ZEN-SEM

SEO and Usability

2006-04-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

Myself and our insanely talented creative director Gina Hamm just finished up a usability report. One of our larger SEO clients had asked us to provide an analysis on the traffic reports and usability of the site. Naturally, Gina handled most of the design aspects and usability, and I spent most of my time interpreting the site metrics. Together we were able to provide a report with a ton of useful information and recommendations to improve the website experience for every user. For a large website, it only takes a small improvement to make drastic differences. (Example: Raising the conversion rate of a site just a fraction of a percentage could equal tens of thousands of dollars in revenue.)

I was also reminded how effective SEO and good usability are sometimes one in the same. Focusing the content of a page and adding textual navigation links were some of the items included in Gina's report. Of course these are helpful to a typical user, but they can also have great benefits toward an SEO program.

Working together to make sites successful...that's what Zunch is all about!

SEO 101 Refresher Part 6: Page Optimization Best Practices

2006-04-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

In my experiences, many people with a general level of exposure to search engine optimization believe on the page optimization is where the 'magic' happens. I'm here to tell you there isn't any magic, nor a silver bullet that will gain your web site the best search engine visibility. It's adhering to best practices and having a strategy formulated to cover your keywords that will make the difference in the long run, combined with the first five segments of this series.

Best Practices:

Try to use no more than 3-5 keywords on a given page.

Prioritize the keywords you have selected for the page.

Use the keywords in your title tag in a coherent fashion (your title tags play a large part in bringing in visitors from the search engines).

Use the keywords in your meta description tag in a coherent fashion (sometimes a search engine may choose to use the meta description you have provided in conjunction with your title tag).

Use the keywords in your meta keywords (do not spam your keywords tag with keywords that are not amongst those chosen for this page).

Use an h1 header tag to begin the content of your page which contains as many of your keywords as it makes sense to use (remember your prioritization).

The content on the page needs to use the keywords you have chosen. There is no density percentages to target, however it should be clear that this content is about the keywords you have chosen for this page. If you find that your becoming too repetitive with certain keywords, use synonyms.

Break up the logical flow of your content into segments and give each segment a sub-header (ie: h2, h3, etc.) where appropriate. If possible, you could have different paragraphs of text aimed at the keywords selected for the page and use sub-headings with those keywords. This format is very similar to college English term paper writing.

Whenever possible and prudent, link to other pages from within your content and use keywords for those pages when possible (avoid 'click here' links).

These are the fundamentals of SEO page optimization, that when carried out will help to provide a good understanding to the search engines, and especially your users, as to what the page is about.

Home Page PR lower than Internal pages

2006-04-07T14:48:00.000-07:00

We've seen a recent PageRank up date this week. One thing that people have been noticing is that some of the home page PageRank is lower that their internal pages.

There is a discussion underway here at search engine watch on the topic. View Thread >>>

I personally brought up 3 points that could be the reason. They are as follows:

Advertising links not using the rel="nofollow" tag, and being off topic
Better Link Popularity on the internal pages
Just another one of those wacky glitches

What ever it is, it hasn't seemed to be messing with rankings on any of my personal sites. Webforgers.net being one of them.

Google Banning Sites That Use DMOZ Data...How Could They?

2006-04-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

While perusing the WMW forum this morning...I came across a thread that peaked my interest - being that I am an active DMOZ editor...Google Banning Sites That Use Open Directory (DMOZ) Data

I am in favor of Google doing their best to "weed out" sites that have scraped DMOZ and skinned them for their own benefit (typically for SEO/link building purposes) to improve their SERPs...HOWEVER...how can Google ban someone's site when they do this themselves?

For example...Google Directory / DMOZ Directory

Makes no sense to me!

Privacy and Search Behavior

2006-04-05T13:22:00.000-07:00

The collection and storage of personal information, both with regard to statistical demographic data and with regard to search history, has been of concern to privacy advocates for some time – but was brought into sharp focus when the government asked for URLs and search data this January. Here is an article on the initial subpoena

This request was part of an attempt to begin enforcement of the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, but sets a precedent which could be applied to the enforcement of other laws. In this case, the government did not request personal data, nothing that could link a particular search to a particular individual - but there is nothing really preventing them from doing so, or from search data being requested in a criminal court case. And as tools like Google Desktop, toolbars, and MSN’s Open Platform become more widely used, the degree to which search engines are integrated into people’s personal lives will increase.

Before you dismiss this as irrelevant to you - don’t be so sure pornography laws don’t apply to you – the recent case with photographer Barbara Nitke established that the most conservative communities in the US can determine the standards by which your Website is judged. Are you sure that your online maternity clothing store won’t be considered obscene by a community in Utah, even though you are in New York? But search information could easily be collected in other types of cases by the government – such as national security. Such a possible use was specifically mentioned by the government. Do you sell anything which might be used by terrorists? That’s pretty broad – anything from books to box cutters could qualify.

But in regard to SEO specifically:
The demographic information that helps you find your customers and clients, can also be used against them. As people become increasingly aware of this, they will become more cautious about actively protecting their privacy. They may become more hesitant to reveal personal information or sign up for memberships, wary of efforts to collect information about them, however harmless the intentions. They will clean off cookies and clear caches more often – making data collection and statistical analysis more difficult, The most sophisticated and wealthiest visitors to your site will be the most difficult to track.

In short, being aware of how the law effects search engines can help you understand and keep in touch with the concerns of your customers and clients. You will need to establish yourself as trustworthy, and secure – while at the same time being open enough that search engines can find you. It’s a balancing act.

A lot of people see the ruling regarding the subpoena as a victory for privacy. Google was only required to comply with it partially. However, the judge pointed out, information collected by search engines with regard to web surfing and search behavior is not protected, private information. What he did determine, is that Google’s users had enough of an expectation of privacy that to demand search data would risk their reputation in the eyes of users, so that it placed an undue burden on the company to provide info that was available to the government through other means. This was not a right that was upheld, but a commercial interest. Which is still a good thing, but not quite the same.

A .pdf of the actual ruling his here.

SEO from the Outset

2006-04-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

I was reminded this morning how important it is to involve an SEO consultant in the very beginning stages of a website. If you're building a large website and you expect to hire an SEO once the site launches to optimize it....STOP! Spend the money upfront to have the consultant give recommendations on engineering the database, sitemap and site structure to work for you, not against you, with regards to SEO. With an optimized website structure already in place, adding the proper keywords and content in the right place is easy.

Trust me, having to reconstruct a website after it's built is no fun. And you'll be thankful when you have rankings in three months instead of nine. ;-)

Google's Different Stances on Click Fraud

2006-04-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

It seems Google has been confused internally over their capabilities to protect pay per click advertiser from click fraud.

In a recent article in Bloomberg CEO Eric Schmidt says:

Believe me, as a computer scientist, we have the ability to detect the invalid clicks before they reach advertisers.

But the Google Adwords FAQ says:

If we find that invalid clicks have escaped automatic detection, you'll receive a credit for those clicks.

And the Google blog says:

When we believe those clicks are invalid, we reimburse advertisers for them. Some invalid clicks do make it through our filters, but we believe the amount is very small.

I have to admit I find it humorous that Schmidt says to trust him, because of his PhD in computer science that invalid clicks don't reach advertisers then other PhDs at Google say that invalid clicks do reach advertisers. Also, does that mean that Google thinks that there aren't PhDs working against them? Or how about just really smart people who know how the system works and know enough about web technology to be dangerous?

It may have took PhDs to create the first atomic bomb for 'peace', but it doesn't take one to turn into a weapon of war.

Brand Repair, Do's & Don'ts

2006-03-31T14:32:00.000-08:00

In the course of doing business it is a given that you are going to piss some people off. Hey we've all had that one client that you just can't satisfy, right? Consumers, now more than ever, have access to blogs, forums and other means to complain about services rendered.

With that being said, if you do a search for your company name and you see consumer complaints showing up, then this is the blog post for you.

Here are some Do's and Don't when it comes to repairing your brand.

Don't try and defend your brand by going in and declaring that you represent the company. participate in any forums or blogs where they are hammering your brand. Search engines love content and adding to the thread or comments is like adding wood to the fire. You'll end up cooking your own goose and making it a lot harder to repair the damage.

I was approached by a company that had participated in a consumer complaint forum. Not only was there 10 pages in the thread all about the said company but their user name when posting was their company name. Let's put it like this, the forum ranks higher than their company home page.

Don't try and sneek in a few posts that defend the company. You're not fooling anyone when you do that. You can pretty much gaurantee another page of flammage if you do this.

Don't start a thread and link to any bad publicity asking for advice on how to counter it. Raising awarness may fuel the fire as well. Forums are open and word spreads fast. You may not link to it, but a reader looking for a topic to rant about may not be so shy to drop a link or two to the complaint.

So now we know a few of the most important Don'ts lets move on to the Do's.

Do get your name out there. Submit as many good press releases as you can. Open the flood gates on your company in a positive way. Mediawire & PRweb will outrank the complaints since they have tremendous page scores that they pass to their press releases.

Do take the time to internally optimize your site. You should beef up the about us sections in your site (if you have one). Make your company name promenent in the title tag, and use it conservatively in the content. Add a link into the footer of your site using your company name as the link text. That link should go to the optimized page about your company.

Hey there are 10 rankings on page 1 so lets keep going...

Do write testimonials en masse! If you have any business to business partners write the best testimonial and get your business partners to put them up on their sites. You can even add some extra power by linking from your site to the testimonial your wrote for you business friends! Make sure you put your company name in your signature and in the testimonial itself.

Ok so it's all done, plan on it taking a few months, the more you aggressively push your company name, the more you keep the complaints from even reaching that first page!

Now if you are rendering crappy service then uhh April fools I switched the do's and don'ts around.

SEO 101 Refresher Part 5: Link Building

2006-03-27T15:26:00.000-08:00

Link building is one of the most confusing aspects of SEO for most people. Many don't realize that it's the links that provide the most weight in rankings for Google with Yahoo having less emphasis and MSN have even less than that. This is one of the reasons why you will more likely first see ranking in MSN, then Yahoo and finally Google.

Link building is the longest and most difficult process of SEO. Creating content is the second hardest. Why? Because, for the most part, who links to you is the part of SEO that you control the least. That's why Google relies on it as much as they do - its the least likely spot to be gamed. It can be done but it usually requires a great amount of resources and/or money.

Links fall into four categories:

1. Reciprocal linking. You exchange a link to a site for a link from their site to yours. More than likely, even if the site is similarly related, there will be very little gained from this kind of link. There are exceptions to this rule covered below.

2. Directory links. There are two kinds of directories:
a. 'Free For All' directories where there is not much of an editorial process and where many of the existing listings are scraped from other sites. This like has about as much quality as the standard reciprocal link.

b. Established editorial directories link The Open Directory Project (ODP or DMOZ) or Microsoft's bCentral that go through an established quality check. These are the best types of directory links. Note: The ODP is a unique directory in that Google pulls information directly from it. This may have an added bonus. A link from the ODP is highly desirable, but is by no means a silver bullet.

3. One way links. Links from relevant web sites to your own that you do not need to return are the standard link that most people seek out. Links from .edu domains and some established .org domains are more sought after than others.

4. Trusted site links. A 'trusted' site is one that Google recognizes as a special site which are usually well established and have a strict editorial process. For example, news publication sites often fit into this category. Why? For an article to be written a journalist has to research the story, talk to experts and witnesses and have their facts checked then have an editor approve the piece. Because of all of the quality check that happens that means that a link from a site of this nature is more likely to be the most legitimate.

Each of these types of links can and does play a role in most link programs. Trusted links however, are not normally achieved through a link building program but through an interactive public relations campaign. Often it takes public relations folks (or ex-journalists) to know how to pitch a site or a person for an article.

Out of the rest of link types, links from .edu and established .org domains are next on the list. They are usually difficult to get, which makes them carry more weight than standard links.

In addition to the type of links, the link text used will have a significant impact on rankings. Ideally you will want to change out your link text to focus on a diverse keyword list. If you sell shoes you may want to have different link text variations such as:

- Store X - Tennis Shoes, Walking Shoes, Cowboy Boots and Dress Shoes
- Reebok Shoes, Nike Running Shoes, New Balance Tennis Shoes from Store X
- Discount Brand Name Golf Shoes, Running Shoes and Bowling Shoes

To help the process along, link tools can be purchased to help find links, track submittals and track who links to you and who links to your competitors and not to you. Many can be found by doing simple searches in your favorite search engine.

In the end it will take time and persistence to obtain a solid link base. Zunch offers special link building programs that can make the difference in your rankings. Wether your domain is brand new or you have existed for years and are looking to secure your visibility Zunch can help, contact us today.

THE Click Fraud Detective...Jeff Martin

2006-03-24T14:01:00.000-08:00

Our very own Click Fraud Detective Jeff Martin has made it into the news on Internet Retailer:

Google’s proposed click fraud settlement: a boon to some

AJAX Predicted to be HUGE

2006-03-24T13:16:00.000-08:00

Cedric Beust, an engineer at Google, said: "I think all the pieces are there on the server side. But I think we'll get a whole new ecosystem around AJAX [Asynchronous JavaScript and XML]. It's like a bad cold. More and more people are coming to this thing and we have a whole new excitement for Web sites we never had before, with things like mashups." Source >>

Like flash however AJAX is invisible to the search engine's eyes. MSN's Live uses AJAX to display search results. GMAIL uses it to give you real time email updates while you are logged into the system.

Hopefully Blogs and CMS developers won't use AJAX as a way to feed content to their pages! They'll look cool but they won't rank for squat!

Yet Another Example of Adsense Being Gamed by Click Fraud

2006-03-20T16:39:00.000-08:00

Threadwatch broke a news bit about MySpace sites being setup using images of young attractive women to lure guys into going to specific web sites with instructions to "do me a favor" by clicking on their AdSense ads to make sure they work.

The one example site used appears to no longer be serving ads, however how hard is it to spend $8.00 to put another domain up with another MySpace area and start making more money again? What’s worse is that it looks like it took independent folks to point it out instead of Google's team discovering it on their own.

This in addition to news about Google possibly deleting blogs because bloggers ran MSN search makes for yet another day of bad PR for Google.

Spam: Google vs. MSN

2006-03-17T15:00:00.000-08:00

While going through ranking reports today I noticed something that was just flat out wrong! I manage a client that has had previous SEO done to their site. As I went through the site I noticed some old spam in the page. About half the coding on the home page was spam.

I instructed the client to move it immediately! In the last two bi-monthly ranking reports I've noticed that the Google Rankings have steadily increased... Now here is the part that is just flat out wrong the MSN rankings have started to decrease...

Now I know that MSN backlinks are easily gamed, anyone can plop a site wide link up for a term and in 2 weeks start to rank for the link text. Now I'm starting to see that the on page content is very prone to spam as well.

Here's a good example:

A search for "Dallas Movers" pulls up a good example of spam in both search.msn.com and live.com

The site h2movers is about as bad as it gets... MSN has a very long way to go if they want to beat out Google. Google is what it is because they've held the #1 search engine position for so long. They have actively had people try and game their system because of that #1 spot. Everytime someone catches on to a loop hole in the Google system, the Google engineers have plugged it.

In conclussion, I can't put the spam back nor will I for the client. A drop in MSN rankings is a loss I'm willing to take for a gain in Google. As per MSN you've got a long way to go before you can over take anyone, I'm sure all the spammers out there are rooting for ya :)

Live.com presents challenge for analytics

2006-03-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

There's been much said about http://search.live.com in the past couple of weeks, both negative and positive. As the Zunch "analytics guru", I'm not as concerned about the interface as I am about the absence of key phrases in the URL. From what I'm seeing so far, when as user clicks on a result in the SERPs, the referring URL that is passed looks just like this: http://search.live.com. There are no query string variables for tracking programs like zWebTulz to extrapolate keywords from, meaning marketers can't determine which keywords perform better than others.

Hmm...I guess this may be the one time in my life where I'm recommending dynamic URLs over static. :-)

Follow Up: Google Settles Lanes Collectibles Click Fraud Lawsuit

2006-03-13T16:14:00.000-08:00

Well Danny Sullivan beat me by an hour or so with breaking the news last week and now its all over the web radar. Here is the low-down:

Google says that in the entire world there is only 1% of all click fraud activity that they are unable to detect. In addition, over a four year period, Google says that amounts to $90mm dollars.

Hogwash. Heres the between-the-lines for you for Google:

1. We lost our appeal to have the case go to a federal court (that clearly favors large corporations) where we could drag this thing out forever with appeal after appeal.

2. We then lost our appeal to not have to show any data or allow anyone to look at what we actually do to detect and prevent click fraud.

3. We have been losing billions of dollars in market capital.

-So-

We decided to throw (very little) money at the problem to see if would go away so we wouldn't:

1. Wind up losing the case
2. Lose a few billion more in market capital
3. Have to show any click fraud experts (who actually have experience in dealing with this day in and day out) our data or what we actually do to detect and prevent click fraud
4. Have to pay out to more lawsuits (unless adverisers opt out of the proposed settlement)
5. So we could: Get to use our spin doctors to say that agreeing to this settlement means there is only 1% of all click fraud we aren't able to detect

Wow. Sounds like a good deal for Google. But what about advertisers? This settlement makes no concessions to changing a system that is shrouded in secrecy and conflicting interests. Google still holds all of their information close to vest. They wont share all of the client's own information much less their own or their methodologies for protecting advertiser's marketing dollars.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like most advertisers will get most of the money they lost back. Whats worse, advertisers only get credits back to use in the Adwords system. So that means advertisers have no choice but to lose even portions of that money to click fraud in the future and it won't be the 1% that Google is spinning.

Google Mars

2006-03-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

To add to Google Earth and Google Moon, Google has launched the Google Mars page to show you a detailed view of the Marsian surface.

Google Mars >>

Google Settles Lanes Collectibles Click Fraud Lawsuit

2006-03-08T14:41:00.000-08:00

The court was officialy notified today that Lane's Collectibles and Google have reached settlement in the amount of $90mm dollars to be applied for on a claims-made basis.

More news to come...

Make Me #1!

2006-03-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

It's the most common error I see with clients who have been running their own PPC campaign, and the bigger their budget, the more likely they are to make it: They want to be #1 - and they want to be there for anyone who might possibly be searching for what they offer.

I can't blame them. It does intuitively seem like being in the number one spot would be ideal. It does, after all, generate significantly more traffic, and often a high click-through rate. Just think, if you have enough money, of all the people you could direct to your site if you can afford to be in the number one position for your most general term! An auto dealer that's #1 for "car," or a home loan site that's #1 for "mortgage" - assuming they have enough money - surely would benefit tremendously from this kind of placement.

And because of this, it can be difficult to convince a client that their favorite position, as sexy as it seems, may just be the least fruitful. It may simply be scattering their seed on barren earth - and the results it produces may be so costly that they take away resources from more fruitful areas of the campaign.

It's easiest, perhaps, to explain why a general term like "car" is not the best term for anyone in a PPC campaign. Simply put, the percentage of people searching on that term who are looking for what you offer is too small. Even if you rule out, with your ad copy, those who are looking for a review or automotive history - there's still far too much variation in what people mean by "car" in their heads, which didn't make it into the search bar. Even if you do have dealerships across the country, chances that you offer every make and model of vehicle are slim.

People typing in general terms are also generally early in the buying cycle, and doing research. They don't know yet quite what they want, and are unlikely to decide on this visit to your site.

A little harder to grasp is why the number one spot itself is rarely ideal. I guess the main idea to get across is the behavior of searchers. People type in their search - then click on the first result, often without even reading it. Only after getting to your site, and costing you a click, do they stop to notice that it's not what they had in mind at all. People who click on the results further down are more likely to have actually read the ad, and be thinking about what they want before they click. In other words, lowering position, while it may reduce the number of clicks you get - also is more likely to let your ad copy do its job to pre-qualify those clicks.

A recent example - I took a client from the top spot on most of their keywords, costing them several dollars per click, and lowered them to #2 and #3. They saw their cost per click drop nearly in half - but were uncomfortable about the fact that the total number of clicks also dropped dramatically. However, those who clicked were far more likely to remain on the site - with half as many clicks, their page views went up from 37k per week to 40k. I have had several clients who found that once they moved down to the 4th - 6th position for most terms, their conversion rate went up. Yes, they were getting fewer visitors overall, but a higher percentage of those visitors were making purchases - and at a lower cost-per-click, the cost per acquisition went way down.

One other danger of being in the top spot - especially for a general or popular term - is that this spot is more likely to be a target for click fraud. It's simply easier for affiliate-type fraud, to click on the top spot. And for competitor-type fraud, well, everyone wants to take a shot at the big guy.

There are some cases, however, where being in the top spot makes sense. That's for the company's own name or brand. Potter Barn could benefit from being number 1 for all terms with "pottery barn" in them. It's not always as cost effective as a lower spot, but it is good branding - and if someone is searching for a specific brand name, especially if they offer their own product for service on their website, chances are good that they will be happy to end up on that company's website. I would, however, put a cap on the CPC for those terms, as it's not unusual for someone to try to make it prohibitively expensive for a well-known company to buy their own brand name, by making their max bid absurdly high.

But it can be scary for the client to let go of that top spot, especially when they see traffic dip - so just make sure you have your tracking in place and can demonstrate the benefit in terms of the bottom line... and be prepared to move them back into the top spot if, by some fluke of fickle search behavior, it turns out #1 really is the most profitable place to be.

More Thoughts on Personalized Searching

2006-03-07T14:16:00.000-08:00

It was just over a year ago that I remember standing in the SES NY expo hall talking with a guy (forgot his name) about personal search and its implications for SEOs like myself. I told him at that time that it was my belief that personalized search results en masse were not going to appear as quickly as one might think. "Within the year?" he asked. "No, I doubt it," I replied.

For the most part, personalized search has been slow to appear. But I can't help but notice that Google routinely provides personalized search results for me now when I'm logged in. Of course I'm always interested in the difference between personalized results and normal results, and typically there's not much difference. But how much information am I willing to give Google, Yahoo or MSN in return for "better results"? As a user, I prefer the idea of three independent, objective entities giving me their best shots as opposed to one entity knowing my deepest thoughts and anticipating my next move. I suspect I'm not alone in this one, either. With all that these companies are trying to build, there's no questioning their end goal. Just this week we hear more news that Google wants to host all of my computer files. Every website we visit must have an account with a profile,user preferences, favorite foods and, oh yeah...how do you like your coffee?

I've always said, the goal of every search is to stop searching. I'm just not willing to give up more personal info to cut down the time on my searches. With more practice, I'll become a better searcher on my own!

MSN Adcenter not IE 7 compatible

2006-03-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

Funny when you try and sign up for a service and you have to jump through a few technical hoops just to get it done. Like when Tyson (SEO Specialist) this morning was trying to create an MSN Adcenter account using IE 7. Adcenter kept spitting out an incompatible web browser error.

Looks like you have to revert back to IE 6 if you want to get anything done in MSN Adcenter. I would suggest not to switch your user agent header to IE 6 using the FF UA switcher either, the styles on all the forms break and you get a lot of form layer overlap issues.

Short list of browsers that Adcenter doesn't support:

Anything != IE 6

I thought the days of "you must conform" were past us...

Usability - SEO's Best Friend

2006-03-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

Consider the following:
Here you are, just finished optimizing an E-Commerce site. You followed all the rules, did the research and everything fits perfectly. 2 months later the client calls and complains "We haven't sold a thing!".

Well, your first inclination is to look at all your report data and figure out what's going on. People are getting to the site, but no one's staying for more than a minute. After you've conducted your "investigation" you determine that you did nothing wrong....right?

Well, take a look at the site, break out your credit card and attempt to make a purchase....one minute later you instinctively go to another site and forget all about it. But wait!! What just happened? You go back to your client's site and see firsthand that you couldn't figure out where to go, how to select products, how to browse categories or even make a purchase. In short, the site was so unusable that you simply wouldn't waste your time with it and went elsewhere.

This may seem like the worst case scenario, and i'm sure that a lot of other factors apply in the real world, but it's still all too common nowadays.

Imagine having a Food Store in a stripmall with great parking a big huge glowing sign, even a guy that opens the door for customers and greets them in a fancy british accent. Sounds like THE place in town to go shopping for food right? Let's imagine you put a labyrinth inside the store where customers have to find their way around to get the items they need - i.e. you won't sell much anytime soon.

Usability testing should be a vital part for any SEO campaign. In fact i consider it important enough to be second in line after determining if Blackhat SEO practices are present. (given a usual client analysis)

What it boils down to is that better usability translates to better conversions. Making it easy for consumers to purchase what they want or get the information they need just makes sense.

Google SiteMaps Update

2006-03-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

Google SiteMaps Update

(1) Your average position by your top search queries. This is basically a site ranking report for the your top keywords, the keywords people search to find you on.

(2) If you have mobile enabled site, you will also now see your top search queries on mobile devices.

(3) You can now download "details, stats, and errors" to a SV file that you can then do what you like with it.

More details at Google Sitemaps Blog. Source SEW Blog >>

Barry Schwartz posts an update about the Google Sitemaps program over on the SEW Blog.

Webmasters should note that this service is free and easy to use. Support on the other hand is still the well known Google Blackhole. If you can find the email address to be able to send a question don't be surprised if you get anything back :)

Limiting Competition

2006-03-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

Yahoo announced that they will no longer allow bidding on competitor's trademark terms. This announcement has generated a little bit of confusion as to where Yahoo stands on allowing trademarked terms as keywords.

I was asked, for example, whether this meant that agencies would have to start getting permission from clients to use the client's trademarks.
Not according to my understanding of it.

I feel qualified to answer this - since I was an editor at Yahoo, and was on the special team that was dedicated to reviewing trademark terms.

As it stands, on Yahoo you can advertise under any trademarked name as long as you have content on your site supporting it – such as a comparison of your product to your competitor’s. There is nothing in the change which indicates they will not allow advertising under the trademark name associated with the website doing the advertising.

This is designed to be sure that Geico can’t advertise under the keyword “progressive” – even if they have a page of facts comparing themselves to Progressive. This is designed to protect the interests of big name corporations who don't like PPC because competitors can use it to show up in search listings when a potential customer is looking for them.

Geico, whether directly or through an agency, will still be able to advertise under “geico.”

The place that trademark terms get sticky is on Google – where you can buy the term, but not put it in the ad unless you have written permission from each trademark holder – and while that is meant to prevent this kind of competitor advertising, often it ends up with situations where someone selling a product can’t use the name of that product in the ad. For example: MLB (major league baseball) is copyrighted. AcmeTicketReseller.com sells MLB tickets, but can’t say “MLB” in the copy. Or AcmeShoes.com - they are unable to use “kenneth cole” in the copy, even though they are selling kenneth cole shoes. If a shoe site sells 200 brands, getting written permission for each is somewhat prohibitive. These hardly seem like the kind of uses of trademark terms which threaten their integrity - since they make the trademark holder money, but that's how it's handled.

On the other hand, on Google, Geico *can* advertise under the term “progressive” – as long as they do not say “progressive” anywhere in the ad copy or imply in any way that they are Progressive. Now, this seems to me to be exactly the kind of thing that the big corporations want to prevent - their direct competitor showing up when a user is searching on their brand name.

Yahoo does not restrict trademark terms in this way – and it sounds like the limitation will ONLY effect competitors, not resellers. This has actually been a change they’ve talked about for over a year, as it was under discussion while I was still working there. The lawyers were evaluating it while I was there, trying to balance the choice between free speech and attracting large-name companies’ business. I personally would have preferred to see them lean in the other direction - as some legitimate consumer comparisons will end up getting shut out by this.

(addendum - per Yahoo, sites that offer a comparison can still advertise under a trademark term as long as they don't sell a product that competes with this... this will mean that some sites will get sneaky and try to hide their relationship to the product sales - but should protect legitimate consumer comparisons - BUT it means they will rely on editorial review heavily for these decisions, and editors, being human and having quotas to meet, do make mistakes.)

More and More Advertisers Worried About Click Fraud

2006-02-27T16:08:00.000-08:00

Highlights of SEMPO's December 2005 "The State of Search Engine Marketing" survey:
Of the 553 respondents-

3 times as many advertisers/agencies this year said click fraud was a serious issue.
16% are tracking click fraud in some fashion and believe this to be a serious problem (up 6% vs. last year).
23% of advertisers were tracking click fraud and believe it to be a moderate problem
33% of agencies were and believe it to be a moderate problem
1/3 of advertisers and agencies aren't tracking click fraud but are worried about it
1/4 of advertisers and 18% of agencies said click fraud wasn't a problem (too bad that wont say what agencies)
2% of all advertisers (all in large companies) hadn't heard of click fraud

Over half of all advertisers and 41 percent of agencies said they had experienced "competitive click fraud"

Of course click fraud is more damaging and prevalent in different verticals, but make no mistake - it will happen to most PPC campaigns. As affordable as Click Fraud Detective is, there is no sensible reason not to be protecting your online advertising investments.

Google Base

2006-02-27T09:36:00.000-08:00

I think the best way to describe this service is Froogle combined with Yahoo Store & Paypal. It's not opened to the public yet, but there are some vendors beta testing.

We're starting with a very small number of sellers and we expect to include more over the next several months. If you're a seller and you're interested in getting an announcement when this feature is generally available, let us know. And if you want to know how this functionality relates to Google's broader work in payments, read this update. We hope this feature will make it even easier for people to use Google Base to post and distribute a wide range of content, whether information for sharing or goods for sale.

You can read the official blog post here.

Ask Loses Jeeves, Adds Features Galore

2006-02-27T06:52:00.000-08:00

I just spent a half-hour listening to Barry Diller from Ask.com give his keynote at SES (thanks to www.webmasterradio.fm). I've got to tell you, I'm really impressed with the upgrades Ask.com received last night. I'm sure other Zunchers will go into more detail throughout the week, but here's a quick list of changes:

- Simple homepage
- AJAXed toolbox bar
- Web-based desktop search
- Less PPC ads (Organic above the fold!)
- Nice mapping at http://maps.ask.com, complete with driving/walking directions and aerial fly-by photographs (not satellite)

Read Chris Sherman's complete SearchDay write-up of Ask.com here.

Why IE is still a great browser

2006-02-23T09:59:00.000-08:00

Many of us in the Web Design Industry loathe Internet Explorer 6 due to it's quirkyness and many rendering bugs. Sure, IE is unique in the fact that it allows for the usage of Active X (who still uses that anyways?) but there's more to it really.

Having designed and developed several sites recently i constantly ran into the issues that IE6 gave me regarding margin and padding settings, text sizes etc. What it forced me to learn was to write better stylesheets that eliminate the need for browser detects and socalled "IE fixes" - seperate stylesheets written to address the many, if not huge, number of rendering errors.

The perfect CSS is of course that which will render a site the same in both Internet Explorer and Firefox without any additional fiddling about.

I'm not saying that IE is a better browser, but it's a great reference tool for web designers and developers to write better and more compatible stylesheets.

Personally i'm excited to see how the final release of IE7 handles CSS and i hope that Microsoft takes to heart all the discoveries made by the everexpanding community of CSS gurus.

MSN Yo-Yos with Search Index

2006-02-22T08:54:00.000-08:00

What a wild ride! Late last week MSN rolled out a new index that included major changes across the board. Initial reaction was mixed, but it didn't take long for folks across the 'Net to voice their disappointment (WMW, SEW). Two days later, MSN sucked it back in and reverted to the older, more accepted index.

From MSN:

We rolled back to the old net after only about 48 hours. The new one might have been up considerably longer if you guys hadn’t been so vocal so quickly.

So...we've spent the morning emailing some clients and explaining why their MSN traffic plumetted at the end of last week, why blogs, subdomains and press releases were overtaking the rankings, and how everything should be status quo again.

Interesting to note that the MSN quality testers apparently missed this one.

SEO 101 Refresher Part 4: Link Architecture

2006-02-20T15:54:00.000-08:00

Link architecture is the skeletal structure of the content of your site.

Search engines crawl the web a page at a time (although they have many many crawlers). When they visit a page they record the meta data and visible content of the page as well as the links from that page. It’s the links from that page that guide the search engines through the rest of your site. Obviously it's important that the search engines find each page as easily as possible.

Sites that have content buried deep within the site that’s more than a few clicks away risk having that content slow crawled or not crawled at all. It's important to note that by depth of content we are not referring to directory structure but to linking structure. If you have a web page at this URL http://www.site.com/folder1/folder2/folder3/page.html that is linked to from the home page then this page is only one level deep in the site. It's important to note the distinction. Just because a page is on the root of a website (http://www.site.com/page.html) doesn’t mean it is easily crawlable if it is linked to on the third level of your site.

For any site it is important to have a sitemap as they aid search engines with crawling the second and third levels of your site by making them accessible through one page closer to the home page. Sitemaps should at least be linked to from the home page, if not every page. Very large sites may need several sitemaps broken up logically.

Another important aspect of link architecture is cross-linking similar topics or cross topics. Done properly, your internal site pages can aid the search engines in understanding what a page should rank for. For example if you have a shoe site your walking shoes page should link to your running shoes and dress shoes category pages as well as accessory pages for socks, laces and insoles using descriptive anchor texts. It not only helps your optimization but also users in finding new merchandise on your site and provides a better chance at on up-sale or add-on sale.

Proper link architecture will ensure your site is craled easily and indexed regularly.

Eric Wards Link Webinar

2006-02-17T13:25:00.000-08:00

Thursday afternoon the Zunch crew gathered around in the conference room, beamed Eric Ward's Linking Webinar up on the Screen, dimmed the lights and popped open the soda. An hour and a half later we shut down and chatted about what we knew already, what we didn't know and what if anything was wrong.

Let me state at first that we thought this would be an advanced linking strategy webinar and that it was marketed to other firms/professionals in the SEO/SEM industry as such.

The webinar covered all the basics and gave useful information for those that are just starting out and trying to understand what linking and link popularity is all about. For the seasoned SEO however you may pick up a one or two things there that you may not of seen in the popular SEO forums.

Here are the things I found helpful:

Sources for free one way links from authoritative sites
Email subject and body copy suggestions that keep you out of the deleted folder
Link Software Screen shots and personal analysis
How to use blogs to further empower your core site's links

Here are a few things that I thought that may have been confusing to the attendees:

It was stated that buying links could penalize your site, then later in the webinar strategy for buying links was discussed. Eric stated that he had clients that he had bought links for and no clarification was giving between buying links & and how they may penalize a site so it sounded a like a contradiction.
Someone asked what an RSS feed was. I thought the answer was drawn out and confusing and probably should have been addressed after the Webinar in the Q&A time.

Here are some things that I know were stated and are actually wrong:

It was stated that Spiders (specifically Googlebot) will not crawl deep folder structures. Therefore don't waist time getting links to a file burried in your site. His analogy was if the page is in a hundred foot deep lake and the link is only 50 feet of rope then you can't reach the page. This is wrong. IF the PageRank of the page that is linking has high enough PageRank to justify a crawl to a file that is being linked to then the spider WILL index the page and it CAN be reached.
It was stated that "Undiscovered Links" or pages behind forms are unreachable by Spiders. In Googles case this is wrong. I recently built a site that had a simple 1 variable form containing 50 values. Google used the url in the action="" and then for each of the 50 values added the forms name to form a query"?state_id=" to the action url thus completing the url then crawled all 50 variations of the landing page. I posted this over in spider-food.net.

Currently you cannot see the results of this in Google but I think the forum post and the responces to the post indicate proof that Google did infact index those pages and that there were NO links to those variable pages because the mod rewrite implemented in the bottom links were for the bots/users that wanted to click and link to a static version of the form page. The form was there for convenience/usability and was NOT suppost to be crawled YET it was.

I've tried to give a fair evaluation for both new and experienced webmasters. If you are just getting into links I recommend this seminar. If you are experienced with linking the price of the webinar for the little tidbits of new information may not be worth your time.

Eric has had a lot of success with his current clients I think he did a good job explaining linking and showed great examples of success and how powerful links can be to an SEO campaign. He is one that thinks outside of the box and has done his linking home work I would definitely heed any free advice you may find on his website.

Eric Ward's Website >>

Search to Win?

2006-02-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

Well this is an interesting idea.

Actually, I love it! Last night I built a web spider script and it's been working that engine over for a few hours now. So far I've won a $50 Amex card, two Best Buy gift cards, an xBox game and a Canon Powershot 5.0MP digital camera.

OK, not really, but I wonder if I could?

OK, follow up time. It looks like quite a few people have been hammering MSN, possibly causing MSN to change the way the Search and Win program works. From the website...

If a link appears on the search results page with the words MSN Search & Win, click the link to see if you instantly won.

But it looks like MSN is mixing up the words on the SERPs to foil the automated queries. Here's two screen shots with examples:

As you can see, one search has the words "Win what you search for" and the other has "Use MSN Search...and Win!".

The ReRight Way to Do It

2006-02-10T09:13:00.000-08:00

I see it everyday. Someone proposing a url structure in the forums and asking for advice on whether it'll get crawled or if there are any visual flaws. So let this be an end-all post on the subject.

Out of all the experimenting with urls, I've found that
.com/ to
.com/folder/file.htm
works the best at being crawled regulary and deeply. PERIOD.

Now let me go over the problems with the other structures that I see everyday as I cruise the forums.

The Directory Structure & PR Dither Rewrite
This is like the Camero Mullet (see 2nd image) of mod_rewrites, olds school and looked cool back in the day.

.com/ (PR5)
/folder/file.hml (PR4)
/folder/folder/file.html (PR3)
/folder/folder/folder/file.html (PR0)

In the directory tree structure the root links to the first folder, the file in the first folder links to the file in the 2nd folder and so on. Once you get to 3 folders deep you lose your PR in most cases. This is because a puny PR 3 isn't strong enought to warrant a crawl that deep into a site. You could even see this in some of the deeper sections of the Yahoo! directory. The further you went the lower the PR and some sections were just so deep off the root they didn't even warrant a cache.

Of course the solution to the above would be to link to every page in the site on every teir or use the high PR from a root sitemap to feed spiders deeper. This also dissolves if you have a large site. A good example would be a country: USA (1 page) >> State (50) >> County (~3250) >> City (17,500*)

Obviously no single page could hold 20,000+ links and be crawled. Plus browsers would strain to render that coding. Then deciphering all the navigation. Its just not logical.

Junk Rewrites
Like The Tron Guy, It Should be avoided at all costs.
Nice Moose Knuckle by the way Jay!

These are the cases where the developer stuffs every variable thats not needed into the url. So the effect is a nonsensical jump from Root to a file 3-5 folders deep.

.com/ (PR 5) | (PR 3)
/folder/folder/folder/folder/folder/file.html (PR 2-3) | (PR 0)

The problem is that a site has to gain a significant amount of PR on the home page just to push the spiders into the rest of the site. This is why there are many complaints when a developer that has switched to mod rewrite static urls and complains, "I can't get my new urls to get indexed". You could be waiting months or years depending on how fast you can get inbound links.

It's not that they can't get indexed it just that your home/root pages aren't powerful enought to warrant a deep crawl. I see this alot with shopping cart/cms add-ons for mambo & oscommerce. For windows servers I would suggest using ISAPI Rewrite. ISAPI Rewrite gives you the same functionality and control as the mod_rewrite application for Apache.

The Tried and True Solution

Short and simple and 1 step away from the root at all times. I've come to this because I did all of the above and learned the hard way.

For example the site ~www.sbdpro.com was patterned after the Yahoo! Directory. It has consitantly for the last 2 years had a PR 4 home page. But with that structure it could never get the spiders deeper than 2 categories or 2 folders deep. Since the deepest depths in that directory is 8 tiers down there really was no solution or point of keeping this url structure.

It was changed about a year ago. All links from the root go to /directory/file-name.htm It didn't matter how many tiers down you went, all categories were now 1 tier away from the root, all subcategories were one tier from the root. The crosslinking all stayed the site had no index problems as all.

The effect was astonishing the PR still drops out in the 3rd tier with a PR 2 yet the spiders still followed the links through 5 more tiers of crosslinking & PR 0 pages to reach the 8th tier down.

My advice to all new mod rewrites.

1. Don't get married to your first try at mod rewritten urls. Change them because you're in it for the long run (hopefully). The above site ranked for "small business directory" page 1 consistantly during the change in Yahoo and MSN. It even jumped to page 2 in Google for that term as well and did a stretch for a while.

2. Keep your urls simple and close to the root. You will see more spider activity and have less headaches.

3. Make sure you rewriterule syntax is optimal and you are not bogging down your server. See this thread here >>

Other Resources

Webforgers.net - Mod Rewrite Tutorials
Ilovejackdaniels.com - Mod Rewrite Cheat Sheets

~ = 3rd party database of counties I bought.
* = From spidering Yahoo directory for city names under the state sections.

Link Theory, Key points in the Patent Filed by Google

2006-02-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

In Michael Martinez's latest post over at Spider-food.net he runs over a few factors related to link theory. As Big Daddy pours out and rankings shift around keep these factors in mind.

Document Inception Date (see sections 0034-0044)
Content Updates/Changes (see sections 0046-0056)
Query analysis (see sections 0058-0065)
Link-based Criteria (see sections 0067-0080)
Anchor text (see sections 0082-0086)
Traffic (see sections 0088-0091)
User behavior (see sections 0093-0095)
Domain-related information (see sections 0097-0102)
Ranking history (see sections 0104-0112)
User maintained/generated data (see sections 0114-0117)
Unique words, bigrams, phrases in anchor text (see sections 0119-0121)
Linkage of independent peers (see sections 0123-0125)
Document topics (see sections 0126-0129)

Source: forums.spider-food.net

"Black" Internet Marketing

2006-02-08T13:37:00.000-08:00

Next week is “Black Family Technology Awareness Week” – a much too long way of saying, pay attention, race is a part of the internet. The week is promoted as a way to “provide Black families with technology access and training, and to promote the importance and value of technology in the educational and career preparation of Black youth.” It is a recognition of the vast economic influence of black youth, particularly in a time when Hip Hop and African-American trends are gold in media and advertising, but also of the fact that overall, Black Americans trail whites in Internet usage and access.

Internet use by the Black community trails that of non-Hispanic Whites by nearly 20 percent, and those who do have access are less likely to have broadband – something to keep in mind if you are developing a site which targets these consumers.

There are several portals and directories which are focused on African-Americans – most of which simply offer up Google results wrapped in African colors, but some of which, like the small searchblack.com, have independent results and focus on black owned and operated websites. On this site, the most popular search is for hair salons – people looking for places that specifically work on black hair. Sites like this, whether for Blacks or Hispanics or other ethnic groups, are a useful niche for websites which offer something that is truly targeting a need of that community, but not as useful for general sites trying to capitalize on a possible overlap. One of the most well-developed directories is BOBO Business, which lists black owned and operated businesses online. They strengthen their own presence by writing press releases for members.

Another way to leverage ethnicity on the Internet, is to keep in mind that you have a culture yearning for a voice online. Sites like MySpace allow independent musicians can get their work in front of potential fans. Blogs create a political, and marketing, sphere of their own. After hurricane Katrina, the dissatisfaction with the governments response, and the feeling that prejudice played a factor, was expressed in blogs and chain e-mails all over the net. One popular post included many photos, and a song, and a message of support – saying the government may not care, but we do. Viral marketing may operate in a similar manner – a musician can have a MySpace profile, and a website, and encourage fans to e-mail others about them. If the message is passionate and exciting – that e-mail may end up being circulated for months. Just the other day, I got one forwarded to me that was originally an April Fool’s Day prank last year – and it included a link to a post on a website.

If your client provides a service that targets African-Americans, or any ethnic community, remember that there are ways to specifically market to that group on the internet – from specialty search portals and directories to blogs to targeted e-mail campaigns. No, this is not something that applies only to Black websites, but to any business. Race and ethnicity are a factor on the Internet. Remember that, and find the resources that you can use to your benefit.

SEO 101 Refresher Part 3: Dynamic URLs

2006-02-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

A dynamic URL is a URL that has values appended to it with a ? mark.

Static URL:
www.zunch.com/services.aspx

Dynamic URL:
www.zunch.com/services.aspx?id=123&cat=car

In the above example id and cat are variables with 123 & car being their values, respectively.

Most content management systems and shopping carts use dynamic URLs to efficiently display content from a back-end that allows users to usually enter content in and make new pages easily without having web development skills.

The downside is that generally when search engine see a URL with a '?' they run. Google has made progress in indexing simpler dynamic URLs, however it best to avoid them all together if possible. Content management systems and shopping carts can be expensive to implement, so how do we do this with an established site? A URL rewrite.

A URL rewrite can take a dynamic URL and rewrite it so that it appears static to the search engines and users.

Before rewrite:
www.zunch.com/sitemap.aspx?id=123&cat=car

After rewrite:
www.zunch.com/sitemap~123~car.htm

The URL is cleaner and the dynamic pieces are reduced to only what we need - the values. In addition we now have a static looking web page that looks like it sits on the web root.

Depending on what web server you use there are different solutions available commercially or you can develop one internally.

Good resource for Apache & Microsoft IIS URL rewriting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod_rewrite

Zunch Communications, Inc. Once Again Ranked #1 on TopSEOs.com

2006-02-04T07:38:00.000-08:00

Zunch Communications, Inc. has once again been ranked the top search engine optimization firm worldwide by topseos.com (www.topseos.com). The leading search engine optimization, Website design and Microsoft Certified application development company continues to receive accolades for its search engine optimization work. In January, it was named Best SEO Company by PromotionWorld (www.promotionworld.com).

“Zunch Communications continues to give its clients the competitive edge in the Internet marketing arena,” topseos.com cofounder Bill Penden said. “It deserves to be saluted for its amazing search engine optimization work.”

The list of top search engine optimization firms aim to help users narrow their search when looking for the right firm. Currently, there are more than 10,000 Internet marketing firms worldwide. The top search engine optimization firm awards are based on competitive advantages, offered services, customer service, innovation and overall performance.

“The dedicated team at Zunch continues to work hard and put forth the extra effort,” Zunch Chairman & CEO John Sanchez said. “We are very much obliged by the recognition.”

In December, the Interactive agency was named the top search engine optimization company by topseos.com and most requested search engine marketing company by seoconsultants.com.

I am so proud of our SEO team of specialists and account executives! Thanks for all you do ...keep up the great work!

"SEO Mike" Joins Zunch SEO Team

2006-02-04T07:27:00.000-08:00

Search engine optimization guru Mike Waltman - aka "SEO Mike" has joined our ever growing SEO team as account executive --> MORE

URLs with Anchors - Affiliate Opportunity?

2006-02-01T07:36:00.000-08:00

Barry points out a thread this morning from WMW that goes back to a discussion Jeff and I had earlier this year about anchor tags in URLs (www.domain.com/index.html#footer). How do the search engines handle such links? Our experience has been that Google drops all pound signs from URLs.

Wizard from WMW seems to agree:

I'd say #anchor is not a part of URL actually, browser doesn't send it to server with HTTP request.

Google doesn't treat /page.html#anchor as different URL than /page.html. It might be possible that keywords after # mark matter a little, but in Google links database everything after # is stripped.

This seems like the logical thing to do in my opinion, since there would in fact be huge duplicate content problems.

So, what? Here's what: You need an affiliate program? Build it to craft your affiliate links to read like http://www.zunch.com#affid1074 instead of using question marks. Parse the URL at the server level for the ID, and set the cookie or whatever it is you do. It should work just as well as using a question mark, and you get the added benefit of every affiliate link pointing directly to your home page. That is, to the search engines, the link looks like a typical backlink, with no affiliate tracking variable. Nice!

SEO 101 Refresher Part 2: Canonical Issues

2006-01-30T15:16:00.000-08:00

Canonical issues is SEO talk for where more than one URL serves one website's content.

Let’s go over a few definitions to set the stage:

root domain name = separates one entity from another on the web, like how a company name sets apart one company from another. Example: zunch.com

subdomain name = separates different parts of an entity on the web and precedes the root domain name. Example format = subdomain.zunch.com.

What many don’t realize is that since anything before the root domain name (ex: zunch.com) is a subdomain, they don't know that 'www', is in fact, a subdomain. Because many web servers by default answer to 'www.site.com' and 'site.com' many site’s already have a canonical issue. In the past, search engines (Google included) have treated these URLs as two different websites. Uh-oh.

If two different URLs are serving a website's content that means that a website's content and link popularity are being split apart. In Google, some documents from one URL would be filtered out while others would be filtered out from the other. This means your content is split up into two different URLs. We always want to create more content for a website - not separate it!

As if this isn't bad enough, your back links could also be split up. Inevitably some sites would use 'www.site.com' and others would just use 'site.com'. Of course, you don’t want your link popularity split among different URLs as your links are a major ranking factor.

If your site is already serving content on each URL you simply need to use a 301 permanent redirect from one URL to the other. The defacto 'www.site.com' is probably a good choice. So in this case you would setup a 301 permanent redirect from 'site.com' to 'www.site.com'. This is rather simple for most web servers, however I have heard that web servers such as Lotus-Domino can be difficult to deal with and a call to support may be needed.

The search engines are making strides to address canonical issues. In the mean time, a use of a simple 301 permanent redirect can keep the canonical issues from being an issue at all.

SEM Community gets its own Magazine

2006-01-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

I remember mentioning to some co-workers about 18 months ago about how I think an SEM / SEO magazine would do pretty well. Well...say hello to Search Marketing Standard.

From the press release:

"Search Marketing Standard will cover pay per click advertising, search engine optimization, web analytics, click fraud, local and contextual search, and other search-related topics. Each publication will feature articles and advice from leading experts in the field, interviews with the who’s-who of the industry, reviews of the most popular tools and services, latest news and trends, and much more."

Just another sign of the growth of our industry. Go get 'em!

AOL - New Marketing Avenues

2006-01-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

AOL sure knows how to throw a party. Whereas MSN’s recent lunch looked like something that was planned the day before (sorry MSN, but it’s true) – AOL had a premier venue, first rate gourmet food, and a polished, exciting multimedia presentation that was on topic.

Zunch, along with other major online advertising firms in Dallas, was invited to a lunch with AOL last week, where they were rolling out the new programming, talking about advertising opportunities, and oh, sure, addressing that Google thing.

Yes, we were mostly interested in that Google thing. And addressing it was something like this: “We know there’s an elephant in the room, and everyone wants to talk about it – so before we get to the meat of the program, we will. Yes. It’s an elephant. Next topic.” All they did was acknowledge that there is indeed a partnership. But the presentation wasn’t about search – it was about programming.

I haven’t paid much attention to AOL in a few years. Now, however, it looks like AOL has grown up. It’s opening up programming to non-subscribers, and embracing interactive media in exciting ways. The concept of marketing fully integrated into programming has never been closer to being realized. And well, it’s hard to argue with numbers like 112 million new uniques a month on the network

For example: you go to an AOL channel, like fashion. On that channel, they have programming that is determined in part by user feedback and preferences. They run user commentary. The page has spots for advertising on the top, on the screen playing the video program, within the video program… you can skin the whole thing… taking over the design of the page for a limited time while the program runs –putting your brand name in the face of the viewer… and they even have the ability to click on the image in the program and be led to sources to buy that product. Yes, this latter is limited right now, but has tremendous possibility.

Other opportunities include blog marketing and product reviews.

With so much programming, you have channels to reach several specific demographics. They focused on the following, but there are many more:

Music (with unique concerts and unplugged shows as well as videos, mp3s and artist information – much like Yahoo Launch) – with more live music programming than any other site, they have the potential to draw a lot of repeat visitors
Celebrities – entertainment news and gossip, the kind content that gets people talking
Television – the closest thing to true TV on demand that exists. Choose which programs you want to watch, when, from Warner Bros. inventory – with interactive features like information about the actors and the episodes
Gaming – reviews and clips of video games and platforms, a great place to reach young males with disposable income
AOL news – where people spend a remarkable 28 minutes per visit on average. A good potential venue for more sophisticated advertising, perhaps – messages that are more complex than the usual eye-blink a user spends taking in a page
Movies – not only the basic movie information look-up, but fun programs like “Unscripted” where celebs interview one another using a combination of viewer’s and their own questions
Life Coaches – aimed largely at a slightly older and mostly female demographic, a group that is known to have powerful brand loyalty once you win them over
Professional Blogs – not just the personal blogs they have on their main site, but some of the most well-respected and often visited blogs out there. Blog marketing is just beginning to develop – and there is a lot of potential for businesses to utilize this type of venue
Fashion – some of the best usage of interactive marketing here. Those shoes the model is wearing? They cost $346 at Nordstrom.com
Kids programming – get ‘em while they’re young! Advertise on websites with content parents trust and kids enjoy

While much of the type of advertising they offer is currently outside of our scope, I certainly see the possibility for Zunch to grow in this direction – especially as the difference between in-programming spots, skins, blog marketing, and search marketing continue to be blurred.

SEO 101 Refresher Part 1: Navigation

2006-01-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

This will be the first part of a series of back to the basics, SEO 101 for the new year.

A site's navigational system is the webbing the holds your site together. Like a web, there may be multiple threads linking to other threads together providing a diverse and sound structure.

In SEO a site's navigation plays a significant role in letting the search engines know what a page is supposed to be about. For example, if you sell clothes, proper linking to your new leather sandals page has several advantages:

1. A link from the home page assures your new leather sandals page will be crawled more quickly than if it was buried three levels deep.

2. Using the proper anchor text "men's leather sandals" instead of an image or "click here" allows the home page to describe what the page on the other end of the link is about.

3. Interconnecting the new leather sandals page from already established shoe and sandal pages helps to lend credibility and helps to describe what the page is about.

When linking, make sure that your links are static and not created virtually. You can tell if your links are static by using the "view source" feature in your browser on your pages and seeing if your links each have an href="pagenamehere.html" or href="pagenamehere.php", etc. If you cant see the link in the source code, neither can the search engines and this needs to be corrected by your web developers. In the mean time, while you wait for a fix for your dynamic navigation, you can place your links inside of noscript tags. Keep in mind when placing your links inside of the noscript tags that they will be visible to visitors who do not have JavaScript enabled.

Zunch Rated Best SEO Company by Promotion World

2006-01-23T11:33:00.000-08:00

PROMOTION WORLD Rates Zunch Communications the Best SEO Company

The Top 10 SEO Company Awards are based on the offered services, package diversity, value, customer service, feedback and website popularity of the selected companies. More

Way to go Zunch SEO Team!

Clipped!

2006-01-18T16:06:00.000-08:00

Yahoo has decided to cut the length of their creatives down to the same length as Google - 70 characters.

The strongest advantage of this, is that it will allow advertisers to run the same ad on both networks, giving them the opportunity to more directly compare results and to present a more consistent message.

The biggest disadvantage is that Google's ads are too short, particularly considering that Yahoo has editorial rules in place that will make it even more difficult to maximize that small amount of real estate.

Yahoo's longer ad length allowed the advertiser to more clearly qualify the click - presenting a better idea to the user of what lay beyond the click at the advertiser's site. I never thought that anyone read a full 190 character ad, but relevant bits would jump out to their eye. A 70 character ad scans more easily, and can be absorbed in less than an eye-blink - which is as long as you've got to get your point across anyway before a user moves their eye on to the next item on the page or navigates away.

But there's a huge difference between the two. 100, 110 characters would still allow for a little more messaging, while keeping the ads concise both verbally and visually.

Yahoo has also stated that they are not changing any of their editorial rules, which makes no sense with such a radical change. You must include the entire search term in an ad – shoot some of my search terms are that long. You can’t use ampersands, or abbreviations. We aren’t allowed any of the neat “tricks” that allow us to squeeze a little more information into our ads as we can on Google.

Yahoo also doesn’t allow advertisers to run multiple ads simultaneously, which puts them at a disadvantage. Advertisers will use Google to test creatives first, and apply what they learn from Google to Yahoo, secondarily.

So, this is going to be a little bumpy at first. Until editorial standards are changed to more closely reflect those at Google, it still won’t be a simple matter of using the same ads and being able to compare results from one engine to the other. Ads will still have to be re-written, sometimes dramatically. Still, I think that shorter is better in the online world.

(Not that you’d know it from my blog posts!)

article here: http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3577666

Lax Adwords Admissions: Click Fraud Fuel

2006-01-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

I examined the report of a suspicious domain that was sending a considerable amount of paid traffic to client's site. It took ten minutes to figure out that this domain was established primarily to generate revenues from Adwords and provided no value to users.

Traits:

The domain is less than 1-month old
The domain registration owner information is hidden
The content on the site is copied and sometimes regurgitated from other sites
The site has no incoming links
The site has AdSense ads featured predominantly on the left and right sides of the pages and runs AdSense for site search
No Alexa rank

With lax Adwords reviewing it makes it easy to see how spammy domains get into PPC content networks. This makes it easier for automated bots to have yet another site to click on with their masking technology and for hackers with access to the millions of zombie machines to hit these ads from all over the world with millions of IP addresses.

Google seeking Click-to-call patent

2006-01-16T08:54:00.000-08:00

According to a story on ClickZ, Google is working on methods to deliver ads to audiences searching with mobile phones. The "call-on-select" functionality would initiate a phone call when selected as opposed to opening a landing page. A scoring algorithm would determine whether to offer the click-to-call link or a traditional web page link based on factors including limitations of the device, relevance, price, user preference and other parameters.

Fun stuff I say. I could have used this a month or two ago when I was out searching for a Donut shop to be open on a Holiday. I was using the Google SMS service, but had to call each store to see if they were open or closed. It would have been easier to do a web search, view the local results and click-to-call.

Google Local & Google Maps Now Displaying Paid Sponsor Links

2006-01-13T19:29:00.000-08:00

Danny Sullivan blogged on this topic yesterday on the SEW blog --> Google Tests New Local Ads On Maps so I thought I would check it out for myself.

My keyword query of choice -- hotels in Dallas

I quickly spotted the textual paid sponsor links in the top left-hand corner...but like Danny and many others who have blogged on this topic...I too don't see the mysterious blue push pins like David Galbraith originally spotted!

IMO...I believe placing some sort of graphical identifier (blue pins work fine) on the map that is associated with the textual paid sponsor links would generate a much great CTR than having just the textual paid sponsor links in the top left-hand corner.

Adwords Geotargeting May Not Stop Click Fraud

2006-01-10T19:33:00.000-08:00

A press release is circulating that there is back door into the Google Adwords system that allows countries outside of a geotargted area to display and click on ads not meant for their country. Geotargeting is/was one of the best ways to help reduce your exposure to click fraud from countries which have been known to be more of a click fraud threat than others.

As long as there are billions of dollars being pumped into PPC there will always be fraud. From competitors trying to push you out of a space, to publishers with content networks lining their pockets with your ad money to radical groups trying to make a political statement by targeting your external advertising and messaging. This combined with the PPC networks not willing to share their information with their advertisers nor in keep communication channels open is why advertisers need to 3rd party click fraud service that can audit, monitor and detect fraudulent activity on any PPC network such as Zunch's Click Fraud Detective.

Lunch With David Jakubowski, the General Manager of MSN Search

2006-01-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

Laura and I had the honor of attending a luncheon at the Microsoft offices in Las Colinas with David Jakubowski, the General Manager of MSN Search, a few select agencies and coporations from the DFW area.

The main topic of discussion...the future of the MSN AdCenter paid advertising program.

Some cool things on the horizon for MSN Search and AdCenter is a big part of that!

More to come in the near future...

Update: Google Box

2006-01-04T06:36:00.000-08:00

Google denies making PCs, but that denial is vague:

"We have many PC partners who serve their markets exceedingly well and we see no need to enter that market; we would rather partner with great companies," Google said in a statement.

Ok, maybe they have already chosen to partner with someone:
http://redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=15148&hed=Talk+Mounts+of+Google+Computer+

"Wyse Technology told RedHerring.com last month it has been in talks with the Internet search behemoth to make inexpensive Google-branded PCs (see Wyse to Make $150 Computers). Wyse’s hard-drive-less computers, called thin clients, are often used in clusters in business or organizational settings."

More to come, Im sure.

Google Box: Hot News or Hot Air?

2006-01-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

News is breaking out on the web about a box that Google may have developed. This box contains every sort of connection port you would need on an electrical device. RJ-45 (Ethernet cable), RJ-11 (phone cable), SVideo, Optical Audio, digital and analog (RCA) jacks, USB and equipped with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. "Ok," your saying "A Swiss army cable/electrical connection device. And?" The "and" part is the nifty part. With this device, out of the box, you will have one interface for broadband internet access, TVoIP, VoIP and home automation (climate control, alarm system, etc.)

To hear Robert X. Cringely put it, "As a result, Google becomes overnight a major phone company, a major video entertainment provider, a major player in home automation and even medical telemetry." How is this possible you ask????

Google would need to deploy what are called mobile datacenters. Basically, a large data center that take up rooms can be condensed to a shipping crate. Thousands of these portable data centers would be deployed strategically at certain points of the Internet to allow secure networked communication.

Now picture being an Adwords advertiser with the ability to reach out to consumers through virtually every communication means available today and you have virtually unlimited potential.
This is all potentially great news. But will consumers pick it up and invite it into their homes? Can this box easily unite our communication and entertainment mediums? Is this a sink hole that Google will have to crawl out from next year? Or is it just hot air?

#1 in TopSEOs AGAIN!

2006-01-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

In the "Rose Bowl" of Search Engine Optimization...Zunch Communications is #1!

Zunch Tops on SEOConsultants.com AGAIN!

2006-01-03T06:43:00.000-08:00

Zunch Communications: Top 5 Most Requested Consultants Profiles for 2005 December

That makes 11 out of 12 months in 2005!

2006 Affirmations

2005-12-30T09:39:00.000-08:00

For all the predictions about SEO in 2006, how about some affirmations? May your 2006 be the year...

you have more sites come out of the sandbox than go in.
you see the fruit of your labor from 2005
you enter the black before Black Friday
your ROI increases

Happy New Year from the SEO team at Zunch!

Ideal PPC Candidates

2005-12-29T10:41:00.000-08:00

What factors make a client a good candidate for a PPC campaign?

The ideal client offers well-branded, discount product or service, in a wide selection, with a unique benefit… that comes with something free. For example: Nike, promoting their latest shoes with a new patented suspension system, in more colors than are available in stores, on sale – with free shipping.

No, not many of those come through the door – but each of those elements are what is needed to set a campaign apart.

1) Well-branded:
It doesn’t matter if you’ve heard of it, only if the target client has heard of it. If you don’t buy widgets, you have no reason to have heard of Acme Widgets… try doing a little research. Use the internet, and ask your uncle who buys widgets for his watchamacallits. They don’t have to be the biggest name out there, but if they are a name people know – that gives you the strongest possible advantage over other advertisers.
In a PPC campaign, unless the brand name is not known, or is similar to a common non-branded search term (for example: if the company’s name was “red tomatoes” and they sold make up,) then we can expect to see click-through rates of over 10% and conversions of over 5% consistently on branded search terms. One of our clients saw click through on their brand name averaging 40%, and conversions averaging 15% on that term. This is a simple matter of making sure that the client is there, at the top of the page, when people look for them.

2) Discount:
Comparison shopping is easy online. If you offer the same or similar product as anyone else, you better be sure you are selling it cheaper – or at least for the same price. This is especially important when the competitor mentions price in the ad. This is more important in women-oriented verticals, and verticals where the product is widely available. The client doesn’t have to offer the lowest price on everything, especially if some of the other factors mentioned here are going in their favor (especially brand and uniqueness,) but they should at least appear to be competitive.

3) Wide selection:
Again, comparison shopping is easy. So is finding exactly the color/style/size or the precise service someone is looking for. If your client doesn’t carry it, chances are, someone else does. A wide selection, or variety of services, allow you to not only advertise that selection in the copy – but to use more tail terms, and get broader coverage.

4) Unique benefit:
Are your client’s widgets the shiniest? Do they come in more colors? Do they widge more effectively than any other widget on the market? Are they highly rated by critics? Bestsellers?
In short, as an advertiser, you should always be looking for what it is about this product that sets it apart. Exclusivity is almost as much of a sales driver as brand or selection – so if your client carries something that can’t be gotten from anyone else, you can capitalize on that.

5) FREE!
People love free. Whether it’s a free pair of sunglasses when you order tanning lotion, or a free night’s stay when you book at least 2 months in advance… but the best offer of all is free shipping. Free shipping is the single biggest reason why a user will click on one listing rather than another. So if it’s at all feasible, try to talk your client into having a free shipping offer of some kind, and be sure to mention it in the copy.

Happy Holidays !

2005-12-24T08:43:00.000-08:00

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

~ The Zunch Bunch

Is Google Setting Your PPC ROI Expectations?

2005-12-21T20:31:00.000-08:00

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying:

It shouldn't matter what Google does with their ads, he argues, so long as the received value, which advertisers can measure, is higher than the price they pay.

Shuman Ghosemajumder tried to make a similar comment on the PPC Auditing and Click fraud Issues panel at SES in Chicago that I sat with on the panel in a room with advertisers who definitely weren’t in the Google fan boy crowd.

The bottom line, as I mentioned in the panel is: "Who is Google to set that expectation?" Who is Google to tell me that the 3% conversion rate should be good enough even if it might have been 4-5% had it not been for click fraud?

Shuman also mentioned (more than once) that Google throws out more clicks then they charge for. Well great...as an advertiser how am I supposed to know that? Except for the email announcing a credit for "low quality" clicks (Google never uses the phrase "click fraud" for crediting you back funds) they hide behind the infamous form letter of how their click fraud teams dont see the activity you questioned as "click fraud".

I suggested that the PPC networks share that information with advertisers so they could see what the PPC networks were doing for them proactively. I doubt we will ever see it though as that would lay out how big of an issue click fraud is and they cant have that.

AOL flirted with MS, but remains faithful to Google

2005-12-16T14:41:00.000-08:00

At least that's the latest report from the Wall Street Journal. I think Microsoft really missed an opportunity here. All year we've heard how they are pumping money into search. First it was the huge ad campaign, then the API, and this and that...but the market share has remained stable, if not dropped a bit. I really hope Microsoft is not just banking on IE7 and Vista alone.

Yahoo resolves to trim down SERPs in 06

2005-12-16T06:34:00.000-08:00

Yahoo announced last night a decision to trim down the size of its paid listings beginning January 18. Paid ads will be "automatically shortened" for the change, but advertisers are encouraged to optimize ads by bringing inportant information inside of the 70 character count. See the full announcement from YahooSarah at the SEW forums.

Yahoo says to expect an increase in click-thrus, but I'm not so sure. For many users who browse with an 800x600 resolution, sponsored listings currently make up the majority (if not all) of the real estate. Smaller sponsored listings would obviously provide more impressions for organic listings, unless Yahoo decided to increase the number of paid listings at the top of the SERPs. But surely they wouldn't...

Linkin' Love

2005-12-15T13:54:00.000-08:00

Link Love. We all need it and we all want it.

If you could sell it on TV it would be like the commercial for 'male enhancement' where the guy has a smile surgically fixed on his face or like the commercial for men's body spray that has women chasing them (and their mom, and their mom's friends, and their friends, or any other combination of 'mom' and 'friends' that I may have forgot to mention) . Basically, once you've got it you 'have arrived'.

Unfortunately, whether your trying to sell or buy links through any medium, Google doesn't like it. Google doesn't like it because they have relied so heavily on linking that strategic link buying or buying links en masse can affect their rankings.

Several good points were made in a thread going on at the SEW forums about Google's reliance on links:

1. If Google favors aged sites with a mass amount of relevant link that have been built naturally (ie: no one asked for or bought a link) how are newer or smaller business going to compete against the 900lb gorillas?

2. How detrimental is it if a site about widgets sells a link to a site about red widgets and the link helps the red widget site rank for red widget related terms?

3. Since the buying of links pre-dates Google, rather than Google affecting the link architecture of the web (again) by trying to direct webmasters on how to link to other sites that they evolve their algorithm to take into account this ancient (by the web's timeline) marketing vehicle?

When to Say No

2005-12-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

Not everyone is a good candidate for PPC. It can be hard to learn when to turn a potential client away.

Reasons to tell a potential client not to do PPC:

1. They don’t have a completed website.

You can’t develop a decent PPC campaign without a website. If you are building the website internally, then you may be able to work with the developers on it and actually tailor the site to make a smoother PPC campaign. However, if all you have to go on are the client’s descriptions of products, it’s difficult to assess the feasibility of PPC. The client’s descriptions may be overly optimistic. They may describe something as a “gourmet gift basket” when it’s just sausage and cheese.

2. The product is a commodity, or otherwise not well differentiated or branded.

If there’s nothing outstanding about the product – whether it’s better or cheaper – it’s damn hard to sell it through any advertising medium. But if you have Acme Little Guy selling Acme way-cool widgets – and they are up against Big Guy Widgets, who is one of the names everyone thinks of for widgets, and up against Discount Widgets who are cheaper, and Universe of Widgets that has more kinds of widgets than have any sense existing - well, the chances of diverting some of that traffic to Acme are slim. You have to have something unique. This is a problem many internet retailers have. They see that there are many companies doing well in a vertical and think that they can jump in the market, without finding their own niche.

3. The site has no focus.

Any business needs to have a clear focus. People want to know that they are at a hardware site, or a gourmet food site. They don’t like to go to a site looking for widgets and also see caviar. The widgets and the caviar might both be quite good, but it throws people off. They don’t have confidence in the product. Yes, some big names out there have a broad focus, but they almost all started small, with a narrow product line in a brick and mortar store and built a name for themselves.

4. It’s a poorly branded product where the competitors are well branded, or in a vertical where people are looking for a brand-name.

This is partly the issue of commodification – as in the case with Big Guy Widgets in #2, but also a case of brand loyalty. Women, especially, are brand-loyal, and will rarely jump to an unknown brand. Things that are tied to traditions, as well, such as holiday or religious items can also face this issue. You are unlikely to get people to try a new brand of summer sausage for Christmas, when most of them buy one from Hickory Farms for their dad every year. To change people’s buying habits requires a strong branding campaign. PPC can have a role in this, but it’s not going to be a big money-maker at the outset.

5. There are no good, specific keywords which designate the product.

That is, the product is hard to describe, or not quite what people usually mean when typing in the relevant keywords. A good example of this kind of thing is gift baskets. A gift basket contains so many different items, that to get specific with search terms can be quite difficult. People who are looking for “smoked gouda” are unlikely to want to purchase a gift basket in which gouda is one small component. Another example is new technology. A combo widget-thingamabob might be a fabulous idea, but if few people know they exist yet, then few people are searching for them. People searching for “widgets” and people searching for “thingamabobs” are going to be difficult to convince to buy a combination item.

What is a good candidate for PPC? A well-branded, discount product with a unique benefit… that comes with something free. People love free.

OK, so not many of those come through the door. I’ll go into more detail about good candidates next week.

SEO: Voodoo or Parlor Trick?

2005-12-12T19:35:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since we had a news article about the mysteriousness of search engine optimization (SEO) and how SEOs are either voodoo witch doctors or masters of deception or slight of hand. The latest Newsweek article "Hotwiring Your Search Engine" strays close like most general media outlets do.

Some tidbits:
1. The Tag Line: " Google a topic, and the results are based on popularity, right? Wrong. Inside the shadowy world of 'SEOs.' "

2. "...an obscure procedure called a "search-engine optimization."

3. "Their goal is to boost their clients' (and in some cases their own) sites to the top of unpaid search-engine rankings—even if their true popularity doesn't warrant that elevated status."

The article does point out that search engines are reaching out to SEOs and forming a relationship:
"[Search engines] are increasingly tolerant of ethical or "white hat" SEOs like Fishkin, who primarily help their clients knock down the virtual walls that prevent search engines from fully indexing their site. Earlier this year Google engineer Matt Cutts started a blog directed at the SEO community, dispensing tips on how to make sites more visible to the automated software "spiders" that catalog the Web. It's good for Google and SEOs: better-organized sites increase the amount of content in Google's index, while improving SEO rankings."

At Zunch, SEO isn't voodo or a parlor trick. Zunch's established SEO process consists of best practices for:

web development
information architecture
content writing
web server administration
public relations

While there is no magic at play, what is being used is tried and true methods for eliminating technical barriers that prevent a site from being indexed properly, arranging, clarifying and specifying what a page's content is about and gathering supportive links that support the purposes of the web site.

Windows Local Live

2005-12-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

Just for the holidays...WINDOWS LIVE LOCAL!

May give it a spin but doubt that I will use it much. Still like Google for information gathering and Yahoo! for shopping...that's just me though.

Zunch Communications, Inc. Sponsors Search Engine Optimization Show: Award-Winning Interactive Agency Team Heads to Chicago for SES

2005-12-06T06:19:00.000-08:00

The Zunch Communications, Inc. (http://www.zunch.com) team arrived in Chicago today to participate as a Premier Plus sponsor of JupiterMedia’s Search Engine Strategies conference. As a sponsor and exhibitor, the Zunch team will be available in booth 305 for consulting and information regarding agency services. Jeff Martin, Director of PPC Auditing and Fraud Detection Services for Zunch will be serving on Thursday’s panel entitled, “Auditing Paid Listings and Click Fraud Issues.” MORE

Zunchified Panel SES Chicago: Auditing Paid Listings & Click Fraud Issues

2005-12-05T14:40:00.000-08:00

I'll be at SES Chicago and looking forward to your questions on pay per click (PPC) auditing and click fraud. The panel is Thursday, December 8th from 12:30-1:45pm.

Auditing Paid Listings & Click Fraud Issues
Did you really get that much traffic from paid listings last month or is something funny going on? Reviewing your paid traffic is an essential task any serious search engine marketer should undertake. Discover how to spot abnormalities and follow-up with search engines if you suspect a competitor or someone else is creating clicks just to drive up your costs. Also discover the proactive things paid listing providers already do to protect advertisers.

Zunch SEO Rock Star in Shanghai

2005-12-01T19:58:00.000-08:00

Terrence Ou Checks in From Shanghai

Our APAC Business Director for Zunch, Terrence Ou, has continued to keep us updated of his adventures in Shanghai following Ad:Tech on his blog. While we know he's working hard, we're glad to see that he's still having fun!

Mozilla and Yahoo Partner on APAC Firefox 1.5

2005-11-30T14:07:00.000-08:00

I'm unashamed to pronounce Firefox as a superior browser, and with over 100 million downloads and market share now over 10%, it seems many are in agreement. As Firefox grows, it's been fascinating to watch the alliances and maneuvers of Mozilla. Yesterday, the final version of Firefox 1.5 launched, and with it another strong alliance. Yahoo has partnered with Mozilla to distribute Firefox 1.5 in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

I believe its fair to say that Internet Explorer has a strong hold on the browser market in those countries. Our own analytics show over 12% of visitors to zunch.com use the Firefox browser, but only 4% of our zunch.cn visitors. Can Yahoo! and Alibaba make waves in the Asian browser market? My guess is yes. As the number two search provider in blosoming China, they seem to have quite the opportunity before them.

I'll follow up in a couple of months to see if our browser stats change significantly...

Google Adding More Ad Inventory to Search Pages

2005-11-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

Google had added two new PPC ad spots to beneath the search results, just like in the Yahoo! search results.

I believe Google tried this a few years ago, one can only guess as to why the did away with it originally.

It seems this would satisfy two goals for them:

1. Increase ad inventory to further increase ad revenues. There are only so many ads Google can run on a page, this may be the last of this type of change. Google is going to have to get more creative. Maybe they could have spots that rotate, just like in big city road billboards?

2. In the short term, this will allow some advertisers to appear on page one of results for a lower cost per click. It's doubtful this benefit will last long, especially in the uber competitve industries.

As always make sure you do a fair amount of A/B testing and make sure to test ad placements as well.

Zunch Sponsors Search Engine Optimization Show

2005-11-28T18:50:00.000-08:00

This time next week we will be in the "windy city" for SES Chicago 2005 ~ December 5th - December 8th.

Always a great time and a great event! Work hard in the day time and play hard in the evening. I had the opportunity to attend last years event and was surprised at how far the conference has come along. Last SES I attended, prior to joing Zunch, was SES Dallas back in 2001.

Feel free to stop by our booth (305) and visit with John Sanchez and other Zunchers!

Google - Afraid of the Redmond Waking Giant?

2005-11-21T15:42:00.000-08:00

First Google's Sitemap Service allows users to view any site's captured information:

Crawling errors
Sitemap errors
Top search queries
Top search query clicks
and much more...

Then Google Analytics has to shut down because...well...alot of people wanted to use a free semi-robust analytics tool...plus it had the Google logo on it.

Then today I read that by wanting to simply try Google Analytics that you 'sign-off' on quite a bit:

....Further, Unless You notify Google otherwise in writing, Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries retain the right to identify You as a valued customer and optionally issue a press release that, at a minimum, discloses You have licensed the Product and that the Product is Your preferred web analytics package.

Is this a change of 'do no evil' anti big corporation mentality? Is Google more about getting out the products rather than then products themselves? Does Google fear Microsoft's ambitious goals and their own 'smart think tank'?

Google seems to be trying to downplay Microsoft with witty little one-liners. The Google fan boys may get a giggle out of it but us seasoned folks know that cracking jokes at the competition is a sign of concern.

AD:Tech 05 Wrap Up

2005-11-18T14:20:00.000-08:00

AD:Tech 05 in Shanghai ended on November 17th. Terrence Ou, Zunch APAC Directory of Business Development, has informed us back at the "mother ship" that the conference went very well and that Chinese businesses are in need of Zunch's interactive search marketing solutions...

With all kinds of applause, respect and glory, AD:TECH marks Zunch's being recognized as the technology guru in China. Chinese major Internet players are desperate to team with Zunch to offer search marketing solutions in this huge market. Certainly, individual clients are also seeking SEO solutions for their web marketing. more

Matt Cutts PubCon Points

2005-11-16T11:56:00.000-08:00

Here are just a few points taken from Barry's excellent coverage of PubCon:

"SEO is not spam, its only when you go against guidelines, when it is spam."
Redirects: "We are working towards a framework where we are indexing the destination."
"some things in the algorithm that may be perceived as a sandbox..."
"Splogs are bad."
"Google does not have the ability to hand boost any site, or hand boost any pagerank."
"Matt uses ancient versions of Netscape..."
"...positioning text at top or bottom, is over rated."
"Best links are earned, not sold or traded."

Is Your eCommerce Platform Bad for Your SEO?

2005-11-14T15:02:00.000-08:00

Moving to a new eCommerce platform can come with many hidden SEO issues which can seriously jeopardize your search engine optimization efforts. You need to ask the right questions to determine if a particular platform can support your SEO program.

Are the URLs static, simple dynamic or complex dynamic URLs?

Static URLs (http://www.site.com/page.aspx) are the optimal choice as there shouldn’t be any issue with the URL being crawled as there are no long variables or session id’s for the search engines to choke on.

Simple dynamic URLs (http://www.site.com/page.aspx?category=487) have one variable. While search engines have shown that they have the capabilities to crawl and index these URLs, care needs to be taken in assigning the variable names. For example, Google has specified that they have a direct issue with variables named “id”.

Complex dynamic URLs (http://www.site.com/page.aspx?category=487&id=7821564565&xtr=jhy76) have multiple variables and will most likely not be crawled, cached or properly indexed.

Does the platform use cloaking or a “search appliance”?
Great care needs to be taken when going this route. Either solution serves the search engines one thing and a user something else, although it may be only slightly different. It would be best to contact the engines directly and get written approval of the use of such technologies. Typically I have only heard of larger corporations having this type of access; however these solutions present a degree of risk that some may find unacceptable.

These solutions are typically used to solve the problem of the complex dynamic URLs that these platforms usually use. As an alternative suggestion, a URL rewrite module/application would eliminate the risk involved with the other technologies and accomplish the same thing – the use of static URLs.

Does the platform have a “built-in” SEO feature?
Often times a “built-in” feature means that the title tag and meta data are created from the content of each individual page, or worse, one title tag and set of meta data is used for all pages within a category. The problem is for proper optimization you need to order your keywords and text in your title tag a specific way and in a specific order. In addition, more than likely you will need a custom meta description tag that is a couple of sentences to summarize the page. You probably will find that there are many pages where you don’t want the meta description pulled from the page’s body of content.

How are redirects and 404 “Page Not Found” errors handled?
Keeping a clean house can become an overwhelming task with an ever evolving online store. Promotions, as well as products, routinely come and go. How does the platform support these changes? Some examples of bad house cleaning are:

302 redirects that leave old pages indexed in the search engines and don’t pass on their “credit” (back links, etc.) to newer pages

A typical black and white default 404 page that is a dead end to users with nowhere to go

Old pages, that instead of redirecting properly, simply shows the new pages content (or a default page’s content) under the old page’s URL.

Are DHTML drop down menus hiding navigational links?
Depending on how drop down navigational menus are coded, it’s possible to completely hide navigational links from search engines as most DHTML drop down menus are generated with JavaScript. Since search engines cannot execute JavaScript, HREF links that are embedded in JavaScript (no physical HREF tag exists with the URLs) are not displayed to the search engine bot.

Terrence Ou in Shanghai

2005-11-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

Our friend and Zunch APAC director of business development, Terrence Ou, has arrived safe-and-sound in Shanghai and has been very busy since his arrival. Visit Terrence's blog - a Zuncher in China - to keep up with Mr. Ou.

SEMPO Survey

2005-11-12T21:18:00.000-08:00

For all of you SEOs/SEMs...it's SEMPO survery time again

SEMPO SURVEY

Design & SEO... a match made in Heaven....or is it?

2005-11-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

I often find myself browsing showcase sites for Webdesign and one of the many things i've noticed is that there is an amazing amount of talented designers/developers out there making some incredible looking sites. However, every now and then i run across a design that looks great, meets compliance, has light code, but absolutely zero usability.

My point is that Design doesn't just have to look good, it has to be functional. SEO isn't just about keywords, content and links - it's about keeping customers on a site and making it easy for them to get to what they want. I've outlined a few key do's and dont's below:

Use a sitestructure that reduces the amount of clicks a user has to make to get to where they want to go (i.e. products in an e-commerce site)

Using too much content can deter potential customers from the site, content is good for SEO, but does anyone actually take the time to read the lot?

Use a logical layout that draws the users eyes to the most relevant items

NEVER use any sort of hidden Navigation or navigation that users can't figure out

Avoid using pop-up windows, unless absolutely necessary (such as for viewing a magnified image of a certain product)

Use colors that provide good contrast between content and background, especially for product descriptions, details and navigation

Avoid using Graphics for Navigation Text, it's a nightmare to update and adds no value

Use clean code (preferrably semantic markup - more on that later)

Use includes files for all sorts of fancy DHTML or Javascript (such as dropdown menus and the like)

A lot of you are going to say "Duh!", but trust me, there are still a lot of SEO companies, Designers and Developers out there who don't seem to put any importance on the above

The only way to design something completely foolproof is to never underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools

-Douglas Adams

Attack of the Blogs?

2005-11-09T15:43:00.000-08:00

Last week I attended The Blogging Enterprise conference down in Austin where I gained a little insight into the blogging world as it stands today.

To start- the obvious. John Moore of Brand Autopsy said “with blogs, small can look big and big can get small.” Blogging scares some, mainly us public relations folks, with its potential to spread news or rumors in a matter of seconds leaving us little time to prepare and react. But for many marketers, blogging is a great new outlet with potentially transforming effects.

The “attack of the blogs,” as Forbes recently referred to it, has begun to be beaten to death by the media. As we weigh the pros and cons of this relatively new online “conversation,” the reality is we just don’t know yet what drastic changes blogging can bring to the marketing world. At least, we don’t know which ones will stick.

What we do know is that, according to PRWeek, over 32 million people are reading blogs daily and some 20 million-plus blogs are in existence. As marketers we like to plan ahead with projections and research, but some things just take time. So what’s our plan as marketers or advertisers to really tackle blogging?

Matt Mullenwegg, the founding developer of WordPress, said “blogging is a trick by all the technologists in the world to stop your web pages from sucking.” There’s no question that blogs help with search results, with the new content attracting new visitors as opposed to a run-of-the-mill static site.

We all know that there are some bad blogs out there. Some that are just too painfully bad to ever revisit. As blogging begins to leave its infancy, we are seeing that the blogs finding success in both building buzz and advertising revenues share some common qualities. So what makes a blog a success?

Give people a reason to read your blog.
- Just because you find something interesting doesn’t necessarily mean others will. Keep readers engaged by not simply repeating the same-old-same-old, but by putting yourself out there with some original thought.

Identify communities of interest.
- Know who your audience is, or at least who you want it to be.

Engage with other bloggers.
- Read what other bloggers are saying about you or your industry and post about it. Don’t think of other bloggers as competitors- think of them as colleagues.

Link and get others to link back to you.
- That doesn’t mean you should have link after link as your primary source of content, just use common sense and link to relevant information.

Keep it simple.
- Find a direction and a tone, and then stick to it.

Post frequently.
- What’s worse than finding a blog you love and checking it daily only to find the newest content is a week old? Eventually, people will stop checking back, so make sure to keep it fresh.

Encourage feedback.
- Start a conversation- it’s beneficial to both you and your readers.

Speaking of feedback… let me know what you think. What changes do you see that blogs will bring to the marketing and advertising worlds, specifically search-related?

The Underlying Reasons

2005-11-08T10:51:00.000-08:00

InternetRetailer shows us some interesting statistics for why people use one engine over another. Not surprisingly, a majority of AOL, Yahoo and MSN searchers use the service because its convenient; they are already there doing other things. What is surprising, however, is the fact that 24% of MSN searchers don't know why they use MSN! Hmm...

The chart also reinforces the idea that it really doesn't matter who has the most relevant results. As I've said before, search is all about convenience. The moment you start searching the goal is to STOP SEARCHING. This is why Google was busy building GMail and Google Local when webmasters across the world were crying "just focus on your results and perfect your algorithm...blah blah blah."

Another interesting note of interest will be the release of IE7. The integrated search bar will make it easier and more convenient than ever to choose an engine and get searching. We'll see how different this chart looks next November.

The More Things Change the More They Stay The Same

2005-11-07T14:48:00.000-08:00

Google's most recent update is still being rolled out. Yahoo! updated their algo less than a month ago and MSN just a little before that.

What drastic changes have we needed to make to stay on top? None.

Besides a few tweaks here and there, our recipe for good rankings is basically the same:

A domain with some age on it.
The right keywords on the the right page in the right priority.
Fresh content that supports targeted keywords.
Eliminating technological hurdles to proper search inclusion (complex dynamic URLs, links embedded in JavaScript or Flash, canonical issues, etc.)
Proper internal link architecture.
Relative links to the site's pages (plural) that gradually increase with time.

There is still no silver bullet. At the core of our SEO program is years of experience in best practices, ongoing research & analysis & testing and a tried and tested methodical approach to naturally and correctly obtaining the best possible rankings.

Zunch Rated Top SEO Agency in topseos.com...AGAIN

2005-11-04T14:09:00.000-08:00

topseos.com Announces Top 30 SEO Firms for November 2005 - AGAIN! (3-months in a row)

We are consistently the Most Requested Consultants Profiles on SEOconsultants as well!

A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to each and every Zuncher! This is a true testament to our hard-work and dedication to our clients and the services that we offer.

Microsoft launches live.com beta

2005-11-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

In what appears to be a new web portal, www.live.com appeared today. Although far from a finished product, Live is already featuring some improvements of start.com. For one, the Live search interface is much cleaner and natural feeling than the hovering layer used on start.com. Two, I can see my hotmail with Live, right next to my RRS feeds, stocks and weather. Very nice, Bill! My one complaint so far is the light blue color that is used on the SERP page for the links. They don't seem to provide enough contrast to make the links pop out.

More to come on this exciting development...

AD:TECH 05 SHANGHAI

2005-11-01T14:04:00.000-08:00

AD:TECH 05 - Shanghai - November 15-17, 2005 - Shanghai International Convention Center, PRC

Be sure to stop by booth E12 and visit with Zunch Communications' APAC Business Director Terrence Ou. Terrence will also be speaking on Tuesday November 15th about SEO methodology and will be giving a site clinic on Wednesday November 16th.

Algorithm Surfing

2005-10-31T14:40:00.000-08:00

It’s been an interesting month for SEO. MSN Search and Google have made substantial changes to their ranking algorithms, right behind last month’s Yahoo! changes. While staying abreast of these changes is crucial to providing quality SEO services, Zunch goes one step further by preparing for the future changes, today. While we don’t have a crystal ball, we have the next two best things: zLab, Zunch’s SEO test lab, and SEO experts with plenty of years ‘in the trenches’ who know when, at times, the best action is no action.

It seems that we always have tests running in zLab. Some of the tests are researching solutions to real-world SEO problems, some tests are settling arguments between Jeff and Tyson, and some tests are “hey, what would happen if…” or as we some times call it “things you would never test on a client’s site but would be really cool to see”. These tests allow us a window in which to see why pages rank they way they do and often serve as an indication as to what changes have been made in the latest search engine update.

Having an SEO strategy that gets you rankings is not enough; you need to know when the best strategy is to do nothing and “ride out” the update.

Huh?

What most often happens with these types of changes MSN and Google did this month can be assimilated to throwing a rock into water. As the ripples spread out, they completely change the surface of the water - some points are higher some points are lower. You only know how the water level is truly affected until the waves stop. Because of the practices Zunch incorporate into our SEO program, we often find that after the waves of change pass, clients most often come out on top.

The Blessings of Good, Free Software

2005-10-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

This morning it occurred to me how useful free software can be. In particular, I've found Xenu Link Sleuth to be incredibly time saving in the past few days. As any good search marketer knows, a poorly architected site structure can many times be the largest hurdle to conquer in an SEO campaign. Even the nicest looking, most comprehensive site in the world will suffer mightily if URL session IDs are present or if javascript navigation is predominantly used. Tools are needed to expedite the site evaluation process and quickly identify the culprit of a poor-performing site.

Link Sleuth very eloquently and graciously hammers a site with asynchronous requests, gathering information from thousands and ten thousands of links in a matter of minutes. Once finished, easy-to-read reports are produced that display 404 pages, orphaned pages, a sitemap and more. I've even built my own link crawler for our team to use, but I continue to go back to Link Sleuth.

As a side note, we are trying to do our part by offering ClickFraudDetective, our click fraud software, free of charge. The best things in life are free, right?

Yahoo Site Explorer

2005-10-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

Very cool tool to help with URL detection --> Yahoo Site Explorer

We have been using this utility extensively, since it launched a few weeks back, for determining old URLs that are indexed that need to be 301-redirected to new URLs of pages that we are building out.

* This utility is in Beta

PageRank Update

2005-10-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

I guess MSN should work on their link building. A PR of 2!

http://www.msn.com

Making sense of Google vs. Microsoft

2005-10-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

For most of 2005 now, it seems we cannot get through a work week without a new offering from Google. From GoogleMaps to GoogleTalk, Schmidt and his team are stretching further than ever before. And with its new partnership with Sun, there's little doubt Google wants to cast a colorful shadow across the world.

But I've heard many over the past year complain, saying Google should stick to search and just dominate the market. Some say Google should stick to its roots and let retail software companies worry about the consumer market.

I say that is a very near-sighted opinion. The problem is this: Average web searchers don't use an engine primarily because of its relevancy, but because of its simplicity. They simply take the path of less resistance. Google designed a simple, easy-to-use interface that was straightforward and effective, and people came.

Now, Google realizes that Microsoft has every opportunity in the world to make a search interface that is quick and easy (we're already seeing some of this in Windows Vista and Office 12). Currently, Google relies on the browser; people opening IE or Firefox and navigating. But what if the browser, as we know it, disappears?

Google has to get in front of your nose in a proactive way if they want to survive. They have no other option.

Google Rolls Out Google Local

2005-10-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

Finally...Google rolls out Google Local integrated with Google Maps.

Not much to rave about over the launch of Google local or MSN local for that matter. If I had to choose which search engines local search features I like best it would have to be Yahoo! local IMO...much cleaner user interface, results are more organized, and easier to navigate. Elements that create a positive user experience.

Opinions?

Update: Are Yahoo's top rankings being hijacked?

2005-10-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

There have been some interesting changes going on in the Yahoo! SERPs.

Looking at the case examples now yields significantly different results.

Case 1 - Update
Now, a search for [texas real estate license] shows the original #1 spot is gone. That’s sites #1 ranking was replaced by a #4 and #6 ranking.

The original #1 (which had the home URL) ranking is now in the #6 position. Of special interest is that now the actual title is listed along with an actual snippet from the page (not the Yahoo! directory title and description). Also ‘index.html’ is now on the end of the green URL.

So, if memory serves, the Business.com’s feed listing might now be replaced with these two new rankings.

When clicking on the site you are now sent to two redirects on Yahoo (rds.yahoo.com and rdre1.yahoo.com vice the one redirect -rds.yahoo.com- as the others below) then over to the actual site, bypassing the Business.com set of redirects.

Case 2 - Update
Now, a search for [illinois real estate license] shows the original #1 spot is gone. In fact it’s not even in the top 100, but ranked 107th.

Wow. Was Yahoo that far off? Was the relationship between Business.com and Yahoo affecting the ranking that much?

When clicking on the site you are now sent to a redirect on Yahoo (rds.yahoo.com) then over to the actual site, bypassing the Business.com set of redirects.

Case 3 - Update
Same position (#2), however, again this time we see the actual title and snippet from the site (not the Yahoo! directory title and description). And we also now see the tracking code in the URL (www.spectraesolutions.com/?trackcode=bizcom)

When clicking on the site you are now sent to a redirect on Yahoo (rds.yahoo.com) then over to the actual site, bypassing the Business.com set of redirects.

What else is interesting to ponder is:
Is/was Business.com replacing natural (free) rankings with their feeds of advertisers on their own PPC system? If so, then some advertisers are/were paying for traffic they may have once been free. Good for Business.com. Not so good for you if you’re paying .65 cents a click to Business.com and, through Site Match (modified because of the sheer bulk of advertisers Business.com brings), Business.com is paying .10 cents, or less, for your once free listings.

Are Yahoo's top rankings being hijacked?

2005-09-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

I was gauging the effect of the Yahoo! update on some sites I have a special interest in. I saw some very interesting shifts where these sites were now ranking #1 over state government agencies that police this industry and .edu sites.

What makes this even more interesting is that the #1 spots that the sites are occupying appear normal with the right title tag, copy snippet and green URL. However, once you click the Yahoo! SERP link you're taken to Business.com and then forwarded to the actual site with a bizcom tracking code.

Of interesting note is that the owner of these sites advertises through Business.com listings and through their PPC program. So it may be possible he is paying for all of these clicks. They did tell me that Business.com traffic was up significantly.

I've provided some information below on what's happening:

Case 1
A Yahoo! search for [texas real estate license]:

Click to Enlarge

The #1 natural spot embedded link is:

The embedded link is:

Clicking on the #1 natural spot listed as "www.texasrealestatelicenseonline.com" takes you through several 302 redirects one of which redirects to Business.com.

See the whole request process with headers here.
As a comparison here is the #2 spot headers here.

You eventually wind up at:

http://www.texasrealestatelicenseonline.com/?trackcode=bizcom

Case 2
A Yahoo! search for [illinois real estate license]:

Click to Enlarge

The #1 natural spot embedded link is:

Clicking on the #1 natural spot listed as "www.illinoisrealestatelicenseonline.com" takes you through several 302 redirects one of which redirects to Business.com.

See the whole request process with headers here.
As a comparison here is the #3 spot headers here.

You eventually wind up at:

http://www.illinoisrealestatelicenseonline.com/?trackcode=bizcom

Case 3

A Yahoo! search for [property management and construction software]:

Click to Enlarge

The #2 natural spot embedded link is:

Clicking on the #2 natural spot listed as "www.spectraesolutions.com" takes you through several 302 redirects one of which redirects to Business.com.

See the whole request process with headers here.
As a comparison here is the #1 spot headers here.

You eventually wind up at:

http://www.spectraesolutions.com/?trackcode=bizcom

Bye-Bye Butler!

2005-09-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Ask Jeeves or should I say Ask is 86'ing the Butler icon.

IMO...I don't see the value in doing away with an icon that is synonymous with this engine from it's inception. I like Jeeves (fat or thin Jeeves...no preference here). Could it be that Ask "bit" on a rebranding pitch from the agencies - TBWA/Chiat/Day or Hanft Unlimited????

Here is an idea...take the money that you have budgeted to spend on your new branding initiative and put that money into improving your search technology!

Google: Click Fraud is THE Issue for our Clients

2005-09-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

In case you hadn't heard Google is trying to directly court Fortune 1,000 companies. Sure it’s only a 1,000 companies; on the other hand it’s THE top 1,000 companies. Less meat for us agencies, but I digress.

I had the opportunity to listen to and meet David Dietze, who handles all travel and technology commerce clients throughout the Southeast and Southwest, and Brian Devill (David called him the 'muscle') at a local DFWSEM meeting.

Into the Q&A the subject of click fraud was brought up...I was beat to it...and I asked David point blank if Google was open to working with third part click fraud data providers/aggregators. He said that Google was open to working with them and wanted to know anytime an advertiser or their click fraud auditing service provider suspected click fraud. Good to know.

The big question I wanted to ask was how big of an issue is click fraud to Google's own advertising clients in the pre and post sales process. Brian answered "Click fraud is THE issue." Nice to know that Google themselves are running into some of the problems that agencies are. I think agencies may have the upper hand here though...it’s in our best interest to detect click fraud for our clients and obtain refunds, such as Zunch's Click Fraud Detective does. The same can't be said for Google.

Google and the Thickening Browser Plot

2005-09-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

The long time commercial browser Opera is now free of charge and free of ads, giving users yet another option in the expanding browser market. Although Opera's market share is small, the browser is widely regarded as a very mature and intuitive product. The big news in my mind, however, is what makes it free...

Opera software, following the path of Mozilla's Firefox, has levereged deals with internet giants like Google, eBay and Amazon to receive kickbacks from users who purchase using the built-in search bar.

So after years and years of rumors regarding gBrowser, Google is apparently satisfied to strike deals with current browser makers. Ofcourse we all know of one company who will not be signing papers with Google. To that end, check out this screenshot:

Google Wi-Fi?

2005-09-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

While I think this would be so COOL if it actually works (imagine a national Wi-Fi system that works like the cell system) I can't help but think - Google, are you getting away from what you do well?

In the past in this blog I've speculated that Google is getting too far away from it's main focus. I think some people are starting to agree with me.

So, Google, create this neat tool for me - but be careful. The world is full of companies that start off great, lose focus, and then become mediocre.

Google Secure Access: Frequently Asked Questions

Can AJAX and SEO coexist? They must.

2005-09-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard about AJAX yet, you at least have used it. In just a year or two, AJAX has become the talk of the town thanks to snazzy new web implementations by folks like Google, Oddpost and Microsoft. For the non-techies among us, AJAX is a method of displaying dynamic content on-the-fly, that is, without a page refresh.

Obviously the emergence of this type of technology has huge implications for search engine marketers everywhere. So far, AJAX is mainly limited to specialty applications (mapping and email, most notably), which do not present a problem. As this technology continues to inspire and grow popular, though, how long until Mike's Electronics website wants an AJAXed navigation? While we would like to offer users an interface that is more "desktop" like, the thought of not having content crawled an indexed just doesn't fly.

This brings me to my point. With Google, Microsoft and others playing a large role in the escalation of this technology, shouldn't we expect them to support it from a search standpoint? I'm looking for one of these companies to step up and pioneer a method for new technologies like AJAX to be search compatible. I don't know if that's a new markup tag with special instructions for spiders, a new document similar to the sitemap.xml file, or something completely different.

With the contiguous maturation of the Internet and Search, I think it would be a shame if either one was held back unnecessarily. I see that happening with AJAX...but I hope I'm wrong.

Google: Wireless VoIP Provider

2005-09-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

You know, I have to be pretty wound up to be blogging on a Saturday morning...

What’s got me wound up is the moves that Google has and is making in regards to wireless communications. Google buys up large amounts of dark fiber left over from the Internet bubble burst and launches Google Talk (cell # required).

So what if G creates a major wireless network (Verizon has already launched one) and partners with a tech gadget company like LG and markets VoIP "cell" phones. The phones are embedded with Google applications and these phones maintain on "always on" Internet connection. The phone, of course, has the abilities to make calls (VoIP), search the web (local would be huge as would a social network), IM, read Gmail, check your Adwords/Adsense accounts, get RSS feeds, check your eBay bids and auctions, etc.

And another possible spin: Since G would own the network and the calls are over the Internet, the costs could be MUCH cheaper than they are now. Maybe if you elected to receive Adwords ads on your phone your service would be free.
The big cell companies better be concerned; with a brand like Google behind it, VoIP "cell" phones could become mainstream.

Source Article: http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?p=247655

More MSN/AOL Rumors

2005-09-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

So, AOL may dump Google results for MSN results. This would make sense if, in the near future, AOL will be part of MSN. I wonder if MSN will make use of Advertising.com's platform? That would be pretty cool as I think that's a great tool for advertisers.

However, note to MSN - you guys need to get your customer service off the ground better. I know it's early, but I thought Google customer service was the worst, but lately you guys are giving them a run for their money. Just our agency experience, take it for what it's worth. Fix the problems and I'll be the first one to say it publicly. Let's avoid the mistakes of the past.

But go get AOL - and have great customer service - and we will give you a lot of money.

Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide

Yahoo! Debuts Instant Searching

2005-09-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! 'Instant' Search (beta version)

Another utility to make searching the web more efficient (or make us more lazy)

Will I use it on a regular basis...probably not. I don't use Google's 'Im Feeling Lucky' button which is basically what Yahoo! Instant Search is. Only major difference between the two...Yahoo! Instant Search pops up a bubble with the most popular related search term in Yahoo!'s data base (in relation to the search query entered)

I like my search engine like I like my coffee...without cream and sugar. You get my point?! :)

Federal Judge to PPC Networks: Hit the Road Jack

2005-09-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

As most of you may know the PPC networks under suit (Google, Yahoo!, Overture, AOL, Ask Jeeves, etc.) tried to have the previous federal courts decision, that decided the lawsuit should be sent back to Arkansas, reversed. The federal court system apparently favors big companies, especially after a bill was signed into law earlier this year. Apparently the appeals court judge felt the same way as the previous judge, so back to Arkansas.

Basically in a state court both parties have little recourse when there is a court order that they don't want to comply with. That's puts the PPC networks in a tight spot considering that no one, NO ONE, gets access to their data. A court order could put that information on display for the plaintiffs counsel and their consultants. Having served as a consultant for the plaintiff's counsel, I can tell you that the data could be very damaging to the defense and that the plaintiff's counsel will be asking for it.

Truveo Launches Video Search Engine

2005-09-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

Truveo to battle with the big boys (Google and Yahoo!) in the video search arena!

Very clean format and easy to use. Another new "search toy" to add to my favorites.

What do you guys think of it?

Truveo Launches Video Search Engine