The complete article follows:

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The following infographic from WordStream (thanks to Wordstream for preparing this!) breaks that number down into the top 10 industries that provided Google with 60% of that ad revenue. It further identifies the top five brand names in each of the 10 categories and gives examples of popular keyword searches and the cost per click for those words/phrases.

Take a look for some very intriguing hard data on actual spending on online advertising and scope out where the industry your business is involved in sits in the hierarchy.

Click the infographic to enlarge.

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In his article, “5 Reasons To Consolidate Paid & Organic Search Efforts,” John Fairley will help you navigate through this dilemma by detailing five reasons why consolidation of your paid and organic programs may be the best option. By revealing the problems that could arise from a separation of the two, the article will lead you in the right direction to avoid the pitfalls no matter which direction you ultimately decide on. Don’t miss this detailed look at the implications of separating your online marketing strategy into fragments, and learn how to avoid the inherent problems!

The complete article follows …

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In her article, “The Evolution of Search Engine Optimization: SEO Hybrids,” Shari Thurow discusses the development of the SEO hybrid — a person with multiple skill sets touching on distinct areas related to internet marketing. Depending upon which stage or aspect of development or monitoring of your site that you are at, you may need assistance from one of a variety of types of hybrids. For example, one of the most common is the hybrid who is skilled in both website design and search engine optimization. One major advantage of using this type of individual is that a lot of money and resources can be saved by working SEO into the mix before the site is built, rather than changing an already-built site to adhere to basic SEO principles.

Shari delves into a number of types of SEO hybrids in her article. If you want to see where you might be able to save resources, times, and headaches by employing such a person, this article fits the bill.

The complete article follows …

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In her article, “Hitting A Wall With Paid Search? Break Through With Search Retargeting,” Elizabeth Brockey presents nine tips to help you make the most of search retargeting. If you have considered taking this approach, this article will help you plan for success with actionable tactics.

The complete article follows …

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Search volume and consumer usage levels continue to increase opportunities for AdWords advertisers, and the stakes are simply too high for an advertiser to take their eyes off the core of their SEM program. So much opportunity exists, in fact, that advertisers must prioritize their efforts, and they have the most to gain by focusing on proven areas, like AdWords. So these inevitably take on the highest priority while experimenting with new and unproven offerings takes a back seat.

Perfecting the Basics

Today’s SEM optimization involves much more than just bid adjustments and keyword development. Deep linking, inventory management and integration, automation, and advanced analytics provide search marketers a host of proven options for boosting their SEM campaigns’ effectiveness. With deep linking, for example, marketers work to ensure that every search ad points to a relevant landing page. General queries trigger general ads, which point to appropriately general landing pages. Specific queries point to specific pages and general brand queries may simply point to a brand’s home page. After all, Search is a game of questions and answers. The more specific the question, the more specific and relevant the marketer should be when answering (i.e., message [ad] & landing page should be for the desired optimal response).

Inventory management and integration, a major focus for online and multichannel retailers, help to eliminate wasted spending on ads promoting out of stock or non-existent products. Some more advanced search marketers have taken inventory integration a step further by incorporating local store inventory management to serve local ads that reflect the availability of a specific product or service to the appropriate relevant geography.

Automation and analytics round out the areas where we see most advanced paid search marketers focusing their efforts. Leveraging automation enables search marketers to quickly execute best practice adjustments across entire keyword portfolios and groups. Automation continues to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a wide range of otherwise mundane and resource intensive tasks, including bid management, inventory integration, and the elimination of costly ads with invalid destination URLs or problematic redirects.

Analytics, of course, help search marketers learn, and this never stops for even the most advanced. Lessons learned in search can be reapplied to the channel or applied to other channels to boost effectiveness. Tearing down channel and departmental silos is a big job in some organizations but well worth the effort to ensure two-way sharing of analytics knowledge between channels that can help to expand and adapt the keyword portfolio for enhanced success.

New Channels Take Precedence

Even when search fundamentals have been mastered, new channels beckon and offer more potential than the latest search bell or whistle. The expertise of search marketers in managing and optimizing biddable performance and auction–based media buys translates extremely well into other channels. Search marketers are increasingly being tasked with building out social and display campaigns, for example, to deliver scope, scale and ROI similar to that of their search campaigns.

Most marketers will serve their brands well by making sure to ask themselves and their teams if they’ve done all they can to maximize the core components of all performance-based campaigns before getting started with the latest new offering in search. Those who haven’t should tune out the distractions of the latest SEM bells and whistles, regain focus, and get back to basics.

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So, how can Search potentially hurt a business, and actually do more harm than good?

If you haven’t built a rock-solid marketing foundation for your business first, Search could be driving prospective customers to a poor experience. In these scenarios, Search would be creating a crowd of people who dislike your brand, meaning you’ve lost them as prospects – both now and in the future.

To fix this and ensure your Search initiatives are teed up for success, avoid the following three common mistakes in launching Search campaigns:

Mistake #1: Launching Search with Weak Branding

What does your brand represent? What differentiates you from the competition? What’s your positioning in the market? Is your brand “likeable” among your target audience?

You think of Apple, and you think it’s a great brand. Now, think of your own brand. Is it a great brand – or just OK? Is it clear who you are and what you stand for? Are you likeable and relevant to your target audiences?

Building a strong brand – one that really sells – is important. With each incremental visitor that you touch with your brand, you must ensure a great experience or you risk losing customers (and possibly even your reputation). With solid branding, the business results from your Search efforts will improve dramatically.

Mistake #2: Launching Search in a Silo

Some companies dive head-first into Search, believing it to be a magic pill. However, Search is a capture mechanism, and typically only serves as one step in the overall marketing funnel. If you ignore the other steps in the funnel, you’re probably going to under-perform, no matter how exceptional you are at Search Marketing execution.

In other words, even if your Search efforts are driving traffic, you still need to be a good marketer, period. Consider:

• How are you building awareness?
• How are you generating word-of-mouth?
• Is your messaging attracting the right audience, at the right time?
• Have you explored everywhere you need to be, online and offline?
• Have you integrated your marketing across channels, vehicles and customer touchpoints?
• Have you nailed the close – have you given potential customers every possible reason to select your company’s products or services?
• Are you doing enough cross-selling, upselling and post-sale marketing…

Mistake #3: Launching Search with a Weak Website

Is your website the ugliest thing in the universe? Is it hard to navigate, with a frustrating “maze” of information? Is “inconsistency” the only thing that is consistent about your site? If so, it’s time for a site overhaul.

When assessing your site, look at your website’s conversion rate. If you need a microscope to find that number, you’re not ready for Search. Why invest money in driving traffic to a site that’s underperforming? Instead, first focus on conversion optimization, ensuring that you’re matching your visitors’ needs. Once you know that your design, messaging and calls-to-action will lead to boatloads of conversions, it’s a great opportunity to invest your time, energy and money on Search.

Remember, Search Marketing can drive a great deal of traffic to your site and conversions for your business. However, you need to first build the right platform for your Search initiatives so that campaign results will effectively propel your business forward.

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The SMS Small Business Resource For Selling On The Internet is a starting point to search for providers of online marketing services in the areas of Search, Ecommerce, Web Hosting, and Affiliate Marketing. To access a copy of the directory resource, click here.

The SMS Directory is a collection of listings for providers in each of the four categories, with contact info in the form of city, phone number, email address, and URL Each listing also has a short “more info” section where each business provides a description of what they do.

This is the first year of publication for the SMS Small Business Resource Directory. The second edition, planned for 2012, is expected to be longer, cover more categories, include more listings, and offer more tactics for online sales.

Subscribers to our print magazine will receive a complimentary copy of the SMS Directory glued into their magazine copy. This insert can be removed from the magazine and kept as a separate piece, should subscribers wish to store it close at hand or perhaps in a folder of possible vendors as a reference.

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Questions To Ask Potential SEM Vendors

In today’s marketing environment, buyers and sellers alike are going digital. As marketers turn to digital media, the demand for online marketing services is on the rise. To market your products and services successfully in the digital environment, it’s important to choose the right media mix while selecting the most qualified vendors within your budget.  It used to be that finding a good vendor took trial and error or was simply good luck.

While the best recommendations are those from friends and colleagues, businesses can find digital vendors from SEMCompare, SEO Consultants, SEO Market Place and SEMVendor. These sites provide various options for finding companies that provide online marketing services. For instance, SEMCompare allows marketers to match their project and budget to qualified vendors.

Marketers can find reputable Internet marketing companies on these sites because the vendors are usually screened. You can get quotes by describing your project, then interview potential vendors yourself. The sites provide vendors specializing in SEO, PPC, local search, content creation, copywriting, reputation management, social media, landing page optimization, link building and more.

As marketers continue to expand their reach, they are using organic and paid listings for successful search marketing campaigns. Marketers in the vanguard have started social media campaigns. In today’s digital environment, a company needs a well-designed, fully functional website, which means copywriters, web developers, link specialists and so forth. There is a big demand for online marketing specialists, and finding the right one for your business can be a challenge. To help with the process, below are some questions you can ask prospective vendors.

Project             Question

All Projects      How long have you been in business specializing in (marketing tactic)?

Can we contact people on your client list for references?

Can you give us names/background of the team that will work on our project?

Will our campaign/project have a dedicated project manager?

Is there a limit to the number of project manager contacts?

Does it cost extra for phone conversations about the project?

Will you outsource any tasks in our project; which tasks and to whom?

What business categories/verticals have you worked with?

Do you provide written methodology for conducting project-specific tasks?

Do you use professional copywriters; what is their background?

How do you monitor/measure traffic/social media mentions/alerts, etc.?

How do you track sales conversions?

What reports do you provide and how often?

What is my involvement in the process?

What is the total cost; do you provide a detailed cost breakdown?

Who owns the campaign data/text/code/links/archive, etc.?

What differentiates your services from others?

PPC                  What software/management system do you use to manage campaigns?

PPC/SEO          Can you describe your keyword research process?

PPC                  What keyword match types will you use; how do you use negative keywords?

PPC                  What are your top 5 metrics for success?

PPC                  Are those managing the campaign Google certified?

SEO                  Can you describe your link building process?

SEO                  Do you have case studies with verifiable results of achieved client positioning?

SEO                  Do you perform competitor analysis and website audit?

SEO/Local        What are realistic traffic/conversion expectations for my site?

SEO                  Do you use search engine guidelines and best practices?

SEO                  What SEO tactics will be used (code changes, keyword research, Meta tags, copywriting, new pages, linking, etc.)?

SEO                  How many pages will you optimize on my website?

SEO                  What ongoing costs are involved in maintaining SEO positions?

Social               Do you provide a social media audit, competitor analysis, custom strategy?

Social               What social media sites will be used to promote/monitor our brand?

Social               What tools are used to monitor brand mentions?

Social               How often do you check frequency of brand mentions?

Social               Who decides what content gets posted/tweeted?

Social               What data is tracked (company, competitors, mentions, relevant keywords, location, etc.)?

Social               How do you decide which brand mentions require immediate response?

Social               What tools are used to measure social media metrics?

Local                What local search directories will we get listed on?

Local                Do you use data feeds and what is the cost?

Rep Mgt          What services do you provide for reputation management?

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About the Author

Claudia Bruemmer (www.claudiabruemmer.com) is a freelance Internet writer-editor and SEO copywriter. She is a former Managing Editor of ClickZ, former Editor of SearchEngineWatch, and author of numerous Internet marketing articles published on iMedia Connection, Search Engine Guide, TopTenWholesale, and other sites.

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The SMS Small Business Resource For Selling On The Internet is a starting point to search for providers of online marketing services in the areas of Web Hosting, Search, Ecommerce, and Affiliate Marketing. To access a copy of the directory resource, click here. If you are specifically interested in web hosting, consider visiting one of our sister sites, Web Hosting Talk, to find out more information and connect with others interested in learning more about that topic.

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A key feature of Google+ is “circles” which lets you easily manage your different contacts into social circles such as “friends,”  “work,” and “follow,” with a just-as-easy method to decide who gets to see what. The aim here is for Google not just to target a niche segment of social networking, but to allow one platform to better serve different purposes. The above circles could for example be considered replacements for Facebook (friends), Linkedin (work) and Twitter (follow). While I’m not saying that Google+ means the death of any of those services, I believe it has a good starting point to make an impact. Time will tell if it manages to keep momentum and reach critical mass, at the point were “everybody” is on Google+ and consequently those not already on the service will start to feel that “you have to be on Google+.”

Similarly to Facebook, users can share and recommend links using the “+1″ feature. And this is where it gets interesting from a search marketing perspective. While the +1 feature has been already available in search results for a little while, it is really with the social network that we expect it to take off. An ad or organic search result that has received a +1 will show up with the faces of your connections that recommended the item. The interesting point here is that while these recommendations are isolated to your Google+ connections, the potential reach is still staggering if Google succeeds in aggregating all your friends, business contacts and tweeps in one place.

As marketers, the most important thing we can do right now is to follow the development of the platform, and of course also implement the +1-button on websites if we haven’t already done so. Time will tell how exactly the whole system will pan out, but you don’t want to be behind the times on this one!

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