<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"><channel><title>Posts in SEO/SEM</title><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/categories/seo-sem</link><description>Posts in the SEO/SEM category on MarCom Professional</description><language>en-gb</language><lastBuildDate>Sat, 30 Aug 2008 08:44:41 +0100</lastBuildDate><copyright>Copyright: (C) 2008 MarCom Professional and contributing authors.  For full copyright info and terms of use visit http://www.marcomprofessional.com/</copyright><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>MarCom Professional</title><url>http://www.marcomprofessional.com//lib/img/rssimg.png</url><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/categories/seo-sem</link></image>	<item><title>Stuck in Google’s sandbox? Here’s how to find your way out</title><description><![CDATA[[Photo courtesy Hamed Saber] Since moving to my new domain in March I&rsquo;ve been stripped of my glorious Google page one rankings for my key terms (copywriter, copywriting etc), and left groveling with a begging bowl in the dank, dark depths of its search listings. Whilst a brief fall from grace was expected, I&rsquo;d hoped it would only be a few months before Google learned to love me again. However, when I noticed that my Yahoo page one ranking had been reinstated I started to panic. Well, it would appear that Google has banished me to their &rsquo;sandbox&rsquo;.]]></description><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/matt.ambrose/stuck-in-googles-sandbox-heres-how-to-find-your-way-out</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/matt.ambrose/stuck-in-googles-sandbox-heres-how-to-find-your-way-out</guid><pubDate>Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:37:08 +0100</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>Is McCain Catching Obama Online?</title><description><![CDATA[I was asked to contribute to a fascinating article in the National Journal, a leading US political magazine, on Friday in response to the initially surprising news that John McCain is actually outspending Barack Obama on Google. Figures released by Nielsen Online show that McCain&rsquo;s campaign purchased just over 7 million impressions via Google AdWords in June, compared to just over 1 million for Obama. However, the really interesting stats are for spend on traditional banner advertising, where Obama is trouncing McCain.]]></description><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/daljit.bhurji/is-mccain-catching-obama-online</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/daljit.bhurji/is-mccain-catching-obama-online</guid><pubDate>Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:00:35 +0100</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>&#8220;80pc of SEO consultants are scammers&#8221;: Peter Kent, author, SEO for Dummies</title><description><![CDATA[SEO for Dummies author Peter Kent has been making some pretty scathing comments about the SEO industry in a new interview: &ldquo;Over the last few years as I speak to more clients and hear their stories, it has led me to believe that 80% of the business is scam.&rdquo; Kent qualifies this remarkable statement by adding: &ldquo;By that I mean that 80% of people in the business doing SEO consultancy are either running an outright scam, or they thought it was good to get into SEO because it&rsquo;s a hot area - but they don&rsquo;t really know what they&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo;]]></description><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/andrew.smith/822080pc-of-seo-consultants-are-scammers8221-peter-kent-author-seo-for-dummies</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/andrew.smith/822080pc-of-seo-consultants-are-scammers8221-peter-kent-author-seo-for-dummies</guid><pubDate>Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:24:00 +0100</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>The power of social bookmarking and how to use it in your organisation today</title><description><![CDATA[The more stuff there is, the more difficult it is to find the right stuff at the right time.&nbsp; Guess that&#39;s almost Google&#39;s raison d&#39;etre, but have they got it right?&nbsp; Is there a better or alternative search approach for you and your colleagues, and what would this mean for your marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO)?Google&#39;s highly secretive approach to working out what might be more relevant to your search query is called PageRank. Fundamentally, their innovation counts a link to a website as a vote for that website&#39;s content.&nbsp;]]></description><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/philip.sheldrake/the-power-of-social-bookmarking-and-how-to-use-it-in-your-organisation-today</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/philip.sheldrake/the-power-of-social-bookmarking-and-how-to-use-it-in-your-organisation-today</guid><pubDate>Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:01:03 +0100</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>Eggs, baskets, SEO and Internet marketing</title><description><![CDATA[Internet marketers sometimes astound me. They seem to think the world starts and ends with Google. Everything they talk about is how to get to Number One on Google, or how to maximise your pay per click listings in Google AdWords, or the latest &quot;buzz&quot; on Page Rank. This is the kind of attitude that will inevitably lead to tears. In fact, it actually means these so called entrepreneurs are actually working for Google. Far from being independent they are totally and wholly dependent upon Google.]]></description><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/graham.jones/eggs-baskets-seo-and-internet-marketing</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/graham.jones/eggs-baskets-seo-and-internet-marketing</guid><pubDate>Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:17:00 +0100</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>UK search marketing agencies vs UK PR firms</title><description><![CDATA[NMA recently published its &ldquo;league table&rdquo; of UK search marketing agencies - the equivalent of PR Week&rsquo;s Agency top 150. Admittedly it only contains 36 firms, but it is interesting to compare with PR Week&rsquo;s list - both for general PR and tech PR. For example, the number one search marketing agency is The Search Works recording an &pound;88m turnover for 2007. Quite impressive when you consider that the company was only founded in 1999 and employs a mere 64 staff. Number one in PR Week&rsquo;s league table is Bell Pottinger with fees of &pound;52.5m and 467 people (and before anyone asks, of course, we aren&rsquo;t comparing like with like ie turnover with fees - but I&rsquo;ll come to that in a minute).]]></description><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/andrew.smith/uk-search-marketing-agencies-vs-uk-pr-firms</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/andrew.smith/uk-search-marketing-agencies-vs-uk-pr-firms</guid><pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:21:05 +0100</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>Google reveals keyword search volumes - and why you should care</title><description><![CDATA[Don&rsquo;t know how I missed this one, but last week - and without much fanfare - Google announced that it would now reveal approximate search volumes from within its Keyword Tool. The excellent Jason Baer at the Convince and Convert blog makes some very good observations as to why this is going to have a big impact on digital marketing. In particular when he says: &ldquo;If Google makes the marketing and advertising business as transparent as travel planning and stock purchases, the only agencies that will be able to survive are those that can add real value in messaging, creative, and integrating data into actionable tactics.&rdquo;]]></description><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/andrew.smith/google-reveals-keyword-search-volumes---and-why-you-should-care</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/andrew.smith/google-reveals-keyword-search-volumes---and-why-you-should-care</guid><pubDate>Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:50:25 +0100</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>&#8220;Online journalism is about more than just writing&#8221;: Chris Green, Editor, IT Pro</title><description><![CDATA[IT Pro Editor Chris Green has written a very good post regarding the changing nature of online journalism. (In tune with the zeitgeist, he says he was prompted to write the piece after he made a Twitter comment about his traffic/contributor analysis - and I and others asked him for more detail). Specifically, he highlights things that he believes freelance writers will need to consider and change their working practices to incorporate. If you substitute the term &ldquo;PR&rdquo; for freelance writer, much the same principles apply.]]></description><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/andrew.smith/8220online-journalism-is-about-more-than-just-writing8221-chris-green-editor-it-pro</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/andrew.smith/8220online-journalism-is-about-more-than-just-writing8221-chris-green-editor-it-pro</guid><pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:29:20 +0100</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>Why Search Marketing Is Eating PR&#8217;s lunch</title><description><![CDATA[Ask any traditional PR company - large or small - whether they consider &pound;300K per annum as a sizeable PR account and I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;ll find anyone who&rsquo;ll disagree with you. What about &pound;300K a month? There probably isn&rsquo;t a PR account in the country that would come close to this kind of spend. Guess what. Search marketing agencies are now beginning to command that kind of expenditure. Some will (rightly) argue that much of this is going on PPC campaigns ie the actually revenue and profit claimed by the agency on this will be a smaller percentage.]]></description><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/andrew.smith/why-search-marketing-is-eating-pr8217s-lunch</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/andrew.smith/why-search-marketing-is-eating-pr8217s-lunch</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:42:15 +0100</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>What journeys do your customers make?</title><description><![CDATA[Your customers are unlikely to arrive at your web site without having been somewhere else first; even if they are time travellers, like Dr Who, and they suddenly port themselves from outer space to your web pages, they will have been somewhere else first. Understanding how people got to your site can help you improve your business since it enables you to put signposts along the way for them.Some marketing folks call this the &quot;pathway&quot; to your site or the &quot;journey&quot;; it doesn&#39;t matter what you call it, what&#39;s important is that you understand how people get to your site in the first place.]]></description><link>http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/graham.jones/what-journeys-do-your-customers-make</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.marcomprofessional.com/posts/graham.jones/what-journeys-do-your-customers-make</guid><pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:59:00 +0100</pubDate></item>
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