Search Engine Marketing Blog

SEM & SEO: Ideas, Strategies, and News from the Will Marlow Agency

The Only Two Things You Need To Know About Facebook’s 2018 Algorithm Update

by Will Marlow | Jan 15, 2018 | AdWords

Mark Zuckerberg announced a major change to the Facebook Newsfeed algorithm on January 11, 2018, and this blog post below highlights the only two things you need to know about it. And as a bonus, I'll tell you why this Facebook algorithm update reminds me of Google's...

How To Use Gmail Ads (aka, Gmail Inbox Targeting)

by Will Marlow | Oct 5, 2017 | AdWords

One of the often overlooked options in AdWords is the “Gmail Ads” feature, or “Gmail Inbox Targeting” as we refer to it. Below you’ll learn (1) what this is, (2) when to use it, and (3) how to set it up. What Are Gmail Ads (aka, Gmail Inbox Targeting)? Gmail Ads are...

13 Key Takeaways from My SEO Lecture At Georgetown University

by Will Marlow | Sep 12, 2017 | Search Engine Optimization

I was honored to be asked by Bret Peters to teach a class on advanced link building and keyword research at Georgetown University a few days ago, and I wanted to share my slides, below. One of the reasons I enjoy giving presentations to classes like his is that: (a)...

The Most Commonly Used Inbound Marketing Tools

by Will Marlow | Aug 10, 2017 | AdWords, Digital Marketing

A lot of people want to know what tools we use for managing AdWords accounts, and also for doing SEO work. If you want a full list of all the tools we use, you can see this marketing toolbox that we update regularly, but if you just want to see the tools we truly...

How To Use Systems-Thinking To Drive SEO Success

by Will Marlow | Apr 17, 2017 | AdWords

This blog post is intended for anyone who has struggled to find the time to invest in SEO, which is to say nearly 100% of people who have ever considered implementing an SEO plan. The fact is, the most common reason for SEO failure is due to the inability to allocate...

Why Company Culture Is Important for Marketing Agencies

by Will Marlow | Apr 13, 2017 | Company News

People are often skeptical when they hear companies talk about mission statements, values and culture, because we've heard about so many companies that behave horribly despite having nice-sounding values. As one famous example, the outrageously corrupt Enron...

What AdWords Sitelinks Look Like, and Why They’re Important

by Will Marlow | Feb 1, 2017 | AdWords

There are 10 different types of "ad extensions" that are available within Google AdWords, and I wanted to share this quick post to highlight what the first (and for most advertisers, the most important) type of ad extensions looks like in practice: in the screenshot...

Four Basic Ways To Setup Form Fill Conversion Tracking

by Will Marlow | Dec 30, 2016 | AdWords, Google Analytics

There are three easy ways to measure “form fill” conversions in Google AdWords and Google Analytics, and I wanted to lay them out in a simple blog post for anyone who, like we do, lives or dies by conversions. Before I lay out three methods for tracking form fill...

5 Steps For Setting Up LinkedIn Conversion Tracking

by Will Marlow | Dec 23, 2016 | AdWords, LinkedIn Ads

This post is meant to give you a quick understanding on how to setup LinkedIn conversion tracking. Here are the 5 things you need to know: First, the LinkedIn conversion tracking script is called the "Insight Tag" and it needs to be placed within a standalone web...

The Most Important Display Ad Dimensions

by Will Marlow | Dec 21, 2016 | AdWords

The Google Display Network (which let's you run ads on more than 1 million websites, including the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal), offers a bewildering variety of ad dimensions for you to pick from. If you are making all of your ads yourself, it can seem...