1. OK, SO YOU HAVE A WEBSITE...
Now How Do You Make It Bring
In Customers?

2. MAKING YOUR WEBSITE EARN ITS KEEP
The hottest buzzword in internet marketing two years ago was “SEO” - Search Engine Optimization.
Last year, 2010, it was “SMO” - Social Media Optimization. This year, heading into 2011, it looks like
the latest word to know is “Nanocasting.”
Unfortunately, most small business owners and management teams are still back on SEO, and feeling
very proud of themselves if they can understand web-speak like “keywords,” or “good adsense,” or
“affiliate marketing.”
That's where the services of a web marketing expert comes in handy. Keeping your company abreast
of not only the latest existing trends, and making sure your website makes the best use of such
trends, but anticipating and positioning your website, and your online brand image, to be ready to
respond to the next trend. And the next.
Here is a quick overview of the latest trends in web marketing, and how to capitalize on them
successfully, without spending more on marketing, than one sees in short-term ROI improvement.
STEP 1: BUILD A GREAT WEB
The first step in a successful online presence is the construction of a quality website. Driving
customers to a losing or blah site, can actually harm more than it helps, business revenues and
company image.
Companies are advised to pick an image, one that will sell, and which will be competitive in today's
sophisticated online marketplace; and then to project this image in the most sophisticated – or
tasteful, or professional, or trendy, or grungy (whatever one's business persona and market arena
calls for – manner possible.
Flash, or no flash. Photo album or no photo album. Color and font selection. Table-format or frame
format. Blog or no blog. Etc. These are basic questions of style and appearance, that most
companies can decide for themselves, along with the aid of a competent web designer or web
design firm. The average business owner or entrepreneur has a pretty good idea of what type of
what type of image he or she would like to project: California grunge works well for many sporting
goods firms; restaurants and hospitality firms have standard images; consultancies have their typical
brand images, and so on.
Choose a brand image that personifies your business, is competitive – or daring, or conservative – to
fit within your own niche market space, and enlist the talents of a professional web firm, to
implement it.
Let the web firm choose the details of code and construction – e.g. php or joomla or xml; flash or
no flash; colour schemes (artistic freedom) – beyond giving them instructions in the level of ongoing
maintenance and support, and expense, you wish to be invested in the site. This will dictate where
and how your site is hosted: do you want your web hosted on a free server? Do you want easy
upkeep, and the ability to make content or site changes yourself? Or do you plan on engaging a web
designer's services for all ongoing maintenance, and desire just to hand the entire enterprise off to
them?
These are basic business need questions, that you should discuss with your web designer, at the
outset. They will – or should - govern the basic foundation choices made by the designer you hire.
STEP 2: SET UP SEO SUCCESS
SEO – or “search engine optimization” - is a phrase that refers to your web site's ability to capture

3. the attention and rankings of various online search engines. Google. Yahoo. Bing. Voila. In its
infancy, SEO sought to capture the attention of several major online search engines; in 2011, Google
- based in Santa Monica and Mountain View, California – is clearly considered the top online search
engine. And therefore the search engine to target with SEO strategy.
According to Google itself,
“Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save
time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the
potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site.
Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners,
including:
 Review of your site content or structure
 Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error
pages, use of JavaScript
 Content development
 Management of online business development campaigns
 Keyword research
 SEO training
 Expertise in specific markets and geographies.”
Google uses some 200 indicators and formulae to rank the top sites, amongst the thousands
of online sites indexed around the world. For more on SEO strategy, Google offers several
free resources, including:
Webmaster Tools,
the official Webmaster Central blog,
the Google discussion forum,
Google Webmaster Central,
Google Webmaster Guidelines, and
Google 101: How Google crawls, indexes and serves the web.
These free (and wonderful) resources aside, SEO success is really a sophisticated blend of intuition,
positioning, marketing saavy, and technical expertise. A good SEO firm may spend thousands of
dollars, bringing your website to the first page (ranking 1-10) in a google search, but in most cases,
the pay-off in terms of profit and market growth is exponential. If you have a good SEO firm.
Consider a common scenario: a construction firm, with an average sales income per job of $20,000.
They either have not had a website, or they've had a mediocre website. Business has been slowing
down, and lately, they've noticed a lot of jobs going to competitors, that normally they should have
gotten. Based on reputation in the area, quality craftsmanship, and so on.
Realizing that most professionals – e.g., buyers with the most discretionary income, outside of
American teens and college students - make decisions based on web browsing and web image; the
construction firm invests in a quality website. Catchy image, sophisticated, professional online
presence. But now, it must get the word out. And drive customers to its site, before customers are
captivated by competitor sites.
If the company invests even $15,000 - $20,000 in SEO, with a quality SEO firm; that company will

4. recoup this SEO investment with just one additional construction job. If the SEO firm is doing its job
correctly, the ROI on a 3-month, initial SEO investment (standard SEO fees typically running $10,000
or more, monthly), will be in the hundreds of percent. Many companies will hire an initial SEO
consultant, or consulting firm, for 1-3 months; then afterwards, utilize SEO services intermittently,
as ranking or business needs dictate. Or for special / seasonal business campaigns or promotions.
STEP 3: THEN TURN TO SMO
Social Media Optimization is a close cousin to SEO work, that emerged in early 2010. But instead of
seeking to dominate search engine listings, Google in particular; SMO targets the online web of real-
time social media blogs, sites, and mobile applications. Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace
are the major traditional social media sites. Adjacent to these mainstream SMO sites are a myriad
of specialty blogs – catering to everything from military audiences, to parent audiences, to
professional segments, to teens, to... anything.
Mobile devices – iPhone, droids, other smart devices – are both a means of tapping into these SMO
sites, and newly emerging, unique SMO sites themselves.
While Google has attempted to break into this marketplace, with Google Buzz, the search engine
giant is still outclassed, in this particular niche, by the trendier, youth- and technology- based
mobile applications and indexing mechanisms.
The bottom line for most company management teams is that, as with SEO, unless one is a guru in
this particular field, you will likely realize a much better ROI by engaging the services of a
professional SMO marketing firm or consultancy, than attempting anything in this newish field,
yourself.
STEP 3-A: OPTIMIZING VIDEOS FOR MOBILE SEARCH & MOBILE APPS
Here are two additional SMO-related predictions for 2011, from :
Creating optimized videos
How do you optimize a video for search engines to find it easier? Sure, you can use a lot of
your keywords in the description of the video, but did you know that YouTube actually uses
voice recognition to index what your video actually says? It’s been doing this for a while, but
as video continues its surge in popularity, creating videos with optimized scripts will become
more and more important.
Optimizing for mobile search
Did you know that when you search for a topic on your mobile phone search engines will rank
mobile-friendly sites higher than regular sites? In 2011 we will see more websites become
mobile friendly. Is your blog/website mobile ready?
Most good SEO / SMO marketing firms will be able to design and implement online strategies that
include a blend of video, search engine, social media, affiliate marketing, ad words, and other
online strategies. A successful web presence will utilize several approaches, to capturing viewer and
browser attention.
STEP 4: NANOCASTING (VS BROADCASTING)

5. The last step in a complete web marketing package or strategy, concerns the recent emergence of
what techies are calling “Nanocasting,” a term referring to the personalized experience of each
independent viewer. In a John Anderson-like technology scenario, Nanocasting allows viewers or
audience members to control, to a limited extent, their own personal online experience.
This trend is rapidly replacing, or supplementing, “broadcasting,” where websites merely broadcast
audio or video feeds, or other forms of media, to their visitors. With the website, not the visitor,
controlling content and output. Here is another prediction, from media trend commentator Rob
Reynolds, editor of The Xplanation (produced MBS Textbook Exchange Inc., the nation’s leader in
wholesale textbook distribution):
The overarching trend, however, the one that encompasses all the data
and driving forces, is the shift from the Broadcasting to Nanocasting with
respect to content and information. Whereas the 19th and 20th centuries
were dominated by the thinking of an Industrial Age that valued standard
sizes, mass production, and assembly lines, the 21st century is one of
intense personalization, a strange throwback to pre-industrial times
when everything was unique and made by hand.
In the world of Nanocasting, as Reynolds explains, “each individual can create his or her own unique
channels of digital music, news, and TV. It is a fluid, always-on, constantly connected-in-every-
direction, instantaneous reality in which content and information are diced up finely and served 24
hours a day at a roll-your-own smorgasbord.”
Looking further into the future, leading academic and defense institutions around the world, are
already experimenting with the next generation of Nanocasting, in which a viewer's thoughts,
captured in either battlefield or entertainment arena, are then projected – onto a viewing screen,
or a computer, or a laptop, or mobile device – allowing the view to interactively personalize and
control his or her own viewing experience.
While most webs are not (yet) up to this level of customization, clearly, Nanotechnology is a trend
worth watching. In the meantime, companies that are able to offer customized viewing
experiences, and choices, for a variety of audiences; as well as to customize web viewing for mobile
devices and various social media sites, will rank better, and earn more return and unique visitors,
than those that stick to traditional confines of tightly controlled web browsing experiences.
Price List and Specs
Imaging Web Design is a Washington DC-based Managed Service Provider, offering 24 x 7 web
design, SEO, SMO, and other online creative solutions. Details may be found on our website, at
http://www.imagingwebdesign.com.
Pricing details and web packages are displayed on our website. To obtain a quote for services, or to
request additional information, please call: 1-800-719-6545.