As we’ve mentioned in an earlier post, keyword selection is one of the most important factors in creating a successful PPC campaign. In the world of pay-per-click advertising where you simply have to get the most of your advertising dollars, it pays to be choosy – and to be smart and savvy, instead of reckless, in making decisions about keywords. Of course, this doesn’t mean choosing the most popular – and therefore most expensive – keywords. You have to take the time to research which ones are fit for your needs and budget, and which, when taken as a group, will still bring you high-volume traffic. Keyword research will require a set of tools that you can use to bring in the data, which can make you spend even more than you ought to. That’s why we’ve come up with this list of free keyword research tools that can potentially help you drive more traffic to your site and increase – Read the full article
Marketing research isn’t what it used to be. It has expanded to include the world of websites, blogs, social media, online advertising, and other web-based media. The great thing about this all is that there are lots of tools you can use conduct market research and gather competitive intelligence. Our top posts on Lakeshore Branding have been about social media monitoring and competitive intelligence. So I thought we would share some our favorite tools and this list turned into a description of 29 tools for competitive intelligence. So check out the list and please let us know if we are missing any. 1. SpyFu: Spyfu is a tool that lets you find out what keywords your competitors are targeting in the search engines. Not just keywords, mind you, but AdWords, too. All you have to do is type your competitor’s site in SpyFu’s search bar, and voila! Immediate results that show you the keyword and AdWords landscape for that domain. – Read the full article
As websites get more and more complex, the length of URL’s (web addresses) seems to get longer and longer. This can cause problems when emailing URLs, using Twitter and other web services, or trying to recite URLs to others. TinyURL.com and other services have stepped in to fix this problem with the innovative new web 2.0 service of shortening URLs. These services provide a redirect from a shorter web address to the long and cumbersome address you need to reach. The website you want to email to a friend: http://digitalprinter.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-to-enlarge-low-resolution-images.html Once entered into TinyURL.com you receive: http://tinyurl.com/6dmz75 They also allow custom short URLs: http://elevateprinting.com Becomes: http://tinyurl.com/elevatep Another added effect of this services is that you can hide the true domain and web address you are sending people to. This can unfortunately be used for some less ethical purposes. Other Similar Websites & Services: bit.ly is.gd Tweetburner (Twurl) urlShort
