aimClear® Search Marketing Blog

Google’s recent modification of how link data is categorized in Webmaster Tools had observant SEO practitioners and clients asking interesting questions. If you’re wondering if it’s time to put the brakes on rolling up your subdomains as an SEO tactic because of this Google change, this post has important information. Read the rest of this entry »

AdWords Keyword Tool may be viable again for SEO. The debilitating short-tail-only problems seem to have been fixed. Long live SEO!

On October 7th 2010, we published a post in aimClear Blog entitled, “R.I.P. Google Keyword Tool. Long Live SEO!” Baris Gultekin, Group Product Manager, Google AdWords, Google, Inc. had just dropped a big stink bomb at #SMX East, confirming what many of us had already figured out.  The omnipresent AdWords Keyword Tool had changed and only was returning keywords Google deemed “commercial.” Read the rest of this entry »

Data is starting to roll in on the effects of Google’s elegant UI/SERPs adaptation Google Instant. The concept of SERPs that configure as users type is not new, but it appears big G’ has laid claim to mass paradigm busting.  Marketing chatter ranges from ridiculously hyperbolic to ho-hum with good reason. Instant instantly appoints already-dominant brands’ godly brand-status & likely makes growing brand awareness more expensive for everyone else.

Even aside from Instant’s potential to affect traffic, just think of the incredible subliminal branding that takes place as users type there searches out. Whether a user is searching for “basketball,” “botany” or “blintzes,” the keyword “Best Buy” flashes past with nary a flicker. Google has anointed Best Buy’s marketing manager Pope of the “b” SERPs. Read on for more SERP samples that show it’s no easy task to decode Google Instant’s black box mystical brand signals…

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If your website is lost to Google (aka “The Man”), not just buried in the SERPs, it may have violated Google’s Terms of Service (TOS) by singular or multiple violations. This isn’t a mistake, so be prepared to get on your knees, confess your crimes, wait for the Googlers to flip the switch back on and release you from spammers’ prison. Read the rest of this entry »

I had a near out of body-real-time SMS/search/tweet experience last night interacting with our attorney, Laura.  (No, the picture’s not Laura.)  She’s in Manhattan to attend the Social Media Risks and Rewards legal conference, and pinged me to quick-search for information about a ruckus she was observing outside the famed Waldorf Astoria.

Our innocent little text exchange and my ensuing searches (illustrated later in this article) make it entirely clear there’s a radical new type of query intent (what users’ are looking for): situational. It turns out Google’s not adept at some situational searches which, to some minds,  leaves them vulnerable to services like Twitter in a substantial segment of emerging search inventory. Read the rest of this entry »