"As you get started in SEO, you'll read a lot about things you should be doing to optimize your website for organic search," writes Marty Diamond at the Diamond Website Conversion blog. "What you may not hear as much about, however, is what you should avoid doing." To help you identify ... more

The average email subscriber faces an inbox filled with clutter. Once she sorts through a variety of personal, professional and marketing messages, she won't look kindly on messy or incoherent email offers. "Without a well-crafted, clear and consistent design for your brand, your email is going nowhere in a hurry," ... more

In a post at Junta42, Joe Pulizzi discusses communication techniques he developed during frequent public-speaking engagements—300 in five years—and how they influence his online content. "The best idea I can share regarding public speaking is to keep it simple," he says. "To execute that concept, I stole a page from ... more

Since 2002, search and email have been the most popular online activities in the US and remain so today, according to a new report by Pew Research. more

If you're not an SEO expert, you might wonder what to ask when hiring SEO staff or consultants. How do you tell the difference between someone who knows exactly what he or she is doing and someone who just knows a lot of lingo? To help out, Rand Fishkin created an ... more

In a post at Conversation Marketing, Ian Lurie reports on the disappearance of Google's real-time search—and consequently, the disappearance of up-to-the-minute Twitter feeds from Google. "If you're a bandwagon-driven Internet marketer, and you go diving after the latest gimmick, then you're probably panicking about now," he writes. "A little voice ... more

"How can SEO hurt your business?" asks Olga Taylor in an article at MarketingProfs. "Consider a site that is not user-friendly, is repulsive to visitors (or attractive to the wrong kind), isn't competitive, or is lacking a clear value proposition and the support required to respond to inquiries or follow ... more

"Why does content matter?" writes Erika Potter at the OrangeSoda blog. "It's simple: credibility. Without credibility, your chance of converting viewers into customers goes downhill fast. It's vital that visitors to your site see your online business as a trusted resource."  To help you ensure that your online content is credible, Potter ... more

The insurance category fetches the highest cost-per-click (CPC) rates in Google AdWords pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: nearly $50 per click, according to new keyword research data from search marketing software provider WordStream Inc. more

A strong search strategy needs content that people want to share with their friends, family and colleagues. But every business faces a serious hurdle: "Branded content is tricky because it's often viewed as 'advertising,'" writes Jon Thomas at the Post Advertising blog. "As we know, audiences trust friends and strangers ... more

SEO experts have spent the last decade preaching a gospel of optimized page-level elements and inbound links. "Those things are still important today," Jonathan Lawoyin writes in an article at MarketingProfs, "but getting real SEO results these days requires not only a technically optimized website and relevant inbound links but ... more

We have known for some time now that Google and Bing use Twitter as a ranking factor, so it'll pay to improve the SEO value of your Twitter account and tweets. Here are seven steps to get you started. more

MarketingProfs guest blogger Scott Spjut shares the details of Microsoft's new adCenter and discusses why most marketers should just ignore the new tool. more

"Negative keywords can … refine your keyword list and filter out unwanted traffic for your paid-search campaigns," writes Jill Solomon in an article at MarketingProfs. "Excluding specific words or phrases that aren't relevant to your product or service can help you reach your ideal prospects, reduce your cost per click ... more

A successful search strategy relies on strong content marketing—and that means recruiting your company's experts to write articles, blog posts and white papers."For some of us writerly types, content comes easy," writes Ari McKee-Sexton in an article at Marketingprofs. "For other types of folks, extracting copy is like pulling bad ... more

Search engine optimization works best when it's the last, rather than the first, item on your website checklist. Don't miss these commonly overlooked steps that can vastly improve your site's performance—before you SEO. more

When searching for local business information, consumers consult between two and three (2.2) media sources on average with Yellow Pages (Internet and print) and search engines among the most popular, surpassing other media sources such as store circulars, promotional emails, and social networks, according to a study by the Local ... more

A content management system is not a search engine optimization (SEO) magic bullet, but it can make the SEO job less painful. Learn how today's tools make it easy to automate the important tasks of SEO management. more

In a post at Conversation Marketing, Ian Lurie argues that every SEO should learn at least two programming languages. And if you think you already meet that standard, consider this: "HTML doesn't count as a programming language," he says. "Javascript might, but not if you're using it to create popup ... more

MarketingProfs guest blogger Darrell Davis of MediaFiche discusses Google's move to have a +1 button, which is inspired by Facebook's Likes. more

"Visits, pageviews, time on site, time on page, unique visitors, conversions, impressions, click-throughs, view-throughs," writes Zack Pike in an article at MarketingProfs, "the list of metrics used to measure the performance of our digital marketing activities is as confusing as it is endless." Dense data can complicate conversations with C-suite ... more

With one fell swoop, Google's latest algorithm update—dubbed Panda—demoted millions of Web pages. Content farms like Demand Media took a major hit, as did sites with lots of ads and little informational content. "The goal of the Google Panda update involves the filtering of low quality or duplicate pages that ... more

The ever-increasing interdependence between search and social media should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a threat. Learn how to use both strategically, and boost your marketing effectiveness. more

"White hat search engine optimization (SEO) principles that apply to B2B online marketing also apply to B2C, but B2B is otherwise a different animal," writes Nick Stamoulis in an article at MarketingProfs. In other words, SEO is simply not the same strategy for B2B as it is for B2C. And to ... more

Email and search marketing still have the greatest influence on consumers' online buying behaviors, whereas social media, though it generates awareness, is rarely associated with direct revenue, according to a study by Forrester Research and GSI Commerce. more