This morning, I entered “Thunderbirds” in the Google search engine, and was delighted to find that Thunderbirds.com appeared on the first page of the search results. What’s so pleasantly astonishing about this is that until very recently, I did not know what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was. All I knew was that I kept getting calls and e-mails from companies that offered to make changes to my web site so that it would come up on the first page of any web search…for a price, which generally was $200-$1000 a month. 

As it happened, however, earlier this year, I saw a link on Twitter for HubSpot, which offers a free Internet Marketing Kit. I downloaded their kit, and listened to their webinar (which also has visuals), and followed their instructions. I did not see the result right away (it has taken about 2 months), but I was very impressed when I did see it. (HubSpot, by the way, also offers a free Website Grader, which evaluates a web site and gives suggestions as to how to improve one’s page rank.)

In general, I’m amazed at how quickly web technology continues to change, and how quickly I (and other publishers) are rushing to adapt to it. For instance, one day, I learned what a favicon was, and within 48 to 72 hours, I had a favicon on my web sites (it’s the small picture to the left of the web address on the top of the browser window).  It seems as if every week, there’s something new or changing on the web that demands my attention, as there was this week. I’m all for improvements; I just hope that I can keep up with them!

Posted by Publisher at 5/30/2009 3:05 PM