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And the Winners Are...

SEO

2 Comments »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the SEO category is … drum-roll, please …

12 Steps to Complete Search Engine Domination - From Zero to Hero in Just 6 Months
Gyutae Park, Search Engine Journal | 4/22/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

In order to stand out from the crowd, you must be remarkable (as Seth Godin puts it). Demonstrate your knowledge of the industry and strive to improve the lives of your target audience. This could come in the form of detailed how-to guides (like this one), a resource list linking out to the top content in your industry, a great tool that helps users find what they need, or anything else that tickles your readers’ fancies. Market research is key here and social media is a great way to obtain that information (we’ll discuss this later).

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. How To Get New Web Sites To Rank Quickly
    Aaron Wall, Search Engine Land | 7/31/08
  2. SEO Tips for Public Relations
    Lee Odden, Online Marketing Blog | 2/13/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Andy Beal, Donna Fontenot, and Michael Gray

PPC

1 Comment »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the PPC category is … drum-roll, please …

PPC Copywriting: The Evolution of a PPC Split Test
Linda Bustos, Get Elastic | 5/21/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

Many tests have found including numbers - whether a price, percentage or otherwise makes your ad stand out and improves click through. If you offer low prices, it may make your ad more attractive than others. If you want to deter bargain shoppers, a higher price can save you money on clicks and improve your conversion rate.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. AdWords 911: The 4 Step Emergency Fix for Dying AdWords Accounts
    Brian Carter, Fuel Interactive | 6/7/08
  2. Split Testing Adwords: You’re Doing It Wrong
    Dan Thies, SEO Fast Start | 5/6/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Adam Audette, Jennifer Laycock, and David Wallace

Local Search

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2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Local Search category is … drum-roll, please …

The Local Search Ranking Factors: Ranking High in Google Maps and Yahoo Local
David Mihm | 6/15/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

General importance of customer reviews

Michael Jensen - For small businesses competing with national chains, online reviews can be one of the best ways to gain an advantage over multiple location national chains.

David Klein - I have found that reviews made directly to Google have a very positive benefit. They show up first!

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. Local SEOs Share Geo Location Tips From Around The World
    Lucy Langdon, Distilled | 4/10/08
  2. How to Optimize Local Business Profiles for Free Local Directories
    Steven Brier, Search Engine Journal | 4/21/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Michael Gray, Andrew Shotland, and David Wallace

Link Building

1 Comment »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Link Building category is … drum-roll, please …

Link Building Strategies: 69 Solid Tactics For 2009
Wiep Knol | 12/2/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

43. Offer services or a product in exchange for a review. Don’t ask the bloggers or webmasters to link to you, they most often will do anyway.

44. Create something unique. Top 10s, top 250s, mash-ups, how-tos, best-ofs, surveys, studies, awards. Define the proper hook, create unique content and attract good links. The possibilities are infinite.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. The Fundamentals of Link Building
    Adam Audette, AudetteMedia | 3/23/08
  2. The Definitive List (75+) of Link Building Techniques in 2008
    Jeff Quipp, Search Engine People | 12/16/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Aaron Wall and Tamar Weinberg

Blogs & Blogging

2 Comments »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Blogs & Blogging category is … drum-roll, please …

WordPress SEO
Joost de Valk, Yoast | 6/10/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

In my opinion, auto generating descriptions is a load of bull, most plugins pick the first sentence, which might be an introductory sentence which has hardly anything to do with the subject, or another sentence with a keyword in it, which might be completely wrong to pick as description. Thus, the only well written description is a hand written one, and if you’re thinking of auto generating the meta description, you might as well not do anything and let the search engine control the snippet.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. TheLisa: Bringing Your Voice To Your Blog
    Lisa Barone, Search Engine People | 11/12/08
  2. 4,439 Words on Driving Traffic to Your Blog
    Glen Allsopp, PluginID | 12/8/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Debra Mastaler, Lee Odden, and Chris Winfield

Viral Marketing

No Comments »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Viral Marketing category is … drum-roll, please …

Proof that Savvy Social Media Users are the Most Contagious Viral Seeds
Dan Zarrella, NowSourcing | 8/26/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

We know that people who read Digg, Reddit, Propeller and the like tend to have higher viral reach and sharing frequency than those who do not, so make sure your content appears on these sites. The same applies to those who read blogs, and use Twitter. When it comes time to seed your content, be sure to put it in the path of these extra-contagious users.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. Interviewing Andy Sernovitz: “Would Anyone Tell A Friend About This?”
    Alan Rimm-Kaufman, RKG | 2/20/08
  2. The Fourth Commandment of Viral Marketing - Thou Shalt Tie in Your Message
    Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide | 8/29/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Christine Churchill and Rand Fishkin

Analytics

1 Comment »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Analytics category is … drum-roll, please …

Don’t Be Overwhelmed By Data
Vanessa Fox, adCenter Analytics Blog | 12/11/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

People often ask me what data they should be paying attention to, but the answer really depends on your situation: What are your goals? What stage is your site in? From that mountain of data, you may only need a few pieces of actionable information to help you measure your current efforts and make adjustments for the future. A mature site embarking a new TV-based branding campaign will use very different measurements than a new site relying on grass roots efforts to get the word out.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. Video Optimization and Analytics: A closer look at YouTube Insight
    Jake Matthews, 10e20 | 7/15/08
  2. How To Excite People About Web Analytics: Five Tips
    Avinash Kaushik, Occam’s Razor | 4/8/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Rand Fishkin and David Mihm

Reputation Management

1 Comment »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Reputation Management category is … drum-roll, please …

Five Steps for Recovering from an Online Reputation Crisis
Andy Beal, Marketing Pilgrim | 1/15/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

If you’ve made just one screw-up, chances are you’ll be able to make amends with just one single action. However, if your company has built a reputation for one mistake after another, it will take a lot more to convince your detractors that you have changed your spots. Your sincerity and transparency will buy you a reprieve and some breathing-room, but it’s your consistency in your future actions that will change the ongoing perception of your critics.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. Dealing With “Impossible” Online Reputation Challenges
    Brett Borders, Copybrighter | 8/14/08
  2. Why Reputation Management Matters for Small Businesses
    Matt McGee, Small Business Search Marketing | 7/29/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Eric Enge and Lee Odden

Small Business

No Comments »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Small Business category is … drum-roll, please …

Google Blended Video Offers Small Business Marketing Opportunities
Michael Dorausch, Chiropractic Blogs | 3/26/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

In August of 2007, I shot a 90 second video of a friends 11 year old daughter speaking about his business, and I uploaded it to YouTube. I gave the video a link from one site and shared it with him and a few other friends, I then forgot about it. 6 months later he informed me his local small business was getting new clients as a result of the video.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. The Ten Commandments of Online Marketing for Small & Local Businesses
    David Mihm | 4/15/08
  2. A Small Business Marketing Success Story: John Tuggle, Guitar Teacher
    Matt McGee, Search Engine Land | 4/10/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Jennifer Laycock and Aaron Wall

Google

No Comments »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Google category is … drum-roll, please …

Google Sitelinks Research, Examples, Theories and Best Practices [Project Big Water]
Eric Lander | 10/16/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

We need to realize that Sitelinks uses an entirely independent algorithm than the traditional organic search results. Early indications were that order of Sitelinks was determined by the internal page strength of the pages included in the program. While I certainly believe that internal page strength is a factor involved, it’s certainly not alone.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. What is a #1 Google Ranking Worth?
    Aaron Wall, SEO Book | 5/1/08
  2. How Google Universal Search and Blended Results May Work
    Bill Slawski, SEO by the Sea | 6/12/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Jeff Quipp and Barry Schwartz

Search Tech

2 Comments »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Search Tech category is … drum-roll, please …

Getting URLs outta Google - the good, the popular, and the definitive way
Sebastian X | 1/14/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

First of all, if you really want that search engines don’t index your stuff, you must allow them to crawl it. And no, that’s not an oxymoron. At the moment there’s no such thing as an indexer directive on site-level. You can’t forbid indexing in robots.txt. All indexer directives require crawling of the URLs that you want to keep out of the SERPs. Of course that doesn’t mean you should serve search engine crawlers a book from each forbidden URL.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. SEM Basics: How to Use a Proxy IP in Firefox
    Nick Wilsdon | 11/1/08
  2. Managing Robot’s Access To Your Website
    Vanessa Fox, Jane and Robot | 6/4/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by John Andrews and Todd Mintz

Design & Usability

No Comments »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Design & Usability category is … drum-roll, please …

Three Reasons Your Visitors Don’t Convert to Leads
Bryan Eisenberg, ClickZ | 4/25/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

Visitors must trust you. If they don’t, they don’t become leads or often they become bad leads. Visitors may even fill out a lead form if they mistrust you. Sometimes they are just going through the motion of getting proposals and pricing and are planning on buying from your competitor. You might have the better solution for them but the site or the lead process doesn’t instill enough confidence to take you seriously.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. 25 Design Best Practices for Your Small Business Web Site
    Carrie Hill, Search Engine Watch | 11/25/08
  2. Let’s Talk Landing Pages
    Rebecca Kelley, SEOmoz | 4/29/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Christine Churchill and David Mihm

Online Marketing / General

No Comments »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Online Marketing / General category is … drum-roll, please …

The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period!
Stoney deGeyter, Search Engine Guide | 9/2/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

Below is my master website marketing checklist covering over 400 specific items over 23 topics. These topics include things such as website development, SEO, usability, accessibility, etc. This list doesn’t cover any “how tos,” which are essential ingredients to successful online marketing, but sometimes you need to first know what to do so you can then discover how to do it.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. Making Money Online With Local Affiliate Programs
    Jeremy Schoemaker, Shoemoney | 11/4/08
  2. Better Than Free (tie)
    Kevin Kelly, The Technium | 1/31/08
  3. Ten Recipes for Persuasive Content (tie)
    Colleen Jones, UXMatters | 12/1/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Lisa Barone, Brad Geddes, and Simon Heseltine

Industry

No Comments »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Industry category is … drum-roll, please …

Search Without SERPs: The Future of SEO?
Pete Meyers, User Effect | 9/9/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

As search marketers, it’s hard not to be a little worried by these recent changes - as a group, these advancements are undeniably game-changers and represent a significant learning curve. The important thing to remember, though, is that this evolution is not only good for users, it can be good for clients if we’re willing to adapt. SEO is a young field that is destined to break into niches and specialties, and how you best guide searchers to information will depend more and more on your clients and target industries.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. The Fallacy of SEO Celebrity
    Lee Odden, Online Marketing Blog | 2/18/08
  2. Tough Love For Microsoft Search
    Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land | 12/30/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Adam Audette, Andy Beal, and Donna Fontenot

LOL Funny!

No Comments »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the LOL Funny! category is … drum-roll, please …

You Oughta Know Inbound Marketing
Rebecca Corliss, HubSpot | 12/8/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

I want leads
To come to me.
Fix our SEO
Get some inbound links.
RSS
Let’s get blogging.
Why don’t we just use inbound marketing?
You. You. You. Oughta know.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. 17 Internet Marketing Things I Will Not Write About
    Ian Lurie, Conversation Marketing | 4/24/08
  2. Digg Users Hate Everything; Bury Internet
    Free-Ass. Press | 7/7/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Debra Mastaler and Jeff Quipp

Rants

No Comments »

2009 SEMMY WinnerLet’s skip the corny, canned jokes and the awkward moments at the podium and just open the envelope, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2009 SEMMY Award in the Rants category is … drum-roll, please …

Social Media Cash Grab
David Harry, Huomah | 7/16/08

Congratulations to our winner! Here’s a choice bit from the winning post:

I feel an personal dilemma in supporting social media in a world where the management of such locales seem unappreciative to those that have a major role in the building process. When a website is built with user generated content, showing some love to the users generating the content, might be a good idea now and again.

Runners-Up

The top two runners-up in public voting were:

  1. Ranting: Google & Online Reputation Management
    Eric Lander | 9/9/08
  2. The SEMMYS Launch, The Whineys TBA
    Rae Hoffman | 1/16/08

The winner and runners-up are welcome to grab the appropriate badge — we have a badge for both winners and runners-up.

How the Voting Ended

Here’s a look at how each finalist fared in the public voting:

Thanks to all who voted, and congrats again to the winner, runners-up, finalists, and all nominees. We look forward to reading your acceptance speech soon!

Posts Judged by Todd Mintz and Tamar Weinberg