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The Google Website Optimizer blog has an interesting case study about a landing page test. The test was done for a stair remodeling and new home construction business. Best practices dictate that the original page with a model of a customer service rep should have done better. But it did not.

Instead, the page performed better after removing the image and a sidebar, both of which impeded the view of a beautiful set of stairs. How much did it improve? Online conversions increased by a whopping 144% and average order size increased 18%.

What do you think about this case study? Do you test best practices? Let us know in the comments!

Related Reading:
Tim Ash
Emotional Motivators in Landing Page Optimization
Google Adwords Launches Landing Page Load Time on Keyword Analysis Page
Pimp My Site: Tweaking High Traffic Landing Pages

Microsoft has announced an update to their Live Maps and Virtual Earth 3D. There are 11 major updates including:

1. Export your Collection to Your Navigation/GPS device.
2. Improved 3D cities.
3. 3D modeling with 3DVIA
4. Labels for Birds Eye imagery
5. 1-Click Directions (Party Maps)
6. MapCruncher Integration (MapCruncher is a raster map mashup tool.)
7. Enhanced Explore of Map Content from across the web contributed by other People
8. Neighborhood Subscribe via GeoRSS
9. Tour Enhancements including Hi-Def Movies.
10. Directions and Traffic Enhancements
11. Improved display of KML files including Google MyMaps links

According to the Virtual Earth Team blog, the update involved a bigger release than originally planned. They are also upgrading Map Control, an SDK for developers, to version 6.1.

Related Reading:
Local Search: Competing All Over the Map

Andy Weatherwax, a Partner and the Director of Search Operations at Global Strategies Intl., spoke at the Big Site, Big Search session at SES London 2008, which looked at the problems and solutions unique to those running big sites or from big companies and brands.

I interviewed Andy about the session, which tackled tough questions like: “How do you cope with doing search engine optimization for a company with tens of divisions, hundreds of products, thousands of web pages and seemingly no way to bring order to the chaos?” and “Where do you begin with the SEO process?”

Andrew Weatherwax Global Strategies Intl. at SES London 2008

If you don’t know him yet, Andy Weatherwax is a founding partner of Global Strategies International (GSI) and has served as embedded search consultant on accounts including Nokia, BP, Cisco and Kodak. A specialist in the area of enterprise CMS configuration and Consumer Intent Modeling, he is currently working with clients and their agencies to leverage search in the marketing mix.

Prior to Global Strategies, Andy was owner of BrainBug Internet Marketing, an award winning digital marketing consultancy providing online marketing strategy for clients including MetLife, Konica Minolta, Pfizer, WebMD and Priceline. In 2003, he was contracted by Position Technologies to develop the user experience design for Yahoo/Overture Site Match and Site Match Exchange.

A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Andy has been involved in online marketing since 1995. He has been the recipient of many prestigious awards for digital design including the Codie Award.

When he is not working, Andy can be found off-shore sailing or playing music. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jazz Studies from the Hartt School of Music.

You can view other video interviews from SES London 2008 at the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo channel on YouTube.

Search engine marketing firm Efficient Frontier today appointed Ellen Siminoff chairman of the board and named president James Beriker as the new CEO and director.

In her four years as CEO, Siminoff grew Efficient Frontier from a team of eight to a leading search marketing technology and professional services company with 170 employees managing $450 million in annual search spend for 250 advertisers worldwide. As chairman, Siminoff will continue to guide and participate in the growth initiatives and the company’s strategic direction.

Efficient Frontier was the first search marketing firm to apply portfolio management theory (Wall St. equity trading algorithms) to the optimization of paid search listings. Efficient Frontier’s algorithms use historical data to model all possible bid combinations across a portfolio of keywords to allocate budget optiimally. The best possible return on investment? The so-called “efficient frontier.”

In a statement, Siminoff said Efficient Frontier has reshaped the SEM industry by applying advanced technology keyword optimization. Efficient Frontier pioneered the management of millions of keywords in Google’s invisible bid landscape, bringing predictive modeling to opaque search marketplaces.

The next generation of Efficient Frontier’s platform will enable clients to apply algorithms to emerging media auction marketplaces, including display and social search engines, as well as optimize advertising spend across multiple channels.

As CEO, Beriker will be responsible for the overall management of the business. His charge? Drive growth, product innovation and global expansion.

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The New York Times, CNET, InformationWeek, and 52 other Google News sources missed the significance of Microsoft’s new Research Lab in Cambridge, Mass., headed by Jennifer Chayes and her husband, Christian Borgs. The Times implied that Chayes and Borgs work in an ivory tower where basic research doesn’t have a business imperative.

Nothing could be further from the truth in the online world.

Jennifer Tour Chayes, PhD in mathematical physics, led the highly esteemed Theory Group specializing in theoretical computer science. She’s the co-author of almost 100 scientific papers and co-inventor of more than 20 patents. The New York Times only mentions her work in developing simple models of liquids and solids and the development of some exceedingly fast networking algorithms. Hunh?

Their groundbreaking work in search engine algorithms and social search may be the foundation of a successful Microsoft-Yahoo merger.

Chayes is one of the world’s experts in the modeling and analysis of random, dynamically growing graphs (social graph, social search, Facebook, MySpace) – which are used to model the Internet, the World Wide Web and social networks.

One of the papers the couple co-authored, “Bid optimization in online advertisement auctions”, details the ways paid search campaigns can be optimized by advertisers and search engines. “Multi-unit auctions with budget-constrained bidders”, written by Borgs, Chayes, Nicole Immorlica (MIT), Mohammad Mahdian, and Amin Saberi (published in June 2005), discusses ways to optimize revenue for search engines given the fixed budgets of search marketers.

Their recent work provides a tutorial on search engine optimization and PageRank, before delving deep into algorithms few search marketers (myself included) understand.

Search engine optimization lives and dies by PageRank. Here’s what you need to know about their research into PageRank.

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Take a look at this video, where Google explains Project Spectrum, an effort by Google to help those with autism take advantage of their gifts for working and expressing themselves visually using Google SketchUp, its free 3D modeling software:

It’s really great of Google to be working on this, and I really enjoyed seeing the various [...]

Thanks to the release of a new 3D modeling system, Microsoft Virtual Earth is a step closer to achieving parity with its main rival, Google Earth.  Google Warehouse, meet 3DVIA.
Not too long ago, a friend of mine moved into an under-construction neighborhood; his house was unknown to just about every program out there (as [...]

I’ve seen it: an amazing 3D model of London that was meant to wind up in Google Earth.  Only now, due to what I’ll politely call “bureaucratic nonsense,” it won’t.
Coverage could center on Dr. Andrew Hudson-Smith - he’s the leader of the Virtual London modeling group, and is also author of the Digital Urban [...]

It was announced earlier this week that Convera and SearchChannel have formed a strategic partnership. This relationship pairs up Convera, a vertical search engine platform provider, with SearchChannel, an e-media and search engine marketing consulting firm.
According to the announcement, SearchChannel will consult with Convera on the development of online business solutions for B-to-B publishers, [...]