Online Search Queries Get Wordier

The number of words in the average US search query is on the rise, with longer search queries – averaging five or more words in length – increasing 10% overall in January 2009 vs. January 2008, according to data from Hitwise.

The most notable change was in search queries that were eight or more words. These were up 22%. Over the same time period, shorter search queries, averaging one to four words in length, have decreased 2%, Hitwise said

Though Hitwise does not offer any explanation for the increasing length of search strings, the phenomenon could potentially be because internet searchers are growing more sophisticated in their searching habits, or might be attributable to the fact that longer searches may now be necessary to find more specific information amid growing web clutter.

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Social Networking Overtakes E-mail in Popularity – Part 2

Adweek – Part Two

 

Nielsen: Social Networking Overtakes E-mail in Popularity

Active reach in what Nielsen defines as “member communities” now exceeds e-mail participation by 67 percent to 65 percent

The growth in social media is not confined to the U.S. Nielsen charted comparable or higher growth for Australia, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom.
 
Yet for now, user growth at social sites is outpacing advertising increases, per Nielsen. This will likely change, Nielsen said, as models shift to value engagement over exposure.
 
“As the online industry matures and the value of online real estate is increasingly measured by time spent, rather than pages viewed, a significant shift in advertising revenue from ‘traditional’ online media towards social media could be realized — if the successful ad model can be found,” the report stated.
 
The search for a workable ad model is even more urgent now that social media has broken out of the youth demographic, Nielsen found. For example, Facebook’s greatest growth has come from 35-49 year-olds, and it has added twice as many 50-64 year-olds as those under 18.
 
Yet advertising and social media to date have mixed like oil and water. Part of that is a function of social media’s communications role — advertising has typically performed poorly in chat and e-mail. The larger challenge for advertising is to move from an interruptive role to joining conversations. That means advertisers need to find ways to add value to users’ experiences, Nielsen found.
 
“Whatever the successful ad model turns out to be, the messaging will have to be authentic and humble, and built on the principle of two-way conversation — not a push model — that adds value to the consumer,” the report said.

 

Interactive Media Lab is a full service web design, web hosting and web marketing firm in Louisville KY with a trained team of  web design professionals who address website needs for organizations of all shapes and sizes. We create highly-functional, easy-to-manage websites that are affordable websites, helping our customers control their costs and their content. There’s an easier way to get your website quickly and effectively. Call Steve Steurer today at 502-585-4004 X316 to schedule a free demonstration of our small business web design services. Interactive Media Lab Small Business Platform is Affordable Small Business Web Design Louisville. There is no reason for your small business website or web store to be under par and out of date ever again!

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Social Networking Overtakes E-mail in Popularity – Part 1

Adweek – Part One

Active reach in what Nielsen defines as “member communities” now exceeds e-mail participation by 67 percent to 65 percent

 

Social networking has overtaken e-mail as the most popular Internet activity, according to a new study released by Nielsen.
 
Active reach in what Nielsen defines as “member communities” now exceeds e-mail participation by 67 percent to 65 percent. What’s more, the reach of social networking and blogging venues is growing at twice the rate of other large drivers of Internet use such as portals, e-mail and search.
 
Nielsen, which is the parent company of Adweek, concluded that the shift to social activity online would have profound effects on marketers and publishers. For publishers, social networks are eating into time spent with other online activities, according to Nielsen. For advertisers, the phenomenon at this stage represents mostly unfulfilled promise for a deeper
connection with consumers who are more difficult to reach in social environments.
 
The rise of social media coincides with the decline of portals. Social networking appears to be snatching away users’ online time formerly spent with e-mail, traditionally a large draw to portals. Such fragmentation is decreasing portals’ importance to advertisers. In a separate report, top digital shop Razorfish said it’s spending at portals declined from 24 percent in 2006 to 16 percent in 2008.
 
Nielsen found that two-thirds of the world’s Internet users visited a social networking site in 2008. All told, social media now accounts for almost 10 percent of Internet time. Facebook is leading the pack worldwide, with monthly visits by three out of 10 Internet users in nine global markets, per Nielsen.

If you want to learn more about how your business can benefit from learning more about web design, web hosting, web marketing, software development, increasing traffic to your website call Steve for a free consultation.

Interactive Media Lab is a full service web design, web hosting and web marketing firm in Louisville KY with a trained team of  web design professionals who address website needs for organizations of all shapes and sizes. We create highly-functional, easy-to-manage websites that are affordable websites, helping our customers control their costs and their content. There’s an easier way to get your website quickly and effectively. Call Steve Steurer today at 502-585-4004 X316 to schedule a free demonstration of our small business web design services. Interactive Media Lab Small Business Platform is Affordable Small Business Web Design Louisville. There is no reason for your small business website or web store to be under par and out of date ever again!

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Publicizing your website.

1. You can publicize Your URL and email address in many ways.

·         Printed materials. Your business cards, stationery (for business and personal correspondence), checks (business and personal), printed ads (in magazines, newspapers, etc.), brochures, merchandise packaging, directories, catalogs, invoices, advertising specialties (i.e., coffee mugs, calendars), fax cover sheets, shipping labels, postcards, press releases, billboards, in-store signs, greeting cards, bags for store merchandise, newsletters, technical manuals for Your products.

·         Electronic messages. Email, voice mail, answering machines, recorded “on hold” messages.

·         Your website. The URL can be on every page of the website, because many people print out web pages to read them, or they send the pages to someone else. If Your URL is on the page, people will know where the pages originated.

1. You can write articles for publications. Many publications are looking for fresh, free material. They are not interested in an article which is merely publicity for your business, but they might want an article which contains useful information for their readers (along with a short plug for your business).

·         The types of publications can be:

o   Printed publications (e.g., newspapers, magazines, trade journals, etc.).

o   Electronic publications (e.g., ezines, email discussion lists, web sites, etc.)

·         Your payment.

o   A link from the article to you –Your website, email address, or auto-responder, phone number, or another means of contact.

o   A brief paragraph at the end of the article, to tell about your products or services. Of course, this paragraph contains a link to us.

o   Name recognition and credibility. If your articles are good, you gain respect — and customers.

·         Suggestions for the articles.

o   Don’t send the same article to everyone. You don’t like to find identical articles in different mailing lists, or on different websites. Some of us subscribe to many mailing lists regarding the same subject (e.g., internet commerce) so you will become weary of you if you are continually spammed with duplicate copies of your articles in these mailing lists.

o   Use “reciprocal articles.” For example, a travel agency would write an article about travel for a luggage website, and the luggage manufacturer would write about luggage for the travel site.

o   You can write a column instead of a single article. This column will allow you to give your ideas (and Your URL) to people on a regular basis.

o   You can develop a collection of your articles. If you display an assortment on your website, editors and webmasters can choose the articles that they want.

1. You can write press releases. This topic is covered in another chapter.
2. You can offer your products or services as prizes in contests. Some sites sponsor contests of their own, and some sites contain directories of sites which sponsor contests.
3. You can donate your product or service to the site of a nonprofit organization. In exchange, you can request a link.
4. You can join online organizations. Business associations allow you to network, just as they do in the non-digital world.

If you want to learn more about how your business can publicize your website and how to increase traffic to your website call IML for a free consultation.

Interactive Media Lab is a full service web design, web hosting and web marketing firm in Louisville KY with a trained team of  web design professionals who address website needs for organizations of all shapes and sizes. We create highly-functional, easy-to-manage websites that are affordable websites, helping our customers control their costs and their content. There’s an easier way to get your website quickly and effectively. Call Steve Steurer today at 502-585-4004 X316 to schedule a free demonstration of our small business web design services. Interactive Media Lab Small Business Platform is Affordable Small Business Web Design Louisville. There is no reason for your small business website or web store to be under par and out of date ever again!

Your Website Made Simple with IML Small Business Platform. IML Small Business Web Design is www.LouisvilleWebDesigners.com

Search Engines and Directories?

They are collections of information about websites; the information includes the URL and description of each site. People visit these search engines, etc., to find websites regarding a particular topic, like, “internet marketing” or “baseball.” You want to list your website in these search engines, directories, etc., because most people use these resources to find websites regarding a topic. And you want to be ranked among the top 20 in your category, so that the people will see your listing; if you are ranked #31,546, you might as well not be listed at all. Our web design platform includes the fundamentals for gaining a high ranking; however, it is up to you to give each search engine the information it needs to rank your business highly for the key words that you feel are important for your business, because (1) each one has its own criteria for determining the ranking of sites; (2) those criteria are constantly changing; (3) some of the criteria are kept secret; (4) this constantly changing information can be delivered by experts who actively track the changes in search engines and provide the data through consultations, websites, and mailing lists. The following information is generalized; for each search engine, etc., you need to decide which of the ideas will apply.

If you want to learn more about how your business can benefit from learning more about search engines and how to use them to increase traffic to your website call IML for a free consultation.

Interactive Media Lab is a full service web design, web hosting and web marketing firm in Louisville KY with a trained team of  web design professionals who address website needs for organizations of all shapes and sizes. We create highly-functional, easy-to-manage websites that are affordable websites, helping our customers control their costs and their content. There’s an easier way to get your website quickly and effectively. Call Steve Steurer today at 502-585-4004 X316 to schedule a free demonstration of our small business web design services. Interactive Media Lab Small Business Platform is Affordable Small Business Web Design Louisville. There is no reason for your small business website or web store to be under par and out of date ever again!

Your Website Made Simple with IML Small Business Platform.

You can now find IML Small Business Web Design at LouisvilleWebDesigners.com