• Three SEM Trends To Follow
    Finding opportunities to connect with consumers when you have a mile-long list of to-dos isn't always easy, but identifying the trends in advance can lessen the burden. Lee Odden points to three important search marketing trends. Among them: online & offline marketing integration. "Small businesses must pay attention to customer search online influencing offline purchases as well as the influence of the in-store experience on searching and purchasing online," he writes.
  • How Google Works
    Through a tweet on Twitter, Amelia Dawson points us to a great graph explaining how Google works. It all starts with a blog post, tweet or adding other content to the Web, and organic results displaying in search engine queries. Between that process you'll find synonyms matching, filtering and more, all in milliseconds.
  • Making Tweet Music With Twitter
    In one of the more creative and unusual applications for Twitter in search results, Hit-A-Tweet by Andreas Schlegel is a project that uses the data-flow overload in Twitter to allow people to create tweet narratives. The project was created using Processing and twitter4j, a Java library for the Twitter API.
  • What Grad Students Think
    Erik Qualman sits down with a bunch of graduate students from around the world who all share one thing in common--they wrote or will write a thesis on social media. Giving a glimpse into what today's youth finds interesting, Qualman lists a few of his questions with condensed versions of the answers.
  • Yahoo Produces Web Style Guide
    If you ever doubted that Yahoo will focus on content, think again. Yahoo has published a style guide to help online content creators write and edit for a global audience. The "Yahoo Style Guide" goes on sale July 6. Yahoo will sell the print version in most bookstores for around $15, as well as an electronic version for the iPad and the Kindle for roughly $10. Subjects covered include how to write strong headlines and shape text for online reading.
  • Pakistan Search Engine Launches
    Two Karachi-based teen-age brothers, the Qadirs, will launch a Pakistani audience-dedicated search engine called PKSearch, according to Liva Judic. The engine will focus on local businesses in Pakistan. The brothers intend to fuel the development of PKSearch through an advertising platform called GlobeAds. Judic provides a link to the page, explains the ad business model, and provides a sample SERP, which he compares to the major engines.
  • Stepping Up To Integrated Direct-Response Marketing
    Razorfish will release a series of white papers offering instructions on how to improve return on investment. The search team developed the series in collaboration with experts from Google and marketers from Razorfish's media, analytics, CRM and ad exchange departments. Part 1 is available, but forthcoming chapters will focus on a variety of verticals, starting with retail.
  • Real-Time Tweets From Consumers Looking For Freebies
    "Hey Ritz-Carlton & Shangri La ... we have 10,000s of readers and you suck! Please save my complimentary upgrades for the next time I am in town. :D." Brands have begun to see more of these types of posts on Twitter and Facebook that end up in real-time search engine queries. It's real dilemma for companies, explains Aaron Wall. Wall makes suggestions on how to curb this type of rhetoric, along with a few tips on how brands can turn these negative comments into marketing tools without giving away the farm.
  • Preparing To Work With SEO Experts
    John Britsios tells us what to look for when hiring an SEO professional. He also provides insight into the difference between off-page and on-page SEO, how the SEO expert should price services, and types of questions you should ask before getting started. Expect the typical project to take between six to 12 months, he writes.
  • SEOmoz Buys Links To Prove Point
    Apparently, "the diabolical practice of buying links" works "astoundingly well." To prove the theory, Rand Fishkin purchased illicit paid links without telling others at SEOmoz.org, but removed them after running tests. Fishkin doesn't advocate the practice, but does explain the "attributes" of places that sell links, describes the results from testing, and tell us why it's still not a recommended practice.
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