In late June I had the pleasure of presenting a guest lecture on current trends in search and social to a graduate marketing class at NYU. A link to the full presentation is provided below via Slideshare.
Archive for the ‘Search strategy’ Category
DFW SEM meeting w/ Brett Tabke was a great one
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009Just want to drop a word here about Brett Tabke’s presentation at the last DFW SEM Assoc. meeting. The group is picking up momentum in terms of attendance, diversity of attendees and organizations, and content, and is because of the great volunteers in the organization, and also presentations like Brett’s. Brett gave an overview of his insight of *all* presentations given at the Las Vegas WebmasterWorld, and the result was a very interesting view of the big picture of search and social, along with some incredible details about where the algos are going. It doesn’t hurt that he brought swag for all the attendees either.
To kick off his talk, Brett described how the WW crew recorded and videotaped *every* presentation, and how he went back and watched *every* one of them, kind of like a coach reviewing game film. His presentation to DFW SEM featured some of the big picture trends that evolved out of the show, and I must say it was very compelling from many different angles – broad scope, sentiment around engines, and even some tactical revelations.
All feedback I’ve heard from attendees was highly positive, and there is no doubt that the Austin Pubcon in early March is one you won’t want to miss. I would dare say – and my DFW SEM board colleagues agree – that it may very well be the best SEM event for the price anywhere in the US.
Forrester Names iCrossing best in both SEO and Paid Search
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009Forrester Research has issued their 2009 Search Wave report, which assesses top search engine marketing agencies on their full-service SEM capabilities, using the standard industry definition of both paid search, and natural search engine optimization.
iCrossing came in at #1 for not just one component, but for both paid search and search engine optimization, beating out all other agencies in the comparison.
Here is a quote from the 2009 Forrester Research Wave Report:
“iProspect, iCrossing, and 360i lead the pack… In fact, iCrossing bests the others in both paid search and SEO because of its open bid management platform, its use of market mix models to aid enterprises in paid search planning, and its heritage of optimizing dynamic sites for natural search results.”
iCrossing has made the full report available online – click the link below to read the full evaluation:
Forrester Research Names iCrossing Best in Both Paid and Natural Search
As a search channel strategy director for iCrossing, I can say that we are very proud of this distinction. Congrats to the iCrossing team – well deserved!
iProspect, 360i, IMPAQT, Razorfish, Reprise Media, and OneUpWeb were also among the firms evaluated in this research report.
Dallas Pay Per Click Management Event – for beginners to experts
Thursday, October 9th, 2008DFW Search Marketing Association to host search advertising discussion on October 15, 2008 at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson, TX
Dallas, TX /October 9, 2008 – Search engine advertising is growing in use. This year alone almost 40% of all online advertising dollars are spent on search display ads, according to a recent survey by the IAB. On October 15 at 6 p.m., the DFW Search Marketing Association will be hosting a panel discussion on “Pay Per Click Management”. Focused on the needs of beginners and advanced users, this two hour session will cover a range of topics on how to successfully create and manage a search engine advertising campaign.
“This will be the first time that our organization has focused an entire event exclusively on the use of PPC,” says Tony Wright, President of the DFW SEM group. Jeff Martin, a board member of DFW SEM will be moderating the discussion. “This promises to be a rich environment of information and ideas from some of the leading search marketers in Dallas,” says Jeff.
The networking event starts at 6:00 PM, and the speakers will begin at 6:30 PM, ending at approximately 8:30 PM. The event is open to all DFWSEM members and non-members, including marketing professionals and the general public. The event is free for existing members and $30 for non-members.
Meeting location
The Renaissance Dallas-Richardson Hotel (http://www.richardsonrenaissance.com/) is located at 900 East Lookout Drive, Richardson, Texas 75081. The hotel is in the Richardson Telecom Corridor, on the east side of 75 Central Expressway, approximately one mile south of George Bush Tollway. The hotel phone is 972-367-2000.
About the DFW Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM)
The Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Organization (DFWSEM) is dedicated to education and promotion of the Dallas/Fort Worth search engine marketing industry, conversing various topics related to search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click search (PPC), as well as other emerging media. The group meets quarterly at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson, Texas, and is open to anyone interested in search engine marketing, including in-house marketers, independent consultants, and agencies. Initially founded in 2003, DFWSEM is the oldest and longest running local search engine marketing group/meetup in the country. Member agencies include DexterityMedia, Vizion Interactive, iCrossing, Range Online Media, Key Relevance, MarketNet, AffGoo, Creative Support, Did-it, SearchDex, WrightIMC, Lead Maverick and Bridgepose. For more information, visit http://www.dfwsem.org.
DFWSEM is sponsored by Lead Maverick (http://www.leadmaverick.com).
Impact of Vanity Generic Top Level Domains Part 2 – Search Insider
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008Here is the first half of my current column at MediaPost’s Search Insider. This is great story, and it is very exciting to see another piece of Internet history happening before us.
Originally published in Search Insider:
In my last column, I discussed some of the challenges of moving an existing website to a new vanity generic top-level domain (gTLD). In this installment, I will provide a review of several existing gTLDs, and discuss the branding and search impact, and also the process of applying for a gTLD.
For a quick recap, ICANN, the governing and administrating body over all Internet addresses, voted in late June of this year to allow individuals and corporations to apply for .anything, or literally any word or phrase exceeding three characters not taken. A new top level domain can be used as a registry, or for one’s own Web presence. Under the new policy, the following names are true possibilities as a home for an online Web presence:
http://www.2020.abc
http://dallas.cowboys
http://bach.music
http://www.checkmy.email
http://yourband.mp3
http://username.myspace
http://caramelmacchiato.starbucks
http://batman.movie
http://thisisspinaltap.imdb
http://olympics.wikipedia
Let your imagination run wild. But first, let’s take a look at other existing generic TLDs.
The branding of a TLD – why .com will always be king
If the marketing novelty of the vanity gTLD seems to outweigh all other considerations, it may be a good exercise to first analyze the current landscape. Ever heard of .Museum? Yes, it’s a real working gTLD (see this redirected URL for http://nyc.moma.museum; their main URL is http://www.moma.org), though the average Internet user is wholly unaware of its existence. .Travel has been in existence for almost two years, but very few travel sites have adopted it as their primary address on the Web. More commonly, major travel and hospitality brands have reserved these names and pointed them at “Brand.com” as a matter of driving traffic, and for brand and trademark defense. Other extensions such as .Jobs and .Pro have yet to gain mainstream appeal, even though their categories have wide potential within their respective theme-space. Another highly anticipated extension, .Mobi, has also failed to gain mainstream adoption as the default address of the mobile Web, with most major brands choosing to host their mobile presence on their legacy brand.com or subdomain (ex. m.cnn.com), targeted to mobile devices.
Your own awareness of these gTLDs (or lack thereof) is a direct reflection of how well that TLD was branded. Enterprise marketers will face the same challenge if/when they change over their existing .com presence to a new extension. Hosting your Web presence on .com benefits from a TLD brand that everyone has helped build. The .Com domain had no brand until U.S. advertisers got behind it, and a valid question to ask is whether or not your new gTLD is ready to compete against this level of awareness and trust. The answer is really simple – no single advertiser has the budget to match up to the amount of collective ad dollars that have promoted .com – it is synonymous with the Internet, more so than any other domain brand. This may be obvious to most readers, but marketers should keep this fact in mind as discussions around changing to gTLDs progress in their respective organizations.
The birth of the search-optimized Top Level Domain
Shifting gears a little bit, let’s pick back up on the natural search aspect of gTLDs. Having a generic keyword theme in a vanity gTLD also doesn’t guarantee natural search success or authority. Just like a new domain, the Top Level Domain still earns its authoritativeness in the search engines. It has long been recognized by SEOs that engines have shown bias and trust towards content and links on …..
Read the rest of the column here:
http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/search_insider/?p=842
.Anything – Thoughts on new ICANN gTLDs
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008My latest column is posted at MediaPost Search Insider, the first of a two-part series on the impact of new vanity ICANN generic top level domains (gTLDs). The title accidentally got hacked off – it should say “.anythinggoes”, so it looks a little out of context in its current state.
http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/search_insider/?p=831
Also, here some additional columns I wrote for MediaPost that discuss the importance of a domain move, and the importance of planning for search:
Five Tips For Assessing the Value of Natural Search
http://blogs.mediapost.com/search_insider/?p=624
The Unfolding Search Story of Bodog.com
http://blogs.mediapost.com/search_insider/?p=614
Seven Challenges of SEM Planning and Execution
http://blogs.mediapost.com/search_insider/?p=408
Solutions to Seven Challenges of SEM Planning and Execution
http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/search_insider/?p=417
