You don’t have to look far to find social media roundup posts this time of year. But what about the most effective one-two marketing punch for building community AND delivering conversions and ROI?  Social Media and Search Engine Optimization – or “Social SEO” as we like to call it. Out of the 300 or so posts published in...

Content duplication has been a buzz topic in SEO for a while now. You can read about it til you puke and never have to leave WebProNews.com. It's one of the modern webmaster's favorite things to fret over and has been for at least two years. Google doesn't like duplicate content.  We all get that now.  There is still the lingering...

Health Update from RushLimbaugh.com (1:30 AM EST Thursday) ALERT: Rush was admitted to a Honolulu hospital today and is resting comfortably after suffering chest pains. Rush appreciates your prayers and well wishes. He will keep you updated via RushLimbaugh.com and on Thursday's radio program.  Original article: Liberal Hate Tweets...

Online video is an increasingly populur medium from both users' standpoints and business' alike. When done right, it can be a great way to increase engagement and spread brand awareness. It can also be used for search engine optimization purposes. I'm sure you've noticed videos come up in the blended search results for many queries. WebProNews...

Site announcement about Sphinn submissions closing down for the New Year's weekend. All Sphinn users are encouraged to read this and be aware of the downtime.

Our recent reader poll of 14 books either focused on, or with significant content dedicated to, Search Engine Optimization has concluded with 174 votes. And the winner by one vote and 27% of the total votes is…. Art of SEO (Theory in Practice) by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin and Jessie C. Stricchiola. . Published by...

Hulu had a good 2009, and to celebrate the end of it, the company's CEO, Jason Kilar, has decided to share some stats.  Here's a quick hint as to just how successful his organization was: to describe Hulu's growth, the word "double" often doesn't cut it. In a post on the Hulu Blog, Kilar started off by relaying some data from...

Google is stirring up buzz to rival Apple’s yearly expectations with an invitation for reporters to an event January 5—yep, just days before the CES show. Apple has made a tradition of big (or not so big) announcements scheduled conveniently upstaging the popular Consumer Electronics Show. So Google will definitely be cutting into the...

Going through the past year in posts, I realized a few things. First, as with 2008, I wrote quite a lot off site. Second, I need way better navigation for this site, as it's got six years of posts in it now, and even I can't remember what the hell I said half the time. And third, I want to write more. A lot more. I'm expecting that will happen in...

With the end of the year nearing, it is just sinking in to me that we are also closing a decade. The “00″ years are finally done and to many people, it was the worst decade in our lifetime. However good or bad, this decade generated a need for an industry that many of us work in: Reputation Management. Lets take a look back at how we...

Facebook - along with a few other social sites and the developers of games for them - may be in for a great few years.  Certain experts believe that the business of virtual goods is going to take off in a big and very profitable way. Here's the opening line of a new article from the BBC: "Virtual goods such as weapons or digital bottles...

ForeSee Results has issued the results of its annual E-Retailer Satisfaction Index—a survey of 10,000 shoppers at the top 40 retailers—and the results are good—if you’re a big e-tailer. If not, well—let’s just say you’re pulling down the average. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the 40 largest online...

Using YouTube may become a much less passive experience in the near future.  Google's received applied for a patent on a "Web-based system for [the] generation of interactive games based on digital videos," and several facts point to the search giant moving ahead with the idea. Let's start with an overview of the patent.  As...

Google Analytics is one of the most robust offerings by the search giant and it manages to fly under the radar a little bit. It has almost become ubiquitous for a large number of companies that are not prospects for other analytics packages like Omniture, Coremetrics, Webtrends etc. Many will even run it concurrently with these other players that...

In what may be a mini ‘bell weather moment’ in advertising, Pepsi has decided to keep its usual Super Bowl advertising money in its bank account. While they are not exactly saving it they are certainly redirecting it to online opportunities. I say this is a potential ‘bell weather’ moment because it ends a streak of 23...

You don’t have to look very far, especially in the online space, to find a disgruntled AT&T wireless customer. If you would like to increase your likelihood of finding a seething AT&T wireless customer just ask around in New York and San Francisco for iPhone users. This, in and of itself, is not news. As a result though, AT&T...

A couple of the mysteries surrounding the forthcoming Nexus One/Google phone may have been solved.  Information related to the price of the phone and its plan has leaked, and assuming the details are accurate, the device should line up pretty well with the existing marketplace. Here's the bad news: rumors that Google would offer a cheap or...

In what may be a mini ‘bell weather moment’ in advertising, Pepsi has decided to keep its usual Super Bowl advertising money in its bank account. While they are not exactly saving it they are certainly redirecting it to online opportunities. I say this is a potential ‘bell weather’ moment because it ends a streak of 23 consecutive years...

While most of us in the Internet marketing “industry” were all aghast at the Facebook privacy problem of ’09, the rest of the world could have cared less. You know those people, right? The ones who don’t live and breathe this stuff to the point that all perspective is lost? These are the ‘everyday’ Facebook...

Related: 2009 Predictions 2008 Predictions 2008 How I Did 2007 Predictions 2007 How I Did 2006 Predictions 2006 How I Did 2005 Predictions 2005 How I Did 2004 Predictions 2004 How I Did First of all, it's either silly or sublime that when you type (or maybe, given Google now personalizes all results, when *I* type) "predictions 2009" into Google...

Online tools have played important roles in the Iranian protests; right from the start, the appearance of videos on YouTube and trending topics on Twitter helped spread awareness about the disputed presidential election.  And YouTube doesn't want anyone to forget that it's still doing its part. A blog post titled "Ordinary citizens,...

Bing is eyeing the biggest Internet market in the world—China. Still in beta in China, “Bee-ying” was launched back in June without the marketing push and fanfare enjoyed in the US. Reuters emailed questions to Microsoft today, and MSFT responded that they are “committed to the China market and the search market in China is...

As much time and money as Microsoft's devoted to increasing its share of the U.S. search market, it looks like the corporation has another major target in its sights, as well.  Microsoft acknowledged this week that it intends to expend a lot of energy on China. Succeeding in China will be no easy feat (assuming it's even achievable). ...

While most of us in the Internet marketing “industry” were all aghast at the Facebook privacy problem of ’09, the rest of the world could have cared less. You know those people, right? The ones who don’t live and breathe this stuff to the point that all perspective is lost? These are the ‘everyday’ Facebook users who don’t give a rip...

Now that Twitter employs a Chief Scientist, we will benefit from the ongoing interpretation and publishing of Twitter behavior and activity to better understand how Twitter is constantly evolving. In a discussion with Robert Scoble recently, I suggested that Twitter also consider hiring a digital anthropologist or sociologist, to not only analyze...

Six months ago, Google launched Google City Tours. A Labs product for Google Maps, City Tours was based around pedestrian sight-seeing, with maps, walking times and sight suggestions. Now Google is continuing to edge into travel (at least pedestrian travel) with enhancements to City Tours. They’ve added more detailed directions and travel...

Google announced that it now offering cross-domain support of the rel="canonical" link element. If you are unfamiliar with this link element, Google's Matt Cutts discussed it with us here. Basically, it's a way to avoid duplicate content issues, but until now, you couldn't use it across domains. "For some sites, there are...

According to new statistics from Hitwise, a lot of people may not have done the Norman Rockwell thing this holiday season, gathering around a fire with family members.  Instead, they may picked computer screens and online friends, helping propel Facebook to a new high. A 136-character tweet from the Hitwise_US account announced the big news...

One of the coolest parts about about my job is the fact that I am always up to speed on the latest and coolest stuff in the world of search, social media and things of that nature. Over the course of the past decade, there have been no shortage of things to keep my eye on. That's one of the cool parts of my job. What makes it interesting however...

In a recent article, we looked at a debate over what is better between search engine optimization and pay-per-click. Of course both should be used typically, but on a recent panel at SES Chicago, participants were asked to pick a side to highlight the benefits of each compared to the other. It made for some pretty interesting conversation. Both...

Online retail websites experienced significant growth in November as the holiday season officially kicked off, according to a new report from comScore. Among the top gaining retail sub-categories were toys, consumer electronics, and department stores, each growing more than 30 percent compared to October. Toys sites attracted 27.4 million...

Professionals who both own iPhones and are members of LinkedIn are in for a treat.  LinkedIn for iPhone 3.0 has been released, and the new app (which remains free) represents an improvement over the old one in almost every way. The most obvious change comes in the form of a fresh user interface.  Adam Nash, Vice President of Search and...

Great insight and one which really makes sense.

Advertising is morphing and evolving at a rapid pace. That pace still hasn’t moved the online space too far down its own evolutionary road yet. That is at least according to Nikesh Arora, president of Google’s sales operations. In an interview with the Financial Times he gave some insight into how the online advertising world is shaping up and...

Reading Biz Stone’s op-ed in the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper almost had me snoozing. Not that Biz is boring–he’s actually quite fascinating–but the article was just a recap of stuff we already knew. Then I saw these closing statements: ..It can be these things but primarily Twitter serves as a real-time information...

Nearly half (40%) of email marketers plan on increasing their budgets for the channel in 2010 and 47 percent said their budgets would stay the same, according to a new survey by Silverpop. In the coming year, more than half (52%) of email marketers said increasing customer loyalty was a top email marketing goal. Overall, 51 percent of respondents...

If you massage the stats enough, Hulu's an entertainment giant, hanging neck and neck with this year's most popular movies.  If you adopt a more objective perspective, however, it becomes pretty clear that the video-centric site hasn't exactly achieved blockbuster status. In a report released this afternoon to NewTeeVee, Buzzpoint put Hulu...

To some degree, it's part of a cofounder's job to act as a corporate cheerleader; a pessimist could hurt his company by scaring people away.  Biz Stone appears to have all but literally grabbed a megaphone and shouted "rah, rah," though, as he predicted that Twitter usage will hit monster levels next year. A 600-word document...

If any of your Christmas presents were a bit odd-looking or seemed like impulse buys, it might be because the gift giver did his or her shopping using a small, accessible screen.  eBay reported today that mobile transactions picked up dramatically this holiday season compared to last. The volume of mobile transactions tripled on a...

Companies that need a little help with AdWords may now find it easier to receive some thanks to Google.  Only the help won't come directly from Google, as the search giant's in fact launched a search engine for Google Advertising Professionals. It's not necessary to look far for an explanation of this development.  On the new Google...

Early last month, Google announced it was acquiring AdMob for $750M. The deal is still in the works, of course—in part, at least, because the FTC is taking a first and, as of last week, second look at the deal. As the FTC continues to scrutinize the search giant buying the mobile ad giant, consumer groups are taking their opportunity to have...

After a much deserved blogging vacation last week, I thought I’d start this final week of 2009 with wishes of appreciation for the readers of TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog and the fantastic team of writers we have. It was 6 years ago today, that TopRank started an agency blog as a way to publicly save and comment on industry...

Earlier this month, Google announced that its Personalized Search results would come to even computers that weren’t signed in to Google accounts. With the opt-out system in place, many users and public computers can’t help but use personalized search by default—and it may be AdSense publishers paying for it. The logic goes...

Two consumer groups Monday asked the Federal Trade Commission to block Google's $750 million deal to acquire mobile advertising firm, AdMob, on anti-trust grounds. In a joint letter to the FTC, Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) said Google is simply buying its way to dominance in the mobile advertising market, reducing...

Mozilla's next salvos in the browser wars won't come quite as soon as the company previously promised.  Firefox 3.6, which was supposed to ship this month, now isn't scheduled to be finished until sometime during the first quarter of 2010, and the release of Firefox 4.0 has been pushed back, as well. Given how heated the browser rivalry has...

When the world looks at areas where the pure numbers are pretty staggering it’s the sheer size and potential of the Chinese market. Let’s face it there are a lot of Chinese folks. So it would only be natural that Google would like a piece of that pie. What is not normal though is the fact that Google is second fiddle by a considerable margin...

Believe it or not, the company that became IBM was founded in 1896, and at the moment, IBM has a market cap of around $172 billion.  So it's not going anywhere.  And IBM's CEO - who has been with the organization since 1973 - doesn't think Google will become nearly the behemoth some people have predicted. Sam Palmisano recently...

I trust you had a great Christmas! As our minds dream of how fantastic 2010 will be, it’s time to look back at the hot topics of 2009. Here are Marketing Pilgrim’s top ten most read posts in 2009. Bing.com; Is it Worth Switching from Google? – A home run for Microsoft? While Bing certainly deserves credit for being the first...

Amazon.com has announced that for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books on Christmas Day. In addition, Amazon said its Kindle reader has become the most gifted item in the company's history. The Kindle Store boasts more than 390,000 electronic books. "We are grateful to our customers for making...

As expected it looks like this week may be a bit light in the news department. That’s fine. Everyone needs a break from time to time. So as I am looking around this morning I come across an op-ed piece in the New York Times that is written by Adam Raff, a co-founder of Foundem, an Internet technology company. From what I can gather, Mr. Raff is...

As we did last year, we have gone back through our archives and picked out some of the most noteworthy social media items we have covered since 2009 began. Now that 2009 is almost over, it was worth going  back and seeing what all has happened. If you come across missing items, please feel free to share them in the comments. January In...

Google has recently added a “Report A Problem” Link for reporting business Listing spam & errors from within Maps. The link is available via the business listing info bubble where once you select “Edit” you are presented with a “Report A Problem” link that takes you to a short form.

In keeping with the theme of reflecting upon the year 2009, we thought it would be fun to go back through our video archive and find the ones that were the most popular from this year. It turns out, WebProNews readers (or viewers rather) really wanted to watch Matt Cutts videos. He appears on the list several times. Here are the top ten...

Google pushing Chrome on the home page.

As a follow up to a recent article we ran on how press releases can be great for search, a representative for PRWeb, a press release distribution company, contacted us with another interesting example. This one looks at the shelf-life press releases can have, with regards to search traffic. "A small business called Leatherup.com, which...

Just as we did at the end of 2008, we have gone back through our entire archive for the year 2009 and picked out the articles that received the most conversation from our readers. As we approach the new year, we thought it would be fun to go back and reflect on some of the things that got people talking in the one that's wrapping up....

I’d like to be among the first to wish you a very Merry Christmas. I’m not sure what Christmas means to you, but here’s what it means to me. Thanks Linus, I couldn’t have said it any better!

Santa Claus Update: If you’ve not visited the NORAD Santa Tracker, you should head on over there. Google Maps is providing live tracking of Santa Claus–who’s currently in Ireland: You can also track Santa via Twitter! ====== As we’ve done for many years, it’s time to forget about marketing and focus on the...

Update: MySpace has sent an email around to imeem users giving them an update about playlists. The MySpace Music team is working around the clock to duplicate your imeem playlists and make them available to you on myspacemusic.com as soon as possible. In the coming weeks, we will be emailing you with instructions on how to claim your playlists on...

Update: Yahoo has issued the following statment regarding MyBlogLog's future: Frankly, it’s no secret within Yahoo! that we’re actively discussing the future of MyBlogLog. However, it’s also true that we have not made any final decisions at this point. Is a shutdown on the table? Sure, that’s an option. But there are...

Google has issued a statement regarding the company's pending acquisition of AdMob. Google's intent to acquire the company was announced back in early November. The deal was for $750 million in stock. Since then, the Federal Trade Commission has vowed to closely scrutinize the deal. Google had this to say today: As we said when we announced the...

Compete puts together a monthly ranking of the top 250 Web sites in the US, based on unique visitors, and breaks up the data by relevant categories and behavioral segments. The firm is sharing the top 50. "Despite continued concerns surrounding the economic recovery, holiday shoppers flocked to the Web in November," says Compete....

Pepsi will reportedly be skipping its annual Super Bowl commercials, and will instead invest the money it would generally spend on those, in social media marketing. This would make the first time in 23 years that Pepsi will not have Super Bowl ads. Larry D. Woodard, President and CEO of Manhattan ad agency Vigilante writes in an ABC News...

I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath all holiday season to find out which of the made-up online shopping holidays would be the winner—Cyber Monday for the first time ever? Green Monday again? Brown Monday? Purplish-Blue-Like-a-Bruise Monday? Sadly, none of the above. Nope, it was some no name: Tuesday, December 15. Coming from...

According to Opera, Facebook is the most popular site on the mobile web in Africa. In addition, a report from the company shows a 5% jump in global mobile Internet users. Opera Mini has garnered more than 41.7 million users worldwide showing a 5.3 percent jump compared to the previous month, according to the report. The number of page views in...

Facebook has drubbed MySpace on almost all fronts—in the media, with users, in growth, in traffic—except ad revenue. But expect that to change next year, according to eMarketer: “It will surpass its former rival, MySpace, in ad revenues in 2010, when marketers worldwide will spend $605 million on Facebook versus $385 million on...

Google has shared the top retail searches for the 2009 holiday season. These results are based on the company's Insights for Search tool. "Using Google Insights for Search, we can see that the hottest toys over the last seven days include stalwarts like Pikachu and Legos, as well as newcomers, such as the Nerf Marshmellow Shooter and the...

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, otherwise known as NORAD is tracking Santa Claus's rounds this year, keeping up a tradition that has been going on for 54 years. Norad has been working with Google for several years by way of Google Maps and Google Earth. Last year, they started using Google Analytics as well. Google is now sharing a...

Harris Interactive has released the findings of its latest poll on Internet users. This doesn't come as much of a shock, but people are spending more time online these days. According to the poll, adult Internet users are spending an average of 13 hours a week online." Of course, people's usage varies greatly; one in five (20%) of adult...

It’s hard to believe that 2009 is finally coming to an end. As is always a very popular practice the media likes to take us on a stroll down Memory Lane but make sure we take a brief turn onto Morbid Court. Why? Because it is important to recap what celebrities either died or train-wrecked their lives in the past year. I admit that I read these...

I don’t quite ever remember a social network that I at first so loved, and then ultimately, so hated. Fortunately, the bad taste left in my mouth by MyBlogLog will likely go away at the beginning of the year–according to rumors that Yahoo will shutter the service. MyBlogLog had so much potential as a network that connected bloggers...

Shocked aren’t ya? It really is two days before Christmas because there is just not much happening. The folks at Harris Interactive are still working though and reporting that we are spending more time online than ever before. This will surprise no one but the report digs into some of the specifics of age groups which is always of interest....

Twitter has partnered with Telstra to launch Twitter SMS in Australia. "As always, it is free to receive notifications and standard text messaging rates apply to sending," says Twitter's Kevin Thau. "It's the same pricing as sending and receiving text messages from friends." To use the feature, users can simply send...

Press releases are not only great ways to spread the word about any announcements your business might have. They can also drive traffic, particularly from search engines. This is not news, but it's a commonly overlooked fact. Have press releases brought you significant search traffic? Discuss here. "Search engine rankings are arguably...

The mobile version of Firefox - also known as Fennec - is almost ready to launch.  Indeed, a Mozilla exec was recently quoted as saying that a release could be "days away," so it's possible that the new mobile browser will appear in time for some tech-inclined individuals to play with it on New Year's Eve or even Christmas. Word of...

As people return home this holiday season, there will be all sorts of hugs and "have you had enough to eat"s.  Then they'll be pressed into service, lifting heavy stuff or perhaps climbing ladders.  And Google would very much appreciate it if visitors install the company's software, too. A new post on the Official Google Blog...

To say that 2009 has been the year of Google Wave might be a stretch. It was introduced this year, and invites have been sent out to quite a few people now. It has been the subject of a fair amount of discussion, but it hasn't reached the mainstream yet. That said, 2009 was the year Google Wave was unleashed upon the world in its most primitive...

Recently, a Microsoft disclosure states that a Chinese contract developer working for MSN China was developing “Juku” a micro-blogging site similar to Plurk. According to Plurk, they were doing more than developing, they actually copied code. Microsoft has apologized, but Plurk most likely will take legal action. Similarly, Bing! is...

Microsoft has lost an appeal in a patent case over Microsoft Word. A U.S. court of appeals upheld a jury verdict against the company for infringing on a patent held by Toronto's i4i. Microsoft lost the case to a tune of $290 million. Reuters reports:   The court also affirmed an injunction that prevents Microsoft from selling versions of...

Earlier this month, Google revealed it was filing suit against Pacific WebWorks (and other yet-to-be-named parties) for infringing on its trademark. Pacific WebWorks was among the companies running a “Google Work from Home” scam, advertising a way to make money off Google, to be learned through an inexpensive kit (and hidden,...

Google's Custom Search turned three in 2009, and it had arguably its biggest year to date. The technology is powering "many tens of millions" of queries a day on millions of sites, according to the company. As many others are doing, Google is reminiscing about the year that is almost over, and reflecting upon some of its...

Just a week after Google launched its URL shortener, Goo.gl, it’s premiering another one, this time for YouTube. And because we can’t stand to learn yet another URL shortener name, they’re going with youtu.be. To use the new shortener, you just append the video ID to youtu.be/, so http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKOTClyVrIc become...

You may recall that a lot of entities -including Google, Yahoo, and Bing - released some top/best of/worst of 2009 lists back in late November and early December, seemingly forgetting about the last one-twelfth of the year.  Bing returned today with more data about search trends, however. As with the list of popular status updates that...

It is often pointed out that the disconnect from those in the social media trenches to those in the C-level corner offices is significant and often damaging to the marketing efforts of many companies. While it can be fun to generalize and then make those at the top of the marketing food chain the culprits in the “Great Social Media...

In an informal survey it would be interesting to know how many of our readers that made it this far into the post use TweetDeck as their third party Twitter app. I for one do on the desktop and as my mobile Twitter app in an iPod Touch. Alas, the old Blackberry disconnect ends my ability to be a full fledged TweetDecker. Are you a TweetDeck user?...

Motorists who write text messages while driving are six times more likely to crash than those who don't text while driving, according to a new study by University of Utah psychologists. Researchers Frank Drews and colleagues found evidence that attention patterns differ for drivers who text versus those who talk on a cell phone. For those who...

Forget the hype... just the facts.. excellent summary of where we are in search right now and a glimpse into where we need to be headed.

Eight days ago, we wrote about a Google Chrome advertising campaign that's taking place in the UK.  This morning, Hitwise followed up on the subject by publishing some statistics, and the stats indicate that that the campaign's achieved a certain level of success. Robin Goad wrote, "As the chart below illustrates, UK Internet searches...

Here’s a fun Christmas game for you to play. How many different types of lawsuits can you think of that include Google AdWords? Put your party creative hats on and see what you can come up. OK, Sellify, you go first! Sue Amazon over defamatory statements posted in Google AdWords by one of its affiliates? Wow! That is creative! And,...

Amazon.com said today it is offering free one day shipping for orders of its Kindle placed on December 23 and promises delivery in time for Christmas. The company is also offering free two day shipping for Kindle orders placed today. Last week Amazon said its Kindle broke another record with its best sales day. The company did not provide any...

This might or might not be an obvious point, but by unplugging their computers, shutting the lights off, and turning the heat down, people who leave their homes this holiday season stand to save a significant amount of money.  And now Yahoo should, too, as it's announced a decision to close corporate offices worldwide for one week. Except...

YouTube has launched its own URL shortener, but it is not like other URL-shorteners, because it can only be used specifically with YouTube videos. This way, YouTube says, when you click on one, you know you're going to a YouTube video no matter what. That should certainly cut down on the likelihood that you could be going to a malicious site....

Would the last person to leave Yahoo, please turn off all the lights? You may think I’m mocking the gradual decline of the tech company, but I’m not. Not this time. Apparently, in a measure of frugality, Yahoo is sending home all but its most essential employees for the Christmas break. According to AP: It’s the first time that...

Forrester recently released a new report tracking the future of US interactive marketing through 2014. Authored by Shar VanBoskirk, with Christine Spivey Overby, Niki Scevak, and Angie Polanco, Forrester predicts that interactive marketing is poised to grow at a 16% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Even though interactive marketing will...

Facebook users are a pretty important group of people; after all, in recent months, it's been established that there are more of them than there are individuals in the United States.  So to wrap up 2009, Facebook's provided a list that helps spell out what its users have been thinking about all year. You can view the list of top status...

Some time ago, Google established a tradition of sending top AdSense and AdWords users holiday gifts.  This year, it's departing from that routine.  But people are going to have a hard time complaining about the decision, because instead, Google's committed $20 million to a group of charities. AdSense and AdWords partners received...

Next year, Ford will be introducing it's new version of SYNC, a technology it partnered with Microsoft on. This technology will allow you to have constant Wi-Fi in your car. All an owner of a SYNC-ready car would have to do is plug in a compatible USB mobile broadband modem (or air card), and they will create a secure wireless connection that...

Good post sharing a story on a freelancer James Chartrand of Men With Pens announced that he is actually a she.

Last guest post of the year from Dixon Jones at Receptional. Gives some quick, top tips on how to ensure you're all set up correctly for traffic to start flowing from Microsoft adCenter!

From the blog: Don’t compare us to lawyers, don’t try to tell us we are selling snake oil, and especially – I mean especially, don’t try to tell us our industry is dead (have you heard of Google?). We have heard it all before, and to be quite honest, we are getting bored of it. Seriously figure out something else to talk about in 2010....

Parameters we are almost sure (with different level of confidence) to be included in the algorithm (for your convenience I linked some of them to our previous discussions on the topic)

David Mihm knows local, and he has a few thoughts on how this deal may affect the landscape of local search as we now see it.

When it comes to businesses leveraging the social web to communicate with customers and improve brand awareness, there’s some good news and there’s some bad news. The good news: 86% of professionals have adopted social media in some way, according to a recent survey by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education. The bad news: A whopping 84% of...

Worth mentioning... Videos showing traffic patterns at the NYT.com News on Gravity, seems to be an updated take on forums/groups from ex Myspace folks. Yet another reader from the publishing industry, this one called Mag+. They get this part: "Let the Web be the Web." Indeed. New AOL editorial chief Saul Hansell late of NYT explains how AOL is a...

Reading about this study using Facebook data (original link) gave me some hope that we may see true insights from third party academics doing high integrity fieldwork on top of the Facebook data. My wish for Facebook is that it welcome such work, create parameters and ensure privacy, but allow researchers to really dig in. Much could be learned....

From the post:  To demonstrate the power of long tail search, this blog post today is going to give you a glimpse into how long tail search has helped us attract not only visitors to our website, but has also generated leads for us. As I go through this example, think about how this abstract information can be directly applied to your business....

Ken Lyons (from WordStream) dropped in to guest post on the Trail this week. He is highlighting their new tools and how it can be used to create a system to manage link text diversity. Pretty cool actually.... Give it a read!

By creating an inventory of link building assets, you lay the foundation for a sustainable link building campaign. A linkable asset is a person, web page or other resource capable of inciting a person or organization to create a link. We’ve identified two broad types of assets: the “tangible” link building assets on your website, and the...

eMarketer is one of the most cited resources for internet marketing trends, so when I received some tasty predictions for 2010, I thought they were too useful to keep to myself. These insights include future monetization models, the effect of transparency on advertising, social and search, mobile, social commerce, public relations, social...

Everyone knows Kindle is a closed development platform (IE, there's not an app environment that lets developers make the Kindle platform better). Today I saw the news that Google has doubled the number of publishing partners who are now leveraging the company's "Fast Flip" e-reader software, and it got me to thinking.   First, Fast Flip...

Lisa Barone gives an excellent rebuttal to advice given by Robert Scoble to small businesses to ignore SEO.

You know the great thing about Antiques Roadshow? Aside from finding out that grandma’s ugly ceramic cat collection can actually bankroll a Caribbean cruise. It’s the idea that maybe; just maybe somewhere in our lives there are things that, with a little bit of lemon pledge and a new coat of paint, could actually become highly valuable.

The reason you need to keep SEO front and center during this time is twofold: so that you do not lose your previous traffic, but also so that you can gain additional targeted search engine visitors when the new site goes live. Here are 6 SEO redesign secrets your developer may not know...ignore them at your own peril!

Whether you’re ready to embrace it or not, social media is changing the way we communicate and make decisions. Today’s technology has impacted our daily lives and routines in a big way. If you don’t wake up to Facebook, you probably know someone who does. And good luck trying to escape the world of Twitter – it’s even invaded the nightly...

Everyone's doing it! YouTube's most watched came out this morning. Again, nothing that eye opening. Wish they'd dig deeper.

The next in our series of interviews with Minnesota based, social media savvy marketing and public relations professionals is Greg Swan, Digital Account Group Manager at Weber Shandwick Digital. Greg manages and executes interactive public relations programs for Weber Shandwick clients across consumer, technology and public affairs industries. As...

Rand Fishkin tackles some of the recent trends we've been observing from the engines and talk about his personal perception of what's to come over the next 12 months.

I wrote my first book after seeing Google Zeitgeist eight years ago. Maybe Twitter's first ever "Trends" will push me to get off the damn couch and finish my second.    Nah. After reviewing them, it's clear that Twitter's first trends release is, well, a bit predictable. But I am sure there is really interesting data locked behind that...

The North Face Apparel Corporation is suing a small suburban St. Louis-area company called The South Butt. The lawsuit filed last week in federal court in St. Louis seeks unspecified damages and asks the court to prohibit The South Butt from marketing and selling its parody product line which includes T-shirts, fleece jackets and sweatshirts....

Zhu Zhu Pets are kicking the stuffing out “Elmo” anything; They are the new hit and the superstars of the 2009 holiday shopping season. Retailers everywhere are selling out of the  $10 fuzzy hamster toys, but the demand is pushing prices much higher. For example, Toys R Us online is sold out,  but don’t fear, Amazon.com is...

Despite efforts by many to roll SEO and conversion optimization into a single skill set, they're actually very different specialties.  An important reality check from David Harry on the differences between the two.

Adding a company blog is a great idea for many different reasons: internal links, as a communication channel for your company, to show your creativity, create yourself as an authority in your industry, and for brand awareness.

Google recently announced that it’s algorithm will factor in page load speed in addition to the other 200 or so ranking factors currently employed. This move, broadly welcomed by web developers and users, means it is now more important than ever to optimize the speed of your websites. Speed optimisation will not only keep Google happy, it will...

We're pushing it as an industry, I think. Google making all search personal and its leadership claiming privacy is for those with something to hide. Facebook pushing all data out into the world (and ticking off Danny, of all people). The advertising ecosystem leveraging more and more data, but not thinking hard enough about how that data is...

Before you even start thinking about link baiting, you should have some goals prepared. If the goals seem to be within reach, you’ll have to decide what kind of link building strategy would probably be the most effective in your situation. And if it turns out that link baiting is the appropriate weapon of choice, you usually have three options.

With all the hubub about personalized and real time search and the potential impact on the SEO work that can influence search visibility, the question about relevance comes to mind when considering books about search engine optimization. Search engines like Google change often (38 new search products in 70 days) so one could argue that a book...

Christmas comes just once a year, but terrible websites can be found all-year long! When it comes to SEO-friendly web design, here are a few practices that will have you asking Santa Claus for a new webmaster this Christmas.

Ann Smarty with another essential list on Search Engine Journal for Local Search.

Well, I started off the new year lamenting the general lack of understanding of IR in the greater SEO community. So, hey... why not end it that way? If you're in the SEO game; start off the new year by geekin out! M'kay? Thanks... Carry on.

Although there is still a little bit of time before 2009 is officially over, since many of you are going to be spending a lot of time traveling and attempting to hide from you in-laws over the next couple of weeks, I thought it would be useful to provide this great reading material now.

(This piece was written for the BingTweets blog and is part of an ongoing exploration of search underwritten by Microsoft. See my series on the interplay of search and decisions here, here, and here. I wrote the piece below before today's web-wide conversation about content farms, but I think it's related. We need new frameworks for search, and...

Paul points it out as a failed dishwasher search. Mike complains about automated content as does RWW. And we all have experienced it: The Google ecosystem is failing more - failing to get us what we think we want. Failing to not frustrate us. Failing at the more complicated queries we are throwing at it. Failing to be the Google that we came to...

You know, I just realized I suggested that Facebook do exactly what it's doing. Read this post from back in June, deconstructing an article in Wired about the emerging Facebook v. Google battle. In it I say: I think it's a major strategic mistake to not offer [as much information on Facebook as possible] to Google (and anyone else that wants to...

Dave Snyder writes: The citation method of ranking indexed content is flawed. It is based on human aid, and any technology based on the work of humans is always going to have flaws. Links are the product of what elicits an emotion from website owners, and the link builder that can tap these emotions is going to be able to manipulate the most...

For many companies, an ideal world involving Search Engine Optimization would be simple, quick and a one-time task to check off a list. An organization would create a website, optimize its content for target keywords and promote the site. Soon, the website would acquire a strong number of inbound links and start ranking for those target keywords....

Make sure to bookmark and read each of these - really good selection by a knowledgeable SEO pro.

Online Marketing Blog continues sharing Minnesota-based social media expertise with the next installment of our MiNterview series. Connie Bensen is a key voice amongst online Community Managers. Her blog is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating online communities and providing best practices for this emerging role. She also provides...

This is a big deal. Facebook is taking the final step to become more like Twitter. Thanks to RWW for pointing it out. I've been traveling and had not had a chance to read the new privacy settings, which state: ...we'll be recommending that you make available to everyone a limited set of information that helps people find and connect with you,...

AOL was finally set free today, years after it should have been. Congrats to the AOL team and Tim Armstrong, and I imagine, to the Time Warner folks who managed to destroy so much value by blaming everything on the merger in the first place (sure, it was a bad deal, but man, AOL was not the reason Time Inc. went south!). Read my rant asking Time...

Here we are near the end of 2009 and at the last Search Engine Strategies conference of the year.  While many conferences are down in attendance, SES Chicago actually beat last year’s numbers by about 100, according to Matt McGowan, VP, Publisher & Head of US at Incisive Media, the company that owns SES. There are many ways to get...

Dan Zarrella, a self-described “social media marketing & viral marketing scientist” lives at the intersection of social marketing and web development.  He’s known for conducting experiments with Twitter, compiling data behind the social web, creating interesting web applications and blogging.  And now, he has released a...

I appreciate it’s a recession, and small businesses haven’t got cash to spend, but there’s a problem here: You'll get what you've paid for: probably a search engine death penalty. If you took out an ad in a local paper for £75 you would get no 2 lines of text on a page that most people won’t read. You will not get into a national...

Back in the early days of Twitter,  also known as the ancient times of 2006, sharing links on Twitter was a huge problem. A link to a particularly insightful blog would look like this: http://www.metamend.com/blog/2009/12/01/metamend-replica-watch-and-discount-online-pharmacy-diploma-tm Having only 140 characters at your disposal, this means that...

As marketers, we spend a lot of time thinking about our message, as well we should. Our job is to tell prospective customers how we can help them, so we focus on what we say. The Internet has turned the tables on marketers, however. Time was that marketing messages were conceived by extremely creative people to get attention for products, but now,...

Moderated by Simon Heseltine, Senior Marketing Manager for AOL with panelists including: Eli Goodman from comScore, Justin Merickel of Efficient Frontier and Doug McMillen from Microsoft Advertising. First up is Justin Merickel from Efficient Frontier, which runs about $180m in PPC through their platform. Justin talked about two main trends: The...

[Note from Lee: A few weeks ago, Michelle wrote a great post on Retail SEO tips and this week, I've asked her to tackle B2B SEO and general search marketing tips, since one-size SEO does not fit all programs. Enjoy!] Search marketing should be a top priority for organizations in any industry. But B2B search marketing efforts take a slightly...

Minnesota is home to a tremendous amount of digital marketing and social media talent. The local Social Media Breakfast events are notorious for “selling out” in minutes and attracting upwards of 300 – 350 attendees.  There are over 1,200 members of the group’s SMBMSP social network. The founder of this group is none...

Next week is the final search marketing conference of the year for me and most others in the SEM industry: Search Engine Strategies Chicago is a MidWest focused event that will offer keynotes from the likes of Jeff Jarvis, Author of What WouldGoogle Do? and a multitude of Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced breakout sessions covering SEO, PPC,...

Let’s say that you have figured out a great domain name, checked for availability and to your amazement, no one has purchased it yet! After finding this needle in the haystack, you have dreams of the next hot Internet business or the virtual millions that you are going to make by monetizing this property! Then you suddenly remember the last...

Salesmanship has always been a little bit about hype. Putting a shine on what you’ve got. Painting it in the best possible light. You get the idea. But when it crosses a line, it becomes fooling your customers. Not only is it unethical, but it doesn’t really work very well anymore. The Internet makes it a lot harder to do than it once...

From time to time I like to post a case study as an example of the implementation of all the good advice we’ve been giving the past 6 years. Tips and how to’s are great, but stories of implementation are like a picture being worth a 1,000 words. The following is a basic case study for SEO work performed on a portion of the PRSA site...