by Mike Moran Perhaps this doesn't sound like a headline that belongs in Search Engine Guide, but trust me, it is. I was at the Brandhackers Meetup Monday night in New York City on a panel focusing on what marketers need to know about mobile marketing. But what struck me is how much the audience needed to hear the most important idea about mobile marketing, which is that you don't do it in isolation.

by Stoney deGeyter If you have never heard of The Scotty Principle, you might as well just give up now. Go home. We're done here. Okay, now that all the non-geeks have left the building, we can have a frank, honest conversation about SEO )and a bit of Star Trek(. I've always heard of people that are so good at sales they could sell ice to an Eskimo, water to a fish or prescription glasses to the blind. I think I once bought a bridge. Having a good salesperson is great,

by Mike Moran I often am asked to explain search marketing to people with no digital marketing background, and it helps to have some shortcuts. I've found over the years, that an especially helpful kind of shortcut is to categorize a particular kind of technique in terms that veteran non-digital marketers understand, because once you do that, they bring all sorts of knowledge to a subject that they thought they knew nothing about.

by Mike Fleming The +1 Button & AdWords In an effort to improve relevance on the web, Google is utilizing searcher's relationships. A new button in search results enables signed-in searchers to get recommendations on search results pages and websites from the people they are connected to through their Google profiles. Google is saying it won't affect how quality score is calculated. But, it does affect quality score because if the recommendations improve CTR,

by Mike Moran I've been working on search engine technology since the 1980s, so there wasn't anything about organic search )SEO( that I did not pick up fairly quickly. But paid search )PPC( was another thing entirely. At first, I was flabbergasted that anyone would even want to click on a paid search result, but after a while I had to admit that those results weren't that bad. I even click on them, too. But over the years, paid search has changed a lot. In fact,

by Stoney deGeyter I learned a new word recently. Not a new word, really, but a new phrase combined from two of those really big words that normal people rarely ever use. That phrase is "Concatenation Schema". WTH??? Yeah, that's what I thought. But, suffice it to say, it was a very simplified way of saying something that took me three paragraphs to explain.

by Mike Moran Here at Search Engine Guide, we talk a lot about search engine marketing )no, really!( but we don't have our heads in the sand. Search marketing only matters in the context of succeeding in your overall digital marketing. So we spend lots of time discussing social media, conversions, and lots of other things related to search marketing.

by Stoney deGeyter While it's great to know what people want, when you give them what they want, you only give them a partial solution. The want is the symptom. But, when you address the need, you are addressing the underlying problem and providing a much more holistic solution. In Part 2 of this series , I started discussing a customers wants versus their needs. I continue this list here. People want to feel important; they need you to speak to their needs first.

by Mike Fleming Last time, we talked about a revolutionary tool in keyword research called Google Insights for Search that allows you to gain competitive advantages by doing dynamic keyword research instead of static keyword research. Static keyword research is using a keyword tool to get volume "numbers" at one point in time and then using that data to perform long-term marketing campaigns. The problem? Things change. Therefore,

by Stoney deGeyter Business building is about relationship building. In order to get and keep customers, you must be able to build some kind of relationship with them. In my last post, I talked about how building relationships online is essential to your long-term business strategy . After all, you want to be different than the 100's or 1000's of others all selling the same product or service. Once you open up the door to relationships with your customers,

by Stoney deGeyter There are a lot of things that go into operating a successful business. But, when it's all said and done, the thing that really matters most is building relationships. Sure, your customers are concerned about price, quality, service, etc., but the most successful businesses are those that work to create some kind of strong rapport with both their customers and potential customers alike. Wal-Mart provides a quick and easy example.

by Mike Moran Some of you might read the title of this story and ask, "How could anything be keeping Google up at night? They are literally making billions." And you have a point. But ask yourself something. Can you remember when you were making half what you are making now? Some of us lucky people can remember when we were making one-tenth of what we make now. But do you feel comfortable now? Nothing worries you? Just sailing along, happy with your success? Nope.

by Mike Fleming Google has this tool called Insights for Search . At first glance, it looks like a pretty simple, fairly unsophisticated tool that just tells you if search volume is going up or down for a particular keyword or group of keywords. Not many insights there, right? I mean,

by Stoney deGeyter Coupons are a great way to entice new visitors to purchase something from your site or to reward frequent customers. The popularity of Groupon is a great testament to the power )and desire( of coupons. But, sometimes coupons can backfire. Not for those who have them, but for those that don't. Have you ever been to a site where, you've shopped around, found what you wanted, and when you went to check-out, they asked you to enter your coupon code number? WTH!

by Stoney deGeyter SEO's Start at a Disadvantage SEO has gotten an ugly rep over the years. Some of it deserved, some not so much. Unfortunately, many good SEO's get lumped into the same category as the bad ones. Kinda like lawyers, I suspect. For years, SEO has been relatively easy to jump into, and "expert" SEO firms have appeared virtually overnight, only to disappear a few months later.

by Mike Moran It's a question that comes up all the time, but there hasn't been a good answer to it. There are painstaking ways that you can analyze your competitor's Web site for signs of elementary cheating, such as hidden text, keyword stuffing, and other simple forms of search spam, but don't bother. The search engines do a reasonably good job of sniffing those out themselves nowadays. But what about the big time search spammer?

by Miriam Ellis There's a grandma in Topeka who fires up Facebook every day to see new photos and stories about her grandkids in Wichita. There's a national group of mothers of Autistic children using Twitter as their platform to point out gluten-free recipes that are aiding their sons' and daughters' health. There's an organic farmer in Berkeley,

by Mike Fleming The latest news to keep you ahead of the competition in managing your paid search advertising... Is it Time to Rethink Bidding on Trademarks? You can now bid on competitor's trademarks on Yahoo and Bing; meaning you can get an instant boost in traffic and conversions. But, this doesn't mean you should. One PPC marketer recently lost in court to the tune of $292K plus legal fees for doing this. Protect yourself from lawsuits.

by Stoney deGeyter Dear Client: I love you. I really do! But please, for the love of all that is good and holy, will you stop obsessing over search engine rankings? I get it, you hired me to perform Search Engine Optimization on your website. Why do we optimize for search engines? For rankings, right? Well, no, not anymore. It's been almost a decade since the SEO industry began it's turn toward a fuller website marking experience,

by Mike Moran It's yesterday's news. It's no longer sexy. It is less about inspiration than perspiration. I'm talking about paid search. If you remember the exciting days at the turn of this century when paid search was the hottest game in town, times have certainly changed. Paid search is now a normal, boring part of almost everyone's digital marketing program,