Search Engine Optimization

Local Businesses Popular With Mobile Search

Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

According to a recent study by comScore, Inc., the number of local searches accessed through use of a mobile device has more than doubled since 2008. Searches conducted through use of mobile applications (like Google’s Mobile App) saw an 83% increase from last year alone! Though SMS remains the leading vehicle for mobile search, comScore’s Senior Vice President, Serge Matta, predicts that mobile applications will pull in to the lead in the near future. With the iPhone’s recent price reduction (want) and alleged expansion to the Verizon network (want more), consumers are more likely to hop on that 3g raceway and in to — local businesses. Local businesses with fully optimized websites, that is …

From local directories and restaurants to maps and movies, tech-savvy consumers are connected, online and on the go. It is a beautiful thing.

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Tags: iPhone, local businesses, Local Search, mobile applications, mobile search, Search Engine Optimization, sms

Top 5 SEO Tools

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 | Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

There are so many resources on the Internet that can tell you how to perform SEO on the html code but here are a few good tools that NetSearch Direct utilizes on every SEO campaign.

Keyword Research Tools (Adwords Keyword Tool and Keyword Discovery)
Track Rankings Tools (Webposition and SEO Book Tools)
Quick website information (SEOQuake)
Yahoo linkdomain search to find out competitor backlinks, also good link tools at SEOMOZ/linkscape
Patience

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Tags: Search Engine Optimization, seo tools

Guaranteed SEO Leads

Monday, April 13th, 2009 | Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

How many times has an SEO company been asked to guarantee leads? The fact is no one can guarantee leads through SEO. The entire foundation of SEO is to get a site ranked as high as possible for keyword phrases within the SERPs. You don’t see anything in that sentence about leads.

NetSearch Direct can tell you how many searches a keyword phrase gets and the percentage of clicks from the listings on the SERP, which equates to visitors. From that, we provide an industry conversion percentage in order to estimate the leads possible — but no guarantees are given.

In order to produce a lead from your site, several variables must be optimized (site design, call to action, coupons, etc.). NetSearch Direct provides our Internet marketing experience on all projects. We can help your website convert more visitors into leads, but we cannot guarantee leads through just SEO.

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Tags: guaranteed seo leads, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimization, seo leads

SEO and Cell Phones: Can they work together?

Monday, January 12th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

On a desktop computer, most people are happy to see their website ranked in the first one or two pages (first 10-20 links) of the search results. For those of you who use search engines from your cell phone, you know that the mobile versions have fewer results per page than when you search on your PC. You must also consider that when typing a search query on your cell phone, you probably use fewer search terms than if you were to perform the same search from your computer (FYI — the average search term is 2.4 words according to good ol’ Wikipedia). With fewer search terms and fewer results per page, SEOing your site for the mobile web can be a daunting task.

Suggestions for SEO on the mobile web:

Does your site pass the W3C compliance test for mobile websites?
Take off large images, flash, and other media
Submit the mobile version of your site to search engines (for example: Yahoo’s mobile site submission page).
If you’re only going to make one mobile version of your site for all cell phones to use, make sure you design the pages so they work on even the lowest-end phones.
Title tags are still important! Just don’t make them as long as you normally would.
DOCTYPE and character encoding are important even on mobile sites.

Something else to consider is that when you’re on the go, you’re most likely searching for completely different things than when you’re sitting at your desk. For example, when you’re walking down the street, you may want to know where the closest Starbucks is. Or, you might want to find and download a new ring tone.

JumpTap has released the most popular mobile search topics. Combined, the following seven categories represent about half of all mobile searches:

Navigation
Music (ring tones)
Entertainment
Sports
Reference
Local (the Starbucks example above)
Shopping

With 100 million people paying for Internet access on their phones, can you afford not to have a mobile website (source: Nielsen)?

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Tags: cell phones, mobile internet, Search Engine Optimization

Posting Newsletters to Your Website

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 | Local Search, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

Does your company send out an e-newsletter on a regular basis? If so, don’t forget to include this content on your website. A key ingredient in the recipe for SEO success is adding new, relevant content to your website. The search engines love this and there is a good chance that your rankings will benefit. Now the hours that you spend every month writing quality content for your newsletter will pay off for you in two other ways. When posted on your site the additional content will benefit those who come there in the future and make your site more appealing. Plus, with a little SEO planning, this new content can enhance your rankings on the search engines.

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Tags: content, e-newsletter, Search Engine Optimization

SMM - Social Media Marketing, joins the family of SEO & SEM

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 | Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment

Social Media Marketing, the new media Web 2.0.

Social Media Marketing has been coming on strong for some time now. This is a wonderful new area of the web. The struggle I have seen with many people is understanding its business impact. As marketers it is difficult to get your head around such a viral arena. On one hand SMM brings reach because it is so prolific. The number of pages and profiles coming online make the early days of the internet pale.

Reach Dilution

My first question is how to leverage this reach for marketers when on first glance it appears to expand the reach opportunities in advertising and at the same time dilute the effectiveness of advertising. On the other the target of SMM advertising, the relevance of the audience goes up exponentially.

Demographic Targeting

I like this revolution of adverting to the original onset of Search Marketing. At first it was an educational sale and a tough one at that. The impressions of Search Engine advertising are so small compared to the cost per thousand, CPM, model it is staggering. At the same time the value delivered by SEM and the return on investment make it one of the best media buys in the industry. This is because the SEM audience is predisposed to your product or offering by nature of the search terms entered into a search engine. SEM is no longer tenuous media, in fact it has joined the ranks of mainstream and any serious marketing is obligated to this space.

The Me Too! Effect

Will SMM make the same transition? The jury is still out on that one. The flood of rapid entrants into this media makes it appear so. These entrants may have learned that SEM is now mainstream and many marketers have missed the boat because of a wait and see position. So now these same marketers are flooding into the space espousing it’s virtues.

No Silver Bullet

The truth lies somewhere in between for SMM however. It is time consuming and and arduous endeavor. But if done correctly it can rival the best that Madison Avenue has to offer in results.

Stay tuned for SMM tips and how to make your SMM program a success.

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Tags: Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SMM, Social Media Marketing

Internet Marketing Richmond - SEO - SEM - Blog - Social Networking - Banner Ads

Thursday, February 28th, 2008 | Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing | No Comments

What is Internet Marketing?

Internet marketing, IM, is any activity to market or proment a service product or even a message. IM can be made up of various different subsegments.

Search Engine Optimization, SEO. Enabling a web site to properly indexed by search engines.

Search Engine Marketing, SEM, also known as Paid Search, Pay Per Click.

Web PR - Blog writing, posting, press releases.

These are all campaings. Most people understand SEO as a task, skill or project. It really is a campaing that needs it’s on budget goals, planning and proper execution.

NetSearch Direct, based in Richmond Virginia provide all of these services.

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Tags: Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization