This week closes off the month of March and as usual there was lots of great news to read around the Search Marketing Industry:

• The Search Engine Marketing Advantage at the Search Engine Guide
  
• Studies: B-To-B Search Is Poised For Continued Growth - Search Engine Land
  
• Andy Beal Announces: Unlimited Yahoo Mail and Mobile YouTube Coming
  
• SEO Space: The Dangers of Blogging: The Kathy Sierra Story
  
• Optimizing Images for Long Tail Searches - SE Round Table
  
• Biznology Blog - Does Content Management Ruin Organic Search
  
• Google Apps Suffering Downtime; Refund Coming? - Nathan Weinberg
  
• RedFly Marketing Blog - SEO And PPC Should Be Friends
  
  

Labels: Industry News, SEM

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Labels: Industry News

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The SEM Industry is rapidly changing, this includes the search engines (their SERP algorithms and spiders), SEO Tactics, and SEM Strategies. Off the top of my head I have come up with 5 things that WILL NOT matter in SEM in the future and 5 things that marketers should stay on top of.

Things that WILL NOT matter:

• Meta Tags: Meta Tags, especially the keywords version, are already losing their importance. Meta Description is still often used to distinguish site pages but I believe both types of Meta Tags will continually lose their SEO value.
  
• Page Size: The majority of Internet users are already using high speed connections and this number will continually increase, therefore to some extent page size won't matter.
  
• JavaScript Code: Very often SEOs will recommend externalizing JavaScript or removing it from a site's main navigation, however with search spiders continually getting smarter I feel spiders will eventually be able to comprehend various types of complex JavaScript code.
  
• Location of Content: The higher up the content (within the page code) the better search engines and their spiders will like your site, correct? Maybe, but as I mentioned before spiders will get smarter and as long as you have good content, location won't matter anymore.
  
• Search Engine Ranking: With the introduction of personalized search are the days of ranking software numbered?....It's very possible. I have always felt that this metric is useless without traffic and conversion numbers attached to it.

Things that WILL matter:

• Website Messaging: As personalized search becomes more prominent it's the messaging of websites that will compel users to click through and remain on a given website. Website owners will really have work hard to build the perfect personas for their target market so they can lure visitors with the right messaging.
  
• Competitive landscape: Knowing your competition is always important but in the future it will be even more imperative. As visitors are presented with the results they prefer to see, website owners need to make sure their messaging and offerings are comparable to their competitors.
  
• Rich Media: Audio, Video, Podcasts, Flash and AJAX are continually getting more popular, I believe this trend will continue to rise and this type of content will eventually all be spiderable by search engines.
  
• Usability: Things like focus groups, A/B testing, Eye Tracking will be normal practices for all marketing professionals. If your site doesn't cut it, visitors will simply move to the next one.
  
• Widgets: Almost every website offers some type of widget because everyone loves widgets (they're great for link bait too). We'll see more interactivity with widgets and more widgets from Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Labels: SEM

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Earlier this month the JenSense Blog reported about Google Testing yellow background on sponsored ads above the search results.

Today I am noticing similar results (see/click image below). It's amazing how much more the top sponsored ads standout compared to the rest of the page. If Google plans on implementing this change globally I am curious to know what kind of performance increases websites will see when advertising in the top sponsored results. If the CTs increase significantly I imagine that Google could raise it's AdWords premiums and advertisers would still pay for them.

Labels: Google

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I think I have officially got my wife hooked on blogging. Earlier this year she started a blog called Aditi World and now she is always looking for tips and insight in order to grow her daily traffic numbers and subscribers. Every evening you can find us battling for use of the computer so we can update our respective blogs.

She's a great writer to begin with and with my assistance on the SEM side of things her blog is ranking quite well for a lot of phrases related to restaurants, cities, movie reviews and activities she has written about. She doesn't quite understand the way search engines index and rank sites therefore she is always curious on why her blog is not on the first page of the results for more generic keywords. Lately she's been leaving useful comments on other blogs and has been submitting her blog to various blog directories such as My Blog Log and Blog Catalog.

If you have been wanting to start your own blog and want to hit the ground running try implementing the following suggestions (I had my wife do all of these):

- Post to your Blog Often. The fresher your content is the more search engines spiders will visit your blog.
- Don't spam your Blog posts with the repetitive keywords
- If you want to see Search Engine Rankings consider a niche rather than a generic blog
- Become a part of communities in your niche (other blogs, forums)
- Sign up for a Google Alerts account you can find out when other bloggers post about the same topic. This will be useful in establishing relationships through commenting.
- Sign up for Technorati and also tag your content. Newer blogs should be patient with Technorati because it tends to update newer blogs slower then more authoritative ones.
- Use FeedBurner and offer subscriptions via email.
- Email your blog to your friends and family and have them pass it their contacts
- Have your significant other dedicate a post to you so you can receive more visitors and back links

Labels: Tips

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This news release ties in perfectly with my post on the Web Analytics Comparison Guide last week:

CMS Watch, a vendor-neutral analyst firm that evaluates content technologies, will release a new Web Analytics Report next month. The forthcoming report will sort through the complexities of selecting the right web analytics tool and will identify best practices for incorporating web analytics into broader enterprise marketing and communications investments.

Phil Kemelor serves as lead analyst for the report. "We don't just talk about features -- we look at technical architectures, data integration options, data collection methods, user administration functionality, and the multiple ways to view, slice, dice, and analyze website data." And he added, "Our planning methodology will not only enable customers to select the right vendor; it will set the blueprint for web analytics strategy going forward and help determine the right resources to ensure the success of the program."

The report closely examines 13 major Web Analytics vendors, including:

24/7
AuriQ
ClickTracks
Coremetrics
Fireclick
Google Analytics
Nedstat
Omniture
SageMetrics
Unica
Visual Sciences
WebSideStory
WebTrends

The report will be available on http://www.cmswatch.com/ in late April, 2007.

Labels: Web Analytics

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Labels: Interviews

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"Around the SEM World" is a new monthly series I am starting in which I will ask professionals around the SEM Industry their thoughts on the hottest topics during the given month. March's topic is all about personalized search and its effect on search engine marketing strategies. This month I asked Bill Slawski of SEO By the Sea and Li Evans from Search Marketing Gurus about their thoughts on SEM in relation to personalized search.

Bill Slawski: I think that ultimately personalized search is going to require site owners to know and understand the interests of their targeted customers better, learn about where they like to visit on the web, what communities they may belong to, how the site owners can get involved in those communities, and what will convince customers to become evangelists for a site. Search marketers can be an integral part in creating that conversation.

Search marketing should never just rely upon traffic from search engines, or rankings of a few strong keywords, regardless of personalization. Conversations with customers across the web, and business relationships with other sites that complement the offerings of a site will play a stronger role, and taking efforts to make a site a desired destination will payoff. Many more searches are informational in nature than transactional, and being perceived as a place to go to get honest and objective information can only help. Being seen as responsive to the interests of individuals, and willing to talk with them can be even more important.


Li Evans: Personalization on it’s own will have an “medium” affect on the industry in general – in all areas, PPC, SEO, Affiliate and even Social Media. Each will be affected in different ways, and some more than others. The major two being affected are PPC and SEO. As the search engines try to tailor what the searchers are really interested in clicking on, it’s going to become more evident that sites that have relevant content and ads are the sites they searchers are clicking on. Companies with websites, in my opinion, will need to focus on creative copy for ads, Title Tags and Meta Descriptions and actual relevant content on pages more than ever. It’s not only about what’s going to make those searchers not just click into their websites but if stay on the site and for how long.

I’m thinking some of the search engines might even start to measure “pogo sticking” (if they aren’t already) into this personalization mixture. If someone clicks on a link and it’s not relevant to their search, they click back within a second, that’s another signal to the search engines to personalize the search for that person because they are essentially saying, “hey don’t show me stuff like this again.” If you take into account, everything that Google’s doing in the past few months (personalization, affiliate marketing and possibly limiting PPC ads) it will become extremely important that websites are relevant to their users. By that I mean, not just a catchy title tag or copy in a ppc ad that gets you to click into a page full of ad links, but that the site’s got relevant content. However, focusing in on personalization alone as a “problem” isn’t wise for any SEO/SEM – a more holistic view of the market needs to be done to understand how it affects websites, and that’s what we as search professionals do best.


Both Bill and Li make excellent points and I agree that search marketers will really have to develop a strong understanding of their clients' target market so they can fine tune the website's messaging. Internet marketing is already initiated and driven by consumers, therefore with Search Engines giving the power to the hands of searchers it further strengthens this paradigm. It will also be very important for organizations to know their competitive landscape so that they can differentiate themselves from their competitors.


Personalized Search Resources

- Personalized Search Brouhaha
- Google Relaunches Personal Search - This Time, It Really Is Personal
- The Pros & Cons Of Personalized Search
- Your Google Search Results Are Personalized
- Search Personalization and SEO
- Cutts: Google Personalized Search to Get Bigger - to Black Hat SEOs' Chagrin
- Official Google Blog: Search gets personal
- iMedia Connection: Personalized Search
- Yahoo Launches Personalized Search

Labels: Industry News, Interviews, SEM

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My post mentioning 8 Reasons Why Google Finance is better than Yahoo Finance was recently featured in a WebProNews video, check it out below (it's mentioned in the last 30 seconds of the video)



Here's the link to the mp3 Version

Labels: Industry News

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Another week gone by, another great set of posts/articles to check out. Here are this week's must reads in Search Marketing:

• SE Round table reports 75% of Google's Blogspot Blogs are Spam (I can tell you that Web Analytics World is not part of that 75%)
  
• February Share Of Search Numbers Are In - SearchEngineWatch
  
• Read SEO Space for 37 Things To Keep in Mind When Writing Web Content
  
• Gord Hotchkiss writes about Google's personal home page skins, read: Googles Home Page Gets Skinned..and One Change of Note for SEOs
  
• AdSense add Checkout to Referral Products ProBlogger.net
  
• Top 10 Reasons why Web Analysts have Ulcers - Gary Angel
  
• SEO by the Sea - Searching Google on a Phone Without a Browser
  
• Avinash provides Analytics insight as usual: Excellent Analytics Tip #10: How Thick is Your Head and How Long is Your Tail?
  
• Ultimate Web Analytics Comparison Resources - Web Analytics World

On another note: Enquiro needs your help to learn more about how Business to Business Buying Decisions are made. Please take 25 minutes to complete this survey by clicking here: http://enquiroresearch.com/Research-Pre-Survey.html

Enter your email address at the end of the survey and your name will be entered in a draw for an Aluratek 500GB External USB Hard Drive

Labels: Industry News

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I am a financial analyst by no means but I do visit the Google and Yahoo finance sites from time to time to check out stock prices, latest dealings by a company and financial company information. Yesterday I was doing a quick comparison between Google and Yahoo Finance and found Google Finance to be my preference. Here are my top 8 reasons why I like Google Finance over Yahoo Finance.

For this post I compared EBay on Google and Yahoo Finance.

1) There are no graphical ads on Google Finance. Immediately when you arrive on the Yahoo Finance home page your eyes focus towards the bright advertisements for eTrade, AmeriTrade, etc... When I scroll further down I see a large square ad for Pillsbury brownies (as delicious as the brownies might be, the ad takes away from the page).

2) In Google Finance the most important data is displayed prominently. The current stock value and graph showing today's movement are the focus.

3) Google Finance's AJAX based chart is quick, simple and intuitive.

4) Google Finance's incorporation of the latest blog posts regarding the company. It's very interesting to read about the hottest topics from bloggers' perspective.

5) I enjoy reading about different company's executive teams (esp. their earnings) and it's nice that Google finance makes that available right on the home page.

6) Also available from the home page are a given company's financials: net income, profit, operating income, revenue, etc...

7) The ability to scroll through a company's latest news without refreshing the page.

8) Google makes its search box big and bold, while Yahoo's is small and tucked away. Yahoo's web search is actually more prominent than their finance search.

Labels: Google, Yahoo

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The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) has officially announced this year's board of directors.

Among the planned 2007 SEMPO initiatives are continuing to build the subscription audience for the SEMPO Institute online distance learning classes. The Institute launched its first series of classes earlier this year and response has been very enthusiastic, says Pruitt. The board officers will meet later in March to map out a plan to take the Institute to the next level of performance

Here are the 2007 SEMPO Board of Directors:

• Chairperson: Gord Hotchkiss, President and CEO, Enquiro Search Solutions, Inc
• President: Jeffrey Pruitt, Executive Vice President, iCrossing
• Vice President: Dave Williams, Chief Strategist and Co-Founder, 360i
• Treasurer: Dave Fall, Vice President, Product Management - Search Technology, DoubleClick, Inc.
• Secretary: Chris Boggs, Search Strategist, Avenue A Razorfish

Labels: Industry News

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OpenTracker
http://www.opentracker.net/en/features/features.jsp

ShinyStat
http://www.shinystat.com/en/features.html

StatCounter
http://www.statcounter.com/features/

VisiStat
http://www.visistat.com/pricing.php

WebTrends
http://www.webtrends.com/Products/WebTrendsAnalytics8/WebTrendsPackages/PackageMatrix.aspx?WT.svl=sbpkgcomp

NextStat
http://www.nextstat.com/feature_list.php

Unica - NetInsight
http://netinsight.unica.com/products/web_analytics.cfm


If this is not enough you can always purchase a copy of the Web Analytics Buyers Guide from Marketing Sherpa.

CMS Watch also offers a very comprehensive report detailing 15 web analytics vendors.

Labels: Web Analytics

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The changes significantly enhance PreFound’s alternative to traditional computer algorithm-based search results that aim to deliver more relevant results that are based on the previous searches that people have done and the sites they have found useful.

Labels: Industry News

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What is a Domainer?

A domainer is someone who earns a profit buying and selling domain names. The philosophy is similar to the stock market: buy low and sell high. Here are 28 tips, tools, techniques and financing options to get you started on your way to successful domaining.

The Aviva Directory has compiled very thorough list summarizing 28 tips on how to become successful at buying/selling domains. Their list starts off with some eye popping numbers by Marcus Frind and Yun Ye who were making $10,000 and $100,000 per day respectively.

The tips are divided up into 5 main categories:

- Domain Buying Strategies
- Financing Your Domaining
- Important Practices
- Techniques for Monetizing
- Tools for the Trade

Here is just a taste of the tips you'll find but you'll have to visit the Aviva Directory to get the entire list.

- Trademark Typo Domains.
One of the original domainer buying strategies was to hunt for any trademarked names that hadn’t yet been purchased, and failing that, to purchase typos of those domains.

- Trademark Typo Domains.
One of the original domainer buying strategies was to hunt for any trademarked names that hadn’t yet been purchased, and failing that, to purchase typos of those domains.

- Organize and auto-renew.
If you’re holding domains for longer than a year, it’s a very good idea to have them all set to auto-renew.

- Create traffic.
If you own domains that aren’t receiving a lot of type-in traffic, you may want to try to increase their value by getting them indexed into the search engines so that the eventual purchaser will find it easier to get the site to rank for relevant search engine results.

- Park and go.
While running your own PPC or adsense is the more lucrative solution, some domainers who are short on time or technical expertise choose to simply park domains at a service like Sedo.

Source: http://www.avivadirectory.com/domain/

Labels: Tips

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Early in February I started to notice my search referrals plummet, so I wrote a blog post asking if any one else had noticed simlar trends. A few people mentioned that a Google update was going on but nothing was concluded. I read an extremely useful post which explained that bloggers who upgraded to the latest version of Blogger also had receieved a new addition in their templates: A meta tag containing a No Index/No Follow attribute!!!

Obviously I removed the meta tag right there and then (Feb 21st) but the damage had been done. My search referrals were basically non existant, I had only a third of my pages indexed in Google and I was completely dropped from Google Blog Search. The graph below shows a exactly when I experienced the No Index/No Follow fiasco up until late last week when referrals went back to normal levels. Therefore it took about 2 weeks to recover completely. I also resubumitted to Google Blog Search, Google, and Google Sitemaps to help expedite the process.



On a related note, here are some tips to Sustain Traffic While Search Engines Update.

Labels: Google

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If you manage or own a small SEO company and are looking for a simple and cost effective way to gather keyword rankings for your clients, I would recommend using CleverStats' Google Monitoring Tool. It's doesn't cost anything and takes seconds to set up.

Some of the main features provided by their Google Monitoring Tool include:

- Can work through a proxy
- Exports results to CSV
- Imports keywords from a text file
- Can work through the Google Web API (the SOAP based version)
- Allows users to adds notes (useful for noting dates for Google algorithm changes or data refreshes)

The feature I liked the most about the ranking software was that once it returned the rankings for a URL and set of keywords, it also displayed the top competitors for the number of results you selected it to show. This allows for an SEM consultant to quickly identify how their clients' websites are doing versus its top competitors and also identifies new competitors in the landscape.

It is a free tool but I wish it had the ability to predefine competitor URLs so users don't manually have to locate them in the results list. I also think that the addition of historical ranking analysis would be a nice feature. Then again, how much can you expect from a free tool?

This post is a Sponsored Review.

Labels: Google

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Another busy week in SEM over and of course there were so many great articles/posts to read, here are some ones worth bookmarking

- The StepForth SEO Blog: How to Reduce the Pain of Switching Domains

- Bloggers Face-Off: Rand Fishkin vs. Lee Odden at the Daily Tips Blog

- Read Microsoft Buys TellMe Networks @ SearchViews

- Shari Thurow Talking Smack about Eye Tracking? OutofMyGord.com

- Google Tests New AdSense Logo Format Once Again - SE Round Table

- SEOSpace: Can You Say MySpace News?

- The Unofficial SEO Blog: Viacom Sues Google, Seeks $1 Billion In Damages

- EarnersForum Contest and Elite Retreat Pass Giveaway - Modern SEO Blog

- Beanstalk's SEO News Blog: Search Engine Saturation Tool Launched

- The Duplicate Content Penalty Myth - SearchEngineLand

Labels: Must Reads

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Labels: Interviews, Web Analytics

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Interested in getting your hands dirty with some real Web Analytics/SEM opportunities? Here are a few of the latest postings from the Web Analytics Association.

Manager, Media Optimization and Technology
Company: Digitas
Location: Boston, MA
Contact: Mariela Orochena (646) 735-7364
Description: The agencies of Digitas Inc. help blue-chip global brands develop, engage and profit from their customers through digital, direct and indirect relationships. Driving accountable and measurable... Job Info Cont.


Technical Analyst / Web Analytics
Company: Vision Technology Services
Location: Baltimore Maryland
Contact: Thomas Snyder 410-560-1444 EXT 314
Description: POSITION DESCRIPTION: PRIOR EXPERIENCE WITH WEB ANALYTICS AND WEB REPORTING IS ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED. This is a technial Business Analyst position. MUST have the ability to understand how website... Job Info Cont.


Manager, Business Intelligence
Company: Saks Fifth Avenue
Location: New York City
Contact: Catherine Cipollone (212) 451-3563
Description: Manager, Business Intelligence, Saks Fifth Avenue The saks.com Business Intelligence team seeks a Manager. The role will report to the Director, Business Intelligence and will... Job Info Cont.


Manager of Customer Analytics
Company: VistaPrint
Location: Lexington, Ma, USA
Contact: Linda Goodspeed (781) 734-2469
Description: Manager of Customer Analytics You’re analytical and data driven. You could be our next Manager of Customer Analytics. You will perform detailed customer analyses to help define manageable... Job Info Cont.

Labels: Web Analytics

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SponsoredReviews.com is now in service! This pay per review service is targeted towards both advertisers and bloggers.

If bloggers can write reviews using honesty and integrity (which I hope they do) I believe this Sponsored Reviews service has a chance to succeed and prosper, otherwise we could end up with a lot of inaccurate content. Here's how it works:

Bloggers in almost any niche can review and bid on various opportunities created by advertisers. After a review has been approved by the advertiser, bloggers earn money for their work. Bloggers can also market themselves through profiles they setup. There are a few guidelines that bloggers do have to follow:

- Reviews must be written according to the terms set by the advertiser.
- Constructive criticism is encouraged, however, reviews that are hateful or non-constructive will not be accepted.
- Reviews must be permanent and archived.
- Disclosure that the review is sponsored is mandatory

If you're an advertiser looking for an effective way to generate buzz for your website or product, this is a great option to develop brand/awareness, drive traffic and market your organization. Advertisers can post opportunities for relevant bloggers to find or search for and purchase reviews from selected bloggers.

One thing I would like to see implemented better by SponsoredReviews.com is a more accurate grading scale for bloggers. Currently they use: Alexa, Link Popularity and Technorati to formulate a score from 1 to 5. I would like to see the scale expanded to 1 to 10 or 1 to 100 as well as have them integrate metrics such as subscribers and Google PageRank.

This post is a Sponsored Review.

Labels: Blogging

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