SEO Freebies by Laurie Sullivan

Search engine optimization experts have a tendency to give away information. There are countless blogs providing step-by-step strategies on everything from link building to image and video optimization. Some industries might call that revealing trade secrets, but these SEO experts believe they do it for the good of the industry. I could slam these guys and girls for cutting their own throats -- financially speaking -- but instead I look at the glass half full, rather than half empty, and agree with their do-gooder approach. ...Read the whole story

  • Google Experiments With News, Acquires Mobile Start-up by Laurie Sullivan

    Google has been testing a new format for its News page. This design gets a little more social by displaying expandable sections with related stories about the subject, highlighting movable modules. It allows searchers to manually click through a sliding photo show with stills that expand when moused over. ...Read the whole story

  • Mobile Paid-Search Ads Click With Consumers by Laurie Sullivan

    Mobile U.S. paid-search impressions exceeded 10% in the first quarter, the point that fledgling ad strategies cross the threshold from fad to reality, according to marketers. Performics, which supports 125 global brands, says mobile impressions rose 10.2% in March, nearly tripling figures from a year ago. ...Read the whole story

  • More Consumers Connect With Paid-Search Ads by Laurie Sullivan

    Search campaigns generated stronger click-through rates overall in the first quarter, compared with a year ago, suggesting healthy growth for the paid-search industry this year. In fact, impressions, clicks and budgets rose across numerous industry segments, suggesting that more consumers connected with ads. ...Read the whole story

  • Jury Dismisses Spam Lawsuit Against Legal Research Company by Wendy Davis

    A jury has cleared legal research company TheLaw.net and its owner, Mark Whitney, of violating a Washington D.C., spam law by sending unsolicited email ads to a local attorney. ...Read the whole story

Captiva Eve: Three More Sneak Previews Of The Search Insider Summit by Gord Hotchkiss

One week from today, the formal part of the Search Insider Summit will be kicking off on Captiva Island. Here are three more of the presentations you'll be catching if you're lucky enough to be joining us in Florida. ...More

  • SEMPO: Social PPC is Giving Google Adwords a Run for Its Money by Rob Garner

    SEMPO has released its comprehensive "State of Search" report for 2011, and there are many key findings that are of interest to practicing search marketers, search strategists and PPC media buyers, to name a few. Over 900 agencies and companies from 66 countries were interviewed for the 133-page report. SEMPO research chair Marc Englesman of Digital Brand Expressions offered some key insights on the report for MediaPost. Of the findings, it is notable that social networks have become substantial alternative PPC networks, in some cases driving higher PPC participation than the Yahoo / Bing search alliance. ...More