Back in February, Marketing Pilgrim did a review of the presidential candidate’s online reputation, in which they predicted that it would be an Obama vs. McCain race. Then most recently SearchEngineLand covered a recent story from The Wall Street Journal, comparing the online marketing strategies of each candidate. Really good reading for all Search Engine Marketers.

All of us have seen the candidates use some pretty cutting edge techniques (by political standards). Such as Obama’s use of text messaging to announce his vice president choice and especially his social media network: My.BarackObama.com. But I think the aspect search engine marketers can appreciate is the use of PPC by McCain, in order to attack his opponent. The WSJ uncovered that when you do a search for “Joe Biden”, McCain’s ad outranks Obama’s and utilizes a very compelling video of Biden criticizing Obama. The WSJ also reports that McCain doesn’t just have this tactic down, in fact he’s buying a portfolio of terms that include “housing crisis” and “US economy”. Good article.

 As for Marketing Pilgrim’s coverage, check out their Reputation Study and spreadsheet, which is updated every 5 minutes on Google Docs.