Optimizing your site for search engine traffic is one, if not the main reason, companies spend the big bucks on their marketing budget. A highly optimized site attracts quality traffic around the clock, giving your business more leads and sales, even when your employees are taking a break. It’s critical that you continually practice “white hat” optimization techniques to avoid being penalized (or site spanked) by Google.  If Google finds your methods of optimization to be flawed you’re your rankings will suffer, and you can potentially get blocked or dropped from all search results.

Mobile applications are not only becoming a standard in a brands online marketing mix, but they are also helpful tools that make can streamline a social media marketers daily tasks. There are over 500,000 mobile applications available today and that number grows daily. Below are six mobile applications we love. Try them out and see how they can help you organize and spice up your social marketing campaigns.

Navigating the social media landscape can be challenging for many businesses.  Facebook users understand the logistics of communicating and sharing content with friends for personal use. However, professionals tasked with using Facebook to grow their business, at times, find themselves at a loss. With over 500 million global users, it’s fair to say Facebook is here to stay. Below are seven best practices for engaging consumers on your Facebook Fan Page.

Producing a weekly blog is a marketing power play and provides value to your audience in a variety of ways. They are one of the most powerful tools for search engine optimization, content marketing and social media. The challenge when blogging is to find ways to come up with compelling content week after week. Below are a handful of tips to keep your blog content fresh and relevant. A strong blog is a great way to keep customers and prospects coming back to your site, and engaging with your brand.

Your website has a moment to catch the attention and trust of your visitors. With growing reports of identity theft, fraudulent sites and viruses, consumers have growing concerns about using their credit cards and providing their personal information online. A recent survey found that 86% of online shoppers feel more confident entering personal information on sites that display security indicators, such as a trust mark. (VeriSign Brand Tracking Research, 2008)

Facebook and Twitter are dominating the global social storm, but with 4.5 million members, savvy business owners everywhere are taking advantage of Foursquare as well. Foursquare, unlike other social networking sites, requires movement.  User activity at the point of conversion is the main goal for business owners and marketing professionals everywhere, and Foursquare provides a perfect platform to optimize engagement and conversions. 

Social Media is a powerful tool to promote your organization. As a non-profit, it is important to create a sustainable social media program that allows you to reach out to your community, and build awareness for your cause.

As of August 2010 Twitter had over 105 million users. With over 55 million tweets sent out a day, how do you distinguish yourself from the overpopulated sea of useless personal updates, and constant self-promotion to connect with your target audience?

The idea behind good web content is to maximize usability and user experience. This approach goes hand-in-hand with blogging efforts and increasing  search engine visibility. Writing good content should be directly focused on your target audience. Most people try to write for a large audience, when, in fact, that is the first thing you don’t want to do.

From an SEO standpoint, a highly “usable” website is well thought out and includes clearly defined rich content, relevant headers and tags, and has an easy to follow navigation and linking structure. If your site has the content people are looking for; you will likely find people linking to that content.

If you are considering a website re-design or making development changes, always keep user experience in mind as well as search engine ranking. Hiring an expert to implement your transition is a smart move, this way your overall message remains seamless and technical specifications are left intact.

As business is so heavily impacted by technology, CEOs need to be informed about current strategies. Implementing and analyzing a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy will allow

Social Media Marketing (SMM) has transformed into one of the most widely used forms of marketing. One of the hardest things about SMM is its ability to be tracked because the viral component is intangible.

Healthcare organizations are utilizing new ways to directly connect with their audiences; they are using Twitter from operating rooms, showing surgery on YouTube and patients are active on social sites and blogs.

Online Marketing is cost effective, time efficient and allows your brand to establish and maintain a web presence. If you build a plan to leverage economic change, your team can approach the challenge strategically and tactically.

Social media tools are great ways to engage audiences and boost page traffic, but moderation needs to be part of the strategy from the very start.

In the context of the Online Marketing space, Social Networking is commonly referred to as Social Media Optimization. A social network is defined as a social structure made of nodes (generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations, such as financial exchange,friendship, trade, web links, or airline routes. Social Networking has become a popular activity and marketers have found that it has become an increasingly powerful vehicle to leverage Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies.

While the B2B landscape is very different from B2C arena, there is still one underlying fact that should resonate with management teams. It’s very simple: If your customers are online, then you need to be online and engaging them. The best way to engage is via social media outlets.

The key to good on-page SEO copywriting is crafting content that integrates keywords so that there is a natural flow to the text. Users should not be alerted that keywords are being  repeated.

One of the main goals in online marketing is to increase traffic to your website. However, offline marketing efforts are often overlooked as a way to increase your number of online visitors. Give your offline community a reason to join and participate in your online community.

Website Optimizer is a tool that tests variations of your webpages to determine the most effective content that will lead to increased conversion rates and visitor quality metrics. You begin by choosing parts of your page that you would like to test including; headlines, images, text, layout, or design. After running a Website Optimizer experiment on your site, you will be able to identify what change, or combination of changes, led to the biggest impact on your bottom line.

Finding keywords that relate directly to your products or services should be paramount in developing an effective keyword strategy. The following tips will help create a solid foundation, utilizing keywords for your online efforts.

With the growing popularity of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), many companies are currently running SEM programs in-house rather than outsourcing it to a certified firm. Although there are many resources available to help individuals implement SEM in-house, they are often very basic and do not explore the intricacies involved in an effective SEM campaign.

A customized Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign will help grow your business through improved natural or “organic” placement on search engine results pages. The primary goal is to increase search referral traffic, which in turn will increase leads and sales over time. Selecting the right firm is key to ensuring success.

Google Analytics is a free, user-friendly, customizable website tracking tool that aids users in making well-informed strategic business decisions. The tool allows you to gauge important website metrics and visitor behavior patterns to improve online marketing efforts. Ultimately, Google Analytics provides marketers with a platform to aggregate website information from multiple sources relating to specific business objectives and goals.

 Social media refers to the online tools that people use to share content, opinions, interests, experiences and media itself, all while facilitating online interaction between groups of people. These tools include: blogs, forums, podcasts, bookmarks, networks, communities and wikis. Some of the new social media brands include Facebook, YouTube, Myspace, Twitter, Linkedin, Digg, and Stumbleupon. Social media is a great way to connect with other people, and a smart social media strategy can help small businesses compete, thrive, and survive.

In the world of Social Media Marketing, brand sentiment and feedback can never be predicted. As marketers, your goal should not be to control the conversation around your brand, but rather to listen and respond to your network authentically. As you encourage your fans to talk about your brand, be prepared for positive and negative feedback.

Considering recent expansion of domain names and worldwide extensions, the value of domain names will only continue to increase. This makes the naming strategy crucial for website visibility and effectiveness. Domain Name Strategy can help streamline SEO efforts as well.

With more than 1 billion visitors monthly, Facebook provides a platform for your company to directly connect with customers on a personal level. In a March 2009Forbes.com article, it was stated that "Facebook can be an effective way to build a customer-centric organization that not only communicates authentically but also listens to customers and learns from that interaction". While developing a Facebook strategy, establishing a presence, creating a network and promoting engagement are elements that can set you apart from your competitors.

According to study conducted by UberCEO in June 2009, the country's leading CEOs aren't anywhere near as connected as their employees, partners, executives and customers are likely to be, and it gives the impression that those CEOs are distant, disinterested and disengaged. Here are some tips CEOs need to engage in social media.

6 Tips You Must Consider Before Re designing Your Website When considering a website redesign or making development changes, always keep user experience in mind.Maintaining the strength of certain website variables, one can make significant changes. There are many reasons