Newer browser versions provide a significantly better online experience because of their improved features and security. As the web continues to change and evolve, more complex applications and functions are now available and are a key component of a modern fully functional website.

Support of older browsers and technologies like IE6 limits our ability to upgrade and make use of new web features. Please upgrade your browser today so you can take advantage of features only available in newer-version browsers. There are many choices, including:

• Internet Explorer 8
• Firefox 3.6+
• Google Chrome 3+
• Opera 10+
• Safari 4+

If you need additional information about difficulties which can arise with older browsers, the following sites provide more details:

• Google
• YouTube
• Basecamp (project management)
• SalesForce

Please note, we are not “blocking” older browsers. If you use an older browser, you can continue to do so; however, websites may not look right or work properly in an older browser.

Let us know if you have any questions concerning NetStrategies’ discontinued support of Internet Explorer 6 or other older browsers.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankblacknoir/

Once you determine goals for your Web site and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to drive and measure that goal’s success, the next step is to create goals and KPIs for your supporting Internet marketing efforts including content.

Content includes everything from the text on your Web site pages, to your blog, video, Tweets, white papers, case studies, calls to action, forms, AdWords campaigns, e-mail campaigns, PowerPoint presentations, news releases… Whew! It’s no wonder content is so vital to online success and precisely why you need a strategy!

A sample content goal: Company ABC is a leading online resource center for energy-saving ideas in your home.

Who are you writing for?
Company ABC must first clearly understand its target customer. What words would this customer use online to search out this kind of information? How basic or advanced is the customer’s understanding of in-home projects? What are the key demographics for your target group? Any details you include help you choose the right kinds of content and speak in the language of that customer.

What do you want them to do?
Once you understand the target customer, decide what types of content work best. You also need to decide what outcomes you desire. Do you want a visitor to simply read, listen, or watch your content? Or do you want the prospect to take additional action and pay for a service? Watch this Internet Marketing TV video for an in depth look at cross promotion ideas.

Key points to remember…
Set a goal.
Know your target audience.
Plan your strategy.
Map it out on the calendar.
Cross promote.

For an in depth look at content strategy, follow Joe Pulizzi’s blog.

If you want to read some fantastic writing advice, watch Copyblogger.

The Google Business Solution Center lists several options for getting your content out through Google.

DoshDosh wrote an article about content strategy with some great suggestions.

How do you ensure online success? You set measurable goals and key performance indicators, or KPIs, to drive those goals.


Photo Credit: Matt McGee, http://www.flickr.com/photos/pleeker/123027910/

Setting online goals can be tricky. You want them to be meaningful and measurable. Without them, you cannot determine whether your site benefits your organization. More importantly, you cannot drive progress.

Think about your business or organization and decide what success looks like. Here is an example of an online goal and two KPIs a business to business company might select.

Company ABC’s main Web site goal is to grow the business 25 percent in 2010. They determine two main KPIs to drive and measure. The first: average 50 qualified leads per week. The second: sign 50 new customers this year. They can track these KPIs through Web site analytics.

Once you have your main online goal and a few concrete, measurable KPIs, break down activities to support that goal, track them, and make adjustments each month as necessary.

Let’s look at another scenario as an example. This time we’ll use an association.

Association XYZ sets an online goal to increase membership 10 percent in 2010. XYZ’s supporting KPIs could be as follows. First: increase new visits to its site by 30 percent. Second: increase visits to their online job openings page by 25 percent.

From there, Association XYZ’s online marketing plan could include steps to create and distribute content focused on member needs. It might also choose to start a PPC campaign highlighting the online jobs section.

These are examples meant to get your brain working!

Don’t get caught up in the numbers. If you need to adjust your goal after a few months or change your KPIs, that’s OK. The important thing to remember is you must set your goals and then drive your online activities to reach them! Without measurable goals and KPIs you leave your online business to chance.

Please add your own goal and KPIs to help others brainstorm!

The winter doldrums are officially here. Momentum for New Year’s resolutions is fading fast. The trees are bare; grass is brown. It’s time for an Internet marketing pick-me up! And what better way than to reflect for a moment on things that make you smile?!?

Here are 20 things that make us smile at NetStrategies. We hope you will add your happy thoughts to the list too!

Photo Credit: peyri/www.flickr.com/462244646

1. Our great customers. You are the reason we are in business (our number one happy thought). Thank you for trusting NetStrategies to lead your Internet marketing efforts.

2. Teamwork. Each member of our team is a leader in their field and augments everything we do. Our talents span from SEO, PPC, Analytics, Development, Social Media, Content Writing, Video, Managed Web Site Hosting, editing, kayaking, ice hockey, grilling, and scone baking!

3. The Internet. Thank you Al Gore for inventing it. After all, there would be no Internet marketing without the Internet!

4. Our vendors. Great vendors like Applicure, Cisco, Dell, and Parallels allow us to better serve our customers.

5. Occoquan Harbour Marina office space. We enjoy a gorgeous view every day from our desks overlooking the Occoquan River in Northern Virginia.

6. Google Analytics. This wonderful, free Web analytics tool allows us to do what we do best, measure results.

7. Experts who share their knowledge. Books, blogs, Webinars, videos…all free resources you share online and off.

8. Twitter and all its applications. We find valuable content every day from those we follow. Twitter gives us a valuable social platform to share our content. All those wonderful free applications like HootSuite and TweetDeck make using Twitter a snap.

9. Graphic designers. You make everything look so much better!

10. Programmers. Your HTML skills make anything possible. The phrase of 2010 has got to be “There’s an app for that!”

11. Instant messaging. This handy little feature draws our remote employees just a keystroke (and an emoticon) away!

12. bing’s photo of the day. If you don’t visit bing every day to learn about a new place, you are missing out.

13. Good coffee. No one in our office could make it though the day without our java jolts from Caribou Coffee in Lorton.

14. Flavored creamers. Funny, everyone makes fun of the hazelnut and vanilla latte creamers, but they need replacing every week.

15. MacBook Pro. (Sorry fellow PC-loving NetStrategists…had to slip in the Mac.)

16. Google Alerts. This handy free program helps us with reputation management and to watch the spread of our content. (Always a reason to smile!)

17. Collaboration. Outcomes are always better when we take advantage of shared talent.

18. Interns. NetStrategies supports local intern programs like Training Futures in the DC metro area. It is exciting to share our passion for Internet marketing with a budding new professional while benefiting from their hard work.

19. TubeMogul makes our videographer smile! He uploads our videos to this one site and it is distributed to many more automatically.

20. Internet marketing the NetStrategies way. Everyone on staff smiles when we help a client succeed with measurable results. Whether we launch a new Website, improve an existing one, boost the search results, or help a pay-per-click campaign take off, it is rewarding and fun ALWAYS!

What makes you smile at work?? Please share!

Last week while visiting my grandpa in Panama City, Fla., I accompanied him on his daily ritual — the errand run.

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ooohoooh/

That day I was overwhelmed with southern hospitality. It made me consider how fantastic it would be if social media, or as I prefer to call it, online relationship building, followed the lesson of the simple errand run.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn — and a thousand other similar applications are merely tools. The challenge for us all is to use these tools effectively.

1. Engage people often.
2. Learn about them.
3. Laugh with them.
4. Look out for others.
5. Share your good energy.

And remember as grandpa told me years ago, “You can’t email a handshake.”

I welcome you to share your favorite customer service experience!

A press release is a great way to present newsworthy content for your readers. However, the cost can be prohibitive for a small business or association to subscribe to the big press release distribution sites. Before you shell out $350 or more to get your news noticed, you might consider registering for a few of the free directory websites. While the free sites do not normally contain links, video embeds, or graphic images, they do receive notice via Twitter, blogs, and search engines.

Before you launch into submitting your press release to any directory, ensure it is well written and targeted directly to your key online audience. David Meerman Scott writes extensively about online press release value. Here is a link to his blog post, the new rules for press releases.

Once you write your release targeted to your key audience, using your keywords, you can use hubspot’s press release grader to determine whether you have some revising to do.

If your social media budget is tight, register for free press release directories to share your content online.

www.24-7pressrelease.com
www.i-newswire.com
www.pr.com
www.pressbox.co.uk
www.przoom.com
www.free-press-release-center.info
www.clickpress.com
www.prlog.org

If you use a free press release directory and would like to share its domain, please add to the list!

Next we’ll take a look at distribution for high value “big news” announcements.

Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals | Stacey Morgan Smith

Google announced on its official blog last week that it is “extending personalized search to signed-out users worldwide.”

Generally, this means that Google will use a “cookie” to customize your search results. If you often search for Internet Marketing Services and usually choose NetStrategies (which you do, of course), Google will remember your preferences and might display NetStrategies higher in your search results.

Google has utilized personal search for signed-in users for several years. If you have a Google account (gmail, etc.) and are logged in to search, your results are personalized to reflect your preferences. In an SEO course I took last year, the instructor used the example of searching for Java — depending on what you click most often, your results could contain mostly coffee sites, programming sites, or tourism sites. This change only brings that personalization to all users.

Keep in mind, though, that in addition to changing the way YOUR results are displayed, this will obviously change the way your potential customers’ results are displayed. So how can you ensure they still find you?

Be proactive! Follow best practices around writing your content and structuring your site. Your rankings may change user to user, but when a potential customer clicks on your site, if your page answers their question or solves their problem, you’ve taken the first step toward converting that searcher to a customer.

Remember that rankings should be viewed as a trend and not as a hard number. If you see your site pages fall week by week in your own search results, it’s time to review your content and SEO strategy. Let us know if you need any help!

Stacey Morgan Smith is the director of search engine optimization for Northern Virginia Internet Marketing Company NetStrategies. With over 14 years’ experience as an editor and proofreader, she brings a different viewpoint to SEO. Along with the rest of the NetStrategies team, she can help you increase your leads from search!

Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals | Stacey Morgan Smith

Google continues to revolutionize the way we get information.

I’ve been a reliable reader of the Washington Post for close to 15 years. Home delivery, read it each morning on Metro…even drove 20 miles to pick it up weekly (at a huge markup) when I lived in Central Virginia. Moving back to Northern Virginia 3 years ago, the very first thing I did was go online and order a 7-days-a-week subscription.

Now I’m faced with recycling papers I can’t find time to read. Google, the Post and the NY Times are making it easier for me to stay on top of the issues.

According to the article in yesterdays’ Washington Post, the three entities have created Living Stories. As mentioned on the page, “Complete coverage of an on-going story is gathered together and prioritized on one URL. You can now quickly navigate between news articles, opinion pieces and features without long waits for pages to load.”

I can quickly scan top headlines and read those that interest me.

Clicking a link takes me to a full page of information about that topic.

I find that I can quickly and easily read articles of interest, and I plan to visit the page regularly. What do you think? Can Google save newspapers?

Stacey Morgan Smith is the director of search engine optimization for Northern Virginia Internet Marketing Company NetStrategies. With over 14 years’ experience as an editor and proofreader, she brings a different viewpoint to SEO. Along with the rest of the NetStrategies team, she can help you increase your leads from search!

Photo credit: mykpwedding, Flickr

Your organization’s Web site is often your first chance to impress. Since thousands of Web sites clamor for your visitor’s attention, you need your site to entice in a number of ways. This checklist covers the minimal basics for a healthy Web site. If you cannot answer “yes” to each one, your Internet marketing team has some work to do!

1. Does your page load quickly?
Don’t count on a busy Web surfer to patiently wait while your site loads. Beware of the back button!

2. Does your text speak to your customer and his/her needs?
A Web surfer visits your site looking for specific information to solve a problem, not to discover that your organization is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Your text should include more you’s and yours than we’s and ours.

3. Can your visitors find useful and relevant content in your Web site?
As in #2, your visitor came to your site seeking specific knowledge. Today’s online surfers are researchers. Discover what information they seek and provide it. If you don’t, someone else will.

4. Is all the important information on your home page “above the fold?”
Again, Web surfers love the back button. Make sure it is obvious your site contains the solutions they seek.

5. Do you add/update your content on a regular basis?
Ideally, regular is weekly. If “regular” means only when you perform a complete redesign of your site, meet with your team and develop a more prolific content plan!

6. Is your text legible?
A 10-point font is too small for most readers. More than three fonts on a page are too many. ALL CAPS ARE DIFFICULT TO READ.

7. Is there a clear call to action on every page?
Don’t expect your visitor to “figure it out.” Make very clear what you want them to do.

8. Do all your links work?
Broken links frustrate visitors and scream, “We don’t navigate our own site, why should you?”

9. Do you have an easy to use site search?
This is another usability feature that makes your site easy to navigate. Visitors can use site search to quickly find the exact information they seek without delay.

10. Does your Web site pass the 4-second rule?
In other words, do your visitors know what you do and how to contact you in the first four seconds of entering your site? Make life easy for your site visitor!

11. Can visitors navigate your site on a PDA?
Many Internet surfers use their PDA rather than a computer for online activities. What does your Web site look like on a PDA screen? Can your visitor still perform all your site’s functions from a PDA?

12. Do you use Web analytics to measure success?
This critical measurement tool allows you to see which pages succeed and which ones do not. You can set benchmarks, monitor key performance indicators, and work toward your goals with real concrete data. Otherwise it is all guesswork!

13. Is your site indexed/crawled by Google, Yahoo!, and Bing?
Don’t leave indexing to chance. You can submit Web pages to the search engines proactively.

Your Web site is more than a business card. It can set you up as a leader in your industry. However, first your online presence must stand on a solid and healthy foundation. What basics do you look for in a healthy Web site? Add your comments and help this list grow!

Our team of Internet marketers at NetStrategies worked very hard over the past few months to define our company’s core values. I want to share them with you for two reasons. First, I’m proud to work for a company which embodies many of the same values I hold. Second, our industry of Internet marketing is sometimes so focused on the tools of the trade like SEO, PPC, social media, etc. that we forget the most important element of any successful business – the customer.

Our NetStrategies Core Values bring the focus of “customer” to the forefront. The team has our work cut out for us as we embrace our values and define a plan of attack to put each value into action in a concrete and measurable way. After all, we are Internet marketers and EVERYTHING is measurable!

Before diving into our values, keep in mind it took more than a few after-hours sessions for our team of nine to narrow our values down to this list of six and set the guidelines for success. A special thank you to moderator A. Jeffrey Parks of Performance Breakthroughs led us through the initial stages of the values-building process.

First, we commit to driving measurable results with our clients. We do this by jointly defining success, building high-trust relationships, working with a sense of urgency, and meeting commitments.

Second, we delight our customers because we listen, learn, and lead. How do we ensure this? By listening and asking the right questions, continuously learning about our customers and their industries, and anticipating needs and applying best practices. We also engage customers in a positive, proactive way.

Third, our customers rely on our bold leadership. We provide candid feedback and effective solutions. We constantly innovate and build our expertise. We hold ourselves and our clients accountable. We contribute to the Internet marketing community and empower our people with the best resources and work environment.

Fourth, we trust and collaborate with each other to achieve greater results. We achieve that through direct, respectful, and open communication which leaves no room for doubt. We help each other grow individually and collectively. We take a team approach to problem solving. We have fun and enjoy each other’s company. Trust is earned and cherished. We celebrate our team achievements. Face-to-face/phone communication is always our first choice.

Fifth, passion is key to our success. Our enthusiasm and energy is evident in everything we do. We learn, experiment, and challenge ourselves every day. We take ownership for delivering customer delight. We work diligently and productively.

Last, but not least, we do the right thing for our clients, families, communities, and company. We are responsible for our choices, actions, and consequences. We value each others health and happiness. We act with integrity and expect it from others. We give generously to improve our communities. We think and act like owners. We work with anyone who can live these values.

What are the core values for your organization? How do you integrate them into the workplace? Do you share them with your customers? Better yet, were they developed with your customer in mind? We’d love your feedback!