aimClear Search Marketing Blog

Last Thursday in his post “Got A Great Organic SEO Tip? Pitch & Go To SMX Advanced!” Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land, issued an invitation for “great” SEO tips.

The contest (Sphunn here) was intriguing to us because (a) I was already going to attend the conference on media credentials to cover & (b) I’m speaking @ SES Toronto later this month (along with several SMX Advanced speakers) and already have a couple of majors under the belt this year.

Friday we submitted ideas to Greg Boser (per SEL instructions) and were fortunate to receive an invitation to fill the 6th and final speaker slot for the “Give It Up” session on the last day. Thanks to SMX and Third Door for the invite. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever wonder why your LinkedIn profile ranks (dangerous word) well in Google results for your name? There’s plenty of dialog in the SEM community regarding SEMs exploiting the high organic value of well-constructed social media profiles, especially those developed and nurtured in mainstream communities like Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn and about 50 other consensus-worthy niche sites.

The tactic is time consuming, requires committed writers truly savvy to social media etiquette and can be highly effective. Google rewards active social community members so well constructed social media profile-plays can be organic ranking machines. These techniques represent yet another fascinating intersection of SEO (natural search), social media and PR. Read the rest of this entry »

Tune in to Webmsterradio.fm for this week’s edition of PPC Rockstars, featuring advertising expert David Szetela’s interview with me. David and I discussed social PPC, a quickly emerging content network hybrid which will soon become an important component of your paid search marketing mix. Read the rest of this entry »

A cursory glance at session titles belies the intense depth of SMX Advanced 2008. “Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques,” “Conversion Optimization: Winning After They Arrive,” “Closing The Loop: Are You Tracking Every Lead?,” “You&A With Matt Cutts,” “Search Marketing & Surviving A Recession” and “Amazing New PPC Tactics” are but a few marquis presentations that have hard-core SEM pros salivating as they jet to Seattle June 3rd and 4th from all over the world. Read the rest of this entry »

One person’s defensive reputation management maneuver is another’s ghastly crises. In search marketing blogs and communities, social media reputation management experts inadvertently teach losers to build nightmarish nuclear bombs. It’s a nasty byproduct of the holistic work we do. To assume that only smiley-faced individuals harvest the reputation tips and tricks our community proffers would be incredibly naive.

Social media experts: how would you feel to learn that blog posts you’ve written empowered some malfeasant idiot to completely trash an Innocent’s Google reputation? Ironically if you think about it, a recent slew of (intriguing) articles teaching tactics to defend reputation disasters could actually empower evil losers to pull the trigger with cunning focus and killer professional techniques. Let’s have a look. Read the rest of this entry »

Big brand CEOs hear “Facebook home run this” & “YouTube revolution that,” but just try convincing any serious traditional enterprise-project stakeholder that social media hoopla will actually generate measurable ROI and isn’t downright dangerous.

Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) presented a panel of experts last night in Minneapolis for a discussion speaking to issues surrounding how big companies make social media decisions, “implement control programs” and measure ROI on various levels. It’s a pleasure to find quality content like this session so close to home. The excitement was palpable because social media is growing up here in God’s country. Read the rest of this entry »

Storied search marketing publication SearchEngineWatch/blog has turned on their comment-threads. Yay! I was proofing my post just now and noticed the new feature for the first time.

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Google’s preview release today of “Friend Connect” has us theorizing and chattering up here in Duluth. Whilst hard core social application developers may or may not be excited, the promise of an open social web is getting closer to the medium to small size webmaster. Read my article on SearchEngineWatch blog, “Google “Friend Connect” To Make Advanced Social Features Easily Available.” There’s also a great Friend Connect article by Greg Sterling posted today on SearchEngineLand. Read the rest of this entry »

Securing SEO, PPC, social media and analytics advice can be risky, like buying diamonds from a jeweler you don’t know. The premise of the purchase is sometimes a customer’s (enthusiastic) lack of understanding of criteria by which to judge the actual value of products offered, a dynamic dangerous for both parties.

I personally gravitate towards buying bling from a trusted friend who’s family has owned a classic jewelry store for 3 generations. My personal friendship with the proprietor helps me feel safe about purchases. Most SEM shoppers don’t have the same luxury. Read the rest of this entry »

[Thanks to David Szetela over at Clix Marketing for steady guidance speaking to PPC excellence and help with this article. Clix is doing some ground breaking work right now. Do not miss David's upcoming content network presentation during "Amazing PPC Tactics" @ SMX Advanced, June 3/4 in Seattle.]

Nobody speaks seriously about Facebook social PPC at search marketing industry conferences. I can’t believe it. Shouldn’t we be discussing multivariate landing page testing deeply segmented by users’ interests and affinities as opposed to keywords?

Doesn’t Facebook provide us a prescient peek into future mainstream social PPC platforms? As an industry could we be missing a chance to get ahead of the curve in preparation for the ultimate revolution in commercial personalization, true social demographic targeting? I don’t get it… Read the rest of this entry »