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November 23, 2005

Another new Google AdWords feature

Guest Entry by Cindy Turrietta, SEM Analyst--Bruce Clay, Inc

The Googlers over at the Google complex have been busy recently introducing "Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up”, separate budgets for search and content match and the ability to opt into or out of showing ads on the Google Network.

This morning I stumbled on another cool feature that has to do with setting up a geo targeted campaign. You can now use Google Maps to target your customers when you select customized location targeting. Basically you either enter a starting address or select a point on the map and Google Maps will pin point it for you. You then enter the miles or kilometers that you want to target from your location and Google Maps will draw a circle around that area for you. You can also opt for their multi-point option where you can choose 3 or more point on the map to define a target a rea of any size or shape. Once you set your coordinates, press continue to finish setting up your campaign. It’s that easy.

Be sure to take the population density of the area(s) you are targeting into consideration and draw your circle or polygon a little bigger to accommodate more people if you are targeting a rural area. Also keep in mind that Google’s “local” or geo-targeted search is based on the IP address of the searcher. So if your potential visitor’s IP address is not within your targeted area, they will not see your ad. This holds true for anybody using AOL as their IP addresses originate out of Virginia.

Kind of a cool new “toy” certainly making it easy to define locally targeted areas. What will Google think of next…

Posted by Susan Esparza on 11/23/05 at 11:47 AM
See more entries in Branding, Pay Per Click

November 22, 2005

Page Rank update

Looks like there's a PR update going on at several datacenters. Barry pointed to at least these four being affected:

• 64.233.171.99
• 64.233.171.104
• 64.233.171.105
• 64.233.171.147

Posted by Susan Esparza on 11/22/05 at 2:29 PM
See more entries in Analytics, SEO

Google freezes Google Analytics

If you're a large company and you roll out a product, probably the very last thing you want to do is pause it, say 'oops, can't handle that' and have to take the good will hit that comes along with jerking your clients around. But that's precisely what Google has done again with the roll out of Google Analytics. After a rocky start, the free analytics program has been closed and the 'add a new site' link has been removed from the consoles of those already signed up.

This isn't the first time Google has stopped a project after roll out and it's becoming familiar. Google puts out a new product. Various people react in joy and outrage (sometimes the very same people), Google underestimates the reaction and adoption, Google freezes the project. Most of the time, this gets shrugged off because after all, it was a beta project. However, Analytics is different. It wasn't a beta project but they still treated it as though it was.

In truth, this probably won't be a huge stumbling block for Google. Most people are willing to forgive them just about anything considering the huge amount of free, quality tools that they offer and of course, the traffic that they provide. Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal agrees, "being a free service with in-depth analytics tracking capabilities, in time publishers will probably forget about the initial Analytics problems."

Posted by Susan Esparza on 11/22/05 at 9:38 AM
See more entries in Analytics, Google

November 21, 2005

Google adds value to AdWords

Guest Entry by Cindy Turrietta, SEM Analyst-Bruce Clay, Inc

"Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up” is a new feature that allows advertisers to target sites they want to advertise on directly from the site itself, provided of course that the Ad Sense publisher has activated the necessary code. Even if an advertiser is not currently signed up with Google AdWords, they can create a new account and begin immediately with a new site targeted campaign. Site targeting ads are based on a CPM (cost per impression; trivia note: The M in CPM is Latin for "one-thousand.") which is a little different from regular AdWords ads that are billed on a PPC (pay per click) pricing model.

Additionally, Google AdWords advertisers can now separate their budgets for search and content match campaigns allowing greater control over budget dollars. This is fantastic news for advertisers who have traditionally created multiple campaigns, one for search and one for content.

The last great new feature that Google AdWords rolled out recently is the ability for advertisers to opt out of (or in to) showing ads on the Google Network or Google Search, at any time. That’s right, you can now select not to have your ads show on Google Search or the Google Partner network at the campaign level. At this time you cannot exclude individual partners, but perhaps that is something they are working on…

Posted by Susan Esparza on 11/21/05 at 12:51 PM
See more entries in Google, Search Engine Optimization

I use Google Analytics.

Well, okay, not really. But if I did, Google would have the right to tell everyone about it. Spotted over in the Search Engine Watch forums, a member pointed out point 6 of the Google Analytics TOS which reads in part:

.... Unless You notify Google otherwise in writing, You hereby grant to Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries a limited license to use Your trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names and other distinctive brand features ("Brand Features") in presentations, marketing materials, customer lists, and financial reports.

Wow, so Google is allowed to use your trademarks and brands to advertise their product. But wait, there's more:

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.

In other words, unless you tell them to not tell the world how you're tracking your website, they have every right to do so. Do you think they'd be as forgiving if the tables were turned?

Posted by Susan Esparza on 11/21/05 at 8:50 AM
See more entries in Analytics, SEO

November 14, 2005

Google Renames Urchin; Gives It Away

When Google acquired Urchin earlier this year, they were charging $495 for those who wanted to use the service. Then, just a short while later, they dropped the price further to $199 per month. And now, less than a year after acquiring Urchin, Google is doing what Google does best--rebranding it to Google Analytics and giving it away.

That's right, the "new" Google Analytics is free. It's also been integrated with Adwords and according to Google Blog, it's easier to use.

Of course, the real advantage here is to Google. By making it easier for AdWords users (and presumably AdSense users as well) to track how well their campaigns are doing, Google stands to increase their ever expanding revenue stream with grateful advertisers willing to pour more money into campaigns that they see working.

The whole concept is a win-win which means that someone is going to be looking for a catch. I'll be looking out for those people and I'll update later with the best of the bunch.

Posted by Susan Esparza on 11/14/05 at 9:20 AM
See more entries in Analytics, Branding

November 10, 2005

Google Automat and the power of Google

Everyone is talking about the new Google Automat service. The patent was filed in March 2004 and it looks like mashup of the new Google Base service and an auction site like eBay. Nathan over at Inside Google has lots of screen shots from the patent filing and John Battelle called the service AdWords meets eBay.

Google is getting into everything; they're being disruptive and gaining even more attention every day. New service offerings--offered free and supported by their scary large ads revenue--are reaching ever further into territory formerly left to disparate companies. They're bringing it under one very strong brand and linking it together in a way that's unique. No wonder Bill Gates is concerned about beating them (surely you've already read the "leaked" memo from the Microsoft founder).

Posted by Susan Esparza on 11/10/05 at 10:01 AM
See more entries in Branding

November 8, 2005

So why do you yahoo?

Danny has an interesting breakdown on why people use a particular search engine. Far and away, people say they use Google for the results (68%) while the rest seem to be used because it's convenient (AOL -65%, MSN - 63%, Yahoo - 52% with 33% choosing Yahoo for the results).

Also included in the report was the awareness of paid listings with AOL and Google users most likely to notice and MSN least likely.

Privacy concerns were also covered with 58% claiming they weren't worried about behavioral and demographical targeting so long as it was disclosed and they could opt out. Surprisingly 27% said that they would continue using even if they couldn't opt out.

Danny linked to charts of the report, coming courtesy of InternetRetailer.

Posted by Susan Esparza on 11/ 8/05 at 11:14 AM
See more entries in Branding

I'm pretty sure it was tongue in cheek.

Everywhere I looked yesterday people were talking about Yahoo's Alpha Geek--the life size statue built to reward the Yahoo! Mail team for their hard work in creating a better email service. Unfortunately for the black and white world of the internet (I'm looking at you, Slashdot) the fact that the hyperbolic language-- "in recognition of tremendous intellectual efforts put forth in order to defeat Gmail", and "Not since the code breakers in Britain's Bletchley Park deciphered Germany's Enigma code"-- was indeed hyperbolic has completely sailed over many people's heads. Even those who at first acknowledge that it may have been hyperbole, like Kevin Fox at Fury.com, backpedal.

But, call me crazy, I don't think that anyone at Yahoo thinks that beating Gmail is at all like defeating the Nazis. What they probably meant to do, and you might want to sit down for this one, is get people talking about Yahoo! Mail. I can't even count the number of times I've seen a link to a screenshot, a discussion of how much better the beta is than the current version or what shortcomings of Gmail are being fixed by the new service. Yahoo has everyone talking about their product right now without have a public release of it. Not bad at all.

Posted by Susan Esparza on 11/ 8/05 at 10:03 AM
See more entries in Email, Fun Stuff

November 4, 2005

PersonalizedScore patent causes consternation

Over at Search Engine Watch forums, there's a very interesting thread going on. Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal posted about a new Google patent application titled "Personalization of placed content ordering in search results" which details how to serve organic search results based on user profiles. Similar to the patent for behavioral targeting for ads, this patent nevertheless seems to be a first for Google in trying to integrate the user profiles into their natural search.

Google gets the user information from a variety of sources such as Google Desktop (now out of beta), Gmail and of course, their infamous eternal cookie. This is sure to raise privacy concerns, as Chris D points out, referencing DoubleClick in 1999 (and linking to Slashdot.)

However, before anyone starts claiming that the sky is falling, note that sections [0111] – [0114] clearly mark the ‘placed content’ as being advertising, e-mail opt-ins, etc. The definition of the patent also only applies to ‘placed content’.

Posted by Susan Esparza on 11/ 4/05 at 9:46 AM
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

November 2, 2005

Index shake ups at Yahoo and Google

Matt Cutts says today's the day for Jagger 3. (You should definitely read the entry, the Jagger mention is only a PS to a very interesting post.) And over at Yahoo, Tim Mayer, weatherman extraordinaire told of an update to organic search--he says it'll be mild and quick but that rankings may see an impact. Actually he used impact as a verb which I don't believe in doing so I'm going to pretend that he didn't.

Check the forums for discussion on Jagger and Yahoo's update (Links to SEW, see also WMW for Google and Yahoo)

Posted by Susan Esparza on 11/ 2/05 at 10:11 AM
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization