Amanda G. Watlington, Ph.D.

Amanda is the founder of Searching for Profit, a search marketing strategy consultancy; and CEO of City Square Consulting, a management consulting firm. Amanda is an internationally recognized author, speaker and search marketing pioneer. Her consultancy focuses on using organic search to drive traffic to customer sites. She is an expert on the use of language for search. Her clients have included well-known and emerging brands.
The purpose of this blog is to provide insights and tips for how to use search profitably. It will cut through the volumes of information that threaten to overwhelm the busy marketer and will focus on what is truly important for making search work.

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Has It Has Really Been a Quarter Century?

Performance Marketing

Early search marketers literally created on-the-fly the methodologies that are still in use today. Clever developers constantly wrote and marketed new tools that would gather the data more rapidly that [...]

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Why Google Going to the Dark Side Is Bad for Advertisers

Performance Marketing

Over time, the simplicity of Google’s results page has clearly eroded. In the beginning, Google’s clear user interface was beloved to search users for its ease of access and clarity. [...]

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An SEO Consultant’s 4-Point SEO Holiday Wish List for Santa

Performance Marketing

This year, I want to take a more childish approach and write an SEO wish list for Santa. Here are four things that I want from Santa. These wishes are [...]

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Flash — It’s Gone: In 2020, Google Search Will Ignore Adobe Flash

Performance Marketing

When it first launched, Flash was the answer to a static Web, providing rich animation and action. Flash was eagerly welcomed and embraced by Web developers and users. It grew [...]

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SEOs: Should You Seek Continuing Education or Certification, Teach Yourself, or Hire Someone?

Performance Marketing

SEO is an integral part of online marketing and is now included in most marketing curricula offered at colleges. Additionally, there are numerous certification courses offered by tool vendors and [...]

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The Search Marketer’s Challenge — Striking the Right Balance

Performance Marketing

Today, the digital marketer has at-hand a veritable arsenal of tools to reach potential customers. There is email, organic search, paid search, and display advertising, all on a dizzying array [...]

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F500 Advertisers Strategize Better, But SEO Still Offers SMBs Growth Opportunities

Performance Marketing

Recent research has shown that many small advertisers spend all of their marketing budgets online. These businesses, like poker players, go all-in: investing their entire marketing budget on Google and [...]

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For Improved Search Results, Try Pruning Your Content

Performance Marketing

Gardening is one of the most popular hobbies in the United States. As an avid gardener, both indoors and out, I’m always searching for how to improve how my garden [...]

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3 Reasons Why Achieving Organic Search Success Has Gotten Harder

Performance Marketing

If you think that it has gotten harder to achieve organic search success, you may be right. Most marketers recognize organic search’s tremendous value as an acquisition channel and focus [...]

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Is Your SEO Thinking Showing Its Age? Here’s How to Fix It

Performance Marketing

Are you still thinking that your SEO success can be measured in keyword rankings? If you are, you are a bit behind the power curve and your SEO thinking is [...]