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

12 Social Media Rules of Engagement for Small Businesses

Promoting your business on social media can be helpful in extending your brand, gaining visibility, and building relationships with your customers. Done right, it can be an inexpensive way to market your company... read more

The 10 Best Social Sites and How to Use Them

There is no doubt that social media marketing has taken the lead in marketing online strategies. Social media sites have exploded and continue to grow in number and popularity. If you own an online business, it can be very difficult to know where to begin in this extensive marketing arena. There are dozens and dozens of social sites and more popping up all the time... read more

Using QR Codes - The Complete Guide!

Although many marketing gurus disagree on the efficacy and efficiency of QR (quick response) codes, consumer data from Europe and Japan prove otherwise. QR codes are quick to implement and cost virtually nothing, especially to the seasoned marketer. In fact, all they demand are a few design changes and a dedicated mobile webpage or site. And they have the potential to deliver some great returns... read more

Internet Video Hosting Strategies and Tips

Video Marketing for small business is growing in significance in the media-rich, entertain me culture we now live in. That much we know. To show your video clips on your site, there are a number of details you should take into account on how to serve up your video files, because they tend to get large and load slowly, so utilizing a service in the cloud to host your videos that has mega-capacity and specializes in streaming video is an excellent idea. It ultimately comes down to ease of use versus control, with a smidgen of quality and user-experience mixed in... read more

9 Common Title Tag Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

A website's title tags are very important for many reasons... Here are some of the top mistakes and missed opportunities I've seen in title tags. Avoid these and you'll be ahead of the game. You'll rank higher in search results and entice more people to click on your site... read more

SEO Tips for E-commerce Sites

Search engine optimization (SEO) isn't easy for any website, and e-commerce sites have some unique SEO challenges to overcome. These tips will help you tackle your e-commerce site's SEO so you can rank higher in search engine results and get more visitors, customers and sales for your online store... read more

Google's First Page... Guaranteed?

“No SEO company can guarantee you a first page or top 10 ranking. I repeat: NO SEO company can guarantee you a first page or top 10 ranking. Here’s why: There are far too many variables involved in the ranking of a website – not the least of which are the age of the domain, relevancy and quantity of content, number and quality of inbound links, competition, and of course Google’s ever-changing algorithms. That’s why legitimate SEO companies don’t make those kinds of outlandish promises.” ... read more

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