Would You Buy Your Website a Drink?

Ten Ways to Win the “Speed Dating” Test

Finding a mate can be a laborious process when you think about how many single people exist.  So speed dating was developed to eliminate some of the time out of this process.

If you think about it, every time you search for something you go through a sort of speed dating process.  You know what you want, but then millions of potential matches appear.  So, you speed date the landing pages on the first one-to-two pages of the search results to see if you can quickly find a website you’re are willing to give your personal information to in hopes that there might be a future there that satisfies your needs.

We’ve compiled ten tips to make sure your landing page can pass the speed dating test and get you…

SMX West 2010: The WebProNews LIVE Interview

Matt Malden Interviewed from the Expo Floor

Our intrepid CEO & Co-founder, Matt Malden, was interviewed from the SMX West 2010 Expo Floor, where we were exhibiting yesterday, by WebProNews LIVE.  Check it out!

The show this year was great.  It kicked off with Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan interviewing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, in which he toyed with the idea of buying Twitter before saying that taking it “captive” might have the effect of weakening its brand.

Throughout the three-day conference, a wide variety of seminars and learning tracks helped Search Marketing professionals to sharpen skills, challenge one another, and learn new strategies and techniques.  We had the opportunity to meet with hundreds of folks throughout the two-day Expo to talk about how we can help both businesses and their agencies meet all their most pressing search engine marketing…

Ethics in the Search Marketing World

…and How to Keep Your Nose Clean

The search marketing world creates interesting situations where ethical lines can get stretched quite a bit. For instance, in the search marketing world information is public. Yet unscrupulous actions can be taken anonymously — a scenario too tempting for many a desperate competitor. We run into many clients who have been unethically pursued by a competitor. Unfortunately, there are no comprehensive policing capabilities out there, and complaints about suspected competition fraud are frequently ignored.  Still there are things you can do to protect yourself and you should never stoop to the level of an unethical competitor to retaliate — in the long run, there are always consequences for unethical behavior.

First, let’s look at some all-too-common non-ethical examples. These just don’t pass the red-face test:

Competitors clicking on your pay-per-click ads.

First,…

Yield Software at SMX West in Santa Clara

Matt Malden to Present on Integrated Natural, Paid Search Campaigns

Yield Software is coming to SMX West 2010 in Santa Clara, March 2 -3, 2010.

Our CEO, Matt Malden, will present “Walls Come Tumbling Down: Executing an Integrated Natural and Paid Search Campaign” as part of the annual Search Marketing Expo West.  The session, which will take place on March 2 at 1 p.m. in the main Expo Hall Theater, will demonstrate the benefits of an integrated search marketing strategy, and how tearing down the walls that divide key Web marketing disciplines can lead to lower overall costs of acquisition, as well as improved website traffic and conversion rates.

He’ll also be discussing the state of the market, and explaining why most companies fail in their integration of paid and organic search marketing, with attention to common errors in…