Google Adds New Updates To AdSense Product Ideas Page

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Since its launch, Google AdSense has become a greatly valuable asset to a lot of web site owners. AdSense has given free and bountiful opportunities for users to earn some revenue on the Internet. Once you enroll in this application and enable…New Updates To AdSense Product Ideas Page… advertisements on your web sites, you can start rolling for cash. Advertisements are managed by Google and it can generate passive yet easy significant income as these ads are paid on a per-click or per-impression basis.Previously, Google has given another treat for loyal AdSense users when they launched the Product Ideas for AdSense page. This is the companys way of giving individuals the best service possible. It works like a wish list where people can collectively contribute suggestions directly to Google on how AdSense can further improve and suit the tastes of consumers. Google has pledged to listen to the ideas submitted to them, and use one of them to enhance their products and services.Googles team of engineering and product experts have dedicated on transforming the peoples suggestions into reality. As of the moment, Google have been picking the best ideas out of more than 600 suggestions they have received from around 3,500 people around the globe who have casted almost 35,000 votes as of the moment. Theres already a lot of topics that vary in nature that were already shared, such as filtering tweaks, transparency issues, reporting systems, and account management.As of late, Google has made progress in creating new features from peoples contributions. These updates are already live and are ready to use:The AdSense Revenue ShareMany publishers have asked for greater transparency about how much a publisher earns from AdSense. In answer to their requests, Google is now publicly sharing the revenue share for its main products, AdSense for content and AdSense for search. Since these two are different services, their revenue shares are different for each. Google reveals that they pay publishers who use AdSense for content with 68% of the revenue they get from advertising companies. On the other hand, those who use AdSense for search earn as much as 51% of the total revenue from the search ads.Category BlockingSome publishers also requested to have the ability to filter certain ad categories, such as weight loss and politics. Thus, Google is now offering the category blocking feature to most parts of the world in 13 languages. Blocking as much as 11 ad categories from your web pages like dating and religion is now made possible in many languages, including English, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Dutch. Google is also in the process creating filters for ads in Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and Polish.Changing the Country of PaymentReceiving payment even if you change addresses when you transfer from one place to another is now possible, thanks to the new Change Country option in its AdSenses new interface. You can now easily change the specific country of your payment address directly in the Account settings section of AdSense. There are still exceptions though; due to tighter constraints in certain regions, relocating from/to these requires you to create another account.Revenue TrackingGoogle AdSense has also added a new feature where you can automatically track your revenue so you can easily compare the performance of your site based on size and type. The new interface generates detailed performance reports according to different Ad units, Ad sizes and Ad types. This allows you to clearly observe which of the ads on your site perform best.Date Range SelectorGoogle is bringing some essence of Google Analytics to the AdSense with its data range selector which is included in its new interface. Similar to Google Analytics, this tool allows you to view data across different date ranges. You can also draw comparisons from two date ranges so you could observe how your ad earnings have varied over time.Additional Timeframes for Performance ReportsIn addition to the features above, the Performance Report page allows you to study data in various time frames. You can generate reports based on day, week and month. You can also choose multiple timeframes to analyze at the same time.Google has not yet stopped on pushing for developments on AdSense. They are still asking for more ideas and feedback to continuously improve the service.Comments

Google Conducts Major Image Search Upgrade

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We’ll begin this article by admitting that Google’s probably given the folks behind Bing reason to complain about copycats. But Google Images has undergone a significant overhaul, and even if some of the new features aren’t original, the image search engine is definitely much-improved.Google Conducts Major Image Search UpgradeThe biggest change should be apparent the moment after searchers hit “Enter” or click the “Search Images” button. Now, instead of presenting a handful of images and a fair amount of text, Google pretty much just fills the screen with pictures. It’s an approach that is far more visually appealing.

Google didn’t make all the data about images’ names, sizes, and sources too hard to find, though. If someone hovers over an image, he (or she) will be treated to that info along with a larger thumbnail preview.

Then here’s another neat trick: rather than having to click from page to page of results, it’s possible to just scroll down to see more results. But page markers will keep people from getting lost in an endless sea of pics.

Otherwise, a post on the Official Google Blog explained, “Once you click on an image, you’re taken to a new landing page that displays a large image in context, with the website it’s hosted on visible right behind it. Click anywhere outside the image, and you’re right in the original page where you can learn more about the source and context.”

And finally, “Optimized keyboard navigation for faster scrolling through many pages, taking advantage of standard web keyboard shortcuts such as Page Up / Page Down.”

Taken together, these changes make Google Images easier and more pleasant to use.

Yahoo! Begins Testing Bing Powered Organic Results

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Yahoo has sent out an email to advertisers which confirms they will be testing Bing powered organic results on live Yahoo! traffic for the first time this month. This puts the search merger on schedule for a rollout in August which we mentioned last month.Yahoo! Begins Testing Bing Powered ResultsHeres what they had to say in the email:To help us deliver on our goal of transition with quality, we are conducting the necessary tests to ensure that all of the many complex, logistical pieces are in place. While theres nothing you need to do to prepare for testing, please keep in mind the following:Though much of our testing is already happening offline, this month well also test the delivery of organic and paid search results provided by Microsoft on live Yahoo! trafficTesting volumes will fluctuate during this period, with paid search volume in particular kept low enough to help minimize any potential impact to your accountAs I mentioned earlier, the email also confirms the scheduled transition date for organic results,Assuming our testing continues to yield high quality results, we anticipate that our organic search results will be powered by Bing beginning in the August/September timeframe.For website owners, this makes July a good month to start checking your search engine traffic to determine if theres been any impact on your Yahoo or Bing visitors. You may wish to compare your rankings in Yahoo! vs. Bing and consider revising your SEO strategy if you find any significant differences.If youre looking at how to improve your rankings on Bing, Rene has written a great article on Bing SEO advice.Comments

Foursquare CEO Says Talks With Search Leaders Underway

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One or more of the top three search engines could soon enter a partnership with Foursquare, according to the startup’s founder and CEO. Dennis Crowley recently indicated that talks are underway and going reasonably well. Foursquare Says Talks With Search UnderwayEmma Barnett reported after talking to the chief, “Crowley did not give a timeframe as to when the search deals could be signed off, but said it was an exciting time and the company was talking to ‘a lot of different potential partners’ which were interested in Foursquare’s data.”

Also, even though there were some hurt feelings when Google acquired Crowley’s previous company, Dodgeball, and then let it die, Crowley “told The Telegraph that he remains close with ‘the guys at Google.’”

A deal between Foursquare and any or all of the major search engines could have some significant effects. A lot more people might decide to check out Foursquare, for example, considering that Twitter and Facebook are the two other companies Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are trying to bring into the mix.

Or, even if Foursquare fails to catch on in a big way, the move could at least give the idea of geo-tagging a boost, since the company deals in location-based social networking.

We should note that no one other than Crowley has had much to say about these negotiations, though, so it might be best not to hold your breath in anticipation of a string of partnerships.

Brand Recognition Backfires On Google

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As Google reached the limits of returns in direct marketing they started pushing the value of branding (because, hey, if you can chalk it up to latent branding value there is no cap on your max bid). Surprisingly, they even got many big brands to buy their own brands AND buy sitelinks on the AdWords ads.Brand Recognition Backfires On GoogleSome went so far as providing case studies for how much of their own brand traffic they were now willing to pay for, which they previously got free. :DSure that can make sense for seasonal promotions, but you could do the same thing by having subdomains and sister websites. Dell.com can be the main site, Dell.net (or deals.dell.com) can be the deals & promotions website, and Dell.org can be the good karma charity site. No paying someone else for brand you already spent to build. Beautiful. But I digress…In October of 2008 Google’s CEO revealed which ad Dollars they were chasing, and what loophole they were opening up in their relevancy algorithms “Brands are the solution, not the problem,” Mr. Schmidt said. “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.” That led to the brand update, and now Google even recommends specific brand modifiers when you search for words like “digital cameras.”…and here is the problem…Less than 2 years after Mr. Schmidt’s prophetic brand drivel, the Financial Times is doing a series on Google, in which Google’s Amit Singhal is blaming brands as being a major issue:Companies with a high page rank are in a strong position to move into new markets. By “pointing” to this new information from their existing sites they can pass on some of their existing search engine aura, guaranteeing them more prominence….Googles Mr Singhal calls this the problem of “brand recognition”: where companies whose standing is based on their success in one area use this to “venture out into another class of information which they may not be as rich at”. Google uses human raters to assess the quality of individual sites in order to counter this effect, he adds.No mention (of course) that it was Google which put excessive emphasis on domain authority, or how Google gutted the link graph, or how Google funds most of the content mills with AdSense. Those are all irrelevant details, just beyond Google’s omniscient view. The other thing which is absurd, is that if you listen to Google’s SEO tips, they will tell you to dominate a small niche then expand. Quoting Matt Cutts: “In general, Ive found that starting with a small niche and building your way up is great practice.” And now brand extension is somehow a big deal worth another layer of arbitrary manual inspection and intervention? Meanwhile scraper sites are still clogging up Google, and they claim they need to write better algorithms to detect them. It isn’t hard to see the sun at noon!If sites which expand in scope deserve more scrutiny then why is there so much scrape & mash flotsam in the search results? What makes remixed chunks of content better than the original source? A premium AdSense feed? Brand?Comments

China Allows Google to Continue Operations

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Last week we reported on the latest developments between Google and China, which saw Google remove their automatic redirect to Google.com.hk in an attempt to save their internet content licence in China. Google has now confirmed their plan has been successful, with Beijing agreeing to renew the companys licence…China Allows Google to Continue Operations… to operate a website in mainland China.As Courtney reported last week, Google originally stopped censoring Chinese search results by redirecting users to Google.com.hk, which provides uncensored search results to the Hong Kong market. China then responded by saying they would not renew the companys internet licence unless the automatic redirect was removed.In response, Google removed their automatic redirect and now uses a (somewhat sneaky) placeholder page which redirects users to Google.com.hk if they click anywhere on the page.According to an article from the New York Times, Googles chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, said Friday that the renewal “was the outcome we were hoping for.”"Well keep doing what were doing, and theyll keep doing what theyre doing,” he said on Friday at the Allen & Company media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.The renewal of Googles internet licence creates some stability in the standoff, however the Chinese government does have the ability to revoke their licence at any time.Comments

Google Continues To Consume The Online Ecosystem

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They might prefer to use different labels (so as to minimize fear in the marketplace andamp; slow down regulators), and they might claim that aggregate statistics control the investments andamp; thus they are not really publishers, but they plan on skimming a big piece off of the top of many big markets.Continues To Consume The Online EcosystemAdWords was just the start! WidgetsVideo contentVideo gamesProduct comparisonTraveleBooksVideos, maps & product search…look how Google self-deals in each while managing to call it a value added feature (or some such).If Google collects data, hosts data, sorts data, recommends personalized consumption habits, and then makes small investments in new content from proven past performers (and then give them a bit of stealth promotion on their network)…how is it possible for Google to lose money? (Outside of lawsuits)?Google can claim they are “democratizing” media while showing a string of successful partnerships based on investing using real time data that nobody else as access to. Meanwhile if you are a publisher they are gutting your business model through paying people to snag your content and wrap it in their ads, while they also redirect user attention to the companies and acts they have invested in. “One day we had a conversation where we figured we could just try and predict the stock market… and then we decided it was illegal. So we stopped doing that.” - Eric Schmidt, Google CEONote that there was no moral debate on the table. Their only internal limitation to setting up a hedge fund and swaying the markets to increase the profits of their trades would be that they thought it was illegal. How much of the online ecosystem can Google consume before publishers promote other views of the web?One way to fight this sort of strategy is Yahoo!’s sell or outsourceeverythingbutthelogostrategy. It increases short term margins, but in the longrun it makes one that much more vulnerable. Google can always buy the partner of choice and then ride off the free promotion & validation that the acquisition gained from earlier partnerships. Sure adding more noise to a noisy market can bring in eyeballs, but fleeting ones. Death by a thousand compromises.The other is to work in markets too small for Google to be interested in. Or to define & create a new vertical, like Zynga did. Even with as shady as Zynga’s founder is, longterm that company is in a better position than Yahoo! is.

Google Exec Argues Against Search Neutrality

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Compared to many other issues related to Internet regulation, not a lot is said about search neutrality, and implementation seems rather far-fetched. Google isn’t taking any chances, though, with Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, writing a special article to argue against it. Google Exec Argues Against Search NeutralityMayer’s article appeared in the Financial Times, and for the sake of not making people deal with a paywall, was republished on the Google Public Policy Blog. Anyway, to educate those who might be unfamiliar with the concept, she defined search neutrality as “introducing a new set of rules in which governments would regulate search results to ensure they are fair or neutral.”

As for why search neutrality would be bad, Mayer’s list of reasons was lengthy. The practicality of deciding what’s fair would be one major issue. Then she pointed out, “Abuse would be a further problem. If search engines were forced to disclose their algorithms and not just the signals they use, or, worse, if they had to use a standardised algorithm, spammers would certainly use that knowledge to game the system, making the results suspect.”

But Mayer continued, “-T-he strongest arguments against rules for ‘neutral search’ is that they would make the ranking of results on each search engine similar, creating a strong disincentive for each company to find new, innovative ways to seek out the best answers on an increasingly complex web.”

Those look like some pretty convincing points. Of course, the idea of a search monopoly (which search neutrality is supposed to make impossible) will still worry some people, and Google certainly has more reason to fight search neutrality than the other search companies.

It’s hard to imagine many satisfactory responses to Mayer’s article, though, which is very good news for Google.

Google Maps Send-To-Car Service Expands

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If Google has its way, the days of fumbling for a sheet of paper, figuring out how many of 18 turns you’ve already taken, and then squinting to read some small text - all while driving at 60 MPH - will soon be gone. The Google Maps Send-To-Car service grew to encompass more than 20 different vehicle brands yesterday.Send-To-Car Service ExpandFord and GM are Google’s latest partners, meaning Fords equipped with SYNC tech and Buicks, Cadillacs, Chevrolets, GMCs, Hummers, Pontiacs, Saabs, and Saturns equipped with OnStar tech are now all covered.

As for what, exactly, the Google Maps Send-To-Car service involves, it’s very simple: a post on the LatLong Blog explained, “Prepare your route at your desk, send the destination to your car, and safely enjoy your ride - hands on the wheel, eyes on the road.”

This obviously represents a significant step forward compared to the old approach. Aside from the safety/looking-like-you-can’t-drive issue, Google’s solution should save paper and printer toner.

What’s more, since computerized systems should be better at recalculating a route than printed directions, people who tend to miss turns will now be less likely to get lost.

As a result, Google’s hoping to partner with additional car companies in the near future. Consumers should probably cross their fingers that the search giant gets its way.

2010 Forecasts 14% Growth Increase in the SEO Industry

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The 6th SEMPO Search Engine Marketing Report is out. The report is an outcome of an online survey of almost 1,500 client-side marketers (advertisers) and agency respondents, from across 68 countries. Here are a few important points from the report:SEO Grows
• As per the report, the North American search engine marketing industry has grown by 8% (from $13.5B in 2008 to $14.6B in 2009) and is projected to reach a value of $16.6B in 2010, an anticipated 14% growth.
• Companies continue to channel money into search engine marketing, moving away from direct mail (36%), conferences and exhibitions (24%), web display advertising (23%), and mostly from print advertising (49%).
• Google continues to be the dominant search engine for paid advertising, with 97% of companies paying to advertise on Google AdWords, 50% use Yahoo! Search (on decline since 2008) and 44% use Bing.

In fact, 71% of companies advertise on Google search network, while 56% use the Google content network (keyword targeted).

Talking specifically of the organic SEO industry, here are a few positive signs:

• Companies expect to spend 43% more on SEO in 2010 (44% specifically for North America)
• More than half of companies (52%) expect to spend more on SEO in 2010
• The number of companies who engage in search engine optimization (90%) has remained steady since 2007

Given that economy as a whole has improved over the last year, it is no surprise that PPC is poised to grow at healthy rate too. Here are a few indicators:

• Companies expect to spend 37% more on paid search in 2010 (38% for North America)
• 50% of the companies surveyed expect to spend more on paid search in 2010
• On a side note, proportion of companies (53%) not using a third party bid management technology, relying on search engine tools and Excel, for paid search marketing has decreased from earlier 57%

Social media, which is a new addition to the survey this time promises to be an interesting segment to watch. Data from the report suggests that growth will be slow and nothing spectacular is expected soon.

• 73% of the companies had a budget of less than $25,000 for social media marketing in 2009. 23% had no budget for this at all.
• Measurement of ROI is a major concern for 63% of the companies when it comes to social media. The related figures for SEO are 42% and 43% for PPC.
• On a brighter note, three quarters of companies are using Facebook (74%) and Twitter (73%) to promote their brands or companies.

The number of companies investing in organic SEO has remained steady. In fact, the projection for total business has gone up quite positively. But even then, more than half of the companies (51%) are spending less than $25000 a year on SEO. The corresponding figure for PPC much lower at 31% only.

When it comes to proportion of SEO budget spent with agencies, 43% of companies do not spend any of their natural search budgets with agencies. It seems that the allocated budget for SEO by companies might go up in 2010. 52% of the companies expect to spend more on SEO in 2010 than in 2009. Only 9% companies will shrink their SEO budgets.

Summing it up, we can look forward to a happy, prosperous 2010. There quite a few details I would like to have talked about but I am running out of paper here. Let me know your thoughts and if there is something you would like me to dive in the report for.

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New iPhone Search Apps from Yahoo!

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Yahoo! has passed over its search duties to Bing. The result has been greater focus on mobile search, and has it not been good so far! Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search and Yahoo! Search app for iPhone are two cool new applications launched by the search-turned-into-search experience major. If one glosses over the superlatives and claims of them being very new, the new applications for iPhone…Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search…and iPod touch are pretty useful.

Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search

First of all, both these features are available in 22 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, at least for now. So, if you are not inside these border, dont reach out for your handset just yet.

However, what the application does is this:

Lets say you are looking for restaurants in a particular are and you dont have the name or the zip code. Now, all you have to do is mark out a area on the map and the application will show up the restaurants on that area. Moreover, it will also provide the reviews, prices, photos and any other info available about the restaurant.

Now, not much is new in terms of the results. But I love the part about outlining the field of search with such effortlessness.

Yahoo! Search app for iPhone

This one integrates voice search, embedded maps, and information from Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! News, and other sources that appear directly in the results.

Simply, this is a happier marriage between the map and the list search. When searching for any local business, you can decide between different permutations of map and search until you find the
combination you like. The rest works more or less the way you would expect it to. Read reviews, see ratings and the map will readjust as per your search.

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Ask.com Hides Referrer Data and Makes a Heavy Monetization Push

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Ask has removed referral data from many of their ads, leaving advertisers flying blind. Ask.com, which has long been known as one of the leading Google AdWords arbitrage plays, also syndicated their ad feed to the point where Google forced them to turn off syndication. From there Ask has look for new ways to arbitrage search.Ask.com Sneaky StyleThey have created an automated deals section which has over a million pages indexed in Google!

And the Ask.com search results themselves are a bit rough. Some of them promote featured articles from other IAC partners.

Many of them have Ask.com answers in them, which scrapes questions and answers from across the web and wraps them in ads.

And some of the search results have multiple lead generation boxes on them (without any disclosure).

A good chunk of them have Wikipedia listed, but wrapped in ads & hosted by Ask.

A few more vertical ad types and/or general purpose web services (to complement answers, news, local, lead generation, Wikipedia, FreeBases, PPC ads) and a search engine would have no need to send searchers anywhere but to advertisers and itself.

I have no doubt that Ask’s search results monetize at a higher rate than Google’s, but that aggressive monetization also costs them marketshare. It is a trade off every business faces: maximizing short term yield, while keeping the business healthy and growing in the market.

Given that Google has been testing lead generation AdWords ads, pushing maps hard (while testing ads in the maps results - along with beta tests in big money categories like hotels), paid inclusion in their product search, and product images in the organic search results … it wouldn’t be surprising to see Google clone whatever looks like it is working good for Ask.

But Google will have to move slower on many of these fronts, because if they move too quickly they won’t be able to defuse the blowback and anti-trust concerns. Given their recent user privacy snafu, and the current brand ad push where they are now trying to promote the categories they once claimed to have hate, the last thing they want to do is give people more reasons to distrust them and give regulators more reasons to give them another look. So new features launch as a limited beta test / experiment to a subset of users (and in many cases free to advertisers) to slowly release their business plans in a way that does not create too much concern. Small steps bring limited regulatory interference, and by the time concerns are voiced they can say “we have done that for years.”

But as the Microsoft (or Wal-Mart) of the web, I wonder if it is a good idea for Google to make blog posts with titles like Now it’s easy to switch to Google Apps from Microsoft Exchange. The broader they spread search, the more likely they are to find their words working against them at some point. They can’t claim to be agnostic while self serving ads and writing how to guides on switching away from competitors.

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Google.cn Domain Shut Down

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Google has shut down their Chinese search engine at Google.cn and is redirecting users to their Hong Kong servers at Google.com.hk in an effort to end censorship of Chinese search results. Rather than pulling out of the country entirely, Google is hoping to continue operating in China via their Hong Kong domain.
Google.cn Domain Shut DownThis is Googles first move since announcing they were considering pulling out of China after a sophisticated attack on the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists earlier this year. Since then, Google have been holding discussions with the Chinese government, but these appear to have hit a roadblock with Google making this decision without official approval from the Chinese regulators.

Heres part of what Google had to say via their lengthy blog post,

“Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.

We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges weve faced”its entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China. We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services.”

Google has said they will keep their music and maps services live in China and will also retain an R&D and sales team there. With the Chinese government yet to respond to Googles actions, it is unclear whether this solution will work long term. Ill be sure to update this post when we have some clarity.

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Facebook Wins Popularity Contest: So?

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According to Hitwise, Facebook just became more popular than Google Search. “become the most visited website for the week. Facebook.com recently reached the #1 ranking on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years Day as well as the weekend of March 6th and 7th. The market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185% last week as compared to the same week in 2009…Facebook Wins Popularity Contest: So?…, while visits to Google.com increased 9% during the same time frame. Together Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14% of all US Internet visits last week.”

Not sure of HitWises methodology - why aren’t they comparing all Google’s web functions, including Maps and Mail? - but good on Facebook! For a site that didn’t exist in 2003, that is quite some achievement.

What does this mean for the future of search marketing?

Not much.

Given the lock-in for return visits, it’s unsurprising that Facebook might receive more visits than a search engine. However, the most important aspect of different channels, as far as a web marketer is concerned, is: does the traffic convert to cash at some point?
Measure Success

Social Media Marketing, like SEO, is a tatic. However, if the tactic don’t translate into more business, then it’s a waste of time. Whatever channel you use, it is important to establish KPIs - key performance indicators - that measure the effectiveness of your tactics, and directly relate to the success of you business.

For example, one of the KPIs often mentioned in SMM is volume metrics, such as number of followers, subscribers etc. If we were to relate this metric back to our business objectives, we’d ask how does having a higher number of followers, or people claiming to be followers, result in more business? How many of those followers are really engaging with you? Or are they, literally, just making up the numbers?

I’ve seen social media companies fudge this aspect. Some play around with the term ROI, changing the “I” from “investment” to “influence”, or to “interest”, and use the number of followers as evidence of the level of interest in a clients services or brand.

The bottom line is the golden KPI. It can become blurred in bigger organizations, but for the little guy, it is crucial.
Volume Metrics Can Be Deceiving

Search marketers know that the volume game can be an illusion when it comes to making money.

“Jokes” may be a very popular keyword term, but it’s not making people any money because there is no commercial intent. “Second mortgages” is not a particularly popular term in terms of volume, but is lucrative as it has clear commercial intent. A high position for second mortgages in search rankings will make you money.

Conversely, how difficult would it be to get buzz around the term “second mortgages” via social media? Sure, with some inventive twisting and disguising of the true message it could be done, but really, it’s pushing water uphill. The social environment isn’t really suited to such a message.
Choose The Right Environment

The two channels are like apples and oranges.

Different environments work for different messages. Social media is great for generating awareness, getting people talking, and when integrated with an SEO strategy can be a great way of getting links. Primarily, it’s a brand strategy. However, because it is a social environment, there is less tolerance of overt commercial activity that in direct channels.

Typical social media measurements include:

• Business outcomes - can you link the campaign to specific interactions, such as sales?
• Influencer Reach - how many influencers picked up on your message and spread it?
• Audience Reach - how many visitors saw your message? Link this metric to…
• Engagement - how many of those people who saw you message contacted you, or took a desired action?

Conversely, SEO isn’t much use for building brand awareness or encouraging people to talk about your message. The environment is similar to direct marketing. It is well suited to direct response and commercial activity, as the intent of the user can be determined, and if that intent is commercial, then people welcome commercial messages.
What Is Your Business

Hanging out and being cool on Facebook isn’t a business
Business on the web typically falls into one of nine groups. Which is yours?

• Brokerage - bringing buyers and sellers together
• Advertising - displaying/selling advertising
• Infomediary - run programs such as ad networks
• Merchant - sell stuff
• Manufacturer (Direct) - make and sell stuff
• Affiliate - sell other peoples stuff and take a commission
• Community - leverage your community to sell something else
• Subscription - sell content/training on an on-going basis
• Utility - pay as you go usage

Decide which business you are in. When deciding on marketing and advertising tactics, ask yourself which environment is best suited to developing your business, then develop KPIs that support that business. You key KPI should be the bottom line - either this activity returns more money than you spend, or it doesn’t.

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Tag: Google, Facebook

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Google Sitelinks Come in How Many Flavors?

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Google has long been known for having “10 blue links” and they have expanded far beyond that. But even amongst the traditional listings there are lots of variations in how they are displayed. Here is a regular result…31 Flavors of Google
with a second indented result

sometimes the second indented result can show inline sitelinks

traditional single listing with 2 indented results under it (and then sometimes a non-indented 4th listing)

traditional single listing with 3 or 4 inline sitelinks

sometimes that has a second indented listing as well

traditional single listing with 8 sublinks below it (and this often has the second intented results below it too…though in such cases it is not indented)

traditional single listing with 4 links under it (often with dates near them) for forums & some blogs

And the above does not take into account handling of domains vs subdomains (or http vs https), using breadcrumbs in the search results, insertion of additional data (like a picture of a video or reviews from micro-format data), other helpful links (like a link to the businesses location on Google Maps), and all the types of vertical search data (videos, music, movies, local, news, real time, shopping/product results) being pulled into the regular search results. And then you can layer personalization and localization on top of the search results as well as yet another layer of change. And don’t forget about any user based metrics or temporal metrics Google might be able to add with caffeine.

When you think of all the different ways data can be modified and displayed it makes information architecture a bit challenging, especially for new projects when you don’t know where you will be at in a year, how much the market will change in that next year, and how many additional formats Google will create between now and then.

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Yikes! Google to Acquire Yelp!?

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You know how marketers will burn unused budget before the end of the year, so they dont lose it next year? Apparently Google must have some end of the year M and A funds lying around to spend. The word is that they are ready to acquire the local business review site Yelp for a tidy sum. What a way to end the year.Yelp! For Sale”Google and Yelp are in advanced acquisition negotiations, weve confirmed from multiple sources. And while the deal isnt done, weve heard that its very likely to close. The price is supposedly at least $500 million.

Yelp was founded in 2004 as a way to let users leave reviews on local businesses. Comscore puts worldwide traffic at nearly 9 million monthly unique visitors, and it has been growing fast ” the company says its real numbers are more like 25 million monthly uniques.”

This would certainly be an interesting addition to Googles growing local search empire. With their activities in the mobile realm and all the opportunities with Google Maps, Google Local Business etc, etc Yelp would be a very strong addition to an already strong stable of local offerings.

As for Yelp as a service? It certainly is growing and has a great reputation but it remains a service that has great success in high tech pockets. With Google at the helm it could spread like wildfire. Either that or it may just be assimilated into The Goog and used as the model moving forward for Googles local business offerings. That is all a big TBD and, of course, having this deal finished first will help with the speculation about the integration of Yelp and its offerings.

Arrington notes as well that we should expect more acquisition activity from Google in the coming months. While many joke about it, maybe this really IS a Google world and we are all just allowed to play in it.

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2010: The Year SEO Isn’t Important Anymore?

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The writing is on the wall. Small business marketing is moving away from focusing on SEO. Why do I say that? Because, well, Google and Bing are changing the rules so often and are getting so good at figuring out the real businesses that deserve to be on pages. Search Half Moon Bay Sushi and you get real answers from sites that didnt focus on SEO.2010: The Year SEO Isnt ImportantYeah, there are exceptions, but they are increasingly getting rare.

With other searches, like one for Tiger Woods, youll get a page filled with stuff that SEO just doesnt affect much anymore. In the middle of that page is a real time box that brings items from Twitter and Google News. It no longer is good enough to be just an SEO expert to get items onto pages like these. Youve gotta be great at creating content that gets Googles algorithms to trust it enough to shove it onto these new hybrid pages.

But theres something deeper going on. Google has built systems that arent Page Rank controlled anymore and are giving far better analytics to small businesses than they did a year ago. They know a LOT more about your behavior now other than you clicked on a link, even to the extent that they know whether you called that business or bought something and THAT is changing the skills SEO/SEM types need to have.

No longer is it about optimizing search engine results and the new breed is going beyond just search engines to provide holistic systems that find and track customers not only on search engines like Google and Bing, but on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Yesterday I sat down with two of the guys behind a new company, coming in January, called MyNextCustomer, who already is working with about 50 small businesses and are getting much better results than more traditional SEO/SEM only firms.

Make no mistake, the two guys I sat down with, George Revutsky and Dustin Kittelson, who are co-founders of ROI.works, which is a search marketing firm, have been doing search engine and online marketing for a long time (since 1996 in Georges case) and they share their insights in this 30-minute conversations about whats happening to small business online marketing.

I came away from this conversations thinking that SEO is getting dramatically less important and that SEM should be renamed to OM for Online Marketing since small businesses need to take a much more holistic approach to marketing than just worrying about search results.

Are you seeing the same trends in your business?

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A bit.ly of Interesting News

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So you are bit.ly and you just suffered through the announcement that your already crowded area of the Internet space has been sat on by the 800 pound Google gorilla with their announcement of the arrival of their own URL shortening service. That can make for a rough day. Sure competition is a good thing because all ships rise with a rising tide. 800 lb Google GorillaGoogle makes those tides rise so fast sometimes though that the little ships get tossed in the air and dont always land well.

Well, bit.ly is trying to do its part in making the URL shortening industry a little more interesting. They have announced their new Pro service. One wonders if they needed to announce it a little more hastily than anticipated considering the new Googles in the URL shortening house! scenario. At any rate they are offering a chance for users to provide customized / personalized / whatever-ized shortened URLs for those looking t stand out from the crowd. Their blogs description goes a little something like this:

As part of our initial beta program, were making custom URLs available to a limited number of large and medium-sized Web publishers and bloggers, including AOL, Associated Content, Bing, Clicker, The Daily Telegraph, foursquare, GDGT, Hot Potato, The Huffington Post, IGN, kickstarter, Meebo, MSN, /Message (Stowe Boyd), The New York Times, OMGPOP, oneforty.com, The Onion, slideshare, someecards, TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network ” which includes WSJ.com and MarketWatch.com ” and blogger Baratunde Thurston (baratunde.com).

“Users and publishers benefit from the additional transparency that this private-label service provides. When you see a short URL like nyti.ms, you know the destination web site before clicking on the link.”

OK, good if you are one of the big boys. Goes on the wish list of most others. In addition the service is introducing a new dashboard as well. Go check out the picture at their blog which has itty-bit.ly print for you to strain over. The readable words from bit.ly about the dashboard are

“Were also excited to be introducing a unique real-time dashboard that will provide publishers with even more information about their bit.ly traffic. Its a real-time view of how a given publishers content is being distributed across networks like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace and services like email, SMS, and instant messenger.”

Now, I have to admit that this is cool. Its fun to see this kind of innovation from someone other than the big names. I cant help but wonder though just how long this kind of innovation will be available now that Google has entered the space. I have been a fan of Google for quite some time but it is starting to feel a little too big brotherish at times.

When Google talked about the 3 Ss of their URL shortening service (security, stability and speed) all I could think about is the speed with which they are going to take all of the air out of the room for the little guy in this space and determine who may be allowed to stick around. What if Twitter decides to remove bit.ly as their default URL shortener and creates Twi.tr for their own branding purposes? There may be too much muscle for a player like bit.ly to stick around no matter how much innovation they provide.

Am I overreacting here? Im sure you will let me know because thats your job here at Marketing Pilgrim. Lets hear it.

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What is the Difference Between Google’s Secrecy and Your Privacy?

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One of Google’s leading marketing secrets is to appeal to power users. When describing how they designed Gmail, Google’s Todd Jackson stated: “We started with the early-adopter crowd. That was on purpose. We wanted to build a product for people who were getting hundreds of e-mails a day, because we believe by focusing on the power user…Big Google is Watching You… you’re designing the product the rest of the market will want in a couple years when everyone’s usage habits catch up to the most active users. We pay most attention to seven-day active users (those who use Gmail at least once every seven days) and usage–the amount of actual engagement with the product. Something that Larry and Sergey (Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founders) are always, always telling us is to focus on usage rather than users. That’s what matters more. You get better feedback and you are properly kept more on the leading edge if you’re focusing on the people who are using the product all the time, using the product all day, than just the casual users.

This is why marketing to developers and designers is so important…they use the web more, and the stamp they leave on it is much deeper than the average user. But they also tend to be sensitive to marketing messaging, especially when it becomes a bit hypocritical.
Eric Schmidt On YOUR Privacy With Google

Recently in an interview Eric Schmidt made the awesome statement “Judgment is important … If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

That approach to privacy from a search engine intent on personalizing the search experience is horrible for a number of reasons. It is bad enough that it encouraged reactions from security professionals and open source advocates, who like to remind us that Google is *always* trying to spy on you and collect more data.

“Everyone knows that every site you visit and all address bar searches in Chrome go to Google, right?” - Christopher Blizzard

Why did Google create an operating system? So they can spy on you. Why does Google care about speed so much that they created a DNS service? It was a convenient excuse to use…so they can spy on you. Why is Google launching their own cell phone? So they can spy on you.

Mozilla makes most of its money from their search syndication partnership with Google, and yet Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler wrote about how to switch your search provider to Bing. Explaining why he favors Bing, he wrote:

“Because search is broken like browsers were broken in 2002. No competition means that Google can do what ever it wants and you have to like it. Bing’s search is pretty good, in the US at least, and their privacy policy is so much better (they don’t, for example, connect your Microsoft email or office accounts with your search results like Google does so search data they collect isn’t personally identifiable.)”

Bruce Schneier understands why privacy is important

“For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that — either now or in the uncertain future — patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable.”

The following comment also reveals how this sort of tracking + philosophy on privacy can go astray

Why does Eric Schmidt dismiss your privacy?

money
Exploiting User Flaws for Maximum Profit Potential

Google collects more data than they need to (putting you at greater risk), so they can better exploit your mental weaknesses for profit. Eric Schmidt is betting big on exploiting YOUR privacy for profit:

“Even better, the device knows who I am, what I like, and what I have already read. …
Some of these stories are part of a monthly subscription package. Some, where the free preview sucks me in, cost a few pennies billed to my account. Others are available at no charge, paid for by advertising. But these ads are not static pitches for products I’d never use. Like the news I am reading, the ads are tailored just for me. Advertisers are willing to shell out a lot of money for this targeting.”

But a bet for ads that learn you and profile your faults and weaknesses is not one that Tim Berners-Lee would make. The creator of the WWW is firmly against it:

“In a world where democracy is getting more participatory, it’s very important that people are informed over a neutral medium so they can connect to whoever they want. Another issue that is very important is snooping. I don’t want any snooping on my Internet traffic.
You can do things to ensure that my Internet runs smoothly, but when I am doing something which is perhaps very intimate: when someone looks up something to see if they have cancer, or a teenager wonders if they are homosexual or not and wants to go online to find answers, this should be private. So systems that monitor every click and build a profile of me are very damaging.
The things we do on the Internet are so intimate that they are much more valuable to others and damaging to me than having a permanent TV camera in my living room. I don’t want my health premiums to go up if I look up health information; I don’t want to be a suspected terrorist if I do research on chemicals, I don’t want to get leaflets from gay rights groups if I look up something on sexuality.”

At least we know why Eric Schmidt says “Advertisers are willing to shell out a lot of money for this targeting” and why he thinks you don’t need to worry about it.

But maybe Mr. Schmidt is right. Lets look at how Google operates…
With Nearly Unlimited Privacy & Secrecy

What happens when Google gets search personalization or search suggestion wrong and your spouse wants to divorce you because of a Google error? Judgment is important, after all. Well Google wouldn’t make such errors, they are perfect. Or are they?
Google’s Data Privacy Strategy is a Leaky Boat

Google wants you to trust them enough to store your data with them in the cloud. Eric Schmidt said that the cloud was their most important focus in 2010. Well what happens when your internal data is exposed publicly due to a Google bug? Couldn’t happen? Well guess again and again.

Is Eric Schmidt suggesting that businesses simply shouldn’t consider using Google Apps because Google has a track record of not caring about user privacy & being sloppy with private data? How should we judge Google based on their current business practices? Judgment is important.
Google Promotes Lambasting Content

A few weeks back while watching CNBC I remember seeing reporters mention that if you want customer service from airlines that you should complain on Twitter. Google has since integrated such messages directly in their search results. So now any bad customer experience (or envious competitor) becomes part of your brand. And you can’t make money while making everyone happy. As the web gets more competitive the markets will only get nastier, where more people try to cash in on established brands.

In fact, running AdWords ads asking if (or exclaiming that ) product or service x is a scam is one of the most popular AdWords affiliate strategies. Google doesn’t let brand advertisers opt out of such messaging on their brands, and if you don’t buy your brand they will be glad to sell that ad slot to someone else.

Google AdWords Ads Promote Scams

Sure Google recently sued some scammers who were cashing in on the Google brand directly, but how long was Google running the Obama stimulus and government grants for after they lied and said they were already cleaned up?
What does it say about the Google brand that their own brand is being tarnished, but will run scam ads on other keywords even after they said the issue has been cleaned up?

It is so bad that Google has an ad category called “get rich quick”.

How should we judge Google based on their current business practices? Judgment is important.
Google Recommends Violating Copyright

Most sites violating copyright online which carry ads are wrapped in “Ads from Google”, via Google AdSense & Google DoubleClick.

Further, Google also promotes cracks, warez, and torrent searches on copyright materials.

Sure it is not as bad as when Google ran AdSense ads on the #1 cracks website, but how hard would it be to sanitize words like warez and cracks from search suggestions?

How should we judge Google based on their current business practices? Judgment is important.

Google Uses Limited Ad Disclosure

Google has frequently talked up the importance of publishers disclosing ads. And yet in some cases Google removed the “Ads by Google” notification with a little “I” button that you have to scroll over to see that it is an ad.

Further sometimes they have shown NO ad notification on some ad units, making some website visitors think certain site owners condoned homosexual activity.

And Google even marketed the fact that their searchers did not realize that paid search AdWords ads were advertisements:

“INT -interviewer-: Why do the results on top have a yellow background, did you notice?
TP -tester-: I didnt notice this.
INT: What does it mean?
TP: It definitely means theyre the most relevant.

Google did not use this feedback to beef up their clearly confusing disclosure…they stuck with what was working well for them.

How should we judge Google based on their current business practices? Judgment is important.
Google Funds Manual Information Pollution

I was looking through some of the suggested article titles for some of the garbitrage websites, and came across gems like “Miley Cyrus Did What? Celebs who Make Bad Decisions and How to Teach our Kids Right”

Could that title be any more leading? And Google is funding that sort of garbage - right now.

How should we judge Google based on their current business practices? Judgment is important.
Google Funds Automated Information Pollution

And there are sites with automated content generation built around arbitraging brands. A few months ago I saw the following automated crap ranking for some of our branded keywords…trying to arbitrage our brand & associate it with foreclosure scams.

And that was not a 1 off article…Google is paying to have 10,000’s of such gems created, and is indexing them with glee.

What does it say about the Google brand that their ads support this automated generation of trash? What message does that send to online consumers and business owners? How should we judge Google based on their current business practices? Judgment is important.
Google’s Enjoyment of Privacy (aka Black Box Pricing)

Some advertisers have fallen out of grace with Google over the years and have had no luck getting back in. Google arbitrarily decides they don’t like them (or maybe even their business model) and that the relationship should end. The game is complicated, but in some cases one strike and you are out. The same sort of privacy and secrecy is core to Google’s organic search engine ranking algorithms, how they profile and target certain webmasters, the proprietary standards they push onto the web (like rel=nofollow), & almost every other aspect of their business.

Are you a Google cell phone partner who built a phone on Google’s Android OS? If so, did they tell you that they were going to thank you for the cross marketing by creating a competing product? I doubt it.

Are you a Google partner who syndicates their ads? Want to know what percent of the click price you are earning? Screw you, you can’t. Go eat crow.

And in the markets where Google is dominant they not only pass arbitrary judgment without care, concern, or explanation…but they also use their market position to exert monopoly pricing powers. They frequently state that the market sets the prices on the ads, but for one of our sites we did some brand ads on informational searches where there are no competing sites buying AdWords ads.

Our ad is so relevant that even the broad matched version of the ad is pulling in a 12%+ clickthrough rate (with phrase match more than doubling that clickthrough rate). Searchers love our ad and website. But if we bid less than a nickel Google won’t even display the ad (in spite of the high relevancy and complete lack of competition in the marketplace).

Google sets arbitrary floor prices and shows you that if you want more clicks you need to pay more, even though the only competitor in this auction is Google. It is no better than the shill bidding SnapNames got in trouble for.

And yet you often hear Google talk about the power of democratic marketplaces. Something they clearly don’t believe in. What message does that send to business owners? How should we judge Google based on their current business practices? Judgment is important.
What is YOUR Judgment on Google?

Anytime you see Google do something stupid make sure you blog about how stupid Google is, and compare their errors to what sort of results are available on Microsoft Bing. Feel free to leave your examples in the comments AND blog them. I’ll share one of my favorite examples from today, showing me New York hotels near San Francisco
I still use a lot of Google products and write the above knowing that they have been pretty good to me, but seeing nonsensical garbage absolutist statements from the top of their company scares me.
If Privacy is Unimportant…

Think I am being hard on Google? Well if they think privacy is unimportant, then maybe they can explain why they host a PDF titled Inside the Black Box Technology and Innovation at Google.

Google workers think THEIR own privacy is crucial to their success (and WILL fire any employees who get it wrong), but think YOUR privacy is a commodity they should sell to the highest bidder.

Good to know!

Careful what you enter into a search box. And be careful when choosing your web browser. I would rather pay $50 more upfront and not get spied on. How about you?

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Google Penalties - Questions and Answers

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Search Engine Guide kindly republished my article called How a Google Penalty Can Make Your Site Stronger which prompted some great questions from readers which I have reformatted and posted here for readers of the StepForth Web Marketing Blog:Get Out of Google JailQuestion 1) My site has been penalized by google coz of paid post and links, which left my site with a PR 0, do you have any suggestions for that?

Ross Dunn: Yes, the best way to go is to have all of the paid posts and links removed; if that has not happened already. Then once you are certain you are no longer infringing on Googles guidelines, go into your Google Webmaster Tools account and submit a request for reconsideration of your website; if you cant find the area to do that, then just do a quick search in the help area and you will find it.

Unfortunately there is no guarantee this will get you back into Googles graces and there is also no telling how long Google will take to even get to your request, however, it is an excellent first step. The next step is to build your site into a powerhouse of excellent information by creating a blog or getting more active in the one you have. This involves posting original, high quality content that provides potential readers with something of value ” be it simply an enjoyable read or useful tips. The act of building your sites reputation through new quality content will help your odds of getting back into Googles graces considerably.

Question 2) I am eager to know if we go for URL removal request and make changes to site and then again submit link to google.Does it faster way to get out from penalization?

Ross Dunn: No, although I cant say I have tried such an option, my opinion is that removing your URL will not speed anything up because Google will retain the historical profile of the domain ” including its transgressions.

Question 3) What are other penalties that could still exist? Like content duplication, same meta tags for all pages, bad neighborhood, etc. If you have any resources that provides information on Google Penalties than it would be great to share with SEO community.

Ross Dunn: Content duplication is not met with a penalty per se unless the site in question is 100% duplicate content at which point it might as well be penalized since Google will have little or no interest in it. There are a few exceptions to that such as news aggregate websites which are, by definition entirely duplicate-content-driven.

As for duplication of Metas and Titles that is just going to harm you in terms of on-page optimization but it will not incur any sort of Google penalty unless, of course, the tags are full of SPAM but that should be a given to most novice SEOs.

Bad neighborhoods is an entirely different thing altogether because it really depends what you mean by that. If you have links predominantly from bad neighborhoods then it is quite possible Google will go beyond just negating the benefit of the links to actually penalizing your site because it will appear as though you are trying to game Googles trust algorithms. If you mean being hosted on a server where you share the ip address with some bad neighborhoods well that is a little more difficult to prove but I expect it can be a problem.

If you have any more questions please do not hesitate to contact me via our contact form or request a quote for some consulting to get your Google penalty turned around and your site back on the path to top search engine rankings.

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