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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, November 27

Google Goes After Paid Links

From the Google update in October, some websites reported a significant drop in PageRank, which was rumored to be caused by the use of paid links. An unofficial confirmation of this was made by Google's Mike Cutts. On November 22 Google made it official, with a reiteration of what it has previously said about paid links.

"Some search engine optimizers and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links that pass PageRank, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results.

Not all paid links violate our guidelines. Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results. Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as,

Adding a rel="nofollow" attribute to the tag.

Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file"

The comments from Google are open to interpretation. It looks like buying paid links from websites that are related to your own, should not result in punitive action. To avoid any potential negative actions from Google, always source your links from relevant websites. If you have any thoughts on the use of paid links, please feel free to share them below.

Facebook Steals Googlers & Finally Overtakes MySpace

It's been a long time coming, but social juggernaut Facebook has finally overtaken MySpace as the most popular social networking site, according to web information company Alexa. Facebook's daily reach, a measure of the percentage of global internet users who visit the site, overtook MySpace today to finish at 5.785% a rise of 92% in the last 3 months. MySpace finished the day behind for the first time at 5.745%.

The Alexa daily reach graph can be seen below:

According to Alexa, Facebook already trumps MySpace in terms of page views, registering 31.2 million unique views yesterday. This combined dominance has also seen Facebook's traffic rank (a combined measure of pageviews and reach) finally surpass Myspace. See below:

While many still question the accuracy of the data, perhaps the strong growth of Facebook is related to the news the company is stealing Google employees at a rapid rate. A TechCrunch article notes Facebook has already acquired 3 top Google exectutives:

Youtube CFO Gideon Yu
eCommerce Product lead Benjamin Ling
GDrive developer Justin Rosenstein

According to Justin Rosentein, who left Google earlier this year, Facebook is,

"That company that's on the cusp of Changing The World, that's still small enough where each employee has a huge impact on the organization, where you think about working now and again, and where you know you'll kick yourself in three years if you don't jump on the bandwagon now, even after someone had told you that it was rolling toward the promised land. That company where everyone seems to be having the time of their life."

With all the hype surrounding Facebook It's no wonder Microsoft recently invested $240 million into the company.

Monday, November 26

DIY Tip - Top 10 Ways to Manage Your Google Reputation

There's nothing worse than Googling your company or product and finding negative reviews in Google's top 10 search results.

Managing your Google reputation is a challenge that every small business owner should embrace as more potential customers look to search engines to research companies and products.

Andy Beal from Marketing Pilgrim, a well know online marketing expert, has put together a great list of ways to manage your personal Google reputation, which applies equally to businesses and products.

Below is a business orientated version of his list, but for the original version, pop over to his Gooruze article (Own Your Google Reputation with these Ten Suggestions).

Get your own web site and domain name
Chances are if you're reading this, you've already got a website, but if you haven't yet, this is the first step in filling one of those top 10 Google listings.

Start a company or product blog
We've promoted the virtues of blogging a million times over, and there is no easier way to get your branding in the rankings for your company and product searches than by producing blog content.

Add a sub-domain to your website
For established websites, a way of filling another spot in the top 10 is by creating a sub-domain for particular parts of your website. Sub domains look like http://subdomain.yourwebsite.com and Google will often see the sub-domain as its own listing.

Create social networking profiles
With the immense growth in social networks, search engines like Google have started indexing them more frequently (assuming they're open for spidering). By creating a profile with details about your brand and content, there's a good chance it'll fill one of the top 10 results.

Develop your own social network
While this can be a little more involved, new free community services allow you to create a social network around your brand. This not only helps to create search friendly content around your brand, but also provides a new way for customers to engage with your business.

Create a business profile
There are several profession networks around (www.linkedin.com or www.gooruze.com) where you can create specialist profiles about yourself and your businesses. By building up your network, you open your business up to increased positive content and yet another way to fill one of Google's listings.

Create media around your business
It's easier than ever to share photos, video and audio than ever before. With a range of communities aimed at sharing such media, create some buzz about your business through images and movies, which can help take another one of those top 10 listings.

Claim your identity
People search is growing rapidly, and there are a growing number of personal profile management tools and services available. Just like social network profiles, many allow you to outline and link to your businesses and products... another way to protect a top search listing for your company.

Create your own Wiki
Andy highlights that the once coveted Wikipedia listings which commands Google's top spots are now harder than ever to get and providing less value. A way to harness the ranking power of wiki's is to create your own, with you controlling the content.

Use Google's Free Tools
Google is constantly developing new tools and services which may help your business get found in its search results. While Andy suggests creating a Google webpage, recent speculation about the impact of Google Notebook and Google Base suggest many of its tools might help to fill yet another important top 10 listing for your brand or products.

Getting top 10 rankings for common search terms and keywords can be very challenging, but it's often easier to own the top 10 Google listings around your company, brand or product names - especially if they are relatively unique. With this simple list, there's no excuse for not claiming them back.

Google Dominates with Ask.com and Facebook Gaining Ground

The latest search figures out in comscore's qSearch October 07 analysis highlighted another strong month in terms of search volumes in the US market. The top 5 major search engines all recorded at least 5% growth from September 07.

In terms of "share of search", there was no surprise in Google taking top honors with approx 6.1 million searches in the US. Google gained an extra 1.5 share points to command an imposing 58.5 per cent of the US search market.

Yahoo! sites held on to second spot with 22.9 per cent, recording an eight per cent increase from September to 2.4 billion searches. While Yahoo!'s overall searches were up, it lost 0.8 share points during the month, increasing the gap to primary rival - Google.

Microsoft followed Yahoo!'s trend by increasing search volume but losing share of search. Microsoft held 9.7 per cent of the search market - down 0.6 share points from September.

The Ask.com network took out fourth place with 4.7 per cent of the US search market. Ask.com reported the strongest search volume growth in October, growing a staggering 23 per cent with 493 million searches.

Facebook entered the top 50 rankings for the first time in October in 9th spot. The social network recorded 152 million searches, which given the nature of the site, is an impressive debut.

All told - no unexpected results with ComScore's latest qSearch report. The team at Ask.com will surely be elated with the increased penetration in the US market, while Yahoo! and Microsoft will continue to search for an answer to Google's dominance.

The Secret Behind Popular YouTube Videos

With the rising popularity of video sharing sites such as YouTube, a market has opened up for firms who can effectively promote these videos online. With big brands now focusing on viral marketing campaigns, many are turning to these companies who specialize in promoting video clips online.

A post by Dan Ackerman Greenberg on the TechCrunch blog highlights some secret strategies these firms use to make videos "go" popular online. The secrets cover design, promoting the video and optimizing title/description tags on YouTube. Below is a brief summary, but for the full version visit the Techcrunch post.

Design

Keep the video between 15-30 seconds
Make it easy for others to remix the video
Don't make the video an outright advertisement
Make it shocking
Use dramatic/fake headlines
If all else fails, appeal to sex

Promoting the Video on the Most Viewed Page
Videos need 50,000 views to get to the most viewed page, so how do you get there?

Blogs - Reach out to relevant blogs and actually pay them to post your videos.
Forums - Start new threads and embed videos in them.
MySpace - Embed the video in the comments area of friends myspace pages.
Facebook - Similar to MySpace, share the video with friends.
Email Lists - Send the video to an email list
Friends - Email friends/family with the video and encourage them to pass it on.

Title and Thumbnail Optimization

Titles can be changed an endless number of times so work with a catchy headline for the first couple of days and play around with it until you find one that sticks.
Make sure thumbnail images are clear
Try to include a face or person in the thumbnail

Commenting

Create multiple accounts and have a conversation with yourself to create controversy.
Delete comments that post negative sentiments about your brand/startup.
Make comments interesting to engage viewers.

The original TechCrunch post sparked some heated discussion between Dan and readers, with many saying this form of marketing was simply spam. Dan the made a follow up post to clarify some of his marketing tactics, but again readers opinions seem to be unchanged.

Wednesday, November 21

Looking for the Top Rated Online Marketing News, Answers & Advice

We recently posted about Gooruze (ineedhits.gooruze.com), the new web 2.0 community for online marketers, and just under a month after launch, the network already has a 1000+ members and a rapidly growing knowledge base of the latest online marketing news, articles and Q&A.

Have you checked out Gooruze yet?
If you haven't, you're missing one of the best professional networks and resources of information for those marketing their business online. Gooruze already has:

Why Gooruze?
Put simply, it helps you save time and keep up with the latest in online marketing. For website owners - it's a place to tap into the leading industry buzz in one interactive community.

Many of us at ineedhits are active members in the Gooruze community, so feel free to join up and add us as one of your friends:

So, if you want to find out more about search engine marketing, affiliates, email marketing, social media or any other element of "online marketing" then do yourself a favor and visit Gooruze now.

Tuesday, November 20

Tips On Converting Traffic Into Sales Part 1

Sponsored listings provide traffic and a high ranking to your online business. The Easy Search Advertising service can deliver loads of qualified traffic to your website. The challenge is converting these visitors into paying customers.

Here are 5 tips to help you convert traffic from sponsored listings into sales.

Landing page
Invest in a quality landing page. You only have one chance to get the attention of the visitor, so the landing page should make a strong first impression. From the landing page, the visitor should clearly understand what you offer, the benefits it provides, and how to get the product. The landing page should be an extension of the sponsored listing advertisement, reinforcing the proposition.

Understand the market
Is your product in demand right now? There may be external influences that effect the reputation of your product. Is now the right time to be selling your product?. You should know what your competitors are up to, they could be selling a product for less or offering a superior product deal.

Know your audience
Who are trying to sell your products to? Write copy for your target audience. If you know your target audience is price sensitive, highlight the potential savings you offer. Alternatively, if they are looking for immediate service highlight that. The key is knowing your customers well enough, so that you can create copy and propositions that meet their needs.

If the traffic from your sponsored listing goes directly to your website, take note of the following.

Quality website
When a visitor first enters your website, they should know almost immediately the purpose of it. A visitor should be able to navigate back and forward through your website, without getting lost. Products and their descriptions must be easily found. Don't make your customer jump through hoops to find the information or product they are looking for.

Call to action
A clear "call to action" is imperative in converting traffic. Provide Specific words that encourage the recipient to take a particular action (e.g. "Buy now" or "To speak to a service representative click here") There is nothing worse then wanting help or to buy, and not being able to find the obvious option to do so.

Many elements go into converting traffic. Consider these tips the basic essentials, applying these will help convert the traffic you receive from sponsored listings. Next week we will look at the other elements that go into increasing conversion.

How to Make Money from Video - The AOL Way

In an on-going effort to monetize online video, AOL has released a new form of video advertising called 'Ticker Ads'. Ticker Ads are a graphic banner ad that is integrated directly into the video player.

The new advertising format has been developed with third parties as an alternative to intrusive pre-roll advertising. The Ticker Ads aim to be always visible on screen without interrupting the video that's playing. Ticker Ads simply sit below the streaming video and expand to launch a video ad when clicked on by the consumer. The new format gives prominent brand placement without delivering a bad user experience.

A screenshot of the new ad format is below:

Source: Search Engine Land

From the AOL press release:

"Rather than overlaying an ad and obstructing the view of a video, AOL's video ticker ad appears at the bottom of the video player 10 seconds into the video stream. When clicked by a user, the ad expands while the video pauses. If the user does not interact with the ad, it will dissolve after 15 seconds leaving the branded text link. Clicking on the branded text link, located at the top of the video player, will relaunch the ticker."

The new Ads come as pre-roll placement has emerged as the industry standard, despite an ugly reception from some users. If you've had experience with the new Ticker Ads, let us know what you think!

Google Offers $10m for Android Development

You may have heard the buzz surrounding Google's recent release of the Android mobile phone operating system. Put simply, it's an open source mobile phone platform that lets users create and develop their own applications.

In an effort to speed up application development, Google have just released the Android SDK (Software Development Kit) with an explanation video and a $10m reward for users who develop the best new applications.

Firstly, the video:

The $10 million dollar reward is part of the Android Developer Challenge which is a two part challenge rewarding creative application development for the android platform.

From the Android site:

The award money will be distributed equally between two Android Developer Challenges:
Android Developer Challenge I: We will accept submissions from January 2 through March 3, 2008
Android Developer Challenge II: This part will launch after the first handsets built on the platform become available in the second half of 2008
In the Android Developer Challenge I, the 50 most promising entries received by March 3 will each receive a $25,000 award to fund further development. Those selected will then be eligible for even greater recognition via ten $275,000 awards and ten $100,000 awards.

Almost anybody can submit an application, and Google says developers will retain intellectual property rights to the applications while granting Google a license to test and use the program to promote the Android platform.

If you have the knowledge and desire to create a cool mobile phone application, give it a go and claim your share of the $10m on offer!

AdSense Changes Making It Harder To Get Clicks

Google has changed the way in which AdSense advertisements can be clicked. Previously users could click the entire box that housed the advertisement but now, only the title and URL are clickable.

According to AdSense Blog the move was implemented to,

"reduce the incidents of invalid and accidental clicks on ads and to encourage site visitors to stay on the site, interact with the site content and if they deemed it necessary, click on the ads. The new clickable format aligns with the text ad formats that is being implemented on Google. The new format would also benefit Google advertisers by making them pay for ad clicks that were intentional and would contribute to the success of their ad campaigns."

The change is good news for advertisers, as now they will have a clearer picture of how well their advertising campaigns are going, with the potential decrease of no value clicks. However, publishers will most likely experience a drop in revenue, as it becomes harder to get clicks. Overall, it is a good move that should increase the accuracy of the AdSense service.

DIY Tip: Maximize Your Cyber Monday Traffic & Sales

Cyber Monday - the first Monday after Thanksgiving, starts the holiday season online sales rush. For online retailers and business website owners, it's the "make or break" sales time of the e-commerce year.

So with only a week left until Cyber Monday - what search engine marketing options do website owners have to maximize their traffic at this vital time?

Rapid results are the key at this late stage. While ongoing SEO and rank building should continue, it's time to crack out the sponsored advertising, local listings and featured ads - there's no time to waste.

Here are three primary traffic sources to focus on for Cyber Monday:

1. Paid Advertising on Google and Yahoo!
Nothing beats a strong paid advertising campaign through the holiday season. With Google and Yahoo! carrying the majority of the search traffic, I recommend focusing your attention on these two search engines.

Paid advertising is vital for online retailers during Cyber Monday and through until the end of the sales season because:

Your search ads are live almost instantly
They provide extremely targeted exposure
You can feature at the top of the search result with no delay
There are tight controls around costs and ROI to maximize your profitability

2. Local Listings for Local Search
Cyber Monday ties in closely with Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving) - which is the offline world's busiest sales day leading into the holiday season. Changing consumer shopping behavior means that more people are using online to help streamline their offline shopping.

This is where Local Search becomes critical for "bricks and mortar" retailers. The vast array of local search services are a vital source of in-store traffic as consumers turn to search engines to find their closest shops and retailers.

All the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN are now including â€œlocalâ€ results in their standard web results - making it even more important to ensure your business has an enhanced local listing.

Local listings provide the following added benefits during the holiday season sales rush:

Listings can be live and ranking strongly quicker than normal results
Enhanced local listings provide more information to prospective shoppers
You can include special offers and holiday season discounts in your listing
Listings can be updated at required to ensure they are always up to date

3. Featured Ad Listings on Other Search Engines
While the bulk of the holiday season search traffic will be on Google and Yahoo!, there are some other smaller search engines that can provide cost effective ways to get valuable visitors during the holiday season rush. Our Top-Up Traffic service for example taps into the ISEDN network which includes guaranteed exposure across 250+ search engines.

The benefits of featured listings on these smaller search services include:

Fast listing! Top Up Traffic can have your website listing live in 8 hours
Keyword specific exposure for quality visitors
NO Click Fees - means unlimited traffic for your monthly spend

Time is of the essence with Cyber Monday looming... so if you haven't started revving up your search engine marketing, now's the time to get serious!

Monday, November 19

Google Notebook Could Influence Search Engine Rankings

Google has filed 3 new patents for its Google Notebook service which suggest plans to use Notebook listings as an additional factor in calculating Google's search engine rankings.

Bill Slawski reported on the new Google Notebook patents; highlighting the points in the 3rd patent (Presenting Search Result Information) that refer to potential ties between Google Notebook content and Google's ranking algorithm.

Back in May 2006, when I first blogged about the Google Notebook launch, I quietly wondered whether the search engine giant would use the service to help determine its rankings. Given its blend of bookmarking and online notation, its content is prime for adding a social element to the ranking algorithm.

Given the lack of buzz around Google Notebook since its launch, I presumed that Google was focusing on other social services to help improve the relevance of its search results. It appears that Google has other plans. Below are a couple of the excerpts from the patents:

Excerpt 1:
"Furthermore, the higher ranking can be based on an analysis of the contents of the web notebooks 118. For example, a web site matching a title, heading, user-annotation, metadata or clipped content from a web notebook 118 can receive a higher ranking than one that matched no web notebooks."

Excerpt 2:
"The web notebook-based ranker 404 uses the content of web notebooks to determine ranking. Web notebook content can include titles or headings in the web notebooks, snippets that have been clipped into the web notebooks, user-supplied annotations or user-supplied free-form text, metadata associated with web notebooks (e.g., metadata that identifies a corresponding search request, a time/date stamp, or other information related to a snippet, annotation, heading, title, etc.), and other information stored in the web notebooks."

From patent filing to execution can be a long time, but it's a take on the socialization of Google's search results that seems a logical fit. It'll be interesting to see how Google prevents the spamming and gaming of Google Notebook, that's inherent in similar social media services that impact SEO.

For more information on the patents and their ranking impact visit:
Bill Slawski's Post:
Might Google Notebooks Influence Web Rankings?

The Patents:
Web Notebook Tools
Managing and Accessing Data in Web Notebooks
Presenting Search Result Information

Tuesday, November 13

Measuring Engagement - Unique Browsers Outdated?

Fairfax Digital will no longer use "unique browsers" as the main audience measuring metric on its news websites. Instead, it intends using total time spent by users on site as its primary measurement metric.

Scott Ross, director of product marketing at Nielsen/NetRatings, said the change was prompted,

"by a continuing increase in the use of AJAX, and XML, which allows a Web site to refresh content without reloading an entire page, and to the growing use of audio and video streaming.

"It is not that page views are irrelevant now, but they are a less accurate gauge of total site traffic and engagement," Ross said. "Total minutes are the most accurate gauge to compare between two sites. If [Web] 1.0 is full page refreshes for content, Web 2.0 is, 'How do I minimize page views and deliver content more seamlessly?'"

Liza Boston founder of advertising agency Cracked pepper supports the introduction of time spent as a new metric,

"Unique browsers are currently the best metric to determine reach, but do nothingto determine engagement. Consider this, is it preferably to have 5 million people visit your site and click on one page only, or would you rather have 1 million people who spend hours a month engaging with your site? There is no doubt both are important."

Fairfax digital has taken the first step in seeing if there is a better way to gauge interaction. One of the strengths of online marketing is the ease and speed at which interaction can be measured. Combining time spent and unique browsers will give publishers and marketers the best of both worlds.

Google Enters Video Game Market

Google while continuing to expand its advertising network has entered the video game market, with the purchase of AdScape Media, a company that specializes in video game advertising.

Advertising in games is relatively new, but has the potential to reach a huge audience. A recent Nielsen Entertainment study found that men aged 18 to 34 are spending more time playing video games (12.5 hours on average per week) and less time watching television (9.8 hours per week).

Google will now be competing against Microsoft, who has a rare advertising advantage over Google, because of the success of the Xbox 360 gaming console and a long list of gaming titles.

Michael Goodman, a program manager at research firm Yankee Group Research had this to say,

"Google would be playing catch-up against some significant entrenched providers, the biggest challenge for them is they might see themselves closed out of the Xbox as a platform to serve ads to."

Google has been exploring advertising options outside of search by moving into print and radio. Google's greatest success has been in contextual advertising. They're yet to establish a dominant position in display advertising, which is the current method for in-game advertising. Time will tell whether Google succeeds in gaming as it has in search advertising.