KevinNewcomb.com

I wanted to test this out and see what happens if I link to a story on SEW. So here’s a good one to try out: As Wifi expands, local and mobile search continue to emerge.

With so much attention given to universal search, personalization and social media these days, it might be easy to overlook local and mobile. But the expansion of Wifi is just further proof that SEO and paid search campaigns need the care of a constant gardener.

This is all the search marketing news we covered in the Search Engine Watch blog in the past week.

Organic Search

• Optimization Tips for PDFs: Great Advice for B2B Search Marketers
  PDFs are particularly significant in B2B marketing, which makes optimizing them for the web is an important piece of SEO strategy in that sector. Thankfully, Galen de Young of Francis Marketing has a new post on optimizing PDFs on their B2B marketing blog.
• Title Tag Copywriting Tips for Newbie SEOs
  The title tag is one of the most important pieces of content when it comes to search engine optimization.
• SEW Experts: Should Your SEO Strategy Target the Head or the Long Tail?
  If you’re focused on ranking for that one major keyword, having a deep Web site full of great content is necessary to achieve authority in the eyes of the search engine.

Search Advertising

• Google Updates Trademark Rules for UK/Ireland AdWords
  Beginning on May 5, 2008, the AdWords trademark policy for the UK and Ireland will change. The new policy will be aligned with the current one established in the United States and Canada.
• Is Google Looking to Kill Affiliate Marketing?
  Google had started their version of affiliate marketing some time ago with their CPA ads. But grabbing experienced affiliate marketing consultants could turn this into the hope they once saw in it.
• Will We Pay More For Google’s Fewer Clicks
  The drop in AdWords clicks over the past two months has created a bump Google’s ongoing success. But not to worry, CEO Eric Schmidt told Business Week, people will eventually pay more for the better quality clicks.
• Google + DoubleClick = 69% of Online Advertising Market
  When Google raised concerns over a possible Microsoft-Yahoo merger, it may have just been the pot calling the kettle black. According to new stats released by Attributor, Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick gives them a whopping 69% of the online advertising market share.
• Even for Google, Conversions Matter More Than Clicks
  Wall Street is acting with caution when it comes to Google based on months of reporting that the search engine giant’s paid search clicks are declining. But Google insists that the click reductions are due to improvement in the quality of the ads, not because Google is somehow losing its luster.
• SEW Experts: Content Ad Campaign Keyword Strategy Revisited
  The keywords you choose for a content ad campaign should play a different role than they do for search ads. That’s a point that’s often tough for search advertisers to grasp.

Linking Issues & Social Media

• SEW Experts: Afraid to Link Out? Think Again
  Both people and search engines place more value on information that cites multiple sources. By refusing to link to other sites you are harming your site’s relevance and ability to gain links.
• SEW Experts: Don’t Be Afraid of Social Media — Your Customers Aren’t
  Savvy big brand marketers know that the junction of social media and e-commerce, or “Socialommerce,” is the next big thing. But many are wary, and want to sit back and see how it plays out.

Local & Mobile Search

• Google Opens Up About Spectrum Auction
  The gag order on details surrounding the recent FCC spectrum auction has been lifted, and Google is revealing some behind-the-scenes information about their participation in the bidding.
• SEW Experts: Leveraging Traditional Media Placements in an Online World
  Online media and Internet-based search continue to grow at the expense of their offline counterparts, newspapers and magazines. Because media placement options are continuously growing, smart local marketers need to leverage this major transformation of how people consume media in some creative ways.
• Former Citysearch CEO Heads to Idearc
  Former Citysearch CEO Briggs Ferguson has been tapped to become President of Internet/Web products and pay-for-performance advertising at Idearc.
• Yahoo Unveils Upgrades to Mobile Search Platform
  Yahoo has announced upgrades to its mobile search platform, oneSearch. The 2.0 version of the service includes brand spankin new features to make searching on the go a little easier.
• Medio to Add Mobile Content Partners
  Mobile search and advertising company Medio Systems has announced the launch of a new content partnership. The Medio Mobile Content Partner Program will add high-quality content to the over 300 existing feeds on Medio by signing companies who are strong in a given niche.
• ChaCha Refocuses Business Model on Mobile Text Search
  ChaCha is refocusing its business to center around its mobile voice and text search business.

Vertical & Specialty Search

• Recent Google Updates Have SEOs Scrambling
  Like a celebrity sitting down with Barbara Walters, Google News has decided to clear up rumors surrounding how articles are included and ranked.

Small Business/Big Brand SEM

• SEW Experts: Small Business SEM Takeaways from SES NY
  Search Engine Strategies New York had something for everyone, including tips for small business marketers.

In-House & Outsourcing

• SEW Experts: Recruiting the Right People for Your SEM Business
  If you’ve been a one-man operation until now, hiring your first employee is a major milestone. However, making the wrong choice can seriously impact your business.
• Work With Your IT Staff, Not Against Them
  By equipping IT with SEO knowledge, they can truly understand the problems that search engines face with your site, and then come up with their own solutions that are technically feasible (and they are willing to implement).

SEM Industry Issues

• SEW Experts: SEO Standards Signal the Maturing of Our Industry
  Call them standards, rules, advice, best practices, or whatever you want, but they’re a necessary step in the evolution of the search industry.
• Standards Is A Dirty Word For Search Marketers
  For the past two weeks our industry has been debating the need for standards, many of the regular blogs have weighed in as have most of the major players in our space.
• Microhoo’s Second Date Doesn’t Go Very Well
  Executives from Microsoft and Yahoo reportedly met this week, but both sides came to the much anticipated second date with stubborn stances.
• Microsoft to Stay Firm in Original Yahoo Offer
  According to published reports, Microsoft is unlikely to raise its bid for Yahoo. It seems that Microsoft doesn’t think Yahoo’s recent projected revenues provide any reason to raise purchase price from the original $31 per share offer.
• Google Gets Out of the SEO Business
  Google is getting itself out of a somewhat sticky situation by deciding to sell Performics Search Marketing, which it acquired as part of the DoubleClick deal.
• SEW Experts: How to Survive a Recession In Search
  If you listen to the media, you’d know that a recession is nigh, and you should be locking yourself up in an underground bunker and hiding out for the next year. If you’re a bit more selective in what you choose to believe, you may be thinking it would be wise to be prepared, in case an economic downturn does come.

Searching/Search Technologies

• Reinstalling My PC, Part 1: Top Timesavers
  Since I’m rebuilding my home PC, I’ve come up with a list of about 15 programs I really need on my computer to be good at my job.

More from the SEW Blog

• Google Loses Rock Star CIO to EMI Music
  Douglas Merrill, Google CIO and VP of engineering, has accepted a new gig: president of digital at struggling EMI Music, home of the Beatles and former home of Radiohead.
• Yahoo! also Loses Rock Star; Music VP Ian Rogers Moves to Start-up
  Two months after acquiring FoxyTunes, and setting in place a bold new plan for Yahoo Music, Vice President Ian Rogers has resigned from Yahoo Music to join stealth start-up TopSpin Media.
• Geary Interactive Acquires Fathom Online
  Full-service digital marketing agency Geary Interactive has acquired Fathom Online, a search engine marketing firm.
• Yahoo Wants Women Now
  Yahoo just announced Shine, and is hopping on the bandwagon that says women are a great target. Why now?
• Constructive feedback on online reputation management
  companies probably do not need ‘War Rooms’ today and instead incorporate reputation monitoring as a regular course of business.
• China Antimonopoly Law Could Derail Microsoft/Yahoo Deal, Google
  The Chinese government is activating legislation that may give problems to the possible Microsoft Yahoo purchase.
• Is Google’s Price Drop A Reflection Of Recent Media Coverage
  The value of Google’s stock has taken a bit of a beating recently from their high of $747 last year to yesterday’s close at $438. Is pervasive critiquing of Google having an impact of investors’ confidence?

Jason Calacanis thinks that Yahoo made a big mistake with Yahoo Shine. On his blog, Jason says that content owners should drop Yahoo for Google. I don’t get it.

Yahoo has always been a content company. Just look at Yahoo Autos, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Movies, etc. While Google has always said it’s not a content company, Yahoo has no qualms about its content. I don’t think any publishers will really be surprised by Shine.

Yahoo acknowledges as much with its blog post, where it calls out Yahoo properties like Yahoo Health, Yahoo Tech, Yahoo Food, and Yahoo Green.

Google, on the other hand, has always played the “impartial gateway” card. While some have recently said that universal search is changing that, other data shows that may not be the case after all.

Organic Search

• Does Google Allow Good Google Bombs?
  To some, it appears that Google has painted itself into a corner with its reliance on linking for its ranking algorithm. The lines between legitimate SEO, paid links, and Google bombs are becoming increasingly blurred.
• New Google Webmaster Tool Aids Robots.txt Creation
  For the coding-challenged, creating a robots.txt file for instructing search engine spiders on the preferred way to crawl your site has not always been easy. Thankfully, Google has created a robots.txt generator as part of its Webmaster Tools.
• Maybe Google’s Not Becoming a Portal?
  Last week at SES NY, new comScore data on universal search showed that Google was sending more traffic to its own properties than it had been in the past. That led some people (including me) to wonder if that meant Google was becoming more like a portal than a search engine. But that data appears to miss the larger picture, where Google is sending even more traffic to news sites than it does to Google News.
• SEW Experts: Search Within a Search: Where’s it Leading?
  Some publishers are getting up in arms over a new feature from Google, which allows users to search a publisher’s site without leaving the SERP.
• SEW Experts: Yahoo and the Future of Search
  Because of spam, search engines had to stop trusting Webmasters to tell them about their site. Now, Yahoo is looking at new ways to get information from Webmasters.

Search Advertising

• Google Ad Clicks Up, Down and Flat in Feb., Depending on Who You Ask
  According to today’s headlines, clicks on Google ads are dropping, flattening and experiencing a slowdown in growth - all at the same time!
• Searchers Beginning to See Google Video Ads in Sponsored Listings
  If you look carefully in your next Google search, you might just see a video ad included in the sponsored listings along side your organic results.
• Google’s Demo Targeting: No Panacea
  Last week, Google announced its full demo targeting offering. On the surface, it’s worth a try by advertisers who want to reach or exclude, say, 18-24 year-olds. It’s not a targeting panacea.
• SEW Experts: Non-Text Contextual Ads: Quality Score and Bidding Strategy
  Running banner ad campaigns on Google’s content networks requires different thinking than text ad campaigns — thinking that’s surprisingly counter-intuitive. There’s no way for a content-matching algorithm to judge the relevancy of an ad group to a landing page, when there’s no text in the ad copy.

Linking Issues & Social Media

• SEW Experts: Social Media: One Size Does NOT Fit All
  Spending time on linkbait or viral ideas can drive traffic to a site. However, if the same attention isn’t given to preparing what to do with the traffic, the only remaining value is links, many of which don’t pass juice.
• SEW Experts: Creating a Link Building System
  We, as industry insiders, often lose the pulse of the real world. Sometimes, we all need to take a step back and look at things from a new perspective, and realize that the majority of marketers are not immersed in search marketing as we are.
• How to (Actually) Earn Money (Now) with Social Media (Really): Part 1
  Leveraging digital assets and hot social channels for long-term SEM benefit has now become SEO 101. However, your boss or client may need to be convinced that investing in another layer of content management system (CMS), content, and conversational networking WILL in fact yield measurable financial results soon.
• Microsoft Tries to Compete with OpenSocial
  Microsoft has announced a partnership to create data portability across 5 social networking sites. Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn are all part of the arrangement, which will “exchange functionally-similar Contacts APIs.”
• Google, Yahoo & MySpace Team Up for OpenSocial
  Yahoo, MySpace and Google have pledged their support to open standards for social media development and data by joining together to form the OpenSocial Foundation.

Analytics & ROI

• Google Launches YouTube Insight - Google Analytics Lite
  Today Google video search engine YouTube launched a free Web analytics tool. Think Google Analytics Lite: it’s essentially a way to see how popular a video is over time combined with a global map that shows where it’s popular.

Local & Mobile Search

• Google’s New Wifi Push Will Drive Mobile Search
  There’s unused “white space” lying between the regulated TV signals and Google has big plans for them. In new lobbying effort, Google is asking the FCC to auction the unused airwaves to establish faster internet access that has a wider reach. Expanding Wifi will have major implications for mobile search.
• New Google Mobile Search Feature Gives Your Thumbs a Rest
  Do you dream of searching Google for local information with your mobile phone without having to use your thumbs? Soon, you may be in luck.

Vertical & Specialty Search

• Is Twitter the New Google Alternative?
  When searchers can’t find something on Google, they might turn to another search engine like Yahoo, Windows Live or Ask. Or they might turn to one of the growing answers sites. But lately, more and more people are turning to Twitter. Yes, Twitter.
• SEW Experts: What Matters Most to Travel Search Marketers in 2008?
  Now that we’re nearly through the first quarter, it’s time to check in on the accuracy of the many predictions for the future of search.
• World’s First Search Engine for Meetings: Worktopia
  The only thing worse than attending a corporate meeting is planning one. For those with the thankless job of planning corporate meetings, there’s Worktopia.
• Yahoo Gets REAL About Job Searches
  In an effort to improve access to job seekers and assist recruiters, Yahoo announced today the launch of “R.E.A.L., a patent pending search ranking system that is based on Relevance, Engagement, Availability and Location,” for Hotjobs.
• Google News Unveils Two Updates to Comments Feature
  Google has just made SEO-PR (that’s Public Relations, not PageRank) harder and easier at the same time!

In-House & Outsourcing

• SEW Experts: The SEO Copywriter: Wordsmithing the Web
  Combining both technological know-how and a strong command of the written word, agency SEO copywriters are the front-line troops of any SEO initiative.
• Conversion Rates & The Value Of Outsourcing SEM/SEO
  According to a new study, outsourced conversion rates are much higher. It may be that agencies that are specialists in a particular area see a wide cross-section of accounts and industries among their clients, and thus should be able to do a better job.
• SEW Experts: Read Any Good SEO Books Lately?
  Some people are looking for the right book to learn everything there is to know about SEM. Unfortunately, it doesn’t exist. Still, there are several books out there that can help further your understanding of search marketing in general, or do a deep dive on a specific sub-topic.

SEM Industry Issues

• Citigroup Upgrades Yahoo, Predicts Microsoft Bid Increases to $34 a Share
  Looks like Yahoo’s recent dog & pony show convinced at least one analyst. Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney upgraded Yahoo from hold to buy, based on the belief that Microsoft will increase its bid to $34 per share for the Sunnyvale search engine.

Searching/Search Technologies

• Wordtracker Enhance Their Free Trial Offer
  The keyword research tool providers are offering a 1-week trial of their entire service and have released an accompanying 7 day video tutorial on how to get the best out of your Wordtracker account.
• Hearst Jumps on Answers Bandwagon, Acquires Answerology
  Searchers want answers, not just results. That’s something Hearst Magazines is apparently abundantly aware of with its acquisition of Answerology, a relationship advice site.
• Yahoo Cloud Computing with 4th Largest Supercomputer in World
  Yahoo announced an agreement today with Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) to support cloud computing research.

More from the SEW Blog

• Twitter: Welcome to my Google Nightmare
  Twitter may give Google a run for its money. Twitter’s one more way, though, that Google knows everything about you.
• Stupid SEO Spammers
  Lesson #1: Don’t spam people with your SEO services. Lesson #2: Definitely don’t spam people who write for SEW and have close relations with spam blacklist owners about your SEO services.
• Lifetips Escalator Pitch, SES NY 2008
  Byron White, the president and founder of LifeTips, helped us launch a new feature at SES NY 2008: The Escalator Pitch.
• Matt McGowan in Times Square, Day 1 SES NY 2008
  John Connor Mulligan of SEO-PR interviewed Matt McGowan, the Global Vice President of Marketing at Incisive Media, on the first day of SES NY 2008

This is all the search marketing news we covered in the Search Engine Watch blog in the past week.

Organic Search

• Is Google Becoming a Portal?
  Google has long held that it is not a portal. Concerns of publishers wary of giving away their content to Google for free have always been met with the response that Google is simply making it easier for people to find the publisher’s content. So what happens if Google stops sending searchers to other publishers’ sites?
• SEW Experts: Uncovering the Real Universal Search
  There appears to be a lot more non-text results showing up in Google searches than many people expect. The effects this will have on searchers, and advertisers, may be a bit disturbing to some.
• Google Increases Lead in Share of All American Searches
  comScore qSearch data for February portrays Google as PacMan. Microsoft-Yahoo combined share of searches shows an Incredible Shrinking Search Engine.
• SEW Experts: To Rewrite or Not to Rewrite…That is the Question
  While URL rewriting can have SEO benefits, it can also cause more SEO problems if it’s done hastily, or incorrectly.

Search Advertising

• The Why Behind Paid Search Trends: Measurability
  There are countless reports that paid search is on the rise and is projected to continue trending upwards. But what are the driving forces behind the dramatic increases?
• adCenter Cooks Up a New Community Site
  The new adCenterCommunity.com is fresh out of the oven and it is a new PPC cake with Social Media icing.
• Craigslist Ruling: Does This Extend To Our Paid Ads?
  A recent ruling in Craigslist’s favor may let our paid ad suppliers rest a bit easier, as they are all advertising conduits.
• Search Spend Seems Healthy Despite Slowing Economy
  Despite an increasingly gloomy economic forecast, spending on search engine marketing continues to grow beyond expectations.
• SEW Experts: Tips for Google Site and Category Exclusion Tool
  Google has launched an important new tool that prevents your Content Ads from showing on poorly-performing sites: the Category Exclusion tool.
• Widemile Goes Into Beta, Picks Up 13 Partners
  The new technology allows users to simultaneously test a variety of offers, text, images, and other key variables.
• Ken McGaffin of Wordtracker Keyword Research at SES London 2008
  Ken McGaffin, the Chief Marketing Officer of Wordtracker, discusses some of the most interesting trends in keyword research at SES London 2008.

Linking Issues & Social Media

• The Other PR that influences search ranking
  Using PR skills to create great content and then pitching that news story to relevant online news sites and bloggers can have a huge influence on your search ranking.
• SEW Experts: Link Building from the Heart: Giving to Get
  Traditional marketers and PR folks have been using good deeds for marketing purposes for years; so why not online marketers?
• SEW Experts: Social Search: Welcome to the World of Socialommerce
  Social media combined with search holds great potential for e-commerce. Marketers would be better off spending more time listening to their customers and potential customers, and less time spending hours upon hours figuring out their next award-winning – but “no-customer-getting” – 30-second spot.

Analytics & ROI

• An Insatiable Desire for Web Analytics?
  At Search Engine Strategies New York this week, some of the best-attended sessions are about Web analytics. It’s clear that search marketers – like all online marketers – are finally realizing that it’s not all about getting people to your site.
• SEW Experts: Does A Close By Any Other Name Sell As Sweet?
  Not all conversions are created equal. Capturing an e-mail address, delivering a free white paper, or converting using other non-sale-related measurements can create varying values of a close.
• Bryan Eisenberg of Future Now at SES London 2008
  Bryan Eisenberg, the co-founder of Future Now, spoke on several sessions in London. After a couple of days, the sessions started blending together in unexpected ways.

Local & Mobile Search

• Marchex Shows How to Cash In on Local Search
  So far, in the poker game that is doing business on the internet, four cards have been dealt: Communications, Search, Commerce and Social Networking. But the fifth card is sliding out of the dealer’s hand and Marchex bets it’s going to be local search.

Vertical & Specialty Search

• Mahalo Adds New Social Search Tools
  My Mahalo is a service, currently in beta, that allows users to import their ratings and reviews from other social media sites, and share them with contacts on Mahalo Social.
• Jason Calacanis gives product demo of My Mahalo at SES New York
  Jason Calacanis, founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, unveiled My Mahalo at SES New York today. He also gave us a video interview and product demo of My Mahalo.
• Calacanis on SEO, Redux
  we caught up with Jason to ask him about the future of the Internet, social media, and SEO.
• LinkedIn’s New Company Profiles: Will They Rank in the SERPs?
  LinkedIn has announced the creation of 160,000 company profiles as part of their career social networking site.
• FriendFeed: The Search Engine for Conversations
  FriendFeed may be billing itself as an aggregator of social network sites, but its real power is in the newly introduced search feature.
• ABCSearch Acquires Social Search Portal, AfterVote.com
  The largest private pay-per-click company has embraced the social web with its acquisition of AfterVote.com. The social search portal allows users to vote and comment on search queries culled from Google, Yahoo and MSN as well as social aggregators.

Small Business/Big Brand SEM

• SEW Experts: 30 Free Ways To Market Your Small Business Site
  In marketing, sometimes “free” is too good to be true, but in some instances, free is good.

In-House & Outsourcing

• SEW Experts: Sales and Your Search Marketing Agency - Part 2
  A typical search marketing sales plan differs from other kinds of sales plans. The way to approach customers, close the deal, and structure the payment terms must all be considered in light of the unique demands of search.

SEM Industry Issues

• Is Microsoft Offering a Rose to the Wrong Bachelorette?
  While Yahoo plays games with Microsoft’s acquisition bid, some are beginning to ask, “Why isn’t Microsoft buying AOL?” One of the biggest concerns about a Microhoo is the expectation of a significant culture clash. The same sentiment does not exist when pondering a Microsoft/AOL marriage.
• Yahoo on the Future of Search
  Where’s search heading? Ask Yahoo’s chief scientist, Andrew Tomkins, who shared with us a few hints at the future of search.
• SES NYC Day 2 Keynote - Nick Carr “The Big Switch”
  Nick Carr’s keynote draws strong parallels between the electrification of industrial countries in the 1800s and the creation of the “worldwide computer” being ushered in by the Internet.
• SEMPO Selects Officers for New Board of Directors
  SEMPO has announced officers for its recently elected Board of Directors. The association also revealed a change in the amount of time board members serve.
• Yahoo Shows Microsoft, Wall Street What Its Really Worth
  Yahoo has filed an investor presentation which projects its operating cash flow to increase from $1.9 billion to $3.7 billion over the next 3 years.

Searching/Search Technologies

• Election Year Brings New Efforts to Regulate Search Engine Data Collection
  A New York State Assemblyman has introduced a bill aimed at regulating the way search engines collect private data of its users. Similarly, a committee of the State Assembly has a bill that seeks to tighten data collection rules on companies that serve ads on sites they do not own.
• What a Searcher Wants: Answers
  The US market share of Q&A site traffic grew a whopping 118% last year, according to a new report by Hitwise. Yahoo Answers is far and away the leader of the answer sites, with 74.5% of the US market.
• Albert Michaels of Moniker at SES London 2008
  Albert Michaels, a Senior Account Executive at Moniker, discusses his company’s suite of domain asset management services at SES London 2008.
• Is the World Ready for Utility Computing?
  Just as cheap power delivered over a universal grid revolutionized the processing of physical materials, cheap computing delivered over a universal grid is revolutionizing the processing of informational or intellectual goods.

More from the SEW Blog

• Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 4
  We’ve found more than 20 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference on the fourth day. Here are the top 10.
• Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 3
  We’ve found more than 80 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference on the third day. Here are the top 10.
• Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 2
  We’ve found nearly 70 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference on the second day. Here are the top 10.
• Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 1
  We’ve found more than 40 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference on the first day. Here are the top 10.
• Totally Plugged In @ SES New York: 13 Undeniable Symptoms
  Search marketing conference attendees seem to be the most plugged-in-public group of techno-comrades on earth.
• YouTube: Damon Wayans Pay-to-Play, Paid Inclusion or Pay-for-Placement?
  At SES NY, John Battelle outted Damon Wayans, Google and YouTube. Battelle said Wayans spilled the beans on his YouTube deal as a “platinum partner” for WayOutTV.com.
• Are Search Jobs Recession Proof? If So, How Do You Get One?
  In the past, traditional marketing budgets and jobs have been among the first to be cut whenever the economy hits a rough patch. So what should those marketing folks do this time around?

Organic Search

• SEW Experts: Creating Synergy in Your SEO Efforts
  There’s not one single thing that can make your Web page show up in the top of the search results. But there are several little things that can.
• SEW Experts: Defining Yourself Through Search
  Your online persona is defined by what shows up in the search results. What do the SERPs say about you?
• American Express Advises Clients to Avoid SEO
  The current edition of AMEX’s ‘A Practical Guide for Business Growth’ cautions its readers against seeking professional search engine optimization help for their websites, advising them not to “waste money on so-called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists”
• Yahoo to Begin Indexing Microformats
  As part of its move toward a more open search platform, Yahoo announced today that it will begin supporting microformats and other semantic Web standards.
• Online Reputation Management Crisis? Preparation Is the Key
  In many cases, a reputation management campaign can take months to complete. Addressing underlying issues and replacing negative content with more favorable pages takes time. But by being prepared ahead of time for a reputation management crisis, you can cut down that time considerably, and get more immediate results.

Search Advertising

• PPC Triage Now! Emergency Action Steps for Dying AdWords
  Lately prospective clients have been coming around with extremely colorful and eerily similar Google PPC disaster stories. Cost are skyrocketing, conversions are plummeting, and attaining decent paid rankings is difficult or impossible. This threatens the viability of PPC itself as a marketing strategy.
• Revised Google Quality Rater Guidelines Surface
  Updates to the Google Quality Rater guidelines have popped up, and there’s good news for those who have embraced social media. It seems Google feels that the elements on blogs and social network sites like MySpace should be ranked as relevant.
• Google Plays Down Paid Search Decline; Seeks Display Ad Dominance
  Ever since news broke about a slowdown in growth of paid click advertising, Google’s stock has been falling — drastically. But yesterday, sounding like a schoolboy with an exposed weakness, Google’s Tim Armstrong offered up a “We meant to do that” defense.
• Panama or AdCenter? Microsoft Has Already Decided
  If its proposed acquisition of Yahoo goes through, don’t expect Microsoft to rush to integrate Yahoo’s technology into its platform.
• SEW Experts: Every Picture Tells a Story: Non-text Contextual Ads
  Like contextual text ads, image ads must distract the user and sell a product quickly.

Linking Issues & Social Media

• SEW Experts: First SEO Link Building Rule: Never Buy Paid Links…Until Now
  Google commands SEOs: “Don’t buy paid links.” But there are times when paid links work.
• AOL Buys Social Network Bebo for $850M
  AOL will buy Facebook competitor Bebo for $850 million cash. Combining social network Bebo’s estimated 40 million users with AIM and ICQ will boost AOL’s social media reach to 80 million users worldwide.
• Google Will Outflank Facebook-Microsoft If Yahoo Joins OpenSocial
  If Yahoo joins the OpenSocial alliance, Microsoft and Facebook may find themselves out in the cold.

Analytics & ROI

• SEW Experts: Google Analytics’ Cross-Channel Measurement
  By comparing site analytics data with its Audio Ads campaign data, Google has greatly improved measurement of offline ads driving visitors online.
• Your Baby’s Ugly - Why You Need Landing Page Optimization Now
  All new parents think their drooling, wailing, wrinkled little midget is beautiful - and that’s as it should be. The same seems to be true of landing pages.
• Best Web Site Traffic: PPC vs. SEO (Search Engine-Optimized) Sites
  How does your PPC traffic compare to natural search traffic and direct navigation? A study by Engine Ready finds that that type-in traffic is the highest converting and “most valuable” traffic.

Local & Mobile Search

• SEW Experts: Universal Pictures Part II: Sizing up the Local Video Market
  Last month, we looked at the opportunity for SMBs to use universal search to their advantage by producing and distributing online video. But what is the size of this local video market?
• Cable Firms Collaborate to Compete with Google
  Executives from the six major cable companies have been gathering at monthly meetings in an attempt to offer national advertisers innovative methods of reaching their customers.

Vertical & Specialty Search

• The Inside Track on Priceline and Google
  Priceline CMO Brett Kellner joined us this week at Google’s New York headquarters (via conference call) to chat about travel trends in vertical search, the robust health of paid search (PPC) campaigns, and integrating online and offline advertising campaigns.

Small Business/Big Brand SEM

• SEW Experts: Don’t Get Stung By Compliance Issues
  Internal and external oversight is essential for quality control of large Web sites, but can make things complicated for SEO plans.

In-House & Outsourcing

• SEW Experts: SEO Training: Live and In-Person
  What could be better than online SEO training? SEO courses with live SEO experts, of course.
• SEW Experts: Making the Most of a Search Marketing Conference
  If you’re heading to SES New York next week, you should be preparing your questions for speakers now.

SEM Industry Issues

• EU Approves Google DoubleClick Deal
  The EU approved Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick today and Google’s ready. The $3.1 billion deal went through despite concerns over privacy and antitrust issues.
• Yahoo! Goes on a Date with Microsoft
  Just one week after cozying up to AOL, Yahoo met with its patient suitor, Microsoft. While arrangements for the highly anticipated union were reportedly discussed, no bankers were in attendance to negotiate Yahoo’s dowry.
• Microsoft & Yahoo - Shotgun Wedding
  I have been following the unfolding developments regarding Microsoft/Yahoo since they were announced with only mild interest. This is not because the potential alliance would not have an effect on the industry - clearly it would shake things up quite a bit. But there has been actually very little of interest since the initial buyout proposal.
• Murdoch to Yahoo: I’m Just Not Into You
  At the Bear Sterns conference in Palm Springs, Florida, this morning, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said that News Corp will not be bidding on Yahoo. While admitting that it would be fun to beat Microsoft, Murdoch affirmed his loyalty to Google.
• Introduction to Search Engine Marketing at SES New York 2008
  It’s hard to provide “a clear and concise overview of the key concepts involved in Search Engine Marketing” when half of them have changed significantly since last year.

Searching/Search Technologies

• Google on Global Search Standards: Thanks, But No Thanks
  Google has politely turned down a cordial invitation to support technology that would control how the search engine lists articles and photos.
• Visual Search Engine Searchme Launches Private Beta
  Searchme employs Adobe Flash and Flex to create a user interface that displays results as web page screenshots.

More from the SEW Blog

• Job Cuts Likely in Google-DoubleClick Merger
  In the wake of EU’s approval of Google’s DoubleClick acquisition comes the news that job cuts will likely result from the deal.
• Google Defends Security Policy
  Douglas Merrill, Google’s VP Engineering, published an impassioned defense of Google’s security policy.
• The New Multitaskers: Kids Split Attention Between TV, Internet
  A new study on social networking by Grunwald Associates reveals that kids are no longer glued to the television. Now, while the tube is on, many kids are also splitting their attention between the TV and the Internet.

Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide, a site focusing on online marketing for small businesses, pointed me toward a BusinessWeek column today called “Tech ‘Solutions’ Your Small Biz Can’t Use.” I had to read it twice to be sure that the author, Gene Marks, was serious.

The ignorance behind an article like this is staggering. He equates 10 technologies to vitamins, teeth-whitening products, and hair-restoring shampoo. Since none of those things have worked for him, he assumes they will not work for anyone.

He advises small businesses to avoid at all costs ten very useful technologies. There are just so many things wrong with his advice that I felt compelled to refute his article immediately. I’ll go through each topic one at a time, since almost every one is misguided, if not irresponsible.

1. RSS Feeds

Marks writes about Bob, an electrical contractor, who “was ‘fed’ an endless stream of meaningless items displayed in an overly large browser window that winds up distracting more than informing. Like Bob, most of the business owners I know have abandoned RSS and gone back to controlling when they get their information.”

RSS feeds do allow users to control the way they get their information. Bob can choose which feeds to follow, and using a feed reader like Bloglines or Google Reader can easily decide when to read those feeds. If he finds the feeds to be irrelevant to him, he can easily unsubscribe.

2. Spam Filters

Marks writes: “I get this question at just about every presentation I give to business owners: ‘What spam filters do you recommend?’ My answer: ‘None.’ They all suck.”

I would agree that some spam filters do suck, but to advise against using them at all is ridiculous. Granted, if you only get a few e-mails a day, you may not need to spend big bucks on a spam filter. But if you’re doing any business online, you’re likely getting hundreds, if not thousands of spam messages a day. Why waste your time wading through a pile that big when there is technology readily available to deal with it?

3. Antivirus Software

Marks’ argument: AV software slows down your machine and makes it hard to install software, so you shouldn’t use any.

Yes, the chances are slim that a small business owner will get a major virus that destroys important files. So is the chance that a tree will fall on a customer’s car in their parking lot, but I’ll bet they carry insurance to cover that.

4. Blogs

Marks is very condescending about blogs. I don’t even know where to start, other than to say that thousands of people do see the benefit of blogging for their business. No, they should not spend 17 hours a day to keep it fresh. Small business owners should not be misled to think blogging is an all-or-nothing exercise.

5. Search Engine Optimization

This one touches a nerve, since I spend my days writing about the benefits of SEO at Search Engine Watch.

We’ve all heard the argument that SEO is BS, and the SEO as snake-oil argument has been done and overdone. Yes, there are unethical SEO practitioners out there promising top results and under-delivering. For every one of those worthless shady criminals, there are hundreds of ethical practitioners who can help a small business get exposure online for a reasonable price.

6. Mobile Applications

Marks is not so far off on this one: “Mobile applications will be a great thing…someday. Just like hovercrafts, telepods, and renewable energy. But for a small business on a limited budget, it’s still science fiction.”

Had he been a bit less condescending, I’d have less of a problem. He’s right that mobile applications are still not ready for prime time, but that’s changing. With the advances in mobile devices and networks, they’re not as far off as he’d have you believe.

7. Customer Relationship Management Software

Marks writes: “A CRM system can be a good thing, but it takes more than paying for the software and training. Without a substantial internal investment, CRM won’t work.”

I agree with that wholeheartedly, but to go from there to saying that small businesses should not use it is a bit of a jump.

8. AdWords

Another sore spot here. This one and the SEO one are probably what led me to drop everything and write this post.

He writes: “Don’t you know how much to budget for ‘clicks’ on your ad? Are you just a little suspicious as to who exactly is counting these ‘clicks’ that conveniently turn into revenue for these companies? Like John, you’ve just entered the alternate universe of Internet advertising!”

I don’t even know where to begin. For a business selling online, or conducting lead-gen online, tracking the profitability of AdWords is simple. It’s a bit more complicated for companies that complete a sale offline, but not impossible by any means.

And saying that clicks “conveniently turn into revenue” is an obvious attempt to raise the specter of click fraud, another topic that’s been done and overdone. He’s missing the fact that AdWords is a pay-for-performance model. If it doesn’t perform, advertisers can lower their bids until it does.

Marks also writes: “Here’s a word of wisdom: Leave the mass-market advertising to Coke and Pepsi. Small business owners should stick to less mystifying forms of promotion.”

AdWords, and other forms of search advertising, can be targeted in many ways, including geographically, to reduce a “mass-market” to the advertisers actual market.

9. Online Video

Another one where Marks isn’t too far off. He writes: “Ron, a reseller of computer software, thought his business would be perfect for online video, what with the amount of Web-based training and support he provides. Ron figured he could post some videos on YouTube to help his clients. He soon learned that the cost and complexity was just too high.”

True, online video can be expensive and complex, but there are more and more companies that are making the process simpler. It’s clearly not the right answer for every small business, but it should not be dismissed because it didn’t work for one person, who may or may not have chosen the best way to use it.

10. Web 2.0

This one comes from ignorance, but it’s widespread ignorance. Marks writes: “Want to make a room of small business owners go completely silent? Ask them to define Web 2.0.”

Clearly, “Web 2.0″ is a buzzword, and like any buzzword it’s been overused and abused. That doesn’t mean the underlying principles are invalid. There are many ways to define it, but Web 2.0 is basically about using the Web as a platform, it’s about a two-way dialog instead of one-way broadcasting messages, and it’s about a change in the way people are using the Web.

Whether small business owners, or anyone else, chooses to ignore it or not, the Web is changing, and the way a business’ customers use it is changing too. Ignoring that would be foolish.