SEM: Is It Worth Your Time?

With the Internet firmly established as the global marketplace, it's important that your business have a wise plan of action to get yourself high rankings on the big three search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Bing). To do so, you need to have a search engine marketing strategy (SEM) in place. If you're unsure of what SEM is and how to go about getting a plan into place, there are plenty of NYC search engine marketing companies out there to help you.

We wrote an article a while back about the importance of search engine marketing, and noted:

With the proliferation of internet capable phones and virtually every person having available access to the internet, it only makes sense to focus a company's advertising dollars on website marketing. It is important for the business manager or owner to note the key difference between website marketing and website search engine optimization.

Yes, some people still get the daily newspaper and others still use a telephone book to find a company. However, the use of these traditional advertising tools is dropping sharply with each passing year, while more and more people every day are using the Internet. And don't you want to be where most people are?

Read the entire article: "A Website with the Proper Marketing and Search Engine Optimization Can Greatly Increase Revenue."

New Search Engine Market Share Data for May 2012

Brand new comScore data has been released for May, and in the world of search engines, Google still reigns supreme. The search giant saw its market share increase by two tenths of a percent, from 66.5 percent to 66.7 percent. Trailing Google is Bing, which held firm at 15.4 percent, and Yahoo, coming in at 13.4 percent -- a one-tenth-of-a-percent loss. Ask and AOL remain at the bottom of the barrel, pulling in 3 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.

When compared to May of 2011, Google, Bing and Ask have increased market share, while Yahoo has slid and AOL has remained still.

It's important to note that these current numbers don't incorporate mobile search. Google leads in that arena quite handily, controlling approximately 95 percent of the market.

If you're a fan of charts, you can check out the comparison between May 2011 and May 2012 below.



What does this say for SEO? Google is still very much the engine to place the most focus on, but both Bing and Yahoo have slices of market share that can't simply be brushed aside. As far as optimizing for Ask or AOL, it's probably not a worthwhile endeavor in terms of getting a return on the time you invest.

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Stay tuned to this blog for regular updates on the Web industry from 21thirteen, a NYC Web Design company.

Social Media Marketing: How to Properly Utilize an SMM Campaign

A lot of businesses use their social media marketing (SMM) initiatives to submit links to products and solutions and go over new projects. Businesses new to the social media dominion lack the understanding to recognise that social media is actually built on connections. You want to have your Twitter followers and Facebook fans to communicate with you. To return the favor, they really want you to have interaction with them.

You need people to discuss you and your products. But, if you're about to just observe instead of participate in the discourse, then your social media marketing efforts aren't being properly conducted. It's a lot like being at a celebration and everyone is discussing you, and you choose to stay away and check out your surroundings.

What kind of things can you do to properly use SMM? Here are a few hints:

1. Follow your followers. They followed you because they are interested in what you have to say. Make sure you follow them because you want to be interested in what they have to say.

2. Retweet. If a person you're following tweets something exciting, retweet that to your followers. Retweets typically provide some of the greatest online discourse, enabling other folks to chime in on the matter.

3. Acknowledge a post or tweet aimed at you. If an individual posts on your Facebook fan page wall with a problem, you must do everything it is possible to to answer it. This will help to make the asker feel comfortable enough with your business to pass the word along to their family.

4. Interact, interact, interact. This cannot be stressed enough. Social media marketing is dependant on interaction. For your endeavours to be worthy of the time, you should communicate with fans and followers.

5. Be consistent. There are various software programs and web applications (TweetDeck, FutureTweets and Twuffer, to name a few) which you can use to schedule Tweets and Facebook posts. Write your messages beforehand and then set them up to go live on a consistent routine.

6. Post high quality, not high quantity. If you are reliable, then it shouldn't make a difference how much you post. Transmitting out high quality subject matter is what individuals will keep in mind. Don't drench your network in marketing pieces. Sending stellar content will help engage your visitors and far better represent your company.

It takes a lot of time and hard work to carry out an incredible SMM plan. It involves strategic business consultation, preparing, marketing and brand approaches, and editing text. This time and effort is ultimately of great benefit in the end, as SMM offers an improved foothold for researching the market, word-of-mouth marketing and client development.

21thirteen design is an NYC web design company that offers SEO, SEM and SMM services. Online at http://www.2113Web.com.

SEO Facts

You finally got a great website design and you want to showcase it. Well, you’ll need to do a bit of search engine optimization. But, before you decide you can tackle this on your own, there are a few facts you should remember:

• SEO takes time. Don’t expect your efforts to translate into overnight wealth.
• SEO is a full-time job. It takes a lot of effort in order to properly optimize a website, not to mention further search engine marketing efforts.
• SEO is constant. A few hours of work one month and neglect after that isn’t the way it’s done.

21 thirteen design knows SEO. We are a New York City SEO firm that can be found at www.21thirteen.com. 

More SEO Mistakes to Avoid

Don’t hide all content in images

This practice has gone largely by the wayside, but it’s still performed by some. You should never make your copy and navigation images, as search engines won’t be able to read it, thereby hindering your SEO efforts.

Don’t automate

There are many software programs out there that will automate directory submissions, forum posts, blog posts, etc. to generate backlinks. You should never use these as you’ll end up with the same titles and descriptions posted everywhere, and this will make the search engines frown on your sites.

Don’t focus on the wrong keywords

You’re a baker in Upper Darby, Pa., but business has been a little slow. So, you decide to invest in a quality website and SEO services. You might be asked what keywords you want to rank high on. You say, “Baker.”

If only it worked like that. It takes good search engine marketing to rank high on any keyword, let alone high-competition ones. Maybe you’ll want to focus on long-tail keywords, like “baker upper darby.” This will generate traffic, while setting you up to compete in time with the big boys.

Is your SEO not getting you traffic? It might need reworked. 21 thirteen design is a Philadelphia SEO and web design firm. Visit us today at www.21thirteen.com.  

What Is SEO and Why Does It Matter?

In today's world of running a business, there is much to be considered. There are not only the considerations like, "What type(s) of product or services is the public looking for?" but "What is the best way to market the product?" Then, once the product is determined, one must ask, "How can one have a successful online business?" and "How can our business-either the brick and mortar location or the website be found?"

Ironically, these latter questions have the same answer-the use of SEO. SEO or search engine optimization is best defined as, "The process of making one's website more accessible and visible to search engines via natural or unpaid (aka- organic or algorithmic) search results rather than through SEM (search engine marketing) which is paid inclusion". Or, simply put, designing your website to be search engine friendly so that your site will be at the top of the list when someone does a web search for your particular service, product or company. This is done by employing methods such as:

1. Deciding on a list of keywords that represent your site or product. Consider synonyms, phrases, and even mis-spellings that apply to your product or service.
2. Use the Google Adwords Tool to help you determine what words rank the highest.
3. Create the content for your site using the word list you have developed. However, be sure that while you include the words as part of the text that they don't overshadow your content. A good ratio is that keywords should make up no more than 5-8% of the overall content.
4. Once you have developed your site's content, take some time to test the effectiveness of your SEO work by checking with tools such as Google Website Optimizer.

When SEO is done properly, the number of visitors to your website will grow and your sales will increase exponentially. The use of SEO is not something to be afraid of, and with a bit of practice nearly anyone can do it, although to have an effective search engine optimized website it is best to read a few books on the topic, talk to someone with a lot of experience or contact a business that specializes in designing SEO friendly websites.

Despite the fact that SEO is one of the most vital aspects of having an effective business website, there are still people who insist on creating websites that have no value to an online search. However, this mindset is much like deciding to bake a cake but refusing to turn on the oven. If you want to have an effective online business then making use of the tools proven to work is a must! Do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. Either way, taking the time to grow your business through the use of search engine optimization is one the best things you can do if you want to see your customer base increase and your sales reach new heights.

21thirteen Design offers website design and SEO and SEM services. Contact us today at www.21Thirteen.com. 

Article independently authored by Janet M. Slagell. The content herein may or may not reflect the views and opinions of 21thirteen Design. Click for search engine optimization and search engine marketing or visit WebDrafter.com's Blog.

21thirteen design Portfolio Spotlight: Bentzen Financial

21thirteen design is proud to spotlight the following website design:

Left: Bentzen Financial's old website. Right: Bentzen Financial's new website designed by 21thirteen design.

www.BentzenFinancial.com

Bentzen Financial wanted a website design that accurately reflected the business’ motto of “Fair Pricing, Honest Answers, No Pressure.”

With a complete overhaul, including a total layout and color scheme redesign, we think we met the challenge and gave this Tennessee-based business the look it deserves.  

21thirteen design has offices in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia and Northern NJ. Contact us at 646.808.0391 or visit www.21thirteen.com for a FREE QUOTE!

21thirteen design Portfolio Spotlight: The Closet Builder

21thirteen design is proud to spotlight the following website design:

Left: The Closet Builder's old website. Right: The Closet Builder's redesigned website by 21thirteen design.

www.TheClosetBuilder.com

The Closet Builder designs sleek closets, sliding doors and room dividers for clients in NJ and NYC, so it needed a website design just as sleek as its products.

With a stylish navigation panel and color scheme, we made The Closet Builder’s Web presence as stylish as any of the Manhattan or North Jersey customers it serves.

21thirteen design has offices in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia and Northern NJ. Contact us at 646.808.0391 or visit www.21thirteen.com for a FREE QUOTE!

Successful Websites - SEO and SEM Can Propel Your Website and Profit Margin With Superior Results

Financing and maintaining a sufficient revenue stream to ensure success and attain desired goals is in the forefront of every business owner's mind, especially in these uncertain economic times. From small lawyer firms competing with the "giants" in the middle of New York City or Boston to flower shops strewn throughout New Jersey, nothing is more important than projecting the right image and providing the necessary products and services that customers demand. The major obstacle and expense is marketing and effective advertising.

The household items consumers purchase have not really changed for the past 30 years. Every individual will purchase flowers, real estate, automobiles and even have the need for an attorney at some point in their lifetime. Shopping methods, however, have changed. No longer do the majority of people turn to the phone book when searching for businesses or services. The shift has been to searching online. What has accelerated this situation further is the explosive proliferation of web enabled phones.

Now individuals can find any business providing a needed product and service and have it mapped out with turn by turn directions for the ultimate convenience. The internet and all the millions and millions of websites are available to look at on a moments notice via smart phones. Which sites will be displayed in the first few search result pages will be determined by a number of factors. How many working quality hyperlinks does a website have and does the site have the most relevant text to the search being done? Does the website rely strictly on flash or is there the correct balance of static images with a well laid out and user friendly form? Does the website get updated with relevant content regularly or has a "set it and forget it" type of approach been used?

These are just a few of what may seem to be an endless amount of questions and quantifiers which search engines and directories will examine. While a poor quality effort in one area will not necessarily prevent the chance of a customer finding a business' website, it does provide an increased opportunity for the competition to be discovered first. Unfortunately there is not any definite guarantee that a particular website will always be listed in the number one top search result, but there are ways to improve one's standing in relation to other businesses competing for the same clientele.

Relying on pre-fab software packages to create a workable website is not the right solution for any business. Simply throwing up a website will not yield very positive results. Effective search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) need to be utilized, whether it is a business targeting a local audience or a worldwide audience. In essence SEO and SEM are "playing to" or "selling" the website and contents to the search engines and directories with the intent of getting listed and noticed more prominently in the search results.

How to achieve this goal is where experience and knowledge of the specific target clientele comes into play. Website specialists - like 21thirteen design, serving NYC, Boston, Philadelphia and New Jersey - experienced in SEO and SEM can lead to improved income revenue while requiring very little expense compared with traditional print ads and commercials. As with any type of advertising it is always a work in progress as the optimizing and marketing will require ongoing fine tuning to stay competitive with other rival businesses. SEO and SEM are not an exact science, but more of a fluid canvas which can be worked to create a thriving business.

Article independently authored by Dan Elliott. The content herein may or may not reflect the views and opinions of 21 Thirteen Design. Click for search engine optimization and search engine marketing or visit WebDrafter.com's Blog.

Free Quotes from 21thirteen design

Before signing a contract or agreeing to have a website design or website development solutions company perform work, you should shop around. That’s one of the huge benefits of the Internet marketplace; you have thousands of options available to you thanks to search engine results.

At 21thirteen design, we encourage you to shop around. That’s why we offer potential clients the option to obtain a Free Quote for our services. Plus, we’re not interested in wasting anybody’s time, especially yours.

21thirteen design has offices in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia and Northern NJ. Contact us at 646.808.0391 or visit www.21thirteen.com for a FREE QUOTE!

How to Select a Web Design Company

Today's businesses have come a long way form the mom and pop stores of a few decades ago. In fact, in today's society, many of the stores that were once able to only reach the people who lived within a reasonable driving distance are now selling their products to consumers world-wide and don't even have a physical store set up in the local business district.

Of course, most savvy business owners know this is possible, thanks to the beauty of the Web. However, while there are many successful web businesses out there, it is not a skill that one just picks up and implements into their New Jersey business plan without a bit of work. Fortunately, there are an abundance of companies in Boston, New York City and all across America who excel at designing web pages and have teams of people who work with the business owner's website to see the site gets plenty of guests-- often far beyond the clients expectations! So if you are considering having a web page built to promote your business, then you will want to choose a web design company that you can count on. In fact, you want them to build a site for you that will keep your site guest's attention. This is because studies show that when it comes to retaining a potential customer's attention and interest in your website, you only have 8 to 10 seconds to make your web pitch.

As you begin looking for a company, keep these factors in mind:

• In talking to a web design company, be sure you ask to see their portfolio. Not only will this let you know more about their work, but you want to use a company that has plenty of experience.
• As you look through their portfolio, note what types of businesses they have created websites for. Also do all the sites look the same? Remember, you are paying them to design a custom page, not just a cookie cutter template.
• When you contact the company, pay attention to how long it takes them to respond and by what method-phone, e-mail, fax, chat, etc. If you prefer to do business in person and the design company does not, you would probably do best to find another provider.
• Be sure to ask about the prices-even if the first interview is free- and to understand what the cost includes. Also, if you can't afford everything you want your website to include at the beginning, consider having the site built in stages so it can be updated over time. Do not, opt for a cheaper designer, like anything else, you get what you pay for.
• When talking to a website development company, be sure to find out if they will help you market your company. This can be done in a variety of ways, but the two most important is the use of Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.

To learn more about web design, seo and sem, visit 21 Thirteen Design. Article independently authored by Janet Slagell. The content herein may or may not reflect the views and opinions of 21 Thirteen Design. Click for search engine optimization and search engine marketing or visit WebDrafter.com's Blog.

How to Have a Website You Can Be Proud Of

For many years the public has been inundated with advertising in a wide variety of forms. From radio ads to television commercials, placards and billboards, and poster boards to newspaper spots, we are all familiar with advertising. And no matter what type of advertising is used, each method shares some common goals:

• To let others know where a business is
• To let people know what the business offers or can do
• To increase sales

Today's technology has added a new level of advertising potential. Now businesses, whether from New York City's Wall Street, Boston's downtown business district or start up businesses in New Jersey, can choose to have their presence known on the Web. After all, this is the age of technology. Where business owners where once limited to reaching customers via print or the airwaves, today you can utilize tools like social media and a website to increase your customer base exponentially. So, if you are considering a website for your business, or perhaps want the upgrade your existing one, here are 6 things you want your website to have:

1. Ease of use. Don't be so caught up in having a flashy design that you make purchasing your product difficult. Be sure to include features like and "About us" page, a "search" bar, and a simple to use "check out" or "contact us" page.
2. Don't blind your site guest. Having a webpage that uses every color in the spectrum is not only too busy, but it can also send the signal that you don't really know who or what your business is about. Keep the color scheme to 2-4 colors or consider a monochromatic theme. Along with this, be sure to pick a font and font size that is easy to read-"Curlz" or "French Script" might be great for party invitations but can be difficult to read for a website. A few basic font choices are Calibri, Ariel, Helvetica, New Times Roman and Georgia.
3. Don't use the phrase "click here" without giving an explanation of where the link will take them. With all of the Internet viruses people have become very wary of just clicking random links.
4. Don't have so many extra features that your site is slow to load up. Keep programming styles simple by using basic XHTML code, CSS style sheets, server side caching or external javascripts. Remember, the longer it takes for your site to load up, the more likely it is that potential customers will go somewhere else.
5. Have something unique to your website. Whether it is a special tool, an informative post page, contest, etc...having something unlike everyone else is a great way to keep others coming back.
6. Be sure that your site is rich in SEO and SEM writing and features. After all, without the effective use of key words, it is virtually impossible to get ranked in the top spots of a search engine pages.

For website design and development solutions visit 21 Thirteen Design. Article independently authored by Janet Slagell. The content herein may or may not reflect the views and opinions of 21 Thirteen Design. Click for search engine optimization and search engine marketing or visit WebDrafter.com's Blog.

A Website With the Proper Marketing & Search Engine Optimization Can Greatly Increase Revenue

Business competition can be fierce with such congested areas as New York City and Boston. New York City is the largest city in the U.S. Much of this population spills over into New Jersey. The population of New York City alone greatly surpasses 7 million people. The state of New Jersey in its entirety comes close in populace to New York City. Surprisingly, it is estimated that Boston does not even break the one million mark.
Despite Boston being dwarfed in size by NYC, both cities are major commercial and retail business hubs. As every business' financial situation has been constricted in the rent years, it is now more important than ever to maximize the effectiveness of the advertising and marketing dollars. Relying on the phonebook and news print advertising has become exceptionally expensive with the financial returns dwindling.
Websites, website marketing and website search engine optimization (SEO) is now the wisest advertising method in the present and will continue into the future. As of 2004 approximately 75 percent of the U.S. population had internet access according to Nielsen, which equates to at least 204 million people. Internet access and usage statistics have only increased since then. The rate of internet access jumps up when one examines urban centers.
With the proliferation of internet capable phones and virtually every person having available access to the internet, it only makes sense to focus a company's advertising dollars on website marketing. It is important for the business manager or owner to note the key difference between website marketing and website search engine optimization.
An analogy explaining marketing, although over simplified, is that marketing is essentially producing ads or information for the public to see. While this may seem effective the business manager needs to realize that while manufacturing advertisements, it does not serve any purpose if the ads are on billboards facing away from view. What this means is simply having a website does not mean that revenue will maintain its level or even increase.
A website properly developed and optimized for search engines means that search engines will be able to find a website more effectively and yield more pertinent results when words related to the business services or products are entered into an internet search field. Search engine optimization essentially steers the internet user to the business website.
Like all advertising, however, search engine optimization is not a one time deal. SEO is an ongoing process due to the rules, guidelines and restrictions which the search engine companies set forth. As a website developer regularly amends the website's behind-the-scenes information, traffic to the business website should increase as the target audience is more effectively reached. By reaching more and more people, assuming the website is a quality site, marketing should yield greater revenue.

For a free website marketing and search engine optimization quote visit 21 Thirteen Design. Article independently authored by Daniel Elliott. The content herein may or may not reflect the views and opinions of 21 Thirteen Design. Click for search engine optimization and search engine marketing or visit WebDrafter.com's Blog.