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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, September 30

Google offers $10 Million for your World-Changing Ideas

The folks at Google are feeling generous! In line with the celebrations for their 10th birthday, Google have launched Project 10^100 ("ten to the hundredth") and you could be the winner.

Google wants you to submit a unique idea that would help as many people as possible. They will then choose the best idea and commit $10 million to bring it to life.

Andy Berndt, Google Creative Lab Managing Director explains more:

"Never in history have so many people had so much information, so many tools at their disposal, so many ways of making good ideas come to life. Yet at the same time so many people (in all walks of life) could use some help, in small ways and big.

To mark our 10th birthday and celebrate the spirit of our users and the web, we're launching Project 10^100 a call for ideas that could help as many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those ideas to life."

There are little restrictions on your ideas; however they do need to fall into one of the following categories:

Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?

Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?

Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?

Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?

Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?

Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?

Shelter: How can we ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?

Everything Else: Sometimes the best ideas don't fit into any category at all.

Want to learn more about Project 10^100? Click here (don't forget to check out Google's cute little video also).

So if you have a brilliant idea, then let Google know and they might just help you make it a reality.

Friday, September 26

4 Tips to Optimize Your Images for Search Engines

Last week I covered some unique strategies for optimizing your Video content, so this week I decided to follow up with techniques to optimize your images for search engines.

Aside from regular text search, image search has become one of the fastest growing vertical search categories. It's also become even more important with the introduction of Google's universal search as images have an even stronger power to drive traffic to your site.

So here are the most important ways you can optimize your images and start using them to sent traffic to your site:

Use descriptive filenames - This is the easiest way to start associating keywords with your image. Instead of using a filename like Img004.jpg, determine which keywords you would like the image to rank for and use these in the filename. For example if you're trying to optimize images for a florist, a good filename might be red-roses-florist.jpg.
Use the alt tag - The alt text tag is used to describe your image and can be another good place to associate keywords with your images. Write a short, keyword rich sentence describing your image and include this as your alt tag.
Write a caption for your image - Google will also take into account text surrounding your image, so if you want to take your image SEO one step further you might try writing a caption that includes related keywords for each image.
Provide a direct link to the image - If you're writing a press release or news article, including an image makes the story more appealing to readers and gives these publishers an opportunity to link straight to the image on your website.

And finally, one bonus tip: Register with Google image labeler. Image labeler is a tool used by Google to try and improve image search by allowing humans to associate specific keywords with different images. By including your image in the program, different people can select keywords associated with your image which can be included in Google's image search algorithm.

To join this program, log in to your Google Webmaster account and click on tools, then enhanced image search. If you've got any other tips, feel free to leave them via the comments below!

Google Patent Unveils Link Penalties

Patents are used by companies worldwide to protect their unique systems or ideas, but the nature of them also means that companies must give out significant details about how their system works. Google is no exception to the rule, and they have registered numerous patents to protect their IP, including their PageRank technology.

The good thing for users is that we can access these patents and use their information to our advantage. In a WebmasterWorld thread, users are discussing a Google patent called Information retrieval based on historical data, which some claim reveals details on different types of linking techniques that would attract a Google penalty.

Extracts from the patent which have caused a stir are below:

...A typical, "legitimate" document attracts back links slowly. A large spike in the quantity of back links may signal a topical phenomenon (e.g., the CDC web site may develop many links quickly after an outbreak, such as SARS), or signal attempts to spam a search engine (to obtain a higher ranking and, thus, better placement in search results) by exchanging links, purchasing links, or gaining links from documents without editorial discretion on making links.
...if the content of a document changes such that it differs significantly from the anchor text associated with its back links, then the domain associated with the document may have changed significantly (completely) from a previous incarnation. This may occur when a domain expires and a different party purchases the domain... All links and/or anchor text prior to that date may then be ignored or discounted.

From my understanding I think this extract has the following core messages:

It's best to build backlinks slowly to avoid penalties.
Sites that generate a huge number of backlinks very quickly can be considered as spam in some cases.
All previous backlinks are ignored on sites where the topic of the site has changed.

For some webmasters, this information might be nothing new, but patents are still a good way to confirm popular theories or rumors!

Labels: Google Penalties

Monday, September 22

Google Not Worried About Recession Fears

Even though the world's economy is rapidly crumbling, Google says they have nothing to fear.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said recently that Silicon Valley will survive this economic meltdown. "This is the sixth or seventh cycle I've seen in Silicon Valley. I think we're better positioned than ever."

Regarding Google specifically, Schmidt said the company is in a good position to weather the economic storm. "The company has a very large amount of cash in very, very boring and secure investments. That was the right decision then and especially the right decision now. As a company, we're fine," Schmidt said. "The things that could affect us is if it affected our customers...If this debacle caused a huge change in economic situation, that could affect us."

So is Google worried that businesses will have to pull even tighter on their purse strings and cut advertising spending? Google's President of Advertising and Commerce for North America, Tim Armstrong gave this round about answer:

"In general, it's something we watch closely, but we've seen in multiple cycles we've gone through (that) as companies get concerned about what they're spending and how they're spending, they move toward more accountable platforms. Some companies have shifted even more money to the digital landscape. We have one of the most transparent, accountable models in the digital landscape."

So, I guess if Google isn't worried then we all have nothing to worry about, right?

Powerset Injects Improved Relevance into Microsoft Search

After acquiring "natural language" search technology company Powerset in July 2008, Microsoft has unveiled the first integration of the technology in the live.com search results.

Powerset proclaim to "change the way people interact with technology by enabling computers to understand our language." Ultimately, Microsoft is hoping the technology will help make Live Search more user friendly and relevant than competitor search engines Google and Yahoo!

The first level of Powerset integration has seen the inclusion of "freebase answers" in the Live Search results, captions and navigation for Wikipedia results and a new "related searches" section which runs off the Powerset Factz engine.

Below is a screenshot from the Powerset Blog highlighting the main forms of integration.

The Powerset improvements to Live Search should be welcomed by searchers. Any development that makes it easier to filter through results from the search page is a vital usability enhancement. Especially when you consider how many listings are stored in the search engine's databases.

At this stage, it's unlikely that the enhancements will be enough to convince the legion of loyal Google users to move across, but it's an important step by Microsoft in offering a "better" search alternative.

Powerset promise that there's more improvements on the cards in the coming months, so stay tuned to find out when they're unveiled.

Friday, September 19

Google Goes on Defensive After Search Deal Study Released

It was just last week when we advised that Yahoo! was made to justify their search ad deal with Google. This time its Google turn, by going on the defensive with the release of a study from SearchIgnite. The study predicts the Google/Yahoo! search ad deal will increase keyword prices for advertisers by 22%.

Google's chief economist Hal Varian said on the Google Publicity Policy Blog that there are flawed assumptions in the report and the methodology used is questionable.

"After taking a close look at the study, I believe it makes several flawed assumptions and uses questionable methodology. The paper suggests that advertisers will be getting the same performance from the same ads, just at higher prices. We believe that advertisers will be getting significantly better performance at prices that reflect that improved performance."

"Google doesn't set advertising prices -- advertisers do. Prices must reflect how much a sale is worth to an advertiser, and that will continue to be the case after our agreement with Yahoo! is implemented."

If you are interested in reading the report from SearchIgnite, then click here to download a copy.

It seems that this deal is becoming increasingly harder for Google & Yahoo! to "sell" and I wonder if there are just too many factors which in the end will see it fall apart. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.

See Your Website in 3D - Has internet Browsing Changed Forever

Internet browsing has been dominating the headlines recently with Google releasing Chrome, Microsoft and Firefox updating their respective browsers and now - a new tool that allows you to view the web in 3D.

ExitReality "is a free internet plug-in that allows anyone to view every web page in 3D". The aim to make the internet browsing experience more engaging for the user.

For those of you familiar with virtual worlds such as SecondLife, the ExitReality world will look familiar. Users are able to navigate around web pages, which are rendered as rooms, cafes or virtual areas from the view point of your avatar.

It also offers the features that are now the norm with social media such as in-world chat, friends, virtual spaces etc. According to the ExitReality website:

What is ExitReality for?
â€¢ View any webpage in 3D... every website is now a virtual world
â€¢ Turn your standard 2D web page into your own unique 3D space
â€¢ Meet and chat with people in 3D
â€¢ Search and explore thousands of online 3D communities and meet new people!

What Can I Do?
â€¢ Convert, decorate and share your Social Network Page in 3D
â€¢ Collect cool objects to add to your 3D space or apartment
â€¢ Create a 3D Avatar, chat with friends and meet new people
â€¢ Invite people to your virtual space
â€¢ Host real time parties and events at your online space

I've provided a quick video of the ineedhits Easy Search Advertising web page as seen from the viewpoint of my ExitReality avatar. Bare in mind, I haven't customized the ExitReality version of our website yet, so you're seeing our site in the default view.

ExitReality allows you to set the scene for your website online (e.g. cafÃ©, gallery, city scape, apartment etc), so you can let your imagination run free when it comes to your virtual 3D site presentation.

Novelty aside, will ExitReality really change the way we view web pages in the future? At this stage, I don't think the general internet population are ready to adopt 3D browsing as their default experience.

Viewing content is quite difficult and navigation is far from efficient. In a world where patience online is measured in milliseconds, making an experience more time consuming for little gain is going to struggle to gain interest beyond initial curiosity.

ExitReality is worth a play, but at this stage, I wouldn't suggest that mainstream business needs to factor it into their online marketing plan. If nothing more, it will probably encourage further exploration of 3D possibilities.

Tuesday, September 16

Video SEO: Drive Traffic with Online Video

People are watching hundreds of millions of videos a day on video sharing websites like YouTube. In fact, every minute, around ten hours of video is uploaded to YouTube alone. Online video has exploded recently and with Google's universal search, it's now another way your business can reach potential new customers.

If you've got a short advertisement, testimonial or any other type of video there are a number of ways you should be promoting the video online. In this post I'll cover off some simple video SEO tips to get your content out there.

Submission
There are a growing number of video sharing websites which you should submit your videos to. I've included a short list of my top 10 which should be on your hit list:

Video SEO: Tagging, Linking etc.

Aside from submission, there are also a number of other techniques you can use to maximize your video exposure. These include:

Title Optimization - Potentially the most important and easiest way to optimize your video is to give it a catchy title. Instead of "Example Company Advertisement" try writing an interesting title that includes key phrases related to your product or brand.
Tag it up - Most video sharing sites offer a keyword or tags section. This is chance to optimize the video for your most important phrases, so don't miss out!
Description - Again, similar to the tags, write a detailed description of the video targeting your major key phrases.
Inbound Linking - Another tip often overlooked is making sure you link back to your website or product page. Some sites have a dedicated section for this; while for others you may have to include the link in the description. If this is the case, make sure to include the URL early on so that it shows in the first few lines of the description before its truncated.
Thumbnail Optimization - If you're able to select a thumbnail for your video, make sure to choose something that's going to draw users in. An easy way to do this is try and include images of people if possible.
Commenting - If users comment about your product or brand, make sure to respond so you can answer their questions and lead them to your website if they're lost :)

Now there are many more advanced video marketing techniques, but hopefully this list should give you the foundation to increase your video exposure online. If you've got any other suggestions or comments, feel free to leave them below!

Labels: Video Optimization, Video SEO

Yahoo! Defends Google Search Deal

As the October search ad partnership between Google and Yahoo! draws near, Yahoo! have become increasingly concerned about proving the deal will be beneficial for users and advertisers.

The deal has come under fire in recent weeks because people concerned claim that it will cement Googleâ€™s already huge lead in search advertising.

Hilary Schneider, executive vice president of Yahoo U.S today defended the claims at a three hour media conference claiming that the partnership would have some solid benefits for advertisers. From Businessweek:

Her example: Search for "red roses in Birmingham Alabama" and you get no ads on Yahoo search results page. Google's search results page has 11 advertisers. So by hooking up with Google, Yahoo is giving those advertisers a chance to reach Yahoo users as well as Google users and potentially get more customers. In Yahoo's view, says Schneider, "We are able to essentially create more access and better ROI for the advertisers."

Schneider later shrugged off concerns that the deal would increase competition amongst advertisers and potentially raise click prices. "Advertisers are rational and bid what they see value for," she said.

It's clear why Yahoo! is so keen to push this deal through, their search advertising business is suffering and they want to cash in on Google's dominance. The deal is still yet to be approved, but based on the media conference today Yahoo! seems very confident.

Labels: Google, Yahoo

Rules on Getting Your Business' News Heard in Google News

How can you get any recent news on your business out to the listener's ears? Why not try Google News. Google News is currently one of the top five news portals in the world and can bring lots of traffic to your site. But as you might suspect, getting in isn't easy.

Well, Website Magazine has made it easier for you to get your news syndicated in Google News with a detailed checklist of rules. Below are a few of the most important tips:

1. Original Content: Simply reproducing news from other websites will not work. You need to have original content on your website.

2. Multiple Authors: Simple blogs with good content will not get included in Google News. This is because Google News wants multiple authors to "qualify" a website as a news source.

3. Article URL: Each article URL should be unique and contain a unique number consisting of at least three digits. The Google News crawler cannot index an article with this URL: http://www.website.com/news01.html. It can, however, crawl an article with this URL: http://www.website.com/news001.html. Google News cannot crawl an article URL with four digits, which resembles a year (http://www.website.com/news2008.html).

4. About Us and Contact Pages: Make these pages prominent on your website and one click away from the home page. A "Contact" page should have your organizationâ€™s name and contact information. You should also have a URL that is a directory of contributors and provide names of all your authors and editors, preferably with their email addresses. Try to give more information about your company and what it does in the "About Us" page.

To check out the additional rules, click here.

So there you have it, a comprehensive checklist of the factors you need to consider when trying to get your news heard.

Google's Suggestions to Pin Point Your Exact Target Market

All the major search engines including Google, Yahoo! & MSN allow you to geotarget your PPC ads to a specific radius, but does anyone really know how narrow this radius should be?

This question was posed recently in a Google Groups thread and Google AdWords Pro Steph put forward her suggestion. Here it is:

"Typically, you shouldn't go smaller than 20 or 30 miles around, since if your radius is too small, it's likely you'll miss traffic from people that are actually in your target area.

You might also consider how local your business is (will people be willing to travel X distance?) and think about the trade-off between expanding the area to capture more false positives or shrinking the area and risk not reaching people that you actually want to because of their IP.

If you're in a rural area, you might want to consider including the nearest metropolis if you know that IPs in your area are identified as a particular city or region."

However, I think this suggested radius can't be used for all campaigns; it will have to depend upon each individual company. As the folks at Search Engine Roundtable explain if you are a bike courier service in Manhattan, you probably don't want people in Westchester County to see your ads. So, setting your radius to a smaller number might make sense, in this case most likely just the NYC metro area.

Geotargeting is just one area of a PPC campaign that needs to be executed properly so as to achieve the best results for your website, so I hope that this simple tip helps with your next PPC campaign.

Monday, September 15

Google Reveals Vision for the Future of Search

Google holds the current and future of search in the palm of its hands. So when it decides to provide a sneak peek into its vision for the future of Search, it's hard not to listen with bated breath.

Google's VP of Search Products and User Experience, Marissa Mayer, recently revealed her vision for Search in a post on the Official Google Blog, and it raised some interesting directions for the world's fastest growing online pastime.

Inspired by a self dissection of her search needs on a particular Saturday, Marissa reviews what she perceives to be the current deficiencies of search, which she suggests as "opportunity for innovation, change, and progress. There are lots of ways that search will need to evolve in order to easily meet user needs."

I've captured some quotes that give you the gist of each area, but I highly recommend visiting Marissa's post for an entertaining insight into her prediction for search evolution.

Modes
"search still isn't accessible enough or easy enough. Search needs to be more mobile - it should be available and easy to use in cell phones and in cars and on handheld, wearable devices that we don't even have yet..."

Media
"The 10 blue links offered as results for Internet search can be amazing and even life-changing, but when you are trying to remember the steps to the Charleston, a textual web page isn't going to be nearly as helpful as a video. The media of the results matters...

What if results pages pulled the best media together and laid it out such that the most useful content was not only first but largest? What if we laid out content in columns to use more of the width available on newer, wider screens?"

Personalization
"search engines of the future will be better in part because they will understand more about you, the individual user... Maybe the search engines of the future will know where you are located, maybe they will know what you know already or what you learned earlier today, or maybe they will fully understand your preferences because you have chosen to share that information with us.

Language
"The basic concept is - if the answer exists online anywhere in any language, we'll go get it for you, translate it and bring it back in your native tongue. This is an incredibly empowering idea that could really change the way that users experience the web and communicate with each other"

When you consider how far search has come (in large part thanks to Google) in past 10 years, the ideas that Marissa raises could be closer than we think.

Whether you're an internet or search engine marketer, a business owner leveraging search to reach new customers, or simply a user with a keen interest in Search - pop over to Marissa's post and indulge in a little crystal ball action.

DMOZ for sale - Google's Favorite Directory Almost Sold!

The DMOZ Directory is the equivalent to the Holy Grail (almost) when it comes to link juice for Google SEO. For years, DMOZ has been considered the first "port of call" when starting your link building journey in any SEO campaign.

Now the directory, which Google has openly endorsed for its relevance value (Google basically replicates it for its own directory), is primed for purchase.

If rumors raised by Jeremy Shoemaker, author and owner of the famous Shoemoney blog,
are true - DMOZ is on the verge of being bought by the owners of BOTW Directory (Best
of the Web).

According to Jeremy:
"Well I now have official confirmation that BOTW and AOL are in discussions about selling the directory and a deal could be reached fairly soon."

DMOZ is currently owned by AOL, and is run as highly moderated free directory. Given AOL's recent efforts to offload divisions that donâ€™t fit with the company's new direction, the DMOZ sale makes sense. More so when you consider it has no obvious revenue model, other than a sell off.

BOTW is also a well respected directory, which carries significant weight in Google's ranking algorithm. However, unlike DMOZ, BOTW is a directory that charges about $250 to have your site reviewed. They bypass Google's "paid link" issue, by asserting that the fee is purely for reviewing your submission, and it offers no guarantee of inclusion in the Best of the Web Directory.

The industry will be watching the DMOZ sale closely for two key reasons.

Firstly, to see whether the change of ownership will alter the value Google places on DMOZ listings. The BOTW team understands the importance of a quality directory project, so I can't see this changing Google's view in the short term.

The second reason will be Google's own Directory. Given that it is essentially a DMOZ duplicate, will the search giant look to moderate its own listings? Again, assuming the guys at BOTW keep DMOZ closely moderated, I can't see Google changing tact.

Time will tell whether Jeremy's sources are accurate, but rest assured that the SEO community will be watching this DMOZ deal closely.

Do you think the sale of DMOZ will cause Google to change the weighting and SEO importance of a DMOZ listing? Share your thoughts with the rest of ineedhits blog communityâ€¦

Tuesday, September 9

Google Launches New Browser: Google Chrome

In case you missed it, Google have launched their own web browser called Google Chrome. Chrome is based off the same engine that runs Apple's Safari browser and has created quite a stir amongst users and webmasters alike.

My understanding is that Google's entry in the browser wars has one core goal: increase internet usage. If people use and like the internet more, that's eventually going to be a positive thing for Google, because people will be doing more searches.

So Google took it upon themselves to create a browser that makes searching easier, faster and more secure. Some of the core changes you might notice are:

One box for everything - Chrome uses a single box for the address bar, searching, history and search suggestions.
New tab layout - tabs are located on top of the window in the address bar creating a larger viewing area.
Thumbnails of your sites - The default homepage shows thumbnail versions of your most popular pages for instant access.
Security warnings - Chrome will display a warning screen before visiting any sites containing malware of phishing scam.

Google have shown they are serious about gaining market share with Chrome, by giving the browser prime real estate on their homepage. So far, based on our Hitslink stats, Chrome is currently being used by 2.03% of our visitors, not bad for a browser that's only been live for a few days.

One thing's for sure though, the introduction of Chrome means the value of a number one Google ranking just went up, as Google suggests the number 1 ranked search result for any term you enter. See the example below for 'cars':

Here you can see Google gives you a chance to visit the website cars.com even before seeing any search results. This means number one rankings are going to receive even more traffic than before, because there are no other sites on the search results page to steal your traffic.

If you want to give the browser a test run, you can download it here. We would also love to hear from any webmasters regarding the browser usage of their visitors. If you've got higher usage than 2% let us know!

Labels: Google Chrome