Though not immune to the recession, digital marketing rode out the downturn, and marketers worldwide are bullish about the space’s prospects in 2010, according to research from the  Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA).

 The “2010 Digital Marketing Outlook” report found that 81% of the brand executives surveyed expected an increase in digital projects in 2010, and one-half will be moving dollars from traditional to digital budgets. Further, more than three-quarters think the current economy will push more allocations to digital.

Senior marketers reported that social networks and applications were their biggest priority for 2010, followed closely by digital infrastructure. While social media marketing looks set to stay top of mind, a majority of respondents considered a range of digital activities at least “important,” with only games failing to inspire widespread interest.

 As paid traditional media investments stagnated or decreased, paid digital spending has held steady or gone up, usually by less than 30%. But “unpaid/earned/proprietary” media spending has seen the sharpest rise, with nearly one-fifth of respondents reporting increases of more than 30%. Climbing unpaid-media spending is likely an effect of the increased emphasis on social networks, where the most effective efforts are earned, not bought.

Marketers are looking closely at measures of engagement. Respondents considered time spent on a site to be the most important performance metric, followed by unique page views.

Despite a bright outlook for digital, the report warned marketers that they must keep pushing for advances in the channel.

“Digital agencies must avoid complacency at all costs and continue to focus on driving innovation as well as engaging consumers with relevant dialog in uncharted and fast-moving channels,” said Steve Wages, interim executive director of SoDA, in a statement.

via Engagement on Social Networks Top Priority for Marketers - eMarketer.

Read more  (courtesyof arstechnica.com)

What are your thoughts on mega-corp lawsuit battles?

Many stores have recognized this pattern and have built e-commerce storefronts to try and make up for lower sales at brick-and-mortar locations. But consumers are extremely wary of data theft and online fraud, so e-commerce sites must be easily found and convey credibility. This takes not only solid web design, security and functionality, but also a web marketing strategy that employs search engine optimization (SEO).

Getting found online takes more than a photo and product link. E-commerce sites should look to add a new page of content to their site daily. This shows the search engines that they’re “fresh” and growing. Storefronts should also create unique product descriptions, rather than just copying from Amazon.com or other major e-commerce sites – because it’s unlikely that you’ll win a battle of search dominance against the large, well established players. Instead, focus on creating product descriptions that target slightly different search phrases and work to convert those leads.

Content is huge when it comes to SEO, but your e-commerce site should also have built-in SEO functionality. At a minimum, be sure your web development firm is using the latest web standards and offers a dynamic method for setting and adjusting page titles and meta tags. Quality firms also offer filtered navigation, search engine friendly URLs, dynamic XML sitemaps and social networking integration.

E-Commerce is highly competitive, no matter the industry, service or product. So take the time and make the investment in a web development company that employs SEO strategies to help your business rise to the top of the search engine results pages. Call or email Baytech Web Design today for a free consultation about your e-commerce website and SEO needs.

While it’s important to not forget about other search engines like Yahoo! and Bing, most companies are interested in optimizing their website to perform well in Google. At Baytech Web Design, we’ve found that many companies haven’t even used one of the simplest techniques available to improve their organic SEO – claiming their business listing on Google’s Local Business Center (LBC).

The LBC lets you enter key information about your business or service, including address, hours of operation and product/service category. You then verify the information manually – this prevents Spam listings and adds even more credibility to the information’s accuracy.

Once you’ve claimed your listing at Google’s LBC, you just might find that you’ll start climbing the search engine results pages for your targeted keywords. It’s really a win-win situation. The LBC provides Google with more accurate and verified search results, and your company gets to piggyback on Google’s search dominance.

Baytech Web Design can help your company get listed on the LBC and can also help you put together a full web marketing program that includes SEO, linking and PPC strategies to help your company in its quest for top search ranking.     

No matter your query, the PPC ad placements likely have similar, keyword stuffed copy. But effective web marketing requires more than copying the competition to improve click through rates (CTR) and quantify PPC costs.

With only a couple of sentences to describe your company or product, it’s easy to see why many PPC campaigns are similar. But do you have to be a clone? We don’t think so. Baytech Web Design has helped many companies improve their click conversions and PPC ROI by closely examining and adjusting PPC ad placements.

Every PPC ad you create is assigned a quality score based on the click through rate (CTR). This makes sense – if an ad is being clicked more often than another, it’s probably well written and more relevant. So what factors influence clicks? One of the most important is the headline.

Think about headlines you click when you’re searching the web or reading the news. Research the most popular headlines being shared on social media sites. How do those headlines incite interest and get clicks? It’s doubtful that they’re stuffed with keywords, written in all-caps or just copies of another. Instead, they might use rhyme or another literary device to get attention, or use powerful words like “groundbreaking” or “ultimate.”

Copying your competitors PPC ads will probably not get the conversion rate you want. Instead, let the internet marketing professionals at Baytech Web Design help you improve PPC CTR by giving your ad placements a groundbreaking makeover. Call or email today for your free consultation. 

On the quest for top search ranking, different SEO strategies exist when it comes to links. One key SEO tactic is “link popularity.” Link popularity is used by major search engines to rank the quantity and quality of the links pointing to your website. They also examine the link text and relevance of those links. All of these factors contribute to your page rank.

Link popularity is just one facet of linking for SEO – external links. Your website should also review its use of back links and internal links to further optimize search results. Every link on your site today has an impact on your search ranking and SEO.

At Baytech Web Design, we know that it takes a coordinated use of back links, internal links and external links to start moving up the SERP of key search engines. The links you put on your website (and have coming into your site) serve as a quality indicator for your overall site. And internal and external links that relate to your industry keywords and meta tags can contribute to the quality ranking you receive.

It pays to include linking in your SEO strategy, but many companies just don’t know where to begin. Let the online marketing and SEO specialists at Baytech Web Design help you implement a link strategy that will show results. Call or email today for a free consultation about your use of links.

Outsourcing website development projects and online marketing can significantly reduce the overhead associated with building and maintaining your company brand. Teaming up with a design firm like Baytech can greatly enhance the consistency of your brand, and our design professionals ensure that your brand is recognizable in all marketing materials. Baytech has a stable of experienced and dedicated branding strategists who can integrate with your company’s web design, custom web application development and marketing projects.

Baytech’s branding strategists work to keep your website layout, corporate identity and other marketing materials consistent and complimentary to build your brand’s image and overall message. When working as a unified front, your company’s brand can establish your business as an industry leader and communicate to potential customers that your products or solutions are right for their business.

Let the branding professionals at Baytech put their expertise to work for you. Your brand is too important to forget about, but often too expensive to prioritize. Consider outsourcing your web-related development projects and marketing needs to Baytech. You’ll likely find that it’s possible to lower your web development costs while enhancing the consistency and power of your overall brand and corporate message.

Give us a call or email today to discuss your upcoming design and website development projects. 

Next generation technology is opening up new possibilities for website development and custom web applications. As the web continues to evolve, Baytech Webs is constantly working to stay abreast of the latest and greatest technologies the web has to offer. We’re already hearing buzz about Web 3.0. While that name may currently just be marketing hype, we know that the continued evolution of the web is an absolute fact.

As Web 3.0 gains momentum, Baytech Webs is seeing web applications get smaller and faster. More data and applications are being delivered in “the cloud.” Websites and web applications need to be designed and functional on computers, as well as mobile devices. Effective marketing plans need to include viral marketing and guerrilla marketing to leverage the incredible power of social networking and email.

The future of the web is being created today. You can be sure that Baytech Webs is tracking trends and at the forefront of emerging web development technology and innovations. Our business is to make yours successful, and we live this mission every day. Take a look at our project portfolio and web development capabilities today. Then call or email to discuss how we can help create and launch your project using technology that prepares your company for Web 3.0.

The popularity of Web 2.0 is huge, and it’s the natural evolution of the world wide web. Where Web 1.0 was information controlled by one source or company, Web 2.0 attempts to bring together a community of users to validate, question and develop new content. The continued evolution of Web 2.0 is driven by the desire to create a richer web experience for users who now feel like “part of the conversation.” 

To be competitive, anyone who needs website development or custom web applications today has to consider how they’ll incorporate Web 2.0. Successful Web 2.0 companies are commonly valued and acquired for billions of dollars. Google acquired YouTube for US$1.7 billion and Facebook is valued at around US$15 billion based on Microsoft’s investment in the social networking site.   

Baytech Web Design has the Web 2.0 capabilities and experience to help drive traffic and generate buzz for your project. Our web development experts will help you transform your Web 2.0 idea into reality. Baytech Web Design can manage every aspect of your social networking solution – from business planning to website launch. We’ll work with you to identify market opportunities and strategies so you can enter the Web 2.0 space confidently and successfully.

It only takes one great idea to become the next internet phenomenon. So what’s yours? Call or email Baytech Web Design today to discuss our Web 2.0 capabilities and your web development needs.

Changing website content used to mean that someone actually manipulated HTML code for the site changes to occur. Not anymore. Today, a standard feature on most websites is the CMS, or content management system. A CMS provides a point-and-click interface from which you can instantly add or modify content on your company website. Accessible from any web connection, a CMS lets you securely administer your website – for complete site ownership with no monthly maintenance fees.

Baytech has been developing websites with advanced CMS functionality since 2001. Named Silicon Valley’s top web design firm, Baytech develops websites using custom web applications that we’ve built to accomplish specific business needs (like a shopping cart or online payment system). Built as interchangeable modules, we can assemble a “custom” website that meets the specific needs of your business. And our web development modules all tie back into our Advanced CMS. So you get complete control of your custom website – without paying a custom development price or monthly maintenance fee.

Baytech believes you should own what you buy. That’s why we even provide you the complete source code for your custom web solution. We don’t even require that you host through our company – though you’d likely find that Baytech has aligned itself with strategic partners offering very competitive hosting rates. Still, it doesn’t matter; it’s your site, host it wherever you like. So quit paying monthly maintenance charges for an out-of-date website that you already paid for years ago. Call or email Baytech today to learn more about our Advanced CMS and custom web development capabilities.