The overwhelming response to my last article, 36 SEO Myths That Won’t Die But Need To, it prompted a followup feature, SEO Myths Reloaded: Clarifcations, Consensus And Controversy. In the process, I ended up with a significant number of additional myths: 36 to be exact. That brings us to a grand total of 72 SEO […]
I have to say I wasn’t expecting the impassioned responses to my last article, 36 SEO Myths That Won’t Die But Need To. But that’s okay, as I wasn’t expecting all the positive buzz and re-tweets either (1,153 and still counting — how exciting!) In this follow-up, I’d like to revisit some of the most […]
Need another data point from the search world illustrating the rise of concern over Facebook’s privacy changes. How about that chart above? It shows a huge spike to traffic at wikiHow, which has a handy guide on how to delete your Facebook account. Earlier this week, I wrote about how there seemed to be an […]
A couple of months ago, I wrote a piece on the importance of research for small businesses; how research provides critical insight to customer wants and needs, and how research may focus the direction of a given business model. Well, now it is time for me to take my own advice! I’ve been offering my […]
Marketers have been advising strategy and tactics by “search” keyword research for well over a decade. We pretty much all know by now that keyword “inventory” has various tails including search frequency (number of searches), seasonality (when), cost-per-paid-click, CPM (cost per thousand impressions), SEO attainability, geo-location and user-intent (query objective). All these years later search […]
Yahoo’s massive new headquarters plan approved from MarketWatch reports Yahoo can now build enough buildings to house most of their existing worldwide employees, all in Silicon Valley. Tuesday night the Santa Clara City Council unanimously voted to approve Yahoo’s development plan for thirteen six-story buildings. The buildings will be about 10 miles away from the […]
We’ve talked a lot about keywords in the last few weeks. We went over how to drill down and uncover your core list and then how to take those top terms and generate many variations of those terms using keyword modifiers. At this point, you should have a fairly well-developed keyword list, but there’s always […]
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 Search Funnel Reports—Tunnel Vision? On March 19, 2010 Google unveiled Google AdWords Search Funnel Reports via this YouTube video. This was a great day for proponents of multi-attribution marketing analysis. […]
On March 19, 2010 Google unveiled Google AdWords Search Funnel Reports via this YouTube video. This was a great day for proponents of multi-attribution marketing analysis. There are two reasons why companies that offer similar services actually viewed Google’s release as a benefit to their business models and not as a mortal competitive threat. Reason […]
Did you know that Google Squared turned one today? Google noted this fact today and also noted the various web search features Google Squared powers. Currently, Google Squared powers the “sources” displayed for the “best answers” one box and it also powers the new “something different” refinements on the new Google design. For example, a […]
Here it is, one of the most common cliches of all time (at least since pictures were around) – A picture speaks a thousand words. The saying is so prevalent because it captures the power of images so clearly. It should be no surprise that images are not only a highly effective communication vehicle, but […]
Hiring a search professional for an in-house role can be a daunting task. SEO as a profession lacks a large, experienced talent pool, and it is especially rare to find good search marketers with in-house experience. However, an individual with the right personality, skills and background can make a great addition to your team, even […]
Many marketers understand Twitter search is a powerful way to monitor brand mentions and reach out to customers. But I think few realize what a powerful platform it provides to reach out on non-branded generic mentions. To better illustrate this, let me introduce the “Anyone Know” Twitter search. Actually, I’ll explain “Anyone Know” toward the […]
Scroogle, a site designed for those who don’t want Google tracking their searches back to them, had some hiccups since the new Google design went live on May 5th. Scroogle worked by “scraping” the Google search results from https://www.google.com/ie, a service for Internet Explorer 6 users. Google has decided to discontinue that service redirect it […]
Languages are powerful things. Emotive, passionate, constructive, descriptive—they are all these things and so much more! This post explores the power of natural language for conversions and first I’m going to look at “Mad Libs” forms.
Last September Google launched “Internet Stats” in the UK. Now Google is “launching” it in the US or perhaps, more precisely, exposing it again. The site aims to be a repository for data points, organized by broad categories, market sectors and verticals. Data come from various sources, but mostly trade groups and market research firms […]
comScore’s out with new search market share figures. Yahoo’s up, but did it “game” its growth with new navigational changes? Gaming figures is nothing new. But even if Yahoo effectively did, it’s the search volume — the number of searches — that people should care more about in deciding who’s “winning” and “losing” when it […]
The biggest sporting event on Earth is a month away, and Yahoo is out of the gates first to announce special shortcuts focused on the 2010 World Cup. Already in place is a general World Cup shortcut, and once the matches begin, Yahoo will have specific shortcuts for countries, groups, and individual matches, like these […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Keynoting SMX Advanced Seattle: Microsoft SVP Yusuf Mehdi Microsoft’s Bing is turning one year old, and according to just-released comScore qSearch data continues to gain market share at the expense of […]
Microsoft’s Bing is turning one year old, and according to just-released comScore qSearch data continues to gain market share at the expense of Google. We’re excited about our keynote conversation at SMX Advanced Seattle, where Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s Senior Vice President, Online Audience Business and a key executive on the Bing team discusses the evolution […]
Search engine marketing — both pay-per-click and SEO — remains a strong source of traffic and sales for retailers. That’s according to an Internet Retailer survey conducted in April of 102 web-only retailers, chain retailers, catalogers and consumer brand manufacturers. According to the survey, 27% of respondents say that search engine marketing is responsible for […]
Bing has added voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation to the Bing mobile app for Windows Phones 6.1 and above. Bing thus joins Google, Nokia and to a lesser degree MapQuest in offering free mobile navigation services. It also means more woe for the PND makers (TomTom, Garmin, et al). The voice component of the Bing navigation service […]
Emails are the main method that my link builders use in order to build new links. It’s how we started doing things, and it continues to work for us. While there are other methods that we’ve tried, emails seem to work the best for us. That could be because for a lot of the industries […]
At its recent F8 developer conference, Facebook announced a raft of new developments which have been causing ripples in the worlds of technology and marketing ever since. The one that arguably has the biggest implications is the roll-out of social plug-ins and the Open Graph API (you can read my thoughts on that here if […]
The Google AdWords blog announced a new match type, a modifier to broad match that let’s you be more specific on your keyword targeting than the normal broad match. This is currently being testing in the UK and Canada and it is named the broad match modifier. How does it work? Put a plus symbol […]
Are you negatively impacting your global search efforts? There are many issues ranging from lack of resources, server restrictions and egos that are hurting a company’s search exposure in local markets. This article will breakdown some of these issues and how you can eliminate them.
The comScore monthly search data release is now such an anti-climax because it’s “leaked” a day ahead of time by financial analysts and then immediately republished by bloggers who receive the research notes. We’re on that list too. This month’s data (April) are a bit muddled because of UI changes at Yahoo and Google. Here’s […]
Local search destination Center’d has launched a new site, The DealMap. Its objective is to be a comprehensive engine for local deals and coupons. Beyond a range of sources and partners, it also employs game dynamics to encourage users to identify and upload local deals they find in the “real world” that would otherwise never […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Growing On Google, People Asking “How Do I Delete My Facebook Account” When working on a presentation about search today, I did a “how do I” search on Google to see […]
When working on a presentation about search today, I did a “how do I” search on Google to see what was suggested as topics. To my surprise, “How do I delete my Facebook account” was one of the top choices: Is this new? It could be that this suggestion has been there for months, and […]
Google’s dogged pursuit of small business owners continues with a new web page that offers advice about “how to succeed online” and appears to have the backing of the U.S. government. The page is called “Tools for Online Success” and shows both Google’s logo and the U.S. Small Business Administration at the top. The introductory […]
As part of releasing a new design and search options last week, Google also added a new search filter named “sites with images” this week that it has spotlighted on the Google Blog. To activate the search filter, conduct an image related search at Google, and then click on the link under “All results” named […]
We've theorized that people who search by trademark usually search by trademark and that those who use more specific search terms rather than more general search terms behave that way consistently. Now we have some data to back that up.
In 2003, when Open List started crawling the web for local content, Marchex identified specific businesses by their phone number. By and large, that tactic worked. Today, for local businesses, the phone number is a far less reliable identifier, even though routing and tracking inbound phone calls is more important than ever. To put some […]
In today’s competitive, crowded and often copycat online advertising environment, advertisers are continually looking for new, innovative, cost-efficient ways to get their message though to target audiences. They’ve studied and implemented all the standard best practices into their ad copy—strong calls to action, keywords in the creative, trademark symbols and even dynamic keyword insertion—but many […]
As I covered in my article about Google’s new look, while the new design appears to have been widely accepted without complaint, there are some who want “old” or “Classic Google” back. Google tells me that’s not going to happen. But there is an unofficial way to force the old look to appear, for those […]
There are a number of “social shopping” sites and, of course, numerous product or shopping-related blogs. Among the most visible in the first category are Kaboodle, ThisNext/Stylehive and Polyvore. They offer tools and features that allow people to share, compare and vote on products. The mainstream shopping comparison engines such as Shopping.com or PriceGrabber don’t […]
Today is Mother’s Day in the U.S. and in many other countries, but it is also Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie’s 150th birthday. To celebrate the day, Google has a Mother’s Day logo in the countries celebrating Mother’s Day today and Peter Pan logo (along with Wendy, John, Michael and yes, Tinkerbell) in other countries, […]
Search marketers are hugely time-constrained. So many pages to optimize for so much search activity, yet so little time. Where do you spend it? Most likely on the top categories or keywords. But if you have thousands of pages, most pages go under-optimized—and will always be unless you have the ability to “create” time. As […]
I’ve been working on a project to classify all the special logos that Google has done over the years. Crazy? Perhaps a bit, but it’s interesting to see what Google has honored with special logos and the great increase in them recently. Besides, I like to organize things. Below, how Google’s special logos have evolved, […]