All Entries in the "Search Engine Marketing" Category

How Do Search and Social Media Intersect?

I recently had the privilege of presenting at PubCon in a session entitled How Do Social Media & Search Intersect? where two questions were pondered – “Does social media prevent the need for search?” and “Does social media play an important role in search?”

Winning the Web Launches ‘The Winners Circle’

Let’s face it – information and advice on Internet marketing is easily accessible and quite frankly in abundance. In fact, I am very selective about what I choose to write about here simply due to the fact that I feel much of what I can say has already been said before.

That being said, I feel one of the very best ways to learn Internet marketing tactics such as SEO, PPC and even social media marketing, is to get in there and learn by doing. That’s often easier said than done. But what if you had a mentor… or even mentors – someone to guide you who has actually experienced success themselves?

Many Small Businesses Still Not Getting Search

Danny Sullivan has a great write-up in Search Engine Land relaying his experiences in searching for small businesses and coming up frustrated. He had assumed that every business owner, large or small, must understand by now the importance of appearing before these customers in search. However as he recently sought out local businesses to help with his needs after a recent move, Danny was reminded of just how far behind some companies remain.

SBM Unleashed: Site Architecture

You may have heard it said that having a search engine friendly site is key to success on the web. That’s fine and dandy, but what in the world is a search engine friendly site? Find out how to code your site to make a difference in how well you rank in the search engines. Learn what tags and attributes are essential to gaining those top rankings. Even if you know nothing about HTML, this session will arm you with the knowledge to help your programming team get your site in shape.

SBM Unleashed: A Common Sense Approach to Online Marketing

While it’s easy to get overwhelmed about going up against big businesses in marketing realms like search engine optimization, blogging, viral marketing, community building and analytics, a good dose of common sense can really level the playing field. This panel aims to set the stage for the rest of the show by helping you change your perspective on competing with the big boys.

IncrediMail Provides Valuable Lesson Why Placing All Eggs in One Basket is a Bad Idea

IncrediMail, an Israeli based a company that develops software to customize e-mails, has provided business owners an incredible lesson as to why you should not place all your eggs in one basket. This occurred last week when they discovered that their AdSense privileges had been banned. This resulted in their stock dropping over 45% to a new year low. While IncrediMail does claim to generate revenue by selling software products, offering subscriptions to their content database, and by selling paid advertising on their Web site and e-mail client, they did admit that search revenues powered by Google’s AdSense program made a significant contribution to their results in 2006 and 2007.

The Thanksgivings of a Search Marketer (2007 Version)

I can’t believe it has been almost a year since I wrote my first “The Thanksgivings of a Search Marketer” post but no doubt – here we are. Therefore in traditional fashion, seeing that those of us in the United States will celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday this coming Thursday, I thought I’d once again reflect on what I am thankful for as a search marketer. Of course first and foremost I am thankful for my wonderful wife, Irma, my family, my faith and the many blessings that have been bestowed upon me this year. However, seeing that this is a search marketing blog, I thought it would be fun to put together a list of things I am thankful for related to that world.

Search Marketing Budgets To Grow By Double Digits in 2008

Kevin Newcomb reveals the results of the latest Search Marketing Benchmark Survey from MarketingSherpa at SearchDay where he reports that search marketing budgets are expected to increase by double-digit percentages next year. This is no surprise as we have seen a continual trend over the years of companies allocating more funds toward search marketing efforts. One reason for this increase is the anticipation of higher prices. That would include increasing PPC prices on keyword buys as well as firms who continue to increase pricing.

Are Garage Sales and Search Engine Marketing Alike?

Are garage sales similar to search marketing? I think so. I have just survived another garage sale that my wife has put on in which I started to think how a successful garage sale is a lot like a successful search marketing effort. Likewise a garage sale that performs poorly can be compared to a search marketing effort that delivers a poor ROI. My wife has always had very successful sales which has been the result of a lot of hard work. More than once she has completely surprised me in how she can turn a nice profit out of what I consider junk (stuff we no longer use or need).

Optimizing Press Releases for Search Engines and People

Li Evans has a great post over at Search Engine Gurus where she explains how to not only optimize press releases for search engines, but people as well. Press release submitted online are a good way draw attention to your products and services. They also provide opportunities to increase the amount of inbound links that are pointing to your site. However, as Li explains, “understanding who will find this information intriguing enough to call you to investigate a little more and create a story out of your information is the key to creating successful press releases.”

Can You Increase The Visibility of Your Site on a Shoestring Budget?

After putting together an SEO proposal for a small business web site they came back and informed me that they only had $300 to spend. That’s not monthly folks, but period! After looking over my proposal which was more to the tune of a few thousand dollars, they wondered what they could do (if anything) with such a small budget.

So You Want To Be a Search Marketer? – Part 2

This is the second part of a recap of what I spoke on in a session entitled “So You Want To be a Search Marketer” at the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. In part 1, I provided some statistics on how much money is pouring into this industry, explained how I happened to “stumble” into search marketing after experiencing success marketing one of my own sites, and talked about how to gain hands-on experience by applying search marketing techniques to a working web site before engaging paying clients. In part 2, we are going to look at how budding search marketers can network with businesses as well as peers, how they can effectively brand themselves, how to stay on the cutting edge of this fast paced industry and some things not to do.