Web 2.0 seems to be the new holy grail for all entrepreneurs and marketers, and while many experts sing its praises, an equal number do predict its demise into enterprise ether. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in-between. But one business area where Web 2.0 certainly has had a major impact is in branding and marketing. This cannot be denied.

Web 2.0 is a broad term that covers all aspects of Web usage or technologies that facilitate collaboration, sharing, online conversations, user-generated content or social networking of some kind. For example, there are over 100 million blogs today and no matter what area of business you are in, someone has probably created a blog about it and someone else is actually reading that blog. (Blog stands for Web Log or Journal or Site that a Web user creates themselves on any subject of their choosing.)

As a brand builder or marketer, ignoring Web 2.0 is ignoring some of the best tools you can find in managing your 360 degree (touching every touch point in your marketing matrix with an appropriate relationship) marketing strategy and your reputation online. Understanding your customer’s buying habits and interests, mapping current trends, getting free feedback and reviews, testing out new concepts on focus groups for free, managing your brand’s reputation through proper message management, distributing viral messages and ideas quickly – what else can a marketer ask for. This is the promise of Web 2.0. However, remember – the opposite can hold true as well – so use these tools carefully. Here are some ideas to help you along:

Idea #1: Spruce up your Website – improve the customer experience on your site: Add a blog-type news desk (Wordpress provides some very good tools for free) so visitors can comment and more. Add a customer assistance tool (like LivePerson or an Avatar - see SitePal or Oddcast), if you are an online retailer add user recommendations and suggestions (use intelligent tools like Cleverset.) And make sure you use some serious Analytics tools to help you measure performance of your site, drop off rates and more (Google Analytics is free and very good but you could try Webtrends for some really advanced reports.) Make sure you set up a team in-house to run your site so it is not an after-thought.

Idea #2: Get Blogging – yes, there are 100 million blogs out there, so before you take the plunge and launch another one of your own (Blogger, Wordpress or TypePad are your best bets) in that vast pool – ask yourself a few questions. How will this benefit my customers? Which blogs exist that already talk to my customers and how can I connect with them? How will I get my customers or target market to ready my blog regularly and become aware of its existence? Also consider using new technologies for announcing and broadcasting messages and news like Twitter and InMail at Linkedin.

Idea #3: Use Social Networks and Forums – This is a great way to test new ideas or get good feedback from people using your products or services. By reaching out to your core base via networks and forums, you will build a relationship with core constituents who will shape the opinion of others about your brand. Build a page on Linkedin (your profile), Facebook, Orkut, Ibibo, BigAdda, or Fropper. Manage this well as your reputation may count on it. If your market does not already have an active network then consider starting your own (have a look at Ning or Community Server – very nice open source social networks and forums you can start on your own.)

Idea #4: Use Email to build relationships and get messages out - Though not officially considered Web 2.0 – managing emails well is critical in your brand thinking for the Web 2.0 future. You already have an Email list - your current list of clients, customers, staff, friends , associates and vendors is your email list. Learning to use this wisely and then grow it is an art and will take some work. Set up newsletters, announcements and new desks so that you can keep your core targets informed regularly and automatically – there are some great email and list management services that are really cheap and let you create beautiful emails in minutes (see Constant Contact and iContact which both are Spam proof and approved.) Allow people to sign up for these on your site. Also consider growing your list in key markets by purchasing or renting lists. This will take some more research and effort on your part but may well be worth it.

Website promotion requires certain basics. People often commit common mistakes while promoting their websites. Such SEO mistakes can be avoided or corrected if little care is taken about it. Some of these mistakes are listed as under-

Target the wrong keywords

People often make and define the wrong keywords that are not at all searched. So proper keyword analysis should be done. Wrong keywords take you no where. Your Search Engine Optimization Company becomes successful only on choosing the right keywords.

Ignore the title tag

Search Engines give more preference to title tag these days rather than other Meta tags. Some people leave this tag empty. In fact title tag is the most important place to have keywords. This affects your search results as page title does not exist when you ignore this title tag.

Flash website without html

Flash is attractive only to the users but not to the search engine spiders. If you make a flash website to attract the users and strictly want to promote it in search engines then it is better to provide the alternative html version along with it. As search engines can not read the flash content and also not able to index it, so it becomes necessary to create the html version.

Use JavaScript Menus

Search engine do not read the JavaScript. In case you think it is necessary to use it in the website, you should build a site map. You can also build a no script tag. This will make your links get easily crawl by search engine spiders.

Too much concentration on Meta tags

Search engines these days do not give much preference to the Meta tags as it was in the past. You can not ignore the Meta tags but don’t spend too much time on it and think to rank well only because of this. These days there are various other promotion methods also available along with the content optimization.

Back link spamming

Back links are always considered as good but people resort to the practices of collecting back links through link farms which could get your site banned. Do not emphasize on quantity of back links rather than the quality links. It’s the quality that counts in the end.

Lack of keywords in the content

Some people write the content which has no keywords. These days search engines give more preference to content rather than to Meta tags. So content mixed along with keywords has become important part of content optimization. Use only images for headings

Many people use images in headings with the concept of making an attractive site but in Search Engine Optimization terms images in headings and menus proves to be a big mistake. H1, H2 tags and menu links are important Search Engine Optimization Items which must contain the important keywords or alternative tags in images.

Ignore Urls

Some people define the URL without any idea. Define the keywords in the URL. This will give you additional preference over your competitors. Keyword in URL is more important in Yahoo and MSN but Google also gives preference to it when the relative weight of keyword is high.

There are some common SEO Mistakes that are made by people while promote their websites. This is not considered as good for web promotion. Some of these mistakes are defining the wrong keywords, ignoring title tag, ignoring urls etc. You can avoid these mistakes by just concentrating on some basics.

Hello Friends,

Recently Google has updated webmaster guideline, in webmaster guideline Google had written more specific information under Quality Guideline – specific guideline

Hidden Text or hidden links – Information about hidden text and hidden links
Cloaking and Sneaky redirects – Information about Cloaking, Java Script Redirects and Doorway pages
Automated quires to Google
Load pages with irrelevant keywords – Information about Keyword Stuffing
Duplicated content – Information about Duplicate Content and how to protect your website from getting banned due to duplication
Pages created that install virus, Trojan, or other badware – Information about websites that spread virus and Trojan and how Google react on such websites
Doorway pages – Information about Cloaking, Sneaky JavaScript Redirects and Doorway pages
Unique content with helpful information that make users to stay on your website – Information about unique content that effect on website ranking.