Since the previous update was dubbed Panda by Google, this simply continues its tradition of giving cute animal names to the no-nonsense tweaks it has been undertaking in a bid to weed out sites which try and exploit the rankings system through methods other than original written content.

Online marketing professionals have been concerned by some of the effects of the updates, which have led to the severe downranking of some bona fide sites on Google, while other less legitimate ones have moved far up.

Some online marketing companies that specialise in SEO have even called Penguin “the Titanic”, after the way it has sunk previously strong websites below the waterline, but the more forward-thinking professionals are rising to the challenge and seeking to discover what Google looks for to make the distinction between genuine content and spam.

The key, as with most online marketing, lies in ensuring that you seek quality original content over short-term boosting tricks – no matter how many times Google moves the goalposts, quality will out.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

The event has been organised by US company Search Mojo, and is being hosted by its CEO Janet Driscoll Miller and its Social Media Specialist Sarah Lokitis. They will be looking at the best practice in online marketing for creating Google+ profiles and managing pages. Many people believe that Google+ is the next big thing, and cite the success that Facebook fan pages have had in boosting online marketing campaigns.

“Google+ is rapidly growing with over 100 million users so it’s a great opportunity to interact with your customers and potential leads, especially since businesses have been slow to incorporate Google+ Pages in their marketing initiatives,” Ms Lokitis said. “This allows for a great opportunity for early adopters to establish a Google+ presence before their competitors.”

The webinar begins at 19:00 GMT on Thursday 5 April.

We’re going all the way back to 2007 this week, and the original Edinburgh seminar that gave the internet the well-received 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing.

As you will see from the film, the seminar leaders have identified 13 key principles for effective SEO and online marketing, which they believe can be applied to most businesses seeking to improve their internet advertising and marketing methods. Follow the topics in the seminar video as they cover:

Pillar 1 – Keyword Research

Pillar 2 – Website Design

Pillar 3 – Blog Technology

Pillar 4 – Auto responders

Pillar 5 – Paid Advertising

Pillar 6 – Press Releases

Pillar 7 – Link Building

Pillar 8 – Article Submission

Pillar 9 – Group Interaction

Pillar 10 – Viral Marketing

Pillar 11 – Visitor Analysis

Pillar 12 – Continuous Content

Pillar 13 – The Evolving Web

Finding the right affiliate network partner is the key to success because they are the conduit between you and the companies who want to promote on sites like yours. For too long, major firms have wasted money on marketing campaigns that brought about a very limited return on their investment. This ensures that promoting on a niche or tailored site like your site far more attractive to a firm.

Making Money Online Can Be Easy
Once you have signed up with your networking partner, you will see that the process of placing adverts onto your site is a simple one. All of the relevant codes can be copied and then pasted into the relevant section of your site. That is all it takes and when you return to your site, you will see that the adverts are now in place, ready to make you money.

That is genuinely all there is to affiliate network relationships but of course, if you want to maximize your income, you can become as involved as you like. Some web publishers like to rotate the adverts on their site to keep things fresh for their guests. If a guest gets used to the same advert, it will start to blend into the background but regularly updating the adverts you place on your site, the higher the chance of guests clicking through on the link and receiving the commissions you are seeking.

Stay Fresh To Keep People Interested
Many firms also provide seasonal or limited offer promotions and these are very beneficial to have on your site. You may sign up for email updates from your affiliate network provider to be kept informed of all the latest promotions or you may decide to regularly view the network site for updates. Either way, staying up to date with the latest promotional deals can see you benefitting from the great deals and offers that firms provide while keeping content fresh on your site will keep them coming back.

There is nothing difficult or troublesome about affiliate network relationships and if you have a web site, there should be nothing stopping you from getting involved and making some extra income for very little work. More affiliate network news, tips and advice is found sprinkled throughout this website for you to feast your eyes on. Always remember to promote you affiliate network links effectively, ethically and never give up on the old school methods of promoting your offers.

Greg H, astute in many phases of affiliate marketing and criminal records reclamation, offers his unbiased opinions in every written piece. You’ll find him engrossed in his projects which include a reverse email search portal, My Free Email Search, along with a criminal records site People Search Pro.

Good news for SEO online marketing this week, after a poll of Google users in Britain and the USA showed that they prefer the search engine to all its rivals.

A massive 83 per cent of respondents to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said that they thought Google was the best of its kind, with just 6 per cent opting for the second place choice, Yahoo, which is actually powered by Microsoft’s search engine Bing. Some 59 per cent of respondents said that they used search engines at least once per day – a doubling of frequency since 2004.

When it comes to online marketing and SEO in particular, these poll results show that boosting your Google rankings should remain the top priority for any business with an online presence.

However, Google needs to ensure that it maintains its overwhelming popularity. Despite its unchallenged position in the poll, respondents also spoke as one when they expressed their dislike of its recent announcement of its intention to gather all data on users’ personal preferences and online searches to tweak the search results and target internet advertising.