by Mike Moran Frank Reed had an interesting post on his Frank Thinking blog, lamenting how small businesses seem to avoid search marketing . They spend their money on Yellow Pages ads and other older forms of marketing that might not bring the best return on their investment. So, with the U.S. economy focusing every small business on making more from less, why is it that Internet marketing, and search marketing in particular, is so scary?

by Todd Mintz David Mihm is more than just an SEMpdx Schwag Ho . He is one of the top experts in the ever-growing specialty of Local Search Optimization and he focuses his consultancy on helping small business clients generate online revenue in their respective marketplaces. His Mihmorandum blog is a "mandatory add" to the feedreader of anybody remotely interested in the Local SEO niche. David is Portland's newest SEO transplant ).

by David Wallace I came across a story posted at Search Engine Land pointing out that Google has an "unsatisfactory" record with The Better Business Bureau . How can a company voted " top global brand " in 2008 at the same time have an unsatisfactory record with the BBB? Apparently because out of 331 complaints filed against the search giant over the past three years, 2 were listed as unresolved. that's right - just 2! Despite this,

by Mack Collier One thing I love about blogging is that it gives a small business the ability to quickly and easily build awareness for itself online. This is exactly what Amrita Chandra is doing to get the word out about her Toronto-based art gallery, Tinku Gallery. Perhaps the most important aspect of a blog, is making sure your content is positioned from the reader's point of view. Many small )and large( businesses completely miss this,

by Manoj Jasra If you are looking for a career in web analytics and want to establish a solid foundation of skills as a part of your overall analytics training, then I recommend adding the skills below to your tool-set to help you become a very well rounded analyst before you enter the field. Taking a course on web analytics, reading a book on web analytics or subscribing to a web analytics blog are a good start, but frankly, are not good enough by themselves.

by Stoney deGeyter Over the last two posts I discussed the importance of expert information in building a Destination Website. I also outlined seven different types of expert information that can be used in providing quality information to your audience. Building a Destination Website is all about serving your audience. It's about finding what they are looking for in a website and providing it in excellence.

by Jennifer Laycock )SEM Bootcamp articles are no-frills content designed to bring small business owners up to speed on the concepts and techniques needed to market their businesses online.( One of the questions I hear over and over again when I teach a search marketing boot camp is "How do search engines know which of my words are my keywords." These folks believe Google has a "list" of keywords and they come to your site hunting for them.

by Stoney deGeyter Yesterday I started a new series on Destination Search Engine Marketing , discussing the first of the seven building blocks in creating a Destination Website: Expert Information . Before I move on to the second building block I wanted to discuss the different types of expert information which can be added to your website.

by Stoney deGeyter Last week I posted a series of articles about Destination Search Engine Marketing. Over the four-part series we asked the questions, do you deserve top search rankings? and what would sudden exposure get you? We then talked about what it means to have a business that stands out in a sea of thousands , and explained further how Destination SEM isn't just marketing as usual . One of the common themes,

by Jennifer Laycock I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From egommunication to controlling the message online to a great recap of the fundamentals of paid search advertising, check out a roundup of five posts I classify as "must-read" for the day. Matt McGee has a great reminder over at Small Business SEM that if you are a small business looking to generate word of mouth buzz, you simply must be remarkable.

by Mike Moran You've probably heard me advise marketers to "do it wrong quickly," allowing feedback from customers to help you improve your marketing. I am using feedback from my June 24th post on " Free Ways to Estimate Keyword Demand " )and a fortuitous announcement by Google( to improve the procedure I documented just a few weeks ago. )In case you're wondering, "keyword demand" is the number of searches on a particular search keyword done in a period of time, such as "3,

by Stoney deGeyter After attending conferences, we always comes back ignited with new, bold and innovative ideas. We come back with more ideas on the table than we'll be able to implement within the next twelve months. That's both good and bad. Many of the ideas are simply spectacular but we lack the resources to implement them while maintaining focus on our core business. The price of innovating minds, I guess!

by Stoney deGeyter In the last installment of this series on Destination Search Engine Marketing we discussed a few things that you can do to build a site that truly deserves to be ranked well in the search engines . Starting next week I'll discuss each of the seven specific building blocks in building a Destination Website, but before we jump to that let's look at what it means to actually employ a Destination SEM Campaign.

by Sage Lewis Social media is all the rage, and it's here to stay, but it's hard for businesses to know what to do with it and how to do it. Sage encourages both believers and skeptics to check out the book Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, citing it as one of the best social media resources from the business perspective. As an aside, our very own Jennifer Laycock is mentioned on page eight! Want more from your web site? Search Influence can help! Targeted Traffic.

by Sage Lewis Sage touches on some of the sadder aspects of our economy and world, broaching the greatly suffering real estate and energy industries. He believes people currently in these fields have wonderful opportunities to reach out to people and make a difference. A call to action is issued, encouraging these people to share their stories on the web, using blogs and YouTube as their platform. Want more from your web site? Search Influence can help! Targeted Traffic.

by Jennifer Laycock I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From more insight into Google's algorithm to the value of links to a reminder of how well Twitter works as a networking tool, check out a roundup of half a dozen posts I classify as "must-read" for the day. Amit Singhal pens his second post about the technologies behind Google rankings on the Official Google blog this week.

by Mack Collier If you use Twitter , then you might have heard of a new microblogging site called Plurk . Both services are alike in that they are both microblogging sites, in the same way that a Jeep and Ferrari are alike because they both have four wheels. But just as Twitter holds potential for you to grow your business, so does Plurk. First, it must be said upfront that Plurk has an incredibly quirky interface. If you are used to Twitter's vertical format,

by Stoney deGeyter In the last installment of this series I defined Destination Search Engine Marketing as the process of creating a desired destination point for anyone looking for the product, services, or information you provide. With that as the starting point I further discussed what it takes for you to become that destination point and the effects that marketing campaigns have on sites that are not "Destination Websites.

by Mack Collier Perhaps the most important area of a business blog, is its content. How you position your blog's content can greatly determine how successful it will be, and this is a lesson that hasn't been lost on Newcastle Square Realty. Newcastle Square Realty is a realtor located in Maine. You might assume that their blog would focus on who the company is, what they do, and the properties that they are selling. But instead,

by Stoney deGeyter Yesterday I introduced the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing )Destination SEM( which emphasized that SEO isn't about "getting" top rankings. Getting rankings leaves open the implication that you're achieving a result that you don't necessarily deserve. Destination SEM focuses on building a website that is truly exceptional in meeting your audience's needs and actually earns top search engine positions.