2008 was a good year for EngineWorks. We continued to provide outstanding search engine marketing services to our growing client roster. We are very proud of our accomplishments in 2008. Thank you to all of our clients, partners and friends.
Here’s to continued success in 2009!
With 2008 coming to a close, the EngineWorks team raised a toast to continued success in 2009 at Widmer Brothers Brewing last night. Here are a few pictures from our Celebration For Success.
Here’s to another fabulous New Year!
Like much of the country this holiday week, our EngineWorks headquarters here in Portland, Oregon has been under a couple feet of snow. In fact, today is the first day this week that our team members have been able to park in our parking lot! (Most of them, anyway . . . our Search Specialist, Amanda Bernard, needed to be pushed out of the entrance to the lot, and is now parked on the street.)
Along with the difficulties of getting to our front door, the plethora of snow also enticed many individuals throughout the Pacific Northwest to purchase holiday items online. This fact is not unique to our local region, however. In a December 24, 2008 article from DMNews, comScore reported that $24.71 billion was spent online this holiday season, with nearly twice as much being spent during the final week before December 25th this year, as was spent last year during this same week.
A compelling article this month from eMarketer reports that a study conducted by Atlas Solutions using Microsoft’s Engagement Mapping data found a direct correlation in increase of conversion-to-sales performance when an online display campaign is implemented along-side a Paid Search Marketing campaign. The article titled ‘Display Boost Search Performance’ stated that the study revealed that search engine users who were exposed to display advertising, and who clicked on a search listing, were twenty-two percent (22%) more likely to convert to a sale than individuals not exposed to an online display advertisement.
In our last Google Insight piece, we took a look at the comparison of job seekers and their search terms. This week, EngineWorks has uncovered some good news for anxious retailers who fear that holiday shoppers will forgo Christmas splurging this year. By utilizing the Google Insights tool we found the search volume for the query ‘black friday deals’ has almost doubled while “cyber monday deals” is 96 times higher than December 2007.
Third Door Media, the company that delivers Search Engine Land, the leading news and analysis blog for search marketing professionals, has announced that it has partnered with FITUR, the largest tourism trade fair on the international circuit, to present Search Marketing Expo – SMX Travel in Madrid, Spain on January 28 through 30, 2009.
Great article this morning from DMNews identifying two seemingly obscure – yet, actually very encouraging – recent developments in the interactive space. The article, titled “Can You Count on Savvy Web Users?”, points-out that a recent survey by the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future has discovered that more than 75% of Internet users surveyed consider themselves to be good to excellent at using the Web, compared to only 44% in the year 2000. The second development from this article was a fact taken from an October 2008 Harris Interactive poll that the average time spent online of those surveyed has doubled since October 2001.
“No other form of marketing is more critical to your success in the travel and tourism industry than Search Engine Marketing.”
If it were possible for a conference to give a quote, this would be the statement given by The PhoCusWright Conference, which took place last week at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood, California.
As reported by comScore at this prestigious annual event, more than fifty percent (50%) of all online traffic, and more than seventy percent (70%) of total online sales is generated through search engines. Now more than ever, it is paramount that your Web site be rapidly found by qualified visitors and eager customers through the world’s most popular search engines.
As we have conveyed in previous EngineWorks blog posts, effective SEO requires a three-pronged approach: Site-Wide SEO, On-Page SEO, and Off-Page SEO. I like to think of our SEO process as being similar to building a great spider web that’s designed to catch as many flies as possible.
To begin with, choose great keywords, implement proper Meta tags and URL canocalization, craft highly relevant content, and you have a solid foundation for a spider web. In addition, to attract flies, you must gain relevant external links to your site. There is, however, a fourth and often overlooked step: defending your web.
Americans send about 75 billion text messages a month, up from around 30 billion a year ago, according to the latest industry surveys. Recently, some marketers in the real estate industry are expanding efforts to take advantage of this flourishing social behavior by sending property information to potential buyers via SMS text messages.
As a full-service Search Engine Marketing company, we at EngineWorks like to stay on top of trends in the Internet marketing landscape. Marketing through text messaging is nothing new. However, we perceive that the current opportunities in the real estate industry could effectively change the way individuals shop for homes, and is a marketing trend that has recently caught our attention.
The scenario is easy to imagine. It’s estimated that 90% of home buyers begin their search online, which is why Search Engine Optimization and Paid Search Marketing are invaluable strategies for capturing this qualified traffic. At the same time, many of these online visitors may want to see prospective homes in person prior to contacting an agent. Here’s where new advancements in text message marketing can improve this research process.
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