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May 30, 2008

Presidential Candidates Dive into Search Marketing

Lisa is out sick for the day, which means your regular scheduled program saucy recap of the week's ongoings in the search world is not available. Instead, I'm here to reassure you that the Bruce Clay Blog is not ill - in fact, it is alive, well, and looking forward to a bombardment of posts come SMX Advanced next week.

In case you're a reader who would rather not be privy to the wealth of information the conference liveblog coverage will offer, I thought I'd take this opportunity to remind you of the liveblog-less feed. However, I'll warn you that the Bruce Clay Blog offers stellar takeaways from conference sessions, and SMX Advanced is sure to be full of sophisticated information that anyone not going to the conference will want to be aware of.

But, back to the business of every happy Friday; rather than a recap, I thought I could chime in on a story Search Engine Land has been following, and an issue of personal interest: the Internet's prominence in the presidential race. It seems that For Obama The Online Marketer It's All About Google, which I think is exactly how this mostly-untested new kid on the block has remained viable against behemoth veteran politicos. Well, it's part of it, anyway. My takeaway: more and more we see that the candidate that taps into the mainstream online consciousness will win the race. No big revelation, I know.

It's also interesting to note that along with increased online ad spend is an increase in candidate and campaign-related search volumes. Here we see Obama leading in overall search volume, despite McCain spending more than double on paid search than the Democrats. Issues like the economy, health care, the War in Iraq, and gas prices (I'm afraid to even think about that right now. The station down the street is selling regular for $4.27 a gallon!) are seeing major growth in search. Reportedly, 87 percent of potential voters search online for election information.

I suppose the candidates are taking a smart approach. The Washington Post breaks down the original ClickZ report on candidates' online ad spend pretty well in Google Rakes In Campaign Contributions From Obama, explaining that the presidential candidate's Federal Election Commission filings show that the campaign has spent $2.8 million with Google ad networks.

The report also showed that the vast majority of political ad spend is still going to traditional media, like television. But since Ron Paul's once-significant Internet fan base proved unsuccessful against more traditional campaigns, I guess it's understandable that Obama, Clinton and McCain have yet to put their full weight behind the online medium.

Posted by Virginia Nussey on 05/30/08 at 5:31 PM | Comments (0)
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May 29, 2008

Be Part of the Search Engine Optimization Process

Jessica Bowman had a fantastic article over at Search Engine Land this morning entitled Why You Need to Know SEO Basics, Even If You Outsource. If you don't agree that it's important for your in-house SEO person to take the time to learn the fundamentals of search engine optimization, then you really must read that article. Actually, maybe read it twice. And then snuggle with it later.

Even if you outsource your search engine optimization campaigns to someone else, you're still responsible for knowing the basics. You're the one who is ultimately responsible for the success of your site. Just because you're not doing the work, doesn't mean you shouldn't be aware of what's going on, even if it's solely for your own protection.

There are quite a few reasons why it's important to be an educated SEO client. Here are the ones that instantly spring to mind:

• You learn what's right for YOUR site: As Jessica notes in her article, every site is different. A tactic that may be a good idea for one site may not work on another. As recent events have showed, if you're running a respected news site, than maybe creating outlandish link bait isn't such a good idea. However, it may be a totally viable and effective tactic for a different environment. By educating yourself about what search engine optimization is, what the engines reward, and how sites are ranked, it allows you to make yourself part of the process so that you can make more informed decisions about what SEO paths your site will take.


• Protect yourself from bad SEOs: As we're all too often reminded, there are enough unscrupulous and misinformed SEOs out there that not knowing your stuff can be dangerous. You need to educate yourself so that you're able to smell out when someone isn't being honest with you or if you're being sold something that could potentially harm your site. If people don't want to accept standards for search engine optimization, that's fine, but you still don't want to go into the process blind.


• Changing Vendors: You may be in the honeymoon phase with your optimization vendor right now, but there may come a time when you'll need to switch. Maybe client/vendor satisfaction will drop, you'll need something they don't offer, or it's just time to move on. Either way, the more you know about what's happening in your campaign, the faster you can get your new vendor up to speed and start seeing real improvements. You'll also want to know what your old SEO did so that you can compare it to the new vendor to make sure everyone has similar methodologies, beliefs and colored hats. ;)


• Increase Your Company's Vocabulary: The more SEO knowledge you have, the more knowledge you'll be able to share in-house. I can't stress how important it is to spread knowledge transfer as a way of getting everyone on the same team. A Vice President who doesn't know what search engine optimization is won't put room in the budget for it. The IT person who's not on your side isn't going to allow you to make the necessary tweaks that you need. Your marketing team isn't going to run efficiently, your content writers won't write with the users and search engines in mind. Having an educated staff and getting everyone speaking the same language is critical to your site's success.


• Save You Money: Chances are, you have a certain number of consulting hours allotted in your contract. Those hours are precious and you want to save them for the hard stuff. Don't waste them on fundamental SEO tactics. Hold on to them for when you really need them.

An educated client is better client. In her post, Jessica outlines a number of ways that site owners can educate themselves on search engine optimization. I'd recommend you take a look.

At Bruce Clay, we're big supporters of knowledge transfer. It's the only way to get the whole team involved and invested in a project. We require our clients to attend our SEO training program in order to get them involved from the very beginning. You want to work the same way with your SEO vendor, whoever they may be.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/29/08 at 1:52 PM | Comments (3)
See more entries in SEO, SEO Tips & Tricks, SEOToolSet, Search Engine Optimization

May 28, 2008

SEO Headlines

The Belgians Are Back Bothering Google!

I received quite a treat this morning when I was listening to the DailySearchCast and heard Danny mention that those funny Belgians are back in the spotlight and causing trouble for Google. You may remember that I've been rather vocal about how stupid I find this whole situation to be. If you don't remember, here's the breakdown: A group of Belgian newspapers sued Google for copyright infringement because they (the Belgians) were too lazy to use a robots.txt file, which landed their articles in Google News. They didn't seem to like that. In some crazy universe where fair use does not exist, the Belgians actually won their lawsuit and Google had to place a ridiculous note on their home page and remove the content. And now the Belgians are back!

Since we last heard from them, Google appealed the judgment and tried to negotiate with the Belgian newspapers outside of court. Sadly, the negotiations weren't going as quickly as the newspapers would have liked and Google began referencing the papers again. Now the Belgian newspapers are asking the courts to award them $77 million in damages. Seventy-seven million dollars!

I'm sorry, but I'm still inclined to file this away as the Most Ridiculous Lawsuit Ever. I know we have commenters who like to come and correct me each time I mention the Belgians and their idiocy, but I haven't been swayed. And this new twist to the story just adds to its lunacy. As Danny joked on the SearchCast this morning, I doubt that the Belgian newspapers have made a combined $77 million since Google News was born, so that seems a bit hard to claim that Google has cost them that much. We'll see what happens. All I know is that Google vs. The Crazy Belgians are what good blog entries are made of.

CW: Watch This Show Online, That One Offline

In stupid company news, after taking Gossip Girl offline due to too many viewers, the CW is now looking to create "cwingers". What in God's name is a cwinger? It's an ad-supported video clip that lives half online/half offline. Basically, viewers will get to see a short video inside their favorite CW show, and then they'll have to go online to get the next installment before the conclusion airs on TV. [...huh? --Susan] It's three parts. The first airs on television, the second airs on the Internet and the third airs on television. See how confusing?

Um, hi, as a loyal CW television, you're completely confusing me. What do you want me to do? How do you want me to consume your programming?

The CW is sending a mixed message with the way they're handling online video. You either embrace it or you don't. I don't think you can pull your flagship show offline one week, and then decide to create a whole new "cwinger" format the next. Maybe I'm wrong. The CW has been pretty nonconventional with the way they've done programming in the past, so it may just work.

Horrible name aside (Cwingers? Is this a child porn ring?), I think the CW is going to confuse viewers. You're telling them not to watch X online but to remember to tune into Y and Z so they can see how the story unfolds? Pick a brand message and stick with it.

Yahoo Will Soon Announce A Deal With...Someone

BusinessWeek says that amidst pressure from shareholders, Yahoo will work out a deal with Microsoft...or Google. Yup, the deal is so close that Yahoo doesn't even know who it will be with yet. Either way, BusinessWeek says that "something" will definitely happen soon. Right. Like my head will explode from all the baseless speculation.

Oh, the stupidity headache.

Fun Finds

Andy Beal gives us all a reminder that SEM Scholarship entries will start appearing Marketing Pilgrim today, so make sure you keep your eyes open for the next big SEO/SEM superstar.

Wired's founding editor Louis Rossetto writes a letter to his sons and recalls the dawn of the digital revolution.

Do WiFi allergies exist? [No. --Susan]

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/28/08 at 2:04 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in Branding, Microsoft, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines, Yahoo

Liveblogging Schedule for SMX Advanced 2008

It's SMX Advanced time again. I can't even believe it!

On Monday afternoon, a handful of the Bruce Clay, Inc. team will head to Seattle for SMX Advanced. As I mentioned yesterday, this will be our first time displaying and parading introducing and welcoming Virginia and Chris to the SEO community as bonafide Bruce Clay team members. Please don't frighten them. Especially Virginia. I'm particularly fond of that one.

Below you'll find your very own Lisa/Virginia Tracker. Do with it what you will. I must say, SMX Advanced is offering up some quality sessions this year. I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of great sessions coming out of that Developers Track. Well done, team!

Date/Time	Lisa	Virginia
Day 1: Tuesday, June 3, 2008
9:15am-10:00am	Keynote: Kevin Johnson, President, Platform & Services Division, Microsoft
10:45am-12:00pm	Winning From The Start: Getting Ad Copy Right	Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques
1:30pm-2:45pm	Bot Herding	Creating Value In Your SEM Business
3:15pm-4:30pm	Buying Sites For SEO	Closing The Loop: Are You Tracking Every Lead?
5:00pm-5:45pm		You&A with Matt Cutts
Day 2: Wednesday, June 4, 2008
9:00am-10:00am	Search Friendly Development	Search Marketing & Surviving a Recession
10:45am-12:00pm	What You Should Be Measuring - But Aren't	International SEO
1:45pm-3:00pm	Diagnosing Web Site Architecture Issues	Analytics Every SEO Needs To Know
3:15pm-4:30pm	Give It Up	Amazing New PPC Tactics

We'll see you in Seattle. I can't wait! :)

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/28/08 at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in SEM Events

May 27, 2008

SEO Weekend Update

Hi, Friends. I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend. Because now it's over and it's time to get back to work. IT also replaced my keyboard this morning which has completely confused my fingers. For every five words typed, I'm almost guaranteed to have one spelled correctly. Huzzah for productivity!

One Week 'Til SMX Advanced!

I checked a calendar earlier and was shocked to realize that SMX Advanced is just one week away! If you waited until the last minute to purchase an All Access Pass, you're now officially out of luck because they're sold out! However, you can still purchase a Developer Day, Networking or Expo Only pass before the big show. You better hurry.

Of course we'll be sending a Bruce Clay contingent to man the booth and take photos with babies provide demos of our SEOToolSet. Bruce will also be speaking on the Creating Value In Your SEM Businesses panel and we'll be providing a double dose of liveblogging coverage of the event.

SMX Advanced will also be your first chance to meet two new Bruce Clay, Inc. employees. Our Associate Writer Virginia Nussey will help me on the liveblogging front while recording some new SEM Synergy episodes. You'll also get to meet Chris Hart, the face running our new East Coast office! Chris will help Bruce Clay rock the Long Island pride (and patented accent) and help us bring our SEO training program to the other side of the States. We couldn't be more excited to have him on board or to announce the new office. Look for a press release early next week for more information about Bruce Clay, Inc. East!

Why Do You Put Up With Twitter?

Twitter continues to be as unreliable as our posting schedule was back when Susan ran the blog, so why are you still using it? Loren Feldman says it all goes back to our need for attention and to feel that someone is listening to us. Unlike your blog, on Twitter you can offer up a 50 character message about your lunch and people will immediately respond and validate your existence. Is that all Twitter really is? Or is just habit at this point? I mean, if you left Twitter, for say, Friendfeed, you'd have to go through the whole "setting it up" hassle again. Who wants to do that?

It's interesting, though. Because for as many posts as we see circulating Sphinn and beyond all talking about how unreliable Twitter is, we're all still using it. [Often to complain about how annoying it is.--Susan] Why are you still staying Twitter-loyal? Listen to what Loren has to say and then offer up your own two cents.

Best Practices Aren't Always Best

Nathania Johnson over at Search Engine Watch pointed me to a great post on the Google Website Optimizer blog that proves that best practices aren't law. The post discusses a landing page case study that was done for a stair remodeling company. Two landing pages were tested -- The "pretty" one that, by all accounts, should have come out on top and a landing page without the model or the visible menu. At the end of the test, it was revealed that the "inferior" page actually increased the company's conversion rate by 144 percent and grew the average order size by 18 percent.

I'm not surprised. Having attended Jim Sterne's eMetrics Summit earlier this month, that lesson was drilled into attendee's heads. So many times marketers assume they know what's best or what a customer wants when they couldn't be more wrong.

The lesson of the day: Test everything. Even best practices can be wrong.

Fun Finds

ABI Research says that the Internet video audience will hit one billion viewers by the year 2013.

Mashable talks about the rumored Social Bookmarks site Microsoft is set to be releasing.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/27/08 at 2:24 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Analytics, SEM Events

May 23, 2008

Friday Recap

It's Friday and I swear to God I will stop yawning at some point today. Maybe. I hope. Perhaps I'll just take a nap under my desk and see if anyone notices. Yeah, I like that plan.

There was a giant conspiracy this week to get me to go to In N Out and consume 3,000 calories. Barry Schwartz was blogging about French fries, The Consumerist used a photo of a burger and fries from In N Out for their story about dieting (um, fail?), and then Seth Godin was screaming double double for no reason whatsoever. Okay, I get it. I'll make Susan go buy me a burger. Calm down, Internetz. [Back off, I'm on a diet. Again. Still. Whatever. --Susan]

Or maybe we'll head to Chicago to enjoy the Double Stuf Oreos that were left all over the road after a sleeping truck driver crashed into the medium.

Also, half of IT workers say they've gained at least 10 pounds in their current jobs. Because fixing computers forces them to pig out on In N Out burgers and Double Stuf Oreos. I totally feel their pain.

[Can you tell I'm hungry? Our plan to get bagels delivered to the office today failed.]

Matt McGee is officially using Twitter just like the rest of us, which means he's passing around stories intended to horrify people. This time we learn that a man survive six hours with a paint brush in his head. See, now don't you wish you had never read that? Thanks, McGee!

FastUpFront let's us know that more than 33 percent of Americans are being bullied at work, and then offers up some advice on how to stop it. I think it's time I have a talk with Susan to explain to her how her bullying is affecting my health at work and how it makes me eat Oreos. In bed. At 3am. [Mmm, Oreos. --Susan]

There was a great thread over on Cre8asite that asked who else talks to their blog? Sadly, they don't mean actually having a conversation with your blog. Which is what I thought it meant. And hoped. Guess I'm alone then.

Vertical Leap developed an interesting SEO keyword research game. Check out how people search for a white kitten. [Omg a kittah] received one percent of the votes. Hee.

Or, if that doesn't do it for you, how about SEO Bullshit Bingo?

Over at Going Cellular, Stuart tells us how he stopped using bad cell phone etiquette while I giggle like the little girl I secretly am.

Barry Schwartz blogged about a possible Ask.com search update and then I giggled even more. Barry, Ask isn't in search anymore. Duh!

Blogpire is looking for a robot obsessed blogger. That's almost as awesome as the tomato blogger job listing (job was filled!) we saw a little while back.

Valleyway broke some shocking news this week: Back in the '90s, Robert Scoble was quasi good looking. I know, I didn't believe it either, but he could have, like, totally been on Sweet Valley High if he wanted to.

How I Spent My Stimulus is colleting stories relating to how people spent their stimulus pay check. Mine is still sitting in the bank until I can find something completely trivial to spend it on. Maybe I'll buy a puppy to eat my cats? Seems they don't really love me as much as I thought they did anyway:

Tear.

Tamar pointed us to a "funny" video about Matt Cutts getting electrocuted and dying. See how that's not even a little funny? Link bait fail.

Things I Learned On BoingBoing This Week:

• How to lie to authority figures.
• Cats can cause blackout-level destruction. They also destroy shoes, blinds, your ability to sleep, your life and enjoy hiding chicken breasts throughout your apartment for kicks. I hate my cats.
• A lonely NYU student created a virtual girlfriend to pretend snuggle with. That's just sad. This guy should adopt my cats. [Or buy himself one of those boyfriend arm pillows. Mm, snuggly. --Susan]

Happy long weekend to everyone! But be careful out there, you don't want to have to sing the sunburn song Tuesday morning.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/23/08 at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)
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May 22, 2008

Seeking Out Failure

Tamar Weinberg pointed me to a great article from PC World that takes a look at the Top 10 Google flubs, flops and failures, referencing products and ventures like Google X, Google Catalog, Google Web Accelerator and Google Coupons, among others. Basically, it's a collection of some of the best Google failures that you don't remember because you're too busy thinking how awesome and innovative Google is.

The article is a good kick in the pants for stagnate companies too paralyzed by fear to act. Google didn't get to where it is by not innovating, not trying new things, not experimenting, so why are you? Why are you letting your fear of failure stop you from going from "just okay" to "absolutely mind-numbingly amazing"? I think it's time you stop.

I'm not trying to get you to ignite your company in a blaze of fail or hold on to ideas that you'd be better off forgetting, but don't be afraid of these things either. Often companies are so afraid of bad press or losing customers that they allow themselves to continue along the same path into mediocrity. You don't have to run your business that way.

How many times have you NOT been allowed to do something because your boss was afraid of how it would look? You can't run that ad because it's too alarming. You can't write that blog post because no one else would say that. You can't launch that new program because it may backfire. Forget it.

Customers will forgive failure if you show them you're out there innovating, trying new things, and attempting to make yourself even better and more useful than before. It's certainly worked for Google. Look at the products they've thrown out just to see if they'd stick. Plenty of them have failed, but we don't talk about those. We talk about how great their Web search is, how strong their advertising platform is, etc. Why? Because that's the branding they've created. Google is the company that will throw out ten products and only have two of them stick. But the two that stick, will change the landscape forever. That's what you want to be - revolutionary.

Take the Google mindset and run with it.

Are you working to integrate video into your site? Ask yourself WWGD? Don't immediately jump to short 60 second videos just because that's been set as the standard. People gave Shel Israel a hard time when he began creating long video. And yes, that video failed, but it wasn't because of the length, it was because the content and the delivery. Shel failed. But he'll learn from that failure and create stronger videos in the future. [Failure's good so long as you don't let it stop you. All you've got to do is let go of the past and keep moving forward. --Susan] I like you so much more now that you've posted that clip.

Have a great idea for a product that you've been keeping under lock and key because you're not sure how people will react? Launch it! Give it just enough time to sink or swim, and if it sinks, take it away. And when you launch it, stand behind it. Companies are really good at throwing things out there and backing down if the audience shows some opposition. Don't. Take a stand.

Never let the fear of failure stop you from doing something you would have done otherwise. It's okay to fail, as long as you do it all the way and in a spectacular fashion. Stop whining and be daring, with everything.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/22/08 at 5:27 PM | Comments (2)
See more entries in Branding

Google Docs Gets Best Feature Ever

There are some moments in your life that help you to see just how geeky you've really become. Mine came just a few moments ago when I stumbled up on the Google Operating System's post Print Layout in Google Docs.

No, go read the title of that post again.

Did your heart just skip a beat? Did your toes wiggle in excitement? Did you have to immediately share your excitement with someone? No? Then I'm totally way geekier than you are.

I've always loved the idea of Google Docs. Having access to my document wherever I go, regardless of what machine I'm on, is something that as a writer I'm a really big fan of. However, I could never get myself to use the darn thing because of the funky wide screen format. Seriously, I can't tell you how many bar conversations I've had about my frustrations with Google Docs viewing options (this solidifies the geek thing, doesn't it?). Maybe Microsoft has me completely brainwashed, but knowing how far along I am on a page helps me to visualize and plan out what I'm writing. With the old version of Google Docs I wasn't able to do that. I would just write from one side of the screen to the other forever and forever with no end in sight. Google to the rescue!

By heading to the View options in Google Docs and then selecting Fixed-Width Page View, users can easily make their Google Docs page resemble Microsoft Word. See the pretty?

Unfortunately, there are still no page breaks and I can't view any type of custom margins, but I'll take what I can get. With this one feature addition, Google Docs may have just become my word processing client of choice. Google, FTW!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/22/08 at 5:19 PM | Comments (5)
See more entries in Blogging, Google

Google Is Not the Government, Nor My Mother

The sensational outrage over Lyndon Antcliff's fake news story has officially reached a level that can now only be described as Utterly Ridiculous. Sparked by a comment by Matt Cutts over at Sphinn, Search Engine Land and others are now speculating that Google may or may not begin penalizing fake news stories that don't contain any type of disclosure. Oh, goodness.

If you haven't been following the story, here are the important nuggets: Lyndon Antcliff posted a fake news story on his client Money.co.uk's Web site without labeling it as such. The satirical story was then picked up by several mainstream news channels, including Fox News, and received a serious amount of links and about a gazillion diggs. Proud of his accomplishment, Lyndon blogged about what had happened and his success (the post has since been removed).

Cue all hell breaking loose as search marketers come out from corners everywhere throwing rocks at Lyndon for manipulating the Internetz.

I'm going to openly state that I don't agree with link bait at any cost. I don't think that creating a fake news story in an attempt to get links is a smart business decision. I'm not going to get into the ethics of whether it's right or wrong, because really, my opinion on that doesn't matter to anyone but myself. I just don't consider it an effective strategy in that I'd be really fearful of breaking the trust of your audience.

Even so, the idea that Google would suddenly start penalizing those who did is borderline ludicrous. It's not Google's job to be your mother and slap you on the wrist for telling a long tale, and any attempt at doing so would be completely unscalable and mind numbing. Google already has one unscalable nightmare with the paid links debacle. Do they really want to get into the battle of protecting the integrity of the Internet by only ranking "truthful" articles? What the heck is truth on the Internet anyway? Where do you draw that line? A search for [2008 president campaign] would bring up zero results.

Sure, it's Google's index and they have a right to take action against things that are "deceptive", I just question whether or not the line should be drawn this close. I've seen link bait far more "deceptive" than what Lyndon offered up. And is something deceptive just because some people don't pick up on the joke? Maybe we should ban April Fools day or other satirical news sites? Personally, I read Lyndon's story when he Twittered it and giggled. I didn't take the story as fact, but I can see how others may have had they only skimmed it. It's certainly not Lyndon's fault that Fox didn't take the time to validate any of the sources or make an attempt to prove its truthfulness. Just like it's not anyone else's fault when someone reads a fake news story on April Fools Day and then blogs about it later as truth. You should have done your homework.

As someone with a journalism degree, I'm all for journalistic integrity and truth in reporting, but it's not Google's right/job/function to be that guide. If people want to "trick" users, then they'll suffer the consequences on their own. When Google starts getting involved in determining what's fact and what's not, you're just opening the door to a whole new world of problems. People twist the truth online every day. I'd argue that it's what the Internet is based on -- opinion, wild speculation, and gut instincts with no facts to base them on. When Google stops being objective and starts entering that grey area of judge and jury, that's when people start getting nervous and paranoid. Just say no. [I'm going to devil's advocate and say that there is absolutely a place for Google to determine that completely made up stories do not belong in their News results. They're not Digg; lies do not become them.--Susan] Okay. I nominate you to read through Google News as it updates and pick out the fact from the fiction! Enjoy your slope.

Google, you worry about spam. Let the people worry about morality and their eternal souls.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/22/08 at 12:39 PM | Comments (13)
See more entries in Branding, Google

May 21, 2008

SEO Headlines

Google Talks Generically About Search Quality

Search marketers were treated to an Introduction to Google Search Quality by Udi Manber on the Official Google Blog yesterday afternoon that offered a glimpse into the Google's search technology. The post is both long and meaty so I'm going to follow the pack and simply pick out some of my favorite snippets. Here's what I think you should be aware of from Udi's post:

• The reason ranking is hard is because languages are inherently ambiguous, and documents do not follow any set of rules. There are really no standards for how to convey information, so we need to be able to understand all web pages, written by anyone, for any reason.
• Google's ranking algorithm includes different models including:
• • Language models: The ability to handle phrases, synonyms, diacritics, spelling mistakes, and so on.
  • Query models: It's not just the language, it's how people use it today.
  • Time models: Some queries are best answered with a 30-minutes old page, and some are better answered with a page that stood the test of time.
  • Personalized models: Not all people want the same thing.
• Significant changes were made to the PageRank algorithm in January.
• Google is making automated evaluations to its search technology every minute.
• In 2007, Google released "450 new improvements, about 9 per week on the average," to the algorithm alone.

Lots of good nuggets there. Google says they're going to work harder to be transparent, but we'll have to wait and see. I can't see them giving away much more information than what is in this post. In other words, I'm on Team Joe Duck.

Zappos Pays Passionless Employees To Quit

Zappos sure is establishing itself as the company whose success you most want to emulate. Bill Taylor from Harvard Business Publishing decided to spend some time with the company to see if he they had any valuable insight to pass on. And it seems they did. One of the most interesting things Bill learned from his time at Zappos is this:

"[Zappos] provides a four-week training period that immerses [new hires] in the company's strategy, culture, and obsession with customers. People get paid their full salary during this period.
After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it's time for what Zappos calls "The Offer." The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: "If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you've worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus." Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit!"

Why do they do that? Because if you're the kind of person who would take the money, you're not the kind Zappos wants on their team anyway. Where's the commitment and passion for the job? It's a pretty wise business model. Just think of all the money they're saving by getting rid of the dead weight right from the beginning. Maybe this week you should go around your offices offering your employees a check and see if they're willing to jump. :) Heh. Interesting stuff indeed.

Fun Finds

Jane Copland jumps in on the Lyndoman link bait controversy and almost sways my vote, but fails. :) To be honest, I'm not sure where I stand on the ethics of link bait. As Jane says, people have been lying on the Internet for years, but then again, do we really want to be those people? I don't think so. I vote for setting a higher standard.

VKI Studios posted a great interview with Todd Malicoat on the topic of link bait.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/21/08 at 3:41 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in Branding, SEO, Search Engine Optimization

Live Search Cashback: It's Smart, But It Will Fail

Everyone's cringing at the recent announcement that Microsoft will start paying searchers in an attempt to lure them over to their engine and get them out of the clutches of Google. It's pretty much the saddest story you'll hear all day NOT about abandoned or one-armed babies.

I don't have the heart to describe the program myself, so let's hear how Microsoft describes its new Live Search Cashback program:

"You will be able to earn cashback savings based on a percentage of the product price. Your savings will be paid to you via your choice of a deposit to your PayPal account, direct deposit to your bank account, or a check in the mail. It's that simple!"

That simple and that sad. Why is Microsoft offering pay its users? Let's again consult Microsoft:

"We want to earn your loyalty and reward it with cashback savings for your everyday online shopping. We are "The Search That Pays You Back"! "

Isn't your heart breaking just a little bit for them?

The thing is, in theory, it's not even a bad idea. Encourage people to make purchases by searching through your engine and then give them a bit of a cash break (anywhere between 2 percent to more than 30 percent) when they buy from participating retailers. It's a cost per acquisition model designed to get more people searching on Live and to hit Google where it hurts by stealing away valuable advertising dollars. It also gets more eyeballs to adCenter, which is an idea I like very much.

In theory, I get it. However, in practice there's not a single person alive who doesn't know it will totally fail. Why? Because if your search engine isn't up to par, not even "cold hard cash" will get people to use it. Searchers don't reward mediocrity, especially when they're already searching with an engine that doesn't suck.

A note to Microsoft, Yahoo and whoever else is out there reading this: If you're going to beat Google it has to be done through innovation. Not with backdoor bribery. Figure it out.

And someone please figure it out. We don't need any more engines promising to give searchers money or prizes or iPods. Heck, this isn't even the first time Microsoft has tried this approach. We saw it in 2006, as well. All searchers want is an engine that's relevant, trustworthy and that cares about their users.

If you want to read more about Live Search Cashback you can check out the new site or read through the FAQ. I wouldn't bother. It will just depress you and the program probably won't even be around that long. Instead, let's all watch Steve Balmer getting pelted with eggs. After this launch, he almost deserves it.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/21/08 at 11:40 AM | Comments (3)
See more entries in Branding, Microsoft

May 20, 2008

When Content Meets Search Engine Optimization

A List Apart has a great article about The Cure For Content-Delay Syndrome that tries to solve the age-old search engine optimization problem of getting a site up and ready to launch only to wait a year for the content to be produced. According to A List Part, the golden egg in the whole process is hiring an editor to help you with the writing, not a lowly copywriter.

Oh, whatever. That's nothing more than a bunch of semantics. Writing and editing may be two completely different disciples, but God knows they're not treated as such in most companies. Oftentimes, a copywriter is what you are until there are enough people below you to promote you to "Editor". And at that point, you're just a copywriter with a glorified pay raise. Save yourself the extra bucks an "editor" charges for their title, and go find yourself a copywriter with some skillz. [I feel like you're speaking of someone in particular here... -Susan] Right. This is my world, revolving around you.

Semantics aside, I am inclined to agree with the article that if you want SEO'd content to be produced on a timely basis, it's a good idea to go with a search engine optimization company that keeps a couple of writers on staff. It's important to have a team there who can help guide you in the right direction and craft your written mess into something your users and the search engines will equally love.

There's always a lot of debate about who should be writing the content for a search engine optimization project. Officially, we advise clients that they should be writing their own content as they're the ones who are experts on the subject, not us. You have the passion for the topic, you know what products/features customers want to know about, you know where the content holes are, etc. Then, once you provide the meat, we'll work with you to tweak it, adjust keyword densities, and take out all the spots that would make your high school English teacher question her self-worth.

That's our official Bruce Clay, Inc. stance on copywriting and SEO.

Unofficially, the Bruce Clay Writers love when we get to write content from scratch for clients! Perhaps it's because all three of us are slightly deranged, but if we could sit and write content for clients all day, we'd probably do it. So when a client comes to us and asks us to write content, they get three very excited writers who literally fight for the project and jump at it with a boatload of passion. In these cases, we do the research on your site, topic and industry, and deliver you pages of awesome to review on a pre-set schedule.

This may come out as sounding incredibly biased, but I really think that most companies would benefit from working with a copywriter who is well-versed in search engine optimization. Not only will the new content you're working on together perform better, but a copywriter can also help you go through your site and find ways to include better call-to-actions on pages that tend to get very little attention. I'm talking about your Contact Us page, various forms on your Web site, Thank You pages and things of that nature. They'll also help ensure that the language and tone remains consistent throughout your site. You may not think all of that matters much, but you'd be surprised how it can affect your site's readability to readers.

I'm not sure why A List Apart seems to think that writers need an editor to produce work on time and get projects moving, but that's certainly never been the case around here. Don't waste your money paying for fancy titles, but do invest in a copywriter who can help you to take your site and your search engine optimization efforts to the next level. As Tyra would say, that's fierce.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/20/08 at 3:18 PM | Comments (2)
See more entries in SEO, Search Engine Optimization

May 19, 2008

Can You Win Back A Scorned Evangelist?

We all know how important brand evangelists are to the success of our company. An enthused evangelist will defend your brand to the death, talk about you to their friends, support you in blog entries and deep inside comments, and let their excitement for you spill over into everything they do and get others excited by association. But what happens when you lose these people? Can you ever really win them back?

I'm in a bit of an emotional pit this afternoon as I brand that I loved and bid farewell too now wants to make amends. It's been more than two months since we parted ways and the new face running the ship wants to reach out. I'm hearing words like "re-engage", "our history", and "trust" and I'm wondering if it can be done. If it's really possible to win back someone who put all their trust in you and then watched as you threw it away.

To be honest, I'm not sure it's possible, but given the power evangelists hold wise companies will at least try. Here are some tips from a scorned brand evangelist about how to work your way back into the heart of someone who loved you.

• Own Up To Your Mistake: You did something to make that dedicated brand evangelist turn away and denounce your company. What was it? If you don't know, make sure you find out directly from them what it was. Don't insult them by assuming. Once you know, apologize. And mean it. Explain how the situation occurred, how sorry you are that they felt hurt/betrayed/lied to/abandoned and then explain why it will never happen again. If you don't know how to keep similar situations from occurring, recruit them to help you. Show them that they're a valuable part of your organization.
• Create An Honest Dialogue: Sure, the goal is to win the evangelist back but you're only going to be able to accomplish that with complete honesty. This isn't some fair-weather fan you isolated; this was someone who trusted your brand and put their faith in you. This is someone who spoke out on your behalf to others and caused people to give you a second glance. You owe it to them to be completely transparent. If you're not, they'll be able to tell and they'll feel even more insulted and irate than before. They'll probably also be less likely to stop talking about how much they hate you. There's really nothing worse than a pissed off former brand evangelist, is there?
• Calm Their Fears: Now that the initial trust has been broken, you're going to have to work ten times as hard to get it back. It's not going to be accomplished in a single phone call or even through several email strings. It's going to take time and a lot of effort on your part. It's up to you to calm their fears and answer any question they may have. You may find that several heart-to-heart phone calls may do the trick or, if it makes sense, maybe it's a better idea to fly the person out to headquarters and let them get a taste of the brand they loved. Remind them what they were fighting for.
• Get them Excited Again: You need your brand evangelists to support you, but what are you giving them? Why should they take you back and invest their energy in you? Give them a reason to believe. Show them why they'll be proud to be on your team.

Winning back a lost brand evangelist is really about earning their trust and proving that you're still a company worth believing in.

Would you be able to take back a brand that betrayed your trust the first time around? What lengths would they have to go to in order to prove how important you were to them? I don't know if the brand that let me down will ever be able to win me back, but it's something I continue to think about.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/19/08 at 4:52 PM | Comments (2)
See more entries in Branding

SEO Weekend Update

Microsoft, Yahoo Continue To Annoy Me

I didn't really believe that all the MicroHoo chatter was behind us, but part of me really, really hoped. I'm a little tired of talking about nonevents, but here we are again. On Sunday, Microsoft issued another weekend statement saying that they're "continuing to explore and pursue...an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo!" Er, what does that even mean? Epic Yawn, Microsoft.

No one really knows what Microsoft's cryptic note refer to, but we're all guessing anyway. The most popular theory is that Microsoft is looking to get its hands on some of Yahoo's search share. Sounds viable. Personally, I think the way Yahoo can best help Microsoft is to bring some eyeballs to Microsoft adCenter, which most agree is the best ad serving platform that no one's using. I'd love to see that platform get some actual traffic.

Regardless of what Microsoft's latest sonnet really means, Yahoo appears to be back the bargaining table, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that its own stakeholders were revolting. Fun!

Should Brands Buy Back Their Fan Pages On Facebook?

There's a post over on The Unofficial Facebook Guide that tells the sad story of users getting banned for creating branded fan pages. Nick O'Neill writes that ever since Facebook unveiled Fan pages onto the site, enthused brand evangelists have been jumping at the chance to create pages for the brands they love. Sadly, it seems the pages they've created are being taken down and, in some cases the users' accounts are being banned. Yikes.

While banning personal accounts because a user was excited about a feature you offer is 100 percent ludicrous, I do think it's a good idea for brands to take control of their Facebook pages, even if John Battelle doesn't. Sure, it's likely that these brand evangelists are completely well-intentioned but I don't think you should hand over your logo, your message, or your public face to someone simply because they were first to try and register the page. You also don't want a hundred splinter Fan pages sprouting up for your brand, you want one official one where all of your fans can unite and support you. And if your Fan page is going to be in front of that many eyeballs, you want to make sure you're the one in control of it.

Remember our friend Jackie Liebergott from last week? On Thursday I wrote that My College President Kills Kittens and showed how someone had created a false Facebook profile for Jackie Liebergott, the president of my alma mater Emerson College. Well, it turns out they've also created a fake Jackie Liebergott Fan page. Now, if you were Emerson College, wouldn't you want to get control of that page? Poor kitten-killer Liebergott.

Encourage users to engage, to write wall posts, to answer polls, to go out in the real world and evangelize, but you have to hold on to the keys. Otherwise you're just opening yourself up for disaster.

Would Yahoo Be Stronger Without Search?

At Search Engine Journal, Loren Baker asks if Yahoo would be stronger without search. It's an interesting theory but not one I'm inclined to support. Perhaps Loren's right in that Yahoo would become more profitable, but it's still not a direction I want to see them take. They might make more money but would you still respect them in the morning? I wouldn't. It's not a good course for them and it's sure not going to help the industry any.

Personally, I'd rather see someone step in and get Yahoo to start leveraging their many verticals. Yahoo has all the portal strength an engine could ask for, and yet they're not using it. Tapping into all of that is how Yahoo will succeed and grow. I still have faith in Yahoo and I don't want to see them sell out and become completely useless. Someone has to come along and challenge Google. Yahoo's sitting back at a pretty distant second right now, but Google's not going to reign forever. At some point, someone will come up and beat them. That will never be Yahoo if they hang up their gloves before the fight is over.

Hang in there, Yahoo. Don't be so quick to sell out. Even if Microsoft does keep sweet talking you back to the table.

Fun Finds

Copyblogger has launched a Twitter Writing Contest. You write your best 140 character story and the winner receives an iPod Nano 4 GB. Your story has to be exactly 140 characters. Over or under isn't going to cut it. Good luck!

Darren Rowse lists 12 Traits of Successful Bloggers even though the URL says eleven. Don't be fooled.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/19/08 at 4:41 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in Branding, Microsoft, Yahoo

Who Will Activate The Internetz?

There's an interesting conversation brewing regarding Facebook's decision to block Google Friend Connect from inside its walls. According to Facebook, the decision was simply one of privacy. They claim that Friend Connect violates Facebook's Terms of Service, redistributing user information without users' knowledge. Google, however, defended its service saying that users are in full control of their information and can unlink accounts at any time. Therefore Facebook's argument? Pretty much baseless.

Mark Zuckerberg, seemingly acknowledging that Facebook has acted like a jealous teenager, says he's ready to talk to Google and see if these two crazy kids can't just work something out. And really, it's in Facebook's best interest to start playing nice here and welcoming Google into the family. A revolution is taking place, and if someone hands you an invite to join the party, you'd be wise to accept it. Otherwise you're just going to get bowled over and replaced.

We're quickly approaching the day where users are going to roll their eyes at the idea of having to maintain separate profiles for different Web sites. The early adopters are already at that stage. No one wants to set up, create and maintain separate Facebook and MySpace profiles. They don't want to have to re-add the same people time and time again. They don't want to have to repeat a conversation on Facebook that they're having on Twitter. Most users want to create one social networking account and then take it, and the connections they've made, wherever they go on the Web. They want the interactions that they have on one site to migrate to the next. This is where the Internet is going and Google is giving Facebook a chance to make this happen. Why are they rejecting it?

If you're Facebook you have a choice to make. You can either accept Google's offer to help turn you into an open platform that users can tap into from anywhere on the Web or you can prepare to be outdated and replaced by something that does. It's your call.

Sarah Lacy was quick to chime in that she doesn't want Facebook to become an open platform. The reason she uses Facebook is because she knows that all of her information is kept tucked tightly inside. She doesn't want her photos or messages escaping the walls and ending up in a Google search. And I totally get that, which is why there has to be some way to tier the information. I don't want my Facebook photos showing up in Google, but I would like to have access to my connections on other sites. Not so that I can spam them into oblivion, but because we have mutual interests and if I find something in another corner of the Web, I want to be able to share it with them. There needs to be a way to do that.

I don't often agree with Robert Scoble but he seems to be on the right path with his ideas of how we can separate information. He suggests creating three groups:

1. Your social graph (IE, the map of who your friends are).
2. Your friends' info (IE, their email addresses, their birthdays, their relationship status, their political leanings, their gender, their favorite music and activities, and other stuff you'll find on, say, Facebook's profile).
3. Your actual data. Say your photos, your videos, your status updates, and your wall posts.

I like Scoble's groups, even though I don't agree with him on how all of that data should be used. I want to be able to take that first group of information wherever I go. I don't think I should be able to use that third group without permission. And I think the last group is totally off limits. And even if you don't agree with his groups or how each segment should be used, it's time to at least start having a conversation about it. Hopefully that's what Facebook and Google will begin doing.

I can understand Facebook's hesitation to align themselves with Google, but it's the best way to turn their site into a platform and to move the Internet along. The Internet is by nature a social network. The early adopters are waiting for the company who understands that and is gutsy enough to step up and activate it. Will Facebook be that company? We'll have to see.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/19/08 at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Social Media

May 16, 2008

Friday Recap

It's Friday and almost a gazillion degrees in Southern California! Yey?

This week Search Engine Strategies unveiled the first annual SES Awards show which will take place during SES San Jose. It's exciting for SES and equally exciting for me because as I'll be one of the judges (what crazy person okay'd that?), I had to write my first professional bio. One that didn't mention my cats. What do you think?

Matt Cutts let his nerd stripe show with Stupid Google Tricks: How Often Do You Cut Your Hair? It's a nice glimpse into the neurotic psyche of Matt. And not that you care, but I get my hair cut tomorrow. Let's hope they don't "accidentally" cut off 7 inches like they did last time. [They'd better not. The point of getting my hair cut was so that people would stop asking if we're related. It's not like I can just glue it back on. --Susan] I appreciate that. The Bobbsey Twin thing was getting a little old.

Keri Morgret wrote a letter of apology to her wrists and offered some advice on how to survive continuous days of liveblogging. Speaking from experience, the only way to survive is to accept that it's going to kill you dead. And then move on and continue blogging that early morning keynote roundtable where everyone talks over each other and no one ever finishes their thought.

Shoemoney asked some familiar industry faces to define SEO. Use it to learn a little bit about the industry you work in or challenge someone to play Spot The Blackhat based on the answers provided. Either way, good times all around.

Did you go to Ad:Tech San Francisco this year? Are you dying? You may be. It seems there has been a breakout of the Novovirus at the Moscone Center. So many ews. I'm so glad we sent Susan this year instead of me.

Shimon Sandler is back providing recipes on his blog, this time it's for Spicy Chili. I haven't tried this one but Shimon's Gourmet Meatloaf for Hungry SEO's is most excellent!

Barry pointed me to the Forbes' article where Ask.com shill Jim Safka calls the reports that Ask.com is dead "horseshit". Moving on.

Susan's going to be out of the office on Monday. I think I'm going to jello-fy her keyboard and maybe even her new vertical mouse. What do you think? [I vote no. --Susan] I was asking everyone not named Susan Esparza.

Or maybe I'll make our very own Aaron Butler show me how to break an apple in two with my bare hands. In the spirit of "pics or it didn't happen", here's a video from when he proved it could be done yesterday. The writer's room was really impressed.

Proof that there's a social network for everything these days: Meet MyLaundryOnline.com. Yes, it's a place for you to find people (read: strangers) to do your laundry. Because that's not a little bit creepy and a lot gross. Hide your unmentionables.

Cracked.com has a list of the 9 Most Obnoxious Memes to Ever Escape The Web. It's like the history of the Web right there in one list. Awesome.

I've heard of jealous siblings, but eating your twin? Now, seriously. That's something Susan would do. [Tastes like kittens. --Susan] You disgust me.

Gawker helps us answer the question, "are you an online jackass?", while Granta gives us The Web Habits of Highly Effective People. Shockingly, there's no mention of Twitter.

In non-search stuff, one of my new favorite bloggers, Sarah Nielson, shows you a foolproof way for getting into your mother's will. Genius!

And the Easy PB&J jar that allows you to scoop out every last bit of peanut butter goodness.

Things I Learned On BoingBoing This Week:

• Did you know that rats are ticklish? No? Does that tidbit not change the fact that you find them incredibly disgusting? Me too.
• Fractal drawers are awesome, and so are black metal cupcakes.
• These floating stairs look pretty sweet but I'm pretty sure I'd kill myself on them.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/16/08 at 9:40 AM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Fun Stuff

May 15, 2008

My College President Kills Kittens!

I don't care if you plan to launch a social media campaign or not, stop what you're doing and head over to the top social sites and claim your company name and the names of your high level folks.

No, do it now. Otherwise, prepare to be sorry when someone comes along, snags up your name, and begins using your brand in ways you may not appreciate.

Shockingly, I have an example!

I received a Facebook Friend Request this morning from Jackie Liebergott. Jackie is the president of my alma mater Emerson College. Emerson has always been fairly tech savvy and on the cutting edge of new media types, but even so, when I received the Friend Request I wrinkled my nose and wondered if it was legit. I also remembered that in the four years I attended Emerson, I never once had a conversation with Jackie Liebergott so the chances of her knowing me and trying to connect were...well, slim to none.

Still, maybe Jackie does know me! Or maybe she's decided to create a Facebook profile to build a bridge between her and Emerson students and is adding everyone who lists Emerson College on their profile. How novel! I headed to Jackie's profile to see if it was in fact legit. When I got there I found this:

Heh, yes. A profile picture designed to show Jackie doing her best dinosaur impression and a status message that tells people she's out killing kittens. Excellent. Jackie currently has 68 Facebook friends. She belongs to six groups, has 27 photos uploaded, and has some very interesting activities listed.

This is what happens when you don't claim your name and open up the chance for someone else to do it for you.

Friends, do yourselves a favor and go stake your claim on your name in the social media networks. A few months ago Michael Gray sent me an email reminding me that we should claim our brand on Twitter before someone else does. It was great advice and we jumped to it immediately. We even decided to turn BruceClayInc into our official blog Twitter feed that provides automated updates for readers who prefer to get notifications that way..

But even if we hadn't decided to use the account, just having it is a smart business move. I'm sure to many people, the idea of having to take the time to create profiles on a bunch of sites you don't intend to use sounds like an overwhelming and silly task. However, consider the consequences. Isn't the credibility of your brand worth it? If you're not sure, ask Jackie.

Or Seth Godin. Seth is a perfect example that sometimes fans claim your name with good intentions and end up causing more harm than good. I fully believe that whoever created the SethGodin Twitter account (hint: It's not Seth) did it to because of how passionate they are about the Seth brand. And that's great, but it now gives Seth no way to control how someone is using his name. That's not great. It's even less great when consider that the account has more than 5,000 followers. Right now the person in control of Seth's account is playing by the rules, but what if that changes? What if they start pushing their own content or badmouthing others? What if people didn't realize it wasn't really Seth speaking? Kiss your brand of excellence goodbye and prepare to lose the trust of your customers.

Oddly enough, Seth actually did receive some backlash for his Twitter account, especially from people who were offended that he was collecting followers and not following people back. There were even open letters written to get him to change his ways. All for an account he doesn't even own.

Take a few minutes today to create accounts for your company on the major social media outlets. Be proactive about protecting your brand. Otherwise, prepare to have your best T-Rex impression representing you on the Interwebz.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/15/08 at 3:38 PM | Comments (4)
See more entries in Branding, Social Media

May 13, 2008

Corporate Blogging Isn't About the Media

I came across an interesting post today while perusing Sphinn. Search Engine Optimization Manager says the number one reason traditional corporations shouldn't blog is because they don't understand media. Hold me, my head hurts.

There are three things very wrong with that statement:

1. If your company doesn't know how to use the media to spread your message, then you're dead in the water anyway. Either learn or close up shop.
2. Blogging isn't about engaging the media. It's about engaging and empowering your customers.
3. It's 2008. What the heck is a traditional company?

The logic behind the post is all very confusing, especially when the author suggests that blogs are only suited for "Web-based" companies and that if you're one of those traditional types you should stick to the "more appropriate" press release model. Right. Because a blog and a press release are the same and accomplish the same goal. Only not. Come closer so that I may I hit you.

The sooner you realize that your corporate blog isn't about you or your company or the media and that it's about your audience, the greater your blogger experience is going to be. Sure, blogs allow you to do lots of great things -- to put a face on your company, to do reputation management, to deal with negative feedback, and to strengthen the focus of your site with new ideas and content -- but you're not doing any of that for yourself. Not really, anyway. You're doing it for your customers. To make them trust your brand and improve their experience with you, so that they're more likely to associate themselves with you in the future. All of this will help you in the long run, but your short-term objective is to appeal to them.

If you're looking at your blog as a tool that you're going to use to promote yourself or your business, just stop. You're missing the point. You're not going to engage or excite anyone by talking about how great you are or what you're up to. A blog is not a press release and if you try to turn it into one so that you can be "more appropriate" you're going to enrage the audience you meant to empower.

I also really question who these "traditional" companies are the author mentions anyway. I assume they're talking about companies who provide some sort of offline service and who have been around for years and years. Someplace that just reeks of stodgy old money. You know, like airlines! Only JetBlue and Southwest are two companies pioneering the whole corporate blogging thing. They must not have gotten the "write a press release" memo. Don't they look silly?

If you're a "traditional" company that doesn't understand how to leverage the media, then I suggest you learn. I don't think this Web thing is going to go away. Nor will social media. You don't want to be the great content that fails because you don't know how to submit or promote yourself. Instead of hiding in your corner because you're unfamiliar, try embracing it. You don't have to jump into blogging, but I think you do have to enter the social sphere in some form.

The author is right on one point, though. You should definitely know what your end goal is before you start. You want to know how this will help you connect with your customers, whether you'll be adding to the conversation, and if customers even care what you have to say. That's all solid advice. However, I'd shy away from discouraging people from jumping into the conversation simply because they have no media experience or because they don't fit the presubscribed mold. It's like bashing Shel Israel for attempting to stray away from the short video model. Be a little daring. Go blog something. Step out of your comfort level. Stop being so "traditional".

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/13/08 at 2:25 PM | Comments (4)
See more entries in Blogging, Social Media

May 12, 2008

SEO Weekend Update

The Social Networks Get More Social

Something must have been in the water this past weekend because Google and the social networks have decided to be just a little bit sweeter to their users.

Both Facebook and MySpace revealed portability options that will allow members to take their information off the site and use it in conjunction with other trusted sites. MySpace's program is called the Data Availability initiative and will allow users to share their public photos, videos and text on sites like Yahoo, eBay, Twitter, Photobucket and beyond. Similarly, Facebook announced Facebook Connect, a program which will allow members to take their Facebook identity and use it across the Web.

Google isn't making user information portable, but they did launch Friend Connect to help site owners add social features to their Web site with just a small snippet of code. Google thinks of Friend Connect as a "shortcut to connections you've built up somewhere else". It will work with OpenID, OAuth, OpenSocial, as well as with APIs from Facebook, Google, and MySpace. Good stuff.

Looks like the future of the Web and social applications will be all about letting people create one Web identity and then giving them the ability to take it wherever they go. We like.

10 Percent of People Say Design Is Part of SEO

A frightening article over at Web Designer Wall signals that only 1 out of 10 Web designers think design should be a consideration to search engine optimization. I suppose that's actually not too surprising considering that 24 percent of people didn't even know what search engine optimization was. Oye.

The article, geared towards design professionals, goes on to explain what search engine optimization is, why it's important, and how certain design and architectural elements may impact the spiderability of your Web site. It's one of those posts you want to bookmark and then send to clients when they get mouthy. I mean, confused. ;)

Seriously though, it's a bit frustrating to see that so many in a related field have no idea what SEO is and continue to make it an afterthought. Search engine optimization should be a part of your site design process from the very beginning. We actually believe that you should know your keywords before you even begin designing. For a good rundown of how we look at SEO design, you can take a read through our How To: SEO Web Design post from a few months back. It explains how knowing what terms you'll need to target is going to determine how your site is structured, how your navigation will come together, how deep it will be, and will influence nearly every design decision you make.

Third Annual SEM Scholarship Contest Launches

Andy Beal has revealed that the 3rd annual SEM Scholarship Contest has officially kicked off and it's promising a prize package worth more than $10,000. Yowsa!

To enter, simply submit an article on your favorite Internet marketing topic between the deadline of May 23rd. From there, the finalists will posted on the Marketing Pilgrim and the five that receive the most traffic will go before an expert panel of judges. Have I mentioned I'm on that fine panel? Yeah, I don't know how my name got there either. :)

It's a great chance to give back to the community and help some new search marketing faces find some recognition. We hope to kick off the third edition of our SEO Charity Contest soon, as well. Good to see so many people fighting for SEO education. Kudos, Andy!

Fun Finds

Matt Cutts tells us what Google knows about spam and says, on the record, that search engine optimization is NOT spam. All hail, Matt Cutts!

The always smart Kim Krause-Berg says the key ingredient for SEO and Web Design is true passion.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/12/08 at 5:06 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media

May 9, 2008

Friday Recap

Hey, Friends. I hope everyone had a fantastic week. But, in case your week was like mine, I offer up Performancing's Bloggers: What Do You Do to Relax? Also, feel free to share your own ways of relaxing in the comments. My goal for this weekend is to get my heart to stop racing before I collapse. Huzzah!

Speaking of Performancing, James Mowry woke up to find that he had 11,072 unread items in his feed reader. Just thinking about that raised my heart rate to an unhealthy level. I'm so going to die.

You know what's not going to die? SEO! Michael Gray issued the best rebuttal to Shoemoney's recent the-sky-is-falling post with Yes Shoemoney SEO Does Have a Future. Read Michael's post and I guarantee you that by the end you will have climbed right atop his soapbox with him.

Earlier this week, Ask.com celebrated Cinco de Mayo by showing everyone how absolutely irrelevant and ridiculous they've become. The shame of that company saddens me.

Have you ever wanted to see what Robert Scoble would look in an Ansel Adams photograph? No? Well, let him recreate it for you anyway.

The Consumerist compiled the Top 5 Guerilla Marketing Mishaps. I'd like to add Ask.com's Information Revolution campaign in the UK to that list. Epic fail.

In Twitter this week we saw TweetShirts, Who Should I Follow, and my favorite, LiveTwittering -- a brand new way to livetweet conference sessions. Livetweeting is the new liveblogging, you know?

Keeping with the Twitter theme, I'd like to award JetBlue with the Best Tweet Of The Week:

Their award? I'll be more likely to fly JetBlue in the future because I know they get "it".

David Mihm posted a great interview with Matt McGee. They dish about search, life after Marchex, photography and how he manages to squeeze 35 hours of work into a 24 hour day. Matt McGee is one of my favorites.

As hard times approach, Code on the Road offers up the one thing you absolutely need to do the first day after you've been laid off. It's a great piece, though I'd probably never be gutsy enough to do it.

If you have dreams of attending Search Marketing Expo Advanced in Seattle, the early bird discount ends today, so head on over there. If you're looking for another reason to attend, Virginia and I will both be there liveblogging! You know you want to hang with us. Okay, maybe you just want a chance to meet Virginia. I don't blame you. She's pretty awesome. [*Blush* --Virginia]

In non-search stuffs, Esquire posted The 75 Skills Every Man Should Master and I swooned. If you know a man with half of those skills, please send him my way. I'm willing to provide a headshot and brief bio, if needed.

Eric Lander sent me the Guidelines for Cats. Total giggle fit. In fact, I'm still giggling. It's so sad how every moment of my life is documented in that one list.

In other news, Gizmodo shows us the redesigned NES and it's everything you hoped it would be. Sigh.

Things I Learned From Boing Boing This Week:

• Some dude made the coolest coffee table ever. It's a giant NES controller and it's functional.
• Apparently there is also a duck hunt lamp in existence. Just one question: Where do these nerds live and how do I get them to make me stuff?
• If you want to scare your children, plush roadkill animals should do the trick.
• These animal silhouette bookshelf dividers are actually pretty cool. You know, if you have a bookshelf. Which I don't.
• Just what your hamster always wanted, its very own pink Barbie dream car!

Lastly, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Hopefully you don't have 17.5 children like this crazy woman does. Holy Jesus.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/ 9/08 at 5:28 PM | Comments (2)
See more entries in Fun Stuff

May 7, 2008

How Do You Calculate The Value of a Friend on Facebook?

C'mon, if that's not the best session title of the whole darn show, I don't know what is! Ben Rattray (Change.org) is here to help us find the value behind all those "friends" on Facebook. Hopefully they're worth something a little more than all those pokes and zombie requests.

Oh, and cause I know you're interested, Ben is a total hottie. ;)

Ben starts off by showing the audience a cluttered montage of Web 2.0 properties. It's overwhelming and daunting. But that's the idea.

Web 1.0 was about digitalizing information. In the Web 2.0 world, it's easier to publish content, and easier to connect, communication and collaborate with people. Yes, there is some hype. But it's also a real shift.

Web 2.0 does NOT mean that your Web site or email is going away. It doesn't mean that you have to be everywhere or anywhere. Rather, it's a brand new opportunity. Take it and know what you're looking for.

Nonprofits can use social networking to help spread their message and capture new audiences, to deepen engagement with their supporters and to inspire action.

There are lots of people who already care about you but who right now have an impersonal interaction with you. If they can come read your blog or see your video on YouTube it can help deepen that relationship.

Blogs: Ben says that blogs are unhip now. They were hip in 2002-2003 but a lot of people have already moved on. Still, blogs are a niche media outlet and can connect you to valuable eyeballs. Use it to measure your blog and media mentions and to drive direct traffic to your site. You should also be using blogs to protect your own brand and direct conversations.

News and Bookmark Sharing Sites: The only value to these sites is direct traffic. You can't just post a link and expect traffic; you have to push it and fight for it. Don't use it for brand building. Relative to blogs, these sites have a very broad base audience. The value of the visitors is much less than what you'll get from a blog.

Video Sharing Sites: When we talk about video sharing sites, we're really only talking about YouTube. It's people looking for fun. YouTube has a Nonprofits Channel, but the biggest problem with it is that nonprofits don't have quality video. Even if you get someone to watch your video, if it sucks it's not going to help you. Also consider, what's the call to action in the video? There are no links out available. Donations are available but nobody is making them.

Social Networks: Lots of people on these sites - more than 80 million in the United States. There are tons of networks out there like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, hi5, Tagged, etc. If you're going to do social networking, focus on MySpace and Facebook.

• MySpace: Being used by >10,000 nonprofits. Friending doesn't mean a whole lot. The benefits are that it's easy to communicate, there's lots of interaction and it provides a branded experience. Still, it's difficult to convert. The unique thing is the difference between using it for a consistent presence and simply using it for a single campaign. Campaigns can be really powerful. If you're going to create a profile to create a presence, you won't find much value.
• Facebook: It's been everywhere lately. There's a huge amount of interest, especially in the developer platform. The excitement is due to the virality of the applications. There are lots of ways to establish a presence - groups, pages, causes, etc. Joining a group/page/cause doesn't mean much. The average value of a member of a cause is $.02. The problems with Facebook are that it's difficult to get back in touch with people (you can't mass email your groups) and it's hard to establish your brand.

What's the future of Web 2.0 and Nonprofits?

• Focused Campaigns: Being sure exactly why you're going there.
• Deep Integration: Thinking of social networking as the possibility of taking over an existing stream of communication.
• Use them as tools.

Question and Answer

Have you had any success with using widgets?

Yes. Widgets are great for driving traffic. DonorsChoose.com and Kiva are great examples of nonprofit sites doing great things with widgets. They drive about 25 percent of their traffic. For widget campaigns to be successful the person has to be really passionate about it

It sounds like a lot of this is driving brand recognition. How have you found it effective to measure brand lift?

He measures blog mentions and advises going to Technorati to see who's talking about you and how often. He says that almost no nonprofits are doing measurements.

How involved should organizations be in participating in the conversation? Should you respond to people who are talking about you?

If you have your own blog and you're not blogging at least once a week, it's going to be hard to generate a conversation. If you want to get real value out of things like MySpace and Facebook, it's going to take a lot of work. You have to get people to really engage. If you see that someone is commenting negative information about you on a blog, you should step in and respond in a tactful way. People love it when companies get involved. It's great personal recognition.

I can see how this can deepen engagement, but do you think it can be negative if you DON'T have a presence on these sites? Is it essential for people to be in this space?

Over 50 percent of social media users expect nonprofits to have some type of presence. Increasingly, nonprofits will need to have some type of a presence. There's a big difference, though, between having a MySpace profile and being active in that community. He's not sure if you need to spend a lot of resources on it. Unless you have very specific reasons, you may not find a lot of value.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/ 7/08 at 2:59 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in eMetricsSF08

Measuring the Success of Non-Commerce Websites

I just had some coffee. I feel better.

Alex Langshur (PublicInsite) is here to talk about how to measure success when it's not about sales and shopping carts. I'll admit; I've been looking forward to this one since I got here. I hope it delivers.

Alex jokes that his session is up against Avinash Kaushik and Jacob Nielsen so he has a bone to pick with Jim Sterne. Heh.

Alex starts off saying that there are plenty of institutions where dollars are not part of the equation. They're working a lot with Harvard University. Harvard is struggling to find the value of the online channel to their organization and they're trying to help them with that.

Every time they try and quantify the value of the online channel people are still looking at shopping carts. It's like trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. What's interesting is that sometimes you can actually use a square peg to fit the round hole problem. Like with square watermelons!

Engagement: It's a buzzword but we're stuck with it. If you go and look at Eric Peterson's engagement equation, it's still a number. And numbers don't necessarily help you manage all that well. It's one way of approaching it but he's not going to focus on it.

What should I measure?

When you try and reduce really complicated sites that are an expression of the organization into a simple number, it doesn't work. You have to find another way. There are two things you need to look at:

Pre-click behaviors: These are leading indicators like visibility and alignment
Post-click behaviors: These are lagging indicators like conversions and intensity.

Pre-click is going to drive post-click behavior. You have to use benchmarks in order to give these things value. If you're not using benchmarks because there's "nobody like you", you're missing it.

Benchmarks are really important because they give you perspective. It helps you to understand potential audience size and where you sit relevant to others. Excellent free sources include Google Analytics, Compete.com, Quantcast,com, index.fireclicks.com and your own analytics vendor.

Measurework framework:

Visibility: What affects our online profile? SEO (recommends using Yahoo Site Explorer to check backlinks), traffic acquisition campaigns, buzz monitoring (he recommends Trackur). Who's talking about you, where, when & what is being said?

Alignment: What is our alignment to the audience and its needs? Look at the intent. What keyword themes bring visitors to the site? Look at your search analytics. Also pay attention to audience segmentation. Are we reaching the right audience? Are we tracking the right audience? Can we segment, and if so, how?

When you're doing keyword research, there are a million of opportunities for segmentation and alignment in the long tail. The head may be your bread, but the long tail is your issues. They're the authors on your Web site, the books you're publishing etc. You need to look into it.

You do that by reverse engineering the Information Architecture and breaking the long tail terms into categories. You can use text mining tools to help you, but you really have to create the categories and themes by hand.

Another part of alignment means asking yourself if you're getting the right people. Do these 1500 visits you're getting from Europe influence the key site metrics? If they're not aligned to you, those visitors degrade your stats and skew your metrics in a negative way. You must find a way to address that. It may mean playing with your geo-targeting.

Intensity: What is the change in key performance indicators for visits? There are a wide range of KPIs to choose from. Things like page views/visits, average visitor duration, unique visitors, user generated content volume, etc. Don't track them but all figure out which ones matter to you. The Web Analytics Association has a big book of KPIs. You can reference that. If you go beyond 15 KPIs, you have too many. He prefers to go down to 10. When you're dealing with non-commerce based organizations you have to crystallize the mission or you risk losing the discussion when people become too tied up with the numbers. Don't design the indicators by committee.

Conversions: How are value events performing? Things like email sign ups, RSS feeds and clickthroughs, downloads of key content, AJAX/Flash events, Send to a friend/print pages, social tags and bookmarking, and satisfaction survey results. In a Web 2.0 world you can use tools like Feedburner to track value events.

How should I report?

• Don't provide access to raw data, reports or the tool
• Find the hook that can start a conversation, then build the story
• Take the time to report less and inform more
• Contextualize data in terms that matter to the recipient
• Look for champions in the organization
• Nothing succeeds like success

Case Study: Public Sector, health promotion

Goals: Encourage visitors to inquire about healthy eating and inform them of the benefits of healthy eating

Desired Outcome: Encourage them to take action that reflects a shift in their thinking about that subject.

Visibility: Find actions that would raise awareness - SEO
Alignment: What is KW analysis saying about intent?
Intensity: How are they using the site?
Conversions: What are the outcomes?

Visibility: If they hadn't raised visibility, they would have had a very low amount of traffic. It was one of those things where you can do great stuff, but if you can't get people to come to the site, no one will know about it. And if that happens, you won't get the money to do it again in the future.

Alignment: They were looking for people who were at home and people in the K-12 segment. They had 20 percent of their audience from those segments. It was a lot higher than previously.

Intensity: People were coming but they weren't coming back. Wasn't a lot of intensity of use. That was a problem going forward.

Conversions: Terrible conversion ratio of .26...but it was double last years. They had a fairly respectable sign up rate. How do you report that?

Created a color-coded scorecard that explained the define objective, the result and a color-code that said if the objective was met. The purpose was to start the conversation. They knew if they gave them a report no one would read it. They didn't send it by email. They printed it and distributed it by hand.

Question & Answer

Do you have any preferred methods for doing long tail keyword analysis and putting things into buckets?

The short answer is no. They've run studies looking at the top 100, 200, 300, 400, etc keywords. The curve is like a normal distribution where once you go beyond 600 keywords, the deltas are under a percent. If you do the Top 500 you're going to be capturing the major portion of what the intent is. If you still to that, you'll have a good understanding as to what's going on.

You talk about profiling segments. It's hard to do in practice. How have you gone about profiling segments?

1. Geographically profiling: You HAVE to be doing this.
2. Profile-based navigation
3. Qualitative analysis

How do you establish ROI?

In a public sector org, ROI is meaningless because you can't bring it back to profit and loss centers. In a nonprofit org, it might be a little bit easier but it's tough to do. He believes in establishing ROI based on programs and initiations. ROI is "are you reaching the right target audience?" He goes back to those kinds of value adds.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/ 7/08 at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Analytics, eMetricsSF08, liveblog

eMetrics Keynote - The Coca-Cola Marketing Metrics Journey, Part Two

Ready for a keynote? Well, good, cause one's about to start. Jim Sterne welcomes Tim Goudie from Coca Cola. This keynote is labeled "part two" because Part One was given about a year and a half ago in Washington DC at the eMetrics event down there. Tim's here to update us on what's been happening over the past 18 months.

Tim has been involved in brand marketing since day one. He knows the importance of metrics and measurements. He's going to talk about the global perspective of digital marketing.

Metrics is about knowing exactly where you are. If you're running a business and you don't know how you're doing, it's because you haven't planned ahead of time to know where you are. The consequence of not knowing where you are results in disaster. He shows some examples of people who ended up in disaster because they didn't know where they are or where they were going. They're historical references and one of them involves cannibalism. It's a bit early for that, isn't it? I haven't even had my coffee yet (though I did have a cupcake!).

In July 2006, Coca Cola started building a Web site called The Coke Show. They were trying to get people to upload videos and share UGC. People wanted to share, create and be recognized. The site got so heavy it could hardly move. Consumers weren't taken to the point where Coke thought they would be. The site kind of flopped but Coke learned a lot.

He also talks about MyCokeRewards.com. It's all about loyalty. You can register and build your profile. It was the first time Coke had used precision marketing. It collects data about your customers and then dishes out particular content that they've either asked for or visited on an ongoing basis. It's powerful, but it's expensive. The impact of the program was that it lifted all the pack sizes. The average lift was 15 points over the average consumer.

DesignTheWorldInCoke is a new site to support the upcoming Olympic Games. They unveiled it in 32 markets at the flip of a switch. They've been able to learn as they go.

Metrics are ridiculously political

People will fight and die over numbers. They don't want their numbers exposed. You can overcome this by creating an even playing field. Find out the top KPIs. If you're going to have a constant set of KPIs, stick them on the dashboard so that everyone can see them. It creates a wall of shame or fame and tugs at people's Type A tendencies to be on top. Publish your metrics widely so that everyone has access to the data. Never ever believe that the metrics are neutral. You have to ask why you want that data and what people are going to do with it. Are you going to use it to improve things or do you just think it's pretty?

You need to make sure the executives know that you can't just turn off the metrics. You have to invest in the system.

What is the business that you're in?

Tim's organization is about selling bottles of a beverage. He doesn't care about how many visitors come to their Web site or how many uniques the new marketing campaign will bring in. He wants to know how many cases of Coke it will help them sell. You have to make sure your metrics go back to the fundamental objective of the business. That's how you're going to get your buy-in. It has to go back to the bottom line and how you're going to promote what the business is about.

You need to be where your consumers are and you need to get your organization to think about where your consumers are spending their time and how they're consuming media.

From Web Metrics to Business Measurement

Coca-Cola created a framework that looks like this:

1. Brand Health: They have a tool that measures Brand Health all day, every day.
2. Brand Advocacy: It's the next level of commitment. Would someone refer your product to their friend? Would they recommend your Web site? They're monitoring that. [Tom opens up a bottle Coke. Heh]
3. Volume
4. Media Value: What's your reach? Your frequency?
5. Marketing Productivity

Our Challenge:

[He takes a swig of his Coke. Product placement, FTW!]

You have to measure offline data with digital behavior. You want to link them together. If you know who your consumer is and how they're spending their time, you can dish back messaging that becomes more and more relevant to them. You can't always measure everything you want to measure.

Listening to your online customers. Not every business is the same. You want the data to build the relationship with the consumer, not just to store it.

Tracking Brand Health Online

Coca-Cola put a brand survey on their Olympics-related Web site to see how/if its helping brand health move in the right direction. They focus on brand health because there's a built in assumption that brand health is a good indicator of future consumption.

Go External: If you don't have the skills internally, find them externally. Find someone who can help you with tagging, optimization and interpretation and dashboards.

There's a whole new set of digital applications that are emerging. Things like mobile marketing, widgets, social networks, etc. Imagine if you could deliver a message to a consumer at lunch time telling them that there was an offer waiting for them at the McDonalds located around the corner. That's useful.

The problem is there's no such thing as a mobile cookie. Have you tagged your widget correctly to map those transactions? That's the type of information you need to know.

Find internal patrons of your will die: Find someone who believes in metrics. Find people who understand how metrics can be used and leveraged. Find an executive whose eyes light up when you talk metrics.

Distributing the data: Having the data is one thing, knowing who to get it to and in what format is another thing. You need to give your executives pretty data. It needs to be in a chart or a graph and use color. Management level people can dig a bit deeper.

Leveraging the data: The most important learning for Coke has been that it's okay to have red dials and switches and data, but if you don't have the people to manage it and determine who gets what data, it doesn't matter what kind of car you've bought. If you don't know how to drive it, you've just wasted it. You need to have the right resources on the ground. You need to map your web behavior back to your users.

Key Learnings

• We are evolving in the digital space.
• Metrics are ridiculously political.
• From metrics to business measures.
• Go external.
• We're learning.
• Find internal patrons.
• Dashboards.
• Distributing the data.
• Leveraging the data.
• Educate yourself.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/ 7/08 at 10:42 AM | Comments (1)
See more entries in Analytics, Branding, Social Media, eMetricsSF08, liveblog

May 6, 2008

On-site Search As A Crystal Ball

Last session of Day 2. We've almost made it! This time Daniel Shields (Wicked Business Sciences) and Phil Gibson (National Semiconductor Corporation) are talking about On-Site Search as a Crystal Ball. This should be fun.

Daniel is up first.

What makes site search important?

• 65-70 percent of clients' visits originate from the search engines. This means they're possibly predisposed to using searching navigation
• Users engaged in search are almost 1,000 percent more likely to convert [A thousand percent? Really?].
• More easily identified search cues lead to 30-35 percent more searches being performed on a site. More searching activity promotes most algorithms built into commercial site search solutions.
• Simply, more searchers = more engagement = more data = more opportunity for success.

What Should You Measure?

First, are you measuring at all? Are you using Google Analytics? Site Search is now part of their package as of last July. Omniture offers eVars, S.props and Custom Links to help gather all the angles. Other solutions?

You should be measuring clicks, engagement indicators, action-ability, behaviors, and conviction.

What Data is Useful? Words, clicks and correlations. Basically, all of it!

Qualitative data helps breed understanding of what intent the majority search-engaged user are trying to accomplish.

Quantitative data provides a clear sense of the specific items or subject users are interested in and provides statistical support for new products, investing in search terms, rethinking SEO, taxonomy and silos, etc.

Site search helps you to grow your business by making you aware of your content and telling you what terms to bring into your search marketing campaign. It works as a personalization application and helps with URL analysis, SEO and internal crawl development, new product suggestions, landing page optimization, behavioral targeting, etc.

How do I Capture Search Terms?

Google Analytics

1. Identify how your search solution outputs data with regard to the search.
2. Edit your reporting to include site search metrics
3. Place appropriate URL parameter into text box
4. Identify if you are or are not eCommerce
5. Wait a day to see if it works.
6. Check to make sure you placed tags on the target results
7. Wait another day to confirm that it is now working

Omniture

1. ID how your search solution outputs data with regard to search


2. Allocate an eVar in Admin together data with FULL Subrelations


3. ID and tag script execute event


4. Prepare S.Code


5. Run tests to see if it works

Phil is next.

Phil says the audience is graying and getting older. I guess I'll just be over here trying not to snap my gum too loud.

He says he's got all kinds of search tools but he's focused on dialects and terms. People in his business have their own concepts and terms that mean certain things. They do a lot of visual search and general navigation search.

They created WEBENCH - it's an online design and prototyping environment. You can choose the part, design it, analyze the design and build it. Anyone in this room can turn the knob in any direction they want.

He spends a lot of time talking about the company he works for and what his customers/engineers are looking for.

What do Engineers Notice? What are the headlines they're looking for?

• Lowest input bias current
• Low-noise 1.6GHz Clocking Family
• New High Current Flash LED Driver for Handhelds
• New Technology for suppressing background noise
• Synchronized signaling

Once you have those headlines you can use them for:

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