search marketing

Congrats to the emfluence Search Engine Optimization strategy team for pulling in their 3rd BMA Fountain Award in 3 years in the category of SEO!…

It’s that time of year when industry experts and practitioners reflect on the year that was and predict what is to come. Rather than making bold predictions about big news events in 2013, our lead Search Engine Optimization Strategist, Corey Morris, has compiled some strong recommendations of things digital marketers should know about search engine optimization (SEO) for the incoming year.

On April 17, Google announced new matching behavior on AdWords for Exact and Phrase Match keywords. What does that mean in the world of pay-per-click (PPC) marketing? For one, it means that PPC campaign managers everywhere will no longer have to create variations of Exact and Phrase Match keywords, like including both singular and plural versions, misspellings, abbreviations and more…

This is an excellent case study from our friends at SEOMoz! The client did everything right with 301 redirects on their website relaunch. Maybe a little “too right” and ended up having to be flexible and make some quick fixes. Even when the SEO team and developers implemented everything perfectly, there were still issues and unknowns.

Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West took place last week in downtown San Jose, California at the McEnery Convention Center. This was “the biggest and best SMX show ever” according to Chris Sherman, Vice President of Event Programming for SMX. I agree! This show featured honest conversation, open sharing, and interaction between experts and novices alike. Deciding which sessions to attend was tough – there were many great options. I focused heavily on SEO, with some local search and social mixed in. Here are the top 12 takeaways I brought back to Kansas City with me.

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking on a local search panel titled “Solving Problems and Seeing Success in Google Places.” On the panel, we presented recommendations for dealing with human support at Google places, tips from an agency perspective, and a look at case study information from my work with Houlihan’s restaurants. Download my Google Places panel presentation slides for more information.

I recently had a client start bidding on their brand words only after they saw a competitor was bidding (poaching). Not only was someone bidding on the client’s brand, they were sending traffic directly to the client’s real website. There weren’t even diverting traffic to an outside site! By running ads on the client’s brand and sending traffic to the client’s domain, the official ads for the client are effectively blocked because the offending party was there first. Even though our client provided official and more accurate ads, they’d been blocked by a company that put up so-so advertising leading to the client’s website. This is a key reason you should be bidding on your own brand keywords for paid search.

Online marketing is full of perks. One of the biggest benefits is the ability to track results so accurately. We can measure exactly how effective our online marketing campaign was at driving online sales. But what about the influence it has on offline sales? Of course we know it happens. But we can’t always measure the exact results, especially since in many cases a retailer’s products can be purchased both online and offline.

How do search and social intersect? Google and Bing (and thus Yahoo!) have different social signals built into their algorithms to allow social media popularity to impact rankings.

Attending SMX West for more search engine marketing knowledge? Be sure to catch our own Corey Morris, Search Engine Marketing Strategist for emfluence on the…

Google rolled out a big update recently called “Search Plus Your World.” While the search community has written many in-depth articles about how it works here’s a brief look at what marketers need to know about the update.

Search Plus Your World has caused quite a stir in the search marketing community on a number of levels. The short version is this: This update is the biggest Google update in a decade. While the hype may be overdone, it’s not something we can ignore.

Here are a few things that you should know about the Search Plus Your World update and some steps you should be taking to ensure that you are evolving your digital marketing activities to keep from being left behind.

How frustrating is it to see clients and colleagues miss opportunities? Answer: Not nearly as frustrating as seeing mistakes made that penalize website rankings over time.

As an SEO, I pride myself in being able to join a project at any point and welcome new challenges. But, there’s no doubt that being on a project from the beginning produces the best search engine optimization results. Here are three reasons why you should involve your search marketing team from the very beginning of your site design.

Successfully integrating a marketing plan takes some work and is based in good planning. To your consumer, an integrated marketing plan will look seamless. The tone and information will be consistent, the consumer will know exactly where to find you and what to expect when they get there. What can you do to inject harmony and coordination to your brand experience?

8 aspects of your search engine optimization you should consider on a keyword-by-keyword basis
by Corey Morris, emfluence Search Engine Marketing Strategist

One thing we hear often at emfluence is how unavailable digital marketing education seems to be. Sure, you can take another 1-hour webinar on LinkedIn, but where can you find a seminar on strategizing and intgetrating every aspect of your digital marketing?

The answer is in Kansas City, November 9th.

Announcing emfl-U: Digital Bootcamp

A few notes about things in the search engine optimization (SEO) world that you may or may not have heard about, including changes to Google’s algorithm thanks to JCPenney’s recent press and social media’s impact on how we search.

Ok, so the time to get local was last year, or the year before. But if you haven’t taken the time, or are new to the search marketing arena, here’s some insight that you want to take note of: local search is changing. Components are merging and the lines are blurring in the search world and businesses that aren’t paying attention are falling behind. The good news is, this is a good — no, a great opportunity to get on board. And when better than at the start of a new year?
But where to start?

A rule of thumb in the age of the Internet is that if you blink, you probably missed 28 updates to the various sites you use on a regular basis. Sometimes the changes are minor, but even those minor changes can be game changers for marketers and advertisers. So, it’s always good to take a second to consider any kind of changes on the sites you frequent, put your business hat on, and think about how it might affect you or your client.

In the spirit of giving this season, we thought we’d share a few bonus How-To Holiday tips:

The holidays are in full swing, at least according to the retailers filling our inboxes and mailboxes and news feeds. And it’s no wonder: some retailers make 25% to 40% of annual sales during the holidays, and 2010 holiday sales are expected to be up 2.3% to $447.1 billion this year. How do you keep up the energy for an eight-week holiday season? It’s all about timing. From when you send your offers to how many days between reminders to which offers work best at which times of the season… Here’s a suggestion on a holiday calendar with timely offers.

Ok, so after reviewing some basic AdWords reports, you’ve managed to identify some pain points, make some bid changes, maybe even add and remove some keywords. All these changes are made and should help you on the way to having an effective paid search campaign that will deliver the results you’re looking for.

What else can you do?

Google makes a lot of data available to you within the AdWords interface that can give you additional insight into the true performance of your campaign.

The Search Marketing Expo in New York City (SMX – East) has invited emfluence VP of Digital Strategy, Todd Sandoval, to speak on a panel about Mobile Search Advertising in October.

Imagine if your website had more than one doorway, i.e. the home page. What if you could roll out a welcome mat at each page of your site, making it possible for Joe Searcher to come in via the page that is most interesting to him?

Optimize your page well, friends, and it’s possible. So, how do you pick which keywords to target with Search Engine Optimization? How many terms can you optimize a single page or section for?

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