The Internet is a strategic asset in today's business environment. How effectively you use this incredibly powerful resource is up to you. That's where Strategic Internet comes in. We are the best at what we do.

This is a business where there is no substitute for experience. It’s not only knowing what to do, it’s knowing how to make things happen in a complex, fast-changing environment, with both analytical and creative processes. Shea brings vast and diverse experience to every project. We partner with a variety of design and development teams from around the country and sometimes from all over the world including India to Eastern Europe to South America and all places in between. We bring the optimal resources to each project to best meet or exceed the expectations of our customers.

Strategic Internet was founded by Shea Ellison, a gentleman who has been in the Information Technology field since the 1970's when he was an entrepreneur and a pioneer in the fledgling electronics and computer industry. His career has spanned computer hardware, software, telecommunications and multimedia. He has now been focused on Internet Consulting since the very early days of the Internet when it was primarily a tool for the government and higher educational institutions.

Our primary focus today is on providing you with the tools, resources, and strategies you need to create an engaging web experience for both your internal and external customers. We're also focused on sharing our knowledge and expertise of the dynamic inner world of organic search engine optimization, social media optimization, Internet marketing and website conversion rate optimization. We continually stay abreast of the near infinite changes occurring in these three areas. There are many intricate ideas, strategies, tools and techniques one can implement to achieve their objectives of converting website visitors into paying customers. However, there are also a set of fundamental concepts and strategies that must be understood and applied before one can begin to delve into subtle nuances of search engine optimization.

Internet marketing is a wide open field today with literally millions of people who each have their own ideas of what works best for them in their particular situation. However, there are a set of generally accepted fundamentals that must be understood and applied before one can begin to apply the many variations of strategies and tactics available to you.

So what are some of these fundamentals?

Identify your niche. You can't be everything to everybody. If everyone is your market – then no one is your market.
Know who your prospects and customers are. Get inside their head and understand what it is that they want. Find out how they go about solving their problems. Learn what means they use to find a solution to their problems. It's not about you. It's about them and their needs.

When your prospects encounter your marketing message – whether it be online of off, all they are interested in is 'WIIFM' (What's in it for me). Therefore your message needs to immediately address their hot button – how your product or service is going to resolve their problem. Their problem is your opportunity.

What is the purpose of your website? Why does your company have a website? (Now let me clarify; I'm referring to an external pubic site on the Internet.) I believe any public-facing website's purpose is to attract prospects and converting them into a lead or customer. It's all about conversion.

How do you define what is a conversion on your website?

If you are selling a commodity in an e-commerce environment, then your 'conversion' is a sale of one of those commodities. If you are selling a unique product, then your conversion is a name and email address. If you are selling a service, it could be either one of the above. The fundamental to take away here, is to clearly define what a conversion on your site is.
Again, it's all about conversion – converting a visitor into a lead or a customer.

Shea Ellison is the Chief Operations Officer. He is a graduate of National Louis University with a B.S. in Management and a Master of Science in Electronic Commerce (MSEC). He is also certified Project Manager Professional (PMP) as well as a Certified Internet Webmaster. (CIW)

Member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA) and the former Chairman of the TAG Consulting Society of the Technology Association of Georgia. (TAG) He is the past President of Northpark Toastmasters Club - A President's Distinguished Club for the past nine years in a row. He wass the past Area Governor for Division G, District 14 of Toastmasters International. He is an Advanced Communicator Bronze and a Competent Leader. He is also an Associate of the National Speakers Association - Georgia Chapter and has served as the Technology Supervisor to the Board.

Questions are the answer – or to be more precise, it's not the answers that are nearly as important as learning how to ask better questions. Web searchers have become more and more sophisticated over the years and that's a good thing for everyone. Time was, when people would enter one or two word search queries and be able to get reasonable results. Today, users have learned how to be more specific with their searches and therefore have created the long-tail (keyword phrases) market opportunity for more precise, more relevant search results. For instance, five years ago a typical user might have entered "color TV" as a query in a search engine and was able to find reasonable relevant results. However, if one conducted that same search today, they would be presented with such a wide variety of results – many of which would not be what they actually wanted. Today, the savvy shopper might enter a search query more like "lowest price Samsung 52-inch digital LCD HDTV". Now the user will be provided with very specific and very relevant search engine results that they can act upon immediately.

Add to this - the new Google 'Instant search'; you don't even have to prese <Enter> at the end of your search string. Google now starts instantly searching and revising its results - as you type each and every character. Look closer the next time you conduct a search in Google.

Microsoft keeps evolving its search technology, and based on its latest TV ad campaign - their still stuck in a time warp. First their was MSN Search, then LIVE Search, and now Bing. They act as if the search results from other search engines is total garbage - which is total rubbish. In my opinion, don't waste your time. The only time I get stuck on Bing is when I'm using IE and forget to specifically select Google when using the browser shortcut bar.

Did you also know that you can enter full questions into a search query box on Google such as "Where can I find Levi jeans in Atlanta", NOTE that the double quotes surrounding my query are intentional and included in my search. By putting double quotes around your search queries, you are telling the search engine that you are looking for that exact string of words. Google will tell you that the double quotes are implied in all of their searches, but that is not true. If you don't use the double quotes around your search query, search engines will return results where 'any' of the terms in your query exist in the title or description of a given web page. Often when entering these long-tail keyword phrases, if you surround your query with double quotes, you may not receive any results – as I did not in my previous search. However, I was presented with seven 'Sponsored' ads… and one of them was for Reunion.com; I suppose they thought perhaps I might have had a former classmate named Levi…

Linking strategies – building high-quality inbound links is the single, most important task you must do to improve your search engine ranking – period. One way inbound links. Too many people have put a lot of focus on reciprocal links. However, I see reciprocal linking in the near future being like factors on opposite side of a mathematical equation. When you have an outbound link to a page on another site, and there is a link on that page back to your site, the two cancel each other out. To picture it in a metaphor, it is like two gunfighters who shoot each other at the exact same time – they both lose.

Building one way inbound links will be the most challenging task you face as a website owner/marketer, but it will also be the most rewarding. The challenge for most sites will be to acquire enough quality inbound links to dominate your niche without tripping any of the spam filters that trigger the penalties being charge to sites that cheat.

Speaking of Linking strategies, why not link to us as a valuable resource one of our two core areas of focus, our Strategic Internet StratumSites™ Content Management System and our service as Your Social Media Marketing Department.

As you know, your website cannot remain static. In an age of constant new information, breaking news, social media updates, your site MUST be in a constant state of growth. Today, the web is like a living, breathing, entity and therefore must constantly be renewed - just like your body. That's where our StratumSites™ CMS provides you with a rich array of web applications, plus an easy to use WYSIWYG (Word-like) content editing tool. So, you don't have to know anything about programming or web design.

As you continually add content to your site, which includes an integrated blogging application, you can also easily post out to your other social media sites. However, most small and even medium business owners don't have the resources to hire a full time social media manager and staff. That's where you can leverage our innovative Social Media Marketing Department to do all the heavy lifting for you.