An Overlooked Niche: Marketing To Hispanics Online.
There is no doubt Hispanics are online. And for most of them, the Internet is about connecting with their friends and family and keeping in touch with the latest happenings in their world. However, advertisers have fallen short in actively targeting this portion of the population, in particular with search marketing. Marketers are missing a golden opportunity because Hispanic online users are prime candidates for responding to a search marketing campaign.
According to eMarketer, 52% of U.S. Hispanics are online, representing about 23 million in 2008. And that number will only grow. The U.S. Hispanic population is the most rapidly increasing demographic group in the United States and ranks as the number one minority group. In some cities and states, this minority group has even become the majority. The same may someday be true for Hispanic users online. It is estimated that number of Hispanic Internet users will surge between now and 2012 and surpass 29 million.
And they arenât novice users. Half of the U.S Hispanic online population has been using the Internet for more than three years. This demographic knows eBay, knows Google and can surf the web with the best of them. With 27% of those 23 million Internet users going online everyday, there are plenty of opportunities for marketers to reach out and connect with this group.
By Jose Villa.
Day Three: SES San Jose '08 Recap.
Day three of the Search Engine Strategies San Jose show is now over. Below is a recap of all the blog posts that I have found covering the day's sessions, news and activities:
By Barry Schwartz.
The Case For Speech-to-Text Analysis In Multimedia Content Discovery.
There have been several recent announcements surrounding the application of speech-to-text analysis in consumer search settings. Google announced its Political Gadget, enabling visitors to search the spoken word of content within YouTube Presidential candidateâs channels. Adobe plans to include speech-to-text features in future versions of its video authoring applications, such as Premier. Sites such as WEEI and FOX Sports have been using similar tools to power search and publishing applications for their multimedia archives for some time (disclaimer: my company provides enabling technology to WEEI and FOX Sports). Why all of the interest around speech-to-text?
By Stephen Baker.
Microsoft & Yahoo Shuffle Business Internally.
While Microsoft and Yahoo move further apart from creating Microhoo, they both continue to make changes internally with the intention of building out a better search company.
By Barry Schwartz.
Making The Business Case For SEO.
So whatâs the ROI on this SEO program youâre recommending? How much revenue upside is there? What will it cost? How does this stack up against the fourteen other projects weâre working on right now?
Are these questions familiar to you? They are to me. I hear them in my sleep. I have had to answer each of them at some point (and most more than once) when making SEO recommendations both in-house and to clients. As SEO continues to grow as a viable marketing channel, you need to be prepared to answer these questions as well. Why?
By David Roth.
Yahoo Search Launches iPhone Safari Version.
Yahoo has built a mobile Safari version of Yahoo Search for the iPhone. Ryan Grove, a Yahoo developer, blogged about the experience of building out the application.
In short, the mobile Safari version gives you almost all of the features the normal Yahoo Search gives you, but with fewer ads and on a smaller screen. Included features are SearchMonkey, Search Assist, shortcuts, and much more. Do note that Yahoo has not built out an iPhone App; this is just a mobile Safari enabled version of Yahoo Search. Here are some screen captures of Yahoo Search on my iPhone:
By Barry Schwartz.
Small Businesses, Conversion Rates, and Online Video: A Good Mix?.
Can using online video adverting get your small business to quintuple traditional search engine marketing conversion rates? How about increase them sixteen-fold? While it would be irresponsible for anyone to promise results like these, there are some very interesting early indications in the marketplace about the benefits that integrating effective online video advertising can have on a search engine marketing campaign.
Our column last month generated a fair bit of buzz when we reported some stats from a recent FindLaw piece of research: That consumers typically visit an average of 4.8 web sites before deciding which attorney to select, but that when lawyers added video to their respective web sites, this number decreased fairly substantially, to 1.8.
By Glenn Pingul.
Yahoo Adds New Site Stats As Part of Site Explorer Redesign.
The Yahoo Search Blog announced that they are testing out a new design for Site Explorer plus offering a variety of new stats about web sites.
By Barry Schwartz.
When Keyword Research and Search Data Deceives.
As search engine optimization (SEO) professionals, we obsess with search data from a wide variety of resources. Which one is best for our clients? Which keyword research tool reveals the most accurate search behaviors when rebuilding a site's information architecture? Does our web analytics data validate our keyword research?
And, more importantly, did these tools provide your most desired information? Some answers might surprise you.
By Shari Thurow.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 21, 2008.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
From Search Engine Land:
- When Keyword Research and Search Data Deceives
As search engine optimization (SEO) professionals, we obsess with search data from a wide variety of resources. Which one is best for our clients? Which keyword research tool reveals the most accurate search behaviors when rebuilding a site's information architecture? Does our web analytics data validate our keyword research?...- Yahoo Adds New Site Stats As Part of Site Explorer Redesign
The Yahoo Search Blog announced that they are testing out a new design for Site Explorer plus offering a variety of new stats about web sites....- Small Businesses, Conversion Rates, and Online Video: A Good Mix?
Can using online video adverting get your small business to quintuple traditional search engine marketing conversion rates? How about increase them sixteen-fold? While it would be irresponsible for anyone to promise results like these, there are some very interesting early indications in the marketplace about the benefits that integrating...- Yahoo Search Launches iPhone Safari Version
Yahoo has built a mobile Safari version of Yahoo Search for the iPhone. Ryan Grove, a Yahoo developer, blogged about the experiencing of building out the application. In short, the mobile Safari version gives you almost all of the features the normal Yahoo Search gives you, but with fewer ads...- Making The Business Case For SEO
So whatâs the ROI on this SEO program youâre recommending? How much revenue upside is there? What will it cost? How does this stack up against the fourteen other projects weâre working on right now? Are these questions familiar to you? They are to me. I hear them in...- Microsoft & Yahoo Shuffle Business Internally
While Microsoft and Yahoo move further apart from creating Microhoo, they both continue to make changes internally with the intention of building out a better search company....- The Case For Speech-to-Text Analysis In Multimedia Content Discovery
There have been several recent announcements surrounding the application of speech-to-text analysis in consumer search settings. Google announced its Political Gadget, enabling visitors to search the spoken word of content within YouTube Presidential candidateâs channels. Adobe plans to include speech-to-text features in future versions of its video authoring applications,...- Day Three: SES San Jose '08 Recap
Day three of the Search Engine Strategies San Jose show is now over. Below is a recap of all the blog posts that I have found, covering the day's sessions, news and activities:...- An Overlooked Niche: Marketing To Hispanics Online
There is no doubt Hispanics are online. And for most of them, the Internet is about connecting with their friends and family and keeping in touch with the latest happenings in their world. However, advertisers have fallen short in actively targeting this portion of the population, in particular with search...- Microsoft's Photosyth Opens To The Public
Microsoft's Photosyth is transforming from a Microsoft Live Labs experiment, featured on the BBC's "How We Built Britain" television series and in select other rarefied contexts, to a what can only be described as "totally cool" consumer application....- What If It Isn't Linkworthy?
Some client scenarios can be uncomfortable. Among them is when the client has worked especially hard to create a content area that they feel is linkworthy, and thus should attract links, but you, as the person who has to go get those links, aren't quite as enthusiastic about the...- How to Adopt a Pro-SEO Culture at your Company
The most successful SEO programs arenât solely the result of a great SEO team. They happen because the entire company incorporates SEO into their portion of a given project, and everyone recognizes when itâs time to bring in the SEO to discussions. Establishing this level of SEO buy-in throughout...Search News From Around The Web:
Applications & Portal Features
- News without borders: search results across languages, Google News Blog
Business Issues
- Yahoo! to sponsor Filipino developer to Silicon Valley, INQUIRER.net
Local, Maps & Mobile
- Map of champions, Google LatLong
- Discover Yahoo! oneSearch in One Click on Nokia Devices, Yahoo Search Blog
- Google.org Visualizes US Geothermal Data in Google Earth, Google Earth Blog
- Googlephone security team seeks bug hunters, The Register
Link Building
- 6 Ways to Get Nearly Instant Links to your Web Site, Bill Hartzer
- Linking Still Matters, Twist Image
Paid Search & Contextual
- adCenter August upgrade: reporting updates - adCenter Blog for Advertisers, adcentercommunity.com
- AdWords system maintenance on August 23rd, Inside AdWords
- Google Content Network Enhancements, Serengeti Communications
- Google Releases Major Update to AdWords API Java Library, Search Engine Roundtable
- Organizing Ad Groups for Success, Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog
Searching
- CitySquares.com is Fastest Growing Search Site, Search Engine Watch Blog
- NBC's Olympic Fool's Gold; Google Comes Home Empty-Handed, Search Engine Watch
SEM Industry
- Internet Marketing Conference Tips: Heather Lloyd-Martin, Online Marketing Blog
- Pierre Far: Search Blogger of the Day, The SEO Scoop
SEO & SEM
- A Rejection Letter from Google News, Search Engine Roundtable
- Google Fixes 404 Widget Scripting Errors, Search Engine Roundtable
- Upset over PageRank and Google Update, Dave rants about the changes made to PageRank and a recent Google update, WebMasterRadio.fm
Social Media
- How a Business Could Use Friendfeed For Collaboration, mashable.com
- LinkedIn: A New Must-Have App For iPhone, Read/Write Web
- Spotted: FriendFeed Beta - coming soon, VentureBeat
Video, Music & Image Search
- Hulu Getting Ready To Go International, GigaOM
- Flickr Releases Handy Embeddable Slide Show, Read/Write Web
Other Items
- The Ad Changes With the Shopper In Front of It, Wall Street Journal
- Back-to-School savings now in session, Official Google Checkout Blog
Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:
- A In-depth look at the "SEO'ed" Thesis Theme for Wordpress
- Top 5 Legitimate SEO Techniques to Help Your Business Get Found
- The Trouble with Twitter
- Domains Are NOT Real Estate, KW Research as I. Property: Internet Law Experts Speak Out!
By Barry Schwartz.
Day Four: SES San Jose '08 Recap.
Day four of the Search Engine Strategies San Jose show is now over, which concludes the show. If you missed our earlier recap, you can see them at days three, two, and one. Below is a recap of all the blog posts that I have found, covering the day's sessions, news and activities:
By Barry Schwartz.
Google AdWords Now With Real Time Quality Score, First Page Bid & More.
The Google AdWords blog announced three major changes happening to the AdWords marketplace. First, Google will now calculate the quality score of your keywords at the time of the search query. Second, Google has removed the "minimum bid" metric and replaced it with "first page bid." Finally, Google will no longer mark search ads as "inactive for search."
Google said they will be rolling out these changes to a "very small segment of advertisers within the next day or two." Google will be watching how this impacts those advertisers and will then decide when to launch this on a broader scale. Let me explain what these changes means in greater detail.
By Barry Schwartz.
Report: Verizon May Opt For Google To Provide Mobile Search Front.
Verizon, Google Close To Mobile Search Deal from the Wall Street Journal reports that Google and Verizon are close to a deal. The deal would make Google the default search provided for Verizon mobile devices. In the past, Verizon and other mobile carriers were reluctant to let Google or other search companies invade this space, but that might be over with.
The Wall Street Journal says Verizon wants Google to create a new search platform that would be a one-stop shop. In exchange, Google would share the ad revenue with Verizon under this platform. The details of the deal are not complete yet and as soon as we have more information, we will update you.
By Barry Schwartz.
Web Analytics for (SEM) Dummies Part 1: Basic Terminology and a Free Geocoding Tool.
In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: News from the search engines, today's in-depth look, Web Analytics for (SEM) Dummies Part 1: Basic Terminology, a Free Geocoding Tool and this week's free tips and tools.
By Josh Dreller.
Is Google Analytics Integrating AdSense Metrics Into Reporting Tool?.
Amit Agarwal reports that Google Analytics will soon be adding Google AdSense data to the web analytics package. Amit managed to secure some screen shots of the AdSense related reports. The AdSense specific content seems to be found under the "Content" tab and includes:
(1) AdSense ad clicks per page
(2) AdSense Revenue generated per page
(3) CTR and CPM on a per page basis
(4) Also, a "Top AdSense Referrers" report that shows you which referring sites will generate the most ad clicks for you.
By Barry Schwartz.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 22, 2008.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
From Search Engine Land:
- Is Google Analytics Integrating AdSense Metrics Into Reporting Tool?
Amit Agarwal reports that Google Analytics will soon be adding Google AdSense data to the web analytics package. Amit managed to secure some screen shots of the AdSense related reports. The AdSense specific content seems to be found under the "Content" tab, and includes: (1) AdSense ad clicks per page...- Report: Verizon May Opt For Google To Provide Mobile Search Front
Verizon, Google Close To Mobile Search Deal from the Wall Street Journal reports that Google and Verzion are close on a deal. The deal would make Google the default search provided for Verizon mobile devices. In the past, Verizon and other mobile carriers were reluctant to let Google or other...- Google AdWords Now With Real Time Quality Score, First Page Bid & More
The Google AdWords blog announced three major changes happening to the AdWords marketplace. First, Google will now calculate the quality score of your keywords at the time of the search query. Second, Google has removed the "minimum bid" metric and replaced it with "first page bid." Finally, Google will no...- Day Four: SES San Jose '08 Recap
Day four of the Search Engine Strategies San Jose show is now over, which concludes the show. If you missed our earlier recap, you can see them at days three, two, and one. Below is a recap of all the blog posts that I have found, covering the day's sessions,...Search News From Around The Web:
Review Items
Applications & Portal Features
- Export Google Notebooks, Google Operating System
Business Issues
- IAC Officially Breaks Up, Wall Street Journal
- Russian Advertising Market Up 20% in 1H 2008, Quintura blog
Local, Maps & Mobile
- Tip of the week: Shortcuts, Google LatLong
- Google Map Maker Now Available in 57 Countries, Search Engine Roundtable
- iPhone Earth App Available Now, Google Earth Blog
- New Gears Geolocation API powers mobile web sites, Official Google Mobile Blog
Link Building
- SEO Link Analysis 1.0.4, Yoast
SEM Industry
- Germans Greatest SEO Raps With ShoeMoney - Literally, ShoeMoney
- Google Dance 2008 Photos, Online Marketing Blog
- SES San Jose 2008 Wrap Up, Sheara Wilensky
SEO & SEM
- 3 Tools to Better Understand Search Results, Search Engine Journal
- Hey Google, I no longer have badware, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
- Search Engines Extracting Table Data on the Web, SEO By The Sea
- 33 Website Success Metrics Instead of Rankings, Google PageRank and Traffic, SEOptimise
- 6 Tips for Aligning Your National, Local SEM Efforts, Search Engine Watch
- Can A Google Penalized Site Get All Of It's Trust Back Quickly?, Search Engine Roundtable
- SES: Being Careful With Blogs, WebProNews
- SES: Fixing 404 Pages With Matt Cutts, WebProNews
- What Comes First, SEO or Site Development?, Elliot's Blog
Social Media
- Facebook Launching "Engagement Ads", Is This New?, www.allfacebook.com
- Turning Up The Heat On Spam, Twitter Blog
Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:
- 12 New Rules of Ecommerce: Hot dogs, Tanning and Sex on the Beach
- How to Get Included in Google News
- What Is Social Media?
- Domain Name Gaming: Tricking Engines and Annoying Searchers
By Barry Schwartz.
SES San Jose 2008 is now in the books and another Google Dance -- that annual bash that provides us all with so much safe, clean YouTube fodder -- has come and gone. Among the various features and benefits -- upscale backyard barbecue fare, free beer, modified karaoke, dancing, and light shows -- is the most fascinating spectacle of all: Googlers meeting other Googlers. (Oftentimes, I ran across Googlers just sticking with their own little clique and talking among themselves, but what do you expect... it's a "campus".)
Google is such an enormous entity by now that it carries a real risk of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. Overall, though, the company does a pretty good job of keeping its initiatives in sync.
But if Googlers are always needing to meet other Googlers for the first time, imagine the effort of digesting a large company in the digital ad space whose founding predated Google's by two years, and which brings to the table a variety of legacy technologies and platforms along with its own corporate culture. Googlers, meet DoubleClickers!
By Andrew Goodman.
Now Accepting Pitches For SMX London 2008.
Weâre now accepting speaking proposals for SMX London, taking place at the New Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden on November 4 and 5, 2008. Weâve got an all-new agenda for the show.
Please note that the agenda is final for the show, and we will only consider pitches for specific panels. There are a limited number of openings, and we expect to fill them quickly, so donât delay if you want to be considered.
Ready to pitch? Click over to our SMX Speaker Pitch Form and follow the instructions there.
By Chris Sherman.
More Google StreetView Privacy Controversy.
CNET rekindles the Google StreetView trespassing controversy that we've written about a couple of times in the past (here and here). Google has said publicly and in email comments to us that its policy is to photograph public roads and stay off private property.
The CNET article effectively argues that Google is willfully violating and disrespecting those property rights and expectations.
By Greg Sterling.
Forming Good Title Tags for Local Businesses.
If you're looking for a quick improvement in your local business site's rankings and don't have a lot of time, you can't go wrong with making some simple improvements to your homepage title tag. The text within the title tags is one of the top signals used by Google, Yahoo! and other search engines to decide what keywords are relevant to a page, and it's also one of the most frequently neglected parts of a site design. If you have a good title tag, you can rank at the top of the search results for users seeking your business â and a bad title can leave you in the dark.
Below are a few details on how to make better titles and get your pages to rank higher.
By Chris Silver Smith.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 25, 2008.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
From Search Engine Land:
- Forming Good Title Tags for Local Businesses
If you're looking for a quick improvement in your local business site's rankings and don't have a lot of time, you can't go wrong with making some simple improvements to your homepage title tag. The text within the title tags is one of the top signals used by Google,...- More Google StreetView Privacy Controversy
CNET rekindles the Google StreetView trespassing controversy that we've written about a couple of times in the past (here and here). Google has said publicly and in email comments to us that its policy is to photograph public roads and stay off private property. The CNET article effectively argues that...- Now Accepting Pitches For SMX London 2008
Weâre now accepting speaking proposals for SMX London, taking place at the New Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden on November 4 and 5, 2008. Weâve got an all new agenda for the show. Please note that the agenda is final for the show, and we will only consider pitches for...- Whither DART Search?
SES San Jose 2008 is now in the books and another Google Dance -- that annual bash that provides us all with so much safe, clean YouTube fodder -- has come and gone. Among the various features and benefits -- upscale backyard barbecue fare, free beer, modified karaoke, dancing,...Search News From Around The Web:
Applications & Portal Features
Business Issues
- Googleplex: Google's food perks on the chopping block, Valleywag
- Perks: Dinner saved for Google's geeks, Valleywag
- Google-Yahoo Deal Faces Regulatory Review in Canada, Bloomberg
- Why Yahoo Japan Is Worth Nearly As Much As Yahoo, TechCrunch
- Russians dent Google's world domination, Times Online
- Shareholders Disgusted With Yahoo! Board, Forbes
- Yandex Announces New Logo in Russia, altsearchengines.com
- Can Google Crack the TV Ad Market?, AdWeek
- Analyst: Google's favorable foreign exchange rate to hit bump, News.com
- July Search Market Share Update: Everyone Dips But Google, Compete
- Yahoo engineer: Take your job offer and shove it, Valleywag
Link Building
- Building Links with Directory Submissions, Stepforth
- Using Your Whole Business to Build Links, SEOmoz
- 6 Unique Ways to Get Instant Links to Your Site, Search Engine Guide
- Link Building and the 6 Principles of Persuasion , Wiep.net
Local, Maps & Mobile
- Google Mapspam - a violated Public Trust?, Mike Blumenthal
- MapQuest Adds More Content in Select Search Results, MapQuest Blog
- Purchase Standalone Microsoft Virtual Earth Photography, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist's Blog
- Microsoft Virtual Earth Partner Program, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist's Blog
- Comparing the Local Onebox with the Maps business directory: an architectural view, Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search
- Location Privacy: Are you over it yet?, All Points Blog
- Urbanspoon on the iPhone Heatmap, Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search
Paid Search & Contextual
- Inside AdSense: One account, multiple sites, Inside AdSense
- Killer PPC Ads: The Fundamentals, Search Engine Watch
- Updates to adCenter keyword research tools, adCenter Blog for Advertisers
- Google Quality Score Update: First-Page-Bid Guidance Will Drive Up CPCs, Rimm Kaufman
- Inside AdWords: Fall is webinar season, Inside AdWords
Searching
- Ask TV -- a great search engine strategy unveiled at SES-San Jose!, Ask.com Blog
- Google Twins: I want to be number one, National Post
- Search Life Meets Real Life -- My Slides, Danny Sullivan
- Google Translation Onebox, Google Blogoscoped
- Trulia Upgrades Make Real Estate Personal with News Feed Features, Mashable.com
- And now, a search engine for video surveillance, Alt Search Engines
- The Live Search Olympics collection, LiveSide
- SES: Panels, Award , Yahoo Search Blog
SEM Industry
- Kim Krause Berg Speaking at Search Camp Philly, Cre8PC
- SES San Jose Photos - Paparazzi Style, Online Marketing Blog
- Be A Search Conference JackAss In 8 Easy Steps, AIM Clear Blog
- So how is SES under the, cough, leadership of Kevin Ryan, Shoemoney
- Daily Mail fails to understand Google Bombing, BlogStorm
- Beware Pay-Per-Performance Agreements: SEM Sues Pop Phenomena 'The Secret' for Unpaid Share of Web Revenue, SEOmoz
- Three tips for company blogging, Matt Cutts
- What's Really Black Hat Anyway?, Vanessa Fox
- Where My White Hat Ladies At?, BruceClay.com
SEO & SEM
- Every Touch Point Matters: Optimizing Error Messages, Closed Loop Marketing Blog
- Is Apple Cloaking Their iTunes Content, With Google Looking The Other Way?, Search Engine Roundtable
- New Google SERP Changes, SEO Book
- Yahoo Link: Operator Issues and Possible Remedies, Search Engine Journal
- Google PageRank Update Observed, Search Engine Roundtable
- Tanked Rankings after Title Tag Adjustment, Search Engine Roundtable
- Why Are Some of My Placements Holding While Others Are Dropping? Or What the Hell Is Google Doing?, Bob Massa
- How to Get Google to Index Your Site Deeper, Search Engine Journal
- Eric Enge interviews Google's Maile Ohye, Stone Temple
- Why Search Doesn't Really Matter, ClickZ
Social Media
- Introducing Digg Dialogg, Digg Blog
- Tweetrush Shows Twitter Usage Far Below What We Expected, TechCrunch
Web Analytics
- SES: Dealing With Bounce Rates, WebProNews
Other Items
- Yahoo's 404 At Giants Stadium, TechCrunch
- Google Calculator (Pic), Google Blogoscoped
- Google's calculator muffs some math problems, News.com
- Drawing the Google Homepage With Eyes Closed, Google Blogoscoped
Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:
- Whatâs Really Black Hat Anyway?
- Pimping Your Wordpress Theme for Humans
- Old School Webinars Still Kick Ass (and other video stuff)
- Holy Smokes - I've been Nominated for the Hot Blogger Calendar
- 33 Website Success Metrics Instead of Rankings, Google PageRank and Traffic
- SEOmoz Expert Seminar 2008 Recap
- Seth Godin Wants to Cheat Advertisers with Fake Clicks
- Google Changes Algorithm - Anchor Text Less Important
- Reputation Management Jujitsu - Take Advantage of a Bad Reputation For Fun & Profit
- How to Analyze a Page HTML Semantic Structure
- Matt Cutts on Big Sites and Black Hats - SEOspace - Organic Search Engine Marketing with a B2B Twist
By Danny Sullivan.
Google.com Finally Gets Google Suggest Feature.
After being in testing for literally years, Google Suggest is finally coming to Google.com. This is the feature where as you start to type in the search box, related searches automatically appear below where you are typing.
By Danny Sullivan.
Search Illustrated: Organic Vs. Paid Overall Performance.
A lot of times paid and organic search campaign results can look very different. Especially at launch, organic conversion cost will seem much higher as rankings and, consequently, ROI take time to appear.
This week's infographic demonstrates how organic search campaigns can show more cost-effective long-term performance:
By Elliance.
MapQuest Introduces New (Beta) Look, Features.
AOL's MapQuest remains the top brand in online mapping and is still the most visited mapping site, despite recent gains by Google Maps. However, as the "incumbent" MapQuest has been somewhat resistant to experimentation and slower to adopt new features. But this morning the site is launching what promises to be the first of many changes in the coming months that will make it more dynamic, more visually interesting and content rich.
By Greg Sterling.
Register For SMX East Now -- You Save $400.
Register for SMX East today and get your ticket for the must-attend interactive and search marketing event of the year. You save $400 by registering now. SMX East will be held October 6-8 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.
SMX East will deliver...
By Search Engine Land.
Social Media Marketing ROI- Metrics and Analysis.
When I attended South by Southwest 2008, I had the pleasure of attending a panel where four somewhat lost panelists were (with difficulty) trying to come up with metrics to measure success from a social media marketing campaign. I was a little annoyed when they concluded that there were no metrics available right now, and that someone would have to come up with a new way of measuring social media success.
While many people argue that the current metrics are no longer applicable, here's a look at how we can adapt the currently available methodologies and apply them to social media marketing campaigns.
By Muhammad Saleem.
Sir, Would You Like Fries With Those Links?.
Recently in several SEO forums I noticed a number of threads discussing ways to find and build "economical" links. The forum participants wanted to know how they could initiate "safe" reciprocal linking as well as "fast" submissions to free article directories. They reasoned these tactics were worth doing because both linking methods were "economical" and "easy" to use.
I understand some linking techniques can be expensive, tedious to implement and extremely time consuming, but tying your online business success to linking tactics deemed "easy", "fast" and "cheap" seems counter-productive. If you limit your linking to low-cost tactics or look at the practice as "link building" instead of "marketing for links" you're almost guaranteed to fail.
By Debra O. Mastaler.
Google Now Searching For Synonyms.
Blink, and you might have missed it. Google's now doing synonym searching. It's something they quietly noted in a past Google blog post and one that comes up again today in a post that covers how Google uses experiments to improve the search interface.
By Danny Sullivan.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 26, 2008.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
From Search Engine Land:
- Google Now Searching For Synonyms
Blink, and you might have missed it. Google's now doing synonym searching. It's something they quietly noted in a past Google blog post and one that comes up again today in a post that covers how Google uses experiments to improve the search interface....- Sir, Would You Like Fries With Those Links?
Recently in several SEO forums I noticed a number of threads discussing ways to find and build "economical" links. The forum participants wanted to know how they could initiate "safe" reciprocal linking as well as "fast" submissions to free article directories. They reasoned these tactics were worth doing because...- Social Media Marketing ROI- Metrics and Analysis
When I attended South by Southwest 2008, I had the pleasure of attending a panel where four somewhat lost panelists were (with difficulty) trying to come up with metrics to measure success from a social media marketing campaign. I was a little annoyed when they concluded that there were...- Register for SMX East Now -- You Save $400
Register for SMX East today and get your ticket for the must-attend interactive and search marketing event of the year. You save $400 by registering now. SMX East will be held October 6-8 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. SMX East will deliver......- MapQuest Introduces New (Beta) Look, Features
AOL's MapQuest remains the top brand in online mapping and is still the most visited mapping site, despite recent gains by Google Maps. However, as the "incumbent" MapQuest has been somewhat resistant to experimentation and slower to adopt new features. But this morning the site is launching what promises to...- Search Illustrated: Organic Vs. Paid Overall Performance
A lot of times paid and organic search campaign results can look very different. Especially at launch, organic conversion cost will seem much higher as rankings and, consequently, ROI take time to appear. This week's infographic demonstrates how organic search campaigns can show more cost-effective long-term performance:...- Google.com Finally Gets Google Suggest Feature
After being in testing for literally years, Google Suggest is finally coming to Google.com. This is the feature where as you start to type in the search box, related searches automatically appear below where you are typing....Search News From Around The Web:
Applications & Portal Features
- Gears for Safari, Google Operating System
Business Issues
- Google joins group to offer free Wi-Fi in Milpitas, News.com
- Ex-Yahoo execs take on brand ad network, raise funds, News.com
- Inventor sues Google, Verizon, others on voicemail, Forbes
- Microsoft Ranks as Top U.S. Online Display Advertiser in June, According to comScore Ad Metrix, comScore
- Report: Google Backing Another Undersea Cable Project, WebProNews
- Technorati Buys Online Blog Network Blogcritics, paidContent.org
Link Building
- The Link Spiel: Using Tip Jars For Links Link Building and Link Training Blog by Debra Mastaler, thelinkspiel.blogspot.com
- The Second Commandment of Viral Marketing - Thou Shalt Be Remarkable, Search Engine Guide
Local, Maps & Mobile
- Flickr [heart] Burning Man [heart] OpenStreetMap, code.flickr.com
- OPA Local Sites Study , Screenwerk
- Dex/RHD Shares Online Advertiser Numbers, Screenwerk
- No More Speculation - This is the G1 from T-Mobile, AndroidGuys
Paid Search & Contextual
- 3 Silly Mistakes you Might be Making When Optimising your PPC Campaign, www.sitevisibility.co.uk
- AdSense Login System is Broken, ekstreme.com
- 5 Bad PPC Symptoms that Usually are NOT Click Fraud, Serengeti Communications
- Accidental Ad Blocker, Washington Post
- Ad serving for everyone, Inside AdSense
- AdWords Report Center: Summer cleaning, Inside AdWords
- Google Quality Score Update, Ophir Cohen
- Internet Explorer 8's InPrivate Could Block Advertising, Wired
- Searcher Behaviour Research - SES San Jose 2008 , adCenter Blog
- The Biggest Search Marketing Lie Ever Told, Lairig Marketing
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By Danny Sullivan.
AdAge: Microsoft Likely To Sell Avenue A To WPP.
AdAge reported that Microsoft and mega-agency WPP have restarted talks that may result in the sale of Interactive agency Avenue A to the latter. Avenue A was part of the $6 billion deal for aQuantive that also included Atlas and the DrivePM ad network.
