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August 31, 2006

The noindex challenge

Matt performed a 100 percent in-no-way-scientific test to see if the engines actually respect those little "noindex" commands you've been confidently stapling across your super secret Web stuff in order to keep it out of the index. Turns out, not all the engines pay attention to the command. Here's what Matt found.

Google doesn’t show the page in any way
Ask doesn’t show the page in any way
MSN shows a url reference and Cached link, but no snippet. Clicking the cached link doesn’t return anything.
Yahoo! shows a url reference and Cached link, but no snippet. Clicking on the cached link returns the cached page.

Yahoo!, you sneaks! I knew you were looking at me funny during SES. It's nice to know that at least Ask (go Ask!) and Google keep their word (and your secrets).

Interestingly, over at SEW Danny Sullivan expands on Matt's comments and points out that Google treats robots.txt and noindex differently, even though they're technically supposed to do the same thing. It's important to know, because Danny says, if you use a robots.txt file instead of the nofollow, Google does show the page in some ways. Hmm, I wonder why the discrepancy? It's definitely something webmasters should be aware of.

Check out Matt's post to read his full "study".

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/31/06 at 1:56 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

Should you be creating keyword-specific file names?

I'll give you a heads up. You're probably going to be reading a lot of should-I-put-keywords-in-the-URL debates over the next few days. And when you do, you have one person to blame: Mr. Matt Cutts. Heh.

While most of you (fine, some of you) were sleeping at 1 a.m. this morning, Matt was blogging (don't look so surprised). It seems the question of why the Windows Live Writer blog was banned from Google went from site to site until it eventually ended up in Matt's lap. Matt mentioned a few things he noticed about the URL before finally stating:

"In general, urls like that [windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!D85741BB5E0BE8AA!174] sometimes look like session IDs to search engines. Most bloggy sites tend to have words from the title of a post in the url; having keywords from the post title in the url also can help search engines judge the quality of a page."

Hurry! Go stuff your URLs and file names with the keywords you used in your title! Okay, okay, we're kidding. And even though you could take Matt's comments to mean Google is now giving page titles more weight, that's probably not what he meant.

Unnaturally filling (read: spamming) your URLs and file names with your keywords is probably not a good idea. It's actually a really bad idea.

Matt actually clarifies what he meant in the comment section of his post.

"Including the keyword in the url just gives another chance for that keyword to match the user’s query in some way. That’s the way I’d put it."

Yes, that makes more sense. Unfortunately, most people probably didn't read that far down (which is a shame since the comment sections is always the best part of a post, no offense, Matt.), so you'll probably see a rash of crazy forum posts in the days to come harking the overstuffing of your URL. When you do, just laugh and move on.

Obviously, users should be using keywords in their titles. Titles show up in the SERP and it provides a good user experience for searchers when they see a title that matches their query. If your keywords are in your URL, it's just reinforcement that your site is relevant to their needs. It's not a reason to rank on its own. Steer clear from anyone who tells you differently.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/31/06 at 1:44 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

Will YouTube crumble under its own weight?

The Wall Street Journal took a deeper look into YouTube yesterday, using information gathered by a Delft University of Technology scraper to introduce us to some of YouTube's most famous users and unleash some seriously jaw dropping statistics.

Care to meet some of YouTube's most loyal users?

First, there's Christy Leigh Stewart. At 21, and with nearly 2,000 videos under her belt, she's considered the most devoted uploader of them all.

Twenty-three year old Ernie Rogers holds the record for the most number of videos watched. I wonder if he gets a ribbon for that?

And we're sure you already know Peter, aka geriatric1927. He's the 79-year-old UK widower who sits in front of his computer recounting war stories. Whether it's his age, the fashionable headphones he wears or his stories that are responsible, Peter has arguably become YouTube's most famous user. So far he's appeared in Amanda's Unboomed, Reuters, USAToday and even has his own Wikipedia entry. How's that for the power of videoblogging?

Even more startling than its unique cast of characters are the numbers YouTube is reported to be bringing in. WSJ broke it down for us:

Number of videos with "Zidane" in the title: almost 2,000
Number of videos uploaded as of Sunday: 6.1 million
Number of users under the age of 20: 70 percent
Total number of views on YouTube: 1.73 billion
Amount of storage space 6.1 million videos take up: 45 terabytes or 5,000 home computer's worth
Amount of time people have spent watching YouTube videos: 9,305 years

And now those numbers are sparking debate. Many fear that YouTube will soon crumble under its own weight. However, I think Christy, Ernie and Peter can all rest easy. YouTube's not going anywhere.

YouTube knows its financial situation, and they're successful enough that they have some options. Worst case scenario, I think we'll see YouTube turn into a subscription-based service or ads integrated into the content. It's costing them millions of dollars worth of bandwidth just to keep things up and running, they'll have to do something to make that investment worth it.

Best case scenario? YouTube starts marketing itself as a full-fledged social networking site and knocks MySpace off its pedestal. The foundation is there: They have the site-wide instant messaging and email service, groups for users to join, video channels for them to create and existing partnerships with mainstream media. With a small tweak to their focus, YouTube could easily become top dog.

(And of course, there's always that possibility that YouTube will formally pair up with one of the major engines and make things really interesting. Personally, I'd rather see them go it alone.)

The success of YouTube is built on the innovative thinking of its developers. Your average 17-year-old with a videophone can shoot a video of his friend falling down the stairs and have it available for download in minutes. There's a power in that.

Keep an eye on YouTube. If they continue to grow at its current rate, and there's no reason why they shouldn't, things will get pretty interesting, pretty quick.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/31/06 at 11:39 AM | TrackBack (0)
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August 30, 2006

Excited Customers stay loyal

Everyone knows it costs less to retain old customers than to find new ones, so if you're a business owner looking to keep your customers excited about your product, yesterday was the day you needed to be paying attention.

On Tuesday, Ze Frank gave us all a lesson in branding (and youth. Youth. Youth. Sorry.), which he defined as that emotional aftertaste that's conjured up by a series of experiences. Shortly after, Kathy Sierra made an argument for Why Marketing Should Make The User Manuals. The two combined gave readers a crash course in the importance of branding and keeping customers happy.

Truthfully, actually allowing your marketing team to create your user manuals is probably a very dangerous thing. You may end up with something very pretty and glossy, but lacking on all the technical ~~garbage~~ information you need to help your customers understand your product. However, the point is a valid one and raised a very good question.

Why are the promotional brochures used to lure customers colorful and sexy, when the manuals you give to your actual customers are flat and boring? Is it fair to get people all excited about your company only to level them once they come on board with a 400 page, size 8 font, black and white bounded book?

Of course it's not, and doing so immediately sucks up all the allure your company had created in the original wooing phase.

Kathy uses manuals to make her point, but the analogy lend itself to virtually all aspects of your business, including the support you offer when a problem arises or articles written intended to explain your product. This information should be as exciting as the material you used to entice customers to believe in you in the first place. Keeping it exciting will help your customers keep that warm and fuzzy aftertaste when thinking about your brand.

To promote a good user experience you need not Web 2.0 all your site's offerings and get rid of errant vowels. (What did the letter E ever do to you?) Instead, make an effort to keep the content compelling, easy to read and visually stimulating. When appropriate, make your content read like a magazine, not a textbook. If you are providing your customers with printed materials, Kathy says to make it "touchable". There's a reason your fingers are more drawn to a magazine than a textbook.

Make sure you fully explain your product and/or services in language your customer can understand. When writing about it, use the terms they're likely to use. Don't use a complicated word, when a simple one would suffice. People don't like feeling dumb, and if your product makes them inadequate they'll stop using it.

Additionally, if your customers can't understand your product, they won't be able to tell their friends about and help spread the buzz. It's vital that you make sure your customers understand the information you're giving them.

Users who remain excited about a product are more likely to remain brand loyal, more likely buy and are more likely to inspire others to do the same.

Kathy poses this question to marketers: "Are you as sexy after the sale as you are before?

Well, are you?

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/30/06 at 4:13 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Branding

Catch Up, Round Up

No, my faithful readers, I have not forgotten you, but there is a lot to catch up on. So let's do it.

Google gives you free books

Google has once again won my heart by letting me download full PDF versions of my favorite out-of-copyright books courtesy of Google Book Search. The service is similar to the one offered by Project Gutenberg but offers actual page scans instead of the slightly-hard-to-read text layout offered by PG. The one thing the earlier service does have going for it is its searchable 19,000 title library that (unlike Google) makes it brain-dead easy to find the book you're looking for. It'd be nice to see Google adopt something similar.

As a book nerd, this gets my heart racing in ways I can't even describe, though I'd be more excited if I had someplace to actually download these books to. Even thinking about reading Hamlet via my computer screen makes my eyes itch and water. Not that CNet's method sounds any better. They seemed to be encouraging the printing of these classics. Like from your home printer. Yeah, I'm definitely not going to be doing that.

Readers can find books by searching the "Full books view" option on the Google Book Search homepage and seeing which ones have the "download" button enabled. Unfortunately, the only way to find this out is by clicking on each title. Perhaps Google could create a "Downloaded Books Only" option because it's pretty disappointing to watch a title fall out of grasp when you realize you can't download it. I'm easily let down.

And also, here's hoping Google can work out some sort of iTunes-esque deal with content publishers so still-under-copyright books can be added to the pot as well. That would be super.

Are ContentAds coming?

Similar to last week's Panama emails, MSN has reportedly emailed select advertisers inviting them to take part in a ContentAds pilot starting this fall. The pilot was originally mentioned during the Pre-SES Community briefing earlier this month. At the time we were told the initial release would be text-based only and target basic functionality. Hopefully some of the special invitees will let the rest of little people in on what the program actually looks like.

Jensense aka Jennifer Slegg says based on the wording of the email, MSN will not only run on MSN sites like MSN Money and MSN Real Estate, but on non-MSN sites as well. It will be interesting to see how lucrative these ads are for publishers, as contextual advertising is often compared to banner ads, having higher conversion costs with low click throughs.

There's no word yet on how many people have been invited to test out the program or when we may see a public offering. If MSN has any sense they'll do their best to release before Yahoo! unveils Panama. Of course, as both Yahoo and MSN hold back their product, they're just allowing Google to gain more and more ground.

'Tis the Season

The Inside AdWords blog issued us all a reminder: the kids are going back to school, the mornings are starting to get colder and it's time to make any seasonal changes to your AdWords account.

This means if your PPC listings are talking about bikinis and sunscreen, it's officially time to change them over to sweaters and snow boots. Don't worry, it's exactly what the Find and Edit Keywords Tool was made for.

Search Engine Scorecard

The folks behind the SimSearch blog have put together a search engine scorecard, explaining "the search engines have been ranking Web pages for years; it's time for us to rate their performance." Right on, guys!

Here's how they did it.

"Once a month we perform the above searches using each search engine’s default settings. To keep things simple, we award a ballpark grade to each search engine. That is, a C may be as high as a C+ or as low as a C-."

MSN and Yahoo! have both received excellent ratings so far this year with mostly A's across the board. Google seems to be having a more difficult time, walking away with a "C" average overall (no curve for Bigdaddy, I guess). The group also included results from 2005 where Yahoo! was the clear winner, practically annihilating its competition.

I'm always amazed when MSN seems to rank well in these "taste test" situations because I've never had any luck with the engine myself. Perhaps it's because these guys are basing their results off (as far as I can tell) how well the engines rank their site for their specific keywords. This may leave MSN better suited to score well since the size of its index is considerably smaller than Google's and it's easier to get your site to rank (due to that whole low hanging fruit thing). Take it how you will, but the scorecard proves to be an interesting read.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/30/06 at 2:18 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Branding, Google, MSN Search, Pay-Per-Click, Yahoo

August 29, 2006

Danny Sullivan to Leave SEW and SES

You're going to be seeing that headline a lot today (and throughout the rest of the year, I'm sure), and there's a reason for that: it couldn't be more important.

Danny Sullivan has left the loudmouth SEO community in relative shock with his announcement that contractual disagreements with Incisive Media will cause him to step down from Search Engine Watch and the SES series beginning December 1st.

Danny made the announcement this morning on his personal blog, Daggle, as well as on SEW. Matt Cutts called the news a "nine on the Richter scale" with the potential to shake the entire industry for months, and I don't think that's an exaggeration. The search industry will be reeling from this long after Danny's successor is named.

Danny has been covering the search industry for more than a decade and is credited by many as being the driving force responsible for making both SEW and SES the authoritative outlets they have become.

So, what will Danny do next? It's unsure, but he does say this:

"Aside from SEW and SES, it's far more likely I'll be doing writing and conferences elsewhere. This might be for other companies, depending on what happens in the next few weeks. I've also entertained the notion of simply expanding my own consulting company and going it on my own with a new site and/or conferences. We'll see. Somewhere in there, I might even finally do that book I've been threatening to do."

With Danny leaving, suddenly the future of SEW, the most authoritative voice on search, is left in question. Who will take over? Possibly Chris Sherman? I don't know.

As talented as the rest of the SEW staff is, it's hard to imagine that anyone would be able to step in and run SEW in the same manner that Danny has done over the past ten years. Danny's leaving throws a lot of other futures into question, as well. Barry Schwartz commented he had "no idea what will happen" in December and whether he'll continue to work on the SEW blog.

And what about the conferences? How will they survive without ringleader Danny? I'm sure the brand will help them to remain a success, but a bit of their heart will be gone. Letting Danny go is a very poor decision on Incisive's part. We have all lost our leader.

If we know anything it's that 2007 will be a year of change for search engine marketing.
To Danny, we wish you the absolute best in whatever you decide to do next. You're a true talent, and because of that, we know you will be successful in whatever you decide to do.

To Incisive Media, is there is any way to keep Danny on board, we advise you to do it. The search industry will never have another Danny Sullivan.

As Barry noted over at SER: "The site will suffer, the conferences will suffer, and the industry as a whole will suffer. Try, try, to do whatever you can, to keep Danny - if it is not too late.”

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/29/06 at 10:22 AM | TrackBack (1)
See more entries in SEM Events, Search Engine Optimization

August 28, 2006

The Weekend's Top Headlines

Where is Yahoo! headed?

Blogs are missing from Yahoo!'s news search results today and it hasn't gone unnoticed. So where have all the blogs gone and when will they be back?

Yahoo! spokesperson Brian Nelson told Greg Jarboe that the once-nicely embedded Blog beta has been "temporarily taken offline to retool the offering". While that sounded fairly ominous at first, Brian calmed our fears later adding:

"Maybe this goes without saying, (but) blog content remains an important part of our overall news and news search strategy. It’s worth mentioning again because I’ve read speculation in the blogosphere about what Y! might be thinking bigger picture when it comes to blog content."

I like the idea of Yahoo! thinking of the "bigger picture" when it comes to blog content. It signifies a possible Yahoo-inspired feed reader or even a full-blown Yahoo! Blog Search. Unfortunately, there's no word as to when users will get to see just how important Yahoo! views blogs to its news search strategy. All I know is I want it now.

To me, it's important that we see it sooner rather than later. Google and Ask.com are already offering successful blog searches and feed readers. The longer Yahoo! waits, the harder the inception will be.

I'm also curious to see what Yahoo! has in store. Will blogs be integrated into the main news search? Will Yahoo simply release its own blog search? And most important to me: Will blogs continue to hold their right-hand position in Yahoo! News? No one knows.

I've always been a big fan of Yahoo presenting its Blog beta to the right of its News search. In fact, it's one of the few reasons I use Yahoo! News. Seeing blogs and traditional media covering the same stories side-by-side has always been an added bonus for me. Yahoo! is the only engine that has grouped blogs with news and it's something that helped differentiate them from Google or Ask's. It would be a shame for them to lose that.

Google Apps for your Domain

Google is officially treading in Microsoft territory. Launched today, Google Apps for your Domain is a free, ad-based software package that will allow small businesses and non-profits to use Google-hosted software bundled with their personal logos and branding information.

The initial release is in beta and includes already-released Google apps Calendar, Gmail, Page Creator (does this one seem out of place to you?) [Not in the least. With a little bit of creativity, it's a good PowerPoint substitute.--Susan] and Talk, but will likely be expanded on later in an ad-less "paid premium" release. I would imagine the next release will also include applications such as Writely, Spreadsheet and my personal favorite, Google Notebook.

So just how worried should Microsoft be? Initially, not too worried. If anything, this is more of Live competitor, than a Microsoft Office competitor. Microsoft's office of products is far more powerful than what Google is offering, especially for anyone relying on Excel. Persuading users to switch to an entirely Google-based system, a system that resides 100 percent on the Internet, will be no easy task. Plus there's always that privacy thing.

Clearly though, Google treading on Microsoft's territory is cause for some concern, especially as Google begins to expand its lineup of office products. If Microsoft wants to stay ahead of the competition I think the most important thing they can do is make their products collaborative and increasingly user friendly. They have the power to cut off Google the same way Google is trying to cut off them.

The SEO blog has an excellent write up on Google Apps and its possible future. Go read it and let the Google Office speculation begin.

Mea Culpa

Sadly, our linking debacle with Greg Boser was one of this weekend's top stories. Greg, if you were offended or felt slighted in any way, we do apologize. The original omission of a link was an innocent, though well-publicized, oversight on my part. At Bruce Clay our policy has always been to give credit where credit is due and that has not changed.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/28/06 at 3:19 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Branding, Google, Microsoft, Search Engines, Yahoo

August 25, 2006

Friday Recap

First, a moment of silence to acknowledge the cruel and unfair demotion of no-longer-a-planet Pluto based on its inability to "dominate its orbit around the Sun" the way the other planets do. So just because Pluto's a little different from its friends it gets stripped of its title? Gee, that's a great lesson for all the kids out there.

Pluto, fear not, you will not be forgotten, especially by your siblings Earth, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Mercury and Jupiter, as well as your other loyal companion of the same name.

Okay, back to the search stuff.

Ask.com is helping confused parents understand their children's cyber language by allowing them to type those little emoticons into their search box to find out what the heck they mean. It's pretty cool that Ask.com can identify non-alphanumeric characters. Barry Schwartz says this feature isn't new and has actually been around for awhile. New Yorkers are such killjoys.

Do you want to know what the top five SEO excuses are? ~~Google it.~~ Go to Google and search for it. Heh, wise guy. I bet he's a New Yorker too.

GMan67 is causing so much trouble over at SEOmoz that posts are getting pulled, people are giving him new not-nice nicknames and threatening lawsuits, and Rand had to issue some public ground rules for all SEOmoz bloggers. Why doesn't the BC blog see that much excitement?

An unfortunate Google search shows that even brilliant minds are susceptible to embarrassing college moments. I don't know what all the fuss is about. Sergey is a very pretty girl.

Good Morning Silicon Valley was kind enough to help Maureen Govern update her resume as she prepares to look for new work:

"Reason for leaving last job: Violated the privacy of 600,000 company customers"

Ouch. And get it right, it was 658,000 users.

Storing some pent-up aggression? Phil Lenssen gives us a great way to release it. Click it and it dies. Or if you're feelin' kind of feisty and want to blow things up The Google Maps flight simulator lets you destroy objects in your favorite domestic and international cities. With a little coordination you can even do figure 8s!

If blowing things up isn't your thing, perhaps you'd prefer the SpeedType game. This one could keep me entertained for hours, especially since to all my coworkers it just sounds like I'm frantically working on my Friday Recap. Silly games are exactly what Fridays were made for.

Bladam, aka the blog de MiniMatt, aka Adam Lasnik, finally got interesting this week. First we're privy to MiniMatt's take on fickle blog communities and then we learned he spends his Saturday nights "optimizing" his T-shirt drawer. Wow, this boy has one raging social life.

But wait – Adam is offering you, yes YOU, the chance to "win" one of the obsessive compulsively filed T-shirts! All you have to do is write a "geek limerick" (what makes a limerick a geek limerick?) and post it on his blog. The contest ends tonight at 11:59pm PST. SEOmoz's Rebecca looks to be the front runner so far. That girl is everywhere lately.

Last week it was the Web 2.0 logo generator and this week it's the, well, we'll just call it the "Phrase" Generator since we don't use foul language on this blog [unlike, Greg Boser]. Click the, uh "phrase" button and watch as it spouts back all your favorite Web 2.0 terminology. My favorite will always be "post A-list folksonomies", if only because I have no idea what folksonomies means [and after reading this , I still have no idea].

Lastly, sports racers everywhere are reporting that The Colbert Report ripped off a joke heard on Ze Frank concerning the 2006 Fields Medal ceremony. Ze performed a bit about Grigory Perelman, the Russian mathematician who turned down the prestigious award after becoming disillusioned with mathematics, and the proof he wrote that said it was impossible to deform a whole doughnut into a sphere (without tearing it) by bending or stretching it.

Why that's an important thing to be able to do I don't know, but during Ze's Tuesday show he "proved" Perelman wrong by taking a doughnut and turning it into a sphere (known to us East Coasters as a munchkin) by smooshing it in his hand. Colbert then performed an identical skit on his show later that evening. Did Colbert steal Ze's joke or was the joke just an obvious one? I don't know, but it's not the first time it's happened. What does this have to do with Internet marketing? Well, nothing. I'm just a huge fan of Ze Frank's The Show. And it's Friday.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/25/06 at 12:24 PM | TrackBack (1)
See more entries in Fun Stuff

August 24, 2006

"Amish Go Karts" Show Link Importance

I know what you're thinking, and no, I haven't completely lost my mind. If you want to see the power that the ODP and pre-existing links can have on your site, Amish go karts are your window in.

Greg Boser had a great post yesterday to help site owners appreciate the full impact that links can have on their site, specifically pre-existing links. For those that think buying up expired, formerly high ranking domains is a good way to get instant authority for your site in the search engines, you may want to rethink your strategy.

To prove his point, Greg encourages readers to head over to Google and do a search for Amish furniture. Do you see the completely off topic gokartsusa.com site sitting high up in the SERP?

Ooops. According to Greg, that's what happens when site owners don’t pay attention to pre-existing anchor text.

Hey, it's not all bad. I'm sure there are lots of people looking for Amish furniture who are ALSO interested in go karting. Or maybe they're looking for Amish go karts? Hmm, okay, probably not.

So, why does gokartusa.com rank for the term "Amish furniture" when there's not one mention of that phrase on the entire site?

"It turns out that the domain amishfurnitureandcrafts.com, which is listed in the ODP, now resolves to the same IP as gokartsusa.com. It’s hard to say whether or not this was done intentionally, because the hosting location and registration information is completely different for the two domains. That means there’s a chance that the owner of the gokart site has no idea this has happened. (competitive sabotage??…)"

Whether it was competitive sabotage or intentional by the owner makes no difference. Because of weight given to ODP links (remember that the ODP is also Google Directory and the base for hundreds of other directories), Google thinks both domains point to the same site and has combined the anchor text for the two domains -- essentially leaving this site with little chance of ranking for its intended keywords.

I found this point particularly interesting because it seemed to negate what Matt Cutts was saying earlier in the week about how using on-page elements can be enough to rank well in niche industries. Here, on page elements were clearly not enough to get this site to rank well for its intended keywords or to negate an ODP link.

Matt commented to Greg's post and tried to place the blame on the site's web host since both sites are on the same IP. Greg didn't buy that, especially since Google returns the same number of backlinks for both sites. Clearly, to Google, they are one and the same.

Based only on this one example, it's hard to say that ranking for off-topic terms will kill your shot at ranking for your intended keywords, but it might, especially for searches as targeted as "Amish furniture".

Today's lesson, kids: Be caution when buying up expired domains. And if you're going to do it, try and match the two site themes as close as possible. Otherwise, your go kart and mini bike site might rank for loads of off-top anchor text terms, like Amish furniture.

Update: My apologies to Greg Boser for accidentally dropping the link to his post yesterday. It was merely an oversight on my part, and in no way done intentionally.

Who knew forgetting one link would cause a grown man to threaten the safety of a young girl. Matt's right; you are kinda whiny. However, I did always want to rank for the term "bitch slapping".

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/24/06 at 4:00 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

Is Panama coming earlier than expected?

Yahoo! looks to be gearing up for the release of its upcoming Y!SM Panama upgrade by sending emails to advertisers urging them to update their profile information in preparation for the "complete upgrade and redesign" of their accounts.

Is this just a preliminary step or can we expect to see signs of Panama before the delayed fourth quarter release date?

Y!SM advertiser Mark Barrera, known as Masterlink2 in the forums, was told by his rep that the switchover would begin in October and continue through the beginning of 2007.

He stated:

"I was told that the switch over will begin in October and continue into the beginning of next year. They sent out the emails because this is a month away and they want to prepare advertisers for the switch - nothing is coming any sooner than October. He also mentioned some "hand-holding" system that they will be talking about more in the near future to help advertisers transition into the new platform. He said the time that each account is rolled into the new system is random and you can choose not to transition at the time they request but you do eventually have to switch into the new system by some point - but he didn't specify by what date."

Of course, we don't know if all advertisers will begin to see rumblings of the rollout in October or just a select few, as claimed in a WebmasterWorld thread a couple weeks ago.

The WMW thread stated that advertisers who were present and left cards with Y!SM reps during SES San Jose would be given early access to the new interface [Nick Guastella, our PPC expert, confirms this is true]. That doesn't seem entirely fair, but if it means we'll get to see leaked snapshots of Yahoo!'s new interface, so be it. I'm very anxious to see what the new platform will look like, and so are advertisers.

Demos of the new system have left experts very impressed. Known features include instant ad activation; ad testing; better wildcard targeting; geo-targeting maps that will show areas targeted as clicked on (or not); campaign budgeting, forecasting and scheduling; and a completely redesigned, easy-to-navigate control panel to help advertisers see what's working and what's not.

Advertisers will also notice the disappearance of the View Bids tool, which will be replaced by slides that advertisers can move back and forth to view different prices and estimated traffic.

You can read a copy of the email Yahoo! is sending out to advertisers over at Search Engine Roundtable.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/24/06 at 11:08 AM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Pay-Per-Click, Yahoo

August 23, 2006

Search News Goes International

Ready to take a trip around the world? Let's go!

More Trouble in Brazil for Google

Google and Brazil have long had a troubled past (see here and here) regarding Google's social site Orkut, but now Google has pushed the Brazilians too far. Reuters reports that Brazilian prosecutors have asked a judge for permission to file a civil lawsuit against Google, who they say has purposely withheld information regarding Orkut users allegedly involved in pornography and crime.

The prosecutors in the case are asking that Google be fined $61 million, have their Brazilian operations closed, and be forced to pay a daily fine of $93,000 for each additional day they refuse to hand over the information.

Google says they can't hand over the requested information because the data is stored on American servers, where Brazilian laws are null and void. This one is definitely not over.

U.K. Hacker Gets Timeout

David Lennon, the bratty 19-year-old who sent five million (!) emails to his former employer, collapsing the server and costing the company £30,000, plead guilty to Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act on Tuesday and was given a "two-month curfew".

Under the curfew, young David will have to be home between 12.30 a.m. and 7a.m. on weekdays, and between 12.30 a.m. and 10 a.m. on weekends. What? He should be home during those times anyway. What's better, the curfew was set as to "not interfere with [his] work at the local cinema".

That makes sense. We wouldn't want to deny people of their preciously buttered popcorn. I'm sorry, but that kid deserves to be tied to a pole and pelted with rocks. Five million emails? This slap-on-the-wrist curfew is garbage.

Is Google having Indexing Troubles in the UK?

Several WebmasterWorld members say they are receiving different results when they perform a site: command search than when they use the "pages from the UK" option.

One member explains:

"A site:domainname search lists the pages in the site ok when performed in the default search, but lists all pages APART from the homepage when done with the 'pages from the UK' option. Also, a search for the domain name shows the homepage in the #1 slot in a default search, but a search for the domain name using the 'pages from the UK' option shows the same list, but no homepage anywhere."

Barry Schwartz thinks it may have something to do with last week's Google update that sent more pages back into the supplemental index. Weird.

MSN's SERPs get a facelift in the U.K.

A DigitalPoint Forums thread shows that MSN UK Search may be testing a new layout. Barry has screenshots of the before and after over at SER. I prefer the old layout myself, but I like blue.

Welcome, Gimeru!

Japanese users can now access Gmail without an invitation, making Japan the third country (behind Australia and New Zealand) to be given open access to Google's mail system.

We presume the move was part of Google's continuing effort to increase its presence in Japan. In May, Google partnered with wireless operator KDDI Corp to incorporate the Google engine into KDDI's EZ Web Internet service for mobile phones, which is how the majority of Japanese users access the Web.

All Hail Canada!

Rand has an amusing list over at SEOmoz that tries to explain why Canadians make the best SEOs.

Some of our favorite reasons include:

The all-purpose Canadian verb "to hork," technically means stealing, purloining or taking away, but can also be applied to the SERPs, i.e. "We totally horked their rankings, eh?"
The trade of SEO requires a high level of geekiness, for which Canadians have an enviable pre-disposition.

Oh, Rand, you hork my heart.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/23/06 at 2:58 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Branding, Google

What Comes First: PPC or SEO?

SEO and PPC – many site owners will choose to use them in tandem, but when you're just starting out, which should you focus on first? Creating a site that's optimized or bringing in immediate traffic and revenue to your site?

According to a recent Wilson Web article written by iPlenus Solutions' Director of Web Design Paul Schmidt, the answer is always PPC.

"By using PPC first, you can get traffic quickly, test the effectiveness of your website, and get an idea of its conversion rates. Once you are satisfied with the conversion rate of the website, you then reduce marketing costs by working on SEO."

Paul outlines the steps necessary for running an Internet marketing strategy that will minimize both costs and risk.

Step 1: Plan your budget – One of the first steps of any project is to determine how much money can be allocated. Your budget needs to be large enough (Paul says $1,000 or more) to bring in enough traffic to "ensure statistically significant results".

Step 2: Set goals – Your goals should exceed just bringing in conversions. You set goals for desired actions such as how many users fill out a contact form, how many phone calls you receive during the day or how many newsletter subscriptions you receive.

Step 3: Measure success – Once your PPC campaign in finished you will have quantifiable data to measure its success, something not attainable with straight SEO. If you didn't meet the goals you set in Step 2, go back and make adjustments based on your data.

Step 4: Focus on SEO – By the time your PPC campaigns are optimized, you should have enough data to measure the effectiveness of your keywords and see what terms your SEO campaign should be focused on.

I agree that Paul's method will give advertisers the ability to maximize profits while they're working on their SEO campaign, but for site owners who do plan on doing SEO on their site, thinking of it as an afterthought may be a mistake. You wouldn't want to miss out on some of the elements and advantages that come from designing your site with SEO in mind.

Why wait until you have already launched a PPC campaign to do your keyword research or to discover your competition? We recommend doing these things before you launch your site or jump into a PPC campaign. In fact, we recommend you do these things before creating your site.

How will you know what to name your pages, what tags you should be using, what you should be writing about or what kind of site architecture and navigation you're going to use if you don't do the research ahead of time? Working optimization into your design enables you to lay down the right framework for your site from the very beginning. Designing your site with no thought to SEO means you're going to be playing catch up later on. There's something to be said for doing something right the first time.

PPC has the potential to give site owners the most precise targeting for the lowest cost, but putting SEO on the backburner while you work on your PPC campaigns may be dangerous. Remember, optimizing your PPC campaigns won't help tell customers what your site is about or what you can offer them. If your site is poorly optimized and poorly designed, why would you want to attract visitors to it in the first place?

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/23/06 at 1:23 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Pay-Per-Click, Search Engine Optimization

SEO trends to watch out for

Search Engine Guide's Scott Buresh and Bigmouthmedia must be in cahoots because they released identical SEM trends and predictions within nine hours of each other. Kinda freaky, right? Especially since we don't usually see posts like this for another... four months or so.

Both articles make the same five trend predictions (with slightly different wording):

Increased accountability from SEM agencies – As companies become in tune with the tactics necessary for optimum rankings, they will demand more from their SEOs and hold them increasingly accountable for their bottom line.

A rise in PPC Costs – Larger companies will pour huge budgets into PPC, forcing keyword costs to rise and pushing smaller companies out of the PPC market.

Increased interest in organic SEO – With no place to go, smaller companies will focus their efforts on organic SEO. Perhaps not a bad idea since, according to eMarketer, 66 percent of consumers 'distrust' paid search ads.

Continued reluctance to adopt SEM – SEG says despite search engine marketing being a "perfect fit" for companies looking to combine traditional advertising with paid ads, many are still "scared to death" of the lack of accountability and confusing metrics associated with SEM campaigns.

Continued focus on Google for SEO – Google will hold on to its title as The Engine to optimize for, according to Bigmouthmedia. Both predictions encourage marketers to use the studies Google conducts about its users and "piggyback" off them for use in their SEM campaigns. [We have access to Google-performed studies? Really?]

Now, I admit I'm not "expert enough" to create my own SEO predictions list, but to me, the list above looks more like a Current Trends statement than a list of predictions. If you pulled any SEM aside and asked what would happen in the industry if everything continued on its current path, those are the top five things they would rattle off. Of course, if Google has another Bigdaddy-scale update, PPC takes an unexpected turn or marketers finally realize the power of SEM, you can scrap that list in its entirety. Otherwise, all five things listed will inevitably come true. It's like betting on a basketball game that happened two nights ago.

That being said, I do hope most of those "predictions" come true. Here's my Search Engine Marketing Wishlist.

I hope PPC costs continue to skyrocket so companies will be forced to focus on organic SEO. Not only that, I hope companies start to adopt the Shari Thurow and Matt Bailey approach to SEO and start constructing their sites for users, not the engines. I think watching the flux in the SERPs as that change occurs would be extremely exciting.

And as much as I love my Google, I wouldn't mind seeing another engine get full SEO approval by the industry buzz makers. Not replace Google entirely, but give it some competition. I used to hope the engine to do that would be Ask.com (I still hope that), but now I think that hole may best be filled by MSN.

MSN is starting to get my attention lately – they've had a very successful AdCenter launch in the U.K. and I respect how transparent they've been in regards to fixing problems and letting searchers know what they're working on. I'm a sucker for the underdog.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to see marketers lose that deer-in-the-headlights look that comes when someone brings up search engine marketing. SEG called search engine marketing a "still new, unproven channel to many companies" and I hope we'll see that change as marketers become more familiar with the tactics involved in SEM and are able to track their success.

Of course, I'd also like to see the engines band together and get a handle on the click fraud situation, but we won't even touch that.

Okay, I think I'll stop there. Shoo! Go work on all that. Once you're finished I'll give you another list of things I want done. I'm a pushy little thing, aren't I?

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/23/06 at 11:35 AM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in SEO, SEO Tips & Tricks, Search Engine Optimization

August 22, 2006

Things of Note

eBay's getting racy

If you're hosting contextual eBay ads on your site, now may be a good time to go take a look at them and see if they're appropriate to your site or if they’re the kind of ads that will get people a little hot and bothered.

Barry Schwartz got a little surprise when he noticed some racy eBay ads on friend Jeremy Shoemaker's site. The ad was part of eBay's AdContext program, and though contextually relevant, included an image that didn't seem to fit Jeremy's listing or his audience.

After receiving a horde of email on the subject, Jeremy was forced to respond:

"Yes the ads on the right are eBay ads through commission junction. They are contextual looking but I opted to use the keyword version targeting, specifically “search engine seo” and not the contextual engine which would violate TOS with google/ypn if i wanted to use them. (similar to chitika)"

Clearly merchants are the ones responsible for what kind of image appears alongside their ad, but is there really no way for eBay or people like Jeremy to monitor what is being displayed? That seems like a dangerous business proposal to me.

Friendster looking for older, wiser friends

You remember Friendster, don't you? It's that social networking site that was all the rage about four years ago before Facebook, MySpace and Xanga stole its thunder? Well, Friendster called, it wants its audience back.

Yesterday, the folks behind Friendster announced they had received a total of $13 million in venture funding to revitalize the dying site. Friendster will be revamped to focus on the "post-college crowd in their 20s and 30s, looking for updates on their friends, their careers and their whereabouts". I guess it will be an older and wiser MySpace then?

[Sidenote: I love the fancy "looking for updates..." terminology. Why can't we just call it what it is – stalking old flames and former best friends.]

What do you think? Can Friendster come back from the dead? Will users latch on to yet another social networking site when everyone they know is already on MySpace? I'd say they have a shot. People rack up social networking accounts like they won't be around in four years. Oh, wait...

Google MP3?

Digital Inspiration's Amit Agarwal came across a Gmail-powered MP3 player that plays MP3s straight through the Gmail interface without having to download the MP3 or open up an external media player.

"Digging around", Agarwal discovered it's the Google Video player that is responsible for playing the audio file. To enable it, all users have to do is use the secret URL below and insert the location of their favorite MP3 at the end of the link.

http://mail.google.com/mail/html/audio.swf?audioUrl=

Pretty sweet, I say. Phil Lenssen takes it one step further and embedded an MP3 player straight onto his site that lets users easily replace the audio file with one of their favorites. Here it is with the blogging anthem.

It's a signals game

Bill Slawski started a great thread over at Cre8asite that talks about the engines’ use of "signals" in determining relevancy and understanding user queries. I guess Bill heard the word "signal" one too many times during SES for him not to take notice. He believes the engines use click patterns to identify which sites are the "most popular" and should therefore receive a higher ranking. The thread is a Must Read, as Bill and others do some very interesting theorizing.

Don't be a Scoble

Over at 9rules, Mike Rundle gives a good argument for why you don't want to be a Scoble, a Boing Boing or a Seth Godin. According to Mike, emulating yourself after anyone on the Technorati 100 is never a good idea because most of the blogs on that list are there because of external factors, not because of the quality of their content.

"I’d say that most of the Technorati 100 are on there because of external factors that have nothing to do with their content. Scoble worked at Microsoft for awhile which gave him certain notoriety, Boing Boing has been around forever and is edited by veritable Internet superstars, TechCrunch rose to popularity because Michael was intimately involved in the startup scene before he started blogging and brought his connections with him, The Huffington Post is run by Arianna Huffington and she’s famous, Seth Godin’s blog is there because Seth is a well-known author and speaker, and so on."

Not to say that these blogs don't have excellent content, because a lot of them do (we bow to Seth Godin), but that's not why they're widely read. They're read because of all the word of mouth and notoriety that goes along with being a Famed A-List Blogger. You've seen the pics from all the cool parties.

Instead of trying to be the next Matt Cutts, target your blog as a niche blog, because that's where your audience is. Focusing on the long-tail will help your blog find readers who are there because of the quality and "allure" of its content, not because you're famous in some little circle. It may also help keep you useful, if you're into that sort of thing.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/22/06 at 3:34 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Branding, Pay-Per-Click, Search Engines

SEO Advice: Accept That People Go Crazy Over Matt Cutts

Let's be honest here, when Matt Cutts talks we ~~listen~~ blog. But it's not because we're Matt-obsessed (well not entirely...), it's because he's prone to saying some pretty smart things.

~~GoogleGuy~~ Google's Guy wrote a great post yesterday entitled SEO Advice: Writing useful articles that readers will love that touches on two very important SEO topics: How to effectively use on-page optimization tactics to rank well and how to build and capitalize on your niche. See, I told you it was a great post.

First off, Matt breaks down his last seemingly-random post on changing the default printer for FireFox on Linux to show readers how he carefully chose his URL, title, tags, keywords and word variations to achieve strong on-page optimization, allowing him to focus less on the actual keyword density. The process shows readers that sometimes using the long-tail approach (ooo, buzzword) enables searchers to find you easier and may also help you find niches you didn't even know were there.

What's that? Another respected industry voice encouraging users to write for their users and not the search engines? We like where all this is going.

All the keyword stuff is good advice, but it's the finding-your-niche angle that always draws me in. As Matt says, if you're going to spend the time to research and produce original content, make sure the finished product correctly targets the selected niche.

Says Matt:

"In general, any time you look for an answer or some information and can’t find it, that should strike you as an opportunity."

I love that advice because it's such a great way to find article or blog post topics. What information have you searched for and been unable to find? What question have you had a hard time answering? Your answer is your opportunity.

If you're searching for it, chances are other people are too. And if you've already researched it, you've already expelled 80 percent of the energy required to write an article on the topic. So, write it. And once you do, make sure to target your on-page optimization tactics toward your niche. Done correctly, it's very likely your article will be at the top of the SERPs the next time a confused user does a search on a topic related to your niche. It's supply and demand 2.0.

If you're already running a website, you should have some idea of what your niche is. Matt explains this by spamming his second-to-last paragraph to death, but the point is valid. There's something that you do that makes you different from your competition.

Are you the SEO that makes videos? (No, that's Matt.) Are you the SEO that transcribes Matt's videos? (No, that's Rebecca.) Who are you in your industry? Start there and then work your way up, claiming the open niches on your ascent.

Matt says:

"An infinite number of niches are waiting for someone to claim them. I’d ask yourself where you want to be, and see if you can find a path from a tiny specific niche to a slightly bigger niche and so on, all the way to your desired goal. Sometimes it’s easier to take a series of smaller steps instead of jumping to your final goal in one leap."

It's kind of like getting a job after college. You start small to get your foot in the door and then build yourself up to where you want to end up. In a completely hypothetical example, it's like today you might be the small-time blogger known for her Friday Recaps, but tomorrow you could be something bigger... like, hmm, well I'm still working on that next part.

Matt, anytime you want to cross over and become a professional SEO, I know a great training course you can take...

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/22/06 at 12:10 PM | TrackBack (0)
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August 21, 2006

The AOL Fallout Continues

Two weeks after AOL published private search log data from more than 600,000 users, the researcher responsible for the breach, as well as the researcher's supervisor and Chief Technology Officer Maureen Govern have been fired.

AOL Digital Services President John McKinley, who Govern replaced last year, will take over as interim CTO until a permanent replacement is found.

Wow.

Though the firing was a necessary step, it still came as a surprise and was somewhat hard to swallow. It's unusual to see someone as high up the ranks as Govern take a fall, but if AOL hopes to re-brand itself as a "consumer-focused Internet company", it's something that had to be done. It's vital that AOL acknowledge the screw-up and show users that what happened was not acceptable by any means, and that it won't happen again. Today's firing is an unfortunate, but important, first step in doing that.

In the hope of rebuilding users' trust, AOL has also promised to put together a task force to "develop new best practices on privacy" and to determine how long search and other data should be saved.

I'm glad to see AOL is stepping up and doing what needs to be done. Earning back the trust of its users will be an ongoing daily process that must take center stage from here on out.

Of course, simply playing musical chairs will not solve the problem at hand. This problem extends much further than Govern's desk and far beyond AOL. What happened at AOL could have easily happened at Google, Yahoo! or any of the other engines. Privacy concerns run industry-wide and will only be solved through increased transparency.

Up until this point, the search engines have been relatively silent about what information they store, who has access to it and how long they're holding it for. Two months ago when the engines were asked how long they kept search data, reps from Google and Yahoo! both responded "for as long as it is useful". I don't know about you, but that answer doesn't exactly squash my concerns. In fact, it heightens them.

Also scary: When AOL was asked the same question, they responded "roughly up to 30 days". The breach showed us that wasn't entirely truthful either.

Hopefully the breach has woken up complacent users who were far too willing to hand over all their personal information to the search engines in return for never having to enter in a password. Hopefully the idea that their personal information and supposed-secure queries are not so secret after all will force them to demand answers and hold the engines accountable.

If users care about their safety and privacy, the days of the engines picking and choosing what they tell us must come to an end. The engines need to take a more transparent stance with their privacy policies. Ideally, they should be working together to form one clear initiative. Searchers should know what information is being stored, they should have control over how the information is used, and there should be iron-clad system in place to prevent it from being misused by others. Anything else is both unacceptable and unsafe.

What happened at AOL was a gross reminder that the data the engines collect is saved and could therefore be leaked out to unscrupulous third parties.

Like I said before, good for AOL for taking the initial steps necessary to correct the problem, but now it's time for the other engines to follow suit, and for you as a user to demand that they do. You wouldn't let your family go to a doctor who refused to explain their privacy policy, so why would you agree to use an engine who won't explain theirs? You shouldn't.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/21/06 at 4:58 PM | TrackBack (0)
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Google's 11-Month Run Comes to an End

Newly released ComScore data reveals that Google's U.S. market share dropped one percent during July, officially ending its consecutive 11-month run of search share gain. Aww. Does this mean Google is on the decline? Should users start abandoning ship? Is Yahoo! about to take over the search world? What's that? The sky's falling?

Don't be ridiculous. While the news may be getting a lot of hype, in actuality it means very little. This isn't a tipping point and it's not the start of something greater. Andy Beal compares it to a truck running over a possum. I like that analogy, but I think even that is giving into the sensationalism just a little bit. I'd call it a field mouse.

Even after the "drop", Google accounts for 43.7 percent of all searches. Yahoo!, its highest ranking competitor, accounts for 28.5 percent. [MSN and Ask.com had slight increases, bringing them to 12.8 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively.] Overall, I'd say Google has some breathing room.

Instead of tracking Google month-to-month, we'd encourage the number-obsessed to look long term. If Google continues to see one percent drops over the next six to twelve months, then we might have something to talk about. Until then, we got nothing.

When it comes to search, Google is king, and deservedly so. They have one wickedly powerful search engine. Add to that their recent deal with MySpace, their loyal partnership with Firefox and all their other ventures and you see Google is going nowhere.

A moderator over at WMW disagrees and says the drop is indicative that Google's competitors are gaining speed.

"The quality of the competition's products - especially search - are developing apace and I think Googke [sic] is trying to diversify in so many different ways at once that they might start to lose the hearts and minds battle."

Gaining? Maybe. But gaining at the kind of speed required for Google to be worried? Likely not. Yahoo!'s still trying to capitalize off Google's press to jumpstart its own marketing campaign, Ask.com was recently found inferior by multiple sources and MSN is just starting to pick itself up from the bootstraps (though we like where they're headed).

I'd agree that the three smaller engines are gaining speed and making improvements (kudos, boys!), but no one is doing anything to give Google cause for panic. Not yet, anyway.

People like to call searchers fickle, and Eric Schmidt has publicly stated that searchers are just "one click away" from their competition; however, I'd be inclined to disagree. I think in most cases searchers pick a favorite and stay there. Especially when the "favorite" is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, which frankly, Google is. Even people who force themselves to switch are left unhappy a week later. Google looks to be in pretty solid shape, if you ask me.

As usual, Danny has an exceptional rundown of these numbers and what they mean (and don't mean) over at SEW.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/21/06 at 2:52 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Ask, Google, Search Engines, Yahoo

Weekend Round-Up

What have you yodel'd or yahoo'd?

Yahoo! has sparked up an interesting advertising campaign asking users to submit their own "Yahoo! has changed" video. Unlike Google, they're encouraging users to use the Yahoo! brand name as a verb. While the still-cluttered Yahoo! homepage doesn't impress me much, these videos are great and will hopefully become a great viral marketing tool for Yahoo.

August 18, 2006

Friday Recap

Jumping right in, MSN is ~~quickly~~ crawling at a moderate pace up the Which-Engine-Does-Lisa-Like-The-Most ladder, only it has nothing to do with the quality of their SERPS and is only partially related to my growing love for Msndude. They've made their way into my good graces by recognizing that a girl's love for ice cream is far more important than that silly hyper text protocol thing. Mmmm, Cold Stone.

Speaking of ice cream, one of the Google chef's whipped up this trans-fat creation for those health-conscious Googlers. Looking at it, I'm not sure I'd eat that.

I was overjoyed with this week's news that Writely was live! I got to toy with it before its official release and my initial testing has me enjoying it. I can upload and export files, post directly to the blog (theoretically), give Susan instant access to all of my crazed rantings and take my writings wherever I go. All of that makes me a happy blogger. Of course, I do have my reservations -- I wish the editing screen looked less like an email and I prefer a toolbar to drop down menus -- but overall this is one of Google's better releases, IMO.

Stuntdubl has a great post on increasing blog subscribers by adding a Best Posts page to your blog. I think it's a great idea. The Bruce Clay blog needs a special Friday Recap section, don't you think?

Charlene Li wrote a great post last week entitled My Google Bag which shows how her six-year-old daughter and second grader son differentiate between Yahoo! and Google. It's a good read for the branding conscious, plus her kids sound adorable.

So now I'm confused. Is Matt Cutts GoogleGuy or what? I was at the session where the alleged admission took place, but I took it as him saying he was Google's Guy, not GoogleGuy. But smarter-than-me Rand and others took it differently. Matt said he didn't mean to imply he was GoogleGuy, but didn't exactly deny it either. Ahh, the mystery continues.

Speaking of Matt (and really, aren't we always?) one of the funniest things I've read this week was the crazies on Matt Cutts' blog telling him to chug hot water to get rid of his cold. Don't laugh; it probably would get rid of his cold – along with his tongue, esophagus and a few vital organs. People are nuts; we should boil them in tubs of hot water.

Totally unrelated to Matt: Tim "Don't Call Me The Matt Cutts Of Yahoo!" Converse, says no more Matt jokes. He has retired them, singing that people are special and as individual as snowflakes. Aww. Does that mean I can't wear my Timlets T-shirt in public anymore? Drats.

The wacky guys responsible for those Session Blog cards (thanks for leaving me one at the BC booth, guys!) have uploaded a video of their San Jose experience and you should go watch it. Their commentary is very giggle-worthy (especially the Then We Geeks Formed a Line segment) and I can't help but laugh at the drunken robot soccer. Who doesn't love drunken robot soccer?

Over at Blogoscoped, Phil Lenssen gives us highlights from Google, as Overheard in the Office.

Producer: My friend went to the Galapagos Islands and was astounded. They have birds called blue boobies. Google “blue boobies”. You’ll see pictures of them.
Suit: I’m not searching for blue boobies on my computer. I’ll get called into the office for a talk.
Producer: Oh, I’ll do it...see?
Suit: Wow, who would have thought that wouldn’t have brought up a porn site?

Hee.

Phil also conducted a survey to see what the most requested Google features were. He offered up more than 50 different features for readers to pick from, including charts in Google Spreadsheet, bigger Gmail storage, a more reliable Blogger, wildcard searches and more.

According to Phil's results, the most requested Google feature was a much higher level of detail in Google Maps. Huh? Users want better Google Maps before spam-free Web results (number two)? Good riddance.

Barry Schwartz ~~practices mind control~~ posted a hypnotizing video over at Cartoon Barry that makes your world look all fuzzy like you just did that spin-around-with-your-forehead-attached-to-a-baseball-bat trick. Only Barry's method comes with funky techno music in the background. Fuuuun.

That's it from me. I hope you guys had a good week. I'm still recovering from mine. So far I've been made fun of by Threadwatch, nearly fainted after being called a talent by my not-so-secret crush Rand, got blog props from Barry and I have yet to be flamed for yesterday's Don't Be Famous post. I think I'm gonna try and sneak out of this week while the going's good...

P.S.

Google shirts!

Stephen Colbert's Tips for Protecting Your Online Identity [Susan thinks this is funny. I'm not so sure, but maybe you'll like it.]

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/18/06 at 1:50 PM | TrackBack (0)
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August 17, 2006

Don't Be Famous; Be Useful

It's a slow news day out there in the blogosphere so I'm venturing off a bit. Nick Wilson says for every four core topic posts I get one "off topic" post. Well, this is that post.

Let's talk, okay?

I'm a little dismayed at the blog snobbery going on lately. A few of my favorite blogs seemed to have succumbed to it and I don't like it. Too much talk of making it to the "A list", too much calling other people boring, too much namedropping and not enough linking and the other good stuff that got them where they are in the first place.

If you've reached pinnacle "A list" status, congratulations. It's a definite accomplishment and you should enjoy it. You worked your butt of getting there. But do me a favor; don't stop blogging about the stuff that matters. Keep giving your readers the high quality material that made them subscribe to your feed in the first place. If you don't, you're letting them down.

For a relative newbie like myself, it's kind of disheartening to watch your favorite blogs take a left turn toward celebrity. You find bloggers that you trust and respect, and then suddenly they're pandering links from other top bloggers just because they can. Their blog goes from being an authority to one big inside joke you don't understand. You're left feeling cheated.

What would happen if Danny Sullivan started baiting Matt Cutts to link to him? If that's what he did everyday instead of giving us the important search headlines like he does so well? What would happen to the quality of Search Engine Watch? Who would sign up to attend Search Engine Strategies? How would his new visitors judge the site?

In order: We'd grow tired of reading it. It would go down. No one. They'd leave.

Seth Godin wrote the difference between blogs and other forms of exposition is that with the other forms you're pretty sure the audience will see it from the beginning to the end. Blogs don't have that luxury. Some of your readers are the loyal been-with-you-for-years kind and others are just starting to hop on your bandwagon. Abandoning what made you a top blogger in the first place is something of a injustice to them. All they hear about is who you rubbed elbows with last week and your personal shout-out to Billy Gates and trouble twins, Sergey and Larr-Larr. They have no idea how you got there.

Seth's right; you shouldn't continually introduce yourself to your audience. It's up to them to familiarize themselves with your blog, but in order for them to do that, you have to keep being you.

You started blogging for a reason. You thought you could change the way people viewed your company, you had insight you thought was worth sharing, you wanted to help people market their sites – there was something that made you decide to blog. Don't lose sight of that. That reason is important. It's what makes your blog important.

If you've made your way into my blogroll it's because I value what you have to say; I found your voice to be different from the rest of the echochamber. You gave me a fresh outlook, helped me put the other things I was reading into context, pointed me to other relevant content and respected the rules of 'sphere. It's for those reasons that now watching you turn your back on that as you convert your blog into a gossip rag infuriates me. Stop it.

I don't want to read anymore top ten lists just for the sake of link bait. I don't want to hear how you're too good to link. I don't want to hear about your invite-only dinners or who you saw while you were there (but if you learned something interesting, share that!) I want you to go back to your blogging roots. To write like you did before the fame kicked in and you were on Technorati's top ten. I want you to go back to what made your blog important.

To all the A listers out there, enjoy your success but don't quit writing about your day job. Help me to keep trusting you, and to keep valuing what you have to say. It's important. Your readers rely on you. The bloggers just starting out rely on you. You don't want me to grow up to be all jaded and wrinkly, do you?

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/17/06 at 5:05 PM | TrackBack (1)
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Embrace Transparency and Increase WOM

It's a frustrating truth that word of mouth is one of the strongest forms of advertising a company can employ, and yet, it's the one you have the least control over. It's almost unfair, especially when you consider that consumers' trust in "people-just-like-me" reviews has tripled in the past three years. With those kinds of numbers, ignoring WOM is just bad business.

An interesting article out of GrokDotCom gives companies valuable tips for increasing their world of mouth.

Embrace Transparency

There's a reason the issue of transparency just won't go away. Users respect companies that are willing to share information. It promotes trust and shows you believe in your product. Today's top companies know the importance of reaching out to users. They're actively blogging, participating in message boards and collecting customer feedback.

When you do decide to jump into more transparent waters (and you should), be aware there's a fine line between joining in on the conversation and dominating it. No one likes a loudmouth or feeling like they are being manipulated into a conversation. Let your customers direct the conversation, and when they do, don't try to censor them if the conversation takes a turn you weren't expecting. The quickest way to lose credibility on the Web is to censor negative comments for your own self-interest.

Similarly, if you wrote a blog entry yesterday that you are now getting ripped apart for, don't take it down . Leave it there; trying to get rid of the evidence will only cause more people to notice and dig up the old post. Michael Arrington has made a career out of this.

Accept that not everyone is going to like you. In fact, expect that you will have disgruntled customers who want nothing more than to come to your site to tell you how much they don't like you. It's your response to these customers that matters. If you're wrong and the customer is right, admit that with a real answer. Issuing a canned apology is only going to leave them more infuriated.

Create Strong Triggers

You can't control what your customers say about you, but you can do things to encourage that warm and fuzzy feeling. The Grok highlighted three triggers for promoting positive word of mouth.

Architectural Triggers – These are triggers that have been planned to create a specific effect, like your site design. If you create a site that informative and easily navigable for users, they are more likely to recommend you to others

Kinetic – Kinetic triggers show the "show business" side of your product. Highlight your product's "hipness" or outstanding performance to help product positive buzz.

Generous – Generous triggers are formed when "the perceived value substantially exceeds the price of a product or service". It's the toy in your happy meal or the scrumptious all-you-can-eat buffet. Mmm.

The stronger your triggers, the stronger your word of mouth will be. The trick is to not just meet customer expectations, but to surpass them. Everyone likes to feel like they're getting more than they paid for.

Listen to your Customers

Part of your transition to transparency includes listening to customer feedback. The Grok considers customer reviews "one of the most potent tools in the transparent company's arsenal". But in order for customer feedback to be useful, it has to be honest. Discourage canned answers by asking users to demonstrate a real experience with the product or to provide specific details about how the product helped (or didn't help) them.

I don't want to burst your bubble, but not all of your reviews are going to be positive. Again, not everyone is going to like you, but you shouldn't be afraid to read the negative things people say about you. Take what you're hearing and come up with ways to address their concerns.

The Grok provides the early iPod Nano reviews as an example of how to best combat bad buzz.

"The iPod Nano had so much word of mouth energy that when it first hit the market, the news that it scratched easily (and rather hideously) didn't hamper sales. It just created an accessory market for Nano protectors. The 'negative' word of mouth about the scratches had still another positive effect: it managed customer expectations of the product experience!"

See, just because the buzz started less than positive, doesn't mean it has to end that way. Apple listened to what as being said, fixed the problem, and then surpassed expectations by offering an additional way for users to keep their iPod Nano safe. Listened-to customers are happy customers, and happy customers generate good word of mouth!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/17/06 at 1:18 PM | TrackBack (1)
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The Top 4 List I've Seen Lately

(In no particular order...)

1. 3 Problems Business Bloggers Face

Performancing's Ahmed Bilal created a list of three common problems currently facing business bloggers:

    Traditional marketing circles still don't take blogging seriously
    2. Some bloggers are too full of themselves
    3. Bloggers don't know how to pitch themselves to companies.

I can agree with that, though, to me, number one and number three can be grouped together. I think the reason bloggers don't get the respect they deserve is because most people don't have a firm understanding of what a business blog is. They hear the term "blog" and immediately think of the angry or lovelorn teenagers blogging on MySpace. They don't realize there is an entire industry of business blogs out there, and they surely wouldn't think of them as "customer-relations management tools" but that's exactly what they are.

If bloggers want to gain industry respect, they need to pinpoint for outsider exactly what they do. The guys at Performancing think bloggers should refer to their services as "part of a package" that includes blogging, metrics analysis, research, knowledge of an industry, etc., and I think that's a pretty good definition of how most corporate bloggers spend their day. Blogs are powerful marketing tools with measurable benefits, and bloggers are the ones responsible for that.

Ahmed also commented that "<i>some</i> bloggers" have become full of themselves and forgotten the elements that made them a big name in the first place. To that I say, well, of course. Find an industry that doesn't have that problem. I think the percentage of big-headed bloggers is still a small one. The good bloggers out there have remained level-headed, or as Kim says, considerate, and still respect their roots and the tools that made them "famous".

2. 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006

Aaron Wall created one of the greatest linkbait items of all-time -- over a hundred ways to drive people to your site. It's mostly all the ways you've heard before (including "30 Bad Ways to Build Links") compiled into one long, searchable list. Personally, I enjoyed the last six on Aaron's list, also knows as the "Getting Links By Being a Jerk" section. Hehe. I wouldn't actually advise anyone to <i>uuuuse</i> these methods, but they're amusing to think about. Especially number 99:

     "99. Wear your URL on your t-shirt. Walk or drive your car while talking on a cell phone or reading a book. When you run into other people say "excuse you, jerk"."

How fun! Wait -- you're supposed to run into people while driving your car? Er, I take that back...

3. Ten Things to Avoid When Designing Your Blog

I say this is a "top" list because I think it's an interesting list, not because I agree with it. I agree with Kim. Long blogrolls, tag clouds, ads and your collection of social bookmarking buttons may make your blog "ugly" and hinder usability, but they also make it "yours". Kim says your blog is your room:

&n