2010 Online Visibility Factors

2010, another challenging year ahead for businesses, a year to bounce back and grow following the recession, what we hear in the land of Ice and Snow is the recession is over ?? but difficult times are still ahead.

Creating online visibility for the company web site will have a significant impact on how well businesses are able to grow and take advantage of new opportunities in the coming year.

2010 Has to start with planning

Without doubt the options available to improve your business's online visibility are almost limitless.

Considering only the main options available such as Search Engine Optimization, Social Media and Search Marketing, and the opportunities and tasks within these option groups, it is clearly evident some form of Online Marketing Strategic Planning is going to be a necessary task from the very outset of the Online Marketing Program.

With so many elements involved and tasks to complete, planning is an important step towards developing an Online Marketing Program which meets your business goals.

Most Important 2010 Web Visibility Program Elements

The market is changing rapidly, changes to the Search Engine Algorithms, and a more competitive Social Media environment due to more businesses developing Social Media Marketing programs, means to achieve Online Visibility in the coming year will require commitment and attention to detail.

1. Strategic Planning

This has to be the number one item for consideration, there are just too many options, tasks, plus human and financial resources involved to not develop a comprehensive Strategic Plan.

A couple of the main considerations when planning for the coming year will be the selection and prioritizing the marketing opportunities available, and then developing programs for each individual element selected, followed by the integration of these micro-programs into a comprehensive online marketing strategy document.

2. Web Site Review

Your business's web site is often one of the first points of contact a potential customer may have with your business, and operates as your companies host to visitors. The web site must provide a favorable first impression and meet visitor expectations.

A quick review of the following will ensure web site visitors are greeted by a web site which meets their expectations and empowers them to complete the tasks important to your business:

• Professionalism of web site and graphic design
• Navigation: All links are well labeled and working
• Content provides the information required in the right place at the right time
• Web Site processes such as online forms and shopping carts are intuitive and working properly

3. Fresh Relevant Web Site Content

The relevancy and freshness of content will be an important consideration in 2010. Google and other Search Engines evolving Search Algorithms are including Real Time Search Results from News, Blogs and Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Content which is current and relevant to Searcher's requests will receive improved Search Visibility over similar results last year.

The introduction of Google's Caffeine further presses home the importance of updating and keeping web site content current and relevant. Caffeine is likely to put higher scores on web sites not depending on antiquated web site content to achieve visibility in Search Engine Results Pages.

4. Web Site Download Times

Optimizing for web page download times is again an important issue. Download Optimization has been ignored over the last few years with the increasing popularity of high speed Internet access. However, Google has stated web page download times are an issue they will be investigating as part of their overall Search Results Algorithm.

Google of course monitors user behavior as well as web site performance and is aware of slow download speeds and its correlation to visitor satisfaction. Google wants to provide Internet users with both the most relevant search results, and superior customer experience. If customers are using the back button to return to the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) it is apparent to Google the web site provided in the results failed to meet customer expectations in one form or another.

Download speeds were an important issue at the beginning of the last decade, many of the same principles used to enhance download times still exist including:

• Well coded and programmed web sites.
• Optimizing images and graphics to the smallest possible file size while at the same time retaining the required quality.
• Video was not a significant consideration 10 years ago. In the coming years videos which load at page load times will have a considerable impact on download performance as noted by the Search Engines. It is not recommended to enable auto load video, it is far better to have the video load when "Play" is clicked by web site visitors.

5. Social Media

Empowering Social Media in the coming year is another important aspect of the online visibility equation. Social Media in 2009 not only grew in user numbers, but also the number of businesses partaking and developing Social Media Marketing programs.

With the introduction of Real Time Search the impact your Twitter and Facebook accounts has on your business's visibility has increased. In 2010 Social Media will not only be about developing relationships, Social Media will also be beneficial to your Organic Search Optimization due to Real Time Search's impact on the Search Engine Results Pages.

6 Landing Pages

How relevant the Landing Page is to the snippet in both Organic and Paid Search Results will become increasingly important to improving the overall visibility of your business online. The reasoning for this again goes back to the importance of user experience with regards to the Search Engines Results for specific searches.

Landing pages are not the sole domain of PPC campaigns, in the coming year Landing Pages will also play an important role in determining if your new web site visitors stay on and venture further into the web site, or bounce back to the Search Results. Again this information is monitored by the Search Engines, and should bounce rate be excessive for specific web pages you can be assured the Search Engines will have noted these actions and adjust the SERPs accordingly.

7 Web Site Domain Authority and Link Building

Domain Authority will still impact the Search Results in 2010. Real Time Search will undoubtedly be targeted by Spammers and the Search Engines will be doing whatever possible to prevent the Real Time Search Results to be manipulated by Spammers and will depend on aspects of the Search Algorithm which has prevented this in the past. Therefore, link building will still be an important part of your web site's long term performance strategy

The Last Word

The above is what I view as an absolute necessity to obtain the sought after visibility for your business online in the coming year. However, it does not end there, attention must be paid to the basics such as keyword research, development of high quality relevant content which benefits web site users and the improvement of the web site's Domain Authority.

I always promote a Holistic approach to Web Site Performance, the above steps are fundamental elements which must be addressed. In addition to the above, Search Engine Marketing and Web Usability will provide additional support for these high priority elements.