This video/article does not contain any breaking information about either organic or pay per click, but you should still read/watch it because it will give you a couple of up-to-date perspectives from some very respectable people in the industry.

WebProNews spoke with David Szetela about why his company, Clix Marketing, only uses pay per click advertising.

I also had an interesting conversation with Matt Bailey about his exclusive use of organic SEO for SiteLogic clients. Matt describes organic SEO as being similar to art, and goes on to explain pay per click as a science.

David and Matt also point out the large role that social networking plays in both organic and PPC.

Organically, social networks are a great way to build your online reputation and get your name known. David mentioned that Google now has site-targeted advertising and Facebook also launched their own pay-per-click advertising service within their site.

Still have questions about organic SEO and Pay Per Click? Catch the full story in the WebProNews video that includes sound clips from David Szetela and Matt Bailey as well as a host of other information.

SES Chicago returns, and WebProNews is on hand to bring you reports and videos from the Windy City.  Enjoy our coverage this week.

Shari Thurow, Founder and SEO Director, Omni Marketing Interactive said users satisfaction is huge in search usability. Components of search usability include a sense of place that answer the questions why I am here, what I am doing.

Another component is the scent of information, is the information you are looking for on the page. Thurow said," You have to tell people what to do on a Web site. If everything blends in, people aren’t going to perform a call of action." You should organize your sites content into groups for navigation.

She said to," Be sure to test usability," and to "balance user goals and business goals."

Matt Bailey, President of SiteLogic said, "Simply getting more and more numbers to your Web site, is not the answer. It’s getting them to react."

There are three types of searcher:
1. Specific searcher (Sharp shooter)
2. Concept searcher (Shotgun)
3. Idea searcher (Artillery)

He said writing content is just as important as the design of the content. Content should answer how it will make life easier. Call things what they are and speak in user’s language.

Bob Tripathi, Search Strategist for Discover Financial Services said, "Without Web site usability, you don’t have search engine usability." Look at overall goals and don’t focus on various departments but work together.

Make sure to test everything and develop guidelines before you begin. He closed saying,"SEO education is the best investment tool you could ever have."

WebProNews Internet reporter/anchor Abby Prince contributed to this article.

I Left Town

When I returned home Friday after being away for a business trip to meet with SiteLogic, I was met with people I know I used to live with, but they’d changed. It was like walking into another country. While my daughter had sounded like she missed me when we spoke by cell phone, when I got home, she hated me. All we did was fight, so I avoided her.

The husband was worse. He turned into alien man. The reason, as was finally explained to me later, after I was ready to turn around and get a hotel room somewhere, was that everyone FINALLY realized “all the stuff you do here”.

This is very nice, but to pounce on me like I’m the enemy? The husband turned into “drill sergeant” and barked orders like crazy to all three kids. If you dared to leave your sneakers in the kitchen, you risked certain death. His way of managing the loss of “wife” was to take control and over-task.

Now they understand why mom gets grumpy.

Somehow by Saturday the daughter turned into this angelic creature who basically didn’t leave my side all weekend. We did lots of stuff together. The boys were pretty much oblivious to everything, especially the eldest. I thanked him for being someone I still recognized when I got home. The youngest son had made this list of chores that they swore they needed to do from now on and forever more. Everything on the list says “Not mom!” after it, to remind them that it’s their responsibility and not mine to pick up 32 towels in their bathroom after the 3 kids use it.

Endings

All weekend the headlines from the search engine marketing industry were screaming about the “death of SEO”. I’ve decided that I must be a ghost, or this plane of existence I’m living in is completely invisible, because I haven’t seen any signs of death for search engines or the need for web sites to be indexed and ranked by them.

Things morph. They change. They improve with age, like a good wine or women after the age of 45. To send death threats to Mike Grehan for writing about Universal Search as if he alone has the power or inclination to kill SEO practices is insane. Makes me thankful I left the SEO industry because frankly, some of you are not safe to be around anymore.

Accessibility practices are another area that’s changing. Joe Dolson wrote about WCAG Samurai Errata. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) is the accessibility Bible, but like the Good Book, it’s open to interpretation. Which is why WCAG 2.0 is being met with Samurai warriors.

The WCAG Samurai Errata for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 contains guidelines that permit flexibility based on requirements. It’s a fascinating read for anyone who is following accessible web or Internet application design.

Your page will be deemed compliant even if a validator finds an error in the document if the validator itself is known to be in error on that specific topic.

Do not provide a sitemap or table of contents unless the site cannot be understood or navigated without it.

For search engine optimization, this may cause alarm. I’d like it to read:

Do not provide a sitemap or table of contents unless the site cannot be understood or navigated by users or search engines without it.

Cre8asiteforums has an in-depth discussion on what’s happening in The Wcag Samurai Errata (joe Clark), NOT The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)

Over the weekend I added a new page to this blog called Accessibility Resources.

Have you heard that Ecommerce is Dead?

Jupiter Research, another market research firm, says the growth rate has peaked. It projects that overall online sales growth will slow to 9 percent a year by the end of the decade from as much as 25 percent in 2004.

The article speculates on reasons why this is happening. I bet you think I’ll say that persuasive design is the culprit. I’m a consumer too, however.

It takes just one big scare and ALL ecommerce pays the price. Consider the experience I heard last week in which someone made a purchase from a site that used the Google Shopping Cart. He chose to allow the transaction because he trusted Google. Several days later his credit card company hounded him with calls and alarms because his credit card was being used by someone else. He hadn’t used it since that online purchase and it was a card he doesn’t use often, so the credit card company instantly recognized a problem.

He blames the Google cart for not being secure and is unsure about shopping online in the future. It just takes one scare like that and everybody who sells online suffers.

Fun

My warm, funny, strong friend, Debra Mastaler, was interviewed by Liana Evans as part of Li’s Women of Internet Marketing series. If you missed it, Deb has run it on her blog in Mirror Mirror on the Wall. Liana has worked harder than anyone on promoting and honoring Women of Internet Marketing. The entire interview series is now available in PDF format from Liana’s site.

When people notice us, we get excited. Cre8asiteforums was the subject of an interview by Chris Dohman that was well received by staff and membership alike.

The Andy plays head games with The Aaron. Just helping out my buddies…

Speaking of links.

Not long ago I used the words “sexy women” in a blog post title. It is now the number one keyword phrase to this blog. It’s followed closely behind other top long running keywords that contain “Rachael Ray”, “orange pots”, “Daryn Kagan”, “Geico Cavemen” and “MsDewey”.

Nobody comes here because I write about anything important.

Comments

Bailey touched on several different aspects of social media, from blogs to forums to Wikipedia itself, and guided listeners through the highs – and lows – of each of them.  The main thing, Bailey said, is to check out the reviews so that you know what consumers (read: potential customers) want and like.

There’s also the matter of accepting what comes your way.  After the EepyBird video hit YouTube, for example, Coke huffed, “We would hope people want to drink [Diet Coke] more than try to experiment with it. . . .  The craziness with Mentos . . . doesn’t fit with the Coke brand personality.”

Mentos was a little friendlier about the free publicity.  “We are tickled by it,” said Pete Healy, Vice President of Marketing.  Mentos, according to Bailey, spent less than $20 million per year in the U.S. on advertising, but received a buzz worth over $10 million due to EepyBird.

Still, there’s no point in trying to be something you’re not.  Bailey took issue with AT&T, which had a billboard that proclaimed “Blogging Delivered,” and yet does not have a blog.  The SiteLogic founder doesn’t even have a problem with fake blogs (or "flogs,” as they’ve been called), so long as businesses clearly mark them as such.

But even when successful social media brings in lots of traffic, Bailey warns businesses to remain aware of sales.  Sales, not rankings, are the end goal, after all.  The bridge between traffic and sales can include key performance indicators such as “time on site,” “pages viewed,” and conversion statistics.

Bailey has found that blogs are often a business’s best source of customers – there’s simply less competition for attention among blogs and articles than on a social news site.  To be effective, though, businesses must remain focused on who their customer is.  And if your customers aren’t exactly tech-savvy, always remember to apply the “mom test.”

This class is part of the ClickTracks Virtual Classroom Series: Online Marketing & Web Analytics. In today’s one hour offering, hosted by the charming John Marshall, (love his British accent) with Search Engine Guide’s Editor-in-chief, Jennifer Laycock and SiteLogic’s, Matt Bailey as presenters, social media marketing is discussed.

Because there is another day to sit in on the class, I won’t cover all the juicy stuff. Suffice it to say the information is not skewed as a social media love-fest. Jennifer delivers a highly detailed overview of what social media is, how it works and provides some demographic information on the types of audiences each social media website caters to. Matt invests his time into analyzing traffic data. He wants to know if the bombardment of traffic is worthwhile or provides any residual benefits.

His conclusions are interesting and may surprise you.

Do you know what types of sites bring you the most valuable traffic? Do you know why? Should you market to social media sites and if so, how? What works? What won’t work? Why?

Interestingly, while one social media bookmarking site, Digg, shuns search engine marketers by banning anything submitted by many in the SEO industry, it is this industry that is teaching people about social media by helping them understand its users, what they want and what they do. It’s not with the expectation that now that you know, you can go out and manipulate social media for your own marketing purposes. This presentation shows how doing that, on purpose, can bring wrath and also bad publicity or a negative impact on sales.

Matt and Jen approach social media with curiosity, research, evaluation and a willingness to understand interactive websites. When does it work for you? When does it not?

The presentation runs again tomorrow. It is free. Be sure to read the directions and give yourself about 10 minutes lead-time for installation and make sure you have MSIE. It doesn’t work with Firefox. They’ll email a transcript too.

Virtual classroom: Social Media: Should You Digg It? – March 27, :00 am PT / 10:00 am ET / 3:00 pm UK.

Comments

Matt tells me he’s going to be focusing on site stucture, usability and what he calls WebSite Persuasion.

Matt was arguably the SEO brains at KG, so expect lots of good things from him. He’s also launched a new blog, which we’ll link to, once he adds Marketing Pilgrim to a blogroll. (just kidding, here’s the link).

Best of luck Matt!

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Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant and considered one of the world’s most respected and interactive search engine marketing experts. Andy has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies such as Motorola, CitiFinancial, Lowes, Alaska Air, DeWALT, NBC and Experian.

You can read his internet marketing blog at Marketing Pilgrim and reach him at andy.beal@gmail.com.