I was consulting with a client on the best way to launch a new website.  They want to be #1 in the search engines for keywords that drive sales but also build an educational / informative resource center.  Many businesses have similar goals, they understand they need to educate their customers before the purchase.

I wanted to share with our readers how our company launches our own websites.  We need to educate our customers and at the same time want to be #1 for the services we sell.  I hope by seeing how our company would launch a new site you may see ideas on how you can launch your new website or micro-sites.

Case Study:  WebBizDesigns.com

We have helped many companies plan out their website by wireframing / prototyping for years.  We made the decision ion 2009 to create a website that sold just these services.  We decided the most effective & cost effective strategy would be a backwards marketing strategy; i.e. educate first, then sell

Even though our end goal is to sell website architecture / web prototyping services, in 2010 we threw up a quick blog on webbizdesigns.com.  We wrote 15 informational blog posts about website architecture, web prototyping, and other services we would eventually sell.

What have been the results?

We are on the 1st – 3rd page of Google for many highly searched keywords such as “Website architecture, web prototyping, web application architecture, website planning,” and rank for 1,500 others!

All of this from writing very targeted content organized in a way the search engines would love.  In 2011 all of this content is going to be just a simple “blog” link on WebBizDesigns.com.  But when we make the switch, we will be #1 for the exact keywords that will drive new business.

How does this benefit you?

You can do the same with a blog, resource center, or Question & Answer Software.  For example, if were going to build a website that sold nutrition books, videos, meal plans, etc… you could create a Question & Answer website, similar to answers.com or Yahoo Answers, that simple answered questions people had about nutrition.

You can create this resource center on the domain name that you plan to use to sell nutrition books, videos, meal plans, etc… in the future.  What will happen is your URL will rank for 1,000′s of keyword phrases / questions.  If you hire an internet marketing company for SEO Services, results will be greater.

Social media is going to rule the Web until at least 2012 – according to a post by Justin Kistner, a Social Evangelist at web analytics company Webtrends. Kistner also claims that Facebook has become the king of social media. In a panel at a Portland event today called Lunch 2.0, Kistner said that the current era of the Web “is Facebook’s game to lose.” More here from Justin also a roundup at ReadWriteWeb.

On the heels of its Promoted Tweets ad product, Tweeter has introduced another type of advertising: Promoted Trending Topics, where brands pay to appear below the “trending topics” on the site. The first company to try out the concept is Disney/Pixar with the trend, not surprisingly, of Toy Story 3. It is, writes Mashable’s Pete Cashmore in a guest post at CNN, an ingenious idea: “the perfect way to generate revenue from the popular social network without infuriating users…Brands long to be a part of the conversation, and Promoted Trends create buzz around a product or service without vexing the user.” More Here >>

Got to talk to Jeff Foster again and we covered some great information. Listen to the show below.

We first talk about what type of things you should really be focusing on in the search engine world. How to create content and the elements that make up a great content strategy.

Then we move on with the ever important aspect of search marketing–link building.

(more…)

I highly suggest you read this new post by Jason Baer on Are you ready for the opportunity economy. This is something I would put into practice within you, your organization or your company right now. I highly suggest this concept. We talk a little about this as well.

He goes into what is a great concept. The opportunity economy. How to set yourself up for the opportunities that present themselves in this fast moving and real time environment. With the advent of the search engine and now social media it is becoming easier and easier to connect and find people and situations where you can help.

Also I’d like to mention a few things that I’ve covered on my personal blog:

Recently the 3 Screen Report by Nielsen was released. This covers mobile, internet, and television usage in the US. While this report is one that I follow it also gives a little insight into how we consume all media. check out the post on the 3 Screen Report.

Elements of Viral. An great example of this comes from CCCP who started as a production agency, but quickly found out that they could easily vertically integrate advertising in their business model. I love some of these guys ideas and what they have put together. View the viral post here.

Having an authoritative website helps you create more leads, prospects, and sales. Not only will this help you when someone searches for your website but it allows you to create a launching pad for other marketing efforts. There are some things to keep in mind when creating authority around what you do. Today we talk a little about this and cover things such as…

(more…)

Today on DefiningNewMedia.com Jeff Foster talks with Scott Scanlon about search engines, SEM, and SEO. We talk about the latest release from google called Caffeine.

Some of the questions we answer:

• Has Google and the search engines changed drastically?
• What exactly is Google Caffeine?
• What should you do about it?
• Your strategy going forward to be found on search engines…
• Can and should you take advantage of trending topics?

Each Friday Jeff and I will discuss search engine and online marketing related topics. From real time search, google, bing, yahoo, and other search related items.

Listen to the show below

When all you have is an email address, Flowtown can give you a name, age, gender, occupation, location and all the social networks that person is on. Check out FlowTown.com >>

How often do you communicate with the people you should? etacts tracks that for you (for free). Visit Etacts >>

SWIX is like Google Analytics for social media. You wouldn’t run an important web-site without tracking your traffic patterns, nor should you invest in social media without understanding how it’s working for you. Visit swix >>

Gist helps you build stronger relationships by connecting the inbox to the web to provide buisiness-critical information about the people and companies that matter most. Visit gist >>

Threadsy pulls together your email and social accounts into a simple, enjoyable experience. Visit threadsy >>

How do you build credibility online? You do it with lots of hard work, cultivating quality relationships with the press, bloggers, thought leaders, webmasters, microbloggers, and other influencers. But until now, that process has been time-consuming and resource-intensive. BuzzStream is a new platform for building more effective and more human relationships online, without all the overhead and bandwidth. BuzzStream will help you. Visit Buzzstream.com >>