SEM is an acronym for Search Engine Marketing, and when it comes to effective Internet Marketing, one must consider not only the website design and development, but also the search engine optimization (SEO), link building strategy, pay-per-click (PPC), e-mail marketing, and website statistics elements.  RSS and blogging can be a powerful tools, and Social Media is exploding! Leveraging your Content Management System (CMS) is critical to good SEO performance. Something as seemingly trivial as choosing your Domain Name can have a significant impact on your search engine ranking and subsequent website traffic.  The weight of W3C Compliance with respect to SEO requires some consideration, as does Online Reputation Management (ORM).  Choosing reliable website hosting helps to build a solid foundation.

Internet usage and the number of daily searches are increasing at a dramatic rate.  Your competition is securing desirable domain names.

A customized SEM Strategy has become mandatory for driving targeted traffic to your site!

Content Is King!

If you do nothing else... Remember that "Content is King", so keep your content dynamic, engaging, and make every effort to keep your content "fresh" with constant updates. Do this, and you will be rewarded with higher ranking on the search engines and more visitors to your site. The more targeted your content, the more targeted your traffic will be.

S.M.A.R.T. Site

When developing a website, make sure that it is a S.M.A.R.T. Site™:

How S.M.A.R.T. is Your Website?

Web 1.0 - 2.0 - 3.0

Web 1.0 - One-way flow of information (ex: Google, Yahoo, MSN)

Web 2.0 - Two-way flow of information (ex: forums, blogs, social media - MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter)

Web 3.0 - Real-Time Web / Semantic Web

The Explosion of the Mobile Web… Is Your Website Ready?

Just a few short years ago, it was a good bet that you would read articles like this one on your PC or laptop. Today, it’s just as likely that you are reading this article on a smartphone or tablet computer. So what’s changed, what happened? The mobile web happened, that’s what – and the Internet will never be the same... read more

The Importance of Utilizing Gravatars

If you've been blogging for long enough then you've undoubtedly noticed that some users have small pictures that show up next to the comments that they leave. They may have a picture of themselves or it may be a custom picture that they've created. Either way, these little pictures are affectionately known around the online world as "Gravatars," a clever play off "avatars," and have become staples around successful bloggers and casual bloggers alike... read more

10 Questions for New SEO Clients

If you could only ask 10 general (non-industry-specific) questions of your new SEO customers, what would they be and why would their answers help you help them? ... read more

The Meta Description Tag

The keywords and phrases you use in your Meta description tag may not affect your page’s ranking in the search engines, but this tag can still come in handy in your overall SEO and social media marketing campaigns... read more

How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh?

It's been an extremely busy year for the good folks at Google, not only did they roll out the game-changing Panda Updates, but now they have increased the stakes by implementing Google Fresh. This recent algorithm update is based on the Caffeine architecture introduced by Google a year ago and supposedly makes Google's listings much fresher... read more

Internet Video Formats: Which is Best for Video Marketing?

OK, so you've decided that getting some web video on your website and social media profiles is a great idea to make you more appealing to prospects and put your SEO (search engine optimization) on HGH. You realize that video marketing is a key part of your overall search engine marketing and social media strategy. Bully for you! Now onto the tech stuff. Video formats can be mind-boggling and vary depending on the equipment the video was shot with, the type of computer you use, and the final destination where you want to host and serve up your on-demand video as part of your video marketing plan. So which is best for you? ... read more

12 Clever Ways to Boost Your Traffic

Traffic is essential to anyone who owns a website and/or blog. Without traffic we have no customers or sales. Unfortunately traffic does not just come to us, we have to work at it and we have to be consistent and persistent. Sales conversion rates normally average less than 5%. What this means is that only 5% of the people who visit your site will become a paid customer. So, to grow your sales, you need to boost your traffic and/or your conversion rates. Below are twelve things you can do right now to start increasing your traffic to get those sales... read more

5 SEO Things to do in the First Year of Your Site's Life

By now, most site owners realize the importance and value of SEO in the development and growth of their site. A properly optimized site is going to rank better in the search engines, see more targeted traffic being directed over, have a higher conversion rate and much more. However, SEO is incredibly long term and nothing can rush time. It takes time for a site to build a good trust factor with the search engines and until that happens, most of your off-site SEO efforts are going to produce minimal results. If you recently launched your site and are already looking into SEO, here are 5 things you should focus your time and energy on... read more

6 Ongoing Link Building Techniques You Should Be Employing

Finding effective and sustainable methods of building links to your website can prove challenging. However, with some effort or investment on your part, it is possible to enjoy an boost in direct traffic as well as a boost to your link profile and search engine rankings through an ongoing link building strategy... read more

10 Valuable Aspects of a Successful Homepage

The homepage of your website is often the landing page and is critical to the success of your online business. When people land on this page, you have just a few seconds to capture their interest. This page will be a giant factor in your conversion rate which is the ratio of visitors that respond to your goal action. This goal action can be subscribing to your newsletter, signing up for your e-course, ordering your products, etc. Your homepage needs to contain certain elements to be successful in raising your conversion rate... read more

The Biggest Web Design Trends of 2011

Since we are over seven months into the year I decided it was time to give my take on what may happen in web design in 2011... read more