February 2010 search marketing news in review

This February, I’m going to start a new recurring monthly post of recent news and events in the search marketing industry.  These are a collection of links to articles that I’ve collected over the month that I think are valuable resources to online marketing and can range from paid search, to SEO, to analytics, and social media.

Read the rest of this entry »

PPC-Advice.com Best Posts of 2009

It’s that time of year again.  Time to look back at the last twelve months and reflect on what was a roller coaster year on PPC-Advice.com.  There were good times and there were bad, there were times a few articles were stumbled and dug, and some articles that just plain sucked.  Before we ring in the new year, and possibly a new site (OMG teaser…) let’s go over a few of my favorite posts, a few of your favorite posts, and a few odd-ball articles you may want to revisit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ray “Catfish” Comstock interview, looking forward to SES Chicago 2009

Ray Catfish ComstockLast week, I caught up with a very busy guy in the realm of online marketing and SEO.  Ray “Catfish” Comstock, a true rock and roller of search marketing, a highly quotable and highly regarded SEO expert, is officially (by day) the senior search strategist at BusinessOnLine.  I’d be remiss to mention that by night he’s actually a genuine rocker with Dive Bomber, hence the photo to the right.  He’s also going to be participating in a panel entitled “Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers” at SES Chicago 2009.  Is there anything he can’t do?  Let’s find out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lazy Search Marketers, Prepare to be Called out!

Lazy CatHere’s a quick quiz: what are the easiest keywords to win in both SEO and paid search campaigns?  What are the toughest keywords to win in SEO and the most expensive to buy in PPC?  This isn’t a trick question and the answers are obvious: your company’s or client’s brand name keywords should always be the easiest to win, and the two or three keyword generic phrases are always the toughest.  So why do some SEO’s and PPC campaign managers think last click attribution should give them unearned credit on brand names?  Could it be laziness?

Read the rest of this entry »

Dispelling the Myths of SEO

I don’t blame webmasters, marketers or even the casual blogger for having such a hard time grasping the one true testament of SEO, if that really even exists, because things change on a daily, or even hourly basis.  Plus, you have so-called experts touting tall tales of black-hat SEO, and how “in my day I could stuff keywords until the cows came home to rank 1st overall in Google”.  The basics are relatively straightforward, and fundamentally unchanged over the past few years; it’s the tactics that have changed.  So here is a run through of all the latest resources I could find to dispel the myths and set the records straight.

Read the rest of this entry »

Interview with Jason Matheson, marketer extraordinaire and owner of NextTree.com

First off, I have to state that Jason Matheson and I go way back.  He actually used to be my boss as Marketing Director and (reluctant) personal mentor at Netfirms.  People that know me well will know that there are a very few people I trust enough professionally in a work environment to hand over creative control or technical aspects of a project, but Jason makes my short list of candidates.  I recently caught up with him to find out about his most recent venture as founder and owner of NextTree, one of Canada’s fastest growing custom web design companies.

Read the rest of this entry »

Measuring Social Media Success or ROI shouldn't be hard

Not easy buttonUnless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 7 years, or 2 years which seems more popularly accepted, you would be blind not to notice the impact social media and networking sites have had on society.  Some say product purchasing decisions are slowly migrating from search to social, forgoing the researching and evaluating phases for instant gratification and credible influence.  So why are online marketers finding it so hard to determine the net effect of their social marketing efforts on a handful of web 2.0 sites?

Read the rest of this entry »

SES San Jose 2009: A look back at Day 1: from the perspective of a female newbie

Feeling fresh, alert and green coming off of EST and attending my first SES conference, I was met with a sluggish start to SES. This means low energy attendees, no freebies as was advertised from previous years’ attendees and worse of all, no brekkie! Even the coffee was weak. Those who needed more of a jolt had to make a trek to the Starbucks in the hotel next door or feed themselves with the $10 dollar fruit plate from the adjacent hotel.

Read the rest of this entry »

SES San Jose 2009 Day 1 Recap: Clay Shirky, Analytics, Conversion and more, oh my!

Given the recent economic downturn and attendance numbers in a downward spiral over the past year or so, turnout for SES San Jose, the granddaddy of all online marketing shows, was surprisingly optimistic.  Not only are all major search engines, agencies, and tool providers on hand for the festivities, experts from all walks of marketing disciplines are presenting on their specialties.  It’s the perfect storm, in the perfect weather, at the perfect time for optimizing online marketing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Solid Online Marketing Tips for a Shaky Economy

richter-scaleWith all the talk lately about new and emerging technologies, social spheres, and potential easy wins in online marketing, it’s hard to decipher the signal from the noise.  A shaky economy doesn’t help matters, because many companies are moving to either increase short-term gains or foster long-term strategy and right the boat.  Fragmented advice is easy to come by, so I present to you one cohesive strategy of online marketing with a few tactical real-world examples of how you might implement change.

Read the rest of this entry »