W3PR Search Engine Marketing Blog

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2010-05-26T14:44:00.001-07:00

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Is your site mobile ready?

2010-01-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

This article is about retailers, but applies to any business. Mobile computing is one of the biggest trends for 2010. Is your site viable on a mobile device? Have you checked it on an iPhone or Android? You should because chances are it needs help to be readable on those devices. Check it today and then call your web developer.

I think MediaPost got this one wrong

2009-10-02T13:51:00.000-07:00

Interesting article at MediaPost talking about how click-through rates are dropping. I respectfully disagree though with the thought that we should all move away from click-through as a measurement and go to the "reach and frequency" metrics used by traditional advertising. Say what????

When I started in this business (internet marketing) 15 years ago, what I heard over and over again was how great it was that you can measure EXACTLY what happens with your ads online, not just that someone "saw" the ad. This still holds true. My customers know everything about their ads: when, where, how often it appeared and how often it was clicked as well as what happened when the "clicker" got to their website. Then we layer on top of that how much that click cost and how much we spent in total and we have a very clear picture of how much it cost to get that customer there. Not just some abstract notion of "someone saw the ad and that's valuable branding".

Don't get me wrong, branding is great and we do try to dominate the top of the page with natural search and PPC for exactly that reason. BUT, it's all measurable and that's the point to be made for online advertising. We're not just trying to get clicks... we're trying to get targeted, relevant clicks... clicks that actually convert.

I'd love to focus on impressions as a metric. I can buy tons of those and never get a click, but hey... I got lots of eyeballs on my ad. It's easier not to have to prove your work actually produced results (read sales or leads or whatever the customer needs) but that's not the big promise of the web. The big promise is measureability and a demonstrable ROI.

So, don't let some big agency tell you that you shouldn't focus on click-throughs and most importantly, what comes after the click. Don't let them take you back to a time when they waved their hands in front of your face and told you to "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" Insist on real, measureable results and your bottom line will thank you!

As to the falling click-through rates... I would say to my fellow marketers, if click-through rates are falling, then lets look at the ads, the placement, the keywords that we choose, fixing the landing pages, etc. This is "new media" we're working in, we have to invent it as we go along and keep remaking it. Throwing up our hands and reverting to old media metrics isn't going to stop progress, it just makes us look bad.

And while I'm at it, the search engines aren't off the hook either. They need to look at WHY people aren't clicking anymore. Is it placement of the ads, the brevity of the ads, do they need to ad small graphics? They have more data than all of us and have a far bigger stake in getting it right, so where are they in all this?

My final thought is that I'm doing this for my customers and they deserve my best effort. Isn't that what we hope every marketer and every publisher is doing too?

Microsoft Bing Loses Search Share -- InformationWeek

2009-10-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

Well, as predicted Bing couldn't hold that momentum of gaining searchers. Microsoft Bing Loses Search Share -- InformationWeek

I just don't think that there's enough different about Bing to really grab people and make them avid Bing users. Also, there's the comfort factor. I am comfortable with where everything is at Google and don't want to have to search for similar features on Bing. Not to mention Google gives me good, relevant, useful results.

As the InformationWeek article states, MS will have another big advertising push when they release Windows 7 later this month and I predict that there will be another slight bump for Bing, followed by a similar slump. They are going to have to really work on the product to differentiate it and make it something unique and useful to gain market share. Being "just another Search Engine" isn't going to cut it.

Do you think Twitter can affect your business?

2009-08-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

Interesting article today in the Baltimore Sun about how the opening weekends of summer movies is being affected by people using Twitter to post their thoughts about the movie as soon as they see it or in some cases from in the theater during the movie.
Some smart movie marketers think they see a big connection and are taking steps to ensure that they are visible not only on Twitter but other social media sites as well.
So what about you? Are you paying attention to what's being said about your brand online? Even if your business is a single local retail operation, chances are good that something is being said about your company online. Be it in an online review site or yellow pages site or on Facebook, you need to pay attention to what's being said. If you haven't done so, Google you company name and see what comes up. It just might surprise you. If it's positive, great! If it's negative, you need to take steps to fix the problem. Direct message the person and see if you can correct the problem and once you do, ask them if they'd please amend their negative review.
You can and should take charge of your online reputation and the first step is monitoring what's being said in places like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and review sites. Do it now!

July Search Engine Rankings

2009-08-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

The ComScore monthly Search Engine numbers for July are out revealing that Bing made a 2% Gain in July 2009 again at the expense of Google and Yahoo.

As I mentioned last month when Bing gained 3%, it's early (only 2 months data) and the numbers don't show a real trend yet. We'll have to wait and see how it all settles out over a few more months.

Google searchers use search more than Yahoo! or Bing searchers do

2009-08-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

In an analysis of the latest ComScore search engine numbers, there are some facts that could be easily overlooked. The numbers of people who use a search engine per month isn't really the metric that should be focused on but rather the number a searches those people perform.
In this Reuters story it's laid out pretty well. Google searchers conduct an average of 54.5 searches a month -- about double the number of searches that Yahoo! and Microsoft users conduct combined... only 26.9 times a month.
I honestly don't see that changing anytime soon. There are two very different groups of people using these search engines and people are creatures of habit. Google would have to really mess up and/or Bing would have to really get better for the habits of people to change enough to shift the trend.

Yahoo wasn't a search engine? That's news to me!

2009-08-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

I just read a NYTimes interview of Carol Bartz in which she states that “We have never been a search company”. Excuse me Ms. Bartz, but perhaps while you were busy running Autodesk, you didn't notice that Yahoo pioneered the search industry and was in fact one of the first.

I'm appalled at what has happened at Yahoo over the last couple of years. They've lost their direction and have squandered away the lead they had in the industry. It's sad and its wrong in a lot of ways... mostly for their shareholders.

If you're interested in the real history of Yahoo and how they built their search business, Danny Sullivan has written a story about it here complete with some early 1998 TV ads from the search engines of the day.

Yahoo and MS deal on again

2009-07-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

If it actually happens this time.... the deal is a good news bad news thing for advertisers and consumers. The current iteration being tossed around the media is that MS will control Search on both Yahoo and Bing and that Yahoo will control ads on both sites.

I like the idea of making one ad buy that gets me both Yahoo and Bing, it just makes management easier for the 25% - 30% that isn't Google. But, I'm not sure I like the idea that there are really only two search engines of importance from a natural search standpoint. It will be interesting to see how they roll that out. Will Bing simply take over Yahoo SERP's or will there be a mixing of the two?

Also, how do we SEO's deal with them? An 800 lb. gorilla (Google) and a 600 lb. gorilla (Yahoo, Bing hybrid)?

Brand Engagement and Social Media

2009-07-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

A new study released today shows the top companies in the US and their use of social media for customer engagement. Most of these companies were no surprise as I've encountered their efforts in my travels online. What was a surprise to me was the correlation between company growth and profit and their use of social media to engage customers. Even though the study authors make the point that they are NOT saying that extensive participation in social media directly relates to more growth and profits, it seems that the study clearly points that direction. I'd love to see another study that somehow links some real money numbers to this data.

Congrats to these companies for venturing out into this new territory! For the complete article and links to the study:
New study: Deep brand engagement correlates with financial performance

Facebook Changing their policy re: private posts

2009-07-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

Facebook is set to change their policy of all posts being private by default to making them public by default. As a marketing professional this is pretty heady stuff. The ability to target my advertising based on real-time information being posted by Facebookers is an amazing motherload. BUT..... and it's a big but... as a person using Facebook for personal and professional reasons, I'm pretty sure I don't want all my posts public by default.

Personally, I post... well, personal messages to my friends and family. Innocuous as they may be, they are not meant for public consumption. And professionally, on occasion I post my thoughts on topics for my clients to comment on. Again, these are not for public consumption but for a specific audience. If I want the comment to be public, then I make a blog post. My choice.... I chose to use Facebook this way because they had a system in place that allowed me to keep my comments separated and private. Now, I'll have to re-evaluate every time I want to post something.

Read the article here about the changes and post comments back or let me know what you think. Am I being too concerned? The Day Facebook Changed - Messages to Become Public by Default - NYTimes.com

Google announces Chrome OS

2009-07-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

News this morning that Google is launching a new OS: Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS

Doubtful that MS or Apple are quaking in their boots, but it does give some additional insight into where Google thinks the world of the Web and computing is going. They seem to have a very clear plan that they are rolling out systematically.

Personally and in my company, for the time being, we'll be sticking with our Mac's.

Online Marketing Tactics Used by US Marketers

2009-05-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

An April survey of US Marketers reveals that money is moving from more traditional marketing avenues to various online tactics and the main motivator seems to be accountability. American businesses have begun to figure out what we've been saying for years... that EVERYTHING is trackable online and very little is trackable offline. It seems that it's taken a bad economy to finally force people to really look at ROI as opposed to just spending the available budget and hope for the best. Here's the article.

I'm a little surprised by the numbers for email marketing since I really don't see a lot of effective email campaigns (which isn't to say they don't happen, they obviously do!) But I am heartened by the SEO and Paid search numbers since I really believe in strong foundational SEO campaigns as the bedrock on which you build other online work.

On the flip side, it astounds me that we still are hearing from otherwise smart business people that they don't know what their ROI is or worse that they aren't measuring! If you're spending the money, you've GOT to measure if it's effective. That should be written on marketers foreheads till it sinks in!

Google Changes Policy on Trademarked Terms

2009-05-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

Google posted this blog post today stating that they will no longer block AdWords users from using trademarked terms that they don't own.

On the positive side, that means retailers who want to advertise "Sony Cameras" can do so. On the negative side, that also means your competitors can buy your trademarked terms to more effectively compete with you.

Now, Google says that they are doing this to "improve ad quality and user experience" which it will actually do. But it is more likely that the real motivation is increasing revenue. My guess is that lawsuits will follow.

Will Google buy Twitter?

2009-04-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

I've been hearing rumblings about a Google/Twitter deal for a week or so. Here's the first article that I've seen that seems to indicate that there will be an ad deal instead of an outright buyout.

Not sure I like the idea of ads on Twitter, but that's not a done deal either. Other possibilities exist and I'm sure Google and Twitter are exploring them all. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Google launches Ad Personalization

2009-03-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

As we've been anticipating for a while now, Google today launched their new Ad Personalization. It's a limited program for the time being. They're calling them "interest based ads" meaning that when you do a search on Google or one of their sites for say, Golf, then you'll be cookied as being interested in Golf. The problem with this approach is that you may have done the search on Golf because you were buying a gift for your husband or father who is a golfer. It's not really one of your interests but Google won't differentiate. So after that, no matter what page you're on, or what you're looking for, you'll see ads for Golf.

Google describes the new offering here. Google has done something smart however and has set up an Ads Preferences Manager so you can see what they've got your interests set at and either edit or opt out of their interest based ads program. Since I do searches for my clients on a wide range of topics, I've opted out.

The biggest concern that I've seen about this new program is not so much for the end users, but from the publishers who have AdWords on their sites. They are very concerned that they no longer control the ads that appear on their sites. Potentially, each person who visits their site will see very different ads. The concern is that some of the interest based ads could be innapropriate for their sites and many are calling for a way to opt out of the program as a publisher.

And finally, here's a story that addresses the privacy concerns. I think the most interesting paragraph is toward the end of this story where they talk about the programs flawed implementation of their opt-out. It's done by cookies which are easily deleted by anti-spyware programs. The author also says, "The cookie opt-out doesn't work, it's a bad idea. People who care about their privacy enough to opt out also are the same people who delete their cookies."

So, what do you think? Drop me a note and let me know if you think its a Google goof or if its brilliant, and why.

The Skittles buzz

2009-03-03T10:31:00.000-08:00

Very interesting use of social networking by Skittles is all the buzz today. If you login to your Facebook account and then go to Skittles.com, you'll find yourself back at FB but with a floating Skittles box on your page and everywhere else you go in FB. It's a bit of a stalker experience... not sure I like it. The floating box has links to a Skittles Twitter page and YouTube page. The Twitter presence seemed pretty confusing to me, since it seemed to be a lot of chatter by marketers about whether or not this would help Skittles.

The question to me is, a week from now, when the buzz has died, will any of this have made a difference in Skittles sales? Or are they just working from the old adage of "any buzz is good buzz?" Advertising Age has this article that seems to give the promotion kudos, but in today's economy, I question a tactic like this. My customers want to see a real return on their ad spend. Do you think Skittles will see an increase in sales because of this campaign? If you're not a Skittles fan, will this change your mind? For me, the answer is not really. It's interesting as a concept but, sorry, I don't like Skittles. This won't make me buy them and it isn't so interesting that I'll come back and check the site a second time.

I understand that they want people to "interact with the brand" but will that translate to sales? Isn't that what advertising is supposed to do?

Struggling with Analytics

2009-03-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

It's an all too common problem... You work to build an online marketing campaign and then are thwarted by a client who won't let you implement analytics. I don't know what's worse, hearing, "Oh, we'll know if it's working!" or "We can't afford analytics" (How about Google Analytics for free?!) or "It's too hard, we don't understand it. You just tell us what we need to know."

Well, here's an article that describes the problems, symptoms and cure. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Americans’ Online Search Behavior Reflects Current Economic Reality

2009-02-24T17:32:00.000-08:00

If ever a trend in search was obvious, it's this one, but the numbers are still surprising. An over 200% increase in searches for "unemployment" and "unemployment benefits".

Interesting dichotomy on personalized search

2009-02-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

Personalized search... it makes many of us uncomfortable. Knowing that someone is tracking your every move on a site and then using it to serve up targeted ads can be a bit creepy. But apparently the newest data suggests that while users are wary of the practice, they also are very responsive to it. Here's the article.

December US Search Numbers Surprisingly Strong

2009-01-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

I thought for sure that the number of searches would be down with the economy for December. Less shopping and people being otherwise preoccupied. But the search numbers are actually up 3% and the rank of the major search engines stayed identical to November numbers. I'll take my good news where ever I can find it! Here's the full article.

Update on Yahoo TOS flap

2009-01-09T16:52:00.001-08:00

After my last post, I finally got an email back from my Yahoo rep assuring me that our accounts are opted-out of the automatic optimization program. She further clarified that anyone who wants to opt-out has only to send and email through their account to Yahoo Customer Service requesting to opt-out.

Frankly, I'm still irritated and I still think that what they are doing is simply inviting a lawsuit. As one poster in Webmaster World Forums put it, "Can you imagine if your investment adviser started buying stocks on your behalf or switched your portfolio from bonds to hedge funds?" It should be common sense that you don't just change someone's account without their permission and then expect them to be happy about it.

I'll be watching my accounts very closely and in the process, re-evaluating if we even need to continue placing our ads at Yahoo.

Has Yahoo lost it?

2009-01-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, I received an email from Yahoo about one of our PPC accounts. It stated that Yahoo had created some new ads and reviewed and revised our keyword list for a particular client. We had 10 days to review the changes and accept or decline them. I was appalled that they would do this without us asking for it let alone preemptively. I called my rep and declined the "optimization" and told him that under no circumstances were they to touch our accounts again without our authorization first. He argued that it was for our own good, which I countered with, "I know my clients and what they want, you don't. Don't touch our accounts" I was told that a note would be put in the files that we would be exempt from these optimizations in the future.

Last night, we received an email from Yahoo again. This time, telling us that the Terms of Service had been changed on all our accounts and that the periodic "optimizations" would be expressly agreed to by us if we use their services. I have calls in to my rep again. No return call yet.

The SEM commuinity is not taking this quietly. Of the many flaming posts I've read today about the subject, this is the best (and least offensively) written. I can't imagine that this will stand. It seems like such a bad idea on so many levels.

1. It looks like Yahoo is trying to find ways to bring in more income. And it feels like they are bullying us.
2. If I were a new advertiser and actually read the TOS, I would not open the account at Yahoo. I'd give my advertising dollars to Google and MSN and look for other display ad opportunities.
3. Didn't their lawyers think of the possible lawsuits? Let's see, they don't know anything about the client and they are making decisions without the client's permission. Yeah, that seems like a brilliant idea!

I'll keep you posted on what I find out from my Yahoo rep. The big question is, can I opt out of this program? If not, then Yahoo may not be seeing any more of my client's advertising dollars.

MSN now crawling JavaScript

2009-01-02T17:44:00.000-08:00

Last April, Google began crawling JavaScript to get at more data and now MSN has quietly launched a new spider to crawl JavaScript. This is great for all the sites that use JavaScript in their navigation, but could pose a problem for some sites wanting to keep certain information out of the search engines. They'll need to exclude the new robot (along with Googlebot) in their robots.txt file.

2008 - The Year In Search

2008-12-31T13:40:00.000-08:00

An interesting recap of the most searched terms of the year at the major search engines. All that happened is reflected in the terms, politics, the economy, the Olympics (boy, that seems like a long time ago, doesn't it?)
Enjoy and have a very Happy New Year!
Terri