An interesting discussion at Web Master World and SEO Roundtable mentions that large corporations are making AdWords unaffordable for the small business user. Do they do this on purpose or is it an accident? One contributor says that chances are these large corporations have fired their SEM firm and a large number of keywords are being bid on without the knowledge of the company. I am sure this happens in some instances...but my guess is that it is not the common practice. Another user mentions that ROI does not matter to these large companies...maybe that is true. I am sure that holds viable for some advertisers. "Just bring the traffic, it doesn't matter what it costs." Again, probably not the norm but it does happen.

Truth is large corporations have large marketing budgets. If they can afford to do it and don't have to answer to anyone regarding their ROI, then more power to them. At some point someone will ask where the money is being spent and if it is being spent wisely. If short-tail, broad terms are becoming too expensive for small budgets stay away from them as much as possible. Use longer-tail terms that will drive quality traffic not quantity traffic. Of course this is not the answer for everyone in every situation. Sometimes you have to just suck it up and purchase those expensive keywords, but that is the world we live in. Most things in the world are controlled by  large corporations and SEM is no different. So, if they won't lower their bids...implement strategies that will create conversions without tons of traffic...or increase your marketing budget.

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Web Marketing Today posted an interview Aaron Wall from SEO Book and Ralph Wilson.  Aaron discusses strategies for getting free, quality links to your web site as well as the importance of keeping your blog on-site as opposed to using a free off-site blog such as blogspot or wordpress. Building quality links is an important part of improving rank within search engines, so the more free quality links the better!

My favorite part of the video is the Abraham Lincoln inclusion...it still would have been a good interview without it, but that took it above and beyond. Check out the interview:

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In my personal  opinion a 100% answer is up in the air. I do believe they help to a point, but not to extreme measures. Two things I consider regarding alt tags are universal search results and usability. Adding an alt attribute can increase chances of having it listed within universal search results and also provide a short description of the picture for users. Well, Search Engine Roundtable conducted a survey asking SEO professionals whether or not alt tags improve search ranking and 80% of the respondents say 'yes' and 20% 'no'. I guess I am not surprised by the results, but would have thought the 80% would have been slightly higher. We can't agree on everything, right?

Alt attributes are an easy add to an image that is often overlooked before an SEO professional gets their hands on it. Because it so easy to add, use them! Most people agree that meta keywords carry little/no weight in search engine rank, but we still use them. Why? They are an easy add...and who knows, they may carry just enough weight to give a small boost.

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So we are experiencing tough economic times. Everything must be losing money at this point right? Well according to eMarketer online ad spending will increase in 2009. Why would companies put more money into advertising if shoppers have less money to spend?

Advertisers still have to get their message out in some way and search, which is expected to see the most online growth of 14.9%, is highly measurable. Advertisers want to see exactly what they are getting for their money. This is not surprising to me not only because advertisers want to know their ROI, but also because users are still spending online. According to comScore Cyber Monday sales rose by 15% this year, from $733 million to $846 million. Despite a decrease in spend of each buyer by 5%, the number of buyers rose by 22%.

So even if people are spending less on the Internet, more people are turning to the Internet to make their purchases. This trend will likely continue throughout, and after the economic crunch. People are saving gas and searching for the best deals. This will not only pertain to B2C, but B2B as well. Budgets will likely be cut in 2009 for many companies, so they will also be searching for ways to reduce spend. PPC, display, and video ads seem to be a viable choice for any marketer next year.

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Nobody wants to pay high PPC costs if they don't have to, right? There are certain circumstances out there where cost doesn't really matter, but for the most part we keep a close eye on our PPC budgets...especially when dealing with small business SEM. Diana Adams from Search Engine Guide has written several posts regarding strategies used to keep your PPC costs down. I hope the key takeaway for all of the readers was...drum roll...NEGATIVE KEYWORDS.

Having a very large set of negative keywords helps you keep unnecessary clicks to a minimum when using broad or phrase match types. Let's pretend that you have an online biscuit store. You want to keep your traffic high so you don't want to use exact match for everything. Keywords that may be included in a query that pertain to biscuits, but not your kind of biscuit, add as a negative...for instance 'dog'. You know that someone searching for a 'dog biscuit' will not likely buy your biscuit, so don't waste a click on them. An effective way to find new negative keywords is to run a search query report and see how searchers are finding your ads.

Not only do negative keyword lists help keep PPC costs down but they are actually quite fun to build. I have seen some pretty humorous negative keyword lists...much of which are derived from search query reports. It amazes me what people search for and then click on ads which have in no way anything in common of what they queried. Sometimes I think people don't read the ads before they click. But, I am not here to judge...I just wanted to point out the importance of a good negative keyword list. If anyone has any funny negative  lists to share, please do so. Maybe it is just me though...is it possible that I am the only person out there that can be amused by a good negative keyword list?

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For the first time since the release of OSX, Apple now recommends installing antivirus software on your computer. I am a Mac user in my personal life...and I for one had not yet installed any form of antivirus software on mine; why install the unnecessary? No that is not a shot at Windows...well maybe it is. After hearing the news that Apple now recommends installing it I went out and grabbed ClamXav and installed it right away. It is not the fastest program out there, but it is free and I am cheap. We all knew that the day was coming that our beloved Macs would be prone to viruses, so why hadn't we installed them before? There is still time to install just to be on the safe side. Check out the Apple recommendation here which also includes several options for an antivirus solutions.

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