The Search Industry

Quality SEO Pays for Itself

Quality SEO is a valuable activity that can dramatically transform profitability of a business. However, since this is not yet understood by many management team executives, it is often both undervalued and under-resourced.

Battling Click Fraud is Important for All Involved

Every pay-per-click advertiser sees the presence of click fraud, as does every search engine. We're just disagreeing about the numbers. Both sides need to acknowledge that a certain level of click fraud exists, and work together to diminish its impact.

Rehabilitating SEO

Search marketers are some of the most passionate and dedicated people I've ever encountered. Those seeking to advance their position within search results can easily become obsessed (to the point of addiction) with checking results and positioning. When considering how your SEO time is spent, what's important and what isn't so important? What kinds of things are OK to obsess over? Are there ways to improve or correct obsessive SEO behavior?

Is Search Recession-Proof?

While online advertising will probably suffer if there is a recession, I predict search will be the last place from which marketers pull their ad dollars. Paid search is accountable, efficient, and built on a cost-controlled model, making it the most recession-proof medium in the ad world.

SEO Standards Signal the Maturing of Our Industry

Call them standards, rules, advice, best practices, or whatever you want, but we have to move toward creating a document outlining the majority of the methods used in SEO, and providing a risk assessment so marketers can make informed decisions.

Is Google Not So Portal-Like After All?

Last week, comScore data showed that Google was sending more traffic to its own properties than it had been, leading some to worry if it was becoming more like a portal than a search engine. But that data appears to miss the larger picture, where Google is sending even more traffic to news sites than it does to Google News.

Where's Search Heading? Ask Yahoo's Chief Scientist

For the past 10 years, most search engines have relied heavily on analyzing anchor text, links, and content to determine relevance. But recently, researchers at the top search engines have begun to look at other signals that might indicate search result relevance.

Finding Recession-Proof SEM Jobs

Are search engine marketing jobs and budgets really recession-proof? And, if they are, will going to SES New York this week help traditional marketers get through the most serious recession since World War II?

Ask.com Remains Committed to Search

The reports of Ask.com's death have been exaggerated. The company remains committed to its search technology, and is not throwing in the towel, as many believe.

Standards for SEO and SEM: The Time is Now

A process of identifying tactics and their associated risk levels could help newcomers better decide which path to take.