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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.

Wednesday, February 28

Yahoo!'s New Paid Inclusion Program - Register Now

ineedhits are proud to be announced as one of the exclusive resellers of Yahoo!'s new Search Submit Basic service. After a long standing relationship with Yahoo! reselling the previous Search Submit program, the new partnership represents an exciting opportunity for both companies and search marketing in general.

Search Submit Basic is a move towards the paid inclusion models that were extremely popular a few years ago. The new Search Submit Basic service offers:

Submission of 5 URLs (web pages) per domain into the organic (non-sponsored) search results on Yahoo! as well as portals such as Alta Vista and Alltheweb.
Generally URLs will be included within 4 days of submission, and remain in the Yahoo! database for 12 months.
All web pages receive 7 day refreshes (re-crawl) to ensure the most up-to-date content is displayed in the search results.
Detailed reporting on traffic and keyword rankings for the included URLs.

One of the most attractive features for many website owners and webmasters will be the fact there are no click fees associated with the program.

Considering our successful history with paid inclusion programs including Ask Jeeves, Inktomi and Alta Vista, ineedhits sees the new Search Submit Basic program as an important development in search marketing filling a critical niche in the market.

To get the latest information and news on our launch of Search Submit Basic, please visit our Search Submit Basic page, or email searchsubmit_basic@ineedhits.com to register your interest.

Tuesday, February 27

Microsoft adCenter Bug Makes Advertisers Pay Thousands

If you have a Microsoft adCenter account, you may have seen a major spike in your cost-per-click prices over the weekend, with the system suffering from a major bug. First reports emerged on SEroundtable with close attention to a thread on WebmasterWorld.

The post includes quotes from different users reporting on how the bug has affected them. One user reports:

"They charged me $5.10/click on something that is clearly set at $0.44/click! My daily spend increased almost 10-fold from $140 to over $1350 yesterday!"

The post also shows screenshots of a customers account, showing a dramatic increase in the average CPC (cost-per-click) even though the bid is set to only 50c.

The hive of activity online was quickly picked up by Microsoft who were swift to act on a solution to the problem. From the Microsoft adCenter blog:

"Some of our adCenter advertisers are seeing high cost-per-click (CPC) and spend amounts in their accounts. I will update this post with more information as soon as I have it, but I wanted to let you know that this issue is now resolved and those of you who were overcharged, we're working on a plan to credit your accounts for over-charges as soon as possible."

To Microsoft's credit, they were quick to act and have now automatically refunded all accounts that were overcharged. If you were affected by this bug, let us know what happened!

5 Tips to Improve Your Search Ranking with Good Content

One of the most important on-page SEO factors is often forgotten by many website owners - content. I like the old saying, "content is king" because it still plays a huge part in determining how websites rank in search engines. Generally, the more relevant content you can provide the better.

Other factors do play a part, such as quality, relevance and optimizing your content, but generally more is better. Why? Because search engine spiders look at the words on your website to assess its topic, content and relationship with other pages. The more content you provide the more text the search engine spider has to read and the more valuable your website will be to search engines and visitors. So here are 5 tips to keep in mind when creating search friendly content:

Include Targeted Keywords Often
Perhaps one of the most critical factors in your websites ranking is how many times your page includes the keywords you are optimizing for. You need to be aware of exactly what phrases people use to find your website and include them regularly in your page content. By no means does this mean you should "keyword stuff" your page, but rather include your search terms in a natural manner that still maintains readability for the end user.

Write for Visitors not Spiders
Spamming your page with keywords will not only make your website unreadable by visitors, but can also harm your search engine ranking. Search engine spiders use complex algorithms to determine search rankings and can easily spot 'spam' pages, so make sure your page is readable by human visitors.

Add New Content Often
Adding fresh content is a great way to keep search spiders coming back regularly and a natural way to add more content for search spiders to crawl. The more content you create, the more opportunities you are providing to share your information, link to you, and increase the ranking for the optimized keywords on that page.

Don't Repeat Yourself
Duplicate content is an easy way to get your website banned from search results as it is considered a spamming technique by search engines! Don't take the easy way out, create unique content for each page and you should see the ranking benefits you were hoping for.

Use Formatting Elements
Search spiders rely on page formatting elements to highlight headings and important keywords. Using headline tags, bold text and bullet points are a great way to ensure your keywords stand out. Again, only highlight when necessary, and make the text look natural to search engine spiders.

Follow these simple guidelines with your content writing and you should create a website not only popular with search engines, but by human visitors too.

Google AdWords Flexes Muscles - Quality Score Update, New Editor and more

Google has taken the gloves off in the battle for Paid Search Advertising supremacy. After Yahoo!'s recent release of the long awaited Panama platform, Google has been busy releasing improvement after improvement to its AdWords platform.

We've seen three major improvements to the Google AdWords system recently:

AdWords Editor 3.0
Google has just released version 3.0 of the Google AdWords Editor. The tool, which helps AdWords advertisers manage their campaigns offline rather than through the web based interface, has been enhanced with a range of new features to make it more functional and time efficient.

While managing Google AdWords campaigns is still an arduous task, for those that manage their own pay-per-click campaigns, the enhanced offline editor removes many of the inefficiencies inherent with Google's web based interface. The new editor allows for bulk campaign improvements and multi tasking which is more difficult with the web based version. For a full feature run-down, read eWhisper's review of the Editor.

Quality Score Sharing
Google's quality scoring for pay-per-click advertising was one of the major improvements to the AdWords program and set a precedent for the industry (see Yahoo!'s introduction of Quality Scores in Panama).

While the basis of Google's Ad scoring was relatively transparent, failure to disclose the actual scores made it quite challenging for advertisers to improve their campaigns. Roll out enhancement II - disclosure of ad scores. Advertisers can now see their ad's quality score in the web based campaign management interface and now have a better guide for optimizing their campaign performance.

Quality Score Algorithm Update
Google has just rolled out a change to its AdWords quality score algorithm.

According to a report last week:
"the goal of this change is to improve the quality of ads that we serve to our users by making it easier for high quality ads to enter the auction while also discouraging low quality ads."

With the algorithm update, minimum cost per click rates for all ads will be re-calculated. The calculation will take into consideration historical performance of a given keyword, relevance of keyword to an advertisement's copy, destination web page quality (landing page), and several more factors.

Early signs suggest that the changes to the minimum bid prices are causing grief for some existing advertisers. That said, over the long journey - it should allow high quality new advertisers to enter the market, and force lower quality existing advertisers to review their strategies.

With more improvements to AdWords scheduled for the coming months, the pressure has been placed squarely on other paid search advertising providers like Yahoo!, MSN, and ask.com to keep up and constantly look at evolving their own platforms.

Google Algorithm Update - Search Rankings on the Move

It appears a Google algorithm update was rolled out last week which has seen rankings moving up and down in Google's SERPs.

While initially I thought we were alone in the Google ranking scramble, Aaron Wall of cool SEO book and his trusty group of readers have a long list of comments and feedback about the recent update. While nothing official has been forthcoming from Google, the comments give a guide to how different websites have been affected.

One particular comment by Cygnus on SEO Book, gives a good summary of the update:

"I see a few things that can probably be summed up as one change...the sandbox/trustbox was modified to be less restrictive on age and theme. I'm betting it'll tighten up again, but hopefully just on the theme.

To me, this was their way of tackling the ever-growing .edu spam. A lot of that is gone from some of the SERPs I watch; of course, now I see even more blogspots a few pages into the listings, so who knows how much tweaking they'll do over the next couple of weeks."

It seems like Google is starting to give Web 2.0 based links and initiatives more value in determining rankings and has adjusted the importance of more traditional factors (i.e. ".edu" domains) accordingly based on their ability to be abused (black hat tricks).

If you you've been affected by the recent Google update - be it positively or negatively, let us know what you've seen and where you sit in the rankings now!

Thursday, February 22

Why web 2.0 works?

Rene Le Merle and I attended Ad Tech, Sydney Feb 2007. In reviewing my many notes I think the most blogworthy mention would be VP Marketing, Shawn Gold from MySpace. Here is my take on what he had to say:

3 reasons why MySpace is so successful:

1. Empowerment of the individual.
Shawn Gold described that "Identification and Individuality" were the key to MySpace survival. Shawn describes how other social networks like Friendster got "connection" but not identification. Myspace provides the youth of today with "identity production" their own personal branding.

2. Connecting people and culture. Shawn describes how Myspace not only provides the youth culture with an identity but for kids in the suburb, who can't drive MySpace is a way to reach out to others. He makes the example that the freak in his small town can now connect with others and that it is "a great time to be lonely on the internet".

3. Be a good aggregator. MySpace is not the best in every category but have they have aggregated in a useful way, combining community and content well. As an example they have provided musician & film communities tools to better aggregate content.

And some general insights on the web 2.0 space:
1. This is not a fad that will pass. Sure for the older groups it may seem weird meeting your life partner on the web and may have a negative stigma, but for the youth this is what they know and is the future. They don't go to the "bar" to meet a partner - they go online. So if we assume this is a new way of engagement with others I'm fascinated to imagine what will be next as this generation gets older and looks for new social network needs.

2. Work with your audience. The key is being flexible to their needs for eg apparently Friendster banned "bands" but MySpace created a solution for them.

3. Prepare for risks around content. Moderation of content is crucial (MySpace has 3 floors of moderators). The challenge is not having enough content but picking it right. The risk is too much on the site.

4. Managing SPAM - of course spam is a big issue for MySpace and Shawn says they are trying to proactively manage for example creating a way for small business to sell their wares and allow users to decide. Another example is "band spam", users can opt out of band spam.

5. Will web 2.0 survive? Yes it will survive as many are making money and as long as they create active audiences advertisers will want to spend money.

Tuesday, February 20

Gmail Extend an Open Invite to All

Google have finally announced that Gmail is open to all! No longer do you have to wait for an invitation - simply go in and create your own account!

Using a viral idea, similar to that started by Hotmail, Gmail has spread, simply as members 'invite a friend'. Hotmail has long been the forerunner in free web based email, with few direct competitors, but now Google look set to give them a good race.

Maybe a little slow off the mark, Google are compensating with some excellent add-ons for Gmail members. Gmail comes with the latest in IM and 'talk' functions - Google Talk and Gmail mobile. Users can view new messages directly in their personalized Google homepage or use Google Desktop to view Gmail messages, even when offline!
Speak no English - Gmail is available in 40 different languages! For those traveling there is a vacation auto-responder and account holders can send up to 10 MB of photos - start sending your happy snaps back from overseas!

If you don't already have an account then head over and sign up. In all honesty, I am a Hotmail girl through and through, but that doesn't mean I don't have a Gmail account too!

Google Bug Attacks!

If you have noticed your keywords in Google have become inactive for search, or your minimum CPC bids rose to $5 or $10 dollars, for no good reason, then you are not alone. The introduction of Google's new AdWords quality score has had some major teething issues, with abnormal activity reported in some accounts.

The new AdWords quality score system will see a column added to your campaigns, showing a quality score for each keyword. A new algorithm will take into account factors such as landing pages to improve optimization of your ads and keywords. The system is designed to stop problems such as "click arbitrage", where sites with nothing but advertising use AdWords for cheap clicks. As people visit these sites, they tend to leave by clicking on a more expensive ad, for which the site owner receives revenue. This practice results in honest advertisers paying more for 'genuine' clicks. With the introduction of the new quality score both Google and advertisers can hope to see the end of this behavior.

With the implementation of any new system, there could be some problems, as Google has recently experienced. Many users are reporting an increase in the minimum CPC bids on keywords, even the well performing ones, their amounts raised so high they become inactive for search.

The second major issue relates to campaigns that have reportedly run, and accrued charges, while they are paused. I have had this happen to me recently, and if advertisers are not careful, this problem could cost them quite a lot of money.
Google have assured AdWords' customers that they are working on the problem and everything should return to normal soon.

To minimize the impact of these problems I suggest monitoring your Adwords account very carefully. Report any faults to Google immediately, so they may issue you a refund. However, if you don't have the time to monitor your account on a daily basis, or look for these problems, then having a Google Adwords Professional running your campaign is the answer. For only $2 a day you can have peace of mind, knowing that your campaigns are being monitored for any problems such as these!

At least we know that even global billionaires such as Google have a bad day occasionally!

Google Power Search Secrets

Anyone familiar with libraries may be familiar with the exceptional way in which librarians search. Renowned for their amazing organizational skills librarians are also ahead of the class when it comes to clever, shortcut based searching. Become a 'power searcher' using these following tips to find what you need - fast - in the great online library that is Google!

Basic Search
define:	use define: to look up any definition. i.e. define: online marketing
OR	use apples OR oranges to look up either the word apple or the work oranges
"..."	quotation marks allow you to look up an exact phrase. i.e. "Ndoki national park"
x -y	a minus symbol eliminates a word or phrase from your search. i.e. look up x but NOT y
x * y	use an asterisk (*) to search for the words x and y separated by one or more words
~	use this symbol prior to word to look up both that word and its synonyms. i.e. ~resource
Functions
+-*/	any of these symbols can be used to perform standard calculations. i.e. 2+2, 2*2, 2/2, 2-2
%	find out the percentage of a number. i.e. 9% of 99
in / to	convert one amount into another. i.e. 10 pounds in kg, USD in AUD, 98ft to cm
Advanced Search
site:	search within only one website. i.e. site:ineedhits.com "SEO"
link:	discover which pages link to your website (check out Google's Webmaster Tools for more)
info:	find out all the info you may need about a webpage. i.e. info:www.ineedhits.com
cache:	this will allow you to view any webpage as, and when, Google crawled it
related:	find pages that have related content. i.e. related:www.ineedhits.com

While these may be the most used, and loved, of the shortcuts there are plenty (plenty) more, and don't limit yourself to Google. Hone your searching skills and get more out of browsing - you'll be amazed at how much more you can find!

Check out:
Google Help Centre
Yahoo! Search Tips
Google Guide's Favourite Shortcuts
About.com Google Cheat Sheet
Yahoo! Search - Open Shortcuts (create your own Yahoo! search shortcuts)

3 Title Tag Tips That Can Increase Your Ranking

Title tags are one of the oldest and most effective aspects of on-page search engine optimization. Your title tag is displayed as the main clickable link in search engine results and as such, has a considerable impact on how many people visit your website, as well as its ranking within search results.

The good news is, writing an effective title tag is easy and can have a dramatic impact on your search engine success. Below are 3 tips to get you started:

Company Names & Title Tags
There is often a big debate about whether your company name or brand should feature prominently in the title tag. The deciding factor here is how valuable and important your brand name is. Unless your brand is very specific, an industry leader or well recognized in its field, it's probably best to leave it out, or put it at the end at least. This may come as a shock to many people, but think about it; If you searched for 'flower delivery service' you're much more likely to click on a listing titled "Flower Delivery Service" rather than "Brand Name.com".

Different Titles for Different Pages
It's no use having the same title tag for every page within your website, as it leaves search engine spiders and humans confused! Your title tag should be individual to each page and accurately describe what the page is about.

Title Tags and Specific Phrases
It's essential to make sure your most important keywords are at the beginning of title tags, as search engine spiders may only read the first 80 characters. The aim here is to write a title tag that contains appropriate keywords while maintaining readability for the end user. There is no use stuffing your title tag with keywords that form a pile of mumbo-jumbo, as its unlikely anyone will actually click on your listing.

In summary, here is how to create effective title tags for your website:

Perform keyword analysis to uncover the most suitable keywords for your website
Create a short and sweet title tag that contains these keywords in a readable yet search engine friendly manner.
Repeat this process for all pages within your website

It might take a while to get used to, but once you have the hang of it, you should be able to cover your site in no time. Alternatively, if you would prefer to have your website professionally optimized, check out our Business Essentials package which features on-going website optimization including effective title tag creation.

Have Wikipedia Mastered SEO?

Wikipedia's rise to fame has actually been quite impressive. comScore's data from January 2007 puts them at number 9 for the most unique visitors, with 43 million people going to the site in January. Needless to say, one of the major traffic sources for Wikipedia is Google, but how much does the search giant send their way?

Hitwise have put together some data which shows a big increase in Google traffic, along with a graph comparing Wikipedia's other sources of traffic.

Source: Hitwise

The report covers some interesting facts which outline:

70% of Wikipedia's upstream visitors come from search engines, with 50% from Google alone.
Google's share of upstream traffic has increased by 19% over the past year.
The percentage of Google's downstream traffic going to Wikipedia increased by 166% year over year.
Last week Wikipedia was the 3rd website in Google's downstream

As you may have guessed, this data shows Google was a major driving force behind the rise of Wikipedia. So how does it rank on the first page for so many search terms?

My guess would be that Wikipedia pages are generally very SEO friendly. The old saying 'content is king' is painfully obvious here, as Wikipedia pages contain a wealth of information, with the search keyword featuring prominently throughout the page. These pages would also receive a huge amount of incoming links (definitions, more information links) which would also help to increase their Google ranking.

Could they have mastered the art of organic SEO? Let us know what you think!

Tuesday, February 13

DIY Tip: Are Other Browsers Killing Your Website?

In essence an internet browser is a translation device: It transforms sometimes ugly HTML code into something that users can understand and interact with. But how is your message being translated? The same HTML code can appear very differently depending on the users operating system, browser and more. Wal-Mart recently made the mistake of ignoring firefox users, resulting in an ugly mix of text and links. To ensure you don't make the same mistake, here are some tips to put your testing on the right track.

Different Browsers
Perhaps the most major influence on your website if the type of browser that renders your HTML. Depending on what operating system you are using, there are a host of browsers available. As of Jan 07, W3Schools indicate that the most popular are Internet Explorer and Firefox, capturing 58.6 and 31 per cent of the market respectively. Other browsers that also feature prominently include the Mozilla Suite, Safari and Opera.

While the World Wide Web consortium publishes official HTML standards, there is considerable room for interpretation within these ground rules. In addition, some browsers may begin to support 'cutting edge' HTML standards, while others may not. These differences can have a dramatic impact on how a web page is displayed; just check out the Wal-Mart video download site in firefox. The best way to minimize these problems is to pay attention to browser compatibility when building your web page. Avoid using HTML extensions and be careful about using cutting-edge HTML tags that may not yet be supported by all browsers.

Different Operating Systems
Most people only run a single operating system on their computer, which often becomes the only format they become accustom to. This can prove to be a fatal mistake in web design, as the same browser on different operating systems can display the same webpage very differently. Some of the major differences include:

Font Type
When setting your typeface, be aware that different operating systems may not always have the desired font available. It's a good idea to declare multiple fonts to ensure your web page looks somewhat like what you intended.

Font Size
Mac operating systems will normally render your font in a smaller pixel size that that of the PC. One way to avoid this drama is to use Cascading Style Sheets instead of font tags, which use an abstract amount to define font size.

Internet Explorer
The Mac version of Internet Explorer is outsourced to other developers, so to a large extent is a different version from the PC variant. Therefore it is important to check your website in IE across both operating systems.

Different Screen Sizes
Another major contributing factor to the look of your website is the screen resolution of the viewer. According to W3Schools, the most common screen size is 1024x768 at 58% but the numbers do vary considerably. Without the use of defined table widths, portions of the website can become stretched, ruining images and formatting. It's best to design your webpage for 800 pixels or less, so try moving all your content into a large, single cell table and test with the largest screen resolution.

Now some of you may not have access to a range of different operating systems and browsers, but the good news is there is help available online. One of the best services I've found is browsershots.org that makes screenshots of your webpage in different browsers across different operating systems. The service is open source and free, so why not give it a shot and see if you can improve your website design. Be sure to let us know of any interesting changes you notice on your site!

Google Sitelinks Update: The Importance of Navigation

Rumours are running rife that Google Sitelinks have undergone an update with Search Engine Roundtable leading the charge. These nifty little pieces of navigation appear below website listings in Google's search results. All the shortcuts and useful links that may help users find the information they need within the site.

Google Webmaster Help states that " We only show Sitelinks for results when we think they'll be useful to the user. If the structure of your site doesn't allow our algorithms to find good Sitelinks, or we don't think that the Sitelinks for your site are relevant for the user's query, we won't show them."

Although the process is completely automated there may just be something you can do, should you wish for Sitelinks under your Google listing. Stick with simple navigation and clear sitemaps on your website to allow visitors to browse with ease. After all, the best websites are now developed with both user, and now spider, navigation in mind!

Yahoo! Mobile with a Side of Banner Ad

Yahoo! is now serving mobile phone advertising to their users in 19 countries. The exclusive offering delivers advertising from Hilton's Embassy Suites, Infiniti, Intel, Nissan, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble Asia Pacific, Singapore Airlines and more.

Banner advertisements will appear near the top of Yahoo's Mobile Web homepage and, states John Vale, director of interactive marketing Pepsi-Cola North America, are a way to "reach consumers when they're on the move and communicate with them in a way we haven't before".

The following countries can expect to see Yahoo! new mobile ad platform:
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, United Kingdom and Vietnam. Users will be able to interact with the advertising on offer by clicking through or clicking to call on the display.

"Overall our goal is to be the #1 mobile Internet player globally, and the #1 in mobile monetization globally," states Elizabeth Harz, VP of category strategy for Yahoo! "Both of these are very important steps in that goal."

With both Google and Yahoo! now on the mobile advertising bandwagon what more can we expect to see from advertisers worldwide? Can we ever expect to escape the rising tide of advertising, as global companies insist we sit down for another course of mobile, internet and even bus stop advertising!

Monday, February 12

Search Marketing Explodes in 2006 - SEMPO Report

There's no denying that search engine marketing is growing and expanding at a rate that has traditional advertising mediums in a spin. After a recent trip to Ad-Tech in Sydney, the search buzz was obvious everywhere and a new "State of Search Engine Marketing 2006" report released by Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) confirms the extent of the growth.

According to the report, advertisers in the US spent US$9.4 billion on search engine marketing in 2006 which represents a remarkable 63 per cent increase from 2005, and far exceeds industry predictions of US7.2 billion.

Adjusted predictions now suggest that the spend will increase to US$18.6 billion by 2011 based on increased renewed adoption by small to medium sized businesses, higher demand from advertisers and rising prices in costs per click as pay-per-click advertising continues to increase in popularity.

Of the 2006 search engine marketing (SEM) spend; 86% was comprised of paid search, while search engine optimization which focuses on success in the organic search results comprised 11%. The balance was made up of search technology and infrastructure investment and other search marketing strategies such as paid inclusion programs.

Interestingly, search strategy adoption doesn't relate to the relevant spends with more than 76 per cent of companies surveyed undertaking search engine optimization on some level while only 71 per cent engaging in paid search strategies.

One of the key takeaways of this year's report was that direct response search engine strategies had overtaken branding initiatives. At the end of 2005, branding was all the buzz and was the major reason behind most companies search marketing. It appears now that measurable results have become more important as marketers embrace the ROI accountability that search marketing offers over other mediums.

While much of this information simply reaffirms what many of us have known for years, for those of you who have had doubts, understand that search engine marketing has truely reached the tipping point (point of mass appeal). Now you're simply missing a golden marketing opportunity and essential promotional direction!