If you’re reading this while at SearchFest 2010, a big welcome to you. Thanks for visiting SmallBusinessSEM.com. In my presentation, I mention a few web sites that you may not have had time to jot down while I was speaking. If that’s the case, here are all the references I made in chronological order: Nielsen: Consumers Trust Real Friends and … Read More

Last week’s SMX West conference was a unique one for me. I didn’t get to sit in on many sessions as an attendee because we were a bit short-handed at Search Engine Land, and I was pretty much working constantly on a variety of things for SEL. I live-blogged the keynotes, did the daily coverage roundups, wrote up a bunch … Read More

If you’re reading this while at SMX West, a big welcome to you. Thanks for visiting SmallBusinessSEM.com. In my presentation, I mention a half-dozen web sites that you may not have had time to jot down while I was speaking. If that’s the case, here are all the references I made in chronological order: GetListed.org Universal Business Listing Localeze Google … Read More

It’s sometimes hard to imagine or even quantify the specific SEO benefits of a business blog, but credit the gang at HubSpot for doing a good job of it. If you missed their blog post from a few weeks ago, I think these stats are worth sharing here: A study of 2,168 HubSpot customers shows that businesses that published at … Read More

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts I found and read during February. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps. Local Search Mike Ramsey/SEJ: … Read More

MIssed this when it came out a week or so ago, but it’s worth posting about after the fact a bit. The Small Business Success Index reports that social media adoption among small businesses has doubled from 12% to 24% in the past year . From reading the release, I gather that “adoption” means a business is actively using social … Read More

I sometimes struggle to explain Google’s ranking algorithm to small business owners. I just tried last week during a workshop here in my hometown, and I’m not sure if I did a good job. But fortunately there are other resources out there that do a better job than me. One is this new article from Wired magazine: Exclusive: How Google’s … Read More

Here’s a screenshot that the folks in Redmond won’t like: How about that? “Results 1-3 of 3 for review us on bing “. And yes, you’ll get a lot more results if you try that search using Google, Yahoo, or Yelp. Bing might be gaining search share , but it’s way behind on having SMB’s asking customers to write reviews … Read More

This is one of the most common questions small business owners and new bloggers ask. Blogging is uncharted territory. What should I write about? How often do I need to write? How long should a blog post be? Good questions all, but I’m focusing on the last one in this post. First, though, I need to share my perspective on … Read More

If you’re reading this during or after the Learn About Web workshop in Kennewick, a big welcome to you. Thanks for visiting SmallBusinessSEM.com. In my presentations, I mention a couple dozen web sites, articles, and other links that you may not have had time to jot down while I was speaking. If that’s the case, here are all the references … Read More