Along with other bloggers and copywriters, I love to write.  That’s what I do.  What do you do professionally?  Search engine optimization providers partner with businesspeople in a variety of industries: medical, industrial, automotive, legal, and so on.  Each client has their own respective areas of expertise, which may or may not overlap with my own.  For instance, while lawyers are likely good writers, they may not have the time to invest in online marketing pursuits throughout their day; rather than write a blog post for their site, they’ll approach SEO copywriting professionals, who can help with search engine optimization objectives.

I read a good post this morning by Rand Fishkin.  He frowns upon the ongoing initiative of link buying and prods readers to consider buying blogs instead.  I think the process could be highly successful if a brand can align itself with industry bloggers who would consider such a partnership.

It got me thinking of another SEOmoz post, written by Anthony Mangia, who suggests every in-house person write two blog posts per month.  I champion his emphasis on producing great copy, but I think most would agree – not every person likes to write or is good at it.   A more practical sentiment was relayed regarding at least having workers provide insight for blog posts; that might be more helpful, as I confessed as an SEO copywriter.

Another thing that struck me, reading the comments to Anthony’s post, was the omission of other-than-textual content mentions.  ‘Content’ takes the shape of a variety of online entities in modern times: blog posts, videos, infographs, podcasts, etc.  What methods are best to inform your target market?  A variety of online marketing methods exist, but are you listening to SEOs or your consumers?  What variety of ‘content’ makes the most sense for your brand?  For instance, a supplier of marble and granite tile may best inform its public through a library of videos; marble consumers make the purchase to aesthetically enhance their homes; it’s a benefit to ‘visualize’ performed work before it’s done in a consumer’s home.

While a variety of content is at a brand’s disposal, written content is still a necessity.  In many cases, a company’s written content is the main attraction of its site, informing the public about services, products, and the overall brand.  Who’s doing the writing on your site?  Are you engaging your target market with your brand’s copywriting?  While you’re hard at work, doing what you do, my team and I write each day, honing our own skills.  I don’t expect all brand execs to double as stellar writers; I expect brand execs to be good at what they do within their respective professions.

Would you like to communicate with your target audience through copywriting?  Is writing not your strong suit?  Does the thought of writing scare, intimidate, or bore you?  I understand; we all do different things, making us unique and individual professionals.  Don’t come to me for help with your taxes; but, if you need written content, this copywriter will write for your brand’s attention.

Microsoft Advertising adcenter is evolving, and the latest changes move the platform closer to Google Adwords in an effort to make terminology and functionality similar to what marketers are using with Google. Ultimately, this is a good move for Microsoft, paid search, and those marketers managing pay per click campaigns and it shows that Microsoft is realistic in their understanding of adcenter’s place in paid search. The reality is that Microsoft’s advertising platform is second to Google’s Adwords, and acknowledging this allows Microsoft to use this fact to their advantage.

Aligning their functionality to that of the industry standard (Google Adwords) allows marketers to utilize both platforms without the need to learn new methodologies and applications. However, once familiarity and a degree of comfort are achieved by its users, Microsoft, in time, can introduce new features that differentiate it from Adwords in an effort to widen their offerings and slowly gain market share.  Microsoft has nothing to lose aligning their methods to Adwords at the moment as differentiation can happen in time.

What Exactly Has Changed?
We’ve discussed the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance and the adcenter before as Todd Bailey touched on its formation and the rolling out of the platform in the UK, France, and Ireland in an SEOServices.com piece from mid-January. Now, individual targeting options take the form of “language” and “target location” and the distribution channel “market” is being removed. Tina Kelleher in her adcenter blog post outlining the changes (complete with screenshots of the new features), details that marketers can receive a greater amount of relevant volume from the target location option that is now standard.

Marketers will be able to target users in a physical location as well as those that have intent to “do business in your target location areas.” This intent element widens the advertising opportunities but also allows for more focused pairings of pay per click with SEO campaigns that optimize on and off-site content to drive targeted traffic.

Those that have intent to do business in your target location area show it by the location detail they enter into their queries. Optimized content utilizing international SEO practices then become a central issue here. Further, marketers can choose all the countries where the selected language is spoken, “bundles” of countries, one specific country, and a certain state, territory, or city. Partnering with an SEO company to design a coordinated marketing effort that capitalizes on organic search of these queries as well presents additional opportunities. Doing so enables advertising companies to maximize their targeting goals.

What new, online marketing tactic did you learn today?  It’s likely to be useful (generally speaking) but is it so for your brand right now or at all?  More importantly, are incipient SEO implementations fueled by interests in rankings or conversions?  In many cases, you need increased exposure to secure better conversions; but, are roads to better conversions paved by insights from SEOs or consumers (or is it both)?

I read a good post this morning by Michael King; Michael prompts online marketing practitioners to tweak initiatives, allowing for better consumer-to-brand engagement.  After all, SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization and not consumer-brand optimization, meaning technical aspects place a brand in a good position; but, when it comes to ‘ranking well’ with consumers, brands should defer to those with experience in that department, the consumers.

While SEO helps tremendously, it’s a good idea to know when to listen to search engine optimization sentiments and when to get information from consumers.  Mike’s post confronts readers with three questions each brand should ask itself before approaching SEO services:

What is the purpose of your site?
I think this is a great (and obvious) question.  A snarky exec may respond with, “To make money, Anthony.”  I understand; but really, what is the purpose?  Is the site the ‘business’ itself (ecomm)?  Is the site’s purpose to educate (a business consultant’s way to give consumers a ‘sample’)?  To lead more people to a brick-and-mortar store (think lawyers, dentists, doctors)?  To get people to buy an ebook?

An SEO can’t answer that question for you; it’s an in-house question.  However, depending on user engagement, consumers can answer such a question.  What is your brand’s current state?  What are the brand’s long and short-term goals?  An initial purpose may change but ensure it is identified before doing any implementation and marketing.

What are you trying to get users to do after they arrive?
Online marketing suggestions and tactics are often delivered in ‘catchall’ fashions but the reality of business is that each one is incredibly unique.  Depending on a brand’s business model and present goals, there are a number of ways to answer the question.  Are your consumers engaging in brand-desired behavior? While search engine specialists (due to the amount of experience and ability) may ‘see’ patterns in marketing and provide suggestions, they may not offer the best solutions regarding how to modify customer behavior.  A good population to question, however, is your consumer population.  Consider ‘inquiring’ about behavior related to bounce rates, low conversions, how they engage the site, etc.  Your website is a means to an end.  Improve the means by asking customers through a survey.

Who is Your Target Audience?
Do you have a well-defined target market?  The snarky exec from the first question may quip, “Those holding green dollars, Anthony.”  Again, I understand; but, defining and targeting a market would seem to presage marketing.  For instance, an online marketer may sing the praises of Facebook, yet after doing some research, you may find high percentages of your consumers are not using the platform.  The DoubleClick Ad Planner by Google is a useful tool for scoping a site’s user demographics.  Leveraged tools of online marketing should be contingent on a brand’s target market.

Are search engine optimization specialists obsolete?  No, but SEOs and good rankings are just one piece of the puzzle; ensure your brand is also listening to its consumers, allowing good rankings to materialize into good conversions.

Are you Pinterest(ed) yet? The biggest news from the past few weeks has centered on the social media site Pinterest, and its huge potential value to SEO marketing for companies. Are you a business owner who is just starting to get familiar with this newly popular technology? Feeling stumped as to how you can best apply this new social media tool to your company’s SEO campaign? Take a look below at other businesses that are effectively utilizing Pinterest to market their businesses online.

Sweet Pickins
Formerly known as Show and Tell, Sweet Pickins is a one-woman company whose founder beautifully refinishes furniture and then sells it. Their Pinterest board is filled with images of the company’s many pieces of beautifully re-worked furniture, ideal for an audience of people looking to re-decorate their homes, or who are simply on the hunt for lovely furniture for their houses. Take a look at the Sweetpickinsfurniture Pinterest board here.

Gemvara
This company’s specialty is in creating fully customized and unique rings for its clients, who choose the designs, specific gems, and metals that they want for their pieces. Gemvara has 38 boards on Pinterest, all categorized by different themes. Most feature images of the company’s creations, while a few offer pictures of new fashion, makeup, and jewelry trends. In any case, Gemvara has truly established an excellent platform for attracting new business with its Pinterest boards. Click here to check out the company’s account.

Julep
This Seattle-based company led by two extraordinary women is not only a boutique nail salon but a producer and distributer of gorgeous nail polishes that are completely free of harmful chemicals and toxins. This beauty-with-a-mission brand has 21 boards on Pinterest categorized by various themes. Some of Julep’s boards correspond to its product subscription service, providing an excellent avenue for both customer engagement and retention efforts. Check out Julep’s Pinterest account here.

GE
Don’t be misled into thinking that Pinterest boards are restricted solely to marketing businesses offering interior decoration services, jewelry, fashion and beauty products. The company GE proves that there is plenty of space on the social media site for companies in technology, energy, and other industries to expand their SEO online marketing campaigns into. GE (General Electric) maintains six boards on Pinterest, ranging from its best kitchen appliances (and resulting treats) to important machines in history. Click here to take a look at the company’s account.

So there you have it – just a few excellent examples of how businesses have started leveraging Pinterest to meet their online marketing needs. Head on over to the growing site today, for more examples on how Pinterest can benefit businesses.

We touch on the mobile market from time to time, largely because of the overt SEO and paid search potential that exists with the mobile internet and search. Mobile computing, encompassing that which is done on both smartphones and tablets is growing at a high rate across the world. In markets from the UK and Europe to Asia and the Middle East, smartphone adoption is high. Penetration of the devices is 33% in both the Netherlands and Spain, 30% for the UK, 31% for the US and Israel, 37% in Australia, and 35% for both Hong Kong. These figures on a whole represent the positive trend in the amount of people switching to smartphones opening up their mobile internet use and search for growth, thus making SEO and paid search that much more important.

Now, with new figures put out by Cisco, we may have our first look at the future landscape of mobile around the world. Cisco predicts 10 billion smartphones and tablets to be in use globally by 2016, which is 2.7 billion more than the earth’s United Nations projected population of 7.3 billion for that year – which equates to 1.4 mobile devices per person. This is a staggering thought and a real eye-opener about where how people will be using the internet and search in a few short years.

Thus, it is expected that the percentage of overall searches and hours spent on the mobile internet will increase, significantly changing the way companies are going to have to deliver SEO and pay per click management to target audiences and drive traffic. That is to say they will have to gear much of their SEO and paid search practices to the growing segment of mobile web-users. An additional element here is that the experience of mobile search is inherently different as many of the searches have a local focus, thus geo-targeting will be a large part of the optimization that companies will look for. Further, many companies do not fully take advantage of optimizing for local as I discuss in this IB Times article, and thus it would need to become a priority.

This impacts markets around the world and thus an SEO company that offers international SEO services will need to adapt and evolve their practices to allow for more optimization geared towards mobile. In the end, businesses and the SEO company they partner with may not have a choice, optimizing for mobile will be a necessity.