Get More from Search - Trends in Search & Social Media

“When you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

But what if you don’t know how to join them? Will you be left behind and have to settle for a slow painful decline of your business?

Many small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) want desperately to join the ranks of the millions spending billions in online advertising. While those SMBs that have taken the leap to online plan to spend just over half of their marketing budgets online, the barriers to entry must be reduced for the lion’s share of SMBs to feel confident with the realm of Internet advertising.>

And yet it’s more than just confidence in the medium: it’s more about human relationships, actually. Trust – in the advertising company – and in its representatives – makes the biggest difference in the minds of SMBs considering the online ad world.

Other barriers include not knowing how to properly track results achieved online. Education and relationship building are both vitally important to encouraging small businesses to shift dollars to Internet advertising.

The good news is that there are services out there to build the relationship and act on behalf of the SMB. Check out this month’s article for an intro to WeAreNetworkâ„¢ – not just any local search engine.

Ok, we all know we can setup an account and buy PPC advertising from Google, Yahoo! and MSN, but wouldn’t it be great if we could buy search engine positioning in hundreds of unique website search engines across the country and in industry specific markets where are users are?

Just think of it. What if there was one central website that you the advertiser could use to pick-and-choose the hundreds of sites, and specific keywords, you would like your URL to be displayed in? And they would be static URL’s. Not dynamic rotational AdWord content network partner sites which typically display irrelevant ads, but top tier websites with high page rank and low Alexa rankings. Buying a search listing in these sites means a static link to your site from hundreds of top sites on the web related to your business.

Finally, advertising in hundreds of engines all on unique domains with major SEO value and ROI for each link you buy. Hundreds of inbound links instantly created to promote your product or service – all easily administered from one site.

Sound too good to be true? Well, soon it will be a reality.

Vortaloptics is pioneering the roll-out of custom vertical search engines on thousands of websites across North America. Each search engine can be completely controlled by the website administrator to position links, advertisers and affiliates under the exact keywords the administrator or advertiser chooses. Currently the Vortaloptics network is comprised of over 500 individual websites but is growing daily with new customers in new markets.

Users win, because the search results of these websites are “shaped” to provide the exact content users are searching for. Advertisers win, because they have new vertical outlets from which to buy advertising. Site owners win because they have a better functioning website, relevant results in their own engine and revenue being generated from the links they sell.

Like newcomer PayPerPost, which enables advertisers to pay bloggers to post write-ups for a fee across national blog networks, Vortaloptics intends to empower advertisers with a single source for national advertising across a network of diversified website search engines. Combined, the anticipated traffic from these thousands of websites would equate to more then the major engines and the sites would all be vertical in nature – not generic. Better ROI for the advertiser, and better SEO for your efforts.

Stay tuned for the big announcement of a new search network with benefits that go beyond click-throughs. Visit our home page to get your own vertical search engine and become part of the network.

In recent months, approximately 200 million Internet users conducted searches with local modifiers. If you haven’t already jumped into the local search market, now is the time.

While real estate prices are still on the rise in most metro markets, the Internet real estate landscape is booming as well. There’s a slew of new vertical real estate sites for the curious and the serious investor.

While approximately $12 billion dollars is spent annually on real estate marketing, much of it is still going to traditional media, according to the National Association of Realtors. Only $1 – 2 billion of that is expected to be spent online in 2006. Yet, a whopping 77% of U.S. home buyers user the Internet during their housing search, up from 2% in 1995. The growth potential for online real estate advertising is obviously significant.

This vertical is growing up – quickly. No wonder real estate vertical sites abound, from instant home value appraisal tool, Zillow, to MyNewPlace, an apartment rental search enginel, to nationwide search aggregators for new and existing homes and rentals, such as Home.com.

U.S. real estate sites saw a 23% increase in traffic from April 2005 to April 2006, according to comScore Networks. This represents 42 million unique monthly visitors to sites such as Move.com, MSN Real Estate, HomeGain, AOL Real Estate, RealtyTrac.com, Rent.com, Apartments.com and Zillow.com.

Property Centric entered the real estate vertical this year. Their service offering is geared toward local search specifically designed for residents of property management companies and home owners associations. By providing an online daily-use resident amenity, Property Centric’s search provides more loyalty, rentals/home purchases and profitability for real estate companies. For more about their case study with a Phoenix-based property management firm, Mark-Taylor Residential, check out our latest newsletter, “Apartment Management Company Seeks Local Search Engine Amenity.

Distinguishing between various makes of search engines these days requires more than just a casual knowledge of search technology. With so much focus on the big search players and their related search advertising, it can seem that there exists just one important type of search: Web search. Familiarizing yourself with the benefits of other search technologies such as vertical site search will help you get the most out of your searches, your customer relationships and your advertising dollars.

What does one of Arizona’s largest apartment development companies do when it needs to provide a bigger, better amenity for its 12,000+ Internet-savvy residents? Mark-Taylor Residential followed the right steps to build its web presence, increase repeat site traffic and make their site a worthwhile resource for prospects and residents. Find out what led them to local search and how they’re applying it to improve their business on many levels.