Search Marketing Insights
Our folks have opinions. And they have passion. And we often can't control either. So, in this space, we gave them a forum to talk to you. In this format, we'll share new ways to use Search. We will explore, along with you, all the possibilities related to what can be done with this incredibly-effective marketing discipline. Listen in...
Jan. 2012
Google+ for Business and Personal Search
Two recent developments from Google will impact the way companies are found within the search results, as well as interact with customers and audiences. The first development was the November launch of Google+ Pages for businesses and organizations. This new feature has already changed the face of social networking from a business perspective and should be taken advantage of as soon as possible.
Dec. 2011
The Best in Google Tracking: Google Analytics or Google AdWords Conversion Tracking?
By: Chris Franceschina, Search Account Manager
Google Analytics and Google AdWords Conversion Tracking are two Google products designed to assist companies in the analysis of their Search campaign performance so that they can make smarter decisions and realize better results. If you do not have your own tracking system, or do not work with a vendor who has one, these can be great tools for you to utilize.
These products can be used separately or together. But it is important to note that when used together, they sometimes present the challenge of data discrepancies. These discrepancies can be due to how the code fires, how quickly a page may load, or other factors. Therefore, we recommend using only one tracking product for decision support.
Dec. 2011
Bing and Yahoo! Search Alliance...One Year Later
By: Dani Kirkman and Kristy Sorcan, Search Account Managers
Looking back now, it’s hard to believe that we once managed Paid Search Advertising in two separate user interfaces for Yahoo! and Bing. Search marketers everywhere were anxious to say the least when the Yahoo!/Bing Search Alliance was announced the summer of 2010. Even more concerning was the announcement that this alliance would take place in Q4, right in the middle of holiday season planning!
Some of the concerns churning a year ago include:
- Will my client(s) lose traffic?
- Will they lose conversions?
- Will Google be able to make up for any losses?
Oct. 2011
Throw a Party with 4 Great Tips for Holiday SEO
By: Christi Hart, Search Account Manager
With the holiday season quickly approaching, now is the time to think about holiday SEO for your site. While SEO is a long-term strategy to improve the organic ranking of a site, several short-term optimizations can give your site the boost it needs to attract more organic traffic this holiday season.
Implementing holiday-focused SEO on your site is a lot like throwing a holiday party: It requires proper planning and preparation, not to mention inviting the right people, the right way, and cleaning up when you're done. Here's how you can make your holiday SEO soiree successful.
Oct. 2011
Sitelink Tactics that Every Marketer Should Implement
By: Jamie Keaney, Senior Search Specialist
Sitelinks are an ad copy extension introduced by Google in 2010 and modified multiple times since their inception. There are several versions of sitelinks either currently in production or in a Beta test.
One-Line Sitelinks: Display up to four sitelinks across one line. They are triggered with more generic terms, but may also include brand terms.
Oct. 2011
Predicting 2011 Holiday Consumer Behavior Using Back-To-School Trends
By: Chrissy Lynn, Search Account Manager
Marketers look at the back-to-school season as an indicator of what the holiday season may bring. For example, if parents spend big on their kids during the back-to-school season; one can expect to see them do the same during the holidays too.
Here is what we found during the 2011 back-to school season, what it could mean for the 2011 holiday season, and what to look for in your own back-to-school season results to gain insight into how the holiday season may unfold for you.
Oct. 2011
Google Automated Rules: Why You Should Adopt
By: Matt Leavens, Search Account Manager
Let's face it: everyone who manages Paid Search in Google AdWords is aware that a lot of time can be spent on managing bids and the state of campaigns, ad groups, ad copy and keywords.
Having a parameter tool for your keywords is a big help. Whether you are working with a multi-billion-dollar corporation with a huge budget or a tiny Mom and Pop store with a small budget, such a tool can save a lot of time and money through effective and efficient bid management.
Aug. 2011
Why Mobile Should Be a Vital Part of Your Search Strategy
By: Carissa Vega, Account Group Director
Not all marketers are diving into the mobile market, but that doesn't mean you should be sitting on the sidelines waiting for the "right time." The mobile market is constantly changing, with new features and technologies arriving almost daily. Furthermore, waiting to enter the game can mean missed opportunities to reach the most influential mobile population today: Millennials.
Even if Millennials are not currently a major target audience for your company, they will be one day. Therefore, it's important to better understand their mobile preferences and Search behaviors so that you are prepared to connect with this complex and ever-evolving generation. Starting early can also allow you to better understand the generations to follow, which will no doubt be even more complex and ever evolving.
Feb. 2011
The (Potential) Effects of Google +1
By: Jamie Keaney, Senior Search Strategist
Two weeks ago, when Google announced their new product, "+1", marketers scrambled to understand how it would affect their business, decide if it was a game changer or another failed project by Google and some even went as far as to figure out the linguistics associated to it (is it +1'd, or +1'ed?).
With all of the point of view pieces written on this topic over the past few weeks, let's break this down to the basics. Below, we will define what +1 is and is not, while providing some pointers on making the most of Google's recent attempt to incorporate social into search.
March 2011
Google Linking Algorithm Update - February 2011
By: Matt Naeger, Executive Vice President, Strategy
As you may have seen, over the past couple of weeks there has been a lot going on in the world of natural search. Google has made several updates to their ranking algorithm that have been widely discussed and publicized. We wanted to share our thoughts about the changes and what they mean to your natural search campaigns. This POV will address the first update that was done at the end of February, relating specifically to the area of paid linking, including programs like Conductor, Text Link Ads and paid for link solicitation (in the manner that Overstock got penalized for last week). In addition to these traditional styles of paid linking and link spam, Google has also made clear that any form of link recruitment, where you are attempting to conceal the fact that you have either paid a site to review your product, have provided them a "free" sample with the requirement that they post a review, and that information is not disclosed to the people reading the site, is a violation of their guidelines.
March 2011
Google's Farmer/Panda Update
By: Matt Naeger, Executive Vice President, Strategy
The most recent in a series of Google algorithm updates has been called the "farmer" update - mainly because it appears to have been targeted at sites that are considered content farms and whose objectives appear to have been solely designed to manipulate the Google ranking algorithm. This algorithm update was released in late February and has affected at least 11.8% of Google search queries in the United States. The sites that saw the biggest change in rankings, as a result of the update, are those that provide many pages of very thin content on topical areas that are commonly searched for by people across the web. Although the update was designed to specifically reduce the value of thin content in the Google algorithm, it has also affected several more substantial web sites, whose business models are designed around publishing content for others that - although topical - do not provide in depth details on any particular subject matter.
For the majority of the life of search engines on the web, the primary purpose behind the organic ranking algorithms was to identify sites that provided deep levels of useful content to answer the questions that searchers have as they navigate the web. Over the past few years however there has been an assault on the engine algorithms by web sites that have identified unique niche marketplaces where, if they were to provide a small amount of content, they could achieve high rankings in natural search. Once these rankings were achieved on the thin content that the sites provided, they then began to grow authority as a place to go to for answers to a variety of questions and therefore generated high quantities of links. The links to these sites and the specific content further solidified them as valuable within the natural search results on Google. During the process of growing their rankings, these sites then utilized the traffic that they generated to aid in earning revenue from banner and content advertising programs like Google AdSense.
Dec. 2010
Search in 2011
By: Jamie Keaney, Senior Search Strategist
It's that time of year again – time for predictions and bets on what the next year will bring. In looking back at 2010, we can see that much has changed in the Search landscape. Here are just a few notable events that took place in the past year:
- Facebook overtook Google as the most popular web site in the U.S.
- Google released Google Instant and Modified Broad Match, had an update to their indexing process, and had at least one major algorithm update.
- The Yahoo!-Bing Search alliance became a reality.
- Google factored in site speed in SERP rankings.
In 2011, Search will continue to evolve and become an even more complex and necessary funnel for marketers. Here is what I predict will have the most influence on shaping Search in 2011.
Dec. 2010
Google Modified Broad Match (MBR): A Match Made in Heaven
By: Jessica Clark, Senior Decision Support Analyst
Google has implemented a new match type: Modified Broad Match (MBR), which was developed to strike a balance between traditional broad match's tendency to be too broad and phrase match's tendency to be too narrow. Phrase match can be too limited because, while it could include phrases like "how to buy pastry," it would not allow potentially relevant terms such as "pastries to buy."
Broad match, as the name implies, matches to a broad swath of potential searches. It can introduce a lot of uncertainty, as it shows ads to qualified and unqualified traffic alike. Traditional broad match terms often have low conversion rates, leading to low ROIs, because they can match to what Google considers synonyms. For example, the broad match keyword "buy pastries" could also match to "buy cookies," "purchase baked goods," or even "find cake recipes. "
Sept. 2010
It's Not You, It's Them: Campaign Performance and User Differences Across Search Engines
By: IMPAQT Team
If you are running Paid Search campaigns across the three major engines, you may ask yourself one or all of the following:
- Why do my campaigns perform differently from engine to engine?
- What causes these performance differences?
- What can I do about these differences?
- How should I allocate resources across the engines for the best ROI?
Research by Forrester, Wunderman, and Hitwise shows that there are indeed differences between the three major Search engines in terms of who uses them, how searchers use them, and how they perform in a given vertical. Knowing these differences can help you pinpoint differences in Paid Search campaign performance across the engines and make the appropriate adjustments. It can also help in allocating your resources most efficiently across the engines and target the most profitable searchers.
Sept. 2010
Google Instant POV
By: IMPAQT Team
On Wednesday, September 8, 2010, Google released a new feature called Google Instant which dramatically changes the search experience for many users, and which will affect both Paid Search and SEO.
This Point of View explains Google Instant and some of the ramifications, as well as IMPAQT's position on Search campaign management moving forward. The effects of Google Instant will evolve over time, and we will continue to evolve our approach to accommodate them.
What is Google Instant?
Google Instant provides predicted search results with every character typed into the Google search box. With each character typed, Google guesses the searcher's completed intended keyword or phrase and instantly provides both paid and organic search results for that keyword. Though the results are always based on the top prediction, Google also provides a dropdown list of alternative predictions.
Aug 2010
Customer Service: What to Expect from your Search Vendor
When looking for a Search agency, or simply evaluating the quality of the services provided by your current Search vendor, it is common to consider such factors as size, experience, thought leadership, location, and cost. One factor, however, that sometimes escapes consideration is the level of customer service.
A Search agency's ability to provide quality customer service is of paramount importance. Poor customer service can lead to miscommunication, delayed deliverables, and ultimately lower revenue and increased costs. While certain customer service expectations are obvious, others are hard to define. What should you get in the way of access to engine representatives? Busi-ness transparency? Campaign customization? The very best Search Engine Marketing agencies will excel in all of the following areas: responsiveness, relationships, transparency, and flexibility.
Aug 2010
Mass Retailers Find an Opportunity with Affluent Consumers this Holiday Season
Due to a feeling of instability over the past few years, people have begun to change their spending habits, particularly with respect to discretionary purchases. As a shift in consumer spending continues to move toward the conservative side, retail stores are beginning to appeal to affluent consumers. Building a relationship with these consumers early on can provide a great opportunity for mass retailers, even after the recession ends and consumers return to their previous spending habits.
The Affluent Consumer
In order to properly capture the affluent market, mass retailers must first understand the affluent consumer's expectations. The characteristics of the affluent consumer are as follows:
July 2010
Testing the Effects of Cannibalization on Paid Search
As marketers look for new ways to cut costs and increase their ROI, they are also re-thinking the true value of SEO and PPC. Many marketers are asking the question: "Why pay for clicks when I have a top Organic position and get these clicks for free?" while others are wondering: "If my PPC campaign is doing well, why should I do SEO?"
The question you should be asking is "How do PPC and SEO work together?" As you may have guessed, PPC does take some clicks that otherwise would have gone to SEO, a process known as cannibalization. Despite this phenomenon, PPC and SEO yield many benefits when used together. The following test will analyze both the positives and negatives of using both PPC and SEO.
July 2010
Optimizing for Universal Search
In May 2007, Google announced they would be working toward the development of a "Universal Search" experience – images and news results would be displayed on regular Search results pages depending on the query typed in. Initially, many online marketers debated whether or not Searchers would find the new Search results pages confusing or overwhelming. Fast forward three years later, and a Search results page with images, vid-eos, maps, and news has become both second nature and expected.
In April 2008, ComScore reported that 58% of queries done on Google had a Universal or blended result. This num-ber has likely increased since then due to the consistent growth of Google owned properties like Google News, Google Images, and YouTube; and the company's more recent innovations with microformats and rich snippets. This new blended Search experi-ence isn't unique to Google either. Over the last several years Google, Yahoo, and MSN have all continually enhanced their Search engine results pages to incorporate more rich content.
May 2010
Site Speed: The Latest Addition to Google’s Algorithm
By: Jamie Keaney, Senior Search Strategist
Last year Google began hinting that site load time may become a part of the algorithm, and last week those hints became fact. Google has officially announced that site speed is indeed a part of the algorithm, as it is important to user satisfaction with a Web site.
The Update
This should come as no surprise, as the update has been swirling around the Webmaster rumor mills for months and Google itself plans to go live with their “caffeine” update to make their own results appear faster to users.
While this is a new addition to the algorithm, it is a small factor. Before you go rebuilding your Web site to make it lightning fast consider what remain the major factors in Googles algorithm: relevancy of content to the query, the number and relevance of in-bound links, reputation, and unique, valuable content still carry more weight in the algorithm than site speed.
According to Google, “fewer than 1% of search queries are affected by the site speed signal in our implementation and the signal for site speed only applies for visitors searching in English on Google.com.” Let’s put that into perspective. If there are nearly 3 billion queries each month on Google.com and 91 million per day, less than 1 million queries per day will be affected by this change.
Also, load time itself is not a constant in the algorithm; rather, the algorithm incorporates load time specific to each query as a comparison of all the Web sites that appear in the results for that query.
April 2010
Three Obstacles to SEO Success: They’re Not What You Think!
By: Carol Brenneisen, Account Group Director
This article was originally published in Visibility Magazine, Spring 2010
Getting the Data
If justifying SEO means showing the return on investment, aggregating conversion data is key. But often, even if an analytics package is in place, there are huge challenges to getting the data out of it. Either the reports are not set up correctly, or no one in-house knows how to pull them (and there is no budget to pay someone else to pull them). Or in some cases, when an SEO vendor is involved, there is so much red tape involved in sharing the data that it never makes it into an ROI report. SEO efforts may have been wildly successful, and it may even be obvious from the rankings, but not being able to show the bottom line return can mean reduced budgets or canceled programs.
In some cases, the data acquisition can be impossible or cost-prohibitive. If so, unavailability of data should not delay SEO implementation. On the other hand, if getting the data is a matter of identifying and engaging the appropriate parties in your organization, then it makes sense to coordinate with those individuals prior to or in tandem with your SEO efforts. You may even consider donating a portion of the SEO budget to whatever data resources will be necessary, if it means being able to show the true value of SEO and justify additional budget in the future.
April 2010
Twitter Begins a Revenue Model
By: Jamie Keaney, Senior Search Strategist
After much speculation and criticism, Twitter announced plans for generating revenue from their 30MM+ user base. The lack of a revenue stream has long been the elephant in the room in discussions about whether Twitter is a fad or the real-deal. It appears that Twitter has attempted to answer that question, so long as marketers buy into the model.
Many brands have claimed their own handles (usernames) on Twitter in an effort to create one-on-one relationships with their customers. Those brands now have the opportunity to purchase “promoted tweets”.
The model is rather simple and closely resembles Google’s ad model. Marketers bid on keywords that trigger their promoted tweets to appear at the top of search results when a user queries that keyword. These tweets are labeled with a small icon labeled “promoted tweet.” Starbucks, Red Bull and Virgin Airlines are among the first advertisers taking part in the CPM-based ad program. In the coming months, Twitter plans to expand this CPM model into an ROI-based pricing model. Take a look at the example below:
March 2010
Real Time Search
By: Jamie Keaney, Senior Search Strategist
Search Engines are jumping on the social network craze. They are using Real-time Search as a first step to utilize these networks. Marketers are scrambling to answer compelling questions about this new addition to engines like Bing, Google and Yahoo!. Most importantly, marketers want to know: how will this change the perception of my brand and how can I capitalize on this momentum?
Bing:
Bing started the real-time search results by creating an exclusive partnership with Twitter, allowing them to produce results based on topic popularity.
Bing’s real time results are not integrated into the main search results pages, where you’ll typically see both natural and paid search results. Instead, they’ve stored real-time search results on a page dedicated to Twitter. A benefit to Bing’s results is the keyword cloud that quickly shows users what the top Twitter topics are at that exact moment. Twitter results are streaming on this page and can be paused. Another value-add from Bing is the fact that they order results based on which tweets are being shared most often. Now, Bing is testing the inclusion of real-time search results within their organic search results.
Nov. 2009
Media Mix and Paid Search
The objective of incorporating media mix effects into your paid search campaigns is to optimize your spending and bidding strategy and tactics. Aside from obvious factors, like the coordination of ad copy and landing pages, it helps to answer fundamental questions like: What should be my campaign budget, and what should be my keyword bids, in light of my campaign objectives? Should I budget- and bid boost during periods of heavy advertising? Or, should I lower my bids in the hope that lower ranked results will get high CTRs due to the ad campaign?
Oct. 2009
Writing for Readers, Not Just Buyers or Cynics
By: Bryce Walat, Content Development Specialist
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.
