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In 2009, Google launched a new feature called the "Google Wonder Wheel". Though not available to all users at first, the Google Wonder Wheel is now widely available to Google users. Located on the left side of the Google search screen, this wheel shows users search queries related to their original search phrase. It allows users to discover important key phrases that may have been overlooked originally. Through discovering additional phrases, users can search more accurately and brands can target new and important key phrases.

In the above search, I originally searched for Search Engine Optimization. I was given 7 new Wonder Wheel Suggestions, including Meta Tags. After clicking on the Meta Tags suggestion, I was given 8 new Wonder Wheel Suggestions, all relevant though different.

Using the Google Wonder Wheel for Online Success

Though Google users can use the Wonder Wheel to improve their searches, businesses can use the tool to improve their online presence. Here is a brief list of ways companies can use the Google Wonder Wheel to boost their online authority:

• Discover a New Niche- The Google Wonder Wheel is perfect for discovering the nooks and crannies of your industry. Follow the suggestions to find new topics you can educate on or problems you can resolve. You know your industry inside and out, but that doesn't mean you know what your potential customers are looking for. Use the Google Wonder Wheel to find new niches you can establish yourself in through education and problem solving.


• Identify Optimization Opportunities- When you discover new phrases related to your business, consider optimizing your Website for them. Think strategically about the Wonder Wheel Suggestions. Are they highly searched? More importantly, are they highly relevant?


• Find New Content Page Topics- The Google Wonder Wheel will allow you to discover core key phrases, as well as additional topics that will make great content pages for your site. Keep digging deeper into the Wonder Wheel for specific ideas you can create educational, non-marketing information for your Website.


• Expand Your Blog- Some of the Google Wonder Wheel Suggestions may be too specific for an entire Web page, but are perfect for brief, informative Blog Posts. An active Blog is one of the easiest ways to increase your search visibility, and coming up with topics to write about has never been easier.


• Streamline your PPC Campaign- For many businesses, principal key phrases are expensive to target and many other brands are competing for those phrases. With the Google Wonder Wheel, you can discover more cost effective phrases that are not as competitive. Make the most of your resources by creating separate campaigns and ads for each of the Google Wonder Wheel Suggestions. Don't forget to use Google’s Keyword Tool to round out your groups. Make the most of your PPC budget and resources with the Google Wonder Wheel.


• Optimize Site Interlinking- The Google Wonder Wheel is essentially telling us what Google sees as related and what should be linked. In the above search, we can deduce that Google feels that Meta Data is an important issue related to Search Engine Optimization. We can utilize this information on a Website by creating optimized text links to and from our Web pages on SEO and Meta Tags. Use the information Google gives you to increase your search visibility.

Grow your Website and your PPC campaign judiciously with the help of the Google Wonder Wheel. It's an easy to use tool with a seemingly limitless amount of information. Take a spin on the Google Wonder Wheel today and let it benefit your company's online success.

Labels: Organic SEO

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E-Power Marketing is located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Luckily for us, Oshkosh is surrounded by water; Lake Winnebago, Lake Butte de Morts, Little Lake Butte de Morts, Lake Winnecone, Lake Poygan, the Wolf River, the Fox River, the Arrowhead River just to name a few. From boating and ice fishing to kayaking and swimming, we all make the most of our surroundings. We know that we are lucky to have clean water in the area and we understand that others are not so fortunate. Blog Action Day 2010 is asking for bloggers all over the world to speak up and start a global conversation about water. According to the Blog Action Day 2010 Website, there are almost a billion people all over the world who don't have access to safe drinking water. Too many people are taking their clean water for granted as one in eight people are suffering. Water pollution isn't an issue you can ignore. It isn't an issue for people across the globe to worry about. It's very real, and it's very close. Educate yourself about water pollution and what you can do to make a difference.

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Here in Wisconsin, water pollution can be found in many different forms. From farm animal waste and agricultural runoff to mercury poisoning and surface water pollution the challenges we face in keeping our water clean are varied. While we face some challenges here in Wisconsin, we are not alone. All over the world people are struggling with the effects of polluted water. United States citizens cannot ignore the water pollution issues facing our country.

Water Pollution Statistics:

• Every day, 2 million tons of human wastes are disposed of in water courses. (Source UN-Water)


• Only 20% of water pollutants that are found in our waterways come from activities that take place in the water. The majority of water pollutants, 80%, come from activities that take place on land. (Source: SciPeeps)


• 46% of America's lakes and 40% of America's rivers are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life. (Source: Grinning Planet)


• Two-thirds of US estuaries and bays are either moderately or severely degraded from nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. (Source: Grinning Planet)


• The Mississippi River—which drains nearly 40% of the continental United States, including its central farm lands—carries an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution into the Gulf of Mexico each year. The resulting hypoxic coastal dead zone in the Gulf each summer is about the size of Massachusetts. (Source: Grinning Planet)


• Of the 1200 species listed as threatened or endangered, 50% depend on rivers and streams. (Source: Grinning Planet)


• Annually, plastic litter is responsible for the deaths of more than 100,000 marine mammals like porpoises and sea otters. (Source: SciPeeps)


• At least 123 freshwater species became extinct during the 20th century. (Source: Grinning Planet)


• 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, storm water, and industrial waste are discharged into US waters annually. The US EPA has warned that sewage levels in rivers could be back to the super-polluted levels of the 1970s by the year 2016. (Source: Grinning Planet)


• Polluted groundwater can be pinpointed as the cause for more than 250 million diseases including cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. Of these 250 million cases, about 8 million result in death from polluted groundwater. (Source: SciPeeps)


• In any given year, about 25% of beaches in the US are under advisories or are closed at least one time because of water pollution.' (Source: Grinning Planet)

While the facts are grim, there is hope. There are steps we can all take to protect the water that we rely on and love. Which of the following tasks can you commit to in order to preserve the water for future generations of animals and people?

Water Pollution Solutions -

Support Environmentally Friendly Farming - From fertilization and other chemicals to animal waste, farms can have a devastating impact on water sources. Investigate the farms in your area and support those that are working to protect their land and water. Buy organic foods that were grown without harsh pesticides and chemicals. Support your local farmers and cut down on the transportation pollution of purchasing foods from far away.

Curb Urban and Suburban Runoff - Do you know how you're affecting your local water sources with the fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals you're applying to your lawn and garden? They may be great at keeping the bugs away, but rain and wind can wash them directly into local waterways. What else are you killing when you're trying to get rid of weeds?

Protect the Wetlands - When urban sprawl overtakes natural wetlands we destroy the natural buffers that keep our water ways clean. Though there federal regulations in place to protect these environments, there is more you can do. Investigate the wetlands in your area and get involved in their protection.

Use your Feet - Automobiles of all kinds cause air pollution works its way to our waterways. The emissions that your car releases into the environment will find its way to rivers and lakes and streams. Driving less is one of the simplest ways you can cut back on water pollution.

Reduce your Sewage - If your toilet quit working correctly, wouldn't you fix it as quickly as possible? Do you know how your community's waste water treatment plant is working? Is it as effective and environmentally friendly as it could be? Learn more about how your community is treating its waste water and you may discover some opportunities for you to improve the situation. When waste water treatment systems are outdated or ineffective we all suffer.

Defend against Deforestation - Forests act as a natural shield, protecting water sources by filtering rain water and protecting against soil erosion. Support forests by working against clearcutting, choosing recycled paper and cutting down on your use of our natural resources.

Notice the Surface - When water cannot be absorbed by the surface it falls on, it creates runoff. As water runs towards permeable ground, it picks up more pollutants before reaching our waterways. Roads, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks even rooftops create these runoffs. There are alternatives to the traditional surfacing materials that allow water to soak through the special pavement. Learn more about the options before your next home improvement job.

What will you do to protect the water that surrounds you? Take to your blog and support Blog Action Day 2010 and make a commitment to stand against water pollution.

Labels: E-Power News, Social Marketing

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In the past, E-Power Marketing has been a proponent of allocating the majority of clients pay-per-click advertising budgets to Google who holds the majority of the search engine market share. However, since the Yahoo and Microsoft search alliance was finalized last year, it seems we may need to re-evaluate this stance. That isn't to say that Microsoft's AdCenter is to replace Google AdWords, but rather it has become a stronger second option than ever before.

There are a number of advantages that advertisers can cash in on from this alliance. The most significant will be the ability to harness the advertising power of both Yahoo and Microsoft Bing's search networks through one account and one ad buy. Not only will this make account management for advertisers who used both separately in the past much more time effective; those of you who only used one or the other will now have access to a greater number of potential visitors as well.

However, it's going to take an extra bit of effort on behalf of you as advertisers if you wish to take advantage of this alliance right away. You will have to transition all Yahoo campaigns you wish to continue running in the future over to a new or existing Microsoft AdCenter account. Once Yahoo ad serving is fully transitioned to Microsoft's AdCenter, which is anticipated for the end of October 2010, all Yahoo Search Marketing accounts will stop receiving impressions. The ad serving transition is expected to begin around mid October. Avoid missing out on valuable search traffic by insuring your Yahoo account transitions are done as soon as possible. Regardless of whether or not you already have an AdCenter account, you shouldn't expect these transitions to happen seamlessly. There are a lot of differences between how Yahoo and Microsoft handle paid search advertising so you will most likely need to make a few tweaks to existing Yahoo accounts in order to have a clean transition. Below are a few key incompatibilities that I've run into while transitioning our client accounts.

Yahoo and Microsoft have created an easy to use, fully automated transition tool that highlights any incompatibilities accounts might have. This tool also allows users to make any changes before the transition process begins. These account transitions should be made by mid October to ensure your ads receive all potential impressions. As ad serving begins to transition to AdCenter, you should see traffic decrease in your Yahoo Search Marketing accounts and appear in your AdCenter accounts. Once the ad serving transition is complete you'll receive an email from Yahoo. It is at this time that you'll also begin to display advertising on both Yahoo and Bing through a single ad buy. It is important to note that until the transition is completed in the end of October, you will still need to actively manage your Yahoo Search Marketing accounts to insure that ads are displaying on Yahoo! and their partner sites.

Although up until this point the alliance has given Google nothing to worry about, (they're still standing strong with a 65% market share according to the Nielsen Co.), Microsoft's Bing has been making steady strides and is now the second most popular search engine in America. Nielson Co. published that in August 2010, Bing's market share rose 13.9% and Yahoo's declined to 13.1% bringing their market share as a combined entity around 27%. You don't have to be a mathematician to see how you could benefit from this alliance. More visibility through increased market share alone should be enticing enough, not to mention the ease of manageability. There's no time to waste though. The longer you wait to make the transition, the more search visibility you could be missing out on.

For the most up to date news and information regarding the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance visit the Search Alliance Transition Center.

Labels: PPC Advertising