Effective SEO strategies, plans and programs are not easy, requiring a high degree of expertise to effect, and a long-term commitment to maintain. But the return can be long lasting. Social media have made a splash in the last couple years as cost-effective and successful strategies for branding and CRM, but they're now ever more important to search.

CreditReport.com, a credit information company, announced September 8 it has selected Web analytics firm Omniture to step up its search marketing strategy. The credit reporting site will use the Omniture SearchCenter and Omniture SEM Consulting services to optimize paid search campaigns. It will also employ Omniture SiteCatalyst to measure search engine optimization (SEO), as well as user activity on the site such as click paths and time spent on each page.

Roller-coaster economies force marketers to seek strategies that reap the highest levels of ROI. Even in times like these, they feel confident that search advertising will continue to be a valuable investment in the marketing mix. But with increasing competition and a shifting marketplace, marketers must understand the best practices for optimizing search to achieve the desired levels of return from their advertising spend.

15miles, the interactive division of TMP Directional Marketing launched in August, has named Gregg Stewart president. Stewart most recently served as SVP of interactive for TMP Directional Marketing, a local search and Yellow Pages provider.

If your business is online, chances are that you've heard about search engine optimization (SEO) and how it's designed to improve your site's rankings for major keywords. What doesn't get talked about as much, however, is that a good SEO engagement will work on how your results appear, and not just where. So, let's take a look at exactly what shows up in a search result on a search engine results page (SERP), and how you can improve it.

Kodak has been breaking new ground in its use of multiple channels to promote their cost-saving printer line. Most notable is its use of short- and long-form infomercial segments touting the benefits and savings of the products in a way that pays homage to the late Billy Mays.

Search is generally the recipient of any online budget's "dollar one." It generates strong, measurable ROI and influences important factors like brand metrics and later sales. However, search can hit a point of diminishing returns from an ROI perspective.

Barbara Coll, CEO of Webmama.com, sat down with DMNews at the 2009 Search Engine Strategies Conference to discuss the latest trends in search marketing. In our five questions, Coll covers why you can't do search in a vacuum and the reason search needs to be a strategy rather than a tactic.

In difficult economic periods, online advertisers are tempted to slash pay-per-click budgets. But PPC doesn't act in a vacuum — it also influences online traffic and conversions from other channels.

Bing, the new search engine — sorry, decision engine — from Microsoft, launched in June with a slate of TV spots, print and online ads. Consider for a moment the challenge the creative team faced. Google has become literally synonymous with search, having beat out the other contenders, including Microsoft's own Live Search, simply by being better. So it was far from obvious that the world was looking for a new search engine.