So much is happening on the Internet these days that it's just hard for an old soul like me to keep up.  Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo,  just as billionaire Bill seemed set for the pearly gates.  The price of Google's shares have plummeted and it seems no great surprise because why would anyone invest in a company with a name like "Google," "Froogle" or Boogle Boogle. It seems like the inaudible utterances of a Kalahari bushman in an old cartoon. I'm just saying!  So, what do music, American pop-culture and the Internet have in common?  

You Can't Always Get What You Want
Once upon a time in a land not too far away,  Overture dominated paid search results and Internet entrepreneurs  rushed in to buy stocks and bid on keywords. The phrase "cost per conversion" seemed to be  a big waste of words as leaders beat a steady powerful drum that cried "More Sales, Bid Higher, More Sales!" And, it worked! Search engine optimization (or SEO) experts were out there too talking about positioning, virtually free traffic, that boring stuff, and only a few listened.

As the DotCom explosion crashed (because "what goes up must come down"),  investors, analysts and entrepreneurs alike fled for the hills hiding in caves hoping that a resultant flood of debt, greed and apathy would not hit. Few survived! The smart ones realized that while DotComs were dead, popular domain names such as "Beer.com" and "Hotels.com" would eventually be worth millions. They picked the fallen cherries off the ground and got rich.

The dedicated online marketer kept looking at the stars dreaming that someday big business and financial analysts would realize once again that the Internet comprised a future-fate that none may escape. We kept trying to convince small business owners and executives that data, keyword positioning and ROI remain important. Being the "New Kids on the Block," we tossed about terms such as "unique visitors, click-through-rates, bounce rates, costs, impressions, cost-per-conversions, and clicks." Many executives were embarrassed by the new jargon returning to tried-and-tested metrics such as radio ads, newspaper ads, and television ads.  They felt, perhaps, that our technical terms were an attempt to trick them with things like RPM and gas mileage without actually showing them the car, if that makes sense. Unfortunately,  the blunt tools used by Neanderthals still work as we see each Boxing Day as thousands sleep outside overnight to get a good deal.

You Are So Beautiful To Me
Eventually, Google came along ushering a new epoch or social evolution in the way we think about search engines and "computer-intelligence." The Neandrathal, or maybe Raptor was finally dead. Yahoo! Google had the ability to fetch rich relevant results for users in seconds, better than any other engine. Financial analysts, investors and entrepreneurs watched this and jumped on the bandwagon seeking new profits, outcomes and performance measures online. It worked! Shares of Google soared through the roof and a group of fine young "American" men with a creative idea became billionaires, trillion-aires and so forth.

The interesting thing about Google is that it changed the way that we work. Search engine optimization for Yahoo and MSN became laughable. Businesses only cared about their position on Google because who ever controls the attention of the world, controls it. Bill Clinton and Al Gore, similarly, took credit for the Internet in books such as "Between Hope and History" and citing books such as Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock." (Are there any similarities to this discussion and Global warming? I'm just speculating.) The whole world seemed poised for the next wave in search engine optimization, PPC and analytics. We became accountable, measurable professionals who proved our worth by showing how every 10th of a cent was spent while newspapers, radios and magazines sold brand, image and viewers. Life is like that! It's not always fair.

Let's Get Together Right Now
Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click Advertising, Webmaster Tools and Analytics, today, are "not separate but equal."  I am not even certain if it all boils down to a tautology of chicken before egg or vice versa because each informs the other. Historically, we would optimize a website for a term such as "Las Vegas real estate" and strive to reach top the number 1 position online. While having more visitors tend to guarantee the chance for additional sales, PPC analysis shows that, for example, the keyword "buy Las Vegas Real Estate" and "Las Vegas condos" convert at half the cost and twice the number. This analysis helps a website owner or marketer to understand that SEO is not an island; it is a small piece of a larger world and universe.  And Google is just a simple universe with many planets, meteors, suns and moons. Knowing this information, is it still ethical to optimize for "las vegas real estate?" Yes, because the phrase is still more expensive than others; but knowing the way that users interact with your website based on keywords helps us to understand how to optimize internal pages fully.

Google Analytics is nothing new. No, it's Zeus, Othello, Apollo, Beowulf and Superman. There have been a lot of statistical analysis tools over the years. What Google Analytics provides, however, is an opportunity to integrate PPC data and natural search data with analytics, "cheaply and easily." Using this data, we now know that many people from Vancouver, Canada investigate real estate opportunities in Las Vegas. The data changes everything about the way that a realtor and real estate agency begin to interact with potential clients. Realtors can now advertise and network with Canadian having ties to retirees and affluent persons wanting to own real estate in Las Vegas or Hawaii. Website optimizer provides us with the ability to change colors, words, faces and design so that the website begins to meet or attract buyers similar to those magazines with the attractive girls in 7 Eleven. Search engine optimization equally enables us to position the website front-and-center.

Webmaster Tools are the "heart and soul" of any website. In addition to the sitemap, the tools help us to realize the way that Google sees your website. Oddly many people are surprised to realize that while you have been working so hard to position your website as "Las Vegas real estate," people continue to link to your site using the words "vacation properties." So, your site is being split in half like Canada and Quebec, if that makes any sense. But a website with a common theme is much easier for a search engine to understand than one that is multi-directional. It has been said, naturally, that a "house divided cannot stand." Hierarchically, the answer to this dilemma lies in the thematic decentralization and programmatic planning found in DMOZ directory structures and Yahoo.

"Honey, Honey I Heard It Through The GrapeVine"
I am still trying to reconcile the issue of Social Media Marketing. Do you dig?  The omnipresent universe that is Google Search demands that web content be hip, current, innovative and blogged about. This strategy sucks because it kills the little guy. On the other hand, it means that innovative pioneering people with lots of charisma and humor can be stars for a day, just like an American Idol look alike. I still miss Rueben Studdard and Taylor "what's his name?" In this new age, companies rise by the sword or social NewsVine and they die by it.

My idea is that the main point of social media marketing is to not lose sight of your company's true identity. If your company is positioned as selling an affordable product line, use comedy, video and entertainment to be affordable. If you are durable, then ask "will it blend?"  The smart companies, in traditional media, such as Dairy Queen and Mountain Dew have attracted the younger hip marketplace using humor and fun while never letting you forget that they offer quality and opportunity inside. 

"Someday We'll Be Together"
Reality TV seems to have taken the world by storm.  The people have taken control over popular media such as TV, Internet and radio by voting. We have become a democracy on an island called "Survivor?" Has anyone noticed that the vote has become a little more obtuse; that the discussion on Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and that other guy seems moot, or like a horse race. It's no longer a discussion about the fate of the universe. By the way, have you checked out the funny singing guy on YouTube.