If you've been in the search engine optimization business for any length of time you've heard the saying that, "search engines are blind, deaf and dumb," meaning that your web site should be designed so that the spiders can easily crawl through the site's pages and determine what the site is about. In other words, in order to be highly ranked organically, a web site needs to be crawlable and have excellent content; it does not need to look pretty.
There's no getting around it. Keyword research is a vitally important aspect of your search engine optimization campaign. If your site is targeting the wrong keywords, the search engines and your customers may never find you, resulting in lost dollars and meaningless rankings. By targeting the wrong keywords, you not only put valuable advertising dollars at risk, you are also throwing away all the time and energy you put into getting your site to rank for those terms to begin with. If you want to stay competitive, you can't afford to do that.
October confirmed that the mobile web is a force that cannot be ignored. Piggybacking off the rise of broadband both internationally and in the States, users are becoming increasingly comfortable logging onto the Web via their favorite mobile devices. In suit, the search engines have launched better mobile search engines and have begun fitting their PPC programs for the smaller screens to meet consumer demand. Sites that don't comply will be left behind.
Here's what we saw this month:
Google released a significantly enhanced version of its Mobile search, even giving users the option to search for sites specifically designed for mobile phones. The new edition includes tutorials and mobile versions of popular apps like Google Maps, Google Image Search, Google News, your personalized homepage and more.
Yahoo! announced they were expanding their trial mobile PPC program into a full-scale beta launch, putting sponsored search results on mobile phones in the United States and the United Kingdom. The launch gives Yahoo! a chance to reclaim some of its lost PPC prominence, and was a huge boost to local search.
A week later, Microsoft announced that they would start offering pay per call services through a new partnership with Ingenio. Under the deal, Microsoft will only show Ingenio's advertisers for geo-targeted searches (one per search) conducted on Windows Live for mobile. When there are no relevant Ingenio advertisers, no ad will be shown.
Ask Mobile got a facelift as some of Ask's best features were reformatted for the smaller screen. Users can now access mobile-optimized Smart Answers, Zoom Related Searches and other unique Ask features. Ask's walking directions have never been more useful.
Though still reportedly in beta, Google PPC ads were spotted by several mobile phone users.
With the engines readying themselves for a coming mobile Web explosion, Bruce Clay, Inc. asked, is your site prepared? If you haven't yet formatted your sites for the mobile web, now is the time. Let the W3C's Mobile Web Initiative help.
Yahoo! Releases Panama Upgrade
Shortly after announcing disappointing third quarter results to investors, Yahoo! announced the early release of Panama - its much-hyped infrastructure upgrade to Y!SM. The new platform received a warm welcome from those invited to attend Yahoo!'s Influencer Event that took place that same week and earned a promising review from our PPC expert, Nick Guastella.
Panama includes significant improvements to the ad approval process, geo-targeting and its quality index, but lacks important features like day parting and decreases bid transparency. Yahoo! started migrating selected accounts over to the new system last week. They hope to have everyone migrated over by the beginning of next year.
M.J. Pizzella was hired to become Google's new senior business development manager at Google Enterprise, Google stole Yahoo India's CTO to lead their Bangalore research and development office.
UK radio exec Shaun Gregory joined The Telegraph as its new development director, Mark Chapman was made head of UK & Ireland sales for social site Bebo,
In merger and acquisition news:
Carphone Warehouse bought AOL UK for around $687 million
UK newspaper The Sun launched the MySun community site, where uses can interact with popular sections of The Sun's website.
On the very last day of the month, JotSpot cofounder Joe Krause gleefully announced on Google's official blog that his company had been the most recent acquisition by the search engine.
eComXpo hit this month and proved it was still the best conference that you don't have to get dressed for. With more than 7,000 attendees, 450 exhibitors and more than 30 presentations, the virtual event was a major success.
Get ready for a series of expert conferences this month. Ad:Tech will start things off on Nov 6th. Bruce will be speaking at the Organic SEO - Fireside Chat with the Experts with Dana Todd, so be sure to catch that one if you're in town. Of course other Bruce Clay staff will be on hand to answer your questions at the booth and we'll once again throw Lisa to the wolves as she acts as your roving reporter. Make sure to say hi.
Something to keep in mind over the next few months: Jason Calacanis will be delivering the keynote during SES Chicago on December 5th, so make sure you hit that while you're enjoying your deep dish.
Our international readers will want to mark their calendars for the first-ever Bruce Clay Inc. Australia training class that will take place in Sydney from 12 February to 14 February. It's SEO down under. We'll also be at ad:Tech Sydney, taking place 7-8 February. Make time for both!
A bit of internal congratulations: Our Sydney office opened for business this month, joining the Bruce Clay, Inc. International family. If you'd like to drop by and see how we do things Down Under, our office is based in the Sydney CBD. You can find directions on our Australia site. The Bruce Clay family now stretches from the US to South Africa to England and now to Australia. Where to next?
TechCrunch, the site first to break truthful rumors as of late, reported that Digg was in talks with various companies, including News Corp. in hopes of being bought. The asking price? Reportedly, $150 million dollars.
FORTUNE started rumors late in the month that Yahoo! was in the hunt to purchase Time Warner's AOL. Time Warner shot down the rumor saying "there are no active conversations between the two companies".
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