Search engine optimization (SEO) continues to be an integral part of a business's marketing campaign, and now, Google Places is making it even easier. Plus it's free. Google Places now includes additional features on the search engine results page (SERP) when your local listing appears making you more visible and attractive to web surfers. Visually Enhancing your Business Listing on Google PlacesAs shown above, the Google Places listing displays not only a map of the business location, but also photos of your products and business, details including descriptor snippets, price, nearest subway, a link to make reservations (if applicable), links to available menus and reviews. According to Brian Pasch of PCG Digital Marketing, photos... Read More

In past blog posts about search engine optimization, we've referenced using tools such as Bing Webmaster Tools to deal with issues such as 404 errors and the importance of XML sitemaps. Recently, Bing added some new features to its Webmaster Tools to enhance its utility.DNS-based VertificationIn addition to verification of ownership of your website via a code on the home page or an XML file, DNS based verification has also been added.Crawl DetailsThis report has been enhanced to show ALL inbound links, not just ones that return a 400 header response code.adCenter Data Integration (US only)Reports showing traffic and keyword data will now include average cost-per-click and average bid data.URL NormalizationSuggestions for URL... Read More

From near obscurity, Microsoft's Bing search engine now powers 30% of online searches, according to our friends at Experian/Hitwise. This is of interest, given we still see a material number paid search buyers optimizing for "Google only." While some of our friends at Google like to say "Bing...  But It's Not Google" --Bing now represents almost one-third of searches now. With a substantial 6% increase from March 2010 to April 2010 search marketers that ignore it do so at a considerable risk. We suggest to Clients... Bing could well require more of their attention "Because It's Now Growing"Google's dominant 64.42% share of search, still produces the majority of traffic and search marketing results. That said, could the day... Read More

The latest numbers from Google show that Hospitals, Doctors and Research Facilities show no sign of slowing their use of Search Engines for research and purchases of medical equipment.   2011 Q1 Healthcare search volume topped 25 million. This suggests that today, more than ever,  end users of Healthcare products are starting their buying process the same way that many of us decide on which car we buy or vacation we take.It shouldn't come as a surprise.  While doctors,  IDNs and hospital purchasing agents buy products through traditional distribution channels,  they research products for their businesses the same way they research products and services for their personal lives.Over the last 3... Read More

Although there are still a few more weeks until spring is officially here, it seems that Google is doing some spring cleaning a little early. Over the past few weeks, Google has made several moves to clean up its organic search results and ensure that they remain high-quality and relevant. While these moves don't affect legitimate businesses that are following legitimate search engine optimization practices, I thought I'd share these stories so everyone is aware of the black hat SEO tactics that could land you and your website in trouble.Google Improves Algorithm to Reduce WebspamGoogle updated its algorithm to reduce the rankings of low-quality websites, which they define as "sites which are low-value add for users, copy content... Read More