Many want to be able to run advertising campaigns, but feel that they can't justify the cost because their conversion rates don't result in a profit. This often happens because so many advertisers are still living with the false idea that they simply have to bid their site to the number one listing....
Given the nature of pay-per-click search marketing (i.e.: ideally you would put a dollar in, and get two dollars out) and how easily your ad spend can escalate out of control, clear strategies and tactics will become the impetus of your search marketing campaign....
Most people agree that the Meta tag is useless. I'll take it a step further and argue that it's hazardous. There is more risk than reward in using the meta keywords tag because your competitors can view the meta keywords tag and can steal your keywords....
Yahoo!'s new trip planning tool does a great job of mixing personalized search with community and has a lot of potential. But it also has some serious usability issues that they need to address before they see massive adoption rates....
While it is difficult to say exactly what one should do in any given circumstance, it is fairly simple to say what one shouldn’t do. In the spirit of the Friday before Halloween, here is a list of the Top10 worst things we’ve seen designers doing this year....
The keyword phrase—the term that a searcher types into the search engine when they're searching — can make or break online business. Target the wrong keyword phrases and an online business is destined to fail....
There’s often a seriousness to hype that shouldn’t be dismissed just because the messenger sounds like a huckster. When mass-marketing ideas are exchanged by a lot of mass-marketers, (even far-fetched philosophical ones), the stuff we do in marketing is subtly changed....
No SEO company in the world will be able to help you unless you are ready to forget about what you think you want, and learn more about what you really need....
Savvy companies that are putting time and effort toward online reputation management shouldn't simply smile at fan sites and then move on to deal with the "problem" sites or posters, they should be figuring out how to work these sites into their marketing campaigns....
Any business can set up a blog. Making your blog a "blog with a purpose" takes it a step beyond normal blogs. It gives it purpose and meaning. It gives it power....
With media search and video search in particular becoming a hot new property in the search wars, news has been launched this week about a couple new products that show the major search engines are taking video search seriously....
According to recent research, websites that are listed at the top of the organic search results and the paid listings will triple their click-thru ratio. Three times more people will visit your website if it is listed in both places....
Some visitors to web pages would like to have hard copies of web pages they visit for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately most web pages 'break' when you try to print them....
Sometimes one of the hardest things to do for any website is build links to deep content. This is because while it may take hundreds or thousands of links to help a home page rank highly, it may only take a few to help a deep page rank....
A small loophole on Google has turned into a devastating black hole, sucking in and wiping out countless quality websites in the process. And it just may be their competitors sending them into the abyss....
At what point does it become ok for a search engine to taint the results with their own prevailing morals? Undoubtedly, some search engines are already playing this game....
With the exception of cloned web sites, every web site has its own unique characteristics. Your site should be built to fulfill your informational and sales needs, while being effective in getting your target audience to take the desired actions....
Managing an effective PPC campaign isn’t easy. There are several important issues involved and failing to address all of these issues properly will result in poor sales performance, spending more than necessary, and overall decreased return on your investment....
Whereonearth's localized search products will benefit Yahoo! beyond simple business listings. Yahoo! hopes to use the Whereonearth technology to improve the performance of their mobile and local search services....
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is a highly beneficial technique for search engines to use for improving recall, precision, and ranking. It can gauge very accurately which documents in a corpus are really relevant to a search phrase even if that search phrase does not appear in a document....
Jill offers up answers to some of the many reader's who emailed to ask about some of the points in last week's new and improved "10 Tips to the Top" article....
Splog fraud is a big problem for Google and a growing concern for the other major search advertising providers such as Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN. The way content is taken from one site and replicated to dozens of others can cause no end to technical and financial issues for honest webmasters....
Smart business owners take the time to learn more about how pay-per-click advertising works before getting started, but even thorough research into pay-per-click techniques can leave a company without the knowledge they need to make good decisions....
As a savvy marketer, it’s wise to focus on both organic and paid listings for repeated exposure and credibility. Balance is the key to your successful SEM campaign....
Before selecting a search engine marketing company, you need to do a little internal and external research. Not only will it save you time and money, it will also ensure that your SEO campaign can and will be more effective....
While the 18-49 crowd has long served as the key demographic for agencies, attitudes are starting to change. There are now 77 million boomers out there and they have more than $1 trillion in spending power....
The text link should not only describe the information that will be found when clicking on the link, but it should also offer a promise or a benefit to the user....
The question of whether a web page is print-friendly depends on the browser. Whether a web page is print-friendly can be checked by choosing the Print Preview option from the File choices on the browser navigation menu....
We are becoming adept at paring down complex concepts into a few well chosen words. There is no unnecessary filler. Even if we do throw in a few “the”s and “what”s, the search engine conveniently strips them from our query....
Each of these tools has to do with the organic or “natural” search engine rankings of websites. Savvy online marketers use a combination of these tools to analyze and generally “figure out” why one particular web page is ranking better than another web page....
The name Frapper is a combination of the words "friend mapper" and aims to let users "see the zip code where your friends live or work, letting you find out who works in the office building next door and who lives in the apartment complex across the street."...
Having a website that gets found in Google, Yahoo, and MSN, etc. isn't hard to do, but it can be difficult to know where to begin. Here are my latest and greatest tips to get you started....
Another obvious area for SEOs to find long-term referral relationships is with mainstream advertising and public relations firms. These businesses serve clients with a pressing need for organic search engine placements....
There are many different statistics for web site traffic: page views, hits, daily uniques, monthly uniques, etc… Which one should you be using? From my own experience, I recommend using daily uniques....
If you spend enough time looking at what bloggers (covering your industry) have to say, you ll be able to spot future trends that can help you adapt your search marketing campaign now, before the data starts showing up in your competitor s Wordtracker report....
Almost anyone that has been around the web for awhile has heard of About.com and Wikipedia. One relies on hired experts to generate content about a variety of topics while the other one relies on volunteers to do the same. Online marketing guru Seth Godin announced plans for a new site dubbed Squidoo at Web 2.0 last week....
ClickTracks has worked to put high end analytics and campaign analysis into an easy to use package thats actually has a reasonable price tag. Small business owners rarely have access to this level of information in a format that they can actually understand...and afford!...
Organic search engine optimization is understood to be a best-attempt service and that “best-attempt” attitude has obviously been exploited by the unscrupulous....
Search Marketing was once a cottage industry without certification, licensing or even a professional organization. We’ve come a long way since, as Search Engine Marketing has expanded its services to include paid inclusion and paid placement....
OptiSpider, a program by link expert Leslie Rohde, allows you to spider your own website just as if you were Google. It then produces reports that allow you to see where your optimization weaknesses are so you can correct them....
Quality web hosting is difficult to come by, but is absolutely essential for any business that takes their online marketing efforts seriously....
From search marketing opportunities to cost cutting technologies such as VOIP to social and business networking tools, the Internet environment provides a virtually unlimited multi-leveled communications capacity at relatively reduced rates....
Although AOL's search technology is currently powered by Google, AOL has always worked to put their own spin on search. They've introduced several new features after conducting extensive consumer testing that are available as of this morning....
Then you expend so much of your energy chasing algorithms, you often focus on only a few elements that influence ranking - those elements that are working right now and that you hope will give your pages the best chance for success....
Three seconds and 40 characters. That's all you usually have to work with when trying to get and hold the attention of someone reading email. Needless to say, it's vital to make the most of your introduction via the email subject line....
Small businesses are understanding what the big firms are missing...that while it takes more time to implement, organic search engine optimization will outperform pay-per-click when it comes to drawing long-term leads at reasonable costs....
Could you recommend some online courses that would be a good starting ground for understanding search engines' likes and dislikes along with some marketing information? I feel I have a good understanding of the basics of SEO work but would like to fine-tune the skills I already have....
Don’t serve up the content until you truly understand what the online searcher is really looking for. There is a powerful difference. The difference is what allows you to attract totally new audiences....
Until recently, search advertising was a less attractive option for a wide range of street-front businesses then other traditional types of advertising such as print, radio, local TV and the ubiquitous Yellow Pages....
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