When Large Businesses Game the System

There has been a fair amount of news recently about AOL's goal to re-brand its image from one that speaks to poor user experience, mediocre content, and a mailbox full of SPAM to... well I'm not exactly sure what they're transitioning to at the moment. If one were to listen to what current AOL CEO and former Associated Content co-founder Tim Armstrong has to say on the subject, it doesn't sound as if much has changed.

Over the past two weeks, details about AOL's new business model have been slowly revealed to the tech press and it looks as if Armstrong is hedging his bets on rebuilding AOL as a closed provider of in-network link SPAM and junk content.

It's not the freshest or most interesting idea, but it's simple enough to understand; use basic algorithms and automated systems to track the highest queried terms and then assign these terms to contract writers to produce topical content to drive traffic. The theory goes that if you can produce content that covers hot topics and then artificially increase article relevancy and visibility by utilizing inbound links from your own micro-sites, then your new content will be propelled to the top of search engine rankings and your traffic will increase with it. It's a content strategy that's three shades off from being completely honest, and it's one that spammers and malicious sites have been using for years in order to increase visits. It's also the exact model used by in-demand media companies like the aforementioned Associated Content to saturate the web with some of the dullest and most bounce-worthy information imaginable.

Some have already deemed AOL's new strategy as a long-term failure by simply assuming that the search engines will eventually massage out the inherent inadequacies that allow this sort of content to win out in the first place. But the truth of the matter is that junk content is still content, and so as long as the content on a page is coherent and readable, it still has a chance of winning out over far more interesting entries. Answers.com, eHow, and About.com are just three examples of sites that employ similar strategies to the one that AOL is attempting (albeit in a slightly better fashion), and they have yet to be penalized by search engines in any significant way.

This is actually going to be interesting from a search engine marketing standpoint; not only because it allows us to go back over and evaluate our own methodology, but also because AOL's high-profile approach to content creation will give us a window into what the search engines will or won't tolerate over the course of time. There's no doubt that AOL's venture into this area is due to a lack of policing by the search engines. In fact, the entire business model is reliant on the fact that search engines won't make any sweeping or sudden changes to their algorithms. The question now, though, is whether or not this marketing strategy is capable of long-term sustainability.

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What is the future of search?

What is the future of search?

Search appears to be progressing into a split personality, depending on the type of data search being performed. At the moment we are using one tool (of visitor’s choice) to perform all search for data. That will continue to become more cumbersome as the data set available on the Internet grows.

1. Educational data – A significant amount of search is done in “stream of thought” for educational purpose. I apply education very broadly here as it could be a student researching Taiwan or a consumer completing research for a future purchase. Either way, this is neither life nor death, or is there an imminent purchase/decision to be made. The visitor is learning for future reference.

In this case the volume of data available on the Internet is an overwhelming burden. The searcher becomes bogged down in similarly-presented data with no guidance towards authority. The searcher is literally charged with finding data as well as discerning truth/authority.

I believe enhanced (matrix) search tools will begin to help this searcher find their way. Search tools will evolve additional relevancy based upon not only standards-driven user input but also statistical analysis of more finite pieces of data. We will see search results to data subsets versus the whole. No longer will the search be based upon an entire work so much as a piece of that work validated by user input with further statistical analysis of the search tool itself.

2. Consumable data – In this case I’m speaking of a visitor searching for data that will help them complete a timely (imminent) task such as location of a person, place, or thing. My expectation is that we will see a focus into highly-localized search (based upon known location) combined with some level of augmented reality tools.

The technology to ascertain the visitor’s location is already a simple matter. Resolving that to the data pertinent to that known location is only a matter of time. At the moment this data/location relationship is reliant on business and user data to be manually input and verified. It is only a matter of time before the processing and storage resources are applied to an intensive attack on this problem.

Once data is solidly tied to location, then some use of augmented reality will begin to pay off. A visitor will continue to search for a “keyword/thing” in a location and find a point of purchase for that item in a nearby store but computers will take it one step further.

I see visitors pointing their phone’s camera lens at an item and clicking a button. The image will be captured, combined with geolocation and proximity to data. Then the search engine will reply to the visitor with the question for refinement - “Do you want to know about that thing? Do you wish to purchase?”

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I have to be on Twitter ... don't I?

From @mitchjoel
Bad:What should we do on twitter?
Good:Why should we be on twitter?

I think this sums up the Twitter conversation going on in many businesses. Twitter is all over the news, in many circles of conversation, and people want to know how they can use it to improve their businesses.

The question I hear most from people is What should they do, but as @mitchjoel states, it's not what, but why. Are you going to be able to use Twitter to actually enhance your product? Improve customer service? Engage in conversation? Or is your only purpose to one way market?

My personal opinion is people first think of Twitter as an easy one way marketing tool like a billboard or newspaper ad. This is a failure of using Twitter to its full potential.

By figuring out the why, before the what, the chances you'll turn Twitter into a useful tool to enhance your business success will increase.

Plus, you might find out you don't need to be on Twitter and save yourself the effort of figuring out what to do.

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Tommy Hilfiger Chooses First Scribe for Search Engine Marketing

The North America marketing division of Tommy Hilfiger online once again gave the nod to First Scribe to provide search engine marketing services for fall brand initiatives.

The two organizations first met in 2007 when Tommy Hilfiger marketing staff located the First Scribe site in organic Google search listings. The partnership began with First Scribe marketing team managing the 2007 Christmas pay per click campaigns for the Tommy Hilfiger online store.

This year First Scribe is providing the same search engine marketing support for the launch of the Tommy Hilfiger Intimates line of lingerie.

First Scribe Director of Search Engine Marketing, Ken Kralick says, "Things are looking good for this PPC effort. Interest in the product line is good and the Hilfiger folks have a lot of inventory on hand. We're already running about half the cost per conversion we were in 2007 and I'm thrilled with that."

About Tommy Hilfiger

With a premium lifestyle brand portfolio that includes Tommy Hilfiger and Hilfiger Denim, The Tommy Hilfiger Group of Companies is one of the world's most recognized designer apparel groups. The Group's focus is designing and marketing high-quality men's wear, women's wear, children's apparel and denim collections. Through select licensees, the Group offers complementary lifestyle products such as accessories, fragrances and home furnishings. Tommy Hilfiger Group merchandise is available to consumers worldwide through an extensive network of dedicated retail stores, leading specialty and department stores and other carefully controlled distribution channels. For additional information about the Tommy Hilfiger Group of Companies, please visit www.tommy.com.

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Opus Corporation Chooses First Scribe

First Scribe is proud to announce their latest search engine marketing partnership, this time with the internationally-recognized land developer Opus Corporation.

First Scribe's industry leading Search Engine Optimization services will avail the OpusCorp.com website to Google and the other search engines. The First Scribe project manager will work with Opus Marketing and IT personnel as well as the entire First Scribe web development staff in order to clear the way for search engines to spider the entire site - without affecting the existing OpusCorp.com design.

First Scribe Director of Search Engine Marketing, Ken Kralick says, "Our intention is to greatly increase the visibility of Opus in the organic search engines without affecting the visual branding of the site. Both companies like the existing design and Opus is heavily invested in collateral. We will re-work the underlying code. The end-user won't see a difference but Google will suddenly see 1,200 pages that they couldn't see before."

Both teams have high expectations and they will use Omniture SiteCatalyst analytics to measure the effectiveness of their efforts. First Scribe Owner & CEO, Jay Perrill is excited for the new business partnership saying, "Opus Corporation makes an amazing addition to our marketing portfolio. We are really excited to help their marketing staff reach their goals of increasing exposure in the search engines."

About Opus Group

The Opus Group, based in Minneapolis, is a $2.2 billion premier, full-service real estate development company with 55 years experience. Specializing in office, industrial, retail, multifamily, government and institutional development, the Opus Group has completed nearly 2,450 projects totaling 238 million square feet and currently has 35 million square feet in planning or development. Opus employs nearly 2,000 people in 26 offices in the United States and Canada. Committed to creating great real estate, Opus implements best practices in sustainable design and construction to maximize building performance and reduce environmental impact. A community steward since its inception, the Opus Group is committed to the long-term development of people and communities by contributing 10 percent of its pre-tax profits to community organizations. For more information, visit http://www.opuscorp.com/.

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2nd Wind Exercise Equipment Chooses First Scribe

First Scribe is proud to announce their latest partnership with nationally recognized 2nd Wind Exercise Equipment.

First Scribe's industry leading Design and Internet Marketing services will allow 2nd Wind to combine their 4 existing websites into one singularly branded, eCommerce presence. First Scribe's programming team will also integrate the 2nd Wind online shopping cart to their existing NetSuite Accounting and CRM systems.

The 2nd Wind and First Scribe management teams agree that the sales projection for the new eCommerce presence will surpass the expected first-year revenue of a 2nd Wind brick and mortar store. Both teams have high expectations and they will use Omniture SiteCatalyst analytics to measure the effectiveness of their efforts.

First Scribe Owner & CEO, Jay Perrill is excited for the new business partnership saying, "The acquisition of the 2nd Wind Exercise account is a great move for us. This firmly establishes First Scribe's reputation as a premium web design firm."

About 2nd Wind Exercise Equipment
2nd Wind (http://www.2ndwindexercise.com) is passionate about fitness solutions for their clients and continually changes the way the world looks at exercise. Founded in Minneapolis in 1991 as a specialty used exercise equipment dealer, 2nd Wind grew rapidly and is now the premier specialty Fitness dealer in United States with 100 Midwest locations in 10 states. 2nd Wind has a philosophy of "Customized Fitness Solutions" and an environment that educates, motivates and develops individual programs to achieve and obtain measurable, realistic goals while optimizing their customer’s chance for a successful, life changing fitness experience. 2nd Wind is the exclusive dealer for many top brand manufacturers including; Life Fitness, Parabody, True, Hoist, PaceMaster, Vision, Octane, and a host of others. 2nd Wind also offers a free VIP program that provides personal training, healthy recipes, fitness articles and exclusive discounts on top home fitness equipment.

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First Scribe is Omniture Support Certified

Our staff recently spent a week in training at Omniture University in their headquarters in Orem, UT. At the end of the week we passed the certification process to attain the Omniture Partners-only designation Omniture Certified Professional: Support.

Omniture Agency Partner

First Scribe is the only certified Omniture Agency in the Minneapolis or Minnesota. We hold the highest level of agency certifications available from Omniture.

Our SiteCatalyst Support and Implementation certifications means that we are a full-service Omniture provider.

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Yahoo Looking For Love

Yahoo is stuck right between a rock and the hard place. Their stock prices, market share and respect are sinking. Meanwhile Microsoft stopped courting the princess...

Floundering In The Search Pool

The First Scribe team has been unhappy with Yahoo search for a few years. We feel their search technology is weak and ROI from Yahoo falls well behind other traffic sources.

Obviously, we were happy to watch as Microsoft made moves to acquire Yahoo in late 2007 and early 2008. Those efforts failed so now Microsoft appears to be standing by, waiting for Yahoo to drown before they swoop in for a last-minute, white-knight maneuver.

Venture capitalist Todd Dagres of Spark Capital likened this approach to that of a crocodile. "Rather than try to eat its prey while it's warm and tough, (Microsoft is) dragging it down to the bottom of the river, sticking it under a rock and eating it later when it's cold and soft," he said.

What does this all mean to us?

All we can do is speculate but we've heard a few rumors that could greatly change the picture if they bear fruit:

• Yahoo to hand over ad space to Google
• While this will probably equate to better PPC ROI, it will certainly harm Yahoo's already poor standing with advertisers.
  
• Yahoo to merge with AOL
• AOL is also facing difficult times. A merger between Yahoo and AOL could create a significant force.
• A healthy merger creates a new way to target demographics missed by Google.

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Does Yahoo Prefer Yahoo Cart Sites?

Does Yahoo prefer shopping carts in the Yahoo store environment?

We've heard this issue in quite a few circles for 2 specific arguments:

· The Yahoo engine prefers the Yahoo cart.

· A Yahoo cart won’t work in Google SEO.

While both of these points may have an amount of truth to them, neither of these arguments appear to us to be *true enough* for concern. That is to say, we aren’t concerned with the Yahoo search engine, per se. And we have Yahoo carts that perform nicely in Google.

Google is the engine of choice

Google holds the Lion's share of market value and that trend grows every year. For our clients’ sites, across product vertical, Average revenue per visitor is higher for visits from Google vs. Yahoo.

We will work through the Yahoo cart as if it’s just another website. However, we migrate people off the Yahoo cart at every opportunity. The cart is difficult to use; it is a quantifiable hindrance to Google SEO; and the backend admin area is difficult.

Does Yahoo Prefer Yahoo Cart Sites?

Not necessarily. The Cart seems to have nothing to do with this question. The answer boils down to how well the site is optimized in general. Here is a Yahoo cart site that we are watching. Their site ranks better in Google than it does in Yahoo:

	Google	Yahoo	Change
Name	1	1	0
	2	2	0
Keyword 1	5	Not in first 30.	26
Keyword 2	10	Not in first 30.	21
	14	Not in first 30.	17
Keyword 3	18	2	(16)
	23		7
Keyword 4	1	Not in first 30.	30
	2	Not in first 30.	29
Keyword 5	4	Not in first 30.	26
Keyword 6	Not in first 30.	21	(9)
Primary Keyword	1	14	13
Keyword 7	23	11	(12)
Keyword 8	12	8	(4)
	13		17
Keyword 9	11	4	(7)
Keyword 10	6	3	(3)
	15		15
Keyword 11	2	3	1
Keyword 12	6	2	(4)
			147

Summary:

This client is concerned about moving from the Yahoo cart to an eCommerce Platform but they are worried that their revenue will suffer. Yahoo is their number 2 source of revenue and they don't want to lose that share.

We don’t in any way doubt that a large portion of their business is derived from Yahoo visitors. The Yahoo demographic matches nicely with people who would go out and buy their product line.

What is the real question?

The real question is different than they think…

It would be really nice to know if revenue per visitor is higher from Yahoo versus Google. If the average is the same, then open up Google traffic and forget about Yahoo.

Yahoo traffic and revenue might well suffer with a push in Google. But the net gain should be a significant increase in revenue.

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Another Search Engine Gives Up

What is it about the "Winter Blues" that causes search engines to give up the race with Google?

Yahoo Gives Up

January, 2006 - Yahoo concedes 2nd place:

“We don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to gain a lot of share from Google,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.” (Story)

As it turns out they lost significant market share in 2006 and 2007. Now they're fending off takeover attempts by MSN and others.

Ask.com Gives Up

March, 2008 - Ask.com Abandons Chase

We were excited to see Ask.com abandon the old "Ask Jeeves" look and feel in 2007. They shifted their aim to become a quality all-purpose search engine with relevant results. Their efforts were noticeable in the search engine rankings and we shifted efforts to their engine.

That is no longer the case. Yesterday they announced they have shifted gears. The new target is on "finding answers to basic questions about recipes, hobbies, children's homework, entertainment and health." (CNN.com Story)

We are very disappointed with this turn of events.

Disappointment

Google is a good search engine and we rely on their relevant results. Unfortunately they have a monopoly within the search industry and it has (and will) stifle innovation through competition.

Cost per click rates continue to sky-rocket as competition falls to the way-side.

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SEO Isn't Just Metatags

What do you think of when you hear or read the acronym SEO? Is it good metatags? Rich content and links? Or maybe Pay Per Clicks (PPCs)? Well if you put all those together in your website you would have what I might have said was good SEO.

That was until I joined the First Scribe Team. I knew when I accepted my position with them I would have the opportunity to learn and grow as a web developer but never thought I would see so many new ideas and techniques in the realm of SEO.

While some of it is a "Why didn't I think of that?" type of scenario, there a lot of technical, behind the scenes, ways to improve websites that I didn't know about.

Savvy Visitors

As the Internet matures and users become more sophisticated, sites that used to perform well just don't rank as high as they used to. It is far more than looking pretty and giving users enough information to buy something from you. It doesn't mean anything unless the user can find your site.

Let's be honest here for a moment -- When was the last time you searched for something and you went past the first page of results from your favorite search engine? Once or twice, maybe. If you didn't find what you were looking for on the first page, you probably went back to your search terms and modified them.

SEO Works

I have looked at traffic reports from some sites that this team has taken over and improved from an SEO standpoint. The results are remarkable. I can say I have never seen such a drastic improvement in traffic in such a short period of time. All due to the SEO techniques used here at First Scribe.

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Christmas Sales Building - Will It Be Enough?

Cyber Monday proved to be the start of a high-traffic week with lackluster conversions for our clients. Thanksgiving kicked off a flurry of excited shopping but it appears American wallets are pinched and shoppers are looking for discounts.

The Official Word On The Street

Internet research company comScore Inc. reported this week that total online spending from Nov. 1 - Dec. 7 has reached more than $18 billion, up 18 percent from the same period a year ago.

"It was a terrific kick-start to December, but we expect the upcoming week to be the heaviest online spending week of the holiday season as the procrastinators and late-season deal-seekers come out in earnest," comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a written statement.

Our Numbers Are Growing

We are seeing online Click Through Rates and Sales Conversion numbers increasing as we approach Christmas. The Monday nearest Dec. 15th generally proves to be the peak of online shopping. The 18th should prove the peak of Christmas shopping in 2007.

Trim The Fat

As we stated in our last post, now is the time to trim the fat from your marketing campaigns. You should have enough data in your PPC campaigns to know what is working and what is not. Cut anything that isn't working - put the money where the buyers are.

Use your traffic data to turn any "Red" marketing efforts into the "Black".

Marketing Tip:

Think Accessories - 2007 budgets are tight so make sure you're selling pushing your accessories and add-ons.

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Writing Effective PPC Ad Copy at Christmas

Christmas season is the time for buying online but you need to be smart about your tactics. For online retail sites, traffic is often 50% higher this time of year than any other time. If you aren't careful, your traffic (and ad spend) will raise significantly but it may not lead to sales.

Branding Issues

We often run PPC ads for vanity search terms throughout the year for branding purposes. This practice will often lose effectiveness *for product manufacturers* around this time of year.

Why?

It's difficult to say exactly but I can tell you one thing - we've noticed traffic on the terms go up sharply and the sales rarely follow. ROI drops sharply.

Remember, you don't need to spend PPC money on branding *if* you are #1 on your name in organic listings.


Reconcile Your Data

Example: You may drive more traffic and eventually sell more men's product than women's by a good margin.

Are men buying the men's product? Are you sure?

Christmas time in the fashion industry tends to show women searching men's terms and buying men's product.

So, why do we care? Ad copy, ad copy, ad copy...

Women shoppers have different hot buttons versus men. You need to check the invoices against your traffic and PPC data. Then, write multiple ads around all the hot buttons and refine it every day.

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New Staff Member Introduced to SEO

Before I started working at First Scribe Inc., I thought I knew almost everything there was to know when it came to web design and web development. I didn’t know the importance behind SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

There is a science to integrated web development SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Future clients of First Scribe Inc. should understand the importance of search engines and how search engines correlate to the success of their online presence. To put it simply, if the search engine can’t find your website, a potential customer won’t find your website either.

Not only does your website need to look inviting to a potential customer with immediate calls to action. Your website needs to be search engine optimized. Some First Scribe Inc. clients have us optimize their website; others prefer not to have us optimize their website.

The First Scribe Inc. clients that have their website optimized by the First Scribe Inc. team have seen increases in online sales/leads that they have never dreamed of.

If you have an online business and you are wondering why your website isn’t generating sales/leads like you expected. Ask yourself this question; “If a search engine can’t find my website, will a potential customer find my website?”

The answer to that question is a simple "No".

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Make your message clear

What do you sell? Does your website scream the message?

Today I was told about a 70-year-old CEO who didn't like the new design of his home page. The feature areas didn't have enough "meat" for him. He much prefered a 4th level page of the site comprised of 8 paragraphs of technical content speaking about his product. Text...

How presumptious to think that early visitors care what you have to say until you prove yourself. If you want to sell on the Internet, you need to push your vanity aside and provide for the audience.

Qualify before you speak!

There are many metaphors that say the same thing -- Let them look around before you tackle visitors with information. Don't presume to know what they want until you qualify.

Visitors to a website are like shoppers at WalMart coming in from the rain. They may be buyers or they may be seeking shelter in your magazine aisle. Either way, in their mind, it's easier to head right back out the door than deal with an over-zealous sales pitch 10 seconds in.

Your website is the same. Realize what you are doing if you fill your home page with too much content. You are pitching them a white paper while they are shaking off the rain.

Stores have Aisles

If clients come in for soup you've insulted them by showing hair nets, motor oil, fruit juice, mascara, and push pins all at the same time.

WHERE'S THE SOUP!!!

Too late, they left!


Fix your home page before your next customer comes in. Organize your content and save the sales pitch until they've qualified.

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Can a pack mentality help your SEO?

In the wild a pack of wolves thrives from a hierarchy determined by strength and attitude. Not always will the strongest, biggest wolf be the alpha dog. Attitude plays a huge role in your pack rank. When working with an outside client it’s essential to find your role within the “pack.”

Finding the Leader

With most small clients the person in charge of the web site is the owner of the business, with larger clients it could be the president of the company, a marketing manager, an IT manager, or perhaps the web site designer. It’s critical to find out who makes the decisions and who you need to contact to make sure your SEO efforts are productive for the client while still keeping them happy.

Joining the Pack

The use of “we” can be a large part of joining your clients team. Most of the time clients are looking for sales or contacts from the web site. One way to make your client feel more comfortable is to talk like you’re all one team. For ex:

“When we get a contact from the site, what are we going to do with that information?”

With one simple sentence you’ve made your stance clear to your client. I’m part of your team when it comes to the web site, and it’s in all of our best interest to make sure we’re on the same page.

Your Role in the Pack

With some clients you are the alpha dog, you make all the calls on the web site. Typically these clients assume you know best so they just expect an update on what you’re trying to do. With larger clients things aren’t always this simple. There may be a few different sections of the company who want something different from the web site. It’s your job to make sure they know that you only want what’s best for the site.

As an example, Web Designers and SEO folks will frequently disagree with what’s best for a site. Both sides will have to give up something to make a happy medium.

A Large Pack

With larger clients it’s hard to make everyone in the room happy. As much as you might know about SEO or SEM it might not matter to some clients. They still have their comfort zone and might not like some of the changes you have in mind. You need to be clear that there are some things you might be willing to give up in order to get some of your other changes through the pipeline.

If you get traffic levels up, and conversion rates at an acceptable level you’ll be off to a great start in keeping your clients happy.

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Budgeting SEO & SEM for the holidays

A prominent, international clothing company contacted us this week in search of a U.S. Internet marketing firm to guide them through SEO of a pending redesign and PPC through the holidays. I can't state the organization's name but suffice to say that an annual website budget of 7-figures is well within their reach.

We are honored to be considered for such a prestigious client and their request for proposal brings up a few good points worthy of a blog entry.

How do you budget SEO and SEM for the holidays?

• SEO - Get all of your SEO work done by September or you're behind the curve. This client will release their new website in early November, too late for Google to fully realize the site before Christmas. So, what do we suggest?
  
  Gamble a bit, ignore Google short term, and go after MSN & Yahoo. Hit the site hard at release time and "over optimize" for MSN and Yahoo. Use slightly more keywords than Google would normally like long term without going near Black Hat SEO. Yahoo is prone to fall for a little spam they will pick the site up fast.
  
  MSN will pick the site up in this short time frame and could realize full potential in time for Thanksgiving. Remember, the busiest online shopping days fall near the 15th of December so you have plenty of time to reach that market share.
  
  There is a chance that Google will boost the site into high SERP placement in the short term and then drop it after a week before gaining again long-term. Watch Google and see what they do. If Google picks the site up and holds it longer than a week, you must back out some optimization for risk of being spammy in their eyes. You never know, it may stick right off the bat.
  
  This is a short-sighted approach and you must remember to budget for a second pass to properly optimize the site after the dust clears in January. Sometimes you can push the date of a release back a bit to time the peaks for the 2nd week in December but it's tough. It's a bit like playing chicken but it's fun to watch the search engines deal with a brand-new, 2,000 page site with a 7/10 PageRank.
  


• SEM / PPC - When it comes to online shopping before the holidays you need to budget adequately for the promotional holiday periods. Three peaks should appear on your radar:
  
  1.The Monday after Thanksgiving through the following Monday - Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) is not the biggest online shopping day of the year as has been stated. However, Monday's are typically the heaviest traffic days of the week, and this is a big traffic day to start the season. Keep your budget high to the following Monday, which has been the biggest online shopping day of the year in previous years. This is your big week, target big-ticket items and address top Christmas gifts in your ad.
  
  2. The Monday nearest December 15th - Monday through Friday of this week is a mad rush of sales to the last-minute shoppers. Change your ads to address the looming last-minute date to safely ship. If you can, offer discounts on shipping to get these people to buy. If you can't offer discounts on shipping, consider free in-store pickup.
  
  3. The week after Christmas - The week after Christmas is when we all shop for ourselves. You will see a shift to the "Ship to:" address being the same as the "Bill to:" address. Rotate your terms and ads to target your line of accessories. Talk about your sales - make sure they feel like they can shop your site without going broke.
  
  
  Divide your expected PPC budget into these three segments and adjust your bids down so that you are still in the running at the 15th of December. If you are on a limited budget, target Mondays and Tuesdays for all it's worth.
  
  Finally, remember to turn off ads for the items that are out of stock. Keep a close watch on your PPC budget and it will pay for itself in folds.
  

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Differing Opinions of SEO

I received a comment on a past blog post today and it really struck me as great feedback. Essentially the comment stated that they like our blog because their opinion(s) of SEO often differ from my opinion(s) here at First Scribe.

Perfect!

SEO is an evolving skill set where you must continue to learn or the competing market will pass you by. There will always be more competition, more finicky visitors and refinements to search algorithms. We don't work for the search engines so we need to look for subtle SEO symptoms and then track the symptom to the source.

I try to dedicate 20% of my time to competitive research but it usually amounts to less than 10%. I will start by saying this - If you find an SEO symptom/trend, you must test it yourself or there's no point in wasting your time. NOBODY is going to tell completely spell out their philosophy. You must read between the lines and try it for yourself.

Here are the sources of my research, in order of preference:

1. SEO forums - The forums tend to be chock full of new SEO staffers who freak out and ask questions every time their rankings slide. These cries for help have turned me on to algorithm changes earlier than any other source.
2. Competitors - I generally don't look at my competitor's websites because SEO firms rarely dedicate their full efforts to their own website. Go to their latest portfolio entries and look for strategy.
3. Blogs - Find an active blog written by someone you feel is credible. You don't need to agree with them, in fact it's better if you disagree but you need to trust that they aren't intentionally disseminating false information.
4. My own websites - The last place I look (for research purposes) is at my own websites. If I'm looking at them for research purposes, I specifically look at the sites with volatile SERP results.

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Keyword Strategy is the Heart of SEO

What is your keyword strategy?

Most people we speak with can't answer this question. They may have chosen a keyword that they know they want to rank in Google but thought rarely goes beyond selection to a bonafide strategy.

A keyword strategy is something much bigger than a simple keyword selection. You need a long-term plan in order to be successful in organic search. Your plan should identify a broad spectrum of similar keywords including those that you rank on today and many to target in the future. You should also include a realistic schedule for future content additions.

Here's a list of items that we think make up a good strategy:

1. Keyword selection map - By now you should know the small keywords on which you rank well. Add to that list a group of keywords with heavier volume and competition. Create a spreadsheet to keep track of where keywords are in use and where they are going. Knowing where work needs to be done is the start of your strategy.
2. Schedule work - Your website should be a work in progress with ongoing SEO efforts. Pick the next higher keyword phrase and schedule resources to target that month.
3. Analyze - Chances are good that you will need a few months of effort to rank on that term. Run your reports on the new keyword and analyze the traffic pattern.
4. React - Are you getting traffic on your new term? If not then schedule more effort for next month. If you are seeing an increase then you need to decide if the preliminary traffic has a positive ROI.
5. Change direction - Either your efforts on this new keyword are showing an ROI or they aren't. At some point you will run into a phrase with too much effort for the return and you'll know it when you see it. When you do, back away and go down a different path.

SEO is much more than picking the top keyword of last month and spreading it through the site. You need to roll up your sleeves and keep track of your project. It will pay off in folds if you do.

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PPC Click Fraud A Growing Problem

Pay Per Click (PPC) bids are running sky-high these days and the latest reports say Click Fraud is growing in scope. Estimates from auditing group Click Forensics put the percentage of fraudulent clicks at 15.8% in Q2 of 2007.

What is Click Fraud?

PPC advertisers bid for ranking on a certain keyword. The more advertisers are willing to bid per click on that term, the higher they will rank. Click Fraud is where some one or some software clicks on an ad without any intention of doing business with the advertiser.

Click fraud happens for various reasons with two being the most common:

1. The fraud perpetrator will make a profit from the "click".
2. The perpetrator wants to deplete the advertising budget of a competitor.

Fighting Click Fraud

Sixteen percent of our PPC budget is a hefty number to write off so we do what we can to fight fraud. We call on two tactics to fight click fraud:

1. Turn off your PPC advertising in "content networks". The networks of websites drive their own revenue by running PPC ads along side similarly-termed content. They take a cut of the PPC dollars spent on their sites so they are more likely to call on fraud.
2. Watch your stats for high click through and bounce rates. We recommend a quick look at your PPC stats every day. Look for drastic changes out of the "norm". If your click through rate of a specific campaign jumps out of the normal range, temporarily shut it down and report to the PPC company immediately.

Is PPC Worthwhile?

We find that PPC advertising has a lower ROI versus a successful optimization campaign but that is not to say that PPC should be avoided. PPC has comes with an inherent cost of doing business but a good PPC campaign to a point of purchase website can drive a positive ROI.

Most importantly - PPC starts working immediately.

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Paris Hilton teaches us SEO

Paris Hilton made the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records as the world's "Most Overrated Celebrity" (Showbiz Tonight). This is certainly a dubious award but what does Ms. Hilton have to do with the Internet Marketing world?

Granted, she has an obvious impact on corporate productivity due to extended water cooler conversations regarding the latest Hilton Headlines but is that all she is?

Honest Boss, I'm working!

Surprisingly, Hilton has much to teach us about the Internet in regards to the search algorithm and SERP standings.

How so? Well, we would argue that the best way to learn about search engines is to start with a high-level look at a situation with the following variables:

• "Accidental SEO" competition - a lot of similar content without obvious SEO involvement
• Big PageRank - We consider 7/10 to be a good starting point
• A non-saleable item - The lower the profit possibility the better
• Some certainty of new pages

Enter Paris Hilton

Hilton meets all of our needs.

• News pages almost always rely on a replication of the Editor's headline when writing page title, description and lead content in the story. Therefore the content almost never adheres to common SEO practices.
• There are many news and gossip websites with PageRanks of 7/10 and beyond.
• The news industry is in search of heavy readership but there is no direct profit off each page.
• Hilton is a wealth of information from public record (everyone sees the same arrest report at the same time). She is a constant character in the news of late so we can count with some certainty on the news agencies to pour out news stories about her on a daily basis.

The news industry becomes an accidental petri dish of sorts for us to ponder - and an entertaining one at that.

"So Paris, How do you rank?"

• By volume
  Search volume for "paris hilton" is respectable at 55,590/day in Overture - Digital Point Solutions. Not bad compared to the bar-setting "porn" at 126,342/day. Compare Hilton's search volume to "iraq war" at 1,780/day and we have the pulse of America but that's for another post.
  
• By SERP
  Today a Google search of "paris hilton" gives the #1 placement to Wikipedia - a site well known for fast-loading pages and new, relevant content. Interestingly enough, we found this page was updated with news of Hilton's release no more than 12 hours after her release.
  
• New Content
  Hilton was released from prison this morning which means that there are bound to be new stories to that effect for us to find. A Google search for "paris hilton release" brings up quite a few copies of the same Associated Press story on June 23, 2007. The top listing is from hollywood.com - a 7/10 site with a big text link front and center on the home page that points to the new content.

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Google Unified Search

CNN.com posted an interesting Technology story this morning and then the story quickly moved off their site. I thought it was an interesting topic so I mention it here.

Link to the story: Click here

The story doesn't appear to be written by a search engine expert so it's a little vague on some important points.

The gist of the story is that Google will combine it's various search results into one "page". The new service "will present Web sites, news, video and other results on one page."

Google's search already does this...

The story speaks strongly about new "ad" potential but it never actually speaks to the Google search algorithm.

Bottom line -It sounds to me like they are allowing AdWords advertisers to bid on terms for videos. They plan to roll out on 5/23 so we'll know more after that.

Search Translation

The end of the story introduces what we see as the single greatest improvement to search technology in 5 years: Automatic translation of search.

"The technique will translate queries in any of a dozen languages into English, find additional search results, then automatically translate those back into the language of the original query. This will give users in any supported language a broader view of information on the Web."

Now that's exciting.

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Marketing Your Services Online

Is it possible to effectively market a service online?

We're talking specifically about services here - no physical products. We often hear that services can't be marketed online. While it may be difficult to market online the amount of competition for services such as home remodelers and cosmetic surgery says this is a lucrative medium.

Certainly services are applicable to the Internet Marketing rule but you need to be careful when applying your marketing message and judging ROI.

It's easy to judge ROI of a point of purchase website. Trap organic and PPC traffic coming in to your pages, analyze purchases for each traffic group and you have your return on investment.

Services are different.

There isn't an online reservation system or final point of purchase in your log files so your tracking tool is unable to measure specific sales. Add the fact that some services have significant price points and an extended sales cycle and you have a real battle measuring ROI.

Marketing services online is easy if you remember 3 major points:

1. Remember your market - For the most part you will do well to expend marketing energy only in those areas where you can deliver your service. A product can be shipped worldwide but a service has a short reach. You can use the Internet to market your service globally but that's rarely applicable to services.

2. Fine-tune your message - This is the easiest step of all. Use a quality analytics tool and respond to the traffic trends in your website. Create a call to action on your main services page and watch the traffic flow (conversion) through that message. Adjust your message if conversions go down or stay flat.

We rely heavily on Unica NetTracker in our office because the tool is the best we've seen at creating conversion scenarios. Find a good analytics tool and measure your conversion. Then go back and adjust your message until you get it right!

3. Relentlessly measure ROI -Roughly 1/3rd of all people who contact us for our services contact us by our online form. That means 2/3rds of our initial contacts occur in a way that is difficult or impossible to measure from our tracking tools.

a. Email - Create an email address specific to the website and offer it as an additional contact option.

b. Telephone - Get a different phone number that only appears on the website.

c. Ask the question - Ask each new client how they found you. Most importantly, write the information down so you can measure it at the end of the year.

Services are highly appropriate for the Internet and your competition is undoubtedly already taking part in the frenzy. Be smart about where you market and tenaciously measure success. Increase budget to measurable returns and cut out of low conversion efforts.

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Local Search Is Real

Rarely will an Internet Marketing Firm give away their secrets but here is a great one:

People use Local search in large numbers - and in many cases it's FREE.

What is Local Search?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. A local search is not unlike opening up an old fashioned Yellow Pages™ on the Internet.

Demographically speaking, there is a vast number of people on the Internet who do not know how to make the search engines work for them. They get search and receive too much irrelevant information. The get confused and they search for something familiar - a Yellow Pages.

Prominent Local Search directories

There are many local search directories but here are a few of the prominent locations:

• www.google.com/local
• local.yahoo.com/
• http://www.dexonline.com/

Local With Maps

Yahoo and Google have the added bonus of seeing your search over a map which is nifty but the text-based directories seem to drive more traffic (for various reasons). Cover your bases and submit to each of them.

Listings are Free

Free listings are available for the city listed in your mailing address. Most of the directories offer a broader area for an additional fee but beware - the fee structure is steep.

Ken Kralick
Director of Search Engine Marketing

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Did First Scribe save .travel?

A prospective client approached us in August to help with some Google ranking issues. Apparently their website was indexed by Google to roughly 800 pages and then promptly plummeted to about 15 pages. Needless to say, they weren't ranking on any search terms and they were at their whits end as to a solution.

My initial thought is that they were spamming, duplicate content, fighting with a new algorithm, or just plain new.

Then I realized something I hadn't before. They had a one of the new .travel domain names. With a little research I found that all .travel sites were dealing with the same situation.

A search in Google for "site:.travel" returned 113,000 pages. When I clicked on the "cached" link next to any of the returns - each page had not been cached. As far as Google rankings were concerned, the pages didn't exist.

The same search for pages in Yahoo found zero pages.

No PageRank

On further inspection of their home page I found that the page would load fine but it didn't have a cache and no page rank. Not just zero page rank, but a grey bar. I haven't seen a grey bar in 2 or 3 years.

Note: A 0/10 PageRank in Google generally means that your website is of little importance to them. For the PageRank bar to be gray generally means that Google is not even indexing the home page of the site.

My advice to these folks was to buy a .com domain and forget about the .travel domain.

All .travel sites blocked?

As far as I could tell, none of the .travel sites had a page rank. Grey bar for all - no exceptions. None of the sites had cached pages in Google or Yahoo.

The Canada.travel site: http://www.canada.travel had no page rank, no cache. The tourism board of Canada was blocked...

What to do?

After 2 weeks of intense investigation, I let the client know that he was out of luck and he had 2 courses of action:

1. Buy a .com domain and start over.
2. Contact Google directly and ask them to fix the problem.

Big Choices

The client obviously had some clout in the industry (and a great deal of budget invested in the new domain name) because they opted for #2. Turns out they are on speaking terms with Ronald N. Andruff, President & CEO of Tralliance Corp.

Tralliance Corp. was the sole purveyor of .travel domains and is a real company. (I.e. They don't appear to be a fly-by-night organization.)

Mr. Andruff emailed Vinton G. Cerf at Google directly. Mr. Cerf is Vice President & Chief Internet Evangelist of Google. From my perspective, he is the top of the food chain and by all accounts a really nice man.
http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#vint


It couldn't be Google's problem - Please go away.

At this point I was very politely assured that I was mistaken.

Of course, I wasn't mistaken so we continued the pressure.

After another round of assurance that we were quite correct, Google conceded that the .travel was not being cached and engineering looked into the problem and subsequently fixed the problem.

Yahoo has yet to recognize .travel.

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With Traffic - Less may be More

First Scribe is just like every other company out there with a website -- We receive a lot of spam. One recent piece interested me more than most - Qwestdex Online services has a running offer for guaranteed Pay Per Click traffic for a monthly price.

This made me think - I don't necessarily want more traffic; I want more qualified leads.

Does more traffic mean more leads?

Heavy traffic may lead to more leads. Statistically speaking, more visitors to your brick and mortar store will equate to an equal percentage of increased leads and purchases. But with websites that's not necessarily true...

One of our clients sells a natural head lice remedy (http://www.liceice.com/). A great deal of their traffic comes from free searches for "pictures of head lice" and other noncommittal terms. Frightened parents want to verify that their children have lice while they're hoping to learn otherwise.

This traffic seeks our resources, they do not necessarily want a product (or any product for that matter). As a matter of fact, they may call us to ask about identifying head lice with no intention of a purchase. Further sapping our resources without intending to purchase.

Do we want this traffic? Yes we do.

Qualified Traffic

What we are talking about here is qualified traffic and that is a very valuable commodity. While they may not be seeking your product specifically, at least we have what they need once they identify the problem.

We now have a client in our store with head lice, here is the chance to hit them with a "call to action" and ask them for the sale. Every page of your website should have an obvious statement of what you want the client to do next: "Buy our product" -or- "Contact us for information".

Qualified Keywords

We are "marketing to the tail" with qualified keywords. We may have only 3 or 4 main keywords that perfectly describe our product but there are dozens of similar phrases to support our product. Each of these visitors give us a chance to convert to a sale.

Optimize around all of these qualified terms and then practice converting a higher percentage.

Geographic qualification

Service companies often forget that the Internet is without borders but their business is not. Your hair salon in Minneapolis may capture search engine traffic from Houston but you will doubtfully convince people to travel to receive your services.

Be conscious of the fact that travel may limit your service-customer base.

Avoid unqualified keywords

In this example we have been talking about head lice. We want to target terms like "head lice pictures" and "identifying head lice" while avoiding terms that do not qualify our product. Terms such as "bug pictures", "body lice" and "children ailments" do nothing to support our content and should be avoided.

They may lead to more traffic but they will not lead to more sales.

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Flash in Google

Rumors have floated around the web design world for some time regarding Google indexing text from within Flash .swf files.

For years web designers have repeatedly told clients that Flash looks fantastic but it isn't worth a lick in search engines because Google is unable to read the text. Well, now everything has changed.

What we have here is a run of the mill html page with a simple Flash show full of junk text. One keyword stands out above the rest "**keyword deleted**". It's a junk term with zero competition on the Internet.

One would assume that a single html page with this text string would quickly rank on the term simply because it would be the only page on the Internet containing that string. Historically speaking of HTML pages, that was the case. Historically speaking of Flash pages, no matter how hard you wished for it - Google couldn't read Flash so it would never rank.

Google Reads Flash

We posted the page as we would have posted any other. There is absolutely nothing special about this .swf file. Roughly 2 weeks after posting this page to our website Google cached the page; cached the Flash show; and ranked it on the term "**keyword deleted**".

We have our proof -- Google can index text within Flash.

The next step is to test to see if Google can index links from within Flash. We have a page cooking at the moment to test links. Go to our test page (above) and you will see the link to test that item.

Conclusion

We don't think it's time to run out and start building every site out of Flash. Certainly there are many wonderful uses for Flash and in some cases Flash sites are the way to go. More than 75% of all the websites we build have some element of Flash in the design. Obviously we find Flash to be a very important design element.

Feel free to look around the First Scribe site and look for Flash elements. I think you will find many more Flash elements on this site than meets the eye.

But, due to the cost overhead and the *many* remaining issues of search engine optimization of Flash, we will continue to build websites in HTML.

Remember - "Ugly websites work!"

More often than not the most effective website is the ugly one. Graphics and Flash continue to hinder the search engine optimization process. Look at Google, EBay, and CNN - each of them have a very functional look to them and they are the dominant leaders in their markets.

There may be a magnificent way to use Flash to make you look amazing and stand above your competition - but the whole thing is useless if it alienates search engines and visitors.

Our tests will continue...

Ken Kralick
Director of Search Engine Marketing

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New Blog!

We have re-entered the wide-world of blogging.

Our previous blog at http://blog.firstscribe.com wasn't quite performing the way we would have liked so we shut it down and moved it over to http://www.firstscribe.com/blog/index.htm . This new home seems to be a more appropriate place and should perform.

Blogs are an interesting piece of this information age - A blog is a very simple tool yet it has vast power to build and disseminate information. Type, save and publish without any real knowledge of the Internet. It's great for those folks with something to say via a low-tech voice.

The Internet is supposedly the great flattening tool of the business world, presenting information without caste or borders, as it were. Now Blogs come along to flatten the world even more. Not only are they simple, free and pervasive, but they are a good idea. What could be better than that?

For one thing, it's easy to abuse.

Blogs have this mystery to them that enables a great deal of opportunity to apply "soft definitions" to their true nature. Blogs have become synonymous to the snake oils of old when it comes to Internet Marketing. Blogs are great for speaking your piece, they are not the answer to the eCommerce puzzle.

You're not alone if you've heard that a blog is the key to ranking #1 on keyword "X". Blogs will attract return visitors but they're not the only answer.

So, why do we have a blog?

Well, as it turns out we have a lot to say about the truth of web site design, hosting and Internet Marketing. As our business evolves; as we uncover tips; and as we find promising directories we will post them on our blog to inform our visitors.

Please visit often and leave us your comments!

Ken Kralick
Director of Search Engine Marketing

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