Talks of standard procedures in search engine optimization has been going around the Internet lately. Many SEO experts have their opinions and own ideas that standardizing SEO will probably continue to be a arguable topic among search engine marketers and SEO specialists. Standard SEO is, after all, a rather complicated subject in the field where white, gray, and black hat techniques exist.

Here’s an interesting debate among some SEO experts on why we need SEO standards or not:

Jill Whalen of Search Engine Land takes the lead in discussing why SEO standards are not needed. She enumerated four reasons for her stand, all pointing to the conclusion that search engine optimization is flexible to one’s business and marketing needs, thus no standard can be ultimately decided on.

Other SEO experts disagreed. Lisa Barone of Bruce Clay, Inc. specifically addressed Jill Whalen’s concerns on not needing SEO standards. Lisa Barone has expressed her view that SEO standards are needed to rope in all internet marketers on proper SEO techniques and concentrates on educating everyone on the developments of SEO.

This debate is showing no sign of an end, at least not for now. SEO is still in a young age where internet marketers are still building on and developing techniques. People are still tinkering on the internet to see what gets a high ranking and what can boost sales. There is the opinion that there is still a long way to go before SEO is clearly defined and SEO experts can finally draw a clear line around standard SEO.

If your website does not rank high, here’s what you can do to improve search engine rankings, engage visitors and convert more sales.

1. Align the site with your objectives

Have your business objectives and goals changed since you launched your website? If so, then you need to revisit your website’s content to ensure it supports your current business needs.

2. Remove useless items

Every item on your website competes for your visitors’ attention, reducing the impact of your key message. Is that welcome message necessary? Are some of those buttons redundant? Scrutinize every element to help deliver a strong message and eliminate distractions.

3. Update your information

Keep time-sensitive information on your website up to date. If you don’t have adequate resources, keep time-sensitive information to a minimum.

4. Edit your web copy for consistency

Businesses often have different people adding web copy at different times, which leads to inconsistencies. Review your copy from start to finish with a keen eye on spelling, format, style, narration, tense, flow and so on.

5. Split text blocks into scannable chunks

Massive blocks of text discourage visitors from exploring your website. Break up web copy with relevant headlines, subheads, bullet points and short, one-topic paragraphs. Your visitors will thank you by spending more time on your site.

6. Review fonts

Check your fonts to ensure consistent size, style and spacing. Consider using a style sheet. Fonts optimal for the Web include Arial, Courier, Georgia, Time New Roman and Verdana.

7. Add new web copy

Add relevant web copy frequently to satisfy visitors and search engines alike. Improve search engine rankings and give your visitors a reason to keep coming back.

8. Refresh your graphics

Renew your image with new graphics, charts and photos. Many are royalty free. Type in terms like “clip art,” “graphics,” and “free photos” into your favorite search engine and you’re on your way.

9. Make your graphics search engine friendly

Give your images tags with keywords to help improve search engine rankings.

10. Consider your color theme

Go over your colors to ensure they are a part of or at least complement your logo and brand. Dump backgrounds that make it difficult to read web copy.

11. Extinguish flashing content

Flashing content irritates visitors and turns them away. It’s one step away from announcing, “Congratulations! You’re the 1,000,000th visitor! Click here to claim prize!” If you want it to make a point, do so with compelling web copy, placement, font size or color.

12. Speed it up

Your pages should load fast. Don’t make your visitors wait 30 seconds or so just to watch your logo spin around. How many times have you retreated from a site while waiting for its intro to load? Relevant web copy is much more likely to grab the attention of a potential client.

13. Re-evaluate PDFs

Are you guilty of throwing PDFs onto your website to save time? PDFs are designed for print, not the Web. Unless it’s an e-book or a form, offer the information as a webpage and give your visitor the option of viewing it as a PDF.

14. Leave music to the DJs

Don’t blast music at your visitors. It slows access to your site and can cheapen your presentation. If music is required, hand over the controls to your visitor by making it optional.

15. Repair or delete broken links

Check all your links and be quick to repair or delete any that bring your visitors to the ‘404 file not found’ message. If a section is under construction, take it offline.

In this video, learn about the benefits of online social networks discussed by the Co-founders of social networking sites Jaiku, Twitter and Dopplr.

Choosing over organic and paid search isn’t necessary when you’re into search engine marketing. This is because you don’t have to choose only one of them. Search engine marketing is flexible in a way where your can combine organic and paid search strategies to achieve top search results.

Organic and paid search have their own advantages and disadvantages. You don’t pay for clicks with organic search, while paid search can be expensive. You can have more control with editorials and messages with paid search, though, while in organic search you cannot guarantee a placement. These are just some of the key advantages and disadvantages of organic and paid search. Looking into these, you will find that you can form search engine marketing tactics to make full use of both and get great results in the search engines.

Here are some suggestions on how to use both organic and paid search and create a well-balanced search engine marketing strategy:

These are just some mixed strategies that you can use to optimize both organic and paid search. These are proof that organic and paid search can work well together and that you don’t have to choose between them in search engine marketing. On the contrary, combining organic and paid search strategies makes a great campaign in search engine marketing.

Here’s giving it to you straight: 30 advertising tips in internet marketing! From customer interaction to sponsorships and website traffic generation, this list delivers specific tips on how to strategically market your site, products and services.

You get more chances of success when you make mobile marketing campaigns a part of your business. Here’s a clip showing a segment of the Mozes Summit 2007 (www.mozes.com) wherein digital media executives share their ideas and experiences in their mobile marketing campaigns. They also give out advice and tips in building a successful mobile marketing campaign.

What are cultural brands?

Cultural brands are brands that are picked up by the the current popular culture, and sometimes affect and change popular culture. These are brands that have conviction shown on them and follow through with their principles. Cultural brands naturally stand for something, and are embedded in a person’s way of life. They have a way of influencing people and are a hot topic among them.

Examples of cultural brands are Nike, Sony, Adidas, and Apple. Just by hearing these brands, one can already ascertain their influences on the pop culture. Nike and its “Just Do It” slogan gives a push to the people to be all they wanna be without hesitation. Adidas gives quality to coolness and coolness to quality. Sony and Apple both inspire people to improve their daily lives with technological advancements.

In online marketing, for the cultural brands to maintain their hold, and for other brands to be more successful, the brands should be able to give that “effective, engaging, effective experience.” The brands need to become a part of a person’s daily life. It needs to provoke conversations, and let people feel the need for them.

The difference between cultural brands and the others is that non-cultural brands have to rely more on advertising and marketing whereas the cultural brands rarely do. Cultural brands don’t need to.

So what happens when your brand isn’t a cultural brand? Can your product become one? The answer is yes. But to be a cultural brand, it takes a different route than the traditional marketing. Cultural brands became what they are through their behavior. It was how they represented themselves, from its product design to the marketing process.

How do you create a cultural brand out of your brand? It starts with opening up your point of view to the public. This point of view becomes the passion and conviction that you will embed in your brand. It should be able to move people, giving them an experience of your point of view, and influencing them in their decisions. Its presence and conviction is, after all, what made them apart from other brands.

Despite the growing influence of the Web and the increasing media consumption of the internet, there are still some companies that are reluctant to make strategic marketing campaigns online. Noticeably, many companies have already paved their way into the online market. But what of the companies that are reluctant to join the majority?

The internet has definitely attracted many people and online users are increasing everyday. The vast majority of people do online research and sometimes make their purchases online. When compared to the television, there is a great probability that the internet will surpass the TV as the number 1 medium in the near future.

But there are still some concerns for some companies on the matter of investing online. They claim that there are still a lot of significant barriers they have to overcome before making an investment in online marketing. Problems such as the inability to measure consumer impact, digital and agency capabilities, management flexibility, and employee capabilities are among the considerations that a company has to ponder about whenever delving into online marketing.

The most important, and most common, problem that the companies deal with is the capabilities of their agency and people. For many companies, especially those that are new to online marketing, designing online marketing campaigns and finding talented people for the job can be difficult. There are companies that are still exploring the online environment and the current management the company has may not find it so easy to understand.

Another serious factor involved in investing in online marketing is that it will take some internal changes in the management and operations. These changes will naturally take some time and require the development of strong communication and new goals and objectives.

The growth of the internet, though, is something that companies cannot just ignore. In order to reach out to more consumers and grow globally as a business, companies are doing their best to adapt to the online craze and invest in online marketing.

Online display ads are in in demand right now by the different markets engaging in Internet marketing. Why wouldn’t it? The Internet has opened up many opportunities for advertising and marketing, and many companies are increasing their budget to be better exposed in the Web. Display ads, which companies find to be more conducive for their purposes, are generally preferred.

Display ads now account for around 21% of all online market share. Compared to five years ago, this is a very decreased position. But ads with “rich” media (videos, flash, etc.) can help get back its marketing power. Display ads only needs to influence online marketers and buyers to be able to get on top again.

Display ads have actually been a popular tool of print media for many years now. The advertisers pay with page views as the basis. The more online users load the page where their display ads are, the more the advertisers pay.

Many still consider display ads to be going strong in Internet marketing. And as the Internet grows, the more companies are betting on online display ads. It is usually being compared to search ads, wherein advertiser pay for charges on a per click basis and not by the number of page views. Display ads are actually taking on the features of the search ads, which makes them more beneficial for both the companies and users. Online display ads are also effective in brand building.

With the many forum posts, blog posts, and articles on the “SEO secrets” and online marketing techniques, it is not surprising that there are those who opt to keep quiet about theirs. With so many SEO techniques being shared online, there has been growing niche of online marketing newbies who delve into these shared secrets and render them useless after a time.

Think about it. The more you share your SEO secrets, the more other will use it. It will end go to a point wherein the tactic would be overused and the market would be saturated. It would be a very big disadvantage to the person who shared it because that specific secret made him or her a lot of money, and stopped working because he shared it with others. With this trend going on today, we cannot really blame some SEO experts to keep their secrets to themselves.

Not everyone thinks this way, of course. There are SEO experts who are very open to sharing information. They view it as a means to become popular and attract attention, which is a big plus in online marketing. Some experts say that it is only a matter of knowing and trusting the people you share information with. They only share information with people that they can brainstorm with and have a give-and-take relationship.

Some aspects of internet marketing and SEO are being talked less and less in the Web. Paid links, lead generation techniques are seen less and less, and even reciprocal linking is not always a topic anymore. There are just some SEO strategies that cannot be shared because competing sites may get hold of the strategies and make use of it themselves.

The way SEO strategies are being kept quiet nowadays, we can see it as an encouragement from the SEO experts to become one of them. Learn to make your own strategies and tactics. Make your own strategy to be successful online.