Over the past few months… it has become crystal clear to me that to “win” online…you must “spend” online. Now, the age-old old axiom of the “rich getting richer” has always been true in the real world….but throughout most of the history of Internet Marketing…it actually has been quite the opposite. Those with the brains and ingenuity could thrive online – without the need for deep pockets. In fact, one of the primary benefits of the Google AdWords advertising console was the fact that anyone (even small companies with little budget) could compete with the big brands on a level playing field. With pay per click costs rising (most Industries are now over $2 a click) a small budget will not get you far, These days, you need lots of money to play.

Consider this:

1. If you spend more than $6k per month on Google AdWords you get your OWN Google account rep. Heck, Google will even SET UP your account for you.
2. If you spend more than $20K per month on Paid Search Advertising, you can qualify (to pay even more) for PPC Automation tools like Kenshoo and Marin Software. These tools, are powerful and can automate in seconds what it would take months for people to do without these tools..
3. If you spend more than $10k per month on Publisher Websites, you can expect to obtain remnant ad space, additional impressions, and/or other goodies by being a good advertiser (since you could literally advertise a million other places).
4. If you spend more than $20k on Web Design/Development, your site likely will be built with the latest software, plugins, and accessories. These features are not currently available at your local mom and pop web design shops only at the bigger agencies (some that have $20k minimum on web design projects).
5. If you spend more than $1k per month on Content Development, you can expect to obtain steep discounts. Prices at our shop drop from .20 per word to .08 per word, depending on your page volume.
6. If you are willing to spend more than $750 per month on Link Building, you can get premium link which are ideal for improved search engine optimization rankings.. and frankly the only way to compete these days. Money is usually offered, as sort of a bribe, to website owners with good Google rankings to encourage them to place a link on their site back to yours. It is virtually impossible to obtain a quality link without paying for it, in some way, shape, or form.
7. If you are willing to spend more than $3k per month on a Search Engine Optimization program can get more content, more links, more social media …i.e. more attention from your agencies and, ultimately, from the engines.

While it is true that some people can still make a good living maintaining their current websites, it is getting more complex and more difficult to sustain enviable market positions without sinking more and more money into your website and online marketing programs. Whether you choose to be sad, mad, or indifferent about this new online reality – this is the new way of the web. You must spend money, if you want to compete.

I’ve been in this business a long time. Twelve years, to be exact. I’ve seen many things happen over the years but one trend, in particular, always seemed to bother me – the outsourcing of Search Engine Optimization work to India. It’s not that I am against India or against free markets or free enterprise. Nor am I against business owners doing what they can to “make a profit.” But something about the outsourcing of this particular work was always jarring to me. You see, Search Engine Optimization has always seemed like a marketing task to me since at it’s very root is the understanding of “how people search” online. What this massive outsourcing to India was telling us, however, what that Search Engine Optimization had actually become a mechanical task.

If this was the case, I definitely missed the bus and thought perhaps it was time to look into what options were available. As apprehensive as I was, I decided to finally contact a referral I was given in India to have the talk – and boy am I glad I did. My contact not only informed me that I missed the bus (because I did) but that Search Engine Optimization (the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site via natural search engine listings) was “best left to the Americans.” My contact told me that many of the tactics and strategies that his firm used-to-do are no longer effective and, as such, his firm no longer provides those services. So, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t outsource any optimization work to his team.

Optimization, you see, is more effective when performed by people who “get” how people search including understanding the different phases of a buying cycle and how someone might search differently when browsing versus when buying. The pendulum indeed has swung back in favor of marketing. Search engine optimization does require skills that extend beyond marketing and get into design & development issues. Still, at the crux of any good program is a solid keyword strategy that comes from the marketing team.

For the record, the Indian company I spoke with has moved all of their services completely into Social Media Marketing.

Having attended last week’s Domainfest in Santa Monica, I was left with a strange sensation. Domainers, long having been in their “own world’, have seem to come to the realization that they need to treat each one of their domains as unique and individual assets that should be built out on their own merits. In previous years past, domainers could live off the traditional “parking sites” and make a mint. These days, even domainer’s profits are being squeezed and now they are somewhat forced to build out their Internet property with the same care and love that most people with only one or two domains have done for years. Below are a few interesting things I took from this year’s conference:

• Every domain is unique – Instead of lumping all of their domains together, the thought that a domain should existing and thrive based on how well it serves it’s target market was unique and something I hadn’t heard before from the domaining community.
• Search and social are critical – Now that their profits are being squeezed, domainers are turning to both search engine optimization and social media for traffic…and for profit.
• Dot com still rules – With the advent of many new top level domains (TLD’s) and the shrinking of available dot coms, the question was whether or not the dot com era was over. However, the resounding response was no. Dot coms have and always will rule the Internet experience. However. we are truly in the web’s infancy and over time we could definitely see the rise of other TLD’s. But for now, dot coms are the best way to the top
• Parking improves – Many of the exhibitors at the event, from Parked.com and RapidDomainBuilder.com, have improved their technology to the point where their sites do NOT feel like parking sites any more. Their technologies were impressive and demonstrated a true understanding of the domain owner’s needs. Even giant Sedo.com has improved their offerings and provide all domain owners with a great platform for easily building out their own websites.
• One site at a time – Finally, it is not possible to fool the search engines any more. So, if you want to build value on your domain, you must build out your website. One site at a time. Provide content, value, and a great user experience and the traffic and monetization of your site will follow.

This was my first trip to Domainfest and as strange as it often was (try talking to self-made entrepreneurs who made their livings solely by buying the right domains at the right time for three days) , the event was spectacular. I look forward to next year’s event and hope the lessons taught and learned this year will make for an even livelier debate/discussion/event next year.

We get asked this question all the time. . . what is “canonicalization” and how does it help/hurt my SEO efforts? Canonicalization is the process of deciding what the best URL is for your website. This process is important since it can effect everything from your rankings to the overall usability of your site. Linking also becomes problematic, as people may link to you in a certain format but your site may be set up a different way. The user will still get to your page but the issue can impact the link credit you’ll get by the engines, ultimately impacting your overall positioning/rankings.

Most people, for example, would consider these the same exact urls:

• www.mysite.com
• mysite.com/
• www.mysite.com/index.html

To the search engines, however, all of these URLs are different and in fact could offer different content on each of the pages, if they wanted to. This, as you can see, is problematic for both humans and search robots. Search engines deal with this issue by deciding for you what the most consistent and best use of URLs is for your site. They then use this in their search engine results. So, whatever you choose you can be sure that the engines will know it and decide for you what to show in their results. People, on the other hand, have grown accustomed to using “www” when searching for a website. So, from our perspective the best way to handle canonicalization is with using the “www” first in your URL string (first example above).

There is a great debate online about this since the “proper” way to build a site is without using “www” as a prefix (second example above). Technically speaking in fact, “www” is actually a sub-domain of your website. This debate falls on deaf ears, however, since the usability of a site is more important than being technically correct and people definitely use “www” when referencing a site. Our final argument in favor of using “www” in your URL string is based on the fact that people who want to talk, link or blog about your site will inevitable use “www” when talking about you. The link credit you could get when people link to you will be diminished if you have a different URL string than the one they use. Again, we side with the people and strongly urge the use of “www” when choosing your URL conventions.

So, for usability, linking, and being consistent with human behavior please use “www” when building your site and make your site canonically consistent and correct.