What have you done for me lately, Yield?

The Yield application is always at work on your behalf, bidding on your PPC campaigns, running SEO analyses, and conducting LPO experiments.  Now you can see what we’ve been up to with the Yield Activity Last 24 Hours section on the Dashboard.

We also just introduced a new Date Filter, which should make it easier to review your SEO, PPC and LPO statistics across all the search engines.  It’s a lot like date pickers in other apps you may use, actually.  Let us know what you think!

Inbound Link Analysis – We’ve introduced a new SEO analysis which you can run against your content.  Search engines prefer content that is linked to from trusted sites.  The “Inbound links from aged sites” analysis determines if your content is linked to from a trusted site and recommends ways to improve this.

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Significant Shifts in Consumer Behavior Seen

Report by WPP Global Retail Practice Shows Recovery

Every business around the world, whether big or small, knows exactly what happened in the Great Recession: consumers became (understandably) spooked by the global collapse of once-solid financial institutions and stopped spending.

A new report by Yield Software investor WPP, the world’s largest communications services group, concludes that, despite widespread hardship over the last 18 months, the sky did not fall.  And better yet: consumers know it.  Playbook 2: The Sky Did Not Fall, the second report in a series developed by WPP’s global retail practice The Store, concludes “wallets are open.”

“But only a crack,” said David Roth, CEO of The Store for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.  “Consumers are purchasing primarily to fill basic needs.  They’re tentative about the state of the economy and are ready to…

Web Marketing Holiday Prep, Part 3

A Little SEM Strategy Now Can Pay Dividends Later

If you haven’t already begun planning for the holiday buying rush, then it’s time to get moving. In this Part Three of Prepping for Holidays, I’ll show some of the things you can do to ensure online buyers find your products and services. (In Part One I talked about aligning your online and offline strategies, and in Part Two I covered how to spruce up your virtual store-front.)

In our free e-book, The Link Economy, Matt and I talk about how successful search marketing companies develop all of the components of a search marketing campaign at one time.

What we mean by this is a savvy marketer will sit down and plan out the campaign strategy, keywords, and content (i.e. blog posts, landing pages, offers) before implementing the campaign – often…

Web Marketing Holiday Prep, Part 2

Spruce-up Your Virtual Storefront for the Holiday Season

Rather than spend money in these tough times, consumers are saving it (savings accounts are the new black). Instead of resigning yourself to a red holiday season (in the bottom line sense of the word), now is the time to gear up and make the most of the holiday season.

And you can – with a few well-thought out strategies that I outline in this, Part II of Web Marketing Holiday prep. (If you missed Part I, wherein I talk about aligning online and offline strategies, you can find it here.)  This week: getting your online house in order!

First: Ensure your site is extra secure for online transactions.

I visited the website of a financial institution recently and was appalled to note that the little “lock” icon was missing from…

Web Marketing Holiday Prep, Part 1

Integrating Online and Offline Marketing Tactics

I know, I know: every day it seems you hear news about the dismal sales climate in the US. And it’s true: consumers are sitting on their wallets.

However, with a little strategic planning and creative thinking, you can help ensure that you finish the year with a bang. In this three-part series about prepping for the coming holidays, we’ll cover how you can drive traffic to your site and increase conversions.

And the first step is ensuring your holiday campaign components work – not just in driving traffic but actually work together without glitches and snafus.

Case in point: A few weeks ago I visited Williams-Sonoma at my local mall. While ringing up my purchases, the sales clerk informed me of cooking classes the store was holding – and gave me a flyer…

Making Sense of Facebook Referrers

…and Tips for Better Tracking

More and more of our clients ask for advice regarding how best to use Facebook as an effective means for driving more traffic to their websites.  This is increasingly important as recognized by comScore who recently reported that about one of every five Internet display ads in the United States is viewed on a social networking Web site like MySpace and Facebook. While our Yield Web Marketing Suite doesn’t include a Facebook module (yet!), we don’t hesitate recommending its use as part of an overall Web marketing strategy.

Simply put, Facebook is an excellent source of traffic for your web site. There are a variety of ways you can attract traffic:

1. Post a link on your wall
2. Post a link on someone else’s wall (make sure it is relevant!)
3. Create a fan page…