Integrating Search into the Offline World
30/5/2009 | external link
The State of Integration session at Search Engine Strategies Chicago promised to be an interesting one. Speakers included executives from iProspect, Resolution Media, Constant Contact, and TMP Directional Marketing. Coverage of SES Chicago continues at WebProNews Videos. Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week. "Search does not exist in a vacuum," says the official teaser text for the session on the SES site. "In fact, research shows that offline channels drive users to search to the tune of 67%. Obviously search marketers have a huge opportunity to leverage offline channels to drive search. But are search marketers finally catching on? Are they even aware of the relationship between other marketing channels and their own? Are they actually coordinating or integrating their search efforts with their other channels, and if so, which ones? For that matter, what integration techniques are they using? And more importantly, if they aren't integrating, why not?" Unfortunately, our reporters were not able to make the entire session, but were able to come away with some interesting discussion nonetheless. You've got to take search offline, but post-search activity is the most important part. "Local search seems to be really close to that purchase point," one of the speakers said. Mobile computing is aiding the measurement of this. Search isn't in a vacuum, but we need to ask what media is driving this activity and how we get there. Some discussion about this took place, and the following points were made:- Use direct targeting through local - People do understand cross points and attribution, so they aren't panicking. Rather, focusing on true understanding. - Integration strategies for different age groups (ex. baby boomers who have lost during this economy) - More influenced by TV and radio than new media - People take broadband for granted too, because it is not universal. - Search personalization integration?? better targeted for specific generations - People can capitalize on paid since not everyone knows what paid and organic is. - In Radio advertising, Emphasize point of purchaseThe Future of Semantic Search, and Measuring Success in a 2.0 world sessions were also interesting, and provide more insight into the evolving world of Internet marketing.
Dr. Larry Cornett on Universal & Blended Search
30/5/2009 | external link
One of the most interesting sessions at this upcoming Search Engine Strategies in Chicago is going to be Universal & Blended Search. Dr. Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search is one of the top experts in the world on this subject and is also a panelist at this session in SES Chicago. Last week I had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Cornett to get his insight on blended search and to get a better understanding of Yahoo's future in this area. [Manoj]: As with textual search, Universal search will continue to improve amongst the search engines. Are there specific things Yahoo wants to address in regards to the user experience with its search offering?[Larry Cornett]: Yahoo! is committed to providing the best search experience to our users. We are constantly looking at new ways of incorporating different types of content into our search results. A great example is Yahoo! SearchMonkey, which lets any publisher enhance their search results. This technology can be implemented by multimedia publishers who wish to have specifically stylized search results, which showcase the Yahoo! Search engine results page.In addition to SearchMonkey, Yahoo! Search has also introduced multimedia integration including video, audio and photos (see below) directly into the search results, allowing consumers to get their answer -- whether it's a Web link, photo, video or music clip -- without leaving the page.[Manoj]: Do users interact with one type of blended search element (i.e: images or video or text or news) better than others, if so why?[Larry Cornett]: We have already seen good user interaction with our SearchMonkey enhanced listings. Our tests uncovered that users found this blending of structured data to be useful. In fact, in some cases, we saw a lift in click-through rate of as high as 15 percent. We believe that this enriched search experience helps users get directly to the answer they're seeking.[Manoj]: What did you think of Ask.com's search interface before they changed it back to more of a common search results pages. We thought the uniqueness might help attract more searches.[Larry Cornett]: I don’t want to comment specifically on what our competitors are doing, but what I will say is that we are entering a period of massive change to enable search engines to handle more complex content on the Web as content continues to grow, change, diversify and fragment. At the same time, users are performing increasingly sophisticated and open-ended tasks online, connecting broadly to content and services across the Web. Given these changes, all search engines are becoming more sophisticated and the simple search result page of ten blue text links is evolving to help address these complex tasks. At Yahoo! our aim is to define the intent of the consumer when they are in search.From a SERP interface perspective we are doing this through Yahoo! SearchMonkey, as I described earlier, which lets publishers creates more useful and visually appealing Yahoo! Search results which will drive more relevant traffic to their sites. For a user’s perspective instead of just seeing a Wikipedia link and a snippet, you could call back to Wikipedia and show a photo, get more context about the article, maybe even present some of the external links or the edit history, whatever the publisher wants to do to enhance the result. A Yahoo! Local business listing could put structured information about itself as part of the result, like a photo of the store front and its main line number. Yahoo! SearchMonkey empowers publishers to customize the search experience to help user find what they want easily and the increased relevance of the result can drive traffic to publishers sites.In addition Yahoo! is differentiating our search experience by providing a safe search experience for our users with SearchScan. The SearchScan feature from Yahoo! Search provides a seamless way for users to search the web with confidence by reducing the risk of visiting dangerous sites on the Web with no download or fee required. It works by filtering out or alerts users to sites with possible spyware downloads, hacking risks, or sites that generate email spam.[Manoj]: According to comScore, Google has continued to get stronger in search market share in the last year. What do the other engines have to do in order to maintain and grow their own markets?[Larry Cornett]: Yahoo! is committed to providing an open, relevant search experience that understands the users’ intent. That said, we have recently launched a service called Yahoo! Search BOSS – an open Web services platform that offers developers and companies the chance to create and launch Web-scale search products by utilizing the same infrastructure, technology and index that powers Yahoo! Search. BOSS fosters search innovation by enabling developers and companies to disrupt the search landscape by building their own world-class search experiences.Yahoo! is looking to fragment the search market, create an equal opportunity for all players, and expand the Y! Search advertising network through unprecedented access to our search infrastructure. By creating this new ecosystem for search, we may see changes in our market share, but largely at our competitors’ expense.With BOSS, you can build your own search engine – one that recognizes the difference between blogs, user reviews, news and shopping sites, and clusters results accordingly. Developers and companies can use BOSS to create a more social search engine, in which rankings are determined by a users’ social graph and combined with newsfeed results, or conduct a visual search to present thumbnails of the Web pages instead of links, making it more user-friendly for non-savvy searchers. Essentially, BOSS will enable a range of fundamentally different search experiences for companies big and small.[Manoj]: How is the search experience at Yahoo different than Google?[Larry Cornett]: Yahoo! has spent a lot of time and research creating a new search experience for our users. One of the things we know from our research is that our users struggle when they are searching on an unfamiliar topic. They often don’t even know how to start their search. So in October 2007, we launched a significant new feature roll-out, which includes Yahoo! Search Assist and enhanced Yahoo! Shortcuts.Search Assist (see below) essentially helps users overcome one of their key pain points, which is how to craft an effective query. As they begin to type their query or their keyword into the box, it suggests other keywords that might be related to what they’re typing. It also provides them the correct spelling of those keywords. And after they’ve conducted their initial search, Search Assist actually suggests related concepts based on their query to help them follow the right path to get the job done.We know from our research that another pain point for users is that search engines often don’t provide the ultimate answer. They only help them down the path of finding the answer. And what we want to do at Yahoo! is actually start to begin to deliver what they really need within the search experience. So we’re not just focused on the process of searching but really on the act of finding. And to that end, we have also introduced enhanced Yahoo! Shortcuts (see below) that actually deliver the most relevant information that our users are seeking for particular types of searches.So for example, if you type in the name of a movie at the very top of the search results page you get a link to a video trailer. You get local show times in your area, a link to a deeper description of that movie as well as reviews from critics and other Yahoo! users, right there at the top of the search results page. We’re trying to deliver the most relevant information to our users immediately following their search to help make their job easier.We know that this is resonating with users, as Yahoo! was voted No. 1 in Search Assistance & Suggestions, according to a Dec. 2007 Keynote Systems study, “Keynote Customer Experience Rankings: Search”.=========================================================Dr. Larry Cornett is the vice president of the Yahoo! Search consumer products division. In this capacity, he is primarily responsible for the Yahoo! web search experience and heads up a multinational team of product managers, designers, and developers focused on creating a world-class search experience. Comments
Getting More Out Of Marketing Conferences
30/5/2009 | external link
Now, more than ever, marketing companies and consultants need to get competitive for client dollars and what better way than advancing your knowledge and your network? There are many options for companies and agencies to train digital marketing teams and to keep tenured employees up to date including conferences such as: this week's WebmasterWorld Pubcon, Search Engine Strategies, Search Marketing Expo, numerous regional and niche events and an increasing number of web based offerings including SEMPO Institute and the DMA Search Engine Marketing Certification program. I would be remiss not to mention the upcoming "Social Media Smarts" workshop in NYC covering all aspects of social media marketing including a strategy exercise and tips on building a business case for a social media effort in your organization. Attending conferences is not cheap when you factor the increasing price of travel and hotels as well as pre/post and conference training fees, meals and taxi. Attendees and their companies are paying $2500 - $5000 per person per conference as well as the cost of time away from the office performing billable work. It's easy to see why webinars are on the increase and why those who are fortunate to attend these events need to get the most out of them. The most important thing that conference attendees can do to get the most out of their time at events is to set goals. Managers sending individuals to conferences should be clear about expectations. Company staff should be sure to talk with others within the organization or team that have attended the same or similar events to gain their insight. Depending on the purpose for attending a conference, goals may vary. Here are some common goals based on the various reasons for attending any kind of marketing conference: Knowledge - How many sessions will you attend and how will you capture the information? Notes, photos, video (where allowed) When meeting new people, discuss the sessions with them. Compare notes with other attendees, it's a great way to network and to get other opinions. Before the conference, make a grid or a plan for which specific sessions you'll be attending. Often times, there is not much time between sessions and the difference between getting a good seat and standing room only can be a matter of minutes. Networking - How many qualified prospects, marketing partners, vendors to outsource to and job candidates will you meeting? Each day, tally them up and plan how you will follow up. Content - how will you leverage your conference experience to create new content for your company blog, articles, or process documentation? Set goals for how many you’ll create each day. The content you capture and create can supply a company blog with numerous posts and show clients, staff and prospective clients that you are on top of what's happening in the industry. At TopRank, our staff are required to publish at least 3 blog posts for each day of conference attended. Set goals for how many blog posts, articles or other types of content will be created each day of the conference. It doesn't have to be all text, you can take photos of people, and presentation slides. Take videos where allowed. Knowledge transfer - How will you pass on the information youâ've acquired to the rest of the team? At TopRank Online Marketing, our staff take the highlights and any specific tactics of use and create presentations which they share with the rest of the TopRank team. Knowing you will be required to present the information you are gaining with the team back at the office helps focus on takeaways and practical interpretations of the new information. Socialize - Where there's a conference, there's a party. After hours events are exceptional opportunities for conference attendees to relax, network and share information. Make no mistake, post session networking can be an art form. Make a point to relax and have fun, but be clear about objectives and make a goal of attending a dinner each night of the event if possible. Some dinners are a tradition amongst long time friends, some are sponsored by vendors and some are at hoc events that occur as a result of like minded individuals wanting to continue the day's discussion. As you can see, there are many more opportunities to get value from marketing conference participation than keeping up to date with an industry. Pre conference goal setting and planning, well defined processes as well as follow up and post event knowledge sharing can all multiple the value organizations realize by sending employees to educational events. Not all organizations are positioned to take full advantage of these insights, but through simple analysis, it can become clear pretty quickly how much is being left on the table or to competitors who are sending the same numbers of people and incurring the same costs. Understand the conference offerings, set goals and make the time to pre-plan conference involvement. Leverage content creation, networking, recruiting, competitive intelligence as well as prospecting opportunities and industry conferences can move pretty quickly from an expense with an uncertain effect to an investment with multiples of return.Comments
Life Without Google
30/5/2009 | external link
Alright, maybe not life entirely without Google but let's face facts (and I'm sure even the folks over at Google would agree) there are lots of great minds out there and not all of them work at the Googleplex (shocking I know). I've recently been giving quite a bit of thought to all the different ways I search for things and decided to finally cover a couple of my favorite “Google Alternatives” in a blog post. The purpose is not to get you to stop using Google which would be: a. pointless, andb. hypocritical. I use Google as my primary engine but there is a time and a place for other choices. So let's get to it and hopefully you'll end this article with a few new ways to search for information and perhaps even pass back a few of your own tips. :) Genie Knows When I first heard about the launch of GenieKnows soon-to-be-announced map embedding for webmasters back at SES San Jose it flooded back to me how great innovations are occurring among many of the lesser-known engines and unfortunately a lot of these great features are lost to all but those “in the know” (read: immersed enough in the Internet community to even hear about alternative and vertical search engines). Jim Hedger wrote a great piece on the new product launch by Genie Knows over on the Metamend blog so I won't cover that here. What I will cover is the usefulness and innovation of this engine. I suppose I should note, it's their map functionality that completely won me over. If you haven't checked it out yet I highly recommend doing so. Here's an example of how I've used a non-Google function from another engines to make my life dramatically easier: I go to a lot of conferences. The fact of the matter is, I spend VERY little time at the hotel and thus, can rarely justify the cost of staying at a hotel like the Hilton. Now I'm not a cheap person but seriously – If I can save $100/night that's an extra $100 I have to either leave in the company or spend while I'm at the conference on more entertaining or useful endeavors. So the predicament becomes, how do I find a hotel that's less expensive and yet still within an easy walking distance of the conference? Once upon a time I would use Google maps and Expedia. I'd look up the various hotels on Expedia and map them out with directions on Google maps and one-by-one enter them in and see what I could get and for how much. And then I discovered GenieKnows. The joy of this engine is I enter a phrase such as “seattle hotel” and it shows me a map with a grid. In the middle of each cell is a number – that is the number of hotels in that area so all I have to do is find the conference area on the map and click that square and now I know the location of all the nearest hotels and can much more easily look them up without having to lookup hotels only to find out they're 15 miles from where I need to be. A huge time saver every time I travel and it's not restricted to hotels, it works for restaurants, etc. I can't recommend enough testing it out next time you're traveling or looking for something when location is an issue (and when isn't it?) If you'll take my advice you can head over to GenieKnows.com. You won't regret it. Yahoo! Answers I know I know – from one major engine to another. The point of listing Yahoo! Answers though isn't specifically to tout this feature of Yahoo! though it is a good one. Rather, it's to point out that within the major engines there are specific search capabilities and sources of information that you likely don't know about. I'm sure many of you, the readers here, have used Yahoo! Answers at some time or another or at the very least, a similar service – but most people haven't. I have found answers in the search results on Google and I've even taken the time to answer a few questions but it was when I saw my 10-year-old boy looking up game clues and tips for Pokemon version 18-billion Red (in case you don't know – this isn't an actual game of Pokemon but with the number coming out, it probably will be soon) that it really hit home how useful this was for the average searcher. He got frustrated looking for information on Google and found that he could ask questions or often find others who had and get the answers quickly on Yahoo! Answers. The message was clear, when your query is really a question that requires an expert answer (even if that expert is just some kid who plays too many video games) then Google may well not be the first place to go for a fast and accurate answer. As another plus (and this is as a parent) – if you've ever seen the ads on the gaming sites you too will be happy to find your son on Yahoo! Answers. Take this as advice to check out the specific offerings of your favorite engine(s). Blog search, news search, advanced search options and MUCH MUCH more await and once you explore them you'll find searching a far faster, more accurate and enjoyable experience. Even if it is on Google but you'll have to forget I wrote that or the title loses some of it's life. ;) Cuil Alright, I had to show that I do have a sense of humor. I'm not even going to make this one a link as it's not worth it. Cuil had a lot of promise with ex-Googlers on the dev team and money behind it but it didn't live up to even half of what it attempted to be. Google-killer? Heck, it's not even a Dogpile killer. And A Few Good Lists In the end what I'm hoping you'll take from this is a solid belief that there is more out there than just Google or whatever your favorite engine is. Each job has the right tool and different engines offer different opportunities. I can't possibly list off all the great engines out there and what they do but here are a few useful lists of some of the better alternative engines out there so you don't have to weed through the horrible ones to get to the good: Spock.com – Top Vertical Search EnginesSmashingApps.com – 13 Most Unusual Search Engines You Should RememberVertical Search – A search engine of vertical search sites. A good place to go if you don't know where you're going. In Short In short and I think I've made it pretty clear, while about 95% of all my searching is done on Google – there's a place and a time for alternatives. Knowing those alternatives can make your online experience infinitely more enjoyable. Explore, investigate and enjoy. There's probably a lot more out there than you think, or at least - easier ways to find it.Comments
SES San Jose - Getting Started With SEO
30/5/2009 | external link
This sponsored session was an entry level overview of what websites should be doing on their website to get visibility and rankings in search engines. Here are the 7 Proven Ways to get Your Website on Page 1 Organically & then Convert as stated by the presenter Shawn Moore. Content is King What your content says, what your images and video show not only give users a first impression, but those items are also important to how a search engine is going to interpret your website.Navigation and Architecture Looking into the way that your menus and internal linking structure are important. Can the web crawlers see and index your navigation? Or is it in JavaScript or Flash that may not be as search friendly?Blogs Using a blog is just another way to generate more content for the search engines to index and use to rank your website.Quality and Keyword Rich Inbound Links The number of links you have is important, but the quality of those links is more important. Get links from relevant sites and ensure that those links are using keyword phrases and not just your website address or business name.Database Shawn said that choosing the right database for your site is important. Some are not search engine friendly and that choosing the wrong one will cause lots of issues down the line.Electron Press Releases or Optimized Releases These releases give your site more exposure in search engines and the keyword rich links in the content can help increase your rankings.Domain Name Strategy It was recommended that, if you can, choose a domain name with keyword phrases in it as it’ll give an added boost in search engines. You can also purchase additional domain names and forward them onto your website. Try thinking about what a user may type into the address bar of their browser and then register that domain for easy access. Some of the tips are well known, others were a bit questionable to me. I’m still trying to figure out how a certain type of database can hurt a site as it’s all about how the content is displayed on that page and the URLs used that is the part to be concerned with. Overall, the session was a good one for those just starting out in the industry.Comments
SES San Jose - Understanding Web Analytics
30/5/2009 | external link
What is it about web analytics that that intrigues and yet scares companies at the same time? Everyone want to understand analytics, yet once one starts digging in, it can get complicated. In Identify, Analyze, Act: SEM by the Numbers, they gave tips on what you should be looking at and what you should be paying attention to. Here are a few of the tips & thoughts that were shared: Craig Danuloff Invisibility; what can’t we see?Every search is a question, every ad is an answer. Keywords simply connectors.ROAS is a ‘feel good’ metric. don’t take it seriously.Deception - Can you trust what you see?Accuracy - What’s the margin of error. Is there statistical significance?Banish brand terms as they throw everything off.Unlimited power from huge data volumes. Lots of campaigns lots of data and a fluid business environment.A change is not a test. Test design, test tracking, scoring test results.Apply math and statistics.Make a record of changes made to the site. Brian Cosgrove Implementation - Everyone needs to ensure analytics are configured correctly.Filtering - Filter out internal traffic or those that come to the site as part of their job.Process should be: report, analyze, optimize, measure, repeat.How many pages are actually landing pages, how many are not getting visitors?Connect landing pages and keywords as a search engine doesn’t always drive traffic to what you think is the best page. Heather Dougherty Use competitive intelligence to identify and analyze sem opportunities.Identify trends and seasonality.Analyze competitors strategy.Act upon opportunities.Get the calendar ready and stay ahead of seasonal trends.Understand paid vs organic search in specific industry.Look at competitors. Paid vs organic. Click thoroughs.What is the user intent? Example: Purchase an item or news/research.Can use analytics for reputation management. Michael Stebbins What’s in your data? Most analytics have bounce rates, average time, page views, but does yours have conversion rate and cost of revenue per visit?The Grim Reaper: Find which 10% of ads are not performing and kill them.Find ads with high cost, bad ROI, low engagement, low conversion and those will help find the 10%They can either be cut or replaced.Don’t keep them hoping they’ll get better.Free Research Tool: Microsoft’s Commercial IntentFree Research Tool: Google Adwords Keyword too. With this you can even check age range and sex to help target your ad contentFree Research Tool: Google Ad Planner Brett Crosby Came from Urchin and helped grow Google AnalyticsWanted to make it easier for non-geeks to dive in and explore. Aka: The shallow end.Always setup goals and funnels.Customize dashboard for your needs.Customize email reports for different rolls in the company.Setup goal value. This will help you see values per keywordIf you can hook up to eCommerce data, it’s even better The session had great speakers from the technical side of things to the beginner side of analytics. It was a lot of information in a short time, but still very good overall.Comments
SES San Jose Day Two Summary
30/5/2009 | external link
A full featured and information packed day is how many SES attendees would describe day two of the conference in San Jose. I know the TopRank Blogging team would agree with 13 new posts today! Advanced B2B Search Marketing - JessicaIdentify, Analyze, Act: SEM by the Numbers - ThomasWhat’s New with Google Analytics and Website Optimizer? - AshleyGlobal Search for the B2B SEM - Jessica5 Things No One Will Tell You About SEM - DanaSearch Advertising 101 - Dana 7 Proven Ways to Get Your Website on Page 1 Organically & Then Convert - ThomasLanding Page Testing & Tuning - AshleyKeynote with Microsoft’s Satya Nadella - JessicaSES San Jose Expo Hall Photos - DanaMeasuring Success in a 2.0 World - DanaInternet Marketing Conference Tips: Danny Sullivan Third Door Media LeeInternet Marketing Conference Tips: Robert Scoble FastCompany.TV - Lee Watch for even more in depth session coverage tomorrow on day 3 of SES San Jose. It’s so good, it’s like you’re here in person! Except you’re not. Next up is the Google Dance!Comments
SES San Jose 08 - Satya Nadella Keynote
30/5/2009 | external link
Satya Nadella (Microsoft’s Senior Vice President of the Search, Portal & Advertising Platform Group) spoke at this morning’s keynote at the Search Engine Strategies Conference. Nadella spoke on how Microsoft approaches search and how the company intends to shape trends in search development and how they intend to exploit them. Comments
SES San Jose - Google Dance Photos
30/5/2009 | external link
Didn’t make the Google Dance? Never fear, live the experience with the photos I just uploaded. A selection below. Comments
SES - Lee Siegal Keynote Pics
30/5/2009 | external link
On opening night at the Search Engine Strategies Conference this week in San Jose, Kevin Ryan () spoke with Lee Siegal about his book, “Against the Machine”, and the ideas in it. Kevin Ryan Interviews Lee Siegal, SES Keynote Siegal proposes that the internet culture is perhaps damaging our attention span and he points out the benefits of having intentionality about what we do. Interesting! Lee Siegal, author of “Against the Machine” Comments
Photos From SES San Jose
30/5/2009 | external link
Unfortunately, I didn’t arrive in San Jose until after 6pm–so I missed all of day one. However, I did make it to the Internet Marketer’s Charity Party, which was a huge success. I’ve posted a few photos from the event to my Flickr account. Here are a sample: I’ll have more photos from Day 2, later today. If you’re looking for a re-cap of day one’s panels, then I suggest you take a look here and here.Comments
How Do You Think Twitter Can Make Money?
30/5/2009 | external link
There’s a new Viewpoint column about Twitter, over at BusinessWeek. Before I go on, it’s important to note that Viewpoint’s are guest columns, not written by normal BusinessWeek staffers. Anyway, "The Trouble with Twitter" takes an in-depth look at the money woes at Twitter, in particular its lack of business model. Now, when I say "in-depth," I mean it. In fact, you can safely skip the entire first page–unless you enjoy a little fluff with your morning coffee. The second page gets to the meat, and has a pretty good analysis of the different types of monetization models Twitter could consider. I’ll summarize the suggested business models: Twitter could ask users to payTwitter could get messages to payTwitter could extract money from user dataTwitter could sell ads From what I can tell, selling ads is the best lifeline that could be thrown to Twitter at this point. Certainly, it’s likely the option that Twitter users would be least resistant to. Unfortunately, number crunching reveals that Twitter might not be able to make enough money from ads alone: Advertisers would find Twitter ads generate $28.2 million in profits. So the maximum they logically would spend on such ads is $28.2 million. Thus Twitter has a real value of $12.26 per user. Compare that with Facebook, which has a perceived value of $300 a user—or at least it did last year, when Microsoft purchased its 1.6% stake for $240 million and the site had 50 million users. And, that’s assuming some pretty generous CTR and conversion rates. I’m a huge fan of Twitter–you can catch me discussing Twitter at SES San Jose this week–so I’m hoping it can figure this out before it runs out of money. So, this is where you come in. What suggestions do you have for revenue model for Twitter? Leave a comment below and we’ll make sure we pass them on to the Twitter team.Comments
What Do You Value From SEO Conferences
30/5/2009 | external link
Sunday I’ll be taking off to San Jose for a week at Search Engine Strategies. Earlier this year I spoke at SES New York, but in San Jose I’ll be going as press. Which means I get a free pass and I’m expected to write about my experience. That’s a decent trade-off! Four weeks after that I’ll be headed to Ohio for the much smaller, but far more intimate Small Business Marketing Unleashed. Here I will be speaking in two sessions, the first on website architecture and the second will be an SEO workshop. With that in mind, I wanted to pose a few questions: What value do you get out of going to these big conferences? Are they any better or worse than smaller, more intimate conferences? Which do you prefer, and what do you come home with of value (other than quality schwag)? Please opine.Comments
What To Look For At SES San Jose
30/5/2009 | external link
You’ve probably picked up that this week is about SES San Jose from Dana and Ashley’s “15 Things Not to Miss at SES San Jose” followed by Jessica’s “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” post. I am also headed out to sunny California next month. There’s plenty to take in on a trip to the Golden State including the beautiful weather, celebrities, good wine, and, of course the Search Engine Strategies Conference. Here are a few of the sessions I’m planning on covering: More Customers, Fewer Costs - Why Marketing to the ‘Long Tail’ Makes Sense Who doesn’t want more customers and fewer costs? Isn’t that a business’ dream? This session will be interesting as there have been recent stories on how the long tail is not as effective as we once thought. I still believe in the long tail though. Semantic Search: How Will It Change Our Lives? What? Change my life? That’s a pretty big promise. However, that’s what search does. It works to give the best results, which continually improve based on users needs. Just think back over the past few years; there has been blog search, universal search and local search all up and coming. Sounds like semantic search is next. Wouldn’t you agree? Storyteller Marketing: How the Art of Storytelling Matches Up With the Business of Marketing Ahh, story time. Everyone enjoys a good story, but where does that fall into play with SEO and online marketing? I can tell you a story about most anything, but throw in some package testing and spigot lingo and it’s a bit more difficult. 7 Proven Ways To Get Your Website On Page 1 Organically Then Convert If it was only that easy right? I’m a bit skeptical here. If there are 7 proven ways, then as soon as they tell us, everyone will use them and, well, you can only have 10 on page 1. I hope this isn’t to high level and just about content, links and the stuff we already know. Identify, Analyze, Act: SEM by the Numbers Analytics is huge to a site’s success. How your visitors get to, and interact with, your site is extremely important and the stats hold all the secrets. But finding all the bits of gold that is buried in analytics can be tough to find. Hopefully they’ll show some secrets and insight into the best places to be looking. A little sad though that analytics based on Star Trek doesn’t appear on the schedule. Google Dance After a few refreshments Thomas will also be getting his groove on at the Google dance; even if he doesn’t know how to groove well. Getting Vertical Search Right Yes, it’s the world wide web, but you don’t have to compete with everyone. Being the best in your vertical is all a site needs to do. But how does one target some, but not everyone? SEO Rehab & Intervention Let me grab by celebrity attitude and I’ll be ready to go. I know none of my site’s have issues, but I’ll be sure to find issues in your sites. Advanced Paid Search Techniques PayPerClick is like the black sheep in SEO. It’s not organic or social, but it is a proven method for generating traffic and conversions. These paid links are OK! Just be careful not to blow your entire marketing budget in a few days or get a bunch of unqualified traffic. There has to be a happy medium. SearchBash More groovin and movin and networkin’ with ya’ll! With all those sessions, the California palm trees and happy cows may not get enough attention. However, with all the knowledge poring in and great networking, there will be more than enough to keep busy. If you’re going to SES San Jose next month, what sessions are you planning on attending? If you’re not sure, check out the full conference schedule.Comments
SES NY: Good Public Relations Can Influence Search Rank
30/5/2009 | external link
I spoke today at a session at Search Engine Strategies in New York City. Even though we were the second-to-last session on the last day of the show our session was very well attended. I talked about HerRoom.com and their sports bra BounceTest videos. The videos show women running on a treadmill wearing a sports bra so that you can see whether that make of bra does in fact reduce the movement of the breasts.We looked for a news hook to get more coverage and build links to these videos and found that Dr. Joanna Scurr, a bio-mechanics professor in the UK, had done some research into breast movement and damage to breast tissue caused by exercising without proper support. Dr. Scurr's research had received a fair amount of attention from mainstream media - such as USAToday and MSNBC.HerRoom hosted a podcast interview with Dr Scurr and put out a search optimized press release about this research and the Bounce Test videos.A search on Google shows that this press release has been published on sites like Reuters and WSJ.comBloggers wrote about the podcast and the videos.A month ago this page on HerRoom was not in the first 100 results. With some on page optimization and a news angle that created links to the page it is now on page two at #14.Stay tuned - with a few more high profile authoritative links we should make it to page one. Online media relations is an undervalued SEO technique. But it does take an understanding of news and good PR skills.Comments
SES New York: Satisfying Usability And SEO
30/5/2009 | external link
Satisfying both human users and search engines' standards is time-consuming and not exactly simple. The good news, though, is that these two tasks shouldn't always tug you in opposite directions.(Coverage of the SES New York conference continues at WebProNews Videos. Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)A session titled "Usability & SEO: 2 Wins For The Price Of 1" addressed the related issues. Matthew Bailey, the president of SiteLogic, began by highlighting the connection: SEO is about getting people to your site, and usability is about having them follow clear paths once there.To satisfy both needs, Bailey recommended using a combination of images, alt text, and captions. Also, call products what they are; he used the (surprisingly successful) Boudreaux's Butt Paste as an example of something that doesn't make its true use (as a diaper rash treatment) clear.Kathleen Fealy, the president of KF Multimedia & Web, Inc., later continued the conversation by emphasizing SEO and usability overlaps like site maps, strong navigation, and clean calls to action. She also echoed the paste example by stressing that, for the best results in both worlds, people should use the same words real customers would.Finally, Fealy pointed out that optimizing SEO and usability is an ongoing process, so you should formulate a plan of action and specific goals before getting in too deep.
SES NY: Starting Up In-House Search Marketing
30/5/2009 | external link
The New Face o In-House Search included Ron Belanger as the moderator and Bill Hunt from Global Strategies International, Olivier Lemaignen from Intuit, Marshall D. Simmonds from New York Times, Bill Macaitis from Fox Interactive Media and Brendan Hart from National Geographic Digital Media. First up is Bill Hunt to talk about what perspective companies should take when considering bringing search marketing in-house. What are the best options? Outsource - Give everything to the agencyInSource - Do everything in house. Few companies are actually doing thisHybrid - A mix The hard questions start with: What are the objectives? Can we meet the objectives with this new approach? What level of management support do we have? Can we measure a program to show benefit? What is our bench strength? Can the program scale? Many in-house programs fail to scale. What is the total cost for each approach? Will the company commit and follow through? Other questions: - How supportive is management? Talks about a missed opportunity matrix. Very effective tool for convincing management for budget. - Can we measure our performance? Do you have the right web analytics tools in place>? - How scalable can we be? It makes sense to make SEO part of work flow. Figure out all the people that contribute content and train them. The economies of scale cannot be beat. - What is our bench strength? Show that you can’t do it on your own as well as the missed opportunity. What could you do with more skills and more people. Next up is Olivier Lemaignen from Intuit who talked about the pros and cons of taking things in-house. 1 1/2 years ago Intuit had a few internal people working on paid search. SEO was a mythical thing and they were uncertain of it’s value. In a 1 1/2 year time frame, SEO is all inhouse and PPC is in part outsourced because of their bid management expertise. First thing is to hire a team. That means you need to get budget approval, which means executive support. The scope of the team’s responsibilities need to be defined. Skills need to be defined as well and that allows you to hire the right team. Next steps are to engage with internal clients and define the right success metrics in order to track results. Intuit In-House SEM Team Structure Working with internal clients means setting up different service levels. Keys to Success: Budget autonomy. If you don’t you won’t be able to execute all the initiatives that you need.Executive support.Team structure and coverage. Having the right team organized the right way according to business unit needs is critical.Tolls and metrics - Branding, traffic, leads and revenue Combine deep company and business unit expertise with deep SEO expertise. SEO specializations: linking, new technology, tracking/reporting, searcher experience PPC specializations: keyword development, ad copy testing, landing page testing, agency management (at least in the case of Intuit) Holistic thinking is key. Consideration of other company marketing. Building the in-house team starts with foundational capabilities, business unit knowledge, thought leadership. Identify a matrix of new hires with SEO expertise to mesh with long term employees that have deep company and business unit knowledge. Scope of the in house team. Six objectives: Developing consistent and repeatable processesScalable tools and reportingEnsuring coverage for the right businessesCoordinating with agencies, web engineering, teams, analytics, copywritersBest practices and standardsEvangelizing and educating SEM across business units, web teams and geographies BETTER Budget autonomy, Exec support, Team structure coverage, Tools and metrics, Evangelization/education, Results Three things the in-house team needs to be known for: Thought leadershipExcellenceBusiness leadership Next up is Marshall Simmonds, Chief Search Strategist from the New York Times. Also his own agency called Define. Organization and structure are important as well as where issues happen during the development cycle. What can big brands do today? Organize - Identify a point person, on site SEO manager. Strong communitator and well-schooled SEO. Engaged team of marketing, etch, research, editorial and even sales. Analyze - broke down prioritization buckets. Where is the low hanging fruit? Where can small changes have maximum results? Educate - Ensure the front lines producers and editors plus back end people are all on the same page when it comes to SEO. It’s not one size fits all. It’s different for each department. Execute strategy and measure results on an ongoing basis - Metrics saves jobs! Need to tallying up the wins and losses each month. Established baselines so that executives and Wall Street would understand them. Give feedback to the people doing the actual work as well as feedback to the executives sponsoring the SEM program. What not to do: No login. Don’t wall off content.Not communicating both suesses and areas of opportunityNot checking in with IT. They WILL screw something up, be sure to provide oversight. Must speak to ad sales so they understand the effect of what they’re selling on site SEOJust take the meta keywords tag out of the CMSMust communicate, educate the people actually performing the work. Each department gets a different checklist. It’s even built into the content management system.It’s important to manage expectations properly. What timeframs and growth rates actually are. With SEO, results won’t start for several months.A lack of editorial oversight can cause issues. You can automate things like meta description, but title tag should not be automated. Next up is Bill Macaitis, SVP Online Marketing for FOx Interactive Media. myspace, fox.com, gamespy, etc. Audience poll: Who wants a bigger staff? Everyone What % of company site traffic is search? About 30%. Centralized department and provides search marketing to all FIM sites. They use some 3rd party technology - web analytics. All manpower is in-house and they are ROI driven. Bill emphasizes that internal SEM teams must be revenue generating focused in their communications. Show upper management that when SEM asks for budget, it’s an investment with a return, not just a cost. Internal SEM team structure for Fox Interactive Budget is 10-15% of compensation for ongoing training. Budget covers conferences, certifications, travel, subscriptions and research. The average conference/certification cost is $1600. 3-4 events per year. New hires spend 3-4 weeks with a dedicated mentor. 1-2 hours a day for ongoing education. Make sure you let them know what they’re accountable for and give them the tools they need to be successful. Leads to results and loyalty. Training and Learning Mediums: Shows a huge list of blogs, sites, conferences, certification courses, associations, magazines, 3rd party research. Last up is Brendan Hart VP Marketing Business Intelligence for National Geographic Digital Media. The changing media landscape - for national geographic. Goals: Add content with consumer demand and follow search engine best practices. Optimize strategy based on industry trends. Include a search marketing component to all content. Engage SEO consultants to review work flow and best practices analysis. On site optimization plus directory/link building and some PPC. Finding your inner search voice. A matrix of discussion to decision for refining goals and tactics. Evaluate situation, define goals, assess current tactics. Then refine tactics, build the team and get an outside point of view. Building a Winning Team. Core actions: - Designate a search evangelist. Get consensus from all levels of the organization. Build consensus amongst those responsible for implementation and building cross-functional support. Execute ongoing training. Build a search program and defining accountability and goals, a search team and define practices for success. [Many of the audience members indicated running multiple content management systems.] Bring in an Expert Point of View. Periodically review the search program. Benchmark and analysis are the first steps to optimization. Operationalizing search allows everyone to contribute.Comments
SES NY: Do's And Dont's Of Media And Blogger Relations
30/5/2009 | external link
On Thursday I’ll be presenting on a panel, “Beyond Linkbat: Getting Authoritative Mentions Online” with Chris Boggs and Sally Falkow. Sage Lewis will be moderating. I think this type of session is very timely as search engines begin to put more and more emphasis on higher quality and editorial link sources and less on sources that are easier to manipulate. Increasing competition online also means online branding and influence increase in their importance. Online PR is a perfect solution for a topic that shines less light on tactics du jour, althought linkbaiting still works well, and more on leveraging the media and centers of influence online. I’ve written about how SEO and Online PR can work together in the past, but in this presentation I’ll be focusing on the Do’s and Don’ts of media relations and blogger relations. Here’s a highlight to give you a taste of what I’ll be talking about and may be helpful as an outline for any bloggers that might be covering the session. When working with online public relations programs, we typically distinguish PR activities into “push” tactics, which are methods of reaching out such as by sending out press released through a wire service, pitching journalists and bloggers via email and phone, distributing news information through RSS and a few clever uses of PPC. Alternatively, “pull” tactics are centered around optimizing content so it is easy for journalists and bloggers doing research to find. The fundamentals that make blogger relations and media relations efforts successful center on relevance and relationships. One of the biggest complaints both journalists and bloggers have in regard to news stories that are pitched to them is that the stories are simply not relevant. More on how to fix that in a bit. The other fundamental, relationships, is very key because credible, trustworthy and sound-bite savvy expers and resources are good/difficult to come by. Too many SEOs trying to pitch blogs or even mainstream media approach it like typical link building - a one time event. The reality is, that publication or blog would love to find a great resource they can cite and link to over and over again. While the SEO value of links from the same domain name diminishes with frequency, they are still traffic driving opportunities. Here is a summary of the DO’s: Do your homeworkBe relevantUnderstand the difference: journalists vs bloggersMake it easyPublicize your publicity And here are the DON’Ts: Don’t be sloppy or spammyDon’t be a one trick ponyDon’t be arrogantDon’t ignore multiple promotion channelsDon’t forget to say thank you There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity for companies to develop win-win-win relationships with the media and bloggers. The readership of those web sites get useful content. Bloggers and journalists develop a relationship with a credible source that will help them write better stories and blog posts. The company wins by being mentioned authoritatively on a regular basis. Key points: Do your homework, be personal and relevant in your pitching. Make it easy for the journalist or blogger to use you as an expert or content source and by all means, develop a relationship that results in a win for everyone involved. The “Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Mentions Online” session is this Thursday 3/20 at the NY Hilton, Sutton South room at 11:15 am. The panel and I hope to see you there!Comments
SES New York: Design And Search Engines
30/5/2009 | external link
Ever look at different doctors' bookshelves? There are usually at least two or three books in common, regardless of the professionals' fields or age. This happens because the basics are important, and a session at SES New York returned to the basics of site design.(Coverage of the SES New York conference continues at WebProNews Videos. Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)Depending on how familiar you are with these matters, Eric Papczun, the director of natural search at Performics, recommended starting out by reading Google's Webmaster Guidelines. Next, concentrate on creating friendly URLs - make sure they're unique, and keep keywords in them. Site maps are great, too.Papczun then discussed the issue of using Flash, JavaScript, and Ajax. While these things can look nice, he recommends a judicious approach, with a much more liberal use of CSS.Next, Matt Bailey, the president of SiteLogic, picked up on the topic of accessibility. The problems Target's site pose for the visually impaired have actually gotten the company sued. Since search engines are blind, as well, using alt attributes is important for all sorts of reasons. "Your site should be available to anyone, anywhere, anytime on anything," stated Bailey.As a couple of added points: Bailey suggested using favicons and not allowing URLs to grow outside the address bar.Craig Hordlow, the chief search strategist at Red Bricks Media, wrapped things up by once again addressing the issue of Flash and CSS use. He suggested using tabs on a flash page as a way of letting search engines see content, but not throwing the stuff at users until they click for it.
SES New York: Live Search "Tips And Tricks"
30/5/2009 | external link
Although people sometimes forget this fact, there are search engines outside of Google. At SES New York, two Microsoft managers walked an audience through ways to do well with Live Search.(Coverage of the SES New York conference continues at WebProNews Videos. Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)The sponsored session titled (deep breath here) "Tips and tricks for delivering great results and campaigns with Live Search" was led by Jorie Waterman, the lead program manager of the adCenter Keyword Research Platform, and Ani Babaian, the senior product manager of the Live Search Webmaster Center.The pair outlined three steps to successful search marketing. The first stage - planning and research - involves content prioritization and understanding what keywords are important in both organic and paid search. The second stage - building - requires submitting sitemaps and site content, and optimizing backlinks based on keyword volume analysis.Thirdly, ongoing optimization should be based on seasonality and competitive research, according to the two women.Waterman and Babaian went on to highlight the benefits of using the new adCenter Excel Add-in. It can help you prioritize targeted keywords while being free and simple to use. There is an allotment of 20,000 queries per day per adCenter username, and it delivers absolute numbers on exact search query traffic data.Also, Waterman and Babaian stated that the adCenter Excel Add-in should become available outside the U.S.
SES New York: Convincing Visitors To Buy
30/5/2009 | external link
Suppose you've achieved undeniable search engine success - Google's throwing as much traffic your way as the servers can handle. A normal business still requires more than sightseers, and a session at SES New York concentrated on converting visitors into buyers.(Coverage of the SES New York conference continues at WebProNews Videos. Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)Mike Moran, a distinguished engineer at IBM, emphasized a sort of trial and error approach to getting results, and not just good looks. So that you know what's going on, he suggested using Google Analytics as a way of counting Web conversions, and offering things like coupons as a way of tracking customers offline.Then the experimentation can begin. Continuously change things, including product offerings, prices, content, policies, and even the shopping cart's location, if you want to adopt Moran's method. He posed the question: "Are you really listening to which things work and which things don't?"Nigel Ravenhill, a program manager at McAfee, was up next. He made the solid point that a lot of people simply won't buy from you on their first visit. You can still manage things like site design, pricing, and shipping costs in order to increase the odds of a purchase upon their return, though.Then came Mike Sack, the director of SEM technology & Development at Idearc Media. He talked about scientifically "orchestrating the experience" in a manner that was reminiscent of Moran's testing procedures. Yet generally speaking, Sack felt homepages have become terrible, with far too much information and way too many links.He compared the average homepage experience to walking into a store and seeing all the products displayed on a big shelf. To avoid this information overkill, Sack believed people should connect specific searches to specific landing pages, expand keywords into the tail, and again, test and adjust as they go.Finally, Howard Kaplan, the COO of Future Now, finished things up with some specific tips. Provide unusual product images - angles, zoom, and video. Test headlines using fractions or percentages, and ask questions. As a key point: make things load faster.Kaplan also said, "The secret to conversion online is not about you. It's your customers, deciding to click or not to click. Understand who your visitors are and give them what they came looking for . . . In order to achieve your goals, your visitors must achieve theirs first."
SEM Conferences You Should Be Attending
30/5/2009 | external link
SEMpdx Searchfest Ok, this one has come and gone but I wanted to provide a short debrief. I have to say that I had a fantastic time. Searchfest marked my one-year anniversary speaking at conferences. They opened the door for me at Searchfest 2007 and were kind enough to invite me back this year. Boy, am I glad they did. I have to say that I was really surprised by the marketing power they were able secure for each session was amazing. I felt severely out gunned on both panels I was on. I was amazed at the quality of the information provided and the overall environment established by the SEMpdx team. I met quite a few people in the industry and instead of trying to list them all here I just want to say thanks for making my SEMpdx experience a great one! Search Engine Strategies: New York By the time you read this the conference will already be happening, but it’s not to late to drop by for some sessions. I’ll be taking the red-eye in to arrive on Tuesday morning and hope to grab an early morning session before heading back to my hotel for a power-nap. Wednesday I’ll be attending a few sessions and then speaking on the Vertical & Retail Track in a session called SEM Small Business Blitz. I’ll be speaking with Jennifer Laycock and Matt McGee, both providing valuable information that’s worth the price of admission. My presentation is titledWebsite Marketing Strategies that Don’t Suck (Money from Your Wallet) and I’ll provide some quick hits on keyword organizationwebsite architecturegetting attentionPPC strategiescompetitive intelligence Search Engine Marketing: Unleashed This one is my favorite of the three, and not just because I have a secret crush on Jennifer Laycock. What you need to know about Unleashed is that this will be unlike any other conference you’ve attended in our industry. Instead of hearing a panel of speakers share four different viewpoints, (leaving you to figure out which one is right) we’ll give the stage to one expert who knows how to explain the nuts and bolts of their topic to the small business audience. You’ll get the information that’s vital to improving your online marketing techniques and you’ll get it without the techno-talk and industry jargon so common to larger online marketing conferences. On day two, we’ll take things a step further, breaking the show down into intensive work-shops that actually walk you through the process of beginning to market your site. Whether it’s keyword research, viral marketing, paid search advertising or a variety of other topics, our expert marketers will walk you through the actual steps of launching your online marketing campaign and will send you home with the knowledge you need to finish the job. If you have not reserved your seat then you’re too late for the early-bird pricing, the registration fee of $975 is still a bargain. Here is a list of the speakers you’ll be treated to: Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine GuideMatt Bailey, Site LogicWendy Piersall, eMoms at Home NetworkMatt McGee, Small Business SEMDebra Mastaler, Alliance-LinkHeather Lloyd-Martin, SuccessWorksMack Collier, The Viral GardenChristine Churchill, Key RelevanceSage Lewis, SageRockand myself, Stoney deGeyter, Pole Position Marketing I’ll be speaking on Website Architecture and have a fantastic presentation put together that I’m sure everyone will benefit from. Finally, here is a great video put together by the Small Business Marketing team. Sit down, relax and enjoy the next minute and a half. Comments
SES New York Kicks Off
30/5/2009 | external link
Yesterday proved to be an interesting kickoff to this year’s Search Engine Strategies conference here in New York. The Organic Listings panel was entertaining and informative as always and the Build Investment Interest in your SEO/SEM firm was an early indulgence for myself that offered great tips for those looking at the future liquidity and monetization for their agency. Jolina weighed in with her posts on excellent sessions, Four Ways to Redfine the Customer and Three Tips for Successful Analytics. There was also a spontaneous goofball interview with Mike McDonald of WebProNews offering a few insights about the future of SES/SMX. The day wound up with the Orion Panel on Vertical Search which didn’t leave Jolina with a warm fuzzy (to be expected as Kevin Ryan’s just not that kind of guy ) but it did offer interesting insights into vertical search - vertical content marketing as well as how social networks will play into the future of vertical search overall. There’s plenty more coverage at Search Engine Roundtable, Lisa @BruceClayBlog and many others. The usual “secret” invite only parties followed along with an all-hands St Patrick’s day pub crawl which quickly splintered since there was no way any bar on this day would be able to take a hundred+ SES revelers. Here are a few favorite photos and more which you can find at TopRank’s Flickr Set for SES New York 2008: Orion Panel on Vertical Search with Joshua Stylman looking very rugged, yet philisophical The SEO Rapper. Yep, that’s right. This is what happen in the speaker ready room. Very boring. “You ask me for my phone number again mate and I’ll smack you with this stick” NY Hilton where SES NY Magic is Happening The best SEO blogger on the web and a tired wannabe SEO CEO I’m such a tourist and like photos like these For Day Two of SES NY we’re looking forward to Nick Carr’s Keynote and will be covering sessions ranging from “Converting Visitors into Buyers” with friend Mike Moran, to Local Search Marketing Tactics with Jon Meyers.Comments
Search Marketing Trends in 2008
30/5/2009 | external link
Last week I was able to catch up with Jeffrey Pruitt, EVP, Corporate Partnerships at iCrossing, to discuss his thoughts on search marketing trends and paradigm shifts in 2008. We also discussed some useful sessions people should check out while attending Search Engine Strategies in New York. Here's how our conversation went:[Manoj]: Can you give me a brief overview of the trends you think the search marketing industry will see this year?[Jeffrey Pruitt]:1) Convergence of Search and Display As advertising becomes more and more digitized, we will see a changed landscape over the next few years. Non-Premium inventory (not on first page) served from contextual like products:Site-TargetingContent AdsDisplay type adsVideo AdsDisplay retargeting And will continue to evolve to search type dynamics, bought in an auction based environment. The fastest growing inventory on the web is non-premium display, which is driving the convergence between Search and Display. This is why you see Yahoo and the other engines bring search and display under one operational organization. See Yahoo Study, "Closing the Loop" With the ability to target and optimize performance brand advertisers will expect improved results on display type products (contextual, site targeting, etc). Firms whose DNA is search can lead the consolidation of Search and Display by having search empower how Display is purchased by utilizing targeting and optimization through auction based platforms.Although, Search firms tend to view contextual, display and video ad type products as search campaign add-ons and therefore they fail in overall performance. Search firms need to reverse the messaging to include any measurement beyond just brand impressions as more successful than current brand metrics (impressions).2.) Consolidated and Efficient ROI-Maximizing Ad Platforms and ExchangesSimilar to stocks exchanges, inventory (ads) will be sold and advertising platforms will be the mechanism for buying, selling, tracking and reporting all inventory (print, radio, display, TV,etc).Exchanges will constitute a large percent of where on-line display advertising is bought and sold.3.) Video Optimization and Video AdvertisingVideo optimization allows for extended reach of video assets, creates additional web traffic and fosters viral communication. Videos are served through: Video Uploading: the process of publishing videos to video search engines on a per vide basis (most popular)RSS media: Require submission of content via xmlVideo Crawler: actively crawl the web for video contentAgencies can further monetize their offerings by utilizing video optimization as a formal service line which includes optimization, creative build, tracking and reporting.Publishers are innovating video ads through engaging, rich media experiences that do not turn off customers. Interactive Ads on Yahoo or In Video Ads served within the creative content of videos on Google (Adsense) are going to become frequently used advertising formats.Publishers are innovating video ads through engaging, rich media experiences that do not turn off customers. Interactive Ads on Yahoo or In Video Ads served within the creative content of videos on Google (Adsense) are going to become frequently used advertising formats.[Manoj]: How will marketers have to adjust their budgets to compensate for the upcoming changes?[Jeffrey Pruitt]:Some of the budgets will be pulled from traditional sources. More and more you will see advertisers relying on performance marketing, especially if there is an economic down turn. Understanding these trends will help drive this change.[Manoj]: How important is it to understand all the online touch-points of your visitors?[Jeffrey Pruitt]: Very important. Everything on line starts with research of your customers and what journey's they have both off line and on-line. Search sits at the center of digital and the insight that can be gained from Search and then utilized across the marketing mix is endless.[Manoj]: What are some sessions as at SES New York that you recommend attendees should check out?[Jeffrey Pruitt]:MONDAYRedefining the CustomerVideo Made the SMB StarTUESDAYMicrosoft Search Tips and tricks for delivering great results and campaigns with Live SearchEarning Money From Contextual AdsWEDNESDAYBig Brand Search Strategies: Build Connections and Fuel Online PromotionsSearcher Behavior Research UpdateAd Exchanges Are Changing EverythingTHURSDAYThe SEMPO Survey: 2007 State of the MarketVideo Search Optimization Comments
Pilgrim?s Picks - London Edition
30/5/2009 | external link
"Live from London, it’s Sat"….wait, that doesn’t quite work. Oh well, you get the idea. While I’m busy hobnobbing (which means we dunk incredibly crumbly cookies in our cups of tea) with marketers at SES London, please enjoy these picks. Video search engine Blinkx has signed an advertising deal with Encyclopaedia Britannica.Newspond might make an interesting competitor to Techmeme. As downloadsquad reports, it tracks technology memes but also allows you to add your own comments.Facebook’s Chief Revenue Officer Own Van Natta has decided to leave the company. It seems he’s itching to be a CEO somewhere–though no news as to where–and Zuckerberg’s in his way at Facebook. (OK, so none of that was said by Van Natta, but that’s how it looks)Looking for SES London coverage? Li Evans has it all covered for you.Now, go take a look at photos of Frederick Marckini’s keynote. Trendy haircut, no tie, no glasses–that’s what a few million can do for you.Comments
SES London: News & Blog SEO, Reputation Management
30/5/2009 | external link
Coming up fast (February 19-21) is the 2008 Search Engine Strategies show in London. It will be my first time speaking at an event in London and luckily I’ll be involved with 3 panels that are spot on with the marketing consulting work we do at TopRank. The two panels that I am presenting on are concurrent Wednesday, Feb 20 with “News Search SEO” starting at 10:30 a.m. followed by “Blog and Feed SEO” at 11:45 a.m. I will also be moderating the “Brand and Reputation Management” panel on Thursday at 3:30p.m. Below are more details on those sessions. News Search Engine Optimization - News search engines such as Yahoo News and Google News offer a great way to receive targeted traffic related to breaking topics or to help with a public relations effort. Moderated by Anne Kennedy of Beyond Ink, this session looks at how to make use of tactics such as press release optimization and optimizing news content to best tap into traffic from news search. I’ll be focusing on news content optimization, particularly online newsrooms. Speakers include: Greg Jarboe, President and Co-Founder, SEO-PR Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing Tim Gibbon, Director, Elemental Communications Blog & RSS Search Engine Optimization - This session session will be moderated by the VP and Editor in Chief of The ClickZ Network, Rebecca Lieb so I’d better be on my best behavior. Search U.S. Google for “blog optimization” and after seeing who is at #1 and #2, you’ll see why TopRank is on the panel. This panel of experts is set to explore how niche blog and RSS feed search engines work followed by tips on how companies can use blogs and RSS feeds as online marketing tools. In this session I’ll be giving a personal example of how we’ve leveraged Online Marketing Blog to build industry credibility, extend our network, grow our consulting business and attract media attention including book offers. Speakers include: Amanda Watlington, Owner, Searching for Profit Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing Massimo Burgio, Founder and Chief Strategist, Global Search Interactive Online Reputation Management - This topic has long been a hot issue and as increasing numbers of consumers are “empowered to publish” via blogs and social networks, companies are becoming keenly aware of the importance of managing brand and reputation online. This session will provide an overview and big picture issues related to online reputation management, a range of ORM tactics and a great collection of localized examples. Whether it’s PPC trademark issues, engaging legal help or blogger relations, there’s a lot to cover in the hour we have allocated. Moderated by TopRank CEO Lee Odden, speakers for this session include : Andy Beal, Consultant, Blogger, & Author, Marketing Pilgrim LLC Greg Jarboe, President and Co-Founder, SEO-PR Nan Dawkins, President and CEO, Serengeti Communications The SES London show will be held February 19-21 at the Business Design Centre in Islington and hosted by search marketing guru Mike Grehan. Tracks at SES London include: Fundamentals, Search Advertising, Global, Kelsey Group Local, Organic & Beyond, Organic, Issues & Tactics and an “Improve Me” Track. You can get a glance of all sessions here. If you’re attending the Search Engine Strategies conference in London, I hope you can make the sessions above and certainly say hello after. I’m looking forward to meeting up with UK friends Andy Atkins-Krüger, Mel Carson, Mike Grehan, BC Europe’s Rory De Niro and Marie Howell plus many U.S. based SEM pros that will be speaking/moderating. Comments
Google Addresses Webmaster Concerns
30/5/2009 | external link
A couple of days back Google's Susan Moskwa & Trevor Foucher published FAQs about sitemaps, see: Google's FAQs on Sitemaps. The FAQs followed from their experience at SES Chicago 2007. Now, Michael Wyszomierski releases notes answering issues faced by many webmasters who he interacted with at PubCon Vegas 2007. Here are the webmaster's concerns: Site Verification Files and Meta Tags Several webmasters asked, "Is it necessary to keep the verification meta tag or HTML file in place to remain a verified owner in Webmaster Tools?" The answer is yes, you should keep your verification file or meta tag live to maintain your status as a verified owner. These verification codes are used to control who has access to the owner-specific tools for your site in Webmaster Tools. To ensure that only current owners of a site are verified, we periodically re-check to see if the verification code is in place, and if it is not, you will get unverified for that site. While we're on the topic: Site Verification Best Practices If you have multiple people working on your site with Webmaster Tools, it's a good idea to have each person verify the site with his or her own account, rather than using a shared login. That way, as people come and go, you can control the access appropriately by adding or removing verification files or meta tags for each account. You may want to keep a list of these verification codes and which owner they are connected to, so you can easily control access later. If you lose track, you can always use the "Manage site verification" option in Webmaster Tools, which allows you to force all site owners to reverify their accounts. Subdomains vs. Subdirectories What's the difference between using subdomains and subdirectories? When it comes to Google, there aren't major differences between the two, so when you're making that decision, do what works for you and your visitors. Following PubCon, our very own Matt Cutts outlined many of the key issues in a post on his personal blog. In addition to those considerations, if you use Webmaster Tools (which we hope you do!), keep in mind that you'll automatically be verified for deeper subdirectories of any sites you've verified, but subdomains need to be verified separately. Underscores vs. Dashes Webmasters asked about the difference between how Google interprets underscores and dashes in URLs. In general, we break words on punctuation, so if you use punctuation as separators, you're providing Google a useful signal for parsing your URLs. Currently, dashes in URLs are consistently treated as separators while underscores are not. Keep in mind our technology is constantly improving, so this distinction between underscores and dashes may decrease over time. Even without punctuation, there's a good chance we'll be able to figure out that bigleopard.html is about a "big leopard" and not a "bigle opard." While using separators is a good practice, it's likely unnecessary to place a high priority on changing your existing URLs just to convert underscores to dashes. Keywords in URLs We were also asked if it is useful to have relevant keywords in URLs. It's always a good idea to be descriptive across your site, with titles, ALT attributes, and yes, even URLs, as they can be useful signals for users and search engines. This can be especially true with image files, which otherwise may not have any text for a search engine to consider. Imagine you've taken a picture of your cat asleep on the sofa. Your digital camera will likely name it something like IMG_2937.jpg. Not exactly the most descriptive name. So unless your cat really looks like an IMG_2937, consider changing the filename to something more relevant, like adorable-kitten.jpg. If you have a post about your favorite cat names, it's much easier to guess that a URL ending in my-favorite-cat-names would be the relevant page, rather than a URL ending in postid=8652. For more information regarding issues with how Google understands your content, check out our new content analysis feature in Webmaster Tools, as well as our post on the URL suggestions feature of the new Google Toolbar. Moving to a new IP address We got a question about changing a site's IP address, and provided a few steps you can take a webmaster to make sure things go smoothly. Here's what you can do: Change the TTL (Time To Live) value of your DNS configuration to something short, like five minutes (300 seconds). This will tell web browsers to re-check the IP address for your site every five minutes. Copy your content to the new hosting environment, and make sure it is live on the new IP address. Change your DNS settings so your hostname points to the new IP address. Check your logs to see when Googlebot starts crawling your site on the new IP address. To make sure it's really Googlebot who's visiting, you can verify Googlebot by following these instructions. You can then log into Webmaster Tools and monitor any crawl errors. Once Googlebot is happily crawling on the new IP address, you should be all set as far as Google is concerned. To make sure everyone got the message of your move, you may want to keep an eye out for visits to your old IP address before shutting it down. Proxies A few webmasters were concerned that proxy services are being indexed with copies of their content. While it's often possible to find duplicate copies of your content in our results if you look hard enough, the original source is most likely going to be ranked higher than a proxy copy. However, if you find this not to be the case, please drop us some URLs in the Webmaster Help Group. There are many Googlers including myself who monitor this group and escalate issues appropriately. You can join the follow-up conversation in the Webmaster Help Group. Comments
Answers To Google Sitemaps Questions
30/5/2009 | external link
Susan Moskwa and Trever Voucher from Google's Webmaster Tools Team published a synopsis of the questions they received at Chicago's recent Search Engine Strategies Conference. If you have ever had a question about Google Sitemaps and the effect they may or may not have on your site, this is a helpful read.Get the answers to the following questions:I submitted a Sitemap, but my URLs haven't been [crawled/indexed] yet. Isn't that what a Sitemap is for? If it doesn't get me automatically crawled and indexed, what does a Sitemap do? Will a Sitemap help me rank better? If I set all of my pages to have priority 1.0, will that make them rank higher (or get crawled faster) than someone else's pages that have priority 0.8? Is there any point in submitting a Sitemap if all the metadata (, , etc.) is the same for each URL, or if I'm not sure it's accurate? I've heard about people who submitted a Sitemap and got penalized shortly afterward. Can a Sitemap hurt you? Where can I put my Sitemap? Does it have to be at the root of my site? Can I just submit the site map that my webmaster made of my site? I don't get this whole XML thing. Which Sitemap format is the best? If I have multiple URLs that point to the same content, can I use my Sitemap to indicate my preferred URL for that content? Does the placement of a URL within a Sitemap file matter? Will the URLs at the beginning of the file get better treatment than the URLs near the end? If my site has multiple sections (e.g. a blog, a forum, and a photo gallery), should I submit one Sitemap for the site, or multiple Sitemaps (one for each section)?Again here is the link to theGoogle sitemaps Q&AComments
You Can Probably Fit Online Video Into Your Budget
30/5/2009 | external link
Unless you've been living under a rock, you're no doubt aware that online video has grown significantly in popularity over the last year or two. Many business owners are still skeptical about its benefits and ROI, while others are rushing into it just to keep up.
Rushing through something that will have an impact on how you business is seen is probably not the wisest idea, but in terms of ROI, there is a general misconception that video production has to be costly. This is not the case. This is something SEO-PR's Greg Jarboe and Mike McDonald of WebProNews recently discussed at Search Engine Strategies New York:
More WebProNews Videos
Doug Mack on Adobe's Scene7 Blog highlights
some suggestions Sucharita Mulpuru from Forrester Research recently made in an Adobe Webinar for getting started quickly with videos:
- Easy, short talking points
– Brief, impactful video (i.e. 1-2 minutes maximum) is all you need
- Use your own employees or vendors
- Leverage inexpensive technology
– iMac, digital camcorders
– Need not be executed in a professional studio
- Costs are primarily editing labor and server capacity for most basic executions
Video is not just something people are seeking out. It's something people are sharing with each other, which is a key thing to remember. Yahoo is even embedding video in its SERPs, and Gmail is offering a feature that allows users to view YouTube videos in their email messages. And of course they can be embedded all over the web and shared across social networks.
Like Jarboe says, videos don't always have to be viral to serve a purpose, but with so many ways for them to be shared, the opportunities for something to break viral are seemingly endless.
There are more tools than ever before available for marketing with video. Take YouTube Insight, which an analytics tool that gives you all kinds of analytical data regarding your videos. They just recently added more features to show you how people are engaging with your videos, and there is plenty of useful data to be gleaned from the tool. I suggest reading my interview with YouTube Product Manager Tracy Chan who discusses not only the tool, but many other ways businesses can use YouTube to their advantage.
If you're looking to break into online video, don't rush it. Do some research and use the tools that are available to you. You may find that you can spend a lot less than you think and find new ways to market your business that you didn't realize you had in you.
Tips for Getting Serious About Mobile Marketing
30/5/2009 | external link
The Mobile Marketing Strategies session at Search Engine Strategies New York focused on mobile SEO, while also touching on driving traffic and conversions with mobile applications, text messaging and mobile email. The session’s goal was to help people understand how mobile marketing fits into the traditional and online marketing mix and determine what mobile marketing strategy is most appropriate for their business.
Stay tuned to WebProNews and the WebProNews Video Blog for continued coverage of the Search Engine Strategies New York event.
Cindy Krum of Rank-Mobile talked about making your existing website work for mobile. Why is mobile important? According to Krum:
- Mass mobile convergence - Cell phones can do a lot more than just make calls: Games, search, web, etc.
- Most personal marketing mediu - You always have it with you
- More interactive marketing opportunities - more potential for varied responses
How is mobile different? Krum notes:
- Mobile bots - Mobile algorithms are different
- simplified rendering
- smaller screen
- more sophisticated users - changes the demographic
- more specific searches = mobile users aren't browsing, they are generally searching with a specific intent
Why Now?
Real mobile web browsing - Krum says the iphone has set the bar and now carriers know that it's not ok to have a crappy mobile browsing experience. 75% of mobile search is done on iphones. "In the next 2 years we're going to have a mass entrance of people on mobile search" due to more companies having more browser friendly phones.
Flat rate data pricing - As Krum notes, it's cheaper. There isn't the fear of data overages. Download speeds are going up. Processor speeds are increasing.
"We are on a tipping point for mobile search," says Krum. The mobile web is not a fad. It's here to stay, she says. There's a need and an opportunity to master the medium before your competitors.
Road Map
There are hurdles in mobile marketing. There are too many browsers that render things differently. "In terms of browsers, the mobile web is like the regular web 10 years ago," says Krum. "Some sites look fine in some browsers, and not so good in others." This is improving and standardizing, but right now it still has to be taken into account.
Handsets - Different handsets have different screen sizes, processor capacities, etc. So similar to browsers, the devices can affect the appearance of your site.
Download speeds - 3G is not widespread enough, Krum says. Speeds and coverage are spotty. This will improve with time, but for now, streamlining your message for mobile is essential.
Mobile Search - 3 Considerations
On-Deck Search
On deck search is also called carrier search. This is a walled or semi-walled garden from the carrier - kind of like AOL in the old days. It typically consists of monetized content and downloads. Carriers have huge targeting power, Krum says. This type of search is preferred 38% of the time because users feel like it's more convenient, but a lot of times this is because carriers make off-deck search more difficult to find and use. She says off-deck is gong to diminish over time for the same reasons the old AOL evolved - people want to access and search the whole web.
Off-Deck Search
This is is like regular web search - not controlled by the carriers. Handsets and browsers can impact results. Off-deck search is not location aware (yet), Krum says, but is preferred 68% of the time. Yahoo has a larger percentage of off deck mobile search in the US than in other countries. This is because Yahoo has deals with several carriers to offer their logo for search.
Basic Demographics
Krum says the highest demographic is 20-29 years old. The second highest is 30-39. The highest has an income of 75k+. Males outsearch females by about 10-12%, but more recent studies suggest this gap is shrinking.
What is Being Looked For? In order of search frequency:
- Maps, directories
- Weather
- Local info
- News
- Entertainment
- Sports
- Finance
Apps
Major search applications in your niche (like urbanspoon) can be heavy drivers of traffic - in excess of search engines in some cases, Krum says. Mobile search apps have to be looked at on an individual basis. Find out where they get their data and make sure you're listed in their datasources.
Mobile SEO
Krum says mobile SEO as an industry is still in its infancy. Many of the best practices for mobile are the same as traditional SEO though:
- There are different crawlers and bots - The result pages are very different
- Slow download speeds and connectivity issues can be an issue if your site is slow to download and your bounce rates are very high as a result.
Creating sites and pages that are device independent is key, she says. Ideally, you want a page that loads and performs equally well in mobile as well as regular web browsing. With mobile SEO, the click thru is not always necessary. Often the information the user is looking for will show up right in the result (addresses phone numbers, hours of operation etc.). Avoid these:
- embedded images
- flash
- scripts
- frames
- flash
- mouse over events
- objects
- pop up windows
Coding
Krum says traditional browsers are more forgiving than mobile browsers. Clean code is far more important in mobile. She says to code in XHTML because it has rigid accessibility standards, which make it better for mobile. External CSS is ideal for mobile. It separates content from design, maximizes code, and decreases download time. She says to develop a handheld stylesheet as well as a screen stylesheet=1 set of content with 2 display variants. This way there are no duplicate content issues (screen.css and handheld css). Use 'display none' to selectively hide elements in either rendering.
Reasons not to use .mobi
- .mobi not preferred in mobile search
- not universally accepted
- cumbersome development standards
- no unique assets or features
- limited useful life
- bad for seo --- duplicated content
- confusing for customers
Krum says the best option for most webmasters is probably the mobile/traditional hybrid pages (like the multi css example).
Mike McDonald Contributed to this report. If you have any more thoughts on mobile marketing, please share them with WebPronews readers. Check out Krum's lists of mobile search engine submission pages and Mobile Web Directories.
