Many of you may have been like I was …Ignoring Google AdWords‘ Content Network because of low click through rates and low conversions. The problem with the content network, I eventually discovered, has nothing to do with the quality of the network and everything to do with the way these campaigns need to be setup. A properly set up Content Network Campaign can add a lot to your search engine marketing ROI.
Posted in Google AdWords, Search Engine Marketing, Pay-Per-Click ~ No Comments
A heated conversation broke out on Sphinn yesterday that centered on whether you need to know HTML to be good at SEO. Frankly, I’m surprised that’s even a question. It’s a kin to asking if you need to understand the human anatomy to be a good doctor.
I’m not trying to be mean or belittling but if you only have an academic knowledge of SEO factors, you can’t be good at SEO. You only think you are because [1] the smallest changes can have big impacts and [2] you don’t know what you don’t know.
But in this article I’m not going to focus on the negatives. I’m going to focus on some constructive ways to go from being a good search engine optimizer to being a GREAT search engine optimizer. The following are the four core things, as I see them, which you need to be good at if you want to go from good to great in terms of SEO. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing ~ 1 Comment
Today was a sad day for me. An old friend has died. Tomorrow, February 27th is the last edition of the Rocky Mountain News. Denver, as well as the rest of the nation, will not be the better for it.
Working for E W Scripps, the Rocky Mountain News has been a big part of my life for the last year. Although a late adopter of SEO, they were quick to see the benefits of its common-sense principles and adopted it more fully than most any other paper within the company. Some of the things we have been able to accomplish over the last year have been profound, and the plans for the future held even bigger SEO success for the paper …a future we will never see.
One example of their success was our SEO initiative around the Democratic National Convention. During a period of heavy news coverage and other web resources covering the Democratic National Convention, the Rocky Mountain News was able to hold first page Google coverage, sometimes out-performing the official DNC sites and Wikipedia …and always outperforming CNN, MSNBC, and the rest of the news giants. Even today you will find them as a first page result for Democratic National Convention.
Posted in Other, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing ~ 1 Comment
I just got my letter regarding the SMX Biggest Search Geek Contest.
Dear Paul,
Thank you for participating in the SMX Biggest Search Geek Contest, sponsored by Marin Software. We are pleased to inform you that out of nearly 1700 entries, you scored in the top 10% - a truly great achievement! You can view where you scored in relation to others at http://www.marinsoftware.com/searchgeek.
To recognize the contest?s top achievers, we have created the attached badge, with code that you can place on your website.
To read more about our Biggest Search Geek Winner, Keri Morgret from San Mateo, CA, please visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/02/prweb2007494.htm.
Thanks again for participating and we hope you join us again next year!
Natalie Clifford Cann
Director of Marketing Communications
Posted in Search Engine Marketing ~ No Comments
While I’ve written about decoding Google AdWords Quality Score and CTR in the past, I wanted to point out that Google released their official position in their post the other day about quality scores and the ad auction. Within the post they talk about CTR being a primary indicator of relevance in determining quality score which is them multiplied by Max CPC to determine position.
Posted in Google AdWords, Pay-Per-Click ~ No Comments
Foundational to good search engine optimization is the understanding that every search is someone asking a question. Someone who searches for “George Washington’s birthday” is asking, “When was George Washington’s birthday?” Someone who searches for “chicken soup recipes” is asking, “Where can I find chicken soup recipes?” Every search is a question, and every searcher has a unique job to be done.
When we understand that every search is a specific question and every searcher has a unique job to be done, it should change the way we think about creating, organizing and optimizing our web pages. Our pages can’t simply be a collection of facts on a page. Our pages have to become answers to specific questions and solutions to unique jobs to be done.
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing ~ 1 Comment
Last week AdAge reported that Google CEO Eric Schmidt, while speaking with a group of magazine executives, referred to the internet as a “cesspool”. What is even more noteworthy, to us a search engine optimizers, is his statement that “We don’t actually want you [as SEOers] to be successful [at gaming the system]”.
The vast majority of us, as SEOers, are still stuck in 2006 when it comes to our SEO practices. We’ve generally ignored that the search engines have built countermeasures to our SEO tactics. As producers of real content have slowly moved up in the results, system gamers have moved down. So what is the solution? Better title tags? More links? In my opinion, it’s none of these.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing ~ No Comments
OK. I don’t normally make this kind of post but, since I haven’t been posting anything lately, I thought I’d share this little jewel (sent to me by Justin Davy).
http://www.searchenginerapbattle.com/
Posted in Other ~ Comments Off
It takes a lot to get me giddy as a little girl. When my parents gave me a TV for my 12th birthday I said, “Thank you.”. When they gave me my first starter car I said, “Cool. Thanks.”. My mom asked me if anything ever got me excited. She clearly didn’t know what a data freak I am.
The SEM community has had a big data hole when Yahoo stopped updating their Keyword Selector Tool. In grand Yahoo tradition, however, they totally missed the value of supporting, and being a friend to, their customers. First, they stopped updating their tool. Then they pulled it behind their PPC wall so only “paying” customers had access to it.”Hey Yahoo! Have you ever hear of a good faith gesture?”Apparently Google has. They’ve responded by opening up real data to everyone one. Not only does this befriend the SEM community, but it keeps Google’s brand out in front of their potential customers …something that Yahoo clearly hasn’t “gotten” yet.But I digress… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Yahoo! Search Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Pay-Per-Click ~ Comments Off
On Monday, Google announced that “we’ve greatly improved our ability to index Flash.” Since then I’ve heard and seen a lot of excitement flying around the web via articles, comments, instant messages, and even in my Facebook. At the onset, this “upgrade” sounds great, but let the buyer beware. You may not be getting what you think you are. There are potential positives to come out of Google improving their ability to index Flash. However, there are many unanswered questions that scare me any many of us in the SEO community.
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Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing ~ 2 Comments
File under “Not necessarily Search Engine Marketing ”
Those who know me well know that I don’t always stay within the lines. Here’s an example of this bleeding over into the rest of my life. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Other ~ 3 Comments
The more time I spend in the forums, the more confusion I see about Google AdWords’ Ad Rank (CPC bid × Quality Score). I’m going to try to break this down, not by what Google says it is, but what it actually is.
According to Google:
A keyword-targeted ad is ranked on a search result page based on the matched keyword’s cost-per-click (CPC) bid* and Quality Score.
Ad Rank = CPC bid × Quality Score
The Quality Score for Ad Rank on the search network is determined by:
- The historical clickthrough rate (CTR) of the ad and of the matched keyword on Google; CTR on the Google Network is not considered
- The relevance of the keyword and ad to the search query
- Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account
- Other relevance factors
The more you think about this, the more your head hurts. In reality, the formula is quite simple: Ad Rank = How much revenue your ad generates for Google. The more revenue your ad generates, the higher your Ad Rank.
Posted in Google AdWords, Search Engine Marketing, Pay-Per-Click ~ 3 Comments
If you’ve ever setup a Google AdWords account and noticed that the Minimum CPC (cost-per-click) for most of your keywords started around $1, $5, or $10 from the get-go, you may be experiencing a quality score issue around your “Visible URL” …at least that’s what was explained to me by a Google AdWords insider last week. It’s apparently possible, through no fault of your own, to inherit a doomed domain …and possibly ruin your SEM reputation in the process.
Posted in Google AdWords, Search Engine Marketing, Pay-Per-Click ~ 4 Comments
There has been a lot of news and blog buzz this week about PageRank changes at Google. Everybody’s PageRank bar is a little less green and mass hysteria has ensued. I can’t say I blame anyone for this, as there is a lot of misinformation about PageRank …with the worst offender being Google itself!
If you are that guy who is freaking out, this is really going to surprise you: PageRank is not as important as you think. Here’s why…
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Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing ~ 3 Comments
After yesterday’s bashing of Google’s only crappy tool, I have to talk about one of their better tools.
I just downloaded and tested Google Analytics AIR beta, powered by Adobe AIR. It runs on your desktop and uses it’s own custom API to interact with Google. The screenshot below includes data from my new blog.
Posted in Google Analytics, Analytics ~ 1 Comment
Considering Google’s track record in releasing quality products, I’m a little bit disappointed with their recent release of Campaign Optimizer. Wanting to test this new tool, I set up a nationally targeted test campaign for “Tampa Plumbers”. I was careful to make sure the campaign was about as poorly optimized as the average campaign generally is.
The results might surprise you. Not only did Google AdWords Campaign Optimizer fail to offer any helpful optimization, its recommendations made the campaign less optimized. In addition, one can’t help but notice that all suggestions the tool made would help increase Google’s revenue from this campaign (generic keyword additions, increase bid prices, and copy changes that increase click-through rates). It also ignored optimization tactics that would benefit the advertiser in terms of driving qualified traffic and eliminating budget waste. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Google AdWords, Search Engine Marketing, Pay-Per-Click ~ 1 Comment
Well… I figured since I’ve been leaching off the knowledge of the search engine marketing community and not contributing, it was about time I gave back. I’ve been involved in search engine marketing in some facet or another for the past 15 years. Over that time I’ve lived through a lot of changes in the techniques that drive traffic and I’ve made my share of mistakes, so I hope there’s a little I can add to help others avoid my pitfalls. More importantly I think there’s a lot of crap out there to be found. Probably as much as 75% of what is out there is just plain bad advice or several year old practices.
For now, the focus of this blog will be geared toward the pay-per-click side of search engine marketing. I just think there is a big gap that needs to be filled in terms of solid resources of information. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Pay-Per-Click ~ 1 Comment
