2008 is coming to a close, and you may have embarked on your first, well-overdue, search engine optimization (SEO) project for your business. Many steps were likely taken in your SEO project through the discovery phase of assessing how friendly your website architecture is for search, keyword discovery around your industry/market/brand/product/competitors, research where your visitors hang out online, the physical optimization and improvements to your site, etc. Now that your website is SEO’d for Google and others, what’s next? (more…)

Are you a “Joe the Plumber”, or a new or small business owner needing to get Google to drive new business? Then grab a coffee and have a read as I plan to pack as much value into this post for you to get you started. And as always, any questions or comments, make a comment below or drop me a line.

Often in presentations and chats with small business owners, let’s call them the “Joe the Plumber” of the world , we tend to get so involved in all the wonderful things Joe could do for his small business to bring in new business from the web, that we tend to forgot Joe is just getting their feet wet in the internet marketing pool. In these cases, we need to re-address our approach and language to put the wonderful internet marketing ideas into plain simple english, tailored to Joe the Plumbers specific needs.

Over a coffee with Joe we may go on about what search engine marketing could do drive new business to his website, or what an email marketing program could to do create and sustain dialogue with his customers throughout the year. We could get in-depth about how a Facebook business strategy could help get Joe engage and interact with his customers or how a media / pr tactics will gain him free publicity offline, as well as online while at the same time feeding his SEO strategy.

But in the end, Joe is a business owner in Vancouver BC, he knows his business best, and nothing or very little about marketing over the Internet. His needs are simple. He needs new business, needs to get the most mileage from his budget (which is the size of a jar of jam), needs a powerful impact on the web, and needs guidance and trust from someone who can understand his business and his needs. (more…)

Over the last 2 years I’ve seen a significant increase of clients who are business owners or marketing managers turning to the web to gain attain online market share and an overall online presence in an attempt to remain competitive and tap into the vast opportunities the web has to offer their business.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a fundamental for those who strive execute a successfull online marketing strategy. And while many of these people are split between learning the trade themselves, soon realize the need to outsource the skillset for their business. It just makes sense with the time, resources and knowledge involved in a solid search marketing micro and macro strategy (organic and paid).

However, those business owners who are new to the game, tend to face five issues. While these are not conclusive, they do shed some of the more common problems I see with clients and marketing managers today. (more…)

While not one of my typical posts that cover education, strategy, programs or campaign overviews of Internet marketing, but this post was originally in the YOUmoz section of SEOmoz, but was so excellent I added it here for all those who are newcomers to the online and search marketing field. 

I am sure that it’s useful information for newcomers. I have no doubt that (more…)

What’s the most important tactic or component of SEO? When embarking on a SEO strategy, many professional SEO consultants will have various answers. Some wil say link referral tests, other will say keyword analysis, and yet others may say content audits.

While SEO is a critical component of dressing up your website to attract the personal appeal of each engine – kinda of like the dating game, one of the first areas SEO strategist should define prior to advising clients on strategies are the fundamental building blocks of search engine optimization, and more broadly, the search marketing plan.  (more…)