What a year 2006 has been and I would like to thank all the amazing people who have taken part in our firms’ success and especially the readers of TopRank’s Online Marketing blog.
After updating the design, covering happenings in the search marketing industry, publishing numerous text and video interviews and blogging most SES, Pubcon and DMA conferences, the readership for this blog has grown tremendously from a hundred plus RSS subscribers in December 2005 to around 3,300 currently.
There has been a lot of hard work put into creating original content on this blog as well as paying attention to industry news. Technorati ranks us at 778 out of 59 million blogs and we’re around 9,000 for traffic on Alexa. Not bad for a niche blog on online marketing and PR!
As I reflect on all the things that have happened over the year, I can’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of appreciation for the hard work our team has put in to our beloved clients and their campaigns to make them successful. Particularly, Susan Misukanis who is the heart of our organization. Someday, if I can ever get her to come to a conference, she’ll knock your socks off with her strategic perspective, warm personality and enthusiasm.
One focus areas this year was to raise our visibility in the industry and I think many will agree, we’ve made some progress. The number of speaking engagements I’ve been involved with has gone from 3 last year to 11 this year plus two private conferences. Next year I’m already booked for 4 events with one in Australia not counting SES, Pubcon or DMA events.
Our talented staff is involved with this initiative as well. TopRank account managers Karen and Jolina made it to their first Pubcon conference this year and our SEO designer and blog marketing superman, Thomas made it to two. All three started new blogs covering topics in their respective areas of expertise. Next year we may see a bit more TopRank account managers and subject matter expert staff at conferences as we build out our areas of expertise in the areas of web analytics, user experience and paid search.
A big thank you goes to all of bloggers and people in the search marketing community that have been so kind to us! It is truly an amazing time to be involved with this industry.
Other good news for 2006:
Our staff has grown from 7 in December 2005 to 13 with more additions planned in 2007. Plus we’re moving into a new office on Lake Minnetonka next week. The media has been very good to us with coverage in many business publications including The Economist and we’ve been able to contribute web marketing content to Yahoo as well as many, many posts to our good friends at WebProNews.
The types of client engagements we are fortunate to be involved with this year have really pushed us to new levels of expertise. The continued relationships of our long term clients is also one of the most rewarding. I’ve personally worked with some of our current clients since 1998.
Whether it’s a pro bono project for a nobel peace prize winner or a massive consulting project for one of the 20 largest companies in the United States, we are committed to helping our clients reach new levels of success and serving as a trusted, long term resource.
Looking forward to 2007:
The team at TopRank has really focused on raising the bar for the kinds of strategic guidance as well as depth of domain expertise we can provide our clients by conducting bi-weekly team training, testing tactics, hiring subject matter experts, bringin in outside training and conducting ongoing internal training. These efforts have paid off in the form of record breaking results for our clients and 2007 will see us move even more aggressively in this direction.
First quarter 2007 will finally see a massive update to the vintage TopRank Online Marketing web site along with the addition of substantially more content, case studies and media. Online Marketing Blog will operate as a separate site with a few additional TopRank team members making contributions. We’re committed to making the TopRank blog a valuable resource for our internal team, for our clients and for anyone in the industry that wants to listen in.
In 2007 and beyond, I’m really looking forward to seeing how Search Engine Watch evolves and what Danny Sullivan has planned with Third Door Media, SEL and SMX. One thing you can count on in search marketing is that things will change.
Speaking of which, how would you like to see us change in 2007? We are actively looking for feedback on the kinds of information, interviews and media our readers would like to see on this blog, so please share your suggestions in the comments. More conference coverage or less? More interviews in print or video? More strategy or tactics? Articles or industry news? Case studies? We’re all ears!
P.S., if you’re keen on our little blog, please cast your vote over at Search Engine Journal in the SMO category for “TopRank” and be sure to vote in the other tasty SEO/SEM/Affiliate categories that appeal to you.
Cheers!
