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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist
2007-12-01 00:00:00
Adventures Abroad, an industry-leading international tour operator, is looking to expand its operations and is immediately hiring for the following positions: Operations Department - Manager Candidate must have prior experience working with a tour operator company, must be accustomed to dealing with rooming lists, excel sheets and budgets, and is required to have familiarity with costing, cost management, accounting and budget control. Competitive salary with comprehensive benefits offered. Art and High-Tech Department Positions available for experts qualified in web design and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Group Sales Department We?re looking for a confident and competent salesperson to join our Affinity group department. Flight and Ticketing Department Candidates must have experience with international flight ticketing, reservations and Sabre. Consulting Department Applicants must have FIT experience and be computer literate, well spoken and organized. Sales D...
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist - Vancouver (BC) Canada
2007-12-01 00:00:00
About Reinvent Technology Welcome to the future of advertising and media. Reinvent Technology aims to rethink, reconnect, and redesign technology and business by leveraging a platform built upon our millions of direct navigation visitors. We manage over 1.5 million web domains, which receive over 200 million visitors per year. Our space is filling up with passionate, creative group of people who all set their alarms on Monday morning to get up for something more than just a pay cheque. We don?t just care about the work, we care about the people we work with. And pool. And hockey. And hockey pools. Go figure. We?ve been around for over seven (07) years, we?re highly profitable, and we?re growing. We are looking for a well organized, highly motivated Search Engine Optimization Specialist. Our Space Open, bright, with a killer view of the North Shore mountains. There?s a gym in the building and a foosball table in the kitchen. What you get? Medical coverage, RRSP?s after thre...
More About: Vancouver , Canada , Search Engine

SEMPO Director Dana Todd on SEMPO and the SEMPO Institute
2007-11-24 00:00:00
SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, just launch a section on YouTube where they put all their videos from various sources. You will find videos there from many people sitting on the Board of Dire ctor s where they talk about SEMPO, SEMPO Institute , SEMPO Research & Marketing and all the other SEMPO committees. These are the leaders shaping the Search Engine Marketing industry worldwide and it is very inspiring to hear them speak about their respective responsibilities as part of SEMPO. I selected this one for your review, where SEMPO Director Dana Todd talks about SEMPO and the SEMPO Institute.
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Building Links Like an Expert: Interview With Eric Ward
2007-11-23 00:00:00
As I was searching the web for a link building refresher for a Client, I came across this Clip featuring Eric Ward , the link building Master. If you are not familiar with link building and why you need to do this, you need to watch the video. If you prefer to read about it, here is a good link building primer article you want to read before you start the job.
More About: Building , Links , Interview , Expert

Tell Sears to Stop Cutting Canadian Forests for Catalogues (Do Search Marke
2007-11-23 00:00:00
I have been receiving newsletters lately from ForestEthics, a non-profit organization that focuses on preserving endangered forest in Canada. In their last few emails, they were fiercefully attacking Sears Canada for their environmental policy with regards to the printing of their well known and heavy catalogues. Since 1880, Sears has been famous for their catalogues, but now it is 2007 and Sears must face this new era of climate change and recognize their role in it. They produce around 425 million catalogues every year - and the paper is coming from Canada?s Boreal Forest. Change can happen. A few months ago month, Forest Ethics got a new commitment from Victoria?s Secret for adopting a more sensitive environmental policy with the printing of their catalogues. Forest Ethics Activist Campaign against Victoria?s Secret in 2004: See more about it on VictoriaDirtySecret.net I personally love to support these initiatives. What is the link with Search Marketing? I think Googl...
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Use Paid Search Results To Guide Your Site Optimization Plan
2007-11-23 00:00:00
In one of the last posts, I was talking about how helpful it is to use Google Trends to estimate search volume, spread your PPC budget over time and factor in seasonality. I have always been naturally inclined to start any Client Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Plan with a Pay Per Click (PPC) program and learn from it before creating an SEO Strategy. I just thought about this intuitively, and I believed that would make the best process. In Search Marketing, process is key. You skip a step and your plan goes sideways. I found a great article today that talks about this and how to use paid search results to guide your site optimization plan. It is a great article written by Nathan Lewis. In a nutshell, because PPC is a serious business that drives billions of revenues for Google, MSN and Yahoo, and because it could be a serious investment item for your business, you need to gain as much information as you can in the process. There is a lot to be learn on how people search in your indu...
More About: Results , Site , Optimization , Paid

SEO-Friendly Naming Conventions for Video Titles On YouTube & Brightcove
2007-11-23 00:00:00
I was a little surprised today when I discovered that the choice of my video titles used on my website (here and there) made a big differences in search results. Everyone knows that Youtube videos are now being indexed in Google but I was not sure if the other providers were, such as Brightcove, our preferred choice. With Dan Beauparlant, my awesome Video grapher, we decided to put ?Alexandre Brabant, Search Marketing? as the video title, just in case someone would stumble upon it elsewhere than my site. That decision proved to be right. When I Google myself today, I found the Brightcove link in position #6. What does this mean to you? When you make a clip of anything, make sure that the content of the clip is well represented in the title, just like you would do with your site. Use the longest string of words that the video platform allows in order to increase your chances.Your clip then becomes searchable and more likely to be found. A keyword-rich video title can make a big d...
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How Addicted to Blogging Are You?
2007-11-23 00:00:00
Blogging is an addiction. You can easily spend the whole day blogging and not work on anything. I am glad to see that my addiction is somewhat under control. I scored 65%. Try the fun little blogging quiz and share your results.
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SEO Tools: Manage your PPC Budget with Google Trends
2007-11-22 00:00:00
Clients always want to know how much it would cost them to implement a Search Marketing plan involving Pay per Click (PPC) Investment Whereas it is a simple question, it is not as easy to answer it. I usually give them ballpark figures and I hope it makes sense for them. When you think about it, it is the equivalent of asking a web designer or a web developer on how much it would cost to build a website? It varies a lot. In terms of Search Marketing though, we are fortunate enough to have Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools that can help us define the search volume for your targeted search terms. The relationship between search volume and your targeted geographic area will help us come up with Cost (investment) estimates. Google Trends is one of them. Simply put, Google Trends gives us a snapshot of the search volume for a given search term (or terms), over time. It provides seasonality search volume information which help us understand how we should spread your Pay Per Click (...
More About: Tools , Budget

Rock Band Keepers Releases Their First Music Video
2007-11-22 00:00:00
I discovered the band Keepers a few months ago when my friend Dan Beauparlant told me he was working on a music video for the group. Today, Ric Antonishin and the rest of his Keepers are releasing the video and I am pleased to share it with you. I really like this local rock band and I am pleased to mention that they will be playing at the Coppertank in Kitsilano on December 31, 2007. Tickets are sold at the Coppertank, 3135 West Broadway, Vancouver. I will be there. Here is the video: For more information on the rock band Keepers, where they play, when, or if you want to hire them for an evening, please contact Ric Antonishin: ricantonishin{at}shaw.ca
More About: Video , Band , Music , Music Video , Rock

DomoDomain Reinvents the Use of Web Analytics
2007-11-22 00:00:00
Most Web analytics tools such as Google Anal ytics provides anonymous web traffic information. You know where your visitors are coming from, what kind of keywords they use, how much time they spent on your site, which search engines they used and so on. This information is useful and you can keep track of your traffic progression over time. That?s great. But, what if you would know which companies are visiting your site? Your site traffic would then become a fantastic lead generator and you would be able to phone the people who just visited your website, in real time. I (We) just found that company (thanks to James Sherrett for the find). They are DomoDomain.com. Here is the DomoDomain tool description: Domodomain turns your Ad Campaigns and your website into a lead generation machine by automatically capturing detailed information about business visitors, in real time and without visitor registration. Domodomain transforms otherwise ?invisible? website clicks into actionable ...

Web Analytics Association & eMetrics Breakfast Series in Vancouver (BC)
2007-11-22 00:00:00
On Tuesday the 4th of December from 7:00AM to 9:30AM at the Terminal City Club, 837 West Hastings Street, Vancouver VKI Studios will be hosting the first WAA & eMetrics breakfast event. This event will feature Jim Sterne, founder of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summits, and founding Chairman and current President of the Web Analytics Association . Jim will be speaking about the current maturity of the web analytics industry. He will share insights into the level of expertise among today?s practitioners; challenges they face; the opportunities that are available; and the role we play as companies adopt the continuous improvement method of marketing optimization (at VKI Studios we have branded this as our Hippo Tango service) and truly start listening, engaging and participating in a dialogue with customers. In addition to Jim?s presentation VKI Studio?s John Hossack will be presenting a recent case study that we have put together on marketing/landing page optimization. ...
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PPC Management Tools: Spy on your Competitors with KeywordSpy.com
2007-11-21 00:00:00
I got informed last week of a new competitive intelligence tool that is worth talking about. It is called KeywordSpy.com. KeywordSpy gives you the opportunity to immediately track down your competitors and gather keywords for the promotional campaign of your online business. I played with it for a few minutes and I found it very helpful and easy to use in order to understand how many keywords your competitors have in their basket, how much they are paying for it and the corresponding rank. Remember, if your competitors only have a few dozens of keywords, they are not capitalizing in the power of The Long Tail. Therefore, if you use this PPC Management Tool , you can beat them with a better Search Marketing plan. Here is an example on competitive information KeywordSpy can gather on Whistler.com online market place. Feel free to Mouse over the question marks (?) in order to have the definition of what each column means. Here are some additional informations on KeywordSpy: Keyw...
More About: Tools , Competitors

Les Français jugent la Pub Télé et Internet Envahissante
2007-11-21 00:00:00
I hope you can read this in its original format. People don?t like any form of interruption advertising. Here is an excerpt from the press release: Une étude réalisée par Australie et Ipsos met à jour le peu d?estime que portent les consommateurs français à la création publicitaire. Selon cette enquête, 79% d?entre eux trouvent la publicité ?envahissante? et 65% la qualifient de ?banale?.  Critiques, les Français sont aussi méfiants. La moitié jugent la pub ?dangereuse?. Le nombre de publiphobes a d?ailleurs augmenté (30% contre 25% en 2004). Le phénomène est tempéré par Jean-Marc Lech, coprésident d?Ipsos, qui affirme dans une entrevue pour le magazine Influencia, que ?ce n?est pas un phénomène militant?. La recherche révèle par ailleurs que la perception de la pub est influencée par la pratique d?Internet . ?Les gros consommateurs d?Internet sont les plus critiques (35% de publiphobes), bien qu?il soient accros de la consommation?, note Vincent Leclabart, président d?Aust...
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Studio Think Search Engine Marketing Plan (SEM)
2007-11-18 00:00:00
Studio Think (studiothink.com) is a traditional marketing agency based in Surrey, British Columbia (BC). They also sell web services to their clients, such as Search Engine Marketing plans, which they outsource to contractors. I have been approached a few times over the years by this company who wanted to learn about search marketing, in order to offer it to their Clients. Despite all that Search Marketing knowledge transfer, I have been witnessing their inability to create relevancy in search results, which is the most fundamental concept in Search Marketing. Like you might expect, I have been monitoring my own Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) Campaign and the positions for all my search terms. I have noticed that Studio Think does not understand the most basic & critical principle behind Search Engine Marketing , which is the creation of relevancy in search results. Believe or not, Studio Think is using the same ad copy for all their adgroups and for all the search queries...

Search Marketing: The Illusion that You Have a Choice
2007-11-17 00:00:00
People fear change. They fear what they don?t understand. I have seen that behavior time and time again in this new field called Search Marketing , the art and science of getting traffic through Search Engines. Whenever I try to convince someone to engage in a Search Marketing project, even the most basic SEO package, business owners feel like they are taking a risk. The ironic part is, the risk is actually much greater if you are NOT doing it. Here is why. Search is a zero-sum game. If traffic goes to site A, that means it does not go to site B. Have you followed the Search Engines market share landscape lately? Google?s market share is on the rise. Everybody loves Google. When is the last time you search on AOL, Altavista, Ask and even Yahoo or MSN? Ask any Search Engine other than Google what they think about this. If you don?t get in, someone else with nothing to lose will. They will build market share and you won?t. A famous quote from an IBM executive that I have kept over th...
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IndexRank
2007-11-14 00:00:00
IndexRank is a new metric to summarize the indexing rate of your site. If you constantly add content to your site, big or small, your IndexRank will be higher. The metric is based on an algorithm that makes use of time specific indexing data from Google to indicate (on a 0-10 scale) the indexing rate of a website. Hat tip to Aaron Wall for a great post about the value of this data.

Competitive Intelligence 2.0: Try Compete.com and Beat Your Competitors
2007-11-14 00:00:00
I seriously did not think I would see this kind of information available for free anytime soon. And yet, it is here. Get competitive metrics (ie. traffic) for every site on the web - powered by the largest pool of online consumer behavior data in the industry. Compete .com considers themselves the best in the industry and I believe it. This is competitive intelligence 2.0. I played with the tool for an hour yesterday and I can tell you that the numbers are pretty accurate, actually far more accurate than anything I have seen from a free tool such as Alexa Ranking. Sure, you can buy Hitwise which provides the full meal deal on competitors data for $30,000 a year but the bottom line is, how do you measure up on the sheer volume of traffic against your competitors. It is an awesome tool and you should use it. Here is a screenshot based on major tourism sites (BC vs Quebec): During summer months, we usually see an increase in traffic, which we don?t in this case with BonjourQuebec....
More About: Intelligence , Beat , Competitors , Competitive

Take the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Quiz
2007-11-11 00:00:00
Eric Lowe, Online Marketing Strategist from the Rick Hansen Foundation sent me an SEO Quiz today. If you think you know a lot about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and consider yourself and expert, please take a few minutes to take the test. It is a serious exam and should be treated as such. If you are looking to hire an SEO specialist, use this as an entry test. I scored 64%. How did you do? Share your results here and learn what you missed.
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Take the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Cartoons Quiz
2007-11-11 00:00:00
This Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Cartoons Quiz is funnier that the first one I posted last week. It is not as serious but just as difficult. There are only 15 questions. Try it. It only takes 1 minute to complete.
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics - Part 1
2007-11-07 08:03:00
When a business owner expresses the interest to launch a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plan, which is the most entry level form of online promotion, a lot of questions come to mind. A long time ago, I prepare this list of questions for business owners, not currently engaged in Search Marketing, before they come and see me for advices, prices and such. They are basic questions but they are quite important since they make an overview of the fundamental elements of online promotion. They also contribute to a good client assessment process so nobody is wasting any time. Too often I see sites that are broken, inappropriately hosted with poor domain names, no web analytics and so on. Therefore, before you get into any forms of online promotion, you need to be able to answer the following questions, so that we will be able to help you and your business go further on the e-commerce side. They are simple, but you must be able to answer most of them. Here it goes: Do you have a reliable ...
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RSS Feeds 101: Measuring your Readership & Progression Curve on Feedburner
2007-11-06 00:00:00
Every week, I explain to new potential clients the power behind blogging and its relationship to the ongoing battle of increasing site traffic over time. Blogging has also a strong relationship with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on top of the fact that adding fresh content to your site (ie. Blog) helps improve your rankings. As you know, my Search Marketing Blog is only 6 months old and I am still learning how to do this right. So far so good. I can tell you that the process has been somewhat easier than anticipated but the results are far greater than what I expected. Before I show you the results, you must take note that I have been working on my blog approximately 5 to 10 hours per week. Here is the progression of readers I have had since March 15, 2007: Not bad, eh? That is the kind of growth curve that I can live with. And here is what you need to remember if you consider launching a blog, from my own experience: It pays to have a blog! (real customers looking to ...
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Google PageRank: What’s the Story on PageRank Anyway?
2007-11-06 00:00:00
A lot of website owners are upset or puzzled when their website?s Google PageRank goes down or does not rise. Is it worth losing any sleep over changes in that green line and number that appear in a Google tool bar at the top of your browser? I think that excessive worry or thought about PageRank is not constructive, and it is better to put it all in perspective by taking a rational look at what PageRank is and what it is not. If you don?t even know what PageRank is, take a minute to download an install the Google Toolbar. Make sure you enable the advanced options, which includes the PageRank bar. First of all, the concept behind PageRank is indeed at the heart of Google?s ranking process. The Google founders noticed that in many academic documents some sources were continually cited. They reasoned that if a particular document such as a book or research paper was mentioned in many places then it must be important. They applied this to the web and assumed that if one website li...
More About: Story , Pagerank , Google Pagerank , The Story

Page Rank
2007-11-06 00:00:00
Page Rank (often denoted PR) is a quantity defined by Google that provides a rough estimate of the overall importance of a web page. Many factors influence Page Rank, thus it is a poor indicator of how well a page ranks for particular keywords.Contrary to popular belief, the word "page" in Page Rank has nothing to do with web pages. It's from the name of one of PR's inventors, Larry Page.
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Video: Crazy Roadtrip to the Himba Tribes in Africa by Taron Hall
2007-11-04 00:00:00
My friend Taron Hall has traveled extensively during the last few years and he sent me a video today of a crazy road trip he made in Africa to find the Himba Tribes. He made this video as a demo to get himself known as a good host for a travel show which is why I am sharing it around. Taron is a great guy with a big heart and I a confident he would be awesome in such a position. I think you?ll find the video quite entertaining. It?s just 6 minutes long, check it out and send him your comments at tarongoneaway {at} yahoo.ca
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Will Ad Agencies Get Search? Don?t Hold Your Breath by Gord Hotchkiss
2007-11-04 00:00:00
Every time Gord Hotchkiss, President of Enquiro based in Kelowna (BC) Canada, write an article, you can be confident that he is going to hit the nail right on the head. In his most recent article on Ad Agencies and Search Marketing, Gord mentions that Ad Agencies are far from ?getting? search and follow search marketing best practices. Even when they include search, for as little as they do, they miss the mark by a mile. It is especially dramatic when it comes to budgeting for it. Media plans & budgets are based on arbitrary numbers which are not a reflection of comprehensive business objectives. According to Gord, ?Search dollars should be the first ones in, not the last. Take as much search inventory as you can get. Judge your costs per acquisition not against your top performing keywords, but against your other channels, both online and offline. If even the marginal search traffic is generating a lower CPA, beg, borrow and steal as much budget as you can and top up search. On...
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SEO Tools: 51 Essential Tools for Search Engine Marketing
2007-10-28 01:00:00
People love tools. It saves you time. Some think it does the job for you. Once thing for sure, the best tool of all is your brain. Here is a lowdown of the most important SEO Tools you may want to consider when developing and monitoring a Search Engine Marketing plan. This was taken from a meeting last week regrouping Top SEOs Experts. I find this list very comprehensive. Last week, the Dallas / Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association held its quarterly standing-room-only meet-up. Rob Garner from iCrossing.com presented ?51 Essential Tools for Search Engine Marketing,? in which Christine Churchill (Key Relevance), Jeff Martin (CardsDirect.com), Tony Wright (Wright IMC) and himself ran through a list of tools that DFWSEM board member agencies and in-house marketers use to assist their own paid and natural search marketing campaigns. Each slide covered the utility, cost and location of the tool. Here they are: Jim Gilbert of Key Relevance pointed out the best tool of the ni...

Search Engine Strategies (SES) Chicago - December 3-7, 2007
2007-10-28 01:00:00
Mark your calendar! One of the main events of the year in Search Engine Marketing: Search Engine Strategies (SES) Chicago is coming back again soon on December 3-7 2007. As always, there will be a lot of people representing SEMPO Canada at this conference including Ken Jurina, Co-Chair of SEMPO Canada, Andrew Goodman from Traffick.com, along with many representatives of the Canadian Search Marketing Industry. For those who may not know, Search Engine Strategies is the premier event about Search Marketing (SEM) technologies and tactics. Organized by world?s leading search authorities, SES Chicago Conference Chairman, Kevin Ryan, this show can help you learn: * How search engines list Web sites for free and through paid placements; * How to get free ?organic? traffic by building a site that pleases search engines and your visitors; * How to efficiently purchase listings guaranteed to rank your company at the top of search engine results; * How to calculate the ROI of your search ...

Berkeley Search Engine Lectures Featuring Guest Speaker Sergey Brin
2007-10-28 01:00:00
Sergey Brin, Co-Founder of Google, was invited to be a guest lecturer at UC Berkeley on Search Engines and Technology as part of the course SIMS 141. His session is called: Search, Google, and Life: UC Berkeley have started to post all of their lectures on YouTube. Other topics in the course include search advertising and auctions, search and privacy, search ranking, internationalization, anti-spam efforts, local search, peer-to-peer search, and search of blogs and online communities. The rest of the SIMS 141 lecture videos are here. 
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Video: Zombies in Plain English by Lee Lefever from Commoncraft
2007-10-28 01:00:00
Just in time for Halloween Lee Lefever from Common Craft gives us Zombies in Plain English in the same format as his other cool introduction clips from the Common Craft show.
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