Lack of coordination between your search and affiliate marketing efforts can create internal revenue wars. Keywords that contain your brand are extremely valuable both because conversion rates are typically higher due to the high relevance between queries using brand terms and search results, and costs-per-click are often less expensive than those for generic keywords. Your […]
I’ll be live blogging Day 2 of the Directional Media Strategies 2010 (#DMS2010) conference here, starting at about 8:30 AM, CST, September 15. (See Day 1 and Day 3 here.) —————————————————————————————- (Sorry – started late due to large traffic jammage on the tollway) DMS ’10 Spotlight: The ‘Deal a Day’ Phenomenon Perry Evans of Closely […]
I’m at Twitter HQ in San Francisco eating cheese and guacamole in anticipation of the announcement. No one will talk but TechCrunch has reported that it’s video and inline images. I’ll make an attempt at live blogging, though I don’t like it much. The room is full of press. Ev Williams and Biz Stone have […]
Google’s gained quite a reputation for surprising attendees at conferences with an “Oprah” moment of giving them free Android phones. But phones, that’s so last year. With Google TV about to launch, Google’s upped the giveaway ante — handing out Google TV units for attendees at its Google Zeitgeist conference. Zeitgeist is billed as Google’s […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How To Make Paid Social Media Ads Effective And Engaging While advertising on social media makes sense for advertisers, the owners of ‘free’ sites like Twitter and Facebook still need to […]
While advertising on social media makes sense for advertisers, the owners of ‘free’ sites like Twitter and Facebook still need to make money. Ad banners have been the answer for many social media sites for a long time. However, banner blindness has created a large problem for advertisers since they are paying for impressions, but […]
One of the tactics I use to generate new links is to review a site’s stats and create a media promotion based on the trends I find. This strategy is not an easy, turn-key linking program but if you’re serious about growing your business as well as your links, it’s one of the best ways to attract […]
I’m live blogging portions of the Directional Media Strategies 2010 conference beginning today shortly after noon at 12:30pm, CST. So, check back here as I provide ongoing updates — I’m going to see how well I may be able to keep up with the stream, so long as my hands hold up! Keep refreshing the […]
According to Nielsen data out this morning Microsoft’s Bing has passed Yahoo to become the number two search engine in the US. Nielsen says that Google’s August share is 65% (and growth is flat) but that Bing and Yahoo have now switched places: Although Google saw little change in its month-over-month search volume, it still […]
Google is the dominant force in Europe—there is no other search engine which even comes close to Google’s market share. As I wrote in my last article, Europe could use some competition for Google. Bing should be the designated search engine to become that big competitor, but for now that is not the case. Despite […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: QR Codes: Are You Ready For Paper-Based Hyperlinks? You’ve probably seen them in newspapers, magazines or other paper-based publications: two-dimensional bar codes, called quick response codes (QR codes). What are they? […]
You’ve probably seen them in newspapers, magazines or other paper-based publications: two-dimensional bar codes, called quick response codes (QR codes). What are they? They have been described as paper-based hyperlinks, and this is a good description. You simply take a picture of a QR code with your smart phone, and you get redirected to a […]
Almost all Google AdWords advertisers know that bidding on some keywords are off limits. One of those keywords is [google] and typically you won’t see any ads for a search containing the word [google], unless the ad is from Google. However, recently Google has allowed an anti-Google ad to be shown. CNet reports the consumer […]
Google introduced new SEO specific attributes for handling multi-lingual pages and content. The new attributes are rel=”alternate” and hreflang=”x”. It looks something like this when used in the source code of your files: <link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”a-different-language” href=”https://url-of-the-different-language-page” /> Google says it should be used when (1) template (i.e. side navigation, footer) is machine-translated into various […]
Like it or not, lots of people search for nude celebrities on Google. But with Google’s new Google Instant Search, those inclined to seek celebs in the buff have to figure out their queries without any help from Google. The same is true for those interested in nude beaches, famous nude artwork or “innocent” topics […]
Increased demand for local data, and with technologists who recognize a need for an authoritative local information database, suggest that we’ll soon see a landgrab for ownership of local data. A Techcrunch article in April articulated the Zeitgeist surrounding a local “database of places”, exciting a lot of talk around the subject. As many players […]
We’ve all seen “virtual tours” of open houses on real-estate sites. What if every location, every restaurant, store, museum, theme park ride and airport had a virtual tour on Google Maps? In three or four years that may be the case as a result of the acquisition of an Israeli company called MentorWave Technologies (or […]
If you're a Google advertiser, or use Google Analytics, you may be inadvertently violating some of their privacy policies. When I examined more than 200 sites I found that more than 90% were violating at least one Google privacy policy. Are you?
Building links for a well known brand site that already has 100,000+ links (or even one million plus links) is an interesting challenge. If your site has that many links, chances are that your competitors have a lot as well. When your link building challenge is this big, you need to think about the problem […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Instant And The Power Of Suggestion It’s going to be a long time (weeks or months) until anyone has a complete understanding of how Google Instant will change search and […]
It’s going to be a long time (weeks or months) until anyone has a complete understanding of how Google Instant will change search and search marketing. The change Google has made isn’t just to the user interface. They’ve changed how search works by dramatically increasing the power of Google Suggestions. And most importantly they’ve changed […]
In January, I was invited to speak to Google’s search quality team about issues I had with Google’s search results. My topic? For queries where I know a subject really well, I often found Google provided some pretty poor results in the top listings along with the good ones. I wanted more perfection! With the […]
On December 20th, a federal judge in the Bay Area will be asked to approve an $8.5 million settlement between Google and several Gmail users who sued earlier this year over the way Google Buzz was launched in February. If it’s approved, the case will become a class action, Gmail users in the U.S. will […]
Pardon the baseball metaphor but it seemed appropriate: the impending debut of Windows Phones (Windows Mobile 7) is a very high stakes moment for Microsoft, especially in the wake of Kin’s recent failure. Redmond is now poised to spend a great deal of money to promote the new mobile OS in a highly competitive environment […]
Yesterday morning Citi analyst Mark Mahaney put out a research note with comScore data that showed Facebook had passed Google in terms of time spent online. Mahaney observed: Looking at % of Total Time Spent by the top 5 sites in August, Facebook, for the first time took the top spot with 41.1B minutes followed […]
As search marketers, we are often asked to look at multi-dimensional data. This is often cumbersome, boring and overwhelming to go through. Take a look at this example from a campaign that’s running in multiple cities in the US: The CPA in Boston is high and it appears to be due to the conversion […]
A new tactic to get web site traffic I’ve seen lately is to make a drastic change that will create a buzz. Whether a web site undergoes a complete redesign or removes a previous function, we know that no matter what the change is, some people are going to hate it. Several of them will […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Launches AdWords Help Site For Small Business Google has announced a new website aimed at offering tips and advice for small business owners that use AdWords. It’s called the AdWords […]
Google has announced a new website aimed at offering tips and advice for small business owners that use AdWords. It’s called the AdWords Small Business Center. It offers tips in several aspects of the AdWords system — like “Write great ads” and “Adjust bids and budgets” — and the content is divided into Beginner, Intermediate, […]
After years of refusing the “portal” label, it seems that Google has finally had a change of mind. Google’s new attitude is evident on its Our Philosophy – Ten things we know to be true page. As Eric Goldman points out, that page has changed: On June 3, 2004 (per archive.org), the page said “Google […]
Repeat after me, then repeat again: success with paid search requires an always testing mindset. Why is this so important? I think that most of all, it is a continuous reminder that the difference between great search engine marketers and just good ones is that the great ones are always trying to get more efficiency […]
If you thought instant search suggestions and results was fun, get a load of this: At Yahoo Taiwan and Yahoo Hong Kong, searchers can handwrite their search queries and Yahoo will try to match the handwriting to letters, and then show suggested searches. It’s all described in this Yahoo blog post, complete with screenshots showing […]
Google’s press conference about Google Instant hadn’t even ended yesterday when the question of “is SEO dead” started coming up on Twitter, in blog posts and was even asked about formally during the event’s Q&A (the answer was no, twice over, by the way). No, Google Instant isn’t killing SEO. In fact, nothing’s going to […]
It’s been 10+ days since Google added ‘domain stacking’ or ‘brand stacking’ to their algorithm. In case you don’t know what brand stacking is: Go to Google. Do a search for ESPN basketball. I see six results from espn.go.com. Use a proxy to search for ‘Trek bikes’, and you’ll see six results from www.trekbikes.com. Note: […]
Google’s Instant Search might be a “fundamental shift in search,” as described yesterday by Marissa Mayer, but it’s certainly not new. Yahoo Instant Search On September 15, 2005, Yahoo launched an innovative search tool called Yahoo Instant Search. It was available at instant.search.yahoo.com, but that URL leads to a 404 page now. Danny Sullivan wrote […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Instant Search: The Complete User’s Guide Google Instant promises to change the way people search. Speaking at today’s announcement, Google’s Marissa Mayer called it a “fundamental shift in search.” As […]
Google Instant promises to change the way people search. Speaking at today’s announcement, Google’s Marissa Mayer called it a “fundamental shift in search.” As with any big Google announcement, there are questions: Who can use Google Instant? Can I opt out or turn off Google Instant? Why am I not seeing it when I do […]
From a paid search perspective, the first impression of Google Instant is alarming. On September 8, Google announced Google Instant. This new feature uses a predicated query technique to establish the user’s intent. Although part of me finds Google Instant really intriguing, as a paid search marketer I have my concerns, despite Google’s assurance that […]
Google’s holding a highly anticipated “can’t miss” press event today. The news? Perhaps the new results-as-you-type your search feature that started showing today. Perhaps something else. We’ll know at 9:30am Pacific Time today, when the event gets underway. Stay tuned for live blogging. UPDATE: For more, see our article, Google Instant: The Complete User’s Guide. […]
Many search marketers have experimented with call tracking and measurement as a way to capture online-to-offline consumer activity and determine which ads and campaigns are generating calls. But there has also been debate about whether unique phone numbers required by call tracking harms SEO especially for local advertisers. Some new developments in the field make […]