Search Advisory

Which is more important in Search Engine Optimization – content or keywords?  Keywords are, of course, still important in terms of researching which ones to target and strategically integrating them into your website.  But, honestly, the keyword part of SEO is easy…and also becoming less effective over time.

SEO as a practice is witnessing a tremendous shift, a renewed emphasis on quality over quantity.  This applies to keywords, link-building, and content development.  Marketers need to create thoughtful content that addresses a challenge that their audience is facing, rather than just providing a shell to house carefully researched keywords.  They shouldn’t overdo it with keywords either, as context and the semantic web are lessening the need for such heavy-handed optimization as in years past.  And finally, they shouldn’t view link-building as a tactic, but view it as an opportunity to nurture fewer, more meaningful relationships with other web publishers whose objectives are relevant in some way to their own.

Creating a solid content strategy is critical in ensuring that you’re providing content that is: (Read More…)

Special thanks to Dana Udwin, SEO Manager, for contributing heavily to this article.

Any good digital marketer will spend a lot of time with a company’s web analytics data.  The amount of information contained there can be utterly overwhelming, but it’s worth the time to dig in and find the treasure trove of gold nuggets that can help guide digital marketing strategy and generate better results.

We like to delve into Top Performing Keywords, Underperforming Keywords and Top Performing Pages for our clients.  Caveat: this assumes that you’ve done the research to determine which keywords to target, and that the website is properly optimized.  It also assumes that your web analytics software has been installed correctly and is tracking properly (otherwise, all bets are off!).

First, look at Top Performing Keywords, (Read More…)

The average B2B buyer downloads nine separate informational assets during their purchase decision, according to a recent survey.  Does your company even provide that much content for a prospect to consume during the different stages of her buy cycle?

We’ve all heard “content is king” for more years than I can count, but this saying is becoming truer by the day.  And now we have data to support it.  Two recent surveys addressed how B2B buyers consume content during their purchasing process, and the results are startling.  Highlights include: (Read More…)

Effective search engine marketing is an artful combination of skill, instinct, hard work and the right set of tools. Selecting the tools will improve your results, but to beat the competition consistently, using the right tools more effectively will un-level the playing field in your favor.

Two experts will share insights into the tools and techniques that have achieved exceptional results. Our presenters are Brian Easter, CEO of Nebo Agency and Scott Nickels, Home Depot Senior Manager SEO.

When:  Wednesday, April 17th

What Time:  11:30AM – 1:00PM

Where:  Atlanta Fish Market (265 Pharr Rd NE  Atlanta, GA 30305)

How Much:  Free for SEMPO members; $25 in advance or $35 at the door for non-members

Registration Link:  http://sempo.site-ym.com/events/event_details.asp?id=311035&group

Brian Easter is the CEO of Nebo, an Atlanta-based digital marketing agency that was selected as a finalist in six categories for the 2013 Atlanta Marketer of the Year Awards (AMYs), securing more nominations than any other firm. Scott Nickels manages the overall strategy and direction for The Home Depot’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. As Senior Manager, SEO, Scott leads a team overseeing homedepot.com, homedecorators.com, and all other online properties, and brings a wealth of perspective and technical knowledge to search marketing.

It’s hard to believe that my one year tenure as President of SEMPO Atlanta is nearly over!  It’s been a very rewarding year, getting to know more folks in the Atlanta search marketing community and putting on fun and educational events.  The last event I’ll preside over is a luncheon on April 17 – more details here.

We’ve divided our leadership group into two and renamed them so as to avoid confusion with SEMPO Global’s board of directors.  We now have a Leadership Council – these are the Chairpeople and Committee Members who run SEMPO Atlanta and its events.  We also have an Advisory Council – these are the folks that help guide the chapter and use their resources and networks to help secure speakers, etc.  Sponsors, past Presidents and other folks who are invested in the search community are on the Advisory Council.

I’d like to be the first to announce and welcome SEMPO Atlanta’s new leaders!  They’ll officially take over after the April 17 event.  They are: (Read More…)

I enjoyed being on a panel for TAG Marketing last evening about “How Content Drives Your Mobile, SEO & Lead Generation Strategy.”  What I’d really like to do is give you a recap of the content that was discussed…but I was so busy listening to my fellow panelists and preparing my own answers that I didn’t take good enough notes for that.  If I can find someone else’s writeup, I’ll share the link here later.

Here’s what I didn’t notice until a day or two prior to the event – 75% of the panelists were women.  Now, that shouldn’t be particularly noteworthy – I mean, I’d like to think that gender doesn’t matter and that the focus is always on what each of us has to contribute in business and society in general.  But, the fact is, there are many conferences, speaking opportunities and panels that are dominated by men, even when there are qualified women who can speak.

A couple of years ago, (Read More…)

…And Why Should I Care?

For the past 18 months, we’ve been quietly working with private equity firms and other investors, doing search engine marketing due diligence on the companies they’re buying.  This due diligence process – or audit, if you prefer – can benefit every company.  That is, every company that relies on their website or search marketing to drive leads or revenue (and isn’t that most of us?).

We look for two things.  Is the company doing anything risky that could backfire in the future, jeopardizing growth?  Or are they leaving money on the table by not fully leveraging their search marketing endeavors?

Search Marketing Risks

At first glance, it may not be obvious that search marketing does, in fact, have risks.  Here are some real issues we’ve uncovered while performing search marketing audits: (Read More…)

TAG’s annual Georgia Technology Summit was last week.  It’s always one of my favorite events of the year, featuring world-class speakers, the top 40 innovative companies in the state, and the annual State of the Technology Industry report.  Georgia’s one of the leading states in the technology sector, which was quite obvious at the event.

Highlights for me included:

Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet and Metcalfe’s Law, recipient of the National Medal of Technology and member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, gave a curmudgeonly entertaining talk, seemingly off the cuff.

Ray Kurzweil, who has the same latter two honors as Bob above, was selected as one of the “sixteen revolutionaries who made America” by PBS, and is now Director of Engineering at Google. He blew the audience’s mind with his talk about sending a digital printer to third world countries so they can print more digital printers and then print food and resources for all. He also made a convincing case that we’ll be able to supplement our cerebral cortex through nanotechnology and the cloud.

Georgia entrepreneurs are developing amazing, sometimes jaw-dropping technology, as demonstrated by the Top 40 Innovative Companies.  For example, check out Merlin Mobility’s augmented reality SaaS platform, or the coolest iPhone app ever invented (IMHO), Cycloramic.  And I’ve got to give a shout out to my neighbor friend Dr. Amy Baxter, whose “Top 10″ Buzzy invention won one of the People’s Choice Awards – I knew her when!  (Parents, or anyone with a needle stick phobia, check out Buzzy.)

Dr. Amy Baxter’s “Buzzy” Invention Named One of Georgia’s Top 10 Innovative Companies

Finally, the 2013 State of the Industry Report: (Read More…)

Come hear me speak this Thursday,

March 28, at a TAG Marketing event.  Here are the details:

The Heart of the Matter: How Content Drives Your Mobile, SEO, and Lead Gen Strategy

Many marketers think about content as another “to do” on their list of marketing tasks. But content strategists point out more and more how content is actually at the center of a multiplicity of marketing strategies. Without a content strategy, you don’t have a mobile strategy, an SEO strategy, or a lead generation strategy.

How do you create a content strategy to anchor your other marketing strategies? Our panel of experienced B2B and B2C content strategists from a variety of companies and industries will tell you how.

Event takeaways will include: (Read More…)

Earlier this month,

Google AdWords announced that it’ll be rolling out “enhanced campaigns” over the next six months.  Enhanced campaigns are designed to do two things:

•    Provide more targeted ads to searchers – the example Google’s giving is if you’re searching for “pizza” at noon on your work PC, an ad driving you to an online ordering form or menu is probably most relevant to you.  But if you’re searching for “pizza” at 7 pm on your smartphone and are a half mile from the restaurant, a click-to call phone number or restaurant locator may be more appropriate.

•    Make it easier for advertisers to serve up appropriate ads to searchers based on the device they’re using, their location, and the time of day, by automating and simplifying the above.

Sounds good, right?  And a lot about it is good.  We’re all increasingly using different devices throughout our day, and often for different purposes.  Advertisers can bid higher for more valuable searchers (based on device, location and time), or lower for those they value less.  Enhanced campaigns also come with better reporting that measure new conversion types, including phone calls, app downloads, and individual sitelinks.

But…where Google giveth, Google taketh away.  (Read More…)