• Selling Yourself As An SEO
    Selling yourself is sometimes challenging. So, after a recent chat with a potential SEO client that didn't go well, Todd Mintz wants a "do-over." You know, that's when you re-pitch the potential client after fumbling over your words during a verbal conversation. This time Mintz wants to put the "do-over" in writing on a blog post. So, Mintz fans out his credentials on the post, at one point, comparing his services to a Web site doctor. "I can diagnose your Web site problem(s) in great detail but I don't know how long the diagnosis will take me (and …
  • How To Claim Your Google Business Listings
    Are you mystified by how to claim your Google Maps listing? Miriam Ellis gets down to basics and steps through the verification process. Filling out the business listing lets Google know you own the Web site and puts you in control of the content. Ellis admits few companies have claimed their local index. Google has given "major prominence" to local search results in the universal SERPs, but the search engine has done little to alert business owners they need to verify ownership of the listings. Once you've done so, you can work toward winning reviews from happy customers …
  • Back To Basic Analytics
    It's back to basics for Google Analytics. Christina Park has picked two free tools to profile: URL Builder, and SiteScan. URL Builder helps tag campaign links with the correct information to help Google Analytics track your marketing campaigns more effectively, she writes. SiteScan, created by the Google Analytics Authorized Consultant EpikOne, identifies when the site has improperly implemented a tracking code.
  • Basic PPC Metrics Campaign Managers Should Know
    Campaign mangers looking to analyze paid search campaigns might want to bookmark Andrew's list of the top five PPC metrics. He describes how to calculate each and how to analyze the results. Take "conversion rate," for example. Andrew suggests calculating the conversion rate by taking the total amount of conversions and dividing it by the total clicks. This method -- best used by B2B sites seeking to bring in a large number of prospective clients at the start of a long sales funnel -- can help determine the quality of landing pages.
  • Social Media Serve Up Real-Time Breaking News While Search Falters
    Loren Baker points to recent events to squash doubts that real-time social media keeps people more informed about breaking news than traditional news outlets -- while search isn't always up to the challenge. When the news broke that Michael Jackson had died from cardiac arrest after being rushed to the hospital, celebrity Twitter streams and Facebook users had the news. Google Search lagged in breaking news coverage -- and Microsoft's Bing "absolutely failed," Baker writes. He provides screen shots of search results after the first reports of Jackson's death: The first three listings in the query "michael …
  • Tips To Optimize Bing SERPs
    If you care about your Web site being found when people do a search on Bing, you will want to remove obstacles and help the crawler do its job. Bing uses MSNBot to crawl Web sites. Rick DeJarnette looks at SEO site architecture issues and writes that the more efficiently the search engine bot crawl your site, the more likely the content will index and display high in the query. DeJarnette provides a long list of tips to help SEO professionals rank sites high in SERPs on Bing. Among those, he suggests using descriptive file and directory names, limiting …
  • Black Hat SEO Snares 'Harry Potter' Fans
    'Harry Potter' fans may want to take notice. Hackers are using clips from the new Potter movie to distribute malware, according to Phil Muncaster. Citing research from security company PC Tools, he writes that hackers push links to malicious sites with text that reads "Watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince online free." Security experts at PC Tools expect hackers will use SEO to launch similar attacks on content related to Michael Jackson's death, according to Muncaster. They did this following the death of actor Heath Ledger. Malware attacks tied to actress Farrah Fawcett have begun, too.
  • A 'Stubborn Jackass' Has SEO Success
    Having an analytical mind, knowledge of how the Internet works, illustration and diagram skills, and "being a stubborn jackass" are some of the 12 SEO skills that have helped Rand Fishkin reach success. He put together this list after receiving emails asking for advice on working in search marketing and SEO. No fooling about the "stubborn jackass" thing. Fishkin writes that when under mountains of debt, without money for rent, he still refused to concede that SEO was "bullshit" and move on to something else. "Sometimes, sticking to your guns, even in the face of conventional wisdom, turns …
  • PPC Guerrilla Warfare
    Guerrilla marketing enables small companies to compete in the PPC battleground -- but it requires that you know competitors' mid-tail and long-tail keywords, according to Anthony Verre. To "out maneuver" competitors, he lists three tools to find the keywords they bid on, along with a variety of other information. Some tools highlight places that you might overlap with competitors on keyword buys, and more importantly, identify the keywords they don't buy. Knowing this information allows you to adjust your strategy to leverage mid-tail and long-tail keywords that competitors may under bid or, better yet, ignore.
  • Data: Cleaner, The Better
    Chris Crompton thinks Google's recent change to conversion metrics in AdWords conversion tracker highlights the need for clean data. He steps through a couple of scenarios to demonstrate his point. The "new many-per-click conversion tracking stats appear to tell you nothing more than [that] you have a messy conversion tracking installation," he writes. Crompton attempts to get SEO professionals on the correct track, so he suggests cleaning up tracking in the conversion funnel to ensure scripts run only once per conversion. While you might need your Web developer's help, Crompton writes, he offers insight on two methods to …
« Previous Entries