Google News is one of the top five visited news portals on the web - making it a very desirable place to get your web site AND business noticed.  

The benefits of listing at Google News are twofold; first, most visitors end up back at Google News if they subscribe to news alerts or RSS feeds. Secondly, there are numerous SEO benefits as other web sites or bloggers will link back to Google news articles increasing both link reciprocation and heightened traffic.   

How can you get your articles submitted to Google News? There are some fast and simple rules that Google News will use to consider your organization. They include: 

Original/Validated Content - Google News scrutinizes content for professionalism, relevance and authenticity. Organizations cannot submit repurposed content or content that is not from the originating web site organization.  

Authors and Editors - Google News looks to organizations with multiple authors (not bloggers) to qualify an organization. 

Evidence of Organization - Google News will need to validate the organization as an existing/operating entity. That is, Google News will look for a dedicated, templated 'news area' that clearly defines the industry that the organization is in. Google News tends to approve web sites with a minimum of 100 active/achrived articles. 

To apply to Google News, click here. 

Additional News Portals for Article Submission:

Yahoo News

Topix.net

Best,

Denice MacDonald

You cannot simply build a web site and wait for visitors to come. You need to market your site online – meaning you need to take action to make your site highly visible to search engines so it gets found by potential customers.

Here are some quick ideas on maximizing your web site through simple optimization.

Keyword research – where to begin? – There are a number of inexpensive keyword research tools that will help you find the keywords and keyword strings for a specific product or service.  My favorite tool has always been Google Keyword Tool - but, Wordtracker is also very popular and very effective. 

Aligning with competitors – Determine how many other sites will be vying for similar keywords or keyword strings. To validate findings, simply type the words into Google and review the number of results. That’s your competition. The higher the position within the result page, the more difficult it will be to rank on that keyword. If you are still having difficulty determining keywords, you can open your competitor’s web site and view their keywords by selecting “View” and then “Source” from the menu. The third line in the source code typically says “Keyword Content” and then lists the keywords used for that page.

Start small – If you are new to the game, it is always advisable to start with 1-2 keywords per page on your site. Reason simply, you want to find the right balance in search volume, review how you’re faring against the competition and grow your program based on sound statistics. Likewise, insure that the content that is written for the site contains an appropriate usage of the keywords.

Site structure – In order for any search engine optimization program to work and track, you’ll need to insure that the site structure is conducive for optimization. To rank higher in search results for your target audience, you must identify the most effective keywords and then place them in the right areas of your site’s content and HTML code including page titles, headers, meta-tags, links and page content.

Site updates – ‘Content is king’ philosophy still rings true for optimization success. Keep your site updated regularly. What is the rule of thumb?  Minimally, weekly!

Linking – I still believe that linking can effectively, and quickly, increase page rankings. If you have a lot of other web sites linking to your site, the search engine spiders will visit your site more frequently and find new content quickly. You can find out who links to you already by typing “Link: yourdomainname.com” in any major search engine.

Measure – It’s all about effectiveness and ongoing metrics. Let your initial search engine optimization initiative run for about 2-3 months. Track how your rankings change week-over-week or month-over-month, and then decide whether more words need to be added or eliminated. Use tools like Google Analytics for web site metrics and SeoDigger for wordtracking performance.

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

According to a recent e-Marketer report, more than six out of 10 CMOs and senior marketing professionals surveyed in the US said that digital tactics (including mobile, video, e-mail etc.) accounted for more than one-quarter of their agency marketing, according to a July 2008 study by Zoomerang for Sapient.  

Respondents also said digital marketing was growing in importance. Nearly one-half (45%) of those polled had either switched agencies or planned to switch during the next 12 months to gain access to more digital expertise. Almost eight out of 10 said that agencies' interactive and digital aptitude was important or very important.  

What is digital marketing and what does it mean for marketers? 

According to Wikipedia, digital marketing is defined as the practice of promoting products and services using digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective manner. By doing so, marketers realize the following benefits: 

Brand-advantage – typically in the past, marketing and any digital initiatives were handled separately or were non-existent. With the use of digital technology, marketing professionals have an opportunity to enhance messaging and bring cohesiveness to their brand. 

Larger reach – digital initiatives allow marketers to expand their campaigns beyond one single effort leveraging several channels to optimize budget dollars and reach. 

Personalization – with digital initiatives, messages are highly targeted and specific allowing marketers to not only track how many people saw their message but also specific information about each user. 

As marketers, digital tactics allow for many opportunities that can be tracked measured and refined. To learn more about digital marketing and tactics, consider accessing the following resources: 

• The McKinsey Quarterly – Digital Marketing
• NetImperative – Digital Marketing News and Events
• MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer

Best

Denice MacDonald

I’ve had a chance to download and test Google's new Chrome browser and what a gem it is!  As a 1.0 product built in open source, Chrome is ahead of the pack leveraging the same base WebKit as Apple's Safari browser and launching the product in unison with the release of Windows IE 8.0.   Although considered in beta, Chrome offers some unique advantages over other browsers.

First and foremost is the slick user interface – keeping it simple and clean, Chrome combines several features into one, allowing more screen room for more important content. No doubt, it takes a bit to get used to, but once you’re in play, you won’t miss the clutter that was there before. 

The new-tab page is one of Chrome's most critical and useful design elements. This is the page that comes up by default every time you launch the browser or open a new tab. It shows you thumb images of the web pages you most frequently visit, and input boxes for the search engines you most frequently use and for searching your browser history.  

The new-tab page also shows a list of recently bookmarked pages, and another list of recently closed tabs. All of this is populated automatically -- you don't need to do a thing to create the page! 

Chrome is faster than most browsers and can multithread. Other browsers are single-threaded, which means they can only do one thing at once. If your Gmail session hangs for example, your entire browser is frozen.  

You have the option of importing bookmarks, passwords, and other settings from Internet Explorer or Firefox. So, you won’t need to re-establish all your credentials after installing Chrome – you’re basically up and running immediately. 

Lastly, Google has done a great job of launching Chrome by using a web comic book to introduce the product and its main features. You have to check it out!

Best

Denice MacDonald

Believe it or not, you may be a SuperTron – a technology enthusiast considered part of the early adopters phenomenon.   

In his book "Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters", author Bill Tancer emphasizes the critical role that SuperTrons play. Specifically, the author analyzes the new generation of consumerism in a way no other has before, showing how we use the Internet, and how those trends provide a wealth of market research nearly as vast as the Internet itself in attracting and using SuperTrons as a defined segment to market to. 

Why does this all matter? 

The insight into the new media habits of an early adopter consumer will be valuable for media companies, tech firms and cable and satellite operations that want to reach this segment but also tap mainstream as well.   

An excellent example of a web site that resonates with early adopters is the recent launch of “Nat Geo” music service. National Geographic tapped the behavior that drives SuperTrons to ‘get the word out’ thereby pushing their web site to the mainstream.

Resources

Early Adopters - Defined

National Geographic Music Site

Buy Bill Tancer's Book

You probably know that building links into your site is one of the most important things you can do in your efforts to improve your site's ranking.

A lot of people struggle with this process, especially at the beginning. Many questions also arise as to where the link should be placed on the site you are trying to get linked from, along with what kind of sites should you get links from, and what those links should look like.  Linking is no longer a passing fancy, it is a strategy that is relevant and necessary. Consder the following link building strategies:

Social Media: By submitting your site and content to social media aggregators such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and other niche social news sharing and bookmarking sites, you introduce their audience to your site and build high authority links to your organization.

Advertising: Text Links which are sold or purchased with the intention of advertising a relevant site or service to the audience of the site which is serving the link ads. These links are valued and treated as authority inbound links by the major search engines.

Editorial: Editorial links are links which are earned via relationships with journalists, bloggers or site publishers. By informing writers about your site and services, you persuade them to write about you.

Directory: Web directories classify sites into organized subjects and listings while also sending search traffic to those sites. Directories are a way to increase search rankings and site traffic.

Blogger Reviews: Similar to editorial links, blogger reviews are when you pay bloggers to take the time and write an honest review about your product, business or site - and link to you. Not only will your link be seen by search engines, but also by the readers and subscribers of these high level bloggers.

Privately Solicited Links: Contact site owners and negotiate private linking deals with your business goals in mind.

Blog Comment Participation: By intelligently adding to blog comment conversations, you build your online reputation along with inbound links to your site.

Resources:

• 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Web Site by Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall
• Link Building - Web Site Resource

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Flash and AJAX are two technologies that enhance the user experience on a web site and are supported by almost every browser and operating system.  Only pitfall -- this technology is not SEO-friendly.

However, in early July, Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the company is teaming up with search industry leaders to dramatically improve search results of dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIAs). Adobe is providing optimized Adobe® Flash® Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines.

This will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. Moving forward, RIA developers and rich Web content producers won’t need to amend existing and future content to make it searchable — they can now be confident it can be found by users around the globe.

BUT, a few technical bloggers out there say that the technology is not quite there yet:

Flash's New SEO is Over-Hyped by IckyDime

Flash indexing and SEO; Remember testing? by "Dion"

This blogger definitely has some sound solutions for Flash and SEO challenges: 

4 SEO Solutions for Flash by Benj Arriola

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Does your Web site deserve to succeed? According to Sarah at OneUpWeb, it doesn't if you're not constantly testing to make sure that it is easy to navigate, delivers the right kinds of information and snags conversions (be they subscriptions, lead generations or actual sales).

Hours of SEO work and carefully researched pay-per-click campaigns are practically worthless if the landing page doesn't convert users -- or they get lost in the process somewhere else on the Web site. Sarah suggests testing factors like your site's checkout process (if there is one), conversion click paths, as well as multiple image and text layouts to KNOW which features are working -- not just assume. She also offers a strategy for determining which site factors are most important for you to test, from products, to presentation to channel factors. 

In summary:

Test your site post launch to insure the user is getting to where they need to go (click paths, conversion etc. – including checkout if e-commerce enabled) 

Supplement highly interactive ads with contextual ads (measure both)

Two Word Searches: Nearly 32% of all searchers around the globe use two-word search queries, according to research from Amsterdam-based OneStat

Search engine ‘boxes’ can have both word search and ‘suggested’ search for optimum user interaction to sites 

Read Full Article Here

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Need help - try out these guys:

Charlie Sweet, Web Technology Manager at Aloha Inc. (specialty: full service)

Eric Herzberg, Owner, Linkage Internet Consulting (specialty: pay-per-click)

Denice MacDonald, President, MacDonald Consulting (specialty: link building and search engine marketing)

We've been sitting on the sidelines watching with wonder the latest Yahoo - Microsoft - Google triangle of events.  Finally, an outcome worth commentary. I agree with Venture capitalist Fred Wilson that Yahoo did the right thing by choosing Google over Microsoft as a partner. 

Wilson contends, "Yahoo! finally woke up and did what they should have done years ago, cede search monetization to Google who simply does it better and will always do this era of search better than anyone else. Now Yahoo! will do what it needs to do. Clean house, get lean, and get out of businesses it shouldn't be in. Focus on what it's good at. And start making money and growing again. They may need new leadership to do that. But selling this asset to Microsoft just because they had the wrong leadership and probably still have the wrong leadership is a mistake."

Google CEO Eric Schmidt couldn't be happier.  In a press statement he indicated: "This commercial agreement provides Yahoo with the opportunity to deliver more relevant ads to users and provide advertisers and publishers with better advertising technology to help them succeed in their own businesses. This agreement will preserve the competitive and dynamic online advertising space."

It will be interesting to see if Yahoo can redefine themselves in short order and do what they have to do to keep everyone happy - but partnering with Google will lessen the burden.  It will be interesting to watch and we certainly will learn a lot.  That's the best part about being the small guy on the sidelines.

Bob Pearson, of Dell, recently presented insight into Dell's learning relative to the web - and in my opinion, they are spot-on with their findings. I've taken the liberty of condensing the learning below.

What Dell's Learned so far?

1. The online world is undergoing the most significant transformation so far. 
2. The # of conversations is exploding. 
3. Customers want to speak with us in their first language. 
4. New countries are formed every day that are not being treated with the full respect that their nation's population deserves. 
5. Watch out for content pushers. 
6. You new home page is really cool .... but do you know where it is? Today's home page is a Google search Results page.  The Traffic that matters is not about you!
7. If you build it they will not necessarily come!
8. Less than 1% of a personal time online will be spent online purchasing.

What has Dell's Key Learnings & Action been with all of this?

1. The most important thing you can do is help customers w/ their technology problems.
2. Blogging is global ... blogging is multi-lingual ... blogging is by community of passion ... blogging is not "one blog". 
3. Would you rather do a focuses group with 10 people or listen to 100,00 people debate ideas for a few months and ask them questions throughout the process? 
4. Customers are partners and partners join together to make a difference. 
5. Communities are more powerful than individuals, Communities want to help each other improve.
6. The online experience at work should be similar to the online experience at home. 
7. Join your customer's communities and become part of the solution.
8. You can be easy to see, and should be easy to converse to.
9. If you are dealing with an issue be truthful, transparent and diligent in updating your customers.
10. Your customers are people not lines of business.  One customer or Employee --> Many communities.
11. Measurement requires thinking outside the box.  Don't try to fit old thinking to the new environment.

 Citation Link: Search Marketing Gurus

By 2012, more than 145 million people—67% of the US Internet population—will be reading blogs at least once a month.

That is up from a readership of 94 million in 2007, or 50% of Internet users. Click graphic for full article.

Caveat > The Ethics of Blogging: 

As we know, blogs are great for search engine optimization - but that should not be the only reason for creating a blog.  A blog is a reflection of your brand and your contribution to customers and other stakeholders.  A 'blog plan' should be formulated to insure that the content that is conveyed is relevant and proper for the end user. 

A plan would include educating management and training employees on creating and posting blogs so that emphase is placed on the organizations' attributes in product, marketing, PR, customer service, research, legal or HR. Likewise, blogs are a great recruiting tool as potential hires have an opportunity to look inside your organization and see the culture first hand.

Bottomline, your go-to-market strategy for blogging should be as well thought out as any significant communication initiative you may have for your organization - or it will diminish your brand and send customers packing.

Search Options for the B2B Space 

Most search marketers focus on Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. But B2B search marketers also have a growing number of vertical search options. Clicks and leads from these vertical search sites may not yield the same traffic as general search engines, but the percentage of qualified traffic and conversions can increase dramatically with leads from these specialized and vertical business-oriented engines. Here's a roundup of the most important search sites and resources B2B search marketers should be targeting.

Click here.

Let's face it, successful SEO is hard. 

Reason simply, SEO is not a want, it is a necessity.  According to Jill Whalen, CEO and founder of High Rankings, "...a sick web site leaves money on the table".

Without proper web page optimization, an organization is losing out on search engine visibility and possible customer conversion.  One of the first diagnostic tests in your SEO checklist is to see how Google views your home page (or any page of your site) by taking a look at how it looks in Google's "text cache." Additional warning signs (symptoms) include:

• Missing page content
• Missing navigational links
• List of unlinked words
• Keyword stuffed paragraphs that aren't normally visible

Although a good exercise, it is only the first step in elevating an organization's web page rankings.  For more information and Search Engine Guidelines visit:

• http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/
• http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/index.html
• http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx

Lastly, stay connected on latest SEO trends, reviews and content sharing at:

• http://www.SEOMoz.org

Continue marketing mix on all fronts. 

The ZenithOptimedia report says that in 2008 television's share of ad expenditure will fall 0.3 percentage points to 32.4% in North America, and 0.5 percentage points to 30.4% in Western Europe. In the rest of the world, however, television tends to attract a much higher share of ad expenditure. The Olympics in Beijing are expected to give an extra boost to television in 2008, particularly in China and its neighbors.  

The forecasts for internet advertising have been revised upwards. The report now forecasts 29.9%% growth this year (up from 28.6% three months ago) and 85% growth between 2006 and 2009 (up from 82%). Online video and local search are the new, fast-growing segments, but display, classified and the rest of search are still growing rapidly as well. Internet advertising is expected to account for 9.5% of all expenditure in 2009, fractionally up from the 9.4% forecast three months ago.  

Newspapers are suffering the most from the depredations of the internet, which is better at delivering timely news and is an efficient substitute for newspaper classifieds. The study expects newspapers' share of world ad expenditure to fall from 29.0% in 2006 to 26.2% in 2009. By contrast, outdoor is in rude health, and is forecast to increase its market share from 5.6% to 5.9% over the same period.  

My slant: Nothing has changed dramatically to assume that you need to do spending in one main category – rather, it is important to continue the marketing mix on all fronts.  What is changing though (and I’ll send info on this the first part of the year) is the change in metrics from demographics to a blend of user targeted behavior (as a result of the current social networking boom).