The Stars of Search

The Search Agency, an integrated online marketing company, recently announced its 2013 Stars of Search award winners at the 2013 DMA Conference last week.  According to the DMA website: "Stars of Search...honors innovative search marketers who are breaking new ground and striving for a better way to drive results within their organization. The award honors overall excellence and innovation in paid search, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, mobile marketing, comparison shopping and search retargeting."  More about this year's winners:

• David Pedersen, PPC analyst, WhitePages
• Helped cut search marketing spend by 30%
• Designed an animated mobile ad the for WhitePages Caller ID application, which increased click-through rates by 47% and conversion rates by 10%

• Elaine Lawson, VP of U.S. digital marketing, MasterCard
• MasterCard destroyed its search rankings by changing its domain name in 2011
• Lawson optimized the site from scratch by adding and refining metadata  and consumer-facing content
• Increased overall traffic to the website by 112% and restored first page search ranking on 78% of top financial keywords
• MasterCard was unranked on the keyword "credit card" in 2011 but is now ranked sixth overall

•  Jeb Griffin, director of product strategy and development, RE/MAX
• Generated significantly more content about specific properties, driving traffic and establishing a larger search footprint
• Created crawl paths based on past user data and intent to understand consumer's behaviors in navigating the site

These marketers understand the importance of an integrated marketing strategy, especially search, and were able to drive measurable results for their companies.  Congratulations to the winners!

Sources: http://www.dmnews.com/the-search-agency-announces-the-winners-of-stars-of-search/article/316253/
http://www.dmnews.com/mastercards-search-marketing-pays-off/article/316872/