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.
While people use the internet for daily activities including reading news, doing research, communicating with others and shopping, many marketers still do not make paid search a priority when planning a new campaign. In fact, it is often implemented as an afterthought—a second level priority behind more traditional media such as TV and print. Rather […]
There are times when you want to expand your keywords but you have run out of ideas and places to look. In this post I will examine some alternate tools to help you come up with new keywords. Always remember, just because a tool suggested a keyword does not mean you should use it. Consider […]
International paid search offers the unprecedented ability to break into new markets with low upfront costs. However, a common mistake made by marketers when expanding to a new country is that they only translate ad text without taking into consideration all of the additional complexities involved. An international campaign is not simply an extension of […]
More egregious mistakes that website owners, web designers/developers, landing page experts, and others make to prevent qualified search engine traffic and conversions.
Because this column, PPC Academy, is a one-year search advertising course, it made sense to spend the first few months on research. In the real world of tight deadlines and downsizing, it can be easy to want to do everything quickly, but deep research can yield tremendous dividends for your account so it’s important not […]
Are you getting bad or conflicting SEO advice from landing page and conversion specialists? Keep your ears open for these deadly SEO sins.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: “Inkbait”: A Case Study In Linkability In the world of search engine optimization (SEO), the tactic known as “linkbait” is one of the few link building tactics the search engines embrace, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: SEOmoz Leaves The Consulting Business To Focus On Software SEOmoz, the well-known, Seattle-based SEO agency, is getting out of the agency business. In a blog post today, CEO Rand Fishkin says […]
Last week, a post on the Predictably Irrational blog described the differences in what boyfriends and girlfriends were looking for their beloveds to do based on Google Suggest. Google Suggest can provide hours of fun. Just spend some time at Autocomplete Me or QuestionSuggestions. But can it provide useful audience analysis for understanding our customers, […]
Paid search landing pages matter. Picking the wrong pages -- as machines usually do -- hurts conversion rates which forces down bids, which shrinks the size of the paid search program.
For Search Engine Land PRO members, below you will find selected sessions from our SMX: Search Marketing Expo conferences on key topics relating to search marketing. You need to be a logged in SEL PRO member to watch them. Log in here, and click on any session title to view the video. Unfortunately, we are […]
Managing your health requires achieving a balance between diet and exercise. In the same way, a healthy paid search campaign requires achieving a balance between branded and non-branded spending. Working together, the two create an optimal mix that will help you achieve the best results possible. Why balance matters Given branded terms’ reputation for delivering […]
Google has announced an upgrade to the Keywords report that’s available in Webmaster Tools. The report now features a daily update of the most common keywords that Google found while crawling a web site. And each keyword is linked to another report that details up to “10 top pages” where the keyword was found. It’s […]
Already its own specialty of digital marketing and now almost 50% of all online advertising budgets, paid search has fully grown into its own channel. A quick bit of research can quickly uncover a multitude of blogs, books, tools, companies, etc. all focused on the topic and within this channel, there’s even more fragmentation and […]
The AdWords API Blog announced a new version of the v2009 API and also released a date as to when version 13 of the API will sunset. The new version of v2009, known as v200909 has many changes, but the most important include: Asynchronous calls – Asynchronous calls allow you to work with large sets […]
After last week’s “Does SEO = Spam” debate erupted, I had a number of follow-up emails where I explained privately more about why SEO has such a bad reputation in some quarters, as well as what SEO is and isn’t, from my perspective. I wanted to share some of that below. Bad Advice Sucks: From […]
There’s no going back for me now, I’ve made the compulsory switch to the new AdWords interface. While I have my gripes, there are also some useful new features which can help in-house search engine marketers save time and streamline account management tasks. The real question is, do the improvements outweigh the loss of some […]
I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable this morning that Google has a beta version of a new keyword tool available in the AdWords console. To get to it, login to adwords.google.com, go to a campaign, click on opportunities (if you have that tab), then on the left bar, click on keyword tool. A “beta” […]
Forget about your SEO investment. Disregard your PPC budget. B2B marketers should be asking themselves, “Am I getting all I can from search engines... for free?” Consider this: searching is the second most popular online activity today — second only to email. In fact, comScore (August 2009) estimates that Google alone handles 304 million searches […]
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 Lets You Tell Them Which URL Parameters To Ignore A new feature has appeared in the Site Configuration Settings Sections of Google Webmaster Tools. The setting, called Parameter Handling, enables […]
When optimizing a website for search, it is critical to target the right keywords as they play an important role in its overall success. Given that, it’s not surprising that when a page on a website has a subpar performance in search, many marketers jump to change its keywords. But doing so could be a […]
Keyword Research Artistry Good SEO begins with good keyword research. But all to often, this is an overlooked area. This session dives in with some of the latest tools and tips to really understand how people are searching for your content, sharing real-life examples and delving issues such as how to target both “head” and […]
Read the search marketing press today and you’ll find abundant information on the importance of bid management strategies, as well as tools to maximize campaign ROI. However, as anybody who’s managed a search campaign recently knows, bid levels are only part of the equation. Effective search marketers know that search engines are looking to maximize […]
As an in-house SEO, where does the legitimate scope of your activities end, and those of somebody else begin? Are you being a useful and valid contributor, or simply poking your nose in where it doesn’t belong? What is rightfully within your scope may surprise you. Successful search engine marketing requires you to collaborate with […]
Google has announced a few new features in its Google Insights for Search keyword research tool. The most important, in my opinion, is a new forecasting feature that aims to extrapolate future popularity of keywords (based on historical trends and search patterns). Google says this forecasting feature is only available on a certain set of […]
The “Kay Bailey Hutchinson for Governor Official Website” put up by “Texans for Kay Bailey Hutchison, Allan Shivers, Jr., Treasurer” over the weekend in support of Kay Bailey Hutchinson for Texas governor was briefly in Google but now appears to be completely missing. Huh. Odd since Bing seems to have indexed it just fine, although […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 26 People Who Mislead You On Twitter Earlier this month, I covered various ways people are spamming Twitter in my Twitter’s Real Time Spam Problem article. Since then, I’ve been diligently […]
Today is the first day of SMX Advanced 2009 and here is what is turning up in the form of live blogging and coverage from the show. I will continue to update this post with more coverage throughout the day. If you want to notify me of any additional coverage either comment below, send me […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Finally, Yahoo 360 To Be Shuttered In July More than 18 months after first saying that Yahoo 360 would close, the company has finally announced a date: July 13, 2009. Why […]
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’s New Wave Of Ambition I’m in the Google Wave press conference, following a dizzying keynote — dizzying, at least, after a night of little sleep. As he did yesterday Google […]
Microsoft has announced an upgrade to adCenter that the company says will give advertisers “more control over targeting, bidding, and distribution of your advertising campaigns.” Microsoft wrote several blog posts to explain all the changes: Campaign Management Updates covers the new targeting options, new bidding flexibility, and improved keyword research tools Account Management Updates covers […]
Many businesses seek to target local searchers for their products and services, and careful review of a site's analytics is one of the key weapons in a local business's competitive arsenal. Here are a few tips on what metrics to look at and how to use some of them in optimizing your site to rank better in local search results.
The Site Visibility blog noticed Google has updated their keyword suggestion tool to show local search volume in addition to global search volume. As you can see from the screen capture below, there are two columns, one for local and one for global. The local column shows search volume data “specific to your targeted country […]
During search engine optimization (SEO) consultations, we search professionals often see and hear things that make our jaws drop. Even after years and years of knowledge distribution through email newsletters, blogs, forums, and other forms of social media, we still witness companies making really stupid optimization mistakes. Since I am a strong believer in learning […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
So, you’ve junked your day job and made the commitment to your shiny new startup business. You’ve created your website, and what’s the first thing you do now? Like just about every other startup business person you do the search on Google for your business name. At this point, two things might happen: You discover […]
Three new features just announced this week will make the already valuable Google Insights for Search an even stronger keyword research tool. Here’s a look at what’s been added: 1.) New data sources In addition to web search, you can now do keyword research for Image, News, and Product search, too. This opens up new […]
For over 10 years, I have been trying to convince my clients, colleagues, friends, family, and my 2 cats that SEO and website usability go hand in hand, that they are intricately related. And I have even chastised colleagues and clients for not considering users during the optimization process. I have seen many of my […]