SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

January 30, 2009

SEW Experts: 2009 is a Year of Change for Travel Search Marketing

The economy is forcing travel search marketers to change the way they approach online marketing. The travel vertical is already one of the most advanced groups of search marketers, but the industry has been under more pressure in recent months to make their campaigns count. In today's vertical search marketing column, "2009 is a Year of Change for Travel Search Marketing," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski outlines a few ways travel search marketers, and marketers in other verticals, can get back to basics in these challenging times.

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

September 26, 2008

SEW Experts: The Universal Mastery of Video Content

Video listings cause us to reexamine the way we've traditionally viewed search engines, and this is simply part of the natural progression. After all, it wasn't too long ago when universal search rocked the world of SEO or social media changed how we use the Web. In today's SEM agency issues column, "The Universal Mastery of Video Content," William Flaiz walks you through the proper way to optimize video content for universal search.

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

June 20, 2008

SEW Experts: Travel Search 2.0 -- Know Your Audience

The online travel industry has the benefit of being one of the most mature verticals in the Web today. In today's Vertical Search Marketing column, "Travel Search 2.0 -- Know Your Audience," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski explains that because of that, any new entrant has to seriously consider their value proposition and how they fit into the Travel 2.0 space, and remain laser-focused on their core differentiator.

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

December 21, 2007

SEW Experts: Online Travel SEM Addictions: Web 2.0, Paid Links, Social Media

In today's rapidly changing search marketplace, ideas and technology move faster than the speed of light. Search marketers need to catch up, if they can. In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Online Travel SEM Addictions: Web 2.0, Paid Links, Social Media," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski helps you decide how your company should address this year's hottest topics: Web 2.0, paid links and social media.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 28, 2007

SEW Experts: Content Creation About Journey, Not Destination?

Is creating content really the cornerstone of SEO? If so, do you pay your writers, or do you expect them to write for free? In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Content Creation: About Journey, Not Destination?," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski lays out the options, including the road less traveled.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 21, 2007

Google: Search Key to Auto-Buying Cycle

Google's vertical industry teams have been taking a very consultative approach to ad sales. So far, Google has focused its efforts on five verticals: automotive, retail, financial services, entertainment & media, and healthcare.

Instead of just presenting advertisers with a list of options, the teams work closely with top advertisers to come up with packages that work best for them and others in their industry. Google is also undertaking industry-specific research to share with advertisers.

At a press event yesterday at Google's New York office, Bonita Coleman Stewart, director of Google's automotive industry team, shared preliminary details of a study Google undertook with Compete that looked at online shopping and research behavior in the six months leading up to the vehicle purchase.

In short, the buying cycle for autos has condensed from up to six months to one month, with 65 percent of buyers making a decision in one month or less, and only 17 percent taking more than 3 months to make a buying decision. Automobile marketers are more used to planning their marketing activities around a six-month cycle, but they must now adjust to the new speed of online marketing, Stewart said.

Another common misconception some marketers have about search is that it's only good for the "lower funnel" activities of driving leads and sales. The study found that was not the case, since most consumers start their vehicle purchase cycle with search, and continue to rely on search through the entire funnel, from awareness, to intent, to consideration, then to a test drive and purchase at a local dealer.

Google has been reaching out to the auto industry to educate them on these kinds of findings, Stewart said. Google is working with automakers, agencies, regional dealer groups, and individual dealers, as well as parts resellers and service vendors, to help them understand which of Google's products would work best for them, and to show them metrics that prove that it will be worth their while, she said.

Google is also stressing the availability of its non-search ads, including display ads on its content network, audio ads, and site targeting and maps ads for better targeting. The biggest factor that is expected to drive the auto industry to the Web is the combination of search and online video, Stewart said. She shared that 382 million videos were viewed in YouTube's auto category in July, out of a total 9 billion videos viewed that month – that's about 4 percent of all videos.

She stressed the idea of mobile devices becoming like "portable TVs" that automakers can use to engage potential buyers wherever they are. As more video-friendly devices, like the iPhone, enter the market, there will be even more opportunity in online video, she said.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 8:49 AM | Permalink

August 31, 2007

SEW Experts: Crafting a Social Media Strategy Around Travel

In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Crafting a Social Media Strategy Around Travel," Elisabeth Osmeloski tells travel site providers how to take advantage of social media and traveler reviews.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

August 10, 2007

SEW Experts: Choosing Partnerships for Your Video Search Marketing

In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Choosing Partnerships for Your Video Search Marketing," Grant Crowell tells you how to select and work with a professional video production partner as well as the importance of choosing a video host for displaying your videos.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 21, 2007

Extreme Vertical: SupplierSearch - a Furniture Search Engine

SupplierSearch is a furniture industry-specific search engine developed by Furniture Today and Kellysearch, the business-to-business search engine.

“It is always gratifying when two leading brands such as Furniture|Today and Kellysearch can work together on projects such as this one and, in the process, facilitate ways for Furniture/Today's readers to be more productive and more profitable,” said Brian Gallagher, president of Kellysearch.

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:21 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

April 7, 2006

E-consultancy UK Shopping Comparison Engine Buying Guide

Linus Gregoriadis of E-consultancy recently published a shopping comparison engine buyer's guide focusing for the UK market. E-consultancy estimates that shopping comparison engines made between £120m and £140m in UK revenue during 2005.

One of the most telling facts testifying to the popularity of shopping comparison engines is comScore UK's data which reveals that "shopping comparison engine sites now have 49% reach within the UK online population."

Linus dedicates an entire section to using the comparison engines effectively, and I was particularly interested in the optimization techniques for merchants advertising on the shopping comparison engines. He covers the importance of tracking, deep linking, and the tendency of marketers to abandon the marketing channel prematurely. See my comments at ComparisonEngines.com.

Linus also does a SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats) Analysis and covers the following topics: Market Consolidation, Reliance on Google, and Increased Merchant Understanding of Comparison Engine ROI.

Posted by Brian Smith at 12:29 PM | Permalink

January 29, 2006

Work To Begin Next Month on Developing a Standard For Shopping and Comparison Search Product Descriptions

A DMNews.com article: Retailers, Engines Want Standard for Product Description, discusses a session at Shop.org's FirstLook 2006 event where representatives from Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Become, and Shop.com, along with several retailers and trade groups, about the need to develop, "a common standard for describing products for online SKU-based advertising and comparison shopping."

Retailers and engines shared their frustration at the lack of a common platform to describe products and receive advertising reports, [Alan] Rimm-Kaufman said. He noted that "organizations with widely different interests all agreed that the current situation was far from good and that an industry standard would help greatly." Participants agreed to work on an industry standard for describing products online using the expertise and process of the Association for Retail Technology Standards, he said. The group plans to meet Feb. 27 in Menlo Park, CA, to begin work on a spec.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:19 PM | Permalink

November 29, 2005

The State of Shopping Search, 2005

Today's SearchDay article, Shopping Search Week 2005, kicks off my annual review of the comparison shopping search space, looking at changes over the past year, discussing traffic stats and trends and more. Later in the week I'll take a detailed look at the leaders in the space, as well as promising newcomers that will likely have an impact over the course of the coming year.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 3:42 AM | Permalink

October 11, 2005

Searching for Video and Podcasts

Multimedia search has become hot recently, with the major search engines jostling with a crowd of upstart newcomers to offer a wide range of audio and video search tools. In today's SearchDay article, Video and Podcast Search Engines,guest writer Grant Crowell recaps a recent Search Engine Strategies panel that focused on multimedia search.

A longer version of this story for Search Engine Watch members talks about how to submit audio and video content to search engines, and offers tips on optimizing content so that it can achieve high rankings even when traditional SEO techniques don't apply.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 7:25 AM | Permalink

September 29, 2005

Don't Overlook B2B Search Engines for Search Marketing Opportunities

Sites specializing in business-to-business search may seem like fallow fields for search marketing efforts, but in fact the opposite is true. Business verticals can offer tightly targeted traffic, high click-through rates leading to high conversion rates for those search marketers savvy enough to take advantage of what they offer. Guest writer Greg Jarboe reports on a recent Search Engine Strategies panel featuring reps from some of the more prominent B2B engines in today's SearchDay article, Meet The B2B Search Engines.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:10 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

February 7, 2005

Google Images In OneBox Display Further Supplant Main Results

We've had sporadic reports of Google inserting image matches into web results, and Barbara Coll just sent an example for "united states" that finally works for me and hopefully for you as well. Also try this one for "united kingdom" or try some other countries.

More important, in the first "united states" example, notice that above the image results insertion, there's also a book results listing.

Google's long done what it calls OneBox insertions like this. But to date, I've never seen more than one insertion. You'd be shown product results, like this for dvd players, or news results like this for iraqi elections but never more than one OneBox insertion with one major exception: Google Desktop.

Those running Google Desktop might see first Google Desktop results as a OneBox insertion, then a Google specialty search display, like product search. Now with the image search testing, that example gives me an unprecedented three OneBox insertions.

The insertions also mean that the "main" or "organic" listings move further down the page. This is something I touched on in my SES Chicago keynote last December -- anyone not exploring vertical search had better do so. I illustrated in before and after fashion how such insertions by Google and others are pushing down the "main" results.

For searchers, this is generally good news. Quite often, they should be going to some of the specialized databases out there. For search marketers, this is also good news as long as you are paying attention to the vertical searches being shown. Failure to do that will mean failure to succeed, in the long term. For more on that see:

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:26 AM | Permalink

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