The fine folks over at Search Guild have posted a snippet of javascript code that breaks the Autolink feature in Google's new toolbar, preventing it from making on-page alterations. The links that would have appeared on the page are still available if the user chooses the drop-down on the toolbar however links will not appear on your page.
Full instructions included, some html assembly required.
Several forums are tackling the Autolinks feature in Google's new Toolbar v3(Beta). It's getting ugly friends.
Accusations of spyware, adware and malware are springing up beside the obvious comparisons with Microsoft's previous abuses of their powerful position.
Over at Jill Whalen's HighRankings Forums, the discussion turns towards class action lawsuits.
Meanwhile, over at CNet, reporter Stephanie Olsen speculated on Google's hiring of former MS product manager (and the original author of the failed MS Smart Tag auto-link software) and the fact that Microsoft continues to hold the patent on auto-linking.
Even in the quiet retirement community of Palm Springs the local daily, The Desert Sun raises questions about Google Maps (a main feature of Google autolink) and a person's right to privacy. After writing such an angry article, one wonders what will happen if the author Cindy Uken starts to dig a little deeper.
Google is flirting with the event horizon of a massive PR nightmare.
The environment is changing rapidly. The core temperature of the search engine sector is continuously growing warmer as interest in search-advertising increases. Over a dozen consecutive quarters of this intensifying heat is melting the ice cap that formed a glass ceiling between search engine marketers and mainstream advertising consciousness. Long-term revenue streams are now flooding as the melting ice cap sends buckets of liquid capital flowing into all regions of the sector.
Changes to an environment are often signaled by several seemingly unconnected events, the effects of which only become fully apparent as they unfold. The list of seemingly unconnected events grows longer every day. For months astute observers have noted the very real effects these events have on how search results are provided. An example would be the effect of Blogs both on popular culture and Google results. Another is the growing adoption of broadband in the United States. Other examples include, Yahoo's growing relationship with Hollywood, Google's global goals, MSN's declaration of tech-war, Ask's recent acquisitions, and this week's purchase of About.com by the New York Times. With search engine related items hitting the financial news on a daily basis, multi-billion dollar revenue projections and the sudden realization of what were once science-fiction fantasies, a shift in corporate group-think was inevitable. One day, the print-addled ad-execs on Madison Avenue woke up, smelled the silicone and went to the bank.
This shift in corporate consciousness has, to a large degree, caused and affected the evolution of the search engine environment. Over the past three years, various concepts of search have moved in from the peripheries towards the middle on the radar screens of corporate marketers. Being creatures of habit and working from their power base, they went where the money was.
Until recently, the largest advertisers appeared to define search as the PPC (pay-per-click) offerings of Google's Adwords and Overture, and the myriad of smaller pay-per-click programs. Unlike the technically challenging and unpredictable world of organic SEO, PPC programs give marketing departments solid numbers to base budget estimates and outcome projections on. PPC programs with their massive contextual distribution networks caught the attention of corporate marketers and their investments in PPC have sustained and driven both Google and Overture's bottom lines.
The reliance on PPC has had a positive effect on the business of search, allowing both Google and Yahoo to post record profits on astronomical revenues in the last quarter. Investment in the search sector is also driven by the success of PPC/ad-delivery programs. That bulk of money is being pumped back into innovation and acquisitions with both giants and their smaller rivals expected to release dozens of new features in the coming months.
Corporate reliance on PPC has had a negative effect on growth in the search sector as well. With more attention being paid to paid listings, many large corporations neglected their websites' organic placements. Numerous studies have shown that most online traffic is generated by the organic or unpaid listings and that actual sales tend to stem from a holistic branding approach to search engine marketing. Reliance on one form of search-advertising has almost certainly inhibited online sales for many larger corporate sites, a situation which places their confidence in search-advertising models at risk. A lowering of advertiser confidence may be evidenced by a slight decline in the number of ad-purchases and keyword cost-bids in January though post-Christmas budget-shock might be an invisible factor.
For the past few weeks search engine journalists have written about the lack of corporate interest in organic placements and the perils of ignoring the free listings. Another study released today by Nick Hynes of UK SEM shop, The Search Works notes that over two thirds of FTSE100 (UK version of Fortune100) companies do not appear in the Top20 under keyword phrases relevant to their industries. Similar results can be found when searching for Fortune100 companies at Google, Yahoo and MSN. This prompting is starting to have an effect with an increase in corporate awareness about the importance of organic placements. If corporate advertisers find a profitable balance between organic and paid search marketing, this balance will form the basis of optimal search-marketing campaigns for the coming years, thus providing both advertisers and the SEMs who serve them a sense of solid ground in the midst of the rapidly changing environment.
Ultimately, the effects on the environment have been very positive for most of the SEO/SEM sector. Established SEM shops tend to be coping quite well with the sudden changes and are happily netting increasing volumes of big and small fish. They are hiring and training new SEOs and retraining older staff in SEM technique in order to keep up. Several independent SEOs are even turning work away as they are simply too busy to take on new clients. Conventional wisdom says that the organic SEO shops that learn to combine organic and PPC services (either directly or with a third party) will not only survive the changes in our working environment but will be in a position to provide a much more comprehensive service to their clients.
Today's bottom line for both corporate advertisers and the SEMs who serve them is simple; learn, adapt, evolve, integrate skill-sets and thrive in the ever-expanding world of search. As the floods come in, don't be afraid to get your feet wet.
Has the Great Google Lost its Cool? Have they Become Evil?
This week, the world of search was somewhat shocked to learn that Google has included a feature on its newest toolbar, (Toolbar 3 Beta) that adds links to websites viewed when using the toolbar. Known as Auto-links, the tool will direct users to Google maps when a street address is noted and to Amazon.com when the ISBN number of a book is mentioned. It will also provide links to information on vehicle-history when their vehicle ID number is found on a site or forum (US only) and parcel delivery history when a tracking code is mentioned on a site.
Webmasters and search marketers are legitimately concerned about the prospect of a Google tool changing their websites. A prime example would be the second largest online bookseller, Barnes and Noble. If a web-user was to try to purchase a book from Barnes and Nobel while using the new toolbar, a link to rival Amazon.com would be added to the view's version of the Barnes and Noble site as soon as the book's ISBN appeared.
There are a growing number of webmasters and search marketers who believe the introduction of this version of an Auto-links feature is the precursor to even more insidious automated intrusions in content alteration by Google. These thoughts were well summed up in a blog entry from search-blogger Dave Winer.
Four or five years ago, Microsoft was forced to withdraw a similar feature known as Smart-Tags that was to be bundled into new versions of Internet Explorer after weeks of webmaster outrage and ridicule. Judging by recent comments such as "Google is to the Internet what Microsoft was to the PC", the geniuses at Google are about to run into a similar wall of resentment from content creators.
Readers are invited to share their opinions with Google Labs by following this link
Lycos, Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places
Lycos used to be a really important name in the search engine world. Today, it is a shell of its former self with much lower visitor numbers and what seems to be a mismatched marketing strategy. Just when the online world is turning away from online dating services, Lycos announces its "recommittment to search" with a match-making site that draws personals ads from multiple online dating services.
"Lycos Dating Search applies Lycos' search heritage and expertise to the vast number of profiles on leading online dating sites. By providing full-text indexing of millions of profiles, we offer users a much more convenient, efficient and effective way of searching for relationships online," said Adam Soroca, General Manager of Search Services for Lycos, Inc. "Rather than searching on many different dating sites, online date seekers can now quickly narrow the available field of prospective matches on Lycos Dating Search. Lycos Dating Search confirms Lycos' commitment and reinvestment in search."
What strikes me as most unfortunate is that Lycos has several features that make it a very good tool but nobody, even the folks at Lycos tend to mention them. Hopefully, Lycos will be able to find traction by mentioning some of the following positive facts:
Lycos is fed search results from the highly accurate FAST search engine based in Scandinavia.
FAST has one of the largest databases of sites and produced Yahoo's alternative search tool, AlltheWeb.
Lycos recently redesigned their front page to make access to other features, Web, People, Yellow Pages, Shopping, Multimedia, News and Discussion search faster and easier for users.
It is also reintroducing its long-ignored mascot, the Lycos Dog, leading some to anticipate a ramp-up in marketing from Lycos.
Lycos has a ten year history and is owned by the Daum Corporation, one of South Korea's largest communication firms. It is well financed and has good technology fueling it. One wishes they would simply get ahead of the curve.
An ethical SEO dust-up, which started in the South African media last Friday, has spilled over into the international SEO media. Cape Town ISP, Tiscali SA is defending itself after issuing a press release touting new, automated SEO services it offers clients under the name, E-Traffic.
In the press release, Tiscali states it uses hidden text and doorway pages, with the goal of getting clients' websites, "right in the face of active online consumers."
One line of the release states, "Doorway pages are created that target specific search engines to improve search engine rankings." Others contain words such as "hidden text", making obvious implications of keyword stuffing, duplicate content and other violations of common search engine Terms of Service agreements.
The language used in the release outraged local SEOs from firms such as Quirk, Incubeta and Seoza, who fear their burgeoning industry will be called into disrepute if a major South African player starts spamming the search engines with SEO practices considered unethical by most of the sector. Tiscali's press statement also raised eyebrows at well known South African search engine Ananzi with company spokeperson Mark Buwalda being quoted as saying, "While we encourage people to add relevant meta tags and titles to their pages in order to get them noticed, manipulation and playing games does not help one's clients."
In its defense, Tiscali has stated that the term Doorway pages might be misunderstood. What they really meant to say was, "information pages", or "sub-pages". Julie-Anne Doyle, Tiscali's head of consumer products was quoted in the same article saying, "I think perhaps the term 'doorway pages' in the Tiscali context has been misunderstood, and would be better understood if it were called 'sub-pages'. These sub-pages of the Web site are completely and totally part of the Web site, describing the business and products that are being sold in a professional and honourable way, in no way endangering search engine rankings."
The controversy generated a lot of discussion in the past few days, so much that Tiscali's parent company, M-Web is thinking about retracting parts of the service. "We're still busy taking product decisions and working out what will stay and what will go," said Russell Dreisenstock, GM of M-Web's South African division.
Regardless of how anyone else feels about the definition of "ethics" in search engine marketing, this story is evidence the debate is likely to grow in importance as the industry moves ever forward into the mainstream world.
The Times Company, owner of the New York Times has purchased About.com from Primedia for $410 million in cash.
About.com employs approximately 500 experts or guides who create content on thousands of topics ranging from the arts to zoology, attracting 22-million visitors per month.
"The global reach of About.com and opportunities for cross-promotion between its channels and our digital properties will be additive for both businesses," Janet Robinson, president and chief executive of the Times Company, said in a statement posted to the New York Times website.
Along with their flagship newspaper, the Times owns the Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, 16 regional newspapers, 8 television stations and 2 NYC radio stations. It also publishes nearly 40 unique news related websites.
About.com, which was put on the block late last year, also attracted interest from Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves and AOL.
Google is conducting a house cleaning stemming from what appears to be an algorithm update. Several SEOs have noted the typical precursors of change including a decrease in counted back-links and minor fluctuations in page-rank values. For the past few days, Google's results have been bouncing, with placements moving up and down frequently. For a short period last Friday, Google was displaying site descriptions drawn from the Open Directory Project. Last week, just after we began to note these indicators several sites in the SEO sector started losing their placements.
The StepForth domain is doing quite well remaining in the Top10 for our targets across all major search engines. Our continued high placements, when considered against those of some of our competitors show many of the critical items that bring success when chasing highly competitive keyword phrases.
Content continues to be king. We create virtually all our own content. The wording of our site content, including those of our sub-domain sites (news, blog, consultancy, etc...) is written with our target keyword phrases in mind. While the INDEX page only changes two or three times a year, the internal structure grows bigger every day. Google really appreciates topically relevant content and is known to revisit sites when content changes. Blogs are good tools to help your site bulk up topical content. While they don't have to rank themselves, they easily expand the amount of content offered at the domain.
The next major difference seen between SEO sites that continued to rank well and SEO sites that recently lost placements is topically conservative linking strategies. Sites that continue to rank well tend to only seek incoming links from highly relevant sources. SEO sites that have spread their URLs widely across forums, blogs and client-site networks seem to have lost positioning.
SEOs have been cautious about site-wide links for at least six months which has lead to a decline in link-selling schemes. That caution has paid off for those who avoided the temptation to place site-wide links in as many places as possible. Google does recognize the line between all-in links strategies and "valid" text-link advertising.
Lastly, we continue to note the high value of anchor text (text used to phrase a link). A tight focus on our target keyword phrases when links are directed to a page in the StepForth domain helps support strong rankings under those phrases.
With an update obviously underway, webmasters are advised to check the keyword phrases used on their sites, make certain SEO basics are covered and continue to cultivate topical links from relevant sites.
When hunting for stronger sales, it is wise to go where the game is. When the game gets very much smarter, wise hunters learn to adapt. - quote found inscribed in obscure cave formation near Fernwood BC.
As the oft' quoted phrase goes, "...the more things change, the more they stay the same." This phrase can be applied to the search engine marketing sector time and time again. Though several events in the business world of search attracted major media attention last week, interest in organic search has re-emerged among webmasters and search marketing agencies. Two years after the popularization of pay-per-click programs, advertisers are starting to form sophisticated strategies combining managed PPC campaigns and consistent organic placements.
Consumer behaviors are rapidly changing as buyers are researching their purchases online before spending their money. A recent study, "Search Before the Purchase" from DoubleClick and comScore Networks notes half of all online purchases are preceded by multiple product-specific searches. A similar tendency occurs in the brick and mortar retail world with consumers using search engines as product catalogs researching products, vendors and even the fastest routes before heading out to shop.
The study also offers a number of valuable insights into how consumers use search engines to research products they are interested in. Using a list of 30 sites from the Apparel, Computer Hardware, Sports/Fitness, and Travel industries, the researchers examined the habits of 1.5 million U.S. Internet users. It followed the long-term behaviors of identified people who made at least one purchase on one of the 30 sites in the survey. The findings will not surprise organic search engine marketers as they confirm the high value of strong search engine placement.
Know what your potential buyers want to know. Keyword selection stands out as the most important point in the survey. On average, about 75% of pre-purchase search is conducted using generic terms. Only 18.1% - 28.5% of searchers looked for brand names. It is only when consumers are close to making a final purchase decision that they enter brand names into search engines.
Travel consumers tend to know what they want. As part of their methodology, comScore looked at the number of searches conducted using generic terms and brand names and compared the results with the number of actual clicks those searches generated. While search users looking for travel information only typed brand names 21.2% of the time, they clicked on (eventually purchasing) brand name generated results 21.5% of the time, the lowest disparity between use of brand in search and actual clicks generated by brand-names.
Apparel buyers tend to think about clothes, a lot. In the apparel sector, search engine users typed a brand name 27.5% of the time, clicking through an average of 32% of the time. Interestingly, a high degree of pre-purchase research is seen in the apparel sector often starting months before buying. Six to ten weeks before actually selecting a product, online shoppers start entering generic terms. As the weeks go by, they hone in on specific brand names and brand items until they find exactly what they are looking for. Similar behaviors are shown in the three other sectors studied.
Immediate ROI is a poor way to gage success. Much like television advertising, sales on search engines stem from effectively branding a product and putting that brand in front of consumers time and time again. According to the study, "...most buyers complete their in-market search engine research two or more weeks before the make a purchase online." The correct way to measure the success of an optimization campaign is heavily debated in the Search Engine Marketing community and centers around Return on Investment (ROI) vs. Top10 Placement. Many SEOs believe that the achievement of Top10 placements should be the reportable goal while others believe that ROI is the only relevant outcome. According to the results of the study, both are important with ROI (as assumed by clicks) directly related to consistent Top10 placements throughout the research/buying cycle.
Brand it and they will come. Ultimately, search engine users are looking to make the smartest, most cost-effective purchase possible. The study proves what most SEOs have known for years, search users are increasingly savvy consumers. With a world wide web of information in front of them, search users are instantly accessing the information they feel the need to know before buying. While researching, they are going to come across several brand names, some more than others. The search world shares the rule of branding with other forms of traditional media. Regardless of how a search engine user sees your product name, the more often they see it, the better chance they will at least look at your products. As with the various traditional marketing vehicles, placement plays a large role in consumer confidence and loyalty. A product or brand reference that consistently appears in the Top10 organic results with corresponding PPC results and advertising on other relevant websites tends to sell best.
Perhaps the most interesting development in the world of search this week is a sense of a newly minted pattern developing in SEO/SEM techniques. The DoubleClick - comScore study is one of a growing number of papers showing the high value of organic results as part of an overall search marketing strategy. Today's search environment offers advertisers more options than any other medium that has ever existed. The success of a search marketing campaign is greatly enhanced with organic search engine placement but the end result comes down to how advertisers and their search marketers uses the increasing number of tools at their disposal.
Google shares jumped over $10 yesterday to close at 192.99, increasing in value nearly 3% over the day. Prices were expected to drop slightly as the six-month lock down on 177-million held by Google employees and early investors expired at midnight last night.
Trading was almost four times the average volume with 38,563,336 shares in play. Heaviest volumes were seen in the early hours with small spikes happening throughout the day. At the time of this writing, shares are trading on off-hour markets in large blocks at 193.32.
The 177-million that became available on Monday nearly doubled the amount that have become available in the six months since Google's August IPO. Hungry investors were prepared to snatch up shares as quickly as they became available, hence the 3% increase in asking price.
For many NASDAQ watchers, Monday was seen as a sort of a Groundhog Day offering a favorable forecast on the search-sector. Investor confidence in Google remains quite high and that confidence helped the tech-board weather an otherwise lackluster day.
At the time of this writing, Google is up again, trading at 195.93.
Search engine watch has printed December 2004 stats from comScore Media Metrix detailing the market share of the major search engines going into the new year.
Google continues to dominate, generating 48% of all search results either directly or by providing results to smaller search firms such as the Excite Network. Yahoo follows a distant second with 32%. The pre-proprietary MSN came in third with 16% with Ask following fourth at 2%.
Google still holds most of the market but it is down significantly from this period last year when it provided nearly 70% of search results across all engines.
Google is also losing ground when it comes to users choosing a search tool. According to comScore's survey, 35% of all searches are conducted at Google. Yahoo is second with 32% of direct searches. MSN holds steady at 16%. AOL (which shows Google results) is in fourth with 9%, Excite in fifth with 4%, and Ask in sixth with 2%.
These numbers show that search users are turning towards Yahoo and MSN more today than they were last year. It is important to note that these numbers note searches conducted at any Google, Yahoo, MSN, or other's property. A search at Gmail, for instance, would count towards Google's score.
Distribution Share (% of time search is generated by a specific search engine) Google: 48% Yahoo: 32% MSN: 16% Ask: 2% Others: 2%
User Share (% of searches conducted on a specific search engine or specific search engine network) Google: 35% Yahoo: 32% MSN: 16% AOL: 9% Excite: 4% Ask: 2% Others: 2%
Just when we're getting used to the idea that money is about to flow like it did at the end of the 90's, dark clouds and volatility is visible on the horizon. Optimism springing from Google's fourth quarter financial report should be tempered with memories of the industry wide alcohol poisoning suffered in the days after the last time we partied like 1999.
On Monday February 14, 177-million shares of Google will be made available for sale as a time limit on shares held by Google employees expires. This doesn't necessarily mean that the market will see 177-million shares suddenly appear, but with Google's share prices slipping 12% over the past week, high trading volumes are easy to anticipate.
On February 2, Google's share prices peaked at $216.80. Yesterday, Google share prices closed at $187.98, a drop of $4.23/share. (As of this hour shares are trading at $191.32.)
Earlier this week, two key Google insiders sold blocks of shares. Venture Capitalist and early investor John Doerr sold approximately 150,000 shares for about $30million. Co-founder Sergey Brin also sold off roughly 167,000 shares for about $33million.
Google stock is not going to tank but share prices will likely decline in the coming week. Many of these shareholders waited years to cash-in on their options. Most of them will be transiting from being a paper-millionaire to being an honest to goodness real-money millionaire. Early Google employees are among the IT-world equivalents of rocket scientists and it doesn't take one to know that there will be a lot of quasi-rocket scientists dealing with intense pressure to sell their shares quickly lest they personally risk losing hundreds of thousands of dollars by week's end.
Regardless of the volumes expected on Monday, it is highly unlikely share prices will fall too far unless investors fall prey to panic as NASDAQ numbers are sure to be brought sharply lower next week. Investors can only appreciate that Google is currently a money machine and the market is large enough to support numerous contextual ad-delivery networks of differing types. Investors will also appreciate the fact that Google is leading the search field in expanding search related advertising to its growing network of search related services. It also counts about a quarter of the Fortune1000 companies as high market advertising clients.
While Google should continue to please investors, they still have something to learn about pleasing analysts. On Wednesday, Google held its first ever Analyst's day. From all reports, it was a weird day and not exactly a dog and pony show. They didn't have any hard number crunchers for analysts to analyze numbers with but they did have a speech delivered by their head-chef. The New York Times quoted one analyst, Mark S. Mahaney from American Technology Research who said, "They had a formal presentation by their chef but not their chief financial officer. I have never been to an investor day where the C.F.O. didn't speak." Apparently back on the East coast, CFO still stands for Chief Financial Officer. On the West Coast it means Chief Food Officer, hence the speech from head-chef Charlie Ayers. Actually, Google CFO George Reyes was at the event in the role of moderator but he did not give a formal presentation.
CEO Eric Schmidt did disclose that Google spends about 70% of its resources improving search and advertising services, 20% on search-related products such as Gmail, Froogle and Desktop, and about 10% developing experimental ideas like Keyhole. One rumoured experiment they are adamantly denying is an anticipated Google Browser. He also said that the BETA label currently wrapping services such as Google News, Gmail and Groups, and Desktop might stay in place for up to five years. For Google, being in Beta means significant improvements might still be made to the product.
Google is growing rapidly, a pattern that will likely accelerate if it can find enough qualified employees. Investors might be nervous about Monday but chances are Tuesday will be more of a light hangover as compared to the hemorrhage in 2000.
Google shares (yesterday): Last: 187.98 Change: -3.60 (-1.91%) Time: 4:00pm Open: 192.21 High 192.21 Low: 185.25 Volume: 18984186
It has been just over ten years since the public release of the first modern search engine, AltaVista. Infoseek, Lycos, HotBot, Northern Lights, and dozens of others quickly followed AV. In previous years search marketing was much simpler. Since then we've seen the rise and fall of several search firms. Almost as many ideas on how the business of search should be conducted have come and gone in the same period of time. While search has grown far more sophisticated in its first decade, the free (or Organic) listings have been a constant common factor for every search engine.
Organic listings are not generating the column space they once did. Now that an apparently solid business model has been found in paid contextual advertising, search engines and search marketing firms are devoting a lot of attention to purchased placements. Free listings are seen as the loss-leader offered by search engines to attract user attention, much as discounted items at a department store are used to attract buyers to more expensive purchases. Like their counterparts in the corporate world, many new SEMs see their road to profit paved with paid-listings. Nevertheless, the Top10 Organic placements continue to be the most effective area to appear on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) as evidenced by Lisa Wehr's recent Organic placements survey . Organic results are extremely important for a number of reasons, all of which amount to higher conversions.
In using the word "corporate", I am referring to the medium to large-scale businesses. Most smaller firms can quickly incorporate search marketing and website design. Larger organizations tend to have unique IT and Marketing departments with a lesser degree of crossover in communication or responsibility. In this type of environment, developing a coherent search engine strategy can become complicated. Organic SEO is often difficult for the corporate sector for many reasons. Successful Organic campaigns often require new levels of coordination with the involvement of multiple departments beyond Marketing and IT.
Recently the search-related and mainstream media have focused on the dominant profit model, contextually delivered pay-per-click ads such as Overture or AdWords. In most circumstances, both have virtually ignored the Organic listings. The current PPC regime is extremely interesting for the media as it not only provides the profit necessary for the sector to grow, it enables marketers to target their audiences with increasing precision and control. It is also the driving force behind almost everything the various search firms have been up to in recent weeks from the wave of innovation to the rash of acquisitions.
Many corporate marketing departments have only recently realized the importance of search marketing. It is only in the last 2-years that search was placed on the radar screen of corporate marketers. They are learning as they go along and we the media are their main source of information. PPC is the most interesting development in years but in our rush to press, we may be creating a new paradigm in corporate search advertising, one that does not necessarily take a holistic view of the sector.
While there is great interest in being involved in the search-advertising revolution, many corporate websites continue to ignore Organic optimization assuming their size, brand name and longevity guarantees front-page Organic placements. That works for some but there are several Fortune 500 firms that still don't appear in the Top10 Organic listings under keywords relating to their products or services. This results in lost potential. They are basically giving visitors to the competition. A wiser approach for larger organizations is to continually strive for Top10 (preferably #1) placements while taking full advantage of the expansive world of PPC. Managers of corporate websites that do not place in the Top10 under keywords directly relating to their business (such as their name or major product names), really should think about organizing a marketing/IT meeting and hire an SEO consultant to develop a strategy. The process might involve as much education as it does long-term planning.
One of the main reasons for a lack of interest in the Organic listings is that large-scale advertisers are unable to base their yearly advertising plans on expenditures that cannot produce quantifiable numbers. Organic search engine optimization is about trying to achieve Top10 placements against thousands or possibly millions of competing websites. As a common point of ethical behaviour, most SEO firms will not guarantee Top10 placements to their clients. Paid-advertising offers solid numbers for corporate advertisers with cost factors controlled by the advertisers (or their third parties) directly. Organic SEO and the process of organizing an Organic campaign seems complicated and unquantifiable to many marketers.
Both AdWords and Overture can guarantee front-page SERP placement under specific keyword phrases, and both can also guarantee the ad will be seen in dozens of other venues. In some cases, PPC represents the least expensive method of placing an ad in the electronic versions of papers such as the New York Times or Toronto Star. The complex common sense inherent to a global contextually driven advertising campaign is simple for marketers to understand, plan around, and sell. If managed well, a PPC campaign works amazingly well, often bringing unexpected benefits. One of our clients in the tourism business was found, interviewed and popularized by a travel-writer for the NYTimes because of a PPC listing. She is now a travel and hospitality "expert" in her region and finds herself routinely quoted in travel sections around the world. Needless to say her business has increased dramatically. She also continues to rank in the Top5 in Organic listings, adding both credibility and a higher number of visitors to her website.
PPC advertising is not without risks. Many savvy web surfers know the difference between paid advertising and Organic results, tending to favour the Organic listings over the paid. There is also the very real and growing threat of click fraud. Regardless of risk, contextual delivery of search driven advertising is expected to grow into an 11 - 20 billion-dollar industry over the next five years. For many large organizations, especially ones in highly competitive industries, costs relating to PPC advertising are expected to increase rapidly over the coming years.
Adopting a strategy which combines Organic placements with PPC advertising, large websites receive more visitors, gain increased credibility through multiple references on a SERP, and generally make more sales. Focusing on Organic SEO can also help produce stronger Local search results as a focus on keywords in a title or description can place a business higher than another (within fixed parameters such as distance from epicenter of search radius). It also makes for a better, more focused website.
Further reading: Late this afternoon we noticed very similar thinking in an article by Jennifer Laycock who is editor of Search Engine Guide.
Organic search engine placement is important as demonstrated by a recent white paper issued by Oneupweb's Lisa Wehr.
In her study, Wehr used the day a site achieved a Top30 placement at Google as a baseline and examined increases in visitors and conversions. Her findings are interesting as they not only confirm assumptions about Top10 placements, they also show stronger than expected results for sites with Top20 and Top30 placements.
As any SEO sales-person will tell you, conventional wisdom says a first page or Top10 placement at Google will bring visitors and increase sales. Wehr's paper offers quantifiable statistics showing how powerful a front page placement can be. She found that after a period of two months in the Top10, her clients received an average of 627% more unique visitors with conversion rates increasing by 194%. Approximately 23% of these sites previously appeared in the Top30 with 77% debuting in the Top10.
The paper debunks the perception that second or third pages placements do not benefit clients. Wehr found that second and third page results bring dramatic increases in site traffic with a 517% increase in unique visitors after the first month and a 942% increase after the second. This part of the study focused on sites that had not achieved placements before appearing on the second or third page at Google. While sites in the 11 - 30 position might attract visitors, they are not seeing the dramatic increases in conversions enjoyed by sites ranking in the Top10.
The last thing the study proved was that sites appearing after the third page of results simply do not sell. After seeing thirty results across three pages, search engine users are more likely to use different keywords or a different search engine. Going into the study, the team at
Oneupweb worked under the assumption that being in the Top10 is better than being in the Top30 and that appearing below the Top30 was like not appearing at all. Their report confirms their assumption and offers SEOs a credible source to quote statistics from.
The venerable About.Com is on the auction block. Founded in 1996 as the Mining Company, About is one of the oldest well-known Internet properties.
In October 2000, About was purchased by Primemedia for $690Million worth of stocks. Today, the final bids are being accepted from five companies are thought to be in the $300 - $500Million range.
The five companies expected to offer final bids are; Google, Yahoo, The New York Times, AOL/TimeWarner, and Ask Jeeves. The auction, which is managed by Goldman Sachs, has been quietly active for just over a month.
About has seen difficult times over the past few years. While carries has more information on more subjects than most websites, most web-users never included in the "must-visit-everyday" category of news and information sites.
Interest expressed in About from major search engines is not surprising but then again, neither is the bid from the NYTimes. About.com has a massive directory network of expert sites. It also has a huge archive of topic-based articles. Long-time search readers will remember Search Engine Guide editor Jennifer Laycock's daily columns in About.Com.
The future of About.com depends on which of the five firms place the winning bid. Perhaps we are about to see the massive reporting resources of the New York Times appearing at About. On the other hand, perhaps About is smaller than the sum of its parts and one of the four search firms bidding will walk away with a larger advertising network. Whatever happens, About.com has suddenly become very interesting.
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