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Welcome to the ineedhits Search Engine Marketing blog, where we share the latest search engine and online marketing news, releases, industry trends and great DIY tips and advice.

We encourage you to get involved in our blog community - so share your opinions and experiences by leaving comments on our posts.

If you're looking for help with promoting your website - check out our range of affordable search engine marketing services.

Tuesday, February 28

NEW: Free Google Web Page Creator

Well it has been a long time coming, but finally Google have offered the inevitable - a simple free web page design service.

Search engine marketing is easily the most rapidly growing marketing channel around the world. So what restricts companies from capitalising on this hot marketing trend? The lack of a web presence. Google have helped remove this boundary by offering an easy web design solution for all businesses.

It's a simple case of arithmetic. Grow your potential customer base by making it easier to enter the market. Other search engines have offered similar services for some time, so it is surprising that Google have taken this long to follow suit. Yahoo! have offered a similar product through their GeoCities service which includes some basic hosting also.

So whilst the new Google web page creator is a step in the right direction, there is still plenty of scope for improvement. In what looks like a direct effort to compete with Microsoft's new "Live" offerings and other web design and hosting solutions, Google still have some work in presenting an all encompassing solution.

My initial attempt to trial their web page creator service was blocked by what appears to be a regular Google beta issue - their capacity had been exceeded shortly after beta launch. But not put off by my first failure, I endeavoured to try again at the time of writing this article, to be finally granted access.

The service appears to be quite simple to use, and offers a relatively professional looking web page for beginners. Whether this will service the needs of a genuine business looking for a proper e-commerce style web presence, I am not sure, but for people starting out and wanting a basic website to get the ball rolling, it's a great solution.

I am interested to know whether preference will be given to Google hosted websites when it comes to their search engine rankings, as surely the new website service will provide web pages that strictly adhere to their guidelines (other than content of course).

Stay tuned as I test the theory, and provide an update in the coming weeks....

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Ask.com - Goodbye Butler Jeeves, Hello Serious Search

Well, the day has come where the once iconic butler of the Ask Jeeves search engine has finally be laid to rest, or retired at least. The anticipated retrenchment of Jeeves was widely publicized late last year, but in the past week, the site changes have finally been implemented.

In the wake of the butler's departure, Ask.com has taken on a minimalist homepage appearance which is synonymous with the top search engines these days. Front and center is the customary search box, but off to the right is a handy little toolbox with all the advanced search functionality neatly packaged for easy access.

Whilst most of the advanced search features are nothing new, including image search, news, maps and directions, weather, encyclopedia, thesaurus, movie listings, stock market, and currency conversion, it is obvious that Ask.com are readying themselves for the web 2.0 revolution. The first steps include access to the Ask.com mystuff section, easy access to Bloglines, and user defined controls on the toolbox's appearance.

The first release presents very comparably to Ask.com's main adversaries like Yahoo!, MSN and Google, but their spokesman and General Manager, Jim Lanzone, suggests they are planning to build more tools and services through outside developers to ensure "...users are going to experience a search engine that does more for them faster than any other search engine they use."

So as Jeeves takes up his position on the sun lounge at the nearest retirement village, the team at Ask.com are moving full steam ahead to re-establish themselves as a serious search engine..

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Title Tags - Ignore Them at Your Own Peril

Take a guess: What, in your opinion, is the single most important meta tag for search engine optimization?

Most search engine optimization experts would agree that the humble HTML title tag deserves this title. Much has been written about the title tag in the past, but even if you think you know all you need to know about title tags, you should set aside some time to review your title tags again and make sure they meet best practices for tag optimization.

What are title tags?
Title tags are displayed in the very top left of your browser window; they are inserted into the "frame" of your browser window above your menus and toolbars. The title tag of this article page is: "ineedhits SEM Blog: Title Tags - Ignore Them at Your Own Peril".

The title tag is so important for search engine optimization purposes because search engines use it to determine relevancy and also list it (or parts of it) in the search engine results pages, linking to your site. To make sure you've got the basics right, here's a checklist of title tag do's and don'ts:

Title Tag Checklist

Make sure every single page of your website has an individual title tag written specifically for each page.
Keep them short. Many search engines only index no more than the first 80 characters of a title tag.
Start with the most important keywords. Since search engines may only index the first 80 characters, make sure your most important keywords are at the beginning of the tag.
No keyword stuffing. Remember that the title tag appears in the browser frame and in search engine results, and your visitors will read them. Write the title tag with your visitors in mind - search engine optimization should not decrease your visitors' experience of your site.
Put your company name at the end of a title tag or leave it out. Unless you are trying to optimize for your company name (because it is searched a lot or because it contains relevant keywords), either place your company name at the end of a title tag or leave it out altogether - you can use the space for more important keywords. But on some pages, it is probably a good idea to include your company name - for example on your homepage or your contact page.

While the title tags is the most important of the meta tags for search engine optimization purposes, you also should have optimized keyword tags and description tags to provide search engine spiders with relevant information for indexing. If you are sure what keywords to optimize for or would like some professional meta tag copywriting, check out our Optimizer Kit PLUS service. Alternatively, the Business Essentials service progressively optimized one page of your website per month.

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Yahoo! Clamps Down on Trademarked Keyword Bids

A popular keyword strategy in pay-per-click advertising has been to set premium bids for the terms that include your competitor's brand name. Well, this highly effective strategy will now be a thing of the past within Yahoo!'s paid advertising program.

In highly competitive industries, it has been an easy way to capitalize on your competitors' hard work. Assuming your rival company has done a better job of building top-of-mind recall in your target audience, why not bid on their trademarked brand name and secure pay-per-click traffic from searchers looking for their website.

Not any more. Yahoo! has just implemented a new ruling, whereby the bidding on trademarked terms will no longer be allowed unless you are the owner of the trademark. These endeavours to protect trademarked names will leave many lesser known brands looking for a new strategy in their paid search advertising campaigns.

Considering the efforts companies go though to secure their brand names and technology through copyrights, patents and trademarks, it was only a matter of time before search engines preserved these branding regulations. But behind every honest looking strategy there is usually some ulterior motive, and on this occasion, I believe Yahoo! is hoping to attract bigger brands to their paid search advertising programs.

Considering one of the major predictions for 2006 hints at more large companies entering the search engine marketplace for branding purposes, this might be an instrumental strategy by Yahoo! to reduce brand advertisers' concerns about competing bidders. Rest assured, if it begins to pay dividends, it won't be long before Google implement similar rulings.

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Tuesday, February 21

Advertise on Google Earth!

Here's one news snippet from the "weird and wonderful, but also quite clever" basket. Colin Fitz-Gerald, a roofing business owner from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, wants to launch a business displaying ads on rooftops aimed especially at users checking out satellite imagery on Google Earth or Microsoft's Live Local. The idea of rooftop advertising isn't new, but so far it has only been used in the vicinity of airports.

The idea of using roof space for advertising aimed at Google Earth users is very clever considering the cult status of the program and the huge future potential of local search and imaging applications. I'm not sure what the most visited locations on Google Earth are - but imagine a rooftop ad next to New York's Times Square or the Louvre in Paris!

Unfortunately, Colin has yet to come up with a business plan, find roof space, advertisers and a way to temporarily place advertising messages on rooftops. The biggest hurdle of all is that current Google Earth footage can be up to four years old, so there is no guarantee that an ad will be seen on Google Earth any time soon.

But full marks to Colin for entrepreneurial and lateral thinking!

BMW.de Back in Google Again

Just a quick follow-up to an earlier article by Ren. The entire search marketing community took notice when www.bmw.de was kicked out of the Google index for using black hat optimization techniques (see Ren's post "Google Lays Down the Law on BMW"). Only a few days later, bmw.de is back in Google after removing JavaScript redirecting pages and talking to Google's webspam team.

What can you do if you have a similar problem? Send a reinclusion request to Google. Google's Matt Cutts explains exactly what you need to do in this blog post of his.

The Challenge of Keeping Pay-Per-Click Campaigns Profitable

If you have been in the market to buy an engagement ring, you've probably come across online diamond jeweler Blue Nile. The company is a highly successful online jewelry retailer with annual sales of $200 million, and competes against the likes of Tiffany and Zale. In addition, Blue Nile has been a poster child and often-quoted case study for various aspects of online marketing, since the company has applied some highly innovative email and other online marketing ideas and built a successful business in a very demanding market.

This month, some of the sparkle has come off this success story: The company's share price fell sharply after disappointing fourth quarter results, and a disappointing outlook for flat earnings growth in 2006 has left investors scratching their heads.

What is really interesting are the reasons given by Blue Nile's management for this disappointing performance: The company has stated that a cost explosion in paid search (pay-per-click) advertising has reduced their ability to drive as much profitable sales growth as originally expected. Blue Nile said that the cost of their Google AdWords campaign has risen by 50% compared to the previous year. To ensure its paid search remains profitable, Blue Nile has refused to pay click prices that it deems to be too high, i.e. that no longer provide the required return on investment. Cutting back on the paid search expenditure has hit the company so much because they strongly relied on paid search as an advertising channel - pay-per-click advertising used to be their most cost-effective form of advertising.

Blue Nile's experience reflects that of many other online advertisers complaining about rising pay-per-click costs. On the other hand, paid search advertising remains a very effective advertising channel for many companies. This is reflected in the forecasts for continuing paid search growth. Some of this growth may be driven by inflated click costs, but much of it will come from new advertisers (and brand advertisers) entering the paid search arena profitably.

How can small and medium businesses make paid search work for them once the big fish with deeper pockets are crowding the market? For one thing, keeping a good grip on your ROI is essential - you need to know how much you can afford to spend per click to acquire a profitable customer. Secondly, you need to get even smarter about your pay-per-click campaign. For example, you can exploit possible pricing imperfections or pursue a niche keyword strategy, limit your campaign geographically or limit it only to your most profitable product lines. All of this can be quite complex and time-consuming, but it is definitely worth the effort if you get it right. If you need some expert help, check out ineedhits' Easy PPC service - an affordable, easy way to get a professionally managed pay-per-click campaign without having to worry about it yourself!

Google PR Update in Progress.

The predictions suggested it would happen in early February 2006. As per usual, webmasters around the world have been watching with baited breath to see what would come of the latest Google PR (Page Rank) update.

Well, the time is now. According to an unofficial Google blog, the PR updates started on February 18th at two of Google's data centers, and are apparently making their way quickly to other centers. However some of the data centers have actually rolled back their PRs.

So with no clear time frame set-out for the completion of the PR update, it appears flux will reign supreme in the short-term. As the forums are abuzz with people speculating about how things will pan out, we will keep an eye on the update progress and provide insights into the latest PR shift as they come to hand.

If you've experienced the effects of the update already, share your experiences with the rest of us by posting a comment.

Microsoft "Live" - Genuine Challenge to Google & Yahoo!

There's no hiding the significant effort Microsoft are putting into re-vamping their online software and search services. We recently reported on the new "Live" branding that has been launched, which is designed to be the new label for Microsoft's online offerings.

The latest update has seen two major changes to their search engine and yet another "Live" beta release. Firstly, their search engine results are now displayed in the neat, clean cut white format that appears to be the trademark appearance of all their "Live" beta releases. The new format removes much of the clutter that once filled their results pages which makes the search experience much simpler and more user friendly.

Some of the highlights of the new format include a wider search field, increased use of the web page's real estate and a new search builder functionality which allows more advanced style searches. It includes the usual array of advanced options but also features a results ranking facility, so that users can weight the rankings based on 3 core criteria; Update Recently, Popularity and Exactness of Match.

Whilst the new format is much clearer and easier to use, my only concern is the lack of cohesion between the MSN sites. If you complete a search request on www.msn.com, which is the typical MSN graphical interface, the results appear in a totally different format. If you remove the subtle MSN butterfly, you'd never know that you were within the same online network. Maybe their portal site will be the next site to get a refreshed "Live" layout.

The other major update has been the release of their latest algorithm tweak. Many have noticed a significant change in their SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). As with all updates, some website owners are pleasantly surprised with the new results while others re-evaluate their SEO strategy in an effort to re-establish their higher rankings.

In continuing with the massive release schedule for the â€œLiveâ€ project, they have also just made Office â€œLiveâ€ available in beta. Comprised of three versions, Office Live is squarely aimed at the small business market, providing tools for building and managing web sites, storing and managing data, and collaboration/project tracking services.

Though all three versions are free during the beta period, only the Office Live Basics will remain free after a full release. The Collaboration and Essentials packages will eventually incur a monthly fee.

Microsoft has offered many of these services in the past under the bCentral brand, but the lack of market penetration of bCentral has forced the new positioning. "Live" is aimed at placing Microsoft in direct competition with Yahoo! and Google, whilst also countering large web services companies like GoDaddy.

It appears that 2006 is the year that Microsoft has decided to push full steam ahead with the improvement of their online services. Early signs show they are heading in the right direction and are providing genuine competition for Google and Yahoo!

New: Frequent Searcher Programs

The tremendous rise in search engine usage and popularity has been driven by the free nature of the media. Users have a wealth of information at their fingertips for free. So how could things get better? It's simple - imagine getting rewarded for searching.

The competition between search engines is driving the new push to reward searchers. As many of the major search engines are storing more information than most of us will need in a lifetime, and the algorithms used to generate rankings are getting much more intelligent and user-centric, how will users select which search engine to use? It appears rewards programs could be the deciding factor.

MSN and Yahoo! were the first major search engines to enter the reward for search space. MSN have a 3 month competition in place, where searchers will be offered prizes for using the MSN search engine.

Yahoo! is also busily setting up its own rewards program. Currently completing research within its Yahoo! Mail customer base, they are aiming to set-up their incentive program around a Yahoo Search Rewards toolbar. Some of the incentives being researched include frequent flier miles, Netflix discounts and upgrades within their own online software services.

Prefound.com, a community based search engine, is taking the rewards system to a new level. In a system that relies on its users providing the content from their own search experiences, prefound.com need to increase its index content quickly. So what better way to do it than offer to pay users for supplying the content?

To participate, you can become a prefound.com Featured Finder, whereby you will receive any AdSense revenue that is derived from your page on the prefound.com site. As community based search engines continue to gain in popularity, expect to see more of them using similar reward tactics to bolster their indexes.

Other mediums such as radio and newspapers have been rewarding their audiences for years, in an effort to maintain and/or grow their active customer base. It was only a matter of time before search engines followed suit. And the best part is - we (searchers) get to continue doing what we do best, "surfing the net", and now can get prizes or even money for doing it...viva la search!

Tuesday, February 14

Microsoft "Live" - the Death of MSN

Microsoft announced plans recently to re-brand their range of online services including free e-mail; instant messenger and web search under the name "Live" which could be a sign that the MSN brand has seen the end of its days.

MSN was once one of the most recognizable brands online, but it appears the new focus of Microsoft on the online world could see the departure of the iconic logo and brand in an effort to reposition the company on top of the internet game once again.

Although executives close to the project deny claims that the re-branding is because MSN was a sinking ship. They believe the changes will allow MSN, Microsoft's Internet portal, to focus more on providing content such as entertainment and even home videos.

Microsoft suggests the "Live" project is designed to banner all their online software and services which will provide them a better way to compete directly with Google, Yahoo! and other companies offering similar online services.

The end goal is to have their online services compliment their windows based software, which some analysts see as counter productive. The risk is that the free online services will cannibalize their offline products.

Well with all the suggestions and announcements aside, those of you who have been fortunate enough to start playing with some of the "Live" tools will surely agree that they are strong steps in the right direction.

My hotmail account was recently transitioned over to the new Windows Live Mail beta format - and what an improvement. As an online junkie, so to speak, and for the needs of my job, I currently have about 10 free mail accounts running through various service providers, and the functionality that the new Live version offers is a breath of fresh air. No longer can free email providers rely on the argument "It's free and web based, so obviously it has limited functionality."

Modeled heavily on Outlook, its PC based equivalent, the joys of drag and drop, group deleting, address auto completes, short cuts galore, genuine right click functionality and the my personal favorite, preview panes, leaves the other free mail services trailing well behind.

If this is where Microsoft is heading with their online software and services - I say good luck to them. It was about time someone started really pushing things forward. If you haven't set-up your beta Live e-mail account yet, get to it.

As they say: Once you go "Live" - you won't go back! (Okay - maybe they don't)

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DIY Tip: AdSense Worth $1 Billion in 2005 - Get Your Share in 2006!

Let's face it, most of us are using the internet to make money, be it directly through e-commerce websites through to generating more leads or greater awareness of your brand or company.

Now all profit orientated businesses are driven by increasing their revenue at the lowest costs. With the internet, your website represents a great way to make additional income outside of your core business. One of the most common ways that website owners are doing this currently is through advertising on their site â€“ nothing new here. But the little text adds that we have all grown so accustomed to seeing, Google AdSense, is actually a great way to create a solid supplementary income for your online business.

That's assuming you do it right! So many website owners have gone down the track of including Google AdSense on their site to increase their revenue flow, only to find it has paid little if nothing. The following are some tips from MarketingSherpa that will help you turn AdSense into an effective revenue source for your business.

1. Use the Text Ad Option:
Research suggests that the text ads generate a greater response rate than their image based counterparts. Revenue from AdSense is all about response - so text is the obvious choice.

2. Align Ads Close to the Focal Points of Your Page
It's important to strike a balance when it comes to placement of your Google AdSense. While trying to avoid distracting your audience with the ads, hiding the ads away from site provides no value to you.

3. Avoid the Standard Display Options.
As viewers become accustomed to the standard formats of AdSense, and inevitably their impact diminishes, the challenge is to carefully draw your viewers eye towards the ads. Many have seen significant increases in revenue by just the smallest changes in the appearance of the AdSense.

4. Blend the Ads Into Your Website
Most website owners use borders around the Google AdSense, which sections them off from the core content of the site. By omitting the borders or using border colors that reflect your websites scheme, it helps incorporate the advertising into the overall feel of your web pages. This will improve response rates and actually help maintain the cohesion of your website's presentation.

5. Match Content to Highest ROI Clicks
Although for most, Google AdSense is only a supplementary income stream and not the main basis for your website, your copy should be aimed at driving home your core business proposition. But bear in mind that Google AdSense is a contextual based advertising system, so to a certain degree the ads will reflect your content. Accordingly, by understanding what clicks are generating the highest returns (remember AdSense is an auction system, so not all clicks are worth the same amount), you can modify your copy to enhance the cross reference to the higher returning clicks. This will help you generate the greatest returns from your AdSense responses.

Now having provided these easy tips to improve the returns of your Google AdSense, remember that it is, in most cases, designed to supplement your core business (excluding sites designed solely for the purpose of generating AdSense revenue). Therefore it should not compromise the efforts you have put into building your website and brand.

Also, there are some basic rules to bear in mind when using Google AdSense. Google will exclude you from the program for the following:

1. Click fraud - Google tracks clicks and if the detect that you are artificially increasing the clickthrough; they will ban you from the program.

2. Offensive Content - It's a grey area, but generally any x-rated material or hate based content will see you banned from the AdSense program.

3. Website Design - Apparently Google have a basic design requirement for you to be able to publish AdSense, but so far it appears they are quite lenient.

So if you're looking for an additional revenue stream from your website, AdSense could be the answer. Use these great tips to ensure you are making the most of AdSense.

Yahoo! & MSN Generate More Sales than Google

When evaluating the best search engines to spend your marketing budget and effort on, usually the blanket rule of biggest is best, is applied. While being highly visible to a large audience is a great initial search engine marketing goal, when ROI becomes your campaigns driving force, the real objective is being seen by potential customers in a search engine that generates results. And this is when all search engines are not the same especially when evaluating Google vs. Yahoo! vs. MSN.

BIGresearch have just released their latest Simultaneous Media Study (SMM) which after consulting with 15000 respondents provides a great insight into which search engines are best for influencing purchase decisions on particular product categories. In lay terms - which search engine people use to buy specific products.

And here's where it gets interesting.

For all of you, like me, who thought that Google was sure to be at the top of most of the product categories - you'll be surprised!

The top 5 places overall for "influence on purchase decision" rank as follows:

Yahoo! (score of 13)

MSN (score of 21)

AOL (score of 23)

Google (score of 26)

Ask Jeeves (score of 32)

So already the landscape of search looks very different when you start rating search engine effectiveness based on their ability to generate the results you want - sales. Below I have provided a breakdown of top search engines by product category. When you start your next round of search engine marketing planning, it will pay to bear these ratings in mind when choosing where to spend your marketing budget. Focus your search engine marketing based on your product category.

Electronics

Google

Yahoo!

MSN

Apparel

AOL

Yahoo!

MSN

Grocery

AOL

Yahoo!

Ask Jeeves

HomeImprovement

Yahoo!

MSN

Ask Jeeves

Car/Truck

MSN

Yahoo!

Google

Medicines

Yahoo!

AOL

Ask Jeeves

Telecom

Google

MSN / Yahoo!

AOL

Eating Out

Yahoo!

MSN

Google / AOL

Source: BIGresearch Dec 2005

Monday, February 6

DIY Tip: Targeting Local Customers

With the major search engines making significant progress on "local search" this year, there are many ways you can make the most of this local focus.

Whilst the search engines are driving the "local" movement via their paid listings (pay-per-click), you can capitalize on the increased searcher awareness of geo-search through your organic search engine optimization efforts.

Let's face it, if you own a bricks and mortar business, chances are local customers are going to be one of your core target markets. Therefore it makes sense to address this geographical area in your optimization efforts.

A search engine can only categorize your website according to the information your web pages provide. It amazes me that so many businesses with clearly defined local markets ignore this, even in their basic web page copy.

In order to encourage the major search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo! to categorize your business within your locality, you must include specific local information on your web pages, such as your address and phone number, so that it is clear to the search engines which area your business services.

As customers begin to expect the local search functionality, capitalize on these expectations with your organic listings. While it all sounds obvious, we all know that optimization is not an overnight success, so start embracing the local search prospect now!

If you are looking for instant results from local search, Clicks4Sure is a form of paid advertising that provides guaranteed clicks from potential customers in your area for affordable set cost - starting at only $39.95 per month.

Google Lays Down the Law on BMW

Google has flexed its clout by dropping BMW Germany from its search engine after realizing the iconic car manufacturer's German website (bmw.de) was artificially boosting its popularity ranking.

This sends out a strong warning to all online businesses employing aggressive optimization techniques to maximize their exposure and traffic in the search engines. Whilst most company's are using ethical procedures that are acceptable in the eyes of Google and other search engines, it's fair warning to anyone using black-hat techniques (those not in line with the search engine's guidelines).

Google has openly stated they will be clamping down on web spam this year. Many smaller, or lesser known websites have probably suffered the consequences of these anti-spam efforts already, but BMW Germany is the highest profile company to experience the true impact of Google flexing its muscles.

JavaScript re-directs were the reason that BMW's website was dropped from Google's search engine. As Matt Cutts highlighted, this is in violation of Google's Webmaster Quality Guidelines, which clearly address the issue of deceiving users or search engines by showing different content to each - also known as cloaking.

Not only has the website been dropped from the search engine, but its strong page rank has also been zeroed, meaning it will need to start again and build up its ranking from scratch. A costly exercise not only in re-optimization efforts, but in lost revenue and exposure.

In a sign that this is not an isolated case, Ricoh.de is rumored to be the next large company website to suffer the same fate. So it appears that these aggressive techniques, which were synonymous with pornographic and gambling sites, are being employed on a much larger scale, and will not be tolerated by Google or any other search engines.

This situation highlights two very important facts. When large companies are resorting to these tactics, it reinforces the importance that is placed on getting a top ranking in the organic search results.

Secondly, it should be a clear warning that, whether you are undertaking your own optimization efforts or employing a company to conduct your search engine marketing for you, you need to confirm that the techniques being used are ethical and inline with Google's (and Yahoo!'s) guidelines. Most professional search engine marketing companies will promote this fact somewhere within the product or service pitch.

You have all been warned...

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