is it better to put some effort in to internet marketing or to stay home?

Ian shares his opinion on going halfway:

“Search Engine Optimization. Doing ‘a little SEO’ to see what happens is like starting heart surgery then seeing if you feel better.”

How much can the front page of Google make for you? How about the top three spots?

Washington State University admitted 146 students to the Honors College this year. How many of them would have been influenced by a top ranking for ‘honors college blog?’ Not many.

Except, having that top ranking attract the kinds of students who are at the cutting edge of technology.

What about top billing for ‘washington honors college?’ Why is WSU #3, after the University of Washington (the cross-state rival) and Central Washington University (a much smaller college)?

Here’s a better question: David’s Bridal sells wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses, and yet is not on the first page of Google for either of those phrases.

What?

An Honors College who doesn’t care enough to get a top spot in a non-competitive environment that would show their dedication to being on the edge? A dress seller that doesn’t want to be known as the leader in their categories?

For Bridesmaid dresses, Dessy is #1. Because they understood that it is worth the time and the money to be in the top 3 results on Google.

What is your excuse for not being top three? Or, to go back to the title of this post, why are you still #9? Did you get some success, and see sales pick up a little, and say “oh, that’s good enough for now…?”

why is digital agency #1 in google, when ad age wrote the article?

My previous post gives you the link to a blog, and that blog gives you the link to Ad Age, who wrote the story.

But if Ad Age wrote the story, why did I go through a blog to find it?

Here is the title tag and URL of the Ad Age story:
Advertising Age – Better ROI From YouTube Video Than Super Bowl Spot
http://adage.com/article?article_id=112835

The same data from the Digital Age blog entry:
DigitalAgency: YouTube beats SuperBowl:
http://digitalagency.typepad.com/digitalagency/2006/10/youtube_beats_s.html

I mentioned the story to Ian, who asked for a link. So I went to google. Did I type in “Better ROI From YouTube Video Than Super Bowl Spot” or “youtube beats superbowl”? Of course the latter- much easier to remember, and gets the point across in the least possible words.

Which is why I saw Digital Agency as #1 in google, while the Ad Age article is not in the top #30.

The title tags and the URLs matter a lot to search engines. Look at the URLs I listed- one includes “youtube beats” while the other has no relevant data.

This is why most blogging software puts the title of the blog post into the URL. To see for yourself, click on the title of this article (to get to unique page where this article is, as opposed to the main blog page.) Now look at the title at the top of your browser screen.

Something like that should not be hard for Ad Age to do, but because they don’t, I go to a blog to find out what Ad Age has to say.

Lesson: a) write news, b) when you build a site, make the title tags short, sweet, and relevant, and c) write news.

youtube officially beats superbowl

Ad Age tells about how, for the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, a youtube video beat out the superbowl for ROI.

Welcome to the internet age.

If you too want to join this whole “internet” thing, even though it probably is just a fad, come talk to us over at Portent. I know “internet marketing” is not going to last, but for these companies we seem to have done a decent job.

Thanks to Digital Agency for the Dove link.