2012 is certain to come with a lot of changes in the way that search engines work. More importantly, we’re going to see a lot of changes to the way that search results that show up. I’ve collected a few things that I think we’ll see (or in some cases, see more of) in 2012:

Search algorithms will continue moving toward personalized results.

Last April, Google rolled out their “Panda” update that made significant changes to their search algorithm in an attempt to “provide better rankings for high-quality sites —sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.” Suddenly, news and social networking websites rose toward the top of the search results, oftentimes pushing content farms off of the first page.

Google’s releasing of ‘Search Plus Your World’ last week was a giant leap in the way that search engines work – although I’m not entirely sure if this was a leap forward or a leap backward (post your opinion in the comments section – I’d love to hear what you think). Regardless, Google is becoming more and more personal with each algorithm adjustment, and they’re showing no signs of stopping. People are the new authority.

The takeaway: Google believes that social + timeliness = relevance. If you want to rank high on Google search, now may be a good time to dust off that Google+ profile.

Quality, not quantity.

This is one of those things that should have been at the core of search engines upon conception, alas … Over a decade later, search engines are finally starting to understand that just because a site has a lot of pages, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the quality of those pages are very high (we’re looking at you, content farms).

The takeaway: If you want to rank high in search results, then you need to take the time to create fresh, high-quality content for your site on a regular basis.

Mobile search will soon be in the driver’s seat.

The fact is that about 35% of Americans own smartphones and if you’ve ever bought one of those, you know that you’re required to pick up a data plan as well. So, aside from playing an obscene amount of Angry Birds, what are people doing with their phones?

The short answer: searching. Mobile search is increasing, and it’s increasing rapidly. With the advent of Siri and other voice-based mobile searching, it won’t be long before mobile search overtakes all other mediums. I’d put money on it happening before the year’s end, unless of course, the Mayan’s end of the world prediction proves to be true.

The takeaway: Start thinking about the way people search on mobile vs. computers and leverage this. Browse your analytics and look at the keywords that came from mobile devices. Use this data to optimize your paid search campaigns. In order to maximize conversions, make sure that your website is optimized for mobile devices.

What do you think the biggest changes in search are going to be? Sound off in the comments section below!

by Daniel Hadaway

If you’re planning to begin marketing your business online, there’s a chance you’ve got a plan laid out for all the different types of marketing you’d like to utilize. It’s important to note, however, that while most businesses will see success from all online marketing channels, different types of online marketing lend themselves more favorably to specific vertical markets.

Remember, that at the end of the day, the purpose of marketing is (most of the time) to generate sales for your business. The best way to do that is by finding users who may be already prepared to buy your product or service. With this in mind, we can look at how the behavior of consumers in specific verticals is uniquely influenced by online marketing and popular website formats.

Mashable recently posted an infographic called How to Influence Purchasing Decisions on the Web, which outlines how consumer behavior is affected by different online channels. For example, we can see that the top influencer in the automotive category is brand websites, followed by search results. So, if you’re an auto dealer you might want to consider focusing your initial efforts on creating an awesome website, optimizing it for SEO, and investing in paid search ads. The influence for baby products is much more social, with the top influencers being forum comments, Facebook, and blog posts. So if you’re ready to launch a new line of baby pacifiers, you might want to invest in reputation management, off-page SEO (inbound links, etc.), and Facebook advertising.

Your business category may not be listed in the infographic, but it’s important to start your marketing efforts armed with some knowledge of the buying behavior of your target audience. The best source for such knowledge will be an experienced digital marketing company (hint hint!) who is willing to help educate you based on their past experience in your vertical market.

Starting out your marketing efforts with thorough knowledge of your target audience, and then acting based on that knowledge is the best method to ensure success from your digital marketing efforts!

As crazy as it may seem, the holiday season is almost here. Right now, advertisers everywhere are getting ready to blast consumers from every angle, including online search campaigns. So, what does this mean for us?

The Skinny: It means that now is the time to optimize our campaigns to make sure that our ads aren’t lost in the impending barrage of our competitor’s campaigns. What has traditionally worked well in the past may not be good enough to compete during the holiday madness as the cost of bids are driven up, which can potentially push an ad’s page position down.

The Fatty: Saving a campaign begins and ends with smart campaign management and optimization. Here are some things to watch out for as well as some possible resolutions:

1. Low Click-Thru-Rate (CTR)

• Test multiple ads
• Make ad groups more focused
• Make ads more relevant to keywords and landing pages
• Add negative keywords

2. High Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

• Make sure landing pages are up-to-date and more importantly, make sure that they’re relevant
• Revise ad copy – mention special offers and use call-to-actions
• Lower bids
• Add negative keywords

3. Low Traffic

• Expand keywords
• Increase bids to improve page position
• Expand geographical targeting

4. Low Conversion Rate

• Use dynamic text in ads
• Revise landing pages to better match keywords and ad copy
• Increase bids on well-performing keywords

Keeping a close watch on the performance of running ads and making the appropriate adjustments is essential to having a healthy campaign. By using the above tips you can give yourself the edge over your competition by maintaining or even improving your page ranking and staying visible to your target audience!

While efforts can be made to lead a prospect towards doing business with you via Paid Search, Display Advertising, Social Media, and Email Marketing- none of them are as directly responsible for obtaining new customers as a landing page.

So, what makes a great (effective) landing page? While definitely not exhaustive, here is a list of the Big 3 indicators of landing page success. Get these three items in place, and you’ll be well on your way to a land filled with unicorns, double rainbows, and most importantly: full pockets.

1. Obvious Contact Info

It’s amazing how many aesthetically pleasing, and psychologically convincing landing pages are out there that miss out on this simple concept: Make it easy for customers to call or email you!

Many times a prospect is ready to jump, but has that one nagging question that is holding them up; “Can your product do XYZ?”, “How does your service compare to Company X?”. Answering these questions is often the last hurdle you have to overcome before a potential client turns into a customer.

Why not make it easy for a prospect to get that answer? You should put your contact info near the top (preferably in the header) in a large font, with conspicuous placement so it’s impossible to miss! Remember- with a landing page, you’re rolling out the red carpet for potential customers… Above and beyond is the name of the game here, (we can play Hungry Hungry Hippos later).

2. Clear Call to Action

What is it that you want from a prospect? Do you want them to sign up for an email list? Buy a product? Request a brochure? Something else?

Make sure it’s bold and plain-as-day what the next steps are for your prospects. Having a clear call to action is an easy way to achieve that. If you want people to sign up for your email list, you might say “Sign up for our email list!”.

Craft a clear and concise call to action, then place it prominently on your landing page.

3. Simple Means to Act

Once you’ve told a prospect what you’d like them to do via you newly-awesome call to action, it’s time to give them an easy way to do it.

If you have a form to fill out, make sure you aren’t turning people off by how long the form is, or the depth of information required. Only ask for information that is reasonable and necessary for your business to deliver on your end of the deal.

If your call to action is “Request a Free Brochure”, then have a form only asking for a user’s name and address, (or email address if sending it via email).

If you’d like people to visit your full website, make sure you link to it prominently with a button or some kind of contrasting element.

Bonus Tip: Studies show that users like to be led through what they perceive as a process. Try putting an arrow that points to the right alongside your buttons, links, or form-submit buttons. This small addition can have a huge impact on your landing page click-throughs.

While there’s much more to crafting a stellar landing page than just these three concepts, the items listed above are the bare-minimum to ensure some level of success with your landing pages. If your landing pages are missing these items, take a few minutes to add them. You may just find your bottom line growing – and you’ll finally be able to invest in that unicorn farm you’ve been dreaming about.

The tips provided actually would work equally as well for blogging, or even website copy… So be sure to check it out!

Have a look for yourself at the link below:

Writing E-mail Marketing Copy That Sells

The answer is behavioral targeting. Behavioral targeting is simply a method of customizing the content of ads shown to you, based on your past behavior online. The advertiser knows you’re interested in canine dental cleanliness because you searched on one of their network’s sites for ‘toothpaste for dogs’…

The advertiser keeps track of this and uses it to provide you with ads that you will find more relevant and useful. The upside for you is that ads become an actual useful tool for improving your quality of life. If you’re going to see an ad anyway, why not make it useful to you and your unique likes and dislikes?

As marketers, what excites us about behavioral targeting in advertising is that it is much more effective than standard display advertising. A recent study by the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), and reported by eMarketer tells the story:

The study, which looked at ads run on member networks during 2009, showed that among users who clicked on a behaviorally targeted ad, 6.8% converted. That compared with only 2.8% of those who clicked on a run-of-network ad.

Behaviorally targeted ads are more than twice as effective! And they’re effective simply because they are simply more useful, thus more compelling, to the users.

So go ahead and buy that doggy toothpaste! That ad you see could be custom-tailored for you!

But the answer isn’t what you might think.

In the previous post, we cited a study by Sysomos that revealed that only 4% of Facebook pages have 10,000 or more fans. That same study revealed that there is very little correlation between the frequency or subject matter of wall posts and number of fans. But, there is a strong correlation between the amount of other content like notes, photos, and videos, and number of fans.

So, if you want to grow and engage your fan base, thus leveraging Facebook users into actual paying customers, focus less on wall posts and more on posting videos, photos, and notes.

Remember, the key to success in any kind of content-based marketing is delivering valuable or relevant information to your audience. Focus on that, and the results will flow in.

Read on to find out why…

Many businesses make the mistake of focusing so hard on gathering more and more followers/fans, that they neglect the one thing that will turn the followers into paying customers: Content.

Now, we know you probably have heard the (old by now) adage “Content is King”, but there’s a reason it’s said so much. It’s because it absolutely is true! Spend one week focusing on putting out quality, relevant content on your Facebook page, and you will see more results!

Check back on Friday of this week for Part 2 of this series, where we’ll discuss exactly what kind of content you need to focus on to get more from your Facebook pages- the answer may surprise you!

After reading through the article, we realized that many of the principles driving these best practices are excellent principles for your business to follow in its online presence.

Here are a few of the best practices discussed and how they relate to an effective web presence:

Links should indicate where they will take the user.

People like to know where a road will take them before turning onto it. Think about how you would feel if you got on an interstate and followed the signs to Indianapolis, but at the end of your trip ended up in Dallas. Now, Dallas is a fine city, but it isn’t where you expected or wanted to go. That’s why it’s important to set proper expectations for your customers.

>Your website is the very first impression most people will get of your business. It’s important that what you present sets a realistic yet flattering expectation of your service or product offering.

Take a few minutes to look over your web site. Better yet, ask a few friends or colleagues to look at your site and tell you what they might expect. Then compare that to your real business offerings. Exercises like these can be invaluable to your business and the results you’re getting from your website.

Ensure Contrast – Links should stand out.

Are you truly standing out from your competition online? Ignoring colors and general layout, is your site all that different from your competition? Are you saying something different or more compelling than others?

Take a look through the lens of an outsider at a few competitors’ websites. If you aren’t sure your’s is standing out, take some steps to change that. It may be as simple as taking a look at what your company really does well and stating that boldly on your home page. Or perhaps it’s even as simple as stating exactly what it is that sets you apart. Don’t be afraid to tell your customers exactly why you’re the best!

Don’t Forget About Visited Links

Once your website has converted prospects into customers, make sure you don’t leave them out in the cold!

Many businesses think of their websites solely as a sales tool, or as a method for converting prospects. While this is a big part of an effective web presence, it isn’t all there is.

No matter how big or small, any company can benefit from offering some type of ongoing interaction with their customers. While there are many ways this ongoing interaction can positively impact your bottom line, one of the most compelling is maintaining top of mind positioning with your customers. If you can stay in touch with your best customers, you can turn satisfied patrons into raving fanatics!

Of course all of these ideas are based just around best practices in link styling on web pages. But it’s a great example of taking concepts from one arena and using them as inspiration for making a business or product better.

What inspires you to constantly improve?

The article covers great storytelling not only in web sites, but in industrial design, product packaging, architecture and more.

It’s a great read and definitely worth your time.

Check it out here and view Part 1 here.