SEO Blog

SEO resources Mar 3

2009-03-02T22:51:00.001-08:00

Free Cyprus GPS Map

Copyrights and the Internet Make for a Very Odd Couple

The Internet content economy is like the candy rack when you were a kid. You know what I mean. You covet that bag of Skittles but you’re caught a little short on funds that day. So to feed your candy habit you sneak a bag out of the store. You know you broke the law [...]

How Much of YOUR PageRank Are You Wasting on Twitter?

Itty bitty whinge about Twitter being a complete waste of time.

Marketing News Roundup, March 2

It’s Monday (okay, well, Tuesday by the time you’re reading this), there’s a lot of news out there. To keep you on top of it all, we’re rounding up all those loose bits and putting them here. Have you heard of this little thing called “Twitter”? Yeah, this link isn’t about that. But [...]

Hugo Guzman: Deconstructing the Google 'Brand?' Algorithm

Hugo Guzman riffs on the recent Google algorithm update.

Breaking: Microsoft Leaked Memo Suggests Live Search Rebranding as Kumo.com

UPDATE: Is this a re-brand of Live Search to Kumo or is Kumo just being used as a staging site? It seems that if Microsoft just wanted to tes t a new interface, it could do that without using the Kumo brand. Still, we’ve put in a request for an official response from Microsoft and will [...]

SES New York Liveblog Schedule, SEO Training & Special Events

Search Engine Strategies New York is three weeks away but my excitement has already arrived! I've been checking out the agenda and whoo-ee there are some awesome search marketing sessions ahead.

I always enjoy getting a behind-the-scenes sneak peak of sessions. For me, this usually happens in the form of Q&A posts, like when I spoke to Debra Mastaler, Greg Jarboe and John Marshall before SES London. But this time SES is hosting an exclusive preview of social marketing genius Guy Kawasaki's keynote presentation via webcast. Yup, this Friday, March 6, anyone can tune in to Guy and Matt McGowan sharing their social marketing brilliance by simply registering for the free event.

Another exciting feature of SES New York is going to be Bruce Clay, Inc.'s SEO training course on Fr iday, March 27. It's a foundational, hands-on SEO workshop that complements the week of sessions and kicks your Internet marketing knowledge into high gear.

Of course, if you aren't able to attend the show, or if you've already registered and are planning your schedule, it may help to know what sessions will be reported here on the blog.

Tuesday, March 24

9:00 a.m. - Opening Keynote by Guy Kawasaki: Twitter as a Tool for Social Media 10:30 a.m. - Entrepreneurs and C-Suite Executives: A Fast-Track to Search Marketing Fluency 11:45 a.m. - Survival of the Fittest 2.0 1:45 p.m. - Beyond Googling: Where Will Your Customers Be Searching in Five Years? 3:00 p.m. - Advanced SEO Strategies: Integrating Analytics, Usability, Persuasion and Journalism 4:30 p.m. - Getting Mobilized! Mobile Marketing Strategies

Wednesday, March 25

9:00 a.m. - Small Voices, Big Impact: Social Media for the Little Guy 10:45 a.m. - Advanced B2B 1:00 p.m. - Orion Panel: The State of Search - A Maturing Marketplace or Poised for More Growth? 2:15 p.m. - Slash Your Search Budget: What Are Your Alternatives? 4:00 p.m. - Dealing With Affiliates: A Roadmap to Success

Thursday, March 26

9:00 a.m. - Morning Keynote: John Gerzema, Author of The Brand Bubble 10:30 a.m. - An Update on Social Media Optimization 12:45 p.m. - News Search SEO 2:15 p.m. - Independent SEM/SEOs: Issues & Answers 3:45 p.m. - Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: Black Hat PPC Tactics

Session rooms aren't the only places I'll be during the conference. I'm planning an episode of SEM Synergy from SES New York that I think will be great. And, as always, the Internet Marketers Charity Party will be a blast of good will that I refuse to miss. Is there anything else happening during SES New York that you're looking forward to? As for me, I can't wait to see everyone there!

ECommerce Search Marketing Tactics

The session on search marketing tactics served up a strong panel of speakers. As a result a range of interesting ideas were addressed from common sense optimization tips, to leveraging shopping feeds . . . and even Twitter. Ethan Griffin – Groove Commerce First up Ethan’s shared some ECommerce optimization tips with the audience, which included some [...]

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 2, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

How Salesmanship Can be Undermined by Competency & Expertise

Salesmanship can be counter-intuitive, largely because some of the best experts got to their level of knowledge by constantly questioning their own assumptions...which can appear wishy-washy to the uninformed.

Email Spammers Turn to Recession-Based Search Engine Spam

A new form of email spam has surfaced, but this time with a recession twist. The email message focuses on the recession, but they are now including search engine links to trick your spam filters. According to MediaPost, the links included in the email don’t redirect to the spammer’s Web site, nor do the links [...]

PRLeap Embeds Press Release on Blogs

Last year PRLeap added social features to t heir press releases. Last week they added a new feature called PRTube. It’s like YouTube for press releases. You can embed a viewer to display PRLeap press release on your blog, web site, etc. This is a great addition. I only wish you could resize the viewer - [...]

Social Media Marketing Tops Digital Marketing Tactics for 2009

With concerns over the recession and its impact on marketing, we decided to run a TopRank Reader Poll to discover reader (and their networks) preferences for digital marketing tactics in 2009. Companies world-wide are cutting costs as well as looking for creative, high impact and accountable marketing. Our amazing readers both on Online Marketing Blog [...]

Twitter Has a Business Model, Just Won't Tell Us What it is!

Lots of interesting buzz surrounding Twitter today. First, there’s public confirmation that Facebook did indeed attempt to acquire Twitter, but the deal stumbled because it would have been based on Facebook’s valuation–something that no one can seem to agree on. And apparently Twitter wasn’t bluffing. One of the company’s investors has revealed that Twitter could go it [...]

Putting Your Landing Pages to Work

Landing pages are among the hard est-working documents you ll ever write. Your landing page should not just inform visitors about what you re selling it needs to convince them to convert while at the same time give them enough information to feel good about their decision. So it must instill trust as well as persuade and inform. Keep reading to find out how.... DOWNLOAD XCELSIUS ENGAGE 2008 - FREE Transform your data into visually stunning dashboards, calculators, forecast reports, and more!

Skittles Twitter Experiment I Call it a Win for Skittles

In case you missed it, the official skittles website located at Skittles.com last night redirected their entire homepage to a twitter search for the term [skittles]. I applaud their effort to embrace bold new ideas but their execution leaves a lot to be desired. I thought I’d run through some of them in hopes some [...]

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant.

Skittles Twitter Experiment I Call it a Win for Skittles

Win a Date With Chris HooleyThat’s right you can win a evening with Mr. Thinkbait,...
Blackhat Method for Increasing Your Twitter FollowersWhen I started my new website ViralConversations.com, I also started...
Conducting a Real Time Google Experiment on 7/30/2008I’m going to be doing some real time experiments on...

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Twitterbook? How Facebook's Attempt at a Twitter Takeover Failed

In a BusinessWeek article takes us on the journey of how one monster of social media tried to swallow an up and comer but didn't quite have what it takes. One of Facebook's directors and largest investors, Peter Thiel, tells the magazine about the apparent misadventures in trying to get a deal done with the folks [...]

5 Search Topics You Need to Discuss with Your Client

Knowing how to talk about these topics will improve your client communication and help foster more effective and rewarding business relationships. After all, search marketers are communicators first, listening to our clients' needs and describing crucial opportunities. ...

Google Delays Payments To Publishers Yet Another Month

Since early January, AdSense publishers have been complaining that they have not received payment in multiple months. In fact, Google confirmed the issue and said they are "taking this issue seriously." In early February, Google promised those delays will stop...

European Google AdSense Publishers Not Happy About Exchange Rate

The exchange rate and how it plays in the Google AdSense space for non-USA based publishers is a big deal, especially these days. We cover it often enough, including times where Google outright made huge mistakes and when the rates...

Not Ranking? Change Your Name Says French Town Mayor

French town of Eu to change name because of Google searches from the Telegraph is getting a lot of attention. In short, a town named Eu is considering changing their name, because they feel they have a hard time ranking...

Google March 2009 PageRank Update or Glitch?

Over the weekend, I have seen tons and tons of threads in several forums with webmasters and SEOs complaining that their PageRank score in the Google Toolbar took a dive. I will just list two threads, because I cannot list...

Local Search 101, Part 1

Are you looking to venture beyond the printed yellow pages? You should be. As the economy opens the door of opportunity for many people who have lost their jobs, more small businesses are turning to local search. ...

IM Charity Party Comes Back to SES New York - March 23rd

Search Engine Strategies is just three weeks away now and that means the IM Charity Party will be raising funds for those in need. The party will take place at Heartland Brewery in Union Square, New York. It happens on...

Why You Should Be Worried About Google Search Wiki

I’ve been beating the drum about why personaized search and google’s search wiki are bad since their rollout. Even though I understand why google does it, and get that why they push it’s adoption. But I still think it’s a bad idea, and late last week I saw an example of why it’s bad and [...]

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant.

Why You Should Be Worried About Google Search Wiki

Google Search Wiki - Like Forcing You To Eat The Heart of a Live CobraLast week Google announced the release of a new project...
Google SERP for Wiki JackingBoy it sure is a good thing we have wikipedia...
Let’s try some Wiki JackingLet’s try some wiki-jacking Matt Cutts Marissa Mayer Eric Schmidt...

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SEO resources Mar 2

2009-03-02T01:10:00.001-08:00

Free Music Video Codes and Playlists

Papers Fold and People Distrust Blogs. What To Do?

Last week was a rough one for the newspaper industry. The 150 year old Rocky Mountain News of Denver closed shop and New York's Newsday announced it was starting an online paid model despite the fact that the average person spend just 4 minutes and 25 seconds per month on the their website. Not the [...]

SEO Book Competitive Research Tool Review

We created a free tutorial video showing you some of the cool things you can do with our competitive research tool.

SEO resources Feb 28

2009-02-28T14:48:00.001-08:00

Free Cyprus GPS Map

Thanks to this Months Sponsors - February 2009

I’d like to say thanks to the people who sponsored the blog this month, without them there wouldn’t be regular posts here. Text Link Ads - New customers can get $100 in free text links. CrazyEgg.com - Supplement your analytics with action information from click tracking heat maps. EDU Text Links - EDU Links in content on hosted [...]

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant.

Thanks to this Months Sponsors - February 2009

Rot-13 and GoogleYou know one of the things that really gets my...
A Look at Coste.netThere’s a thread over at Digg.com where Steve of Coste.net...
Google is a BullyThe more and more I look at what Google is...

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New Report S hows Decline for PPC Advertising in Q1

By Peter Young The first part of 2009 has been interesting, very interesting. The global recession shows no current signs of recovery in the short term, and much of this has been reflected in advertising budgets worldwide. In particular, the retail sector has been one of the hardest hit, and this has been reflected in Rimm-Kaufman’s [...]

Friday Recap - Under the Sea Edition

We've made it back around to Friday again! Time to unwind from your stressful work week. How about a moment of Zen to put you into weekend mode?

Flying from Sam Fuller on Vimeo.

Now that your blood pressure is down to healthy levels, let's see if I can't get you a little excited, shall we?

Image found on The Daily What

Last week's TOS gaffe by Facebook saw a move toward resolution as the social network opened its terms to user input. You can find liveblog coverage of Facebook's privacy-themed press conference on CNET.

Discount airline Ryanair flummoxed the Internet community with its employees' defensive posturing and attacks on bloggers. Not content with that bad press, the airline's CEO announced that the company may begin charging passengers to use on-board toilets. [Pretty sure they later said that one was just someone blowing off steam. --Susan]

Also riling up the blogosphere, streaming music site Last.fm had harsh words for Techcrunch after the tech blog reported Last.fm was the source of the new U2 album leak. Andy Beal helped us take a lesson away from the madness by pointing out how to host a conversation when under attack.

I guess none of those companies prescribe to my personal method of problem solving. Get grandma to hit 'em over the head with a sauce pan! Does the trick every time.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

This week the big news in the search industry was Google's latest major update. Uncovered by SEO Book's Aaron Wall, it appears that big brands are getting a boost in rankings. You can find more of that conversation on Sphinn. On the Outspoken Media blog, Lisa Barone broadens the brand conversation with a great interview of branding master ShoeMoney.

Ask.com joined the big three search engines by recognizing the canonical tag. Marketing Pilgrim reported that Microsoft is still hopeful that in the near future we'll be looking at two big search engines once a merger with Yahoo's search business goes through. Yahoo has been mum about any such deal, but on the paid search front, the search engine is lower bids.

Bringing up a paid search principle that isn't often discussed, Search Engine Land columnist Josh Dreller reminds us of the point of diminishing returns. Also this week, researchers shared findings that paid search ads may not be getting as many clicks as we thought. On Web Marketing Today, search marketer Kate Morris talks to Ralph W ilson about how to track PPC conversions in a brief video interview. And according to Danny Sullivan, Yahoo and Google have been gradually restricting advertisers' rights. Yikes!

Meanwhile, Google said sorry for Gmail outages, and executive director of the search giant's philanthropic branch stepped down as the dot-org prepares for a shift. The search engine may also be getting a little to pushy with its search suggestions. [I can't wait for my similar apology from Time Warner for its terrible service recently. And my reduced bill as a result.--Susan]

In browser news, Apple released Safari 4 in beta. According to Teifion Jordan's, the upgrade is not much different than previous versions. What few changes he did see seem to be borrowed from Opera.

Where my SOSGs at?

I usually find lists of the "most valuable blogs" to be unoriginal, but 24/7 Wall St.'s < a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://247wallst.com/2009/02/23/the-twenty-five-most-valuable-blogs/">Twenty Five Most Valuable Blogs was spot on. Also worth your while, David Harry, aka the Gypsy, announced that he was launching the SEO Geeks Newsletter next Monday.

Moving on to the social realm, Greg Finn of 10e20 spelled out why your social news linkbait could be missing the mark. Tim Nash at Collective Thoughts describes the anatomy of an irresistible tweet. Similarly, Guy Kawasaki gave some solid advice about how to get retweeted. It all goes back to attracting and influencing people on Twitter, so here's the "ultimate Twitter resource". Just remember to use your power for good. We don't want people thinking that marketing is evil.

Tim Ferris doled out helpful tips for how to use Twitter without Twitter owning you. MarketingProfs warned businesses of the dark side of Twitter. That didn't stop Google from hopping on bo ard the Twitter train. Breaking new barriers of acceptance, a federal judge has approved a media request, allowing reporters to live microblog a federal trial.

Jennifer Slegg has posited ways that Twitter may be able to monetize. For instance, Twitter could offer advanced statistics to premium users. Google Analytics and Omniture seem to be on the same page as both analytics platforms will be integrating Twitter search data into reports.

One fanatic user has a brand new tattoo of the fail whale on his arm after promising to do so if his buddy reached 3,000 followers. While I don't quite agree with this psychologist, the tattoo would be another weird sign that people are forming their identity around the microblogging platform. I can however give props to one journalism student who hopes to work her social network for tuition. I just hope she knows how different the media is today. (Save newspapers! Get an iPhone!) Over at Copyblogger, Sonia Simone reminded us that cliques can be as damaging online as they can be offline.

Things I learned from Boing Boing this week:

I can imagine this wily octopus laughing at us through the tank.
Magnets in slo-mo! Click through to the video at 1200 frames per second for a real trip.
If you work in technology, watch out for a geek stampede. The holy grail of comic books is hitting the auction block. [Do want! --Susan]
There's a new bouncing fish on the scene and it's called a psychedelica. How fitting is that?
Ever wanted to be able to read minds? I bet transparent heads are the way to go.

SEO resources Feb 27

2009-02-27T05:04:00.001-08:00

Holiday Rentals

Crisis of Confidence: Web 2.0 Remix

President Carter photo by Sicutatvia Creative Commons

In 1979, America was facing a recession, an energy crisis and a number of crippling conflicts around the world.

Sound familiar?

President Carter, in the middle of his first (and only) term, made a speech in July of that year now known as the Crisis of Confidence Speech. It was his desperate attempt to turn around the increasingly dismal outlook of the American people.

Sounds fun, right? Here's a little excerpt:

It is a crisis of confidence.

It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.

Carter was not reelected for a second term. At the time of this speech, Carter's approval ratings were at an all-time low. While his gloomy rhetoric may have accurately assessed a problem, the negative sentiment was no help in turning around American attitudes or scoring Carter any brownie points.

Last night was the finale of Top Chef Season 5. (Spoiler alert to my fellow foodies!) After my hometown favorite Fabio got cut last week I jumped over to Team Carla to support the wild-eyed chef whose specialty is homemade love. Carla did not take home the title, the money and the brand new kitchen. Carla's failure was that she let her sous chef dictate part of the menu -- the parts that failed hardest. In the end, it all came down to her own self-doubt.

Carla cooked best when she followed her gut. She was strongest when she went with her instincts. And her dishes were always delicious when mixed with a generous helping of assurance and affection. Like the American people under Carter's leadership and like Carla in the competition, the final outcome rises and falls in tandem with the level of confidence.

I think I recognize a similar problem playing out online. I don't want to fall into the same trap as Carter, touting grim predictions that paralyze rather than empower, but there's a possibility that these simple thoughts might resonate with a few people out there.

The Corporate Culture Fears Social Media

Top Chef contestant Carla HallScreen grab compliments shoesonwrong

Path to the unknown. Photo creditAhmed Rabea via Creative Commons

Over at Search Engine People yesterday, James Duthie wrote about how fear has prohibited corporate involvement in important social media channels. The fear of the unknown. A paranoia over attacks. The vulnerability you feel when you expose your inner self. Fear has kept companies out of the realm of social media and its endless marketing potential.

To help dispel the myth that creates this fear, James shows that even a seriously unpopular brand, GM, has an online disapproval rating that tops out at 22.6 percent. It's hard to imagine a company faring worse in popular opinion than GM today. He estimates that the average company will see a negative comment ratio around five to ten percent. Isn't that a small price to pay for better brand relations and the invaluable effect of customer trust?

The Media Community Questions Search Engine Optimization

Don't water down content. Photo creditMobileStreetLife via Creative Commons

My dear newspapers are in tough straits. Analysts continue to trumpet that the end is near. Now it seems to be understood that the newspapers' only chance of survival lies with the Internet. Traditional media staffs and journalists are trying to learn the keys to writing successful online. However, many are lamenting an SEO methodology which they interpret to require tacky, keyword-stuffed writing.

On Wordtracker earlier this week, Rachelle Money outlined the good, bad and ugly SEO advice given to journalists. In a rare glimmer of hope, Rachelle assures the media community that poor writing is not required online. There are a number of sensible ways to include keywords without diluting the substance of an article. Writers must understand the true goal of SEO. It's not about overused words and watered down content. It's about making your conten t available to the masses.

It's a New World. Join the Party.

There's a party over here! Photo credit Amy_B via Creative Commons

Avoid Carla's fate and work on your self-confidence. I know it's not easy. I'm struggling with it myself. But picture this. It's the first weekend of your freshman year of college. You still don't know anyone, but word is a big party will be going down off campus. If you go thinking that you'll make no friends and no one will like you, you've sealed your fate. You have to psych yourself up, remind yourself of your best qualities, and remember that you have lots to offer! But more important than anything, don't let fear prohibit your success. That party is real life. The Web is real life. Don't be your own roadblock and don't let a lack of self-confidence keep you from achieving your goals.

What if Google Was Wrong

Earlier this week Danny Sullivan and many others noted that MSN and ASK did a much better job of reporting the oscar winners, than Google did. After doing some due diligence Matt Cutts of Google noticed that the official Oscars page was returning a 500 error which was reason google was having a problem. I’ll [...]

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant.

What if Google Was Wrong

When Google Gets Duplicate Content WrongThere’s lots of hand wringing among publishers about duplicate content,...
Google News is Getting the Date Wrong on Old News StoriesLast week there was a bit of a brouhaha over...
What’s Wrong With A Universal Google IconWhen Google switched to a single universal icon a few...

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Just Browsing? Google, Microsoft and the EU

In a story that seems to have flown under the radar during this busy week, Google has applied to be a third party as the EU looks into Microsoft's apparent stranglehold on the browser market. I am not a lawyer so this whole third party idea was new to me. Whatever it is though the [...]

Adwords in the News, Literally

Google is now placing paid search ads in the news results. Whether it's a response to the economy of just the next step it probably is considered to be a long time coming. As the search industry takes some hits due to the economy there will be more efforts to put more ads in front [.. .]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 26, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

Yahoo CFO Interested in Search Deal–Until Fired in Yahoo's Shake Up

As as promised on Monday, Yahoo posts a major reorganization this week. But is it any coincidence that less than a day after telling investors that Yahoo might do a search deal, CFO Blake Jorgenson is getting the axe? I’m sure it is. Probably. Maybe. Here’s what Bloomberg caught him saying yesterday: Any [...]

SEO resources Feb 26

2009-02-26T09:50:00.001-08:00

Free Music Video Codes and Playlists

Vote for Your Favorite Promotion Ideas

Cast your vote to help shape this column into the absolute best column it can be. Pick your favorite user-submitted idea, and enter to win an Amazon gift card. ...

Many SEOs Get Their Hands Dirty By Coding Web Sites

Two days ago, I ran a poll asking if SEO companies implement SEO changes or just recommend changes to be implemented. Meaning, does your SEO company normally start with coding changes and upload files to the web server. I now...

Yahoo Search Update: February 2009

There seems to be a Yahoo Search update taking place now. A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around the update. We do not have official confirmation from the Yahoo Search Blog yet, but we didn't have confirmation the last update either....

Google Blog Search To Test New Link Command Features Next Week

Since November 2008, Google Blog search's link command has been scanning too much information, including blogrolls. Since then, Google vowed to fix the blogroll issue with the link command back in early December. At the end of December, Google said...

Google Opens Up Ad Planner To Everyone

Outstanding news for marketers of all kinds, Google has quietly opened up Google Ad Planner to everyone, or at least, that is what it seems. Go to google.com/adplanner and give it a try, you should be able to sign in...

Yahoo Search Marketing Lowering Minimum Bids For Many

Many Yahoo Search advertisers are reporting that Yahoo has decreased the minimum bid requirements on some keywords in their campaigns over the past couple days. A WebmasterWorld thread has several advertisers confirming this activity. In fact, I received a message...

Google Tries To Get Organized On AdSense Payment Issues

One of the official representatives in the Google AdSense Help Forums, AdSensePro Jen, has posted three threads in an effort to help publishers who are having payment issues. Those threads are named: I have no visible holds on my account,...

Online Advertising Up or Down? You Make the Call

If you would just read the last post I did you would see a report that touted the continued growth of online marketing despite the economy as reported by CMO's of 518 companies. That's so yesterday though. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Market Research Group IDC reports a different point of view. Or [...]

Vertical Search and Video SEO - SEM Synergy Extras

Today's episode of SEM Synergy is all about the different vertical search opportunities available within the major search engines. We spend the most time talking about video optimization because video is an increasingly popular feature of the Web. Earlier this month, comScore published a study of the most trafficked online video properties along with up-to-date viewing statistics.

Did you know:

Internet users are watching an average of 309 minutes -- more than five hours! -- of video each month.
Google sites, including YouTube, make up 41.2 percent of the video viewing share.
The average time a person spends watching a video changes depending on the site. For instance, while the average video viewing time is about three minutes, people are willing to watch ten-minute videos on Hulu.

Mark Robertson of ReelSEO.com

Mark Robertson is the creator and publisher of ReelSEO.c om, a site devoted to online video marketing advice, news and trends. He's no stranger to the conference circuit, where he regularly shares his video SEO methodology. His presentation from PubCon Las Vegas 2008 is available for your viewing pleasure.

Mark's a whiz when it comes to helping companies better their video implementation so that the best visibility, traffic and branding effects are gleaned, so I was thrilled when he agreed to speak to me about video search engine optimization. We go over a number of basic video SEO tactics, but Mark also shared some info with me that I had never heard before.

I was definitely impressed by the findings of a TubeMogul study Mark mentioned. The researchers wanted to know where people are searching for videos. It turns out that video search engines are rarely searchers' destination of choice.

Search engines make up 11.18 percent of referrals.
Social networks make up 3.66 percent.
Social bookmarking sites are responsible for over 3 percent.
Video search engines trail with 0.63 percent.

Okay, so you probably figured that video search engines like Truveo and Blinkx aren't a video optimizer's Mecca. Still, it's important to know how the video search volume is divided.

Photo credit Reinn via creative commons.

Considering that general search engines compose the largest segment, it's comforting reassurance that you can host your videos on your site and people w ill actually find them. Just be sure that you take advantage of the viral nature of video by allowing users to embed the video on their own site. That way, your branding message will be spread and interested viewers will seek out your site for your products or services.

I want to say a special thank you to Mark for making time for our interview while vacationing in Austria! Need I say more? Dedication like that pretty much assures a stellar show. And before I forget, I want to let Facebook ~~junkies~~ users know that we've launched a new SEM Synergy page to play sidekick to our budding Bruce Clay, Inc. page. Just a few more ways we hope to connect with you!

CMO Survey Confirms Online Still Growing

For quite some time now Internet marketers have experienced unbridled growth in the need and use of the medium. That growth recently has been threatened by the down economy and there has been impact across the board. For the most part the Internet marketing industry has had the good fortune of just seeing slowing growth. [...]

ABCNews Tries to Be Cool but Stumbles a Bit

Last night President Barack Obama gave a pseudo state of the union address to the concerned citizens of the US and the world. We all know that things are not so great economically so let's not beat that horse anymore. Th e president though, has been taking a little heat for being so negative that he [...]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 25, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

Mobile Ad Spend on the Way . . . Up?

While there are a multitude of reports having marketers bracing themselves for this recession, there are still a number of optimists who say that the best is yet to come. The Kelsey Group is one such optimist, reporting that mobile ad spend is on the way up, and mobile search will lead the way. Their [...]

SEO resources Feb 25

2009-02-25T04:17:00.001-08:00

Holiday Rentals

Hold on to Your Hard Hats: Blog Renovation Zone

Pat & Me at SES SJ Search Bash. Photo by the lovely Kate Morris.

Patrick Sexton is a wildly passionate, remarkably generous and insanely crafty SEO. This morning he gave me some sound advice on how to make the BC blog better. I'm still blushing over the obvious effort and care he took to do so.

You may recognize Pat from a number of ventures he runs across the Web. His blog SEOish, his adorable widgets, his groundbreaking local listing resource, his mad skills over at confession that I was trying to improve the community presence of the BC blog. The support that came pouring in afterward was truly astounding!

One of those supporters is Pat, who has replied to my post with a brutally honest appraisal of what is hindering the blog's capacity for engagement. It's a lesson I think will not only help myself but others facing similar problems as well.

Pat listed his fixes to the blog, and while it will be no small task, it makes a lot of sense:

Get rid of the sideways barcode problem we've got going on.
Include lots of images!
Let peo ple communicate real time through the comments.
Make the comment approval process better.
Kick the blog navigation up a notch.

Photo credit Granth via Creative Commons

Susan and I have knocked out our new plans for the blog. Yes, there's going to be a full blog overhaul. No, it won't happen over night. A number of Pat's recommendations can be made right away. (See all my pretty pictures?! Quick learner over here, folks!) Some of them will take a bit more time.

First, we can eliminate the barcode syndrome and "please people visually" by peppering lots of images throughout the text.

Check it:

As far as the comment approval process and its hindrance to communication, we plan to address this problem with a better spam filter so that each comment doesn't require manual approval. This is one of the fixes that's gonna take some time. Improvements to navigation, however, are underway as I type. The sidebar is undergoing a makeover, complete with a new feature that pays service to regular contributors. Over the next few months we plan to move the entire blog over to WordPress, where a number of amazing functions will be available.

I want to thank Patrick again not only for giving us the kick in the butt we needed, but also for the thought and love he put into his post, all in the name of helping out a fellow blogger. There were also a number of kind commenters who shared their sentiments and supp ort for the content of the blog, if not the design.

So everybody grab your hard hat, pardon our dust, and enjoy your view of the construction zone!

E-tailers Rank Highest for Customer Satisfaction

E-consultancy reports that a recent study conducted by the UK National Customer Satisfaction Index scored retailers, e-commerce reported a stunning score of 82 points for Q4 2008 (out of 100). Why is this news so interesting? Because the average retailer customer satisfaction score is 74.8. Amazon and Play.com helped e-commerce separate itself from the rest by [...]

Google News Dropping Publishers From Index

It seems like Google News has been dropping publishers from their index. We have several posts in the Google News Help forum. There are a bunch of threads from upset publishers, including two large threads here and here. Jason Dowdell,...

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 24, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

Facebook, MySpace Become Mainstream Marketing Vehicles

By David Lindop Is it time to rethink who we market to on the social networking giants? What do you think the average age of a MySpace and Facebook user is? Perhaps 16 for MySpace and 22 for Facebook? According to AdAge, new reports from comScore suggest that over 50% of American Facebook users, and 44% of [...]

Ballmer Stunned Bartz Won't Sell Search

*pfffoooo!* Pardon the dust, folks. Just have to clean off this old story. . . . There. So, it looks like Steve Ballmer is still—still—interested in buying Yahoo search. Just one short year (plus three weeks) after an initial offer to buy out the company, and all the drama that followed, Ballmer [...]

Twitter Fires Up the Spotlight

Last month Twitter launched its 'suggested users' feature and the impact on those who were put on Twitter's red carpet has been significant. Some of these profiles saw tens of thousands of additional followers added to their own personal profiles which created some very happy folks and, you guessed it, some not so happy people. [...]

Link Building Tips From Experts

Getting links is one of the biggest challenges facing site owners and SEOs. However who links to you and how many links you have are important parts of Google s algorithm. So you need those links to get seen by the people who are searching for what you have to offer. What can you do Keep reading for some link building ideas.... Adobe Acrobat 9 - Download FREE Trial Unify Documents, Images, Video and More. Create the Richest, Most Engaging PDF ePortfolios.

Riding the Buying Cycle to Online Sales Growth in a Recession

It won’t come as much of a shock to learn that 48% of online shoppers plan to spend less this year, thanks to the recession. The good news is that 61% of online consumers admit that they’ll likely be persuaded to make a purchase by customer reviews and ratings. For me, the most useful information to [...]

Most SEOs Work On Both Clients Projects & Solo Projects

The other day we wrote about being your own SEO client isn't easy, but clearly that doesn't stop the bulk of you from working on your own solo projects. We ran a poll, asking which would you rather do? Either...

Decrypting Google's "According To" Search Results

In August 2005 was the first time I saw "According To" Google results show up in the search results. Since then, they show up for very specific queries. I spotted an interesting thread, where a webmaster asked why is his...

A Strategic Approach to Internet Marketing with Content & SEO

We’ve debated content vs links as it relates to SEO as w ell as the general merits of content in online marketing for serveral years on this blog. Most of the advice about content optimization comes from a search engine optimization perspective, or at least, from SEOs. I decided to reach out to a good number [...]

Does Your SEO Company Implement Changes Or Just Offer Recommendations?

Some SEO companies that I know of either offer recommendations in written form, to be handed off to the developers to implement, while others actually get their hands dirty and make the changes for the client. I was hoping to...

Google Custom Search Engine "Squeezing" Page Numbers Together

If you conduct a search on any Google Custom Search Engine, such as ours, you will see that the page numbers, which aid the searcher to the next page of search results, are squeezed together. Here is a screen capture...

Mardi Gras '09 Logos From Live, DogPile, AOL & Others

Today is the ever so popular Mardi Gras and some of the search engines have special logos for the day. Google, Yahoo and Ask.com are missing logos, but AOL, DogPile, Live.com and others have logos. Let me archive those logos...

SEO resources Feb 24

2009-02-24T04:17:00.001-08:00

Free Cyprus GPS Map

Gmail Goes Offline Again (February 24, 2008)

Thousands of Google email users, Gmail users, are experiencing problems logging into Google. I tried it myself, I am am also receiving 502 errors. There are huge threads at Google Groups with users complaining as early as 5:20am EST (about...

Wanted: Productivity Tips for the Swamped Search Marketer

Being a blogger, it's crucial that I'm in the know and on top of the news. I've been using a number of tools to help me do this. RSS is obviously a big one, but if it's been more than a few days since I last opened my feeds, I'm almost afraid to check. The info overload is daunting.

On Twitter today, my buddy @chuckallied chirped:

For those who understandably don't want to type out that URL, you can find the article by Will Critchlow over at SEOmoz.

So there are two important things I wanted to point out in this story. To understand point number one, first you gotta read it. Will has summed up a fascinating observation about the obfuscated effect of the nofollow tag. But that's a piece of news for another time. The reason I've woven Will's article in this tapestry of a diatribe is to highlight this choice bit:

Many people are leaving their RSS feed readers untouched and getting their news via links their friends drop on Twitter.

Hey, he read my mind! I've been getting my dose of daily news from Twitter for the past few weeks. And it's really quite entertaining. I've found a healthy mix of the funny, outrageous and educational just by following the shrunken links coming through the timeline. And by picking out the juicy ones, I always end up with more than enough to fill a Friday Recap or five.

But it got me thinking. What other productivity tools am I missing out on?

A couple weeks ago Vince Blackham asked if anyone's using Tweet3, and ever since it's topped my list of productivity tools that kick major booty.

Using Tweet3 you can read the timelines, replies and direct messages of multiple Twitter accounts all from one place. There's also a URL shortening tool right on the page, complete with a link to statistics for how many people have followed a link you tweeted. From my point of view, I'm only missing the capability to see who I'm following or who my followers are. To me, it's a small price to pay for all that functionality on a single page. As for Susan, she'd be happier if they could stack the timelines next to each other so you could check them all out at once. [And reply to them without switching. That part is important. I'm very lazy. --Susan]

Another tool I'm digging is called WhosTalkin, a sweet site that seems to find a bunch of brand and name references that slip through alerts. I've also been advised to pick up TweetDeck on my iPhone to help me become a Twitter po wer user extraordinaire! [Twitterberry is similarly indispensible on my shiny new BlackBerry. --Susan]

In the meantime, I thought I'd ask if anyone has a must-try tool or two that has helped them be more productive during the day. I'm not just looking for Twitter tools -- time tracking, news aggregating, and search tools, among others, are all welcomed! My guess is I'm not the only one standing to gain from good suggestions. Some nudges in the right direction would be much appreciated!

B2B Buyers Dig Social Media

A new report from Forrester Research, outlined by Groundswell, takes a look at how B2B buyers interact with social media—and by and large, they’re more engaged than their average peers. The report breaks down the use of social media by Social Technographic role by type of social media involvement (types explained in this PPT): The “Overall” column [...]

International SEO Challenges and Tips

Search engine optimization for multi-national companies' Web sites comes with its own set of challenges and pitfalls. Here are a few challenges that companies with an international Web presence face, and some advice for how to create an optimal Web presence that can do well in international search engines. ...

Spending in a Tough Market

Many large organizations are looking to engage an SEO agency as an alternative to hard-to-track media buys. The SEO should make sure that goals included in a response to an RFP are related to revenue and traffic, with a stipulation around the source of the traffic. ...

Social Media Changes Brains

You may have thought that the headline should read "Social Media Changes Minds" because of all the wonderful things that social media adds to our lives (I'll let you determine what wonderful things it does for you). But across the pond there's concern that social media is actually changing the brains of young users. Of [...]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 23, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

Win Copies of Leo Babauta's "The Power of Less"

<Oprah Voice> It’s book contest time! </Oprah> OK, so here’s the deal. You’ve read Tim Ferriss’ “The 4-Hour Workweek” right? Great book. Inspiring stuff–and certainly makes you want to live Ferriss’ life, right? But, it also misses the opportunity to precisely explain how you can get your workweek down to, heck, 30 hours–let alone 4! Well, that’s [...]

A Great Example of Hosting the Conversation When Under Attack

Listen to me speak about online reputation management long enough and you’ll hear me talk about the importance of "hosting t he conversation" when under attack. Here’s a great example of that, courtesy of Last.fm which found itself the victim of a "vicious and completely false rumour." The music service tried what many companies try: I denied it [...]

Using Directories for Search Engine Reputation Management

By Michael Gray Search engine reputation management (SERM) is a growing discipline under the larger umbrella of search engine optimization (SEO). If you deal with client services, and you don’t already have at least one reputation management client, chances are you will in the very near future. The more tools or options you [...]

I Tweet, Therefore I Am

Deep inside the confines of the Beal household, my wife and I often debate what motivates us–and others–to share so much of our private lives on Twitter. We discuss the notion of being significant with each Tweet, and often joke about those that seem to Tweet as if their very life depended on submitting 140 characters [...]

Checklists: A Blogger`s Second Best Friend

I recently wrote an article about editorial calendars and how they can help bloggers build a backlog of topics. It s so wonderful not to run out of ideas that I called them a blogger s best friend. I d like to introduce you to your second best friend checklists. This hoary organization tool can keep you from looking foolish or worse.... Adobe Acrobat 9 - Download FREE Trial Unify Documents, Images, Video and More. Create the Richest, Most Engaging PDF ePortfolios.

Link Building 2009 - Build Your Own Cliques For Link Relevancy

I am a paid supporter of WebmasterWorld and to be honest, I don't often use the paid only rooms. But for the thread I am about to discuss, I can tell you, the small fee I paid to have access...

Is There a Recent Big Brand Bias at Google Search?

There is an interesting thread at WebmasterWorld that Google may be biased towards showing more and more "big brands" in the top Google web search results. Yea, yea - big brands have more links, more trust, more pages and bigger...

Google's Phone (Android) Paid Apps Won't Update

There is so much love for Google's new mobile phone, the G1 or Android phone. A week or two ago, Google announced that they are now accepting paid apps to the app marketplace. But now, we are seeing reports that...

Yahoo May See Major Reorganization In Coming Weeks

Yahoo's new CEO, Bartz, is rumored to be pushing out a major reorganization for t he troubled search engine in the upcoming weeks. Kara Swisher at AllThingsD, I believe, broke the news about this coming down. You can see some additional...

February '09 Google Image Search Update?

It was just about a month ago when we reported a Google image search update and now I am seeing reports of another update. A senior WebmasterWorld member posted a thread at WebmasterWorld on the 20th, reporting a new Google...

Misinterpreting SEO Advice

The SEO industry is a conflicted industry to work in, in many respects. Much of the public still thinks this is a form black magic, some feel the industry is packed with scam artists and some just totally don't get...

Discovering the Rest of the Internet Iceberg

Did you know that the visible portion of an iceberg only represents about 20% of its actual size? Beneath the water surface lies the other 80%. Imagine if the captain of the Titanic had that tidbit of information. Well the Internet is similar in many ways. The amount of the entire scope of the Internet [...]

Social Media Madness -- The Sweet 16

In the spirit of College basketball's upcoming March Madness tournament, we've got the "Sweet 16" of social media. Check out this scoreboard of each company's strengths and weaknesses, along with details on how your company or brand can leverage these social media offerings. ...

SEO resources Feb 21

2009-02-21T03:48:00.001-08:00

Lite Shopping with Amazon

Friday Recap

What a week! I had a paradigm shifting revelation. Fabio was booted from competition. The battle to become the ultimate iPhone fart app went into high gear. It's been deep.

As usual, I've collected way too many stories that I found interesting during my ramblings on the Web this week. So let me try to distill this recap down to the juicy bits.

Facebook caused a hullabaloo when they changed their terms of service. After adjusting its TOS to indicate Facebook owned users' content even after the termination of an account, the social networking site rescinded the new terms and reinstated the old ones.

There was also a heated exchange on the newly launched Outspoken Media blog that helped readers remember the importance of comment mediation and how to gracefully accept opposing opinions.

Another recent debut, Mobile Presence premiered this Wednesday on WebmasterRadio.fm. The weekly show hosted by Cindy Krum, Kim Dushinski and Jordan Kasteler is all about mobile marketing and technologies and will air Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

This week we also welcomed social media maven Brent Csutoras's new little one. A. Dor. A. Ble. Congratulations on your bundle of love, Brent!

Lisa's giving away some love over at SEOmoz. After winning a year's membership for a pro account, the comment contest is on to let her know how you'd put the subscription to good use. The party ends next Wednesday, so hop to it!

Looking for more free stuff? IM Broadcast's IM Spring Break give away ends today. A free ticket to the show will be awarded to the person who gets the most retweets about the conference by today's deadline. If you'd like to win iTunes bucks (or just do yourself and the marketing community a favor), take the 2009 Inside Email Marketing Study.

Some new economic indicators emerged. Domain sales are up. Nice. The price of iPhone coasters is through the roof. Oh dear. Layoffs in the bacon industry? Ruh roh.

In the world of Google: the search engine says (some) hijacked listings are a thing of th e past; AdWords changed its URL policy and began testing a SearchWiki feature; Michael Gray challenged Google's presentation publication policy; and the lost land of Atlantis was found. Not.

The long-conjectured antitrust suit has been filed against the search behemoth. A map of the planet's yucky emissions is now available. Google Maps isn't responsible if they take a photo on your private road. Mahalo appears to have been gaming the PageRank algo. And the newest Android phone is slick.

Over at Yahoo, the search engine is pursuing the mobile search front with a beta Yahoo Mobile product for smart phones. I'm on the waiting list and just twiddling my thumbs in excitement! Yahoo ads are dressing up with images a nd videos. And Nathania Johnson composed a lesson of a letter to the confused woman suing Yahoo over results generated by a query of her name.

That was a mouthful. Although, it wasn't nearly as impressive as a 224-word palindrome.

Time for a Twitter run down. A tweet-sweet widget was released this week. With all the spam accounts popping up, it's nice to have a guide for how to spot a Twitter spammer. Did you know one in ten U.S. adults is on Twitter? This is why productivity are so important. Try out Lee Odden's 12 Twitter aggregators that will make you smarter!

When it comes to social media, a survey has found that marketers think Twitter is better for business than Facebook. Whichever flavor you prefer, make sure you're crafting that sticky content.

On the rumor mill, eyebrows were raised when local review site Yelp again appeared to reward advertisers with favorable results. And Digg's auto-bury brigade was shown to exist, up until the social bookmarking site denied it.

Rounding out my sharable finds: Ann Smarty reminded us that the value of keyword density is limited; the Clix Marketing PPC Blog educates readers on black hat PPC tricks to protect against; GetListed.org co-creator Patrick Sexton explains why local SEO is important to non-local SEO; and a rally for easy reading and usable design captured my eye.

Things I learned from Boing Boing this week:

"Extinct bird rediscovered" -- Yay! "Then eaten" -- Wha?! My homeland's done me wrong.
If you ever wanted to live in a cave without giving up creature comforts -- I know, seems (oxy)moronic -- your dream home is available.
Geese are vicious and unrelenting. I had no idea.
I'd like someone to make me a floating bubble machine. Please.

< h4>Why it Makes Sense to Target Longtail Keywords First

Post explains why it is often more profitable to ignore the most competitive keywords for brand new websites.

Yelp Extortion: True or False?

We’ve heard it all before: a shady review site features negative reviews of your company, but (glory be!) they’ll remove them—for a price. It’s more of the same old song this week, but in a different key review site: Yelp. But they’re not taking the allegations lying down. In a lengthy article generated from [...]

Facebook, Twitter and Intentions

This has been an interesting week in social media for sure. Most of the news has been generated around Facebook and deservedly so (I guess). So to close the week it's only fitting that this story compares Facebook (in my opinion the new F-word) and Twitter. Over at Venture Beat the comparison of these two [...]

Facebook's First Offsite Widget: Comment Box

First announced in May, Facebook Connect ports your Facebook data to other sites—or, in other words, it’s a way to let visitors to your site comment with through their Facebook profiles. Facebook reported yesterday that over 6000 sites have signed on for Connect. Facebook also announced its first offsite widget in conjunction with Facebook Connect: [...]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 20, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 20, 2009

I covered a lot of news in this 10 minute video. I wish I could make them longer, but YouTube has a 10 minute limit. In this recap, I covered the Yahoo Search video ads. Google tests SearchWiki on AdWords....

70% Of Google AdSense Publisher Report Lower Earnings in January '09

Earlier this month, we polled Google AdSense publishers, asking how their earnings from Google is working out in this recession. After receiving about a 120 responses, I thought I share the results with you. About 70% said they are earning...

Google Drops & Yahoo Gains In Search Share, comScore

comScore released their January 2009 report on search market share, and for the first time in a while, Google's share declined month to month. In December 2008, Google had a 63.5 % share, but in January, they dropped down to...

Google News Gadget Breaks iGoogle Page

Last night, the Google News iGoogle Gadget was having issues. The gadget did not show any news at all. Here is the first report I saw from Google Web Search Help. Suddenly last night when I went to my home...

Google Finally Gives AdSense Publishers Font Selection

After years and years of testing different font types and styles in Google AdSense, Google is now giving the publisher the option of defining which font they prefer on their sites. The AdSense blog finally announced this feature last night...

Google Maps Closes Down Business When it is Still in Operation

A business owner is showing his frustration with Google over Google Maps listing his business as closed. In a Google Webmaster Help thread, this business owner said: The search result from Google shows our office as closed (the exact phrase...

Does Google Deserve A "D" On Their Better Business Bureau Rating?

If you visit Google's reliability report at the Better Business Bureau (BBB) web site, you will notice they have a rating of a "D." The D rating is when the BBB says: We have enough concerns about this company (for...

SEO resources Feb 20

2009-02-20T00:27:00.001-08:00

Free Music Video Codes and Playlists

True Confessions of a Boring Blogger

Hi, my name's Virginia and I used to be boring.

I'm here today because I get it.

No, I think I finally get it.

Marketing. The science. The art. Its value to humanity. Its relationship building potential. Its place in this whole big world of ours. I get it now.

It started as a directive.

For some time now I've watched the number of comments flat line on the blog. Since I took on the job of BCI's main blogger, page views have been down, comments have been down, and the reputation for being a constant source of search industry insight has all but disappeared. I silently pondered the problem... until Bruce called me out.

Two weeks ago I got an email from the big guy. He had noticed. Where were the comments on the blog? Where were the Sphinns? The social media nods? The community? He asked Susan and I to think of ways to remedy this, to get conversations going, to increase engagement. And there it was. I couldn't ignore the glaring omission any longer. Something had to be done. But first, we had to figure out what had gone wrong.

The problem was actually obvious.

To me, at least. There had been one very big change and it stood as a clear divider between the time people shared and cared about the Bruce Clay, Inc. blog and the time people, well, stopped. Lisa Barone, long the heart and soul of the blog, had left and taken her loyal readers with her. She'd taken her quirky personality, ruthless pursuit of ethics and insatiable appetite for speaking her mind. And of course, that's what people were really after when they stopped by.

Luckily f or all of us, Lisa wasn't gone long. I don't think I'm alone in saying that at her new home, Outspoken Media, she's more inspiring than ever. Lisa clearly gets it. No, she lives it. There are no half-schemed attempts to fill blank space. Every word channeled through her keyboard adds meaning or perspective or a new dimension to conversation. The people she connects with become more than colleagues -- they become friends. Although I had set out to carry on her tradition, I was missing this essential understanding. I was doomed from the start.

So I studied the masters.

Scott Polk turned me on to Gary Vaynerchuk after he returned from Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas last month. Gary had delivered the opening keynote of the conference and he shared with me the video that is available online. Man, that is a keynote. Gary, like Lisa, is someone who gets the power and potential of online relationships. The key, he explains, is that successful communication is based on "cool", "real" and "authentic" interactions. The Internet is merely a tool for communication. People love each other, and the reason social media has taken off so fast is because we crave connections.

And then it struck me.

I had spent so much time and energy writing content that I had overlooked the point of sharing it. On my social networks I had continually reaped the benefits of the stories and links and opinions shared while rarely ever contributing to the conversation. After taking so much without giving anything back, it could come as no surprise that apathy start ed to creep in to people's opinion of the blog -- of me.

Yesterday Tony Adam wrote a blog post about a common issue he's noticed on the social networking front. Too many times he's seen people growing their network at the expense of building quality relationships. When networks become too big, when the content you're pushing pollutes feed readers, when value becomes lost in the noise, the odds of really reaching people diminish. I commented that the opposite holds true, too -- I see these issues as two sides of the same coin. When the give-and-take nature of communication becomes lopsided the message is lost.

And there you have it. My latest adventure in a journey toward marketing enlightenment. It's humbling, and I know I'm still learning, but I think I finally get the big picture. The truth I found is that good marketing occurs when everyone wins. It's not about comments, a paycheck or cleverly crafted prose. It's about you and me and the electricity we feel when we talk to each other -- when we really share.

So let me start. One thing you may not know about me is that I don't like to make the same mistake twice. I don't intend to.

Why the Social Media Genie Isn't Going Back in the Bottle

By Jim Tobin A couple of weeks, ago, Geoff Livingston wrote a post called “What Will You Do When Social Media Isn’t Special Anymore?” While I agree with part of his premise (that social media won't remain the shiny new object forever), the other part (that traditional agencies will soak up the social media work) is [...]

BIGLIST SEO Blogs Update 021009

In this update of the TopRank BIGLIST of search marketing blogs we have a mix of new and old, funny and serious. We hope you find these blogs as informative and interesting as we do. Enjoy: Mediatrust Blog - Peter Bordes, Trip Foster, Scott Parent and Christopher Smith combine to write this agency blog about everything from [...]

Mobile Ads Stick

According to a study released today by eMarketer, and reported on paidContent.org, mobile ads perform better than ads on other media. With all the bad news about advertising this is a bit of a breath of fresh air. The data was put together by eMarketer based on aggregated findings from social network Limbo and research [...]

Antitrust Suit Filed Against Google

We’ve heard the rumors for a long time—the government is eyeing Google as a monopoly. Late last year, the Department of Justice was allegedly hours away from filing an antitrust suit against the search giant, stopping only because Google reneged on its planned ad deal with Yahoo. But it looks like they might not have [...]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 19, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and o ther search forums on the web....

Mobile Internet: A Necessity or a Luxury?

A recent Nielsen study suggests that mobile Internet is no longer just a luxury, it’s a necessity. “The mobile platform is becoming more and more a part of people’s lives,” said Jeff Herrmann, vice president of mobile media for Nielsen. “The primary use of these services is communication and convenience.” The study reports that 71% of [...]

Get More Attention with Legal PPC Ad Symbols

Have you ever tested out non-alphanumeric symbols in your PPC ads? Google discourages the use of certain symbols, but others are still allowed. ...

Developing Successful Viral Marketing Ideas

A successful viral marketing campaign can increase exposure for your company and product while increasing the number of links to your site. One of the hardest parts is coming up with the idea. ...

A Little Bird Tells Us a Twitter Search Update is Coming

It’s been more than four months since Twitter co-founder Biz Stone revealed new features that would soon come to the micro-blogging service. Today we learn that Twitter is ready to start–or "commencing to begin" as one of my in-laws likes to say–adding "search" front and center on a users’ homepage. …we̵ 7;ve placed Search and Trends into [...]

Yahoo Officially Launches Video & Image Search Ads

The Yahoo Search Marketing Blog has officially announced the launch of video and image ads within the search results. Currently, you can see the results for searches at Yahoo on esurance or pedigree. Here is a screen shot of it...

Google Extends AdWords API 12 Deadline To March 9th

We reported earlier that Google AdWords is sunsetting the AdWords API version 12 on February 23, 2009. Google has been forced to extend that deadline to March 9th, due to the Perl library not being updated until recently. The Perl...

Google Sitemap In "Pending" Status? Don't Worry

If your Google Sitemap file is in "pending" status and you are worried that it will never come out of that status, I would not worry. Google recently posted an announcement that this is a known issue and they are...

People Don't Always Complain About Google AdWords

By nature, people are often more likely to write a complaint about something than to write a positive letter of encouragement for a job well done. I recently spotted a positive note left by a Google advertiser in the Google...

Recent Google AdWords Quality Score Slap?

I often see a post here or there, on a daily basis, of an AdWords advertiser complaining their quality score has significantly dropped and they have been "Google Slapped." But in the past few days, I have seen an influx...

Hijacking Google Translations? Vimeo Hijacked By YouTube?

Some of you may have seen the post at TechCrunch which has a screen capture of Google Translate translating the name "Vimeo" into YouTube. Vimeo is a popular competitor to YouTube and as you can imagine, Vimeo's owners and fans...

Yahoo Starts to Include Images and Video in Search Ads

According to the New York Times, Yahoo plans to announce today that they will be including video and images in their paid search ads. Traditionally, Yahoo's main source of ad revenue came from display ads but the shift in that market had an effect on them in the 4th quarter of last year when display [...]

SEO resources Feb 19

2009-02-19T01:58:00.000-08:00

Holiday Rentals

SEO and CMS - SEM Synergy Extras

Not long after I got into the Internet marketing business, I began hearing about the importance of utilizing a customizable CMS. So when the topic of content management systems came up on the editorial calendar of SEM Synergy, it seemed natural to address the need for an SEO-friendly CMS. When we recorded today's episode a couple weeks ago, we talked about the fact that there was no SEO-friendly CMS currently available out of the box. We explained that there were, however, a number of factors to pay attention to when choosing the CMS that would be best for your online business.

It turns out we jumped the gun. Not two weeks after recording the episode, the industry welcomed a content management system that was created with search engine optimization in mind. Pixelsilk, a Web-based CMS, "allows full access and control of the HTML to implement a branded design, custom development, e-commerce cart or search strategy -- while still being easy for those editing content". Brought to us by our friends at Smart Solutions, the CMS debuted at SMX West last week to a crowd of happy conference goers.

Bruce has chimed in with his praise of an SEO-ready content management solution:

It helps you validate the content of each page and prepare it for SEO, and it does it for every pag e you create or revise. With high-quality SEO-ready content, Pixelsilk is going to make SEO just that much easier for you; it is terrific.

If at this point you're still wondering, "What's the big deal?" then here's a list of suggested reading. No need to thank me.

Search-Engine Friendly Content Management Systems: Usability expert Shari Thurow explains a number of CMS issues on ClickZ. A spider-ready CMS will offer the ability to include keywords in simple URLs as well as the less-discussed capacity for links in graphic images as well as text.

SEO and CMS: Best Practices During Deployment (Part 2): Over at CMSWire, Randy Woods goes into great detail about system-wide considerations -- such as W3C compliant code, site map generation, robots.txt and directory systems -- and template-level considerations -- like descriptive navigation and code clutter -- as well as which content management solutions do the best job for each consideration.

The SEO Friendly CMS: Andrew Shotland of the Local SEO Guide explains the hang-ups behind building your own custom CMS. But he says that if you must build your own from the ground up, keep in mind the need for category management, on-page element management, redirect capabilities and XML Sitemap generation.

Before I wrap it up for the day, I want to thank my guests from Apogee Search, Bill Leake and Alissa Ruehl. They helped me gain a better understanding of Google Websi te Optimizer and what can be gained from testing. We also chatted about analytics and conversion tracking. WebmasterRadio.fm will be making the podcast available soon so check it out!

Google Analytics iPhone App Review

I was asked to take part in the beta test of this a few weeks ago, and I’m so lame I just finally got aroud to mentioning it. So if you’ve got an iPhone and you want to be able to check look at your analytics without firing up your laptop or netbook, this is actually [...]

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant.

Google Analytics iPhone App Review

LinkedIn Traffic Continues to Grow

By David Lindop It’s pretty rough out there in the job market at the moment. Budgets are getting tighter as credit is harder to secure, and many companies are weathering the storm by locking down recruitment and laying off staff. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining why the professional networking site LinkedIn has seen its [...]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 18, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of t he Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

Google Analytics Integrates Telephone Leads and Live Chats

The Google Analytics team gave out advice on how to track telephone leads and live chats using Google Analytics in a blog post today. Google teams up with Mongoose Metrics to allow users to track offline phone calls. Mongoose Metrics provides toll free numbers extremely cheap. GA is able to track calls to the toll free [...]

Reader Poll: Top Digital Marketing Tactics for 2009

We’ve run several Reader Polls on favored internet marketing tactics over the past year and a half flavored by a sentiment towards recession and also as a general indication of future plans. The state of the world and certainly the marketing world is as unique and challenging as it’s ever been. Many companies and vendors [...]

Boring Couple Lose Google Street View Lawsuit; Go Back to Being….Boring

It seems the Boring couple who sued Google for $25,000–claiming Street Views invaded their privacy–will have to return to a life of obscurity. They just lost their suit. I know we’ve already picked on t hem for a) their name and b) filing a public lawsuit to protect their privacy, but it appears the U.S. District Court [...]

Search Engine Optimization, Website Development and Search Engine Spiders

Do you have some experience with HTML and web site development but haven t really gotten your feet wet with search engine optimization Keep reading because you re in luck. In this article we ll cover some of the more important aspects of SEO focusing on the changes that you should find easiest to make to your web site. After you read this you should know where to concentrate your efforts now and going forward.... The All-New Adobe Creative Suite 4 Now Shipping: Adobe CS4: tools to help students express their ideas in video, on the web, or print.

Google Offering Searcher Tips: What Can We Learn From This?

Searchers and SEOs have recently been noticing Google offering searchers tips on how to search better at Google.com. Two recent threads have popped up about this, one at WebmasterWorld and the other at Google Web Search Help. Thankfully, I found...

Google Local Business Center Image Upload Feature Issues

We have several business owners complaining in two diff erent Google Maps Help Threads that the upload picture feature in the Google Local Business Center is not working. Basically, they are trying to upload pictures to their business listing but they...

Google Webmaster Tools Link Reports Bugs Linger On

SEOs and Webmasters should all be huge fans of Google Webmaster Tools, it provides data and insight into our web sites that we did not always have. SEOs and Webmasters that are educated know what to make from these reports...

Google Publishes Local Business Center Glossary

Google is trying really hard to educate business owners to validate their business listings in Google Maps. If every business owner did this, it would solve a lot of issues for Google. That being said, Google just announced in a...

Google Opens AdSense For Domains Internationally

In December, Google expanded the AdSense for Domains product to all US publishers. Today, we are hearing reports in several forums that it has now been expanded to international publishers as well. I was very concerned to learn in December...

Facebook Does an About Face

Yielding to pressure from it seems like just about everyone, Facebook is saying that it will make changes to the recent changes in its Terms of Servic e (TOS) (in other words going back to how it was). The WSJ covers the ‘event’ in their online edition. The original change was hammered hard in the blogosphere and [...]

SEO resources Feb 18

2009-02-18T04:50:00.001-08:00

Free Cyprus GPS Map

Even Internet Advertising Stalwart Feels the Pain

As if the news of yesterday regarding display ads wasn't troubling enough there is more down news about a traditional providerof growth in internet marketing: the local ad market. As reported in the WSJ the local ad market is slowing down like other areas of internet marketing. Here's a summary of the situation. Online spending by [...]

12 Twitter Stream Aggregators To Make You Smarter

There are so many Tweets and so little time. What’s a “Tweeple” to do? Twitter aggregator and trend websites use a variety of tactics to filter out what’s up and coming and of interest to the Twittersphere in contrast to the mass of mundane Tweets. Twitter stream aggregators are useful for a variety of reasons [...]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 17, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

Display Ads Take It on the Chin Again

The Wall Street Journal posted a story that further tells the tale of woe for display ads. I don't think that the news is shocking to most but what is becoming is a little disconcerting is the consistent trend downward and little hope for a real reversal of fortune in the near future. Companies like Time [...]

Introducing The SEO Book Competitive Research Tool

We are proud to announce the launch of the SEO Book Competitive Research Tool. :)

All Abandon the Sinking Google Ship!

If ever you need proof that Wall Street is nothing but a herd of sheep, take a look at Google’s PPS today. That came after Google’s stock was downgraded at ThinkEquity. So, you’re telling me that yesterday Google was a great company, with the strength to power through the recession, but not today? Crazy, crazy!

Yahoo Web Analytics is Better than Google Analytics, But Still Unavailable to the Masses

Bloody brilliant! A new report suggests that Yahoo is head and shoulders above Google in one key area and it happens to be a product that the struggling web company won’t release to the general public! According to an email received from CMS Watch, Yahoo! Web Analytics outshines Google Analytics in many ways: Better access control options and [...]

Mahalo Caught Spamming Google With PageRank Funneling Link Scheme

Mahalo has a widget with dozens of direct text links in it, used to leverage Google PageRank and anchor text from high authority tech blogs to rank Mahalo pages artificially higher in Google's search results. Please help spread the word on this.

What Makes Question and Answer Sites Popular?

Google shuttered its question and answer site Google Answers more than two years ago. Yet Yahoo Answers continues to thrive and putting the phrase question and answer sites into Google yields more than a million hits. In this article we ll look at some of the features you can find on question and answer sites consider their continued popularity and try to discover what makes such a site successful.... Adobe Acrobat 9 - Download FREE Trial Unify Documents, Images, Video and More. Create the Richest, Most Engaging PDF ePortfolios.

Google Video Drops "Movers & Shakers" & Top Videos

If you visit Google Video today, you might be missing some of the old features we had just a short while ago. It seems like we are missing videos categorized as "Movers & Shakers," "Hot videos," which showed most viewed,...

How Does Google AdSense Decide To Sen d You A Tip?

Over two years ago, Google started testing AdSense optimization reports, also known as automated AdSense tips. They can be found when you go to your AdSense Inbox. A WebmasterWorld thread asks, why does Google not send AdSense optimization report every...

Can't Shake A Google Penalty? What To Do Next?

Are you one of those webmasters that simply cannot get out of the Google penalty box? Are you convinced you have a penalty that is keeping you from the first page of Google? Have you tried everything and still cannot...

Vint Cerf and the Future of the Internet

As we continue to fly ahead with all of our Internet intensity there is one person who has been around since the beginning of the 'net who talks in cautionary terms. It may be worth our time to slow down for just a minute and pay attention. Vint Cerf is widely recognized as one of the [...]

Being Your Own SEO Client Is Not Easy

I spotted a pretty funny HighRankings Forum thread where an SEO is joking around that being his/her own client is not fun. This SEO said that when you provide SEO services, it is easy to tell your client to not...

SEO resources Feb 17

2009-02-17T04:45:00.000-08:00

Free Music Video Codes and Playlists

How The Small Guy Can Use Trust To Win The SEO Game

How to use trust to win the seo game.

Google Needs to Change It's Conference Presentation Policy

I learned quite a few things at SMX West last week, perhaps one of the most irksome was learning Google’s policy about conference presentations. Google does not share or allow any of thier conference presentations to be put online … period.Let’s recap shall we … Google thinks it’s ok to go and scan books without asking [...]

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant.

Google Needs to Change It’s Conference Presentation Policy

Six Questions with John Marshall

SES London will be kicking off tomorrow. Last month we brought you interviews with Greg Jarboe and Debra Mastaler, two Internet marketers who will be speakin g during SES London.

To close out our series of SES London Q&As, John Marshall, CTO of Market Motive, answered six quick questions. Or six questions quickly. Either way, enjoy!

1. You'll be speaking on the panel Measuring Success in a 2.0 World. What "cutting-edge" statistics should site owners be paying attention to in a 2.0 world? Have the metrics changed in the new Web environment?

I think the problem is that these cutting edge statistics are getting blunted by the 2.0 world. Increasingly your content exists on websites other than your own, so it's hard to measure.2. Search Resources: Building A Better Economic Model is another session you'll be speaking at. According to the description, part of the premise is that only the measureable marketing activities that prove their worth will survive the chopping block. Have you found that paid and organic search marketing operate with different levels of success or is it like comparing apples to oranges?

You need them both, and neither is headed for the chopping block!3. Another session you're speaking on is Landing Page Testing & Tuning. Can you give us a rundown of some of the landing page testing methods that people should have in their arsenal?

With free tools like Google Website Optimizer, the important thing is that you continuously test.4. You were interviewed here at the Bruce Clay, Inc. blog last May by Lisa Barone. She asked you about the most important metrics to pay attention to, as well as the most overrated. In your opinion, has anything changed since then? Is it still about average time o n site (ATOS) and not as much about ROI?

Yes, I'm still a big fan ATOS. ROI is just too complex and prone to problems.5. What would you say to someone who feels that analytics data is so comprehensive that it's hard to take action? Are there any reporting solutions available to help this struggling SEO narrow down the actionable items?

If you can't make sense of ATOS (or its cousin, bounce rate) then you should ignore the web analytics data and survey your customers.6. While you're at the conference, what must-see sessions do you plan to attend? Where will other attendees be able to track you down?

I'm really looking forward "Why Does Search Get All the Credit" on Tuesday.

I think John was intentionally coy with his answers so that you, dear readers, would be compelled to attend SES London to find out more. You can also check out his past interview here on the BC blog when John spoke to Lisa in preview of last year's eMetrics San Francisco. Thanks for stopping by the blog again, John!

Ignorance: The Trouble with People Who Claim SEO is Snake Oil

URL structure makes a difference in SEO, but it's just one of many things! Ignorant columnists making false claims about topics they don't understand are bogus! From what I can tell, writing an "interesting" and "provocative" column about SEO means facts are optional. ...

Marketing your SMB with Time & Elbow Grease, Part 1

It's pretty obvious everyone is hurting and everyone is tightening their belts where they can. One of the hardest things to grasp as a small business owner is where to tighten that belt, and how tight is too tight. This is the first in a series of articles that will give actionable advice on how to improve your rankings or revenue from search with no dollar investments -- aside from the time and effort it takes to research and implement these changes. ...

Facebook Hits 175M Active Users

Some of us measure our popularity in the number of Facebook friends we have. Facebook measures its popularity in the number of “active users” it has—and that number hit 175,000,000 on Friday the 13th, according to a Tweet from Dave Morin of Facebook. This comes 39 days after the site reached 150 million active users [...]

Did Google Actually Plenalize Google Japan?

Editing the toolbar PageRank score is not the same thing as a penalty.

Self Promotion vs Confidence & Self Esteem

Long winding post about how self confidence plays a big role in business building.

Migrating This Feed From FeedBurner to Google

We are being forced to migrate our feeds off FeedBurner's legacy servers and on to the new Google servers. Yes, Google bought FeedBurner a while back and now they are requiring all FeedBurner users to move from feedburner.com to feedb urner.google.com...

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 16, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

New Contest: Win the Google Analytics App for Your iPhone!

It’s been a little more than a month since I purchased my first iPhone and I did purely because of the fantastic list of applications available. Now comes one that mixes my love of the iPhone with my internet marketing needs: the Google Analytics App. When I’m on the road, the Analytics App is the perfect [...]

Best Recession Marketing Investment? Relationships

Search marketing has been known as recession resistant because so many companies shift or increase internet marketing budgets there in good times and in bad. When other marketing and advertising channels don’t hold up to ROI scruitiny, tactics like SEO hold up rather well. Sage advice on how to execute on this insight can be [...]

Here In Rio

Getting Ready for SEO De Janeiro

44% of Small Businesses Still Don't Have a Web Site!

Over at Frank Thinking, contributing Pilgrim Frank Reed shares a study that reveals just why it’s so hard to get small businesses to break their local newspaper/yellow pages advertising habit. Why? Because they’re still using the darn things! While 82% of consumers tur n to the search engines when finding a local business, only 69% of small business [...]

Google Buying Twitter? Not a Bad Idea

Vegas should forget the Super Bowl or March Madness, the real action is betting on what Twitter will pick for its revenue model. Forbes lays down its wager by pointing out the vast amount of data that passes through the micro-blogging service each day. Twitter is developing a range of analytics and metrics products and services built [...]

Social Media Marketing (SMO) 101, Part 1

Before you begin any kind of social media marketing, I highly recommend setting up an account and jumping into a conversation or community. It's one thing to talk about social media, and another to experience it firsthand. You'll be a more effective social media marketer if you're already a participant. ...

Google & Yahoo Stiff America On President's Day But Logos From Live.com, Ask.com, & Others

Today is President's Day, a legal holiday in the United States. It is around the time of Washington's birthday and it is used to celebrate all the Presidents of the United States every year. But today, Google and Yahoo do...

The Best of Outsourced: 10 Greatest Hits

William Flaiz bids farewell to Search Engine Watch by revisiting some of the hottest topics in search marketing agencies from the past 18 months. ...

Fake News Makes Its Way To Google News Via Ads

A search in Google News for santa cruz storm brough up a fake Google News it em via the Google AdWords ads for some searchers. Here is a picture sent to me by a reader: Google started showing ads in news...

Advertisers Complaining Yahoo Search Ads Not Sending Enough Traffic

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that some Yahoo advertisers are upset with what they call a recent drop in traffic from Yahoo's ad network. Others confirmed what this advertiser said, saying that his traffic is "way down" from the Yahoo Search...

Google AdWords Now Requiring Pricing Details in Ringtone Ad Copy

According to a DigitalPoint Forums thread, Google has updated their AdWords policy to require that all ringtone ads contain pricing details directly in the ad copy. I tried to find any official updated documentation from Google on this new policy,...

Google AdSense & AdWords Reportings Takes A Weekend Break

Over the weekend, there were hundreds of posts and dozens of threads with complaints from both Google AdWords advertisers and Google AdSense publishers. The complaints were that the reports were not being updated. Google has confirmed the issue in Google...

SEO resources Feb 16

2009-02-15T22:52:00.001-08:00

Free Cyprus GPS Map

4 Out of 5 Viewers Ignore Trident Viral Video

We love to talk about the successes of online video. The viral nature of a good campaign can mean significant impact to the bottom line of a company. Just ask Blendtec. Most are familiar with the "Will it Blend" video phenomenon that still has legs after almost 2 years. To a lesser degree, big brands [...]

Dear Friend

A lot at copy writing techniques.

SEO resources Feb 15

2009-02-15T02:30:00.001-08:00

Smart Label USA

Google Testing SearchWiki On AdWords

I am shocked to see this! Google seems to be testing part of SearchWiki, Google's way of promoting and removing results, to be spotted in the AdWords or sponsored ads section of the Google search results. Some people are noticing...

2009 Valentines Day Logos from Google, Yahoo, Live & Search Industry

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Here are the logos from the various search engines: Google had two logos, depending on where in the world you were: Yahoo's animated logo: AOL's animated logo: Live.com's Theme: Ask.com's Theme: DogPile's logo: YouTube's logo: Cre8asite...

Smart Label USA

SEO resources Feb 14

2009-02-14T08:01:00.001-08:00

Internet marketing news

Friday Recap

Happy Friday! There was so much going on this week I don't even know where to begin. Maybe my mind is inside out because it's Friday the 13th? Watch me flounder in the sea of announcements and information. It could be entertaining...

First off, the SEO Newsletter will be hitting inboxes Tuesday the 17th. It'll be worth the wait though, as we warn against Web spam and offer tips on tackling the SEO-meets-ROI convo with the CFO. In a bit of magical synergy, Bruce will be gracing the blog next Monday, sharing his suggestions of how best to explain to a CFO the ROI potential of an SEO campaign.

We're excited to announce that our very own SEO priest will be speaking at SEMPO NY's Super SEO Session on February 17. Christopher Hart, Bruce Clay, Inc.'s director, Eastern region, will be on a fishbowl panel with industry heavyweight Barry Schwartz and ecommerce SEO Chris Williams. If you're in New York City next Tuesday you won't want to miss this educational event.

Hmm. I feel like there was something else big going on this week but I can't put my finger on it... Just kidding! SMX West went down in Santa Clara, CA, and man did I miss a good time. If you can believe it, the conference wasn' t just about fun -- that's just an inevitable side effect. There was actually tons of learnin'going on. Susan was busy liveblogging her fingers to the bone this week, so lets give her a round of applause. Want to know how you can tell her liveblog coverage was good? Look at how effortlessly she slips into the insightful thought pose:

Photo by SEO extraordinaire Tony Adam

The conference was cause for lots of exciting announcements. Everyone was abuzz over the big three search engines' collaborative decision to recognize a new canonical tag that allows webmasters to specify their preferred URL. Joost de Valk has already made available a number of plugins/extensions for the canonical tag because he's just that good. News of the new tag almost eclipsed Google Japan's no no, but luckily good journos spread the ironic word.

This week Yahoo announced changes to BOSS, included exciting new features and a necessary new fee structure that will help the platfo rm move further along it's path of awesomeness. The launch of a fully customizable content management system called Pixelsilk also made a splash this week. Finally an SEO-friendly CMS!

SES London will be gearing up next week. Our cousins across the pond learned a lesson in SEO this week by dissecting Her Majesty's Web site. Can we get a qualified SEO over at Buckingham Palace already? She may be able to play Wii but we could all use a little help when it comes to SEO. (Hat tip to Tim Landucci so he doesn't throw a Nerf ball at my head.)

As usual, lots of news to report about everyone's favorite micro-blogging platform. MarketingVOX says there are rumors that Twitter may charge companies for corporate accounts. Kenny Hyder shared 14 Tools of Highly Effective Twitter Users. A worldwide Twestival to support charity: water was held yesterday. And the Shorty Awards were given out this week.

In mobile news, we heard that Apple may have asked Google to ditch multi-touch capabilities on the G1 phone -- a request that went unheeded by the makers of Palm's Pre. Barry Schwartz gave the iPhone Analytics App a shining review. Google made it possible to sync Google Contacts and Google Calendar with the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices. And in Japan the iPhone App Store has an available app that will turn your iPhone into a Web server.

And in random musings, a guest post on Web Marketing Today offered clear suggestions for optimizing search results descriptions; MarketingSherpa explained that the most effective social media tactics are the hardest to measure (available until March 10); at SEOMoz a debate was started about the power of social media vs. search; Google's green smarts keep coming; and (my favorite read of the week) Erika Napoletano at WhosTalkin captured the "real time" dilemma that's emerged in our Web 2.0 world.

I guess I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that Valentine's Day is tomorrow. The holiday simultaneously loved and hated by so many is a time to reflect on how to cherish the nerd in your life. The post may be old but the advice still holds true.

Things I learned from Boing Boing this week:

You probably eat up to two pounds of flies, maggots and mites every year. Hope you weren't planning a romantic dinner any time soon.
Rather than warn people, the BBC thought it would be hilarious to video tape people falling down icy steps. That's cold.
Xeni sums it up well: "Probably the best Internet video in the history of all time this week."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has updated its legal guide for bloggers. Legal guide for bloggers? Bloggers don't need no stinking laws!

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 13, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

Monetising Content Online

by Matt Rebeiro I was tickled this week to read the news that Google has set up shop (okay, a data centre) at an old paper mill in Finland. They paid a lot of money for the mill and much has been and will be made of this. This purchase struck me as symbolic for another reason: [...]

Twitter Study: 20% of Young Americans Online Have Tweeted

Speaking of gold mines, Twitter is sitting on a huge one–if it could just figure out how to refine it into something we’d buy. New stats from Pew Internet suggest that 20% of 25 to 34 year olds online have used Twitter, with those 18 to 24 only 1 point behind (19%). While that number drops [...]

Google Kills the Radio Star

Well, Mr. Reed called it! Back in July of last year, he wrote a post about the future of radio not being via the airwaves, but instead the internet. Yesterday, Google agreed–shutting down Google Audio Ads and announcing plans to sell the Google Radio Automation software behind it. Advertisers will continue to be able to use [...]

Should Google Buy Twitter?

If Google were to buy Twitter and keep it as a free tool, it would give them the hottest thing in social media right now and an area that could use some help with tracking success. Left to its own devices, Twitter could create a large chink in Google's armor. ...

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 13, 2009

This week was SMX West, and I shared my personal favorite sessions and our new way of live blogging them. I would love to hear your feedback on our new live blogging platform, so please let me know what you...

Internet marketing news

SEO resources Feb 13

2009-02-13T04:22:00.000-08:00

Democracy news

Ask the Search Engines

Danny Sullivan, our fearless leader, moderates this panel; he's already in casual mode. Google's rep Matt Cutts, Google Inc., is here. Other search engine reps Keith Hogan, Ask.com, Sasi Parthasarathy, Live Search, Microsoft, and Priyank Garg, Yahoo!, are ready to sit quietly while Matt gets a billion questions. Too harsh? I'm just trying to be accurate.

Wow, big news.

Right before the session started, the big three announced a new tag rel=canonical. There's coverage popping up everywhere and I won't try to duplicate it so just get yourself over to the Google Webmaster Central blog and read about it. In talking to Matt, he emphasized that this is not a substitute for a proper redirect. If you can, do that first. Vanessa Fox covered it for Search Engine Land. Joost de Valk does a good job of explaining what it means over here Canonical URL Links, and he's already got plugins ready for this for Wordpress, Magento and Drupal already. Can you say on the ball?

Matt's going to do the official introduction now so if those links aren't enough, you can try to follow along here.

Duplicate content is the bane of a lot of people's existence. There are many many preferable ways to fix duplicate content: Fix your CMS, link consistently, make all non-canonical URLs redirect, etc. However, that doesn't mean that you're going to catch every single instance. Even Her Majesty the Queen has dupe content issues.

So they've come up with a very simple link element that you put in the head section that identifies that clean, pretty, preferred URL. It's .

They'd rather not have to resort to this. Do everything else first. This is a hint, not a mandate. They'll choose. And they reserve the right to treat spammy uses of it as spam.

This only works on the same domain. It does work across subdomains/host. You can use it for https versus http. They don't have to be 100 percent identical but the differences should only be slight. You can use relative or absolute URLs but they'd prefer you use absolute URLs. Google can follow a chain of canonicals but... you know, don't do that.

What if I point to a 404 or have an infinite loop or an uncrawled URL or a non-www/www conflict, etc.? Don't cross the streams. They're going to handle it as best they can.

Thanks go to Joachim Kupke for doing the heavy lifting at Google to implement this. Okay, ready? Time for questions.

What are you doing about the problems related to deep crawling?

Matt: We try to crawl as best we can. We look at PageRank and backlinks and if you have a higher PageRank, we'll try to crawl deeper. If you're not getting crawled, you might need more links. Also, check for duplicate content and make sure you have a simple site structure.

Priyank: Having a clear site map helps Yahoo. The link canonical will work very similarly to a 301. Be careful; don't mark unique content with a link canonical.

Sasi: Those two pretty much s ummed it up. Ease of navigation and site architecture is important. At the end of the day, if it's good content, they want to crawl it.

Keith: We go a step further and look at the content. If it's good content, we'll crawl faster. If it's bad content, we're going to slow up and not crawl as much.

Should the new canonical tag be used on pages that we don't think there's a problem with?

Matt: Yeah, you can but be careful about it. Think about what the user is going to want. It is just a hint though so if you pick the one that we think is not as good, we reserve the right to pick the URL we think is best.

Priyank: Be careful. We all want to emphasize that. Use it with caution.

If someone under a penalty 301s to you they can pass the penalty. How do you protect from that?

Matt: We do look at it. We try to be fair.

Does Yahoo have a hard time with special characters like pipes and ampersands in Title tags?

Priyank: That's a very specific question but no, I don't think so.

How is the canonical tag different than IP-based cloaking?

Matt: One is a mini 301 and the other is not in any way.

Why doesn't the canonical tag work across domains?

Matt: You could use it across domains but it would be hard and it could be a little unsafe, so we decided not to implement it like that.

Will the new tag slow down crawling?

Matt: It won't slow it down, but we don't follow 301s immediately anyway so it'll just get stuck at the end of the queue.

Priyank: Same. We also have dynamic URL in Site Explorer so that you can tell us if you have a session ID or something that can be dropped while crawling and that will speed up the crawl.

Let's revisit nofollow. Do nofollow comments mean no impact or help to you?

Sasi: It's not helpful from a search engine perspective, but it may be from a user perspective. We just ignore them.

Matt: We drop it completely off the link graph, nothing flows, no PageRank.

My competitor is spammy. What is going to happen to them?

Matt: White text on white background is definitely spam. Catch me afterward, I'd love to hear examples. [There's much laughter and Danny uses this to segue into...]

Google Japan has been buying links. What the heck, Matt?

Matt: I just want to take a minute and apologize for it. They didn't think about how it was going to affect search engines but that doesn't excuse it so they were lowered from 9 to 5 to reflect the decreased trust in Google.co.jp. They have to file a reconsideration request, just like anyone else. There are a lot of people at Google who were angry about that but that was the right thing to do.

How does the message of what you can and can't do get out?

Matt: I think we took a very clear position that this is bad. I've been thinking a lot about this the last few days. Google can't just assume people know, they have to keep talking about it and they still have a lot of communication to do about it.

How do you determine what's natural and what's not?

Keith: We look at each individual page, at the content.

Sasi: We use neutralization as well as penalization.

Priyank: We run analysis on every page. Cloaking is remarkably ineffective.

Matt: All of the above, particularly what Sasi said. Google's more likely to penalize sellers than buyers because it's usually more clear cut, but they will penalize for it if they have a high degree of confidence.

The new spam technique of 2009 is going to be hacking sites. You need to keep your servers patched, watch your open redirects and monitor them. Watch your server load. Keep your software patched. If you don't have a recent version of WordPress, you're going to get hacked. Stay patched.

Priyank: I agree with Matt. The onus is on you.

Sasi: Security should be a primary focus for webmasters. It's your page, not anyone else's. You'll end up getting the penalty.

Matt: Danny had a really good point about "craphats" and how it's like racist jokes -- they're that out of fashion. Don't put up with it.

My competitor is coming up as a "did you mean" for my site! How do you stop that?

Matt: We do pushes every few months so sometimes that fixes it. OR you should do a blog post and call Google an idiot for getting it wrong. [Hee!!!] You can also report it via a feed.

All others: We want to know about it and want to fix it. Give us feedback.

Will you notify webmasters if you see them get hacked?

Yahoo does already and so does Google. Ask has a partnership with Norton for notification. If you get flagged in Yahoo and you're not malware, there's a link right there in the warning that you can respond. Google and Microsoft will tell you if you've been penalized as well.

Matt: I want to know from those in the audience. Would you want a notification in case of hacking or penalization? Do you want an email? (The audience says YES.) Should it be a check box? (Another YES!)

Priyank: How many people target content at a state, regional or city level? Language? Country? [I can't see the responses.]

Matt: Would people want a fetch as googlebot feature? (The audience says YES.)

Priyank: How many people would like to have their content crawled at a specific time of day? [No one seems to care. Except Hilton.com who doesn't want to be crawled during the day. Um... yeah.]

The Great Career Debate: SEM In-House Team vs. SEM Agency

Although the list of unique challenges facing both groups is long, there are key differences to consider before you take a job in-house or with an agency. By looking at the typical client, budget, and tools/resources available for each group, you can better evaluate which career path is right for you. ...

SEO & Usability

It's still cold in here. I'm slowly freezing to death. Hopefully, this panel will be nice and lively. Gordon Hotchkiss, President and CEO, Enquiro, moderates. Lance Loveday, Closed Loop Marketing, and Eric Papczun, Performics.

Gord is promising very quick site reviews instead of Q&A. Yeah, those I'm not recapping. It's the last day, I'm punchy.

Eric Papczun starts with the stat that 30 percent of people online are shopping and 75 percent of those are researching. The average ecommerce shopping cart has a 60 percent abandonment rate. I think I'm responsible for about 40 percent of those.

You need to think about the user first in order to avoid losing them across each stage of the conversion funnel. Align content with searcher intent, provide all the required information, change content according to searcher behavior but don't necessarily change the focus -- if you have a page about Valentine's Day, you don't want to drop it just because it's February 15th. Become an authoritative site with reputable links and provide an intuitive process to complete a task.

SEO is a left brain task while Usability is a right brain task.

Consider what is going to draw the eye to the content and make the connections that will answer the questions that the user has. Where are you leading the user? This connects back to keyword research -- matching intent to landing page.

Bullet points are great for catching the eye and giving the user the information up front. Use anchor text to set up expectations -- keywords create expectation. Use breadcrumbs to orient your user and to set up siloing. Breadcrumb navigati on is a must.

You must have a site map link with a robust site map as well as a customer service link with all the information they need there.

Benefits of pairing organic SEO and Usability:

Higher rankings
Increased efficiency
More qualified leads
More conversions
Less bounce traffic
Positive experiences
Stronger brand loyalty

Use A/B and multivariate testing to test impact but think about it from all angles before implementing.

Up next is Lance Loveday. He's named his presentation "How to Lose Money and Alienate Your Customers". Heh.

Babies! He's showing us pictures of CUTE BABIES! I have no idea what the babies are being compared to but they're CUTE.

Ahem.

So, why does this matter? Because ROI = visibility x effectiveness. Visibility is traffic is SEO. Effectiveness is conversion is usability.

MYTH: Applying SEO to a site limits design flexibility and inhibits usability.

We want to think that there's one right way to do things and there's got to be a number one. You need to balance extremes. There's no inherent trade off between these things. It's just more work to do all three. You need to start early and get management to understand the opportunity cost.

He shows a screenshot of the Snuggie page. I could so go for a Snuggie right now. I can't feel my toes anymore. I think his point is that the user interface and the code are largely separate. My point is that I'm freaking cold.

A word about Flash: You can still design in it but it's more work.

What people say to defend Flash: "Having a deep immersive experience is more important that search engine rankings" "We'll sacrifice search engine rankings for the experience." What they mean: "SEO is boring. We want to use Flash."

What people say to defend Flash: "Usability needs to be balanced with design, branding and user experience objectives." What they mean: "Usability is boring." "We want to use Flash."< /p>

All Flash page/sites are hard for the search engines to crawl even with advancements in tech in the last year.

Options:

Ideally, don't design entirely in Flash. Use elements instead.
Provide important Flash content in alternate manner visible to search engines using Progressive Enhancements. (HP's site is a good example of this.)

Now a word on short URLs versus long URLs. According to a Marketing Sherpa/Enquiro study, "Long URL length contributed to more clicks on... the next ad down the page. Those viewing the listing on the long URL clicked on the listing immediately following 2.5 times more than those viewing the listing with the short URL. The long URL repelled the click as it was interpreted as being less relevant. The long URL may act as a visual wall, directing attention to the next ad."

What's the impact of usability on design: 75 percent of users admit to making judgments about the credibility of an organization based on the design of their Web site. You're judged in as little as 1/20th of a second. Just the blink of an eye. What can you absorb in that time beyond the sense of space and color. That's why it's critical to get that right.

On average, sites that take usability into account double their conversion rate. That's money left on the table if you don't do it.

Now it's time for mini-site reviews. Later, folks.

Tools, Glorious Tools

It's freezing in here and I have no funny this morning so I'll just tell you that the panelists are: Ken Jurina, Epiar Inc., Stephan Spencer, Netconcepts, Lauren Vaccarello, lv logi c, and David Wallace, SearchRank. Chris Sherman, Search Engine Land, is moderating. With any luck Stephan Spencer will just give us his powerpoint again and I'll be spared trying to recap his speed of light presenting.

Ken Jurina will be going first. He's got seven tools to cover and he's apparently going to do it at the speed of light. He tossed the URL for downloading his presentation at us but he did it too quickly to copy down. You're welcome. [Ken kindly provide Susan with his presentation URL after the session. --Virginia]

Firefox is his first tool. If you don't have it, get it at getfirefox.com.

Extensions: SEOpen, Search Status, Web Developer, SEO for Firefox, Groowe Toolbar, PDF download, Roboform Toolbar, and Customize Google (you can turn on or off Google suggest).

Spyfu.com: The free stuff is good and the subscription version offers more. It's not intuitive, unfortunately. It allows you to see what keywords competitors are buying as well as lots more information. It's a good tool for SEO and PPC.

Browsershots.com: Test your site in multiple browsers without having to download multiple browsers. When you first set it up, make sure you uncheck some of the browsers before you run it or it will take forever. It's free.

GSiteCrawler.com: The tool is a crawl simulator. Large sites might take a few hours and need to be run overnight. Make sure you look into the Page Tools menu in the results because there's lots of good information there. It's free.

Google Insights for Search: This tool is from Google. There are no real search frequency numbers, only relative comparisons, but it's a great tool for trends, geo-targeting and news stories. It identifies breakout stories. It's free.

Time Fox: Online time and project tracking application with a good UI and zero training cost. You get free upgrades with no contract. Be careful of double booking yourself. You should track against an estimated cost. The cost is $35/mo + $5 per user.

Epiar Online Negative Keyword Tool: There is a one time fee of $189 with no subscription.

Lauren Vaccarello is up next. She's focusing on fast, cheap and easy tools.

Competitive Research Tools

Premium tool: Compete.com. There is a free version available but it's limited to 5 results. $200-500. Cheaper: SEMRush.com. The tool has a free version. Paid versions range from $20 to $500. Cheap: SEODigger. The tool is free. Cheap: Xinu. The tool is free and it also shows you social media campaigns that your competitors are doing.

Keyword Research Tools

Premium: Wordze. The cost is $40 a month. Cheap: SEOBook KW Tools. The tools are free. Cheap: Keyword Discovery

Link Development Tools

Premium: SEOMoz, Linkscape, Pro Tools Free: Comment Hunt. Don't spam. Free: RateItAll Promote. Don't spam, quality sites only. Free: Tattler. Scrape your competitors' backlinks. Free: GetListed.org. For brick and mortar stores. Free: Link Harvester from Linkhounds

Social Media Monitoring

Digg Alerter RSS feeds from Digg Tweetdeck: Prioritize your following list.

Reputation Management Tools

Premium: TrackUR. The cost is $18 a month. Free: Google Alerts Free: Keotag Free: MonitorThis

David Wallace presents next.

"Tools can never replace human ingenuity but they can make the job a human does a whole lot easier." [Too true, Dave.]

Dave also mentions Keyword Discovery, but he means the paid version. It's incredibly robust. It's $70 a month.

Domain Tool: HTTP Status Codes Checker Ranking Reports: These are going by the wayside but if someone still wants to see one, there are paid versions out there. LinkPopularity: Link Exchange Tool by SEO Administrator. It's a desktop tool that is part of a larger toolset. Most are pretty outdated and not useful, but this piece is. The tool shows if the link is present, what the anchor text is, and if it's followed or not. Allows you to export reports. Local Search: Again, we hear about GetListed.org. Man, is that a good tool.

WordPress plugins: All in One SEO Pack, HeadSpace, SEO Title Tag, DoFollow, Twitter Tools, and Math Comment Spam.

Stephan Spencer finishes up. His presentation is at http://www.netconcepts.com/learn/tools.ppt if you want to download it. I recommend that you do, since he goes much much faster than is humanly possible to recap and I'm not even going to try. That makes me smart, not lazy, in case you were wondering.

It's not written out in the presentation, but the first few tools are free until you hit the Internet marketing ninja tools. Those cost money, as do the ones following, though some have free versions.

The Social Media for Firefox tool looks awesome, btw.

Stephan goes way over time and it was pure tools the whole time. Go, download the presentation. You're welcome.

Q&A

I miss SEODigger, does anyone have a replacement?

Stephan: Hitwise. It's only tens of thousands of dollars.

...Everyone else is stumped.

What are your favorite keyword research tools for Canada, AU, SA and UK?

Lauren: Spyfu has a conversion.

Stephan: Google Adwords keyword tool.

Ken says something unintelligible.

How do you decide which tools to use?

Stephan: We have a lot of staff and we have specialists in different areas, so they all focus on different kinds of tools.

[Yes, but that's not what the question was. If you're just one guy, how to you pick which of the 100 tools to use? And they didn't even mention most of the tools in the world. They skipped the SEOToolSet altogether.]

What should we use to analyze log files?

Stephan: I wouldn't bother. I'd use a JavaScript solution like Enquisite.

Ken: Agrees with spending the money on Enquisite.

Steph an mentions that keyword prominence is more important than density. Agreed, we've made that change to our tools as well.

I'm going to find something warm. [shivers]

SMX West Keynote Conversation: John Battelle

Last day, first session and it's a good one. John Battelle sits down with Danny Sullivan to talk about search and other smart things. The livebloggers are out in force. We're adorably efficient.

Just in case you missed it, Google Japan was penalized for buying paid links by Google itself. Good times. John says that they're now in the sandbox. Dear John, jokes about the sandbox are so 2005.

Danny wants to start off talking about Google. He's mentions he's glad that the book is called "The Search" and not "Google". John mentions that the publisher wanted to call it "Google google google googley google" but they compromised.

When John started to write the book, he thought of Google as a media company and search as the largest intersection of technology and media in the world. John tried to convince Eric Schmidt that he had a media company on his hands. They only had 900 employees at the time, back in 2001, and the change has been extraordinary. He got to watch as they grew up to 10,000 and since then he's been watching from afar. They now have such an "ocean-boiling remit".

What does John think about the people who are worried that Google is encroaching on them?

The model of the Internet has a lot of presumptions that are totally different and anathema to the previous model. Using music as an example: Distribution and access to distribution, as well as access to the tools to create the media. Both of those used to be very expensive and now they're practically free. Napster was the Google of music. The music industry went through the seven stages of grief dealing with that. Now there's Amazon and iTunes without DRM so he thinks they're catching up. John thinks the newspaper industry is now going through the same thing. You have to learn how to make a buck while giving away your product. No one is going to pay for local newspapers anymore.

Should Google buy the newspapers?

There's a reasonable argument to be made that Google and Yahoo have benefited from the content that's been put on the Web by the traditional media companies. He thinks they've benefited even more by other sources (like us) [Does he mean SEOs? --Virginia] and none of us expect to be bought.

The newspaper model doesn't work very well anymore but what the newspapers do is worthy of saving. [Heck yeah it is! --Virginia] Newspapers keep the government honest and the people informed. And Google should be doing more to support that sort of fourth estate. He doesn't think that Google.com should buy the NYT but maybe Google.org should.

He thinks that the idea of journalism as a philanthropic organization makes people cringe. But that there is an argument there for that. It's hard to make a profit in straight news so it needs to be supported.

John predicts that Microsoft will pick up search share and Google will lose it.

How does he see that happen? He did an interview with Ballmer recently that made him believe that MSN is really serious. He thinks that they're going to grow by just buying search much like they bought distribution for Windows. It doesn't mean that they're going to keep the searchers if the product isn't good but their engine is getting better and better.

Every time he talks to someone at Google, this is their one worry -- that Microsoft will get into search. He doesn't think Microsoft is going to pass Google this year and won't predict when that might happen, if it does. He thinks that if it does happen, by anyone, that we're going to be measuring search by different parameters, like including YouTube as a search engine or using Shazam on the iPhone to identify songs. He thinks search is splintering into a million apps and someone is going to win that. Everyone would like to win that, should that occur. He thinks that it's going to take 10-15 years.

Search is still in the DOS era.

The first interface between man and machine was a completely non-grammatical language that no one (except geeks) bothered to learn. But that's how you communicated with a machine. Then came Windows and Mac and now you're at hunt and poke. It's like being in a foreign country where you don't know the language and so you just point and poke and people figure it out. The huge shift from there is the knowledge of the whole world being accessible. So now you need a new interface because pointing and poking isn't going to cut it.

However, Search is still at the command line and he thinks it's time for a new interface. Something natural language, it has to be natural language. He thinks this is why they launched Google411, so that they could build a database of phonemes. It's not going to talk back to you, there's no reason for it to do that.

Danny is taking a Twitter break. Hee.

So let's talk about Twitter.

He wrote a post based on Twitter called From Static to Realtime Search.

If you get to a critical mass of people telling you what they're doing, you're getting to a database of intentions, just like search, and now you have access to an insanely useful database. You can go to Twitter and do a search on a car you're planning to buy and see what people are saying. They've finally added a search toolbar onto Twitter.com so that you can do that. More than that, the actual 140 characters that you type in are in themselves a query.

He thinks the best reason to join twitter is ComcastCares. There's a massive opportunity there.

There's an important bridge to be made between SEM and traditional advertising.

At first, it was just the little guys. The n the big brands woke up to it and then the agencies woke up to it and they bought the search engines around at the time. There's no holistic practice -- it's all verticals. Search can't be a vertical, it needs to be an integral part.

They need to connect demand harvesting with demand creation. Demand creation is traditionally the realm of television but that doesn't mean it can't be search, and that needs to be tied in.

Television is an engaging media, when you watch American Idol, it's engaging. Now imagine the same experience online. We need to think about what engaging means online. It's where things are conversational. Digg is conversational. It needs to be that kind of media online. It needs to be invitational. You need to come to the dinner party, bring a bottle of wine, sit down and become part of the conversation.

His new book is going to be "The Conversation Economy" in order to look at what things are going to look like 10 years from now and how you join the conversation now. Comcast already does it, Dell does it.

[There's a lot to mine in this keynote. Hard to recap all of it. Really good job.]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 12, 2009

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MySpace Founder Bets on Facebook, But Only for the Next 2 Years

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Democracy news

SEO resources Feb 11

2009-02-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

Democracy news

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Up Close With YouTube

One last session before the end of day one. [Your wrists will be happy to hear that! --Virginia] Chris Sherman, Search Engine Land, moderates this video search panel. Speakers Drew Hubbard, The Search Agency, Matt Liu, YouTube, Google Inc., Jonathan Mendez, RAMP Digital, and JC Longbottom, Performics, will keep it interesting so that no one is tempted to run off early.

Matt Liu is up first. He's going to teach us how to get more people to watch our video. Excellent. Every minute, 15 hours of video are uploaded. YouTube is the fourth largest Web property and the second largest search engine.

Basics to improve video ranking:

Title, Description, Tags: accurate and descriptive, concise.
Descriptions should be complete sentences and unique, lots of detail, time, date, location.
Tag: "Include thorough descriptive keyword tags"and avoid keyword stuffing because they will penalize for it.

Community opinion:

Share videos with members of the community.
Experiment with annotations, video responses and thumbnails.
Avoid spamming video of other users or rating your own videos.

Embeds:

Embed videos on Web sites to make your videos more discoverable and easier to find on the web. They look at that as links, just like Google.

Insight - Analytics to Understand Audience

YouTube Insight gives you stats on your video. How it was discovered, what keywords were used, how your advertising (if any) worked out. Demographics data is provided as well.

Case Study: Weezer Pork and Beans

They found they had males wa tching in Silicon Valley who were TechCrunch readers. This enabled them to buy advertising on those sites when they did their next project.

Sponsored videos: Only US and English only. He mentions a couple of case studies where sponsored video had a great return.

JC Longbottom is adorable and from Performics. One of those is relevant. He's taking over for Eric Papczun. He says that luckily the PowerPoint presentation has a MacGuyver theme so he's going to MacGuyver his speech. I think I'm in love.

He shows a couple Super Bowl ads, just the usual. Then shows the MacGruber Pepsi ads which are A-MAZING. The real story is the online glory.

YouTube is a tremendous opportunity. It shows up in natural results and you get great traffic. The Pepsuber campaign was first marketed through the sponsored ads -- PepsiCo also advertised their related products on those keywords. Synergy! People were searching for a made up word, which made it even more likely to show up.

The most interesting thing was on their branded channel page. They pushed interactivity. They allowed people to make their own ads and let others vote and comment. They gave people many ways to share the content as well, not just the video but the whole page. From there, they led people to their own page, outside of YouTube.com that gave even more engagement.

Missed opportunity: Denny's Free Grand Slam

People went and searched for free breakfasts. They actually managed to crash Denny's Web site as a result. However, they didn't optimize it very well and they didn't create deeper engagement. It could have been better utilized.

Drew Hubbard is up next with some actionable stuff. Hurrah! He created a channel for this: SMX West 2009 on YouTube.

There are two opportunities for a hyperlink. One is to the site's domain and the other allows for a deep link in the description.

He repeats that you need keywords in your Title, Description and other tags. But keywords should also be in the title of your channel and in the keywords of your channel. You have a branding opportunity in your profile pic. Enable everything and allow people to participate and interact.

Use the word video in your title. People use it in their searches.

The description can include a hyperlink to a specific page: Put this first so that the viewer doesn't have to click "more".

YouTube pulls stills at the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 mark. Those are your thumbnails. Put something interesting there. It makes a HUGE difference.

The HTML Meta data is pulled from the Title, Description and tags for the video.

Google, for all practical purposes, doesn't see the video on the page. You need to have content that supports the video.

Use the caption and subtitles features. Make sure that you watermark your video, especially if you're allowing embedding.

Use the Google Maps integration, particularly for real estate and other local search.

Jonathan Mendez steps up to bring it all together. He says that his nephew immediately goes to YouTube for information, not even Google. The President of the United States now has a YouTube channel. It's really game-changing now.

YouTube Live: the peak was 700k views. 24 hour later it was 1.5 million. 2 months later it was 17 million views. By comparison Monday Night Football averages 11.8 million viewers a night. He speculates that in 6 years when the MNF contract comes up, it won't be that out of line for YouTube to bid.

The metrics available are better than Nielsen's. They can target so much better.

How do you build demand generation and awareness using video? Blendtec can tell you.

He goes through a case study featuring Gary Busey. His client wanted to sell to entrepreneurs. How this connects to Gary Busey... well, people watched. People picked up the Gary Busey story, John Mayer blogged about it and it took off.

Get the ball rolling.

He says that "The value of the Web is more in distribution and the delivery of content than the content itself."

50 people became customers as a result.

Success begins and ends with great content. Great content is a sustainable asset. Leverage distribution and measurement features.

Q&A

What do you use to publish to YouTube?

Drew: TubeMogul but... I think it kind of sucks. [No one else seems to know.] Anyone else have one?

Can you submit your video to Google to show up in blended results or does it have to be on YouTube?

Matt: It's just because YouTube is that largest right now. You don't have to be on YouTube to show up.

Drew: I've definitely noticed more sites showing up in the last four months.

For Google, what makes the videos show up in whatever position on Universal Search? What's the effect on the other search results?

Matt: I can't really comment but we're basically trying to make it a good user experience.

Jonathan: Gord at Enquiro has some really interesting eyetracking data.

What are video site maps and how do they differ?

Matt: He can't answer that.

Drew: They always recommend it. They're pretty much the same.

How do you embed a watermark?

Drew: You need to use editing software. [He also calls back to the "hire local journalism students" advice from the local session earlier.]

Matt: Annotations could be used that way.

What demographic data is available?

Matt: Age, gender, location. He can't comment in how they get the data.

What's the ROI versus traditional?

Matt: It is going to depend. We do see some differences internally but again, can't give details.

Anyone doing direct advertising on YouTube?

Jonathan: Not yet. I keep expecting to see something. It's a great testing platform and a hugely untapped opportunity.

Drew: I think there was something around the Snuggie. That went well.

The State of the Search Marketing Industry

Normally I skip the sponsored sessions but this one sounds promising. Gordon Hotchkiss and SEMPO are going to be presenting the results of their annual survey. Actual numbers are always great to have when people give me that funny look when I say I'm in SEO. There's a power strip up here so I'm set for the next hour.

We're mixing the questions in with the presentations and this session is going to be data heavy. Wish me luck.

SEMPO mission and objectives:

To promote the search industry.
To provide insight and understanding to search marketers.
To educate marketers about how to better use search.
To identify new opportunities in search marketing.
To create career opportunities for those working in search.
To create stronger relationships with the search publishers.

The survey is designed to:

Understand the size of the industry in order to help promote its growth.
Understand where marketer spending is going and where it's coming from.
Identify key industry trends and issues.

They also take into account secondary sources.

Top-Level Findings

Spending will grow to 26.1 Billion by 2013 in North America. There will be limited growth in the near term.
Google solidifies its reign as market leader. The gap continues to widen. 7/10 advertisers are still running Yahoo however.
Direct channel is still strong.
SEM is poaching budget from other marketing channels, especially offline marketing channels.
Advertisers are overwhelmingly interested in behavioral targeting opportunities.

Year-over-year findings indicate that search is starting to reach market maturity.

Organic SEO adoption is leveling off as almost every advertiser now uses these tactic.

Budget cannibalization is beginning to normalize, it's not having to poach as much.

Who are the respondents? 890 respondents, mostly in North America (75 percent). The UK made up 5 percent and everyone else was the rest. Most are agencies, most have less than 500 employees and most were making budget decisions.

Search Marketing in the Recession: Bullet Proof?

There was year over year growth but it did flatten out a bit. It did grow though. SEM growth will be driven by both its global reach and improved local services. The global recession depressed it, obviously, but advertiser demand, rising keyword pricing and CPC as well as eventual global recovery and growth will all grow the industry.

Conservative growth is expected in the next couple of years: 14.7 B in 2009, 16.7 in 2010, 19.8 in 2011, 23.1 in 2012.

Part of the challenge of projecting is that they can't change how they're measuring "what is search". They were dead on in their predictions for 2008 (about .2 billion off) but they've scaled back for 2009.

Advertisers feel greater price increases than agencies -- a change from 2006.

Two thirds of respondents said they would potentially tolerate further rises in paid placement prices -- down from three quarters in the previous year's survey. Nevertheless, they feel that we're reaching a price plateau.

Most people say that they're taking budget from print, then direct mail, Web development, TV advertisi ng, etc. (SEO is not considered Web development.)

54 percent plan to increase spending for SEM in the next year. Only about 14 percent plan to spend less. In actuality, what they see is that people are being very tentative and month-by-month about spending.

Only 40 percent plan to increase spending for SEO specifically. They're mostly trying to maintain continued spend.

Google is the most popular paid placement network, then Yahoo and Live search. Ask lost ground year over year.

Future of SEM Agency Model

The agencies who responded were mostly smaller, with less than 50 people. 44 percent had less than 10 people.

Agencies are much more optimistic about spend than advertisers are.

Half of 2009 page placement spending will be managed in house, not outsourced. 6 out of 10 planned to manage SEO in house entirely. 8 out of 10 planned to manage 80 percent or more in house. He thinks it would have been higher but it's slowing because of the economic situation.

Why not do it all in house? Most people said they didn't have enough time or the necessary tools. With SEO specifically, they thought that it was too hard to stay abreast of the best practices.

People want a holistic approach to search management, paid and organic in an integrated way.

Most agencies charge a flat fee for paid search management or a standard percentage (mostly less than 8 percent and it's rare to get 15 percent).

More than half (54 percent) of respondents said they were happy (moderately or very) with their SEM agencies. 46 percent were happy with their SEO agency. Almost half were mixed results.

Most agencies are all-around Internet marketing agencies now.

75 percent of companies train their employees in search marketing.

Future of Search

Behavioral targeting and retargeting is an emerging area. 75 percent of advertisers would bid more for behaviorally targeted ads.

Advertisers are split evenly on their willingness to bid more to reach specific demographics. Gord says that most people don't know what their demographics are so that might be why it's not as popular.

Video advertising: about 54 percent are interested. Google feels pretty bullish about it. YouTube is the number two search engine. More searches happen on YouTube than on Yahoo.

When is mobile going to happen? Survey says... flip a coin. Gord thinks there's a lot of fragmented functionality in mobile and that it's starting to come together. He thinks 2009 will be about user adoption and 2010/11 will be advertiser adoption. The wild card is Europe and Asia. They might just leapfrog the U.S.

Social Media

41 percent of advertisers have in-house staff promoting their brand on social media sites, 5 percent pay an agency for it. Most use Facebook, Digg and Delicious. StumbleUpon trails behind that.

64 percent of advertisers do not typically use contextual ads. Those who do aren't raving about it. Only 22 percent thought it was great. He thinks that's because people expect it to perform like search and it needs to be compared to display instead.

Local search is more accepted. 30 percent think it's great. Again, local search is dominated mostly Google and Yahoo, then YellowPages and SuperPages.

Most advertisers are allocating new funding for PPC and not just stealing it from other budgets. Senior execs are starting to get search as a corporate initiative. 85 percent of companies report that senior management is involved at least to some degree. SEO is still not a line item (unfortunately).

Paid search is pretty much not a tool-centric area. Mostly people use Excel.

Paid placement and organic SEO top the ROI and spend charts, so they are now matching spend to return. Finally.

On average, advertisers have 3 full time employees devoted to SEM.

[I think in most cases during this session, SEM means PPC and not PPC and SEO the way that Danny would like it to.]

Local Search Marketing Tactics

Lunch at SMX is always awesome but over too soon. There were mini cannoli. [Why must you make me even more jealous of your SMX West fun! --Virginia] We're back in sessions and this time it's about the all important local search. Speakers Scott Dunlap, NearbyNow, Inc., Matt McGee, Search Engine Land, William Scott, Search Influence, Atif Rafiq, Yahoo and Dennis Yu, BlitzLocal LLC will be joined by moderator Greg Sterling, Sterling Market Intelligence.

Greg says we're going to be talking about social media, blogging, stuff that's more than just maps.

Atif Rafiq is our last minute sub from Yahoo and he's up first. He manages the business functions of their local products. He's focusing on discoverability (making your business easier to find) and marketability (making it more relevant).

How to enhance discoverability?

Enhanced listings in Y! Local, proactively monitoring and verifying listing information
Enhancing profiles
Using SearchMonkey

Local queries are actually fairly complex, such as "hotel zaza brunch menu, Houston, TX". They have complex intent that needs to be responded to.

The traditional data sources for local are directory category trees. But emerging sources include direct feeds, third-party aggregation and Web crawling.

How do they do that? They're ad ding more structured data and leveraging large pools of unstructured data acquired via crawl, aggregation relationships and direct feed submissions (SearchMonkey) including mining reviews to correlate significant content enrichment. SearchMonkey doesn't affect rankings in general.

Local search is evolving with Web search.

SearchMonkey works in three ways:

Site owners/publishers share structured data with Yahoo.
Site owners and third-party developers build SearchMonkey apps.
Consumers customize their search experience with enhanced results or infobars.

Marketability

Geo-targeting (sponsored search) best practices:

Geo-target a campaign to a specific area: KW selection should include unmodified terms/ad copy should include location.
National campaigns: KW selection to include geo-modified terms. Ad copy to include location. If KWs have multiple locations through the country, include the state too.
Improved ad content: Integrate offers and promotions.
SearchMonkey: Include official URLs and images

There are three principle drivers and responses:

Increasing user sophistication: Getting found is not as simple as being labeled in the right directory category.
Ad product mix: Sponsored search will connect the demand with supply, relevance and performance focus.
Channel strategy: Intermediaries required to reduce complexity, aggregate inventory, integrate programs.

Will Scott is the next speaker. He's with Search Influence and they work for mostly small- and medium-sized businesses.

Barnacle SEO: attaching once to a large fixed object and waiting for the customers to float by in the current.

What is local search?

It's location specific.
It's often for goods and services.
It often leads to offline purchase.
Local is different depending on:
- Urgency
- Service type
- Demographics/geograp hy
Local search is long tail search.

Small businesses have small budgets, are risk averse and need quick proof of ROI. Local works for them.

Where is local search happening?

On the map, below the map, on vertical sites. Be in all those places and you can end up taking over the search results when your listing ranks on many different sites. [I wish you could see these search results.]

Do I have to have a Web site for local SEO?

No, you don't. [Um...] You can promote your business in the yellow pages, local directories, etc. Links aren't critical, the correlating factors are name, address and phone number. Some of the most trusted sites can actually be bought.

Yahoo local -- you must be hereCitysearch.com Superpages.com Insiderpages.com -- ranks wellYelp.com Yellowpages.com Brownbook.com Merchantcircle.com -- ranks well

GetListed.org should be your first stop.

Maximize local listing with SEO. Use keywords in titles and copy. Get links to your local profiles -- even low quality links will work. Leverage social bookmarking and directories. Authority sites always respond well to targeted links.

[It's okay to slow down, guys. Really.]

Dennis Yu steps up.

How do you geo-multiply without getting penalties?

Use PPC: geo plus the keyword = new keyword! Figure out which of your keywords and geo sites are the most trafficked and only combine those. Ignore the low volume ones. Run them and delete the ones that aren't getting traffic.

Call tracking and recording is important.

Yahoo! has PPC and local listings but don't discount SSP and Yahoo! Local Featured and Enchanced Listings (paid version) -- medical and legal tend to work pretty well.

Encourage folks to link to you using geo-modified terms.

You should piggy-back on local brands -- share links with related businesses.

Social is great for local. It's heavily viral but you need to consider who the audience is. The cost is low because the competition is low right now. He's got one client who, using Facebook Ads, has served 2.3 million impressions, spent less than $1000 and gets the same ROI as PPC targeted ads just because of the lower competition. The targeting isn't there but it's cheap enough that it doesn't matter.

Facebook and MySpace don't have APIs yet so you have to create a bunch of different accounts.

Use Twitter for local branding. Create backgrounds for people that they can customize and just promote yourself that way.

How do you optimize for all of your locations without creating geo-replaced pages that get penalized? Enlist the community to review and rate the locations in order to give them unique content.

Do video, and do it cheap by getting local journalism students. [Hee.]

Awesome guy and U2 guru Matt McGee is talking about hyperlocal blogging. He co-authors four local blogs. His wife is a real estate agent but this isn't just for real estate agents. It's content that anyone can create -- big local news and events.

His blogs: Richland Real Estate, Pasco Real Estate, Kennewick Real Estate, West Richland Real Estate. Most of the posts aren't about real estate, they're about local events but that brought traffic.

A post that did well was about Circuit City closing down. There were pictures, content and a little bit of a story and they got a tenfold increase in traffic as a result.

Here's another example. Leann Rimes was coming to TRAC -- the story was about a big star at a unique venue. It ended up being a local blog post that was only three paragraphs long but it brought great traffic.

Hyperlocal news: Hyperlocal is neighborhood level -- stuff that's too small for the media. They had a local pool closing down for the summer so they blogged about that and got little bits of traffic from the post.

It's not all about real estate. Anyone can do this.

Why does it work?

Growing interest in local stuff online -- people aren't using the yellow pages as much.<.li>
Traditional media is declining and they didn't cover a lot of it when they had full staff.
Local Web sites are often lacking information.
Search engines love good blogs.

Tips:

Write about local stuff -- not real estate search, not lawyer search, local search.
Use photos and video.
Think ahead -- like the Leann Rimes show, it wasn't going to be on the usual sources.
Do basic SEO.
Don't overdo self-promotion -- for them it's been an indirect marketing method.

HyperlocalBlogger.com has a post with more info.

Scott Dunlap jokes that he's got a local blog that gets more traffic than his company site. He's up next and he's going to teach us about tracking. It's a multi-channel opportunity.

[His slides have a lot of text on them because he hates me. Or because he want s you to print them off and take them with you. One or the other.]

The problem:

How do local shoppers find us? Can't convert online -- most want to try it on/out first.

Nearby now is focused on getting local data out. It geo-locates product data for 60,000+ stores. It sends unique feeds to Google, Yahoo, etc., to attract local shoppers.

They have a way to check inventory for a searcher using a concierge service. They do the calling for you and will contact you back to tell you where to find your item, who to talk to, how much it is. Very cool.

What works and what doesn't?

Lucky Magazine causes selling spikes. They created an iPhone application for them where you can peruse all 100+ shoes in the spring shoe guide, geo-locate and find the closest store that has your size. Concierge teams call, sends e-mail/text "claim check" to pick up.

Mobile customers want to find it "nearby" in general. Online searches tend to be about equal. Only in the electronics products does it cause cannibalization to add a "find it nearby" button to a product page.

Methods that work:

Send them a claim check -- you can include a fake bar code
Coupon code
Bar code
In-store bar code
Post-purchase consumer survey

Benefits:

If you account for in-store sales, most online programs will double conversion.
Adding "find local" to banner/search ads has little effect on online conversion.

Q&A

What's the poor man's version of the concierge service?

Scott: Call tracking works. Write about 20 lines of code and collect an email address. Send "claim checks" in order to increase tracking so they feel compelled to take it with them.

How long is the local search query on Yahoo?

Atif: Three to four words but the long tail queries are the most effective. Category, modifier, locations.

When you're doing your binge and purge on combinations, how long do you wa it?

Dennis: It depends on volume. If you have a lot, you might be able to do it every few days. He makes the head the top 20 terms and the rest the tail. You can say "I'm going to make the top 20 whatever gets me the 100 clicks in a rolling 30-day period."

What percentage of searches are local? What percent of searches get completed online?

Greg says it depends on how you define local search. If it doesn't have a geomodifier, is it still local? ComScore says about 16 percent. 90 percent of conversions are online. Service businesses are almost entirely offline. Atif says it could be upwards of 25 percent. Greg says it's about using the Internet to influence your offline life.

Matt McGee likens social media to joining the chamber of commerce. Why does everyone tell you to join the chamber of commerce? Because it's community, it's networking. That's the point of social media.

How do you do local search SEO without a Web page?

Will: WordPress.com is a good solution for that. Spend $200 bucks to direct a custom domain, make it ad free, get a CSS developer to make it custom. The end. Also put your Twitter profile and your Facebook page on every single mailer you send out.

Final takeaways:

Scott: Download every single presentation from this conference, especially if you didn't go to the session.

Matt: The long tail of local search is huge.

Will: The chances of you ever having the strength of Yahoo or InsiderLocal are low. Use their strength.

Dennis: Make people embrace you.

Integrating Search & Offline Marketing Campaigns

With all that Matt Cutts has said about how search marketers have to become Internet marketers in general, it's equally true that online marketers can't ignore the offline world. Thankfully we have speakers Jason Clement from Wieden + Kennedy, Andrew Wheeler from iProspect, and Marty Weintraub from aimClear along with moderator Sara Holoubek a consultant, columnist and member of the SEMPO Board of Directors to make that task a little clearer.

Andrew Wheeler is up first to present data from iProspect's most recent survey. He wants to know if we're football fans. Nope. But he's drawing a parallel between the integration of players and the integration of search.

Search doesn't exist in a vacuum. Integration matters. It's been a message for awhile now. But is anyone doing it?

67 percent of search engine users are driven to search by an offline channel. 39 percent convert.

They interviewed 289 search marketers in April and June 2008. There were three objectives: uncover the extent of search and offline marketing, discover the techniques in use and uncover problems.

55 percent of marketers are integrating search and offline methods. Most are doing so through direct mail (35 percent) followed up by newspaper ads. There's a big disconnect between search engine strategy and search engine use. The lack of coordination and integration is attributed to many different sources but mostly because of budgets and lack of human resources. 24 percent of companies aren't advertising offline at all.

Integration that is done: 84 percent use their Web address prominently and company name prominently. 41 percent are using the same colors. Only 25 percent use the same keywords online and offline.

How do you get started with integration? Your CMO needs a plan. But more than that, you need to go to your offline cou nterparts with your ideas and figure out how to work together.

Ann Cafferty Pyle is up next. She has a case study from Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Their main site drug-free.com is basically just a portal to their other properties but it's the main site that gets the TV branding. Their challenge is to get people from the offline branding to get to the right place online. [Hmm... That's not their only challenge. I don't know if I'd stick around a page like that very long. --Virginia]

They use search to bring searchers to the right place for their specific needs, targeting specific audiences and capitalizing on current events. They also support other online and offline efforts in social media.

Keyword relevancy is key to success across online and offline integration. TimeToTalk.org is optimized for "talking with kids about drugs". They coordinated with the PR firm to use the same phrase in the offline ads.

They target terms to the audience. Some were targeted at teens, some at parents. Some were umbrella terms, in which case they deliver them to a page that will allow them to self-select their message.

They use current events. When Heath Ledger died because of prescription drugs, they issued press releases and blogged about it, using the event to open up their message to raise awareness.

They also work with social media. They have Twitter, a YouTube channel, etc. They want to push their brand as the leading resource for drug abuse help and treatment.

Key points:

Focus on relevant tailored keywords.
Optimize all available properties.
Leverage all online media (natural, paid, social).

Marty Weintraub steps up and mentions his Twitter account, @aimclear. He's also liveblogging for SERoundtable. As I recall he's a bit of a rogue as a speaker.

They did a campaign that was intentionally designed to perplex people. They were trying to do food distribution. Their idea was to send people to stores with coupons for things that the stores didn't sell yet. (Um.) They used a geotargeted campaign, hitchhiked on direct brand searches for the stores they were targeting. They were very careful about getting high quality scores and making their PPC ads very usable.

They also targeted vanity searches in order to court the C-level execs in order to get them to order from their distributor client.

They did a viral geo-locator to send requests from users to the grocers to carry the products.

They got a 40 percent jump in new stores carrying their products. The distributer ended up making $15-20 million more a year.

"Have I creeped you out?" Yes, Marty. You have.

Jason Clements wraps things up for us. He says we're too focused on the "safety net" effect. You do your offline stuff and search is supposed to catch all those people. There's a step further though. It's got to be more than just buying the keywords around the ad.

People like mystery. People want to find stuff and dig a little deeper. They love finding stuff and figuring it out.

Wieden + Kennedy's first office had a note in the drawer: "Don't act big, no sharp stuff, follow directions and shut up when someone else is talking." Heh.

Converse capitalized on the need to search by doing their search engine spelling bee.

Wieden + Kennedy is behind the Old Spice Swagger campaign. They created a page that will "swaggerize" your search result (via writing articles about you.) It's beyond just connecting ads to search, it's affecting search.

Sara wants to know how Google felt about it. Jason: "Google was really excite d about it until we did it." Hee!

Q&A

Are you using offline media to choose keywords or crafting keywords into the offline media?

Sara: They're crafting keywords into the offline media but it's difficult because they work with agencies doing pro-bono work. Their goal is awareness, primarily.

How did search get to be important in the mix?

Marty: It changes.

Andrew: It used to be that we'd see a huge online push and they'd have to go back and find out there was an offline push. Now they're working more closely with the offline people to coordinate efforts.

What does search have to offer and how do you prove your worth?

Andrew: Data. We have tons of data and flexibility.

Marty: [He raised his hand. Aw.] It comes down to one really talented person in the company to marshal all the resources and get everything organized. Inside a company, you can learn this yourself and change the company.

Ann: It's really important to make the other teams understand that we're flexible, that we get their objectives and we're willing to work with them.

Jason: Search guys do a really bad job of promoting themselves.

How significant has search become for Wieden + Kennedy?

Jason: We try to incorporate it in everything that we do. It's going great, it's working really well. It's the right time.

For Marty: Can you give us more details about your campaign? It was very complex.

Marty: The PPC cost $36,500 total over 8 weeks. Labor was much more. They had 7 people total working on it in their office (4 on location, 3 remote). They also had two legal firms, a PR agency, a digital ad agency and a social company. He doesn't think it was all that expensive in the end. It all works without a lot of moving parts too.

Put the phone number on the upper left so that they can click on it in their BlackBerry. (Good tip.)

For Jason: You went from search to traditional; what were the success metrics then and now?

Jason: They have different ideas of success. Traffic was a metric, but "did it make Old Spice cool again?" was the other one. We want to be part of the conversation and not overwhelm it. [Someone asks a follow up that I can't hear because he's not speaking into the mic. The answer is just, "Yeah."]

Marty: Our clients like "dollars per minute".

Are you willing to take revenue share? Do you stand behind your work?

Jason: Heck yeah, we'll take rev share. Sounds like a great idea to me.

Tips on best practices for URLs in a print ad?

Jason: Skip the URL in the ad altogether. Go for the brand name instead. Search is navigational.

Andrew: Include the URL but keep it on your main URL, don't go for a microsite.

Marty: It works all different ways. Depends on the application. Vanity domains work well.

Ann: The shorter the URL, the better.

Sara: Dynamic landing pages really change the game, right?

Is offline really driving the search engine strategies or is it just driving navigation?

Jason: Yeah, I think they're navigational searches if they're coming off an ad. They're either navigational or transactional.

Andrew: Definitely depends on the campaign and the power of the brand. It's hard to say what someone is going to take away from an ad.

Marty asks Jason how they get from creation to execution. Jason says they're creatively led and that it changes. They like to present search demographic data upfront and give them new insights.

Ann says they're trying to be seen as a partner, not just a vendor and they think they're getting there. Jason says that you want to be the piece of the puzzle that gets called before two days before launch. Andrew thinks that search has a larger role at the table than it did before. They have a client who used search data to make plans for the year.

SMX West Keynote Kickoff - Danny Sullivan

Okay, so for some reason, I can't get the wireless to work down here in the session rooms so, you know, that's awesome. I'm just going to eat my bagel, thoughtfully provided by the good people of SMX for the press room. Music: How Bizarre. Based on my morning, this is appropriate.

Danny gets introduced like a rock star by Chris Elliot but immediately turns it over to the biggest search geek contest. BC friend Keri Morgret won! Applause for Keri! She gets a shiny trophy thing and possible weapon.

Now it's time for the keynote so let's get down to business.

Danny starts off with pictures of his super cute little boys. "Even though they disappoint you sometimes it doesn't mean you don't love them." Which of course segues to... heh, the search engines. Google, Yahoo and Live aren't his kids but he still loves them dearly (and probably spends more time with them than his own kids). Even though he gets disappointed with them sometimes, he still loves them.

He shows the averaged scores of search share for each of the big three -- Google is in the high 60s, Yahoo's under 20, Live's around 10 percent. Search growth over the last couple of years shows that Yahoo was close for a while but Google took off about mid-2005.

Google is an addiction -- a deserved addiction, Danny says. They have a good product, love search, they have great signals to mine for data and their business strategy is to work in the users' interest. (He references his article The Google Hive Mind.)

What's the downside of the habit? There's no reason to switch. The competition is a mess. Google is stronger than ever and it's making them a target.

Danny's wishes for Google:

Show real-time CPC for ads -- this is part of why Yahoo-Google scared advertisers.
Tell publishers what the AdSense split is -- this would help the content producers understand their value.
Solve map spam issues.
Think carefully before moving further into Google-hosted content -- it worries people that they're looking to take over instead of just indexing.

Yahoo is the little engine that should've. If Google is Coke and Yahoo is Pepsi, then Microsoft is RC Cola pointing and laughing at Yahoo for not being as big as Google and Yahoo believes it.

Yahoo needs to overcome leadership disarray, loss of talent and the "mojo" factor. They've thrown search to the wolves in order to survive. Google tried to catch it and wasn't allowed, Microsoft isn't giving up their desire to acquire Yahoo Search.

Danny's wishes for Yahoo:

Restore faith in Search if possible.
Keep innovating.
- SearchMonkey, Search Pad
Enough with the "open" solution -- not everything has to be "open" and social. It just needs to be good.
Don't do stupid things like angering your advertisers.

Time for a game!

What is Google's main product? (Someone says money, someone says advertising. Finally someone says Search and Danny goes with that.) Official answer: search, ads and apps.

What's Microsoft's main product? Someone says "release bugs into the environment". Hee! Danny was looking for Software and Services.

His point is that they aren't focused on search and they're battling a company whose entire focus is search. They need to m ake search a priority.

Danny's wishes for Microsoft:

Love search and show us that you love it.

We're rooting for you. (No, really, show of hands say that we are.) People really want to see that there is a real competitor of Google. The search product people are awesome and in love with search but the corporation needs to love it too. Even Google wants Microsoft to do well because people are scared of a Google monopoly and because they know that competition pushes them.

Pick a brand! Microsoft MSN Windows Live is not a good brand.

Do the hard things too. Giving up on book search too. Google didn't and now they have a really nice product.

No one knows who the most relevant search engine is, not really. If everyone is the same, no one will ever leave Google. We need trusted stats that might help us see where Microsoft is better. It'll help Google stay competitive too.

We need a bucket of key stats:

Share of searches
Volume of searches
Number of unique searchers
Number of search sessions

We need agreements on types of searches that are counted (local, game-related, etc.).

Can we all just kill the concept of a Google killer? No start up is going to kill Google, not in the next couple of years anyway. Bigger doesn't make you better: Cuil played that card and lost hard. Natural language search isnt' the silver bullet, Powerset tried that. YouTube was the closest and Google acquired that.

Competition is going to be many little companies, not just one big killer.

Time to talk Twitter. Twitter Search is great. Hee, "How many of you are twittering this very second? Thank you for paying attentio n."

Earthquakes, political reactions, etc. It's all instant feedback that really makes a difference.

Google and Yahoo should be offering Twitter search. Urbanspoon has amazing amounts of data that Google can't get and can't replicate. Eventful is another example of things that Google can't do. He has more examples: Upcoming (also events), Yelp (Google Maps is growing in the local space but they're not there yet).

The problem with little companies with different specialties is that it's hard to remember them all even if they've been acquired. As a search marketer, you need to capitalize on the opportunities they provide.

Googlettes: YouTube, Google Blog Search, Google Maps

Danny preaches the gospel of engagement objects: do less PR chasing and think more about adding videos and taking advantage of the alternate avenues to get into Google.

Google's way out front in terms of personalization and localization. No one else is there yet but they're coming along. "Ranking reports are dead" says Danny and people are finally getting that. They're dead because they're no indication of how you're getting traffic and because you're fighting on a thousand different fronts.

SEO still has a reputation management problem. Just today John Dvorak slammed SEO (just like Seth Godin in 04, Mary Hodder in 05, Calacanis in 07, Shoemoney in 08, AmEx open forums in 08...) for being worthless and shady and snake oil salesmen. (Danny notes that real snake oil is actually an effective treatment used in China.)

There are things that you can and should be doing to on-page con tent and for search architecture. Maybe a name change is needed.

Danny's plea:

Forget the black hat/white hat thing. Just don't be a "crap hat". Don't do the crap stuff. Off-topic link drops, automated link insertions. It's all just crap. (Says so right on the slide. And because I've liveblogged it, it's now "livebloggiality". Hee.)

Just say no to crap. And tell others to say no. Make it like racist jokes, don't put up with it. Enough crappy MP3 sites, comment spamming, god knows what else. Just enough. Be leaders. Grow up and if it's money you're leaving on the table, leave it.

Danny and Jessica Bowman (and based on the conversation Scott Polk and I had yesterday, not just them) think there's a rise in in-house search marketing. Agencies should think about how to support them.

SEM is not PPC. SEO is organic, unpaid traffic. Paid search/PPC is paid traffic from search. SEM is a combination of both. [Yes! This! Please.]

The future of search in the financial crisis and search: it's still hard to say how hard it will hit. There's conflicting reports of spend-pull backs but also continued support. We're just going to have to watch and see. If things do become tighter, analytics become more crucial.

Danny's writing a book this year, covering the topic of search marketing from a high level. He is going to cover how it differs from other types of advertising and marketing. It'll be meant for those who still don't get search and search marketing. Stay sharp because Danny's going to want your stories and case studies. You're living the book. He wants search marketing to be as respected as Super Bowl ads.

Be proud of what you do!

Search marketing is awesome.

Daily Search Forum Recap: Febru ary 10, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

Monetizing Mobile: Google Launches AdSense for Mobile Search

by Rene LeMerle Building on the initial AdSense for Mobile launched back in Sept 2007, Google have just unveiled their new mobile AdSense product. AdSense for Mobile Search, as it’s been labeled, is aimed squarely at mobile network operators and mobile website owners. The new offering will allow them to embed a Google search box on their [...]

Live Coverage of Up Close With YouTube at SMX West

Below is live coverage of the Up Close With YouTube from SMX West 2009 conference. This coverage is provided by both Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable. We are using a live blogging tool to provide the...

Live Coverage of Expert Technical Review of Your Website at SMX West

Below is live coverage of the Expert Technical Review of Your Website from SMX West 2009 conference. This coverage is provided by Keri Morget of Morgret Designs. We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage....

Live Coverage of Diagnosing Web Site Architecture Issues at SMX West

Below is live coverage of the Diagnosing Web Site Architecture Issues from SMX West 2009 conference. This coverage is provided by both Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable and Keri Morgret of Morgret Designs. We are using...

Google Officially Syncs with Mobiles

Although some third-party apps have provided these capabilities for a while, yesterday Google announced an official product to sync your phone with your Google products. Google Sync (in beta) (duh) coordinates your phone with your Google Calendar and your Google Contacts. The new app allows you to push changes to your calendar and contacts from [...]

Live Coverage of Marketer to Developer Translation at SMX West

Below is live coverage of the Marketer to Developer Translation from SMX West 2009 conference. This coverage is provided by both Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable and Keri Morgret of Morgret Designs. We are using a...

John Dvorak - a Good Example of Why Many Media Companies Deserve to go Bankrupt

John Dvorak wrote what is perhaps one of the more ignorant articles about SEO I have seen in quite a while.

Live Coverage of Technical SEO Issues For Developers at SMX West

Below is live coverage of the Technical SEO Issues For Developers from SMX West 2009 conference. This coverage i s provided by Keri Morgret of Morgret Designs. We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage. We...

Live Coverage of Up Close With Google Maps & Local at SMX West

Below is live coverage of the Up Close With Google Maps & Local from SMX West 2009 conference. This coverage is provided by Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable. We are using a live blogging tool to...

Democracy news

SEO resources Feb 10

2009-02-09T22:26:00.001-08:00

Holiday Rentals

Scary Findings Show SEO is Misunderstood. Now What?

About a week ago I was asked by Armagdo Roggio at Practical eCommerce what I thought about the findings of a survey his organization had conducted. The statistics made my head spin, and ever since then I've been biting my nails just waiting for the story to be published so I too could write about it. The wait is finally over!

Throughout January, Practical eCommerce asked readers if they're optimizing their site for search, how successful their SEO efforts have been, and some questions to gauge their understanding of SEO best practices. The findings of the survey were reported by Armando in his article Survey of the Month: SEO is Both Important and Misunderstood.

So I figure everyone reading is on board with the first part about how SEO is important. And it's probably safe to assume that a good number of online retailers might not fully get SEO. But that's an understatement if you believe the answers submitted by the 117 ecommerce merchants who participated in the survey.

Here is what Practical eCommerce found:

92 percent of merchants surveyed said SEO is part of their current marketing efforts.Awesome! All the hard work that's been done in the industry to spread the word about the importance of search engine optimization has finally been recognized!

69.5 percent of merchants surveyed said that purchasing links is a somewhat effective SEO tactic.Hmmm... Maybe there's a bit of a disconnect between credible search marketing advice and online retailers. Sure, advertising links can have some positive effect on SEO goals, but it's a tricky tacti c that should be approached carefully to stay in line with search engine guidelines.

53.9 percent of merchants surveyed believe keyword stuffing is a somewhat effective SEO tactic.Whoa there! Were the phrases "keyword stuffing" and "effective SEO" just used in the same sentence? Danger Will Robinson! Something has gone terribly wrong.

You can read my initial response to the findings within the article. My guess is that thanks to the do-it-yourself culture that's evolved on the Internet, site owners are eagerly looking for SEO tactics they can perform on their own. As a result, long-reprimanded tactics are being mistaken for sound advice by those new to search engine optimization. My theory is supported by the fact that only 25 percent of respondents had ever hired an SEO professional to help them and many believe that there is enough info available for free to do a good job without professional help or training.

That said, I'm curious to know what the SEO community thinks about these findings, so I've created my own little poll. You'd make me the happiest little blogger in the whole wide blogosphere if you let me know:

I've never used PollDaddy before, so hopefully this works as planned. I've included "other" as a response so you can fill in your own answers, but if that doesn't work please share your ideas in the comments!

The Integration of Media & Public Relations

A blog post on the merging of media, public relations, and freemium business models.

Interview of Andrew Goodman, the World's #1 Google AdWords Expert

We recently interviewed Andrew Goodman about the world of AdWords, and peanut butter! :)

Protect Your Brand Before It's Too Late

Deserved or not, sometimes a single negative review or mention can taint a brand for a long time. When these negative reviews come over the Internet—and especially when they make the first page of the SERPs—their impact can become even more devastating. VP-client strategy at EWI Worldwide Keith Goldberg recounts one such incident today at [...]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 9, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and othe r search forums on the web....

Pre-Ordered the Kindle 2

Let's hope this thing is as great as it looks.

Analysis of the Little Gordon Campaign for Caterer.com

By Kevin Palmer One of my favorite things about social media is to see how marketers use it and to examine the strategies that are behind a campaign. Last fall Totaljobs Group Ltd ran a campaign for one of their properties Caterer.com. The concept of the campaign was a video series about Little Gordon (videos contain [...]

In Search of the Perfect Page: Google Offers Insight into SERP Testing

By Peter Young One of the best things about Google is the simplicity of its search results pages—clean, generally uncluttered and logical. Over the last couple of years these pages have seen some significant changes as Google bring new technologies to the table, with first Blended Search and more recently SearchWiki revelutionising the way we use [...]

Link Building 101, Part 2

Last week, we looked at on-site linking best practices. Today, we'll look at off-page factors, with five methods you can start using right now to build links. ...

4 Ways That Facebook Can Make Big Money

Facebook celebrated its fifth birthday last week with 150 million of its closest friends. Today, I give my gift to Facebook: four ways to make some big money this year. ...

Digging for Google and Avoiding the Hate

The Digg community s hatred of SEO and SEOs is legendary unfortunately so is their power to generate traffic. Many postings even get noticed in Google generating more traffic and potentially boosting a web site s SERPs. So how do you conduct a campaign without getting buried and ridiculed The answer is that you don t look like you re conducting a campaign. Keep reading for some advice.... The All-New Adobe Creative Suite 4 Now Shipping: Adobe CS4: tools to help students express their ideas in video, on the web, or print.

Google Gives Some AdSense Publishers More Channels (500 Total)

Jennifer Slegg reported that Google AdSense has increased the number of channels for AdSense publishers by an addition 300, adding up to a total of 500 channels. Channels give publishers a way to segment their ads and track them for...

How Might Search Engines Detect Paid Links

Marie Claire wrote at David Harry's blog a technical piece named Hunting for paid links; a technical review. In that piece, he goes through some of the ways a search engine may detect paid links. As many of you know,...

Google Maps Print Button Stops Working For Many

Let's add this to the list of Google bugs we have been reporting about in the past week or so. A Google Maps Help thread has confirmed reports from Google that their "print" button on Google Maps is not working...

Should Google Search Suggestions Show Adult Suggestions?

A Google Web Search Help thread has an annoyed searcher who is upset Google's search box offers search suggestions for "youpron" when you type in the word "you." The easy solution is to turn off search suggestions in your search...

Google AdWords Bug Automatically Turns On Automatic Matching

Disgruntled Google AdWords advertisers noticed a few days ago that Google automatically turned on "automatic matching" on their campaigns. The first reports seem to have come in at WebmasterWorld on Thursday. Here is one post showing their distaste for such...

Google Adsense Preview Tool Goes Offline For Few Days

The Google Adsense Preview Tool has been bugging out for the past few days, only returning to normal just a day or so ago. First reports came from Google AdSense Help forums on Thursday, February 5th. Google noticed the complaints...

SEO resources Feb 9

2009-02-09T02:12:00.001-08:00

Democracy news

Aggregating Social Media: Best Buy Connect

Whether you think “social media” is an overused term (yes, it is) or it’s a fad, or the evolution and revolution of the web, you don’t have to look far anymore for abundant examples of how companies, organizations and the U.S. Government are going social. Social media can involve a variety of platforms and media ranging [...]

LinkBait Launch Cycle

How to launch link bait, and ensure you get attention.

Democracy news

SEO resources Feb 6

2009-02-06T06:48:00.001-08:00

Daily MP3 Links

Google's Search Box Stops Working for Some Firefox Users

Sometime yesterday, Firefox 2.x users were unable to use Google's search box, as they typically do. They would go to Google.com, enter in a search query and hit enter. Then nothing would happen. Really, nothing would happen. There is a...

Show Images In Google News Results

Having images show up in Google News can be very beneficial in getting searchers to click over and read what you have to say. The more visually appealing content and images you have in your articles, the better your chance...

Is The Economy Taking A Toll on AdSense Publisher Earnings?

Many, many Google AdSense publishers are complaining about a drop in earnings from their Google AdSense initiatives. A long and detailed thread at WebmasterWorld has a lot of complaints from publishers on the topic. There is no question that ad...

Google AdSense Testing New Ad Format With Larger Search Box

Google AdSense might be testing a new ad format. We have a few reports of publishers noticing this new format from DigitalPoint Forums. Here is a look at the new format: This seems to be a fairly interactive ad box....

Google News Crawl Issues a Bug with Google

If you recently noticed that your News site is spewing errors in Google Webmaster Tools, under the "Diagnosis" - "News Crawl" reports, do not worry. A Google News Help thread has confirmed reports from Google, that this is just a...

3 Phases of Search Marketing Integration

While I drove home from the office last night I listened to radio. I can't remember the commercial, the product or the URL, but I remember that at one point on my journey, while listening to an ad, I made a mental note to check out the Web site of the advertiser. It obviously never happened.

That was anticlimactic, I know. But it made my point. There's a lot to be said for integrating your online and offline marketing channels. But which offline marketing channels, and how?

Phase 1: Integration Affirmative

The coveted Super Bowl ad spot is a hot commodity that seems to have easily crossed the bridge between marketing channels. But if you don't have $3 million handy, all is not lost. Vanessa Fox examined GoDaddy's go at a winning Super Bowl ad. It turns out, the combination of Danica Patrick and more than 98 million hyped football fans brought GoDaddy's new orders up 110 percent! Vanessa also points out that GoDaddy has other videos in the same campaign available online and wisely stuck with their own brand rather than devoting time to branding a microsite.

Phase 2: Integration Potential

I'm not the only one eager to find opportunities for newspapers to get a better grasp on new media. Video optimizers ReelSEO have published a whitepaper about how video optimization is a chance for newspaper publishers to gain user engagement and revenue. I can't think of an industry -- other than the banks, and the auto makers, and real estate (hmm... am I even making a point anymore?) -- more hard pressed to get back to its former glory. It looks like integrating video into their content model could be part of the answer because there's a big demand for video and online ad spend is climbing.

Phase 3: Integration Horizons

Unlike newspapers, radio is in a different sort of sticky situation. Like my beloved newspapers, radio is clawing to maintain relevance in the face of the flashy, shiny and new technologies that just won't quit. Unless a site name is paired with a catchy jingle, I'm sorry to say the chances of me remembering the URL from the radio are slim. Not that I don't love the music and the occasionally LOL-worthy DJ banter, but the ability to instantly reach out to the consumer is missing.

But what if it wasn't?

The smart folks over at TechCrunch are working on a prototype touch screen Web tablet. Think of the possibilities! If your TV and tablet could be synced up, the ad playing on the television could put a link on the tablet, letting viewers go straight to the advertiser's site or even the particular product. For radio users the tablet could display nearby stores.

Of course most businesses aren't able to invest in TechCrunch's CrunchPad technology, but they're certainly able to take advantage of the offline-online synergy available now. There's so much evidence that supports how great offline marketing can be for driving online traffic, and vice versa. Make sure to look for the opportunities that fit your market and your message. Focus on getting the basic integration down pat and then don't be afraid to venture into unfamiliar spaces.

3 Ways Our Government is Using Social Media

by Regis Hadiaris In a recent

Dude - where's my Pagerank?

I know, I know - who cares about page rank? But still - this does mean something - I just have no idea what.

True Internet Marketing Icons / How Online Marketing Works

Do you have what it takes to become an internet marketing icon? Find out right now.

Online Video Viewing Surges While Google Continues to Capitalize

comScore released its December online video viewing statistics yesterday. According to the report, December was record setting for the online video industry, reporting a growth of 13% over Novem ber in U.S. online video viewing. YouTube capitalized on that gain, accounting for 49% of the gain. This increase further distances YouTube from its competitors. According to comScore [...]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 5, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

Microsoft Premieres Celeb Site, Wonderwall

No word yet on whether champagne supernovae were served at red carpet event.* Microsoft’s latest last-ditch-looking effort actually looks pretty good, as BoomTown notes. Today they unveil a new celebrity site, Wonderwall, with subtle MSN branding, a cool layout and plenty of ad space. The site was designed by BermanBraun Interactive. Its main showcase, shown [...]

Stalk Your Friends with Google's Latitude

Seriously—do you know where your friends are right now? Do you want to know? Because with Google’s new Latitude mobile app, you can access the GPS information in your participating friends’ phones. And lest you think Google is making it hard for you to keep tabs on your friends’ every move, they’re [...]

IM Charity Party at SMX West

As many of you know, SMX West is next week and we are live blogging t he sessions. The Internet Marketers Charity Party will be there as well. There is an $40 open bar from 8pm-12am on Tuesday, February 10th at...

Daily MP3 Links

SEO resources Feb 5

2009-02-04T23:19:00.001-08:00

Holiday Rentals

New Wave Web Analytics - SEM Synergy Extras

It's that time again! SEM Synergy, baby!

On today's show I sit down with Richard Zwicky, CEO of Enquisite, to pick his brain about Enquisite's search analytics platform, analytics in the Web 2.0 space, and how a payment model based on conversion value could change the SEO industry. The most fascinating part for me was when Richard explained that a performance-based Internet marketing economic model is just around the corner thanks to advancements in assigning values to conversions. From our interview:

"We're on the cusp of actually being able to measure everything in the same way and value things the same way as we traditionally have in PPC, [...] on actually tying it to that conversion -- whatever conversion means to you. [...]

It doesn't really matter what your goal is of conversion, of value point. What does matter is that if you can tie a value to that conversion and then a value to the customer acquisition, you can pay your SEO firm, your email marketing firm, the firm you use to do newletters or email blasts -- it doesn't really matter -- you can pay everybody for performance. Do a good job, bring me lots of customers and as I make a sale we both win, so there's no maximum cap."

If you too are intrigued by how a technology like the one Richard describes could change the SEO game, listen to the episode over at SEMSynergy.com or download it from WebmasterRadio's SEM Synergy archives.

While we're on the subject of the new wave of analytics, yesterday Ralph Wilson posted an interview he had with John Marshall, founder and CTO of Market Motive during PubCon. A Web analytics expert, John talks to Ralph about information you can gather that analytics data is not able to tell you.

The needle on my cool-o-meter went off the charts when John mentioned a tool he recently discovered called ClickTale. A long-standing opponent of site path as a viable search marketing metric, John changed his tune after playing around with ClickTale. The product lets site owners actually watch every move a user made on the site -- each movement, hesitation and click of the mouse recorded in a movie. After watching a few of those I bet you'd have a pretty good idea of some of the hang-ups and abandonment points on the site.

With SMX West and SES New York barreling down on us, I'm sure this isn't the final word on improvements to data gathering, analysis and reporting. I'm looking forward to those in the coming months, but if I missed any notable advancements in the world of analytics or things you'd like to see in analytics platforms that would make them more useful, let me know in the comments, would you?

Thanks again to Richard Zwicky for coming on the show. Richard will be attending SES London next week and is speaking during several sessions. If you're in town I'm sure he'd love to answer your analytics questions. Then, when you're ready for an analytics platform designed just for search marketers like you, remember that Bruce Clay, Inc. will soon be offering Enquisite Pro and all the smarty-pants data that comes with it to clients.

IAC Profits, But Misses Expectations

Q4 2008 was an important time for IAC—it was their first full quarter going it alone, after they spun off four businesses, a change announced in November 2007 that finally took effect in August 2008. And, as for everyone else, Q408 was not an easy time for the now solo company. On the plus side, [...]

SMX West '09 Live Blog Coverage Schedule: True Live Blogging

The SMX West 2009 conference is just around the corner, starting on February 10th. We will be providing a different style of live blogging then you are use to from us. How will it differ? First of all, only I,...

Google to Time Warner: Free AOL or Free Us

During Time Warner’s earnings call today, CEO Jeff Bewkes told a sad tale of love gone wrong. Yes, Google is “dear johning” AOL. I hear the letter went something like thi s: Dear Time Warner: Cut AOL loose or count us out. Love, Google. Now, this is kind of a big deal, since Google [...]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 4, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

SEOs Lose Rankings Due to New "Did You Mean" Feature

Last week, we reported that Google made the new "Did You Mean" feature a standard. Meaning, Google's search spelling suggestions are now acting in this new manner. The issue is, many are complaining that they are getting killed by this....

Top PPC Tips for Effective Marketing

Interested in pay-per-click ad campaigns but nervous about taking the plunge This article will give you a good overview of what s involved. It will lay out the benefits and introduce you to the top companies with which you can do PPC marketing. You will also learn what you need to know to make the most of your campaign.... The All-New Adobe Creative Suite 4 Now Shipping: Adobe CS4: tools to help students express their ideas in video, on the web, or print.

Google and the Obama Administration

I thought we were moving past paying back campaign favors with key positions. I thought we were changing the world. Transparency doesn't mean appointing your supporters so they can continue building their brand by plugging in familiar connectivity. ...

Google Accidently Knocks New Zealand Off The Globe

If you tried bring up New Zealand in Google Maps yesterday, you would be surprised to see, Google lost all the map data for that early bird country. A Google Maps Help thread have reports that are confirmed from Google,...

Google AdWords "Show Products From ..." No Longer A Test?

Conduct a Google search for mens or luggage or hard drives and you might see, like I see, in the AdWords are a plus sign for "show products from [site name]." Here is one of the examples: When you click...

Webmasters Revolt Over Google's AJAX Search Results Tests

Two days ago, we reported that Google is testing switching to AJAX to display their search results. But the tension over this discussion was not all that bad, that was until GetClicky.com wrote: Just know this: a major update that...

Google Search February 2009 Webmaster Report Update

Here is the February 2009 webmaster rep ort on Google's search result changes based on the WebmasterWorld thread. I will summarize what people are noticing in the Google search results, as per the thread. Google accidently labeled the internet as malwareSome...

Fake Social Media Profiles: The Biggest Online Threat of 2009?

ReadWriteWeb reports that security firm Aladdin released their Annual Threat Report today, one of the biggest online identity theft threats of 2009 will be fake social media profiles. I don’t expect that to surprise any of Marketing Pilgrim’s readers, I do, however, expect it to come as a surprise to most of our clients and [...]

16 Day to SEO de Janeiro

Our Carnival VIP event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is now just 16 days away.

SEO resources Feb 4

2009-02-04T01:30:00.001-08:00

Democracy news

Survey Says: Retailers Need to Go Mobile

In a recent Foresee Results survey of online shoppers, nearly a third said they used their mobile phone as part of a shopping trip. That means that 29% of these shoppers stood in a brick and mortar store, and pulled out their phone before deciding whether to make a purchase—which means that these retailers [...]

3 Reasons SEO Training and Conferences Belong Together

Search Marketing Expo West is now just a week away. Susan's got all the liveblogging duties for this one, and from a look at the line up for SMX West 2009, I'll be missing out.

The crew at SMX has perfected the art of SEM conference programming. And with Bruce Clay's SEOToolSet Training packaged into an intense one-day course following the conference, next week is sure to be one of the standout SEM edu cational events on the West Coast this year.

There's an exponential effect that happens when you combine SEO training with conference attendance. Each offers different pieces of the puzzle, but when you add the two together something magical happens. Like chocolate and peanut butter, training and conferences are both good on their own but impeccable as a pair.

Establish a Strong Foundation + Focus on High-Level Strategy

From beginners to advanced professionals, the success of every SEO tactic you perform depends on the strength of your SEO foundation. Ongoing training strengthens your understanding of SEO methodology and best practices, including search engine guidelines, keyword research techniques, site architecture SEO solutions like siloing, server configuration best practices, and creative link building techniques.

Upon that solid groundwork you can begin to build your knowledge base at conferences, where advanced techniques and sophisticated niche strategies -- such as mobile or international marketing -- are shared. In fact, SMX West has a number specialty tracks like In House Day and Developer Day plus strings of sessions dedicated to areas like vertical search, online-offline integration, social media and many more.

One-on-One Opportunities + A Group of Great Minds

One of the greatest benefits of a quality training course is the one-on-one guidance you get with an expert. Students who attend SEOToolSet training get to ask Bruce site-specific questions during Q&A time. You can even begin testing things you've learned with the ready-to-go diagnostic to ols during breaks. You'll feel extra safe knowing that everything you've learned is in strictest accordance with search engine guidelines.

At conferences, knowledge transfer comes from all around you. Listening to a panel of experts gives you insight into different viewpoints. Speakers will sometimes debate the effectiveness of certain techniques or, better yet, share the light-bulb moment they just had as another speaker mentioned an effective technique or interesting test result.

Take Tasks and Tools Home with You + Take Relationships Home with You

After SEO training you'll probably want to crawl in bed and let all the new info floating around your brain gelatinize. But you'll be coming home with more than just memories. Every slide that's presented and every tool that was demoed will remain at your fingertips since you get to take the SEOToolSet Training guide and a subscription to the SEOToolSet with you. That's all-in-one access to a keyword traffic checker, a server checker, a keyword research tool, a search engine submission tool, a ranking monitor, an indexed page report generator, a competitive link analysis tool, and a link target finder!

Of course, the relationships that you take away from a conference like SMX are just as exciting. Conferences have got to be among the top ways to grow your network. When you know the right people you will never be at a loss when looking for job opportunities, references, and recommendations -- not to mention lifelong friends. And in my experience, search marketers are a group who know how to have a good time.

The yin and yang of SMX West's killer agenda and top-of-the-line SEO training is right up there with cookies and milk. It's not too late to take advant age of preregistration deals: save $300 on an all access pass and SEOToolSet Training, $200 on an all access pass by itself, or $100 on a one-day conference pass when you pre-register compared to on-site registration. Tack on the 15 percent discount on your all access pass when you use the code smx15bruceclay and it's clear that SMX West + SEOToolSet Training = an opportunity not to be missed.

Yahoo Losing, Google Gaining Display Dominance

It was the American Revolutionary John Adams who first said, “The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.” In case you missed the memo, Google is winning the search war—if you measure success by looking at who controls most of the search market. Yahoo, their biggest competitor in the US, [...]

Women Over 55 Are Helping Facebook Takeoff

Yep, you read that headline right. According to MediaPost, women over the age of 55 are the fastest-growing user group on Facebook over the last three months. This is significant considering how rapidly Facebook has been growing these last few months (600k users a day!). The study also reports several other statistics that marketers should take [...]

Facebook Not Selling Out–But Should They?

Methinks the Telegraph was hoping to spark controversy when they published this article yesterday: Facebook is planning to exp loit the vast amount of personal information it holds on its 150m members by creating one of the world’s largest market research databases. In an attempt to finally monetise the social networking site, once valued at $15bn (£10.4bn), it [...]

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 3, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

GDrive Now.

Why wait? You can set up a G-Drive right now. It's easy.

Democracy news

SEO resources Feb 3

2009-02-03T09:00:00.001-08:00

Holiday Rentals

Using Search to Help you with Search Engine Optimization

Link research can take time, but there are several ways you can use a search engine to find quality links. Today we'll look at queries you can make using your favorite search engine that can help you find places to acquire links to your Web site. ...

Users and Search Engines Want the Same Things

Optimizing your site for users is just as important as optimizing your site for search engines. While those are two very different things, you can often serve both audiences by being smart with your Web site development. ...

Advanced Keyword Research Strategies

Keyword selection will haunt your search engine optimization campaign forever so in this article we aim to help you make better choices. In this first part of a two-part series you will learn where to find an abundance of keywords and how to narrow them down to the ones that will be most effective for your web site.... The All-New Adobe Creative Suite 4 Now Shipping: Adobe CS4: tools to help students express their ideas in video, on the web, or print.

In Past Two Years, What Has Changed Most With SEO?

A HighRankings Forum thread has a very interesting topic just getting started. The thread creator asks, "What Has Changed In Seo In Last 2 Years?" This is a great question. People think that SEO tactics are always changing. You need...

Slanderous Google AdWords Ads? Want To Remove Them?

A Google AdWords Help thread has a short question and short answer on how to deal with slanderous or negative Google ads about an individual or company. The question was, "How do you remove a false statement posted about an...

Should You Be Charged For Verifying Your Site With Google or Search Engines?

A Google Webmaster Help thread asks if he is being ripped off because his hosting company wants to charge him to help him verify his site with Google Webmaster Tools. So you know, all it takes to verify a site...

Google News Font Size Bug Confirmed

Google has confirmed the miscellaneous reports of the Google News home page having font size issues. In a Google News Help thread, Googler, Inbal, confirmed the issue that some users are noticing. In short, some users are noticing that the...

Google Won't Let Some Searchers Turn Off "Safe Search" Filter

Google has a search preferen ce that allows a searcher to define how strict the adult filter should be. It is called Safe Search and I think it was originally designed by Matt Cutts. In any event, I am seeing dozens...

Google Mistakenly Sends Dozens of Unwanted SMS Messages To Users

Over night, for about four hours, Google's SMS search feature sent dozens of SMS messages to Google SMS users over and over again. There are dozens of threads complaining about the issue, but the two largest threads have hundreds of...

T-Mobile Plans More G Phones for 2009

T-Mobile has announced, albeit in a pretty vague manner, that they will be introducing more G phones in the "coming weeks and months". With that kind of clarity on delivery dates I am sure that most folks will be holding off on their iPhone and BlackBerry purchases for sure. T-Mobile is indeed motivated to get these [...]

SEO resources Feb 3

2009-02-02T22:50:00.001-08:00

Holiday Rentals

The SEO Training Refresher Course (Because You'll Never Know It All)

Last week Christopher told you about the SEOToolSet Training dates we've got planned on the East Coast this year. In case you missed the first announcement, you heard me right. Bruce Clay, Inc.'s reputable white hat SEO training course will be held in New York during April, June and October. The cost of travel is often a concern these days which is why we're excited to make the trip a little shorter for those not located within the Western half of the country.

If you haven't already (and if not, shame on you), now's the time to invest in Internet marketing; the Web is where your audience is, returns are highly measureable, and online marketing technology is well suited for performance-based payment models. Christopher's post outlined important reasons why primo SEO training is necessary for more than just the IT manager or the marketing director -- the person in charge of a site's SEO will require cooperation and understanding from employees throughout the company. And yet, while top-notch training and educational opportunities are a must for beginners, they're just as important for experienced search engine optimization professionals.

Ask any veteran SEO and they'll tell you: SEO education isn't just for beginners.

Here at the BCI office, employees take five days of standard and advanced training annually. Even though most of us eat, breathe and sleep SEO daily, the industry is an evolving one, and as the industry grows, so grows the course.

Every year attendees take part in a new and improved program -- a fact that's appreciated by returning students who attend our SEO training course every few years to brush up on current white hat methodology, renew their certification credentials, and learn about the latest changes to ranking factors and spam definitions. When your target is as slippery as search engine rankings, when search engines adjust their algorithms without warning, when your tactic is considered white hat today and some murky shade of gray the next, how can you afford to let your learning go stagnant?

At the beginning of the year, Bruce predicted an increase in the number search engine optimization training courses that will be available as companies start clamoring to board the Internet marketing bandwagon and get caught up on what this whole search marketing thing is all about. Highly regarded educational forums, like training, conferences and networking events, are a lifeline to industry thought leadership and the healthy tactical debates that inevitably occur at such gatherings. Those who continually seek quality education will reach new levels of search engine visibility, site traffic, and, if all goes well, conversion rates.

... So what are you waiting for?

Ad Networks - "Partners" Hoarding Publisher Data For Profit

Ad networks look to lock up d ata. A look at the potential threat to webmasters.

"Borrowing" Content: How The Little Guy Can Fight Back

How do you stop people stealing your content?

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 2, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

SponsoredReviews Announces the Launch of LinkSets

If you’re trying to launch a new service or get some blog buzz for your new start-up, SponsoredReviews.com offers a transparent solution for buying some eyeballs. The paid review site has just made it easier for advertisers to vary the links and anchor text used by publishers with the launch of LinkSets. SponsoredReviews’ LinkSet system will automatically [...]

Is Your Landing Page Relevant?

Your landing page is the first impression by which search engines and users alike will judge your site. And when a searcher first lands on your Web site, you have but mere seconds to establish credibility. Web sites must rise to the occasion and create landing pages that rank for important keywords while engaging the reader. ...

BIGLIST SEO Blog Reviews 0020209

To day’s BIGLIST update of search marketing blogs includes a smattering of agency blogs from the US and the UK as well as appearances from Poland and Singapore. Step right up and get your daily dose of SEO, social media and PPC with this collection of new entrants. The Woah Factor - Brad Shorr and Jeanne Dininni write this insightful company [...]

Link Building 101, Part 1

The concept of getting backlinks to a page internally is sometimes overshadowed by trying to acquire backlinks from external pages. Why not use the same concept and apply it to your internal linking structure and reap the rewards? ...

Is Your Brand Killing Your Search Campaign?

Building a brand gets you name recognition that translates into online searches web site traffic and conversions right Not in all cases. You may try to position yourself as one thing but your target market is looking for something else. And it doesn t matter if you can fulfill that need too if your audience can t find you ... The All-New Adobe Creative Suite 4 Now Shipping: Adobe CS4: tools to help students express their ideas in video, on the web, or print.

How Michael Phelps Screwed-up His Google Reputation in Just 24 Hours

In case you missed the news, Olympic superstar Michael Phelps was caught on camera smoking cannabis from a bong. Say it with me: IDIOT! While Phelps has admitted the photo is legitimate–and apologized to his fans–there can be no doubt that for an athlete of Phelps’ caliber, any scandal that involves drugs is going to have a [...]

Super Bowl 43 & Groundhog Day Logos from Search Engines

Today is Groundhog day and some search engines have a special logo for the day. While some are still sporting Super Bowl 43 themes, from one of the best Super Bowls ever played. Let's start with AOL's flash logo for...

Google Switching To AJAX Search Result Pages?

The SEO Smackdown blog reports that they noticed Google switching "completely" to AJAX based search results. This can put a huge damper in rank checking tools, that scrap the Google search results. Most people are not seeing the Google search...

Google Docs Spam: Hundreds of Unwanted Documents Showing Up

It seems like spammers finally got around to spamming Google Docs. We have confirmed reports at Google Docs Help discussions where some Google users have reported receiving hundreds of unwanted documents in their Google accounts. Here is the complaint: Some one...

4 Tips For Clean Link Checking

It’s time for another SEO Basics post and this time getting more out of link building efforts is the topic. Link building continues to be an important part of marketing and optimizing web sites and web marketers can often get distracted by quantity goals rather than quality. Link building efforts for search engine optimization purposes rely [...]

Google Sending Out Incorrect 1099 to AdSense Publishers?

It is that time of the year again, tax season and Google began sending out 1099s to their publishers. But some publishers are reporting that the earnings stated on the 1099s differ from the actual earnings. A publisher in a...

Google AdWords Testings New Bulk Keyword Diagnose Tools

A reader, Kasia Bauer, informed me that Google AdWords is testing out a new tool to expand the Google diagnoses or analysis tool. Typically, if you want to see the quality factors of a keyword, you hover your mouse over...

Switching Design Companies, Remember To Remove Their Webmaster Tools Access

A site owner has confirmed reports from a Google Webmaster Help discussion thread that his site was completely removed from the Google index by his previous webmaster. It seems like this previous webmaster was upset with the site owner and...

SEO resources Feb 2

2009-02-02T04:13:00.001-08:00

Internet marketing news

The Best Super Bowl TV Ad? Here's My Vote

So, what did you think of this year’s Super Bowl TV ads? I personally thought they missed the mark compared to previous years, but I did laugh out loud at one ad. Yes, I admit to LMAO at the E*Trade Baby ad that featured the investing baby trash-talking the older golf player. Grey New York is the [...]

Uncertainty, Risk & Profit Potential

Post explaining how there is typically limited profit potential where there is little perceived risk.

Dilbert Cartoon: How Not to Manage Your Online Reputation

I don’t know how far ahead Scott Adams creates his Dilbert cartoons, but I have a sneaky suspicion the one below comes courtesy of the recent Belkin scandal. Enjoy! Pilgrim’s Partners: Is a blogger attacking your company without you knowing? Monitor your online reputation with Andy Beal’s Trackur–try it for free!