In This Issue:

• AT&T vs. The Search Engines
• Search Engines: Keywords
• Featured Businesses - Shoe Swaps & All American Carpet Cleaning
  
• Coming Next Month

AT&T Versus the Search Engines

Over the last year, we have seen a steadily growing trend of website owners wanting to improve the results from their advertising dollars.  They are aggressively placing more and more of their focus on the web at the expense of print advertising.

Their #1 objective is to drive more traffic to their websites by improving their standings in the organic search results.

Their #2 objective is to improve the ROI of their advertising expenditures by converting a significant amount of their print advertising to web advertising.   

Most commonly, they are switching ad dollars from the Yellow Pages to Goggle, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com.  They all feel that advertising in the Yellow Pages is not as effective as in years past.

AT&T is well aware of this trend and the inroads that the search engines are making into their advertising revenues.  They have been trying for years to establish YellowPages.com.

Fom our research, they do not seem to be having much success in establishing themselves as a really viable alternative to the search engines.  We rarely see any traffic to our clients' sites from YellowPages.com but there is plenty from the search engines.

New threat to the Yellow Pages.
Legislation has been introduced in Sacramento that will require the phone company to deliver white page phone books only to customers who request them.  It's part of an environmental effort.

If this goes through, can a similar approach be far behind for all phone books, incLuding the Yellow Pages?  And junk mail!

Bob Dylan said it first - " The times they are a changin' " - but it has never been more true than today.  As business people, our world is sure changing very rapidly. We all need to adjust quickly to keep up.

Search Engines: Keywords

Last month, we touched briefly on the importance of KEYWORDS. This month, we'll delve a little deeper into this important topic.

1. What keywords are good for my website?
   You need to get into your customers heads and think what they would type into a search engine.
2. Think of keyword phrases, not just keywords.
   Web surfers know how to use the search engines to find what they want. They enter phrases that will give them the results they want. They will type in things like "web designers in San Ramon" and my website is optimized to appear high in the search results.  You can do the same for your business.  If you sell custom wedding invitations, perhaps one of your keyword phrases should be "custom wedding invitations".  
3. Avoid generalizations
   Avoid keywords that are too broad ranging, too general.  You may think that using "invitations" as a keyword will give you more chances in the search engines but the opposite is true.
   
4. Get local
   If the majority of your business is done within a certain geographic area, include the major towns/cities that you serve. "Custom wedding invitations" could be backed up by a keyword list of the major cities in your market.
   
5. Don't overdo it
   Most website owners think that stuffing their website with every keyword they can think of will help. Wrong!  This is called "keyword stuffing" and is frowned on by the search engines.  They typically only read your first 6 keywords so pick them wisely and place the most important first.
6. Make your keywords work harder
   Search engines read the hidden keywords in your META tags and they compare them to the text content of your pages.  Be sure you include all of your keywords in the written section of your web page. 
   

Featured Businesses

SHOESWAPS.COM
The Shoe Swaps home page explains things pretty clearly - "If you love shoes and have pairs you have never worn, worn once, or they kill your feet - and for some reason, you just haven't parted with them yet - this site is for you!"

This site will likely be of more interest to the ladies so, gentlemen, please pass it on to your better halves.

ALL AMERICAN CARPET CLEANING
In business since 1983, All American Carpet Cleaning does carpet cleaning, hand washing of oriental rugs, stone & tile restoration. This family owned business is located in Concord and serves the East Bay.

Their website offers money saving coupons on steam cleaning of carpets and tile & stone restoration. If you call, ask for Eric.

If you would like to have your business featured in this newsletter, let me know.

Coming Next Month

We will continue with the Search Engine series. I am trying to decide between continuing with the Keywords or moving on to discussing paid advertising with the Google, etc. If you have a preference, please email me.