Search marketers
Yahoo Patent App Sheds Light on SEO Priorities
A recent patent application from Yahoo highlights several factors that Yahoo itself proposes to use for optimizing Web pages for its search engine, according to the ever-vigilant patent-watcher Bill Slawski.
The application, “Automated System to Improve Search Engine Optimization on Web Pages,” was filed in June 2007 and published last month. It proposes a process that would look at search query logs and browsing activity of users, as well as semantic relationships and timeliness of query terms.
It would break up a page into “units” of content, and emphasize those units that best relate to the most popular keywords and concepts. That could be done by updating page titles, URLs, meta descriptions and meta keywords, alt attributes for images, and headings on pages.
This is a patent application only, and not a real-life service. It may become a real service someday, so it’s worth considering what that would mean for search marketers, and site owners in general. How well this idea would work would depend heavily on the implementation. As Slawski points out:
SEO isn’t about trying to get the most traffic to a site for the most popular terms possible.
Instead, it’s about understanding the objectives of a site, and knowing enough about an audience that might be interested in what that site offers to help those searchers and those sites find each other. That can involve finding the right words to use on the pages of a site instead of the most popular words.
For this idea to work, it’s first of all got to be an opt-in program. Hopefully, Yahoo will learn that lesson from the current Yahoo Search Marketing “account optimization” issues.
The overall idea actually seems to closely parallel that program, which changes an advertiser’s ads, based on similar kinds of data from Yahoo that the patent application describes. The current program is not automated, however, but one can assume (hope?) that Yahoo is using some of the same data to inform the account managers that are making the changes.
As the objections to that program point out, Yahoo can’t possibly know an advertiser’s business better than the business owner. And as with the current program, if these proposed changes were offered as suggestions, it could be a very popular service, especially for large site owners.
SEW Experts: 2009 is a Year of Change for Travel Search Marketing
The economy is forcing travel search marketers to change the way they approach online marketing. The travel vertical is already one of the most advanced groups of search marketers, but the industry has been under more pressure in recent months to make their campaigns count. In today’s vertical search marketing column, “2009 is a Year of Change for Travel Search Marketing,” travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski outlines a few ways travel search marketers, and marketers in other verticals, can get back to basics in these challenging times.
Google Holds, Yahoo Gains Search Ad Share in Q4 2008, According to Efficient Frontier
Efficient Frontier has released a search engine advertising report for the fourth quarter of 2008. They found that Google held onto its 76% market share while Yahoo gained 3%.
Here are additional trends they found:
- Large vs. Small Advertisers: Small advertisers in the U.S. accounted for a greater decrease in search advertising spend than larger, more established brands. Advertisers spending less than $50,000 per month cut spending by 23 percent year-over-year, with many of the cuts coming between Q3 and Q4 of 2008. Companies that spent more than $200,000 per month only reduced spending by 9 percent over the same time period. These margins are typical during a recession when larger, more sophisticated brands aggressively utilize the search channel to drive revenue and sales while strengthening their position.
- Overall Impression Trends: Overall impressions for search engines are down 6 percent year-over-year. From Q4 2007 to Q4 2008, Google experienced a 3 percent decrease, while Yahoo lost 13 percent impression volume. Microsoft Live garnered 21 percent more impressions in Q4 than in Q3 2008 and gained 18 percent more impressions year-over-year.
- Click-Through Rate Trends: Overall click-through-rates (CTRs) in search were relatively flat year-over-year, gaining only 2 percent. While Microsoft Live Search had higher CTRs than all other search engines from Q1 to Q3 of 2008, it dipped below Google Search in Q4 2008. Google Search CTRs decreased by 2 percent year-over-year, while Yahoo CTRs improved 3 percent year-over-year. Google Content CTRs increased 150 percent year-over-year.
- Cost-Per-Click Highlights: Overall search cost-per-click (CPC) is down 5 percent year-over-year. In the last quarter of 2008, Google Search’s CPC declined by 8 percent, while Microsoft Live Search declined by 3 percent and Yahoo Search declined by 1 percent. Microsoft Live Search has consistently maintained a higher CPC than all other search engines, indicating that advertisers are willing to pay a premium for a high quality, albeit smaller audience.
Here are some niche-related findings:
- Automotive: 15 percent decline in spending over 2007, due primarily to lower impression volume, reflecting weakness in consumer demand.
- Finance: 25 percent decline in spend over 2007, with impressions up by 5 percent reflecting high customer demand for financial services, with but fewer qualified conversions.
- Retail: 9 percent increase in spend over 2007, reflecting the strength of the channel in price comparison and shopping efficiency, particularly for more established online brands that increased spend to reach revenue goals.
- Travel and Entertainment: 24 percent decrease in spend year-over year, primarily due to reduced traffic volume, which is down in by 18 percent in the sector year-over-year.
“Search engine marketing remains the most accountable sales and client acquisition channel on or offline,” said James Beriker, President and CEO of Efficient Frontier. “To continue to achieve stellar results, the current recession has made it even more critical for search marketers to know their metrics and manage campaigns based on actionable market, sales funnel and conversion data. The reason we work with more than 150 of the most sophisticated search marketers in 20 markets worldwide, and manage more spend than any other firm, is that we use math to automate the process of accurately modeling data and making the right overall strategy and keyword bidding decisions to deliver optimal performance, no matter the market dynamics.”
Related Reading:
Online Display Ad Pricing Drops in Q4 2008
AdGooroo Releases Q4 2008 Search Advertising Data
Paid Search Spend up 12% in Q4 2008
SEW Experts: Are Rankings Still Relevant?
Are we heading toward an age where site ranking doesn’t matter? By incorporating searcher behavior into their algorithms, search engines are no longer serving the same results to everyone. In today’s SEM agency issues column, “Are Rankings Still Relevant?,” William Flaiz wonders if search marketers have been relying on rankings as a crutch, when we should have been looking at the bottom lines.
Holiday E-Commerce Spending Up 7% Year-Over-Year Last Week
It seems as time goes by and concerns over the economy get worse, tracking the economy becomes more frequent and dare I say micro.
Thankfully, I have good news to report. E-commerce spending last week was up 7% year-over-year, according to comScore.
Even better news is that the gains from Black Friday, Cyber Monday and last week have made up for the 4% drop in sales for most of November which marked the beginning of the holiday shopping season.
There is a caveat for some of you search marketers, however. Many advertising budgets are shifting dollars towards paid search – possibly making e-commerce more competitive and ad bid prices higher.
Another thing e-tailers are using are incentives, such as free shipping, and coupons. They’re using them because they work. All of this can cut into your margins, but perhaps not as bad as missing out on sales altogether.
This holiday may have to be the most fluid and flexible one in recent memory for search marketers. Keep an eye on your analytics and on your paid search accounts. Don’t assume the ad that was there yesterday is working fine and dandy today. Vigilance is the name of the game in this volatile economy.
Tell us what you’re seeing in your industry and niche by leaving a comment!
Live Search Implements Instant Answers Into Search Results
We know that searchers want answers, and there are plenty of answer sites out there to fuel their curiosity. Now, Microsoft’s Live Search team is including some answers in their search results.
Encyclopedia, Traffic and Horoscope information will now display answers within results. For example, you can type in the question “How tall is Mount Everest?” and get the answer in the results.
I think search marketers will be happy about this. If you’re trying to sell a product, it can be frustrating when people come to your site who have no intention of buying anything.
The Live Search team says even more answers will be included in the future.
What do you think about the update? Let us know in the comments.
Internet Marketers Handbook An Impressive Effort
A SEOMoz member Danny Dover has pulled together quite an impressive list of links to tools, impressive articles and in general a great list of must see links for all search marketers.
I have bookmarked this one already and will be using it later today to run a report for a client. Hats off to the effort mate.
Gas Shortages Lead to Increased Web and Audio Conferencing
Since Hurricanes Gustav and especially Ike, a slowdown in Gulf Coast refineries have created gas shortages in the southeast. The gas station near my house runs out every other day, it seems.
But in tough times come rare opportunities. Web and audio conferencing companies are being looked to for increased communications when travel by car has literally been brought to a halt.
Copper Conferencing is one such company.
“Our phones are busier than ever as current and new customers ask for help in setting up telecommuting practices and expanding their use of conferencing as a best practice for smart business, but in particular among workers who are in the affected areas,” said Kathleen Thompson, Manager of Customer Care for Copper Conferencing.
Search engine marketers should watch out for these unique opportunities, especially during these volatile economic times. Do you have a client that can extend services such as these in the wake of natural disaster and in the midst of an economic crisis?
In an expert column today, Kevin Ryan encouraged search marketers to not spend less but to spend smart. I couldn’t agree more. Search remains quite affordable compared to traditional marketing efforts and takes the cake in ROI compared to some methods, especially branding ones.
So, while the water in the glass may have dropped with the stock market on Monday, it’s not completely dry. What can you do with what remains? Share your inspiration in the comments.
How Search Marketers Can Use Landing Page Testing to Influence Offline Ad Campaigns
Search marketers deal with landing pages everyday in their work, but not all landing pages are created for paid search campaigns. Many landing pages, or sometimes entire sites are created for offline advertising on television, radio, and magazine ads.
Should these landing pages be tested as well? I talked to Google Website Optimizer’s Tom Leung to get his thoughts on how testing can influence offline campaigns.
Leung said there are two ways that tools like Website Optimizer can be used in offline campaigns:
- As already mentioned, to test landing pages created for traffic coming in from offline ad campaigns.
- Using paid search or display ad campaigns to make informed decisions on creatives designed for offline ad campaigns.
The second point really got my attention. Leung expanded by saying that SEM’s can use landing page testing as a “bargaining chip to get a seat at the table with other marketers in your organization.”
This information gained from testing is highly useful to marketers planning offline campaigns. As a search marketer, you can use testing and analytics tools to be the one in their department or agency who knows the most about a target audience. That knowledge is highly useful to your colleagues, and can help you work more as an integrated team.
Even though offline and online campaigns can generate interest from consumers with different expectations, at the very least, testing can rule out things that don’t work. An image, text, or highlighted feature that just doesn’t resonate can be discovered through landing page testing. Marketers can test these factors in a paid search or other online ad test, and use the results to develop creatives for offline ads.
Online ad tests can also be used in advance of an offline-to-web ad campaign.
For offline traffic driven to landing pages, you can use those preliminary tests to narrow down the number of landing page options for the initial traffic driven from the offline ad. When the offline traffic begins to arrive (and you’re expecting enough traffic to run a test), you can test the first visitors. You don’t want to test more than 1 page per 100 conversions. Multivariate testing should generally be reserved for large, national campaigns.
WiderFunnel Marketing used Website Optimizer for Tourism BC’s TV-to-Web ad campaign for HelloBC.com. According to a published case study, the campaign targeted the Los Angeles and San Francisco markets. Tourism BC experienced a 52% conversion rate (filling out a web form), up 7% from the previous year.
Even though search marketing has been gaining ground for years, SEMs still may find themselves struggling to lend their insight to traditional marketing methods that have been around for decades. Landing page testing is not just a must for SEMs in their own work but can be a strength to participate in the greater strategy at hand.
What do you think about landing page testing and integrating marketing campaigns? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Dallas-Forth Search Marketers Question the Closing of Google Dallas Office
The board of the Dallas-Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association is scratching their heads over a decision by Google to close their Dallas office. The group says Dallas-Fort Worth are search marketers are responsible for spending $100 million on search advertising, the majority of it going to Google.
“Our association members have worked with many different vertical Google sales offices across the country, and the general consensus is that the Dallas Google office was one of the best, if not the best team to work with,” said Rob Garner, DFW SEM president. “The Dallas Google office has supported the association and the North Texas search industry from the beginning, and their presence will be greatly missed.”
Dallas Googlers must choose between staying in Dallas and leaving Google, or staying with Google and relocating. They are invited to attend the DFW SEM Association’s quarterly meeting on July 16 at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson, Texas. The group says there should be opportunity for networking for those choosing to stay local.
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