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Search
Environment Prompts Specialization
The first six months of 2006 have been a period of expansion, growth and significant
change in the search marketing universe.
Ask.Com
Rolls Out New Blog Search Engine
Ask.com proudly announced that it would release its new blog search engine. And
not just any engine, but a "world-class blog search, which we don't think
exists now', said Mark Fletcher, CEO of Bloglines (a division of AskJeeves.).
Well, he was only off by a year. It's now available.
Wii
To Launch In November?
The rumor mill began buzzing away yesterday evening when an "inside source"
at Nintendo was apparently badgered into giving up a tentative release date for
the hotly anticipated Wii game console. As rumors go, several people think it
might very definitely be November 6th.
$100
Laptops Will Cost $130
Many people were skeptical that MIT Media Lab could churn out a laptop for $100.
And they were right. It'll cost between $130 and $140 until the One Laptop Per
Child lead Nicholas Negroponte can fill enough orders to drop it to $100. But
it's been a valiant effort and excitement around the recently unveiled prototypes
is growing.
Yahoo
Rolls Out Video Update
The new update for Yahoo Video adds uploading to the site, so its users can publish
and share the videos they create through the service.
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Google Discussion |
#1 in MSN but nowhere
in Google
I've been optimising www.placesun.co.uk for the search term 'a place in the sun'
for a while now and this has had great results in MSN (#1) and Yahoo (#4) but
this term is still nowhere near the top in Google. I even have a link
to the website achieving higher results on the 4th page of Google UK!
Cutts Lets The "Big
Daddy Cat" Out Of The Bag
Well bad analogy, but Matt definitely divulges more factual information you will
find on any SEO forum in his recent blog posting called: Indexing
Timeline. This very important post by Matt, discussing the Big Daddy update...
Am I In Google Limbo
or Purgatory?
My site was de-indexed by Google. I have
sent a few re-inclusion requests, and it looks as though I may be getting back
in (finally). A Google URL query comes up with no results, but I have a page rank
of 3 in the Google toolbar. I show 2 links with the Google link command (I have
hundreds).
Hidden Content Allowable?
I've assumed, based on "Google's Quality Guidelines" that hidden content
is not acceptable when attempting to obtain good rankings in Google or other engines.
However, I've been monitoring some competitor's sites and found several using
this method on their main index pages to obtain good rankings.
Google Listing Site
Under Multiple Domains
Google is listing our client's site under one domain. The next day iy shows the
site using another domain. Is Google rotating multiple databases? Even though
the client owns many domains, only one is used to promote the site. How is google
finding these other domain names?
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Thursday June 01, 2006 |
During a conference call with investors, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and other executives
answered questions about their partnerships, rivalries, and products in the industry.
Editor's Note: Should Google worry more about Microsoft? How
much of a loss in ad revenue can they sustain and survive? Chat about your Google
views at WebProWorld.
 The
partnership with AOL is going well, Schmidt responded as the questions got under
way during the conference
call on May 31. "We are extending the advertising business to include some
display partnerships, which we've always been contemplating."
With regards to its expansion, Google will keep that under its direct control. Even though Google has "many more services" it would like to provide, Schmidt said the company still prefers to build its infrastructure rather than enter into agreements to lease it from a service provider.
Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's VP of product management, responded to a question about which product has exceeded expectations by citing the Keyhole acquisition, which powers the images on Google's Maps and Earth products. He also noted how this has helped drive Google's local search advertising business.
He also noted that Google's Book Search needs to benefit both publishers and advertisers in order to succeed. The more esoteric publications, which do not have the kind of staffing and resources necessary to get in front of a broader audience, will benefit from the service.
Keyword remains the main ranking factor for advertising, and Google is testing whether people are responding to newer ad formats and displays. "Part of our culture is to constantly test these things," Schmidt said; he also noted that some products which don't necessarily work great for Google could be offered to partners.
Beta tests of shopping for premium products like iPods from certain merchants using the Google Payments system are not a harbinger of an eBay Express competitor. Instead, it is much more of an advertiser automation service: "Advertisers will see better returns, more click-throughs, and better conversions."
With the Dell deal, one questioner asked if Dell might involve a barter of hardware for Google services, which Schmidt dismissed. Google does purchase a lot of Dell products though. The six months Google and Dell spent testing the integration of Google's software with Dell PCs proved helpful in making that ready for Dell customers.
Even though the number of job postings for Google have increased, it doesn't necessarily indicate Google will hire more people. "We hire the person, not the job, at Google" Schmidt said. Those postings are more of a marketing program to entice people to apply to work at Google.
Real estate has been a frequent executive topic at Google, according to CFO George Reyes. "As the headcount grows, we're going to continue to add real estate," he said. Google has acquired more property in the Mountain View area.
Schmidt responded to a question about WiFi by observing how users who move from narrowband to broadband Internet access become heavier users of Google, and they use more advertising services. They are also more likely to purchase Google's ad products.
By making faster access available with municipal WiFi efforts, Google hopes to drive more usage of its services. "For us it's a very clear correlation," Schmidt said. The company also wants to spur broadband usage internationally.
Google does not plan to build a web browser. "The industry is obsessed with this browser question," Schmidt said. "We have a very active partnership with the Firefox folks." He anticipates Firefox getting better in response to the debut of IE 7 from Microsoft; Schmidt also cited Safari as a strong browser choice for Mac users.
If a browser with integrated Google products would provide significant user benefit, then Google may consider building one.
Integrating inventory with Google searches, particularly with the rise of click to call, will be important to Google as it continues to develop its advertising products. Rosenberg also cited AdWords and Google Base as ways to provide local businesses the opportunity to get their information in front of searchers.
"Local is becoming an increasingly significant component of our business," Rosenberg said.
Even though demand for branded advertising products has increased, Google is still looking for the best solution to doing this. Rosenberg did note how site targeting and demographic site selection has helped Google make some progress there.
About
the Author:
David is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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Search
Environment Prompts Specialization
 By
Jim Hedger
The first six months of 2006 have been a period of expansion, growth and significant
change in the search marketing universe.
There have never been as many online options available to commercial advertisers and their agents as there is right now, a trend that shows no signs of abating. Just to keep things interesting, lot more change is expected in the second half of the year as well.
Search engine marketing, as an online business sector, covers a lot of virtual ground. Search engine optimization started as a cottage industry in the mid 90's. By the mid 2K's, Cottage country had become an industrial district. Today, the search marketing sector extends far beyond the organic search results the business was originally built on.
Search is part of the mainstream marketing consciousness but as the online environment evolves so quickly, what works in the mainstream world often needs to morph through several experimental stages before finding a way to adapt. The scariest and most beautiful thing about Internet is that nothing lasts long enough to be considered a constant. There is still obviously so much room for innovation and outright invention that the playing field is naturally prone to change at any given time. That's been the back-story of the first six months of 2006.
The sudden expansion of advertising options has presented a dilemma for the traditional,
independent-operator, search marketing sector. There are far too many methods
and means of online marketing for any one person or company to keep track of.
The sector appears to be responding by developing a sense of segmentation based
on specialization that goes far beyond the separation of organic SERPs and Pay-per-click
advertising.
Read
the Full Article
About
the Author:
Jim Hedger is the SEO Manager of StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc. Based in Victoria, BC, Canada, StepForth is the result of the consolidation of BraveArt Website Management, Promotion Experts, and Phoenix Creative Works, and has provided professional search engine placement and management services since 1997. |
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Garbage In But Not Going Out?
Since site optimization for search purposes has become a mainstay in the Internet industry, one of the bigger complaints concerning search results is the amount of search spam sites that appear in today's SERPs. Not only do these sites appear on a prevalent basis, quite a few of them have garnered respectable rankings, all for sites that exists for no other reason than to spam either a search advertising program or the search engines results themselves.
What should be done about these sites? What is your reaction when you see them appear in search results, especially for keywords you may be targeting? Check out what's going on below and share your thoughts with us.
|| Chris||
Publish
Garbage, Get High Ranking
It seems that everytime I do a search lately, on most any topic, the Search Engines return with "Garbage" pages topping the results. You know the pages I'm talking about. They all look the same. They have an "Adwords" campaign at the top, followed by scripts that either provide a PPC link list, an RSS feed, or a combination of both.
These pages provide little true value except to their authors who are probably
making a living off the "click-throughs" being generated by people trying to actually
find information on the Internet, instead wasting time running in circles following
the linkage from these pages.
Most of these pages resemble a Search Engine results page for the most part. Many
of them link to similar pages never bringing the user to any usefull content or
product. And, they all share one unique trait. None of them provide any content
of their own.
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WebPro Question: |
Google's documentation for their Search Appliance is poor, to say the least. They
offer 3 methods, that I can tell, to optimize search results within your site.
I've tested them all and see no difference in search results. Anyone out there
with any expertise in this area?
- richmar
Comment
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