Articles by Tom Schmitz
Tom Schmitz // 5 Nov, 2008
Killer Facebook Marketing Strategy
These days more and more companies are using social media to build influence on the web. It’s challenging. Many fail or give-up because social media sites possess a formidable barrier to entry, one designed to keep hawkish salespeople at bay. Web 2.0 or community sites reward genuineness just as they toss commercial behavior into the… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 3 Nov, 2008
Obama McCain SEO – My 2008 Election Prediction
It’s Monday, only a day before the election and time to predict the outcome of the 2008 Presidential race based on search engine rankings. The results are interesting indeed. Based on What Google AdWords tells us are each candidate’s popular keywords The keywords’ Google rankings The monthly search traffic for those terms based on… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 31 Oct, 2008
John McCain Keyword Chart & SEO Rankings
As promised, here are the keywords and rankings for John McCain. If you are wondering about the methodology you can visit Barack Obama’s keyword chart. On Monday I will compare the rankings and traffic estimates and use them to predict the 2008 Presidential Election. Keywords Avg. Search Volume Position Monthly Organic Traffic Est. Web… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 31 Oct, 2008
Google Outbids Barack Obama for Obama’s Own Name
I was about to run this morning’s keyword chart on John McCain when I noticed that Google is outbidding Barack Obama for his own name in AdWords. The advertisement is for Google Maps Election ’08 Map Gallery and goes to a timeline of Barack Obama’s life. BTW, if you are ever in this neighborhood be… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 30 Oct, 2008
Barack Obama Keyword Chart & Google Ranking Report
With the 2008 Presidential Election only a few days away it’s time for a little end of campaign fun. Today I present you with Barack Obama’s keyword chart and Google ranking report. Tomorrow I will present John McCain’s keyword Chart and Google ranking report. On Monday I will run both ranking reports then compare them… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 8 Oct, 2008
Identify Top Bloggers
Becoming active in social communities and on blogs is an important element of social media marketing. One way to do this is to read blogs by others in your sector and in your target market’s sector, then subscribe to the leaders. Select a handful of bloggers with whom to build relationships. Comment regularly on their… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 8 Sep, 2008
PPC Hero Guest Post – PPC Quality & Relevancy
Editors Note: Today Portent Interactive welcomes guest blogger Joseph Kerschbaum, Senior Search Marketing Consultant with Hanapin Marketing and one of the funtastic writers of the PPC Hero blog. For Portent Interactive, sharing effective methods and best practices is a passion. Joe shares that passion, so we are thrilled to have him share a little of… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 27 Aug, 2008
A Case for Customized Print Ad Landing Pages
You spent thousands of dollars on a print advertisement. You included a special URL to help you track visitors. Then you showed them your home page? * * * F A I L * * * Advertising is all about the ROI or return on investment. You know the adage, “You got to spend money… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 12 Aug, 2008
How to Build Reputation & Branding with Articles
Two fundamentals of building authority in search engine optimization are adding content and earning links. A terrific way to do both is to add link-worthy and vote-worthy articles. Votes come from social media web sites like StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, Reddit and Digg. The more votes an article receives the more prominently it gets displayed on those… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 1 Aug, 2008
Top SEOs Names Portent Interactive a Top 10 Firm
Every month, TopSEOs ranks internet marketing agencies in the United States. This month, Portent is the #8 agency for both Pay Per Click Marketing and SEO. I’m not much of a bragger, but this seemed worth passing along. You can see the rankings at: http://www.topseos.com/CompRank/index/. Full disclosure: Portent Interactive is a paying advertiser on TopSEOs.… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 31 Jul, 2008
Everything You Wanted to Know About Inbound External Links
Today, a colleague asked me what I know about external links. Rather than simply e-mail her back I decided to sit down and answer this like I might if I were taking a college course exam. In other words a time limited brain dump. Let’s see how much I remember. :) A Little Foundation InLink… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 27 Jul, 2008
Google Updates Visible Toolbar PageRank
Google just updated their Toolbar PageRank, also known as the little green bar. Once again I am seeing a lot of web sites losing PageRank, so I want to re-share what I have counseled people in the past. If your rankings and traffic have not recently fallen, do not worry about your diminished PageRank. Visible… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 14 Jul, 2008
Paid Search & Organic Search Require Different Content Strategies
When you read that paid search and organic search require separate content strategies you might think, “Duh! That’s obvious.” Except that something happened to me last week, and this was not the first time. A Portent’s client earned a top ten ranking for an important keyword, one right near the top of the keyword chart.… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 9 Jun, 2008
Search Engine Optimization Before Development & Design
Question: When should a company bring a search engine optimization (SEO) consultant into designing a new web site? Answer: Immediately! I just read an article where the author states that the time to hire a search engine optimization consultant is right after the design is finished, before the content is written. Wow! There’s a disaster… Read More
Tom Schmitz // 27 May, 2008
Basic SEO Copywriting in a Nut Shell
This week Portent Interactive is excited to welcome our newest member of the team, copywriter Amanda Halm. Hi Amanda! Jade asked me to write some SEO copywriting pointers that I just finished. Since these sound so proprietary-like, I just had to sneak them past Ian to share with you. So enjoy and *shhhh* Don't tell… Read More