Last Call For Search Marketing Stars: Why You Should Enter The Search Engine Land Awards!

About two months ago, I was at a major tech conference where search got mentioned as “boring.” Sigh. Search — which makes up half of all online ad spend in the United States — is far from boring. And search marketers, now’s your chance to prove it.

This is the last week to enter the Search Engine Land Awards, where we will recognize the best in search marketing over the past year.

Search marketing is the marketing activity that, more than any other, delivers that oft-sought “right message at the right time.” The marketing activity that funds Google’s auto-driving cars and other “moonshots.” The workhorse that makes so many businesses viable in the internet age.

So are you tired of Hollywood portraying SEO as a bunch of spammers? Are you tired of people assuming that’s what SEO is because of spam they see, which they take as representative of SEO? Are you tired of fighting to win a paid search budget, then having to keep fighting to preserve that budget in the face of the new “cool” stuff like social and video? Are you tired of SEM campaigns being overlooked both for their creativity and ROI?

Then step up! Enter the Search Engine Land Awards — the Landys — and help celebrate the great successes in search marketing and show the marketing world and beyond that search marketing deserves far more recognition than it gets.

On a personal note, I’ve long wanted to do these awards for search marketing. Back early in my career, we ran awards to recognize the emerging search engines at the time. Those awards were important in helping players like Google gain recognition. But they were extremely time-consuming to do right, much less expand beyond search engines and into search marketing campaigns.

This year, we felt Search Engine Land was finally staffed up enough to take on this new challenge in addition to our main mission of covering search marketing. And we’re not the only search awards out there. If you’re in the US, there’s also the US Search Awards. If you’re in the the UK, there’s the UK Search Awards and the Drum Search Awards. I think search marketers should consider those as well as ours, which are open to global entries.

Still, I think our awards will be special. Search Engine Land is the leading publication in the search marketing space, and our awards are backed by that reputation. The awards are also not for-profit. There’s a modest entry fee that helps cover some of the basic costs involved. But anything earned beyond that goes to two charities: BeTheMatch.org and CODE.org. Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, is also guaranteeing at least $5,000 will go to them.

You’ve got this week to enter, with 12 different categories and special consideration for SMBs versus large enterprise companies. We want your entries, want your stories, and we look forward to celebrating the successes out there. Enter the Search Engine Land Awards now!