By: Michelle Sharp, Senior Search Account Manager  

Search and display work better when done in conjunction. This sentiment is echoed throughout recent industry announcements like travel search engine Kayak launching a display ad platform to leverage search queries and serve more relevant graphical ads across its network. Along with Jerry Yang’s response to the Google/Yahoo advertising deal, “…the convergence of search and display is the next major development in the evolution of the rapidly changing online advertising industry”. And now Microsoft is taking it a step further.

The software giant recently released their latest Digital Marketing Insight in which the Atlas Institute compared conversion reporting based on the last ad standard to a reporting model that associates credit to all of the digital touchpoints in a consumer’s online history. Results were evaluated using Alltel Wireless data, in order to determine the effect multiple touchpoints have on conversions, namely, the degree to which exposure to display ads affect search results.

Their report, Beyond Search: Illuminating Alltel Wireless Sales Funnel, revealed that attributing conversion credit to all of a consumer’s touchpoints led to a 60% reduction in Alltel sales credited to the search channel. Alltel’s largest-volume search engine had a 58% reduction in credited sales. In contrast, the four largest display sites had a 33% average increase in conversion credit.

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By: Erin Payer  

Financial services marketing during a recessionary period is a challenging concept. Gas and energy prices continue to skyrocket, the housing market continues to collapse and the credit crunch continues to spread beyond mortgage loans. The already complex landscape of the financial services sector is now further complicated by diminishing consumer confidence and the threat of budgets cuts or reallocation of funds. However, the old adage, “don’t rob Peter to pay Paul” is especially true during times of economic uncertainty when a budget cut could mean losing market share.

In addition to recessionary challenges, financial marketers are now finding themselves forgoing some of their traditional marketing efforts in order to cater to current consumer behaviors, which are increasingly moving online. All news is not negative, however. According to a recent ForeSee survey, customer satisfaction with online banking sites has risen significantly over the past five years, which is partially attributed to the increase in security which allows for more types of transactions. The survey also showed that highly satisfied online banking customers are 31 percent more likely to buy additional services from the bank and 54 percent more likely to recommend the bank to others.1

So as more and more customers are moving online for their banking needs (and are becoming increasingly familiar and satisfied with the experience), so must marketing efforts in order to boost customer acquisition and retention. By focusing on marketing strategies that provide customer data and analytics, finance marketers can glean an understanding of their customer behaviors, enabling them to more effectively deliver targeted rewards at the point of sale.  

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By: Jamie Keaney, Senior Search Strategist 

The number of video search engines has grown exponentially over the past 3 years. On one panel at SES San Jose, two of the four speakers had ran their own video search engines. How people are using video has been a common theme here, and an interesting one.

According to one panelist, most video searchers only refine their search about 1/3 of the time, opting instead to browse “related” videos that appear on the search results page. For example, a search for “Pepsi and Mentos” may bring up 25 videos, and if the user doesn’t find the video they’re searching for, they may get distracted by another video on the page and play that one instead. The tendency of search and browse rather than search and refine is separate from what we see occurring on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

It’s literally changing the ad model associated with video search, making it more efficient to use pre-rolls or interlays.

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By: Jamie Keaney, Senior Search Strategist 

SES San Jose kicked off with an informative session on how search is used throughout the world. As marketers working in the United States, we tend to focus on how Americans are using search and craft our strategies toward them, but the largely untapped markets of Asia and Latin America provide ample opportunity for all search engine marketers.

In China, for example, the search engine Baidu dominates Google with a 71% share of the market compared to Google’s 23%. Although the market share is so high, advertising on Baidu is much smaller compared to what advertisers spend on Google in North America. This presents a tremendous amount of advertising opportunities if your client offers their product or service to the pacific countries.

So why aren’t more people tapping into Baidu when it seems like such low hanging fruit?

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Let’s face it; the basic press release has lost its luster with the rise of the optimized and most recently the social media press release. While traditional releases may work well when pitched directly to the media, an optimized press release takes it a step further by being search engine friendly. So what differentiates the Social Media Press Release you might ask?

This type of release targets not only the press and search engines but also consumers. It is meant to be a supplement to the more traditional formats. Let’s take a look at an example…

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By: Jamie Keaney, Senior Search Strategist  

A full week of search engine strategies would put the majority of American’s to sleep, but for a group of a few thousand internet savvy individuals, this is a week that has been anticipated for months. SES San Jose is comprised of Search Marketers at all levels, with the option to attend over 80 sessions - from high level “how-to’s” to in depth strategic considerations.

The sessions thus far have been good, but not great. Of the 3 tracks that I attended thus far, 2 turned into sales pitches. Strategic recommendations suddenly turned into “and by the way we offer this service to help you grow and here’s our contact information…” Three of the four speakers on video search engine optimization had clearly spent more time developing their sales pitch rather than making a great content filled presentation.

Despite the pitches, there is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from being in San Jose this week. With 80 sessions containing 3-4 speakers each, its easy to get some varied perspective on important topics like how search works outside of the US, the death of mobile search, igniting viral campaigns and, if you dare, how to run your own search engine.

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By: Bryce Walat, SEO Copywriter 

In the SEO Book.com article Writing for Buyers vs. Writing for Cynics, one of the comments stated that:

 “It’s easy to say that you should write about what you love or you’ll get bored, but the big money is always in things that no one loves, like mortgages and loans, etc…”

What do you do when you have to write about something you don’t love, or don’t know that much about, and have to write it for SEO?

Reframing SEO Writing

At its most basic, search is about questions and answers, and problems and solutions. When searchers search, they’re ultimately looking for answers to questions or solutions to problems. They’re looking for a way to compare mortgages and pick the best option, or get help with payment problems, for example.

With that in mind, SEO writing is more about answering a question or solving a problem than writing content to promote a product or service. Therefore, when writing for SEO, it’s a good idea to reframe the task from writing to promote a product or service to writing to answer a question or solve a problem.

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By: Matt Naeger, Executive VP, Operations        

Google’s new study “The Branded Value of Search” states the need for ROI models to include the impression –not just the click—to value the effectiveness of a Search campaign. But is a click the ultimate value for Search? And will this model result in less relevant Search results?

While there is no argument against Search Marketing being a brand-building vehicle, Google’s recent study on the branded value of Search claims that there is a direct correlation between a brand showing on a generic phrase and intent to buy. To further this, Google is calling for an impression-based ROI model to support their findings of a decrease in awareness when a brand does not appear in a generic search term. But won’t this model give too much power behind the click?

Activities that happen after the click such as site re-visits, signups for programs, coupon downloads, purchases using downloaded coupons, etc. all have much more conversion driving value than an impression. This is not meaning to devalue impressions, because they do carry branding capabilities and showing up for a generic search term is often the catalyst for consumers to continue down the buying cycle. However there is not enough evidence yet to monetize a Search impression and moving to an impression-based ROI model could prove to be detrimental to the industry as a whole.

The study further asserts that marketers have greater control over their message with Paid Search, especially on generic search terms. Again, it’s true that Paid Search is a quick and effective medium to control marketing messages; however, it is not the only way. It seems Google is overtly overlooking the effectiveness of organic as a way to manage a brands’ messaging. What about adjusting organic content, titles and descriptions relative to the keywords that a brand shows up for? The crux here is to know what keywords are driving your organic ranking, something Google remains elusive about.

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By: Pat Stroh, VP Analysis and Decision Support  

While there is a widespread recognition that online tracking is important for the operation of optimized marketing campaigns, I believe there is a widespread lack of understanding about how online tracking impacts actual campaign analysis and management.  First and foremost, it is important to recognize if and how conversions are tracked BACK to actual clicks (from search ads, etc.).  The reason why this is so important is that it is very difficult to understand the impact of bid changes, ad copy tests, etc. if the conversions are not attributed to the actual management activities.  Imagine a situation where conversions occur days after the initial click (e.g., loan applications).  If you don’t synchronize that conversion with the click management tactics, you will often be mislead about the success or failure of your campaigns.  So, as a foundation of an online search campaign, it is very important to establish the link between the conversion and the click-date.  This can be complicated, because the tracking codes must be “sticky” throughout the conversion process. And there are other complications, such as cookie length, “conversion attribution to which click?” questions (e.g., the first click or the last click?), and whether “intermediate conversions” such as the online application itself can actually predict a lagged conversion days later.  Without a firm understanding of that process, however, it is very difficult to make informed decisions regarding your online campaigns.

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By: Matt Naeger, Executive VP, Operations   

Although surrounded by consumer privacy concerns and lackluster technology and expertise to back up the concept, behavioral targeting still remains to be a hot topic amongst marketers.

The combination of Search and display can be a tactic to find and leverage targeted audiences by yielding an influx of searchers looking for a particular brand or a visible brand driving an increase in searchers.  Recent news has indicated that Google might have already ventured into the behavioral targeting arena (re: Behavioural targeting: Not necessarily a bad idea). Although unconfirmed, this could be the push that the industry needs in order to develop an effective behavioral targeting system that delivers more directed advertising to consumers, increasing conversion rates, while gathering relevant consumer information in a transparent manner.

Rich media is starting to evolve as a way to harness behavioral targeting.  For example, applets that allow user interaction and special effects can be effective in branding because of its user engagement opportunities.

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By: Jamie Keaney, Senior Search Strategist  

Cuil (pronounced “cool”) is the latest in a string of dozens of search engines that once seemed poised to displace Google as the dominant search engine. For all the print and hype that the likes of Mahalo, Snap, SearchWiki and SpaceTime have gotten, none have come close to displacing even MSN’s portion of the search landscape, and they have less than 10% of it.

What makes Cuil slightly different is that they’re not trying to re-invent the wheel of search. Mahalo sought to compare several search engines results at once, Ask.com had their run at universal search (incorporating images and video into search results) and SpaceTime attempted to replace link based results with visual representations of each page. Cuil is concentrating at beating Google at their game, by indexing billions of pages and displaying the most relevant results. In doing so, Cuil claims to have the largest index, an astounding 120 billion pages. One has to wonder how relevant and quality results can come from such a large database of Web sites. Their algorithm is purportedly based on site content, rather than Google’s preference to lean heavily on in-bound links, which would seemingly complicate their attempts to surpass Google’s relevancy.

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By: Kevin Amos, Vice President of Strategic Planning  

The announcement is everywhere. Google and Yahoo will index Adobe Flash content! But, many have stated that search engines already index Flash content. This is true, but the new partnership forged between the software company Adobe and search engines Google and Yahoo! will allow for a more thorough indexing of Flash content (which includes files formatted as ShockWave Flash files (SWF’s)).

Because Flash content has not been search engine spider friendly in the past, the recent announcement that Adobe has provided the engines with core technology to allow the engines to read the Flash code in much the same way a Flash player would read that same code on your local computer is significant to the industry. Google has already implemented the updates to its search engine, while Yahoo! is expected to follow behind soon.

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Can Less Be More?

By: Pat Stroh, Vice President of Analysis & Decision Support

In a previous article, “In the Mix: Search in the Overall Marketing Mix,” I outlined how ups and downs in search activity and success metrics are often related with activity in other media channels, such as TV, radio, print, and online. One common finding is that as media activity increases, impressions and clicks go up as well.

In reaction to this situation, we often just expand the budget to ensure sufficient capacity and exposure to our search campaigns. Keywords are often added as well, that reflect any unique phrases conveyed in the other media. Destination URLs are adjusted, etc. End of story? Hardly.

The top-of-mind reaction to external media pushes is to increase bids and budgets. If a brand, product or service is being made more visible via TV or radio, for example, it is a simple corollary that a client wants more visibility (read: more widespread and prominent positioning) in the search results. But that approach can get you into trouble.
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Many marketers are familiar with using Paid Search as a direct response medium, but not many discuss using Search Engine Optimization for direct response marketing. Watch the video of Richard Hagerty, CEO of IMPAQT and Matt Naeger, Executive Vice President of Operations to learn more about how companies can determine how best to present themselves and their Web site to their ideal audience over the long-term using SEO as a direct response medium. Find out why it is best to test different messages and use an analytics tracking packages to learn what works and what doesn’t on a case-by-case basis. Using a Web site’s referring keywords and psychographic/demographic profiling tools can help companies analyze how their Web site visitors respond to different messages, allowing companies to target their ideal audience online using a proven key message.

By: Vanessa Cooper, Senior Manager, Social Media Services

Three years ago, “social network” was a foreign term to the average Internet user.  Now, with hundreds of social networks (like MySpace, LinkedIn, and Facebook) to join online, some are overwhelmed by the growing number of options. Should I join one that my friends enjoy?  Which network could best advance my professional career? Which site would allow me to launch a successful word-of-mouth marketing campaign?

With so many choices out there, why not make social networking easier by simply integrating the entire Internet into one, unified social network?  Wouldn’t it be beneficial for any Web site owner to drive sticky traffic to his or her site by adding social applications, such as the ability for users to add pictures, post comments on walls for conversation, engage in applications, and so on? Leaders in the social media industry believe that this concept is the wave of the future for social networks, which will eventually be everywhere, like air.

In fact, it’s already happening.  A day after MySpace announced their Data Availability product, which will allow users to share their profiles and other personal data across the Web, rival Facebook introduced Facebook Connect, which acts in the same manner as MySpace’s product (and was announced only days later despite its unfinished state). Not surprisingly, Google launched Friend Connect, a similar tool (with a similar name) in a preview release beta stage just days later. Not everyone can use it yet, but site owners, social network owners, and gadget creators alike can attempt to sign-up to be a part of the beta stage testing. Read the rest

By: Vanessa Cooper, Senior Manager, Social Media Services

As you know, the Internet has become a popular medium for US adults to learn, communicate and collaborate. Social networking online is something that many adult Internet users and 70% of online teens engage in every month In fact, eMarketer projects that by 2011, one-half of online adults and 84% of online teens in the US will use social networking.

Along with the rise of social networks comes a trend towards the use of social applications on these networks. Those familiar with social networks (like LinkedIn, Myspace, and Facebook) can easily recognize these applications.

As social applications rapidly spread across the Net, developers have experienced growth in the number of Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, created for different online sites. Creating separate APIs for each individual site is an inefficient and costly process, especially for developers working with a tight budget. Google decided to solve this problem with its OpenSocial platform, which is a free, open source API built for use across a number of participating Web sites. Using standard JavaScript and HTML programming languages, developers will have the ability to create applications that can access a number of social network’s friends and update feeds. The program benefits the developers and also the growth of the participating sites as well. Read the rest

By: Jamie Sterling

Video search optimization is fascinating. Why? Because it allows search marketers to relive the early days of search engine optimization (SEO). And, because Video SEO presents a unique challenge for search engines, who must address the problem of indexing rich media content which resides on most Web sites today and is not very search engine spider-friendly.

With the rising popularity of video hosting and sharing sites (like YouTube), as well as the advent of Universal Search, which includes the placement of videos, photos, blog entries, news stories, and other search verticals on the main search engine results page (SERP), video has an increasing chance of being found and seen online – and optimization is an advertiser’s answer to HOW. With the large amount of video online, it is important for companies to understand the things they can do to help get their videos get noticed now – and in the future.

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Matt Naeger, Executive Vice President of Operations, discusses the future of Search Marketing and Social Media in this video. Find out more about what we dub ‘Search 2010’ right here on SearchEngineOptimization.com.

What does this mean for advertisers?

By: Matt Naeger, Executive VP, Operations

According to Yahoo, Microsoft’s proposal to buy only its Search business did not fit into its plan to grow Search and display advertising. So hearing Thursday’s announcement of the agreement between Yahoo and Google which would enable Yahoo to run ads supplied by Google alongside their search results on some of its Web properties in the United States and Canada, seemed a bit surprising. The agreement is non-exclusive, giving Yahoo the ability to display paid search results from Google, other third parties and Yahoo’s Panama marketplace. The initial outcome of this partnership might bring Yahoo what it ultimately needs right now – money, through an increase in bids and max CPCs (a result of advertisers wanting to retain control over their ads on the Yahoo network which will only be done by eliminating any potential for Google’s ads being shown on Yahoo). However, the long-term effects this partnership might have on Yahoo could put an end to their hand in the Search business. Read the rest

Learnings from SMX Advanced International SEO Forum

By: Seth Hagerty, Director, Business Development, West

Last week I attended the SMX Advanced show in Seattle, WA. As part of the conference, I sat in on a seminar about international search engine optimization. For this discussion the panelists were the following:

Moderator: Jeffrey K. Rohrs, Vice President, Marketing, ExactTarget
Q&A Moderator: Barry Smyth, Director, Search Strategies
Speakers:
Andy Atkins-Kruger, Managing Director, WebCertain
Ian McAnerin, CEO, McAnerin International Inc

It’s always interesting to compare your own SEO experiences and insights at these conferences to that of the speakers. And, along those lines I was intrigued to hear Andy Atkins-Kruger of WebCertain’s top “ten low hanging apples for international SEO.” In fact, what Andy spoke to was on the same page as IMPAQT’s Matt Naeger, who recently wrote about this same topic a few weeks ago for SearchEngineOptimization.com. Here’s a recap of what Andy said at SMX Advanced: Read the rest