 SEO Certainly Isn't A Quick Fix
High Rankings Advisor
While business owners may think that search will be a "quick fix" for reaching their target while they cut back on other types of ad spending, Jill Whalen cautions that SEO, in particular, is much more of a long term play. "While SEO is almost always a good idea, if you're counting on it to save a failing business, you may want to rethink things," she says. "The customers you receive from search engines should not be what your entire marketing plan consists of."
Getting good results with SEO is not fast or easy, especially if a Web site wasn't designed with organic search in mind from the onset. "It will take weeks to do the initial research required to even know where to begin," Whalen says. Meanwhile, there's no on/off switch, as site owners need to continuously update meta tags, craft keyword-rich content, collect inbound links and even select coordinating paid search ads.
SEO also needs time to age. "After your website has been put into perfect SEO shape (after many months of hard work), it will start to receive more targeted search engine traffic," Whalen says. "But even that is a slow process." Lastly, SEO works best in conjunction with other marketing efforts, whether it's email, radio spots, events or even community outreach -- as they're all sources that can drive more traffic to a URL. - Read the whole story... 'See' Your Search History With These Firefox Plug-ins
Search Engine Guide
Ann Smarty reviews a trio of Firefox apps that allow you to visualize your search history, making it easier to go back to interesting sites you've perused during your day -- even if you can't remember the name or URL.
WebMynd, for example, gives you thumbnails of the pages you've visited in either grid or reel format. You can turn the tracking off and on at will. ThumbStrips goes one better, letting you see and search through your thumbnails, as well as insert comments about various pages for later reference.
sLast up is Timelope. The new tool is the only one that requires registration, but it also lets you store or publish your browsing history, tag sites for search (and comments), and even offers stats like how long you visited each site. The Firefox plug-ins all have varying levels of privacy, and Smarty posts snippets of each one's user agreement to give you an idea of the pros and cons. - Read the whole story... Exalead Upgrades Image Search Features
Pandia
"If it hadn't been for the fact that Google, Yahoo and Live Search return far more image hits, I would say that Exalead has the best image search engine around right now." So says that Pandia Search News team. That's a big claim, but they back it up by detailing the engine's recently upgraded image search capabilities.
Image results are presented as thumbnails, with all relevant info (resolution, source, etc.) displayed beneath. "If you let your cursor hover above the images, Exalead will show some very relevant links," the team says. You can also save images with one click, and even filter results with parameters like size, color vs. black and white, as well as search for "faces only." - Read the whole story... Avoiding (And Recovering From) An AdWords Smackdown
MindValley Labs
What's an AdWords smackdown, otherwise known as the "Google Slap"? It's when the minimum bids for various keywords in your account increase dramatically, often as a result of landing page or ad copy changes. Mike Reining outlines some of the most common offenses that can incite a Google Slap, as well as some solutions for recovering from one.
The top reason for incurring a penalty is that the content of the landing page isn't relevant to the keyword you're bidding on. "This is a huge no-no which will hurt your Quality Score and you will most likely get slapped by Google," Reining says. A landing page full of graphics but lacking in text will also negatively impact your Quality Score (and minimum bid), as will poorly targeted Ad Groups.
If your account has already been slapped, Reiner suggests fixing the above errors first. Then, try deleting the whole campaign; and copying and pasting its old Ad Groups into a new one. "It is much easier to start over than to revive a campaign that got slapped," he says. Make sure you weed out all of the problem keywords in particular. Lastly, if you've been slapped too many times, try starting a whole new AdWords account. - Read the whole story... Emerging Searcher Trends
BtoB
Christopher Hosford talks about connecting search trends and user behaviors with Chitika's Tess Rudd.
"One of the most cutting-edge methods is targeting people based not only on keywords but also the content sites they visit, and placing ads right there," Rudd says.
When asked about the value of such targeting, Rudd says that advertisers can use it to extend the effectiveness of any given search campaign. "It's true that search engine marketing campaigns can drive highly targeted, intent-driven search traffic and produce measurable ROI, but search can be made to work harder," she says. "Search behavior marketing extends the visibility of a keyword campaign by redirecting an advertiser's keyword-based targeting channel beyond the search engine to target the same audience when they move into content Web sites." - Read the whole story... |
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