Christian wrote another article for AboutUs’s Learn section called Create A Cost-Effective AdWords Campaign. The article is written for professionals with a very small budget who may be interested in learning how to properly configure a Google AdWords campaign to get the best bang for their buck.

8/24: Update: It’s official, Bing is now powering Yahoo’s organic search results in the US and Canada.

Here’s Yahoo’s announcement: Yahoo! Transitions organic Search Back-End to Microsoft Platform

And some more in-depth coverage from Search Engine Land: Yahoo’s Results Now Come From Bing

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8/17

Today Bing announced that they will be powering Yahoo’s organic search results for the English language in the United States and Canadian markets as early as this week.

This move has been anticipated since Yahoo & Bing announced their intent to merge their search capabilities in  mid-2009.  The transition is set to take place as early as this week and means that Bing will now own approximately 32% of the search market share (5.2 billion monthly searches), a large leap forward from the 13% they previously owned. Google still owns the majority of the search share with roughly 65% however search marketers/site owners can no longer ignore the impact a top listing in Bing could have on their bottom line.

This transition does not come as a surprise as the 2 companies announced their intent to merge in mid-2009. There is still no firm date for the transition of the PPC results – the initial intent was to make the transition prior to the 2010 holiday season but the alliance may postpone the transition until early 2011. To learn more about the merge visit the Yahoo & Microsoft Search Alliance site.

Related Post:

• Yahoo & Bing Team Up to Take on Google

Christian had an article published on AboutUs.org about “Writing Good PPC Ads”. The article discusses the fundamentals for writing good PPC ad copy and gives a few specific pointers and factors to consider in writing ads for PPC campaigns. He even provided a spreadsheet that you can download to help you write ad copy within the Google AdWords character limits. You can download the PPC Ad Copy Spreadsheet on our SEM Resources page.

Great work Christian!

Related Links:

• The article on AboutUs.org: Writing Good PPC Ads
• The AboutUs blog post on the article: Make Pay Per Click Ads Work For You
• The Ad Writing Tool: PPC Ad Copy Creator
• Amplify Interactive’s PPC Services
• Other PPC Management blog posts from Amplify Interactive

The movie Inception is this summer’s blockbuster movie. I’ve seen it twice and it has definitely stuck with me due to its clever plot, great visuals and fantastic music score. The basis of the movie Inception is that it’s possible to invade someone’s dream state and plant an idea in their mind in order to change that person’s thinking in the real world.

After watching Inception for the second time, it occurred to me that the objective of a search engine marketer is the same as an inception.

Search Engine Marketing is Like Inception

“Extraction” & Keyword Research

If you’re familiar with the movie, you know that Cobb performs what’s called extraction to try to gain secrets from an individual’s mind when that individual is in a dream state. The team at Amplify performs this same sort of extraction for each one of our client’s target audiences. Through keyword research we are able to tell which keywords the target audience is using to search for our clients’ product or service.

Once we extract that data, we then look into setting up our inception. Now, the basis of an inception is to plant an idea into someone’s subconscious. While the team here at Amplify can’t exactly induce any of our client’s target customers into a dream state, and perform an inception; we can do the next best thing and enhance the perception that our client can meet the needs of a searcher.

“Inception”, Perception & SEM

Optimizing a site and getting it on the search results page for a keyword that we’ve extracted is the foundation of a search marketer’s inception plan. When we put together the content that the target audience is looking for (as we discovered during extraction), and optimize it so that their content shows up in search results, then we have started planting the idea that the site meets the searcher’s needs. As a searcher (target customer) continues to refine their searches, and starts using our client’s branded terms – we’ve then performed an inception and created the perception that our client can meet the needs of a searcher.

By having a paid search presence for that category of search term, that individual will start having that synchronous link between the category of keywords he / she is searching on and the client’s website we’re planting in their subconscious. Naturally, having both an organic and paid search presence only makes the synchronous links between keyword + website / brand stronger, further improving the inception that we are performing. But don’t take our word for it – this study also shows that having a paid ad and an organic listing on a search results page enhances the perception of a brand and improves conversion, which is the ultimate inception!

Don’t hesitate to contact Amplify if you need your product or service implanted into the subconscious of your target audience. Our inception techniques are second to none… except perhaps for Dominic Cobb‘s.

Content strategies are critical for Web success, especially SEO and as such – it’s a valuable commodity. In many organizations, it can be difficult to get content produced, so it’s very important to get as much mileage as possible from every piece of content that you develop. The ultimate goal is to get your content “out there” and generate as much awareness as you can for the piece, which will drive targeted visits, links, “mentions” on social media, etc.

Here’s some tips for getting extra mileage out of your unique content.

Article:

• Post on your site / resources section
• Re-write for placement on other sites
• Edit again and put in article directories
• Post a summary on your blog and link to the full article
• Tweet your article, get RT’s from your co-workers, followers, friends, family, etc
• Make sure it makes its way to your Facebook page
• LinkedIn: update your status with a link (like Twitter), use groups to publicize
• News release?: Is your new content worthy of a news release? (read – is it newsworthy?) If your piece is a study, has unique research, is a useful tool or process or a learning piece (like a white paper), then you should consider putting together an optimized release announcing the content and at the very least, use a free or inexpensive distribution service.

Some additional ideas:

• Leverage distribution channels for unique “alternative” content (see my post “SEO Tips for Universal Search”)
• Pictures? Flickr is an ideal distribution platform
  • Get involved – there are likely Flickr groups related to your industry, submit your pics
  • Make sure they make it to Facebook. You can connect Flickr to Facebook, and of course there’s albums on Facebook
• Video? YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo and others
  • Again – share it via your Facebook page
• Presentation? Slideshare… If you have the skills, make it into a video and also post it to YouTube
• And again – share it via your Facebook page

Are you noticing a theme here? Nearly all of these tips require that you have a basic presence on the most popular social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, etc). Laying the ground work in social media and populating your profiles with unique content will help your content get seen and attract links.

Build a plan for making sure your content gets seen and make sure you execute every single time!

What did I miss?

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Learn more about Amplify Interactive’s search engine optimization (SEO) services

Amplify Interactive needs to find the perfect new member for our team. Someone who has a little experience, a lot of smarts, and a desire to grow into a role with a top-notch SEM team. Fit the bill?

Check out the job posting here: SEM Specialist

Wanted to share that I was quoted in an article today titled “LinkedIn: 37 Usage Tips You Need to Read“. After I sent in my tip – I realized that I had written a post about LinkedIn a while back titled “How and Why to Use LinkedIn“. Though it’s a little dated, all the tips are still relevant so I thought I’d dust it off for you.

We need some kick-ass new search marketing talent to help round out the team. Fit the bill?
Check out the updated job posting here: SEM Specialist

“The best proof of love is trust.” ~ Joyce Brothers

Dr. Joyce Brothers doesn’t know it, but she may as well as add “Wise Search Engine Marketer” along with her already well-known expertise in Psychology to her portfolio. This quote can pertain to how search engines view your content; if they “trust” your content, you’ll see their love reflect in the form of search engine rankings.

“I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst, take the risk.”

Taking calculated risks is something that should be done in life and with your website. Like what Dr. Brothers says: if you can handle what could result to be “the worst”, then you ought to take the risk. Perhaps this risk is creating a piece of content that might be a little different than the “corporate norm” that you have been producing which might help you attract some visits and links to your website. Or maybe it’s setting up a social media marketing campaign for your company and becoming as transparent as possible. If you can take the worst, take the risk.

“The world at large does not judge us by who we are and what we know; it judges us by what we have.”

You might as well replace “world at large” with “Google” in this quote: the Google does not judge your website by who authors it and what that author knows; the Google judges your website by the content that you have on it. That’s why having unique and compelling content on your website is so important. You may know the Seattle Mariners’ history from club creation to today, from the first-ever starting line-up to the category leaders in club history, but Google doesn’t care if you don’t have it on your website.

“When we lived within six blocks, Aunt Sarah or Aunt Mary knew all about the boy who you were having this blind date or this first date with. So we knew all about the boy.”

Well… can’t certainly tie this in to anything regarding SEM… so…

“When you come right down to it, the secret of having it all is loving it all.”

Love your content and you’ll begin to see it pay off in spades. Love what you’re writing about and love what you’re doing. As search engine marketers, we can’t help you love your content… we can only help you get it in a position where search engines can trust it (love it as well) and Internet users can judge it.

A couple of weeks ago I challenged the team here at Amplify Interactive to increase their blogging frequency, up the quality of their posts, and to hone their blog post marketing skills. So I gave them a contest. The contest is to write a post in one of our major search engine marketing categories (SEO, PPC, Social Media and Analytics). The author of the blog post with the most unique page views will win a free 2-night trip to Seattle! (for SMX Advanced – related post: SMX Advanced 2009 Highlights).

Winning a trip to an industry conference may not sound like a great prize – but SMX Advanced is a pretty great time AND the Search Commander will be there. Maybe he’ll even ride the train with us again.

Help out your favorite Amplify Interactive blogger by helping them get their posts seen. Link to them, Retweet them, submit to Sphinn, etc.  Any blog post from the beginning of the year is eligible. The contest will end on May 30th. I’ll let you know who won!