SEMPO & Econsultancy have teamed up again this year to run the State of Search Marketing Survey. The survey will cover topics including budgets, marketing objectives, and the latest trends in paid search, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media. SEMPO and Econsultancy are asking those in the search and social communities to take the survey over here. The survey will be open until open through March 28, 2012. All SEMPO members get the final report included in their membership, if you are not a SEMPO member, the only other way to get the report for free is to participate in the s [...]

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SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Profession Organization, has posted their 2012 nominees for the Board of Directors. There are currently 38 nominees for the 2012- 2014 Board, with a total of 13 seats to fill. SEMPO members can vote electronically between February 14 through February 22, 2012. Votes must be submitted by Wednesday, February 22 at 5pm EDT. The current board includes Chris Boggs, Massimo Burgio, Bruce Clay, Dave Fall, Rob Garner, Mike Grehan, Motoko Hunt, Kevin Lee, Kristjan Mar Hauksson, Dmitriy Minenko, Jeffrey Pruitt, Margaret Willette, Michael Y. Xu. It seems ov [...]

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At the recent SEMPO LA Mobile Event (sponsored by AT&T interactive) moderator Danny Sullivan told a story about the early days at Google. As early as 2000, Sergey Brin was telling everyone who would listen about the incredible applications of his search engine on cell phones. Even for a forward thinker like Danny, this seemed a little bit farfetched and ahead of its time. Fast forward to 2011, and Google still has quite a bit to say about mobile. Mobile Commerce Is Maturing Bon Mercado, a mobile product specialist at Google, said that the wide adoption of smart phones in the US (up to [...]

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The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) is undertaking its first industry-wide salary survey to assess the state of compensation of search marketing professionals by region, experience and responsibility. Previous SEMPO salary surveys have been limited to in-house and agency professionals, whereas the current one is broad-based and open to any search marketing professional. Want to participate? Complete the brief survey before the November 1 deadline. You do not need to be a SEMPO member to participate. [...]

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SEMPO is working with the U.S. Labor Department to classify job titles and descriptions related to search engine marketing, and is looking for industry help in the process. In a recent SEMPO newsletter, the organization explained what's going on: You can be part of an important and exciting task force for SEMPO, to help the US Government understand and document the job classification that includes search marketing expertise. Among its many uses, it will allow those in the Search Industry to bid more easily on government contracts. SEMPO has been asked to facilitate participation by at l [...]

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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 [...]

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It's probably no surprise to anyone working as a search marketer, but the industry is chugging along at double-digit growth rates, even as budgets for other forms of marketing and advertising continue to be slashed. According to SEMPO's sixth annual State of Search Engine Marketing Report, the North American search engine marketing industry will grow 14% this year from $14.6 billion in 2009 to $16.6 billion by the end of 2010. The report, based on a global online survey of nearly 1,500 client-side marketers and agency respondents, also found that measuring the return on investment (ROI) [...]

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SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, has launched its sixth annual "State of Search Engine Marketing" survey. Search marketing professionals -- either in-house or at an agency -- are welcome to participate, and you don't need to be a SEMPO member. The study will project planned spending across the industry for search, advertising, and social media campaigns in 2010. Its goal is "to assess the economy's effect on year-to-year online marketing spending and investigate new trends." The survey is open until February 22nd. All participants will get a free copy of the [...]

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SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, is seeking candidates for its Board of Directors. Terms for the current board members expire in March. SEMPO is hosting a webinar this week to explain more about the requirements and responsibilities of being a board member, as well as the nomination and election process for its board. The webinar is scheduled for Thursday, January 14, at 3:00 pm ET. You can learn more and register here for the webinar. SEMPO board members serve two year terms. [...]

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SEMPO's SEMPO Institute, which launched in January 2007, has announced two new courses for the summer. The new courses were added to the Effective Search Marketing online classes and are named "Linking and Brand Management" and "Social Media." They cost $299 each and you can enroll for them over here. Here are the course descriptions: Effective Search Marketing: Linking and Brand Management: The course will cover how to obtain high quality links from a variety of sources, including link recovery, directories, social media and expert articles. It will explain how to develop compe [...]

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Conductor, a search marketing firm, has announced they have raised $10 million in funding from Matrix Partners and FirstMark Capital. This is more good news from the search industry showing that venture capital companies are still investing in search marketing firms. Yesterday, we reported that Marin software raised $13 million and today, Conductor raised $10 million. Here are statements from the release: "We see persistent demand from large organizations to invest in SEO. However, lacking the tools to manage and measure that investment, many large organizations are effectively ina [...]

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paidContent.org reports Marin Software, a search marketing company, has raised an additional $13 million venture capital. The primary source of the money came from DAG Ventures, adding up to Marin raising a total of about $25 million in funding from sources such as Benchmark Capital, Amicus Capital and Focus Ventures. Marin reportedly manages $300 million of online ad spend annually for clients such as ZipRealty and Microsoft's Razorfish. It is nice to see companies in the search field still able to raise money in these slow economic times. [...]

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A month ago, I wrote about my meet up with Google Israel, from my trip to Israel about two months ago. This week, I am back in Israel on a sponsored Blogger Delegation to meet with Israelis and see their way of business and life. Today, I had free time and used it to meet up with some of the larger search marketing agencies in Israel. The meet up took place at Compucall, one of the largest SEM companies in Israel. Several of those that attended have been in the SEO/SEM space for about ten years and have extensive experience both running an SEM company and performing SEM services. Gilad [...]

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SEMPO's new report, due to be released this week, cuts its forecast for search advertising. The results are based on a survey of almost 900 agencies and search marketers. According to the Wall Street Journal, the report scales back previous growth projections considerably: [SEMPO] says North American search marketing spending will increase only 9% to $14.7 billion in 2009 from $13.5 billion a year ago. Its previous estimates, made in early 2008, called for the industry to grow at more than twice that rate this year, from $15.7 billion in 2008 to $18.8 billion in 2009. The new forecasts call f [...]

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SEMPO's Board of Directors has elected new officers to oversee the organization. The new officers include Jeffrey Pruitt, formerly SEMPO president and executive vice president of corporate partnerships, iCrossing, who was elected chairman. Sara Holoubek, corporate strategy consultant, was elected president. Ron Jones, president and CEO of Symetri Internet Marketing, was elected vice president of SEMPO. Dave Fall, group product manager, Google, Inc., was elected treasurer. Chris Boggs, director of search engine optimization for Rosetta, was elected secretary. The new officers begin their o [...]

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Andy Beal announced the launch of a new tool to find SEO and SEM companies named SEM Vendor. This is a new place for companies to find SEO, PPC and SEM companies seeking your business. If you are looking for an SEM company, just fill out the form and SEM vendors will be able to pitch their services to you. If you are an SEM company, you can list your company over here, it does appear there is a fee to submit proposals to leads, but viewing the leads seems to be free. SEM Vendor joins a list of free alternatives to finding and submitting your SEM companies. One of the oldest and most pop [...]

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As expected, SEMPO, has rung the bell at the NASDAQ yesterday morning. You can see the full release and several pictures at the NASDAQ release. Dana Todd, Chairperson of the Board of Directors for SEMPO, presided over the Opening Bell at NASDAQ yesterday morning. Congrats to SEMPO and congrats to the search marketing industry! [...]

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SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, has been invited to ring the opening bell at NASDAQ headquarters in Times Square on December 1st. There doesn't seem to be a news release about it yet, but SEMPO's Dave Williams shared all the details on SEMPO's Facebook group: "SEMPO was recognized by NASDAQ as being highly influential in the tech community, and you have the opportunity to be there on this historic day. Our chairperson, Dana Todd will be on hand to represent SEMPO at the opening, and would love to have local members join us for this exciting event." RSVPs are [...]

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Agency.com Sues Rival Over Clients from the Wall Street Journal reports that Agency.com is suing iCrossing for allegedly trying to hire Agency.com employees and steal their clients. Agency.com is specifically suing for breach of contract, tortuous interference and conspiring to misappropriate proprietary information and trade secrets. They are seeking $19.5 million in damages from iCrossing. Furthermore, Agency.com is blaming iCrossing for the closing of their Dallas office and the "decimation of the firm's Chicago office." The Wall Street Journal reports that depositions lead Agency.c [...]

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This Thursday, June 19th at 5pm (EST), Google will be hosting their second live chat session for webmasters. The first event, which took place in March, turned out to be a pretty big success. To register for the event, go here and click on the "register" link on the left hand side of the page - you won't want to miss it. SEMPO is hosting the "Great SEMPO NY Debate" at Stitch in New York on 247 West 37th Street. The event is tomorrow at 6:30pm on Wednesday, June 18th. The topic of discussion is, "Which is the best way to manage search engine marketing, In-House or Agency?" To register fo [...]

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