January 19, 2009

SEW Experts: Are Rankings Still Relevant?

Are we heading toward an age where site ranking doesn't matter? By incorporating searcher behavior into their algorithms, search engines are no longer serving the same results to everyone. In today's SEM agency issues column, "Are Rankings Still Relevant?," William Flaiz wonders if search marketers have been relying on rankings as a crutch, when we should have been looking at the bottom lines.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 9, 2009

SEW Experts: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Over the past year, I've been in numerous meetings with advertisers, agencies, and online media vendors, and I'm often amazed at the confusion surrounding how local search campaign analytics are reported, and sometimes twisted, to create a desired story. In today's local & mobile search column, "Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics," local search expert Gregg Stewart lays out the basics you need to know to implement useful Web analytics for your local search campaigns.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 21, 2008

SEW Experts: Selling SEO During an Economic Downturn

In a down economy, business development for SEO becomes increasingly important. As an agency or consultant providing marketing advice to clients, you're missing a crucial opportunity to provide long-lasting ROI at a still relatively cheap cost if you aren't pushing for investment in organic search. In today's Search Marketing Crossfire column, "Selling SEO During an Economic Downturn," Chris Boggs and Frank Watson share some tips on selling the benefits of SEO.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 13, 2008

SEW Experts: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Click-Through and Conversion Rates

What's a good click-through rate for a search ad? What's a good conversion rate? That's not an easy question to generalize on, but in today's Profitable PPC column, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Click-Through and Conversion Rates," David Szetela shares some guidelines that can help you decide if yours is acceptable.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 20, 2008

SEW Experts: Measuring a Text Ad's Effectiveness

Testing and improving ad copy is essential to optimizing overall PPC campaign performance. Improving ad text leads to better CTR and quality score, which means it can help drive your CPC down, and/or let you buy more clicks per dollar. In today's search advertising column, "Measuring a Text Ad's Effectiveness," David Szetela shows you how to make a direct impact on your campaign's ability to increase the number of profitable sales.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 14, 2008

SEW Experts: Are You Measuring SEO Success Correctly?

Ranking reports are flawed because they depend on everyone seeing the same search results, which just doesn't happen anymore. SEO success should be measured by the lift in organic search engine traffic. In today's organic SEO column, "Are You Measuring SEO Success Correctly?," Mark Jackson explains that to do that, you need to make sure your analytics are set up correctly.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 6, 2008

SEW Experts: Judging PPC Performance: Focus on Conversions, Part 2

Should you delete or pause under-performing keywords - or simply adjust their bid prices? In today's search advertising column, "Judging PPC Performance: Focus on Conversions, Part 2," David Szetela notes that the answer will vary by advertiser, but one thing is constant: decisions about keyword and ad performance should mainly depend on conversion performance.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 12, 2008

SEW Experts: SEO Reporting: Going Beyond Rankings

Enterprise-level SEO provides consistently outstanding ROI over the life of the project. One of the best ways to substantiate this is through ongoing reporting. In today's Search Marketing Crossfire column, "SEO Reporting: Going Beyond Rankings," Chris Boggs and Frank Watson remind you that if you're just tracking organic positions and nothing else, you're doing a disservice to your clients.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 10, 2008

SEW Experts: Keep Your Ideas Simple and Increase Conversions

Good ideas are often simple ones, and this rule applies to online marketing as well. In today's Web analytics and ROI column, "Keep Your Ideas Simple and Increase Conversions," Eric Enge explains how looking at the implementation of your ideas from a customer's perspective can help you see if you've simplified things enough, or gone too far.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 31, 2008

SEW Experts: Link Building: Understand Where You Are To Know Where You're Going

In link building, if you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up someplace else. In today's link building column, "Link Building: Understand Where You Are To Know Where You're Going," Sage Lewis looks at some tools to help you discover and monitor inbound links.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 25, 2008

Benchmark Natural Search vs. Paid Search Traffic

Compete has enhanced its Web analytics product features to include a breakout between organic search traffic and paid search traffic.

Compete just announced Paid vs. Natural Search Breakouts in Search Analytics.

This new metric takes an even deeper dive into competitive search data by showing the percentage of search referrals that a Web site receives from paid search, trended over the last six months. This metric can be found in the Site Referral and Compare Sites tools in Search Analytics.

Users will be able to compare a site's paid vs. natural search traffic to uncover even deeper insights into a site's search strategy.

Users can find out if rivals are relying more heavily on Search Optimization (SEO), or Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Spikes in SEM campaign activity with 6 months of trended data can be found as well. It will be possible to benchmark paid search activity against rivals.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 16, 2008

SEW Experts: When Being First Isn't Worth It

A new report from AdGooroo shows that, generally speaking, for short keywords it's not profitable to bid your way into the high positions. These types of keywords actually lose money in the first and second positions, but longer keywords can do well near the top. In today's Web analytics and ROI column, "When Being First Isn't Worth It," Eric Enge shows that by testing this idea on your campaigns, you stand to create more profitable PPC campaigns.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 10, 2008

SEW Experts: SEO Competitive Analysis

Ranking reports don't mean nearly as much as they once did. Search engine rankings change regularly, are different on various data centers, and won't generate traffic to the Web site, much less generate leads and sales.In today's Organic Search Engine Optimization column, "SEO Competitive Analysis," Mark Jackson suggests that marketers should instead be focused on reports that mean something, like a competitive SEO analysis.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 4, 2008

SEW Experts: Measuring the Impact of Multichannel Marketing

In many cases, search is the first step in the customer buying process, when they're in research mode. But, at other times, search comes into play in response to an offline campaign. In today's Web Analytics and ROI column, "Measuring the Impact of Multichannel Marketing," Eric Enge describes the ways Web analytics tools can be one powerful component in measuring the impact and effectiveness of an offline marketing campaign.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 9, 2008

SEW Experts: Optimization by Numbers

In the complex world of online marketing, you will likely be asked to run several digital programs at any given time. While getting these programs off the ground can be an achievement in itself, the real challenge is campaign optimization. In today's SEM Agency Issues column, "Optimization by Numbers," William Flaiz discusses ways to keep track of what is working, and identify which channels you should invest in further or pull the plug.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 29, 2008

SEW Experts: Taking the Fear Out of Web Analytics for Your Small Business

Many small businesses are afraid of the perceived complexity of Web analytics. At the same time, they know they can make more money in less time with Web analytics. In today's Small Business Search Marketing column, "Taking the Fear Out of Web Analytics for Your Small Business," Carrie Hill simplifies the process by breaking down the four metrics you should be analyzing on your small business web site.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 18, 2008

An Insatiable Desire for Web Analytics?

At Search Engine Strategies New York this week, some of the best-attended sessions are about Web analytics. Two sessions I sat in on yesterday had standing-room only crowds. It's clear that search marketers – like all online marketers – are finally realizing that it's not all about getting people to your site. The volume game is fine when driving volume is cheap, but with concerns about rising keyword prices and a looming recession, it's only natural that there's a new round of belt-tightening going on.

Smart online marketers have been using analytics to squeeze better performance from the traffic they already have, instead of looking for new ways to drive low-converting traffic. From the looks of things, the idea is catching on, with the desire to learn about Web analytics spreading to the masses.

Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik noted in his presentation that there are four keys to Web analytics success: 1. Integrate or Die – Measuring basic metrics are the price of entry. To succeed, you need to apply those measurements to other events beyond your Web site, and see what's making or costing you money. 2. Measure Bounce Rate – Bounce rate is your Web site visitor saying to you, "I came, I saw, I puked." If they come to one page and leave right away, you're not giving visitors what they're looking for. Figure that out and fix it. 3. Go Beyond Ego Bidding – The definition of success for one site will be different than success for another. The key is to find your own success metric, such as conversions, or time on site, and measure your performance against that metric. 4. Experiment or Go Home – Most sites are designed by "HiPPOs": The Highest Paid Person's Opinion. That often means the site is not designed around what users are searching for. You could be sending people to a less relevant page than you could or should be doing, or offering something different than what was promised in your search ads. Avinash calls this "Writing a check on a search engine that your site can't cash." Both are bad for the user.

If you missed the analytics sessions yesterday, there are still plenty of options. This afternoon, Google is putting on a session about Google Analytics and Website Optimizer, and Omniture is doing one on optimizing SEM campaigns. Later, Tim Ash will show you how to test and tune your landing page. For a deep dive into analytics, Matt Bailey is leading a four-hour training session on Web analytics on Friday.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:25 AM | Permalink

January 17, 2008

Measure Blog Success without Spending a Fortune

Search Marketers reach for blog style content management systems more and more these days for marketing applications. Free open source blogging software like WordPress make publishing viral content and interacting with social communities turnkey and easy. That said, measuring the success of the effort can be an expensive and daunting task. Making things more complicated, Google Analytics web stats is not always the most useful package for on-site blog metrics.

Leading business blog-evangelist Lee Odden has posted a killer list of 20 blog analytics tools, ranging from free to very inexpensive, that his TopRank Marketing crew use internally and with clients. It's a must-read metrics primer for anyone serious about (or even considering) blogging as a marketing tool.

Posted by Marty Weintraub at 10:29 AM | Permalink

December 4, 2007

SEW Experts: Measuring Cyber Monday

Is it seasonality, or the effect of your SEO efforts? In today's Big Biz column, "How to Measure Cyber Monday," Aaron Shear shows you the best way to measure the impact of traffic over time.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

November 28, 2007

SEW Experts: SEO for Widgets: CLIQ Case Study

The search marketing world continues to expand in all sorts of ways. In an SEO strategy, widgets can be extremely effective gaining exposure for the content and tools featured on a site. In today's By the Numbers column, "SEO for Widgets: CLIQ Case Study," Eric Enge shares an exclusive preview of a new SEO case study of a beta widget called CLIQ, developed by Offermatica, Otto Digital, and StepChange.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

November 21, 2007

SEW Experts: How to Integrate PPC and Display Advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) or display advertising? You don't always have to choose one or the other. In today's By the Numbers column, "How to Integrate PPC and Display Advertising," Eric Enge shows you how to integrate PPC campaigns with display advertising, and use this cyclical approach to improve overall ROI.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

November 14, 2007

SEW Experts: Bid Management Lookback Options

One of the key factors when using bid management tools is how far back in time you need to look at the data to get meaningful results for each keyword – the lookback time interval. Usually, there's no one time period that works for all keywords. In today's By the Numbers column, "Bid Management Lookback Options," Eric Enge offers some real-world keyword data that shows how and why to subdivide the problem to a finer level of granularity.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

November 13, 2007

Do You Know What's Really Causing Your Results?

Is a seasonal lift masking losses in your PPC campaign? Sometimes, gains in ROI could have been even better, if you could identify the point of diminishing returns. In today's SearchDay, "Tracking Real Value with Incremental ROI," Steve Haar reminds you that you need to question your results, especially in SEM, and especially around the holidays.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 4:43 PM | Permalink

October 24, 2007

SEW Experts: Data Segmentation: Web Site Analytics for PPC

Web site analytics is one of the foundations of search marketing. In today's By the Numbers column, "Data Segmentation: Web Site Analytics for PPC," Eric Enge shows you how to segment data and act on it, rather than stare at charts and graphs.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 24, 2007

Compete Search Analytics Now Live

Compete's new Compete Search Analytics service, which was announced last month at SES San Jose, is now live.

The pay-as-you-go service is designed to give users access to competitive research data for a per-usage fee. Users will pay online by credit card, purchasing $2 credits, which might be good for the first 50 results of a report, for example. Compete sees the service appealing to smaller companies, as well as small groups within larger agencies or corporations.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:23 PM | Permalink

September 19, 2007

SEW Experts: Split Traffic, Raise Conversion Rates, Repeat, Multiply

In today's By the Numbers column, "Split Traffic, Raise Conversion Rates, Repeat, Multiply," Eric Enge reminds marketers that site optimization doesn't begin or end with landing page testing. A/B splits don't give marketers splitting headaches anymore. What's the next step? Multiply your variables.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

July 25, 2007

SEW Experts: Taking Your PPC Campaigns Beyond the Majors

In today's By the Numbers column, "Taking Your PPC Campaigns Beyond the Majors," Eric Enge shows you why you might want to broaden your horizons beyond Google, Yahoo and Microsoft with your PPC campaigns.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

July 18, 2007

SEW Experts: Analyzing Data to Lower Your CPA

In today's By the Numbers column, "Analyzing Data to Lower Your CPA," Eric Enge takes on the challenge of optimizing a PPC campaign, showing you one way to lower your cost-per-acquisition by analyzing the data.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

June 26, 2007

How Do You React to a Media Blitz?

Ups and downs in search activity and success metrics are often related to activity in other media channels, such as TV, radio, print, and online. One common finding is that as media activity increases, impressions and clicks go up as well. Does that mean that we should up our search budgets and add keywords during an external media blitz? Not always.

In today's SearchDay, "Coordinating Search with External Media: Can Less Be More?," Impaqt's VP of analysis & decision support Pat Stroh explains that lowering your bids may actually be a better plan. Doing so could increase conversions and ROI.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 4:53 PM | Permalink

June 19, 2007

SEW Experts: Defining SEO Success

In today's au Natural column, "Defining SEO Success," Mark Jackson counts the ways of defining SEO success. There may be different strokes for different folks, but there's only one sure way to measure success from your organic search engine optimization campaigns.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 9:51 AM | Permalink

June 8, 2007

SEW Experts: Predicting ROI for Future SEO Efforts

In today's Outsourced column, Predicting the ROI for Future SEO Efforts, Chris Boggs continues his series on calculating ROI with a look at predicting ROI for future SEO campaigns.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 9:32 AM | Permalink

June 6, 2007

SEW Experts: Making the Case for Portfolio Based Bid Management Tools

In today's By the Numbers column, Making the Case for Portfolio Based Bid Management Tools, Eric Enge shows why he prefers portfolio based bid management tools to the rules based solutions that evaluate ROI on a keyword-by-keyword basis.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 7:50 AM | Permalink

May 31, 2007

Mapping The Minds of Visitors Helps Categorizing, Keyword Development

Bill Slawski, of SEO By The Sea, wrote an interesting article about mapping visitor intent to help develop effective categories and keywords for your marketing efforts.

Between his detailed report and some perceptive comments, this is a post well worth reading and using to improve your search marketing.

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:31 PM | Permalink

Search's Place in the Marketing Mix

Are you giving search its due credit when you look at results of other marketing campaigns? Are you taking those campaigns into account when you plan your search activities? In today's SearchDay, In the Mix: Search in the Overall Marketing Mix, Impaqt's Pat Stroh explains that without knowing the full details of a client's media mix, an agency is limited in how well it can optimize a paid search campaign. But once an agency is armed with at least some of this historical data, it can begin to explain the mountains and valleys in those paid tracking reports.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 2:12 PM | Permalink

May 25, 2007

SEW Experts: Measuring ROI Can Be Difficult for SEO

In today's Outsourced column, Measuring ROI Can Be Difficult for SEO, Chris Boggs offers tips on calculating ROI to see if your SEO campaign is cost-effective.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:26 AM | Permalink

March 27, 2007

Data Analysis Must Look Across Channels

Paid search does not exist in a vacuum, and it should not be looked at that way when it comes to data analysis. In today's SearchDay, "Data Mining: The Heart of Analysis, Part 2," iProspect COO John Tawadros discusses the importance of examining the correlations between online and offline channels, and helping all these efforts work in tandem.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:23 PM | Permalink

March 15, 2007

IAB Issues Guidelines for Lead Quality

The Interactive Advertising Bureau's Lead Generation Committee has published a practical set of guidelines to assist advertisers in measuring lead quality, "The Marketer and Agency Guide to Lead Quality." It covers topics like determining which leads to contact first, what sales approach to take and where to focus ad dollars, as well as to inform advertisers' negotiations on setting lead prices, according to Kate Kaye at ClickZ News.

IAB members met over several months to develop a system for scoring lead quality based on five specific factors:

1. Lead Origination – the ad format used to capture user contact information
2. Consumer Motivation – the reasons a user submitted personal data
3. Lead Exclusivity – the number of advertisers the lead was sold to
4. Lead Age – how much time has passed since the lead information was gathered
5. Verification of Data – the validity of the data provided by the user

For B2B search marketers, qualifying leads should begin before they are even acquired, so they can avoid paying for low-quality leads in the first place, Patricia Hursh explained in a SearchDay article in January, "Don't Click Here! Should You Pre-Qualify Clickers?."

Hursh suggests using a combination of ad copy and targeting to pre-qualify visitors, with a continuous cycle of testing and measuring to get the best results.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 9:24 AM | Permalink

March 12, 2007

Brian Induni Interview about the Web Analytics Association

Brian Induni is the Executive Director of the Web Analytics Association, and we recently spoke about the formation, role, and future of the WAA.

The WAA plays a lead role in examining many of the basic issues in the Web Analytics industry. Issues such as standardization of terminology, the best way to measure Rich Media (e.g. Ajax) and more.

In addition, the WAA has a rapidly growing number of tools oriented at educating people on analytics. This includes a set of college level courses at the University of British Columbia, and lots of good information on their site.

Posted by at 2:02 PM | Permalink

March 8, 2007

Beware of Averages

Are the visitors you drive from search made up of low-income, under-educated 30-somethings, or high-net-worth, highly educated retirees and their grandchildren? You'll never know unless you dig into your analytics program, says Erik Dafforn in his latest ClickZ column, "Search Traffic and Web Analytics: Easy Answers, Hard Lessons."

Dafforn asserts that many marketers spend too much time adjusting to what they see as the average visitor, instead of going beneath the surface to find out what's really going on. Some common problems with analytics and search include failing to separate Web search, blog search, news search; and even lumping Web mail and newsgroups under organic traffic, since it originates from a Google, Yahoo, or MSN address.

It's also important to consider the effect that technologies like AJAX, Flash and RSS can have on your analytics reports, he says. He points out that looking at the wrong metrics can be harmful. For example, focusing on exit points is not useful on its own -- everyone leaves a site eventually. A more useful approach would be to segment the traffic by referrer type, then look at the user behavior to see if visitors are leaving after finding what they needed, or if they are leaving in frustration.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:19 AM | Permalink

February 27, 2007

Value of Search Rankings Explained

What is that number one organic search ranking worth? A question often asked but rarely thoughtfully answered.

Stoney deGeyter gives a very thoughtful answer to the question over at Internet Search Engine Database.

Give it a read and post an opinion here.

Posted by Frank Watson at 8:55 PM | Permalink

February 14, 2007

Are You Really Analyzing Your Paid Search Campaigns?

What do you do when the needle won't move anymore -- when you can't invest another dollar in your paid search program without diminishing your returns? The answer lies in the data, according to iProspect's John Tawadros. In today's SearchDay, Tawadros takes a look beyond the basics to examine the ways true analysis can help you improve ROI of your paid search campaigns, as well as related campaigns in other channels.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 4:20 PM | Permalink

December 5, 2006

Avenue A | Razorfish Releases "Actionable Analytics" Report

Avenue A | Razorfish released a new report today which addresses the connection between Analytics and future Search Marketing success. Yes I do work with AA|RF, but I feel that the report has excellent information that can be of use to any marketer engaged in the online space.

The report discusses in detail the topics of media analytics as well as web site analytics and CRM issues. The media analytics section suggests “measurements and analyses that allow you to determine challenges ranging from allocating marketing spend across media to creating the right mix of brand and direct response marketing."

It includes sections about brand versus direct response and developing advanced attribution models. The web analytics section claims that many current tools are “flawed if used as holistic media measurement solution, and should be augmented with purpose-built media analytics tools.”

The CRM section includes a case study of a project for Alaska Airlines. It recommends methodologies to create a seamless customer experience, and describes how to extend segmentation and personalization to email and direct mail. Lastly, it suggests how to plug online media into an e-CRM solution.

The report is available free via registration here. I will go to Search Engine Watch forums later today to start a thread to the findings presented, and will add a link here then.

Posted by Chris Boggs at 10:07 AM | Permalink

October 12, 2006

Resources For Finding Statistics For Any Web Site

Rand over at SEOMoz wrote an excellent post detailing all the different resources publicly available to gather statistical data on pretty much any web site out there. He breaks down the tools into several parts including "Technical Data," "Ownership/Hosting Data," "Statistics/Popularity Data," "Search Engine Indexing Data," "Link Data," "Social Tagging Data," "Third-Party Trust Metrics," "Important Directory & Site Listings," and "Press & Media Mentions." This comprehensive list of resources is bookmark-worthy and I seriously hope Rand keeps this particular post up-to-date.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:26 AM | Permalink

September 25, 2006

Organic & Paid Search Conversion Metrics Similar

ClickZ reports on a WebSideStory study that shows that organic search traffic realized a conversion rate of 3.13 percent while paid search traffic realized a conversion rate of 3.4 percent. The study covered 57 million search engine visits from "20 business-to-consumer e-commerce sites during the first eight months of 2006." ClickZ notes that organic search traffic does tend to have a higher click rate (1.5 times higher than paid search volume).

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 1:23 PM | Permalink

June 21, 2006

Wall Street Journal Piece On Tracking

Mylene Mangalindan of the Wall Street Journal wrote a solid piece on Monday that was unfortunately buried at the end of the annual All Things Digital section. If you're a multi-channel internet marketer, read her article, Ad Vantage (Paid reg. required).

The piece looks at potential pitfalls of advertising online without proper analytics tracking and covers such topics as Garden Harware’s difficulties tracking which search advertising or comparison shopping clicks actually convert (PriceGrabber and Shopping.com are singled out), eBay’s solution for search marketing (seems they developed a system in-house after leaving Efficient Frontier), Alibris‘ problems with affiliate sales (not all affiliates drive valuable traffic), and Limoges Jewelry’s success using Mercent’s tracking systems (sales up, costs down).

What isn?t discussed is a potentially more troublesome problem which the analytics systems from WebTrends, CoreMetrics, Atlas, and Omniture [IPO coming soon] don?t necessarily solve: crediting sales to the right marketing channel. As marketers participate in more online marketing channels (PPC marketing on the main search engines, PPC marketing on the shopping comparison engines, lead gen marketplaces, affiliate marketing programs, etc.), giving credit where credit is due and therefore maintaining an accurate picture of ROI from each channel gets very tricky. And this issue will only get worse as companies shift more marketing dollars online.

I got into online marketing 11 years ago because I viewed it as metrics oriented, results driven spending with a strong level of transparency of information. Fast forward to today, though, and tell me how sure you are that you?re not 'double counting' that sale from the consumer who clicked on the Google Adwords ad, then the Shopping.com ad, then purchased directly from your site 2 days later?

Posted by Brian Smith at 6:14 PM | Permalink

February 28, 2006

Study: Offline Conversions Key to Understanding True Search Marketing ROI

New research from iProspect and Jupiter Research shows that even though shoppers are using search engines to research products, nearly half are still making purchases through bricks and mortar retailers. Search marketers who aren't measuring these offline conversions are likely misallocating resources, incorrectly measuring ROI and making other critical mistakes. More details about the findings of this study in today's SearchDay article, Searchers Still Like to Buy Offline.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 11:34 AM | Permalink

January 9, 2006

Search Engines As Leeches, The Difference Between Paid & Free Listings & Keyword Price Rises

Jakob Nielsen's just posted a Search Engines as Leeches on the Web article that makes a good point, don't be too search engine dependent. However, he muddles his point by confusing the issue of paid search advertising and free "organic" listings. A closer look at that, plus how "super conversion trackers" and "brand idiots" are likely to keep pressure on keyword prices.

As a reminder, the major search engines give you two main types of listings when you do a search. There are the "organic" or "free" or "natural" listings that they gather from crawling the web. They don't charge for these listings (though Yahoo's paid inclusion program kind of clouds the water over there). These listings are like the editorial content you get at newspapers.

Search engines also carry paid ads. Pay, and you can get listed for terms you want without hoping that it just happens naturally.

Jakob says:

I worry that search engines are sucking out too much of the Web's value, acting as leeches on companies that create the very source materials the search engines index.

That will resonate with many who have long voiced similar concerns that search engines are making tons of money by gathering "content" from sites from across the web to make their listings.

If suddenly every site on the web were to block Google from indexing them, Google would have a crisis in short order. Its main "content" would have gone away, and the ads alone aren't going to keep attracting searchers.

Web site owners have not done that, however. That's because by and large, they've found that search engines drive more traffic to them than they cost in terms of bandwidth of being indexed.

WebmasterWorld has become a classic case study of this. Google and other search engines were banned in November along with "rogue" spiders, because somewhat similar to Jakob's "leech" metaphor, they were seen to have been sucking down more bandwidth than it was worth supporting.

WebmasterWorld founder Brett Tabke was often quoted saying he had the best sleep in months after blocking the spiders. His sleep may have improved, but what to do about the major spiders didn't go away. By the end of December, Brett had done a 180 degree turn and let the major spiders back in.

Until now, WebmasterWorld's been about the only major site I can think of that has tried to block spiders. Craigslist was rumored to have done so, but that wasn't true.

I do believe concerns over spidering are growing, especially as we have more spidering from both the major search engines and from rogues that are out there. Back in October, The lie of distribution--search engines return very little value to news/blog sites yet hog bandwidth and increase server loads from Tom Foremski was an example of this.

As I commented on his blog, it's fair to say that despite grumbles, that the vast majority of site owners do not consider search engines leeches. If they did, they would deleech themselves by blocking spiders. It's not hard to do. A simple change to the robots.txt file will block all the major search spiders. But no on does this, because they want the traffic. Even Jakob's own file isn't blocking Google and gang.

But back to Jakob's point, it turns out he really isn't talking about the "source material" being leeched but instead about the high cost of advertising. Again to his opening statement, with the key part in bold.

I worry that search engines are sucking out too much of the Web's value, acting as leeches on companies that create the very source materials the search engines index.

And the evidence of this?

Paid search confiscates too much of a website's value.

What? Paid search "confiscates" a site's value? Since when did search engines suddenly show up at a web site and demand the owner sign-up for advertising? We've long had rumors that a site that doesn't advertise might find themselves banned with various major search engines. We've even had reports of "monetization targeting" where site owners have found that doing an ad or paid inclusion buy might clear up a spam banning problem. But by and large, there are plenty of web sites that spend nil with search engines on advertising and get plenty of traffic.

In fact, the exhausting, annoying, tiring, boring, you name it regular updates to Google generate plenty of forum fodder that show people aren't spending and getting traffic from search engines. If they weren't, they wouldn't be freaking out any time Google undergoes a major algorithm change that sends rankings dancing and for some, traffic plunging. They wouldn't worry, because they'd have had both a balance of paid and natural search listings that helped them ride out the rough times if there was an issue on the natural side.

Instead, the October 2005 "Jagger" update showed plenty of site owners are still dependent on getting traffic from search engines for free. The Nov. 2003 Google Florida update should have taught many not to be free listing dependent, but clearly they remain this way. And the lessons not to be dependent were in place even before this.

So overall, the issue doesn't involve free listings. Jakob's really concerned about the rising cost in search advertising. Over time, as he's worked with client sites, they've been able to pay more by pushing up conversion rates. But at some point, others catch up and the margins of what his clients can pay is reached. He says:

If your search bid stays the same, your ad will sink off the page as more and more competing sites improve their design enough to afford higher bids. Our site therefore has no choice but to increase its own bid to $7.99 per click if it wants to stay in business.

This simply isn't true unless Jakob's clients are making the mistake of depending solely upon paid search ads to gain customers. If that's the case, yep, you should be looking to diversify. More on this in a moment.

Jakob also says (and the bolding is his):

This is great news for search engines: they can double their income by doing nothing. Just sit and wait for all other websites to improve -- then skim off the increased earnings.

In other words, the search engines get to make more by doing nothing because the advertisers are learning they can afford to pay more. And they sound pretty evil. But rewrite it this way:

This is great news for the Super Bowl: the cost of buying a commercial keeps going up even though they do nothing. Just wait for advertisers to be willing to pay more -- then skim off the increased earnings.

Honestly, perspective like the above is very much in order. Consider:

• Search advertising has long been undervalued. People still pay less than a dollar for some paid search ads and they obtain clients that will be with them for life. But few advertisers are calculating the lifetime value of search. Jakob doesn't appear to be consider this. The examples he gives are to the purchases made directly from a click on an ad. Do his B2B customers come back to the site directly the next time and buy? If so, the only reason they did so was because they found the site through search in the first place. If you don't factor that lifetime value, then you fail to understand how much you really can afford to pay.  
• Advertisers are getting smarter. Those who better measure conversion know they can pay more and they are. The search engines are to blame for this? They're simply seeing that their undervalued advertising medium is finally growing to what it really is worth. The real person to be upset with is that other advertiser. And the solution is to get smarter.  
• It's an open marketplace. Is Apple is a leech on consumers for overcharging for MP3 players that you can buy from others that work as well if not better but lack the Apple logo? The search engines aren't forcing people to buy ads. If advertisers can't afford to continue paying high prices, they won't. And when they don't, the prices will fall. The exceptions are if the search engine conspire in some way to force purchases (say they really do link buying ads to getting other types of listings) or when they set artificially high minimum bids (Google tried doing this but had to drop many because people weren't willing to pay).

So rather than "despite search engines, websites can make money," as Jakob says, the reality remains that because of search engines, plenty of web sites are making money without spending a dime, pence, euro, yen or whatever on search advertising.

I completely agree that anyone running a web site should heed Jakob's "search engine liberation" advice of alternative ways to promote a web site, such as considering RSS, email newsletters and so on. But this isn't suddenly new advice. Any long-time internet marketer would tell you not to depend just on search engines. Thinking "beyond search engines" has been the core of my basic tips since I put them up back in 1997:

Search engines are a primary way people look for web sites, but they are not the only way. People also find sites through word-of-mouth, traditional advertising, the traditional media, newsgroup postings, web directories and links from other sites. Many times, these alternative forms are far more effective draws than are search engines. The audience you want may be visiting a site that you can partner with or reading a magazine that you've never informed of your site. Do the simple things to best make your site relevant to search engines, then concentrate on the other areas.

It's all a matter of balance. Don't obsess over search engine listings, but don't ignore them, either. Do a variety of online marketing activities -- and do a variety of offline ones, as well. Search -- both paid and free -- is a component of any campaign. But it isn't something you should depend on, any more than you should depend on all television advertising, all print ads, all RSS ads or a strategy of no advertising at all. If you are not diversified, you'll have a weakness that might hit when you least expect it.

To conclude, no one should put all their eggs into any basket, search or otherwise. It's absolutely true that search engines are not the end all be all and that sites can thrive and survive without them. But many sites also can thrive and survive better by incorporating them into a diversified publicity campaign.

Search engines definitely can do more to help those with support on the organic side of things, which is especially needed since webmasters do indeed provide the content that the search engines depend on. The good news is that last year, we saw more changes and developments to give webmasters new tools than ever before.

Finally, ad prices will likely continue to rise, and different advertisers will react in various ways. John Battelle recently pointed at a blog suggesting that FTD might be nearing all it can afford to spend. But just today, we reported on a survey showing four out of five advertisers saying they can still afford to pay more, though the question of whether a plateau is being reached is raised. Then the latest Fathom report on keyword prices saw a continuing "downward spiral," as MediaPost put it. I haven't looked closely at the latest numbers, but the sample is so small (500 terms) that I'm generally wary on depending on it as a foolproof predictor.

From my part, I see two main issues with keyword prices going forward: Super Conversion Trackers & Brand Idiots.

Super Conversion Trackers are those who will indeed track a lifetime value of someone who comes to them from search. They'll understand that the initial purchase may lead to more and more purchases over time and feel comfortable paying multiples above competitors to gain a lead. That will push some out of the bidding. See Most Conversions Happen Offline; You Need To Measure These! for some further thoughts on this.

Brand Idiots are what some marketers think derisively of others who jump into bidding without linking it to a direct ROI target. They can screw up bidding on what seems to be "logical" or "fair" amount that most in the marketplace may assume. But brand idiots are part of that marketplace, and you can expect to see more of them.

Automakers Buy Up 80% Of Ad Space On Car Sites For 2006 from AdAge is a good example of this. It explains how automakers are going more and more online to extend their brands. Edmunds, a car research site, expects to take those brand dollars and buy more search as well as display ads to fuel that desire. That's big brand money that's going to be fueling those buys and putting pressure on others trying to compete.

Big Guys Crowd Out Little Guys in SEM Arena; Some Branding Focused Advertisers Willing to Spend "Whatever" It Takes and C'mon In Brand Owners, The Search Water's Fine has more on these type of moves.

Stuck in a bidding war? How To Get Out Of Bid Wars A Winner? over at our Search Engine Watch Forums may have some helpful advice if you're already tracking and improving conversions as much as possible and getting some brand idiot money is not an option.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our SEW Forums thread, Search Engine Leeches, Dependency & Losing Perspective.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:27 PM | Permalink

November 1, 2005

Web Site Measurement Hacks

Measuring the results of a search marketing campaign is a critical activity, but it's one that can be difficult or painful, especially if you're just getting started. Log file analysis tools, reports from paid search providers and other vendors can be both helpful and intimidating at the same time—especially if you're not really sure what you should be measuring.

A new book from web measurement guru Eric Peterson not only explains web analytics and measurement, it also shows you how to get the most from the array of tools and services available—even create your own system, should you like. I've got a full review of this excellent book in today's SearchDay article, Web Analytics, Demystified.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 6:13 PM | Permalink

October 4, 2005

Mastering Google AdWords

Google likes everyone to believe that using AdWords is a snap, requiring no more than five minutes and a credit card to get going. Seasoned search marketers know otherwise, understanding that creating a sponsored link is just one small aspect of managing a successful AdWords campaign.

Now we've got an excellent guide to AdWords written by Andrew Goodman, who's both an expert with the program on behalf of his search marketing clients, but also an astute and acerbic observer of Google's business practices. His new book gives us a concentrated dose of experience and insights that make a fascinating and highly valuable read. I've got a review of Andrew's new book in today's SearchDay article, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Google AdWords.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:00 AM | Permalink

October 3, 2005

Call Tracking Is For Everyone, Even If Pay Per Call Isn't

Honestly, all the hype over pay-per-call often makes me shake my head. Yes, it can be a simple way for people without web sites to get search-targeted traffic. But people who say they'd prefer a phone call rather than a web site visit because they can track and act on the call? Then just run an ad to a page with your phone number! That's cheaper than doing pay-per-call, and you can still get the call. Pay Per Call vs. Call Tracking: Walk Before You Run from Justin Sanger at ClickZ looks at this "walk before you run" approach in more depth. He rightly explains that pay per call is not the same as call tracking. Calls can be tracked without going into pay per call, and many would benefit by doing so.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:53 PM | Permalink

June 15, 2005

C'mon In Brand Owners, The Search Water's Fine

It's not all about conversions, in the search marketing game. I was at a conference two months ago where a brand marketer said he didn't care about conversion. He wanted brand impact and was willing to pay for it, to the horror and fear of the mostly conversion-driven audience.

Horror? Dump those big brand dollars into a marketplace mostly driven by conversions, and the pricing goes all out of whack -- at least for the conversion folks. But brand marketers remain wary of search for many reasons, in particular because it's a strange creature.

Brand Engagement Via Search Marketing from Kevin Lee at ClickZ provides some ideas to understand how search may fit in as part of the message, rather than the complete message. And conversion-driven folks, don't come after him from inviting those with the big brand money to throw everything off. After all, as he concludes, if you measure more than just the conversion, you might find you've got more to spend.

For more on that, see also:

• Search Worth More Than The Clickthrough
• Bids Going Up? Boost Conversion To Compete!
• Most Conversions Happen Offline; You Need To Measure These!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:59 PM | Permalink

May 17, 2005

Bids Going Up? Boost Conversion To Compete!

PPC Advertising Connects to Conversion Rate at ClickZ from Fredrick Marckini looks at why understanding your conversion rate -- and getting it higher -- means you'll stand a fighting chance as bid rates for terms continue to go up. And you'll do even better if you can factor in some additional factors that justify higher costs, even if they don't happen directly from conversion. That's touched on at the end of the column, but also see Search Worth More Than The Clickthrough and Most Conversions Happen Offline; You Need To Measure These! for more on this.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:04 AM | Permalink

May 13, 2005

Search Worth More Than The Clickthrough

Great news! Now TV ads will be charged on a performance basis, so if you don't see sales, you don't pay. Obviously that's absurd. TV ads build brand and do other things that lead to indirect sales. And so does search, which is why Gord Hotchkiss's uses that made-up TV pricing model to kick off his Search's Multiplier Effect: The Hidden Value of SEM article at MediaPost. If you only measure clickthrough and conversion from that, you might be missing the full value of search. My past Most Conversions Happen Offline; You Need To Measure These! looks at this issue more, with some related reading from Fredrick Marckini and others that underscores the need to measure the full value.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:19 AM | Permalink

May 9, 2005

So You've Attracted Searchers - Now What?

All too often it seems that search marketers have a sole objective of getting top-ten rankings in search results. While that's a noble goal, it's wasted effort if searchers click through to your web site and then don't do something—buy a product, sign up for your newsfeed, register for your conference—whatever your unique conversion opportunity happens to be.

A new book from ClickZ columnists Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg extends the concept of search marketing to a much more thorough, holistic approach to online merchandising that focuses on converting searchers to buyers. It's a terrific book, packed with great ideas and eminently practical tips for improving your overall search marketing and web site development efforts. For more, see my review in today's SearchDay article, Converting Searchers to Buyers.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:30 AM | Permalink

May 2, 2005

Back To Basics: Web Analytic Terms & Log File Analysis

What's the Score? Basic Web Analytic Terminology from Scottie Claiborne at Search Engine Guide is a nice refresher on some basic terms related to web site statistics and analytics. Hits versus page views, what referrer strings can show and so on. When that's whetted your appetite, Log file analysis for search engine optimization from Kalena and Jerry Jordan at Pandia digs in a bit deeper into the basics of key stats you'll want to monitor.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:45 PM | Permalink

Search Campaign On Hold, But Conversions Keep Happening!

Search Advertising and Conversion Lag Times from Fredrick Marckini at ClickZ looks at how a halted campaign still kept racking up conversions -- and why it's crucial to understand the lag time involved in a buying cycle, to better understand how well a campaign is working.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:33 PM | Permalink

March 31, 2005

Google Prefetch Will Autoload Some Results

Google released a new feature today for Firefox and Mozilla users that allows them to "prefetch" the first result from a serp into their browser even before clicking the result link. If you're interested in trying this out, it's an easy tweak. You'll find the instructions here.

The Google FAQ also includes this important piece of info:

With prefetching enabled, you may end up with cookies and web pages in your web browser's cache from web sites that you did not click on since prefetching happens automatically when you view Google search results pages. You can delete these files by clearing your browser's cache and cookies.

Webmasters will want to take a look at this info about how prefetch pages will be noted in user logs since a prefetched page doesn't necessarily mean the page is actually viewed.

The News.com article: Google enhances search for Firefox users, has more including comments from a few people about problems that prefetching pages might cause.

Prefetching content is not a new idea. In fact, a couple of months ago Browster, a plug-in that prefectches pages, received lots of buzz and press attention.

Most things that can save the user time are good ideas in my book. The only issue I have with prefetching only the first result is that many times the first result isn't the best result. However, due to the "principal of least effort" users take what they can get quickly (prefetching makes it even faster) without looking at other and possibly better results.

Btw, while we're talking about Google and a new service for Firefox, Philipp reports that yet another Firefox developer is now on the Google payroll.

Want to discuss? Join our forum thread, Google Prefetching for Mozilla Browsers.

Postscript: See also some further discussion with Google comments in this WebmasterWorld thread: Google Enables FireFox Prefetching.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:00 PM | Permalink

March 30, 2005

Can The Cookie Be Saved?

Crumbling Cookies Threaten SEM and Online Advertising from Kevin Lee at ClickZ looks at how a growing number of consumers eschewing cookies may make tracking conversions more difficult, thus impacting measuring search marketing effectiveness. He urges for various organizations to band together to save the cookie through education.

Want to discuss? Visit our forum thread, Protecting Cookies from Deletion.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:56 AM | Permalink

March 14, 2005

Looking At ClickTracks Optimizer

Jennifer Laycock does a rundown on key features of the new mid-range ClickTrack Optimizer product released in January. ClickTracks Optimizer Offers Must Have Reporting for Small Businesses is the title of her article on Search Engine Guide, and as you might guess, she loves the web analytics tool, as do I.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:01 PM | Permalink

March 7, 2005

Most Conversions Happen Offline; You Need To Measure These!

In his ClickZ article, Nonconverting Keywords and the Search Continuum, Fredrick Marckini is stunned that some comScore and Overture research about conversions released at the end of last year hasn't been more widely discussed. It should have been, because it revealed how important tracking offline conversions is to search marketers.

The research was initially released during the holiday shopping season and just as many were taking time off from work, which is why it got lost in the shuffle for many (we did blog it). But the good news is that plenty of people heard about it again during the recent SES show, where it was constantly coming up on various panels.

As Fredrick recaps, 92 percent of all conversions were found to take place OFFLINE. That means anyone who is not measuring offline conversions may be missing out on a big chunk of how successful a search campaign is.

Knowing this is critical, as prices rise. If you fully understand how things convert, then you better understand how much you can afford to pay -- which can make the difference in letting you bid more when your competitor, with poor conversion tracking, may decide to opt-out.

Fredrick's article runs through some tips and observations from analysts on how to ensure the offline conversion happens. Those are useful, but I think the bigger point is that they already happen but people aren't attributing them to their search campaigns.

The first part of his article, blogged briefly already, covers some issues to consider in terms of understand that many searches may happen before a purchase occurs, so you need to consider a wide range of terms to target.

Another thing to consider came up when comScore discussed the research on our The Search Landscape panel. Of the remaining 8 percent of conversions that happen online, the vast majority of those DO NOT happen within the same search.

In other words, I think it was like 1 percent of people sit down, do a search, visit a site and then purchase in the same surfing session. Most do a search, then do other things, then eventually return to do other searches and finally do a purchase over a period of time that can take months. So that means measuring your online conversions over a long period of time is also crucial.

I moderated that Search Landscape panel and ended up summarizing things for someone who asked a question about how conversions with search marketing differ from other types of marketing in this way:

• Not all conversions happen at once online, so you've got to measure over a long period of time, or you'll miss some.  
• Not all conversions happen online, so if you don't measure offline in some way, you'll miss more.  
• If you feel some branding happens with search, you want to measure that as well in some way. Doing so may help you understand that you can afford to pay even more to gain an initial visitor.

Some other reading along these lines to consider from past blog posts:

• Searcher Behavior Prior to Making A Purchase
• Non-Converting Searches May Count, Too
• Study: Impact Of Engines on Consumer Buying
• Minority Of Searchers Make Up Majority Of Searches

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:57 AM | Permalink

February 22, 2005

Web Analytics Gets Trade Group

Trying to understand activity at your web site? Know what converts, what search engines send you traffic, links that are valuable? Mining this information is all part of web analytics -- and that industry just gained a new trade group to spread news and information about the field. The Web Analytics Association provides more information at its web site. See also this ClickZ story: Web Analytics Trade Group Formed. Want to discuss? Visit our forum thread, Web Analytics Association (WAA) Trade Group Formed.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:59 PM | Permalink

February 7, 2005

Non-Converting Searches May Count, Too

Fredrick Marckini revisits a recent comScore study that found for every search that results in a sale, 12 other "non-converting" search will also happen. He argue that because of this, it's important to stick with both non-converting searches as well as those that convert, as part of a campaign. More in the ClickZ article: Nonconverting Keywords and the Search Continuum, Part 1

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:22 PM | Permalink

January 28, 2005

Threats To Referrer Info & Workarounds To Loss

Referrer information is priceless to search marketers and others. It can help you understand exactly which search engines were used to reach your web site and even the exact terms used. Our forum thread Referral ID strings and referrer info, kicked off by member Ammon Johns (Black Knight), looks at how referrer tracking is getting harder as concerns over spyware begins to strip out standard information that browsers have provided long before spyware was a concern. What workarounds exist? Could the search engines themselves automatically append data to the name of a URL they send users, which would provide referrer information in another way? For more on referrer information, see this past article for SEW members, Keywords Used To Find Your Web Site.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:29 AM | Permalink

January 25, 2005

Getting Search and Offline Marketing to Play Nice

As effective and popular as search marketing is, it's still often an afterthought, typically bolted on to other marketing efforts without much thought given to synergies or cross-promotional tactics. That's a mistake, and one that more and more companies are grappling with.

Today's SearchDay article, Integrating Search with Other Marketing, covers a recent Search Engine Strategies session where panelists offered recommendations for harmonizing search with other types of marketing, touching on budget, people and operational issues.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 9:14 AM | Permalink

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