You may think you are “up to speed” if you have an effective web site. But, going into 2010 and beyond, that may not be enough.

You should start considering your mobile strategy. Mobile marketing is different from web strategy and needs a different approach.

If you are not ready to develop a full mobile presence, an alternative is to use mobile pay per click. This is available through geo-targeting on Google’s adwords.

Just so you know, the online ad spend for mobile is supposed to be $6.5 billion in 2010. Ad spend is a good indicator of overall viability of a medium.

I remember when Arthur C. Clarke’s “2010 – The Year We Make Contact” came out in 1982. 2010 seemed so far away. Now it’s here and while we haven’t made contact with an alien species, so much has changed since then.

Computers have developed in ways that even sci fi writers couldn’t have imagined (Mapquest, anyone?)

In any case, 2010 presents opportunities and challenges that Clarke never dreamed of. I, for one, am eager to meet the new year and all it has to offer.

Happy new year everyone!

Social media usage is going to be a HUGE part of the updated Google Caffeine Search Engine that launches in January. Here’s some tips on how to make Twitter work for your business:

1.) Build an account and start to us Twitter Search to track comments about your business – listen before you Tweet).
2.) Add a picture because people want to see you.
3.) Point out things that are happening in your industry – not just to you.
4.) Have more than one twitter at your company. If someone quits, you don’t want to lose your visibility.
5.) When you talk about your own products and services, make it interesting.
6.) Share the human side of your company. Remember Twitter is about providing value for human connections.
7.) Remember that you don’t have to read every Tweet and you don’t have to answer every Tweet directed at you.
8.) Learn to use URL shortening tools like TinyURL to clean up your Tweets
9.) Twitter works great as an opinion poll
10.) Twitter can augment customer service.

Google has a new search algorithm called Caffeine coming online in early 2010. How will this affect Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

While users are unlikely to find the search result experience much different, people with websites are likely to see their placement results climb or fall based on changes made for Caffeine.

Some of the factors that influence Caffeine include:

• Frequency of updates to site
• Load time for website
• Broken links – a big no no
• Links out to relevant websites – a big yes
• Social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc) updates will be listed high in Google

If you want help planning your SEO strategy to take advantage of the changes with Google Caffeine, give Stacy Fox a call today at (909) 809-8566.

Google’s now automatically captioning videos on the popular YouTube video site. The primary purpose is to allow deaf people to enjoy the videos. But, a secondary impact is that the videos will become Search Engine (SEO) friendly. The service is in its infancy, but the video scripts will soon allow YouTube to have a stronger online content presence.

The transcript of the videos is huge for SEO. The targeted text on the page will help the video rank in the search engines for specific searches.

Some videos come pre-captioned for the web. But, most have audio only or if text is available, it is embedded in the video where search engines cannot “capture” the information.

For instance, in a video for a plumber, the page will now have words like “leaky pipe” or “Riverside Plumbing.” This will help Google know what the video is about which, in turn, helps it to get ranked.

As a result of these changes, it will become increasingly important to have videos placed on YouTube (and to a lesser extent, other video sites) which drive visitors to your website.