Local Search Update #12 -- October 2007 |
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Wednesday, 10/24/2007 1:30 PM ET |
Essential Tools For The Search Engine Marketer LAST WEEK, THE DALLAS / Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association held its quarterly standing-room-only meet-up. We presented "51 Essential Tools for Search Engine Marketing," in which Christine Churchill (Key Relevance), Jeff Martin (CardsDirect.com), Tony Wright ( Wright IMC) and I ran through a list of tools that DFWSEM board member agencies and in-house marketers use to assist their own paid and natural search marketing campaigns. Each slide covered the utility, cost and location of the tool. Jim Gilbert of Key Relevance pointed out the best tool of the night: your brain. This tool should also come in handy as you decide on which of the following (excerpted from the master list) best fits your needs and strategy. Certainly there are many more truly great search tools out there, but hopefully you found a few new ones in this list. For a PDF copy of the full presentation and all 51+ tools, click here. Rob Garner is strategy director for interactive marketing and search agency iCrossing. He is president-elect of the Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association, and also serves on the board of the Dallas/Fort Worth Interactive Marketing Association. |
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Unearthing Your Hidden SEO Guru |
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Posted October 23rd, 2007 * Posted a video to YouTube with a few tags and a remotely descriptive title. * Rated your company's video on YouTube (or related video sites from Google, Yahoo, or MSN). * Submitted a press release to some online newswire (or a traditional newswire that also posts releases online). * Tagged photos on Flickr (owned by Yahoo). * Posted an event to Upcoming.org (owned by Yahoo). * Added a local listing to Google Base. Okay, maybe you haven't done any of this, but if you serve in a marketing role, you probably will before long, and all of these actions can provide greater exposure for your Web presence in the major engines. That's because of the impact of universal search (the term Google gave it) or blended search, which refers to how the engines pull in content from a range of other sources (including the engines' own databases) into the main body of natural search results. Another version of this is modular search, pioneered by Ask.com, where the different types of content (images, video, local listings, etc) each appear in a separate field beside the main body of natural listings. (Thanks go to colleague Chris Humber, my in-house SEO guru, for shedding light on the nuances). The twist here is that if universal, blended, or modular search becomes the long-term standard rather than an engine fad (another personal guru, colleague Eric Richmond, noted that it's too soon to determine users' preferences), it's likely that there will be a much larger group of people contributing to a site's search visibility than ever before. The concept itself isn't totally new. Press release optimization, local search optimization, and social media optimization have been bandied about for years, to name just a few of the subdisciplines. Yet universal search allows all those "___ ___ optimization" specialties to come together. It's all search engine optimization, and it includes a retail store manager updating a local business listing, an events manager posting a public function, a marketing assistant publishing clips on a video site, a marketing director ghost-writing a C-level executive's entry on a corporate blog, and everyone in the company who participates in any way - rating the business or YouTube clip, adding the blog to an engines' feed aggregator, RSVPing to an event, or taking some other action. All these actions can signal that the content is relevant and helps it rank higher in natural search results. That doesn't create less work for the true SEO masters. While everyone in an organization can make a small positive impact, it's also likely that most people will have no sense of how their actions contribute to SEO and thus impact a company's sales and brand. That means much of the optimization potential will be wasted. These professional SEO experts must then emerge not just as technologists but as evangelists, educators, and shepherds. As for the congregants, pupils, and flocks, you're now ready to enter your never-ending SEO training. It's one more way you'll be able to contribute to the future success of your business. |
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Press Release:
GateHouse Media Announces Partnership to Enhance Local Search |
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FAIRPORT, N.Y., Oct 01, 2007 /PRNewswire- FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- GateHouse Media, Inc. (NYSE: GHS) announced today that it partnered with Search Initiatives LLC to provide local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services for customers of its daily and weekly newspapers. SEO will allow GateHouse's online readers to more efficiently search for information on the major search engines. "We are pleased to partner with Search Initiatives in what we see as the fast-growing local SEO space in a best-in-breed internet solution," said GateHouse Media Chief Executive Officer, Mike Reed. "We believe the alliance will put GateHouse in a position to significantly enhance online revenue opportunities and work towards our goal of increasing our share of revenues that come from our online businesses." GateHouse Media, Inc., headquartered in Fairport, New York, is one of the largest publishers of locally based print and online media in the United States as measured by its 86 daily publications. GateHouse Media currently serves local audiences of more than 10 million per week across 20 states through hundreds of community publications and local websites. GateHouse Media is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "GHS." Search Initiatives LLC is headquartered in Nashua, NH with its eLocalListing SEO division based in Temecula, CA. Search Initiatives provides search technology, ecommerce and Search Engine Optimization products to newspaper publishers and local business across the US. For more information regarding GateHouse Media and to be added to our email distribution list, please visit www.gatehousemedia.com. |
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Co-Branded SEO Programs for Online Publishers |
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Our new SEO program allows publishers like GateHouse Media to bring more revenue dollars in-house with outsourced search offerings to businesses local to their publications. |
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Pushing Print Online |
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eMarketer 10/25/2007 |
When the grand, gray lady of newspapers, The New York Times, changes its tagline from "All the News That's Fit to Print" to "All the News That's Fit to Click," there can be no question that momentous changes are underway in the publishing world. "It's wake-up time for the publishing industry," said Lisa Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Newspapers and Magazines Online: Content Is Still King . "eMarketer projects that US newspaper and magazine publishers will spend nearly $537 million this year to advertise their print and online brands. "By 2011, that figure will reach $1.3 billion in online advertising, an increase of 142%," Ms. Phillips said. Major newspapers and magazines have no choice. It's publish and promote online or perish. "Newspaper publishers have watched print ad revenues-particularly classifieds-migrate online to sites such as AutoTrader, Craigslist, Monster and Zillow.com," Ms. Phillips said. "Magazine brands with million-plus subscribers have been shuttered in favor of branded Web sites." Like it or not, readers and advertisers are turning to the Internet, and print brands must follow. "This year, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, magazine and newspaper publishers will spend $7.7 billion on digital content and advertising," Ms. Phillips said. "By 2011, they project that spending will rise to $17.1 billion, an increase of 122%." Much of the money is going to build out Web 2.0 features. In the first nine months of 2007, the Magazine Publishers of America recorded 145 new digital initiatives, from redesigns and relaunches to audio and video podcasts, social networking features, mobile sites and webisodes. "Without question, print publishers are focusing on the digital transformation of their brands," Ms. Phillips said. "While print products will not go away-any more than radio disappeared when TV arrived-publishers must adapt to serving two audiences, one online and the other offline." To read more of the writing on the wall, get your copy of the new eMarketer report, Newspapers and Magazines Online: Content Is Still King , today. |
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See us at the 2008 Marketing Conference |
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See us at the 2008 Marketing Conference The 2008 NAA Marketing Conference, February 24-27 at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center will make an impact on your bottom line! |
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| Fire breaks out west of Temecula | |||
by: The Californian |
Our Southern California Office Threatened by the Fires... fortunately the efforts to stop it by the brave fire fighters in our area saved homes, businesses and lives... ...A fire broke out in the hills about two miles west of Temecula just after 11 p.m Monday west of Rancho California Road in the area of Via Barranca and Via Vaquero. The fire was visible burning on a ridgeline and appeared to be heading northeast toward town, according to initial reports. Westbound Rancho California Road was closed, but residents of rural De Luz were streaming east into Temecula after being evacuated by Riverside County sheriff's deputies.... Fire officials were reporting about 11:55 p.m. that the blaze was roughly 25 to 50 acres and spreading rapidly through heavy brush. At that point, fire officials reported that more than 190 firefighters had responded to battle the flames. If the fire were to advance toward town, it could threaten Old Town Temecula or an industrial park that is home to International Rectifier, Temecula City Hall and The Californian's offices.... |
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About Search Initiatives, LLC |
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Strategically, we are the only newspaper vendor leveraging the inherent strength of the local newspaper's web rank, which will further enhance the search results and traffic for local businesses. Jeff Rapson, VP of Marketing |
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