Internet marketers have been discussing link building for a long time. For a while that was the most important Internet marketing strategy of all, at least in the minds of many SEOs and Internet marketers. However, the tide is starting to turn and for many online marketers, social media marketing is taking the No. 1 spot as most important strategy. But is it?

There are pros and cons to both strategies, of course. I’d say that both are important, but there are pitfalls to look out for in each.

For instance, link building is good if you want to develop inbound links that provide you with strong anchor text and increase your search engine rankings. However, do it wrong and it can backfire. You could even hurt your site more than help it if you hire the wrong company or using spammy techniques. To perform a really good link building campaign you have to really plan it out and don’t take unnecessary risks.

With social media marketing, one of the biggest drawbacks is time and expense. To do it well you have to spend time planning and put some money into your campaigns. You can’t do it pass/fail.

There really is no either/or equation when it comes to Internet marketing strategies. You have to plan and implement your plan knowing what benefits you fully expect to receive before you start. Both social media marketing and link building have their place. Your job is to know what that is.

Call it PageRank attrition or PageRank decay, but the story seems to be that 301 redirects cause it.

OK, I guess this doesn’t surprise me, but what’s the real story here? Is it that you shouldn’t do 301 redirects? No, sometimes that may in fact be the best thing to do. I think the real lesson is to plan your website and Internet marketing strategy so that you don’t have to resort to 301 redirects.  Otherwise, there may be times when you do want to redirect a page to another page or an entire site even.

I won’t go into all the scenarios when such a redirect might be necessary. I will say that PageRank is not the holy grail of metrics. It’s somewhat important in earning trust, but if you find yourself having learned that previous ways of conducting business online are less effective than buying a new domain name and starting over, a 301 redirect might actually help you. Besides, your new domain is going to gain PageRank of its own so in time that attrition won’t really matter.

There is a difference between being a part of a community and leading your own community-driven website. We all know what the word “community” means, but an online community is more than just a feel good concept. It is a business model and it’s one that works.

There are several successful online communities with different business models:

• Facebook is an online community that allows people to connect with their friends online and establish you social and business contacts.
• LinkedIn is a similar type community focused more heavily on professionals.
• YouTube is an online video sharing community.
• Flickr is an online photo sharing community.
• Ning is a community of social networks.
• Twitter is a community based on simplicity of delivery and one-to-many communication.

I think you’re starting to get the idea. Even Google has its own community features. Some blogs, many well known and many more not so well known, are themselves little communities of like-minded people.

An online community is just that – a social connection between members of a like-minded group. It can be business related, political, geared toward a hobby or interest or merely social. Any way you look at it, the members all have one common interest.

So how does this relate to you? Well, you could build a successful business around a community of like-minded people within your niche. And you can establish that community as a separate business entity from your everyday business, complete with its own monetization plan and marketing plan. You could, but will you?

TechCrunch seems to think so. CNET doesn’t. But you have to give them credit for trying.

Actually, the verdict is still out. The problem I see with Google Buzz is that it is open only to Gmail users, which isn’t exactly open. After all, not everyone has a Gmail account and not everyone wants one. But for those who do have one and use it often, Google Buzz may actually be a worthwhile social tool. But what if you have friends who are not Gmail users? Then, I guess, you’ll have to connect with them somewhere else.

To me, that doesn’t exactly spell success. If Google Buzz does end up being a successful social network it will be despite is flaws, privacy concerns included. But I wonder just how many people will actually use it? And will anyone prefer it to Twitter or Facebook?

According to the Kelsey Group, 97% of consumers research products and services online. Here’s the break down (as presented by Matt McGee):

• 90% use search engines
• 48% use Internet Yellow Pages
• 42% use comparison shopping sites
• 24% use vertical sites

And I love the conclusion Matt draws later:

That speaks to the importance of being visible on a number of channels — your own site, your blog, Google Maps, Citysearch, important industry sites, and so forth. Diversity of presence makes a big difference.

This is not only important now, but it will become more important in the future. Don’t let organic SEO be your only targeted marketing. Pursue other avenues as well. If searchers find you through a Google search then find you again in the online yellow pages then on two or three social networks and finally are recommended by a friend, chances are they’ll do business with you if you have what they need – and if you are local.

The YouTube Partners Program has been a bit of a success and there are quite a few people running full run entertainment and educational series on YouTube. It’s become a bit of a monetary game on its own. Well, Google is now taking ideas to improve the program and you’re invited.

I’d just like to take this time to suggest to you that being a YouTube partner might be a way for you to grow your audience. If you have not tried video marketing yet then this could be your big chance.

But understand the difference between video marketing and running your own YouTube channel as a YouTube partner. It’s a bit like the difference between NPR and a syndicated radio show host. While both have their merits, publicly-funded radio simply cannot hope to reach the same pinnacle of monetary success that privately-funded syndication can. That’s not to say the programming is better – it’s just apples and oranges.

The age of the video has arrived. Now is the time to get on the train. I hope you’re at least standing at the depot.

The beauty of online marketing is that you don’t have to settle for one channel. Diversity is the key to success, both online and off line. In fact, we recommend diversifying your Web marketing strategies for more effectiveness.

Some of the methods of online marketing for small businesses that others have found successful in the past include:

• Pay per click advertising
• Article marketing
• Blog marketing
• Social media marketing
• Search engine marketing
• Link building
• Site sponsorship
• Video marketing
• Podcasting
• Content aggregation

And this is just to name a few.

The best way to diversify your Web marketing efforts is to start with one or two methods of marketing and work them until you meet with some level of success. Then, add another method of marketing but don’t stop what you’ve been doing. Every month (or three months), add a new marketing tactic to the methods you are currently working and if a marketing tactic isn’t producing results after three or four months of actively using it, drop it.

For instance, perhaps you start with blog marketing and pay per click advertising. Work them for three months and monitor your results. In the third month you might add article marketing. Let’s say you’ve been spending $100 month on PPC advertising and blogging every day. You can add article distribution with 5 new articles a day and see how that affects your marketing efforts.

After three months you should evaluate your marketing plan to see what is working. If pay per click marketing isn’t delivering a positive ROI, try to find out why and make a change. Remember, diversity is key if you want your Web marketing efforts to pay off.

Start up companies in the future should perform a domain name check on any brand name before they adopt it. I believe this will become an accepted and common practice for new start ups in the future, both for large companies and for small businesses.

There are several reasons you’d want to check the availability of a domain name before you settle on a brand name. If the domain name isn’t available then you’ll have a real hard time getting visitors to your website as many will be looking for your brand dot com. It won’t be impossible, but it will be difficult. It’s best to avoid that hurdle altogether and settle on a brand name and a matching domain name at the same time.

I believe attorneys and CPAs will likely provide this service in the future along with corporation filing services. Some probably already do.

Because Internet marketing will be integral part of doing business in the future, any new start up companies that plan to have an Internet marketing strategy should not adopt a company name until they are sure they get a domain name that will match the branding. It’s just good business.

More companies are spending more money on online advertising than print.

The big question here is, Why? And should you be spending more money for online advertising as well?

Keep in mind that by “online advertising” I mean more than just display advertising. I mean all forms of digital marketing. That includes search engine optimization, social media marketing, pay per click, etc. Again, why?

I think that companies that are migrating their marketing efforts to online forms of marketing are doing so in response to the trend in consumer trust in online sources. More people are conducting searches online for everything from real estate to churches. As more people conduct searches and find themselves interacting with others online (Facebook is now the second most trafficked site online) then advertisers will follow. But should you?

I think small businesses would benefit by having an online presence and by advertising online. You can get more return on less investment by advertising online. You might as well go where your audience is. Don’t you think?

Google is moving personalized search to the next level by allowing searchers to “star” an item just like they are able to in Google Reader. When they make the same search at a later date, the starred items will appear at the top of the SERPs for easy collection. Call it a search engine results page bookmarker. That’s effectively what it is.

But will it send you more traffic? It depends. On what? On the number of people who “star” your website and return to it often. I highly doubt it will increase your unique visitors.

There’s no doubt this feature will help searchers, but what will it do for search engine optimizers? If no one uses it there will be no change, but I wouldn’t count on no one using it. I think there will be quite a few people who will star their favorite websites for specific searches that they make often. The question is, how will that behavior affect SEO.

It could affect it in a number of ways:

1. More traffic overall, but no difference in unique visitors. In this scenario you’ll end up with more repeat visitors. That’s not bad, particularly if you sell more and get a higher conversion rate.
2. Lower bounce rate. This will only happen if the above scenario works out in your favor.
3. Less overall traffic, but more targeted traffic. If someone stars your website then they are really interested in what you have to offer. Personalization could lead to your website getting a lower ranking for particular high value search queries because other sites that have been starred take precedence for some users. You’ll just to have reach those users in different ways.
4. No real change. Let’s face it, some sites just won’t get starred.

Are there any ways you can think of that starred items may affect your search engine rankings? Do you see this as a good thing?