10e20 Blog

While I enjoy writing about what I am learning from the extremely informative SearchMarketingNow webcasts, I recommend that you take some time out of your day to hear from experts on all matters related to online marketing (they only occur 1-2 times per month). This week’s presentation was given by Eric Ward, master “link baiter,” though he surprisingly did not use that term at all during the webcast!

Eric is known as “the original link builder” with over 14 years of experience. Interestingly, this was something that he has been doing before there were search engines. The experience has allowed for Eric to watch how search engines have evolved and how search engines are now paying more attention to the links than they previously did.

Introduction

Links are generally important. They can have an impact on your click traffic or search rank. Some people don’t understand the role or power that links may or may not have in driving traffic and driving PageRank to your site.

I’ve really taken a liking to these SearchMarketingNow webcasts. In today’s webcast, I have had the pleasure to listen to Chris Sherman who tackled the topic of Social Search: New Marketing Opportunities. With a lot of social networks out there, where can you leverage your traffic and what problems can you foresee? Chris discusses these areas and offers his insights.

Well, first, Chris introduces social search. What the heck is social search? There is no good industry definition at the present.

• The simple definition: On the Internet, is a way of finding tools that are informed by human judgment. People are thinking about it, or describing websites, and so on.
• Informed can mean many things, including egregiously uninformed. People are writing things or tagging things that makes it harder for people to find content.

Truthfully, we’ve always had social search.

Chris Sherman did it again — I have listened in on yet another wonderful SearchMarketingNow webcast (I have previously listened in on his “How to Find the Right Search Marketing Partner” webcast) about measuring search success in 2007.

I believe the prevailing theme here is conversion as a way of measuring success. But let’s get down to what I learned today from the mouth of Chris:

When we’re talking about measuring search success, you really need data. A lot of people don’t use data or understand its importance. They’ll use metrics like page views or sales. That’s okay but it doesn’t measure success because it doesn’t take advantage of all the data that is available to you.

In this session, therefore, we’ll talk about data for measuring success: the what and how, successful site characteristics, tools, and tips for measuring success.

Measuring Success

Today, I listened in on an excellent Search Marketing Now webcast presented by Chris Sherman, executive editor of SearchEngineLand. The hour-long webcast covered how you should find the right search marketing partner, and Chris raises some excellent points.

Chris begins by introducing the different aspects of search marketing:

• Organic Search Engine Optimization: search results that are not paid for
• Paid Inclusion: guarantees entry into the search engine results pages
• Paid Placement: buying sponsored listings
• Contextual Advertising: advertising on a partner of the search engine, like a newspaper or a partner
• Specialized search marketing, such as on a mobile phone, which “is going to explode in the coming five years.”

When choosing your search marketing partner, you need to define your strategy and look at your goals. What are you trying to accomplish? The following methods are recommended:

• If you have short-term goals, you might want paid placement.

Getting covered by Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch can be the launching pad that many new companies need. It brings coverage, links, and attention to your new product/website.

Guy Kawasaki recently wrote about the best ways to get in TechCrunch but I wanted to give you an example of how to make sure your pitch will never get in:

Pitch sent via fax.