Posted March 31st, 2008
by admin
If you’re focused on ranking for that one major keyword, having a deep Web site full of great content is necessary to achieve authority in the eyes of the search engine. In today’s Organic Search Engine Optimization column, “Should Your SEO Strategy Target the Head or the Long Tail?,” Mark Jackson shows that, whether or not you intended to do it, you’ll be optimizing for the long tail in order to achieve your goals.
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Posted March 31st, 2008
by admin
Search Engine Strategies New York had something for everyone, including tips for small business marketers. In today’s Small Business Search Marketing column, “Small Business SEM Takeaways from SES NY,” Carrie Hill shares some of the pointers she found for SMBs.
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Posted March 31st, 2008
by admin
Good content is king.The more useful, relevant and unique it is, the more likely it will connect with its intended audience.So why don’t people keep this in mind when commenting on blogs?I’ve been generating decent traffic from this lately, and it’s mainly because I’ve revised my commenting strategy.I used to reply with a quick comment […]
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Posted March 31st, 2008
by admin
The drop in AdWord clicks over the past two months has created a bump Google’s ongoing success. But not to worry, CEO Eric Schmidt told Business Week, people will eventually pay more for the better quality clicks.
There has been a lot of press about this lately. I think “Google’s Gamble” as Business Week called it may be expecting too much. If the cost of their clicks continues to increase through their minimum bid and Quality Score push people may start using Yahoo and Microsoft first.
While their popularity will continue to give them the high volume of traffic, if Yahoo and Microsoft offer lower CPA (cost per acquisition) then the strategy of starting with Google because of that could be changed to get the lower costing conversions first and then test the successful ones over at Google.
If this happens then the edge Google has could drop. It is one thing to be the popular search engine for users, but if they lose their position as the popular engine for advertisers then they are almost back to the days when they had no idea how to monetize their engine.
Obviously in some cases where there is a big enough margin in what is being marketed advertisers will buy the more expensive clicks. But in the case of companies selling small margin items such a move will make it difficult.
Apart from the Quality Score influence, this move suggests Google is using information they are getting from Google Analytics to determine if people will pay more. This is a dangerous step for a number of reasons - one, the privacy issues could be a problems and stop this and two, many people using GA may not be doing so effectively, measuring the wrong thing and thus giving Google information that they use but is not real.
We will all have to wait and see if their hopes are founded.
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Posted March 31st, 2008
by admin
For the past two weeks our industry has been debating the need for standards, many of the regular blogs have weighed in as have most of the major players in our space. The discussion has been heated at times and while the idea has gotten the attention there definitely has not been any accord.
At the end of February, Chris Boggs and I started an exchange on the topic. We had suggested prior to this that there was a need for standard definitions of the various measurement terms and while this may be a peripheral part of the discussion is could have been a good starting point.
In the past week Jill Whalen of High Rankings outlined why we should not or cannot standardize search marketing, stating “Industry market forces and the search engines themselves will eventually dictate what best practices are and are not.”
Jill I have to disagree with the statement - never let the fox guard the hen house. The search engines should not dictate our standards - they set their rules and we work with and around them. We work for the client not the engines. You mention that but use it to say no standards… that last point supports not letting the engines set them more than there is no need.
Lisa Barone of Bruce Clay makes the argument that there is a “need to outline what SEO is and what it means to optimize a Web site. We need to establish best practices, what the risk is for abandoning them, and what all these different terms that we throw around actually mean.”
From these two articles we have seen many people weigh in with some interesting comments.
Kalena Jordan, a fellow Aussie and founder of Search Engine College, has been very vocal recently on anything about standards. Her blog Ask Kalena came out against the recently launched SEMCompare that reviews search firms - “trouble with a capital T” - but she does offer an alternative. “Creating standards is not going to get rid of shoddy SEOs or make them switch hats. Education and publicity has always been the solution”.
Kalena while I agree that education is important for maturing our industry, I think your response encompasses where we are right now. We see the issue differently. There are really many parallel areas and some of the discussion has been about definitions which do need to be standardized and then behaviors which may not need a standard given the creativity of our industry.
The ever controversial Michael Martinez of SEO Theorysuggests we need to drop the term search engine optimization altogether. Come on Mike we know we are not optimizing search engines but rather the sites the engines rank and include in their databases.
But I do agree with your opinion that “skepticism is important while laying the groundwork for further study by all.”
Kim Krause of Cre8asite Forum brings up an interesting question for the topic. “Just out of curiosity, who would enforce standards? How would they be enforced? Are they intended to be?”
Kim I don’t think there is a need to police standards, more to outline them so customers can have an idea of what to look for as well as new people in our space have an idea of where to start.
Okay I left many comments and commentators out but hopefully this brings the major views together. Without some guidelines we leave our industry in the “Wild Web” stage that has been there from the beginning when porn and spam was the major effective marketing areas.
We have come a long way… in my opinion it is time to become more structured and accessible.
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Posted March 31st, 2008
by admin
Below is what happened in search today, as reported onSearch Engine Land and from other places across the web.
From Search Engine Land:
- Search Biz: Diller Keeps IAC Control; Googlers To Facebook; Google Earnings Downgraded & More
IAC stays in Barry Diller’s control. US government agencies look to Google’s search hardware to find information. Google’s hotel-industrial complex that’s coming to Mountain View. Those darn declining paid clicks — will they hurt Google’s bottom line? Yahoo breaks out golden handcuffs to retain employees, while Google loses another…
- Will You Be Sued Over Your Ad Copy Usage?
Storus Corp just successfully sued another advertiser for use of a trademarked term in the ad copy. This is the first time that I have seen a company sue another advertiser directly without relying on Google as the intermediary for filing trademark exceptions. As PPC advertisers, this affects us…
- Yahoo Takes A “Shine” To Women 25 To 54
Perhaps the perfection of Yahoo’s vertical strategy is its new blog-inspired site Shine. It’s a broad mix of content from publisher partners such as Hearst Communications, Rodale and Condé Nast. It also aggregates and links to third party content and is encouraging users to blog on the site. Unlike Yahoo…
- SEO Company, Fathom Online, Acquired By Geary Interactive
Geary Interactive have announced acquiring Fathom Online, an SEO company. Fathom was formed in 2002 and is based in San Francisco. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Geary is a full service digital marketing agency based in San Diego. Some of Fathom’s employees are now working out of…
- Google Dance Is Back? Plus Google’s First Live Chat Recap & Hyperactive Yahoo Slurp
Is the Google Dance back? Well, not really, but I am noticing Google Dance-like behavior from Google based on reading some of the feedback at a WebmasterWorld thread. The Google Dance refers to how years ago, a change to Google’s ranking algorithm often began showing up slowly across data centers,…
- Local Store And Inventory Data Poised To Transform “Online Shopping”
The neglected part of the local story is about products. Often local search is discussed exclusively in terms of finding service businesses or small businesses in one’s own area. But an equally important, if less obvious, part of the “local search” phenomenon is shopping in the more traditional sense….
Search News From Around The Web:
Applications & Portal Features
Business Issues
Local, Maps & Mobile
Link Building
Paid Search & Contextual
Searching
- Dutch Health Search Engine MediGO, altsearchengines.com
- Google’s Asian Homepages, Google Operating System
- Search Hoops: Exercising Technology to Meeting User Needs : Beyond Search, arnoldit.com
- Semantic Search and Semantic Web, Two Different Things, Hakia Blog
- UK Shopping Search Engine Twenga.co.uk, altsearchengines.com
- Social search approaches and algorithm-based search engines in comparison, altsearchengines.com
- Not Your Ordinary Google Interface, Google Operating System
- Google 404 Error Pages Become Intelligent and More Useful, Digital Inspiration
- APRIL 1st IS THE ANNUAL DAY WITHOUT GOOGLE!, altsearchengines.com
- Google Code Snippets Onebox, Google Blogoscoped
- Google Still Doesn’t Know Where to Place Related Searches, Google Operating System
- Mahalo Updates: Now a Research Engine, Want Pay? Write More Words, SEO Critical, CenterNetworks
- Windows Search 4.0 vs. Google Desktop 5.5, Download Squad
SEM Industry
SEO & SEM
Social Media
Video, Music & Image Search
Web Analytics
Other Items
Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:
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Posted March 31st, 2008
by admin
IAC stays in Barry Diller’s control. US government agencies look to Google’s search hardware to find information. Google’s hotel-industrial complex that’s coming to Mountain View. Those darn declining paid clicks — will they hurt Google’s bottom line? Yahoo breaks out golden handcuffs to retain employees, while Google loses another one to Facebook. And more in today’s Search Biz!
Click to continue reading…
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Posted March 31st, 2008
by admin
Want a snapshot of the day’s search marketing news? Here we’ve collected today’s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:
From the SEW Blog:
- Does Google Allow Good Google Bombs?
To some, it appears that Google has painted itself into a corner with its reliance on linking for its ranking algorithm. The lines between legitimate SEO, paid links, and Google bombs are becoming increasingly blurred.
- New Google Webmaster Tool Aids Robots.txt Creation
For the coding-challenged, creating a robots.txt file for instructing search engine spiders on the preferred way to crawl your site has not always been easy. Thankfully, Google has created a robots.txt generator as part of its Webmaster Tools.
- Wordtracker Enhance Their Free Trial Offer
The keyword research tool providers are offering a 1-week trial of their entire service and have released an accompanying 7 day video tutorial on how to get the best out of your Wordtracker account.
- SEW Experts: Social Media: One Size Does NOT Fit All
Spending time on linkbait or viral ideas can drive traffic to a site. However, if the same attention isn’t given to preparing what to do with the traffic, the only remaining value is links, many of which don’t pass juice.
- SEW Experts: What Matters Most to Travel Search Marketers in 2008?
Now that we’re nearly through the first quarter, it’s time to check in on the accuracy of the many predictions for the future of search.
- SEW Experts: The SEO Copywriter: Wordsmithing the Web
Combining both technological know-how and a strong command of the written word, agency SEO copywriters are the front-line troops of any SEO initiative.
Click to read the rest of this post…
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Posted March 31st, 2008
by admin
Wall Street is acting with caution when it comes to Google based on months of reporting that the search engine giant’s paid search clicks are declining. But Google insists that the click reductions are due to improvement in the quality of the ads, not because Google is somehow losing its luster.
The timing for this move may be poor, however. A Business Week article points out that some advertisers may be cutting their ad spend due to a slower economy.
Still, Google is smart to perform quality assurance. As any good search engine marketer knows, the answer lies in revenues, not clicks. Everyone wants their conversion ratio to be as low as possible, and Google is smart to keep their eye on providing quality for the user (both buyers and clickers). A temporary slowdown in growth is far better than ignoring a quality issue and seeing sustained declines down the road.
Q4 2007 revenues showed growth but came in just under Wall Street’s expectations. This coincided with news of a slowdown in clicks. We won’t see Q1 revenues until sometime next month, but that will give some insight into whether or not Google is on the right track.
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Posted March 31st, 2008
by admin
When Google raised concerns over a possible Microsoft-Yahoo merger, it may have just been the pot calling the kettle black. According to new stats released by Attributor, Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick gives them a whopping 69% of the online advertising market share. This comes in the wake of news that Google saw 59.2 percent of all US searches in February.
Furthermore, DoubleClick has 48% share of sites with 1 million unique visitors per month, while Google enjoys a whopping 71.38% share of sites with less than 100,000 unique visitors per month.
MSN has a lot of work to do if it wants to catch Google, as Steve Ballmer has declared in recent months. Currently, they only have 9.86% of the total market share. Even adding Yahoo, with an 11.54% market share, they will only come in at 21.4%.
Attributor also shared telling statistics for content distribution. For every article Attributor tracks, there are an average of 20 copies published. 57% of copies do not contain links back to the author, and 64% of copies have ads on them. Most copies are published on sites with less than 1 million unique visitors.
Attributor analyzed 68 million domains for their ad-server crawls and compared it with unique user data from Compete.com.
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