Search engine marketing

[ruggie]

Since this is really a different subject from SEO, I'll start a new, hopefully complementary, thread. I'm not a guru, and i don't yet have any experience to quote froml, but I've spent a while researching it.

On the SEO thread, Frank was musing about ways to promote his current venture. One thought occurred to me: it is more of a blog than anything else, so check out ways of getting known in the Social Networking world.

[Kay]

Yes - these days you need to improve your "social ranking".

Here's an interesting forum post on the subject:

Read this

I seem to be turning into Frank's research assistant.

[frankcoleman]

Excellent thanks guys (I feel like I am taking over a little sorry if that is the case)

That post is really good and I have heard a lot about this Web 2.0 thing but what is it exactly does anyone know?

Kay your advice so far has been brilliant and very much appreciated

[Kay]

There's a definition and a great screed of info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2

I think in it's simplest terms it's about interactivity with the user. In ye olden days websites were more like brochures. Then there was an e-commerce boom where you could actually buy stuff off websites. Then non commercial sites started to get interactive with fora, and allowed their visitors to blog and post photos etc. Now this social networking thing is all the rage. As I understand it, it's not a tangible thing, more an evolution of the web.

BTW, you're not taking over. I'm enjoying this and I think the guys are too or they wouldn't be joining in. (I expect Alan's busy.)

[Graeme]

I'd join in too but I don't have the foggiest idea what you're talking about, I guess I'm just not that computer literate.

Graeme

[frankcoleman]

Me either Graeme but I think joining in is the only way to learn

[ruggie]

WEB2 is not so much about computer literacy as about cultural development of the web, and the technologies that enable it. One small facet is AJAX, not a new language or technology, but a way of using existing stuff to change the feel of being on the web:

A very short time ago, you'd click on a link then twiddle your thumbs while a new page loaded. Now take a look at Google Maps, for instance. Type in the name of a town, and the map scrolls and zooms in on the town. That's AJAX - creative use of existing languages and technologies, but unthinkable without a broadband connection. Now we can do things on the web that used to be possible only when running an application locally on your PC. There's a catch, though - if you overdo it, the search engines can't understand what's going on, and they don't index what's going on - and you can't bookmark what you ended up with.

[frankcoleman]

I remember the good old days when I worked for a company and the only decision for the website was what colour and what font to use, but I guess that was when a website was just something else on a business card and now there is just so much more.

This AJAX thing (I thought it was floor cleaner ) sounds fantastic but does it mean that a lot of websites will need to be redesigned?

[ruggie]

...or a soccer club. No. It needs to be used sensibly - a bit like fonts and colours - or you do more harm than good (like 99.9% of Flash users).

[Kay]

There's a very interesting discussion on the Site Point Forum about what web 2 is and isn't:

Here

[exer1978]

Since this is really a different subject from SEO, I'll start a new, hopefully complementary, thread. I'm not a guru, and i don't yet have any experience to quote froml, but I've spent a while researching it.

On the SEO Certification thread, Frank was musing about ways to promote his current venture. One thought occurred to me: it is more of a blog than anything else, so check out ways of getting known in the Social Networking world.

I've read a couple of "SEO Books", and also picked up some good pointers, what I'm looking for is a more conclusive manual of Search Engine Optimization and Social Networking world.

Does such a thing exist, or do I just need to learn on my own?

[Kay]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Gosh, this is an ancient thread but it's an interesting subject to raise again because almost everything has changed since the previous discussions.

Facebook was founded in 2004, but not open to the public until 2006. At the time we were discussing this before it was still relatively insignificant for the average person on the web. Now, of course, it's everywhere and so any study of SEM or SEO would need to include an understanding of marketing on Facebook.

(Read the history of Facebook here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook )

Amazon's growth has also had a huge influence - and it's also a major search engine, which I think some people might not realise.

There are lots of books and courses about SEO and SEM, but many of them are written by MMOers (people who make money by "teaching" people how to make money online - even if they don't know how to themselves, other than by selling MMO courses).

Possibly the best place to look for worthwhile courses would be Coursera, which offers high quality free courses on many subjects including marketing. (I would not recommend the likes of Udemy for any online business subject.) There are also a few respected websites (and a lot which aren't so good) with a focus on these subjects but their names aren't at the top of my head because I've not been paying so much attention to this part of online business recently.