Archive of SEM Tools Posts

A common question about keyword research and the Google keyword tool is whether to ignore keyword opportunities that list “not enough data” for global and local search volume estimates.

The answer is NO; the misconception is that “not enough data” means “no one is searching for this keyword”, which in many cases will be far from the truth.  ... Read the full post

As should be the case this time of year, many online marketing sites are publishing their list of the best posts for 2009. Here is a round up of these “Best of 2009″ posts, organized by Internet Marketing theme.

There is a lot of great information, concepts and writing to read through. If I’ve missed your list, please feel free to send me a message directly or through the comments below. Happy New Year and wishing everyone the best in 2010 and beyond!

Internet Marketing  ... Read the full post

Guest Author

CJ Boguszewski Chief Marketing Officer, Hiconversion Twitter: @CJBogus

SEO vs. Conversion Rate Debate Shouldn’t Exist — Three Reasons CRO Complements SEO & SEM

Rand Fishkin, whose SEOmoz.org blog frequently has industry-leading commentary on a wide variety of optimization topics, entitled a post in January 2006 “SEO versus Conversion Rate Debate Shouldn’t Exist.”

In October 2009, the debate is still ongoing.

While the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) discipline continues to mature alongside the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) categories, most eBusiness organizations frame their understanding of CRO in SEO/SEM terms.  ... Read the full post

Launched earlier this month, the DiggBar enables people to share and Digg with a browser-based toolbar. DiggBar brings functionality that once was only inherent to users on Digg.com to the traditional web user, including reviewing comments, finding related content and sharing Digg submissions through Twitter and Facebook.

For a general DiggBar overview and thoughts on why this new Digg functionality may be valuable, I’ve written an initial post here.

This post provides a guide to DiggBar functionality and background on recent developments, discussions and updates.  ... Read the full post

PPC Toolbox is a series of posts that highlight and explain the PPC tools that we are developing here at KoMarketing Associates to facilitate pay-per-click campaigns.

There are three magic letters that will make or break any PPC campaign: ROI.  KoMarketing currently provides a very useful excel spreadsheet template that can be used to measure ROI for search engine advertising campaigns, found in the resources section of the website. The sheet calculates helpful information like percent profit, profit per click, and acceptable cost per action. The spreadsheet format is ideal for anyone looking to track this data over a period of time, or create multiple scenarios. But sometimes you just want to do a quick check to see if something is working, or to show a manager or client some potential figures.  ... Read the full post

Google announced that you can now differentiate between search traffic that comes directly from Google.com from search traffic generated on one of Google’s partner sites (ie. AOL, Ask).  This is the first of hopefully many steps that will allow PPC managers to take a more active role in managing Google’s Search Partners.

Currently, the extent of our interaction with the Search Partner Network (aside from using an outside analytics package for analysis) is through the viewable dashboard on the campaign or ad group level.  You can not get results directly by keyword or search phrase at this time.  ... Read the full post

I was recently contacted by Leon Krishnayana, CEO & Founder of iSpionage.com.  Leon asked if I would be willing to review the company’s PPC analytics tool.  I had heard of iSpionage before, and had tested their beta version, so I was very interested in peeking under the hood of the full breadth of the tool’s capabilities.

I did make sure that Leon understood that the review would be completely objective, and that is (obviously) how he wanted it.

So, how does iSpionage pan out as a PPC tool?

Why Use It?
 ... Read the full post

PPC Toolbox is a series of posts that highlight and explain the PPC tools that we are developing here at KoMarketing Associates to facilitate pay-per-click campaigns.

In order to run a successful PPC campaign you have to have ads showing for high-value keywords that are relevant to your business. One aspect of this process is making sure you’ve covered all of your bases in terms of synonyms and variations of similar keywords.  ... Read the full post

NEW! You can now use the online versions of the 2 PPC Calculators discussed below:

• B2B Pay Per Click ROI Calculator (for tracking lead generation campaigns)
• B2C Pay Per Click ROI Calculator (for e-commerce campaigns)

For those of you interested in calculating Pay Per Click (PPC) projections, I have created a basic PPC calculator that is available for download (click on the “PPC Calculator” link to download the Excel file).

There are two worksheets in the file – one for B2B Lead Generation and one for E-Commerce.  ... Read the full post

Even though the adoption of RSS is improving, many people still give us a look of uncertainty and confusion when the conversation about using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) arises. Here are a handful of things you need to know about RSS and why it may actually improve your experience (and marketing savvy) online.

• RSS is really about information
  Don’t let another acronym get in the way. There is no special coding or programming language you need to know to “get” RSS as a consumer of information. Just remember that RSS is an easy way for any website publisher to send/distribute information to the masses.
 ... Read the full post