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It is obvious the importance of SEO and PPC advertising strategies to brand marketers, however to what extent should these strategies be implemented together for branding queries? It is quite usual to find corporations bidding on brand terms while at the same time running a PPC campaign, mainly because brand terms usually drive quite a large amount of traffic at a low cost per click (CPC). It has been proved that being in both top sponsored and top organic positions for brand queries can lift the site traffic, however it can also cause traffic cannibalization. Should marketers bid on brand terms when a website is already appearing in top of the ranking in Google organic search results?

Brand bidding tips

Below are few tips why you should or shouldn't bid on brands terms.
Generally it is not recommended bidding on brand terms when:

1. Your website is ranking number 1, your brand is trademarked in Google (therefore no one can bid on it) and you are the only one in the sponsored listing

2. Your paid search ads are similar to your organic search results therefore there is no added value to it

I know that seems like an odd statement for the most valued brand on the planet. However, I was just perusing the latest news from TechCrunch this morning and read 2 articles one after the other, the first was The Google Phone Is Very Real. And It's Coming Soon and the second was Google Holding Chrome OS Event Thursday. Complete Overview And Launch Plans To Be Revealed. Now I realise that there are tons of money to be made from alternative revenue streams, but is Google deviating from their core business and spreading themselves too thin? Are they moving TOO far away from their core business and cash cow i.e. search?

Danny Sullivan did a series of posts fairly recently that criticise the relevancy of certain Google Results and another post with a similar theme, that is The Myth Of Great Search Engine Results. Now I have to agree with Danny on this one, either I'm expecting too much or the quality of the SERPS is decreasing somewhat. You would think that with the recent competition from Bing, Wolfram etc, that Google would be piling their resources into improving and advancing search. They may be doing that in terms of engineers and PHD's but what about a guiding force? Most interviews or news by the big 3 of Google ( Sergei, Larry and Eric) involve wide ranging topics, from the purchase of a mobile advertising company, Google Chrome for Mac and the Google Books, not much on search.

So working in SEO means that a lot of the time half my Firefox screen is normally taken up by the website I am viewing and the other half by various tools and toolbars that allow me to do my job more effectively and efficiently, so I thought I would quickly share with you some of my most used and useful search engine optimisation tools.

Photo by Matt Browne via Creative Commons

Anytime I mention SEO tools

Microsoft announced today a new IPTV channel under the sports menu in Windows Media Center. Called the "Sports Channel", the new option brings together video from Fox Sports, CBS Sports, MSNBC and The Queensberry Fight Network.

There's quite a bit of content out there already, but things will really take off when the NCAA Tournament starts in late March. Highlights, interviews and condensed game replays will be available shortly after the conclusion on games during the tournament. It's great news for sports fans and hopefully signals more content like this to come in the future.

As of now, the feature is available in Windows Vista and not the Windows 7 Beta, though that could change. Here's a tour of the new section.

To access the channel from the Media Center main window head to Sports and then Sports Channel. The first time you launch you will be asked to accept a new link to Media Center.

We don’t.

SEO is not a science, it is a sport. It involves strategy. It involves balancing various aspects. It involves flexibility and responding to what others do. It involves competing against others….and each game is different.  One size does not fit all, and the size and shape has to be able to change sometimes on a dime.

Good SEO does not come in pretty packages.

Here are some of the limitations that packages create:

1. Building so-many links each month. Come the end of the month, there would need to be a counting of links, and if the links have fallen short, a flurry of activity to create links, even if the quality of those links is poor. Don’t get me wrong, you need sucky links. But the fact is that those links might actually be negative for your site .
2. Building links based on PageRank. Plenty of good links of low quality would be rejected. Why create links you are not being paid for?
3. Monitoring the number or PageRank of link-building. What should be monitored is the ranking for those search phrases that are being pursued. Over time, changes in strategy are required .