If your company doesn’t have a blog, you have even more motivation to start one right now. Hubspot states that businesses with corporate blogs generate 67 percent more leads than non-blog websites.

Why is this? Search Engine Optimization. The more content on your business site, the better chances of being found by people searching for your products or services. The quality of the blog posts are critical to the process. The use of keywords in titles and content, and generating back links to the company blog plays a significant role in search engine rankings.

Contact DoubleDome Web Technologies if you would like to set up a corporate blog or search engine optimization campaign.

To build a successful site map, use the following steps:

1. Make a list of each page on your your website and its URL.
2. Assign each of the pages a priority ranking, which is a number between zero and one.
3. Make a note of when each page was last updated.
4. Assign an update frequency for each page. This could be daily, weekly, etc.

Once you have this information for your site, you are prepared to put together the site map file for your website. If you have created your website using a content management system, there is probably a site map generator plug-in that you can use to automatically generate this file for you. If not, consider using a professional web design firm to assist you with this project.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s your website and your content that are going to be on display and no one knows better than you which items are most important. That’s why it is critical to spend some serious time organizing your website content in advance. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should be as complete as possible. It will ensure that your web designers have a clear picture of what you want to say before they begin work. This will allow them to structure the web design in a manner that is best suited to getting your message across. When websites are built in this manner, everyone wins: the client as well as the web design company.

2. Branding – Every message should incorporate your brand in some way. It can range from the complex, like videos and Flash, to the utterly simple, like a custom logo, customized signature or slogan. The point is, you want each email to be immediately associated with the sender.

3. Call To Action – Every message, no matter its content, must guide a user towards a specific action. If you’re sending a product announcement email, provide a link to a pre-populated shopping cart and a FAQ page. If you’re soliciting feedback, provide a link to a form, or other places to connect with the brand like your Twitter account or Facebook page. In all cases, make your call to action prominent. Tell the reader what you want them to do early and often. Once users become accustomed to your email as a portal for interaction and education, they will be much more likely to read it and respond.

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NEW YORK U.S. retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel) will total nearly $132 billion in 2009, down about 0.4 percent from 2008. Assuming the recession ends this year, as many economists have predicted, eMarketer forecasts that online sales will begin to rebound in 2010 and hit full stride in 2011.

Web research has become a priority for value shoppers in today’s recession. Currently, 86 percent of Web users are shoppers who browse, research and compare products on the Internet, but they do not necessarily buy online. Often ignored, store sales influenced by online research are three times higher than e-commerce sales.

Many consumers opt to buy online for convenience, price and broad product selection. About 81 percent of Web shoppers are also online buyers. Web consumers who refrain from buying online often get hung up on security and privacy concerns or the inability to touch and feel products. Web retailers are adding new content and features to lower these hurdles.

EMarketer estimates mobile Internet access, through either traditional browsers or installed applications, will see significant gains during the next five years, reaching 134.3 million U.S. mobile Internet users in 2013. That’s up from 73.7 million in 2009. Many historic barriers to mobile Internet usage — cost, complexity and poor user experience — have begun to recede. For many marketers, mobile applications constitute an increasingly necessary avenue for reaching and engaging with their customers, but the essential challenge remains: To understand consumer behavior and craft experiences that resonate with a target audience and integrate with other channels.

The recession has hit the retail industry from all angles. U.S. retail e-commerce sales will shrink from $133.6 billion in 2008 to $133.1 billion in 2009. EMarketer estimates online sales will be relatively flat in 2009, with some signs of recovery beginning in 2010. As disappointing as sales were online, offline figures were even more lackluster in 2008. Sales shrank 0.6% for the year and each quarter showed less growth than in the e-commerce channel. Affluent online buyers were a major reason e-commerce sales fared better than retail industry sales. Affluent Internet users are more active than ever, on PCs and mobile devices, and their numbers continue to grow, even in a severe recession.

Increase efficiency with CSV import.

Many advertisers have requested the ability to import CSV files in AdWords Editor, and we’re happy to announce this feature is now available in the new versionwe’re happy to announce this new feature. If you make changes to your account in a spreadsheet or a custom application, you can now import your spreadsheet directly into AdWords Editor, then post your new or edited items. Learn more

Save time by downloading or updating selected campaigns.

Have you ever waited a long time for your account to download, when all you want to do is work with one or two campaigns? Now you can just download the campaign (or campaigns) that you want to edit, leaving the rest of the account alone. You may also choose to download or update only active campaigns (or only paused campaigns). Learn more

Make the most of Keyword Opportunities.
We’ve made a few changes to the Keyword Opportunities tool that should make it easier to manage your keyword data. On the “Search-based keywords” tab (the AdWords Editor version of the Search-based Keyword Tool) you can now view and organize new keywords by topical category, letting you zero in quickly on the keywords that are most relevant to your account. Also, when you export or copy keywords, the Keyword Opportunities columns (such as Volume and Competition) are now included. As another response to advertisers’ requests, you can now add terms to your account as either keywords, negative keywords, or campaign negative keywords.

Based on Google’s analysis of the data it collects across its network of online services, including Google Search and Google Maps, a pizzeria for instance could find out how many people are clicking on its store hours, or which zip code is the most common among diners seeking driving directions.

The product is free, and is intended to showcase the usefulness of online data analysis to local businesses, many of whom may not even have their own Web site, said Carter Maslan, director of product management for local search.

Does Google expect that any of those newly-enlightened customers could then decide to advertise through Google’s Internet search system?

Integrated marketing is an approach that relies on consistency and systematic strategy.? It is important to establish consistent images, content, and tone as you create and deliver marketing messages and materials.? A brand can generate greater sustainability over time by doing this.? Establishing consistency between various media and points of distribution will really pay off in the long run.? Aside from a company’s web design and presence on the internet, there are also other media outlets to address.? Print, radio, and television campaigns are very effective for marketing.? However, the effectiveness of all these campaigns depends largely on the integration of each element.

A professional web design company can help in this regard.? You see, it is all about getting the lion’s share while dealing with fewer metrics on performance and lowering overall costs.? Most companies have limited budgets, and that means there is a need to focus on the expenditure of dollars and other resources.? When you create an integrated marketing campaign, the results multiply.? It is possible to set up an outreach strategy that benefits from past messages and builds on that momentum for new marketing messages.

Once of the most prominent examples of this concept is logo design.? Think about some of the most powerful and lasting logos out there.? McDonald’s and Pepsi come to mind as iconic logos that have stood the test of time.? Consistency and long term application is important for a brand logo.? Skillful design sets the foundation.? A web design firm can work to integrate logos for all forms of media.? Developing a sleek logo that can be used in various marketing settings is crucial.? The same is true for other design details.? Marketing materials must flow together across different types of media.? You get better results when you project the same tone and message in your web, print, radio, and TV campaigns.? This is how you build brand recognition and establish a positive image.

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The company on Wednesday will begin testing a new social-networking platform called Microsoft Vine, and chief strategist Craig Mundie tells Fortune the company is planning on pursuing a subscription-based model instead of trying to support the platform only with advertising. Vine’s other twist: It plans to target public safety officials and concerned citizens seeking emergency information.

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1. Google has increased the snippet length.

Google now shows an extended snippet for queries that consist of three or more keywords. The idea behind this change is that these multi-word queries are very targeted and complex. The usual short snippet might not contain enough information.

2. Google now shows more related searches at the bottom of the results

When you search for a keyword, Google will display related searches at the bottom (and sometimes at the top) of the search results.

For example, if you search for the keyword “principles of physics”, Google will suggest “angular momentum,” “special relativity,” “big bang” and “quantum mechanic” as related terms that could help you find what you need.

3. Google now shows local results based on IP addresses

Search Google for the keyword “pizza” and you’ll see local results in the middle of the search results. These local results are delivered based on the IP address of the searcher. That means that you will get different results than people in another city.

The keywords in the links to a website have been so important for Google that people managed to get websites to the top of Google’s search results for very obscure keywords. For example, some people started a scheme in which they asked their friends to link to the official website of George W. Bush with the keyword “miserable failure”.

The result was that George W. Bush’s website was #1 on Google for that keyword. In the meantime, Google has learned to deal with these so-called Google bombs and it’s not as easy to manipulate the results with the links as it has been.

A Gartner study released last week said in the 12 months ended September 2008, more than 5 million U.S. consumers — 40% more than in the same period a year ago — lost money to phishing attacks. These well-publicized e-mail scams have made consumers wary of opening commercial e-mails. And perhaps no one feels the pain more than financial services companies, a prime target of scammers.

The OTA study said the overwhelming majority of Fortune 500 brands, including huge marketers such as AT&T, Procter & Gamble, Sears and MetLife, have not taken the two key steps to reinforcing online security: implementing website-security certificates and authenticate e-mails sent from their corporate domains.

What does that mean? E-mail authentication means a marketer provides information — digital signatures, IP addresses or domain names from which legitimate e-mails will come — to the ISPs, such as Earthlink or Comcast, or e-mail vendors, such as Yahoo or AOL, that helps them determine that this is truly from the company it claims be from. For example, XYZ company can declare to the ISP that it only sends e-mails from the domain www.bigbookseller.com. Thus, if the ISP sees e-mails purporting to come from XYZ but that are sent from any other domain, it should block them.

OTA Chairman Craig Spiezle said third-party e-mail marketers are adopting authentication at a rate of 85%, but brands themselves are not protecting their corporate domain names. That means third-party vendors sending e-mails on their client’s behalf often authenticate the domain they have set up to control the campaign. For example, an e-mail marketer sending promotional e-mails on behalf of XYZ might use the authenticated e.bigbookseller.com domain, but bigbookseller.com itself is not authenticated. Thus, it becomes easy for someone to forge e-mail that appears to be coming from bigbookseller.com.

The average click-through rate was up 7.5% in first quarter of 2009 versus Q1 2008, and the average search ad conversion rate was up 5%, NetElixir reports.

Only 4.6% of consumers say they’re likely to pay attention before 9 a.m., but after 6 p.m. the figure climbs to 51.6% and, for 35- to 44-year-olds, as high as 59%. In the 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. lunchtime slot, consumers have other things on their mind and an average of only 11% pay attention to ads.

Google Similar Images changes that. With this feature, after entering in what one is looking for, the results all have a link below them that will find other images like that one. It uses image recognition technology to read the image and match it to others.

In an aggressive social-media program that goes far beyond what Ford has done in the past — and reaches beyond just the marketing department — the automaker is counting on 100 bloggers to introduce its new Fiesta, which is set to reach U.S. dealers in early 2010. The idea behind Fiesta Movement is to get the model’s target audience to drive and, hopefully, chatter about the car for months to come.

The Fiesta is Ford’s global subcompact vehicle and was designed in Europe, where it’s been on sale since August 2008. The diminutive hatchback (a sedan will be launched here) seeks to provide stylish transportation in a small package with low acquisition cost, high fuel efficiency and cues that appeal to young consumers.

Ford is loaning 100 German-built Fiestas to social-media trendsetters for six months. The 100 “Fiesta agents,” chosen from 4,000 who applied online, will share their experiences behind the wheel, completing monthly, themed missions from travel to social activism; posting videos; and updating their friends and followers on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. The participants begin training with their Fiestas in late April, and they will begin receiving the cars in the first week of May.

Flash was once known primarily as the technology behind those niggling Web ads in the 1990s that gyrated and flickered on the screen. Today, it is a ubiquitous but behind-the-scenes Web format used to display Facebook applications, interactive ads and, most notably, the video on sites like YouTube and Hulu.com.

Now Adobe Systems, which owns the technology and sells the tools to create and distribute it, wants to extend Flash?s reach even further. On Monday, Adobe?s chief executive, Shantanu Narayen, will announce at the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas that Adobe is extending Flash to the television screen. He expects TVs and set-top boxes that support the Flash format to start selling later this year.

For consumers, what sounds like a bit of inconsequential Internet plumbing actually means that a long overhyped notion is a step closer to reality: viewing a video clip or Internet application on a TV or mobile phone.

For Hollywood studios and other content creators, a single format for Web video is even more enticing. It means they can create their entertainment once in Flash ? as the animated documentary ?Waltz With Bashir,? from Sony Pictures Classics, was made ? and distribute it cheaply throughout the expanding ecosystem of digital devices.

?Coming generations of consumers clearly expect to get their content wherever they want on it, on any device, when they want it,? said Bud Albers, the chief technology officer of the Disney Interactive Media Group, who will join Adobe executives at the convention to voice Disney?s support for the Flash format. ?This gets us where we want to go.?

Adobe, based in San Jose, Calif., is among the oldest Internet powers but perhaps one of the least visible to users. Founded in 1983, the company first developed a common language for laser printers called PostScript and later built or bought popular desktop publishing tools like Illustrator and Photoshop.

In 2005, Adobe acquired Macromedia, the originator of Flash, and expanded from making software to create and share digital documents, like Adobe Acrobat and the PDF file format, to dominating the budding market of tools to create online graphics and video. Last year the company reported net income of $871.8 million on revenue of $3.6 billion.

According to Adobe, Flash is now on 98 percent of all computers, and about 80 percent of Web videos are viewed using it.

Adobe says Flash was installed on 40 percent of cellphones shipped last year, and it recently announced efforts to increase that penetration by abolishing the licensing fees it was charging handset makers, much as it offers the Flash player free to consumers and video sites like YouTube.

Adobe makes money on Flash by selling software to help companies create and deliver Flash content to the Web.

Some major players in the phone market do not support Flash. Most notably, Apple, maker of the iPhone, says Flash uses too much processing and battery power. Mr. Narayen says handset makers will ultimately not be able to resist, since it will make viewing the Web on a phone no different from surfing on a PC.

?Anyone who wishes to deliver Web browsing on smartphone devices, supporting Flash will be an integral part of the experience,? he said.

Despite its problems wooing Apple, Adobe considers the television screen the last great frontier for Flash. To support the new effort to bring Flash to the TV, it has signed partners including Intel, Comcast, Netflix and Broadcom, the company that makes many of the components that go into cable and satellite set-top boxes. (The New York Times Company has also agreed to support this initiative to bring Flash to the TV set.)

While television makers like Sony and Samsung are not involved yet, analysts say integrating Flash ? or at least some kind of Internet video ? into the living room television is inevitable.

?It?s hard to differentiate TVs these days. They?ve gotten about as big and thin as you can get them,? said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Interpret LLC. ?This idea of being able to standardize on Flash-based content across devices and platforms will be something TV vendors can get excited about because it will distinguish their products.?

One company standing in Adobe?s way is Microsoft. Its rival to Flash, called Silverlight, is used by Netflix and the BBC, among others, and was used by CBS to stream the N.C.A.A. men?s basketball tournament and by NBC last year to stream the Olympics.

Microsoft says the second version of Silverlight has been installed on 300 million PCs since it became available six months ago. It also claims that Silverlight better supports live, high-definition video in what is called 1080p resolution, which is paramount to bringing Internet content to large HDTVs.

?I can?t imagine what could be more important on a television than high video quality,? said Brad Becker, director of rich client platforms at Microsoft ? and a former Adobe executive. Adobe executives say the new Flash for televisions will support such high-definition video.

Some analysts are not counting out Microsoft just yet. They say the company has a significant presence in the living room with devices like the Xbox 360 game consoles that can stream movies to a TV. Microsoft, with annual revenue that is 17 times that of Adobe?s, also has the resources to finance an escalating competition.

?There hasn?t been a true competitor to Adobe for quite some time and Microsoft could potentially start bridging the gap between the PC and the TV even more effectively,? said Josh Martin, an analyst at the Yankee Group. ?Maybe they could start putting out some of the fire that Adobe has long held.?

The longstanding complaint in online advertising circles is that the Web has yet to receive its fair of ad spending, considering the amount of time most Americans spend online these days.

Conventional wisdom has been that online advertising still pulls in less than 10 percent of all media dollars, while more and more users spend as much as 20 and 30 percent of their media time surfing the Internet.

Yet according to a new report issued by eMarketer, online industry executives may soon have less to complain about. The researcher predicts that the Web?s share of ad dollars will approach 10 percent this year and will exceed 15 percent by 2013. Those projections are based on recent trending, as the Internet?s share of total spending has been gradually increasing by a rate of one percent each year, found eMarketer.

Ironically, that rate of growth should accelerate because of the ongoing recession, which is causing many brands to reevaluate all of their ad and marketing budgets, according to the report. That optimistic assessment comes just after eMarketer revised its 2009 online ad spending forecast, dropping an earlier prediction of 8.9 percent growth to 4.5 percent.

Despite that slowdown, the Web is benefiting from an overall share shift, claims eMarketer. ?Marketers are spending more on Internet ads, while spending less on advertising in other media, such as newspapers, radio and magazines,? reads the report. That shift is being driven primarily by most brands? intensifying need to track and justify every ad dollar in the current climate?which the Web?s inherent trackability offers.

?Digital marketing offers compelling benefits, especially for cash-conscious companies,? said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst . ?Marketers can more readily measure the results of Internet advertising than with most traditional media.

This produces more efficient advertising and higher ROI, which in turn pushes traditional media to compete with lower pricing.?

The most significant design flaws effecting business value generally ignore the following:

???? Communicate clearly so that users understand you. Users allocate minimal time to initial website visits, so you must quickly convince them that the site’s worthwhile.
???? Provide information users want. Users must be able to easily determine whether your services meet their needs and why they should do business with you.
???? Offering simple, consistent page design, clear navigation, and an information architecture that puts things where users expect to find them.

Get these three right, and you will enhance your site’s credibility, ease a user’s way through the site, and do far more for the site’s business value.

Poor creative design is one of the main pitfalls for web design. You need a solid foundation on which to build. Without this, you will struggle with the implementation of many prominent features. Poor navigation is often a result. Few things are as frustrating to a user as a confusing navigation setup. If there is no usability, then visitors will leave the site immediately. Another common mistake is when designers forget to make a site cross browser compatible. If a website only works for one type of browser, then you are cutting yourself off from tons of other potential visitors who cannot open your site with their browsers. It is a rookie mistake, so keep an eye out for it.

Poorly written content is also a big mistake. Internet browsers are generally intelligent, and they want to read good content. Garbage writing is an insult to their intelligence. People won’t return to your website if they find poor content. A professional web design firm can provide consultation so that this does not happen. They can also help to correct unfocused marketing messages. Speaking of marketing, it is important to make your site search engine friendly. Many amateurs forget to do this, and that is a major mistake that will affect the levels of traffic to your site.

Another web design mistake is using the wrong technology. Sometimes people will use Flash when HTML should be used. Remember to use an enterprise class data center. A slow hosting environment is never good for business. Finally, look for a firm that performs a post launch evaluation. If you spend a lot of time developing a site, a post launch evaluation should definitely be carried out to make sure everything works how it should.

Marketers that cut ad spending during downturns between 1985 and 2005 tended to lose more business to private-label brands in the short and long term, according to research from an academic at the University of North Carolina. But companies that kept ad spending level or boosted it, especially in the TV segment, didn’t lose much ground to private-label rivals during those previous recessions, the research found.

Here’s a link to the full article. adage.com/article?article_id=135790