SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills
Spammer selling ShoeMoney Info… and a bridge

Jeremy Schoemaker

22 Nov 2009 | 7:50 am

If you have a contact form or your email is public somewhere odds are you have gotten this message. Judging from the 300 or so emails we have gotten letting us know about it I am guessing its pretty widespread: —–Original Message—– From: Dominic Fernandez [mailto:domrfernandez@gmail.com] Sent: 22 November 2009 08:12 To: you Subject: Shoemoney Data Hi, My name is Dominic Fernandez, and I came across your contact information while reading through The ShoeMoney Blog. I don’t know your opinion of his advice, but I think his advice is very insightful and obviously…
Violence, FTC Regulations, Wickedfire forums, Life, and the Economy – ShoeMoney q&a round 19

Jeremy Schoemaker

20 Nov 2009 | 10:06 am

Its been a while since we did a Q&A. I asked Jamie to grab some random questions that were submitted to us from our contact form. In this q&a session we discuss a wide variety of topics everything from my recent scuffles to the state of the economy. This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog Violence, FTC Regulations, Wickedfire forums, Life, and the Economy – ShoeMoney q&a round 19
onlineprofits.com – Free shirt Friday

Jeremy Schoemaker

20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

onlineprofits.com is an online training program to teach you how to create your own online business, or improve your existing one through internet marketing. On their homepage you can sign up to receive the free newsletter and trial of the program with the first two lessons free. If you would like to see your website or company featured on Free Shirt Friday click here This Post Is From ShoeMoney’s Internet Marketing Blog onlineprofits.com – Free shirt Friday
BlitzLocal’s Dennis Yu Worse Person Than Originally Thought

Jeremy Schoemaker

18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

A couple days ago I posted my personal story with Dennis Yu. The post I wrote was the longest post ever written on ShoeMoney.com. Over 4,000 words. This guy is a very dangerous person and I wanted to tell the entire story in as much detail as possible even if some of it was really embarrassing to me. You CAN’T give con men any room to go anywhere and the only real way to stop them is to get the truth out. Dennis has issued a response and as you can tell it’s all fluff about how he is only being attacked because he is hurting the industry. Which is strange because my post was not…
Do Not Miss The Ad.ly Boat

Jeremy Schoemaker

17 Nov 2009 | 4:50 am

Ad.ly, the newest twitter advertising network, today announced a 12% referral system. This is HUGE. For instance if I would have signed up for ad.ly through your link just from the few tweets I have done so far you would have made almost 4 THOUSAND DOLLARS. For nothing! Just for giving me a link to signup! If making 12% off of people you refer into the ad.ly system was not enough they are also having some contests giving away macbook pro’s, ipods, and other awesome prizes! So go sign up now and refer your friends. Oh, and not to mention make money off of twitter yourself. I have…

Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Google, the Butt of Toilet Humor

Andy Beal

21 Nov 2009 | 6:59 pm

Apparently Google is more than just the world’s most used search engine. It’s also “Super elastic, soft, smooth. Highly absorbent, for you always!” Via The Huffington Post
Cup of Joe: How Not To Go Viral and Look Like an Idiot

Joe Hall

21 Nov 2009 | 3:02 am

(via) So, ever since I came back from Vegas, I have had a pretty bad head cold. But, I have been diligently applying my favorite remedy: Watching mindless YouTube videos! Seriously, it makes me feel better. I am not sure why, but I am sticking to it! One thing I have noticed is that the most popular videos have at least one of two things; authentic, original content, or very well polished and produced material. Basically, if the video has authentic, original content then it doesn’t really matter if it’s “put together” well, because the content alone will sell it.
Closed Captioning Brought to You by YouTube

Jordan McCollum

20 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am

Google announced that closed captioning is coming to YouTube. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know it was already there in many videos where the creators took the time to add the subtitles for the hearing- or speaker-impaired. But now, for selected participating partners (mainly universities), YouTube itself will be adding the captions. The captions will be machine generated and automatically timed to match the video (and still be readable, I hope). Just like any dictation program, I suppose, they’ll listen to the audio from the clips and transcribe it. Now, normally, you know I’d be in…
Google Testing Permanent Sidebar

Jordan McCollum

20 Nov 2009 | 10:46 am

Search Engine Land talks to Marissa Mayer about Google testing a new search interface among a select few users. The new interface uses a left-hand pane to display search options—but instead of being off by default, with a link to turn on the pane, the new search options will be on permanently, and Google will lose the top blue bar over its results. Other options, including results from other Google properties (Images, News, Maps, Books) will join the left-hand panel. Search Engine Land has screenshots of the news options test: Meanwhile, as a refresher, here’s the present Search…
Woman Loses Benefits, In Part, Due to Facebook

Frank Reed

20 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

So I had to open my big mouth on my previous post today and say that Facebook is keeping its nose clean with regard to news as of late. I guess it still is despite this particular incident that happened to a woman living in our neighbor to the north, Canada. You remember Canada. The place where Facebook had to adhere to their privacy policies for threat of shutting them down? Well, I wonder how that privacy deal is working out because it looks like companies working on Canadian soil may need a lesson in privacy. The CBC reports A Quebec woman on long-term sick leave is fighting to have her…

The Clix Marketing Blog
David Szetela Tweeted This Yesterday…

admin

22 Nov 2009 | 6:01 am

@matt_mcgowan guten Abend, mein Freund – trink zweii bieren fur mich, bitte! in reply to matt_mcgowan # Is your company effectively using Twitter? http://bit.ly/8C7bBM # @zerbetron send me your draft cv and I'll give feedback if you'd like in reply to zerbetron # RT @GuyKawasaki: How to spend less this Christmas http://om.ly/cOKO # RT @GuyKawasaki: 10 free ways to give http://om.ly/cPSx # GREAT PDF! RT @Twitter_Tips: How to survive & even thrive using Twitter during your presentation: http://bit.ly/4XLMtw # Powered by Twitter Tools
David Szetela Tweeted This Yesterday…

admin

21 Nov 2009 | 6:01 am

Google AdSense Ads Get Special "Featured Ads" With Stars http://bit.ly/27kZRK # Data on Twitter Decline Stacks Up http://bit.ly/pkTkQ # Important #PPC article: The Google Wave (of Ad Releases) http://bit.ly/2IbTeg # I want to have a snowball fight with @iwearyourshirt at @okemomountain in 2010! #crushit # Most Mobile Users Indifferent To Or Don't Want Ads http://bit.ly/33YngD # For severe #PPC geeks only: Automatically tagging PPC urls in using dynamic parameters in #Google, #Yahoo & #MSN http://bit.ly/6meYG # Must-follow Tweeps for #PPC Advertisers: http://bit.ly/nQQPw…
David Szetela Tweeted This Yesterday…

admin

20 Nov 2009 | 6:01 am

RT @marcosnobre: RT @msdanielle: SEO: How AdWords Can Be The Best SEO Tool In Your Arsenal http://bit.ly/oZKBg # @elisabethos: ReTweeting myself cuz no replies yet: @elisabethos agencies other than ClixMtkg into payforperformance PPC clients? # @elisabethos no offense taken! We'll be lowering minimum thresholds within the next 6 months. in reply to elisabethos # RT @digitalalex: Agency in Princeton, NJ is looking for an experienced acct mgr for a CPG client. If you'd like info, reply to me. # @sandraniehaus c'est un petit peu triste! <sniff> in reply to sandraniehaus # AOL…
David Szetela Tweeted This Yesterday…

admin

19 Nov 2009 | 6:01 am

RT @steveplunkett: Search: Google Fights to Protect Itself Against #AdWords Scammers http://adage.com/u/kYpx4b # Any agencies out there doing #PPC campaign management on a pay-for-performance basis? # @Andrew_Beckman You're gonna hear from our PR firm, SEO-PR – they're putting together a white paper + conference panels on the topic in reply to Andrew_Beckman # @skillfull we use a pay-for-perfromance model, and we find it works VERY well for our agency, and clients love it in reply to skillfull # @Andrew_Beckman could u drop me an email – david@clixmarketing.com ? in reply…
David Szetela Tweeted This Yesterday…

admin

18 Nov 2009 | 6:01 am

BlackBerry to introduce ads in apps http://bit.ly/2XFrY # RT @melaniemitchell: Bing Climbs In Search Market Share – Guess Who Lost? http://bit.ly/2JBkDd #searchmarketing # RT @mjleonard: Invalid Clicks and Click Fraud in Local Search Marketing (SEM) – Giving a New Meaning to HyperLocal http://bit.ly/1WeObb # Understanding #PPC Keyword Match Types for Major Search Networks http://bit.ly/4GzCd0 # I need a graphic of a horizontal funnel, delineated into 3 segments – anybody have one or can point to one? # Google-AdMob deal is about real-time data collection http://bit.ly/2YIDSy…

Search Engine Marketing Gurus
eMetrics: Accelerated Darwinism Online & the Evolution of Web Metrics

Li Evans

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

Li Evans

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

Julie Joyce

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

Li Evans

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.

Greg Meyers

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…

Small Business Search Marketing
Google has the Real Estate Industry on Borrowed Time

Matt McGee

20 Nov 2009 | 5:07 pm

As you probably know by now, real estate is a subject that’s near and dear to my heart — quite literally. My wife is a real estate agent. My sister is a real estate agent. My dad opened his own agency in the 1950s and still works from a home office today as he approaches a tender 80 years old. It’s not just personal, though; real estate is all about small business and I try to watch what’s happening in the industry as much as possible. Lately, I’ve been watching Google take one baby step after another, pushing into real estate as quietly as Google can do…
SBS Flashback: November 2008

Matt McGee

19 Nov 2009 | 9:33 pm

For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading. Small Business Attitude: Survival or Successful? Keywordfinder: New & Different Keyword Research Tool Small Business and Social Media: Experience vs. Enthusiasm The List: Local Search Industry on Twitter Review Spam on Google Maps, 10 Months Later Planning an SEO Campaign Google’s Hypocrisy: Search Spam and Map Spam Previous…
SearchFest 2010 = Amazing Value

Matt McGee

19 Nov 2009 | 3:16 pm

I know it’s not happening for another four months or so, but SEMpdx is already offering early-early-early-bird registration for the 2010 edition of their annual SearchFest conference. The event is scheduled for March 9, 2010, at the Governor Hotel in downtown Portland, and you can register now for only $139. SEMpdx is selling a limited number of spaces at this (absurdly low) rate, and there are only 22 slots left. Registration/Event Information Don’t bother looking for an agenda or speaker list. They don’t exist yet. This is the “trust” rate. I’ve spoken at…
Cheap SEO is Cheap SEO

Matt McGee

13 Nov 2009 | 3:24 pm

Dear small business owners, Please promise me that if you ever get this same email that I got, you’ll have a hearty laugh and then hit the DELETE button: Hi: Affordable SEO services starting. 50 Social Bookmarking Your sites are bookmarked on 50 different sets(PR 4+). Completion Time: ~3 Days $5.00 100 High PR Directory Submission(PR 4+); We will submit your site to 100 PR4+ directories that have good approval rates. Completion Time: ~3 Days $5.00 100 Article Submission We will submit your article to 100 Article Marketing Websties and been one of the collections. Completion Time: ~7…
One Less Reputation Management Tool

Matt McGee

11 Nov 2009 | 3:46 pm

With Technorati in the midst of a major re-launch, it looks like we’ve lost one small-but-important reputation management tools: the ability to subscribe to keyword-based RSS feeds from Technorati’s blog database. For ages, I’ve had Technorati RSS feeds setup for searches on my name and on “small business sem,” which is how many people refer to this blog. While checking RSS last night, I saw this alert from Technorati: The message says that existing feeds have been “retired” and hints that new feeds are on the way. I went to Technorati last night and…

Yoast» - Yoast - Tweaking Websites
Gravity Forms Widget + Extra's

Joost de Valk

21 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am

I've been blogging about Gravity Forms before, and I still think it's one of the best plugins to have been released this year, if not all time. In recent releases they've been adding and adding and adding incredible new features, showing that you really do want to buy the plugin and get all their updates.There's a small issue though: it lacks a bit of functionality that people who were used to my WordPress contact form were really used too, and sometimes even relying on. My plugin added referrer data and the search keyword(s) used to the notification emails. To solve this issue I've written a…
Thanks to Yoast's WordPress loving sponsors

Joost de Valk

18 Nov 2009 | 12:54 pm

I wanted to say thanks to Yoast's sponsors, for enabling me to continue to provide you with WordPress tips and tricks, and to allow me to work on some cool stuff that I'll be able to announce soon!Advertise on Yoast, and get to that WordPress crowdThis blog has a very engaged crowd of readers, who are very active with their blogs and sites. Thousands of them will see your ad each day, thousands of WordPress and Magento loving, smart readers, who know or want to learn about SEO, speed optimization and more.Currently our sponsors are (see their ads on the right hand side):Directory…
Comment Tracking in Clicky

Joost de Valk

17 Nov 2009 | 12:20 pm

So one of the things I've always wanted to do is use an Analytics tools API to enrich the data about a visit. Clicky is one of the few tools out there that have a well detailed API that allows you to push in extra data during the visit. The extra data bit I really wanted to add is an action that I consider one of the most vital actions on a blog: commenting.Let me start by showing you the "end result", first what a "visit" containing a comment looks like, second what data is stored for each visitor (the new feature adds both the name and the email address):This is done by some pretty cool…
Practical Guide to 404 Error Pages: What WordPress is Missing

Joost de Valk

3 Nov 2009 | 5:30 am

I 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

Joost de Valk

30 Oct 2009 | 3:00 am

The 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…

Conversation Marketing
11 ways to be a schmuck

19 Nov 2009 | 9:09 pm

Use Twitter auto-follow tools. Cut other people down. Sell products you know are crappy. Don't take advice. Ever. WRITE E-MAILS IN ALL CAPS. Misuse words. Amelioratingly. Latch onto one idea and don't let go. Two legs good, four legs baaaaad. Whatever you do, never admit you're wrong. Whatever you do, never stop reminding others of their mistakes. Let fear rule your marketing. Sell to the loophole, not the customer.
The speed factor: Google algorithm change favors small business

18 Nov 2009 | 4:16 pm

I'm here tonight to clear up a little misconception: Douglas Karr wrote an article a few days back titled "Is Google really trying to make the web better?" He talked about Matt Cutts' implication at PubCon that site load speed is becoming a search ranking factor. Karr implies that this favors businesses with deep pockets, I'm assuming because they can spend more on improving load speed. Mashable picked up the thread, too: 1. Favors big / powerful sites: As Karr notes, big companies are best able to plow resources into technical prowess. This could disrupt Google's egalitarian basis, and the…
7 Tips for StumbleUpon Success

17 Nov 2009 | 3:50 pm

If you want to learn about StumbleUpon and what it is, read my previous article about Stumbleupon traffic quality.. StumbleUpon is my friend. In a weird, they-just-showed-up-and-were-nice-to-me kind of way. I'll write an article about, say, The Plague that is Powerpoint. Nothing happens. I shrug and move on to the next piece. Then BAM, weeks later traffic goes ballistic: Pretty dang cool. I have no idea who started that Stumblefest, but thanks! No manipulation First: I am not manipulating StumbleUpon. I don't have 50 accounts so that I can stumble my own stuff. In fact, I no longer stumble my…
7 Reasons PubCon is a must for next year

16 Nov 2009 | 4:03 pm

I go to conferences, eat the dry sandwiches, sleep in the hotel room and then head home. Usually, it's a wash - I learn a thing or two, bounce around outside the circles of the 'in' people like the smallest puppy in the litter, and that's it. This year, though I went to my first PubCon. And it was fantastic! Here's why: I didn't attend a single session that was a 50-minute sales pitch. That's a first. Not one speaker I heard said something that set my teeth on edge: No recommendations like "Optimize your keywords meta tag" or "You'll rank #1 when you get 35 links". I learned. A lot. I'm not…
Using eBay as a keyword research tool

12 Nov 2009 | 8:24 pm

Quick post tonight: I've been using eBay's keyword research tool for a while now. It may just beat the more established toolsets when it comes to commercial keyword research. Here's how you use it: First, go to http://labs.ebay.com/raghavgupta/demoto/to?. Type in your query: When you click 'submit' you'll get a report like this: The 'Popularity' column shows searches performed by eBay users. You can't define the time frame - eBay does that for you. The 'Availability' column shows the number of items returned, on average, when you search on eBay. And the 'Bay Estimate' column shows how many…

Samir Balwani
5 Common Mistakes Businesses Make Online

Samir Balwani

17 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

Welcome to web 2.0 — a world where consumers are online looking for your business. Most brands realize the importance of engaging online consumers. The companies recognize the buying power online customers represent, but most brands continue to make the same mistakes when engaging online. So what are these mistakes and how can you keep from making them as well? The Business Doesn’t Invest In Their Website The most common mistake is the lack of investment in an inviting website. Finding a talented designer may be expensive but when considering the potential ROI, a professional…
What is Resultant Marketing and Why Does it Matter?

Samir Balwani

9 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

Online media has introduced a number of new marketing concepts — one of which is resultant marketing. Resultant marketing is the marketing value that inadvertently occurs from a brand freely adding value to the consumer. Brands that have created a social culture of giving, where the consumer comes before the bottom line, are more likely to employ a resultant marketing strategy. When the brand dedicates itself to putting the consumer above all else, it creates an atmosphere where the consumer puts the brand first. credit Understanding The Shift in Marketing Thought Social media marketing…
Copywriting and Social Media: Making the Connection

Samir Balwani

28 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

This 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

Samir Balwani

26 Oct 2009 | 2:10 pm

Some 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

Samir Balwani

20 Oct 2009 | 6:15 am

Imagine 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…

search engine marketing - Google News
Metal Finishing : EmailWire.Com SEO Press Release Distribution Services ... - Emailwire

22 Nov 2009 | 11:34 am

Metal Finishing : EmailWire.Com SEO Press Release Distribution Services EmailwireEmailwire.com™ is a online press release service with experience in SEO press release distribution and newswire services. Emailwire.com™ uses Web 2.0, and more »
youtube Automated Captioning Changes Game For SEO - MediaPost Publications

22 Nov 2009 | 9:35 am

youtube Automated Captioning Changes Game For SEOMediaPost Publications"Having a transcript in the video is huge for SEO," says Andrew Shotland, owner of Local SEO Guide, a SEO in Pleasanton, Calif. "Having targeted text on a and more »
7 Reasons Why You Need to Deal With Search Engine Marketing Change - SEOptimise

22 Nov 2009 | 6:45 am

7 Reasons Why You Need to Deal With Search Engine Marketing ChangeSEOptimiseJust because your at #1 in Google for your most important keyword today, this doesn't mean that your competitors aren't working on an SEO strategy which may Getting Found On The InternetWorcester Business Journalall 3 news articles »
SEO tips for YouTube - Web Marketing Strategies (blog)

22 Nov 2009 | 2:37 am

SEO tips for YouTubeWeb Marketing Strategies (blog)Optimising YouTube pages requires us to follow the same rules as any other search engine optimisation (SEO) project, and all SEO can be broken down into and more »
TRAVEL MARKETING AGENCY NOW OFFERS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION SERVICE - TopWireNews (press release)

21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

TRAVEL MARKETING AGENCY NOW OFFERS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION SERVICETopWireNews (press release)SAN DIEGO, CA (November 20, 2009) Travelers' Trade Distribution Co. a leading travel marketing firm is now adding search engine optimization (SEO) to their and more »

Search Engine Guide
Web Copywriting Voodoo: The 8-Step Secret Copywriters Might Not Want You to Know

20 Nov 2009 | 11:14 am

by Karri Flatla I might get in ca-ca for sharing this with the entire readership of Search Engine Guide, but it's time to reveal what a lot of web copywriters probably don't want you to know. Why? Because keeping you in the dark about how we crunch out great copy day after day keeps us in business. Or so one would think.Personally, I'd rather spill the beans. It's too much pressure to have everyone believing that we web copywriters and SEO copywriters are practitioners of witchcraft. While I readily admit that I cannot always explain how I craft each and every line of compelling copy, there…
Striking Out On My Own All While Staying Put

19 Nov 2009 | 12:26 pm

by Jennifer Laycock Regular readers of Search Engine Guide probably noticed I've been less than active as an author and Twitter voice this past year. All of that's about to change. Over the next few months you'll all see me getting back into the swing of things here on Search Engine Guide and hopefully back to my chatty self on Twitter and other social media sites. Returning to My Roots As of this week, I'm back at Search Engine Guide full time to resume my position as Editor-in-Chief. I'll also be launching my own consulting company so I can continue to work with small businesses and larger…
5 Worries That Can Blow Your SEO Budget

19 Nov 2009 | 12:20 pm

by Stoney deGeyter Many small businesses are at a financial disadvantage when it comes to marketing their website. Too often they don't have the funds, time, or resources needed to engage in as much marketing as they would like. Unlike larger businesses with deep pockets, small business often have to rely on do-it-yourself strategies built upon free advice gathered from blogs, forums, and social networking sites. This gives them a lot to worry about, making sure they are doing it right and that the results will be all they had hoped for. And hoping it doesn't break their budget in the…
When Should I Build a New Website & Invest In SEO

17 Nov 2009 | 6:17 pm

by Jeff Howard The Holidays are no further than one week away, and on the other side of everyone going bonkers is a new year. Chances are at this juncture new budgets will be set, taxes paid, and 2010 business goals established. If you're on the fence about shifting marketing funds toward SEO, or whether or not to build a new website here are objective methods packed into two PDF guides that can assist in the decision making process. Many factors come into play when deciding whether or not to build a new website for your local business, aside from the obvious such as who will build it and…
5 Worries That Can Kill Your SEO Campaign

17 Nov 2009 | 6:43 am

by Stoney deGeyter Small businesses are often seen fumbling around in the dark when it comes to figuring out which SEO strategies really work and which don't. There is an onslaught of information freely available online, much of it contradictory or confusing. Small business owners who attempt to perform SEO for themselves don't often know which strategies are more important than others, which are worthwhile and which are worthless, or how do you tell the difference. Slogging through SEO forums, blogs and article sites can provide a great deal of good information, but it can also leave the…

GOOGLE BLOG SEARCH: SEM
SMO SEO company social media optmization search engine marketing ...

admin

22 Nov 2009 | 9:18 am

Sagacious Softwares is a Website Development and SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) company based in India. Areas of Expertise: SEO Services -. Go here to see the original: SMO SEO company social media optmization search engine ...
SMO SEO company social media optmization search engine marketing ...

admin

22 Nov 2009 | 9:18 am

Sagacious Softwares is a Website Development and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) company based in India. Areas of Expertise: SEO Services -
Social Media Optimization Strategies Dominating SEO and SEM ...

admin

22 Nov 2009 | 7:51 am

People associated with Internet Marketing and e-Commerce, are always aware with the term SEO and SEM. Usually they are familiar with the importance of On Page Optimization and Off Page Optimization of website for getting top ranks in ...
7 Reasons Why You Need to Deal With Search Engine Marketing Change ...

Kevin Gibbons

22 Nov 2009 | 6:29 am

Around 5 years ago I read the book Who Moved my Cheese. It's a very simple, short story about the different methods of dealing with change. I've recently re-read this, (it only takes about an hour so I'd definitely recommend reading if ...
7 Reasons Why You Need to Deal With Search Engine Marketing Change ...

unknown

22 Nov 2009 | 6:29 am

Around 5 years ago I read the book Who Moved my Cheese. It's a very simple,...

Search Engine Land
Reflections On Chrome OS From A Consumer Perspective

Greg Sterling

22 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am

Google hosted something of a formal “status update” on Chrome the operating system in Mountain View on Thursday. There we discovered the company is open-sourcing the code. We also found out it’s intended as a netbook OS (for now) and that Google is working with several hardware partners to create a better netbook experience (full-sized [...] ....
Q&A With Avinash Kaushik, Google Analytics Evangelist & Customer Insight Guru

Daniel Waisberg

20 Nov 2009 | 2:56 pm

Avinash Kaushik is Google's well-known and widely respected analytics guru. In this wide-ranging interview, he talks about his passion for metrics, why they're critical for success, and how search marketers can use analytics to take their campaigns to the next level. ....
Search In Pictures: Google México Party, One Republic @ Google & Pineapple 5K

Barry Schwartz

20 Nov 2009 | 11:35 am

In 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. Google México Campus Party: One Republic at Google: Y! Logo Flowers: Our Vanessa Fox Running the Pineapple 5K (hope she [...] ....
Google Appears To Be Testing New Local AdWords Presentation

Greg Sterling

20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am

Mike Blumenthal received a screenshot that seems to show a test of a new presentation of Google local/geotargeted AdWords. Mike suggests this may be an expression of AdWords local extensions: This is AdWords and not Local Listing Ads, but the presentation (with the blue pushpin) is similar, signifying a local business or a physical location. Here [...] ....
Search Ad Keyword Lawsuit, Now Over Privacy

Barry Schwartz

20 Nov 2009 | 6:29 am

We have covered many of the search ad keyword lawsuits aimed between competitors or directly at the search engines in the past. Nowadays, it seems like a new suit around this topic is filed weekly. Typically these suits go after trademark violations and the like, but a new suit is focusing on a [...] ....

Search Engine Journal
Twitter Turns On Opt-In GeoLocation Feature

Arnold Zafra

20 Nov 2009 | 1:31 pm

Twitter has just activated its GeoLocation feature which will let you opt-in whether you want your tweets to be tagged with your current location. The feature is carried not on your Twitter.com account but on third-party Twitter apps which will use the Geolocation API released by Twitter. If you’re using Twitter apps such as Birdfeed, Seesmic Web, Foursquare among others and those apps implemented Twitter’s GeoLocation API all your tweets will then be tagged with your current location. Seeismic has implemented geotagging features already. So if your using it as a desktop…
Try Out Chrome OS on a Virtual Machine

Arnold Zafra

20 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pm

So you’ve read all about it, seen all the video materials, the what’s not and what is – of the Chrome OS, that is. What’s left now is how you can actually have a look and feel of it in action, or at least almost in action. Over at TechCrunch, they are running a piece on how you could possibly run Chrome OS using the available materials. The whole process might seem easy but I bet it is not for non-geek people like us. It will require you to download an image of the Chrome OS either here or here. The first file is a Torrent version and you need to extract it from the…
Google Combines Search and Real Estate

Arnold Zafra

20 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am

What would you get if you combine web search and real estate listings? Well, there’s not a real name for this feature but Google is nonetheless rolling it out, direct from the labs of Google’s Australia office. This new feature lets you search for “real estate” properties as it appears on Google Maps. Isn’t it great that when you’re trying to look for a real estate property, you can actually see where it is located as well as the surrounding areas via Google Maps? the idea is to make it easier for you to find specific locations and some degree of…
Google Shopping Results : User Experience Downfall

David Freeman

20 Nov 2009 | 5:19 am

Google’s been integrating its product feed into the main SERPs under the guise of universal search for a while now, with the aim of improving the user experience. Now don’t get me wrong I have nothing against the universal shopping results, but in the current format do they really improve the user experience? Well that question is a little insignificant now, as Google have just released (or are testing) a new layout for the universal shopping results in the US. But before we move onto to the new layout let’s briefly run through what I consider to a major downfall…
Your Site Is Badly Indexed? What Can This Mean?

Ann Smarty

20 Nov 2009 | 5:12 am

So you appear to do everything right: you have a fair amount of unique content and you seem to update your site regularly and Google seems to often visit your site… but there appear to be much fewer links in Google’s index than there are actually on your site. So what may that mean? 1. Are there really few pages in Google’s index? You might be wrong about how many URLs are actually in the index as there appears to be no definitive way to tell this. SITE: command may be inaccurate and Google Webmaster Tools reports may be unreliable. ! To make sure a URL isn’t really…

Sphinn: Hot Topics
How AdWords Can Be The Best SEO Tool In Your Arsenal

19 Nov 2009 | 11:17 am

There are literally thousands of SEO tools out there. Some paid, some free, some good and some not so good. There is one tool that is often overlooked when it comes to SEO, yes, search engine optimisation, and that’s AdWords. While most people see AdWords as simply a paid traffic generation tool, many fail to realize the organic SEO benefits a tool like AdWords can provide. I’ve touched on this subject briefly before but below, I have outlined a few more detailed ways that AdWords can (and should) be used for SEO.
Google Tackles Its “UI Jazz” Problem, Tests Streamlining Search Options Feature

19 Nov 2009 | 11:14 am

From the article by Danny Sullivan - "Sometime later today, a small number of Google users will see a new look to Google’s Search Options feature. If all goes well, the cleaner display may be launched across Google after the New Year. And it’s all because Google’s vice president of search product and user experience Marissa Mayer doesn’t like jazz."
How to use multiple sitemaps on one domain for geo-targeting

19 Nov 2009 | 4:24 am

Working with websites that targets several countries is always challenging, especially from an SEO point of view, people just don’t seem to get that doing SEO in different countries goes way beyond different languages. Lisa Myers adresses this topic with an interesting angle of using multiple sitemaps.
Facebook Application Project Management for Marketers

18 Nov 2009 | 8:18 pm

So You Wanna Build A Facebook Application? First things first. You need to know some basics before you run of all half-cocked ready to create your first Facebook masterpiece. Let's talk briefly about some basics when it comes to building a Facebook application.
Why Twitter’s New Retweet Feature Sucks

18 Nov 2009 | 10:01 am

Lisa Barone's thoughts on Twitter's new Retweeting feature. It's intrusive, badly thought out and counter-intuitive to the way people use the system #TwitterFail

ISEdb.COM - Articles
Google Translate Now Includes Speech and Real-time Translation Functionalities

18 Nov 2009 | 11:37 am

Google has recently announced on its official blog new features and a new look for Google Translate, which now includes a text to speech function, real time translation functionality and phonetic transliterations for a number of languages including Chinese, Arabic and Persian.
Online Newspapers May Finally Make Some Money

18 Nov 2009 | 7:38 am

Studies are showing that the struggle online newspapers have faced for the past few years in getting paid for online content may be leading them towards just that. While many online publications have announced plans for paid models, another study shows that much more advertising is headed for the online world. In addition, it seems that online video advertising is on the rise.
Google Getting Ready to Introduce a Bunch of New Stuff

18 Nov 2009 | 7:35 am

The Google team has been busy lately (well, they always are, aren’t they?). They’ve got the blogosphere buzzing about some new items about to be unveiled, including its new Fast Flip, a neat new feature called Image Swirl, and the much-talked about Google Phone.
New Adobe Air 2.0 Released

17 Nov 2009 | 7:09 pm

For the first time since 2007, Adobe has updated its Air platform, released recently in beta with a slew of new features. The features include support for detection of mass storage devices, advanced networking capabilities, ability to open a file with its default application, improved cross-platform printing, and a bunch of other things that you probably won’t really notice in any other way other than your Adobe working significantly more efficiently and smoothly than before.
Gen Y Women More Influenced by Social Media Than Older Counterparts

17 Nov 2009 | 7:02 am

A recent report by e-Marketer shows that Generation Y women are significantly influenced by blogs and other social media. The report was based on a study performed by PopSugar and Radar Research entitled “Why Y Women?”.

Majon: Search Engine Marketing
Implementing Useful Search Engine Strategies

admin

20 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

Just as with any form of advertising for your business, search engine optimization is not something that you want to take lightly whenever you are trying to get the word out about your website or your products or services that you provide online. Many smart website owners look at search engine strategies as a good way to get the most out of their web marketing dollar while also helping to optimize their website to bring in tremendous traffic as well as return shoppers or viewers. If done correctly, search engine optimization can be one of the most valuable advertising tools that any website…
Getting The Most Out Of Website Advertising

admin

19 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

When you have a business, you know that it is very important to have the right type of website advertising strategy in place in order to get the most result for your budget. After all, you work hard to develop a strong business that will provide all of your customers with a great product or service along with a professional attitude and outstanding customer service. Now that the Internet is a huge part of daily life, not just for ordinary users but also for businesses, it is a great idea to get in on Internet advertising in one or more of its many forms. After you decide that you want to…
Increase Traffic And Sales With Popunder Advertising

admin

18 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

If you have had a website up and running for a while, then you are already well aware that you need to have a solid online marketing campaign in place in order to get the traffic and sales that you desire. After all, the products or services that you provide on your website is only as good as the number of Internet users who hear about them or make their way to your website to check them out or buy. Popunder advertising and redirected traffic are terrific ways to supplement your Internet advertising budget in order to help drive a whole new level of viewers and/or customers to your website.
Is Website Linking Necessary?

admin

17 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

If you already have a website in place then you may have heard of or even worked with website linking, also known as link building and along with several other names. However, if you are new to the world of owning your own website on the Internet, then you may not be fully aware of what exactly website linking is or how it can benefit you and your search engine ranking. Today, there are a number of great things that you can do to get your website listed higher up in the search engine results, and the proper links can certainly help to not only get you there but also help to keep you there.
Mistakes To Avoid With Website Optimization

admin

16 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

If your website is not listed in the top of the search engine rankings, then it is more than likely your main goal to make sure that it gets there and subsequently stays there. However, you need to be sure that you follow some basic guidelines as you start to outfit your website with the proper SEO or search engine optimization tools and promote web linking. After all, there can actually be too much of a good thing and the last thing you want is to see your website taking a major hit in terms of rankings. Keeping in mind some of the common mistakes that people make along the way should help…

Search Engine Watch Blog
Google News Updates Mobile Site for iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre

20 Nov 2009 | 11:39 am

Google has made some enhancements to its mobile news site. The updates are just for the iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre. The look and feel is pretty much the same. What's new is more stories, sources, and images. A new "Jump to" link brings a pop up box offering quick access to a specific news category. Any personalizations you make on your desktop will be accessible via your mobile now, as well (as long as you're signed into the same account on both). Screenshots: News.Google.com on an iPhone Jump to
Yahoo! Adds Tweets, Breaking News to News Shortcut

20 Nov 2009 | 10:50 am

After announcements from Google and Bing about incorporating Twitter into their search results, Yahoo! is throwing hopping on the real-time results news bandwagon. Yahoo!'s Twitter integration is part of a new update when the News Shortcut is implemented in the search results. Yahoo! is also recognizing when there's breaking news and indicating as such on the News Shortcut. Here's a screenshot of a search for the space shuttle Atlantis shortly after launch earlier this week (per the Yahoo! Search blog): What do you think of these updates to the Yahoo! News shortcut? Let us know by leaving a…
Twitter Consults the Ghost of Fred Berry for New Status Prompt

20 Nov 2009 | 9:23 am

Twitter has announced that the question that appears in the status update box will no longer be "What are you doing?" Now, it will be "What's happening?" My immediate reaction was this (and I wasn't the only one):
Google Tests Permanent Sidebar for Results, Blue Submit Buttons for Homepage

20 Nov 2009 | 9:07 am

Lately, Google is experimenting more than Sheldon Cooper on their homepage - and now, also on their search results. They're testing a permanent left sidebar in their search results, which would turn the results into three columns: new sidebar, organic results, search ads. Hmm, this reminds us of Bing. And Bing reminded us of Ask's 3D design (which they've since abandoned). Additionally, after experimenting with removing the submit buttons on the homepage, now Google is bringing back the buttons and testing them with a new color: bright, primary blue. In the Google help forums, two screenshots…
YouTube Launches Automatic Captions; Great for Accessibility and Search

19 Nov 2009 | 8:47 am

YouTube is introducing machine-generated automatic captioning to YouTube. The captions can also be translated. This obviously has incredible implications for the hearing-impaired and language translation. But it also has great implications for search. Automatic captions will be generated using Google's automated speech recognition (ASR) technology and the same voice recognition algorithms used in Google Voice. Additionally, auto-timing is being introduced. If you provide all the words in the video, Google will automatically time the captioning for you. Of course, having what essentially…

Internet Marketing News Watch
'Video: Sales Lessons From A Face-to-Face Master Closer' by Kevin Rogers

21 Nov 2009 | 4:13 am

Kevin Rogers' latest blog post is titled "Video: Sales Lessons From A Face-to-Face Master Closer". [Blog]
'Don’t Blow PR Opportunities' by Bob Bly

21 Nov 2009 | 4:08 am

Bob Bly's latest blog post is titled "Don’t Blow PR Opportunities". [Blog]
'Powerful Success Quote' by Mike Litman

21 Nov 2009 | 4:05 am

Mike Litman's latest blog post is titled "Powerful Success Quote". [Blog]
'Tips to Get a Great Source For Traffic' by Matt Bacak

21 Nov 2009 | 3:50 am

Matt Bacak's latest blog post is titled "Tips to Get a Great Source For Traffic". [Blog]
'Just Got the AWeber Web Form Generator' by Shawn Collins

21 Nov 2009 | 3:44 am

Shawn Collins' latest blog post is titled "Just Got the AWeber Web Form Generator". [Blog]

The Search Agents
The Week We Searched For – November 20, 2009

Camille Canon

20 Nov 2009 | 9:41 am

Google Lifts the Veil on Chrome Google unveiled part of their Chrome operating system this week. Although the actual launch date isn’t until late next year, the Chrome OS code will soon be released to the public under an open source license. Google’s operating system has been much rumored about, as it will run almost entirely through Web applications, relying on Web-based cloud storage, rather than computer storage. As such, Chrome is expected to pose real competition for Windows and Apple’s computing systems. While Google promotes the benefits of the ‘cloud,’ many are still…
To Search or Not to Search, That is the Question.

Grant Simmons

19 Nov 2009 | 11:08 am

Sorry Will (Shakespeare that is), I didn’t mean to misquote or mislead the followers of the great bard. It’s just that search isn’t what it used to be. Looking at my client (as well as my own) analytics, it seems more and more people are typing in URLs into the search box. Is this still considered search, when the only possible result is the one they’re looking for? Or is this a sign of our ‘marketing times’? Gone are the days of typing in “books” or “movies”. Now brand awareness has Internet users typing “Amazon.com”…
Does Reading Level Matter in SEO?

David Waterman

17 Nov 2009 | 6:47 am

Below are a statement (from Ted Ives) and a response (from David Waterman) on the concept of reading level as it relates to SERP rankings. Enjoy! A statement from Ted (a wise man) While it’s unclear whether Google utilizes reading level of web pages as an organic ranking factor explicitly, reading level clearly matters if you give it just a little thought. There are various methods of computing the reading level of a page, with pluses and minuses to each, but my favorite is the Flesch-Kincaid grade level, which takes into account the number of words per sentence and the number of syllables…
The Values of a Click

Bradd Libby

13 Nov 2009 | 10:45 am

In a recent YouTube video, ‘Google AdWords Bidding Tutorial‘, Google’s chief economist Dr. Hal Varian describes a method for calculating what he calls “optimal or near-optimal” bids for keywords. His method requires first determining your Value Per Click and then selecting the bid whose incremental cost-per-click (ICC) is equal to, or less than, that value. To facilitate this process, Google is testing an update to its Bid Simulator feature that includes the ICC for each possible bid (The version of Google’s Bid Simulator you see might or might not…
The Week We Searched For- November 13, 2009

Camille Canon

13 Nov 2009 | 9:24 am

Yahoo, Microsoft and Google to Provide Free Wi-Fi Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and eBay announced this week their plans to offer free Wi-Fi from various outlets across the country for the upcoming holiday season. Google has partnered with Boingo Wireless network to bring free Wi-Fi to 47 national airports, Microsoft has taken care of hotels and airports across the country, provided that users use Bing for search, and Yahoo has computers and mobile phones covered in Times Square. Corporate rationale has, most likely, less to do with bringing holiday joy to the nation and more to do with potential…

DMNews Search Marketing
Google: Retailers optimistic about holiday e-commerce

12 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

More than half (53%) of retailers' 2009 holiday advertising budgets are staying at the same level as last year, while 41% of retailers are seeing their ad spending allowances increase, according to analysis by Google and OTX, a consumer research and consulting firm.
From one search query, there are 10 ways to get an answer

2 Nov 2009 | 9:48 am

While 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 am

While 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 am

Now 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 am

Now 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.

eMarketer Articles
Focusing on the Core Customer Experience

19 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm

Kevin Ertell Vice President, Retail Strategy ForeSee Results
Data on Twitter Decline Stacks Up

19 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm

Tweeting no more?
Context Matters More Than Ever for Canadians

18 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm

Karin von Abrams eMarketer Senior Analyst
Coupons Boost E-Mail Open Rate

18 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm

Clicking, not clipping
Deep Brand Engagement Creates Customers

17 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm

From awareness to consideration, purchase and recommendation

e-Consultancy: SEM
Q&A: Dennis Mortensen on Yahoo Analytics

Meghan Keane

20 Nov 2009 | 4:14 am

Dennis Mortensen has worked in the analytics, optimization and online marketing industry since 1996. He is an Associate Web Analytics Instructor at the University of British Columbia, the Author of data driven insights with Yahoo! Web Analytics, and a frequent speaker on the subject of analytics and online marketing. Mortensen joined up IndexTools in 2004 and worked as COO until the company was acquired by Yahoo! Inc., in May 2008. Today he is the Director of Data Insights at Yahoo! and sits on the Board of Directors at the Web Analytics Association. He also writes the popular analytics blog,…
How to use Google Voice to increase reorders

Bryan Eisenberg

20 Nov 2009 | 3:48 am

I just received an email from nutritional supplement retailer Jigsaw Health, about a new program they offering their existing customer base. After speaking to President and Co-Founder Patrick Sullivan Jr, I learned that 80% of their monthly revenue comes from returning customers (and they don't even offer an auto-ship program). How? By setting up Google Voice so that repeat customers can place orders via text message. Let's take a look at how this works... Patrick came up with an idea to make it simpler for these customers to re-order from him, knowing that most people don't spend all their…
12 reasons Chrome OS will fail

Patricio Robles

20 Nov 2009 | 2:33 am

Yesterday, Google held a press conference at its Mountain View headquarters to provide the world with an update on its new operating system, Chrome OS. A lot of new details were forthcoming, which have have been well-covered by others. The questions on everyone's mind: is Chrome OS the real deal? Where does it fit in? How will it impact the OS market. My answers: it isn't, nowhere, it won't. Here are 12 reasons why Chrome OS is going to fail. The web matters, but so does the desktop. With Chrome OS, Google is betting that desktop apps don't matter to the average consumer. Is that a good bet?
Search marketing stats round up

Graham Charlton

20 Nov 2009 | 1:37 am

Here's a selection of recent social media stats, taken from a range of sources, including Econsultancy's Search Marketing Statistics document, which forms part of the Internet Statistics Compendium, and other reports... US search engine rankings (comScore) Americans conducted 13.8bn searches in September 2009, with Google accounting for 64.9%. Yahoo was next on 18.8%, followed by Microsoft on 9.4% and Ask on 3.9%. UK search market share (Efficient Frontier) Google's share of UK search spend was 86.5% in Q3 2009, Yahoo was next on 9.1%, while Bing took 4.3%. Search and branding (Google /…
Q&A: Gerrard Dennis of Simply Group on e-commerce

Graham Charlton

20 Nov 2009 | 1:33 am

The Simply Group operates seven e-commerce sites in the UK, from SimplyScuba, to the recently relaunched SimplyBeach. I've been talking to founder Gerrard Dennis about the challenges if running seven separate sites... How long have you been operating?We started out in 1995 with the Scuba shop and, around 2000, we decided to branch out into other avenues, feeling that specialising in just scuba gear left us too exposed to possible changes in the market.By offering ski gear as well as scuba, we were covering all year round in terms of leisure activities, and we have continued to add more since…

Search Marketing Standard
The Razor’s Edge – Web Analytics 2.0 Arrives

Frances Mary Krug

20 Nov 2009 | 9:22 am

We’re on the razor’s edge today – Occam’s Razor, that is. With Avinash Kaushik’s new book Web Analytics 2.0 finally hitting the bookstores, he’s promoting – well, at least as much as he has time for with his multiple full-time jobs and numerous other responsibilities and passions. Avinash is not popular just because of what he has to say – his energy and sense of humor makes what could be a dry, dry topic into something anyone can get into and understand. Avinash himself lays out the “chapter and verse” of the book on his blog this week. As he says, “It is not a…
Hiring Your Own SEO

Rebecca Appleton

18 Nov 2009 | 7:10 pm

If, despite your best efforts, your website is not making the inroads you would hope in the search engine rankings, it may be time to consider recruiting an SEO to the team. Hiring a professional gives you the benefit of their expertise and will ease the workload of team members currently required to carry out SEO-related tasks that they may not be fully trained to do. However, the job of hiring an SEO is a tricky business, especially since their knowledge will often be far superior to your own. That can make the interview process difficult, as you do not want to be blinded by science or…
5 Tips For Creating Compelling PPC Ads

Chris Stiner

16 Nov 2009 | 3:30 am

Search engine marketers are always looking to capture a valuable and relevant click throughout their pay-per-click campaign. Here are five ways to help target those all-important searchers through compelling and effective ad copy. 1. Utilize Your Product’s Uniqueness – Most companies already know what sets them apart from their competitors. More than likely, your company has already completed hours of market research, so you should utilize this data in your ad copy. For example, if you have a Volvo dealership, capitalize on the safety aspect of your brand; if you have a Subaru dealership,…
What Do You Do Now That LinkedIn Is All A-Twitter?

Frances Mary Krug

13 Nov 2009 | 7:20 pm

With Twitter and LinkedIn announcing this past week that LinkedIn users can now synch their status with Twitter updates, LinkedIn has stepped up to the plate with something that is bound to cement its position even more securely among business users. Early results show a strong uptick in LinkedIn status updates. So, if you’ve been letting your LinkedIn account languish, it may be time to revisit and revamp, especially with their much-awaited redesign making its way online as well. Here are some recent postings on good places to go for tips and help on getting the most from your LinkedIn…
Tips For Distributing Your Online PR

Rebecca Appleton

11 Nov 2009 | 7:31 pm

Armed with last week’s post on writing the perfect PR, you should now have a structured, formatted, and interesting news release to send out online. But just because the writing is finished, it doesn’t mean that your work is done. Having a PR and having people read it are two very different things. This is where PR distribution comes in. Distributing the PR is just as important as the creative process because it’s this part of the job that will help you harvest good quality links and drive targeted traffic to the site. 1. Start Locally Your local media should always be your first port…

The SEM Blog
Twitter Teams up with Google and Bing

JMO

27 Oct 2009 | 2:45 pm

Twitter 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

JMO

20 Oct 2009 | 3:43 pm

Today, 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

JMO

13 Oct 2009 | 12:02 pm

Recently, 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

Jonti Bolles

5 Oct 2009 | 9:05 am

Evan 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

Jonti Bolles

16 Sep 2009 | 10:00 am

The 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…

John W Ellis
Optimizing for Google Caffeine

John W Ellis

17 Nov 2009 | 6:51 am

What is Caffeine? In August, Google announced they were “working on a secret project”. This project is commonly known as Caffeine. “It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.” Caffeine does not affect the user interface. The average person, the person not involved in the daily changes of what search engines do, probably will never even notice the change. Most of these new changes are “under the hood”. It involves a change in infrastructure and coding. Search Engine…
Barcamp Memphis – November 14

John W Ellis

9 Nov 2009 | 7:55 pm

Barcamp lands in Memphis on Saturday, November 14. BarCamp Memphis ‘09 will take place at the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering. A BarCamp is a participatory “un-conference” event, organized by attendees, for attendees. Barcamp attendees, or campers, are asked to not just attend, but to participate. Everyone is an expert, share that experience with others. Together we have great knowledge. I will be speaking on one pre-defined session and possibly more as time and demand allows. Bringing Pay-Per-Click In-House In my Barcamp Memphis session, I will be discussing the benefits of…
Has the (Google) Flu hit your town yet?

John W Ellis

31 Oct 2009 | 9:27 am

As 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

John W Ellis

21 Oct 2009 | 6:47 pm

Google 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

John W Ellis

9 Sep 2009 | 12:42 pm

Start 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…

KOMARKETING ASSOCIATES: SEM BLOG
8 Tips for Getting Site Owners to Open Your Link Building Requests

Derek Edmond

11 Nov 2009 | 8:13 am

Last week I attended a Business Wire event on green technology; geared towards entrepreneurs, ad agencies and PR folks. Among the four panelists were two reporters, an editor of an industry site, and an analyst covering the space. As the session turned to Q/A, the obligatory question on how members of the audience should pitch them was asked. Interestingly enough, all four panelists indicated that email was the preferred method for receiving a pitch. I find the concept of a PR pitch much like “old-school” link building. While one could argue link building emails are not the most…
10 Steps for Turning Social Media Engagement into B2B Leads

LShirman1

6 Nov 2009 | 9:44 am

Guest 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

Andy Komack

5 Nov 2009 | 7:04 am

What 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?

Andy Komack

2 Nov 2009 | 10:08 am

On 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

CJBogus

23 Oct 2009 | 9:02 am

Guest 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…

MOREVISIBILITY: SEM BLOG
Do You Know Who You’re Targeting?

Taylor Wilson

19 Nov 2009 | 6:19 am

MoreVisibility has been managing hundreds of company’s online marketing efforts for over ten years. Through the years we continuously stress the importance of knowing who your audience is. In order to best position yourself in the competitive paid search world and get the best ROI, you must first know who you are targeting. Your target [...]
What Are You Thankful For?

Marni Haas

16 Nov 2009 | 7:44 am

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, how about taking the time to think about which aspects of your website and online marketing initiatives you are thankful for. From this list, you can determine what might be missing or lacking from your online efforts and expand and/or improve your efforts from there. Be thankful if… Your website is [...]
Enhance Your Sponsored Links with Ad Sitelinks

Sonya Wood

13 Nov 2009 | 7:12 am

Google recently launched a new beta feature for sponsored search, called Ad Sitelinks. Ad Sitelinks allows advertisers to add extra links within their paid search ads. This new feature enhances your text ads by adding up to four additional landing pages below your ads. Ad Sitelinks are similar to site links in the organic search [...]
Just A Little Bit of Character

Ryan Faria

12 Nov 2009 | 6:46 am

For any advertiser who has participated in search engine marketing, part of the difficultly is saying what you want to say within the allotted characters. The major search engines; Google, Yahoo and MSN (Bing) each allow 70 characters for the description lines (including punctuation and spacing). What makes Yahoo’s situation unique from Google and MSN [...]
The Herd Mentality of Search Engine Marketing

Gerard Tollefsen

9 Nov 2009 | 6:22 am

According to Wikipedia, herd mentality describes how people are influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors, follow trends, and/or purchase items. This phenomenon is obvious within the search engine marketing field just as much as everything else in our daily lives. In fact, the top 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing/MSN) all seem [...]

Reel SEO Video Marketing
Viral Video Round Up – Lessons From This Week’s Viral Successes

Jeremy Scott

20 Nov 2009 | 9:11 pm

It’s time for another Viral Round Up—our weekly look at the latest viral success stories as we attempt to reverse engineer them to see what made them work. Since I missed last week’s Round Up, we’ll actually look at more videos than normal this week. Call it my tangible apology, like the flowers I sometimes buy my wife. Without further ado, let’s dive in. 1. The Bird Tennessee Titans owner, Bud Adams—who is 86 years old—was captured on film by a fan in the stands after the Titans beat the Bills in Nashville last Sunday. Don’t ask me why this fan decided to turn around and…
Google Rolls Out Automated Captioning For YouTube Videos

Mark R Robertson

20 Nov 2009 | 3:11 pm

Google today announced that they are adding automatic captioning capability to videos on YouTube. This is a fantastic step forward for accessibility for deaf Internet users. Says Vice President Vint Cerf, who is hearing impaired himself: “Google believes that the world’s information should be accessible to everyone. One of the big challenges of the video medium is whether it can be made accessible to everyone.” Until this announcement, users have only had the ability to manually upload their own captions, something many users have indeed done. With the new system, the…
Video Project Planning & Management – Market7 Overview

Christophor Rick

19 Nov 2009 | 1:40 pm

Market7 wants to be your online collaboration service and video project planning solution and of course make money off of you while doing it. They have free trial accounts to check it out and offer a range of product packages to help you get all your creative from talent to post-production in the same place and on the same page (or in the same frame?). It allows you to assemble teams, define projects, develop content, securely share files, and communicate clearly. The environment’s modules are organized by project stages: pre-production, production, and post-production. Market7 is…
EveryZing Moves to RAMP Focus on Content Optimization

Mark R Robertson

19 Nov 2009 | 8:46 am

Yesterday, EveryZing, a company that we have profiled in the past, has re-branded themselves as RAMP.com. They made a name for themselves by helping companies optimize their video content for search discovery through speech to text recognition technology and they are now moving beyond video optimization to focus on helping publishers ramp up monetization, discovery, and engagement through “content optimzation.” “Over the past three years of the company’s history, we’ve continued to build our core technologies for solutions to grow audience and revenue for online audio,…
Univision/YouTube Partnership Is A Bigger Deal Than You Think

Jeremy Scott

19 Nov 2009 | 6:50 am

Did you see the headline earlier this week that YouTube had struck a deal with Spanish Television Network, Univision? If you’re a typical American, you might have passed right over it. Maybe you noted it mentally, but figured it wasn’t terribly important to you since you don’t speak Spanish. The deal actually seems pretty important to me for two big reasons: 1. For what it means for Spanish speakers Let’s start with some basic facts about Univision that, because they aren’t NBC, you might not know. First, they have the largest Spanish-speaking audience of any television…

SEMClubHouse - Key Relevance Blog
I think my computer must be tired – it’s not thinking too clearly

admin

20 Nov 2009 | 11:01 am

by Mike Churchill I was checking the weather this morning (raining again – Ugh!) and when I went to look at the detailed hourly predictions, I got a suprise. It was interesting find that the Google Toolbar thinks that the US Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website is written in Sovenian !
Use Newspapers for Local SEO

silver

9 Nov 2009 | 9:26 am

Newspapers and search engine optimization are made for one another, but the newspaper industry has been a reluctant participant in the internet age. Today I posted a marketing advice article geared towards small, local newspapers entitled, “Local Newspapers Need To Embrace SEO To Survive“. Ironically, Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, has just stated this past weekend that they’re entertaining the possibility of completely yanking their news articles out of the Google index altogether! This, of course, would be a large mistake because there’s increasing…
Leverage Google Custom Maps As A Long-Tail Tactic

silver

12 Oct 2009 | 11:33 am

When 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

admin

16 Sep 2009 | 7:46 am

by 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

silver

14 Sep 2009 | 5:21 am

by 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…

The Invesp Blog
Nominations are Open for the Top 100 Most Influential Internet Marketers of 2009

khalid

4 Nov 2009 | 10:58 am

After 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

khalid

4 Nov 2009 | 9:46 am

In 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

Ayat Shukairy

27 Oct 2009 | 10:51 pm

Ecommerce 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

khalid

23 Oct 2009 | 2:56 pm

Oh, 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

khalid

19 Oct 2009 | 4:01 pm

This 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…

ASK Enquiro - SEM News
Search Insider Sneak Peek: Avinash Kaushik and the 3 for 1 Keynote

manoj@enquiro.com

20 Nov 2009 | 9:01 am

Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Analytics Evangelist, will be kicking off the Search Insider Summit in just two weeks. I had the opportunity to chat to Avinash last week about what might be in store. As anyone who has heard Avinash before can vouch for, it won’t be sugar coated, it will be colorful and it will probably wrench your perspective on things you took for granted at least 180 degrees. Here are the three basic themes Kaushik will be covering: The Gold in the Long Tail Avinash believers there is unmined search gold lying in the long tail of many campaigns. The secret is how to find it…
SIS Sneak Peek: Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards

manoj@enquiro.com

12 Nov 2009 | 4:40 pm

In about 3 weeks, we’ll be gathering in Park City, Utah for another Search Insider Summit. Between now and then, I’ll be providing a sneak peek at some of the content that will be covered. On Day 1 of the summit, Jordan Rohan from Clearmeadow Partners and Mark Mahaney from Citi Investment Research will look backward 6 months and forward 6 months to help us get a fix on lessons learned and what we should be paying attention to. I asked both Jordan and Mark to provide some hints of what they’re seeing in their rearview mirrors and what’s coming down the road. Mark Mahaney – The 6…
SIS Sneak Peak: Selling Search to the C-Suite

manoj@enquiro.com

6 Nov 2009 | 11:13 am

In 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

manoj@enquiro.com

5 Nov 2009 | 12:47 pm

Just 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

manoj@enquiro.com

29 Oct 2009 | 3:17 pm

A 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…

PPC Management & SEO - The Wpromoter
Viral Video Friday!

Jesse Bouman

20 Nov 2009 | 9:34 am

We’ve got 5 more viral videos this week including a tipsy lady, an animated short, PC dancing, and yet another auto tuned mash up. Drunk Pole Dancing Gone Wrong Drink responsibly so you’re not “That Girl” at the party. Pigeon: Impossible What does nearly 5 years and a hundred artists and musicans get you? A 6 minute short. Pigeon: Impossible Podcast #001 - The Production Triangle Pigeon: Impossible director Lucas Martell sums up his first digital short, “Some things take a little longer than you expect… ” Microsoft Store - Breaks Out into Song Are you…
Boosting the Effectiveness of Display Ads with Paid Search

Amanda Moshier

18 Nov 2009 | 5:57 pm

Department store mogul John Wanamaker wasn’t sure which half of his advertising was working Troubled with an inability to track the effectiveness of his advertising dollars, John Wanamaker, the father of modern marketing, famously quipped: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” The lack of hard metrics available to measure the success of traditional advertising has since been dubbed the Wanamaker problem, and has eluded marketers for years. While it was understood then as it is understood now that advertising is a compulsory part of…
Client Profile: Bevforce

Michael Block

16 Nov 2009 | 1:56 pm

Across the world, in every culture, one thing remains the same: at the end of a hard day of work, we all like to kick back and have a little fun. For many of us, that might mean throwing on some pajamas and cracking a mystery novel. For others, that might mean hitting the theaters to catch the latest romantic comedy. For the more outgoing, though, that might mean hitting the local bar, pub or restaurant and enjoying some good food and good drinks with friends. I, for one, find myself in the third group on many a Friday night. Nothing makes me happier than hanging out with my friends over a…
Viral Video Friday!

Jesse Bouman

13 Nov 2009 | 9:18 am

We’ve got all kinds of videos for you on this Friday the 13th. Sports, internet, talk shows, and pop music…enjoy! New Mexico’s Elizabeth Lambert Plays Dirty Junior soccer player Elizabeth Lambert will do anything to win. Andre Iguodala Trick Shot Trick shots are always fun and they make you wonder, “Was that real?” Five Years of Firefox The story of Mozilla Firefox’s first five years. Carrie Prejean on Larry King In a strange moment, Carrie Prejean On Larry King Live threatens to leave the show because she feels Larry is being “Inappropriate”…
Sweeping the Leg at ad:Tech

Matthew Burr

12 Nov 2009 | 2:24 pm

Through an unexpected, yet sadly not surprising, turn of events, I had the good fortune to spend last week in New York City representing Wpromote at the most recent ad:Tech conference. While it may at first seem foolish to place me in front of potential partners and clients, I assure you all that I clean up good, and of course, please keep in mind that I was not the company’s first choice. I also had to promise not to wear my Cobra Kai costume or try to sweep anyone’s leg while working the booth, heartbreaking sacrifices indeed. Now, this conference signified a farewell to our booth…

eBay, ecommerce, life
Make Serious Money on eBay UK by Dan Wilson

trevor

13 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pm

I’d like to heartily recommend Make Serious Money on eBay Uk by Dan Wilson. This new updated edition not only has a comprehensive guide to selling on eBay as a business but also covers other vital areas such as amazon marketplace, Google and setting up your own website. The perfect stocking filler? If you found this post useful, why not buy me a coffee!
Interview with Become UK

trevor

31 Oct 2009 | 3:45 am

Shopping 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

trevor

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

trevor

18 Sep 2009 | 12:28 pm

I’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

trevor

15 Sep 2009 | 3:36 am

Gentle 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!

Search Engine Marketing (SEO & PPC) - ArcherSEM.com
Network Marketing for the Digital Marketing Age

anne

26 Oct 2009 | 12:05 pm

Creative 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

anne

20 Oct 2009 | 6:24 am

You 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?

admin

19 Oct 2009 | 12:01 am

Cyber 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

admin

16 Mar 2009 | 3:07 pm

Today 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

admin

13 Mar 2009 | 11:38 am

Looking 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…

Reel SEO Video Marketing
Viral Video Round Up – Lessons From This Week’s Viral Successes

Jeremy Scott

20 Nov 2009 | 9:11 pm

It’s time for another Viral Round Up—our weekly look at the latest viral success stories as we attempt to reverse engineer them to see what made them work. Since I missed last week’s Round Up, we’ll actually look at more videos than normal this week. Call it my tangible apology, like the flowers I sometimes buy my wife. Without further ado, let’s dive in. 1. The Bird Tennessee Titans owner, Bud Adams—who is 86 years old—was captured on film by a fan in the stands after the Titans beat the Bills in Nashville last Sunday. Don’t ask me why this fan decided to turn around and…
Google Rolls Out Automated Captioning For YouTube Videos

Mark R Robertson

20 Nov 2009 | 3:11 pm

Google today announced that they are adding automatic captioning capability to videos on YouTube. This is a fantastic step forward for accessibility for deaf Internet users. Says Vice President Vint Cerf, who is hearing impaired himself: “Google believes that the world’s information should be accessible to everyone. One of the big challenges of the video medium is whether it can be made accessible to everyone.” Until this announcement, users have only had the ability to manually upload their own captions, something many users have indeed done. With the new system, the…
Video Project Planning & Management – Market7 Overview

Christophor Rick

19 Nov 2009 | 1:40 pm

Market7 wants to be your online collaboration service and video project planning solution and of course make money off of you while doing it. They have free trial accounts to check it out and offer a range of product packages to help you get all your creative from talent to post-production in the same place and on the same page (or in the same frame?). It allows you to assemble teams, define projects, develop content, securely share files, and communicate clearly. The environment’s modules are organized by project stages: pre-production, production, and post-production. Market7 is…
EveryZing Moves to RAMP Focus on Content Optimization

Mark R Robertson

19 Nov 2009 | 8:46 am

Yesterday, EveryZing, a company that we have profiled in the past, has re-branded themselves as RAMP.com. They made a name for themselves by helping companies optimize their video content for search discovery through speech to text recognition technology and they are now moving beyond video optimization to focus on helping publishers ramp up monetization, discovery, and engagement through “content optimzation.” “Over the past three years of the company’s history, we’ve continued to build our core technologies for solutions to grow audience and revenue for online audio,…
Univision/YouTube Partnership Is A Bigger Deal Than You Think

Jeremy Scott

19 Nov 2009 | 6:50 am

Did you see the headline earlier this week that YouTube had struck a deal with Spanish Television Network, Univision? If you’re a typical American, you might have passed right over it. Maybe you noted it mentally, but figured it wasn’t terribly important to you since you don’t speak Spanish. The deal actually seems pretty important to me for two big reasons: 1. For what it means for Spanish speakers Let’s start with some basic facts about Univision that, because they aren’t NBC, you might not know. First, they have the largest Spanish-speaking audience of any television…

Content Rich
Will the C-Suite Ever Embrace Social Media? Hmmmm…

jonwuebben

5 Nov 2009 | 1:07 pm

Most 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!

jonwuebben

3 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am

As 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!

jonwuebben

22 Oct 2009 | 12:56 pm

Debra 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″

jonwuebben

25 Sep 2009 | 1:42 pm

Scott 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

jonwuebben

22 Sep 2009 | 2:15 pm

Of 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…

Search Marketing : Darin Carter
Free Sponsored Tweets

Darin

20 Nov 2009 | 9:31 am

Zac Johnson has put together a deal with Sponsored Tweets to give away $5,000 in free Sponsored Tweets. Read more about it at Zac Johnson Dot Com! Here’s another chance at some FREE MONEY! Get it while you can! Darin Sponsor: Join the Affiliate Revolution. PepperjamNetwork.com Post From: Search Engine Marketing : Darin CarterFree Sponsored Tweets
2009 : State of Search Marketing

Darin

2 Nov 2009 | 10:48 am

By: 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

Darin

27 Oct 2009 | 12:18 pm

There 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

Darin Carter

6 Oct 2009 | 11:08 am

Hello 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

Darin

29 Aug 2009 | 6:59 pm

If 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…

Maine SEO Blog
Maine SEO Project: Reliable Networks (Flash & SEO)

Nicki

19 Nov 2009 | 2:01 pm

A few months ago, flyte finished another web site/SEO project for Reliable Networks – a company right in downtown Portland, Maine that specializes in technology services. Initially, Reliable Networks had an entirely flash-based website. While search engines are getting better about indexing flash, they still can’t see it as well as HTML text. So we popped the site onto WordPress, giving the folks at Reliable Networks a spot to blog at the same time. What’s the big deal with flash? Here’s what the cache of the site originally looked like: And now, Google can see the…
Maine SEO Project: SelectDwelling (Programming and Blogging)

Nicki

17 Nov 2009 | 11:29 am

A few weeks ago, flyte relaunched a WordPress website for SelectDwelling: a site that lists long-term home rentals in the Southwest Florida area. The premise is simple: there’s a space for renters and a space for owners. Through some pretty extensive programming, the owners are able to create their own account, upload photos, add information – the whole nine yards. Then, when a renter looks in a specific town, that property comes up in the search results. [There are more fantastic programming morsels that my marketing mind cannot grasp, you'll simply need to try it out for…
Which came first: Website Usability or Search Engine Optimization?

Nicki

16 Nov 2009 | 7:18 am

More and more, it’s becoming apparent how much website usability and search go hand-in-hand. You can’t have great search visibility without great usability; and no one will know your site has great usability without great search visibility. At this point, the two are so intertwined, it’s difficult to separate them; but let’s give it a go with some important usability rules for search: Information Architecture If you haven’t built your website yet… Great! Stop right now. Do you have a site outline yet? You’ll need to document exactly how your…
How NOT to Skew Your Own AdWords Conversions

Nicki

12 Nov 2009 | 8:16 am

Let’s not beat around the bush…if you use AdWords, you Google to see if, how, and where your ad comes up. Don’t worry, everyone does it. While you know better than to click, did you know that simply by searching you’re still skewing your results? That’s right, your impressions! So even though you don’t click, you’re actually decreasing your CTR (click thru rate) by increasing impressions. How can you stop skewing your results? Google was kind enough to create a tool for that: Ad Preview. It looks similar to the Google search results, but…
Is Your New Website Getting Indexed by Search Engines?

Nicki

4 Nov 2009 | 8:06 am

You’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…

SearchViews
Mobile: What Marketers Need to Know About Google’s AdMob Deal

Noah Mallin

11 Nov 2009 | 10:32 am

The rapid growth of mobile platforms this year has put to rest any doubt that digital marketers may have had about jumping in. The recent successful launch of Android coupled with the continued growth of iPhone sales (even as the recession continues) point clearly to a continuing transformation in the portability of the online experience for most Americans. Google’s deal to buy AdMob serves to reinforce this wisdom. After all, it’s not just about AdMob’s ad-serving platform. So much of Google’s success in the world of search advertising has been built on the back…
Search and Social Media: Your Guide to Bing and Google on The Road to Social Media

Noah Mallin

29 Oct 2009 | 2:11 pm

This 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?

Mark Pilatowski

22 Oct 2009 | 7:32 am

As 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

Noah Mallin

16 Oct 2009 | 1:09 pm

I 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

Noah Mallin

9 Oct 2009 | 1:23 pm

There 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

Traffick
No, it's really an OS

Andrew Goodman

19 Nov 2009 | 6:41 pm

2003 seems to be the earliest anyone seriously had the stones to predict that Google would work on an operating system, but even then, most prognosticators referred to Google's combined properties being "like an OS"... metaphorically.We at Traffick are proud to be among the earliest Google-OS-watchers who actually identified an actual operating system as a potential Google project, as opposed to "OS-ishness". In November 2003 we said it wasn't happening anytime soon, so we weren't 100% wrong.Rich Skrenta was also hit-and-miss in his visionary post of 2004, which said absolutely nothing wrong,…
Whuffie-Shoehorning (Part I)

Andrew Goodman

19 Nov 2009 | 7:50 am

The "have's" and the "have nots". My friend Mike Grehan has always talked about that divide in terms of link love. People with websites have (at least the chance) of voting for someone else's page or site with a link. People who don't, don't.Yet search engines have focused a lot on linking behavior as a measure of quality and reputation. They've done so ever since Google bust on the scene with PageRank, in 1998.But now that terrain has exploded. Signaling approval comes through reviews, mentions, and social media sharing, especially tweeting.But the websites at the receiving end of all this…
Good and Bad Overhead

Andrew Goodman

17 Nov 2009 | 11:55 am

Silicon Valley logic has seemingly ruled the economy for many years now. The culture of casual clothing, distributed work, and relentless downward pressure on some costs such as some software and of course storage (the "too cheap to meter" phenomena discussed by Chris Anderson in Free) are very familiar to some of us because we work close to or in that culture.But the fact is, many don't work that close to that culture and some actively resist the folkways of high tech, especially high tech startups. So many of the "old ways" have persisted. Some people bravely predict a "return to…
Thanks Battelle, I Feel Better Now

Andrew Goodman

17 Nov 2009 | 7:06 am

This being a week of overwork for many of us, this "kick the week off" post for Monday didn't happen until Tuesday.And now, there is no way (at least not yet) that I feel like posting about something serious (such as a review of Avinash Kaushik's new book, which definitely deserves a post).To start the week off with a chuckle (or to start what's left of it off) might make more sense.I thought I lost my cool dealing with United Airlines. A colleague once actually watched me drop an f-bomb on a gate agent's head, like something out of a bad reality show. And I *never* do that! So United must be…
Salute

Andrew Goodman

11 Nov 2009 | 9:39 am

To stopping something. To our brave war veterans. In Canada, this is called Remembrance Day. On this day, I'm often overwhelmed with pride at Canada's role in world affairs (not always perfect); about the same feeling I get on July 1, Canada Day. World War I was hoped to be "The War to End All Wars." Would that it were so. And so tempering that pride, I reflect on the sheer magnitude of those thought-to-be-unthinkable conflicts.To starting something. Beginning the 15th year of publication! In 1995(!), Dr. Ralph Wilson started Web Marketing Today, about the same time as the commercial Internet…

Inside AdWords
Take advantage of advanced reports

Inside AdWords crew

18 Nov 2009 | 4:34 pm

For a long time, the Report Center has been the place to go to find detailed data about your campaign performance. Reports with dimensions like geographic performance and time of day can give you new insights through metrics that aren't available on the campaigns tab.But there can be drawbacks to using the Report Center: customized reports take time to set up and run, and you have to navigate back to the Campaigns tab to take action on any insights you discover.We're addressing these issues by better integrating advanced performance data into campaign management. Now, instead of running a…
Think2010: Recap of the Four Winning Moves webinar

Inside AdWords crew

17 Nov 2009 | 3:13 pm

Last week, Google’s US Managing Director Bonita Stewart hosted the 2nd webinar in the Think2010 series, entitled “Think2010: Four Winning Moves for 2010.” She discussed tools and strategies that you can use to differentiate your offerings, increase competitive advantage, and ultimately seize opportunities as the economy recovers. Below are the four key takeaways from the webinar:1) Use precision - Flexibility yields stealing share: Utilizing precision through search can serve as the world’s largest focus group and allow you to understand how consumers want to engage with brands. Tools…
Upgrade to AdWords Editor 7.6.1

Inside AdWords crew

13 Nov 2009 | 7:57 am

AdWords Editor version 7.6.1 is now available for Windows and Mac. This new version includes support for ad scheduling, advanced location targeting, YouTube Promoted Video ads, and other features. For a complete list of changes and instructions, visit our release notes.If you're already using AdWords Editor, you'll be prompted to upgrade automatically. If you're not already using it, you can visit our website to download AdWords Editor. To learn more, take a look at our AdWords Editor Help Center.Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew
AdWords system maintenance on November 14th

Inside AdWords crew

11 Nov 2009 | 6:15 pm

On Saturday, November 14th, 2009 the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10AM to 2PM PST, for maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.AdWords system maintenance typically occurs on the second Saturday of each month from 10AM to 2PM.We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but please make note of the November 14th date and of our scheduled maintenance further down the road.Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew
Announcing Product Listing Ads

Inside AdWords crew

11 Nov 2009 | 1:47 pm

Each day we see many users come to Google.com to research products and find where to buy them. To better serve these users, we've been testing a new feature of AdWords called Product Listing Ads. Product Listing Ads works with an advertiser's Google Merchant Center account to serve highly targeted ads that include richer product information directly in the ad itself - including product image, price, and merchant name. Starting today, U.S. users searching on Google.com may begin to see Product Listing Ads more frequently on their shopping related queries.Two examples of Product Listing Ads…

Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog
Breaking News from Yahoo! News

Administrator

19 Nov 2009 | 4:47 pm

Tabs allow news-junkies to get info, photos, video and the latest tweets on popular stories News flash! Today Yahoo! News announced enhancements to its Yahoo! News Shortcut. The enhanced shortcut with these new tabs will now display for many breaking or major news searches, and offers related content: News, photos, video and tweets from Twitter. For example, check out the big story of the week: The national shortage of Eggo Waffles. Here’s what the new shortcut looks like. For all the details, visit the Yahoo! Search Blog.
You’re Invited…

Administrator

17 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pm

Attend our free display advertising webinar this Thursday to help enhance your search campaigns Research shows that using display advertising can lift your company’s search activity by 155%. (Source: Specific Media; study leverages 12 months of proprietary Specific Media Ad effectiveness data ending August 2008, backed by comScore.) This coming Thursday, November 19, at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, we invite you to join us for a free one-hour webinar that will demonstrate why adding display ads to your marketing mix can energize your search campaigns, and present an simple and quick way to…
Anti-Phishing Reminders

Administrator

16 Nov 2009 | 12:56 pm

Defend yourself from scammers looking to steal your account Though we have previously published articles on “phishing,” we think it never hurts to remind you of ways to protect yourself from these scammers. You may receive an e-mail that looks like it came from Yahoo!, taking you to something that looks like a Yahoo! Search Marketing log-in page. But in reality it can be a phishing scam from somebody who is trying to duplicate our login page to get your user name and password to hijack your account. Well, don’t fret. To help combat these phishing scams, we have installed what’s called…
One Shining Moment

Administrator

12 Nov 2009 | 10:28 am

Norton hits a three-pointer with college basketball tournament campaign on Yahoo! Mobile According to sports pundits, “defense wins championships.” This maxim is often true for the annual championship tournament of college basketball, commonly known as “March Madness.” The security software leader Symantec plays a different type of defense, but one that is no less vital to its legions of fans and customers. Over the years, the company’s Norton products have built a legacy similar to those of college basketball powerhouses like UCLA and North Carolina. During the 2009 tournament,…
The Tooth about Dental Ads

Administrator

12 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

Dentists—and doctors of all types—should drill down on these tips for writing healthy ad copy Ah, the dentist. We put it off, we brush furiously to avoid it, but sooner or later we all wind up seeking out the man—or woman—in white. When it comes to finding dental help, the Internet has made the thing easier, bringing local dentist info out of the yellow pages and onto our computer screens. But like anything else you search for online, there are a lot of possibilities out there. Dentists have to compete for attention online by creating strong search results that stand…

adCenter Blog
What’s New From Bing: Mobile, Shopping, and Travel Updates

Carolyn Miller - MSFT

20 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pm

Several new and improved Bing features announced earlier this month are now 100% live in the U.S. , and include adCenter ads in their results pages – this is your opportunity to get your ads in front of your audience as they check out the latest...(read more)
JiWire's Ads for Access Program: Free Wi-Fi in Hotels and Airports for Bing Users

Emily Chandler-MSFT

20 Nov 2009 | 8:02 am

Microsoft is launching a new campaign with JiWire to provide free Wi-Fi access throughout airports and hotels in exchange for searching on Bing. The deal is the latest in an ongoing strategic push to further encourage new users to test the decision engine. According to the press release Monday, the campaign "is based on the premise that once people experience Bing first-hand they will come back and use the engine again." It works something like this. I'm at my gate 30 minutes until my flight boards going home this Thanksgiving, so I hop online to see if I can get Wi-Fi. In my…
Increase Your Content Ad Intelligence

Sean O Connor - MSFT

19 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

The Microsoft Advertising Content Network continues to grow its ranks of desirable publishers with the recent addition of PC World. As the content network expands, so too does the need for tools to help advertisers understand this product better and enable them to optimize their campaigns more easily. Enter Microsoft Advertising Intelligence. The latest release of Microsoft Advertising Intelligence now includes tools for Content Ad Keyword Generation, Content Ad Volume Estimations, and Content Ad Vertical Research. This is, indeed, a big win for our content advertisers. Summary of the top…
SEM Beginner Series: Why is Ad Position Important?

Tina Kelleher - MSFT

18 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

This is the 5 th post in the SEM Beginner Series, following last week's post on dynamic text . This series of posts is intended for new search engine marketing professionals that are looking for guidance to help identify, monitor and adjust the key...(read more)
Black Friday, Cyber, Green and Brown Monday and What They Mean For adCenter Advertisers

Tina Kelleher - MSFT

17 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, most advertisers should have noticed an uptick in volume of clicks as online shoppers begin scouring the internet for the best deals leading up to the holidays. If you haven’t already started optimizing...(read more)

The Adventures of PPC Hero
PPC News Roundup for 11/20/2009

Jessica

20 Nov 2009 | 1:39 pm

Have you heard of the Google Content Network Blast? The blast apparently serves up an advertiser’s ad on several of Google’s CN sites over a shorter time frame, geographic region, audience segment or high traffic sites. These blasts can deliver 100 million impressions over a 24 – 48 hour time period. See how you can sign up for one today. When it comes to PPC, making sure you’re targeting the right audience is key to success. Have to give credit to Elizabeth Marsten for writing her blog, ‘don’t market to me like I’m a prostitute’ really makes you think about who you’re…
Use These Tips from Yahoo to Maximize Your Holiday Revenue

Amber

18 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

This information was presented in a webinar by Yahoo last week. I went into it hoping to learn something new but wasn’t expecting to learn something new – but it turned out to be a very insightful webinar full of good stats that you can cater your PPC advertising campaigns to this holiday season. General Holiday Shopping Stats: Women this year are planning to spend less. More comparison shopping will be done this year over any other previous year to try and find the best deals and offers. This means it’s likely your click-through rates will decrease due to an increase in impressions…
Landing Page Testing: How to test and what to test

Joe

17 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

Testing your ad copy and your landing pages can significantly improve your paid search efforts. Of course, building a solid keyword base, creating an optimized account structure, and executing a well-planned bid management strategy are also crucial. However, testing allows you to understand how to optimize and improve your communication with your target audience. Conducting thorough tests on your landing pages can deepen your audience interaction and increase your conversion rate. If you’re like a lot of companies, running tests on your landing pages used to involve numerous meetings…
PPC News Roundup for 11/13/2009

Jessica

13 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

Search Engine Land takes a look at the advanced segments feature in Google Analytics. The example compares short & long keywords to show how the advanced tool can be used to analyze keyword data more efficiently. Never hurts to learn a little bit more about Analytics… The next installment in the SEM Beginner Series explains the use of dynamic text and how it can be used to improve some Key Performance Indicators. Ad copy that is customized to what the user searched on can improve your CTR and conversion rates. Searching Beyond the Paid has a nice post this week on PPC and The…
Weed Out Unqualified Traffic with the Search Query Report from MSN adCenter

Amber

11 Nov 2009 | 9:52 am

Finally we’re getting more data about the search queries that trigger our ads to display in Bing.com. Google has had the search query report out for a while now, and Yahoo! has it but you have to request it personally from your Yahoo rep (if you have one). But now you can finally see raw search query data within your adCenter PPC account. Search query reports show you the actual search queries that trigger your ads to show in the search engines results pages. Because you may have broad match keywords or even phrase match keywords, a user’s search query may not match exactly to what you…

Search Marketing Sage
RichTech: Social Media in the Workplace Part 2

Renee Revetta

20 Nov 2009 | 12:11 pm

Chris Tignor CISO at Capital One, Michael McGarry, CTO at Genworth Financial and Kirsten Kliphouse, Eastern Regional Manager of Microsoft spoke about some best practices and procedures for using social media in the workplace. Kliphouse said social media has become core to Microsoft product development in a diverse market. She suggested that companies listen to [...]
RichTech: Social Media in the Workplace Part 1

Renee Revetta

20 Nov 2009 | 8:34 am

This week, I attended the RichTech TechSummit on social media in Richmond, Va. The morning started with discussions about networking, then moved on to the benefits and concerns of social media, concluding with a best practices panel and cyber intelligence recommendations for dealing with this Wild West era of social media. First up was Dr. [...]
Android’s Perfect Storm

Paige Payne

19 Nov 2009 | 7:18 am

Along with the unveiling of the Android mobile platform in 2007 came the debate comparing the Andriod operating system head to head against Apple’s iphone operating system. Today, as more and more android powered phones come about, phones like Verizon’s new Motorola Droid, more people get wrapped up in this debate. Regardless, to me, it really [...]
Pre 2010 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Checklist

Avelyn Austin

19 Nov 2009 | 6:59 am

Yesterday I wrote a “Pre 2010 Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) Checklist“, but the truth is if you’re a search engine marketing firm you’ll also need to prep your search engine optimization (SEO) accounts for 2010 as well. So here’s a list of SEO To Dos before the New Year sets in. Review With The Client: [...]
Pre 2010 Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) Checklist

Avelyn Austin

18 Nov 2009 | 3:40 pm

Believe it or not it’s time to start wrapping up 2009 and get prepped for an exciting 2010! So what does that mean for you and your pay per click advertising (PPC) accounts? It means it’s time to start checking off you end of the year to do list. To help you out, here’s a [...]

GenuineSEO
Sency – What’s Going On?

Eddie Gear

11 Nov 2009 | 7:32 am

It seems as if new real time web start-ups are popping up each day. The reason for this is that Internet users have begun to show an affinity for real time data. In the past, search engines would show static search results based on relevancy. Today, users can find out what is happening right now, and the real time web start-ups are aimed at filling that need. Today, we have reviewed real time web start-up, Sency. Sency offers both a search for users and feeds for webmasters. The search allows users to see what is going on right now. Comments from the real time web are displayed…
Process 1: Find the best keywords related to your niche

Eddie Gear

3 Nov 2009 | 6:17 am

In 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)

Eddie Gear

22 Oct 2009 | 9:20 am

Most 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

Eddie Gear

7 Oct 2009 | 9:35 pm

Here 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

Eddie Gear

2 Oct 2009 | 6:33 am

Every 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…

CDF Networks
Misinformation in affiliate marketing

Chad

19 Nov 2009 | 10:26 am

To be honest, I don’t read many blogs or forums about affiliate marketing. The reason? Aside from not having the spare time, most of what you read is simply wrong. Everyone has an opinion, but unfortunately their opinions are probably based on circumstances that don’t apply to you. Here are some examples of things I have read, that are just plain wrong. x traffic source sucks, no conversions. Insert whatever traffic source you want here, and someone is out there saying it is terrible and doesn’t work. While it is terrible for some, another person is making a…
Reducing lead scrubbing

Chad

4 Nov 2009 | 10:20 am

Lead 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

Chad

28 Oct 2009 | 10:02 am

Affiliate 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

Chad

21 Oct 2009 | 10:16 am

I’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

Chad

16 Oct 2009 | 9:06 am

Its 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…

expertSEM
Peak Behind the Scenes of Google

Angie

22 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

I bet you had no idea that the force behind Google’s rapid searching and indexing was a hopped up Librarian frantically leafing through books and journals. We didn’t either, until we found this neat site by Weetabix Foods. Find out what’s inside your search.
Top 10 Articles Location3 is Reading This Week

Angie

20 Nov 2009 | 11:38 am

Without further ado, here’s the top ten list of articles read by Location3 this week: I. How blogging has changed in last three years This article discusses some new findings by PostRank that deal with blogging. Essentially, blogging is definitely different than it was three years ago, but it’s also in better shape than it was then. People aren’t engaging with the actual blog post as much (i.e., commenting directly on site) but they are participating in off-site engagement, such as sharing on social networks. Read more blogging stats on Read Write Web. II. Search shows ten years ago…
Word of the Year: Unfriend

Angie

20 Nov 2009 | 7:19 am

As a self-proclaimed word nerd, I’m always looking for ways to incorporate grammar and language use into my posts on expertSEM. To do this, I usually have to stretch and morph the interactive marketing topic to fit my semantic agenda. But I’m happy to report that this week’s topic relates to both social media and words. The big news: unfriend was selected by the New Oxford American Dictionary as the Word of the Year. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines unfriend as: (verb) – To remove someone as a “friend” on a social networking site such as Facebook. As in, “I decided…
Google Maps: Not even the Whitehouse is safe.

Erik

19 Nov 2009 | 12:22 pm

Being one of the local search specialists around here, people often forward me articles and blogs they think I might be interested in. Today I was forwarded this article from NYTimes.com that really caught my attention. It’s been awhile since I stopped everything else to voice my opinion, but this one seemed to not represent the true going ons inside Google local search. The article mentioned above highlights the wiki or self editing features of Google Maps. For those not familiar, Google gives anyone the ability to update not only the physical location on a map, but also the specific…
Tip of the Week – SEO Reporting

Crystal

19 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

Last week, Tarla wrote an excellent post on how to report your SEO success. Definitely give it a once-over if you haven’t already! For this weeks tip, I wanted to take those tips and push them one step further. One comment (or question rather) I often hear is “Why?” As Tarla mentioned, clients have every right to fully understand the campaign they are paying for and it is our job as the experts to make sure they are not left with unanswered questions. After you have gathered the heaps and heaps of data and placed everything into nice charts and graphs, do your clients a…

Search Engine Marketing Blog
Tweet for Tat

seo

16 Nov 2009 | 12:46 am

“Social Media” are the buzz words of 2009. What used to be the online playground of undergrads pulling all-nighters in their college dorms, has now turned into a marketing phenomenon for Fortune 500 companies and start-ups alike. However, what a lot of professionals with decades of marketing experience tend to forget when dealing with social [...]
Simple Steps to Ensure Your Website is SEO-Friendly

seo

13 Nov 2009 | 1:35 pm

If you’re like me, easily influenced by pretty shiny things that flash in my general direction, then you may be designing your website with aesthetics as your number one priority. That’s all well and good if you’re an established fashion label with ten years of Vogue and Vanity Fair creds. But, chances are, [...]
Comparing Facebook Groups and Pages

seo

11 Nov 2009 | 1:23 pm

The Facebook Fundamentals Establishing your presence on Facebook is an important task whether you are promoting yourself or your business. Some may find that the process is not that straightforward. The first obstacle you will encounter is deciding whether to create a Group or a Page. For some businesses, choosing both is a possibility. So, before [...]
Customize your Google News Home Page

seo

9 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

Customs Sections Directory Google News has recently made it possible for you to customize your Google News home page! They have created a Custom Sections Directory, which can be modified and changed by its user. Simply click on the “Add a section” link on the far right side of your Google News page and you will [...]
Competition Among Top Search Engines

seo

6 Nov 2009 | 1:06 am

Google Dominates Google continues to dominate as the top search engine in the United States. While a select few reign over the search engine industry, there is a great range between the top three largest companies. As of September 2009, about 70.5% of users use Google, 17% used Yahoo! and 9.3% sided with Bing. With such [...]