The search industry, an industry that I’ve been proud to be a part of for the past 20 years, needs a Hall of Fame. The industry as a whole, which includes search engine marketing, PPC, internet marketing, website marketing, search engine marketing, etc. etc., should recognize those who are responsible for making the industry what it is today. Here are several reasons, along with some names of people that I think should be considered for the Search Hall of Fame. [Read more…]

Let’s take a look back, a throwback of sorts, back to the year 2000, when Pay Per Click was just getting started. This was uncharted waters, where companies were willing to test those uncharted waters of the PPC world. FindWhat was a popular search engine that didn’t offer any organic or “natural” search results. It was PPC only, and the higher you bid the better placement you got. [Read more…]

A Google AdWords bug has cost a company thousands of dollars. Even after Google fixed the situation for the company, Google has not offered the company a refund or even a credit on their account. Lawnstarter.com realized that Google was running their ads in Austin, Texas with someone else’s phone number–even though the company is located in Virginia and restricted their ads to their local area.

In a blog post on the company’s website, Lawnstarter explained what happened: [Read more…]

A lot of companies that you typically wouldn’t expect to offer SEO (search engine optimization) or SEM (Search Engine Marketing, PPC) services have lately have begun to offer such services to their current customers. A while back Deluxe Corporation bought Orange Soda, and Behr Paint then started offering SEO and SEM services to their Pro contractors. Now, the latest company to jump on the SEO/SEM bandwagon is IBM. [Read more…]

If you have a brick and mortar business with a physical street address that you publicize (you typically have customers visit you at your location), then you should be listed in the “local” listings of the major search engines. Yahoo! Local, for example, is one that you should make sure that you’re listed in–and your listing should be correct. [Read more…]

Update: December 14, 2013: I have received complaints about this SEO tool, as it either is no longer being updated, or the service is unreliable. I personally spoke with the owners of this tool and these issues have been resolved now. [Read more…]

As of today, August 27, 2013, the Google AdWords Keyword Tool is gone. You can no longer use this free online keyword research tool to get the average number of searches per month for keywords. And you can no longer get keyword suggestions from the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. [Read more…]

During a recent comment thread on Facebook by Steve Floyd, the subject of SEOs (Search Engine Optimization pros or “search engine optimizers”) and SEMs (Search Engine Marketers or “Pay Per Click professionals”) came up. During this heated discussion, I think there was only one thing that many tended to agree on: SEOs and SEMs are very different. [Read more…]

Before you get started on the Google Display Network (GDN), or even if you’re already engaged in display campaigns there, it’s important to understand the five aspects of this channel that most greatly affect the outcomes of those campaigns, and to manage these aspects with precision and daily awareness. [Read more…]

As an internet marketer, the primary function of your job is to drive high quality traffic to your site, with the ultimate goal of converting that traffic to either a sale, completed lead form, newsletter subscription or some other conversion point. So for your site to generate more revenue, you need more relevant traffic, right? [Read more…]

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a marketing practice that compares the performance of a control group with test samples, differentiated by a single variable. [Read more…]

Many internet marketers are familiar with the SEOQuake plugin for Firefox which helps you find out the demographics of various keywords, and domains. This information is VERY useful if you are working to find websites with high page rank where you can put comments in order to develop strong backlinks for your money sites. [Read more…]

Business.com is being shut down. Well, technically speaking, Dex One is realigning its interactive operations and will fully integrate Business.com into Dex One. The company, in a press release today, says that they plan to phase out Business.com, primarily a national business-to-business sales and marketing operation and focus exclusively on the Dex One business. [Read more…]

Yahoo! has decided to close the Yahoo! Publisher Network. For those of you who are not familiar with the Yahoo! Publisher Network, it is a contextual advertising network that relies on ads from the Yahoo! Search Marketing program. [Read more…]

There is a new automated programmatic Search Engine Marketing analysis software out there that attempts to identify Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Advertising revenue and cost savings opportunities. At a time where everyone seems to be cutting costs wherever possible because of the economy, this is a much-needed tool for search engine pay per click advertisers. [Read more…]

SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, has announced the 2008 Board of Director Nominees. [Read more…]

DoubleClick and IAC Advertising Solutions have launched DART Search’s bid management and conversion tracking features forAsk Sponsored Listings(R) (ASL). [Read more…]

Is Jason Calacanis now in the search engine marketing automation business? Perhaps not, but an interesting investment by Sequoia Capital, the company that where Jason Calacanis serves as “Entrepreneur in Action”, puts Mr. Calacanis a little closer to being in the SEM automation business. [Read more…]

Google has reached an agreement with Hearst-Argyle Television where Hearst-Argyle Television will be the first television reseller of Google AdWords, Google’s Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. [Read more…]

Note: This is an archived blog post Links in this post have been removed because the SEO White Paper from Business.com has been removed.

Business.com has released the 2008 B2B Search Marketing Strategy Guide: Advice from the Pros, a free SEO white paper that helps business to business marketing pros deliver better ROI for their company using search engine marketing. [Read more…]