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Based on the real-life experiences of a real-time marketer, this report discusses the five most frequent pitfalls of search engine optimization. This report also discusses the reasons why it's important to optimize the site at all. It's included in our Web 2.0 Collection because company websites can be an important platform for how companies communicate both intentionally and unintentionally with their key audiences of customers, partners and employees.

The five most frequent pitfalls?

1. Optimizing for keywords that nobody searches for - this was a particularly painful lesson for this proud content engineer. It was my wake up call.

2. Way too many keywords - one client came with a list of over 100 words they wanted to optimize their single product website for. Needless to say, we helped them use their competitors' websites and the Google sktool to tune the list and get it into a manageable and probably more important - actionable - shape.

3. Aiming all search engines at the root page - search engine optimization is about more than the front page of the site. Relevant content can be found and should be found somewhere on every page.

4. Thinking that all search engines matter - there are 800 pound gorillas and then there are 8000 pound gorillas. Search engines are the latter. Google matters. The others wish they did.

5. Not optimizing at all - danger Will Robinson! It's not just a one time thing. Don't you think your competitors will notice that your site has jumped from 53rd position to 2nd? Maintaining an optimization culture is the only way to assure continued successes and relevancy.

This report is also a great companion piece to the Content Engineering report.

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Forums are an important part of the customer support model for most software companies. They offer an effective and inexpensive method to amplify expertise by leveraging a self-service approach and group learning. Anyone can read the threads and discover the answer to their question that had been answered before, but only members can ask new questions. The support experts offer answers. Oftentimes companies are able to harness non-employees to offer assistance and help newbies and users find the answers to their questions.

Forums are however, not appropriate where personal information is necessary to replicate the experience or where sensitive corporate details may be discussed. A more secure traditional support service might be better in these circumstances. Nevertheless, the application class is making inroads into all manner of industries as a platform for internal communications and external multiplication of expertise.

This report reviews the state of Forum deployment and experience in MidMarket organizations, defined by Brockmann & Company as those with 101-1000 employees.

Comparing the MidMarket experience in consumption and deployment plans for forums to address employee

Expectations on growth in the frequency of meetings and growth in the length of meetings are also reviewed.

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Wikis are growing rapidly in the MidMarket (organizations with 101-1000 employees). They are gaining credibility as a knowledge sharing tool in the MidMarket, where economies of scale in corporate memory and knowledge sharing is proving to deliver higher satisfaction for both customers and  employees.

MidMarket organizations have the multi-site, trans-national and time-of-day challenges that typically cause organizational friction in knowledge sharing, which reduces collaboration and lowers overall organization effectiveness. Wikis work to overcome this friction creating an empowering platform and collaborative environment that improves the attitudes of customers and employees.

This report discusses the business impacts that the presence of wikis create, the consumption habits of users in MidMarket companies as compared to others, deployment plans and drivers for adoption of Wikis in MidMarket organizations.