We were asked the other day, what is Bing? Bing is MSN with a new name. What we find most interesting is using a common word that Microsoft can’t possible protect in the legal circle.

“Badda Bing” was a phrase coined years ago and the new Bing doesn’t have anything we could say has some “Badda Bing.” Microsoft is really playing bingo with our money as stock holders with this very expensive effort to catch up with that other big search giant..

The marketing tools are the same and the search traffic is still worthy of consideration in your overall web marketing strategy. We had to answer this for the client that the Chevy is still a Chevy even when you call it GMC. Don’t ignore Bing but keep it in perspective for your overall marketing dollar placement.

Is getting search engine optimization in 2009 what a small business should do? Will it really help get more customers? Is it effective at finding localized consumers?

The answer to all of these questions is Yes. The market is still down, lucky it is recovering but companies out there are still struggling to stay afloat. These companies have to make difficult decisions every month as far as advertising and promotional needs to keep them either selling product or service. And this is precisely the reason that this year SEO has sold so well this year. Search engine optimization provided by companies like 1 Call Service offer other companies a way to increase viable leads to their website at a vastly reduced cost compared to other forms of traditional advertising. A company that has more viable traffic is likely to make more sales as more arrive at the site because they found what they where looking for.

An example could be if you’re looking for a local dry cleaners shop, so you do a search and see what comes up. The higher you are on this list the most likely you are to gain the traffic. If your site is the one they end up on then you may have just made a sale.

The Dallas metroplex and surrounding areas represent a large advertising market spread out over several hundred miles. So how can SEO/SEM help narrow the field if you are just looking for local customers? SEO/SEM experts all across the county know about the important of localized services and searches, all of your major search engines are also now local aware. These experts can tap the potential of these search engine getting you the local results your looking for, be it a specific area such as Carrollton, or Plano, or a wider range such as Dallas or Ft. Worth.

1 Call Service SEO/SEM professionals will detail out your starting point, and formulate a custom list of improvements to be done to your website, along with getting information on what your specific SEM goals are. With this they can go to work and soon you can start to see your results. More calls, more walk ins, more product off the shelves, what ever your business needs are; money spent on SEO is money well spent in 2009.

Search engine optimization has become the weapon of choice for small companies to compete.

Traffic is shifting to the web

SEO for short, is what people search for along with SEM which is short for Search Engine Marketing.  One would think that traditional advertising is dead but that is far from true.

Mail, email and websites are all viable methods of marketing. To twitter or not is not the question. The fundamentals are much lower than the high level question of precisely where to market.   DFW marketing recently came across a company providing search engine marketing with a single focus of buying links called linkbacks and they never even see the stats of the website they are promoting instead relying only on the link tracking of the service they use to buy the back links. Fortunately we educated them to some basics and they will be more successful as a result.

Tip Time: If you signed up for SEO or SEM and the marketing company has not asked for access to your stats fire them right now! Do not waste another dollar or try to educate them because they should be educating you.

Tip Time: Before you signed an agreement was a specific measurable goal discussed? Something to think about..

MADE IN THE USA!

The slowdown has affected everyone, but you can help your neighbors.  This help is easy and comes back to help you! In economics there is a term called the velocity of money. It has to do with how much business is exchanged between different businesses. We want the flow of money to stay within our community called The United States of America instead of flowing out of the country.

When you buy something it affects someone somewhere. The next time you go to the store read the labels to see where the products are actually made and try to pick a US produced product. Just because the label is Japanese does not mean it’s made in a foreign country. Just because the label is from an old fashion American brand does not mean it’s made in America. Hershey’s candy labels say made in Mexico for example while a house brand chocolate bar is made in America and less expensive to boot. Toyota builds trucks in the US. There are hundreds of examples like these where things are not as they seem.

Read the labels! Content control issues from China just reinforce that buying American made is a good choice but you have to read the label.

If there is any doubt as to the difficulty of how to reach the top of the search engines consider that there area almost 70,000,000 domains in the United States.

So should you buy one of the other top level domains instead if the .com you want is taken?  Since there are only 7 million .net domains there is a good chance you could find your magic gem is available as a .net.  Some would say you need to get a .mobi or .us or .cc but in general sticking with the top internationally known domains is the best choice.  Getting an obscure domain name from a small island in the pacific also means many ISP’s may not even accept email from you.  This is an important consideration when picking a domain name.

We have a good pulse on the domain market and work with a variety of agencies.  Find a good Internet consultant and discuss your business and market then start registering and developing the name(s) that will help you meet your Internet marketing goals.  Go to market with a solid strategy that the professionals will help you achieve.

Source Ref: directi.com