Posts Tagged ‘seo rankings’

Internet Business Marketing News: Q1 Online Sales Show Mixed Results for Online Retailers

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

According to the latest report from Internet business marketing tracker eMarketer, online sales from the first quarter of 2009 have been mixed. It appears as if the recession is being felt in online retail and Internet business marketing, but not to the extent of other business realms. And it even appears as if some Internet business marketing and online businesses and are doing better than they were last year at this point.

So here are some quick numbers: online sales have seen an 11% increase, but that doesn’t cover all areas on the online and Internet business marketing retail space. The eMarketer report says that only 58% of all those selling online have seen a significant increase in sales. The chart below shows that the biggest beneficiaries in the last quarter have been brands that sell goods directly from company Websites, while sales of web-only merchants have remained stagnant.

internet business marketing

internet business marketing

So what could account for the big boost for brands and not for web-only merchants? It could be that less people are visiting brick and mortar stores and more are simply buying online. Since many of these shoppers are new to online purchasing, buying direct from brand retailers offers some familiarity for these novice online shoppers.

So what does that mean? It means that there could be a possible silver lining here for online retailers and Internet business marketing professionals of all stripes. Look at it this way: there’s evidence that the recession is persuading more and more people to try online shopping. Even if their initial shopping experiences are with familiar brands and companies (like the online Nike or Apple stores) it’s very possible that they’ll soon branch out to try other online retailers. As new online shoppers grow more comfortable with the online shopping experience, they could start patronizing Web merchants of all types.

Or am I being too optimistic? Let me know what you think.

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Posted in Local Internet Marketing, Professional Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

How to Get Better SEO Rankings with Google’s Guide

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

We previously explained why Google has certain search engine optimization rules when it comes to title tags. In this post, we’ll go explain why Google rewards Web pages with great SEO rankings that do certain things with your meta tags. You may have never heard of meta tags, but if you’ve ever done a Google search, you’ve seen them. Meta tags are the one or two sentences that appear under the URL when a Website is found and listed on Google’s search results page. They play an important role in getting great SEO rankings.

It’s pretty easy to see why the meta tag can be important. It’s the short one or two sentence description that appears for every Website on Google’s search results page. Meta tags are often the first thing Web users will read about your site after the title and URL. And just as print ad headlines and copy have evolved onto something of an art form, there are some rules and techniques that SEO rankings professionals like to stick to when writing meta tags. Here are what Google lists as the basics to writing good meta tags for great SEO rankings and what we have to say about each technique:

  1. Do not have meta tags that have no relation to the Web page’s content

This should be a no-brainer, right? But sometimes people will try to trick Google into thinking their Web page is about something popular (for example, baseball) when it’s really about something else (for example, selling suspicious get-rich-quick schemes). Google is increasingly skilled at telling if the meta tags are relevant to the rest of the page. And if they are, then you’re fine. If they’re not, then you may find yourself on Google’s blacklist and lose SEO rankings.

  1. Do not use general descriptions like “My Web page” or “My Web site”

Google’s smart, but it’s not psychic. If you meta tag is too vague, Google will have trouble figuring what its about. That means less SEO rankings for your Website.

  1. Do not use only keywords in the description

Some people think that if they can list a bunch of words or phrases that people commonly search for, they’ll get great SEO rankings. Those people are wrong. Google likes it when meta tags are complete sentences. The best meta tags are those that are sentences that include targeted keywords. But even a meta tag that is simply a short sentence with no keywords is better than a long list of keywords.

  1. Do not copy the entire content of the Webpage into the meta tag

Meta tags are meant to be short and sweet. When they appear on Google’s search results page, most are only one or two lines long. And that’s the way Google wants it. A meta tag that’s too long will be overlooked and your SEO rankings will suffer.

  1. Do not use the same description tag more than once

It may be tempting to just copy and past the same meta tag to all your pages, but unique tags that clearly describe the content on every page will result in better SEO rankings. Really, it’s worth it.

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Posted in Ethical Search Engine Optimization, Meta Tag Optimization | 1 Comment »