Dr. Ralph F. Wilson , Web Marketing Today - Apr 10, 2012 Ray 'Catfish' Comstock, 4 SEO Recommendations to Target the Long Tail, Search Engine Watch, 6 Apr 2012. Explains why long-tail SEO is so important. Then recommends: (1) Understand the keyword landscape, (2) create meaningful, descriptive page titles, (3) infuse your content and internal links with keyword variations, and (4) leverage user-generated content.
Derek Edmond, How SEO & PPC Can Help Build Your Email Marketing List, Search Engine Watch, 6 Apr 2012. Suggests: (1) Make e-mail subscription a conversion benchmark, (2) create more visibility to e-mail subscriptions in page templates, and (3) contact AdWords about communication extensions beta that contains a brief subscription form.
Derek Edmond, Competitive SEO Analysis: Data, Creativity & Understanding the Competitive Landscape, Search Engine Watch, 4 April 2012. Comprehensive article on analyzing your competitors from an SEO perspective.
Garrett French, Link Equity Salvage: 7 Steps for Finding Your Long-Lost Links, Search Engine Watch, 3 April 2012. Explains how links can become out-of-date and how to freshen them up.
Josh McCoy, Internal Linking, the Other Linking, Search Engine Watch, 2 April 2012. Explains how to make both search engines and human users happy with your internal links.
Ken Lyons, 63 Free (or Almost Free) Ways to Market Your Business, Search Engine Watch, 30 Mar 2012. Lots of marketing ideas, some great and others passable.
Tim Ash, Rotating Banners? Just Say No!, ClickZ, 3 Apr 2012. The large rotating banner that slides, fades, or otherwise transitions from one promotion to the next across a website home page hurts conversions. Reasons: large file sizes, inconsistent messaging and look, lack of editorial responsibility, wasted time, motion-triggered reassessment, and pushing navigation down.
Rebekah Henson, 3 Steps To Writing A Better Subject Line, Marketing Land, 4 Apr 2012. Suggests: (1) Get into your customers' mindset, (2) use snippets, and (3) don't over-stress about spam filters.
Conrad Saam, Do It Yourself A/B Testing, Search Engine Land, 4 Apr 2012. Discusses the statistics of A/B testing. Recommends using a tool called AB Tester http://abtester.com/calculator/ to determine confidence levels.
Stephanie Hobbs, Four Key Reasons To Reconsider Today’s Yellow Pages For Local Marketing, Search Engine Land, 2 Apr 2012. Sees Yellow Pages as important for (1) non-print directories, (2) long-term relationships with local businesses, (3) partnerships with search engines, and (4) print isn't dead.
Matt Van Wagner, Simple Tips To Make Miracles Happen In Your PPC Campaigns, Search Engine Land, 2 Apr 2012. Suggests: (1) use ad Sitelinks, (2) add punctuation, fix capitalization, and (3) update your adCenter campaigns.
Bryan Eisenberg, Designing Effective Pricing Tables, ClickZ, 6 Apr 2012. Explains the psychology behind package pricing. Suggests, show them your pricing table above the fold. Emphasize one option. Lay out your features/benefits intelligently. Make your call to action stand out. Provide social proofs such as testimonials.
Simms Jenkins, Mobile's Pending Revolution of the Inbox, ClickZ, 5 Apr 2012. A look at what mobile means for email marketers, smartphone trends, and ways to ensure your email stays relevant in the mobile generation. Part one in a two-part series.
Jeanne Jennings, The Honeymoon Effect, ClickZ, 2 Apr 2012. Notes that new subscribers tend to perform better than older names on your e-mail list.
Mike Hotz, More Tactics to Grow Your B2B Email List, ClickZ, 4 Apr 2012. Recommends: (1) build a working relationship with your sales team, (2) organic list building is still the best method, (3) don't buy lists.
Articles for this section are selected by Dr. Wilson on the basis of their appeal to small and medium businesses. He especially looks for articles with a how-to bent.
