Search Engine News

Jennifer Laycock

What Are You Gonna Do...Bleed on Me?

It's not just Monty Python fans that find it amusing to hear threats and conditions being levied by those who have no power to levy them. A few years back when some big name web sites tried to limit who...

Jennifer Laycock

7 Fast Tips for Small Business Social Media Marketing

Matt McGee has put together a great list of options for small businesses that are looking to market their businesses via social media in his Small is Beautiful column over at Search Engine Land. I've long been a fan of...

Jennifer Laycock

Link Building Despite NoFollows

Debra over at The Link Spiel offers up some excellent (and practical) advice about how do adapt your link building tactics now that popular sites are tagging outgoing links with nofollows. So what do you need to change? Well, nothing...

Jennifer Laycock

29% of Fortune 100 Companies Need Online Reputation Management

Andy Beal points out that 29 of the Fortune 100 companies have negative search results showing up on Google. Some of them won't surprise you (Walmart and Exxon) but others might (Tyson and Best Buy). Turns out they all need...

Jennifer Laycock

More on Kathy Sierra

The Kathy Sierra incident has made it into Technorati's Buzz TV clip again today. In fact, today's Buzz TV includes a reference to Search Engine Guide and my own comments on the incident. Kathy Sierra has become the most popular...

Jennifer Laycock

When Blogs Attack (and I don't mean that lightly)

The great thing about the Internet and blogs is that people can connect with other people they've never met. Some of my most interesting relationships are with people that I met online and have exchanged emails or blog comments with...

Jennifer Laycock

The Search Engine Marketing Advantage

by Marie Howell - Search engine marketing consists primarily of search engine optimisation and pay-per-click search advertising strategies. These two online marketing methods should be used in tandem in order to leverage the particular advantages of each and maximise results,...

Robert Clough

Top 500 Search Engine Keywords Of The Week - 2007-03-27

This week's list of the top 500 most frequently searched keywords....

Jennifer Laycock

When Will Journalists "Get" Blogs?

Hmmm...consistent theme today... There's was an article by David Lazarus last Friday in the San Francisco Chronicle that talks about how the blog world can never compete with real journalists and that Internet users are going to have to suck...

Jennifer Laycock

When Will Big Business "Get" Social Media?

It's a marketer's dream. Tap into the power of social media and user-generated video clips without taking on the risk of someone saying something negative about your brand. Advertise on a YouTube style video site, but with full editorial control...

Jennifer Laycock

From Online to Offline - How Things Spread

A survey of more than 15,200 shoppers has turned up some interesting insight into how consumers share information that they've discovered online. The data, released by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA) looked at the most common ways that...

Robert Clough

Top 500 Search Engine Keywords Of The Week - 2007-03-20

This week's list of the top 500 most frequently searched keywords....

Jennifer Laycock

The Politicos Enter the Online Marketing Realm

Last summer I wrote an article called "The Politicos Still Don't Get It" that talked about how many political consultants and campaign managers just did not grasp the full potential of marketing their candidates online. It looks like the 2008...

Jennifer Laycock

Is Viral for Everyone?

There's an interesting article over at MediaPost today in which Laurie Peterson writes about the advertising industry's perspective about online viral marketing. Peterson explores whether or not agencies believe that every site is capable of marketing virally or whether viral...

Jennifer Laycock

AdWords Site Targeting with CPC

Brad Geddes reports that Google is going to start allowing some AdWords advertisers to bid on site targeting campaigns on a cost per click basis. Previously, Google required companies to bid for site targeted campaigns on a CPM (cost per...

Jennifer Laycock

The Skinny on Duplicate Content

One of the most misunderstood issues in the search engine optimization world is duplicate content. From what it is to what impact it will have on your rankings to whether or not it will get your site penalized, small business...

Jennifer Laycock

When LinkBait Goes too Far

The problem with the link bait mind set is that it so closely focuses on gaining links rather than on marketing your web site. That means that common sense and courtesy sometimes fall by the way side as the marketers...

Robert Clough

Top 500 Search Engine Keywords Of The Week - 2007-03-13

This week's list of the top 500 most frequently searched keywords....

Jennifer Laycock

Almost Half of Brand Marketers to Tap Social Marketing this Year

Really? Just half of them? Geeze, get with the times folks. Ok, that might sound a little harsh, but when you realize that social marketing does not simply mean "Digg" and "YouTube" it makes a little more sense. After all,...

Jennifer Laycock

When Marketing and Public Relations Collide

While major firms have been shifting toward more closely aligned marketing and PR departments over the past several years, many businesses still view their marketing arms and their public relations arms as two separate entities that rarely have reason to...

Jennifer Laycock

Getting a Handle on Local Search

With more than $100 billion a year going toward off-line local advertising (yellow pages, billboards, newspapers, radio, etc...) and estimates that just $4-$7 billion is going toward online local advertising, you've got to wonder when online local advertising will catch...

Jennifer Laycock

Where is Search Headed?

After years of seemingly limitless growth, the search industry is now maturing to the point that it's growing sideways as well as upwards. At least that's what Greg Jarboe claims in an interesting post over at Search Engine Watch that...

Jennifer Laycock

What's Holding Back Online Marketing?

Reliable metrics. At least that's what respondents to a study had to say when asked what might influence them to buy more advertising from more types of web sites. Ad Week writer Joan Voight looks at the results from a...

Jennifer Laycock

Yahoo Panama Pros and Cons: Part 2

After publishing last week’s article on “Yahoo Panama - Pros and Cons” I have had a few readers contact me with notable “Cons” they have experienced with the recent upgrade process. While I know I had not covered all possible...

Jennifer Laycock

Getting Started in Search Marketing

One of the biggest challenges of the small business owner is figuring out how to even get started in this crazy world of search and online marketing. Time is tight, budgets are tighter and figuring out where to turn and...

Jennifer Laycock

"What You Know" Isn't Enough When it Comes to Blogging

JD Arney has a great post over at Performancing that talks about the common blogger advice to "write what you know." While that line is often fed to both businesses and individuals looking to break into the blog world, the...

Jennifer Laycock

AskCity Kicks it Up a Notch

Those folks over at Ask.com...they really like to have a little fun with their search products. It wasn't enough to let us turn maps into an etch-a-sketch that let us mark up directions and send them to friends, now we...

Robert Clough

Top 500 Search Engine Keywords Of The Week - 2007-03-07

This week's list of the top 500 most frequently searched keywords....

Jennifer Laycock

Blog Readers are a Loyal Bunch

It's long been understood that blogs attract visitors. The huge shift toward the introduction of blogs by thought leaders, businesses and your everyday web user has been well documented over the past few years. What's interesting is just how dedicated...

Jennifer Laycock

Some Words With Matt Cutts on Personalized Search

The news that Google was moving toward personalizing search results a few weeks ago has produced a bit of worry among some search marketers. After all, when the search results are different for everyone, how to you work on increasing...

Jennifer Laycock

USA Today Expands into Consumer Generated Media

There's been quite a bit of buzz today about USA Today's decision to move their online publication into the realm of consumer generated media by allowing users to create profiles, add comments and tags to stories, upload their own photos...

Jennifer Laycock

Just Digg Into Your Wallet?

Andy Beal over at Marketing Pilgrim mentions a Wired article that exposes the reality of buying diggs. No, not "digs" that make fun of your company, but rather "Diggs" that help send your web site toward a server crashing load...

Jennifer Laycock

Google AdWords Takes Steps to Fight Click Fraud

Elinor Mills over at CNET is reporting that Google will be announcing plans to allow AdWords advertisers to block certain IP addresses from clicking on their ads as part of their ongoing battle against click fraud. That's good news to...

Jennifer Laycock

Yahoo Panama - Pros and Cons

Near the end of 2006 Yahoo officially unveiled the new back end for Yahoo Marketing Solutions, widely referred to as the ‘Panama’ Update. Since then they have been slowly allowing the upgrading of accounts from the old into the new...