Information services company Experian Hitwise released a study this month reporting that long-tail searches and Google’s market share both rose in September. The shifting search market was further shaken up by news that Yahoo! would be discontinuing its paid inclusion program, Search Submit, at the end of the year. Bruce Clay, Susan Esparza and Virginia Nussey discuss the implications of increasing long-tail queries and potential strategies of Yahoo! following these announcements.


Gregg Poulin, general manager at Compete.com, then talks to Virginia about data coming out of the online research company. The Web intelligence gleaned by Compete’s 2 million + opt-in Internet users reveal trends in searcher behavior — a valuable resource for marketers trying to reach their audience online. This data is available through the competitive Web intelligence of freshly upgraded Compete PRO. Gregg tells Virginia about Compete’s findings regarding users’ paid search and natural search preferences as well as predictions for the e-commerce holiday season based on both early indicators and last year’s performance.


With all the time and resources required of marketers to understand the changing technologies and guidelines of the engines, wouldn’t it be nice to have the ability to freeze time, be in two places at once, or decipher vague search engine announcements? Maybe something long the lines of super powers? Search marketer, industry reporter and research evangelist David Harry (alter ego: The Gypsy) introduced an incredible new team to the search marketing community, the League of Awesome Optimizers! The League welcomes the superheroes of the SEO community to join forces and fight the evils of the Web. SEM Synergy hosts Susan, Michael Terry and Dærick Gröss pick their own SEO superhero powers in hopes of joining the righteous crew.

SMX Advanced last week introduced a number of discussions in the SEM industry. Matt Cutts’s comments about PageRank sculpting with nofollow could spur a show all its own, and is touched on briefly by Bruce, Susan and Virginia. Google’s JavaScript recommendations, attendance at the conference, and topics raised during the SEO Vets Take All Comers session, of which Bruce was a panelist, are also discussed. Of course, SMX Advanced centers around several inbound marketing techniques, including search engine optimization, pay per click marketing, and social media optimization. Inbound marketing is the focus of today’s show.

In his role as founder and vice president of product development at WordStream, Larry Kim plays a vital role in his company’s inbound marketing efforts. Inbound marketing involves getting potential customers to come to your business. In contrast, traditional or outbound marketing is all about getting a marketing message in front of a potential consumer. Another common way to think of the two marketing methods is push and pull marketing, where push marketing is more traditional and pull marketing is aligned with inbound marketing. Larry, is cautious of falling into the trap of espousing theoretical virtues of inbound marketing. Instead he offers pragmatic suggestions for improving inbound marketing efforts.

Susan, Michael and Virginia finish off with a look at the psychology of inbound marketing. There’s a very different scenario that happens when a customer comes to a business because they want to and when a business reaches out to a customer when that contact is unexpected. The proactive customer who is looking for a solution is in a mindset much better suited to performing a conversion. As outbound marketing becomes easier to block through technology like spam filters and DVRs, inbound marketing may prove a more reliable strategy in the future.

Search Engine Optimization All-In-One For Dummies has hit book store shelves. Bruce and Susan authored the desk reference guide that combines ten books in one. They explain the purpose of the book and share their experience of working on a comprehensive technical guide. New and experienced search engine marketers alike can benefit from this easy-to-read guide to search engine optimization.

Christopher Hart, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s director, Eastern Region Operations, then talks to Virginia about SEOToolSet Training on the East Coast. During April, Chris and Bruce presented the course on the East Coast for the first time. Chris discusses the complementary nature of SEO All-In-One For Dummies and the training course material, illustrating the many ways the company shares its methodology and knowledge. SEOToolSet Training will return to New York June 9-11.

To showcase the content of the book with a little more detail, Susan, Maryann and Virginia take an in-depth look at one of the subjects covered in the book. One of the ten books is dedicated to competitive analysis, a corner stone of search engine optimization. Researching your competition will give you an idea of keywords to target. You can also see what they’re doing right that you may want to do as well, and what they’re doing wrong, which you should avoid.

A user- and search-friendly site is a great thing to have, but no matter how high-quality your site is, it doesn’t mean much if the right audience doesn’t see it. The topic of today’s show is collecting users’ demographic information and targeting your intended audience. Bruce, Susan and Virginia kick off the show by discussing how you can get your site noticed by potential customers. Create a memorable brand and be present in the locations where your audience hangs out. That way, when they’re looking for something you provide, they’ll be more likely to find you.

Scott Skurnick, director of SEO and user insight at Edmunds.com, talks to Virginia about how his company gains understanding about user behavior and desires. Different buyer segments, such as families, new drivers and green car enthusiasts, are offered unique car buying guides. Twitter is an engaging channel for communication and service. Leverage the appropriate social networks, user surveys and offline channels for effective holistic audience targeting.

Then Susan, Michael and Virginia look into ways to collect user demographic info. Microsoft adCenter has insightful keyword demographic data that you can use to focus your marketing efforts. Market research, focus groups and customer surveys are also ways to find out more about your customers. And of course, analytics data and Web server logs tell you a lot about where visitors are coming from, what they’re looking at on your site, and where they’re going from there.

This week’s show is dedicated to behavioral targeting and how the technology is changing the search industry as we know it. Bruce, Susan and Virginia start off the show by looking at how behavioral search may decrease the importance of rankings as the prime metric of successful SEO campaigns, a prediction Bruce shared in an interview with Ralph Wilson. Bruce makes the point that if 50 people search for the same query and everyone gets different results through behavioral search, rankings can no longer be a metric for SEO success.

Virginia then interviews Debby Richman, senior vice president at Collarity, a community-based search technology company. Debby breaks behavioral targeting down into three areas: ads, search, and recommended links. She explains that through Collarity, site owners can see users’ behavior grouped in anonymous buckets segmented by their usage patterns on the site. Information about those users’ behavior on other sites is not reported as it is not highly relevant.

Then Susan and Virginia discuss how to leverage behavioral targeting on your site. Through self-segmentation, you can improve conversions by giving the user what they want. Segmentation encourages engagement, provides opportunities to offer more focused content, and helps with market research. If you do chose to implement behavioral targeting, it’s important to remember that success takes time and that the different media of your online marketing campaign must work together.