Most marketing executives cite email or search marketing as their company's top-performing advertising channel in 2009—39.4% and 23.6%, respectively—and over nine in ten (93.6%) say they plan to increase their budget allocation to digital marketing in the next five years, according to the Fourth Annual Marketing and Media Survey from ... more

In a recent post at Search Engine People, Stephanie Woods reports there's been chatter lately about Google's making page-load speed an important part of its algorithm. That should come as no surprise, she notes, as usability studies have shown time and again that Web users like speed. According to Woods, here's ... more

Behaviorally targeted (BT) advertising generated on average 2.68 times the revenue per ad as non-targeted run-of-network (RON) advertising in 2009, while average CPMs for behaviorally targeted advertising were over twice (2.08 times) the average of RON CPMs, according to the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI). more

Small business advertisers spent on average $2,149 on search advertising in the fourth quarter of 2009, up 111% from $1,018 spent in the same period a year earlier, and up 30% from the $1,658 spent in the third quarter of 2009, according to a study by WebVisible based on its ... more

When it comes to your search ad's landing page—the page that captures the imagination and clicks of your potential customers—you can't be too careful. So warns Jared Spool in a recent User Interface Engineering post that describes common pitfalls when creating landing experiences. To get the most for your search-advertising dollar, Spool recommends, ... more

For the first time, Facebook surpassed Google in the US to become the most-visited website of the week, accounting for 7.07% of US Internet traffic in the week ended March 13, 2010, up 185% from the same period a year earlier, according to Experian's Hitwise Intelligence. more

Spending on digital advertising and marketing is forecast to reach $119.6 billion in 2010, overtaking the $111.5 billion projected for print advertising during the same period, according to a study from Outsell. more

A local search strategy should include more than just a presence at Google, Yahoo and Bing, says Jay Berkowitz in an interview at the New Times blog. Search marketers should also look to the tools and trends that consumers are embracing, he advises. Here are his tips for adding the latest ... more

Although most business blogs tend to have a small, core group of loyal readers, a new study reveals just how small those groups are, relatively speaking, as the overwhelming majority of traffic to business blogs consists of first-time visitors. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of businesses that publish a blog say first-time ... more

…and branding is from Venus. Right? That's what quite a few B2B marketers still believe, says Ben Hanna in a post at Business.com's B2B Online Marketing blog. "Many diehard pros specializing in one or the other of these areas still struggle to understand, find value in, or even imagine, using ... more

Microsoft's Bing for the third consecutive month increased its market share, accounting for 9.7% of US searches in the four weeks ending Feb. 27, up 4% from January, according to Experian Hitwise data. Meanwhile, uncontested search leader Google accounted for 71.0% of February searches, down 1% from the previous month. more

When a salesperson talks budgets with a CEO, the chief's eyes may either light up or send sparks, depending on the news conveyed. But when a search marketer brings up budgets, the CEO may just get that deer-in-the-headlights look. That's because "few marketers explain how search can affect the goals ... more

Dudes: Are you ready to give off some fresh new surfer vibes? Search engines are constantly looking for new signals they can use to improve the quality of the results they provide to Internet surfers, says Eric Enge in a recent post at Search Engine Watch. "Search engines continue to ... more

Although they spend millions of dollars on paid search, Fortune 500 companies are largely invisible in natural search: Collectively, the Fortune 500 spent an average $3.4 million per day on 97,559 keywords during the fourth quarter of 2009, yet only for 25% of those keywords Fortune 500 companies rank in ... more

In a recent Search Engine Land article, Andrew Goodman predicts that the biggest risk in 2010-2011 for search marketers may lie in working with outdated assumptions about the size and potential of target markets and the paid-search channel. As a remedy, he suggests five investment or expansion "risks" that could ... more

Most editors and reporters depend on social media as a source: 55% of print and Web journalists say social media is important or somewhat important for reporting and producing the stories they write, according to a survey conducted by George Washington University and Cision. more

Despite the tough economic environment and unprecedented challenges to the industry, consumers' use of digital media climbed to new heights in 2009 as the Internet continued to evolve as an integral component of Americans' personal and professional lives, according to data from comScore. more

An estimated 10.3 billion online searches were conducted in the US in January, and Google Search accounted for 6.8 billion of them, or 66.3%, according to Nielsen. Yahoo Search, Bing, and AOL Search received 14.5%, 10.9%, and 2.5% of searches, respectively. more

Before you start soliciting links and becoming active in online communities, it's best to first ensure that your site's content, structure, and design are in peak condition, Virginia Nussey advises in a recent post at the Bruce Clay blog: "Before you can expect a site to develop inbound links, you have ... more

The Great Recession has certainly not spared nonprofit organizations. With contributions down an average of nine percent, many charitable organizations have been forced to cut services. Some even face closure. Fortunately, though, the news is not all bad. "With the right marketing mix, savvy nonprofits are able to leverage social-media marketing ... more

Google accounted for 71.49% of all US searches conducted in the four weeks ended Jan. 31, while Yahoo Search, Bing, and Ask.com received 14.57%, 9.37%, and 2.64%, respectively, according to Experian Hitwise. more

"They say an Internet year is … equivalent to seven normal years," says Kevin Gibbon in a post at SEOptimise—meaning that we can witness seven real-world-years' worth of change in one year online. To help search marketers keep up, Gibbon offers seven ways to stay on top of the competition in the ... more

Across all major search engines, the top 10 search terms containing "Haiti relief" accounted for nearly half of the 679 search terms containing "Haiti relief," which itself was the top term, accounting for 12.16% of searches for the four weeks ended January 23, 2010, according to Hitwise Search Intelligence. more

In the world of B2B marketing, what would you say your customers want most from you? Some of the obvious things are quality products, great service, reasonable prices, and solutions that increase profits. But what would they really want if they could have anything from you? How about more customers? more

We recently encouraged businesses to expand their local search horizons and add more local flavor to their national search campaigns. Now, in a post at the Content Rich blog, Jon Wuebben offers more arguments for growing local roots in your search campaigns.  Wuebben quotes Neg Norton, president of the Yellow Pages Association, who ... more