Yearly Archives: 2012
Ian Lurie1 Jun, 2012
Portent moves downtown
So, here we are: Downtown. Smith Tower. At first, I started this post with “When I started my company…” Then I slapped myself. This isn’t about me. Here’s what this move is about: A great team creating growth Portent’s been truly firing on all cylinders for a while now. I’m very hard on myself, and… Read More
Elizabeth Marsten31 May, 2012
And So Are the Days of Our Tukwila Lives…
Today, Portent is moving to the Smith Tower. But before we can say hello to downtown Seattle, we have to say goodbye to Tukwila Life. If you’re unfamiliar with the phrase “That’s Tukwila Life” – it’s the motto of the city of Tukwila, where Portent has made it’s home for the last ten years or… Read More
George Freitag30 May, 2012
Goodbye Google Places, Hello Google+ Local
Business owners got a treat this morning as Google rolled out yet another update to its local platform, this time, ditching Google Places and replacing it with Google+ Local. This move completely integrates Google’s local listings with the current Google+ social network. Coincidentally, and equally newsworthy, Portent just happens to be moving to our new… Read More
Design & Development Ian Lurie30 May, 2012
11 reasons your infographic isn’t an infographic
OK everyone. Take a deep, freaking breath. I can’t sneeze right now without spraying germs on someone’s attempt at a data-driven work of art. Here’s why the poster you paid someone $400 to make isn’t an infographic: Lack of clarity. Infographics should ease and speed the consumption of information. If you take something you can… Read More
SEO Ian Lurie29 May, 2012
SEO proposal: An example
Finally, without sarcasm or other unhelpfulness, here’s a sample of how we do our SEO proposals: SEO Proposal Sample View more presentations from Ian Lurie Some things we do with all of our SEO proposals: Have some personality. I get a lot of pushback on this from ‘traditional’ marketers, but I feel pretty strongly that… Read More
SEO Ian Lurie25 May, 2012
Major search player outed for bad link practices
Yep. Uh-huh. Google’s busted. I just took a look at Google’s link profile and the big G is clearly running a link network. Check this out: They own all these sites—YouTube, Feedburner, Google.com, Google.co.uk, Google.co.up, Blogger.com and what do they do with them all? They link them to each other: It gets worse. They’re also… Read More
Design & Development Ian Lurie23 May, 2012
How we made eigene-homepage-erstellen.net really freaking fast
Please note: I am not a server expert. This is stuff I figured out by bumbling around, crashing our server and generally wreaking havoc. Be careful, unless you want to see steam coming out of your IT team’s ears. I don’t want to shock anyone, but I’m a little obsessive. And competitive. No, really, it’s… Read More
Elizabeth Marsten23 May, 2012
9 Tips for Setting Up an AdCenter Account from Scratch
It’s free to sign up! AdWords charges you $5 for account activation. Don’t dump your entire AdWords account in. That’s just silly. Use the 80/20 rule. 20% of what you’re doing in Google can go over to adCenter. Just like a house fire, take only what you treasure most. Then accumulate later. There are settings… Read More
Portent Staff22 May, 2012
Seducing the Client: Four Tips for Making a Good First Impression
They say you only get one chance to make a first impression. It’s true. On dates, with mother-in-laws and in business. Thankfully, I aced my first date with my husband and we currently live happily ever after. With two cats. One Keurig. No picket fence. Meeting a client for the first time is also like… Read More
Social Media Ian Lurie21 May, 2012
Social media means business: Slides from the seminar
Last week, I did my first half-day seminar: Social Media Means Business. It was a great group, and we’re converting and editing the video (soon to be on sale on an internet near you) now. In the mean time, here are the slides I used. Gratuitous Meerkat picture included: Social media means business presentation View… Read More
Ryan Moothart17 May, 2012
Not Adding Up (Literally) – Google AdWords’ Glitch
This is one of those short posts that will make you squint your eyes slightly, furrow your brow, tilt your head, and say, “Wait, what? This doesn’t make sense.” Like this: I have an account in Google AdWords that has had a conversion metric calculation glitch. I first noticed it a few months ago when… Read More
Marianne Sweeny15 May, 2012
Wanted: Enterprise Search Gods
Lately, I’ve been feeling like a grade schooler punished along with the rest of the class for one student’s bad behavior. With Google’s Pandas, Penguins and other pandemonium-producing updates yet to come, we’re all Bart Simpson being forced to write on the SEO chalkboard, “I will not outsource link building to third-world countries that spam… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie14 May, 2012
Google Penguin for non-SEOs
If I say ‘Google Penguin’ to an SEO pro, they shudder. In the SEO world, Google’s Penguin update is the nastiest, scariest update since, I dunno, Florida? Here’s an explainer for all the marketers who are wondering what the hell just happened to their traffic: What’s an update? The engineers at Google constantly tune their… Read More
SEO Josh Patrice10 May, 2012
SEO & UX – Working together to make your site better
A few years ago I stepped into a role as an information architect and user experience designer at a Portland ad agency. Coming from a background in search marketing, this was quite a bit of a change for me. The first thing I noticed was that SEO & UX should really be a more integrated… Read More
SEO Ian Lurie9 May, 2012
How to hire an SEO company, 2012 edition
I’ve written other posts about hiring SEO firms: How to hire good ones. How to hire bad ones. But an update’s in order: Questionnaire for an SEO agency Start each agency you interview with 10 points. Add or subtract as indicated. Ask yourself: How did this firm get in touch with you? They cold-called or… Read More