Search Engine News

Jennifer Laycock

Killer SEO Strategy

by Jason Green - The current direction of search technology is towards the improvement of core search quality, this has resulted in a very positive shift within much of the search optimization industry; as practitioners must now place increased emphasis...

Jennifer Laycock

Google's Plans to Offer Free WiFi Face Criticism

"We don't want to use it and we don't want anyone else to be able to use it either!" According to an article over at e-Week, that's the sentiment being offered up by the ACLU and some other San Francisco...

Jennifer Laycock

Judy's Book Helping Local Businesses with Online Reputation Management

Had an email this week from the team over at Judy's Book to let me know about a new online reputation management tool that they've added to their site. If you've not yet heard of this great site, Judy's Book...

Jennifer Laycock

Is Google Ranking it in From Small Publishers?

There's a concept in business called "the float." It's basically defined as the time period when you hold on to someone else's money, earning interest off of it, before you have to give it to them. Think of the money...

Jennifer Laycock

Google's Many Challenges

It's amazing how quickly things in the press shift from praising a company to vilifying it. That said, today's Business Week article does a pretty even-handed job of outlining some of Google's biggest challenges and challengers. From the Department of...

Jennifer Laycock

Call for Reader Feedback

We've noticed over the past year or so that thanks to the growth of the Small Business Ideas forum, Search Engine Guide has seen an influx of new readers that are still learning the very basics of search marketing. To...

Jennifer Laycock

Is Digg Working with Their Own Shovel?

Talk about digging your way into a hole... I don't usually write much about the social bookmarking sites like Digg and del.icio.us but I ran across a pretty long post over at Forever Geek today that casts some doubt on...

Jennifer Laycock

DIY SEO, Where Do I Begin?

by Jaan Kanellis - Do it yourself SEO can seem very daunting at first sight, but once you put together a plan of SEO action steps for yourself it can be much easier than you think. The are clear rules...

Jennifer Laycock

Brand Searches Don't Always Land Searchers on a Company's Site

Pamela Parker reports today at ClickZ that only 85% of brand searchers ultimately end up on that brand's Web site. The other 15% of searchers end up split between affiliate sites, comparison shopping engines and competitor sites. With brand searches...

Jennifer Laycock

Business Week Article Misses the Mark on Paid Search

An article over at Business Week talks about "the lowly search ad" and the "hucksterism" that goes into the "cryptic text come-ons" that display beside search results on popular search engines. The interesting thing is that Business Week, which is...

Jennifer Laycock

New Survey Shows the Internet is a Popular Launch Pad for Small Businesses

The results of a survey sponsored by the team at Yahoo! Small Business show that more adults than ever are not just considering starting a small business, but recognize that the Internet is the place to be if you plan...

Jennifer Laycock

Online Advertising is Great, But Local Targeting is Important

Business Week runs an article today that talks about the success many small businesses are having with paid search advertisements but gives the appropriate warning that regionally based companies need to dig further into the possibilities presented by local search...

Jennifer Laycock

Search Engine Strategies NYC '06 Conference: An SES Newcomer Perspective

Attending the SES conference will give you the edge to get you started. At the very least it will give you a knowledge base when you decide to hire an SEO. You'll be armed with the power to ask the...

Jennifer Laycock

Viral Marketing - Learn From What Works

Marketing Sherpa is featuring a case study that highlights what they've pegged as the top 12 viral marketing campaigns of 2006. The winners vary from small businesses to mega-corporations and there's a lot to be learned from their ideas and...

Jennifer Laycock

Do Search Engines Replicate Network TV?

Max Kalehoff of Nielsen BuzzMetrics wrote yesterday at MediaPost Publications about the idea of Google, Yahoo! and MSN emulating the early days of television when the three big networks dominated the scene. It's a different take on what's become a...

Jennifer Laycock

Does Google Base Pose a Threat?

Hitwise's LeeAnn Prescott has an interesting blog post today that looks at traffic patterns to Google base since it's launch last fall. The post also has some insight into where users head after they visit Google Base. Among the takeaway...Google...

Jennifer Laycock

Viral Marketing Gone Awry

The idea of launching a viral marketing campaign by allowing users to generate content for your site isn't an uncommon one. In fact, the Apple iPod commercial created by iPod fan George Masters is already a legend when it comes...

Jennifer Laycock

Google AdWords To Offer Up Bid Management

Rumors and discussion are flying around search marketing forums today about the introduction of more detailed bid management options to Google's AdWords interface. A thread over at the Search Engine Watch forums talks about how the new feature will allow...

Jennifer Laycock

AdSense is Changing the World?

There's a fascinating article over at USA Today that has the potential to shed a bit of positive light on Google in a media atmosphere that's current obsessed with talking about all the ways that the company has failed it's...

Jennifer Laycock

Hanging Out in the Right Online Neighborhoods

When it comes to writing down to earth, practical advice about links, one of my favorite blogs is Todd Malicoat's "Stuntdubl" site. Todd does a fantastic job of coming up with examples and allegories that everyone can understand and his...

Jennifer Laycock

"Accidental" Long Tail Traffic

Rand Fishkin has a post on his blog today that looks at the idea of long tail targeting and what he calls the "accidental" nature of the traffic that can come from it. It's an interesting way of looking at...