Interview

July 22, 2008

Six Questions with Kendall Allen

We'll be conducting a couple of speaker interviews as we prepare and get excited for next month's big Search Engine Strategies San Jose show. We were lucky enough to get Kendall Allen from Incognito Digital to sit down with us for a brief chat.
Here's what she had to say!

Greetings, Kendall. For those unaware, can you tell our readers a little bit about what you do at Incognito Digital and how you came to be involved with social media?

Incognito Digital is a full-service independent digital media agency and creative studio. My partner and I run a very tightly-knit planning environment where our team orients entirely around marketer objectives and market informed knowledge of consumer demand related to that marketer's particular product. We develop plans, programs, media mix and creative solutions deploying the right media mix for the objective and the precisely identified, characterized consumer. It's our intimate working style and attention to these insights from even the first conversation with a client that truly differentiate us.

The service offering is fluid - touching a spectrum of digital platforms and methods. Its earliest incarnations of course were pure "online" media. Today - it's Search, display, viral, WOM, video, mobile, and more and more social media. We focus largely on Entertainment (News & TV brands), Consumer Electronics, Consumer Appliances and some Health & Wellness. Social Media has been a natural evolution for us, given our focus on consumer demand, behavioral analysis and experiential marketing in general. Our Entertainment clients in particular are quite adventuresome with this media and its methods.

Where do you think the future of social media is headed? Are we going to see a similar model remain as the sites change or is it going to be figuring out how to monetize?

It is of course key to remember that social media is not all that new. It's just got a new name, upped its game and has a better body. The early years of content and community online - message boards, chat rooms, online auditoriums, etc. -- foreshadowed the heyday we are now experiencing. We launched an AOL/Time Inc. joint venture, Thrive Online, back in the mid-nineties as one of the first content and community sites on the Web. I used to monitor chat rooms in my pajamas and issue TOS (terms of service) warnings in the middle of the night.

It's always fascinating to watch any medium and method come of age. What I see is not only the increased power of the consumer to control social media - but a greater focus by marketers on "planning" and "creating" to that control and then arming consumers with an evermore incredible set of tools, conduits for sharing, communicating and building relationships and immersive, connective social media experiences. And with these developments also comes shrewder monetization. It's all coming along.

Excellent insight. What's your favorite social media site out there? Which one do you think packs the best rewards for search marketers? Any off-the-radar social sites that have grabbed your interest?

One sort of wise, interesting trend I see is marketers using bigger, established social media sites to drive traffic to their own microsites or well-optimized areas or specific landing pages of their own sites. Kind of a cool site I've seen work is Squidoo, where people build pages/profiles within the networks that rank well to sell their products and create additional points of entry. Another VERY snazzy social media platform we've started exploring is Ning, where marketers can create their own social media environments and literally create their own defined networks and optimize accordingly. The design options and flexibility are supreme.

What's the one social media faux pas that search marketers absolutely have to avoid? What aren't they doing that they should be?

There are a couple things. The first is not spending enough time at the very beginning to truly profile their consumer and understand media consumption and community habits, content affinities and platform preferences. The next faux pas is somewhat related - and that would be sloppy, maverick execution of social media. I see this more often with individuals or celebrities who happen to be brands unto themselves. One needs to be extremely mindful of the concept of digital identity and how that can propagate in today's social media fueled marketplace. If you don't plan to it, set a path and monitor it - it absolutely will take on a larger life of its own than already is a given. You want it to flourish and extend - you DON'T want it to spiral desperately out of control.

Lastly, there is so much more to social media than "apps". Let's get creative. You are only limited by your imagination. This is truer now than ever before in this space.

At SMX Seattle, we heard Marty Weintraub talk about leveraging multiple social media accounts and participating in vanity bait to gain authority in social communities. What do you think: Good approach or not?

Yeah, no. In the purist's spirit of authenticity and brand - I would not favor this fragile stretch to authority. Authority should be based on real roots, history and establishment of true connections. Anything along the lines suggested creates false path and in effect undermines the "social" in social media. It certainly undermines the community flow - one you want to harness, not dupe.

Okay, ultimate death match between your co-panelists Liana Evans and Dave Snyder. Dave has the giant head (he said I can make fun of his head) but Li has the cunning SMO smartz. Who's going to come out on top?

Hmmmmmmm. Unsure the nature of the match. Whoever demonstrates fanatical smarts but the ability to really delve into the questions at hand without too many preconceptions and without getting their head stuck - will win.

Hmm, I think that means Liana, don't you? ;)

A big thanks to Kendall for giving our readers a lot of great nuggets to think about here.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/22/08 at 9:48 AM | Comments (0)

May 2, 2008

Six Questions With Vanessa Fox

It's time for the last speaker interview before I head up to San Francisco to attend eMetrics. This time around, Vanessa Fox graciously agreed to let me put her in the hot seat and grill her on everything from common search engine optimization pitfalls, blogging, to what the heck she actually does these days.

Vanessa needs no introduction but in case you live under a rock, you can find her blogging at VanessaFoxNude.com, she used to work here, and she has now moved to Seattle where she acts as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Ignition Partners. Have no idea what that means? I didn't either. On to the interview!

1. Okay, I've heard you explain what exactly you do as Entrepreneur of Residence at Ignition Partners at least three times but I still have no idea what it means. Can you help break it down for me? Maybe if you type slowly I'll understand this time. (No promises.)

I started working with Ignition Partners because we had a mutual idea that we felt was worth exploring. Business is increasingly moving online. There are lots of things to think about when you're operating online: Who are your customers and what's their behavior on your site? How can you better understand them and connect with them for a strengthened long-term relationship? How should you build your site to get lots of qualified visitors from search? What about advertising and email marketing? I've found that all these things impact the other and they all are really about the customer, but companies look each of them in siloed ways. If you change your page for SEO, for instance, that will impact usability and conversion. If companies can look at these types of things holistically, they can make one set of changes to improve multiple areas at once, rather than make a change for one silo at the expense of another.

In addition, companies have all kinds of data about their customers -- web analytics, keyword research, search volumes, purchase history, email stats... But there's so much of it that it's difficult to know what's important and what's noise. And there's no easy way to tie it all together to get true picture of the customer and make strategic decisions.

Being an Entrepreneur in Residence with Ignition has enabled me to talk to companies, find out what their key needs and issues are, and work towards coming up with solutions. I've been spending lots of time doing that and from that I've started working on a new project, Nine By Blue, that I first mentioned when speaking at Web 2.0 Expo last week. The idea behind the name is that there's all kinds of data out there, but it can be turned into something more.

I'm also working on a somewhat related project called Jane and Robot with Nathan Buggia. We talk to a lot of developers who are building web applications and want to make sure their infrastructure is search-engine friendly. There's lots of SEO advice out there for marketers, but we want to provide a definitive resource for developers on the issues that matter most to them. We gave a talk at Web 2.0 Expo last week (< a href=http://janeandrobot.com/admin/Pages/web20presentations.html>check out the slides!) for developers and unveiled the site then, although look for the "real" launch soon. You're getting a secret sneak peek now! Don't tell anyone!

2. At eMetrics you'll be speaking on the All Your Search Questions Answered panel with two of my favorite industry men - Avinash Kaushik and Mike Grehan. Here's a search question I need answered: What are some common mistakes people make with site architecture and how can they keep from shooting themselves in the foot? Related to that, where do you stand on the whole PR sculpting/no follow internal links debate?
I'm really looking forward to being at eMetrics. I think it'll be a really fun panel.

I see two mistakes fairly commonly:

• Building the site and keeping search engines out: I see sites that do this accidentally all the time. There are fundamental building blocks for sites that also increase accessibility and usability, but if you don't know about them, it's easy to build a site all in Flash, or with huge blocks of images that have not ALT text, or with all the content in AJAX in a way that's not crawlable. I tend to use my mobile phone browser as an easy way to spot this. I have seven pairs of Vans, so clearly I'm a fan, but if I'm out shopping and want to check out their latest shoes online and I go to vans.com, all I get is a blank screen (you can check this out by turning out JavaScript in your browser and loading the page).
• Not understanding the customer: I see lots of sites without a clear call to action or without landing pages for each audience type or product. Related to this are pages that use lots of words that people would never search for. Doing keyword research isn't just about search engine optimization, it's also about understanding the language of your customer. You want the text on the page to resonate with them, let them know that they have reached the right place -- that you understand their needs and can solve their problems. Also, not everyone is sure how to use web analytics data effectively. I was talking to someone yesterday who said their site got 1 million visitors a month. I asked what the bounce rate was, and they had no idea. It's important to know if you're getting qualified visitors, why they're seeking out your site, and if they're returning.

As for PR sculpting/no follow internal links, I think first of all that 99% of sites have lots of other more pressing issues to take care of. It's like painting the molding in your house when your walls have fallen down and you have no windows. Spend your time on the fundamentals for the biggest impact. Spending lots of time on the minutia can provide diminishing returns that may not be worth the investment. I've never been a big fan of PR sculpting or using nofollow for this purpose. I like the use of nofollow to discourage comment spam, particularly now that so many sites allow user submissions. I think opening up your site to user contribution is awesome, but inviting spammers to submit all the links they want makes it a little less awesome. By using nofollow, those sites may at least be less attractive to spamming and might have to spend less time dealing with it.

I much prefer use of robots.txt for internal pages that you don't want the search engine bots to spend time crawling. And as for PR sculpting, quality external links count so much more than internal links for ranking that I don't know that sculpting is going to make that much difference in the scheme of things. It seems like a lot of effort for little pay off.

3. What's the best way to rebrand/move to a new domain without losing your brand? Should we all just create [OurNameNude.com]?

This is definitely a tricky subject and people should not undertake it lightly! I definitely suggest testing it to make sure you're implementing it correctly. For instance, if you move from mysite.com to mynewsite.com, you might first redirect mysite.com/nonimportantfolder to mynewsite.com/nonimportantfolder, wait a few days, and make sure all the old URLs in that folder are being indexed under the new domain. Definitely do a 301 redirect that does one-to-one redirecting. If you're changing your brand name, remember that you probably get a lot of search visitors from people typing in the older name. If the new domain and new brand don't have the old name, then you might lose your ranking for that old name and all those searchers won't be able to find you anymore.

You might include text on the home page "Old name is now new name!" This won't just be useful for search, but it will help your users who might otherwise be confused. I would also recommend not changing your layout and content at the same time. It is tempting to rebrand with a new domain and entirely different site, but if you do start to experience indexing problems, it will be difficult to pinpoint the cause. Is it because you implemented the 301 incorrectly or is it because you changed the text and the search engines no longer think the page is relevant for the terms it used to rank for?

Should everyone create theirnamenude.com? Well, if you're looking to get a lot of porn searchers, then sure. :)

4. Speaking of VanessaFoxNude.com, you've done a great job transitioning from "corporate Google blogger" to "personal blogger", do you have any advice to those of us, I mean those, who may be looking to do the same thing?

I think the biggest thing is deciding why you want to blog. Do you want to write about your life? Your views about current events? Build a community around a topic? Provide information about a particular subject? My blog has been sort of all over the place, so I don't know that I have the best advice (or rather, I'm like a parent: "do as I say! not as I do!"). But now that I've had the blog a while, I'm getting a better sense of how it best fits into my life. As you know, blogging takes a lot of time. You not only need time to write, but time to be thoughtful about what you want to write about.

5. Is it nice being out of the spotlight that comes with being a Googler? While you're still high profile and jet setting to conferences each week, the work you're doing seems somewhat more behind the scenes. Is Vanessa Fox an attention whore* or is the quiet a nice change?

Where's my attention?! Heh. Not really. I really enjoyed being in a position at Google where I could help people as well as get insight into what our users needed most, since that was invaluable in planning what to build and how to evolve the team. The addition of the webmaster trends analyst position, for instance (Jonathan Simon, Susan Moskwa, and John Mueller) came directly from talking to webmasters and understanding that we could best help them by providing not only product features, but also people who were dedicated to assessing issues.

With all the speaking and writing I'm doing, as well as the efforts with Nine By Blue and Jane and Robot, I feel I'm still in a place of being able to help people as well as learn a lot, which is just an ideal place for me to be in.

[*I want to state that this question was posed by Matt McGowan. HE called you an attention whore. Not me. I would never say such things about. Where you would read them Heh.]

6. You're trapped on a plane for six hours with no laptop, TV, iPod or book in hand. Do you make idle conversation with the person next to you, succumb to the shakes and uncontrollable drooling, or cause a large enough scene that the pilot is forced to land the plane and reunite you with your wireless devices? Or rather, how long into the flight do you last before start throwing blunt objects at the flight attendants to get them to land the plane?

The real answer is that I would sleep. I travel so much that I tend to be immune to time zones and just sleep when I can get it. It's gotten to the point that as soon as I sit down I almost instantly fall asleep no matter how hard I try not to. But assuming I stayed awake, I would likely try to track down some old fashioned paper and write. There's not much I like more than writing.

Thanks Lisa for taking the time to ask me these questions and for being so patient with my answers!

Thanks so much for being a good sport, Vanessa, and giving our readers some exceptional answers! I'll see you in San Francisco. ;)

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/ 2/08 at 9:57 AM | Comments (5)

May 1, 2008

Six Questions with John Marshall

Yesterday we posted our interview with Matt Bailey in anticipation for next week's eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit. Today's featured speaker is John Marshall!

John Marshall spent five years as the founder and CEO of ClickTracks before forming MarketMotive in early 2007. He has more than 20 years of experience in the industry and somehow was gracious enough to agree to this interview. Let's jump in.

1. Welcome, John. That's for chatting with us. For those that are unaware, can you speak a little bit about your background, founding ClickTracks and your current work with MarketMotive?

I founded ClickTracks through frustration at using other web analytics tools. They were heavy, cumbersome and the data was hard to interpret. We designed ClickTracks to solve those problems and we focused on easy to interpret data and a very powerful segmentation model. Web analytics relies on the ability to segment different types of users, and compare them. If you've ever stared at web analytics data and thought 'so what' - it's because the data isn't segmented. We learned an important lesson at ClickTracks, however: many people lack the fundamental knowledge of testing, copywriting, SEO etc. They end up unable to use web analytics because, although it tells them to change something, it doesn't tell you what.

Market Motive is an educational resource founded by online market thought leaders - quite simply the best people in the business, and we teach marketers how to improve their online presence, whether that be through interpreting web analytics data, improving PPC effectiveneness, getting better SEO rankings or testing aspects of the site.

2. Great. Tell our readers a little bit about the training and educational opportunities available through MarketMotive. You've done a great job of assembling quite a team over there. What exactly can members expect from the experience should they subscribe?

It's a little like attending a conference, without needing to travel. The sessions are arranged in topic specific tracks, and are prerecorded so you can watch them at any time. Each faculty member is responsible for a topic. Then there's a private forum where you can ask for advice, and because it's not open to the public, you can ask very detailed questions that are specific to your site. The faculty personally answers the questions. Finally there's a monthly conference call for each topic where the faculty member coaches people, audits their sites and gives advice, live.

3. At eMetrics you'll be speaking on the Tracking Widgets and Feeds: Measuring Distributed Content panel. What are the metrics businesses need to be aware of in terms of how blogs and other social media elements are impacting their brands? Is it really possible to measure engagement?

Blogs impact businesses through link strength and direct clicks, plus the readership of the blog itself. Readership is only indirectly measurable because RSS feeds complicate the picture a lot. Direct clicks are the easiest to measure, if you take the trouble to place parameters into the destination URL for tracking purposes.

4. There was a study done recently that tried to prove bloggers didn't have as much influence on consumer behavior as originally thought. Do you think social media analytics will allow sites to measure just what the "influence" of top bloggers and social media sites really is?

I think it's true that the influence of bloggers is overstated, but it remains significant just the same. The best way to measure the influence is to compare the behavior of visitors clicking from a blog to those clicking from PPC, for example. It's not enough to look at the number of clicks - you have to look at the post click activity. Conversion rate could be useful, but I generally find this too crude. I prefer to look at time on site, comparing across blogs, PPC, SEO, email campaigns etc. It generally shows blogs to have low traffic, and very strong interest.

5. When examining their own sites, which metrics do you feel are the most important for site owners to pay attention to in order to effect change and improve their Web sites? Are there any metrics that site owners are obsessing over that they're better off ignoring?

Of course I assume people no longer look at hits or page views. Beyond this I still find too much obsessing over unique visitors, when the simpler visits (or sessions) are probably better. Uniques are only valuable to publisher sites selling ad impressions. Finally, ROI is over used. Avinash and I recently recorded a training session that breaks apart how ROI calculations are made inside web analytics tools, and when you understand this you realise that ROI is actually very imprecise. Because it shows up in reports with dollar signs, people think of it as an absolute truth. It's not that simple. In many case average time on site (ATOS) is a good proxy for ROI and it works better because it has a larger sample size. ROI only measures the few visitors that convert, whereas ATOS measures all visitors and is better at predicting the likelihood that a campaign will be effective, even before the first sale completes.

6. What are the sessions you're most looking forward to during eMetrics? Any speakers you're really looking forward to hearing?

Avinash is definitely a favourite. Great content, funny and irreverent.

Thanks again to John for taking the time to speak with me. Next up in our series of eMetrics interviews: Vanessa Fox. Tune in tomorrow. :)

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/ 1/08 at 9:29 AM | Comments (1)

April 30, 2008

Six Questions with Matt Bailey

As I get ready to head up to San Francisco for the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, I thought it may be fun to chat with some of the speakers beforehand and see what they're most looking forward to.

Up first is Matt Bailey. Though he needs no introduction, Matt is the President and Founder of SiteLogic, has over a decade worth of experience in this industry and is one of my favorite faces in search. Onto the questions!

1. One of the things I've always admired about you is your ability to break down complicated theories into simple ideas. What advice do you have for inhouse SEOs stuck explaining the importance of Web analytics to the tight-budgeted executives? How do they get them to understand?

The best way is to tell a story or to find an analogy that will help explain the purpose of need without using "geeky" terms. I find that the primary obstacle is the terminology that marketers or analysts use - it just flies over the head of those who don't speak our language. Finding common ground and training yourself to speak on their terms helps to create understanding, which opens up budgets. Going head-to-head in an ego battle doesn't help anyone, especially you and your career. Work to be understood.

Also, Forrester research showed that companies that brought in a full-time analyst had an ROI of 900-1200 percent. That's pretty impressive, and we've experienced that same level with our consulting. The important item to note is that it focuses on an "analyst" and not a software tool. The person is the most important part of that equation, and you can't dismiss the numbers, those are powerful.

2. Okay, say you're a newbie search marketers just now playing in the field of Web analytics and you suddenly find yourself drowning in all this data - how do you turn it around and make the data actionable? How do you make the transition from reporting towards real analysis?

Ask questions. The fundamental human ability. Asking questions about who comes to the site, what they expected to see, and what they did as a result are all beginning points to understanding actions that need to be taken. Too many people open the dashboard and expect some mystical force to tell them how to improve their website. Action only comes from asking the right questions, and real analysis only happens when you are working to answer those questions.

3. How do things like trending and segmentation come into play when looking at Web analytics? How can search marketers use them to better understand what's happening on a Web site?

Ahhh, segmentation! You really know how to ask the right questions, Lisa! I think that segmentation is the single most important thing you can do in analyzing your information. It provides context, understanding and helps you to find the mind of the searcher. For example, if I find a large group of visitors coming from a specific website and converting at a significant rate, then it makes sense to segment that group of visitors and see where they entered, what content they saw and what they converted on. Even more important (and often overlooked) is to go to the website they came from and find the links and the content surrounding it - there is your context! This is a third-party endorsement of your website - true word-of-mouth! Only by observing segments can you find these nuggets of informational gold and learn more about your visitor behavior.

John Marshall made a statement that people are not cattle - we aren't herds that graze from point A to point B - we do odd things: Usability specialists classify user behavior with terms like pogo-sticking, berry-picking, and foraging. These hardly sound like organized and sequential actions, yet we think our analytics will provide organized and sequential information as if visitors were "herds".

4. Wow, great stuff! What questions/metrics should site owners keep in mind when deciding on what kind of analytics program they need? Does the program really matter?

• Segmentation
• Easy segmentation
• Fast segmentations (so you can segment as soon as you find a new group and not have to wait to see the information)
• Tying actions to conversions - tying actions to the bottom line value. When you associate actions with money - people listen.

The program matters, but the person matters even more. The primary value is in the person; Avinash Kaushik wrote an awesome article about analytics being 90 percent the person and 10 percent the tool. Your investment should be in the analyst, as they can get data out of any tool or program. However, some tools provide information easier, faster, and better segmented than others.

5. Come eMetrics you'll be speaking on the Actionable Organic Search Analytics panel. What can conference goers expect from that session? Be honest, will there be another intro on how to save the red jackets (which was AMAZING, by the way)? :)

Thank you, Lisa - and flattery works wonders, which makes you one of my favorite interviewers and bloggers. Yes, I'll bring up the Analytics According to Captain Kirk - that analogy always seems to help people understand and remember how data is transformed by segmentation - and its fun. I'm targeting people who are befuddled by an analytics dashboard and can't understand why they don't understand analytics. My part of the talk will be more about your mentality as an analyst, and the tools you need to ask questions and get the answers to those questions.

My main goal is to liberate those whose primary analytics responsibility is to report the number of visitors and then justify why the number is higher or lower than the previous month. That is a sad existence, when 'real' analytics bring so much more excitement to your life!

6. You know you've always been one of my favorite speakers, who are you most looking forward to seeing at eMetrics? What sessions will Matt Bailey be sneaking in on?

Aww, Lisa, you are too much! You know I love the line-up at this conference - there are a ton of session that look fantastic. I am looking forward to some of the case studies and new technology.

The session "Fuzzy Science and Hard Numbers: Market research for Web Analysts and Higher Mathematics for English Majors" is right in line with my interests and I like how they have positioned it. It's all about understanding how all elements come into play when marketing a website, so I'll be there for that session for sure. Also, any session with Joseph Carrabis is top on my list. One of my analysts attended eMetrics in Toronto and couldn't say enough great things about Joe. I like Joe's writings, so I want to hear him live.

I also plan to attend Avinash Kaushik and John Marshall's presentations. I'm technically on their payroll, so I feel obligated to fill a seat in their sessions ;) Seriously - listening to those two talk is always a learning experience and shouldn't be missed.

Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me, Matt. I look forward to stalking meeting up with you in San Francisco!

Tomorrow we'll be posting our interview with John Marshall from Market Motive where we'll dish about whether the influence of bloggers is overrated, his upcoming eMetrics Tracking Widgets and Feeds: Measuring Distributed Content panel, and what sessions he's most looking forward to during next week's show!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 04/30/08 at 3:31 PM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2008

6 Questions With Analytics Guru Avinash Kaushik

If you tuned in yesterday, you saw our interview with The Kelsey Group's Michael Boland where we dished about local search and the many panels TKG will be running during next week's Search Engine Strategies NY. As part our continued blogger outreach (read: I get to stalk and annoy famous people), today's interview features the always awesome, and always engaging, Avinash Kaushik.

Here's my interview with Avinash (with thanks to Eric Lander). Enjoy.

1. You're perhaps most well known for your role as Google's Analytics Evangelist. Can you provide our readers with an overview of what that role entails? What attracted you to that position?

I am a consultant for Google and, like many others, the attraction of Google for me was a mix of: the ability to (yes this is cheesy), change the world in a small way, to add value to some really cool products, the opportunity to work with some amazing people, and yes, the great food! If you want to do something amazing, Google makes it easy for you to do it. Can't beat that. [Aw - Lisa!]

Much of my time at Google is spent working with the various analytics teams to help make them better. There are at least seven customer-facing analytics products at Google (I think). My background is that of a Practitioner, and in as much I help influence product strategy and road map, customer centric innovation and making complex data easy to understand.

2.) Most identify you as the brain powering improvements made to the Google Analytics toolset. Another less public role of yours is the integration of GA with other Google products. Are you satisfied with where GA stands, or are you anxious to assist with stronger integration? If so, what tools can you see integrating with GA next?

That first part is not true, Lisa. I am lucky to be a small part of an incredibly talented team of people who together are passionate about trying to improve our little analytics space.

I do care very much about integrations and extensions with Google Analytics and beyond. It is part of the Web Analytics 2.0 mindset; clickstream data is great but the radical evolution of the Web mandates tapping into different datasets.

Google Analytics has done some great integrations (integration with Audio / Radio Ads was just announced last week!). But there is a lot more opportunity out there.

In terms of what's next, you'll understand that I can't be specific, not after taking my Boy Scout oath! I feel opportunities exist with Web 2.0 technologies and data, with offline data, other islands of data like RSS or SEO, CRM systems that are inhouse or asp based...so much opportunity, so little time!!

3.) Google Analytics has always been a free resource -- and you have publicly been thankful for having other, paid tools available. Are there plans to offer a premium GA product in the future? If so, what features should users expect?

Google Analytics is and will continue to be free. There are no plans that I am aware of to offer a paid version.

If the number of features released since May 2007 (launch of Google Analytics version 2) is any indicator, then the users should rest assured that Google Analytics will continue to become more of a "premium product", but will be offered at no cost.

Bonus reading material for your readers: Chris Anderson: Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business. I am a believer in this mindset, personally.

4.) Based on recent advancements (audio, industry benchmarks, etc.), it's clear that Google is committed to improving the GA platform beyond a simple tracking tool. What new features can GA's users expect in the future?

I have to take the fifth on the specific features Lisa, so sorry. [Drat! But I had to ask - Lisa]

Speaking a bit generally, I think you will continue to see the core platform get better with more data available more easily and presented in ways that make it easy for a Novice or an Expert to find actionable insights. There is a lot of interest in extending the platform. I also see this as a distinct possibility.

5.) What has motivated Google to share industry benchmarks to users? Over time, can the information acquired in these benchmark reports rival services provided by Compete or HitWise?

The biggest barrier to making decisions from your clickstream data is one simple thing: Context.

How do you know if the trend or a metric you are looking at is great or sucky? How do you know when to ask for a bonus or when to quit your job? Context is king. [No, Avinash, Content is king. (rimshot) Sorry. - Lisa]

Google Analytics has always been great at providing context. Almost everywhere in the tool you'll natively see the metric you were looking for, but also a comparison to site average. So for example, you'll know that keyword "lisa barone rocks" has a bounce rate 25% lower than the site average (prompting you to feel great instantly, and perhaps start a new PPC/banner/affiliate campaign).

The second thing you can also do instantly is compare data to different time periods. How does conversion rate look this year vs same month last year, or trends in visits, time on site, recency vs. frequency.

Both of these give you a inward look. But users have been asking for quite some time for an external view. "How am I performing compared to my competitors?" It has been perhaps the most consistent request over the last year or so. It was released recently to meet that demand.

Now you can see that your time on site has improved from three minutes to five (great news, by the way!), but the average for your industry is 19 minutes (work harder!). One more key piece of context to help you find actionable insights.

Compete and HitWise (both services that I am rather fond of, by the way) are solving for something different than providing straight benchmarks, and in as much I see them as complementary services.

6.) Lastly, I know you'll be speaking on the Web Analytics: Measuring Success panel on Day 1 at SES NY. Can you give readers a taste of what they can expect during the session?

I get ten minutes. : ) My hope is to share three tips that practitioners will be able to action as soon as they can find a Web analytics tool. I am going to focus on PPC/Search Engine Marketing analysis (seems like the thing to do at SES!).

I also got some great tips on presenting that I am hoping to try out: 9 Ways To Bore The Audience at SES New York! : ) [Aw, that Avinash sure knows how to woo a girl.]

Thanks so much for the opportunity to do this interview Lisa. I love your writing, keep it up!

No, thank you, Avinash. You've always been one of my most favorite speakers and it was great getting to chat with you a bit.

That wraps up our pre-SES NY blogger interviews. We hope we'll see you at the show next week, and if not, be sure to check the Bruce Clay, Inc. blog for tons of liveblogging fun!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 03/14/08 at 1:18 PM | Comments (0)

March 13, 2008

6 Questions with The Kelsey Group's Michael Boland

Search Engine Strategies New York hits next week and I was lucky enough to be tasked with the "responsibility" (read: really cool opportunity) to chat with some of the new and old faces we'll see speaking and hanging around the convention center next week. Fun, right?

Totally! And as a result, both today and tomorrow we'll be able to give you a sneak peak at some of the knowledge transfer that will be taking place all next week during SES NY.

First up is our interview with Mike Boland. Mike acts as Senior Analyst in the Interactive Local Media Program at The Kelsey Group and was kind enough to answer a few questions I had regarding the new opportunities presented by local search.

1. Greetings, Mike. Can you speak a little bit about The Kelsey Group's upcoming Local Search Track that will be taking place in New York? What can conference goers expect?

SES has invited us to its past few conferences to run a track on issues pertinent to local search. In New York, this will consist of three sessions on Day One, when they've decided to put a lot of general tracks that kick the conference off with a broader view of industry issues. This is fitting to TKG because our conferences and written materials generally take a 40,000 foot view of the trends facing online local media. In other words, we usually address industry players rather than advertisers. SES, by comparison, usually has more of a tactical level approach, geared towards search marketers. So we're hoping we can augment that with the "executive level" view; and with both, SES gains broader appeal to audiences with different focal points.

Specifically, TKG sessions will explore key issues in local search advertising, such as gaining channel partners to reach the fragmented universe of SMBs and local advertisers. Other emerging trends will be looked at, such as the development of mobile local search products and online video advertising at the local level. These are local offshoots of broader online and mobile trends but we are at inflection points in each of them that hold a great deal of opportunity (as well as confusion) for advertisers, as well as companies in the local search space.

2. Tell us a bit about how you've seen the local search space change over the past few years and what new trends you're excited about.

We're seeing general online trends such as social media and video manifest in unique ways in local. Mobile search is also exploding as hardware and software standards are improving through the iPhone, as well as Apple and Google's open source developer platforms. Through these, we'll begin to see an explosion in mobile search products that will finally move the medium beyond the early adoption stage where it has teetered for years due to unappealing products. Mainstream adoption will then lead to more advertiser interest and more ad products and networks that will allow businesses of all sizes to place ads in front of mobile users in targeted or contextually relevant ways. As mobile and local are inherently related, local will see a great deal of the benefit from all of these developments.

3. It's all kind of exciting, isn't it? What's the most important thing small business owners should be doing to take advantage of the opportunities presented by local search?

The majority of SMBs are too busy being doctors, plumbers, restaurateurs and dog washers to also take on the role of search marketer. This has gotten more challenging over time as a dizzying array of local search options now face SMBs. This confusion and the "paradox of choice" drives many SMBs towards sub-optimal local advertising or no advertising at all. This is why the yellow pages industry has traditionally had so much success; its local sales reps knock on every door in town and put easy-to-understand advertising in the laps of SMBs.

But as print revenues and readership are declining, yellow pages publishers are realizing that they need to utilize this unique sales channel to take on more of an agency role to the SMB and be a reseller of a cross platform package of local advertising (print, display, search, video and someday soon, mobile). A small percentage of savvy SMBs will be on top of their SEO and SEM game. But for the majority of SMBs, search marketing will come to them through the trusty yellow pages sales rep that sells them click packages and then hands them off to a third-party SEM affiliate to fulfill the campaign. There will be a learning curve for sales reps though.

4. We hear a lot about how the search engines are handling local search. What local resources are out there that small businesses may not be aware of?

Google's increasing favorability of local listings in blended search results (the local "10 pack"), puts more opportunity for small businesses and local advertisers to get found in Google local searches. These local-heavy blended results essentially create a larger front door for Google Maps (local traffic - otherwise dependent on direct navigation traffic). So for SMBs, the ball is in their court to provide Google as much information about themselves and SEO-goodness to take advantage of this trend. Many businesses don't know about Google's Local Business Center but some do. All SMBs should take the time to claim their Google Maps profile and provide as much information as possible about their businesses. This especially includes the many businesses that don't even have a Web site, as this offers them a free landing page that has a growing chance of being picked up in Google SERPS when local searches are done. This is also a viable option that is user friendly to the typical tech-illiterate and time-constrained SMB referenced above.

5. How does local tie in with the rest of the expanding verticals and social media?

We're seeing a lot of verticalization online. Content and ad relevance, audience aggregation, click-through rates, and traffic can all be improved by vertical segmentation. This is especially happening in local where many of the online vertical categories, such as autos, real estate, and shopping, are inherently local. Sites such as Zillow and AutoTrader are having a lot of success in aggregating content, advertising and traffic.

In terms of shopping, 90+ percent of U.S. retail activity happens offline, but a growing amount ($470 million in purchases in 2007) is influenced by online search. Many product models are being developed to take this reality to heart. This includes pulling in retail product feeds to tell users where they can buy a specific model product locally and how many are on the shelf. This is especially valuable in expensive or bulky items that buyers want to see before purchasing, such as flat screen televisions or appliances. These are also highly targeted and qualified leads for advertisers, given that if a user has taken the time to enter in a specific product name and zip code into their search box, they're typically at the end of the purchase funnel and ready to buy locally. So the key for some of these emerging offline shopping destinations is to develop SEO strategies that catch this upstream traffic from the likes of Google, so that they can effectively drive foot traffic towards their local advertisers.

6. We'll take the pressure off you for a moment. Any panels or speakers you're looking forward to during SES NY? What has your eye?

As mentioned above, TKG is generally focused on the executive level view and our audience generally consists of industry players and media companies rather than search marketers themselves. But my knowledge of these larger trends and my ability to communicate directional opportunities to online media companies can be improved with a sharper nuts and bolts-level intimacy with SEM/SEO. Though this isn't what I "teach", this knowledge can add perspective and give me a more holistic view of how the local search world spins. So I treat every SES show I go to as a classroom for tactical level search marketing. So you'll see me in some of the fundamentals sessions as well as some of the more advanced or intermediate tactical sessions. Social media optimization is also a big interest of mine so that track is also circled on my agenda.

Thanks a lot, Mike! You've given us a lot of great information here.

[Tomorrow we'll be posting our interview with Analytics lord Avinash Kaushik. You won't want to miss it!]

Posted by Lisa Barone on 03/13/08 at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)