MarketingProfs Daily: Search Engine Marketing

Bing-Powered Share of US Search Reaches 30% in April

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Bing-powered searches--those served by Bing.com and search.yahoo.com--accounted for 30.01% of all US searches conducted in the four weeks ended April 28, 2012, up 5% from the previous month and up 11% from the previous year, according to data from Experian Hitwise. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

What Gardening Can Teach You About Keyword Plans

Mon, 14 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

What can gardening techniques teach you about growing a keyword plan? Quite a lot, it turns out. "When you plant seedlings, you need to plant them in groups according to how much sun they need and how aerated the soil should be," writes Jenny Halasz at Search Engine Land. "You ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Three Backlinking Mistakes to Avoid

Mon, 7 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

A strong SEO program relies on backlinks&mdash;links to your website from external sources. "Those backlinks signal to search engines how influential and relevant your business is online," writes Chris Sheehy in an article at MarketingProfs. They "trigger local citations of your business and aid in deepening your local market penetration," ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Social Media Top Channel for Sharing Curated Content

Mon, 7 May 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Content curation is everywhere: 95% of surveyed marketers say they have curated content in the past six months (i.e., shared content from blogs, industry publications, or other online channels with customers or prospects), according to a survey from Curata. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Five Ways to Market an Effective Online Video [Video]

Tue, 1 May 2012 14:00:00 GMT

You've got a killer online video, but now what? In Part 2 of this online video master class, you'll learn essential tips for marketing an effective online video. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Three SEO Don'ts Straight From Google

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:00:00 GMT

When you work in SEO, it might seem that Google is always trying to trip you up. But that's not really the case, argues Brandignity: "They don't dislike all SEOs because ... we actually help catalog information and pages; that in turn helps their search identify which pages make sense to ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Is a PPC Campaign Right for You?

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:00:00 GMT

"I get asked about pay per click (PPC) marketing quite frequently by my full-service SEO and B2B SEO consulting clients," writes Nick Stamoulis in a guest post at the Resource Nation blog. "They want to know how much of an impact PPC is really going to have on their online ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Should You Host Your Blog On-Site or Off-Site?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:00:00 GMT

"Blogs increase your credibility, boost your traffic, and put a personality behind your brand," writes Lindsay Atkinson at the Renegade Search blog. "But how should [a blog] be executed? Should it be hosted on your website or on a completely different domain?" The short answer is: It depends. To help you ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

WOM, UGC Much More Trusted Than Email, Social Media, Advertising

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations from friends and family and user-generated content (UGC) are sources most trusted for information about the products people want and need, according to a new report by Nielsen. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Five Steps to Improved Local Search ROI

Mon, 9 Apr 2012 17:00:00 GMT

"Local search is one of the fastest growing categories of online advertising, expected to increase as much as 10% per year through 2015," writes Jon Schepke in an article at MarketingProfs. And with good reason. Consider the ROI of a local search campaign that Schepke's company implemented for an international hotelier: ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Three Ways to Know Your SEO is Working

Mon, 2 Apr 2012 17:00:00 GMT

You've put an SEO program in place&mdash;but how can you tell if it's working? "Ultimately, the only factor that determines success is the bottom-line; like any investment, we do not think that our services are truly successful unless we can provide positive ROI," writes Taylor Cimala at the Renegade Search ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Top B2B Firms Gaining 230% More Leads via Social Media Than Peers

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Best-in-Class B2B companies generate on average 17% of their leads from social media channels, roughly 230% more marketing-generated leads than other companies (5%), according to a new report by Aberdeen Group, which examines the social marketing strategies of top-performing B2B companies. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Three Keyword Pitfalls Sure to Kill Your SEO Efforts

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:00:00 GMT

"Doing keyword research is like being a detective: you're always searching for those tiny but valuable clues that decide the fate and future of a case you are handling," writes Lior Levin in an article at MarketingProfs. If you're serious about words like sales, profits, and conversions, Levin argues, your research ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

How to Discover an SEO Cheater in Your Midst

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:00:00 GMT

When you're thrilled with the results your SEO program generates, you might not ask many questions about how it's done&mdash;and let potentially problematic practices go undetected until it's too late. "Companies may not realize [when] employees may be taking shortcuts," writes Douglas Karr at the Marketing Tech blog. "And companies ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

LinkedIn Use by Professionals in Industrial Sector Surges

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:00:00 GMT

The use of social networks, particularly LinkedIn, among engineering, technical, manufacturing and industrial professionals continues to rise: 55% of surveyed tech professionals now use LinkedIn, up 18 percentage points, or 48.6%, from the 37% who did so a year earlier, according to a report by GlobalSpec. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

What B2B Marketers Can Learn From Breaking News

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Search engines such as Bing and Google tend to change the way they render SERPs (search engine results pages) in reaction to breaking news, favoring placed results (e.g., news, videos, and images) above the fold rather than organic search results, according to a new study by Optify. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Three Tips for Preserving Your Online Anchor Identity

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:00:00 GMT

In the push to optimize your Web presence for local search, it's important to avoid techniques that tamper with your anchor identity&mdash;the name, address, and phone number contained in your business listing. "Think of your anchor identity as your digital storefront or the glue that holds your online reputation together and ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Newspaper Digital Ad Sales Not Offsetting Print Losses

Thu, 8 Mar 2012 14:00:00 GMT

As advertisers continue to shift spending from traditional print media to the Internet, newspapers are failing to make up for the decline in print advertising revenues via gains in online ad revenues, according to a report by Pew Research. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Is Stirring Up Viral Controversy Worth the Risk?

Mon, 5 Mar 2012 18:00:00 GMT

How far would you go to create the sort of shareable content that goes viral? Would you&mdash;for instance&mdash;risk your reputation with a video that's almost certain to invite accusations of fakery? In a post at ReelSEO, Jeremy Scott discusses a video that attracted plenty of hits&mdash;and skepticism. Did a GForm case ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Half of SMBs Use Social Media for Marketing

Fri, 2 Mar 2012 14:00:00 GMT

More than one-half (52%) of surveyed small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) say they use social media to promote their businesses, and 49% purchase online advertising (including SEM products) themselves, directly from websites, according to a new report by BIA/Kelsey. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Five Ways to Make Your Brand Relevant on the Local Web [Slide Show]

Thu, 1 Mar 2012 15:00:00 GMT

When you conduct a Web search that includes your brand name, your product category, and a geographic modifier, do you like the results you see? If not, improve your Local Web presence by mastering these five key areas. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Inbound Marketing Leads Cost 61% Less Than Outbound

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Businesses that use primarily inbound marketing strategies for lead acquisition consistently report lower cost-per-lead (CPL) rates than those using outbound-centric strategies, according to the 2012 State of Inbound Marketing report by HubSpot. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Four Tips for Social Media SEO

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

You probably optimize the content at your website&mdash;but what about SEO for less formal interaction at blogs and social networks? "B2B marketers should be looking to expand the reach of their social media efforts to drive more traffic back to their websites (and their calls-to-action)," writes Jeffrey L. Cohen at the ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Before You Name Your Company, Consider How Google Will Rank It

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Naming a company or a product used to involve a number of factors&mdash;none of which related to SEO considerations. But no longer. "It doesn't matter whether your brand is online or not, "[I]t will be googled, " says Ann Smarty in an article at MarketingProfs. "So, before you choose your brand ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Key Steps in the Quest for Quality Links

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT

"What search engines are forcing us to do&mdash;especially post-Google Panda&mdash;is to win quality links," writes Ken McGaffin in an article at MarketingProfs. "And quality links are hard to get." Hard&mdash;but not impossible. McGaffin suggests you begin your quest for stellar links by assembling a list of potential link partners and setting a ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs