I just published the web’s most in-depth review of Market Samurai. Not like other crappy and thin affiliate sites, but rather a full fledged review, complete with screenshots, module functionality and a break down of each and every valuable feature available in Market Samurai.

If you’re at all interest in any of the reasons I’ve included from the excerpt below, go read my Market Samurai Review. Then go ahead and try it out for free, no credit card required.

Why I Bought Market Samurai (And Why You Should At least Try it Too)

I’ve used many keyword tools and niche research tools over the years include SEO Elite, Wordtracker, Wordze and Trellian but nothing compares to Market Samurai. As an advanced search marketer my Market Samurai offers a couple of research modules that are all integrated very well. The one’s my staff and I use the most include the  Keyword Research, SEO Competition, Find Content, and Promotion modules.

There’s a couple of very good (real world, no hype) reasons you should at least try Market Samurai:

• The Trial is utterly and completely FREE. No credit card required and no auto-billing to deal with.
• If you don’t save at least 3-5 hours per project by using Market Samurai then you’re not using it right.
• Following up on my last point, Market Samurai has a Dojo where they have full-length video tutorials for each of their modules including how to use them to find easy niches and low competition keywords.
• Even if you choose to buy, any half decent internet marketer should be able to make their money back by having their first affiliate/client site ranked and attracting relevant traffic.

With each review I try to find a few short comings but I’m afraid I’m a pretty happy camper with what Market Samurai offers.  With the launch of the Adwords (PPC Spy like) module around the corner and another secret module tentatively being launched in the very near future, I was happy I locked in the lower price when I could.

Get Your Free Trial Copy of Market Samurai Now

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SES Toronto 2010 kicked off today with a brand new venue at the Hyatt Regency in Toronto amongst a packed crowd of eager attendees. I was happy to see higher attendance than last year’s conference, and high points of day 1 included meeting old friends, making new ones, and enjoying some very high quality panels.

Managing a Global SEO Campaign

Speakers:

Ian McAnerin, CEO, McAnerin Networks Inc.

Crispin Sheridan, SES Advisory Board & Sr Director of Search Marketing Strategy, SAP

Michael Bonfils, International Managing Director, SEM International

This is a topic close to my heart, and was something I was majorly involved in as an in-house SEO in the past.  Highlights of the session included Ian’s tips on localizing content rather than translating it, Crispin’s insider case study of SAP’s global SEO challenges, and Michael’s humorous presentation on Tom Whorton’s ( a play on Canada’s favourite coffee chain – Tim Hortons).

Top tips from Ian included:

• Choose to have multi-national, multi-lingual campaigns rather than one lazy global SEO/SEM campaign.
• Plan centrally, synchronise globally, execute locally i.e Have a central vision, a global strategy, and local execution.
• Sell in mature markets, brand in emerging markets.
• When it comes to SEO: Use CCTLDs, country specific hosting, localized content that is tailored for each audience, and appropriate copy indicating multi-lingual sites versus multi-lingual pages.

Top tips from Crispin included:

Crispin talked about the amazingly complex website eco-system that he manages as part of SAP’s global SEO strategy.  SAP is one of the largest software companies in the world, and with its massive growth Crispin indicated that he has to deal with websites that have grown organically over time and are not alike in design, content, language, or site architecture.

Top tips from Crispin included:

• Use the canonical tag to distinguish authoritative content from duplicate content. In SAP’s case, the canonical tag is placed on its Global English site rather than its US based site as the global site has more content and converts better in this case.
• Use country flagging in webmaster tools.
• Run keyword cluster research to identify keywords that are currently ranking with low search volume, and then modify pages containing each cluster to more have terms with more search volume.

Top tips from Michael Bonfils:

Michael offers up a case study of the fictitious Tom Whortons company who is currently planning on expanding internationally after having a successful e-commerce presence selling coffee beans in North America.

Key problems of a haphazard global search strategy included:

• Picking markets for expansion based on where existing is coming from via analytics data.
• No regard for localization of content displayed by the use of automatic translation tools which generated sub-par translations.
• Lack of payment options for a global audience by only restricting payments to credit cards.

Top tips from Michael included:

• Figure out the right target markets – Survey local competition, local keyword research, in addition to web analytics research.
• Get the right localization and translation strategy – Make a local language speaker born and raised in the target country work with a keyword research specialist.
• Follow SEO Best Practices – Use CCTLDs, country specific hosting, avoid duplicate content.

For more coverage on SES Toronto Day 1,  click here to jump to the Powered by Search blog.

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Using WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool widget generator, website owners can generate custom versions of WordStream’s set of popular keyword tools (including The Free Keyword Tool, The Free Keyword Niche Finder and The Free Keyword Grouper), which they can embed on their own websites. Anyone who owns a website now has the ability to quickly and easily match the tools to the look and feel of their site to make them their very own.

If you’re a webmaster, blogger or online business owner, the benefits of embedding any one of WordStream’s trio of keyword tools include:

• A great way to turn visitors who use the custom version of the tools into leads and members of your mailing list
• Free access to a set of powerful keyword suggestion tools that will help you better market your business
• More reasons for visitors to continually return to and spend more time on your website

With the release of these keyword tool widgets, visitors to your website now can perform the same high-level keyword research and keyword organization and can also discover the same profitable and traffic-driving keywords that the WordStream keyword tools provide, but they never have to leave your site to get them. By adding these custom tools to your website, you can leverage the work of WordStream’s team of engineers to make your own website more useful, more compelling and much more valuable to your audience.

To create custom versions of the WordStream keyword tools that you can embed on your own website for free, go to: http://www.wordstream.com/widget-register

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Guillaume Bouchard is the President of NVI Solutions based out of Montreal, QC, and a leading voice in the SEO industry. He’s speaking at the upcoming Search Engine Strategies Toronto, taking place June 9-11, 2010. I’ve had an opportunity to interview Guillaume, regarding his panel on “Successfully Integrating Search & Social Media“. I’ll be liveblogging SES Toronto, so catch more coverage there.

Q: You started NVI in 2004. With 3 founders in the mix, what was your role at leading NVI from a fledgeling startup to a bustling agency in those crucial first years?

A lot of people usually think that you need a killer idea to get a start up to become mainstream. It is probably the main thing that I learned during those first few years: the idea you initially had really doesn’t matter. When NVI started, in 2004-2005, we had the “ORIGINAL” idea of launching a web design / web development company. That was it. For the first 12-18 months, the only thing that we did was websites and trying to figure out how to do them. But then, when you have the chance to have great partners and 1-2 key employees early, you are succeeding in getting the right people on the bus, and the right people on the right seat, a lot of new opportunities arrived on the table. My role, along with one of the co-founders (Simon Rouillier), was to ensure that we would pick the “best” opportunities and focus on them. I was more the creative guy filled with funky ideas and Simon was the grounded guy who was acting as the devil’s advocate for any opportunity that we had to decide on. As an example, I wanted to start selling / doing SEO after I saw & met Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz.org and also after I had a class in school about eMarketing given by a guy who became a friend (and now a friendly competitor) Jean-François Renaud, butme and Simon disagreed, and since I’m hard headed I decided to do it for our own NVI’s website during 2005-2006 Christmas and here we were, ranking on top of the SERPs for a few French web development keywords, and the phone started ringing. We had learned that marketing existed on the web. And honestly, the rest is history – we’re just trying to get better at doing Search, Social Media, Web Development, Conversion Optimization, Affiliation and Performance-based display advertising.

Q: How did affiliate marketing play into your revenue mix as NVI started growing bigger and bigger? Did you use affiliate marketing as a testing ground for strategies later to be used to market clients?

I would be lying pretending that we are a strong powerhouse in affiliation, although we are pretty good at launching competitve campaigns and managing them along with our other approaches. So, all in all, we have strong folks internally that do affiliation, but I would say that the Canadian demand for affiliation is extremely weak and poorly known – don’t get me wrong, businesses are starting to get SEO – they still have a long way to go to understand what lies beneath a great affiliation program. That will come, though, as I believe SEO & affiliation are the only types of acquisition channels that can yield incremental ROI on a month to month basis, compared to degressive ROI models like PPC & display advertising.

Q: What’s the biggest difference you see in the market for SEO and SEM in Quebec versus the rest of your Canadian clientele?

Besides the obvious fact that we are bit behind in terms of trends / knowledge based on the language barrier, I would say the main difference doesn’t lie at the client level, but more at the “offer” level. What I mean by that is that is you are to accomplish large scale SEO campaigns for the French / Quebec market, a lot of the time you will find very few great properties to get links from, so it can get tricky to get the links or influence you could generally get from English driven properties.

Q: You’re speaking on the Successfully Integrating Search & Social Media panel at SES Toronto – Do you think the Fortune 1000 is finally understanding the important of where search meets social?

Not at all. Social Media is still being perceived (and to a certain extent, it’s the agency’s fault) as an activity mainly for “branding purposes” because the main Social Media services offered are still brand & community management or online PR for event-driven initiatives.

For me, integrating Social Media with Search is not to provide services such as online PR or brand/community management; it is much more the action of creating original content and promoting it to sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Propeller, Mixx, Reddit to get eyeballs but most importantly links or launching & promoting an SEO friendly widget that exports your content and that can be installed on anybody’s website.

Q: What aspects of the internet marketing industry in general do you appreciate the most?

The fact that the greatest guys in our industry share most if not all of their secrets (not always during their conference presentations, more often during parties or happy hours though!) because they want the industry to grow. Great guys like Rand Fishkin or Jim Boykin have helped the industry get to another level of understanding and trust.

Q: Summers in Montreal are a mix of fantastic weather, great food, and a vibrant city. What are some of your favourite things to do when you have some down time?

Fishing in Quebec’s northern lakes, biking, golfing & tennis in terms of sports, and any decent restaurants with a patio, on top of all the summer festivals filled with electronic & jazz music.

Thanks for answering my questions Guillaume. See you and the rest of the NVI crew at SES Toronto 2010.

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Now in its 3rd year, David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors study continues to provide definitive insights in the world of Local Search (Google Maps, Location Based Services, You name it’s covered). This year Powered by Search made it as the only other company in North America to have two panelists (@Shagun Vatsa and your’s truly) featured in the study, and the only Canadian company to have the same honour (see how that’s spelt honour and not honor).

For those of you eager to know the top 10 factors affecting your map rankings in the 1, 3 or 7 pack, here they are:

1. Claiming your Google Place Page/Local Listing
2. Have a Business Address in the City That is Being Searched
3. Associate Your Google Place Page with the Proper Categories
4. Put Your Product/Service Keyword in Your Place Page Business Title
5. Proximity of Your Address to the Searched City’s Centroid
6. Product/Service Keywords in your Google Place Pages Description
7. Associating Photos with your Google Place Page
8. Associating Local Area Code with your Primary Place Page Phone Number
9. Associating Place Page with Marginally Related Categories
10. Location Keyword in Place Pages Business Title

Local SEO is only going to get tougher this year as there is more saturation and competition in every industry vertical under the sun, but we’re well equipped to react proactively rather than reactively to such changes.

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All the rage with Google’s Search Stories tool has passed I suppose, but I had forgotten to put up our very own Local SEO story so here it is. you can create your own here: www.youtube.com/searchstories.

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How many ways to instantly access Google search from FireFox browser are there? Let’s try to find the best one:

1. FireFox search plugins. You can either search for a search plugin you are interested in or create your own.

Or you can take advantage of those created by other smart people: Distilled Google without Wikipedia and Joost’s Google unpersonalized search.

2. Use FireFox “smart keywords” feature allows you to search right from the address bar. Like with the above one, you can customize the search to your heart’s content adding any advanced search parameters or using any advanced search operators.

3. Use Google search bookmarklets to access Google by selecting a term on a page (just drag it to your bookmarks toolbar: Google).

You can achieve some customization by using this handy tool that allows to create and customize your own search bookmarklet.

4. Access Google search (as well as many other search engines) with Kallout – a desktop application that integrates with FireFox (and also Outlook, txt files, etc).

5. CyberSearch FireFox plugin is another way to search Google from the address bar.

These are supported Google services :

• gweb – Google general search;
• gloc – Google local search;
• gvid – Google video search;
• gblog – Google blog search;
• gnews – Google news search;
• gbook – Google book search;
• gimg – Google image search;
• gpat – Google patent search.

6. Tweak your FireFox about:config (tip by FireFox facts).

Just type into your address bar about:config, search for keyword.URL, and modify the string:

http://www.google.com/search?btnG=Google+Search&q=

7. Google Toolbar – the most obvious way to access Google search.

It offers quite a few handy options (yet it unfortunately doesn’t allow access to advanced operators).

This post was contributed by my good friend Gab Goldenberg on behalf of Done SEO

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WordStream this week announced the release of a really interesting new product for organic search marketers.

WordStream Keyword Management for SEO is an advanced keyword research tool—think keyword research on steroids. It offers the same keyword suggestion capabilities as Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, and similar tools, but layers on keyword analytics, keyword grouping and organization, and integrated content authoring tools for roughly the same price (starting at $49/mo.) you’d expect to pay for traditional keyword research tools.

Rather than offering a static list of keyword suggestions along with a handful of related keyword suggestions, WordStream for SEO provides you with:

• Traditional Keyword Research: Not unlike existing keyword tools, WordStream offers keyword suggestions that the software pulls from a deep database of search queries.
• Personalized Keyword Suggestions: WordStream also goes a step further to mine your own site data to help surface relevant keyword ideas people are already using to find your site.
• Keyword Analytics: Instead of vague estimates based on popularity, WordStream provides accurate visit and goal data for keywords from your own site on an ongoing basis.
• Keyword Organization: WordStream has created very sophisticated grouping and organization capabilities. This means that you can effectively segment your keyword list to identify content suggestions, analyze your data in strategic clusters, and create an SEO-friendly information architecture.
• Content Authoring: The WordStream SEO for Firefox feature, which I’ll describe in more detail below, connects your keyword research with your content creation efforts to help you better focus your blog posts and product or sales pages.

The tool’s Discover Keywords tab is where you conduct traditional keyword research. This tab includes:

• A keyword suggestion tool (which leverages the same database as  WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool)
• A competitive keyword research tool
• The option to paste in or import keywords from a CSV file
• And the ability to analyze your own site’s data by importing server log files, or by syncing your Google Analytics account or using WordStream’s own custom package to continually discover, analyze, and organize keyword and search query data.

This allows you to aggregate data from a range of different sources.

From there you can organize your data into a taxonomy of tightly related groups and sub-groups; this resulting keyword structure is incredibly useful for SEO strategizing, setting content creation priorities and even planning your site’s information architecture. The software suggests potential keyword groups which you can review and create with the click of a button.

Now let’s take a closer look at the SEO for Firefox feature, which attempts to close the gap between keyword research and content authoring. WordStream SEO for Firefox is a plugin that you can use alongside blogging platforms such as Wordpress, Blogger and Drupal.

Here’s how it works: Open the tool while your content management system is open. To research a new topic, use the “Enter a Keyword” tab—just enter a keyword to get organized suggestions. Let’s say you want to write an article about reusable plastic drinking bottles but need a little help narrowing that broad topic down to something more targeted.

Select a topic to see all the keywords in that group, or niche. You can view the results as phrases, single words or in question form.

As you can see the tool is great for generating more specific ideas around a general topic. However, to optimize your content for a given keyword niche, you need to actually use the suggested terms in the copy. The SEO for Firefox plugin also keeps a running count of how many keyword phrases you use as you type. This is great for keeping writers on track after the initial research stage.

In the My Keyword Research tab, you can log in to your WordStream account to use the private keyword data from your analytics in addition to the on-the-fly keyword suggestions.

There’s a lot to explore in WordStream for SEO. You can check out the full toolset yourself by signing up for a free trial.

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iPhone apps have changed the way we do things. We simply no longer have to plan as much as we used to. If you’re out on the go, and fancy a bite to eat, need to buy an umbrella, want to visit a library, or anything, really, we can spontaneously whip out the iPhone and look up the nearest vendor. There are hundreds of local search apps out there, so read our definitive guide of the best ones below.

1. TomTom

This nifty little app already provides real time traffic information straight to your smartphone, so you need not buy a GPS device to avoid traffic on your journey. Added to that, the app now has Google Local Search, which means that whilst you avoid the motorway snarl-ups, you can also see if there’s a good place to pick up a sandwich on the way.

2. MapQuest 4 Mobile

AOL’s MapQuest is one of the old hands in mobile mapping, but has only just caught up with iPhone with its MapQuest4Mobile iPhone app; the same features have been available on Blackberry for much longer. The advantage of this is that the app has been tried and tested and has some great features, such as the ability to personalise the app with MyPlaces for destinations you regularly travel to. You can also change the order of stops on your route easily, so you can change your itinerary without major hassle. iPhone users can also turn the phone landscape and see each part of the journey in full screen and real time, making it easier to glance at whilst driving.

3. CoPilot Live

Whilst CoPilot Live has been providing mobile maps of North America and Canada for some time, its latest update includes Local Search, to help locate outlets whilst you are on the move, as well as a Facebook integration for the social media junkies out there. Other improvements to this already very useful app include better representation of junctions with ClearTurn and Lane Assist, so you’re less likely to find yourself dithering between two lanes at the traffic lights whilst you peer at your phone for information.

4. TellMeWhere

What makes TellMeWhere different to the average local search app is its rating system. Sure, you can search for the nearest place to grab a coffee, but will you know if that coffee will be good? With TellMeWhere, you can find not only the nearest coffee shop, but also the shop rated most highly by other TellMeWhere users; super efficient!

5. Google Mobile

Google Mobile searches for various things in different ways, and the appeal of this app is its many functions. First there’s the standard Google search, but there’s also My Location, which automatically searches for things in the area you are in, without the need for typing in your location. The app also allows voice search, where you can say your search terms out loud into the phone, and searches for your email and contacts files.

6. Yahoo Mobile

Like its competitor Google Mobile, this app provides a full host of functions for the user. As well as mobile access to Yahoo Mail and search, there are also functions for viewing news updates, all your social media accounts, horoscopes, and IM. Yahoo Mobile can also be synced to your PC, making it even easier to keep track of things.

7. Yelp Mobile

This app is similar to TellMeWhy, and just as effective. It gives iPhone users the ability to search for the nearest restaurant, bar, or branch of a store, and also read other users’ reviews of the results, or write your own reviews. There is also a useful filtering tool to help refine your searches and get results faster.

8. FourSquare

FourSquare is part social networking tool, part search tool. In a similar way to Twitter, users upload real time experiences of places in their city, which other users can view to help them decide where to go. Users can make friends with each other, as with other social networking tools, as well as search for the nearest outlet they are looking for.

9. Bing

Bing is Microsoft’s answer to Google, and clearly Microsoft are upping the stakes with this comprehensive search tool. It is particularly good for iPhone. Users can search for local outlets, either by typing or speaking an address or what they are searching for out loud. They can find the nearest places, read user reviews and ratings of their search results, see route maps, and much more. The app is as slick as you would expect a Microsoft tool to be; it’s a serious contender in the local search market.

10. Maps

Maps is iPhone’s standard mapping tool, and it’s a favourite. Maps allows you to search where you are, or other locations, and then search locally for places of interest. You can also create groups of contacts in your contacts file who share similar addresses and link this to Maps.

Tom Walker is a writer who works with an online store that offers HP 57 ink and other supplies to business. Visit their blog where you can read more of his posts about design and technology

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Learn how to do Local SEO for National Enterprises and Franchises. This SMX Toronto presentation covers local seo strategy, ranking tips, local search analytics, and best practices on carrying out an enterprise local search strategy.

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Today we’ve got a guest post from a fellow Local SEO, Jonathan Page:

There is a great quote by Jerry Rice that says: “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.” That quote perfectly summarizes today’s tip. I have been involved in SEO since 2000 and the longer you look at local SEO results the more you see that you don’t beat competition by a mile you simply nudge them out by a nose.

So doing what they won’t do or what they don’t know how to do is the only way to guarantee the results you want for your, or your client’s, site. So, with that in mind know that todays tip won’t be as useful for everyone. If you are in a very small town it may not make as much sense as the guy with a business in a big city. However, it can be used by you and it will help your results. Even it if it just a nudge in the right direction. Fire up Google Maps and search for the city where your business is located.

It should look like the image above. Next to traffic on the top right you will see the “More” Menu. If you click it will bring up several options. Select Webcams. If your city is like most of the ones I deal with you will see some results from Webcams.Travel. These webcams are often referenced as citations, so by setting up your own webcam you can get a highly valued citation with about 5 minutes of work. The steps involved are all fairly simple:

1. Signup with Webcams.Travel
2. Add Your Webcam- Your Webcam should have some value to tourism. So, if your in a bigger city you can simply show the street that your business is on. Just point the webcam out your window and that adds some value. If you are in a very small town the value is negligible but it still exists. Even if people use your webcam to see if the grass is growing it is providing some value.
3. Keep your business credentials consistent. Your webcam’s name should be your ‘business name’ + ‘name of street’ or ‘name of view’. The address should be your business address, etc.
4. Use your camera to get a default image of your webcam’s view. In a pinch you can take a screenshot from google street view if you don’t have a camera handy.
5. Use MeBeam to broadcast your webcam. The same rules apply-make the name of the room as the name of your business.
6. Copy-Paste your MeBeam URL into Webcams.Travel to complete your listing.

That is all there is to it. Your webcam will get approved in about a day and I suggest to my clients to simply use a spare computer with a webcam attached. So far everyone has had the equipment lying around that they were happy to put it to use. Very simple geo-targeted local seo citation, that provides value to those who see it while helping your business. A win-win.

Jonathan is a local seo professional in Washington, DC. At LocalSEO.Org he works to educate both industry professionals and small business owners in the simple tactics that they can employ to enhance their businesses’ exposure.

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Over the weekend I wrote a comprehensive guide to Local SEO on Work.com for small business owners. Here’s a small gist of what’s covered:

In summer 2009, TMP Directional Marketing and comScore found that and 46% of local online searchers contacted a business by telephone after Web research, and 37% visited in person.

For a service based or retail business, traffic to local search results now account for as much as 30% of the total number of searches being conducted on a monthly basis. This makes it imperative for a business to be ranked prominently within the local maps search listings on the 3 major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing).

Local SEO consists of 8 major steps which are as follows:

1. Market Research
2. Keyword Focus and Use of Local Modifiers
3. Optimizing Your Website for Local SEO
4. Creating or Claiming Existing Local Business Listings
5. Optimizing Local Business Profile Listings
6. Building Citations and Links to Enhance Listing Rankings
7. Encouraging Customer Testimonials and Reviews
8. Staying Up to Date with Changes in Local SEO

Head on over to read Guide to Learning Local SEO and Local Search Optimization at Work.com. If you find the content to be useful, please share it with as many people as possible by blogging about it, linking to it, tweeting it, or bookmarking the article. Go ahead and rate the guide and leave comments at Work.com as well, and I’ll respond back to you there if you’ve got any specific questions.

Cheers,

Dev

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Things have been very busy growing our business at Powered by Search, but I wanted to update my readers that I will be speaking at SMX Toronto this upcoming April 9th 2010. If you’re attending, be sure to give me a shout before hand via email (dev at devbasu.com) or twitter (@devbasu) and I’d be pleased to meet up for coffee or drinks.

Here’s a description of the panel:

Getting Local Business Listings Right:

Beyond Google, Yahoo! and Bing, there are thousands of local business directories, alternate search engines and alternate Internet connected devices changing the way people find your business. The explosive increase in smart phone use allows people to obtain location-specific information on demand. How do small businesses take advantage of these opportunities? How do you manage enterprise business listing issues? What tools are available to automate the hundreds of updates required when your address or hours of operation change? For any business that provides products or services to a local customer base, now is the time to get ahead of your competition by taking advantage of comparatively low (or no) cost business listings, geo-targeted ads and other marketing tools offered by local search engines. At this session discover the complex, rewarding world of local business listings.

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So popular keyword research and grouping tool Wordstream has added some new features to their free tools. I’ve trialed their solution before, and it’s definitely an interesting utility for the serious PPC marketer and those who do advanced SEO campaigns with multiple keyword buckets.  Have a look at their new tools via the press release below:

WordStream’s new tools, The Keyword Niche Finder and The Free Keyword Grouper, are designed to help businesses and marketers solve specific problems:

• The Keyword Niche Finder – Instantly identify and target the most profitable keyword niches
• The Keyword Grouper- Group and organize vast lists of keywords into actionable keyword groups to turn into ad groups or website content

Strong keyword organization is the foundation of successful search marketing, and WordStream’s Free Keyword Grouper lets marketers take massive lists of target keywords and instantly group these keywords into tightly-knit, relevant groups. This advanced level of keyword organization is critical for creating effective ad groups for PPC campaign advertising and for informing content creation and site navigation for SEO.

With The Keyword Niche Finder, marketers can type in terms related to their business and receive a list of the most popular and relevant keywords for their websites, along with the most interesting keyword niches or clusters. Marketers and website owners can leverage the results from The Keyword Niche Finder to build and structure intelligent website information architectures or create new subsections of their existing sites to drive traffic and collect new business opportunities.

“One of the biggest challenges for business owners is determining where to begin their keyword research and how to continually expand and refine their campaigns to get maximum returns,” says WordStream Founder and Vice President of Product Development Larry Kim. “With our two new free tools, we’ve armed marketers and business owners with the power to instantly receive well-organized, prioritized lists of the most profitable keyword opportunities in their niche.”

WordStream’s subscription-based service also announced a major upgrade recently, including integration with Google Analytics and sophisticated multi-source keyword analytics. It provides users with a tool-set to take those insights to the next level by continually monitoring the performance of their keywords and offering actionable keyword suggestions that helps them grow their campaigns and revenues, all for a very affordable monthly fee.

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I’ll be flying out this morning bright and early to attend Day 2 of SES Chicago. If you’re part of the conference, feel free to say hi!  I’ll be speaking on the Search on  Dime panel running from 1pm – 2:15 in the Small Business track, on the topic of Local Search on a Dime. Here’s a break down of what’s covered on the panel:

Small Business Track

Search on a Dime
Search marketing has long been touted as one of the most affordable ways to market a business, but these days, competition is fierce. What’s a small business on a budget to do? Come and hear the tips and tricks that will help you pick up the valuable traffic being left behind by your competitors. Learn from the best how to maximize your exposure via organic, paid search and local search without emptying your wallet.

• Moderator:
  Jennifer Evans Laycock, Editor-In-Chief, Search Engine Guide
  
  Click to close

  Speaker Profile

• Speakers:
  Dr. Ralph Wilson, Found and Editor-in-Chief, Web Marketing Today®
  Stoney deGeyter, President, Pole Position Marketing
  Matt Van Wagner, President, Find Me Faster
  Dev Basu, President and CEO, Powered by Search

See you guys there!

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Monitoring rankings is an essential part of any good SEO’s regimen of competitive analysis, as well as to keep tabs on large scale keyword campaigns. While there are many free and paid solutions on the market, I’ve found the Advanced Web Ranking software suite to the most comprehensive, robust, and well supported application on the market today.  AWR as it’s commonly known offers many SEO features, including a keyword research tool, and depending on which version you purchase, also includes Advanced Link Manager which is a complete link management and acquisition tool.  That said, the features I find myself using the most include the core ranking analysis components which help with monitoring client search engine rankings over time, rankings in regional search engines, and creating professional reports for clients.

I’ve used AWR since 2007 while at another organization, but evaluated the trial version 6.9 very recently and wanted to write a short review of  the latest and greatest features AWR offers:

Monitor Local Maps Rankings

As a Local Search expert, I regularly monitor multiple business locations all over the country for a range of keywords.  Monitoring Google maps results for 1st page rankings used to be an absolute nightmare in the past, but it’s easy to do using AWR. When setting up any project, one of the first things one can do is set up the specific type of search engines that will be monitored for rankings. In my case, I generally choose either Google Canada, Google Canada Local Business Results, or Google.com if I’m reviewing US results.  You can also choose to further localize your search by selecting Google Canada (French) for example.

Over a randomized test of 500+  ranking checks over the course of a month, I found that that AWR was accurate 99% of the time, with errors only occurring if a business showed up more than once on the same results page. Creating ranking reports is also a extremely easy, especially given the number of preset reports such as keyword rank, current rank, overview, and the top sites overview.

Measuring Historical Data

I check ranking updates between twice to thrice a month, given that a good SEO program will maintain steady rankings rather than have them bouncing all over the place.  It’s interesting to see the correlation between the growth of a site’s global link popularity, along with a rough fit of the corresponding rise in rankings, and AWR gives you a good view of this by graphically mapping ranking shifts for different keywords over any specified period of time.

AWR also offers a delayed and randomized ranking check process so that the search engines don’t ban you temporarily for too many search queries at the same time. You can also use proxies to emulate IP diversity while you check rankings. Lastly, one neat feature that AWR offers is scheduled reports that can run while you’re away from your computer, which can then be automatically compiled into a neatly branded report, and backed up via FTP if needed.  The folks at Caphyon, the makers of AWR have also taken great measures to make the query requests from AWR look as natural as possible to the search engines, although I am not 100% sure on whether this is user-agent based or some other type of solution.

Automatic Search Engine Updates

AWR checks for search engine updates against its local database every time you boot the application up. This is a neat feature because the speed of the updates being released is a major advantage over its competitors. Prior to using AWR, my company at the time used Web Position, which later became a defunct solution after Google blocked all queries resulting from that software.

Evaluating the Competition

I almost never run a ranking report without comparing my sites versus that of the competitors website ranking. While setting up a project, you can add more than one website to be measured in ranking reports for a variety of keywords. Ranking data for competitive evaluation purposes can be a high-level or as nitty-gritty as you want to get i.e: You can view a list of the number of top 10 rankings a competitor has, and also dig in deep to see where your site is placed versus a competitor’s for a particular keyword theme.

Google Preview Tool based on Geo-Location

This function is only available in the Enterprise version of Advanced Web Ranking, and emulates the same features as the Firefox Google Global Extension by Redfly Online Marketing. Instead of using a proxy based solution, AWR can append strings to the search being conducted, and localize it to a particular city or town. If your clients are geographically dispersed using this type of tool is critical to ensure that you’re seeing the same results and rankings that your client is seeing in a live search results page.

Pricing & Recommendations

Advanced Web Ranking is priced at $199 for the Professional edition that includes a lot of features for the solo SEO professional.  I’d highly recommend getting the Enterprise version for $399 instead, since it comes with some key extra features such as the aforementioned Google Preview modules, as well as a project manager, user profile support, exporting data to CSV & XML formats, and the ability to use multiple proxies while running ranking reports.

There’s a couple of indispensable tools that should be in every serious SEO or web-master’s tool shed and Advanced Web Ranking is certainly one of those key tools in my books. I wasn’t paid to review the software, but I know it’s got quiet praise from many an SEO that I know, and definitely deserves the coverages as features SEO/Internet marketing tool of choice.  For a full list of features, which extend far beyond the scope of this post, visit their features page here.

You can test drive a full featured Enterprise version of AWR as well as the Advanced Link Manager software for a 30 day trial period, by downloading the software suite here.

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It’s That Time of Year Again

Fall is a wonderful time when students like cracking out the books again, and getting back into the world of academia. Between being knee deep in building a business, and staying on top of all the crazy changes the Local Search world has seen lately, I like to give back every year by delivering guest lectures at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. This year, I had the unique opportunity to have a different experience than talking to students about SEO and Internet Marketing as a  career. Instead, Professor Chris Bovaird got in touch me with to talk to his 3rd year class on the topic of Personal Branding and leading the life of a consultant.

The course, known as New Ways of Work: Consulting, Contracting, and Freelancing is aimed at entrepreneurial students geared towards freelancing, self-startups, and general contracting. I spent an hour or two discussing why having your very own personal brand is so important, followed by some tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years in the process of prospecting, pitching, proposal writing, and closing the sale. Here’s the slide deck I presented:

Disclaimer: The images are copyrights of their respective owners. The quote ‘people shop similarities, but buy the differences’ is courtesy Mr. Rick Shaban, sales guru extraordinaire.

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More Robust Reporting Eh!

When the Enhanced Dashboard reporting interface first went live in June 2009, I couldn’t wait till its new reporting features rolled outside the US and onto Canada and the rest of the world. The last two weeks have been pivotal in that type of progress, with reports that users in Europe and India being able to view the enhanced dashboard, complete with impressions, actions, and common search queries. I’m happy to report that as of today, the enhanced dashboard reports have been rolled out to all Canadian users.

As a recap here are some of the top features of the new reporting interface:

Top Additions to Google Local Business Center

• Graphical Impression and View Counts (akin to Google Analytics)
• Driving direction requests by view count that tie back to the Postal Code or City, State driving traffic.
• Top Search Queries triggering Local Maps

If you noticed the strikethrough above you’re probably wondering why the neighbourhood mapping for driving direction requests hasn’t rolled out to the Canadian reporting dashboard yet. This is something that irks me a bit as well, as that type of data should technically already have been gathered by Google over time, in the same way it is for US businesses.

Yet progress is progress and I’ll take it over the lack of any reporting at all.

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Local Listing Ads provide you with:

• Ads shown on Google.com and Google Maps
• A flat monthly fee based on your location and business category
• First 30 days free
• No bid or keyword management
• Free call-tracking, announcing each forwarded customer call (‘This caller brought to you by Google’)
• Full report on the number of calls, clicks to your ad, requests for driving directions, and clicks to your info window on Google Maps
• The option to cancel your ad at any time

The Threat to IYP Advertising & Other Local Advertising

Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) type sites have lost a ton of market share to the search engines with the advent of local search results being integrated into universal search. The erosion of users visiting these sites to obtain local business and service data will continue with a steady pace, but the real effects will be accelerated on the advertiser’s side. Major IYP publishers in Canada are currently in the process of making the premium ad spots even more expensive than they used to be last year, while offering advertisers a very vague picture of both the cost and ROI related to these investments. It’s easy to see how advertisers are ready to cut their investments not only in print directories, but also in the IYP space, hence migrating dollars to search engines in the process.

Local Listing Ads are bound to be a boon to SMB’s despite concerns related to placement, ranking factors, and costs relative to an SMB’s service areas and operating industry. The availability of free call tracking is just another way Google is bringing back its old news paper and radio advertising solutions granular call tracking, which again solidifies the benefits of investing in search. This is an opportunity that most IYP’s have long ignored, because despite doing measured ad studies for research purposes, none to my knowledge have ever packaged call tracking as part of their service offerings.

Lucky 7 Pack Results and Shaking up Local SEO Providers

I speculate that the change to the 7 pack from the 10 pack results has been made to make room for the local listing ads.  For SMB’s that have lost positioning due to this shift, it’s time to either optimize your listings further yourself, contacting your SEO company, or getting in touch with someone like myself. You can find a list of trusted local search consultants here.

Customer Service or the Lack Thereof

Google’s lack of customer service has long been a sore point and often a dealer breaker for SMB’s. The gap in the market for utilizing Google services and the support available to guide SMB’s in properly using them has created a huge market for training, support, and management for resellers, SEO companies and consultants alike. The new local listing ads FAQ does state that you as a business owner will get better support, albeit, still devoid of any human touch. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the evolution of local listing ads here in Canada, although something tells me that we’ll still have to wait till end of Q1 in 2010 for that to happen. On a side note, I’m personally a little irked by the folks at Mountainview for rolling out the LBC’s ehanced reporting dashboard to Europe and India, leaving Canadians with nothing more than a longing for the data that our counterparts south of the border have been enjoying for a couple of months now.

Further Reading:

David Mihm: My Thoughts on Google Local Listing Ads
Greg Sterling: Local Listing Ads and 7-Pack Live
Mike Blumenthal: Google Local Listing Ads: Random Thoughts
Mike Blumenthal: Google Answers Some Local Listing Ad Questions

Greg Sterling:More Info on Google Local Listing Ads

Taylor Cimala: Google to Start Offering Flat Rate Local Listing Ads
Learmonth/AdAge: Google Lures Local Advertisers by Subverting Its Own Search Policies
Mike B: Support to Be Available to Local Listing Ad Customers

Greg Sterling: Google Offers New ‘Simple’ Ads for SMBs
MB: Google Intros Local Listing Ads to LBC in Limited Markets

Greg Sterling (SEL): Google Creates A New, Simplified Ad Unit For Local Business

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