Archive for October, 2008

I recently attend an interesting talk at the RSA Europe Security conference on the subject of Google-Hacking and Google-Shielding given by Amichai Shulman, CTO of Imperva. Shulman is a really smart guy and understands how hackers will exploit search engines.

Schulman noted that one of the most prominent threats to online applications is the unintentional leakage of sensitive data via Google and other search engines. Schulman gave numerous examples of various automated tools that make the exploitation of this issue even easier for malicious individuals. One truly devastating attack is what he calls The Search of Death which is a type of mega-worm that crawls its way to vulnerable websites using search engines.

But the underlying issue is that in the rush to get their site optimized for search, far too many organizations have forgotten about security. Are your internal SEO experts and consultants advising you on the myriad risks with Google? Are you aware how much of your data is leaking out and available on Google and other search engines?

If you haven’t answered a strong yes to both of these questions, then your site is a strong candidate for Google exploitation. While the O in SEO is optimization, that optimization must include security. If you don’t know where your confidential data resided and how it is being used, then you likely don’t know how to prevent its loss. That sets up a perfect storm for data loss when dealing with SEO, as your SEO people likely don’t even have security on their minds.

Once a Googlebot and similar agents have finished, and your data has been breached, only an act of God will ever purge your data from the search engines. Security must be an integral part of your SEO strategy. If not, your data is at risk of loss and exposure. In my book, that is not optimization.

Ben Rothke is a security consultant and author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.

Guest post by Brian Wallace:

Everyone has a weakness…Superman has kryptonite, and we as social media enthusiasts have time working against us.

I’m sure that the title has you wondering: why would this guy begin by telling me his social media weakness? And what is a social media weakness, exactly? Allow me to explain.

There are too many social media sites to even begin to name. Sure, most of us know of the top ones: facebook, digg, reddit, stumbleupon….the question here is about where are you weakest. People typically focus on their strengths, which is fine, but a lot can be learned from your weaknesses as well.

Furthermore, you know you’re missing a good site not necessarily when you think its good or not. It’s all about user adoption. For instance, I know that many people think the world about FriendFeed. I personally do not use it very much, and prefer microblogging sites Twitter and Plurk. It’s all a lot to manage, and time is short, so I need to be selective in where I spend my time.

Still, that means that FriendFeed is one of my social media weaknesses.

Every so often, I review the latest trends and take a look at where I’m trending away from the mark. And I suggest that you do the same. Keep a journal and review every 1-2 months of where you aren’t spending enough attention and where you should. You’ll find the list very revealing.

Brian Wallace is a social media consultant - get it touch with him on his blog, or follow him on Twitter and Plurk.

Photo from SamSauce

Is there such a thing as an Industry Average for CTR?

I just reviewed 12 different PPC campaigns within the Music Industry across a handful of record labels. While I can’t share any of the specific numbers, I can speak in broad terms (no pun intended).

These 12 campaigns were for different Artists. The campaign objectives ranged from direct response (selling CD, Tickets, mp3, merch, fan club acquisition, etc), to brand awareness (eg: for the Video Music Awards).

There are also times when a large Brand will use an Artist’s song in a TV commercial, and the label wants to leverage that offline event to drive traffic online, and increase artist popularity.

Each campaign has a buildout of adgroups that is similar, however, the real differences lie in the landing pages, keywords, ad copy, bids, etc. And, that as we all know, is enough to blow up the idea that there is such a thing as an industry average. It also depends how aggressively you want to optimize for CTR.

Not to mention, one artist may be hugely more popular than another upcoming artist, and that reflects in the CTR and the CPC’s.

Another important consideration is if the Content Distribution network is opted into. That will pull down the CTR’s.

Another factor in the music industry is the heavy use of Flash, and Image-rich content pages. This has an adverse affect on Quality Score and Google penalizes by increasing the minimum bids. But, there are some artist who are moving away from that model, and interacting more with their fans thru blogs….which are typically text-rich. The crawlable relevant text helps their Quality Score.

Perhaps the industry average could be just that. Just tally up the average CTR & CPC of all 12 campaigns, and that’s the industry average. But, in my opinion, it’s not accurate to compare a competitive artist, to a less popular artist. Or, a branding campaign to a direct-response campaign.

Guest post by John Lee

While skimming through my blog reader this morning, I stumbled on a post that gave me a fit of the giggles. Somehow, the Microsoft adCenter blog had found a way to tie the buying cycle back to fly fishing! After reading, my giggles quickly turned into a thoughtful smirk as understanding and agreement sunk in. Targeting your customers with pay-per-click is a delicate process that involves a deep understanding of seasonality, trends and cyclical behavior – much like fly fishing. This great post was a gentle reminder of one of the most effective ways to increase conversion rates with PPC – target your customers (trout?) at each stage of the buying cycle.

How do you harness the power of PPC to do just that? It all comes down to segmentation. But first things first, you must understand the buying cycle. At its simplest form, the buying cycle is Research, Shop and Purchase. Easy enough. Your task as a search marketer is then to segment your efforts, and subsequently your keywords, based on each phase of the cycle. Here is a quick breakdown of how your keywords should be segmented for targeting the buying cycle:

RESEARCH

• Customers in the research phase are asking themselves the most basic of questions - What is a blog? Cell Phones? You get the picture…
• To effectively target customers in the research phase, you need to cast a wide net with your keywords (I couldn’t help myself, sorry).
• These customers who are performing research are entering general keyword phrases into the search engines.
• A lot of advertisers make the poor assumption that general keywords should be paused or deleted because they don’t directly turn into conversions. Wrong.
  • Bidding low on general keywords will keep your costs down, but your exposure up on the SERPs – the goal here is really just to be seen by your potential customers.

SHOP

• Customers who are shopping have moved past the “Cell Phones?” phase and are now on the hunt.
• Targeting these customers is pretty simple if you just attach some modifiers to your general keywords – i.e. buy, purchase, review, etc..
  • You can also begin to introduce variations here. For our cell phone example – start introducing keywords like “touch screen cell phone” or “internet capable cell phone.”
• If you know anything about the long tail of search, think of this phase of the buying cycle as the middle ground between “head” and “tail.”
• In terms of bidding, you want to start increasing bids in order to creep up the search results and become top of mind for these customers.
  • Your ad for “buy cell phones” should certainly be in the top 5 for the best traction.

PURCHASE

• If it wasn’t clear already, this is when customers are ready to buy. They should know you, and they should know your product/service.
• You should be really driving home the long tail keywords here. Include brand names, specific products.
• Bidding strategy? Crank ‘em up – these are customers who are ready to buy right now! You’ll blast your ROI outta the park with these keywords.
  • Assume you’re AT&T – you better be out bidding everyone for “buy iPhone 3G.”

This breakdown will get you well on your way to targeting your customers with PPC at each stage of the buying cycle. Though you should know, this is just the tip of the buying cycle iceberg. There are plenty of other tools in your tackle box (I had to, right?) to support your superb keyword segmentation. Your ad texts and landing pages play critical roles in ensuring that once you’ve snagged a customer at each stage of the buying cycle that they come back around for the next stage! My thanks to the adCenter blog for giving me a laugh, and better yet a reminder of another great PPC tactic.

John Lee works for Bloomington, Indiana based Hanapin Marketing where he manages both PPC and SEO campaigns and is a permanent fixture at PPCHero.com.

I’ve had my avatar for as long as I’ve had my blog. Never really giving it much thought when I created it, and never really thinking about it after the fact. And I know it shows. I’ll call this one my original Avatar.

I knew it was time for a change. But, the demands of everyday just kept bumping it lower on the priority list. The amount of time I am spending on Social Media sites is increasing. And, I know the importance of an Avatar.

Every top social media consultant will tell you to distinguish yourself by choosing an Avatar.

What really motivated me was when Shana posted all the details that went into her decision making process to change her Avatar, I knew I had to create a new avatar. I still procrastinated a little, but I knew it had to be done soon. Without much thought about it, I held up the camera at arms length and took a picture. And, another, and another. Until I was satisfied with this Avatar. I use this on my Twitter account. I’ve been getting somewhat addicted to Twitter. Follow me on Twitter.

The next day, I was driving in my car with camera at my side, and I thought let me take a few pics, maybe one will turn out okay. Voila. I use this Avatar for My Facebook profile. Facebook is another social media site that I’ve been increasingly using. The apps are cool, and it’s fun to use.

There is another Avatar that I didn’t intentionally create, but I use. It’s from Youtube.

Youtube is another social media site I’m active on. Subscribe to my Youtube channel. However, this is just a video thumbnail from a video of me at the gun range. But, I like it. So, I’ve been using it as my Avatar on Youtube. And I like it enough to actually consider using it as my exclusive Avatar. But, that’s another decision. Whether or not to use 1 exclusive avatar.

Currently, I’m using different Avatars for different Social Media sites. I think my next step might be to use one exclusively. I just haven’t decided yet. Hmmm. Which one to choose?