Today more consumers than ever before are accessing information and communicating online. With the help of today's technology individuals are using the Internet to gain access to a broad spectrum of shopping alternatives, entertainment, and news (to name a few). With the rate that technology is growing, we only expect these trends to continue. In addition, it is expected that the importance of search engines will remain as a prominent tool, helping us sift through the mountains of online data.

This month's newsletter is dedicated to helping us understand online consumers and how the online environment shapes their purchasing decisions. Understanding our client's (potential and existing) customers allows us to provide better service to them.

Below we discuss items such as buyer behavior, social media and the effects of a simple website renovation. All of which are increasingly important to how your customers are being shaped now and in the future!

Packed full of stats, this month's issue is a must read!

Put on your nerd glasses, NetSearch fans!

With the increasing power of technology in today’s consumer environment buyer behavior has changed significantly. Websites provide round-the-clock availability where customers can come to learn more about your business or make a secure purchase. In addition, they can find out more about your service quality through social media platforms like Facebook (likes and positive feedback), Yelp.com (customer reviews and ratings), or LinkedIn (recommendations from colleagues) which can directly influence their purchase decision. For example, two recent studies at The University of Maryland and Georgia Tech cited significant increases in the influence leading to a consumer purchase based upon a product rating system....

Social Media 101: Should Your Company Drink the Kool-Aid?

You’ve heard the term before: Social Media. But what exactly is Social Media and does your business need to be involved?

Social media is a concept which can be defined as consumer-specific interaction online. It is built on an idea about sharing information that has essentially been evolving from as far back as we can remember. Think about the postal service, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, internet and mobile phones. These advances in technology all radically altered how we communicate as people, consumers and businesses. Social media is just that—using the latest advances in web technology for individuals and businesses to communicate in our increasingly digitized environment...

Website Renovation: Optimizing Your Site

A website renovation is a project that can help boost your ability to be found on the web. With over 1 billion searches on Google alone per day, 90% of those searches result in the person clicking on the first landing page. From that first page, approximately 80% of individuals clicked on information located in the top 3rd of the page. So, you can see why it is important to break through the clutter of your competition and be located at the top of a search engine results page (SERP)...

National Statistics: Nielsen Online Search Share for February and March 2010