Overdrive Interactive Wants YOU...To Be an Intern!

posted by Shaun Campos @ Friday, March 5, 2010 - 3:56 PM
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School’s out. Time to put away textbooks, pack up your laptops, and stash away your flashcards. And although the idea of going to the beach every day is tempting (almost too tempting), we all know it’s important to find that perfect internship instead. So where do you begin? You know you need to find something that will enable you to gain valuable work experience in the marketing industry, while at the same time providing you with the opportunity to expand your skill set and knowledge base...This is where Overdrive Interactive comes in.

Enjoy photo copying large documents? Want to increase your experience in staple removal? If so, this is not the internship for you. An internship at Overdrive could be your foot in the door to a full time position. Our interns are not going on coffee runs and sorting folders. Our interns are getting real-life experience by working on projects and tasks that are integral pieces to our business. As an intern at Overdrive you are viewed as a valuable team member and asset to the business. From the first day on the job you will be given projects that will allow you to show off your leadership, management and creative skills. Beyond the real life experience, our internships train you to become fully equipped with an arsenal of tools that an interactive marketer needs to connect with consumers in the digital age.

Who are we looking for?
If you’re hard working, motivated and dedicated to learning about interactive marketing and positively impacting a company, apply. We are looking for current undergraduate seniors, graduating seniors or graduate students who demonstrate a passion for online marketing, social media and search marketing technologies.
Don’t worry; there is space in the interactive marketing world at Overdrive for your interests. We have internship positions available in the following departments.
So now what? If any of the internship positions above spark your interest and you want to get your foot in the door at dynamic online marketing agency, take your laptop back out and apply. For details and application instructions visit: http://www.ovrdrv.com/careers/internships.asp.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

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Great Free Media Planning Tools

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Media planners have many tools at their disposal to research and select sites that will help clients reach their target audiences. Very often we're targeting large audiences by demographic or region, and we can use standard syndicated data tools such as @Plan, comScore, or the SRDS, a provider of media rates and data, to help us identify sites that index high with our target audiences. This is fine for clients who want to reach very large groups of people such as females 18 to 24 in the northeastern United States.

But what about when you're going after a niche audience such as users of a particular technology or collectors of classic cars? In these cases, those data sources are not as helpful because many niche sites do not show up on their radar screens. Instead, you have to start prospecting online to find sites that cater to those audiences. However, a slew of available tools and tactics can help you find and research those sites.

So here is a list of free resources that planners can use when trying to find hard-to-find sites:

Compete.com: A Web analytics tool that gathers information about consumers' online behavior from over 2 million U.S. Internet users. Its site profile section provides site traffic history for most every site on the Internet. Register with Compete, and you can compare traffic for up to five sites at one time.

Alexa: This technology crawls publicly available sites to collect traffic rankings, snapshots of sites, and links that point to sites and related sites. Type in a Web site URL where you know your target audience resides, click on "related links," and you will find a list of similar sites. Also, you can search for sites by country, language, or category.

Quantcast: This site uses data from audience insights to rank and sort sites. Quantcast has a free tool that allows planners to search for sites based on determined criteria, such as content category, audience demographics, geographic locations, and ad acceptance. Or just simply type in the site URL that you want to include in the media plan, and the results produce a list of sites the audience would also visit.

Google Ad Planner: With this tool, media planners can identify audiences by a series of criteria, such as demographics, geography, language, specific keywords, and category. You can even search by domain suffix, a feature that is helpful when trying to find international sites. If your client is running a display campaign through the Google Content Network, you can select to see sites that only accept advertising in the network.

Search: Natural search is one of the quickest and easiest ways to find sites. Search for Web sites using your target audience plus keywords that would identify the target audience's interest. Sites that appear on the first or second pages of Google search engine results page are more likely to have relevant content. For more obscure target audiences, you may have to dig a little deeper for sites that may not be optimized for SEO (define). Once you find a relevant site, click on "similar" to find other relevant sites.

Online newspaper resources: Sites such as OnlineNewspapers.com and Newspapers.com are another way to find online news sites by state and country. OnlineNewspapers.com indicates the newspaper language and city, and Newspapers.com gives a brief description of the newspaper.

Open Directory Project (ODP): This is a user-generated and classified directory of sites in multiple languages. ODP uses hundreds of portals and search engines to list and categorize Web sites. Type in "owners of classic cars," and you will find a list of sites from all over the world and description of each site that relates to classic cars.

Wikipedia: Wikipedia is a user-generated reference site with more than 75,000 active contributors who have posted information in over 260 languages. If your client is looking to advertise on online newspaper sites in Ghana, type in "Ghana newspapers," and you will get a list of Ghana-based newspapers and links to their Wikipedia listings.

Blog search: Narrow down the blogosphere by using search tools on sites such as Technorati.com or Google Blog Search. Technorati.com was founded as a blog search engine and has since grown into a social media network. Type in your target audience in the search field, and results reveal a list of relevant blogs, a graph depicting blog post mentions by day, and videos about the target audience. Google Blog Search will also list relevant blogs, but you can also sign up for blog alerts to keep up-to-date on newly posted blog content.

As with all my columns, I am sure this is not a complete list, so if I left anything out, please let me know. Also, I must give a special thanks to Barbara for helping me to research and compile this list.

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What is this Bing thing?

posted by Diana Freedman @ Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - 12:36 PM
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Bing is Microsoft’s newest search engine, which took the place of Live.com early Monday morning (Live.com now redirects to Bing). The video introducing Bing insists it is “not just a search engine. It’s a decision engine.” This rebranding positions it to snatch some of Google’s market share. Although it may be second nature for you to Google, here are some of the features that make Bing interesting.

Video Previews
The video search is one of Bing’s most impressive features. Google and other search engines have offered video search for years, but Bing has the unique functionality of in-page previews. If you were to mouse over any of the videos in the screenshot below, that video would play right in the thumbnail space. So it’s probably a good idea to make sure your brand’s videos are search engine optimized for these results.


Search Categories
Broad search terms bring up category suggestions to try searching under. For example, searching for a movie like “Star Trek” brings up categories like Cast, DVD, and Images. Searching for a product like “laptops” brings up categories like Shopping, Brands, and Buying Guide. Only the broadest of searches will bring up these suggested categories, and some only result in one category suggestion. Still, this looks like a promising feature.


Shopping
Bing’s shopping feature has merged Microsoft Live’s Shopping and Cashback sites. Its search results include filters (brand, category, price), keeping you on Bing as long as possible during your purchasing decision. The cashback feature gives you a percentage of the item price you buy, but only for certain items. Apply the cashback filter to see which items apply. You can also sort by the products’ popular features. For example, when searching for laptops, these include affordability, speed, and ease of use.

Local Results
Bing’s local listings let you filter by categories, so you wouldn’t even need to visit sites like Yelp. For example, when searching for “Italian restaurants in Boston,” you can sort by rating, price, cuisine, and even parking. Reviews are brought in from sites like Yelp and Citysearch. Individual restaurant pages include a restaurant scorecard, one-click directions, and reviews from the third-party sites.


Other Notable Features:
  • Related Searches: As opposed to narrowing down your broad search with categories, related searches provides ideas for what else to search for.
  • Popular Searches: The homepage displays 3-4 search terms that are popular now.
  • Search History: Bing’s search history lets you see what you’ve searched for over the last two days.
Bing is still a product in the making. Several important features are missing that Google has, such as misspelling recognition. It doesn’t return results or offer suggestions/corrections in these cases. The some of the functionality doesn’t exist internationally yet. Even so, Bing looks like a promising search—err, decision engine.

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Social Media Expert Harry Gold to Present Social Media Marketing Series at NEDMA 2009 Annual Conference

posted by Laura Ragno @ Friday, April 24, 2009 - 10:34 AM
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From Facebook to Twitter to blogs, social media marketing is quickly becoming the go-to solution for many businesses as a cost-effective and successful direct marketing and branding tool. Online marketing expert Harry Gold will explore the corporate social media marketing boom and how companies can effectively wade the online marketing waters at the New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) 2009 Annual Conference.

Gold is the leader of Boston-based online marketing agency Overdrive Interactive, the masterminds behind several online marketing programs for clients such as Harley-Davidson, John Hancock, EMC, Dow Jones and The Princeton Review. Drawing on his experience from developing these channels, Gold will address the importance and complexities of creating brand awareness in today’s economy and web environment.

Gold’s full day “Search Engine, Blog, and Social Media Marketing” NEDMA workshop on May 6th is geared towards marketing professionals looking to familiarize themselves with and understand the latest online techniques to help stay in the forefront of their industries. Gold’s shorter, one hour session “Social Media is about Socializing” NEDMA seminar is on May 7th and provides a great introduction to social media for companies looking for an edge in the space.

At the NEDMA conference, Gold will also discuss how social media marketing technologies can help lead to new business opportunities and partnerships, build a fan base, and create a direct business-consumer relationship by saturating the virtual play space.

“The businesses that are growing in this financial climate are incorporating social media elements into their interactive marketing strategies,” says Gold. “If executed correctly, social media marketing can make both a measurable impact with leads and revenue as well as build brand loyalty over time.”

To help spark conversation about the growing social media landscape, Overdrive Interactive created and released a social media map that contains live links in the PDF. To download the map, visit www.ovrdrv.com/social-media-map.

NEDMA is one of the oldest and most well respected regional direct marketing associations providing networking and educational opportunities to marketing professionals. This year’s conference is held May 6-7, 2009 at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. To learn how you register, please visit http://www.nedma.com/annual-conference/conference-overview.asp.

About Overdrive Interactive
Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that helps clients grow their business with engaging and measurable online media, social media and search engine marketing campaigns and services. The agency specializes in creating genuine consumer connections that help companies build their brands, generate leads and drive revenue. Overdrive serves organizations that are seeking a high level of accountability from their marketing firms and advertising investments. For more information, please visit http://www.overdriveinteractive.com/.

About New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA)
The New England Direct Marketing Association is a regional, professional association for all those interested in direct marketing. NEDMA sponsors an extensive series of events, including business/dinner meetings with forums and networking immediately preceding the meetings. For more information, please visit http://www.nedma.com/.

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Google Announces a New Way to Manage Your Online Identity

posted by Melanie DAcchioli @ - 10:00 AM
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Back in the days before the Internet took off, when you received someone’s contact information, business card, etc., you would use said information to either call, email, or send a letter or card to them. Nowadays, the first thing you do is Google them. In response to this phenomenon, Google has unveiled a new feature called Google Profiles, allowing you as an individual to more closely manage what someone will find when their name is searched on Google.

To take advantage of this new feature, a user must Google the word “me and click through from the Google Promotion ad that is currently in position 1 of the sponsored results. This will bring up a simple form including limited contact information, opportunities to link to other social profiles, images from Picasa, and a few generic fields for a user to add a detailed description about him or herself. Google Profiles also allows you to opt-in to have your profile show up in search results. This is not an automatic inclusion, so as to allow people to either essentially have “private” or “public” profiles. While not necessarily optimizing your profile to position 1, Google Profiles tend to show up on the first page of Google’s natural search results. This is a great tractic of natural search engine optimization on your own name.



Google Profiles could become a very powerful reputation management tool. Of course, if someone is typing your name into Google and they see your profile, it will likely only be one of the many links they end up looking at. However, it at least allows you to have a say in what Google returns to searchers; essentially, who Google thinks YOU are. According to Adam Ostrow at Mashable, “This is going to be a welcome addition for lots of people, especially those who aren’t necessarily happy with what links Google has for them on the first page of results.”

Google Profiles opens up a whole new realm in the world of controlling your online identity. Now not only can you control sponsored results, but there's an additional level of control for the natural search results as well. Get started! http://lmgtfy.com/?q=me

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Overdrive Interactive Unveils Search Marketing Map

posted by Laura Ragno @ Monday, April 20, 2009 - 5:51 PM
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As a follow up to its successful Social Media Map, Boston online marketing agency Overdrive Interactive today unveils its Search Marketing Map. This free resource provides online marketing professionals with a comprehensive, at-a-glance directory for the complicated world of search engine marketing.

According to Overdrive CEO Harry Gold, the Search Marketing Map will help companies get their heads around the ever-expanding world of search marketing resources and can help widen their online marketing channels.

“The map has both free and paid resources for SEM (paid search) and SEO (search engine optimization,” said Gold.

The Search Engine Map is available for free download at www.OverdriveInteractive.com/search-map.

Overdrive’s Search Marketing Map organizes and categorizes these sites and tools, which include: Search Industry Blogs, Campaign Management Tools, Trade Show/Events, Free SEO Tools and various types of search engines including Video, News, Shopping and Job Search Engines.


Overdrive Interactive is the online marketing agency behind highly successful search marketing campaigns for leading companies such as Harley-Davidson, Dow Jones, Zipcar and The Princeton Review. The company offers a wide array of online services to marketers who are interested in increasing the power of their online marketing channel. To learn more about Overdrive Interactive’s search marketing services, please www.ovrdrv.com/services/paid-search-management.asp.

About Overdrive Interactive
Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that helps clients grow their business with engaging and measurable online marketing, social media marketing and search engine marketing campaigns and services. The agency specializes in creating genuine consumer connections that help companies build their brands, generate leads and drive revenue. Overdrive serves organizations that are seeking a high level of accountability from their marketing firms and advertising investments. For more information, please visit http://www.overdriveinteractive.com/.

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Google Sets Out To Kill The Duplicate Content Issue Once and For All

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On the web, there's raging paranoia and misunderstanding regarding the definition and effects of having duplicate content on a website. Today, Google set out to put the duplicate content issue to rest once and for all (at least for duplicate content issues within a site) with the...

drum roll please...

The Canonical Link Tag


In brief, a webmaster can place this tag in the head section of an HTML document to specify what the canonical URL of a page should be. You can read more about the mechanics of the new tag on the Official Google Webmaster Blog.

For search engine optimizers, this innovation signals the establishment of a new best practice for page coding: Each webpage should contain a "canonical link tag". The canonical link tag also eliminates a mess of duplicate content issues caused by database drive websites and may prove to be a far more effective means of preventing identical versions of pages from being indexed than Robots.txt, nofollows, 301 Redirects, and .htaccess workarounds.

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Google Chrome and its Implications for Online Marketing

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Yesterday, Google announced their new web browser, Google Chrome, in a blog post. Chrome is an open source web browser designed to address many of the flaws with other browsers on the market today; notably, FireFox and Internet Explorer.


Google has outlined the reasoning behind their development of Chrome and presented many of its features in a short comic book. Primarily, Chrome has been designed from the ground up with a more streamlined, efficient, and security conscious architecture designed to meet the needs of modern internet users and to present modern Web 2.0 sites as efficiently as possible. As a result, Chrome has a minimalist design that presents only the features that Google thinks users want, is intuitive and easy to use, and loads many pages faster than other browsers do - especially pages that rely heavily on JavaScript, like many Web 2.0 applications.




The current release of Google Chrome is a beta, and still has bugs. It is currently only available for Windows XP and Vista. However, it is certainly making a big splash in the tech industry, and many bloggers and news sites are predicting a return to the "Browser Wars" of the 90's (before Internet Explorer became dominant). Whether Chrome will gain significant market share in the near future is up for debate.



As marketers, an important issue is the impact Google Chrome will have on online advertising. For now, it appears that the answer is very little. While Chrome has made significant advances in user interface and the fundamental back-end design and structure of web browsers, the ultimate user experience is fairly similar to other browsers. Chrome is reported to render pages the same way that Safari does, so preliminarily, it does not appear that web sites will have to change site design to meet the specific needs of a new browser. From a user experience and interaction point of view, Chrome is likely to have a negligible impact.



One of Chrome's features is increased security to help prevent malware and phishing attacks. Additionally, Chrome offers an "Incognito mode" that wipes cookies and search history when tabs opened in this mode are closed. These features may impact long-term cookie based tracking for actions resulting in later sessions from a user's initial interaction with a banner or other advertisement. However, similar features have existed in FireFox and Internet Explorer for some time, and Action undercounts as a result of browser or other security settings is an acknowledged issue with tracking the results of online advertising. Significant impacts are not expected to result from Google's new features, as the heightened security modes that may interfere with most tracking solutions are not enabled by default.



Although there has been speculation about Google using data collected by Chrome to adjust their search results and their ads, this does not appear to be true for the immediate future. Matt Cutts, head of Webspam at Google, posted a rundown of what information Chrome transmits back to Google on his blog.



Chrome contacts Google to search for updates to the software of the browser, and transmits some data back to Google to provide search results and suggestions to the user. However, Chrome does not transmit web history to Google, and does not present additional advertising.



Google Chrome is also an open source project, meaning that all the code for the browser is available to the public and any programmer interested in contributing to the project or simply curious about how the browser is put together. Any code that provides information to Google to help better target advertising would be public, and will likely quickly be discovered in the coming weeks as the online community scrutinizes the new browser.



Ultimately, Chrome is an interesting application that could have a significant impact long-term on the way people browse the internet and the way web browsers are built. However, in the immediate future, it is unlikely to have a significant impact on online marketing or web design.

If you want to try Chrome, you can download the beta at http://www.google.com/chrome/. To learn more about its features, you can read the Google Chrome comic book at http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/index.html or view a short video tour at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlh8gSF_hhE.



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Overdrive Partners with Aquent Healthcare Consulting to Launch SEO Compliant Website

posted by Meghan Haley @ Thursday, June 5, 2008 - 4:46 PM
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Overdrive is happy to announce the launch of a new website for Aquent Healthcare Consulting. Overdrive worked with Aquent to develop an information architecture that allows the healthcare organization and professionals to easily learn about the large-scale international recruitment services that Aquent Healthcare Consulting provides. The design has a friendly, welcoming feel to help reinforce the fact that Aquent Healthcare Consulting understands the healthcare industry and has the experience to help healthcare organizations address their workforce planning needs. All of the architecture, design, and copy components consider SEO best practices. View the new Aquent Healthcare Consulting website at http://health.aquent.com/.


About Aquent Healthcare Consulting

Aquent Healthcare Consulting is one of the largest premier healthcare workforce planning consultants in the world, helping healthcare organizations attract, procure and retain skilled, experienced nurses and physical therapists. Aquent Healthcare Consulting's large-scale international recruitment program allows healthcare organizations to open physical therapist and nurse recruitment efforts as far as London/U.K. and Dubai/UAE. Get comprehensive, strategic workforce solutions for your organization, and build winning workforce strategies for the future.

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Supplementing Social Media Marketing is Crucial to Success (Part 2.)

posted by Shane Kelly @ - 4:18 PM
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For the first part of this series, please see Supplementing Social Media Marketing is Crucial to Success (Part 1.)

In order to maximize return on any social media investment, it is critical to supplement the social campaign with alternative forms of media. Social media marketing campaigns can include a variety of components and platforms, but it is important to remember you can’t simply launch a social marketing campaign and assume your core audience will find you and engage in a conversation.

This sentiment was reiterated in a recent article in the Summer 2008 edition of Search Marketing Standard entitled Marketing on Facebook. In the article, SMS correspondent Grant Crowell interviewed Rodney Rumford- CEO/founder of FaceReviews & Gravitational Media. When asked about common mistakes of marketing on Facebook, Rumford cited a problem in the perception of marketers that “if I build it they will come”. Yes, there is a huge viral component involved with social media marketing; however, marketers still need to take steps to ensure their social campaigns are supplemented with other forms of media in order to fully capitalize on the social marketing opportunity.

Getting back to BMW’s social campaign surrounding a car customizer application, it is clear that supplemental marketing efforts were not a well thought out component of the social campaign, and this detracted from the overall performance of the campaign. BMW clearly fell into the common trap of thinking “we built it- they will come”, but this is not the case.

So what specific supplemental tactics could BMW have utilized to maximize the return on their social campaign? Here are a few ideas.

  • PPC Search Ads

After reading about this campaign in the press, I attempted to find the custom application, but I was not successful. For a very modest fee, BMW could have developed a small paid search campaign with terms like “BMW customizer”, “BMW Facebook page”, “BMW MySpace profile” etc… This would be very inexpensive as there would be virtually no advertiser competition on these terms. Ad copy should include calls to action such as “add us to your friends/become our fan” or “check out our new application” to encourage users to interact with the social profile and/or social campaign.

  • PPC Content Ads

The same keyword list running in the PPC search campaign should also be launched on the Google Content network. This will generate tons of free impressions, and more importantly, MySpace pages fall under the Google Content network, so text ads running within MySpace could direct users BMW’s MySpace profile (assuming this was one of the networks utilized). Click costs on the content network would likely be even cheaper than search clicks, and the high level of relevance related to seeing ads for BMW’s MySpace page when already in MySpace should help drive comparatively high click through rates for the Content Network.

  • Online Media

It also makes sense to invest in online media to drive additional traffic to a social profile, campaign, or application. It is unclear if BMW supplemented their social campaigns with display, but it is certainly a good idea. In addition to standard media buys with various targeting options, it is also worth investigating media buys that would run on the social sites themselves, which would also increase relevance, and therefore would hopefully also increase performance.

Social sites are constantly coming up with new advertising solutions as well. Case in point- Facebook’s new Social Ads which utilize the Facebook News Feed to serve hyper-targeted ads to relevant users. One unique targeting example would be the ability serve ads to users whose friends have recently engaged with the advertiser's Facebook profile.

  • RSS Content Distribution

BMW had an opportunity to develop a short press release describing the campaign/custom social application that could be distributed to targeted audiences via RSS. The release should have several anchor text links pointing back to the profile page where the application resides. The anchor text should include copy like “BMW customizer application” or “BMW virtual joyride”. The RSS feed should also include a screen grab or short video of the application to maximize performance in terms of press release reads and the number of times the story is republished on blogs, forums, etc…

The RSS component is very cost-effective as well, and there are multiple benefits to this specific tactic. The RSS feed will drive traffic to the profile page, but in addition, there will now be several links out on the web that will point back to the profile page. The additional links will help gain SEO traction in the natural search results in the search engines, but the links will also help the profile pages show up higher in search results within social sites like MySpace and Facebook.

  • Friend/Fan Outreach

Another important tactic involves continuing the conversation with your core audience in the social space. If BMW is hosting their application on Facebook or MySpace, then a blast should be sent out to the fans/friends of the brand. In addition to telling fans and friends about the new customizer application and “virtual joyride”, the content on the profiles should be updated on a regular basis to encourage users to return. Every time an update is made, friends and fans should be notified. Some social sites will automatically inform users when profiles are updated, but this is likely not enough in most cases.

  • Blog Outreach

The blogosphere also offers a huge opportunity in relation to supplementing a social media marketing campaign. BMW had an opportunity to launch a blog outreach campaign in conjunction with the social media campaign/customizer application. Putting your ear to the ground to find out what bloggers think of your brand is helpful, but it isn’t enough. Bloggers can significantly influence thought, feeling, and general perception of a brand, particularly in the automotive category in which emotion plays such a large role in the perception of a brand. Cars could be considered more of an extension of an individual’s personality than a preference in transportation.

So if listening is not enough, what should BMW do? Reach out and initiate a conversation with the influential brand ambassadors in the blogosphere. Find out who is talking, select the most active and influential blogs, initiate a conversation, and provide something of value- even if it is just the right to use images of a new model on their site. BMW should also make sure that the conversation includes a quick pitch of the social app that BMW is promoting, as this will create awareness, drive traffic to the application, and will likely result in additional links back to the campaign which provides additional SEO benefits.

The list of supplemental tactics above is by no means all-inclusive. Each campaign has a unique set of goals and challenges. The most effective may to maximize the return on a social campaign is to develop a well planned, multi-faceted, integrated promotional strategy to supplement the efforts of the core social campaign. BMW clearly missed a big opportunity to maximize the return on their social campaign- so be sure not to make the same mistake.

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Born to Have Good Search Rankings

posted by Barb @ - 1:55 PM
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When my older sister announced that she was pregnant with twins last year, as her younger sister I was thrilled to be a first time aunt. As an online media professional, I was thrilled to (jokingly) offer her advice on how to optimize the babies’ names. From what my sister has told me, competition among expectant parents for baby names is just as fierce as getting accepted into a nursery school in Manhattan. Remember that Seinfeld episode where Susan’s cousin took George’s favorite baby name, Seven? Well here are some ways to beat out the competition by using search engine optimization techniques to enhance the ranking of your baby’s name. These tips were taken from a MediaPost article written by David Berkowitz entitled Baby Name Optimization.

1) Write a press release the day your baby’s born with the baby’s name in the headline, and optimize the entire release. As soon as the little one takes its first breath, he or she can even appear in the body of Google’s natural search results thanks to universal search.

2) Buy all potential domain name misspellings of your baby’s name. If you’re blessed with ample foresight or come from an ages-old tradition of arranged marriages, buy versions of the last name of any potential suitor you have in mind. Redirect the names to your baby’s main dot-com domain.

3) Film the birth and syndicate it to dozens of video sites. One of those sites will have to be around by the time of your kid’s communion or bar mitzvah, right? On your primary domain, optimize the video by tagging every second of it so those clips are accessible to search engine spiders.

4) Blog as if you’re the baby. Then, when your kid is old enough to blog, you can hand it over to your child, or you can go on blogging as if you’re his or her therapist.

5) Tag your baby.

Don’t forget that you can use these search engine optimization tips for your business as well. It doesn’t matter if your business has been established for a long time or is just getting underway, these tips and tricks will help build your company's brand for years to come.

To read the rest of Mr. Berkowitz’s tips and the full article please click here

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Extending the Reach and Effectiveness of Your Marketing Efforts with Paid Search

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Much has been said about Paid Search and its effectiveness as a direct marketing medium. It’s targeted, cost effective and generates tremendous results.

However, an often overlooked aspect of Paid Search is its effectiveness as a complimentary medium to other forms of media being deployed to market various products and services. For example, when a prospective customer sees an ad on TV or in a magazine, it is highly unlikely that they are going to stop what they are doing and act on the message or offer right there and then. More likely they are going to continue watching the program or reading that magazine. In fact, to assume that your target will be completely captivated by your ad and stop what they are currently doing to act on it, is a big assumption. And you know what they say about assumptions.

So is all lost? Not at all. While your prospect might not be able to recall the entire message word for word, it’s very likely that they can recall a portion of it. They might not know your company name, but remember the product name. They might not recall the headline, but remember a part of the concept. So, once they have finished doing what they are doing, where is this prospect going to go in order to turn this fragmented piece of information into a complete idea? The Search Engines.

Yes, as we all know, search engines are a great place to take an idea or big piece of information and turn it into something more. Therefore a user who is interested in what you have to offer, but does not necessarily have enough information to go directly to the source, is likely going to turn to the search engines in hope of finding the necessary information needed to access your product or service.

This is where Paid Search Engine Marketing can step in and really act as a means to extend the life of your other marketing efforts. By dissecting the message and thinking of all the various ways a user might react to or apply it to their lives, you can build a list of terms that, when searched on, will ensure that the prospect will be able to find your product or service, even if they can only recall a small portion of what was actually said in the advertisement.

Additionally, with Paid Search, you have the ability to choose which terms you want your product or service to be associated with, and assuming you have enough budget allocated, secure a high profile and very visible placement. You can also control the message that appears when users search on these terms to complement the message associated with your other marketing efforts and direct the user to a destination that provides them with everything they need to access or purchase your product and service. Additionally, the fact that you can turn it on and off based on the needs and timing associated with your other marketing efforts provides a huge degree of flexibility that ensures your message is placed exactly where and when you want it to be accessed.

Sounds pretty easy and basic enough doesn’t it? I mean, you’d think that all companies would take advantage of this strategy.

Unfortunately this is not always the case. In fact, more often than not, companies see Paid Search as an island; not something that can be tied into and extend the life of their other marketing or PR efforts.

A Case of Missed Opportunity - Bag, Borrow or Steal & Sex and the City Movie
To support this claim, just take a look at the company Bag, Borrow or Steal. This company received a huge boost – a direct mention in one of the of most hyped movie releases of the summer - Sex and the City, as well as a huge article in the May 27th edition of the Wall Street Journal. This is press and publicity that almost any company would kill for! The focus of the Wall Street Journal was how Bag, Borrow or Steal was planning to leverage the mention in the movie to grow their business.

So what has Bag, Borrow or Steal done to capitalize on their 10 seconds of movie fame? Well, according to the Wall Street Journal article they have trumpeted its affiliation with the movie on their website as well as launched a contest on YouTube. Now this is all great, but it really assumes that you are already somewhat familiar with the company or are going to remember this line from the movie.

My guess is that people will remember bits and pieces from the movie, such as the handbags being carried by the characters, but are they really going to remember a specific line from one particular scene? Not likely.

Therefore, by buying terms such as “Sex and the City Movie” or “Sex and the City Handbag”, Bag, Borrow or Steal could really extend the life of this mention in the movie and procure additional traffic and sales.

Additionally, my guess is that via PR they are pushing their YouTube contest and people are writing about it, just like we saw with the Wall Street Journal article. While this is nice, users still have to go and search out the contest. Therefore, people are likely going to turn to the search engines to search for the contest using terms such as “Sex and the City YouTube Contest” or “Sex and the City You Tube Contest”.

However, after reading this article, I decided to do some searching on my own, and much to my surprise, when I searched on all of the aforementioned terms, Bag, Borrow or Steal was nowhere to be found in the Paid Search results. Talk about a huge missed opportunity. Here is a company that received national press in the second most widely circulated paper in America, and you could not find them. Now this may have changed by now, but below are screen grabs of search results taken the day after the Wall Street Journal Article was published.

Search Result for "Sex and the City movie"

Search Result for "Sex and the City handbag"

Search Result for "Sex and the City youtube contest"

In short, whether they knew when the article was being published or not, once it was printed they should have had a plan of action in place. Therefore, by having a Paid Search campaign ready to go, they could have started capitalizing on their affiliation with the movie some time ago, or at least immediately after the article was published.

The moral of the story here is that Paid Search should not be looked at just as an isolated medium or silo in your online marketing program. Rather it should be closely integrated into all of your marketing efforts as it can really work to extend their reach and life. By considering how people use the search engines to complete ideas and to find what they are looking for based on what they have seen elsewhere, you can really garner tremendous added value from your marketing investment.

Therefore, whether you are doing a big PR Campaign or multifaceted advertising campaign, be sure to think about what happens next and the fact that by integrating Paid Search into your campaign strategy you can really extend its life and grow your business in the process.

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One Stop Search Shopping

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Yahoo! India recently launched Glue Pages Beta, a new search experience that collates and integrates information from across the Web onto one enhanced visual results page. Glue Pages run across searches for select terms in categories such as health, sports, entertainment, travel, technology, and finance. Glue Pages Beta works well when searching for topics that have broad search results.

For example, if you search for “yoga,” the classic paid and natural search results will show up, but the page is also complimented with a Wikipedia definition for yoga, Google Blog Search results, as well as links from HowStuffWorks, YouTube videos on yoga and information from Y! India Answers.

“Searching on Glue Pages Beta will result in an experience that promises more than just web links. Users will receive more relevant, visually appealing search results from across the Web in one topical page. The new Glue Pages Beta feature for Yahoo! India Search supports our strategy to make Yahoo! the leading starting point on the Internet and demonstrates our commitment to provide a compelling online search experience,” said Gopal Krishna, Head of Audience, Yahoo! India.

To try out Yahoo! India Glue Pages Beta, click here

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Paid and Natural Search - Complimentary Mediums

posted by Ty Velde @ Monday, May 5, 2008 - 6:47 PM
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I was recently asked the following question by a client: "If we are appearing in the Natural Search Engine Results, why should we we also be paying to appear in the Paid Search results for the same term?" In short, if they're getting the clicks for free, why should they be paying for them as well?

However, I don't think the answer is really that simple, as a truly effective search engine marketing campaign is not about Paid vs. Natural, rather its about understanding what makes each medium strong thereby playing to and understanding those strengths.

However for the sake of the issue at hand, my task was to explain the value of maintaining a paid search presence in the wake of appearing naturally as well. So below, is what I believe is strong case for why you should continue to go with a Paid Presence for terms that you also may be appearing naturally for.

  • Message Control
    With Paid Search, you have the ability to definitively control the message that is being communicated to the searcher on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). What I mean by this is that the message and copy that accompanies a Natural Result can be pulled from your meta data or page content. However, unless you have taken time to carefully craft you meta data, very often the message that is displayed is not a very solid marketing statement.

    Therefore, one must remember that even natural results have a click-through rate and while you might have a great position, if the accompanying description does not make sense, a user may look over it. Therefore, this is where a Paid Search result can supplement this problem, as you can easily craft a tight and cohesive message that says what you, NOT the search engine, want it to say.
  • Destination Control
    With Paid Search, you also have the ability to decide where you want to direct the user. However, the destination for a Natural Result for the same term is determined by the Search Engine’s algorithm, and while the engines are pretty smart when it comes to determining relevancy, their vision does not always match-up with yours.

    Therefore, with paid search you can decide exactly where the user will go and what they will see. Of course it must be relevant, but YOU have the ability to determine this.

  • Change Control
    With paid search, you also have the ability to change both your messaging and your destination, whenever you want to. Therefore, if you want change how your site is associated with a certain term; you can do this on both a Messaging and Destination level… all at a moment’s notice.

    However, with Natural SEO, your associated message and destination is pretty much fixed and does not necessarily change all that often. While you can update the description, you must wait until the page in question gets re-indexed and you are still relegated to the same destination, as that page is where the search engine has determined the most relevant content resides.

  • Dominating Page Real Estate
    Having both a paid and natural presence also enables you to maintain a more dominant presence on the Search Engine Result Page, which ensures that you will get maximum traction.

    Below is a heat map, which shows how and where people look at search results. As you will see there is huge amount of traction with both the paid and natural results. Therefore, if you are not in the paid results you are not necessarily garnering all of the available opportunity on the Search Engine Result Page.

Please do note that while it may sound like I am trying to discount the natural results, that is not the case at all. Natural results most always drive more traffic and getting top positions is the true benchmark of success when it comes to any SEO program. However, what I am trying to illustrate is the value that Paid Search results do have, even when you are also appearing naturally for the same term, as paid search offers a level of flexibility and control that you cannot get from Natural SEO.

In the end, this is not a case of one versus the other, but about illustrating how having a fully integrated SEM and SEO program can ensure that you can take advantage of all that is being afforded to you in the search environment and driving the optimal user experience for all facets of the page.

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Yahoogle! –

posted by Ty Velde @ - 10:53 AM
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A New Way to Define the Online Marketing Landscape…according to Microsoft.

Yahoogle (Ya-hoo-gle) n.
1. An arrangement between Google and Yahoo! that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! 2. A world, according to Microsoft, in which talent flees, prices increase, the Feds come after you and most of all Google becomes an Evil Price Fixing Baron.

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Look Out - Here Comes Yahoogle!

posted by Ty Velde @ - 10:33 AM
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Well folks, if you have not already heard the news, Microsoft has withdrawn its offer to acquire Yahoo!. Despite having raised its offer by $5 Billion, from $29/Share to $33/Share, Yahoo! still walked away from the deal unless Microsoft would pony-up an additional $5 Billion ($37/Share).

However, what I find makes the collapse of this deal really interesting is that when you read the letter that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent to Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang on Saturday, May 3rd while price was certainly deciding factor, the straw that broke the camels back appears to be Yahoo’s decision to further expand their “partnership” with Google. In short, it’s the prospect of having to acquire “Yahoogle!”, not Yahoo! that has really made Microsoft stop its pursuit and not go hostile.

In a letter to Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated that “We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a “hostile” bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us for a number of reasons.”

So what would the world according to Yahoogle! look like? Well according to Mr. Ballmer, its one that’s pretty dark in which talent flees, prices increase, the Feds come after you (Microsoft certainly knows about this) and most of all Google becomes an Evil Price Fixing Baron.

But who am I to tell you about Yahoogle!, let Mr. Ballmer be your guide! The following is a summary of why Mr. Ballmer feels that Yahoogle! would make Yahoo! undesirable acquisition for Microsoft:

1. No More Panama
First, Microsoft claims Yahoogle! would fundamentally undermine Yahoo!’s own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system. This would also fragment their search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them. This would undermine the reliance on Yahoo’s display advertising business to fuel future growth.

2. Talent Will Flee
Given this, Yahoogle! would impair Yahoo’s ability to retain the talented engineers working on advertising systems that are important to Microsoft’s interest in a combination of the two companies.

3. Here Come The Feds
In addition, Microsoft claims Yahoogle! would raise a host of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer, including Microsoft, would want to inherit. Among other things, this would consolidate market share with the already-dominant paid search provider in a manner that would reduce competition and choice in the marketplace.

4. Google Now Sets Every Price
Yahoogle! would also effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their own and Yahoo’s search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo. In addition to whatever resulting legal problems, Microsoft feels that this is unwise from a business perspective unless in fact one simply wishes to use this as a vehicle to exit the paid search business in favor of Google.

5. Minimal Prospects for Dating and/or Marriage
Yahoogle! could foreclose any chance of a combination with any other search provider that is not already relying on Google’s search services.

So what do you think? Is Yahoogle! good or bad? Whether you agree with Microsoft or not, the paid search and online advertising landscape is quickly changing and Yahoogle! is certainly going to play role in paving the way.

To read the full text of the letter that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent to Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang on Saturday, May 3rd in which they formally withdrew their offer to acquire Yahoo, please click on the on the following URL -
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/may08/05-03letter.mspx

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Universal Search Gives Small Businesses Visibility

posted by Shane Kelly @ Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 9:52 AM
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There are new opportunities for small business to gain valuable online exposure as Google expands universal search results (the insertion of multimedia content within the search results pages including maps, videos, images, PDF files etc...).

Now, small business can get free page one exposure by optimizing for the new media Google is including in the search engine results pages. Here is one example of universal search results on Google- in this instance Google is inserting map results at the top of the results page.

Before universal search, if you owned a restaurant/lounge in Boston and wanted to show up on Google for a search for “Boston restaurant lounge”, you were in for a real uphill battle. The first page of search results for this query were likely a combination of food delivery services, restaurant reviews, a link to the chain restaurant Boston Market’s website and maybe even a Wikipedia entry on the Union Oyster House – the nation’s oldest operating restaurant.

Either way, it was going to be close to impossible to get your 3 page site to pop for that search query. You would need to develop deep content that includes the high value keywords, used at the optimal frequency. You would likely need to create several pages and come up with an interlinking strategy in order to create enough content surrounding the important terms to help increase rankings.

Now that you have content, you would still likely need to create some additional linking opportunities to get up on the first page. You could try using an RSS feed press release with embedded anchor text links for the high value search terms that point back to your site. After all of this work- you might be able to get on page one, but of course there are no guarantees in SEO. But, the real challenge lies in the fact that most small business owners are too busy running their business to expend resources on this scale.

But- there is now hope for the small business owner thanks to universal search. One way for small business owners to get up to the top of the search results page would be to optimize their site in Google Maps. No need for content and link development; anyone with basic knowledge can simply add their location to the map, and then claim and customize their business listing in the map. Google will let you upload images, hours of operation, a description of the business and a link pointing back to your website- all without media expenses. You can also help your cause by offering incentives for your regular customers to log on and write a favorable review of your establishment.

Once a business owner claims the business and uploads the information and tags based on high value keywords, the business will begin to show up in map results. And now that Google is showing map content at the top of the standard search results, that means your small business could get the top listing on the page for searches on high value terms. Now, when people search for "Boston restaurant lounge" on Google- new and existing customers have a chance to find you.

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Database Driven Website Have Duplicate Content? Here's A Workaround

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Sometimes despite the best efforts of webmasters, database driven sites fall prey to duplicate content issues. One of the more common ways duplicate content can occur on database powered sites happens when more than one URL results in the dynamic creation of webpages with identical code. To search engines, this represents duplicate content - and having large amounts of it can negatively impact your site's indexing and ranking.

But the good news is there is a workaround.

Technically, it doesn't matter that there is more than one way to call the same page from a database driven site. So as long as the page is linked to from other site pages using a consistent URL, the search engines will not detect the "duplicate content". In other words, search engine bots would have no way to discover the alternative URL of the page (assuming it is not linked to from an external site using the unfavorable URL).

Therefore, a temporary workaround maybe to consistently link to a duplicated page using a single preferred URL. If you have massive amounts of duplicate content, you may find there is a pattern to the URLs of duplicated pages. For example, let's say you have the following URL problem:

duplicate content table

In this example, both the Services Page and Product Page have two URLs that can call them from the database. However, the structure of many database driven content management systems (CMS) will often produce duplicate content in easily decipherable patterns - such as the one in the simplified example above. The next steps are to select a preferred URL nomenclature (In the example above, this would likely be the URL that uses letters to call pages) and ensure that only this naming convention is used throughout the site.

However, this should only be a temporary solution. Ideally, you want to completely remove any way identical pages can be called from your database.

Depending on the length of time it is estimated to find a permanent fix for the issue (more than 2 months), you may want to go into Google Webmaster Tools and go to --> Tools --> Remove URLs. Next, input the URLs that you wish Google to delete from its index into the tool. Only do this after the above recommendations have been implemented.

Hope this helps.

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Wordpress SEO Plugins and Other Quick Blog Tips

posted by Everett @ - 10:18 AM
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If you are going to use Wordpress as your blog platform, here are a few plugins I would recommend for SEO:

AllinOne SEO Pack - use this plugins to quickly insert the Meta description tag and Meta keyword tag into your post. Also, you can use it to set a search compliant URL scheme, and eliminate duplicate content by adding "no index" tags where applicable. You can download it from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/#post-753.

Google Sitemaps Plugin - install this plugin to automatically generate XML sitemaps and ping Google when a new page is added to your blog. This is a must-have for any blog. You can download it at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/#post-766.

Google Analytics for Wordpress - will help you to easily connect your blog to your Google Analytics account. I would recommend treating your blog as another website as far as Google Analytics goes. Downloadable from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/#post-2316.

ShareThis - use this plugin so that visitors to your blog can send your articles to a friend or submit them to the social web. Downloadable from http://sharethis.com/.

Don't forget to register with Feedburner, so you can grab metrics about your RSS subscribers.

I would also strongly recommend registering your blog with blog aggregation sites, such as Technorati, to increase your web traffic and inbound links to your blog. Generally, the more you participate in Web 2.0 communities the more traffic you'll drive to your site.

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Using Meta Search to Make Intelligent Travel Choices

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Everyone who has ever spent any time traveling for business or for pleasure has an airline horror story:

“They lost my luggage and I had to buy all new stuff when I got to the hotel!”

‘We sat on the tarmac for three hours and then they canceled the flight!”

“My plane was so small you couldn’t even stand up in the aisles!”

What if you could find out which flights were almost always late? Or see the type of aircraft you were going fly? Or access what the load factor was for a particular flight before you purchased that non-refundable ticket?

You can get this information now if you’re willing to spend a fair amount of time on multiple web sites to ferret it out but wouldn’t it be nice to find everything related to the speed, comfort, and ease of your flight in one spot? Take a look at InsideTrip.com (http://www.insidetrip.com/) when you’re planning your next flight.

The site is still in Beta so there are limits on the carriers listed and the type of passengers (adults only for now) but the real value here is in the depth and breadth of useful information available to the average airline traveler. The interface is simple and very familiar to anyone who has ever booked a flight on any of the major travel sites or through an individual carrier’s site. Pick your departure and arrival cities, enter your travel dates, and decide on the time of day you want to fly. Click on the search button and in addition to seeing the results of your search in a listing of carriers, flight times, and connecting flight numbers you get a flight dashboard that assigns a quality score to each flight.

The quality score is determined by a dozen preset variables you can modify to ensure that the flight you choose matches your preferences. Always carry on your bags and never check anything? De-select the “Lost Bags” variable and ask InsideTrip.com to recalculate the trip quality score. Know that you get habitually get to the airport more than an hour ahead of the time the airline recommends so security wait time isn’t an issue for you? Again, a simple mouse click removes that variable from the quality score calculation.

This redefinition of meta-search for the travel industry has implications for search marketing as well. The move away from simple text listings and toward more all-inclusive results for searches is already well underway: Google’s Universal Search now includes images, videos, and other items in their search results while Ask.com and other search engines provide site thumbnails as a standard part of their results listings. This expansion of types of data in search results means sites need to implement a consistent approach to tagging their site content because being “search-friendly” now applies to more than text-only keywords.

Imagine you’re searching for a software tool to help make your sales force more productive and when the results come up, one company’s listing shows only a few of lines of text describing their product while another company offers not only the few lines of product text but also access to their deployment metrics, pricing matrix, and a few customer testimonials relevant to your industry?

Which site do you think you'd click on first?


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Google Subscribed Links Offers Powerful Branding Opportunity in Search Results

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There are a few things constant about Google - frequent acquisitions of cool companies, an increasing stock price, and an ever expanding catalog of products. Google Subscribed Links, the latest tool to roll off the Google widget assembly line, allows webmasters to connect with previous visitors to their site through search results.

It's a far cry from Yahoo Search Submit Pro, which permits websites to intertwine paid ads with search organic results. Google’s Subscribed Link model is subscription based – it allows your visitors (with a Google account) to view a custom listing for your website in a search result. Because the listing is formed from a feed, the search listing can be updated in near real-time, potentially giving a powerful advantage to e-commerce and news websites. Google offers this service free to both webmasters and searchers.

What’s more impressive is that images and Google Gadgets can be incorporated within the feed; plus, you can specify the keywords that you want to trigger the custom search listing. To some extent, the performance of Subscribed Links can be measured through URL tracking.

Google Subscribed Links works like this:

  1. A developer designs a feed and pastes the resulting button code on their site. View the subscribed links developer guide.
  2. Your site visitors subscribe by clicking the button.
  1. At some point in the future, the person who subscribed to your feed will likely conduct a search for one of your trigger terms. Assuming the searcher is logged in to Google, your customized feed will display. Below is an example of a subscribed link for Weather.com

Of course, designing and managing the site feed requires at least a minimal command of XML and HTML. Additionally, you’re going have to induce your visitors to subscribe to the link (market the marketing tool); however, the potential opportunity for visitor retention and branding is just too good to pass up, particularly if your website ranks highly for frequently searched keywords. View examples of Google Subscribed Links.

One application of this new product that springs to mind is to serve as a complement to paid search campaigns. You could post a Subscription Link button on a landing page for a pay-per-click campaign. A visitor in the early stages of their search may not be prepared to convert right away, but assuming your site ranks organically, e-marketers could conceivably push customized natural listings to the prospect at every stage of their search and entice a conversion at a later time.

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Is Google’s Universal Search Designed to Improve the Experience of the User or Stockholder?

posted by Shane Kelly @ Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - 2:36 PM
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More Relevant Results? Maybe

More Google Revenues? Likely

As Google continues to roll out expanded universal search listings, it will become increasingly difficult to achieve and maintain a strong natural search presence. The new search results will “incorporate information from a variety of previously separate sources – including videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites – into a single set of results” according to Google. Although Universal Search was rolled out in May, Google will gradually include a higher proportion of its local information, maps, images, video, and news results in the prime natural first page real estate.

Although the shift will be gradual, the addition of this content into the natural results means that it will be increasingly difficult to achieve or maintain your coveted first page ranking through traditional natural optimization tactics. Inbound links, metatags, and keyword density will still have their place in making pages pop undoubtedly, but savvy marketers will need to make sure they optimize different types of content as well to ensure continued visibility as the natural results continue to evolve. If maps, videos, images and other non-traditional listings continue to take natural real estate from the standard text listings, it will also be important to develop and optimize this content to at least ensure the opportunity to get the highly desirable above the fold natural real estate.

So how will the shift to universal results impact Google? Revenue.

PPC will become increasingly important for organizations that are currently ranked in the middle and lower portion of page one on Google for their key SEO terms. Now instead of competing with Wikipedia and more direct competitors within an industry, they are also competing with Google itself for a natural first page ranking. Organizations that typically invest more in natural SEO will begin to shift budgets to the paid side if they see universal results bumping their natural listings down to the second page or beyond for important, high frequency queries. When organizations invest in SEO efforts like keyword-centric content development and link-buying, Google loses out on those marketing dollars, so Universal Search certainly makes sense for Google’s shareholders.

The increasing PPC spend from dollars that previously funded SEO, coupled with the increase in the volume of advertisers, means a more highly competitive PPC market, and as a result, click costs will likely increase across the board. Natural SEO and PPC marketers alike will certainly be challenged as Universal Search expands, and the competition for the top paid listings will be amplified. PPC will become an even more crucial marketing tactic as natural rankings become harder to attain.

So is Universal Search really all about improving user experience? What do you think will happen to Google’s revenue if CPCs double? $500 a share might still be a good time to buy.

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Complimentary Webinar - Latest Trend in Social Media: How to Listen Effectively and Engage in the Conversation

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Our Client Dow Jones is having a free webinar that looks pretty interesting - definitely seems worth checking out. We all know how important social media is to Search Engine Optmization.


See the seminar description and registration link below:

Date: January 31, 2008
Time: 12:30 – 1:30 EST

Join Dow Jones as we partner with IABC to discuss the latest trends in Social Media with Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research and former Director of Corporate Media Strategy at PodTech.net and Glenn Fannick, Product Development Manager at Dow Jones.

Discover how social media is being deployed throughout the enterprise and how listening to the conversation can help you identify your audience and their drivers while seizing opportunities and mitigating risks.

Using advanced text-mining and visualization technologies Dow Jones Insight helps you easily discover what's being said about your company in blogs, Web sites and message boards. Learn how to easily monitor and understand the latest news, market trends, and business challenges relevant to your organization and your customers.

Click here to sign up.

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Search View Emulator - Lynx Viewer

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Hey everyone, have a nifty little tool that lets you look at a page on your site and see it as the search engine see it. It's called a Lynx Viewer or Search View Emulator.

http://www.ovrdrv.com/search_view/index.asp

I recently sent someone an email on how to use it to illustrate a point of how negative flash was from an SEO standpoint. Have a look at what I wrote to them:

***********************
Take a look at this application. The link below shows what the search engines see when the crawl your site. (Since your site is all in flash they cannot see anything.)

1) Click on this link to see our Search View Emulator:
http://www.ovrdrv.com/search_view/index.asp
2) Enter your full domain name: http://www.managemydollars.com/
3) Then enter mine: http://www.ovrdrv.com/
Notice all the content you can see on mine and with yours the engines see nothing. The search engines have no way to know what you are about.

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How I tried to Save the Yahoo! Search Term Suggestion Tool

posted by Harry Gold @ Friday, January 26, 2007 - 6:06 PM
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So if you have a little time to read all of this you may actually find this post to be entertaining. Below is an email chain that resulted from me hearing that the person in charge of the Yahoo! Panama launch, planned to do what I consider to be one of the most wasteful things Yahoo! ever did.

It all started when we attended the Panama road show at the Harvard Club in Boston and this person (to protect his privacy I have replaced his name, contact info and title with XXXXX) announced that Yahoo! would be replacing the current Search Term Suggestion Tool with something that, instead of reporting historical search volume, would predict clicks. (Much like the Google Click Estimator.)

Now this flew right over the head of most of the people in the room but I raised my hand and said, "Wait a second, are you saying that the Search Term Suggestion tool that every search marketer on the planet loves and uses every day is going away?" His answer was, "yes." Could this guy be unaware of how essential that tool was and how cool everyone thought Yahoo! was for proving search marketers with this info?

The strange part was his reaction was as if no body had protested before. So from there a whole little feud let loose between me and this person who admittedly said, "I am the one directly responsible for this decision."

The really funny part was I started making a huge stink about this and when I told Yahoo! reps about it one of two things would happen:
A) They would say "Oh my god – I use that tool all the time in my presentations to show potential clients how much people are searching under their keywords – this is terrible." (My reaction.)
B) They would say, "Oh I heard about you." Clearly my protests had made their way around the company.

Ok, so the real reasons why I think they stopped maintaining the tool are as follows. ( It is certainly not that people were "confused" by it or that what they have given us as a replacement is better.)
A) Most people used the tool as an SEO keyword scoring tool and clearly that was of no benefit to Yahoo!
B) All that usage, data storage and other applications that scraped the results of the tool into their interfaces was probably very taxing on Yahoo! from an IT, storage and load balancing standpoint.
C) It could have shown that search volume on a month by month basis for certain terms was trending down on Yahoo! and that they were losing.

Now to XXXXXX's credit he did have a conference call with me, let me express my opinions and engaged in the lengthy email exchange that I am about to share with you and I give XXXX and the whole Yahoo! team major kudos for that. Also Yahoo! did leave the tool up but it often does not work and now only displays 2007 data. However, it is still a good scoring tool and they should use it as a way to build a search marketing community made up of Yahoo! Search Term Suggestion Tool members. (Basically this is what I say in all the emails.)

So as you read these emails realize that they started right after the event at the Harvard Club. The last email was from me to on of our Yahoo! reps that was facilitating the dialogue between me and XXXXXXXX.

Actually, I must add that we did in fact all survive the Search Term Suggestion Tool effectively going away and all is well. Panama is indeed leaps and bounds above were it was and Yahoo! is very often the top performing property in many of our B2C paid search campaigns from a cost per action and ROI standpoint.

******************* Email # 1 **********************

From: Harry Gold
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:32:44 -0700
To: XXXXXXX XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com
Subject: It was great talking to you!

Hi XXXXXXX,

I just wanted to tell you what a pleasure it was to meet you the other night and talk to you about the coming changes at Yahoo! I also want to thank you for letting me express my views on the importance of the current suggestion tool and for you agreeing to take the time to see how our company uses it in the new business process.

I know you are either on or winding down from the road show so as we discussed I will give you a couple weeks to catch up then I’ll send you some of my pitch materials that use the tool and we can schedule a time to talk though them.

Again thank you so much for this opportunity, I look forward to talking again.

Best regards,
Harry-
___________________________
Harry J. Gold
founder, managing partner
617-254-5000 x 1100 direct
______________________
overdrive
46 Leo M. Birmingham Parkway
First Floor
Boston, MA 02135
http://www.ovrdrv.com/

******************* Email # 2 **********************

From: XXXXXXX [mailto:XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 6:31 PM
To: Harry Gold
Subject: Re: It was great talking to you!

Harry,

Indeed it was fun meeting you and your team. I love the passion around this industry, and getting out of the “Panama factory” to get in front of actual customers really revs me up.I appreciate the perspective you brought me on how valuable keyword search data is to sell the search tactic to customers. Let’s definitely continue the dialog there.

If you have proposals ready to ship my way, please don’t hesitate, as I’d like to put my thinking cap on around this topic as soon as possible. But if you want to think on it for a bit, just send them along when you’re ready.

Looking forward to the next conversation!

XXXXXXX

XXXXXXX Sr. Director, XXXXXXX ManagementYahoo! Search Marketing searchmarketing.yahoo.comAddress: 3333 Empire Ave. Burbank, CA 91504 USAO: XXXXXXXXXXX F: XXXXXXXXXXX E: XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com

******************* Email # 3 **********************

From: Harry Gold
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 21:12:17 -0700
To: XXXXXXX XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com
Conversation: It was great talking to you!
Subject: RE: It was great talking to you!

Hello XXXXXXX,

Below is a link to a download page where you will find a portion of our capabilities presentation. In order to see the stats we use from the suggestion tool you will want to view it in Slide Show mode and then click on the live links embedded in the Current Search Situation slides. (Some links may require a user name and password to access the destination pages and they are listed in the presentation.)

I have included three Keyword Usage Analysis Tables from past pitches. What I am basically showing here is that there are millions of searches per year that describe these companies’ products and then illustrate with position reports that they have no presence in those terms responsible for the majority of those searches. I then present paid search as the best and fastest way to capitalize on this channel.

Please do let me know what you think and in the mean time I will try and send you more relevant materials as they arise. I have dozens and dozens of these pitches and these types of analysis slides have been critical parts of the close every time.

I look forward to speaking with you about this further and again thank you so much for this opportunity.

Download Page:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (sorry, cannot post this in the blog)

Talk to you soon,

Harry-

******************* Email # 4 **********************

From: XXXXXXX [mailto:XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com]
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 1:48 PM
To: Harry Gold; XXXXXXX
Subject: Re: It was great talking to you!

Harry,

Hope all is well and that you’re enjoying a nice early fall in New England. This is the one time of year where we southern Californians are justifiably jealous of your climate. We’re going gangbusters here to get project Panama ready and out the door. You’re going to like it.

I’ve spent time with some of the Product Managers on my team thinking about the use case around search volumes that we discussed in Boston. We think that the Panama offering actually will allow you to make your pitch in a much more compelling manner. We’d like to get an hour to talk with you (and others from Overdrive if you want them there) to kick the tires on what we’ve been thinking. Can you suggest a couple of times in the latter part of next week or early in the first week in October that might work for you? If you can, I can rally our team here and get a call set up for us to talk.

Thanks,
XXXXXXX

XXXXXXX Sr. Director, XXXXXXX ManagementYahoo! Search Marketing searchmarketing.yahoo.comAddress: 3333 Empire Ave. Burbank, CA 91504 USAO: XXXXXXXXX F: XXXXXXX E: XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com

******************* Email # 5 **********************

From: Harry Gold
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 8:56 PM
To: 'XXXXXXX'; 'XXXXXXX'
Subject: RE: It was great talking to you!Importance: High

Hi XXXXXXX,

Please let me know that you are getting my emails as for some reason our IP is getting blocked here and there. I sent you some dates but have not heard back from you and I am a bit concerned you didn’t get my emails.

I am very excited about seeing your new tool but I still get the feeling from your email (below) that the tool that is at the foundation of everything we do is going to go away. I am still a bit mystified as to why you would want to remove the most valuable search marketing tool on the entire web. One that is used literally several times a day by every search marketer on the planet. Why not simply leave it and offer the other one to?

Also, look at the interface for your current tool:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

If people are confused by it simply put more info on it to tell them what they are looking at. (Tell them specifically they are not looking at click or traffic projections if it is causing confusion.)

I always look at that interface and the lack of promotions and registration requirements you have on it and think it is the biggest lost opportunity for Yahoo! Again, why not leave it and use it to your benefit? You could:

1) Use the interface as a branding, marketing and cross selling page for search marketers
2) Use it to promote the new tool
3) Make search marketers register for access to it – think of the amazing email/direct mail database you guys will be able to create

I can understand closing it to tools that use it to display the info in their environments but if you put a password on it like the bid viewing tool you would stop those kinds of queries. Finally, why even risk upsetting a community that represents a significant customer base and disrupt their research and selling process? (I know I am incredibly stressed about it. Its absence will rock the foundation of my business and force us to change a winning way of doing this that scored many clients for us and you.

Again, I am very excited about the tool you are launching and if it gives the total search volume on Yahoo! for a previous month then I am all for it and we have no issue. If it does not give that data and replaces it with click and position projections based on max bid levels then you are changing the whole way we and thousands of other search marketers pitch our services. It is my sincere hope that you choose to simply leave the tool alone and add the new one. The current tool is the only credible source of the simple info it provides and the whole industry loves Yahoo! for providing it! (See all the links to it below.)

I hope to connect with you soon.

Best regards,
Harry-

The links below are typical of thousands of pages on the web that promote and link to the tool. (According to Yahoo! there are over 4500 links pointing at the tool. According to MSN there are over 5400 links pointing at the tool. Why not capitalize on that presence with my suggestions above?)

(I removed the long list of links for this blog post.)

******************* Email # 6 **********************

This was the one to the Yahoo! sales rep that was trying to appease me – I definitely commend her for her efforts – she was really great about the whole thing.

From: Harry Gold
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 1:31 PM
To: XXXXXXXXX
Subject: RE: Yahoo! Buzz Index Information

Hi XXXXXXXX,

Thank you for this information. After the call with XXXXXX and team I have to confess that I am still as concerned and confused as ever. I am really grateful that he would take the time to talk to me but I think Yahoo! should ask themselves quick question from a sales point of view:

Taking away a tool that is known, loved and used everyday by the search marketing community (see me email from last week below) will a) make search marketers happy or b) upset search marketers?

The reality is that no matter what John says this new system is not going to make my life easier or my sales process better. I am sure the new tool is great but why take the other tool away? Again – the big question is “Why take the other tool away?”

It is like telling a person who has been eating toast everyday for the past 5 years that your are now going to take the toast away and give him a bagel. On top of that you are telling them that they will like the bagel more because you think bagels are better. Why not offer them both and let them decide?

I am sorry to be such a nudge on this but it just makes no sense to me since the forecasted click and cost data that the new tool is going to provide is going to be equally, if not more, inaccurate as the historical date the current search term suggestion tool provides.

Harry-

Ok, in conclusion I may have devoted way to much energy to this but I still believe to this day that the Yahoo! / Overture Search Term Suggestion tool was an amazing resource and I will miss it. I guess I am grateful that it is still up in its current form but I do wish it was more reliable.

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