The Vizion Search Engine Optimization Blog
- 2010Jan13Top SEOs…My Rant Continues
Back in 2007, I wrote a post on TopSEOS.com in which I described my past experience in advertising with them and how I felt about the lack of transparency in their rankings of the “top seo firms”.
I have waited, and waited, and waited for some firms that I respect – who participate in this – to push the folks at TopSEOs.com to be more up-front about how the lists are developed and paid for. And, if they can’t get the people at TopSEOs.com to be more upfront about the fact that this is a “pay to play” marketing list and not a true “list of the top SEO firms”, I suggest that these companies do our Industry a favor and walk away. Yes, I’m suggesting that they turn away from this (very good) lead source until TopSEOs.com is more transparent. Only when many of the paid advertisers drop out will the folks at TopSEOs.com change their ways.
Perhaps things have changed (though I doubt sincerely that they have) and TopSEOs.com is at least making an effort to reach out to customers of these SEO providers to verify that they in fact to deliver SEO services, and provide testimony [...]
- 2010Jan13Yahoo! Shopping to Outsource to PriceGrabber
In what I would call a surprise move, Yahoo! is discontinuing the Yahoo! Shopping and outsourcing it to PriceGrabber. So, if you are currently using the Yahoo! Shopping API, I would start making plans to make sure that you’re integrated with PriceGrabber or at least have taken the necessary steps to start getting your products on PriceGrabber.
As you may recall, Yahoo! Search is going to be powered by Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Microsoft’s Bing will now be the search engine on all Yahoo sites. From what I can tell, though, I have not seen anything in the search deal that details what is going to happen to Yahoo! Shopping. Now we know, though, as Yahoo! quietly announced it on the Yahoo! Developer Network Blog:
After careful consideration, we have decided to enter into a strategic partnership with PriceGrabber to power the Product Submit functionality of Yahoo! Shopping as of March 11, 2010. As a result of these changes, Yahoo! will no longer provide the Shopping Web Services API, including Shopping Results (the “Yahoo! Shopping Syndication Services”) to you as of March 11, 2010.
What does this mean to [...]
- 2009Dec30Barbecued SEO: As Only A Kansas City SEO Could Tell It
Yes, I know, this is quite possibly the most ridiculously titled search marketing blog post you have ever read. Hang tight and read on, you will soon see the reasoning behind this post title and no, you probably won’t be licking your lips afterwards.
- 2009Dec30Paid Search: Code Red
If your paid search manager suddenly fell off the face of the Earth could you pick up where they left off easily without having to contact anyone for logins?
- 2009Dec29AdWords Keyword Tool
Upon the new release of the Google Adwords interface, you can see that it comes complete with ‘Opportunities’, including suggestions on keywords that could be added to your campaigns. At first glance, this seems to be nothing unique. Google has always given us free keyword suggestions, right? It seems that they simply put the keyword tool in the API to save us the step of going to our Favorites folder (or typing it into the browser). Well, there is a little more to it than that.
The new API gives you an option that reads ‘Increase traffic with these keywords’. You then have the option to go to the “Opportunities” portion of Adwords and to obtain pre-selected keywords that Google has already done the work on for you. You see, this is no longer a process of getting into a generalized keyword tool that is out there, this is different. It’s a much better ‘fit’ for your campaigns because it researches what keywords you already have and doesn’t duplicate your efforts. It breaks down keyword lists as according to the adgroups that you have already set up. Factors that it takes into consideration: budget, keywords, and previous campaign performance. This is [...]- 2009Dec18In SEO, A Picture Is Not Always Worth A Thousand Words
I thought this post was necessary as I have had at least two clients this week come to me with the idea of ditching some of their text content in favor of a more image-based site. The problem is that it isn’t just this week, the insanity of the holidays or even the phase of the moon. I often hear clients mention that they would like to offer a more “user-friendly” site with many more images instead of provided the recommended amount of body copy, preferably 250+ on the homepage and 150+ on internal pages.
- 2009Nov11Adwords Quality Score Determined- Even Before Activating the Keywords!
Have you ever gone through all the phases of setup with your Google campaigns- geo, bid amounts, daily budgets, etc. and then come to find that your Quality Score has already been assigned? This isn’t the way I originally pictured the Quality Score to work. It should gather data relative to your specific campaign/ adgroup/ keywords/ landing page and then assign a score, right?
One factor that I left out above is the CTR (click-through rate), as that’s one of the most important factors when Google is determining the Quality Score. This led to my curiousity as to why my leywords were assigned a Quality Score, even though they haven’t recieved any impressions yet.
Here’s the key, and here’s how Google assigns a Quality Score (even before keyword activation). Historical data. Other advertisers have used these keywords before, and Google is able to take an estimate from their performance and assign it a ’starting score’. Being that each account performs differently and according to their own dynamics, chances are that you will not stick with this initial scoring. It is simply the first step to your Quality Score.
So, lets say that you load your keywords and come to find that your starting [...]- 2009Oct31How to Improve Your Company’s Image With Online Reputation Management
by Zach Browne
The Problem
Online reputation management becomes vital when a potential customer searches for your company on a search engine only to find websites with negative information. There are many scenarios that would cause this to happen but it typically happens on review sites like Yelp, Epinion or Angie’s List. It could also be on someone’s personal blog or forum or there could even be an entire site dedicated to your demise like PayPalSucks.com. Either way it’s not good and can be very damaging and financially devastating to your organization. I know without a shadow of a doubt when I have a bad experience I tell a lot more people then when I have a good one. I’m sure it goes the same statistically across the board. The problem with a website telling about a bad experience is that it reaches thousands and thousands of people. This can potentially cause one little issue that may not have been handled properly make a company look like crooks.
With that being said, most businesses don’t have any problem getting their corporate website to the number one position on Bing, Google, and Yahoo. The problem comes about when negative content dominates the [...]
- 2009Oct30Five Tips for Website Visitor Retention
We all work hard enough in search marketing to get visitors to our sites. To make these site visits beneficial, we want visitors to peruse our content, understand the offerings and calls to action, and to then convert. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, I don’t usually write about the things that people are doing correctly.- 2009Oct29Bing Happenings…
Ever since Bings launch, I have used it some, and my experience with is has been pleasant. News reports state that it’s the fastest growing search engine. Currently, it only holds about 11% of the search marketing industry. Google is still at a whopping 65%- but Bings growth has averaged (month to month) about 20%. This is phenomenal.
Bing has put alot of focus on ‘Bing Travel’. A nice shortcut to finding great deals, which seemingly seems to simplify orbitz.com’s efforts. You can look for last minute deals, cheapest flights, you can even sign up to recieve the specified deals to your own email address.
http://www.bing.com/travel/Bings Visual Search offers a newer, innovative method of search
You arrive at http://www.bing.com/visualsearch
I clicked ‘politicians’. On the left, you see in the menu bar with other potential search terms you may want to see- visually. When I clicked ‘Presidents Cabinet’, there came pics of all the presidents cabinet complete with names. Clicking on one of these pics takes [...]
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