It’s just having a conversation, and hopefully starting more conversations, about the topic you are most expert in, passionate about and building your authority and web presence at the same time.

I am using this to help ease the way for traditional marketers and small business owners into the blogosphere and on-line community participation to give them that edge, but it’s really about all your marketing efforts. Just read this article on my favorite blog, and got inspired.
Relationships and community are being enhanced and built on-line. Funny, in the 90’s, during the dot com frenzy in which I was fully entrenched, we on-line enthusiasts were accused of destroying a sense of community. Now it seems as if we’re re-establishing it in a world where it is sorely lacking. Go us!

On-line where things could be so impersonal, to have a conversation and build relationships and community is the path to success. For years now we’ve been saying product is product now. It’s the value add that makes people decide on one vendor or another. One step further, it’s the trust and familiarity with PEOPLE behind the product and service.

Let’s get involved with each other!

The Design vs. SEO question has come up so often in my career that it really does warrant a blog post.

So many business owners want their home page to be gorgeous, AND think that means little and often NO content. I would like to redefine beautiful design in the web industry. The current misconception is that a beautiful design means three things:

1. The entire home page fits “above the fold”

2. There is lots of movement and color

3. Content is for interior pages and less is more on the home page

The redefinition take into consideration:

1. “Above the Fold” - This concept in itself is not sustainable as the designer and business owner have no idea or control over the size and resolution of the visitor’s monitor. The average monitor size and resolution is growing so are you willing to redesign in a year or so? Also, (and more importantly) search engines use the home page to find out what you deem important on interior pages. People have done studies on this concept. Here’s the article I read this morning that inspired me to write this post.

2. Movement and color - As a user/buyer I think less is more here, for sure! I’ve seen home pages that are entirely built in Flash. Most people have landed on a particular page based on a search. The home page should clearly let them know they’ve found what they are looking for and point them to more information about that topic. These days, with new search friendly animation you can certainly use flash and Ajax and other “Web 2.0″ technologies to do exactly that. I have rarely seen it done well and is usually distracting. Often, because the business owner doesn’t understand what is SEO friendly and what isn’t and the web developer wants the job done quickly and profitably, the appropriate technologies and methodologies to achieve SEO advantage as well as the desired “effect” is not even attempted. Even if the business owner knew about these things, is developing an Ajax solution in the budget? Simplify.

3. Content is for the interior? Just like in modern warfare, the front line has disappeared. Every page is a “landing” page. The official home page, being the top page regarding the directory hierarchy (unless it’s flat) and having the appropriate home page name (index, home, default, etc.) is more of a signpost to the search engines about the most important information on the site than a “welcome” page to searchers.

The bottom line and sustainable concept here is - the home page content should be as long as is needed to emphasize the importance of interior pages, to create an intuitive experience for the visitor and to provide the most useful information possible.

The best idea for the home page as it relates to content is to keep it fresh! If you have a blog, feed the teasers to your site’s home page. Post industry news articles there. Or just go update it on a regular basis. Stagnant home page content will not rank as well as frequently updated content.

Feedblitz’s Online Marketing Blog is one of my favorite “must-read” resources.  I subscribe and read daily.  Here’s an exerpt from a recent post that warrants more discusssion:

 Specifically, David Bailey from Google shared these five tips (some obvious, some maybe not) to take advantage of the specialized results:

1. Publish high quality, well captioned images

Well captioned is key here.  Don’t miss out on the alt attribute opportunity, but make sure they represent what the image shows, don’t keyword stuff image captions.  Also, open a Flikr account and put your images that aren’t on your site up there!

2. Create a Google video sitemap

Or any sitemap.  The key here is to have text links to all of your pages for the search engines to follow.  If you have dynamic pages, this is especially important!  Make sure there’s a link to your sitemap on every page…

3. Update business listings in local business center

Just posted about this.  If you’re not focusing on local search, start now.  It’s free and easy and becoming more and more important to being found on the web by people ready to buy!  Get a gmail account and a Yahoo! account and submit your business.  Also, put the address of your company in the footer or sidebar of your site and put up some real reviews - using the city names of the reviewer of your products or services.

4. Submit your feed to Google product search

Google offers a way to submit your product(s) or service(s) four different ways, individual items, a data feed of many items, a link to your on-line store or an API where you can sell right from Google results.  Again, free and easy!

5. Create a high-quality company blog

Couldn’t agree more.  Blogging can be so powerful and is so misunderstood by the average small business owner.  Do yourself a favor, investigate the power of blogging.   A great resource is the Blogger’s Blogger Rich Brooks of flyte new media to learn more…  He’s my old boss and knows more about how to make your blog a success than anyone I know.

If you’re using Google at all, you’ll notice that when you search for something in a particular town, you get a map and listings that fit your search criteria in that area at the top of your search WITHOUT using the local tab.

So how do you get into the local search index?  Well, sometimes it happens naturally, putting your address in the footer or sidebar of every page of your site is a great way to make sure that happens.  Or you can get a free gmail account, login to google and go to the Local Business Center and add your business!  Simple as that.

 Yahoo has the same thing, can’t hurt to get listed there as well! 

WebProNews reported that SMEX - West covered Search Marketing from a “holistic” standpoint.  Here’s an exerpt.

Universal and/or blended search incorporates data from local maps and results, images, videos, blogs, forums, whatever’s out there. Personalized search whittles all that down based on user behavior. Soon, each person may have a different set of search results from the next person’s.

To succeed in that online environment, businesses are going to have to learn to be everywhere, managing an online presence from a number of angles. That also means businesses will have to know how to manage their online reputation by effectively combating negative information about them, too. Holistic.

What does that mean to your Sustainable Search Marketing Strategy?  It means, take an inventory of your digital assets; image, video, audio files; and find the appropriate channels of distribution for them.  Sit down and discuss which products or services you’d like to promote right now and develop some great footage or podcasts and go for it.  

 It’s not just about your digital content, though.  It’s time to start working on your social media presence.  Get a Facebook account and list your site(s) there.  Get involved in appropriate forums and on-line communities.  Start a blog. A half hour a day could do you a world of good.