Media news

Compared to traditional advertising, there can’t be anything much “greener” than web marketing — no printed collateral, no big billboards, no consumable media, and considerably less fuel burned than what it takes to coordinate a typical advertising gig.

BUT… if you were looking for more ways to feel good about the web, our web hosting partner Rackspace just made the list of green hosting companies, for their green energy credits, carbon neutral facility in London, and plans for building a green campus in San Antonio, Texas.

The less-green aspect of the web is that it takes a lot of electricity to power all of the computers required to keep things up and running, but web companies in general tend to be ahead of the curve at adopting renewable energy sources and we hope that Rackspace’s leadership gets more datacenters thinking about how to power their infrastructure using the sun.

Alright, so many many people are out their saying it. But we won’t. Nuh-uh. Not the “R” word.

But, say, hypothetically speaking of course, that such an unnameable thing WAS happening to the economy. How would this affect your web strategy?

If you’re smart, you’d say not at all. Even better, you’d say, I’d put more money towards my web campaigns.

Why’s that? Because dollar-for-dollar, web marketing is far more cost effective than traditional advertising. You can look at analytics, site data, SERPs and your bottom line and see tangible benefit for top organic search rankings, good social media exposure and effective paid search campaigns.

SEO is also a low cost-of-entry service. We’re just one of thousands of SEO and marketing blogs out there providing tips on how to make your site work for you. We certainly don’t advocate going at it alone (reading a book on mechanics doesn’t mean you’re ready to rebuild an engine) but your good understanding with our seasoned experience combines for brutally effective marketing strategies for your business, even during tough times.

It also provides the ability to adapt quickly, identify opportunity, and go with what works while shucking what doesn’t. A television or radio campaign may cost thousands to set up, and changing the message mid-stream is nearly impossible. Changing your Google AdWords keywords, ad, landing page, target market and spend takes seconds. Far-reaching sweeps in organic rankings take more time, but keeping any eye on Analytics allows for a hawk-eye view of the future.

Let’s face it. Even if spending money is short, the internet’s not going anywhere. Of all the places to invest in your business, making sure you’ve got a solid future on the internet — from its organic face to its reputation via links and social networks — is the most effective way to stay stable even if the ground should wash out.

Traditional advertising is dead. And if it’s not dead…it’s flopping around on the wooden deck of a much bigger ship, a vessel known as search & internet marketing. The inevitable shift to online advertising is forcing traditional print, radio and television media to scramble to find sponsors, sell ad space, and secure their future in the advertising market, unfortunately, it may be a futile fight.

Earlier this week, it was announced that 111 Newsweek Magazine staffers accepted an early buyout and are leaving the paper. This following the layoffs and buyouts of The New York Times and The Washington Post earlier this year. These layoffs and buyouts are just proof that the internet is taking over the advertising market. Craigslist has replaced newspaper classifieds, YouTube has replaced television commercials and banner ads on popular blogs are replacing Magazine ads. Why the shift? It’s cheaper and more effective.

I was talking to a colleague of mine recently who detailed one of her client’s attempts to stick with the ‘old school’ method of marketing his business. He signed a 6 month advertising contract for $20,000 with a well-distributed niche magazine. To track his efforts, the client had his developer set up a landing page specifically for the web address which was printed on the magazine ad. In the first 3 months, that landing page received a total of 5 hits. 5 HITS! If you do the math…you would figure out that those 5 hits cost the client 2,000 each! And the kicker…none of those 5 hits converted into a qualified sale!

On the flip side, internet marketing is cheap! For less than a 6 month magazine ad contract, you could have a seo-friendly website developed, implement organic and internet marketing, effective user conversion strategies and begin to reap benefits indefinitely!

As marketing becomes more internet focused, it is important to find a reputable web development and SEO firm to help you outline an online marketing strategy that fits your budget and fulfills your goals.

photo credit: cursedthing

One nice thing that always follows major conferences is the AV brought home by the different companies in attendance. While you can never recreate the exact feel of being somewhere, often it’s the conversations that are the most valuable and exclusive, hands-on interaction with some of the biggest people involved with the search world. Matt Cutts, as the champion of open-Googleness, posted a bunch of audio-video featuring him throughout the conference. While I can appreciate him clearing up issues about sub-directories and subdomains (also talked about today in the Natural Search Blog), one thing I think is a great primer on this whole search marketing thing is his SEO tips for small business owners recorded by Reachd.com.

Now video is not a good quick reference, but sometimes it’s great to have someone just explaining something in natural language (provided you at least have a basic understanding of robots, URLs, keywords, etc.). In a surprisingly information-packed ten minutes, Cutts touches on the founding principles of SEO (good user-focused content, crawlable navigation and keywords) as well as touching on local search, sitemaps, and video.

A worthy use of a few minutes, whether you’re being floored by these shocking truths or pleasantly reminded that you’re doing things the right way.