Business.com Business Directory Listings
Business.com, the premier online destination for businesses of all sizes and industries to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses, has recently launched a new and improved business directory to better highlight approved and US-based vendors. Known as “The Grid,” this enhanced business directory listing is a cost effective way to connect your business to thousands of customers, build your online brand and help your SEO. Unlike most directory listings, the Business.com Grid gives your business the opportunity to list much more than just a sentence or two describing your company. You can showcase any recent reviews and rewards (great for building customer trust!), as well as list any promotions your business might be CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Competing with Google for Ad Space
In my opinion, PPC still has its place in the grand scheme of things when it comes to online marketing. Personally, I’ve found that PPC campaigns are great for branded keywords because it helps minimize the risks and costs that many site owners deal with. Not so long ago, SEO keywords would only cost $1 a click. That was a completely reasonable cost and I happily paid it, especially to help get Brick Marketing some national exposure. However, those same keywords are now costing me $12-$15 per click! Suddenly PPC is not as cost effective as it used to be. And what’s more, the average searcher is getting much smarter. They know the difference between an organic listing and a paid listing, and they understand CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
How Can PPC Help Your SEO?
For small to mid-sized businesses that don’t have $10k to drop on PPC every month, there is still some search marketing value to be had from launching a PPC campaign, even if you can only spend a minimal amount. In my experience, organic SEO produces much more long-term results than PPC, but certain elements of PPC can actually enhance your SEO. Keyword Research The nice thing about launching a PPC campaign is that you can get a lot of useful data very quickly that can then be applied to your SEO campaigns, including keyword research. Site owners can test the effectiveness of certain keywords with a PPC campaign and then slowly incorporate those new keywords into their SEO. Instead of waiting 3-6 months to find out if CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Are Your AdSense Ads Really Worth It?
At PubCon Las Vegas back in early November, Google’s Matt Cutts warned “If you have ads obscuring your content, you might want to think about it…Do they [visitors to your site] see content or something else that’s distracting or annoying?” Many in the SEO industry had already assumed that ad heavy sites were being targeted by Panda, but this confirmed their suspicions. After Cutts’ announcement, many SEO and PPC professionals commented that this advice was a stark contrast to Google AdSense’s advice of “ads located above the fold tend to perform better than those below the fold.” So what is a lowly site owner to do? In my opinion, if Google says that sites with too many ads above the fold are likely CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Improve Your AdWords Account with the New AdWords Performance Grader
AdWords can be overwhelming to marketers and small business owners. It's often hard for newcomers to understand their performance. Even the PPC connoisseurs needs to take time now and again to step out of the trenches to analyze where they stand on the AdWords battlefront. This month, we've created the AdWords Grader in response to this very need. If you're looking to improve your PPC performance (and let's face it, who isn't?), consider taking advantage this newly released tool from WordStream. The AdWords Performance Grader grades your AdWords account performance by analyzing several key performance indicators such as Quality Score, Account Activity, Click-Through Rate, and Impression Share. It then compares your results against those of other AdWords advertisers with CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Tips for Determining Your SEM Budget
When the economy took a turn for the worse, companies learned quickly they had to tighten their purse strings. Budgets were slashed in an effort to just maintain some semblance of a profit margin. Many people found themselves defending their positions within a company in order to survive round after round of layoffs. When times are tough, penny pinching becomes a way of life. Not to say that the economy has fully recovered, but there are signs that a recovery, albeit a slow one, is on its way. The State of Search Marketing Report 2011, produced by Econsultancy and SEMPO, projected that search engine marketing will spend an estimated $19 billion this year, a 16% increase from 2010. An increase is spending is CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Does Google AdWords Affect Your SEO?
Google has certainly emerged as the search engine of choice in the past five years or so. Its market share is much higher than search engines like Bing and Yahoo! and some websites that were previously used for search, like AOL.com, have been forced to go in different directions entirely to stay relevant. While AOL still offers a search component, it’s become more of a news source. It’s not surprising. Google has become the king of search. Of course, there always seems to be a conspiracy theory or two surrounding “royalty”. One such conspiracy theory surrounding Google is whether or not there is a correlation between purchasing Google AdWords and ranking well in the search engine. This debate CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal is Written by SEO Expert:
Nick Stamoulis
Tel - 781-999-1222
nick@brickmarketing.com
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
