Archive for the ‘Online Marketing’ Category

7 Unpardonable Google Sins

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

The vast majority of sites are constructed by folks who have little knowledge about how some of the basic things they do or don’t do can spell death for those creations in Google.
 

 
These unpardonable sins are completely avoidable and need just attention and intent. I take the liberty to place 10 mistakes that Google considers as unpardonable sins.
 
1. 100% Flash based websites – Although Google has started indexing flash content (if created as per Google’s instructions), it is still a far cry and the site gets heavily penalized.
2. Duplicate Content – Google loves everything original. The intention is to present searchers with unique content. Google with throw you out if the content is a copy from somewhere or you use the same content for multiple sites with the idea of fooling Google.
3. Canonical Domain – Google treats www and non-www pages as different pages. All the 4 pages below are treated as separate pages by Google and can lead to the big issue of duplicate content. To avoid this, be consistent in the usage. A search on this in Google will yield you tons of guides.

4. Linking to bad neighborhoods / link farms – It is very important to know the sites which link back to your website. Sites with poor reputation can damage your reputation in Google as well. So be careful.
5. Cloaking – Google hates stuff that is created differently for it’s bot and for the human eye. It considers that as deceit. This is treated as a black hat technique.
6. Session ids in indexable URLs – Having session ids in URL is a complete no-no if you want to get those pages indexed. Rewrite the URLs if needed.
7. Hidden Text – Another black hat technique which you should avoid under all circumstances. Display the same content to the Google bot as well as your visitors.
 
The above ’sins’ apply as much to other search engines as to Google. So avoiding these practices can yield you rich dividends across the board.

So what’s up in Online Marketing in 2009?

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

Every time I launch my browser, I learn something new. Browser has become a kind of a university for me. It delivers me everything that is of interest to me.
 
Over the last few months, online marketing has become a special interest area for me and I have been spending tons of my time on this subject. Last week I sat down to pick 5.5 topics that will actually become the big talking points in 2009 according to me.  Here they are:
 
1.       Organic Rankings - SEO will become mainstream and will start getting measured in ROI – Usually SEO consulting companies or ‘consultants’ charge a few thousand dollars every month. Currently they survive on fixing optimization mistakes and playing around with keywords. With search engines becoming smarter, this is going to undergo a big change. SEO folks will start creating content that deliver traffic and leads. Because leads and content have become so tightly linked. It shall be all about ROI.
 
2.       Advertising on Social Media – This will have a big impact. Most companies which have been using the PPC route will start advertising on social media as well in 2009. The reason is simple – advertising is simpler than blogging or doing other things which require more time and resources. Also the fact remains that this year, a lot of these social media companies will come up with easier tools for companies to get targeted traffic. Hail Social Media!
 
3.       Web Design Pure Play shall die – Web design companies need to evolve into complete functions and include marketing services as part of their main services to survive. Agencies that offer a full-cycle solution shall take over business from pure play companies which refuse to adapt.
 
4.       Search will drift towards social search – Towards the end of the year, social media companies like Facebook will start seeing a growth in their search share. Every coffee shop I visit, every country I go to, every discussion I attend to, Facebook rules. I am sure Facebook will figure out a way of delivering  ads and searches that are more meaningful. In short, search will move towards social search. Social search will become a part of algorithmic search.
 
5.       B2B Lead Generation – Internet is not about selling online. However tons of businesses see it that way. This will change as more and more B2B companies will start using the internet to generate B2B leads. B2B leads survive on information exchange and there is no better media than the internet for facilitating exchange of information with such perfect ease.

 
5.5  Business blogging - that started taking off in the latter part of 2008 and is only expected to gain momentum in 2009.

With a downturn economy, internet offers the most cost effective method of marketing and in all probability this can turn is some major surprises. Count on it. Don’t discount it yet.