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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.

Friday, October 31

Microsoft Hears "Tell Me Now" Searchers and Gives Instant Answers in SERP's

Taking a leaf out of Yahoo!'s book with Yahoo! Answers, Microsoft's Live Search team have now implemented answers in their search results.

Called "instant answers", when you search for a specific question in Live Search the answer will appear in the top spot of the search results.

Theo Vachocsky, Live Search Product Manager explains further:

"There are really just two types of searches: "browse and seek" or "tell me now". We've been working hard on the "Tell me now" type of search.

Instant answers show up at the top of your search results, offering the most relevant information we have to answer the direct or implied question in a query. We have quite a few currently on Live Search."

I asked the question "what is the population of Rome?" and the answer appeared in top spot. Making it very quick and easy to find the answer (especially helpful for trivia questions I suspect.)

You can also quickly check out how the busy the road traffic is in your area or find out your horoscope.

Although this isn't a major search revolution for Microsoft, I think it will be useful for both searchers and advertisers alike. For searchers it will be easy to find the answer youâ€™re looking for and for advertisers you will get less visitors to you site who have no intention of buying.

Google Search Share Decreases, Yahoo! Increases and the Theory on Why!

The latest US search statistics are in and it is actually a little surprising... Yahoo! have gained search share over the last month, while Google has actually dropped and Microsoft, well lets just say its not good news.

According to statistics released by comScore, Yahoo!'s search share has increased by .8% to 20.2% while Google has decreased to 62.9%. Now don't worry too much Google fans, the decrease is actually only one tenth of a percent (they were at 63%).

What's interesting to note is that although there has been some unrest recently at Yahoo!, they have still managed to increase their search share.

Loren Baker from Search Engine Journal has a theory on why Yahoo!'s search share has increased and I thought I would share it with you:

I believe it is because of multiple reasons where Yahoo still benefits as being an Internet start page and extremely popular content network:

The State of the Economy : Yahoo Finance and Message Boards are still going strong and given the ups and downs of the Dow over the past few months, it makes sense that more people were using Yahoo Finance and its channels, in turn; searching more.

The State of the Nation: We're in the middle of one heated election, not only between Obama and McCain, but also for Congressional seats around the country. Yahoo News and its Political channels are benefiting from the national and global interest in this year's elections and this could also be increasing the amount of Yahoo Searches.

The Holiday Shopping Season: Let's not forget Yahoo Shopping and its popularity as a shopping portal. Although the economy is weak, people still have to buy presents; perhaps this also is leading to an increase in Yahoo Search usage.

What are your thoughts on the theory? Do you believe that Yahoo!'s share increase is here to stay? Feel free to let us know by leaving a comment below.

Google Launching SearchWiki - You Control Your Listings

Google is planning on giving searchers unprecedented control over search results with what appears to be the launch SearchWiki .

Searchwiki looks to be the final version of a customizable search results trial from earlier this year. The aim is to give users the ability to control how listings appear for certain searches.

The eminent launch comes hot on the heals of Microsoft's release of URank which we blogged about last week. U Rank is a search engine that allows people to organize, edit and annotate search results, as well as share information with others.

Google's SearchWiki runs on exactly the same principle, the only difference being is that it's incorporated directly into Google's core results page - not a totally independent search engine.

Within SearchWiki, users are able to move listings up and down the rankings, delete listings they deem irrelevant, add listings they believe should be included and even add comments to listings (which will be visible to other users).

Justin Hileman has recorded a short screencast (below) so you can see exactly how SearchWiki works.

At this stage, SearchWiki won't have a direct impact on the rankings in Google's main web results for other users - but it will be interesting to see whether they try to include a SearchWiki factor into the algorithm at some stage.

While giving control to the community in terms of search engine results is great, I'm not sure exactly what traction this will generate - other than site owners keen to see their listing at the top of the rankings (even if only for their own searches).

At this stage, access to SearchWiki has been limited to only selected users, but access seems to be getting wider spread, so keep an eye out when doing your next search.

What do you think? Will such an enhancement by Google add value to your searching experience? Share your thoughts below...

Tuesday, October 28

Yahoo! Search Marketing Adds More Geo-Targeting Options

Yahoo! has announced that they've opened up geo-targeting options for their paid search program to allow targeting of users at a country, city or zip code level. The changes make it easier to pinpoint local customers and also transfer campaigns across the Google and Yahoo! platforms.

In case you're not aware, geo-targeting is a feature in pay-per-click advertising programs that allows advertisers to target their ads to only show in a specific region. For example, say you're a mechanic in New York; you wouldn't want to be advertising to people in Los Angeles, so you can set your ad to show to New York searches only.

Yahoo's old geo-targeting options were too broad and it was hard to target specific regions, especially in popular cities. The country, city and zip code targeting is much more specific and brings the targeting options closer to Google with its latitude/longitude and polygon mapping options. From the Yahoo! Search marketing blog:

You will find geo-targeting when you sign up for your account online, but you may go back in and change your scope at any time. To do this, select "Geo-Targeting" under your Campaigns tab in your account.:
- Click the "Campaigns" tab. - Choose a campaign. - Click the "Campaign Settings" drop-down located in the upper right-hand corner (above the graph). - Select "Geo-Targeting."
From there you can use the pulldown to select your target area by Entire Market, Country, State/Province, DMA , City or ZIP code. A map will provide a visual of the areas you are selecting.

Keep in mind that the tighter your geographic focus, the fewer searches you'll be targeting. If you're looking for more tips on PPC advertising, download our free whitepaper.

Labels: Yahoo

Monday, October 27

Most Local Customers use the Web Instead of Yellow Pages

A new study has revealed that print yellow pages are no longer the main way customers seek local information. The internet (through search engines, local directories etc.) is now the top way consumers look for local information.

The study, conducted in July 2008 by TMP Marketing, was a follow up to a similar study performed in May 2007 with the goal of understanding the value and use of online and offline local search sources including internet and print yellow pages and search sites. The results compared to the previous year, show a big shift in how consumers find local merchants:

Search Engines Now the Primary Information Source

In 2008, for the first time, search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN were the leading source of information for local customers. This means that more local customers are now using the internet to find local merchants and other businesses online. The report also revealed an increased usage frequency of online sources which are used at least once a week or more compared to less than once a week for print directory usage.

Local Searchers are Likely to Act

The survey also found that a large number of local searches take some type of action. This may come in the form of a phone call, an in-store visit or even an email. This highlights that local searchers are in the final stages of their purchase decision and are almost ready to make a purchase.

The breakdown of the percentage of searches that seek further information was high across all online search sites:

Internet YP: 82 percent
Local Search Sites: 72 percent
General Search Sites: 66 percent

The message for local businesses is simple: You need to be found on the internet.

The days are gone where businesses could cover most of their market by simply advertising in the newspaper or print yellow pages, the internet needs to be considered. If you don't know where to start to increase your local exposure, learn more about our G-Local Listing service, or download a free whitepaper on how PPC advertising can help you attract more local customers.

Labels: Local Search Engine Listings

NEW: Google Ads with Expandable Product Listings

Reports have been coming through about a new Google AdWords format being tested on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

It seems that Google is exploring the idea of offering a plus box option for sponsored ads, where users can expand the ad to view actual product listings (with pictures) by the advertiser.

At this stage, the new format has only been available when searching for "diamonds" or "blue nile" in the US version of Google. Under both searches, the Blue Nile ad displays a little [+] next to the listings which expands to display 3 actual products from the Blue Nile range.

The expanded product ads have been viewed in both the top sponsored ad positions and the right hand side spots, as captured in the images below:

Many SEO purists are concerned that the expanding ads in the top position will push organic listings too far down the page. In my opinion, its "much ado about nothing" as the default when the results page loads is the contracted version of the ads.

If a user chooses to expand the ads, then they've made the decision to view the product listings, and accordingly focus on the sponsored listings over the organic ones.

A similar AdWords test which include product listings in ads was reported at the start of this year. But the new version with images could be a sign that Google is closer to launching the format as a permanent option.

At this stage, it seems that the advertisers will need to submit their products to Google via Google base, with the listings somehow linked to their AdWords campaign/s.

No official release has been made by Google with specifications and details on the new ad format, but should it generate enough interest from advertisers, Iâ€™m sure weâ€™ll see it added to the constantly evolving Google AdWords platform.

Friday, October 24

Google's Quality Score - How to Score a Perfect 10

Google's quality score is the factor that drives down click costs and boosts ad placement in the AdWords program. So scoring the perfect 10 is the pinnacle of the game.

So how does a Google advertiser achieve a perfect 10 for their AdWords campaigns?

Jason Lee Miller over at webpronews has been scouring the growing number of lists that provide tips on achieving the perfect 10.

This is the recipe he shared from the post he found at Search Engine Watch ( I believe abbottsys was the original poster)

"Take two-word keyword phrase, mix in new domain: word1word2.com. Do not add navigation, ads, or links. Add both words in title tag, write about keywords, run ad for keywords and use new webpage as landing page. Let stand, Google quality score serves 10. Cost: one red cent.

At least at first. It's unknown if the quality score sticks over time without links or anything else."

Well that all seems reasonable, so let's break it down into actionable steps for your campaigns:

1. Keyword rich domain:
Getting a domain with specific keywords is not always possible. The easiest way to get around this is by using a landing page (off your main domain) that has the keywords in the URL. www.yourdomain.com/word1word2

2. Remove all distractions (nav, ads and links):
If you've just created a new landing page, then keeping it lean should be fairly easy. As with most conversion optimized landing pages - just focus on the "call to action".

3. Keywords Everywhere (titles, copy, ads):
It's all about relevance for the quality score. So integrating your keywords into page titles, ad titles, ad copy, page copy all works to improve the keyword congruence of the campaign.

Now many of you will be saying - that doesn't seem like rocket science. Well it's not!

The key to the success of this test, and potentially any other efforts to get a perfect 10 quality score is keeping the AdWords campaigns small and focused.

Many will argue it's too time consuming setting up that many campaigns just to get a better quality score - but if you want to score a perfect 10, then potentially that's the effort it takes.

Good luck - and let us know how you get on with your quest for the perfect 10..

Google Analytics Gets Major Upgrade: 6 New Features

Could it be that our prediction was correct? Is Google worried about the release of Yahoo! Web Analytics? It would appear that way, with Google announcing a major upgrade to Google Analytics (GA).

The upgrade is what Google calls an "enterprise-class" bundle of features which includes custom reporting, advanced segmentation, integration with AdSense and motion charts.

"We're taking things that were expensive and difficult, and making them free and easy to use," explains Group Manager of Google Analytics, Brett Crosby.

Here is an overview of all the new features:

1. Advanced segmentation: enables you to create a segment of traffic and see those people in all your reports. For example see people who visit from AdWords, or a specific website.

2. Custom reports: GA now enables you to create, save and edit reports to give you a specific view of your data. You can choose the information and metrics you want to see, organized in the way you want to see it.

3. Motion charts: This feature shows a graphical representation of up to four variables from your reports. Data points are represented by circles ("bubbles") with the size and color of the bubble representing two more variables. Then you can also watch change over time with animations.

Check out the video below to learn more about the new motion charts.

4. Account Management Dashboard: Give you the ability to monitor your account more effectively with simpler navigation between accounts and profiles. It will display a dashboard of key performance metrics of your accounts.

5. Data Export API: Google will open up an API to GA that will allow developers to transmit all of the data in GA to other Websites, tools, widgets, or even mobile apps. The API will be a platform for developers to extend Analytics data in new and practical ways, as far as can be imagined and implemented.

6. Integrated Reporting with AdSense: lets AdSense publishers see their revenue and impression data alongside their site traffic data in Analytics. The integration gives publishers more metrics to help them measure visitor activity and the performance of ad units, as well as discover areas of revenue potential on their websites.

There are additional videos and information on these new features here.

The new features will be available to all GA users, so if you are a GA user, then let us know what you think of these new features.

Microsoft Keen to Learn with U Rank Search Engine Experiment

Always keen to learn how users search, Microsoft has started testing a new search engine called U Rank.

U Rank, which requires users to sign in with a Windows Live ID before searching, allows users to edit, organize, and annotate search results, then share them with others, giving Microsoft valuable data on what people are looking for when they perform searches.

Microsoft explains that U Rank is a "research prototype, to help us learn more about how people use such technologies so we can continue to innovate."

"We believe that finding something on the web is only the first step for many tasks. To better support people as they are exploring a topic, comparing information, keeping track of what they're learning, and collaborating with others, U Rank has general support for organizing, annotating, remembering, and sharing search results." says Emre Kiciman from the Microsoft Research Team.

Here are the benefits of U Rank for users as outlined by Microsoft:

Organize and annotate results: write notes to summarize important information under each URL

Lists: keep lists while you're researching ("hotels for my next trip", "DSLRs for me")

Collaboration: Share URLs with friends ("related projects", "our reading list")

Recommendations: Tell your friends what you like ("best books," "favorite restaurants")

Multimedia results: Mix video and images with web results for added context

Ego-boosting: Make sure your home page is #1 (at least for you and your friends)

Easy to explore what your friends are sharing

Short-cuts: Move your favorite sites up; then put an ! in front of the query and go straight to the top result

I see most of these benefits as actually being more beneficial for Microsoft rather than the users themselves. What do you think?

Its great to see that Microsoft is being proactive in trying to improve their users search experience, although they will have to do a lot more experimenting and learning to even come close to catching up to Google.

Tuesday, October 21

Google AdWords Now Separates Clicks from Partners

Google have announced that AdWords advertisers can now receive a breakdown on their search traffic by Google Search partners. Previously, advertisers could only receive a breakdown in terms of Google Search (which included Google search partners) and the content network.

In case you're not aware, Google search partners are other search engines that display AdWords Ads alongside their regular search results - just like Google. These search engines include AOL, Netscape, Ask.com and a whole bunch more:

To enable this data, navigate to any campaign and select the option below from the statistics menu:

If implemented correctly, here is the view you should be getting:

With this view you will be able to see ad group or campaign performance at a summary level, or broken down by different combinations of Google search, search partners, and our content network.

Google have also said that separate Google and aggregate search partner statistics will soon be available in the Report Center.

I recommend all advertisers enable this view and have a look at their statistics for search partners. We've found cases where search partners perform better and worse than Google itself, so it will depend on your industry and budget. Increasing or decreasing spend on search partner sites may be a quick and easy way to improve your campaigns success.

Labels: Google AdWords

Yahoo! Enhances Local Search Results

Yahoo! today announced they've further enhanced their local listings by integrating Citysearch and Zagat SearchMonkey applications for all users. Along with their existing Yelp and local Yahoo shortcut at the top of each page, this gives local businesses even more exposure across the Yahoo! search engine.

Yahoo! launched their SearchMonkey project earlier this year to open up and improve the data provided in their search results. It allows users to create search applications (like CitySearch and Zagat) that pull data from other sites across the web to enhance specific search queries.

Enabling these applications by default means Yahoo! now provides relevant data from CitySearch and Zagat in their results. For small business, this means if your local business is listed in these directories, you'll receive additional exposure on Yahoo! search.

The application pulls details like hours of operation, addresses, phone numbers, reviews, maps and images for millions of restaurants. An example of an enhanced CitySearch listing is below:

If you're a local business, there are a number of ways you can take advantage of this:

Ensure you have listings in Yahoo Local, Yelp, CitySearch and Zagat

Add as much detail as possible about your business to improve your listing in Yahoo! results

Encourage customers to write reviews and leave comments about your business on these sites.

Another great way to improve your local exposure is to target other major search engines like Google. G-Local Business Listings provide you with a detailed online business profile that's searchable via Google's main search results, Google Local and Google Mobile Search.

Labels: Local Search Listing, Yahoo

Monday, October 20

Sack the Designer! New Google DIY Display Ads Tool

There is no longer any need to pay your designer the outrageous fee he demands for producing banner ads. A new Google tool will allow you to create your own display ads for your AdWords campaign.

Launched just days ago, the AdWords display ad builder allows you to build display ads very easily using your own text, images and logo.

"If you've wanted to expand beyond your text ad campaigns, or if you've been looking for an easier way to build display ads, this tool can help," Trevor Claiborne of the Inside AdWords team wrote in a blog post about the feature.

The DIY tool can create ads to fit all placements on the Google network, including video and game ads. Forty ad templates are customized to business categories such as movies, travel and games.

Below is an example of what the ads could look like:

So if you think you're up to the challenge of putting your creative hat on and designing your own displays ads for your AdWords campaign, then click here to find out more.

Google's Video Series on Ranking, Indexing and Much More

Want to know how Google discovers, crawls and indexes your sites pages? Or how Google displays and ranks these pages in search results?

Well, Google have produced a selection of videos to answer all your questions.

From the Webmaster Central Blog, here is an overview of the 5 videos in the series:

Discoverability - tutorial on how Google discovers your site.
Accessibility - suggestions for making your content easily accessible to Google.
Ranking - how relevance and importance influence your ranking.
Webmaster Central Overview - learn more about Google's Webmaster Tools.
Other Resources - overview of additional Google resources and tools.

Now, for the news you all want to hear... Google's reason as to why your site's ranking fluctuates (and it's not because they no longer employ diligent pigeons to rank pages). The slide below from the ranking video gives us some insight into fluctuating page ranks.

The content in the videos is quite basic, but if you are new to SEM, then these videos are a great resource to give you an introduction to Google and what they do. They may even be helpful for those of you that have been in the SEM game for a while, but need a little bit of a refresher.

If you would like to check out any of videos simply click here. Happy viewing!

Sunday, October 19

New "First Click Free" Initiative by Google

Have you ever found yourself doing some research via Google and when you find what looks like the perfect listing - you click through to discover you need to sign up, or even worse pay, to read the article or post? It happens all too often.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that content providers need to control information access to service business models and revenue goals, but it creates a bad experience for the searchers.

Google have released a new program subscription based content publishers called "First Click Free". The project aims to improve the searchers experience and in turn potentially enhance sign-ups for publishers.

According to the release post, the goals of "first click free" are:

To include highly relevant content in Google's search index. This provides a better experience for Google users who may not have known that content existed.
To provide a promotion and discovery opportunity for publishers with restricted content.

Put simply, publishers that sign up to the "first click free" program are required to allow searchers to access the full text document they found in Google's results. Any further clicks within the publisher's site can then be limited by sign up.

While I think the concept is great from a searchers point of view, I'm not convinced all publishers will really understand the potential of the program. Antiquated thinking will see many content publishers believe that "first click free" is a lost revenue opportunity.

What do you think? Is "first click free" a good model for content publishers to increase exposure and sign ups? Share your thoughts below...