Ah springtime.  The greatest time of the year. Warmer weather, cherry blossoms, baseball, and, this year, neon colors.  Everywhere. Color took a bit of a break from our lives the past few years as the entire world seemed to teeter on inevitable collapse, but it’s back now, and I, for one, am happy about it. From the skinny jeans (for women and, unfortunately, men too) that come in colors matching every shade of Avery Hi-Liter, to the incredibly popular Cole Haan Oxford shoes that sport neon yellow soles, to the numerous handbags bright enough to make any dark alley light up like it’s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Internet Marketing Industry | Retargeting & Remarketing | Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column

Like most fellow zealots, my original love affair with search was all about the glories of being served up "consumer demand" -- and being able to market and optimize to that demand. Expressed demand right at your fingertips was a beautiful thing. Following the ghostly spending period of 2001-2002, it made it much more palatable to jump back into digital -- and, of course, to guide other marketers to do the same. As the past decade has roared on and our media marketplace has been practically propelled by consumer demand, influence, path and usage -- we have built our house around this con [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column

The wolves are attacking Google again over its search quality. Last year, they were fed the Panda Update to fend them off. This year, Google may throw an Over Optimization Penalty to the pack. No, that doesn't mean SEO is dead once again. But it may sadly confuse SEO with spam. It also doesn't mean the penalty will improve Google's results. Google already has problems enforcing all the other penalties it has rolled out over the years. Jumping The Shark "Jump the shark" is a reference to a Happy Days episode where The Fonz did a water ski jump over a shark. It was later seen as a mil [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Google: SEO | Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column

You’d think at this stage of the search marketing game, best practices for Search Engine Optimization would be foregone conclusions and everyone would be on board regarding the importance of executing on search initiatives. Well, unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Mom always told me if you can’t be good at something; don’t bother doing it at all. Ok, so maybe Mom didn’t pass that little gem on to me, but in our struggles do the right thing, make the client happy and accomplish objectives sometimes we fall short. And sometimes, just sometimes, there are well-intentioned, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column

Vendor/Self-Appointed Industry Expert:  So, what’s your Pinterest strategy? Me: I don’t have one yet. Vendor/Self-Appointed Industry Expert:  Really?!? Are you crazy?  You are missing out!  All your customers are there!  Our agency/technology/approach will make you tons and you can really capitalize on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” Me: Sigh.  Please go away. Be honest. Most of you are reading this story only because you saw the Pinterest logo and got excited aren’t you?  I spent the last week at eTail West and the above conversation happened no less than a zi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column

It used to be that adept optimization of your one or two platforms or environments – your .com and perhaps your blog -- and the content and assets inhabiting those places -- was enough of a day's work to call yourself a Content Marketer. Properly tending to your SEO made you feel on top of things – as though you quite literally were the master of your domain, with all content under control and servicing your marketing objectives. Content Marketers took a short-term view and the efforts didn't amount to much. But, today, a long view is required. In today's cross-channel, cross-platfor [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column

I've heard no greater example of self indulgence than Twitter CEO Dick Costolo’s nausea-inducing claim that 2012 was going to be the year of the Twitter election. (He spoke at the recent All Things Digital event in Southern California.) Amid the Google/Twitter separation mishigas (read: Twitter’s finger pointing) the notion of Twitter as a communication vehicle should have taken a back seat to Twitter as an advertising vehicle. But it didn’t. The question isn’t whether Twitter can survive without Google, it’s whether Twitter has already jumped the shark by selling out its core c [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column | Twitter

Worldwide sports star? Check. Top male model in the world? Check. Gorgeous, fashionable wife. Check? Advertising guru? Ok, it might be a stretch to call David Beckham an ad guru, but after H&M’s near perfect campaign execution during and after the Super Bowl, the title seems relatively fitting for the fashion brand. I’m not suggesting they get the title simply because of the TV ad – honestly the ad was relatively middle of the road if you ask me – but rather how they integrated the ad into every one of their marketing channels. In addition to the TV ad, H&M wrapp [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column

To understand how Google became the world's most popular search engine, think of it as a giant vote counting machine. That's why there's so much attention these days on Google's competition with Twitter and Facebook. They're the new, popular ways that people are voting for things they like, casting ballots that Google can't easily count. Search 1.0: Counting Words On The Page Let's go back to the beginning of web-based search engines. When names like AltaVista and Lycos were ruled, search engines figured out what pages from across the web should rank well largely by looking at the words on t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Facebook | Google: Google +1 | Google: Google+ | Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column | Twitter

All hail the vision of truly socialized search -- where results and experience are personalized, drawing on social graphs, browsing history and reams of  input data to deliver on the concept. Our expectations for absolute interconnectivity of environments and extensive personalization have us drooling over this concept of search at a glance. But, taking the official and absolutely imperfect debut of Google’s Search Plus Your World as an illustration, we can safely say the market reality is out of whack with this vision.  We are nowhere near the promise of the real deal on this. Yet, our [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Facebook | Google: Google+ | Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column | Social Media Marketing | Twitter

When Google launched its Google+ social network, the marketing world (along with everyone else) barely noticed. When Google decided to make this social network a bigger part of search results, marketers had little choice but to sit up and take action. Over the last week or so, we at Motivity  have spent a fair amount of time talking to clients and constituents about Google’s latest move, and what's emerging is a picture of concern and skepticism. But don't fret yet. And don't get so caught up in the controversy that you fail to evaluate the marketing implications. Is Participation Ma [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Google: Google+ | Search Marketing Column

Feeling confused about all you may have heard about Google's new "Search Plus Your World" search results that came out last week? It's understandable. Just digesting the new features is tough enough, much less trying to follow all the accusations and counter-accusations that were flying around. Here's a guide designed to answer questions you might have. What Is This "Search Plus Your World" Thing? Search Plus Your World is a big, awkward name that Google gave to a new way of showing its personalized search results. Some people have been shortening the name to SPYW. I've been calling it " [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Features & Analysis | Google: Google+ | Search Marketing Column | Social Media Marketing

A vitally important first step to the attribution management process within a search marketing campaign is to gather all the data associated with the “touches” that have been experienced by your target audience both as a result of being exposed to all your marketing efforts and direct traffic. Each “touchpoint” associated with each individual has numerous attributes or characteristics associated with it. For example, each search impression or click has attributes such as keyword, engine, placement/ranking, ad creative, offer, landing page, day-part, and more. Each display ad impres [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column

Do we need an umbrella term to encompass the activities of search marketing and social media marketing? Perhaps. But as I've seen various people wonder about this recently, it reminds me of the push years ago for an umbrella term to cover SEO and paid search. Today, we still lack agreement about that term, SEM. Is another umbrella term doomed to failure? SEO / Search Engine Optimization I'd say there's pretty widespread agreement that search engine optimization -- SEO -- stands for the act of gaining from the "free" or "natural" or "organic" or "editorial" listings that search engines provid [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column | Social Media Marketing