Note: Over the next several months, ProspectMX will be conducting search engine optimization audits on top company websites (not portals, social networks, or directories) that rank in organic search engine results for high volume search terms in a variety of industries. Be sure to check back for posts chronicling the results of our audits. We will also be providing a series of 10 internet marketing tips for each industry based on the audit results. Hopefully, you find this information useful.

There are tons of internet marketing and search engine optimization blogs with general tips for improving your website’s presence.

On the web, however, some keywords are more competitive than others. For example, while packaging supplies and packaging materials mean the same thing, the former gets more search volume and requires a higher CPC rate for pay-per-click marketing than the latter.

In a recent study of FORTUNE 500 companies, manufacturing companies on the list failed to rank in the top 100 search results for around 81% of the top manufacturing search terms.

That got us thinking - why aren’t manufacturing companies utilizing search engine optimization and internet marketing services to position their site for improved online ROI?

Take the term “plastic packaging,” for example. The 10 top ranking company websites we found in one data center employed some SEO best practices on their site, but not all best practices we recommend and regularly utilize for our clients.

If you work for a manufacturing company as a marketing director, IT director, or webmaster, perhaps you might be interested in checking out our list of 10 SEO tips to improve the internet marketing efforts of your website. Does your company employ all of the best practices below?

1. In opposition to making general pages detailing all of your “services” or “products,” create an individual page on your site for each product and service.
2. Because you likely sell products on your site, name all of the images of your products with the product name and include a keyword-centric “alt tag.” More info on this can be found on our Universal Search Chart.
3. Make sure the name of the main product you sell is included in your website title tag. Instead of just having your Company Name in your title tag, reformat your title tag as “Target Product | Company Name.”
4. List actual keyword phrases in your keywords meta data. Instead of having your keywords include terms like “plastic, packaging, supplier” - list “plastic packaging supplier” as a keyword.
5. Make sure all your links work. In our audit of “plastic packaging” websites, about 80% of the websites we reviewed had broken links. Google Webmaster Guidelines clearly state that broken links on pages are a no-no. If Google says not to do something, you probably shouldn’t do it.
6. Utilize “page rank sculpting.” Take the authority your homepage has in Google and put it to good use. Funnel link authority to the most important pages on your site - “nofollow” links to pages like your Privacy Policy and Contact Us page.
7. Build links. Perhaps you can consult “Link Building 101” for some tips on link building.
8. Find your company’s best copywriter and have them start blogging or writing articles about your company’s products.
9. Update the content on your site regularly. Search engines like fresh, updated content because it is more relevant to what searchers are looking for at that particular moment. This is becoming more important as the search engines compete with sites like Twitter and, well… mostly just Twitter.
10. Submit your corporate press releases to a major web-based PR distribution service.

If you went through our checklist and are employing all those SEO best practices, great! If not, let us know… maybe we can help.

I received in the mail one of the most remarkable direct mail pieces ever (Photo thanks to BruceClay.com - Virginia Nussey talked about it here) via FedEx this week. I opened the package and pulled out a very professional package of chocolate covered grasshoppers.

The first thing I said to myself was, “Are these SERIOUSLY chocolate covered grasshoppers?”

And then I read in fine print at the bottom of the package:

*Yes, these are real grasshoppers. They are even approved by the FDA of Thailand.

Brilliant. I didn’t have any idea what it was… but that alone made me look into it further.

A tag attached to the grasshoppers said, “Entrepreneurs can change the world. Join the movement now!”

Now I’m intrigued.

So, I went to their site and it looks like they are compiling entrepreneurs together and offering some discounts on services… but in the end, they are promoting telecommunication services of some type.

Here’s the lesson… To start something viral… it needs to be worthy of being viral. Business owners talk to us everyday about how they want to do these viral campaigns, but they often want to do things so lame, that nobody really cares. So, take a lesson from the grasshopper guys (and possibly gals, too)… and do something worth talking about in your next viral marketing campaign.

Oh… I brought the package home and had my kids eat them. That’s what the video above’s all about. I know it’s a bit long… sorry.