When people in a business start thinking about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay per Click (PPC) or Social Media (SM) they generally start by thinking how it can benefit the business That, of course makes sense, but some outside in thought is also a good idea – in other words, how do people use search

If you live in the UK, you may have heard or seen (outdoor, radio, press, online) adverts recently from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), aimed at raising awareness of the fact that its remit is being extended to cover marketing on websites from 1 March 2011 From then, marketing communications on companies’ own websites and in other third party space under their control, such as Facebook and Twitter, will have to adhere to the non-broadcast advertising rules as set out in the CAP Codes

Imagine yourself in 1999 just before the millennium What would you have said about ecommerce then

You may have noticed a new look to Google’s search results recently That’s because more than 20 percent of searches on Google are related to location and Google and others believe that location based searches and marketing are set to increase

Many of our newsletters are suggested by conversations we have with clients and others about the web People like to know how things work and sometimes we all get baffled by ‘the march of technology’

WEBSITE USABILITY Website usability is all about improving your ROI by making your website more efficient and satisfying to users so this month we are presenting the ABC (accessibility, believability and content) for the important factors in website usability If it is more efficient and satisfying to users you can: - Keep visitors on your site - Increase customer satisfaction - Increase sales - Decrease support costs - Promote repeat business - Reduce development time Usability is not one-dimensional but a combination of factors including: - Clear, consistent site structure - Easy to learn and fast navigation - Effective search functionality - Simple error handling Good content presentation (both text and images) so it has the x factor Objectives For excellent usability, like many things in business, the first step is to clearly define your organization's and users' objectives

Lead generation refers to the creation of prospective customers - people who may not be quite ready to buy or join today but who are interested enough to show interest and thus you’d like to keep in contact with so you can let them know why it's worth doing business with you Clearly leads can (and should) be generated in a number of ways - print, broadcast media, display ads, direct response advertising, pay per click, PR, word of mouth, referrals - and leads can be generated for sales or communication purposes via a wide range of offer types such as trial software, white papers, research, toolkit, prize draw etc

In any smaller business deciding on how to spend your marketing budget is, of course, crucial And, even though internet marketing tends to be lower cost than traditional marketing, that does not mean no cost, so it seems that, having looked at what might happen over the next 10 years or so in ‘2020 vision for the web’ and at Google in ‘Where is Google going’ recently, a quick look at what the key internet marketing strategies and tactics should be for many businesses is a good idea

We all know how ubiquitous Google seems to be It’s certainly the most used search engine and to go from nowhere to c