Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Yahoo- 15 years old today
Dr Search the Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic says Happy 15th Birthday Yahoo! and reproduces this message from their founders.
We want to share our pride, gratitude and excitement on this 15th birthday, with all Yahoo! users (600 million of them), customers and partners. It continues to be an incredible ride for the two of us, as well as for thousands of Yahoo! employees we have had the privilege of working with over the years.
We’ve had the unique opportunity to help create an industry and shape the online world, and will continue to focus on the values that brought us here —working hard, having fun, being passionate about your ideas, believing in each other, and always trying to invent the future. And as we celebrate 15 years today, we are even more excited than ever about what lies ahead, and the potential of Yahoo! and the Internet.
Of course, we didn’t set out to start one of the world’s largest Internet companies or be leading a movement that has changed the world. We were just a couple of Stanford graduate students doing our research (supposedly) while our professor was on sabbatical.
More interesting than our research was our total fascination with the web and all the cool stuff it suddenly made available. But it was incredibly hard to keep track of the thousands of great websites sprouting up everywhere. We thought it would be fun to catalog the sites by developing a simple directory. So all this began with nothing more than a hobby to help other early Internet users.
Amazing things happen when we’re doing what’s fun.
We soon learned a huge lesson just as relevant today as then: change and growth on the Internet happen at warp speed—especially if you’re filling a need. With the proliferation of websites and with hundreds of thousands of people accessing our guide, it was simply impossible for us to continue doing this on our own.
Taking big steps takes belief in yourself—and in others.
After many late nights and a lot of pizza, we decided to take the big leap, turn our hobby into a business, raise money and devote ourselves totally to building a company. This was no sure thing. For example, 15 years ago, we wanted a free service that was ad-supported.
But the conventional wisdom was that our business needed to be subscription-based. Few people thought that advertising could be the key revenue generator for the Internet. Of course, the conventional wisdom was wrong and so today we know that August, 1995, the month our first ad went live, was a critical milestone in the history of Yahoo!, as well as the history of the internet.
Focus on the future: it still looks phenomenal.
Internet growth continues to be simply phenomenal, and we’re nowhere near done. Fifteen years ago, there were 18,000 web sites and fewer than 10 million people globally on the Internet—less than one third of a single percent of the world’s population at the time. Today there are more than 200 million websites with 90,000 created daily. There are estimated to be 1.6 billion people on the internet today—about 25 percent of the world’s population.
These numbers are astonishing, but even more important and more exciting is the impact that the Internet is having on so many people around the world. From socio-economic opportunities to more accessible health care to educating the next generation and beyond, the Internet has changed the way we live, work and learn. It has overcome geographic and political barriers and has made it possible for people to raise their voices as they seek greater economic opportunity and freedom. And Yahoo! has been a leader in enabling these tremendous technological advancements every step of the way.
Let’s aim to be even prouder fifteen years from now than we are today!
All this in just 15 years. Yahoo! has been built by thousands of dedicated employees, hundreds of millions of loyal users and scores of advertisers who envisioned a future that was exciting, challenging and at times daunting. To work in the sandbox that is Yahoo! and the evolution of the Internet is truly amazing.
And yet as fast as the Internet and Yahoo! have grown and as remarkably our lives have changed, we are just at the beginning of this great transformation.
The Internet still has enormous and untapped potential. There are billions of more people we need to drive online, and then provide them with relevant content and opportunities that they’ve never dreamed about before.
We are confident that 15 years from today, we will look back in marvel at how far you, and the Internet have traveled in such a short time. Just as we are doing today.
Jerry Yang and David Filo
Co-Founders & Chief Yahoos
From:
Labels: Dr Search, Search Clinic, search engines, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, March 02, 2010
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Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Search engines ranking- latest global results 2010
comScore has published a report on the global search market which shows more than 131 billion searches were conducted across the web in December 2009.
The top 5 leading countries in the search market are the United States, China, Japan, UK and Germany:
One of the interesting things to note from the report is the relatively slow growth rate of searches from China.
Whilst they are sitting second in terms of overall volume, their growth rate is by far the lowest amongst the top ten countries.
When you compare this to the high volume and growth rate from Japan, it is foreseeable that the Japanese, British and the Germans may claim second spot in the not to distant future.
Google continues to lead the way as the dominant search engine, followed by Yahoo! and Baidu claiming the number three spot.
If Google follows through on their threat to pull out of China, it’s possible that Baidu could pickup their lost market share and claim the number two spot above Yahoo. Which would be an interesting situation if you work at Yahoo.
Another two thoughts are these figues do not include Twitter, nor do they include the searches on google's You Tube.
Labels: bing, Facebook, Google, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing, Twitter, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Wednesday, February 03, 2010
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Thursday, January 21, 2010
Bad customer service costing billions of Pounds in lost revenue
Another study reveals the shocking cost of poor customer service- this time it's Dr Search's alma mater- Oxford Brookes University who delivers the damning verdict on poor service standards.
Its survey suggests that three out of four people have switched at least one product or service in the last two years due to poor service.
Its survey suggests that three out of four people have switched at least one product or service in the last two years due to poor service.
And the University's Professor Merlin Stone estimates that if the study is reflective of the entire population, firms could have lost up to 20 million good customers, costing them around £3.39 billion.
More than one in five people blamed poor customer service for switching to other firms in areas including finance, telecoms and utilities.
Lifestyle firm WhiteConcierge, which commissioned the study, said the findings suggested that more than 30 consumers were signing up with different companies every minute of the day.
The report found that the worst affected sectors for losing customers over the past two years were motor insurance, electricity and home insurance.
Organisations have to work harder than ever to keep their best customers. Consumers have become increasingly demanding and discerning, and with the rise of price comparison websites for example, it is now much easier to compare and switch products.
Jonathan Breeze, managing director of WhiteConcierge, said: "Price is undoubtedly one important factor for causing people to change providers but many companies cannot compete on this at the moment. As our research findings show, issues surrounding customer service experiences are also key and can be addressed more readily."
The findings have come as no surprise to the CRM community. In the recent tough economic times, service may have been one of the many cutbacks made across the breadth of the organisation. However, service is precisely what will keep current customers and continue to attract new ones.
Much has been made of the birth of 'Generation Y'-ers – those who multi-task throughout life and communicate with organisations via a multitude of channels. This should strongly underline the need for businesses to reassess their service provision.
The findings have come as no surprise to the CRM community. In the recent tough economic times, service may have been one of the many cutbacks made across the breadth of the organisation. However, service is precisely what will keep current customers and continue to attract new ones.
Much has been made of the birth of 'Generation Y'-ers – those who multi-task throughout life and communicate with organisations via a multitude of channels. This should strongly underline the need for businesses to reassess their service provision.
This young demographic’s demand is for more, not less, personalised and tailored services, fully utilising technology to deliver robust services. Organisations that are providing and delivering robust services win; there is no second place.
Dr Search concludes by suggesting that although price is always a decision making factor- service is becoming increasingly important.
Labels: Dr Search, online marketing, Search Marketing, Top Tips
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Thursday, January 21, 2010
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Monday, January 4, 2010
Search Clinic wishes you a Happy, Healthy and Wealthy New Year
The Search Clinic starts 2010 by looking at the oganisation that will statistically send the most traffic to your website- Google.
Google has a 10 Things Philosophy. Over the next few day we will be covering them all. But the Top 3 below are key for any online business:
Never settle for the best
"The perfect search engine," says Google co-founder Larry Page, "would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want." Given the state of search technology today, that's a far-reaching vision requiring research, development and innovation to realise. Google is committed to blazing that trail.
Although acknowledged as the world's leading search technology company, Google's goal is to provide a much higher level of service to all those who seek information, whether they're at a desk in Boston, driving through Bonn or strolling in Bangkok.
To achieve this, Google has persistently pursued innovation and pushed the limits of existing technology to provide a fast, accurate and easy-to-use search service that can be accessed from anywhere. To fully understand Google, it's helpful to understand all the ways in which the company has helped to redefine how individuals, businesses and technologists view the Internet.
Ten things Google has found to be true
1. Focus on the user and everything else will follow.
From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best user experience possible. While many companies claim to put their customers first, few are able to resist the temptation to make small sacrifices to increase shareholder value. Google has steadfastly refused to make any change that does not benefit the users who come to the site:
* The interface is clear and simple.
* Pages load instantly.
* Placement in search results is never sold to anyone.
* Advertising on the site must offer relevant content and not be a distraction.
By always placing the interests of the user first, Google has built the most loyal audience on the web. And that growth has come not through TV ad campaigns, but through word of mouth from one satisfied user to another.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
Google does search. With one of the world's largest research groups focused exclusively on solving search problems, we know what we do well and how we could do it better. Through continued iteration on difficult problems, we've been able to solve complex issues and provide continuous improvements to a service already considered the best on the web at making finding information a fast and seamless experience for millions of users.
Google's dedication to improving search has also allowed them to apply what they've learned to new products including Google Mail, Google Desktop and Google Maps. As they continue to build new products while making search better, their hope is to bring the power of search to previously unexplored areas and to help users access and use even more of the ever-expanding information in their lives.
3. Fast is better than slow.
Google believes in instant satisfaction. You want answers and you want them right now. Who are we to argue? Google may be the only company in the world whose stated goal is to have users leave its website as quickly as possible.
By fanatically fixating on shaving every excess bit and byte from our pages and increasing the efficiency of our serving environment, Google has broken its own speed records time and again. Others assumed large servers were the fastest way to handle massive amounts of data. Google found networked PCs to be faster. Where others accepted apparent speed limits imposed by search algorithms, Google wrote new algorithms that proved there were no limits. And Google continues to work on making it all go even faster.
Search Clinic points out that speed is a Google fixation. In 2009 they announced that it would effect a website's ranking in Pay Per Click casino and it may start to have an effect on free results ranking soon.
Labels: Google, Pay Per Click Marketing, Search Clinic, search engines, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, January 04, 2010
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Monday, December 21, 2009
Google fined over French copyright infringements
A Paris court has found Google guilty of copyright infringement in a ruling which could have ramifications for its plans to digitise the world's books.
The search giant must pay £266,000 in damages and interest to French publisher La Martiniere. Google was also ordered to pay £9,000 a day until it removes extracts of the books from its database.
It was one of many to take Google to court for digitising its books without explicit permission.
Google expressed disappointment at the ruling.
"French readers now face the threat of losing access to a significant body of knowledge and falling behind the rest of internet users," said a spokesman for the firm.
Google wants to scan millions of books to make them available online.
This court case will be seen as a victory for critics of the plan who fear Google is creating a monopoly over information.
Publisher Herve de La Martiniere launched his court case three years ago but Google continued to scan books during this period.
La Martiniere, the French Publishers' Association and authors' group SGDL who started the court battle initially demanded that Google be fined £13.2m.
The search giant must pay £266,000 in damages and interest to French publisher La Martiniere. Google was also ordered to pay £9,000 a day until it removes extracts of the books from its database.
It was one of many to take Google to court for digitising its books without explicit permission.
Google expressed disappointment at the ruling.
"French readers now face the threat of losing access to a significant body of knowledge and falling behind the rest of internet users," said a spokesman for the firm.
Google wants to scan millions of books to make them available online.
This court case will be seen as a victory for critics of the plan who fear Google is creating a monopoly over information.
Publisher Herve de La Martiniere launched his court case three years ago but Google continued to scan books during this period.
La Martiniere, the French Publishers' Association and authors' group SGDL who started the court battle initially demanded that Google be fined £13.2m.
The book publishers claimed that scanning books was an act of reproduction and, as such, was something that should be paid for.
Google's plans to establish a digital library have hit several road blocks. It agreed to a settlement with US authors and publishers but is renegotiating after the US Justice Department concluded that the deal violates anti trust law.
Labels: Google, online marketing, search engines, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, December 21, 2009
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
4 predictions for online marketing in 2010
Dr Search senses a cautious sense of hope with everyone I’ve spoken with that the prospects for next year are stronger for local search providers and our advertisers.
Looking to next year, I’d like to share some predictions on market trends that will impact those small businesses looking to harness local search in order to play a part of our national economic recovery. If local search providers and advertisers keep these trends in mind, I think they will ultimately come out ahead in the local search race.
Prediction 1: Mobile will drive local search growth
BIA/Kelsey predicts that mobile local search ad revenues will grow to $130 million by 2013, and that mobile local searches will increase to 35 percent of all searches by 2013. Amid this growth, we’re seeing significant innovation on the mobile front, from new Yellow Pages iPhone apps to mapping technologies that deliver relevant local information to users on the go.
In 2010, advertisers will be faced with a growing set of options, and many will have limited knowledge of how to break through. The providers that will do well will be the ones who can make sense of this quickly changing platform and deliver programs that offer quality sales leads to advertisers.
Prediction 2: Local search providers will vie for social media
The truth is that no one owns social local search yet, but all the major players have an eye on getting there. Here’s why: Neilsen reported that ad spending at top social media sites increased 119 percent over the last year, and the share of social media ad spending to total online spending doubled to 15 percent in 2009.
Advertisers know that significant trust exists within online social communities and that social networks have become a crucial way in which we relate with others. The question in 2010 will center on how we can authentically tap into those networks to serve local business information to consumers looking for it.
AT&T has said it will launch its answer to this question in 2010, and SuperPages has a Twitter search tool available right now. Praized Media launched Calgary.com this fall as a beta program and is hoping to expand it additional regions. I can only imagine where we’ll be a year from now.
Prediction 3: Local print advertising will continue to decline but won’t disappear
Dr Search has been predicting the death of print media for quite some time. I don’t believe that print media will disappear anytime soon, but certainly usage is changing. Media fragmentation is causing a gradual decline in the quantity of print Yellow Pages references, for example, although the quality of those references is still very high. Quite frankly, the perception of the usage decline in the printed Yellow Pages far exceeds the reality of what is actually happening.
For advertisers, this means taking a close look at advertising spend and evaluating their print investment. Those who are too quick to abandon it may see a reduction in qualified sales leads, while those who aren’t open to some of the newer platforms available might be missing a big opportunity.
Prediction 4: A hybrid marketing approach will win
My colleagues spent a good part of this year talking about the hybrid model that they’ve deployed in their sales teams. Yellow Pages sales representatives, for example, are now armed with portfolios of options ranging from owned products to partner products. And in this way, have essentially become advertising consultants to small businesses.
Advertisers should think about taking advantage of these kinds of information resources by devoting an hour or two to thinking through the options out there and devising a strategy that spans the appropriate media for the business.
Prediction 1: Mobile will drive local search growth
BIA/Kelsey predicts that mobile local search ad revenues will grow to $130 million by 2013, and that mobile local searches will increase to 35 percent of all searches by 2013. Amid this growth, we’re seeing significant innovation on the mobile front, from new Yellow Pages iPhone apps to mapping technologies that deliver relevant local information to users on the go.
In 2010, advertisers will be faced with a growing set of options, and many will have limited knowledge of how to break through. The providers that will do well will be the ones who can make sense of this quickly changing platform and deliver programs that offer quality sales leads to advertisers.
Prediction 2: Local search providers will vie for social media
The truth is that no one owns social local search yet, but all the major players have an eye on getting there. Here’s why: Neilsen reported that ad spending at top social media sites increased 119 percent over the last year, and the share of social media ad spending to total online spending doubled to 15 percent in 2009.
Advertisers know that significant trust exists within online social communities and that social networks have become a crucial way in which we relate with others. The question in 2010 will center on how we can authentically tap into those networks to serve local business information to consumers looking for it.
AT&T has said it will launch its answer to this question in 2010, and SuperPages has a Twitter search tool available right now. Praized Media launched Calgary.com this fall as a beta program and is hoping to expand it additional regions. I can only imagine where we’ll be a year from now.
Prediction 3: Local print advertising will continue to decline but won’t disappear
Dr Search has been predicting the death of print media for quite some time. I don’t believe that print media will disappear anytime soon, but certainly usage is changing. Media fragmentation is causing a gradual decline in the quantity of print Yellow Pages references, for example, although the quality of those references is still very high. Quite frankly, the perception of the usage decline in the printed Yellow Pages far exceeds the reality of what is actually happening.
For advertisers, this means taking a close look at advertising spend and evaluating their print investment. Those who are too quick to abandon it may see a reduction in qualified sales leads, while those who aren’t open to some of the newer platforms available might be missing a big opportunity.
Prediction 4: A hybrid marketing approach will win
My colleagues spent a good part of this year talking about the hybrid model that they’ve deployed in their sales teams. Yellow Pages sales representatives, for example, are now armed with portfolios of options ranging from owned products to partner products. And in this way, have essentially become advertising consultants to small businesses.
Advertisers should think about taking advantage of these kinds of information resources by devoting an hour or two to thinking through the options out there and devising a strategy that spans the appropriate media for the business.
It’s more important than ever to consider a multi channel approach because today’s consumers get information for a multitude of places before making a purchasing situation. And that fragmentation will only continue to grow as we head into 2010.
Labels: Dr Search, mobile marketing, Search Marketing, social media websites, social web marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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Monday, December 7, 2009
Cyber Monday shoppers to spend £350m online today
Today is expected to be the busiest day of the year for UK retail websites, with bargain hunters expected to spend a total of at least £350m on Christmas gifts.
The first Monday in December – so called Cyber Monday, is the cue for a stampede as shoppers who see goods on the high street over the weekend use their office high speed broadband connections to place orders once they return to work.
This year’s forecasts from the IMRG, the trade body for online retailers, are exceeded by those of Kelkoo, the shopping comparison service, which predicts sales of £417m.
Total sales are expected to be £5bn for December, a 14 per cent increase on last year, according to IMRG.
“To reach that amount during a recession shows the huge resilience of the online sector,” said David Smith, IMRG director of operations. “People are turning to the internet to look for value.”
On the equivalent Monday last year, Amazon said it saw 1.4m items ordered in 24 hours. The website expects this to rise about 10 per cent this year.
The first Monday in December – so called Cyber Monday, is the cue for a stampede as shoppers who see goods on the high street over the weekend use their office high speed broadband connections to place orders once they return to work.
This year’s forecasts from the IMRG, the trade body for online retailers, are exceeded by those of Kelkoo, the shopping comparison service, which predicts sales of £417m.
Total sales are expected to be £5bn for December, a 14 per cent increase on last year, according to IMRG.
“To reach that amount during a recession shows the huge resilience of the online sector,” said David Smith, IMRG director of operations. “People are turning to the internet to look for value.”
On the equivalent Monday last year, Amazon said it saw 1.4m items ordered in 24 hours. The website expects this to rise about 10 per cent this year.
Shopping usually reaches its peak at lunchtime, between 1pm and 2pm.
Kelkoo found that about 70 per cent of people plan to shop online, while the IMRG’s research suggests that nearly three in four people who shop online will buy most of their gifts over the internet.
Christmas will be less frugal than in 2008, according to indications from Google. Searches for “Christmas gifts” have risen 22 per cent in the past year, while searches for “gold jewellery” are up 39 per cent and “diamond rings” 76 per cent. In contrast, searches for “coupons” were a theme last year.
According to Kelkoo, about 40 per cent of British shoppers plan to spend more on gifts than last year. The average household spends £665.
Kelkoo found that about 70 per cent of people plan to shop online, while the IMRG’s research suggests that nearly three in four people who shop online will buy most of their gifts over the internet.
Christmas will be less frugal than in 2008, according to indications from Google. Searches for “Christmas gifts” have risen 22 per cent in the past year, while searches for “gold jewellery” are up 39 per cent and “diamond rings” 76 per cent. In contrast, searches for “coupons” were a theme last year.
According to Kelkoo, about 40 per cent of British shoppers plan to spend more on gifts than last year. The average household spends £665.
Labels: Dr Search, Google, online marketing uk, Search Clinic, search engine marketing, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, December 07, 2009
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Thursday, December 3, 2009
Top Yahoo! searches in 2009
Yahoo! Year in Review for 2009 has arrived!
Perhaps bigger and better than ever, this year’s Yahoo! roundup includes in-depth pictorials and a slew of popular topics to sort through, as well as some bonus features – such as the decade in sports, Yahoo Answers highlights, and a Twitter contest where you can share your top moments of 2009 for a chance to win one of the most popular products of the year, the iPod Touch.
Don’t have the time to scan them all? Here are the highlights of the most popular searches on Yahoo! in 2009:
Top 10 Overall Searches
1. Michael Jackson
2. Twilight
3. WWE
4. Megan Fox
5. Britney Spears
6. Naruto
7. American Idol
8. Kim Kardashian
9. NASCAR
10. Runescape
Top 10 Celebrity Farewell Searches
1. Michael Jackson
2. Farrah Fawcett
3. Patrick Swayze
4. Natasha Richardson
5. Jett Travolta
6. Billy Mays
7. David Caradine
8. Steve McNair
9. Jade Goody
10. Ted Kennedy
Top 10 Sudden Fame Searches
1. Jon & Kate Gosselin
2. Erin Andrews
3. Susan Boyle
4. Kris Allen & Adam Lambert
5. Nadya Suleman (aka Octomom)
6. Carrie Prejean
7. Mark Sanford
8. Portuguese Water Dog
9. Falcon Heene (aka “Balloon Boy”)
10. Sonia Sotomayor
Top Finance Searches
1. Coupons
2. Unemployment
3. Stimulus Plan
4. Cash For Clunkers
5. Student Loans
6. IRS Refund
7. Foreclosures
8. Government Jobs
9. Bernard Madoff
10. Health Care Bill
“Market Darlings” Related Searches
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Hulu
4. Bing
5. iPhone
6. LinkedIn
7. Dollar Stores
8. Palm Pre
9. Rosetta Stone
10. Kindle
Top Yahoo! Mobile Searches
1. Megan Fox
2. Mobile Games
3. Michael Jackson
4. Movies
5. Rihanna
6. Mail
7. Lady Gaga
8. NFL
9. Ringtones
10. iPhone
Top Obama Searches
1. Obama Inauguration
2. Obama Biography
3. Obama Speech
4. Obama Stimulus Plan
5. Obama Family
6. Obama Health Care Reform
7. Obama Approval Ratings
8. Obama Facebook
9. Obama Overseas
10. Obama Dramas
Among the other must read lists ae the Top Travel Destination Searches 2009 and the Top Viral Videos of 2009 which has a number of funny vids.
Don’t have the time to scan them all? Here are the highlights of the most popular searches on Yahoo! in 2009:
Top 10 Overall Searches
1. Michael Jackson
2. Twilight
3. WWE
4. Megan Fox
5. Britney Spears
6. Naruto
7. American Idol
8. Kim Kardashian
9. NASCAR
10. Runescape
Top 10 Celebrity Farewell Searches
1. Michael Jackson
2. Farrah Fawcett
3. Patrick Swayze
4. Natasha Richardson
5. Jett Travolta
6. Billy Mays
7. David Caradine
8. Steve McNair
9. Jade Goody
10. Ted Kennedy
Top 10 Sudden Fame Searches
1. Jon & Kate Gosselin
2. Erin Andrews
3. Susan Boyle
4. Kris Allen & Adam Lambert
5. Nadya Suleman (aka Octomom)
6. Carrie Prejean
7. Mark Sanford
8. Portuguese Water Dog
9. Falcon Heene (aka “Balloon Boy”)
10. Sonia Sotomayor
Top Finance Searches
1. Coupons
2. Unemployment
3. Stimulus Plan
4. Cash For Clunkers
5. Student Loans
6. IRS Refund
7. Foreclosures
8. Government Jobs
9. Bernard Madoff
10. Health Care Bill
“Market Darlings” Related Searches
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Hulu
4. Bing
5. iPhone
6. LinkedIn
7. Dollar Stores
8. Palm Pre
9. Rosetta Stone
10. Kindle
Top Yahoo! Mobile Searches
1. Megan Fox
2. Mobile Games
3. Michael Jackson
4. Movies
5. Rihanna
6. Mail
7. Lady Gaga
8. NFL
9. Ringtones
10. iPhone
Top Obama Searches
1. Obama Inauguration
2. Obama Biography
3. Obama Speech
4. Obama Stimulus Plan
5. Obama Family
6. Obama Health Care Reform
7. Obama Approval Ratings
8. Obama Facebook
9. Obama Overseas
10. Obama Dramas
Among the other must read lists ae the Top Travel Destination Searches 2009 and the Top Viral Videos of 2009 which has a number of funny vids.
Labels: Dr Search, search engines, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Thursday, December 03, 2009
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Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Bing's top 2009 searches
It is Bing.com’s very first appearance since officially launching as the decision engine, halfway through the year in early June.
Coupled with an $80 million dollar advertising campaign to rebrand the new search engine (formerly Live Search) and attract new users, it may have actually worked – since Bing also appeared on the 2009 Yahoo Year in Review, with searchers asking, “What is Bing?”
In fairness, Bing did officially release their Most Popular Searches for all of 2009, including data from the first half of the year as Live Search. Decidedly, Michael Jackson would have made it to the top of the list, whether it was Bing or Live Search.
Twitter seems to have infiltrated Bing in the same way, clearly users needed help trying to decide, “To Tweet or Not to Tweet?” Or could it be that the Bing-Twitter integration was that big of a deal?
In fairness, Bing did officially release their Most Popular Searches for all of 2009, including data from the first half of the year as Live Search. Decidedly, Michael Jackson would have made it to the top of the list, whether it was Bing or Live Search.
Twitter seems to have infiltrated Bing in the same way, clearly users needed help trying to decide, “To Tweet or Not to Tweet?” Or could it be that the Bing-Twitter integration was that big of a deal?
Top Overall Trending Topics on Bing in 2009:
1. Michael Jackson
2. Twitter
3. Swine Flu
4. Stock Market
5. Farrah Fawcett
6. Patrick Swayze
7. Cash for Clunkers
8. Jon and Kate Gosselin
9. Billy Mays
10. Jaycee Dugard
Top 3 Celebrity Searches:
1. Perez Hilton
2. Robert Pattinson
3. Megan Fox
Bing plans to unveil a relevancy quiz on Facebook, so you can test your knowledge of the most popular searches in 2009. Stay tuned to the Bing blog to find out more.
For a real-time look at what’s popular on Bing, don’t forget about Visual Search, where you can view the Top Albums, Top iPhone Apps, Top Movies and more at any given time.
1. Michael Jackson
2. Twitter
3. Swine Flu
4. Stock Market
5. Farrah Fawcett
6. Patrick Swayze
7. Cash for Clunkers
8. Jon and Kate Gosselin
9. Billy Mays
10. Jaycee Dugard
Top 3 Celebrity Searches:
1. Perez Hilton
2. Robert Pattinson
3. Megan Fox
Bing plans to unveil a relevancy quiz on Facebook, so you can test your knowledge of the most popular searches in 2009. Stay tuned to the Bing blog to find out more.
For a real-time look at what’s popular on Bing, don’t forget about Visual Search, where you can view the Top Albums, Top iPhone Apps, Top Movies and more at any given time.
Labels: bing, Microsoft, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Wednesday, December 02, 2009
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Monday, November 23, 2009
How you can create a UK Bing local listing
Dr Search has had some questions from our UK readers who pointed out that the Bing local listing center was only accepting US based businesses.
While UK listings were showing in search results, this was sourced from other data providers and it didn’t appear there was any way to get your information included.
Well, thanks to one of our loyal readers, it appears you can! Microsoft gets UK local business listings from a company called Market Location.
Here’s a screenshot from multimap.com (owned by Bing) on how to get your business listed:
All you have to do is simply visit http://www.marketlocation.com/changereq/ and add your details!
There’s been a bit of discussion on the issue over at the Bing community forums, and some readers have confirmed the inclusion of previously unlisted businesses by using the form above.
So if you’ve got a UK business, add your details with the form above and please leave a comment if/ when you get included!
The Search Clinic wishes you Good Luck!
Labels: bing, Dr Search, Search Clinic, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, November 23, 2009
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
Switzerland suing Google over StreetView
Switzerland is taking Google to court over privacy concerns related to Google’s StreetView service.
"Numerous faces and vehicle number plates are not made sufficiently unrecognisable," said Swiss data protection commissioner Hanspeter Thuer.
Google said it was disappointed by the move. The firm says it is sure that Street View is legal in Switzerland and will "vigorously contest" the case.
Mr Thuer is especially concerned about people shown in sensitive locations such as hospitals, prisons or schools.
He also said that the height of the camera was problematic because it allowed a view over fences, hedges and walls, meaning that more could be seen from Street View than by a normal passer-by.
The commissioner said Google was asked in August to take various measures and had not complied with the requests.
It is likely to take months before any court case actually starts, but it could have a more immediate impact on the Swiss availability of the service.
Mr Thuer has asked a tribunal to order Google to remove all pictures of Switzerland and to cease taking any more until a ruling has been made.
Labels: Google, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Saturday, November 14, 2009
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Yahoo’s closure of GeoCities.com could decrease your ranking
Yahoo! has officially shutdown all GeoCities.com websites.
If you perform a search for site:geocities.com in Google, Yahoo, or Bing - you’ll notice the major search engines have also removed all links to these pages.
The SEO impact of this shutdown is potentially huge. Let’s take a look at the numbers:
* There were 7,450,000 GeoCities URLs indexed in Google
* GeoCities.com had around 10 million visitors in September
* GeoCities URLs ranked in the top 20 of Google for around 680,000 different keywords
* There were 7,450,000 GeoCities URLs indexed in Google
* GeoCities.com had around 10 million visitors in September
* GeoCities URLs ranked in the top 20 of Google for around 680,000 different keywords
All of this content, images and links, are permanently gone as of the 26th October. If you end up following a link to an expired geocities page, you’ll be presented with this generic message from Yahoo:
When you think about the huge amount of content that’s simply been deleted, this puts a sizeable black hole in the overall link structure of the web. The bad news for website owners is that you may have lost a whole bunch of valuable incoming links from GeoCities.com pages.
If these links were from high PR pages, this might also have an impact on your website’s PageRank and even ranking in search results.
Did you just lose some incoming GeoCities links? Please let us know via the blog comments below.
Labels: search engine marketing, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, November 10, 2009
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Monday, November 9, 2009
Google Commerce search - powering large online retail websites
Google has entered the world of ecommerce. Last week, Google unveiled Commerce Search which promises to make ecommerce searching as easy as using Google.com.
The release is timed perfectly for the holiday season rush, which happens to be online retailing’s busiest time of the year.
Google Commerce Search is a new enterprise product which allows website owners to power online retailing directly via cloud based product database. According to the New Google Commerce Search area, it aims to:
Improve your shopping experience with fast, intuitive Google search technology.
* Enable visitors to find the right products faster
* Filter results by category, price, brand or other attributes
* Provide user-friendly spelling options and synonyms
* Increase website conversions and sales
* Boost or promote chosen products within search results
* Deploy search solution in days, and scale effortlessly
* Customize, track, and optimize performance
To use Google Commerce Search, users will submit their product data to the Google Merchant Center and Google Product Search. This can be done via direct upload, data feeds or using Google’s API.
User can then go to the Commerce Search administrative console to customize look and feel of the search experience, and also add special offers, promotions and other product/search options.
As with most Google enterprise offerings, there’s extensive reporting to ensure you can optimize the results from your online retailing efforts.
Now before you cancel the subscription to your existing e-commerce software or application, please note that the new Google Commerce Search starts at a cool USD$50,000 per year.
The release is timed perfectly for the holiday season rush, which happens to be online retailing’s busiest time of the year.
Google Commerce Search is a new enterprise product which allows website owners to power online retailing directly via cloud based product database. According to the New Google Commerce Search area, it aims to:
Improve your shopping experience with fast, intuitive Google search technology.
* Enable visitors to find the right products faster
* Filter results by category, price, brand or other attributes
* Provide user-friendly spelling options and synonyms
* Increase website conversions and sales
* Boost or promote chosen products within search results
* Deploy search solution in days, and scale effortlessly
* Customize, track, and optimize performance
To use Google Commerce Search, users will submit their product data to the Google Merchant Center and Google Product Search. This can be done via direct upload, data feeds or using Google’s API.
User can then go to the Commerce Search administrative console to customize look and feel of the search experience, and also add special offers, promotions and other product/search options.
As with most Google enterprise offerings, there’s extensive reporting to ensure you can optimize the results from your online retailing efforts.
Now before you cancel the subscription to your existing e-commerce software or application, please note that the new Google Commerce Search starts at a cool USD$50,000 per year.
Dr Search thinks that a more affordable model will be released in the future.
Labels: Google, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, November 09, 2009
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Monday, November 2, 2009
Google indexing content from RSS newsfeeds- how you can get your content listed
Google has announced it is now using RSS and Atom Feeds to find and index new web pages on the internet.
Historically Google has relied on URL submission and links on other web pages as its primary way to find new online content. Using these submissions and links, Google’s spiders crawl and index the relevant content it uncovers.
RSS and Atom Feeds aren’t new, having come to prominence with the introduction of blogging. Most blogging platforms include some form of RSS and Atom feed service as a way for publishers to push their content online. For example, here's the Search Clinic's RSS newsfeed:
For those of you unfamiliar with RSS feeds, Wikipedia explains them as:
RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication” but sometimes “Rich Site Summary”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically.
Google has been using RSS and Atom feeds to index content into its Blog and News search indexes for some time, so it seems this latest move will simply be an extension of this practice, with the goal to feed it’s core web search database.
As pressure in the real time search arena heats up, the use of RSS and Atom feeds to find content was an obvious next step - and in real terms, probably long overdue.
Unlike its Blog and News search engines, where feeds are submitted for consideration, Google is suggesting it will use existing aggregators to find content.
We may use many potential sources to access updates from feeds including Reader, notification services, or direct crawls of feeds. Going forward, we might also explore mechanisms such as PubSubHubbub to identify updated items.
So how should you ensure your content is being found? If your site publishes an RSS feed for new content, be that web pages or blog posts, you should seek to have it aggregated as much as possible.
As a starter, get your new web content syndicated or published through the following services:
* Google Reader
* iGoogle
* Twitter
* Friendfeed
While I am sure there’ll be much debate as to the spam risks of this indexing via RSS, it’s a method that lies at the foundation of Google’s real time search plans. Accordingly expect to see this practice grow, with Google sure to find a way to ensure it maintains the integrity of its search database.
RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication” but sometimes “Rich Site Summary”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically.
Google has been using RSS and Atom feeds to index content into its Blog and News search indexes for some time, so it seems this latest move will simply be an extension of this practice, with the goal to feed it’s core web search database.
As pressure in the real time search arena heats up, the use of RSS and Atom feeds to find content was an obvious next step - and in real terms, probably long overdue.
Unlike its Blog and News search engines, where feeds are submitted for consideration, Google is suggesting it will use existing aggregators to find content.
We may use many potential sources to access updates from feeds including Reader, notification services, or direct crawls of feeds. Going forward, we might also explore mechanisms such as PubSubHubbub to identify updated items.
So how should you ensure your content is being found? If your site publishes an RSS feed for new content, be that web pages or blog posts, you should seek to have it aggregated as much as possible.
As a starter, get your new web content syndicated or published through the following services:
* Google Reader
* iGoogle
* Friendfeed
While I am sure there’ll be much debate as to the spam risks of this indexing via RSS, it’s a method that lies at the foundation of Google’s real time search plans. Accordingly expect to see this practice grow, with Google sure to find a way to ensure it maintains the integrity of its search database.
Labels: Google, online marketing, online marketing uk, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, November 02, 2009
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Friday, October 30, 2009
Bing and Google keep gaining search market share in September
The September search share statistics are out and Yahoo! is the biggest loser yet again as Google and Bing increase their traffic.
According to statistics released by Compete, Yahoo’s search share continues to take a steady dive. It lost another 1% market share last month and has now lost a total of 5% since September 2008.
It’s a whole other story for the new kid in town, Bing, whose search share continues to rise and unlike many of the other major search engine also had an increase in the number of total queries.
Here is a rundown of the market share for each search engine.
The all mighty Google remained pretty stable from last month, but has grown over 4% from this time last year. I wonder if we will see this same growth this time next year or will Bing cause Google’s growth to slow in 2010?
The introduction of Bing to the market seems to have had little effect on AOL and Ask. Both search engines market share has remained quite constant over the last few months. Although with less than 4% market share combined, it’s hardly going to cause any sleepless nights for Bing.
So how did search do overall in September? Not too good actually! Searchers submitted 200 million less queries than in August. There’s no cause for concern yet though as this will likely bounce back with with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all just around the corner.
Labels: bing, Google, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Friday, October 30, 2009
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
SEO training should be a marketing imperative
Dr Search belives that nearly every organization should offer SEO training to anyone who even remotely touches the company’s web site, and why every senior manager should also be encouraged to attend.
Failure to train people can lead to serious problems, with a frightful waste of time, blown schedules, wasted expenditure and ultimately a failure to effectively capture search traffic. You may think I am fear-mongering here, but to head that off, let me provide some real world examples:
One company had an existing site that they wanted to migrate to a new domain. A key goal was to preserve the legacy search traffic as much as possible. They selected a CMS for the project and built the site. Then they brought in the SEO firm to begin working on the site. The trouble was that the CMS was an SEO disaster, and did not allow unique title tags on each page.
One company had an existing site that they wanted to migrate to a new domain. A key goal was to preserve the legacy search traffic as much as possible. They selected a CMS for the project and built the site. Then they brought in the SEO firm to begin working on the site. The trouble was that the CMS was an SEO disaster, and did not allow unique title tags on each page.
The cost of fixing this problem: a six month launch delay at a cost of hundreds of thousands of Pounds.
Another company was rebranding their site. They were going for a major upgrade in look and feel, and they had made a corporate level decision to target all their messaging at the “C-Suite” (CEOs, CFOs, CIOS, etc.). Based on this they made a decision to implement an all-Flash site. They created a site with a beautiful user experience, but that was virtually impenetrable to search engines.
Another company was rebranding their site. They were going for a major upgrade in look and feel, and they had made a corporate level decision to target all their messaging at the “C-Suite” (CEOs, CFOs, CIOS, etc.). Based on this they made a decision to implement an all-Flash site. They created a site with a beautiful user experience, but that was virtually impenetrable to search engines.
The in house SEO that was trying to work on the site did not have the authority to get people to understand the consequences of this decision, and search traffic plummeted.
In large enterprises one of the big challenges is that there are many different groups that are involved in decisions. You have marketing, sales, development and the executive staff. Anyone of these groups can make decisions that are basically fatal to SEO.
In large enterprises one of the big challenges is that there are many different groups that are involved in decisions. You have marketing, sales, development and the executive staff. Anyone of these groups can make decisions that are basically fatal to SEO.
Successful SEO efforts require that all these groups are working in unison. Yet coordinating all these groups of people can be very difficult to do.
There are two ways that the problem gets worse, both of which are examples of bad decisions being made about SEO. These are:
A- In some organizations SEO is thought of as something you do after the site is built. This is just too late. At this point the damage has already been done.
B- The organization hires someone to do SEO work for them, and they are knowledgeable about SEO, but they are relatively junior and do not have the confidence or presence to sway the C-Suite or other decision makers.
There are two ways that the problem gets worse, both of which are examples of bad decisions being made about SEO. These are:
A- In some organizations SEO is thought of as something you do after the site is built. This is just too late. At this point the damage has already been done.
B- The organization hires someone to do SEO work for them, and they are knowledgeable about SEO, but they are relatively junior and do not have the confidence or presence to sway the C-Suite or other decision makers.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing at their expensively revamped website cim.co.uk have just made exactly these mistakes. The Cs- David Thorp and Rod Wilkes don't know anything about online marketing and even less about search engine optimisation. Their only care is cost.
To summarize, either bringing in an SEO resource too late, or making use of one that is too junior to have sufficient influence in the organization is a mistake you do not want to make.
How do you solve this problem? You put key people in all constituent groups in your organization (including the C-Suite) through basic SEO training. Knowledge can be a very powerful thing. Once people “get it” they are in a position to make much better decisions. Sometimes there is a tension between corporate objectives and the requirements of SEO, but these can nearly always be handled elegantly if the issues are confronted up front.
In one training session I did, I had the senior management team of a good sized company for a full morning. The group was comprised of really smart people, but with no background in SEO. During the course of that meeting we kept everything at a high level, and we covered a lot of ground. There were tons of questions and dialogue, and by the end of it all the team had gotten the basics down.
The outcome of the meeting was amazing. Historically, they had a great focus on onsite SEO (or technical SEO) but the focus on link building and web site promotion was not high enough. After the meeting decisions started to get made a bit differently. The focus on link building went way up, and the improved results on new business obtained from search engine referrals has been impressive.
The key to success
Large organizations are complex beasts, and a lot of different people have the opportunity to provide input (or directives) about the web site. Everyone is usually well-intentioned, but what you don’t know can hurt you.
To summarize, either bringing in an SEO resource too late, or making use of one that is too junior to have sufficient influence in the organization is a mistake you do not want to make.
How do you solve this problem? You put key people in all constituent groups in your organization (including the C-Suite) through basic SEO training. Knowledge can be a very powerful thing. Once people “get it” they are in a position to make much better decisions. Sometimes there is a tension between corporate objectives and the requirements of SEO, but these can nearly always be handled elegantly if the issues are confronted up front.
In one training session I did, I had the senior management team of a good sized company for a full morning. The group was comprised of really smart people, but with no background in SEO. During the course of that meeting we kept everything at a high level, and we covered a lot of ground. There were tons of questions and dialogue, and by the end of it all the team had gotten the basics down.
The outcome of the meeting was amazing. Historically, they had a great focus on onsite SEO (or technical SEO) but the focus on link building and web site promotion was not high enough. After the meeting decisions started to get made a bit differently. The focus on link building went way up, and the improved results on new business obtained from search engine referrals has been impressive.
The key to success
Large organizations are complex beasts, and a lot of different people have the opportunity to provide input (or directives) about the web site. Everyone is usually well-intentioned, but what you don’t know can hurt you.
Training people is the key. It’s not necessary for most people to spend years learning all the ins and outs of optimisation, but they do need to know the basics.
The best time to do this is as soon as possible. Decisions about the web site are made on a regular basis. Of course, there are other priorities in the organization, and those need to be taken into account. Sometimes a good time to fit this training in is in conjunction with planning meetings for site redesigns or updates. These meetings usually bring the various constituent groups together to make decisions anyway, so it’s an ideal time to provide them with the knowledge they need to make better decisions.
Training can help prevent disastrous decisions, and can also enable great decisions. Knowledge is indeed power, so make sure that those with power over your web site have the knowledge they need to be successful.
The best time to do this is as soon as possible. Decisions about the web site are made on a regular basis. Of course, there are other priorities in the organization, and those need to be taken into account. Sometimes a good time to fit this training in is in conjunction with planning meetings for site redesigns or updates. These meetings usually bring the various constituent groups together to make decisions anyway, so it’s an ideal time to provide them with the knowledge they need to make better decisions.
Training can help prevent disastrous decisions, and can also enable great decisions. Knowledge is indeed power, so make sure that those with power over your web site have the knowledge they need to be successful.
Labels: Dr Search, online marketing, online marketing uk, Search Marketing, SEO Services, social media websites
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, October 13, 2009
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Thursday, October 8, 2009
Link building- recovering from mistakes
Everyone has made linking mistakes- Dr Search can’t say that I’ve ever encountered a “perfect” website from a linking perspective.
Some link building mistakes are unintentional and inconsequential, others may be catastrophic.
We’ve all seen sites making mistakes. My own site is a case study in poor link optimisation. I’ve made mistakes many times over the years. I’ve killed off pages with Pagerank. I’ve orphaned pages accidentally. I used not to have a xml sitemap.
My site is a classic example of cobbler's shoes.
The self inflicted linking wounds are the saddest, because most of them could and can be avoided. One site called in a panic wondering why 50% of their organic click traffic vanished, and it turned out the marketing folks were not aware the I.T. folks had deployed a new content delivery system that changed every URL on their site, literally overnight, without a 301 plan. That actually happened.
But there are those who are genuinely unaware they have made mistakes, and equally unaware that those mistakes are hurting them. I’m seeing a growing wave of concern bordering on paranoia about linking related mistakes.
We’ve all seen sites making mistakes. My own site is a case study in poor link optimisation. I’ve made mistakes many times over the years. I’ve killed off pages with Pagerank. I’ve orphaned pages accidentally. I used not to have a xml sitemap.
My site is a classic example of cobbler's shoes.
The self inflicted linking wounds are the saddest, because most of them could and can be avoided. One site called in a panic wondering why 50% of their organic click traffic vanished, and it turned out the marketing folks were not aware the I.T. folks had deployed a new content delivery system that changed every URL on their site, literally overnight, without a 301 plan. That actually happened.
But there are those who are genuinely unaware they have made mistakes, and equally unaware that those mistakes are hurting them. I’m seeing a growing wave of concern bordering on paranoia about linking related mistakes.
I’m getting new clients who don’t even want me to build links, they want a linking damage control strategy because they previously paid for (and took) bad SEO advice. Now they want to see if damage has been done, and if so, undo that damage. Fair enough. Those are the scenarios where we link builders can help make repairs.
On the other hand, there are those that want help not because they made an honest mistake, and not because of some moral linking epiphany, but because their rank took a nosedive and they know why, and now they want someone to plead their case to the powers that be.
Sometimes we can help, sometimes we will not.
More than once I’ve pronounced a domain DOA, and recommended a full fresh start rather than a bank style toxic link clean up.
On the other hand, there are those that want help not because they made an honest mistake, and not because of some moral linking epiphany, but because their rank took a nosedive and they know why, and now they want someone to plead their case to the powers that be.
Sometimes we can help, sometimes we will not.
More than once I’ve pronounced a domain DOA, and recommended a full fresh start rather than a bank style toxic link clean up.
Then again, if you are running a site and have truly been the victim of an overly aggressive SEM advisor/firm that you trusted and now wish you hadn’t, then depending on the damage done, there could very well be hope.
If your site is among those that’s either seen an unusual change in position, or been touched by multiple SEO/SEM vendors or consultants, you may want to take a closer look at the inbound links pointing at your site. You’ll need to look deeper than what a link: search will give you, and deeper than the 1,000 links Yahoo site explorer will show you.
And don’t panic if you discover that years ago, before your time, someone engaged in a paid link fest for your site. Those links probably aren’t affecting you at all in either direction. If you’ll sleep better getting the opinion of a linking expert, hire one for an “inbound link health checkup”.
If your site is among those that’s either seen an unusual change in position, or been touched by multiple SEO/SEM vendors or consultants, you may want to take a closer look at the inbound links pointing at your site. You’ll need to look deeper than what a link: search will give you, and deeper than the 1,000 links Yahoo site explorer will show you.
And don’t panic if you discover that years ago, before your time, someone engaged in a paid link fest for your site. Those links probably aren’t affecting you at all in either direction. If you’ll sleep better getting the opinion of a linking expert, hire one for an “inbound link health checkup”.
Labels: Dr Search, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Thursday, October 08, 2009
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Bing now has 10% of searches- soon to overtake Yahoo!
The latest search engine results figures have been released by Nielsen, and its more good news for Bing.
According to their data for August 2009, Bing now captures a total of 10.7% of all U.S. searches. This strong figure also makes Bing the fastest growing top 10 search engine with an increase of 22.1% month-over-month for August.
With the growing importance of Bing, website owners need to ensure they are claiming their share of Bing’s search traffic.
Labels: bing, search engines, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, September 22, 2009
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Thursday, September 17, 2009
Video submission to booost your inbound links
Video submission is becoming one of the most recent trends in building backlinks and driving traffic to a website.
This process has of late become very popular among the savvy internet marketers as its easy to get started with it. Video submission is a process where you create a video which can be purely text based or containing a power point presentation and sound and then uploading and submitting this video to video submission sites.
The video you create can contain a description of your products or service offerings, new launches, or any other matter that is appealing and can drive more traffic to your site.
The main idea behind video submission is that search engines assign more weightage to pages containing videos. For instance, if you submit a video of your product on Youtube, then when anyone searches for that product on the Internet, the possibility of your video showing in the top results is much higher when compared to not having any video.
Additionally, if you put a link pointing to your site in this video or under it, it can benefit you as well as your site. This is because when people watch your video, they see your products or services in it and if they are interested in what they see then they will visit your website to buy what they have seen and liked.
Advantages of Video Submission
Some of the key benefits of the video submission process are:
This process has of late become very popular among the savvy internet marketers as its easy to get started with it. Video submission is a process where you create a video which can be purely text based or containing a power point presentation and sound and then uploading and submitting this video to video submission sites.
The video you create can contain a description of your products or service offerings, new launches, or any other matter that is appealing and can drive more traffic to your site.
The main idea behind video submission is that search engines assign more weightage to pages containing videos. For instance, if you submit a video of your product on Youtube, then when anyone searches for that product on the Internet, the possibility of your video showing in the top results is much higher when compared to not having any video.
Additionally, if you put a link pointing to your site in this video or under it, it can benefit you as well as your site. This is because when people watch your video, they see your products or services in it and if they are interested in what they see then they will visit your website to buy what they have seen and liked.
Advantages of Video Submission
Some of the key benefits of the video submission process are:
- It helps in getting more traffic to your website.
- It helps in building more backlinks for your site.
- One video can be submitted to several video submission sites.
- You can drive traffic from several video submission sites to which you have submitted your video.
- Search engines give more weight to videos.
How to create a video?
Since video submission is the most happening process to boost traffic to a site, it would be a good idea to start creating a video if you don’t already have one. If you have any text based content with you, it can be converted into a video by you speaking about it or creating a presentation out of it.
However, it is important to keep in mind that a video must be interesting enough to be able to capture the attention of your audience and keep them engaged. It can also contain a demonstration of how users can use the product or particular software for their business.
How to gather content for your video?
Once you have chosen the topic you want to create a video on, you can then start talking about it before the video camera. When you put yourself on the video, it adds a more personal touch and builds more credibility. Also, it instills more trust in people and increases the chances of them connecting with you.
Finding your audience
Once you have created your video, you need to upload and submit it to the video submission sites who will allow you to host your video free of cost. You can check out sites like YouTube, AOL Video, Google Video, and many others and sign up to create an account with them. Each of these sites will guide you on hosting your video, assigning keywords to them, putting them under the correct category, etc.
Another advantage of hosting your video on these video hosting sites is that you will free up your own disk space and not take up the bandwidth of your web server.
Since video submission is the most happening process to boost traffic to a site, it would be a good idea to start creating a video if you don’t already have one. If you have any text based content with you, it can be converted into a video by you speaking about it or creating a presentation out of it.
However, it is important to keep in mind that a video must be interesting enough to be able to capture the attention of your audience and keep them engaged. It can also contain a demonstration of how users can use the product or particular software for their business.
How to gather content for your video?
Once you have chosen the topic you want to create a video on, you can then start talking about it before the video camera. When you put yourself on the video, it adds a more personal touch and builds more credibility. Also, it instills more trust in people and increases the chances of them connecting with you.
Finding your audience
Once you have created your video, you need to upload and submit it to the video submission sites who will allow you to host your video free of cost. You can check out sites like YouTube, AOL Video, Google Video, and many others and sign up to create an account with them. Each of these sites will guide you on hosting your video, assigning keywords to them, putting them under the correct category, etc.
Another advantage of hosting your video on these video hosting sites is that you will free up your own disk space and not take up the bandwidth of your web server.
Labels: search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing, social media websites
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Thursday, September 17, 2009
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Links Vs web references as priority signals
For a long time, links have been the largest factor in search rankings.
While (in Dr Search's opinion) this is still true today, other signals are gradually growing in importance. One of the most interesting of these is “web references” or “citations”. A web reference refers to a mention of a brand, product or web site, which is not referenced in a link (or perhaps referenced as a no-followed link).
An analogy will help illustrate the potential of this concept. Many have referred to links as a voting process, where each link is a vote for the site receiving the link. Consider a medieval country where the nobles vote for the next king when the current one dies. There is an election process, but only the upper class gets a vote. This is an elitist process, as the great majority of people have no vote.
This is what the current link-centric ranking algorithms are. You need to have a web site to participate. No web site, no vote. What would happen if everyone who uses the web had a vote? This can happen as a result of the growing use of social media web sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, StumbleUpon and similar sites.
An analogy will help illustrate the potential of this concept. Many have referred to links as a voting process, where each link is a vote for the site receiving the link. Consider a medieval country where the nobles vote for the next king when the current one dies. There is an election process, but only the upper class gets a vote. This is an elitist process, as the great majority of people have no vote.
This is what the current link-centric ranking algorithms are. You need to have a web site to participate. No web site, no vote. What would happen if everyone who uses the web had a vote? This can happen as a result of the growing use of social media web sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, StumbleUpon and similar sites.
Mentions of brands, products, or web sites on these social media sites can be considered as votes as well. For example, if Coca Cola gets mentioned more often than Pepsi (or vice versa), that could be used as a signal to elevate the rankings of the Coca Cola web site.
You can take this a bit further too. Let’s say that over time that Coca Cola has received 1.2 times as many mentions as Pepsi. Then say Pepsi starts growing its presence, and for three consecutive months Pepsi gets more mentions than Coke. This type of change might represent a short term marketing campaign by Pepsi, but if it sustains itself it could represent a shift in the importance of one company over the other. This may cause the search engines to start ranking Pepsi over Coke—even before the total mentions over all time of Pepsi exceed those for Coke.
Another way that web references can provide a stable signal is when surges in activity occur. Consider a brand that is getting a dozen or so mentions a day across the web that suddenly gets thousands of mentions across a few days. This is a strong indicator of a hot news item. This type of signal could be used to discover news and rank it by comparing the signal strength of one item to another.
For my final example, I will speculate a bit. Early in 2009 Google pushed out an algorithm change that eventually got the label of the “Vince change” (named after the Googler who did the work). In February people started reporting that some Google update had taken place, as Aaron Wall did in this post on Google Branding. A common belief was that Google began to heavily favor brands over non-brands. Matt Cutts later came out and said that this was not so much about brands, as it was about an increase in weight on trust and authority.
While it is premature to state that brand mentions in social media sites were a significant factor in the Vince change, you can see how a long history of regular mentions across the web would factor into a trust algorithm. For example, if a brand gets mentioned hundreds or thousands of times per day over a long period of time, that could be treated as a positive trust ranking signal. You may be able to do a similar analysis with just links, but this is an example where the social media signals show ongoing stability, and this provides the search engines with more data—which is a good thing.
There are two big problems with search engines using social media signals today.
The first is that social media sites are a bit elitist too at the moment. While they are available to everybody, not everybody is using them. More ways to use their data will emerge as use expands, simply because the data is getting better.
Second, the “wisdom of the mob” is inherently quirky. Consider the surge in mentions for Stephen Colbert during the campaign to get him to rank number one for the query “greatest living American”. This was a fad that ultimately had little to do with Stephen Colbert. It faded over time, of course, but the search engines would prefer not to be fooled by similar surges in the future.
Expect ongoing efforts by the search engines to find good ways to use these types of signals. As a publisher of a web site, it means you should begin to get active in social media environments. While this will unfold over a long period of time, major new brands are being created within social media environments today. It is OK to begin with some experiments to determine how you want to engage, but the time to start those experiments is now.
You can take this a bit further too. Let’s say that over time that Coca Cola has received 1.2 times as many mentions as Pepsi. Then say Pepsi starts growing its presence, and for three consecutive months Pepsi gets more mentions than Coke. This type of change might represent a short term marketing campaign by Pepsi, but if it sustains itself it could represent a shift in the importance of one company over the other. This may cause the search engines to start ranking Pepsi over Coke—even before the total mentions over all time of Pepsi exceed those for Coke.
Another way that web references can provide a stable signal is when surges in activity occur. Consider a brand that is getting a dozen or so mentions a day across the web that suddenly gets thousands of mentions across a few days. This is a strong indicator of a hot news item. This type of signal could be used to discover news and rank it by comparing the signal strength of one item to another.
For my final example, I will speculate a bit. Early in 2009 Google pushed out an algorithm change that eventually got the label of the “Vince change” (named after the Googler who did the work). In February people started reporting that some Google update had taken place, as Aaron Wall did in this post on Google Branding. A common belief was that Google began to heavily favor brands over non-brands. Matt Cutts later came out and said that this was not so much about brands, as it was about an increase in weight on trust and authority.
While it is premature to state that brand mentions in social media sites were a significant factor in the Vince change, you can see how a long history of regular mentions across the web would factor into a trust algorithm. For example, if a brand gets mentioned hundreds or thousands of times per day over a long period of time, that could be treated as a positive trust ranking signal. You may be able to do a similar analysis with just links, but this is an example where the social media signals show ongoing stability, and this provides the search engines with more data—which is a good thing.
There are two big problems with search engines using social media signals today.
The first is that social media sites are a bit elitist too at the moment. While they are available to everybody, not everybody is using them. More ways to use their data will emerge as use expands, simply because the data is getting better.
Second, the “wisdom of the mob” is inherently quirky. Consider the surge in mentions for Stephen Colbert during the campaign to get him to rank number one for the query “greatest living American”. This was a fad that ultimately had little to do with Stephen Colbert. It faded over time, of course, but the search engines would prefer not to be fooled by similar surges in the future.
Expect ongoing efforts by the search engines to find good ways to use these types of signals. As a publisher of a web site, it means you should begin to get active in social media environments. While this will unfold over a long period of time, major new brands are being created within social media environments today. It is OK to begin with some experiments to determine how you want to engage, but the time to start those experiments is now.
Labels: Dr Search, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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Monday, September 14, 2009
Google blocks other search engines with homepage patent
Google might now how the power to stop you if you ever wanted to create and launch your own search engine.
It took the attorney’s 5 years to get it approved, but Google now officially holds a patent for its homepage.
Below is the official patent document from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. You will see in the image some bolded elements; these are the areas that Google has patented.
Google received the design patent for a “graphical user interface for a display screen of a communications terminal.” What does all this mean? Basically, Google owns the idea of having a giant search box in the middle of the page, with two big buttons underneath and several small links nearby.
So if you want to build a search engine, make sure it doesn’t contain any of these elements.
This patent does make a small amount of sense, seeing as though the sparse design of Google’s homepage is one of the secrets to its success.
What will be interesting is to see how Google plans to flex its muscles with this new patent. Will they go after Yahoo who has a very similar search page? Or perhaps the more imminent threat, Bing?
I guess the moral of the story is, if you want to build a search engine then maybe go like crazy, but make sure it looks crazy too otherwise Google and their expensive suits will come after you.
Labels: Google, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, September 14, 2009
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Monday, September 7, 2009
How to avoid your search rankings trashed by malware
As if SEOs don’t have enough things to worry about already, add malware to the list.
Why does malware matter to SEOs? If the site you are working on gets infected, its search traffic will plummet. Search engines attempt to remove infected pages from their search results, or they label them with an ominous warning, such as This site may damage your computer.
Back in 2008 Google reported that malware infected pages had increased to more than 1% of all search results. Google posted a malware statistics update last week. Malware infections have more than doubled since April 2009. Search results containing a url labeled as harmful have remained level in the range of 0.5% to 0.9%, an improvement. While the web as a whole has become more dangerous, Google’s been doing an even better job clearing their search results.
I know one reason why there’s been a dramatic rise in malware on the Web since April. A nasty malware attack has been targeting web developers to steal their passwords. Stolen passwords are used by the bad guys to automatically deploy iframe injection attacks to innocent web page.
If you access web sites via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), this attack is targeting you.
Back in 2008 Google reported that malware infected pages had increased to more than 1% of all search results. Google posted a malware statistics update last week. Malware infections have more than doubled since April 2009. Search results containing a url labeled as harmful have remained level in the range of 0.5% to 0.9%, an improvement. While the web as a whole has become more dangerous, Google’s been doing an even better job clearing their search results.
I know one reason why there’s been a dramatic rise in malware on the Web since April. A nasty malware attack has been targeting web developers to steal their passwords. Stolen passwords are used by the bad guys to automatically deploy iframe injection attacks to innocent web page.
If you access web sites via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), this attack is targeting you.
All you need to do is browse an infected page using an insecure browser. Badware will be deployed to your machine, and it will find the files used by FileZilla, or possibly other FTP programs to store passwords, and silently send those files back to a server in China. Then an automated bot attack will use FTP to edit your web pages, infecting them with malware. Then your sites will drop out of the search results. Can you image the uncomfortable conversations when all your sites get hacked at once and you have to admit responsibility?
What can be done to reduce this risk of search Armageddon?
1. Use a more secure browser such as Chrome or Firefox with the NoScript add on for routine browsing.
2. Don’t use any FTP program that stores passwords locally in plaintext, such as FileZilla. To date, Dreamweaver has not been reported to have been compromised. Dreamweaver encrypts passwords and stores them in the Windows registry.
3. Consider using a Mac or Linux instead of Windows. As the most popular operating system, Windows is the most popular target for attacks.
4. Make sure your machine and server are fully updated and patched. Turn off unnecessary services and software to reduce the attack surface.
5. Register your site with Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Center. Check regularly to see if there are any malware reports (or other issues) with your sites.
6. If you suspect a malware infection, check Unmask Parasites,
7. View your site’s reputation at McAfee SiteAdvisor.
8. Reduce the number of people and computers that have access to your web server.
9. Keep a backup copy of your web pages. In case of infection, it’s a race to see if you can fix the site before search engines (and users) discover the problem and dump you.
10. Choose the hosting provider that has the quickest response time, not the cheapest price. If your site gets hacked, you may need their help to change all the passwords.
As the web becomes more dangerous, customers become more suspicious, reducing opportunities for everyone. Please do your part to make the web safer, and to reduce your risks.
What can be done to reduce this risk of search Armageddon?
1. Use a more secure browser such as Chrome or Firefox with the NoScript add on for routine browsing.
2. Don’t use any FTP program that stores passwords locally in plaintext, such as FileZilla. To date, Dreamweaver has not been reported to have been compromised. Dreamweaver encrypts passwords and stores them in the Windows registry.
3. Consider using a Mac or Linux instead of Windows. As the most popular operating system, Windows is the most popular target for attacks.
4. Make sure your machine and server are fully updated and patched. Turn off unnecessary services and software to reduce the attack surface.
5. Register your site with Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Center. Check regularly to see if there are any malware reports (or other issues) with your sites.
6. If you suspect a malware infection, check Unmask Parasites,
7. View your site’s reputation at McAfee SiteAdvisor.
8. Reduce the number of people and computers that have access to your web server.
9. Keep a backup copy of your web pages. In case of infection, it’s a race to see if you can fix the site before search engines (and users) discover the problem and dump you.
10. Choose the hosting provider that has the quickest response time, not the cheapest price. If your site gets hacked, you may need their help to change all the passwords.
As the web becomes more dangerous, customers become more suspicious, reducing opportunities for everyone. Please do your part to make the web safer, and to reduce your risks.
Labels: Dr Search, search engine marketing, Search Marketing, SEO Services
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, September 07, 2009
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Thursday, September 3, 2009
How to choose Content Management Systems (CMS) for SEO
Nowadays, a great many websites are powered by a content management system (CMS) along with a back office database and other functions.
And for good reason. It requires a degree of skill to code HTML on a page by page basis, as you expand your content offerings to the thousands or tens of thousands of pages (and beyond). Content managements systems to the rescue! But there can be downsides too.
My biggest gripe with the content management systems of today is their lack of SEO features. And I’m not just talking about meta keywords, which are a complete waste of time.
I’m patiently waiting for the day when a CMS based site can rival static HTML sites in SEO. No bones about it, hand coded sites offer complete, granular control over each page, and every single tag contained within. That’s real flexibility. Too bad they don’t scale. Therefore, the SEO practitioner is going to need a CMS that will at least be cooperative.
Which SEO features should you be shopping for in a CMS? Glad you asked. Here’s my wish list of features, broken down into critical, important, desirable and optional…
Critical CMS features
* URLs free of tracking parameters and session IDs — Sticking session or tracking information such as the user’s clickpath into the URL is deadly for SEO. It usually leads to incomplete indexation and duplicate content issues.
* Header tags — No H1 tags on a given page is not desirable. Too many H1 tags on the page is not desirable. Low-value content (such as the publication date) marked up as an H1 is not desirable. The article title is typically the best content to have wrapped in an H1.
* Customizable URL structure — If the default URL structure of the CMS doesn’t suit your needs, you should be able to change it. For example, if you don’t want /archives/ in the URLs of all your archived articles, you should be able to remove it. Or if you want to reference the article name instead of the article’s database ID in the URL, you should be able to do it.
* 301 redirects to canonical URL — Duplicate content is the bane of the existence of many a dynamic website owner. Automatic handling of this by the CMS through the use of 301 redirects is a must.
My biggest gripe with the content management systems of today is their lack of SEO features. And I’m not just talking about meta keywords, which are a complete waste of time.
I’m patiently waiting for the day when a CMS based site can rival static HTML sites in SEO. No bones about it, hand coded sites offer complete, granular control over each page, and every single tag contained within. That’s real flexibility. Too bad they don’t scale. Therefore, the SEO practitioner is going to need a CMS that will at least be cooperative.
Which SEO features should you be shopping for in a CMS? Glad you asked. Here’s my wish list of features, broken down into critical, important, desirable and optional…
Critical CMS features
* URLs free of tracking parameters and session IDs — Sticking session or tracking information such as the user’s clickpath into the URL is deadly for SEO. It usually leads to incomplete indexation and duplicate content issues.
* Header tags — No H1 tags on a given page is not desirable. Too many H1 tags on the page is not desirable. Low-value content (such as the publication date) marked up as an H1 is not desirable. The article title is typically the best content to have wrapped in an H1.
* Customizable URL structure — If the default URL structure of the CMS doesn’t suit your needs, you should be able to change it. For example, if you don’t want /archives/ in the URLs of all your archived articles, you should be able to remove it. Or if you want to reference the article name instead of the article’s database ID in the URL, you should be able to do it.
* 301 redirects to canonical URL — Duplicate content is the bane of the existence of many a dynamic website owner. Automatic handling of this by the CMS through the use of 301 redirects is a must.
Labels: search engine marketing, Search Marketing, SEO Services
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Thursday, September 03, 2009
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Monday, August 24, 2009
Social Web marketing- if your granny would not approve don’t put it on the net
Social Web Marketing- we've recently had the case of Sir John Sawers, the UK’s incoming head of MI6 and his wife’s Facebook account.
Some of the details we learnt about the new head spook were innocuous enough (he wears Speedos), others less so (the location of his flat and details of friends and family).
He is not the only one. From Republicans making racist remarks to bankers slagging off their bosses, it is a long and sorry list.
“Everyone knows that a lot of companies make a beeline for Facebook when they’re looking at potential recruits,” says Charlotte Butterfield, managing director of Law Absolut, the legal recruitment firm. “It’s a form of due diligence and your profile on Facebook should be broadly the same as the person you present at interview.”
Jenny Ungless, career coach at Monster, the jobs website, says everything should pass the granny test: “If you wouldn’t tell your granny, then don’t put it on the internet.”
However, social networking sites engender a false sense of intimacy and people often post in haste. So, if you’re going for a new position, what can you do to disinfect your online presence?
You should begin by typing your name into a search engine and look at the first few pages of results. Few prospective employers are going to go much beyond this.
There is a broad hierarchy of things you should not have posted. “Top of the list is making derogatory comments about your current or previous employers,” says Sal Remtulla, head of employee screening at the Risk Advisory Group.
Next are racist or sexist comments and references to illegal activities. Talk about hard partying and legal, but wayward, activities come third and can often be only borderline problematic.
Those who are worried might then wish to take a look at their Facebook account settings. There is a whole raft of settings allowing you deal with everything from basic information to tags on photos and comments you have made.
“You might want to change the privacy settings so that only friends can see your profile,” says Corinne Mills, managing director of Personal Career Management, “but that can still leave quite a lot. If someone’s posted a photo of you half-naked, you can ask them to take it down but not much else.”
Sites such as YouTube also now let you delete comments that you wish you had never made. But there are still plenty of websites where your comment will stay posted for ever. You can ask the site owner to take it down, but the terms and conditions will almost certainly mean that they are under no obligation to do so.
Ms Ungless says that another strategy may be to create more positive material about yourself to provide a counterbalance to less flattering information: “If a prospective employer is Googling you, there’s quite a lot you can do to augment what they find. For instance, if you join sites such as LinkedIn, you blog about work and you contribute articles to industry forums, these will quickly start to show up quite high in search results.”
And even if you have a persistently negative search result you just cannot dislodge, Ms Ungless advises: “At least you can be prepared – and don’t forget that most employers are reasonable and will forgive the odd party photograph.”
Jakob Nielsen, an IT usability expert, believes even a commonsense attitude may not prevent future trouble. “One problem is that it is impossible to determine what will be considered acceptable behaviour in the future,” he says. “
You can bet that there is material that is considered reasonable for a student to say today that will get people into hot water in 30 years, when they may be under consideration for the Supreme Court.”
In the meantime, perhaps there is one group of people that does not have to worry. With almost 80m Google results, the John Smiths of this world can probably post anything they like with impunity.
Some of the details we learnt about the new head spook were innocuous enough (he wears Speedos), others less so (the location of his flat and details of friends and family).
He is not the only one. From Republicans making racist remarks to bankers slagging off their bosses, it is a long and sorry list.
“Everyone knows that a lot of companies make a beeline for Facebook when they’re looking at potential recruits,” says Charlotte Butterfield, managing director of Law Absolut, the legal recruitment firm. “It’s a form of due diligence and your profile on Facebook should be broadly the same as the person you present at interview.”
Jenny Ungless, career coach at Monster, the jobs website, says everything should pass the granny test: “If you wouldn’t tell your granny, then don’t put it on the internet.”
However, social networking sites engender a false sense of intimacy and people often post in haste. So, if you’re going for a new position, what can you do to disinfect your online presence?
You should begin by typing your name into a search engine and look at the first few pages of results. Few prospective employers are going to go much beyond this.
There is a broad hierarchy of things you should not have posted. “Top of the list is making derogatory comments about your current or previous employers,” says Sal Remtulla, head of employee screening at the Risk Advisory Group.
Next are racist or sexist comments and references to illegal activities. Talk about hard partying and legal, but wayward, activities come third and can often be only borderline problematic.
Those who are worried might then wish to take a look at their Facebook account settings. There is a whole raft of settings allowing you deal with everything from basic information to tags on photos and comments you have made.
“You might want to change the privacy settings so that only friends can see your profile,” says Corinne Mills, managing director of Personal Career Management, “but that can still leave quite a lot. If someone’s posted a photo of you half-naked, you can ask them to take it down but not much else.”
Sites such as YouTube also now let you delete comments that you wish you had never made. But there are still plenty of websites where your comment will stay posted for ever. You can ask the site owner to take it down, but the terms and conditions will almost certainly mean that they are under no obligation to do so.
Ms Ungless says that another strategy may be to create more positive material about yourself to provide a counterbalance to less flattering information: “If a prospective employer is Googling you, there’s quite a lot you can do to augment what they find. For instance, if you join sites such as LinkedIn, you blog about work and you contribute articles to industry forums, these will quickly start to show up quite high in search results.”
And even if you have a persistently negative search result you just cannot dislodge, Ms Ungless advises: “At least you can be prepared – and don’t forget that most employers are reasonable and will forgive the odd party photograph.”
Jakob Nielsen, an IT usability expert, believes even a commonsense attitude may not prevent future trouble. “One problem is that it is impossible to determine what will be considered acceptable behaviour in the future,” he says. “
You can bet that there is material that is considered reasonable for a student to say today that will get people into hot water in 30 years, when they may be under consideration for the Supreme Court.”
In the meantime, perhaps there is one group of people that does not have to worry. With almost 80m Google results, the John Smiths of this world can probably post anything they like with impunity.
Labels: Search Marketing, social media websites, social web marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, August 24, 2009
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Tuesday, August 4, 2009
How to maximize the impact of your keywords
Not all keywords are equal. The Dilbert principle states that roughly 80% of effects will come from 20% of the causes. Search is no exception to the rule.
In fact, search marketing efforts often exhibit an exaggeration of the principle because it’s very common to observe 1% of the keywords in a given account driving 50% of the cost and even more of the revenue.
So, what does this mean? Behavior is unique for these high volume/value keywords and as a result, steps need to be taken to make these terms more visible for daily account management and analysis. The first step is to identify and isolate these top terms to help prioritize where to focus.
Here’s a simple exercise to identify the top terms in an account:
1. Run a keyword report and sort the data by cost.
2. Filter out branded terms, as these terms should be isolated in a unique campaign.
3. Filter out terms that constitute the top 50% of the non-banded cost.
Typically this keyword set is very small, but accounts for the same cost as the remainder of the account. It’s important to note that the top terms as I have defined them only refer to top spending terms. If your SEM effort is ROI focused, at this point, take the opportunity to identify if there are terms that are in this keyword set that do not drive revenue.
Now we’ve got this keyword set comprised of the most significant keywords in an account. What to do with it? It has been rumored that isolating a keyword in a unique AdGroup will increase quality score. While this is not necessarily true, it highlights the reason why it’s important to have an organized account: control.
By placing each of these top terms in a unique AdGroup, you can create keyword/ad/landing page associations that are more relevant—effectively increasing Quality Score, clickthrough rates (CTR), and subsequently driving down cost per click (CPC). While it seems logical to do this for all terms in an account, it’s not a scalable solution for an account with thousands, if not tens of thousands or more terms.
Thus you have identified a small sub-section of terms, our “top terms,” that have a very significant effect on the account. Because this set of terms is a cross-section of the account, we can take successful elements, such as ad copy and landing page combinations, from the top terms and apply them to similar terms in the rest of the account to increase CTR and Quality Score.
As I mentioned before, another important set of terms to isolate and manage independently from the rest of the account is brand terms. Brand terms generally have very high Quality Scores, are cheap, have great CTRs, and observe the best conversion rates, often making them the most efficient terms in an account.
As a result, you can maximize the impact of brand terms by activating them on all match types: exact, phrase and broad. The same rules for optimization apply: isolate high volume terms into unique AdGroups within the brand terms campaign, create relevant ad copy, and make sure landing pages are as relevant as possible.
In fact, search marketing efforts often exhibit an exaggeration of the principle because it’s very common to observe 1% of the keywords in a given account driving 50% of the cost and even more of the revenue.
So, what does this mean? Behavior is unique for these high volume/value keywords and as a result, steps need to be taken to make these terms more visible for daily account management and analysis. The first step is to identify and isolate these top terms to help prioritize where to focus.
Here’s a simple exercise to identify the top terms in an account:
1. Run a keyword report and sort the data by cost.
2. Filter out branded terms, as these terms should be isolated in a unique campaign.
3. Filter out terms that constitute the top 50% of the non-banded cost.
Typically this keyword set is very small, but accounts for the same cost as the remainder of the account. It’s important to note that the top terms as I have defined them only refer to top spending terms. If your SEM effort is ROI focused, at this point, take the opportunity to identify if there are terms that are in this keyword set that do not drive revenue.
Now we’ve got this keyword set comprised of the most significant keywords in an account. What to do with it? It has been rumored that isolating a keyword in a unique AdGroup will increase quality score. While this is not necessarily true, it highlights the reason why it’s important to have an organized account: control.
By placing each of these top terms in a unique AdGroup, you can create keyword/ad/landing page associations that are more relevant—effectively increasing Quality Score, clickthrough rates (CTR), and subsequently driving down cost per click (CPC). While it seems logical to do this for all terms in an account, it’s not a scalable solution for an account with thousands, if not tens of thousands or more terms.
Thus you have identified a small sub-section of terms, our “top terms,” that have a very significant effect on the account. Because this set of terms is a cross-section of the account, we can take successful elements, such as ad copy and landing page combinations, from the top terms and apply them to similar terms in the rest of the account to increase CTR and Quality Score.
As I mentioned before, another important set of terms to isolate and manage independently from the rest of the account is brand terms. Brand terms generally have very high Quality Scores, are cheap, have great CTRs, and observe the best conversion rates, often making them the most efficient terms in an account.
As a result, you can maximize the impact of brand terms by activating them on all match types: exact, phrase and broad. The same rules for optimization apply: isolate high volume terms into unique AdGroups within the brand terms campaign, create relevant ad copy, and make sure landing pages are as relevant as possible.
Labels: Pay Per Click Marketing, Search Clinic, Search Engine Optimisation, search engines, Search Marketing
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, August 04, 2009
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Monday, August 3, 2009
Do website load times impact on your rankings?
Have you ever considered how your website’s loading time might impact your search engine rankings?
It might be time to take a closer look at this as Google and Yahoo! have both brought some attention to the issue recently.
On Tues, May 26, 2009 we looked at the Recommended webpage file size
http://www.searchclinic.org/2009/05/recommended-webpage-file-size.html
Google’s stance on the issue has always been that page load times do not have an impact in their algorithm – until now. As part of their initiative to speed up the web, Google have said that page load times could become a consideration in the future.
Google’s Matt Cutts has stated that, “We want the web to be faster, we want sites to load quickly”, so it’s very possible that Google could be looking to encourage and reward this through their ranking of sites. You can have a listen to what Matt Cutts had to say about the topic below:
Another interesting development on this topic has been from Yahoo!, who recently filed a patent with regards to webpage loading time. Their patent abstract describes:
Methods and systems are provided that may be used to characterize in some manner the performance that a user may experience when accessing a web document.
The patent application goes on to discuss establishing some kind of “user experience information” which could be used to rank search results. Obviously webpage load time is going to play a big part in the user experience so this would be a contributing factor. From the patent:
For example, information relating to whether a user might abandon or wait for a web document to be displayed may be useful when establishing certain quality or relevance factors for the web document.
With both search engines placing increased importance on the issue of page load times, it could be a wise idea to optimize your load times now ahead of any future algorithm changes.
Aside from potentially helping with your SEO, it’s guaranteed to improve your sites appeal to users.
It might be time to take a closer look at this as Google and Yahoo! have both brought some attention to the issue recently.
On Tues, May 26, 2009 we looked at the Recommended webpage file size
http://www.searchclinic.org/2009/05/recommended-webpage-file-size.html
Google’s stance on the issue has always been that page load times do not have an impact in their algorithm – until now. As part of their initiative to speed up the web, Google have said that page load times could become a consideration in the future.
Google’s Matt Cutts has stated that, “We want the web to be faster, we want sites to load quickly”, so it’s very possible that Google could be looking to encourage and reward this through their ranking of sites. You can have a listen to what Matt Cutts had to say about the topic below:
Another interesting development on this topic has been from Yahoo!, who recently filed a patent with regards to webpage loading time. Their patent abstract describes:
Methods and systems are provided that may be used to characterize in some manner the performance that a user may experience when accessing a web document.
The patent application goes on to discuss establishing some kind of “user experience information” which could be used to rank search results. Obviously webpage load time is going to play a big part in the user experience so this would be a contributing factor. From the patent:
For example, information relating to whether a user might abandon or wait for a web document to be displayed may be useful when establishing certain quality or relevance factors for the web document.
With both search engines placing increased importance on the issue of page load times, it could be a wise idea to optimize your load times now ahead of any future algorithm changes.
Aside from potentially helping with your SEO, it’s guaranteed to improve your sites appeal to users.
Labels: Google, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, August 03, 2009
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