One organization system that I have grown accustomed to on the Web is folders. This system, which can also be considered a navigation system, has been time-tested to prove its effectiveness in organizing of many types of information. By now, practically all computer users understand this organization model. When presented with a site for the first time that uses some variation of hierarchical folders, they would not have to think about how to use the system. We have recently seen a new navigation and organization system emerge out of the “Web 2.0” era: tagging. Is tagging a better model that the folder model? I think it depends on the situation. In some cases, they can be used to support each other.
 
To be honest, there were times that I found myself staying away from tagging, say, someone’s blog post or my own bookmarks because I didn’t feel like learning a new organization system or because I thought the content was already organized well and categorized in a place where I could remember how to get to it. Then I realized that there must be some reason to have a tagging system.
 
Here’s how I see it: organizing information using tags as opposed to filing in folders and subfolders is faster and takes less thought. This is an important feature in light of the fact that the amount of information is always increasing. So if you want a fast, efficient, though possibly not as precise organization system, using tagging. So we see that tagging isn’t merely a social media fad, but a social media tool.
 
Another benefit to tagging is that it can help you and others record what the popular or colloquial term for something is. This can help with your keyword research. This is a very simple and obvious example, but it helps to describe what I mean. If you write a blog post about Coca Cola, but a visitor comes along and adds “pop” to the list of tags, you can now source from the list of user-generated tags to support your keyword research. Some web applications (ecommerce and blogging) I’ve worked with even give the administrator the option to automatically include the tags as part of the meta keyword tag.
 
Even though tagging is a good social media tool, be aware that it’s also seen as a fad. Also, be leery about adding tagging or any fad “widget” to your site for the sole reason of wanting to match your competitor’s web site’s features or wanting to appear “with it.” Add these widgets after you have done some user experience research of your own and when you can give a good reason to add them to your site. Simplicity is key.

With the New Year already here, many are taking the time to assess their marketing efforts throughout 2008, if they haven’t already, and are establishing where to focus their energy in 2009.  As this is a time of preparation and planning, I want to offer a few things that should be considered as part of any Internet marketing strategy.

Understand your site’s traffic and visitor behavior.  It is important to have good rankings from a visibility perspective, but it is even more important to know how visitors are behaving once they arrive at your website.  Are they finding the information that they need?  Are they accomplishing what you want them to accomplish? In other words, are they converting?  All of this information can be revealed through an analytics program such as Google Analytics. This year I recommend shifting away from viewing rankings as a primary means of progress and focusing more toward the actual site traffic and conversions. Changes or adjustments to the site should be made based on your analytics data and overall site performance.

As we all know, comparing data and measuring results is important. With Pay Per Click initiatives it is easy to compare and evaluate performance over a relatively short period of time, but due to the nature of the search engines, many search engine optimization (SEO) efforts should be evaluated after months have passed. Also, take into consideration any seasonal changes.  If your business is seasonal in nature, compare your data against the same time during the previous year to have a clearer indication of progress.

With the introduction of new features such as Google’s personalized search and even more recently Google’s SearchWiki, it is important to understand that while everyone wants to be number one for their most important keywords, this may not be a realistic goal.  Personalized search tailors search results to the searcher based on their web history.  SearchWiki enables searchers to make comments on search results and modify the results to their liking.  These are just two examples.  Search engine optimization is still valuable despite these changes. Now it just has to be approached in a somewhat different manner. 

There has been a tremendous growth in various social media channels. If SEO is part of your marketing strategy (as it should be), consider the other ways that visitors could find your website and treat all of these as marketing opportunities. With social media sites continuing to grow in popularity (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and photo-sharing sites for example), try to leverage these channels to further promote your business and website. The goal should be to maximize your site’s reach across many of the top listings.  By doing so, you are making the most of the valuable real estate on the search results page by promoting your website through various channels.

As 2009 unfolds, I wish you the best of luck with all of your Internet Marketing initiatives!