by Sage Lewis
Sage gives credit to Skitzzo of SEO Refugee, who writes “An Open Letter to SEO Bloggers: Back up Your Statements!” In the letter, Skitzzo expresses his frustration with SEO bloggers for stating theories and opinions as facts without any supporting evidence. Sage supports the call to legitimize SEO and create […]

Today’s search engine marketing news and opinion: Some New SEO Services Not So Special; Newspapers Bleed Red Ink: Death by Internet; SEO Quarterly Web Site Review: Villas of Distinction; and more. Read Original Post Here

6 Essentials for Search Marketing Success

Increase traffic with SEMaware design and copy
Save money by optimizing your SEO/PPC investment
Maximize natural search rankings with a killer content strategy
Boost conversions by driving the high-quality traffic to your site
Grow sales after selecting more effective keywords
Win business by outwitting the competition

1 Sure Way to Accomplish Them…
Register for Search Marketing Expo […]

Consider these statistics:

As much as $500 billion in offline purchases was influenced by the internet in 2007 (eMarketer)
89% of consumers making in-store purchases in key categories have conducted research online (BIGResearch)
82% of people using local search sites followed up with an offline action, e.g. in-store visit, phone call (TMP Directional Marketing)

Click to continue reading…

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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across the web.
From Search Engine Land:

The Long Road To The Debate Over “White Hat Cloaking” I really hate arguments over cloaking. Like really hate them. But Rand Fishkin recently did a […]

I really hate arguments over
cloaking. Like
really hate them. But Rand Fishkin recently

did a chart outlining the degrees of "safeness" to cloaking that in turn
riled up Google’s Matt Cutts in comments there. No doubt others at […]

Consistent with the rumors last week, Microsoft confirmed today that it has acquired Powerset for an undisclosed amount (speculation put it at around $100 million). The company was reportedly valued at just over $40 million. It appears that Microsoft was motivated to acquire Powerset as much or more by the team as it was any […]

The Google Webmaster Central Blog announced that they have updated the content of the What’s an SEO page to provide examples of how SEOs can help you site. Previously, the page mainly focused on what scams and things to watch out for from SEOs. Now, Google added some of the benefits of search […]

Google has launched a new affiliate network named the Google Affiliate Network. In an effort to consolidate the DoubleClick acquisition, Google created the Google Affiliate Network and has announced the retirement of AdSense Referrals, which is part of Google’s Pay-Per-Action product.
Google launched Pay Per Action ads in March of 2007. I saw first […]

In about two months from now, we may start noticing Google ads on the Yahoo Search results page through a deal that was brokered last month. The major question now is where, how and when will Google ads appear on Yahoo?
TechCrunch posted slides of the Yahoo’s presentation to shareholders about the deal, which may […]