Back to Main

March 2008

March 31, 2008

Search Headlines & Links: March 31, 2008

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:43 PM | Permalink

Will We Pay More For Google's Fewer Clicks

The drop in AdWord clicks over the past two months has created a bump Google's ongoing success. But not to worry, CEO Eric Schmidt told Business Week, people will eventually pay more for the better quality clicks.

There has been a lot of press about this lately. I think "Google's Gamble" as Business Week called it may be expecting too much. If the cost of their clicks continues to increase through their minimum bid and Quality Score push people may start using Yahoo and Microsoft first.

While their popularity will continue to give them the high volume of traffic, if Yahoo and Microsoft offer lower CPA (cost per acquisition) then the strategy of starting with Google because of that could be changed to get the lower costing conversions first and then test the successful ones over at Google.

If this happens then the edge Google has could drop. It is one thing to be the popular search engine for users, but if they lose their position as the popular engine for advertisers then they are almost back to the days when they had no idea how to monetize their engine.

Obviously in some cases where there is a big enough margin in what is being marketed advertisers will buy the more expensive clicks. But in the case of companies selling small margin items such a move will make it difficult.

Apart from the Quality Score influence, this move suggests Google is using information they are getting from Google Analytics to determine if people will pay more. This is a dangerous step for a number of reasons - one, the privacy issues could be a problems and stop this and two, many people using GA may not be doing so effectively, measuring the wrong thing and thus giving Google information that they use but is not real.

We will all have to wait and see if their hopes are founded.

Posted by Frank Watson at 4:59 PM | Permalink

Standards Is A Dirty Word For Search Marketers

For the past two weeks our industry has been debating the need for standards, many of the regular blogs have weighed in as have most of the major players in our space. The discussion has been heated at times and while the idea has gotten the attention there definitely has not been any accord.

At the end of February, Chris Boggs and I started an exchange on the topic. We had suggested prior to this that there was a need for standard definitions of the various measurement terms and while this may be a peripheral part of the discussion is could have been a good starting point.

In the past week Jill Whalen of High Rankings outlined why we should not or cannot standardize search marketing, stating "Industry market forces and the search engines themselves will eventually dictate what best practices are and are not."

Jill I have to disagree with the statement - never let the fox guard the hen house. The search engines should not dictate our standards - they set their rules and we work with and around them. We work for the client not the engines. You mention that but use it to say no standards... that last point supports not letting the engines set them more than there is no need.

Lisa Barone of Bruce Clay makes the argument that there is a "need to outline what SEO is and what it means to optimize a Web site. We need to establish best practices, what the risk is for abandoning them, and what all these different terms that we throw around actually mean."

From these two articles we have seen many people weigh in with some interesting comments.

Kalena Jordan, a fellow Aussie and founder of Search Engine College, has been very vocal recently on anything about standards. Her blog Ask Kalena came out against the recently launched SEMCompare that gathers user reviews of search firms - "trouble with a capital T" - but she does offer an alternative. "Creating standards is not going to get rid of shoddy SEOs or make them switch hats. Education and publicity has always been the solution".

Kalena while I agree that education is important for maturing our industry, I think your response encompasses where we are right now. We see the issue differently. There are really many parallel areas and some of the discussion has been about definitions which do need to be standardized and then behaviors which may not need a standard given the creativity of our industry.

The ever controversial Michael Martinez of SEO Theory suggests we need to drop the term search engine optimization altogether. Come on Mike we know we are not optimizing search engines but rather the sites the engines rank and include in their databases.

But I do agree with your opinion that "skepticism is important while laying the groundwork for further study by all."

Kim Krause of Cre8asite Forum brings up an interesting question for the topic. "Just out of curiosity, who would enforce standards? How would they be enforced? Are they intended to be?"

Kim I don't think there is a need to police standards, more to outline them so customers can have an idea of what to look for as well as new people in our space have an idea of where to start.

Okay I left many comments and commentators out but hopefully this brings the major views together. Without some guidelines we leave our industry in the "Wild Web" stage that has been there from the beginning when porn and spam was the major effective marketing areas.

We have come a long way... in my opinion it is time to become more structured and accessible.

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:56 PM | Permalink

Google + DoubleClick = 69% of Online Advertising Market

When Google raised concerns over a possible Microsoft-Yahoo merger, it may have just been the pot calling the kettle black. According to new stats released by Attributor, Google's acquisition of DoubleClick gives them a whopping 69% of the online advertising market share. This comes in the wake of news that Google saw 59.2 percent of all US searches in February.

Furthermore, DoubleClick has 48% share of sites with 1 million unique visitors per month, while Google enjoys a whopping 71.38% share of sites with less than 100,000 unique visitors per month.

MSN has a lot of work to do if it wants to catch Google, as Steve Ballmer has declared in recent months. Currently, they only have 9.86% of the total market share. Even adding Yahoo, with an 11.54% market share, they will only come in at 21.4%.

Attributor also shared telling statistics for content distribution. For every article Attributor tracks, there are an average of 20 copies published. 57% of copies do not contain links back to the author, and 64% of copies have ads on them. Most copies are published on sites with less than 1 million unique visitors.

Attributor analyzed 68 million domains for their ad-server crawls and compared it with unique user data from Compete.com.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:00 PM | Permalink

Even for Google, Conversions Matter More Than Clicks

Wall Street is acting with caution when it comes to Google based on months of reporting that the search engine giant's paid search clicks are declining. But Google insists that the click reductions are due to improvement in the quality of the ads, not because Google is somehow losing its luster.

The timing for this move may be poor, however. A Business Week article points out that some advertisers may be cutting their ad spend due to a slower economy.

Still, Google is smart to perform quality assurance. As any good search engine marketer knows, the answer lies in revenues, not clicks. Everyone wants their conversion ratio to be as low as possible, and Google is smart to keep their eye on providing quality for the user (both buyers and clickers). A temporary slowdown in growth is far better than ignoring a quality issue and seeing sustained declines down the road.

Q4 2007 revenues showed growth but came in just under Wall Street's expectations. This coincided with news of a slowdown in clicks. We won't see Q1 revenues until sometime next month, but that will give some insight into whether or not Google is on the right track.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:28 AM | Permalink

Geary Interactive Acquires Fathom Online

Full-service digital marketing agency Geary Interactive has acquired Fathom Online, a search engine marketing firm. Though Geary already offered search marketing services, the company says it will expand it demographic reach as a result of the merger.

Geary CEO Andreas Roell said, "The combination of Geary and Fathom Online provides a compelling platform for today's digital marketing landscape. Together, we offer powerful capabilities and deep relationships with publishers and engines, expanded end-to-end customized marketing solutions, a national presence and extensive industry category experience."

The acquisition also highlights the need for integrating SEM campaigns with a larger online marketing strategy.

"Search engine tactics are the most popular element of a digital marketing campaign. In order to effectively generate search demand and convert customers' search clicks, the campaign must also include a strong integration with web development, paid and organic digital media planning and data analytics," said Roell.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:58 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Wants Women Now

Yahoo just announced Shine, and is hopping on the bandwagon that says women are a great target. Why now?

Just like iVillage, Glam and others, Yahoo knows that getting inventory in home, garden, health and other categories can translate into higher effective CPMs. They developed nine separate content areas and 38 sub-topics that appeal to visitors and advertisers.

What's Been Launched?

Yahoo has licensed decent article content for Shine, from major publishers who already cover this desired content in print and online. Then they hired both editors and bloggers to fill in the rest. There's no focus on video content yet.

Like any respectable Web 2.0 community, Yahoo also encourages contributions by visitors. If you have Yahoo email, then you automatically have access to your own blog. Of course, Yahoo also encourages you to buzz articles shown at Shine.

You can search content across Shine only, which should equate to site search on competitor sites. Given the sparse content so far, the results are fairly limited. So Yahoo isn't trying to create a vertical or women's search engine -- or directly respond to Ask.com, which recently claimed that position.

At launch, the ad inventory seems limited to Crest Whitestrip banners. Some text ads are also shown on article pages. I wonder if this ad mix will be replaced by higher effective CPM units, when Yahoo actively sells them later.

Will Shine Draw Traffic?

I’m not sure which women will be attracted to using Shine. Will visitors stumble here from Yahoo promotional efforts on their email and portal pages? Will visitors switch from other women's sites, due to convenience?

Shine isn't literally a destination, and the Shine domain happens to be an unrelated job site. Instead, this new offering is simply on Yahoo (shine.yahoo.com) and has various channels (shine.yahoo.com/channel/health) to draw more search traffic to the portal overall.

Yahoo is worth paying attention too -- because they can access so many women already. It will be interesting to see how they do here, even if the offering feels a bit "me too" in the implementation.

Posted by Deborah Richman at 4:12 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Content Ad Campaign Keyword Strategy Revisited

The keywords you choose for a content ad campaign should play a different role than they do for search ads. That's a point that's often tough for search advertisers to grasp. In today's Content Advertising column, "Content Ad Campaign Keyword Strategy Revisited," David Szetela outlines a new method for building content keyword lists, that will enable you to gain ultimate control over the destinations for your ads.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 30, 2008

Constructive feedback on online reputation management

Three weeks ago, I wrote an article entitled, “Online Reputation Management Requires Cabinet War Rooms,” that reported on the Brand & Reputation Management session at last month’s Search Engine Strategies conference in London.

LeslieGaines-Ross.jpg

Last week, I got some feedback from Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, the chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick and author of Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation.

She said: “Thanks for the roundup regarding the panel discussion. I would add that companies probably do not need 'War Rooms' today and instead incorporate reputation monitoring as a regular course of business. Not just when in the throes of crisis. In addition, reputation recovery does not end in six months or when the negative comments leave the first page of Google. From the work we have done at Weber Shandwick on reputation, it takes nearly four years to recover reputation once it has been tarnished. Reputation recovery and management (online and offline) are never-ending. Thanks again for your thought-provoking comments.”

Now, I agree that companies should incorporate reputation monitoring as a regular course of business. But, they often don’t – until they are in the throes of crisis.

And, I agree that reputation recovery shouldn’t end when the negative comments leave the first page of Google. But, that’s often the first sign that a crisis has passed.

So, how do you convince your CEO to include offline and online reputation management as a line item in the marketing budget before it’s too late? And, if it takes nearly four years to repair a bad reputation, then how can you earn credibility for yourself and your SEO or PR firm by showing early signs of progress?

As I conducted a few news searches to find some recent information for this post, I was impressed to discover an optimized press release entitled, “Global CEO Turnover Rises 10 Percent in Past 12 Months According to New Weber Shandwick Study.”

“Given stagnant markets, fierce competition and a complex business environment, it is not surprising that CEO turnover has risen sharply,” said Weber Shandwick’s Chief Reputation Strategist Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross in the release.

Wow. Talk about writing a press release that will get found by your target audience for relevant news search terms. And just what should CEOs do to hang on to their jobs?

“In today’s uncertain economic environment when information and news are at a premium, CEOs would be wise to actively over communicate and regularly meet employees and customers face-to-face,” said Weber Shandwick President Andy Polansky in the release.

Okay. So, I know several SEO firms that "get" online reputation management, But, here’s a PR firm that has gone beyond spouting empty platitudes about the topic and has conducted an ongoing analysis of “CEO Departures” to put “leadership communications” on the agenda.

But wait! There’s more!

I conducted another news search and found an interactive case study in BusinessWeek entitled, “The Analysis: Restoring Reputation.” Written by Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, it tells the story of how Xerox’s reputation has enjoyed a successful turnaround since 2001, with CEO Anne Mulcahy pulling the strings.

Okay. Now, I’m really impressed. Leslie provided constructive feedback on my article about online reputation management. She was quoted in a press release that should catch the attention of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies. And she’s written a case study about how Xerox’s CEO has turned around that company’s reputation – for BusinessWeek.

Online reputation management shouldn’t require a crisis to become a line item in the budget. And it can enhance your corporate reputation as well as help you recover from a tarnished one, which can help your SEO or PR firm earn credibility with the CEO.

And, don’t just take my word for it. If you need a second opinion, check out what they’re doing over at Weber Shandwick.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 1:03 PM | Permalink

China Antimonopoly Law Could Derail Microsoft/Yahoo Deal, Google

As the New York Times detailed yesterday the Chinese government is activating legislation that may give problems to the possible Microsoft Yahoo purchase. The new Chinese law would "give Chinese regulators authority to examine foreign mergers when they involve acquisitions of Chinese companies or foreign businesses investing in Chinese companies’ operations. Beijing could also consider national security issues, according to a report by the official news agency Xinhua.," NYT reported.

Given that China now has the world's most internet users and all three of the major search engines are involved in the country there could be impact for all of them.

Apart from the Alibaba ownership that Yahoo has, Google also has invested money in Baidu. These economic influences on the engine could impact censorship decisions and other actions.

Posted by Frank Watson at 2:13 AM | Permalink

March 29, 2008

Global SEO Makes Bloomberg News Headline

Sure there are lots of global news stories in Bloomberg News today. For example, "Verizon Faces Fight With FCC's Martin Over Rules for Open Wireless Network." Bloomberg.com says Verizon Wireless faces a new challenge after beating Google Inc. in the biggest U.S. mobile- phone airwaves auction: scrutiny from regulators who expect the carrier to build a truly open network.

While we get just as excited about "scrutiny from regulators" as the next guy, that's not the best story of the day.

Nor was it "Houston Topless Clubs May Turn to Pasties After Losing 10-Year Legal Fight" detailing Eric Langan's plans to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court with pasties.

And while we're impressed by Ivy League students with hearts of gold turning Spring Break into a "Guilt Trip" for all the other Spring Breakers in Cabo ("Students on Spring Break Skip Mai Tais on Cabo to Serve at Bowery Mission") we're wondering why Ivy League students need to fly to Cabo to volunteer in a soup kitchen.

The story says "It's lunchtime at the Bowery Mission, and seven Cornell University students are serving rice, chicken and gravy to homeless men staying there to learn job skills and conquer addictions."

They must be serving the homeless with a "Silver Spoon."

Here's the one story we loved:

Global SEO expert Nick Wilsdon and his wife, Anna, starred in the headline news story, Russia's `City of Brides' Triggers Baby Boom After Love Quests by Bloomberg reporter, Yuriy Humber.

It's a great story. Don't miss it. The Bloomberg News photo shows:

nick%20wilsdon.jpg

English-Russian couple Anna and Nick Wilsdon in their home in Ivanovo, Russia, on Feb. 7, 2008. This year in the town of Ivanovo, babies are being born faster then ever, and deaths are slowing down. With any luck, the town known as Russia's "City of Brides'' will start to increase in population for the first time since the Soviet era."

Courtesy of the exceptional photographer, Dmitry Beliakov of Bloomberg News.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:15 PM | Permalink

Is Google's Price Drop A Reflection Of Recent Media Coverage

The value of Google's stock has taken a bit of a beating recently from their high of $747 last year to yesterday's close at $438. After doing my weekly news review, I saw a lot of articles questioning many actions Google has been doing lately.

Is this pervasive critiquing of Google having an impact of investors' confidence?

The articles I read this week came from a wide range of sources - not just limited to the search industry specific ones we all know within the industry. (I was at a offline/online media event on Thursday where the majority had not heard of SEW, AussieWebmaster or for that matter Danny Sullivan!)

The firing of people from DoubleClick supposedly slated for April 1, according to ValleyWag, should show investors that they are lowering expenses and thus increasing profits for them. But the general public usually sees the company laying people off after an acquisition as Gordon Gekkoish. The eventual impact should be seen in the coming week as this actually happens.

I was having dinner one night during SES NYC last week, I noticed a friend there who does angel investing and asked him what Google closed at that day to determine who in my party was paying. He knew to the penny as he told me he was shorting Google (now I know where he gets his seed capital).

Then I see an article this morning from the UK Guardian stating Google's PPC numbers were slowing. Given January had shown zero growth and February's growth was low single digits compared to previous growth being as high as 30-40%, this spending and growth wall could be a major hurdle for the company's valuation.

"Google maintains that the deceleration is a consequence of its strategy of focusing on quality. The Silicon Valley firm has been trying to eliminate accidental clicks and has been working with advertisers to make sure that links relate closely to users' search queries.

But the slowdown has contributed to a 36% slump in Google's shares since the beginning of the year and analysts are divided on whether the company's confidence is justified," the Guardian stated.

This is also challenged a little by recent complaints by advertisers over some of these methods of improving the quality. The $10 Minimum Bid push has lost Google advertisers. The arbitragers squeezing a few pennies from a click have had to drop away (leaving the really good ones at it a cheaper range), but so have the companies that provide legitimate inexpensive products or services very relevant to the people searching from that perspective.

The impact Google is having on other online industries may also be impacting their brand and through that their value. The analytics industry was impacted by Google's purchase of Urchin and the development of the free services of Google Analytics - so even a popular free service gets flak, and their mistakes are made public quickly as was the case with GA information being displayed in the Google organic results..

There will be an additional backlash from the DoubleClick acquisition. It is going to be hard for the soon to be unemployed to find jobs in the industry as Google launched Ad Manager which offers ad serving for free and thus will hurt the job market in the industry as the competitors lose market share.

The words of Larry Page's recent Annual Report letter reflect the perspective the founder sees his realm of "users, customers, Googlers (our employees), and investors who help bring everything that is Google to life".

Part of Google's success has been in its ability to maintain the "church and state" separation of organic listings and paid search ads. While that is to be commended, isolating customers from the users pool is a little naive - people advertise on Google because they have used Google and want to advertise to similar users.

Google would not still be in business if they had not been able to monetize the popular search engine. When they first started the company was nearly sold to Excite.com for a million dollars, because they could not monetize what they were doing.

With revenues of more than $10 billion last year - 90% of which came from paid search advertising - you would think the customers would take top billing, but the behemoth of search still sees search through the eyes of its users.


" We continue our effort to extract more and more real meaning from the web in order to help people find the right answers. We recently improved universal search, integrating different types of relevant information, such as video, maps, news, books, images, and more, right into your search results.

Sometimes you don't get a good answer to a search because the information simply isn't available on the web. So we are working hard to encourage ecosystems that can generate more content from more authors and creators. For example, we recently announced an early version of a tool called "knol" to help people generate and organize more high-quality authored content."

Watch out Wikipedia your space is soon to be seriously invaded.

And one has to wonder if Google is getting into the conference and hotel business next. Their proposal to develop a parcel of land in the Mountain View industrial park for office space, conference center and a hotel is lodged with the local council.

Wonder if they plan on starting their own search conferences, with attendees staying at the nearby hotel? Are we to see a conference advertising tab soon in our AdWords accounts?

The issues of Google's decisions about censorship seem to contradict their "protector of users" stance. The capitulation to the Chinese government;s demands of censoring information about protest has many activists protesting, including shareholders.

The UK Times recently wrote a piece about "Google and the threat to free speech" and mentioned the company's resistance to activist shareholders "anti-censorship proposal by arguing it would do more harm than good to set the terms of use in countries notorious for their hostility to free speech. In other words, a version of the Google search engine that edits out references to the Tiananmen Square massacre or a Tibet-free YouTube is better for the Chinese people, Google brass could just as well have said. Again, the same argument is expected this year at its annual meeting on May 8."

Guess they would rather be the search engine of record for phishers. Seems more than 75% of all phishing efforts use a customized Google search to help in their efforts, according to InformationToday.

Prosecutors around the world must be awaiting their areas' inclusion in Google Maps now that it can be used to find crack dealers. Guess the police industry could be on the horizon.

Publishers and ecommerce sites see Google's action of adding a search box for more results within Google as opposed to going to the site, giving Google the chance to sell advertising for competitors.

Well that was my fill of Google for one week.... now if only my stocks would bounce back to the $700 range I would be much happier.

Posted by Frank Watson at 2:31 PM | Permalink

March 28, 2008

Search Headlines & Links: March 28, 2008

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:55 PM | Permalink

Does Google Allow Good Google Bombs?

To some, it appears that Google has painted itself into a corner with its reliance on linking for its ranking algorithm. The lines between legitimate SEO, paid links, and Google bombs are becoming increasingly blurred.

One highly-charged example is the case of Jew Watch News, an anti-semitic hate site that managed to get top ranking for the query "Jew." Several Jewish and anti-defamation groups joined together in a coordinated Google bombing campaign to push that result down in the SERPs, and the results of that bomb can still be seen today.

In today's SearchDay, "Google Bombs, Jew Watch News & the Hypocritical Linking Universe," Marty Weintraub looks at that Google bomb, and tries to find where a Google bomb meets SEO, and where paid links fit into the picture.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:29 PM | Permalink

New Google Webmaster Tool Aids Robots.txt Creation

When you have parts of your site that you don't want the search engine spiders to index, you let them know using a document called robots.txt. But for the coding-challenged, creating that document has not always been easy. Thankfully, Google has created a robots.txt generator as part of its Webmaster Tools.

Once your document is created, you can test it with the robots.txt analysis tool. Google points out that not every search engine recognizes robots.txt. They recommend securing truly sensitive material with password protection.

It's a big week for the Google Webmaster team. Today, they're hosting the first ever Google Webmaster chat, which begins at 12pm EST/9am PST. The chat will feature a site clinic and also discuss image optimization.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:04 AM | Permalink

Wordtracker Enhance Their Free Trial Offer

keyword%20research.jpg

For the first time Wordtracker are offering a 1-week trial of their entire service and have released an accompanying 7 day video tutorial on how to get the best out of your Wordtracker account.

Entitled 'Profit from Keywords', the videos are designed to help new webmasters get the most out of keyword research. The short 5 minute videos are accessible to complete novices to search engine optimisation but detailed enough to provide a useful resource for in-house experts & agencies to educate their brand owners & clients.

At the recent SES in London, Wordtracker CMO Ken McGaffin raved about the results of "keyword creativity" seminars he has been leading with household brands that were revealing unique market insights into both offline and online customer acquisition and retention strategies. By including other non-SEO staff and stakeholders in the keyword research process, he found that no two seminars produced the same results and these companies were broadening their online vision overnight.

"Wordtracker has always considered educating our clients a prime remit which is why we launched the Wordtracker Academy last year," said McGaffin. "Clients or potential clients need to know the various ways that keyword research can enhance their business online. At the start this can be especially daunting for SMEs, so the videos provide an easy step by step process so that businesses can get up to speed quickly."

Every SEM expert understands the value of educating the market, but it's no secret that as an industry we've never done it very well. Ken hopes that these videos will help small and medium sized businesses nip the cost of mistakes early in the SEM campaign implementation stages. After all, who wants to rank for terms that no one searches for?

Posted by Jonathan Allen at 7:33 AM | Permalink

The Video Search Revolution will be Contextualized

If you've been wondering how online video can be adequately searched or monetized, then video search company Digitalsmiths has some answers for you. At a luncheon hosted by the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association last week, Digitalsmiths CEO Ben Weinberger gave an impressive demo of his company's video search technology. VideoSense is an ad-matching and video indexing system that helps advertisers target audiences. The program uses image and speech recognition to facilitate video search and relevant ad-targeting.

To give people an idea of how powerful the ad matching is, Weinberger showed a clip of the popular NBC sitcom, The Office. Steve Carrell's character was wearing a watch, and the camera zoomed in on his arm. An ad popped up to the side of the video with an ad for a watch. The content was not interrupted and the ad was relevant. As for video indexing, Weinberger said that Digitalsmiths technology can help eliminate redundancies by finding clips that contain the same scenes. Digitalsmiths currently works solely with publishers and ad networks.

With the onset of DVRs and concerns over the slowing ad click rates, companies like Digitalsmiths stand to benefit from providing ads that don't interrupt the user experience. Expect that trend to expand. Weinberger predicted that advertising in online video will eventually become blended into the content. He said that content creators that learn to do this will have a bright and lucrative future.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 7:13 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Social Media: One Size Does NOT Fit All

Spending time on linkbait or viral ideas can drive traffic to a site. However, if the same attention isn't given to preparing what to do with the traffic, the only remaining value is links, many of which don't pass juice. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Social Media: One Size Does NOT Fit All," Chris Boggs explains the down-side of linkbait, and how to better use it to your advantage.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: What Matters Most to Travel Search Marketers in 2008?

Now that we're nearly through the first quarter, it's time to check in on the accuracy of the many predictions for the future of search. In today's Vertical Search column, "What Matters Most to Travel Search Marketers in 2008?," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski takes a look at how they're beginning to play out in the travel space.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: The SEO Copywriter: Wordsmithing the Web

Combining both technological know-how and a strong command of the written word, agency SEO copywriters are the front-line troops of any SEO initiative. In today's SEM Agency Issues column, "The SEO Copywriter: Wordsmithing the Web," William Flaiz writes an ode to these front-line troops of any SEO initiative.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 27, 2008

Social Media Pop Quiz: 3 Questions You'll Never Get Right

If you're following the PEW studies on Internet Life and Campaign '08, then you know the Presidential election will be won or lost online - or by whoever drinks the most wheatjuice on the campaign trail.

The election won't quite be "Go Vote at TNA Wrestling!" or counted by the TNAwrestling.com boys. (Except, maybe, in Florida.)

Politics makes strange bedfellows (Eliot, David, Jim) but nothing makes stranger bedfellows than social media and politics.

We're often asked by readers how they can prepare for a career in search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), and social media optimization (SEO). Well there's one way even we didn't think of: politics.

So here's a quiz you'll never get right without searching online:

1. Which director of social media is the former press secretary to the former Governor of the great state of Florida? (pictured while in office below)

2. Which social media panel is he or she speaking on in the next couple months? (Hint: think Wikipedia)

3. Where and when is the conference? (Hint: $100. off if you register by March 31)

jeb%20bush.jpg

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:59 PM | Permalink

SEO Barry Schwartz AKA RustyBrick Joins Search Engine Journal

blackhat%20planet.jpg

While surfing the seamy underbelly of the Web we tracked down this scoop: former Search Engine Watch news editor Barry Schwartz AKA RustyBrick of SERoundtable fame has joined Loren Baker's Search Engine Journal, according to BlackHat Planet. We were unable to reach Barry, Search Engine Watch Forums member, to confirm the reasons behind his shocking move.

We know. You're as surprised as we are.

CORRECTION: Barry Schwartz DID NOT join Search Engine Journal.

However, the evidence shown (above) clearly indicates Barry Schwartz AKA RustyBrick is the pen-name for Ann Smarty AKA SEOSmarty.

How long SEO consultant Ann Smarty has been blogging as "RustyBrick" is not yet clear.

Exclusive! CORRECTION to the CORRECTION: Ann Smarty did indeed write the referenced post and apparently Barry Schwartz (who does in fact exist) is merely taking credit for Ann's post on Search Engine Journal.

We expect a full apology in writing from CartoonBarry soon.

UPDATE after the jump.

CORRECT CORRECTION to the CORRECTION: The renowned black hat SEO publication, Black Hat Planet, SCRAPED the Search Engine Journal post incorrectly. We patiently await their correction.

Our sincere apologies to all parties. We will (upon request) remove all links to Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Roundtable and SEOSmarty.com.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:51 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: March 27, 2008

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

  • Conversion Rates & The Value Of Outsourcing SEM/SEO
    According to a new study, outsourced conversion rates are much higher. It may be that agencies that are specialists in a particular area see a wide cross-section of accounts and industries among their clients, and thus should be able to do a better job.
  • Google Ad Clicks Up, Down and Flat in Feb., Depending on Who You Ask
    According to today's headlines, clicks on Google ads are dropping, flattening and experiencing a slowdown in growth - all at the same time!
  • Google Launches YouTube Insight - Google Analytics Lite
    Today Google video search engine YouTube launched a free Web analytics tool. Think Google Analytics Lite: it's essentially a way to see how popular a video is over time combined with a global map that shows where it's popular.
  • SEW Experts: Creating a Link Building System
    We, as industry insiders, often lose the pulse of the real world. Sometimes, we all need to take a step back and look at things from a new perspective, and realize that the majority of marketers are not immersed in search marketing as we are.
  • SEW Experts: Read Any Good SEO Books Lately?
    Some people are looking for the right book to learn everything there is to know about SEM. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist. Still, there are several books out there that can help further your understanding of search marketing in general, or do a deep dive on a specific sub-topic.

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:25 PM | Permalink

Conversion Rates & The Value Of Outsourcing SEM/SEO

I recently got my hands on Marketing Sherpa's newly released Landing Page Handbook. This detailed guide is packed full of industry information and practical case studies.

One of the things that jumped out at me was a table of conversion rate averages for different marketing tactics. The survey data was drawn from over 5000 active online marketers in a variety of settings.

In-house managed PPC Search - 3.84%
Outsourced managed PPC Search - 5.40%
Difference: 40%

In-house Natural Search Optimization - 2.62%
Outsourced Natural Search Optimization - 4.76%
Difference: 80%

As you can see, the outsourced conversion rates are much higher. Before I go any further, I must admit that this is not a scientific sample, and that self-selecting biases of various kinds are bound to obscure these results. We are not given any breakdown by industry or company sizes, or other critical information. However, at a high level the data makes perfect sense, since agencies must perform better to justify their fees and keep their client's loyalty and business.

Agencies that are specialists in a particular area see a wide cross-section of accounts and industries among their clients and should be able to do a better job. This is not a slam at their hard-working and capable in-house counterparts. It is an acknowledgment that our industry moves very fast, and unless you have a whole organization focused on keeping up with the changes, it is very difficult to stay up on the latest developments.

Marketing activities are the engine of growth for a company. They are not administrative cost centers. Many companies mistakenly try to save a little money by running their programs in-house. They do not realize the real cost is in the lost opportunities that they can not capitalize on. If your in-house program is profitable, that is not enough - you must consider the scale of your program and always question how much money you might be leaving on the table. Giant conversion rate differences such as the above can be turned into strategic weapons that let you soundly trounce your competition.

So next time you consider the in-source / outsource decision, consider opportunity as well as direct costs.

Posted by Tim Ash at 2:59 PM | Permalink

Google Ad Clicks Up, Down and Flat in Feb., Depending on Who You Ask

According to today's headlines, clicks on Google ads are dropping, flattening and experiencing a slowdown in growth - all at the same time! New comScore data is being reported and there are more angles on the numbers than there are flavors at Baskin Robbins. So who's right? Everyone is, to a point.

Here's the reported data:

* February 2008 clicks are up 3% to 515 million over February 2007
* February 2008 clicks are down 3% from January 2008.
* January 2008 clicks were down 7.5% from December 2007.

I contacted comScore's Andrew Lipsman for more details and to ask him if these declines were seasonal as opposed to sensational:

"We do not publicly release our paid click data, it is sent exclusively to clients. I can confirm the information you cited is accurate. It’s fair to say that all things being equal, February will see sequential declines vs. January because it has fewer days. It is probably more important to look at the y/y trends with this data as opposed to sequential changes."

Certainly these numbers are not as impressive as we've seen for Google in recent years. But how much of this should be attributed directly to Google is uncertain. The broader economic slowdown combined with low consumer confidence is producing a slowdown in growth in many industries.

But Wall Street doesn't like uncertainty, and GOOG was down 11 points at the time of this post. Still, Google dominates the search engine market in the United States.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:39 PM | Permalink

Google Continues Paid Links Crusade

According to Dave Naylor, the punishments Google is handing down for paid links appear to be retroactive. On his blog, Naylor outlines the case of a site that was recently penalized for selling paid links more than six months ago. According to Indigo Clothing's founder Alex Walker, the site had sold links in the past, but had removed them from its site about six months ago. The site was recently penalized by Google, and Matt Cutts indicated to Naylor that the cause was likely past sales of paid links.

While sites have been penalized for actively selling links, this case appears to be different. If Walker is indeed being truthful when he says they stopped selling links six months ago, that would mean that Google is punishing sites that have already stopped selling links. It will be interesting to see if this is indeed the case, and what the statute of limitations will be.

UPDATE: According to Matt Cutts, Google is NOT applying these penalties retroactively. "We first took action on this site months and months ago, back in 2007," Matt told me.

So it seems that webmasters that have stopped buying or selling links should not fear retribution by Google for their past actions, as long as they have removed the links from their sites.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 7:57 AM | Permalink

Google Launches YouTube Insight - Google Analytics Lite

Today Google video search engine YouTube launched a free Web analytics tool.

Think Google Analytics Lite: it's essentially a way to see how popular a video is over time combined with a global map that shows where it's popular.

The map? It's identical to Google Analytics. Hmmm, wonder if it will ever be integrated into the Google Analytics platform?

Google announced the tool in a blog post after midnight EDT stating Insight enables anyone with a YouTube account to view "detailed statistics" about the videos they upload.

So what insights will YouTube Insight provide?

1. how often a video's viewed in different geographic regions
2. how popular it is relative to all videos in a market over a period of time
3. how long until a video becomes popular (the fuzziest of fuzzy metrics)
4. what happens to video views as popularity peaks

What happens to video views when popularity peaks?

They go up? Then they go down?

If anybody knows for sure, ping me.

youtube%20analytics%20insight.jpg

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:54 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Creating a Link Building System

We, as industry insiders, often lose the pulse of the real world. Sometimes, we all need to take a step back and look at things from a new perspective, and realize that the majority of marketers are not immersed in search marketing as we are. In today's Link Building column, "Creating a Link Building System," Sage Lewis goes back to link-building basics and offers a seven-step plan to get beyond linkbait and start getting ranked in the SERPs.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Read Any Good SEO Books Lately?

Some people are looking for the right book to learn everything there is to know about SEM. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist. Still, there are several books out there that can help further your understanding of search marketing in general, or do a deep dive on a specific sub-topic. In today's Search Marketing Education column, "Read Any Good SEO Books Lately? Try These," Ron Jones offers some suggestions to add to your search marketing library.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 26, 2008

The Smartest Marketer at SES New York?

Here's a tough question: Who's the smartest marketer of the 8,000+ attendees at SES New York?

My first nomination: Jennifer Laycock who did a terrific training session post-SES and spoke eloquently at the conference.

What caught my eye during the conference: a ripped-from-the-headlines post-click search retargeting campaign that Search Engine Guide did during the height of the Eliot Spitzer scandal - and the topic everyone was cracking jokes about during panels and at the bar(s).

I was on Graywolf's blog and clicked thru to a New York Times article and here's what appeared, courtesy of Casale Media.

Who cares about contextual relevancy when your ads appear on the #1 story in the New York Times?

More important, who's your nomination for the smartest marketer at the show?

spitzer%20unleashed.jpg

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:13 PM | Permalink

Good to be Google, Apex Aviation and Pilot Eric Schmidt

apex%20google.jpg


It's good to be Google, CEO/Pilot Eric Schmidt and Apex Aviation. Big-spending AdWords advertiser and vertical search engine Virgin Charter? Not so much.

Apex gets the Google gold.

Eric Schmidt has the use of a corporate jet that he makes available from time to time to Apex Aviation Corporation for charters by Apex to its customers. This aircraft has been chartered by Google from time to time and made available to certain Google executive officers for time-critical business trips.

In 2007 Google paid Apex $7,000 per hour for use of this aircraft.

(That's more than some SEOs charge for hourly consultations!)

The Google board of directors approved this hourly reimbursement rate based upon a competitive analysis of comparable chartered aircraft and which Google's board of directors determined was at or below market rates for the charter of similar aircraft.

In 2007, Google used Schmidt's aircraft for business-related travel services for certain of our executive officers and we paid Apex approximately $1,107,938 in fees through December 31, 2007.

Bluestar Jets must be singin' the Blue Star Blues to Google. Great SEO and position in Google. Great Google paid search results. Blue Star follows the 10 Golden Rules of SEM.

It's not all that bad though. Google runs an auction and doesn't show any favoritism in this case to big spenders in the Google ecosystem.

Plus, Blue Star Jets reportedly posted their most profitable month ever in February for customers of private jets (46% increase on the month, and 27% increase on the year).

That's not proof of recession. That's recession-proof.


Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:24 PM | Permalink

Maybe Google's Not Becoming a Portal?

Last week at SES NY, new comScore data on universal search showed that Google was sending more traffic to its own properties than it had been in the past. That led some people (including me) to wonder if that meant Google was becoming more like a portal than a search engine.

But that data appears to miss the larger picture, where Google is sending even more traffic to news sites than it does to Google News. In today's SearchDay, "Is Google Not So Portal-Like After All?," Greg Jarboe digs into the subject, and finds some surprising results.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:05 PM | Permalink

Searchers Beginning to See Google Video Ads in Sponsored Listings

If you look carefully in your next Google search, you might just see a video ad included in the sponsored listings along side your organic results. It's not obvious at first. You have to look for a version of the PlusBox, used for things like local search results and video in the organic listings, in the ads column.

In February, word came that Google was testing video ads, and searchers began noticing the ads on live searches this morning.

I did a search today for [smart phone] (since [smartphone] didn't return a video), and found an ad with an invitation to "Watch Commercial" under it:

Google video ads

When you click on the plus sign, the listing expands to display a video right there in the results. You also may need your grandmother's magnifying glass as the video ads are tiny! They're just 160x140 pixels, including the player navigation.

Google video ads

So far, it looks like only searches for "tech" terms like laptop or cell phone will trigger a video ad. Searches for cat food, personal finance, and luggage did not return any video ad results.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:31 PM | Permalink

Hearst Jumps on Answers Bandwagon, Acquires Answerology

Searchers want answers, not just results. That's something Hearst Magazines is apparently abundantly aware of with its acquisition of Answerology, a relationship advice site. With Google becoming more of a destination site than a portal, companies like Hearst need to compete online by offering a robust destination site of their own. Hearst is poised to do just that with the addition of Answerology, which allows users to post questions anonymously and select specific demographics in which to seek answers from.

"Service journalism is all about helping people find answers to their questions, from trusted experts. That's what we do in our magazines and on our magazine-branded web sites every day. Answerology offers us a new type of service journalism, using a 'wisdom of the masses' model built on the expertise of users who are like you," said Chris Johnson, VP, content and business development, Hearst Magazines Digital Media.

If wisdom of the masses proves to be more valuable than wisdom of the algorithm, companies like Hearst stand to benefit monumentally. Answers sites saw significant percentage increases in traffic last year.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:36 AM | Permalink

New SEOmoz Report Features Data from 3,000+ SEOs

Search engine marketers are getting more sophisticated, still don't trust search engines, and keep spending on PPC. Those are some of the findings in a new SEO Industry Survey from SEOmoz.

Seattle-based SEOmoz has released findings from their SEO Industry Survey. The survey was conducted in February 2008 and includes answers from over 3,000 search engine marketing professionals from all over the world.

According to SEOmoz, the biggest takeaways are:

  • The vast majority of respondents from SEM agencies use tools to aid their marketing efforts.

  • Marketers are still unsure about things like the potential of negative effects from registering with Webmaster Central, or the use of nofollow.

  • From the 2,060 people responding, we see at least $73 million is spent on PPC a month. That's more than $35,000 per respondent per month. This assumes all our respondents are from different companies.

For the full SEO Industry report, click here.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:34 AM | Permalink

Citigroup Upgrades Yahoo, Predicts Microsoft Bid Increases to $34 a Share

Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney upgraded Yahoo from hold to buy, based on the belief that Microsoft will increase its bid to $34 per share for the Sunnyvale search engine. The bank said that Yahoo's dates with other suitors will likely force Microsoft's hand. However, with no firm offers on the table, and NewsCorp having said no to the possibility of acquiring Yahoo, this statement is a bit of a stretch.

Still, Yahoo recently tried to boost its cred by releasing 3 year projections estimated at $8.8 billion. And Citigroup thinks that Yahoo is Microsoft's best bet for scalability in its grand plan for catching Google. Mahaney doesn't think antitrust concerns would ultimately kill the deal but provided no insight on how culture clashes could stall or interrupt scalability.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:08 AM | Permalink

Free Google Live Chat - First Time in History

google%20chat.jpg


For the first time ever Google will host a worldwide live chat, where everyone will have a chance to hear and see Google Webmaster Central answer your questions.

If you own a blog, a Web site, or just want to move your company into the 21st century, do not miss this call.

Here are the details.

WHEN: Friday, March 28, 9am PDT / noon EDT / 16:00 GMT

Google will pay for the call. It's free.

No strings attached.

The only 4 things you need to join the Google WebEx chat:

1. Phone
2. "Sufficiently-modern" Web browser
3. Internet connection
4. Search Engine Watch Membership

(Okay - just kidding (Google) about #4 - but a Search Engine Watch membership will help you prepare to ask Google the toughest search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search (PPC) questions).

Seriously - all you need is a phone, browser and Internet connection.

The call will be hosted by Google Search Evangelist and SES London speaker, Adam Lasnik, the heir-apparent to Google's one-and-only Matt Cutts.

We know this isn't an early April Fool's Joke from Google because it's signed off by Adam himself - and we quote:

"Talkatively yours,
Adam and the English Webmaster Help Guides"

We love the Google English Webmaster Help Guides. They have such cool accents. (Maybe Google will let the American Webmaster Help Guides answer a few questions too.)

Stay tuned for more on this historic Google event. All the techo-geek requirements for the WebEx chat? After the jump.

Google's WebEx Requirements:

Windows 98, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista

* Internet Explorer 6/7
* Firefox 2
* Mozilla 1.7 or higher
* Netscape 8.1 or higher
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Recommend ActiveX be enabled for Internet Explorer
* Vista supports Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 browsers only

Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4, 10.5 (PowerPC/Intel)
* Safari 1.3 (Mac OS 10.3)
* Safari 2.0 (Mac OS 10.4)
* Safari 3.0 (Mac OS 10.4,10.5)
* Firefox 2
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Requires Apple Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or higher
* No support for Remote Access

Solaris 10 (SPARC/x86)
* Mozilla 1.7 or higher
* Firefox 2.0 or higher
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Requires Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or higher
* No support for Sales Center and Remote Access

HP-UX 11.11 (PA-RISC)
* Mozilla 1.4 or higher
* Firefox 1.0 or higher
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Requires Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or higher
* Only Meeting Center supported

Ubuntu 7.04, Red Hat 4.0, SuSE 10.0 Linux
* Firefox 2
* Mozilla 1.7 or higher
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Requires Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or higher
* No support for Sales Center and Remote Access

AIX 5L 5.3
* Mozilla 1.4 or higher
* Firefox 1.0 or higher
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Requires IBM Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or higher
* Only Meeting Center supported

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:33 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Search Within a Search: Where's it Leading?

Some publishers are getting up in arms over a new feature from Google, which allows users to search a publisher's site without leaving the SERP. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Search Within a Search: Where's it Leading?," Kevin Ryan points out that their concerns may be misdirected, and they should be thinking a bit more about the big picture, and Google's evolution into a destination site.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Yahoo and the Future of Search

Because of spam, search engines had to stop trusting Webmasters to tell them about their site. Now, Yahoo is looking at new ways to get information from Webmasters. In today's Web Analytics and ROI column, "Yahoo and the Future of Search," Eric Enge explains the ways Yahoo is putting webmaster trust back into its search results.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 25, 2008

Search Headlines & Links: March 25, 2008

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

  • World's First Search Engine for Meetings: Worktopia
    The only thing worse than attending a corporate meeting is planning one. For those with the thankless job of planning corporate meetings, there's Worktopia.
  • Yahoo Gets REAL About Job Searches
    In an effort to improve access to job seekers and assist recruiters, Yahoo announced today the launch of "R.E.A.L., a patent pending search ranking system that is based on Relevance, Engagement, Availability and Location," for Hotjobs.
  • How to (Actually) Earn Money (Now) with Social Media (Really): Part 1
    Leveraging digital assets and hot social channels for long-term SEM benefit has now become SEO 101. However, your boss or client may need to be convinced that investing in another layer of content management system (CMS), content, and conversational networking WILL in fact yield measurable financial results soon.
  • Microsoft Tries to Compete with OpenSocial
    Microsoft has announced a partnership to create data portability across 5 social networking sites. Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn are all part of the arrangement, which will "exchange functionally-similar Contacts APIs."
  • Google, Yahoo & MySpace Team Up for OpenSocial
    Yahoo, MySpace and Google have pledged their support to open standards for social media development and data by joining together to form the OpenSocial Foundation.
  • Google's New Wifi Push Will Drive Mobile Search
    There's unused "white space" lying between the regulated TV signals and Google has big plans for them. In new lobbying effort, Google is asking the FCC to auction the unused airwaves to establish faster internet access that has a wider reach. Expanding Wifi will have major implications for mobile search.
  • Twitter: Welcome to my Google Nightmare
    Twitter may give Google a run for its money. Twitter's one more way, though, that Google knows everything about you.

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:25 PM | Permalink

World's First Search Engine for Meetings: Worktopia

worktopia.jpg

The only thing worse than attending a corporate meeting is planning one. For those with the thankless job of planning corporate meetings, there's Worktopia.

How many times have you wanted to schedule a meeting at or near an airport while you cool your heels waiting for a connection? Perhaps you've experienced one of those rare flight delays that occur so infrequently in the airline industry? Or ,maybe you just prefer meeting your clients someplace else besides the airline club where all your competitors are lounging around?

While not Utopia (a world without meetings), the Worktopia search engine provides a real-time database of available meeting spaces by geographic location. There's even the ability to see room layout, order A/V equipment and order catering.

If you're a fast-growing search marketing agency (is there any other?) then Worktopia offers an alternative to "booking" one of the local Starbucks--and battling the new class of virtual office workers fighting for space in 'Buckies.


Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:01 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Gets REAL About Job Searches

In an effort to improve access to job seekers and assist recruiters, Yahoo announced today the launch of "R.E.A.L., a patent pending search ranking system that is based on Relevance, Engagement, Availability and Location," a company press release detailed.

Yahoo explained the process thus:

R.E.A.L. is an industry-first search algorithm that builds on an innovative set of principles derived from Yahoo!'s research in Web search technology. Leveraging Yahoo!'s behavioral targeting and search optimization strengths to rank job listings based on user engagement, R.E.A.L. has moved Yahoo! HotJobs' job search rankings beyond the traditional category-based, date-sorted experience. With the launch of R.E.A.L., "applies" per job listing have increased by 25 percent, a key success metric for recruiters.

"R.E.A.L. is a key pillar in our strategy to deliver the best in performance and value for recruitment advertisers," said Jeff Kinder, senior vice president and general manager, Yahoo! HotJobs. "Yahoo! has shown that relevance matters in search results, and it's powerful to apply Yahoo!'s search technology to HotJobs and see immediate and significant performance improvements. We believe Yahoo! HotJobs has a distinct advantage as online recruitment evolves and insights and technology play increasingly important roles."

The principles of R.E.A.L. are described in a newly released "Playbook" for recruiters, a compilation of best practices for posting, editing and managing job listings, designed to deliver optimal quality and performance. By aligning the goals of recruiters and job candidates, R.E.A.L. creates an indispensable experience that is defined by four critical characteristics of high-performance job listings:

R - Relevance: Matching text in job titles and descriptions to the keywords candidates use

E - Engagement: Measuring how well candidates respond to the job listing

A - Availability: Determining that the positions displayed are still unfilled

L - Location: Showing jobs in a location of interest to the candidate

These four characteristics are part of an insights-driven search algorithm that will continually improve on itself.

"We've started following the principles of R.E.A.L. and have already seen a significant increase in the number of applies per job listing," said Kathryn Jordan, chief financial officer, Fishpond Recruiting. "By applying Yahoo! HotJobs' best practices, we've not only expanded our candidate pool but we're seeing matches with high-quality candidates that are far more relevant to our job openings."

R.E.A.L. also benefits Yahoo!'s Newspaper Consortium partners who have implemented Yahoo! HotJobs as their exclusive online recruitment solution. R.E.A.L. includes location-based job searching features which enhance the ability to narrow or broaden relevant job search results by zip code, city, nearby cities, full metro areas, or entire states. The Newspaper Consortium now reaches 30 percent of all U.S. daily newspapers, and Yahoo! HotJobs has launched co-branded career sites serving more than 425 newspapers with strong local presences.

As part of its effort to be the "must buy" solution for recruitment advertisers, Yahoo! HotJobs has increased job candidate traffic by more than 50 percent over the last year while competitors remained largely flat. As a result, Yahoo! HotJobs has become the fastest growing Web site among the leading job boards and has surpassed Monster.com in the U.S.(1)

For more information about R.E.A.L., please visit http://hotjobsresources.com/ and click on the 'Library' section.

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:47 PM | Permalink

Go to Search Marketing Salon SF Launch Party

searchmarketingsalon.jpg

If you're anywhere near the Bay Area, Silicon Valley or Alcatraz, mark this event on your search marketing calendar: Search Marketing Salon. It's free. No cover charge. 21 and over to drink.

When: Thursday March 27, 2008 -- 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Where: Otis Lounge, 25 Maiden Lane (bw Grant & Kearney) nr Union Square, downtown.

Wear your favorite hat...because if there's one thing SES has proved over the years: the industry boasts Awesomely Bad SEO Celeb Fashion.

Black hats, white hats, and grey hats all welcome.

Meet other SEOs, SEMs, and Web 2.0 social marketers, trade tips and share advice. In NYC, we had over 100 attendees at the SEMPO SEO Meetup last month.

Why Go? To meet:

Lorna Li (no relation to Li Evans), SEM Networking Maven, Web 2.0 blogger, Green activist and rainforest crusader. What's not to like? Plus you may meet cshel and Brian Solis.

When Lorna's not getting all Amazon with the Indians in the Amazon Basin, she can be spotted at SF Bay Area tech events, Green events, and conscious lifestyle parties.

That beats SES New York SearchBash: Webmaster Radio.FM's "Unconscious Lifestyle party" for SEOs and SEMs. (Yep, the party where Kevin Ryan officially became a RockStar with guys hi-five'ing him on the street outside the club, "Yo, Kevin Ryan, you rock. Love your sense of humor.")

The "Search Marketing Alchemist" AKA Jacob Morgan who works for an undisclosed marketing agency in SF and does marketing consulting gigs for private clients. Tell Jacob he needs to quit acting and start blogging more. (Just kidding).

The "Minister of LinkedIn Viral Marketing" Jose Nunez. He's an SEO consultant and PhD in Computer Engineering Technology. He's a dozen years in to SEO and the CTO of HiRank. Tell Jose to stop making the big bucks as a world-famous DJ and blog more. (Just kidding.)

Seriously, guys, seize the #1 position for your name in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. That's the first rule of "Search Marketing Salon."

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:46 PM | Permalink

How to (Actually) Earn Money (Now) with Social Media (Really): Part 1

OK, everyone knows the nearly mythological powers of social media to help grow long term site equity. Link building comes to mind immediately to most. Traffic waves can carry motivated visitors who might subscribe to your feed, engage in comment threads, complain about how bad your company sucks, and/or rave about fantastic customer service. It's all good.

True, leveraging digital assets and hot social channels for long-term SEM benefit has now become SEO 101. However your boss or client may need to be convinced that investing in another layer of content management system (CMS), content, and conversational networking WILL in fact yield measurable financial results soon. There is no better way than to set and achieve short term goals for immediate social media cash flow, to get folks excited about the long-term.

Here's a few ways to get hands plenty dirty and flow cash in the first quarter of your initial social media forays:


  1. Social PPC starts with Facebook if your demographic includes 14-26 year olds. Make no mistake; savvy clients are making millions of dollars in the space. Drill down into the Facebook social graph and you'll find fascinating PPC categories (aimClear has charted about 10,000 preset interest-categories on the USA Facebook PPC social graph.)

    Anything in the pop culture, sports, music, education categories fly really well. Software, games, kissy, and in some cases even an emerging young corporate mindset can work. FB is noisy, applications are really annoying, and sometimes carefully crafted PPC works very sweetly amongst the clutter. Make it go Ka CHING$$$ the first day with landing pages segmented by interest categories (Buzz Pockets) rather than keywords.


  2. Other communities have different gateways to insert paid advertising.  StumbleUpon, Digg, MySpace, and LinkedIn have advertising options. Whatever the community there is nearly always some paid method to insert advertising by way of a the site's own and/or major ad platform partners like Google, MSN and/or Yahoo. Some communities use multiple ad platforms, both internal and third party.

  3. Open a door with outbound linking for your boss or client to make a sale right away    . You'll find an abundance of blogging-tips in the SEM trade pubs regarding the incredible value of outbound linking as a PR mechanism. At base, link out to bloggers and corporate sites to benefit your clients and customers. Any marketing department quality enough to warrant your outbound link will soon discover that you did it. Identify 30 authority-writers in your product or service's space (who don't directly compete) and ping them with an outbound link on compelling anchor text.

    After linking out to them in properly published content, have your VP send an email to alert your target site's VP to the link. Tell your sales department that you've "made a new friend." Suggest they invite the friend out for gruyere and Fume Blanch. This tactic is a more aggressive version of linkbaiting and can work really well. A) The social media department softens the target up. B) The sales staff at corporate follows. Case in point, here I invite distinguished CopyBlogger Brian to the table @ SEW Blog. He'll hear about it in a daily alert. "Hello there" Brian Clark! Use this technique and make a goal of directly associating a SINGLE sale in the first 60 days from which the conversion can be directly attributed at least in part to a social media tactic.

  4. Increase conversion on traditional (AdWords/Panama/AdCenter) PPC landing pages by mashing in headlines from feeds of corporate or customer activities. In other words, take the top 3 headlines each from the corporate media and community relations feeds and display them just above or below the conversion goal mechanism you're trying to get users to bite on. aimClear's data shows that when PPC landing pages display mashed-in headlines radiating from true community activity, conversion rises in a measurable way. Ka CHING$$$ again!

    BTW, yes it's certainly OK to moderate what excerpted content is allowed to bubble into PPC landing pages, or any pages for that matter. If you've not incited much user generated content yet, prime the pump by originating the mashed-in feed content as "push PR" from a department of your company I.E. like customer support and relations. There's nearly always good recurrent content available to source somewhere which will prove interesting to potential clients.


Money Talks, BS Walks
Methods to immediately quantify the value of investment in social media are limited only by the creativity of the SEM team. With social PPC and other paid SMO, financial objectives are immediately attainable. If cash matters and you're used to PPC, the first questions to ask of any potential social value are "what are these folks chattering about" and "What Ad Platforms insert ads into the SMO stream?"

Outbound linking targeted to savvy customers (who monitor their reputation) can be a terrific door-opener. Partner with your sales department and upper level executives to maximize the "overture of friendship" embodied in giving a high quality outbound link.

After priming community activity within your own site's data flow, mash-in community feed content to traditional PPC landing pages and watch how the authentic nature of the content spurs conversion. Show your boss or client the cash-money early in the game in order to achieve buy-in for long term link, traffic, and community building CMS and content building investments.

Posted by Marty Weintraub at 12:34 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Tries to Compete with OpenSocial

Microsoft, in an clear attempt to compete with Google's OpenSocial, has announced a partnership to create data portability across 5 social networking sites. Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn are all part of the arrangement, which will "exchange functionally-similar Contacts APIs." Microsoft says the move will allow them to create a safe, secure two-way method for users of the sites to move their relationships among the respective services.

Microsoft is including Windows Live Messenger in the mix. Invite2messenger.net was developed to help users invite their friends from the five social networks to join their Windows Live Messenger contact list, if they have one.

What's unclear is what Microsoft would do with Yahoo if the proposed acquisition takes place. Earlier today, it was announced that Yahoo has joined Google's OpenSocial. And AOL's Bebo is now part of Microsoft's data portability network, which should fan the flames of some analysts' commentary that Microsoft should buy AOL instead. The soap opera continues.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:37 AM | Permalink

Google, Yahoo & MySpace Team Up for OpenSocial

OpenSocialYahoo, MySpace and Google have pledged their support to open standards for social media development and data by joining together to form the OpenSocial Foundation. The group will ensure that OpenSocial continues as an open, community-governed specification.

OpenSocial is a specification, launched by Google last year, that defines a common API for social applications across multiple Web sites. It has implications for search marketers and application developers, since it will speed up the development of cross-platform applications. It could also force the hand of non-members, such as Microsoft and Facebook.

Using JavaScript and HTML, developers can create applications with OpenSocial that access features in a social network, like friends and update feeds. By using a common API, developers can build one application that will work across multiple social platforms, extending the reach of their applications and making it easier to add more functionality for users.

The formation of the foundation is not entirely altruistic. By uniting the interests of three of the largest Web entities, the group will have a strong voice in the development of future standards and specifications.

According to Yahoo, "The foundation will provide transparency and operational guidelines around technology, documentation, intellectual property, and other issues related to the evolution of the OpenSocial platform, while also ensuring all stakeholders share influence over its future direction."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:35 AM | Permalink

Google's New Wifi Push Will Drive Mobile Search

There's unused "white space" lying between the regulated TV signals and Google has big plans for them. In new lobbying effort,