SEM Drives Traditional Marketing Success

Posted by sswaney on August 29, 2008 at 03:15 PM

Traditional advertising campaigns drive web traffic. When planning a traditional advertising campaign, you should always consider this increase in online traffic and how to steer it in the right direction.

Image: Kyle May

Start by building your marketing efforts around a desired outcome. Are you trying to generate leads? Do you want to produce sales directly from your promotions?

When you have an answer, create a marketing message and stay focused on that message throughout the campaign. This will effectively channel your customers through to your desired outcome.

Enter, search marketing.

Why is this important? Don't all traditional marketing campaigns focus on a message? Yes, they do. But not all traditional marketing campaigns craft that message with search marketing in mind.

The average consumer has trouble remembering a specific website or new product name that they heard on the radio or saw on TV, but they frequently remember features and benefits of that product, in addition to your marketing message.

If your website can't be found when someone performs a search for the messaging you used within your traditional marketing campaign, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with potential customers.

Buzz word alert: Create Synergy. Here's how:

1. Use slogans and phrases from your traditional marketing campaign as keywords for SEO and PPC.

2. Conversely, use top performing keywords from your SEO and PPC campaigns for use within traditional marketing efforts.

Your traditional advertising campaign should consider increased online traffic throughout the entire planning process.

Use a call to action in your traditional advertisement to pre-qualify your online traffic.

This will help lower your online advertising costs and keep your customer on the desired action map (i.e., purchase exclusively online).

Map your desired customer activity chain to identify your channel integration points.

Your ads will create awareness of your brand and product, pass your customer through each channel with 'where to go next' type messaging. Try using paid search terms in your messaging to direct viewers to the next step, and ultimately to your desired outcome (i.e., search for ultra-thin laptops online).

Design campaigns that provide a complete experience.

Start with awareness and extend your message through to the completion of the desired user action. Each step should contain a relevant message and instructions for proceeding to the next step (i.e., if an ultra-thin laptop is the product, continue with the 'ultra-thin' message throughout the campaign).

If your marketing plan is to succeed, your campaigns must result in increased sales or leads - not merely traffic volume. Creative approaches like entertainment, suspense, or an emotional appeal may drive traffic online, but the campaign must have a clear strategic goal with calculable metrics.

Always consider the desired outcome of your marketing efforts by planning for every stage of the customer experience - both on and offline.

Tags
Advertising
Search Marketing
Oneupweb

Rocket Skates or Running Shoes, Just Make It Interesting

Posted by jared on August 28, 2008 at 04:09 PM

Sometimes writing website content on a subject you a) know little about or b) have limited experience with is like willing yourself to teleport to France - you can sit there and try for a few hours, but you'll end up sweaty and frustrated and feeling like a big idiot when you stop.

I came across the late Paul McHenry Roberts' essay "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words," floating around Copyblogger. A professor of college English and author of a number of books on linguistics, Roberts told his students to get to the point already.

Here are a few things to remember for your next copywriting assignment to help avoid the urge to smash your keyboard to pieces.

1. Dig Up Some Facts

Do a little work. Fill your content with useful information, not what Roberts calls 'the obvious padding.' Instead of saying 'driving fast is dangerous' in four or five different ways, show the reader why it's dangerous; give them broken glass, emergency rooms, and sedans wrapped around telephone poles.

At times, copywriters avoid the meat and potatoes of a subject; they become lazy and opt out of creating tangible writing for writing that's general and unspecific. Uncovering and sharing useful facts can help when you run out of things to say.

2. The Dreaded Word Count

Why let a number torture you? Why strive to constantly cram the neat, one-word holes you've dug with useless ten word phrases? Sure, you're a little closer to your mark, but so what? Your ultimate goal is for the click-through. If your writing doesn't generate conversions, that means the content you've created is sloppy and essentially worthless filler.

For example:

If you are absolutely in need of the most advanced and up-to-date booby traps anywhere in the entire world, then you have certainly found it here at the original Acme.com, the national leader of booby trap making and specializing in innovative booby trapping technologies to bring our customers the highest quality booby traps anywhere.

Can be simplified to:

Welcome to Acme.com, the national leader in high quality booby trap design and booby trap technologies.

Granted, a little marketing copy is sometimes needed with the advertising style of writing, but even the most susceptible coyote doesn't want to wade through a lot of useless words to get to his Acme Jet Propelled Pogo Stick or Giant Mouse Traps.

3. Topical Paradise

Any topic can come a website copywriter's way; running shoes, beachfront property, booby traps - an endless parade of topics ranging from the most entertaining to the least. Topics or clients can change, but the principle is the same. Roberts throws down this gauntlet:

The subject is one on which you have few convictions and little information. Can you be expected to make a dull subject interesting? As a matter of fact, this is precisely what you are expected to do.

Try a new approach, new language, new anything to engage your website visitor/reader in an interesting way, to get them impassioned about your products or services.

Image: ebalaskas

Tags
Copywriting
Content
Oneupweb

Niche & Branded Websites - Good or Bad Idea?

Posted by steve on August 27, 2008 at 12:11 PM

Every day I talk with people about the online marketing initiatives that they are considering to help their websites and businesses, and it's rare for a week to pass without hearing this question:

"Should we launch a new website with a more refined focus on our products and/or services?"

I hear it all the time because it's a good question. And here's my typical response:

"It depends."

Before I can say whether or not it's a good idea to employ such a strategy, I really need to get to the underlying reason for doing so.

One common reason is branding. You likely see it all the time, perhaps without really noticing. A car company may launch a "micro" or "branded" site focused on a particular vehicle model. A movie production company may purchase a specific domain to promote an upcoming release. An e-commerce merchant may launch separate websites in order to advertise trademarked brands or target a distinct type of audience.

Image: romulusnr

When the sole purpose behind the development of a new website is to promote a particular brand, in some cases, the benefits may outweigh any potential drawbacks given the inclusive marketing efforts surrounding that brand.

Beyond branding, though, the answer that I receive most frequently when inquiring about the purpose behind such an initiative is increased search engine visibility.

People explain that they want to develop multiple websites with the intent of gaining more real estate throughout the organic search engine listings.

Here's an example:

A supplier of car parts currently owns a website promoting all of his products. He is thinking of launching 20 new websites, each focusing on a particular category, such as Engines, Tires, Interior Accessories, etc. Beyond those 20 category sites, he is also considering the development of sub-category websites. For example, one which focuses on Goodyear tires as opposed to all tire brands offered.

As is the case with the development of any SEO strategy, whether it is for one or multiple websites, there are numerous variables to consider.

One variable is time. Do you have the time and the resources that will be required to properly maintain several different websites? A strategy often used to save time is to utilize the same platform for multiple websites, and include identical product descriptions across numerous web properties. While you may gain presence for various keywords and appeal to some users based on the domain name of your niche site, this strategy is unlikely to generate the type of results that you're looking for.

Another variable to consider is the status of your current website. Would you be better served by putting all of your eggs in one basket, including site maintenance, content development, link building, etc? Depending on the established authority of your site in the eyes of the search engines, the answer is often "yes."

What about best practices? Is the plan to essentially create mirror websites with the sole objective being increased visibility throughout the search engines? If so, it is an ill-advised tactic that likely won't result in any gains.

There is no one answer to the question of whether or not niche and/or branded websites are a good idea as it is completely dependent on your objectives. Given the amount of time, resources and money that could be expended on such an initiative, it is crucial to weigh all of the factors at play based on those objectives before confidently moving forward in the right direction.

Tags
Branding
Visibility
Oneupweb

Search by the Truckload

Posted by mike k on August 26, 2008 at 10:54 AM

Microsoft has said on more than one occasion that it is in the process of getting serious about its involvement in search. This past week the company announced that it will start construction on a new data center in Des Moines, Iowa. On the surface this seems pretty boring until you start digging for detail on the project. One of the most interesting tidbits is that Microsoft is planning to utilize a new data center design model that involves deploying banks of servers contained within standard shipping containers.

You might be asking yourself 'what the heck do servers in shipping containers have to do with search engines or search engine marketing?' In one of my previous blog posts I covered Microsoft's desire to increase their share in the online advertising market from 6% to 40% in the next 3-5 years. Quite simply, Microsoft currently doesn't have the capacity necessary to handle the amount of traffic that would come from that level of search share. They plan to address this issue by buying prefabricated modular data centers that are contained within custom 20 or 40 foot shipping containers.

Many companies are turning to data centers-in-a-box (aka: shipping containers) when they need to quickly and efficiently expand their processing capacity. A number of companies including Sun Microsystems, IBM, HP, Dell, Verari, and Rackable Systems are using this new modular approach to building computing infrastructure. Even Google has gotten its name in the game since being awarded a patent late last year for "Modular data centers with modular components suitable for use with rack or shelf mount computing systems."

Microsoft has said it is currently planning to add 10,000 servers a month into the foreseeable future. So the next time you make a search on Live, check your Hotmail inbox, send an IM with Messenger or even play around with Virtual Earth there will be a good chance that your query is being handled by one of these new shipping container powerhouses.

Tags
Microsoft Search
Data Center Design
Server Architecture

Integrate, Sync-up, Create Symmetry, Synergize: Are you doing what's necessary?

Posted by teal on August 25, 2008 at 09:21 AM

With all of the buzz words around integrating your off- and online marketing initiatives, it's common for conversations about marketing strategies to touch upon this topic.

Recently, I had the honor of speaking with dozens of smart, talented, and savvy individuals from across the marketing/advertising/pr/web development spectrum. Throughout these conversations this theme of integration commonly comes into the spotlight. I know it's something that has been part of marketing conversations for quite a long time now, but I often wonder what's really being done?

Because of my role with Oneupweb as Partner Relations Manager, I commonly speak with marketers who specialize in different forms of marketing/PR than I do. In a recent conversation with a PR expert, we asked each other if there is an opportunity to sit down with companies, as a team, and help them visualize a complete and integrated off- and online PR campaign?

The answer is yes.

There are infinite opportunities to bridge your company's message across traditional and online media forms, where potential customers are exposed to a consistent voice, a consistent message, and a consistent brand.

The same goes for a variety of marketing and advertising endeavors:

Is your website going through a re-design? Now is the time to involve SEO experts to ensure that search-friendly design is addressed.

Is your company launching a new product? Team up your traditional and digital marketing departments to create symmetry between the web and print media.

Is your company opening a new brick and mortar location? Local advertising and local search are a great match to gain your new location visibility in the area.

Does your company experience a lot of media attention in print form? Capitalize on the press and promote the attention on your website, and integrate podcasts so potential leads can easily download the media for the commute home.

And it doesn't stop there. The opportunities really are endless.

So if you're struggling with how to sync-up your marketing, advertising and new media outlets, contact Oneupweb. We'd be happy to discuss some ideas with you.

As a leader in digital marketing, Oneupweb can help your company choose the best method of bringing your traditional marketing and advertising into a digital medium.

Image: mandj98

Tags
Marketing
Integrated Marketing
Oneupweb

C'mon Google, Lend Michigan A Hand

Posted by keirsun on August 22, 2008 at 01:05 PM

Earlier this month we touted the benefits of Google Insights, a tool from the search giant that has seen some pretty useful updates recently. Insights allows you to analyze Google search trends using a number of criteria, one of which is geographic location.

And that's where the problem starts.

Within the maps of the United States, which Google graciously provides with its helpful geographic data, the state of Michigan no longer shows up in the shape of a mitten (or hand) and a fox. Instead, searchers see an unrecognizable blob.

It gets even uglier when you narrow it down to Michigan-specific search results.

For comparison purposes, here is a more accurate representation:

Now you may be thinking, "I don't live in Michigan. Why should I care if Google's maps are all wrong?" Here's why:

The U.S. is struggling with geography. A 2006 study found that less than 6 months after Hurricane Katrina, 1/3 of Americans aged 18 to 24 couldn't point to Louisiana on a U.S. map.

The numbers don't get much better for other states. According to the study, "Half or fewer of young men and women 18-24 can identify the states of New York or Ohio on a map [50 percent and 43 percent, respectively]." And how many 18 to 24 year olds can point out Iraq on a world map? Forget about it.

In Google's defense, the "blob" that is Michigan simply displays our state's official boundaries, which luckily include large volumes of liquid gold: fresh water from three of the Great Lakes.

But, couldn't they cut out the non-land mass portion so the state of Michigan is recognizable? I'm pretty sure Google has a top-notch team of graphic designers. And I don't plan to target a boater in the middle of Lake Michigan with my AdWords campaign. (On second thought, maybe there are a few boaters out there looking for a new pair of Sperry deck shoes and a clean polo shirt to wear at the yacht club once they get into port. Regardless, a blob is a blob.)

Of course I'm biased. I make my home in Michigan, and what a beautiful home it is. I am fortunate enough to say that I have set foot in 47 of 50 states, and Michigan makes my top 5 list for most beautiful states hands down (no pun intended). Full disclosure: I'm a California native.

Sure, Google has bigger things to worry about than whether its Michigan maps look kosher. But I have to believe that Larry Page still has a soft spot for the state he grew up in.

But since these are Google maps, by default they will be seen and used by millions of young, internet-loving Americans. Why contribute to our increasingly apparent geographical ignorance?

C'mon Google, give Michigan a high-five! And give all of us the accuracy we have come to expect from our favorite search engine.

Special thanks to Drew Grohowski for insight on this post.

Tags
Google
Insights
Oneupweb

4 Easy-to-Follow Directions for Moving Your Website

Posted by Christopher on August 21, 2008 at 10:15 AM

"Easy" being, of course, a relative term. One open to interpretation.

Making the decision to move to a new home or office is exciting. Typically, you're evolving, taking your life or business in new directions. It's a fresh start, and your thoughts focus on a panoply of new possibilities, not how much your sofa actually weighs.

The physical act of moving, as anyone who's ever moved will tell you, is never easy, but can usually be measured in degrees of how horrible an experience it was. From underestimating the size of the U-Haul to overestimating your physical capacity and ability to nobly suffer, a million little details (the unforeseen wasps' nest in the attic; realizing, as you're about to drive off, that you forgot to empty and defrost the refrigerator; important mail being sent to destinations unknown, etc.) complicate your ability to cleanly transfer your possessions and, yes, your life from one place to another.

But there are a number of things you can do to mitigate the effects of the pesky details.

And, yes, this is a metaphor.

Redesigning and relaunching a website can be much like a physical move. There are a number of crucial details to be concerned about, but these are typically overshadowed by the promise of a brighter tomorrow: a new site, a new design, maybe even a new branding initiative. Moving into the future, taking the web presence to the next level. Exponentially increased revenue.

But did anyone think of the search engines? Who's going to tell them that you've moved?

Think of your website as a store, a destination; think of the search engines as a gravy train, a conveyance loaded with potential customers who, once the driver gets to know your address, know you're a great place to take people who are interested in what you sell, gets to trust you, will be delivered to your door on a regular basis. Now you're picking up and moving without even putting a sign in the window?

Now think of yourself sitting in your new, fancy, empty store, thinking, "Oh, yeah. Customers."

As previously mentioned, there are a number of things you can do to mitigate the loss of traffic, sales, leads, etc., that can accompany the launch of a redesigned site. Here are a few of them:

1. If you can move without changing your URLs, you're golden.

Not changing URLs during a redesign and relaunch is the equivalent of remodeling and expanding your current brick and mortar location. As long as you haven't replaced all your previously-indexable content with images and flash (which is becoming increasingly indexable but is still substandard when compared to text), your traffic should still come to your door in a relatively unerring fashion.

2. If your URLs must change, by all means let the search engines know.

Put 301 server-side redirects in place for at least all your top-level pages (directing search engines and visitors to equivalent information at the new address), and, in a best-cases scenario, for every page on your site. This (and I'm asking for just a bit of license here) is akin to hanging a "We've Moved!" sign, featuring your new address, on your door.

• To take this one step further, to a best-of-all-possible-worlds scenario, you've the luxury to move gradually, a section of your site at a time, providing the search engines a chance to find new pages while still being able to access many of the old, trusted pages.

3. Preserve, with your life, your home page URL.

This, of course, is situation-dependent. If you're changing domains because you've been banned from the search engines, you can ignore this. That said, changing your home page is like moving your store across town while changing its name, plus not telling anyone. Not only can't your customers find your new store - they can't even ask for directions. When you change your domain, you're abandoning any authority you've built over the years, your link popularity, etc. The list goes on. If you can help it, if there's the slightest chance your domain can be preserved, jump on it.

• If you can't, advertise. Let people know you're changing. Put an announcement on your home page. Contact folks who link to you. When you move, make absolutely sure your redirects are in place.

4. Prepare for the worst while working toward the best.

Being of Scandinavian descent, I share my forbearers' sunny negativity. If you're convinced your U-Haul will be thrown in the ditch by a tornado while you're driving through Wyoming, chances are you'll avoid Wyoming. If you can't, you'll try to avoid tornado season. If you can't, not being destroyed by a tornado is a nice surprise. If you are picked up and heaved into a pasture by a tornado, well, at least that's over with. If you're changing your domain, expect to lose all your search engine visibility. Expect your customers to go elsewhere. Expect your online revenue stream to dry up like a nightcrawler on a hot sidewalk. Embrace your worst fears, and do everything you can to keep them from becoming realized.

* This is by no means a complete list. Details, like finding out your washing machine is too large for your handtruck, will pop up, unbidden and annoying. Think of your friendly SEO project manager as a moving consultant who's been through this a million times, who can put the seemingly insurmountable into perspective, who can keep an eye on the details and help you avoid the worst case outcome. Who comes to your door chipper at six a.m. with a cup of coffee in one hand and a fresh roll of packing tape in the other. Who won't complain about how much junk you have.

And who'll drive the Wyoming shift.

Image: David Boyle

Tags
Moving
Redirects
Oneupweb

Photoshop Color Correction: How to make your pictures more vibrant

Posted by robert on August 20, 2008 at 12:55 PM

This tutorial was written using Adobe Photoshop CS2 in order to reach a wider audience; however, the same techniques may be applied in Photoshop CS3.

There are many factors that can affect the quality of a photo on your website. The clouds, the sun, even the light-bouncing qualities of the objects in focus. Often times, it may be better to take a dark photo that can be corrected by computer, rather than risking over-exposure to achieve a vibrant image. Here is a "before and after" example of what you'll be learning in this tutorial.

Step 1 - Adjusting Levels

Changing the levels of a layer is really just a quick way to adjust the brightness/contrast of an image. First, let's apply a new adjustment layer. To do this, click the 'create new adjustment layer' icon from the layers window, then select 'Levels...'

You'll see what looks like a black bar-graph. The graph gives an overview of the light and dark levels of the image.

The left end shows the blackest blacks while the right shows the whitest whites. As you can see in the image, there is a decent sized gap on both sides of our graph. This means that the black in our image is really more of a gray, and our white isn't very bright.

There are three markers below the graph; one for black, white, and mid-tones. By moving the black marker to the beginning of the graph's "wave," we make our shadows appear more black. The same can be done with the white arrow on the right to brighten the highlights of our image. It's usually best to adjust the mid-tone marker last. I suggest keeping it in its original position (1.0) in most cases as it tends to make the photo look faded. Use your judgment.

Step 2 - Masking Mistakes

When we changed our highlights we made the sky appear to be over-exposed. This is easily correctable by applying a layer mask to the levels layer we just created.

Ensure that the "levels" layer is selected in the Layers window, then click the 'add layer mask' icon, located directly next to the 'create adjustment layer' icon.

Using a black paintbrush, paint over the sky area. You'll notice that the original color reappears. If you make a mistake, simply change the brush color to white to reapply the mask where necessary. You can also use gray if you want to partially apply the filter in certain areas.

Continue reading "Photoshop Color Correction: How to make your pictures more vibrant"

Google AdWords Strategies: Placement & Keyword Targeting

Posted by adam on August 19, 2008 at 10:12 AM

Last month Google began allowing the option of combining placement targeting and keyword targeting in the same AdWords campaign. Agencies are always thrilled when we're given greater control over where, when, and how our clients' ads are placed, especially on content networks.

When placement targeting rolled out over a year ago we were excited to be able to serve ads on specific sites matching our own targeting criterion, which is much more targeted than advertising on the entire Google content network.

I see these new options taking the targeting of Google's network to a whole new level.

Campaign Settings

Before you get started, make sure you fully review your campaign settings before you launch any new campaign. Poorly set up campaigns is the easiest way to fail in AdWords.

How it Works

By using placement targeting without keywords your ad can appear on any page of a particular website. If your ads are relevant to all pages of the site, then there's no need for further targeting refinement - adding keywords to the placement targeting campaign won't be necessary.

Adding keywords to your placement targeting campaign will be beneficial when you want to advertise on large sites featuring multiple topics, such as Kaboodle.com. This product review site shares reviews on many consumer products, so if you're selling Zebra brand printer repair services, you wouldn't want your ad showing up next to reviews for zebra print slap bracelets (see the middle ad below).

To prevent paying for unqualified traffic, test adding keywords that describe the product/service you wish to promote or keywords that describe the pages of the site you'd like to advertise on.

Concluding Notes

I personally have several strategies in mind for a variety of business models that I'll be testing in the coming months. I truly believe that with continued testing and a trained eye for SEM strategy, these new options have the potential of taking conversion rates on contextually targeted ads to new heights.

Happy bidding!

Tags
Google
AdWords
Oneupweb

Go Go Google Phone

Posted by nick on August 18, 2008 at 09:42 AM

It looks like Google's venture into the world of mobile platforms is set for a 2008 public debut, and wouldn't you know it, just in time for the holiday season.

According to recent reports, the first handset to use the open Android platform from Google should be available to the public before the end of the year.

This mobile device, the HTC Dream, is supposedly going to launch on T-mobile's network and could be on the market as early as October or November. That should give holiday shoppers enough time to scoop up a few of these babies. I can see the lines forming around Best Buy already.

Does this mean the iPhone will finally have some solid competition? With a phone from HTC and platform from Google, I'm sure some people are thinking they could give Apple a run for its money. That is, if all the kinks are worked out by then.

Along with a bevy of blurry spy photos of the device and even blurrier video demonstrations, reports have surfaced from those who've had a chance to test out this new Google phone and they're not all good. The verdict seems to be that the actual device is bulkier than the iPhone, and its interface is less user-friendly.

Even if these problematic reports are indeed true, I wouldn't worry much. I mean, this is Google we're talking about here.

I'm just hoping that some of that Google magic will rub off on those wireless networks and help carriers finally provide a phone that can actually make clear, uninterrupted calls. I have yet to use a mobile phone that can do so. Sure, the Android platform has all sorts of nifty extras like GPS, internet access, and media support for audio, video and images, but in my experience all those features seem to be a distraction from the fact that you can't understand the person talking on the other end of the line.

Of course, I still can't seem to master the call waiting function on my cell phone, so maybe I'm not the best person to judge a new mobile device before it's released. I'm just interested to see if the Android platform can dispel all the rumors and influence mobile as much as Google has impacted the search world.

Tags
Google Android
HTC Dream
Oneupweb

Search Engines Compete for Olympic Audience

Posted by alex on August 15, 2008 at 10:39 AM

The Olympics are here again - the age old tradition of torch lighting and athletes competing for the gold. But athletes aren't the only ones competing anymore. Search engines are battling it out to see who can point searchers to the best coverage, the most in-depth information, and the most recent video of the Olympic games in action.

I decided to take a look at what exactly Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask are serving up to Olympic searchers, and determine which search engine gets the gold. Let the games begin!

Ask

When searching for Olympics on Ask, the first result is the official Beijing 2008 Olympics website. Included beneath this link is a helpful drop-down list where you can refine your search by sport. From this list select a sport, such as beach volleyball, and you get TV listings for when and on what channel your sport is being aired.

Back to the first search result page. Ask also provides links pointing to event schedule, medal count and upcoming Olympics. On the right hand side of this page you can find images of Olympic medal winners. There are also links to news articles and a link to an encyclopedia definition of "Olympic Games" that takes you to a Wikipedia page.

Yahoo!

Searching for Olympics in Yahoo! reveals a variety of results, including a link to the official Olympics web site and to the Beijing Olympics page of Yahoo! Sports. There you can get up-to-date coverage on athletes, different sporting events, and shortcuts to the current medal count, news coverage, and videos. Currently, Yahoo! Sports provides about 350 different videos about the Olympics, the first displaying some very enthusiastic fans and a story covering ticket scalpers.

Yahoo's homepage also displays some news stories under the Featured tab, and, at times, some pretty interesting Olympic oriented graphics around its logo.

Google

While Google's logo has been covered in cartoon animals posing as Olympic athletes (monkey gymnasts, diving pigs, and a slam dunking Chinese dragon), the results returned from an Olympics query are a bit more reflexive of what is going on in Beijing right now.

Google offers a current medal count right on the results page, as well as a PPC link to Google's Olympic homepage, which includes a link at the top of the page to a Google gadget. The gadget allows you to keep track of Olympic events, medal counts, and news via your iGoogle homepage.

Google also offers Olympic coverage through a YouTube Summer Games channel featuring news, recaps, and different aspects of Beijing. And to round it all out, Google also offers a mobile site: m.google.com.

Back to Google.com. Searching for one sport in particular? Simply type it into the query box (you may need to include the Olympics qualifier) and Google will return the score of the most recent game.

MSN Live Search

Before even performing a search MSN's Live Search greets you with a photo of a recent Olympic event. Today it's baseball. Beneath the photo is a link to recent news articles outlining up-to-date wins and feature stories about athletes like Michael Phelps. Above the fold on the same page is a selection of videos. Hovering your mouse over the thumbnails gives you a preview of each video. Judges may deduct points due to duplicate video clips, but all of this is available before you even search for Olympics.

Back to the Live Search homepage. After searching for Olympics, Microsoft provides a medal count table along with updated Olympic information through a partnership with NBC. Links to NBCOlympics.com are sprinkled in the results. Clicking over to the NBC site, you can find a complete listing of the medal standings.

And the Gold Medal goes to...

In my opinion, the search engine that displays the most information and provides the easiest access to medal coverage, videos, and news articles is Live Search.

However, I do believe Google gets a very close Silver Medal due to the variance in its results and the different outlets the engine offers to track and keep up with Olympic events.

Please feel free to submit your judge's ruling!

Tags
Olympics
Beijing
Oneupweb

Keyword Density of Search Marketing Blogs

Posted by duncan on August 14, 2008 at 09:10 AM

Today we'll take a unique look at the recent hot topics in Oneupweb's StraightUpSearch blog. Using a tool called Wordle we'll get a word cloud visual representation of the words used most often on the current StraightUpSearch homepage. Take a look at the image below. Pretty cool stuff.

I need to give a shout out to Lee Odden for bringing this to our attention. Lee recently featured Wordle in his TopRank blog. His post looks at some other highly visited search engine marketing blogs: Word Visualization on Search Marketing Blogs.

StraightUpSearch and other top search marketing blogs have high keyword density on search marketing and social marketing terminology. I am pleased to see many current events listed in the StraightUpSearch blog as well. Words pop out related to the Olympics and the Presidential race.

Spend a minute looking at our results and those in Odden's. Drop us a comment about the trends most apparent to you, or whatever else strikes you.

Thank you Wordle for giving us an out-of-the-box way of looking at ourselves in the mirror.

Tags
Wordle
Word Cloud
Oneupweb

Oneupweb Climbs Website Magazine's Top 50 List

Posted by keirsun on August 13, 2008 at 03:11 PM

Once in awhile we like to engage in a little shameless self promotion around here. Last month we announced a couple of industry awards that our fearless leader recently received.

Today I would like to point you in the direction of the Top 50 SEO Firms and Resources, as listed in the August issue of Website Magazine.

We're honored to see our website, OneUpWeb.com, sitting pretty at #10.

We've worked hard over the past 12 years to stay on top of this ever-changing industry - and we have always been delighted to share our online marketing knowledge in the form of white papers, collateral, podcasts, and more.

Looking for a digital marketing agency to help with your online promotions? Contact Oneupweb via our website or give us a call: 877.568.7477.

And a special thanks to the publishers of Website Magazine for acknowledging our hard work.

Tags
SEO
Website Magazine
Oneupweb

Olympia Omega O My!

Posted by leah on August 12, 2008 at 05:11 PM

The triumphant horns of the Olympic theme song blared through an estimated 1 billion homes during the opening ceremonies of the XXIX Olympiad this past weekend; that's nearly 15% of the world.

Some of the world's biggest companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Omega Watches, Kodak, Visa, and NBC Universal are sponsoring this monumental event.

With Pay-Per-Click advertising, it's easy to become part of the 'team.' PPC provides the advantage of distributing a controlled message in a timely manner. Utilizing PPC, advertisers can promote time sensitive specials or push unique aspects of their business at different times of the year, or decade for that matter.

Let's use Omega Watches as an example. Omega has been the Olympics' 'Official Timekeeper' for 23 Olympic Games, the first being 1932's Los Angeles games.

All weekend I had on NBC in the background and noticed a myriad of Omega commercials and logos, which seemed to be plastered all over Beijing. One of my clients happens to sell Omega watches, and in order to become part of the 'team' I created at least one ad in every ad group that mentions Omega being the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games.

Taking advantage of Omega's increased brand awareness campaign during this time will only benefit my own client's Omega campaign.

Use this time (it all ends the 24th) to see how online consumers will search differently and, more importantly, for what products.

Go world!

Tags
Olympics
Omega
Oneupweb

Politics + New Media = Radical

Posted by grant on August 08, 2008 at 01:30 PM

Many people like reading blogs; it's a scientific fact. Look at you right now—you're reading a blog. See? Fact. The incorporation of new media in everyday life, including the use of social networking sites, is gaining momentum, a giant boulder of communication and display tumbling down the hill of the internet.

"What's that?" I hear you ask, "That is poppycock and balderdash! Only high-schoolers and lazy college folk use those new-fangled interweb sites! I've never even seen a camera phone! Where's my rotary telephonic device?" (Okay, so that's a bit of hyperbole, but bear with me.) Well then, do I have a surprise for you: not only do those youthful persons participate in new media, but a vast majority of everyone else is using them as well. This includes (are you ready?) Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain!

I recently performed several searches to track down the social media sites that these fellows are participating in. It turns out that both gentlemen have MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, Bebo and Facebook accounts, which makes perfect sense considering how MySpace and Facebook are the predominant social sites.

Here's the rundown:

The main difference between the two, however, lies in the fact that Obama also has a designated Flickr site and a Twitter, while McCain does not... yet. Regardless, each social network allows the candidates to share agendas, thoughts and updated campaign reports directly with their followers... and with anyone else who may end up voting for them.

It's encouraging to see such a large embrace of new media during this election, and only leaves one to wonder how things will be during the next one.

And speaking of Twitter and politics, did anyone follow Representative John Culberson's Twittercast last Friday? When Congress adjourned for their month-long vacation, they were dismissed before a vote could be cast, and this angered the Republicans. Soon many were on the floor, sans lights or microphones, giving impromptu speeches and calling tourists and others into the gallery. During this whole event Rep. Culberson kept updating his Twitter account, giving a live play-by-play for the whole thing, and even using his Blackberry to take live video and stream it via Qik. The buzz has been great for such a novel concept.

I highly recommend observing the impact new media has had on the political system; it's absolutely fascinating how these mediums can be used by politicians to promote their political ideals and even to just show the audience that they are normal people, too. Normal people with MySpace accounts.

Related StraightUpSearch blog posts:

Presidential Campaigns: Online & Everywhere

Memo to Hillary and Barack: YouTube Is a Two-Headed Beast

Democratic Debate - Capitalizing on Heated Exchanges

McCain Buys Hillary. Mitt Buys A Bunch. Others By Stand.

The 2008 Presidential Race Online & Personal

Tags
Politics
Twitter
Oneupweb

Google Has Enough Insight to Read My Mind

Posted by drew on August 07, 2008 at 03:00 PM

When I had my first taste of Google Trends, I liked it. Clear information, which Google has always excelled at, and helpful data to build paid search campaigns. Now, Google has copied Trends, given it some additional information, and relabeled as Google Insights.

Google Insights incorporates the geographic and trending information of Google Trends with related search terms and new data, titled Rising Searches, which shows a growing trend for a specific keyword.

I don't want to continue riding the privacy bandwagon from my last StraightUpSearch post, so I'm going to avoid that aspect completely. But, I can't help speculate on where Google gets this information from. Is it coming from Google Analytics or direct from users? Okay. I'm done with it.

My initial impression of Google Insights is that this is going to be pretty useful. Data manipulation using date ranges and locations will allow for some deep digging and targeted information. I like to usually jump in right away and see what these tools do, but Google itself is the real master here. I've learned to check out the examples Google provides first, as they tend to shed light on the really powerful features.

One set back with Insights is that Google still uses only an index and percentage to give you an idea of traffic levels. I can understand that they may not want to give those numbers out, as it would probably be more difficult to organize and present the data in a simplified manner.

Or is Google just playing hard-to-get? No, they are playing it safe. At the bottom of the Insights, it states the following:

Google Insights for Search aims to provide insights into broad search patterns. Several approximations are used to compute these results.

There is a different purpose here than most would hope for. Broad search patterns are still helpful, I guess. As search marketers though, we all hope for the tool that will give us the most accurate data.

Personally, I think Google should create a new division, similar to Google Analytics and Google AdWords, totally dedicated to search patterns and keyword research. I don't think they'll actually do this anytime soon, though. Google has always done whatever Google wants to do, and we'll have to wait patiently until then.

Image: Ghostboy

Tags
Google
Insights
Oneupweb

Google Sells Off Performics to French Company

Posted by keirsun on August 07, 2008 at 01:50 PM

It's been 4 months since Google announced it would sell Performics, a search engine marketing company that Google acquired during its purchase of DoubleClick.

Now, Google is ready to walk away with sales receipt in hand.

Google has announced that Performics will be sold to Publicis Groupe. Based in Paris, France, Publicis is the world's fourth largest communications group (according to its website).

According to the press release, "The acq