Wednesday morning, fifteen Apogee Search employees volunteered their time to Coats for Kids in Austin, TX. The annual community project, now in its 22nd year, collects and distributes coats to eligible children in Central Texas. Every year, the Junior League of Austin, Jack Brown Cleaners, KASE 101, KVUE and community volunteers come together to make [...]

I recently spoke with Tanya Green, Paid Search Analyst at Apogee Search. She shared her insights about eCommerce paid search campaigns and even offered a few tips to help eCommerce sites get the most out of their online presence. Tanya began with a brief explanation of the paid search process. Paid search ads appear above [...]

Friday ended an era at Apogee Search - our resident Office Mom, Connie Smith, is hanging up her 1,000,000 hats. Those who know Connie know that she puts everyone before herself, literally. For this reason, all of Apogee paid homage to Connie on her last day. Lunch was had, stories were told, cake was enjoyed, [...]

I interviewed Cory Barbot, a Natural Search Specialist and resident expert on local search, at Apogee Search. He took some time to explain local search and how to use it to your advantage. Below are some of the highlights from our discussion: Example of Google local search. Click to see the image larger. Cory began by explaining [...]

Click to view the image larger Over the weekend a truly extraordinary example of the impact social networking is having on business to consumer relationships emerged as Motrin’s newest ad campaign turned from a firestorm of criticism into a brilliant PR move. Motrin’s campaign (done by NYC ad agency TAXI New York) commented on the various tolls [...]

Forget about the endless rain, there is actually something different happening in Washington state. The State Attorney General’s office is suing Visible.net and Captures.com for false claims of results and poor customer service, among many other things. Now you might think it odd, but I’m not surprised to see this sort of suit. The SEM [...]

The Pessimist’s View Over the past couple months, it has been quite depressing for eCommerce marketers to read the news – layoffs, recession, consumers cutting back spending, etc. Unless you live under a rock, all marketers have heard that “Consumers Aren’t Shopping Online, Either,” and online retail traffic is down week-over-week. This may be true in [...]

On Wednesday, Google published its Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, which outlines best practices for webmasters wishing to improve their site’s natural search rankings. Google’s Webmaster Central Blog describes the document as “a compact guide that lists some best practices that teams within Google and external webmasters alike can follow that could improve their sites’ [...]

I recently spoke with Alissa Ruehl, Manager of Website Effectiveness Consulting at Apogee Search. She offered some helpful information about Google Website Optimizer (GWO). Alissa began by explaining that Google Website Optimizer is a free tool that website owners can use to determine the most effective combination of content on their site through a variety [...]

Technically, a landing page is just the first page a searcher sees after clicking on your ad. Ideally, a PPC landing page is targeted to a group of search terms, and created for the purpose of converting visitors to a desired action. In lead generation campaigns, well designed landing pages often convert at 3-4 times the [...]