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Search engine optimization, often referred to as SEO, recently experienced yet another major change when Google implemented their last big update. They called it the Penguin update – and while penguins are typically found in cold climates, this Penguin had significant impact on rankings no matter what climate you are in.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is changing faster than ever. It seems I read daily about more Google updates. Last year it was the infamous Panda update when they began re-evaluating how the search engine views quality content. Now I am reading more about how Google is changing the way it looks at links. Rest assured Google is in hot competition with Bing and to win that battle, Google needs to continue improving the relevance of its search results. After all, isn't that what we want from Google? Isn't that good customer service from Google? It is to me and it means we in the SEO business need to stay true to what delivers the best search results - rather than trying to "game" the system.

I’ve read a lot about how to use social media to gather market research – as a data person, something I cherish. So, in a rare moment of free time I decided to test out the Linked In poll feature. It is really cool – you should try it out. To find where to create a poll in Linked In, just go to the “More” navigation tab at the top of your page, click it and you will see a link to Polls. Linked In has done a great job with this tool as it is easy to use, flexible and very intuitive.

Most everyone has a cell phone and about 50% of them are smart-phones. This presents a great marketing opportunity for business but it seems others perceive a violation of privacy and other concerns.

What are companies finding to be their most effective sales and lead generation activities? That was the objective of a recent survey conducted by Web-Marketing 123, a California based, nationally recognized online marketing company. They surveyed over 500 US companies. About two-thirds of respondents operated in the B2B space (marketing to other businesses) with the remainder marketing directly to the general public (B2C). The participating firms were of all sizes, from firms with fewer than 10 employees to those with more than 1,000, and the mix was pretty even, making the results representative of the business community.

Moneyball is a popular movie out these days and it is a true story about how the Oakland A’s baseball team (and it’s GM) has to re-assemble the team and finds all of baseball's conventional wisdom is wrong. Forced to reinvent his team on a tight budget, the team's GM and a partner use statistical data to analyze and place value on players who the scouts say are flawed but the data says they have the ability to get on base, score runs, and win games. These new methods challenge traditional approaches to the game and the GM is scourned because they claim he is tearing out the heart and soul of the game. When you couple the premise of this movie with Wanamaker's famous quote - "I know half my advertising works, I just don't know which half" - one can't help but embrace the advantages of using the right web analytics data to optimize marketing campaigns.

I'm often invited into companies to consult with them about online marketing and their new website. It happens often - a firm gets a new website developed by another company and we are invited to discuss online marketing strategy. The chief marketing person might say something like, "We just developed a new website and now we need to do something with it. What do you suggest?" Having experienced this very scenario several times, we've developed 3 very powerful questions to begin to shape a comprehensive, long term online marketing plan. Ready - here they are:

Social media has “a new sheriff in town” called Google +. Google has gotten into the social media space in a huge way recently and in only 3 weeks has amassed about 20 million users. What is it? How is it different from Facebook, LinkedIn and some of the other social networks? Is there a business application for this? How will it affect online marketing activities? There are many questions about Google + and this post is only an intro to this exciting new online network.

Companies are talking a lot about social media marketing and trying to figure out what to do. Many think having a Facebook page is the biggest priority. No doubt Facebook is important – after all 600 million users ain’t bad. But what many lose site of is their reputation online and what people are saying about them online. This IS social media and many call it Online Reputation Management (ORM).

Search engine marketing spend is about to become the "little brother" to display marketing in the next few years according to some industry experts. By 2015, these experts expect marketing spend on Display to be just shy of $22 billion while they predict search marketing spend that year will come in about $21.5 billion. Display marketing in this context includes online video, banner ads, rich media and the like. While I was surprised by this at first glance, when I think about the emergence of video, I become less surprised. After all, YouTube has become the third most popular website (after Google and Facebook) and is considered by many to be the second most popular search engine after Google.