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Daily Search Forum Recap: October 24, 2008

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 11:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/24/Weekly_SearchBuzz_RoundUp___10_24_08__Google_Analytics_Integrates_AdSense__First_Click_Free_Program_Discussed___Yahoo_Rolls_Out_Search_Marketing_Features'

Weekly SearchBuzz RoundUp - 10/24/08: Google Analytics Integrates AdSense, First Click Free Program Discussed & Yahoo Rolls Out Search Marketing Features

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 7:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

The holidays are over and Barry and I are back -- for real. In the flesh. We even have a video recap on Sunday if you tune in.

Google's First Click Free Program Discussed
A week ago, we learned a little more about the First Click Free program in Google. In essence, First Click Free allows you to protect your content (say, if it's subscription based) while still getting the full benefit of being in Google's index. Some webmasters are wondering about how this is working, with some worried that this is no different from cloaking. Others think that it's unfair that the savvy internet surfer will be able to pretend to be Google to get on some private sites. Whatever the case may be, it's definitely an interesting development.

Google Analytics Now Integrates AdSense
We asked and Google delivered. Google is slowly adding AdSense integration to Analytics users. It looks great and hopefully we'll have screenshots of the process and outcome in action soon.

Google Hosted a Webmaster Chat, and We Have No News for You
On Wednesday, Google hosted a Webmaster Chat. This is the third one but unfortunately none of us were able to listen since it was the holiday. Google will likely publish an edited version in a week or so, but it's just not the same.

Google Integrates Product Images In Sponsored Results
Barry notes that AdWords shows product images in searches. If you look at the illustration he provides, you can see diamond rings when you expand the ad. How much does it cost to sign up?!

You Can Get a Quality Score of 10
We have highlighted yet another successful experiment on how to get a quality score of 10. The idea is to really minimize overhead -- focus on very target keywords (no more than 3 per campaign) and write very targeted landing pages.

Yahoo Search Marketing Rolls Out Desired Features
The Yahoo Search Marketing team announced some new features that will enhance the YSM experience with regards to targeting They are country/city targeting, and language targeting. People are happy and that's always a good thing.

Google AdWords API v13 Released
Just in time for the holidays, Google AdWords API has released a major update with some enhanced features. They are also offering 20% more API units for free through January 15.

Google Webmaster Tools Errors Reported -- but Fixed Now
Earlier, we saw some issues with Google Webmaster Tools reporting 0 indexed URLs, though the issue seems to be fixed. Gotta love the glitches.

This is a Glitch I Don't Like: Google Terminates Accounts
Loren Bakers Gmail account was terminated over the weekend. As someone who is pretty dependent upon my Gmail account, that just sucks. He wrote a plea to Google to revisit the issue, but I'm curious to know why it keeps happening. Seriously -- what's the issue here, Google?

IM Broadcast Launched: Internet Marketing Video Portal
If you like videos and you like internet marketing, you'll love the new IM Broadcast site, which was launched earlier this week. Very talented minds were behind this launch, and it has a ton of potential, so I'm happy. Maybe I'll start watching video too!

I want the Google Webmasters T-Shirt
Google has sent out very cool t-shirts for Webmaster Tools users, and I want one. How do I sign up?

Have a great weekend!

IM Broadcast is a YouTube for Internet Marketers

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 5:03pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Search Topics

Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal teamed up with two great guys, Jordan Kasteler and David Snyder of Search and Social to launch IMBroadcast, which is advertised as the "first ever UGC video site dedicated to the Internet Marketing industry."

If you've taken a look at the site already, it really appears to be one of those sites with a ton of potential. Since as you know, Barry loves Video Recaps, I bet this is right up his alley too. At Cre8asite Forums, forum member Barry Welford also sees the potential. Many forum members think there are still opportunities to add text to the video, and that's still true. But there are opportunities to enjoy video as-is too--and we're not talking about from the perspective of search (not yet, at least).

Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums and Sphinn.

Google Labs Adds Canned Responses to Gmail -- and Emoticon Support is Now Here!

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 4:46pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google's Gmail is getting more and more interesting features. First, I heard via Mashable that Gmail Labs has added support for canned responses. The Official Gmail Blog writes:

If you're sick of typing out the same reply every time someone emails you with a common question, now you can compose your reply once and save the message text with the "Canned responses" button. Later, you can open that same message and send it again and again.

As I mentioned in the subject of this post, Canned Responses is only available if you actually turn on the feature in Gmail Labs. Head on over to Settings on the top right hand corner of your Gmail account, click on the Labs tab, and then Enable Canned Responses. Then, whenever you reply to a message, you'll see your Canned Responses; you can add as many as you want.

Given that I use Lifehacker's Texter to help me with canned responses, it's nice to know that Gmail cares and I could do without Texter -- which is helpful when I'm composing a message on a computer that doesn't have Texter installed. This is a much welcome change.

But that's not all Gmail has whipped up for us this week. A day later, we found out that Gmail now supports humor and emoticons, as seen below:

The Official Gmail Blog explains more. To be frank, I'm surprised it took this long. Still, it's nice that they finally included emoticons. Now how about converting my :) to an actual smiley face?

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

And Yesterday's Google Feedburner Subscriber Drop Was Brought to You By...

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 4:18pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Cynthia at Google Groups must be a new FeedBurner user. After all, Feedburner has seen regular drops in subscriber count (maybe once or twice a month) and even ran into a zero subscriber count issue with some users earlier.

But Cynthia dropped 300 subscribers yesterday, according to her FeedBurner count (which makes her lucky, because I dropped 700+). What could have possibly been wrong?

From Google FeedBurner's team, Matt S. informed us that there were issues with FeedBurner and Google Feedfetcher. Naturally, when you get a drastic drop in subscribers, it's no reason to be alarmed; it happens way more often than it should.

Personally, I think asking my peers on Twitter is a great way to be kept abreast of the situation. :)

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Google's Geolocation API Comes to the Browser

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

First go read Greg Sterling's write up at Search Engine Land named Location in the Browser: What Does It Mean?

Now that you read that, you will realize that the implication of Google adding geolocation capabilities to your desktop browser can be huge. The Geolocation API can run on any browser that has Google Gears and automatically will run on Android and Google's browser, Chrome.

Google currently knows your approximate location for when you do searches only via IP data, personalized search data or other, less exact methods. But now, if the browser can detect wifi locations and/or cell towers, Google will know where you are, almost to your exact location. GPS is supported, but most laptops or desktops do not have GPS devices built in yet (yes, yet).

The reaction to this from advertisers and searchers are split. A WebmasterWorld thread has advertisers excited that Google's geolocation capabilities will be able to target their ads better. But searchers are not yet 100% comfortable with Google knowing their exact whereabouts, at all times while using Google properties. Personally, I am not about privacy - I actually am considering wearing a GPS enabled device with me at all time to track me where ever I go and then publish that data on my personal web site. :)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Webmaster Team Sending Letters To Sitemaps Users?

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 3:10pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I am not sure about this, but it seems that Google's webmaster trends team is sending out snail mail letters to some Sitemap users in the Google Webmaster Help forums. I believe the letters read:

<url>
<loc>
http://www.google.com/webmasters
</loc>
<created>
2006-08-04
</created>
<priority>
Help webmasters create great sites.
</priority>
</url>

I think this is a gesture of appreciation to some of the more active members in the Google Groups support forum. Again, I am not 100% sure about this, because I do not have a picture to prove it and the language used in the Google Groups thread is a bit cryptic, but I think I am right about this.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Update: I have been informed that these are not letters, but rather T-Shirts that have the XML above written on the back of the shirt. I hope to acquire a picture of this T-Shirt. And here is a picture provided by John:

Google Showing Product Images in AdWords, Where The Organic Results Go?

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 2:58pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Google AdWords: Now With Images that I wrote at Search Engine Land described a newish AdWords interface I spotted. In short, a search for diamonds or other searches that would bring up an ad from Blue Nile, would show a special type of AdWords ad.

The AdWords ad is similar to what we covered in November and January but without the pictures. In short, the ad shows a + sign that reads "Show products from Blue Nile for diamonds." When you click it, it opens up three additional product results, with images.

Look at how much screen real estate it takes up. I made sure the screen captures are exactly the same height:

Closed:

Open:

I have a pretty big monitor. So, let's look at this on a very popular resolution of 1024x768:

All you see are ads!

Is this good for the advertiser? I assume it is. How about for the searcher? They do have the ability to close those results.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 23, 2008

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 11:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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

Recent Google PageRank Discussions & Observations

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 5:24pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google Optimization

Michael Gray explains why PageRank sculpting is important. He explains that Google has downplayed the use of PR sculpting but it seems that it's working pretty well for some people. Using an analogy with two very different cars (one, an old shoddy car; two, an expensive powerhorse) he says:

The links on your website are touch points between your website and Google’s crawling and indexing spiders. Much like cars not all websites are the same, not all websites have the “horsepower” to take advantage of tactics like nofollow and pagerank sculpting. The key is figuring out if you are closer to the Ford Gremlin or the Ferarri Enzo and adjusting your strategy accordingly.

Indeed, many forum members agree that PR sculpting is beneficial especially for small sites where you can drive the link juice to the proper pages.

In a second thread, PageRank is dissected by Ann Smarty at Search Engine Journal. Ann summarizes a WebmasterWorld discussion about the Graybar and how the PageRank toolbar, if gray, can mean two things: either the site is broken (not SEO'd) or the site is penalized. She also discusses some myths and truths regarding the gray bar. Some items of note include the fact that the gray bar is not equivalent to PR0, it actually doesn't mean the site is deindexed/penalized, it can indicate improper behavior, PR can change with no impact on performance, and more.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn (PR sculpting) and Sphinn (PR myths).

Yahoo's Q3 2008 Earnings Announced

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:58pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

Yahoo has released its Q3 earnings report with some interesting observations. First, the earnings this quarter are $1,786 million, which is a a 1 percent increase compared to $1,768 million for the same period of 2007.

Currently, fifteen thousand employees work for Yahoo (though layoffs are being reported), and some forum members wonder why. Most importantly, they wonder why Yahoo's CEO is still in play especially given the huge missed opportunity with the Microsoft deal. Here's one statement about the poor direction of Yahoo:

Yahoo, IMHO is terribly mismanaged to the point that it no longer is credible as a search engine or directory as search results are severely lacking.

There's still hope, though, as some people say. Yahoo needs to be a lot more innovative. The question, probably, is: how?

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdWords API Version 13 Released

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:46pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdWords

AdWords API Advisor informs us via Google Groups that Google AdWords API v13 has been released. Though mentioned in the release notes, the these new features include enhanced geotargeting options, ability to retrieve only active campaigns/ad groups, campaign budgeting suggestions, new report types, mobile image ads, quality-based bid/Quality Score support, and more.

On a somewhat related note (but not really), the AdWords API Blog announces that in time for the holidays, Google is offering a bonus of 20% more API units at no additional cost through January 15.

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups and WebmasterWorld.

Yahoo! Search Marketing Rolls Out New Features

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:29pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Yahoo Search Marketing

YahooPete has written on three of his usual forums to let us know that Yahoo Search Marketing has come out with many desired features. They include:

* Country-level targeting
* City and zip-level targeting
* Targeting English-speaking US and Canada Internet users

The Yahoo Search Marketing Blog goes into these changes in more detail.

As forum members are writing, these are changes that they really appreciate.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Watch Forums and DigitalPoint Forums.

Best Place to Get Webmaster Help for Live Search

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 3:25pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft MSN Search

Microsoft has been really focusing on building out support and tools for webmasters for their Live Search product. It is beginning to show. A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports one webmaster who has been trying to gain assistance for two years, was now able to get clear and useful feedback from Microsoft.

Why all of a sudden? Well, because of Microsoft's Live Search Webmaster Tools and their now active Live Search Webmaster Forums. This particular webmaster was able to figure out the issue through the use of both the tools and forums.

So, if your having issues with your website in Live Search, make sure to register with webmaster.live.com and check out the Microsoft Live Search Webmaster Forums.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

How To Serve Age Verification Pages to Google For Porn or Alcohol Sites

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 3:03pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

US law requires an age verification page for when someone visits a web page about pornography, alcohol or other adult oriented pages. But this comes with a challenge for webmasters who want to make sure those pages are accessible to search engines.

For example, if you search for vodka one of the top results is for absolut.com, and if you click on it and in your in the US, you are taken to absolut.com/us and it pops open an age verification box. At the same time, absolut.com has over a thousand pages indexed in Google, how so?

A Google Groups thread has a response from a Googler on how to handle these situations. Susan Moskwa of Google said:

This topic comes up periodically for sites (alcohol, porn, etc.) that need to serve an age verification notice on every page. What we recommend in this case is to serve it via JavaScript. That way users can see the age verification any time they try to access your content, but search engines that don't run JavaScript won't see the warning and will instead be able to see your content.

Google won't run the JavaScript request and GoogleBot will simply bypass that page and crawl the site. Of course, what if JavaScript is turned off on a child's browser?

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

How To Optimize for Something New and Unknown

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 9:02pm CEST by cre8pc

Tags: Search Engine Optimization

When faced with marketing a brand new product or idea, how do you optimize for keywords that nobody is searching for yet? Can you find other ways to present the product, such as focus on value proposition? Would social media help here?

SEO For the Unknown explores this interesting topic at Cre8asiteforums.

Is Your Web Site Optimized for Revenue?

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 8:23pm CEST by cre8pc

Tags: Tracking Conversion Measurements

Facebook was in the news recently because they hadn't met revenue projections. Why? Their target users are coming to network and "be social" rather than to buy something. Their ad-based revenue plan is missing its mark.

Another example are spam blogs ("splogs") that steal content from authentic blogs, buy a junk domain, and slap on Google Ads in the hopes of generating revenue. Perhaps some of these nonsense beggar sites do earn a piddly wage, but not to the tune of millions of dollars.

Are we "banner blind"? Yes. Are you stuck in the "Build it and they will come?" mindset? Are you a print advertiser trying to learn the ways of web marketing?

Once you begin to sell ads directly all the old offline knowledge sets come into play. Have you studied how best to adapt advertising theory and practice to the web? To your sites? Just as many webdevs instinctively optimise both for users and SEs, and some for ppc, they should also be optimising their ad offerings, their major revenue streams. You've built it, they are actually coming...now sell some drinks and fast food and ad space...

Cre8asiteforums discusses the topic from all angles in You Optimise For Users And Ses. What about your revenue sources?

Where Did the Phrase "Search Engine Optimization" Come From?

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 3:01pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Engine Optimization

In August of 2006, Rohit Bhargava coined the term SMO for social media optimization. Now search engine optimization has been around a little longer than that, but where did it come from? According to Bob Heyman, in a guest post on Search Engine Land, he did.

Bob explains that it was 1995 when the name came to mind. Once upon a time, a rock band created a website with a URL that couldn't be recalled without pulling it up in the SERPs. Unfortunately for the rock band, however, the official web page for the band was on page 4 of the SERPs. Bob explains that after that call, he resolved to make search engine rankings a priority, and thus, "search engine optimization" was born.

So why, then, is Jason Gambert claiming that he coined the phrase SEO in 2007? Give it up, Jason.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

This post was pre-written and scheduled for publication on October 14th.

Google Reinclusion Request Approval Times

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 3:00pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

The other day, I held a poll asking SEOs how long it typically took for their sites to be reincluded into the Google index after submitting a reconsideration request. We have complied 72 responses and I thought I share the results.

As I thought, the responses are really all over the place. Let me break them down for you.

Google Reinclusion Took Me...
:: More Than Three Months said 18 respondents or 25%
:: 1 Week To 3 Weeks said 12 respondents or 17%
:: A Month said 12 respondents or 17%
:: A Few Days said 11 respondents or 15%
:: A Week said 6 respondents or 8%
:: Three Months said 6 respondents or 8%
:: Other... said 4 respondents or 6%
:: Two Months said 3 respondents or 4%

Other responses were from "never" to "8 months" to "still waiting."

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

This post was written on October 13th and scheduled to go live on October 14th.

Poll Results: Google AdSense Publishers Discuss 2008 Earnings

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 2:32pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

In late September, we ran a poll asking AdSense publishers if they are earning more or less than the previous year. The results are now in and honestly, don't tell us much.

Most said they earn more but just about the same number of respondents said they are earning less.

Here is the break down:
:: Earning More said 49 respondents or 42%
:: Earning Less said 43 respondents or 37%
:: About the Same said 19 respondents or 16%
:: Other answer said 5 respondents or 4%

So the results are pretty much all over the place.

Tamar covered the question on if the economic downturn is hurting publishers or not. We have added a new poll to that thread, so please participate!

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

This post was pre-written and scheduled for publication on October 14th.

Has The Economic Downturn Resulted in an Google AdSense Downturn?

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 2:22pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

Are you a Google AdSense publisher who has taken a hit from the recession? A few forum threads, one at WebmasterWorld and the other at DigitalPoint Forums, discuss the impact of the economic crisis on money earned through the Google AdSense program. What have publishers noted?

Some publishers haven't observed a thing. The behavior is expected with no indications of decline. On the other hand, though, there are a few publishers who have spotted some decline, though they have no idea about whether to attribute the financial crisis to it. Some have seen reduced click-throughs, and a small percentage of folks are actually making more money.

Where are you at?

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

This post was pre-written and scheduled for publication on October 14th.

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 13, 2008

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Are Directories Still Worth Your SEO Budget?

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 5:28pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Link Building

We all know about Google's latest change to the webmaster guidelines, where they removed directories as a good source of links. Having seen that, SEOs and webmasters ask themselves, if seeking links from directories is worth it anymore.

A WebmasterWorld thread has a large discussion around the topic. Old time memeber, pageoneresults, said:

Personally? I feel it is a waste of your time to do something like this. 750 directories? Did you see that Google recently removed the suggestion of submitting to directories from their guidelines? Ya, that is how much they despise these things now. There are probably a million directories. 99.5% of them were built solely for this purpose that we are discussing and are typically of little to no value. It is the same thing as submitting to 100,000 search engines. Probably the same group of people too. ;)

But I still personally believe that some directories have value. Can I name which ones they are? Not really because I don't think it is Yahoo or ODP or so on. I think it depends on the section you are in and the quality of that section. Of course, I believe Yahoo is top-notch in the directory space, but the value is way down from what it was years ago, in my opinion.

In any event, this is going to be a hot topic for the next few months. Join the discussion.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Does Google Allow Ads that Mock Suicide?

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 5:01pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

Michael VanDemar blogged about apparent Google AdSense insensitivity as it relates to the recession. He says that there's a possibility for the suicide rate to skyrocket, just like it did in the Great Depression. Thus, he's a little disturbed by a Google AdSense ad for Woot.com which said the following:

"Before you jump out of
that window, why not spend your
last remaining dollars at Woot?"

Naturally, Michael has found that quite offensive and tasteless, and many users agree. It's possible, though, that Google missed this one for removal. I think it may be questionable, but I understand the sarcasm in Woot's usual marketing messages and this is no exception.

Should it be removed? You tell me. Take the poll.

Forum discussion continues at . And a hat tip to Gary for spotting this as well.

Google AdWords To Use Twitter

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 1:06pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

It appears Google AdWords is going to start using Twitter for communication purposes.

AdWordsPro Sarah started a Google Groups thread announcing this as a possibility. So I tried a few Twitter accounts and spotted [twitter.com] that contained some early Twitters, mostly with announcement like notifications, linking back to the AdWords Blog.

It seems like this Twitter account has been set up since August 18, 2007 as a twitter feed but Google has yet to really announce it. There are only about twenty followers right now, and I suspect that will jump tremendously with this write up and then even more with any announcement Google makes on the topic.

Sarah from Google said:

But, as it turns out, Google is currently exploring the use of Twitter as a different support model. Which got me to wondering if my fellow forum members used Twitter? Would you be interested in AdWords Twitter support? Is this idea crazy or worth exploring (or maybe both!)?

So, she just became aware of this Twitter feed? She seems interested in expanding this feed, even more. But before she does this, she wants feedback.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Postscript: The Microsoft adCenter team notified me they have had a Twitter account for a while at [twitter.com]. The announced this a while back on the adCenter Blog.

Yahoo Improves Publisher Network Relevancy

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 12:58pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Yahoo Publisher Network

Yahoo has said they have improved the relevancy of their ads in the content network, or as you know it - the Yahoo Publisher Network.

Yahoo's official forum representative, YahooPete, posted threads at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums and Search Engine Watch Forums with the details.

In short, not only does Yahoo look at the content on the page, but also tailors the ad to the specific user viewing the page. I'll quote Yahoo on this:

The new technology not only attempts to understand what the content is on a page, but also, who is viewing it, which helps you get your ad in front of the right customer. Content Match now combines a better understanding of web page and ad content with insights from users’ geographic and behavioral profiles.

This leads to a higher click through rate and hopefully more conversions for advertisers participating in the content network.

Yahoo ends off with this reminder, when using content match:

Create Content Match-only campaigns to manage bids and budgets separately from Sponsored Search.
See how much you can afford. If you add a Content Match campaign, you may need to adjust your spending limits accordingly.
Write specific ads and have targeted keywords for your Content Match ads, so that the ads appear only in the type of content where you want them.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums and Search Engine Watch Forums.

On Columbus Day, Google Remembers Paddington Bear's 50th Birthday

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 12:50pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Today is Columbus Day and we have a special theme up for the day. It looks like this:

But if you visit Google, you will see a Paddington Bear 50th birthday logo up for today. The logo looks like this:

Boy does that bring back memories. Of course, the logo links to a Google search result for paddington bear.

Happy birthday Paddington Bear and happy Columbus Day also!

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 10, 2008

Posted: October 11th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/10/Weekly_SearchBuzz_RoundUp___10_10_08__SMX_East_Coverage__Google_Monetization_Tactics___Yahoo_Web_Analytics'

Weekly SearchBuzz RoundUp - 10/10/08: SMX East Coverage, Google Monetization Tactics & Yahoo Web Analytics

Posted: October 10th, 2008, 6:14pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

After a long week of conferences followed by a holiday, we're back for just 2 more business days until another 2 days of holidays kick in. Enjoy us while we're here!

Google Giving More Snippet Data
Searching for articles on Google is now showing content attributes in the results. You can see articles that have more than one author or you can see the author of the article.

Google Reverts PageRank Data
In case you're wondering why your PageRank has been fluctuating like mad lately, it's probably due to the observation that Google is reverting PageRank values. That or you're looking at the PR from another data center. Regardless, most people don't really care. ;)

Make Money from Google Maps with AdSense
So you're searching for something and find it using Google Maps. You may also find another targeted result that you never anticipated due to Google AdSense's integration into Google Maps. Who didn't see that coming?

Google's Attempts to Make More Money with Affiliate Marketing
Google has seen success with Amazon and iTunes, and they want to eat some cake too. That's why you'll see that Google is now an iTunes and Amazon affiliate. Surprised?

Google AdSense for Games
More ability to monetize is seen with the announcement of Google AdSense for games. If you have a popular site, you're game (no pun intended) to be considered. It's in beta, now, though, but if you want to make some dough, go for it.

Don't Use Google AdWords Editor 6.5.0...Yet
Google AdWords Editor 6.5.0 was released but not without a slew of problems. There are errors, slowness, and more. If you haven't upgraded yet, don't.

Microsoft adCenter Upgrade in Fall 2008
We're actually in Fall of 2008, so in the upcoming weeks, we should expect a big Microsoft adCenter update to give more billing/payment options, campaign management simplification, report analysis, and more. Stay tuned!

Google's Search Results Coming in RSS Format
It's taken them years, but Google will offer its results in RSS format so that you can watch for scrapers and all that other good stuff. Can we say "huzzah?"

Linkage Data Provided by SEOmoz
SEOmoz has launched this comprehensive tool called Linkscape that has crawled 30 billion pages to provide detailed linkage data. This tool has received a lot of kudos and I'm sure you'll like it!

Ask.com Loses 3D, Goes to "Less is More"
This past week, we've heard reports that Ask.com has redesigned their page to eliminate the complex 3D interface and to give less information. Is Google responsible for this? It's possible, since Ask.com is looking for money above all else.

Yahoo to Offer Web Analytics
Yahoo's acquisition of IndexTools means Yahoo Web Analytics. The tool is being rolled out on a limited beta and is free. Yahoo Web Analytics boasts real time tracking which many people are looking forward to. I can't wait to try it myself!

SMX East
As I mentioned, we were at SMX East this week. What does that mean? Well, I'm sure you saw our conference coverage. If not, here you go -- enjoy!

Thanks again to Marty Weintraub for his guestblogging!

Administrative Note: No Video This Weekend
Due to the holidays, our next video recap is not going to occur until October 26th. You'll just have to read us!

Microsoft and Facebook Partner for Search

Posted: October 10th, 2008, 4:41pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Microsoft MSN Search

The Live Search blog announces a partnership between Facebook and Microsoft for search and ads. You can now either "Search Facebook" or "Search the Web" using Live.com. Additionally, adCenter ads will be delivered alongside those search results.

So far, it's good to integrate search on Facebook with search on Live.com to prevent opening a second tab/browser to perform searches. However, as one forum member points out, this looks like an attempt for Microsoft do dominate the search realm.

Other implications of this search partnership will relate to the personal information Facebook has about you and how Microsoft should probably leverage that with this search integration. I'd admit -- if I'm searching on the Web using Facebook, I'd definitely want more personalized results than generic SERPs for any random query.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and High Rankings Forums.

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 6, 2008

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 11:51pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

SMX Boot Camp: Link Building Fundamentals

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 11:39pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Moderator: Detlev Johnson, CEO, SearchReturn introduces the panel. He basically shows the age of the panelists, at least in web years. :) He describes link building as a "cat and mouse" game between search engines and SEOs.

Debra Mastaler, President, Alliance-Link is first up.

Why are Links Valuable:
- They connect sites like threads in a web
- Links provide paths
- They are an indicator
- They are value indicators

She goes into how the internet came around. Soon after came search engines. Search engines use to just read content. Then came along Google who went beyond content and looked at link analysis (PageRank).

Link Popularity:
- It measures the quality and quantity of links pointing to a web site.
- All major engines use
- Off page factor
- Link love, juice, pop, rep

4 Components:
(1) Link Quantity
(2) Link Quality (authority of host sites) PageRank is a lot different than it was, it is more about quality over quantity.
(3) Anchor Text, it is a query ranking factor. This is the most powerful component in links.
(4) Link Relevancy. It helps establish where you belong. Search engines read text around links. Linking out and being linked to establish connections. Build links within your neighborhood. Links to and from contextually relevant or "thematically related" sites convey more authority

Authority Sites:
- Rank well
- Well known
- Have strong inbound links
- Are insulated against algorithmic fluctuations

Bottom Link Line... Focus on linking efforts on securing keyword rich anchors from authority sites.

Part Two: Ranking Influences...

Avoid:
- Control your rate of link acquisitions
- Repetitive anchor text
- Dont use the same tactic over and over again

Optimal Linking Success:
- Screen partner sites carefully
- Place links in content areas
- Understand all links have value
- Redirected links or links passing through third party sites will not pass link pop
- Avoid losing PageRank, be consistent in your links (www vs non, etc.)

Link Learning and News Sources
- She lists a bunch
- Link Harvester
- Hub Finder
- Langeriter.com
- GoogleGuy.de
- Quirk.biz/SearchStatus
- SoloSEO.com/tools/linkSearch.html
- bad-neighborhood.com/text-link-tool.html
- google.com/alerts

What's Working?
- Everything still works but link building strategies using content generation tactics work best.
- Traditional, edus, wiki, content targeting, media, press releases, directories, reclamation, trust links, local links, article writing.
-- Create a media contacts database and then break out editorial and commercial sources.

-- Look at review sites and contact those people leaving reviews.
- Directory Submission, general, niche, rss, article, podcast, blog, wiki, local.
-- Avoid directories hosting excessive ads
-- Check pages for nofollow or robots.txt
-- Steer clear of directories with a lot of wite wides
-- Yahoo Directory worth it for newer sites
-- Niche directories tend to be less scrutinized such as Directory Big Board, ISEDB and Blog Catalog can give you some ideas.

Article Writing:
- Write a shorter version for syndication and write a longer version for your site.
- Answer questions in your article
- Add bio to your articles
- Add links within content if possible
- List of article directories given

Content Network:
- Publish content on any topic
- Distributes content to engaged audiences through its web site and content partners
- Some use nofollow

Guest Blogging
- Search for "looking for writers" + keywords etc...

Link Bait:
- Digg, Propeller, Mixx, SU

Eric Ward, CEO, EricWard.com

November 1st, will be his 15th year doing link building for pay. 15 years!

Link building is PR work, public relations...

In 1993, he had 10 places to submit to. He showed off the Netscape What's New page. That is where you built links. In 2008, it is endless - where you can submit links. Big change was Google and PageRank. You want click traffic and you want that helps you rank. Some links can do both. That is the holy grail.

Effective link building is PR, linkbait, link buying, etc.

The approach is to get trusted links, its not the link, its the author of the link. Find out where people care about your topic and reach them.

Link building has to vary based on content, focus and audience.

Your link tells a story about your site. Like a transcript or "rap sheet."

You don't need a lot of links to do well.

FYI, here is Eric's presentation: ericward.com/smx/.

Search and Reputation Management

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 11:22pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

What do people find when they search for you by name? Is it negative? If so, what do you do? What can you do? Depending on the situation, there are a range of tactics that may help. This session explores the issue.

Moderator: Jeffrey K. Rohrs, Vice President, Marketing, ExactTarget

Speakers:
Veronica Fielding, President and CEO, Digital Brand Expressions
Jordan Glogau, Partner, Internet Reputation Management
Simon Heseltine, Director of Search, Serengeti Communications
Michael Jensen, Co-Founder, SoloSEO

First up is Veronica Fielding. She talks about proactive reputation management - how to fortify yor brand before there's an issue that arises. She recommends to develop a game plan before there are problems and having something in place if a problem were to arise. It may not prevent the information to trickle to the surface but it can help you address issues and leverage them for the issues that may be causing your brand a problem.

There are 3 essential considerations:
- Determine which content sets and chalnels you will use, in what combinations, and how often: SEO, social media, and paid search are part of this mix.
- Prepare your messaging and be consistent. Make it channel-appropriate. You don't want to be Digging information that doesn't wor. Weigh your options for Facebook elements. Your myspace page should be different from Facebook because of the different audiences.
- Determine how frequently you will check in and talk with your audiences.

Implementing your SEO portion of the plan gives the search engines time to find and index the relevant content on your site and on other sites that link to yours.
Having paid search ads gives you realtime placement if a problem arises and quick adjustments make the copy relevant for off-setting negative inforamtion.
Leveraging indexable social media adds to the numbero f quicj spidered sites that can be drawn upon to come to your brand's aid. It's also a forum for transparent dialogue with your brand's stakeolder.
Use Wikipedia prudently. There may already be an entry for your brand so don't get caught tinkering with the content. Address yur concerns on the article's "Talk" pages.

There are key social media sites to consider:
- Your brand's blog
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- Facebook
- MySpace (for consumer, not B2B)
- YouTube
- Flickr
- Rollyo - create your own search engine
- ZoomInfo (name may exist, but you should claim it)

B2B strategies:
LinkedIn: consider making it for the company as well as for key exectives whose names may be searched in association with the company
Facebook also helps

Simon talks next about reputation management and what people look at. Some people don't always look for their name and they don't actually see that there are negative results. If you look at the SERPs for reviews, you may not even see everything -- think about reviews for products. Sometimes you may find things in blogs or forums, the latter which may not even be indexed.

From this, you can learn how people are talking about you and what they are saying. You need to analyze the sentiment and to see whether things are positive or negative. "The biggest disaster since Titanic" - is that positive or negative?

Who are the influencers? You need to find out where the discussions happen so that you can concentrate your resources. If the sentiment on Facebook, for example, is neutral, and the sentiment on MySpace are positive, you may want to contact MySpace fans to speak to your evangelists.

Find out what people are saying and where they are saying it. How do you do it?
1. The ghost of the recent past. Get Google and Yahoo alerts and check your email to find out about specific key phrases.
- Twitter is similar - do TweetBeeps, for example.
- RSS feeds are your friends.
- Digg and other social voting sites are similar.
- Sites like zevents
- Wikipedia lets you subscribe to RSS
- YouTube has RSS
Most social sites have RSS
2. The ghost of the actual past
- Top end - big brands - TNS Media Intelligence and Nielsen BuzzMetrics
- Open SOurce - Nonprofits - The BuzzMonitor

When you look at it, RSS feeds only deliver updates and new information.

Client study with a medical group -
- getting about 50-75 notifications per day
- historical buzz monitoring recovered over 150,000 listings, so use old data too!
Use a tool!

Monitor your buzz - get a baseline with a deep scan into the past and continually monitor to the recent present.

Michael Jensen talks about reputation management for local businesses.

Local is a unique space becasue of ratings and reviews, but beyond that, it's everywhere. It's in the SERPs, social media, there are search engines devoted to the local space (Yahoo), directories (Yelp), and more. There are also mobile apps (GoodRec is an iPhone application). There are also local niche sites (Andy's List for contractors).

Ratings and reviews; a customer's first impression. If you search for a dentist, who are you going to call and who aren't you going to call? Visual elements really do help with regards to choosing the desired local provider.

Art of persuasion: do you read reviews before you go somewhere? He asks the room and almost everyone raises their hand. Reviews can be very persuasive, both positive and negative. Enough positive outweighs the occasional negative. You need to push the right button with potential customers.

Every review helps as a vote of confidence. One negative review can have a huge impact if there are only few reviews.

In the future, features that are not necessarily check-boxed are in the terms and text of a review. Search engines said that they don't really use the text much for ranking factors and such.

For monitoring local, there are few things that are available so manual monitoring is helpful. SoloSEO will be working on tools soon!

Be defensive and proactive in the social space - get constant positive reviews in a lot of local sites. There are 2 main barriers: your customers are not motivated and they aren't technically savvy. You should motivate them with a coupon or free gift and make it easy for them to review - tell them where they can review. Check out leavefeedback.org, a tool that he created.

Local business should have a system for getting reviews. Have coupons or cards on hand, train employees to give out, get information or other information.

Be creative - give away free wifi at a local restaurant and when they access it, redirect them to your review site. Have a kiosk. When you're a restaurant, give them a handheld tablet so they can write the review then and there.

Get "recommended." It boils down to SEO. A link is a recommendation. Use the local chamber of commerce, professional associations, related businesses (realtor + loan officer), local events and sponsorships.

On the offense side, average out poor ratings with positive reviews. Create a system and get those reviews constantly. If you receive a poor snippet, surround that with positive reviews. Respond to critical reviews. Update your business listing to reflect changes and improvement in response to poor reviews.

Last up is Jordan Glogau. He talks about the Internet is the Truth Machine - it's a book from 1996 by Jams Halperin. Some invents the perfect lie detector. Once the machine has been invented, it's impossible to tell a lie. Over a period of time, the technology gets shrunken to the size of a wristband. To some extent, the internet has become the truth machine without having a lie detector.

That's not really accurate but it is part of everyday life. The results are not perfect - it's far from it. The results are fast and maybe too fast. It can effect your business like a heart attack.

OMG - Don't Google our name!
- Is it affecting business via sales?
- Can the root cause be addressed?
- Can it be fixed and will it stay fixed?

The first Immortals is another book by Halperin who says that we live forever. The metaphor is that this is like Google and the rest of the Internet.

Evaluate the problem: is it personal or is it about a business? Is it affecting a person or business? What kind of sites? Who is attacking who and why?

Types of sites that can be problematic: review sites, news sites, government, anti-whatever, Wikipedia, social media

How do you counteract and push this down?
- Link building
- Counter blog
- Controversial: link buys
- Wikipedia - build trust with your editor and don't think about it if not!

Active antagonists: what if you have a country club, for example, and you have a disgruntled ex-member? You may have to prepare for the long haul and get your staff involved. You may have to counter all the time.

General tricks and advice:
- Use unrelated links to move down bad links
- Interlink between blogs
- Collect information on links and build a link list on your sites for Google to find
- If the quality of the links/blogs is a concern, you shouldn't use the paid blogging services.

Bad for business - if you don't fix your problem it will never go away.
- Poor customer service will always plague you if you don't address it.

Rep-port: Simple to run, color coded, email reports, and free of charge.

Ad Agencies & Search Marketing

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 10:23pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Do Traditional Advertising Agencies "Get Search?"

It's clear from this panel (and now the feel of SMX East 2008) that we're entering the third age of SEM, which is about the the entire big-agency world folding into search, social, paid and content. Holistic and effective integration, driven from top-down-creative-think, is becoming the norm more and more.

The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on West 34th Street center is teeming with folks at their first conference and seasoned vets' alike. The "Ad Agencies & Search Marketing" panel was a harbinger of the world to be, the world search already is, the big agency world. Search is taking its rightful place as the 800 LB gorilla at the marketing mix table. Each of the speakers shared lovely insight regarding their experience as search grows up.

Moderator: Sara Holoubek, Consultant, Columnist and SEMPO Board of Directors began by offering stark insight. Much as traditional search marketers would love to dis' agencies she feels times are changing. Sara pointed out that agencies DO "get it" on a massive scale now. This evolution comes a as a result of mergers, acquisitions and consolidation in the industry. The session comprised of Moderator-Sara interviewing the distinguished panel, with no .ppt presentation slides.

Her questions were insightful, probing and...you had to be here to totally appreciate the experience in the room. Here are a selection of concept-statements discussed in this rapid fire back and forth exchange amongst industry peers. Much of my impressions during this session embody actual quotes from speakers. Some not. I invite the speakers do climb in this thread and provide input and any notes they had coming in. Wish we had a recorder and transcriptions guys :).

Jason Clement, Director of Search, Wieden Kennedy
Do agencies get it? It depends who the agency is. Creative agencies who are holding overall strategy might not get it. However, this notion that agencies can't have successful search departments is completely false. We're hired because we make the best "media neutral decisions" surrounding the media planning process, so as to make best recommendations to serve clients. Unlike traditional SEMs who are "bound to the books" of the business they, do when it comes to how much they can spend, advertising agencies tend to have a broader base and a little bigger stage to grow campaigns financially and creatively.

One thing missed as agencies picked up search, is the creative. Mapping creative strategy back to search has been difficult, to have creative ideas to launch sites and applications that are truly search driven. You can take search and move it beyond the media buy and really start thinking search as a "communications tool."

Jason dismissed the varying price of similar deliverables, anecdotally proffered by an audience member. The questioner noted that, to his mind, in a stack of redundant estimates and analysis, the agency recommendations tended to be exponentially expensive. Jason basically said that he doubted that any of the agencies charging less,could bring execution, might not know the business they were pitching to and might not bring the overall value of a pitching-agency. Thanks for being cool about the question Jason :) .

Chris Copeland, CEO, GroupM Search, The Americas
So Chris, do agencies get it? "I think it depends on what it is. "It = paid search = Google" is a known quantity for most agencies. I think they get, it there's a concern, there's attention. Agencies are more problem = solution rather than opportunity = solution." PPC has a cost and ROI association so agencies can relate. When it gets into organic search things "get more questionable for both the agency and their clients." "Let's understand how we ad value to the process and go from there."

You've got a 10 year industry, search. It's hard to transition client communications, from the perspective of traditional media. It's hard to teach traditional team members that search provides incredible insight into customers' behavior and is no longer a direct response medium. There's a massive change going on and at the end of the day, talk always comes around to Google and their "amazing nimbleness."

We as an industry have to evolve past gimicky practices and limited knowledge being a basis for a business. If you can deliver the strategic value of search then you can be well paid for it. What do you DO to earn the money? One of the nice things about agencies, is that there are people who have been in the industry and that's cool to have. When providing search services from inside an agency structure, the clients sign on they want an agency of record and everything kind of gets boiled into that. GroupM Search has kept the relationship direct with clients want integration in a different way, direct. Clients like the checks and balances by the search unit being a "watchdog" to keep their other players. He listed other compelling reason.

Aimee Reker, SVP, Global Director of Search, MRM Worldwide
Do agencies get it Aimee? "We as an agency get it to where our clients they're able to touch all parts of the opportunity." If you've got 250 different brands and products, you've got to really have a relationship with your clients and get them to execute search initiatives. There is "zero problem with senior management not getting search" in her shop. Sites that were not built perfectly are "part of an evolution we're all going through together."

Aimee says that they embed search specialists on every team, but it starts higher up when briefs are created. The search teams work with the designers as they're building out their comps. They work with the technical team on the requirements. It's a little "microcosm of glue," working across the media teams. This helps the search process be "better, brighter" and more effective at the overall agency level. All channels including social media, coding, PPC, SEO is all available to any project. Everybody's part of the "search" effort. We point out to our clients how does search fits in the big picture for your company in a 5 year plan.

MRM Worldwide has full transparency with all their clients. In some places they may not have solutions and bring in other partners. "We are an open agency model" and work with other media shops or other outsourcing when something is slightly out of their expertise.

MRM makes sure to mine compensation for strategic development, as a crucial link in the concept chain. "If you do search well, you spend less, so we have to be paid for strategic development." Also, MRM Worldwide demands relationships with all the other players at the table. "It's just that important."

Marty Weintraub is President of aimClear, a search focused Minnesota advertising agency.

The Ten Truths Every CMO Must Know About Search Marketing

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 9:42pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Whether you're a CMO - or someone who needs to educate, advise or influence one - this session will educate you on the 10 critical important concepts surrounding search marketing and its role within the entire marketing mix that CMOs must understand in order to be successful. A panel made up of senior level search marketers across a variety of industries, business models, and sizes will share their experiences, advice and perspective on these 10 critical truths and how understanding them has influenced their CMOs.

Moderator: Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land

Panelists:
Michelle Stern, Client Services Director, iProspect
Willie Fernandez Director of Marketing, World Travel Holidays
Jennifer Doss, eCommerce Marketing Manager, Hat World and Lids
Jill Nortman, SEO and Web Analytics Specialist, Allegis Group
Jen Miller, Manager, Delta.com Online Content and Marketing

This session is sponsored by iProspect.

1. SEO is an ongoing process.
Why do CMOs need to pay attention? Search marketing should be an integral part of an entire marketing strategy. It's difficult to communicate the right issues. Enable 360 degree communication.
Jill: SEO is really less of a function and more of a process. It's ongoing - you can't set it and forget it. You need to be involved because the Internet industry is constantly changing. Recently, social media sites are being indexed. Having a presence there is very important, especially to articulating that to your CMO. Blended results are also a new phenomenon - if you aren't keeping up with those changes, you're missing the boat.
Jen: SEM is an ongoing process. Delta marketing is separate from content production. When she manages paid search, she was working with the content group on how to optimize the website. But then they realized that content and marketing are one so both organizations have been combined. It's been a lot more beneficial for them. It's a front-end process. From an organizational standpoint, it was successful, but it took a long time.

2. Being #1 isn't everything and sometimes is not even possible.
Willie: Being in the cruise space today, the #1 term you would want to rank for is the term "cruise." However, from month to month, being #1 not only was causing them to reach their budget quickly but the word wasn't converting well. They decided to scale back and found terms that should have been #1 but weren't. They saw that their budgets were not being stretched out as much and they were finding those other words convert better. In a 4 month exercise, they analyzed 2,000 and scaled back to the point that there was a positive ROI on words that were losing money month to month.
Michelle: In paid search, revenue is really key. Being #1 is not always where it's at. Analyze your keywords and determine what value your keywords are based on ROI. That will allow you to afford the keywords that ought to be in position #1.
Jennifer: We have a very extensive keyword list and a dozen of those are the most efficient. We do rank on those keywords, but like cruises, hats is a keyword that can't necessarily be #1. Look at the multi-keyword phrases and you can rank higher. Because they are specific, they convert at a higher rate. 70% of all clicks come from the first page, so concentrate on getting on the first page and then work your way up. Being #1 isn't as profitable, so looking at where you're ranking and your spend and if you're meeting your ROI goals, maybe the lower positions are a better place.
Jen: You may want to optimize for a one-word phrase but it's too competitive. Think about the top converting/clickthrough keywords instead.

Chris: How much of a challenge do you find addressing ego - "we have to be #1!"?
Jen: It's about education, trying to share strategy and saying that it's about integration with other channels and how they play against each other.
Jill: With PPC, you have to pay to play. Being in position #2 can save you a lot of money. As long as you can remain on page 1 or above the fold, that's something you should also strive for.
Jennifer: Education is a primary element. Directors in our department will ask why we're not #1, but we have to explain budgets and resources to them.

3. The long tail is your friend.
Michelle: Long tail keywords give you more qualified traffic. Also, there's less competition and that increases chances of being visible on those terms. That feeds into the third benefit which is when there's less competition, that equals less costs.
Jen: Mine through the data to see what people are searching for and bid on them.
Willie: We expanded our keyword base by about 10,000 keywords, if not more. We saw that people are searching for something but then they've decided what they want. For example, "christmas cruises from New York" or "carnival cruises from miami" has proven to be very successful.
Michelle: You need to start broad and develop more long tail terms over time based on clickthroughs.
Jill: The importance of analytics is critical before you start bidding on keywords.

Chris: So it seems that analytics and tools are really key.

4. Both paid and natural SEM are crucial.
Jennifer: For us, we want to have as many listings as possible on the results page. 54% of our search revenue comes from our organic listings and 46% comes from paid. Visibility in both increases our brand awareness. In our paid listings, we can control the ad copy but you can't do that as easily with organic listings. We use that copy to promote special sales and offers. You can also control the landing page for these so you can go to higher-converting pages. She did a test and saw that depending on the destination URL, there were higher conversions. Try to find funds to do tests and how being listed might help your organic listings because of the increased visibility.
Michelle: In addition to what Jennifer said, you need to be in paid and organic listings. 70% will click on organic listings and 30% click on paid listings, according to research. You should be in both places becasue there are different types of people. If you're in 2 parts of the page, you'll probably get the click.
Chris: What about a brand lift for being in organic and both?
Jen: When Delta was not visible for brand in paid search, their visits went down. What does that show? There are different customers for different things, as Michelle said. To her point, we found that paid customers are must more shoppers and they're more ready to convert. It pays to be visible by brand. We knew we had to take the risk even though there is obviously a budget issue with this.
Jill: We have found that clicks in our paid advertising usually are those who are the first time visitors to our brand.

5. Customers hear their language, not yours.
Jill: She reads a quote that says that one of the biggest mistakes is that people campaign with the messaging that the company wants to push rather than what people want to hear. The messaging slogan will tie back into what happens online so don't just speak from the brand. Think about the users. She talks about the automotive industry and how in the past, it was about crash data, but now it's a big issue about going green and gas mileage. Why? That's what the people are looking for.
Willie: Sometimes we got in touch because we used industry terms in our ad copy. The bounce rate was through the roof. We couldn't understand why, so we ran a focus group and we started to understand that we were talking amongst ourselves and not to our site visitors. We toned it down and translated the industry terms to pain English and consumer friendly terms. We started to focus on some user-centric terms on other pages - e.g. cruise reviews. After a customer has purchased, they would want to review cruises before they purchase. They build up cruise reviews on product pages. The bounce rates dropped and they saw an increase of conversions by 45%.
Chris: I observed companies using thier own site search tool to identify holes.

6. Web pages aren't the only assets you need to optimize.
Jen: We interface with communications with users, so we need to get our content distributed. We launched a blog, and we use press releases and videos (YouTube channels). How do we optimize these areas? This is obviously important.
Jill: You want to take advantage of content beyond the landing pages, like video. Tag that video, make sure the title is in line with the message, etc. You also want to be there on a paid perspective. But even with branded and nonbranded search, you need to think about social. Those results are showing up. If someone does searches for this, you want to be in the landscape and you want your social ads to show up.

7. Integration is a must.
Michelle: It's really critical to share information so that you can benefit from your marketing campaign. Marketers who are responsible for media plans need to communicate to search marketers to capture demand through search. Search marketing should also communicate.
Jen: We recently had a campaign where we needed to talk to travelers based out of NY. We decided to bid locally and geotarget to NYers. We changed the language for these users. Paid search gives you the opportunity to supplement another campaign to a different audience.
Chris: we've been talking about search and online, but what about other marketing? Do you do any of that?
(Silence.... I guess they need to read the coverage I wrote earlier this morning on integration!)
Jennifer: We don't do much TV/radio, but when we do, it's in conjuction with our vendors. We do special promotions though occasionally.
Jill: There was another session this morning (yay!) that was basically about integration or die. The disconnect was that your message offline may not be the online for some people. 67% of people were motivated to search online for what they heard offline. Nearly 40% of those searchers ended up converting. Who wants a 39% conversion rate? We all do! (If you are a first time SERoundtable reader, go check my coverage from this morning.)

8. Tools simplify everything.
Willie: We have inhouse tools at our disposal that we built that indicated that newspaper ads are a dying breed. We wouldn't have known this without tools. We learn about the long tail keywords, so without those tools, we wouldn't know where to bid.
Jennifer: We have about 10,000 pages and our content is forever changing. We had to manually manage that beforehand, and it wasn't efficient. With the help of iProspect, we put a few things in place, like a Google sitemap, a template that helped us for dynamically generating site optimization tags, and more. Sometimes creating/building tools can take time and development can suck time, but in the long run, it makes us remain up-to-date and current. We don't necessarily have the resources inhouse but thinking about tools does help you become more efficient.

Chris: What do you do to demonstrate the value of ROI?
Jen: We tried to transform our site optimization from the backend to the frontend but transparency of tools and accessibility to those content producers so that people can be evangelists - we don't get guidance from the agency. They can mine the data themselves and find what's relevant. We have analytics tools that are self-service. We all become part of that process and share information.
Michelle: Case studies of what you've been able to do in the past helps to drive the momentum for going forward.

Chris: In this economy, is there new money or do you have to take money away from other marketing efforts?
Jill: Before shutting down offline altogether, in the state of the economy, we're seeing that the budgets are shifting. They're honing in on the return of over campaigns in the past year. There's more efficient spending by shifting funds.
Michelle: We're not seeing anyone reducing search spend and that's because search is so measurable. You have to keep it in an economy like this.
Jen: As long as you get rewarded, you should continue. It's easy to justify.

9. Don't bid solely on branded terms.
Michelle: I would definitely say this. You run the risk of your competitors benefitting. What I mean is that - think about someone searching on a non-branded term. Most people are still researching, so your competitor will get that customer.
Jen: At Delta, we talk a lot about incremental tickets. We don't have content on every single destination we're going to -- yet. In order to have a void, we bid on those unbranded terms so that we can capture that researcher who convert into an incremental ticket, a ticket that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Optimize for that unbranded term as much as possible.
Jennifer: Bidding on the unbranded term will help as much as possible. About half of our revenue comes from the unbranded term search. Sports fans search by their teams, not by the brand name, for example. We pay very close attention to those keywords. I read a retail study that said that 55% of traffic came from nonbranded and 49% of those who purchased clicked on a non-branded term and 12% clicked on both!
Jen: People usually search initially on nonbranded terms but then they actually search on the branded term when they are close to buying.
Jennifer: You need to look at your list and revise/develop the terms.

Chris: There has been in the past during recessions a move away from brands. That would play into this entire thing to have a mix going forward.
Jill: You can always get paid optimization to complement your organic efforts. Sometimes that offsets the cost.

10. You must set goals.
Jill: You need to focus on the goals and then focus on the tactics to get there. Then you need to get creative with your goals - of course everyone can agree on some conversion points but you need to think outside the box, for example, offsite optimization and social. Monitor the number of friends that you acquire each month. The same goes for video. Some videos increase 25% monthly for us even though they've been up for over 12 months. Case studies are another opportunity - keep track of that and make sure you're seeing regular growth. They are really good goals to have.

What's New With Video Search Marketing

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 9:42pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Moderator: Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land who showed up late due to a technical issue with what people call "WiFi."

Michael Benedek, Vice President, AlmondNet is up first. Behavioral advertising is the delivery of ads based on their behavior online. There is lots of opportunity in behavioral ads.

Bringing in the video component...
- Linear video ads (prerolls)
- Non linear (overlays)
- Companion Ads (text, display, etc.)

67% of internet users are viewing video ads at least once per month (eMarketer).

Behavior and Post Search
- 5% of their time declaring purchase intent on search engines
- 95% of time browsing ad supported content on "other" sites
- Most searcher complete their purchase-related research two or more weeks before handing over their credit card

Implementation Challenges:
- Standardization is hard (too many video players)
- Scalability
- Video content categorization

IAB's Response:
- Introduced VAST
- It is an XML standard
- Designed to standardize

Gregory Markel, Founder & President, Infuse Creative is next up.

He explains why video optimization is important... Let's assume it is important, I wont go through all his valid reasons. Pew Internet released a study on what people are watching.

He showed that if you search corvette video on Google, up comes three video results.

Video on mobile is growing with iPhone and all the clones.

Submission:
(1) Video on your site
(2) Upload video
(3) RSS techniques

He shows how to upload at YouTube. He said they increased cap size from 100MB to 1GB but do not, there is currently still a 10 minute limit. It is not just about the title or text in the video description. It is not just about views. It is about the community around the video. I.e. ratings, comments, favored, inlinks and embedded videos.

Soon you can buy higher rankings in YouTube, he said.

He shows Yahoo Search, media RSS feed submission.

Tips:
(1) Define goals
(2) Analyze competition in YouTube and Google.com
(3) Research keywords and title/descriptions
(4) Add/Modify "in video" branding/call to action/URL (watemarks, speak your brand and annotations in YouTube)
(5) Decide submission strategy/type
(6) Spread the word, encourage community, remember mobile
(7) Monitor and track your progress and tune.

YouTube has search suggestions, so right there, it shows you what is popular. Just start typing. Also, type a search result and sort by view count. Submit beyond YouTube. YouTube by default gives you a mobile friendly channel. He then shows annotations. Piggy back off popular YouTube videos as a response video. Lead in your description of your YouTube video with a live URL to your site.

What's New?
- Google.com serving side by side video results
- YouTube adds quick list and duplicate video link
- YouTube bulk uploader
- Paid results in YouTube
- Paid search user interest targeting
- Trueveo and vSnax for iPhone video search apps

Eric Papczun, Director of Natural Search Optimization, Performics is next up.

The new Google audio indexing tool is being demoed. It basically does speech recognition. Right now, only for the political channel - as a beta. You can search for all videos in the political channel that match a keyword phrase. Plus you can skip to those points in those videos. Google will probably expand this to other videos.

How Does it Work?
- Google uses its own speech technology
- Ranked by spoken keyword relevance, youtube metadata and freshness

Speech to Text is still not perfect and she shows examples.

He then shows off the power of YouTube for Video SEO. Web results show video.

Tom Wilde, CEO, EveryZing is last up. He gets to go on stage as the down breaks below a - 700 point drop.

Objectives:
- Increase consumption of online media
- Create multimedia advertising inventory
- Control and protect content distribution

Challenges:
- Findable
- Navigable

Search engines dont do a good job with indexing videos. Text still drives discovery.

Publishers need to match supply and demand.

Publish across the curve from topic pages to landing page (too long tail). Organize your content into topics and publish them in a manner search engine can find it. Then make sure each content piece has a landing page.

Create a Good Target for Search Engines:
- Properly formatted page titles and URL structures
- Related topics link to additional topical pages
- Multimedia snippets derived from speech processing provide relevant text for GYM crawlers
- Dynamic media player with "Jump To" functionality
- Page populated with multimedia and articles relevant to topic/entity

Challenge #2: Multimedia Site Search & Navigation
- Goal of site search is to maximize content recall while optimizing precision and relevance.

The web search experience on your site, needs to be similar to how Google handles it with universal search.

Social Media Marketing for Newspapers and Magazines

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 7:08pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Continuing on from how newspapers and magazines can tap into search, this session looks at how social media marketing offers some unique opportunities forthese publishers.

Moderator: Alex Bennert, In House SEO, Wall Street

Speakers:
Brent Csutoras, Online Marketing Specialist, BrentCsutoras.com
Adam Sherk, Search/PR Strategist, Define Search Strategies (The NewYork Times Co.)
Chris Winfield, President, 10e20

Chris speaks first. Why would you want to be involved in social media marketing? You can get recognition in a wider audience. You cna create new touch points - so many people can now discover your content. It can enhance your credibility especially with more delivery. You get "first mover" status if you break news soon. You cna get new Public Relations opportunities. Also, you get traffic. Links are really important. He shows some client changes that show increased views. It increased traffic 135% in a 6 month period with close to 3 million visitors from social networks and blogs. It had 12 million ad impressions, and increased natural inbound links by 2,666%.

How do you get there?
- Do research - where are your visitors coming from already? Where are they coming from - Facebook, forums, etc?
- Where are people talking about your stuff?
- Who is linking to you?
- What has worked so far?
- Where is the most potential for our growth?

Start making decisions. Find out where people are already - talk to your customers and readers and learn the demographics of the social networks that they are using. A lot of social networks have specific audiences and you don't want to force a square peg into a round hole.

Now make internal changes.
* Don't alienate your existing audience. You want to make your with pop-ups. You don't want to have all your content like that because it's a turn-off for social media users.
* You need to look for evergreen content.
* Make it easy for people to share your content. Don't have 80,000 little social bookmarking buttons. People won't use it.
* Get key employees and stakeholders on board.
* You also need to open up. Blogs have fresh content. Stay on top of the curve.
* Have a good RSS strategy.
* Microblogs such as Twitter are very useful. Don't just be a "feed." You want to gain new followers and new customers.
* Outreach - your links mean a lot to bloggers.

Social news and bookmarking sites are really important for publishers. You've gotten on the homepage and getting traffic is great but it's not the end-all. You have other bloggers that are coming on and looking for content. A lot of people go to social news sites and find content. Some people then share it in other communities. People are IMing it to people and then it gets down to the "mainstream press" and forums.
- What does this mean? Eyeballs.

What is good content?
- Breaking news: everyone knows about the bail-out plan and the BBC was the first publication to get it out there (which is ironic).
- Lists: they've been around forever. An example is the 10 commandments. They worked then and they work now.
- How-to's: how to do things.
- Surveys/Rankings: think about the US News Best Colleges
- Getting something that is extremely comprehensive. What content would someone want to bookmark or come back to at a later time?
- Controversial/Opinionated content.
- Best of's: Best movies ever made, etc.
- Calculators: life expectancy calculator, etc.
- Video
- Widgets etc.

Final tips:
- Promote great content
- Contribute to the communities
- Make the sites work together
- Don't have all your employees vote from the same IP ;)

Adam Sherk is up next.
Survey of magazine sites: - between Q1 and Q3 is that traffic from social media ranged betwene 0.6 and 18% of total site traffic. Among social media referrers - Digg, 24% average, high 52%, Stumbleupon 24/60, Facebook 4/7, Reddit 4/13, delicious .5/1, and Myspace 3/5.

He shows the conversation prism by Brian Solis (Google it - it's pretty). You need to interact with people. Discussion of content often happens off your site but it's okay - sure, you want people on your site but you want to get out there and engage in that conversation and those dialogues with them so they can come back to you looking for more information.

It's not enough: social media strategies are great but it's just a start. When you think about it, it's just one way. With social media marketing, you need to directly engage with your audience and build that up so that they can go back to your site. Active participation and real participation can bring them back.

Steps to social media success:
- Monitor and observe - learn the landscape
- Locate your audience and find opportunities
- Formulate a strategy
- Engage and participate
- Evaluate and adjust

Adam uses Plurk with me, and I feel good about that. He mentions that Plurk, a competitor to Twitter, has a large community of knitters. As for why, we both don't really know, but it's interesting to know that people leverage communities in such ways.

Tactics:
- You need a brand ambassador who drives the strategy and sees where the opportunities are.
- They officially represent your publication. It's a full-disclosure (corporate level SMM). Give them time and resources to develop strong profiles and relationships. For example, set 50% of their time for 6 months. Get a figure that will let someone specifically put in time towards these activities. In terms of doing this, you can jump into these communities and spam your stuff, but that won't work. This needs to be genuine. Social media experience helpful but personality traits are most important - you need to have a natural networker.
- Their efforts must be trsnparent. Do not hide company affiliation. Do not engage in activities that could be interpreted as manipulative.
- Remember: your brand ambassador won't be there forever, so plan for the transition.

Appropriate participation
- Be a genuine member of communities
- Be transparent
- Look before you leap
- Regularly and actively participate
- Build good relationships
- Engage in dialogues
- Share interesting, useful, relevant content

Avoid:
- Hiding your affiliation
- Being overly promotional (he has a 90 day moratorium where people can't share their own content until they have shared other content)
- One-way communication
- Poor quality content
- Off-topic content or comments
- Fake persons or comments
- Violating community rules/terms of service
- Spamming "friend" networks
- Paying for submissions

The brand ambassador drives it and that's one person but that person may leave too. Plan for that transition. It's not just your brand ambassador; it's your editorial staff too. The brand ambassador is great but you need to get your writers directly engaged as well.

Employee participatin: your employees are likely already active on their own. Capture that energy and let it work in your favor. You need a corporate social media policy - define clear guidelines for sharing content and discussing the publication, and emphasize etiquette to avoid inappropriate exchanges that can damage your reputation.

Encourage and empower your employees to represent you indirectly and (when appropriate) directly.

Don't forget the people who love you! You have fans and fan evangelists. What about taking advantage of current fans and telling them about exclusive features? They are specifically joining the communities because they love them (think Facebook product pages and Friendfeed rooms, among other areas).

Not everyone is going to like you and you have to remember that.
- Interactions, feedback, and comments will not always be good. Your comments may get buried.
- Turn negative situations into an opportunity to build relationships
- Sometimes you just can't win, but your attempts to reach out will be noticed and documented.

How do you measure this stuff?
- Social media traffic
- Inbound links
- Pageviews, time on site
- Actions taken on the site
You can do this today.

Also, not as important:
- Submissions, votes, bookmarks, tweets, etc.
- Comments
- Cross pollination, secondary coverage

- Qualitative, positive, neutral, or negative
- Speed of viral spread/lifetime of memes
- Brand visibility vs. competitors

It's gotta be two way communication and it's gotta be real.

Up last is Brent. He talks about the platforms that people should participate in.

Social media is broad. He talks about the sites that you get the most results out of for the time that you spend.

The first site is Reddit, a social news aggregation site. Reddit does not have the "popular" page like Digg. It's algorithmic throughout - the front page is the top 25 articles based on their algorithm and it updates every 1 minute. You can be promoted to a popular page that can guarantee you exposure (like Digg). You need to be consistent throughout your success.

He says that politics is a very powerful category on Reddit. Offbeat is also great - funny, WTF, and offbeat. Business/world news are also rather popular. Reddit has an algorithm on every page. You can get onto the Reddit front page within 2 minutes and then be gone right after that. You need to consistently participate to do well on Reddit - if you hit the front page, you can be gone a second later.

Reddit has an anti-spam/anti-marketers "algorithm" that prevents you from being able to consistently push your own content. If you submit something and it is always followed by your friend, you may be the only one seeing it.

When you are going to submit content, try to be in the top 10. It's pretty broad. Don't force it if it doesn't fit.

The most popular site is Digg, at least for marketers. Digg used to be more tech-centric but we're now seeing more business news and offbeat content. Pictures and videos are also very popular. In general, pics/videos are very popular because they don't require a lot of work on behalf of the "reader." Digg has power users and they can help a lot. Domain authority is also important.

The next site is StumbleUpon. You submit things in categories - people sign up and choose categories that they look. They can see one piece of content one time within that category. It's a wave of visitors (as Adam said previously, it's the gift that keeps on giving) that can occur consistently. StumbleUpon is coming out with a new launch for category popular pages.

It's very important on SU to know which categories have the most number of subscriptions. You used to be able to sign up for their paid program and on their backend, they will show you the subscription numbers (but you can see from the tag cloud on buzz.stumbleupon.com what the most popular categories are). They also have a very good spam mechanism - if you submit stuff way too often, it will not let you do it consistently anymore. Review other content regularly and submit other content as well.

Yahoo! Buzz is another social site that came out that has a similar premise. It's category driven that allows you to vote to get to the popular page. There are no power users. The big driving areas are politics, celebrity news, entertainment, and sports. Search trends are part of their algorithm - if you utilize their commonly-searched upon keywords, you're likely to get a boost.

Propeller is another social sites. If you submit news content and get to the top 5, you're featured on AOL's news page. Big categories include politics, tech, science, and love. Politics are important and groups are critical for value. Comments are a part of their algorithm (but they don't care what the content of the comments are).

Other sites:
- Meneame is the Spanish digg.
- Delicious: howto and resources do very well.
- Fark is for humor and offbeat.
- Newsvine is kind of fading but it has a strong userbase.

Social media tips
- Have a persona
- Submit to the right community
- Mix it up
- Don't dupe
- Submit at the right time
- Use focused titles and descriptions
- No spelling errors, jargon mistakes, or bad information
- Watch your stats
- Do it right or don't do it
- Be social

What's New With Local Search Marketing

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 6:53pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Moderator: Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence

Local is Greg's baby. Greg explains that local is about tying online to offline. Greg will be posting Q&A from Google on Search Engine Land.

Mike Blumenthal, Partner, blumenthals.com is up first. I really respect this man, so I am excited. He first shows a Hitwise chart showing marketshare between Google, MapQuest, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Google projects maps info into not just Maps, but also into web search, smartphones, sms, voice, iphone, desktop and so on.

He analyzed 25 data points in a hundred businesses to determine what factors influenced local search rankings. Here is his presentation from SMX Local. He goes through some of the patent, going through really technical stuff such as:
- distance from center
- business name
- business category
- content
- explicit anchor text
- score of web site
- # of links referring to business
- highest score of those links
- total # of web page citations
- geo references
- reviews

Location Prominence score is the new local PageRank.

Research contributors:
- David Mihm
- Miriam Ellis
- Tim Coleman
- Dave ORemland
- missed the rest of the names

Here is Mike's presentation.

Tony Wright, CEO/Founder, WrightIMC is next up.

Predictions:
- 26% of small and med sized businesses plan to incorporate video on their web sites in the next 12 months
- 40% SMB respondents said they intend to add customer reviews to their sites
- 30% will add links or place ads on social sites or blogs.

He then showed the search heat map.

Watching for Source Consolidation:
- Industry consolidation cannot be at the cost of local relevancy
- There must be a consolidation in data providers. Implementation is too cumbersome in the current environment.
- Deal a day industry. The only thing harder than implementing on so many properties is keeping up.

Neat Things:
- Sekai Camera "Air Tagging" is very cool

Google's New e-Fluence Score:
- Talked about in Business Week
- Google rates social media users on their influential abilities
- HUGE impacts for local/mobile search
- Using manual tools like Trackur and other SEO techniques.

Review Nation:
- Everyone is reviewing everyone
- Reviews influence buying behavior
- Negative reviews can put you out of business
- Zillow, ServiceMagic, etc.
- Monitoring your reputation is more important for local businesses than anything

Craig Greenfield, Director, Local Search, Performics is next. He said the most significant change in this area is the AdWords policy change with the URL policy change. This impacts businesses with many locations.

Make sure your lead gen program is in line with your operators marketing abilities.

FYI, the whole time, his presentation is not being displayed on the projector. Someone should tell him... Or maybe he doesnt have a ppt?

Make sure your address information is clear on your web site and all up to date on the yellow page sites.

Steve Espinosa, Director of Product Development, eLocal Listing is next up. You are going to start seeing specific profile pages for each industry, so small businesses wont have to pay big bucks for a web site, they pay for a premade landing page.

Evolution of the Profile:
- A/B Testing for you on this site
- Complete conversion tracking
- SEO for both local and natural
- Evolve with current tracking

Yahoo Local Listing Tips:
- 5 Star Reviews
- Yahoo Enhanced Listings
- Keyword in Business Name

This will drive 1.8X more calls per month.

Trusted Sources:
- Link to your local listings
- Anchor text the link with key phrase matching the key phrase you placed in business name
- Google is more like to rank a source like Yahoo Local rather than your web site.

Video:
Enquiro showed companies received 2.2X more attention on the results page if they had both adwords and natural listings. They found that 3.34x with click through when a video is on the page.

Videos can be attributed as a web citation in Google Maps if properly linked and indirectly connected to Google Local.

Tips:
- Research your vertical and find out where Google looks for information
- Google pulls data from trusted sources
- InsiderPages.com, CitySearch.com and OpenList.com
- Yahoo Upcoming, Meetup.com and Google Coupon are good web references

The title tag of the web reference is getting a lot of weight put into it.

Bonus Tip:
Free phone tracking via Google. Create an audio campaign, get started and then stop. Then go to "call reporting" and then Google will log everything for you. Create tons of these numbers for free.

I love that tip! Wonder how long it will take to go bye-bye.

Eric Stein, Director, Local Markets, Google is last up.

Google will continue to open up maps. By providing those types of tools, they can help solve problems of search. He said he has to take away that audio trick, but they might open it up another way. Too many small local businesses dont have a web site. It is up to SEMs to help these small businesses market themselves.

Search Marketing For Newspapers & Magazine

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 5:55pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Results Take TIme, Metrics Saves Jobs. Newspaper and magazine SEO is all about the fundamentals and often like turning a battleship around in bathtub. Achieving buy-in with executives, CMS managers, associating content with keywords, training and "excitement" were reoccurring themes among this storied panel of experts. After Danny Sullivan kicked off SMX East, New York 2008, today's Moderator was Alex Bennert, In House SEO, Wall Street Journal.

Marshall Simmonds, Chief Search Strategist, The New York Times
The New York Times is a big family, including About.com Seventeen.com, TV Guide, HP, Time.com and Sports Illustrated. They have extensive experience in China. The New York Times is 100% in house. For other properties they work with, NYT provides services range from consulting, strategy, execution and support.

Marshall asks, "What stage in the life cycle" is this site, in terms of SEO. To begin there is no one size fits all approach to SEO. The New York Times had a registration wall. It all began with "sitting people in a room and teaching them about SEO, helping them understand what their role is. "Establish a knowledge and expertise base for success. Achieve buy in, which happens at the executive level. Ask , who are you, what is your core strength. Find any kind of success that they've had in the past. Case studies of competitors success is a very useful tactic.

Create An SEO Culture
Research, Google Trends, Insights, Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker, Site stats, successful and unsuccessful searches. Know the CMS quirks and languages. "Best practices may not apply. Best practices apply as in any facet of SEO. "What we're trying to do is extend beyond the confines of the New York Times" CMS. "We like to ask the questions that readers should be asking." Marshall says to give everybody the tools including analytics. He likes to create "ah ha" moments in teaching SEO.

If you're not diagnosing what the CMS does or does not do, it's going to fail. If you don't give the team fields (SEO attributes like HTML Title Tag) that need to be adjusted then you won't be able to pick off the hanging fruit. Look for the small wins to where you can turn the tide in your favor so far as getting by at the basic levels. Where you have executive buy in, you may not have the ears of the CMS folks for technical integration.

Ad networks and commerce are great places to get data to achieve systemic buy in. Branding and popularity are also benefits. Remember that the results take time and metrics saves job. Customize analytics reports for the receiver. Ultimately every CEO is going to do ego searches on Sunday over coffee. Ranking is OK to talk about but not the "be all and end all" because users might not be digging in that place.

Julie Rutherford, Marketing Director, Washington Post posed the question: "SEO Evangelists vs. Formalized Project, which delivers better bag for the buck?" Julie helps with brands such as Budget Travel, Newsweek, Slate, Sprig and other brands. They have lots of opportunities to practices SEO. They first stared SEO back in 2003. They had done some basic testing, started link building with major directories, brought in consultant to do cross-company training and started regular meetings and updates. In 05' they moved to harder projects including topics index, site maps and site structure.

Then they had to move towards a business reality of justifying SEO as a "cross disciplinary" project that required departmental evangelists. SEO requires "executive/C-level buy-in to unlock resources for heavy duty projects. She stressed that SEO is not an exact science and good business justification is required to fully move SEO through your organization. Metrics and tracking are, as always, key.

"On the ground evangelism and formalized project processes, gaining evangelists among the design, editorial, production, marketing, technology, PR and product managers are roots for SEO Success. "Marketing in our case was really the central" part of SEO success for the Washington Post team. "We had a lot of success by "really really" working with our product management groups, as regard CMS and other aspects.

Establish council or SWAT Team, get a project manager, insist on accurate reporting, enable and empower evangelists to uncover their own metrics, regular company updates with winds and metrics and reward performers. Follow up on business justification with executive buy in and provide tools/incentives for self management.

Ulli Muenker, Search Marketing Manager, BusinessWeek, spoke about launching a new SEO program and winning over editorial. She spoke of empowering and "winning" the editors and content creation folks after achieving executive buy in. from the business perspective, this is about marketing and product development, which spawns SEO efforts. The variables are product management, analytics, user experience, partnerships, marketing, technology and web design.

The first step is to get the high level buy in from editorial. Show potential traffic increase compared with competitors' and search traffic. Comparing to competitors is usually a great way to achieve buy in. Then find an SEO champion with influence over various groups/departments in editorial.

Take the time to demonstrate "the importance" and effects os SEO before and after page optimization." Look for the eye opening "wow" (second wow in this post). Step 3 is to speak the "SEO excitement" in all editorial's groups and departments. This demonstrates how their individual articles get more exposure. Show them "what's in it for them." She kept referring to word of mouth SEO buy in as "SEO fungus," LOL.

Conduct training by running regular individual and small group sessions. Use metrics to illustrate competitors' rankings and traffic. Create peer relationships to overcome skepticism and make writers knowledgeable about SEO so they become evangelists.

SEO Techniques For Editorial
Priority #1 is headlines. Editorial doesn't always know that the article headline is the title tag and therefore the listing in Google. Online headlines are different than print headlines. Main points to edit include being straightforward: no puns, sarcasm, jokes, and abbreviations. Include keywords that you want to rank for and create headlines that are fully understood on their own, without sub-headline or image.

The second priority is creating a keyword rich sub headline and copy beginning. This can also be used as the meta description. Step 3 and 4 are about creating a good internal linking structure and keyword rich copy without making it "sound dumb." Gain the editorial teams trust. You can help them get more explore in Google. Try to understand their mindset, especially a print mindset. Build relationships, set up regular training session and create excitement and buzz around SEO.

Eric Papczun, Director of Natural Search Optimization. Erik preaches a "Two-Pronged SEO Approach for Publishers"
Static Optimization Strategy means long term optimization around static local keywords. Specific audience profiles are developer for users who interact with each of the site's landing pages.

Profiles if readers and their interests drive the content mapping process, which mates each page to a targeted query. Keywords are then categorized by audience interests For instance a "sports junkie profiles," uses phrases like Cleveland Indians and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A restaurant Seeker profiles uses "Cleveland dining and finds their property, "Cleveland.com"Ask, "what keywords do my audience profiles use on the engines?"Then drill down into the subcategories like, fine dining or other niche.

Let this drive your decisions on the type of content you'll like to have out there. Think of these as "Content Magnets," which can be created to attract a specially targeted profile. Think about your sweet-spot. "Make editorial decisions on what to write, research-based and without being "too clever." Optimize headlines and tags. Use search data to validate your keyword decision and increase the "search shelf-life" of the story. Use Google trends to show the ebb and flow of cultural news interest. If the keywords remain hot, write separate stories under different URLs optimized for those keywords. This can extend your shelf-life.

Get into Google News by having original content. Keyword optimize the URL, be literal with your headlines using H tags and write balanced copy. Optimize your images and captions and keep them near the articles. Supply a frequently updated Google news feed and monitor it. (Google. prefers inline HTML 4:3 images above 12K). Keep fresh, keep constant, separate your stories into new news, breaking news and other divisions. Finally he suggested that we "own our stories."

Marty Weintraub is President of aimClear, a Duluth, Minnesota Search Marketing agency.

Quick correction, the NYT does not own "Seventeen.com, TV Guide, HP, Time.com and Sports Illustrated" those are client of our consulting group, Define Search Strategies. The New York Times does own About.com.

Search & The iPhone

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 4:56pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Moderator: Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence

The room is pretty empty, but I guess that is because this is an extremely specific session. Maybe 50 people? If I had to guess.

Cindy Krum, Director of New Media Strategy, Blue Moon Works, Inc. is first up. She will explain the "death of the dot mobi."

Mobile is Important:
- Mass Mobile Convergence (it can do so much more)
- Most personal marketing medium ever
- More interactive marketing possibilities
- Bridges the gap between online and offline

Mobile is Different:
- Mobile bots
- Mobile algorithms
- Smaller screens
- Simplified Rendering (on non iphones)
- More sophisticated searchers (they search differently, more long tail)
- Immediate intent

Why Now?
- Real mobile web browsing because of devices like the iPhone. It is easier and works well. Other devices are coming out that work like the iPhone.
- Flat rate data pricing
- Faster download speeds
- More processing power

dotMobi = Bad for SEO
- Bad for SEO
-- Splits traffic
-- Splits links
-- Splits index size
-- Doesnt benefit from history
-- Risks duplicate content
-- Confusing for users
- Not preferred in mobile search (the dot mobi ext)
- Limited useful life time span

Mobile Best Practices
- Basic SEO Best Practices
-- Blended search best practices
-- Local search best practices
- Avoid heavy code, flash and JavaScript (iPhone does support JS)
- Mobile search engine submission
- W3C Mobile compliance standards
-- XHTML & Accessibility Standards
-- External CSS
- Browser Detection or Self Selection
- Redirect the dot Mobi to your main site

3 Mobile Site Architecture Options

(1) Do nothing
- Look at mobile demand and traffic. Do people really need a mobile version of your site?
- Test Existing Site with transcoding, without transcoding, on true browsing phone and on mobile browsing phone.

Advantages:
- Easy,
- Cheap
- Forward Thinking cause phones will get better

Disadvantages:
- Transcoding only works through search
- Page urls and links are transcoded
- Mobile user experience hard to control
- Risky for the brand
- Gives your competitors an advantage

(2) Mobile Only Pages

- Create a mobile site on sub domain or sub folder

Advantages
- Just update existing code
- Adjust level of content

Disadvantages:
- Traditional home page must work on mobile
- Extra click from home page
- Duplicate effort
- Duplicate content risk
- Confusing if significantly different

Mobile Traditional Hybrid Pages:
- Multiple CSS sheets one for mobile one for normal
- Same content but different rendering instructions
- Rearrange content
- Display = none if you dont want to show it

Advantages:
- Just add a new stylesheet
- Same content
- No dup content
- CSS only has to download once

Disadvantages:
- Not 100% reliable
- iPhone wont always pull mobile version
- Hard if CSS not already in place
- Display none ...

Gregory Markel, Founder & President, Infuse Creative is next up. He will be focused on iPhone strategy.

He shows the Google Phone, new Blackberry and new Nokia all with touch screens, all GPS enabled and all "true web" enabled. This is why it is important. Location is also a reason, be the first to be there. He explains that iPhone GPS uses cell towers, GPS etc to get your location.

He said, keyword searching is dying on mobile. There are apps that replace this need, he said. He shows that there are a lot more searches on the iPhone then a normal mobile device.

iPhone App sales are growing twice the rate as iTunes music.

The browser experience on the iPhone is vastly superior than a traditional mobile browser.

iPhone users consume 6 times more data than the average mobile user.

Mobile Search has increased 68% in the US.

US consumers are more interested in the iPhone than any other phone, according to Google Trends.

The major search engines are detecting and offering iPhone specific experiencing. Google and Yahoo both have apps as well.

Apple is aggressively pursing business customers.

He then demos Google on the iPhone:
- Google detects your on the iPhone and knows where you are, and may serve up location specific results
- The search results are pretty much the same as a desktop experience, he said.
- iPhone browser will make phone numbers clickable (not google specific, but keep that in mind).
- Paid results are not the same, because on the iPhone they only show results at the top of the page, none on the right. So you better have top AdWords listings to show up.
- Google provides a free Google Search app. It offers search suggestions, pulls from your contacts, location specific by default.

It is important to note, the Google App uses the built in localization feature of the iPhone. While Google search, in Safari on iPhone, does not. Markel does not specifically say this, but Google is only showing localized results based on your IP information, but Google.com cannot do this by getting your GPS location (as far as I know). The Google App can and does do this, but not Google.com.

He then shows the UrbanSpoon app from the iTunes App store.

He mentions that Google does index iTunes links. I covered this a bit back, under the title Is Apple Cloaking Their iTunes Content, With Google Looking The Other Way? When Markel reads this, he will learn that this is really not an "SMX Exclusive." But this has been going on for a while now, even before the App Store. In fact, Matt Cutts of Google commented on it.

Tips:
- Check your clients web analytics to gauge current daily iPhone usage
- Remember the location specific nature of iPhone

Alex Muller, CEO, Slifter is last up. He will focus mostly on the App environment.

- Wide distribution
- Built in audience
- No specific iPhone web index
- Lower quality leads
- SEO and SEM Costs are higher
- Development cost to detect and display for iPhones

iPhone App Store:
- Advertisement
- Wide distribution
- Eager audience
- Consumer utility may be a detriment (depends)
- Longevity (how long will this last)
- Build, test, approve...
- It is expensive to build

Vertical Search
- Such as fandango
- Highly targeting
- Narrow audience

Downloadable Apps
- Loopt
- Highly engaged to end user
- More committed user
- How do you participate
- Major cost to developers

- 80% iPhone users use data
- iPhone users consist of about 7% of US market

Search Integration: Are We There Yet?

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 4:54pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

People have been talking about search being integrated with other types of marketing for ages. How's it going? Is search now second nature when creating an advertising campaign? If not, why not? Thoughts and examples of integration challenges will be shared in this panel.

Moderator: Sara Holoubek, Consultant, Columnist and SEMPO Board of Directors

Speakers:
Peter Hershberg, Managing Partner, Reprise Media
James Lamberti, Senior Vice PResident, Search and Media, comScore, Inc.
Robert Murray, President, iProspect
Don Steele, Vice President Digital Marketing, MTV Networks

Robert Murray is up first. He asks if we're soccer fans and if we've been to soccer games. In the game of soccer, integration is key. When you have 11 players on the field and they're all united for one common purpose, the results can be inspiring. He equates this with marketing online and offline.

Some background: search marketing does not exist in the backend. Unless you've been living under a rock, you have heard to "integrate or die." However it's packaged, the message is simple - integration matters. But what are marketers doing about that? What techniques are they using? If they're not, why not?

He found research from JupiterResearch in August 2007 where he pulled data from consumers - offline marketing on online behavior. 67% of polled individuals were driven to perform a search after they were exposed to some sort of offline messaging. Further, 39% of those people actually made a purchase of a product or service and not just from any company they found in the search results but from the initial company that exposed them to the offline messaging.

This year, they did more marketing between April and June of this year - 289 qualified search marketers completed the survey for 3 objectives:
- to uncover extent to which search efforts are integrated with offline marketing channels
- to reveal techniques used
- if there were any obstacles faced

The concept of integrating search with offline marketing channels is not new. Only 55% of the search marketers polled, however, did this. 34% of these actually integrated with direct mail, 29% integrated with newspaper or magazine ads. 12% integrate with television. However, that's odd - TV is one of the biggest influencers in online search behavior.

If people aren't integrating, why not? 19% said a lack of budget, 15% said lack of human resources, 13% didn't consider it, 11% lacked the senior management buyout. Others said that the offline marketing was separate from online marketing. Some also said that they just didn't do offline marketing.

What techniques are people using when you're integrating? 84% said that they're integrating a web address prominently in offline messaging. 66% said adding the company name. Robert says that this isn't integration - it's coordination. That should be a given. Only 26% are using the same keywords offline that they were using online, which he finds shocking.

What does this mean for you? Some people are put at a competitive disadvantage.

Like a soccer coach, the CMO is someone who works to build a strategic plan that drives towards coordination. CMO needs to make sure that data is shared continuously. You want to reward this behavior in your organization.

If you're a search marketer with a lot of great information, you should share that with your offline counterparts. The offline people should come to the table as well.

Testing is also important: this can save time and money.

The bottom line: we're all in this game to win but the marketers doing the best job integrating search with all other forms of offline marketing will most likely take the cup home.

James Lamberti of comScore is up next.

Are we there yet? He's going to talk about 3 things that are still missing - the all important consumer (and how they're left out of the conversation), measuring the full value of search (most people aren't), and search-driven planning and strategy.

Advertising a la "madman" - 1950-2001 RIP - you give them awareness, they go through the funnel, and they buy. Not anymore, he says. The world is complex - there's eyeballs, then offline media, online media, social media, and friends and family. In the center of this is search. All of this stuff that happens to the consumer and is simple for the marketers is search. comScore pulled up data to show that 17.1 billion US searches occurred. 194 million searchers searched about 8 times. Search is growing double digit numbers off the base of billions of billions of queries.

Most people search based on the brand trademark and brand communication, even graphically, he displays in a slide. As a desired outcome, you're getting people to search. How can I make sure my search marketing catches that activity?

He shows data that says that 55% of generic queries are undermeasured and undervalued. 45% are branded. Therefore, you need to think about the more generic searching. If you're just hanging on your trademarked terms and ignoring generic, you're missing a huge part of your addressible market.

Why are people searching? It's not seeking coupons, it's not navigational - they really want help and information for a purchase decision. Nonsearchers are often looking for promotions versus searchers. They're at a point of influence.

Measuring the full value -
It's not dead. We need data that's familiar to us to get the conversation going. He shows real data that was aggregated across 6 month and 9 million people hit a specific campaign with a reach of 6 million reach. He explains a computer search had a 69% reach because 6 million people were buying computers a month.

If you calculate your ROI compared to competition and you're getting less, you're at a huge disadvantage. Your competitor will have more paid impressions, more clicks, and they will gain share.

He shows multi-channels retailer actual results - multi-channeling - market mixed models. He says that you should provide the right data and the results will show that the organization will need to be spending more money on earch.

4 pieces of advice
1. Establish common ground. SEO marketers want to be talking to offline folks and the CEO - get the types of data that will get them interested.
2. Measuring full value is key. Know what the offline multiplier impact is.
3. Measure search as a desired outcome.
4. Treat organic and trademark as unique efforts: most organizations ignore generic through inappropriate comparisons to trademark. If you under emphasize generic, you ignore a huge part of the market.

Up next is Peter Hershberg about Microsoft as an enterprise brand. Microsoft is in dozens of businesses from Zune to Office to Live to XBOX to Small Business Servers. He is focusing on Vista and the work done with Vista. There are a lot of products associated with the Vista brand and there are also stakeholders. There are also a lot of goals that are conflicting.

How do you approach this problem and how do you deal with it? The first way to do that is through education - there are challenges because there are 5000 marketers with individual search budgets. Therefore, you need to create universal processes for budgeting, management, and reporting to measure success on an apples to apples basis. You also need to compaign metrics to marketing goals.

How do you do this? The strategy is to contribute to a Search Center of Excellence to sehare best practices and processes in search. It's like a forum for all the policies with campaign data and other information. There are training sessions (Search 101) tailored to the needs of each Microsoft department and its line managers. They are recorded and archived online. They also established a uniform 3-phased approach for taking fully integrated campaigns from concept to launch over a 5 week period.

Offline absolutely drives online behavior specifically in the area of search. As high as 80% of all internet sessions begin at a search engine, according to data. Something piqued their interest to perform that search.

Here's a Microsoft and their consumer campaign: some people are seeing the commercials with Seinfield, for example. People are going to start searching if they see the commercials. They need advanced knowledge about campaigns so it makes it possible to predict the unpredictable. They had access to the script so they bought the most obvious keywords including random (shoe circus, worm churro, etc.) If someone was searching for those, it was because they had seen the ad and wanted to know more about it. Keywords that are disconnected from Windows and Vista but resonated from the commercials were included in the campaign. Sometimes the least obvious things drive those searches.

Microsoft and Corporate Communications: active keywords that include Vista as part of a phrase. Close coordination of paid efforts and PR improved Vista caomapgin results - selected related keywords, aligned creative to increase response rates and conversion rates, and coordinated landing pages that linked to articles.

The whole idea of aligning goals with the channel has been mentioned, but the goals for Microsoft were related to reach and frequency to drive to site engagement. Where reach is concerned - how many of my customers saw my message? How often did they see it? For engagement, what did my customers do once they visited the site? This all ties into optimization.

The most interesting thing is that search is driving marketing intelligence. When we think of search, we're aggregating tons of data which is being used in the interest of improving results in the campaign. Search is a realtime focus group and you can analyzizesearch traffic and behavior to gain insite that can influence the entire mix: marketing messaging (emails, banners, onsite), media selection, communications strategy, and more.

How are we able to do this with Microsoft in Japan? Print was the biggest driver of traffic there. They found that this can optimize the banner campaign. The result was a 3x rise in the conversion rate.

The lessons learned
- Educate all stakeholders and understand their roles
- Repeatable rocesses for effectively shaping assets
- Measure success in the search channel - recalibrate goals to match strengths of the channel
- Repurpose search learnings to inform the overall marketing program

Last up is Don Steele of MTV.

Why we market: Branding, Awareness, Target, Interaction/Sampling.

How we market - there are some billboards that he shows that do brnading and targeting and awareness.

They use search for marketing.
* Branding: Search engine space is the new billboard for branding.
* Awareness: Search is awareness for visibility for shows.
* Target: Search also targets as it delivers a timely and fluid message to users who are expressing an interest in it.
* Interaction/sampling: Smart search campaigns should encourage interactive behavior whree a brand is delivering upon a user's expectation

He shows a search for "bill cosby" and how there's a paid ad that shows the Cosby Show on TV Land. It's the only paid link there.

He shows other examples with other related brands. When the Elliot Spitzer scandal came out, a big search was for spitzer jokes. They were able to do very well there.

How can you sell this internally? Well they are a media company and if they're not advertising, they're making a big mistake.
- Core audience
- Reporting
- Self selection
- Evangelism

The biggest challenge is that we can do billboards and search, but these tactics are not equal. You need to talk to people who are self-selectedness - giving people what they're looking for.

Sara asks a question about frequency reach.
Peter says that search is more measurable. But we only pay on a cost per click basis. We're dismissing the value of all the impressions. Back to his Microsoft example, in the Vista campaign, he served 5 billion impressions on MS's behalf. There is no meaningful way to show the reach of impressions.
Sara admits that it's a relatively new phenomenon.

Google Local Business Center Access Issues

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 2:44pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Groups thread reports many business owners having difficulty accessing the Google Local Business Center.

The error people are getting is:

System Error
We're sorry, but we are unable to serve your request at this time.

Please try back in a few minutes.

Personally, I have no problem accessing it, but it seems like many are having issues.

The issue has been reported back on September 24th and it still is an issue for many, even today. On October 1st, Google Maps Guide Jen said, "Thanks for bringing this to our attention; we're looking in to it right now." But even since then, many still are reporting issues accessing the Google Local Business Center.

There is no ETA on when the issue will be resolved for these users. Nor did Google explain what the issue may be.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Google Scholar Citations Cannot Be Removed

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 2:38pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Scholar has citations for many the results it provides. Those citations are hyperlinked under the search result, and list out sources across the web the cite the resource.

A Google Groups thread asked how he can get his site removed as a link from a Google Scholar citation. This particular webmaster removed the page but the citation is still listed in Google Scholar.

Googler, Susan Moskwa explained that citations cannot be removed. Why? Susan explains:

In Google Scholar, a citation is generated basically whenever we learn that a particular item (book, article, etc.) exists. As soon as we learn that "Book A" exists--and we may learn of it because we find a link to it, because some other work cites it, or through some other means--we generate a citation for it. The citation doesn't necessarily link to Book A, or provide anything more than a title and author name (although it may); it just indicates that Book A exists, or existed, somewhere in the world. It also doesn't necessarily link to works that reference Book A, or provide any web results, because just because we know a work exists doesn't mean we have any references or web results for it.

This is why you see some citations in Google Scholar that are not hyperlinked.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Which Google Penalties Require a Reinclusion Request?

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 2:29pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

A WebmasterWorld thread asks a very good question. Which penalties require a reinclusion request in Google?

Yes, this is a tough question to answer. But it would be great to come up with a list of items that might require and no require a reinclusion request.

WebmasterWorld administration, tedster, really sums up the issue with this question.

(1) Not all "penalties" are really penalties. In fact, a nice percentage of posts that say, "I have been penalized," are really not penalized.

(2) Some penalties are manual, while some are automated. Manual penalties probably require a reinclusion request, while automated ones do not necessarily require one but likely can be expedited by one.

Now, outside of that, coming up with a list of how to spam search engines and then describe which penalties are automatically applied and which are manual, can be daunting. In addition, making assumptions on which webmaster guidelines violations are worse than others, may also be a hard thing to do.

In any event, the discussion around this topic, I thought, would have been larger.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Microsoft Plans adCenter Upgrade in Fall 2008

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 2:24pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: MSN Microsoft adCenter

The adCenter blog announced that they will be releasing an update prior to the holiday season. The update will include the following features to their search ad product, adCenter:

Expanded your billing and payment options
Simplified your campaign management experience
Improved the way you create and analyze reports
Updated your keyword research capabilities.

If you want a sneak peak at these features, you can apply to the adCenter beta program over here.

Forum discussion at adCenter Community but there was a thread at Search Engine Watch Forums that was removed.

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: October 5, 2008

Posted: October 5th, 2008, 4:30pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Happy New Year, it was Rosh Hashanah the other day. Google did a PageRank update, while Yahoo Search updated their algorithm, and Microsoft might have updated. Google Blog search has a home page now. Google turned 10 and let you search back in 2001. Yahoo officially launched the new Site Explorer design. Yahoo is charging more money for less. eBay increased their ad spend with Google, which is hurting other advertisers. More AdWords accounts got hijacked. Microsoft tries SearchPerks to gain more users. We are live blogging SMX, but don't miss the charity party! More details at SERoundtable.com.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed (note: If YouTube shows a video not found message, just refresh the page and play it again, it is a YouTube bug):

For the original iTunes version, click here

Some Of The Topics Discussed:

Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 3, 2008

Posted: October 4th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/03/Weekly_Search_Buzz_Roundup___10_03_08___Rosh_Hashana_Edition__Google_Turns_10___Yahoo_Site_Explorer_Revamped'

Weekly Search Buzz Roundup - 10/03/08 - Rosh Hashana Edition: Google Turns 10 & Yahoo Site Explorer Revamped

Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 6:51pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Happy New Year to those of you who celebrate! This week, the holiday commenced and now we're swamped but we still have to give you our recap. Without further ado, here you go:

Coincidence: Search Updates Around Holiday Time?
As you may have read thus far, we celebrated Rosh Hashana and also noticed that Google PageRank has updated. On a somewhat related note, Yahoo's results are being shuffled and Microsoft may have had its own update too.

Google Blog Search Relaunches
A new version of Google Blog Search has launched and I'm not sure I'm a fan. It now has a more "news" feel that reminds me of Technorati and how every single blog post talks about a single issue versus a search that may be more relevant.

Google Turns 10
Google has celebrated one decade of search and more. Can you believe it's really been 10 years? Well, neither can I. But in case you wanted to reminisce, you can check out the Google search engine from 2001 which actually is rather fun.

Yahoo's Site Explorer Looks Great
Finally, a new verison of Yahoo Site Explorer is live. And it's pretty awesome. It has a lot new data, like number of inlinks/inlink domains, number of pages crawled, and more. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Yahoo's Rip Off?
Yahoo has done some stupid things lately by raising the credit card minimum to $250, which is 10 times more expensive than the previous requirement of $25. Their cost per click has also gone up, phone support is going down, and nobody is happy. Seriously, why are you guys using Yahoo again?

Microsoft's Smart Move?
Microsoft has launched Search Perks, a "get paid to search" type engine. Also viewed as a stupid move, people are wondering why Microsoft has to incentivize the search process. Oh well. Maybe I'll be able to get my husband Forza 2. Only 4000 searches to go. (Heck, I don't even do that using Google.)

eBay
eBay has increased its ad spending with Google after their apparent "breakup" last year. Now, both companies are holding hands again and things are looking up. We may be in a recession or whatever, but people still want to use search engines to find great deals, and eBay is probably delivering results.

Google Request: AdWords Account Change Phone Authorization
After all these Google AdWords account hijackings, I'm wondering why Google is just having employees monitor accounts for abnormalities. That's great, and all, but it'd be great if Google could put some security precaution -- perhaps phone authorization -- in place to prevent the high number of account hijackings.

Next Week: SMX East in NYC
In the NYC area? We hope you signed up for SMX East. If not, we're liveblogging a good chunk of it for you. If so, find us there. But be advised that Jacob Javits center is huge, so good luck to you.

And if you want to look for us in a smaller locale, we'll probably be at the charity party on Monday night. It's a great opportunity to help and network all at the same time!

Webmasters Report October 2008 Google SERP Changes

Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 5:20pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google PageRankSERP Updates

This month, WebmasterWorld members spotted a few anomalies in the Google SERPs:

Some people are spotting some huge numbers (and differences) in results found on Google. For example, they could be performing a search in the middle of the day and find 1 million results. Later that day, the same search may find 2 million results. It's possible that this is because of querying different datacenters (though that number is pretty substantial even to me). It's also possible that this is related to capitalization issues which Barry blogged about earlier today.

Other forum members spot Google deindexing some major pages due to what he believes to be a duplicate meta description. He notices that the same pages will end up coming back though.

On page factors are becoming more relevant versus anchor text, as many other forum members are starting to notice.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

We're Liveblogging SMX East Next Week

Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 4:57pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

In case you hadn't heard (or couldn't guess), Search Engine Roundtable is, as always, liveblogging Search Marketing Expo East 2008 which will start next Monday, October 6th, in NYC.

The conference coverage is not quite finalized just yet, but we're putting finishing touches on it as we speak.

We're also taking volunteer livebloggers, so contact us if you're interested. So far, we've got a helper in Marty Weintraub of aimClear (thanks much, Marty) and we'd love to have you join us too.

Don't forget, if you're not attending the event but will be in the area, you can always meet up with us at the charity event next week.

When Will Google AdWords Prevent Account Hijackings?

Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 4:32pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdWords

We've had a careful eye on the multiple Google AdWords accounts that have been hacked, and this forum representation is hardly all of the accounts that really do get attacked. But again, another hapless victim from WebmasterWorld has suffered the fate of being charged too much on Google AdWords and being locked out of his account.

Whatever these guys are doing, they're doing a good job because most of the people I've encountered who have been hacked are actually savvy users. Perhaps they don't have the best passwords (one only wonders), but it's hard to say.

However, this probably won't be the last reports of this. Google, in my opinion, needs to take safety precautions to prevent against this theft.

Maybe it's a good idea at this time to do a phone authorization (with a 4 digit code) for any substantial changes. That should prevent -- or at least mitigate -- the intrusions.

The most recent forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld, but you can see our past coverage below:

Increase in Google AdWords Accounts Being Hacked Into?

Google AdWords Account Hacked: False Ads & False Charges

Google Still Showing Different Results for Upper Case vs Lower Case?

Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 3:58pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

The topic of Google Still Showing Different Results Base on Case Sensitivity seems to still be an issue every now and then.

Again, Google says they do not differentiate results base on case sensitivity:

Google searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for george washington, George Washington, and gEoRgE wAsHiNgToN will all return the same results.

But new reports from Cre8asite Forums shows some people noticing the same thing. I.e. Google showing different results based on case sensitivity.

When I brought this up last time, Matt Cutts of Google commented:

Hey Barry, I'm having trouble recreating this example, and I'm wondering whether you happened to hit different data centers when you were doing these two queries. Can you consistently reproduce different results with upper/lowercase? I'd be curious to know..

I saw it over and over again, but then stopped bothering to look. But now the topic sprung up again. I personally don't see it at the moment. This leads me to believe that it might not be case sensitivity issue but rather us hitting different Google data centers within the same second. I am not sure, but this topic is for sure not a new one.

Cre8asite Forums moderator, Barry Welford, is concerned. He told me, "I think it's clearly a real phenomenon, that is reproducible. It's somewhat scary that we can not get any official Google explanation that makes sense. It would imply that no one is really sure why the Google algorithm is doing this."

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Yahoo's New Site Explorer Design Now Officially Live

Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 3:41pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Yahoo Search Optimization

Yahoo Site Explorer seems to have pushed out their beta design to everyone now. The new look, is not just visual, it also contains these new data points:

+ Site URL
+ Number of pages known
+ Number of pages crawled
+ Number of host on this domain
+ Number of inlinks
+ Number of inlink domains
+ Number of outlinks
+ Number of outlink domains

Patrick at BlogStorm took notice to this update early this morning. Yes, it is now available to everyone to see by default, without having to go to the beta URL. Nice catch Patrick.

A DigitalPoint Forums thread has a poll on if you like the new design or not. I am not sure if the poll is fair, because the new design not only gives you a slightly new look, but also gives you new data - which everyone likes.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Small Live Search Update or Hiccup?

Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 3:34pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft MSN Search

We have two Webmaster World threads and a DigitalPoint Forums thread discussing a brief update and bug with Microsoft's Live Search.

We know the last Microsoft Live Search update was about 15 days ago. So it does seem a bit early for another update. We also know that Yahoo updated recently and Google had a PageRank update on the same day. So maybe Live Search felt left out? Just kidding.

The DigitalPoint Forums thread reported an issue with Live Search or MSN Search missing "next" buttons in the search results. While the two Webmaster World threads reported the results flipping from one set to a new set of results. Which set of results were positive? It depends who you ask.

The update and bug seem to have been reversed quickly. There was very little discussion around the update. But if I had to guess, if the same thing happened over at Google.com, well - I would guess there would be 20 threads at DigitalPoint Forums and a 10 page WebmasterWorld thread on the topic.

Forum discussion at Webmaster World and DigitalPoint Forums.

Directory Links Next? Google Drops Yahoo & ODP Directory from Guidelines

Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Link Building

Last night, Google update their Webmaster Guidelines to remove a single line that reads:

Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.

In fact, I was able to pull up the old version of the page in the Google cache.

As you can imagine, this has set an early spark of flames through the SEO/SEM community. We have very early discussions on this topic at Google Groups, Sphinn (thanks Beu) and Search Engine Watch Forums.

In the Google Groups thread, Google's JohnMu explains why Google removed that line. Let me quote John:

I wouldn't necessarily assume that we're devaluing Yahoo's links, I just think it's not one of the things we really need to recommend. If people think that a directory is going to bring them lots of visitors (I had a visitor from the DMOZ once), then it's obviously fine to get listed there. It's not something that people have to do though :-).

Honestly, John's remark scares me. I have seen this before - or similar statements. In my opinion, this will lead to Google taking stands against many more directories - more than they have ever done in the past. How do I know? I don't, but as Google Blogoscoped reported last night, Google dropped their own link to their own directory. We know Google has gone after directories in the past. Will they ever go after ODP (dmoz) or Yahoo? I am not sure, but will they go after some other popular ones? Maybe.

To be fair, John does ask for feedback:

What do you think - does it make sense? :-) What else should we change / add / remove?

Where will this lead? That is my concern. Should I be concerned?

Forum discussion at Google Groups, Sphinn and Search Engine Watch Forums.

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 2, 2008

Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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

Introducing Microsoft SearchPerks: Get Paid to Search ... Again

Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 5:42pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Microsoft MSN Search

First, we had Microsoft Cash Back where Microsoft paid you to search the web with live.com. Now, we have Search Perks where Microsoft pays you to search the web with live.com ... well, almost.

The difference between Search Perks and Cash Back are minimal, but the idea behind the new creation is that you get points for every search. Those accumulate and then you can win prizes.

You're limited to IE6 or higher to participate, so Firefox users are not eligible. That's because SearchPerks has a built in toolbar.

It's questionable, though, if this is a good business plan for Microsoft. To me, it sounds like something that can be easily exploited. One forum member says the following to echo that sentiment:

If people are doing pointless searches and meanwhile clicking on ads to max out their "tickets", I can't see it being a good deal for anyone in the long run.

Many people agree and think that Microsoft should stop while they're ahead. But until then, happy searching!

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

How to Diagnose Your Site With Google Webmaster Tools

Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 5:15pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google Optimization

The Google Webmaster Central Blog talks about how you can use Google Webmaster Tools to learn about problems with your site. In the post, JohnMu (yes, that John) explains the variety of issues you can run into when you have an IIS server and are returning the wrong status codes. He also says that you can find out if there are broken links by reviewing the "Web crawl" area of Webmaster Tools and explains that some of these issues are not easily spotted.

John looks into other issues as well, including redirection issues, server unreachable errors, and even if your web site has been hacked. He explains that Google Webmaster Tools can give you more information about this and other common errors.

Want to know more? Check out the post and discuss it over at Sphinn.

Google Lets You Search as if it was 2001

Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 5:02pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google Search Engine

Want to see the old Google -- probably before half of you were born searching? Check out Google's search engine from 2001, and what Google calls its oldest available index. You'll probably notice that Gmail back in 2001 was a Gnome-based Linux mail client and that YouTube didn't exist. Searching for Barry Schwartz back in 2001 brings back some psychology dude who must've written a book (joking aside, I own the book). Searching for Tamar Weinberg yields no results of the present Tamar Weinberg, but that's probably because I didn't get married (and didn't change my last name) until 2005. However, you can dig up relevant information by searching with my old name, so I consider this pretty accurate for 2001.

Besides that, though, those searching reflect back on a day when Google wasn't dominated by ads and when their rankings (#1) were easier to achieve. Further, it seems that some are trying to leverage this old search engine for competitive research.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Next Week's Charity Party is Coming Up at SMX East

Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 4:45pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Engine Conferences

We're gearing up for next week's conference, SMX East, to be held in NYC. If you aren't going, it doesn't mean that you can't participate in the great networking available. With the forthcoming charity party, you can mingle and network too!

Here are the details:

Where: 795 8th Avenue (between 48th & 49th street)
When: Monday, October 6 from 8pm-midnight
What: A charity party where your $50 supports Ronald McDonald house.

Hope to see you there!

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

Yahoo Charging More & Giving Less

Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 3:29pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Yahoo Search Marketing

A couple days ago, Tamar reported that Yahoo Search Marketing raised the minimum credit card amount to $250 for the Yahoo Product Submit program. Yahoo then sent us a statement, calling this change "in line with the industry's competitive norm." Now, after being offline for two days, I come back to several threads complaining about Yahoo charging more but offering less services.

Besides for the spike in the minimum charges for Product Submit customers, their fees are going up as well. A WebmasterWorld thread and Search Engine Watch Forums thread has an email from Yahoo showing that Yahoo will spike up the cost per click (CPC) by 25% in all categories in the Product Submit category. Let me quote you the email:

From November 3, 2008, until December 31, 2008, Yahoo! will be making a seasonal rate adjustment by increasing the cost per click (CPC) by 25% in all categories. This means that during this period your actual billed CPC will be 25% higher. This adjustment reflects the increased consumer buying activity during the holiday shopping season, which is typified by increased leads, better conversion to sale, and increased revenue for our merchant partners. The 25% adjustment to your billed CPC will be reflected on your Click Report and in your invoice.

No wonder Yahoo increased the minimum credit card charges to $250, it will be required with a 25% CPC increase.

To make things worse, on the Yahoo Search Marketing side, I saw a WebmasterWorld thread reporting an email being sent to Yahoo advertisers. The email says that for some advertisers, telephone support will be discontinued and they will step up the email support. Here is part of that email:

We wanted to let you know of some important news regarding your servicing options:
* Phone service - Starting September 29th, telephone support will no longer be available for some of our advertisers.

* 24-hour email support - Because we know some questions require personal help, our Customer Solutions team is always accessible, now through extended hours. Use the following steps:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch Forums and the second WebmasterWorld.

SEO News » Search Engine Roundtable » October 2008

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Search Engine Roundtable (61 unread)

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 11:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 7:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 5:03pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Search Topics

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 4:46pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 4:18pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 3:10pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 2:58pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 11:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 5:24pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google Optimization

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:58pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:46pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdWords

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:29pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Yahoo Search Marketing

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 3:25pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft MSN Search

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 3:03pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 9:02pm CEST by cre8pc

Tags: Search Engine Optimization

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 8:23pm CEST by cre8pc

Tags: Tracking Conversion Measurements

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 3:01pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Engine Optimization

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 3:00pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 2:32pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 2:22pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 5:28pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Link Building

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 5:01pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 1:06pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 12:58pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Yahoo Publisher Network

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 12:50pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: October 11th, 2008, 12:00am CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: October 10th, 2008, 6:14pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Posted: October 10th, 2008, 4:41pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Microsoft MSN Search

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 11:51pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 11:39pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 11:22pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 10:23pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 9:42pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 9:42pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 7:08pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 6:53pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo 2008 East

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 5:55pm CEST by rustybrick