aimClear Search Marketing Blog

[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 »

Did you know that you can shove the entire transcript of a podcast into the ID3 tag of a media file? Need an immediate full-contact tutorial on podcast production and SEO? These and other powerful tools were divulged in Podcast & Audio Search Optimization during Search Engine Strategies New York.

On a whim I ducked into the Podcast & Audio Search Optimization seminar, and it was a nice surprise to be jolted awake by the energy and audio search stylings of Amanda Watlington, owner of Searching for Profit, and Daron Babin, CEO, Webmaster Radio. This session was moderated by Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing.Read the rest of this entry »

Well Search Engine Strategies New York 2008 is over, and it’s been amazing! My brain started getting full about Tuesday afternoon, but I keep stuffing information into it!

I’ve ended up pushing out some childhood memories to make room, but hopefully they were of grade school multiplication drills or something like that. I’ve compiled a little list of what I’ve learned, what was good and what sucked!

Thumbs Up search folks are super friendly! speakers are usually very cool folks and LIKE IT if you want to interview them after sessions!

• Usability is not a dead art!
• listening to Avinash Kaushik present - he peppers everything with “kicks ass” and “sucks hard!”
• 80s New Wave music played between sessions!
• Schwag schwag schwag!

Read the rest of this entry »

“Design for people first, then the search engines will be pleased too. It’s like the Pinocchio effect - they want to be a real boy too.”

Such were the words of wisdom of Matthew Bailey, President of SiteLogic, and Jennifer Laycock, Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Guide in the Site Clinic, the last seminar of Search Engine Strategies New York. Although Jennifer’s voice was recovering from a cold, Matt Bailey was remarkably perky for the end of the session (he later told me he’d had Wednesday off!)

Instead of showing each site and telling what they did (which might be another post altogether), I’ve compiled all the tips they gave to improve sites.Read the rest of this entry »

This post is part of our aimClear’s continued blogging coverage of the SES New York 2008 search marketing conference.

People throughout the world are increasingly relying on cell phones and mobile devices to keep them plugged in. Obviously, search will play an ever increasing role in the evolution of mobile. When will mobile search surpass desktop search? We’ve been expecting better search capabilities from mobile devices for some time, and know that Asia is far ahead of North America in this respect at the current time. Today @ SearchEngineStrategies, experts discuss their views about the evolution of search in North America.Read the rest of this entry »

[Editor’s Note: That’s really what they talked about.] This post is part of our continued live blogging coverage of the SES New York conference. The session covered here is the session titled ‘Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions’.

The days of reciprocal linking (as a primary means of link building) and link farms to secure better rankings are long gone. Google has evolved. So too have the strategies of reputable search firms.

Terms like ‘link exchange’ and ‘reciprocal’ are today replaced by terms like ‘authority‘ , ‘linkbait’ and the like. There’s also an inherent understanding today that the quality of the link matters more than quantity, and reaching key influencers with the right content is the holy grail of search.Read the rest of this entry »

Are you afraid of bloggers? Sleep with the light on? You’ll find reasons to sleep above the covers after you read the next installment of Social Media: What Is It and What Is It Good For? from Search Engine Strategies New York. (Read part One).

Jory Des Jardins, Co-Founder & President of Strategic Alliances at BlogHer, teaches companies how to get bloggers to talk about their brands. Her refreshing angle was to talk about some of the boogeyman fears companies have about social media.Read the rest of this entry »

Whether you embrace it or not, social media is here to stay and affects your brand. Social media marketing must be part of your overall marketing effort. Ignore the blogosphere at your peril.

Moderator Pauline Ores, SES Advisory Board and Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media Engagement, General Business, IBM, began the seminar by stating that the Social Media Track was new to Search Engine Strategies conferences. She introduced the powerhouse panel:Read the rest of this entry »

This post is part of our continued live blogging coverage of the SES New York conference.

One of the really interesting aspects to search, is its potential. It seems virtually limitless. At the current time however, companies seems to be very tentative when considering investing in search marketing strategies.

Consider for example that while 80% of web browsing starts with Search, and consumers are spending up to 50% of their media time online … then why are many major brand companies spending on average only 2.5% of their media budgets online? Isn’t search a prime opportunity in the battle for mindshare?Read the rest of this entry »

This post is the next of aimClear’s live blogging of coverage at SES New York 2008. This session in particular was titled B2B Tactics.

Optimizing B2B sites is often considered to be somewhat more challenging than optimizing B2C type sites, or at the very least different strategies are needed. Linking and content strategies beyond the basics require very very different approaches. Fortunately, some companies and individuals have developed special insights in this realm, and are willing to share some of their thoughts and ideas.Read the rest of this entry »