Archive for September, 2011

Now Hiring: Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Specialist Needed

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

First Scribe has been developing and optimizing websites for over 16 years and is currently looking for a new Search Engine Marketing Specialist to add to our team. If you were to join our team you would receive:

  • A diverse range of projects and customers from small to Fortune 500
  • Salary plus full medical and dental benefits.
  • A fun, fast paced environment.
  • Paid vacations and holidays.
  • 401k and life insurance.

Job Description:
A Search Engine Marketing (SEM) specialist plays an integral role in the optimization of our client marketing initiatives. The SEM Specialist will support SEM account managers across multiple accounts in organic SEO and Pay Per Click. An SEM Specialist is a professional communicator with fantastic writing skills as well as a mind for numbers.

Other attributes include a well-rounded knowledge of ecommerce, an understanding of Paid Search and website analytics.

We need someone who can learn quickly, communicate professionally, follow direction, and see the task through to the end.

Responsibilities:
• Interact with account managers and clients to understand objectives
• Manage Paid Per Click campaigns
• Write blog posts
• Support account managers in Organic Search Optimizations
• Maintain high standards of copywriting and exercise quality control on all copy

Requirements:
• A degree or diploma in English, journalism, communications, business or a related field
• Completion of an internship in a corporate marketing department or a marketing agency
• Exceptional writing skills
• A truly organized person
• Ability to multitask and meet tight deadlines
• Detail oriented

Preference will be given to applicants with:
• Google Adwords certification
• Google Analytics certification
• Omniture SiteCatalyst experience

About First Scribe
First Scribe is a professional web design company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our team takes pride in building positive and valuable relationships with our clients. Since 1994, we have been dedicated to developing highly professional web sites that perform in search engines. We continue to satisfy top-clientele as can be seen in our great testimonials and an “A Rating” from the Better Business Bureau.

Please send cover letter and resume to careers(AT)firstscribe.com

 

Posted in Adwords, Content, First Scribe, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

 

 

Hosting only crashes when you need it

Monday, September 26th, 2011

This is a simple topic, requiring few words of note.

All things considered, we charge a fair amount for hosting with First Scribe.  It’s not the lowest cost you will find on the Internet and (we think) this is for good reason.

Our ecommerce sites are all located on immense virtual servers in the cloud.  Completely and utterly over-engineered with fail-over, replication, and load-balancing.

Who cares?

We sweat the small stuff so that our sites stay available during a peak, rush, sale, weekend, blue moon:

Screen shot of Hilfiger error

 

This is not to pick on the ecommerce folks at Tommy Hilfiger.  They are a former client and have proven to be truly good people over our relationship.  In fact, we saw this error because we were invited to a “Friends & Family” spot sale and the site crashed during our visit.

Furthermore, this is not to say that the Tommy Hilfiger folks didn’t do all they could to dedicate resources to the site.  They probably have a robust hosting infrastructure with lots of whatever, and plenty of blah, blah, blah.

But it wasn’t enough and that is all.  Do not expect people to return when it fails.

Posted in Cloud Hosting, First Scribe, Web Development | No Comments »

 

 

Google + Zagat = Meh.

Friday, September 9th, 2011

Google bought Zagat. Awesome, but what does it actually mean?

A quick primer: I’m what some would consider a “Google Nut”… I’ve been rocking Gmail since at least 2005, and my entire online existence revolves around my Google account. I swear by Android, and all of my Facebook friends are sick of me trying to push them towards Google+. I don’t like Apple products (go figure). I’m the first to admit that I go overboard when Google does *anything*.

Then they buy Zagat, and instead of jumping around like a schoolgirl that just saw a mouse…

I had only briefly even heard of the service, let alone even seen their website (I’m not really much of a “restaurant connoisseur”, however I always dig a good meal). After I heard about the acquisition, I hopped over to the site, and I thought, “Hey, excellent! Google can add more substance to their restaurant reviews in Maps.” After looking a little deeper, I realize that I have to pay to “unlock the scores”. Ugh. This is exactly why I don’t use Angie’s List.

The great thing about Google Maps right now is that I can pop it up in my phone, search for something in the area, and find a restaurant that’s highly rated and reviewed in Places… all for free. I love this – it just works. So where does Zagat come into the fray? Will I have to pay monthly just to see if something close to my current position is rated 5 stars in Google Maps? General denizens aren’t going to want to open each individual location in Maps and read through each review to find out if everyone rates it high or low, especially if they’re on the road. It’s just not in the cards.

I can only hope that Google loses the current payment model, and makes it an open service – hopefully adding Zagat’s strength to Places, Maps, and the new Google Offers Beta product. On an SEO front, Google Places has been great to my clients, and you certainly can’t beat the price. I have to wonder… does paying for ratings make said ratings more accurate?

I guess I like to think of it as walking up to my buddies (or anyone, for that matter) and expecting them to charge me for their opinion – I don’t. Call me frugal?

Posted in Local Listings, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

 

 

Google Buys Zagat

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

Lately Google seems to be on a mission to take over every industry and now they have Yelp as their next target. The recent aggression is great because they are trying to better the overall experience of Google, however, it leaves me feeling like Google isn’t as friendly as it used to be.

If you didn’t know or didn’t click the link from the first paragraph, Google bought Zagat, a renowned company that has been reviewing restaurants and other industries for almost 30 years. The merger will be implemented into Google’s search and maps features.

Dealing with the new integrated Zagat reviews is going to lead to an interesting twist for SEO. Since the new Panda algorithm focuses on social interaction and reviews, the new friendship with Zagat could create some significant positive or negative jumps in general and local rankings. For example, a site with a high ranking but many negative Zagat and user reviews could be bumped from its high rank which could potentially create havoc for their SEO.

Once Google adds these new reviews to the search and map features, it will be interesting to see if they can compete with Yelp. I believe Google will be able to take a significant amount of traffic from Yelp because most people tend to, first, search Google,and then, bounce to different sites. With everything in one location and a reliable review source there isn’t a need for Yelp.

Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Social Media | No Comments »

 

 

Google AdWords Phishing Scam

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

Today we received an email explaining that our Google Ads had been stopped. This is the exact copy from the email:

“Dear AdWords Advertiser,

We had encountered a number of issues when reviewing your ads this morning and we stopped running them. We will review them again and make the necessary changes that will allow to run your ads without any problems.

Click here to review your ads and let us know if we made a mistake.

We’ll often stop running your ads until we are able to make the necessary updates. As soon as we made and saved the changes, your ads are automatically resubmitted to us for review.

Please note: If you do not verify the status of your Adwords account and notify us if your ads do not appear online we can not help you and your ads will stay offline for the next few days.“

The email seemed odd because it was poorly written and extremely vague; never explaining which ads were being shut down or why they were being stopped. Upon further investigation, we discovered our intuition was right, it was a phishing scam.

Scams like this have been becoming more prevalent with the growth of the Internet and we want to remind everyone to be skeptical of emails similar to this. For help avoiding scams like this, read through the Federal Trade Commission’s How Not to Get Hooked by a ‘Phishing’ Scam.

Below is an image of the email and, most importantly, make sure to spread the word about this new scam.

 

 

Posted in Adwords, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »