The best way to improve the results of a search engine optimization campaign is to increase the effectiveness of the traffic being driven by your efforts.This is as true for search engine marketing programs for lead generation sites as it is for ecommerce sites.The more leads you get from the traffic coming in, the more profitable your search engine marketing [...]
Big brands are now realizing the value of search engine marketing—but be careful where you pull budget back to support it.SEM and branding are just better together. Here’s why.Many moons ago, I ran paid search for Gateway Computers.We did a good job.In fact, we did such a good job that the ROI from paid search far surpassed any other channel.One [...]
Today’s Ask an SEO question comes from Alessandro in Germany. Alessandro asks:“Should I disavow all links that come from a domain (with domain:example.com) that is stealing us important rankings with syndicated content? Or should we ask them to add a canonical to all syndicated content (past and future content)?”Google’s disavow tool is a bit like a chainsaw.It’s great for chopping [...]
This week’s Ask an SEO question comes from Kanusan in the U.K. who asks:“In order to gain backlinks to your site, could you just offer people a reward (e.g., a discount) if they share it on social media such as Facebook or Twitter?”Several years ago, a friend from high school contacted me out of the blue.He was the director of marketing for [...]
It’s no secret that search engine marketing provides one of the best returns on investment in all of marketing.In most verticals, ranking or bidding on the right keyword can be like printing money.But even seasoned search engine marketing veterans sometimes forget that search can do more than direct sales.There is only one channel, in my experience, that beats search engines [...]
This week’s Ask An SEO question is from Fernanda in São Paulo:“My new competitor is doing a black hat SEO strategy and it’s clearly working for him. He scaled up very quickly in Google rankings and I can see what he is doing through SEMrush platform. I tried to report to Google, but apparently, nothing happened. What else can I do?”As [...]
Words mean things.This was the mantra of my journalism professor and mentor who spent a career in newsroom trenches before deciding to “retire” and teach journalism at the small, liberal arts college where I received my degree.Almost 30 years later (man, I’m old), this simple three-word sentence still rings true.The phrase is specifically germane to my current profession of search [...]
This week’s Ask an SEO question comes from Marcus in East Yorkshire. He asks:If I write a piece of unique content and post it onto my business website, I then also give the same content to a third-party website who links back to me via a follow hyperlink, does this devalue the potential performance of the content on my own website [...]
We are in a recession.During a recession, companies rethink their budgets.Every organization is looking for ways to spend less money, and to spend the money they have more efficiently.History is repeating itself for many in the search engine marketing industry.As the economy worsens, companies look to search engine marketing as a trackable, efficient, and relatively reliable way to generate revenue.But [...]