ineedhits's Gooruze Blog

Google's Outright Domination of Online Video Space

ineedhits — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:14:00 -0700

Google seems to have a firm grasp on yet another online space in the U.S. - online videos.

ComScore has released data for March, showing that Google has emerged as the top U.S. video property, registering more than 4.3 billion videos of the total 11, 476,886 videos viewed online.

Google share increased by 2.6% to 38% when compared to February 2008. Of this 38% market share, YouTube accounted for 98% of these videos.

Google's rivals in this space don't even come close; actually the next closest is Fox Interactive Media, which holds only a 4.2% share.

Google's purchase of YouTube back in 2006 certainly seems to be paying off. How can Google capitalize on this even further? I think running ads on YouTube would certainly give them some strong advertising revenues.

Google Presentation: "What Google Knows About Spam"

ineedhits — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:12:00 -0700

Popular Google employee Matt Cutts has posted his presentation from the recent Web 2.0 expo on what Google knows about spam. The presentation was a keynote speech at the conference and gives webmasters some great tips on how to avoid spam penalties for their sites.

One of the key points Matt makes during the presentation is that search engine optimization is definitely not spam:

"Search engine optimization, the practice of trying to get your sites web site
to rank higher in search engines, is not spam. Google does not hate SEO."

He refers to spam (or webspam) as someone trying to cheat, take shortcuts or break the rules, so that their website shows up higher than it deserves to show up. Some of the common examples he shows are sites using keyword stuffing, repetition and hidden text to try and artificially boost their rankings.

Matt then comments that if you can frustrate spammers (cost them time or effort) they are less likely to spam your website. Finally Matt encourages all webmasters to sign up for Google Webmaster Tools which can help provide notifications to website owners if Google finds any problem with their site.

Google AdWords Adds Landing Page Load Time to Reports

ineedhits — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:07:00 -0700

Earlier in March, Google AdWords announced that landing page load time will become a factor in calculating your Quality Score. Google have now updated AdWords reporting to display this information before it starts to become a Quality Score factor in mid-June.

Below I've provided an example of what this looks like for one of our keywords with a "Great" quality score:

To access this information, simple hover your mouse over the magnifying glass next to each keyword and click on the quality score "details and recommendations" link.

If you've found your load time to be poor, you may wish to optimize different areas of your page to improve speed. Some of these key areas to watch are:

Server speed - the computer that hosts your website
Database - how reliant is your web page on a database
HTML code - how much code makes up your web page
Images and Media - what's the size of the images and rich media on your page
Scripts - the use of Javascript and other scripts on your page

Some basic tips include; optimizing your images to be less than 50kb, trimming down on excess HTML code, ensuring your site is hosted on a reliable server and minimizing scripts used on your website.

Why Google Would Love to Expand with Yahoo!

ineedhits — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:02:00 -0700

You may recall the recent partnership between Google and Yahoo!, which saw Yahoo! serving Google paid search ads alongside its own for a period of 2 weeks. The two week trial has now been called a "brilliant test" by Google, who would happily expand the advertising partnership in an effort to prevent Microsoft from renewing their bid.

By making sure Yahoo! does well, Google are effectively preventing the company from falling into the hands of Microsoft, who is eager to join with Yahoo! to seriously compete with Google.

"We were a big partner of Yahoo a few years ago," co-founder Sergey Brin said. "It's great to be working with them again." Google CEO Eric Schmidt also remarked, "We have had a brilliant test which was two weeks long."

All these comments are a strong indication from Google that they would love to further expand the advertising deal and contribute to Yahoo!'s success.

Aside from assisting Yahoo!'s success, the deal also worked out well for Google in another way, with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer commenting that the Google test was one of his reasons for terminating negotiations with Yahoo!:

"In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us."

All this means for Google, is that by perusing a long term deal with Yahoo! - they would go a long way towards blocking any further negotiations between Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Glue Could Stop Yahoo! Falling to Pieces!

ineedhits — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:42:00 -0700

Despite all the negative attention Yahoo! has received lately thanks to its rejection of the Microsoft merger, they have managed to bring some good news with the implementation of a new way of presenting search results called Glue.

Glue Pages, which is currently in Beta form for the newly launched Yahoo! India, combines traditional search results with other related information including Wikipedia entries, stock chart, Flickr images, news and even Google blog search results.

Traditional search results appear in a strip on the left side of the page, which you will see from the image below.

I think that this is a great innovation from Yahoo! as it increases the possibility that searchers are going to find exactly what they are looking for in a Yahoo! search.

At this stage, there is no immediate plan to make this available for the US or other areas, as explained by Yahoo! spokeswoman Kathryn Kelly. "We encourage other regions to develop things that work for their regions," Kelly said. "If it does get traction, potentially something like it could launch in the United States."

So I guess for now we just cross our fingers and hope it does well enough in India to then allows us all to reap the benefits.

Google Controls Europe Market, Yahoo! & Microsoft Not Even Close!

ineedhits — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:38:00 -0700

Google really is the world's biggest search engine! This fact has been further cemented by recent statistics released by ComScore showing that Google commanded 79% of searches across Europe in March 2008.

There seems to be no threat to Google by Yahoo and Microsoft in Europe as they currently hold fourth and fifth place with both only claiming around 2% of market share.

It is interesting to note that there was an increase in share for search engines in the Eastern European markets, which are dominated by non-English language search technology.

Nasza-Klaska.pl and QCL Ricardo, two Polish search engines, have shown considerable growth. Nasza-Klaska.pl held 1.3% of European searches in March, up from 1.1% in February. While QCL Ricardo increased to 1.2% in March.

Jack Flanagan, ComScore Executive Vice President explains further. "With Russia's online population now the fastest growing in Europe, it is likely that some of these local search engines will continue to gain traction and market share."

If you would like to tap into this growing Google dominance in Europe, then Google Advertising might be just the ticket for your website.

Google AdWords and Affiliate Home Based Businesses

ineedhits — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:27:00 -0700

There are thousands of different home based business products available on the web today and many have become very popular amongst affiliate advertisers. Over the years I have come across a wide variety of home based affiliate websites; some of which are very clear and a few that have simply confused me.

Recently, in a move to weed out some of these lower quality affiliate websites, Google have increased the minimum cost per click for certain over crowded affiliate programs.
A few weeks ago one of our Google AdWords Qualified Technicians attempted to setup a campaign in Google AdWords for a common Home Based Business affiliate site and noticed that Google had placed a minimum cost per click of approx $10 on every keyword.

The same technician also attempted to use similar keywords for a less known Home Based Business site and to his surprise the minimum cost per click was approximately $0.70. Using Yahoo! Search Marketing proved to be a winner for the sites affected by Google's high cost per click as quality traffic was delivered for approximately $0.50 per click - 1/20 of the price Google wanted.

Affiliate advertisers need to ensure they are promoting a high quality affiliate program that delivers real value to consumers. If your program is just a gimmick or hyper competitive it may be best to look at some other alternatives - especially if you're considering Google Advertising for your website.

Microsoft Pulls the Plug on Yahoo! Merger!

ineedhits — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:30:00 -0700

Over the past weekend, the news broke that Microsoft had withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo!

The reason behind the withdrawal is because Microsoft was not willing to pay what Yahoo! expected. Microsoft increased its' $31 per share cash & stock bid to $33, but Yahoo! wouldn't accept anything below $37.

Here is the letter from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang advising him of the withdrawal.

May 3, 2008

Mr. Jerry Yang
CEO and Chief Yahoo
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Jerry:
After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!.

I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo!'s Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially appreciate the time that you have invested personally. I feel that our discussions this week have been particularly useful, providing me for the first time with real clarity on what is and is not possible.

I am disappointed that Yahoo! has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our decision to offer a 62 percent premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.

In our conversations this week, we conveyed our willingness to raise our offer to $33.00 per share, reflecting again our belief in this collective opportunity. This increase would have added approximately another $5 billion of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer. It also would have reflected a premium of over 70 percent compared to the price at which your stock closed on January 31. Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5 billion or more, or at least another $4 per share above our $33.00 offer.

Also, after giving this week's conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.

We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a "hostile" bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us for a number of reasons:

- First, it would fundamentally undermine Yahoo!'s own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system. This would also fragment your search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them. This would undermine the reliance on your display advertising business to fuel future growth.

- Given this, it would impair Yahoo's ability to retain the talented engineers working on advertising systems that are important to our interest in a combination of our companies.

- In addition, it would raise a host of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer, including Microsoft, would want to inherit. Among other things, this would consolidate market share with the already-dominant paid search provider in a manner that would reduce competition and choice in the marketplace.

- This would also effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their and your search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo. In addition to whatever resulting legal problems, this seems unwise from a business perspective unless in fact one simply wishes to use this as a vehicle to exit the paid search business in favor of Google.

- It could foreclose any chance of a combination with any other search provider that is not already relying on Google's search services.

Accordingly, your apparent plan to pursue such an arrangement in the event of a proxy contest or exchange offer leads me to the firm decision not to pursue such a path. Instead, I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft's proposal to acquire Yahoo!.

We will move forward and will continue to innovate and grow our business at Microsoft with the talented team we have in place and potentially through strategic transactions with other business partners.

I still believe even today that our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on the table.

But clearly a deal is not to be.

Thank you again for the time we have spent together discussing this.

Sincerely yours,

Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation

It's not entirely clear if this marks the end of the whole episode but it certainly appears to (at least on the surface).

Google TV Ads out of Beta, Get $2000 Credit

ineedhits — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:17:00 -0700

Google AdWords has finally released Google TV ads out of beta, a program we first covered earlier this year. The program has been an invitation only beta test since June 2007 and is now available to all US based advertisers.

Google TV Ads allows AdWords advertisers to distribute a TV advertisement across various U.S. networks using the traditional Google AdWords bidding system. If you're an AdWords advertiser you should now see a TV option near the bottom of your account under "other campaign types".

Google TV Ads allows advertisers to create a 15-60 second video advertisement and distribute it on participating US television stations during certain programs or times of the day. The program also features an ad creation marketplace where advertisers can post their requirements and have a professional video advertisement designed for them.

To celebrate the launch, Google are giving away $2000 credit to cover the cost of creating your commercial. Once your ad has been created all that's left is to choose which TV networks you would like to have it distributed on.

Google's least expensive option is 500,000 to 1 million weekly impressions for $150 per day. Depending on your industry you can buy more or less impressions for the same price.

According to an iProspect study, 37% of searches are inspired by TV, which means TV can still be a great way to send traffic to your website. As I've said before, I think TV advertising is a great way to compliment search advertising, and the Google TV ads platform makes it very easy to get started.

Major Google PageRank Update!

ineedhits — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:10:00 -0700

Over the past few days, many webmasters and business owners have reported seeing an update in the PageRank of their websites; as displayed in the Google toolbar. I can also confirm an update has taken place with some of our newer pages registering a PageRank for the first time.

This PageRank update has created a huge stir amongst the search marketing industry, with many reporting that it's the largest PR update we've had for some time. There are a whole bunch of threads going on right now as well as conversion on Twitter about how the update has impacted various websites.

According to reports so far, the update doesn't appear to have impacted rankings too much, just the PageRank value shown in the toolbar. It's important to remember that while this value can give a good indication of your sites progress, the values from toolbar PageRank can be around a month or so old. Google uses real time PageRank values when calculating search results which it releases to the public a month or so later.

Many webmasters, who have had their sites penalized to a PR 0 in previous updates, are reporting small gains of 1-2 points with this latest update. If you've recently launched a new website it also might be a good idea to see how you fared. One of our new sites launched in early March got a PageRank for the first time, so the update must have pulled data from after this point.

As always share your PageRank changes via our blog comments!

Google Concerned for Yahoo! and Not Impressed With Microsoft

ineedhits — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:54:00 -0700

So what's the opinion of the worlds biggest search engine on the teaming up of the second and third biggest search engines? We are worried, but not just for ourselves!

In a recent interview with CNBC, Google CEO Eric Schmidt admitted that they are concerned at the proposed takeover of Yahoo! by Microsoft primarily because there is the potential for Microsoft to use the merger for evil rather than good. "We've primarily been concerned about the possibility of a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo because of Microsoft's history and because the assets that Yahoo has are quite valuable. And we actually think that in the wrong hands, they could be used in the wrong way" Schmidt said.

So just what impact will this merger have on Google? Schmidt adds that this is a widely discussed topic both in the outside community and internally at Google "A lot of people debate this. There's a big debate within the company. People say, on the one hand, that we stay focused, which of course, we're very focused, while they're doing their maneuver. On the other hand, people are concerned about the history, as I mentioned, and the possibility of merger. So I don't think we really know yet. We debate it all the time."

Check out the interview transcript and video here.

The main concern for Google is that if the merger is successful, then it is really going to be a blow to consumers. "If they go ahead and the merger's ultimately successful, it would be possible for Microsoft to integrate some of the properties and essentially eliminate consumer choice, particularly in electronic mail, instant messaging, the things where they have 80 or 90 percent market share, and that's a sweet spot for Microsoft in its ability to eliminate choice" said Schmidt.

So I guess we will have to wait and see if Google comes to the rescue of Yahoo!

Microsoft: Search and Shop on the Hop!

ineedhits — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:46:00 -0700

Microsoft has announced a new type of search for their browser-based mobile search at m.live.com.

"Product Search" displays products available in online stores including images, product descriptions and prices

There are some great features that are available for this type of search, including:

*The ability to check out reviews based on features that are important to you (i.e battery life, color etc)

*Sorting the results by user ratings, expert ratings, and price.

*Ability to filter the results by specific brands, categories, and price ranges.

*You can read expert reviews and specification sheets describing the product.

Here is an example of how the search results appear:

Microsoft has released this new search feature for mobile phones to help shopper's comparison shop quickly and easily, whilst not in front of a normal desktop or laptop computer.

Another feature being rolled out with this update is "Find My Location" for Japanese and UK consumers, which automatically pinpoints searchers locations based on their proximity to cell phone towers. By using this feature, searchers will be able to find nearby businesses quickly and easily, without having to enter their location.

Below is an example of "Find My Location".

These are two great new features from Microsoft especially for those of us who are always on the run, but still need to find exactly what we need, quickly.

Yahoo! Search Monkey Business Unveiled

ineedhits — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:11:00 -0700

Earlier this year, Yahoo! initiated discussions about opening up Yahoo! Search to web site owners and developers in an effort to enhance the functionality, appearance and usefulness of its search results.

April 24th marked the release of the developer platform, named SearchMonkey. Whether this title accurately predicts the usefulness of the new initiative is yet to be seen, but it was an obvious marketing play, if the release post titled "start monkeying around" is anything to go by.

And now to the monkey business. What can website owners and would-be developers do with the new SearchMonkey platform. According to the release:

Site owners can build enhanced search results that will provide searchers with a more useful experience by including links, images and name-value pairs in the search results for their pages (likely resulting in an increase in traffic quantity and quality)

Developers can build SearchMonkey apps that enhance search results, access Yahoo! Search's user base and help shape the next generation of search

Users can customize their search experience with apps built by or for their favorite sites

The SearchMonkey release coincides with other significant changes and the news that Yahoo! is transforming itself into an open and social platform from the ground up.

Together with SearchMonkey, they're unifying all their social properties creating user synergies across various Yahoo! social sites and apps under the technical architecture known as Y!OS - Yahoo! Open Strategy.

Yahoo! has announced more improvements and new releases in the last few months, than since I can remember. Seems the good old Y! had a few tricks up its sleeve - good timing given the heat from both shareholders and Microsoft.

Will it all pay off - I guess we'll find out soon enough. Til then, if you're interested in monkeying around - then sign up for the SearchMonkey preview.

The Googley Principles - The Google Guide to Good Web Design

ineedhits — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:39:00 -0700

Google's User Experience Group (UX), which is responsible for interface and visual design for Google's various web properties and projects, were asked to define the principles behind a Googley User experience.

Google shared the UX's Googley Principles on their Official Blog, in what might seem like a warm and fuzzy corporate PR exercise - however pay attention - there are some important lessons for all website owners.

The Googley Design Principles Are:

1. Focus on people - their lives, their work, their dreams.
Put simply - focus your designs on the audience, and their intrinsic needs and wants. More often than not, users don't need to see flashing neon banners - they simply need you to show them how you'll address their requirements, mitigate their fears and satisfy their needs.

2. Every millisecond counts.
The online world is "time precious" and users are impatient. Give them what they need quickly in a way that's fast and easy to digest!

3. Simplicity is powerful.
KISS (Keep it Simple Silly) - the oldest rule of marketing, design and life (for most of us). Complexity creates confusion, distracts from the goal and alienates users.

4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
Don't fall into the trap of designing for the lowest common denominator. Great design makes it easy for novices to get involved but also keeps it interesting for the more proficient user/visitor.

5. Dare to innovate.
Constantly challenge yourself to try something new and to stand out from the pack - always keeping in mind that the innovation should be user-centric.

6. Design for the world.
The World Wide Web knows no boundaries - so try to design for all potential audiences. That includes people, as well as technology (e.g. broadband vs dial up) and accessibility (i.e. mobile devices).

7. Plan for today's and tomorrow's business.
Business is about being sustainable. So always design with your long term goals in mind. Don't focus on quick win strategies that hurt potential long term viability.

8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
Design is supposed to compliment and enhance the content - not overpower it. The key is creative subtlety. If your design distracts - then it detracts from your goals.

9. Be worthy of people's trust.
Trust is vital for business success, and design plays an integral part in alleviating user concerns and building visitor confidence - be that through professional appearance, clear navigation, accessibility to relevant information or use of assurance builders such as testimonials and affiliations.

10. Add a human touch.
People like dealing with people. Design with this is mind. Talk to the user, make their journey intuitive, and show some personality in your design and approach.

While much of this sounds rather common sense, trawl the web for only 10 mins and you'll find plenty of websites and applications that break one, if not all, of these principles.

Don't get too caught up in the process of making your design all about the "bells and whistles" - at the end of the day it's all about the user! Refer to this list before embarking on your next design project.

Re-Design Breathes New Life into AOL

ineedhits — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:37:00 -0700

AOL has announced that traffic to their programming sites hit an all time high in March 2008 after 6 months on continuous growth.

Page views on AOL's programming sites jumped 35% in March, compared to a year ago, while unique visitors rose 11%, to 56.5 million users, according to ComScore Media Metrix.

So what is the secret to such growth for AOL?

AOL Vertical Programming Executive Vice President Bill Wilson explains that "our strong growth is a direct result of rebuilding each and every one of our vertical Web sites over the past 12 months, with the goal of providing consumers highly relevant and rich experiences that focus on key passion points... The consistent and strong growth in both reach and engagement, along with the newly reorganized Platform-A, gives us a great opportunity moving forward to monetize our increasingly highly engaged audience."

ComScore ranked AOL's Platform-A as the No. 1 advertising network, reaching 170,537 million unique visitors in March, or close to 91% of all domestic online users.

Two of AOL's core sites that received a makeover included Money & Finance, which rose 24% in year-over-year page views in March and Sports, which rose a massive 148%.

It would appear that AOL is doing something right with its transformation strategy and this may be just the beginning of a strong comeback for the former Internet king.

Google AdWords URL Mix-Up, Image Ads for Mobile

ineedhits — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:10:00 -0700

There have been reports over the weekend that Google have been testing a new layout for their AdWords sponsored links. The listings now show the display URL above the description, in contrast to the traditional format.

AdWords listings have always followed the same format shown below:

The new layout flips the display URL and Ad text:

Also if you take a closer look at the second listing, they also have the display URL and ad text on the same line - something I have never seen before.

Who knows whether this is another Google test or some internal mistcheif at Google, but it would be interesting to see if the new layout effected click through on these listings. I'm just speculating here, but if the URL and Ad text are on the same line, it may also give advertisers more than the 70 character limit for the ad text.

In related news, AdWords advertisers can also now use image ads in their mobile advertising to supplement the text based advertising that's been available for some time now. The image ads work just like the non-mobile version, with the content and size of the image matched to the surrounding text and size of the screen. To learn more check out the post on the Google AdSense blog.

Click Fraud on the Way Down, Great News for Advertisers

ineedhits — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:57:00 -0700

Click Fraud has reversed an upwards trend to fall for the first time in Q2 2008, with the overall click fraud rate dropping 1.8%. Click Fraud occurs in pay per click advertising when a person or script imitates a regular web user by clicking on an ad in order to cost the advertiser money.

The graphs below indicate the overall click fraud trends according to Click Forensics:

While the overall click fraud rate has risen from the same time last year - the decline may be an indication Google and Yahoo! are making efforts to filter out 'fake' clicks and improve the overall quality of their programs. According to Tom Cuthbert, president of Click Forensics:

"Our Q1 2008 data bears out what industry analysts have suspected for several months - Yahoo! and Google seem to be finally filtering out more of the click fraud and non-converting traffic they used to let through," ... "Removing some of these higher-profile abusers appears to be having an effect on lowering the click fraud rates. If advertisers, publishers and ad networks continue to take proactive steps to filter out this lower quality traffic, the click fraud rate could trend downward even further, and that's good news for the entire industry."

Google in particular have made a few changes over the past year to actively prevent click fraud which included reducing the clickable area in their AdSense ad units. This news is great for online advertisers who can rest easy knowing that advertising platforms are working hard to prevent this type of fraudulent activity.

If you'd like to get started with online advertising, but don't want to worry about issues like click fraud, why not try our Easy Search Advertising program. Your campaign is run by advertising professionals who live and breathe online advertising to ensure you get the best return for your money!

Yahoo! Provides us with Report on Bad Clicks

ineedhits — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:18:00 -0700

No one likes 'bad clicks' in their pay-per-click campaign and Yahoo! for quite some time has been throwing out these bad clicks on your behalf.

Now however they have gone one step further and announced a new reporting feature that enables advertisers to see which clicks Yahoo! has deemed to be invalid.

Named the "Click Filter Report" it is available in Yahoo! Search Marketing accounts by selecting the report under the "Traffic Quality Reports" section in the Reports Navigator.

So why did Yahoo! create this report:

* We want to give you as much transparency as we can

* We want to add to the tools at your disposal for monitoring your own traffic.

* We believe our Click Protection System is one of the best in the industry, and we want you to see what it does for your account.

Yahoo! has advised that they typically discard between 12-15% of all clicks. So there is no doubt that this report will be a great advantage for advertisers in tracking if they are being targeted by click fraud perpetrators.

If you're looking to start out in the Yahoo! Search Marketing program but need a little help, then why not give Easy Search Advertising a go. Your Yahoo! campaign will be managed by one of our experienced account managers, who are always up to date with the latest enhancements in the program.

Yahoo! Updates Search Ranking Algorithm

ineedhits — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:29:00 -0700

Yahoo! have released another "weather report" on the Yahoo! search blog to say they are currently updating their crawling, indexing and ranking algorithm. This follows a string of recent updates with the previous change being only last month.

The changes will be rolled out over the next couple of days so during this time there may be some movement in the Yahoo! SERPs (search engine result pages). Webmasters should continue to check their pages over the coming week to see how the update has impacted their rankings.

Also, it should be noted that this update will only affect organic rankings. Your sponsored ads, directory and other Yahoo! listings will remain unchanged.

If your site isn't performing as strongly as you'd like in Yahoo!, there is a handy tool which can help to diagnose some of these problems. Navigate to Yahoo! site explorer and enter the URL you would like to explore.

Here you can see all current pages indexed by Yahoo! as well as how many backlinks these pages have. If you verify your site you can also get access to some more features including the ability to upload an XML sitemap.

Another good idea to improve your ranking is to try professional optimization services like our basic optimization package. Its combination of on-page meta tag optimization and link building has been designed to improve your ranking on Google, Yahoo and MSN. Best of all, its currently on sale for only $47.99.

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this update with other users, simply leave a comment below - we'd love to know what you think.

DIY Tip: Track Your Conversions

ineedhits — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:21:00 -0700

If you're still using the basic statistics software provided with your website hosting - it's time to get real. The online landscape is becoming increasingly competitive and today's webmasters should be using a detailed statistics package to learn how visitors are finding and using their website.

Of course there are a whole range of different stats you need to be tracking, but I wanted to talk about one of the most important - conversion tracking.

What is it?
Conversion tracking simply measures every time a user performs a desired action on your website - whether that's a sale, a signup or a download. It allows you to uncover which clicks are most likely to generate new customers, so you can spend your money most effectively.

Conversion tracking becomes especially important if you're promoting your business with PPC programs such as Google AdWords. It allows you to narrow down your results to a keyword level, to show which exact search terms are generating the best ROI. Once you know which terms are converting the most customers, you can increase your bids on these words to further improve your ROI.

How does it work?
Conversion tracking is easy to implement, you simply install a small snippet of code on specific pages to indicate a transaction has taken place. For example, this could be your order thank you page, or a newsletter signup confirmation page.

When this code is loaded on your site, your statistics program records a transaction has taken place. If you're using Google Analytics, this conversion tracking can also link to your Google AdWords account to be viewed as part of your account statistics.

How do I get started?
To get started, you will need to implement a quality statistics program on your website. The free programs we recommend are:

Both these programs require you to install some code on the pages you want to track and provide an easy way to measure conversions.