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"As a marketer, and one who works for a digital marketing agency that manages a lot of CRM programs for a lot of clients that includes a lot of email, Priority Inbox both excites me and scares ... me," writes Jonathan Richman at Dose of Digital. In essence, he notes, Google ... more
"What's the hottest trend in search-engine optimization that you've never heard of (yet)?" asks Christopher S. Penn in a recent post at the Awaken Your Superhero blog. It's LDA, he reports. Penn cites a series of SEOmoz posts on Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA)—a context-based algorithm for determining search relevance. According to ... more
Exposure to impressions of organic search results, paid search results, and online display advertising—and specific combinations of such media—produces both a measurable lift in brand favorability and likelihood to purchase, according to a study by iProspect and comScore. more
On the Web, customers want details, facts, comparisons, and feedback from other customers. They avoid the fluff and waffle and marketing hype. What the Web represents, more than anything else, is a shift in power: away from organizations, toward customers. Brands, politicians, even popes are being questioned more than ever. more
"Heresy alert," writes Jason Amunwa at The Zest blog. "I've been struggling with a dark secret recently; you see, I realized that I really dislike SEO. "To me it's like health insurance: I hate dealing with it, I intensely dislike paying for it, and its benefits are difficult for most ... more
Small-business advertisers spent on average $2,373 on search advertising in the third quarter of 2010, up 43% from the $1,658 spent in the same period a year earlier, and up 6.4% from the $2,231 spent in the second quarter of 2010, according to a WebVisible study based on its small-biz ... more
MarketingProfs blogger Helena Bouchez shares web-development insights from an interview with Mark O'Brien, president of web-development company Newfangled. more
Although most online campaigns seek to drive conversion-based goals, many still use the click or CTR as the primary metric—mainly because it has been traditionally used to measure success and because it's easy to measure. But that's no excuse for making a mistake that's costing marketers $1 billion a year. more
Still wondering how Google Instant—the new enhancement that shows results as you type—changes search marketing? Well, Google promises to shave 2.5 seconds off each user's search, with the end result of 10-percent faster searches. In a recent post at the Daily Fix blog, David Felfoldi cites the benefits of this change, ... more
Interactive media platforms are a global phenomenon, occurring in all markets regardless of their level of economic, social, and cultural development. Therefore, when translating content into other languages, it's critical to define terms clearly. But what is the best approach? more
Emulate these best-practices for launching a well-trafficked corporate blog, and you'll be well on your way to establishing yourself as a trusted authority in your marketplace. more
You might think that your small business—say, one with an annual Google AdWords budget of $50,000—has no chance when bidding against larger companies with much deeper pockets. Happily, that just isn't true. "Bidding for keywords on Google is not a straight auction," explains Minda Zetlin at Inc. "Instead, Google multiplies the top ... more
As small businesses continue to navigate the economic recession, their adoption of innovative marketing technologies such as social media has leveled off, while expectations among those who use social media have changed, according to a study by Network Solutions and the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business. Still, among ... more
"You have a great website. It has beautiful images, a compelling theme and intuitive navigation, all designed to take eager visitors to complete descriptions of your proprietary products and services," writes Tami Wessley at Whole Brain Marketing. "The only problem is your website shows up somewhere after page 10 on ... more
MrketingProfs blogger Helena Bouchez shares tips by LinkedIn black belt Mark Amtower about how to get found on LinkedIn. more
When searching for products and services online, appearance matters: 48% of search engine users say they are more likely to click on a search result if it includes an image and 53% are more likely to click if a company name or brand appears multiple times on the search engine ... more
Lost user confidence is but one cost of sloppy code. Attempts to fix it can rack up thousands of dollars in consultant fees. And poorly coded Web assets can hinder marketing-campaign performance. All the beauty and elegance in the world will never compensate for the ugly repercussions of improper rendering. more
Worried that your website's inbound deep links—links to site pages other than your homepage or other top-level pages—are distracting visitors from your main advertising or branding page? Or that visitors following these links don't always realize they are on your site (as opposed to the site that linked to you)? Not ... more
In a recent post at the Content Marketing Institute, Elise Redlin-Cook asks the timeless question, "How do you find the best keywords for your audience?" Then she offers some timely advice. She recommends several online tools for novice and expert search marketers alike that can help simplify the process of researching keyword ... more
As B2B marketers shift resources and marketing budgets to social media, many have begun to align their social-media efforts with search-engine marketing, using the social channel to drive search referrals and conversion rates among Web visitors, according to a study by BtoB Online and Business.com more
It's well known in SEO circles that most links created through social media are "nofollow"—and therefore don't help sites rank higher with search engines. Some SEO professionals believe there's no SEO benefit to developing social-media profiles at all. Not so, counters Derek Edmond in a recent post at the Komarketing Blog. To ... more
Google Sites led the US explicit core search* market in August 2010, accounting for 65.4% of total searches conducted during the month, down 0.4 percentage points from July, according to data from comScore qSearch. more
US marketers are expected to more than double their investments in online-derived data sources by 2012, allocating a projected $840 million to information about digital audiences, transactions, and clickstream behaviors, according to a study by the Winterberry Group. more
Keyword discovery is a huge component of pay-per-click advertising. You need to find relevant keywords so you can create topical ad groups, text ads, and landing pages. But for truly cost-effective, high-ROI PPC campaigns, it's equally important to find negative keywords—those that aren't relevant to your offerings or customers—so you ... more
When it comes to social media, the one thing that small and midsize businesses want to know is this: Is it worth it? Yes, it is. Here are five quick reasons why. more
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