"A client called me, concerned because their analytics data showed a drop in pageviews," writes Ian Lurie at Conversation Marketing. "[They] were dropping steeply, even as their rankings and traffic from organic search were going up." The client, who had just re-launched her site, believed negative visitor reaction to the new ... more

"Facebook" was the top search term in the US across three major search engines—Google, Yahoo, and Bing—in the four weeks ended March 27, 2010, according to Experian Hitwise. more

It's no secret that link-building can help boost your bottom line and make your SEO efforts a whole lot easier. So, here's a thought: To help improve your site's organic visibility, why not leverage the power of your entire company and have everyone contribute to active link-building? That's what Mark Thomson ... more

Online research is central to consumer shopping behavior: 50% of online shoppers say they conduct research online for at least one-half of their purchases, and 64% consistently read online reviews prior to making product purchase decisions, according to an e-tailing group and PowerReviews study slated for release in early May. more

Will Google's latest search-engine algorithm update, dubbed "Caffeine," change search as we know it, or is it simply a minor update? more

In a recent post at the Online Marketing Blog, Lee Odden explains how a better understanding of search-engine optimization can help PR and communications professionals boost their results in a digital world by making it easier for various search engines to find, index and rank their content. "If content can ... more

Still wondering how people are really using your website? The answer may be closer than you think, reports Jared Spool in a post at the User Interface Engineering blog. Though the search log may not be a part of a site's regular analytics package, its contents provide a window into ... more

Ask increased its market share for the fourth consecutive month, accounting for 3.44% of US searches in the four weeks ended March 27, 2010, up 21% from February, according to Experian Hitwise data. more

Though US Internet ad revenues were down 3.4% in 2009—to $22.7 billion from $23.4 billion in 2008—there are signs of an emergent recovery, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) reported. more

Do you find the thought of seeking useful information from your analytics package an astronomically daunting one? If so, you're not alone. In a recent post at the Online Marketing Blog, Thomas McMahon notes that small-business owners often can't find the time to make sense of vast reams of analytics ... more

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