Are You Measuring Real Success?

by Todd Friesen , Friday, April 17, 2009

I’ve been doing SEO for 10 years now. I was there to witness the passing of Infoseek (RIP), Black Monday at AltaVista and the unstoppable rise of Google. In all that time and through all that change there is one thing that has remained constant and generally never ceases to amaze me.

People still have very little idea how to measure success online. There a few recurring scenarios that pop up all the time when I’m talking to potential clients about search marketing:
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Great SEO Tips: Drake Morton

5 Tips To Improve Ranking and

Increase Traffic

By: Mike Keller

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and has been an on and off topic of dialog since the dawn of search engines. More recently, free blogging sites such as Blogger and Word Press have brought website management directly into the hands of people delivering content without any prerequisite knowledge of HTML. While these blogging sites offer easy-to-use and robust services, they often leave something to be desired in terms of SEO, once again bringing the topic to the foreground of discussion. Here are a few simple things you can do to optimize your blog to improve your ranking and increase traffic (more…)

Excellent Read: Drake Morton

It’s about the people!!

Bid Management May Not Be A Commodity

But It’s Not A Differentiator

by Aaron Goldman , Wednesday, December 24, 2008
What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate

Bid management tools, not SEM agencies, are becoming increasingly undifferentiated. In fact, there are arguments that equate SEM agencies to mere bid management providers that perpetuates the myth that we’re all the same.

Now, before going any further, let’s turn to Wikipedia. After all, if Wikipedia says it, it must be true. Wikipedia defines a commodity as “anything for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market… Commoditization occurs as a goods or services market loses differentiation across its supply base, often by the diffusion of the intellectual capital necessary to acquire or produce it efficiently.” (more…)

Need to Read: Drake Morton

You Will Weather This Storm

by Gerry Bavaro , Monday, November 10, 2008

LAST WEEK I WAS ON a panel at DPAC (the Digital Publisher & Advertiser Conference) moderated by fellow Search Insider Aaron Goldman, of Resolution Media that focused closely on the issue of whether search is indeed “recession-proof.” Here are some observations and advice based on my talk addressing this issue. (more…)

Remember Reading is Good For The Brain! Drake Morton

Optimization Beyond The Landing Page

by Phil Leggiere , Wednesday, September 3, 2008
IN THE ERA OF THE long-tail marketers, content providers and, of course, merchandisers, have come to the realization that deep catalogs are critical to consumer engagement, and with it, winning share of time, share of wallet and share of mind. Customizing and optimizing all that deep content, however, requires building new bridges between IT and marketing, as Mark Wachen, Optimost managing director at Interwoven, explains next. (more…)

Very Good Read: Drake Morton

Effective SEM Strategies For Online Retailers

by Janel Landis

OIL PRICES CLIMBED TO MORE than $130 per barrel last week and the impact is definitely being felt by consumers, many of whom have dramatically altered their everyday activities due to increased prices. The effect is being felt nationwide, with year-to-date petroleum demand levels lagging behind those of 2007, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Many truckers whose livelihoods depend on the shipping of goods around the country can no longer afford to continue working. Some airlines have even begun charging travelers for their first checked bag. And as a result of $4 per gallon gas prices, many consumers are driving less.
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Must Read: Drake Morton

Streamlining Discovery

by Steve Smith , Friday, May 9, 2008

“DISCOVERY” HAS BECOME ONE OF the hot new alternatives to the more common forms of behavioral tracking. One company in the space, MatchMine, lets users create MatchKey profiles of their content “likes” at MatchMine.com or one of its partners like music site Fuzz or film site FilmCrave. The technology creates this profile from the ways a user interacts with different content. Opted-in members can use the MatchKey only at a specific site or bring it with them to other sites in the growing network to inform content recommendations. We caught up with CEO Michael Troiano as MatchMine evolves from its test phase with early partners to a more expansive rollout with new partners Odeo, blogged, and others.
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Excellent Read: Drake Morton

Seeking Conversions In A

Discovery-Oriented World

by Gerry Bavaro , Monday, May 5, 2008

BECAUSE DAVID Berkowitz has been probing the issue of search vs. discovery in recent Search Insider columns (See: http://blogs.mediapost.com/search_insider/?p=770), I’d like to point out some thorny challenges faced by the search community as we move to a world where information is shared more freely via social networks and discovered through ways that might be termed “less active” — because they depart from traditional search query behavior. How exactly are agencies and marketers supposed to think about the idea of discovery as a critical component of consumer influence toward action/conversion?
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Need to Understand: Drake Morton

Search — Where Supply Meets Demand

by Janel Landis , Friday, May 2, 2008

WITHOUT DEMAND, THERE CAN BE no supply. When it comes to search engine marketing, demand must occur on one of your keywords in order for your ad to serve. As advertisers seek more volume in their search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns, typical tactics to accomplish this are to bid on more keywords or to improve click rates and conversion rates through ad copy and landing page testing. While these are essential tactics to employ, they usually only provide incremental lifts in volume. (more…)

Excellent Read: Drake Morton

The Fine Line Between Search And Discovery

by David Berkowitz , Tuesday, April 22, 2008

To search is to discover.

Perhaps there’s a Latin phrase for that, or perhaps it is what it is. The intersection of search and discovery came to mind after reading “Jump Point” by Tom Hayes, a thought-provoking snapshot of the near future when there are three billion people connecting online. Hayes references how central discovery has become to the online experience; we’ll return to his perspective momentarily.
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