Moderator July 31st, 2009
Here’s our top 10 reasons why we like the recently announced Yahoo-Microsoft search partnership:
10. Gives health care reform and the beer summit some competition for attention in the media.
9. Provides a much needed new word for the Urban Dictionary (MicroHOO!).
8. Matt Cutts was running out of video topics.
7. All sites previously optimized for Yahoo and Bing now need to be optimized for MicroHOO!
6. There hasn’t been a decent anti-trust battle in years.
5. Anticipation of seeing ‘Powered by Bing’ on Yahoo search site.
4. We shorted Yahoo stock big time.
3. Provides leg up for Carol Bartz-lead hostile takeover of Microsoft.
2. Slows the torrential outpouring of ”innovation” coming from Yahoo.
And the #1 reason we like the Microsoft Yahoo deal:
1. Virtually ensures Bill Gates’ active return to MS to save the day when whole thing falls apart.
Affinity Track Internet Promotion | Denver-Boulder SEO
357 S. McCaslin Blvd.
Louisville, CO 80027
(303) 404-8699
Moderator July 29th, 2009
Today’s announcement marks a potentially significant change in the competitive landscape of search. The 10-year deal announced today gives Microsoft access to Yahoo’s second-largest internet search engine audience, beefing up its search presence as it tries to catch Google, by far the leader in online search and advertising.
The deal will no doubt be reviewed by the government for anti-trust concerns. According to the Associated Press, a key lawmaker on antitrust issues said the Yahoo-Microsoft plan “warrants our careful scrutiny.” Sen. Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, said the Senate antitrust subcommittee he chairs will review the deal “because of the potentially far-reaching consequences for consumers and advertisers and our concern about dampening the innovation we have come to expect from a competitive high-tech industry.”
In our opinion this move could actually create more competition. And what innovation have we seen lately from Yahoo anyway? Google vs. MicroHoo, it could get interesting. And if you’re not ranking that well organically in Yahoo … you may not need to worry about it.
Affinity Track Internet Promotion | Denver-Boulder SEO
357 S. McCaslin Blvd.
Louisville, CO 80027
(303) 404-8699
Moderator July 26th, 2009
Is it a good investment to devote the resources necessary to promote your website? It’s a reasonable question. Internet marketing doesn’t happen spontaneously without effort or without cost.
If you’re in the business of selling “kitchen tables” (for example) we can consult the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, one of several keyword resources available plus its free. The results say there were around 450,000 Google searches on the word kitchen table in June of this year. It’s a significant number. That traffic’s going somewhere, and chances are that your kitchen table sales business would benefit if some of it was coming to you.
Targeting the word combination of kitchen tables may be too big a goal for your site, especially if it doesn’t carry a lot of weight in the search engines. Markets have a tendency to sub-divide over time. Effective marketing is almost always a result of intelligently segmenting markets, then determining the most appropriate target, and then implementing a plan to penetrate it.
The market for kitchen tables can be segmented in numerous ways. It could be segmented geographically (e.g., Denver kitchen tables), by table style and material (e.g., wooden kitchen tables), or even size (e.g., large kitchen tables). If your site cannot yet compete for the overall market leader position in the largest categories, adding qualifiers to attract segments of traffic from the overall traffic pool available will often be essential to compete. The marketing principles that applied pre-internet marketing, still apply. In our experience it’s the rare website that cannot benefit from and justify promotion.
There. Another blog in and my daughter’s still watching Sponge Bob. Ahh success!
Affinity Track Internet Promotion | Denver-Boulder SEO
357 S. McCaslin Blvd.
Louisville, CO 80027
(303) 404-8699
Moderator July 25th, 2009
There’s lots of material around for small business owners to consult in connection with SEO and general promotion of their websites. Given the nature of small businesses with principals often wearing multiple hats, many small businesses just have a hard time finding the time (and discipline) to give attention to these things.
At Affinity Track we read about and stay informed on the latest trends in SEO circles. The use of canonical tags introduced earlier this year, the recent link-sculpting debate, a new search engine launch from Microsoft are among the events that have recently grabbed attention. But for many small businesses (e.g., mom and pop on up to several hundred employees) they’re often not giving attention to even the most fundamental of SEO practices. Keyword research, good pages titles and meta descriptions for starters, would do a lot of sites a world of good. It’s not rocket science, but it does require some attention, awareness of SEO principles, and the ability and willingness to write.
This is actually good news for small businesses. Competing online is relative thing … relative to what your competitors are doing that is. So with so many small business websites ignoring even the most basic SEO practices, there’s an opportunity for your small business to compete. If your business is suitable for online marketing, and most are today, you need only take the initiative to get going to begin reaping the benefits.
Affinity Track Internet Promotion | Denver-Boulder SEO
357 S. McCaslin Blvd.
Louisville, CO 80027
(303) 404-8699
