Search engines and search optimization companies are helping victims of Hurricane Katrina by optimizing the Web sites of relief organizations to boost donations, along with making donations of their own.
SEMcares.com, originally set up by search marketing firm InfuseCreative.com to let search marketing and optimization firms help with the tsunami disaster, is helping again by matching search optimization and pay-per-click firms with relief organizations that need help maximizing their site to get more donations for Katrina victims.
At the same time, Yahoo and other engines feature links to donation sites and news on the disaster on their home pages. Yahoo is urging people to post messages on its Missing People message board and has raised $828,000 for relief through its network.
Yahoo is urging its employees to donate through The Giving Station, so that up to $1,000 of their donations will be matched each year.
Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, AOL.com and MSN all participate in SEMcares. Organizations looking for volunteers from search engine marketing firms can submit their information on the site and be matched with volunteers. In one example of how SEMcares helped after the tsunami, $20 spent at Google AdWords generated 86,758 RedCross.org ad/brand impressions and 907 donation page visitors.
Christine Blank covers online marketing and advertising, including e-mail marketing and paid search, for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
