Hello and Welcome!

It’s the holidays, and we at WebRanking have spent a little time recently reflecting and appreciating what 2011 has brought us. From our great colleagues, both new and old, to our great clients, both new and old, we feel incredibly blessed to work in this amazing industry and eagerly look forward to what 2012 has in store.

But just because we are happy with 2011, it doesn’t mean we are getting complacent. With that, we bring you the 2011 SEM Wish List!

This year’s search engine marketing wish list contains almost 200 wishes, wants, desires and must-haves from over 30 esteemed search marketing professionals. SEM topics covered range from SEO and PPC, to Web Analytics and Social Media. Some of our SEM’s biggest wishes were regarding AdWords Ad Extensions and Search Partners, greater adCenter Admin and UI improvements, and of course, for Google to give search marketers back their (not provided) keyword data!

We hope you enjoy!

Wish List Topics

Search Engine Marketing (13)
Social Media (5)
Pay Per Click (9)
Google AdWords (100)
Microsoft adCenter (31)
Google Analytics (24)
Holiday Extras (7)

Continue reading “The 2011 SEM Wish List” »

As the Portland Community Manager for Yelp.com, the number one question I hear from business owners is: How do I make Yelp work for me? The value of positive consumer reviews (and even some negative ones) to sustain and grow business is beyond obvious, but in a social media market dominated by broadcasting tools, Yelp’s model for business/consumer interaction can be a learning curve for some. Here are some do’s and don’ts to help you reap the benefits of the lush information available in consumer reviews.

1. Do: Join the conversation!

Every day on Yelp, millions of people (38 million last month alone) are searching, reading, and writing reviews of businesses like yours. They’re discussing your products, your service and really everything about your business. And as with any conversation, you have two roles to play: listen, and respond. Yelp gives you the tools (for free) to do both.

How, you ask? By unlocking your Business Owner Account on Yelp, you have access to a bevy of tools that allow you to do things like track page hits, post special offers and announcements, respond to reviews (both publicly and privately), add and correct information about your business like address and phone number, complete an About This Business summary, recommend other businesses, and share your business’ history.

Continue reading “How To Succeed on Yelp (Without Even Really Trying)” »

On September 13th 2009 Owen Matthew (a.k.a The Lil’ Dictator) was born and life as I knew it changed forever. You see I had become a father for the first time in my life and this momentous occasion spurred a huge change and maturation in me personally, forcing me to reprioritize my life, focus on my career and reduce the hours spent at the local brew pubs.

I’ve only been a Dad now for a little over 9 months, but through this crash course called parenthood I’ve managed to pick up some solid life lessons that are applicable not only to fatherhood, but also to my day job as a social media marketer (and addict). With Father’s Day right around the corner, I thought I’d share the 4 things that Fatherhood has taught me about being successful in Social Media.

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Yesterday morning I received an email with a link in it to a new cnet article titled “Link exchanges: The poor man’s SEO”. Since link popularity building is an integral part of any search engine optimization campaign, I had to see what this longstanding publication had to say on the subject. I was more than a little shocked when I read the second sentence:

“Everyone else has to rely on the poor man’s search-engine optimization: the link exchange.”

I could hardly believe that cnet would seemingly recommend to website owners to participate in trading links to increase search engine rankings. There are many other free and low-cost link building alternatives that are actually endorsed by SEO professionals.

Continue reading “7 Preferred Link Building Alternatives to “Link exchanges: The poor man’s SEO” by CNET” »

We all know that blogs, when used properly, can be excellent tools for promoting your organization and expanding your client base, while providing insight into the interworking of your company. They are also an effective way to generate organic search engine exposure, and with the right content, quality inbound links for your website.

However, blogging is not something to be taken lightly, isn’t right for every organization, and if done incorrectly can actually harm your company’s online reputation and branding. Below are the 7 deadly sins of company blogging and what you can do to exorcise those demonic blog traits, and convert to an angelic blogosphere existence.
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