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What Exactly Is Web 3.0?

December 22nd, 2009 No comments

If you’re familiar with social media than you know that the social media revolution has often be referred to as Web 2.0. Said another way, the ability to communicate in real time via the web through networks of like-minded people is considered the second iteration of the Internet.

In recent months I have heard countless people talking about what’s next for the world wide web. The reality is that Web 3.0 is already here and this is evidenced by those websites who are taking user behavior into consideration when defining an online user experience.

Web 3.0 is all about improving the experience of web site browsers and helping them make the right decisions quickly. Now that the Internet has expanded significantly and there are billions of pages of information, getting through that information effectively has become a challenge.

What makes this concept of Web 3.0 so appealing is behavior data. The next version of the Internet all types of online behavior will be tracked closely. Everything from on-site behavior to purchase behavior like order size and frequency will be combined with preference to shape your online experience. The more data available the more predictive the experience can become.

Web 3.0 goes beyond real time data by allowing online merchants and other websites the ability to integrate existing data into user profiles. For site that already have behavioral data, generating meaningful predictive models become even easier. Whether you’ve responded to a one time promotion or have consistently bought from a web site, this information is used to shape recommendations and marketing messages via email and online.

Technology deployed in the Web 3.0 world is sophisticated and secure. This technology is used to track behavior and aggregate patterns of behavior over time. The more information collected the more accurate a personal profile can be, predicting your future browsing and purchasing behavior. This allows for a level of customization than can dramatically improve your online browsing experience and satisfaction.

For me the issues isn’t about tracking the behavior, it’s more about how it’s used. For example, if I only buy jeans once every other year, and an online retailer knows my buying behaviors, I’ll be grateful to get less email on a daily basis. This level of intelligence can make the buying experience much more beneficial for the end user and ultimately more economical for the retailer. I know they’ll never pass the savings on to me but you never know.

Web 3.0 is upon us. As web sites continue to collect and use more of your behavioral data, your online buying experience is going to change. One can argue if this change is for the better. However, I believe that it can dramatically improve your buying experience and improve the way retailers market products and services.

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categories: internet marketing,seo,search engine optimization,Google,Yahoo,Search engines,business

What All Businesses Should Know About Search Engine Optimization

December 19th, 2009 No comments

When first taking a business online, the one thing that all businesses are concerned about, is getting traffic to their site – preferably targetted traffic. Targetted traffic is simply visitors that are interested in what the business is selling and will, eventually, make a purchase.

There is a lot of hype around how website owners can get hundreds and thousands of visitors to their site and how they can get their site on Page 1 of the Search Engines – yes, a lot of it is hype but some of it is true.

There are a couple of excellent ways for Small Business Owners to gain targetted traffic to their site including:

* Pay Per Click Marketing (Google AdWords)

* Search Engine Optimization – so your business can be found in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

* Social Marketing

* Offline advertising

Out of all of these, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the one method that site owners should have a basic understanding of, because it’s the one method that is ongoing and, in my opinion, most beneficial.

Search Engine Optimization is literally about having your website listed in the SERPs (indexed) for the search terms you want to be found for. SEO is also about having your site found as high as possible in the Search Engine rankings for those keywords – preferably on Page 1.

However, SEO is an ongoing process – once you’ve got your site listed, it takes ongoing work to improve the ranking of your site, and then maintain it.

Whilst a lot of the SEO work can be outsourced, it pays to understand the SEO Basics and why they need to be done – that way, business owners will understand whether they are getting a fair price and whether the work being offered by SEO companies is the right type of work.

My one single tip to ensuring that website are indexed, and start ranking for their chosen keywords is to write great content. Don’t be fooled by the stories that you can get your site ranked with a little bit of content – whilst you may get your site listed and ranking well for a while, it will most likely be temporary. Writing great content is the way to ensure you maintain and improve your rankings.

When you write your content, use one of your chosen keywords throughout that content – but no more than 1 to 2 times in every 100 words to avoid ‘keyword stuffing’. Once you’ve written your content, read it aloud before publishing it to make sure it sounds natural.

My final advice with this tip, is to use formatting like bold, italics and underlines to highlight your keywords and bring attention to them.

This tip is only one part of a series steps to optimizing your website for Search Engines, but I consider it one of the most important parts to the process.

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categories: search engine optimization,search engine rankings,search engines