interactive agency

Archive for June, 2008

Is Google trying to put us out of business?

Thursday, June 26th, 2008 by Chance Bliss

Google is close to launching its new media planning tool. Named AdPlanner, the tool will allow agencies and marketers better target audiences by combining search and demographic data. The search giant has always been pretty closed doors about sharing any data related to actual search volume or demographics so maybe they are throwing agencies a bone here. Or maybe they are making a move to cut out agencies all together?

Read the rest of this entry »


Search is a kingmaker or destroyer

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 by Chance Bliss

I saw the media blitz about Borders® launching their new site the other day. Interested, I went to check out the new interface. Being a search nerd and a former employee of Audible.com (digital audiobooks), I was curious to see how they would handle navigation and search.

Read the rest of this entry »


Is making the “Unsubscribe Process” Easier a Strategy to Boost Email Performance Metrics?

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 by George DiGuido

There has been a lot of talk in the marketplace recently about the “unsubscribe process” in email and making it easier for the consumers receiving them. Microsoft Windows Live has even started rendering an unsubscribe link in the header of an email that is encoded to support the functionality. The question is not if people will use it, it is whether people will not use it. The thinking is that by presenting the email recipients with a valid unsubscribe option at the top of an email the recipient feels the message is valid.

Read the rest of this entry »


Search Networks are Half The Story

Thursday, June 5th, 2008 by Michael McVeigh

In a column this week for Promotion World, I urge search marketers to take a critical look at their SEM referral traffic. It may come as a surprise to some that as much as half of paid search traffic is driven by the thousands of partner sites which have entered into syndication agreements with Google & Yahoo. These search networks have a profound impact on search acquisition costs and overall program performance.

Read the rest of this entry »


Keyword Ranking Report Catch 22: Part II

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 by Hugo Guzman

In my last post, I pointed a few of the core reasons why aggregate ranking data is more or less useless from a business intelligence perspective. Now I’m going to spend some time explaining why even individual keyword rankings can be misleading or downright useless.

Let’s start by talking about data centers. Google, which is responsible for 70% of search traffic, employees multiple data centers here in the US. Often times, different data centers have different sets of search results for the same keyword. Therefore, a ranking report, whether pulled manually or via an API, can only offer up a partial viewpoint on rankings.

Read the rest of this entry »


Get .educated on .edu, .gov, and .org sites

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 by Bob Generale

It’s extremely surprising to me when I hear SEO “experts” talk about how a particular domain extension carries more weight. It’s time to bust that myth once and for all.

Read the rest of this entry »


The ranking report catch 22: Part I

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 by Hugo Guzman

Those of you who work for yourselves likely never have to deal with this, but for those folks working in-house gigs or agency gigs, running ranking reports for a given swath of keywords is likely one of the most frustrating and demoralizing prospects you come across during the course of your work.

And if it’s not, then you need to seriously rethink your approach to SEO.

Read the rest of this entry »