First off, if you don’t know, you are a web analytics discussion waiting to happen. But for today’s discussion- where do your search engine conversions come from? From Google paid search? From natural search? From the new Bing engine?

Even with the recent Yahoo! and Microsoft collaboration announcement, we can take a look at search engine conversions without looking at the actual search engine. A past set of statistics is resurfacing, presented by the SEO expert Rand Fishkin.

Approximately 88% of search engine marketing spend is spent on PPC (paid search). About 11% of search engine marketing spend is attributable to SEO (natural search). However, PPC accounts for about 10% of total search clicks, while SEO accounts for about 90% of search engine marketing clicks. The 2009 predicted SEO spend is over $2 billion.

With these kinds of numbers you must consider where your search engine conversions coming from. Where is your Internet advertising focus?

If you are not incorporating some level of SEO into your website, are you missing out on 90% of your visitors? Of course not. However, you are likely missing out on some portion of visitors, and you may not be attracting the type of visitor who is likely to result in a search engine conversion.

This substantial predicted 2009 SEO spend means, among other things, that you have more competition headed your way for search engine conversions. Your competitors are realizing the value of SEO. As SEO can take a few months of optimization efforts before results are seen, 2010 is where your competition will start to stand out. Have you begun your SEO efforts?

Where Do Your Search Engine Conversions Come From? is a post from: Costa Rica SEO Blog

1. Advertising delivered via mobile means (text messages, Adsense for Mobile)

2. Mobile-friendly site-design (fast page load times, easy navigation, mobile-specific features)

Section one can be considered as a new section paid-advertising. Mobile ad spend is expected to increase 81.2% over the next five years with local search seeing much of that increase. As you consider mobile advertising, take into consideration the following points:

· is part of your site locally-focused? If not, how can you make it local?

· is your product/service/information page relative to a mobile user? For example, a department-specific college Web page is likely not a top mobile viewed page. A list of late-night taxi services for that college town on the same Web site may bring more relevance to many mobile users.

The second section of mobile search marketing is applicable to anyone with a website, much like SEO. If the amount of mobile ad spend is increasing dramatically, it’s a safe bet that mobile Internet users are also increasing. As Internet-friendly phones evolve, people will be spending more time browsing the Internet via their phones.

Why do you care about mobile marketing?

Your site must be capable to being mobile-friendly. Great…but again, what does that mean for you?

· site pages must load quickly (use limited/small graphics)

· site pages must be easy to navigate with mobile-device commands (check out http://www.opera.com/mini/demo/ to try it yourself!)

· create a section of your site especially for mobile users (games, local info, top news stories, etc)

Creating a mobile-friendly site or page design can be accomplished with minimal time and budget (dependent upon scope) by using CSS. Creating a special mobile section— well get brainstorming and discuss some ideas with your SEM team!

Mobile Search Marketing—Is It For You? is a post from: Costa Rica SEO Blog

Today’s Internet boasts no shortage of blogs. With blogs constantly being added, and forgotten, the number of blogs is difficult to accurately track. One estimate by eMarketer reports 22.6 million blogs for the year 2007 in the United States alone.

Does that mean 22.6 million blog goals exist as well? Not likely. Blogs found online can range from superbly written to a random rant of someone’s day. Does anybody care about what ice cream I had last (eggnog with hot fudge)? Or what the top AP news story was today? Not here. If you cared about my ice cream habits, we could discuss that over email. If you wanted the top AP news story, you would visit the AP or top newspaper site, not an Internet marketing blog.

A blog goal is like an essay’s thesis. Every blog post written should somehow relate back to this goal. Breakline Marketing’s blog goal is to educate and share with readers the developments and ideas in the Internet marketing realm. What is the goal of your blog?

Once you have established the goal of your blog, you must take steps to ensure you are on your way to continually meeting the goal. Many bloggers have the impression that more posts equal a solid blog. As quantity becomes the focus, quality and importance often drop. As you write your next post, read it before the post goes live. Ask yourself:

- is the topic relevant to my readers; will they find it interesting and/or helpful?

- is the post different than most everything else on the Internet? Do I offer originality?

- is the post well-written and compelling enough to attract new readers?

If your answers are ‘no’, put the post aside. Try a new idea, or rewrite and edit the post after a break. You will likely discover that of your blog readings and efforts, only a few posts will make it to your blog. These few posts however, will be top quality and result in a blog your readers will look forward to reading and adding to their list of favorite blogs.

Does your blog have a goal? is a post from: Costa Rica SEO Blog

If you have a website, you are part of online marketing whether you want to be or not. As soon as Google, Yahoo or other search engines notice you have a live website— boom! Like it or not, you are thrown into the world of search engine marketing. So what?

Would you make a television advertisement and run it untouched for months on end? Would you make a radio commercial and let it run unedited for months and months? Unless you have got one heck of an advertisement, edits to the ad will be made depending on results, seasonality and your audience.

The difference between a website and a radio or television ad is a website is already in an advertising space. Aside from paying a site-hosting fee, a website is automatically placed on an advertising platform (Google, Yahoo, etc). This is true even if you are not running a paid search campaign. A simple search results page (the page that turns up after entering your search in any search engine) can be considered an advertising platform. Additionally, you can be confident that your competitors will also be on this platform. Two thousand and nine expects advertisers to shift ad spending to search in place of traditional media. One way to use search as a form of advertising is the well-known paid search— quick with very quantitative results and general success. The second is natural search, or SEO. SEO can be a particularly wise investment in a down economy. Consumers in 2009 are less likely to be shopping and buying— therefore clicking less on an ad meant to sell. However, consumers will continue to look (search) for industry information, reviews or product information; any conception not automatically connected to “buy.” A solid SEO effort can help make it easy for consumers to find your site. As these people find your site and find the site useful, they are more likely to come back…even after a down economy turns up.

YOU! Are an Online Marketer is a post from: Costa Rica SEO Blog

While I’m not completely converted yet (It will take a lot for me to get away from all my add ons in Firefox)  it’s worth mentioning and monitoring.

Check out Google Chrome when you have a moment.

Google Chrome is Released is a post from: Costa Rica SEO Blog