Friends Don’t Let Friends Choose Bad SEM

Thursday, July 30th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Local Search, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

Just read a terrific article with MediaPost Publication which summarizes ten reasons clients don’t pick the right SEM company: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=101432

This article is about prevention. A warning to companies to choose and choose wisely, because in SEM mistakes are costly, and in today’s economy nobody has time or money for mistakes. To save you from reading the entire article (although it’s a worthy read for businesses) we’ll summarize a few key points:

1.Don’t fall for the magic act. We’re talking about the wining and dining and 1-2-3-Presto! presentations that don’t really say anything and make unreal promises. No company worth its salt should guarantee you immediate results, and those that do will either resort to industry-termed “black hat” tactics which can get your site barred from advertising on the most important search engines.

2. Ask for references, and then actually check up on them. If your advertising doesn’t have a clean Carfax-like report, don’t bother. Take the time to talk to provided references and get a feel for the SEM agency’s handle on their business, their vertical, and their long-term relationship together.

3. Rockbottom prices mean rockbottom results. Yes, the economic cash crunch is being felt by everyone, but when it comes to your business nothing can be more damage than an off-the-shelf, cheap solution that will have you shelling out big bucks to repair later. We don’t think you should get swindled, but the cheapest guy in town is cheap for a reason.

4. Spend some QT together. The SEM agency you hand your baby, erm, business over to should be one that you enjoy an open dialogue with, and someone who you can see yourself growing your business with for the next 3, 5, even 10 years. Your SEM agency is not a vendor, like the article points out; it’s a relationship, and is only as effective as the lines of communication.

At NetSearch we do our fair share  of repairing damaged goods.  As a business, it breaks our heart to patch up companies suffering in the aftermath of a poorly constructed search engine marketing effort. It’s also frustrating because, much like a healing heart after love relationship has ended, these business owners build walls around their company hearts and are afraid to reach out to try new things. We’ve been up against those companies who wine and dine their potential clients and promise them the moon – sometimes clients recognize the song and dance early but we’ve also lost a few good potentials to the magic act. It happens. We just don’t want it to happen to you.

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Tags: good sem agency, how to find a sem agency, NetSearch Direct, online advertising agency, richmond seo agency, sem agency

Bing!…Google is on to you

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Internet News, Search Engine Marketing | No Comments

The new “decision engine” with its 80 million dollar advertising budget sure has got its money’s worth with all the news, online articles and blogs circling around its arrival.

“Its beating Yahoo in search engine share!”

“Its not technically beating Yahoo’s search share.”

“This surge in search share percentage is temporary!”

” The home page graphics are a waste of time. ”

“No its Appealing and everyone loves a good useless fact!”

Whatever your opinion is about it, why not check out how others are using it to get to your site.  Google blog has announced that they will be able to track Bing! as a search engine through Google Analytics fairly soon.  If you cant wait, simply add the code below to your google analytic code: (currently Bing! is a refereeing site under traffic sources)

pageTracker._addOrganic(“bing”, “q”);

Now we play the waiting game….

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Tags: alternative search engine, Bing, Search Engines

Bing!: Oh, so we’re setting the bar low now?

Friday, June 5th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Internet News, Search Engine Marketing | No Comments

You know those small rock chips you get on your car as you’re hurtling down the highway? Those tiny imperfections in your car’s auto body called “dings”. They’re the ones that are annoying but too small to invest money or time in repairing, so you simply ignore them. That’s how this blogger feels about Microsoft’s newly launched “Bing!” search engine. Bing! is nothing more than a rock chip along my travels on the information superhighway – thanks for scratching my paint.

Excited by all the internet buzz of this week, I visited Bing.com only to discover that I had been Punk’d. Featuring a boring graphic of nature at Her finest, Bing! offered me a search bar, and implored me to “Explore” five choices along the left navigation: Images, Videos, Shopping, News, Maps and Travel. At the bottom of the screen they offered me a “Popular Now” section with a few topics that are certainly not popular in my search behavior.

I admit that at this point I was thoroughly unimpressed. I’m a search marketer and we always hammer home the message that our client’s landing pages have to be compelling. We implore them: “You’ve got to grab your audience’s attention and inspire them to click through your site!” “Add graphics”, we suggest, “use video technology to demonstrate your products, give your reader dynamic web copy, and above all demonstrate the value of your brand and your product above the competition.”

I cannot be excited about a page that fails to embrace these simple marketing truths. No, Google’s homepage is not the stuff search engine marketers dream of – but they were first in line and get points for originality.

I feel let down. All the hype and I get a white-letter logo with an orange dot for the “i” and an old Windows Live page with a facelift. Oh, and the social media connectivity or integration? I suppose they ran out of time or money to add these as features since they were concentrating on adding their clairvoyant flight fare finder which will tell me to hold off buying that ticket because the price is likely to drop. If the rest of the world is interested in social media, why are you showing me pictures of the mountains and calling it brand new? Besides, I had to hunt down the video tutorial to teach me how to find and use their flight and hotel planner. You know, it’s funny, I know of five other sites that offer that same “New!” feature.

I recognize that my opinion is in direct contrast with many of you Bing! luv-ahs, but I’m afraid that embracing Bing! sets a standard that we just can’t accept. I expected more from you Microsoft – and I hope the purported $80 million you’re spending on advertising this remodel can be put towards adding on some real, usable features. On behalf of search engine marketers, informed consumers, savvy Internet explorers, persons with heartbeat, and individuals across the nation who can’t stand to be hyped up and then disappointed – Bing!, since you failed to lead, or even follow, please get out of the way. Besides, I hate chipped paint.

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Tags: Bing, landing page, microsoft, microsoft bing, new search engine, search engine, Search Engine Marketing

Resession Time Means Marketers Move More Dollars Online…

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Local Search, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

Not surprisingly, the budgets of more than 54% of marketers worldwide have been negatively affected by the recession, according to data gathered from an eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit.  Most would guess that advertisers are spending less – way less in the case of newspapers, local radio and television.  Got that, but then where are they spending their precious ad dollars?  If you guessed “online”  you guessed correctly.

It’s a fact during tough times, more marketers are adopting search engine marketing techniques.   Over 90% of marketers polled by eMetrics said they would increase or maintain their spend on e-mail advertising, and more than 83% said the same about paid search. Advertisers also want to know what they are getting for their search engine marketing investment.  In fact, over 87% of those surveyed plan either increasing or at least maintaining their spending on web analytics. This all adds up to one thing…accountability.  In the advertising world it is all about return-on-investment, measurability and the ability to target – hallmarks of search engine marketing.

Lastly, it looks like this trend will continue.  A recent report by eMarketer.com states that search engine marketing (specifically paid search, contextual advertising, paid inclusion and search engine optimization) “will experience increased spending through 2013. By then total US search marketing outlays will reach nearly $23.4 billion, and marketers will be spending more on SEO than on contextual advertising.”

Isn’t it time that your moved more of your marketing dollars online?

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Do You Know What Your Mom Is Doing Online?

Monday, May 18th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Internet News, Search Engine Marketing | No Comments

So what are American Moms doing online – checking their email, checking their checking account balance, the weather or what’s on sale?  How about all of the above?  Not surprisingly all of these are among the top ten online activities  for moms according to a study  by Marketing Moms Coalition. What is surprising is that the same study reports that American Moms with children under the age of eighteen spend an average of three hours a day on line, one hour more than the two hours their school age children are spending online.

This is great news for merchants who are selling their products online or utilizing the internet to influence the purchase of their product or service off line.  Families/Mothers with children under the age of eighteen consistently ranks among the most sought after demographics by advertisers.  In many cases these ladies carry the keys to their household’s treasure chest of disposable  income.  In short, American Moms are making or influencing most of their family’s purchases.  Knowing where one can find these moms (online) and understanding what they are doing there, allows marketers to more effectively target them.

Makes sense, but specifically where online can you find them and what tactics can a marketer utilize to reach them?  The most obvious is an email marketing campaign.  85% of American Moms are checking/sending email.  Gathering emails from and then re-marketing to moms with a professional, well designed and topical email marketing campaign should  be at the top of a marketer’s list.  One of our customers now ties in most of the discounts that they offer to “email club members”.   Within a several months they have built their email to well over a 1,000.

The next best place to find these American Moms are the search engines.  I submit that most of the remaining top ten activities involve a search on Google, Yahoo or MSN.  So a page one presence (91% of consumers never search past the first page)  on these search engines, in either the organic or sponsored links section, is paramount.  Display ads on sites which are targeting this demographic is another opportunity that should be considered.

So now that you know where you can find the typical American Mom,  isn’t it  time to reach out and tell her all the reasons why she should be spending money with you?

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Ad Spending on Internet Outpaces that Spent on Newspapers, Radio or Outdoor!

Thursday, April 16th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing | No Comments

Where are businesses investing their marketing dollars?  According to Neilson Online & AdAcross in December 2008 ad spending on the Internet was only topped by that spent on Television and National Magazines.   For years when planning their marketing expenditures, most marketing managers started with the “Big Four” – Television, Radio, Outdoor (Billboards) and Print (Newspapers & Magazines).  These traditional media were where consumers were going for information and/or entertainment.  Not anymore!  Now Americans spend as much time online each day as they do watching television – which had been the area where most people spent their leisure time.  When online, consumers’ two favorite activities are email & search.  So it is no surprise that more and more ad dollars are being shifted to search engine marketing and email marketing. There is one thing, however, that most marketers haven’t changed.   They still invest their precious ad dollars where it will reach the most prospects.  The Internet, lead by Search Engine Marketing, is such a place.  Plus, SEO & PPC offer advertisers another bonus…the ultimate in advertising accountability.  But that’s a topic for another day.

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Tags: Ad Spend, billboard, neilson, ppc, radio, Search Engine Optimization, television

What Are Consumers Looking For on the Web?

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 | Internet Marketing | No Comments

Coupons!

According to a recent article in USA Today “Coupon search clicks: Sweet sound for Web marketers” some of the most searched terms on the web today include “coupon” and “discount”.  As Bill Clinton said during his 1992 presidential campaign, “It’s the economy, Stupid”.  Consumers might just be telling us the same thing – by their actions online.  USA Today reports “As consumers troll online to save money, searches that include value words such as ‘coupons’ rose 161% in December vs. 2007 to 19.9 million and “discount” rose 26% to 7.9 million, reports tracker ComScore”.

So what might that mean to you?  Well USA Today isn’t the only media reporting that coupon usage is on the rise.  Consumers have made it clear that they are all about saving money – now more than ever.  A typical Search Results Page will return up to ten advertisers competing (with text ads) for your attention and clicks.  Why not give the consumer what they are looking for in your text ad – COUPONS!  A special discount might be just what entices your prospect to “click” on your ad and proceed to a Landing Page. That page, of course, should contain these money saving coupon, as well as loads of other reasons why they should do business with your company.  It sounds simple, but coupon savings are what your prospects are looking for and a great way to direct them to you!

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Tags: internet coupons, web coupons

What were they thinking!?

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 | Internet Marketing | 3 Comments

To be in business today you have to realize that public opinion is vital to your success. You have to be aware that what you present to the public gets passed around, commented on, analyzed, and if you’re presenting something the public doesn’t agree with, it’s going to come back and bite you in a big way.

Two prime examples recently have been the Chrysler full-page ad debauchery (in conjunction with the automaker fat-cats taking their private jet to ask Capital Hill for billions in bailout money), and not quite so much in the spotlight–Gatehouse Media, Inc. sued the New York Times Co. for linking to their news stories.

If you haven’t somehow seen it already, Chrysler spent hundreds of thousands to take out a full-page ads in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and USA Today to thank the American public for their support.  This created a maelstrom of negative feedback. Blogs lit up all over with nasty comments on it.  My personal favorite was, “I’ll put my kids on a mule before I’ll put them in a Chysler.”  Basically, this “thank-you” came across as a slap in the face to Americans who are already angry about footing the bill for automakers. Patrick Di Chiro at Idea Driven Marketing summed it up best, “They have so misjudged the mood of the country and bungled the essential PR challenge of building support for their cause, that it’s now clear that they cannot be helped. No matter the rightness of their case.”

What were they thinking!

In the second case, when Gatehouse Media, Inc. sued the New York Times Co. for taking snippets of news, it created a hub-bub in a different crowd. As an SEO company, we stress to our clients constantly the value of link building. You can optimize your site all day long, but if you don’t have quality links coming into your site, you really aren’t going to get noticed by the public or the search engines. This major flub by Gatehouse Media, defies the logic of this simple truth. How could you not appreciate a huge company like the New York Times Co. taking the time to link to your site? They have since come to an agreement that the New York Times Co. has agreed to remove all GateHouse feeds that contain headlines and ledes from Boston.com. I’m betting in the future that the New York Times Co. will likely pass up any opportunity to link to Boston.com and other sites will be leary to do so as well. So while this may not have been as big of a deal in the news as Chrysler’s muck-up was, I think in the long run this is going to have a very negative effect on Boston.com’s value.

What were they thinking!

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Tags: Chrysler, Gatehouse Media, link building, New York Times, PR, public opinion

Is RICO being Added to the Google Adsense for Domain Typosquatting Case?

Thursday, April 17th, 2008 | Internet Marketing, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

Vulcan Golf now wishes to add a RICO 18 U.S.C. §1962(a) charge.

“The plaintiffs now seek to file a second amended
complaint repleading certain of their previously dismissed claims and adding a RICO count under 18 U.S.C. § 1962(a).”

I believe Google using its power and organization to engage in illegal activity. The illegality trademark infringement, profiting by trading on trademarks owned by other via typosquatting, and of course the organization is the Google the registrars and the Domain holders. But my reading of RICO tells me that there must be a vilolent act to qualify under RICO. Can anybody help clarify that?

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Tags: 18 U.S.C, Goolge, racketering, RICO, Typosquatting, Vulcan Golf

Google Sued over TypoSquatting on Domain Names can go forward

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 | Internet Marketing, PPC Advertising | No Comments

Judge Blanche Manning of the Northern District Federal Court in Illinois ruled that there was sufficient cause to move forward in the case brought by Vulcan Golf. For anyone that follows my thoughts on this they might remember that I believe that Google profits from, enables and in part created the typosquatting problem. Google:

“pays registrants for its use of the purportedly deceptive domain names … uses semantics technology to analyze the meaning of domain names and select revenue maximizing advertisements and controls and maintains that advertising”

What was not said is that Google profits from this action.

Online Media Daily Reports – Wendy Davis

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Tags: adsense for domains, google, gougle sued, typosquating