Posted by: Shannon Anderson, Project Manager

Last month, Google launched a search filtering tool called Search Options which allows users to filter their search results to show only videos, forums or reviews over a specified time frame. By selecting the “Show Options” feature in the blue bar under the search field, users can access these filtering options to bring up more relevant and useful listings.

Google’s Search Options also allows users to select “Wonder Wheel” to display other relevant searches that might be of interest. The example below shows related searches to the term “summer olympics.”

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Posted by: Nikki Johnson, Marketing Coordinator

As it turns out, we learned more from the recent swine flu scare than we thought. And not just that we needed to limit travel to Mexico or wash our hands more frequently. An article on WebProNews used the flu as an example of why we should be paying attention to the types of searches people are conducting on the Web.

According to the article, the website stats of a blog posting discussing the swine flu prove that people are now using more long-tailed search queries to find the information they need. In fact, the author claims that the days of focusing search engine optimization (SEO) efforts exclusively on short keyword phrases are gone. Search marketers should now target longer keyword phrases in order to try and capture exactly what someone is searching for. The top search phrase used by visitors to the particular swine flu posting was, “How do you know if you have swine flu?” Nine-word phrases like these are coined “money keywords” and are expected to bring in a targeted audience to your website.

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Posted by: Kerry Houchin, Marketing Coordinator

Your pizza search just got easier. Thanks to new local search results from Google, you no longer have to type in the name of your city when looking for a local pizza joint or other local business results. Google now shows local results for generic keywords based on IP address even when the location is not specified in the query.

What does this mean for small local shops? The potential for generating business from generic keywords (and SEO) has gone through the roof! First-page results are attainable for even your most basic keywords if the search originated in your region. The local search results are displayed in the center of the search results page instead of at the top of the page when there is no location specified, but a first page listing is still far more valuable than no top 30 result at all.

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Posted by: Rosemary Riley, Senior Copywriter

Forbes has just released the results of its “Ad Effectiveness Survey,” conducted among senior marketing executives during February and March 2009. The survey delved into behaviors and beliefs around digital marketing and forecasts areas of growth and weakness over the next six months.

Highlights include:

• When it comes to influencing brand perception, the most effective tactics were site sponsorships and pay-per-impression programs on digital publications.
• For garnering conversions, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and email were seen as the three most effective tools.
• 82% of marketers are using conversions or sales data.
• 55% use registrations.
• Over the next six months, respondents plan to allocate a higher percentage of digital media dollars to viral marketing (42%) and SEO (40%), while 53% stated they would spend less on Ad Networks.

View the complete survey results.

Posted by: Sam Eidson, Partner

What should you focus on to improve your search engine visibility?  It’s a moving target and it should be customized to your competitive advantages, but here are some important factors:

• Onsite content – Make it keyword-rich, but keep it contextual for the audience.  Make sure your copy is text, not images. Use headings and bullets to your advantage.
• Navigation and folder structure – Ensure navigation is standard and keyword-rich, for both search engine spiders and users.  Create URLs with keyword strategy in mind.
• Backlinks – Think quality, not just quantity. Steer clear of link farms and don’t waste time building links from weak, irrelevant sites.
• Meta data – Focus your meta data efforts on creating strong, unique Title and Description on each page.
• Off-site content – In addition to backlinks, other off-site content can have a big impact.  Focus on optimization and online distribution of press releases; your blog; articles the staff authors for online trade publications; listings in internet yellow pages and vertical directories; and even social networking sites.
• Site performance – Load time, proper 404 and redirect formats all play a role.
• Keyword strategy – The tactics above don’t help if you haven’t focused on the right keyphrases.

Posted by: Kayla Wagner, Account Manager

The search engine landscape is always changing and will continue to do so in 2009. But rather than going with the latest and greatest, take the new year to focus on the basics first and then build on top of them. Is the base of your SEM program serving as a strong foundation?

1. Recalibrate your keywords in your SEO and paid search (or PPC advertising) programs to match your goals. Often we start with terms that we’re used to using internally at our companies. But is this what your prospects are using to search for you? And aren’t those prospects at various points in the purchase cycle, ranging from completely unaware to aware and ready to buy? Make sure your terms and phrases account for the various segments of your audience.

Here are a few resources to help you create your strategic keyword list:
-    Google’s Search-based Keyword Tool
-    SEO Book.com
-    Microsoft adCenter Labs Keyword Forecast

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Posted by: Caitlin Diehl, Marketing Coordinator

With technology advancing as fast as ever and a new year upon us, marketers should expect a number of changes in Google and the other top search engines. In their attempts to stay at the forefront of innovation, these engines are going to be coming out with some new and enhanced features to keep searchers (and search engine marketers) coming back.

Google has been testing expandable paid search (or PPC) ads that allow a company to display not only their text ads, but also small product images and their locations. These ads are still being tested, but it’s a good bet that they will be formally introduced in upcoming months. If ads are expanded, marketers will be able to fight for that top position and the extra space that comes with the image areas.

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Posted by: Leslie Russell, Senior Marketing Coordinator

Where has the time gone? It has been over a year since you last updated the metadata so important to your website’s search engine optimization (SEO), you can’t remember when the content on your site was last updated and some of your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising keywords seem a little stale. Now is the time to see which keywords have been performing, revamp your keyword list and get a refreshed search engine marketing strategy rolled out.

Start off by doing a little investigation on the success of your last keyword strategy.

Phase 1: Research

·      Review your site in-depth. Have you updated content or removed content? Are you keeping pace with trends in your industry?

·      Glance at your key competitors’ websites. Are they using different language and keywords throughout their content or metadata? Reviewing their sites may spark additional ideas for your keyword strategy. 

·      Pull analytics reports looking at non-paid and paid keywords.  Consider if all of these terms are still relevant, or if there are new terms you haven’t considered before.

·      Use keyword tools to gather recommendations of adjectives, synonyms, plurals, etc.

·      Take a look your organic and paid visibility. Are you getting exposure for the keywords you consider most important? If not consider how to make those words a higher priority in your refreshed keyword strategy. read more »

Posted by: Sam Eidson, Partner

Keyword strategy is the foundational element of a successful B2B search engine optimization (SEO) program, and it’s not easy. There are SEO tools like keyword popularity analytics to help cover the tactical bases. They can help you narrow down a keyword list, an important step to make sure you don’t spread your efforts too thin. But these techniques won’t help if the keyword strategy isn’t linked to your business growth strategy. To achieve this, use a process specific to B2B.

Start by identifying which audiences you are targeting. Identify the individuals who have a role in the purchase decision of your target organizations – not just the decision makers, but also the users, influencers and ratifiers. Think through the information that’s important to each audience, and develop informational offers (white papers, webinars, ROI calculators, etc.) that will get them to a landing page and encourage them to consider your products or solutions. Sound like a lot of effort? It is. read more »

Posted by: Sean Voorhies, Marketing Coordinator

Once you’ve set your keyword strategy, what do you do with all of those terms? Here’s your primer on putting keywords to work for website visibility.

Meta Data
Title, description and keyword tags (all part of your behind-the-scenes meta data) are valuable locations for keyword optimization. Place your most important keywords early in your tags rather than later. While each engine has different title and description character limits, it best to use the least common denominator to avoid having text cut off. Using the following guidelines for each tag can help make the most of your rankings across each engine: read more »