporations in the same industry? What can these local owners do to make customers remember them? These are some of the concerns I continually hear from business owners. Can marketing make enough of a difference to help these businesses stay afloat in this economy – even thrive perhaps?

The answer is yes, but some research needs to be done first. Figuring out the demographic of your customers, understanding their needs, and asking for their feedback regarding your product or service can make the difference between a growing business and a stagnant one. Then use the new found information to communicate directly to them. Today, advertising online is not only an emerging market that is capturing more attention than any other medium, but recent years have shown it often provides some of the highest return on investment (ROI). Plus, customers are still buying, they’re just being smarter about how much they spend and where they spend it. In order to actually grow your business in a down economy, it’s crucial to spend your marketing budget targeting the exact clientele that is searching to buy exactly what you have to sell. There is no better way to do this than search engine marketing (SEM).

Knowing how tight money is these days it’s obvious there is not a penny to be wasted; which is why successful companies, while concerned with what the economy does, are not as affected because they’ve planned well and have the flexibility to roll with the trends and find the best way to keep moving full steam ahead. Putting your product or service directly in front of the people who need it at the best price possible will help ensure growth through these times and aid in establishing your brand as a solid, stable company that can always thrive; even in a tough economy like this.

-Contributed by Jacob Gardner

As we start this new year and embark on a new decade, it’s great to reflect a little at just how far we have come. Just think back for a brief moment…what comes to mind? It’s not like we are picturing mail being delivered on a horse and telegrams being the fastest form of communication… now it’s more like… remember when I got the newspaper delivered to my doorstep daily vs. my mobile device. Technology is advancing at a mind blowing pace and the speed of improvements that are being made seem to be growing at an exponential rate!

One area where we see this taking place is in the world of internet marketing. Some of you might have heard of it but don’t know quite what it means, while others are already utilizing this form of advertising and seeing huge results in the boost to your business.

WebVisible is an amazing company that is an absolute expert when it comes to local online advertising and I want to give you all a quick look at what I do here since I’ve joined the Account Management Team.

Ah, the life of an account manager…Here at WebVisible I make sure that accounts are performing and business owners are happy! It’s a perfect fit for me as what I enjoy doing is simply helping people do what they like to do best and be a part of ensuring their success. As an account manager I get to take the customer (Business Owner) and really focus on what their business goals are. The cool thing is I get to be a part of directly helping them achieve those goals. From the background setup work such as getting them logged in to the Merchant Center, our proprietary online customer service center, to keeping them posted on how well their online advertising campaign is performing, through connecting customers to them, my objective is to monitor the success of a campaign through the amount of “connections” that we provide for a client through phone calls, emails, and other methods the client uses to be contacted. Every day I keep a close eye on how well the campaign is doing and constantly work to improve it to generate the best results possible. I’ve got to admit that our Geneva Technology Platform is award winning for a reason. It really makes my job pretty easy, but all in all, as an account manager here at WebVisible, as long as customers are happy and able to focus on doing what they do best, then it’s a winning relationship that will continue to grow and achieve success!

-Contributed by Jacob Gardner

Have you ever been a victim of a scam or rip-off? Do you hear about friends who’ve had their computer infected with a virus or malware? Or have you ever paid for a service you thought you were getting, only to receive half as much?

If any of this sounds familiar, then you’re probably aware of the sad truth that the world is rife with people who make it their mission to take advantage of others for their own benefit.

Compounding the fact is that while we know we don’t want to be scammed, we’re a trusting bunch. Most of us are pretty honest too – making it doubly hard to spot a scam when we encounter one.

So what does a scam look like? First of all, the old saying, “if it looks too good to be true it probably is,” continues to hold a lot of weight.

Whether a scam happens online or in the real world, there are three things that typically characterize one: (more…)

For the nearly 14 million children in the US living below the federal poverty level, the holidays can be especially difficult, with food and shelter taking precedence over Xbox and Barbie. WebVisible recently teamed up with the American Red Cross to reach out to approximately 1,600 local families from communities in Orange County, California for the 21^st Annual Children’s Safety Festival.

“WebVisible was proud to contribute to such a meaningful event, especially with the enormous efforts put forth by local high school students,” said Kevin Ryan, WebVisible CMO.

In preparation for the festival, WebVisible hosted a large company toy drive, collecting toys given to the children attending the event. WebVisible’s Toy Drive was also accompanied by other local businesses and 16 high school Red Cross Clubs. These corporate and student-run efforts helped the CSF reach its goal of 3,000 toys.

“The holidays are traditionally a time of giving, so it is wonderful to be able to brighten a family’s day by giving a child a present,” said Nargess Akhavi, director of the Red Cross Youth Services department. “But we could not have provided these gifts without the work of our volunteers and the generous donations by WebVisible and Westbound Communications.”

If you haven’t had a chance to give this holiday season, please consider making a donation. The charities and assistance organizations within your local community can always use your help during the holiday season. Go to www.redcross.org to find a local chapter in your area.

Happy Holidays from your friends at WebVisible.