Online marketers around the globe (particularly in the UK) are increasingly turning to search marketing tactics.
Fifty-five percent of respondents said they planned to raise spending on SEO, and 45% said the same of paid search.
In addition, 31% of SEO and 32% of paid search users said they intended to maintain their budgets.
Leading the search engine listings are the sites with:
1. Good Content
2. Links to your site
3. Relevant Title tags and Meta tags on your pages
It does sound easy, but is so often forgotten.
‘Good Content’
So what do this SEO people mean when they say ‘Good Content’?! 
Good content is the content that is good for the visitor and the search engine. It has to be informative for people to read it, and it needs to contain keywords for the search engines to understand what it is about. Majority of the people write this way anyway. It is hard to write about search engine optimization for example without mentioning the phrase search engine optimisation in the text, isn’t it? The search engines of today are even smart enough to ‘understand’ your abbreviations in the text so one could argue that one can use the SEO instead of the full name. Unfortunately even that the search engine understands the abbreviations for the keyword ranking those are not included. Use SEO to tank for SE, but write a full search phrase: search engine optimization if you want to rank high for it.
The good content has to be unique – you cannot take the text from a page that the search engines has in their indexes already. The content duplication issues arise and those are best to be avoided. So write the original content, your content.
Relevancy is another aspect of the quality of the content that the search engines love. If your whole site is about SEO, and you have one page about Siamese cats, that poor page will never rank really high for the term it is relevant for – the Siamese cats.
Wordtracker:
People use different words when they search for your products online. Use these ‘keywords’ in your website copy and people will find your site when they search.
Sounds simple this Keyword Analysis, doesn’t it?
But in the reality this is it. You need to use the words you want to be found for on your own web site. Google is the Indexing Service in its essence. It reads web pages and answers the users searches based on the search phrases. Yahoo, MSN or any other search engine is the same.
So what is and how to do Keywords Analysis?
Keyword Analysis is the process of finding the keywords you should use on your site. There are number of tools that can help you expand your original list. The list can actually start from the one word. For example let’s say that this site is about ‘SEO’. The aim is that people who are looking for SEO in the search engines find this site. The most obvious way to do it is to use the keyword SEO a lot around a site. But not everyone will just type SEO in the search engine. People might type a search phrase like ‘SEO Ireland’, or ‘SEO Dublin’. Someone else will type ‘Best SEO’ or ‘SEO Company’. Someone will type ‘Search Engine Optimisation’. There are numerous ways one cal search for the topic, or something in particular about that topic. This is where Keyword Analysis comes in. Use the tools to suggest you the lists of keywords related to yours. Then put the synonyms in the tools and request suggestions for those as well. Include in your list of keywords ALL the ones related to your original term.
Keywords Analysis will give a list of thousand or more keywords. If you repeat the steps above multiple times, you will end up with a number of thousands. It is good. But what is the value of each keyword?
The value of a keyword is defined by the number of web sites competing for it (the less the better since it is more likely your site can get on top) and the volume of the searches performed for it. The more searches are made each day for that keyword the more traffic the keyword brings to the top ranked sites. Use this Keyword Value calculation to determine what are the most important keywords and take a special attention to those. Those are the keywords you will want to use a lot on your site, and most likely create a separate page dedicated to each one of them. That page will be used as a Landing Page for the search traffic for that keyword.
There are mixed opinions about Alexa, but here is a quite unique feature Alexa can provide about a geographic market. If you plan to do any online marketing that is country or a region specific, you need to understand that market as best as you can. Alexa offers you a list of the most popular web sites for each country. Priceless knowledge if used right!
Here is the example of the Top Web Sites visited by people in Ireland
Enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include
PageRank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find
similar pages. The company's focus is developing search technology.
google.com
YouTube is a way to get your videos to the people who matter to you.
Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide!
youtube.com
Bebo, the next generation high school and college social network (like
MySpace and Facebook), makes it easy for high school and college
students to stay in touch with their friends, find long lost friends,
and meet new people. Helpful and fun applications make it easy to
remember birthdays, share photos, write blogs, read a friend’s blog,
discover new interests, and just hang out. Bebo connects your brand with
influencers and their circle of friends–you’ll reach a highly engaged
audience w
bebo.com
Search engine from Microsoft.
live.com
A social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload
photos, share links and videos.
facebook.com
Dialup access and content provider.
msn.com
An online collaborative encyclopedia.
wikipedia.org
The local version of this pre-eminent search engine, offering
UK-specific pages as well as world results.
google.co.uk
Free, automated weblog publishing tool that sends updates to a site via
FTP.
blogger.com
Headline ticker will automatically update throughout the day with the
latest news, sport, travel, finance and weather from the BBC. Available
for multiple OS platforms.
bbc.co.uk
Online marketplace where Irish people can buy and sell new and used
items from thousands of categories.
ebay.ie
Bank holding company with subsidiaries which perform commercial banking
operations, international banking, leasing, insurance, mortgage banking,
investment advisory, and investment banking services. (NYSE: AIB)
aib.ie
Social Networking Site.
myspace.com
Serwis umożliwiający kontakt ze znajomymi z lat szkolnych.
nasza-klasa.pl
Main site for product information, support, and news.
microsoft.com
Play poker online at PartyPoker.com, the world s largest poker room. You
ll find Texas Hold em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud & 7 Card Stud
Hi/Lo. They have an excellent Poker School, as well as lots of huge
tournaments.
partypoker.com
Subscription-free, local rate access with unlimited e-mail addresses and
20 MB webspace
eircom.net
Personal adverts with pictures and chat. [Membership]
adultfriendfinder.com
Features plot summaries, reviews, cast lists, and theatre schedules.
imdb.com
Piattaforma che consente di pubblicare i propri video. Vengono
illustrate le modalità di adesione e utilizzo.
megavideo.com
Wyszukiwarka stron WWW, grafiki, grup dyskusyjnych, katalog tworzony na
bazie ODP i wzbogacany przy użyciu własnej technologii Google.
google.pl
Portal gigante de vídeos de sexo.
redtube.com
Users can upload up to 100 meg files for sharing. Provides downloads of
100 megs per hour on the free service. Premium service also available.
rapidshare.com
Person to person online auction site where you can buy or sell new and
used items.
ebay.co.uk
Free blogs managed by the developers of the WordPress software. Includes
custom design templates, integrated stats, automatic spam protection and
many more features.
wordpress.com
Picture galleries available with chat, groups, and photo ratings.
flickr.com
GSM mobile phone operator. Details of services available for personal
and business customers, online shop and customer services.
o2online.ie
Online service for Bank of Ireland customers.
365online.com
Specifications and comparisons on new cars sold in Ireland.
carzone.ie
Amazon.com seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where
customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online,
and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Site
has numerous personalization features and services including one-click
buying, extensive customer and editorial product reviews, gift
registries, gift certificates, wish lists, restaurant and movie
listings, travel, and photo processing.
amazon.com
Mobile phone operator offering a complete range of phones, services,
accessories and tariffs.
vodafone.ie
Online version of the daily and Sunday newspaper.
independent.ie
Irish discount carrier; reservations, flight schedules and company
profile.
ryanair.com
Ireland's national airline. Flight schedules and booking, company
information, travel guides and links.
flyaerlingus.com
The official site with news, fixtures, results, league table,
statistics, club profiles and travel details.
premierleague.com
Provides career guidance services and information on training and
employment opportunities in Ireland. It also offers a job/CV bank.
fas.ie
Online retailer of books, video games, toys, music, and video
recordings. Region 2 DVDs and prices in pounds sterling.
amazon.co.uk
Coordinates targeted Internet advertising campaigns for advertisers, and
provides ad management services, software, and sales for publishers.
doubleclick.com
Serwisy informacyjne i finansowe, katalog stron internetowych, poczta
e-mail i strony WWW, czat, komunikator, randki, gry online, platforma
e-commerce.
wp.pl
Provides image hosting for auctions, live journals, blogs, message
boards, personal websites and online photo albums. Reliable, fast and
very simple to use.
photobucket.com
English and Malayalam language daily based in Kottayam. Local news and
features.
manoramaonline.com
Sports news from around the world.
skysports.com
Large searchable torrents directory.
mininova.org
Versão brasileira do buscador Google.
google.com.br
Apple's main homepage.
apple.com
Offers live event information and online ticket booking for major Irish
sporting events, as well as concerts and other entertainments.
ticketmaster.ie
On demand video publishing and sharing website, strongly interfaced with
video blogs.
dailymotion.com
Home of the Guardian, Observer and Guardian Weekly newspapers plus
special-interest web sites. Each includes news, comment and features
plus breaking news, multimedia, ongoing special reports and free
archives.
guardian.co.uk
Includes US and international stories and analysis, weather, video
clips, and program schedule.
cnn.com
Polski internetowy serwis aukcyjny.
allegro.pl
Worlds largest Bittorrent tracker.
thepiratebay.org
Jobs and resumes. This site provides a focal point to match recruiters
with jobseekers.
irishjobs.ie
Bet on horse racing, football and the lottery in the UK and Ireland.
paddypower.com
Providing GSM services throughout the country. Includes details of
handsets available, a coverage map and services for customers.
meteor.ie
Acesso à internet e serviços agregados.
uol.com.br
Entertainment Guide. Listings for television, cinema, theatre and
events.
entertainment.ie
An online advertising agent that provides products, such as Ad Network
and AdServer, to ensure optimal output and performance for its clients.
fastclick.com
Results, rules, news and contacts.
lotto.ie
Friendster is a leading global social network emphasizing genuine
friendships and the discovery of new people through friends. Search for
old friends and classmates, stay in better touch with friends, share
photos and videos, and so much more.
friendster.com
Serwisy informacyjne, m.in. pogoda, wiadomości, motoryzacja, kobieta;
konta pocztowe i WWW, wyszukiwarka i tematyczny katalog stron
internetowych, czateria, wirtualne kartki, pasaż handlowy.
interia.pl
Online portal with free e-mail and many other services.
rediff.com
ImageShack® is a free image hosting solution. It can be used to share
pictures with friends, as well as post images on message boards and
blogs. It can also be used to direct link images from your personal
website or online auction. And best of all, it's completely free.
imageshack.us
Online directory of Irish business.
goldenpages.ie
Official website of UCD.
ucd.ie
I don’t really know who said it first:
If you search Google index the quotes start appearing in early 2005. Back then, I did not really believe it.
Oh boy, how wrong was I…
An interesting question posted in the LinkedIN Answers by Tim Van Der Stek:
Is there money to be made by posting links of other websites on your own website? Do you need a middle man to accomplish something like this? How can you find out the going rates?
And my LinkedIn Answer:
Google will not like you really much if they find out that you are selling or renting links from your web site. So do not display the advertisement for such a service on your front page, since Google will not send you much traffic, and we all know that the vast majority of the web sites have the majority of their traffic directly from Google.
How to find the rates?
Rates depend on the traffic volume, traffic quality, geographical market, industry, or niche and if your traffic is from Google – what keywords is your web site found for.
The easiest way to find out what is the going rate is to ask a large number of similar sites to yours – in the same market, industry, and with the similar number of the Google PR and Alexa ranking – what would they charge to link to your site (or a fictitious site). Or even better, send them an email and say, I offer €XXX for the link to our site on your front page. From their responses you will quickly establish what would they agree to sell it for – and that is what the going price is.
The majority of this link trading is done by the third party companies, that try to do it all ‘under the radar’ for Google not to notice. Google on the other hand encourages the webmasters to report paid links. Unfortunately they do not offer any of their cash as a reward.
Other third parties like Google AdSense and Text Ads,… offer a far smaller revenue then the direct link sales.
For more of my LinkedIN Answers in the Internet Marketing visit: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanstojanovic. 
SEO Consultant first in Google Chrome!
It took about 6 months from the web site launch to get it to the first position in Google for ‘pages in Ireland’.
Google Chrome Browser is here and available for download at: http://www.google.com/chrome.
SEO Keywords in Ireland – By Google Keyword Tool (July, 2008)
