Searchpeers » Search Marketing News

Google’s Newest Facelift

Kevin Church — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:06:14 +0000

Google’s updated their design for search results quite nicely, taking a bit of what I like about Bing’s left-side menubar and making it more minimal and friendly. I found myself looking at the descriptions under the titles a bit more in this iteration, but that’s what an attorney would call purely anecdotal evidence, I’m sure.

Google Maps upgrade offers street views of businesses.

Kevin Church — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:59:45 +0000

Better go make sure your retail operation’s information is up to date in Google, because Google Maps is now including local businesses in their maps’ Street Views. It looks to be a very dynamic system and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we saw it integrating Yelp! and the ever-popular-on-Twitter Foursquare. Check it out on the Google Maps blog!

There’s more to USA Today than brightly-colored weather maps!

Kevin Church — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:19:06 +0000

Sometimes, they go and talk to Google’s Matt Cutts about some SEO basics.

Huh.

John Miller’s excellent “All I Really Need To Know About Search Marketing I Learned In Kindergarten”

Kevin Church — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:27:17 +0000

This article from last September is a fantastic primer to making search marketing work for your business. From using adwords to user privacy, this is a perfect checklist to make sure you’re being ethical and intelligent with marketing for search.

Blogging as a low-cost, high-return marketing tool.

Kevin Church — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:24:41 +0000

The New York Times has a great piece on how blogging can help a business gain more traction with new and existing customers. I’ve spoken to several clients about the importance of blogging in their business (particularly if it involves a learning curve or is interactive in some way) and how it not only provides Google with fresh content on your site, but one-click RSS subscriptions means that you have customers that volunteer to hear more about your business.

Peer-written online reviews make a difference.

Kevin Church — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:00:21 +0000

A quarter of internet users say that they have made purchases based on online reviews written by their fellow customers.

For restaurants that find themselves on Yelp, this study is especially important. Searchpeers is in the process of advising a pair of local eateries on getting better placement so they get to sell themselves before potential guests see Yelp and Citysearch results. Even good restaurants will receive over-the-top bad reviews on sites like this for any number of reasons, and it’s important to make the first impression yourself prior to the inevitability of negativity.

Facebook’s Beacon gets scaled back.

Kevin Church — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:56:02 +0000

Beacon, the most controversial of Facebook’s new advertising models, has been scaled back significantly after a massive user protest. With Beacon, users’ recent purchases on sites like Fandango and Overstock.com would be included in the online social network’s friend’s feeds.

This past Thursday, Facebook enacted a change that asks users to “opt in” before it publishes information to their friends, so your recent holiday-related purchase of the first season of Green Acres on DVD wouldn’t necessarily reflect badly on you.

Douglas Karr has money. Yahoo doesn’t want it.

Kevin Church — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 02:42:02 +0000

Read the full story on how Yahoo’s expensive direct-mail campaign for their keyword-based advertising grabbed and then lost a customer.

Google AdWords “Accidentally” Uses Facebook Users’ Personal Information

Kevin Church — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:00:39 +0000

Google has confirmed that its AdWords campaigns received data from a popular Facebook application called Compare People, including users’ age, gender, city, ZIP code, favorite music, favorite movies, favorite TV shows, favorite books, “about me,” activities, interests, and political views. While it appears that no personally identifiable information has been stored, it’s in clear violation of the social networking site’s TOS.

Thanks to Nick O’Neill at AllFacebook, who brought the story to my attention.