March 2005

Scottie Claiborne

Motivating Your Web Site Visitors To Take Action: Personality Targeting

It is easy to focus on one personality type with your design, layout and copy, but with a little creativity you can actually build a site that appeals to all types....

Jim Hedger

Looking Up Vertical Search Lines

Name a business sector and you can likely find a search tool designed specifically for that sector. Vertical search is not a new idea however branding it as an essential type of search engine is....

Jennifer Laycock

Ixquick Metasearch Engine Introduces New Features

Dutch metasearch engine Ixquick introduced a range of new features this week designed to generate more comprehensive and accurate search results....

Scott Buresh

The Myth of Rankings - Beyond Search Engine Optimization

In general, if a prospect can’t explain what he or she hopes to achieve beyond “higher rankings” or “more traffic,” we’ll first try to educate, and, if that person can’t move beyond these base subjects, we’ll kindly refer them elsewhere....

John Alexander

The Easiest Sequence of Steps for Growth of Your SEO Career

What I'd like to share here are some simple steps you can consider, as well as the sequence of those steps to be most effective in launching your proposed SEO business....

Eric Ward

Looking for Links In All The Wrong Places?

In their frenzy to build links to curry favor with the engines, web site owners miss a far more important audience using topical tools....

Jennifer Laycock

Web Analytics is Google's Latest Acquisition

Google announced plans this week to purchase San Diego, California based Urchin, a popular web analytics software program, for an undisclosed sum of money....

Simon Dang

Strategies For Preparing a PPC Keyword List (Part 1)

Generating your initial keyword list for PPC should be a well-thought out process. It is a critical step in a successful PPC campaign and should not be rushed....

Scottie Claiborne

How Image Links Can Help Build a Better User and Search Experience

There are webmasters out there who believe that good design, usability, and SEO can't co-exist in the same site; that effective SEO will ruin usability or design elements....

Jason Dowdell

IXQuick.com Q & A With David Bodnick & Alex van Eesteren

Jason Dowdell speaks with Alex van Eesteren and David Bodnick of IxQuick.com, a meta search engine that's been around for a few years but released some new features out of beta last week....

Jim Hedger

Yahoo fires latest salvos in Search Engine War

This has been a good week for Yahoo. It has seriously upgraded its feature services and, as search engine user stats released yesterday by Search Engine Watch attest, is holding its position against Google and MSN in all fields....

Bill Hartzer

Yahoo! Unveils Yahoo! Creative Commons Search Beta

Yahoo! today unveiled its new Creative Commons Search Beta where you can find content you can "use for commercial purposes" or content that you can "modify, adapt, or build upon"....

Jill Whalen

Search Marketing FAQ: Special Relationships, Traffic and Plurals

Jill Whalen continues her search engine marketing FAQ and answers commonly asked questions about special relationships with the engines, traffic estimates and keyword phrases....

Jim Hedger

Search Industry Maturing

The activity of the first three months of this year has started to change how most users relate to search. For search marketers, environmental changes borne by the mass adoption of new technologies can be both boon and bust....

Jennifer Laycock

Lawsuit Against Google May Prove Costly for AFP

AFP is going to court to keep their customer's Web sites from being listed in Google news. One wonders how their customers feel about this, after all, a victory could result in less traffic to customers' Web sites....

Jason Dowdell

Q & A With Become CTO Yeogirl Yun

AIR evaluates a web page based on what other "knowledgeable" sites in that specific field say about the page, and also evaluates the page based on what the page says about other "knowledgeable" sites in the specific field."...

Scottie Claiborne

Successful Website Marketing Needs More Than Great Search Listings

In order for search marketing to be an effective marketing strategy, people have to look for what you sell. This seems to be an obvious statement, but it's surprising how many business owners overlook this detail....

Daria Goetsch

Link Building - The Waiting Game

It takes time for the search engine robots to find those new links and index the pages they are linked to....

Bill Hartzer

MSN's New Beta Shopping Search Engine

MSN is quietly beta testing a new shopping search engine which some say will rival Froogle, Google's shopping search engine. Apparently the new beta site rolled out about a month ago....

Tinu Abayomi-Paul

The Budget Webmaster’s 6 Step Guide to Improving Existing Rankings in Google

If you got ranked for a keyword you wanted At All, the game’s not over yet. If your site’s content is geared towards that subject, you can get your ranking in search engines increased, at no cost. How?...

Jennifer Laycock

Amazon's A9 Offers Unique Local Search Experience

Rather than simply offering a standard phone number and map enabled address listing, A9 is able to rely on Amazon's massive community of users and existing content platform to generate unique localized information....

Kimberly Krause Berg

User Experience and Search Engines: If Your Home Page Could Only Talk

I can’t tell you how glad I am that you found my website. You have no idea the great lengths we’ve gone to get you here, let alone what we’re about to do to keep you on this web site....

Jim Hedger

Corporate SEO Preparation

Large companies are just now starting to recognize the wisdom behind a full spectrum approach to search engine marketing and the marching orders seem to have gone out to the marketing divisions....

Jennifer Laycock

MSN Introduces New adCenter Paid Search Solution

One of the potentially unique aspects of Microsoft's paid search program is its ability to offer more specific targeting of the ads. Through the use of IP data and its own database of personal user information, Microsoft could take keyword based advertising to the next level....

Jennifer Laycock

Popular Search Marketing Myths Debunked

There are a few myths that seem to continue to be spread and that often pop up among small business owners that are trying to get enough of a grasp on search marketing to hire a professional to help them with their site....

Scottie Claiborne

Hiring a Search Engine Marketer

Do-it-yourself SEO is a great way to go- if you've got the time to put in, anyone can effectively optimize a website. However, it makes sense to hire a professional when your time is better spent doing what you do best; running your business....

Gallianno Cosme

Increase Website Traffic by Giving Them What They Want

Many internet marketers still believe that link building, both one way and reciprocal, are the way to go. I find this to be an outdated method that wastes time that could be otherwise spent implementing other far better ideas....

Shawn Campbell

Are You in for a Safe Landing? - PPC Landing Pages

You've paid for your ticket and your ads are up on Google AdWords and Yahoo's Overture, but have you set up a safe landing for your clients?...

Bill Hartzer

The Terrier Project

Search Engine Guide - Terrier is different because it includes a novel link analysis component that is more general than Google's PageRank, does not use parameters such as the damping factor, can be applied in a query-dependent or independent way, and could be used in various applications, such as multilingual retrieval....

Jennifer Laycock

ClickTracks Optimizer Offers Must Have Reporting for Small Businesses

Overall, ClickTracks Optimizer is a winner, offering a variety of reports and tools that were present in past releases as well as introducing a few new options to the mix as well....

Jason Dowdell

Basic SEO Answers For CFDynamics' Newsletter

Natural search results are still around and that attempts to make all natural search results actually unnatural by making site owners pay a fee to be included. I honestly thought natural search was going to go away a couple years back but it didn't....

Bill Hartzer

The Terrier Project

Terrier is different because it includes a novel link analysis component that is more general than Google’s PageRank, does not use parameters such as the damping factor, can be applied in a query-dependent or independent way, and could be used in various applications, such as multilingual retrieval....

Barry Welford

Search Engine Optimization in the Here and Now

Once the broad principles are clear, SEO requires careful and detailed work on all the elements of each web page once appropriate keywords and keyword phrases have been selected....

Scottie Claiborne

SEO Without Usability -- An Exercise in Futility

SEO had worked well for this company -- here I was -- a qualified buyer with credit card in hand who had found their site through a search engine. And yet I abandoned that site (and the nine others like it) in disgust....

Boris Mordkovich

What's The Deal With "Other" PPC Search Engines?

There is a lot of controversy going on regarding the actual conversions that 2nd tier search engines bring. However, you might wind up paying the same or even less per sale, as the bids are significantly lower on the 2nd Tier engine where it took 200 clicks to make 1 sale....

Tinu Abayomi-Paul

Increase Traffic to Your Blog from Search Engines - The Top 5 Tips

If you haven't already submitted to blog directories, you are missing out on some great one-way links. But before you head over there and start submitting, you should know a little about how to optimize your blog....

Jill Whalen

Multiple Domains, File Placement and the Impact of Blogs on Rankings

Jill answers a variety of commonly asked questions about search engine optimization including multiple domains, file placement and the impact of blogs on rankings....

Jennifer Laycock

Yellow Pages Introduces Local Search Guide

In response to the growing interest in local search, the Yellow Pages Association (YPA) introduced a new column this month called "Viewpoints" that features commentary and articles relating to the growth and development of the local search market....

Jim Hedger

Yahoo! Celebrates Ten Years

Yahoo was among the first Internet properties to grow solely by word of mouth. Within six months of its conception, over one hundred thousand unique users per day were visiting Yahoo....

Mel H. Pine

Thinking Like a Spider Helps Search Engines Rank Your Site

The first rule is to write in a way that’s interesting to humans. Spiders come second. However, thinking like a spider can help you write better for humans. A spider is a great coach....

Motivating Your Web Site Visitors To Take Action: Personality Targeting

Looking Up Vertical Search Lines

Ixquick Metasearch Engine Introduces New Features

The Myth of Rankings - Beyond Search Engine Optimization

The Easiest Sequence of Steps for Growth of Your SEO Career

Looking for Links In All The Wrong Places?

Web Analytics is Google's Latest Acquisition

Strategies For Preparing a PPC Keyword List (Part 1)

How Image Links Can Help Build a Better User and Search Experience

IXQuick.com Q & A With David Bodnick & Alex van Eesteren

Yahoo fires latest salvos in Search Engine War

Yahoo! Unveils Yahoo! Creative Commons Search Beta

Search Marketing FAQ: Special Relationships, Traffic and Plurals

Search Industry Maturing

Lawsuit Against Google May Prove Costly for AFP

Q & A With Become CTO Yeogirl Yun

Successful Website Marketing Needs More Than Great Search Listings

Link Building - The Waiting Game

MSN's New Beta Shopping Search Engine

The Budget Webmaster’s 6 Step Guide to Improving Existing Rankings in Google

Amazon's A9 Offers Unique Local Search Experience

User Experience and Search Engines: If Your Home Page Could Only Talk

Corporate SEO Preparation

MSN Introduces New adCenter Paid Search Solution

Popular Search Marketing Myths Debunked

Hiring a Search Engine Marketer

Increase Website Traffic by Giving Them What They Want

Are You in for a Safe Landing? - PPC Landing Pages

The Terrier Project

ClickTracks Optimizer Offers Must Have Reporting for Small Businesses

Basic SEO Answers For CFDynamics' Newsletter

The Terrier Project

Search Engine Optimization in the Here and Now

SEO Without Usability -- An Exercise in Futility

What's The Deal With "Other" PPC Search Engines?

Increase Traffic to Your Blog from Search Engines - The Top 5 Tips

Multiple Domains, File Placement and the Impact of Blogs on Rankings

Yellow Pages Introduces Local Search Guide

Yahoo! Celebrates Ten Years

Thinking Like a Spider Helps Search Engines Rank Your Site