Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a term that more and more businesses are familiarizing themselves with, and if your business hasn't yet, it's about time! SEO has been a real hot topic for marketers, web designers, and web writers who are working to help their clients (or their own companies) climb the ranks of the search engines.

Beyond optimizing page content with relevant keywords and long-tail focused subject matter, there's been quite a bit of debate over the effectiveness of metatags.

Hi everyone. My name is Don Reed and I've been a web producer at Radar Media since the company was formed in 2001. Needless to say, there have been a lot of changes in web design capabilities and standards since then! I want to talk about a major milestone in web development here, and how it's influenced the path for the future on the Web--the Content Management System (CMS).

Most search engine mavens like to point that pay per click (PPC) advertising does nothing in and of itself to increase the organic search engine results on your site. True enough. You could easily blow through $500 in pay per click advertising over the course of a month by creating all kinds of simple keyword combinations to drive boatloads your way. If you do nothing else but sit back and watch the traffic -- and then shut down the PPC ads in month two -- you'll no doubt watch traffic levels return to their previous sub-optimal levels.

By the way, unless you get lucky, all those new visitors that you paid Google for  probably won't result in much new busines.

So is PPC advertising a waste of time? Not at all. Here are three reasons why your company should be running a PPC campaign no matter what your budget.

Reason #1 -- It forces you to enhance your content. While Google will not elevate your organic search standings as a result of visitor traffic generated by PPC, you now have a strong financial motive to enhance the quality and relevancy of your content. And that certainly will increase your organic search engine results.  If you take the time to improve your content for whatever reason, readers and Google will both be sure to notice. Site pages that serve double duty as landing pages from your PPC campaigns are a natural first place to start. Focus your energies here and you'll be rewarded with better business results on both the organic and paid sides of the house.

Reason #2 -- Some visitors will bookmark and return. Remember that $500 you spent so ineffectively on PPC advertising? Maybe it wasn't a complete waste of money after all. It's likely that at least a few people found your site through PPC, liked what they saw, and bookmarked you for later return. Those visitors may someday convert into buyers, and they might not have ever found you without PPC.

Reason #3 -- You learned your $500 lesson well, young Padawan. Those new to PPC often use simple and obvious word combinations to attract large numbers of visitors. Trouble is, PPC ads cost money, and large numbers of visitors (as you found out) don't always translate into large numbers of buyers. Too many business folks get discouraged at this point, never to return to PPC again.

Don't let that happen to you. SEO experts like to talk about the valuable "long tail" of search engine marketing. Basically what they're saying is this: The most obvious keyword combinations using the search terms most likely already sprinkled on your site rarely make the most effective PPC ads. While they may serve to increase traffic, sometimes in great numbers, they rarely convert tire kickers into real buyers.

Rather, rely on good old-fashioned organic search for the easy and obvious stuff. Take the time to craft keyword ads that are less obvious and more "out there" but still highly relevant to your business. Fewer people will find those ads. But those that do will be more likely stay longer, come back later, and eventually buy. What's more, your monthly payments to Google will be a whole lot less.

'Til next time. . .

When do you go to the doctor? Aside from your normal checkup, are you the type of person that will call the doctor at the slightest sniffle, or are you quick to jump online and self-diagnose? The Internet has made it so easy to find information, more and more people are turning to the Web to figure out what's wrong instead of making an important trip to the doctor's office, and the same is happening with marketing.

Having a website is like putting on a coat when you go outside. If it's warm and rainy, you aren't going to want to put on a ski jacket. And if it's a blizzard, a windbreaker probably won't do. The same can be said for your website.

At Radar Media, we wouldn’t be who we are today if it weren’t for some very important people – our customers. This post is the first of several ‘Customer Spotlights’ that you’ll get to see as we continue blogging at Radar. We want to feature the people that have helped us grow as a company, and to shed a little light on their branding and marketing programs and how they’ve evolved through Internet and traditional marketing.

Our first Customer Spotlight is a company called SevOne. They provide network performance management solutions to IT managers, architects and engineers. I had the pleasure of talking with CEO Michael Phelan and Director of Operations Tanya Shea to find out a bit more about what makes SevOne tick and how Radar Media has impacted their success.
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Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a bit partial to...okay, exclusively loyal to the Mac.

It's easy to find reasons not to set up a blog on your business website. After all, blogs are boring. Nobody reads them. Blogs are just a fad. I really don't have time to write. Or I don't have much new to say.

If this sounds like you, here's a New Year's tip. Please reconsider. Here are four reasons we've found  why adding a business blog to your site makes good business sense indeed.

The New Year gives opportunity for a fresh start or a burst of motivation to change something for the better in the coming year. One resolution that you might not think of is the aspect of  "going virtual" in your workplace. We all want to make resolutions that will bring a positive change in our lives -- saving more money, being healthier, helping the environment, being happier, etc. and believe it or not, incorporating a virtual element to your workplace can help accomplish all of those things.

So what exactly does going virtual mean? It's different for different companies. Some companies are run solely in a virtual environment, with every employee telecommuting at his or her remote location. Other companies have a main "headquarters" location with satellite offices peppered throughout an area, even the world. Other companies utilize a combination of in-house and virtual employees, or have a flexible environment where employees are in the office some of the time and at home at others.
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1. Allow executives and management to focus their attention on the areas for which they are most qualified. It can be tempting to want to do everything yourself, but if you are a CEO or other high level executive, you need to be able to dedicate your attention to what you do best – strategic planning, management, and keeping the company running smoothly. Entrusting the responsibility of conveying your company vision through writing to a trained professional gives you that much less to think about and that much more room to dedicate yourself to what’s most important in your position.
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Blogging has truly come a long way since its earliest roots with IT gurus. Thankfully, geekery is no longer a prerequisite to learning how to set up and keep a blog, though it can certainly help. I, like many of you, used to think that blogging was nothing more than an ‘online journal’ of sorts, filled to the brim with the dynamic tales of what people eat for lunch, how cute their cat is, or brooding high school poetry about that ever-elusive crush ::sigh::.

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I don't necessarily buy that Google can do no evil, but they've sure done something good in launching Google Webmaster Tools. Webmaster Tools is a great way to get lots of information about the traffic on your site. And like a lot of what Google provides, Webmaster Tools is free.

To get started, all you need to do is insert a single file in your root directory. Afterwards, you can check back at any time to get an instant read on what the Google crawler thinks about your site--and, by assocation, your readers in general.

It was a long time coming. I hate to think about the last time we redesigned the Radar Media site. It was in the distant past, and oh so many clients and web projects ago. That's what happens when you get busy for long stretches of time. Customers demand a piece of every waking moment. Actually, come to think of it, we are very glad they do.

It was a team effort, and everything we've learned about designing, writing for, and producing websites was poured into this piece of work. We hope it shows. The new site went live this Saturday morning (there we go, working weekends again) and finally we have our own site that is every bit as good as what we produce for our clients.

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