Here is a video interview by Kara Swisher at AllThingsDigital, a Wall Street Journal publication, of Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft lawyers impression on the hearings:

[brightcove vid=1659860828&exp=716696183&w=300&h=260]

My personal opinion is that this deal is win-win situation for advertisers as well as publishers. Creating a standard, open platform for publishers to choose where their advertising goes is beneficial to the industry. My hope is when I do my ad buys on Google AdWords, I can do placement targeting and choose Yahoo!'s web site as one where I want to place my ads. Otherwise, I would have to have two separate budgets for Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing. Why not create a platform that is beneficial to the users? Let me know your thoughts by adding a comment to this blog entry.

-Randy
P.S. I'm cycling 100 miles on September 28, 2008 in Honolulu, Hawaii to support cancer research and patients like my teammate Gene who is a 4-year survivor. Make a 100% tax-deductible donation today to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at http://djksar.wordpress.com/honolulu-century-bike-ride/

The campaign’s success had lead Murad to restructure its approach to paid search, according to Katherine LaFranchise, senior director of online marketing for Murad. “”We used to think that content advertising was only useful for increasing search conversions, but we found you can achieve direct return on investment from content campaigns,” she says.

It's interesting that only one site from the network is mentioned as being the prime generator of traffic.

What's the smallest niche you can think of for your company? What website(s) do those people visit? Is there any way you can get involved?

Web designers and SEO experts

It is harder and harder these days to make it to the top of Google and other search engine lists organically, partially because blogs are such SEO machines.

I have had some pretty funny search terms that led people to my blog over the past week and had tucked in to type up a (hopefully) amusing post about the disappointment that searchers would have when they were looking for, say, "fat sex" and ended up at the daily (ad) biz blog. Those who searched for "dress code" would be disappointed but presumably less so (unless they were looking for the dress code during fat sex in which case their disappointment surely knows no bounds). The surprisingly large number of people who searched for "greatest pickup lines" need more help than this blog is capable of.

While I was cataloging the funny search terms for this post, I noticed that I was getting a lot of hits for "jenna fischer." Also a lot for "Jenna Fischer naked."

[ There is always room for a Jenna Fischer image. And besides, it's clearly what my readers want.]

Apparently, if you were to Google just about any Jenna Fischer term and decide to, you know, take a closer look at the suggestive picture that pops up in Google then you would be looking at said picture on this humble blog.

The point isn't to brag. Nor is it to find a weak excuse to search for and post a picture of the Official Hot Famous Woman I Would Marry In A Second Even Though I Don't Know Her (OHFWIWMIASETIDKH for short).

Rather, the point of bringing this up is to marvel at the power of a blog to shoot up the Google rankings. And to use that to mention that, you know, maybe ad agencies ought to think about what that might mean for the brands they are building...specifically that they should probably get their act together (Wieden, I'm looking at you) and stop ignoring it because it will only result in an EFFIE and the ECD thinks that EFFIES are for "fucking douchebag accountniks" and he would rather pitch TV so he has a shot at a free week in Cannes.

If this blog can do it without trying very hard, one would think that a brand could do it with a little help from their agency.

Right? Eh? Oh.

Result: It worked – people called or sent an email, and deals were closed.

Then I made my big mistake – I optimized the campaign based on statistics alone. I simply weeded out the less successful ads, and kept in place the two most successful ones that had very general titles.

Result: people stopped calling.

What happened?

It took me a couple of days to figure out what went wrong. But when I checked the keywords people who visited the website used everything became clear – they all mentioned tools, and software and automatic web services.

People who were attracted to general ads were interested in the general subject, but were planning to do it themselves, not looking for someone to do it for them. Obviously the general title made them click-happy.

Result: Visitors were disappointed because they were looking for something else; the company was disappointed because it didn't get calls, everybody unhappy.

I just fixed the AdWords campaign, so hopefully sales calls will start again in a couple of days. Stay tuned.

Have you ever ruined a campaign by doing a silly mistake that missed the target audience completely? Share your experience!

Web Design firm

This probably isn't an SEO keyword research substitute for something like Keyword Discovery, but I can see this as a great helping tool for building PPC campaigns. Tomorrow, I'm starting a new PPC campaign for a client who provides billing solutions for law firms and other professional services and can see this playing a decent roll.

I want to break potential possibilities into a few categories; search volume, match type, and specifically, negative keywords. Measuring this with analytics is key as well.

First, the search volume. Before this, the search volume didn't have a number and just had a green bar level like you see with the "advertiser competition" tab. It's too early to tell how accurate these numbers are, and there has already been online discussions regarding this, but my gut feeling says that it's pretty accurate. In more detail, I can see this as a good tool to determine how much I want to bid for longer-tail terms.

Next, the match type options you see in the upper right corner of the above image. You can view the search volumes by broad, phrase, exact, and negative match categories. I always like to use as many "exact match" phrases as possible, and can see the search volume totals playing a decent role in this. A longer-tail example of this may be "legal billing services". Not many are searching for this, but there doesn't seem to be any "exact match" competition for this either.

I've always been big on "negative keywords". You don't want people viewing your PPC ad if someone types in the word "free" or any other word that wouldn't convert to your campaign. Whenever I do PPC campaigns, I try to regularly add negative keywords monthly. Now you can view the search volume data by negative keywords as well. Looking at the image below, I can already see some initial negative match opportunities.

Finally, analytics. Whether you use Google Analytics or a more rubust paid solution, you can see how users are coming to your site from your PPC campaigns. Measuring this is key, but if you're a search marketer you already know this.

:: :: :: :: ::

Source: Search Engine Land

For instance, I am sitting in a local Internet Cafe` writing this newsletter while my internet connection at the office is being worked on, and the guy next to me is looking for temporary auto insurance. He needs to buy a one month policy for his new car so he has been searching every city in his home state of Arkansas for a company that will do "short-term" policies.

I asked him what he used as search criteria and so he showed me - see below:

• "temporary auto insurance" + Arkansas
• "short-term auto insurance" + Little Rock
• "temporary automobile insurance policy" + Arkansas

There were lots of other variations of these, most with different city names but the point was that he was using these 3, 4 and 5 word terms to search and he was successful with one of these but most reveled nothing of use.

This brings me to my point, gaining top keyword positions for short, competitive keyword terms can take 4 to 6 months or longer depending on the amount of other competing sites but it isn't hard to target long-tail search terms, especially if they are city or state specific.

So, how do we determine if any of the long-tail terms are being searched on? Well, there are great tools such as Wordtracker that can help with this. You may also want to look at your traffic statistic program as you will certainly find terms that people have used to find you.

Remember, they may not be a large amount of traffic from these terms but it seems to me that the people getting that specific, are more inclined to convert to a customer and make a purchase on-the-spot.

During a 2007 study of local search habits, 86% of people surveyed reported that they search for local businesses as compared to only 70% a year ago. (Source: Marchex)

Many businesses fall short of appealing to their local audiences. Search behavior is strongly connected to print advertising, still. As consumers view an ad in traditional media, they often then search for the company online. More often than not the consumer will then either (a) purchase a product or service online or (b) travel to the business to purchase a product or service in person.

In fact, businesses and advertisers who recognize this trend are spending roughly $5 billion dollars a year on local Internet ads. This is projected to grow to $25 billion within the next decade. Internet savvy businesses are closely watching and acting on the local optimization trend. Optimizing your site for local search traffic is in great demand and Overit Media has the answer.

Businesses with an online presence need not be selling a product or service for this equation to work. Businesses or organizations whose online presence is perhaps informational are able to attract the same traffic.

If your business is not optimized for local internet traffic you may be missing an entire segment of your target audience. That's why we offer local internet search engine optimization (SEO) and Internet reputation management.

Local Search Engine Optimization Services:

Full-site analysis and strategy building
Competitive intelligence analysis
Organic, ethical on-page optimization
Code Optimization
Quality link building program
Google site maps

In addition we also provide monthly SEO maintenance programs that include the above, plus:

Article submissions
Directory submissions
Viral social media marketing (including viral video)
Social network creation and management
PPC management (local and global)

Internet reputation management:

Internet Press Releases
Blogs
Social Media Reputation Management

For more information, contact Joe Schaefer - Overit Media Search Engine Optimization Analyst/Strategist

Overit Media, Albany, NY's award-winning multimedia development firm, adds full SEO to its services

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jun 18, 2008 – Overit Media, a multimedia development company located in Albany, NY announced today that their complete multimedia services now offer a full-scale, complete search engine marketing (SEO/SEM) solution in addition to their web & motion graphics design, DVD-ROM development and other upscale design services.

Offering a complete search engine optimization solution to clients fills a niche often missing among multimedia development firms. In the Albany, NY and surrounding Capital District area, interactive web and multimedia development companies often fall short of offering a complete solution design solution that includes Internet Marketing.

Utilizing a wide range of multimedia and design practices and techniques, Overit Media helps a client's vision become a reality. A balance of attentive service and high-impact deliverables propels Overit Media's clients into the limelight, no matter what the medium.

Overit Media's full-time search engine optimization analyst and strategist, Joseph Schaefer, says, "Many companies in the area either focus on one aspect of interactive development or a just a few. With the addition of search marketing to the Overit arsenal we are able to see projects from concept to completion and beyond. We feel it is a service that will attract new clients as it provides them one team to deal with. Instead of having your website designed by one group and then going elsewhere to have it successfully marketed, a concept and its potential is seen all the way through by one creative company."

Overit Media's website states, "Whether film, DVD, print, Internet, radio, all of the above or a variety of other destinations is your target, Overit was built to propel you there. In the process of client engagement, in our successes as well as our lessons learned, we increasingly become the sum of our work. "

Overit Media's SEO strategist agrees and Schaefer adds, "We are full-service development firm that offers the complete solution. Although I am one part of a many legs to this operation, the addition of full-scale SEO/SEM services makes the complete package a sound business move for any business in search of optimum visibility."

Albany, New York's Overit Media and its award-winning design team will have even greater successes as they raise the bar for other development firms, whether in the Capital District area or internationally.

Overit Media's SEO, Joe Schaefer briefly describes his philosophy and motivation, "A company's competition is my competition, from an SEO standpoint for clients and from an employee standpoint as I strive to bring the search engine optimization aspect of Overit Media to the heights of the power-players in the industry. It remains to be seen how well we play in traffic, but that's the whole idea, we play in traffic so you don't have to."

Visit Overit Media's website: http://www.overit.com

Overit Media
303 Hamilton St.
Albany, NY
518.465.8829

Our Search Engine Optimization Services Include:

Full-site analysis and strategy building
Competitive intelligence analysis
Organic, ethical on-page optimization
Google site maps
Quality link building program
Article submissions
Directory submissions
Viral social media marketing (including viral video)
Social network creation and management
PPC management (local and global)
Mobile optimization

Overit has stepped up. What's your plan?

For more information on how we can find more visibility for you and your website contact :
Overit's Search Marketing Strategist.

Publié dans Internet, Réflexions | Aucun commentaire

Cet article a été écrit par Simon Talvard-Balland

Source: Abondance

Democrats have been focused on recruiting supporters online while McCain has been spending campaign donors on TV. The difference is striking:

Obama now boasts 1.5 million friends on Facebook and MySpace, and 43,026 Twitter followers, not to mention 850,000 fans on MyBarackObama.com, his personal social network. In contrast, McCain has 203,343 supporters across MySpace and Facebook.

To compensate for missed connections, McCain's campaign launched McCainSpace in February, a social network where users can create McCain-centric personal profiles. Commentator Michael Goldfarb was also hired to blog for McCain's website.

This month the Republicans also launched MeetBarackObama.com, a social media site that highlights Barack's weaknesses.

I'm not sure if McCain will be able to catch up, and I still don't think he's using social networks in an authentic way that will seem "real" online.

Eye Marketing har dokumentation for, at nedenstående 10 søgeord er vigtige indenfor sin egen branche „Online Markedsføring“. Derfor er det vigtigt for Eye Marketing at få gode placeringer når en potentiel kunde søger efter fx „seo workshop“. Med nedenstående Top-5 placeringer (En Top-5 placering er når ens website på et søgeord er blandt de 5 første resultater) har Eye Marketing gode muligheder for at blive kontaktet af potentielle kunder.

Torsten tilføjer, at han for en god ordens skyld vil nævne, at nedenstående resultater er opnået indenfor Googles retningslinier, hvilket vil sige uden snyd og dermed mulighed for at blive blacklistet af søgemaskinen. Der er tale om etisk korrekt online markedsføring siger han.

What does that tell ya about Google? Mixed reaction?

• Good design
• Proper and appropriate content
• User friendly

The keywords as well the key-phrases in a SEO should be applied properly. With a SEO you can improve your ranking on search engine result pages. Moreover SEO is known as a well practiced process that requires far-reaching commitment of resources with time and proficiency.
Bottom line - SEO not only drives more traffic towards your site but also helps in online business appreciation.

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