So it’s not just us who believe in the search industry, we promise.

One of the latest articles by New Media Age, suggests that “the search sector remains the most healthy of all online disciplines.”

In a relatively rare UK-stats based piece (we come across US stats all the time which support our work, but we understand SMEs may be sceptical of any trends developing across the water as necessarily reflecting what is happening here), it states that

“Google’s prices are concerning many, with 69% saying keyword costs have increased over the year…Nevertheless, 39% said ROI from Google has improved, showing that if you invest wisely, then the returns are worthwhile.”

I don’t think anyone can escape the fact that you have to spend money to make money, just make sure you’re doing it in a way that can be measured and is effective, and online advertising is undoubtedly the best format for drilling down on these kind of results. And we think you’ll be surprised anyway – compared to traditional routes of advertising and marketing – online is very, very competitive.

Thank you to everyone who responded to our recent survey about online marketing and views about the internet in general.

We thought we would feedback the results so you can see exactly what everyone else is thinking too. We have compiled the results in a PDF document (752kb) for you to download.

Click here to see the results of the survey

If you are unable to open the PDF document, you can download the free Adobe Reader plugin, available here

So what does it all mean?

Nearly 80% of SMEs we surveyed think it’s very important to have top rankings of Google. Yet over a third rarely or never update their websites.

Having fresh, relevant and tailored content is really important in in determining search engine results. Whilst a few years ago having a website was the sign of a progressive business, people now look for websites that are engaging, dynamic and up-to-date.

It’s best to compare it to the high street - a stale and uninspiring website is like having a shop window that doesn’t ever make any effort to catch anyone’s eye. Most people would just walk past.

So what’s the next step?

Read our survey results to find out a bit more about how to evaluate your online presence.

The latest internet advertising results are out, which provide really clear evidence of the direction of online marketing.

(They are particularly relevant given they are UK based stats rather than a lot of US information which is circulated, and secondly, they are the results for 2009 so are bang up to date)

The stats are from the Internet Advertising Bureau, in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and shows a growth in online spend despite the difficult economic conditions.

Key figures are:

• Spending on internet advertising grew by 4.2% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis.
• Paid-for search listings (the adverts that appear next to search engine results) were up 9.5%, display adverts down 4.4% and classified adverts down 5.3%
• The number of people online grew to 39.7 in Feb 2010, representing an increase of over four million active internet users in just 12 months

So what does all this mean?

In a nutshell, more and more people are spending time online and businesses are gearing their advertising towards appearing next to search engine results.

Ah, but aren’t paid-for search listings expensive I hear you cry?

It’s one of the biggest myths in online marketing. Tailored, relevant paid-for search adverts can in fact be a very cost effective way of securing more business. You can find out exactly what gives you the best ROI and you can analyse which keywords are attracting the most number of click throughs to your website. Win win.

Don’t forget though, there are many other cost effective strategies for appearing on the top pages of search engine results, such as search engine optimisation (SEO) to help improve your website’s natural rankings, or getting a listing on a business directory that features on the first page. You can find out more on all these approaches here

As the virtual world plays an even greater part in our lives, there are two words that really get to me.

Those words are ‘UNDER CONSTRUCTION’ splashed across a company’s website.

I would hazard a guess that in the majority of cases, nobody’s doing any work on it and the words ‘under construction’ will remain for months and even years. It’s a cop out for most. They have bought the domain name, put up a holding page and think that’ll do until they get round to sorting it out, paying little attention to internet marketing.

But they don’t. Instead they forget about it not realising it will be doing more harm that good.

Companies need to realise that with 86% of local searches for businesses taking place online, the first port of call will be the website. It serves as their place of business in a virtual world.

And the fact is the virtual world is just as important as the real one, as it is the first stage in the buying process.

Consumers today are savvy. They want to know more about the business before they buy. So if they can’t find any information they’ll be off to a competitor. Just like they would in the real world if a note was pinned to the door telling them the business is not open yet!

And when people have researched online by taking a look at websites, 90% of those searches will result in offline activity such as calling the business or going to visit them.

So companies must make it a priority to get their website sorted out. For an investment of a few hundred pounds a company can have a site to be proud of which will tell potential customers all they need to know and drive business their way.

Only when it has been given the attention it deserves can online marketing be maximised, whether it is through website optimisation, a business directory or through PPC and sponsored links.

So if your website resembles more of a cobweb site, it’s time you dusted it down and gave it the attention it needs so you can attract more business rather than presenting them with a closed door.

The award-winning Hovis commercial about the boy going for a loaf of bread and journeying through the decades until he arrives back in the 21^st century began a nostalgic trend.

The cleverly reworked Milky Bar Kid and Persil Mum showing the commercials through the ages quickly followed.

Having discovered that nostalgia reinforces strong brands and sells products it won’t be long before others follow suit.

But this approach will not work for everyone, especially those companies overtaken by technology.

Take Yellow Pages for example. As brilliant and memorable as the commercials were, we are unlikely to hear the ‘Good Old Yellow Pages’ strapline being repeated.

Although it is accurate, as online marketing has all but consigned paper directories to the bin, Yellow Pages will not want to bring attention to the ‘old’ method of business search.

Re-running the cult JR Hartley commercial would only serve to demonstrate the time consuming method we once used. Today, Mr Hartley would not have to ring countless bookshops to ask if they had his book. A quick search on the internet and he would have found it in a couple of clicks.

Business marketing in paper directories was fairly straightforward in those days. Pay a lot of money for a large advertisement and the perception is that you are a successful and trustworthy company. The bigger the advertisement the more likely you were to be chosen.

The consumer of today is much savvier. They can do a lot more research about a company via online local search now. Not only can they find the product or service they need quickly but by clicking on enhanced listings in an online business directory or a well optimised website they can take a look at the company’s website and find out much more about them.

Mind you with Government statistics suggesting that nearly 50% of SMEs do not have a website, even though an effective one can be produced for less than £100, it demonstrates a lot of companies are still missing out on potential customers.

Perhaps some are still clinging on to listings in paper directories. But even Yellow Pages must have realised the writing was on the wall when they brought out the TV commercial of the small boy standing on one of their directories to kiss a girl. The pay off line explained that there were so many other uses for Yellow Pages than looking for a plumber to repair a leaky tap.

Having said that, one part of their marketing campaign still holds true today.

You can still ‘Let your fingers do the walking!’… Except now they are more likely to be using a keyboard rather than thumbing through a paper directory!

Well there are numerous predictions for 2010 floating around, from continued trends in online advertising through to how significant local search will be this year.

We’ve just pulled together a few salient arguments which will hopefully get your brain cells thinking about the future direction of online marketing

“Local search providers will vie for social”

There are many blogs like this one that believes this will be the ultimate test in 2010; major players competing for ad spending on the top social media sites.

You can see the appeal - online social communities are a relatively untapped source and in theory can provide a perfect platform for local businesses to sell their goods and services. If you’ve already built good online relationships with these communities, surely it will be easier than ever to promote yourself?

On the other hand, have a look at this post here, which predicts that social network advertising will rise and then fall flat. Perhaps you can develop good brand recognition but at the end of the day it’s a social site and preying on this precious space may prove disastrous. Any thoughts?

“Mobile search will capture the imagination of consumers during 2010“

The question is, will mobile search become bigger than desktop search? Local search has been shaping the general search landscape for a long time now, but maybe this is the “year of the mobile” that everyone has been quoting for the past few years.

Most people agree that the stumbling block will be user experience, which we’ve blogged about before, so weigh this argument up too. Websites and technology need to be spot on for this to expand as rapidly as predicted.

Finally, in terms of pay per click trends,

“We should see an even greater focus on display ads in 2010″

Rather than the simple (however effective) text ads there are, a whole new range of ad formats will offer a choice of appealing promotions - which surely will also improve everyone’s search experience as well.

Either way, we believe that SMEs can drive change and this is the year for them to succeed online. Maybe just having a website was enough before, but with local search soaring, and people recommending and reviewing, a whole online conversation seems to be brewing… which means 2010 points towards a range of different strategies needing to be considered.

It’s very interesting watching the recent television programmes reminding us how far gadgetry and IT progressed over the last decade. We can look back with fondness and a bit of a smile at brick-like mobile phones, walkmans, and video recorders?

But one of the greatest advancements has to be the Internet.

When we started Infoserve in the last century (1999 to be precise) the Internet was in its relative infancy. Do you remember having to dial up to get online in those days?

So we can forgive those people who thought we were a little crazy all those years ago when we told them about our prediction that paper directories would gradually be phased out and replaced by people searching for their products and services on the internet.

It was a tough sell. Yellow Pages dominated the market and through brilliant marketing they created a fear factor among SMEs. Businesses were literally scared of not being in the directory in their area.

It’s been a long journey for Infoserve since then. Being the first in the UK to have this vision (we believe), we feel as though we have set the pace and created the agenda for online local search.

Imagine when we set up city-visitor.co.uk. There was nothing like it around, so we had to build it from scratch. Today it is one of the most used business finders on the net with 12 million number one positions and 22 million first page positions on the major search engines!

In the last ten years or so we have invested an enormous amount of money in the business. We have continued to build our technical platform and improve search performance to cater for the huge growth in online marketing by SMEs.

And its growth has been astounding.

Today 38.5 million people (63.8% of the population) use the internet in the UK¹. This has resulted in 86% of all local searches taking place online² with 90% of these searches resulting in offline activity³ and 61% of the offline activity resulting in a purchase⁴.

Some people may say it was a huge leap of faith when we set up in 1999 but we like to think it was extraordinary vision.

So if you are looking for dramatic changes in the next ten years, the way companies advertise themselves has got to be right up there.

It is incredible to think that the Internet has now overtaken TV advertising.

With 90% of consumer purchases made within 20 miles of where people live or work⁵, SMEs are now worried about not being found when people are looking online for and the products and services they provide.

1. Source: Nielsen Ner//Ratings;
2, 3, 5. Source: The Kelsey Group, March 2008;
4. Source: TMP Directional Marketing Source

It’s clear to see that lately Google have been focusing on local search results, there are more and more businesses appearing for local search terms and the features of the Google Local Business Centre are increasing.

Now it appears that Google doesn’t want to stop there, they have been testing out Google Local Ads in San Diego and San Francisco, an example of how these look can be seen below.

It appears to be an extension of the Sponsored results that appear at the top of the Google search results. The impact of this means that organic listings for these types of searches are being pushed down the page, clearly showing Google’s intentions for Local Search.

Google Local Ads work in a similar way to Google Adwords, whereby you pay for the listing itself. The difference however is that you don’t  pay on a Cost Per Click basis, you pay a fee every month. This fee will vary depending on the competition for that keyword and for that area.

Google Local Ads will soon be released in the UK, you can find more information on it at the Google Local Ads page.

Infoserve Provide a FREE Google Local Guide which can be found here

Follow Infoserve on twitter for alerts on Google Local news.

It may have been a while since we posted on here, but we’d like to keep reminding businesses that we’re here to help when it comes to improving your online presence.

Local search is still proving to be the winner. So many recent surveys are singing and dancing about how consumers are increasingly using local search to find what they want.

This study probably sums it up the best (which although is US -based, is reflected by recent UK surveys too). If you cut out the waffle, it basically advises you to think locally when it comes to marketing your business, and then engage with consumers who follow-up their online research when they look to pop down to the nearest place they can find.

So yet again we’ll beat the drum; businesses need to be found easily in this initial search process, as well as have clear websites to help consumers decide whether - and how - to buy from you.

Dare I say marketing couldn’t be easier? To quote one marketing legend, “simples”!

An interesting study from Borrell Associates, with suggestions that most small-business owners are turning away from local paid search campaigns.

We have long argued that appearing next to search results is the best way for local businesses to reach potential customers, but is support wavering? Is this down to cost? Lack of results? New and better strategies?

For a start, we don’t believe local businesses are turning their back on paid search advertising and our retention figures would back this up. With search engines still being the most popular way for consumers to find local businesses, it simply just makes sense to mirror their movements. Plus online ads produce measurable results, so I don’t think there is a better marketing strategy out there.

That’s not to say that paid search advertising isn’t complex and time consuming though, which is why we would always advise SMEs to employ someone to manage your account for you.

But, that equally doesn’t mean you should sit back either, so make sure you keep them on their toes - find out where your ads will be running to see the results for yourself, make sure you review your key words too (rather than simply rely on your account managers all the time), and use Google Analytics to fine tune your campaign.

Finally, one of the most interesting points I’ve read recently is that paid search advertisement isn’t just a quick-fix solution either. Like optimisation, it helps build your brand, your visibility and recognition too.

You can find some more top tips about Google Adwords here on a previous post

Following on from last week’s post about the drive to improve local search, it’s also worth reiterating the steps that the search engine giant, Google, have specifically taken.

The changes have made a huge difference for small businesses - integrating local business results into Google’s main search results and introducing Google maps which list local companies are two great examples.

I also think it’s admirable that Google Ads have the same format, regardless of a business’s size or success. All this basically means is that smaller, local companies have a chance of running very successful advertising campaigns without getting crowded out by the ‘big boys’ with their larger advertising budgets.

The competition is still fierce though, and whilst the cliché  irritates me, “you’ve got to be in it to win it”

(which translated into local search speak means make sure your business can be found online when people are searching!)

With all the recent debate about an emerging digital Britain, we use this blog as a means to promote the one area of development that we believe is advancing beyond recognition - that of local search.

Enabling customers to find particular products and services in a specific location is a very powerful tool. As with ambitions of creating universal broadband access however, local search still has an awful long way to go.

It has been summed up recently by Tim Armstrong, AOL’s Chairman and CEO:

“Local remains one of the most disaggregated experiences on the Web today - there’s a lot of information out there but simply no way for consumers to find it quickly and easily.”

We’ve come a long way though, especially in terms of connecting local consumers to local businesses through online directories. Although sometimes criticised for dominating the search rankings, directories do neatly summarise what consumers are searching for and are becoming an increasingly popular way for businesses to reach the first page of Google or Yahoo!

Which means it’s left to local businesses to supplement these kind of listings with optimised websites and adverts of their own to appeal directly to consumers - and it’s precisely these forward-thinking businesses that will drive local search.

Have a think about what particular goods you provide that someone may be searching for now and see if you can help them find it in seconds. That’s local search at its best.

With the vast majority of business searches now made online and the success of paper directory and traditional local newspaper advertising methods in decline, more and more companies are beginning to recognise the importance of search engine optimisation (SEO) to help them improve the natural ranking of their website within the major search engines’ results pages (SERP’s).

In 2008 the number of local searches for goods and services performed online increased by 58%, reaching a total of 15.7 billion searches for the year, whilst total online searches for 2008 reached 137 billion and today that figure is higher still.

The search engines list over one billion websites, the majority of them fighting for the top positions in their industry sector. This makes it vital for online companies to employ the services of a search marketing expert to help potential customers find them on the internet. Very few searchers go beyond the first two pages in the results, often not even to page 2, and the need to rank prominently on page 1 has driven this demand.

The constant review of multiple websites ranking positions is incredibly labour intensive and so many companies choose to automate their search queries. This can - if done abusively - impose stress upon a search engines resources and result in a ban being imposed upon the IP address of the user.

Infoserve’s SEO strategy combines the use of search engine friendly querying tools, techniques used to make a website more accessible to the search engines and users and the constant review of a website’s performance in the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages) in order to increase the visibility of a website in major search engines.

One such tool is the Ranking Report Software by Caphyon, which has been developed to emulate a manual search, therefore saving the user the inconvienience of incurring a search engine’s wrath and being denied the service.

With the help of the Advanced Web Ranking Tool you can choose to track the ranking of multiple websites through over 1000 search engines and generate monthly reports making it easy to get a quick overview of the evolution of a particular website. The Advanced Web Ranking Tool’s project management system can manage hundreds of different site results at once, using scheduled updates to avoid the task of manually updating each individual project.

The Advanced Web Ranking Tool can also help with the all important task of keyword research, helping you to find the most used keywords that people use on a daily basis to find the products and services you are hoping to market. It helps you to research and analyse new keyword ideas, identify search trends and get more information on finding niche market related keywords, by bringing multiple keyword research tools together in order to make your research much easier and more accurate.

Another important aspect of a successful SEO campaign is link building. The search engines view good quality inbound links to your site from sites with related content as a recommendation of your website. The more relevant and authoritative inbound links your site has from other successful sites within your industry sector, the more relevant and authoritative the search engines will deem your site to be. Successful link building strategies are based on establishing your competitive position in the online marketplace that already exists around your specific industry sector.

So monitoring these links on a regular basis is crucial, and the Link Popularity Software by Caphyon is a great tool to help you keep track of your websites inbound links. You can utilise this tool to find out who is linking to your website and which keywords they are using to link to you, you can also check on your competitors websites and find out who is linking to them.

Being able to keep a tab of paid for links can also save you money, if a link is broken or has been taken down the Advanced Link Manager Tool will notify you, it can also tell if the page rank of a linking page has dropped giving you the opportunity to renegociate the cost of your link. The Advanced Link Manager Tool can also help with the difficult task of finding new link partners, the Potential Refferers Wizard allows you to search all of the available search engines, using advanced search criteria to look for future partners who you may wish to exchange links with, listing them in order of page rank. So you can choose to eliminate any low ranking websites from your list of potential link referrers.

Infoserve’s SEO capabilities have expanded rapidly with the help of such tools, giving their SEO experts more time to spend on the one aspect of SEO they have not yet developed a tool for - good, old fashioned, human analysis.

Whilst many have tried to break down the complexities of Google and explain the power of search engine rankings, this is one of the most interesting articles I have read recently.

In essence, it’s an article about the dominance of Google but it breaks down the nature of search well.

Its fault (as I would always argue) is that it doesn’t reference the influence that local search has cast upon our day-to-day lives, although it does underline the complete dependence we have on search engines and how influential the page rankings can be.

I also love it when someone points something out that is undeniably true:

“Taking wrong turnings on the net can lead us to information that we didn’t even know we were looking for.”

How many times have you been sidetracked recently? The distraction has even been officially termed:

“In April 2007, a survey concluded that two-thirds of British internet users spent time ‘wilfing’ (”what was I looking for?”) while hopping around on the internet.”

Wilfing. Perhaps the modern day equivalent of reaching the top of the stairs and forgetting what you were looking for, as you become increasingly distracted by numerous other jobs you have to do?

Having touched on mobile advertising before on this blog, it’s worth keeping you updated with its progress.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has revealed that UK mobile advertising spending exceeded the predictions of 2008 and reached a total of £28.6 million

Paid-for-search advertising on mobile topped the charts, accounting for 50.2% of all spend, while mobile display advertising (banners, text links) covered 49.8%

So what does this all mean? This quote, from Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the IAB, sums it up well:

“Over the past 12 months the marketplace has been buzzing with anticipation about this exciting new channel. Now is the perfect time for brands to dip their toes in the water, to see for themselves how effective and complementary mobile advertising can be.”

Read my earlier scepticism here for a more slightly cautious approach, although it does look as though mobile advertising may become a pretty powerful strategy in future years.

My colleague came across an article in Marketing Magazine about how paid-for search is suffering as brands reduce online spend.

This is despite paid-for search being “hailed by the IAB as ‘the advertising recession-buster’, with more customers searching online for cheaper goods and services.”

We left a comment (how could we be expected to resist?) about how Infoserve disagrees. We wrote how we are

“…experiencing record levels of new customers who are turning to the internet to market themselves. Within the SME sector, paid for search obviously presents a huge opportunity to target local searchers looking for specific goods and services, and businesses are finding the ROI that online advertising can provide incredibly useful when budgets are tight.”

It’s also worth reading the last couple of paragraphs of the Marketing Magazine article about social networking sites and advertising, which pretty much reiterates what I wrote about last week.

Whilst Twitter is taking the world by storm, and is the hottest topic on most people’s lips at the moment, whether - and how - we can ever “successfully monetise” social networking sites is the million dollar question. Literally.

I think this is one of the best explanations I’ve read recently about how powerful Twitter could be:

“Over the last couple months we have heard many different ideas on how Twitter can successfully monetise their surge in popularity, growing user base, and overall traffic. The ideas range from charging for an account, charging for premium accounts, simply adding Adsense, and the list goes on. What we haven’t heard is how Twitter could add local search into their business model, monetise it successfully, and create more user generated content.” [local search news]

What do you think? It seems wherever I turn at the moment, it’s Twitter this and Facebook that, but how can businesses ever judge the real effectiveness of an online presence?

Increased sales? Maybe. The usual indicator of a successful online campaign - measurable results from advertising - seems to fall a long way short on social network sites.

I’ve posted before about how effective social networking can be for businesses and I still not convinced how far it can go. After all, we aren’t there to search for something but be sociable, aren’t we? Will we ever find a way to engage with businesses and measure success via Twitter and Facebook the way we do through search engine advertising?

Yet again Hitwise has come up trumps with some excellent stats demonstrating the power of search engine optimisation and advertising.

The new evidence shows that search engines drive almost half of all traffic to websites. It found search traffic rose from 37.1% of total traffic in January 2008 to 40.5% in January 2009.

For businesses, this is worth its weight in gold for anyone contemplating either the first, or the next, step of their online marketing campaign. It’s simple - reap the rewards by making sure you can be found easily on search engine results.

It’s also interesting to read this evaluation here, which begins to make the comparison with the social media phenomenon. There’s still a long way to go before social networks dominate the way we look for services and information, so despite the flurry of expectation, one thing remains clear: search engines continue to reign supreme.

Connecting businesses with consumers searching online is the driving force behind Infoserve.

For businesses that are on board with us, they are seeing very real and tangible results - increased visibility online, increased leads and increased sales. Our aim is to convince every business that it can happen for them, too. The internet is a big piece of pie and everyone can have a slice.

The latest research from Webvisible/Nielsen online is a reminder that there is still plenty of work to be done.

They identify a massive gap between online consumer behaviour and small business marketing, and it goes something like this:

There is a “significant difference between the way Internet users search for local products and services and the manner in which small businesses market themselves”

and

“Because of this ‘Great Divide’, local businesses miss a significant opportunity.”

Here are the stats:

• Consumers use search engines 72% more often than they did two years ago
• Search engines are the No. 1 choice of consumers and small business owners alike when looking for a local product or service.

Yet, only 44% of small businesses have a website and half spend less than 10% of their marketing budget on Internet advertising.

So there you have it, the majority of businesses are failing to connect with their consumers. Are you?

Online searches for “credit crunch” related terms have rocketed in the past six months - we’ve recorded a rise of nearly 300% in the number of online searches for debt recovery services alone since August 2008.

It comes as no surprise following the recent report from the Insolvency Service, which announced there were 2,428 corporate insolvencies in the last quarter of 2008, a rise of 220% since the same period last year.

We’ve also noted a 15% rise in job searches and a 56% rise in the number of people looking for recruitment agencies, just as UK unemployment figures released this week suggest the number of people out of work is set to exceed 2 million this year.

It just goes to show that the key terms that people are searching for offers a valuable insight into the impact of the current downturn - we are finding more and more people hunting for jobs and looking for financial help online.

What’s more, the dramatic rise also shows how it has become second nature for us to turn to search engines and business directories to find what we need. Those financial advisors or debt recovery agencies that are currently prioritizing online marketing will no doubt be seeing a massive return on investment. Search engine advertising really is worth considering if you have something which you know people will be searching for in the coming months, whether that’s special offers, bargain deals or help and advice.

It’s a big question that is floating around; after an amazing growth spurt, how will the economic slowdown affect online advertising?

Whilst there are still predictions of growth for 2009, online advertising is still seen as a relatively new phenomenon and hasn’t yet been “tested” by a recession.

Yet we can only go by our own experience and it’s clear to us that more and more businesses are switching to online search marketing. Rather than merely “surviving”, we believe online advertising is going from strength to strength.

Why? It offers precisely what stretched budgets need at the moment - crystal clear results that can be measured - and we have no doubt it will continue to grow. We’re even bucking the current trend of job losses by embarking on a major recruitment drive for our sales team based in Darlington to help keep up with demand.

What the recession does present for businesses still in the game, however, is an opportunity to take advantage of the shift online, as consumers begin the search for bargains, promotions and special offers. They may be online right now searching for you - why not meet them half way, or better still, be the first one they see when they flick through their results?

Whilst the stats in this article about mobile local search are centred on America, it still sums up our own thinking about how the UK market will develop.

“Given the continuing growth in the smartphone market, mobile phones are poised to become the first source people turn to when searching for local business information.”

The article reports that;

“two-thirds (64%) of Americans say they generally turn to online resources for local search, while 33% turn to print, and 3% go to their phones. However, mobile phone users outnumber computer users by 39 million [and] the market for mobile search is growing faster than expected.”

The increasing popularity of mobile internet is backed up by the latest stats in the UK too.

“From Q2 to Q3 2008, the number of Britons using mobile Internet increased by 25% (from 5.8 to 7.3 million) compared to 3% for PC-based Internet (34.3 to 35.3 million Britons)” [Nielsen Online]

The Nielsen Online article also goes on to outline which websites perform well on mobile internet, as well as giving the usual demographic breakdown. We still think user experience will shape the popularity of mobile internet - at the moment, it’s often frustrating compared to PC-based searching - but with improvements emerging on an almost daily basis, surely it will only be a matter of time?

The usual round-ups of 2008 are circulating in the online marketing world, as are anticipated trends for 2009, but the Kelsey Group predictions usually hit the nail on the head.

Here are a couple of points worth highlighting from their latest release about what to watch out for in local media this year:

The Online-Only Yellow Pages Publisher?

…look for organizations that are clearly disinvesting in print by shifting all or most marketing and product development funding and energy to the online product.

Is this finally the push that small businesses need to recognise that print directories are a thing of the past? (You can read more about the growth of online directories here)

SMB Video Ads

…within a few years half of SMBs that have Websites will have a video advertisement. That’s approximately 3 million small-business ads in the next few years in the United States alone.

Are video ads something you have ever considered? An interesting trend to keep your eye on for 2009 - what would you look to feature on yours if you were to commission one?

Jumping on the Social Bandwagon

Many sites will implement other social features on their own, such as ratings and reviews, photos, videos and bulletin boards.

Another increasingly popular pastime, reflecting the trend towards creating a more dynamic experience for the consumer. Even for the smallest of businesses, reviews can make-or-break sales so why not take a little time out now to see if anything is being said about you?

Use of Traditional Media

The role of traditional media has been beaten down by the arrival of new media channels and search… Look for cross-media bundles bringing together newspapers, TV, radio and online services.

We’ve already commented in the past about how online marketing is going from strength to strength compared to traditional methods (for example, see how online advertising has topped mainstream TV), but our top tip for 2009 is take action now to capitalise on the move away from traditional media. As more and more businesses shift their focus to online and the industry gathers momentum, its crucial no-one gets left behind this year.

Anyone heard of Google Insights before?

Fascinating stuff, it’s basically insights into consumer behaviour and advertising from numerous sources (Google included).

It’s particularly good for going back to basics and breaking down all the technical jargon about online marketing, but it is also reaffirms the power of the internet in helping drive business. For example, I was reading Speeding Up in the Slowdown (Google, Nov 08);

“The slowdown will fuel online growth. Consumers value the information and opinions they can find online. As household budgets get squeezed it is likely that consumers’ use of the Internet to find the best deal will accelerate.”

It’s a good reminder that people shop around; they bargain hunt, compare products, look for special offers, read reviews… in other words, your online presence and reputation is getting more and more important.

The key message is that people use search engines to find this information. In fact, Google report that 73% of users find search engines an important resource when researching a product, ahead of personal recommendations (63%).

So, are there any reviews of your product when you run a search? Do you have special offers that consumers can find easily?

Make sure there’s no slowdown in your business plan for 2009 by having a quick read through Speeding Up in the Slowdown to pick up some handy hints - and on that note - Happy New Year!

Most businesses are now familiar with online directories and recognise that they are quickly replacing traditional paper directories like Yellow Pages.

In my mind, they are becoming more and more popular, especially for smaller businesses, for two very simple reasons.

Firstly - for the consumer - they provide the results quickly (when was the last time you dug out a Yellow Pages, lugged it onto your lap and leafed through to find the right section?) and they offer so much more information - links to websites, maps and directions for starters.

Secondly - and here’s the crucial bit for SMEs - they frequently appear on the first page of search results. This means that for businesses who would normally struggle to have such a high natural ranking, they have a very cost effective way of reaching target audiences.

Run a search on a business and look at the results - how many of them online directories?

Don’t forget that as well as general directories, there are also more specialist online directories emerging that feature well on local searches. These are dedicated to a certain type of business, ranging from accountancies through veterinary care practices, and offer a great opportunity for SMEs in a specific industry sector to be found online.

There are also opportunities for enhanced listings within any directory, so it’s worth shopping around. You can check out some of the single industry sites here, or hunt around on Google or Yahoo!Local to see what may work best for you in your local area.