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Hello %FIELD:2%, Elixir Systems has moved into its new corporate headquarters. The new offices will handle all corporate operations and will create an environment that will allow the company to continually expand its business and services. The new corporate headquarters is located in Scottsdale, AZ, and will support the existing corporate team, as well as new employees in Technical Services, Customer Services, and Sales. Elixir Systems new address is 7845 E Redfield Road, Suite 101, Scottsdale, AZ 85260 The relocation of Elixir Systems corporate headquarters also includes a new toll free telephone number, 1 866 734 9650. Our new address and contact information can be found here. Another interesting month with the search engines - see the search engine update section for information. Jimmy, Elixir's Senior Marketing Analyst, has written an excellent article on how paid placement and organic search engine optimization can complement each other. Our third article was submitted by one of our clients. The article discusses some of the pitfalls that befell her before finding a SEO company that could produce results. Happy reading. |
Search Engine UpdateThe big news is Google has finally updated their publicly viewable page rank scores. What does this mean? Nothing! Page rank is only one of a vast array of variables that go into making up the rankings that your site will have on the search engines.On the other hand it is nice to see that Google are making some changes after months of no activity. There have also been reports of a second Google spider working its way around the Internet. What does this all mean? Nobody is telling! Needless to say the thoughts of the Florida update are popping into people's heads. For those not around last November, the Florida update was an algorithm change by Google that radically changed the search results just a few weeks prior to the Holiday shopping season. This year it is our opinion that any change will not be as drastic. Following their split from Yahoo in February Google now only supplies 45% of search traffic as opposed to 80+% one year ago. Yahoo!Nothing new. We're working on an article on Yahoo Site Match that will be part of next month's newsletter. MSNMSN have unveiled their Search Technology Preview 2. Claiming to index 5 billion pages entering a common term ('a' or 'the') brings back a total of 2 billion results, running the same queries on Google brings back 3.8 and 5.8 billion results. More interesting is seeing the different rankings on MSN compared to Google and Yahoo! The MSN search engine is slated for release in the first quarter of 2005. Ask Jeeves/TeomaA new version of their search engine - Teoma - was announced in September. We have recently noticed the results from Teoma to be fresher than Google and Yahoo so whatever they changed must be working. Now if only the paid ads could be downplayed a little... |
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Paid Search Placement and Search Engine OptimizationBy James Peggie Paid search placement can be used as part of your Internet marketing strategy to give your business an increased competitive advantage. This is because it gives you immediate control over your search engine rankings. This is one of the big differences between paying for rankings and rankings achieved through “organic” search engine optimization (SEO) where the results are achieved through a persistent and long term strategy. With paid search placement you pay to get immediate high rankings in specific search engines. Pay Per ClickPaid search placement usually takes the form of Pay Per Click (PPC). This requires you to pay only when someone clicks through to your site. PPC can be an effective addition to your overall search engine strategy as it can get you off and running quickly. The main PPC providers, Overture and Google Adwords use systems based on bidding. Whoever pays the most gets the highest ranking. Adwords differs from Overture in that they also use a click-through-rate which rewards high click through rates with better pricing. As with “organic” SEO you will need to define the keywords that your audience will use to find your product. Your keywords are an important part of your sales message. Bear in mind that popular keywords will be more competitive and may have higher bids associated with them. This means that you will have to pay more if you use common keywords or phrases. Remember that if you use the wrong keywords you will get visitors that do not respond to your message. The great thing about PPC is that you can get information and modify your campaign in real time. You can check the effectiveness of your PPC campaign by using the reporting tools that are offered by your PPC provider. This tells you how much business the campaign is bringing you. You can get immediate return on investment information. You can monitor your PPC ads and if they are not effective you can quickly change them. The key is to watch how much you spend and change the ads if they are not working. Paid search placement can be an important part of your Internet marketing strategy. It is a great way to get it up and running very quickly. It also gives you a good insight into how effective your keywords are and an opportunity to try out different ones. “Organic” search engine optimization is much more cost effective in the long term. (3 months+) SEO also benefits you by giving your site exposure for a wide variety of keyword phrases across many directories and search engines. PPC and SEOIf you use PPC with SEO you will find that 60% of your clicks will come from organic searches and 40% from PPC. Therefore neither option should be ignored especially in the field of e-commerce. The two systems can be used effectively together so that you can make full use of your Internet marketing options over a period of time. This will help your business maximize its online marketing efforts. |
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Search Engine Optimization Dilemma Boggles Novice’s Mind!by G. W. Schuyler My site just wasn’t getting the traffic required to run a profitable business. As I asked around I heard more and more about what I needed for my site to generate the traffic. It was called Search Engine Optimization. Being a novice in the area of web site marketing, I asked people who know computers and programming, who have websites, and marketing degrees, how to best optimize my site. I read articles on the Internet, and looked at several options, from very expensive SEO companies to free of charge search engine submission. Being a bargain hunter by nature, I decided to start with free and work my way up the price scale from there as needed! Comparing Apples with ApplesWell, I found that, although I may be able to select red delicious apples over granny smith apples based on this method of shopping, buying a SEO service is quite another story. For one thing, when looking into optimizing my website, I was not comparing apples to apples. Each SEO company has their own level of service or specialization, and all promise great results. This simply does not hold true. Take for example a particular company that offers multiple search engine submission. What do they actually do? They offer to, “ optimize and position websites to come up on the first page of major search engines…guaranteed.” Read the fine print. It is found several clicks back in the Search Engine Intelligence Report. This document states that, “Your website does NOT have to be optimized to submit your web site to search engines, directories and link sites.” Even to the novice this should send up a red flag. Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse? In my opinion it is. Many search engines clearly recommend that your site must be optimized before submission. Furthermore, they do not optimize your site. You do. They give pointers but the actual optimization is up to you. Therefore you must judge for yourself whether you are truly qualified to undertake this task. Answer: Three Letter Acronym - The Question: What does TLA stand for?Another glitch to be aware of when signing up for a service like this is the type of search engine to which your site will be submitted. A list of the search engines should be provided for you. One particular company names FFA Farms in their search engine list. Since embarking on this new form of business marketing I have been inundated with initials. I don’t know what most of them mean. There are the common ones; www, URL and HTML for example. Then there are the more obscure initials; php, asp, or the frequently misunderstood, “<a href=.” To me this is a foreign language! It is not surprising that I simply skipped over the initials FFA in a lengthy list of search engines, is it? There is a danger in this however! FFA farms can get your site banned from Google. This would be a devastating blow to most companies, and one from which it is difficult if not impossible to recover. If you have incoming links from an FFA there is no cause for concern. However if you have linked to them, then you are playing with fire. Ignorance of the rules does not protect you from their enforcement and you could very well be shooting yourself in the foot, or in this case, paying a “search engine submission specialist” to do it for you. What Is The Bottom Line?So, what is the bottom line? Search Engine Optimization is a complex and continually changing industry. You would not go to a podiatrist to get your eyelids lifted, or a dentist who served you a healthy serving of whisky to prepare you for a molar extraction. Therefore you are well advised to go to a professional and ethical company that specializes in complete Search Engine Optimization for your web site. I’m talking about a specialist - not a web designer, not a computer repairman. Look for a company who will continue to monitor and update your optimization over time. Check their references and be sure that they have in place a system to monitor your progress in your search engine rankings. You need a true SPECIALIST. You may have to pay more for the service than the on-line submission companies charge, but it is worth the investment to know your site is operating within the rules, and that you will continue to have traffic driven to your web site without the risk of being banned. This will leave you with a peace of mind so you can go about your business - which is your area of expertise. |
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This is the newsletter from Elixir Systems. Elixir Systems are a Phoenix, Arizona based search engine optimization and search engine marketing services company. If you received a copy of this newsletter and would like to subscribe go to http://www.elixirsystems.com/newsletter. You are currently subscribed as %BASIC:EMAIL% © Elixir Systems, All rights reserved. You are f~ree to use this article in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link and email link. Please also notify us where the material will appear using the address |
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