Posts on State of Search about ‘Specials’

Meet Our 2011 Bloggers: Lisa Myers

Lisa Myers

The end of the year is approaching rapidly so it is time to start counting down to the New Years. And I always like to do that in a special way. Because this blog is something special. Special because the authors of this blog are not only very smart people who write great content, but also very nice people who all have one thing in common: they have a specific drive and they are genuine.

As you may have noticed I am highlighting the bloggers on State of Search, because they are a very special group of people. That certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ is something I look for in bloggers, and they all have that. So I decided they deserve a bit of attention. Today its ladies day starting with Lisa Myers. (more…)

Meet Our 2011 Bloggers: Samuel Crocker

Sam Crocker

The end of the year is approaching rapidly so it is time to start counting down to the New Years. And I always like to do that in a special way. Because this blog is something special. Special because the authors of this blog are not only very smart people who write great content, but also very nice people who all have one thing in common: they have a specific drive and they are genuine.

In random order I am highlighting the bloggers on State of Search, because they are a special bunch of people. They not only know their stuff very well, they are also very social people who must have that ‘certain something’ to become members of our team. So they deserve a bit of attention. Now the attention goes to Samuel Crocker. (more…)

Meet our 2011 Bloggers: Nichola Stott

nichola_stott_avatar

The end of the year is approaching rapidly so it is time to start counting down to the New Years. And I always like to do that in a special way. Because this blog is something special. Special because the authors of this blog are not only very smart people who write great content, but also very nice people who all have one thing in common: they have a specific drive and they are genuine.

The State of Search team is set up with a lot of caution: you have to fit into the team and you have to be someone who is open and honest. That is what our team is about. And that is why I want to highlight them (in random order). Now it is time for our next blogger: Nichola Stott (more…)

Meet our 2011 Bloggers: Claire Carlile

claire carlile photo

The end of the year is approaching rapidly so it is time to start counting down to the New Years. And I always like to do that in a special way. Because this blog is something special. Special because the authors of this blog are not only very smart people who write great content, but also very nice people who all have one thing in common: they have a specific drive and they are genuine.

I believe that the State of Search Team is very special and that it needs care. That’s why I am very cautious with who gets to be part of the team. The bloggers who are on the team now all deserve to be there 100%. With January 1st being only two weeks away I want to highlight the bloggers for you. Each of them with their own post. I asked them some questions and I have some personal thoughts too. So in random order these next two weeks you can learn about the great team of State of Search bloggers. Lets kick things off with Claire Carlile. (more…)

Shall We Do Something Together?

PandaMM-sidebar

Last week I had a call from the MD of Manual Link Building (MLB), Gareth Hoyle. As one of the lead sponsors of tomorrow nights’ UK Search Awards, MLB receive in return signage and exposure, as is normal in a sponsorship agreement. Hoyle told me that they had decided to donate a page of exposure in the awards programme to a charity and when searching for a suitable cause had discovered that the WWF are currently running an awareness campaign. (more…)

Can You Find it?

We got alerted on this video last week, but it fits today perfectly. The question is if you can find in this video what they are looking for. Search the other side. You have to look and listen carefully though.

(more…)

Predictions for 2010, how did we do?

2010-predictions

First of all: Happy New Year! I hope 2011 will be the best year we have all ever seen.

2011 has started. It’s the first Monday of the New Year and many of us are starting the New Year fresh with good resolutions. And a new year also means you can get yourself (mentally) ready for a lot, and I mean a lot, posts on almost every site predicting the future of search and social in 2011. After all, every self-respecting blog is making these predictions.

Why? Well for one because its ‘easy’ content, secondly it might be a link worthy article (I’m linking to many of them in this post) and third, it’s always fun to look into a Crystal Ball and predict the future.

The thing is with these posts, hardly anyone dares to look at them again 12 months after they were published. How did we do in the predictions? Did we really have an idea of what was going to happen? Or did the industry caught us by surprise? Time to take a look. Note: I can’t talk about every prediction made out there, there were too many, but I collected some interesting ones. (more…)

Brand bidding & Ad-Hijacking insights – Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about the definition of brand bidding and ad-hijacking, on how to prevent it and what „evil“ affiliates do to book trademarks that are „protected“ by Google’s complaint form.

As promised, today I will talk about the methods these affiliates use to hide their strategies and how you can monitor your brand to find out if your brand gets hijacked.

Affiliates have several possibilities to hide their strategies when they are abusing trademarks and hijack ad copies. First of all, most of them will use geo-targeting  for their campaigns. When they know that the trademarkowner’s office is for example in Munich and the agency is in Berlin, they will cover other cities then Munich and Berlin, to prevent them to see the hijacked ads. (more…)

Brand bidding & Ad-Hijacking insights – Part 1

Editorial note: This post is not meant to give tips and tricks on how to do Brand Bidding and Ad-Hijacking, its meant to give insights on what is done and what is going on.

Two weeks ago, at SMX Munich, I was invited to speak on the blackhat PPC panel. I covered the exciting topic of brand bidding & ad-hijacking in Google Adwords. The topic is pretty actual at the moment, because of the decision of the European Court of Law of March 23 2010.

So what are brand bidding & ad-hijacking? The term Brand bidding is probably pretty clear for most: the use of brands as keywords in Google Adwords. Normally this is done not only by affiliates, but also by competitors, e-commerce shops, auction platforms, price comparison sites etc. (more…)

Step away from your site, I dare you

Not too long ago Search Engine Optimization was all about optimizing your site. Getting the right title tags, writing the right content and using the right techniques. The only thing you were doing outside of your own site was trying to get links to your site.

Things have changed. Of course optimizing your pages is still important, important to get your own site ranking. But what about those nine other results on the first page of the SERP? They are interesting too. And theoretically they can all be yours. And for that you have to step away from your site.

Anyone who has been paying attention at SES Amsterdam and SES New York knows what I’m talking about. Stepping away from your site can mean dominance of the SERPS. Using social media together with clever usage of news-sites is the key to the success. And no, I’m not just talking about Twitter. (more…)

Why Bartz Won’t Sell Yahoo! (Just Yet)

Microsoft want Yahoo! Search… All of it.

It is no secret that Microsoft wants this business, and those who have been in the industry will recall previous attempts, most significantly the shennanigans of 2008, which saw an unsolicited proposal to buy the whole Yahoo! business in February of that year, for $44.6 BN dollars in cash and shares. Following the rejection and counter-position of the offer from Yahoo! to $53 BN, (equivanlent to $33 a share and almost double the then shareprice) Steve Ballmer, in a letter to Jerry Yang, announced Microsoft were pulling out of the offer and would not be willing to meet the asking price.

Later that year an opportunist alliance between activist investor Carl Icann and Microsoft, saw yet another unsolicited bid; this time for the search business only, under the terms that Icahn would depose the board of directors for the remaining Yahoo! business and install a new board of directors under his leadership. Chairman Roy Bostock issued a statement resoundly rejecting the proposal (which was issued with a 24 hour response deadline) on grounds that a carve-up of the business would be damaging and undervalued the company’s assests. Again the “buy the whole company for $33 dollars a share or get lost” message was loud and clear. (more…)

Page 6 of 6123456