EngineWorks, Inc.

It is well known that a great number of online marketing professionals fuel their day with highly stimulating caffeinated beverages. Thus, it is not surprising that the leading player within our space, Google, selected ‘Caffeine’ to be the code name for their recently introduced search engine algorithm.

According to the announcement made by the G-Men and G-Women in August of this year, Caffeine is even faster and more accurate than their previous spidering and indexing algorithms. This is truly an amazing statement, given the world-class search performance that has been delivered by the company over the past decade.

It is also a development that could directly impact how search engine marketers develop effective strategies for achieving prominently positioned listings within Google’s Natural search index.

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By now, most individuals in the search marketing space are well aware that, back in late May of this year, Microsoft launched its re-designed online search engine under the new moniker, Bing. (Even those who are not very close to the online search industry should have some knowledge of this newly branded search engine, given the massive $100 million or so that Bill’s Software Shop is currently spending on national television advertisements to promote Bing!)

As well documented, Microsoft has been relegated to a distant third place position in the domestic search market-share race (trailing both rivals Google and Yahoo!). However, this recent launch presents a tremendous opportunity for online marketers to capture additional qualified traffic and improve conversion-to-customer performance on their Web sites.

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Last week, our EngineWorks team traveled ‘across the pond’ to participate in World Travel Market 2009, the premier global event for the travel industry. A record-breaking 49,963 industry professionals congregated in London, England at this impressive conference to stay abreast of the latest trends and developments in the world-wide travel and tourism industry.

Having just returned from this latest adventure, my mind is filled with the latest search marketing strategies (especially advancements in Link Building) that are being implemented across the globe for travel and tourism companies of all size.

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Data-driven, ROI-focused Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is proven to be one of your most cost-effective means of generating qualified leads and increasing sales online.  It can also be a very time consuming, labor-intensive process that can take many weeks, or even many months, to yield significant results. This fact should make you realize a very important marketing axiom: SEO is an investment.  

Obviously, most people desire to protect their valuable investments. However, when it comes to hard-earned value gained through Natural search strategies, I have often witnessed companies doing the exact opposite.  

For example, we have seen prospective and current EngineWorks clients, eager to launch their new Web site, fail to consider the consequences of their new site structure in terms of non-indexed pages and search engine ‘authority’. Many times, companies also experience difficulties in adjusting their mindset to be willing to incorporate SEO as a separate channel of their marketing mix.

This blog post is to identify the following three common pitfalls that can diminish the value your SEO investment, and lead to poor rankings within the major search engines.

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Following the highly successful first session of our three (3) complimentary online Webinars that we are conducting in conjunction with The Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association (BLLA), EngineWorks is pleased to present the second session titled 10 Steps for Online Success at 9:00am PDT on Thursday, October 8, 2009.  This strategy-focused Webinar will impart valuable information pertaining to current Search Engine Marketing techniques being used to dramatically increase revenues and profits at some of the world’s most successful online travel and lodging companies.

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Since you’re reading this blog post, you more than likely have seen many sources touting the fact that the overwhelming majority of search engine users click on the top three (3) Natural search listings for any given query.  Recently, I came across an informative study performed by Richard Hearn, a freelance interactive marketing consultant in Ireland, that re-affirmed this well-known axiom in our industry.

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Blogs aren’t just for kids any more.

More and more companies around the world are grabbing hold of the idea that their corporate blog can directly impact their image and enhance their communication with target audiences.  The purpose for this blog post is to present a collection of effective corporate blogs, along with an explanation of the different approaches that these companies embrace with regards to the content, purpose, and tone of their blog.

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As most readers of our blog know, keyword research is the foundation of all search engine marketing.  However, keyword selection for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is significantly different then keyword selection for Paid Search Marketing.  Paid Search campaigns allow you to test an almost unlimited number of keywords, whereas you must focus on a much smaller set of targeted search terms for Natural SEO.  So how do you decide on which search terms to select for SEO?

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Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, weighs in on whether anchor text can carry through a 301 redirect. Great information for anyone redesigning their site or changing URLs.

It’s not every day that one of the world’s leading resort and hospitality companies launches a new Web site.  In fact, for luxury resort owner and operator,  RockResorts, it has been more than two years.

At EngineWorks, we are very excited to see the culmination of our partnered work with Resort Technology Partners, a professional design and development agency specializing is custom solutions for the travel and tourism industry, be realized through this new cutting-edge Web presence for RockResorts.  The new online presence features thirteen (13) new Web destinations that offer online travelers a smooth booking process, rich photographs of resort locations, and detailed travel information while they research their next vacation.

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