Google has begun canceling or deactivating accounts that have been inactive for a while. Google will email a notification if they do so. If your Google Ads Account cancelled? No worries this 60 second video shows how to instantly reactivate your Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) Account, then breath easy. Here is the transcription of the video: So if your Google Ads campaign has not been active for up to 15 months now Google may cancel your account, or actually render it inactive. So you will receive an email such as this. Not to panic, simply go into your login ...
Read more Why do Search Engines crave fresh content? Yahoo, Google and the likes want to give you what you are searching for, so you will return there for your next search. Then, who knows, maybe one day a week you will click on a sponsored ad and the SE will make some money. But how determined are they? The last time I checked, a blog post I made, was indexed by Google in 9 hours (by the time I checked). It was ranking in 21 hours – again by the time I thought to check. So how about you? The SEs ...
Read more According to the students – now graduates – of the Certified SEO Basic Essentials and Advanced SEO Workshops held in Oakville last month, big time. Barry and I had a great time with the students who really dug in and participated in the class and the group projects Joining us were John Alexander, co-founder of the Search Engine Academy, who presented the magic of keyword and behavior research, and Bob Gill www.i2bglobal.com who worked with us in the Advanced Workshop presenting SEO database workarounds and more technical topics. Check out the testimonials to see what our past students think of ...
Read more Just in! John Alexander, Search Engine Academy co-founder, will be joining SEO Expert Instructors Barry Byers & Greg Mate for 2 days of the Advanced 3-Day SEO Workshop November 14 & 15 2007 in Oakville (Toronto, Ontario). Nov 12-13 is the 2-Day SEO Basic Essentials Workshop. Nov 14-16 is the Advanced 3-Day SEO Workshop. The 5-Day All Inclusive SEO Course runs Nov 12-16. There is limited seating. The fast approaching registration deadline for these Search Engine Optimization Training Courses is 5pm Nov 2, 2007. These are interactive workshops – not seminars – one will learn a proven 6 step method ...
Read more According to Hitwise, Google continued to dominate May 2007 percentage of US searches. Google 65.13% Yahoo 20.89% MSN 8.40% Ask 3.92%
Yahoo Inc. is about to start a new ad campaign using comedy, that will run on traditional and online media, according to NewFactor.com “Last year Yahoo outspent Google by 72%, $353 million in advertising vs. Google’s $205 million, according to TNS Media Intelligence.” Theresa Howard wrrote. Even after spending $98 million more in advertising “…Yahoo’s first-quarter ad revenue was $1.6 billion, less than half of Google’s $3.8 billion in the same period. Yahoo’s share of search requests in the quarter remained flat at about 28%, while Google’s rose slightly to 48%, according to Internet tracker ComScore.” So what does Yahoo ...
Read more In October Yahoo purchased 20% of the 4-year-old company, Right Media, for $40 million. Yesterday Terry Semel, Chairman and CEO of Yahoo Inc announced they have agreed to purchase the remaining 80% for another $680 million. Semel’s post Democracy and the online ad states “… I believe has the potential to dramatically enhance Internet advertising. We hope to revolutionize the way ads are bought and sold on the Internet and, in turn, drive more value for advertisers, publishers, and partners.” In One Giant Leap for the Exchange, and for Interactive Advertising Right Media Founder and CEO, Michael Walrath, claims “It’s ...
Read more Google up slightly in market share while Yahoo , MSN, ASK and AOL remain the same. Google: 48.1% Yahoo: 28.1% Microsoft Live: 10.5% Ask: 5.0% AOL: 4.9% Search engine land charts out the past 12 months for comparison.
Entrepreneur.com has an interesting article on local search and 15 ways to promote your site locally. Google AdWords Yahoo! Local Listings CitySearch Ask.com’s AskCity AOL’s CityGuide Craigslist MerchantCircle.com Dotster Local.com Froogle Local ReachLocal RegisterLocal TrueLocal YellowPages.com Web.com’s MyEzClicks program You can follow the links to review each of the sites.
Link building is an important part of SEO. Google has announced that they are providing valuable linking information to webmasters. Google’s webmaster central blog indicates that Google is now giving you the full phrase that people are using to link to your site. Log in to your web master tools and use the improved tool to make sure your inbound links are relevant to your site.
Computerworld published an article regarding some interesting comments from Matt Cutts. The article mentions Matt and some freely offered clues, “such as placing keywords in the title, headings and even the URL, and keeping related words close together.” Hint (LSI). Keywords in the title, description, headings and url are a standard practice. LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) is a fantastic tool and in many cases, if you are knowledgeable about your topic, you may find out that the LSI is already in place when the writing is complete.
A Google blog entry indicates that Google will make their user records anonymous after 18-24 months. Taking steps to protect the privacy of their users, Google intends to begin the process in the next few months. You can choose to have your records retained for personalized search.
I love this comment on Matt Cutts’ blog. Matt is talking about viral marketing and the tactics used by a website to spread the word. “The buzz built pretty organically. USB drives were left in bathrooms at conferences and messages were hidden in conference T-shirts. It’s much better to let people find you than to push too hard to get noticed. The links from the people-find-you approach are more organic than if someone spammed to get links to viral sites.” I added bold to the comment I am referring to. Think about it, Matt Cutts telling you it is better to let ...
Read more Matt Cutts’ blog indicates that Google is taking a serious look at search results within results. Search results can be infuriating when you click on a top results only to find yourselves once again looking at a results page. Yes, you may wind up on a camera vendor’s site if you searched for a camera but now the search begins again for the specific camera you are searching for. SearchEngineLand has an in depth analysis of Matt Cutts’ comments and the ramifications Google changes will have for organic and paid search.
If you are a new SEO, you may not yet have realised the amount of work involved in planning, implementing and maintaining an effective internet marketing campaign. I’ve often heard people say with every step it seems to lead to more work, more research. So in an attempt to make life a little easier for you, we are amassing resources to help lessen some of the workload on a page entitled Valuable SEO Internet Search Marketing Resources, Tips Plus Tools. One resource is a link is a Free Keyword Research Tool by WordTracker. Enter a keyword and this quick tool ...
Read more Superpages.com announced today that they are introducing a new ranking model for their pay for performance product. The new model will begin in April, 2007. Ads will be ranked by bid amount and wait for it…..relevance. Google, MSN have been using relevance for some time now and Yahoo! followed suit a month or so ago. Makes me wonder when Google will buy superpages.com. The biggest search engine around and one of the best sales forces in any industry would make for a formidable competitor. In Canada, yellowpages.ca supplies local business results for Google, Yahoo! and MSN. I wonder if Yahoo! or ...
Read more In my post February 21st post PPC Gone Bad, RCMP Hangs With Wrong Crowd l wrote about the potential for complications with contextual PPC ads. Not only can they be be tricky to manage, but also the click through ratio tends to be low. Enter Quigo Technologies Inc. Unlike Google AdWords and Yahoo! where advertisers have no idea and little control over which sites their PPC ads run on, Quigo not only gives advertisers a list of where their PPC ads will appear, but also the potential to buy PPC ads on specific Web sites or even on specific Web ...
Read more Canada is the fifth country in which AdCenter has been launched. They honed the product first in France and Singapore, followed by the U.S. and U.K. last year. Barry and I (along with 300? others) attended the launch at an event in Toronto this afternoon. I am just back to Montreal in time to squeak in this post before midnight. David Jakubowski, general manager, Microsoft AdCenter made the trip up from the US to speak – we happened to meet his dad (a nice guy) from Buffalo who was up for the launch and tonight’s hockey game Buffalo (6) vs. ...
Read more At yesterday’s (very successful) SEO 101 Basics Seminars we delivered for some of Yahoo! Search Marketing Canada’s client’s (more on this in another post soon) Barry told of delicate situations that can arise if your PPC ad winds up on a page with negatively related content. The example he used was a Travel Agent’s PPC ad being on a page telling of a disaster. Well last night while waiting (and waiting) for the plane back to Montreal I read that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) found their recruitment PPC ad on the site of an allegedly notorious street gang ...
Read more A great article in The Australian , regarding the about to be released IBM report, Navigating The Media Devide, warns about the divide between new and old media. (Once you click on the link, you have to scroll down to read the article.) What does this have to do with SEO? Educating your staff on SEO and SEM before you start an in-house program makes all the difference. Make sure everyone is on board and motivated to see the project through to its success. Â
I have been following the Kelsey Group for years but mostly checking out their research on yellow pages advertising. Like the rest of us, they are now well into search.  Here is some interesting info they have provided for local search: Online maps, in combination with local search engines, have become very popular in recent years, giving people a way to discover local businesses and attractions, obtain driving directions and view satellite images of an area, among other things. Google competitors like Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask.com have made their mapping sites a high priority for development. Advertising revenue in local search ...
Read more In a Google blog entry in January, Google indicated that it would remove the linking value on NoFollow links. Now SearchEngineJournal gives us 13 reasons why NoFollow tags suck. Before trying any seo techniques, ask yourself if you are following the Vulcan theory of SEO. Is what I am about to do logical for the growth of my business or am I trying to manipulate the search engines? Frankly, if you are asking the question, you already know the answer, don’t you.
Search Engine Marketing Professionals’ (SEMPO) recent survey indicates that Google’s AdWords program is used by 96% of pay per click advertisers. Yahoo! Search Marketing is not far behind at 86%. Microsoft came in with a surprising 68% thanks to their new adCenter program. More info at Sempo’s website.
A Piper Jaffray & Co. report indicates that the average Cost Per Action (CPA) for search was $8.50, much lower than the CPA for the Yellow Pages advertising ($20), online display ads ($50) and direct mail ($70). Great statistical information you can use when discussing a complete marketing program with local clients.
We often talk about becoming an industry expert. This week, Jason Calacanis ripped into seo with several derogatory statements about the industry in general. Whether you agree or disagree, besides the wrath of the seo world, you can bet that his controversial remarks earned him dozens of links to his site . On the flip side, you have Danny Sullivan who responded to Jason’s remarks on his blog SearchEngineLand.com. If you have been in the seo business for more than 5 minutes, you know that Danny knows what he is talking about and tells it like it is. Two very different ...
Read more Outsell, Inc. has released a report that seems to indicate that we are reaching the end of an era: they project broadcast and print ad spending will decrease in 2007. Key findings of their survey of 1010 advertising professionals include: *Search marketing is the fastest growing online medium: advertisers plan to increase search engine advertising spend by 39% (though Outsell didn’t indicate whether this was SEO, PPC or both in its press release). *Print still holds the largest market share of ad spend (40%), but its slice of the pie is shrinking.   Â
We have been discussing personalization for a couple of years but now Google is stepping up the process. You can check out their blog for more details.
 Yahoo! released Yahoo! Pipes and it is an terrific tool especially for a non techie like me. Instead of receiving a dozen feeds on any topic, seo for example, you are able to set up a pipe that will aggregate all seo feeds into one feed. Very cool! Here is a quote from Yahoo! and a link for more information. “Pipes  is a hosted service that lets you remix feeds and create new data mashups in a visual programming environment. The name of the service pays tribute to Unix pipes, which let programmers do astonishingly clever things by making ...
Read more An Article on Informationweek.com by K.C.Jones indicates that Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, hopes to launch Search Wiki in a few months. The new search engine will be “built by the masses” and use a traditional ad revenue model.
MSN Adcenter labs provides some interesting and fun tools you can use in your search engine marketing program.
Scott Smith is providing valuable local search information this week with interviews of twenty industry leaders. A must read for you local search maniacs.
Google’s official webmaster blog now recommends using Google webmaster tools to view a much larger sample of links to your pages. You have to verify your own site but it is an easy process.
Yahoo! launched their new ranking model designed to improve user results through higher quality search ads. Top spots won’t go to the highest bidder any longer. A combination of click through rate and bid amount will determine positioning. Â
There are many ways for search engines to “find” your web site. Manual submission is a frequently used method, but considering the fact that over 90% of submissions to search engines is spam, why would you choose that route? Put on the search engine’s shoes for a moment. Wouldn’t you consider everything spam, and put the onus on the submitted sites to prove themselves as “white hat” before being indexed? However, if, as a search engine, you spider an authoratative site where you come across a link to a site that is unfamiliar to you, wouldn’t you give this site ...
Read more Toronto, Ontario, Canada – Wednesday, January 31 2007 Last night at a Yahoo! Canada event in Toronto, Yahoo! Search Marketing Canada announced (along with their new YSM – Panama – platform in Canada) that they are sponsoring two Search Engine Academy seminars. The 3 hour seminars – a morning and afternoon session – will be held in Toronto in mid February. Yahoo ! Canada announced their mission to help grow the Search landscape in Canada. One way they believe they can achieve this is through a highly educated clientele. Their announcement last night was a major step in that direction, ...
Read more I don’t know about you but whenever I hear the term link building, I envision a mysterious practice that only the top level SEOs can provide. The fact is that link building is simply a process that anyone can do. All you need is a plan that includes article marketing, directory submissions, press releases and fresh content for your site to get you started. Eric Ward is a link building specialist. Educate yourself by reading a few of Eric’s link building articles. For hands on learning, we will be educating our students on link building strategies in our next Toronto workshop, March ...
Read more Need help getting started with pay per click advertising? Here are links to sign-up pages to the big 3 search engines. Google Adwords Yahoo! Search Marketing MSN
The more things change…. Google and Yahoo! gained market share in December compared to November searches while MSN lost ground. Engine Searches Market Share Up / Down Overall 6.7 billion Google 3.2 billion 47.3% .4% Yahoo! 1.9 billion 28.5% .3% MSN 713 million 10.5% -.5%
Here is a new article on the basics of search engine optimization. The article includes several options to get you started.
Levels The Playing Field – Always wanted to take on the big boys/girls? Any business can use Pay Per Click (PPC) and be set up in 15 minutes or in a few days, depending on the search engine. It’s easy to set up and just as simple to turn off. Control – Yes, for all you control freaks out there, search engine marketing is your ultimate weapon of choice. Search engines provide you with a wealth of options to narrow down or expand your target audience, your budget and even your ad content. Return On Investment (ROI)- Tired of guessing ...
Read more Think about it; what more could you ask for? Yellowpages.com’s list of their top 10 category searches for December provides you with an abundance of local clients you should be hitting on. Restaurants Hotels Pizza Florist Dentist Post Office Banks Hospitals Physicians Movie Theaters Search Yellowpages.com for a heading of your choice. Print out the first results page. Check out the advertiser’s website to see if he needs seo help. I just searched dentists in Minneapolis and guess what? The very first listing I tried needs your seo skills!
We are excited to announce (and demand dictates) that the next Search Engine Academy Toronto SEO Training Courses will be held from March 26-30 2007 in Oakville (Toronto) Ontario. Remember, seating is limited to 25 students, our last SEO Course was Sold Out, to avoid disappointment register early. These classes are Workshops not seminars. You will work hands-on, in the class room, with the state of the art SEO techniques, with expert instructors there to guide you and answer all your questions. You can work on your own site(s) applying your new knowledge during the class practice periods. Our course ...
Read more Just before the New Year a head-hunter representing one of Canada’s major ad agencies called me looking for 15 of our Search Engine Academy SEO Workshop graduates to work in Montreal. Already this year, another firm told us they are having a hard time to find qualified individuals to work in Toronto. As suppliers of High Quality Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Training in Montreal and Toronto (we’ve also taught people from Calgary, Winnipeg, the U.S. and England so far) this is good news! For our current and futures graduates it is good news too. It is even good news ...
Read more If you are still hesitating about attending our next workshop; Get With The Program! SEO is not going anywhere. In fact , I believe all media will eventually be search driven. Media companies who want to remain at the forefront of their industries will embrace search in all its formats. They will need your SEO skills. SEO may very well play out to be a standardized commodity. That will only increase demand for employees with SEO skills, especially those of you who have established themselves. Our yellow page background provides Greg and I with a unique perspective on SEO. We have ...
Read more Here is another example of blogging power provided by a recent student. His blog is focused on  selling intangibles (like SEO). He uses a wordpress free blog to get his message out.
This time of year you want Fresh Hot Coffee – well in Montreal anyway…a hot sunny July day is another story and that seems far far away. What about the visitors to your site? Many of us SEOs know this… You must offer them new, fresh, and if you can HOT content. Do you expect them to come back to time after time to find nothing new? Do you do it? Many of us SEMs know this too…”Getting fresh content is a daunting task” So many of us do this…”Try to think of what to write about” Well why not ...
Read more How’s that for a catchy title?! There’s tons of talk, and article after article, about the importance that articles play in Internet or Search Engine Marketing. And it is just that. Very important. But isn’t it equally important to have your articles read?! None other than Robin Nobles, of Search Engine Workshops, thinks so and recently wrote “Article marketing is extremely powerful for increasing visibility, name recognition, branding, and more. I’ve been doing it for years.” The title of this post is actually a quote from an article written about one of the contestants on the NBC reality TV show ...
Read more Well we had a great time at the November SEO Workshop in Oakville (Toronto)! Based on the feedback we’ve had, the students found the wealth of information they learned powerful and relevant. They enjoyed the learning experience too. For those of you who attended, we thank you, it was a pleasure meeting you in person and working with you for the week. We look forward to hearing of your successes! The comments are in, here are 2 of them: “Excellent class. Wish I had found you guys 2 years ago!” Ken Bolt – BrantFlorist.com Oakville (Toronto) Graduate ——— “I thought ...
Read more Google, MSN and Yahoo! agree to work together on SiteMaps! The big three announced SiteMaps.org, where you can review the latest SiteMaps version and instructions for adhering to it. CBRonline has the whole story.
Today the Advanced students joined those who just participated in the 2-Day Basic Essentials SEO Workshop. Among them is a whole row from WSI! Earlier this morning John Alexander showed the group the secrets to finding incredibly hot keywords using Word Tracker. The group is now working on their laptops to identify keywords of their own…can you say “new revenue stream?”