October 2008 Archives

For people outside the search engine marketing industry, the field can be rather baffling. The reasons for this include -

• Overuse of acronyms
• People's inherent fear of computers and technology
• A lack of industry standards and no universally accepted definitions of terms
• Continual and rapid evolution of services and technologies

SEM (search engine marketing) and SEO (search engine optimization) are terms folks get confused about all the time. These terms can be defined any number of ways, but here's how I like to think of it.

SEM and SEO are both practices employed to increase a company's visiblity on the Web. Both use a variety of techniques to steer internet users toward particular Web pages.

SEM is geared toward human readers. SEO is geared toward search engine "readers".

When a human reader looks at a Web page, he will be influenced to act based on the design and content of a particular message. For SEM practitioners, the goal is to create the most persuasive design and content and then place it on a Web page where it will attract the most potential qualified readers. A well written, well designed pay per click ad, well positioned on the right Web page, leads to the greatest number of conversions.

SEO is concerned with how the search engine spiders are reading a Web page. A spider sees value in things such as internal links, inbound links from highly ranked Web pages, and keywords used in titles, subtitles, and anchor text. Various programming techniques can make a page difficult or easy for a spider to read. For SEO practitioners, the goal is to create Web pages that are optimally readable for specific keyword phrases by Google and other engines.

These definitions are overly broad and incomplete, but I think helpful nonetheless. Obviously SEM and SEO go hand in hand. Without having a keyword strategy, it's pretty hard to conduct effective SEM.  SEO takes time to produce results, whereas many SEM activities, such as affiliate advertising, can produce immediate results. A good a markerting program needs both - short term and long term programs to build a strong Web profile.

In early September Google released Google Chrome, its first Web browser. After a lot of initial buzz, its popularity has been underwhelming. A 1.5% market share would make a lot of people ecstatic, but it doesn't make much of a dent in Microsoft Explorer, which still rules the market share roost.

Chrome has a few handy attributes, including speed, access keys, and streamlined search. Not bad, but nowhere near compelling enough to start a stampede away from Explorer or FireFox.

Still, it's way too early to count out Chrome. It'll be interesting to see how Google integrates their browser with apps like Google Docs, Reader, and Gmail. If Google can bundle all these tools together in a way that makes life easy and complete, Chrome might become quite popular as an add-on or even an afterthought.

Google is making a lot of progress in developing a full set of business support tools. In this area, Microsoft is still the Cadillac, in every sense of the word - sophisticated, high quality, expensive, and past its prime. If Google is the Toyota Scion (or whatever up and coming car), they should position Chrome as the floor mats. 

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Search Is Changing, Are You? It's a good question, and this post from Dr. Peter J. Meyers summarizes what all these changes are, and when a business should adapt. The answer isn't the same for all firms, and as with anything, there tradeoffs. There's a risk in waiting, and there's a risk in jumping in to new search engine marketing strategies too early.

A solid, pithy tip from George Ajazi on PageRank sculpting. Links within yourself can have a great deal of impact on Google PageRank, but how many firms have an internal link strategy? Here's a way you can get an edge on the competition.

Ann Smarty details 16 Examples of Huge Brands Using Twitter for Business. For those who view Twitter as a cross between alchemy and voodoo, this post will be illuminating. The fact is, Twitter has huge potential as a way for large and.or highly niched firms to enhance customer service and sales.

 

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B2B services marketers surveyed said they would bump up their Internet marketing spending by nearly 18%, compared with less than 6% for traditional marketing. B2B product marketers planned to be even more conservative, increasing Internet marketing by less than 13% and traditional marketing by less than 2%.

"B2B marketers are increasing their online spending, particularly for customer acquisition, because they can measure it and determine quickly whether it is working," said Carol Krol, senior analyst at eMarketer. "In an age of heightened accountability, the ability to measure is critical. "They are also simply following customers," Ms. Krol said. "Their customers are researching and evaluating products and services online, particularly in the early phases of the purchasing cycle, so it makes sense to be where they are congregating." 

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The economy is sinking like a rock. However, I'm always looking for a silver lining and this is it - tough business conditions will lead slow adapters to embrace search engine marketing.

The risk-reward dynamics of online marketing are simply too compelling to ignore when every penny counts. Who wants to drop $10,000, $20,000 or $50,000 on a series of print ads when, for a fraction of that cost, a company can reach just as many or more qualified prospects with a well planned SEM campaign?

The beauty of paid search is timing. When a prospect is doing a Google search, s/he is interested in doing something - gathering information, checking credentials, or buying. When a person sees your ad in a trade journal or magazine, what are they doing? Eating a sandwich? Killing time before a meeting? Who knows ... and that's exactly the point. Print media is inefficient, and inefficiency is punishable by death in a recession.

Upheavals change fundamentals. Our banking system will never be the same. Home mortgage loans will never be the same. I'm betting search engine marketing will never be the same, either.

Hard to believe that Google just celebrated their 10th year on September 27th.  I guess in my mind 10th Anniversaries are reserved for old-school businesses that start placing qualifiers under their brand name like a highly curlicued - "Established 1899."  Google has aged well - considering a business that is ruled by twenty-somethings and count millions upon millions of people as daily users - 10 is the new 100 - at least in the internet world. 

I figure this is a good a time as any to take a step back and take a little refresher on the basics of Google. 

How do people use Google? 

Beyond the obvious, Google compiled both video and written stories in commemoration of their 10th Anniversary -- reading through the comments you do get a feel for how integrated Google and "googling" has become in people's lives.   A business utilizing google for advertising would do well to read through some of the first hand accounts to gather insights on their potential market/s and how they use Google in their daily lives. 

Did you know?

Users can restrict their searches for content in 35 non-English languages, including Chinese, Greek, Icelandic, Hebrew, Hungarian and Estonian. To date, no requests have been received from beyond the earth's orbit, but Google has a Klingon interface just in case. Google has more interesting factoids in their page called fun facts. 

How does it work?

Here it is according to google:

The software behind our search technology conducts a series of simultaneous calculations requiring only a fraction of a second. Traditional search engines rely heavily on how often a word appears on a web page. We use more than 200 signals, including our patented PageRank™ algorithm, to examine the entire link structure of the web and determine which pages are most important. We then conduct hypertext-matching analysis to determine which pages are relevant to the specific search being conducted. By combining overall importance and query-specific relevance, we're able to put the most relevant and reliable results first.

Google's Next Steps

Not to bore you with too many details-- BBC can do it for me with their pretty in-depth analysis of "Google at 10"  Tim Weber talks about Google's expansion as well as future plans that are in the works--

The company's next steps are already mapped. This week it launched its very own internet browser, called Chrome. Today's browsers were built to show web pages, says Google, not to be platforms for complex applications. Chrome promises to bring stability to our online experience - and the more computing happens on the internet, the more information Google can gather.

Coming shortly is an even more important piece of software called Android, Google's (Linux-based) operating system for internet-enabled telephones.

Google makes the same business case as for Chrome: today's smart phones were not designed for the mobile internet, so Google steps into the breach.

One thing is certain, Google after 10 years is now indelibly a part of our internet economic and social landscape - but time will tell, given the turbulence and unpredictability of the web-world, if they will be able to continue their evolution as they balance corporate growth and technological relevance.