• Reviewing The New SEMCompare, Which Reviews Search Firms
    Kalena Jordan has some reservations about SEMCompare, a ratings and review site for SEM firms launched by Search Marketing Standard. "The problem with the concept of rating SEM firms is that there are no published search industry standards that SEM agencies are required to meet and no formal accreditation body imposing such standards," Jordan says. She adds that the magazine is "by default claiming a standards yardstick by which all SEM firms should be measured--dangerous territory indeed!" Jordan also argues that unscrupulous competitors could rate and review each other's sites arbitrarily, while unsatisfied customers could go …
  • On Second Thought, Maybe We Do Need SEO Standards
    Lisa Barone offers up a rebuttal to Jill Whelan's Search Engine Land Op-Ed on why there's no need for standards when it comes to SEO. "Taking a look around, I think we are absolutely at the point where it's Do or Die time for SEO standards," Barone says. "We don't need the perfect search engine optimization How-To guide (though I'm sure Mahalo is working on that), but we do need to outline what SEO is and what it means to optimize a Web site. We need to establish best practices, what the risk is for abandoning them, and …
  • Tweaking PPC Ads For An End-of-Month Performance Boost
    So it's the last week (or day!) of the month and you need more traffic and conversions to finish off on a high note--but your budget is low. Amber Benedict has a five-spot of PPC campaign tips you can use to boost your end-of-month performance, without going over your spending cap. Get down to keyword-level bidding, Benedict says--meaning seek out your best-performing keyword and raise the bid on it. You'll increase your ad position for that specific keyword without incurring the costs of upping the bids on all the other terms in its ad group. …
  • Brian Gil Sets Record Straight On Yahoo Local Reviews
    The primary focus of Matt McGee's post-SMX West interview with Yahoo Local Director of Product Management Brian Gil, was to clear up some of the confusion in the blogosphere about the importance of user reviews for business rankings on Yahoo Local. "Ratings and reviews is certainly a contributor, but it's not the end-all, be-all," Gil said. "And I was trying to clarify that rating and review content from a customer isn't enough, on its own, to let the business qualify to show up for a certain query in the first place." Gil said that making sure …
  • Quintura's New Site Search Widget
    Quintura has released a new site search widget. The free tool allows Webmasters to have their site indexed and crawled by the semantic search engine, and visitors can then search for info via its tag-cloud-style interface. The widget loads and users are presented with a cloud of search terms and phrases that are prevalent on a site--so a crime drama lover's blog might feature terms like "CSI" and "Law & Order," while a financial aid Web site would have a tag cloud with words like "FAFSA" and "Pell grant." Once users point their mouse at one of the …
  • We Don't Need No Stinkin' SEO Standards
    "Is it Time for Search Marketing Standards?" was the name of the panel that Jill Whelan attended at SMX West. It took her about a month to come up with a definitive answer. "Now that I've had a few weeks to think about it, I've come to the conclusion that not only would it be impossible to come up with standards that most would be happy with, I strongly believe that we don't need them at all," Whelan says. There are a number of reasons why Whelan doesn't think standards would work, starting with the fact that no two …
  • Yahoo Gets Straight To The Point With "Still Googling?" Email Campaign
    Over the past month, many Yahoo Mail users (myself included) have received at least one email with the subject line: "Still Googling? The new Yahoo Search is sure to impress." The email links to a feature page educating users about the recent improvements like Search Assist, as well as accolades from publications like the Chicago Tribune and Fortune magazine As Loren Baker says, the campaign may be "the most upfront marketing message from Yahoo which positions its search engine as an alternative to Google." And while the message may be persuasive enough to get Yahoo Mail users to …
  • Survey: Most Search Marketers Self-Taught
    The SEOmoz team has crunched the numbers from the SEO Industry survey they initiated in February, combing through the responses of more than 3,000 search marketers to questions about themselves, their work and the industry as a whole. br> One key takeaway an overwhelming majority (92%) of respondents learned search marketing strategies and tactics on their own. About a quarter of respondents also said that they'd been trained on-site by a coworker or colleague, and just around 10% said they'd taken formal classes or training. Most respondents (20%) dubbed themselves SEO specialists, followed by Web developers (12%), …
  • If Black Hat Equals Cool, Then White Hat Equals Paid
    Affiliate marketing is a search industry niche that often gets a bad rap from both the engines and search pros--warranted or not. Chad Frederiksen wonders whether the benefits of being a "black hat" affiliate are worth the time spent evading discovery and the possibility of having all that work nullified. "People seem to associate black hat as the 'cool guys,'" Frederiksen says. "But the ultimate question to me is what is your goal? To be cool or to make money?" If it's about making money, then white hat is the way to go, Frederiksen says. Both strategy paths …
  • Still More Testing Tips For Beefing Up Site Traffic
    If your Web site is struggling and you don't have the time or cash to hire a search firm, then the Future Now team has some Web site optimization tips you can start implementing as soon as possible. You'll need to get a testing platform, like Google Website Optimizer and run a simple split A/B test. Since your site is struggling with low traffic, avoid multivariate testing, as the time it would take to generate enough traffic to gauge the success of multiple combinations of on-page factors could be too prohibitive. Don't make any judgments until …
« Previous Entries