Microsoft adCenter

Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador Program Discontinued »
Posted on September 1st, 2010 by Justin Seibert in Google Adwords, Microsoft adCenter, Paid Search, Yahoo Search Marketing | 4 Comments

Kind of a sad day here at West Virginia’s search engine marketing headquarters.  I received this email last night from Yahoo!:

Dear Ambassador,

As a result of Yahoo!’s upcoming transition to Microsoft Advertising adCenter’s search platform, we will be discontinuing the Yahoo! Ambassador Program effective September 30, 2010.

Based on our current plans, after September 30, 2010, we will no longer accept new advertisers for Yahoo! Sponsored Search.

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TAGS: goto.com, jerry yang, overture, search engine rap battle, yahoo search marketing ambassador

Prepping for Yahoo! Microsoft Wonder Twins Search Alliance »
Posted on July 1st, 2010 by Justin Seibert in Microsoft adCenter, Paid Search, Search Engines, Yahoo Search Marketing | 1 Comment

As we prepare for the Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance when these two superheros say, “Wonder Twins Activate: Form of Chinese-Friendly Google,” we here at Direct Online Marketing can’t help but shed a few tears.  We may never have another chance to watch the Search Engine Rap Battle again.

But the real question: are you prepared?  Pick your position out of one of the following 3 scenarios ranked in order of least work to most work to learn what you need to know.
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TAGS: ad positions, cpc, Microsoft adCenter, search engine rap battle, wonder twins, yahoo microsoft search alliance, Yahoo Search Marketing

How Much of Your Budget Are You Re-Allocating to SEM? »
Posted on April 7th, 2010 by Justin Seibert in Google Adwords, Local Search, Microsoft adCenter, Paid Search, SEM, SEO, Yahoo Search Marketing | 2 Comments

First thing’s first.  Despite what some people in the industry say search engine marketing, or SEM, refers to all forms of marketing, optimizing, and advertising through / to / with search engines.  Primarily that means paid search and search engine optimization plus all related disciplines and offshoots like local search, press optimization, etc.

Often people use SEM just to refer to paid search marketing, often also referred to as pay per click, or ppc (Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, et al).  If I’m having a conversation with a prospective client who uses SEM that way, I’ll go along for the sake of conversation, but you, loyal reader, should know better.  Not picking on anyone here; there’s a lot of confusion around the term – even Google itself uses it this way in their AdWords testing materials.

Alright.  Now that we’re straight, let’s dive into SEMPO’s just released 2010 State of Search Engine Marketing Report, which you can buy here if you want to curl up with 112 pages and some cocoa late at night.  Here are some key findings taken from the report synopsis and MediaPost’s write-up (hence the dueling bullet point styles): Continue reading →

TAGS: allocating marketing budgets, local seo, mediapost, SEM, sempo

Pruning the Bushes: Using Negative Keywords »
Posted on March 30th, 2010 by Justin Seibert in Google Adwords, Microsoft adCenter, Paid Search, Yahoo Search Marketing | 3 Comments

I’m a homeowner to use the common parlance.  Technically I’m just watching the home that the bank owns.  There are many great things about owning a home – American Dream and all that.  But you also get a lot of super fun tasks like lawn mowing, raking leaves, and hedge pruning.  Things aren’t so bad once your kids are old enough to take those over – I’m thinking age 6 is good for sharp objects and large machinery – right?  But until then, goodbye late night partying from spring to fall (unless you have kids under the age-6 heavy yard work threshold, in which case you’ve already said goodbye).

Owning a paid search account with Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing or Microsoft adCenter (or Yandex or Baidu for our foreign or exporter friends) isn’t all that different.  You have to keep up with your keyword lists, pruning out bad matches and keywords just like overgrown leaves and branches.

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TAGS: Baidu, broad match, danger will robinson, edward scissorhands, hugo the abominable snowman, negative keywords, ppc maintenance, Yandex

Understanding Local Search from Pittsburgh PA to Pittsbug KS »
Posted on December 16th, 2009 by Justin Seibert in Google - SEO, Google Adwords, Local Search, Microsoft adCenter, SEO, Search Engines, Yahoo Search Marketing | 4 Comments

Many of our clients (and readers) are concerned with getting traffic and buyers from throughout the United States or from all over the world.  An increasing number of small businesses, larger locally-based organizations, and huge conglomerates with multiple brick-and-mortar locations are starting to realize just how powerful search engine marketing can be for their local markets.

I think we’ve talked quite a bit about the geo-targeting capabilities of pay per click accounts like Google AdWords (although it bears repeating that you can draw any kind of coverage map you’d like, including picking a 20-mile radius around your physical location).  And while the ability to place AdWords ads within local business listings is potentially interesting, that option is still in beta for folks in the San City Twins (San Francisco and San Diego).

What we’ve been somewhat remiss in discussing (at least me, maybe not Paul as much) is local SEO.  So, whether you’re looking for a Pittsburgh SEO firm or to rank in Pittsburg, Kansas, this article will explain a bit about how the process works.  Many of these same principles work in other countries as well as we’ve used them on clients in the UK and Germany, but let’s focus here on the good ol’ U.S. of A. for simplicity’s sake.  Learn more after the jump.

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TAGS: bing local listings, google 7-pack, highlights magazine, legal seo, local business listings, local seo, pittsburgh seo, small business seo, yahoo local listings

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