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Is Bing A Better Buy Than Google AdWords For Small Business?
Data released yesterday by small business (SMB) marketing platform Pricing Engine argues, as a number of others have in the past, that Bing ads are a “more efficient” buy than Google AdWords. While Google has more search volume and higher CTRs, Bing emerges as a lower cost source of leads for SMBs according to the company’s […]
Yahoo-Microsoft Search Tensions On Public Display In Court Ruling
Microsoft has essentially had to sue Yahoo to get the company to fully comply with the terms of their 2010 “Search Alliance” agreement. Yahoo under Marissa Mayer had sought to delay rollouts of Bing search results in Taiwan and Hong Kong, awaiting a new Microsoft CEO. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer resigned ahead of schedule under […]
Social Media Plugins: Are They Weighing You Down?
Many B2B companies use social media plugins on their websites to increase engagement and sharing of their content. According to AddThis, 14 million domains use the AddThis social plugin; another 2 million publisher sites use the ShareThis plugin. In fact, one of the three largest B2B companies in the United States (in terms of revenue) […]
Infographic: What Is The Nofollow Tag; When & How To Use It
The nofollow tag is a way publishers can tell search engines not to count some of their links to other pages as “votes” in favor of that content. Why would publishers need to block such votes? Doing so can help them avoid problems with search engines believing they are selling influence or are somehow involved […]
Mobile Accounts For One-Third Of Google Paid Clicks In Q3, Yet CPCs Drop From Q2 [Report]
The Search Agency released its third quarter State of Paid Search Report, showing strong growth in mobile for Google since the completed roll-out of enhanced campaigns this summer. Mobile clicks accounted for one-third of Google’s click share. In contrast, Bing’s mobile click share remained flat at 17.7 just percent in Q3. A whopping 93 percent […]
Google’s [Not Provided] At 87% Of Google Search Traffic To Major News Sites [Report]
If you’ve been hoping that the hypocrisy of Google hiding keyword referral data from natural search traffic but still sharing it with advertisers would get some attention from the mainstream press, this might help: New data from Parse.ly shows that 87 percent of all Google organic traffic to some of the biggest news sites on […]
Building A B2B Brand From Scratch Through Search
In the past few articles, I’ve talked about various search strategies to apply to your existing B2B search campaigns. But what if you’re starting from scratch, and you’re building your brand for the first time? Maybe your brand is embarking on a strategy to expand into the market for a B2B product that is entirely […]
Why The YouTube Keyword Tool Is So Amazing For Link Building
Debra Mastaler mentioned the YouTube keyword tool again recently, and I don’t think I’ve been this excited about keywords in, well… ever. I confess to only now realizing how much of a help it can be. Never mind the awesome fact that you can get keywords and easily import them into Google AdWords for your […]
September Search Market: Flat As A Pancake
The September search market share data from comScore got pushed out earlier this evening by financial analysts. As always, these numbers aren’t official until comScore releases them tomorrow. Here are the figures as we received them: Google — September: 66.9 percent; August: 66.9 percent Bing — September: 18 percent; August: 17.8 percent Yahoo — September: 11.3 percent; August: […]
Bing SEO Ranking Factors 2013 Study By SearchMetrics
Searchmetrics has released their SEO ranking factors for Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, today. Similar to their Google ranking factors, Searchmetrics analyzed 10,000 popular keywords and 300,000 websites appearing in the top 30 search results and looked at how various factors correlated with rankings. The top five key findings were: (1) Top brands rank higher on […]
How To Use The Marketing Funnel For SEO & Inbound Marketing
This month, I’m going to discuss content marketing strategy as it relates to search engine optimization. A lot of businesses get this wrong by focusing too tightly on the sales parts of the marketing funnel. With PPC, Money Buys Placement Before I get into SEO, let’s examine PPC as a contrasting approach. In paid search, […]
AdWords Smartphone CPCs Drop Sharply After Enhanced Campaigns Transition [RKG Report]
With two months of enhanced campaigns behind us, RKG’s Q3 Digital Marketing Report offers a look at the near-term impact of the roll-out on its client set, which includes 40 of the top 500 online retailers. Most metrics remained relatively stable; however, the effects were seen in smartphones where CPCs dropped significantly after the transition. […]
The Top 7 Milestones Of Google Search
I think that I can confidently say that anyone reading this post has an intimate relationship with Google. After all, it’s one of the most important companies in the world and has helped to spearhead the Internet revolution — which is up there with invention of the wheel, the discovery of electricity, and the creation […]
First Half Online Ad Revs $20 Billion: Search Biggest, Mobile Fastest Growing
The IAB has just released Q2 and first half 2013 online and mobile ad revenue figures. Total digital ad revenue in the US for 1H 13 was just under $20.1 billion (vs. $17 billion last year). Mobile represented 15 percent of the total. Search revenues were up 7 percent in real dollars ($8.7 billion) vs. […]
Ezine Articles & Press Releases Supplied As Bad Backlink Examples In WMT
Ezine Articles and press releases have long been utilized by SEO professionals for building backlinks. In late July 2013, news broke that links should be no followed in press releases. Right around this same time, Google also mentioned that if you are guest blogging for links this could be a violation of their guidelines. Apparently, […]
Essential YouTube Optimization Tactics
During the YouTube: Optimization Tips For The Second Most-Popular Search Engine session at SMX East we were treated to smorgasbord of tips, tricks and sound advice for marketers wanting their video marketing to leap-frog the competition. Manny Rivas, Online Advertising Director at aimClear got us all excited by saying “B2B can be sexy” and started his […]
Perspective Matters In B2B Website Content
In B2B marketing, relationships lead to conversions. Content strategy is an essential tool for driving traffic through SEO and social media, and for engaging and building trust with audiences online. This means choosing the best content type (e.g., copy, video, print, audio, whitepaper, etc.) and the right words to convey your message. But all too […]
Moz Search Ranking Factors Survey: Page Authority, Google +1’s & Links Lead
Moz announced the release of the full 2013 search ranking factors study they have been working on throughout the year. Keep in mind, this is comprised of sending out a survey to 120 SEO experts, asking them to rank each factor on a scale of importance. Moz then uses that data, alongside of their correlation […]
Are You Setting The Right Link Building Expectations?
In the world of search and online marketing, we talk a lot about the evolving landscape, particularly when it comes to link building. Tactics that work one day can stop working with the switch of a Google button. Tactics that you think are legit can suddenly be deemed a “link scheme.” On top of that, there’s so […]
New Google Antitrust Offer A “Significant Improvement” Says EU
After Google’s competitors loudly complained about the company’s antitrust settlement proposal, which displayed three “rival links” to alternative’ search results, European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said it would take new “concessions” for Google to successfully settle its antitrust case with Europe. Google has now reportedly made those concessions. Almunia characterized Google’s updated settlement offer, submitted last […]
Google’s Matt Cutts: NoFollow Attributes On Internal Links Don’t Hurt But Generally Don’t Do It
In a video, Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts published today an answer to the question, “Should I use rel=”nofollow” on internal links to a login page?” Matt Cutts basically said you shouldn’t, but said it won’t hurt you if you did. Matt said, “It doesn’t hurt if you want to put a nofollow […]
You Probably Think This Search Is About You: Survey Says 56% Of Internet Users “Google” Themselves
To mark Google’s 15th birthday, the PEW Research Center released a survey conducted between April and May of this year to evaluate the number of people who Google themselves. According to the report, 56 percent of Internet users have used Google or another search engine to search on their own name, a 22 percent increase […]
Organic Vs. Paid: What $10 Million In Search Revenue For Hewlett-Packard Tells Us
It certainly isn’t the first look at the relationship between paid and organic search, but new a new study by Resolution Media and Kenshoo claims to put an end to the debate over whether paid search campaigns cannibalize organic revenue or add incremental value, even when organic visibility is substantial. Search agency Resolution Media and […]
For Google’s 15th Birthday, Search “Google In 1998” For A Flashback
Google turns 15 this week — celebrating its official birthday on Friday. But it already is gearing up for the celebrations with a special easter egg. Search for “google in 1998,” and you’ll see how Google used to look back then, in the year of its birth. The head of Google’s web spam team, Matt […]
White Papers: Key To B2B Enterprise SEO Power
Enterprise marketers, particularly in the B-to-B space, often find content development a difficult proposition. The company's thought leaders, although happy to pontificate, are often afraid of committing to a writing schedule - and the marketer, admittedly, is trying to get others to "squeeze in" content, essentially "off the books". With no reward, why should anyone help with the difficult, thankless work of writing articles? The trick is for the marketer to take advantage of three key tactics...
Google May Have Penalized Another Major Link Network: Ghost Rank 2.0
Google has significantly penalized another underground link network over the weekend and we believe that one of the link networks targeted by Google is named Ghost Rank 2.0. A few weeks ago, Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, tweeted “Thinking of ghost-related puns for a spam network. “They try to look super natural, but […]
SEO Companies Fined Over Fake Reviews
Several SEO companies have agreed to stop publishing fake online reviews, and will also pay penalties ranging from $2,500 to almost $100,000 as part of settlement announced today with the New York attorney general’s office. The AG’s year-long investigation ultimately caught 19 companies involved in writing and posting fake online reviews, including numerous small businesses. […]
Survey: Quality Of Citations Matters More Than Quantity
At the start of August, David Mihm published the findings of the latest installment of the Local Search Ranking Factors Survey. This year, the breakdown & presentation of survey results has been taken to a new level. Ranking factors are grouped by signal type (e.g., Place Page Signals), then further broken down by result type […]
Trust In Search Ads Rises, Along With All Other Ads Except Newspaper [Nielsen]
A new Nielsen study on consumer trust in advertising shows trust in search ads has risen since 2007. Nearly half (48 percent) of consumer respondents now say they trust search ads, that’s up 14 percent since 2007. This is certainly good news for search advertisers. In more good news, with the exception of ads in […]
MPAA: 82 Percent Of Searches Leading To Pirated Content Come From Google
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) today accused Google and other search engines of playing “a significant role” in directing consumers to pirated movies and TV shows, with a special callout for the amount of Google searches that lead to infringing material. It’s the latest volley in a long-running battle between Hollywood and the […]
Secrets Of Successful B2B Remarketing Campaigns
Remarketing has been around for a few years on the display side of marketing, but has only recently picked up momentum and adoption on the paid search side. From what I’ve seen, remarketing is something that companies sometimes do really right… and other times do completely wrong. Here, I’ll share the main things we’ve learned […]
When Looking For Links, How Can You Predict A Site’s Future?
I was recently asked how to make sure that each link you build (however you do it) remains a safe one — and I have to say that I truly had no idea how to answer that. A few years back, my answer would have been different than it is today. Remember when we all said […]
How Search Engines Work — Really!
For those of us in SEO (or aspiring to be), there are a lot of little details that fill our days. Server architecture, 301 redirects, 404 errors, title tags, and various other things. Sometimes, we forget to sit back and figure out what it all means. Add to that the fact that most SEOs were […]
Report: Google Product Listing Ads Drive CSE Channel Growth, Cannibalize Text Ad Clicks
The August Same Store Sales report from ChannelAdvisor shows that the 7.7 percent growth from Comparison Shopping Engines was driven by the product listing ads (PLAs) that power Google Shopping. Search (traditional AdWords text ads) saw just a slight uptick in growth at 0.2% in August. Both channels grew more slowly than comScore’s overall ecommerce […]
4 Ways to Wash Away The Link Building Hate
This is a post from one link building nut to link building nuts everywhere. You know who you are. Link builders love building links — most of the time. But there are lots of reasons to hate it, too. If you hate link building and you’re a link builder, you’d better take a serious look […]
Google Webmaster Tools Now Provides Broader & More Diverse Link Data
Google announced today that the link data within Google Webmaster Tools is much broader, more diverse cross-section of links. What does that mean? Well, instead of showing you links in alphabetical order, exported in “lexicographical order” – Google is now showing you sample links “uniformly from the full spectrum of backlinks rather than alphabetically.” Google […]
August Search Market Share Grinds To Standstill, Though Google & Bing Grow In Volume
Today comScore released US search market share figures for August. I’m tempted to say, “Nothing to see here folks, move on.” All the numbers are basically flat compared with July. There was almost no movement across sites; everybody’s in the same position as last month. A year ago Google’s share of the US search market […]
Could You Walk In Google’s Shoes? Making Tough Calls With Search Listings
It’s pretty easy to sit back and slam Google for how you think it should make decisions when it comes to search listings. It’s much harder to actually make those decisions, when you have a deeper understanding of all the implications involved. To experience this better, here’s a chance to put yourself in Google’s shoes […]
SEM For B2B Companies That See No Value In Search
Not every company sees the value of SEM in the B2B space. Companies that only do two or three deals per year based solely on lead nurturing will have no need to rank for keywords or for building site traffic. Selling any website services outside of design to these high-ticket companies may seem impossible because […]
Changing Course In The New Linking World
In the wake of the Great Google Massacre (i.e., everything that’s happened over the past couple years since Google got serious), there are many sites that survived the carnage but aren’t as successful as they used to be — and they’re looking for ways to get back to where they once were. The scenario most […]