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Here is the continuation of the previous post on some of the best – and easiest – SEO tips. There are actually ten of them in the whole article at About.com but I am only choosing the ones that I myself have done and can attest to. Here goes.
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We hear this term all the time – search engine ranking – and rightly so.  It is one of the important things that we should pay attention to when engaging in SEO.  That is why it is called “Search Engine” Optimization after all.  So what should we do in order to climb the ranks of [...]

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Microsoft, Yahoo Take Major Hits in Nielsen Online Search Share Rankings for October 2008

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The year-over-year gains for Google that we saw in Nielsen Online’s October 2008 search engine rankings were mirrored in comScore’s rankings for the same month.

Google enjoyed a nice 63.1% share, up from 58.5% during the same time last year. Yahoo was at 20.5% down from 22.9%> Microsoft was at 8.5%, down from 9.7%.

There was one major difference between Nielsen and comScore. Nielsen said the number of searches declined, while comparing comScore’s October 2008 data to its 2007 data shows that the number of searches increased to 12.6 million billion up from 10.5 million billion.

Check out the rest of the data here:

Microsoft and Yahoo took a tumble in their year-over-year search share in October 2008, according to Nielsen Online. All searches were down 2%, which is quite surprising considering the election and the economy. Yahoo was down 12% and Microsoft was down 19%. Ask.com took a hit as well with a decrease of 22.9%

The news was much brighter for Google and AOL. Both saw sizeable increases at 8.1% and 14.5% respectively.

Google continues to dominate the search engine industry at a 61.2% market share.

Here’s the full chart:

Related Reading:
E-commerce Growth Slows to Just 1% in October 2008

Some SEOs aren’t getting the message about Google’s personalization of search results. Many are not seeing the writing on the wall: 2009 will likely see the end of the ranking report in SEO. In today’s organic search engine optimization column, “The Future of Google’s Search Personalization,” Mark Jackson advises SEOs to acknowledge traffic, conversions, and ROI as the important metrics for any form of marketing or business.

» Full story

Many major companies continue to make mistakes with their Web sites that hurt their search engine rankings. They target pages in the wrong way, or don’t craft their pages in a way to prevent searchers from leaving their site after the first page. In today’s enterprise search marketing column, “SEO Dreams are Made of This,” Aaron Shear says it’s time for some SEO dreaming.

» Full story

New market research has found that blog readers are strongly influenced by blog content when it comes to purchase decisions across a number of categories, and that blogs play a key role in ushering readers to the point of an actual purchase. BuzzLogic, a social media analysis company and ad network, sponsored the market research and JupiterResearch, a Forrester research company, conducted the survey of more than 2,000 online consumers in the US.

Their Harnessing the Power of Blogs survey also found that blog readership has grown 300% over the past four years. The results also suggest that consumers who read blogs more than once per month — or frequent blog readers — use blogs as the top online navigation tool to discover other blog content, ranking higher than general Web search or blog search.

The new market research will be the focus of a free webinar, “Consumers and the Influence of Blogs: What it Means for Your Marketing Mix,” which will be held on Thursday, November 20, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT. The free webinar will be moderated by Matt McGowan, vice president and publisher for Incisive Media’s digital marketing businesses, and will feature Barry Parr, Analyst at JupiterResearch, and Rob Crumpler, President and CEO of BuzzLogic.

Looking more closely at how blogs factor into consumer purchase decisions and the nature of blog influence on buying behavior, the survey found:
• Blogs influence purchases: 50% of blog readers say they find blogs useful for purchase information.
• Blogs sway more purchases among readers than social networks: More frequent blog readers say they trust relevant blog content for purchase decisions than content from social networking sites. Enid Burns of The ClickZ Network focused on this finding in her recent story about the survey, “Study: Blogs Influence Purchases More Than Social Sites.”
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3631303
• Niche focus ups influence factor: For those who have found blog content useful for product decisions, 56% said blogs with a niche focus and topical expertise were key sources.
• Blogs go beyond tech: Outside of technology-related purchases, for which 31% of readers say blogs are useful, other key categories include: media and entertainment (15%); games/toys and/or sporting goods (14%); travel (12%); automotive (11%); and health (10%).

According to the study, blogs factor in to critical stages of the purchase process, weighing most heavily at the actual moment of a purchase decision. When it comes to respondents who said they have trusted blog content for purchase decisions in the past, over half (52 percent) say blogs played a role in the critical moment they decided to move forward with a purchase.

Blog readers were also surveyed about the influence of blogs as it relates to the following steps of the purchase process:
• 21% decide on a product or service,
• 19% refine choices,
• 19% get support and answers,
• 17% discover products and services,
• 14% assure,
• 13% inspire a purchase
• 7% execute a purchase.

For frequent blog readers, ads on blogs are on par with sponsored search results. However, trust of blog advertising exceeds that of social networking site advertising. A quarter of these readers say they trust ads on a blog they read; paid search links also accounted for 25% of the responses, while 19% say they trust ads on social networking sites.

The study also suggests that ads on blogs spur a number of activities: 40% of blog readers have taken action as a result of viewing an ad on a blog; 50% of frequent blog readers say this is the case. The top activities include:
• 17% read product reviews online,
• 16% sought out more info on a product or service,
• 16% visited a manufacturer or retailer website.

JupiterResearch designed and fielded the survey in August 2008 to online consumers selected randomly from the NPD Group US online consumer panel. A total of 2,210 individuals responded. For more information on the survey’s methodology, go to JupiterResearch.

Now, blogs certainly aren’t considered the “newbies” of the social media scene – “granddaddies” is probably a more appropriate term. But that gives them an advantage from a marketing perspective – the medium has matured and moved from early adopter phase to the mainstream.

This may come as a surprise to some search engine marketers, but blog readers do not appear to rely as heavily on search as a means to find new blogs as consumers of traditional online media do. According to the new survey, one in five consumers who have read a blog in the past 12 months — or general blog readers — use blog links to discover new blogs. Further, the study suggests blogs are not consumed in isolation — 49% of blog readers and 71% of frequent readers read more than one blog per session. Other key findings include:
• Links more powerful than search: For frequent readers, links beat search as a navigation tool: 38 percent said blog links were the top tool for discovering new blog content as compared to 34 percent who voted for Web search.
• Links signal trust: For frequent readers, blog links appear to have similar impact as a trusted recommendation from a person (a response from 39 percent of survey participants).
• Blog search not yet mainstream: Blog search engines received the lowest ranking from respondents: 6 percent of general readers and 11 percent of frequent readers say they use these tools to discover new blogs.

If you are interested in getting more details about Harnessing the Power of Blogs, register for the free Webinar. Again, it will be held on Thursday, November 20, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT.

Earlier this year, Google launched a media measurement tool called Ad Planner, designed to assist media buyers in their purchasing decisions. The tool was available in limited release by invitation/application only.

Now, the tool is available to anyone with a Google account. There are also some new features for Ad Planner.

Define your audience by keywords and geography - You can use search terms and location to help determine your target audience

Site results management - Choose among three new ranking methods to display results from the sites you’re considering running your campaigns on. Select from niche sites, larger sites, or a balance of the two.

Interactive bubble chart - this feature helps offers a visual that helps you compare demographics, frequency, traffic, and unique visitors.

International demographic data - Check out audience data from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK.

Related Reading:
Does Google Analytics Share Data with Google Trends and Ad Planner?

Over at the Official Google blog, Dan Russell of the Search Quality team, has written a lengthy post on field studying search behavior. One of the things Russell discovered is that there is often a disparity between what people say they’re searching for and what they actually do search for.

There’s also a disparity between what they searched for and what they remember searching for later on.

Another area Russell dives into is eye tracking. Here’s a video showing the eye tracking of 3 different people searching for “school backpack.”

Last but not least, Russell explained the discovery that the “Advanced Search” page was really turning searchers off. They often were so overwhelmed or uninspired by the options, that they left the advanced options blank. They used that information to re-design the Advanced Search page.

All in all it was a nice little insight into how Google doesn’t just use tech testing such as Website Optimizer or Analytics to create a better experience for their users, but watching actual human behavior in person is extremely useful as well.

Related Reading:
Google Shares Three Ranking Philosophies
Google On User Intent in Search Queries
What Search Quality Means to Search Engine Google
Google Discusses Search Evaluation Process