Looking for a PPC Expert or Copywriter?

Search engine marketing covers a vast array of search engine friendly methods. Two popular methods are paid search and organic search (branding is also popular, as is link building).

Many web designers are not SEO savvy, most don't pretend to be. This can become an issue once a site is bought, paid for and built, without the resulting traffic originally expected.

SEO is as necessary as a good web design.

Researching your options is a must. The following articles are available to help select the right SEO for your company, budget and personal needs.

Choosing a Paid Search, or Pay per Click, Advertising Agent

Content and Search Engine Marketing

Building a Content Plan

SEO: How to Spot a Fake

Other articles can be found on the Press Release and Articles page at ContentWorth. The above offer a good start in making an educated selection.

Ans, as always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

More Google / China Conflict

Reports the BBC News.

The Chinese government's internet filtering is some of the most sophisticated in the world.

Failing to comply to the Chinese censorship laws Google.com, the search engine’s uncensored international site, was blocked nationwide as of May 31.

According to Reporters Without Borders the censorship extension has encompassed Google News and Google Mail as well.

In January of this year Google launched Google.cn, a controversial Chinese language search engine which complied to the Chinese censorship laws. Google.cn is currently available across China.

While Google has been ridiculed for its actions others have lead the way into China. US companies Microsoft, Yahoo! and Cisco Systems are also being accused of accommodating the strict demands. However these accusations have been drowned out under the weight of Google critics.

But is Google going to reevaluate their stance? Or is Google more likely ride out the waves with this one?

In an interesting Search Engine Watch thread g7submit makes a bold, and what I would consider correct, statement.

Business[es] with moral ethics have never been ignored by the public, especially where there is a dominating party. The unethical or amoral business dealings may cause an initial public awareness and debate, but in the end once a viable alternative surfaces, people depart in droves.

Cynical yes, but based on the current attitudes once something else arises to be mad at or focus on people tend to shift away from “old news”.

Google may have more at stake than current press coverage. If Google decides to back out of China that leaves rivals to fight over the spoils. It could compromise the talks of a Google/China Mobile service .


Another flag here comes from statement reportedly made by Brin that Google only agreed to follow along with the restrictions after being strong armed into it. Ok, those weren’t his exact words, but Google agreed after China dropped it.

From a Wired News Report today:

Brin said the internet company had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country.

If Google folds under pressure can it really walk away from billions of users while its rivals flourish in the glee that Google cannot touch?

Technorati Profile

Blogger has given me greif all day. Let's hope this actually works.

I've been trying to post the same updates all day and gotten no where. Blogger, the easy to use blog service, seems to hate anything I do in the templates. I STILL can't get the AdSense account to run. Joy. Luckily it's only been an issue with this blog and not elsewhere. Code has never given me so much grief as it has with this "simple" tool. Technology, where would we be without it? Outside more maybe.

I just want to make sure this posts before posting my new blog on the China incident.

I will also post a discussion posed by a livejournal user to a recent quick entry I entered in the "entrepreneur" community. A challenge it seemed, I've given my answer and await his response. Quite fun to get a little jab right away, came out of nowhere just to make things more interesting. So look for that update.

Well, here goes nothing...

Ok, the first time didn't work.

Technorati

Technorati Profile

Trying to get the Technorati community to become aware of this blogI've run into a few problems. The convenience of Blooger has seen me through troubles with adding AdSense and now Technorati code. Apparently doing it my way doesn't work and doing it their way doesn't guarantee it will work either.

So here goes another shot at the Technorati spider. Come and get me!

This post is really just to get it out there, more informative posts will follow shortly.

Upcoming Posts:

A challenge from a livejournal user
Viral marketing in the works
A site review

Plus I'd like to follow the Google/China issue more closely. We'll see if my previous post was correct about the outcome soon enough!

Google Bots

Thanks to a Search Engine Watch post.

Google once crawled one spider across the net. Ah the days. Now that spider has spawned others, each with its own specialization.

~ The Original Googlebot

~ MediaBot - Analyzes AdSense pages, user agent "Mediapartners-Google"

~ ImageBot - Crawls for Image Search, user agent "GoogleBot-Image"

~ AdsBot - Checks AdWords for landing page quality, user agent "AdsBot-Google"

~ Feedfetcher-Google

~ Generic Mobile Phone (compatible; Googlebot-Mobile/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

More on Google's Compromised Principles

As seen on Yahoo! News (surprise, it wasn't one of the main Google News stories).
Brin Says Google Comprimised Principles.

Brin said Google had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country. Google's rivals accommodated the same demands — which Brin described as "a set of rules that we weren't comfortable with" — without international criticism, he said.

Brin is correct. Others have bent to the Chinese regime without much fuss or notice. How many others blantantly flaunt a "Do No Evil" type of motto. Um, none. When selecting a company motto, mantra, or slogan make sure it is 1) feasible 2) not too cocky 3) business minded. Google's poor cocky founders forgot that rule of thumb.

Sure a "Do No Evil" motto pulls in mass press coverage, flocks of onlookers, users, bloggers and businesses. But there's fine print overlooked here. MOST people scrapping so diligently with a fine tooth comb through masses of Google press are looking for a gem to throw back. This gem is the size of a Wile E Coyote boulder.

Then he threw a surveillance curveball:

"I think it's interesting that the expectations of people with respect to what happens to their data seems to be different than what is actually happening," he said.

Where's he going with this? Pointing fingers elsewhere or simply bringing a fact to the forefront?

Back to the china question:

"It's perfectly reasonable to do something different, to say, 'Look, we're going to stand by the principle against censorship and we won't actually operate there.' That's an alternate path," Brin said. "It's not where we chose to go right now, but I can sort of see how people came to different conclusions about doing the right thing."

In my opinion, Google will not pull out of China for any reason. Maintaining principles, personal feelings toward the situation, human rights' outrage. Google will stay, play the press for a little while, then everything will blow over and no one will focus on Google.cn anymore. It's the American way. We'll find something else to be disappointed with and go on to rally around that cause for a few days, weeks, or possibly months, then onto the next situation.

Google will come out on top with this. Regardless of human rights issues, free speech (which is an American idea, remember?), or availability of imformation for the broadest coverage Google will continue its censorship programs with China just as others will.

If Yahoo!, MSN and others continue to work, play, and most importantly, have access to billions with whom to focus ads, merchandise, and services, Google will be there probably on top.

Business is business. Rights are not universal. Google will not step down.

Google Compromises Its Principals

Apparently those at Google have finally come to their senses. Not that it's changed much as of yet, but at least they realize the implications of their actions.

Sergey Brin announced that the agreement for Google China has compromised their "Do No Evil" mantra. Stating effectively:

Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged Tuesday the dominant Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course.
"We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference," Brin said.

Finally, someone's owning up to a mistake. But is it a mistake that will be fixed? Is it a mistake at all? How many companies of any caliber could efectively lose billions of customers?

You can read an in depth article Google's China Problem (and China's Google Problem)
By Clive Thompson on our site.

More Google / China News

Blogoscoped is running a post right now that is pretty actively being commented on. The last post was placed some 20 seconds ago.

Google.cn is reportedly the only Google available to a majority of Chinese in China, though from the comments not everyone everywhere is being blocked.

Catch up and read on at Google.com Inaccessible From China?.

Edit: You can also read Google's China Problem (and China's Google Problem)for more information on this topic.

Online Advertising: It's Hot Right Now

As TMCnet reported recently in one of its articles:

Marketing through search engines is one of the fastest-growing and most competitive businesses on the Internet, but most SA firms still don't realise how visible it can make them.

That quote couldn't be more true. While internet marketing is becoming the most valuable avenue for marketers many companies continue overlooking this avenue. Whether they are brick-and-mortar or small to medium business focusing exclusively on one locale, or even if they are national businesses with great branding campaigns already int e works, many fail to grasp internet marketing. At least they haven't yet.

This is good news and bad news. The good news is that those companies who are realizing the mass value of internet marketing have the potential to rake it in fairly easily as the market is not yet over saturated. Internet marketing helps level the field for small to large companies, thus creating a versitale marketing agenda.

The bad news is that many, many, many comapnies are missing the boat.

Search Engine Marketing firms such as ContentWorth offer internet marketing services. Professional SEOs are those who know the industry and play by the rules. Many so-called SEOs can talk the talk but can't deliver. Do your SEO research and find a legit company. It's easier than you think. Find out what types of marketing are best for you. Generally a combine effort of SEO and Paid Advertising will deliver the best results. That is, of course, if the person or people building your organic and paid search campaigns do a thorough and complete job of it. Organic and Paid Search require ongoing effort with Paid Search requiring oftentimes diligent research and "tweaking" of campaign spending, ad text, landing pages, etc. You can read more here about Paid Search and finding the right provider.

For any questions or comments please feel free to contact Kristen here or by visiting our Contact Us page.