Mar 26
Missed the Early Bird Price on Unleashed? No Worries!
in Search Engine Guide
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by Jennifer Laycock

No doubt some of you looked at your calendars last week and realized you’d missed the $850 early bird price for our upcoming Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Houston. Don’t sweat it, we’ve got you covered. We’ve spent the last six months building the perfect conference for you. We know how busy you are. Do you think we’d let you miss out on this great show just because you forget to set an alert on your calendar?

Of course not! That’s why we’re offering up the “better late than never” discount code “PUPPY” to let you save $100 on your show registration. Sure that means you’ll play $875 instead of $850, but isn’t it worth giving up one night of pizza to completely change the way you do business online?

Still Think You Can’t Afford it?

Consider this. Houston is a hub. That means flights in and out of Houston happen often and happen cheaply. It’s about $250-$300 to fly in from most cities on the west coast and from many cities in the midwest. Hotel options in Houston are fairly inexpensive; $120-$150 a night. We’ve got you covered on all your food and if you stay on site, or at our backup hotel, we have you covered for transportation. (We’ve even set up a Facebook group in case you want to setup a ride share from the airport, or find a roomie to cut hotel costs.)

With the $100 last minute discount we’re offering, that means you should be able to fly in, get to your hotel, and attend the show for around $1200. While that may seem like a lot, consider that a single great tip picked up and implemented from the show will make that money back in no time.

Search and Online Marketing Tactics on a Budget

Check out the full agenda if you haven’t had a chance. You’ll see we’ve got classes on everything from basic site structure and keyword research to viral marketing, analytics, community building and blogging for business. If you’ve got a web site, you WILL walk away with action items you can put into place immediately to build increased traffic and sales through your site.

On top of that, we’ve put together our dream team of speakers. You won’t find this many top level speakers and this much personal attention at any conference in the U.S. this year. Especially not for less than $1000. If you’ve ever wanted the chance to pick the brains of some of the most requested speakers in online marketing, this is your chance.

Ready to join us? Head over to our online registration, pick your classes, enter discount code “PUPPY” and pack your bags.

We’ll see you in Houston!

Learn something from this post?
Come and experience Search Engine Guide style teaching in person! Join us for our first ever Small Business Marketing Unleashed Conference in Houston, Texas on April 21st and 22nd.

Mar 26
Missed the Early Bird Price on Unleashed? No Worries!
in Search Engine Guide
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by Jennifer Laycock

No doubt some of you looked at your calendars last week and realized you’d missed the $850 early bird price for our upcoming Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Houston. Don’t sweat it, we’ve got you covered. We’ve spent the last six months building the perfect conference for you. We know how busy you are. Do you think we’d let you miss out on this great show just because you forget to set an alert on your calendar?

Of course not! That’s why we’re offering up the “better late than never” discount code “PUPPY” to let you save $100 on your show registration. Sure that means you’ll play $875 instead of $850, but isn’t it worth giving up one night of pizza to completely change the way you do business online?

Still Think You Can’t Afford it?

Consider this. Houston is a hub. That means flights in and out of Houston happen often and happen cheaply. It’s about $250-$300 to fly in from most cities on the west coast and from many cities in the midwest. Hotel options in Houston are fairly inexpensive; $120-$150 a night. We’ve got you covered on all your food and if you stay on site, or at our backup hotel, we have you covered for transportation. (We’ve even set up a Facebook group in case you want to setup a ride share from the airport, or find a roomie to cut hotel costs.)

With the $100 last minute discount we’re offering, that means you should be able to fly in, get to your hotel, and attend the show for around $1200. While that may seem like a lot, consider that a single great tip picked up and implemented from the show will make that money back in no time.

Search and Online Marketing Tactics on a Budget

Check out the full agenda if you haven’t had a chance. You’ll see we’ve got classes on everything from basic site structure and keyword research to viral marketing, analytics, community building and blogging for business. If you’ve got a web site, you WILL walk away with action items you can put into place immediately to build increased traffic and sales through your site.

On top of that, we’ve put together our dream team of speakers. You won’t find this many top level speakers and this much personal attention at any conference in the U.S. this year. Especially not for less than $1000. If you’ve ever wanted the chance to pick the brains of some of the most requested speakers in online marketing, this is your chance.

Ready to join us? Head over to our online registration, pick your classes, enter discount code “PUPPY” and pack your bags.

We’ll see you in Houston!

Learn something from this post?
Come and experience Search Engine Guide style teaching in person! Join us for our first ever Small Business Marketing Unleashed Conference in Houston, Texas on April 21st and 22nd.

Mar 26
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 26, 2008
in Search Engine Roundtable
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Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Mar 26
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 26, 2008
in Search Engine Land
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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:


  • Report: Microsoft To Up Bid For Yahoo To $34 Per Share
    Silicon Alley Insider reacts to Wall Street Analyst Mark Mahaney’s note that he anticipates Microsoft will raise its bid for Yahoo from $31 to $34 dollars per share. Barring an 11th hour alternative for Yahoo, this should move toward Yahoo’s public position that the original Microsoft bid undervalued the company….

  • Google Founders Take $1 Salaries Again; Tell Investors To Say No On Anti-Censorship Proposal
    Google founders: $1 salaries, $13B in stock from CNN Money reports Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with CEO Eric Schmidt, renewed their contracts again at a $1 per year salary, in 2007. You would think that with the falling stock price, the founders might want some extra…

  • Google AdWords Video Ads Now Live & In the Wild
    A few minutes ago, I posted screen captures of Google’s new video ads in the real, live, and wild search results. These were announced back in February but only now appear to have really gone live. Searches that triggered this result for me included cell phone or smart phones or…

  • Is Hiding Content With “Display: None” Legitimate SEO?
    If you’re doing SEO on a site with thousands or tens-of-thousands of pages, it’s likely you’re working with some sort of content management system (CMS). However, CMS systems frequently cause problems with search engines. The great majority of the time these problems arise through ignorance on part of the CMS…

  • B2B Marketing Priorities 2008
    Let’s face it, life is about priorities. There’s never enough time, money, or resources for everything. Consequently, we must prioritize. Doing so forces us to choose between what we want and what we actually need. And marketers are anything but exempt from such choices. When times are good—and we…

  • SMX Advanced Agenda Up! 2 Days, 3 Tracks Of High-Level SEM In Seattle
    The agenda for Search Marketing Expo - SMX Advanced is now available here. Advanced takes place June 3-4 in Seattle. If you’re an experienced search marketer, SMX Advanced is the event for you. This intimate, cutting edge two-day event features sessions addressing issues that you won’t find discussed anywhere else….

  • Public Relations: The Other Important PR In Link Development
    Link development, before search engines polluted the process into a currency for search engine rankings, was all about promotion. Links were simply a natural side effect of promoting your website. And one of the most tried and true methods of promotion is PR (as in Public Relations, not Pagerank)….

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Paid Search & Contextual

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Video, Music & Image Search

Other Items

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

Mar 26
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 26, 2008
in Search Engine Land
Comments Off

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:


  • Report: Microsoft To Up Bid For Yahoo To $34 Per Share
    Silicon Alley Insider reacts to Wall Street Analyst Mark Mahaney’s note that he anticipates Microsoft will raise its bid for Yahoo from $31 to $34 dollars per share. Barring an 11th hour alternative for Yahoo, this should move toward Yahoo’s public position that the original Microsoft bid undervalued the company….

  • Google Founders Take $1 Salaries Again; Tell Investors To Say No On Anti-Censorship Proposal
    Google founders: $1 salaries, $13B in stock from CNN Money reports Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with CEO Eric Schmidt, renewed their contracts again at a $1 per year salary, in 2007. You would think that with the falling stock price, the founders might want some extra…

  • Google AdWords Video Ads Now Live & In the Wild
    A few minutes ago, I posted screen captures of Google’s new video ads in the real, live, and wild search results. These were announced back in February but only now appear to have really gone live. Searches that triggered this result for me included cell phone or smart phones or…

  • Is Hiding Content With “Display: None” Legitimate SEO?
    If you’re doing SEO on a site with thousands or tens-of-thousands of pages, it’s likely you’re working with some sort of content management system (CMS). However, CMS systems frequently cause problems with search engines. The great majority of the time these problems arise through ignorance on part of the CMS…

  • B2B Marketing Priorities 2008
    Let’s face it, life is about priorities. There’s never enough time, money, or resources for everything. Consequently, we must prioritize. Doing so forces us to choose between what we want and what we actually need. And marketers are anything but exempt from such choices. When times are good—and we…

  • SMX Advanced Agenda Up! 2 Days, 3 Tracks Of High-Level SEM In Seattle
    The agenda for Search Marketing Expo - SMX Advanced is now available here. Advanced takes place June 3-4 in Seattle. If you’re an experienced search marketer, SMX Advanced is the event for you. This intimate, cutting edge two-day event features sessions addressing issues that you won’t find discussed anywhere else….

  • Public Relations: The Other Important PR In Link Development
    Link development, before search engines polluted the process into a currency for search engine rankings, was all about promotion. Links were simply a natural side effect of promoting your website. And one of the most tried and true methods of promotion is PR (as in Public Relations, not Pagerank)….

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Paid Search & Contextual

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Video, Music & Image Search

Other Items

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

Mar 26
10 Ways to Help Your Visitors Trust You
in Search Engine Guide
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by Stoney deGeyter

Trust is a key usability issue when it comes to running a successful online business. Most people automatically view web businesses with a bias against them compared to their brick and mortar counterparts. Your ability to convince your visitors that yours is a trustworthy business is one of the key components to getting visitors to convert into customers.

Creating a website that conveys trust can be tricky. There are rarely any answers that are always “right” for every visitor. There are, however, several factors that have universal appeal to the weary shopper.

Company info

Provide your visitors information about your company and its primary owners and operators. Treat your shoppers with a company history and links to frequently asked questions, policies and physical location. The more information you provide the better satisfied any concerned shopper will tend to be.

Prompt responses

Shoppers want to know that they can rely on a company to meet their needs and concerns quickly once contacted. Be sure to respond promptly and professionally to all customer inquiries. Don’t let email or phone messages go unanswered for more than a couple of hours, especially if requests are urgent.

Feedback options

Create ways for visitors to provide user feedback regarding your products or services and encourage them to do so. Be sure to follow up with feedback and use it to better your services.

Transaction security

Emphasize that online transactions will be handled securely and that privacy is a top priority. Using secure logos and links to privacy policies page is a must.

Offer discounts

Sometimes discounts can be a negative, making you appear desperate. However when implemented properly and professionally, percent-off discounts and coupons can be effective and giving visitors an added desire to move forward.

Delivery options

Be sure to provide low cost and/or varied delivery options. Having more options available allow visitors to select the delivery method they prefer and trust the most, which will then lend additional trust to you.

Brand and product quality

If you sell brand-name products, be sure to emphasis this as your customers will be more likely to purchase a product brand they recognize. If you don’t have brand name products, create a brand and emphasize that. An unknown brand name product is still better than a no-name brand product.

Off-line retailer comparison

Provide your visitors compelling reasons why they should purchase products from you rather than an offline competitor. Highlight free shipping, lower prices, easy access customer support, etc.

Return policy

Adding a no-hassle return policy can clinch a sale. Be sure to have return policy information easily available and spell out exactly what is required to return a product and/or get a refund.

Minimal / clearly distinguishable ads

Don’t clutter up your space with ads. Keep your visitors focused on purchasing your products. If you have ads in informational areas of the site keep them to a minimum and make sure they don’t overpower your own information.
In an anonymous world where customers cannot examine a product or meet with company reps face to face, trust is much harder to come by. Online businesses have many more hurdles than offline businesses when it comes to establishing trust with their customer base. This means that as an online business, you have to do more than just create a compelling reason to convince people “why you” rather than a competitor.

Establishing trust is the key. Your shoppers need to believe without a doubt that, as a business, you’re not just in it for yourself, but that you care and will take care of the customer. Without having established any sort of trust there really is no sale.

Learn something from this post?
Come and experience Search Engine Guide style teaching in person! Join us for our first ever Small Business Marketing Unleashed Conference in Houston, Texas on April 21st and 22nd.

Mar 26
Using a Search Engine Optimization Company vs. Hiring an In-House Expert: The True Dollar Cost
in Search Engine Guide
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by Scott Buresh

It’s a common question that companies who are considering hiring a search engine optimization company often face - is this something that we can do in-house? More importantly, can we do this in-house and get the same results that an expert search engine optimization company would provide?

As this article will demonstrate, clearly the answer is “yes” to both questions. However, as this article will also demonstrate, getting the types of results that an expert at search engine optimization can provide will cost you - often more than outsourcing.

For the purpose of this article, I’m ignoring the multitudes of companies that decide to dump the job on somebody already in their organization (usually an IT person who already has too much to do) rather than hiring a search engine optimization company. It has been my experience that while some of these people eventually provide decent results, they are the exception. More often than not, the project never leaves the ground, or the effort is halfhearted at best. In a worst case scenario, your internal person may embrace tactics that no expert search engine optimization company would ever use because they can put your site at risk of penalization or outright removal from the engine indexes.

My company often works with firms after they have used non-expert internal talent to optimize their website, and most of the time we are actually doing more work because much of what has been done is ineffective or dangerous. We have to take everything apart and put it all back together, often while making requests to the search engines to have penalties lifted.

The real goal of this article, however, is to assume that a business has decided to embark on a search engine optimization campaign, and that it is also committed to using a proven expert in search engine optimization. The choice then is simple - does the business hire an experienced resource to work in-house or should it instead go with an outsourced search engine optimization company?

A recent study by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, published in the January 2008 edition of DM News (”Healthy SEM Salaries Rule: SEMPO Survey”), points out that experience in search engine marketing carries a high price tag. For instance, if you were looking to hire someone with more than five years of experience in search engine marketing, you could expect to pay between $100,000 and $200,000 per year. For somebody with experience but not five or more years, you can expect to pay anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000 per year.

If nothing else, these real world figures should convince discerning companies that expert search engine optimization and marketing is not something that you should dump off on an existing employee without any experience in the field. The free market has determined that expert search engine optimization and marketing is worth at least $60,000 per year for a full time position, and up to $200,000 per year.

On the other hand, most reputable search agencies have many more than five years of collective experience in the search engine marketing industry. In addition, a high percentage of these agencies offer SEO services that cost considerably less than $60,000 per year, to say nothing of $200,000 per year. It should also be noted that this figure neglects to include any of the additional costs associated with hiring - benefits, training, and so on. In addition, an expert search engine optimization company will have a broad range of sites from which to draw knowledge, while your in-house expert will likely only have one, or a handful at best.

To be fair, there are certain advantages to hiring an in-house expert. First of all, experts will have their feet to the fire, so to speak. A search engine optimization company isn’t likely to go out of business if it underperforms on your site, but an in-house expert in search engine optimization is likely to lose his or her job. It’s also much easier to get the whole team together to discuss your SEO initiatives at any time you choose when you are working with someone in-house. And hey, when you’re paying someone $200,000 per year, you can be pretty certain that you’re going to get top-notch work. But can an expert search engine optimization company give you that same level of work for a lot less money? Probably.

Conclusion

There are many compelling reasons why your business should hire an expert search engine optimization company rather than bring in an SEO expert internally or simply give the SEO project to an existing team member. Financially, it makes sense. But more so, you’re more likely to get the results over the short and long term with an outsourced company for all of the reasons noted above. I’m not saying you have to hire an SEO company - at first. I’m saying eventually you’ll probably want to.

Learn something from this post?
Come and experience Search Engine Guide style teaching in person! Join us for our first ever Small Business Marketing Unleashed Conference in Houston, Texas on April 21st and 22nd.

Mar 26
A Dozen Reasons to Blog
in Search Engine Guide
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by Jennifer Laycock

While social media is still the topic du jour at major search conferences, I’m still hearing a lot of buzz about blogs. While Technorati is tracking more than 121 million blogs these days, we’re still no where near the saturation point. The issue now is convincing small businesses of the need to consider launching a blog. That’s what Grant Griffiths is aiming to do over at Home Office Warrior with his great list of 12 Ways a Blog Can Benefit Your Business.

Grant breaks them down like so:

1. Blogs are not expensive and in fact, cost less than most other marketing efforts.
2. New blogs launch quickly and are easy to use.
3. Search engines love blogs and they love them because blogs are easily updated.
4. Publishing a blog shows your readers who you are.
5. Blogs offer you a completely new way to communicate with your clients, prospects and fellow business owners.
6. Your target market is using the web to search for everything, including the services or products you are offering.
7. Blogging can position you and your blog as the place to go for the information that is needed on the Internet.
8. Blogging and posting relevant content can position you as a “thought leader” in your niche.
9. By hosting a conversation on your blog, you will be positioned to succeed.
10. Having a blog puts you in control of your own Web based magazine and talk show.

11. Your blog post will never disappear from the reach of your target market.
12. Get with it and blog, because if you don’t, you will be left behind.

You’ll want to read his entire post to get the full reasoning on each benefit, but even just glancing at this list should be tempting you for at least one or two reasons.

Ultimately, I think small business types need to look at a blog beyond the value of “sharing information.” Blogs have gotten a lot of play in the information services industries as a way to educate people. The motivation for many bloggers was the idea of sharing their knowledge freely so people would recognize their expertise and hire them. While that works on many fronts, it doesn’t work on all of them.

It was with that in mind that I shared the story of the Tin Basher blog at SES San Jose last week. See, the Tin Basher blog was created by a small sheet metal fabrication shop in northern England. It wasn’t created with the goal of spreading knowledge about metal fabrication. It was created with the purpose of adding a human face to the company…to build up a sense of rapport with readers and to give potential clients some insight into the company’s culture.

Tin Basher blogger Paul Woodhouse dishes up personal news, interesting stories about nearby businesses and yes, the occasional sheet metal post. While the idea of a small sheet metal shop blogging may seem funny, the results are nothing to scoff at.

I had a chance to email with Paul to ask him about the blog and he shares some amazing numbers with me. According to Paul, the company behind the Tin Basher has seen their gross revenues triple since the blog was launched. The blog is pulling in upwards of 50,000 unique visitors a month and the company can directly tie 30-40% of their income to leads that came in through the blog.

That’s not bad. Not bad at all.

It makes sense when you think about it though. My father’s an engineer with Delphi and spends most of his time working with small machine shops and tool and die shops to get contracts filled. In his type of business, the personal relationship you build with the shop plays a huge role in getting the work done. If you know you might have to call someone up at the last second to get a job done yesterday, you need to know a little something about the people you’re dealing with. You need to build relationships. The Tin Basher blog does this beautifully.

So maybe you aren’t blogging yet. Maybe you think you don’t run the type of company that “fits” with a blog. If that’s the case, I’d challenge you to consider the Tin Basher and to consider Grant Griffiths 12 Reasons to Blog post. You might find yourself double checking to see if WordPress is installed on your server…

Learn something from this post?
Come and experience Search Engine Guide style teaching in person! Join us for our first ever Small Business Marketing Unleashed Conference in Houston, Texas on April 21st and 22nd.

Mar 26
Google Analytics Adds Industry Benchmarking
in Search Engine Watch
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Users who opt into the new program will be able to compare their site’s performance against the rest of their industry or another industry.

Mar 26
Report: Microsoft To Up Bid For Yahoo To $34 Per Share
in Search Engine Land
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Silicon Alley Insider reacts to Wall Street Analyst Mark Mahaney’s note that he anticipates Microsoft will raise its bid for Yahoo from $31 to $34 dollars per share. Barring an 11th hour alternative for Yahoo this should move toward Yahoo’s public position that the original Microsoft bid undervalued the company. It also should please Yahoo’s institutional shareholders and put more pressure on Yahoo management to negotiate in earnest with Microsoft — if it happens.

Mar 26
Can You Take Your Yahoo Search Marketing Data with You?
in Search Engine Roundtable
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A WebmasterWorld thread has a horror story about how difficult it seems to take PPC data out of Yahoo! Search Marketing and port it to another account. In this particular case, the person is trying to detach from a search agency and migrate the information elsewhere. Is it possible?

It seems that the answer to that is no.

Werty speaks about his own experience with his switch over to Panama. According to him, when that happened, one of his clients had master account privileges to all his other confidential accounts of his clients and in the end, there was a huge issue with trust. It doesn’t seem like the issue was resolved to his satisfaction.

In the end, then, it seems that YSM still needs to iron out a few kinks: one, in security, and two, in portability, in order to win over and maintain more potential advertisers.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Mar 26
Can You Take Your Yahoo Search Marketing Data with You?
in Search Engine Roundtable
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A WebmasterWorld thread has a horror story about how difficult it seems to take PPC data out of Yahoo! Search Marketing and port it to another account. In this particular case, the person is trying to detach from a search agency and migrate the information elsewhere. Is it possible?

It seems that the answer to that is no.

Werty speaks about his own experience with his switch over to Panama. According to him, when that happened, one of his clients had master account privileges to all his other confidential accounts of his clients and in the end, there was a huge issue with trust. It doesn’t seem like the issue was resolved to his satisfaction.

In the end, then, it seems that YSM still needs to iron out a few kinks: one, in security, and two, in portability, in order to win over and maintain more potential advertisers.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Mar 26
Does Exact Match in Google AdWords Override Broad Match?
in Search Engine Roundtable
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Let’s say you’re performing a campaign on Google AdWords and you have similar search terms — for example, some with broad match and some with exact match for particular queries. Say, for example, that one of your searches is for [blue widgets] and the other is for blue widgets (broad match, no quotes). The question is — which one does Google choose to trigger the ad?

A Google AdWords help document discusses this question in more depth. Depending on the criteria, different things may occur.

For example:

If there are multiple eligible keywords and one identical keyword, the common denominator keyword will trigger an ad.

On the other hand, if there are multiple eligible keywords in the same ad group (but no identical keyword), the keyword “that contains the most words” will trigger the ad.

Finally, if there are multiple eligible keywords across ad groups (but again, no identical keyword), the keyword with the highest combined Quality Score and CPC bid will trigger the ad.

Additional criteria for how Google chooses which keyword triggers which ad is included in the help document, and forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Mar 26
Is There a Way to Prove ROI from Search Engine Optimization?
in Search Engine Roundtable
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Some clients just need to know if their SEO investment is worthwhile. But how do you measure ROI, or rather, can you prove that there is a return on the investment?

It’s a hard question to answer. On the superficial level, you can check Google Analytics and check if there has been an increase of visitors to your site, and if so, where they came from. But typically, there’s really no way to prove ROI since there are so many different factors in play, including the increase in traffic, the attribution of that traffic to your actual SEO efforts, and the long-term investment of your SEO efforts.

Additional metrics include gathering prospective callers from the website (a practical solution to measure this would be to put a different phone number on the website versus on print publications) or by simply asking “How did you hear about us?” to people who dial in.

Forum discussion and (which includes a very nifty guide for metrics posted by nethy) continues on High Rankings Forum.