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Can You Trust a Blogger's Advice? by Jennifer Laycock March 9, 2007 Here's the conundrum. Search engine marketing requires links. Links can be hard to come by. Blog reviews are a great way to get links. Blog reviews have the added bonus of carrying the power of word-of-mouth recommendations. That said, it can be hard to catch the eye of a blogger and to get them to write about your products. The solution? Buy your blog reviews. At least that's how some people see it. (skip to "Can You Trust a Blogger's Advice?" by Jennifer Laycock) What's Holding Back Online Marketing? by Jennifer Laycock March 9, 2007 Reliable metrics. At least that's what respondents to a study had to say when asked what might influence them to buy more advertising from more types of web sites. Ad Week writer Joan Voight looks at the results from a joint survey by the Audit Bureau of Circulations and NSON Opinion Research and examines how a lack of reliable in-house metrics and a lack of third-party metrics are one of the key issues holding back online marketing. Linkbait 2.0: The Soul of Linkbait by Jennifer Laycock March 9, 2007 I've been writing search engine articles regularly for a couple years now and I´ve always been able to see the nexus between writing and inbound link generation. This isn't a story about how to create good linkbait, but how I attempted to apply what I learned from linkbait masters like Todd Malicoat & Nick Wilson. (skip to "Linkbait 2.0: The Soul of Linkbait" by Todd Mintz) Yahoo Panama Pros and Cons: Part 2 by Jennifer Laycock March 9, 2007 After publishing last week’s article on “Yahoo Panama - Pros and Cons” I have had a few readers contact me with notable “Cons” they have experienced with the recent upgrade process. While I know I had not covered all possible negatives to Panama in my article, these items are certainly worth adding to the list. (skip to "Yahoo Panama Pros and Cons: Part 2" by Scott Van Achte) Getting Started in Search Marketing by Jennifer Laycock March 8, 2007 One of the biggest challenges of the small business owner is figuring out how to even get started in this crazy world of search and online marketing. Time is tight, budgets are tighter and figuring out where to turn and who to trust can be pretty complicated. That's why I was pleased to speak with Anita Campbell a few weeks ago for a column about learning search engine optimization that she was writing for this month's Inc. Magazine. "What You Know" Isn't Enough When it Comes to Blogging by Jennifer Laycock March 8, 2007 JD Arney has a great post over at Performancing that talks about the common blogger advice to "write what you know." While that line is often fed to both businesses and individuals looking to break into the blog world, the reality is that blogging is now a mature enough realm that you can't simply throw up any old blog and make a go of it. Sure, what you know comes into play, but there's more to it than that. AskCity Kicks it Up a Notch by Jennifer Laycock March 8, 2007 Those folks over at Ask.com...they really like to have a little fun with their search products. It wasn't enough to let us turn maps into an etch-a-sketch that let us mark up directions and send them to friends, now we can block off areas of a map and limit our search to that area. Very nice. Much nicer than entering a zip code and limiting your search by the mile. Google's 0.02% Spin Solution by Jennifer Laycock March 8, 2007 According to Google, actual click fraud only accounts for 0.02% of all click activity found when Google's team is asked to audit an advertiser's account. If correct, Google's 0.02% assertion places the perceived dollar value of actual click fraud in their system somewhere in the range of $2,100,000. (skip to "Google's 0.02% Spin Solution" by Jim Hedger) Jill Whalen's High Rankings Conference in Minneapolis by Jennifer Laycock March 6, 2007 With all the talk about small search marketing conferences lately, it seems fitting to remind readers that one of the longest-running "small" search engine marketing conferences has another show coming up in Minneapolis, MN at the end of next week. The High Rankings seminars feature half a dozen of the top names from the industry (including Jill Whalen, Karen Thackston and Matt Bailey) in a two day seminar that's small enough to give you a real chance to run through some Q&A with the speakers. Blog Readers are a Loyal Bunch by Jennifer Laycock March 6, 2007 It's long been understood that blogs attract visitors. The huge shift toward the introduction of blogs by thought leaders, businesses and your everyday web user has been well documented over the past few years. What's interesting is just how dedicated blog readers are, as shown by a new study released by Advertising Age and online market research service Vizu Answers. Expanding Services and SEO by Jennifer Laycock March 6, 2007 The question from an SEO standpoint is, would they be better off with a new domain name and website for the business side, or a home page that says business clients click here, individual clients click here, etc. (skip to "Expanding Services and SEO" by Jill Whalen) 10 Quick Ways to Increase Conversions by Jennifer Laycock March 6, 2007 My SEO firm has been spending a good deal of time analyzing conversion and usability aspects for our clients over the past year. While there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of things that can be changed to help improve conversion rates, we've created a short list of things that are both quick and easy to change or add to your site. (skip to "10 Quick Ways to Increase Conversions" by Stoney deGeyter) Understanding the Search Buying Cycle by Jennifer Laycock March 5, 2007 While it's easy enough to envision a potential customer heading off to Yahoo or Google, conducting a search, clicking through and making a purchase, the reality is that the online sales process is more complicated than that. This is because online shoppers tend to take some time doing research and following the "search buying cycle" before settling on a product and a web site to purchase it from. (skip to "Understanding the Search Buying Cycle" by Jennifer Laycock) Some Words With Matt Cutts on Personalized Search by Jennifer Laycock March 5, 2007 The news that Google was moving toward personalizing search results a few weeks ago has produced a bit of worry among some search marketers. After all, when the search results are different for everyone, how to you work on increasing the rankings of the site you are optimizing. With those concerns in mind, Gord Hotchkiss sat down to speak with Matt Cutts about how Google's plans to tailor search results to the searcher might impact the future of search engine optimization. USA Today Expands into Consumer Generated Media by Jennifer Laycock March 5, 2007 There's been quite a bit of buzz today about USA Today's decision to move their online publication into the realm of consumer generated media by allowing users to create profiles, add comments and tags to stories, upload their own photos of news events and even vote stories up or down with Digg-like recommendations. More news... |
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