Peripheral Digging

Posted by on April 30, 2007 at 04:44 PM

It happens to every site or blogger sooner or later: you are aiming for one audience and, surprisingly, you land another less-expected peripheral audience. Naturally, this audience is always welcome, especially if it helps your conversion rates and impacts your bottom line.

When crafting content that can easily be submitted to Digg or other social networks that categorize submissions, never underestimate the importance of peripheral audiences.

It's pretty well known that Digg is a social network with a significant constituency of the technically inclined. If you are crafting an article on a subject such as improving your usability for online sales, the first inclination might be to list the article in the Technology category. Keep in mind though, that many of those implementation steps that go into improving site usability may be very, very basic moves for a programmer. In many cases, these types of articles garner very few diggs as they are too simple for the intended audience.

On the other hand, submitting the same article in the World & Business category might be where the true interest lies, as businesses of all sizes are always looking for better ways to make purchasing from their sites easier, and many business professionals don't come from a web-based background.

The lesson? Keep your mind open. Often times, the piece you are writing may have been covered many times for the audience you are targeting. It may be too basic to be deemed worth spreading. By being mindful of peripheral audiences who may also have an interest, you are likely to find new consumers who connect with your initial audience.

Google Conspiracy Theory

Posted by on April 30, 2007 at 01:43 PM

Okay so I’m a HUGE fan of The X-Files, (don’t judge!) and for Christmas my partner gave me the complete boxed set & motion picture – something that by now, I’m sure, he’s sorry he did. Albeit among the best television programming in not-so recent history, all of the quality time I’ve spent with agents Fox and Mulder lately has definitely fired up my inner conspiracy-theorist.

This quest for the “real truth‎ creates an inevitable conundrum for me – balancing the principles of capitalism with skepticism.

Lately I’ve been lying awake at night in a bleary-eyed daze pondering the true motive behind Google’s ostensibly altruistic rollout of their new Website Optimizer to their AdWords clients.

On paper (or would the modern phrase be “on web page‎) the Optimizer sounds like a neat tool. A:B and multivariate testing of landing page and site content elements tied directly to AdWords conversion tracking.

Neat-O!

Google’s Optimizer first debuted in the latter half of 2006 as an invitation-only beta; but it seems to have been rolled out a bit more globally as of late, prompting the inevitable question, “Why?‎

It stands to reason that Google would offer such a tool to advertisers in an effort to improve campaign results and hopefully spur growth in ad spend (read: Google revenue). At the end of the day it’s all about increasing share-holder wealth, right? Right.

It’s tough, but I am able to reconcile that thought pattern with my truth-seeking, inner skeptic. The lid is blown right off, however, when talk turns to Google’s new beta of cost-per-action pricing.

Wait just a minute, there!

Let’s put this into end-user (typical marketing department staffer) perspective:
1. Sign up for an AdWords account
2. Use Google’s keyword tool to pick keywords from my site
3. Enable/setup Google’s Website Optimizer
4. Heed Google’s advice and make my page a conversion-generating machine
5. Pay only when a conversion occurs (in cost-per-action model)

What about lead quality? What about gross margin & average sale? What about cross selling and a whole slew of other metrics and tactics unique to each industry and company?

As I said earlier, Google’s Website Optimizer is, on the surface, a cool tool; however, a savvy marketer needs to keep his/her eyes wide open and consider the advice of a proprietary tool offered by a company whose revenue is derived from clicks and ultimately conversions.

Google to Determine the Presidential Election

Posted by vern on April 27, 2007 at 12:06 PM

With all of the media coverage of presidential candidates and their campaigns you'd think the election was only months away. The pollsters, pundits and prognosticators are fixtures on the cable news channels and the blogosphere is buzzing. But what about Search? How are the candidates positioning for searches on their names? Are they using Paid Search to their advantage? I decided to do a little research.

I limited my searches to Google and Yahoo. I searched on the candidates full name and found no surprises in the organic results. The SERP's listed the official candidate sites at or near the top of the listings. Other listings included blogs, YouTube videos and newspaper articles.

What I found in the Paid Sponsored Listings was much more interesting and may offer insight into campaign finances, perceived competition and campaign staff smarts.

When searching in Google for "Hillary Clinton" the Sponsored Links included a YouTube ad and a campaign button site.

A "Barak Obama" search produced pretty much the same sort of results. Yawn.

But search on the Republican front-runners and a much more intriguing set of results is presented. Type in "John McCain" and you'll see Sponsored Links for Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. What's going on here? Search on "Mitt Romney" and a John McCain ad appears. A "Rudy Giuliani" search displays, yup, you guessed it - Romney and McCain ads.

Google allows bidding on competitor names. Under the Google system it's theoretically possible for Apple to bid on "Dell" as a keyword provided "Dell" is not part of the corresponding ad text. So Rudy bidding on Mitt's name is allowed by the rules. Yahoo does not allow bidding on competitor names so no such intrigue is evident there. But what campaign strategy might be at work in Google?

The Democrats aren't bidding on each others names. Do they not feel threatened by competition within their own party? Is it too early in the process for such tactics? Perhaps they aren't aware that they can. Is the Republican strategy of bidding on the other candidates meant to blanket the SERPs with only Republican candidate names and ensure a Republican victory? And why is neither party bidding on the other party's candidates in an attempt to win voters over to their side?

Stay tuned - The election is a long way off and Search will have a big role to play. The Oval Office may be the prize for the candidate and staff that's makes the most of what SEM has to offer.

The Rise of Brand Google

Posted by on April 26, 2007 at 02:06 PM

Google continues to redefine the age we live in and to become a household name across the globe. Just 10 years ago Google was barely a glimmer in the eyes of its founders. Now according to a recent study, Google is the most valuable brand in the world.

Surpassing long-time well-established brands such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola, General Electric and Wal-Mart, Google has done so with flying colors. In 2006, Google ranked #7 in the world’s top brands. A year later, they have grown 77% in brand value, based on intangible assets that create a competitive advantage, and have jumped to the #1 spot. With little advertising and mostly relying on word of mouth, Google’s effective branding is now valued at over $66 billion.

When I stand back and look at the lifetime picture of Google, I am quite amazed by their growth in their short lifespan. At just 10 years old, many firms are still considered to be in their infancy, but not Google.

It has already been a year since "to Google" was added as a verb into the English dictionary. As I look at the other brands considered to be in the global top ten, I don’t see any verbs created specifically for those brands. When was the last time someone said "I Microsoft’d him"?

What’s next? While dipping into markets such as radio, newspapers and telecom to name a few, what is next on the horizon for Google? Without even breaking a sweat, Google is investing millions into research and development. I guess that is what a powerful brand does - spends millions and lets the world know of its purchasing power ($3.1 Billion DoubleClick purchase).

With yearly revenues of more than many small countries, Google is quickly turning into an Internet marketing monopoly. It’s hard to imagine ten years from now; how will the Google story unfold?

HR World Meets the SEO World

Posted by anne on April 25, 2007 at 11:29 AM

Getting hired for your dream job is not as easy as one might think. We think we look good, we have the right feel, the right look but for some reason no one is hiring.

It can be as difficult as trying to attract the right online audience and generate traffic to your website.
With the light bulb on, I realized that there exists more similarities than one would expect between Human Resources and Search Engine Optimization. Basic principles are the same: a friendly site structure or resume outline and attractive content is vital.

Let's review some rules for both (1) resume best practices and (2) search engine optimization:

Lesson One: Attract Attention
In a resume, certain words or phrases should “pop‎ out of the text to attract the HR person's attention. Let’s call these words "keywords."

To optimize a website, it's vital to include keywords in your title tags, meta tags, headlines and body copy. These keywords help open the doors of your website to visitors.

The same is true in resumes; keywords should appear at the top of the resume or in the “Objective‎ section of the resume. In other words, having the right keywords in the opening sentence or two of a resume opens the doors to a candidate’s background and experience. Okay, lesson one is complete. Let’s move on.

Lesson Two: Know Your Keywords
It's important to understand what keywords are and to answer the question of how will people find you.

For example, if you're trying to sell blinds, make sure the keyword “blinds‎ appears frequently throughout your website. Is the keyword in your title tag? Does the keyword have priority in your homepage copy? Search engines such as Google have “spiders‎ that crawl your website and read its text. This is how the search engines learn what your site is all about, which, in this example, is the first step to getting positioned for the keyword, "blinds." No keywords and no text copy = no traffic and no sales. Not too complicated so far, right?

Lesson Three: It’s Important to be Popular
If your website doesn’t have any links pointing to it from other websites, that may mean you’re unpopular. If your competition has hundreds of links pointing to their website, then they're going to be considered more popular than you.

But even more important is getting links from topical sites. Let’s take the blind example; it would be simply dreamy if HGTV had a link to your website. Home improvement goes hand-in-hand with blinds - see what I mean?

References in a resume also reflect popularity, great references = new job. Try not to include just your friends as references, employers know they already like you. Business references carry the most credibility, and will include keywords to your past experience and background.

Lesson Four: Stand Out in the Crowd
When you try to find something on the web, what do you do? You go to your favorite search engine and type in a keyword.

The search engine's job is to deliver the most relevant websites for your keyword search. Then the clicking begins, click after click after click, one by one. What! You never looked at the guy on page 9? Shame on you. And now you have wasted 30 minutes with nothing to show. Maybe now you understand why standing out in the crowd is so important.

You can do so by including copy on your site that is engaging to visitors. Search engines use your copy to create the snippet that appears beneath the link to your site. Engaging copy is more likely to convince someone to click on your site.

Lesson Five (it’s the last one)
If you find all of this too difficult, there are many resources out there that can help you optimize your website (or clean up your resume).

If you’re looking for a searchable keyword, try Oneupweb.

Who's Your SEO?

Posted by dave on April 24, 2007 at 04:46 PM

With its recent purchase of Internet ad serving developer and provider DoubleClick, Google has taken another step into the deep end of the ethics pool.

In addition to buying a company that has already been investigated for violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act, by purchasing DoubleClick, Google has also acquired Performics - the Internet marketing division of DoubleClick.

A clear conflict of interest, what Google does next with this SEO/SEM company could be vital in determining what, if any of their credibility for returning quality search results is to remain.

So, what should Google do? Should they keep Performics? Sell the company off? Integrate them into Matt Cutt's spam patrol team?

Whatever they choose to do, Google needs to decide quickly. The longer they wait, the more conspiracy theories will continue to circulate and grow.

In the meantime, to help fuel the conspiracy theories - here are some signs that your SEO company may be owned by Google:

• The SEO's company logo changes every holiday.


• Your SEO consultant keeps trying to "personalize" your working relationship.


• Your SEO consultant only recommends 1 word keywords and then asks, "Do you feel lucky?"


• Your SEO company has an army of lawyers on its payroll.


• A Google search for "Search Engine Optimization" returns a page that says, "Did you mean: Google"


• When you call customer support, Matt Cutts answers the phone


• Your SEO Consultant refers to paid and organic listings as "the same thing"


• You just picked up a mysterious text link from Stanford.edu.


• All of your sales start coming though Google Checkout.


• Your PR increases each time you purchase additional services.

Paid Search: A Salesman’s Guide to Click Hunting

Posted by on April 23, 2007 at 09:26 AM

Each day I grow more enamored with the Paid Search Marketing business. I never imagined spending the day concocting new and creative ways of trapping… clicks. Clicks? It’s up there with searching for truth or fishing for compliments. What a business!

Coming from the carny-esque life of retail sales, this “click hunting‎ challenge presents the need for a completely different frame of mind. However, this new mode of thinking is somewhat congruent to the one I established in the masochistic magical business of retail sales.

Here is a short list of connections that can help bridge the jump from Salesman to Paid Search Project Manager.

1.Knowing your Product
There is no way you can present a product in all its splendor without knowing every important facet of its existence. The worst part (or best part if you’re morbid like me) about watching someone sell a product they don’t understand is seeing them flounder beneath the pile of questions that inevitably occur during a sale. Therefore, how can you write intriguing ad copy if you do not understand the product? Not possible. Go upstairs and do your homework, junior.

2.Qualifying the Customer
For sales, this happens when you take the initiative and ask the customer questions: What are your needs? Why do you need them? What do you think about this lovely Amish cookware set?

But online (enter the allegory of the Bachelor), you’re just another suitor in line, waving his bouquet at potentially interested women. How will you stand out?

First off, you have to get in the correct line. Establish what you offer, who is interested, and where to position yourself in order to reach those who are buying.

Next, you spray on some sweet-smelling keywords. Here is a breakdown of the different ways your keywords can reach out and snag the fairest consumer of them all.

• Broad match is equivalent to hanging out at a four-story mega-discotheque, wandering around and dancing in front of random women. If you are looking for a particular type of gal, keep in mind that there are a lot of people seeing you but not enough information exchanged to garner the interest of specific demographics. Use this technique for “Branding‎, thereby letting the place know who you are by displaying your slammin’ moves in the center of the dance floor. Oh, and remember, the drinks usually cost more.
• Phrase match, however, is more of a controlled environment, like a themed establishment where you can expect to meet a specific type of person, i.e. biker bar = biker women.
• Exact match is essentially Speed Dating.

3.Relevance
If you are selling neck-to-ankle dresses made completely of denim that do not reveal even a speck of skin, you would be remiss to include the phrase “Live like Lindsay Lohan in the sexiest of outerwear‎ in your advertising. The ad should encompass the complete nature of the situation. It should speak to the customer and speak to the product simultaneously.

It’s easier in ad copy to embellish, but that doesn’t make it any truer. Be eloquent yet factual. You can lead a horse to water, and he will drink it, as long as he doesn’t arrive to find it’s really Gatorade.

4.Call to Action
This is my favorite, because, in relation to SEM, it is essentially an attempt to close the sale. The single, biggest weakness of any salesperson is their fear of closing the sale. You have caught the customer’s attention (headline, position), you know that you have exactly what they want (keyword relevancy), what are you waiting for? Ask for the sale. You have earned the customer’s trust and, due to your masterful techniques, will solidify it with the swiftest path to their goal (landing page relevancy).

In summary, knowing your product is essential to the marketing of it; this will pave the way for you to qualifying your customers and then ask them for the sale, fearlessly, because you have kept the advertising content relevant to the landing page.

Hopefully, this abridged guide can properly assist all who have left the maddening world of retail sales to venture into the click-hunting, yet camouflage-free, forests of Paid Search.

Technology on the Run

Posted by on April 20, 2007 at 03:51 PM

As I sat down at my computer on Monday night to check out the results of the 111th Boston Marathon I started thinking about the incredible changes that technology has brought to the sport of running, and racing in particular.

I started running in the early 1970's during the hey-day of the running boom. Frank Shorter, winner of the 1972 Olympic Marathon and Bill Rogers, four time winner of the Boston Marathon, were known as Frank and Bill around our house. My running log featured the legs of Jim Fixx, author of The Complete Book of Running, on the cover. I used Jeff Galloway’s training schedule in Galloway’s Book on Running to train for my first marathon. I still remember where I was when I heard that America’s most promising distance runner, Steve Prefontaine had died in a tragic car accident.

Back in the day, if you weren’t in the race, it could have been days or even weeks before you could actually find out how your running buddies did. Many of the races would send out results in the mail or publish them in the next edition of Runner’s World or The Michigan Runner. The wait was almost as agonizing as the wall at the 20 mile mark in a marathon.

Runners, for the most part, are statistics junkies. Not only do we want accurate courses with splits at every mile, we want to know our pace per mile, and how long it takes us to cover the course from the time we cross the starting line. Age group results are important to us, too. We want to know how our times compare against other runners of the same age and sex.

Computer technology and the internet have added much to the entire racing experience. Most of the major road racing events as well as a large number of the smaller local races have incorporated the use of ChampionChips, which have revolutionized timing and results. According to their site, ChampionChip is a mini transponder that attaches to your shoe laces. It can provide accurate net and split times for every individual athlete.

Chip timing works hand in hand with the internet. During the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, it was great to be able to track friends and family while they were actually running the race. After pulling up split times at key points in the marathon, I was able to congratulate my brother on the nice, even pace he ran throughout the race when I spoke to him shortly after he finished.

On the Official Boston Marathon website, I enjoyed breaking down the results of this year’s race by city and state as well as age and sex. The Boston Globe’s website has a nice selection of photos and video from the race. And if you really want the feeling of being there, you could listen to the Hopkinton to Boston podcast of Steve Runner. He invited his fans to share in the Boston Marathon experience in real-time as he covered the 26.2 miles.

There have been so many additional technological advancements in running over the years, from shoes, clothing, watches and heart rate monitors to training techniques, injury prevention and recovery. While I embrace all that this technology has to offer, and the positive impact that it has had on the sport, running still has that same feeling of familiarity, freedom and escape that it always did.

Stop... Mobile Time!

Posted by chip on April 19, 2007 at 03:39 PM

Well it's that time again - time to take a look at all that's been happening in the world of the mobile web. And there has been plenty, so let's just get right into it.

NBC to Stream Hit Shows:
NBC has struck a deal with MobiTV to begin streaming some of their most popular shows (The Office, Heroes, and ER) to cell phone networks. For $1.99 a user gains access to the streaming television show for 24 hours before it is made unavailable again. While I am not too sure if this service has a competitive edge over iTunes, and some of the other competitors out there, I can see it being convenient in many situations - like airport layovers.

However, NBC is not the only player getting into mobile TV.

Targeting "Gamers":
Mobile advertising company, Amobee, and multi-player game company, Exit Games, have struck a deal that will allow them to integrate mobile advertising and product placement into multi-player mobile games. It will be interesting to see what kind of response this gets when people start to see things like an Orc enjoying a refreshing Coke in the world of Azeroth?

Google Voice Local Search:
Google has launched an experimental service which attempts to make local businesses accessible through voice activated search over the phone. Give it a try, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 from any phone and start talking - that's right, there is no need to type on your tiny little cell phone keypad either.

AOL Takes Winamp Mobile:
AOL announces the release of Winamp Remote which will allow users to play their PC based music through their mobile devices. Soon any cell phone can operate as an Mp3 player by streaming music directly from your desktop.

Mobile Ad Standards Being Developed:
Mobile Ad standards are being set by the GSMA - establishing these standards should help everyone get on the same page in regards to how mobile ads should be created as well as what will be required of phones to become compliant. This should help everyone better define this fragmented real estate - even if many have still not figured out how to operate in this space.

There has been so much happening in the world of the mobile web that I realize this merely scratches the surface - so if I have overlooked your favorite high-point, please feel free to make a comment.

MySpace, Facebook - Putting a "Face" on Tragedy

Posted by carly on April 18, 2007 at 08:48 AM

Let's be honest first and foremost, it's hard to talk about anything or even write anything that attempts to find the "good" in the aftermath of a tragedy.

There is no good in the act that ripped through Virginia Tech's campus on Monday morning. It was shocking, horrific and numbing. We all watched our desktops and televisions closely as the horror unfolded. It's a new date for the history books, one that will change the way we think of 04.16.2007 forever.

I drove home last night listening to NPR, still trying to put all of the pieces together. Then it hit, "It's being called the first tragedy of the MySpace era". Listeners young, old and in between were then thrown into a debate about social networking sites and how they are revolutionizing the way people communicate.

For the first time - ever - I listened to a national news story about the good in MySpace and Facebook. Users were commended for their quick use of the sites to spread the word that hadn't yet reached their peers. Users were commended for helping America grieve in this time of tragedy. Users were commended for putting painfully real faces on this tragedy - faces that catapulted America out of its numbness to this crisis.

It's a timely message in the aftermath of an act that would be best timed if it had never happened. "So what's next?" they asked repeatedly on the radio. A lot of PR, a lot of mourning and the hope for a lot of answers. Time is the only thing that can heal the wounds of this situation. However, professionals across the country have finally realized that time is something that they no longer have. The time to adapt to the changes of today's media landscape has passed.

Our most recent White Paper explains it all much better than I can. It's called Principles of Crisis Management in a Viral Age, Integrating the Tools and Lessons of Search 2.0 into a Comprehensive Crisis Response. You can find it in the White Papers section of our website.

I know I'm not alone here at Oneupweb in saying that we send our sincere condolences to all of those who are suffering.

Social Media Optimization: Can You Digg It?

Posted by steve on April 17, 2007 at 10:51 AM

I'm going to write something and I want you to say the first thing that comes to your head. Here we go:

Social Media Optimization

Was your word "communities"? How about "linkability"? Or maybe it was "Digg"?

It's that last one that I want to talk about for a minute. Over the past several months, there's been an increasing amount of content, ideas and suggestions relating to social media optimization (SMO), and to be honest, I can't think of one article I've read on the subject in which Digg wasn't mentioned.

And for good reason - Digg is one of the most well-known and highly-visited social networking sites on the Web, so it only seems natural that when sites engage in SMO, getting an article listed on the front page of Digg would be one of the items on their To Do List.

Here's a potential problem, though: What if you are in an industry that Digg users don't care about?

The majority of trusted Digg users, those who hold the power, are tech savvy individuals interested in recent news, fun facts and the latest and greatest technology. Just check out the top five results from this morning:

(Click Image to Enlarge)

With the proliferation of SMO and the desire to get listed on Digg, the community is now made up of a much more diverse population than it was originally. But the power to decide who makes it to the front page of the site continues to reside with many of those original users who loathe spam and are great detectors of it.

There are a multitude of articles out there which give advice on getting listed on Digg, ranging from the importance of joining and participating in the community, to building up a list of trusted friends, to article creativity.

Article creativity - it's a must to get listed atop Digg, which of course is where your site will reap the most benefit. It can certainly be argued that it doesn't matter what industry you're in, with enough creativity and the right execution strategies, an article relating to any industry can reach the coveted front page of this popular social site.

There is little argument, however, that certain industries have a leg up on others. For instance, an electronic manufacturer who has just released an article describing its new gaming console has an advantage over the consulting company who recently released its new strategies for customer service training. Now I don't want to say that it's impossible for the consultant to reach the first page of Digg, but I am saying that, simply given their industry, they have an initial disadvantage and will face bigger hurdles to do so.

My advice: Don't consume all of your time and resources to reaching the top of Digg. Instead, concentrate on consumers in your industry. Come up with concepts that will create interest, and then focus on exposing those ideas in areas which will drive targeted traffic to your site. The level of traffic may not be as high as if you'd reached the front of Digg, but the ultimate intent of those targeted visitors will prove to be much more valuable to your business.

AdCenter Announces Improvements, Search Engine Marketers Yawn

Posted by on April 16, 2007 at 11:16 AM

In relatively quiet fashion, it was announced last week that Microsoft AdCenter plans to roll out a new interface in the next four to six weeks. The list of improvements seems nice but the reaction has been, to say the least, muted.

In spending some admittedly brief time in the AdCenter beta site, it seems that the improvements are for the better. Among the highlights are improved navigation between ad groups, the ability to easily export data from most screens, and, it seems, the ability to use the ‘Back’ button in my browser.

The biggest and best news about the update is, without a doubt, the mass import function. As compared to the bulk upload template in Yahoo’s Panama interface, AdCenter’s spreadsheet is downright diminutive: Only 11 columns of data, and not a convoluted campaign, keyword, or ad ID to be found.

(Click Image to Enlarge)

Of course, these spreadsheets can’t be judged until a marketer actually gets in and starts working with them – Panama’s templates have proven to be, at various times, maddeningly frustrating, mildly annoying, and fantastically convenient.

So while, on its face, these improvements seem to indicate that AdCenter is on the upswing, the fact is that they won’t show any real value to search marketers until MSN as a search engine starts to slice into Google’s market share. At less than 10 percent of total US search queries during the month of March (according to Hitwise), MSN is likely to remain an inconvenience for the average search marketer. A high-converting, less-inconvenient inconvenience, but an inconvenience nonetheless.

SEO and Guarantees

Posted by Christopher on April 13, 2007 at 02:17 PM

I am often asked by potential clients, often when we've reached the point in our discussion in which I tell them how much our services will cost, what sort of results the client can expect. What can they count on? What sort of guarantee can we give them? Many ask for a projection, hard numbers that show that, if they spend this much, and we do this work, they'll see this many more qualified leads, or this percentage increase in sales.

I would absolutely love to be able to give that to them.

I completely understand why people ask these questions. SEO is at once a commitment and a leap of faith. It's easy to grumble and say "I bet when they pay for a TV ad they're not getting hard numbers. Guarantees." You can guarantee a certain amount of people are going to see it, or, rather, it's going to be put in front of a certain number of people, and these people will, generally, fit a certain demographic, generally the one most likely to purchase what you're selling. But you sure can't guarantee what they're going to do. You can't effectively track their activity, post-commercial-impression. Direct mail? Same thing. Maybe worse. The little post office from which I rent my PO Box has a paper recycling bin right by the door, roughly the size of a standard garbage can, and I'd be surprised if they don't have to empty the thing daily.

All marketing efforts are built on a leap of faith, the idea that if you say the right thing to the right person they'll do what you want them to. It's more than that, though; it's that there is a certain type of person out there who feels a nebulous lack, a dissatisfaction, a nagging sense of need that your product can fill. You just have to reach them, let them know. How do you reach them? You research, you figure out demographics, psychographics, anything that can help reduce the gray area, can help clear the fog between you and your target audience. But that fog never completely burns off. There are always too many variables outside your control.

And so it is with search. Can we guarantee that we'll get you the number one position in Google for a specific term? No way. We'd love to, but nope. What we can do is work with you to target your campaign to your demo/psychographically perfect target consumer, and we can help you show the search engines that your site deserves to be put in front of that consumer (who, by the way, is also their consumer). We can help you address the ever-increasing number of variables that the search engines are using to make their decision that a site is the right one for their customer, the person searching. We can help you apply best practices so that when Google, Yahoo, et al. make changes your site doesn't disappear. Oh, yeah, and we can also provide analytics that can show you how many visitors are hitting your site, where they're coming from, what keywords they've used to get there, what page they're landing on, and what they're doing when they're there.

We can also keep working, keep driving positions upward, and keep finding new ways to get your site in front of people.

That we'll guarantee.

Utah Charging $250 to Protect Trademarks

Posted by adam on April 12, 2007 at 05:03 PM

By now most search engine professionals should already be familiar with the new Utah legislation preventing advertisers from bidding on competitors’ trademarks as keywords. To this point search engines, such as Google, have stayed out of the battle between Trademark owner and advertiser for the most part.

Accordingly, Google encourages trademark owners to resolve their disputes directly with the advertiser, particularly because the advertiser may have similar ads on other sites. However, as a courtesy to trademark owners, Google is willing to perform a limited investigation of reasonable complaints. - Google AdWords Learning Center

Trademark owners who wish to be protected by this new law will be required to subscribe to a new database housing the new type of “mark‎, called an electronic registration mark. This subscription could cost up to $250 annually, being paid directly to The State of Utah. Many will not be able to overlook the direct fiscal interest of Utah. This database will be accessed by the search engine every time a search is queried, before delivering the SERP.

In my humble opinion, the law has its place protecting the intellectual properties of Trademark owners. Now for “the one bad news‎. Search providers’ systems aren’t able to identify the absolute location of the searcher. In some cases they can determine approximate location based on the IP address, but the fact is that many other factors come into play and exact user location is any thing but. Furthermore, if the engines could determine the location of the searcher, there are several processes that would have to take place before the SERP could be served.

Besides the system problems search engines will have while being selective with ad serving, some feel Federal law has already established Trademark policy for keywords and meta tags.

Google and the others will no doubt be defending their ad revenues from a similar angle. Advertisers need to feel confident that Trademark owners won’t be able to come directly after them in court. Without that secure feeling needed by advertisers, Google will no doubt feel the pain from an ad revenue decrease if advertisers don’t feel confident. Given Google’s court record, they won’t be forgoing any revenue stream with out a battle.

Search marketers who choose to bid using such shady terms, will no doubt fight till the end. Trademarked keywords are profitable, and highly so, otherwise this wouldn’t be such a large problem. Until a firm Federal law is passed, I don’t see the use of Trademarked search terms slowing anytime soon.

Stay tuned, as this is just the beginning. I’m sure.

Online Promotions Shouldn't be Stranger Than Fiction

Posted by duncan on April 11, 2007 at 09:23 AM

I was recently impressed by the film Stranger Than Fiction. Being the search infovore that I am I just had to go online and do some searching about the movie. I went to MSN.com and typed in movie search, just to see if they were being honest. Ah ha, they were. MSN.com's number one listing for my search is the still little known Internet Movie Data Base, or IMDB.com.

I lobbed Stranger Than Fiction into the search box at IMDB and with a click, I was off to explore. While there are many films titled Stranger Than Fiction, I drilled my way to the 2006 version that I had watched. I glanced at the page that came up and looked for clues for something to click on. What was that intangible thing that had impressed me about the film? Surely I'd find something if I poke around. And then it hit me.

The writing in the film was spectacular. I clicked the link for the writer Zach Helm. I was anxious to see what else he had done. I was pleased to find he not only wrote but also directed an upcoming film. The film is called Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.

The film will be released this November. Starring Natalie Portman as Molly, and Dustin Hoffman as the 243 year old toy store owner Mr. Magorium, the film will surely be talked about come year end holiday time. It is my hope that this new film will have the same great writing and well done cinematography that Stranger Than Fiction delivered.

So how does this all tie back into the search marketing world? Well, it got me thinking. By searching around online I was able to scoop what may be a very popular holiday film. My curiosity brought me to something most other people won't hear about for months. While they are not advertising it yet, the movie theaters and the big movie studios have their holiday ideas lined up.

My next question is, have all the online marketers of the world taken the time to plan their holiday promotions? Don't be left behind. Your competitors likely already have their Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporiums all lined up. Do you have a Natalie Portman and Dustin Hoffman up your sleeve?

If you have planned you holiday promotion, great! Good for you. If not, you may find your holiday marketing experience bringing a feeling that is stranger than fiction, and I'm not so sure that is what you want. Perhaps it is time for you to go out there and search around for some ideas too.

Help Your Navigation Help You & Search Engines

Posted by teal on April 10, 2007 at 12:51 PM

You worked long and hard to perfect your site's main navigation; the slide out menus are just right, the colors change perfectly with a mouse-over, and the font is just what you wanted. And you worked long and hard in Flash.

Now, I don't mind Flash. I know many a designer that has used Flash in interesting ways to enhance the visual appeal of a site and there's nothing wrong with a little aesthetic enhancement. There is, however a problem with housing the entire main navigation in a medium that the search engines can't follow. (There are of course Flash optimization options like SWFObjects and sIFR, but I feel there are much better ways to open up your navigation).

There are of course other technologies beyond Flash (including JavaScript) that close the engines off from this very important linking structure. But instead of dwelling on the don't's of main navigation, I'll focus on the do's.

First off, text is best. Search engines can follow the links in images, however why not gain relevancy from strong keyword-based anchor text in your main navigation? By using keyword headers in your navigation, you are telling the engines that there are main pages on your site that are relevant for these important keywords. And, if you insist on certain background images for your buttons, there are ways to position text over images using CSS.

Secondly, it can be very helpful to also include drop-down menus containing links to internal pages within the main navigation on every page. This way, no matter where the user, or search engine spider is, they have access to many other pages on the site. This creates a strong linking structure that enhances usability for the user and creates a fluid path for the search engine spiders to follow.

Finally, there are a few ways to create these text-based drop-down navigation systems. I recommend a CSS based version which essentially styles a menu of list items, thus harboring the entire navigation of your site on every page in a simple list format. Now, because upsets can (and usually do) occur when mixing the CSS "hover" function with Internet Explorer version 6, a small amount of JavaScript may be necessary to get this to work in IE6 and ensure happy navigating for users and spiders.

To see an incredible example of a CSS based drop-down navigation, check out Adobe.com.

Duplicate Content: Is It Really That Bad?

Posted by on April 06, 2007 at 04:34 PM

Of all the site issues that I can get on my clients' case about, the one that is most often met with the most groans (and the most inaction) is duplicate content.

"Is duplicate content really that bad?" they ask me. "Is my site going to get penalized?"

Like all answers in the SEO world, the answer is both yes and no. There is no duplicate content "penalty" per se, but that doesn't mean that duplicate content still can't cause positions to be dampened.

In my mind, there are two types of duplicate content:

1. Internal Duplicate Content - exists within a single domain
2. External Duplicate Content - exists across multiple domains

Internal duplicate content, which exists within a single domain, is most often the result of a Content Management System. For example, a CMS may dynamically add breadcrumb data to the URL, or generate more than one URL for a product description page if that product is listed in more than one category.

Internal duplicate content can also occur when a site experiences linking inconsistencies (some pages link to http://www.sitename.com/directory and then also http://www.sitename.com/directory/index.asp, etc).

External duplicate content, which exists across multiple domains, is simply copied or stolen content. If your product descriptions come direct from the manufacturer, chances are those same descriptions appear on many other reseller sites and possibly even the manufacturer's own website.

Search engines won't be too interested in you if you look like everyone else. Having unique copy differentiates your site from your competitors'.

But does this mean that you are going to be penalized for having duplicate content?

For duplicate content that exists across one domain only, Google will just pick the page that it likes best, and then off the other pages will go to the supplemental index. That's not a penalty - that's just smart filtering.

Of course, if someone else has identical copy to your site content and the engines decide their page is more relevant than yours, well, you're in for a bigger problem there. (This also is just smart filtering - but it sure can feel like a penalty.)

The supplemental index is one thing - but let me go back to duplicate content issues that may exist with dynamic sites and/or URL inconsistencies.

Everyone knows how important external links are when it comes to SEO, but internal links are too often overlooked. The more internal links that point to a page, the better its positioning potential. This is why it's so important to have a strong internal navigation.

Duplicate content weakens a site's navigational structure. Instead of having links throughout a site directing relevance towards a single URL, the links all point to a bunch of different URLs. This fractures page relevance and disrupts your entire site's navigational structure. Why should search engines pay attention to a page if only one internal link is pointing to it, instead of five or six?

No matter which type of duplicate content issue you're experiencing - internal or external - you should try to find a way to fix it. Even with the debunking of the much-feared duplicate content "penalty", that doesn't mean that duplicate content issues still don't have the potential to affect your search engine positions.

The Onion Peels into iTunes

Posted by on April 05, 2007 at 08:12 AM

On Tuesday, March 27th venerable spoof-news site, The Onion, dipped its satiric brand into online broadcasting with the launch of The Onion News Network, a series of short video news podcasts.

First segments on the site consisted of three, irreverent and very funny “news‎ clips that could have been gleaned directly from the publication’s falsified front pages. In less than a week, the site had skyrocketed to iTunes’ number one most downloaded podcast position.

Way to go Onion. Also, way to go Dewar's Scotch, who developed a quirky mini ad campaign specifically for this sponsorship. It would not work anywhere else. The following week the campaign was replaced by Red Stripe Beer from Jamaica (which makes one wonder about the future of Dewar's ad investment). Dewar's or Red Stripe -- judging by the sponsors, you get an idea of the target audience here. (Lush marketing?)

Many big, serious, well-financed broadcasters have been podcasting for awhile. Most have failed to crack the top 20 list at iTunes, much less land at number one – ever. The Onion did it in a week. What’s the lesson here?

First, humor sells. No one familiar with the traditional broadcast advertising model would doubt that. Yet, remarkably, many a would-be top podcaster has chosen a dry, poorly produced editorial or even talk radio format. Some of these work, most do not.

Second, podcasting sells. Literally. The Onion has shown that a good podcast can attract advertisers. Given The Onion’s name recognition, their franchise didn’t hurt them here. But, with their good writing, talent and production values, these podcasts can clearly stand on their own.

Third, integrating the right podcast into an established brand identity can only serve to enhance the brand further. Harvard Business Review’s popular podcasts add to the strength of their print properties, which in turn add to the brand mystique which is Harvard. The sum is greater that the parts. Harvard continues to ride high as an academic voice of authority.

Fourth, The Onion has shown us just the tip of the iceberg. As podcast tracking capabilities get broader awareness, advertisers should be signing on in droves. The ability to reach a measurable, loyal audience with a specific and potentially entertaining message has driven radio and TV advertising for the last 50 years. Podcasting delivers a more savvy, affluent and discriminating audience in new and more effective ways . . . particularly when the content has the appeal of an Onion.