SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

October 8, 2009

Eye Tracking Without The Eyes - AttentionWizard.com Beta

Eye tracking studies can be a very valuable tool that can help identify significant problems with your website or landing page. Unfortunately eye tracking requires expensive and specialized hardware and software to be used, and live test subjects to observe and measure.

In-page Web analytics can also provide detailed heatmaps of people's clicking and scrolling behavior. But these also require the landing page to be properly tagged and measure the behavior of real site visitors. This data takes time to collect and can only be gathered from "live" pages.

Recent advances in the study of computational attention and human visual processing now offer a new and exciting alternative. Computer algorithms can be used to simulate where people will look during the first few seconds of interacting with your site and create a detailed attention heatmap of your landing page.

This approach has several advantages:

  • Instant results - upload an image of the landing page and get your answer
  • High degree of accuracy - 75%+ correlation with eye tracking and mouse tracking
  • Works with page mock-ups - can be used with in-progress mock-ups before the page goes live

SiteTuners.com has recently announced the launch of a FREE private beta program (limited to the first 5000 sign-ups) for it new AttentionWizard.com visual attention simulation tool. Free daily heatmaps will be available for all participants for the length of the beta program. A paid version with per-image based pricing is expected by Q1 2010 for individuals, companies, and interactive agencies.

Posted by Tim Ash at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

August 4, 2009

Tweetblocker - Blocked!

Folks, the next time you come up with a great new Twitter tool and you want to get the word out to all of the world, you might want to consider if you're website is capable of handling the GARGANTUAN amount of traffic it might receive from eager to try first timers!

Case in point: Tweetblocker

A story recently published in Mashable let the caboose out early on this one and try logging on to www.tweetblocker.com and...well, good luck. It's hit or miss (at present). Tweetblocker is a free tool for Twitter users and application developers. Using advanced filtering, the app catalogs and rank the top spammers on Twitter, allowing users to easily identify spammers in the group of users they are following.

I'd love to tell you more about it but I can't access it given the mad Twitter rush to the Tweetblocker.com site. In the meantime, you might consider untweeps.com. This cool app eliminates those followers of yours who haven't tweeted in a set period of time. Try going back 30 days and see how many of your followers haven't tweeted. If this perturbs you any, then untweep them and presto, they no longer are following you.

Posted by Byron Gordon at 7:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

July 27, 2009

Category Vs. Product Pages: Which One Tests Better? (You Might Be Surprised)

When Al Scillitani set out to do a little landing page testing, he was convinced he knew which page would win. But when the results came in, he was suprised.

Scillitani conducted an A/B test to see whether category pages or product pages would test better. He used email and homepage promotions to drive traffic to his test. He guessed that product pages would fare better. But it was the category pages that won the day.

The promotion involved 6 products that were on sale. In test A, the image of the 6 products was broken down to link individually to the product page. There was also a link to the category page. In test B, the image was kept as a whole and linked directly to the category page.

The email results didn't show much of a difference in conversion rates, but the order size was 40% higher for test B.

Meanwhile, test B was also the winner for the homepage promotion, but in a different way. The conversion rate was 15% higher and brought in 10% higher revenues. However, test A actually did produce a higher order size, by 5%.

So, why did the category page test so well?

"The products we were offering were way below our competitors. I feel this is the reason B performed better," wrote Scillitani on his blog. "Once the B people clicked and went to the category page, they not only saw the product they clicked on, but 100's of other products priced way below the competition. This combined with the "only a few days and limited quantities" messaging triggered more sales."

Of course, you can't use this test and assume it will work for your site.

"Run your own A/B tests. It is the only way to really evaluate what works and what doesn't work based on your product prices, product availability, the marketing message, and your customers, concluded Scillitani. "There are very few absolutes when it comes to online marketing."

Full disclosure: Al Scillitani was the boss of me at a North Carolina-based search engine marketing firm a few years back. I still meet him for coffee at Starbucks, where everybody knows his name.

Do you have a search marketing story to share? Contact me here.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 17, 2009

Confessions of an SEO Copywriter (You don't need a lot of copy)

One of our very own SEW experts, Tim Ash is featured on the cover of the summer edition of Online Strategy Magazine. In it, he talks about the short attention span of web users and how too much copy or flashy graphics can detract from conversion goals.

These are things Tim has learned as a landing page consultant. And in your gut, you know he's right. You skim web pages. You abandon pages that are difficult to navigate easily. You don't feel like reading a dissertation about a new pair of shoes. Do they look good? Yes. Where's the "Add to Cart" button?

You might think it strange for a copywriter and blogger such as myself to even talk about the idea that there can be such a thing as too much copy. After all, we copywriters often charge by the word. More words = more money. (Even when we charge by the hour, longer copy means more hours = more $.)

But I have a confession to make. I know you have a short attention span. I know you're probably skimming this post right now. Many of you comment without reading the entire post you're commenting on.

I know that I need to bust out 125-250 words to attract the Googlebot while making copy work with the design and also use my magical psychological powers to compel you to click the purchase button.

I like to use bullet points (when clients allow, which is sadly not often enough) and get straight to the point because I assume that readers are smart and don't need every nuanced point explained to them.

Of course, you know what they say about assuming.

That's why landing page testing is so crucial. Don't just assume your assumptions are correct. Test them. Develop pages designed around best practices and then test, test, TEST!

Despite all of the above, there are still some niches where a good deal of copy is necessary. Generally, the higher the price or the commitment involved in a purchasing decision, the more education a consumer will want. They get their desired information through copy. But even then, there could be niches where a busy businessman simply wants someone to call them. He'd rather chat it out and then decide. That's when short copy and a contact form might be needed instead.

The only way you'll know for sure is through landing page testing. I can't emphasize this enough. Yes, analytics are good. Yes, keeping an eye on your campaigns are good. But you won't know if you could squeeze even more money out your ad campaigns until you test.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

July 15, 2009

BingTweets - integrated twitter search

Microsoft is upping the ante in Twitter search with its new (though still in BETA mode) BingTweets. In cooperation with Federated Media and Twitter, this new Twitter search tool is supposed to herald the beginnings of an integrated Twitter search. Bing's search results are at the center of the site, while a real-time Twitter feed appears in a sidebar on the left. I tried using it but quickly found it limited in scope. When you try searching via bing, the Twitter feed is not updating to reflect the new Bing search you just implemented. Instead, the Twitter feed is updating and featuring the latest tweets on the trendiest twitter topics (in a column up at the top of the page).

But wouldn't it be nice if Bing's search engine tapped directly into Twitter's search engine and gave you real-time Tweets on your specific search request. Too much to ask for at this stage, I guess.

Nevertheless, Microsoft's foray into Twitter search reflects heavily upon the need for, in the words of Gord Hotchkiss, CEO of Enquiro, a need for an "arms race" in search. And if you want to hear more about what Gord has to say on the topic, have a listen to this interview I conducted with him:

Posted by Byron Gordon at 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 2, 2009

7 Marketing Lessons from the Late, Great Pitchman Billy Mays

Like many of you, I was saddened to learn on Sunday that Billy Mays died at the age of 50. My family has been watching the Discovery Channel series Pitchmen, featuring Mays and fellow pitchman Anthony Sullivan.

I had been planning this post for a few weeks, but there has been so much search news to cover, I haven't had the time. Now, I'm publishing it to honor the tried and true techniques Billy Mays used to sell millions of products. Mays' style may not be your cup of tea, but the foundational concepts behind his pitches are something every search marketer can learn from. His incredible success was proof of that.

So, without further ado, here are 7 marketing lessons from the late, great Billy Mays.

1. Have a solid product. On the show, Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan saw hundreds of inventors who want their products sold through direct marketing television. Mays and Sullivan only chose the products they believed in. Even then, they tested them to make sure they worked and met safety standards.

2. Listen to consumers. When considering a new product, Mays and Sullivan often took it to the streets. They had people try out the products and give their honest response. This is one of the first indicators of whether or not a product might do well. Paying attention to what is said about your brand or product online can similarly be very informative to your marketing campaigns.

3. Show how your product can make people's lives easier. One of Mays' most popular products was Oxyclean, allows you to wash colors and whites together. Before the ShamWow, Billy Mays hawked the Zorbeez, a shammy towel that absorbed tons of water and could save tons of money on paper towels. Even non-infomercial products are successful when they do this. Think about the Flip video camera. It's simple and easy to use. It makes capturing moments and uploading them to YouTube very easy. This should be a key element of your campaigns.

4. Include a Call-to-Action. Billy Mays knew this well. He was always "doubling the offer," urging people to act now. Give people incentive to buy your product now. A great incentive for online retailers is offering free shipping.

5. Run a small test before launching a broad campaign. When Mays developed a commercial for a new product, it was run in a few markets to see if it was something consumers would buy. The profit margins had to be there in order to expand. Many times, if the product doesn't do well, they had to stop the campaign to prevent further losses. Test a few keywords before running a broad campaign with tons of longtail keywords. You may need to adjust your campaign or product, but you'll want to preserve your marketing budget in the meantime.

6. Conduct A/B Testing on Successful Ad Campaigns. For the Awesome Auger, a product that was doing very well, Mays shot a second commercial. It looked almost exactly like the original one, but the framing of Mays in the camera was slightly different. That slight cosmetic change was a big one. An A/B test showed sales rose even higher!

7. Watch the competition. When Vince Offer began hawking the ShamWow and the SlapChop, Billy Mays was pissed. These were products he had already been advertising in the form of Zorbeez and QuickChop. Offer's products did very well, selling millions. So, Mays shot new commercials in order to gain back his market share. Pay attention to your competition. Watch your rankings and your paid search positions. Never stop optimizing and adjusting your paid search campaigns. Stay on your toes to maintain or even grow your sales.

What did you learn from Billy Mays? Share your lessons in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 17, 2009

To tweet or not to tweet?

I came across a recent study by Harvard Business which sums up Twitter 's "current condition" as such: "Twitter resembles more of a one-way, one-to-many publishing service more than a two-way, peer-to-peer communication network." Hmm, surprise to some?

The study also discovered that "the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets." Now this isn't surprising to me. Those tweeters with thousands upon thousands of followers are tweeting on a daily basis, heck on an hourly basis! It makes me feel that my paltry 150+ followers aren't getting as much twitter love from me as they should. But therein lays my Twitter dilemma. I don't tweet as much as I'd like to. And this is because I'm so busy at work, including tweeting for other clients. And at the end of the work day, the last thing I care about is tweeting. And yet I love Twitter! But I'm lucky if I get off more than one to two tweets a day from my own personal account. And I rarely (if ever) hear back from my followers.

Now if I actively engaged my twitter followers, tweeting throughout the day, would they respond to my tweets with more affection and gusto? Is twitter akin to life itself? "The more you put into it, the more you get out of it."

I understand Twitter's marketing power for companies like @WholeFoods, @Starbucks, @SouthWestAir. And companies such as Dell have definitely seen a bump in sales thanks to Twitter. And these companies tweet bunches. They get lots of feedback from their followers. Maybe this is why Twitter is indeed a number's game. More than eight in ten Twitter users, most of whom represent small businesses, expect their company's use of the popular microblogging tool to increase in the next six months, according to an informal survey by MarketingProfs.

Visit twitterholic to see the latest top 100 tweeters based on followers. Oh yeah, follow me at @ByronG. I promise I won't inundate you with tweets. But if you encourage me to tweet more, I just may. :-)

Posted by Byron Gordon at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 12, 2009

Twitter and the Wild West

Trying to keep up with the latest Twitter applications can be daunting. Dozens of new Twitter apps have come out over the past year. Twitter knew that making its API freely available would actually provide leverage for its own survival and keep the excitement flowing about this powerful social media tool. I recently attended the 140 Twitter Conference. At least 8 new Twitter apps in various stages of production (AKA, not quite ready for prime time) were presented, with names like Twilk, Flaggpole and Jobaba. It never ends folks!

And then I receive an email about this new automated Twitter app called Twitterxtreme. Red Alert! We know how controversial automated tweeting is as trumpeted by such Twitterati like Guy Kawasaki. I noticed Twitterxtreme also has spelling errors and run-on sentences right on its homepage, so it sort of raises a few eyebrows about the product's value proposition. Although if truth be told, I don't have a problem with tweeters who send back automated replies when you first start following them (I do it).

But what I hope to plug with each new post is an effective Twitter tool that allows you to tweet without compromising your ethics! I'd like to start-off by giving a shout to the makers of Twitc. This is a super easy to use app where you can upload vids and pics to the site using your existing Twitter account. It acts as host for your media, which you can then tweet! For high-end photographers, TwitC should help you out immensely in getting your latest work up and out into the Twittersphere. For YouTubers, you can easily import videos via URLs. Although still in beta mode, its programming appears top-notch. Once you log-in, click on your dashboard and a list of options appears, allowing you to upload vids, create new albums to organize your pics, and add album names and covers. Give it a try!

Posted by Byron Gordon at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

November 26, 2008

Preparing for the Worst: Bad Online Economic Data Just in Time for Black Friday

It's the day before Thanksgiving, where you show up at the office, but you're really thinking about tomorrow's good meal. You've worked hard to set up those search marketing campaigns to run strong on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

So, I really hate to bring you the bad news, but keeping it from you would be a disservice.

Let's just rip off the bandaid.

First up, eMarketer has lowered its projections for online advertising spending for 2009. The new growth number is 8.9%, down from 14.5% projected in August. They're also expecting a long recovery, projecting 2010 growth to be just 10.9%. In five years, things will still be slower on the uptake (than in recent years). Projections for 2013 growth are at 13.5%. Silver lining: some of the tapering off is likely due to market saturation and not just the economy.

Next, eBay's traffic is declining. In January of 2007, eBay saw 62 million unique visitors. Last month, they saw just 49 million. Sure, not all of that was due to the economy, but dipping below 50 million can't be good for eBay.

I saved the worst for last. comScore has released data showing that online consumer spending for the first 23 days of November was down 4% from last year. That's not a slow down in growth people, that's flat out shrinkage.

But I'm not a total Scrooge. Unemployment numbers were better than expected this week. And at least one Slate columnist explains why fears of another Great Depression could be overblown (let's hope he's right!).

As we overdose on turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, let us not forget the ultimate strategy for marketing, business and life in general: Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Related Reading: Selling SEO During an Economic Downturn E-commerce Growth Slows to Just 1% in October 2008 Online Advertising Networks Struggle As Industry Growth Slows

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is Your Site Browser-Ready for the Holidays?

Does your site maintain its usability across many browsers? If not, you could end up leaving money on the table this holiday season. Browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, and Safari (which comes standard on Macs) now make up about 30% of the browser market. Firefox alone enjoys 20% of the overall market share.

Matt Poepsel, vice president of Gomez, Inc., whose services test and monitor the performance of websites says that the increase of non-Internet Explorer browsers could cause some e-tailers grief.

"This year more than ever, websites can look and function differently from one browser to another. Online retailers can no longer assume that all shoppers are using Internet Explorer. They must ensure their sites look good and work well across a wide range of browsers - or risk frustrating customers and losing the sale."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 21, 2008

Landing Pages: Test Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

Try as Washington might, the economy is bad and there's no way around it. Budgets are being slashed and workforces are being cut.

It is widely thought that search advertising will be one of the last to feel the brunt of the economy's affect on advertising.

Still, search marketers are faced with pressure to keep the sales coming in during these tough times. Google Website Optimizer's Tom Leung says, "It's like trying to get your car to go the same amount of distance on less gas."

The good news is that you can help improve your search marketing campaign's miles-per-gallon with Landing Page Testing.

When marketers use landing page testing, their conversions almost always increase. And right now, that might mean maintaining - or even increasing - sales.

"Landing page testing is a continual process and should be focused on even more when the economy is down," says Al Scillitani, Internet Marketing Manager at Global Golf. "We have increased conversions dramatically by simply moving category links from one location to another, adding different promotional verbiage (dollars off vs percent off), testing different call to actions, etc."

Eric J. Hansen, president and founder of SiteSpect Inc., a provider of multivariate testing services, agrees. He compared landing page testing to plugging holes in a leaky bucket.

“During an uncertain economy, it is crucial for online marketers to test and optimize their landing pages. Landing page effectiveness is typically measured by bounce-rate – the percentage of visitors who hit the back-button instead of browsing deeper into the site. Average landing page bounce rates range from 50% to 70%. Multivariate testing enables marketers to greatly reduce landing page bounce rates; in effect, driving more visitors into the site and towards the key conversion points that generate revenue."

Not only can you generate more revenue from increased conversions, but you can save money on your search advertising campaign as well.

"Optimizing your landing pages also lifts ROI from pay-per-click advertising, since fewer dollars are wasted on bounced traffic," said Hansen.

Complicating matters is the ever-changing search landscape. Oliver Chaine, CEO and Founder of magnify360, a behavioral marketing firm, says, "Landing page testing is an absolute necessity today both because PPC has the highest ROI in this climate of shrinking budgets and because of Google's recent changes to the way it calculates quality score. As of last month, Google began calculating marketers' quality score against every single impression. That means that your CPC and your rankings now rely on the relevancy of your landing pages to every single visitor."

It may even be wise to spend money to invest in landing page optimization. The costs could be offset by increased conversions.

"The best way to ensure that relevancy is through testing and optimizing your landing page content and ensuring that your [Landing Page Optimization] provider can test and serve the right variation in real-time to each and every visitor," said Chaine. "The major upside of an investment in testing however, is that with a low CPC, you can reinvest your savings in outbidding your competitors and completely dominating search."

Google's Leung compares investing in landing page testing to winterizing a house. You might have to spend money making your house more efficient, but in the long run, it will ultimately save you money.

Also, Don't forget that landing page testing can also help influence other marketing campaigns both online and off.

"Our landing page testing results help us in many other ways. We use what we have learned for email campaigns and our paid search ads and paid search landing pages. We have seen an increase in email open rates and email and paid search click thru rates all leading to higher conversions and revenue," said Al Scillitani.

Another way to think about landing page testing is what happens if you don't do it. Google's Leung says marketers who aren't doing testing are missing the boat and leaving sales on the table.

During these uncertain times, that certainly could leave marketers forever holding their peace.

Want to learn about Landing Page Testing? Read Bryan Eisenberg's Always Be Testing or our own Tim Ash's Landing Page Optimization.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yahoo Enables Zip Code Geotargeting

Want to target people in a certain zip code with your Yahoo search marketing campaign? Well, now you can.

Sure, you might get fewer clicks, but clicks aren't the end game. Conversions are. If you are looking to target audiences in certain locations, then serving up ads to specific geographic areas is key.

To do so in Yahoo, following the following steps:

  • Click the “Campaigns” tab.
  • Choose a campaign.
  • Click the “Campaign Settings” drop-down located in the upper right-hand corner (above the graph).
  • Select “Geo-Targeting.”

You'll be able to geotarget in the following ways:

  • Entire Market
  • Country
  • State/Province
  • DMA
  • City
  • ZIP code

What do you think of zip code-enabled geotargeting? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Related Reading: Yahoo's Urban Mapping License to Aid Geographic Targeting Urban Mapping Unveils Geotargeting and Local Search Platform Google's Greenberger Ties Obama, McCain Victories to Adwords Spend

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 6, 2008

Click Forensics Releases New Trademark Tracking Tool

Click Forensics has announced a new feature for its solution for advertisers. The feature enables brands to identify and track campaigns that are unlawfully using their trademarked terms. Click Forensics says the trend of trademark infringement in pay-per-click advertising and growing, and marketers need the ability to address the problem more quickly.

“The impact of trademark infringement in search advertising goes beyond consumer annoyance,” said Paul Pellman, CEO of Click Forensics. “It's affecting the advertising budgets of major brands as they're forced to spend more money to get the high-quality search traffic that is rightly theirs. We're helping to change that by giving brands a tool they can use to fight back.”

What do you think of the new feature? Let us know in the comments.

Related Reading: Lycos Partners with Click Forensics to Improve PPC Quality

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 17, 2008

If Search Is Recession-Proof, Watch Out For Newbie Bidders

Reprise Media Partner Joshua Stylman wrote a piece about search advertising and the impending recession detailing how search should be the last advertising method to have spend cut backs. Add the fact that search is more measurable and it seems the obvious way things should develop.

In another article looking at the situation, Search Mojo warns to watch out for the newbie search marketers that could increase bid amounts with overly aggressive minimum bids.

This could be a very real problem and I will definitely be using some of their tips to counter the situation.

Posted by Frank Watson at 4:10 PM | Permalink

March 28, 2008

Wordtracker Enhance Their Free Trial Offer

For the first time Wordtracker 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.

Entitled 'Profit from Keywords', the videos are designed to help new webmasters get the most out of keyword research. The short 5 minute videos are accessible to complete novices to search engine optimisation but detailed enough to provide a useful resource for in-house experts & agencies to educate their brand owners & clients.

At the recent SES in London, Wordtracker CMO Ken McGaffin raved about the results of "keyword creativity" seminars he has been leading with household brands that were revealing unique market insights into both offline and online customer acquisition and retention strategies. By including other non-SEO staff and stakeholders in the keyword research process, he found that no two seminars produced the same results and these companies were broadening their online vision overnight.

"Wordtracker has always considered educating our clients a prime remit which is why we launched the Wordtracker Academy last year," said McGaffin. "Clients or potential clients need to know the various ways that keyword research can enhance their business online. At the start this can be especially daunting for SMEs, so the videos provide an easy step by step process so that businesses can get up to speed quickly."

Every SEM expert understands the value of educating the market, but it's no secret that as an industry we've never done it very well. Ken hopes that these videos will help small and medium sized businesses nip the cost of mistakes early in the SEM campaign implementation stages. After all, who wants to rank for terms that no one searches for?

Posted by Jonathan Allen at 7:33 AM | Permalink

March 27, 2008

Conversion Rates & The Value Of Outsourcing SEM/SEO

I recently got my hands on Marketing Sherpa's newly released Landing Page Handbook. This detailed guide is packed full of industry information and practical case studies.

One of the things that jumped out at me was a table of conversion rate averages for different marketing tactics. The survey data was drawn from over 5000 active online marketers in a variety of settings.

In-house managed PPC Search - 3.84% Outsourced managed PPC Search - 5.40% Difference: 40%

In-house Natural Search Optimization - 2.62% Outsourced Natural Search Optimization - 4.76% Difference: 80%

As you can see, the outsourced conversion rates are much higher. Before I go any further, I must admit that this is not a scientific sample, and that self-selecting biases of various kinds are bound to obscure these results. We are not given any breakdown by industry or company sizes, or other critical information. However, at a high level the data makes perfect sense, since agencies must perform better to justify their fees and keep their client's loyalty and business.

Agencies that are specialists in a particular area see a wide cross-section of accounts and industries among their clients and should be able to do a better job. This is not a slam at their hard-working and capable in-house counterparts. It is an acknowledgment that our industry moves very fast, and unless you have a whole organization focused on keeping up with the changes, it is very difficult to stay up on the latest developments.

Marketing activities are the engine of growth for a company. They are not administrative cost centers. Many companies mistakenly try to save a little money by running their programs in-house. They do not realize the real cost is in the lost opportunities that they can not capitalize on. If your in-house program is profitable, that is not enough - you must consider the scale of your program and always question how much money you might be leaving on the table. Giant conversion rate differences such as the above can be turned into strategic weapons that let you soundly trounce your competition.

So next time you consider the in-source / outsource decision, consider opportunity as well as direct costs.

Posted by Tim Ash at 2:59 PM | Permalink

November 12, 2007

SEW Experts: The Future of Search: Strategy, Execution, Evolution

These days, search marketers seem to be filled with high anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and doubt. In today's Search Ads column, "The Future of Search: Strategy, Execution, Evolution," Matt Spiegel dispels a few myths, and offers advice to put these concerns in perspective.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

November 7, 2007

Ajax and Search Engines

The Google Webmaster blog has a post today about how to develop search engine friendly sites, even though they use Ajax.

One of the things that the post reinforces is that we still live in a world where crawlers have problems with Ajax and Javascript. They do include a nugget on the optimum way to help Ajax and static HTML links coexist:

When creating your links, format them so they'll offer a static link as well as calling a Javascript function. That way you'll have the Ajax functionality for Javascript users, while non-Javascript users can ignore the script and follow the link. For example:

<a href=”ajax.htm?foo=32” onClick=”navigate('ajax.html#foo=32'); return false”>foo 32</a>

Note that the static link's URL has a parameter (?foo=32) instead of a fragment (#foo=32), which is used by the Ajax code. This is important, as search engines understand URL parameters but often ignore fragments.

Basically, the code fragment above presents a static link to the search engine, but still follows your desired Ajax path through the use of the onClick function.

Our own advice to people who want to build tools, or have other interesting uses for Ajax, is that it's a great thing to do. In the increasingly social web, usability and site experience is playing a bigger and bigger role in driving traffic, and yes, in driving links to the site.

Don't be afraid to leap in and create such tools. Just make sure you still leave a trail that the crawler can follow.

Posted by at 11:06 AM | Permalink

October 16, 2007

Reservation Road: A Study in how NOT to launch a movie on the 'net

By Carrie Hill, SEW Expert, Little Biz

Our Editor at SearchEngineWatch, Kevin Heisler, threw down the gauntlet – he wants the blog contributors and SEW Experts to collaborate on a project. The goal? We need to "get the word out" about Reservation Road, a new feature film from FocusFeatures.com and director Terry George starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo.

After poking around and seeing what's already existing around the 'net? We found the studio to be lacking a few basic "musts" for setting their film up for success in the online market and blogosphere.

Homepage

First of all, there is no site dedicated solely to the movie and the news surrounding the movie. When you visit the site "ReservationRoad.net" you're redirected to the FocusFeatures.com homepage that talks about a variety of movies they're producing. If you select the link for "Reservation Road," you're taken to a page with a note saying "website coming soon" and a pic of the movie poster – oops.

MySpace

The film didn't have a MySpace page – something I think is probably a must for any movie that wants to attract a large audience. If you look at the homepage of MySpace today, you'll see a huge layout and ad for the new National Treasure movie starring Nicholas Cage – score one for Disney.

I set up a MySpace page for Reservation Road and threw some movie trailer clips on and a few photos. That seems to be another issue, as there aren't that many great photos out about the movie for people to share and talk about. I found a few here and there, and there is a photo gallery at FocusFeatures.com – but the photos aren't really promotional, just movie stills and somewhat dull.

Search

Because there are so many varied critical opinions associated with movies, I think it's important to have good search engine saturation from the get-go. To be honest, Reservation Road doesn't deliver. I just did a Google query (see below) for "Reservation Road" and a new news item is showing in the #1 position Рbasically a review saying it's clich̩ and to skip it from MSNBC Рoops again.

You can also see Focus Features is buying PPC ads (again, see below). This is great but the ad isn't really saying what the movie is about and who is starring. For a movie with little to no buzz, my opinion is they should really be talking about who is starring, what it's about and some other text about the Oscar buzz I've been hearing about but can't seem to find online.

So – what are the lessons here?

1. Be prepared and have a site ready to go and live at least a week before your film premieres – I'd probably even have a site as soon as you have a title and put updates on filming, timeline and some blog posts from the stars of the film to age the domain and the "power" it can create.

2. You're going to get some bad reviews, that's the nature of show business – so be ready and have your film saturated across the web with news items, press releases, Web site mentions, and social media blitzes (MySpace et. al.)

3. A new movie is like a new brand – you need to get it out there, use paid search to your advantage and keep in mind that you have limited real estate available to get your point across.

We'll keep you updated on our progress and if (and when) you've seen the movie, let us know what you thought about it at the Reservation Road MySpace page.

Posted by at 5:22 PM | Permalink

August 15, 2007

Dynamic URLs and Crawlers

Matt Cutts puts up another post - this time providing a glossary of URL terms. At the end of the post he talks about the difference between static URLs and dynamic URLs, and correctly tells us: "A dynamic url is a document that requires the webserver to do some computation before returning the web document".

He also notes that many people define a dynamic URL as being one with parameters on the end of it. This is an outgrowth of the fact that many dynamic pages are generated using the parameters at indices into a database, to help the web application find the right content to display. However, parameters on the end of the URL do not necessarily mean that the page is dynamic. In addition, the lack of parameters does not necessarily mean that the page is not dynamic. These are truly separate things.

Related to this, there has long been a myth out there that search engine crawlers don't like dynamic web pages. A better way to say it is that search engine crawlers don't really like lots of parameters on URLs. For one thing, the parameters may be confused with session IDs, and if that happens your crawl is going to get all messed up.

When we sites with lots of parameters on the URL, we often urge them to remap those URLs into something that looks more folder based (e.g. ?id=1234&prodid=4321 get mapped into /auto-parts/carburetors, or something along those lines). This is easily done on Apache servers using your .htaccess file.

Dynamic web pages are perfectly fine. All that is really required is that any time you to go a given URL, your web application will serve up the same content over and over again. As long as this is the case, and your URL is clean looking, the crawler will have no problem with your dynamic web page.

Posted by at 9:27 AM | Permalink

July 25, 2007

Intent and Extent

One of the themes that has emerged at the recent conferences I have been to, is the notion of "Intent and Extent". The premise is that there are a variety of tactics that are perceived to be spammy. One of these is using hidden text and/or keyword stuffing as recently blogged about by Matt Cutts. Other well know no-nos include cloaking, swapping links en masse, purchasing links, etc.

However, there is general agreement that for nearly every tactic associated with black hat behavior, there are also scenarios where the same tactic might be used on your site in a legitimate manner. Let's give four examples of black hat techniques that are sometimes used for legitimate reasons:

  1. Cloaking, also known as IP delivery: By definition, this is the delivery of different content to users than the search engine bots. However, IP delivery is a common method for delivering foreign language versions of sites to visitors come from foreign IP addresses.
  2. Swapping Links: As we know last Summer's Big Daddy update resulted in the demotion of sites that had a high percentage of sites implemented as reciprocal links. This was not a penalty, so much as a discounting of link value. Net-net - you should trade links with sites that are highly relevant to yours if it makes sense from a business and editorial prespective on your site.
  3. Purchasing links: Nothing wrong with it, but, if Google determines that are doing it for purposes of manipulating rankings, look out. Outright banishment is a possibility for this one. However, buying advertising for traffic and/or branding reasons is a legit practice.
  4. Hidden text: How I am going to justify this one? Simple, there are CMS systems out there that use coding methods that tend to embed hidden text in the web pages they create. This is not intended as a spam technique, but it is a coding technique of some sort. Point is that it emerges from the CMS implementation, not any bad intent.

There are many more examples of these types of scenarios. So what is a poor search engine to do? The answer is that they attempt to evaluate the intent of the use of the technique, and the extent to which it is used. If their evaluation leads them to believe that the intent is not bad, then that counts in your favor. They also evaluate the extent of the use of such techniques. In principle, one small transgression carries a lot less risk than massive and continual transgressions.

Regardless of what they might say, in my experience the search engines attempt to make the right decision. But the key word here is "attempt". Using these techniques does come with significant risk, no matter what your intent is, or the extent to which you use it. Even if your use of "spammy techniques" is in fact for completely legit reasons, I'd still proceed with extreme caution.

Posted by at 11:20 AM | Permalink

June 22, 2007

Advanced Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Dave Davis of redfly marketing has an interesting post that gets into great detail about how to make the most of dynamic keyword insertion in Google AdWords.

The article starts with the basics, but pretty quickly gets into a much higher level of detail. One of the more intriguing parts of this article is the various forms of manipulating capitalization:

  1. keyword - No capitalization, all word(s) are in lower case
  2. Keyword - The first word is capitalized
  3. KeyWord - Every word is capitalized
  4. KEYword - Every letter in first word is capitalized
  5. KEYWord -Every letter in the first word AND the first letter of the second
  6. KEYWORD - Every letter is capitalized

Dynamic keyword insertion is a great concept, but challenging to do well. Precise control over the capitalization, and understanding how to make this work to your advantage can be a big key to success.

Posted by at 9:00 AM | Permalink

April 17, 2007

Today's Featured Expert Columns

In case any of you missed it, we recently launched a new series of daily columns, with expert writers covering several topics in search marketing. You can sign up to receive the latest SEW Experts headlines via XML/RSS feeds, or subscribe to each column individually to receive email newsletters. We will send these as each column publishes, beginning May 1.

Today's featured columns are:

Organic Search by Mark Jackson of Vizion Interactive Compliance Continued: Creating Internal Links for Organic Success Considering internal link structure and keyword rich anchor text makes your Web site more accessible to users and search engines, and lead to strong rankings naturally.

Little Biz by Carrie Hill of Blizzard Internet Marketing Branding Isn't Just for Big Businesses Search advertising can be intimidating to small businesses, but buying your company name in PPC ad programs can be both affordable and profitable.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 2:28 AM | Permalink

April 5, 2007

Introducing: Weekly Columns by Search Marketing Experts

This week, you will see a new navigation scheme here on Search Engine Watch. Not only is it an effort to help readers to find critical content more easily, but you will see a new section labeled "SEW Experts". All this week, we're launching a new series of weekly columns, written by several familiar names in the search industry, and a few fresh faces offering new perspectives.

Today's featured column is Link Love, with starting with Engaging Customers to Say I Love You Back, by Justilien Gaspard, who discusses ways to use current customers to gain valuable inbound links and market your Web site at the same time.

You can now sign up for the daily feed of all Experts articles! Click the link or the images below to subscribe to the Search Engine Watch Experts Feed

You may also opt-in to each column individually by updating your subscription options via our Newsletters & Feeds management page.

Wednesday's Article: When Clicks Don't Get Credit for the Sale Analytics & ROI expert Eric Enge explains the common problems associated with tracking pay per click campaigns through to the final conversion points. Get tips on how to investigate conversion tracking problems on your Web site and within your online marketing campaigns, and find methods to get more accurate data.

Every Tuesday will feature two new stories: au Natural - focusing on organic search issues. Two columns will publish on alternate Tuesdays: Little Biz and Big Biz , will cover SEM issues for both small businesses and large enterprises.

Tuesday's featured columnists:

Mark Jackson, of Vizion Interactive, with: A Plea to Stop Treating SEO as an Afterthought

Carrie Hill, of Blizzard Internet Marketing, with: Time and Money: Small Businesses Have Little of Each

Monday, we started out with our Paid Search columnist, Tony Wright of Dexterity Media. Tony is a long-time speaker at Search Engine Strategies conferences on paid search advertising, and has written several articles for Search Day. The Search Ads column will publish every Monday, and you will also be able to subscribe to our experts columns via email and RSS feeds shortly.

Read Tony's first article, Desperately Seeking Stats to Prove the Value of Branded Keywords, a rebuttal of sorts to recent commentary on the incremental value of bidding on brand names and branded search terms in paid campaigns.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 10:27 AM | Permalink

February 19, 2007

Google Groups Becoming a Gold Mine for SEO Information

Google Groups recently relaunched with a new look and feel. One of the most popular groups in the search engine optimization community is the Webmaster Help group. This area features literally hundreds of questions about Google's crawling methodologies, as well as Web site design and its relationship to the ability to be indexed in Google. Although not all questions are useful, and responses in any community should be taken with a grain of salt, the best thing that this group has going for it is the actual participation by Google engineers and members of Matt Cutts' team.

Just in the past few days, the topics of 301 redirects and server downtime have led bloggers to cite discussion going on at Google Groups. Barry and others commented on the 301 redirect comment by Adam Lasnik, which has actually led to more questions. Both Barry and then Loren Baker commented on Vanessa Fox's statement in a response that being "down" for a few Google crawls can lead to de-indexing.

So if you have some time to spend asking SEO and other site design questions and looking for answers, Google Groups might be one of the best "forums" out there, due to the increased chances of an actual Google person being involved. If that floats your boat.

Posted by Chris Boggs at 1:48 PM | Permalink

October 27, 2006

Competitive Intelligence & Link Searches

Rand over at SEOMoz has a great write up on Long List of Link Searches where he goes through a sample client and how he would approach the competitive intelligence aspect of the SEO research. This is a must read for any SEO because he goes through "the obvious," some "advanced operators," "alternative search sources," "directory search terms," "blog & forum searches," and "submit type searches." The best part is that this is a practical example that gives you actionable items to run through in your own SEO practices. Gotta love Rand for doing this, most would not.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:03 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

August 28, 2006

Playing SEM with the Big Dogs

Search marketing used to be a playground mostly for small and medium sized businesses with relatively modest budgets. But recently, larger players have entered the game, driving up costs and making it more expensive for smaller players to compete. But not to worry: At a recent Search Engine Strategies panel in San Jose, a number of savvy search marketers offered tips on how to level the playing field. Guest writer Patricia Hursh has coverage of the panel session in today's SearchDay article, Winning Big With a Small Search Marketing Budget.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:03 PM | Permalink

August 15, 2006

103 Links About SES San Jose 2006 (AKA The Big Recap)

Couldn't make it to last week's monster Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose? Well, maybe next time! In the meantime, I've compiled a list of coverage from across the web, even somewhat organized into topic areas.

Our San Jose show is always tough for me, as I arrive a week earlier to visit with the various major search engines out there. That means two weeks of news and email to dig out from, since you can never get it all done on the road. All that digging out means I know I don't have everything listed below. But you'll find plenty to keep you entertained.

General Recaps

Eric Schmidt Appearance

Eric Schmidt & Search Privacy

Click Fraud Panel & Related Coverage

Yahoo's Panama Ad Platform Preview

Social Search & Related Topics

Organic Listings Sessions

Search Advertising Sessions

Issues Sessions

News, Blogs & Public Relations

Big Sites/Budget Sessions

Small Sites/Budget Sessions

Conversion & Metrics

Other Sessions

Google Dance & Parties & Pictures

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:50 PM | Permalink

July 19, 2006

11 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Site

Rand at SEOMoz writes up an excellent post he named 10 Remarkably Effective Strategies for Driving Traffic. He has given us 10, plus one bonus idea for driving traffic to your site. I will list them in summery here, but Rand has posted the "ingredients", "process", "results" and "examples" for each listed traffic driving strategy at his post.

10) Targeting Unmonetized Searches 9) Creating Controversy 8) Maps & Mashups 7) Event Coverage 6) Top Ten Lists 5) Online Tools 4) Graphic & Web Design 3) Leveraging Social Networks 2) Blogging & Blog Comments 1) Reporting Remarkable News *) Offering Something Incredible

Now get on implementing these ideas. Yea, where to begin. :)

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:19 AM | Permalink

January 23, 2006

Some Advanced Search Syntax from Yahoo Hacks and the Launch of Rough Cuts from Safari Tech Books

The Yahoo Search team has allowed Paul Bausch, author of Yahoo Hacks, to share a couple of the many "hacks" from his book on the Yahoo Search Blog. The first edition of Yahoo Hacks was published in October.

In the post, Paul explains and offers examples of a couple of cool pieces of advanced search syntax (aka meta words) for Yahoo Image Search (width: and height:) that allow the searcher to specify the precise size of the image they're looking to find. Bausch also mentions aspect: for use with Yahoo Video Search, It lets the user specify the "aspect ratio" of the video material one hopes to find. Paul does a good job of explaining why this might be useful to a video searcher.

You can find a few more Yahoo Hacks here.

I also noticed that the full text of the book is accessible and searchable online via Safari Tech Books, an fee-based service that I've mentioned several times on the blog during the past year. Safari lets the user search and read hundreds if not thousands of full text books online. Unlike other services, there is no limit on how much one can read online. Btw, numerous libraries (public, academic, corporate) provide free access to Safari.

Safari is co-owned by O'Reilly and the Pearson Technology Group and contains books from many publishers. You can try the service for free for two weeks.

Postscript: While we're on the subject of Safari, they officially launched a new service today called "Rough Cuts." It allows users to access "sneak peeks" of new books before they're published either by reviewing them online or downloading as a PDF file.

Similar to the nightly build in a software project, the Rough Cuts PDF is updated every time the author and editor make changes as they progress toward the finished book. Using the Rough Cuts service?s built-in Notes feature, readers can send feedback, suggestions, bug fixes, and comments directly to the author and editor.

You can learn more here and see what books currently offer "Rough Cuts" on this page.

Posted by Gary Price at 7:50 PM | Permalink

January 5, 2006

Effective Search Marketing Management, Continued

In today's SearchDay article, SEM Campaign & Project Management, Part 2, guest writer Greg Jarboe continues coverage of a recent Search Engine Strategies panel focused on shepherding search marketing projects from beginning to end.

A longer version of this story for Search Engine Watch members offers a detailed project management training plan, with specific skills to be taught, and recommendations for defining deliverables to control a project's scope and cost. Click here to learn more about becoming a member.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:39 AM | Permalink

January 4, 2006

Tips for Effective Search Marketing Campaign Management

Search marketing has evolved from relatively straightforward task to a multi-faceted process requiring a variety of skills, often performed by a team. And making sure that the team works effectively together to accomplish the goals of the search marketing campaign can be a challenge. In today's SearchDay article, SEM Campaign & Project Management, Part 1, Guest writer Greg Jarboe reports on a recent Search Engine Strategies panel featuring executives from four successful search marketing firms who share the best practices they've developed for effective campaign management.

A longer version of this story for Search Engine Watch members offers specific tips and strategies for more effectively managing a search marketing campaign, including keyword development, budgeting, web measurement and analytics and more. Click here to learn more about becoming a member.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 2:07 PM | Permalink

November 29, 2005

30 Days To Turn An Online Profit

Jennifer Laycock has been running a great series, "Zero Cash, A Little Talent & 30 Days" to see if she could set up a new business and turn a profit within a month. I've eagerly read each installment about her new business, The Lactivist Store, where she's selling a range of merchandise for those who want to help support breastfeeding. Jennifer's finally hit some new installments that are specifically of interest to search marketers. Here's a rundown:

While Jennifer started out with the store, she's since gained a blog and a web site. Overall, she now runs:

  • The Lactivist: Her web site that unites information from her store, her blog and has information about milk banks. Jennifer's a long time milk bank donor, helping infants that benefit from having mother's milk. Until this summer when I heard of her doing this, I had no idea milk banks even existed! The site helps explain the importance and safety of such banks.  
  • The Lactivist Blog: Her blog where she's posting information relating to breastfeeding.  
  • The Lactivist Store: Where her project began, a place where you can purchase t-shirts that promote breastfeeding with humorous slogans.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:56 AM | Permalink

July 5, 2005

Search Retailers Versus Search Marketers

Are you all about getting sales from search engines? If so, Kevin Lee in Search Engine Sales vs. Search Engine Marketing at ClickZ wonders if you really are a search marketer rather than engaging in what he calls "search engine sales." A better analogy is probably this. You run a store, and you're all about getting sales through the store. Everything you do revolves around whether you see an immediate impact on sales. In short, you're a savvy retailer. But are you a savvy marketer, pondering how over the long-term, you might build up your brand or visibility to bring in sales in a more strategic way? "Search retailers" generating traffic might find some bids and tactics that others are doing seem crazy. But if those people are long term "search marketers," they may have a plan that fits in with the costs being incurred.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:26 AM | Permalink

June 22, 2005

WebmasterWorld Search & Marketing Conference Recap: Day 1

The first day of the WebmasterWorld Search & Marketing Conference 2005 in New Orleans happened yesterday, and Barry Schwartz from Search Engine Roundtable and Aaron Wall from SEO Book have logged reports. A recap of search-related sessions:

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:32 AM | Permalink

June 15, 2005

Search? Email? Banners? Get A Common Metric To Balance Right

Debating between putting your money into search, or email, or banners (or anything, for that matter). Jeanne Jennings in Search, Banners, E-Mail: A Tale of Two Marketing Plans at ClickZ looks at how understanding your reasonable cost per order is important when comparing advertising options and determining the right mix.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:22 PM | Permalink

March 16, 2005

Poking At Search Marketing Myths

Popular Search Marketing Myths Debunked from Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide takes a nice look at some of the popular search marketing wisdom you may hear out there and explains that it ain't necessarily so.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:33 AM | Permalink

March 14, 2005

Search's Long Tail

If you've somehow missed discussion of "The Long Tail," it's a reference to a landmark article of the same name by Wired editor Chris Anderson that ran last October. It covered how the media and entertainment industries will succeed not by pushing only mass market hits that are popular among many but by also mining the "long tail" of interest among a few in less-popular books, songs, movies and more.

Sure, maybe thousands want to buy a hit song. But add up all those who want to buy lesser-known titles, and they might generate as much or more revenue than the hits themselves. As a merchant, you want to tap into both the "head" of interest and the "long tail" that follows behind.

The tail makes much more sense when you see charts that illustrate it, such as the one below:

Those are the top 100 queries related to shoes on the Overture network, from an article I did last September about Overture shifting to a broad match system (Overture Shifting To Default Broad Match).

The point I was explaining in that article is that there are a large number of queries that happen far less often than the "leading" terms like "shoes" or "running shoes" at the head of the list. Most queries form the long tail that's illustrated behind the head. Tap into the tail, and you've got sizable traffic, as well as traffic that often is reported to convert better than less general terms.

In other words, search has a long tail too. Indeed, I've long heard references for years to the "search tail" or "query tail" I've illustrated above. I'm not sure where that phrase it originated and with whom, but tails aren't a new concept to the search world.

While it might not be new to search, it's certainly great to have the tail becoming more popularized in general. That's because it will further help those search marketers who mistakenly fixate on only the most popular terms to realize they need to consider the tail as well.

Over the years in my regular SES session "Intro To SEM," I've also referred to the search tail as getting the "onesies and twosies," the queries that might only happen once or twice in a month. Maybe they don't seem important because of the low volume individually, but tap into lots of onesies and twosies, and you can be doing well.

So if you're a search marketer hearing about The Long Tail for the first time, rejoice! Many of you have intuitively been mining it for ages. If you haven't, start! That means considering broad matching on both Google and Yahoo. For organic SEO, it means having lots of good content that will naturally tap into the tail of queries.

Meanwhile, some examples of how the search tail is becoming popularized and integrated as part of current Long Tail awareness for further reading:

  • The long tail of software. Millions of Markets of Dozens: Out this week from the blog of Joe Kraus, one of Excite's cofounders, this has a chart of the Excite search tail from his day. Kraus says 97 percent of the service's traffic came from the tail and that the "real reason" his company went out of business was because it didn't know how to make money from that tail. I'd beg to differ on that point. Excite gained search-targeted listings through a partnership with FindWhat in April 2001. Over six months later, Yahoo finally got the same through its partnership with Overture. Both partnerships let these companies earn off the search tail. Excite was ahead of the game yet died. Yahoo survived. Blame lack of tail targeting? No, something else was at work. I'd say Excite went bankrupt because among other things, it couldn't afford to continue competing in the expensive portal competition it was trying to fight. Maybe if it had gone after the tail even earlier, it would have survived (my The End For Search Engines? article explains why this was hard). But as noted, the fact that Yahoo pulled through doesn't mean that failing to target the tail can take such heavy blame. Also be aware that while Excite the company died, Excite the web site is still going. The traffic is much reduced, but it's earning revenue today for the company that runs search there, Infospace.  
  • Google's Long Tail: From Chris Anderson's Long Tail blog, you can see an example of how Google in February was trying to tap into the new understanding and popularity of the Long Tail idea to illustrate to investors how it is a long-tail type of company. Google's always been this way, but the better understanding of what it does (and what Yahoo's Overture pioneered back in its GoTo days) is growing.  
  • On the Trail of the Long Tail: Also from February, this post on the Yahoo Search Blog shows Yahoo directly saying the same thing -- we're a long-tail company. Sadly, they didn't provide any charts to help illustrate this more!  
  • The Paid Inclusion Dinosaur article I wrote from June last year looks at why Yahoo has stuck by its guns to run the program -- doing so lets it tap into the giant tail of queries that marketers even using broad matching might never consider, especially giant when you understand that paid inclusion ties into the editorial results that are far more likely to be clicked on than ad listings. From the longer version of the article for SEW members:

    Right now, Overture and Google struggle with how to fill out the "tail" of search queries with ads. These are queries that happen only a few times per month but in aggregate represent a huge amount of unsold inventory.

    For example, advertisers focus on high frequency terms such as "shoes," which Overture reports had over 1,000,000 requests in April 2004. It sells for a top bid of around $0.55 and has 90 advertisers competing for it.

    In contrast, "winged track shoes" happened only 27 times last month. No one is bidding on the term. That's most likely because the low frequency doesn't make it seem worth the time. Yet someone searching for something so specific might convert better than the more generic "shoes" searcher.

    Paid inclusion is a perfect solution for unsold ad inventory like this. Simply tell the advertiser that you'll spider their site and let pages appear in the paid placement area for a flat, low-cost rate when there is space available. Advertisers can still target the important terms, but they gain easy visibility for other important ones. Yahoo reduces its unsold inventory. Searchers are spared confusion.

  • Search Engine Marketing Goes Mainstream: A report out of our SES Boston conference in March 2003, it covers how back then the "tail" of search was being discussed in both economic terms as well as a search marketing tactic.  
  • Just Right: Targeting the Tail: Cached copy of a LookSmart presentation at SES Australia in March 2003 that says all the things you're hearing about today in terms of the Long Tail. It mentions the "keyword tail" and the "search tail" and concludes:  
    • Top 50% of queries = 80% of volume
    • 80/20 rule does not regularly apply to search
    • Focusing on just the first 20% of keywords will invariably miss most of the value  

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:46 PM | Permalink

February 21, 2005

Pandia Gives Google, Others Top Search Honors

Previously, Gary mentioned Search Engine Watch was honored with two awards in the Pandia Search Engine Awards 2004. Here's a rundown on all the winners in each category:

  • Best All Around Search Engine: Google
  • Best Metasearch: ixquick
  • Best Site On Searching: Search Engine Watch
  • Best Site On Search Engine Marketing: Search Engine Watch
  • Best Search Engine Discussion Forum: Webmaster World
  • Best Publication On Searching: Web Search Garage, by Tara Calishain
  • Best Publication On Search Engine Marketing: Unfair Advantage Book On Winning The Search Engine Wars, by Planet Ocean
  • Best Weblog On Searching: ResourceShelf
  • Best Weblog On Search Engine Marketing: Search Engine Journal
  • Best Desktop Search Tool: Copernic

The Pandia article on its awards also recaps a number of runners-up and alternative resources, so it's worth a read-through to discover many other resources and tools not mentioned above.

What about our own Search Engine Watch Awards, that I mentioned would be happening earlier this year. Normally we do them in January, but it's been busy, and we're behind. The plan now is to open up the process in March, so that our readers can discuss what they liked best in 2004. More details to come on this later.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:02 PM | Permalink

February 7, 2005

Jostling for Search Marketing Funds

As we've reported, search marketing is hot, with advertisers in the U.S. and Canada alone expected to spend more than $4 billion this year. But when it comes to allocating budgets, only 41% of advertisers say that SEM budgets consist of newly created funds for this purpose. Most money comes in whole or in part from shifts away from traditional or Internet marketing programs.

So, if you have to battle to snatch funds from other marketing programs, what's the most effective way to go about it? In today's SearchDay article, Lobbying for Your Search Marketing Budget, guest writer Patricia Hursh covers a recent Search Engine Strategies conference and writes about eight practical and effective strategies for securing your own search marketing budget.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 9:27 AM | Permalink

January 21, 2005

SEO Versus SE Ads

When I do my introductory talk about search marketing at our Search Engine Strategies shows, I explain that search marketing it is the combination of SEO and search advertising.

SEO is like getting PR -- with a little appropriate effort, you might get some nice free publicity, but no guarantees. Search advertising is guaranteed -- and that's why you pay so much for it!

In Compare and Contrast: SEM and SEO from ClickZ, Kevin Lee does some comparing of his own. SEO for many sites is mostly about clearing the hurdles that can make a site non-search engine friendly. Fix the problems, and the free listings tap might start flowing with relatively little need to watch over it on a daily basis.

Search advertising -- what he calls paid SEM -- isn't a fire-and-forget activity. It needs lots of watching and may involve skills completely different than SEO.

SEO and search ads do have some things in common, as he outlines -- but he predicts that the two may diverge even further down the line.

I agree -- and it's also why you might find yourself employing two completely different companies. Concerned about your free listings, especially in terms of how they might have an impact on your company's reputation? Turning to a company skilled with paid search but not organic might not be helpful. Think of it back in the "real" world again Plenty of companies have both PR firms and advertising firms.

Meanwhile, Gord Hotchkiss points out at MediaPost in The 70/30 Rule of Search how despite the fact that searchers pay the most attention to free listings on search engines, marketers spend the most money on getting positioning through search ads. That mix, he argues, should change to better reflect positioning in the real "prime" part of a search results page.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:20 PM | Permalink

January 6, 2005

Web Search Into Consumer Search & Other Reflections

In today's SearchDay article Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Developments With Consumer Search, I review some major developments I saw in search during 2004 and try some looking forward into 2005.

In particular, I think this year will be one of web search morphing into consumer search, where major search companies offer a robust range of ways to search for information in specialized areas.

In the article, I also reflect on:

  • How legal issues will continue to impact the maturing search industry.
  • How personal search has erupted as a significant new force for change.
  • How vertical search features will continue to usurp general web searching.
  • Why search marketers need more support from search engines.
  • Why everyone should understand search doesn't mean just paid search and that contextual isn't search at all.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:38 AM | Permalink

January 4, 2005

Ego Searching Is Good Business

In Small Businesses May Benefit from Ego Surfing from Search Engine Guide, Jennifer Laycock looks at how even small businesses need to be aware of how people may be searching for them by name. Do a little ego searching and make sure your reputation online is good. If not, she offers some tips on fixing it. Jennifer was inspired by a recent USA Today article on the same topic but looking at how bigger business are ego searching and surfing to see what people are saying about them: Some CEOs surf Web to see how they're being portrayed

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:21 AM | Permalink

Resolutions For SEMs To Consider

Shari Thurow makes up a list of resolutions she'd like those in the SEM industry to adopt for this year over at ClickZ: SEM New Year's Resolutions. They include not focusing on positioning as a benchmark, being clearer with search marketing jargon and terminology, integrating search marketing into the design process, making statements based only on testing and verification, avoiding falling back on design excuses and following all search engine guidelines.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:00 AM | Permalink

December 8, 2004

Search Marketing And The Holidays

We're into the holiday shopping season -- are you ready for it with your search campaigns? Search Strategies for the Holidays from iMedia offers some tips to consider, such as getting ready for a spike in traffic, an increase in branded search queries, conversion rate rises, needing to get aggressive with copy and more. By the way, 'Tis The Season at Search Engine Strategies next week in Chicago is a panel that will look further at this topic.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:04 AM | Permalink

November 2, 2004

Desktop Search & The Search Marketer

Fredrick Marckini weighs in on how desktop search may impact search marketing: Google's Desktop Search Could Change SEM Forever, from ClickZ.

A key point is his prediction that getting us to search our desktops will lead to more searching of all types -- and thus more inventory for the search marketer to target. That's certainly what Google is hoping for.

He also looks at how search marketers may want to ensure they track when pages appear in Google Desktop cached results, as this will reflect a long-term "win" with searchers. They didn't just see your page once; they now may see it prominently in response to other searches over time.

As I explained in my article about Google Desktop, the tool is giving users personal search memory features that have also rolled out on other search engines, such as Yahoo and Ask Jeeves. For a further look at how these personal search feature may impact search marketers, see my Search Personalization: A Marketer's Perspective article for Search Engine Watch members.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 1, 2004

Searching For Packaged Goods

People looking for consumer packaged goods -- you know, boxes of tissue, dog food, cans of soup and other products on shelves in stores -- wouldn't seem likely to search for them via search engines. After all, they know where to get these products at their local brick-and-mortar stores. But Kevin Ryan argues that for whatever reason, brand searches for such items do take place. Brand owners need a strategy to tap into this. Packaged Goods in Search is a two-part look at the issue. Link is to the second part, which leads to the first.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 23, 2004

Keep Your SEM Firm In The Loop!

Been working with an SEM firm? Be sure to stay in touch with them before changing your site. They can ensure you don't make mistakes that in advertently sabotage your search marketing efforts. More on this from Fredrick Marckini in When Client/SEM Communications Break Down.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Overture Opens Ambassador Program To Traditional Ad Agencies

Overture's long-standing Ambassador program for search engine marketing firms is now allowing interactive and traditional ad agencies to participate. More details from ClickZ in Overture, Google Reach Out to Agencies.

The program provides participants with greater support in reselling Overture's products. It does not provide a commission on sales. The ClickZ article also covers how Google says it trying to do more to educate agencies about search marketing.

The issue of commissions came up earlier this year in our forums: Agency Commission Or Discount Offered On Search Ads? The nasty rumor was agencies were being given a commission by the search companies while SEM firms were not. Both Overture and Google eventually told me that at least in the US, they aren't offering commission payments to anyone.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 17, 2004

Search Engine Watch Forum's 101 Threads

Last week, one of our most energetic forum moderators Nacho Hernandez started a thread called Search Engine Marketing 101. In it, he leads off with a variety of resources useful for those getting started with search engine marketing. Comments and further contributions follow.

Nacho also kicked off a theme. Orion, one of our newest moderators, followed up with Block Analysis 101. That looks at the concept of search engines breaking up a page into "blocks," to better understand which particular content or links within that content should be given greater or less weight.

Member Nick W's now dived in to look at the often controversial issue of cloaking: Cloaking 101 - Questions and Answers. Some previous good threads and debate on this topic include The Great Doorway Debate, How Do I Spot Cloaked Sites?. You might also look over an article I did last year, Ending The Debate Over Cloaking.

Returning back to Nacho, he's compiled a great list of Google Sandbox 101-style resources in Sandbox - IN or OUT? The sandbox concept relates to the idea that new pages, new links or new sites might not be allowed to do well in Google until a certain period of time has passed. The Filthy Linking Rich thread touches on this, as well.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 15, 2004

Search Is An Overall Marketing Thing

Bob Heyman, with the title of Chief Search Officer that I've never seen before, argues that search needs to be considered as part of anyone's overall marketing plan: SEM: Still an Adolescent? Too right. Fredrick Marckini also recently said the same thing in SEM Wants to Embrace the CMO.

Heck, I'll add more fuel to the fire. Our next SES show in Chicago has a session called "Integrating Search Into Other Marketing." Description?

Search engine marketing should be considered as an essential part of any overall marketing campaign. In this session, we look at successes from considering search from the very beginning, as well as failures that result if this is not done.

Hopefully, we'll have some good stories of actual integration happening, rather than hopes!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Customer Targeting In SEM

Kevin Lee looks at how customer segmentation can be applied to search engine marketing: Connect With Customer Segments in Search from ClickZ. Can you target those high-end "Barrys," busy mom "Jills" or those tech-savvy "Buzz" people? Understand how they search and you can.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 12, 2004

Data Mining for Customer Intelligence

While focus groups and market research play an important role in optimizing web sites, SearchDay guest writer Heather Lloyd-Martin calls our attention to an under-utilized source of competitive intelligence that's available to everyone with a web site. Connecting with Customers through Search Market Research reports on a Search Engine Strategies panel that focused on improving customer experience, pinpointing buyers' exact interests and reaching prospects at every phase of the buying cycle by data mining search logs for this crucial market research data.

A longer version of this story for Search Engine Watch members goes into more detail about the process of search market research, presenting the findings of case studies and providing specific, actionable tips and tools for effective data mining and other forms of customer research.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 28, 2004

Search Marketing: Reaching out to Europe

If you've concentrated your search marketing efforts in North America, you're missing out on one of the largest and most developed markets in the world. But reaching out to Europe should be a considered move, taking into account the cultural differences and nuances of SEM that can help--or hinder--your efforts.

In today's SearchDay article, Search Marketing in Europe, Patricia Hursh reports on a recent panel at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose, offering an account of what it takes to have a successful search marketing campaign in Europe.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 22, 2004

Getting More From Your SEM Budget

Kevin Lee continues his look at ways to get more out of your search marketing budget, including ads on second-tier search engines, reexamining creative and targeting, considering automated campaign management, dayparting, weekparting and testing, testing, testing. From ClickZ: SEM Budget Multipliers, Part 2, which also links to further tips in the first part.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Search As Fundamental Part Of Marketing Mix

Search engine marketing isn't an IT thing or an online marketing thing. It's part of an overall marketing effort. As such, Fredrick Marckini rightly wants chief marketing officers to push from the top down that search needs to be considered as a fundamental part of any marketing campaign, online or off. His plea here in ClickZ: SEM Wants to Embrace the CMO.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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