Search Engine Watch Blog

High Shipping Costs Top List of Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment

2009-07-06T20:08:59Z

PayPal has released new survey data showing why online consumers leave their shopping carts behind. Survey participants were asked to tell which reasons were "very important" in abandoning their purchases.

High shipping charges: 46%
Wanted to comparison shop: 37%
Lack of money: 36 percent
Wanted to look for a coupon: 27%
Wanted to shop offline: 26%
Couldn't find preferred pay option: 24%
Item was unavailable at checkout: 23%
Couldn't find customer support: 22%
Concerned about security of credit card data: 21%

The price tag associated with the average abandoned shopping cart was $109. That's a number merchants should be concerned about.

"Merchants who don't welcome back abandoners with open arms are leaving hundreds of dollars per shopper on the table," added Davis. "Merchants need to remember the items that customers abandon and make it easy for them to buy when they return. Sweetening the deal with free shipping, coupons and special discounts is also a great way to encourage online shoppers to complete their purchases."

I can attest that exorbitant shipping costs. I was recently shopping online for a certain type of single cup coffee packs. While I found a great price, the shipping costs made the total cost higher than purchasing offline.

You have to make shopping online more appealing than offline if you want shoppers to complete the purchase process. Since shopping online requires people to wait for delivery, price is where you must be competitive.

The Mindless PR Tweets of the Twitterati and the Baseless Response by Michael Arrington

2009-07-06T17:32:51Z

The New York Times has a piece about the "new" style public relations in this day and age of blogs, Facebook and Twitter. They follow a publicist Brooke Hammerling as she develops a strategy for new startup Wordnik. An investor wants to avoid tech blogs such as TechCrunch due to his opinion that they are essentially set on auto-critic.

Instead, Hammerling decides to "whisper in the ears" of Silicon Valley elite. She pitches them about the "ongoing project" of Wordnik, which has been chosen to avoid the inevitable monetization questions that come along with new startups. In true robot fashion, her virtual Rolodex began Twittering away about the Wordnik.

Of course, Tech Crunch founder Michael Arrington was not happy to learn that he'd been kept out of the loop on purpose (nevermind his declaration months ago that he would stop honoring embargoes). So, he took to TechCrunch to label Wordnik a failure, but so far it's his argument that is the biggest failure in the matter.

He chose to compare Wordnik to Topsy, which was launched oh-so-exclusively on TechCrunch. The problem? Topsy based on Twitter, an already wildly popular web application. Wordnik is an online dictionary that will appeal primarily to nerdy wordsmiths, copywriters and students. Never has the cliche of comparing apples to oranges been more appropriate.

Arrington boasts that Topsy has had soooooooo much traffic since launch while Wordnik barely has registered on the radar of tracking services like comScore.

Whether Topsy or Wordnik take off or crash land remains to be seen. These things take time and require use by thousands if not millions of users who find value beyond fad generated by A-lister Tweets. But one thing is for certain. If you continue to follow the "big names" in tech, beware of the mindless PR drivel disguised as original opinion.

Video about NACA's Save the Dream Tour Wins TELLY Awards

2009-07-06T15:22:00Z

On Friday, I posted a story about the "Search and Community Track at SES San Jose: NACA's Save The Dream Tour." It seems to have connected with readers of the Search Marketing News Blog on Search Engine Watch because there were 75 Tweets about it on Friday and Saturday.

Well, the YouTube video embedded in my blog post just won two TELLY Awards. The documentary video chronicles the background and success of a the Save the Dream events in cities across America, in which homeowners with unaffordable mortgages can renegotiate or restructure their home mortgages and keep their homes. The Save the Dream tour is being organized by a community advocacy and homeownership organization called Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA).

The video won a Bronze TELLY for Social Issues productions and another Bronze for Charitable/Non-Profit productions. No, I didn't have anything to do with the video's production. It was produced by Mont Fennel and Michael Kolowich of DigiNovations, filmed principally by the video production company's Director of Photography Bill Charette, and edited by Dan Roth and Michael Kolowich.

It features numerous stories of homeowners whose lives were changed by the Save the Dream process. You can watch "Documentary: NACA's "Save the Dream" - Mortgage Restructuring and Renegotiation Rescues Homeowners" on the NACAmedia YouTube channel.

Oh, and if you have friends and neighbors who are struggling to avoid foreclosure, restructure home loans, and reduce mortgage rates, let them know about NACA's Save the Dream events in Cleveland, Ohio, July 17 - 20 at the Wolstein Center; Chicago, Illinois, July 24 - 27 at McCormick Place; and St. Louis, Missouri, July 31 - August 3 at Chaifetz Arena.

If they go to NACA's website for more information or to pre-register for one of the events, tell them to hunt for and click on the Save the Dream Tour bar in the middle of the page. The information and sign up process appears in a pop-up window. Yes, this non-profit, community advocacy and homeownership organization could use some help with usability, design, copy, link development, and other technical issues that prevent their website from receiving high quality search engine traffic and visitor conversions.

I might suggest that they attend Shari Thurow's Express Search Usability Clinic at SES San Jose 2009. Or, I might just donate that advice myself -- because SES San Jose 2009 takes place August 10-14, after the three upcoming Save the Dream events.

Heck, I already seem to be involved in this cause. If there are other search engine marketers who want to get involved, just mention that in your comments below. Maybe this will turn into a search industry effort.

8 Google Updates: RSS for Blog Search, Increased Upload Size for YouTube and More

2009-07-06T14:41:42Z

Once again, there are so many Google updates that I'm bunching them together in one big post. Here they are:

Google Blog Search now has RSS and Atom feeds that users can use to subscribe to topics or stories.

YouTube has increased the upload size from 1GB to 2GB.

Google Book Search is including tag clouds to help demonstrate what a book is all about. Plus, there are new ways to search within a book.

AdWords is already adjusting the new interface to provide support for Safari 4 and Firefox 3.5, enable faster load times, and reduce horizontal scrolling.

There is also a new version of the AdWords API.

Ad Planner has a new look.

Google Checkout is offering Buy Now buttons for digital products.

Google Earth has released more 3D cities in Europe. The new cities are Warsaw, Prague and Oslo.

Social Media & Video Strategies To Be Held With SES San Jose

2009-07-06T12:21:34Z

The cover story by Mike Grehan in the latest issue of SES Magazine is entitled, "Is there a link between search & social?" Well, there's a new link -- with the posting of the agenda for ClickZ's Social Media & Video Strategies Forum.

This forum, which is brought to you by ClickZ, YouTube and Google, will explore "the successes and failures companies, celebrities, and politicians have had in the social sphere online and will deliver actionable tactics and strategies so that you can prosper from them." This one-day event at the San Jose Marriott on August 11, 2009, is taking place in conjunction with the Search Engine Strategies San Jose Conference & Expo, which is being held at the McEnery Convention Center August 10-14, 2009.

Being side by side will enable attendees of both events to hear the keynote speech by Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.

It also enables attendees of both events to visit the grand opening of the SES San Jose exhibit hall.

Then, attendees of Social Media & Video Strategies can attend sessions on:
-- Marketing in a Social Media World;
-- Going Social: Effective Advertising via Social Networks;
-- In the Now: Conversational & Real Time Marketing;
-- What Works: Online Video Advertising Made Easy With Google & YouTube;
-- What Works: Best Practices / Case Studies for Online Video; and
-- A Social Visit: CMO Fireside Chat.

So, the link between search and social just got stronger.

I've just finished writing a book entitled, "YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour A Day," which will be published by Wiley in mid-August. No, I didn't know that Social Media & Video Strategies would be held in conjunction with SES San Jose 2009 when I started writing last fall. But I did know that YouTube.com was on its way to being the destination where 107.1 million Americans went to watch 6.8 billion videos each month, according to comScore Video Metrix. I also knew YouTube was on its way to becoming the #2 property where search activity is observed, with 3.2 billion search queries a month in the U.S., behind only Google, with 9.8 billion search queries a month.

So, it appears that I've been fortunate to skate to where the puck's going, to borrow a line from Wayne Gretzky. But, it also appears that I'm not the only one headed in that direction. Obviously, Clay Shirky anticipated this move, too. And so did Mike Grehan, SES Advisory Board Co-Chair & Global KDM Officer of Acronym Media, and Stewart Quealy, the other SES Advisory Board Co-Chair & VP of Content Development for Incisive Media. And so has ClickZ, YouTube and Google.

And I know others who are also looking closely at the link between search and social. For example, Byron Gordon of SEO-PR interviewed Jeff Quipp of Search Engine People at SES Toronto 2009 about social media's impact on search, and more importantly, about social media's ability to create awareness of great content.

Jeff Quipp, SearchEnginePeople, on the past, present and future of SEO

John Mulligan of SEO-PR interviewed Eric Qualman of EF Education at SES New York 2009 about the future of search and social media.

Erik Qualman, EF Education on the future of search and social media at SES New York 2009

Li Evans of Serengeti Communications interviewed me at SES London 2009 about the spike in views that the SESConferenceExpo's Channel on YouTube saw when Matt Cutts of Google embedded my video interview with him on his Gadgets, Google and SEO blog.

Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR discusses YouTube and Video Marketing at SES London 2009

So, now all of us can find the link between search and social in the same place at the same time. Sweet.

Forget Google Bombing, Twitter Twombing Is In

2009-07-06T05:00:05Z

Seems a new game is being played on the big Twitter board - bombing the hashmarks and grabbing the top of Twitter Trends. Over the weekend a crew of merry pranksters grabbed the top listing for #gorillapenis.

In a power play using social media - the flooding of Twitter was a great example of why what is considered important should not just be determined by anonymous hands up.

Operation Shitter the action was called and came along with a rather graphic graffiti drawing over the Twitter logo.

Not as clever as the Google bomb for GW Bush and miserable failure - this one even had instructions after your accounts were banned. Definitely a throw away effort - but would like to know what their intent was!

Joost de Valk Starting Wordpress Podcast on Webmaster Radio

2009-07-06T02:31:28Z

Many online marketers love using Wordpress as their content management software to create well optimized web sites. Many of the invaluable plugins that help people achieve SEO success with Wordpress have been created by Joost de Valk aka Yoast.

Now he is teaming with Webmaster Radio to have an online broadcast of tips, tricks and all things Wordpress, The show will be launched during SES San Jose so should start with a bang.

More States Forcing Amazon Tax Laws Killing Affiliate Marketing?

2009-07-06T02:01:44Z

Online affiliate marketing used to be a lot easier, Google Adwords had their shot - limiting affiliate listings - and now a growing number of states in the US are implementing taxation policies that are driving out many major vendors that use affiliate marketing.

The policy started last year, most notably in New York, and as Kevin Lee points out has implications way beyond just the obvious affiliates.

On Friday, Rhode Island issued notices to over 100 online businesses that they require states sales tax to be collected. Three major businesses - Amazon, Overstock and BlueNile - told their Rhode Island based affiliates that they would no longer be able to promote their products, the Providence Journal reported.

As was announced earlier in the week, Overstock had axed North Carolina, Rhode Island, California and Hawaii affiliates.

The Terminator aka the Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger joined Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle to veto these taxes. One wonders how well online marketers can use the web to get other politicians to change their minds about these taxes.

Clickz reported that some companies are appealing the laws in New York. If they are successful in one maybe they will be willing to go after the others.

Search and Community Track at SES San Jose: NACA's Save The Dream Tour

2009-07-03T14:54:40Z

At SES San Jose 2009, I've been asked to make a solo presentation to kick of the Search and Community Track. The title of the session is "How to Optimize for Search & Engage the Community."

I've been working on my presentation, but it lacked a compelling case study that illustrated how a community organization had used search engine optimization and YouTube video to generate measurable results. I had planned to show examples of videos created by Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Monty Python, and Blendtec, but plans have a way of changing.

Then, I got involved with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), a national non-profit community advocacy and homeownership organization headquartered in Boston.

NACA is organizing a series of Save the Dream events to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, restructure home loans, and reduce mortgage rates. They have already held events in Columbia, SC, Stamford, CT, and Washington, DC. And NACA plans to hold more Save the Dream events in Cleveland, OH, July 17 - 20 at the Wolstein Center; Chicago, IL, July 24 - 27 at McCormick Place; and St. Louis, MO, July 31 - August 3 at Chaifetz Arena.

Although I don't have my case study wrapped up just yet, I do see one in the making. And it offers lots of lessons to search engine marketers, YouTube directors and entrepreneurs about how to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community.

For example, we issued an optimized press release yesterday announcing that NACA CEO Bruce Marks and Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) will hold a joint press conference on Monday, July 6, at the Wolstein Center at 11:30 am to discuss the upcoming Save the Dream event in Cleveland. You can get the gist of the news at NACA and Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (Oh-11) Announce Same Day Solution for Homeowners with Unaffordable Mortgage.

But we also embedded a documentary video created by DigiNovations of Concord, MA, in the optimized press release. It provides background on NACA's Save the Dream program, which has helped homeowners across America restructure and renegotiate home mortgages and home loans they can no longer afford.

Documentary: NACA's "Save the Dream" - Mortgage Restructuring and Renegotiation Rescues Homeowners

Now, the press conference hasn't even been held yet -- and the Save the Dream event in Cleveland is still two weeks away. But I was stunned yesterday when one Twitter user near Memphis, TN, said "this is fantastic news" but she couldn't afford to wait, had called NACA and was "on hold" waiting to talk with someone.

I initially tweeted back that NACA will have over 500 staff and volunteers at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, including over 250 counselors providing counseling from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. from Friday July 17 through Monday July 20. Then, I realized that this information wasn't helpful today, this minute, now. So, I sent her a direct tweet with the cell phone number of the person I was working with at NACA -- in case she needed it.

I got a direct tweet back saying, "Thanks for the info... my process is well underway - so I'm all set (I hope!)"

So, something extraordinary is happening. And as I prepare for my presentation at SES San Jose 2009, I hope you won't mind if I share the story as it unfolds. That's one of the lessons I've already learned: You can't plan a search campaign and expect the community to wait to respond when you are ready -- especially if you are offering an answer to the huge subprime and predatory lending industry.

This is bigger than a case study. This is people's homes.

FriendFeed Launches Real-Time Search; Includes Facebook and Twitter Submissions

2009-07-03T13:37:03Z

Buzz has been building about real-time search. Of course, you can search real-time Tweets on Twitter, Facebook is testing search on its live Feed, and Bing just added limited Twitter search to its engine.

Now, FriendFeed is launching real-time search and it has the potential to be the mackdaddy of them all.

Here's why. FriendFeed is a social aggregator. It's a one-stop shop to check and update a bunch of different networks, blogs, etc. Now, you can search all of that in real-time.

The drawback? It only searches what people submit to FriendFeed. Whoever does that can basically say "Check" in the chess match of social real-time search.

Still, this is a tremendous step in that direction. Even better, FriendFeed has released an embeddable real-time search widget you can put on your website.

What do you think of FriendFeed real-time search? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Trade Groups Outline New Behavioral Advertising Standards

2009-07-02T17:05:41Z

In January, four trade groups announced that they would be developing behavioral advertising standards. The groups are The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

The standards have now been released and are as follows:

The Education Principle calls for participation in efforts to inform individuals and businesses about online behavioral advertising. The industry intends, in a major educational campaign involving over 500 million ad impressions over the next 18 months.

The Transparency Principle calls for clearer and easily accessible disclosures about data collection and use practices. The result will be a new notice on the page where data is collected and will occur via links embedded in or around advertisements, or on the Web page itself.

The Consumer Control Principle expands the consumer's ability to opt-out of data collection. The opt-out will occur via a link on the page where data is collected. This principle also requires service providers such as Internet access providers and desktop application software companies to obtain consent of users before engaging in online behavioral advertising.

The Data Security Principle calls for reasonable security and limited retention of data.

The Material Changes Principle calls for the acquisition of consent for any material change to data collection and use policies as well as practices to data collected prior to any change.

The Sensitive Data Principle requires parental consent for consumers known to be under 13 on child-directed Web sites. This Principle also calls for heightened protections to certain health and financial data when attributable to a specific individual.

The Accountability Principle calls for the development of programs to monitor and report uncorrected non-compliance to appropriate government agencies. The CBBB and DMA will work cooperatively to establish accountability mechanisms under the Principles.

Google Mobile Optimizes Search Results for 38 Languages

2009-07-02T16:31:17Z

If you can access the mobile internet via your cell phone, then you now have access to newly optimized Google Mobile search. It reaches 38 different languages in over 60 countries.

The optimized Google mobile search experience began last December when it was rolled out to iPhone and Android phones in the US. Then in March, it was rolled out to iPhone and Android phones in over 20 countries.

The optimizes mobile search incorporates universal search when appropriate. There's also a focus on local search due to the nature of searching on the go.

Real Estate Search Sites See Big Growth in the First Half of 2009

2009-07-02T15:54:53Z

Real estate search sites Zillow and Trulia are seeing big growth in traffic, despite the economy and its housing woes. Zillow saw a 67% increase in unique visitors while Trulia saw a 40% increase in uniques.

Zillow averaged 8.3 million unique visitors per month so far in 2009. They're experiencing 35% more listings with a current total of 3.6 million listings. Customers submitted 265,000 loan requests which returned 3.5 million custom loan quotes during this time. Zillow is also experiencing great success with its iPhone app, which has has seen 535,000 downloads.

Trulia saw 30 million unique visitors across the six month period. Contributions to the Trulia Voices Community grew by 85% and has achieved the 5th spot in both Hitwise and comScore's real estate matrices.

These numbers are coming during an uncertain time in the economy, fueled by crises in the credit and housing markets. Taking all of that into consideration, congratulations are in order for these achievements made by Zillow and Trulia.

Bing Integrates Twitter, Sometimes and If You're Important Enough

2009-07-02T14:28:02Z

If you're a celebrity or some other figure Bing has deemed "prominent," then searches for your name plus the word Twitter will turn up a few of your Tweets above the organic results. You can also search for a person's screen name, preceded by the @ sign.

Prominence is deemed by number of followers and volume of tweets. Bing uses the Twitter API to pull in the Tweets. But the feature is inconsistent.

Of course, I assumed Ashton Kutcher, the King of Twitter, would be included since he has 2.5 million followers. But the first search for his name didn't include Tweets. The second one didn't either. The third one did.

And here's what it looks like when it happens:

What do you think of Bing integrating Twitter into the results? Share your reaction in the comments section below.

7 Marketing Lessons from the Late, Great Pitchman Billy Mays

2009-07-02T04:21:08Z

Like many of you, I was saddened to learn on Sunday that Billy Mays died at the age of 50. My family has been watching the Discovery Channel series Pitchmen, featuring Mays and fellow pitchman Anthony Sullivan.

I had been planning this post for a few weeks, but there has been so much search news to cover, I haven't had the time. Now, I'm publishing it to honor the tried and true techniques Billy Mays used to sell millions of products. Mays' style may not be your cup of tea, but the foundational concepts behind his pitches are something every search marketer can learn from. His incredible success was proof of that.

So, without further ado, here are 7 marketing lessons from the late, great Billy Mays.

1. Have a solid product. On the show, Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan saw hundreds of inventors who want their products sold through direct marketing television. Mays and Sullivan only chose the products they believed in. Even then, they tested them to make sure they worked and met safety standards.

2. Listen to consumers. When considering a new product, Mays and Sullivan often took it to the streets. They had people try out the products and give their honest response. This is one of the first indicators of whether or not a product might do well. Paying attention to what is said about your brand or product online can similarly be very informative to your marketing campaigns.

3. Show how your product can make people's lives easier. One of Mays' most popular products was Oxyclean, allows you to wash colors and whites together. Before the ShamWow, Billy Mays hawked the Zorbeez, a shammy towel that absorbed tons of water and could save tons of money on paper towels. Even non-infomercial products are successful when they do this. Think about the Flip video camera. It's simple and easy to use. It makes capturing moments and uploading them to YouTube very easy. This should be a key element of your campaigns.

4. Include a Call-to-Action. Billy Mays knew this well. He was always "doubling the offer," urging people to act now. Give people incentive to buy your product now. A great incentive for online retailers is offering free shipping.

5. Run a small test before launching a broad campaign. When Mays developed a commercial for a new product, it was run in a few markets to see if it was something consumers would buy. The profit margins had to be there in order to expand. Many times, if the product doesn't do well, they had to stop the campaign to prevent further losses. Test a few keywords before running a broad campaign with tons of longtail keywords. You may need to adjust your campaign or product, but you'll want to preserve your marketing budget in the meantime.

6. Conduct A/B Testing on Successful Ad Campaigns. For the Awesome Auger, a product that was doing very well, Mays shot a second commercial. It looked almost exactly like the original one, but the framing of Mays in the camera was slightly different. That slight cosmetic change was a big one. An A/B test showed sales rose even higher!

7. Watch the competition. When Vince Offer began hawking the ShamWow and the SlapChop, Billy Mays was pissed. These were products he had already been advertising in the form of Zorbeez and QuickChop. Offer's products did very well, selling millions. So, Mays shot new commercials in order to gain back his market share. Pay attention to your competition. Watch your rankings and your paid search positions. Never stop optimizing and adjusting your paid search campaigns. Stay on your toes to maintain or even grow your sales.

What did you learn from Billy Mays? Share your lessons in the comments below.