Archive for July, 2007

As Internet Marketers we need to evaluate all types of emerging media and use it (if it makes sense) to drive traffic, links, brand awareness, etc.

So, here are a couple of industry research charts that demonstrate the potential power of a Social Media Campaign:

Notice Digg is on the list at #28.

In speaking with some people not in the Search industry there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding how the PPC Auction works, and how the “Actual CPC” is calculated. This post should clear everything up.

In a nutshell…
- PPC auction is in real-time.
- Advertiser bids a CPC (Cost per Click) on Keywords.
- Ranking is determined by: Max CPC x Quality Score.

That seems pretty straightforward. So, now let’s get a little more granular in the actual calculations that Google goes thru to determine the Actual CPC.

To calculate advertiser A’s Actual CPC (in Scenerio #1), we divide advertisers B “Rank number” by A’s Quality Score, and add 1 cent.

Scenerio #1

Ads are ranked by Rank Number.

Rank number = ( Max CPC * Quality Score).

.65/1.8=.36 the result is the amount that would cause Adverstiser’s A ad to appear in Advertiser’s B’s position.

To appear above that position, you simply add 1 cent to that amount.
.65/1.8=.36 + 1 = $0.37 Actual CPC.

Note:
You only pay the CPC necessary ($0.01) to have a rank number higher than that of the next lower bid.

If a keyword has a low quality Score then Google sets a Minimum Bid needed for your keyword to enter the auction.

The factors affecting your ad rank are:
1) Quality Score
2) Max CPC

So, if you ratchet-up your Max CPC, you will increase your Ad Rank.

The factors affecting your Quality Score are:
1) The keyword CTR.
2) Relevance of ad text.
3) Historical keyword performance.
4) Quality of ad’s landing page.
5) and other relevancy factors.

Any optimization of these factors has the potential to increase your Quality Score, lower your CPC, and/or increase your Ad’s position in the SERP’s.

Here are 10 ways to increase your Quality Score.
In a follow-up post, I’ll write more detail on the Quality Score.

Have you noticed the Search Suggestions as you type your search query? My guess is, yes. Both Google & Yahoo are doing this. MSN is doing it, but it looks like they are behind G & Y!

On July 11th Yahoo introduced their new Search Suggestions feature. Barry wrote about it, and shows a visual on how to disable it.

I’ve been wondering how these new toolbar features are affecting website traffic.

Here is a screenshot of Google Suggest for Michael Buble:

Notice they are not ordered by Search volume.

The results are similar to the Google Toolbar. However, on the toolbars there is no mention of search volume.

Yahoo defines their Search Suggestions as, “Search Suggestions are relevant keywords that are offered in real-time as you type. You can choose them by scrolling through the list using the arrow keys or your mouse.” How does Yahoo define relevancy?

Yahoo only offers “suggestions” and “History”. However, this is working on Yahoo’s Homepage. Search suggestions DON’T work on Google’s homepage. Just in the Google Toolbar.

Google offers “Did you mean”, “History”, and Suggestions”. Yahoo does NOT offer the “Did you mean” feature….yet.

How do they decide which phrases to suggest? What factors are they weighting more important for relevancy? Can’t they disclose this in a way that Google did regarding Quality Score?

Is there a way to optimize sites for the Search Suggestion feature?

Postscript:
Danny left a few comments on Sphinn that shed a little more light on this.

I just bought a camcorder. Now, I can finally upload videos to Youtube. So, naturally I want to do a optimize my videos so they appear high in the search rankings for my specific keywords. So, last night I scrutinized several search results on Youtube, and here are my findings.

When searching on Youtube, there are 4 ways to sort the Video results on the SERP. That means there is 4 different ways you can optimize to rank highest.
1) Relevance
2) Date Added
3) View Count
4) Rating

To rank high by “Date”, “View Count”, and “Rating” is pretty straightforward. Just be the most recent or have the most VIews/Ratings.

But, ranking high by relevance is another story. That’s because the ranking factors are unknown. Well, they’re not exactly unknown. They’re just unpublished by the Search Engines. So, here’s my opinion to ranking high when sorted by “Relevence”. The best way to optimizing video for relevancy is using multiple variables like: title, description, Views, Link popularity, favorites, comments, and rating.

Basics Techniques:
1) Include your keyword in the Title (This is crucial…IMO more important than placing the KW in the description). The Video title will appear in the Title tag of the webpage on Youtube.
2) Include your keyword in the description.
3) Include your keyword in the Tags.
4) Choose the right category. Categorizing your videos correctly will make it easier for the “relevancy engine” and also for searchers.

Advanced Techniques:
The objective is to show your video is the most authoritative and a good resource.

1) Write a long description.

• Mention your keyword.
• Insert a URL in the description.
• Add quotes around specific phrases in description (if it makes sense to do so).

4) Get comments on your video.
5) Get your Video rated.
6) Increase Link Popularity by conducting a strategic Link Campaign.
7) Get your Video “favorited”.
8 ) Conduct a Social Media campaign to promote your video.
9) Conduct a Myspace Optimization.

NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNNITY?
It seems to me that this could open up an opportunity for a new type of business model. Where an ad network could charge X dollars for X amount of favorites/ratings/comments.

SIDE BENEFIT of Video Optimization:
An optimized video can appear in the web search results pages by Google. By optimizing your Video, you are also increasing your chances that your video can appear in the Organic Web Results. That’s because Google now incorporates Video into the Web results on Google.com. Recently called, Google Universal Search.

Here’s one of my first videos. It’s of a Green Terror Attack.

The objective of Reputation Repair is, simply stated, to generate positive press, get it ranked, and bury the old/bad press.

If you discover some inflammatory press, what you’ll need is a full-blown reputation management campaign.

Some things ( A Bakers Dozen) you’ll need to do:
1) Create Forum posts with “your name” in the Title. Post to ALOT of forums.
Use powerful forums like daniweb, webmasterworld, www.flashmobileforum.org, etc.
2) Create a Wikipedia page. “Your name” is worthy. If done right, it shouldn’t get rejected. The link has a nofollow, but the Title tag is golden.
3) Create a Rollyo profile. (use your full name).
4) Create a Technorati profile. (use your full name).
5) Create a MySpace profile. (use your full name in the URL).
6) Create a Digg profile. (use your full name).
7) Optimize your bio page.
Link to “Your name” from every web property you own. Create a new “Your name” webpage from a different domain.
9) Hire a copywriter to write a longpage webpage. Optimize it.
10) Run a PPC Campaign. Bid on your name, and every combination of your name. Because, others may be bidding on your name if you’re not.
11) Don’t just limit your efforts to Web Search. Search is many things today. Perhaps you need to repair your Image Search reputation or Video Search reputation?
12) Write a Viral piece, and submit it to a ton of Social Media sites.
13) Write a Press Release using hyperlinks that contain “your name”.

- After each forum post/link/webpage, submit it to Google manually.

Depending on the severity of the damage, conduct a Media Buy for Links for your name.

Reputation Management Tools:
BlogPulse
Technorati
Cymphony
Moreover
Google Web Search

Regardless on whether you work on the client-side, an agency, a consultant, or a do-it-yourselfer…Sometimes you just need to build a keyword list and create a forecast for the keyword performance sooner than the Search Engine reps can deliver it to you. Maybe it’s due to a client request, maybe its for an internal request, maybe it’s for your own research. Whatever the reason, here’s a quick solution:

Go to the Google Keyword Tool, or any other keyword tool of your choice.

Build your keyword list. Feel free to add keywords that the keyword tool doesn’t show. The reason I say that is because 25% of Search Queries are new, and won’t appear in the keyword tools. So, if you can think of a related search phrase, odds are, someone else will too and potentially use it in a search query. Predicting search terms before the demand arrives, reminds me of an SEO strategy called Predictive SEO.

After you’ve built your keyword list, go to the Google Traffic Estimator Tool.
Export as CSV, and format the spreadsheet as you desire.

Using this method, you’ll get the estimated Avg CPC, Click Volume, Avg Positions, and Estimate Cost.

Search engines need to be able to read the text on your webpage to figure out what it is about. If there isn’t any text, then your site most likely isn’t going to rank well for anything. So, before you trash that expensive flash site, hold on. There are some inexpensive SEO tactics you can try. Instead of redesigning an entire flash site or using technical SEO to optimize flash files, it’s possible to achieve high search engine rankings by doing just a few simple things.

1) Place text in footer that contains your keyword.
2) Put your chosen keywords in the Title tag and Meta data.
3) Conduct a Strategic Link Campaign.
4) Buy a link on a web directory. A good web directory to accomplish this is BOTW.
5) Use “review sites” such as Reviewme & PayPerPost. But be careful in choosing the right site…because it’s possible the strength of the “review site” could cause the review to outrank your site.

Depending on the competitiveness of your keywords and the KEI, you might only need to do one of the things listed above (Eg: place a text link in the footer).

Another alternative is to create a HTML version of the flash site. You don’t need to worry about duplicate content issues because the Search Engine spider can’t read the flash site anyway.