The excitement felt at the SEM Community Mega-Event event, sponsored by Search Engine Strategies and Onward Search, was certainly a refreshing change from the constant hum of economic downturn news. The Wall Street Journal's report of unemployment reaching nearly 10% by 2010 was certainly not the topic of conversation at the House of Blues in Boston on Monday night. About 200 search marketing professionals mingled with their peers as they heard industry leaders and hiring professionals line up to announce that their companies are hiring search engine experts.

After a short meet and greet, it didn't take long for recruiting agents to dart forward to the front of the room, line up and get their company's pitch in. Tom Ellis from Adverplex, Inc. was one of the first up to pitch his company and service while making the bold statement: We are hiring. Need look no further than the front page of every commercial newspaper and magazine headline; the point is being made clear, social media and SEM is the new wave of marketing and human communication. After speaking with Katie Donovan, the managing director at the Sempo Institute, it is clear that SEM is the backbone of this new integration of marketing, PR, advertising, internet research and social media. Companies of all sizes are just getting started using Pay Per Click Advertising to pursue active users to follow their blog and Facebook as the ROI for social media is beginning to be realized.

Although the tremendous potential of online networking is creating a stir, one question still remains: how to increase the ROI from SEM?

Labels: Adverplex, Onward Search, ppc, search engine marketing, SEM, SEMNE, SEMPO, Sempo Institute

How do you get more traffic to your web site? Google has become very good at steering visitors to relevant content. So the real question is: how do you make your content relevant to Google? Its all about the keywords.

We just started using a web-based software product called WordStream and we think it’s pretty slick. Overall, we love the Keyword Research and Long Tail Keyword Management.

Basically, WordStream lets you create and manage a “keyword database” for paid and natural Search Engine Marketing. Discovering and organizing keywords is a crucial part of PPC and SEO, and the tool has a pretty innovative approach to both. Here’s a quick run-down of how it works:

Step 1: Create a Keyword List
First, you get keywords into the system. You can use either a traditional keyword research tool (like Google’s or WordTracker), import analytic data, or, our personal favorite, use WordStream’s log file parser to extract search history from your site’s log files.

Step 2: Organize Your List
Next the tool allows you to strategically organize the keywords very simply and easily. This is probably the most powerful feature. The software scans your keyword list and suggests keywords you should group together, based on the number of similar keywords, the amount of traffic they drive to your site, and conversion data.

Step 3: Let WordStream Suggest New Keywords
There’s also a search-focused Web analytics package. You install a snippet of Java Script on your site, and the keyword tool will record each new search query people use to reach your website, providing a constant stream (get it?) of new keywords. You can either manually review the new keywords, or let WordStream group them for you and add them to your keyword lists and paid search campaigns.

Step 4: Create and Maintain AdWords Ad Groups
WordStream has API integration, so that you can have any of those keyword groups you created dynamically managed by the software. They also offer some tools for the maintenance of all these researched and segmented keywords. You’ll be able to create filters, associate negative keywords, and prioritize workflow.

WordStream will measure the performance of not only keywords, but keyword groups and segmentations to let you know what works, where you should be spending time, and what you should do next to generate maximum returns.

We're still learning it, but so far, we really like it. Check out the free trial and judge for yourself!

Labels: keyword research, keyword tool, long tail keyword management, negative keywords, ppc, web analytics, wordstream