1. What is the best way to generate sales online? A Forbes study shows that 48% of marketers said that search engine optimization (SEO) was the best method for generating conversions online. It’s always easier to start when visitors have some level of intent.

2. Search drives more sales, but shoppers are thinking longer before buying.

3. Does Google Analytics overstate the value of search? Econsultancy research shows that it might.  Make sure to at least set your cookies for 30 days.

4. our…

...continue to read "TheGrok’s Not-To-Miss Links for the Week 6/12/09"

1. Econsultancy shares how the Verified by Visa program may be a conversion killer.

2. Dr. Ralph Wilson interviews my good friend Avinash at the eMetrics summit about Useful Key Performance indicators for small business. Ralph also did a few interviews with me. Here is the first one on “The Winning Edge“:

3. Mars Chocolates is being punished for a bad ‘Fling’ – first when people search for the website they end up sending people to a porn site. If that wasn’t…

...continue to read "TheGrok’s Not-To-Miss Links for the Week 5/28/09"

Rebecca Lieb knows about creating content that engages visitors. There are few people I respect in the industry the way I do Rebecca. She was the VP and Editor-in-Chief at the ClickZ Network (editing hundreds of my column) and Search Engine Watch for over 7 years. As a journalist, Rebecca has written on media for numerous publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and spent five years as Variety’s Berlin-based German/Eastern European bureau chief. Until recently, she was…

...continue to read "The Truth About Search Engine Optimization: An Interview with Rebecca Lieb"

Don’t miss the 15 year old and still current Calvin & Hobbes on the financial crisis http://bit.ly/RqdH.

Don’t miss my interview with David Szetela on PPC Rockstars today. You’ll hear us discuss the top page and ad elements that every PPC advertiser should test.

What do you think – Is Twitter the Next Second Life? http://tinyurl.com/8nof7j. You may also want to read The State Of The Twittersphere? http://tinyurl.com/6upklq. GigaOm claims Followers Aren’t Really Friends on Twitter. This leads to some of the challenge of…

...continue to read "TheGrok’s Not-To-Miss Links for the Week 12/29/08"

As part of the research for our latest book, Always Be Testing, I had the pleasure to chat with several people about testing and how testing lives in their corporate culture. This one, with Mayer Gniwisch, President of Ice.Com and Diamond.com provides some practical advise on testing from the perspective of a retailer. Take some time to listen to my interview with Mayer. Mayer was kind enough to offer a discount for listeners: Save 20% at ice.com, just use code sam20 or save…

...continue to read "Bryan Eisenberg Discusses Testing With Mayer Gniwisch, President of Ice.com"

How to Get Started and On Your Way to Becoming an Expert with Google Website Optimizer – Free Resources

Landing page optimization and conversion rate improvements are no longer simply buzzwords. The rising cost of driving online traffic means marketers are paying more for less return on their ad dollars. To keep up, online marketers must roll up their sleeves and dive into conversion optimization. Optimizing your landing pages and your website is a proven means of increasing your conversion rates…

...continue to read "Google Website Optimizer: Free Resources To Jump Start Your Testing"

FutureNow’s co-founder Bryan Eisenberg, has been busy reviewing websites, preparing for his upcoming webinar with Elastic Path and his presentation at NYU, and answering questions like these for CNNMoney.com, DuctTape Marketing and MarketingPilgrim.  Together with Tom Leung from Google, he has recorded two  “Always Be Testing” monthly webinars so far, the archived versions are now available. There are also a couple of more podcasts and interviews with others coming soon as well.

My favorite quote comes from his recent mention in the CNNMoney.com article,  where he…

...continue to read "Ask Bryan Eisenberg + Free Website Reviews"

While I was at Search Engine Strategies San Jose, I caught up with a couple of my favorite bloggers, Jason Billingsley & Linda Bustos from the Get Elastic blog. If you engage in ecommerce then you should subscribe, this links to their rss feed, you can subscribe by email from their website.

The three of us were  with another of my other favorite bloggers, Avinash, when Jason suggested to Linda that she should interview us. Avinash went first on how to find a…

...continue to read "Why You Can’t Copy From Amazon"

Dr. Ralph Wilson of Web Marketing Today spent a few minutes interviewing FutureNow’s  Bryan Eisenberg about testing on sites that have little traffic. You can view the video below. You may also be interested in reading more about the hierarchy of optimization when you are done viewing the video.

Bryan and I have co-authored a new book all about testing and helping you figure out what to test. It’s called Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Webiste Optimizer (published by Sysbex/Wiley) and we’re…

...continue to read "Video: How to Do A/B Split-Testing on Lower Traffic Sites"

Just before his keynote presentation at the Search Engine Strategies conference in Toronto the other week, Search Engine Watch executive editor Kevin Heisler caught up with FutureNow co-founder Bryan Eisenberg to chat about website optimization, split-testing, word-of-mouth marketing, social commerce, personas, and his forthcoming book. With Kevin’s kind permission, we’ve reprinted the interview below. Enjoy!

Kevin Heisler: Tell us about your new book, Always Be Testing.

Bryan Eisenberg: A little over a year ago Google offered everyone a free A/B and multivariate testing tool called…

...continue to read "Bryan Eisenberg Interview from Search Engine Watch"