Lodging Interactive Blog

Top 5 Non-SEO Ways to Increase Your Search Rankings - Search Engine Watch

Link: Top 5 Non-SEO Ways to Increase Your Search Rankings - Search Engine Watch.

SEO involves getting lots of moving pieces coming together in the right way to form a perfect storm of sorts, which equates to better search results for a Web site. Beyond SEO best practices, I polled our SEO team to come up with the top five "non-SEO" tasks that can help support the SEO process and get Web sites consistently ranked for relevant desired terms within the results.

Web 2.0 Expo - Facebook Marketing Best Practices | Online Marketing Blog

After the keynote frenzy this morning, the session that stood out for me was “Facebook Marketing: Best Practices” with Jeremiah Owyang from Forrester Research as moderator, Evan Mager from AKQA, Holly Liu from Watercooler, Brett Keintz of 750 Industries and Stanford GSB and Kevin Barenblat of Context Optional.

Link: Web 2.0 Expo - Facebook Marketing Best Practices | Online Marketing Blog.

How Many Moms Are Online? - eMarketer

If your mother can send you lolcats, you are part of a trend.

Being a parent means that using the Internet is practically a requirement, and according to three separate studies about 86% to 87% of parents are now online.

A Pew Internet & American Life Project survey conducted in late 2006 found that 87% of all parents use the Internet.

Link: How Many Moms Are Online? - eMarketer.

Kayak focuses on developing its own ad network

Kayak has appointed Brian Harniman as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Distribution. Harniman will help launch and oversee the newly developed Kayak Publishing Network (KPN).

Link: Kayak focuses on developing its own ad network.

Former Expedia CEO joins PickPackGo Board of Directors

Erik Blachford, formerly President and CEO of Expedia, Inc. and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp's travel division, IAC Travel, has joined the PickPackGo Board of Directors.

 

PickPackGo is an online search site dedicated solely to vacation properties. www.pickpackgo.com is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Link: Former Expedia CEO joins PickPackGo Board of Directors.

Q1 2008 Click Fraud Down from Last Quarter, Up from Last Year [SearchEngineWatch]

Link: Q1 2008 Click Fraud Down from Last Quarter, Up from Last Year [SearchEngineWatch].

Click Forensics has released data showing a decline in click fraud rates in the first quarter of 2008. The overall industry number came in at 16.3%, which is down 16.6% quarter-over-quarter but up 14.8% year-over-year.

Search engine content networks saw a higher average click fraud rate at 27.8%, which is down 28.3% from last quarter but, again, up from last year by 21.9%.

AIRLINE BIZ Blog | The Dallas Morning News

Planning a summer getway?

Better check under the couch cushions for some extra dough.

Summer airfares have jumped 12 percent on average compared to last year, and are up 15 percent over 2006 figures, according to online travel agency Travelocity.

Officials for the Southlake-based company said despite the rising costs, there are no big indicators of shrinking demand for travel.

Link: AIRLINE BIZ Blog | The Dallas Morning News.

May '08 Podcast Has Been Posted

Lodging Interactive’s “HotelCast 2.0—keeping you “in the know” and “in the now” on industry and consumer online marketing trends with our latest podcast. 

In this edition: 

Amazon’s new TextBuyIt service lets consumers buy stuff from their mobile; Paid search marketing wins the day;

A report on Travel 2.0 for the savvy traveler…and the savvy hotelier;

HotelCalendars, the latest innovation in tying your hotel’s promotions, specials, and packages to local events, all fully managed by Lodging Interactive;

and the 12 dimensions of Online Reputation Management that everyone should monitor.

Listen to Lodging Interactive's HotelCast 2.0 PodCast

Sharing Customer Service Stories Online - eMarketer

Link: Sharing Customer Service Stories Online - eMarketer.

Brand managers have long known that news—both good and bad—spreads quickly online. Now US consumers are using social media to share their customer care experiences.

Read more at eMarketer

Online Reputation Management - Chatter Guard

Google Oozing Ads - Forbes.com

Declining numbers from pay-per-click advertising and an upper level exodus to social networking rival Facebook has  Google a bit depressed this year, 36.5% to be exact. The Internet prodigy has analysts questioning whether the decline is from macroeconomic effects or if Google is making its own problems.

Link: Google Oozing Ads - Forbes.com.