- January 2009 (4)
- December 2008 (50)
- November 2008 (51)
- October 2008 (34)
- August 2008 (1)
- May 2008 (1)
- April 2008 (1)
- March 2008 (2)
- February 2008 (2)
- January 2008 (1)
Choosing the right content management system (CMS) can be a boon for search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts, according to one expert.
Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting wrote on Search Engine Land that many CMS systems were developed before SEO became as prominent as it is today, meaning that these applications can have a negative effect on rankings.
He gave the example of such systems promoting duplicate content, making it more difficult for sites to rank well in search engine results, while others do not allow marketers to come up with unique meta data for web pages.
Some CMS systems use dynamic URLs that change from time to time, making it harder for search engine users to land on a working page, Mr Enge added.
"I should also state that there are CMS systems that are truly SEO-friendly too. The trick is to evaluate this up front and not simply be satisfied with claims by the software publisher that they are SEO-friendly," he commented.
According to CMS Watch, 2009 will see portal, web and enterprise content management vendors and customers place greater importance on search.
... read full details »
Search engine optimisation (SEO) executives should remember to choose keywords for all parts of the buying cycle, Gary Reid of .net magazine has advised.
The expert said that while analytics data may suggest one keyword is responsible for most website traffic, these consumers may have used different keywords at the very start of the purchase cycle some weeks ago.
It is essential to carry out research into the best keywords for each stage of the e-commerce process and ensure the business has a search presence throughout, Mr Reid remarked.
"Just because users who buy from you do a navigational search right before they purchase doesn't mean you should undervalue the influence other keywords have in the journey," he asserted.
Spending on SEO rose by 30 per cent last year, according to the 2009 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide from MarketingSherpa.
Search was responsible for about half of all online marketing spending in 2008, the report indicated.
... read full details »
Video sharing website YouTube said it is seeing the emergence of a video generation - something internet marketers may be wise to take note of.
Its product manager Jim Patterson told the BBC that every generation exhibits some behaviour that distinguishes it from the generation before.
"Marketers like to caricature them and give them names: baby boomers, generation X and generation Y. I think we are seeing the emergence of a video generation," he remarked.
Mr Patterson said youngsters today are growing up in a world where interactive media is "ubiquitous" and claimed they are beginning to shape the way in which YouTube and similar sites are being used.
He pointed out that to many young web users, YouTube is their search engine as they prefer to find out the answer to a question through video rather than through text on a website.
Meanwhile, GleeWire reports that in November, online retailers saw 5.47 per cent of shopper traffic come from social networking and media sites such as Facebook and YouTube and 3.87 per cent from email marketing campaigns.
... read full details »
Internet marketers looking to boost their search marketing efforts should avoid committing the seven deadly search engine optimisation (SEO) sins.
Writing for TechRadar, Rebecca Appleton says a website with rankings on prominent search engines such as Google and Yahoo! is the "holy grail" of internet marketing.
In order to achieve this, internet marketing teams need to know what not to do as well as what works best in order to avoid the common pitfalls of SEO, she claims.
For example, some marketers put all their efforts into pleasing search engine web bots and neglect their human users, therefore undermining their SEO campaigns, while link spamming can also devalue the authority of a website.
Disregarding link text is also a common mistake, says Ms Appleton, as is failure to track the progress of SEO activity. Choosing the wrong keywords can also be disastrous for companies hoping to move up the search rankings.
Meanwhile, Jason Billingsley of Elastic Path Software told the Financial Post recently that social media marketing has some distinct benefits in terms of SEO.
... read full details »
