EngineWorks, Inc.

The fortuitous winds of success are once again blowing through the great Pacific Northwest. Our hometown NBA team, the Portland Trail Blazers, is currently experiencing an incredible ascension, both on and off the court.

It was only a few short years ago that Blazer fandom hit rock bottom here in Rose City. The team’s roster was riddled with players of questionable character (to put it politely), ticket sales were at all-time lows, and rumors of bankruptcy swirled throughout the league. Today, however, the franchise is on-track to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2002-2003 season, due in large part to its upgraded group of core players. Rather than filling-out its roster with troubled individuals such as Rasheed Wallace, Bonzi Wells and Zach Randolph, the Blazers now boast highly likeable, tremendously skilled players, such as Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Greg Oden.

(more…)

In a move that will surely have the real estate industry talking, Century 21, a long-time television advertiser, has decided to pull all of its national TV ads in 2009, and shift this budget to online channels.

In a January 14, 2009 AdAge article, Beverly Thorne, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Century 21, stated that in years past the company has spent up to half of its advertising budget on television marketing.  However, in an unprecedented move, the company will now focus the majority of that money to its online efforts in 2009.  Mr. Thorne identified the ability online advertising, especially Search Engine Marketing, to directly target consumers interested in making a purchase in the near term as the main factor in making this decision.

To directly quote this AdAge Article, “With the beleaguered real-estate market showing no signs of a turnaround, the realtor has decided to play the numbers and go where the buyers and sellers are: online.”

(more…)

PhoCusWright, a leading research firm within the travel and tourism industry, today released comprehensive projections for the online leisure/business travel market that are featured in their Eighth Edition U.S. Online Travel Overview.  Contained in this substantial report is the firm’s forecast that, even though online travel is showing signs of a mature marketplace, its growth will continue to outpace the total travel market through 2010.

(more…)

As most online marketers are aware, many factors contribute to successfully acquiring new business through your Web site. One metric that is perceived to have a significant impact upon the number of site visitors who convert to customers is your Web site’s Bounce Rate. Your Bounce Rate is the percentage of visitors that arrive at a page on your site, and then immediately exit, or ‘bounce’, to another destination.  Presumably, these visitors didn’t like what they saw, and left your site.  It has been predicted that in the near future, a site’s overall Bounce Rate will be a weighted factor within search engine ranking algorithms that contributes to prominent positioning within Natural search listings.  This is due to the assumption that, if people are staying on your site, then you must be providing useful and relevant content.
(more…)

Search Engine Marketing Professionals of Portland (SEMpdx) is hosting its inaugural Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Hot Seat on Tuesday evening, January 13, 2009.  SEMpdx, a professional organization whose mission is to inform and educate businesses throughout the Pacific Northwest on the benefits of search marketing, has held numerous Hot Seat events focused on Natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO) topics.  However, this is the first time the organization will review and critique Paid Search Marketing campaigns.

(more…)