Joshua Palau is off this week. Remember, it's OK to teach your clients how to do your job if it's in their best interest. However, agencies must understand how SEO plays into the overall search strategy, even if you're handing over the keys to the...
I ended last year by swiftly showing 2009 the door. Regardless of client or industry, no one seemed sad to see 2009 retire into the sunset. So here we are in 2010, and I get to make a bunch of predictions that I won't be held accountable for, which...
The economy, unemployment, war, H1N1, Jon and Kate, Tiger Woods and Michael Jackson dominated the headlines this year. It was a year that mixed pop cultural minutiae with the harsh realities of our political and economic landscapes.
Joshua Palau is off this week. It's rare if a week goes by without a client asking how paid and organic can work better together. When I started working in the search space, it boggled my mind that companies and agencies had such a hard time...
It seems as though you can't pick up a magazine or listen to a news report without someone chiming in on how there are "signs of hope" for the economy. And these economic conversations seemingly break into two camps.
"Integrating Search, Part 1" focused on why search is sometimes separated in an agency and how to begin addressing it. The goal was to convey that, while search is a specialty like media and creative, there are organizational and client benefits to...
What are the pros and cons of specialty agencies versus integrated ones? Some believe that, while they may deliver subject matter expertise, specialty agencies may be less focused on the bigger strategic picture.
This past weekend, I introduced my oldest to her first official game of Monopoly. We've played other children's versions before, but this was a full on, old school battle down Ventnor Avenue complete with Luxury Tax and Free Parking.
The "O" means a lot of things to a lot of people. For some, it's a veiled double entendre that is the basis of the Overstock.com commercials. To others, it's more straightforward. In the agency world it's.wait for it.offshoring.
During a recent conversation with a few clients, they surprised me by remarking, "Well, search really isn't all that innovative. Their rationale: for the better part of the last 10 years, there have been only three engines (and depending on your...
SEMs from around the world descended upon San Jose this week for the Search Engine Strategies 2009 Conference & Expo. SES San Jose, in its 11th year, featured 70 sessions and boasted a whopping 150 speakers discussing topics including PPC, keyword...
I've seen some pretty interesting things in 13 years of online marketing. This industry is at once rewarding, innovative, and frustrating. But the current recession has taught me more about people, work, and this industry than I've learned at any...
Joshua Palau, vice president of the search engine marketing office at Razorfish (an interactive ad agency acquired by Microsoft in 2007) sees an opportunity ripe with potential for Microsoft now. Not surprisingly, marketers, search engine...
Over the years, I've answered a variety of search proposals. The questions always seem to cover similar topics: who are you, what makes you so good, etc. My new favorite proposal section deals with technology.
A few weeks ago, Microsoft launched Bing, a new search.I mean.decision engine. After thousands of positive reviews and a few hundred million dollars spent in advertising, it looks like Bing has some compelling offers that hopefully won't get buried...
Joshua Palau (@joshuapalau) In theory, the idea is good: share some of your favorite Twitterers with your followers, assuming they'll like what they have to say too. In practice, it can be overused and worthless.
We're a society of predictors. And from Jim Cramer to countless overconfident athletes, a lot of predictions go awry. In the online world, we tend to make predictions and never really look back. We promote the new things that make a splash and...
Marketers must understand that they can't take SEO for granted when working with an agency. Part 1 of this column raised a variety of questions for readers, and even resulted in a certain degree of finger pointing in the direction of agencies.
When teaching your clients to fish for SEO, some clients that would like to manage this tactic underestimate the amount of work or expertise associated with it. Remember, it's OK to teach your clients how to do your job if it's in their best interest.
I don't think any show has angered me more than "The Bachelor" in the history of television. It's not the fake reality, the women who fall in love in the first hour, or the countless "most shocking" rose ceremonies.
