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30 Jun This post is from from my other blog here It's time for us to squeeze into our commando gear as we head to bootcamp! The Perth leg of the annual Australia-wide B&T Digital Bootcamp is being held tomorrow and our CEO Warren Duff and I will be in attendance. B&T Digital Media Bootcamp is an online interactive media workshop, which will discuss the fastest growing part of the marketing world- the digital sector. There'll be plenty of notes taken, so that we can share them with you in the coming weeks. If any of you are attending, feel free to seek us out and say hello.
30 Jun This post is from from my other blog here Many veteran search marketers have used and abandoned the Google Content Network due to the poor quality targeting (and resulting low quality traffic). The newly launched Google Ad Planner is touted as "a research and media planning tool that connects advertisers and publishers".The concept is quite simple - an advertiser simply enters in the demographics associated with your target audience and AdPlanner presents a list of sites that your target audience is likely to visit. Websites that are both part of and not a part of the Google content network are included.For the media buyer, this tool is a great addition to help ensure they are reaching their target audience. Unfortunately, for ComScore, the tool is not so great, as it is direct competition. ComScore does (or perhaps used to?) have a business model built around providing media buyers with this sort of information. Google has just made this business a lot harder and the ComScore share price has reacted appropriately - down over 17% on the day's trading immediately after the announcement.The data to accomplish this is coming from a series of data sources, such as Google Analytics, AdSense data, Google Search data and third party external sources which are used in an aggregated manner, which does not use any personally identifiable information. The amount of information that Google has at its disposal is quite staggering and very scary.Google has the ability to enter many industries and utilizing all of this aggregated user data to its advantage and quickly dominate. In the software industry, it was always a joke that you hoped Microsoft didn't decide to do what you do. Now you have to hope it isn't Google entering your space.
30 Jun This post is from from my other blog here A new Google webinar is being held on the 8th of July 2008 which will give website owners the inside word on three of Google's most valuable tools; Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, and Google Optimizer.Whether you're a seasoned Google tool aficionado, or a newbie - this new "free" webinar will be valuable viewing, as these three tools are essential whether your focused on search engine optimization or Google advertising.Google describes their tools:Google webinar registration.
30 Jun This post is from from my other blog here A significant targeting improvement to the Google advertising platform is in the wings.Google has confirmed that they're running tests on the AdWords platform which see it relying on more than just the current search query to determine which ads to display. The search giant openly admitted using a user's previous query to enhance ad targeting in the past, but now the scope of this behavioral tracking has been expanded.Google gathers a significant amount of data from users as they conduct several searches in their quest to find relevant information. It was only a matter of time before Google utilized this information to help improve the relevance of the ads presented in the SERPs (search engine results page).Confirmation came via some questioning by Saul Hansell from the New York Times. Saul was following up on tests conducted by Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray - which uncovered that ads were being influenced by multiple queries several minutes apart.Nick Fox, a director of Product Management at Google confirmed what the tests had shown. According to Saul's article, Nick had this to say: "We are trying to understand what the user is trying to do right now…In some cases, those queries are ambiguous, so you need a little more context...It is probably not just the previous query that matters...You want to know if the user is still doing the same thing. You wouldn't want to go back a month. You wouldn't want to go back a day. But you may want to go back two or three queries."using broad match keyword targeting and I'm not 100% sure whether Exact Match ads carry greater weighting or less. Either way, the success of ads displayed, based on the previous searches, does not impact Quality Score.The important fact for advertisers is that better targeting generally means better results. Less budget wasted on misguided searches and clicks is a good thing. Expect to hear more about this in the coming months...
25 Jun This post is from from my other blog here So you have your website but just can't seem to get good ranking in Google's search results. Well, if you're a DIY search engine optimizer then what's best way to fix this? This is the questions that USA Today recently asked Google engineer and active blogger, Matt Cutts. Matt has outlined 5 basic yet vital tips to optimize your site so that Google can find it. So I bet you want to know these tips, don't you? Well, here they are, straight from the expert's mouth:
1. Spotlight your search term on the page. "Think about what people are going to type in to try and find you," Cutts says. Matt's example is of meeting a chiropractor from San Diego who complained that his site couldn't be found easily using Google search. The words "San Diego chiropractor" weren't listed anywhere on the site. "You have to make sure the keywords are on the page," Cutts says. So it's best to let people know so immediately what your business is, at the top of your page.
2. Fill in your "tags." Title and description tags are crucial, Cutts says, because they are shown in search results most often.
3. Get other sites to "link" back to you. Google ranks sites based on popularity. Cutts says it looks at more than 100 pieces of data to determine a site's ranking.
4. Create a blog and post often. Cutts says blogging is a great way to add links and start a conversation with customers and friends. With a blog, you can link back to your site and offer links to others. It's also a great way to start building content, Cutts says.
5. Register for free tools. Google's google.com/webmaster offers freebies to help get your site found. Google's Local Business center (google.com/local/add) is the place for business owners to submit a site so it shows up in local searches, with a map attached.
G-Boost, which will help build your Google ranking with 5 new backlinks each month!
25 Jun This post is from from my other blog here  Considering that nearly 20 million Americans live in areas that are not served by a single broadband provider this certainly is a great initiative to make internet access available for all. I hope that Google can really help make an impact in this campaign as it helps all Americans.
25 Jun This post is from from my other blog here We recently reported on Google being sued by Viacom and it seems that the search giant has come under attack again, but this time over stolen trade secrets. LimitNone, a small Chicago- based software company, claims Google has taken trade secrets from the company and violated consumer fraud law. The dispute centers around a LimitNone-developed tool that allows people to move Microsoft Office calendar items and email to the Google platform. LimitNone claims it showed this tool to the Google Apps team in early 2007 and were repeatedly assured that Google would not roll out a competing product.
23 Jun This post is from from my other blog here Within days of the 3G iPhone announcement, Yahoo! has made its own announcement in the mobile space.http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/31/iphone-101-change-your-default-search-engine/) most users are lazy and will go with the default. That alone will prevent Yahoo and MSN from accessing a huge number of users - at least Microsoft have their own smartphone operating system and can steer users to their web properties via that, leaving Yahoo! to try to secure deals with whoever is left over.
23 Jun This post is from from my other blog here If you're a "Do It Yourself" search engine optimizer - here's 5 great extensions and plug-ins to turn your internet browser into the ultimate SEO tool.Okay - before i get into the tools, important note: if you're not using Firefox (or a browser based on Mozilla e.g. Flock), then the following tools will be useless. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you speak to), "most" of them don't support the likes of Internet Explorer, Safari etc.So onto the SEO plugins and tools:so there you go...now you've got access to my 5 essential SEO add-ons for Firefox.Be warned - having them all running can slow down your searching, so only switch them on when doing your regular SEO work.Happy rank hunting...
23 Jun This post is from from my other blog here In the fallout of the recent Google Yahoo! advertising deal, Microsoft has been left pondering whether it will ever make a dent in Google's ever growing search advertising market share.A newly announced deal with TV advertising platform, Navic Networks, suggests that in the short term, Microsoft is focusing on advertising channels outside of the search landscape it has pursued for so long.Navic Networks works with leading Cable TV companies to provide targeted advertising via their Admira ad network. Navic works with the likes of Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Charter, providing advertising solutions aimed at specific viewer groups with capabilities to click through to more in depth content.Google TV this year. But the search giant is yet to really leverage its innovative cross medium advertising platform.Perhaps Google's failure (to date) was due to the fact their internet advertisers are hesitant to transition budget to TV - a medium which has offered less accountability and lets face it - much higher entry costs.There's no doubt that Microsoft will see this as a valuable extension of their adCenter platform, but initially, their target audience for the Navic based offering will be companies more familiar with TV advertising - but seeking greater tracking and targeting.and perhaps then convince TV advertisers to use adCenter for the search advertising...probably not
17 Jun This post is from from my other blog here  Making YouTube profitable was one of Google's biggest goals this year and seeing as though we are already in June this may be one goal that just falls to the wayside.
17 Jun This post is from from my other blog here If you live in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway or Sweden and have always dreamed of working at Microsoft, then your dreams might just be about to come true.
Microsoft has announced plans to open a search technology center in Europe.
In an effort to bolster its Live Search efforts, Microsoft plan to open the new center sometime during Microsoft's next fiscal year, which begins on July 1.
There is no doubt that Microsoft will be banking on a great return on such a large investment. If it succeeds I think this could be the shape of things to come for Microsoft Search in the future.
17 Jun
16 Jun This post is from from my other blog here Yahoo! has effectively surrendered in the online race to win advertisers PPC dollars, with the signing of an agreement to allow them to syndicate Google ads within their search results. So if you can't beat em, then join em! The Yahoo!/Google agreement means that Google's dominant position in the Pay Per Click market, is now even more dominant.There is no doubt that Yahoo! was under pressure from shareholders, after rejecting Microsoft's outright takeover bid, or the alternative proposal to work with Microsoft on search. Several high profile share holders are calling for major management changes while others have filed lawsuits due to the rejection. The deal is meant to assist Yahoo!'s under performing revenues.Putting aside the details of the deal (or even the no deal with Microsoft) Yahoo! has abandoned the PPC market, its users and advertisers. Google have increased their already dominant position and bought even more market share which has the effect of stifling competition.Competition breeds innovation - for both search consumers and also the advertiser. The paid search market is still relatively young and going through rapid changes and growth. The incentive for Google to "win at all costs" by outgunning their competitors with product innovation is gone. Microsoft may very well have the deep pockets, and ownership of the enterprise desktop but they lack search traffic to be a true competitor - at least in the short to medium term.A lack of competition also means that advertisers are likely to pay more for each click. Advertisers will be forced to pay for Google, rather than the cheaper Yahoo! rate. Whilst this is great for Yahoo! and their shareholders, it is not great for anyone who is already struggling to make PPC ROI effective.Whilst a combined Yahoo!/Microsoft might not have been perfect, it at least would've provided competition for Google, benefiting advertisers and searchers alike.
16 Jun This post is from from my other blog here Sick of sites that force you to sit through a Flash splash screen intro in order to get to the homepage? Well Google agrees with you and are now offering a "Skip Intro" link to save you. Philipp Lenssen from Google Blogoscoped first noticed the "Skip Intro" when conducting a search for "yuasa france". 
16 Jun This post is from from my other blog here  If the developers themselves are to be believed, this was a deliberate block by Google and now that it has been discovered the search giant is now back-pedaling to make everything OK again.
16 Jun This post is from from my other blog here Call it a "recession", an "economic slowdown" or "market re-adjustment", but either way, small business owners are bracing in the face of uncertain times, wondering which way to move to survive!The Wall Street Journal via "The Journal Report: Small Business" shared some vital small business marketing tips from a recent discussion with Stefan Tornquist, research director of MarketingSherpa. Stefan Tornquist took the opportunity to provide some key pointers for business operators to leverage "underused marketing channels" to improve their marketing performance in "a shaky economy".According to the survey MarketingSherpa conducted in Feb/Mar 2008, the majority of small businesses (those with fewer than 100 staff) are playing the "sit and wait" game. However, a large proportion of respondents see the current economic climate as an opportunity.Tornquist points out, "that people who see the down economy as an opportunity aren't spending theirmoney in the same way. They're taking money out of traditionaladvertising and direct-marketing campaigns and putting it online. Thatwas a movement that was already taking place, but the economy isaccelerating the trend."The article is a great read for all small business owners - whether you're feeling the pinch or not. Here's some excerpts from the interview that I feel are worth highlighting:WSJ: What marketing strategies should small companies be looking at right now?Tornquist: "I'm of the opinion that it's a good time to increase a brand imprint...One of the greatest challenges for small companies is to make a namefor themselves, and a downturn actually provides an opportunity to dothat because it tends to suppress the branding activity. There'sabsolutely the opportunity to leapfrog competitors, especially if thelocal leader is using the downturn to curtail their activities.WSJ: But don't online ads offer better bang for the buck and anopportunity to jump ahead of other small companies that aren't onlineat all?Tornquist: Definitely. Many small companies direly need to improve on[marketing using search engines]. What we see with small organizationsis a lot of them have gotten into search marketing, but many of theirprograms are quite limited... they have yetto do the work to figure out what the highly converting search terms[those that lead to sales] are. When you look at organic search [theunpaid results that appear when someone types a phrase into a searchengine] and poke around in different industries, you find out thatsmaller companies do not show up when they should. A nice thing about online marketing is it's cheaperthan offline. But the real advantage is it's easy to analyze, and thereare many programs to help." WSJ: What about companies that simply have to cut their marketing budgets? Are there ways to save? MR. TORNQUIST: "...Also, they should focus on increasing conversion [the number of hits onthe site that lead to actual sales],... Let's say you're an e-commerce site. You'reprobably experiencing something like 50% abandonment [of shopping-cartitems by shoppers]. A big part of that is caused by usability problems.And copy [the text description of products] is still the No. 1 factorin whether we buy or not. So companies should be conducting usabilitytesting and copy testing of ...
16 Jun
16 Jun This post is from from my other blog here So you've turned to search engines to acquire new customers for your online business. So the question remains - Heathers post over at the Hitwise blog.It's seems fairly obvious that e-commerce operators and online retailers are more likely to generated revenue based conversions from Google, but that said - if you're targeting the segments that frequent Yahoo!, spreading your search advertising budget around could be a worthwhile test.
09 Jun This post is from from my other blog here The helpful people at Yahoo! are threatening offering to optimize the ads in your search advertising campaign according to a recent change in their terms of service (TOS), according to RustyBrick over at SEroundtable.In a move that has sparked uproar in the search advertising community, the sneaky change to their TOS, now allows Yahoo! to access users accounts and undertake changes to improve the performance of the campaigns - WITHOUT the advertisers' consent.Unauthorized changes to advertisers account is genuinely concerning, no matter what their apparent motives. Here's how the new TOS read:"OPTIMIZATION. In the U.S. only, for those advertisers not bound by an Insertion Order, we may help you optimize your account(s). Accordingly, you expressly agree that we may also: (i) create ads, (ii) add and/or remove keywords, and/or (iii) optimize your account(s). We will notify you via email of such changes made to your account(s), and can also include a spreadsheet of such changes upon your written request. If you would like any of such changes reversed, please reply to such email within 14 days of the change(s), and we will make commercially reasonable efforts to reverse the change(s) you specifically identify. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you remain responsible for all changes made to your account(s), including all click charges incurred prior to any reversions being made. It is your responsibility to monitor your account(s) and to ensure that your account settings are consistent with your business objectives."So in essence, its another case of "buyer" beware. If you don't email Yahoo! upfront and remove their right to optimize your account, then you're giving them permission to spend your advertising budget as they see fit.Now, i'm sure (okay - fairly sure) the intention of this strategy isn't to abuse the trust of Yahoo! advertisers and unscrupulously spend their ad dollars - but surely they could have offered such assistance in a far more transparent way.Is asking for assistance so hard. Many advertisers would have jumped at the chance to get their campaigns optimized for free! But threatening to change accounts without prior approval is almost laughable - if it wasn't true.At this stage, the TOS change is only impacting US advertisers, however i strongly implore all advertisers to pay close attention to any communications from Yahoo!, and unless they wish for Yahoo! to manage their campaigns without notice, email them to prevent it from happening.
08 Jun This post is from from my other blog here I first introduced Google TV ads in March this year, and recently wrote about the program giving away $2000 credit to advertisers. Well, today marks a further enhancement to the program, by allowing advertisers to monitor their campaign performance using Google Analytics.With Google Analytics, Google TV advertisers will now be able to track conversion rates, revenue and visits alongside metrics from TV ads including:
 To set up tracking for your TV campaign, you'll need to link your Google AdWords and Analytics accounts. To do this easily, simply register both programs with the same Google account.Once the first TV campaign is run, a report will automatically appear under the AdWords drop down section of the Google Analytics account. Here you will be able to pull all the data from your ad advertising campaign.Personally, I love how this program makes it easy for small businesses to get started with TV advertising. We all know ROI is critically important for most advertising campaigns - so these statistics are certainly a great leap forward by Google.
08 Jun This post is from from my other blog here Recently, it appears that Google Maps have enhanced their local search results to display more information about local businesses without having to click on the listing. The enhanced listings now include a thumbnail, an excerpt from the most recent review and a link to post your own review.You can see the previous layout here, with the new structure below:  Local Search Listing service which submits your business to 46 local search engines including Google, Yahoo! the Yellow Pages and more!.
05 Jun This post is from from my other blog here Have you been looking over your website and wondering what you need to do to increase your sales, leads or sign-ups?Well Google are offering you the "chance of a lifetime". Imagine having the Google team give your website the once over, and undertake all the testing and tweaks to improve your site's conversion.It's no longer a dream. The team at Google are running the "website Workout" competition which will see a select group of business/website owners win the opportunity to have their websites optimized for more leads, sign-ups and/or sales.According to the Google Website Workout page:"Our consultants will work with you to discover ways in which we can increase site performance. Using Website Optimizer, our free website testing and optimization tool, a team of experts will work with you to determine the page layout, headlines, images, and text that will drive the most business from your site."here's the contest video: To give your website the chance of winning an conversion overhaul by the team at Google, enter the Website Workout competition before June 17th 2008. You can submit your entry here. Website Workout Competition
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Google is yet to make any comment regarding this lawsuit but when they do we will certainly let you know.
