Online Marketing Blog

Tribble: Ad Agencies versus SEO/SEM firms. via AdRants

SEMLogic uncovers secrets to search engine algorithms - Marketing Pilgrim

SEMphonic Releases White Paper on WebSideStory HBX and Omniture SiteCatalyst - MarketWire

Google now supports no ODP tag. Matt Cutts

            Subscribe to this Feed

A few recent articles on social search got me thinking about how much search has changed and continues to change. In a meeting with a staff member last week I was explaining the notion of “collective intelligence” and how millions of individual editorial decisions people make through social search and tagging is taking the user search experience to a new level.

Over at iMedia Connection, iProspect’s Naga Krothapalli talks about the pros and cons of social tagging and search. The pros include: an alternative to browser based bookmarks, ease of use due to tags and the “theoretical” improvement in ability for the search engine to provide relevant and more accurate results. The cons: limited number of user adoption and doing tagging as well as limitations of tagging.

            Subscribe to this Feed

PR Newswire recently tipped me off to a test press release service that promises SEO benefit:

“Off-peak press release with SEO via PR Newswire Reach news sites, portals, search engines, media”.

Apparently it is to be a 5 day listing on the home page of PR Newswire. There are 10 releases to start and they are being auctioned off over at eBay. If my bid wins, I’ll post about the process:

“Winner of this auction may distribute one news release of 400 words or less via PR Newswire’s US1 Newsline. Distribution timing will be at PR Newswire’s discretion, Friday through Sunday.”

            Subscribe to this Feed

Google Blogscoped posts an interesting explanation of the browse sites to target feature on Google AdWords that Inside AdWords announced on Friday. It provides categories of sites with an idea of the number of impressions each site gets per day. Besides  browsing sites by category, you can also target sites by describing the topic, list URLs to check for availability or similar sites.

You can also target a campaign by demographics such as income, gender or ethnicity based on comScore data.  I am curious if there are any head to head comparisons of MSN AdCenter demographic targeting and Google.

            Subscribe to this Feed

A while back Thomas aka Twistermc, whipped up a handy tool for creating RSS subscription buttons to place on blogs. This makes it easy for the reader to subscribe to the blog using their favoriate RSS reader or aggregator. (See the buttons down the left side of this blog) This particular tool has been very popular and is the source for many, many links to Online Marketing Blog and to the blog marketing tools page over at TopRank.

            Subscribe to this Feed

Recently I fielded an emailed question from a reader as to which is better home for a blog: as part of the company web site (www.company.com/blog/) or as a separate domain (www.companyblog.com)? I get this question often and see it mentioned in the forums as well.

There are many factors that influence whether your blog should be part of your site or it’s own domain name including:

• Branding
• Hosting platform
• Blog application (software or hosted)
• Resources for promotion
• Resources for content production
• Purpose of the blog
• Timeframe for expected results
• Target audience

            Subscribe to this Feed

Andy Beal’s company Fortune Interactive has upgraded their SEMLogic system for identifying search engine optimization opportunities ala SWOT that allow a comparison of client sites to competing sites as well as enhanced interactive display options.

Here’s a demo video of the SEMLogic virtual reality module with Mike Marshall narrating and you’ll see where I get the “sci fi” reference.

I beleive Fortunue Interactive will be exhibiting at the upcoming Chicago ad:tech if you want to see this system in person or you can probably get a demo via the SEMLogic page.

            Subscribe to this Feed

If you’re looking for sources of information on search marketing, conferences can be a great resource. Or. if you’re a conference junkie like me, then you’ll find the SEOBook “Must See SEO Events” calendar exceptionally useful.¬† Some disclosure here, I am editing the calendar along with Aaron.

Some of the conferences listed include:

• Search Engine Strategies
• WebmasterWorld Pubcon
• ad:tech
• DMA conferences
• MIMA
• eMetrics Summit
• eTail
• Shop.org Summit
• Search Insider Summit
• OMMA
• Affiliate Summit
• SEO Roadshow
• SEO Bash
• And more

            Subscribe to this Feed

Rand and company over at SEOmoz have come up with a slick tool called “Page Strength SEO Tool” for determining the importance and visibility of a web page. Factors considered range from age of domain to link quantity, sources and Page Rank. Basically, it serves as an alternative to Page Rank. More importantly, it serves as a form of linkbait for SEOMoz. But that’s been true about SEO tools for quite a long time. Tools that help webmasters and marketers promote their sites offer excellent linking opportunities.

            Subscribe to this Feed

Spotlight on Search Interview with Laura Lippay, SEO Program Manager for Yahoo

We’ve been on a bit of a “Spotlight on Search Interview” hiatus the past few weeks, but I can assure you this one is worth the wait. Today we have a very nice interview with Laura Lippay, SEO Program Manager for Yahoo Media Group. I first became aware of Laura’s SEO wisdom via her animated stick figure avatar in Jill Whalen’s High Rankings SEO forum. Dispensing excellent advice to newbies and old timers alike, Laura has gone from circus performer extraordinaire to Flash-superstar-wannabe to a dream gig as an in-house SEO for Yahoo. I want to say thank you to the exceptionally thorough legal and marketing folks at Yahoo for letting Laura do this interview. Now on to the good stuff.

            Subscribe to this Feed

I get to talk to a wide variety of prospective clients about search engine optimization and internet marketing in general. The amount of information about what search engine optimization is, is as varied as the motivations of the companies that employ it. To help companies understand the various aspects of SEO, I often make comparisons to things just about everyone can relate to. So here are a few reasons why effective SEO is like successful weight loss.

            Subscribe to this Feed

There’s a decent article on Business Week online Smart Answers column called, “Business Week Article on SEO