Experience Results from Experienced Marketers

Google’s Over Personalization

November 17, 2008 – 9:57 am
by Kate Morris Kate Morris is an independent Search Engine Marketing consultant. You can always find her on Twitter @katemorris. Google has been at the top of the PPC and personalization game for the past few years. Their goal has always been to produce the best results for the end user, no matter the results to the advertiser. In late September 2008, some friends on Twitter, SEOMike and Sallymander, asked about some weird results they were seeing on Google search results. As SEOMike pointed out, a search for one product (office furniture) followed immediately by another product (car rental) returned some odd paid advertisements. The first search looks very normal. The subsequent search for car rental displays an ad in position 10 for “Office Outlet of Austin.” Please note that I am logged in, so Google knows that I am in Austin. Now this is nothing “new,” there are industry mentions about it all the way back to ...

Posted in Google | 2 Comments »

CRM: The Key to Online Growth in a Downturn Economy

November 6, 2008 – 7:29 pm
by David Snyder In the midst of every recession there are a handful of people that actually see growth. These individuals and companies learn how to adapt to the economic environment, and through ingenuity they make strides. In the online world, many have already begun to make changes based on the current instability of world markets. One way that you can begin to make changes to benefit your online campaign is by focusing more on CRM in the downturn.

Posted in Online Marketing | 4 Comments »

The Future of SEO

November 2, 2008 – 8:29 pm
By Jordan Kasteler (Utah SEO Pro) Search engines are getting smarter day by day, technologies are advancing minute by minute, and search engine optimization specialists need to get on board and prepare for the future of SEO. While many traditional SEO tactics and strategies may always hold true, creativity and ingenuity is needed to master the newest formulating technologies being developed now. Let's take a brief look at some of the upcoming technologies and explore possibly ways Internet marketers can and will be taking advantage of these. User Behavior Data & Personalization Google offers many services that collect our data, surfing habits, and search behavior like: Google Analytics Google Desktop Gmail Google Toolbar Google Chrome GOOG-411 Bookmarks FeedBurner Google RSS Reader (thanks Sugarrae) Etc With this data they can provide "more relevant" results to searchers by analyzing how people behave with the content provided to determine it's adequacy and by personalizing the search results for users with behavior patterns. Microsoft recently filed a patent about BrowseRank, a ...

Posted in SEO | 13 Comments »

Our Future is So Bright We Have to Wear Shades

October 28, 2008 – 5:15 am
by David Snyder When Jordan and I started Search & Social in June of this year we were on a 2 year plan. We wanted to provide great client services and get involved in other projects that would differentiate us in the search and social media space. I now sit at my kitchen table flabergasted at what we have been able to set up for ourselves in a matter of months, and the only thing I can point to in relation to our early success is the help and support of our amazing friends, family, and business partners.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Social Media Lessons for Nintendo

October 20, 2008 – 10:48 am
This is a guest post from Samir Balwani who writes about Social Media and Internet Marketing at Left the Box, http://leftthebox.com Every once in a while you'll be doing something and you'll have a "why not" moment. Mine happened while I was playing Mario Kart on my Wii Online and thought, "why can't I connect with people on the Wii?" It got me thinking, "why hasn't Nintendo launched a social network on the Wii for Wii users?" If you don't know what this Wii thing is, you're sorely missing out. It's one of the greatest gaming consoles and is targeted towards everyones. Instead of using a joystick to move the system tracks your body movements, making games interactive and forcing people to get up and move around. Most importantly, for this post at least, it connects to the Internet and allows you to play games with friends online. Since the Wii already has a huge user-base, it's primed for a social network. ...

Posted in social media | 1 Comment »

FREE Ticket to Scary SEO

October 17, 2008 – 2:52 pm
by David Snyder   We currently have three seats left to the most talked about event in search this fall, Scary SEO, and we wan't to give one to you.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Decline of Digg

October 12, 2008 – 12:53 am
By Jordan Kasteler (Utah SEO Pro) Preface Let me begin this post by stating I have recently been banned by Digg...on two accounts. One account I have put many hard working hours into and had front paged 45 stories. This is not the reason for this post, I was pissed with Digg far before my ban. This post was incited by Social New Central as a call for action to Diggers and ex-Diggers to voice their opinions and grievances about Digg.com. Digg's Decline Digg is on the decline and I don't stand alone on this issue. Take a look at their Alexa statistics over the past 6 months: They are losing viewership rapidly. They are down 59% of visitors in the past 3 months since they started banning people but up 16% of page views. Digg's Agenda It is much speculated that Digg is trying to increase their page views for more ad impressions for their ...

Posted in social media | 28 Comments »

Today in Search and Social - 10/06/2008

October 6, 2008 – 7:56 pm
by David Snyder Well today kicked off SMX East and from the tweets I am following it sounds pretty great. Tonight is the IM Charity Party hosted by We Build Pages, which goes to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. We announced our own IM Charity Party that will take place on October 25th and will also support RMH. What a great and giving industry we have the pleasure of being the part of! Ray "Catfish" Comstock dropped I nice post on the reality of toolbar PageRank which I thought was great, mostly because I hate when people give it much credence. And of course Mr. Jordan "Wonderboy" Kasteler, dropped a great post on how the placement of links is one of the most overlooked concepts in SEO.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Why We are Throwing the Greatest Event the World has Ever Known

October 6, 2008 – 10:32 am
by David Snyder Greatest event the world has ever known? Okay, maybe a bit of hyperbole. But we do feel that it is one of the best search events to come around in a long time. Of course I am speaking about Scary SEO. What is Scary SEO? In case you are living under a rock, Scary SEO is a micro-sized conference taking place near Halloween (October 24th and 25th) in Deerfield Beach, Florida. It is showcasing some of the industries best talent and speakers, including: Jeff Quipp - CEO of Search Engine People David Snyder - Co-Founder Search & Social, LLC and Search Strategist for JRDunn.com Jordan Kasteler - Co-Founder Search & Social, LLC and Sr.Search Strategist at Overstock.com Rhea Drysdale - SEO & Social Media Coordinator at We Build Pages Martin Bowling - CTO of VEC3 Loren Baker - Editor and Chief of Search Engine Journal and Partner at Traffic Blend, LLC Brandy Eddings - CEO of New Edge Media Pamela Lund - Director of US Operations - BespokeUSB.com Carolyn Shelby - ...

Posted in SEO | 5 Comments »

Most Overlooked SEO Metric: Link Placement

October 5, 2008 – 5:25 pm
By Jordan Kasteler (Utah SEO Pro) Have you ever received an email from someone requesting a link exchange touting that they have a valuable link to offer you? Ever purchased a link from a broker at a particular cost based on metrics over negotiation? How do they usually declare that link is valuable? There's a culmination of variables that declare a link's worth. While it's unfortunate that none of them have highly valuable accuracy, combined together gives a better idea of the value. Such variables are: Google Toolbar PageRank Alexa Score Compete Score Yahoo Inbound Link # Industry/Niche Relevancy Link Placement Hub Authority Follow/Nofollow Indexation Domain Age Page Age Etc These metrics each hold different weight in measuring a page's value it can pass on to a link. Authority Gauge - Toolbar PageRank Many link brokers love to look at Google Toolbar PageRank thus causing the Google PageRank adjusting of many sites involved in such practices. Google's PageRank slaps were an attempt to throw off the paid ...

Posted in SEO | 9 Comments »