One wonders how much the branding consultancy Wolff Olins was paid to help create America Online’s new “brand identity.” Over the weekend the about-to-be-independent company revealed its new brand and brand philosophy. The major change (so far) is the move from uppercase to lowercase letters: from “AOL” to “Aol.” Here’s how the release describes that […]
Quick: Are you a digital marketing pro? If so, complete this sentence: In the future, advertisers will combine online media with mobile ads to drive:____________. What did you put in the blank? Let me guess. Branding, combining rich online experiences with mobile mini-experiences? E-commerce, as more people surf the Web using both devices? Coupons and […]
Want to make a recession-resistant career move? Consider going to work as an in-house search marketer. According to the second annual SEMPO in-house salary survey, compensation for search marketers working on behalf of a single organization actually increased during the past year, despite a turbulent economy that took a toll on many other types of […]
Traffic value varies widely not just by the words users type into the search box, but whose search box they use. Syndication network partners vary in quality and giving advertisers control over how much they pay for traffic from each would be a win for the advertisers and the engines.
It’s back, the prospect that Microsoft might try to make Rupert Murdoch happy by offering a “get listed with Bing” exclusive deal. Later, I’ll revisit the topic in a coordinated fashion. But for now, I’ve collected a number of thoughts I’ve put out on Twitter, in blog comments and elsewhere. First, I’ll point readers back […]
Google hosted something of a formal “status update” on Chrome the operating system in Mountain View on Thursday. There we discovered the company is open-sourcing the code. We also found out it’s intended as a netbook OS (for now) and that Google is working with several hardware partners to create a better netbook experience (full-sized […]
Avinash Kaushik is Google's well-known and widely respected analytics guru. In this wide-ranging interview, he talks about his passion for metrics, why they're critical for success, and how search marketers can use analytics to take their campaigns to the next level.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Search In Pictures: Google México Party, One Republic @ Google & Pineapple 5K In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people […]
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
Mike Blumenthal received a screenshot that seems to show a test of a new presentation of Google local/geotargeted AdWords. Mike suggests this may be an expression of AdWords local extensions: This is AdWords and not Local Listing Ads, but the presentation (with the blue pushpin) is similar, signifying a local business or a physical location. […]
We have covered many of the search ad keyword lawsuits aimed between competitors or directly at the search engines in the past. Nowadays, it seems like a new suit around this topic is filed weekly. Typically these suits go after trademark violations and the like, but a new suit is focusing on a privacy legality. […]
Cyber Monday is one of the most important (if not the most important) day to paid search professionals in America, and I’ve got some great tips and tricks to share on how to make the most of it. But first, I thought I’d share some history of the term I found at Wikipedia: The term […]
Hey news publishers. Stop acting as if your content only appears printed on dead trees and tap into the dynamics that the web offers. That’s a blunt summary of advice from Josh Cohen of Google News, from a wide-ranging interview with him on Google’s experiments with new ways of delivering news. Cohen, business product manager […]
Powerful the force is in you! You're overcoming resistance to your SEO efforts. But preparing for growth requires looking within. Learn how Keyword Reach and Page Yield metrics can help you set good baselines and direct your SEO campaigns for maximum effect.
Website owners and search professionals alike often overlook finding behaviors after a searcher clicks on a link to a website from a search engine results page (SERP). One of those finding behaviors is called orientation or orienting. Orientation is a search behavior that no SEO professional, search engine advertiser, or website owner should dismiss. Quick-and-easy orientation contributes to a positive brand experience, increases conversions and sales, and makes content easier to find.
While the National Association of REALTORS® is planning to launch its own national property database sometime next year, Google seems to have just stolen the NAR’s thunder. How? By rolling out individual “place pages” for every property that’s listed in Google Maps. Like this one for a home in Seattle: The real estate listing place […]
One of the many challenges of search marketing is getting answers from the search engines. On December 1, we thought we’d help out. At Search Marketing Now, we’re going to give SEL readers the opportunity to ask questions, live, of representatives from Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. This SMN webcast, “Ask the Search Engines: War Stories […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google News For iPhone Gets Redesign The Google Mobile Blog announced Google News on the iPhone, Android and other smart phone devices has a new design. The new design looks more […]
The Google Mobile Blog announced that Google News on the iPhone, Android and other smart phone devices has a new design. The new design looks more like the desktop version of Google News with minor changes to make it fit better on the smartphone screens. The new design has more stories and images, has personalization […]
Yahoo has enhanced its News shortcut with real-time feeds and updates. The idea is to make the News Shortcut more current and more social with Twitter content in the form of videos, photos and tweets. The new shortcut has a horizontal tabbed interface that offers access to each category of information (see screens below). According […]
Sometime later today, a small number of Google users will see a new look to Google’s Search Options feature. If all goes well, the cleaner display may be launched across Google after the New Year. And it’s all because Google’s vice president of search product and user experience Marissa Mayer doesn’t like jazz. NOTE: Google’s […]
Saying the host site was serving malware to users, Google has removed a controversial photo of First Lady Michelle Obama from Google Image Search. The site itself, however, remains listed in Google web search results without any visible malware warning. Welcome to the murky world of free speech, politics, and Google. It began last week, […]
Something’s up with Google’s Chrome operating system. Don’t know what, but we’ll all know soon as a press conference begins at 10AM Pacific. I’m coming at your live from the Googleplex. Buckle up, and we’ll see what’s happening. You can also watch from home. Webcast info is here. There will also be related coverage developing […]
The Google Webmaster Central blog has two excellent write ups on mobile SEO concerns and techniques. One is named Help Google index your mobile site and the other is named Running desktop and mobile versions of your site. The reason for the two different articles is that often webmasters consider smart phone enabled sites as […]
Have you ever tried to create an interesting blog on a topic that people rarely interact with? Can you really build a thriving readership of loyal fans interested in a dry topic like root canals or debt consolidation? Most likely not. It is far easier to go where the conversation is than it is to […]
A lot of statistical data and analysis is published about SMB online activity in the top US markets, often leaving out many of the tier two cities. In this post, I will share some data on the online visibility of local businesses in Columbus, Ohio. With a population of some 750K, Columbus and its surrounding […]
According to AllThingsD the MicroHoo search deal is nearing completion and “definitive agreement” status. Speculation that the deal was in trouble started happening when the two companies failed to meet their self-imposed October 27 deadline to finalize the complex agreement. However it appears the circumstances were just as reported in the parties’ 8-K filing with […]
This morning, I reported on and noticed yellow stars on Google AdSense ads — these ads were named “featured ads.” I honestly didn’t believe it. I thought maybe this was some type of AdSense hack that placed gold stars on the ads. I just received confirmation from a Google representative that these ads are, indeed, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: NAR Changes Its Mind: Google Is Not A Scraper Site Backtracking on a controversial decision earlier this year, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has adopted a new policy that allows […]
Backtracking on a controversial decision earlier this year, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has adopted a new policy that allows real estate professionals to have their sites — including home listings that belong to others — indexed by search engines. The controversy reached a peak this year when the NAR agreed with a local […]
Confirming our previous reports, Google has announced and explained why and when it’s showing breadcrumb navigation in its search results. Google says it may show these site heirarchies “for a small percentage of search results” when it improves the search snippet with more context about the link being pointed to. What’s pretty cool is that […]
comScore released its October 2009 search share numbers and Google has passed 65% search market share, holding 65.4% share in October, up 0.5% from the previous month. comScore also claims that Microsoft Bing also gained 0.5% share, reaching 9.9%, while Yahoo dropped 0.8% to 18.0% from the previous month. Nielsen also released its October 2009 […]
If you’re the number four search engine in a market that is looking like it’s going to be about two (maybe three) players in the long run, what do you do? If you’re Barry Diller and running the parent company of Ask, the search engine in question, you’re potentially looking at selling, with Microsoft as […]
Ten years ago today, I had the privilege of organizing the first ever search marketing conference. On this anniversary, a look back at how things were then and have they’ve changed in a decade. In 1999, search marketing itself was about five years old. People had been doing search engine optimization to generate traffic from […]
As in an-house SEO specialist, you may well find yourself solely responsible for your company’s search engine marketing. It is not uncommon for an organization to limit their human investment in SEO to a single individual, particularly for new web ventures or where existing search marketing efforts are just being brought in-house. The challenge facing […]
Yahoo has decided to discontinue its “Go” mobile app. Go was originally part of a larger “three screen” strategy that included TV and mobile delivery of Yahoo content. The Go app was intended as a way to have a richer, self-contained experience on mobile devices. But that strategy has given way to a “Yahoo for […]
Lately, when we talk to prospective B2B clients, I see increasingly divergent views on B2B blogging. On the one hand, there are those who lust after success stories involving other social media (e.g., Twitter) used to drive high amounts of immediate, short-term traffic to a business blog. Many times, these people are so eager to […]
Managing your health requires achieving a balance between diet and exercise. In the same way, a healthy paid search campaign requires achieving a balance between branded and non-branded spending. Working together, the two create an optimal mix that will help you achieve the best results possible. Why balance matters Given branded terms’ reputation for delivering […]
Behavioral targeting (BT) has been the buzzword of the year for the last two years in the web analytics field. But is BT really all that important and valuable to the companies making use of it? The answer is usually yes. And does it take a team of PhDs to implement BT for a website? […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 21 Link Builders Share Advanced Link Building Queries Advanced link building queries, for the link builders who use them extensively, remain a closely guarded secret. It’s easy to understand why. For […]