Building world-class Search Engine Optimization expertise

Well it seems the only time that Cleveland SEO can manage to get together is when we’re in some other town. But if that’s the way it is then so be it. This past week at Search Engine Strategies in Chicago, Cleveland SEO descended on the Gage restaurant for dinner and drinks.

I just got done speaking with Scott Hendison who is with: SEMpdx | Portland, Oregon Search Engine Marketing Association
They are doing some really interesting monthly meetings involving their local business community. SEMpdx is a strong group that ClevelandSEO might want to look to for inspiration to help drive our growth in 2008.
Thanks for talking with me Scott!

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Local search is on-fire hot! By catering to a local audience you can significantly increase your sales and your conversion rate. But creating local search campaigns isn’t as simple as just mirroring your national paid search campaign. Come to the Think Global, Act Local Training Class at SES Chicago to learn hands-on, how-to techniques and strategies to make full use of the local search market. Your fellow Clevelanders, Sage Lewis and Greg Habermann, will be heading it up.

Check out this video to get a taste of all you will learn. And click on the following link to get all the details:
http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/chicago/training.html

Check out this video to learn more about it:

Hi everybody,

These are blast every year! Seriously consider putting this party on your holiday calendar. You will be so glad you did.

Check out all the details!

Food, Drinks, Bowling, & Fun

Register Today!

Annual Holiday Networking Party - The Web Association

2007 has been a great year for The Web Association, and more importantly, for many of you, our supporters. It’s time to celebrate our success, and get ready to ring in 2008! Join us for food, drinks, bowling, & fun on Tuesday, December 4th in the private, first-level bar of The Winking Lizard/Lakewood.

Your base ticket price of just $15 gets you heavy appetizers and two (2) drink tickets, as well as a chance to win one of many great door prizes. You’ll also have the chance to rub shoulders with colleagues from not only The Web Association, but also NEOUPA, & Cleveland SEO, making this the premier networking event for the local web community. For an additional $5 donation, you can bowl the night away at one of the private lanes, and also be eligible to enter the Centro Bowl-A-Thon, where one talented bowler will walk away with a grand prize. The additional $5 bowling fee goes straight to The Web Association’s College Scholarship Fund, targeting area students with an interest in a career in the digital field.

Food, drinks, music, bowling, door prizes, and a private bar not enough to get your attention? We will also be hosting the 2nd Annual Silent Auction to benefit our Scholarship Fund, where you will have the opportunity to bid on many great items.

This is the digital party of the year in Cleveland - register today!

Annual Holiday Networking Party - The Web Association

The 2007 Holiday Party is being sponsored by Centro, providing agencies & brands a platform to effectively buy local media.

Register Me Now

Annual Holiday Networking Party - The Web Association

Want To Get Some Visibility At The Party?

The Web Association is still actively seeking donors to donate items for the Holiday event, both for the Silent Auction, as well as for door prizes. 100% of all proceeds from the auction will benefit The Web Association Scholarship Fund, helping Northeast Ohio retain educated young professionals interested in a career in the digital field. Help us beat last year’s auction total and assist more worthy students like Megan Reilly & Danielle Pizzuli of Cleveland State University, this year’s inaugural scholarship recipients.

All donors who offer a prize (or cash) valued at $100 or more will receive the following:

- Mention in press release announcing event & auction details
- Donor/company description to accompany item at auction
- Recognition/link in both pre & post-event emails sent to entire WA database
- Recognition/link on webassociation.org event page after event
- Receipt detailing donation for tax purposes

All donors providing items valued at less than $100 will receive verbal recognition at event as item is awarded.

To find out more, or to donate an item, please contact us through our web site below and we will call you directly.

Donate To The Auction

Annual Holiday Networking Party - The Web Association

Google has taken the whole guarantee debate to the next level. They are now warning against a company that tries to make any kind of guarantee whatsoever… natural or paid.

Check out this article:

Google Warns of Companies that Guarantee Top Placement in AdWords

Bottom line, if anyone says they can ‘guarantee’ top placement - whether in the unpaid search results or within AdWords - then buyer beware.

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Responsibilities:

Here’s your chance to manage multiple online programs to drive traffic at leading consumer products websites. As our E-Marketing Demand Specialist you’ll be responsible for driving profitable traffic at Hoover.com, DirtDevil.com and other niche consumer products sites.

* Campaign Optimization: Holistically evaluate demand generation and conversion experiences and make optimization recommendations.
* Vendor and Internal Resource Management: Coordinate efforts across multiple internal and external teams for accurate, on-time execution of traffic generation campaigns.
* Analysis and Reporting: Establish requirements for data collection, synthesize results and report on key metrics

Specific Responsibilities:

* Paid Search - Responsible for developing and modifying bidding strategies, keyword portfolio management and listing optimization.
* Email Marketing - Develop the strategy for multiple email campaigns and track key performance data, identify A/B test components and implement tests to increase opens, clicks and conversion. Work with internal and external resources to execute campaigns.
* Online Advertising – Implement targeted online campaigns, track efficacy and scale results to larger campaigns.
* Affiliate Marketing - Evaluate new and existing affiliate opportunities. Collaborate with affiliates to identify new placement and promotion opportunities. Analyze key traffic and performance metrics.
* Promotion/Co-Promotion Development: Identify and execute promotional opportunities.
* Experimental Marketing – Continually assess new opportunities for their ability to create ROI.
* Landing Page and Experience Optimization – Analyze interim points in the commerce/shopping experience and identify opportunities to improve conversion.

Requirements:

* Bachelor’s degree with 2-5 years of online marketing experience with paid search, online advertising, affiliate programs and email marketing.
* Strong project management skills.
* Proven ability to analyze, organize and integrate large amounts of complex data into clear, concise presentations and plans.
* Strong analytical, communication, organization, negotiation and problem-solving skills.
* Unmatched tenacity for implementing new tactics, monitoring data and optimizing results.
* Results oriented, outstanding attention to detail, ability to prioritize and meet deadlines.

Please send your resume to:

Kenneth J. Weiss

Marketing Director, E-Commerce

TTI Floor Care North America

ken.weiss@ttifloorcare.com

Headed to next month’s Search Engine Strategies-Chicago?  Be sure to check out fellow Cleveland SEO members Sage Lewis and Geoff Karcher who’ll be speaking on the same panel.  Their topic “SEO & Development - Get It Together!” is on how to ensure a website’s SEO and Development get in sync. Geoff will represent the benefits of having SEO & Dev under one roof, while Sage will represent an SEO-only shop.

At The Karcher Group, we have been longtime proponents of the idea of SEO & Dev together, so we were thrilled when the folks at SES accepted our idea for a session on the topic.  However, we’re even more excited to see two Northeast Ohioans on the panel together.  No doubt it will be an entertaining session with Sage speaking!

These Northeast Ohio SEOs will also be speaking during the five-day event: Paul Elliot (eMergent Marketing/Brulant), Mike Murray (Fathom SEO), Matt Bailey (SiteLogic), and Greg Habermann (SageRock).

Join The Karcher Group for our one-day seminar “Search Engine Marketing Made Simple” on October 23, 2007, in Columbus, Ohio.  We’ve got new content, new strategies and some of the hottest topics in Search Engine Marketing on the agenda.  Join special guests Anita Campbell, editor of the popular Small Business Trends blog and Jake Baillie, managing director of STN Labs and former president of the search engine TrueLocal – both highly requested and respected speakers on Web Marketing.  You’ll also hear from Geoff Karcher, president of The Karcher Group, as well as TKG’s team of SEO experts.

For more info or to register: http://www.thekarchergroup.com/seminar2.asp

Details…
• Search Engine Marketing Made Simple
• October 23, 2007
• Seminar – 9:00-3:00 PM
• Optional Workshop – 3:00 PM-5:00 PM
• Business Technology Center (by OSU)
• Cost: Seminar - $199, Workshop - $99, or both for $249. (Use discount code “seminar3” during checkout to save an extra $50 as a Cleveland SEO reader.)

What you’ll gain:
• Ready to use ideas, no assembly required
• SEO strategies that we use everyday
• Hands-on help in a small group setting
• One-on-one consulting at our optional workshop

We’ll walk you through:
• The five critical things anyone thinking about SEO should know
• Why the right keywords can make or break your SEO strategy
• Search-friendly design and programming
• Link building strategies
• Pay-per-click tutorial
• Optimizing a dynamic website
• How to blog effectively for your business
• Hot topics: social media, online PR, viral marketing and more

Who’s going to benefit?
• Business owners
• Webmasters
• Marketing and IT professionals
• Ad agencies
• In house SEOs

Want more details?  Please visit our web site at: http://www.thekarchergroup.com/seminar2.asp.  Use the discount code “seminar3” to save an extra $50 as a Cleveland SEO reader!

Title: Marketing Manager - SEO/SEM
Division: AG Interactive
Department: Marketing - AG.com
Location: OH, Cleveland - World Headquarters

APPLY HERE

Job Summary: Responsible for developing and implementing effective search engine optimization and marketing strategies for organic (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Ensure that our search engine marketing efforts continue to grow by implementing best practices, new technologies, and innovative techniques. Serving as the internal expert on search engine marketing between departments, analyzing traffic, ranking and conversion reports and executing all search marketing projects in the acquisition marketing department. Daily tasks will include search marketing strategy development, keyword research, online media analysis, link analysis, directory submissions, project management, budget management and vendor and technology research. The primary function is to execute effective integrated online media campaigns and search engine optimization initiatives.

Minimum experience:

• 2+ year(s) search engine optimization experience.
• 4+ year(s) of marketing experience
• Experience with website analytics, campaign tracking and ROI-driven optimization
• Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Communication or related field
  

Preferred experience:

• 1+ year(s) pay-per-click search marketing experience
• Experience with Omniture, Keyword Discovery, Google Adwords a plus
• Experience negotiating and executing CPA, CPC, CPM, affiliate, and other acquisition models

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Demonstrated proficiency using a variety of software and PC applications including but not limited to MS Office
• Excellent verbal, interpersonal and writing skills
• Problem-solving skills and the ability to focus on details
• Ability to successfully manage multiple projects to meet deadlines
• Capable of working under pressure and deadlines
• Able to work independently
• Previous knowledge and willingness to learn more about interactive marketing, search engine optimization.

American Greetings Corporation (NYSE: AM) is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of social expression products. Along with greeting cards, its product lines include gift-wrap, party goods, candles, stationery, calendars, educational products, ornaments and electronic greetings. American Greetings is also the creator and owner of many celebrated character properties, including Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, American Greetings generates annual net sales of approximately $2 billion.

American Greetings Interactive helps to create the meaningful emotional connections and expressions our customers long for. . .and we do it by creating a digital content experience that is Authentic, Provocative and On-Trend when and where they want it. Our online brands include AmericanGreetings.com, BlueMountain.com, Kiwee.com, Care-Bears.com, and eGreetings.com.

Due to the overwhelming success of the eMarketing Technique Series this June, Cleveland SEO has been proudly asked back to teach a 2 hour program on Search Engine Organization. This program takes place on Moday, Oct. 1st at Corporate College East from 7-9pm and is open for registration. It will be presented by John Inama from Pilot Fish, David Goebel from the Goebel Group, and Greg Habermann from Sagerock.com.

Here’s a brief intro to the 5 week series..

Learn how to take your business to the next level by leveraging all the
internet has to offer. eMarketing Techniques can be utilized to substantially
grow your business in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner. Work with
area experts in a hands-on and practical series, as we explore the power of
eMarketing Techniques.

Download the PDF or visit KeyEntrepeneurs.org for more information. Hope to see you there!