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iNET Interactive has snapped up Search Marketing Standard, the print and online magazine dedicated to search and Internet marketing. Founded in 2006, Search Marketing Standard had grown to amass more than 50,000 subscribers, and included sister sites like SEMCompare.com (a comparison service for companies in need of search firms) and PayPerClickUniverse.com.

The pickup marks iNET's biggest push into the search marketing space, as the media company already owns and operates a number of web worker-themed properties, including Web development and hosting sites like Webhostingtalk.com and Hostscripts.com.Read the whole story...

If you're developing blog content for SEO's sake, then Darren Rowse has some tips for using the AdWords Keyword Tool to help develop search-friendly blog titles and post topics. He also explains how to use the tool to find out which blog posts may garner the most advertiser attention (as determined by the volume of advertisers bidding on specific words and variations).

"It is worth stating that using the AdWord Keyword Tool to help you choose keywords for your blog will have different impacts upon different blogs - depending upon how well they already rank on Google," Rowse ...Read the whole story...

Ann Smarty outlines the pros and cons of using three of the most common metrics to gauge the success of a search campaign: keyword ranking, rise in search traffic and conversions.

SERP ranking may be the most report-friendly metric, as it's easy to analyze, visualize and explain to clients, but high rankings don't necessarily translate into site benefits. "Ranking should not be the end goal of any project," Smarty says. And because they move up and down naturally, SERP rankings may be a hard metric to keep track of.

Traffic is another metric that's easy to ...Read the whole story...

"Google keeps gaining search market share in the U.S., but its global dominance is not as great as previously indicated," says Erick Schonfeld. According to the latest comScore stats, the search giant's global search share actually declined by almost four points from June to July.

Meanwhile, Baidu's share increased by about five points during the same time period--based almost entirely on its strength in China alone. "That makes Baidu the third largest search engine in the world after Yahoo," Schonfeld said.

The market share fluctuations were largely due to changes in the way comScore measures Web ...Read the whole story...

"Having read all the hype surrounding the Search Engine Strategies event in San Jose, we jumped into the car yesterday morning excited about the prospect of discovering something new," says Julia Hyde. "Unfortunately, we were disappointed. Wandering around the event we all came to the same conclusion: Every search marketing agency sounds the same."

Hyde recounts the experience she and some of the other members of the Creative Search Media team had at their first SES, including snippets from the various media kits they picked up while trolling the exhibit hall. And for the most part, she's underwhelmed by ...Read the whole story...