Shopping pages and filters for search engines have been around for a while now, Bing included. Bing Shopping, just as anything in the online world, has evolved since it was first developed. You live and you learn, and Bing is moving forward with some changes.

For Merchants | What is Bing Shopping? Bing Shopping is Bing’s way of allowing people to search with shopping intentions. If you are an advertiser, this feature from Bing is now FREE, so more merchants will probably start to utilize the service. Just like Google Shopping, you will need upload a feed that includes required information requested from the engine. Make sure you do a little research before you try this, as there are some steps you need to take before you can get started. Here’s a great resource for the Bing Shopping program, including the Merchant Integration Guide which will walk you through the steps you’ll need to take.  Here’s a quick rundown of the process: Read the rest of this entry »

If we had to choose, most would choose Not to have to drive the base trim of a four door sedan if they could also choose a custom sports car.

or

We are a nation that loves to tweak the products in our life.  The vehicles we drive, our homes, our clothes.  We take the basic products we own and personalize them to fit our personalities and needs and often times we make those products better.  We also have no shame about taking a good idea about a customization that someone else made and doing the same with our own products.  Even great original and innovative products like the iPhone or Tivo have websites devoted to “Jailbreaking” them in order to customize them.  We are a world of tinkerers – despite the voiding of warranties.

Some technologies like software acknowledge that they are merely version 1 and use open source code that allows users to “crowd source” better ways to use it.  Other online software technologies use APIs (Application Programing Interfaces) that allow users to use other software (usually custom software) to use the software the way that works best for them.

The same thought processes that went into making a custom chopper can also be used in our online lives Read the rest of this entry »

Short Cuts.  Sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don’t.  Quite often when I use my car’s GPS the “short” way seems to the most congested and slowest way.  The same can also be true in search marketing.

We have discovered a couple of instances of how abbreviations have been a problem for some of our clients in the last couple of weeks, both in PPC and SEO. Read the rest of this entry »

Avelyn Austin and I recently recorded a webinar entitled Google Sitemap Basics. Check out the Search Mojo YouTube channel to view this webinar, as well as past webinars hosted by Search Mojo.

Google Sitemap Basics includes information about general Sitemap and Sitemap Index components, along with information on how to generate them, and register with the search engines. For convenience, the recording can also be viewed below.

Next month, we plan to release a webinar recording involving Specialized Sitemaps. Follow us on twitter @SearchMojo to keep up with any future webinar announcements, along with any slide/recording postings.

I read a lot of resumes, and the one thing that regularly strikes me is that good marketers are often terrible at marketing themselves. Think of your resume as your “landing page”. A landing page must convey the best information about a product in a very short amount of space and time — much like a resume.

So search marketers, let’s examine the parts of your resume (your landing page) and how we might improve conversion (calls for an interview) by optimizing the page.

Basic Tenets

• Try to keep to one page. As with a landing page, it’s important to keep the information concise and relevant. You wouldn’t believe it, but I get three-page long resumes from college students. Stop the insanity! Keep it clean, concise and to the point.

• Keep the most relevant information “above the fold”. With landing pages, we always try to keep the most important, relevant information “above the fold”, or where the visitor doesn’t have to scroll to see it. The same is true on a resume. For instance, I recently had a Google Challenge finalist apply for a position. The Google Challenge is highly relevant to the job description, yet I had to dig to the bottom of the resume to see that point. I could have easily overlooked it. Read the rest of this entry »