SMX West day two is just about over and I wanted to post the live blogging I have found throughout the day. Here are some of the sessions that were live blogged today. Beyond The Google AdWords Tool: Advanced Keyword Research Tactics, BruceClay.com Building Buzz On Facebook: Getting Liked & Shared, Search Engine Roundtable Building Buzz On Twitter: Getting Followed & Retweeted, Jennifer Slegg Checking in at #SMX! The Whys & Hows Behind Mobile Check-ins, AIM Clear Blog Creative Facebook Ad Tactics @ SMX West, Jennifer Slegg Differentiate or Die, BruceClay.com [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Optimizing Search Engine Marketing For Seasonal OpportunitiesMany in-house search marketers operate within a seasonal framework, whether a retail high season culminating in Christmas, a peak summer travel season, or another cyclical ebb and flow of sales time. Additionally events, like the Olympics or a presidential election, can impact search engine marketing for many businesses. Staying on top of these trends and [...] The Conversion Chain In Paid [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Many in-house search marketers operate within a seasonal framework, whether a retail high season culminating in Christmas, a peak summer travel season, or another cyclical ebb and flow of sales time. Additionally events, like the Olympics or a presidential election, can impact search engine marketing for many businesses. Staying on top of these trends and events can uncover opportunities for in-house marketers to grow and optimize search marketing programs. Identifying The Opportunities & Trends The first step is recognizing important trends and events and their timing. A seasonal tim [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | In House Search Marketing

A typical way of thinking of a SEM program is to look at multiple metrics individually, such as the average rank, cost per click, click through rate, conversion rate, cost per action, return on ad spend. Analyzing these metrics separately is a good start but does not allow search marketers to get the full picture. I like thinking of a SEM program as a whole, or more specifically as a chain. Just like a computer is as fast as its weakest component, a SEM program is as strong as its weakest link. This holistic approach is actually pretty straight-forward and originates from the user experienc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

Sharing. It's a fundamental principle of social interactions that harkens back to Kindergarten 101. And yet… companies can lose sight of this essential concept when it comes to creating, syndicating, or rebroadcasting content in the social stratosphere. It’s one thing to showcase news, events, or other industry contributions of note on a company blog or a business Facebook page or trickle it in a corporate Twitter stream. But if branded content completely saturates social properties, the good-intentioned company runs the risk of boring, irritating, and even alienating its online communi [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: Search

Governments, non-profit and other organisations are under constant pressure to improve transparency and, as a result, are making vast amounts of data available to the public. The range of data sets available is enormous, with 16 nations currently spear heading open data initiatives, and countless private organisations publishing data online - the US alone has published more than 400,000 data sets. This free data presents an opportunity for anyone with a creative mind to produce something of real interest and, in return, acquire quality inbound links to their website. Furthermore, both th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To | How To: Links | Intermediate | Link Week

Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman and Google SVP of Advertising Susan Wojcicki are now seated for her on-stage keynote interview this morning at SMX West. It's a capacity crowd as Chris Sherman introduces Wojcicki as "one of the 50 most influential business executives" (Forbes). He also characterizes her as someone "you may not have heard of at Google." Chris then leads off with a humorous slide-show of famous garages in Silicon Valley and beyond: HP, Apple, Google, Walt Disney and Amazon. Now the serious part begins. (The dialogue below is paraphrased.) The Early Days  Chris: When [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google | Google: Business Issues | Top News

Localeze, 15 Miles and comScore released findings from their 5th Local Search Study. The survey of 4,000 US adults (together with behavioral data) documents how consumers search for and find local business information across digital platforms. It's a pretty comprehensive study and there are a great many interesting pieces of data, some of which I've written up here and here. In this article I want to focus on a single finding: 49 percent of smartphone and tablet owners are using apps to find local information. On one level this is unremarkable and makes sense; apps are popular and there are [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Search Engines: Location / Checkin Services | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Stats: comScore | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Search Behavior

With its msnNOW site barely two weeks old, Microsoft is already reaping benefits on another property: increased traffic to its Bing search engine. But the way it's happening may also lead to artificial increases in Bing's market share numbers. First, the traffic stats: Experian Hitwise tells us that downstream traffic from msnNOW to Bing jumped 21 percent between the first and second weeks since msnNOW's launch on February 15th. That's in line with a separate report from Compete that says 23 percent of msnNOW users that didn't visit Bing in the week before launch did visit Bing after [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Microsoft: Bing | Stats: General | Stats: Popularity | Top News

The more obvious reason there is a signing frog on the Google home page is because today is a leap day, happens about every four years and Google decided to leap with a frog. But the reason the frog is signing like in an opera is because it is the 220th birthday of Gioachino Rossini. Gioachino Rossini was an Italian composer who was lucky enough to have been born on a leap day. This specific logo combines leap day and his work as a composer, specifically remembering one of his most famous operas named The Barber of Seville. Gioachino Rossini lived for 76 years, dying from pneumonia [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos

Uptake was an ambitious travel site that never quite broke through. It used social data and sentiment analysis to try and provide better travel discovery and decision support to its users. Originally called Kango, we wrote about the site in 2008 when it relaunched as Uptake. AllThingsD today reported that Uptake had been acquired by Groupon for something in the "teens of millions" (between $10 and $20). The company raised roughly $14 million from venture capital inventors, so it was basically a "break even" transaction. Apparently Groupon wanted the team and will integrate most of the ke [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Groupon | Search Engines: Travel Search Engines

As Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum loses two primary races to rival Mitt Romney, perhaps he can console himself with, ironically, another loss. Spreading Santorum, the page defining "santorum" as a by-product of anal sex, has finally dropped from the top results on Google. The related anti-Santorum blog, however, remains. And a page from Urban Dictionary keeps the definition alive, more explicit than before. Santorum: The Definition Page The page at SpreadingSantorum.com, created by columnist Dan Savage as a protest against Santorum's views about homosexuality, has maintain [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: Analysis | Link Building: Link Bombs | Search & Society: General | Search & Society: Santorum Google Problem | Top News

SMX West day one is just about over and I wanted to post the live blogging I have found throughout the day. Here are some of the sessions that were live blogged today. Creating Conversion Friendly Mobile Landing Pages, Search Engine Roundtable Creating Conversion-Friendly Mobile Landing Pages, outspokenmedia.com Does Google Favor Brands? An In-Depth Look, BruceClay.com Does Google Favor Brands? An In-Depth Look, outspokenmedia.com Does Google Favor Brands? An In-Depth Look, Search Engine Roundtable Doing Check-ins & Offers Right, Search Engine Roundtable Don't Panic! A [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences

Microsoft and Nokia announced the fruit of their recent mapping collaboration today. Each company has a blog post describing what's changed and improved (Bing, Nokia). The effort comes out of the companies' strategic partnership in mobile. As part of that arrangement Microsoft is relying heavily on the Nokia-Navteq mapping and data infrastructure. Nokia for its part has made Ovi Maps much more Bing-like in appearance. Essentially the UI has been simplified, colors have been muted and there's an improved "visual hierarchy" at each level of zoom. It's challenging for me to specifically tell w [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 10 Content Ideas To Improve Organic VisibilityIn the past series of articles, we focused on determining what keywords were already generating business for a web site and then optimizing your existing pages to improve organic results for those keywords. In this and some future articles, we’ll cover adding new content to a website as well as other web venues to improve [...] Bing Webmaster Tools API Now AvailableBing has announced three new featu [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

The Definitive Guide to Lead Scoring, designed for both novice and experienced practitioners, offers advice, best practices and techniques to help you get the most out of every lead that enters your database. Whether you’re a lead generation pro or just getting started, these scoring models, tactics, and measurement tips will transform your practices. From Marketo. Download it now! [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sponsor Messages

In the past series of articles, we focused on determining what keywords were already generating business for a web site and then optimizing your existing pages to improve organic results for those keywords. In this and some future articles, we'll cover adding new content to a website as well as other web venues to improve organic visibility. When we work on a comprehensive marketing project for a client, we first learn about their business and then discover what marketing tactics their competitors have employed. At the same time, we learn what web venues are available to focus our mar [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Keywords & Content

Bing has announced three new features for Bing Webmaster Tools but the biggest new feature to me is the new Bing Webmaster Tools API. Markup Validation Tool. This feature allows webmasters to enter any URL and see what the markup looks like on the page, within the code. Keyword research tool. This tool allows webmasters to perform keyword research on any phrase they enter. All data within the tool is exportable, and Bing holds a history of up to six months for all phrases. Bing Webmaster Tools API. This feature allows webmasters to easily use Bing WMT data in other locations. The main exc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Microsoft: Bing Webmaster Tools

It seems as though everyone has written an article about Pinterest. No, this is not really a Pinterest article, but I too, have written an internal POV for clients of Resolution Media as well as collaborated on a tool for brands to effectively capture their audiences on Pinterest. What fascinates me about Pinterest isn’t the platform. Really, it’s the new level of data that may emerge from it and the direction social search may be headed. Entity Search Is The Future Of Search First, let’s review an important breakout area of search called Entity Search. I suggest watching Dan Shure [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Search & Social

On any website, getting the homepage right is a critical (and difficult) series of important design decisions. When you're also catering for navigation to appropriate countries covering much of the globe, that difficulty is increased and the impact of getting it wrong can be catastrophic for your SEO. I've seen plenty of different solutions in my time, and the number of disasters heavily outweighs the successes. And why? Because they are homepages. As the highest profile page on a website - and the portal to a brand experience - homepages have so many different (and conflicting) tasks [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Multinational Search