If you want to build organic SEO traffic, the traffic you don’t need to pay for each time someone clicks on your link, then you need to build marketing content everywhere. I’m talking on your web site, adding press releases, adding articles, writing regularly on your blog. And you need to build content elsewhere on the web by submitting your press releases, writing marketing articles, and commenting on blogs. And here’s the real deal – it has to be unique content. You won’t get the same results copying and pasting the same content everywhere.

My personal favorite for adding articles is with Ezine Articles. For submitting press releases, try i-newswire or PRlog.

When it comes to investing, it is often recommended to “ride out the market” to achieve the most rewarding results. History has shown that patient investors are often the most profitable, not to mention the least stressed out.

Now think of SEO as an investment…for your business. But unlike mutual funds and other financial investments, an SEO marketing investment will require a significant amount of work – not just time. (the work can be done by yourself, your staff or an SEO marketing consultant). But before you get started on all that content, you need an SEO marketing strategy.

Your SEO marketing strategy will help you define:

• who you want to attract
• what web site goals you want to achieve
• which keyword phrases you need to work for
• which keyword phrases are easy wins
• how competitive your SEO landscape is
• what tactics you will need to achieve your results
• which baseline web analytics are important
• what kind of maintenance and support you’ll need to retain your rankings

After your strategy has been refined, you are ready to work on marketing and refining your web site. Then you’ll most likely find out that a few of the keyword phrases you felt were exactly the right fit, are actually driving traffic, but the wrong kind. It’s funny how marketing works. Sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for :)

According to wikipedia, user interface design is the design of computers, appliances, machines, mobile communication devices, software applications, and websites with the focus on the user’s experience and interaction. Utilizing the same source, web design is the skill of creating presentations of content that is delivered though the web.

I searched google to see if I could find anyone debating the two terms as they are used often interchangeably, but I don’t necessarily agree that they are one in the same.

Our agency is a user interface design firm that utilizes a user-centered design approach to improve the user experience in a creative and conceptual way. Google searches done today are looking for a web design firm in Chicago, but are they really? Hmmm…

A non profit client of ours recently asked for a list of internet marketing tactics to consider while building her online marketing strategy. Here’s where our web design firm started with our list:

• SEO (organic search engine optimization) and linking campaigns
• PPC (pay per click)
• Affiliate marketing (think amazon.com’s books)
• HTML Emails and Auto-responders
• Conversion Concepts (getting people to do what you want them to do on your site)
• Web Analytics and Testing
• Online Video
• Blogs and Social Media (facebook, twitter)
• Banner ads
• Article writing

Does anyone else have more to add?