Matt Cutts and the Silly Firestorm Over Paid Links

Now everyone is up in arms about Matt Cutts and his oddball way of addressing paid links. Check out what he launched here and the nasty response it triggered. Matt basically explained how someone can report paid links, including using a spam report form (spam is a four-letter word). Unfortunately,...

Tricky Retailing Survey Data: My Money Is on PPC and SEO

Online retailers say they spend more money on PPC than search engine optimization and that SEO provides a better ROI than paid search. Go figure. Studies sure are funny. Sometimes they reveal statistical abnormalities. On other days, the stats speak for themselves – companies simply make foolish choices. The latest...

Paid Inclusion Anyone? Option Without Crazy Click Charge

Could it really be that Yahoo! is willing to provide some level of paid inclusion without adding on the per click fee? Search Submit Basic offers up to 5 URLs at $49 each per year. And it comes with some metric tracking. It may not be a bad idea for...

Need Higher Rankings? See These Many Factors

Some of the best minds in search engine marketing have come together for Search Engine Ranking Factors Version 2, a compelling and detailed look at the variables that can affect your rankings. Sure, there could be debate about each one. But the mere collection of the factors should be a...

How Traditional Marketing Drives Online Search

Offline advertising often triggers consumers to search for products, according to a BIGresearch data analysis (see their news section) conducted for the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA). Consumers start searching after viewing advertisements in magazines (47.2%), newspapers (42.3%), on TV (42.8%) and from reading articles (43.7%). The report adds...

Hoteliers Wisen Up to Good Design - Have You?

Website optimization just beat out SEO, e-mail marketing and PPC in a new hospitality survey about what marketing option delivers the best ROI. It's good to see website optimization - including sound structure and usability - get some favor. The benchmark survey comes from Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS), an internet...

Search Marketing Poaching From Offline Marketing Budgets

It looks like offline marketing is picking up the price of search engine marketing programs. The new "State of Search Engine Marketing 2006" survey indicates that businesses are grabbing money from print, direct mail and TV advertising to pay for search engine marketing initiatives. In 2005, companies often shifted dollars...

New SEMPO Annual Survey Data: Properly Define PPC Growth

Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) Chairman Kevin Lee just announced some of the data from SEMPO's "State of Search Engine Marketing 2006" survey (see ClickZ). It shows that search engine marketing in North America was at least $9.4 billion in 2006. That's quite a jump from $5.75 billion in...

Oh No! Link "Popularity" Will Make a Comeback

Google's new Link Analysis Tool will surely get people talking more about link "popularity" again. Please, spare yourself from the numbers game. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for building links as part of an online marketing strategy. Even if they didn't influence natural search engine rankings, links are great...