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Americans are more connected than ever -- at least to the Internet.

A new survey by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) attempts to quantify just how much we value access to the World Wide Web and its findings are somewhat surprising.

Asked what they would give up for a year in order to maintain access to the Internet, 77 percent of Americans said they'd forgo chocolate, 73 percent alcohol, 69 percent coffee and 21 percent said they would go a whole year without sex.

BCG also tried to determine in dollar terms the worth of the Internet for most people living in the U.S. As it turns out, U.S. consumers would need to be paid roughly $2500 to live without the Internet for one year.

What do Americans value the most about the Internet? General search, e-mail and access to online banking and investing.

Dominic Field, partner at BCG and author of "The Connected World: The $4.2 Trillion Opportunity," joined The Daily Ticker to discuss the report, which aims to uncover the impact of the Internet economy on the U.S. and global economies.

As you might imagine, the size and scope of the web and its uses and users are multiplying fast. There are currently 1.6 billion global Internet users today and by 2016 the number is expected to nearly double to 3 billion, or half the world's population, says Field.

Today the Internet contributes $2.3 trillion to the global economy and is expected to grow to $4.2 trillion in about four years.

The Internet contributed $648 billion to the U.S. economy in 2010, or 4.7% of GDP; more than in any other country. To put that in perspective, the Internet economy is the eighth-largest sector in the U.S. and ahead of the Federal Government. Today, the Internet economy is growing at 6.5% a year in the U.S., one reason BCG believes this sector could eventually help propel the country out of recession.

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Internet Access More Important Than Sex, Alcohol: BCG Study

Small business owners who have just begun their SEO campaign will find that there is no end to the depth and complexity inherent in search engine optimization. Many companies try to take a do-it-yourself mentality to SEO implementation that ends with them sloppily stringing together popular search terms or stuffing keywords on contextually irrelevant web pages. Some businesses implement SEO so poorly that, in some instances, Google may disregard their website as a spam site. The result is a significantly low ranking that will make the business show up in only the most specific term searches.

Starting or running a start up company presents many challenges forentrepreneursno matter what the service or product. The last thing CEOs may consider is their Internet marketing strategies or Brand management. In addition, most likely that is not their area of expertise nor do they have the time to implement the tasks required to gain the valuable exposure required.

Improperly-handled SEO campaigns are increasingly common these days, but it is not a fate that need befall all small businesses. It is always recommended that a company turns to a top SEO agency when approaching any search engine optimization project. Once a marketing firm has been selected, then the business will be able to run a successful SEO campaign. However, its important to bear in mind that there are several key points that should always be kept in mind when approaching SEO.

The first step in any SEO campaign should always be determining who the intended audience of your good or service is. While its easy to simply focus on your business as the driving force behind your SEO operations, it always helps to be a more specific in your approach. By selecting a certain product as the core keyword of your campaign, you will be able to attract more traffic than otherwise.

Although your focused keyword may not have a hundred and one uses, you should always try to be as forward thinking as possible when considering other optional keywords. Sometimes the search term that Google looks for may not be the same one that you would have typed when looking for it yourself. You should always do research to find other ways that web surfers may try to look up your product or service.

A well-designed website is one that funnels users from page to page effortlessly. By interlinking your site so that relevant pages connect to one another, youll find that even the less visited branches of your website will see more traffic. As a result, you can expect your website to have better domain authority and, as a result, a higher place among the search engine rankings.

See the rest here:
Top 10 Helpful SEO Tips for Small Business Owners

According to the 2012 MarketingSherpa Search Engine Marketing Report, of all SEO tactics available, content creation works the best, but takes the most work, says Kaci Bower, Research Analyst, MECLABS.

B2B Internet marketers need new content to enforce and build upon keyword strategies, acquire links, and attract attention in social media.

In my experience, effective SEO-centric content creation requires planning on both the long and short term impact, and a strict attention to detail. With a myriad of responsibilities on the B2B marketers plate, it certainly is not uncommon for details to be missed and corners to get cut.

Some of the SEO best practices I see get missed:

With a little assistance from Help a Reporter Out, here are four examples of B2B content marketing initiatives, that stand out because of their focus and adherence to SEO strategy as well.

Digital marketing software vendor Neolane recently launched an infographic poking fun at a significant challenge campaign management providers face, the ability to overcome the onslaught of spam in online marketing communications. Running through the social media marketing initiative, here are examples of key SEO best practices merged into the process.

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4 Examples Of B2B Content Marketing Executed With SEO Best Practices In Mind

He walked down the quiet street, a leopard in the concrete jungle. Eyes down, but watching the angles. Hands in his coat pocket concealing but preoccupied. It was then from the shadows a figure emerged, unwanted but unrelenting.

"Hey buddy, you lookin'?", poured forth with a cloud of smoke.

"Naw, I don't do that crap." he blew back. "Don't ya know that stuff will get you messed up? Just look, right up there" as he pointed to the surveillance camera across the way. "Google sees everything."

The fedora topped stranger faded further into the darkness. "These are some awesome high PageRank links though. Cheap. And you just know the other guys are using." ... How this ends, you tell me?

OK, enough with the silliness. But it brings to mind a few things that are actually worth discussing. Let's explore a few concepts.

Now, this one seems to be one of the largest heads on the many headed hydra of SEO paranoia. Time and time again we see those that truly are out-thinking themselves.

Yes, it is duly noted that Google (and other IR systems) have an entire wing of the AIR command dedicated to dealing with those that might seek to manipulate their creations. There are even more than a few IR lectures on video where those pesky programmers seem almost psychotic when discussing such matters.

But it's still just not as prevalent as some passionate pros seem to envision. That's the tricky thing with search engines. The programmer types don't always get what they want.

Certainly, Matt Cutts would just love to increase his budget and sway. But these aren't always the realities.

Go here to see the original:
SEO & Google: The Ugly Truth

Even though SEO is a synergy of different practices, not all of them are equally important for higher rankings. And, because SEOs are normally pressed-for-time individuals, its essential for them to know what SEO tasks should be their priority.

Speaking of on-page and off-page SEO (many SEOs also consider keyword research a separate aspect), Id like to say that, quite often, on-page SEO does not get the attention it should. This is because, in general, it takes less time than link building and often plays second fiddle to off-page SEO when an emergency rankings boost is required.

However, there are certain on-page SEO factors, leveraging which can work miracles for your site, and its important to know how much impact each of them carries. So, lets talk about these factors.

Any construction work begins with laying a foundation for the future building. Likewise, on-page SEO begins with creating a certain carcass for the sites content. Whats important SEO-wise is that this carcass gets A grades from the search engines. In other words, search engines should find it easily crawlable and non-confusing.

Here are the checkpoints that should be covered when running an on-page SEO audit. They are arranged starting with the most important ones:

of utmost importance highly important very important

quite important of minimum importance.

Use the above information to understand how important the follow factors below are.

A reliable hosting provider is crucial to your websites success in the SERPs. If the server your site is hosted on is often unavailable or takes a long time to respond, the search engines wont hold much for your Web resource.

Not to mention that, if your site is unavailable, the users will simply not be able to access it. Therefore, we consider this factor to be of utmost importance.

Read more here:
On-Page SEO Factors: Which Ones Have the Most Impact on Rankings?