Here are the latest headlines from the last week.

As I look through all these headlines, they all seem particularly interesting in one way or another.

But if I had to pick one that seemed most profound to your business, it would be Kiss Your Phone Leads Goodbye. The article discusses how important it is to return calls quickly from email form queries. I know this to be true in my case. I hate sending something out into the Interweb and then… nothing. Who knows when someone will return your message.

Quickness is extremely important.

Here are all the rest of the articles…
Nielsen Reports on Top Web Brands and Site Usage
Yahoo Adds Feature to Import Google Adwords Campaigns

It has created an easy way for users of the Yahoo paid search platform to import data from their Google Adwords campaigns. In other words, Yahoo is saying “We know how much you use Google Adwords so just ‘copy and paste’ it to us and spend with us. Please!”

Google Says Average AdWords CTR at 2%

Says AdWordsPro:

On the other hand, to give you a point of reference to shoot for, an average CTR is probably in the neighborhood of 2% – meaning that for every 100 impressions, you would have received 2 clicks.

Add Real Time Content to Your Google Maps Listing

you click on the “View report” link under the statistics section of that page. Then you are presented with a box to add a quick real-time message to your business listing (Places Page) on Google Maps.

Google Transfers AdWords Account from Consultant to Client in Dispute

A Google AdWords Help thread has one report of Google confirming that they will often transfer the account to the client, if the client is the one who holds the payment information (credit card) in the account.

Want To Rank High in Google’s Real Time Search? Get More Twitter Followers

Want to rank high in those Google real-time results? It seems like all you need is a lot of followers and you should be set.

Google Gains at Everyone Else’s Expense in Nielsen’s December 2009 Rankings – Search Marketing News Blog – Search Engine Watch (SEW)

When you compare year-over-year numbers, things are pretty much abysmal for everyone but Google, who gained, and Bing, which remained steady.

Covario Acquires SEO Solutions Firm, Netconcepts – Search Marketing News Blog – Search Engine Watch (SEW)

$2.5 billion was spent on SEO in the U.S. alone in 2009, according to Forrester Research.

Kiss Your Phone Leads Goodbye – Search Marketing News Blog – Search Engine Watch (SEW)

Delaying your first-dial response time from 5 to just 30 minutes decreases your chances of qualifying the lead by 21 times!

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1. John Heaney Says:
   January 18th, 2010 at 11:20 am

   Couldn’t agree more about the necessity for quick response when leads are generated. I can’t count the number of times I’ve worked with firms that spent huge sums on lead generation then virtually ignored those leads. Tens of thousands of dollars to attend a trade show, thousands of dollars on direct mail campaigns, huge investments in web-based marketing all with a single goal: to generate leads that are then sequestered and ignored. Pure insanity. There is no call more important than the one that you’ll make to your next client, so pick up the phone the moment they reach out to you. Always.

2. Sage Says:
   January 18th, 2010 at 11:55 am

   That’s really well said.

   Thanks for the comment, John.
   Sage