Every week we take Internet marketing questions from friends, acquaintances and client business partners and unravel them at the end of these enewsletters. Is there something you would like to know about the weirdly wonderful world of websites? Ask us here and we shall answer.

Question: Which browsers should I be paying attention to?

Answer: According to Wikipedia, as of October, 2009, the top browsers by usage are:

• Internet Explorer (64.64%)
• Mozilla Firefox (25.30%)
• Safari (4.30%)
• Google Chrome (3.19%)
• Opera (1.50%)

Those figures, of course, do not delve into the sordid world of version numbers. And, as you may well know, comparing Firefox 3.5 to Internet Explorer 6.0 is like comparing a pristine, freshly picked Navel orange to a moldy, old, half-eaten Gala apple.

That said, you should still be watching Internet Explorer 6.0.

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Every week we take Internet marketing questions from friends, acquaintances and client business partners and unravel them at the end of these enewsletters. Is there something you would like to know about the weirdly wonderful world of websites? Ask us here and we shall answer.

Question: What is Google Website Optimizer?

Answer: Per Google's dry summation:

Google Website Optimizer is a free A/B testing and multivariate testing application that helps online marketers and webmasters increase visitor conversion rates and overall visitor satisfaction by continually testing different combinations of website content. But, if you're a website owner or an Internet marketer with "mad scientist" tendencies…

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Every week we take Internet marketing questions from friends, acquaintances and client business partners and unravel them at the end of these enewsletters. Is there something you would like to know about the weirdly wonderful world of websites? Ask us here and we shall answer.

Q: What should we do with all of our old pages when we launch our redesigned website?

Short Answer: Always back it up and map your legacy content to new locations.

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Segmentation (email and mobile marketing segmentation) is the practice of organizing and tweaking both the delivery and message of your communications based upon your various audiences' likeliness to respond favorably to it. Accordingly, the opposite of segmentation is blasting all of your leads, clients, major clients, friends, family, and any stray animals that may have stumbled into your sign-up forms with the fire hose of potentially irrelevant calls to action. Studies have shown that segmented campaigns yield better open and click rates and, generally, a correctly segmented campaign will feed your subscribers info they want to receive and are therefore more likely to act upon (favorably). So, yes, if you can segment you definitely should!

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Hark, a new Internet acronym is born! What was once a facet of a solid SEO program is now being discussed as a major branch of Internet marketing in general.  Like SEO, SMO is the practice of publicizing your site and business online ... the difference is that SMO is not search engine-focused (although search engines (and other Google products) can and should play a significant role (and proper SMO could likely positively influence search engine rankings). Mainly, social media optimization requires brand and visibility-building via 3rd-party apps and content syndication. The idea is simple: Visibility yields popularity and popularity yields more visibility, so start today.

Some examples of SMO activities:

• Blogging or Journaling (You're reading one!) -- Your industry knowledge is valuable. While a spartan website can get by on an "about" page, product listings, and a contact form, going the extra mile and generating content is what end-users demand these days ... because end-users are want to talk about what you said on their blogs. In short, talk about what you know and people will follow it and spread it around.
• RSS and content syndication -- If there's any kind of content you can create on a regular basis (news, events, product listings, blog entries, etc.), syndicating that info via RSS or social tagging sites like ShareThis will allow fans to keep tabs on you (and link to you on short notice) and acquaintances to become fans.
• Embrace community -- Media sharing sites like Youtube.com, Flickr.com, and hundreds of big-name blogs can deliver traffic unlike anything you've seen before. But more than that they can help you craft your brand's personality if you can invest the time and spirit.
• Share links -- Much of blogging SMO boils down to sharing. If you have something to share, people will come to you. And people will be much more apt to pass your content around if they know you'll do the same for them.

Feel free to pick our brains on what social media opportunities might fit with your business.

Q: How can I monitor what people are saying about my brand online?

A: Good job thinking about this. Some businesses assume that a simple Google search for their company's brand name or a couple of keywords ranking well on various search engines are all they need to know about their standing in their industry. And, on the other hand, some folks are so daunted by the mere idea of the task, they ignore it all together. The truth is, if you're actively marketing yourself on the Internet, your company's profile is probably complex enough that just a few searches won't cover all your mentions. However, that does not mean you can't easily hack out a relatively simple system for occasionally monitoring news that's relevant to you and your industry.

Here's another tidy little list of general guidelines and specific tools:

• There be tools: Google Alerts is free. Use it to catch any keyword's appearances on Google News, Youtube, blogs, non-blog sites, and Google Groups. You can have it deliver updates to your email or create RSS feeds so that it doesn't buzz you absolutely crazy (we know this can happen from experience). Other services include "social" search engines such as www.socialmention.com (narrow down your blog searches), samepoint.com (social search with keyword analysis), www.serph.com (special attention to blogs), and Pipl (the definitive people search engine).
• Know thy terms: Whether you have products, models, actions, press release titles, ISBN numbers, public figures, partners, competitors, or your kids to keep track of, make use of keyword lists. Use synonyms. Get plural. Think hard.
• Set up reminders: If you set up alerts to shoot you emails, they'll let you know when you need to know. Otherwise, you should probably set up some calendar alarms so you check things out once a month. Handy with Excel? Track your progress. Make some goals; this week, two attaboys … next week, the World.
• Don't get crazy: Hey, it's just your identity, right?! But, whatever you hear, use common sense when dealing with it. If you find good things, share those links! If you find not-so-good things, learn from them and bury them with good press. And we were kidding about your kids. Don't search your kids. You probably don't want to know. Seriously, would you have wanted your parents to search you?

If you're lucky and you've put in a bit of effort, people are talking about your company. And, whether they're leaving happy notes, constructive criticism, or big, flaming bags of [woof] around the Internet, you need to know and you can find out. Enjoy! And, you know … if you want us to do all this for you and draft it up in pretty reports, we can do that.