Unmasking the Decepticon: TransformersMovie.com Battles Usability

Posted by Christopher on June 29, 2007 at 11:11 AM

I've no problem admitting I'm absolutely as geeked as my 14 year old son about the upcoming Transformers movie. Given even the potential of soul-shattering hackery from Michael Bay -- director of, among many other cinematic travesties, Armageddon (who knew directional drilling would one day save the world?) and Pearl Harbor -- seeing a giant Decepticon smash through a bus on the freeway on the big screen is going to be worth the price of any number of admissions.

Please, Mr. Bay, for the love of everything holy, no romantic subplots, no schmaltz, no Ben Affleck. But, come on, even if Transformers was Ben Affleck-ted I'd go. It's robots! In disguise! I could only be happier if the movie consisted of them fighting Shogun Warriors. Maybe throw a couple Micronauts in there as well.

Given, however, that I'm heavily invested in online marketing, that my career consists of helping clients improve their online presences in any number of ways, I'm naturally interested in whether the Tranformers' complete excellence is being reflected in a completely excellent online marketing campaign, the primary part of which should be an excellent website. (Plus, it's totally an excuse to gawk at big robots during work.)

First, the search for "transformers." I'm happy to see that TransformersMovie.com is holding the number one position in both Google and Yahoo, and number two in Live and Ask. Good start. It should. It's only when I click the link that the Autobot/Decepticon dichotomy begins to lean heavily toward the bad guys. And not in a good way.

The home page is all right (despite the inclusion of some garish advertisments, the presence of which, given the fact that the movie cost a billion dollars, is, I'd imagine, a necessary evil); I'm given this choice: "Choose Your Side to Enter: Protect or Destroy." Which is hardly a choice. Destroy!

Here's the point where everything goes south. You click "Destroy," you're all ready to start destroying, and nothing. Then more nothing. And we're on two T1 lines; we've got a pipe the size of the Holland Tunnel up here. Were I a Transformer, I could have been a truck, then a toaster oven, then a minibike, then a clock radio, then a robot again by now. OK, something...please, no, you're not taking me offsite...oh, yes, yes you are.

And what's my reward for waiting for all that? A freaking mess. You get Megatron, which is cool by default, but he's all scrambled up against a white background; it's a puzzle, but you can't do anything with it. Beyond that, the navigation's split into nine puzzle pieces in no discernable order. The "Robots," when you click on that button, are there, which is cool, but the "Humans" are "Coming Soon." Not that anybody would click on that anyway, but the movie starts in three days. It's already opened in Korea. If the humans are coming at all, they better come soon.

OK, wait, what's this in the corner? "Robovision?" YES! This I want. OK, now I can "Engage [My] Robovision," and no, I'm not reading all that text because I WANT TO ENGAGE MY ROBOVISION! NOW!!! This is maybe my only chance to even have Robovision and, wait, what!?!?!?!

It's a Target ad.

OK, I'm done. TransformersMovie.com, you've failed me, completely. I didn't get to "Destroy" anything (although I did come close to "transforming" my computer into a smoking pile of rubble).

Maybe I'm not the target (ugh) audience, here, but I don't see a lot of 13 year olds having much more patience than I. I've seen a representative of your key demographic use a computer multiple times (many of which consist of me leaning over his shoulder to make sure he's not eye-emming either a convict or an FBI agent pretending to be a 15 year old girl) and if it doesn't load in half a second he's gone. You seem like, and maybe were, an afterthought. And you could have been so cool, man.

Maybe not as cool as a big robot smashing through a metro bus, but still...

The Facebook Marketplace is Now Open

Posted by on June 28, 2007 at 10:04 AM

Photo slideshows. Music sharing. Horoscopes. Friend quizzes. It seems you can find a widget for everything these days, especially if you're a member of the second largest social network online.

Last month Facebook opened its doors to application developers. Since then more than 1100 mini-applications and widgets have been created for the Facebook community.

As the online answer to yearbooks, Facebook was formed in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. Last year Facebook was rumored to have a price tag of over $2 billion. Not bad for a college student. Why couldn't I think of that?

While initially only available to college students, Facebook has taken the slow and steady route to expansion by opening its doors to high school students and eventually everyone.

Claiming 27 million active members, the Facebook community doesn't yet match up to MySpace's 100 million, but I think Facebook is on the track to long-term, steady success.

Facebook's breakthrough came with opening up its API to outside developers. It will only be a matter of time before most Facebook-ers are customizing their profiles with all of the widgety goodness already created for them.

One of the most popular widget applications has been iLike which lets users list and share their favorite songs and music artists. The six-month-old iLike company had about 3 million unique users to its new site. After launching its application on Facebook, iLike now has over 6.5 million total users. That's an increase of one million users a week with advertising only on Facebook.

Facebook is also catching the eye of many big brands and corporations. The term "facebooked" has already been coined as a verb by many community members. That's pretty remarkable for a community phenomenon created just three years ago by a college kid.

Social media sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, are great marketing opportunities for targeting specific demographics, in addition to being the logical progression for SEO and SEM. Online marketing is much more than optimizing sites or buying ads. It is apparent every day that the search arena is constantly evolving. Wise search marketers are at the front end of the trends and are continuously moving into areas that complement search.

Now my next question is when will Facebook open its doors for PPC advertising?

Website Wizardry

Posted by on June 27, 2007 at 09:02 AM

Does it matter if a website is well organized and user-friendly when your goal is to sell products or services via Pay-Per-Click ads?

Absolutely.

The development and success of your PPC campaigns relies, in part, on a website that speaks clearly to the products and services it offers and makes it as easy as possible for your customers to find, buy, subscribe or sign-up (also known as "converting").

Are you a Harry Potter fan? I'm sure most of us have seen at least one of the films in the series. If not, let me set the scene: the boy wizard, Harry Potter, goes to a wand shop to get his very first wand (after all, he is going to wizarding school).

He has no idea what to expect, what his wand options are, or how much they cost. He walks into an ancient storefront where an even more ancient salesman approaches to assist him.

The place is a mess, with dust and cob webs everywhere. Boxes and boxes of wands of varying styles, colors, lengths and powers, line every available surface.

Now the salesman knows his stuff. He knows where everything is, since he put it there, and how to "fit" a person for a new wand. But Harry has no idea where to begin. The salesman asks Harry a few questions, tries on a few different wands for size then realizes he has the perfect wand for Harry. Harry leaves the shop a very satisfied customer.

Now that's all well and good for a storefront experience, but what about your customers who come to you via PPC ads on the web? Who will help them find what they want? Who will tell them about any sales, shipping promotions or guarantees? Who will answer their questions? Who will help them check out?

Your website, that's who.

Now what the movie doesn't tell you is that Harry found his way to the shop via a PPC ad which spoke directly to his need as a first time wand shopper.

With a well organized website, and effective PPC campaign, your customer will find you, find the products they are in the market for, put them in their shopping cart and check-out successfully... just as if you've waved your magic wand.

A Simple but Critical HTTP Header Mistake

Posted by steve on June 26, 2007 at 11:06 AM

When it comes to setting HTTP charset parameters, such as the Content-Type field, it is usually fairly straightforward. When documents that are to be sent by a server to a user agent (i.e. - a browser) are of the type text, the HTTP header line will generally appear as follows:

Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8

What happens, though, when documents that are of type text have Content-Type mistakenly set to image/jpeg?

Obstruction.

First, this erroneous server setting can obstruct browsers from effectively loading site pages. When a browser is told that the data type is in the format of an image/jpeg, the content of text/html pages will not load in certain browsers. While some versions of browsers may load such a page correctly, others will not, which is certainly not ideal.

Second, assigning the wrong Content-Type to text/html pages can also obstruct a search engine's ability to access these pages. This is undeniably problematic as your site will have no hope of attaining any type of presence in the search engines, even for your brand name. A good way to check to see how engines are viewing your pages is to use a text-only browser, such as Lynx.

While this is a rare occurrence, it is an issue which I have seen before, and one that you should be wary of, especially if your site pages aren't rendering in certain browsers.

To associate character encoding with your files, you can specify by extension.

For Apache, you can serve all files with a particular extension, such as .html, as text/html by using the .htaccess file.

For IIS 5 and 6, use IIS Manager to associate character encoding for each extension by going to 'Properties' > 'HTTP Headers' > 'File Types' > 'New Type'. Add the particular extension you want to map along with the appropriate Content-Type.

Here's an example for a .tmp extension:

The Cost of Viewing Business

Posted by on June 25, 2007 at 11:38 AM

This text might be more appropriately posted as a comment to my colleague Sarah’s post, Unique Visits Aren’t Everything from June 19th, however I feel so strongly about the subject that I thought that we should revisit it.

This time, however, let’s look at the right-hand side of the search results page. You guessed it, paid search advertising.

I’ll start by saying that the days of considering your company’s website as nothing more than a billboard on a highway or a quarter page ad in the telephone directory are now, thankfully, behind us. Well, most of us.

Truly savvy marketers recognize the amazing potential that lies in having an interested party browsing around their web content, and are retooling that content with the goal of converting that interested party into a qualified lead or, even better, a new client.

There’s no question about it – a well established & well managed SEM campaign will drive traffic, however without relevant content, strong calls to action, and highly visible & usable conversion points a good portion of those site visitors may end up thinking, “Hmmm, this is nice‎ before moving on to a competitor.

As far as campaign keyword selection is concerned, Sarah made the great example of the Burlington, Vermont flower shop by explaining why a local flower shop in northern Vermont wouldn’t want to optimize solely for the keyword “flower shop.‎ Well, the same reasoning holds true for paid search; nationally targeted broad keywords like “flower shop‎ typically come with a sky-high CPC & a lot of poorly qualified traffic.

Sure, Google AdWords’ geographic targeting allows advertisers to pinpoint specific areas to which their ads can be served. Yahoo & MSN aren’t there yet (but that’s a topic for another post). As a result, keywords & ad creative that speak to location & service area are must-haves.

At the end of the day, it’s not enough anymore to simply have a website, and bring in as many visitors as possible. It’s time to shift paradigms, time to stop buying impressions like it’s 1976 and start buying targeted, highly qualified traffic, AND converting that traffic into leads/clients.

The Ten Most Hated Internet Words

Posted by on June 22, 2007 at 02:50 PM

I have a confession to make. An especially sinful one, considering my position with an online marketing firm. Children, please turn away for a moment, while I let this out. I dislike the term blog.

I always have. Back when I wrote my first "online journal" it was an exciting technology. A method to record one's lessons and experiences in a format that can be readily consumed by others for the edification of all.

I quickly grew tired of the "online journal" format, maybe because nobody ever cared what I had to say, or maybe because I found more important things to worry about.

Fast forward a handful of years, and the internet came abuzz with a "new" technology: the weblog had been born.

Some people called it a blog, but what did they know; it was an online journal. I could almost accept weblog, but blog was just offensive for its brevity. Only a difference of 2 keystrokes (TWO!) managed simultaneously to remove all semantic meaning from the word. Next, came bloggers, blogrolls, and the blogosphere. Apparently, my programmer sense can't compete with the ability of marketers to find a concept with staying power.

Why would I choose to blog (heh) a rant such as this, seemingly without provocation, today? What might have happened that could reawaken the fires of this sleeping dragon? Well, I was reading through the news yesterday, and came across an article at Ars Technica: The ten most hated words on the Internet.

While I had never heard of one of the terms (yes, i had to wiki up the Blook), and some of the words score highly on my must keep list (cookie, netiquette, and wiki), I was very happy to see, that at long last, someone agrees with my long held dislike of the term blog.

From the other side of the coin, do I ever actually think that blog will find itself extinct? Not for as long as there are blogs and bloggers who continually add useful, (occasionally interesting) content to the blogosphere.

Until next time, which, rather than a trite commentary piece, I will bring you another useful Tools of the Trade post.

Advertising Is Not a Dirty Word

Posted by carly on June 21, 2007 at 11:52 AM

Let me first admit that I'm that girl. I'm one (of the millions, or perhaps one in a million - it's debatable) of those blasted media planners who you curse violently when ads appear while you're trying to read your favorite column online. I did it. Be mad at me.

Guess what, I put it there because I knew you would be there. No, I certainly won't tell you how I knew you would be there. Nor will I tell you how long it took me to figure out that although you curse them - you like the big flashy ones better than those that just stare longingly at you. You click on the big flashy ones. I even know which size you find most irresistible.

So why are you mad at me? Really - give me one honest reason why it is that you're mad. I'm giving you exactly what you want. I don't even make you search for what you want. I make sure that the certain something you're after is right there on the page you visit daily, reminding you of how glad you are to see it there. How could you be mad?

My job, and that of every other media planner out there, is to cater to your needs and wants. Would you curse your butler if you had one? Imagine this for a moment with me if you will. It's 12:03pm. Lunch time on a warm, sunny day. You're hungry but you just can't quite figure out what you want for lunch. You jump in your car, roll down the windows (of course), and pull out of your parking spot. But just before you get to the end of the driveway, a kind face walks up to your car. Now remember, your window is all ready down so you can't be rude and try to roll it up in a big haste. Well I guess you can if you'd like - if you're that person.

That kind face simply says, "The most satisfying lunch you had last week was just down the road. Turn your blinker on and take a left. Drive two short blocks. The café you weren't able to recall... it's called Marcy's and it will be on your right hand side, on the corner. When you arrive, tell them that I sent you and they will have that fantastic turkey avocado wrap that you love, waiting just for you." You drive to Marcy's, your sandwich is there, it's exactly what you wanted and since you didn't spend all of your time driving around trying to find what it was that you wanted for lunch - you have 20 spare minutes to take in the sun.

Hello! Would you be mad? No, absolutely not. Think about the outcome people. Those media planners you begrudge daily... those blasted people who exist only to give you what you want. Shame on them, indeed.

Don't try to fight it just because it came to you through an "ad". Advertising is not a dirty word. It's a good thing. It is there to get you the result you desire.

If you see a Oneupweb ad floating atop your column - and you're intrigued or would like to read the fantastic white paper we're offering that will answer all of your questions - click! It will get you what you want. That's all, it's that simple. Just click and get what you want. How can you possibly be mad? Stop pouting and thank the companies that pay people like me. I'm here to make your life easier; I'm your complimentary butler. For all that is sacred in this world - if you want it - click on it.

Search Marketing Pro Notches 6th Year of Service

Posted by duncan on June 20, 2007 at 11:19 AM

This week marks my completion of six years working with Oneupweb. I remember my first day with the company back in 2001. People were still using the Netscape browser in huge numbers. AltaVista was one of the leading search engines. The horrifying events of September 11, 2001 were still three months away. The first internet bubble was in the process of bursting. Purely through word of mouth a small, private company in Mountain View, California was on its way to becoming a household word.

The industry has come a long way. In April of this year, Greg Jarboe discussed the Gentrification of the Search Industry. Greg focuses on the period of 2004-2007 and uses the New York Search Engine Strategies event to pull examples that highlight his points. Oneupweb was a Premier Sponsor of that event. Myself and a group of current colleagues where there as well. While Oneupweb remains strong, several of the exhibitors from that event are no longer doing business.

Through the years Oneupweb has changed the look of its website. My face has changed a bit too as you can now see some of the salt and pepper gray showing up in my beard. Early on, almost of all the work we did at Oneupweb was related to SEO. While SEO remains prominent in 2007, Oneupweb staffers also engage in pay-per-click management, media buying, usability audits, podcasting, blogging, social media marketing and more. There has never been a dull day.

The future is as bright as Google's homepage on a laptop screen in a dark room. If you stare too long at that screen and wake up to find you've missed the arrival of the next big thing, worry not, just give Oneupweb a call. We'll fill you in on what's next.

Unique Visits Aren't Everything

Posted by on June 19, 2007 at 09:25 AM

When doing keyword research, one of the big things that our organic SEO team looks at here at Oneupweb is search volume. The more searches per month, and the more potential hits to your site, the better right?

Not quite. Besides volume, there are two other important things you should be taking into consideration: competition, and relevance. If your business is regionally-specific, for example, your site may have a hard time competing against larger sites with a nationwide presence. You'll also have a hard time converting on those broad terms.

If someone searches for "flower shop", but they live in Boston, Massachusetts and your shop is located in Burlington, Vermont, then you need to think about whether you can convert on that broad term in the first place, let alone position on it.

But this is where many site owners balk. Not as many people are out there searching for "flower shop, Burlington, Vermont", or even "flower shop, Vermont", as there are searching for "flower shop" by itself.

So instead, they may try to go after broader terms with higher volume, and will experience difficulties trying to achieve positions and convert traffic with their small local sites.

You need to optimize for who you are. Embrace your business and your customer base! If you are a flower shop in Burlington, Vermont, then that's what you should be leveraging. Because maybe your unique visits aren't going to soar, but you know what will? Your amount of TARGETED VISITORS. One targeted visitor is worth just as much as (or even more than) one thousand aimless visitors.

So now that I've established that the number of targeted visitors is more important the number of unique ones, I want to take this one step further, and say that targeted visitors aren't everything either. Instead of judging the success of your campaign solely by the number of visitors - unique or targeted - you also need to take into account your overall ROI.

Are you converting your traffic? And equally important - do you have adequate controls in place to measure those conversions? Not only should you be tracking every online form submission, every email, and every phone call that your business receives, but you should also be encouraging a strong call-to-action on every page on your site.

If you haven't designed your site to be user-friendly enough to provide the information that your targeted visitors are looking for - and if you aren't following up with analytics to measure all of that targeted traffic - then you need to go back to the drawing board. Because in the end, it all comes down to you and how you choose to connect to, and engage, your potential clients. They're looking for you - don't let them down.

Think Ahead - SEO & Site Redesign

Posted by teal on June 18, 2007 at 12:06 PM

Recently I've helped guide many clients through extensive website redesigns. I am thrilled to see that companies are paying attention to the importance of search engine optimization during the redesign process.

But what exactly can you expect when hiring a company like Oneupweb to provide consultation through the redesign process? Is your SEO company going to shoot your design ideas out of the water? Are they going to tell you to go back to the drawing board and make a ton of extensive and often expensive changes? Is your SEO expert going to tell you to lose the new Flash intro?

This blog post is meant to provide marketers/designers some insight into what to expect when working with SEO during the redesign process. It can really make the difference between maintaining current search engine positions and losing them all.

Tip #1 - Hire SEO Early On
Please, please, please don't hire us at the very last minute. There's a process to this, and while yes of course we can work with you at any stage (even the day before launch or right after), it is best if we can be involved from start to finish (and afterwards). There are a number of things to consider when resigning a website and it is definitely beneficial to discuss ideas and design items BEFORE the launch date.

I have a couple of clients going through this process right now who did hire us early on. Here's how they benefit:

1. Keywords have already been identified - copywriters use these important keyword phrases as they create new site copy.


2. Source code for the new site hasn't been built yet. When the design company sends mock-ups of top level pages in jpg format, I provide ideas about how the pages should be coded. With the design company warning about additional costs for making large changes once the code is written, this early insight has proven to be invaluable to my client.


3. SEO best practices that can make a big difference when the site goes live, have already been discussed.

Tip #2 - Expect to Make Some Changes
When you hire an SEO company like Oneupweb to work with you during your redesign process, expect to get some pretty intense recommendations for changes. This isn't because we are mean or want to hurt your designer's feelings. With more than a decade of experience in the industry, it is our duty to use our acquired knowledge to make recommendations that will benefit your website. Again, this is where hiring us early on can help.

Tip #3 - Keep Your Design Company/Dept. & SEO Company in Touch
With web designers actively communicating with your SEO company, it's more likely you will retain the aesthetic feel you were originally going for with the redesign, while also implementing much-needed SEO recommendations. Moreover, as the design company works on different aspects of the site, an SEO can help make recommendations along the way.

For example, a recent redesign client (who was a client pre-redesign as well) had us evaluate new site copy being authored by the design company. The copy was well-written and accurately described services and site features, however rarely included important keywords. Using the design company's drafts, we were able to provide ideas about incorporating important keyword phrases into the new copy.

Tip #4 - Think About How to Better Reach Potential & Current Clients
You've probably already thought about additional functionality to help visitors find what they need - maybe a new search function, click to talk, live chat, etc. But have you thought about how to market your company differently? What about providing an informative or entertaining podcast to help potential and current clients learn more about your offerings? Why not set up a blog to provide info about new products and services on a frequent basis? And what about usability? Are all of your new features usable?

We wish you luck during your redesign process. If you choose to hire an SEO company to offer insight, visit Oneupweb.com to get in touch with a member of our Client Services team.

And don't forget to review our Redesign Best Practices blog post before heading into your site redesign.

iCrossing Layoffs

Posted by lisa on June 15, 2007 at 06:14 AM

Seems as though there are many hurt feelings from ex-icrossing members regarding the layoffs at the search marketing firm. While it's always difficult to second guess decisions made by management, perhaps something different could have been done to smooth things over a bit more with these employees.


Nonetheless, after the punch-in-the-gut feeling dims, it's time to get back on your feet, and set your career path once again. Things happen. For those that did lose their jobs, see it as an opportunity and start knocking on the doors of other SEO / SEM / online marketing firms out there. It may be your chance to be a larger part of something meaningful.


Online marketing is exciting and rewarding. At Oneupweb, we work non-stop at growing our company strategically. No fast ramp up... but slow, steady, solid growth with substance. That's the way we like it - uh huh, uh huh (sorry, KC and the Sunshine Band was in my head). We feel it serves our client's best by maintaining a deep level of expertise within our teams.


Only the management team at iCrossing knows if layoffs will continue. In the meantime, the sun's shining - it's time to go make some hay! Oh, and for those that are interested, Oneupweb has job openings here. And you can see our new Lake Michigan offices.

PPC's Ying and Yang

Posted by adam on June 14, 2007 at 10:58 AM

Recently I was reading an article in Business Week entitled, At 3M, A Struggle Between Efficiency And Creativity. This article written by Brian Hindo examines reasons for 3M’s lack of creativeness in recent years.

When I dug deeper into his discussion of the company's struggle to balance the efficiencies created by programs like Six Sigma and ISO 9001 standards with the freedoms and intangibles needed for creativeness, I started to notice how managing PPC campaigns is eerily similar.

?What?
For PPC professionals, it’s absolutely necessary to have analytics, goals, and a well thought out action plan to track and measure the effectiveness of each ad budget penny spent. At Oneupweb, my Six Sigma equivalent is ROI trax. I use the data gained from ROI trax to learn which keywords, ads, landing pages, day-parting schedules, geo-targeting strategies, and engines/markets provide the best [insert your key metric] for each of my clients. There’s one potential problem; having all the data in the world still won’t mature a PPC campaign on its own, just as implementing a Six Sigma program wasn’t the end-all-be-all solution for improving profitability at 3M. Ying is to efficiency as yang is to creativity, in most cases.

Ad Development
When I know which of the three ads I’m testing in an ad group has the highest CTR, I then begin to examine which converts most often. The next key step is taking the best ad and developing subsequent ads to continuously improve. This process should never stop, it shouldn’t ever become complacent. If you think you have finally written the perfect ad, how will you know if you aren’t testing it against a potentially better ad?

Keyword List Maturity
The creativeness needed to continually test and expand keyword lists isn’t quite the same as what’s needed to continually re-invent compelling ad copy. It is however absolutely necessary to be able to think outside the box and find high quality, highly targeted keywords your target customer is using to find your product or service. Settling for broad match general keywords is no longer making the grade. To continually improve campaign results means to never be satisfied with the current keyword list. Keywords can always be further refined and there are always more buyers for your product or service to be found through their search queries.

Creative Innovation
As the online landscape is continually changing, new opportunities and challenges are continually presenting themselves. New challenges could be in the form of Ask’s new search platform Ask3D, but depending on your point of view, it could also be your client’s new opportunity. I believe the key to staying ahead of the curve is to always be mindful of the balance needed between the analytical and creative mindsets with regard to the key components of PPC campaign management.

I think Hindo summed it up best in a quote from his recent article in Business Week: “While process excellence demands precision, consistency, and repetition, innovation calls for variation, failure, and serendipity.‎

The Fantastic Four: Google, Yahoo, MSN & Ask

Posted by samantha on June 13, 2007 at 08:07 AM

Last Friday night, while at the movies, I happened to see a preview for the new Fantastic Four movie - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. While marveling (no pun intended) at the special effects on the theater's recently installed digital movie screen, I, being the Internet geek that I am, thought about the Fantastic Four in terms of search engine optimization and the four major search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.

Since I enjoy finding similarities in things that one wouldn't necessarily expect, I figured that it might be fun to figure out which search engine would play each character in the Fantastic Four. Each one has different strengths, (superpowers, if you will) and weaknesses.

Human Torch - The Human Torch, aka Johnny Storm, is a risk-taker who likes to live life on the edge. I'd have to say that if the search engines were the Fantastic Four, Human Torch would be Google. Constantly releasing new beta functions, Google seems to live on the edge. The Human Torch's superpower is that of a human fireball who can fly and put off blasts of fire. One could also find painful similarities with Google and Human Torch. Having never been hit by a human fireball, I can only imagine that the experience would be quite painful, as if your website pages have landed in Google's supplemental results, or that you've been hit with a penalty.

The Invisible Woman - The Invisible Woman, aka Sue Storm, is shy, but can be very assertive. In addition to being The Invisible Woman, she is also a scientist. If I were to pick the search engine that most resembled the Invisible Woman, it would have to be Ask. With its recent emphasis on the algorithm (scientific, no doubt) and its introduction of skins (some of them beautiful), Ask is a great match for The Invisible Woman. As far as her personality goes, she is the only female of the bunch, often in the shadow of the guys. Ask is often overlooked, but also has great features that can enhance the search experience.

Mr. Fantastic - Mr. Fantastic, aka Richard Reeds, has the powers to do amazing things with his body. From bending to stretching, this guy has the incredible power of flexibility. While I can definitely see the parallel with Mr. Fantastic to Google, I'd have to compare Mr. Fantastic to MSN. Although I am more of a Linux person than a Microsoft person, I have to admit that Microsoft has transformed computing as we know it as much, if not more, than Mr. Fantastic can transform his body. Between operating systems, productivity suites, and search, Microsoft also has a wide scope of coverage.

The Thing - The Thing, aka Ben Grimm, is left to Yahoo. Yahoo, like The Thing, has a bit of a cluttered exterior. Although Yahoo seems a bit uncomfortable, underneath it all, there are still many great features, just like The Thing. The Thing's superpower is that of super-strength. Yahoo, while not as popular as it once was, is still a search engine largely used by consumers. It may not be as strong as The Thing, but it's not in last place when it comes to search engine market share, either.

Like all superheroes, each engine has its strengths and weaknesses. One of the reasons that search engine optimization is so interesting is because you work with the unique superpowers of each search engine. Different techniques work for different engines' algorithms, just as different superpowers are more helpful for different scenarios.

While the world of the Fantastic Four is an exciting one, it is still make believe. The world of search, however, is quite real and an interesting one to explore.

There's More to Ad Quality Than Clickthrough Rate

Posted by on June 12, 2007 at 10:23 AM

One of the easiest, most-common ways to assess the success of a consumer paid search campaign is by looking at Clickthrough Rate. Clicks over impressions. A simple percentage, and seemingly a sure way to confirm whether you’re using effective ads.

The ways to improve that CTR are also pretty commonly known. It’s well-documented that using a targeted keyword list, and repeating those keywords specifically in your ad text will drive clicks. It’s known that you’ll bring more visitors to your client’s site by using active verbs to encourage the user. And, if need be, increasing your bid is often a sure-fire, if sometimes inefficient, way to draw more eyes.

But, as is also well-documented, consumer paid search campaigns are made or broken not based on CTR, but on Conversion Rate. Sure, it’s nice to get visitors to a client’s site, but those visitors don’t mean a thing if they don’t become customers.

Some things to consider:

Ads aren’t just an entry point. They can be a filter.
Perhaps your client is in a competitive consumer space, and is not the price leader in the field. After all, there’s only one price leader. Write ad text to drive away users who are only looking for the cheapest product they can find. I’m thinking of words like “Premium,‎ “High-quality,‎ “Exclusive.‎ Focus on what makes your client unique, and a brand worth purchasing from. (If indeed your client is the price leader, let that be known, too. It’s “Guaranteed,‎ not just “Low.‎)

It’s not a differentiator if everyone is doing it.
Search any consumer good commonly purchased online. (Is there a consumer good that isn’t?) How many ads do you see that focus on the speed of shipping? Quite a bit. In this case, “Fast,‎ “Speedy,‎ and “Quick‎ aren’t enough. Find the ad space to write that you offer “Same-Day‎ or “Next-Day‎ shipping. Can’t get it to the customer that quickly? Then find a new differentiator.

You don’t have to use the entire ad space.
Seriously. If you’re looking at 58 characters, you can probably ad another adjective or use a stronger verb but, if your ad is checking in at 65, it’s probably fine. Really.

Ads don’t have feelings.
It’s easy (though, in the grand scheme of things, perhaps a bit sad) to get attached to an ad. You found the space for two verbs. In your estimation, it’s the perfect distillation of what makes your client great. But it’s not converting. Axe it, now. Slash and burn. (Be gentle. Maybe ease in a new headline, or a slightly-tweaked verb.) Still not converting? Slash and burn, but with a smile.

A headline can be more than a label.
It’s important that your ad encourages activity. The headline is presumably the first thing a searcher sees, and adding the word “Shop‎ or “Buy‎ or “Search‎ can do wonders. Use that headline real estate.

There’s not much space to work with in a standard paid search ad. With a short headline and 70 characters of text, a paid search marketer has to place his or her focus on finding not just a prospect, but the right prospect.

A Strange Coincidence… SEO is Like Middle School!

Posted by on June 11, 2007 at 02:18 PM

During my first month at OneUpWeb, I've learned a lot about search engine optimization and I've noticed some striking similarities between SEO and adolescent social behavior:

The first déjà vu I experienced was when I learned about the power of search engines. Based on a constellation of factors, search engines get to decide which web pages are worthy of the first page of results and which aren’t. One tool to measure status is Google's Page Rank. Those that continually make the cut over time are given a stamp of approval in the form of a high Page Rank score. In turn, your measly site is seen as better if there are topically relevant inbound links from monoliths with high Page Rank. You may dare to form an opinion that a site is cool, but it’s not cool until the search engines say it's cool. Clearly search engines base their opinion of your site on whether or not you have friends in high places.

Likewise, in high school a shirt is only cool if it has the word Hollister or Abercrombie on it. It's risky behavior to associate yourself with an unproven brand. If you try to make these decisions on your own, you might find when you arrive at school that you've made a grave fashion error and such a careless transgression will inevitably affect your social standing.

While reading training literature, I also came across this advice: Be careful of getting yourself in a link back relationship with non-reputable sources. In the world of SEO, this means that if you’re trying to get your site on the first page of the SERPs, you need to be very careful where your links point. If you link to a site that is deemed by a search engine to be disreputable, and that site links back to you, your rankings could suffer.

Similarly, during adolescence when your mom makes you invite the dorky neighbor kid over and takes you both to the mall, inevitably someone important will see you there together and assume she’s your BFF. Your ranking in the social order will suffer, especially if she starts hanging around at school! This kind of "non-reputable link‎ could seriously hurt your standing.

Lastly, writing keyword-rich copy is important when you're trying to get the attention of the search engine. The object is to prove to them that your content is exactly what 9 billion people typed in just last week and that this turn of events was an amazing coincidence. But if the search engines suspect that you’re overloading your titles, metas, and body text with a particular keyword phrase, they get a bit suspicious and once again, your rank may suffer.

This phenomenon is much the same as when you casually position yourself next to the door of the class where the object of your desire has geometry just before the bell rings: "Omigod! I didn't know you were in first hour geometry????" This is a risky plan; if your object picks up on this stalker-like behavior, it could ruin your chances.

Another interesting parallel from the training material: Find the appropriate link neighborhood for your site and remain within it when building links. In other words, always choose links that are closely related to the content that's on your site. Don't link to a page that has nothing whatsoever to do with your site's topic. Back in middle school, it was always understood that you should never try to hang with the jocks when you belong with the band geeks! Duh!

Hmmm. This SEO world is vaguely familiar!

Negative Keywords Produce Positive Returns

Posted by drew on June 08, 2007 at 04:02 PM

Online search traffic continues to grow exponentially. With more traffic comes a wider range of search terms as well.

For a PPC marketer, this is a blessing and a curse. I like having more customers to advertise to, but I can't read the minds of search engine users. Some searchers use the most odd-ball keyword phrases and still click on my ads. Maybe I'm just that alluring.

I can't express how important it is to utilize negative keywords in a PPC campaign. For those unfamiliar with negative keywords, these are special keywords used to eliminate searches that a PPC advertiser doesn't want their ad to show up on.

A wonderful example of negative keywords in use is the word "free" when used with B2C sites. B2C companies aren't usually in the business to give things away. If a user were to search using the keyword phrase "free bicycles," hopefully none of the ads served would be companies selling bikes.

By choosing the negative keyword "free," the advertiser would be able to focus their audience down to the users that want to purchase bicycles, thus improving their conversion rate and ROI.

Negative keywords may be one of those features that separate the professionals from amateurs. Reaching out to as many interested people as possible seems to be the initial thought in a PPC campaign. Time and experience will show that with greater focus comes a greater return. Use the negative to produce the positive.

To the advertisers not using negative keywords yet, try it out and you'll see the difference.

Spinning a Chair

Posted by on June 07, 2007 at 12:10 PM

I was once writing for the agency representing one of the world’s best known office seating companies. My boss came to me with a problem of sorts. “The client has a new line of seating. The high end chairs move back and forth by this complicated series of gears and hinges. You push your legs forward and the chair back moves backward to balance the load, so to speak.‎

“Uh huh,‎ says I.

“Now the low end chairs here, they bend because the cheap material they’re made of is pliable. Push and it bends.‎

“Gotcha,‎ I chime suckupedly.

“What we need are terms for both these motions. Something that implies a real value thanks to advanced engineering.

“Or lack of engineering‎, I mumble under my breath.

“Client will be in this afternoon. Get me something.‎

And off I went. Try as I might I couldn’t find anything to match the elegance of the company’s usual rhetoric. These guys were smooth. The few terms I fabricated that had any promise whatsoever, crashed immediately on reaching the boss’ desk. The clock was ticking, and with minutes remaining I retreated to every writer’s last resort: Websters Collegiate Dictionary. I had the thought of finding a word with “co‎ in its beginning for the fancy chair as to say “working together‎ and something mysterious for the cheapie chair (“it moves cause it just do.‎)

Paging became more rapid by the moment and then, I found it: “coactive‎. The entire definition consisted of five words: “to move in concert with‎. So “coactive adjustment‎ was my first term.

About the “i’s‎ I found the other puzzle piece – “intrinsic‎. The motion exists in the material itself – intrinsically, just because it can.

So, I placed the two terms with some b.s. (benefit supportive) copy on the boss’ desk and got a slow, affirmative head shake. And that was it. The client came in that afternoon, took the paper, shrugged and left. No high-fiving on this one.

A week later one of the junior account clones stormed into our offices fuming. “I just spent over an hour in a room with the marketing team being lectured about the benefits of intrinsic and coactive adjustment. Where the hell did that come from?‎ Mental high-fives all around.

In the “click and they’re gone‎ world of online marketing, the lesson here has never been more important. No matter how apparent the benefits are, they need to be stated to their best advantage. The features don’t justify themselves. They’re just... there.

Google Fuels the RSS Fire

Posted by keirsun on June 06, 2007 at 12:54 PM

Google has bought FeedBurner. This means that the big G needs a better tool for reading RSS feeds.

Did I say read? I meant to say index and monetize RSS feeds.

Increasing amounts of the world's information lie within RSS scripted (and other) XML feeds. Sure, Google still wants to index your website - that's like taking a picture of your house and writing down your address to remember where you live. The RSS feed is your mailbox and the flag is always up.

Now Google, recognizing the value of this easily accessible information, wants to be your mail carrier.

According to its website, FeedBurner has handled 736,494 feeds as of May 29th, 2007 and boasts, "The most RSS feed inventory on the Web today" (which I assume means the largest).

Google knows that RSS feeds are quickly and quietly becoming the arteries (and veins) of the online organism.

With the FeedBurner purchase, Google also acquires the company's advertising network for RSS feeds. FeedBurner addresses the obvious next question in its FAQs:

Q. Will the feed-based ads continue to be sold on a purely (cost per thousand) CPM basis, or will they be sold on a (cost per click) CPC basis like most AdWords ads?

A. As this is a recent acquisition, it is too early to say what the ads pricing will look like. We will explore a variety of options to determine what is best for our users, advertisers, and publishers.

My recommendation to you dear reader? Figure out how to create a RSS feed.

More importantly, figure out what a RSS feed is used for. Then put it in action.

Otherwise it's as useless as a website that doesn't invite its visitors to step inside and warm themselves by the fire.