by Jennifer Laycock Viral marketing may be one of the most misunderstood forms of marketing. This gets proven to me over and over when some company calls )or emails( and tells me "we've just created X and we need you to make it go viral." While it's flattering to have people think I'm THAT good at what I do, each and every one of these companies tends to get the same response. "Thanks, but next time you need to call me before you create X." Not long after,

by Jennifer Laycock This past weekend marked the first Saturday in nearly three months I didn't have something scheduled. To celebrate, we decided to take the kids to meet their grandparents for lunch and then to spend an afternoon playing in the fountains at our local mall. The mall is set up almost entirely as an outdoor "strolling" retail center.

by Stoney deGeyter A little over a year ago I developed the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing as a way to transform traditional, rankings based search engine optimization into a service that seeks to fully meed a clients online marketing needs. While SEO itself is really not much more than the manipulation of a site to achieve better search engine exposure and rankings, SEO as a service should be much more.

by Jennifer Laycock If you're just getting started with search engine optimization, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the information and all the details getting thrown around on blogs and discussion forums around the web. While good optimization skills take time to build, it's quite simple to get started.

by Jackie Baker Before search engine optimization can be successful in driving conversions, not just rankings, you first need to ensure that your site is usable and compelling. Sure, a good optimization campaign may improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic. But those visitors are likely to leave as quickly as they came if the site is difficult to use. Dynamic-Living.com has done a great job of creating a clean, simple, well-organized website.

by Jennifer Laycock A round up of what Jennifer read and found interesting today on the web. From how questions about Yahoo and Google's algorithms to dropping Technorati rankings to an impressive roundup of thoughts on what makes a social media marketer, check out five posts Jen thought you need to read. It was only a few weeks ago I wrote an article called " Why LinkedIn is the One Social network I Couldn't Work Without ." Since then,

by Stoney deGeyter While back I wrote an article about how having a search engine friendly website does not make it search engine optimized . The article discussed how many web developers promise to "search engine optimize" the websites they develop. While I don't mean to discount the value of a good web developer )I rely on them heavily( many developers really know no more about SEO than than they do about plumbing. Sure, they can plunge a blocked toilet,

by Manoj Jasra In organizations where priorities are constantly changing and everyone has a very tight deadline, there are many issues surrounding web analytics that can arise. I will mention some of these issues in a moment but the key to web analytics in a corporate culture is evangelizing it.

by Sage Lewis As you think about your web marketing and what you want to accomplish, remember your American DNA. Your goals for the rest of the year can be achieved but you have to be tenacious and optimistic. Want more from your web site? Search Influence can help! Targeted Traffic. Increased Revenue. Results Guaranteed . Customized Internet Marketing you can afford.

by Jennifer Laycock A round up of what Jennifer read and found interesting today on the web. From how Google ranks sites to writing effective blog posts to Twitter Zombie attacks, check out half a dozen posts Jen thought you need to read. Looking to beef up the impact of your blog? Problogger shares " Nine Signs of an Effective Blog Post " today and at least six of them are worth reading. )I kid, I kid.

by Todd Mintz I met Adam at Pubcon 2007 when I randomly sat at the same lunch table as him. I had absolutely no idea who he was but his nametag said he was from Bend, Oregon )I'm from Beaverton( and he seemed like a nice guy, so we exchanged cards. I got to know him better as I attempted to get him involved in SEMpdx.

by Mike Moran I took my daughter and two of her friends to Dorney Park in Allentown PA on Sunday, about two hours from our house. It's an amusement park and a water park with roller coasters and lots of other exciting rides. But, you see, I have neck and back problems. So while the three girls rode everything in sight, I didn't get on a single ride all day, instead sitting and waiting for them each time.

by Stoney deGeyter I think I stress too much about our clients' performance of their optimization campaigns. Or perhaps I just create too much work for myself. See, all these years I've been working 10-12 hour days to help my clients increase their exposure in the search engines for some pretty important phrases. But just recently I found out that I've been targeting all the wrong keywords! You see,

by Karri Flatla Have you ever been walking down the street just sort of minding your own business, staring at the cracks in the sidewalk, when you suddenly spot a fiver just laying there on the pavement? You look around to see if anyone else is watching. If anyone else has noticed the unclaimed prize just for showing up? Then you say to heck with pride, smile gleefully to yourself, and OH YES you pick it up and put it in your pocket. Then you quickly go buy something with it.

by Jennifer Laycock As I find myself drifting further and further from my search engine optimization roots to focus more time and effort on exploring the worlds of social media, blogging and viral marketing, I'm sometimes astonished at the misunderstandings between these two worlds. Search engine marketers look to social media as a vast expanse of link opportunities, almost completely missing the true potential of social media. On the other hand,

by Stoney deGeyter When making changes to my website I always take the time to view them live on the web before closing up my editing software and patting myself on the back in self-satisfaction of a job well done. Even with minor changes, I like to view them one last time to make sure my changes didn't cause any shifts in on-page display, or I didn't inadvertently create an error somewhere that inadvertently jacked everything up )believe me,

by Stoney deGeyter Question: When I only have about 65 characters to work with in a title tag )that which is visible on the search engine results pages(, should I use any of that valuable real estate to display my company name? This is a question that I hear quite often, and it's a good one. I don't necessarily think there is a universal right or wrong answer to it. Many believe that the real estate in the title is just too valuable to waste on a company name.

by Stoney deGeyter When providing SEO advice on the topic of website design, we often warn against placing important content into images. This is because search engines can't read images like a person can. To them, an image with text is just an image. They really have no idea what the image is or if, in fact, it says anything at all. So when optimizing sites, anytime we are dealing with keyword optimized content, we want to make sure it's standard HTML text.

by Manoj Jasra There are often cases where a business will choose to develop a custom content management system )CMS( rather than buying something off the shelf. I have some first hand experience building my own content management system and can testify that if it's implemented corrrectly it will rank as well as any commercial CMS powered website.

by Debra Mastaler Online, reputation is everything. It drives you professionally, personally and algorithmically. Have a good one and you'll see positive returns. Develop a bad one and you'll have to work doubly hard to come back into your customers good graces. While it's impossible to monitor every venue showcasing public opinion and reviews, you can work to protect your reputation by registering your known brand/name with as many social media, forums,