Small Business SEM

Unofficial Search Mktg. Night at Safeco Field

Originally uploaded by SmallBusinessSEM.com.

I’ve decided tonight was “Unofficial Search Marketing Night at Safeco Field.” There was a bunch of us from Marchex enjoying a pre-game BBQ and then watching a terrific game, made all the better by the Mariners [...]

It’s been a while since I did the first round of “Five Questions”, but I’m back now with some more Qs for you to A. I’d love to hear your thoughts on these five questions:
1. What do I need to do in order to get a nice little SBS icon to show up in the [...]

…Well, have you ever seen the links? Have you ever seen the links?…
I found this one via a Google news alert, of all things: On the Small Biz Survival blog, Becky McCray writes How to use video to promote your small business. Good stuff!
For the ultra-small retailer, Danielle writes at Small Business Branding about A [...]

Funny post earlier this month on Lifehacker:
Let’s Touch Base: The cubicle warrior’s guide to office jargon
It’s about a book called Brazen Careerist, and here’s a sample of the office jargon we all hear and use, and what we’re really saying:
Do you have the bandwidth? Note that bandwidth is not time. It is something else. If [...]

All the talk this week has been about Google Maps accepting user reviews, but no less newsworthy is an announcement today in the Google Maps Help Group about new enhancements that will make it easier for small/local businesses to use Google Maps:

Business listings can now be verified by phone and/or SMS.
The Local Business Center has [...]

Speaking of Chris and Danny, my latest “Small is Beautiful” column has been published over on Search Engine Land:
SEO "Don’ts": 20 Fatal Mistakes You Must Avoid To Succeed
That was a fun one to put together, and was totally inspired by reading some small business owners on non-SEO blogs talk about the struggle of knowing what [...]

So sad…..
Danny and Chris have posted the Conference-at-a-Glance for SES San Jose in August, and our “Big Ideas for Small Sites and Small Budgets” session is nowhere to be found. Gasp! Shock! Quelle horreur!
Seriously, it is disappointing. I think there’s a proven market for small business search marketing advice/training. Both of our Small Biz sessions [...]

Marketing Experiments just published the results of a year-long study pitting Social Media Optimization against Pay-Per-Click advertising as vehicles to drive traffic.
Harnessing Social Media - Web 2.0 Grows Up - Free Internet Traffic
They created four new sites and used both PPC and SMO to acquire traffic. This chart summarizes the results:

As you’d expect, PPC was [...]