Increased use of social media marketing led to improved Christmas sales for online retailers in the weeks leading up to the festive season, it has been claimed.

Online market analyst comScore reveals that the full period from November 1st until Christmas Eve saw five per cent more being spent online by shoppers.

Any business with an online presence - which they may have built up through search engine optimisation (SEO) or social media marketing - should now be establishing the same presence on mobiles, one sector commentator claims.

In a post for Search Engine Land, Joshua Odmark states the web on handheld devices is "still in its infancy" but it is only going to grow, meaning companies should be taking advantage now.

Landing page and search engine optimisation (SEO) could be given a boost by using emotional motivators, one sector commentator has asserted.

In a post for Search Engine Watch, Tim Ash claimed people rarely make rational decisions, tending instead to stick to emotional responses and gut reactions.

Micro-blogging site Twitter is to become profitable for the first time in its history, it has been reported - news which may interest businesses considering the site as part of a social media marketing campaign.

It will end 2009 with revenue of around $25 million (£15.63 million) and operating costs of between $20 and $25 million, which will mean a slim boost to its profit margins.

Website statistics compiled by Harris Poll show a rise in internet usage by the average user since the beginning of the recession.

According to the online and telephone-based research agency, the average internet user now spends 13 hours online each week.

With Google announcing earlier in the month that all users would be provided with personalised search results as a default, one sector commentator has examined how this will effect search engine optimisation (SEO).

Randfish, writing for the SEOmoz blog, advises companies they should be doing everything in their power to attract visitors to their website and ensure that they get all the information they need while they are there as this may positively boost ranking in terms of personalised results.

When selecting an in-house member of the team or a third party provider to carry out search engine optimisation (SEO) services, there are a number of points businesses should keep in mind, it has been claimed.

Writing in a post for Search Engine Watch, Mark Jackson notes cost should not be the only deciding factor and that it is also important that the scope of SEO work needed is taken into consideration.

In addition to promoting a brand and its products and services, social media marketing can also be a useful tool in improving customer service and relations, it has been suggested.

Liana Evans, in a post for Search Engine Watch, states there are a number of things firms should be looking to achieve and integrate when they embark on a social media marketing strategy.

New social networking site Blippy - set to be launched in the new year - is unlikely to form an integral part of businesses' social media marketing agenda if the suggestions of one sector commentator are to be believed.

Created by web entrepreneur Philip Kaplan, Blippy is in beta, which means that it can currently only be accessed by invitation.

Businesses have been advised by one sector commentator to take a broad yet refined approach to search engine optimisation (SEO).

The comments come after a study by the Internet Advertising Bureau Europe and InSites Consultancy revealed that more than 40 per cent of users stop checking after the first ten results offered by a search engine.

There is a consensus that Google might have been a little hasty in rolling out real-time search and this could lead to its impact declining in 2010.

Online news providers who wish to start charging their readers may find that it is now too late after years of offering free content, one sector commentator has claimed.

Businesses could find that including targeted news is an effective way of boosting their search engine optimisation campaign.

By monitoring the search engine optimisation (SEO) trends which have emerged over the recent months, one sector commentator has outlined his predictions for organic search in 2010.

Looking to the future in a post for SEOmoz, Randfish asserts that, despite only announcing the development in recent weeks, Google may be likely to phase out the inclusion of real-time updates in its search results, although he adds that he believes it was added more for PR purposes than quality.

In part two of, the 12 Rules of SMO, we continue our look at some of the key factors that you should consider when approaching an SMO campaign. Part one focussed on planning your strategy and ensuring your content is clear and offers value to visitors. These last six festive offerings will hopefully also add some value to your SMO campaign.

Along with effective planning and preparation, search marketing tools - such as search engine optimisation (SEO) - can help in the maintenance of an export project, one sector commentator has claimed.

Andy Atkins-Kruger, writing for Search Engine Watch, explains that keyword research in particular "has a lot to offer" in terms of researching which consumers to target in new markets.

Okay, so this isn’t a definitive guide or Holy Grail of Social Media Optimisation (SMO) best practice. Instead, think of it as a timely look at some of the key things you should consider for an SMO campaign this Christmas and into the New Year.

Social media has "forever changed" the way people live, one sector commentator has advised - which may mean businesses can no longer afford to ignore social media marketing.

Erik Qualman, in a post for Search Engine Watch, says it is simpler when people have multiple social networking accounts to be themselves, rather than using certain sites to put across a slightly different persona, as this can become confusing.

In order to make a success of a search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign, companies need to define their business goals, such as what they hope to achieve from the marketing initiative, one sector writer has claimed.

In a post for Search Engine Watch, Eric Enge explained it is once these targets have been determined that firms should think about what needs to happen for them to successfully be met.

Typically it is the website which is best optimised for links - such as those where marketers have employed search engine optimisation techniques - which are likely to perform better than the competition for rankings, one sector commentator has claimed.

SEOmoz's Randfish made his assertion during a blog detailing a debate he had with blogger Chris Dixon, after the latter claimed that the better a website's content, the more links it will earn.

Best practices in search engine optimisation (SEO) and usability have a "congruent nature", one sector commentator has claimed, stating that the user experience of a site should run in parallel with SEO efforts.

In a post for Search Engine Watch, Ron Jones said that in addition to SEO, it was important businesses optimised their websites in order to reach the right customer base.

Ranking on its own does not equate to a successful search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign, one sector commentator has claimed.

In a blog for Search Engine Watch, Chris Boggs states that the marketers who have accepted this are the ones who will define the future of organic searching.

Social media marketing can be deployed to hold conversations between businesses and their consumers, however, according to recent research, many big-name brands have forgotten this.

A survey carried out by New Media Age magazine revealed that 74 per cent of the 500 "superbrands" polled have no presence on Twitter and of the 130 that do use it, less than half Tweet daily.

Hot on the heels of Google’s announcement to roll-out personalised search to everyone with an Internet connection, they delivered their second wave of innovations – real-time search results. This will usher in the brave new world of SMO and SEO search results.

Google's recent integration of real-time updates on social networks such as Twitter as part of its search rankings could mean changes for search engine optimisation (SEO), one sector commentator has claimed.

The search engine made its announcement this week and Sam Tilston, online marketing director at Zoombits.co.uk, said companies using SEO as part of a marketing campaign will now have to up their game.

Has the future of SEO been irrevocably altered to the detriment of its potential use in Google? This kind of question has been slowly infiltrating search forums this week following Google’s personalised search announcement on Friday (04/12/09).

Effective search engine optimisation can lead to a company's website being ranked highly but there are a number of variables which are likely to affect whether the traffic which results from this converts to revenue, it has been claimed.

In a post for Search Engine Watch, Carrie Hill notes that is important a website is set up in a way which helps visitors to convert to customers.

Social media marketing "in general" is likely to cost businesses less than other types of advertising, such as print, television or direct mail, one sector commentator has claimed.

However, that does not mean that without work it will result in immediate returns on investment.

A leaked government Information and Communications Technology (ICT) report recently revealed plans to modernise the public sector ICT infrastructure and use more social media.

Leaked by the Conservative Party, the paper details proposals to save money through using social media and the possibility of an "apps" store for civil servants.

When working on a pay per click (PPC) campaign, many marketers are failing to include links to tailored landing pages, opting instead to direct traffic to pages deemed irrelevant, new research has found.

Biz Report notes that the study by CrownPeak revealed that while 13 per cent of links led to the homepage of a company's site, the rest led to "irrelevant product pages" or content where no reference was made to the advertisement itself.

Businesses attempting to boost their search engine optimisation by including local news content on their website are risking losing their customers to competitors if they charge their site visitors to see it, one sector commentator has claimed.

The comments come as Johnston Press, one of the three largest local newspaper publishers in the UK, this week initiated a small-scale trial for paid content in a few of its weekly publications.

Traditionally the golden rule of writing content for your site or your blog was to be niche – one narrow vertical. However, going horizontal could be the new vertical for some.

Google analytics research has revealed the most popular searches currently being carried out in the UK, which may inspire businesses to embark on a social media marketing campaign.

Indeed, the top search of 2009 was a social networking site - Facebook - followed by BBC, YouTube, Hotmail, 'games', eBay, 'news', Google, Yahoo! and Bebo.

The must attend conference in the world of search is once again returning to the UK in 2010. Search Marketing Expo (SMX) is a two day conference featuring sessions led by industry experts on SEO, PPC, organic search, mobile search and many more.

Google has altered its search results so that the green URL link which typically appears below each individual search result to show where users will head when they click it will be replaced in some cases with a hierarchy demonstrating the page's location on a site.

Such news could be useful for businesses working on search engine optimisation, with Google claiming that it will provide new navigation options and valuable context.

While online marketing is continually evolving and while search engines come up with new criteria for ranking content, one sector commentator has noted the fundamentals of search engine optimisation (SEO) are still relevant.

In a post for Search Engine Watch, Herndon Hasty predicts that microformatting and rich snippets are likely to play an increasingly important role in SEO, with search engines attempting to compile more useful results.