http://www.semfire.com.au/blog Christine Parfitt's Blog Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:41:49 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en When search queries are ambiguous, Google attempts to disambiguate and present the most relevant results based on the user’s previous search history and analysis of the concepts within the query. We know this is the case with the organic results. Earlier this month, Amit Singhal on the official Google blog ... http://www.semfire.com.au/blog/2008/07/27/adwords-personalisation-googles-handling-of-ambiguous-queries/ Does search engine marketing belong in marketing, IT or somewhere else? It's a marketing job right? That's why the word marketing is in there. So is it just the case that the medium is different? Online rather than print or television? Do the same general marketing skills apply and should the person ... http://www.semfire.com.au/blog/2008/06/03/113/ The format for Local Business Results in Google has changed. 10 businesses are now listed on page one in the local business results box. Prior to today, or at least until very recently, only 3 businesses were featured. You can see a screen shot from when I first noticed local ... http://www.semfire.com.au/blog/2008/01/24/format-for-local-business-results-changed/ The numerous list posts you see on the most common mistakes made by adwords beginners don't get to the root of the problem. They focus on the use of adwords features like this: Too many keywords in one ad group Not opting out of content network Only using broad match keywords Not using negative keywords Not ... http://www.semfire.com.au/blog/2008/01/20/the-real-problem-for-adwords-beginners/ Which adwords topics got the most attention in 2007? Here's my top 5 list. What have I missed and what will be important in 2008? 1. Quality Score This is always a favourite for discussion given that it has such an impact on campaign performance. It's also complex and therefore susceptible to ... http://www.semfire.com.au/blog/2008/01/11/top-5-adwords-topics-from-2007/ Happy new year to all who read my blog. I've been blogging for just over a year so it's a good time to think about the achievements and the goals for the coming year. Benefits I've received a steady and growing number of website visitors that I wouldn't have got without the blog. ... http://www.semfire.com.au/blog/2008/01/08/blogging-in-australia-one-year-on/ I've posted before that I'm a fan of the search marketing standard magazine. I'm a subscriber and each issue has had some excellent articles. I wondered whether print would work for search marketing especially as there are so many resources available online and it's a fast changing industry. As it ... http://www.semfire.com.au/blog/2007/11/27/search-marketing-standard-great-special-offer/ An SEO and PPC competition is running from January next year with the entrants judged over a one year period. I'm not entering (for a start the entry fee is $5000 per category) but I'm interested in the criteria and the sample questions for a bit of self evaluation. In the ... http://www.semfire.com.au/blog/2007/11/03/seo-and-ppc-competition/ This is worth a read, even on the weekend. It's Lisa Barone's live blogging of a webinar with Seth Godin. To give a taste of what it includes, here are some notes I made but you really need to go and read the whole thing. Consumers are starting to expect a lot ... http://www.semfire.com.au/blog/2007/11/02/seth-godin-webinar-live-blogged-by-lisa-barone/ There is a great thread on cre8asite forums about creating user personas. The discussion focuses on how to create a better website by thinking about the types of people who might visit the site. The technique is to invent a fictional person or persona for each type and then analyse how ... http://www.semfire.com.au/blog/2007/11/01/user-personas-and-search-marketing/