Apologies to differencebetween.net. I was at ad:tech all week and had this one scheduled. Links have been fixed. Difference Between is a very unique site that focuses on just what the name says, the difference between two things, usually two that are often confused with each other. The have articles in many categories including business (difference between GNP and GDP), Health (vegan vs. vegetarian diets), Internet (http vs. https), and language (difference between sympathy and empathy) also Science, Nature, Technology. This seems like a site that I would bookmark and check on every once in a…
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
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Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills
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Difference Between – Free Shirt Friday – UPDATE
6 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am -
Can We Talk For A Minute
4 Nov 2009 | 4:50 pmI been meaning to do a post like this for a while but just did a video. Here at Ad:Tech and next week at Pubcon thought I would make a brief vid: This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog Can We Talk For A Minute -
SEOBOOK Interview
3 Nov 2009 | 8:58 amCheck out the lengthy interview I did with Aaron Wall here This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog SEOBOOK Interview -
Last day for ShoeMoneyX Signups!
3 Nov 2009 | 3:29 amAfter today the shoemoneyx.com program will be shutdown forever. But no worries we are working on something new that will be out first quarter of next year that is much more hands on and indepth. (notice the early bird signup on right hand side of the blog). So enroll in the free 12 week internet marketing training course today! This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog Last day for ShoeMoneyX Signups! -
Before You Pay For That Webmasterworld Pubcon Pass….
2 Nov 2009 | 11:18 amBefore you buy a pass to Pubcon to hear the same old company pitches you have already heard a million times from the same speakers check out DK’s line up of events (AKA 2nd annual Pubcon hijack). These events is actually where all of the “experts” will be at. AND in these settings you can actually “talk” to them instead of listening to their company stump pitch. Just check out all the people on DK’s attendees page and you tell me who are you trying to network with? Who are you trying to learn from? These mini events are the key. The events range from MMA…
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Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
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Cup of Joe: The Secret to Getting Rich on the Internet, is in Las Vegas – Part 1
6 Nov 2009 | 11:56 pmIt seems that around every corner on the web there is some one selling a get rich quick scheme or program. There’s always someone talking about a magic formula, or amazing tactic, that will make money fall from heaven. The truth is, there isn’t really one program or set of rules that are guaranteed to make anyone rich. The truth is, that some programs work for some and not for others. Some programs work for many and some don’t work for any at all. However, after a few years of building a business online, I have discovered that there is one tactic that most successful… -
Consumers Sharing Brand Opinions on Social Networks
6 Nov 2009 | 1:26 pmPerformics reports that Twitter may be the place to get your brand mentioned if you want social networkers’ attention, according to MediaPost. Nearly half (48%) of those who saw a brand mentioned on Twitter turned to a search engine to research that brand. Other social networks lagged far behind, with 34% researching. However, the study of 3000 active social networkers showed that 70% were on Facebook, and 22% were on Twitter. So of those respondents, 32 researched a brand from Twitter, while Facebook sent 714 running to their search engine of choice. 30% of those surveyed admitted… -
Most Bloggers Discuss Products/Brands
6 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pmAccording to Technorati’s 2009 State of the Blogosphere report, 70% of bloggers talk about products or brands on their blogs, eMarketer reports. And obviously some of these mentions would be prompted by free sample products, etc.—a practice popular enough to draw the notice of the FTC, which now requires disclosure on such review products. Interestingly, corporate bloggers were least likely to blog about brands and products (lawsuit anyone?), and hobbyist bloggers were second least likely. Technorati defined hobbyist bloggers as those that blog for fun. They don’t make money… -
Skype Founders Re-Found in Settlement
6 Nov 2009 | 10:07 amThe drama surrounding Skype as of late played out like a business soap opera. The accusations flew from both sides of the fence with founders and owners going at it tooth and nail. Check out Kara Swisher’s account over at All Things Digital for the blow by blow description. Now it looks like the ‘all clear’ can be sounded as an agreement has been reached. Here’s a synopsis for you from TechCrunch Earlier this morning, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis settled their lawsuits with eBay and a syndicate of investors in return for a 14 percent stake in the company they founded. The… -
You’re Facing a Reputation Crisis, Now What?
6 Nov 2009 | 7:09 amThere’s a growing interest in online reputation management. Over at Wildfire Marketing, I answered some reputation management questions for their Thought Leader Thursday series. Here’s a taster… What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen people make when it comes to responding to a reputation management crisis, and how someone salvage the situation if they’ve already made one of these mistakes? The biggest mistake is simply not having official channels in place to allow your customers to complain. Most disgruntled customers post to blogs and Twitter because…
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The Clix Marketing Blog
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David Szetela Tweeted This Yesterday…
6 Nov 2009 | 6:01 am@Danger_Mouse link is supposed to be fixed soon. in reply to Danger_Mouse # @Mel66 lol – I have no idea – i'm tweeting from a taxi. in reply to Mel66 # Ask the Google Content Team your deepest, darkest AdWords question – today only! http://bit.ly/4iN9z5 # Woo-hoo! Congrats to you and your better 3/4!! RT @lorenbaker: We're having a BOY ! Just found out today. It's a BOY! # RT @tosyali: RT: Internet Retail Sales Fall For Record 2nd Straight Quarter – WSJ.com http://ow.ly/zEyd # I'm at SPiN NYC (304 park ave south, New York). http://bit.ly/PxByg # My role… -
David Szetela Tweeted This Yesterday…
5 Nov 2009 | 6:01 am@ChiefGooroo very long – just arrived. in reply to ChiefGooroo # RT @exhired: @mrspy looking forward to your session tomorrow with @shoemoney4real @szetela and @itsjustshelley #adtech #crsconference # RT @clickequations: http://twitpic.com/o9neo – @Szetela speaking at PPC summit in Chicago # RT @Fitz: PPC Summit Chicago has most informed search marketing audience of any conference I've been to. There ppl know search! #ppcsummit # RT @RyanSammy: How I Became The Most Dangerous Man on the Internet (via @davesynder) http://bit.ly/46lbTw #life Plz RT # Ask the Google Content Team… -
David Szetela Tweeted This Yesterday…
4 Nov 2009 | 6:01 am@janetdmiller thanks!! in reply to janetdmiller # RT @josephmorin: It's here – The Official #PubCon Party Post: http://bit.ly/4CIaKD (remember it's a marathon – not a sprint) (please RT) # RT @dannysullivan: telegraph tries to explain why fake town appears on google maps, resorts to anagram analysis http://bit.ly/19WIme # Leaving for Chicago. http://bit.ly/3GLrtZ # Me! RT @tim_ash: is getting ready to present at #PPCSummit in Chicago on Thursday! Anyone else going? # RT @Twitter_Tips: #TwitterSpammers are hard at it again "i found you on here." Don't open… -
David Szetela Tweeted This Yesterday…
3 Nov 2009 | 6:01 am@cyandle thanks, Casey! in reply to cyandle # Got a question re: how to improve your #AdWords campaign? Tweet me any question on a live 1-hour episode of PPC Rockstars today 4 PM EST. # @steveplunkett arigato, plunk-man. u b at pubcon? in reply to steveplunkett # RT @EsteDiaVA: If U have a question on how 2 improve yr #AdWords campaign,Tweet @Szetela – live 1-hour episode of PPC Rockstars at 4PM EST. # @steveplunkett then I formally invite you. in reply to steveplunkett # RT @WebmasterRadio: LIVE PPC Q & A on @PPCRockstars 2day at 4pm EST. B in R chatroom http://bit.ly/NnkeK or… -
David Szetela Tweeted This Yesterday…
2 Nov 2009 | 6:01 amAttention Social Blaster spammers: I'm on a mini-crusade; you WILL be blocked and reported. # @guitar_picks they send Tweets that pretend to be information about PPC – but link to Social Blaster – will tweet you a sample # @guitar_picks here's one: @danielwi11: AdWords Tips – Checklist For Tracking Your PPC Results – http://snipurl.com/sy13a # I answer ANY #PPC question on a special 1-hour live episode of PPC Rockstars tomorrow! # RT @_SEM: Google Wave Guide: User Manual Released for Wave: http://bit.ly/1s7RD2 # @hyperg yes – but it makes me feel better…
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Search Engine Marketing Gurus
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eMetrics: Accelerated Darwinism Online & the Evolution of Web Metrics
I've gotten the opportunity to attend the eMetrics conference in the Washington, DC area this year and already the first two presentations have really impressed me. The first was Jim Sterne's which I'll be blogging about a bit later over on Social Conversations, but the one I wanted to tell SMG readers about was the presentation given by Foresee Results.It was all about the evolution of web metrics in comparison to what customers are doing online. How did we really get here? So much data, but yet so little true meaning for a lot of companies. So little actionable data because of the… -
Online Marketing Tips Video: Twitter Tips - URL Shorteners, Blogging & ReTweeting
This week for our Tuesday's Tips in Online Marketing Video, I'm discussing some Twitter Tool that you can integrate into your strategy to get a better handle on what's happening with all those URL's you are tweeting out. Full Twitter Tips Video Transcript after the jump.... Twitter Tips - URL Shorteners, Blogging & ReTweeting - Video Transcript Hi and welcome back to Tuesday's Tips in Online Marketing. I'm Li Evans of Serengeti Communications and Search Marketing Gurus. I'm back today with some more Twitter Tool Tips! Yes, Twitter, you know everyone is using… -
Women of Internet Marketing: An Interview with Ayima's Jane Copland
Q: In the unlikely event that anyone reading this doesn't know who you are, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you're currently doing, workwise? A: The short version is that I'm a twenty-five year old SEO consultant, relatively fresh off the boat from the United States, living in London. I began my career in SEO at SEOmoz in Seattle and I now work for Ayima Search Marketing here in the UK. I'm 100% organic-SEO focused (PPC sounds like something people take at the club around the corner from my flat) and I'd far rather chase down a stellar link profile than attempt to converse with… -
Online Marketing Tips Video: Free Blogging Tools
It's been a few weeks without a Tuesday's Tips in Online Marketing Video so I pulled one that I hadn't yet posted to SMG. This week its all about tools, free tools for Bloggers and their blogs. Google's got three really great tools that any blogger can integrate into their blog to take it to the next level.In today's video we'll discuss Google's Feedburner, Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer. It's quick and to the point, and maybe it'll help you to decide to install one of these free tools to help improve your blog.Free Blogging Tool Tips Video Transcript after the jump.... -
Don’t Gamble with Your PPC Campaigns! Save It For The Casinos.
In the lyrics of one of my favorite songs by Kenny Roger’s “the Gambler” which states that “you gotta know when to hold em…., Know when to fold em… No when to walk away…… Know when to run…. And it is those lyrics which reminded me of how easy it is to gamble with your PPC Campaigns, when "rash" decisions can really screw-up your bottom-line. (BTW - What the hell happened to Kenny Roger's Face? It looks like he gambled and lost with his plastic surgeon - See photo below) In this post, I will discuss why it’s important to “know when hold certain keywords and also “when…
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Small Business Search Marketing
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Google Pulls Local Phone Numbers from Search Display
5 Nov 2009 | 1:14 amUpdate, 11:45 am: After emailing Google to ask why the phone numbers have been removed, a Google spokesperson replied back saying it was a bug: “For a few hours this morning phone numbers were not displayed as part of local universal search results on Google. This was a small bug, and we quickly fixed it.” —————–@—————- It looks like Google is making more small changes to how its displays local search results — but these are small changes that might have a big impact on both local businesses and the users… -
New Google Local Listing Guidelines
3 Nov 2009 | 11:23 pmGoogle has published a new set of guidelines for local businesses using the Local Business Center — guidelines that continue to get more specific to counter the very specific ways small businesses spammers try to bend or completely get around the rules. In a nutshell, there are three completely new guidelines that deal with spam/attempts to take advantage of the LBC system: The business name on Google Maps must be your full legal business name. PO Boxes do not count as physical locations. A property for rent is not considered a place of business. Please create one listing for the… -
Walking the Local Search Walk
2 Nov 2009 | 5:24 amMy wife went on a kitchen cleaning binge yesterday. When I came home from some errand-running, three yellow pages books were sitting on my office desk. So I asked what’s up. “You’re the local SEO guy,” she said. “Do we even need these anymore?” I thought about it for 30 seconds and decided no, we don’t need these anymore. If I’m always talking about local search and people using the web to find local information, I should walk the walk, too, right? So there they are, as you can see in the photo, sitting in my office trash bin. (Actually, you can… -
October ‘09: Best Search/Marketing Posts
1 Nov 2009 | 6:23 pmHere’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts I found and read during September and October. (I’m combining the two months because I spent much of September traveling.) If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the archives: 2008 Best Posts and 2007 Best Posts. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps. Local Search Gregg Stewart/SEW: Consumers Head Online for Local Business Information Mike Blumenthal: Google Maps: Six reasons why your listing might… -
Meeting the Press, Talking SEO
27 Oct 2009 | 6:33 amThat How to Get Started with SEO post that I published last week has a little backstory: It was inspired by a series of interviews I’ve done lately about SEO with members of the press. Each interview was about SEO and small businesses, and in each case I ended up talking about how a small business can begin to tackle SEO. The fruits of each interview are now online, and if I had to pick a favorite, it would be this article from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. It’s a profile of All About Spelling, a small business that I’d never heard of until the article was published…
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Yoast» - Yoast - Tweaking Websites
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Practical Guide to 404 Error Pages: What WordPress is Missing
3 Nov 2009 | 5:30 amI make mistakes. You make mistakes. We all do. And some of these mistakes end up providing our readers with a 404 page. Chances are that page says "Error 404: file not found". How does that help your visitor?Instead of just identifying the problem, your 404 page needs to offer a solution.In the default WordPress Kubrick theme the 404 page (example) is probably one of the ugliest pages you've ever seen, and chances are yours is not any better. Today is the time to end that. This post will provide you with everything you need to make your "404 - File not found" page a starting point instead of… -
Clicky Tracking for WordPress
30 Oct 2009 | 3:00 amThe guys at Clicky recently wrote a post asking someone to re-develop their WordPress plugin. Since I have quite a bit of code lying around for what they needed, I emailed them and told them I'd be happy to build it. If you don't know Clicky, you really should check it out, it's a pretty solid analytics package with some cool realtime features, be warned though: their "Spy" feature is quite addictive...Update: the plugin is now out of beta and on wordpress.org, search for Clicky in your backend and install it, or download it from the Clicky plugin page on WordPress.org!For a 1.0, this plugin… -
Plugin Compatibility data now crowdsourced
27 Oct 2009 | 2:06 amOne of the things Mark Jaquith and I talked about when Mark was on Press This a month back, in the episode aptly titled the Future of WordPress, was that Automattic would be adding a way for people to indicate whether a certain plugin was working for them or not, regardless of what the plugins "Compatible up to" version is.This seems to have gone in beta now on wordpress.org, where you'll see a block like you see on the right appear next to plugins. I think this is an awesome addition, as it makes the compatibility data a lot more reliable.Plugin Compatibility data now crowdsourced is a post… -
Quick WP tip #2: Conditional Thickbox loading
14 Oct 2009 | 1:19 pmAnother quick tip to help you optimize your site: sometimes you want to load one or more images in a post in a nice Thickbox or Lightbox. But in most cases, you don't need to load these scripts, wouldn't it be cool if you could load these scripts only when you want them to load?I decided, that the only time I want Thickbox to load, is when I manually add class="thickbox" to the code of a post or page. So I wrote up a little script that checks for that, and loads Thickbox if needed. Now you need to know that to make Thickbox work, you need to load both a script and a css file, so the complete… -
WordPress Debug Theme
14 Oct 2009 | 6:14 amWarning: major geekery ahead! Sometimes you need to see what's wrong with a WordPress install, and you need to see it fast. I've had a set of hacks around for a while to do that, but finally started combining it into a WordPress Debug Theme. This theme is quite simple for now, as it only does a few things, but does them quite effectively.The first thing it does, on the homepage of the blog you've activated it on, is show the most important constants for that blog (see this screenshot). It shows you the important URL's, editor and memory settings etc.On subpages it will show you something…
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Conversation Marketing
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14 social media lessons we can all learn
2 Nov 2009 | 4:27 pmYep, my least favorite marketing term finally gets its own list. Aside from my occasional outpouring of hatred. Truth is, though, whatever you want to call it, social media is teaching us how marketing should work, and how it's always worked. Here's a list of my thoughts on the subject: 1. It's just media. Listen to Gary Vaynerchuck. And Steve Rubel. And to me. The secret is that it's just media. What we call 'social media' is a fantastic evolution of media. It's media distilled down to a bazillion conversations, all going on, all at once. Sounds chaotic? That's because it is. Todo: Read… -
8 marketing messages we all know are lies
29 Oct 2009 | 8:25 pmAfter a few years in marketing, it's hard to say any of these without blushing. The louder we say it, the more you can depend on the fact that we're lying: We care about your business. Typically said as the customer service department shoves something splintery into whatever orifice you forgot to seal shut. Made with you in mind. Only if 'you' means '30 people locked in a room behind one-way glass, fed caffeine and sugar and then egged on by a facilitator until they were all ready to kill each other'. We will beat any price. Except prices in catalogs, prices from the store down the street,… -
RFPs Suck - Don't take my word for it...
27 Oct 2009 | 6:12 pmRFPs are like a colonoscopy: Someone you don't even know gets to inspect you from the inside out. Sorry, I prefer to have dinner first. Thankfully, I'm no longer raving alone. Tom Searcy has written an excellent book titled, guess what, RFPs Suck! How to Master the RFP System Once and for All to Win Big Business. Unlike me, he provides excellent help to navigate the RFP process. In fact, I used some of his advice in an RFP, and are now in the running for the contract. So his stuff works. Tom was kind enough to do an interview with me about the book and RFPs in general. Here it is: 1. What… -
Sound Transit Web Site Review: They get an F-
26 Oct 2009 | 9:02 pmSound Transit is soliciting comments and ideas to improve their web site. I've long seen this site as a blight upon all public transit, so I did a special edition video review. Note that I am having a crappy week, and it's only Monday, so any harshness is totally 100% authentic: For God's sake, guys, at least put a map on your home page. -
13 Internet marketing tips for Realtors
22 Oct 2009 | 7:39 pmYo, realtors: You guys rock. You help people make the biggest purchase of their lives. But you don't understand marketing. Or at least it seems that way. Here are a few tips: Don't send me canned e-mails with the same content that every other realtor is sending me. It does nothing for me, or you. Do send me a short note telling me about changes in the neighborhood, or big changes you think are coming to my block, or your new puppy. Pick something I care about! Build your own site. Your agency page is nice and all, but it looks like every other agent's agency page. Don't have the time/money to…
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Samir Balwani
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Copywriting and Social Media: Making the Connection
28 Oct 2009 | 7:00 amThis is a guest post by Angie Haggstrom, an exceptional copywriter, coach, and content consultant. You can spend years crafting the perfect social media strategy, and you can network the hell out if it, but if you don’t incorporate the right copywriting techniques, all will be lost. No, I’m not saying you have to create all your content like a sales letter, but copywriters use several methods to woo a target audience that can help you significantly. credit Decide What You Want Now you’re likely screaming at me ‘Traffic! Traffic! Traffic!’, but are you sure… -
Why I Added Google Friend Connect
26 Oct 2009 | 2:10 pmSome of you might have noticed that over the weekend I added a Google Friend Connect members widget on my blog. You may be wondering why and I expect to fully explain it. I didn’t add it because the widget because it looks good or to just take up space. Instead, it was a calculated decision and one I would recommend you follow. credit Google Social Search is Coming The first reason for adding Google Friend Connect, is the simple idea that Google Social Search is coming. Taking the time now to position this blog as one connected with a number of fans should help increase the site’s… -
A Social Marketer’s Emergency PR Workflow
20 Oct 2009 | 6:15 amImagine a scenario where the shit just hit the fan. A stupid mistake or a simple misstep leads to a PR nightmare. How do you handle it? For a social marketer, there’s a number of ways to diffuse the situation, it simply depends on what the best strategy is for you. I’ve put together two potential strategies for a brand that is experiencing some kind of PR backlash. credit Scenario 1: A Simple Misunderstanding Sometimes a PR backlash just starts because of a simple misunderstanding, or rumor. It’s not always true and it’s up to you to clear it up quickly. When something… -
The Death of Social Media Marketing
13 Oct 2009 | 8:10 amOk so social marketing isn’t really dead, it’s actually just in it’s infancy, but if all the SEO’s can do it, why can’t we? (examples?! check this out, and this one, and here’s another article). But let’s think about this notion for a moment, “the death of social marketing”. What would cause it? Why would it happen? How can we ensure it doesn’t happen? credit What Is The End? When I talk about “death” it means the end of social marketing as an effective marketing technique. Right now, social media has allowed brands a new… -
Ask The Experts: Learning Social Media
12 Oct 2009 | 6:00 amWith the sudden explosion of attention businesses have begun giving social media, many are jumping into the social sphere without understanding how to use it to its fullest. I mainly blame a lack of training and an abundance of sub-par resources. To try and help people find a better way to get started with and understand social media marketing, I asked five other Social Marketers for their thoughts on the subject. credit Meet The Marketers Lisa Barone: Lisa is an established blogger, search engine optimizer, and social marketer. She is currently the Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media,…
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search engine marketing - Google News
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Astonishing 12 months For SEO Consult At The Head Of The Search Engine ... - Earthtimes (press release)
7 Nov 2009 | 12:03 amPR Web (press release)Astonishing 12 months For SEO Consult At The Head Of The Search Engine Earthtimes (press release)SEO Consult, the leading UK Search Engine Optimisation Agency, have announced that TopSEOs, the independent search vendor, have ranked them as the UK's SEO Services India: SEO Company India Lands You #1 SpotPR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung)First step to successful SEO - 'know your user'DirectNewsKeeping Up With Google Is Essential To SEO SuccessOnline PR News (press release)Promotion World (press release) -PR-CANADA.net (press release) -Search Newzall 34… -
PPC Has Always Been the Wrong Term - Traffick
6 Nov 2009 | 12:41 pmPPC Has Always Been the Wrong TermTraffickAgenda-setters in the business tried to remind everyone that paid search (or "PPC") is one sub-type of SEM (search engine marketing), and SEO (on the and more » -
PRSA 2009 International Conference Features Two Online Marketing Heroes - Search Engine Watch
6 Nov 2009 | 12:30 pmSearch Engine WatchPRSA 2009 International Conference Features Two Online Marketing HeroesSearch Engine WatchIn this environment, public relations professionals must understand the ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO). So, Odden will help PR people find -
Google's Home Page Promotes Motorola / Verizon Droid Phone - Search Engine Land (blog)
6 Nov 2009 | 11:31 amPC WorldGoogle's Home Page Promotes Motorola / Verizon Droid PhoneSearch Engine Land (blog)Matt mcgee is the Search Engine Land Assignment Editor, and offers search marketing consulting and training to businesses of all sizes. Thursday tech report: Motorola Droid review, MSN.com redesignNorthwest Cable Newsall 1,355 news articles » -
Teaching the Facebook Generation - BusinessWeek
6 Nov 2009 | 7:32 amBusiness Daily AfricaTeaching the Facebook GenerationBusinessWeekPR students must now write news releases that are search-engine friendly, pitch bloggers, "listen" to a continual flood of consumer-generated content on Study: Users of social media open to marketing messagesBtoB MagazineMy budget is tight, what's the best bang for my buck getting more traffic to SmartCompany.com.auMarketing in social media not off-putting to usersBizReportWebProNews (blog) -Econsultancy (blog) -MediaPost Publicationsall 89 news articles »
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Search Engine Guide
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A Reptile Is Controlling You
5 Nov 2009 | 9:44 amby Sage Lewis I want to talk about how fear is being processed in your brain and how it's all out of whack with modern day society. Check out our small business news site. -
Google Analytics Goals
5 Nov 2009 | 9:34 amby Sage Lewis Now you get 20 of them! This is yet another great improvement for a great tool. Check out our small business news site. -
Going Down The Long Tail of Local Search
5 Nov 2009 | 8:53 amby Jeff Howard As the growth of local search continues, companies who serve large regions by remote service, warehouses, or otherwise should not feel disadvantaged from an obscure physical address. These companies can naturally optimize across a region by discovering how searches for niche areas occur within a larger region. Because so many searches are now localized a long tail of local phrases are emerging within major metropolitan areas. By drilling down for the names of towns, neighborhoods, municipalities, counties, and zip codes that receive search volume businesses serving larger… -
The Set-It-But-Don't-Forget-It SEO Strategy
5 Nov 2009 | 6:50 amby Stoney deGeyter Many people think that SEO is a set-it and forget it endeavor. The theory is that once you optimize the site then there really isn't much more to do after that. This is something that many penny pinchers like to espouse so they can try to "save money". Others just don't like the idea that online marketing is a never ending process. We like to have goals and want to see things through a conclusion. There are certain SEO strategies that are certainly goal oriented where you can get to a definitive end-point, but SEO as a whole is a constant ongoing process. Just like brushing… -
Web Analytics is the Foundation of Driving Strategy
4 Nov 2009 | 6:25 pmby Manoj Jasra In this video yours truly (Manoj Jasra) discusses how it's important to incorporate analytics into your marketing and website strategy from the very beginning and how you can use the stats from your websites to drive decisions which will have a direct impact on your organization. I am part of the 4 man roster at the Social Media Innovation Summit happening in Calgary on November 12th. This is an event presented by West17Media which is aimed at addressing high-level information planning, a key concern which many other conferences neglect. Check out our small business news…
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GOOGLE BLOG SEARCH: SEM
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Posts about SEO as of November 6, 2009 | Ebusiness Blog
6 Nov 2009 | 3:23 pmGet familiar with the definition of Internet Promotion with Affiliate X - askame.com10/28/2009Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 3:40 am. -
Business Owners: Are You Sabotaging Your Own Local Listings?
6 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pmAs SEO rapidly becomes a core task for local business owners, there's a new temptation to build advertising messages or tracking mechanisms into business. -
PRSA 2009 International Conference Features Two Online Marketing ...
6 Nov 2009 | 12:25 pmI'll by flying to San Diego this weekend to speak at the PRSA 2009 International Conference next week. Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and a member of the SES Advisory Board, will also be speaking at the annual Public ... -
SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 6, 2009
6 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pmWhile this strategy may seem correct from a brand management standpoint, it misses out on many of the nuances of search engine marketing(SEM). For one, many brand campaigns contain over a 1000 brand variations, [...] ... -
Search & Social Wants to Meet You at Pubcon | Search Engine Journal
6 Nov 2009 | 11:43 amGet your Web site reviewed live by a panel of Search Engine Marketing experts. Anything goes in this session, where sites can be reviewed for SEM or SEO, examined for links, content, optimization, architecture, or other areas of ...
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Search Engine Land
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Business Owners: Are You Sabotaging Your Own Local Listings?
6 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pmAs SEO rapidly becomes a core task for local business owners, there’s a new temptation to build advertising messages or tracking mechanisms into business listings on the web. Typically, this might mean adding a slogan or campaign tagline to a business name or changing an office address to appear local to more customers. Unfortunately, this [...] .... -
Google’s Home Page Promotes Motorola / Verizon Droid Phone
6 Nov 2009 | 11:21 amGoogle really wants you to buy a Motorola Droid, the hot new phone that just hit stores today. In fact, Google is so enamored that it’s advertising the Droid on its homepage: “The Droid is on sale now. Learn more.” Clicking the “learn more” link leads to this “mobile partners” page that touts the Google search [...] .... -
Search In Pictures: Halloween Edition
6 Nov 2009 | 10:08 amIn this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Random Halloween Pictures from the various search engines: This May Not Be Halloween Related: .... -
Twitter Finally Begins Adding Search Relevancy Features
6 Nov 2009 | 6:28 amThe Twitter Blog has a short blog post mentioning that they have added technology “to show higher quality results for trend queries by returning tweets that are more useful.” Clearly, this is Twitter’s first step in improving Twitter Search by adding relevancy and search quality factors to the search algorithm. Currently, Twitter Search [...] .... -
Google AdWords Makes Conversion Tracking “Easier”
6 Nov 2009 | 6:18 amThe Google AdWords blog announced they have made it easier for advertisers to add and track the conversions for their search ads. Google has added to the AdWords interface sections for (1) Conversions, (2) Webpages, and (3) Code. The Conversion page shows you the conversion actions you’re tracking. Web pages shows the web pages [...] ....
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Search Engine Journal
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New Digg Feature: Trending Topics
6 Nov 2009 | 12:28 pmDigg.com has always been known as “Reddit.com’s news from yesterday”. It appears now they’re trying to combat this issue…at least on a micro level. A recent post from Digg explains: …we’re launching a new homepage voting experiment called Digg Trends which will surface certain highly active stories as they’re trending to Digg’s homepage so people can vote on whether or not they feel the story actually belongs there. How Does it Work? Digg Trends identifies and highlights upcoming stories that have a high volume of activity (think Diggs, comments,… -
Search & Social Wants to Meet You at Pubcon
6 Nov 2009 | 11:43 amFive members of Search & Social will be in Vegas this week for Pubcon, and we are really psyched to meet SEJ readers and other people we have networked with online this year. The rest of our team will stay back and continue cranking out great content for SEJ and Internet Marketing initiatives for clients. Our team is hoping to start the networking before we even touch down in Vegas, and maybe that can begin in the comments thread of this post. Which five of us are going? Loren Baker Loren Baker is the Founder and Editor of SearchEngineJournal.com , he is also a crazy person. Recently he… -
Retweet Function Rolls Out on a Limited Basis
6 Nov 2009 | 9:01 amToday Twitter rolled out its retweet function on a limited basis: We’ve just activated a feature called retweet on a very small percentage of accounts in order to see how it works in the wild. Retweet is a button that makes forwarding a particularly interesting tweet to all your followers very easy. In turn, we hope interesting, newsworthy, or even just plain funny information will spread quickly through the network making its way efficiently to the people who want or need to know. You may remember that we shared the mechanics of this feature with developers a while back so they could… -
SEJ Tools: The Advanced SEO Toolkit
6 Nov 2009 | 7:56 amSearch and Social team is happy to announce the launch of advanced SEO toolkit allowing you to do multiple SEO tasks from one handy dashboard! SEJ tools offer plenty of options allowing to build and promote multiple projects. It covers various tasks from content creation to link building and keyword position monitoring so that you didn’t ever need to leave anywhere. Most of the tools are currently powered by Raven SEO tools but we are adding new resources and tools which are exclusive for SEJ readers. Please share your thoughts and feature requests in the comments! Research Any URL or… -
3+ FireFox Addons to Access the Page Text-Only Version
6 Nov 2009 | 5:26 amOne of the first steps to take when analyzing on-page SEO (and accessibility) is looking at the text-only version of the page. This way you remove all the clutter of CSS styles, images, JavaScript and flash and see what really is important: text content that matters to crawlers and users. Google’s text-only cache version of the page is one of the possible ways to do that. But not the only one. This post looks at 3 ways to quickly access the page text-only version of the current page: 1. Fangs creates a textual representation of a web page similar to how the page would be read by one of…
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Sphinn: Hot Topics
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A Comprehensive Guide to the Vince Update
6 Nov 2009 | 3:27 amA well explained run-through of the Vince update including the final, most likely answer. Really good to have the whole story, well explained, all on the same page. -
If you're in Google News: Go change your sitemap scripts ASAP!
5 Nov 2009 | 2:02 pmBarry's call for action "Publishers: Google News To Require A New Sitemaps File" explains why in 6 months your stuff phases out of Google News if you don't adapt the new XML sitemap format. -
Warning: Use Google Commerce Search At Your Own Risk
5 Nov 2009 | 6:53 amGoogle Commerce is a new hosted search product specifically built for retailers. It seems like it’s some sort of bastard child between Google Custom Search, some parts strapped on from Froogle (or Google Products), and who knows what else. You can read the fawning rewrite of a press release over at TechCrunch if you’re so inclined. The bottom line is that this is really, really bad for any online retailer who uses it. Let me show you why. -
Nominate the Top 100 Most Influential Internet Marketers of 2009
4 Nov 2009 | 8:24 pmIt has been a years since we released the list of top 100 Most influential internet marketers of 2008. This year we are looking to get the community a lot more involved. So, we instead of relying on email to collect nominations, we are opening nominations to the public. -
One Year After Getting Laid Off – My Annual Passive Income Report
4 Nov 2009 | 5:37 amPat shares how he went from losing his job to making over $200,000 in one year using the power of the internet. Not the usual content you'll find on Sphinn, but definitely inspiring.
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ISEdb.COM - Articles
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New Studies Show Gen Y’s Favoured Online Habits
6 Nov 2009 | 5:34 amTwo recent studies put forth by e-Marketer show that while some of Gen Y’s online habits are changing, some are remaining steadfastly the same. -
Google Launches Commerce Search Engine, Tries to Steal Back Bing's Market Share
6 Nov 2009 | 4:01 amAs the holiday season is approaching, Google has announced "Commerce Search," its latest online service aimed at searching online stores for products and allowing users to perform advanced searches, sorting products by price and displaying descriptive information along with each item. -
Different Kind of Search Engine Shows Differences Between
4 Nov 2009 | 6:48 amEver wondered what was the difference between a point-and-shoot and a DSLR camera? How about the difference between ‘http:’ and ‘https:’? Or how about something that eludes many: the difference between ‘cute’ and ‘hot’? Now you can find out just by typing the related terms into a search bar on DifferenceBetween.net. It’s a new kind of search engine that has big plans to answer a whole lot of unanswered, or difficult-to-answer, questions. -
Fast Track Process for Internationalized Domain Names to Launch Shortly
2 Nov 2009 | 3:30 amIn a few weeks, the first-ever non-Latin character internet addresses will be online, thanks to the recent approval of the fast track process for internationalized domain names. The move is an exciting one indeed. With a huge portion of the globe speaking languages that don’t use Latin script, it is time the internet made room for them. -
Chinese Newspaper Accuses Google of 'Malicious Revenge'
30 Oct 2009 | 10:38 amThe official newspaper of the Chinese communist party has accused Google of intentionally blocking access to its website by displaying an allegedly unnecessary malware warning telling its visitors that the site might contain malicious software, shortly after the newspaper published an article against Google's practice of scanning books for its online repository sometimes without the author's explicit consent.
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Majon: Search Engine Marketing
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Should You Invest In Search Engine Marketing?
6 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amYou know that you need to get in on some sort of advertising, whether it be in traditional form with newspapers and magazines, radio and television or some of the newer methods that can be found online. No matter which form of advertising you choose, it is always best that you do a little bit of research in order to see which will benefit you more. If you have a website that you need to promote, then you may find that a strong Internet marketing campaign including search engine marketing will be your best plan of attack when you are trying to get a good deal of traffic. The major search… -
Internet Marketing Can Work To Your Advantage
5 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amYou would be amazed at all of the websites that are on the Internet today who never get the proper amount of traffic that they deserve. They have taken all of the steps to make their website amazing looking and completely user friendly, however they are lacking the proper Internet marketing skills to take them to the next level. If you think about it, the biggest mistake that many website owners will make to day is putting all of their advertising dollars into one outlet and not spreading them out over a variety of great advertising options. Internet marketing means a whole lot more than… -
Can You Benefit From Redirected Targeted Traffic For Your Website?
4 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amIt goes without saying that your website can benefit from any number of the great SEO tools that are out there today. If you think about it, the trends in online marketing are constantly changing. When you have a website that you would like to market in order to gain both traffic as well as boost your rankings with the major search engines, then you may want to think seriously about banner advertising, web links, keyword articles and even redirected web traffic in order to help you achieve the results that you desire. If you are unaware of the many benefits of SEO tools such as redirected… -
Web Linking And Your Online Identity
3 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amIf you have a website that you take care of, then the chances are really good that you have heard of web linking. However, if you are not exactly familiar with how this works, the chances are very good that you will not get the kind of success that you would hope for from your online marketing campaign. At the same time, you do not necessarily need to be a search engine wizard in order to get the traffic that you are longing for. All you really need is a decent online strategy along with the knowledge of how links can work in your favor. As you get started with web linking, you need to find… -
What Exactly Is Search Engine Optimization?
2 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amIf you have a website today and you do not know what search engine optimization is, then the chances are very good that you do not rank very high with some of the major search engines. Basically, search engine optimization, otherwise known as SEO, is a great way to help you get your website ranked highly and thus noticed by a large amount of viewers on a daily basis. Since this may be confusing, learning more about search optimization, targeted web traffic, and what it can do for your website will give you a much better idea of what this valuable area of online marketing is. Basically…
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Search Engine Watch Blog
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5 Google Updates for 11/6/09: News, Maps, Books, Music and Mobile
6 Nov 2009 | 12:38 pmIt's the end of another eventful week in search blogging, and once again there are several Google updates just piled up waiting to be written about. So, we're saving everyone some time and just compiling them into one post. Check them out: Google News has a new sitemaps interface. You have six months to adopt the new sitemap. Google Books now has a magazine search page. Via Google Search's new music search, you can now access exclusive songs hosted by MySpace and Lala for artists such as Lady Gaga and Arctic Monkeys. Google Maps has released imagery of Berlin from 1945 to 1953. The Google… -
PRSA 2009 International Conference Features Two Online Marketing Heroes
6 Nov 2009 | 12:25 pmI'll by flying to San Diego this weekend to speak at the PRSA 2009 International Conference next week. Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and a member of the SES Advisory Board, will also be speaking at the annual Public Relations Society of America event. Odden is speaking on Monday, November 9, at 10:15 a.m. about "Help Google Find Your Releases: Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Tactics for Public Relations Professionals." Nine out of 10 journalists, reporters and editors use search engines to do their jobs, according to a recent survey by TopRank Online Marketing. In this… -
Google AdWords Updates Conversion Tracking Options
6 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pmGoogle AdWords has updated the interface for Conversion Tracking. There are three tabs to manage data: Conversions, Webpages, and Code. Conversions Under this tab, you'll view details about the conversion actions you're tracking. The "Tracking Status" column shows whether those actions are being tracked properly. The "Value" column displays the accumulated value of the conversion actions. This is based on the value you assign to each action. Use the "New Conversion" button to set up the conversion actions to be tracked. These can also be imported from Google Analytics. Webpages Under this… -
AOL Completes Financial Team, Names Additional Board Member in Advance
6 Nov 2009 | 11:55 amIn preparation for being spun off from Time Warner, AOL has hired executives to their financial team and announced one additional board member. Here's a list of the financial execs: Mike Suffredini - Vice President and Treasurer Eoin Ryan - Vice President of Investor Relations Don Neff, currently a Senior Vice President of Finance, will become Senior Vice President of Internal Audit. Ned Brody - rejoining the company as Executive Vice President of Paid Services Meanwhile, Susan Lyne, Chief Executive Officer of the online luxury retailer Gilt Groupe, Inc. has been named to the Board of… -
Click Forensics Unveils Online Audience Verification Platform for Shopping Engines
5 Nov 2009 | 9:45 pmAt ad:tech New York this week, Click Forensics unveiled a new online audience verification platform for comparison shopping search engines. The technology evaluates traffic to determine its value to merchant partners. "Comparison shopping engines and other content aggregators need a simple way to optimize the money they spend on search engine marketing, while improving the quality of leads they send on to merchant partners," said Paul Pellman, CEO of Click Forensics. "The solution we're delivering does just that. To our knowledge, it's the only system available that provides the ability for…
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Internet Marketing News Watch
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'Share Your Amazon Favorites on Twitter' by Rosalind Gardner
6 Nov 2009 | 11:57 pmRosalind Gardner's latest blog post is titled "Share Your Amazon Favorites on Twitter". [Blog] -
'3 Sources of Grammar Inspiration' by John Jantsch
6 Nov 2009 | 11:51 pmJohn Jantsch's latest blog post is titled "3 Sources of Grammar Inspiration". [Blog] -
'Secrets Of Writing For The Financial Markets Part 2' - 'The Total Package'
6 Nov 2009 | 11:31 pm'The Total Package' blog post is titled "Secrets Of Writing For The Financial Markets Part 2". [Blog] -
'A Fun Test' by Frank Deardurff
6 Nov 2009 | 5:08 amFrank Deardurff's latest blog post is titled "A Fun Test". [Blog] -
'The FTC Guidelines Deadline is Drawing Near' by Len Thurmond
6 Nov 2009 | 4:57 amLen Thurmond's latest blog post is titled "The FTC Guidelines Deadline is Drawing Near". [Blog]
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The Search Agents
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The Week We Searched For- November 6, 2009
6 Nov 2009 | 2:22 pmGoogle Introduces New Commerce Search Engine Google announced the launch of their new commerce oriented search engine on Thursday. According to some analysts, the launch is a bit surprising, coming from Google, as their traditional search engine already occupies a large, healthy retail based business. It could be that Google is trying to use their commerce search engine as a preemptive strike against Bing, which has concentrated on online shopping. While this may not be a ‘game changer’ for experienced, large retail business, it could help mid-size retail companies have a more robust… -
My First Week at The Search Agency
5 Nov 2009 | 7:18 amI just completed my first week as the newest member of the SEO account management team at The Search Agency. I’ve worked for different SEO agencies in the past and I have to say, from my limited time here, I can certainly see some features that distinguish The Search Agency from other companies in the search space. Here are a few observations based on my first week with the company. Collaborative Environment and Subject Matter Experts One of the most striking features of The Search Agency is the collaborative environment that I’ve found here. This culture of cooperation is actually built… -
Keywords Are Not Stocks
4 Nov 2009 | 6:49 amSince it seems almost trite to say this, I’m not certain why it doesn’t appear to have been said before (judging from a recent, fruitless Google query for this specific phrase): “Keywords are not stocks.” But listening to many firms in the SEM industry, one would think that bidding on keywords on Google is governed by the same rules as buying shares of Google, Inc. itself. One glaring problem with this, of course, is that search engine marketers don’t “buy and sell” keywords. If you bid on the keyword ‘running shoes’ on Bing, even if… -
Strolling through the SMERPs: 6 New Social Media Terms You Must Know
3 Nov 2009 | 7:00 amWarp speed ahead, transporter and Klingon were once new lingo that any self-respecting nerd had to become fluent in using. Next came SERP, PageRank, and partner link. Everyone comfortable with all of these? Ok, time to delve into a whole new world of required geek terminology. Social Media is the new frontier. It is that undiscovered galaxy just waiting to be named. There are all new beings, all new galaxies — Twitter , Ning, Outside.in. And all new phrase guns — Knowem, SocialOomph, Quarkbase. That means it’s time to get familiar with some lingo that will help us maneuver… -
The Week We Searched For – October 30, 2009
30 Oct 2009 | 11:29 amHappy Birthday, Banner Ad! October 27th marked the 15th anniversary of advertising’s first banner ad. The original ads first appeared on Hotwired.com, one of the Internet’s first digital magazines. Google Reveals New Music Service Google formally announced their new music search product this week at a surprise roundtable in Hollywood. Last week we heard the rumors regarding Google’s music plans and their intentions to implement Lala’s and MySpace iLike’s streaming platforms. This week’s official announcement emphasizes the role music plays in Google’s search data, accounting for…
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DMNews Search Marketing
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From one search query, there are 10 ways to get an answer
2 Nov 2009 | 9:48 amWhile the vision of search activity reaching past the desktop has been around for a while, the proliferation of mobile devices and new technologies makes "anytime, anywhere" search easier. Marketers may not need all of them, but it's increasingly crucial to be aware of the disparate ways to reach consumers when, where, and how they search. -
From one search query, there are 10 ways to get an answer
2 Nov 2009 | 9:48 amWhile the vision of search activity reaching past the desktop has been around for a while, the proliferation of mobile devices and new technologies makes "anytime, anywhere" search easier. Marketers may not need all of them, but it's increasingly crucial to be aware of the disparate ways to reach consumers when, where, and how they search. -
Digital Insider: Social search will change the way brands use search
29 Oct 2009 | 9:24 amNow that Microsoft's and Google's partnerships with Facebook and Twitter are official, search is on its way to becoming the new kind of search engine that Bing promised at its launch. -
Digital Insider: Social search will change the way brands use search
29 Oct 2009 | 9:24 amNow that Microsoft's and Google's partnerships with Facebook and Twitter are official, search is on its way to becoming the new kind of search engine that Bing promised at its launch. -
Are vertical engines worth it for search?
25 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pmMost consumers can name Google, Yahoo and Bing. But are vertical-specific search engines of the same value to marketers as the "big three?" Two experts take sides in the debate.
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eMarketer Articles
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The Changing Mobile Social Ad Space
5 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pmJustin Siegel Co-Founder and CEO MocoSpace -
Bloggers and (Personal) Brand-Building
5 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pmGaining visibility as thought leaders -
eMarketer Cuts Through the Mobile Penetration Hype
4 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pmUsers versus subscriptions -
Online Reaches Parity for Used-Car Shopping
4 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pmClick, click, vroom -
Gen Y Holds Tight to E-Mail and Texting
3 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pmCritical for communication
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e-Consultancy: SEM
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Gamers coming clean on scam ads: Is contrition enough?
6 Nov 2009 | 3:54 pmThe social gaming lead-gen controversy sparked by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington came to an end this week when OfferPal, the company he singled out for scamming users and advertsers, replaced its CEO and posted a mea culpa for its past and current practices. Beyond that, Facebook, MySpace and mega gamer Zynga have made moves this week to better regulate gaming offers. Will the move decimate the social gaming industry?Many of the gaming companies posting excellent revenues on social networks encourage consumers to pay cash for in game currency so they advance through the games faster. If… -
Brand tweets sends twitterers searching
6 Nov 2009 | 12:47 pmTwitter's traffic may be flatlining at the moment, but Performics and ROI Research have come out with good news for marketers: Twitter users pay attention to brands on the service. That may seem obvious to anyone who's ever promoted a product on Twitter. But the new study, announced today at Ad:Tech new York by Performics Marketing senior vice president Michael Kahn, also found that almost half of twitterers who have been introduced to a brand on Twitter have subsequently gone on to search for more information about it. If true, that's a big deal.Marketers are all over Twitter, but outside of… -
The Tony Soprano guide to social media
6 Nov 2009 | 5:47 amIt’s that time of the year: I’m considering watching The Sopranos again from the start. I need a week off, some quality Italian food and no distractions from the goddamned Feds. This urge was the result of a bunch of Tony Soprano quotes that I stumbled upon and – since it’s a Friday - I wondered if any of them could be applied to social media. Turns out that they can… "Let me figure out how to take care of you." Social media is not about sales: it’s about service. The sales that arise from social optimisation are a tangible bonus. Loyalty and satisfaction FTW. “Marriage, or any… -
The five biggest myths about Google
6 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amOn the internet, few companies receive more attention than Google. And for good reason: Google touches so many individuals and businesses. From search to its 'side projects', just about everything Google does creates interest. Google's prominence, not surprisingly, has led to the creation of many myths. Here are my top five.If you buy or sell links, Google will punish you. If Google catches you buying or selling links, it might punish you. But the more I see, the more I believe the chances of that happening are slim to none. In my opinion, if you get smacked down by Google for paid links, you… -
How should etailers ask for customer reviews?
6 Nov 2009 | 2:10 amThe fact that having user reviews can be an effective sales driver, providing valuable information for customers is well established, but how do retailers attract reviews onto their product pages? I looked at ways etailers can attract reviews a few months ago. One of those ideas was to email customers after purchase and invite them to leave a review of the product(s) they had bought. A recent report from Snow Valley(pdf) takes a closer look at the issue... In September, Snow Valley placed orders on 137 UK e-commerce sites, of which just 54 (39%) provided reviews. Of these 54, just 15 emailed…
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Search Marketing Standard
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Editor’s Picks, November 2-6, 2009
6 Nov 2009 | 4:25 pmA few weeks back, I shared my interest in interviews with you. There is always an abundance of video interviews online to look at, but I like the question-and-answer “hard copy” versions the best, mostly because I believe people think a little more before committing their thoughts to paper. One thing I like most about interviews is what they reveal about the people behind the answers, and three interviews that showed up online recently reveal more than most about the backgrounds of the individuals being interviewed. First up is Tad of SEO Blog talking with one of the youngest of the… -
Write the Perfect Online PR
3 Nov 2009 | 9:22 amWriting an online press release (PR) is a quick way to drive traffic to your website, build links and raise awareness. A good online PR will also help you to make more sales by raising awareness and desire amongst the target demographic. Most SEO consultants agree that writing and issuing online PRs at regular intervals is a beneficial addition to your online strategy. Depending on the service agreement you have with your SEO provider, it may be that creating content such as optimized news releases will incur an additional charge. If that’s the case or if you’re limited to the number of… -
Editor’s Picks, October 26-30, 2009
30 Oct 2009 | 5:50 pmThe search engine wars intensified this week as further details on developments involving Twitter, Bing, and Google’s new Social Search feature became clear. To help you make sense of what these developments mean for those involved in search and SEO, this week’s picks include a number of posts that bring clarity to the issues involved and the actual processes impacted. Is relevance more important than timeliness of results? What about privacy issues? Is anything real-time? Is Bing looking outward while Google looks inward? All are questions related to these events. First up are posts on… -
What’s Behind Your High Bounce Rate?
27 Oct 2009 | 3:11 pmA high bounce rate is a death knell for any website, as it means that much of your hard-won traffic is exiting at the landing page, without clicking through to any other page within the site. If you can’t retain your traffic, the likelihood of making a sale from the site is low. If the traffic exiting your site has reached unacceptable levels, it’s time to sit down and take action. The first place to start on your quest to encourage visitors to stick around is to identify what’s causing them to leave in droves in the first place. A site’s bounce rate is a standard analytics metric, so… -
5 Reasons To Bring SMM Into The House
23 Oct 2009 | 9:03 amIt has become a common practice among larger brands to outsource their social media marketing efforts to an outside agency. Although there are benefits to doing so, the trend itself is unsustainable, and as the great US economist Herbert Stein once remarked, “unsustainable trends tend to come to an end.” Here are a few reasons why you should consider bring your social media marketing (SMM) in-house: 1. No One Knows Your Product Like You Marketing agencies have dozens of other clients, most likely in different verticals, and you should not expect them to get to know your product…
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The SEM Blog
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Twitter Teams up with Google and Bing
27 Oct 2009 | 2:45 pmTwitter recently partnered up with both Google and Bing to allow them to search and index the full stream of tweets. Both companies are taking a different approach to how to showcase the data. Here is a look at each one. Bing Twitter Page and Search Bing actually created an entire page at bing.com/twitter which displays trending topics in a cloud at the top followed by a listing of the most active links below. Each link is followed by a couple of related tweets. There is some mystery as to which tweets are being selected. It does not appear to be the first tweets or the ones from people with… -
New Google Analytics Features Released
20 Oct 2009 | 3:43 pmToday, the Google Analytics Blog detailed some of the new features that are out now and coming soon. Here is a rundown of what is included and why you need it. More Goals Previously you could only have 4 goals per profile. Now you can have up to twenty, made up of 4 sets of 5 goals. Additionally, you can now setup Engagement Goals which allow you to use Time on Site and Pages per Visit as goal-capturing metrics. This is valuable for many types of sites (like Blogs!) that may consider a Goal accomplished without actually capturing contact information or making a sale. Advanced Filters Advanced… -
Clearing up SEO Misconceptions
13 Oct 2009 | 12:02 pmRecently, Derek Powazek wrote a fairly aggressive rant attacking SEO as a profession and business. Unfortunately, while he makes a few good points, he muddies the water with even more misinformation. Let’s clear some of that up right here. The Good Advice is obvious, and the rest doesn’t work This is spot on. The good advice is not only obvious, it’s also very easy to implement on your site. Unique Titles and Title Tags Using Heading with relevant keywords Good text content that is interesting and relevant Outbound links to other related and interesting pages/sites… -
Twitter Plans Search Features
5 Oct 2009 | 9:05 amEvan Williams, a co-founder of Twitter, releases ideas about the future of Twitter in an interview with CBS. Williams was quoted as saying “Searchability and organization of tweets is a key goal in the short term.” Twitter has continued to be one of the namesakes of Social Media and it’s volume of information and available analytical tools continue to grow. With that growth, the company is developing ways to categorize and organize the information. Some of the most interesting features to be included are: Geographical Location datelines to show where tweets are coming… -
SchipulCon 09 for Search Engine Marketing & Engagement
16 Sep 2009 | 10:00 amThe Schipul Team has been busy planning speaking and activities around the upcoming SchipulCon Conference in Houston, TX. Search Engine Optimization is clearly a focus as we host Matthew Inman in a one-on-one discussion with Jonti Bolles and moderated by John-Michael Oswalt. Matthew is quite the legend in the SEO world and we look forward to hearing about his experiences and insight in developing traffic. SchipulCon will be held at the Houston Zoo, October 15-16th and includes tracks focused on Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Brand Monitoring, and managing your website and blogs. We…
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All Things SEM / SEO Blog
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5 Traits of Efficient SEO
21 Oct 2009 | 3:36 pmDespite recent proclamations that the recession has hit bottom and we're now in recovery mode, the reality is that we should always be looking for ways to improve our efficiency. This is especially true in SEO, where a number of traps too often cause marketers to stumble into wasting time, money, or both. Avoiding these traps, and making the most of your resources, means becoming a smarter marketer. But becoming a smarter marketer doesn't require expensive tools or intricate solutions; instead, there are simple, easily implementable changes you can make to improve both your strategy… -
Would a Domain By Any Other Name Be As Sweet?
19 Aug 2009 | 6:27 amWhen I first launched this site I picked a domain that closely matched the company I was working at without being so close as to infringe on trademarks and such. My goal back then was to help my employer launch a blog to complement their corporate site. Mistake #1. Unfortunately I left the company and so the domain name didn't make much sense so I changed it to AllThingsSEM.com. I liked this new domain as it gave me a lot of leeway in terms of topics I could write about. Afterall, SEM (search engine marketing) is the umbrella term that covers both paid search and search engine… -
Link Building Goes Mainstream
15 Jul 2009 | 3:37 amI came across an article on CNN yesterday about link building. As with many SEO-related articles on mainstream news sites, it didn't go beyond what I've already read. But I do enjoy reading these articles as a measure of what is considered mainstream. The gist of the article is that many people are exchanging and buying links. And if you take the word of those interviewed, both activities yield positive results. I suspect this article is going to result in a flurry of e-mails to webmasters. Joy. Related Posts Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Rank Checking Lives On Actively Manage… -
An Agency SEO's Perspective on Nofollow
16 Jun 2009 | 3:39 pmAlright I'm giving in. I can't help but write a piece about the recent announcement from Matt Cutts regarding how nofollow links are treated by Google. There's been a lot of coverage on this so I'll skip rehashing it and instead provide some perspective from the side of the agency SEO in the trenches working with client sites. For simplicity, I'm going to interview myself. Are you embarrassed about having recommended the nofollow attribute? Not at all. Matt Cutts stated that the change in how nofollow is treated happened in the last year which means that recommending… -
Twitter is like… Metaphors for Newbies and Veterans Alike
7 May 2009 | 6:21 amDescribing Twitter to people that haven't used it isn't particularly easy. So I thought I'd take a stab at helping people understand what's it's like by comparing it to every day things. And with that, Twitter is like… 1. A gaggle of teen-age girls. All talking at the same time with no one actually listening. Not that it matters, because no one is saying anything important anyway. 2. Walking through a crowded room. You catch snippets of conversations, but can't really tell what people are talking about because you didn't hear the beginning of the…
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John W Ellis
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Has the (Google) Flu hit your town yet?
31 Oct 2009 | 9:27 amAs I woke up sniffing and sneezing this morning, I had the fear. You know the one. The one where you start thinking: “Oh no, not me too. I can’t be sick. I don’t have time to be sick.” Has the flu hit your household yet? Check out Google’s Flu Trends to see where the flu is in your area. Google uses search activity to determine trends in specific geographic location. According to Google: “We have found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for… -
Bing and Google to Integrate Twitter in Search
21 Oct 2009 | 6:47 pmGoogle and Microsoft announced today they are working with Twitter to improve the user experience. Both search companies plan to integrate “real-time” tweets into their search results. Microsoft’s announcement is found on their search blog: “…today at Web 2.0 we announced that working with those clever birds over at Twitter, we now have access to the entire public Twitter feed and have a beta of Bing Twitter search for you to play with (in the US, for now). “ Google’s announcement was published several hours later on The Official Google Blog: “ … we are very excited to… -
4 Tips for a Successful Google Content Network Campaign
9 Sep 2009 | 12:42 pmStart Small Start with a low CPC – Cost will quickly rise with content ads. It’s important to dip your foot into the pool slowly and test the waters, before jumping in. After testing and tweaking, then increase the cost-per-click on well performing AdGroups. Buy Phentermine Buy Proscar Buy Biaxin Buy Lexapro Buy Soma Buy Xenical Buy Adipex Buy Zoloft Buy Propecia Buy Paxil Buy Wellbutrin Buy Diflucan Buy Valium Buy Prozac Buy Effexor Exclude non-performers This one is crucial. Google now provides performance data on which sites content ads are on. That data allows you to see content sites… -
Busy Week for Nashville Geeks
25 Aug 2009 | 1:56 pmWeb Analytics Wednesday Wednesday, August 26, RSVP Social Media Club Nashville: Transforming Health Care Through Social Media Wednesday, August 26, , 6-8pm RSVP Nashville Geek Breakfast Thursday, August 27, 7:30 and 8:30, RSVP Centre{Source} August Interactive Mixer Thursday, August 27 , 5-8pm, RSVP Hendersonville Geek Breakfast Friday, August 28, 7:30, RSVP -
In-House Search Engine Marketing – Job Qualifications
19 Aug 2009 | 11:08 amThe life of an in-house search engine marketer is much different than that of agency work. The politics and red-tape involved with corporations can be complex and require strong personalities. Within larger corporations search marketing, or any type of online marketing, is sometimes not given the credibility that it needs. A specific skill set is needed to deal with corporate politics and the often uneducated. 1. Education Teaching is an important part of in-house search marketing. Often, many departments and executives want to help, but the execution can be misguided. There is a ton of bad…
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KOMARKETING ASSOCIATES: SEM BLOG
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10 Steps for Turning Social Media Engagement into B2B Leads
6 Nov 2009 | 9:44 amGuest Author Lilia Shirman Managing Director, The Shirman Group Author: 42 Rules for Growing Enterprise Revenue Twitter: @B2BGuruBlog: Revenue Orchard I had the pleasure of moderating a recent SVAMA discussion about the use of social media for generating B2B leads. The panel included three veterans of social media: Brian Halligan (CEO of the award-winning marketing software startup, HubSpot, and new author of Inbound Marketing), Mike Linton (most recently the Chief Marketing Officer at eBay and formerly the CMO at Best Buy), and Zack Urlocker (Vice President of Lifecycle Marketing at Sun… -
Mea Culpa, I’m Guilty of a B2B Social Media Sin
5 Nov 2009 | 7:04 amWhat do I always tell clients, family, friends, cocktail party-goers (whose eyes glaze over as they get the answer), etc. when they ask about how social media can really benefit a non-consumer-products company (i.e. B2B social media)? Build relationships. Strengthen relationships. Be genuine. Add value. I always add something like “social media can help with driving traffic to your site and building links for SEO, but that isn’t the main goal.” (clients seem to enjoy this; friends, family, cocktail-party-goers – not so much). And I believe it when I say it… -
Are Google AdWords Content Network View-Through Conversions Real?
2 Nov 2009 | 10:08 amOn Sep 30, 2009 Google announced a new AdWords reporting feature that measures conversions for display ads in the Content Network (display ads are image-based or rich media ads only – not text ads). When I first saw this I was excited because it provides an extra level of measurement that was missing. Many ad networks have had this metric available to advertisers for some time. In paid search, a “conversion” is typically measured when a user clicks on an ad and completes an action on your site that you have set up for tracking (e.g. purchases, contact forms, etc.). The… -
The SEO vs. Conversion Rate Debate Shouldn’t Exist
23 Oct 2009 | 9:02 amGuest Author CJ Boguszewski Chief Marketing Officer, Hiconversion Twitter: @CJBogus SEO vs. Conversion Rate Debate Shouldn’t Exist — Three Reasons CRO Complements SEO & SEM Rand Fishkin, whose SEOmoz.org blog frequently has industry-leading commentary on a wide variety of optimization topics, entitled a post in January 2006 “SEO versus Conversion Rate Debate Shouldn’t Exist.” In October 2009, the debate is still ongoing. While the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) discipline continues to mature alongside the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine… -
Twitter, Real-Time Search, and Your SEO Strategy
21 Oct 2009 | 6:45 pmTuesday, a client asked me how Twitter might integrate into their SEO strategy. Here is part of my answer, paraphrased: Twitter helps …as a function of our link building efforts. Twitter will help us (build) relationships with bloggers and site owners who may be interested in linking …an additional benefit is that both the profile and individual updates (may) get indexed in search. As a result, there are opportunities for both to rank for various keywords (the brand for the former and long-tail keywords for the latter). Twitter profiles usually rank very well in search engine…
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Reel SEO Video Marketing
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uSocial is Selling YouTube Views – Should you Buy em?
6 Nov 2009 | 9:45 amuSocial, the company that has created controversy regarding their services in the past, is at it again. You might remember them as the company that sold Diggs for your Digg submission, friends for your Facebook account, and followers of your Twitter ramblings. Now they’re offering a new service: views for your YouTube video. For $127, you can buy 5,000 views for your fledgling viral video. That’s about 2.5 cents per view. uSocial claims: “Using several of our methods, we can get a totally unknown video in front of the eyes of potentially millions of people which can mean… -
BitGravity – A Cool, Quick Embeddable Player + Major Content Delivery Network
5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amNeed to embed a video in a site super-duper fast? Why not try the 3 form version of Bitgravity Player 6. Give it a video URL, width and height and you’re all set. But is it truly that easy? Actually, it truly can be that easy. But that would leave out a lot of people who need a more advanced set of controls over their online videos. Luckily, Bitgravity has you covered on that end as well. Simply flipping a switch so to speak gives you a range of fine detail controls over the player including: Playback Options – Autoplay, buffer size and advanced seeking (for Bitgravity content… -
YouTube Beefs up Partner Video Blocking Ability
5 Nov 2009 | 8:51 amIt is making the rounds on the webosphere that YouTube has implemented two new buttons on the partner interface that pertain to blocking of videos.TechCrunch (Hi guys!) got a tip that two new buttons appeared on the YouTube partner interface specifically dealing with the blocking of videos: Enable Autoblock outside Ownership – Streamlines the blocking of duplicate content on the site which used to be like pulling teeth Block by country – Sort of self-explanatory no? So now you no longer need to jump through a series of hoops like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games but rather… -
Streaming Media West 2009 – Discount for ReelSEO Readers
4 Nov 2009 | 6:23 pmJust a quick note to all readers… Streaming Media West – the leading online video industry conference & expo – is offering a $100 discount until FRIDAY, November 6 to attend Streaming Media sessions. Click here to take advantage of these savings. If you can’t buy a conference pass, you can still sign up for a free expo pass which this year includes access to two separate, open-bar networking receptions! Streaming Media West is in 2 weeks – November 17-19 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. The Exhibit Hall opens on November 17 at 5pm. More to come… -
Predictions with Local Online Video Marketing – Interview with Topix
4 Nov 2009 | 10:26 amI interviewed Chris Tolles, CEO of the online news portal Topix, on his predictions for how video will mature into the local landscape, and its impact for audiences and businesses. The following interview took place at the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association’s 7th Semiannual Interactive Marketing Survey, where Chris was one of the featured panelists. Sorry in advance for the audio/video quality as all I had with me was a Flip and it was dark and loud at the show. Chris Tolles’ forecast of the local video landscape for business Prediction #1: Increase in scale. Video content and…
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SEMClubHouse - Key Relevance Blog
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Leverage Google Custom Maps As A Long-Tail Tactic
12 Oct 2009 | 11:33 amWhen Google introduced their customizable maps feature two years ago, I thought to myself, “Cute, but who has time to be messing around creating special maps in most cases?” Now fast-forward to 2009 and I’ve turned into something of a technical evangelist for the feature, touting it at the SMX East conference last week and publishing an article today on Search Engine Land which highlights it as a long-tail marketing tactic for Google Maps. The premise is fairly simple, although I see relatively few companies and individuals using the custom maps (”My Maps”)… -
Yahoo’s Ad Delivery Report Helps Tune PPC Campaigns
16 Sep 2009 | 7:46 amby Mike Churchill On 10 Sept 2009, Yahoo launched a new PPC Traffic Quality report that will be a real boon to PPC advertisers wanting to track the effectiveness of their campaigns across the Yahoo Search network. Yahoo provides PPC ads along side search results for both Yahoo properties and other sites that show Yahoo search results (called the Yahoo Search Network, or Search Partners). Since Yahoo does not allow advertisers to opt out of their search network, tracking performance is of paramount importance to making the campaigns successful. The new Ad Delivery Report will help savvy… -
Embattled Yellow Pages & SEO
14 Sep 2009 | 5:21 amby Chris Silver Smith My article on the “Brave New World For Yellow Pages” aired today on Search Engine Land. In it, I describe how Google Trends is showing that each of the major internet yellow pages has taken a sharp dip since the end of last year and early this spring. I diagnosed the cause of this apparent downturn in referred visits from Google as being due to Google’s change to display their local 10-pack in more cases where user queries don’t include geographic modifying terms (they’re incorporating users’ IP address geolocations). There are many… -
Hear Us Speak At SMX East!
9 Sep 2009 | 8:32 amChristine Churchill, President of KeyRelevance, and Chris Silver Smith, Director of Optimization Strategies, will both be speaking on various sessions at SMX East in New York City, October 5-7, 2009: 10/5: SMX Boot Camp: Keyword Research Tools & Techniques – Christine Churchill 10/5: Local & Mobile Search: Maps, Maps, Maps! – Chris Silver Smith 10/6: Pumping Up YouTube – Christine Churchill (moderating the session) 10/7: Social Media, Search & Reputation Management – Chris Silver Smith Don’t miss this opportunity to hear a couple of us from Key… -
The Associated Press’s News Microformat
31 Aug 2009 | 9:28 amby Chris Silver Smith The Associated Press (AP) recently announced a semantic markup standard they’d like to see adopted online for news articles – the “hNews Microformat“. The proposed microformat was announced simultaneously with their declaration of a news registry system to facilitate protection and paid licensing arrangements for quoting and using news article material. While the overall announcement and news registry system was widely ridiculed in the blogosphere (in part because of a confusingly inaccurate description which stated that the microformat would…
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The Invesp Blog
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Nominations are Open for the Top 100 Most Influential Internet Marketers of 2009
4 Nov 2009 | 10:58 amAfter the successful launch of last year’s list of top marketers, we are launching our second annual list of the world’s most influential Internet marketers, and we need your help! If you or someone you know demonstrated outstanding leadership and achievements in the Internet marketing industry this year, please feel free to complete the 2009 top marketers nomination form. Last year list generated close to 750,000 views and over 12,000 nominations and votes. With your recommendations, our selection committee will create a list of nominees for our readers to vote on from November 23rd to… -
New White Paper: 30 principals of Landing page Design
4 Nov 2009 | 9:46 amIn case you did not catch it, we recently published a new paper titled “30 principals of Landing page Design.” This an 18 page white paper that is a must read for anyone who wants to design a highly converting landing page. In it, you will Discover 30 tactics that will increase your conversion rates by 300%+ Best practices for better conversion rates You can download the white paper immediately and start optimizing your landing pages. This white paper is available to our Email RSS membership. If you are a current subscriber, you will see a link to the paper at the bottom of your weekly… -
First Ecommerce Conversion Optimization Software: Pii
27 Oct 2009 | 10:51 pmEcommerce conversion optimization simplified? Finally! Introducing Pii(Plan, Implement, and Improve), the first online, ecommerce conversion rate optimization software that delivers focused optimization recommendations for ecommerce sites. Pii is designed to uplift ecommerce conversion rate 35% and upwards within the first 3 months. We’re so excited about the release that we are offering 10 additional optimization hours absolutely free when you sign up before October 31st. Yeah, we know, not much time! So if you notify us of your interest before the 31st, and sign-up sometime early… -
How NOT to design your landing page: Worst landing page of the week 10/23/2009
23 Oct 2009 | 2:56 pmOh, you really should not expect too much of your visitors. I think you will appreciate how bad the landing page when you see the banner ad for it. First: The Banner ad (this is the full size image of the banner) And, now the landing page (click on the image to see full size) © 2006-2009 Invesp Consulting -
Six Deadly Mistakes Of Landing Page Testing
19 Oct 2009 | 4:01 pmThis is a quick note in case you missed my blog post at Search Engine Land titled: “Six Deadly Mistakes Of Web Page Testing & Tuning.” One consistent theme we here from clients when they first join our programs is that they have tried conversion optimization in the past but did not see the results they were hoping for. There are many reasons why conversion optimization programs fail. This post was focused on issues many clients run into when they try to test their landing pages. In summary, here are the main mistakes: Using the wrong type of test (A/B vs. multivariate test) Testing…
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ASK Enquiro - SEM News
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SIS Sneak Peak: Selling Search to the C-Suite
6 Nov 2009 | 11:13 amIn just under one month, we’ll be gathering on the frosty ski hills of Park City, Utah for the Search Insider Summit. Between now and then, I’ll give you a sneak preview of some of the main topic areas we’ll be tackling in the meeting rooms of the Silver Lake Chateau. Today – How do you sell Search to the C-Suite? The Search Marketing Maturity Model About a year ago, Scott Brinker from Ion Interactive (who will also be at the Summit, but that’s a different column) shared with me a Search Maturity Model he’d been working on. It was a clear mapping of where companies are on the… -
Kelowna Businesses Mark World Usability Day with Enquiro
5 Nov 2009 | 12:47 pmJust about anyone can make (or buy) a web site these days, and just about every business is online. But it generally doesn’t cost a user more than a few seconds and a couple of clicks to get to your web site, realize it’s not that great, and go find one of your competitors. So the big differentiator now is the user experience. Ask yourself: does your site do what your customers want it to do quickly and easily? Do you know whether your web site is achieving its potential? Do you know what you can do to make it better? Who can help you answer these questions?! We can. And we’ll do it… -
In Search of Usefulness
29 Oct 2009 | 3:17 pmA few years ago, I interviewed usability expert Jakob Nielsen about where search might go in the future and he shared an interesting insight: “I think there is a tendency now for a lot of not very useful results to be dredged up that happen to be very popular, like Wikipedia and various blogs. They’re not going to be very useful or substantial to people who are trying to solve problems..” That stuck with me. Relevancy, as determined by search algorithms, and usefulness are not the same thing. And then, John Battelle touched on the same topic in a blog post a few months back: “So… -
5 Ways Interlinking Can Help B2B Websites
24 Oct 2009 | 10:26 amOriginal Post from Marketing Jive: 5 Ways Interlinking Can Benefit B2B Websites I often wonder what the Web would be like if there was less emphasis on links and linking inventories? How would the search engines define relevancy of a result without some sort of link popularity mechanism in place? Link popularity continues to be a major factor as to why one site places in the search result over another. While it is not the only factor, it (linking) is still a key factor as to why we see placing for a given key phrase vs. seeing “Joe-blows” website appearing for that same… -
The Library of Human Behavior: 11 More Titles for your Reading List
22 Oct 2009 | 4:30 pmLast week, I shared 11 titles that explore the intersection between marketing, psychology and neurology. In retrospect, I think I approached this backwards. While the titles I shared are all interesting (and fairly easy reads), they are somewhat dependent on a fundamental understanding of why humans do what we do. So, this week, I share a good starting library of human behavior, which can then be applied more generally. The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are – Robert Wright If you’re on the fence about or simply do not believe in evolution (along with 50% of Americans)you probably…
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PPC Management & SEO - The Wpromoter
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Viral Video Friday
6 Nov 2009 | 8:53 amHow to Open a Bottle of Wine? Don’t have a bottle opener? This guy has a solution. Christopher Walken Poker Face Halloween Lady Gaga’s lyrics have never sounded sweeter. The Golden Age of Video - By Ricardo Autobahn A catchy little mash up. Drunk Ewok Moonwalks & Molests Al Roker on Today Show An Ewok takes advantage of live television. KEN BLOCK’S TRAX STI CAR Subaru Impreza STI converted into the world’s fastest snow cat Save this Post! -
The LA 140 Character Conference at Kodak Theater, Hollywood, CA Oct 27-28, 2009
4 Nov 2009 | 1:50 pmJeff Pulver (@jeffpulver) created this conference. He was a nice guy, and generous enough to give me an ‘I am character’ guest pass. I was secretly pushing to get on a ‘Twitter and music’ panel, but having the guest pass Jeff gave me was rad as it allowed me to gain free access to the conference and all the after parties as well as be featured on the ‘140 characters’ conference page which instantly boosted my follower count on Twitter. The conference was fun and a great experiment in ‘real-time’ communication. It was interesting to follow the… -
Wpromote Ranked #1 Integrated Search Engine Marketing Firm By TopSEOs
2 Nov 2009 | 8:55 amThe TopSEOs Best in Search list highlights top ranked integrated search marketing firms that continue to impress and deliver. With over 4,000 firms analyzed, Wpromote is honored to be named the #1 Integrated Search Engine Marketing Firm. TopSEOs has been evaluating firms for over 8 years, and has become a trusted source for businesses seeking the best online marketing companies in the industry. To make TopSEOs coveted list, Wpromote had to pass a rigorous evaluation process, which includes in-depth research on the firm, client performance assessment, extensive customer evaluation and an… -
Viral Video Friday
30 Oct 2009 | 10:14 amHappy Halloween! 2009 Best Apple iPhone Costume ever! Everything’s better life sized. Impossible Bball Shot With Baseball Bat Did this kid really hit a basketball with a bat and make the basket? Impossible Bball Shot With Baseball Bat - Watch more Funny Videos Jimmy Kimmel owns Melissa Joan Hart Jimmy Kimmel reminds Melissa Joan Hart when her acting was last relevant. U2 on YouTube You probably shouldn’t watch this at work since it’s the entire U2 concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA, but the concert was one of the largest live streamed events this year. Spike Jones Man… -
Why Good Copy Is Like Good Music and 5 Ways to Tell If Your Copy Is In Tune
26 Oct 2009 | 1:43 pmThere has been a wealth of search-marketing related news over the past few days: the deals Google and Bing have made with Twitter, Nokia’s lawsuit against Apple, and Google’s launch of ‘social search’ are a few highlights I noticed while scanning my Google reader yesterday. I also noticed something else while scanning my reader – the power of a good headline or subhead to grab my attention and make me stop and read - and no matter what happens with Apple, Bing, Google, or Twitter, the power of the written word (or spoken, in the case of a radio jingle for example) is one thing will…
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eBay, ecommerce, life
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Interview with Become UK
31 Oct 2009 | 3:45 amShopping comparison engines are an increasingly important way for retailers to reach their customers and drive website traffic. I recently caught up with Maricki from Become UK to talk about their offering and plans for the future. Tell us a bit about your company BecomeUK is a comparison shopping engine operated by Become, Inc. Become, Inc. is a global leader in comparison shopping and lead generation spanning several verticals, including product shopping and education. Become, Inc. delivers qualified leads to businesses and helps consumers find products and services using its… -
Interview with Eric Nash from Stamps.com
26 Oct 2009 | 1:16 pm– Tell us a bit about your company Stamps.com is a software-based program that allows you to print USPS-approved postage right from your computer. You can print postage directly on to an envelope, shipping labels or even plain paper. Stamps.com was the first PC Postage vendor licensed by the US Postal Service back in 1998. We also are the largest with more than 400,000 customers. – How does your service compare with other postage options such as a franking machine? We feel we that online postage is a much better option than a postage meter for a small business owner. … -
Mixed Uptake of Social Media Among Top Online Retailers
18 Sep 2009 | 12:28 pmI’ve been doing some research into the social media uptake of major online retailers and usage is patchy to say the least. Here is a list of the top online retailers in the UK taken from Hitwise. If I have missed out any features, this is because they are hard to find! Blog Twitter Bookmarking Product Reviews Facebook eBay UK x x x amazon UK x x Play.com x x x Argos x Marks & Spencer x Next x x x John Lewis ASOS x x x… -
Vote for My Manifesto
15 Sep 2009 | 3:36 amGentle Readers, I would appreciate it if you could vote for my manifesto on Change this entitled The Fallacy of the Great Idea. Please follow this link: www.changethis.com/proposals/1754 Thanks Trevor If you found this post useful, why not buy me a coffee! -
Launching an iPhone App on the Cheap
11 Sep 2009 | 2:38 pmAt Hello Baby we have recently launched our own iPhone app, which has been extremely successful and I’d like to share how we did it. The Idea My 2 year old daughter loves my iPhone and so I got the idea to develop an app specially for toddlers. Toddlers aren’t terribly sophisticated when it comes to software and so got the idea for an app which would show a picture of an animal when it was shaken or the screen touched, and make the animals noise. The app is free to download but branded Hello Baby with a link to the store. Development Being cheap I found a developer via eLance to…
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Search Engine Marketing (SEO & PPC) - ArcherSEM.com
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Network Marketing for the Digital Marketing Age
26 Oct 2009 | 12:05 pmCreative SEO Content Development Writing Search Engine Optimized content can be a lonely chore. Sometimes, you need to reach out and get inspired by the company of other creative folk. As a Phoenix online marketing consultant, I need to: Learn: I find creative ideas and solutions all the time by talking to other online folk. Get Inspired: When I get a little depleted with coming up with new and clever digital marketing ideas…sometimes just bouncing off ideas with other people can get my creative juices going. Compare Notes and Troubleshoot: Got a troublesome client? A unique niche that… -
When Phrase Matching Makes Sense when setting up your PPC campaign
20 Oct 2009 | 6:24 amYou have set up your Google pay per click campaigns…and by default chosen the “broad match” setting. So far…so good. You let it run a while, and then you sit down to optimize it. At that point, it is time to make some smart choices about your keyword matching settings. A quick refresher on what the keyword matching options are: · Broad match: Allows your ad to show on similar phrases and relevant variations. So for example, if you set a keyword for “Phoenix online marketing business,” with broad match then searches for “online marketing in Phoenix AZ” would show your ad. -
Are you thinking about black friday or cyber monday 2009?
19 Oct 2009 | 12:01 amCyber Monday Marketing for Your Local Phoenix Arizona Business Some companies entire yearly profits are made during the day after thanksgiving. For brick and mortar stores it is typically the day after thanksgiving which is a Friday. For digitally driven ecommerce sites like amazon they would typically see a spike during the 4 following “cyber mondays” after black Friday. Interesting studies show a trend in online shopping behavior where individuals buy the products through the internet monday when they come into work. This has created the interesting phenomenon for retailers… -
How to create a Google Analytics Account - Google Analytics lesson 1
16 Mar 2009 | 3:07 pmToday we are launching our first Itunes podcast episode that covers “how to create a google analytics account”. Yes we know its pretty easy to do this however our podcast channel is ment to take someone who is a beginner and take them to the “Expert” level. We would love your feedback on this new series and hope you all subscribe for future updates! Related Posts:Social Network Advertising to SMB - A dawn of marketing equality!Phoenix Arizona SEO / SEM / PPC consultants - Putting together your consulting outlineNew "canonical tag" to help with duplicate content… -
Phoenix Arizona SEO / SEM / PPC consultants - Putting together your consulting outline
13 Mar 2009 | 11:38 amLooking back in your past, the feeling you get as you reminisce is an amazing feeling and I have witnessed this recently. We were hired and contracted for a local Phoenix Arizona SEO consulting job and in the midst of my agenda planning for this job I started looking back at some of the previous work myself and our staff had done over the course of 7 years and I was amazed at the difference between the 7 year old work and today’s high level executive overview work we do today. So I got to thinking, wouldnt it be great to share with everyone what a well thought out consulting outline…
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Reel SEO Video Marketing
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uSocial is Selling YouTube Views – Should you Buy em?
6 Nov 2009 | 9:45 amuSocial, the company that has created controversy regarding their services in the past, is at it again. You might remember them as the company that sold Diggs for your Digg submission, friends for your Facebook account, and followers of your Twitter ramblings. Now they’re offering a new service: views for your YouTube video. For $127, you can buy 5,000 views for your fledgling viral video. That’s about 2.5 cents per view. uSocial claims: “Using several of our methods, we can get a totally unknown video in front of the eyes of potentially millions of people which can mean… -
BitGravity – A Cool, Quick Embeddable Player + Major Content Delivery Network
5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amNeed to embed a video in a site super-duper fast? Why not try the 3 form version of Bitgravity Player 6. Give it a video URL, width and height and you’re all set. But is it truly that easy? Actually, it truly can be that easy. But that would leave out a lot of people who need a more advanced set of controls over their online videos. Luckily, Bitgravity has you covered on that end as well. Simply flipping a switch so to speak gives you a range of fine detail controls over the player including: Playback Options – Autoplay, buffer size and advanced seeking (for Bitgravity content… -
YouTube Beefs up Partner Video Blocking Ability
5 Nov 2009 | 8:51 amIt is making the rounds on the webosphere that YouTube has implemented two new buttons on the partner interface that pertain to blocking of videos.TechCrunch (Hi guys!) got a tip that two new buttons appeared on the YouTube partner interface specifically dealing with the blocking of videos: Enable Autoblock outside Ownership – Streamlines the blocking of duplicate content on the site which used to be like pulling teeth Block by country – Sort of self-explanatory no? So now you no longer need to jump through a series of hoops like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games but rather… -
Streaming Media West 2009 – Discount for ReelSEO Readers
4 Nov 2009 | 6:23 pmJust a quick note to all readers… Streaming Media West – the leading online video industry conference & expo – is offering a $100 discount until FRIDAY, November 6 to attend Streaming Media sessions. Click here to take advantage of these savings. If you can’t buy a conference pass, you can still sign up for a free expo pass which this year includes access to two separate, open-bar networking receptions! Streaming Media West is in 2 weeks – November 17-19 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. The Exhibit Hall opens on November 17 at 5pm. More to come… -
Predictions with Local Online Video Marketing – Interview with Topix
4 Nov 2009 | 10:26 amI interviewed Chris Tolles, CEO of the online news portal Topix, on his predictions for how video will mature into the local landscape, and its impact for audiences and businesses. The following interview took place at the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association’s 7th Semiannual Interactive Marketing Survey, where Chris was one of the featured panelists. Sorry in advance for the audio/video quality as all I had with me was a Flip and it was dark and loud at the show. Chris Tolles’ forecast of the local video landscape for business Prediction #1: Increase in scale. Video content and…
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Content Rich
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Will the C-Suite Ever Embrace Social Media? Hmmmm…
5 Nov 2009 | 1:07 pmMost people out there know the famous quote from Calvin Coolidge about “Persistence and determination being omnipotent.” Amazing that this quote was probably his lasting legacy as well…much more compelling than anything he ever accomplished as President. For those who don’t know it or forgot it, here is a refresher: ”Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and… -
Content Rich Readers Speak Out!
3 Nov 2009 | 11:40 amAs an author, you get the chance to meet and help so many people that you otherwise wouldn’t. I’m very grateful to these readers who all have gotten something out of my book, Content Rich. If you haven’t already picked up a copy, check it out! It may help your business the way it has helped these folks… -
My Q & A with Write On!
22 Oct 2009 | 12:56 pmDebra Eckerling of Write On! recently interviewed me about my passion for writing. Write On! is a virtual – and live – writers support group, which helps writers of all abilities, mediums, and specialties take their projects to the next level. I enjoyed the opportunity to speak with Debra and encourage every writer out there to follow your dream! -
Review of Scott Fox’s “e-Riches 2.0″
25 Sep 2009 | 1:42 pmScott Fox has done it again with his latest book, “e-Riches 2.0”, putting together an easy to understand, thoroughly comprehensive “how-to” on all the latest online marketing tools and strategies. Like Scott, I believe that there is a huge opportunity to provide this type of instruction to the millions of small businesses out there who may be challenged in the online marketing space. There are still many business owners who feel overwhelmed by all the stuff coming at them when it comes to Web 2.0. I love how he emphasized the importance of social media and attempted to allay any fears… -
Local Search – It’s Getting Bigger
22 Sep 2009 | 2:15 pmOf all the projects we’re working on and all the topics I speak about, I’m the most excited about local search and the growth of what’s happening out there on Main Street, USA. In fact, there are so many smaller, local retail businesses “getting it” now that the growth of Local Search is out pacing overall online search. And you know that’s big because the web continues to explode, month after month, year after year. What does this mean? It means that the landscape of search is changing right before our very eyes. It means that small mom and pop companies that service the city…
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Search Marketing : Darin Carter
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2009 : State of Search Marketing
2 Nov 2009 | 10:48 amBy: Abbey Klaassen : AdAge.Com In Silicon Valley years, search is getting up there. Consider that Google celebrated its 11th birthday this year, and Goto, on which Google modeled its auction-based system (and which later became the underpinning of Yahoo’s search-marketing offering), was born in 1998. No longer do search-engine marketing advocates have to convince big marketers on the value of search. According to trade group SEMPO, nine out of 10 marketers practice organic search optimization, and 70% use paid search. The maturing search market has also demonstrated its ability to… -
Real Time Searches
27 Oct 2009 | 12:18 pmThere is so much buzz about Twitter Search going into Google, Yahoo and Bing results. Everyone is talking about it! Real time Search is very valuable because it’s Social and it’s what is happening at that very moment. This is a very important time for search because if used correctly it could change the way search works as we know it! Here is a great Article written by Miguel Helft giving you more info into this Real Time Opportunity! http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/business/25ping.html?_r=1 Darin Carter Search Engine Marketing Job Board sponsored by Darin.CC! Post From: Search… -
Now Hosted on The Rackspace Cloud
6 Oct 2009 | 11:08 amHello all, it’s been a while since I blogged anything! I just wanted to update you all to say that Darin.CC is now hosted on The RackSpace Cloud! I wanted to test the cloud to see what it’s capable of and so far, I’m Loving it! No worries about keeping a box up to date, 24/7 support, everything works! Now lets just see what happens under stress! Darin Carter Sponsor: Would you like to Advertise in My RSS Feed? Contact me for more information! Post From: Search Engine Marketing : Darin CarterNow Hosted on The Rackspace Cloud -
Looking for Diamonds
29 Aug 2009 | 6:59 pmIf your looking for Quality Diamond Jewlery, you need to go see Jason of Beverly Hills! Forget the old school of Cartier, Tiffany’s or Harry Winston. When modern Hollywood stars like Jessica Alba need unique earrings to wear to the Teen Choice Awards, when NBA great LeBron James wants to memoralize his career in diamonds, when Lil’ Jon craves a pendant big enough to be deemed the largest in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records… they all go to Jason of Beverly Hills! Follow Jason on Twitter @JasonofBH Darin Carter Post From: Search Engine Marketing : Darin… -
Payton Thornton – Fundraiser
10 Aug 2009 | 8:03 amCousin to Payton Thornton is Auctioning off a $350,000 to help Raise funds for Stem Cell Research! http://www.paytonatlantaraffle.com/ Help Payton Thornton Today. View the story! Darin Carter Post From: Search Engine Marketing : Darin CarterPayton Thornton – Fundraiser
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Maine SEO Blog
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Is Your New Website Getting Indexed by Search Engines?
4 Nov 2009 | 8:06 amYou’ve launched a great new website and you’re awaiting patiently for it to be indexed. You Google. Relentlessly. Your homepage could be indexed within a week or so. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for it to take an entire month (or even two) for the deeper level pages to be indexed. But if you’re not careful, you’ll never see your website in the search results. Why? It could be a few things… If you use WordPress You have an option during development to stop search bots from crawling your site. You should take it. The option is in a small space in a deep… -
Websites, SEO, Blogging, and Social Media for Nonprofits
30 Oct 2009 | 1:42 pmYesterday, Rich and I did a speaking engagement for the Great Bay Foundation – an organization which supports nonprofit social enterprises; in other words, social entrepreneurs. Before our over arching sessions on all things Web marketing, Laura Quinn of Idealware spoke about some other technical gadgets used for nonprofits for email, constituent data, and collaboration. While at flyte we talk about a lot about web marketing for corporations, the fact of the matter is many business laws and best practices are the same for nonprofit organizations. You’ll find the slideshare… -
Why Good Links Establish Expertise: A Visual Analogy
23 Oct 2009 | 10:56 amRecently, I blogged about a session at Social Media FTW (Search Engine Optimization and Social Media). In it, my boss, Rich Brooks, gave a great analogy for incoming links. I didn’t share it then since I wanted to give it its own special place…because I think it’s that powerful. The analogy Let’s say you’re visiting Chicago; so naturally you ask 10 friends what restaurant to go to while you’re there (as opposed to Googling it. You’re smart, you want recommendations.) 7 friends suggest Restaurant A, 3 suggest Restaurant B. All things being equal,… -
How to Find a Job using Social Media
22 Oct 2009 | 9:40 amThis week, I gave two presentations (or rather, the same presentation, twice) for a senior Business Seminar class at Saint Joseph’s College. Though it’s always nice going back to my alma mater, more so than usual, I feel for the senior class. A year and a half ago, it was easier to find a job. Obviously, it took some work, but it’s nowhere near the type of competitive environment these soon-to-be grads face in the next 6 months of their job search. So how are you supposed to differentiate yourself in such an atmosphere? Why, with social media, of course! The full… -
Tools for SEO Geeks Everywhere from SEOQuake
21 Oct 2009 | 10:53 amSEOQuake I’ve been using the SEOQuake toolbar for a while now. It’s a gem for any search geek: the ability to quickly see statistics in the search results, from PageRank to indexed pages in Google v. Bing, from incoming links to Alexa rank. You can also dig a little deeper by getting more information about the site you’re currently visiting; which is a nice one-stop shop for getting any of your basic need-to-know information for client statistics. Here’s a screen capture of what that looks like: Aside from the SEOQuake Toolbar, the SEOQuake Toolbar also has two…
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SearchViews
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Search and Social Media: Your Guide to Bing and Google on The Road to Social Media
29 Oct 2009 | 2:11 pmThis week’s article by yours truly in the Huffington Post asks if Google is turning it’s back on its core values by limiting social search to folks with both Google profiles and social media profiles. Earlier in the week, my colleague Mark Pilatowski wondered whether the engines would be able to deal with the spam factor inherent in real-time search. Before diving into the implications of real time and social search integration to the biggest search engines (excluding YouTube), it’s important to know the basics and the background to what these new deals mean to marketers… -
Search and Social: Will the Twitter Firehose Become a Sewage-Filled Spam Hose?
22 Oct 2009 | 7:32 amAs most of you probably know Bing and Google announced that they have finalized agreements with Twitter to begin incorporating Tweets into their search engine results. Everyone seems to be overjoyed and excited about this. Search engines are excited because they get access to the Twitter firehose and they can begin providing real time results in the SERPs. Twitter is happy because they are finally getting paid. Searchers are happy because they can now get real time results for queries that deserve it, like breaking news. Everyone seems to be overjoyed about the possibilities and I myself am… -
Social Media: Bad Customer Service Has an Echo Chamber Online
16 Oct 2009 | 1:09 pmI did something a few days ago I rarely if ever do. I lost it. I got really mad and went to a terrible terrible place. That place was the one where you end up holding your iPhone up to a customer service representative and saying “I work in social media! Do you know how bad this service is for your company’s reputation!” Oh yes, and I had the negative tweets there to prove it. I won’t go into the details of my horror story on Delta Airlines which prompted this outburst, but you can read more about it here on the Huffington Post. (more…) Share This -
Social Media: Mix Taping Your World
9 Oct 2009 | 1:23 pmThere are a lot of theories about where social media first started. Was it in the baths of ancient Greece? Or was it deep in the bowels of the Pentagon? I have my own idea about this: Mix tapes. Yes, mix tapes. As I wrote in the Huffington Post the culture of customizing your own melange of information and sharing it is one of the great things about social media.Even more so, a great mix tape would get copied and re-copied spreading just like a viral video does now on YouTube. Something to think about for the weekend! Share This -
Social Media: FTC Blogger Rules Foster Double Standard
6 Oct 2009 | 11:03 amI’m a freak for car magazines. I read the British monthly Car (at 10 bucks a pop no less), Automobile, even Motor Trend - a title that never fails to raise a giggle from my wife for it’s retro specificity. They all feature monthly road tests of cars, all of which are provided for testing gratis by the manufacturers. In fact, Car used to have a wonderful columnist named George Bishop (who is sadly now in the great beyond) who would fill his column with the intimate behind the scenes details of the lavish car launch junkets manufacturers would throw for journalists - often involving…
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Traffick
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PPC Has Always Been the Wrong Term
6 Nov 2009 | 12:04 pmIt may seem like a small point, but "pay-per-click" was the nickname given to paid search advertising back when it started out, but it only describes a pricing method, not the nature of the media or what we seek from it. (In the proto-days of that same technology, "paid keywords" or "buying keywords" was another way of describing it.)I was reminded of this whole mental muddle today reading the headline from an email solicitation, something about "getting more PPC without using Google".But that whole line is kind of old hat. It's the come-on that opportunistic, non-search-based ad platform… -
Twinkies References in Zombieland Cause Major Sugar Spike
28 Oct 2009 | 12:34 pmGoogle Searches for [twinkies] surged in the US and Canada in October, coinciding with the successful release of Zombieland, starring Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee, a (non-Zombie) survivor character obsessed with Hostess' sugary snack.The effect was more pronounced in Canada, perhaps because Canadians search less for Twinkies under ordinary circumstances. It's interesting to speculate, though, about which populations are more likely to pursue searches in response to offline advertising and strong themes in media.The top "related search"? [fried twinkies], which just happens to appear… -
BlackBerry "Doomed"?
28 Oct 2009 | 8:17 amThe current wave of Research in Motion naysayers all seem to point to one primary reason for the future demise of the BlackBerry: the relative lack of apps for the BlackBerry as compared with the iPhone, and that, caused by it being much more difficult to develop those apps for the BlackBerry.The people making these claims are typically developers, American, or both.If you were Canadian, and in particular, a Canadian consumer, this would seem like no big deal to you. It's about having the patience to wait for things, because quite frankly you have no choice. Even though you're tantalizingly… -
New Google Analytics Features Inject Intelligence Into Marketing
20 Oct 2009 | 6:39 amAmy Chang, Group Product Manager for Google Analytics, notes that when GA was bought and launched by Google, it was "all about democratizing web analytics," bringing more powerful web analytics functionality to a wider audience of businesses than ever before. Mission accomplished. Books will soon be filled with tales of Google's awesome data management capacity (they'll be dry books... but books, nonetheless). Providing such a massive exercise in computing to so many millions of customers -- with multilayered segmentation capabilities -- is a task nearly no competitor could accomplish, least… -
Social Media as Signaling Strategy
15 Oct 2009 | 8:04 amSo, so, so much ink has been spilled on the "proper use" of social media for business.And as I continue to replace football season with my new pastime, reviewing friends' marketing books, I expect to be seriously schooled soon by some of the best. I have three books by amazing social media experts on my shelf. It could have been fifty, no doubt.So much ink on such a new topic. As Mitch Joel has noted, not a single "social media expert" has put in the Gladwellian 10,000 hours in the field that would be a prerequisite to being a true virtuoso. (Translation: hire one of them and place too much…
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Inside AdWords
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AdWords Conversion Tracking is now even easier
5 Nov 2009 | 2:52 pmIf you use AdWords Conversion Tracking, you may have noticed that the interface for this tool has been redesigned so that it's easier to implement, monitor, and troubleshoot.(Click to see full size image)There are now 3 easy-to-use tabs - Conversions, Webpages, and Code - that help you manage your conversion data. Let's take a closer look at each of them:Conversions This is where you see information about the conversion actions you're tracking.The "Tracking Status" column lets you know whether a conversion action is tracking properly. It shows you if a conversion has ever been recorded, if it… -
Think2010: Four Winning Moves webinar
4 Nov 2009 | 10:46 amIn last week's Think2010 post, we highlighted the value of search marketing to prompt direct conversions and advance branding goals. In this post, US Managing Director Bonita Stewart briefly discussed the role search played during the economic downturn.On Tuesday, November 10th, Bonita Stewart will be hosting our second Think2010 webinar titled "Think2010: Four Winning Moves for 2010." Bonita will elaborate on fundamental search advertising strategies that marketers should employ to get ahead of the recovery moving into 2010. She'll also dive deeper into the relevance and importance of search… -
Increasing choice and relevancy in search ads
3 Nov 2009 | 10:08 amAs part of our ongoing commitment to helping users find the information they're seeking online, we’re happy to announce the launch of Ad Sitelinks.Ad Sitelinks is a new AdWords feature that allows you to extend the value of your existing AdWords ads by providing additional links to content deep within your sites. Rather than sending all users to the same landing page, Ad Sitelinks will display up to 4 additional Destination URLs on your search-based text ad for users to choose from. By providing users with more options, you can create richer, more relevant ads that improve the value of your… -
New holiday ad templates available in Display Ad Builder
2 Nov 2009 | 1:57 pmThis winter season take advantage of holiday-themed Display Ad Builder templates to advertise your products and services.You can find these new templates in the "Seasonal" category of the Display Ad Builder gallery. Here are some examples of the templates:(click here to view larger image)These templates use new high quality buttons and backgrounds to provide you with just the right holiday feel for your upcoming advertising campaigns. By changing the text and adding your own images, you can build customized ads in minutes.We also recently launched 20 high quality templates in the "General"… -
Reminder: Google sessions @ ad:tech NY next week
30 Oct 2009 | 11:37 amIf you're planning on attending ad:tech or Content Revenue Strategies (CRS) at the Javits Center in New York City next week, we hope you'll come and meet the Google ads team while you're there. Over November 4 and 5, we'll offer a series of sessions designed to give you practical tips for improving your search and display campaigns.The Google Ads Factory Tour, 11/4-11/5/09The Factory Tour will span 10 hours of live workshops designed to give you an overview of Google's latest measurement and optimization tools. Here's the full two-day agenda:Wednesday, November 4 - Optimizing Search &…
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Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog
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Ad News and View from Around the Web
4 Nov 2009 | 2:38 amYahoo! front page success; improving your search performanceYahoo! (still) hearts creatives; holiday sales success, and more Time spent on Yahoo! front page up 20 percent since redesign Eric Schonfeld over at TechCrunch reports from Yahoo! Analyst Day on the success of our new front page. Writes Schonfeld: “Senior vice president Tapan Bhat gave an overview of how the redesigned homepage is performing. In the past three months, pageviews are up 9 percent, and time spent on the homepage is up 20 percent… Some of the big drivers of user engagement come from the ability to customize the… -
Yahoo! @ ad: tech
30 Oct 2009 | 3:54 pmJoin us along with the best and brightest in digital advertising, Nov. 4 to 6 Another week, not just another conference in New York. If AdWeek is the stately Rolls Royce of advertising conferences, ad: tech is definitely James Bond’s Aston Martin, complete with picture phone, ejection seat, smoke screen and laser beams hidden in the fenders. At ad:tech, the best minds in the next generation of digital advertising—brands, agencies, publishers and service providers—come together to share knowledge, network and do business. In keeping with the James Bond theme, this conference even… -
Challenges and Solutions for a Tight Holiday Season
29 Oct 2009 | 6:41 pmNew Yahoo! research offers five tips for making the best of a tough sell Hey, it’s a touchy holiday season this year. Though the economy appears to be seeing the proverbial light at the end of the clichéd tunnel, consumers are still feeling the pinch. According to new Yahoo! research, most U.S. consumers surveyed say that they expect to spend less this holiday season. Sound bleak? Wait, there’s more. The research also indicates that consumers will be starting their gift searches online rather than in brick-and-mortar stores, are starting their shopping earlier, and, better still for… -
Not Just Turkey and Santa
29 Oct 2009 | 7:00 amCut through the glut of typical holiday messages by promoting these offbeat holidays in November and December ’Tis the holiday season again—and I don’t just mean the major ones like Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I like focusing on the more obscure holidays, like National Rad Tech Week, Sandwich Day and National Tie Month. These are some of the special months, weeks and days that business organizations or Congress have designated to promote various causes. Depending on your business, you might be able to turn these offbeat holidays into a new ad campaign and ring up some… -
Ad News and Views from Around the Web
28 Oct 2009 | 8:46 amAltered ad ethics; tweeting for fun and profit; get your phone to yodel; marketing that breeds like bunnies, and more Should altered photo ads carry warning labels? “Truth in advertising” is mandated by the Federal Trade Commission. And we’re all for it. But what if an ad does not contain an explicit promise—such as “contains zero grams of fat”—but merely an implied one? What if the ad is just an image of a pretty girl or boy plus a brand name? New York Times columnist Randy Cohen (“The Ethicist”) thinks ads that use digital enhancements to make fashion models look…
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adCenter Blog
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Microsoft adCenter Fall 2009 Upgrade Rolling Out This Weekend
6 Nov 2009 | 4:01 pmThe adCenter team is in the process of getting ready to roll out the adCenter Fall 2009 Upgrade this weekend. This upgrade will include improvements in reporting, account management and will even add a few new features; we'll have more detailed information on Monday. You should expect to see the upgrade changes after Sunday, November 8th. Have a great weekend! -
Bing Buzz and The Holidays: Advertising on Bing Shopping
5 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amAs I mentioned in a previous Bing Buzz and The Holidays post, the current economic climate is forcing consumers to make price more of a priority in their holiday shopping decisions, which will make comparison shopping that much more important this year. Given Bing's branding as a decision engine from Microsoft that connects advertisers with more than 72 million unique searchers while they are in decision mode (and the marketing momentum that's building around this message as the holidays approach), I wanted to take a minute to point out another Bing opportunity that helps get… -
SEM Beginner Series: Ad Copy Importance, Best Practices and Resources
4 Nov 2009 | 9:30 amThis is the 3rd post in the SEM Beginner Series, the first introduced click-through rate (CTR) and the second, cost-per-click (CPC). This series of posts is intended for those new to search engine marketing who are looking for some guidance to help identify, monitor and adjust the key performance indicators (KPIs) that determine how successful a PPC campaign is. Why is Ad Copy Important? Ad copy is important because it delivers that crucial first impression potential customers are going to have of your business; it's what will make or break their decision to click on your ad and visit… -
Paid Search Bid Concepts and Strategies (Part III)
3 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amOur previous post discussed keyword level and portfolio level analysis. In this post, we will dive into a keyword level strategy called incremental bidding. Utilizing this strategy is a simple way to optimize each individual keyword and achieve a lower cost-per-acquisition (CPA). Tell Me about Incremental Bidding With incremental bidding, you compare each keyword's CPA to your overall CPA goal. Based on how the keyword performs relative to the overall CPA goal, you can adjust the bid, which affects the position. The objective is to test different positions until you find the keyword's… -
UK Search Insights: Life After Redundancy - Part 3: Keep Calm and Carry On
2 Nov 2009 | 10:28 amContinuing with our redundancy and recession insights series, the challenging economic situation has inevitably changed the nation's attitudes towards money and resources. With such sage mottos as: "Keep Calm and Carry On" harking back to World War II lingering on peoples' lips and printed on t-shirts; It's very hard to resist the jolly camaraderie of doing one's bit. We've taken a closer look at two thrifty search trends emerging on Bing using the Microsoft Advertising Intelligence Tool. Dig for Victory: Grow Your Own Top celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh…
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The Adventures of PPC Hero
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PPC News Roundup for 11/6/2009
6 Nov 2009 | 2:02 pmAdWords has made it even easier to track conversions. The tool has been redesigned and now includes 3 tabs – Conversions, Webpages and Code to help manage your data. Emily Williams at Inside AdWords gives a quick run down on each of the tabs. Ad copy is the first impression a potential customer has of your business, so it is an important part of your PPC campaign. As part of the SEM Beginner Series, the Microsoft Advertising Community stresses the importance of strong Ad Copy along with tips and tricks for writing successful ads. You know how some people are so competitive, they have to be… -
Our Greatest Hits for October 2009
5 Nov 2009 | 1:53 pmThe page views have spoken! Below we have gathered PPC Hero’s four most visited, and hopefully most valuable, articles from October. Whether you’re a new or long-time subscriber you may have missed these insightful and helpful pay-per-click management tips. Enjoy! Yahoo’s match types might seem a little confusing in the first place, but with the additional pressure of adding negative keywords (am I going to exclude relevant queries?!) things can get sticky. Carrie will help you implement negative keywords into your Yahoo accounts fearlessly. Joe reviewed the new WordStream… -
Google Launched Comparison Ads
4 Nov 2009 | 12:20 pmThis week Google began testing a new feature, Comparison Ads. The Google Comparison Ads tool enables searchers to compare multiple, relevant offers together on one search engine results page. While this new feature is still in the testing phase, that could give shopping search engines like Shopzilla and BizRate a run for their money. While Google has strong metrics for assessing user intent, it is not always spot-on. The new Comparison Ads tool allows users to clarify exactly what they are looking for, and then view the relevant offers side-by-side. If a searcher is interested in your product… -
Google’s New Ad Sitelinks & How You Can Get Them for Your Account
4 Nov 2009 | 8:44 amGoogle Adwords has implemented yet another new feature for Adwords PPC advertisers, and this time it’s pretty cool. The new feature is called ‘ad sitelinks’, and it allows PPC advertisers with high quality ads to add four additional links under their main PPC ad. This allows users easier access to deeper content of your website. The sitelinks also provide advertisers with a good way of promoting seasonal services or products. Unlike organic sitelinks, the advertiser can pick and choose which campaigns get sitelinks and what those sitelinks are and where they link to. So they can be… -
How to Fine Tune Your International Campaigns in AdWords
3 Nov 2009 | 1:54 pmYou always need to exercise caution when utilizing broad match in AdWords. This almost goes without saying, but I said it anyway. The scope of queries matched to each broad match keyword has grown over the past couple of years, especially with the introduction of Google’s expanded broad match. Today, I will spin a cautionary tale about casting a wide keyword net within international waters. First, I’ll describe what I found within one of our AdWords campaigns. Since one of our client provides international service, one of our campaigns was targeting a wide range of countries. As…
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Search Engine Marketing Blog - Blogation
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A Chance to Win a Free Ticket to Content Revenue Strategies in NYC (and a Free T-Shirt)
19 Oct 2009 | 11:06 pmContent Revenue Strategies - the most awesome conference ever - is just a few weeks away. For those of you living under a rock, it's 11/5 in NYC at the Javits Center, co-located with ad:tech NYC.If you want to go to the show, I encourage you to register online here - the price is normally $450 but use the code 1CRSNY1 and you'll immediately save $100 off!And here's an even better idea: register -
In a Customer-Driven Society, Doing the Basics is No Longer Enough
15 Oct 2009 | 7:31 pmI took United Airlines last week because I had to. I have about 200,000 miles that I'm trying to unload so that I can start taking better airlines, like Virgin America or JetBlue.What's wrong with United? Well, nothing on the surface. They get you from place to place just like any other airline, their prices are competitive, and the seats are more or less big enough for average Americans. -
Brett Brewer - MySpace Founder and AdKnowledge CEO - a Content Luminary
9 Oct 2009 | 10:12 pmWhat do you do after you launch a site like MySpace - one of the most popular sites in the known universe? If it was me, I'd probably buy a fishing resort in Alaska and focus on my casting. Brett Brewer, however, decided to go right back to work, becoming CEO of AdKnowledge. I've loved AdKnowledge for years - in fact, when I worked at Adteractive, I told my PPC team to never talk abotu -
Jeremy Schoemaker - Performance Marketing Legend
8 Oct 2009 | 10:28 pmTen years ago if I had told you that the URL "Shoemoney.com" would be one of the most popular marketing sites in the world, I'm sure you would told me about a bridge for sale in NY.But today, Shoemoney and its founder - Jeremy Schoemaker - are legendary. Something like 200,000 people subscribe to Jeremy's newsletter and he's also one of the world's most followed Twitterers (if that is a word). -
Bryan Minor - Rocket Scientist and Google Content Network Expert
7 Oct 2009 | 10:19 pmBryan Minor is a rocket scientist - literally. He has a B.S. in Physics, M.S. in Nuclear Science, and a PhD in Computational Physics. And now he spends his time trying to crack the Google Content Network algorithm. The company he founded - ScienceOps - has a product called AdMetrica that he says can increase your volume on GCN by up to 10X or more, all the while maintaining or decreasing your
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Search Marketing Sage
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How to Track Analytics Goals as AdWords Conversions
6 Nov 2009 | 5:30 amGoogle has recently been making more changes to the AdWords conversion tracking interface, all of which you can read about on the Inside AdWords blog. But the especially nice new capability is being able to import Analytics goals into AdWords as conversions. Up until now, linking the two products allowed Analytics data to be sorted [...] -
Optimizing your Searchability with Social Media
5 Nov 2009 | 1:46 pmImage via Wikipedia I checked out the Vocus on-demand webinar with Brian Solis this week entitled “Distribution in the New Era of Social Media.” Today we’re all “sources” with the power of social media distribution channels at our fingertips. But with so many content creators and new information flooding the Internet each day, the ability [...] -
Spam You! Series: Statistics and Background of Electronic Spam
3 Nov 2009 | 9:23 amWelcome to my series of blog posts that will address the omnipresent spam. There are a lot of layers to this topic so we’ll start on the basic level and get more involved as we progress. -
Is TwitterPeek This Year’s Tickle Me Elmo?
3 Nov 2009 | 8:58 amPeek just released TwitterPeek, the first “Twitter-only” device! TwitterPeek (shown to the right) is roughly the size of a Palm Pilot or smart phone, but is used solely for the purpose of sending and receiving tweets! The TwitterPeek may be purchased on Amazon.com for $99 which includes the device plus 6 months of nationwide wireless. [...] -
SEM is Like Picking up Chicks at a Bar - Vol 1
2 Nov 2009 | 9:04 amFor those who would like to get a general idea of what it means to practice online marketing but just can’t quite get past the intimidating terminology of the online world, may I humor you by explaining some of Google’s complexities in a more widely accepted universal language? By making the comparison of Google SEM [...]
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GenuineSEO
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Process 1: Find the best keywords related to your niche
3 Nov 2009 | 6:17 amIn simple terms keywords are nothing but the words that web surfers enter in search engines to look for information on the World Wide Web. It is essential that you get these keywords to optimize your site as it is pointless to optimize your articles and site for keyword that nobody uses or which has very less target audience. It is also important that you use the right keywords for your online marketing campaign to make it a success. Always make sure that you only use keywords that are relevant to your website. If you target the wrong keyword you will not be driving the right traffic and will… -
Overcoming Common SEO Problems (Do’s and Don’t)
22 Oct 2009 | 9:20 amMost bloggers face difficulties with SEO and some don’t due to their area of specialization. For the ones who have trouble with SEO here are some quick do’s and don’t that you will find helpful with your SEO work. DO’s…. Use 301 redirects for moved pages Optimize titles and meta-data for non-html files (.pdf, .doc, .xls and more) Have valid HTML Use custom 404 errors for missing pages DON’t… Allow broken links Make content only accessible through forms or other elements that require human action Use images, Flash, or JavaScript to display… -
The Ugly Truth about Blogging
7 Oct 2009 | 9:35 pmHere is a secret (the ugly truth about blogging) that we have learnt and are sharing it with our readers. If you are a new blogger or your blog is still in the process of being established, we suggest that you consider the following. This post aims at helping you understand and learn the art of making money and driving web traffic to your site. The Truth about Article Directories Article directories are said to benefit from contributors like bloggers and writers. One of the strongest from of SEO is creating unique and keyword rich content. Even search giants like Google in their Search… -
Top 15 must follow Search Engine Optimization Blogs
2 Oct 2009 | 6:33 amEvery one wants to learn and optimize their blogs and website and rank better on search engines. What better than following some of the top 15 blog that we consider the best in providing information on Search Engine Optimization. Be it an e-commerce website or an information blog or a high revenue generating blog, SEO is an important aspect. We have put together 15 SEO blogs that you can learn from to optimize and stay up to date with the SEO trends in the market. Search Engine Land Search Engine Watch SEO Chat Search Engine Guide SEO Blackhat Graywolf’s SEO Search Engine Roundtable Search… -
5 Basic Tips and Tricks to SEO
1 Oct 2009 | 10:10 pmThis is one of the shortest posts we have written so far, yet a very useful post. This post contains 5 very basic SEO Tips and Tricks that is a must follow for any web master or SEO consultant. Optimizing your site and ensuring you meet the requirement and standards of a search engine is sure to get you better ranking. The following tips and tricks will help you to get the best results from search engine and Internet directory submission: Do not submit your website if you haven’t optimized it Only submit your website to related search engines and directories Do not submit your site too…
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CDF Networks
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Reducing lead scrubbing
4 Nov 2009 | 10:20 amLead scrubbing is an important step to maintain the integrity of any offer or lead generation campaign. It basically just means removing leads or sales that contain bogus, inaccurate, or incorrect information. These leads are useless and kill the ROI for any campaign. There seems to be a lot of confusion over lead scrubbing. Some affiliates think that it involves a network stealing leads from them after they have been reported, but that is usually called lead shaving. Lead scrubbing is a necessary step to make sure all leads or sales going to the advertiser or client are valid. … -
Affiliate Summit West 2010 Discounts
28 Oct 2009 | 10:02 amAffiliate Summit West in Las Vegas is only 3 months away. This is the best Internet Marketing conference of them all. If you only go to one show per year, I would suggest choosing Affiliate Summit West. You can use this exclusive code to get 10% off any registration: ASW10CDF10 Sign up early, because this show usually sells out.I’m looking forward to meeting everyone there. I may even do some kind of informal meetup for readers of this blog. (more on that later) I also found this tip on twitter, where people are scoring rooms at the RIO for around $50/nite, instead of the standard… -
Local lead generation to the next level
21 Oct 2009 | 10:16 amI’ve been talking about local lead generation for a while now and the topic always generates a lot of interest. One of the best decisions I ever made for my company was moving away from CPA network based offers and creating my own direct offers with businesses. I was doing pretty well on various networks, but local lead generation took it to the next level. Local lead generation can be great, but the biggest problem is that local can mean small markets and limited profits. What really kicked my company into high gear was what I call direct lead generation. This is basically local lead… -
Future internet marketing trends
16 Oct 2009 | 9:06 amIts important in our industry to always be looking forward. Internet marketing changes so fast that in order to stay on top you need to always have an eye to the next big wave. There is no way we can predict what will happen, but we can try to look out for emerging trends. So where do I see the next big trends? Here are a few that I would keep an eye on: Localization It is said that all real estate is local. I think the same will become the true for Internet Marketing. I see pay per click, organic search, and social advertising all continue to focus more an more on local… -
2 dead simple ways to optimize your Adwords campaign
6 Oct 2009 | 8:25 amLet’s face it, it takes a lot of work to optimize your campaigns. Endless testing can be very labor intensive. But there are 2 dead simple things you can do in Adwords that can make a huge difference in your ROI. Each takes only seconds because Google has done all the work for you. The conversions optimizer If you run conversion tracking and have had 15 conversions in the last 30 days, you are eligible to turn this feature on. Once enabled, it allows you to bid at the adgroup level on a per action basis. You are still paying CPC, but behind the scenes Google is working its magic to…
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expertSEM
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Tip of The Week – How to Report Your SEO Success
4 Nov 2009 | 3:53 pmDo you care what you get for your hard earned cash? If you buy a toaster, do you mind when it only cooks the right side of your bagel? I’m going to take a shot in the dark that yes, yes you do. Well believe me when I say it should be no different when it comes to your marketing dollar. Search Engine Optimization is still a new concept for most people, even for many of those in the search industry. Unlike pay per click where you can track exactly how much you got for what you spent, SEO is illusive and unpredictable. Therefore, as someone who receives money for SEO services rendered, it’s… -
Using Digg from a Single IP Address
30 Oct 2009 | 11:02 amUpdated on November 4: See answer below. As we mentioned in a previous post, each week a Location3 staff member comes up with a question about interactive marketing and quizzes the entire company. These questions have created a great deal of conversation internally and helped to further educate the entire staff. We thought it would be a great idea to share these questions and give you, our dear readers, a chance to test your knowledge as well. The question posed this week comes from our social media department: What’s likely to happen if multiple accounts on a single IP address vote up a… -
The Difference Between a PR and an SEO Professional
29 Oct 2009 | 11:10 amAfter a brief phone conversation with one of my colleagues who is on the SEO team, it became obvious just how different we PR people are from link developers. I was excitedly telling this colleague about some media coverage we are getting in a regional advertising publication. The article is about agencies that are doing pro bono work for nonprofits; they are including our interactive marketing efforts for SOS Outreach, an outdoor youth outreach organization. In addition to his link dev duties, this colleague also acts as a project manager for all of the campaigns we manage for SOS, which is… -
Getting the Most Out of the Google Content Network
28 Oct 2009 | 9:48 amIf you’re already a whiz at PPC (no doubt from following the advice given right here on expertSEM!), it’s time you look to other mediums. Not that we’re saying you can forget about paid search marketing—it’s a continuous management and optimization process—but as you dig deeper, you should also widen your reach to include other outlets. One such outlet is the Google Content Network (GCN). GCN is a strong complement to existing search marketing campaigns because the audience is well-matched for your product or service. It’s also a vast and relatively untapped market, providing a… -
DMA09: Online Videos
20 Oct 2009 | 3:15 pmMy final session of the day and the conference was “Online Video for Conversions, Engagement and Reach.” When I got to the room about ten minutes early it was already packed, and continued to fill up as the speakers got started. This is obviously a hot topic! The panel was made up of Michael Behrens, VP eMarketing of WebMetro, and two of his clients, Jim Buffington, president of Career Networks Institute (a vocational college) and Philip Krim, founder of Merrick Group (an online retailer offering high-end mattresses through AngelBeds). Michael started off the presentation with some fast…
