 Google Insights For Search
Search Engine Land
Google continues to create new tools that allow marketers to tap into the wealth of data that arises from the billions of searches users conduct each month. This time it's Insights for Search, a tool that compares search trends across categories, time frames and geographies, allowing for a more comprehensive view of searcher behavior.
Insights for Search users can drill down to examine searches on a city level, refine data based on particular verticals (i.e. food and drink for the term "apple," as opposed to technology), as well as see news items that are relevant to spikes in search volume. Barry Schwartz describes the tool as a definite boon to search marketers, and serves up examples of how to put the data to use. - Read the whole story... Do Keyword Variations Deserve Their Own Unique Content?
SEOmoz
If a client is shilling electric scooters, does it make sense to develop multiple content pages devoted to variations on the term "electric scooters"? Rand Fishkin says most likely not, but it's a dilemma that many newcomers to SEO struggle with. So he suggests asking a few questions to help decide whether to use one page to target a specific keyword (and its variants), or to split those variants up onto other pages.
First, can the variants be logically targeted on the same page, or are they unique enough to warrant substantially different content? Would you send PPC traffic for the variants to a separate landing page? Answering said questions can provide a quick read on whether building out content for specific keyword variations would lead to useful, high-quality content, or unnecessary spammy pages.
"A single page with a concentrated keyword phrase and several variations is likely to perform better in the engines that multiple offshoot pages targeting very similar phrase variants," Fishkin says. - Read the whole story... Steer Clear Of These Blunders While Blogging
Search Engine People
For businesses that use their blog primarily as a sales tool, a lack of traffic (and conversions) can be discouraging--particularly if the Webmaster has been blogging consistently. But before writing the effort off as a failure, bloggers should check to make sure that they're not committing one of a dozen conversion-averse blunders.
For example, using extremely technical or "academic" language may alienate potential readers--even if the blog is in a niche vertical. "All too often bloggers try to impress others with their vocabulary, and lose their readers as a result," says Jeff Quipp. "It's also common to see writers using industry lingo and acronyms (which isn't a bad thing necessarily) if they're accompanied by descriptions."
Bloggers should also remember to keep the content scannable, avoiding large chunks of text and long paragraphs. Quipp sites data from Jakob Nielsen that found that only 16% of people will read every word of a blog post. So writing for the majority of potential readers means using bulleted lists, headings and subheadings, as well as italics and bold fonts for key snippets of info. Quipp also notes that many bloggers fail to add supporting images to their posts. - Read the whole story... Talking Shop With Microsoft Search Guru Brad Goldberg
Stone Temple Consulting
Brad Goldberg is general manager of the Search Business Group at Microsoft, where he oversees product management, planning and marketing for Live Search. Eric Enge picks Goldberg's brain in this interview, asking questions about Microsoft's game plan for gaining search market share and the cashback program, among other things.
With regards to market share, Goldberg acknowledges that Live Search had made modest gains according to the latest comScore report--but notes that paying too much attention to monthly fluctuations wasn't part of Microsoft's long term strategy. That strategy focuses on increasing the relevancy of results, simplifying the search process (so that people can accomplish their tasks easier) and turning the entire search model (for users and advertisers) on its head.
Goldberg elaborates on why the final prong of the strategy is most important, and how Microsoft intends to do it by focusing on reshaping four key verticals--local and maps, entertainment, health, and commerce--and how Cashback is working in the commerce sector. - Read the whole story... Tips For Boosting Landing Page Relevance
adCenter Community
Hana Odrusek offers tips for ensuring that your landing pages are as relevant as possible. "When there's a clear connection between the information contained in your ads and keywords and the information found on your landing page, your campaigns are more likely to pass through editorial with a clean bill of health and increase conversions," Odrusek says.
For example, you'll need to make sure that the keywords referenced in the ad actually appear on the landing page. "If you effectively include your keywords on your landing page, it helps to guide your visitors and makes them feel that they are in the right place," Odrusek says. "In addition, you'll improve the relevance of your landing page for those keywords, which will help make editorial review a breeze."
Meanwhile, ensure that your landing page is not so bloated that it takes too long to load. "Include smaller images, use fewer graphics, reuse the same images which utilize your visitor's browser cache to load pages quickly, limit or avoid animated graphics, use GIF files rather than JPG files and avoid unnecessary code," Odrusek says. - Read the whole story... SearchCamp Marketing Conference To Go Live In Philly
Search Marketing Gurus Search Twitter With Monitter
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