As the old saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is particularly true when it comes to web design projects. Web surfers have extremely short attention spans and a few well-chosen and properly optimized images can do wonders in terms of drawing visitors to your web site and capturing their attention once they are there.

Here are 4 Tips to Leverage Images for Better Web Design Results:

1. Enhance the Message. The images you select for any web design project should supplement the written text on the page. In other words, your readers should be able to look at an image and immediately “get” why it is on that particular page. The worst thing you can do is pick an image because it is cute or funny, but distracts from the main points you are trying to make. It may capture attention and even generate a laugh or two, but that won’t help pay the bills. If an image takes attention away from your intended message and call-to-action, you should replace it.

2. Complement the Overall Design Aesthetic. Care should be taken to avoid adding an image to a web page that competes with or clashes with the overall look and feel of the site. For example, if your web design scheme is based on warm, earthy colors and conveys a sophisticated and subdued tone, a silly cartoon image comprised of neon pink and lime green will look out of place. Your readers will be scratching their heads and trying to figure out why that particular image is there, rather than focusing on your message.

3. Incorporate Keywords. Adding images to your web design projects can do more than help communicate your message to your target audience. They can also be used to help the search engines find and return your web pages to online searchers. There are two main ways you can accomplish this:

• First, change the file names for your images to include a targeted keyword or phrase for that page. This will make is easier for search engine spiders to “recognize” the image. To illustrate, a file named “TrendyYogaPants.jpg” is more meaningful than one with a generic file name like “0983491.jpg.”
• The second way to get organic search engine traffic from your images is to use “Alt Text” tags. Again, use the keywords or phrases you are targeting for that particular page. Not only will this help the search engines figure out what your image is about, it will also help your human visitors by providing a text explanation in the event the image fails to load.

4. Optimize for Speed. Site load speed is an important web design consideration. This is because slow load times can negatively impact how your web site ranks in the search engines and cause visitors to quickly reach for the back button. Overly large image files can slow down your site speed, so be sure to properly optimize each file to the smallest size you need before uploading it.

A couple weeks ago, Google announced its newest feature – Google Instant. The new search enhancement allows logged in Google users to view search results before they have even pressed “Google Search.” The idea behind the update, according to the Google blog, was that “people type slowly, but read quickly. This means you can scan a results page while you type.” The benefits include faster searching (can save 2-5 seconds per search), smart predictions and instant results.

While this seems like an exciting development in the world of search engines, as a web marketer I can’t help but question what affect this will have on Pay Per Click advertisements and Search Engine Optimization.

My first question was, when will ads appear, and how will impressions be affected?

As users search, pay per click ads will appear in their normal locations – at the top and on the right side of the page, highlighted by a light yellow box. However, an impression will only be calculated if the advertisement is displayed for three or more seconds. Although this updated definition will help to regulate the impressions, it is still possible that click-through-rate will be negatively affected. This won’t initially put a dent in advertiser’s budgets, but if quality scores drop advertisers may find themselves with higher bid prices than pre-Instant searching.

Next I wondered how searchers habits would change as a result of the highly suggestive interface.

Many advertisers’ campaigns may be set up to include general phrases or words that have an overarching connection to the advertised site. However, with constantly changing suggestive search options and real time search results, users may opt to continue altering their query until they have landed on a specific phrase. It may be important for advertisers to examine their keywords in coming months to include more detailed words and phrases that are more likely to be searched with Instant than in the past. In the past, singular words had higher search volumes, and therefore were more desirable keywords. However, now advertisers may want to consider adding additional plural terms – for example, pets instead of pet – as the plural is often the first suggested term in Google Instant.
Now, what about Search Engine Optimization?

As users search, Google places paid and universal listings as high as possible on the page, below the suggestive search area. This means that highly optimized search results are still being pushed below the fold of the web browser. Once the user hits “Search” and sticks with a query, all of the listings resume their natural positions, but since that step is no longer necessary it is extremely important for sites to obtain a top ranking of one or two. Most likely, users won’t scroll as they search, making anything below those rankings virtually invisible. In addition, as users scan the listings more quickly, “calls to action” that are commonly placed in the meta description of listings will move to the meta title.

At this stage in the game, it is hard to say exactly how much of an impact Google Instant will have on rankings, especially since it only applies to logged-in Google users, and there is still an option to turn the feature off. It would be wise to keep an eye out for any strange changes after the September 7th launch of Google Instant. These changes, as long as advertisers and optimizers alike are award of them, don’t have to be scary or painful. They simply require attention and tweaks along the way to AdWords campaigns and SEO efforts.

An effective search engine optimization strategy is vitally important to the long-term success of your business. Without one, you may occasionally get lucky and rank well enough in the major search engines for potential customers to find your web site. However, you will probably still need to rely heavily on paid forms of advertising to bring in enough visitors to grow and maintain your business. Even if you plan to run a sustained PPC (pay-per-click) advertising campaign, you will still want to take advantage of all the free web traffic you can get.

Here’s How to Obtain Better Search Engine Optimization Results in 3 Easy Steps

1.    Do Your Research. Keyword research is the cornerstone of any search engine optimization campaign. Keywords are the terms or phrases that Internet users type into the search engines when looking for something online. For example, phrases such as “dog boarding” or “dry cleaners in Cleveland” may be used by individuals needing those services. When looking for keywords for your search engine optimization efforts, you will want to consider several variables, including your target market, your key products or services, your geographic location and most importantly, your customers’ main challenges or concerns. Once you develop this list, you’ll need to use a keyword research tool to determine how many searches are performed each month for that term and how strong the competition is for it.

2.    Create Great Content. Once you find a list of keywords or phrases with the right blend of high demand and low-to-moderate competition, the next step is to develop strong content around those terms. This content should provide real value to your audience by addressing their problems or concerns. Don’t go overboard when adding keywords to your content, however. Although there are no hard and fast rules on this topic, a good rule of thumb is to include your targeted keywords in the title and first sentence of your article or blog post, then once for every 100 words. This will give you a keyword saturation of approximately 1%, which will give the search engines a good idea what your content is about without alienating your human visitors.

3.    Promote Your Content. Once you’ve added keyword-optimized content to your web site, the next step is to help it find an audience. The best way to do this is to develop quality backlinks pointing into your site. (Backlinks are simply links to your site from other web sites). The major search engines read each backlink to your site as a vote of confidence for it. Therefore, the more quality backlinks your site has, the more of an ‘authority site’ the search engines will perceive it to be – and the more likely they will be to ‘recommend’ it (via higher search rankings) to their customers. Submitting content to article directories, writing guest blog posts for respected sites in your industry, and commenting on relevant blogs and forums are all great ways to accomplish this.

Although it takes time and effort to develop and execute a successful search engine optimization strategy, the long-term results are definitely worth it. Once you have a substantial body of well-optimized content ranking well in the search engines, your web site will receive a steady supply of free traffic for years to come.

During the week of August 8-13, teams of students from nine Ohio universities gathered at Baldwin-Wallace College to participate in The Entrepreneurship Education Consortium's "Immersion Week" program.

Each student team gathered on the first day to develop an idea for a business or product and spent the rest of the week putting together a business plan and presentation for the final day.

On Wednesday, the team was visited by Carmen Fontana, Web Services Manager at WRIS, who presented the What, Why and How of Web Marketing with a focus on new businesses.

On Friday, Charlie Meyers and Bonny Lafave attended the final presentations and awards ceremony. The winning team was from Hiram College with a product concept for flavored straws. WRIS presented the team with a free inPHASE Introductory Site and a full year of free web hosting.

The winning students were excited and overwhelmed with the prospect of their new business venture and will be coached by the EEC's representatives on their college campus.

In today's tech-savvy marketing community, SEO, PPC and Social Media are common buzz words in the industry. There are endless blog posts, articles and webinars on maximizing your ROI and perfecting these areas of business, but for those who are completely new to the Web Marketing arena, we want to provide a quick and easy guide to get you started.

1.     Why should you consider web marketing?

After you put your time, effort and money into creating or redesigning a website - it is likely that getting potential clients and customers to your site is important to you. Instead of waiting for customers to find you, web marketing will help you find them when they are in the buying mindset. The costs of web marketing are much lower than traditional advertising and there are more measurable results. For example, a Google AdWords advertisement can cost as little as $0.25; once placed, you can determine how many people viewed and acted on your ad.

2.     What is web marketing?

Search Engine Optimization: Often called "organic" or "SEO," this type of web marketing is represented in the listings that appear on the left hand side of Google, outside of the yellow Sponsored Ads box. The position that your company holds is dependent on 100+ factors; your goal is to optimize your website to satisfy as many of those factors as possible to boost your organic ranking. This can be done through selecting keywords and using them in web copy, increasing credible inbound links, submitting sites to search engines and ensuring that back end items like ALT tags and H1 headers are optimized. Not only does a higher ranking give you credibility, but once you secure a comfortable ranking it takes a long time lose it. With SEO, potential customers are actively looking for your product or service and you have the ability to be at the top of the list when they search.

Pay Per Click Marketing: PPC is often considered the opposite of SEO. It is represented in the yellow Sponsored Ads box at the top of the page, and down the right hand column. You select the keywords you want to advertise your company on, and ads only appear when that keyword is entered into the search engine. When your ad does appear, you only pay when someone clicks on it. Your advertisement position depends on your bid and past click through history, so it is important to choose relevant keywords and ad copy. Companies like PPC because it is a quick way to advertise on the web, it offers good visibility and there is complete control over advertising costs when you set budgets for your campaigns. After setting up your account on Google, Bing or Yahoo! (which will soon merge with Bing) you can select keywords and write ad copy. As you move forward and tweak your campaign, you should shoot for a position between 1-3.9 and pay attention to click through rates.

Social Media: Social Media is essentially a variety of websites and tools that allow you to share information, connect with other users, and increase brand awareness. Some common avenues of social media are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Blogging. The benefits of social media include the ability to communicate with existing or potential customers, develop your brand, and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Getting started it easy, just sign up for accounts with a consistent username, determine your goals, create a strategy and begin publishing content that is consistent with your strategy and meaningful to followers. It is important to interact with others through various methods on each site. On Facebook you can "like" companies and post on user's profile walls. On Twitter you can reply, retweet and use hash tags (#) to engage in conversations. On LinkedIn, you can follow companies and respond to posted questions. You should continually monitor what is being said about your brand, and engage in discussions with people who are talking about your company, or the industry it is in.

3.     How do I begin web marketing?

There are a few strategies for beginning web marketing. Companies can choose to do all work internally, hire an agency to do the work for them, or a combination of the two. We recommend the combination, especially when it comes to social media. The people representing your brand should have an in depth knowledge of your organization, which only comes from being immersed in it. In order to determine what is right for your company, ask yourself:

• How much time do we have?

Typically social media is the most time consuming avenue of web marketing, with SEO close behind. PPC Advertising requires the least amount of time because once it is set up, only minor maintenance is required.

• How much money do we have?

In general, you will find that PPC Advertising is the most expensive, since you pay for every click on one of your ads. You can always set budgets, however, to control these costs. SEO requires ongoing maintenance, which can introduce costs for items like directory submissions. Social media is likely to be the least expensive option, as networking sites are free to use.

• How soon do we need results?

The quickest option to get results from your web marketing efforts will be PPC Advertising. To set up an account and post ads, you only need a couple hours to start receiving leads. Social media demands more time to build a following and establish your company as a leader. SEO efforts need to be spread out over a longer period of time so search engines don't perceive the website as spam. In order to increase your organic ranking, a few changes should be made each month, rather than all at once.  

With this brief overview of web marketing, you now have the ability to select what areas you would be most beneficial for your company. All industries, companies and customers have different needs, and they like to be communicated with in different ways. Make sure you have a firm understanding of these things before diving in to any of these web marketing tactics.