The Interactive Advertising Bureau, made up of companies who control over 80% of online advertising, has released The IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for 2010. PwC, the world’s second-largest professional services firm, prepared the report.

The report, which is available here, puts Internet advertising revenue for 2010 at $26 Billion, a new record. Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of IAB, had this to say in a recent press release:

“As the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report amply demonstrates, brand advertisers and marketers have adopted the power of digital media as a central element of their campaigns…Consumers have shifted more of their time to digital media – watching television shows and movies online – and advertisers now accept this multifaceted medium as a key component for reaching their targets.”

Any business owners reading this post should pay attention closely to what I’m about to say. A whopping 46% of internet advertising revenue in 2010 came from search advertising. That’s almost $12 Billion dollars. Much (if not most) of the revenue attributed to the “search” channel comes from paid search advertisements, or PPC. With that in mind, take into account that 85% of searchers don’t click on PPC ads. Most of us, myself included, stick to the regular (organic) results that appear when we’re using search engines. Furthermore, optimizing your site to rank prominently in organic search (the art of SEO) is much less costly than buying PPC ads.

So, for pennies on the dollar, your business can use SEO to reach way more customers than your counterparts who are using PPC. If paid search advertisers are making good money as it is, just imagine how much you could grow your business using SEO. As time progresses, the market will only become more competitive, so you might want to consider making a small investment while the iron is hot. As your competitors catch on after you, their sites will be at a disadvantage–older, more established sites that have been SEO optimized (like yours) will tend to rank better.

A lot of talk has been circulating about Google’s recent algorithm changes, which have still not finished rolling out. Many businesses with prominent organic rankings have taken a dive as of late. Some data from sistrix.com showing just some of the fallout can be seen as follows:

According to the source, the “SISTRIX Visibility Index is an index value calculated from traffic on keywords, ranking and click-through rate on specific positions”. This goes to show how quickly your organic rankings can change with the seasons –typically not for the better. As more and more small businesses turn to SEO as a cost-effective, trackable advertising channel, it is important to realize the value of recurring, professional SEO maintenance.

Once a business is ready to experiment with SEO, it can play out in a few different ways. Knowing the value of search engine visibility, the DIY business owner might comb the web for instructions. Contractors, who are pretty resourceful people, are a great example of this. What he/she would find is mostly outdated information from wannabe SEO’s who took up the profession for a week after getting a life-changing “MAKE $5,000 A WEEK WORKING FROM HOME!!!” e-mail. Then there’s the 60-90 day wait in anticipation of results that never come.

Another breed of proprietor might find the DIY approach to be unreliable, and decide to enlist a professional agency. Unfortunately, this guy doesn’t do his homework before selecting an agency–one that might even be getting him great results. Before you know it, this seemingly legit company has gotten Joe Contractor’s site removed from Google altogether with spammy tactics. His business ends up taking a very real hit with no recourse against some kid in a satellite nation who never gave him legit contact info to begin with.

With a low cost, comprehensive reporting, a brick-and-mortar (US based) location and an army of dedicated account managers, you might find Outrank.com to be a good fit. We make small businesses visible on the internet, which tends to get your phone ringing. If you sign up with us and aren’t happy for any reason, there’s no monthly contract. For a free consultation, call (877) 332-4321.

In one of the biggest SEO headlines in recent months, JCPenney was publicly outed as a practicioner of black hat SEO. The company, whose uncanny organic results have been manually downgraded by Google, was allegedly unaware of the sketchy tactics used by SearchDex, a third party SEO vendor acting on their behalf. Before webspam engineer Matt Cutts and the rest of the Google team took action, JCPenney had front page rankings for multitudes of product-specific keywords, like “comforter sets” for months.

How they did it:

SearchDex used a paid links network that compensates website owners for the placement of links on their sites. By optimizing the anchor text (the text that appears in the underlined hyperlink) with a given keyword for a large number of pages, it did not matter that the pages they used had little traffic on their own or were not contextually relevant. In a specific example shown by Search Engine Land, JCPenney’s landing page for “comforter sets” had 700-plus of these junk sites linking to it, which included sites dedicated to Eastern Medicine, car modification and “How to hack Friendster Private Picture” (I was not personally aware Friendster was even still in existence).

If you have any hand in your company’s search marketing efforts, regardless of size, you should learn from this. Yes, the ROI from their dark alley campaign was probably phenomenal. However, was it worth the mess their PR and marketing people have to clean up now? Google has manually demoted their search results to obscurity. For a company that is trying to transition from its “Big Book” catalog to e-commerce, is a few months of SEO glory worth the work it will take to repair the damage from this fallout? Fortunately for JCPenney, sales driven by organic SEO are only a small part of its revenue. But for any legitimate business seeking long-term online marketing success, pure black hat SEO is just not worth it.

Recently, Google Webspam Engineer Matt Cutts took to the company’s official blog to announce a new anti-spam initiative targeting “content farms”–low-quality, often plagiarized websites that are routinely used to help webmasters cheat their way to the top of search results pages.

Since the Caffeine update and other projects have both grown Google’s index and increased the crawling frequency of its spiders, an alarming number of questionable results have brought on loads of negative press criticizing search quality. Cutts claims that “pure webspam” has been reduced significantly enough to focus on a new target: “low-quality websites”.

Cutts goes on to say that Google has rolled out “two major algorithmic changes” focusing on these websites during 2010, and that the company’s webspam team has been strained as of late due to added obligations. However, the company’s stance is that its engine’s results are better than they ever were, and that they will continue to keep it that way.

At Outrank.com, we have always advocated an SEO strategy that is in alignment with industry best practices. As a business owner, you need to make sure your website is as effective as possible without cheating or spamming the search engines. Call us at 877-332-4321 to learn more.

Only a month ago, Outrank.com’s client base hit the 8,000 mark. We are happy to announce that, due to record growth, we now manage SEO campaigns for 9,000 small business clients. This accomplishment would not be possible without a highly effective product and our team of dedicated support professionals. The workload is so heavy that we are having to expand our physical office location to accommodate new staff.

As we steadily approach the 5-figure mark, this number is proof that SEO works. From listening to client testimonials on our main web site, you can see that everyday small business owners are consistently pleased by the return they get on a pretty small investment. What’s more, our customers lock in these benefits at low prices without having to enter into a contract. If you own a business, call Outrank.com today to have a conversation with a friendly account manager.

Outrank.com has come across a couple of new developments in the search industry. More specifically, search giant Google rolled out changes that affect the way we interact with its engine.

Users of Google search have been alerted in results pages of potentially malicious pages for a long time. However, new notifications have been added that reflect advances in the company’s detection capabilities. When a site is deemed questionable, a notice appears below the title, reading “This site may be compromised”. This technology is also intended to inform well-meaning webmasters.

Also, Google’s Translate feature has been fleshed out. For one, “alternative translations” have been added, which allow the user to see the actual intent of a translated phrase. Secondly, virtual keyboards have been introduced, as some world languages are difficult to type on a standard keyboard. Finally, speech technology is now available for three additional languages (improved in seventeen), which allows you to actually hear what a translation sounds like spoken.

Check Outrank.com’s blogs regularly for more Google updates.

When it comes to small business advertising, Outrank.com is the leader in reaching potential customers on the front page of the search engines. With a low cost and measurable results, it’s no surprise that the SEO specialist now caters to over 8,000 small businesses looking to establish an online presence.

There is no secret to the company’s success, as the product sells itself. Clients are given a website and are registered on local directories in a way that helps their customers find the products and services they offer. It’s evident that people are going online to research and contact local businesses.

As demand grows, so does Outrank.com. They’re constantly adding experienced client services professionals to the team to make sure that every client has a personal point of contact, no matter what their monthly budget is. They’re also beefing up their marketing team, whose sole job is to make sure the product drives business to the customer. They have recently been named a “Top Workplace” by the Austin American-Statesman and a “Best Company to Work For” by Texas Monthly. These honors reflect their dedication to their employees and customers alike.

To see what all the buzz is about, call Outrank.com at (877) 332-4321.

As if it were any surprise, Verizon is currently asking legislators from Virginia and Maryland for permission to stop delivering the local white pages to everyone except those who explicitly request it. One of the country’s premier phone service providers, Verizon has already been granted these permissions by five other states. By early next year, the company hopes to have these changes made in all twelve states in which it offers its services.

What director of public relations Harry Mitchell calls a shift to “on-request delivery” heralds the inevitable death of the phone book. According to the Washington Post, about 2 percent of residents are actually requesting phone book delivery in states where forced delivery is out of practice. While also citing environmental benefits, Mitchell also noted that “the nature of the way people are getting information is evolving.” Both Verizon and AT&T–who has reportedly pursued similar permissions–say that “most people search for numbers online,” according to the Post.

This news has immeasurable implications for your business. Though these changes only affect delivery of the white pages at this time, rest assured that the yellow pages are on their way out too–well after people have stopped using them entirely. This is especially important if you are wasting money on advertising in the phone book or have not established a visible online presence for your business. Talk to a small business specialist at Outrank.com to see how you can achieve this at a fraction of the cost of other advertising methods.

If you read Outrank.com’s blog offerings on a regular basis, you’re probably familiar with the launch of Google Instant and its implications for SEO success. More recently, users now have the ability to view a thumbnail-sized screenshot (or “image-based snapshot,” in company lingo) of  any listing directly on the search results page.

The thought is that this technology will allow users to make better decisions when choosing what results to click. Google claims that, from their initial observations, users are noticeably more satisfied with the result they click after viewing a screenshot. The image, which is shown when a user clicks a corresponding magnifying glass icon, is intended to emphasize the most relevant sections of the page.

With this feature, users are able to more easily discern quality pages from spammy ones. Relevant text is highlighted in orange within page previews for further screening. Previews can come in handy when you need to recall a page you visited earlier. They can help you find an official or authoritative source for information. Previews are also a great way to sidestep cyberattacks from shady websites that occasionally sneak into SERPs.

For Outrank.com customers and other legitimate small, local businesses, this can only be helpful. Our optimized websites are professional-grade, battle-tested products that continually bring in new customers for our clients. Most of all, they are search-friendly and designed to attract and convert potential customers searching for products and services in your neighborhood. Call us at (877) 332-4321 to get more business for yourself.

With millions of searches being performed on Google every day, SEO has emerged as the best way to reach a large audience at a low cost. Not surprisingly, the same tactics used by Outrank.com for small business success are being widely used by politicians to provide information to voters and to shape public opinion.

With the US midterm elections in full swing, political hopefuls at all levels of government are discovering the full potential of  search engine marketing. Recently, campaign strategists have made headlines by using SEO to make negative information about their opponents more visible. For years now, voters have used the internet to inform themselves about candidates. In the past few days, Google has noted a significant increase in searches for voting registration and polling places that shows no sign of slowing down in the future.

These tactics have a proven, measurable impact on your business success. This is why companies like BP are throwing large sums of money at search marketing campaigns. Hiring a capable SEO means having control over the way potential customers view your business. Just as Americans turn to search engines for voting information, they are using search to find the services you sell. Call Outrank.com at (877) 332-4321 for a free consultation.