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.

A New Brew

Caffeine appears to feature new elements and weighting factors within its ranking algorithm. We, at EngineWorks, have been testing this new algorithm over the past few months in order to understand how it affects overall search performance and the ranking of pages within Google’s organic index.

Through our research, we have discovered that there are significant changes that have occurred behind the scenes at Google, including the enhancements to their following performance metrics:

• Number of search results per query,
• Speed of search queries,
• Accuracy of search results,
• Degree of temporal relevance.
• Number of Results

Google has built their reputation on an ability to very quickly crawl and discover new content and Web sites. Over time, this ability has created a situation whereby any given search query can return an astronomical number of search results. For example, the search query ‘hotels’ currently returns more than 343 million listings. However, our analysis of Caffeine reveals that Google appears to be attempting to eliminate a significant amount of duplicate content and irrelevant listings, in order to present even higher quality search results.

For example, a search conducted for ‘destination resort’ through their old algorithm returned more than 38 million result pages; whereas Caffeine displayed less than 19 million listings for the same query. In addition, a similar percentage in the reduction of the number of search results generated by Caffeine occurred for many other popular queries.

Speed

We have discovered that Caffeine generates results almost twice as fast as the previous iteration of their algorithm. It is important to point-out, however, that this increase in speed can only be discerned by turning your attention to the return time displayed by Google on each search engine result page (SERP). In terms of the actual time it takes for Caffeine to generate a relevant SERP compared to their previous algorithm, we found it to be approximately a quarter-of-a-second (i.e., from 0.25 seconds to 0.12 seconds).

While difficult to perceive in real-time, Google’s new algorithm is able to identify what you are searching for, query their massive index, and return highly relevant results in half the time it took through their previous engine. A very impressive feat.

Accuracy

As most individuals familiar with the Google story know, the champion of search technology built their empire upon accurate search results. In fact, the company’s ability to consistently deliver a better user experience than competitive engines, keeps them far, far ahead of the pack.

Caffeine attempts to enhance this commitment to accuracy by delivering blended search results that fit each search query more precisely than their previous algorithm. At first glance, there does not appear to be much difference. However, this new version of Google’s algorithm presents more relevant images, videos, news stories, and blog posts in its search results. At the time of our analysis, overall accuracy through Caffeine appears to be improved for some results. More time will tell if users recognize this improvement.

Temporal Relevance

A hot topic in the search industry right now is temporal relevance, which pertains to which online sources are able to present breaking stories in the timeliest manner. In other words, where do individuals go online to get the most up-to-the-moment news?

When an important news story breaks, who will have the fastest and most relevant news results? Is it Twitter, with their legions of mobile phone users? Or, Wikipedia, with their army of independent editors? What about CNN, and their global network of professional journalists? Or, will it be Google, with their impressive ability to identify the slightest uptick in attention being given to a specific story, and then aggregate the best sources in their search results?

Google is currently battling with these other “real-time” aggregators, such as Twitter and Facebook. In addition, the search company is also competing head-to-head with the other major engines, including Microsoft’s new “Decision Engine” – Bing. Through our analysis of news-based keyword searches in Caffeine, we found little to no improvement in temporal relevance compared to Google’s previous algorithm. We perceive that this will be a factor that Google will need to address in order to maintain its dominant position within the today’s search landscape.

So, What Can Caffeine Do For Me

Google is committed to continuously enhancing your online search experience. While Caffeine does not necessarily present a quantum leap in this area, it does offer faster results that feature more types of relevant sources pertaining to your query.

As a Web site owner or search marketing professional, this means that it is paramount for you to continually feature fresh, optimized content in varied presentations that appeal to the greatest number of individuals searching for your brands, products, and services. Google’s enhanced algorithms in Caffeine seek-out the most relevant, most diverse, and most time-sensitive Web sites for each search query.

To ensure that your site makes it to the top of the list, stimulate your Web pages with legitimate optimization enhancements and effective usability elements.

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.

The Decision Engine

In an attempt to differentiate Bing from the ‘other’ search engine (‘other’ being the term used in their advertising instead of ‘that well-known search company in Mountain View, California’), Microsoft has dubbed Bing as a decision engine. While it remains to be seen if Bing actually facilitates decisions, this advertising tactic is the latest example of the age-old marketing strategy designed to convince an audience that it needs a solution to a previously unrealized problem.

Much like “embarrassing dishwasher water spots”, and “calcium-deficient antacid tablets”, Microsoft touts that using Bing will cure “search overload syndrome” . . . even though the general population is not even aware that they suffer from this debilitating affliction! The intent is to claim that, unlike that ‘other’ engine (which may provide lots of search results that are random and unrelated to the purpose for your search query); Bing offers a superior search experience by delivering much more relevant listings. These ostensibly more succinct search results enable better decisions, according to this ad campaign.

Binghoo!

Before turning our attention to specific strategies that you can employ to achieve enhanced performance through Bing, it’s important to point-out that the top executives at Yahoo! were so impressed with the capabilities of Bing, they decided to hand-over their entire search function to Microsoft. In fact, last month, the Big Purple Portal contracted with Microsoft to have Bing perform as its search provider for the next ten (10) years!

This unprecedented multi-year arrangement gives Microsoft access to the Internet’s second-largest search engine audience, and should enable the Redmond-based software company to better confront Google. It also, obviously, has significant repercussions within the search engine marketing industry. Today, a combined Yahoo! and Microsoft now commands more than twenty-seven percent (27%) percent of all Internet searches in the United States.

Optimizing for Bing

Microsoft has segmented Bing’s core searches into the following four primary categories: local, shopping, travel, and health. In addition, for large-volume search queries (e.g., ‘insurance’ or ‘mortgage’), Bing presents results in ‘Explore Panes’ that feature internal links referred to as ‘Quick Tabs’. It is important to note, however, that its algorithm continuously refines the selection of a given category for specific search queries. This means that you should not attempt to implement optimization strategies designed to rank for a specific Quick Tab, but rather integrate enhancements that will improve your current search listings.

As most search marketers are aware, effective optimization begins with proper page titles and descriptions. For each Web page in Bing, the title and page descriptions are pulled from the title description tag and the Meta description tag, respectively. Because of this, the best strategy for ensuring proper title and description elements in Microsoft’s new engine is to maintain the optimized tags that you have created for Google. This prevents the possibility of negatively affecting your rank within Google, while at the same time presenting compelling call-to-action information and accurate page descriptions in Bing.

In addition to maintaining optimized title and Meta tags, it is very important that you optimize the images and videos contained on your site for Bing. Just as you would optimize these elements for Google; use Alt tags for your images, and descriptive keyword tags with your videos.

Quick Preview

Another important feature within Bing’s search engine result pages (SERP’s) is the ability for users to preview the landing page associated with each search listing. By scrolling over a specific listing on Bing’s SERP’s, a window will appear that provides a textual description of the Web site, along with additional page elements such as contact information, content topics, and internal links. To attract more visitors through your listings in Bing, it is paramount that you include all of these Quick Preview elements into every page of your Web site.

Be Local

A significant component of Microsoft’s new search design, Local Search, is very similar in appearance and function to Google’s extremely popular Local Business Listings (LBL) section. This section on the SERP’s presents information, such as phone numbers and directions, pertaining to local businesses that are relevant to each specific search query. In order to have your site listed on Bing Maps within Local Search, all you have to do is add your business profile in the Bing Listing Center. It’s important to always keep this information updated within your profile, as well. Given the fact that the Local Search listings appear at the top of Bing’s SERP’s (as they do on Google), we recommend that you include as much detailed information as possible within your business profile.

Best Practices = Best Results

As with most search engines today, your best performance within Bing will be achieved through proper site structure, legitimate optimization enhancements, and rich, relevant page content. Even though this newly re-designed engine from Microsoft has only existed for a couple of months, it is already apparent that by adhering to the best practices and Web site guidelines published by the ‘other’ major engine, you can achieve prominently positioned Natural search listings in Bing. This may not be revolutionary . . . however; it is the premise behind the Big Bing Theory!

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.

Given that the major search engines regularly updating their algorithms to provide the most relevant search results possible, effective Link Building continues to be significant challenge for today’s search marketing professionals. While the various ways in which the search engines evaluate inbound links have become much more sophisticated, several basic ethical Link Building tactics can be employed to jump-start the SEO efforts for your travel and hospitality Web site.

Here are six (6) basic Link Building tactics that have proven to be effective for companies within the online travel and hospitality vertical.

1. Content

Whether you refer to it as ‘link bait’, or just solid interactive marketing, the number one strategy for generating inbound links is the creation of quality content. Writing great content is a strategy that almost all members of the SEO community agree will achieve positive results within the major Natural search indexes. Just look here, here, and here.

With that being said, here is a short list of content ideas that, when promoted properly, can generate quality inbound links for resort and travel sites:

• Create an informative list of activities pertaining your location, such as Top Ten Thing to Do in Vail this Summer. (Concentrate on ideas not covered by your competitors.)
• Develop a simple site tool, such as a weather widget or travel planner.
• Write an article, or blog post, from an unusual perspective. A great example is Travel + Leisure’s article on the World’s Most Unusual Hotels.
• Run a simple online photo contest.
• Provide free data. For example, KAYAK Travel Trends delivers much-sought-after, useful, FREE data.

2. Testimonials

This tactic is very simple, but often overlooked. Most hotels and resorts have some type of partnership with local businesses, such as rental shops, restaurants, and transportation providers. Reach-out to your partners and vendors to let them know you value your relationship with them by offering a testimonial which they can post on their site. Within your testimonial, create a link back to your site. These types of inbound links are valuable because you can often customize the anchor text of the link so that a benefit is derived by both parties.

3. Directories

First off, do not submit your site to hundreds of irrelevant paid directories. This strategy is a waste of time and money. Online directories have become less relevant over the past few years. However, certain targeted directories can still provide Link Building value for travel and tourism sites. It’s best to focus on high quality, niche directories that have submissions reviewed by an human editor. Think relevancy and authority. Be sure to submit your site to the appropriate travel-related category within each specific directory. Here are a few of my favorite general directories that I have found to be effective for our resort and hospitality clients:

• DMOZ
• Best of the Web
• Yahoo! Directory
• Business.com

4. Charities

Does your travel and hospitality company contribute time and/or capital to non-profit or charity projects? If so, request a link back to your site from these organizations. Often, these types of entities have an online donor list, and regularly publish online press releases. Both of these areas are great places for a link back to your site. If you have any doubts about the benefits of philanthropy-based Link Building, just take a look at the results achieved by Marriott.

5. Organizations

Similar to strategy Number Four above, industry organizations and trade associations can be effective Link Building sources for your company. Inbound links from these entities can be valuable for two reasons. First, the links are generally coming from a relevant and authoritative organization, which are the most valuable. Second, these links typically benefit your local search optimization efforts. Examples of organizations and associations that can be targeted for Link Building include:

• Local Chamber of Commerce
• Better Business Bureau
• Retailers sites
• Partner sites
• Local event sites that you are participating in
• Industry associations like the Boutique Lifestyle & Lodging Association
• Energy and Water Conservation Associations
• Renewable Energy Organizations

Our trip to the World Travel Market was an awesome experience! One that expanded my knowledge of effective interactive strategies for dramatically improving the bottom line for travel and tourisms sites. I hope this blog post has imparted some of this knowledge. You can check-out some photos from this impressive conference at our EngineWorks Flickr account.

What travel and hospitality link building tactics have you found to be the most effective? Let us know by leaving a comment!

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.

Pitfall #1 – SEO is a One-Time Event

Oh . . . if only this were the case! All you would have to do is just optimize a few titles, write some good content, and secure a few good links. Then, sit-back and watch the sales come in! However, in reality, effective SEO requires a continuous schedule of optimization enhancements and advanced strategies in order for your site to remain highly attractive and relevant to the search ranking algorithms.  

Today’s sophisticated search engines prefer Web sites that feature fresh, optimized content. They also respond favorably to sites that continually attract relevant inbound links. Therefore, publishing unique content on a regular basis that is useful for your site visitors provides search engines a reason to re-crawl, and re-index, your site. Always remember that SEO is not a one-time shot.

Pitfall #2 – Overwriting Previously Optimized Pages

I have seen this happen all too often. With the increase in popularity of content management systems (CMS’s), many companies fail to put in place a system to protect their optimized pages from being overwritten by their new code structure. When this occurs, new pages can be re-indexed by the search engines, resulting many times in a sharp drop in positioning within the Natural search indexes.

This common pitfall can be avoided by implementing a robust system of SEO checks and balances within your online marketing department. In addition, it makes a great deal of sense to provide your IT team with on-going, comprehensive SEO education to mitigate these types of costly mistakes.

Pitfall #3 – Re-designing Your Site Without A Plan

A new Web site re-design is an exciting time. There are so many things to think about, including creative design, user experience, content management systems, and branding. However, none of this really matters if your customers are not able to find your cool, new site.

Two potential problems are present during the re-designing of your Web site. First, changes to your site, such as the overall structure, file and directory naming conventions, content and on-page optimization, can be disastrous for your organic search rankings. Secondly, if you do not properly communicate to the search engines via 301 Re-directs, which notify the engines that your page locations have changed, you will encounter 404-Errors. 404-Errors signal to the search engines that a page no longer exists. This in turn, causes your previously ranked pages for important search terms to be removed from the search engine indexes. Thus, any ‘search equity’ that you accumulated in your Web site will be lost.

Take a look at the following resources for insight into proper re-designing, or moving, of your site:

• Best practices when moving your site – Google Webmaster Central
• Best SEO Practices During A Website Redesign – Search Engine Land

Best Practices

Search Engine Optimization ensures that your site is easily indexed by the major search engines, and easily found by eager customers. However, if you do not remain vigilant of these three common pitfalls, you can easily ruin your SEO investment. Remember, always apply best practices, and always adhere to the search engine guidelines, in order to see the greatest return on your effort.

Have you experienced other ways that companies have ruined their SEO investment?

Let us know by posting a comment.

This second installment of our informative Webinar series will be conducted by search marketing expert, and co-founder of EngineWorks, Kent Schnepp.  Kent will impart his advanced knowledge of search marketing best practices, and his 10 most important techniques, for outstanding online performance during this session.  In addition, our Director of Client Acquisition, Angela Yost, will provide insight into which interactive strategies are currently driving the best results to resort and hospitality firms today.

Our schedule for these three (3) complimentary Webinars is as follows:

1.  September 24, 2009, 9:00am PDT – Powering The Marketing Mix (COMPLETED)

2.  October 8, 2009, 9:00am PDT – 10 Steps For Online Success

3.  October 22, 2009, 9:00am PDT – Leveraging Social Media Marketing

As noted, there is no cost to participate in these online Webinars. To register, simply sign-up online at the BLLA Web site.

The BLLA, the unifying voice of this unique sector within the resort and hospitality industry, is recognized as the definitive resource for researching, locating, and booking boutique and lifestyle hotels. Benefits for members include exclusive access to complimentary white papers, networking through online and live events, industry reports, Webinars, marketing education, and other valuable tools to manage and grow resort and hospitality businesses.

EngineWorks is proud to be an exclusive partner with The Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association.  Please join us for this next exciting session!

Richard’s study used a proprietary data-set of more than 36 million search queries which delivered almost 20 million click-throughs.  The following graphic created by Mr. Hearn very explicitly substantiates the need for businesses and organizations to be found within the top three Natural search results for relative queries pertaining to their brand, products, and services.

As shown in this presentation from Richard Hearn, a full sixty-two percent (62%) of search engine users, on average, click on one of the first three (3) search listings in Google.  In addition, the second Natural search result receives almost seventy-two percent (72%) less click-throughs than the number one listing.  It’s also important to point-out that number three listing receives almost thirty percent (30%) less click-throughs than the number two listing.

This informative study drives home the need to ensure that your online presence is highly optimized to achieve top-ranked listings for your most important search phrases.  (I also commend Richard on this easy-to-digest graphic above.  Thanks!)

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.

Examples of Outstanding Company Blogs

37signals – This small-business software firm’s blog offers more than just promotion of its products.  They, in fact, use their blog, titled “Signal vs. Noise”, as a platform to showcase great ideas pertaining to “getting things done”.  Because of this, the creative blog has already surpassed 100,000 RSS subscribers.

Asia Transpacific Journeys – This premier client of EngineWorks is a luxury travel agency that uses the unique approach of posting content created by their tour guides located in countries all around the world.  These informative posts are written in the form of “staff postcards“, and offer a very personal view into the the different types of tours that you can book through Asia Transpacific Journeys.   Some of the company’s guides have also filled their Flickr accounts with exceptional photos from the many exotic locations available through ATJ, such as Marilyn Downing Staff’s Australia Tour Photos.

Southwest Airlines – The “Nuts About Southwest” blog is one of the best examples of a “playful” blog created by a large corporation.  On this blog, you can learn insightful information about the airline industry, tips surrounding customer service from their stewards, watch videos, view photos, and share your travel stories with other Southwest Airlines customers.  The company has even recognized that parents (especially mothers) represent their primary blog reader demographic.  Therefore, they created “Mommy Patches”, a section of the blog where readers can post their own stories.

Cadillac Notes – A General Motor’s blog focused on the brand, promotion, and culture of Cadillac.  Promoting the culture around owning a Cadillac is the primary goal of this blog, which allows users to join the Cadillac Facebook group, submit Cadillac related videos on YouTube, browse through the Flickr group of photos, and see what Cadillac has been ‘tweeting’ lately.

Whole Story – Whole Foods Market has a very interesting blog that they use to promote healthy living and healthy eating throughout communities.  It’s a place for recipes , stories about their products that they carry, and reader interest stories in their “Farm to Market” category.

Styles of Company Blogs

The Company Blog
One of the most common types of blogs used by corporations is the Company Blog.  The purpose for this type of blog is to be all things related to a company.  This can include many aspects of the value and benefits associated with the company’s products or services.  However, the ultimate purpose for this type of blog is to reinforce a company’s brand and image.  If you’re looking for a simple way for your business to start blogging, you need to consider launching a Company Blog.

A few examples of effective Company Blogs include: Official Google Blog, Official Adobe Blog, Flickr’s Image heavy corporate blog, and Yahoo! Search Blog.

CEO Blog
How many CEOs have time to blog? Evidently, a lot! Plenty of company leaders, especially in the travel and technology industries, have taken it upon themselves to create blogs that highlight their vision for their company, products, and industry. Bill Marriot, the Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, does an excellent job providing insightful travel industry information, corporate and investor guidance information, and drawing attention to special interests on his CEO Blog. Recently Mr. Marriott conveyed the importance of the company’s Health Care Coverage for employees.  In addition, he posted a discussion on how the company’s name became the cornerstone of their first hotel built in 1927.

Other examples of CEO Blogs include: Jonathan Schwartz, President & CEO at Sun Microsystems, Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and founder of Craigslist, Craig Newmark’s Blog.

Industry Blog
If you’re looking to make a splash in your industry, launching an industry focused blog can build your authority online, and have you be recognized as the prominent resource within your industry.  For example, a small “green and sustainability” company called “Sustainable Minds” uses their blog to be the resource for the industry of on-demand green product design and software. This blog is also a great example of “team blogging” – having 19 contributors specializing in all kinds of topics in the industry.

Orbitz’s blog is also another good example of a company that has launched an Industry Blog. On this blog, the travel company discusses industry concerns, specials, and events happening throughout the world.

Department/ Product Blog
Companies that feature specialized product s and services, which can benefit from specialized forums, may consider launching a Departmental?Product Blog.  Interestingly, Google is one of the biggest users of product focused blogs, branching-out with blogs featuring many facets of their business, including: a Spanish language focused blog for Webmasters, a Google Student Blog, a YouTube business development blog, and a blog focusing on Google Grants for non-profits. In another example, General Motors recently launched a blog/social media network to promote their new Chevy Volt.  Dubbed “Chevrolet Voltage”, and focusing solely on the new electric car, the site promises to be the definitive resource for photos, videos, news releases, and discussions pertaining to the new vehicle.

Don’t Wait!

At EngineWorks, we’re always looking for ways to expand our client’s footprint online.  As explained in this post, an exciting way to do achieve this goal is by launching a corporate blog to connect with your audience and reach prospective new customer.  If you’re not doing so . . . you can be sure your competition is!  Contact us today to learn more!

The following critical steps are necessary for effective Natural SEO keyword selection:

Step 1: Search Volume

The easiest metric to assess in an SEO campaign is search volume.  Basically, you are looking for the total number of searches that are conducted each month for a given keyword in the major search engines.  There are several free tools available, such as Google’s AdWords keyword tool and search-based keyword tool, as well as Wordtracker’s free keyword suggestion tool. Simply enter each phrase in to these tools to discover how many searches have been conducted on the keywords in the past thirty days. This extremely valuable information identifies the popularity of each keyword selection.

Step 2: Search Phrase Relevancy

The next step, search phrase relevancy, involves assigning a subjective score to help you decide which keywords to use for your optimization efforts. Obviously, you don’t want to spend time optimizing your site around search terms that are not relevant to your products, services, or content. From your list of most popular search terms generated in Step 1, you will need to assign a subjective relevancy score to each phrase. I prefer to assign a relevancy percentage to each term. Branded terms are (of course) 100% relevant, whereas general terms are less relevant. Using our company as an example, the search term ‘EngineWorks’ would be 100% relevant, ‘Portland Search Marketing’ would be 90% relevant, and ‘Marketing’ would be 30% relevant.

Step 3: Competitiveness

Finally, you need to determine the competitiveness of your terms by searching for each phrase in Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Through this process, you will be able to discover the total number of results in each engine for each phrase. In general, the higher the number of results for a given phrase; the more competitive the search term. It is more than likely that it will be difficult to achieve prominent Natural search listings for highly competitive terms. However, if your domain is well established (i.e., it has been around for a while, and has significant inbound links), you may want to go after more competitive search terms. If your site is brand new, you may want to concentrate on less competitive, more specific search terms.

Bonus Step: Trending

Another useful step when selecting keywords for SEO is to take a look at your seasonal keywords and trending data. Does your site have distinct seasonal trends, such as a calendar of events? If so, it may benefit from prominent rankings for keywords that happen to be related to these trends in the news or online. For example, if you are in the resort and hospitality space, keywords focused on major events such as a golf tournament might be used for effective ranking within the major engines.

Bottom Line

As you can see, keyword selection for SEO may not be overly complex. However, it does take time, tools, and a combination of analytics and creativity to be successful. Remember, your best results happen through effective evaluation of your keywords based on your success metrics and overall online marketing goals. Therefore, always implement the proven multi-step process above to ensure that you are targeting your most efficacious Natural search terms.

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.

In addition to ensuring a smooth transition from the previous RockResort sites, we incorporated our the latest SEO techniques and strategies into all facets of these new destinations.  These enhancements are designed to dramatically improve the Natural search engine rankings for all RockResorts properties, and deliver incremental qualified Web site traffic through the major search engines.

In addtion, we have implemenented advanced Social Media Marketing strategies that are enhancing community networking efforts for RockResorts.   Through our customized Facebook profiles created for each RockResorts location,  prospective lodging guests are invited to directly interact with other individuals who have stayed at, or are considering staying at, specific resorts owned by RockResorts.

Daniel Swanson, Corporate Marketing Manager of E-Commerce at RockResorts & Vail Resorts Hospitality, expressed his excitement pertaining to our new partnered launch through the following, “RockResorts takes pride in delivering unparalleled service and exquisite experiences to our resort guests.  Our new enhanced Web sites convey this fact instantly.  Which is why we chose EngineWorks to ensure that they are easily discovered by individuals searching for luxury resort accommodations.”

We invite you to share the wonderful experience of RockResorts, and their new online destinations, through the following sites:

RockResorts
Hotel Jerome
The Osprey at Beaver Creek
The Pines Lodge
The Arrabelle at Vail Square
The Lodge at Vail
Tempo Miami
La Posada de Santa Fe Resort & Spa
The Landings St Lucia
Snake River Lodge & Spa
Rum Cay Resort
One Ski Hill Place
Third Turtle Club

As shown in the eMarketer chart below, almost an equal number of individuals across the globe trust information from online news sources (40%) as individuals who trust content from television news ( 41%) and newspapers (39%).

Another interesting fact from this survey is that people tend to trust information from online expert reviews and industry Web sites more than from company Web sites and user forums and reviews.  This is an important fact to take into consideration when designing and implementing advanced search marketing campaigns, such as Social Media Marketing and external Link Building strategies.

Mike Pilgrim is a successful author/blogger/programmer who is currently employed by Google, Inc. His informative post sparked my interest in HTML 5, the much anticipated recommendation that is expected to be released in September 2010. Specifically, I wanted to learn more about any changes which could affect search engine optimization efforts. Good thing, I did . . . because here are several important aspects of HTML 5 which should be brought to the attention of the SEO community.

Semantics, Semantics, Semantics

As many of you know, search engines possess great computational power. However, they can’t evaluate the context of a message, paragraph, or block of text. Therefore, search engine algorithms rely on basic HTML elements, such as the H1 Tag, to ascertain the context of specific text, in this case the header. This is called semantics. When the final HTML 5 recommendation is released by the editors Ian Hickson (also employed by Google, Inc.) and David Hyatt (with Apple, Inc.), this semantics concept will be refined and expanded beyond its current iteration.

The Future of Link building: Link Relations

One of the most intriguing recommendations to be featured in HTML 5 will be the enhanced link relation attribute. Link relations provide a way to clarify to the search engines why you are linking to another page. Many of you will be familiar with the ref=nofollow attribute, which “indicates that the link is not endorsed by the original author or publisher of the page” (source). However, you may not be familiar with several of the other link relation attributes that have been added to or enhanced since the previous HTML 4 spec. Therefore, let’s take a look at a few relations that could have significant implications to search engine optimization and link building.

rel=alternate

The “alternate” relation simply indicates that the referenced document is an alternate representation of the current document. This is important to anyone who has a multi-language site, PDF’s with duplicate content, or RSS/XML feeds. Typically, this relationship attribute would be used when you have duplicate content that resides in a different file format, or when the same content exists in a different language.

rel=archives

The “archives” relation will be extremely valuable to bloggers, as it will solve many of the duplicate content issues associated with the major blogging platforms. This relation indicates that the referenced document is a collection of records or archives.

rel=author

The “author” keyword, as you can probably guess, indicates that the referenced document provides additional information about the author of the specified content. This relation has potential for increasing authority and trust, specifically when you are quoted or referenced in a document.

rel=nofollow

The “nofollow” relation has not changed much, although the description has been expanded to the following: “[rel=nofllow] indicates that the link is not endorsed by the original author or publisher of the page, or that the link to the referenced document was included primarily because of a commercial relationship between people affiliated with the two pages” (source).

What Else Is New in HTML 5?

There are many, many more changes to come in HTML 5; some which may have significant impact upon search engine optimization and link building strategies. These changes include a new Header Tag, new time elements, and new phrase elements. You can read more about them in the most recent HTML 5 Draft Recommendation, the W3C Working Draft and HTML 5 Differences From HTML 4.

If you have come across any other refinements or additions that were released in the latest draft of HTML 5, please let us know!

Portland’s premier search engine marketing conference, SearchFest09, will provide insight into the newest in strategies and technological advancements within our vibrant industry.  Search marketing experts from around the country will be participating on informative panel presentations throughout the this exciting event in the Cascade Crest Banquet Center at the Oregon Zoo.

SearchFest is hosted by Search Engine Marketing Professionals of Portland (SEMpdx), a Portland-based, non-profit organization dedicated to nurturing the development of the search engine marketing industry in the greater Pacific Northwest, and will feature thirty-five well-known presenters, including headliner Danny Sullivan, Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land.

In addition to sponsoring this lively Closing Reception, key EngineWorks personnel will be actively participating on several panel presentations throughout the day.  Our President and CEO, Sean McMahon, will be moderating the Technology panel session featuring Susan Moskwa from Google, Vanessa Fox with Nine by Blue, and Aaron Kahlow from Online Marketing Summit.  As Vice President of Client Acquisition, I will be leading the Social Media Marketing discussion featuring Dawn Foster (Fast Wonder), Neil Patel (ACS), and Matt Inman (Next Dating, LLC).  Immediately preceding the Closing Reception, our Vice President of Strategy, Kent Schnepp, will moderate the exciting Hot Seat presentation.

Please drop me a post to this blog, or stop by our booth at the event, if you would like to discuss how our high performance search marketing services can benefit your online presence. I looking forward to seeing you there!

In addition to the search marketing experts from SEMpdx, the informative Hot Seat will feature unique perspectives from Matt Brown, Director of Search Strategy at the New York Times Company, and Melissa Casburn, Director of User Experience for ISITE Design.

Information on registering and attending this informative event can be accessed through the following link:

Hot Seat: SEO, Meet User Experience

SEMpdx is a professional organization based in Portland, Oregon whose mission is to inform and educate area businesses on the benefits of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to online success and profitability. EngineWorks is proud to be a founding board member of this outstanding community organization. In addition, we highly recommend that if you are interested in learning the fundamentals of Web site usability and search optimization, be sure to attend this Hot Seat on February 10th.

In addition to the search marketing experts from SEMpdx, the informative Hot Seat will feature unique perspectives from Matt Brown, Director of Search Strategy at the New York Times Company, and Melissa Casburn, Director of User Experience for ISITE Design.

Information on registering and attending this informative event can be accessed through the following link:

Hot Seat: SEO, Meet User Experience

SEMpdx is a professional organization based in Portland, Oregon whose mission is to inform and educate area businesses on the benefits of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to online success and profitability. EngineWorks is proud to be a founding board member of this outstanding community organization. In addition, we highly recommend that if you are interested in learning the fundamentals of Web site usability and search optimization, be sure to attend this Hot Seat on February 10th.

In a January 14, 2009 AdAge article, Beverly Thorne, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Century 21, stated that in years past the company has spent up to half of its advertising budget on television marketing.  However, in an unprecedented move, the company will now focus the majority of that money to its online efforts in 2009.  Mr. Thorne identified the ability online advertising, especially Search Engine Marketing, to directly target consumers interested in making a purchase in the near term as the main factor in making this decision.

To directly quote this AdAge Article, “With the beleaguered real-estate market showing no signs of a turnaround, the realtor has decided to play the numbers and go where the buyers and sellers are: online.”

Measurable Increase In Leads Shifting Marketing Dollars

During the first nine (9) months of 2008, Century 21 spent $26 million on domestic advertising, of which only $2.3 million of that total was spent online.

Ms. Thorne stated that “In 2008, our year-over-year results from 2007 are that we saw a 237% increase in the number of leads we were able to produce for our brokers and agents.  At the same time, our cost per lead dropped 62% year over year because we learned how to integrate our search methodologies with our display, and enhanced listings to create a far more targeted and efficient lead process. Our decision from there was very clear.”

Shifting Marketing Dollars

Century 21 understands the power of online advertising and the impact that it can have on the quantity, quality, and cost of new leads for their business.  If you’re interested in learning how EngineWorks services can dramatically increase our lead generation and client acquistion effort, please reach-out to us today.

To begin with, choose great keywords, implement proper Meta tags and URL canocalization, craft highly relevant content, and you have a solid foundation for a spider web. In addition, to attract flies, you must gain relevant external links to your site.  There is, however, a fourth and often overlooked step: defending your web.

If some jerk human walks right through a spider web, the spider doesn’t just leave it alone.  He must continually rebuild, or no flies will ever “convert” to a meal.  A Web site owner needs to do the same by employing strategies such as 301 Redirects to defend his presence within the major search engines.

It’s important to realize that an external link to your site is a vote of authority.  In the eyes of the search engines, your content is so impressive that the linking site is willing to send its visitors to your page.  This recognized greatness, in turn, earns credibility for your site.  Covet these votes, because they will be lost if you don’t take the time to maintain them.

Be aware, however, that there are countless links out there that do not lead the visitor to the intended site. Perhaps an entire page has moved to a new URL because someone decided that the content would be better suited on a different page.  Or, maybe a forwarding domain has expired.  When these events occur, your vote has essentially been retracted, and action needs to be taken to get it back. Once again, you must protect and defend your web.

EngineWorks currently has an SEO engagement in place with a renowned educational institution on the East Coast.  A professor at this college chose to link to the school’s homepage from his personal Web site. He linked to a domain that is named after the school’s founder, which was then redirected to the university homepage.  I discovered this link while exploring link-building opportunities for our client, and thought “great, we already have a relevant link from him.”

I decided to click on the link to see which part of the site I would be directed to, and much to my dismay, was forwarded to a parked domain.  The domain had expired, and was registered by someone who created the parked domain.  This meant that the new owner of the domain was benefiting from our external link vote!  We immediately had our client contact the professor, and change the link to its intended destination on the university’s site.  Since our client no longer owns this domain, the problem had to be fixed by the professor, and not by a 301.  The re-established link now provides a benefit to our client’s site.  A link saved is a link earned, and visitors to the site now have the experience that was intended by the university.

Another similar egregiously missed 301-opportunity currently haunts Baylor University. The university hosts a great piece of content titled “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words,” which is an article written by an English professor in the 1950’s.  I attempted to access this article because several influential writing sites recommend it.  Unfortunately, all of the links refer me to a dead page.  Using Yahoo!’s Site Explorer, I was able to discover that this page has an incredible 628 external links!  Among these non-performing “votes” are Squidoo founder Seth Godin, and popular sites such as ReadWriteWeb and DoshDosh.

What a missed opportunity! All Baylor University needs to do is implement a simple 301 Redirect to wherever they’ve moved the content, and they will be able retain the authority from these links.  I did eventually find the article using archive.org, and it appears that the original content was moved late last year.

If Baylor becomes aware of this negative situation, and chooses to protect its valuable links, I hope this EngineWorks blog will be the 629th link to invite you to check-out this informative article!  Remember, defending your web takes constant vigilance and effort.  Especially, if you want to continue catching juicy flies!

To illustrate the importance of effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies in the travel industry, our SEO Engineer, Tyson Braun, presented the following non-scientific experiment.  Like most Americans, he began his Thanksgiving journey home with two thoughts in mind “I’d like a cheap flight home” and “let’s use Google to find it.”

Using our advanced SEO keyword research tools here at EngineWorks, he discovered the top three Google queries for his topic:

1.    “cheap flights” (20.4 million searchers),
2.    “cheap tickets” (5 million searches),
3.    “cheap airline tickets” (500,000 searches).

The current most important search phrase for belt-tightening Americans is “cheap.” In fact, the next 50 or so keywords related to my topic contain this qualifying adjective.

Many people who search for flights in familiar booking engines such as Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline, Expedia, and Cheapflights often reach these Web sites by searching “cheap flights” in Google.  Typically these online booking sites offer similar usability and pricing, and pull from the same data pool.  According to bookingbuddy.com, the average consumer searches more than three sites to discover the best deal for their flight before purchasing tickets.

The big winner of my travel experiment is cheapflights.com, a booking engine based in London that partners with Orbitz, among others, to generate search results. Cheapoair.com, kayak.com, and cheaptickets.com (owned by Orbitz) are also high on the search engine result pages (SERPs) for my queries. There are endless amounts of booking engines and many of them have partnerships in place as they hedge each other for primed market share. Sometimes the competition boils over as illustrated by the court battles between Priceline and Expedia.

All of these sites provide a desired service, connecting penny-pinching travelers with cheap flights. This Thanksgiving, not only are there fewer of these travelers, but also the actual travelers are more concerned with cost. The leaders in travel and tourism industry are recognizing that aggressive Search Engine Marketing campaigns can to lead to increase qualified traffic and increased market share.

This informative article titled ‘The Goods: Search Engine Optimization’ details the professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services being offered through liveBooks for independent photographers and photography studios.  liveBooks is an industry-leading solutions company that provides fully-editable customized Web site creation and management services along with innovative online tools that empower professional photographers to grow their businesses.

EngineWorks is privileged to be liveBooks’ exclusive provider-of-choice for delivering the partnered online promotional solutions detailed in this article to the photography industry.  liveBooks is committed to pioneering new ways to help photographers efficiently translate their work into effective online experiences.  Now, through our interactive marketing partnership, the firm is able to ensure that their clients’ Web sites are prominently positioned throughout the online search landscape.

When it comes to having your photography business be found online, liveBooks gets the picture!  To find out more information pertaining to the unique Natural SEO services offered through liveBooks, simply visit their Web site today.

Contrary to popular perception, however, Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is not a one-time “shot it the arm” for your Web site.

As more and more savvy marketers are realizing, in order to consistently achieve and maintain prominently positioned Natural search listings throughout the major engines, it is paramount that a concerted strategy be applied throughout the entire length of their online existence. Top performance requires continuous effort.

Time to Perform

Any professional search marketing firm with more than an ounce of integrity acknowledges that effective Natural optimization requires extensive research and expensive resources (with the most valuable of these resources being: time). Not only do typical SEO engagements require several months of initial research and analysis to lay the foundation for efficacious relevancy enhancement, but today’s search algorithms now place significant weight upon a multitude of criteria that requires substantial time to build into your Web site, such as high quality in-bound links and indexed optimized content.

Lay the Foundation

The research phase of any optimization engagement is the most important, given that the identification of your most valuable keyword phrases is accomplished during these first months. This crucial process reveals the targeted search terms which should be used to optimize all elements of your site. In addition, without effective keyword research, your team will not have an effective road map for enhancing your site structure, information architecture, on-page content or layout.

After the first months of in-depth research, a typical SEO engagement should progress into three defined phases. Each of the phases can take more than 6 to 12 months to implement, depending on the size and complexity of the Web site.

The SEO Trifecta

We at EngineWorks, implement a three-pronged approach in order to achieve the greatest performance within the Natural engines. This strategy, which we call the ÔSEO Trifecta’, consists of Site-Wide SEO, On-Page SEO, and Off-Page SEO.

Site-Wide SEO addresses the global site elements that affect the ability of search engines to rapidly index, and appropriately rank, your Web site. We provide professional recommendations and enhancements for your most critical global factors, including server issues, site structure, usability functions, URL design and structure, and overall site accessibility.

Upon completion of our Site-Wide SEO, we address important relevancy components contained on each page of your site. An emphasis is placed on optimized titles, descriptions, tags, and page content. Along with this professional instruction, we provide in-depth information pertaining to SEO best practices.

On-Page SEO is followed by aggressive Off-Page strategies designed to entice external sources to link to your site. Search engines evaluate the relevancy of pages linked to your site, and assign a significant amount of weight to relevant links within their ranking algorithms. In addition to improving rank within Natural search indexes, links from topically related sites can drive qualified traffic.

A Shot of Wisdom

The principal take-away from this e-mail is that the efficacious process above requires a substantial amount of time, and not just in terms of how long it takes to see indexing results within the engines. It is very important that you optimize as many pages on your site as possible. This can mean the optimization of hundreds of pages, which requires significant manpower. However, failure to optimize most, or all, of your pages will result in a compromised strategy for attracting eager customers to your site.

Even small sites need to embrace a multi-year approach to Natural SEO. Having only ten or 20 pages is, more than likely, not enough to establish authority within your space, especially if it is highly competitive. Therefore, small sites should add fresh optimized content and additional site pages at least every month to improve search engine results.

A Healthy Engagement

Finally, aside from the fact that it takes many months (if not, years) to establish relevant in-bound links consistent with search engine guidelines, your competitors are actively striving (each month) to out-perform your listings for your most important search phrases. Thus, the best way to stay ahead of the crowd is to continuously enhance the attractiveness of your site through a long-term SEO engagement.

It takes discipline and consistency to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The same can be said for your ability to acquire customers through your Web site. The best optimization medicine is not a one-time shot in the arm… but, rather monthly effort applied for the life of your site.