Very Good Read: Drake Morton

Seven Lessons From Steve Jobs

For Search Marketers

by Aaron Goldman , Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011

I just finished Walter Isaacson’s epic Steve Jobs biography. Beyond being a captivating (and surprisingly quick, considering its 571 pages) read about the life and times of one of the most influential and controversial people in technology, the book imparts some important lessons for search marketers.

1. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. This was the tagline that adorned the first Apple II brochure in 1977 and became a mantra that stuck. “The main thing is that we have to make things intuitively obvious,” Jobs said in discussing his design philosophy. Much of this approach was rooted in his Zen Buddhist training and Bauhaus influence. I see the results firsthand each time my three-year-old daughter swipes to open our iPad, pulls up the Netflix app and finds a Curious George video to watch instantly.

For search marketers, it’s easy to get lost in the complexity of data analysis and campaign management — but sometimes, you have to step back and focus on the basics like creating a compelling call-to-action in your ad copy. Tell people what you want them to do. And clearly state why they should do it.
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SEM Need to Read: Drake Morton

From A-ZMOT: What You Need to Know

About Google Today

by Aaron Goldman , Tuesday, June 14, 2011

If you’re in search marketing, you probably hang on Google’s every word. It’s time to start hanging on every letter!

Here’s what every search geek needs to know about Google today, from A to Z…

AdMeld: Google is doubling down on the display space, which is on pace to surpass search spending by 2015.

Blogger: Boring. Buzz: Busted. B is just not Google’s letter.

Chrome: Now with apps on the menu.

Display: Gotta fill that search funnel somehow! Watch this space.
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 Excellent Read: Drake Morton

Content Is King

Analytics & KPIs Are Royal Subjects

by Rob Griffin , Friday, March 4, 2011

It’s been an interesting string of weeks, with a couple of groundbreaking announcements from Google. While both are aimed at improving relevance, one is more algorithmic and mathematical in terms of assessing the quality of content — while the other is consumer feedback to essentially cross-reference the same quality content metric. I won’t waste any time here discussing the details, since this has already been covered in depth.

What is more interesting to me is how these changes will improve the quality of search results for consumers, and the impact they will have on advertisers. While Firefox has provided an extension for years that has enabled the consumer to filter both paid and organic results, this functionality existed in a vacuum and was only known to the elite tech-savvy lot. What Google is trying to do now is harness that collective feedback into a formulaic loop to improve results for everyone. For once I feel that this fits well with the engine’s mantra of “don’t do evil,” and I fully endorse these enhancements. This should only benefit quality brands, publishers, and advertisers. (more…)

Focusing on Analytics and Accountability

AUGUST 10, 2010

Closing the gap between measurement and marketing effectiveness

Most marketers are on board when it comes to analytics: They recognize the importance of measuring marketing effectiveness, especially when they are asked to justify spending and possible budget increases. But there is room for improvement in formalizing approaches and communicating results.

According to a survey of senior marketing executives by Forbes Insights and MarketShare Partners, nearly seven in ten said they used analytics to measure marketing effectiveness. Marketers with large budgets were significantly more likely to do so than those with spending of less than $1 million, but many in that group planned to adopt analytics in the future. (more…)

You need to think about this: Drake Morton

Why SEO Doesn’t Translate

by Guy Gilpin , Monday, August 9, 2010

SEO is a laborious and, to be frank, rather tedious task.  So it’s lucky that once you have SE-optimized your Web site in English, you can just have it translated without the need to repeat all that effort in foreign languages, right?

Unfortunately, no.  Robert Frost’s definition of poetry as “what gets lost in translation” could apply equally to SEO.  It is sadly not possible to pre-optimize your Web copy before translation — it has to be re-optimized as part of the translation process. (more…)

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…)