SES Magazine July 2009

contentsfeatures more columns

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12 Is There a LInk BeTween searchand socIaL?Search marketers will soon be responsible for more than simply making web pages visible above the fold at search engines; they’ll need to become engaged in social feedback systems. §

15 ses san Jose sneak PrevIewHone your skills in social media, mobile search, online video, and more at next month’s Search Engine Strategies conference. Learn about the sessions, speakers, and sponsors that makeSan Jose a must-attend event. §

32 GLossarYTerms and acronyms every search marketer should know. §

14 15 socIaL MedIa MaxIMs for MarkeTersThe No. 1 online activity? No, not pornography. Social media is now king. Here, a list of fundamental guidelines and strategies for social media success. §

24 Is a Lack of consIsTenT MessaGInG hurTInG Your conversIons?Because user intent varies with every search, ensuring a consistent, relevant message — from the query to ad copy to landing pages — is easier said than done. §

21 3 keYs To a successfuL weB PresenceSearch engine optimization is just one facet of online success. Here’s a quick checklist of strategies that will enhance your website and boost your visibility. §

27 ouTsourcInG search MarkeTInGEffective search marketing requires at least eight highly specialized skills, including online copywriting and web analytics. Should you outsource this function of your business? §

22 10 PrIncIPLes of The Tao ofPosT-cLIck MarkeTInGFrom click to conversion, here are 10 measures you can take to create optimized paths that match your different ads and varying audience segments. §

28 whaT Is weB 3.0?The transformation to web 3.0 encompasses a more intelligent way to formulate data and online interaction. In other words, search is about to become a lot more robust. §

30 GooGLe and MIcrosofT chanGe TheIr ad InTerfacesTwo of the most important search engine ad management consoles get facelifts. Learn what’s new. §

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July 2009

6

columns

4 whaT’s nexT In search?Search is on the verge of becoming an always-on utility, integrated into the devices we routinely use to perform everyday tasks. What else is on the horizon for search and search marketers? §

6 when sIze MaTTers: ManaGInG reTaIL channeLs To cLose The saLeAs consumers seal their wallets, retailers are reeling. But by linking online search with offline inventories, you can develop loyalty and broaden your customer base. §

8 TrackInG keYwords froM The search enGInes To The reTaIL sToreRetailers can now turn away from traditional media and embrace search marketing as the best in-store sales driver ever invented. §

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Advertiser Index

advertiser Page

7Search ......................................................... 25

Facebook ......................................................... 9

Google ........................................................... C4

iProspect ....................................................... C2

Marin Software .............................................. 23

Microsoft ....................................................... C3

advertiser Page

Offshoring.com .........................................10-11

Omniture ......................................................... 3

Search Engine Strategies ............................... 31

SearchEngineWatch.com ............................... 27

The Search Monitor ....................................... 29

Wiley Publishing .............................................. 5

For information about advertising in future issues, please contact sales [email protected] or (212) 457-4993.

Incisive Media, U.S.120 Broadway, 5th floorNew York, NY 10271tel (212) 457-9400fax (646) 822-5237

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Staff

SES: Volume 3, Issue 5 | July 2009© 2009 IncIsIve MedIa plc

enviroink.indd 1 10/1/08 10:44:38 AM

Please recycle this magazine!

Managing EditorContributors

Cover Design

Drew EastmeadJulie Batten, Scott Brinker,Scott Dunlap, Mike Grehan,Mark Jackson, Kevin Lee,Rebecca Lieb, Erik Qualman, Melissa Ortiz, Michael Stone, Jonathan TreiberErik Hageman

MaGazIne

VP, Content DevelopmentSenior Program Director

Program Coordinator

Stewart QuealyMarilyn CraftsJackie Ortez

ProGraM deveLoPMenT

saLes & MarkeTInGVP, Publisher

Sales Directors

Account Executives

Marketing DirectorMarketing Manager

Event Client Services Mgr.Web Designer

Online Operations ManagerOnline Operations Assoc.

Matt McGowanAndrew KatzElaine MershonElaine RomeoPeter WesterholmElizabeth HustonKatie O’HeaAngela ManChristian GeorgeouJoAnn SimonelliRebecca HolzLouise LabergeAleksey Gershin

Managing EditorNews Correspondents

Contributing Editors

Kevin NewcombGreg JarboeNathania JohnsonFrank WatsonTim Ash, Michael Boland,Eric Enge, Liana Evans, William Flaiz, Justilien Gaspard, Carrie Hill, Mark Jackson, Ron Jones, Sage Lewis, Elisabeth Osmeloski, Joshua Palau, Erik Qualman, Kevin Ryan, Aaron Shear, Gregg Stewart, David Szetela

search enGIne waTch

CEO, North AmericaSVP, Events

MD, Operations

William PollakKevin VermeulenJohn Klein

corPoraTe

Executive EditorManaging Editor, NewsManaging Editor, Stats

Senior Editor, NewsCopy Chief

Anna Maria VirziZach RodgersEnid BurnsKate KayeErin Brenner

cLIckz

Director, OperationsOperations Manager

Michele McDermottDan Hoskins

oPeraTIons

Matthew BaileyPresidentSiteLogic

ron BelangerVP, Worldwide Agency SalesOmniture

Brett crosbyGroup PPMGoogle

Bryan eisenbergCo-founderFuture Now, Inc.

Jeff fergusonSr. Director, Online MarketingLocal.com

andrew GoodmanPrincipalPage Zero Media

Mike Grehan, co-chairGlobal KDM OfficerAcronym Media

anne kennedyManaging PartnerBeyond Ink

John MarshallCTOMarket Motive

Lee oddenCEOTopRank Online Marketing

Pauline oresSr. Marketing Manager, Social MediaIBM Corporation

erynn PetersenSr. Manager, Ad Platform EvangelismMicrosoft

randy PetersonSearch Marketing Innovation Mgr.Procter & Gamble

stewart Quealy, co-chairVP, Content DevelopmentIncisive Media

ses advisory BoardComprised of both industry thought leaders and real-world practitioners, the Search Engine Strategies advisory board brings together top players in the field of interactive media and search. The team works to deliver continually cutting-edge search techniques, more integrated and relevant content, and professional development resources to SES attendees.

drew eastmead | Managing Editor, SES Magazine

about SES MagazineSES Magazine is now in its third year and will reach a print circulation of more

than 100,000 in 2009. In this issue, you’ll find articles on the latest trends in digital marketing, as well as a preview of our upcoming event, SES San Jose (Aug. 10-14).

We are grateful to our contributors and readers alike, and we’re always interested to hear your feedback and learn about what topics you’d like to see (e-mail us at [email protected]).

For more information on advertising, subscribing, and contributing, or to view past issues, visit www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/ses-magazine. You can also follow us on Twitter: @sesmag.

2009 SEM Trends & Best Practices

See How You Compare To Industry LeadersYour customized report includes:

»SEM best practices »Analysis to help focus 2009 initiatives » Industry-specific averages & trends from over 500 respondents

omniture.com/sessurvey09

Take The Survey Now!

See you at SES San Jose in August!

4 SES § July 2009 {san Jose prevIew}

Where’s search going? What do marketers, especially those in SEO, have to take in to account when planning for the

future of search marketing campaigns?

expect More universalityComScore research shows that universal

(or blended) search results are increasingly dominating SERPs. In early 2008, 17 percent of searches returned some type of blended result. By the end of last year, that figure had climbed to 31 percent, and it continues to rise. This is true across all the engines, and Microsoft’s launch of Bing confirms there’s no end in sight.

More blended results — the appearance on the page of video, book, news, local, and you-name-it results — means stiffer compe-tition for valuable SERP real estate. All those headers, thumbnails, and images take up space on the page, allowing for fewer results to appear in the top results returned by the engines.

seo Gets More complicatedYou’ll have to optimize more stuff: video,

images, books, news, and more. Carefully selected keywords in web page copy just won’t cut it as an SEO strategy for long. Metadata around images, audio, and video transcripts, and carefully crafted headlines in news releases and stories are already impor-tant but will soon become vital tools in the SEO arsenal. You’ll be competing not only for that valuable real estate but also for the right users. As search algorithms become more sophisticated, blended results will take the searcher into account. They’ll be based, at least in part, by geolocation, time of day, search history, and social affinities. It won’t be just about appearing in search results but also about appearing to the right searcher, at the right place, at the right time, and with the right media.

search will Go socialIt will become increasingly difficult to

optimize based on keywords alone. Context and searcher intent will shape the results returned to individual searchers on their queries.

Search engines already take behavioral data and individual search history into account when returning results. Watch for

them to rely on social and network affinities as well. The groups and organizations indi-viduals gravitate to speak volumes about the direction of their intentions.

While introducing social elements into search adds another not-to-be-sneezed-at layer of complexity on things, it will also make search an even more valuable feed-back mechanism than it already is. Reputa-tion management and listening will become inextricably linked to search, as consumers grow their online networks and publicly share their affinities; predilections; and brand-, product-, and service-related stories.

Platform = IntentSearchers aren’t just searching on the big

three search engines. YouTube is now the second largest search engine in the world, query-wise, trailing only Google. MySpace gets more queries than AOL or Ask.com, while eBay, craigslist, and Amazon combined (980 million) approach MSN.com (1.04 billion) in search queries, according to comScore.

Website visitors are more sophisticated. They’re adapting their search behavior to the appropriate search platforms. It’s a devel-opment that may make SEO a little bit less complicated, assuming marketers develop the right mindset. It’s time to start thinking about all types of sites as search engines, not just as video sites or classifieds or shopping sites. If you can search it, you can optimize it. Rank-Mobile’s Cindy Krum is enthusiastic about optimizing apps for sale in the iPhone app store. Heck, that’s a search engine too, if you think about it. And if you don’t think about it that way, you should start.

smart Phones = smarter searchingMobile will help blow out the search space.

Google’s Sergey Brin recently noted that one third of Google queries coming from Japan are made on mobile devices. While mobile phone sales are flat, smartphone sales are through the roof these days, contributing to the trend in this part of the world.

Think geo-location and apps as the driv-ers in mobile search, particularly service-based apps, such as restaurant finders; and highly specialized apps, such as MizPee (clean bathrooms), TapIt (free local water bottle refills), and the AAA discount app for members of the auto club. These are ad free but not sponsor free and have the potential to drive plenty of local, walk-in business.

The Long-TermWhat’s waiting on the search hori-

zon? Educated guesses will have to take the place of crystal balls. Here are some prognostications:

Real-time results. § What about something that happened 10 minutes ago? With the possible exception of Twitter, immediate events aren’t searchable or readily crawlable. They will be. Google has as much as admitted it’s on the case.Multimedia as searchable and §optimizable. Who’s this a picture of? What song is this clip from? A few highly technical and specialized search engines are tackling these issues now, but eventually such queries will become much easier to search for, as well as become integrated into “old-fashioned” search engines.Location, location, location. § Geo-targeted results will grow in importance, particularly with the rise of smartphones. Expect hyper-local geo-targeting in the future, not dissimilar to the direction that companies like NearbyNow are taking. Imagine walking into a mall or supermarket and using your phone to find the right jeans at the lowest price or instantly learning what brand of corn flakes is on special and where they are in the store.All search, all the time. § Finally, search will be an always-on utility, integrated into the devices you routinely use to perform everyday tasks. When you think about it, your TV or DVR program guides are search. So is your car’s GPS system and your iPod’s playlist menu. Searchability, and attendant marketing possibilities, will show up in in-store kiosks, perhaps even on your refrigerator. Even more than now, search will become the de facto way we navigate our lives.

Now if only the search engines would come up with a way for me to remember where I left the keys... §

Rebecca Lieb oversees the U.S. operations of Econsultancy, the leading source of independent ad-vice and insight on digital market-ing and e-commerce. The author of "The Truth About Search Engine Optimization," Rebecca has writ-ten on media for The New York

Times and was ClickZ's editor-in-chief for over seven years. @lieblink

What’s Next in Search? By Rebecca Lieb

§ FOCUS: looking ahead

5SearchEngineStrategies.com § SES

Maximize your online marketing efforts —and your bottom line.

From social media marketing to successful SEO, taking on transparency to testing and tuning, and everything in between, Wiley has the books you need for all your online marketing goals.

Check out these titles and more at www.wiley.com/go/onlinemarketingbooks and wherever books are sold.

Wiley and the Wiley logo are registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Managing Retail Channel Conversion to Close the SaleBy Scott Dunlap

Retailers are struggling to survive in an economic perfect storm. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index was 25.0 in February 2009, the fallout of growing unem-ployment and a stunning erosion of consumer wealth. With the credit market in paralysis, lenders have slashed

consumer access to credit. Inventories in the U.S. shot up by $6.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, and retailers, themselves the subjects of credit rating downgrades, are loath to invest in inventories that may not move. According to a March 11 report in The Wall Street Journal, “the sharp decline in consumer spending is causing [retailers] to rethink capi-tal-intensive expansion strategies and focus on their core businesses.”

While brick-and-mortar sales plummet, e-commerce sales continue to grow, albeit at a snail’s pace. In January 2009, e-commerce sales grew 2 percent over January 2008, while offline retail sales declined 6 to 14 percent in the same period (source: comScore). Cash-strapped consum-ers use the web to compare prices but are often put off by processing and delivery costs charged by online retailers.

Many retailers won’t make it through the current recession. Key to survival will be smart inventory management and adoption of an astute multichannel strategy. An important component of that strategy should be active management of online/offline shopping conversion to best serve high-value customers.

don’t Lose Your high-value customersMost retailers understand that online shopping drives offline sales, yet

very few are able to track that conversion at a granular level. In fact, it’s not uncommon for retailers to have separate online and offline merchan-dising organizations with little or no integration.

Online shoppers tend to be high-value customers, so guiding their conversion behavior is very important. Multichannel retailers have the opportunity to steer these motivated customers to their stores, where they

WHeN sIzeMAtTeRs


FOCUS: retail & inventory §

are likely to browse (as opposed to hunting online) and make additional purchases.

As retailers face tough decisions about which brick-and-mortar locations to main-tain, they are scrutinizing the value of their foot traffic. Mall owners are rethinking the benefits of malls as social hangouts, with many trimming their operating hours. To maintain the loyalty of their high-value customers, retailers need to have the right inventory in the right place at a competitive price.

And, in today’s highly competitive envi-ronment, retailers need to know if or why an online shopper was not converted to an offline buyer. This feedback loop, which could be critical in correcting inventory or pricing misalignments, is missing from most multichannel operations.

In-store Inventory Is essential to Multichannel Merchandising

Although most retailers understand that high-value consumers still prefer to purchase products offline even though they’ve researched them online, few retailers proac-tively drive the conversion process.

According to a 2005 comScore study, 63 percent of consumers who converted from online search to sale made their purchase in a brick-and-mortar store. Consumers who have already compared and selected a prod-uct online want to know not only where they can purchase locally, but also whether the product is in stock at a given location.

Once a customer has determined a brand and model based on online research, the retail outlet of choice is still up for grabs. According to a Boston Consulting Group study, proximity to an offline store is the main reason why consumers switch merchants, while price and sensory percep-tion of the product were the main reasons for switching brands.

Nevertheless, many retailers create chan-nel conversion barriers that lose sales and erode customer loyalty. According to a Boston Consulting Group study of leading multichannel retailers, more than half indi-cated that their online and offline invento-ries were not integrated. That means that a retailer may lose a motivated purchaser either because local inventory did not match demand or because the purchaser

was uninformed of product availability and turned to an alternative source.

Women’s apparel merchandising offers an ideal example of the multichannel conun-drum. Designers and retailers spend millions of dollars promoting women’s clothing through advertising and product place-ment. They depend on impulse purchasers, particularly high-value consumers, convert-ing emotion to action. Since some retailers have discrete online and offline inventories, a woman who is inspired to buy the apparel may not find it online. Or, if she finds it online but wants instant gratification, there’s no easy way for her to find a local store that has it in her size. By leaving a motivated customer on her own to track something down, the retailer risks losing her attention and, ultimately, missing out on the sale.

Providing online consumers with offline inventories solves this problem. Once the woman in the above example can search for the apparel online, via her computer or mobile phone, and locate the nearest store’s real-time inventory, it’s likely that the retailer will close the sale.

In fact, 75 percent of customers who search inventory availability and place an item on hold through my company, Near-byNow, actually follow through with a purchase. This statistic compares very favorably to the 25 percent of buyers who convert from online research to sale, either online or offline.

Broaden Your customer Base and Gather Intelligence

Linking online search to offline inven-tories has a number of advantages beyond closing an individual sale. Retailers have the opportunity to bring new customers into their stores through proactive channel conversion.

Men, who account for 50 percent of online purchases but only about 30 percent of in-store purchases (source: Forrester Research), represent a valuable opportu-nity for retailers who can create the appro-priate in-store experience. For instance, if a customer comes into a store to try on a product found online, the savvy retailer has

much to gain by having alternate sizes at the ready, plus appropriate complementary or accessory items. Creating a personalized experience can up-sell the customer while developing a relationship that is impossible to replicate online.

Based on our experience helping online customers find products locally, we see extraordinary opportunities for highly inte-grated multichannel retailers.

Prompted by online search behavior and inventory inquiries, retailers can adjust inventories to match demand trends. By

monitoring spikes in online activity, retailers can ramp up offline inventories to capitalize on product awareness and inter-est. Forward-looking

retailers can benefit from monitoring brand activity on social networks and delivering product availability information to mobile devices.

The fittest retailers are the most likely to survive the economic downturn. Part of that fitness regime will be lean pricing to compete with discounters. Also key will be the agility to respond to customers instantly and the flexibility to make the right products available whenever and wherever customers want to receive them. Integrating purchasing channels is an essential step that will help retailers stay alive and, ultimately, thrive. §

Scott Dunlap is the CEO of Near-byNow, Inc, a unique digital shopping concierge service that empowers consumers to search online for the most convenient lo-cal source for their favorite prod-ucts and brands, and pick them up at local retail outlets. Scott

has more than 14 years’ experience in the technology field, and was an early executive at a number of suc-cessful companies, including E.piphany Software and Loudcloud/Opsware. He holds a B.S. from the Univer-sity of Oregon, and an MBA from Stanford University.

Forward-looking retailers can benefit from monitoring brand activity on social networks and

delivering product availability information to mobile devices.

want to give your customers a more personalized online experience?

Check out SES San Jose in August.To learn more, see pages 15-20,

or register online today at

www.sessanjose.com


When retailers think about driving traffic into their physical stores, they’ve always turned to tradi-tional media, including

print, radio and TV. Why?More people are turning to the Internet

for content, entertainment, and networking, rendering traditional media less effective at reaching the same types of people as it traditionally has. Before you buy practically anything either online or offline, you will undoubtedly start with a Google search — 1 billion searches a day, according to a recent study.

What survey data tells us is that 86 percent of consumers initiate their purchases online, but only 7 percent of retail sales happen on

the web. Further-more, search marketing drives $16 in offline retail spending for every $1 in online retail spending. This data in aggre-gate doesn’t really tell us what kind of online market-ing drives specific

types of in-store sales. What if retailers could actually turn away from traditional media and embrace search marketing for what it is — the best in-store sales driver ever invented.

Paid search is a huge driver of in-store sales, which was referenced in one recent campaign funded by Cabela’s sporting goods. They hired search agency Performics to run the online search campaign with an in-store printable coupon. The results were astounding.

Based on the redemption results, 10 percent of the consumers who saw the ad clicked through to the landing page for the coupon; 40 percent of those who fetched the coupon then redeemed it in a Cabela’s store. That’s a 4 percent click to sale (in-store)

conversion. Most e-retailers would jump with joy for a 4 percent online conver-sion rate. These types of results have been corroborated across various retail verticals, such as apparel with S&K Menswear and tax preparation with Jackson Hewitt.

The difference with the last two merchants was that keyword tracking was enabled. How do you track a keyword offline into a retail store, you might ask? Basically, S&K Menswear and Jack-son Hewitt captured a unique code at the point of sale (POS) that was dynamically generated on in-store coupons. When a consumer typed specific keywords and clicked on the in-store coupon, the search link with the keyword ID was converted into a unique barcode, which was redeemed at the POS.

With the offer scanned and then processed by a technology partner, the transactional data was attributed to the specific keyword that drove that in-store redemption. Alas, keyword tracking for in-store sales was born. With tracking in place, these merchants, among others adopting this technology, are able to optimize for the keywords that drove positive ROI and drop the ones that did not, resulting in a much more efficient use of search marketing budgets.

The best part is, keyword tracking and search optimization doesn’t end with paid search. Natural search has been shown to deliver tremendous results for physical retailers. Creative marketers have custom-ized landing pages for specific merchant locations, capturing the natural search for long-tail keywords and search terms.

One such company is Fabulous Savings, otherwise known as FABU, out of Toronto. Their experts have figured out a way to opti-mize merchant landing pages on long-tail keywords for specific locations.

For example, they can create a land-ing page optimized for the search term

“New York pharmacy near highway.” The consumer will see a natural search ranking for an individual Rite Aid pharmacy and download the in-store coupon customized for that location.

When the consumer redeems the offer at that specific branch, the unique barcode data

will track the in-store purchase all the way back to the micro site that was optimized for that particular search term. Brilliant.

Search marketers can apply these tech-

niques in thousands of ways within the phys-ical retail world, from local search to mobile search and everything in between.

The challenge for the search industry is how to gain visibility with major retailers to demonstrate that search is not just a viable means, but rather a critical driver, of gener-ating in-store sales.

With a weak economy, marketers are slashing budgets but need sales more than ever. Search marketing has always repre-sented one of the most cost-effective market-ing channels to drive online sales. The data is showing that it might be even more effec-tive in driving in-store sales.

Retailers must embrace search marketing and jettison traditional media to compete in today’s environment for increased share of consumer spending. Once retailers recog-nize and capitalize on this opportunity, the search marketplace will change forever. §

Jonathan Treiber is CEO and co-founder of RevTrax, a leading technology company focused on tracking the impact of online mar-keting efforts, including paid search, on offline retail sales. Jonathan has led the company through its initial product devel-

opment, launch, several rounds of capital raising, team expansion, and several key business partnerships with major media companies interested in RevTrax’s cross-channel tracking technology. @jtreiber

Tracking Keywords From the Search EnginesInto the Retail Store By Jonathan Treiber

§ FOCUS: retail & inventory

$25.4 billion

Ad spending, including search, is expected to reach

$25.4 billion in 2009 and $29.1 billion next year.

Source: Jack MyerS PubliShing, 2009

A For more details, check outClickZ Stats.

Search marketers can apply keyword tracking techniques in thousands of ways, from local search to mobile search and

everything in between.


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Redeem your credit code after the payment step. Promotional Terms: The promotional coupon code and the advertising credits of USD $50

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beyond the free credit amount. Subject to ad approval, valid registration and acceptance of the generally applicable Facebook Advertising.

Terms and Conditions: www.facebook.com/terms_ads.php. The promotional coupon code and advertising credits are non-transferable and

may not be sold or bartered. Offer may be revoked at any time for any reason by Facebook. One promotional code per new advertiser. Must

be a new advertiser. Expires September 30, 2009


Why would anyone go to an search engine optimization (SEO) firm for the execution of a social campaign? I’m trying not to use the term “social media” because that term hardly reflects what is essentially modern

public relations. Generally speaking, the average SEO shop is a technical resource that helps clients develop or re-engineer web pages to make them more crawler-friendly. In my experience, the majority of SEO shops rarely even provide link-building services. That said, I’ve always believed that link-building is

The idea that the big connection between search and social is based on so-called

link bait is a short-lived notion.

Search marketers will need new skills. Here's why.

By Mike Grehan


more of a public relations and marketing exercise than it is an SEO one.

Back to my question: If your SEO firm doesn’t even provide fundamental PR and marketing services, such as directory list-ings and link building, why would you choose it to help with social?

Let’s strip this to the bone immediately. Many SEO shops see the application of some kind of social campaign as a novelty method of getting links for their clients. This is where you should stop and think before you reach out to an SEO shop for social, or before it tries to sell the concept to you.

Understanding how a search engine web crawler works and optimizing web pages have nothing to do with PR and marketing. The idea that the big connection between search and social is based on so-called link bait is a short-lived notion.

Online social elements will have a huge impact on search in the future. And it will have little to do with simply attracting links.

Currently, I’m working on a thought paper that addresses how collective intel-ligence will enhance information retrieval online. Just as the research community became tremendously active in information retrieval on the web during the late ’90s and early 2000s, so it is again. But this time it’s not all about hyperlink-based ranking algo-rithms; it’s more about information-seeking support systems (ISSS). These systems are being designed to meet information seek-ers’ broader requirements.

Information retrieval researchers usually depict information-seeking on the web as a solitary activity of a single person. Yet this view is beginning to change as more evidence of collaborative search and social bookmarking emerges.

This means search marketers will need to change strategies in the future — from simply making web pages visible above the fold at search engines, to becoming engaged with opinion leaders in web communities. Two kinds of social search systems are at the forefront of research: social answering and social feedback.

social answering systemsSocial answering systems are based

on people with expertise in specific fields providing opinion and answers to particu-lar questions. Some systems tap into social networks to get information from friends and friends of friends, such as Mechani-cal Zoo’s Aardvark and ChaCha for mobile information seekers.

These systems prove to be extremely useful for getting answers that are hard to find using the more common keyword-based systems, such as Google and other major search engines.

Of course, the idea of social answer-ing systems has been around for quite some time. You can track Mark Ackerman’s “Answer Garden” back to the early ’90s. But it’s only now that they’re beginning to see some real traction.

The effectiveness of these systems will depend on their efficiency in utilizing search and recommendation algorithms to return the most relevant past answers and further develop the knowledge base.

social feedback systemsThink ratings and stars. Social feedback

systems are based on social attention data to rank search results or content items. Search engines can derive this information from usage logs, or you can elicit information by providing website visitors with voting mechanisms, such as tags, bookmarks, and rating systems.

There’s currently a ton of noise in what are generally referred to as social media sites, such as Digg and Delicious, where

tagging abounds. Interestingly, Ma.gnolia closed down earlier this year and is now being rebuilt as an invitation-only commu-nity bookmarking service, due to launch this summer.

Scientists at the Palo Alto Research Center have been working on a prototype cross between a search engine and a recom-mendation engine. The experiment is aimed at leveraging the knowledge contained in

tags, reducing the noise, and amplifying the information signal.

An algorithm called TagSearch has been developed by researchers in the center’s Augmented Social Cognition (ASC) group.

Its prototype is called MrTaggy. Come on guys, you’re scien-tists. You could have come up with a better name than that. But

hey, if something called Twitter can grab the attention of the entire planet...

The group recently completed a 30-subject study of MrTaggy and analyzed interaction and user interface design. The findings seem to be quite promising. The empirical results show that users can effec-tively use data generated by social tagging as navigational advice. The results also suggest that the opportunity for interac-tive feedback and the recommendations offered by the related tags supported users in exploring unfamiliar topic areas.

There’s not enough room in this column to go into further detail. But hopefully you’ll get the gist of the social networking connection to search.

What does it mean for search marketers? It means that, in the future, the new signals will require new skills well beyond those required for SEO. §

Mike Grehan is global KDM offi-cer with New York-based Acro-nym Media. He has been involved in online marketing since 1995 and is recognized in the industry as an expert in the search mar-keting field. He has written mul-tiple books and white papers on

the subject. His second edition of Search Engine Mar-keting: The Essential Best Practice Guide, gained plaudits from leading industry figures, and his news-letter attracts more than 17,000 online marketers. Mike is a sought-after speaker for the world’s major online marketing conferences. @mikegrehan

Social media is essentially modern public relations.

Information-seeking on the web is no longer a solitary activity of a single person.

COVER STORY / FOCUS: social media §

need to jumpstart your social media campaign?



www.sessanjose.com


Social media has overtaken pornography as the No. 1 online activity, according to Hitwise data. Face-book added 100 million

users in less than a year to top the 200 million user mark. If Facebook were a country, it would overtake Indone-sia as the fourth largest country in the world by September at this pace.

Social media’s growth is now being aided by the baby boomer genera-tion. The fastest growing segment on Facebook is composed of females age 55 to 65, as they try to better

connect with their kids and grand-children. Heck, even the Pope has joined Facebook, launching a social media connection site.

With things moving so quickly, how can companies and marketers stand a chance at keeping up with it all? First, admit that you can’t keep up.

But, that doesn’t mean you should throw up your hands in despair. Some fundamental principles will help you keep your sanity and reap a healthy return. Here are 15 social media maxims:

15 Social Media Maxims for MarketersBy Erik Qualman

§ FOCUS: social media

15 social Media Maxims

1. Successful marketers will be more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy; listen first, sell second.

9. Being well-rounded as a company or individual is less beneficial. It’s more productive to play to your core strength. This differentiates you from the competition.

2. Consumers are looking to peers for recommendations on products, services, health issues, and more via social media. Only companies that produce products and services of great value will be part of these conversations; mediocrity will quickly be eliminated.

10. Companies that produce great products and services — rather than companies that simply rely on great messaging — will be winners in a socialnomic world. The social graph is the world’s largest and most powerful referral program.

3. Social media’s ability to quickly disseminate information among friends and peers helps eliminate different people performing the same tasks (multiple individual redundancies), whether it’s researching the best vacation spot or smart phone. This results in a more efficient society.

11. Marketers’ jobs have changed from creating and pushing to one that requires listening, engaging, and reacting to potential and current customer needs.

4. The old adage that you can only have two of these — cheap, quick, or quality — doesn’t hold true within social media. It’s possible to have all three.

12. Making multiple mistakes within social media is far better than doing nothing at all.

5. Successful social media marketers will function more like entertainment companies, publishers, or party planners rather than as traditional advertisers.

13. If you’re a large brand, you can rest assured that there are conversations, pages, and applications constantly being developed around your brand and by the community at large. The social community is “doing” social media even if your company chooses not to.

6. With the increasing popularity of e-books, there will be new digital media placement opportunities for brands. This is very similar to product placement in movies, only for books, and the placements are clickable and measurable.

14. The information exchanged in social media in relation to job searching and recruiting has rendered it unrecognizable from the information exchanged 10 years ago. Appropriate matches between employer and employee have increased as a result of an increased information flow.

7. The most successful social media and mobile applications are those that allow users to brag, compete, or look cool by passing it on.

15. The overall achievement of individuals and companies will be largely dependent on their social media success.

8. The transparency and speed of information exchanged within social media mitigates casual schizophrenic behavior. Having a “work” personality and having a “party” personality will soon become extinct. People and companies will need to have one essence and be true to that essence.

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These principles should help guide you to social media success. If you stumble along the way, who knows — in the coming days, you just might be able to “poke” God for advice. §

Erik Qualman is the global VP of online marketing for EF Edu-cation. His book, Socialnomics: How Social Media Trans-forms the Way We Live and Do Business, from Wiley Publish-ing, will be in stores Aug. 28 and can be pre-ordered on Amazon today. Previously, Qualman helped grow the online marketing and e-business functions of Cadillac & Pontiac (1994-97), BellSouth (1998-2000), Yahoo (2000-03), Earth-Link (2003-05), and Travelzoo (2005-08). @equalman


SES SAN JOSE——— sneak preview ———

Aug. 10-14

www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/sanjose

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This August, Search Engine Strategies will take youbehind the search box. From social media strategies on Twitter and Facebook tomobile search and online video, the sessions at SES San Jose will help you understand how search works, how it’s changing, and how you can use it to your company’s advantage.

A To register, or for more details, visit


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Speakers include

For more information on an upcomingSES conference near you, visitSearchEngineStrategies.com

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:Nicholas FoxBusiness Product Mgmt Director, AdWords, Google

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:Charlene LiCo-author, GroundswellFounder, Altimeter Group

Anne KennedyManaging Partner & FounderBeyond Ink

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:Clay ShirkyAuthorHere Comes Everybody

Mike GrehanGlobal KDM OfficerAcronym Media

7SearchAdvertise.comAcquisioAcronym MediaAcxiomAdfare Video SolutionsAdGoorooAdManageadMarketplaceaffiliate.comAsk Sponsored ListingsAT&T InteractiveBest of the Webblinkx

BraftonBusiness.comClick Forensics, Inc.Digger, Inc.Direct Agents InteractiveDoubleClickEfficient FrontierEngine Ready SoftwareEnquisiteeZangaFacebookFindologyHydra NetworkiCrossing

ideaLaunchIdearc Search MarketingInterwoveniSpionageKeywordMaxLinkWorthLocalezeLookSmartLyrisMarchexMarin SoftwareMarket MotiveMonikerNetwork Solutions LLC

OnDialogOrange SodaPeoplePondPerformicsPixelsilkPlatform-APRWebReply.comRosettaSearchAgency.comSearchIgniteSearch Marketing StandardSEMJ.orgSEO, Inc.

SLI SystemsSpyFuSubmit ExpressSuperpagesTMP Directional MarketingTrellianTyloon, Inc.Website MagazineWebTrendsWpromote Inc.Yahoo!Yield SoftwareYieldbuild/Hubpages

1-800 Contacts1-800 Dentist1-800 PetMedsAAA National officeAbout.comAdobe Systems, Inc.Amazon.comAmerican AirlinesAmerican GreetingsAmerican Honda MotorAmeriquest MortageAOL, LLCApple, Inc.Ask.comAT&TAvenue A | RazorfishBank of AmericaBell SouthBest BuyBlinkxBTOB Magazine

Business WeekCarat FusionCarFaxCentury 21Charles SchwabChaseCheapFlights, LTDCircuit CityCisco Systems, Inc.CitiGroupCloroxCMP NetworksCNET NetworksCoca-Cola EnterprisesCommission JunctionDell, Inc.DillardsDoubleClickEarthlink, Inc.eBayEdmunds Inc.

Encyclopaedia BritannicaEyeBlaster, Inc.FidelityFTDGap, Inc.Gateway BankGoogleH&R BlockHarry and DavidHarvard Business OnlineHewlett PackardHome DepotHSBC, Inc.Intel Corp.Jewelry TelevisionKodakLemarkMacy’sMcAffeeMicrosoftMIT

Mitsubishi InternationalMorgan StanleyMSNMTV NetworksNBC UniversalNew York TimesNielsen//NetRatingsNikeOracleOverstock.comOverturePalm, Inc.PayPal, Inc.PetcoPfizerPier 1 ImportsPrudential RealtyQVCR.H. DonnelleySeiko InstrumentsSharper Image

ShopzillaShutterflyStarbucksTaco BellThe Weather ChannelTIVOT-MobileTravelocityUnited HeathCareU.S. ArmyU.S. Federal GovernmentValPakVerizonWalgreensWalt Disney CompanyWells FargoWhitepages.comYahooYellowpages.comZillow.com

R


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Agenda

Sample Sessions:

Tuesday

agenda continued on next page A

¢ The Adaptive CMO: A New Paradigm for Digital MarketingThis session will set the stage for the C-Suite track and will provide a strategic view of how marketing is constantly evolving and will define the critical role that search must play. Brian Featherstonhaugh, chairman and CEO of OgilvyOne Worldwide, will present a unique viewpoint on how brands are built and why the “four Ps” are no longer valid.

¢ Search: Where to Next?It’s been said that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. Our veteran panel of industry insiders discusses the next generation of digital marketing and predicts what search might look like in five to 10 years. What should be on your search radar for 2010 and beyond? Does the key to the future of search lie in personalization? Do social networks herald the end of search?

¢ Turning the Social Web Into Real ROIToday, social media is essential to how we live our lives and stay connected. But does it really present an opportunity for marketers? This session will explore best practices in how marketers can leverage social networks as a simple way to quickly build and manage effective campaigns. Our panel of experts will share first-hand experiences and offer tips to maximize success.

¢ How to Turn Your Web Analytics into a Money Making MachineYou tagged your website with analytics. You may even login to check your stats or get them e-mailed to you. What does it all mean? How do you turn those reports and data into insight and action? Each of our thee panelists will provide three solid tips on how you can make money from your web analytics — and they’ll be answering questions, too.

¢ SEO Tools of the Trade: What’s in Your Toolbox?If you’re responsible for your company’s search engine optimization, then you know that you need all of the various tools of your trade close at hand. This session will describe the tools that will help you to accomplish your tasks, including indexing, competitive analysis, site ranking, diagnosing and remedying problems, on-page optimization, and more.

¢ Keeping It Local: The Convergence of Phones & Local SearchNumbers from all over the country indicate a veritable tidal wave of smart phone adoption. ComScore statistics show that unique user access to the web from mobile appliances increased 71 percent from January 2008 to January 2009. Local storefronts need to be where they can be found by the new wave of mobile users.

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search fundamentals

search & community

search for the c-suite

search & Measurement

search &the future

Day 1: Tuesday, Aug. 11

9-10a

10:30-11:30a

11:45a-12:45p

1:45-2:45p

3-4p

4:30-5:30p

conference welcome & opening keynote: Clay Shirky, Author, Here Comes Everybody

Introduction to Search Engine Marketing

Optimize for Search & Engage the Community

The Adaptive CMO:New Digital Marketing

Always be Testing: Marketing Optimization Search: Where to Next?

Successful Site Architecture

Using Search to Find Missing Persons

The View Fromthe CMO’s Office

Creating aWeb Analytics Culture

The Next Wavefor Online Video

Persuasive Messaging in Your Content Strategy

Turning the Social Web Into Real ROI

Integration: The New CMO Imperative

Turn Web Analytics into a Money-Making Machine

Semantic Technology& Search

SEO Tools of the Trade: What’s in Your Toolbox?

How SEO Can Help Save the Publishing Industry

Going Digital Without Impacting Your Brand

Meaningful SEO Metrics: Go Beyond the Numbers

Where Will Customers Be Searching in Five Years?

Search Advertising 101 Convergence of Smart Phones & Local Search

Performance Pricing: What Every CMO Must Know

Extreme Makeover Conversion Edition

Launching aGlobal Website

Track


Agenda continued

Sample Sessions:Wednesday

Sample Sessions:

Thursday

¢ Igniting Viral Campaigns: From Links to Generated ContentIn a world dominated by behemoths like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, how do mid-sized and smaller companies break through to generate online destinations that create buzz, encourage word-of-mouth, and establish relationships with potential buyers? This session unveils the secrets of Web 2.0 that enable companies to stand out.

¢ Search on a DimeSearch marketing has long been touted as one of the most affordable ways to market a business, but these days, competition is fierce. What’s a small business on a budget to do? Get tips that will help you pick up the valuable traffic being left behind by your competitors. Learn from the best how to maximize your exposure via organic, paid search, and local search without emptying your wallet.

¢ The Findability Formula: The Easy, Non-Technical Approach to SEMTo succeed in any business, you must attract the right customers and persuade them to buy. But on the Internet, people only see what the search engines point to, and competition for top spots is fierce. So how do you ensure that your business gets found? Your head will be buzzing with new ideas and a greater understanding of how the engines find you.

¢ Follow the Carrot: Cool Mobile AppsUser migration to a mobile environment is driven not only by information and communications requirements, but also a host of applications that are useful, quirky, or just plain fun. App developers and experts explain how these applications hook users, demonstrate their rapid growth trajectory, and explore what might be in store for the future of mobile.

¢ Advanced Keyword ResearchCarefully tailored keyword research not only helps determine the success or failure of your entire search marketing campaign, but it can also provide a way of better understanding your visitors and their intentions. Join us for an in-depth discussion as we move beyond the basic keyword research tools to zero in on advanced tips and techniques for taking your SEO or PPC campaign to the next stage.

¢ Extreme Makeover: Why Am I Not Making Enough Sales?Are you one of those companies that gets plenty of visitors but only about 2% of those convert into a sale or lead? This interactive session takes volunteers from the audience and examines their websites live to show you why you aren’t making enough sales. Our panel of experts will give plenty of insight about the factors that are hindering your site.

fundamentals search for the small Business vertical & B2B Geek speak clickz/oMs

Day 2: Wednesday, Aug. 12

9-10:15a

10:45-12p

1-2p

2:30-3:45p

4-5:15p

afternoon keynote: Nicholas Fox, Business Product Management Director, AdWords, Google

GoogleSponsored Session Search on a Dime Microsoft

Sponsored SessionLanding Page

Testing & Tuning Sponsored Session

Keywords & Content: Search Marketing Foundations

Social Mediafor the Little Guy

The Death of Last Click Attribution & Its Impact

Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues

Igniting Viral Campaigns: From Links to UGC

The Power of Linking: Link Building Basics

GoogleSponsored Session

Four Paths to Success in a Tough Travel Economy

OmnitureSponsored Session

Social Media:Managing Conversations

Findabilty Formula: The Easy Approach to SEM

Turning Simple Change into Big Profit The BuyerSphere Project Real-World

Multivariate TestingSocial Media:

White Hat vs. Black Hat

Track

organic advanced PPc organizational Geek speak clinic

Day 3: Thursday, Aug. 13

9-10a

10:30-11:45a

12:45-2p

2:15-3:30p

3:45-5p

Morning keynote: Charlene Li, Co-author, Groundswell

SEO ThroughBlogs & Feeds

Advanced Paid Search Techniques

Electronic Contacts & the Long Arm of the Law

Ads in aQuality Score World

Extreme Makeover:Live Site Clinic!

News Search SEO Search ROI: Measuring More than Conversion

Brand & Reputation Management

Follow the Carrot:Cool Mobile Apps

Extreme Makeover: Live Twitter & Blogging Clinic

Advanced SEO Roundtable

Advanced Keyword Research

Independent SEMs/SEOs: Issues & Answers

Images & Search Engines:Getting the Full Picture

Extreme Makeover:Live Landing Page Clinic

How Storytelling Matches Up With Marketing

Brainstorming the Paid Search Super Tool

In-House SEO:Structuring For Success

Search Becomes the Display OS

Extreme Makeover: Why Am I Not Making Sales?

Track

Note: There will be no Expo Hall hours on Thursday, Aug. 13.

Expo Hall Hours

¢ Tuesday, Aug. 11 10a-6:30p

¢ Wednesday, Aug. 12 10-4p

A For more information on becoming a sponsor or exhibitor, visit

www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/sanjose/exhibiting.html


Tuesday, Aug. 11: Live Panel ReviewJoin us from 4:30-5:30 p.m. as top candidates for certification in Internet marketing undergo their final project — a live panel review

gauntlet, which will play out like a wild fusion between “American Idol,” a Ph.D. dissertation defense, and a lightning-

round news roundtable show. The event will feature:

¢ live site and campaign audits¢ tough on-the-spot questions¢ lightning round-type quizzes¢ no-holds barred critiques from the Internet marketing dream team

Witness the live dissertation on the latest standards, or opt to have your website or campaign evaluated by the new masters of Internet marketing. These candidates have completed up to three months of Market Motive master certification training, as well as testing from our top speakers and the most recognized leaders in SEO, PPC, web analytics, and social media. They will vie for faculty endorsements under the scrutiny of a live audience. The dream team panel includes:

¢ Bryan Eisenberg on conversion optimization¢ Greg Jarboe & Matt Bailey on social media¢ Avinash Kaushik & John Marshall on web analytics¢ Todd Malicoat on SEO¢ Surprise guests and you!

3+ hours

The average user spends 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 36 seconds on Facebook each month.Source: nielSen online, 2009

A See how much time users spend with the top 25 parent companies at ClickZ stats.

Monday, Aug. 10: SEM/SEO Training¢ Search Engine Optimization Training (8:30a-5:30p)Focusing on white-hat search engine-compliant

SEO methods, the course covers techniques that allow you to change your

sites while staying away from the techniques that will get you in trouble. Others who have completed the extended course have raved about it.

¢ SEO & Direct Marketing Tactics for e-Commerce Websites (9-12p): In the world of e-commerce, merchants need to have an acute awareness of

search engine optimization to compete. However, principles of direct marketing must also be applied to increase the sales rates, impressions, and

visibility of your site. Combining these two practices can result in a site that dominates the search results and provides profitable returns for the owner.

¢ Social Media Marketing & SEO: Working Together for Dramatic Results (1-4p): This intensive workshop will help companies better understand the social web and how a combination of social media and SEO can increase awareness, improve connections with customers, and grow sales. Along with strategy development and specific tactics, this workshop includes numerous case studies and specific guidance on a mix of social media marketing tools, ranging from blogging to social networking to marketing with Twitter.

Friday, Aug. 14: SES TrainingFull-day $1,345; half-day $745. Learn more atwww.SearchEngineStrategies.com/sanjose/training.php

These workshops provide the practices, applications, and hands-on exposure you need to become — and remain — a top performer in your field. This in-depth

training in a small class setting ensures that your instructor is accessible for informal one-on-

one or small group discussions. Whether you’re a consultant, site designer, website owner, or in-house marketing professional, this is an opportunity to experience firsthand the latest developments in search engine strategy. Regardless where you are in the SEO and SEM process, you will leave these intensive workshops with the necessary skills to improve your business results and take your search engine marketing to another level.

Workshops include:¢ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Workshop: A search-engine friendly website is a user-friendly, search-friendly, and persuasive site that converts visitors into buyers.

¢ Real Big Ideas for Real Small Businesses: Consumers and businesses are tightening their belts. For small businesses on tight budgets, the inability to advertise can be the kiss of death. But for small businesses with a bit of creativity and an understanding of online marketing, the Internet can be a lucrative launch point.

¢ YouTube & Video Marketing Workshop: More than 145 million Americans watched more than 13 billion videos in February 2009. With online video now reaching a mainstream audience, marketers are scrambling to understand how to seize this new opportunity.

¢ Managing Complex Search Programs: Big sites for multi-brand and multi-national companies face complex challenges when it comes to search marketing. We’ll explore how large companies integrate search into the marketing mix.

¢ Getting Fluent in Search Marketing: A Fast-Track for Senior Managers : With search marketing gobbling almost half of all online marketing dollars, it’s imperative for all entrepreneurs and C-suite management to be fluent in search. This fast-paced training session will give the senior manager a jumpstart on critical issues. We’ll rip through the alphabet soup of search: PPC, SEO, SEM, CMS, and more.

¢ Mobile Marketing 101 : The session will focus on mobile SEO, but will also touch on driving traffic and conversions with mobile applications, text messaging and mobile e-mail. You’ll learn what you need to know to develop, launch, and track a mobile marketing strategy.

��

Aug. 10-14 | McEnery Convention Centerwww.SearchEngineStrategies.com/sanjose

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Want to rank higher on the search results pages?By attending the SES San Jose, you’ll learn the latest tactics for maximizing the visibility of your website. An improved online presence — from social media to online video — will grow your business through higher conversions and increased ROI.

Training Workshops: Aug. 10 & 14

Special Events


Universal Search • Vertical Search • Paid Search • Local Search • Mobile Search • Social Search • Image Search • In-House Search • Blended SearchPaid Listings • Organic Listings • Search Advertising • Keyword Research • Ad Testing • Contextual Ads • Landing Pages • Dynamic Websites • Domaining • Web AnalyticsWeb 2.0 • Social Media • Viral Marketing • Blogging • Affiliates • Online Video Optimization • Podcasts • Link Baiting • Link Building • Click Fraud • Pay Per ClickWidgets • AJAX • CSS • RSS Feeds • Content Syndication • Duplicate Content • Content Development • Search Engine Optimization • Search Engine Marketing

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48%In a survey conducted by Forbes Magazine, 48 percent of C-suite and executive-level marketers said they consider search engine optimization the most effective tool for generating conversions. Source: 2009 advertiSing effectiveneSS Survey, forbeS Magazine

A Find more facts about adeffectiveness at ClickZ Stats.

Whenever I ask a pros-pect what his goals are, all too often the answer is, “We want to rank in the top three results

for keywords A, B, and C.” Is that really a goal?

Now, I understand that high rankings (or, rather, organic search traffic) are important. I sincerely believe that a sound organic search strategy should be the core of every compa-ny’s marketing efforts.

This goes back to the old adage of running a business (location, location, location). You must be where people are actively searching for your product or service offerings.

However, imagine that you had the perfect retail location, and yet your storefront was filthy. Perhaps there isn’t as much as a sign with your company’s name on the front of the building. Perhaps, once you get into the location, not a single item has a price tag, and the salespeople are nowhere to be found.

That traffic coming through your parking lot isn’t going to help much, is it?

There are three basic rules that you need to follow to have a successful web presence:

brand matters § usability matters § search engine optimization matters §

Brand MattersThe look and feel of your website is a key

component to online success. For example, last summer, a retailer that was enjoy-ing great rankings in the search engines approached my company about a possible redesign of their website.

When I pulled up the site, it was very evident that these folks needed a facelift. The site was very ’90s, with no brand — not even a logo — and it was poorly organized. This e-commerce website was typical of many: It was graphics-heavy, wasn’t formatted consistently, and had little to offer in terms of (keyword-rich) product descriptions.

Bottom line: There was no way that I would drop my credit card info on this site. I didn’t trust it. If I were a common searcher,

I’d probably spend about five seconds on the page that I landed on, then hit the back button and check out the next result.

Build a website that exudes credibility and trust with your target audience. Because online, a competitor is always next door to your perfect location. And, next door to them is another competitor. Get the picture?

usability MattersLet’s assume your website looks great

now. So, if you manage to get the traffic to your site, you probably want people to fill out a lead form, call you, or buy a product.

Too often, prospects tell me that a phone call is a major point of emphasis for them, yet you can’t easily find a phone number on their pages. Check some of the most success-ful e-commerce or lead-gen websites, and you’ll notice that most of them display their phone number on the top right of every page. Little things like this can have a dramatic impact on your success.

Some people make a lot of money consult-ing on landing page optimization for paid search efforts. If you’re looking for a great book, check out Tim Ash’s Landing Page Optimization, or get some tips in his Search Engine Watch “By The Numbers” column.

Every click/visitor to your site is valuable. Yet many don’t put the effort to get the most out of every click.

Once you get people to your site, what do you want them to do? Download a white paper? Sign up for a newsletter? Complete a lead form?

Now, be honest with yourself. Are you making this action obvious to your visitors? People on the web have very short attention spans.

That brings me to another point: How long does it take your website to load? A free tool to check your site’s load time is available at http://tools.pingdom.com.

search engine optimization MattersNow, just because I put SEO last on this

list doesn’t mean that this is the last thing you should do. Oh no. The creation of your

information architecture absolutely should be done in conjunction with your SEO efforts.

Your SEO team should research — or at least approve — the content management system and coordinate the design and site development. SEO is the foundation of your efforts.

It’s funny how SEO and usabil-ity go hand-in-hand. Visitors to your website like content. They may be researching and need to read those detailed product descriptions.

And, coinci-dentally, search engines like that content, too. So, the more search engine-friendly you make your site, the more usable the site will become. If your content is good enough, people might want to link to your website.

You know what else users like? Blog content. They love finding “unbiased,” helpful, resourceful information. They love reviews. They love forums.

Guess what? Search engines love this stuff, too. Ever seen Wikipedia show up in your searches on Google?

So next time you’re determining your SEO goals, stop for a moment and think about the bigger picture. SEO is just one part of web success. §

Mark Jackson is president and CEO of Vizion Interactive, a search engine optimization company. He joined the interactive market-ing fray in 2000 and has worked at Lycos/Wired Digital and AOL/Time Warner. A regular speaker at SES and Pubcon conferences, he

earned a B.A. in journalism/advertising from The Uni-versity of Texas at Arlington and spent several years in traditional marketing — radio, television, and print — before venturing into all things web.

3 Keys to a Successful Web Presence By Mark Jackson

FOCUS: online planning §


Search is the beginning, but the journey — and destina-tion — is after the click. To boost the performance of search campaigns, marketers must pave

the path to conversion with rose petals and gold. This is more than landing page opti-mization; it’s a holistic way of looking at the entire user experience for respondents, from click to conversion. With that objective in mind, here are the 10 principles of the tao of post-click marketing.

1. All clicks are not created equal.The traffic coming to your site and landing

pages is not homogenous, but consists of a spectrum of many audience segments. Each segment has its own needs and perspectives. Even if the underlying product or service you sell them is the same, the particular benefit you should emphasize — or the offer you make — may need to be different. Don’t commoditize your respondents.

2. The road from click to conversion must be paved with continuity.

If someone searches for a specific keyword phrase, and you tempt them with an ad that speaks to that query, make sure that the corresponding landing page lives up to those expectations. If you’re a data storage company, and someone searches for “data deduplication,” give them a landing page about data deduplication. Don’t just serve them your generic “data storage” landing page. Follow through on the implied prom-ises you make, and make every path flow.

3. Landing pages are both part of your ads and part of your site.

Search ads are highly constrained to a few lines of text. Compared to most other kinds of advertising, they provide little bandwidth to make a compelling connection with your audience. Instead, the opportunity to engage people comes immediately after the click. Landing pages are arguably the true first impression of your organization. In some ways, they are an extension of your advertis-ing — where your creativity can really shine. In other ways, because landing pages can be functional and plug respondents into your marketing operations, they’re also part of your site. Balance these two perspectives to your advantage (“less filling, tastes great”).

4. Landing pages can have more than one page.

A landing “page” may actually be two or

three pages that provide a respondent with a cohesive landing path. It’s often said in web usability that the fewer clicks required, the better — and that’s true, other things being equal. But in online marketing, as in life, other things are rarely equal. What really matters to respondents is how easily they can find what they want. In many situations, it is faster for someone to click on one or two contextual choices to quickly reach content that is tailored specifically to his interests, than for him to slog through a single, long landing page overloaded with many different messages — or worse, face a generic landing page that says very little to anyone.

5. Landing page creative is limited only by your imagination.

Resist the temptation to use cookie-cutter landing page layouts. Plain old landing pages are boring and fail to emotionally resonate with your respondents. You want your post-click experiences to stand out from the crowd — to be remarkable. To do so, you must be creative in your design, your content, your concept — and take a few bold chances. If you aren’t working with a terrific graphic designer on your own original land-ing page ideas, you’re missing a tremendous opportunity.

6. Experimentation is the pathway to discovery.

Test, test, test. The best way to learn about your market — and get the jump on compe-tition — is to continually experiment with new ideas. Search is great because it is one of the easiest environments in which to set up tests at low cost and low risk. You can run tests on different kinds of offers, differ-ent benefits emphasized, different ways of presenting them, or even different audiences. You should have the agility to run at least one meaningful test per week. What you don’t want is to become complacent — if you don’t innovate, a competitor will.

7. Testing without a strategy is like fishing without water.

As a counterbalance to the always-be-test-ing mantra above, it’s important to recognize the difference between a thoughtful experi-ment versus a random change: Have a strat-egy. Multivariate testing sometimes encour-ages throwing things against the wall, but it’s not always clear what the outcome tells you about your market. Good testing will start with a hypothesis, and is often best served with a simple A/B split test.

8. There are a thousand ways to segment your audience.

You know that not all clicks are created equal, but how should you segment your audience? Demographics and geographic segmentation are two popular choices, but they’re not your only ones. You can segment by the job that someone hires your product or service to fulfill. You can segment by stage of the buying cycle. You can segment by psychographic characteristics. Don’t limit yourself to the segments you use to internally classify customers. One of the best kinds of tests you can run is to uncover the segments by which respondents identify themselves.

9. Incentivized self-identification reveals true segmentation.

People generally don’t like to fill out forms, and asking segmentation questions in them can be risky. People may not fill out the form at all if it seems too long, or they might rush through the questions that they see as a waste of time. In contrast, letting people segment themselves through clickable choices — a kind of contextual navigation — can flow more easily and align better with a respondent’s interests. They click on the choice that’s most relevant to them because you promise (implicitly) that you will give them content that is better matched to who they are and what they need. Be sure to live up to the promise.

10. Landing page management is greater than any single landing page.

Post-click marketing success isn’t just about optimizing individual landing pages. The bigger picture is to have a structure and a management framework that lets you produce and optimize dozens or hundreds of landing pages, matched to your different ads and different audience segments. These challenges of landing page production at scale — making it efficient and agile — can be overcome with conscious leadership and team coordination. And if your rivals are still doing ad hoc landing pages, one at a time, with days or weeks of delays, a little invest-ment in process management can become a major competitive advantage. §

Scott Brinker is the president and chief technology officer of ion in-teractive, a leading provider of post-click marketing software and services. @chiefmartec

10 Principles of the Tao of Post-Click MarketingBy Scott Brinker

§ FOCUS: conversion strategies


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Finding ways to improve pay-per-click conversions is essen-tial in any economic climate, but with less money to go around and greater competition

for consumer dollars, extracting more value out of every online visitor is a top priority.

While there are many ways to optimize your conversions, one of the most effective yet frequently overlooked methods is to ensure messaging is consistent across your campaign — from user search query to ad copy to landing page.

In theory, this sounds relatively simple, but when you consider that user intent often

varies with every search, deliver-ing a consistent message becomes infinitely more complicated. Keeping your message relevant to the user search query is the best way to meet this challenge, and if you maintain

consistency throughout the conversion process, you will minimize the number of people who click your ad and then abandon your landing page.

Let’s look at three easy ways to boost conversions by maintaining consistent messaging throughout your campaign.

1. Pay attention to user search queries: Create custom display URLs.

When crafting PPC text ads, remember you are fighting your competitors for users’ attention. If your ad doesn’t stand out, users will quickly move on to the next. The key to getting your ads noticed is relevancy. Make sure the user sees an ad that matches his or

her search query. One smart way to do this is to create custom display URLs and insert the user search query into the URL.

For example, if your website is www.babycircus.com and you are bidding on the keyword “organic diapers,” you would create a display URL that includes the keyword, such as www.babycircus.com/organic-diapers.

Generating custom display URLs is invaluable for creating the right first impres-sion for your users. Taking the extra time to isolate high-performing search queries into single ad groups and create custom display URLs for the corresponding ads will pay off in spades.

2. Don’t be afraid to get specific: Custom-ize ad copy based on user queries.

Let’s say you’re an online shoe retailer with a broad inventory. In some cases you may want to appeal to the user looking for a store that has “every-thing,” but what about the person looking for something particular?

For example, if a user searches for “Converse by John Varvatos,” you’d do well to avoid serving them a text ad with a broad headline like “All Kinds of Shoes.” This headline may describe your inventory and promote one of your store’s main selling points, but it is not relevant to the user search query.

Instead, serve the user an ad that includes all or part of his or her search query. Use “Converse by John Varvatos” as your text ad headline to grab the attention of the user and reinforce the idea that you have exactly what he needs. Work in a relevant offer, compelling call-to-action, and display URL like www.yoursite.com/John-Varvatos, and you will significantly increase your chances of generating a sale.

3. Give your customers exactly what they want: Design custom landing pages.

Most of us would agree there’s nothing worse than performing a search, clicking

on a text ad because it seems relevant, and landing on a page that has little to do with what you want. Even if the advertiser can deliver exactly what you are looking for at the best possible price, unless the landing page makes this clear, there is little chance you will stick around.

If you want your users to convert, show them they are in the right place by reinforc-ing them with consistency. If a user searches for “discount antique furniture,” use that same phrase in your landing page headline to keep the user interested. Then, use your body copy to further support the message by explaining the unique benefits of buying from your store, such as special savings or warranties.

Alternatively, you could feature a specific discount on your landing page, using a headline like “Get 25% Off Discount Antique Furniture Now” — one that takes into account the user query but goes a step

further by predicting exactly what the user wants.

Achieving consis-tent messaging by building more relevant ads and landing pages is one of the smartest things you can do to

improve your PPC conversions, but a higher conversion rate isn’t the only benefit.

Bringing more relevance to your PPC campaign will also help create a better user experience, leading to a higher quality score in Google, and a lower cost-per-click. Couple a lower cost-per-click with a higher conversion rate, and you are making more profit for less spend — and isn’t that the ultimate goal? §

Michael Stone is one of the origi-nal members of Wpromote. In addition to heading up the sales team and managing the compa-ny’s strategic partnerships, Mi-chael is a frequent speaker at industry events and serves on the board of ThinkLA’s AdZoo, an

organization of Los Angeles-based advertising execu-tives 32 and under. @mikeystone

Is A Lack of Consistent Messaging Hurting your Conversions? By Michael Stone

§ FOCUS: conversion strategies

Even if the advertiser can deliver exactly what you are

looking for at the best possible price, unless the landing page makes this clear, there is little chance you will stick around.

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It’s the age-old question: Should a business do everything in-house, or should it outsource certain activities? Each has advantages, but in economic uncertainty, more companies are look-

ing to outsource non-core functions to save money and improve operating efficiencies.

Currently, outsourcing is a common practice for many information technology services. But with marketing, companies seem hesitant to jump on the outsourcing bandwagon. Many maintain that they have in-house marketing departments that should be able to do anything a third-party special-ist can do. But what about online marketing, and search marketing in particular? Should companies be outsourcing these activities?

I say absolutely, but I may be a little biased. However, there are compelling reasons for doing so. The top reason to consider outsourcing is that effective search marketing requires very specialized skills.

Not only does search marketing require a depth of understanding and experience in the field, it’s rarely successfully accomplished on the shoulders of a single person.

Actually, it takes a whole team of people

to execute a search marketing strategy:The § marketing strategist understands the brand and website business objectives and requirements, and communicates these to the team.The § user experience specialist ensures the site is optimized for conversions, provides visitors with a clear path, and does not include abandonment points.The § search engine optimization specialist undertakes on-page and off-page SEO, including keyword research, integration, and link building.The § paid search specialist develops, executes, and manages PPC campaigns.The § copywriter ensures site copy is tailored to organic and paid keywords and presents a strong call-to-action.The § web developer implements changes recommend by the usability and SEO specialists.The § web administrator ensures the site is fully functional, so search engines can consistently crawl the site.The § web analytics manager implements tracking on the search campaign and reports on key metrics.

If you don’t have all the above roles, it might necessitate some new hires or internal training to get where you need to be. If you do, you may be among the few companies well positioned to do search in-house.

Remember that search marketing vendors can help you build a business case for search and champion the project within your orga-nization. Plus, outsourcing search market-ing can vastly improve ROI. Seasoned search marketers have extensive experience and industry tools and resources at their disposal, so they can produce better results than a company doing it itself. Although the upfront investment to work with a pro might be hard to swallow, the end results will more than likely pay off. §

Julie Batten is the e-marketing manager at Klick Communica-tions. She develops and manages online marketing campaigns for world-class brands. Having writ-ten several white papers and ar-ticles, instructed online courses, and spoken at various seminars,

Julie is well-versed in all things search.

Outsourcing Search MarketingBy Julie Batten

FOCUS: staffing §


During the dot-com boom, we used web 1.0, the most simplistic form of the online experience. Web 1.0 included basic, static web pages, HTML, irri-tating online guestbooks, and tons of

frameset integration. Web 1.0 introduced e-commerce via online catalogs and online shopping carts. It was easy and fun to shop on a PC — from anywhere at any time. Websites popped up every minute, and people were searching for goods and services as e-comm took the web by storm.

As we progressed from the ’90s into the new millennium, web 2.0 emerged. Consumer interaction became the newest hype, revolutionizing the online world into a virtual socialization hub.

The dawn of emerging interactive online commu-nities, social networking sites, and blogs became the Studio 54 of our time. Viral campaigning and spread-ing buzz via e-mail sharing and bookmarking social sites became a monumental aspect of web 2.0’s peak. From a technical standpoint, web 1.0’s simple PHP changed to 2.0’s AJAX, sophisticated Flash, and APIs and RSS feed integration — all of which dynamically fed web content directly to your screen.

Millions of users logged onto social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook for the first time. YouTube became the first web 2.0 media-rich-driven site with sharable user-generated content. Video streams were being shared and rated by users for free and grew virally by the second. More social sites like Linked In and blog sites like Twitter exploded with great success.

The wikis emerged as a platform for users to make contributions, act as publishers, and have owner-ship of their own content. In addition, they could blog about themselves, American Idol, or anything they chose. Users felt empowered, and they felt the world was listening. Interaction continued, and the

sharability factor was apparent.If you wanted to read a thread of blogs and jump

on the blog bandwagon, RSS feeds allowed you to join the banter. Or better yet, MRSS allowed users to share multimedia-enriched files on online forums and blogs. People finally connected with everyone they knew from their past and present. The Inter-net became one big party — a frenzy of interactive addiction across the globe.

Nearing the end of a robust decade of social evolu-tion and interactive freedom came the commencement of web 3.0. Taking multimedia-enriched platforms to another level, web 3.0 allows users to personalize their browsers and widgets — and control them from anywhere.

Web 3.0 offers 4G (fourth generation), which is complete wireless communication. It allows the trans-mission of multimedia, voice, and data via secure IP addresses. Users can access video chats, mobile TV, Internet radio, and digital video broadcasting.

The transformation to web 3.0 encompasses a more intelligent way to formulate structured computing interaction online. The constant strategy of imple-menting APIs (application programming interface) has exploded, along with the creation of mash-ups and widgets. Facebook, for example, gave users the option to upgrade their profiles to a web 3.0 version, which would allow more mobility and better func-tionality within the interface. The look and feel of the 2.0 profile was noticeably different, and Facebook forced many users into the change.

Flickr’s famous photo-sharing interface allows developers to easily search for images within its own network. This technique sheds new light on how applications can communicate with each other directly and formulate broad searches through simplistic integration. Users can share ideas, knowl-edge, videos, songs, photos, apps, and more — right

By Melissa Ortiz

What is Web 3.0?


from their PC or PDA, on various social networking sites.

Semantic web is a technology that is used to define web 3.0. Sophistication in data mining to extrapolate viable keywords and clustering them together to formu-late collectable data appears to be a smart approach toward building a more “intelli-gent” worldwide web.

Through the combination of web services and semantic markup, applications will speak to each other directly through natu-ral language processing, which can extract meaningful and actionable insight. Data can be used to improve customer relationships and help users identify how different types of content relate to each other.

Web Ontology Language (OWL), Resource Description Framework (RDF), and Extensible Markup Language (XML) fall under the W3C standards for web 3.0 technology. Ontology basically defines the nature of a piece of content and iden-tifies a familial relationship. For example, let’s use the metaphor of a family tree: My

grandparents are two generations removed from me, my parents are one generation removed from me, and so on. Yet, we all share the same commonality — we are all related by blood, according to our gene pool and heritage. So if we apply that theory to the web and translate that idea into web ontology, it would be a file of data grouped together based on the relationship within a group of terms.

Semantic web exists to aid in a comput-er’s ability to “read” all web pages. It’s not like computers know what they’re reading as they scan through pages; they just pull specific data that appears on that page during a specific day and time, timestamp the page, and move on to the next one. How does this ultimately benefit you, the user?

With web 3.0, you can conduct searches by writing everything you’re looking for simultaneously: “Which winery can I go to so I can stomp on grapes and make my own wine with my bridal party on the North Fork of Long Island?”

With advanced semantic web formats and

sources, tagged words — including specific, related subjects — will render the desired search results. Such results will streamline the search process — one that formerly required multiple broad searches that left users clicking through extraneous sites and content.

As humans, we can’t talk to our computer, tell it to do certain things, and hope it under-stands us. But we can push the intelligence factor through fine-tuning the resources we already have. §

Melissa Ortiz, a recipient of two master’s degrees, has specialized in interactive digital marketing, search engines strategies, web analytics, and linguistics for the past decade. Her knowledge and implementation in branding ma-jor Fortune 500 firms has made

her an asset to the online marketing world. Melissa’s expertise focuses on organic, paid search, and the integration of social media to maximize growth and performance. She is actively pursuing her doctorate in integrated marketing and competitive intelligence.

FOCUS: looking ahead §


In the wonderful world of software — including web-based software — it’s sometimes difficult to know if one solution is inherently better, or if it just seems better due to famil-

iarity and constant use. Such is the case with search engine advertising management consoles.

Many advertising and marketing staff-ers have voiced a preference for Google’s AdWords interface in the past — so much so that, for better or worse, the other engines have adopted similar interfaces. All web-based management consoles have gotten where they are through a controlled evolution — not because a full feature set

was evaluated, or because a user experience was created to opti-mally address the needs of different people using the consoles. Like the sub-optimal but ubiqui-tous QWERTY keyboard, iner-

tia has held back change for the interfaces many marketers use every day.

However, Google recently re-engineered its AdWords interface, making some fairly significant changes and making adoption mandatory over the next few months. The change just goes to show how confident Google is that advertisers won’t abandon the platform, even if there will be some challenges for users adapting to the new interface.

After all, few search marketers can survive on Yahoo, Microsoft, and second-tier engines alone. So, join everyone else, suck it up, and start using the new Google AdWords interface now, because, just like an old version of Microsoft Word, the time will come when you won’t even remember

why you liked the old version.With graphs embedded on pages where

only tabular data existed before, Google’s new AdWords interface is looking more similar to the Google Analytics interface. In my informal tests, the new interface seems to render more slowly in Internet Explorer and Firefox, both when graphs were included and when they were not. This can be exas-perating if you aren’t interested in the data visualization elements but have a task to do.

The new Google interface includes other major changes that take some getting used to. First, the primary navigation tabs have been updated. You may find it easier to get to some things and more challenging to get to others.

For example, the reports and analytics tabs have been combined into a “reporting” tab, along with Website Optimizer (which isn’t really a reporting tool to me, but hey, Google had to decide where to put it, and the only other option was “tools.”) Ironi-cally, if you select that option, your naviga-tion changes back to classic (perhaps only if you’ve never turned on Website Optimizer). This is clearly still a work in progress.

On the positive side, the new naviga-tional changes make it possible to drill into keywords at the campaign level (not just at the AdGroup level). Plus, instead of the breadcrumb navigation at the top, there’s a nice left rail sidebar allowing for easy jumping between campaigns and into specific AdGroups. This should be a time-saver, but the slow load offsets the utility of this feature, particularly on slower Internet connections.

The required graphs can be customized to include two simultaneous metrics. For example, you can select and compare clicks, impressions, CTR, average CPC, cost, and average position. Because you’re stuck with a graph, you might as well customize it to your preference.

At the campaign and AdGroup level, a “settings” tab makes it easier to get to these settings. However, the campaign-level roll-ups feature is my favorite, because, while

it’s often best to have a lot of highly-tuned AdGroups to keep quality score high (the idea is to tune the creative to the keywords), having to drill into every AdGroup sepa-rately was a real annoyance.

This is solved with roll-ups. Accord-ing to Google’s documentation of this

feature: “Click-ing the Keywords, Networks, or Ads tabs will display all the keywords, place-ments, or ads at the level you’ve selected. This makes it easy to

sort or filter by key metrics across ad groups and focus on specific high- or low-perform-ing items.”

Microsoft has also been changing its adCenter interface over time, and such changes often coincide with the addition of new feature sets. The recently released “Microsoft adCenter Spring 2009 Upgrade” comprises a combination of changes driven by new features and better organization of existing functionality.

According to Microsoft: “You can now take advantage of the newest adCenter features and enjoy more control over target-ing, bidding, and ad distribution, and other elements of campaign management.” Many of the new changes in Microsoft’s adCen-ter are designed to make it easier for those marketers who prefer to experiment with content-driven media to add and better control contextually-targeted media.

Taking the time to learn all the new inter-faces isn’t just a good idea; it’s mandatory. Set aside some time, take your least impor-tant campaign, and use it as an experiment for testing some of the new features. §

Kevin Lee, Didit co-founder and executive chairman, has been an acknowledged search engine marketing expert since 1995. His “Paid Search Strategies” column for ClickZ is read by thousands; his book, The Eyes Have It: How to Market in an Age of Divergent

Consumers, Media Chaos and Advertising Anarchy, has been widely praised; and he is a founding board member of SEMPO. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter. @kevin_lee_qed

Google and Microsoft Change Their Ad InterfacesBy Kevin Lee

§ FOCUS: ad management

Start using the new interfaces now. Just like Microsoft Word, the time will come when you

won’t even remember why you liked the old version.

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A

advertising network: A service where ads are bought centrally through one company, and displayed on multiple websites that contract with that company for a share of revenue generated by ads served on their site.

algorithm: The technology that a search engine uses to deliver results to a query. Search engines utilize several algorithms in tandem to deliver a page of search results or keyword-targeted search ads.

anchor text: The clickable text part of a hyper-link. The text usually gives visitors or search engines important information on what the page being linked to is about.

click through rate (CTR): The rate (expressed in a percentage) at which users click on an ad. This is calculated by dividing the total number of clicks by the total number of ad impressions. CTR is an important metric for Internet marketers to measure the performance of an ad campaign.

content network: A group of websites that agree to show ads on their site, served by an ad network, in exchange for a share of the revenue generated by those ads. Examples include Google AdSense or the Yahoo Publisher Network.

contextual advertising: Advertising that is targeted to a web page based on the page’s content, keywords, or category. Ads in most content networks are targeted contextually.

cost per action (CPA): A form of advertising where payment is dependent upon an action that a user performs as a result of the ad. The action could be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or asking for a follow-up call. An advertiser pays a set fee to the publisher based on the number of visitors who take action. Many affiliate programs use the CPA model.

cost per click (CPC): Also called pay-per-click (PPC). A performance-based advertising model where the advertiser pays a set fee for every click on an ad. The majority of text ads sold by search engines are billed under the CPC model.

cost per thousand (CPM): An ad model that charges advertisers every time an ad is displayed to a user, whether the user clicks on the ad or not. The fee is based on every 1,000 ad impressions (M is the Roman numeral for 1,000). Most display ads, such as banner ads, are sold by CPM.

geo-targeting: Delivery of ads specific to the geographic location of the searcher. Geo-targeting allows the advertiser to specify where ads will or won’t be shown based on the searcher’s location, enabling more localized and personalized results.

Googlebot: Google uses several user-agents to crawl and index content in the Google.com search engine. Googlebot describes all Google spiders. All Google bots begin with “Googlebot”;

for example, Googlebot-Mobile: crawls pages for Google’s mobile index; Googlebot-Image: crawls pages for Google’s image index.

inbound link: An inbound link is a hyperlink to a particular web page from an outside site, bring-ing traffic to that web page. Inbound links are an important element that most search engine algo-rithms use to measure the popularity of a web page.

invisible web: A term that refers to the vast amount of information on the web that isn’t indexed by search engines. Coined in 1994 by Dr. Jill Ellsworth.

keyword: A word or phrase entered into a search engine in an effort to get the search engine to return matching and relevant results. Many websites offer advertising targeted by keywords, so an ad will only show when a specific keyword is entered.

link bait: Editorial content, often sensational in nature, posted on a web page and submitted to social media sites in hopes of building inbound links from other sites. Or, as Matt Cutts of Google says, “something interesting enough to catch people’s attention.”

link building: The process of getting quality websites to link to your websites, in order to improve search engine rankings. Link building techniques can include buying links, reciprocal linking, or entering barter arrangements.

meta tags: Information placed in the HTML header of a web page, providing information that is not visible to browsers, but can be used in vary-ing degrees by search engines to index a page. Common meta tags used in search engine market-ing are title, description, and keyword tags.

pay per click (PPC): See cost per click (CPC).

quality score: A score assigned by search engines that is calculated by measuring an ad’s click-through rate, analyzing the relevance of the land-ing page, and considering other factors used to determine the quality of a site and reward those of higher quality with top placement and lower bid requirements. Some factors that make up a qual-ity score are historical keyword performance, the quality of an ad’s landing page, and other undis-closed attributes. All of the major search engines now use some form of quality score in their search ad algorithm.

return on investment (ROI): The amount of money an advertiser earns from their ads compared to the amount of money the advertiser spends on their ads.

search advertising: Also called paid search. An advertiser bids for the chance to have their ad display when a user searches for a given keyword. These are usually text ads, which are displayed

above or to the right of the algorithmic (organic) search results. Most search ads are sold by the PPC model, where the advertiser pays only when the user clicks on the ad or text link.

search engine marketing (SEM): The process of building and marketing a site with the goal of improving its position in search engine results. SEM includes both search engine optimization (SEO) and search advertising, or paid search.

search engine optimization (SEO): The process of making a site and its content highly relevant for both search engines and searchers. SEO includes technical tasks to make it easier for search engines to find and index a site for appropriate keywords, as well as marketing-focused tasks to make a site more appealing to users. Successful search marketing helps a site gain top positioning for relevant words and phrases.

search engine results pages (SERPs): The page searchers see after they’ve entered their query into the search box. This page lists several web pages related to the searcher’s query, sorted by relevance. Increasingly, search engines are return-ing blended search results, which include images, videos, and results from specialty databases on their SERPs.

social media: A category of sites based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, social news sites like Digg or Reddit, and other sites that are centered on user interaction.

spider: A search engine spider is a program that crawls the web, visiting web pages to collect information to add to or update a search engine’s index. The major search engines on the web all have such a program, which is also known as a “crawler” or a “bot.”

title tag: An HTML meta tag with text describing a specific web page. The title tag should contain strategic keywords for the page, since many search engines pay special attention to the title text when indexing pages. The title tag should also make sense to humans, since it is usually the text link to the page displayed in search engine results.

universal search: Also known as blended, or federated search results, universal search pulls data from multiple databases to display on the same page. Results can include images, videos, and results from specialty databases like maps and local information, product information, or news stories.

web 2.0: A term that refers to a supposed second generation of Internet-based services. These usually include tools that let people collaborate and share information online, such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies.

glossary Below you will find commonly-used terms that every search marketer should know. Keep this list handy!

As close as you can getto her decision...without reading her mind.

Be there when your audience is readyto buy, click, or sign up.

Microsoft® performance media is more than just search. It spans display, search, and content ads, expanding your opportunities to connect with your audience when they’re ready to take the next step.

Find out more about Microsoft Media Network.advertising.microsoft.com/performance

©2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.

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Search-based Keyword Tool. One quick, five-minute search could uncover 200 new keywords you hadn’t

thought of. Get started at google.com/sktool.

2. MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR WEBSITE Determine what’s working on your website, what’s not, and what could work better. With our free Website

Optimizer tool, you can test various website designs and find the one that converts best. Capture more visitors,

drive more sales, and do it all easily at google.com/websiteoptimizer.

3. BUILD DISPLAY ADS IN MINUTESGrab customers’ attention with visually compelling ads, even if youre not a graphics guru. With Display Ad

Builder, you can add your own text, images, and logo to over 40 professionally designed templates to create

your own display ads with ease. Then use your new ads to reach customers across the largest global ad

network—the Google Content Network. Start building at google.com/adwords/displayadbuilder.

4. STOP BY THE GOOGLE BOOTH AND SAY “HI”If you have any questions about how to get more out of Google AdWords, or other Google solutions, please

stop by our booth.

Whether you’re new to advertising with Google or you use Google tools for each stage of your marketing cycle,

visit google.com/advertisers to learn how our ad tools can help your business grow. And stop by our booth for

special offers to help you get started with Google AdWords.

© 2009 Google Inc. All rights reserved. Google and Google logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

SES Magazine July 2009

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Transcript of SES Magazine July 2009