aimClear Search Marketing Blog

Egregiously incompetent, cutthroat, reckless or outright dishonest? No matter how you slither it, the latest generation of predatory SEO creeps proffer blatantly false information camouflaged by pretty reports. Deceptively branded reports aside, buyer beware when the snakes come to call. Here’s some hard facts to dispel this week’s crap-ass haze of myths and misinformation.  [Author's Note: This post is not aimed at any specific SEO firm, rather the amalgamate of experiences we've had over many years.] Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: RC_Fotos
Welcome to SearchEngineStrategies Toronto 2009. Today we took a glance back a decade to 1999, when parties had a reputation to live up to and some families were preparing for an all out cataclysmic technological failure come the new year. For the most part, times were swell.

Family Guy began its first season, Britney Spears’ hit “…Baby One More Time” climbed the billboard charts & Lawrence Fishburne took curious Keanu down the rabbit hole in The Matrix. In the realm of SEO, effective optimization was all about keyword, title & description meta tags and reciprocal link building. Life was good!

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For search marketing industry veterans, SearchEngineLand Editor-in-Chief Danny Sullivan needs no introduction. If you’re among the veritable legions of marketing professionals joining our ranks from traditional advertising trades, soon enough you’ll know his impeccable journalism and commitment to community.

Considered a founding “search engine guru,” Danny has been demystifying search engines for marketers, webmasters and users for well over a decade. His insight and expertise are regularly sought by mainstream media outlets including USA Today, The New Yorker, Forbes, The Wall St. Journal, The Los Angeles Times, ABC’s Nightline, Newsweek.

He’s Partner and Chief Content Officer for  Third Door Media, which also operates the highly regarded global  search marketing conference series SMX,  Search Marketing Now educational webcasts and  Sphinn.com, SEM mainstay social community.

Recently I had the opportunity to pose questions regarding  SMX Advanced, a brilliant 2 day SEM event he (and industry luminary Chris Sherman) sequence annually in Seattle.  ‘Advanced sold out in 2007, 2008 and is on track to do so again this year. Earlybird rates expire May 2 so register now to guarantee your attendance June 2 & 3, 2009.

We also discussed Danny’s passion for search, suggestions for Twitter, “tough love” for Microsoft Search and his recent move back to the United States after living in England. Read the rest of this entry »

Like most SEM shops, our business is an amalgamation of flat rate products and hourly work. It’s generally been our focus to procure longer contracts, usually 6 month to 1-year agreements.

We thought it prudent to evolve our model in preemptive reaction to these brutal economic times.  Little did we know the unexpected gems of perspective we discovered. Read the rest of this entry »

Here we are again at SearchEngineStrategies New York.From the Philharmonic to ChinaTown, this big city is the apple of my eye. A couple of times a  year, when our friend PPC Expert David Szetela (Clix Marketing) and I are speaking at the same conference, we have a little gathering with our industry friends.

Those lucky enough to be sporting the cliche’ orange wristbands are going enjoy lovely camaraderie, frightening anecdotes, “forgettable finger food” and an enjoy (yet another) awesome upstairs Times SQ Schmooze Fest NYC experience. Of course, we’ll be giving away SearchWiki Lamesauce T-Shirts. Life is grand.

Watch for more posts from today’s SES sessions later tonight. For now, heading to the shindig.

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