Recently, search engine giant Google has been issuing updates which have the potential to drastically change the way online marketing professionals carry out their link-building.

Link-building is especially important in SEO marketing campaigns, and Google’s latest changes mean curtains for so-called “un-natural” or “inorganic” links.

Google has itself condemned what it deems “over-optimised” sites, although it has been less eager to explain exactly what it means by this. What is certain, however, is that SEO marketing experts will need to take heed and focus not only on the amount of backlinks on a given site, but who is linking to it.

Another knock-on effect of Google’s changes is the increased need for online marketing efforts to focus on shareable content, such as blog posts or videos. These attract more “organic” links and will find favour with the search engine’s increasingly picky algorithms. The future is all about sharing – and all about not just the quantity of linkbacks, but the quality too.

Online marketing professionals concerned with innovative software may wish to be aware of a new upgrade of Pardot, the popular automated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program.

Previously, Pardot was mainly used as web-based software suite used by professionals looking to create and track online marketing campaigns. Now, for the first time, it has added new search engine optimisation (SEO) marketing tools to assist small businesses, with features for monitoring the performance of keywords and those of your company’s closes competitors.

The data is harvested from various online sources and online marketing professionals can access it all from the Pardot system’s dashboard. Website rankings on Google and Bing can be tracked, in order to keep precise tabs on how well a SEO marketing campaign is going.

Online marketing analysts can also see the ranking status of each keyword, the average cost per click if they are thinking of bidding for the keyword in Google AdWords and the word’s approximate search volume on Google.

Using the competitor monitoring tool, online marketers can see how their SEO ranks against their rivals, tracking key components such as their competitors’ Google PageRank, inbound links and indexed pages.

Leeds plays host to an important gathering of experts from across the online marketing sector later this month, when ionSearch takes place at The Carriageworks in Millennium Square.

The one-day event, on 18 April, will be focusing specifically on search engine optimisation, or SEO marketing, with over 20 speakers from a range of companies leading discussions on the best SEO strategies out there.

The headline speaker is Google’s advertising agency relationships manager for search engine giant Google – Matt Bush. Attendees will be listening with interest to what he has to say, as the Holy Grail of all SEO marketing efforts is a first page – and preferably first entry! – ranking in Google’s search results.

The event has been organised by local firm ionSearch, whose managing director Fergus Clawson told the Yorkshire Post that Leeds was rising above Britain’s overall economic conditions thanks to the effectiveness of its online marketing sector.

“Leeds has become a hot bed for SEO with a thriving digital community despite the gloomy economic outlook,” he declared, noting that since 2008 Yorkshire has enjoyed a 240 per cent increase in the number of online marketing jobs available, “with many traditional full-service agencies expanding their in-house marketing teams due to demand.”

The difference between this region and London is clear, when you consider that over the same period online marketing vacancies in the capital have only risen by 157 per cent, he pointed out, adding that “typically clients will receive the same quality of work, but at a much lower cost, both in terms of business overheads and wages.”

When all is lost in your efforts to bolster your web presence, should you hire an internet marketing expert?  One would initially answer ‘yes’ to that haunting question; however, it really needs to be construed as a last-ditch effort to either get sales, or head for the hills.  Many people that want to assist you in your internet marketing efforts are simply out to assist themselves into your business petty cash – or your personal savings – while offering absolutely no resolve for your internet marketing quandary.  There are several steps that you should consider before you throw out the marketing ‘white flag’ and submit to the mercies of another company.

Taking a step back and evaluating your current efforts and tweaking the marketing plan you follow is perhaps the first step in knowing if you should hire an internet marketing expert.  Have you evaluated your current website to make sure all pages are properly optimized for content, your sitemap is properly constructed and submitted on a regular basis, and links inside the content are point to links on other points of your site? These first simple yet crucial steps can alleviate overspending for a simple foresight in your web site’s looks.  If needed, print out hard copies of your website and see if the content looks smooth to you, is easy to read, contains a title and keywords relevant to your discussion and/or information, and has a proper pictorial presence to fellow visitors.  These are crucial steps necessary for search engine inclusion, and the first thing an internet marketing company expert is going to do, anyway.

Next, if you are running a PPC campaign, look at the historical data and your cost per click stats, and weigh out the keywords you are using.  Do you have negative keywords? Are you using long-tail keywords that historically do better than singular words? Simply give your campaign a good look over, and if all is working within your budget and soundly enough for you, then put that portion of the testing aside for now.  Again, this is a step that internet marketing experts and entities will do for you as part of a monthly charge.

Finally, what do the search engines see when they index you? How many links do you have currently? Well, it is best to first put your website URL into the search box and see what comes up.  IF nothing, then stop reading this and know that you should hire an internet marketing expert immediately as something is flagrant about your domain name.  If this passes to your liking, then type “link:(your site)” into the Google search box, and this will render all of your internal and external links as seen by the search genius.  If not enough, then it is time to link build and submit content to directories, which will ultimately boost link relevancy incrementally.  Following all of the above steps, perhaps not necessarily in order, will give you the answer to whether should you hire an internet marketing expert or not.

Greg H., very astute in online marketing, promoting the search of lost persons and knowing about people’s backgrounds, shows his affinity for the internet through his writings. He currently helps others to find email addresses of people as well as helping people to locate cell phone numbers through Free Phone Tracer.

photo credit: anitakhart

New research by Econsultancy has revealed that the British SEO market is growing rapidly.

SEO is one of the cornerstones of online marketing, with businesses anxious to be ranked as high as possible on Google and the other search engine’s results pages.

Researchers estimated that the SEO industry in the UK was worth some £512,067,800 last year, compared to £434,703,600 in 2010 – an impressive 18 per cent increase over 12 months. The sum includes online marketing agencies’ fees, paid search, publicity on SEO, plus optimisation of SEO for mobile browsing.

Econsultancy senior research analyst Jake Hird noted that SEO experts are working hard to incorporate as many innovations into their methodology than ever before, especially thanks to the rise and rise of smartphones, tables and other mobile devices.

“It’s a complex landscape, but one that marketers are clearly engaging with,” he added.

The research also found that Google remained far and away the most popular search engine in the UK, with more than 90 per cent of searches carried out on it. The report noted that any changes made by Google have “significant impact to existing SEO efforts.”