Highlights from the SEW Blog: November 12-16, 2007

We’ve collected all the search marketing news from selected posts to the Search Engine Watch blog in the past week, along with recent search-related headlines from around the Web.

From the SEW blog:

Organic Search

• The 10 Most Common SEO Mistakes
  There are surely hundreds of different ways that people can mess up their sites. Based on our experience from working with scores of clients, here are the most common problems that we find.
• SEW Experts: Keywords First – New Web Site Second
  Where do you start once you have an idea for a new online venture? If your goal is to build it and they will come, then you need to start with keyword research.

Search Advertising

• Clickable Areas on AdSense Redefined
  Google has redefined the clickable area of its text ads to make only the ad’s title and URL clickable, instead of the whole block of text.
• Myth Busting: Affiliate Marketing
  There is a persistent belief out there by many that affiliate marketing is bad. The truth is that it’s all in the packaging, and whether or not your site adds any value.
• Yahoo Announces Change To Shorter Descriptions
  The 75 character limit will be enforced on all ads on Yahoo’s network.
• SEW Experts: Content Advertising Explained – Part 2
  Ads created for the content networks perform a different job, target different users, and require a different strategy.

Linking Issues & Social Media

• SEW Experts: A Winning SEO Plan to Create Buzz, Traffic, Links
  How do you engage users, create buzz and generate links all at the same time?
• Using Google Trends to target cities with press releases
  A simple yet clever strategy to make sure that your press releases are seen by cities and regions that are looking for your specific keywords.

Analytics & ROI

• SEW Experts: Bid Management Lookback Options
  One of the key factors when using bid management tools is how far back in time you need to look at the data to get meaningful results for each keyword
• Do You Know What’s Really Causing Your Results?
  Sometimes, gains in ROI from a PPC campaign could have been even better, if you could identify the point of diminishing returns.

Local & Mobile Search

• What Can Local Learn from Universal Search?
  Local content providers can learn a bit about self-promotion by following the search engines‘ lead.
• SEW Experts: Local Search: Competing All Over the Map
  Google Maps, launched with AJAX functionality, draggable maps, and satellite imagery in late 2005, started an “arms race” in development of new features and functionality.
• Yahoo Adds 9 Asian Countries To Mobile Search
  Yahoo is now offering its mobile search product in Chinese and has added nine new partners in the Asian market.
• Live Search Shopping Feature Commentary
  The Live Search blog highlighted some additional aspects of their shopping search engine.

Vertical & Specialty Search

• Thanksgiving Turkey, Image Search, and Missed Opportunities
  With Thanksgiving less than a week away, I fully expected that finding an image of a choice roasted turkey would be as simple as firing up my browser turning to either Google or Yahoo image search. To my surprise this was not to be.
• Google Wants To Be An American Idol
  Google is reportedly in talks with Simon Fuller, one of the creators of American Idol, to develop a global online video presence.

Small Business/Big Brand SEM

• SEW Experts: Brand Strategies for Search Marketing – Part 1
  Whether you’re an agency, consultant, or in-house search expert, it’s likely that you will eventually need to answer this key question from your CEO: “Why would I buy my own brand terms? Aren’t we are already listed at the top of the search engines?”
• SES Webcast Today: How Large Enterprises Effectively Integrate Paid & Natural Search Marketing
  The one-hour session, part of the Search Engine Strategies Webcasts series, focuses on what the best and brightest CMOs are doing right — and why no corporations have the answer yet.
• Report: UK Small Businesses Shy Away from Search
  A majority of small businesses in the U.K. are not investing in search marketing, but those who do are seeing an increase in sales.

In-House & Outsourcing

• SEW Experts: How To Choose an SEO Agency and Why
  When pricing SEO services, many companies have a hard time getting a handle on what they should pay.
• SEW Experts: The Future of Search: Strategy, Execution, Evolution
  These days, search marketers seem to be filled with high anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It’s important to put these concerns in perspective.

SEM Industry Issues

• Going to SES Chicago for the first time
  Greg Jarboe breaks down the best sessions for someone going to Search Engine Strategies Chicago for the first time.
• Microsoft Exec Claims They Will Have 30% Search Market Share
  Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division, said he thinks Microsoft can get a 40% share of the search market in the next 3-5 years.
• SEW Experts: Understanding the Global Search Marketplace – Part 1
  The search world is expanding. Global players like Google, Yahoo, Baidu and Microsoft are competing to be the single resource for accessing information.

Searching/Search Technologies

• Only Searchable At Your Library
  While I’m a big fan of libraries and even remote access for patrons, it’s troubling that the public-at-large cannot access these holdings — or quickly discover them through commonly used search engines.
• AOL Acquires Q&A Platform Yedda
  AOL follows last week’s Quigo acquisition with the news that it has acquired Yedda, an Israel-based Q&A platform similar to Yahoo Answers.
• Interview with Microsoft’s Ramez Naam
  Eric Enge has an interesting discussion with Naam, focused on some of the key issues that impact core search algorithms.

More from the SEW Blog

• Vanessa Fox is on the Move
  Vanessa Fox, formerly the driving force (and friendly face) behind Google Webmaster Central, is on the move again.

Search Headlines

We report the top search marketing news daily at the Search Engine Watch Blog. You’ll find more news from around the Web below.

• Study: Adjust Holiday Ad Campaigns for Online Crunch, Offline Rush, ClickZ
• Are Analysts Wrong About Online Ad Growth?, ClickZ
• Adversarial Information Retrieval — That’s Spam to You and Me, ClickZ
• Great, Free Consumer-Research Tools, ClickZ
• I Know All About SEO, Ask the SEO Guru
• SMX London Recap, Search Engine Land
• Google Magazine?, TechCrunch
• Search and aggregators set to dominate, Information World Review
• Yahoo Could Close Poorly-Performing European Properties; Third Party Search Partnerships Coming?, paidContent
• Barack Obama’s Speech at Google, Google Blogoscoped
• Advertiser 2.0, Yahoo Search Marketing Blog
• Google “Wikifies” Maps To Improve Local Data, Search Engine Land
• Scalability and Human Capital in SEO, Shaving Occam
• Northern Light to Integrate Meaning Extraction into Business Search, Bill Hartzer
• Microsoft Will Show You Your Competitors’ Numbers, Smart-Keywords
• Yahoo Site Authentication: What it Can Do For You, SEO-space
• Jody Nimetz on Emerging Trends in B2B Social Networking, SEO-space