Last week, Foursquare rolled out their latest search application that allows users’ to review their entire check-in history.

Adding this fully searchable page is just another demonstration of the company’s commitment to becoming a formal search engine.

Foursquare officially launched its search engine efforts last December, shortly after hiring a former Google senior engineer.

So what does the move mean for businesses trying to market their brand with search engine optimization?

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about Google’s diminishing search result quality with the introduction of Search Plus Your World. Many have accused Google of forcing users and advertisers into its Google+ ecosystem. With the new social network struggling and its engagement metrics, like time spent on site, dropping, such accusations have a lot of merit.

However, there have been a number of less-discussed moves the company has made recently in the paid search space that warrant as much, if not more, of marketers’ attention. For several quarters now, investors have been questioning Google on dropping average cost per click. While revenue has been steadily increasing, year over year CPC has dropped 12%. Google has been quick to dismiss this phenomenon as a lift in overall advertiser performance with improvement in quality scores. Whatever the case may be, as a public company, the trend must be turning up pressure on its main revenue stream.

Perhaps as a response to its investors, Google has been quietly implementing changes to its AdWords offering. Presented as improvements, these changes have clearly been designed to maximize revenue and potential drive up the average CPC.

“60 percent of social media users create reviews of products and services” and “consumer-created reviews/ratings are the preferred source for information about product/service value, price and product quality”
–Nielsen Social Media Report: 2011

“Extra, Extra, READ ALL ABOUT IT!”

There was a time when someone yelling these words on the street corner with a stack of newspapers in hand, was the leading form of direct advertising for all businesses.

As marketing forms and techniques evolved over time with technology, and direct marketing became more efficient and viable with radio and television, businesses had it pretty easy when it came to developing a successful marketing campaign.

In the marketing world, search has always been a different animal. As a pull medium with a different set of metrics, search (both paid search and SEO) has refused to fall neatly under the digital marketing umbrella. At the same time, it has consistently outperformed other channels (both offline and online) for most accounts I had a privilege of working on. Paid search campaigns are flexible enough to allow for continued testing and optimization, and recent studies have shown that in many cases search traffic is being undervalued.

Some may disagree but search is inherently a direct response channel and is much easier to optimize when ROI and sales volume are involved (as opposed to digital channels like social media, which are more qualitative and awareness-oriented). However, as the industry grew and matured, big brands took notice and began using search for large-scale brand awareness campaigns.

A loud collective groan can be heard when I mention link building which is usually followed up with the standard complaints. Link building takes too much time. Who would want to link to our site? How can we get links? It can be surprisingly easy for companies to gain links. You just need to take a step back and evaluate your corporate ecosystem. Here are five link building tactics that any company can utilize.

Leverage Existing Partnerships

Most businesses develop strong relationships with vendors or partners to grow their customer base, increase productivity or to support their operations. There is a good chance these partners have websites and would be very willing to publicly endorse this relationship with a link on their site pointing back to your site.

There is plenty of banter on the web about mobile….I get it, it’s hot, so I thought I would pile on!

There are people getting behind mobile search optimization, or challenging the existence of mobile SEO as a genre. This post is not an endorsement of either camp, simply how to include SEO into your mobile strategy.

When it comes to developing a mobile web site, there are three basic options. The dedicated, or purpose built site, responsive design and progressive enhancement. The dedicated or purpose built site, is a method of developing unique mobile version of a web site on its own URL, while the other two methods rely on the capability, functionality and size of the mobile device to provide a more customized experience. Now let’s dig in a bit deeper.

On March 30, 2012, Facebook will be requiring owners of Facebook pages to convert to Facebook Timeline. If your brand has a strong presence on Facebook and you’re concerned about the impact of these changes, you’re not alone. While the change can seem daunting, the good news is that many of your customers have been using Facebook Timeline on their personal pages for a while, so they’re used to the interface already. All brand managers need to do is learn how to leverage these changes for their benefit.

Timeline and Brand Storytelling:

Facebook’s timeline interface will allow brands to communicate their brand, business, or organization’s story to the customer. This makes it easier for a customer to relate and feel a connection to a brand. For example, on the timeline, you can add important dates (called “milestones” in the interface), such as the date the company was founded, when new locations opened up, when major products were released, and perhaps its original logo. This may conjure emotions from the customer – maybe they remember that logo from their childhood. It helps them connect because they can see your brand’s story – how it has grown and changed over time.

The most common question I hear when I talk about Social SEO is, “What if people don’t use Google+?” Well, you may not like this answer, but the truth is if you want to use any of Google’s products, you will also be using Google+. Allow me to let me explain…

The goal of Google+ was not to create another social network. The goal was for them to improve their search product. They believe heavily that search results will be better if they are deeply personalized for you. To personalize those results, they need a few very important pieces of information.

1. Who you are
2. What you like
3. Who do you know, and how well do you know them

It just so happens the best way to find that data is through a social network. Since they couldn’t use Facebook’s, they built their own. Hello Google+!

Before Catalyst Online was acquired a few years ago, four amazing individuals served on our advisory board, lending time and expertise, to help ensure the company was headed in the right direction. Thus, it is with tremendous sadness that I share the passing of Gordon Ulmer on February 4th, following a short illness. He was 79.

Gordon served as the Chairman and CEO of Connecticut Bank and Trust and as President of its holding company, Bank of New England Corporation, until he retired in 1990.  Though there are many accolades one could share about him, the succinct truth is that his passion for business was only matched by his desire to help people. Gordon was both a mentor and a friend. During the time we knew him, he shared a great amount of wisdom about business and life. As Beth and I will both tell you, founding and running a company is challenging work. Without the guidance and support of people like Gordon, the work would be that much more difficult.

There is a saying that some people come into our lives and leave footprints on our hearts. Gordon Ulmer left footprints on our hearts and on our company, and for his contribution we are eternally grateful. Thank you for taking a moment to remember his life, and don’t forget to take an extra moment today to appreciate the small things that are often overlooked as we attend to daily responsibilities. There are always opportunities to seize the moment and make a contribution to help someone else. Catalyst means change. The world is always changing around us, let’s not forget to be change agents ourselves and make a difference the way Gordon Ulmer did for so many others.

On Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, Google made its most radical and forward step into true Social Search with the launch of Search, plus Your World. Your World, as described in the official Google blog post, changes search results for individual users in three key ways: