aimClear Search Marketing Blog

TopRank’s Big List, The AdAge Power 150, and the Search Engine Land right hand sidebar are among 50 or so of the most coveted blogRolls on which a blog can appear. For our part we created the dailyCrawl to view 400+ respected SEM blogs as a slide show.

Rand Fishkin has shared a select list of search marketing tools, blogs, forums, news sources and other writers he reads to stay in touch with the ever-evolving SEM world. Check it out to discover established and even some younger blogs you may not have heard of.

Greetings from SMX Travel@PhoCusWright from sunny Orlando. The second of today’s sessions was moderated by Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land. The focus was on respective benefits and tactics for SEO vs. PPC, case studies for pumping landing page conversion, the critical importance of direct brand searches, and the advantages of integrating online and offline sales messaging.

Read the rest of this entry »

Moderator: Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land moderated. The speakers were Bill Tancer, General Manager, Global Research, Hitwise (loves data), James Lamberti, Senior Vice President, Search and Media, Comscore, and Lorraine Sileo, Vice President, Information Services, PhocusWright.

It’s clear that search marketing is no longer primarily a direct response form of media. Search marketers not factoring offline ROI in conversion tracking (at least by conjecture) are likely missing a large percentage of the calculation, especially in travel. Exacerbating the issue is that 31% of Internet users delete cookies on a regular basis. These are the offline conversion stats for the following online verticals for sales taking place within 60 days after the Initial Click: Computers 69%, Home and Garden 69%, Toys 61%, Travel 88%, Jewelry 57%, Books, 56%, and Software 55%. Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning from the inaugural edition of SMX Travel@PhoCusWright 2007 Orlando. This conference, piggy-backed on the acclaimed series of PhCusWright conferences, promises to become the definitive annual travel-themed search marketing exposition. The sun has barely risen over the picturesque Florida palms. Still the immaculate grounds of the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate are awash in orange light and the promise of an incredible day. Read the rest of this entry »

At the heart of Facebook’s viral-extreme News Feeds are powerful profile settings which essentially default every user to becoming a massive social graph transmitter and receiver. However the more casual friends amassed in Facebook, the more irrelevant crap both parties need to wade through on the desktop every day. In order to justify keeping hyperactive casual friends, we’ve found it key to utilize on-board Facebook OS tools to filter out unnecessary Feed items. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m pleased and excited to introduce and welcome the newest member of our team, Kat Soland. Having come to us from Green Bay Wisconsin, she’ll office in Minneapolis and serve as aimClear’s representative to select regional and national advertising agency and corporate clients.

Kat brings a wealth of traditional media sales expertise to the table to meld with aimClear’s organic, paid, and social media marketing track record. Read the rest of this entry »

<Rant> I’ve wanted to write this post for years. A couple of times a month one of our clients or partners forwards us a laughable cold call sales pitch they’ve received from some bulk email scamming SEO-weasel who’s grubbing for business from the unaware. Though most serious search marketing agency-types provide an honest day’s work, as in any industry, a percentage of unscrupulous snake oil throwback-types give SEO a bad name. Read the rest of this entry »

We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be covering SMX Travel@PhoCusWright next week, November 12th & 13th, in Orlando Florida. This annual two day event qualifies as the peak informational-summit for travel marketers who seek a cutting edge understanding of organic and paid search.

The conference features presentations from “best-of-breed travel and hospitality industry providers.” If your SEM shop, advertising agency, or in-house job involves marketing hotels, conventions, tourism, transportation, and other travel related products, don’t miss this show. aimClear handles dozens of name brand and independent hotel products as well as niche tourism verticals and we’ve been looking forward to this show for months. Here’s the link if you’d like to register now.
Read the rest of this entry »

[Skip immediately to dailyCrawl] You can’t participate in a community without understanding it’s members. 1,360 personal Sphinns only begins to qualify someone to understand bloggers, their ways, and search marketing publications. As another small part of the SEM anthropology safari-quest, aimClear morning meetings regularly include a slide show crawl of well regarded search marketing blogs in the background on the conference room projector. We feel this practice keeps us a little more in touch with the identity of blog authors and what’s important to them, rather than stories skimmed from RSS headlines.

The dailyCrawl is not meant to be a big hairy-serious SEM invention, rather a simple background method for keeping our staff apprised as to the graphic and “feel” evolution of the SEM blogosphere. It makes a difference to us. The show always starts at a different blog so, by week’s end, we’ve seen them all with only a few minute’s investment each day. Read the rest of this entry »

For years there has been frustrated chatter among PPC media buyers regarding draconian big brand franchise PPC trademark rules. After experimenting all over the world for 2 years, Marriott is now taking assertive steps to standardize and solidify global policies. Whether SEMs like the new US rules or not, Marriott’s taking an industry leading role in organizing an approval process for hotel franchisee trademark usage. Read the rest of this entry »