Thanks to Songify we’ve completed our official Yodle Reviews.net theme song.
SEM Showdown
Internet Marketing News & Reviews
Wisdek Reviews
This year we’ve added a new provider to our list of SEM Providers – Wisdek SEO.
I first learned about Wisdek one year or so ago after a Wisdek Sales Rep was forwarded to my office in regards to a solicitation. There is a lot of bad stuff on the web about Wisdek, but I don’t think it’s all necessarily truth. I’ve had the opportunity to personally talk on the phone with Wisdek’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing Eran Hurvitz, who seemed to be a very humble and honest guy.
Wisdek will join the list of 50+ SEO/SEM providers to hit SEM Showdown.com.
About Wisdek:
Wisdek is a full service search engine marketing company dedicated to understanding our customers’ businesses, identifying the appropriate online marketing strategies, and implementing the right, customized solution. – Wisdek.com
Posted in: Wisdek Reviews
Tags: Eran Hurvitz, Wisdek, Wisdek Reviews, Wisdek SEO
U.S. Explicit Core Search Leader Board
Source: http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/7/comScore_Releases_June_2011_U.S._Search_Engine_Rankings
comScore Releases June 2011 U.S. Search Engine Rankings
RESTON, VA, July 13, 2011 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. Google Sites led the explicit core search market in June with 65.5 percent of search queries conducted.
U.S. Explicit Core Search
Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in June with 65.5 percent market share, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 15.9 percent and Microsoft Sites with 14.4 percent (up 0.3 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 2.9 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.4 percent.
| comScore Explicit Core Search Share Report* June 2011 vs. May 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch |
|||
| Core Search Entity | Explicit Core Search Share (%) | ||
| May-11 | Jun-11 | Point Change | |
| Total Explicit Core Search | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| Google Sites | 65.5% | 65.5% | 0.0 |
| Yahoo! Sites | 15.9% | 15.9% | 0.0 |
| Microsoft Sites | 14.1% | 14.4% | 0.3 |
| Ask Network | 2.9% | 2.9% | 0.0 |
| AOL, Inc. | 1.5% | 1.4% | -0.1 |
*“Explicit Core Search” excludes contextually driven searches that do not
reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.
Best Domain Name Registrar: Name.com
Written by: Sean Hakes
Weather you’re a small business owner who is looking to effectively dominate your market or you’re a professional online marketer then you know the importance and value that domain name acquisition and domain name monetization brings.
Over the past few years I’ve purchased thousands of domain names from leading domain registrars around the world like GoDaddy, 1and1 Internet, Network Solutions, Yahoo and many more and not once have I been as impressed more with a domain name registrar as I have with Name.com and here’s why.
Control Panel Simplicity:
As a domain name investor I like ease of ordering domain names. One of the big turn offs about GoDaddy.com was the when you wanted to quickly grab a domain name and get on you’re way you get bombarded with additional ad’ on’s and solicitations from irrelevant products or services. The Name.com control panel is simple, clean and extremely easy to navigate for even the most armature internet user.
Domain Name Tools:
For online marketers finding geo & product specific domain names comes up on a almost daily basis. Name.com host a plethora of helpful tools like the Domain Nabber, a tool that searches for deleted domain names. Additional domain tools include domain name rich suggestion tool, Geo-Domain Name search, Recently Deleted Domain Names, Expired and domains based on DNS Traffic. All tools which cut down significantly on the amount of time you spend on searching for that right domain.
Affordable Web Hosting:
Tired of paying exaggerated hosting fee’s with companies like Network Solutions? Name.com offers a hosting package filled with generous disk space, 24-7 monitoring, loads of bandwith, exceptional support and just about everything else you need to empower your business and ensure you websites alive and well even when you’re fast asleep.
Additional Products & Services?
Just when you thought it couldn’t get much better the word on the street is Name.com is going to feature some even more awesome tools to better your web experience. Regardless if you’re a small or large corporation you’ll want to jump on over to Name.com today and you’ll quickly learn why Name.com is my personal and professional choice for domain name registration and domain name services.
TotalLiveChat Reviews – ReachLocal
Update* (See bottom of page.)
Shortly after I dedicated to no longer pursue SEM Showdown in early 2010 I decided to invest into a Live Chat program that we later called iClick ChatBack. We tested consumer interaction through chat intelligence and quickly learned that by simply adding a live chat solution to a website resulted in almost immediate results and this was proven through not only internal clients but a pilot that was engaged with another leader in local internet advertising.
Last week I decided to give TotalLiveChat by ReachLocal a try for our SEO Firm based in Denver…
The reason for not using iClick ChatBack as our live chat solution was simple. My Agency is primary an SEO Firm and in order to be the best at what we do we needed to focus on just that; organic search engine placement which lead me to in defiantly pause our in-house chat solution.
The good news is this; ReachLocal has a Chat solution that appears to be very credible and upon in-house test we realized that by adding live chat to our current customers websites, daily site conversions nearly doubled on average.
Last week I installed the TotalLiveChat code at SeanHakes.com and I’m patiently waiting on the operator behind to curtain to push the bottom.
Several reasons why Live Chat is so Effective:
- During the day, many consumers are at work. Though most business owners don’t like to think this, many workers browse the web for products and services they are considering on purchasing in the near future. Having a chat feature available with a live rep allows the consumer to proactively research and get additional information about products and services without picking up a phone.
- Human to Human Interaction: Say what? Many American’s have a problem with simply picking up the phone to find more information about a product or service especially if they don’t know much about it. Some say it makes them nervous while others state they may feel intimidated and/or embarrassed that they don’t know more about a product of service. Our test show that regardless of your social standing – ANYONE will chat because they don’t have to look someone in the face. Texting, Emailing and Chatting is puts a consumer at ease and is a simple way to communicate without feeling overwhelmed.
I’ll be sure to update you on my findings with TotalLiveChat but for now I’m very excited to see what it can do for my business.
Update*
7/13/2011
Several days ago we installed TotalLiveChat on SeanHakes.com. The first couple of non-billed conversations were solicitations. Today things have turned around quite a bit and we got a lead that turned out to be an incredibly lucrative long-term deal so at this point our ROI is threw the roof.
Tags: iClick ChatBack, ReachLocal, TotalLiveChat
Yahoo Shutting Down Site Explorer
Most say that the recent news about Yahoo Site Explorer being shut down is expected. Some say the recent news came in anticipation of a Yahoo/Microsoft deal to promote and support the latest from the Bing Webmaster Tool-set.
When can you expect to see Yahoo Site Explorer Shut Down?
We are working with Microsoft to transition organic results in all markets to the Microsoft Search platform. Site Explorer will shut down once all markets are transitioned. This is expected later this year. We will keep updating you with progress of the transition at our Search Blog.
To learn more please visit http://www.ysearchblog.com/2011/07/08/site-exploror-7-8-11/.
Yodle Reviews Website Launched
Written by: Sean Hakes
For this years website we’re taking the SEM Showdown to a whole other level… In addition to our typical in-depth analysis and grading of local internet marketing companies I’ve decided to get real customer feedback by launching a network of live review websites from customers willing to share their input about each specific business we review in 2011. Though we haven’t released the official list yet Yodle, a personal favorite for a few years has landed itself on my list for one of the first independent review websites called: Yodle Reviews.net.
The purpose of the new and renewed SEM Showdown isn’t to blast companies. As we know, no one is perfect, some are just better than others and that’s what we have clear intentions on doing – highlighting the best in customer service, sales, community relations and more.
If you’ve worked for Yodle as an employee or vendor or even hired them to perform some SEM work for your business, we’d love to hear from you at Yodle Reviews.net today!
Tags: Sean Hakes, Yodle Inc, Yodle Reviews
SEM Showdown is BACK!
Written by: Sean Hakes
If you followed SEM Showdown in 2009 you knew that SEM Showdown was on of the most popular sources for local internet marketing news and industry reviews and suddenly we disappeared and for good reason…
The reason for starting SEM Showdown was to feature and give insider tips and information on the local internet marketing arena in it’s entirety. Small business owners typically don’t know where to turn for accurate advice, especially when each online marketing company states they are the best at what they do for whatever reason.
Late 2009 I decided to give SEM Showdown a rest and formed Denver SEO, Inc., a Colorado based internet marketing firm that quickly grew within a year to be one of the largest internet marketing companies in Colorado and during my tenure there I learned quite a bit about the industry, the tactics, the claims and other information that is important for business owners to educate themselves with and understand.
The new SEM Showdown is back. Just because 2011 is over 1/2 over don’t get too excited. We’re going to get even more down and dirty with some of the most prominent SEM Companies around.
The juice is just about to start.
Tags: Sean Hakes