Introduction
In search marketing, there are many more questions than answers, particularly when it comes to how people search. We know how we search and we assume everybody searches in a similar way. Also, because searching has become such an intuitive function, we tend not to really give the actual search process much thought. If many of us actually looked at what we did in a search process, we’d probably surprise ourselves.
At Enquiro, we decided to try to peel back the shroud that covers common search behavior. We wanted to see just how people searched, and ask them what went through their minds during the search process. It was a fascinating study, and resulted in a 30 page white paper which you can download from www.enquiro.com. Today, I want to cover just a few of the things we uncovered.
What We Did
First, we decided that we’d invite people to visit our computer lab, give them a couple typical search scenarios, and record their actual search behavior. Then, we sat down with them, reviewed their search activity and asked them questions about how they interacted with the search results. We recorded their comments and then compiled them for analysis. We had 24 participants, with a fairly broad representation from different age groups, income and education levels and backgrounds.
There’s No Such Thing as an Average Searcher
First, the assumption that everyone searches in a similar way quickly proved to be false. We saw marked differences in the way people searched. These differences could be due to gender (yes, men do search differently than women), age, education or experience with the internet. In same cases, the differences were dramatic and could have a major impact on an advertisers search strategies. For instance, women tended to scan all organic results and read titles and descriptions more carefully than men. An organic listing in the number 8 position on Google might not have been seen by almost half the men in the group, but would have been seen by the majority of the women. This is just one example of how one search marketing strategy won’t fit all prospective customers.
How They Saw a Search Results Page
One of the foremost questions on our mind was how people react with a search page. Do they scan all the listings, or just a few? How important is position versus the title and description? Do all users see sponsored listings?
It seems that people have already mentally divided the results page from their favorite engine into sections. These sections tend to be sponsored listings (in some cases, both at the top and along the side of the page), above the fold organic results (free listings that appear without the user having to scroll down), below the fold organic results (free listings that require scrolling down) and other features (such as Google’s news and shopping feed results, just above the organic results). Not all these sections are treated equally by the user. Some, particularly the sponsored listings, are often skipped over by many users (over half the group) to go directly to the organic listings. Depending on the type of searcher and what they find in the organic results, they may or may not come back to sponsored listings after looking at the organic ones.
The above the fold organic results proved to be the prime real estate on the search engine results page, with all users making sure they looked at the top few listings. The eyes started to drop off as we moved to below the fold organic results and the sponsored results, with only 16.6% of users saying they check out sponsored listings, regardless of what they find in the organic results. 50% of users said they’d check out sponsored listings if they didn’t find anything relevant in organic results.
Searching is more Complex than we Imagined
As marketers, we tend to think of the search process as a linear one. A person searches, chooses a results, visits a site, and hopefully converts. In reality, we see the typical search pattern is quite different
A typical search is a circular and complex process, with multiple interactions with sites and search engine results pages. The average online research interaction can involve 5 to 6 different queries and interactions with 15 to 20 different sites. Often, the actual contents of a search results page can cause the searcher to take the search in a totally different direction, launching a new query that is at best somewhat divergent from the original purpose of the search. Dead ends are common and the browser back button is used extensively to navigate through the search process. For this reason, the search engine results page is actually used as a navigation aid in negotiating the online research interaction, as people continually refer back to it and launch another online exploration from this starting point.
While difficult to strategize for, search marketers have to understand that a search interaction is a complex process and that the searchers mindset evolves as they move through it.
Building the Search Query: The Funnel Approach
Over 70% of participants indicated they like to start with a generic, inclusive keyphrase and narrow it down from there. Reasons for this included:
* Not wanting to exclude potential quality sites by being too exclusive in the original search
* By being broader, the searcher may find other options to help take the search in new directions by looking at the results
* Being able to judge relevancy of the original findings and selectively increase relevancy by adding qualifying keyphrases
* It’s easier and quicker to type in a broad, short phrase at the beginning
In this type of search pattern, looking at search volumes and typical conversion metrics can be misleading to many marketers.
For many searchers, the search becomes increasingly specific as they go through the searching process. As this happens, the chances of the searcher finding results that could lead to a conversion becomes greater and greater as the search progresses. However, the direction the search takes can be determined by the results found in the early, generic searches. For instance, in one case where a participant was looking for information on cruises, the searcher didn’t start out looking for either a Panama Canal Cruise or a Princess Cruise, but results found early in the search process led her to refine her search query in these directions. If awareness of these options hadn’t been introduced early in the search process, she would have never refined her search in these directions, leading to a likely conversion for Princess for a Panama Canal Cruise.
Introduction of Brand
This iterative search process introduces the opportunity for a multiple touchpoint approach to search marketing, introducing brand early in the search process and then reintroducing brand throughout the process. Obviously, this process works better if the brand is familiar with the consumer, with the advertiser having built brand equity through other online and offline search channels.
The Anonymity Threshold
In watching the participant’s interactions with a site, we also found that another common trait appears, particularly with the deliberate researchers. We have called it the Anonymity Threshold.
In general, people feel they are relatively anonymous when they are browsing online. And when people are gathering information about a purchasing decision, most prefer to remain anonymous. They don’t want to be exposed to sales pitches at this point, because they’re not ready to engage in the purchase process. They haven’t narrowed down their list of options yet.
In looking at the cruise example used in the buying funnel, it wasn’t until the searcher had found the right destination, type of cruise and cruise line that they were ready to engage in the purchase process. For this reason, they were resistant to purchase process oriented incentives (i.e. discounts) until the very last.
The internet has become very popular as a research tool during the information gathering process because it appears to offer the ability to remain anonymous. Through search engines, you can gather a lot of information quickly and you don’t have to enter into a situation where you surrender your anonymity until you choose to. We believe this is the reason there is a significant drop off between people willing to use the Internet to research a purchase decision and people willing to use it to purchase online. This drop off has been identified by a number of ecommerce studies. The purchase requires people to cross the anonymity threshold and they’re not prepared to do that. They know once they surrender contact information, they will likely be contacted by the vendor and be engaged in a purchase transaction. The consumer wants to do this according to their timing, not the vendors.
An interesting example of a violation of the anonymity threshold was presented by the use of online real time, real person sales chat tools such as HumanClick and Groopz. At first glance, these tools seemed a great answer to the impersonal nature of the Internet. You could watch visitors navigate through your site and if they wished, they could click on a button and initiate a real time chat with a sales person. As long as vendors stayed on this side of the fence, and let the visitor initiate the session, there was no problem. The challenge came when the vendor ‘pushed’ a chat window to visitors, offering assistance. Almost without exception, the visitors left immediately. We, along with a few other vendors we talked to, found that the minute we walked over the threshold and made visitors aware that they were being watched, they quickly left our site.
People won’t cross the threshold until they have no option. If given the choice between getting information and remaining anonymous and getting the information through registering, people will always choose the former. This creates a bit of a dilemma for the marketer, because generally the key metric is measuring against acquired or converted visitors. Almost every definition of an acquisition or conversion requires the visitor to cross the anonymity threshold. Because of the reluctance of the visitor to cross this threshold, the site owner may be building significant brand equity or trust with the visitor but is not giving credit to it because of the anonymity threshold.
In order to entice people to purchase online, the web vendor has to offer at least one significant advantage, whether it’s price, selection or convenience. If all things are equal or even close to equal, people will tend to avoid entering into a purchase process online.
In looking at most search marketing strategies; the emphasis is put on encouraging the purchase, while most people using search engines are more interested in anonymously gathering information. I believe there’s a potential disconnect here that more search marketers have to give some serious thought to.
More to Come
In this article, I’ve just looked at some of the findings from the study. In the next Net Profit, I’ll be looking at the 4 identified types of searchers, and what caught their attention in the search listings. And if you just can”t wait to get all the goodies, please download the full white paper at www.enquiro.com/research.asp.
Yes, despite what I said before, you will have to step over the anonymity threshold long enough to give us your email and name. Ironic, certainly, but like I said at the beginning, I don’t have all the answers. Hopefully we’ve thrown a few more at you.
Author:
Gord Hotchkiss
Traditional Search Engine Optimization
First I will define what traditional SEO is. Search engine optimization is the process of fine tuning (otherwise referred to as optimizing) your web site to reflect specific keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business and for which you want to attract visitors to your site who are searching for such words.
This optimization relates to a variety of elements, not only on your web site’s home page, but its sub pages as well. Those elements can include things like title tags, meta tags, alt tags, link structure, link popularity and the content of the site itself. Once your web site is properly optimized, the goal then is to make sure that each of the top crawler based search engines find your site and add as many pages as possible in their indices. These engines will usually start with your home page and then work their way to other pages of the site.
This is where another important aspect of SEO comes into play – making sure the sub pages or at least the main areas of your site are accessible from the home page. It can be assumed that if many of your pages are optimized for different keywords and can be found in the search engines, they will draw traffic to your site.
Search engine optimization also involves making sure your site is listed in the major directories such as Yahoo and Open Directory to name a few. I won’t go into detail about proper directory submissions here as that is another topic of its own but will say that it is important to make sure you are listed in the right category and have a title and description that is reflective of the keywords you are trying to target.
Other elements of SEO include monitoring your positioning in the search engines, making adjustments as necessary to your site to stay in top position and submitting to new engines or directories that come along as well.
Pay Per Click
Now I will define what PPC is using Overture as an example. PPC or pay per click is a service in which an advertiser selects specific keywords or phrases and then creates a listing that will show up when someone searches for that phrase. The advertiser selects an amount they are willing to pay for each click on their listing which results in a visit to their site ‘ thus the term ‘pay per click’. At Overture, you can bid anywhere from $.10 up to $50.00 for each click.
If other advertisers have selected the same keyword or phrase as yours, you then are competing against them for the highest position. Whoever is willing to spend the most shows up first and the others following in order.
What makes PPC attractive in the case of Overture is that they distribute their paid listings to other partner sites. In fact, if you bid in one of the top three positions at Overture, your listings will also show up at some of the leading search engines including Alta Vista, HotBot, Infospace, iWon, Lycos, MSN, Yahoo and others. They also show up in several meta crawlers and other minor search engines.
Therefore if you bid for top placement at Overture, you will show up at these partner sites as well. There are many other pay per click programs including Google AdWords, ah-ha.com, FindWhat, Sprinks and Looksmart to name a few. All function in a similar manner.
What PPC has allowed one to do then is to instantly ‘pay’ their way to the top whereas traditional SEO takes a lot of time and effort.
The overriding question then is how valuable is PPC and should it replace standard search engine optimization techniques?
Pros and Cons of Pay Per Click
First of all you must understand that PPC will never help improve your positioning in the regular editorial search results. They most always appear in a “Sponsored or Featured” area which is usually at the top or side of the regular search results.
While it is nice to ‘show up first’ there are still a lot of end users, myself included, that do not click on the “paid” listings but rather will search through the regular editorial search results.
Pay per click will not optimize your site so that it reflects who you are and what you offer. If your site is poorly optimized before you begin to advertise it with PPC, it will still be poorly optimized afterwards. Another downfall is that when you stop paying for PPC, it disappears and so does the traffic it brings!
On the other hand, a well executed SEO plan will improve your position in the regular editorial search results. You will have a finely tuned web site that reflects who you are and what you offer. You are not held hostage to having to continuously throw money at search engines to maintain your listings.
In most cases, once you have good positioning in the regular search results, you will continually receive free traffic. It may require some minor adjustments from time to time but all in all brings in consistent free traffic so long as people are searching for your products or services.
I am not saying that PPC is bad and you shouldn’t do it for if you have the budget that will go beyond a traditional SEO campaign, then by all means, utilize PPC as well. You gain instant exposure and only pay for actual visitors to your site.
But never ever disregard SEO in place of PPC! SEO should be the foundation of your online marketing strategy because in the long run, the benefits of SEO will far outweigh anything else you do.
Author Bio:
David Wallace is CEO and founder of SearchRank, an original search engine optimization and marketing firm providing keyword analysis, organic search engine optimization, link popularity enhancement, pay per click management, search engine friendly web design and ongoing campaign maintenance.
Don’t Drop Winning Ad Campaigns!
Newcomers to pay-per-click advertising are often stunned at how quickly they can achieve success marketing affiliate products. Don’t make the beginners mistake of dropping a winning ad campaign.
Here’s a fairly common mistake that is made by the newbie to the pay-per-click scene.
So you’ve started a Google AdWords campaign, and you’ve registered as an affiliate with several different products, and you’ve found at least one product that’s making you money.
Let’s say you’ve found a toy company that pays you 10% of the sale to promote their products (just for a tangible example we’ll refer to it as ‘Toy Company #1’)
You’ve played around, tweaked your ads, and you’re getting a little success. Bravo! Things are running in the black, and you’re making steady profits.
But wait, you’re still combing the Internet, looking for new and better opportunities when bam, all of a sudden you find Toy Company #2. Wow, Toy Company #2 looks really great. It pays a 20% commission on all sales, and the landing page seems easier and more intuitive than the landing page for Toy Company #1.
Being the wise and quick-to-evolve pay-per-clicker you are, you swiftly join the affiliate program for Toy Company #2 and set up an ad campaign for it, using many of the same ads and keywords that you’ve had such great success with in promoting Toy Company #1.
Surprise! Toy Company #2 is a great find! It converts much better than Toy Company #1 and moreover it pays much more per sale! You’re ecstatic! Greater success!
And then comes the mistake. Thinking ruefully what a sucker you’ve been all along for promoting Toy Company #1 instead of Toy Company #2, you pull the plug on your ad campaign for Toy Company #1.
It’s only human nature to want to do this. After all, Toy Company #1 wasn’t performing as well as #2 is. You aren’t seeing nearly as high a profit margin.
But the hard truth of the matter is this: Toy Company #1 was making you steady money! It wasn’t running in the red. It wasn’t a drain on your budget or resources. It was a winner.
Profit is profit. Every little bit adds up. Sure, Toy Company #1 wasn’t making you much money, but even a little bit of profit is more than you had. Imagine if you found seven more companies that performed like it ‘ at the end of the month, all those ‘little’ profits would add up to a ‘big’ overall profit.
The best solution is to keep the ad campaign that’s already working, and add new campaigns that show even better profits to it.
But what about the fact that you’re now competing with yourself? On the surface it doesn’t seem to make sense to promote two different products that are aimed at the same audience.
The answer to this objection is simple. Why shouldn’t you compete with yourself? That way, no matter which choice the consumer makes, you win. Some of your audience, for whatever reason, just isn’t going to buy products from Toy Company #2. Some of them will only buy from Toy Company #1. Don’t you want to make profits from those people too?
The lesson is simple. Don’t drop winning ad campaigns!
Author Bio:
Daniel Brough is the founder of AdWord Wizards, a free mentoring program designed to teach anyone how to profit from pay-per-click search engines. Want to start a profitable AdWords campaign in less than 30 minutes? Come to http://www.adwordwizard.com and sign up for this free program.
Introduction
Did you realize there are only three types of online promotion?… This statement may seem odd and even untrue in your mind, but I am speaking in more general terms than you might be thinking.
Let me explain.
The three types of promotion are Junk, Active and Passive promotions.
Junk promotions are money pits
Junk promotions are those that seem to produce results, but by their very nature are really only illusionary promotions.
For example, let me begin with FFA (Free For All) pages. You might find yourself subscribing to a submission program that tricks you into believing you are submitting your links to tens of thousands search engines.
According to the Open Directory website, they have only approved 1705 search engines and directories for inclusion in their database (http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/).
I like using the DMOZ directory as an example because submitted links are tested by human beings with integrity, for the honesty used in site description. Search Engine Watch and other search watchers tend to show fewer than these 1705 engines, primarily because a lot of the engines provide very little value.
Yes, you can submit your URL to a FFA page, but FFA�s usually only permit 100 or 1000 links on their page at any one time. So, if ten thousand people are submitting a link to an FFA page on a daily basis, then the average life of your link is between seven minutes and 144 minutes. I suspect the actual number of submitters is much higher and the results are much worse. Given that few people surf FFA pages, the chances of your submission being of any real value is practically nill!
Most of the people telling you that you can submit your site to tens of thousands of search engines are truly only submitting your site to FFA pages! Beware of the false promises.
Another junk promotion method is Safe Lists. A safe list is a mailing group that is signed up to be received by people who want to submit their own ads. Now, most safe lists have thousands of subscribers who are able to submit their ads daily or weekly. The person signed up to receive the list will receive anywhere from twenty to 140+ messages a day from the list. These messages will be received by people only interested in promoting their own thing who do not have the right motivation to open, let alone read Your Advertising. As a result, thousands of messages go out daily or weekly that will never be seen by anyone but the sender of the ad. Where is the value in that? There is none.
Active promotions
Active promotions are the type that require you to go out on a daily basis or a weekly basis and put out your advertisements. With active promotions, you will either place your advertising or you will not sell your products or services. Your choice is simple — work or starve.
Examples of active promotions include Pay Per Click Search Engines (PPCSE�s), Direct Email, Ezine Advertising, Solo Ezine Ads, Newsletter Publishing, Ezine Ad Swaps, Classified Ads, Auctions, Site Sponsorship and Banner Ads.
Some people are able to utilize these methods very productively, while others are destined to drop their money into the bottomless pit of failed Internet promotions.
Passive promotions
Passive promotions are those promotions that can continue to provide results for you long after you have invested the work to make them available to the Internet community.
Examples of passive promotions include: Link Exchanges, Articles, Ebooks, Content Exchanges and Writing Testimonials for others.
Let�s look at articles as a solid example of my point.
You are reading an article that I have written to promote my own business. This article is timeless and therefore could have been written five years ago and still have been as valuable as it is today.
Due to the fact that the article is timeless, it can and will be placed in newsletters/ezines and their accompanying online archives, on websites and in ebooks for many more years to come.
As a result, this article will continue to serve me well beyond the time in which I wrote it and submitted it to publishers and webmasters for public consumption and publication.
This is the best example I can give you of an excellent passive promotional method.
Avoid the money pits
Many try and even fewer succeed to conquer the Internet and to produce their dreams of online wealth.
My hope is that you will be one of the people who conquer the challenges before you and to make a nice living while working online. It will take drive, determination, study plus trial and error, but you can make it work for you.
Please continue to educate yourself so that you can avoid the money pits – instead, strive to find the money barrels. It can be done. I am living proof.
Author Bio:
Stone Evans owns the Home Business Resource Directory where you can find everything you`ll ever need to start, run and grow a home based business at: http://www.Home-Business.com
Web Strategy For Success
Building a successful web strategy is both an art and a science. To simplify the process, we break it down into five steps. You need to attract the right visitors to your site, engage their interest, build their trust, lead them to take action and measure the results.
Building a successful web strategy is both an art and a science. To simplify the process, we break it down into five steps. You need to attract the right visitors to your site, engage their interest, build their trust, lead them to take action and measure the results.
1. Get the right people to your site. If you’re not attracting the right visitors you’re not building your business. Rather than relying on any one method, consider a variety of techniques to bring targeted traffic to your site including:
– Search Engine optimization
– Pay-per-click campaigns
– Email marketing and email newsletters
– Links to related, non-competitive businesses
– Real-world promotions, advertisements and PR
2. Establish your credibility.
Just as you would in the real world sales environment, start to build rapport with your visitors as soon as they arrive. Establish your credibility. Show that your company understands their needs and offers the products and services to meet them.
Your site must have a professional look and feel that reflects your company and marketplace. The copy should speak to your visitors in an appropriate “voice” and emphasize the benefits– “What’s in it for me?”
3. Give your visitors what they need.
Provide appropriate information and options at the right time. How do people make the decision to buy your product or service? As much as possible, your site should support the personal and psychological variables of your potential clients. Offer alternatives for those who:
– already know what they want
– have an idea of what they want, but need more info
– are browsing and need direction
4. Motivate them to take action: conversion rates.
This is what it’s all about. Conversion is the process in which you persuade visitors to take the action you want them to take: signup for a newsletter, submit a form, or make a purchase. How can you improve your conversion rate?
Make the action steps obvious in your copy– its color, style, and position on the page. Minimize elements that detract from the action step, and provide reassurance with your privacy policy, guarantee, and testimonials. You might even consider a FLASH demo or web audio to guide visitors through the conversion process.
5. Measure the results.
With web analytical tools you can learn what’s working and what’s not. When you’ve identified a problem area, make revisions or updates– but be methodical. Change only one thing at a time so you can figure out if it actually helps.
Author Bio:
Barry Harrison is the author of “REDiTIPS” eMarketing Newsletter and a partner in Resolve Digital, Web Strategy for the Real World.
The Failure Of The SEO System – Part 2
I frequent a number of search engine optimization forums on a daily basis and the one thing I see more of than anything else are optimizers who will quickly tell you that this method is evil, or that method is spam, or this other method is cross-linking. The search engines each have their own policy pertaining to these methods, and most are in the form of ‘guidelines’. Note the emphasis on the word guidelines, as I want to make it clear what they really are.
A guideline is not a hard and fast rule, it is there to set a basis only. Some engines say to ‘avoid’ this method or that one, but they do not come right out and say not to use it at all. This is because that while the method is abused by some, it has it’s value by legitimate relevant usage. The key word here is relevancy. The search engine care more about the relevancy of their listings than anything else. They want the surfer to find exactly what it is he or she searched for. That is the bottom line. The rest is semantics.
The search engines do not generally penalize you for using what some search engine optimizers will tell you is an evil method, besides actual pure spam of course, if you are using it to promote relevant search results.
Some Basic Examples
Some optimizers will tell you that you should not link to a restaurant web site from a retail hardware web site, quoting the phrase of, it is not relevant to your web site. However this is not the type of relevancy the search engines care about. The only relevancy that affects their listings is that the link text (anchor text) is relevant to the web site the link points to. These optimizers neglect to tell you that.
Some optimizers will tell you that cross-linking your web sites is the devil’s work at play. Again, the search engines only concern is with relevancy. As long as you maintain relevancy in your links, I have yet to see bans or penalization for those reasons. When it does happen, it is generally due to a competitor being able to write a very good report to the search engine and usually includes other factors that contribute. There are forums that share email templates for reporting competitors to the search engines in a well written, professional sounding manner with it’s members. The funny part is these forums preach ‘ethical’ SEO.
In Summary
It is not the methods that are bad. It is the way some people use those methods that makes them bad. But alas, this is not what too many misguided people preach. Be careful who you listen to. It is very easy to be pushed the wrong way by people whose only wish is to impose their morals and thoughts into your thinking.
Author Bio:
Aaron Turpen is the proprietor of Aaronz WebWorkz, a full-service online company catering to small and home-based businesses. Aaronz WebWorkz offers a wide variety of services including Web development, newsletter publishing, consultation, and more. http://www.AaronzWebWorkz.com
Search Engine Advertising & Keyword Matching
Search engines seem to be all the rage these days. Internet users want easy accessibility to various sites for shopping, entertainment, business, etc. And the best way to do this is with the help of search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Overture.
So, how do advertisers get their listings on these ever-popular sites? Google and Overture, the two major players in search engine marketing, offer two ways–organic (natural) or paid listings. We’re going to explore the latter and how you can make it work for you, particularly with respect to keyword match types.
Google Match Types
Google AdWords is Google’s own advertising system, allowing advertisers to “create your own ads, choose keywords to tell us where to show your ads and pay only when someone clicks on them,” boasts its site. It is basically a way to purchase Google’s search engine keywords.
In order to get users to see your Google ad placement, you must first determine what keywords you will apply in relevance to your ad. Google has four different keyword matching options, each with their own stipulations as to how you can target different sets of users. General keywords generate the most impressions but often result in fewer clicks. On the other hand, by changing your matching options you can better target your ads. The options are as follows:
Broad Match: The most basic and common option, you include your keyword/keyword phrase (usually best to go with a phrase because users generally search for 2-3 words) in your keyword list. Say you list tennis shoes…your ads will appear when a user searches for the words tennis and shoes in any order. Furthermore, your ad will appear when a user searches for plural terms or similar variations.
Phrase Match: When you enter a keyword in quotation marks like “shower curtains” your ad will show when a user looks for this exact term in this order. It can also be viewed when someone does a search for green shower curtains, but not for curtains for shower. Phrase matching is obviously more targeted than broad match and is more flexible than exact match, the next option.
Exact Match: This is the most targeted option of the four. You surround your keyword in brackets-[jewelry cleaner]-and subsequently your ad will only show when a user searches for jewelry cleaner, in this order and without any other terms. Undoubtedly, this is extremely targeted. You are likely to receive more clicks than impressions.
Negative Keyword: Perhaps you sell dog collars of all colors–except green. You can set your keyword for dog collars but add the word green as your negative keyword. In other words, simply type in -green. If someone wants a green dog collar, he/she will not see your ad.
Overture Match Types
Search engine marketers should note that while Google and Overture offer similar services, they apply different terms. So, be conscious of this fact when distinguishing between the different options.
Overture allows you to bid differently for each match type. There are currently three of these options, but Overture also allows for negative keywords, like Google.
Standard Match: This is the equivalent of Google’s broad match option. If your bidded search term is diamond ring your ad will appear when someone types that exact phrase, singular/plural variations of the words, or misspells any word/s.
Phrase Match: Overture will preserve your search term in its exact order but will also allow for other terms to be included in the query, as well. E.G.- The bidded search term is golf shoes. If a user enters “golf shoes in size 10” your listing will show.
Broad Match: True to form, your listing will appear when your search term is used in the broadest form. For example, if a user types in “car used in James Bond movie” and your term is used car…your listing will appear.
Regional Targeting
It is important to note that there are also regional targeting options for advertisers. Google recently implemented this feature and it is sure to gain momentum. Regional targeting allows advertisers to not only specify a particular country, but states and regions, too. This option can benefit advertisers that are trying to reach people in particular areas.
If you are selling your product or services but can only provide them to a very specific area, this is a very effective option to implement. Prospects in your targeted area/s will see your ad even if they enter very general terms.
Determining what keywords you will use is an extremely difficult task. Both Google and Overture have keyword tools to assist you, but it still takes time, strategy, and good ole’ playing around to figure out what words are the most effective.
Search engine marketers need simply to put themselves in the shoes of Internet users. What terms do they commonly use? What combinations?
With some fine-tuning and research, any advertiser is sure to gain from paid search listings.
Author:
By Loren M. Baker of the Search Engine Journal
Been Banned By Yahoo?
It is interesting to watch the varied reactions to the new Yahoo! search. As a spectator I can sit back and take it all in and form my own opinions. I can then apply my ideas to my clients and watch them succeed. One such topic of interest of late is Yahoo!’s policy on spam in the index.
To quote what Yahoo! considers unwanted:
“Some, but not all, examples of the more common types of pages that Yahoo! does not want included:
• Pages that harm accuracy, diversity or relevance of search results
• Pages dedicated to directing the user to another page
• Pages that have substantially the same content as other pages
• Sites with numerous, unnecessary virtual hostnames
• Pages in great quantity, automatically generated or of little value
• Pages using methods to artificially inflate search engine ranking
• The use of text that is hidden from the user
• Pages that give the search engine different content than what the end-user sees
• Excessively cross-linking sites to inflate a site’s apparent popularity
• Pages built primarily for the search engines
• Misuse of competitor names
• Multiple sites offering the same content
• Pages that use excessive pop-ups, interfering with user navigation
• Pages that seem deceptive, fraudulent or provide a poor user experience
• Yahoo!’s Site Guidelines are designed to ensure that poor-quality pages do not degrade the user experience in any way.”
As you can see, there is a lot of grey area here. While most points are pretty straight forward, some like “Pages in great quantity, automatically generated or of little value” could include dynamically generated database driven pages (like a storefront or e-commerce site) while “Excessively cross-linking sites to inflate a site’s apparent popularity” could include sites which use legitimate link building strategies to help their rankings.
So what do you do? How do you know if your site falls into these categories? In other words, how do you determine if your site may be considered spam?
I would suggest taking a critical look at your site. Does it follow the guidelines listed in their help section on pages which Yahoo! does want included in its index? For example, are they original? Built for humans primarily? Contain useful information? These are all questions you need to keep in the back of your mind as you assess your site.
If you have concerns that perhaps you could be violating some of these rules, perhaps you need to look at what is needed to ensure you are in full compliance with Yahoo!’s recommendations. I would strongly suggest you do this review. If you do get removed from the index because of the spam policy it could be very difficult to get re-indexed according to Yahoo!’s own spam police.
So should you convert your dynamic site to static?
The simple answer is no. There is no need to scrap that content management system you’ve likely spent months and years developing. Perhaps simply adding more useful content to some of the pages is all that is needed. By following Yahoo!’s own rules you should be able to reconstruct some of your pages to ensure they don’t get banned.
Does this mean you should quit doing link building or remove your links page?
I don’t think you should discontinue link building, but if you are doing reciprocal linking, take a look at the site to which you are linking as well as those sites linking to you. You may need to reassess the quality of your link partners using the same tests you put your own site through.
With regards to your link partners, again, assess them for quality. Are they in related industries? Are they worthy of linking to? That is, do they also follow the Yahoo! guidelines? If not then perhaps you will want to consider temporarily removing their links from your site. You may even go so far as to contact them and suggest they perform their own analysis of their site based on the new Yahoo! rules.
So what if you think you have already been removed for this reason?
There is an email address (webmasterworldfeedback AT yahoo DOT com) to which you can send a request for review. This is only a temporary fix, as they plan on implementing a full review process in the coming months.
Also keep in mind that Yahoo! search is still in its infancy. As time goes on it will get better. Perhaps their filters are over filtering sites which are legitimate, but it should get better with time. They can’t anger too many people early on, as they are trying to build a competitive search engine. If they start alienating webmasters or legitimate site owners they risk losing search customers to other engines such as Google or MSN.
Author Bio:
Rob Sullivan
Production Manager
Searchengineposition.com
Search Engine Positioning Specialists
Strategies For Finding Topics To Write About
What possibly could I have to write about? I never was good at it anyway. It doesn’t matter how hard I try, I just sit and stare and stare at a blank screen.
Sound familiar? Don’t worry. We all have gone through this. It happens to me periodically. If you experience this at any point, it is a good signal that you need a change in creative direction. Here are a few tips to help you find topics to write about and get your creative juices flowing.
I personally like to write with pen and paper. For one, I can take it anywhere. Well, o.k. with a laptop you can take it almost where ever you wish as well. But, when the battery is gone and there is not a single electrical outlet in sight, I will still be sitting there writing until I get my fill.
You periodically need to change your scenery. This always helps me. If I am at a block, I get up, take pen and paper and head out of the house. I frequent outdoor cafes when I can. The openness and fresh air helps me think. You can also just try a different part of your house.
I try to at least keep a notebook, or sticky notes somewhere within reach at every point in the day. Why? Ideas usually come to me when I am not at my desk. One of the best ways I have developed to find new topics is to spend what I call “routine task time” thinking about recent articles I have read. Routine task time is the time you spend washing dishes, cleaning, driving home(of course pay attention to the road here as well!), etc. Make use of this time if you can.
Write down any idea that comes to mind. Don’t worry about whether is seems reasonable at the moment. You will edit and refine later if need be. More than likely you will throw away half of the ideas you come up with. You’ll find however that these ideas bring out other topics that you may never have thought about.
Go to the web. I can’t stress this enough. Need new topics? See what other people are writing about. Try www.CNet.com, or any other internet / technology or business website to find the new hot topics. Are you writing about hobbies? Check out the top hobby sites. Don’t hesitate to use the internet and what others are doing to keep your writing up to par.
Writing articles for your own E-Zine or to be published elsewhere for advertising is the most powerful resource for promoting your online business. Practice it, develop it, prune it. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. This is the most prized resource that you can pull from to succeed online.
Author Bio:
Dan J. Fry is an independent researcher and owner of e-Kinetic.com, a site devoted to providing resources for small budget home businesses. He has a PhD in Physics, two daughters and two cats. Subscribe to his free E-Zine on home business resources at e-kinetic@GetResponse.com or by visiting his site at http://www.e-kinetic.com. He can be reached at mailto:comp@e-kinetic.com.
The basics of a mailing list structure
The short and sweet of it is that a mailing list is nothing more than a plain text file that contains email addresses. Sometimes these *flat files* also contain first and last names, as well as other additional and optional information.
A *flat file* is a term used to describe a storage file that is not a database. Generally, the flat file is a plain text document without the .txt or other file extension attached to it.
If a flat file contains more than one piece of data, then each additional item is separated from the next by commas or other delimiters. The pipe key (shift – back slash) or the tab key serve as the next most popular delimiters used in flat files.
Each new record will appear on a new line. The new line is signaled by the carriage return in the file.
Examples showing the use of delimiters & the reason for considering delimited files
Note: These examples show two leading spaces in front of each record. In real life data files, your records should not contain the leading spaces.
Mailing List Example A:
tom@domain.com
dick@other-domain.com
harry@third-domain.com
Example A permits the mailing list owner to only send an email
to a defined address.
Mailing List Example B:
tom@domain.com,Tom Jefferson
dick@other-domain.com,Dick Nixon
harry@third-domain.com,Harry Truman
Example B permits the mailing list owner to send an email to Tom Jefferson at tom@domain.com . Addressing the mail directly to Tom Jefferson encourages Tom to pay close attention to your email, since he knows that you have acquired his real name in addition to your email address. Most personalized emails will never be thought to be a s/p/a/m message by the person who receives it.
Mailing List Example C:
tom@domain.com|Tom|Jefferson
dick@other-domain.com|Dick|Nixon
harry@third-domain.com|Harry|Truman
Example C is the most versatile of the three examples. In some cases, it makes sense to personalize the list owner’s messages. Whereas, Example B will permit you to address someone by first name or first and last name — depending on how you direct subscribers to sign up — it does not always serve the more personable style of mixing and matching the first name and the combination of the first and last name as provided for by Example C.
Utilizing delimited data in your mailings
Depending on the software that you will use to initiate your mailing, you will be directed to show where you want the additional data fields in your mailings.
The range of software available makes it nearly impossible to quantify the various methods to get your personalized data into your mailing. As such, I will only define an example to show the basic idea of how to do this.
Personalization Example:
To: #FIRST# #LAST# <j#EMAIL#>
Dear #FIRST#,
Welcome to my example of a personalized mailing.
According to our records, your subscription information is as follows:
Name: #FIRST# #LAST#
Email: #EMAIL#
#FIRST#, we appreciate your attention to this information
as we feel it will help you better utilize the tools of
the Internet in your activities. In the end, the more
knowledgable you become, the more likely that the Internet
will become a more useful place for all of us.
Sincerely,
Your Publisher
As you can see, it can be far more useful to you and your purposes to address your subscribers as individual human beings with individual desires. As all of the sales teachers in the world will tell you, the one word that humans enjoy hearing most is the sound of their own name. Even in print, people appreciate being spoken to directly as an individual person.
Delimited files give you the power of utilizing multiple data resources connected to your individual records.
Methods of mail delivery
There are two basic methods of delivering your email to your mailing list. The first is by direct email, and the second is by a website interface.
Direct Delivery Method –
The direct mail method is the most complicated method from the programming perspective. If you are using a mailing list management company such as YahooGroups or Topica, then they will have done the hard work for you. If you are managing your own mailing list, then you will need to jump through some hoops to get your infrastructure set up for the direct mail method.
You will need to set up your server to take any incoming mail to a specific address and to process that email through a mail handling script. The script will search for and verify your posting password, and then the script will reformat your message for direct delivery to your mailing list.
Using this method, you will actually address your outgoing email to a specific email address, often accompanied by a posting password. The posting address may appear in this kind of format:
mailing-list-name-[password]@your-domain.com
Website Interface Delivery Method –
From the technical perspective, this is the easiest delivery method to construct. It only requires the publisher to visit a webpage, fill out a form, and click the send button.
Clicking the send button will take the placed information and send it to the mailing script. Once again, the mailing script will take the given information and format it into an outgoing email message for direct mailing to your mailing list.
Actual mailing list delivery process
Whether you are using the direct mail or website interface method to get your data into the mailing script, the next step is the same. It is important to note that by the time you reach this point in the process, the outbound delivery is completely out of your own hands. Now is the time for the server to deliver on its part of the process.
Your mailing script has taken your input and put it into a direct mail format. Once that is completed, it is time to mail the information to each and every email address in your list.
The basic message structure is kept in its own variable. This variable will not change during the entire mailing process.
The basic message structure is then copied into a second variable, and the final preparation is done on that message as each individual mailing is prepared.
The software will read each record in your flat file or your database, and then the personalized data will be exchanged for the #FIRST#, #LAST# and #EMAIL# as it appears in your message construct. Once the personalized data is swapped for the variables in the text, the message will be delivered to the defined email address.
This process is repeated for each record in your mailing list.
Depending on how busy the server is and the size of your list, the mailing process could take two minutes or even twenty minutes.
A suggestion for the actual delivery of your message
Having learned the hard way, I do highly recommend that you set up your posting address as a special email address that you do not use for everyday business.
The reason is simple. With each and every mailing, you will find a certain level of attrition in your mailing list. People change email addresses everyday without unsubscribing from mailing lists; people lose their email accounts due to unpaid ISP bills; and people exceed the size limits of their mailboxes. People quit the Internet and die. That’s the reality of life on the Internet.
But with some fore planning, you can prevent a nightmare in your own email box. Lists that I have managed have experienced as little as two or three people, and as high as a 5% attrition every month. The list that I managed that had the 5% attrition rate also had 20,000 subscribers. As such, I was receiving 1,000 bounced emails every month with that one list.
I did not utilize a special address for my mailings at that time, and as such, I was losing track of important messages under the barrage of bounced email messages. This is the only reason I suggest the use of a special limited use email address.
Another list I managed later had an attrition rate of about 4% with 100,000 subscribers. With this second list, my secondary email address was receiving 4,000 bounced messages every month.
If you are using a mailing service such as YahooGroups or Topica, they will handle the bounced messages for you, so there would be no concern using your primary email address with those messages.
The process of subscribing & unsubscribing & the selection of the email server in the process
For the average mailing list, the process of adding or deleting an email address is as simple as going into the file or database and removing the record.
It must be noted that while there are several email servers available to webmasters, there are two servers that are used far more often than the others.
One email server software is called Sendmail. For the longest time, this was the most often used email server. It is still in wide use today.
The second email server software is called Qmail. Qmail is most often used by e-commerce mass mailers. Simply, Qmail offers more flexibility and speed and fewer bugs than Sendmail could ever dream of providing. It is also easier to customize.
If you visit a website and ask to be unsubscribed from the website’s mailing list, and the website notifies you that your name will be removed from the list within 48 to 72 hours, then you should assume that the website is utilizing Qmail as their mail server.
On the surface, this 48 to 72 hour window might seem like a scam — it is not. Qmail actually sets up an outgoing email and then queues that message for a later delivery. Qmail does this because it is usually set up on a very high volume mail server. By queuing the message for later delivery, the server can actually continue to process outgoing mail as long as the resources to do so are available for the task. If the messages were not queued for later delivery, multiple requests to deliver mail within a certain limited time period could crash the mail server. A crashed server is always bad news.
The site who is promising removal within the next 48 to 72 hours is actually telling you in advance how far ahead they have already queued outbound messages. Any piece of email that is already in the queue cannot be stopped from being delivered. Therefore, if a message exists in the queue with your address already on it, then there is nothing the webmaster can do to stop that mailing. Instead, all they can do is to let you know that you will no longer receive mail from them on any email that is sent to the queue from this point forward.
In conclusion
With this tutorial, you should now have a better understanding of the nature of a mailing list and how it works. For some of you, I will likely have provided too much information. For others of you, I will have not provided enough.
Either way, if you are looking for help in setting up your own mailing list, most web hosting companies that you might use to host your domain will have already provided an option to you for your mailing list management.
However, it must be noted that not all mailing list software is equal to the other. I have used some really bad software packages, and have yet to explore the full range of what is available to you. I do not have an actual recommendation for you as to a good software to use. What I can do for you is to provide a good starting point for locating that software you will need to run your mailing list efficiently:
http://cgi-resources.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Mailing_Lists/
By using an already developed mailing list manager, all you will need to know is how to install the software on your server and how to set the file permissions on the package files. Be sure to read the installation files that are provided with your new mailing list software. The creators of this software will tell you exactly what you need to know to get their software packages up and running.
Final precautions before sending your first email
One final but very important note. I strongly recommend that you select a mailing list management package that will install on your webserver. Additionally, notify your webhosting company that you will be running a mailing list through your account. And, for the purpose of self-preservation, always keep up-to-date backups of your website and your mailing list.
Some webhosts are very leery of letting their customers run a mailing list from the customer’s site. With all of the s/p/a/m accusations floating around, it can sometimes be a dangerous proposition to run a mailing list. Many smaller webhosting companies fear the rogue webmaster who will get their servers shut down for s/p/a/m. This is why it is so very important to notify your webhosting company of your plans to run a mailing list from your account. Make sure your webhosting company is aware of your intentions, and be sure to know where they stand on the possibility of s/p/a/m complaints. My webhosting provider takes the time to actually investigate a complaint before actually pulling the plug on any of their customers. For webhosting, I use http://www.site5.com .
Additionally, I am very serious when I say that you should never run a mailing list from your desktop. Local ISP’s are far more worried about the s/p/a/m issue than the webhosting companies are. Given that so many of us live in locations where we only have one, two or three ISP’s to choose from, we would run the significant risk of losing complete access to the Internet if we were to run a mailing list from our desktop.
Good Luck in your publishing endeavors.
Author Bio:
Bill Platt owns The Phantom Writers, a company committed to helping people to establish an Internet presence & promote their businesses through the use of Free-Reprint Articles and Press Releases. Articles are distributed to 6,000+ publishers & webmasters as part of the package. http://thePhantomWriters.com Do you write your own articles? Let us distribute them for you.
