The typical process that an SMB will go through when building an online marketing campaign usually begins with defining their target audience, performing keyword research, analyzing which words bring the most traffic and conversions, and utilizing keyword research tools such as Keyword Discovery. Upon taking these steps, SMB owners will wait to see their results on search engines, make the necessary tweaks, and eventually reach a higher position in online search results. If you do your homework, the process seems fairly straightforward. Here’s an example of a plumber in Chico, CA who c [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To: SEM | How To: SEO | Small Is Beautiful

Time is up! The lowest rates available for Search Engine Land's SMX East conference expire tomorrow. Register today and pay only $1195 for three days of exceptional tactical content and invaluable networking opportunities. SMX East offers sessions covering search engine optimization (SEO), paid search advertising (PPC) social media marketing, analytics and conversions, local, mobile and more. Programmed by the editors of Search Engine Land, you can expect only the most relevant content and qualified speakers at SMX East. Check out our multi-track agenda with advanced, intermediate and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SEM Industry: Conferences | SMX & DMD Alerts

If you asked most marketers what's the biggest draw of online advertising, you’ll often hear is that it is highly measurable. Interactivity (the ability to click and engage) is certainly a huge benefit as well, but if you’re a marketer who is spending significant dollars on your advertising, just getting people to interact with your advertising is not as important as knowing if it was achieving whatever goals or return on investment (ROI) that the budget was earmarked for in the first place. Since the first caveman got rich by spreading a word of mouth campaign that his clubs were bigg [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | PPC Academy

Facebook Questions is the latest in a long line of question-and-answer services online but, as Danny Sullivan mentioned in his news article earlier, it's the only one with a community of 500 million users behind it. For comparison's sake, Yahoo Answers, the recognized leader in the Q&A space, announced in late 2009 that it had reached 200 million users worldwide. It remains to be seen what percentage of Facebook members will use Questions, but it's obvious that the service could surpass Yahoo Answers in due time. Facebook Questions will likely succeed by default to some degree thanks to hav [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Search Engines: Answer Search Engines | Search Engines: Help Engines | Top News

Microsoft and Yahoo have deferred talk of mobile advertising in previous discussions about the search transition. But now it has been made clear that mobile will transition at the same as the PC, and that the account teams will be the same for both segments. Here are the relevant FAQs from Microsoft Advertising's discussion of the transition: Q: Which account team will I work with on mobile search ads? A: Your mobile search ads will be managed by the same account team as your PC accounts. Q: How will Mobile search advertisers be transitioned? A: We are still finalizing our transition [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Yahoo: Mobile & Go | Yahoo: Search Ads

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Facebook Questions Opens To Limited Public ReleaseLong expected, Facebook’s new Facebook Questions service is now being offered. It allows Facebook users to specifically ask question to and get answers from others in Facebook’s now 500 million strong community. The service just went live at 1pm Pacific Time today, and we’re working on a detailed look at all the features. That will be [...] The Algorithm Ate My Lunch: Responding to [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Long expected, Facebook's new Facebook Questions service is now being offered. It allows Facebook users to specifically ask question to and get answers from others in Facebook's now 500 million strong community. The service just went live at 1pm Pacific Time today, and we're working on a detailed look at all the features (this is now live, see Up Close With Facebook Questions). That will be posted shortly and linked to from this article. Facebook has a short blog post about the service now, highlighting: All questions are made public to anyone, not just to your friends Questions [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Features: General | Search Engines: Answer Search Engines | Search Engines: Help Engines

One of the most unpleasant situations an in-house SEO can face is a major search engine algorithm change that results in a massive downward shift in rankings. Some webmasters have reported search engine traffic losses of up to 90% as a result of Google’s "Mayday" update, and similar catastrophes have been attached to every algorithm update significant enough to have been named. There is only one course of action open to you in such situations: figure out what the problem is and fix it. While this can be a difficult and harrowing prospect, the good news is that any issue that resulted in s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | In House Search Marketing

Most of you have heard about Google Caffeine which launched last month and the algorithm update made in May, nicknamed Mayday. For many B2B sites the algorithm change resulted in a loss of rankings and traffic. Now that several weeks have passed, marketers are wondering how these changes affect their website and what changes (if any) they should make. This column offers practical advice for B2B marketers regarding these recent Google updates.

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: Search

Did you think the search engine wars had devolved into a fight between only Google and Bing? Think again. New challenger Blekko is stepping into the fray, opening to limited beta testing today. It offers a compelling way to "slash the web" and put a particular spin on your search results. Blekko isn't a Google-killer. Nor is Blekko positioning itself that way. But Blekko's "slashtags" are a unique feature that may draw you in on occasions when you want to see how search results look when they're skewed to a particular viewpoint. "We're there for searches you can't do elsewhere," said Mic [...]

Related Topics: Blekko | Channel: Consumer | Features: General | Top News

Unlike its counterpart, the social media landing page isn’t focused getting on one action from a visitor; it has to manage four different kinds of conversion. Do your social landing pages manage all four?

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

Have you ever tried to use a PPC campaign to steal customers from your competitors and failed? If so, consider trying a campaign on Google's display network in conjunction with your search campaign. It might just deliver the results you’re looking for. After running a successful PPC campaign for some time, it can be difficult to gain additional traffic beyond your branded and non-branded industry terms. Often, the next step is to try to gain market share from your competitors. However, this can be tricky—and unfruitful—because consumers are actively looking for your competito [...]

Related Topics: Brand Aid | Channel: Strategy

Nary a week goes by this summer that we don't hear more rumors about Google's interest in online games, social networking, and/or some combination of the two. Tonight, the Wall Street Journal is quoting unnamed sources that say Google is talking with "several makers of popular online games" to have those games included on a new social networking site "that could compete with Facebook." There's no confirmation from Google on this report, but the WSJ's sources say the game makers include Zynga, Playfish (owned by Electronic Arts), and Playdom Inc. There were reports two weeks ago that Goo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Google: Other | Google: Partnerships

A new study about the buying habits of computer and consumer electronics shoppers shows the importance of search to the online shopping process. Search engines, in particular, are relied on much more heavily than social media -- but the study also speaks to the importance of on-site search boxes. The report -- which can be downloaded via this contact form -- was conducted by comScore and sponsored by Searchandise Commerce and iProspect. It involved more than 1,000 shoppers who took part in online focus groups in April of this year. When asked to describe the steps they took to begin the sho [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | Search Marketing: Shopping Search Marketing | Stats: Search Behavior

My best daydreams come on summer afternoons when the sky is full of big fluffy clouds in a deep blue sky, and there is a refreshing summer breeze to keep me cool. Next week, I plan to enjoy plenty of that when we take our family vacation at Twin Lake Villa, an idyllic, and very old-fashioned New Hampshire resort with almost no internet access. In the meantime, however, I am resigned to daydreaming about PPC campaigns here at the office. In today's fantasy, I see a perfect set of campaigns that have 100% airtight ad groups. I'm talking about ad groups that are so perfectly constructed t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Paid Search

The world's most popular online trust mark, the VeriSign seal has helped web sites increase transactions an average of 24%. To maximize incoming traffic, the Trust Seal is displayed next to your search result in leading search engines and prevents your site from being blacklisted. Learn more [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sponsor Messages

Google has begun rolling out a new background color for the AdWords listings on Google's search results. The new color is a pale purple, as opposed to the current pale yellow. Google has been testing the pale purple since May of this year and last week we have seen it ramp up in the number of people seeing it. The RKG Blog has a comment from Google, which Google confirmed to us, that Google is indeed replacing the yellow with the purple background color. More and more users will see the new purple color and by the end of this week, all Google search properties should see the change. A [...]

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

The agenda is live, and we’re now accepting submissions to speak at Search Marketing Expo – SMX East 2010. To increase the odds of being selected, be sure to have read the agenda. Understand what the sessions are about. Ensure that your pitch is on target to the show’s audience and the session. Please also be very specific about what you intend to cover. Also, if you do not see a particular session listed, this is because there are no openings for that session. Use this form to submit your request. As you might guess, interest is high in speaking at SMX conferences. Danny, Chris and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX | SMX & DMD Alerts

Google's CEO Eric Schmidt has quite famously been on record many times talking about how the web is full of garbage. It's a cesspool out there, he's said. Today, a short fast look at how his own company pollutes the web. Right now, one of the "trending topics" on Google is the word "chocomize," as you can see here: A term like "chocomize" will "trend" on Google when there's a sudden, out-of-the-ordinary spike in searches using it. That's certainly the case with chocomize, which Google Trends reports as having "volcanic" activity: What's going on? Brent Payne wondered and tweet [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: News | Google: SEO | Google: Trends | Top News

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Report: Bing Generates More Clicks Than GoogleChitika, a veritable fountain of data lately, has generated some new interesting findings from activity on its search-based advertising network. The company compared ad click behavior on Google and Bing and found that Bing generated about 50% more clicks: Across the sample of nearly 15 million impressions used for this study, Google users clicked on [...] How To Focus On Content To Create Great Linkbait [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap