Our fourth Search Marketing Expo event in the UK is just two weeks away, and it's shaping up to be an exceptional show. You can expect the great content, keynote, networking activities and meals for which SMX events are famous. But this year we've added a new - and we think very compelling - focus to the show: SMX London is now SMX Advanced London, taking place on May 17 & 18 in Covent Garden. Why an advanced focus? While most of our SMX events have had a mixture of basic through advanced content, we've only run one conference that was totally dedicated to the needs of experienced pro [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX | Top News

With Apple-owned Lala closing in a month, what happens to Google Music Search, which has used Lala clips as part of its service? We'll see, says Google -- noting there are variety of alternatives out there? When you do a music-related search on Google, you often get special Music OneBox that appears at the top of its results, like this for 21st century breakdown: The music preview links next to the song's thumbnail all lead to Lala, where a short clip of the song can be heard. What happens when Lala goes away? "They're one of multiple services that we work with to get music clips [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Music

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 Tests Phone Numbers In AdWords AdsA reader sent us a screen capture of a phone number being listed in the Google AdWords ad text. The phone number is not related to one of Google’s click-to-call features and didn’t seem to be related to a browser extension. Google confirmed that this is indeed something they are testing. A [...] Google Wins Legal Victories In Europe, US On Copyright & Trademark IssuesGoogle has won what app [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

A reader sent us a screen capture of a phone number being listed in the Google AdWords ad text. The phone number is not related to one of Google's click-to-call features and didn't seem to be related to a browser extension. Google confirmed that this is indeed something they are testing. A Google spokesperson told us: We're currently testing a feature with a small number of advertisers in which a phone number can be included within the ad to help them more effectively engage with customers who prefer to connect over the phone. Here is a picture of the the phone number in the ad, just [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Top News

Google has won what appears to be a major legal victory in German (and so probably the rest of Europe) on the question of whether image search and showing thumbnails violates copyright law. The Google European Public Policy Blog succinctly describes the facts and holding: We are heartened by the German Supreme Court´s ruling today that Google Image Search does not infringe copyright. The case was brought to court by an artist who had uploaded photos of her work (large paintings) to her own website. She then claimed for copyright infringement against Google as the images were displayed i [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US

paidContent reports on Yahoo's executives salaries for 2009. Yahoo's CEO, Carol Bartz earned $47 million in 2009, with a salary of $969,872 and $13 million in stock, almost $30 million in options, and some other earnings. Yahoo clarified that $42 million was not actually realized in the year and the amount Bartz will actually realize is based on meeting specific metrics. Meanwhile, Yahoo's co-founder and former CEO, Jerry Yang earned his customary $1 annual salary from the company. Yang does however currently hold a 3.54% equity stake in the company and his co-founder, David Filo owns 5.73% [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Employees

In my last post, Conversion Optimization: Do This First we used our analytics package to identify the pages that were important in the conversion optimization process. This month we’re going to look at some tools and techniques which will help us identify which elements of these pages and processes are in need of improvement. By now, you should have chosen the pages you know are preventing you from achieving conversion rate bliss. Your next tool is decidedly low tech: your eyes. Observe and decide what you think needs to be done; be a dispassionate observer; imagine the testiest of custom [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

We're seeing a boom period in the development of new tools for usability testing, which is a great trend that foretells better web experiences in the coming years. Today I'm going to look at Usabilla, which my friend Keri Morgret and I used on her site Strike Models, which sells products for building remote controlled battleships. Service description: Usabilla shows screenshots of your choosing to testers and asks them questions which they answer by clicking and/or annotating over the image. You choose what questions to ask from a preset list and/or provide your own. You can provide t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

Two conflicting looks at Google earlier today that we'll pass along, starting with the good news for all inside the Googleplex. Google ranked number one on the Most Valuable Global Brand on the BrandZ Top 100 list, with a "brand value" of $114 billion. That's a 14% increase over 2009 for Google. (Microsoft was fourth on the list.) On the other hand, Google Buzz took a shot today from TIME magazine -- it made the magazine's list of Least Influential People of 2010 -- a list that includes actress Rue McLanahan, the now-defunct Gourmet magazine, and the president of the U.S. Metric Associat [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: Business Issues | Google: Buzz

There seems to be no end to our collective appetite for watching video online. According to the latest comScore numbers, more than 180 million U.S. internet users watched video online during March. That number is a 3.5% jump from the February video viewing audience. As you'd expect, the vast majority of all this happened on YouTube. While YouTube's share of that total dropped slightly as a percentage, its total number of videos viewed jumped from 11.95 billion in February to 13.05 billion in March. For perspective, it was only seven months ago that comScore said YouTube became the fi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: YouTube & Video | Stats: comScore | Stats: Popularity

This webinar and guide covers: Top challenges and solutions for web analytics users Analysis of paid vs. free solution A blueprint of strategies used by Be Download now! [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sponsor Messages

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Last Call For Speakers For SMX AdvancedWe’ve got the agenda for SMX Advanced mostly finalized, still have a few openings. Interested in speaking? Here are the sessions where we’re still looking for speakers: Location Services: The New Local Search? What You Don’t Know About You Tube Twitter, Real Time Search & Real Time SEO Amazing PPC Tactics Do you have something interesting to say about any [...] Google’s Preferred [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

We've got the agenda for SMX Advanced mostly finalized, still have a few openings. Interested in speaking? Here are the sessions where we're still looking for speakers: Location Services: The New Local Search? What You Don't Know About You Tube Twitter, Real Time Search & Real Time SEO Amazing PPC Tactics Do you have something interesting to say about any of these topics? If so, head over to our speaker pitch form and let us know what you'd like to talk about. As always, be sure to read the guidelines carefully before pitching. And don't delay—we're closing the pi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX

Google announced Monday about upcoming changes to its AdWords API fees. This change has been a long-time waiting for many agencies that have often had a constant battle gaining respect from Google. The Google API platform is structured to allow developers to interact with AdWords. This permits agencies to create their own bidding and reporting tools. Through these tools, agencies are able to automate keyword generation, ad text, dynamic URL’s and much more.  However, many of those enhancements have been limited because of the cost constraints. The recent API announcement was buried wi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features: Analysis | Google: AdWords | Google: APIs

First Google rolled out recommendations for "pages similar to" earlier this week, now they also appear to be testing brand recommendations in response to certain queries. As I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable, some users are seeing "brands for" recommendations for searches such as [digital cameras], [cheap laptops], [label printers], [fishing rod] and others. Here is a screen capture: This does seem to be using similar functionality to what Google launched in November, for their product search expansion, but here the brands are listed at the top of the results. The big bran [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: User Interface | Google: Web Search | Top News

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization has announced the new slate of officers for the search marketing advocacy and education association. The officers for the coming year are: Chairman: Jeffrey Pruitt, CEO of Tallwave (re-elected chairman) President: Chris Boggs, Director, Search Engine Optimization, ROSETTA Vice president: Dave Fall, SVP Product and Operations, Clickable, Inc. Treasurer: Margaret Willette, Search Marketing Manager, Intuit Secretary: Motoko Hunt, President, Japanese Search Strategist, AJPR Founded in 2002, SEMPO now has more than 800 members in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Organizations

Most of you reading this headline will probably think I’m crazy. We all know that search engines do not crawl or index e-mail. What we forget is that you do have the option to view a copy of the e-mail you receive in a browser. Usually this is reserved for e-mails that are sent from brands to people that have registered for a newsletter, etc. This copy of the e-mail is usually just a simple HTML page that can be crawled and indexed by the search engines, and, if you play your cards right, could benefit your SEO efforts. If you’re a Marketer, most of the E-mail you send out to your audie [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | How To: SEO

Yahoo announced a new search index and algorithm update today. The update involves crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms changes over the next few days. Yahoo said, "you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during the process, which we expect to complete over the next few days." The last Yahoo update was on March 11th. I have personally not seen any discussion or webmaster chatter about Yahoo changes, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: SEO

After the search box, perhaps no other Google product is so synonymous with the company as Maps. Over time Google has come to see its mapping offering -- now extended to mobile -- and the underlying local data as more and more strategic. To that end, last October in the US Google replaced maps data provider TeleAtlas, which itself had replaced Navteq, as the provider of data to Google Maps. In other words Google became the primary source of its own mapping data. Google continued to work with TeleAtlas in Canada and Europe. But it now appears that the same thing has happened in Canada. Witho [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local

After doing all of your research, you now have a pretty good crop of data to sift through. Remember, during the Research Phase, we collected every keyword we found during our various investigations. Check out this article for a comprehensive recap of Research Phase posts from this column regarding PPC research. Some of sources used for the initial keyword research were: The kickoff meeting with the client A preliminary search of the major engines Previous (or current) paid search campaigns The advertiser’s site(s) and competitor sites The advertiser’s site level web analyt [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | How To: SEM | PPC Academy