Category Archives: OrangeSoda News

We’re proud to announce a new partnership with Citysearch to offer solid internet marketing services to more people than ever before. This morning Citysearch announced a new product from small businesses called “CityGrid Complete.” In their press release Citysearch details our partnership (which made the new offering possible), and the strategic investment Citysearch’s parent company – IAC – recently made in OrangeSoda.

Maybe our favorite sentence from the press release:

“To build CityGrid Complete, Citysearch reviewed all SEO solutions providers on the market and selected OrangeSoda because of their expertise in building cost effective search engine marketing solutions designed specifically for small businesses.”

You can read the press release here, or see other media coverage about the partnership and investment here, here, here, or here.

I was in the car last night and heard this feature about SEO.com on the radio show “Speaking on Business” by Fred Ball. I love how Fred takes complex ideas and simplifies them. He did a feature on a tech business named Cymphonix and did a great job at explaining what they do, how they got started, and the value they bring to their customers.

Since SEO.com also provides SEO services like OrangeSoda internet marketing, I thought this piece would be helpful. I can use it to explain to my parents what I do for a living. It can be useful for local businesses who want to understand what an SEO company can do for them.

Look for SEO.com under February 2009 shows and click on the audio symbol to listen in. Or you can read the transcript about the SEO.com interview (not as interesting).

Tomorrow some of the most respected search engine strategists will be speaking at DomainFest. Lee Gientke, OrangeSoda‘s director of Partner Development will be speaking on a forum about extending domain names you have that you want to sell. Many sites are simply links or ads but using SEO you can build a lot more value on your domains.

Here’s another post about making your domain name search engine friendly.

DomainFest is on Wed. January 28, 2009 in Hollywood, California. This press release has more details.

Also joining Lee:

• Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land
• Mike Zapolin co-founder of Music.com
• Michael Zacharski VP of Publisher Acquisitions at CPX Interactive
• Jamie MacMillian who is the director of search for LinkShare
• SEO expert Bruce Clay
• Alex Garner who is the director of Publisher Relations at Casale Media.

They will answer questions about how to quickly build traffic on a new web site, how to attract buyers, and best practices for building out a new domain.

I asked Danny and Bruce, two people I respect greatly, for some insights on how to apply SEO principles to web sites.

“As my focus is in increasing the value of a domain through Search Engine rankings, I suggest that small groups of like-themed domains be acquired and built such that they all rank well in search engines. The motivation for a domain acquisition goes up when you own a site that is taking business from their site. Buying a better ranked competitor is a good move for many businesses. Besides, if successful, the profits from the ranked domain is a wonderful way to fund other SEO, and so on and so on.”

- Bruce Clay

“My advice is more from a search marketing perspective. That if domainers are looking to do more than just turn and churn domains, they should ask themselves if they can add value to their domains beyond just putting up automated ads, as so many seem to do. Having a great domain name is a good start to having a good content site, and over time, the search engines tend to reward content sites. It might be that a little effort could produce greater returns, in the long run. But that’s clearly not going to match everyone’s business models or desires.”

- Danny Sullivan

Thanks to Bruce and Danny for a quick reply. I hope Lee brings back pictures from the event!

Internet Retailer recently sent a list of their top 10 stories of the year. This is insightful and can give you ideas for creating press releases, blog posts, and other content based on how your business fits or doesn’t fit these trends.

1. Internet Sales a Bright Spot of the Economy
Online sales pick up for retail chains just as their store sales are suffering. Stores like: Gap, Talbots, Circuit City (that went bankrupt this year) and Staples. The internet became a last hope for profitability, especially in retail.

2. M-commerce: E-commerce Becomes More Popular on Mobile Phones
With improved phones that make browsing the web easier, more people shop with their mobile phone. “57% of the entire U.S. population use phones that can browse the Internet. Of U.S. citizens with mobile phones, 25%, or 60.8 million, browse the Internet from their phones, according to JupiterResearch LLC.” And most of them are probably iPhone users who are more likely to have internet access than other mobile devices. Retailers captilizing on this trend by sending alerts are also boosting lagging sales.

3. Manufacturers Got Greater Power to Set Retail Prices, Including Online
People use the web to find the best deals, but that price break is in jeoprody. Manufacturers may deny access to retailers who sell their products for lower prices. In June 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruled for greater legal protection on manufacturers who set minimum pricing policies. This could help the big guys and hurt the little guys.

4. New Versions of Web Browsers make Price Comparisons Easier
Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla’s Firefox 3, and Google Chrome have added features to help deal hunters find teh best prices. “Among IE8′s new features, for example, are “webslices” that let consumers click to take part of a retail web site—a dynamically changing product page of a favorite pair of pricey shoes, for example—and insert it into their IE8 browser for viewing whenever they happen to be on the web, even if they’re shopping another online shoe store.”

5. Social Network Marketing Grows
This is still the buzz with tutorials and success stories touted. Dell said they made a million using Twitter to communicate with customers. Brands are exploring social networks for their viral and branding power.

6. The Internet Amplifies the Power of Customer Reviews
A postive customer review of a product is better than advertising and found and shared easily online. Reviews aren’t new but retailers are adding them and customers search them to make decisions on what to buy.

7. Amazon Dominates
Amazon.com doubled the 2007 web sales of its nearest competitor. They’re doing mobile marketing, social network marketing, and contiually innovating. This is good news in a sour economy. This headline tells it all: “Q3 net sales up 31% at Amazon to $4.26 billion.”

8. eBay Scrambles to Reverse Falling Profits
eBay reported its first-ever decline in the dollar value of sales in the third quarter and that’s 1% less than last year. Instead of raising seller fees they lowered them to try to compete with Amazon.

9. Tech Vendors Hurting
Retailers outsource tech work. With the economy going south, tech vendors can go under.  It can hurt when your main service provider closes shop.

10. Target.com as an Example: Lawsuit Forces Accommodations for Blind Shoppers
Target was sued by the National Federation of the Blind to make their site more accessible two years ago. They had to add the option to listen to content. Their site previously blocked blind shoppers software from reading alt text with images.

Take the example of eBay. You know online businesses can’t rest on past success. Competition is always fearce but as the economy is sinking and with rapid innovation, it’s even more important not to ignor these trends. Do it and you’ll become outdated. In today’s market you could go bankrupt.

How is your business using mobile, social networks, or otherwise changing to meet these trends?

A local business magazine in Utah recently published a story written by OrangeSoda’s CEO Jay Bean. It’s called, How to Grow your Local Business Online. It’s a quick summary of things you can do to improve your internet marketing.

In other Utah local business news relating to online marketing, tomorrow is the start of the Search Insider Summit in Park City. Some folks at OrangeSoda are going to attend and soak in all of the information about SEO from the experts (speakers from SEOMoz, Yahoo!, and Big G are on the agenda). They promised to take notes!

OrangeSoda, which provides SEO and PPC services, was recently recognized as an “Emerging Elite” Company in Utah by Mountain West Capital Network. We got there by showing significant promise for future success. As you’ll see by the list of the other winners, we’re in good company!

OrangeSoda was one of 13 emerging Utah companies to receive recognition by MWCN. I went through the list to see if I could quickly determine what the other companies do:

• Agel Enterprises LLC sells a health product (judging from the search results they need SEO for reputation management)
• Alianza Inc., VOIP phone services
• Allegiance, Inc
• American Liberty Insurance Company (search their company name and the first result links to their privacy policy! oops.)
• Aribex, Inc. handheld xray machines
• BasicGrey unique paper
• Contexo Media information for health care providers
• Cymphonix network analytics and monitoring for your company’s computer network
• Metro Ready Mix LLC sells concrete (there are a lot of Metro Ready Mix companies across the US, which come up higher in search engines)
• Seastone, LC sells packaging for gift cards
• Shade Clothing
• ZAGG Inc. makers of Invisible Shield protective film for cell phones and other electronics.