Almost 80% of online marketers are using organic search as their main lead generation channel, ahead of in-house email (75%) and paid search (71%), according to the latest Online Lead Generation report from E-consultancy. E-consultancy and Clash-Media surveyed over 600 online marketers to find out about their B2C lead generation habits, and found that paid and organic search were still the most widely used lead generation tactics. Over half (52%) of respondents said that organic search was a "very effective" practice for generating leads. Meanwhile, just under half (48%) said the same about paid search, but a majority …

Hannah Fletcher details a new trend that has emerged in the wake of the massive Chinese earthquake--search vigilantes using the power of the Web to dig up info on other people and get them punished. Gao Qianhui, a young Chinese woman, was irritated by the 'round the clock post-earthquake news coverage, and uploaded a video voicing her discontent. Within hours, search vigilantes, or what Fletcher dubs, the "human flesh search engine" found and posted info about her to various forums and message boards, including details about her parents' divorce, and her home and work addresses. The ensuing fracas …

If you're spending or managing a considerable amount each month on AdWords or YSM, chances are you'd benefit from the attentions of a dedicated account representative. Amber Benedict dishes the dirt on how her Google and Yahoo account reps respond fast to phone calls and emails, have overall familiarity with her campaigns (and their related issues), and even get her first dibs on product betas and invites. She even lists a number of ways to go about getting an account rep, either by emailing Google's AdWords support address, or calling Yahoo's advertiser customer service line directly. The caveat …

Sites within the Yahoo Publisher Network have standards they have to uphold to maintain their inclusion (and contextual ad profits). If your site's YPN ads suddenly stop showing up, check to see if you've run afoul of the guidelines for inclusion. For example, if you show AdSense or other competitive contextual ads on your site at the same time as a YPN ad, then you could get banned. "It's okay to rotate these ads along with Yahoo ads as long as they don't appear at the same time," says Marc Gibson. Also, if you have an …

While the Micro-Goog-Hoo turmoil continues to broil in the U.S., Microsoft has also begun to focus on growing its European search footprint. At the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the software giant's brass revealed plans to build a search engineering hub in Europe next year. At the center, teams of engineers will work on the algorithms and other tech behind Live Search. The UK is being strongly considered as the location of the hub, which will be modeled after the giant's Search Technology Center in Beijing, China. "Success in search in Europe is of paramount importance, …

Shane Atchinson interviews Richard Zwicky, president and founder of search analytics provider Enquisite, to find out more about the origins of search analytics, and how tools like Enquisite can and should be used as a complement to traditional Web analytics platforms. Zwicky says that the new focus on more detailed, search-specific data like the geographic performance of particular keywords on an organic level, for example, stems from the fact that search budgets are constantly growing. In addition, the entire practice of search has grown more complicated. More complexity and ever-increasing budgets mean more scrutiny from upper management and …

Though Google clearly owns the core search space, the search giant actually doesn't deliver the best results to all searchers all the time. Take college students, for example. "College students sometimes need more specific tools to help them uncover quality information on the Web that they can use for class projects, research papers, and even job and apartment searches," says Laura Milligan. And she lists the myriad alternatives students can turn to when in need of info on the Web. For quick answers to reference-style questions, Milligan suggests Answers.com, and wiki-searchers Powerset and AskWiki Beta. For answers on …

When you're constantly focused on achieving a client's goal, and doing the analytics, blogging, paid and organic search work to get there, it can be hard to pull away from the Web site and get a fresh view. But as Jeff Sexton notes, sometimes thinking like an "outsider" can be the final trick needed to drive conversions, boost traffic, or otherwise signify a project's success. It starts with thinking in terms of a different context--a task that can be quite difficult when you've always thought about your laptop repair client's Unique Value Proposition (UVP) in terms of tech-savvy …

Common site metrics like unique visits and page views aren't sufficient when it comes to determining the effectiveness of a blog. As Mel Carson notes, determining how sticky a blog is, is a much better way of assessing the relevance and stickiness of its content. Microsoft's adCenter Analytics offers Length of Visit tracking, which "will give you an excellent clue as to whether visitors are finding your content compelling," Carson says. The report can be found under the Visitor Loyalty tab, and displays the number of visits over the given test time, the length of each visit in …

YouTube is not just a channel for your clients to post their how-to clips and other link bait. No, Google's video aggregator can be an educational medium for SEOs and Webmasters too, and the Inside CRM team has compiled a list of over 100 Web-marketer-friendly videos for your perusal. There are almost 15 videos in the SEO category alone, ranging from interviews with Matt Cutts from SMX Seattle (he discusses duplicate content, among other topics), to tutorials on the basics like title tags, best practices, and how to run a site health check. Meanwhile, there are …