Before embarking on a serious search engine marketing (SEM) program, it's critical that your website is designed to take full advantage of the increased traffic. Landing pages are important of course, but not every SEM visitor will convert immediately—some will want to check out your site to learn more about your company, products and/or services first. Intuitive navigation, relevant visitor-focused content, and SEO all need to be built-in to your site from the outset. With that in mind, here are some of the best articles and blog posts from 2007 on website design considerations and action items. 20 Ways to NAVIGATE to Higher Conversions by Internet Search Engine Database Writer Stoney deGeyter details how elements such as the location of navigation bars, site search functionality, contact information, image alt text and clickable links are critical to designing a user-friendly website. "Site wide navigation, including top, bottom and side navigation, should be as user-frien...

Why do some websites fail to achieve objectives? How can you whip an underperforming website into shape? Which elements are the most critical when initiating a website redesign project? How can small businesses cost-effectively add sophisticated capabilities like custom search and social networking features to their sites? What separates effective navigation from poor design? Learn the answers to these questions and more in some of the best blog posts and articles on website design published so far in 2008. A Small Business Year-End Web Site Checklist by Search Engine Land Search marketer Matt McGee provides an outstanding 10-point checklist of items that site owners should check (at least) annually, including domain registration, contact form operation, autoresponders and outbound links. 15 Ways to Get Your Website in Gear by iMedia Connection Lisa Wehr , CEO and founder of Oneupweb , writes that if your online marketing efforts are coming up short, it may be a good time to take ...

As I recently passed 400 posts on this blog, here is a look back at the 10 most popular items here of all time. The list has changed considerably since the last look back after 300 posts . #10: Best of 2007: Website Design , February 4, 2008 Reviews of articles and tools on website design, including a couple of pieces from the brilliant and frequently cited Stoney deGeyter . Not sure exactly why this one remain so popular, but here it is at #10. #9: How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy , March 4, 2009 A summary of research from MarketingSherpa , Eloqua's Steve Woods , and green marketer Lorna Li on how marketers should approach social media strategically. As the old saying from the financial world goes, no one plans to fail—but many people fail to plan. #8: Web 2.0 Social Tagging Sites, Part 4: B2B Traffic Building , May 15, 2007 Original research on the quantitative impact of social bookmarking on b2b site traffic. Much has changed since then, and social media is now a...

On the occasion of the 300th post on the WebMarketCentral blog, and to see how things have changed since the first 100 posts , here are the 10 most popular posts of all time so far. #10: The 8 Layers of a B2B Web Marketing Plan , October 8, 2008 The most recent post to make this list presents B2B marketing as a series of concentric layers, with SEO at the core then moving outward from highly measurable online direct response tactics to broader brand advertising. #9: Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 1) , January 28, 2008 Summaries of and links to a dozen outstanding articles on SEO from some of the top pros like Lee Odden , Jon Rognerud and Danny Sullivan . Also, I think, the first time on this blog I made the case that SEO is far from dead. #8: Web 2.0 Social Tagging Sites, Part 7: The Best , June 26, 2007 "Based on two months of testing across a half-dozen B2B websites and blogs, these Web 2.0 social bookmarking sites produced the best results, in terms of driv...

This content has been moved to Best of 2008: Web & SEO Copywriting on the Webbiquity blog. ***** technorati tags: marketing copywriting, writing for the web, SEO copywriting, Jennifer Norene, WebProNews, Doug Caverly, Heather Lloyd-Martin, Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference, Search Engine Land, Galen DeYoung, B2B copywriting, Internet Marketing Blog, Frank Levert, Synonym.com, Rhymer, SiteProNews, Jennifer Horowitz, Copyblogger, Sonia Simone, Search Engine Guide, Stoney deGeyter, Conversation Marketing, Ian Lurie del.icio.us tags: marketing copywriting, writing for the web, SEO copywriting, Jennifer Norene, WebProNews, Doug Caverly, Heather Lloyd-Martin, Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference, Search Engine Land, Galen DeYoung, B2B copywriting, Internet Marketing Blog, Frank Levert, Synonym.com, Rhymer, SiteProNews, Jennifer Horowitz, Copyblogger, Sonia Simone, Search ...