Online Advantage re-opened on the 5th of January to a busy and exciting year ahead.  The pace of change in the online world is ever-increasing and the challenge is to separate the fads from the genuine developments that will help our clients achieve more online.

We take a slightly conservative approach to search engine marketing in that we don't jump on the band-wagon until we can see that a new technique or tool can actually help our clients; and also how we can actually use it to help clients.  In the coming months we will be launching social media services around Twitter, Facebook and others for those clients whose industries and business models suit these tools for ongoing communication, brand-building and lead-generation.  Online video optimisation is also under development with part of the challenge to find the best approach to getting quality video for clients in many different locations.  We are also looking creatively at how online video can benefit clients in industries other than the obvious ones like tourism, accommodation and real estate.

This year we will also be pushing all clients to allow Google Webmaster Tools so we can better analyse their sites and make constant improvements.  Google Webmaster Tools are constantly improving the depth and quality of information they provide and we want all clients to benefit from this.  We will also be monitoring changes as usual to the rules and algorithms of all the major search engines, and will watch with interest to see how some of the more controversial issues in Search Engine Marketing pan out, such as how Google will continue to manage personalised search results and local business listings.

If 2009 was anything to go by, this time next year we may be discussing and assessing issues, tools or techniques that are not around today.  We will be monitoring and as always looking at what we can apply for our clients in a cost effective and practical manner.  With the economy improving we are looking forward to helping clients get even better returns from their websites in 2010.